#this is just an excuse for me to info dump about my own ships

[aquamarineglow]

Does anyone have any Professor Layton rarepair/crackships/ crossoverships that they want to share?

Basically do you ship something that not many people do?

Maybe you ship minor characters that nobody else really paid attention to. Maybe you ship two characters who have never interacted, but you think they would get on well if they did. Maybe you ship two characters from completely different media's. Or maybe you just ship something that no one's really considered before.

No-one may understand, but it makes sense to you

This is a shame free zone.

[showtoonzfan]

Ganna rant about Episode 4 of Hazbin again. For starters it has the same issue that Seeing Stars did for Helluva boss, that being Loona giving Octavia advice in comparison to Husk giving Angel advice. While the characters situations are different, both Loona and Husk were the wrong characters to pick to give advice, or simply just comfort the other character. I’ve already seen some people say that Charlie or Vaggie should have been the one to cheer Angel up, and that would have made more sense. They’ve known him longer and it’s in character for them to do that. For it to be Husk, not only does it feel forced as an excuse to just hook Angel up with a boyfriend and get the shipping fuel going, but it doesn’t make sense narratively.

In Loona’s case, her situation was flawed because she just MET Octavia, didn’t know a thing about her struggles and spouts to her about how she should be thankful just because her dad is “trying”, and the show tries comparing both girl’s situations when they’re not the same. This is practically the same situation with Angel and Husk. While Husk is aware of Angel, he barley knows him. He hasn’t been at the hotel that long considering the pilot took place only a week ago. On screen, all that Husk knew about Angel was that he was a porn star who constantly flirts with everyone, him especially, and we as the audience only see that and only that when the two interact. However episode 4 claims that Husk can see right through him and know that this is all part of his persona that he displays. If we had more time with these two characters outside of flirty banter scenes, this would make more sense, but instead it’s all tell and no show, being rushed with the little time we’re given. Husk even says that the hotel residents go to him to rant their sorrows while they’re drunk and even THAT happens off screen and that’s the problem, the audience has no reason to believe that Husk knows Angel deep down or even cares enough to want to help him, in our eyes, all Angel’s been doing is sexually harassing him.

There’s no reason why these two need to have an emotional scene together, it’s unearned and unwarranted because we haven’t had enough time with these characters, just like Loona and Octavia, there’s just no purpose or buildup. I also resort back to what I’ve said before: Husk selling his soul to Alastor is not the same as Angel selling his soul to Valentino. The show tries to compare Angel and Husk’s situations and it’s just not comparable because Alastor isn’t a rapist who’s trapping Husk to sell his body and be used like a rag doll constantly. Had it been something like “you’re a drug abuser and I’m an alcoholic”- THEN that would have worked, but that’s not what we get, and this leads me to talking about why “Loser Baby” isn’t good.

Some people have already misinterpreted my opinion, so here’s a few things. Is the song in character for Husk? Yes. Is the song about Husk telling Angel not to act and just embrace himself? Yes. On its own, the song is fine outside of some distasteful lines. The CONTEXT, execution, and placement of the song is the issue. Episode 4’s whole purpose is to see just how much Angel suffers. He’s forced to work like a dog at the studio day in and day out, and he gets abused and SA’d by his boss and other demons constantly. He doesn’t have a say in anything and can never say no because he’s under contract. He can’t Fizz his way out of this one and just go “I quit”, he’s literally forced to work in the porn industry wether he likes it or not, and we see all of that on screen. We also explore just how much this affects him. They reveal some pretty dark stuff here, how Angel doesn’t even want his position as a famous porn star and is so desperate to be numb from the pain and suffering he endorses that he’ll get high constantly and let people drug him for nefarious reasons, it’s his escape. They dump ALL of that info onto us, only for this bullshit to come up:

So the writers slut shame him, call him a freak and an addict to laugh at because “haha he’s addicted to drugs and a slut”, even though we JUST got done with a scene that confirms HE DOES ALL OF THIS AS A TRUAMA RESPONSE. He said himself he does the drugs and is addicted to numb the pain, and his own flirting (while problematic) is shown to be an act of him hyper sexualizing himself due to what he goes through. It’s not excusable but it’s still a fact, and we’re supposed to LAUGH at him??? That’s what’s wrong with his character and what continues to be wrong, because Viv sees him as the butt of the joke. Every line of dialogue he has is always about sex and how we should laugh because he’s a slut, an it comes off as so distasteful and insensitive to not only people who have been abused/SA’d, but porn actors in general. We’re supposed to laugh when he talks about cock and sex, but the reason he’s doing it is so dark that we shouldn’t be laughing about it at all cause he’s a VICTIM, yet Viv thinks it’s funny. It’s so disgusting and makes my stomach twist. Angel is trapped being in a position he doesn’t even want to be in, yet his entire character revolves around comedic sex jokes, and once you figure out the reason behind said sex jokes, it feels so wrong.

And this is why Loser Baby doesn’t work. Aside from everything else I’ve already said, It doesn’t line up with what Angel is going through, it doesn’t line up with the rest of the episode. If you wanted Angel to have this arc about realizing he doesn’t need to stick to his persona, fine, but you should have done it in a different episode. This is why Husk comes off as telling him to just suck it up and stop whining rather than what he’s actually trying to say. It looks bad with how they executed it, it just looks like he’s telling an SA victim to get over it and stop whining and what’s worse is they compare their situations when it’s not the same. You literally have a scene of Angel telling Husk he lets people drug him, and not even a minute later Husk is calling him a loser. That’s the issue. The show doesn’t know how to read the room, build character relationships slower, is just so incredibly tone deaf and is hypocritical. We’re supposed to feel bad for Angel cause he’s sexualized to the maxes and is having trauma responses of that, but then we’re also supposed to laugh at him and his sex jokes while also finding him hot. Pick a fucking side Vivienne, the show wants to have its cake and eat it too and look where that’s gotten us. The writing is a fucking atrocious mess and yet it had so much potential if Viv actually cared enough to take Angel seriously, instead of just desperately wanting to give him a boyfriend, and a rushed arc where he magically feels better in the end.

[amalthea-13]

Got my nightcore blasting in one ear and still mad about Mastermind so I'mma just info dump here. If you are a Blitz Stan or Defender please understand I do love Blitz, he's honestly one of my favorite characters and Stolitz is my comfort ship. However, disliking things he does doesn't mean I don't like him. I can feel frustrated or struggle with things he does. A complex character makes you feel complex things so it just is a testament to the writers on this show doing a good job with their cast and writing them perfectly. So before going on a rant defending Blitz, just hear me out.

I'll be honest I did not like how quickly Blitz turned lovey-dovey after the trial. The shit hit me like a fuckin chancla to the head and gave me whiplash. The reason I have this issue with Mastermind is purely because it felt so- unfair. Stolas has been struggling to feel validated and seen by Blitz for SO long. I mean that man gave him an Asmodean Crystal, fought to treat him with respect by changing many of his behaviors from S1 to S2, no longer teasing him or calling him pet names. He goes to hell and back multiple times, nearly being killed by Striker and couldn't even get a solid text back from Blitz.

However, the MINUTE he lays his life down, loses his daughter, and gives up any sense of a decent reputation suddenly Blitz gives a fuck. Losing his home, his powers, his family, EVERYTHING, and suddenly Blitz cares about what Stolas wants or needs. It genuinely makes me wanna rattle him around and yell:

"YOU COULD HAVE BEEN HEALTHY AND NICE TO HIM BUT YOU WAIT TILL HES CHRONICALLY DEPRESSED!?"

Like fuck me dude, but he never cared for Stolas before. He consistently dismisses his humanity by cognitively distancing himself from Stolas by just boiling every part of him down to his wealth, stripping him of any and all humanity he remains to have.

Suddenly when Stolas is a husk of his former self and his depression can no longer be hidden by magic or pills, suddenly Blitz cares. I just- I don't know if it's'cause of my own personal trauma, but I hate when people wait till you are at your lowest to give a fuck.

How much more did Stolas have to give for him to care? Or did it have to be his own life? My issue with this part is it perpetuates that Blitz can ONLY humanize those he hurts if they are sad and miserable like him. That the only time you can be loved or seen by him is when you are sad and pathetic, beneath himself. I really hope ya'll are picking up what I'm putting down because I am BEGGING ya'll to stick with me.

Blitz still has his family, his life, his friends, but Stolas has none of those things and SUDDENLY Blitz is further interested in him. Now that he has some pseudo-surperiority- he finds him attractive? He's interested? He wants a deeper relationship?

You can't tell me that doesn't feel so- so backwards right?

Like yeah, wait till the sweet owl man looks like THIS. Oh, yeah, ain't that just fuckin attractive? He's miserable and tried to OFF himself, but no, no that's healthy. It's fine, Amalthea, it's fine that this is the SUDDEN moment Blitz cares. That suddenly he gives a fuck. /sarc

Don't get me started on the fact that before he got to know Stolas he was COMPLETELY fine wrecking a perfectly good (from the exterior) home without considering Octavia, despite being a fucking father himself.

Blitz waits till Stolas is miserable to actually show him an OUNCE of humanity or love or reciprocity.

Yet everyone excuses ALL of his behaviors and problems on his trauma and the pain he has been through, but those same people will call Stolas a deadbeat and terrible person just because he is an awful flirt and a literal DV victim recovering from being COMPLETELY repressed due to the fact that the system that gives him his wealth has worked against him to the point he has no autonomy.

No one seems to ever get why I'm so angry and it's just because- these two have so much potential to work, but at every corner Blitz will make the shittiest decisions and the fandom writes it off as trauma or hurt or whatever, but god forbid Stolas mess up IN SEASON 1 he has to pay for it in Season 2 and be burned at the stake yet while burning at the damn stake the only person he wants to care or worry for him ONLY cares when he is actually set on fucking fire, not bothering to douse the flames or care when he wasn't about to get burned.

I love Blitz, I really, really do, but Mastermind reframed so many of his behaviors for me and made me step back purely because I realized he REALLY does not care unless he can have a false sense of superiority to someone.

I initially said both Stolas and Blitz were at fault for the Full Moon episode, but rewatching the argument I fully blame and fault Blitz for the arguement. Sure Stolas wasn't perfect, but instead of I dunno yelling at the owl man, why don't you- I dunno ASK HIM FOR A MOMENT???

People act like Blitz is some 16 yo teenager, but no thats an ALMOST 40 YEAR OLD MAN WHO CHOOSES TO POORLY COMMUNICATE. He literally could have been uncomfortable and said; "Stolas, this is a lot to process... can I have some time to think? I just- this is a lot."

Stolas wouldn't have forced him to stay! He was willingly letting him go! Blitz complains about the class differences between them but when he tries to fix it suddenly it is a fucking problem?

"But Amalthea, Stolas was hanging his livelihood over his head. He was abusing his power."

See I'd validate that argument and agree with it- IF IT WASN'T ALSO STOLAS'S LIVELIHOOD THE FUCK???? That grimoire was just as important to Stolas as it was to Blitz, more so since it gave him his STATUS, but he WILLINGLY sacrificed all that for Blitz.

Stolas did his due diligence to protect BOTH of them, but yet there is STILL a problem?!

"Stolas made him believe it was just sex between them!!!"

You wanna try again? Do you REALLY want to believe Blitz is so oblivious to this man's advances?

Then explain why he knew Stolas would accept a date to Ozzies. O_O. If Stolas was really just some "ditzy blue blood" to Blitz why would he get dolled up and ready for a date with some measly imp? Why would a Goetic Prince go in public with an imp?

Unless Blitz was FUCKING aware he'd've accepted because he feels so deeply for Blitz. He's so desperately in love he'd do anything to be around him again. Blitz KNEW what he was doing. He KNEW Stolas felt this way, he just chose to be dense and overlook it until it benefited him.

Blitz's insecurities blind a lot of you to the fact he is a CALCULATED and SMART man. Sure, he is a dork who makes us laugh, but he's a CALCULATED dork.

Also I hate to bring up how these two sweetpeas met, but WHO BIT WHO? Who SLEPT WITH WHO WHILE DRUNK?

"But Stolas was flirting with him! He wanted Blitz to sleep with him!"

Yes and no. Initially when Stolas flirts and realizes Blitz wants to sleep with him, he immediately says NO and steps away!

See that kids, that's called a headshake, which means what? Let's all guess now?

NO! IT MEANS NO!

I hate to drive my point this far home, I REALLY do.

Another layer of this is ALL the advances are made my Blitz after Stolas says no.

"Amalthea it's hell! What are you on about morals and consent!?"

Literally because in this situation Blitz had the power. He had the ability to walk away, but started all of this just for his buisness and despite how it all started, Stolas supported him through it all.

It is also before Blitz knows about the abuse and knowing Stolas is a father, still chose to homewreck a family even after Stolas said no.

My point in all of this- anger and frustration is that Stolas has put up with so much of Blitz's BS and stupidity, but only now is Blitz concerned. Only now he gives a damn.

You break into a mans home, sleep with him, rob him, then ruin his life, but you only feel bad when he's lost everything? Sure, that's cool. That's awesome. That's totally fine. /sarc

... this arguement is always hard for me to make, because i just have to watch Stolas be traumatized over, and over, and over and he is always still so sweet and loving to a fucking prick of a man.

Rant over, Amalthea out.

However if you have questions, my ask box is open loves.��

Edit 1: While you all can comment, I strongly encourage utilizing my ask box. Moving on I understand ppl may disagree with me. That is okay you're a beautiful individual with your own thoughts and opinions which is fine by me. However please refrain from insulting my intelligence. You can always block me, doesn't hurt my feelings anyway.

[comingdownwithme]

Hello!! You, your (amazing) artwork and your headcannons have single-handedly gotten me back into the Creepypasta fandom, I cannot describe the reaction I had to seeing your artwork but everything you draw just feels so good to look at? I’m not explaining this very well, but your art style is so pleasing to my eyes, there’s just something about the shading, the lines and the way you capture emotions/expressions it’s just; chef’s kiss (I had a question I promise lol)

What made you draw Toby and Jeff as a ship/what are some past/future headcannons that you have for them? Or just in general if you want to use this as an excuse to ramble about them go for it, anything you say about them I will listen!

Secondly, what is your general headcannon for the rest of the Creepypasta’s? Also it might be because I’ve been out of the loop for a few years but I didn’t really realise there were ex-proxies now, if it’s something you’ve come up with for your story that is insanely cool to read about (anything involving the like, political(?) state of the proxies is fascinating to me).

This has gone on longer than I thought it would, many apologies! I hope you’re having a good day!

I'm?? So honored that my art and headcanons have influenced you?? Skjdjd IM SO GLAD YOU LIKE MY ART AND MY CONTENT, REALLY MEANS A LOT TO ME AND ADDS A FEW MORE YEARS TO MY LIFE SPAN LMAO

As for what got me to drawing Ticcijeff, honestly? It started out as simply drawing the two characters I liked when I was a kid back at the archaic era of 2015 Youtube interacting, then it kinda... it snowballed from there– 😭

They both make me happy individually, so I figured bringing them both together would give me twice the serotonin (which did tbh) alongside the parallels of them both being reborn through fire, and my growing interest in these two were only enabled further by the few good Ticcijeff fanfics on AO3 lmao

As for headcanons? I'm just gonna,,, link some posts abt my dynamics for them and their lore and background so far because if I wrote all my thoughts abt them here we'd be here all day. (though there's absolutely more to come)

About their Childhood friendship

Another post about their childhood friendship! (Featuring the two's dynamic, Jeff's intrusive thoughts, and some additional background info on Jeff)

About Jeff and Toby meeting years later

What happened following the previous post

As for general headcanons for the creepypastas? Their world is a little bit more fucked than our own. Strict rules are set by authorities, there's a tight curfew in place for the safety of people, and death and missing persons cases have become common enough in recent times that it's become a morbid part of normal life.

Unbeknownst to the lay person though, the killers and criminals roaming the night aren't the worst one could encounter. There are incomprehensible- even malevolent horrors that defy the rules of the universe, that cross the boundaries of logic and reason, and even the dead won't stay dead for long in this world. In a twisted universe plagued by death and unknown creatures, even the scum of humanity have to carve a place out for themselves and survive.

Soooo uh, yeah, that's a gist of it lmao, but I'm gonna dump some specific headcanons too for the creeps, especially for each characters like I did here for the girls and here for Jack and Ben eventually!

Also, as someone who's been out of the loop for years (I just joined the fandom officially this year, the only social media site I had back in 2015 was YouTube 😭) I HAD??? NO IDEA EX PROXIES WERE A THING WHICH IS HELLA INTERESTING

I'm definitely gonna write down and flesh out the proxies and their relationship with the Slenderman, but thaaatssss for another time 👉👉

[kayetra-spade-queen]

Because @drawnfamiliarfaces got me into their AU rabbit hole of a variant version of the Teen Heroes™, I hope they don't mind of me making my own variant (I'm self-conscious, please excuse me-).

First and foremost, I can't draw, at least not to the extent of completely fleshing out a sketch out of my ass (ok- I can, but only a single eye, and even then it looks like shit to me-). I can draw clothing better than making a full body to make a whole ass scene. Comics are out the window cuz I will suffer.

Second, it'll probably be more on writing than making fanarts.

Third, I didn't watch the majority of the other characters' respective shows. I watched Danny Phantom a bit because of Nicktoons, and Ben 10 because of the same person who got me into starting this whole thing. I'll probably get my own snips and bits of necessary info from the wiki, but don't expect any accuracy, and I'd appreciate if anyone could dump some info that could prove to be very necessary for me.

Fourth, this is an entire AU itself, so I'm mostly not gonna follow canon at most. There will be stories I will try to twist to my liking.

Fifth, ships. Yes, but bear with me here; thanks to my overconsumption of media, I will be putting just a few ships that I think are neat, but if anyone disagrees with me or didn't like how I didn't mention a ship they like (cuz I barely knew shit about the characters), then please just either move away from my blog, or block me entirely to avoid unwanted conflict. We all have our interests that make us happy, the least you could do is to respect and/or completely don't interact.

Sixth, the clothing are gonna filled with my own personal headcanons, mostly their clothing when they battle (the characters themselves too, but I'm gonna focus more on the clothes because I'm a fashion illustrator). Danny, Ben, and Randy are gonna wear heels because yes.

The ships involved;

Tigerghost (Manny Rivera from El Tigre x Danny Fenton from Danny Phantom) (I completely blame izbubbles for this one)

Benrex (Rex Salazar from Generator Rex x Ben Tennyson from Ben 10) (surprised? Probably not lmfao-)

Jimmytimmy (Timmy Turner x Jimmy Neutron) (first and foremost; no, none of the Nicktoons (Jimmy, Timmy, SpongeBob, and Manny) except Danny and Jenny are part of this team. Danny and Jenny still go on missions with the NU team because duh. And second; they're only here as some sort of filler and cuz I really love Nicktoons since most of them I have watched)

Headcanons involved (will get expanded in due time I swear-);

Trans Danny

Anodite Ben (still wields the Omnitrix. His anodite powers are pink too)

Dani and Dan are Danny's kids (under a different name because they have to go through a re-birth process that I'll touch upon later)

Ben's necrofriggian children now comes to earth to live with their mom (like I said, I'm not following canon)

Randy is still ninja, but because this AU involves a 3rd power/skill, I'll have to twist a bit of the canon my way, especially when it comes to the Ultimate Lesson and memory wipe

There will be some Genshin Impact references here and there, because I do play them, and I love it-

Ghost King Danny (by extent, Ghost Princess Dani and Ghost Prince Dan)

Fashion designer Ben (his sassy and confident nature could be more of a use tbh)

Primal Iudex Randy (he and Furina would get along nicely-)

Pearl Keeper Jake

Side gig magician Rex (leave me be, I think it's neat-)

Engaged Rex and Ben (all of the members are adults over 20, so don't be surprised)

Sandra Tennyson is French, so that makes Ben half-French by heritage

Ben and Randy are pen pals turned close friends by the time Ben moved to France (yes, I made Randy somewhat French here for this reason, but I'll have to put in more details later)

Rex won't lose his memories, but he'll get short-term amnesia often, which just need something to trigger the old memories back

Everyone is under the same universe

Danny's ghost team are Sam-Tucker-Valerie-Jazz and his parents (Valerie deserves better than what was given to her by canon)

Yes, Maddie and Jack knew Danny became a ghost from the very start, but they didn't treat him any differently than he was before; if anything, they felt guilty that their son had paid the price for their ignorance and neglect

Phantom Planet do not exist, and it shouldn't have been to begin with, but whatever

Valerie had always been part of Danny's gang. In terms of Shades of Gray, I'll have to change a lot of things, that includes her father's job (he didn't get fired), so I have other things in mind regarding Cujo

Cujo became Danny's pet dog later on, cuz you can't tell me these two aren't made for each other

Members from oldest to youngest, I do hope @drawnfamiliarfaces wouldn't mind me using their headcanon as well (eldest Kim, youngest Randy). I think they're really neat.

Please keep in mind that none of this follow canon whatsoever, they follow my headcanons and versions. Character backstories are written purely by my own personal headcanons too. I'll probably add actual canon when I didn't have anything good to offer, but this is what I could put for now.

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

WIP title ask meme

Prompt: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

-

I was poked to do this months ago, twice at least - once by @docholligay and I think the second was @jeejyboard, but I can't find the tag for the life of me. SORRY. I felt like doing something a bit more meta today re:writing and post about The Process, and this was a perfect excuse - thanks for thinking of me. So here's some actual effort! I went and dug deep, trawled through some really old stuff, which was fun. I write and scribble down way, way more than I actually polish and post (which I assume is probably normal, but who knows). 

General info, for whoever is interested: I mostly use Google Docs with offline backups for fic writing, as I shift between computers a ton, and I put fandom tags at the start of my filenames for organisation. I have a ton of prompt/meme/ask/event collection files - for example, the very latest: "[BG3, STRAHD, SM] Fic Prompts 2024". In these I jot down both the prompts people send or that are listed and the ideas/outlines/notes for each, then when I really get going with a certain fic I spin it off into a separate document. 

I hate coming up with titles and usually do that last, so most of my document names are silly references for my own amusement or just a boring old brief description of the main concept. For instance, my latest posted fic Cerimonia Compedum was for most of its WIP-hood known simply as "[BG3] Tadpoled Isobel". Sometimes I keep different versions/revisions/parts of the same WIP in different files, and if that's the case I've grouped them here. Note that for simplicity's sake this post includes my "solo" fic only, no collabs or coauthored stuff, of which there is also a bunch. 

Some of these are ancient and hit me in the face with "12 years ago" timestamps. Some ficlets will never make it out of the mixed prompt plot bunny dumping grounds into their own doc. I think Sailor Moon 10-ish years ago was the one outlier fandom where I actually wrote most of my concepts out fully and posted them. The ol' brain is currently overproducing stuff for the more recent BG3 flavoured moon lesbians (and no, that ship name will never stop throwing my HaruMichi-loving ass for a loop). Note that some of the SU WIPs on the list I've already posted about here, here, here, and here.

Obviously all of these vary wildly in terms of completion level, word count, refinement, and age (and capitalisation, apparently). So yeah, here's the list, roughly sorted by fandom - ask away, if you feel like it!

[BG3] Moon-chosen, Moon-guided | Moon-chosen, Moon-guided - Part III [BG3] Cerimonia Alārum | ISOBEL TO THE RESCUE AU [BG3] Tremulous Cadence followup | The Return of the Moon Daughter [BG3] Wizard Tower AU | Aylin & Rolan stuff [BG3] Karlach/Minthara Act 2 conclusion aka why are paladins Like That [BG3] I'm having something very strong indeed

[STRAHD] The d'Avenir Treatise verse tidbits [STRAHD] Road Trippin' [STRAHD] In-character notes & ficlets

[SU] eeEEeeeeEE BISMUTH | Bismuth ficlets | Like talking to a wall | Muse. Galatea. Suffering. [SU] SU Daemons HDM AU [SU] The Adolescence of Rose Quartz | But I don't think anyone turns into a car  [SU] Freedom To And Freedom From | Pearlrose Fixit | i love suffering!!! [SU] Forge Showdown AU [SU] Pearl Playing the Field TM | All I need in this life of sin is me and my pearlfriend [SU] The Grand Aventurine Heist (Not Really Grand And Only Slightly A Heist) | oh no who let Rose read the Scarlet Pimpernel

[SM] Future Vision blatantly ripped me off THANKS REBECCA | PUU fic [SM] Outers fall of SilMil | michific | The End is the Beginning is the End

[DS9] Kira fic bits

[TLOK] Five Times Kya Healed Lin and One Time She Couldn't | Kyalin fluff [TLOK] R.C. Noire | Lin BAMFong

[WATCHMEN] Silhouette fic bits

-

That's it! I don't think I have a single person that I know writes fic left that hasn't already been tagged in this, so feel free to do it (again) if it strikes your fancy.

[the-tulpars-quartermaster]

Meleana Lore Dump !!

Mostly for mod bc sometimes I'm really bad at keeping track of my oc's lore and details ꒰ᐢ◞ ◟ᐢ꒱,, But also just an excuse for me to talk about my daughter lol Everything under the cut !!

Master list,,

📋 ; Basic Info 📋 ; Backstory 📋 ; Relationships (Friends + Family) 📋 ; Fun / Assorted Facts

Basic Info,,

📋 Name : Meleana Katsaros, 📋 Job on the Ship : Quartermaster and documentary specialist 📋 Nicknames : Mel, Mely, Kat, Honey (because her name Meleana comes from the word honey in Greek) 📋 Sexuality / Gender : Demigirl, Bisexual (she/they) 📋 Age : 22 y/o, 📋 Height : 5'6" 📋 Ethnicity : Greek / Filipino, Born + raised in the Philippines 📋 Birthday : Oct 15

📋 Favorite Movie : The Secret World of Arrietty (Ghibli Film) 📋 Favorite Book : The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller) 📋 Favorite Musicians : Phoebe Bridgers, Mitski, Laufey, Kiltro 📋 Favorite Hobbies : Crocheting, drawing / journaling

Backstory,,

Meleana had a pretty normal childhood, being brought up by loving parents and being the eldest of 4 kids. She always looked after her younger siblings, being the designated "parent" for them whenever their actual parents were out (which was often, as their mother was working abroad and their father worked late to provide for all 5 siblings)

She graduated college with a Master of Finance (MFin or MSF) and soon got hired at Pony Express as the quartermaster and documentary specialist, working there a few cargo travels before Daisuke was added in last minute for one cargo trip

Relationships,,

📋 Family :

↪ Liezel Myra R. Katsaros (Mother) ; Mostly positive, despite not seeing her much in person due to her being an OFW. They call often, at least when Meleana is on earth. She writes to her while on cargo trips, saving the letters to mail later

↪ Elias Katsaros (Father) ; Same with her mother, but they're a little closer due to him being there physically for her all throughout her childhood

↪ Mariam R. Katsaros (Younger sister) ; Very positive, they're the closest out of all the siblings. Mari (as Meleana calls her) helps take care of Adonis and Althea whenever Meleana is off to work, and in return Meleana takes care of the twins whenever Mari gets busy with her own work on earth

↪ Adonis + Althea R. Katsaros (Twin siblings, youngest) ; Neutral positive, they get along well enough for siblings but the large age gap between them creates a small disconnect. Still, Meleana tries to be there for them and be present in both their lives. She shows up to their grade school events, whenever she can.

📋 Co-workers (Friends?) :

↪ Captain Curly ; Professional respect, but not much of a friendship. They work well together, but aren't particularly close. Meleana admires him greatly, sees him as a model captain

↪ Jimmy ; No opinion on him, avoids him if possible because he intimidates her, but she tries not to make it too personal. She wants to remain friendly with him and tries her best to

↪ Anya ; Sees her almost like her own mother, but she'd never tell her that. They talk often, would consider each other friends. She often leaves little drawings for Anya whenever she would drop by to check on medicine stock

↪ Swansea ; Kind of the same with Jimmy, not much of an opinion but as much as possible she tries to avoid him because he scares her a little. Once again, tries not to take anything personally and remain friendly with him

↪ Daisuke ; She thinks he's a weird little guy /vpos. At first she thought she wouldn't get along much with him due to how immature he seemed at first, but she actually surprised herself by how fond of his attitude she became. Tries (and fails) to be normal around him

( Will update with her rls with other oc rp accounts as I continue to rp with them < ꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱)

Fun / Assorted Facts,,

↪ Collects can tabs, has a whole jar of them that she keeps on a shelf in her room. She doesn't know why she collects them, she just does

↪ Has a My Melody plushie she had since she was 5, named her Little Mel (Got the idea from her father, who called the plush 'Little Mel' because she used to carry it everywhere as a kid)

↪ Understands + Speaks Tagalog semi-fluently (disuse has made her rusty) but is struggling hard with Greek

↪ Has anemia, denies this fact strongly and refuses to take iron supplements

↪ Kind of refuses to seek medical attention in general, hates making a fuss about herself unless she thinks she's in actual, genuine danger (or trying to find an excuse to talk to Anya / whoevers in medical at that moment)

( Will update as I please < ꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱)

Thank you for reading all of this!! And if you somehow got to the bottom of all of this and actually read everything, dm me "꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱" and It'll earn you a free drawing of an oc of your choosing :DD

Thank you again for reading, and good day / night !!

[melodraca]

~ Introduction Post ~

(Via: Outofcontextanimash)

Hello there, and welcome to my blog! My name is Gabriel, and I've been on this site for way too long

Mutuals, new followers, etc. feel free to reply to this post and tell me about yourself, infodump, talk about ocs, etc. I'm always happy to chat!

One like on this post = one high-five

———

Don't forget to kiss the mezuzah on your way in!

(Via: Frankfontainecalloutpost)

———

Check out the links below to see my about, and to find me on other sites!

About Me

Linktr.ee

DeviantArt

Art Fight

Toyhou.se

Flight Rising

Twitter

Warriors Sideblog

(Mobile-friendly "About Me" under the cut)

———

ABOUT

Hello, I’m Gabe! I’m a queer, Jewish hobbyist artist/writer with a ceaseless obsession for character creation. I’m a trans man, and I exclusively use he/him pronouns :)

I live in Canada with my roommate/best friend/RP partner/guy I bother, and my rancid little budgie Genji, whom I love terribly. I have a nasty habit of creating tons of characters and then never doing anything with them, kind of like a dead-beat father

Outside of art and character creation, I love dragons, video games, hiking, literature, film, paleontology, and animals/zoology. I’m currently in university, double majoring in English and biology!

Autism/ADHD/OCD/anxiety and physically disabled as well. I’m terrible at messaging people first, but I am always delighted to get messages <3 I’m awkward, but I love chatting. Also feel free to ask me to tag things!

On testosterone since July 25th, 2015

Post top surgery since October 26th, 2017

Post hysterectomy since August 6th, 2020

Currently on the wait-list for phalloplasty!

———

HEADS-UP

This isn’t really a DNI or a BYF, but more of a heads-up about the kind of content I reblog and my general takes on things. I don’t engage in discourse on here, like ever, but I figured I should include this anyway

This is probably a given, but I block conservatives/terfs/bigots/etc. on sight

I identify as queer and I use the (reclaimed) f-slur pretty frequently. I don’t tag reclaimed slurs

I do tag triggers as thoroughly as I can (nsfw/nsft, blood, transphobia, etc.) Please let me know if I ever forget to tag a trigger!

On that note, I’m an adult, and I frequently reblog/discuss things with mature themes (mostly jokes tbh). I also swear a lot. This isn’t an nsfw blog or anything, but y'know

I’m a furry, and I reblog (sfw) furry art. I may be cringe, but at least I’m free :3

I love the horror genre, and I sometimes reblog horror stuff. I tag anything with blood, gore, injuries, or body horror, but I don’t ever reblog legitimate/intense gore

My general political take on things is that every human deserves basic human rights, and violence or bigotry of any kind (transphobia, racism, antisemitism, ableism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. etc. etc.) is bad, actually

For my own mental health, I don’t answer inflammatory asks, or asks about topics I’m not comfortable with

Ask games are totally okay! I don’t really do “send this to 5 other people” type ask games, but I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless ^_^

Oh yeah. I should mention that I love MCYT (Minecraft YouTube), specifically Hermitcraft and the LifeSMP, and I post about it a lot, including shipping content. I feel like I need to clarify that I’m shipping the characters, not the Real Human Guys playing them. This is a super minor note, but like, y'know, just in case

———

INTERESTS

Feel free to check out my top tags to see the topics and fandoms I enjoy! I’m trying to tag things more comprehensively, but sometimes I forget so please, like, bear with me <3 I frequently post…

Animals (birds, dogs, bugs, etc.)

Dragons :D

Photography and nature

Paleontology and biology

OCs and art

Jewish stuff

Whatever I find funny or interesting on my dash

Posts that give me an excuse to info-dump or ramble

Occasionally politics/social justice/current events

In terms of fandom, some of my favourite things are…

The Magnus Archives/Protocol

Minecraft and MCYT (Third Life / Hermitcraft mostly)

Pokemon

Fallout

The Elder Scrolls

Flight Rising

Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul

Dungeon Meshi

Severance

Baldur’s Gate 3

Fullmetal Alchemist

Jurassic Park/World

Nope (2022)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Invincible

Fire Emblem (mostly Three Houses)

Infinity Train

Steven Universe

Definitely more I’m forgetting right now

[mithrilhearts]

heyy girl. i'm poppin ur ur asks to see if there's more info on the pirate wip!!! (also so excited to read the newest chapter of dragonhearted tonight!)

Yessss, the good ol' pirate au!! I actually do have some important information on this one, and I'll also toss in a snip from the next chapter!! (Also I am very glad you're excited!!! I'm happy I could finally post something for it lolol)

Check out "As The Tide Turns" here, but keep in mind the info below.

⚠️ This fic is undergoing some MINOR edits - I've decided to keep the original races (minus some fun developments for later), so I am working on making those little tweaks in the prior two chapters and will post when the tweaks are done in case people want a refresher/reread. It does not impact the story whatsoever, just my little brain has to edit it to tie in a bit better. Once that is done, look for the next chapter (which I am finishing editing!!).

Now....a snippet from chapter three!!

The excited sounds from the young dwarves were enough to plop a small smile upon Bilbo’s lips as he adjusted his coat, but his eyes kept drifting to Thorin. Thorin who was rolling barrels off the ship with Dwalin, as others were dumping the gross fishy substances within them back into the water. Though something about the way Thorin moved looked uncomfortable, like the muscles in his back were so tightly wound for whatever reason. It brought Bilbo a little pause as he leaned against the side of the ship and looked at a few unsavory looking characters seated on crates. One was sharpening a dagger, the other was peeling a questionable looking apple, but their mouths continued to move as their eyes were locked onto The Ravenheart’s Captain.

“Mercenaries, and wearing the brand of The Defiler, too,” Fili scoffed lowly, standing at Bilbo’s side and leaning against the ship as well. “Their captain may not be present, but I don’t trust them.”

“Just as many don’t trust us,” Kili tacked on, slouching at Bilbo’s other side. “Tis the way of things, but Thorin seems to be holding his own just fine against these trolls.”

Watching Thorin continue about his business without uttering a single word, Bilbo’s head gave a sharp tilt. “He’s not saying anything though…?”

“Exactly,” both dwarves answered and nodded in unison.

Wiggling his toes a bit in anxious anticipation, Bilbo watched how Thorin’s lips turned downward in a wince, and that spurred something unpleasant in him. He knew that look. It was one that came with great control of one’s emotions, but the dwarf captain had to be tearing at the seams by now. “Let’s head to the market then, there’s no time to waste.” It was mostly an excuse to get closer, and Bilbo was treating this as a way to prove his worth, but it was also a means to see what was bothering Thorin so much. It wasn’t that he felt the captain needed protecting, but a verbal spar? That right there was Bilbo’s specialty.

He didn’t grow up dealing with Lobelia on a daily basis to walk away without some form of a sharp witted tongue.

ask me about my wips!

[deafeninggardenerpanda]

003, your thoughts on DMK?

🙏 i post about dmk deceptively little for how many thoughts i have on the guy. its a lot of thoughts. excuse me for the massive hc dump dfkdh

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

How I feel about this character:

love the guy. funky little dude. just here to vibe. really though my first exposure to him was star allies where my first impression was oh this dude looks so cool. hes the coolest out of everyone

as with all no dialogue/backstory characters, this guy's pretty much entirely all my own headcanons, so ill repeat what my interp of him is like. chill but likes to be a minor asshole to people cause its funny. a bit of a prankster, but doesnt seriously hurt anyone anymore. actually cares a lot about what other people think of him but pretends not to

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character:

no one really. im pretty neutral on all the popular dameta ships out there too

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character:

oh now this is where its at. i have a Lot and theyre all tied so this is hard. as said before, hes a bit of a prankster so he likes to pull off pranks with magolor and marx (and sometimes even daroach and shadow kirby). hes also got a strong relationship with shadow dedede though, one strong enough that rivals the bond that regular meta and dedede have

My unpopular opinion about this character:

not evil or a genuine asshole. also he and regular meta knight are great friends lol

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

dameta merch? or in official content and fun stuff? 🥺🥺🥺 i mean as it is now (nothing) ill take anything new lmao, canon or not

Favorite friendship for this character:

hell yeah listen to me talk about dameta and meta friendship. dameta still annoys the hell out of meta, but he's actually very dependable and has his own honor code he sticks to strictly the same way meta does. if you tell him a secret or something tough that you Actually dont want getting out, he'll take it seriously and you can count on him to take it to the grave, even. apart from the serious stuff, those two like to have coffee meet ups to share gossip. dameta is ridiculously good at getting gossip and meta kinda depends on him to do the dirty work, in that regard, when he needs info

My crossover ship: free space lets go mirror world hc time

how mirror worlders work is you can get shattered multiple times but still come back from it. with a catch. every time you get shattered you come back with permanent negative effects and years cut off your lifespan that multiply exponentially each sequential shattering. 1st shattering its like nothing has even changed, its not uncommon to know someone thats been shattered once in the mirrror world. 2nd youll get worn out a bit easier than before (dameta is here. technically hes weaker than meta now so he doesnt pick fights with him) and cut to the end, around 5 or 6 youll be permanently paralyzed, or your lifespan will have been cut so much at that point you permanently shatter. it adds up quick

[kallypsowrites]

Shadow and Bones Show: What I Hope Changes and What I Hope Stays the Same

Well, we’re almost at the end of our wait, folks. Embargo lifts tomorrow. I am no doubt going to be reading a lot of the reviews because I have no self control lol. But, before that happens, I want to discuss what I hope the show changes and what I hope stays the same.

Let’s start with the changes!

1. Mal

This is kind of controversial among Darklina stans, considering that they worry fans won’t understand their dislike for book Mal. And I get that perspective, but I also don’t want to be angry at the endgame of the show (which I’m positive will stay the same). Any improvement on some of Mal’s dialogue in book one and two would be welcome. Make me at least...neutral on the ship.

2. Foreshadowing

I would love some more foreshadowing to later moments in the series. Particularly the Mal twist which I don’t think made all that much sense in book 3. It came out of nowhere, it required a huge info dump and it kinda felt like Leigh was making up the rules as she went along. And I get it. She didn’t know where she was going when she wrote book 1. BUT now they can go back and FORESHADOW a little more and make it all feel more natural.

3. The Darkling

Now I don’t want much changed about him. Keep him a villain, keep him his dark self. But I’d love to see him be a human throughout and avoid dipping into caricature. I want to see him over all more consistent and i think Ben Barnes will bring that. I also would like more exploration of his cause and why he does what he does.

4. Alina’s Agency

Jessie talked about giving Alina more agency and choices than she has in the books and I hope they deliver on this because there are many times when Alina is made a passenger in her own life and I’d like to see her get to be more active. I’d also like to see ANOTHER change to her endgame but that’s a spoiler and not until season 3 anyway, so ya know.

5. Cohesive world

Because this is visual medium there’s more room to do this very naturally. I want to see more stuff about saints which isn’t buried in the short stories. I want to see foreshadowing to later magic system evolutions. I want to see supposedly important religious symbols like the firebird actually appear before book 2 when it suddenly gets relevant. Just like...really draw me in. Six of Crows did a better job with this but the world building of the original trilogy often felt a bit skin deep/an excuse to move the plot how the author wanted.

6. More fleshed out side characters

Leigh is not always the best with side characters. They are often one note and its hard to form attachments. In particular I want to see Zoya move beyond her ‘mean girl’ persona in book 1 and I’d love to see more of David. More of Alexi maybe too. Genya is perfect though

7. More on the plight of the Grisha

Again, we are told that Grisha are hunted. That they struggle. But the major trilogy still keeps the Darkling as its bad guy for the whole time and doesn’t really show the abuses the Grisha are put through. Not until Six of Crows do we get any meaningful exploration on this. We need to see more of the war. More of the push and pull. More of what they are fighting for very early on.

What I don’t want changed

1. My Crows

Change nothing about them. I love them. My bisexual disaster son, my cane boy, my knife wife. They are wonderful and even though this is new story, I want them to feel the same

2. Darklina

At its core, I want very little of Darklina changed, except for giving Alina more agency. Keep the toxic stuff. keep the angst. The drama. Keep the dialogue as much as possible. I WANT it.

3. Genya

Love of my life. Never change. She’s the best.

4. The major story beats

Book 1 is my favorite of the trilogy, so I’d like to mostly see it stay the same but with bonus content. And when it comes to the crows, I don’t want to see any of the future content disrupted because I LOVE six of Crows with all of my heart.

5. Kanej

Please keep their dynamic, please keep their dynamic, please keep their dynamic (and don’t ignore their trauma).

6. Jesper and Nina’s bisexuality

They like both and it better be made CLEAR

7. The humor

No grimdark fantasy for me please! Give me the light hearted bits in the mix!

[legends-live-in-memories]

I Have Too Many Opinions. ep. 1

lmao. i got encouragement to post my opinions on fandom things and now i want to make a miniseries doing just that. so here i am. doing just that.

im putting it under the cut cuz this was 4 whole pages including the disclaimer. yes i put a disclaimer and i explain why.

Anyways, here is the first piece in what inevitably will become fandom info dump, this time on thomas astruc’s writing on miraculous ladybug. but only some of my opinions cuz we would be here all day otherwise.

So… a disclaimer before I begin… 

I do not hate Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir (yes i'm using their government name). I am quite a fan of the show actually despite its faults. I am also older than the intended audience but was obviously younger when the show first aired which is how my interest was piqued (the fact that its been 6 years and only 3 seasons says more about the show than me being a fan for that amount of time but also i never want to rush content creators cuz they're doing their best) and due to my age, there will be inherent bias in my approach of what i'm about to say as there is in EVERY opinion. The fact that it is an opinion should imply the presence of bias but most people tend to lack the critical thinking skills required to draw that conclusion ANYWAYS…

If I did hate the show I would not have this blog nor would I be even writing this because i tend to not give more than 2 seconds of thought to things i actively dislike (some of yall should give this a try) and i'm allowed to like things that are designed for an audience that i was originally a part of but grew out of. (I don't suddenly stop liking things because I'm older despite what many younger fans seem to believe about older audiences. I also don't need to be ‘allowed’ to do anything cuz i wasn't asking for permission anyways.)

This will not be character bashing, astruc bashing nor fandom bashing cuz, again, that would imply i hate any of those elements and if i did, i would not dedicate brainpower to them. Analyses and criticisms of media are fun and engaging and required if you wish to produce good enjoyable content. Now most of this should be already assumed and self-explanatory but people on the internet like to play morality roulette roll dice on purity culture and I rather have documentation that I am in fact not bullying fictional 14 year olds or a grown man. But alas, people get trigger happy whenever someone has less than 1000000% positive opinions on something they like and will throw out words they can't define (gaslight, baiting, toxic, problematic, gatekeep etc) in an attempt to defend their blind devotion, 

which is not needed, if you like something you never have to defend it, even if i don't like it. If you respond to anything I post saying you disagree with me, I will not argue with you. I won't debate back and forth and try to convince you that the things you like are wrong. Unless you are being absolutely tone deaf to what i'm saying, you wont get a negative reaction from me. So don't try to fish for a fight. Please. I got metaphorical hands for days and I'm mean, you don't want me hurting your feelings on the internet. Do yourself the favour. Difference of opinion is how we get diversification in media and is inherently a good thing. Now that that's out of the way, please don't ever let me have to say that again. I beg.

Now onto the fun stuff

I didn't know what I wanted as a first topic so my trusty internet friend @moonlitceleste suggested astruc’s writing… 

AND BOI do i got some opinions on ole tommy boi. Again I don't hate the dude. In fact, he has worked on a few shows that had defined my childhood, including but not limited to W.I.T.C.H. (all eps available on youtube for those interested, 2 seasons, general fun time all around).

So I don't think he’s scum of the earth but I do think his approach to writing mlb specifically has more misses than hits.

The first big miss is that he has no idea how to write 14 year old girls. At all. Almost every girl he has ever written feels like some terrible archetype built entirely for marketability and childish projection and pubescent self-insert (kind of). He has never been a 14 year old girl. I have. In fact when the show first aired, I WAS around the (assumed) age of the mlb characters. The behaviour he passes off as quirky or awkward or just the character’s genuine personality tend to perpetuate harmful stereotypes of teen girls found in the media and are never actually addressed as harmful. they just get swept under the rug. Marinette’s exuberant collage of teen heart throb model boi Adrien Agreste and her very painful almost fan worship she has of him (which flip flops like a paper sandal in the rain) being portrayed as a cute school girl crush uwu, Chloe being the y7 Regina George, Alya being the token best friend of colour with her ‘sassy’ personality (i want y'all to imagine me eyerolling so hard i bust a vessel in my eye), Kagami being the very damaging Perfect Asian Child stereotype. And before y'all get on your dusty soap box and defend going on about “BUT IT'S FOR CHILDREN”,,,, know this.

 i don’t give a solid fuck. 

Not one. 

Children arent stupid. Children are always going to remember the richy bitchy blonde who bullies the art kid, and the big kid, and the shy kid, and the non white kids, and was only nice to her equally rich white friend who she probably had a crush on or was only ever civil to her equally white lapdog. They're going to remember the half asian girl who was never allowed to actually be asian or the only black girl who existed solely as a soundboard for enabling bad habits or chastising the main character for the same habits she enables in the first place (boi aint THAT a topic for later). Like do i really need to explain that alya chastising marinette for taking max’s spot in gamer just to play with adrien rings absolutely hollow when she actively encourages her to sabotage the contest she’s in just so Kagami doesn't win?? Like I don't have to explain that right?? Again kids arent stupid and its quite something that Mari gets chastised for proving herself the best video game player regardless of her intentions just cuz it comes at the expense of max’s feelings/ego but is actively encouraged to sabotage not only kagami but herself by extension cuz kagami is ‘competition.’ Adrien is not a trophy to be won. And no I don't expect 14 yrs old to be perfect and to always make good decisions but these decisions are never addressed as being bad decisions. they get swept under the rug cuz those decisions were necessary for the ‘plot’ but astruc can barely keep characterization consistent and his characters suffer for it and it's the same children you preach are watching it that suffer as well. Cuz guess what? I KNOW 14 yr olds aren't like that cuz i've been there done that (this is the last time i'm saying that i promise) so I know astruc is just metaphorically throwing darts to figure out who says and does what without consideration for pre established personalities to drive the stalemate plot along. The same kids you say are watching this don't know that that's not how preteens work and will absorb and internalize those dynamics like baking soda and vinegar. Cata-fucking-strophically. 

And I haven't even gotten to the boys yet. Which honestly doesn't require much explanation anyways cuz they suffer the same fate as the girls. Tired archetypes with nothing to give them life. Nino falls into Adrien’s person of colour token best friend who dates the female lead’s person of colour token best friend so they can have cute double dates uwu. Except the plot goes nowhere and we have no inclination of romantic development beyond moments that only act to actively convince me to anti ship the lovesquare (i don't want to do that so i self indulge in fanon that actually cares about the characters and plot. may i interest you in True Sight on AO3?). Max is the residential nerd but it doesn't matter (cuz he and everyone are dumbed down for the sake of ‘plot’), kim is the sports jock (which interestingly subverts the asian comedic relief stereotype but only barely) and luka is cute older guy ™ that wears black nail polish and is in a band. The point of all this is to say there is no depth in the characters. It's especially blatantly obvious with the characters astruc doesn't like (chloe). Again, it being a show for kids is not an excuse to be absolved of putting effort into the characters you make.

This is one of the biggest misses astruc has. I haven't even gone into all the nuances of this particular miss. And i havent gone into how that works against him in the plot either. Mostly because the plot itself hasn't gone anywhere and partially because I wanted to go into the plot (or lack thereof) separately as its own miss. 

AND BOI is it a miss. 

SO home boy astruc wanted to reap the benefits of a serial show with ‘engaging’ plot without putting in any of the work to make a linear storyline and relying on the episodic format for, again, marketability. You can't have the best of both worlds, you are not Avatar: The Last Airbender. Which btw has a lot less episodes and a desired end goal that didn't involve top dollar. Legend of Korra did but that's not the point and it had its failings with that too. I challenge you, tell me how many episodes actually contribute towards a plot point or introduce new thematic elements to the show? Can you name them? I can and I'm going to include the plot points that moved the story in some direction if only temporarily. Yes only temporarily for some of these and i will explain later. (if you're in the server you already saw this list *wink*)

25/26. Origins- self explanatory, the beginning of the story, 

24. Volpina- introduction of the grimoire and Master Fu (kind of) and no, Lila is not a plot point,

28. The Collector- proper introduction of Master Fu,

37. Sapotis- introduction of Rena Rouge,

41. Syren- introduction of new aquatic power ups,

44. Anansi- introduction of Carapace,

47. Frozer- introduction of new ice power ups,

48/49. Style Queen- introduction of Queen Bee,

51/52. Heroes’ Day- introduction of Mayura and mass akumatization,

66. Startrain- introduction of Pegasus,

67. Kwami Buster- Marinette wears multiple miraculouses,

68. Feast- backstory as to how the miraculouses were lost,

69. Ikari Gozen- introduction of Ryuko,

70. Timetagger- introduction of Bunnyx,

71. Party Crasher- introduction of Roi Singe and Viperion,

73. Chat Blanc- alternate timeline that essentially means nothing but got a reaction out of fans anyways (myself included)

 77/78. Love Eater/Battle of Miraculous- Marinette becomes guardian and other heroes lose their miraculous,

New York Special- other heroes exist and there is an American miraculous box,

That's 21 episodes. 21 out of a heaping 78 plus 2 specials. Everything else was just your typical akuma of the day episode and everything that happened outside that had no lasting consequences on the plot thanks to the miraculous status quo. Was it entertaining to watch Lila stir the plot of the class dynamic? Hell yeah. Too bad it meant nothing by the end of the episode cuz we were struck with miraculous status quo. She literally doesn't appear again until Heroes Day. that is from episodes 25 all the way to 51, she means nothing and yet she is treated with the severity of a b-villain/rival thing. She means nothing by the end of Volpina if I'm being honest. She is only relevant for 20 mins of episode time she’s in then it's back to magic status quo that undoes any shift in dynamics and relationships. It's like Spongebob who can't get his driver’s license. The worst part is I actually like Lila and I wish the story treated her with the seriousness we as an audience are expected to treat her with. Despite being painfully inconsequential by the end of each of the 3?? 4?? episodes she’s in, it's entertaining to watch a character create drama just because. 

Too bad it means nothing.

Astruc is constantly building up suspense to something ‘important’ only for it to not deliver and fans are constantly having the rug pulled out from under us. Oblivio teased us with a reveal only that gets undone cuz memory akuma. Chat Blanc teased us with romantic development but that gets undone cuz time travel bullshit. Feast introduced more miraculous lore and the history of the guardians but that means nothing by the next episode or ever (i'm not including any reference to the season 4 trailer cuz i've been around the block a few times and im familiar with this lil dancy dance). Heroes Day teased us with a possible future team of heroes but that gets undone in Battle of Miraculous cuz ????? why?? (here's why; astruc was having a jolly ole time letting us know how irredeemable Chloe is at the expense of shooting his own stagnant plot in the foot. Again, discussion for later.)

Too bad anything that slightly swerves off course from the akuma of the day gets undone or ignored. Too bad nothing has any lasting consequence. I mean, if anything did, the episodes would have had a consistent order and release schedule so im not scrambling to watch the leaked ep in Portuguese or something while the french dub is two episodes behind while the english version hasnt even been dubbed. I really wonder how he plans to conclude the show when he’s so afraid to step out of the corner he painted himself in.

Again, not going into nuances. If you want you can ask for more specifics (i doubt anyone would) but this is really just a slightly detailed general overview of my opinions on astruc’s writing. 

I was going to include another miss in his approach to this show but imma save that for another time. 

How’s that for a ‘first’ post?

[igniting-quill]

Hello! Thank you so much for writing that Korest piece; it was really interesting and I am slowly eyeing it in order to perhaps expand upon it a little... anyways I was gonna ask if you could expand on the logistics of getting back the spell book/dictionary? You definitely don’t have to but I’m a little curious :) anyways besides that this is just an appreciation ask,,, thanks for feeding the microscopic korest fandom lol

AHHHH I’m unbelievably flattered! I’ve always been one to like rarepairs. Microscopic ships unite!

For the ones confused on what this is about, here’s a link to the Korest piece we are referring to.

To be honest here, I did not have the best of world building, and by the time I got to the point I got to that location in the story I didn’t really look too far into like… how it would work. I say, feel free to take your own creative stance on this.

That being said, totally not in a way that will like… leave me an excuse to just info dump… haha, I think it is good to lay some sort of foundation of my thought process so at least you aren’t totally lost within a magical system that I made myself. But I also don’t want to hinder any creative solutions that you come up with though, so feel free to change/disregard some of the information I wrote below. I go over my thoughts on the fire specifically. Afterwards, I made sections with Eduard and Yong Soo’s abilities and why I gave them the magical “powers” I did. Feel free to use the information and piece together a possible solution. As usual I wrote way too much, but the benefit of that is that you’ll have plenty to look through. Good Luck!

Logistics of Saving the Burning Book

So the remains of a burnt book is probably a ton of ashes, some flying away in the wind as solid clumps, some breaking off and turning into gaseous molecules, and some remaining on the ground. How does our duo get them back together?

I go into Eduard and Yong Soo’s skill sets a little further into this long post. I’d love to see what sort of ways you can piece together this puzzle (I mean, I myself haven’t even really solved it, so I’m intrigued. Maybe I’ll give it a go when I have time.)

Eduard 

Eduard’s inherent power is teleportation. I would like to think that the beginnings of his magical abilities began when he figured out he could transport objects to and from him. (Sort of like the chopstick scene in the portion I did write in my WIP). In my WIP, I had the object disappear and reappear again, but I am also open to having the object “float” in the air to/from him. He can also teleport himself (like his body, clothes, luggage) short distances. I never bothered to lay down a specific length for maximum distance and such, but he could definitely not go from Estonia → Korea. Maybe the distance is transporting from room to room in his house/apartment. Or maybe extend it further so when he’s really desperate he could teleport to work or something? Since I didn’t lay down hard boundaries, that distance he can transport himself to is up to you. I don’t have any instances of this happening in the fic itself, but I would think that Eduard can also transport other people as long as he was holding onto them. Teleporting, especially teleporting himself, takes a lot of magical energy to do, so he often has to chill and recharge. I think that it runs out rather often, but especially when he is not well rested and such. After all, his strength lies in his smarts, not in his power (in this AU, magical ability). I would like to think that he lives life largely like a “normal” person would. He doesn’t necessarily have as much control over his powers because he doesn’t practice them much.

TL;DR: Eduard can teleport short distances, transfer objects from one place to another (no touching non-living things necessary), and bring other people with him as long as they hold on to him.

I gave this ability to Eduard because in canon, hws Estonia is the one that gets to see the alternate universes of mochi-talia and nyotalia in person. It kinda fits in here because Eduard is once again beamed to somewhere that is very foreign to him! I also think that, if you want to add on, feel free to see Eduard improve on his ability while hanging around Yong Soo. After all, I think it is difficult to improve on magical abilities if every single “magical” person is spread out across the world. There’s one “sorcerer-type” per country after all. Meanwhile, Yong Soo had his brother to practice with for a bit, so I think that the increased exposure made him better at magic compared to Eduard.

Yong Soo

Yong Soo has many abilities as he has his spellbook. I brushed up a bit of this in Eduard’s section, but since he and his brother both are magical, I would think Yong Soo is a bit more powerful than Eduard. (I meant for Yong Soo’s brother to be hws North Korea, but I know that there have been other discussions of what sort of country representation(s) Korea split into. Feel free to switch up the siblings and such). Yong Soo’s inherent ability is a brief rewinding of time but it is solely isolated on one object. Physical changes, like fixing broken glasses, for example, would be a demonstration of what Yong Soo would do. Chemical changes, like paper burning, would be harder but still achievable because Yong Soo is pretty experienced. The boundaries to his inherent ability would be that he can’t do anything to a living being: someone got stabbed/broke an arm/drank poison/died? He can’t reverse the wound. However, if a once-living being was affected, Yong Soo can manipulate it. (This could lead to some really creepy story lines. But I leave this open because he manipulates paper, something that came from a tree once) Honestly, you could go into a deep, deep rabbit hole seeing what sort of manifestations of a time-manipulating ability. I decided not to go down that rabbit hole and instead have Yong Soo spend his time researching into other spells: light/fire manipulation (the lamp scene), language translating (“why are you a polyglot?” scene), magic boost (I assume this is how Eduard made it back home, but I kept that vague. I leave that up to you to decide).

TL;DR: Yong Soo can rewind time but only for an object. The object cannot be living. Physical changes are easier to backtrack compared to chemical ones.

My thought process behind giving Yong Soo this ability was that he could be an inventor of some sort. I still had him do this a tad when he was working for the Emperor and such. Like, he would do his normal advisor job and return to his little nook where he would create new inventions. The reason why this would work was because he could just totally screw up on his experiments and all he would have to do was rewind a bit. Hence the whole “____ originated in Korea” would make sense. It’s a bit of a stretch, but it made sense in my head.

ALSO ALSO keep in mind that I give you the power of absolutely whatever you want regarding what Yong Soo can do regarding the spell book. Make him struggle though because he just got the spell book and they slowly translate the text. Maybe his skills are half-baked, or maybe there’s a spell that he uses earlier on regarding flames (Maybe the lantern scene?) that is not so strong but he works on it and at this moment it works! Idk just some thoughts.

Conclusion:

If you do end up expanding on this premise, feel free to cut out the accidental burning of the book. Your story structure might end up a bit different from mine. How vital is this section to the overall story? If it doesn’t fit, don’t force it.

I hope this wasn’t too overwhelming and it helps you out! Again, I love your appreciation: as a writer I devour compliments because they are so overwhelmingly fantastic to get.

[riverrunscold]

I saw your tags, please info dump to me about your ocs, I wanna hear all about them!! 😊

Sorry I'm late getting to this ask! But I'm so ready to info dump!

Sorry if some of this is worded weird, I took it directly from my character notes which at the moment are doubling as my story developing notes.

Brief story description (so far):

A murder mystery story with the main characters, Rosemary Josephine Wynn, a skeptical detective and Cromwell, a trans spiritualist who is also a dumbass and excitable.

It's the 1920s, these two are working out of a small building that they rented out together, they have been friends since Rose first met Cromwell during an investigation. She loved ribbing him about ghosts not being real and enjoyed how flustered the man got. Though she also disagrees with the business he runs and once thought he was scamming people until she realized he actually believes the shit he sells.

Now, onto the characters!:

Rosemary- Rosemary is a black woman who dresses pretty similar to what women would in the 20s but would include more masculine outfits from time to time when she's conducting detective business. She found people took her more seriously that way but during the story maybe she stops wearing the masculine garb altogether when she realizes that she wants to be able to be herself and still be taken seriously. She also starts styling her hair in more ways, instead of trying as best she can to straighten it every morning or hide it under a hat. She also tends to have a more masculine bravado which she developed over the course of her career, influenced by her three brothers also. She has muscular arms and could beat you up in her favorite pair of heels if she wanted to. Her celtic zodiac animal is the Snake (something Cromwell references often). She's strong, strong-willed and strong-headed. Not at all spiritual, focuses on objective facts more often than not. Makes it a bit hard for her and Cromwell to get along at first. Rosemary is very in her own head and anxious but very silent about it, having experienced a lot of mental and physical abuse from her mother growing up. Her mother raised her as a work machine since she was young, never really stopping to teach her lessons about emotions and sometimes actively punishing her when she displayed them. She was less strict on her brothers, Rosemary thinks it's because she was her least favorite but her mom knew how hard it was for black women to get ahead in life so she made sure she focused on her studies and being good at multiple things (though it does not at all excuse her behavior). Therefore Rosemary ends up emotionally stunted later in life, not opening up often out of subconscious or conscious fear of repercussions. Throughout the story, Cromwell, being the outgoing nonjudgmental guy he is tries to help her open up and ends up being able to do that throughout the course of the story. This could possibly all crescendo into a point in the story where Rosemary shows her affection towards Cromwell through actions, not being great with emotional words or sometimes words in general. Maybe she puts herself in-between Cromwell and someone wishing to do him harm, being the stronger of the two and not wanting him to get hurt. This could possibly be at the expense of her own well-being. This could be a big turning point, Rosemary outwardly showing affection towards someone for the first time in possibly her whole life aside from her brothers. Rosemary suffers with PTSD, a result from her household abuse. She also has a hard time actually getting into relationships, watching her parents own degrade when she was younger. She's also terrified of being left by someone she lets herself get attached to, which is what happened with her dad. Since she has PTSD it often shapes the way she thinks or reacts, which will be incorporated into the story during her perspective chapters.

Cromwell-

Cromwell is actually his last name but he uses it instead of his dead name, one of his teacher's having called him by his last name once making him realize how much he loved not being referred to as his first or as Ms Cromwell. He's not out to anybody, just keeps connected to underground trans channels who also happen to frequent speakeasys around town. He's also Scottish, Cromwell being a Scottish name. He has red hair and freckles all over but his eyes are two different colors, it's almost not noticable. One's blue and one's green. He's a dumbass but I love him. Most people have a hard time understanding what he says because of his accent, a lot of people roll their eyes at him when they hear him speak. He doesn't speak much though because of the uncomfortableness he feels about his voice being too feminine for his liking. The only person he talks to with regularity is Rose but that's only because she basically forces him into arguments about ghosts. Don't worry though, they're all good natured on Rose's part, Cromwell's just dramatic. He also wears very worn clothing, a trench coat and white button up that were both too big for him. He also wore slacks with holes that were caused by moths and, so he claims to Rose's upset, spirits (He's mostly joking when he says it. Mostly).

Him believing in ghosts so much may also have to do with him wanting to be able to contact his sister who had passed away years ago but not even Rose knows about that until later on. His sister was really the only support he had in his family. Cromwell also taught himself how to sew, helped by his mother teaching him when he was younger, so he could create his own binders and give them to other trans men he knows. His celtic zodiac is the Fox, having been born March 31st 1899, making him 21. He's very spiritual and emotional, but very extroverted and wants to know others. He's also a tad flirtatious. He helps Rosemary get more in touch with her feelings or at least tries to. He started with giving her complements but that quickly turned out to not be at all effective, she tended to react to them with sarcasm or annoyance. Cromwell has ADHD. His symptoms also show through when the book shifts to his perspective.

Some thing I didn't mention, they are probably one of my favorite ship dynamics, the skeptic and believer, introvert and extrovert, opposites attract. I love that shit. Also slight rivals to friends to lovers babyy!

This also might be slightly based on Mulder and Scully but shut up xD

[neshabeingchildish]

03. Robin’s Telling

I’m using some of my head canons I shared when @writing-excuses​ was wondering about ones we have for Chasper in this fic. So, y’all’ll see some things that aren’t necessarily canon, but I’m trying to a certain degree to be canonical with who the characters are at their core, and trying to build the story on that. Try to be patient with me, as this ain’t really that popular of a ship and don’t really have a super amount of ‘canon fodder.’ Lol. I have about 5 chapters outlined, so after the next couple, it may slow down a little. 

Robin’s Telling or Tales from the Friendship Zone

So, whenever they were in 6th grade, Jasper and Charlotte were assigned to this team building experiment disguised as a creative writing project. They had to write a round robin story, which means that they took turns adding material to the story and had to try to feed off of the last of the information by their partner to write the installment of the story. Jasper started it off and Charlotte found it a challenge to sometimes make sense of whatever nonsense he had written, but she was a girl who could appreciate a good challenge. What she hadn’t appreciated was the ruse by their teacher to make her and Jasper get along better! But. she had to admit, it helped. 

The friends used the story and the notebook it was written in to continue this process and in turn, sort of built upon their friendship as the saga continued.  When they came to the end of the spiral, Jasper panicked. “It can’t be over! We never made an ending for it!!!” He was seriously freaking out. Charlotte happened to have another spiral notebook available at the time, and she said, “Look... We can keep it up. Maybe... this could be the second season of it. I’ll even start it out.” She opened it and started this new installment of the story, then passed it to him. “Chill out. One of these days, it has to end.”

“According to who?” He wondered, snatching the spiral from her. She rolled her eyes and walked off.

And now, they were in season 6 of Robin’s Telling, as she liked to call it (He called it Tales from the Friendship Zone), and they rarely ever really used it, but every now and then, one of them would either continue from where they left off or ask the other if they had continued yet. It was in Jasper’s care at the moment and after he left her house (which was done after he watched her sleep for a little bit, then realized that was probably weird and creepy, but waking her up was probably dangerous). He got home and his mom wasn’t even there. Typical. But, he was able to pull out the current spiral and get some writing done. He’d pass it off to her at Man Band practice.

.

Charlotte and Henry were laughing and playing video games whenever Jasper came into work. “Hey, Jasp!” Henry cheered. Charlotte didn’t say anything. Jasper wondered if everything was okay between them. 

“Hey,” he said and put his gym bag away. “What are you two playing?”

“I’m playing. He’s just losing,” Charlotte said, laughing. 

“I’m playing, she’s just being mean,” Henry corrected. 

“Neither of those statements answered my question, but enjoy.” He went back to the store and Henry gave Charlotte a weird look. She ignored it and continued playing, so he moved on, too.

Later, whenever it was time for them to go home, Henry and Charlotte were discussing plans for at Henry’s house. Apparently, they were hanging out after work, too. Eventually, Henry made some comment that seemed to elude that Jasper was invited too, but he didn’t know if he wanted to hangout with the two of them. Maybe he was just overly sensitive because he shared a lot of very intimate. personal information with Charlotte and she seemed to be acting like it never happened. Maybe she was avoiding speaking with him because he made her uncomfortable. At any rate, he said, “I don’t know how my mom’s gonna act if I spend two nights away from home.”

“No, you’ll be home later tonight,” Henry said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Maybe, you could call ahead and check in with her, to see if she’s more understanding, if you do it that way?” Charlotte suggested.

Jasper nodded, “Yeah, I’ll do that.” Whenever he spoke on the phone with his mom, he told her that he would be hanging out with Henry until later on... “Yeah, she’s hanging out too...” Then he sighed and was listening to something for a while. Charlotte and Henry looked at each other. “There’s nothing like that going on. We’re all just friends. She’s a good girl. Top of the class...” 

Charlotte raised an eyebrow and leaned into the mouthpiece to say, “HEY JASPER’S MOM!!!” Henry pulled her to the other side of himself and Jasper rolled his eyes, but they didn’t know whether at Charlotte instigating with his mom, or with his mom, obviously on the other line, trash talking Charlotte. 

“I’m sure that she’ll be home by a time that’s decent for a young lady. She’s a good egg. I don’t feel like doing this. Do you need anything? Okay. Yeah, love you too.” He hung up and asked Charlotte, “Why would you provoke her?”

“She’s trash,” Charlotte said, simply. Henry gasped and Jasper furrowed his eyebrows. “Sorry. I meant to say she was talking trash about me. My bad. Words got choppy in my head.” She really meant what she’d said, but that was a bit much to say to someone’s face about their mom. 

“Good save,” Henry said, sarcastically and wrapped an arm around Jasper’s shoulder, “But, what kind of trash was she talking about Charlotte?”

“I’m interested, as well.”

“She asked, if my little friend was gonna be there, said what’s her name, then pretended to say the wrong names. Then, she said that if a girl hangs out with a couple of boys this much something fresh must be going on.” 

He didn’t want to go into detail, but his mother had advised him to use protection, in case she had something and also forbid him to do anything with her if both boys were in the room..

“You know what? I’m gonna shut my mouth and move on with my life,” Charlotte said. Jasper’s mom had SOME nerve, after the child-rearing job she’d done. Which reminded her, “Oh! Hey, I found something that might be useful for you. Actually, I heard an ad when I was listening to one of my podcasts. I’ll send you the info. She texted him a link to a therapy connection that charged $30 a week and you could text a licensed therapist! He smiled to himself and put his phone away. 

Henry was curious about what she’d sent to him, but tried not to butt in. There was some kind of other friendship happening with those two that he knew he wasn’t included in. SO, he made a conversation topic that the three could participate in. 

.

At Henry's, Jasper seemed in his own world. Charlotte was concerned about it, because he usually was the most talkative and cheerful one. At some point, while Henry was in the bathroom, she asked, "You okay, Jasper?"

He sighed, "I thought maybe you didn't care one way or another. I'm… worried that I weirded you out with all my baggage. You're not supposed to unpack in front of people unless you're going to be there for a while. I feel like I just dumped it all over the place and then suddenly, you were distant."

"It wasn't like that to me. I thought that speaking about your trauma probably stirred up some things and maybe you could use a break from focusing on it. Sorry if I seemed taken aback. I wasn't. In fact, I feel closer to you than ever. I'm honestly glad you felt like you could come to me. Are you gonna use that service I sent you?"

"Yeah. I'm gonna check it out. Do you mind if I hug you?" 

She smiled and went over for the hug, fell on his lap and they laughed about it, but she didn't move. Jasper had a pretty cozy hug. They didn't usually hug much, but his arms were bigger than she'd noticed and he was soft and slightly cushioned. It was like hugging a life-size, warm, plushie, or as comforting, anyway. Plus… did Jasper always smell this good? That was definitely new. 

He strummed her back and she rested on his shoulder until they heard, "Whoa!" Henry was back and he was shocked and confused by the contact. 

Charlotte got up and said, "I fell. Shut up."

"Fell and landed right in Jasper's lap, into a hug, on his shoulder, huh?"

"That's what I said," she told him. 

Henry looked at Jasper. "What? Sometimes people fall." He smiled at Charlotte and her face went warm. Sometimes people fall. Such a simple and true statement. Sometimes people fall in more ways than one. Not as simple, but she couldn't tell yet if she minded it at all.

.

Charlotte was surprised to see that Jasper had handed her the copy of Robin’s Telling. It had been a long while since they’d passed it around, but the anticipation of whatever she was feeling lately about him was heightened by her memories of how this process had brought them closer as friends. Jasper was kinda cute, if she was honest. If you took away some of his weird quirks and gross habits and just looked at him - like... if she had seen him in passing without knowing that he picked at his scabs, or asked you to help pop pimples on his back... She’d have to say that she thought he was an attractive guy. And either he was going through some life changes or she just had started paying attention - but a lot of his gross habits she couldn’t recall seeing lately.

It was almost like he had been either getting better or at least pretending to be more dignified. She hoped that meant that he was talking to someone about his problems and improving himself as he felt healthier. It still blew her mind that he carried around pain in that jolly body of his. That behind that boyish smile were tears that he didn’t shed or didn’t show to even his closest friends. She hoped that he knew that he could, if he needed to. She hoped that he was gonna sleep well tonight. 

As she finished writing her segment in the notebook, she knew that her emotions would show up in it. They usually did. Whenever she had something on her mind, stress, sadness, or anything... it was generally reflected in the story. Jasper used to be able to tell. He’d always draw a cute and/or corny doodle on the page whenever he noticed that she was down via her entries.

And a few days later, whenever she got it back, he had drawn her a three legged pickle, “a tri-pickle, if you will.” 

[percontaion-points]

Child of the Ghosts chapters 9 & 10

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Chapter 9

"This? This tub is a boat, not a ship. Go to Malarae, or to Marsis, and you will see ships. Not just fishing boats." He spat over the side. "Fool child. Is that why you followed us? To ride upon a boat?"

"My father is dead," said Caina. "I have nowhere else to go."

"You could have had a life of comfort and ease," said Riogan. "Instead you chose to become a nightfighter. And for what? Hmm? To see a boat?"

Caina started to answer, fell silent.

"What, girl?" said Riogan. "What were you going to say?"

"You don't like me very much," said Caina.

"No," said Riogan. He smirked. "Are you going to cry? Complain to Halfdan? Or maybe you'll do something clever, figure out why I don't like you?"

"I think I remind you of a bad memory," said Caina. "Something you don't like to remember."

The girl witnessed her mother basically murder her father and everybody in the house, before Caina herself was forced to murder her own mother. She was then captured and held prisoner by a man who forcefully bled her in order to use dark magic.

AND RIOGAN KNOWS ALL OF THIS. YET HE ACTIVLY DECIDED TO SIT THERE AND MAKE FUN OF THE LITERAL TORTURED ORPHAN.

I'm sorry that you life sucks, Riogan, but that's no excuse to take it out on Caina.

"The sorcerer-priests of the Saddai," said Halfdan. "They worshiped the flames, and practiced pyromancy, burning their victims alive to fuel their arcane powers. They conquered Disalia and enslaved the Disali clans. The Disali tried to fight back. Their honor and rituals compelled them to seek out the Ashbringers in open battle. But the clans could not stand against the power of the Ashbringers, and every time they fought, the Ashbringers slaughtered them."

HOLY FUCKING SHIT, NOBODY FUCKING CARES.

I'm so goddamned sick and tired of books that just have all of this lore and decide to info dump it into the narration with zero context.

It would be one thing if the author worked this info in naturally. But this is just shoving info in for the sake of putting it into the novel, with zero context.

It's not important! None of this is ever going to come up again! I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I'VE READ TOO MANY BOOKS JUST LIKE THIS.

The gates swung open to meet them, and Caina followed Halfdan, Riogan, and Komnene inside.

Chapter 9 summary: They reach the village they'd been aiming towards, only to be a little wary upon seeing so many women wearing black mourning clothes. Halfdan takes Caina inside of a tavern to ask about it, and the barkeep says that some smugglers brough back stuff “liberated” from a tomb, only to have the bad guy show up and kill everybody. He also says that he thinks that the magic scared off all of the fish, so even if somebody survived the magic attack, they were barely scraping by.

They take a boat off elsewhere, which takes four days. It's during that time that the “muscle” of the group sits down and is like “Waa, is the tortured orphan sad?” However, Caina says some stuff to him that makes him avoid her for the rest of the trip.

When they reach land, they get some mules, and start heading for some mountains. The others tell her that the mountains are so treacherous to pass that most merchants would rather spend the extra time and money shipping supplies around the mountain rather than through it. It's up there that the Ghosts call their home.

As they walk, they tell Caina about this old war, where one side didn't fight fair. This resulted in their own ancestors working in secret to bring the enemy down. The enemy blamed literal ghosts for their misfortune in war, and it's obviously where the assassin's guild get their name.

They get to the mountains, where Caina starts talking with the other man about wine, since he used to be into winemaking. However, the others warn Caina not to get him started, but in the same breath say that the cover for the training grounds is a literal vineyard.

Chapter 10

"You are a pampered noble child, yes?" said Akragas in accented Caerish, "soft and weak. The Ghosts should teach her to be perfumed and pretty, to lure our enemies into her bed when she is older. Until then, waste not my time with her."

CASUAL SEXISM.

"True," said Sandros. "Hand to hand, it will be hard for you to defeat a man of equal skill. But blades...ah, blades, are the great leveler. In a skilled hand, a knife can kill anyone. And knives, as I said, teach respect. A man may view you as a victim, as prey to be exploited...until you hold a knife to his throat. Or to his balls." He chuckled. "Then he will think of you rather differently."

Training montages work in movies because there's movement, and often set to a lively, catchy song. (And I'm not going to be able to get “Eye of the Tiger” out from my head.)

Training montages don't work in books, because you have to spell out exactly what she's doing, which is super fucking tedious to read.

And one day she looked up and realized that she had spent over a year at the Vineyard.

Chapter 10 summary: If this was a movie, this would have been a montage the length of a song. But it's a book, so it's a tedious chapter in which Caina learns how to fight with her hands and how to use knives from her teacher, Akragas. Komnene, the former priestess, teaches her about poisons. Halfdan teaches her stuff like how to pick a lock and how to walk silently.

However, after some time has passed, Halfdan goes to Komnene, and is like “Damn, this was probably a mistake.” And I'm just kind of screaming over the entire thing because this was all his idea in the first place.

At the end of the chapter, one year has passed.