#this came up in relevant convo on discord

[cerealmonster15]

I'm gonna enable you to make that Heartslabyul cafe idea you mentioned

KLFDHSKLFDSJG i have many old doodles and a few mini fic docs laying around but i dont THINK any of them are on tumblr! it was an au my friend and i used to bounce off each other for a long time on discord back in our early twst days and i used to doodle out sooo many of the scenarios we talked about!! it was very loose and silly for funsies but it was basically an au where heartslabyul boys ran a seaside cafe [i cant remember if school was involved, it was a non nrc au but they were maybe in college/university? if that was part of it, it was never really relevant lol]

i ended up rambling a lot trying to remember what i could about it lol so i put it under a readmore:

it was more or less like

riddle managed the cafe

cater/ace/deuce were mostly up front with customer handling

trey was a head baker/chef/whatever

scarabia was also there i think, i believe jamil worked in the kitchen with trey

kalim... was there. i forget what he did LOL he was maybe like... financial sponsor? did his family technically own the place? i truly cant remember ksdfjdskl but he was there, for some reason, with the cafe. i think it initially started as heartslabyul cafe but then we merged scarabia with them for funsies, like i forgot til just now that they also were part of it. we maybe also played with the idea of naga jamil [and kalim??] but i tbh can't remember if that was this au or something im blending together with it in my memory right now lol. if we did, it didnt end up really staying relevant.

diasomnia we later added as like a rival coffeeshop across the street. i dont think they came up too often but i did draw malleus a lot in the au with them lol

the octavinelle boys were also major components because they were merfolk on the docks by the cafe that recently learned to walk and kept appearing at the cafe and pretended to be human while they made it their life's goal to bother everyone in there all the time forever. friend was also showing me mako mermaids around this time so i think there was a lot of inspiration for this au from it [i cant remember which came first tho LOL]

the savanaclaw guys were kind of there, but they were all secret werewolf type people. jack still turned into a wolf i think, but i believe leona and ruggie were also shape shifty people but just into big cats? i looked back in the discord convos and i see i had assigned ruggie to a Savannah Cat, but idr what leona was lol. everyone was keeping their creature forms a secret but i know the fish boys were at least found out at some point.

pomefiore... i think was also mermaids. or at least epel was a secret guppy and vil was a secret betta fish - floyd nicknames obvi lol. i dont remember if the octavinelle guys knew their identity but i think maybe so? vil was still a famous model and i think rook was just some regular[?][as regular as rook can be lol] guy that hung out with them and knew their secret. epel maybe got a part time job at the cafe or maybe he just hung out there a lot lol. epel also bonded with cat ruggie and i think he and deuce bonded with wolf jack [and thought he was just a Big Dog or something] but they didnt know they were jack and ruggie in person form. maybe. something like that.

i don't think ignihyde was there much if at all, like maybe idia was at the rival coffee shop as a customer sometimes bc they were the quieter goth equivalent to planet heartslabyul chaos lol. but also this au was mostly made back when i think book 5 was still being released / the period before book 6 really got started in jpntwst [eng twst wasnt even announced yet] so we didnt know a whole lot about ignihyde and diasomnia at the time / we were new to twst!

and then of course this was centering around a lot of soap opera style relationship drama bc thats just how it goes when my friend and i do funny little aus. it was mostly just us coming up with scenarios via discord messages and i'd draw out a bunch of them or occasionally write a fic here and there about it. i think my friend drew a few too. it was a fun time and i MISS that au. it was all over the place but that's whats fun about having silly teehee times in the dms LOL we are just playing with our barbies and piling ideas on top of each other forever!!!

[findroleplay]

Firewatch and the new Fears to Fathom game that came out currently has me obsessed and I’m looking to do an oc rp kind of inspired by those! I’m thinking our muses are both working in different fire lookout towers deep into forests, cut off from the rest of the world, and only have one another to talk to by radio or see vaguely in the distance. Why they took those jobs can be fun to play with too - running from a dark, messy, or tragic past? Looking for complete isolation and a break from society? Lost and don’t know what else to do with themselves? Or maybe they’re just somehow who loves the outdoors and thrives out there! Maybe our people have only been talking for days or weeks, or maybe they’ve both been in the job for a while and have built up a rapport over months-years but have yet to ever actually meet in person until something leads them to one another. It could go different ways depending on what we both agree with; maybe it’s a sweet, slow burn, slice of life type thing; two lonely characters getting to know one another, enjoying the peace of nature, having their own little world together nestled in all the trees. Maybe we could do something darker and more thrill-esque; maybe there’s something or someone(s) out in the woods messing with one/both of our muses - maybe we could play our lookout muses and a bad character each and mess with one another’s muses as well? I’m open to mild supernatural things too, if you wanted to bring something in like a werewolf muse perhaps - we can chat and figure out what we vibe with together, but I’m open to a lot of things!! I’m 21+ and open to any kinds of pairings. My muse is a cismale, happy to do mxm or mxf. I’m not looking for a fresh-faced 18 year old character please, I’d rather our muses be mid 20s minimum, with a preference for a higher age. Give me troubled, lonely grizzled men or older women haunted by their past!! Give them a reason to be out where they are and a life behind them that they can open up about to my muse over the course of their long-distant conversations! Open to smut, not looking for strict, passive subs/bottoms, and would prefer this to be a slow burn rather than rush into anything. I write on discord and I’m usually a multi-para, detailed writer and love long responses, but I’d like to play with the format of this rp considering our muses aren’t going to physically interact with one another for a while! I’m thinking of having our ‘main’ thread between them being like a small texting channel in a way, with pure/almost pure dialogue for their conversations they have over the radio, maybe short descriptions of what they’re doing/thinking in that moment if we really want to or it’s relevant. If we wanted to do a darker rp with characters messing with them, we could have a channel for your muse and my muse separately and write proper threads in there for them being messed with! And then, of course, when our muses finally meet and spent time together, we’ll be able to write actual paragraphs out for them lol. Looking for something laidback and chill; we can write out casual convos between our muses in our own time and take it as it comes. No rush on replies, open to ooc chat and sending memes/aesthetics/tiktoks/whatnot. Prefer irl faceclaims. Bring an interesting muse/idea for one and some plot ideas or some energy for brainstorming with me please!!

-

[novella-writers]

Firewatch and the new Fears to Fathom game that came out currently has me obsessed and I’m looking to do an oc rp kind of inspired by those! I’m thinking our muses are both working in different fire lookout towers deep into forests, cut off from the rest of the world, and only have one another to talk to by radio or see vaguely in the distance. Why they took those jobs can be fun to play with too - running from a dark, messy, or tragic past? Looking for complete isolation and a break from society? Lost and don’t know what else to do with themselves? Or maybe they’re just somehow who loves the outdoors and thrives out there! Maybe our people have only been talking for days or weeks, or maybe they’ve both been in the job for a while and have built up a rapport over months-years but have yet to ever actually meet in person until something leads them to one another. It could go different ways depending on what we both agree with; maybe it’s a sweet, slow burn, slice of life type thing; two lonely characters getting to know one another, enjoying the peace of nature, having their own little world together nestled in all the trees. Maybe we could do something darker and more thrill-esque; maybe there’s something or someone(s) out in the woods messing with one/both of our muses - maybe we could play our lookout muses and a bad character each and mess with one another’s muses as well? I’m open to mild supernatural things too, if you wanted to bring something in like a werewolf muse perhaps - we can chat and figure out what we vibe with together, but I’m open to a lot of things!! I’m 21+ and open to any kinds of pairings. My muse is a cismale, happy to do mxm or mxf. I’m not looking for a fresh-faced 18 year old character please, I’d rather our muses be mid 20s minimum, with a preference for a higher age. Give me troubled, lonely grizzled men or older women haunted by their past!! Give them a reason to be out where they are and a life behind them that they can open up about to my muse over the course of their long-distant conversations! Open to smut, not looking for strict, passive subs/bottoms, and would prefer this to be a slow burn rather than rush into anything. I write on discord and I’m usually a multi-para, detailed writer and love long responses, but I’d like to play with the format of this rp considering our muses aren’t going to physically interact with one another for a while! I’m thinking of having our ‘main’ thread between them being like a small texting channel in a way, with pure/almost pure dialogue for their conversations they have over the radio, maybe short descriptions of what they’re doing/thinking in that moment if we really want to or it’s relevant. If we wanted to do a darker rp with characters messing with them, we could have a channel for your muse and my muse separately and write proper threads in there for them being messed with! And then, of course, when our muses finally meet and spent time together, we’ll be able to write actual paragraphs out for them lol. Looking for something laidback and chill; we can write out casual convos between our muses in our own time and take it as it comes. No rush on replies, open to ooc chat and sending memes/aesthetics/tiktoks/whatnot. Prefer irl faceclaims. Bring an interesting muse/idea for one and some plot ideas or some energy for brainstorming with me please!!

Like if interested!

[dokusedai]

              Character Study // “Sit Boy”     sango checkin inuyasha since the sengoku

[gaawachan]

Critical Role 135 Discord Convo (Topic: Shipping?)

Some pre-convo context: This conversation meandered a bit so there's a lot of stuff that may turn up in other conversations later; it was really late and so a lot of things were only briefly touched on.

Me: You know... people are gonna freak out if LoB doesn't just cave and romance Essek at this point. If he wasn't planning on doing so then his roleplay during the past few episodes is gonna cause backlash, I think.

Sibling: I think he was on the fence and then Matt was like, "Okay, I have to push this because I currently have plans to make Astrid a victim of Trent and/or the big bad of Caleb's arc."

Me: Certainly feels that way, lol.  Matt's definitely the one that's been doing the pushing post-boat scene.

Sibling: Pretty much-- Matt has kept Essek near Caleb for every moment that he can

Me: (Caleb did tell Essek to stay close, lol) But in the past couple of episodes Liam's gone back to reciprocating. If he isn't planning on shipping it, he shouldn't do that.

Sibling: Despite Lucien's eyes. Oh for sure. I think he is though. Why else would LoB post stuff like *examples of LoB's twitter activity*? He doesn't egg on Astrid/Caleb shippers lol

Me: That's true.

Sibling: Plus, Essek is purple.

Me: Of course we weren't in the fandom when Vaxmore happened and then dropped, so we don't know if Liam did the same thing with that ship.

Sibling: God I hope not... C'mon, give us a bit of beeg yoshi

Me: Having watched half of season 1, I can say that there was way, waaaaaaaay less tension and such between Vax and Gilmore. Vax liked Shaun a lot, and Shaun was in love with Vax... but they had nothing in common, they didn't have any real theme/plot/setting/interest ties or anything. Just a vanilla relationship, like, they went out on lunch dates.

Sibling: It's funny because OTHER non-shippers came onto that ship-positive trend and started talking about Vaxmore and how more "real" it was. And I'm like, I feel like slow-burn romances are far more "real" than people hopping on each other as soon as that they get a chance (COUGH COUGH BEAUYASHA I'M SORRY COUGH). Don't disparage lunch dates, btw; there's nothing gayer than that.

Me: No, don’t get me wrong, I was actually about to post that "I can see why people like that because it feels realistic" The bigger problem with Vaxmore was simply that they didn't see Gilmore very often.  I think Liam would have been more interested in continuing that ship if Gilmore had not been... well, the Pumat Sol of the campaign.  Just not very relevant.  This isn't the case for Essek; he is THE npc of this campaign, basically. He's more involved than any other NPC in either season. Side note: if C1 and C2 had happened concurrently, I'd have totally shipped Gilmore with Mollymauk.

Sibling: OH TOTALLY

Me: Lol

Sibling: Essek and Caleb have many interests in common, and Liam has CANONIZED Caleb's attraction to him, both intellectually and physically. They have expressed a desire to spend time together, platonically? to improve their craft. They have worked to improve with each other, speak with each other in a way that they don't with others-- not even people they're supposedly closer to. Essek has had a turn of his morals BECAUSE of Caleb's actions... What do other ships in this season have? Caleb and Astrid; they have shared misery and a past that stains ALL of their interactions. Maybe there is love left, but it would need a TON of work, and she is never onscreen long enough for that to be established. There's not really any tension aside from the viewers' "is this a villain" tension. Not even the dance felt good, it was transactional and there to hide information being exchanged and then they LEFT. Caleb and Eodwulf; Caleb said his forearms were hot, lol? But Eodwulf has even less time than Astrid, and hasn't even really piqued the rest of the cast's interest, in spite of Caleb's history with him. Caleb and Jester; Might have worked if JESTER WAS EVER INTERESTED IN HIM. AND SHE NEVER WAS AND STILL ISN'T. She was smitten with Fjord the moment she started projecting him onto Tusk Love lol. Caleb and Nott; I'm not touching this one Non-Caleb ships are like: Fjord and Jester; Sweet, predictable, pretty much how I pictured it being when it became canon. Jester being exactly the same and Fjord being openly affectionate. Maybe some priorities being changed around. Beau and Yasha; I'm NGL, I feel like they're together... because they're lesbians? And not because they actually have much in common aside from that? It's sweet, but if we're speaking purely from a like... chemistry standpoint? This one falls on its face. But, no, I'm sorry. Just because Caleb isn't literally devouring Essek's face whenever he's on screen  (though he slobbers like he wants to whenever Essek uses Dunamancy), doesn't mean that the ship is "invisible". It's invisible to people who are only used to overt ships I guess But I'm sorry, I need to go back through and make a "Caleb slobbers over Essek doing magic" compilation. Because it doesn't exist yet, and yet it happens all the time lol And people are like "where attraction" RIGHT THERE, GUYS

Me: Speaking of Jester, actually.  Jester's funny because early on she actually did tease/flirt with Caleb quite a bit... but then she stopped doing it.  When?  I'd say it happened right around the same time Caleb started having feelings for her, imo, after their waltz, when he said Astrid's name.  Jester and Fjord were caged together in the Sour Nest and I think that, followed by the Fjord/Avantika arc, really sealed the deal for where her interests went.  Also, Jester and Nott wrote that letter to Astrid, so by that point I think it's pretty safe to say that Jester not only was not interested in Caleb; she wasn't even interested in teasing/lightly flirting with him anymore. Also Caleb eyescrews Essek a lot... so yeah what are these people smoking?  Even LoB, who has been wishy washy about the ship, has been pretty upfront about Caleb's interest in Essek.

Sibling: I don't think Widojest people want Caleb to be with someone happy and who makes him happy. Essek is not a happy man but Caleb's mood certainly seems to brighten whenever he shows up.

Me: I mean, there IS chemistry between Caleb and Jester but the issue is that the two characters view each other completely differently. She just doesn't see him that way. The other half of the equation is that Caleb tends to treat Jester as being more than just the cutesy trickster and a lot of the other cast members haven't really shown that? They tend to undermine her a lot actually. It's most obvious with respect to the Traveler. Caleb actually respects her relationship with Artagan. Other members of the group just hate him and have made it clear to her that they feel that way.  That includes BOTH Fjord and Beau. Like if you compare the conversations she had with Fjord and with Caleb on Rumblecusp, it's night and day, but it doesn't matter because she just doesn't view Caleb as a prospective partner at all. She tends to frame their relationship in the same way several of the characters in the party frame their dynamics with Caleb. "I want to help him but I have no idea what the fuck to say or do."  She'd still above average compared to the group at doing so but that's because of her mother's influence, not because she has feelings for him. Ngl, if I WERE to ship Caleb with someone other than Essek at this point I think I would pick Jester just because they have a mutual respect for each other. Oh oh here's an example. Okay, so Caleb's room for Jester in the tower right? It's very similar to her childhood room, but he deliberately "adults" it up, because he respects her as an adult. What was Fjord's gift to her in Rexxentrum? A child's toy.  A unicorn statue. And that's cute and all, but... uh...

Sibling: A little infantilizing?

Me: Yes exactly, and it's the same way he behaves about her relationship with Artagan. One could easily argue that Fjord treats Jester sort of like she's the pixie girl stereotype, but that's just surface-level stuff about Jester. You'll notice that Fjord and Jester's conversations tend to lean cutesy and immature, but when Jester talks with Caleb, it's very often a thoughtful and deeper conversation, so I DO see why people ship it.

Sibling: I mean, but that's my problem with it. Maybe it's better than Fjorjester, but Liam doesn't lick his lips every single time Jester breathes too hard.

Me: Lol. Personally I think that part of the problem is that 1) Travis isn't comfortable with doing romance, and Fjord is awkward af, and 2) Jester/Laura has tried to get him to talk with Jester on a deeper level and it hasn't really been successful, and she's let some opportunities slip by, but Liam rarely passes up the opportunity to have a deeper conversation with other players, so he ends up having more serious conversations with Jester simply because Liam seeks out those conversations.

Sibling: Well Liam loves character romances. It's why his second character left as many options open to him as possible lol. It's the stark difference between Liam and Travis. Travis is only comfortable romancing his wife fictionally lol. Liam loves the way you can reexamine a character and reshape their ending with those choices and I think he's way more willing to just go "screw it, my character is horny AF for this wizard boy, what are you going to do Matt?" "my character is also horny for my party member, but it's probably unrequited, but I'm going to stick with it for character depth"

Me: Seriously though  go back and rewatch the Rumblecusp conversations Jester had with Fjord and with Caleb.  You could SEE it in Jester.  Fjord was NOT saying anything she wanted or needed to hear.  I thought she actually looked pretty hurt.

Sibling: Oh, I remember being like "well that was deflating" and it's why she kept asking people. She's looking for answers, and pretty much everyone pussyfooted around it becawuse she's such a cuwuty.

Me: Yes, props to Caleb for stepping up, even though he didn't give her the answer she wanted either. That's precisely the problem with her dynamics with other characters. They're too busy fawning over how cute she is and trying to shield her to get to anything much deeper.

Sibling: Whereas Caleb thought of her as a woman- someone he really liked, from... like super early on.

Me: Oddly the end result is that the non-stop shielding of Jester has inhibited Laura's ability to grow Jester as a character. Which has to be frustrating as a player.

Sibling: I think it probably has been. Especially because I think she wanted to explore how being in a romance would change her. She even hinted to that way earlier: "That's not at all how love is depicted in the books we read..." "You mean the porn books we read?"

Me: The character is rarely challenged and hasn't really been forced to change.  She has changed in that she's matured from experience, but it's subtle and it isn't really acknowledged much. Nothing screamed this more than the climax of Traveler-con, where she was staring down the barrel of a monumental life-change and her cutesyness somehow convinced the planetar to be like... "fine, bye." Even MATT regretted that decision in the Talks afterward.

Sibling: Oh for sure! She just gets everything and you know what sucks? I think LAURA wanted Artagan to be taken. It would have devastated Jester but it would have forced her to change.

Me: Well actually, Laura said that she was going to offer to worship the Moonweaver instead of the Traveler if it meant she'd spare him punishment. When she said that, Matt's whole face just dropped; he was so upset that he wasted that opportunity, but that's the cost of treating Jester like she needs coddling. It's like... bro... she ax murders people... come on.

Sibling: She burns people to death with sacred flame and gets people lost in the woods by messing with road signs.

Me: She's been tortured and barely shows the trauma of it at all (can't believe that went unaddressed btw)... She can handle pushback... Like again, Caleb. Early on she butted heads with Caleb because she's a spoiled rich kid, but you'll notice that after offending him like that?  She never did it again.

Sibling: Because she's a good person capable of introspection and changing her behavior to help people.

Me: It's a small thing but Jester actually became a better person precisely because Caleb didn't handle her with kid gloves.

Sibling: That even ties back to her dropping her flirting when "Astrid" was brought up.

Me: Yep

Sibling: ... Shadowgast is still better.

Me: Yep. I don't hate widojest and I think that of all the jester pairings it's probably the best, but of all the Caleb pairings Shadowgast is best.

Sibling: I mean, Shadowgast is best even by virtue of like... who else would you pair Essek with that he could still stick around the party for? He's only interested in Caleb lol. That's not to say he doesn't LIKE the rest of the cast, but back to the deep conversations thing...

Me: I've seen some people shipping Widojessek, lol.

Sibling: There's really only one person (and one group chat) where he had those sorts of opening up moments. Poor Fjord- just got a GF and people are already cucking him.

Me: Lol. Oh, man... Caleb and Essek really need to talk about the assembly. Specifically Caleb's past and what Essek's dealings with them were like in more detail.

Sibling: Matt tried to lol and Caleb was like "yeah okay i got plans, but also paper"

Me: Essek needs to be more direct because Caleb doesn't WANT to talk about it.

Sibling: He can't, he's a wizard. No melee attacks, emotionally or verbally.

Me: Well, the issue is that Essek prods at Caleb's goals, which are nebulous (so Caleb really can't give a satisfactory answer, and he also can't answer without talking about his past first).  And when he prods about Caleb's past, he's too indirect.  He needs to directly ask about Caleb's past FIRST if he wants more information about Caleb's goals.

Sibling: The next time they're in the tower (which I fear won't be for a while) Essek literally needs to be like "I'm drowning in guilt, you need to tell me about what I was involved with so I can manage it" He'd probably give him a few crumbs lmao.  If Essek makes it about himself, Caleb is less likely to close up.

Me: Yes, that is exactly how Essek needs to frame it. "I don't have a full understanding of the nature of the people I gave power to.  I know now that they're more terrible than I thought, but not exactly how. I think that in order to fully grasp what I have done, I need to know more about them." It's pretty blatant bait but Caleb would probably be convinced by it anyway.

Sibling: Oh for sure. Caleb can't exactly run away from that either; he's too chicken to flee from conversations. He freezes and either spills or clams up.

Me: At this point, there's really no GOOD reason to NOT tell Essek about his past. There's nothing to lose from it, and a decent amount to gain; it could turn Essek actively hostile towards the Assembly rather than keeping him cowering in Eiselcross.

Sibling: He's uncomfortable with it (trauma will do that) Doesn't want to get sidetracked (Essek told him not to) Haven't had a good time to do so (no privacy) Doesn't want Essek to distance himself from him (most likely)

Me: This is true, but he's already told the people who he least wanted to tell (Jester and Caduceus) ... Actually, my suspicion is...

Sibling: And neither of them pulled away from him-- eh? Me: ... that Caleb doesn't want to tell Essek because he's worried that Essek will, well... uh, treat him like a child. Caleb was so young, and telling the story of his past also means admitting that he's 11 years younger than he appears. And there is some amount of Caleb's view of his past that is irrational and he chafes viciously whenever someone tries to downplay his culpability by pointing out his age at the time.

Sibling: I think he already has. Don't try to tell me about how not patronizing that "Young Man" line was lol. It was meant in good faith but... I think Caleb does the abuse victim "the idea of ever being young and vulnerable again is terrifying" thing pretty convincingly. It's also sort of a rewind back to his respect for someone who seems outwardly childish, but is an adult whose choices need to be respected.

Me: There is another matter which... Well, Caleb is slowly coming to terms with his status as a victim (veeery slowly) but I think if Essek were to learn about his past, and taking into account their different cultural perspectives on age, Essek might have a hard time not reacting more in line with Beau/Nott's initial reactions to the full tale.  Beau said she thought it was nothing to be ashamed of (and Caleb started laughing hysterically) and then Nott just full-on denied that any of it was his fault (which is completely at odds with his own belief), and since Essek's gut reaction to hearing the story is probably going to be something like "Trent is a baby torturer" ... That's not an easy thing for Caleb to stomach.

Sibling: And yes, Essek will absolutely have that reaction because at that age humans are still fetuses to him.

Me: This brings me to my final point. Caleb may be worried that Essek learning all of this and thinking that way will damage Essek's ability to see Caleb as his mirror. He may view it as a threat to the life-line he threw Essek that night in Nicodranas.

Sibling: And then it's not about bettering each other... It's about Essek being alone again and Caleb being alone.

Me: However, Essek's insistence that he is sure nothing Caleb has done could compare to what Essek has done does mitigate that risk significantly.  It's just a matter of whether or not Caleb can see that and Essek can be pushy enough to get him to crack.

Sibling: I know Essek has it in him. He can forsake his country's precious artifacts to an opposing nation, he can push his BF to open up to him about his problems. Caleb, on the other hand, has been exceedingly fragile... since you know... GOING BACK TO THE ASYLUM, so I don't know if he's in a state to have that discussion, but if they don't have it soon, by the time Essek talks to him again Trent will probably be dead.

Me: Caleb is pretty blatant about his compartmentalization and deflection.  He feels it's necessary in the current circumstance with the Tomb Takers, but somebody really needs to step up after Lucien's taken out and talk to Caleb about this stuff.  Essek would be ideal because Caleb could benefit the most from Essek's perspective, I think, but really... anyone other than Veth is better than nothing. Going back to the Asylum was very obviously a severe triggering event and NO ONE TALKED ABOUT IT. Like, jfc, guys, Beau is right.  She asked if Caleb was even capable of working alongside Trent, and Caleb said yes (if he thought it was necessary), but we all, WE ALL know that he can't.  Not after that disaster.

Sibling: Especially because both Veth and Jester saw him go straight into "OH GOD WE'RE GOING TO DIE, HE'S HERE AND WE'RE GOING TO DIE, I'M GOING TO KILL HIM BEFORE HE HURTS ANYONE" and they were like "he can probably handle this"

Me: He was already borderline in that headspace BEFORE Trent showed up.

Sibling: And then afterward, he went straight into a dangerous self-destructive spiral. Like... I know we've said this before but thank GOD for that failed persuasion check.

Me: That nat 1 was poetry on so many levels. On a meta level the sheer luck of it was a delight, but within the context of the story I think it was great that Essek is just like... "No.  I am not crossing this line, not even for you."

Sibling: It worked narratively, meta-narratively, and saved Matt from having to draw up a bunch of ambush situations made by Volstruckers when Trent inevitably backstabbed them.

Me: Can you imagine poor Matt trying to play the Tomb Takers, Trent, Astrid, Wulf, and Essek... AND Charlie/Devexien?

Sibling: He already forgets to play Essek, and he only had a few NPCs to deal with.

Me: Even purely from a gameplay standpoint, can you imagine all the loot they Nein would lose in Aeor if they had brought scourgers with them? What if they found that dunamis machine?

Sibling: EXACTLY.

.

Convo ended here, but I had some more thoughts.  It was just too late to keep talking.  For example, I like FjordxJester and BeauxYasha.  I think they are actually complicated relationships but they just haven't really had the room to be deeply explored/examined, for example.  I also did not go into nearly as much detail about my thoughts on VaxxShaun as I would have liked to mostly because that ship wasn't the point of the discussion. ... oh god how do I even tag this?

[fairyqueenofthedragons]

Deus ex Machina in Fablehaven

Saw a thing about deus ex machina, by that I mean a convo on the discord (https://discord.gg/TYe6zbm for those interested) and anyways, I did a brief look over of the stuff that without context might look like cheats to solving problems, vs things that actually are just there for the one problem with no other plot relevance.

The discord helped name things that they considered possible deus ex machina.

Definition of Deus ex Machina: an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel.

Book One: Kendra got the Queen’s aid.

Now, this might seem like a deus ex machina, except it was foreshadowed with Grandpa Sorenson’s mention of the Fairy Queen’s shrine. On top of that, it held importance through every book after.

And Kendra didn’t just get to the island and have her problem solved. She risked her life to reach the island cause she saw it as her only hope, and then she had to do more work to make the potion that she used to save her life. She also unknowingly ingested a deadly poison (the potion was deadly towards humans).

Not a Deus ex Machina

Book Two: The Cocoon.

Now, this is an item that Coulter said is super hard to make, and it took him a lot of work to get. He ended up giving it to Seth when the revenant was there, and it is due to this cocoon that Seth survived Olloch, who was trying to (and did) eat him.

Theoretically work was done for this magical ultimate shield that can defend against all things (at the cost of being trapped for a time). We don’t see it, and it’s use basically defeats Olloch. This was used really as a plot device, but it wasn’t unexpected, and there was a cost in that Coulter was lost.

Not a Deus ex Machina

Book Three: Patton and the Chronometer

Patton showing up wasn’t expected at all, but with the Chronometer it is explained. He also didn’t just fill the single plot of Seth escaping. It was unexpected, and didn’t really have foreshadowing beyond the fact that he brought it there (which would allow him to mess with it). But it did make sense, while also saving a seemingly hopeless situation.

By technical definition his appearance is a deus ex machina but by the way it’s used it’s not really one.

The Chronometer... honestly time travel in general usually counts a deus ex machina no matter the story. It jumps past the rules and changes things wildly. It’s op and works outside everything else.

Technically the Chronometer doesn’t do that, but also does. Supposedly everything that will happen has happened in terms of time travel, but if that’s the case then there are a lot of plot holes.

The Sphinx has been to the island before book 5, where time travel happened to open it partially. Yet it was not open when he was last there? Nor when Patton was there the one time in more recent years? But it’s already happened because it would happen?

The things Patton left behind have been “passed down” and yet... they’re never mentioned before they become relevant.

Overall, the Chronometer itself might not be a deus ex machina, but the way it’s used is. It’s a plot device that constantly solves the problem for them and the explanation doesn’t work.

Book Four: The Knapsack and the Stingbulb

The Knapsack is something that hasn’t been brought up previously as a possibility. It is explained as a powerful object, and is used to let Kendra escape from an otherwise hopeless situation (though she may have possibly been able to escape later it would’ve been extremely difficult and even though her stingbulb succeeded, she didn’t really. She was followed and the Sphinx was purposefully letting her get away).

So the item came out of nowhere, is a powerful magical object, and solves a hopeless situation. While it also is used throughout the rest of the book, it’s used as a way of holding a bunch of supplies and Warren then. And then it’s destroyed the moment it’s use is no longer necessary.

Technically yeah it is a deus ex machina.

The stingbulbs... they let people die but not die, are an excuse to bring back the Larsen’s who had a funeral literally book one, get Kendra dead and then let her escape, and are overall used to further plot points. But I could forgive all of this if they actually went “hmm, these are extinct, where did they used to grow?” and found the fifth preserve or at least started working towards finding it.

Overall they’re used to bring people back, or allow people to slip away, but aren’t just used for the heroes to escape.

Not a deus ex machina.

Book Five: Patton, Vasilis, the eternals

Patton, dear old Patton. Technically he’s already been involved, but he does basically solve all their problems when he gets involved. Yes they (Seth) still have to act, but he’s given step by step instructions and a bunch of guidance from the guy who’s long dead. But it’s been foreshadowed as a possible solution by book 3 and 4. And he didn’t personally solve everything just gave all the steps needed for it.

Vasilis is the sword of light and dark and was not mentioned prior to Patton. It in and of itself isn’t technically a deus ex machina, it has foreshadowing in that book... but not any earlier. It’s a powerful magical object, and it does kinda solve all the problems. It also seems to have no real price other than wanting the power, it uses their power to amplify but doesn’t seem to drain them.

Seth using it: He’s able to kill the two most deadly demons other than the demon king himself (and that’s actually debatable to me) with it. If you’ve read dragonwatch cottg we learned more that I won’t say in this post but it does tell you a lot. Him killing them was something that many have tried before, but he’s the one that succeeded, thanks to that sword. Yes he was injured, but the sword also made sure he survived to get healing. It allowed him to retrieve the artifacts they needed as well.

It is a bit of a deus ex machina there.

Kendra using it: She killed the demon king, one of the five great monarchs, with like three strikes. This is roughly similar to Seth’s ease with Graulus and Nagi Luna, though the sword also seemed more powerful with Kendra (which makes sense as she has a direct connection to the fairy queens source of power whereas Seth only has his own (immense) power). It ends the battle pretty effectively and the demons flee from there.

It is a bit of a deus ex machina there.

So the blade overall is op and while Seth worked to get it, it solves basically every problem when in his (or his sisters) hands. It is unexpected as it was only brought up a little bit before retrieving it, and it is a bit of a plot device to allow them to one-shot powerful demons.

The Eternals.

The Eternals? you ask. How are they deus ex machina?

Well, they haven’t been foreshadowed at all before book five. Even the new things in the book had at least stuff that could lead to it. Their only purpose was buying the protagonists time to fight the prison and make it so Kendra and her gang weren’t just twiddling their fingers waiting off to the side.

They came out of nowhere, saved the day by giving the kids time to gather supplies and allies, and ultimately served little to no point.

Unexpected: showed up out of nowhere

Situation: hopeless

Plot device: they had no time, the eternals gave them time

Deus ex Machina.

Feel free to lmk if you guys have other thoughts, or if you have other items/plots that you think are deus ex machina. I’m also gonna be doing a post on the cheats in the books (stuff that isn’t out of nowhere and doesn’t fit the requirements of a deus ex machina but oh do they make you angry with how they work) and do dragonwatch later :)

[apex-man-47]

The inner flame

Tl;dr - LTS Challenge and something else in my planner book, do have their true point of inspiration.

The thing about one of my LTS challenge posts very recently is that it also did serve as a true flashback Friday post. 

The moment it highlights is indeed my middle school era - where an incident involving me had happened. Not sure if I ever had posted/talked about it before ever since anywhere (except for maybe two group convos in the span of past year since it was relevant to the topics discussed back then), but yeah - as they say, everybody's passion/spirit energy/inner flame does end up starting from somewhere that rather sees them at their lowest in terms of something completely different.

For me though, I guess my story does stem from the idea of biking back in the day. It was rather biking that helped me have true fun and maybe a little bit of an adrenaline rush, but it was because of this one incident that I really did get to learn the true cost of speed and not being too weary of the surroundings. It may have led me to sorta bond with the idea of going out for bike rides back then (pic 3 is an actual photo of my 3rd ever bike - my first long-term one in Canada, and my second one ever since said incident) that slowly also formed into my current hobby of going out for a drive (which has stopped due to current circumstances).

It was all due to me going out around the block with my bike to get a soft drink, that it had happened to kick off. By all things to happen, I got struck by a car. I don’t think I should say much other than all I remember is a faint bright white flash - could’ve been from the headlights of the car doing the u-turn but yeah, it took me quite a bit after that to realize what had happened - due to the fact that the accident caused quite the commotion of locals (my parents also arrived quite quickly, and I thank them for it). The driver apparently darted off and came back, because of dropping off his passenger - thing is, I bet his expression that day was the equivalent of “I f’ed up”, because of how much of a crowd was there. 

Flash forward an hour later and luckily I got the injury addressed. A left leg fracture. Time to heal? 1 month, if not a month and a half. The injury was surprisingly not as worse as the doctor was hoping for, but boi - life with the leg cast was quite different.

Did it stop me from my progress in school? Nope. I had my textbooks and friends to let me know of the work being done in class back then. Did it stop me from getting back on the bike? Nope. Had to get a new bike for sure though. Did the injury change me up in any way? Yes. For the better of it - so much so that I guess it did lead me to gaining quite the nickname in the family in the years following.

Now, in terms of me and biking and that one post. See, the inner “want” of adventure kinda got back into me when I got that one bike that appears in the IG post - and it had become one type of “want” that I guess I had to try suppressing just to focus in school since then. The thing about me with bikes though, had transferred over to my time with elliptical cycles - where indeed, I JUST had to make a reference to a key figure while talking about stuff to some of my junior-year friends back then - which had then also sorta become stuck in the group since then and then died out in favor of something else. It was because of the addiction to having the bike, that I guess I had that little bit of adrenaline rush linked with going fast actually transfer over.

Overall, I guess I also had gotten a bit more wiser since then, while also getting back into the realm of cycling. In terms of wising up, It has gotten to a point where I have realized the true power of “plan and do it without announcing too much about the project/idea” - and have done so by rather just taking a minute to think about anything to post, and also rather enjoying the platforms that I have rather than be more quick to post on them, Probably explains how I’ve had quite the content shift over the past few years - and have gotten to like the idea of posting if the occasion arises (Such as my graduation post!). I think it also explains how much I guess I love being on Discord and maybe IG for the most part, since I do happen to be a part of many great big groups that rather have their own vibes.

In terms of the “adventure” - I can say that a part of me is glad that I chose to think about what experiences I could have in the future, as a real motivator to me getting my license - which helped out massively in the respective tests. However, being a university student (at the time of me getting the license), I think it was really the amount of unique trips that have led me to think about continuing with a book of trip ideas for the future - and if so, I might be looking forward to paying homage to a certain element of some trips over others. 

The other half of “adventure” is that a part of me in university had rather likened the chapters of life as a mountain/touge course, where each curve on the course was indeed a turning point in life. This other half is also where I had also found myself growing/developing a little bit more. Yep, l uh, managed to get the nicknames of “Terminator” and “Road Warrior” (I kinda cringe at it but it makes me laugh a little every time i think about it due to what my dad told me once that’s ever so relative to the RW nickname) during my university life, because somehow my driving skills also had a growth-and-decline phase then too. 

That half of “adventure” is tied up pretty well with the Toyota in my family - for it also was the car to be taken for road trips. Road trips that sorta have had me thinking of that one long-term idea in my mind that popped up ever since my trip to Jordan (I had it as early as my first run to Riyadh tbh) in it with family. Also I can confirm that my family also had quite the weirdest trip idea in mind - but I don’t think we be doing it though due to reasons not related to the current global conditions.

To close off this post, I will say this - I really haven’t talked about the accident story ever since then due to how it really doesn’t seem like something to be talking about toooo much in detail unless it was relative. Overall, I guess that with time, it did shape me quite a lot - down to the point where I got me some actual ideas that I really do hope to do and rather be able to document/take note of in the future. Luckily, last summer I took initiative of doing that!