#the idea of the game being a sort of device to me is completely canon because it works so well and its cool as fuck

[vilelittlecritter]

The device theory by Molly stars is my lord of the rings.

[coraniaid]

"Who You Are" for the wip game (is it faith? i bet it's faith.)

It might be Faith, yeah.

This is actually the oldest of my WIPs and -- if I'm being honest -- the one I think I'm least likely to ever actually finish. Originally it was called This Was Supposed To Be My Town but I ended up renaming it when I used that title for something else (in fact, thinking about it, that might have been the only change I made to it in the last six months, so technically maybe it shouldn't have been on the list at all).

I've talked about it a little bit on here before: it's sort of an alternate take on Who Are You? (hence the name), but it's really a Season 1 AU time loop fic. Except that, well, Faith is there. Sort of.

So we start with This Year's Girl: Faith shows up at Joyce's house; threatens her, rants about Buffy and tar pits at her for a bit, Buffy arrives to save the day, they fight, Faith uses the Mayor's parting gift to switch bodies. All as in canon so far. Except that, this time, the artefact Faith was given doesn't just move Faith into Buffy's body (and vice versa). She grabs hold of Buffy, the device does it's weird glowing thing, it's bright enough that for a second she shuts her eyes ... and when she opens them, she's sixteen years old, sitting in Joyce's car outside the school, while Joyce tells her that she's sure she's going to make friends right away as long as she "thinks positive" and tries not to get kicked out. And she's not her anymore. She's Buffy.

Obviously Faith is very confused by this, but after getting out of the car and watching Joyce drive away, she decides to deal with things the way she does best: by getting the hell out of town and asking questions later never. She waylays some random passing student (well, Jonathan), helps herself to whatever cash he had on him, and buys a ticket on the first bus out of Sunnydale. A couple of days later, still in Buffy's body, halfway across the country, she goes to sleep in a random little motel ... and, when she wakes up, she's back in the car with Joyce, ready for her first day of school again.

And from there we keep looping. Eventually -- maybe after going to the Mayor for advice, and having to try to persuade him that she knows his whole Ascension deal and she's on his side and (as far as she knows) he sent her back -- Faith figures out that things reset when there's nobody around to prevent the Harvest and the Master gets free. So she has to stick around town long enough to kill Luke and stop that from happening. But that doesn't break the loop completely, it just means it takes longer for things to reset. Eventually she figures out that she jumps back to that first morning outside the school every time something fatal happens to any one of Joyce or Cordelia or Xander or Giles or Willow. So, if she doesn't want to keep reliving the same few weeks over and over again, she's got no choice but to take over Buffy's life and be the Slayer and keep them safe.

And ... yeah. If it wasn't obvious before, this whole thing is really, really, really self-indulgent and basically written for an audience of me and me only and I don't know when or if I'll ever finish it. I know exactly how it ends: I've known that since ... 2022, maybe? I know a lot of what happens in it. Part of the fun (for me) of going back to Season 1 is that I get to pretend that really minor one-off characters who never made it past that season actually were recurring characters who showed up throughout the year, so I've got ideas for subplots with Amy (well, of course I do) and Marcie and Sheila [who, yes, is from Season 2, but implicitly she was around for Season 1 too even though Buffy never met] and Owen and Heidi and ... well, this is sort of the problem. There's so much I want to include I don't know how to compress it all down to something readable. Or that I can actually expect to write all the way through, for that matter.

In the meantime I've written lots of fragments of scenes I want to include: Faith-as-Buffy figuring out what's going on with Amy and her mom before anyone did in canon (because, well, she knows all about body switching spells and awful mothers), Faith doing a terrible job of imitating Buffy but getting away with it because the only person who actually knows the real Buffy is Joyce (who doesn't know anything about the supernatural and already thought her daughter had started acting strange and distant for no discernible reason before the bodyswap); Giles being bemused that his new Slayer shows so little aptitude for or interest in theory but is alarmingly keen to skip classes to go and kill things and seems to intuit things about the town and about Giles himself that nobody could possibly have told her; Faith going from hating Willow for reasons Willow can't possibly understand to having to grapple with the fact that Willow thinks she (or "Buffy") is really cool and somebody Willow desperately wants to be her friend (and Faith slowly admitting to herself that she would like to have friends); Faith and Xander finally starting to understand each other when they're the only two to immediately get what's going on with Billy in Nightmares (Faith's own nightmares having nothing to do with Hank Summers and everything to do with her first dead Watcher and being stabbed and left alone in a coma and the real Buffy -- now in Faith's body -- showing up and exposing her for the fraud she is).

But will it ever get finished to an extent I can post it anywhere? Eh. Maybe not.

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 64 - 65: Two Multi-part Finale (part 7: Sonic X #40)

Welcome back to my investigation of how Archie Comics’ Sonic the Hedgehog series was actually a syndicated cartoon from the 80’s and 90’s! 

Let me tell you - after six posts talking about the Endgame saga, the end of the Knuckles spinoff comics, and the death of the super special series, it’s a relief today to finally get to talk about something not written by Ken Penders. So you guys remember Sonic X, right? “Got ourselves a situation, stuck in a new location”?

It was a fun little anime based around the adventures of our favourite blue hedgehog, which suffered unspeakable atrocities at the hands of the localisation team at 4Kids Entertainment. The show was about the Sonic cast being sent to Earth in an accident and befriending poor little rich boy Chris Thorndyke. The show would feature them fighting Dr. Eggman in a robot of the week format, and in the second season ran arcs adapting Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. They also sort of did an adaptation of Sonic Battle. At the end of the second season Sonic and his friends returned to their own planet, and the third season kicked off with an older Chris Thorndyke travelling to Sonic’s world, regressing back to childhood, and joining his friends on a series of adventures in outer space fighting the dreaded Metarex. 

Debuting in September 2005 (around the same time the third season began airing in the US) was Sonic X the comic book, which was a companion book to the anime telling new stories with the same cast and setting. There were all sorts of wacky ideas they were able to do in the comic using the setting of the anime, such as Eggman selling Chao to everyone as pets that would turn vicious and attack, Sonic and friends being trapped in the Sonic 1 video game, Vector being briefly mutated into a kaiju, and Eggman becoming a mexican wrestler named El Gran Gordo!

The majority of this comic was set towards the end of season 2, before Sonic and friends returned to their own world. However the earlier issues played around earlier in the timeline, and we got to see things like Emerl being initially discovered and Eggman in jail following the Egg Moon incident.

Uniquely from the other finales I’m focusing on for this series, the end of the Sonic X comic was actually planned. The creative team wanted to end Sonic X before they risked jumping the shark, and launch a new spin-off - one not limited by the restrictions that the Sonic X setting and characters presented. They wanted this new spinoff to be set back in the main ArchieSonic canon, where they could have more space to explore other characters while Sonic’s adventures continued on in the main book. Essentially, it would be a return to the era of the comic when Sonic and Knuckles both had monthly comics coming out, only the new book, Sonic Universe, wouldn’t be limited to just Knuckles and his companion characters.

Arc #1 was focused on Shadow and the formation of Team Dark, then there was one about Mobius 30 Years Later, then one about Knuckles and the Chaotix, and so on. So when the time came for the Sonic X comic to end, Ian Flynn and the rest of the team did so by making it part of a crossover story that began in Sonic the Hedgehog #195 and 196, continued on into Sonic X #40, and was completed in the first issue of Sonic Universe.

The crossover began with Hedgehog Havoc, a meeting of hedgehogs that has never been matched before or since. Travelling to the Anti-verse, Sonic and Amy were on a mission to kick Scourge the Anti-Sonic out of Freedom HQ and send him back to his home dimension. While there, they’d also had an unfortunate encounter with Rosy the Rascal, the psychotic Anti-Amy. Next to show up was Shadow, who was now an Agent of GUN and had been helping Hope Kintobor test a device that was supposed to send him into the special zone to get a Chaos Emerald. Then Metal Sonic showed up. Having been rebuilt by Dr. Eggman, this newest model had been fitted with a special engine that allowed him to travel to alternate zones. Having not detected Sonic anywhere on Mobius, Metal Sonic travelled to Moebius to find him and join the fight. Finally Silver the Hedgehog made his first appearance, on a mission to kill the traitor that destroyed the Freedom Fighters. He was guided by Amy’s cousin, the archer Rob O’ the Hedge. And so…

Eventually Sonic had the bright idea of convincing everyone to turn on Scourge first, and then they could all sort out their other issues after taking care of the threat he presented. Unfortunately Scourge didn’t want to go quietly, and he used some hidden “Anarchy Beryl” to transform into Super Scourge.

Welp, that escalated quickly. Rationalising that he had no chance against Super Scourge, Metal Sonic returned to his initial directive of trying to murderise Sonic instead.

Shadow stepped in to help, using Metal Sonic’s interdimensional engine with his own Chaos Control to warp them both out of there. So that was one less threat for Sonic to have to deal with. And that’s where the beginning of Sonic X #40 comes in.

Now this next part is interesting to me. When Shadow and Metal Sonic crashed Cream’s tea party, there was a Sonic right there, ripe for the murdering. And that was Metal’s objective, right? To disembowel Sonic and leave a trail of squishy hedgehog organs scattered across the landscape? But no, apparently not:

I guess the implication here is that Metal Sonic changed directives because he was now in an unknown dimension, as opposed to when he landed in the Antiverse. It raises the question of just how much Eggman knows about Scourge’s home planet, but considering that prior to his initial takeover of Mobius he travelled to Anti-Mobius to recruit Evil Sonic to locate the Giant Borg pieces scattered across the multiverse, it’s reasonable to assume that Eggman has documented it. Certainly if not then, then he might have been motivated to further research the Antiverse after Scourge invaded Freedom HQ and warned Eggman he’d also be conquering Eggman’s territories in due time.

So after bonding over having arrived here from other planets (I love the look on Shadow’s face when Sonic told him he was dead xD), Sonic gave Shadow a tour of Station Square.

Yeah, that kind of thing happens in Sonic X. Just smile and nod. The next stop on their little tour was Chris Thorndyke’s school, as Sonic wanted to give Chris a treat. Unfortunately he didn’t really prepare Shadow for this moment.

I love that third panel. xD Chris: This is mine now. See you later, Sonic. Sonic: Bye, Chris! Shadow: Help… me…

Meanwhile, Metal Sonic managed to locate the local Eggman’s base and came knocking at his front door. Bokkun, Bocoe and Decoe were all terrified of their visitor, but Eggman was giddy to be presented with a robotic version of his greatest enemy that he could boss around.

Shadow got to meet Sam Speed next, and ask him the question that I think all of us had been asking since the first episode of Sonic X:

I dunno, it still seems like overkill to me. Let’s just hope that police forces here in the real world don't start doing this too.

While Sam and the hedgehogs were catching up, they were unaware that the shadowy organisation S.O.N.I.C.X. (the same one that had turned Vector into a kaiju) were spying on them. 

Well that was a lucky break for the good guys.

Sonic and Shadow then went down to the beach and this is where Eggman caught up with them. He ordered Metal Sonic to attack, but it was a very brief battle.

In a panic Eggman raced back to his tower to check if he still had Shadow contained, puzzling over what he’d just seen when he found him right where he was supposed to be.

Sonic went back to Chris’ house and reconnected with all his friends, with Rouge and Chris both disappointed to find that Shadow had left.

And that’s where Sonic X, the comic, ended, with Sonic and friends anticipating their next adventure. 

As for Shadow and Metal Sonic, their story continued in issue #1 of Sonic Universe. Shadow found himself teleported to the Sol Dimension via Chaos Control, and teamed up with Blaze and Marine to take down Metal Sonic once and for all*.

*..well, sort of.

But that’s another story. As for this one, it’s fine. Certainly not the greatest thing Ian Flynn has ever written, but it’s a hell of a lot more enjoyable than any of the Ken Penders stories I wrote about recently. It’s got a few funny moments, and the stuff with Chris is genuinely touching, which isn’t easy to pull off with a character that the majority of the fanbase loathes. I never really got into the Sonic X comics, unfortunately. I think I read the first 15 issues before I got bored and stopped buying them. Which is a shame, because I’ve gone back to look at the other issues more recently and there were some fun stories in there, especially the ones about El Gran Gordo.

But this one feels like a nice way to end the series (in comic form, at least - the anime has a whole season left chronologically after this issue) as well as being the springboard to the new Sonic Universe series. Man, I miss Sonic Universe. I really hope we can get an equivalent side series to the IDW Sonic comics one day.

Speaking of the next adventure, next time I’ll be returning to the main Sonic comics as I look at a much darker time in the history of the series - the death of pre-boot ArchieSonic. I’ll be covering Sonic the Hedgehog #247 and Sonic Universe #50, but at this stage I’m not sure whether that will be one post or two. I’ll see how I go. See you then!

[branmuffins22]

from this ask game

🧮 what are you working on? describe it in 20 words or less

🌅 do you typically known the ending to something before you start writing it?

🔚 have you ever completely changed the direction a piece was going?

📚 do you ever read similar works while writing, or do you intentionally not read them?

😊 say something nice about your writing

Thanks for the ask!

🧮 what are you working on? describe it in 20 words or less

Lots of Owl House stuff, mostly Vee-centric/adjacent fics, but also a canon rewrite and a Code Lyoko AU.

🌅 do you typically known the ending to something before you start writing it?

Ehhh, kindasorta? Yes and no? I usually try to get a rough idea of what the consequences of the story will be, like who ends up where and some of how they got there, but I rarely have it nailed down completely before I start. Gotta give the characters a chance to wander before I pin 'em. For instance, in The Disappearance of Masha DeLisle, I knew going in that it would end with Masha waking up on a beach in the Demon Realm, and with Vee isolating herself between her breakdown and the imminent shutdown; but I didn't know Vee would lock herself (and one of her cabinmates) in Cabin 7, and I didn't even consider the counselors' POV until I got there, despite that segment being the actual end of the fic.

🔚 have you ever completely changed the direction a piece was going?

Kinda, but not really? Not yet, anyways. Or, not that I can think of? Hm. Maybe I shouldn't be answering asks so close to bedtime... Two of my WIPs have been marked for major revision: one because I tried to do a little too much at once and didn't leave myself room to actually tell the story, and another because I realized an entirely different format could tell the story in a much more effective way. That said, I haven't actually started writing either of those revisions yet. Still in the most basic planning stages of "Here's how I should fix this." Either way, while the contents are changing, the stories themselves are fundamentally the same. So I guess, I've come across these obstacles on my way to those destinations, and I've picked out what detours to take, but I still haven't started moving from where I stopped.

📚 do you ever read similar works while writing, or do you intentionally not read them?

I read a bunch of similar works, since those are what scratch my itch, but perhaps predictably, nothing is quite exactly the way I'd do it. If nothing else, I like to collect relevant headcanons and such, like some sort of possum. I try to maintain a list of credits for where I got certain ideas from, but it's hard when I just spontaneously remember A Thing I'm Pretty Sure I Read In A Fic Somewhere and decide it's so compelling that I simply must include it. It once took me like a month of off-and-on searching to find the fic I got a certain spell idea from, and the search is over a year and still ongoing for the fic that cheekily described a giant Worm Off The String as one of the Boiling Isles most fearsome predators, that Luz and one of her friends encounter in the woods, having to stay perfectly still to avoid its detection/ire... Anyways, yeah. I read similar stuff. It's fun and inspiring!

😊 say something nice about your writing

ooooo, ur brain is sooo awesome. ur dedication to The Bit is exemplary, nobody is using literary devices as character gimmicks quite like u 😤

[freneticfloetry]

weekend wip game

Rules: List your WIPs below (if you only write one fic at a time, feel free to include future WIPs/ideas!) then answer the following questions. Then, tag as many people as you have WIPs (or more).

Thanks to @welcometololaland for kicking this off, plus @liminalmemories21, @rmd-writes, @lemonlyman-dotcom, @orchidscript, @alrightbuckaroo, and @heartstringsduet for the tags!

1. WIP List: had we but world enough (and time) (the TiMER fic) a strong enough foundation (followup to tbah in the Roots Before Branches series, aka “five times Morgan was just like her daddy, and one time she was all her papá”) for better, for worse (bachelor party shenanigans) we were emergencies (the It’s a Wonderful Life/Sliding Doors-esque TK AU) the same in every language (five times Carlos says something in Spanish during sex and one time TK understands) show me the steps so i can go through the motions (4x18 Carlos & Gabriel tag) our hearts are haunted by the ghosts that i made (the no coma AU that angst built) Still Sadly Untitled Phone Fic (five times Tarlos had to replace a phone) Untitled HGTV AU Untitled [Film] Fusion Untitled Breakup Era Hookup (accidental club run-in where Jealous TK Makes Choices) Untitled [Redacted] AU (collab with @ambiguouspenny) The One Where Carlos Gets Shot …do you know how happy I am that to build a home is not on this list?

2. Which of your WIPs is currently the longest? The TiMER fic! It wasn’t even supposed to be second in line, it just bullied its way to the top of the list.

3. Which WIP do you expect will end up the longest? Oof. If I didn’t know myself so well, I’d say we were emergencies, but since I do, it’ll probably be the HGTV fic.

4. Which WIP is your favourite to write/the most enjoyable to write? Why? The TiMER fic has been a lot of fun to write, despite it being hurtier than I intended, but I think that’s just down to being in TK’s head for the first time. But every single snippet of for better, for worse makes me grin like a loon without fail, so it’s that one, hands down.

5. Which WIP do you find the most intimidating to write? Why? Hat trick for the TiMER AU. I think I was so excited about the premise and the possibilities of it all — I’ve wanted to write a TiMER fic since I first saw the movie, and a Soulmates fic for even longer — I didn’t really stop to consider that, after ~64k of building on and in-between canon, I was going to have to… build on and in-between canon. There’s a substantial element of re-imagining for this one, just because of the nature of the TiMER as a literal plot device, but there are times I’m still like fuuuuuck, I have to do this thing completely differently now.

6. Which WIP do you experience the most self-doubt about. Why? the same in every language. It’s not a plot-what-plot, it’s literally sex as plot, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about making it work.

7. Which of your WIPs will you seek out a beta/sensitivity reader for? Why? Both for better, for worse and we were emergencies will need outside attention to make sure they’re working as planned, and I’ll definitely be enlisting @hoko-onchi-writes’ Smutmancer services to make sure the same in every language is worth anything at all.

8. Have any of your WIPs been struck by the curse of writer's block? I’m just laughing right now. That’s my answer.

9. Which WIP has your favourite OC? Tell us about them? Definitely we were emergencies. His name is Simon, he’s a vet (as in healer of animals, not former military man, but he has Seen Some Things in his particular line of work so the latter isn’t far off), and he has a history with Carlos that he’d very much like to be a future with Carlos. He’s also totally scruff-and-curls era Zane Phillips in my head, and both @ambiguouspenny and I are sort of shamelessly infatuated with him. To quote Tay, after being virtually introduced to Dr. Simon: “do you even like TK?”

10. Which WIP is the sexiest? One would think it’s the aforementioned fic where sex is the plot, but the TiMER fic has some moments, y’all.

11. Which WIP is the angstiest? I mean, pick your poison. As I said, the TiMER fic is angstier than intended. The Breakup Era Hookup will be hot angst, but angst nonetheless. There’s one where Carlos gets shot. And I know it sounds like show me the steps so i can go through the motions might be an obvious answer, considering The Gabriel Factor, but the real winner is probably our hearts are haunted by the ghosts that i made. I told Tay the actual premise and they threw me in angst jail.

12. Which WIP has the best characterisation (in your humble opinion)? a strong enough foundation is a real contender here, because it’s the Carlos I already know and love, but I think it might actually be for better, for worse, simply because it’s all of Team Tarloft, and I have something of a knack for ensemble fics, if I do say so myself.

13. Which WIP has the best scene setting (in your humble opinion)? Either the HGTV fic or the Untitled Film Fusion. Probably the former, because pretty pretty interiors are like porn for me.

14. Which WIP have you worked the hardest on? Surprising no one, the TiMER fic. Snippets aside, I’m a “one WIP at a time” kind of girl.

15. Which WIP do you have the highest expectations for? Why? In a weird way, I think this is usually the fic I’m currently working on. Some Yuletide fic aside (mostly pinch hits and quick treats), I always want to feel like whatever I’m writing is the best thing I’ve done — that way I get the sense that I’m growing. That said, though I’ve written a kid in fic (Teddy from The Magicians), I have never written kidfic, and the plan I have for a strong enough foundation makes me really excited.

16. Do you dream about any of your WIPs? Not the actual fics, no, but I do dream about characters.

17. Do any of your WIPs have particular complexities that your other fics don't? our hearts are haunted by the ghosts that i made has to tread some very thin ice, due to its premise, and I’m hoping I can find the right balance with it. And that it doesn’t make people hate me.

18. Which WIP is the funniest or has the most humour? for better, for worse. And it’s not even close.

19. Do any of your WIPs contain outside POVs or a deep dive on a character other than the main ship? How are you finding that process? The Untitled Phone Fic has an outsider POV! An OC outsider, even. She’s an overworked, underpaid girl named Kelsey, and she’s sort of precious. This one’s still in early stages, just an outline and a handful of snippets, but Kelsey is very clear in my head.

20. Tell us one thing we don't know about one or more of your WIPs. One involves an unreliable narrator, one involves an inanimate object as a running theme, and one involves revenge.

I am so very late to this, so consider it an open tag for anyone who’d still like to talk WIPs!

[degenerate-perturbation]

for the ship game...vrizrezi hawke/anders and ummmm kaladin/moash 👽

Vrisrezi: Do not ship

I do not like Vrisrezi because interactions with Vriska make Terezi much more boring, and Vriska isn't particularly oriented towards Terezi either. The character I wanted to see Vriska grow and change alongside with was Tavros. They had narrative resonance and something sort of resembling a coherent parallel arc. Vriska and Terezi are more of an informed-attribute Ultimate Rivalry than a dynamic I really felt invested in. Somehow, these characters are less than the sum of their parts; they do not contribute meaningfully to one another's arcs in ways that are good rather than bad.

I could easily have liked this ship. I have nothing against it in principle. I just don't think what was presented in the story made a compelling case for them, and I didn't ever read any fanfiction.

I enjoy the concept of this ship more if it's in the context of a fucked up FLARP polycule with Aradia and Tavros also involved. That shit is great. I also do strongly prefer it to either Dave/Terezi or John/Vriska, and it's probably one of the best Vriska ships out there.

Hawke/Anders: Do not ship

This one I actually do actively hate and will not engage with fan content for.

Partly it's that I think that the DA2 story works better without any Hawke/Companion romance. Hawke is most interesting to me as an aggregator of baffling ruffians rather than someone who is actually One of the ruffians. Because Hawke is boring. They're a boring cookie cutter protagonist who I care for only as a plot device and narrative tool.

But I dislike Hawke/Anders especially because a romance arc would be a terrible decision for Anders' story. The whole Kirkwall period is things getting worse and worse for Anders and culminating with a suicidal act of mass violence. There is no way to jam a healthy relationship into that character arc, not even getting into the actual in-game details of their romantic interactions.

Now, an unhealthy relationship? Yes! Absolutely! I can read Hawke/Anders as abusive, mutually toxic, or otherwise some kind of ill-advised train wreck which ultimately is only a brief stop along a larger story about something else. But hardly anybody writes that. Everybody wants to project their protective poor little meow meow feelings onto Hawke and have them Take Care of poor widdle Anders who is so sad and so wet. And I don't truck with that. Hawke is entirely the wrong character for this formula and I cannot enjoy it.

What would have made me like it? Idk, if Anders' entire character arc was completely different.

What I'll say for it is that I do think it's fantastic as a toxic trainwreck nightmare story and I actually love shitty evil rivalmance Hawkes who make Anders' life worse.

Kalmoash: Literally have absolutely no idea if I ship or not. Like I fucking guess?

I think I only like the made up fandom version of this ship. But when I remember their actual canonical interactions I just feel sort of icky.

Moash is just so...look, I love Moash. He sucks, and I love that for him! Here is a character so absolutely, triumphantly responsible for his own suffering, so clearly being damned by his own basic character flaws, that it's fucking excruciating to watch. It's fantastic. What fertile ground for a redemption arc! Moash is a guy who hit rock bottom and picked up a shovel. He did this all to himself, and boy howdy does it compel me.

But wow, he sucks. And he's not being written with compassion by an author who ultimately likes him and his bullshit. He's being written by an author who has nothing nice to say about him at all. My enjoyment of this character is not supported by the text, because the text is frankly not that deep. The text is all there on the surface and it doesn't leave much room for interpretation.

So I enjoy pretending that they dated during WoR, but like their close friendship is moooostly an informed attribute. Which is a real shame, because it limits the emotional impact of the betrayal and the emotional impact of any possible future redemption arc.

Anyway yeah I guess I do ship it because if I see a picture of them kissing I'm hitting reblog.

[scuttling]

While You Were Sleeping (Okay, in a Coma)

Fandom: Criminal Minds Pairings: Derek Morgan & Latina Original Female Character Aaron Hotchner/Latina Original Female Character Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid Word Count: 2,058 Chapters: 1 of ? WIP Tags: SFW so far, Sophie is not in the BAU, While You Were Sleeping (film) AU, Coffee shop, Unrequited love, Canon-typical violence, Slow burn

Summary: What happens when Derek Morgan, the man Sophie Cortes is secretly in love with, goes into a coma, and everyone around them mistakes her for his girlfriend? As if things weren't complicated enough, his boss is sweet, kind, incredibly handsome, and makes sure she's taken care of while Derek is in the hospital. Plus, she thinks one of Derek's coworkers is more secretly in love with him than she is. Feelings shift, but how does Sophie explain to the world that she fell for Aaron while Derek was sleeping, without hurting everyone she's come to care about?

Read on AO3 or read more below! The morning that changes Sophie Cortes’s life forever begins much like any other: she wakes up at 3 AM to her blaring alarm, slides out of bed with a groan, tugs off the oversized t-shirt she slept in and pulls on a sports bra and leggings to go for a run. She knows this makes her sound like a lunatic, but with her schedule, if she doesn’t exercise before the crack of dawn, it just doesn’t happen.

After her run, she goes home to shower and change, grabs her bag and drives to The Busy Bean, the coffee shop she co-owns with her best friend Jocelyn. Jocelyn is the brains of the operation, the one with all the great marketing ideas, the one who handles the finances and vendors and supply issues and makes sure everything is Fair Trade or else—Sophie bakes cookies and makes macchiatos, but everyone’s got their strong suits.

She loves the coffee shop more than anything, its bright brick walls and dark wood floors, the smell of fresh beans and sugar, the bustle of regular customers they get from being so near Quantico; most of them are serious suit types, always in a hurry, but some of them are sweet, take their time to say good morning, like Sophie’s favorite customer, Derek.

She knows Derek is a fed of some sort, even though he’s not usually in a suit. He has that air about him, like he’s powerful and capable, like he’s seen things, but he never fails to flash her a megawatt smile, to lean against the counter while she makes his mocha and ask her how her morning is going. She’s a little bit in love with him.

Jocelyn knows this, and always makes sure Sophie is the one to wait on him; when she calls Sophie out from the kitchen specifically because Derek’s there, she knows he knows, and she flushes, but he says she makes his drink better than anyone, always asks her for a cookie recommendation on Fridays so he can take a box to the office, so she thinks it might not be completely one sided. Maybe. Or he’s just a really, really sweet guy.

On the morning that changes her life forever, he’s still very sweet, but she also sees a side of him she’s never seen before.

Someone tries to rob them. The man walks right up to the counter, no mask, no nothing, and tells her to put all of the money from the register into a cookie box or he’ll pull out the gun he’s got in his pocket and blow her face off. Her first instinct is to be pissed about this, which she knows is really stupid. She takes a step back, looks at the guy like he’s an idiot, crosses her arms.

“Are you fucking kidding me? Do you know how hard we work for this money? We don’t sit around… playing video games in our mom’s basement, like you do, by the looks of it.” The guy is obviously not happy about this, slams his hands down on the counter, and Derek, who is two spots behind him, leans slightly out of line to get her attention.

“Sophie, is this guy bothering you?” Before she can answer, the guy turns to look at Derek; he takes one glance at his hot, strong physique, and then his gun and his badge thing, and books it out of the shop. Derek tears off after him, and Sophie can see this ending very badly, so she grabs Jocelyn, asks her to cover the register and tells her she’ll be right back.

She jogs outside, expecting to see Derek manhandling the dumbass robber, or at least still chasing after him; she does not expect to see Derek laying on the ground, bleeding out, a bullet wound in his stomach.

“Oh my god, Derek!” She skids to a halt next to him, pulls off her apron—it’s mostly clean, she thinks—and lifts up his shirt, presses it to the wound to stop the bleeding. “Are you okay? That’s dumb, you’re not okay, but can you hear me? Are you going to die?” He chuckles, and that makes her feel a little better, but then he coughs up blood, and that makes her feel much, much worse.

She pulls her phone out of her back pocket, calls 911, and just stays with him, talks to him about nothing and everything, until the police and paramedics arrive. At that point, he has passed out, looks drained and weak, so unlike the Derek she has come to know… and love. Fuck. If he dies because of something that happened at her shop…

“Excuse me, miss, but we need to get him on the stretcher,” an EMT says, putting his hand gently on her shoulder. She backs off, knows he needs to be attended to, but she can’t leave him, she just can’t.

“Can I ride to the hospital with him? Please,” she asks the other tech, and she glances at her partner, who nods. Sophie sighs a breath of relief, sends a text to Jocelyn explaining what happened and that she’ll need to be out of the shop for the foreseeable future.

She notices that Derek’s phone has fallen off of his belt, and she picks it up, since the paramedics don’t seem interested. She absently decides to look through his recent contacts, to see if there’s someone she should inform of the accident: the last number he dialed belongs to someone named Hotch, and she vaguely remembers him mentioning the name before. It might be his boss, or something? He dials the number frequently, anyway, so she figures it’s worth a shot.

“Hotchner,” the man answers after two rings, and Sophie sighs, glad she got through to someone. Even if he’s not the person she should be contacting, he might know how to reach them.

“Uh, hello. I’m pretty sure you’re Derek’s boss, but even if you aren’t, you’re the last person he called, so… There’s been an accident. Derek’s been shot. We’re headed to the GWU Medical Center; I thought you would want to know.” She can hear the man moving some papers in the background, banging something around on his desk, maybe.

“We’re on the way; how bad is it? Is he conscious? What happened?” The paramedics signal for her to hop into the back of the ambulance, so she does, and she takes Derek’s limp hand. Her eyes well up with tears, and it feels real, now, that she has to relive it.

“There was someone trying to rob the coffee shop, and—and Derek went after him; he had a gun, and I guess he shot him. I mean, he obviously shot him. In the stomach. He’s not conscious; I don’t know how bad it is, but he was coughing up blood. Oh, god,” she breathes, voice shaky, and the man on the phone makes a soft sound of reassurance.

“It’s alright. He’s a very strong person, I promise you. He’ll be okay. You said you were headed to GWU Medical Center; are you with him now?”

“Yes. The paramedics let me ride with him. I can text you an update when we get there, his room number if he has one.” She can hear him talking to someone else in the background, but it only takes him a moment to answer.

“Please do. We’ll be there as quickly as we can. Thank you,…?” He pauses, clearly wondering who the hell she is.

“Oh, Sophie. Sophie Cortes.”

“Aaron Hotchner. Thank you. We’ll see you soon.”

The paramedics push Derek into the emergency room entrance, and Sophie follows behind, feeling anxious and out of place, and worried about his injury. They push the gurney through a set of double doors, and Sophie goes to follow, but a stern looking nurse in gold scrubs puts a hand in front of her, doesn’t even look up from her clipboard.

“You can’t go in there.” Sophie’s heart-rate jumps, and she shakes her head.

“I need to go in there, I need to make sure he’s okay. Please.”

“Are you family?” she asks, giving her a once-over; she clearly decides that Sophie is not family, and she doesn’t want to lie, anyway.

“No, I’m not family, but—”

“Like I said, you can’t go in there. Family only.” She moves her arm, waits like she dares Sophie to try, but she just sighs, sags against the wall, and the woman walks away.

“But you don’t understand,” Sophie says weakly, to herself. “I’m in love with him.” She brings up a hand to scrub at the tears forming in her eyes, and another nurse, one with blue scrubs and braids and a kind smile, rests a palm on her shoulder.

“Come with me.” Sophie looks up at her—she looks kind of like an angel, but it’s probably just the fluorescent lighting—and nods, follows.

She takes her through a staff only door, sneaks her into the OR hallway, where they can peer through a window at Derek, surrounded by doctors, surgeons, nurses. Sophie has only seen this kind of stuff on TV, so she doesn’t know how it’s going, but the nurse who brought her tells her to stay there for one second and bustles off.

It’s really scary to watch: there are bloody cloths being thrown around, and tubes and clamps and other medical devices she’s not sure the use for, but after a moment, she can see a doctor lift up a pair of surgical pliers, and there’s a bullet between the prongs. That’s a good sign, she’s pretty sure.

The nice nurse comes back, and she scares the shit out of Sophie when she puts a hand on her arm, making her jump a foot. She smiles apologetically, and Sophie returns it.

“I found out his room number, if you’d like to go sit and wait for him to be brought in. It's an ICU, so technically visiting hours haven’t started yet, but I can make an exception—for an hour, okay?” Sophie nods, wraps her hands around the nurse's wrists.

“Thank you so much. Really—I just need to know he’s okay,” she says, and the woman nods understandingly and takes her to room 104, where Derek will be placed after surgery.

She texts the number to Derek’s boss, takes a seat on the chair in the corner of the room. She gets restless quickly, stands up, uses the bathroom sink to scrub at her hands, because they’re still stained with Derek’s blood. It’s quiet, eerily so, until suddenly it isn’t.

Derek is wheeled in on a bed by a couple of nurses; he looks a little better, all wrapped up in gauze, and they hook him to machines, displaying a steady heartbeat. She breathes a sigh of relief. He’s alright. He’s not dead. That’s incredible news. She takes his hand, wills herself not to cry, murmurs that she’s so happy he’s alive.

As soon as the nurses leave, a group of people who can only be Derek’s coworkers enter the room. There is a tall, serious looking man with dark hair and a dark suit; a woman with thick fringe, a kind face; an older guy with facial hair who looks worried and weary; a skinny guy who looks about the same as Sophie feels; a petite blonde woman with the bluest eyes Sophie’s ever seen; and another blonde woman with crimped hair and glossy lips who has absolutely been crying. They look at Sophie, and she stands, drops Derek’s hand.

“Um, hi, I’m—”

“Who are you?” a doctor says suddenly from behind the group. The kind nurse who let her see Derek is behind him. The serious looking man reaches into his pocket, flashes a badge with a no-nonsense expression.

“We’re with the FBI. We’re his coworkers.” He looks over at Sophie, and she takes a deep breath. Before she can explain who she is, the kind nurse steps around the doctor, flashes Sophie a smile.

“And she’s his girlfriend.”

Uh. What the fuck?

Derek’s coworkers exchange a look that says pretty much the same thing; the tall skinny one looks like his heart has been broken.

Sophie opens her mouth to correct that extremely incorrect assumption, but she can’t find the words, and then she passes out.

[nervestatic]

SMPSTUCK AU / human session lands

you get a planet! you get a planet! all my bitches be getting planets. back at it again with my homestuck au, finally posting some mcfucking uhhhhhhh more information!!

check out the smpstuck au tag to find out more!

TECHNOBLADE / the land of frost and ruins rabbit consorts, derse dreamer

so! techno! breaking his land down into parts, i’ve given techno frost as a callback to SMP earth, and the kingdom of antarctica! he’s got a very cold world, with most of the structures covered in spires of ice. ruins was built to play off of the idea that minecraft is a post-apocalypse game, so techno’s land ended up being a world that used to be populated on the surface, but froze over. his consorts are rabbits who build warrens under the ice and populate the ruins! his land is very isolated and lonely, and requires a lot of solo grinding in order to get anywhere under the ice, which i thought would be fitting for his playstyle.

PHILZA / the land of ash and frogs frog consorts, prospit dreamer phil had half of his land decided for me- as the space player, it was always going to be the land of [x] and frogs. i chose ash for him as a middle ground between how i think of phil’s current hardcore world, which i mostly associate with the nether, and his hardcore series 2 world, which i mostly associated with the desert. i’m imagining a lot of big and empty space, with a near-constant downfall of ash reminiscent of the basalt deltas in the 1.16 nether, just. filled to the fucking brim with frogs. there are frogs everywhere. please god help this man

WILBUR SOOT / the land of rivers and pulse salmon consorts, derse dreamer i had a lot of fun designing wilbur’s land! i’ve always thought it was interesting when the lands interact more with the players, which is what pulse refers to. his land is covered in a network of rivers that glow from within, the water levels and light shifting and changing in time with wilbur’s pulse. when he gets emotional, his pulse changes, and his land changes to reflect that, which i thought would be really interesting with a rage player!

(also haha wilbur fucked a salmon)

NIKI / the land of flowers and slumber bird consorts, prospit dreamer niki’s land is actually based off of the wizard of oz! she’s associated fairly heavily with flowers, especially now that she and puffy have a flower shop, so her land is just covered in these great vast fields filled with flowers. but, like in the wizard of oz, it’s easy to fall asleep there- and stay asleep. niki, as a breath player, has an easier time navigating it than most, but for how pretty and charming it is, it’s probably one of the most dangerous lands on this list. her quest is about waking up the consorts to free them!

ERET / the land of glass and depth dolphin consorts, dual dreamer eret’s land is, for the most part, underwater! his house is on a little spire surrounded by ocean, similar to dirk’s house in the original comic. there are odd glass structures under the water, and there’s a lot of vibrant colors and life that he can just barely see from the surface. the only problem is that he’s got no way to get down there! his quest is about figuring out how to contact his consorts and how to navigate the world without, like, drowning.

TUBBO / the land of tunnels and hives bee consorts, prospit dreamer tubbo :D tubbo’s land is actually mostly hollow! it’s build like a giant beehive filled with smaller beehives. it’s fairly labyrinthine in nature, with lots of interconnected loops and twisting tunnels similar to how caves generate in minecraft, and he has to be careful not to accidentally wander into a hive and bother the consorts lest they get angry and try to sting them! he has the hardest time getting to his gates, because his house doesn’t spawn on the surface- it spawns inside the tunnels, meaning he has to find his way out before anything else.

TOMMY / the land of discs and shade crocodile consorts, derse dreamers tommy’s land was, of course, inspired by what started smp wars in the first place- the discs! also drawing from lohac and lowas in canon, it’s a relatively open world with lots of large flat surfaces- the discs! they form plains and cliffs that need to be climbed between, and can be quite precarious to walk on. it’s also relatively dark- there’s no natural light sources aside from tommy’s house, which stands out like a beacon compared to the rest of the land. his land is also where the scratch device is!

FUNDY / the land of chaos and circuits ??? consorts, dual dreamer SO. locac. fundy’s land takes on the appearance of a large circuitboard, stretching in rainbow colors as far as the eye can see. he has yet to find any actual consorts, but he’s also been a little busy dealing with RNG. similarly to his RNG difficulty in minecraft, fundy’s land has the inherent aspect of chaos built into it, randomizing the effects of every action he takes. his quest is... actually kind of vague and confusing, much like most of the things about locac. it does help him learn how the fabric of SBURB works, though, because locac is the only land that’s malleable in this way!

DREAM / the land of caves and fog spider consorts, derse dreamer the land of caves and fog was inspired by the manhunts! the entire surface of the planet is littered with cave openings- some of them are tiny, barely big enough to hide in, and others are huge and sprawl beneath the planet’s surce! the further into the caves you go, the less foggy it gets, but the spider consorts aren’t exactly friendly and you’re gaining visibility as you lose safety. i wanted dream’s land to call back to the way he just sort of... vanishes, bringing the literal aspect of fog to it.

GEORGE / the land of mirrors and bridges salamander consorts, prospit dreamer so i’ve already talked about george’s land a bit in my fic, which you can read here! lomab was intended to be a little bit ironic in nature- the witch of void, georgenotfound, surrounded by things that make him see himself. his quest, and ultimately his Choice, are all about balance- about acknowledging the lines between isolation and being perceived, and finding a good middle ground between those two things. the land itself is lots of chasms with bridges going over them- stone bridges, rope bridges, wooden bridges, you name it, and there’s thousands of mirrors in various sizes scattered across the surface.

SAPNAP / the land of flame and bone bat consorts, prospit dreamer sapnap’s land is, effectively, the nether! lots of fire, lots of giant fuckoff fossils that are big enough to use as the basis for consort cities! it’s fairly dangerous at first, until they manage to alchemize a fire extinguishing system to put sapnap out whenever he inevitably catches on fire again. i haven’t thought his quest out too much- i wanted his land to tie into his aspect (doom), so i thought it would be quite poetic to imply that once there were creatures who lived there, before the game, and now it’s just ruination.

BADBOYHALO / the land of blades and string mouse consorts, derse dreamer badboyhalo’s land is, effectively, a giant quilt. hundreds of thousands of strings woven together create a net overtop of what is, essentially, the void, strung up using massive blades that were inspired by his knife-throwing! the land is all about risk and reward- step wrong and the strings might cut, but cut the strings on purpose and you’ll change the landscape in a way that benefits you. it appeals to bad’s sense of caution, but forces him to take risks to complete his quest and get the rewards!

and that’s it! some human lands. i hope you enjoy this. if you have questions please god send me asks

[kerra-and-company]

16, 19, 24 for the headcanon asks!

Ooh sure, sounds like a plan! :D (And while I'm here answering your ask, thank you so much for making this excellent ask game; 'tis very fun to both ask and get asked these questions! <3 )

16. Have you put any thought into how Asuran Magitech works? (If yes the author of this game would love to hear as many details as possible ;D)

I have no idea how much of this is supported by the actual canon, but I tend to picture magic as an energy source of sorts, like heat or electricity or light. It's both more chaotic and more malleable than some other forms of energy, and the asuran magitech functions by harnessing that energy source. They can harness it via runes or via crystals (which are kind of like batteries), both of which I think can be found on the golems we see in-game, and I bet they've made solenoids and circuit boards and capacitors and inductors and all that other fun circuit stuff that functions with magic rather than electricity. And this would just be the inherent magic in Tyria that they're pulling from, not the magic of individuals.

This does bring up a question that makes me want to hide this post from the Inquest, though--if we take the headcanon that they're harnessing magic this way, could they pull magic directly from a person to make a device work? Would that have different effects, since an individual's magic tends to be class-based, and could they ever possibly be beneficial or useful or would devices just explode? I hope no one from the Inquest has tried anything like this; I have to imagine that people are worse batteries than crystals, and draining their magic for a device would most certainly hurt if not outright kill them. But considering that it's pretty much canon that they put people's brains in golems both as an experimental method and as a torture one, I don't have high hopes on that point :P Alternatively, and on a slightly less evil-scientist (but still angsty) note, if an important magitech device malfunctioned at a critical time and needed a power source because for whatever reason its original one wasn't working, could it be modified to pull power from the operator instead? This entire thing might not be possible at all, of course; the magic produced by a person might not be in a form that's usable for a device, just like ATP (our cells' energy molecule, to oversimplify) can't really power an electrical grid.

And if magic is like light or electricity, is it possible to build something that acts as an insulator for magic? Or is that not possible because magic is such an intrinsic thing in Tyria that it permeates everything on some level? I could see either one.

19. Can skimmers actually go underwater or is it just a gameplay mechanic to satisfy the fans?

I 100% believe they can actually go underwater! They are completely made to swim if you look at their design, and though I do think they breathe air and don't have gills, I headcanon that they can hold their breath for quite a long time underwater, potentially as long as some whales can--up to 90 minutes or even more. @mystery-salad gave me the lovely image of a shoal of skimmers in the ocean, snacking on tiny plankton and other small things, so I'm passing that on here as well. Also, stingrays burrow in the sand to hide from predators, and I definitely think skimmer pups will do that too (underwater only, above water the sand's too hot for them) when their parents are away (if their parents care for them, which I headcanon they usually do, at least for the first year or so).

(Side note, did you know a group of stingrays is called a fever and a group of manta rays is called a squadron? I didn't until just now and thought I'd pass that on, too xD )

24. Wild card slot. Just anything that’s on your mind

Ever since I answered the question about the Mordrem and the Branded and what happens to them after their masters die, my brain's been throwing around what happens to the Icebrood and the destroyers after Jormag and Primordus are gone. (tw: discussion of injuries in the next paragraph)

As far as any of Jormag's minions/followers who were touched by their magic go, there's gonna be a lot of melting involved. I grabbed this from the icebrood wiki page: "Recently corrupted icebrood are merely covered in ice, still having blood in their bodies, while older icebrood are said to have frozen insides." So anyone turned recently has a chance of surviving, but those who weren't are most likely dead. Also, even if they do survive, they could be left with pretty dangerous injuries (see: Bangar and the "unfortunate" holes in his throat because of being the Voice and having a spiky ice collar). There's also a high probability of cellular or brain damage from being frozen that long; cells can burst when frozen. I think the Frost Legion, or whatever's left of them, will probably survive with faculties intact, though injured for sure. And the Frozen are confirmed to be alive inside their magic prisons, so I'm going ahead and saying they're all right, too.

My first instinct for the destroyers was to say that they would continue on being a nuisance, kind of like the Branded or the Risen might, but if they react the same way as Jormag's minions, they won't be able to maintain their warmth anymore without Primordus. They'll slowly cool and solidify, like lava, and thus won't remain a threat for long. Tyria might get some frustrating (because they could get stuck to the ground) but kinda neat statues out of that whole process, and I bet the asura (and everyone else) would run lots of tests on the leftover volcanic rock.

[peppersonironi]

Batfam/Avengers Crossover Chapter Six: Blooming Bromance

Tagging (Let me know if you want to be tagged): @the-fair-maiden-of-fandom

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Category: Gen

Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types

Relationships: Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Natasha Romanov & Damian Wayne, Clint Barton & Cassandra Cain, Tim Drake & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tim Drake & Duke Thomas, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent, Dick Grayson/Wally West, Roy Harper/Koriand'r/Jason Todd,

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Barbara Gordon, Justice League (DCU), Alfred Pennyworth, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Thor (Marvel), Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, Alfred the Cat (DCU), Bat-Cow (DCU), Goliath (DCU), Selina Kyle’s Cat Isis, Kate Kane (DCU), Duke Thomas,

Additional Tags: Batbrothers (DCU), Avengers Meet The Batfam, MCU/Batfam crossover, Crossover, no beta we die like robins, rated T for Jason’s language, I bleeped it out though. Just to be safe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, canon? What’s canon?, Deaf Clint Barton,Deaf Character, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Happy Batfamily (DCU), Birdflash and joyfire are implied/referenced,

Summary: Tim hangs out with the youngest Avenger. A bromance is blooming.

Tim sighed into his mug of coffee. Everyone in his family - minus Stephanie and Babs, since they didn’t live at the manor -  had been gathered in the cave to discuss the ongoing conversation between some of the interdimensional visitors. They - consisting of Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, Steve Rogers, and Tony Stark - seemed to have been really freaked out by some of Jason’s snide comments, and were now discussing if the bats were in fact trustworthy.

Tim blamed Jason for this whole mess. Jason couldn’t hold his stupid tounge, so now Bruce had called everyone - after Cass told him what was happening -  together to spy on their guests and work out a plan.

Their conversation wasn’t that interesting either. It was everyone going back and forth, never changing their own arguments. The most interesting thing that happened was when Stark hopped on a computer and started to do research on them. Not that they found much.

“No way in f*** are we amicable!” Jason exclaimed when the article was brought up and read aloud.

“Aw, you sure little wing?” Dick asked, elbowing Jason.

“T-t,” Damian said, rolling his eyes. “Will you two imbeciles shut up? I’m trying to listen.”

Turns out there wasn’t much more. As soon as the Avengers dispersed, Tim turned off the computer. “Now what?”

Cass frowned. “They need trust. Show them.”

Bruce nodded. “Yes, it would be best if they trust us, as we are the ones sending them home. Lack of trust might provoke unnecessary responses from them. It would be best if we can work well together.”

“Show them.” Cass repeated vehemitaly.

“I agree with Cass,” Tim replied. “We shouldn’t just tell them to trust us. That could be taken quite badly. We need to show them.”

“How?” Duke asked. “I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but you are definitely not good at showing your emotions well.”

Bruce sighed heavily. “Yes, Duke, you have made that abundantly clear in the past.” Duke smiled at that, looking rather sheepish. Bruce frowned in concentration. “Let them make the first move. If they try to question you, don’t hold anything back. Try to be friendly.” Tim noticed he directed that last part at Damian and Jason.

“Don’t hold anything back?” Jason asked, an evil smirk growing on his face. Tim shuddered inwardly at whatever gruesome tale Jason was planning on sharing.

“Within reason,” Bruce growled.

Duke stood up. “Well, that sounds good for you guys, but I have Gotham to patrol.” Duke strolled off with a decidedly self satisfied smile on his face. He clearly thought that he was getting out of sharing his life story.

Bruce sighed once more. “Very well, Duke. Good luck.”

Duke nodded his thanks as he made his way to the changing rooms to get ready for his patrol.

*****

“Dude, this is incredible!” Peter had given Tim a chance to look at his web-shooters, and Tim was being a total fangirl over it.

“Thanks,” Peter replied, seeming quite proud. “The basic design is mine, Mr. Stark supplied some improvements though.”

Tim nodded as he continued to examine the device. “Are these veins turbine pumps?”

Peter grinned. “Yup! They compress the web fluid before shooting it out through the spinneret holes which cold-draws the solution and extrudes it through the air, where it solidifies.”

“And during the process the  nylon gains a four-fold increase in tensile strength?”

“Exactly!”

Tim shook his head at the brilliance. “Wow, this is utterly brilliant!”

“Thanks! Do you want to see the chemical formula?” Peter asked. He seemed really eager to talk about it with someone his own age.

“Of course!” Tim hit his forehead. “Gosh, I’m sorry! I completely forgot you came to me to see if we could make more.”

Peter shrugged, “no worries. I’m glad you like the devices.”

Tim reached over to one of the coffee tables in the sitting room they were occupying and handing it to Peter, who promptly began to write down the formula.

Upon seeing it, Tim gasped uncontrollably. “Oh my god, this is the greatest thing I have seen in a long time!” Peter had to be a genius to come up with this, Tim decided.

Peter grinned at Tim. “Really?”

“Totally!”

“You guys done fangirling?” A voice came from the door. “ ‘cause we have some people to decimate!”

Tim looked over to find Jason leaning against the doorframe, two nerf guns in hand.

“Decimate?” Peter asked.

Jason rolled his eyes. “Capture the flag on the back lawn in five. Bring whatever non-lethal weapons you want. You can get ‘em approved before the game starts.” And with that, he strolled off.

“You guys play Capture The Flag?” Peter looked excited.

Tim stood up, organizing the notes, then setting them aside. “Yup! It can get pretty wild though. Think you can handle it?”

Peter grinned. “I think so.”

*****

“Welcome to the 67th annual Bat Fa-”

“It's not annual and you know it Dick.”

Dick pouted as he looked over at Tim. “Come on, Timbo, let me have this!”

“Drake is correct, Grayson. You are acting idiotically.”

Tim glanced over at Damian. “You’re admitting I’m right?”

Damian glowered at his brother. “Of course not.” “But you jus-”

“Are we playing or not?” Someone had managed to rope Bruce into the game, but he was being pretty snippy about it.

Dick sighed, looking defeated. “Fine. Capture the flag. You all know how to play?” Everyone nodded, except Thor.

“I am unfamiliar with this specific midgardian game.”

Dick nodded. “Ok, that’s fine. Good chance to go over the rules anyway. There are two teams, each take one side of the playing area. So each team has a flag, or item of some sort that they each place in a visible yet defendable position. Part of the team defends their flag, while the other part attempts to steal their opponents’. If you get caught on the opposite team's territory, they put you in jail. Only one of your teammates can get you out, by tapping you. Get it?”

Everyone nodded. “Good. A few extra rules that must be followed,” Dick looked pointedly at Jason and Damian as he continued, “ include: no maiming. Serious injuries of most kinds are off limits. Lethal weapons are also out, unless you know how to use them nonlethally. You are also not allowed to leave the playing area at any point. Nor are you allowed to use cookies as bait in any traps. Especially Alfred’s cookies.”

Dick looked pointedly at Tim during the last rule, much to Tim’s chagrin. It had been one time!

“And finally, no touching Alfred’s shrubbery.” Everyone with the exception of the Avengers cringed at that. “Everyone understand?”

There was a chorus of “Yups” “Yes’s” and “f*** yeah, b****!” Tim didn’t need to be the world’s second greatest detective to guess where that last one came from.

“Good,” Dick said, grinning. “We’ll have two teams. Captains are Bruce and me. Let’s get into a line and start dividing.”

Tim got in line, grumbling slightly. A few of the Avengers had also joined, specifically Peter, Thor, and Banner. Tim wasn’t sure how much of a help Banner could be without “Hulking out” as Peter put it, but the guy seemed smart. It seemed like it would be an interesting game.

“Lil’ D!” Dick called, quite predictably. Damian grumbled and walked over to Dick’s side.

Bruce took longer to choose. He examined the faces of each person, one by one. “Tim.” Tim smiled, he had been expecting Dick to choose him, but with Bruce, Tim didn’t have to deal with the demon brat.

Dick chose Thor next, then Bruce chose Jason. They continued back and forth till Dick’s team consisted of Damian, Thor, and Banner. Bruce had chosen Tim, Jason, and Peter. Cassandra had opted to Referee the game, much to everyone’s relief. They could play everyone against Cass, and his sister would still win.

“Flags?” Cass asked once everyone had assembled with their teams.

“I got these from Alfred!” Dick said as he grabbed two large banners from beside a tree. One was Green, the other Blue.

Cass nodded. “You get Blue. Bruce, green.” Once Dick had handed the other banner to Bruce, Cass continued. “Ten minutes to plan and hide flags. Then go.”

They split up, Tim following right behind Bruce. “Ideas?” he asked when they were all in the cover of the trees that they had chosen for their side.

“The flag will go up in the old oak tree, as high as you can get it, Peter. I want Jason on Guard Duty near the tree, I’ll be farther out doing a border patrol. Tim and Peter, you’re both on infiltration duty. Skirt the sides as much as possible. Dick will most likely be trying to cross over, avoid him if you can. Watch out for Damian, too. He'll be joining Dick. Thor will most likely be guarding their flag along with Banner. He won’t be able to resist the pun. They should be pretty easy to take down.” Bruce paused for a moment, thinking. “Dick will probably place his banner somewhere near the westward fountain. Use the ivy wall to the east as cover.”

Everyone nodded, and separated. Peter scrambled up the oak tree with ease, and placed the banner at the literal top. It’d be almost impossible for anyone to reach it, but Tim knew Dick would love the challenge.

A couple minutes later, the guard routes were established, and Tim had shown Peter the way to the flag by drawing a diagram in the dirt. Tim quickly wiped it away, however, when Cass sounded an Airhorn. Tim had no idea where she had gotten it, but didn’t bother trying to figure it out. Tim sprinted to the side almost immediately, Peter right behind them. They wove through the trees, keeping to the shadows. Peter wasn’t nearly as stealthy as Tim, but they both kept out of sight.

Right as they were about to cross over the border, Tim stopped them. “Let’s get an aerial view before we proceed.”

“Sounds good,” Peter replied as they started to climb a nearby tree. Turns out it was the right choice, because they were awarded front row seats to Bruce grabbing Damian by his collar.

“Not today, Damian. You’re going to jail.” Bruce smiled fondly as he carried his youngest son away from the border and off to the previously chosen prison.

“Grayson!” Damian shreeked. “How dare you abandon me! Unhand me this instant, Father! Grayson! You shall rue the day I make my escape! This insult has not gone unnoticed! I refuse to be kept against my will by plebeians! You had better drop everything to assist me Grayson, or -”

Damian’s outraged voice slowly faded away as he was hauled off.

“Oof,” Peter said. “Think Dick will get him out?”

Tim snorted before shaking his head. “Knowing Dick, he’ll be remorseful for a bit before completely forgetting about the kid.”

Peter nodded. “Well, one less person we have to deal with, right?”

Tim grinned. “Yup! We should probably get going.”

*****

“Mmff! Mfffff-mmmf!”

“I think we did a good job, whattaya say, bug-boy?” Tim and Peter grinned down at a bound and gagged Thor and Banner. Both trying and failing to escape their bonds.

“I think we did quite well, bird-boy.” Peter replied. “But we should probably get going.”

Tim nodded as he plucked the banner from atop the fountain, right where Bruce said it would be.

“Let’s go!” they race off towards the border.

It didn’t take them long for them to reach the wide patch of grass marked with a hastily placed length of rope, but their path was blocked. Thor had managed to get out of Peter’s webs, and chased after them. He stood  facing them, his hammer out, pointing at their chests.

“Halt! I must not allow you any further.”

Tim grinned. “Bet I can take him down first.”

Peter grinned right back. “You’re on!”

Togather, they charged the norse god. Peter was flipped over Thor’s shoulder, shooting his webs out and pulling Thor’s helmet over his eyes, though he quickly pulled it up again. Tim unleashed a flurry of batarangs, which Thor dodged. This, however, set him off balance. Tim activated a smoke bomb, and expertly navigated the limited visuals to attack Thor, who was in the process of throwing Peter to the ground.

When the smoke cleared, Thor was once again on his back, taken down by Tim. Peter was also on his back.

“You okay there, Peter?”

Peter groaned and rolled over. “Yup. You won, though.”

Tim crowed. “Hah! Yeah, I did!” He offered his hand to his downed companion. You did a good job too though. We make a great team.”

Peter stood, and together they crossed over the border holding the banner just as Dick came out of the trees being chased by both Jason and Bruce.

“Aw, crap.” Dick said upon seeing Peter and Tim already back on their own territory.

Almost immediately, Cass appeared. A newly freed Banner also appeared. Well, he limped out of the trees.

“Team Grumpy Wins,” Cass says triumphantly. It took a moment for Tim to realise what she had said.

“Wait, I thought we didn’t use team names?”

Cass smiled and pointed at Bruce. “Grumpy.” She then turned to Dick. “Happy.”

Jason smirked. “That’s an accurate assessment.”

He and Cass high-fived.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Dick said good naturedly. “Good job guys. You up for another round?”

“Different teams this time,” Tim replied.

Dick smiled, “Sounds good! Maybe Dami should lead this time.” Dick’s eyes widened. “Crap! Damian!”

Everyone burst into laughter as Dick sprinted towards Team Grumpy’s jail.

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Hi I was hoping to ask for your advice on writing. I’m trying to write from headcanons to little short fics (like one shots) from the readers pov but I’m finding it difficult to do so smoothly. Any idea how to do the transition without it coming out as a fanfic readers worst nightmare?

Well, I cannot guarantee the quality of my “advice” but I will give it a shot! 

Apologies for you folks that hate my big essay length posts, but I do love infodumping about the writing process :P 

So just click “J” to skip the post (if you’re on mobile...sorry just exercise your scrolling finger a bit more)

- - - - - - - - - - 

So I’ll start with the distinctions between a headcanon and a fic. On one hand, you got simpler sentences, that summarize a broader idea or scene. You might have visualized the entire thing in your head, but at the end of the day all you do is write down a few sentences or pieces of dialogue that give the broader basis of an idea and/or scene. That’s not to say writing headcanons is easy, but it is, bluntly, the simpler method.  

Writing, obviously, is more complicated. Not only are you trying to convey a more abstract idea to your reader, but you’re doing so with more layers and complexities, given that what you are trying to write is generally more detailed. You have to not only account for what your basic premise is, but the method in which you convey it. So, in a “good” fic, it typically doesn’t just focus on the basic “what is happening right now” in a scene, but can give subtleties and intricacies with its tone, themes, point of view, connotation, foils, imagery, symbolism, sentence structure, diction, context, figurative language, narrative, foreshadowing, setting, irony, character arcs, and the thousands and thousands of other layers that go into constructing story. 

And I say “story” there deliberately, as I think the best way to summarize the differences is that a headcanon is a plot, while a one-shot is a story. Your one-shot has the ability to tell different messages, details, and themes, and give several points of interest to your reader, while your headcanon is limited to the structure of its initial premise.

[And before you English nerds bash me for my definition of story and plot, please know that I am using my film teacher’s old definition, which (to quote this quizlet I found) is “Story is all of the elements of a narrative that are involved, both shown and un-shown on screen. Plot is only all of the elements of a narrative that are shown on screen.” So yeah, it theoretically could be rewritten as a headcanon is a scene, and a one-shot is a story, but I’m just nitpicking at this point half of you don’t care and want me to move on anyway, apologies!]

So how do you transition between them? Well, in honesty I don’t exactly have a sure fire way for you, saying I do would be very hypocritical. However, what I can do is point out the “gap” between headcanons and fics, and perhaps from there you might be able to forge your own path..? 

Chances are, if you’re already familiar with writing headcanons, you’ve already knocked out half of the work. See in a story, specifically in our case, fic, you have eight elements that construct it. You’ve got

Plot

Setting

Conflict

Character

Point of View

Tone

Style

and Theme

With a headcanon, (assuming it’s slightly more specific than “Headcanon that this character likes peaches!”) you’ve already got plot, setting, conflict, and character down. 

Plot: being the actual premise of your story. What happens, why things happen, how other characters react, the beginning and ending, etc.

Setting: Being the location and time of your scene/plot. The setting might be a contingency to your story, such as a prison break that takes place in prison, or maybe it is the time that is essential for your High School AU fic

Conflict: Typically goes hand and hand with your plot, although not always (obviously, plot and conflict aren’t essential when talking about fics, *winks at the nsfw side of tumblr*) But if your headcanon does have a basic plot, then it probably has some sort of conflict whether external (The Calamity kills everybody) or internal (you’re character is going through grief)

Character: This whole aspect is practically already done for you. Whether by canon from the video game or media you got it from, or perhaps by fanon, with the collective fandom agreeing on certain traits about your character(s) in question. Obviously, if you got an OC, that’s another thing, as you have to create their traits, and construct a believable way that that character reacts and makes choices throughout your plot, depending on how you characterized them

So congrats! In writing up your everyday headcanon, you’re now halfway there to making a full on fic! Obviously, 50% is still a lot, which is probably the reason you were seeking advice in the first place, so now we should move on to the other half, and arguably it is this other half of elements that give the entire distinction between a headcanon and a one-shot. So in theory, if you get these elements down, you’re on your way to writing that much faster!

Quick additional note: Another way to think of your headcanon is as an outline. While not in every case, a good way to jump from your headcanon to a fic is to stick with the major elements of your headcanon, and weaving your writing style in between. Think of the headcanon as your skeleton, and the story being the meat and muscle. Idk if that makes sense, blame my old English teacher for the metaphor

Alrighty, so for demonstration purposes I’m gonna use the very first headcanon I’ve ever written as a basis. Bear with me for a moment:

“Zelink Headcanon: Zelda Just Wants Some Snacks

Everyone always jokes and adores about how Link eats so much and cooks great food in the game (he’s gotta carbo load guys, he walks like 9 miles everyday!)

However I propose, equally hungry and feral Zelda

After Link and Zelda defeat Ganon, one of the first things they do is stop by the nearest cooking pot and eat

She hasn’t eaten for 100 years!! She’s gotta be starving!

Link just cooks up some meat skewers

“…wait I forgot the Goron spice, gimme a sec…”

But Zelda just immediately snatched it off the fire and eats the whole thing in two seconds

Link keeps trying to go out of his way to make really nice food but Zelda is just like “I DON’T CARE RIGHT NOW PLEASE LINK”

So yeah, their first date is basically just Link cooking Zelda a buffet until his inventory empties out”

Again, this headcanon has already given us half of the answers. 

We got our plot: Link, a talented chef, is cooking food which Zelda scarfs down without fear and hesitation

Setting: They are by a cooking pot, perhaps in the wilderness, away from the prying eyes of nosey villagers. This takes place sometime after the initial defeat of Calamity Ganon.

Conflict: Link keeps trying to cook “good” food, but despite the Princess’ royal upbringing, she has no care for the whole “show” of cooking with spices and garnish. She is starving, willing to eat anything

And Characters: Link and Zelda. You know... (Today unfortunately is not the day in which I construct a thorough character analysis of the two...perhaps one day...)

So, now that we have this, we start adding the meat and muscle of our story with point of view, tone, style, and theme. These elements, could be summarized as your writing style. Yes, writing style is more intricate than those four elements alone, but they do fit in with its broad definition. 

So, in essence, a way to transition between headcanon and fic is to find out what kind of writing style you’re comfortable with. 

How do you do that? Well... shocker, I know, you gotta write. 

Write first, plan the elements of your one-shot later!! 

Allow yourself to write complete utter garbage. I know you said that you don’t wanna create a “fanfic reader’s worst nightmare,” but if you become more concerned with the quality of your content before you even start writing, you will never ever ever get anywhere. You’re gonna be stuck in writer’s block for eternity, so just let the garbage and nightmares out and write. You’ll never improve if you don’t have something to improve from, you feel me? 

So, now that your mind is open and ready to write anything, whether garbage or gold, let us dive in to the parts of your writing style. 

Point of view: Do you prefer writing in third person? First? Second? Each have their pros and cons. Second person is good for your “x reader” inserts. First person is good for your narrator’s characterization. Third person is good for describing elements of your surroundings that might not be inherently obvious to your characters or audience. There are hundreds of other pros and cons to the different POVs that you can search up online, but it’ is ultimately up to you to decide which method you like best. 

When you find the method you like best, make sure you use it to it’s full potential! Use foreshadowing with your third person POVs. Use connotation, and diction to further characterize your narrator in first person. Elevate the mood and senses of a scene when in second person.

Tone: Now, this element is often confused with another literary device, mood. The difference being that you as the author have more control over the tone, than the mood. The tone, is the attitude that you as the author (or as a character/narrator, depending on your POV) have towards something. For example, your tone might be suspenseful if you withhold information from your reader, or if you have a certain choice of diction. It is typically better to look to the type of genre you’re writing for to identify what kind of tone you want. 

Mood is the feeling that the reader experiences from your writing. It’s really much more simple, a beloved character dying give a depressed mood. A cute couple hanging out will give the reader a happier mood. This is your angst and fluff feelings, if you will. (Although, please remember than mood and tone are not a binary thing, it is a spectrum, as broad and diverse as the capabilities of human emotion)

Style: Ok yes this is a bit meta, me explaining how to use style to help you construct a writing style. Blame the bendable definitions of the writing world. So just think of this as the face of your writing. The more obvious and apparent part that is unique to you and your personality. 

Think cake. Your story is a delicious cake, it is a chocolate, Zelink cake. Now, your style is the way that you present this cake. Pink frosting? Yellow? A full cake or just a slice? Chocolate ice cream cake? Chocolate lava cake? Five tier cake? Cake pops? These possibilities are the infinite ways your style will present the story.

Style, sometimes called voice, is the combination of your use of tone, mood, POV, syntax, diction, and other literary device that you commonly use in your writing. This isn’t something you learn, it’s just something you do naturally when you write. It’s what readers will like about your fics, because they like the way that you use this or that, or the way you describe this thing or that person. It’s something that can change and improve over time, but in essence, it’s what readers can read and identify as you, without even looking at the username.

Style isn’t something you have to remember, per say, like other literary devices, but it is something to be aware of as you should try to keep it consistent through your whole story. Sometimes have people have different writing styles depending on their own mood, or what they’re writing about. That is fine, so long as you keep it consistent through your whole work. A good trick for this is to listen to music that fits with the style of your writing. Use that one catchy love song whenever you’re writing cute headcanons or fluffy one shots. Use that anime opening theme for your adventurous fics and fight scenes. This way, you are keep in a consist atmosphere and your brain will be in the “Oh! It’s time to write ____ stuff!” mood. 

So just be aware of when you’re in a descriptive style, a narrative style, argumentative, or whatever style you like using. You style might even derived of the way you already create headcanons!

Theme: This is a big one. Have a cohesive theme can easily bring any story from good to great! I like to think of it as you’re story’s destiny, or reason for existence. 

Theme is an outlier for the other elements in that not only is it not necessary for your fic, it is also not necessary for your writing style either. It’s really not necessary... at all. Yet, people always use theme in their writing, even accidentally. 

Theme is your story’s underlying message, or lesson. Yes, yes, if you paid attention in your basic English class you probably already knew that, but this is a big pet peeve of mine. 

The theme of your story isn’t “true love,” the theme isn’t “innocence”, or “failure”, or “trauma”, or whatever. Theme isn’t a broad idea, it’s a specific question and an answer. 

For example: The theme of Breath of the Wild isn’t “exploration” or “time”. The theme is there is always something to seek and find, so long as you have the curiosity and courage to find it. The theme is despite the eternities of time, we still found each other. 

Your theme shouldn’t be a broad, one word answer. What about love are you trying to convey? What specifically about failure are you saying?

Theme is the entire reason why the entertainment medium exists, because artist found a way to create something compelling and interesting while also connecting them to real life things. 

When you give your reader something to really chew on, even days after they finished reading your fic, then you did a brilliant job. Essentially, you want to use theme in your story because it is what will stick with our readers even years after they’ve read your work.

While that’s all sentimental and sappy, that’s still not your biggest problem, is it? You still need to practice, you still need to learn how to use the things you’ve learned to actually write. So, a summary of what I advise you should do.

Look over and improve your old headcanons, and keep making more! Keep making headcanons and litte prompts, and let them grow bigger and bigger, and more desprictive. This could help you ease into actually writing paragraphs a bit more

Find out what you like to write. Yes, you probably already have a fandom in mind, but think back to those first four elements. What types of plots are you comfortable with, what settings, characters? Genius is only the work of enthusiasm, if you don’t like what you’re going to write, you’ve already failed

Write, write, write. Practice, practice practice. Let yourself write complete and utter garbage and nonesense. Then read it over. See what you don’t like about it. Then change it and write again. I MEAN it when I say you should write garbage. Write a completely terrible, nightmarishly cringe scene. See what you don’t like. Then rewrite it again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be a scene or something from your fandom. Let it be your description of a shirt, let is be some cringy poem from 7th grade. Just write and learn how you like to write. It will be so much easier in the long run

Read stuff. The stuff you read usually seeps into how you write. When you get used to reading things a certain way, you usually unconciously try to imitate it when you write. So, got a favourite fic writer? Read their stuff over and maybe even analyze the elements you like (again, think back to those eight elements I talked about) and hey, writers like it when you analyze their stuff so maybe even hit them up and talk? We like book reports we swear, most of us don’t bite. 

When you finally think you’re comfortable with your writings, maybe think about what kind of themes you’re into, or what kind of messages you want to say. It doesn’t even need to be that complex. Could be as simple as “I love this ship because it shows that you can still have flaws and be loved” Again, themes are the rEASON for eVERYTHING in the entertainment world

For further demonstration purposes, I’m going to come up with further elements for a hypothetical fic I would write based on that Zelink headcanon. So I’ve got the plot, setting, conflict and theme down. Hmm... I’ll probably use a third person POV as that is what I’m most comfortable with. With third person, I can better highlight the descriptions of Link and Zelda’s surroundings taking in the atmosphere and the aromas and and tastes. The tone will be more happy, focusing on the fun of Zelda and Link’s banter, I’ll try to create a mood in which the reader is laughing along with them, and enjoying the scene. My style will be more descriptive, again with the tastes and smells and other senses of the scene. However, I might go into a more narrative style for Zelda and Link’s banter and dialogue. While typically some people don’t want to use two different styles, I am personally familiar with the styles and know how to write them so as to blend them together more seamlessly. I might have a hint of angst at the end of the fic, as a little climax, given that the setting of the fic is after the defeat of the Calamity. I might through in some themes about how it wasn’t the material power of Hylia or the Master Sword that saved Hyrule, but the courageous and wise bond between Link and Zelda. Then...idk, a little romatic kiss for resolution because this is a fic and I can throw in some fanservice because my writing my rules. 

Babam! I just converted a headcanon to a fic.

So yeah, go write your headcanons. Then maybe next a paragraph. Then next a scene, and then you’re well on your way to one-shots and chapter fics. Happy writing and good luck!

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Horace

Debut: Hungry Horace

Before Super Mario Bros... when Mario was not yet Super... there was Horace.

Do you know about Horace? Horace is a delight. I only learned about Horace a few months ago, but Horace is FASCINATING! And now, I am going to teach you exactly why. 

We begin in 1982, with the release of Hungry Horace for the ZX Spectrum. You might be able to tell that this is pretty much a Pac-Man clone, and it is! But there’s just something about Horace that makes this irresistible to me. The only facial features we can see are his eyes, but make no mistake, he is hungry! And he’s gonna eat all the plants he can scrounge up in this public park, with the disembodied heads of park rangers hot on his trail! 

According to the description on the game’s case, Horace is a mischievous little scamp, who “loves to play cat and mouse with the guards in the park”. It also says both that he’ll steal their lunch AND eat the flowers, suggesting that the park guards are not allowed to eat proper food on the job, and are forced to graze the park’s vegetation for sustenance.

As for the gameplay... it’s like Pac-Man! But harder. The mazes are designed differently, with sections that just kinda feel like traps, and the guards are faster than Horace... but there is some neat new stuff, too! Each stage is a different layout, custom mazes can be created, and you don’t actually need to eat everything on one screen to progress to the next!

Next we have my personal favorite, Horace Goes Skiing! Also released in 1982, this game is incredibly mundane, and it is FASCINATING. This game is far more realistic than it has any business being. You may have noticed that this screenshot shows not a ski slope, but a busy street. That’s because before you go skiing, you have to rent a pair of skis, you silly billy! And Horace is just like us, despite being clearly not human at all, in a world where humans appear to exist.

Horace must cross this busy street kinda like Frogger to rent some skis, then return to the top to go to the slopes. You may notice that there are no “lives” indicated here... because Horace only has one life! And if he gets hit by a car, he’ll have to pay the $10 ambulance fee. If he can’t, it’s game over. I told you this game is realistic! 

The skiing is about what you’d expect, with the added novelty of crashing NOT necessarily ending your game, as long as the skis remain intact. I guess this is where it gets a bit less realistic, because when Horace crashes into a tree at high speed, he never gets injured! The only fee he ever has to pay for it is another ski rental fee.

The third game in the most iconic media trilogy is 1983′s Horace and the Spiders, which... I don’t know how I feel about! I love Horace, and I love spiders, but this game is just confusing. There are now not one, not two, but THREE different gameplay screens, and I can’t say I really understand a lick of ‘em! Sorry folks!

After this game, creator William Tang tragically suffered a collapsed lung, making him unable to ever finish the planned fourth game, Horace to the Rescue.

But hope is not lost! In 1995, ten years after the fourth game was planned to release, the world was treated to Horace in the Mystic Woods, playable on Psion-3 devices, and right off the bat we can see that this is a far more ambitious project than the previous entries in the series. Though Skiing is my favorite conceptually, Mystic Woods is definitely the most enjoyable to play, being a platform game where we have full control of Horace as he travels through a LOT of levels, avoiding bizarre enemies! Mystic Woods was made by a different developer, so I’m not COMPLETELY sure about the canonicity, but it’s on the Wikipedia page, so I trust it.

Snobs may turn up their noses at a game that looks like this releasing after the likes of Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country, but I say HARUMPH. They can run along. Horace is not for them. Horace is for the people who love Horace! The people who would write a lengthy post about Horace’s history, and would proceed to overanalyze his anatomy! Wouldn’t that be wacky? Could you imagine?

Horace’s design feels like it was only ever made to be viewed in two dimensions from this angle, but that’s not gonna stop me from imagining how he would work in 3D space! Here, he appears to be totally flat, with his eyes being merely holes through his... torso? and some sort of appendage dangling down on one side. But let’s do some more research!

In the cover art for Horace and the Spiders, his eyes are white! 

And in the title screen, they’re a bright turquoise! From this, I’m going to assume that Horace’s eyes are NOT hollow, but instead are capable of emitting light of varying colors.

The very first game’s sprites support the notion that Horace’s eyes are not hollow, and merely appear that way in game due to graphical limitations. Whatever that appendage is, it’s surprisingly wide, and would logically be visible through his eyes if they were just holes!

We also have some EXPLICIT confirmation on that appendage, from Alred Milgrom, designer of Horace himself! As you can see, it’s actually hair! 

So with all this in mind, here is my interpretation of Horace’s overall anatomy! I’ve made his eyes turquoise as they are in the Spiders title screen, because I like turquoise.

But we’ll get more of an official concrete idea of his 3D appearance when the Horace amiibo launches alongside Horace HD Collection on Nintendo Switch!

[rights-for-redshirts]

Okay, this is vaguely insane, but

If someone from our century were transported backwards in time and reborn as some sort of crown prince/ruler, how far and how quickly could they push their country's development?

I just kinda want a story of a high schooler with no particular interest in anything wake up as, I dunno, some sort of medieval King and be so pissed off by everything that they start scratching all the bits of vague technological, sociocultural, economical, political knowledge together that they should have collected in school, and then kind of ... start. From practically scratch. Or worse because of the social restrictions.

So they try to start with electricity and fail, because they don't actually remember how a battery works, and decide to hire - grinding their teeth - some scientist from a university, only to find that that scientist is a charlatane and more interested in alchemy than actual chemistry. So instead, they hire one of their servants - who turns out to be a bit of a prodigy, even if they can't read - and tell them to start working on steam engines, together with a local blacksmith's daughter who can definitely blacksmith but is forbidden to do so bc of her gender.

The new monarch realizes that in order to get anywhere with anything, they need to delegate.

Long story short, the servant/blacksmith duo manage - with a bit of financial aid - to kickstart the industrial revolution, but the monarch remembers enough angry late night tumblr rants about capitalism and low class workers plus a dozen or so internet history lessons (bc history lessons at school are often useless and more about numbers than how the gears of a society grind together) to put their foot down and grant the workers a livable minimum wage - and to make sure the workers and especially worker's children receive an actual education. Both of which prevents a major societal crisis.

Parallel to the whole economy trip is the whole political thing, which they manage to navigate with a bunch of random political/historical facts and anecdotes (they pop up at the beginning of each chapter and seem to be there just for fun, but become suddenly VERY relevant when the right situation arises). Our monarch begins to realize that, in their growing scientifical staff (since the first two are now platonically married and taking over the national market as well as parts of the international one), there is actually more brain to be found than with them, so they begin to write down everything they can remember, from chemistry and artificial fertilizer to physics to maths, in one large (not so large) book and add in a larger (much larger) book all the stuff they know is important but the actual information was completely buried under facts like what a mitochondria is. They slam down the books in front of their scientists (i.e. make sure our farmers can a) provide enough food for themselves, b) get acceptable living conditions, c) can provide enough food for our booming cities, d) get an increased range of mobility through ... trains or something, e) get enough of a decreased workload to be able to send their children to school and f) ... I don't know) and sic them on the different problems.

Then, their Highness turn their attention back to ruling because, . There is a lot of stuff going on in their kingdom, and a lot of it isn't good. They begin to abolish the old system of inequality before the law (nobles are outraged). They write a constitution that includes some of the fundamental human rights. They establish a law system. They keep escaping murder attempts because they grew up on a diet of period dramas, game of thrones and serial killer documentaries.

They reorganize the administration and weed out corruption by making it punishable by ... something, idk.

Universities are next.

They write a book about common sense that they get pope-approved by bribing the cardinals. Subsequently, they realize that they completely forgot about printing books, and promptly follow their book up with the invention of the printing press (how did they forget about that??!)

The social and the educational processes speed up by 500% in the following few years.

The invention progress gets done a lot earlier than in canon history because the monarch a) knows EXACTLY what the scientists and professors and clever kids (that they actively collect) need to be looking for and b) because they remembered not too late into their reign to just ... send people into other civilizations and ask. As easy as that. China had black powder, paper and a lot of other cool stuff. (They finally get to eat rice noodles again a few years into their reign. Hey, being an absolutist ruler has to have some perks. If you can't send a group of diplomats into the far east to retrieve the recipe of your favourite food, then what's the point?)

Also, they had planned to subtly undermine the influence of the catholic church on their people, bit as it turns out, education does a whole lot against superstition. The law for freedom of religion and confession passes almost without a hitch after some dude named Luther nailed a textpost rant of several pages against a church door.

They are several decades into ruling when they realize. They have brought freedom and prosperity and rational thinking and instant noodles (of a sort) to their country. People study arts and science and discuss politics and exchange ideas and knowledge with other cultures. It's the renaissance come early but better because they remembered about the molding bread and the bacteries (the scientists very obviously thought them insane, but eventually managed some decent penicilline; additionally the monarch added their corona-induced knowledge about hygiene and quarantine to the national curriculum).

But they remember some pretty inconvenient stuff: colonialism. They brought freedom to their own people. Now how can they save the free people of the other continents from the europeans? Bc not gonna lie, europe's history is pretty bloody, not only at our own doorstep. (Looking at you, US. ) Anyways they realize that the Native Americans and Australians are pretty happy and actually don't want to change much (at least I think so?? No offense meant if wrong).

The aztec empire, though, is a completely different matter. They are warned of some dude named Cortez, and seem very pleased about the gift of a few dozen horses (or did I misremember how that story went? Cortez being believed a God bc of the horses?).

So is the Chinese one. (They are thoroughly warned against some stuff named opium coming from England, even if that's centuries away.)

They establish diplomatic relations with a badass african queen who is more than willing to trade supplies for more sophisticated technological devices against technological knowledge.

At some point the ruler realizes they didn't age in the last seventy years, so the point of a marriage of convenience for an heir is kinda moot (not that they had remembered anyways). Probably some offhanded remark of a noble. Or seeing the industry duo's adopted children's children.

Also, one of the other nations, maybe india, surprisingly ups their technology game and does everything better than the european country, because I'm tired of western/white supremacy.

Feel free to add/change whatever suits your purposes. If someone ever writes the book, let me know.

[variety-toaster]

OVERWATCH HEADCANON

In this headcanon, I believe I have finally unlocked the secret to solve the MASSIVE inconsistencies within Overwatch’s gameplay. Specifically, pertaining to Omnics.

I’m copy-pasting from my explanation to a close friend, thus the tone is sort of “I know you don’t play so here’s some basic explanation for things you wouldn’t normally understand.”

So, in Overwatch, there are robots called Omnics. They are basically "what would happen if robots got human-level intelligence or possibly higher." In Overwatch, there was an uprising called the Omnic Crisis, in which yah know, humans vs omnics for fair treatment and rights and basically a civil war. Now, humans technically won said war. But, many omnics became peaceful, and like, actually nice. There are even spiritual monks, like our boy Zenyatta. Now, here’s one of the biggest inconsistencies. See, in Overwatch, there's a lot of "healers." which, in their weapon names, say "bio". Implying they heal biological stuff. But, Omnics can also be healed. So, what gives? and how do u "heal" a robot?Now, in one of the cinematics, a terrorist sniper named Widowmaker from the terrorist organization Talon, shoots and kills an omnic monk who was a serious advocate for peace. People freak out! It's messed up. Anyway, he is, in canon, DEAD. But why? he's a robot. How did he "die" if they can just repair him? well he was shot through the head. But, they could just re-upload his memories right? Well, apparently not. So, omnics can be healed, but if they die, they're dead. We also see mention of them essentially having souls, especially given their spirituality, and Zenyatta is proven to be able to ascend, heal, and even just float midair like a fantasy monk! And, it's KNOWN that he IS NOT floating using some anti-gravity device (which does exist in Overwatch's lore, and is on most cars) So, they can be healed, repaired, but if they die they're dead, and apparently have souls. So, what does this mean? Let's go back to the "bio" title in most of the game's weapons.It is my belief, hear me out, that omnics are NOT made of regular metals. They are in FACT, made of some sort of BIO-STEEL. A material which is like metal, conducts electricity like metal, and HEALS like biological components. This explains why Torbjorn's mechanical turret cannot be healed, while bastion, an OMNIC turret, CAN. It explains why Genji, who is a cyborg, can heal, despite being covered in metal armor: it is made from the same Bio-steel. It explains why omnics can be put to sleep with Ana's sleep dart: You can't make a ROBOT sleep, but you can make an OMNIC sleep. You can't put Torbjorn's TURRET to sleep, but you can put ORISA or ZENYATTA, both omnics, to sleep! it also explains why you cannot bring the Omnic peace-talker person back from the dead; you cant just rebuild a brain! But, that begs the question: where do omnics come from then? Are they BORN then? or are they still built? Well of course they aren't BORN! Duh! They're BUILT, but USING bio-steel! now, what benefits does using bio-steel over building ordinary all-metal robots have? Well for one, they can be healed in battle, repair themselves (like Bastion's self-healing) without spare parts, but it also means that being somewhat ORGANIC in nature means they do, in fact, have souls, like humans or animals! Which is what separates them from some regular coffee-maker or a car! I think this is EXTREMELY important to Overwatch's lore, as it finally offers an explanation for all the 'strange inconsistencies' in the game! "why can you put a robot to sleep?" "how do you heal a machine that would need repairs?" "why do biotic weapons heal/hurt omnics?" "why can't you just rebuild the person Talon killed?" Bio-steel. It can also sort of explain why Sombra, who is the "world's greatest hacker" who can hack people in game to shut off their abilities, cannot completely shut down omnic heroes: if they're part-biological, sure, maybe you can mess with the computer part, but you can't shut them down completely; they’d be able to move biological limbs like humans!.There is only ONE exception to this rule I've found thus far. Ashe is a cowgirl sniper lady in the game, who's "Ultimate Ability" is to summon her butler, Bob, an omnic, to help in battle! Now, Bob can be healed, boosted, slept, all that, but, here's the only exception to my theory thus far: Sombra can hack Bob, and shut him down completely for a short while (and Bob only remains summoned for a short while as well, so, unfortunate). Now, she doesn't shut any of the other omnics down completely, Bob is an omnic, so how does she shut him down?  For that, I have no idea. The development team just loves to make Sombra totally overpowered with her hacking and fun-police the game and I hate it. BUT, I think Bio-steel explains WAY MORE stuff than it creates an inconsistency for. Lastly, I believe that there are several different types of Bio-steel, which are used for different things: Armor, such as Rienhardt, Orisa, and Hammond's Wrecking ball are all made out of a type of bio-steel, which allows them to be healed and repaired.

I think MOST things in game, not including objects in the environment or bullets, are made of bio-steel!

Bio-steel explains SO much of the inconsistencies in Overwatch’s gameplay and lore, and yes, there is that one hiccup, but it’s better than the lore team saying “Well, things that are in the game aren’t necessarily canon, they’re just there for gameplay,”

TL;DR: Omnics in Overwatch are made of Bio-steel, which is why they are able to be healed or hurt by biotic weapons, why they are different from regular machines like Torbjorn’s turret when it comes to in-game effects, and why they have souls like human beings. Also, armor like Rienhardt’s and Hammond’s Wrecking Ball are also made of this bio-steel material which is why they can be healed in-game. 

Let me know what you think of this theory, and let me know if you can think of other inconsistencies it creates!

[realm-sweet-realm]

Audrey and the Dark Revival, chapter 2: Open Loop

Audrey and the Dark Revival is intended as a sequel series for Bendy and the Ink Machine. May the actual sequel come out soon and completely blow mine out of the water.

This one is where the plot gets real.

Also, I’m using a few of @mwolf0epsilon‘s fantastic monster designs, and plan on using more of them in the future.

---

When Allison removed Audrey’s blindfold, they are on separate sides of a metal door. The door had once been for a now-defunct meat freezer in an industrial kitchen, but it was now defunct, as the lack of cold and the massive, albeit boarded-up, hole in the door told her.

“Sorry about that,” Allison said, “It’s hard to trust anyone around here. I’d normally have just kept an eye on you and let you be, but you have no idea how valuable humans are down here. I really couldn’t just let you go. If you could help us, I would owe you the world. Of course, the fact that you’re on Nathan’s side could cause some challenges... but let’s at least try to work something out.”

“Woah, wait...” Audrey said, “I’m not on Nathan’s side. I’ve been here half an hour and I already regret coming. Nathan and I aren’t on good terms... Anyhow, what I really want is information. What is this place? What are you? And why are humans so valuable?”

“For a long time, I didn’t know what this place was either. Then, a few years ago, I found an audio log from Nathan Arch explaining it. A man named Joey Drew made this place. It’s a representation of how he feels about his failures as an animation visionary- that’s what most of this place is, anyhow. He didn’t create the people. They’re people he murdered, or who got poisoned. Part of the reason this place exists is as a storage device for them. A lot of the space isn’t his creation, either. This place used to be a lot smaller, and after it had been around a few years, Joey Drew put it in a time loop. The only reason I escaped it is because the ink demon chased me into one of Nathan’s areas. The new areas- they aren’t affected by the loop!” Allison’s face brightened considerably. “For a while I thought that the spell was breaking. That it was the world opening up to us! Tom told me otherwise, but I was sure.” Allison darkened again, and Tom laid a hand over her shoulder. “Then, over time, Tom and I kept running into worse and worse monsters. The world has expanded... but it’s also gotten darker, and more crowded. So, Tom and I took to doing what we’ve always done- survive, and look for solutions. We found your father’s lair, complete with new monsters coming out of it. But no toon could ever get into it- it’s defended by ink canons made to melt any other creature of this realm who comes close. And since there were no humans around who were up for the task... since then we’ve just been surviving. Waiting on a hero. Audrey, will you help us to get your father out of here before he makes this place any more of a nightmare?”

Audrey was overwhelmed. “I- I’d love to. But I’m just a random civilian. I don’t know how to fight monsters. I don’t know the lay of the land.”

“Well, you’ll have to learn that if you want to survive here, whether you want to be a saviour or not. I can teach you to fight, and the names of monsters.” Tom whispered something in Allison’s ear. “And there is another human in this realm. If you won’t be our hero, maybe you can convince him to be. He’s proficient at combat and knows the place like the back of his hand!”

Audrey was silent for a while, weighing her options. A part of her didn’t see much other choice. While she had no reason to believe these strangers, they were clearly strong, and the world was clearly dangerous, and she wanted them on her side. And if they were telling the truth and could lead her to Nathan, all the better. “I’ll do it,” she decided.

“Excellent,” Allison beamed, smiling excitedly, and they let her out. After gearing up in the industrial kitchen that they’d made into a base (complete with cots and even a fish tank, Audrey noticed), they headed out. Allison led- she clearly knew the lay of the land. Along the way, she pointed out a number of monsters. She pulled Audrey away from a ledge, warning of the balls of wool, horns, and hooves that might ram her over the edge. From a safe distance, they witnessed a huge, quasi-canine abomination with hooks for hands dragging an exhausted, monkey-looking abomination into a puddle of ink, in which it dissolved. Allison called these creatures “rammers,” “catchers,” and “pipers” respectively. Along the way, there were also opportunities for Audrey to practice using her shock powers with Tom and Allison as back-up. She was getting quite proficient.

Finally, they arrived at what appeared to be a storage area for amusement park equipment- “Bendyland,” as Audrey learned about it from tapes. Just past a roller coaster ride was some sort of ethereal boundary. Their side of the boundary was the some dark, gloomy blue-toned white that everything in this realm had been. The other side of the boundary was somewhat better lit and sepia-toned. “That’s the area affected by the loops,” Allison explained. “And Henry- the other human- will be passing through there.”

“Great,” Audrey replied, clicking the button of a tape recorder that she’d found sitting on a workbench.

The death of the Great Bertrum Piedmont was a tragedy, truly. He was a great boss. But I’m not so sure about sticking around. Seems like there’s been an awful lot of murders among the Bendyland staff since then... and yet the rides keep gettin’ made faster than ever. It’s like they build themselves after the lights go out. I have half a mind to go pokin’ around... but I don’t have that much of a death wish.

Suddenly the roller coaster began to rattle. A piece of the tracks disconnected and swiveled towards the trio, and a duck-shaped cart hurtled towards them, sending them scattering to avoid being crushed. The duck carts- approximately a dozen of them- split off in different directions, going to various spaces in the vast, area-consuming roller coaster. Tom found a round, foundational bolt, and barked to get Allison’s attention before smashing it with his metal first. Allison turned to Audrey, who was attempting to shock a duck to little effect. “Audrey!” she shouted, “find the foundational bolts!”

“What?” Audrey yelled back, dodging out of the way of a duck.

“These!” Allison yelled, stabbing one opposite to the one Tom had destroyed. The entire section of roller coaster collapsed, falling onto another and taking it out with it like dominoes.

“Okay!” Audrey called out, before returning to the weave of dodging ducks, never staying in any one place too long, and finding foundational bots to takeout with her lightening powers. Her power’s range was very useful, but she still needed to constantly be on the move. When the carnival music finally stopped, Audrey looked around her to assure that there were no more pieces of roller coaster left to destroy. Then, she collapsed, first sitting, and then sprawling out on the floor.

Allison rushed over. “You okay?” she asked.

Audrey nodded. “Tired.” She wasn’t used to this kind of activity, but took solace in the fact that even Allison and Tom seemed pretty worn out.

“Well, you’re in luck. A break is the next thing on our to-do list.” Allison helped Audrey up, and they went over to a little selection of carnival games. “Henry will come over here. It’s a part of his loops. It could be five minutes or days. In the meantime, this room has no monsters, so we might as well relax. Wanna see if you can beat me at this shooting game?”

With that, the three of them spent the next couple hours playing games and hanging out. “Wait-” Allison said after Audrey had shared a little story, “You have memories of the outside. You can tell us about the outside!”

Audrey reached for Allison’s wrist. “Well, sure, I-”

As soon as Audrey made skin contact with Allison, Allison’s face went into blank shock. Audrey’s first instinct was to look behind her, but there was nothing there.

“Allison? Allison?”

“Give me a moment. Oh my God. I remember everything.”

“Sorry. Nathan gives me powers like this. He’s probably trying to sabotage us somehow.”

“How could this possibly be sabotage?” Allison beamed, smiling widely. “I don’t know anything about Nathan. Maybe he’s stuck and wants to escape. But this is great. You could work your magic on Henry this way! Speaking of which- over there!” Allison pointed to the entrance of Bendyland.

Through it, a man emerged. It wasn’t the hero that Allison had promised. The man looked to be in his mid-fifties, and was fairly athletic but nothing special. More notably, he was stained head to toe in ink, and had an extremely bored, weary expression on his face. He saw the trio, but ignored their presence entirely and plodded over to one of the games.

“You first, Audrey" Allison whispered, “He’ll think that we’re a hallucination, but he’s never seen you before. I guess I should tell you now, though- he’s not the man he once was. These time loops have damaged him greatly.”

Audrey headed over to him and the other two followed. Allison grabbed his arm, which Henry still didn’t react to, simply trying to play the game despite Allison hanging off of him. Audrey touched him, and he spasmed out, gasping, but afterwards went right back to his game. 

“Henry, this is not a hallucination. Come with us,” Audrey said.

“Yes you are, Allison,” Henry sighed, still looking at the game, “you aren’t from this part of the loop.”

“Henry. You’ve never seen me before,” Audrey said.

Henry turned to her. “You’re right. I haven’t seen you. Sorry, my memory’s a little... spotty, although after what you just did to me...” Henry drifted off into space. “Maybe you aren’t a hallucination. So... what do you want?”

Considering the revelation he’d just had, the man’s voice conveyed considerably little emotion. Audrey chose her next words carefully.

“Henry, we can’t get you out of the studio- not yet, anyhow. But we can get you out of this time loop if you come with us. And we need your help.”

“Henry, come with us and we’ll save Boris" Allison added, “We know a way into chamber he’s being kept in.”

Henry’s eyes immediately lit up. “I’ll come!,” he said, showing the first signs of hope and life that Audrey had seen in him. “If we can do that, then I’ll know this is real!”

[luthienebonyx]

Shipping Post Game

@dame-lazarus  tagged me

Rules: tag 9 people you want to know better. 

I haven’t been on tumblr much this week so I have absolutely no idea who’s done this and who hasn’t. Because of that, I won’t tag anybody, but if you’re reading this and you’d like to play, go for it and satisfy my nosiness. 

Top three ships

Weeeeell, I’m not really a shipper. Yes, I have ships, and often one ship at a time, but I’m really more a One True Character rather than a One True Pairing sort of girl. This has led me down some rabbit holes to some unexpected places at times. I could start with a ship from my first writing fandom. Or I could start with HP, where I was responsible for not just writing multiple ships myself, but for a lot of other people writing all sorts of (sometimes very) strange pairings too, thanks to a fest I ran in the early 2000s. But it’s probably easier to just talk about the three ships that I’ve written the most words about since those days. (Also, that means that I DON’T have to include Lewis/Hathaway, which has recently  been completely ruined for me by a certain asshat actor who used to play a character whose name begins with H.)

1) John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, aka McKay/Sheppard, aka mcshep

In 2005, I went to America to attend an HP con in Salem, Massachusetts, with a bunch of online friends, and also to travel to some other places and meet some other online friends. In the course of my travels, I watched several episodes of Stargate Atlantis, and several people tried VERY hard to lure me into the fandom. The episodes they showed me had a definite McKay emphasis, as did the fic that ended up loaded onto my ipaq (a small hand-held device that has long been an historical relic - this was a LONG time ago) for consuming on the 14 hour flight back over the Pacific. 

There was a lot of McKay focus in the early days of the fandom. The emphasis changed over time, but right then people were all McKay, all the time. The problem was that while I liked everything in the fandom addiction package that I’d been given a lot, I kept looking past McKay and going: but what about THAT guy? (See above re One True Character.) So when I got home, I ordered the pilot episode on DVD (again, this was a LONG time ago) and once it arrived, I think I watched it seven times in three days? Something like that. And all because of THAT guy.

And yes, in time, I did grow to appreciate Rodney McKay and the very specific dynamic he had with John Sheppard. I read an awful lot of fanfic over the next five-ish years - some of it very, very good; some of it very, very cracky, because that fandom was ALL ABOUT THE CRACK (my favourite was the one where Rodney was a unicorn and John was a rainbow, but the one where one of them was a table lamp was also pretty memorable, or where John was a blue tulip and Rodney was a sunflower, or where they were both girl scout cookies.... Well, you get the idea)... I forget where that sentence was going. 

Anyway, I read a lot, and I wrote quite a bit, though nothing like as much as I wanted to, thanks to RL intruding a lot in not very pleasant ways. I think I came pretty close to capturing John Sheppard the way I wanted to in my final SGA story, Home, which I wrote in 2010 and was set post-series, but he always had an elusive quality, and the inside of his head was a fascinating, if frustrating, place to be. People in SGA fandom were fond of describing the characters as being from the Island of Misfit Toys (particularly in comparison to their counterparts on SG-1), and I think that aspect was what made me enjoy Sheppard so much. On the surface, he looked like your typical utterly boring, good looking, vaguely renegade US military leading man, but underneath he was just SUCH an individual. 

If I had to choose a single favourite character from a fandom I’m no longer actively involved in, that character would still be John Sheppard.

2) Belle/Rumpelstiltskin|Mr Gold aka rumbelle

I was also lured into this fandom, though it was a bit more accidental than SGA. Nym, who is one of my oldest fannish friends (as in, has been my fannish friend for a very long time - though we’re both no longer as young as we once were) has been a HUGE Robert Carlyle fan for many years, so when he was cast as Mr Gold aka Rumpelstiltskin in Once Upon a Time, of course she started watching. And then I started watching so that I could discuss it with her, and THEN she started writing this thing, and of course I beta-ed for her, and Rumple really sort of fascinated me quite a lot (see above re One True Character) and then I started writing too. I hadn’t written het in quite a few years at that point, apart from a single T-rated Yuletide fic, but pairing Rumple with anyone but Belle required getting very convoluted with the canon, and their canon relationship did have plenty to explore so...

I wound up writing quite a few stories over the next few years, including several that I’m still quite proud of, so in that respect I’m glad Nym dragged me into that fandom with her. I’m pretty sure this was the first time I wrote, or was even really interested in, a canon pairing. There were aspects of that that I REALLY didn’t enjoy, including that the two characters whose relationship I was most interested in were so much (more) at the mercy of the showrunners. I also wasn’t always thrilled about the (extremely specific) expectations that some groups of fans had about what the canon should deliver for their favoured pairing, rather than accepting that that’s what fanfic is for. I wound up swearing that I’d never get into a canon pairing again.

Yeah, well.

3) Jaime/Brienne, Jaime x Brienne, braime...

Those of you who’ve been following me awhile have probably heard this before, so feel free to skip, but for anyone who’s fairly new...

I stopped writing fanfic in mid-2015, and apart from a brief burst of activity in late 2016-mid 2017, I continued not to write. By the time 2019 rolled around, I thought it pretty likely that I wouldn’t write fanfic again. Then the final season of Game of Thrones happened.

Jaime Lannister has been my favourite character since I read A Storm of Swords when it was first published twenty years ago. It’s a bit of an understatement to say that I wasn’t exactly pleased with how the show ended his story arc. And yes, I know what I just said above about fans having too-specific expectations, but there’s quite a bit of middle ground between fans expecting too much from a show and a show spectacularly under-delivering.

I started writing this pairing the day after the final episode aired, because I couldn’t NOT write, and I pretty much haven’t stopped since. I think my word tally is somewhere around the 240k mark atm.

Last song I listened to:

Journey of the Sorcerer by the Eagles, because the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy came up in the conversation when I was at @undun-duz‘s place tonight, and of course I immediately got this earworm.

Last movie I watched:

The Aeronauts - because watching Eddie Redmayne suffering from hypoxia and almost freezing to death in a balloon is more entertaining than you might think.

Currently reading:

Dress in the Age of Jane Austen by Hilary Davidson, WAY too many car reviews as I wait for the payout from the insurance company for our poor, dead car, and waiting on False Value by Ben Aaronovitch, the next Rivers of London novel, which is due out later this month.

Last thing I ate:

Some cheesecake that D insisted on getting for dessert. I really should know better than to leave those choices up to him. If I ask him to “get a cake” he inevitably returns with a cheesecake.