#this was from a year ago edited on June 1 2023

[unholyfangirling]

Nothing Good

(Previously titled the Unwilling Thief AU)

(CW: Major Character Death, attempted murder, graphic descriptions of drowning(?), choking, gore, there is a part of the last "I'm probably never going to use this scene" scene that sound like sexual assault but I'm leaving it up in the air for the reader to take as they perceive it(the scene is all contained within parentheses if you want to skip it, look for "first death by his hands" and ends at "Midoriya takes the quirk."), (accidental) gaslighting, and a whole truckload of angst, this seems like it could be going down the Hurt No Comfort path, I'm adding as many CWs as I can think of so that I don't accidentally ruin someone's day)

So about a year ago, I had this idea for an AU where Izuku has All For One BUT it's a little...fucky. I'm just dumping this here to say thanks to @speedyowl152 because honestly knowing someone else was as invested in this angst ship as I was kept me going when I wanted to give up on it and now it's fully outlined!! And also if I chicken out and never complete this work I want it floating around somewhere lol.

Izuku can take but not give quirks(no this will never change because I love angst and no the plot won't be solved by a sudden way to get rid of this quirk or make izuku give back quirks, izuku will have to learn to live with this).

He gets quirk vestiges when the person whose quirk he took dies(I gave him so many vestiges holy fuck) and that vestige can decide whether he can use its quirk or not. If the person whose quirk he took is alive he can use the quirk normally.

And it also has the same quirk property that the First OFA user had where AFO cannot take Izuku's quirk by force. Izuku can't give him the quirk anyway lol because there is a reason he calls the quirk "Take" and not "Take and Give".

Summary(it's really cheesy I know but I'm not brave enough to find a beta):

"Izuku had always wished that someone had believed him. So he should have been grateful that, by some cruel entity’s amusement, his wish had come true. But he hadn't wanted them to realize he was telling the truth like this. 

Never like this. 

Not when it was because he had left somebody dead."

~

Take is exactly what it sounds like, all it ever does is ruin his life in any way it finds possible. The best he can hope for is making it to his grave without having to use it ever again.

But of course, Izuku could never be that lucky.

So now as his life is shredded to pieces all he can hope to do is make it another day, but whatever the future has in store for him, Izuku is sure that it’s nothing good.

Some plot points(spoilers i guess but im not sure if I'll ever complete this fic):

Izuku takes Bakugou's quirk when Take first manifests, Bakugou hides his quirk so that he could show his best friend first and.... yeah you already know how this is going to go. Bakugou grows up quirkless because Izuku can't give back the quirk(not for lack of trying) and their relationship is worse than ever, Izuku won't let go because of his guilt complex.

Everyone thinks Izuku's quirk is Explosion. He tried to show it to the adults to get them to help him and Bakugou...

“Oh, Izuku, you must have imagined it, I’m sorry I told you about that lame old folks story. I didn’t think it would scare you so much.”

“But, mom it's not mine-!” Izuku tries to argue.

“Hush now, it’s okay baby, it wasn’t real. Now let's see that wonderful quirk the teachers said you showed them.”

“But it’s not mine,” Izuku looks at his mother like if he looked long enough she might believe him. However her excited smile stays on her face, fully expecting him to show off what he had stolen.

“….It's not mine.”

3. The sludge villain attacks Izuku and Izuku uses Take in a panic when he realizes he's about to die. Mutation quirks don't work well with AFO, side effects are usually severe. In the sludge villain's case: he dies, and that is how All Might finds Izuku Midoriya, doused in blood and gore:

Toshinori gapes at the scene, almost uncomprehending, “...Young man, could you tell me what happened here?”

The boy looks horrified at his own hands, covered in blood, sludge, and a yellowish fluid “...I killed him.” he croaks then doubles over to dry heave with tears streaming down his cheeks, “I killed him.” the teen gasps out again with eyes glassy and wide, full of shock but still a disgusting understanding, “I killed him.”

4. The sludge villain is Izuku's first quirk vestige :D Izuku doesn't realize that the sludge villain strangling him in his nightmares every. single. time. he sleeps. is the real deal... until other vestiges start showing up :)

5. I'm sorry Inko dies and Izuku is there to see it. Before she dies Izuku has already figured out the mechanics of his quirk so he takes her quirk and watches her die:

He feels the exact moment her thread with life is cut, the exact moment a facsimile of the real thing begins unfurling its glossy wings inside his head; a ghost of a butterfly that died in its chrysalis.

(They talk about the whole "oh fuck I've been accidentally trying to gaslight you for your entire childhood" thing and it is extremely messy.)

I guess these are the most important plot points?(oh right chisaki finds him too-) I know how this ends(that's a lie) because I planned this entire thing over a 10,000 word google doc that I am still adding to but yeah that's too much to add in here.

Thanks for reaching the end of this fanfic dump, have a scene that I probably won't find a place to use as a treat(with a hint of DFO):

People often forget that quirks are not superpowers.

Midoriya thinks this as he looks at the crying child, their foot slowly turning to sludge. The process had begun overnight the day before and showed no sign of stopping. There was no control or sensation in the sludge-like area, only burning pain in the sites of transformation. One could assume that this would continue until the child would turn wholly into sludge, and by the time the sludge reached the vitals, well…

The child would be as good as dead.

No, quirks were never superpowers, what they were was mutations, and mutations were not always beneficial, or at the very least benign. In the case of the children in the Juvenile Quirk Dysfunction ward of Zinkha Hospital, that fact was painfully emphasized.

That was where Izuku came in.

Izuku could help the 4-year-old, all he had to do was use his quirk, his real quirk. Easy right?

But even as he tries to keep his breathing steady as he stands up, Izuku feels terrified. The doctors all know he’s here. They all know what the green-haired teenager is here to do, he can feel the burning stares of the staff around him. His skin does not feel like his own. He needs to use the one quirk that’s only ever caused pain to him and others. It’s hard to even wrap his mind around the fact that this time he’s here to help. The mere idea seems impossible.

And yet…

It doesn’t matter anyway. His feelings don’t matter because a child is dying. There is no time to hesitate as he reaches out to touch the boy’s hand. Not even to think about how the child was the sludge villain’s cousin, the first death by his hands (and it seems like it happened yesterday, the first time his touch was lethal engraved so perfect in his mind that he can almost feel the sticky wetness like a second skin over his flesh, moving against him, inside of him, the distinct revolting discomfort of drowning before a chocked gasp for air and then he’s drowning again in the sea of red, red, red drenching him from head to toe hot and slimy and he can’t fucking breathe-)

Midoriya takes the quirk.

The change is immediate. The teen can already feel parts of his toes shifting but he blocks the quirk with precise, practiced, concentration. When he looks at the child his view has already been blocked by a wall of white clad bodies, bustling around the child in a hurry. From a glimpse of the little boy Izuku gets, the foot has not regenerated or cauterized but is instead bleeding sluggishly. Izuku finds himself ushered from the room and the door is quickly shut behind him. The person who pushes him out feels like they are trying to touch him as little as possible, though that might only be his pessimism speaking.

With his task done, Izuku awkwardly stands in the hallway. The commotion can be faintly heard through the door but nothing distinctive can be made out from the cacophony of noise. A hand comes up to touch the wall, his right hand, and he starts walking in the direction of the lobby- where he knows Aizawa is waiting for him- dragging his fingertips along the unending white plaster all the while. The bumpy texture against his skin is soothing. Without thinking, he turns his hand over and drags his nails across the wall in a habit he had never permanently shaken. He doesn’t notice when his second knuckles end up against the wall, but he does notice how infinitely more soothing it is against his skin. How distracting. Every bump and imperfection in the wall sends vibrations to his bones as his skin runs over them. The feeling is heavenly as anxieties ever-so-slightly untense from his shoulders; Izuku too occupied with the shuddering of his finger bones to give them much attention.

A set of steps join him as he walks, echoing from behind, the teenager notices them immediately. It is telling how Izuku's anxiousness comes back full force and then some when he hears them. The person behind him walks with heavy sounding steps at a moderate pace, the click-clack of dress shoes grates on Izuku’s nerves. While the lobby was farther than he remembered he should be reaching it any second now, and the anticipation of safe, predictable, routine made him a little impatient.

So sue him if he was starting to get a little paranoid about every other unaccounted-for variable, anxiety wasn’t a very rational friend. To soothe his nerves Izuku decides to slow his pace until the person is within his sight. The teen's feet slow their walk until they are at half their previous pace, and he discreetly looks to his left to catch a glimpse of the person. To his left is an empty stretch of hallway, and even stranger, the steps had not gotten any closer at all, nor had he heard them change pace. The Doppler effect did not seem to apply to the situation. The pace and distance of the person sounded like it had stayed the exact same, even though Izuku had changed his.

Okay, calm down, whoever the hell it was could have a weird fucking passive quirk effect, no need to panic. If Izuku couldn't slow his pace to keep the stranger within his sights then the teen would just have to hurry his pace and get to the fucking lobby already. Seriously, was he lost? A nearby sign let him know he was going in the right direction but he had been walking for seven minutes already. Sure, anxiety blurred his sense of time, but Izuku knows for a fact that this same route to the operating room took three minutes at most while he walked at a moderate pace. And, now that he's noticed it, hasn't he passed that sign three times already?

A chill runs down his spine.

He's trapped under an unknown quirk by an unknown person with an unknown enemy affiliation.

Great.

Fucking. Great.

Exactly what he needed today, an ambush. Time to do what he always does when people want him dead: Panic.

Izuku's breathing starts to hitch but he slams the brakes on the full blown thought spiral. Okay, enough of that shit. Calm the fuck down. He has information on the quirk, not much of it but it will have to be enough to give him an edge. The enemy hadn't made a move yet other than activating their quirk. Which meant that they were most likely waiting for him to do something. So Izuku had time until the stranger decided to drop the charade. The fact that the enemy had not ended the fight as efficiently as possible also mattered. It said that, whoever this person was, they were confident in their abilities to beat him in a fight, meaning they had information on him and his quirk. Or the opposite, they had no idea what his abilities were. Then there was the matter of their quirk. Whatever it was, it manipulated space-time, or...

It could create illusions of manipulating space-time.

While the seemingly endless hallway led to the first train of thought, the inapplicability of the Doppler effect to the stranger's footsteps led to the conclusion that whoever the fuck this person was could manipulate senses. So, how do you fight someone with an illusion quirk? Simple, Izuku thinks as he reaches down and takes off his shoes, you either look for a glitch in the illusion...

The green-haired boy chucks his shoe as far into the hallway as he can without a second thought. When the image holds up he lets out a low hum of disappointment and spins around to throw his second shoe right at the stranger's face. Now that he can see them, the person is a tall white-haired man in a suit.

... or break their concentration.

The shoe smacks the enemy straight on his eye. Izuku doesn't waste another second and gets the hell out of Dodge, running left into a hallway he hadn't seen before. Good, maybe the illusion broke. Time to find a responsible adult and dump all this bullshit on them-

"Oof-!"

Izuku stumbles back from the body he crashed into, "There is a villain chasing me-!" He tries to warn before he actually takes a look at the person and pales.

A tall white-haired man in a suit.

The villain smiles, "You were saying?"

[disneytva]

Dynamite Comics and Disney Comics Announce Prequel “Gargoyles: Dark Ages” Mini-Series Slated For June 2023.

Dynamite Comics and Disney Comics   announced today an exciting new miniseries event that will continue to expand their hit comic, Gargoyles Gargoyles: Dark Ages will feature a journey into the past and the Manhattan Clan’s origin story, thanks to franchise creator Greg Weisman.  Weisman is joined by artist Drew Moss (”Vampirella/Red Sonja, Copperhead”) and letterer Jeff Eckleberry. The book also offers a perfect entry point for newcomers to the franchise and comic series.

Dark Ages will have covers featuring younger visions of iconic characters, with a new mix of artists separate from the main series to offer fans and collectors more unique portrayals of the cast. Legendary artist Clayton Crain (Venom, Spider-Man) leads the way, alongside Alan Quah, Mirka Andolfo, Kenya Danino, and Erica Henderson. Unique and limited edition variants feature an action figure-inspired piece, some pitch artwork from the TV show, and covers by both Jae Lee and interior artist Moss.

Gargoyles: Dark Ages #1

July 2023

Written By Greg Weisman Art By  Drew Moss

As Goliath’s narration explained, “One thousand years ago, Superstition and the Sword ruled. It was an Age of Darkness. It was a World of Fear.” For a time, the Gargoyles of that era lived peacefully alongside humans, each species having sworn to protect the other. But that truce didn’t last, and in 994, the Gargoyle Clan was cursed to sleep as stone statues for a millennium – until they eventually awoke in modern Manhattan. Gargoyles: Dark Ages, set in the year 971, depicts the origins of the Gargoyle-Human Alliance – some twenty-plus years before things came to a bad end. In this never-before-explored era, monsters still come in all shapes and sizes, forcing Gargoyles and Humans to work together to repel the forces of evil, which threaten to bring the Alliance down, from both without and within.

“I have ALL these stories that I’ve wanted to tell for decades now, so I pitched a number of ideas to Dynamite and Disney, and this is the one that excited everyone the most,” said Weisman. “This is an exciting era for the Gargoyle Clan (not to mention an exciting time in Scottish History), and I’m thrilled we’ll all have a chance to explore it together.

“I really enjoyed the show back in the ’90s and was super excited to be even considered for this project,” said Moss. “I am trying to do interior art traditionally, so this allows me to do some washes and other things that allow me to get my hands dirty. I hope to stay true to the art from the show while infusing my own art style to it.”

In addition to the first issue having an oversized 24-page story, each issue of Dark Ages will also feature four pages of complementary prose storytelling by Weisman with spot illustrations. This extra material will allow him to tap into corners of the mythos in a way that will amplify the impact of the entire series. The series will also feature high-quality cardstock covers on each variant. At 40 total pages, Gargoyles: Dark Ages #1 will be the next ultimate celebration of Disney’s iconic franchise.

[bwwhitney]

I got sidetracked while I was looking for my top posts of 2023.

I found this fascinating in a self absorbed kind of way. It is entirely possible that nobody else will be interested, but since this is my blog, I'll post whatever I like.

My first original post was on May 7, 2012

And since then I have made 3723 original posts.

My most popular post, by far, is this video:

I had to delete it a few years ago because the stream of notes was driving me nuts. This was before we could mute things like that. I'm not going to say how many notes, as that is not the point of this exercise. What I would like to know though, is what is it that people find so appealing about this? After all as someone pointed out, I have a leaking gutter.

I have the same question with the rest of the photos on this list. I know why I took them, but why are these popular when others are not?

Over the years I've posted a number of photos and videos of the very photogenic river behind my house.

This one makes me think of @mojo5050 , who unfortunately hasn't been active here in quite some time. It is nowhere near as good as their work, but I figure if I keep practicing maybe someday ...

This one brings to mind the Queen of the Enchanted Forest, who, also no longer active here, is greatly missed.

I'd go back to Wales in a New York Minute.

Happy New Year everyone.

[agendabymooner]

MOONY REACHES 3K FOLLOWERS: ONE YEAR LATER, MOVING FORWARD, LETTER !!!

HEY!!!

So a year ago, June 6 2023, my very first F1 SMAU (‘Mamma Mia’ - DR3) came out — I didn’t know a lot about F1 back then. I know trust me I didn’t. But out of pure indulgence, I’d often make fanfics and I decided to post them all on Tumblr rather than Wattpad - like I usually would do.

Every single piece that I did were out of pure indulgence, except from ones that were requested in my inbox of course!

Now. A year later. I have 3K followers. My most noted piece is a Toto Wolff smut - my first TW00 smut (Something Big). My well known series is Honey, Honey (LN4).

All because my dumbass have dumb ideas that people genuinely enjoy and they leave out thoughts and indulge in my thoughts too— which I love about making pieces like SMAUs and written fics.

I love sharing ideas with people and receiving feedback that I know can tell me that people can relate to the pieces. And I had never been so, so grateful and glad that you are enjoying my blog.

Onto the letter.

First and foremost: THANK YOU! I thought that my addiction to making fan fics and even writing pieces and posting them would last longer than a year.

You enjoyed reading them and I enjoyed writing them. My side blog would not be where it is now if it wasn’t for you people and I genuinely love receiving feedback and support even if I usually do things out of pure enjoyment.

Thank you to @avaleineandafryingpan for being my online friend. She’s my halo-halo homie and she’s been amazing in terms of speaking and sharing ideas with her.

To all the Filipino F1 fans who read my fics, I am so glad that you had come across my blog. I know sometimes it appears as though I'm baiting, but I love immersing myself in these fics and I hope that you guys were enjoying it too.

Second: Usually people would make requests in terms of celebrating their follower count. I have thought about it, and one of the things that I’m certain about is that I could not commit to them even if I badly wanted to.

I’m falling behind my own agenda at the moment. I would love to share more pieces but because of writer’s block and my busy schedule, I couldn’t find myself behind the computer and phone to make more SMAU. Would I want to make one? Absolutely. But sadly, I cannot promise to make a celebratory piece or even a celebratory special.

Most pieces I make are not fully calculated and are often done out of spontaneity. Whenever I think about the pieces that I make, it often takes me 30 minutes to 1 hour to make them and get them posted (it’s no wonder why grammars are horrid.) I apologize for not being able to commit myself to making a 3K special.

Third: What’s next? Well… At the moment I’m writing everything there is to my agenda. Right now, I’ve made SMAU series masterlists to make my A-Z main masterlists easier to navigate. But following agenda, answering ask box questions... Those things!

Once again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for being there to read my fics, SMAUs and supporting them despite being horrid and disorganized some of the time. I love being an F1 fan and I love feeding off my delusions at times.

Any questions and comments, please leave me a message in my ask box! Feel free to ask me anything in general, F1 related, F1 fic related things. I am more than happy to answer them.

Have a good day! And more good days and years!

THIS LETTER IS FOR EVERY FOLLOWER AND EVERYONE IN MY TAGLISTS WHO ARE ALWAYS ANTICIPATING PIECES THAT I MAKE. I LOVE YOU ALL XX

♡ moony’s reminder 🅶 (general): @hiraethrhapsody @avaleineandafryingpan @enhacolor @roseandtulips @woweewoowa @magnummagnussen @happy-nico @architect-2015 @hiireadstuff @biancathecool @scorpiomindfuck @stinkyjax @youdontknowmeshh @hyneyedfiz @decafmickey @lightdragonrayne @marknolee @xylinasdiary

♡   moony’s reminder 🅴 (explicit edition): @glitterf1 @savrose129 @maxillness @bigsimperika @xoscar03

[zedecksiew]

BLOGGIES 2023 BEST BLOG POST OF THE YEAR

On 31 January 2024, the tabletop-roleplaying-game community voted for the Best Blog Post Of 2023.

Contenders were drawn from the winners of four categories. Links, as well as their very excellent acceptance speeches---more exhortations and manifestos, really!---found here:

Theory

Gameable

Advice

Review

+++

Anyway---you voted. Results were very close; I was constantly worried about a tie. Nevertheless, a winner emerged:

Congratulations are in order, and an acceptance speech follows.

+++

(Like an idiot, I didn't plan for, and therefore didn't have the time to make a bespoke prize for the overall Bloggie winner. So they'll just get a full quadtych of lino prints. Fortunately these don't look too bad together!)

PLATINUM BLOGGIE FOR BEST BLOG POST OF THE YEAR:

🔮Re-inventing the Wilderness: Part 1 - Introduction🔮 from SachaGoat

Sacha:

As an (award-winning) blogger who only started 6 months ago - I want to use this "acceptance speech" to share the 5 steps that will start your blog: 1. You don't need a cool blog name. screenname(dot)blogspot(dot)com is probably available - you can move it later if you think of a cool name. The trick here is to set it up so your ideas can go live as soon as you're happy (or tired of editing). 2. Post something. Dust off your notebook (or note-taking app) and turn those musings into a structured post with paragraphs and context. Don't have anything ready to go? Take your latest game session and write a play report or spotlight a specific moment. This will take less time than your ttrpg prep. 3. Share it! With your gaming group, ttrpg friends, community discords, xwitter/bluesky, reddit, forums etc. 4. Don't worry about the rest. I don't have a fancy blog template. I've yet to compile a sidebar or blogroll. I don't have a newsletter or patreon. 5. Continue. Your readers will contribute with comments. You will be shared in community newsletters. Peers will write posts inspired by your posts. Your ideas will be used at another gaming table. (And if you're lucky, you can win the next BLOGGIES.) If you've shared your prep with a fellow DM… if you've contributed opinions on a ttrpg discord or forum… if you've read a blog post and have a thought that builds on it… if you have any tabletop advice or ideas … 👏 Start 👏 a 👏 blog This finally brings me to the "thanks". Winning the 2023 BLOGGIES is such a wonderful welcome to this creative niche. Many thanks to the creators who encourage the community to blog (especially around June 2023, I can actually see the thread that motivated me to start). I also want to thank a community whose collective enthusiasm and support nudge me to release the next post. And finally, everyone who voted for my post over the amazing nominations this year - a huge thank you.

+++

On a personal note: I am really thrilled at this final result.

The BLOGGIES can come off as clique-ish. Voting is public, but "public" on the Internet generally means a circle-jerk between subculture friends, a popularity contest.

This thing began as a jokey riff on those best-tweet-of-the-year polls over on Twitter. While Prismatic Wastelands grew it into a celebration of OSR blogging culture, it still has NSR / POSR inclinations---the specific community soil it sprung from.

As host this year I tried to extend the BLOGGIES' reach. Canvassing for nominations outside the OSR space got a couple of indie-RPG designers on the finalists list. Am proud of that; we have much to learn from each other.

I made prizes---hoping that, one day, with enough dangling carrots, these awards will eventually be tasty enough for non-POSR cliques / communities to attempt a takeover? We'll see.

Ultimately: I am glad to water this sapling and watch it grow slowly. Community is made by growing trees, not building greenhouses.

+++

SachaGoat snagging the final win is a vindication.

Sacha's blog is new. We don't share any Discord servers. We've never spoken, hitherto; the first time I messaged him ever was to tell him he'd won the Advice category.

The BLOGGIES fulfils its purpose: to introduce folks to quality blogs; to preach the gospel and importance of blogging. Its shade is spreading.

I'm glad to get to know Sacha and his blog. (Obviously it's been added to my must-read list!) I am honoured to be passing the torch: Sacha has agreed to host BLOGGIES 2024.

Thank you, everybody. Here's to growing trees.

[dreamaze]

.⟡. 2023 Year in Review .⟡.

cc year in review — every month in 2023 : link your favorite and/or most popular post from each month this year

tagged by: @shorelinnes, @xiaojuun, & @gnanii, thank you lovelies! ♡ tagging (no pressure, & the gifs were extra!): @ye-xiu, @eggheons, @nervousnotion, @honeyimissjoo (if you’ve already done this, feel free to drop the link! ♡)

Hello!! A brief(ish) recap before the actual list. It’s been a pretty wild year in wingsland, mostly thanks to finishing up my second master’s degree in December (finally, BYE!). Looking back, I’m surprised at how much content I actually created, but this has been a refuge and source of comfort for me while running on fumes between work and school and general adulting. 2023 also marked some changes in my listening and sources of inspiration. I fell more out of interest with txt (apologies to all followers who were here for them… this is the second time this has happened, oops?) but fell even more in love with Monsta X while discovering some other new or new-to-me artists (more on that in another post). Reason was my first official comeback with them, and it really lit a fire in my brain. I have a few ongoing series that I intend to continue, whether they’re gifs or audio compilations. I giffed a LOT of besties (minhyuk + hyungwon, the soulmates of soulmate besties). It brings me so so much joy to work on those sets and the various audio edits or just being excited about musical details in my music box tag. I also managed to squeeze in a few angsty mv sets along the way, because tbh I feel like I am thriving most as a creator when something is pulling at the heartstrings. I know mbbblr has been quiet lately (and must seem exceedingly so to those who were around years ago), but I will keep being noisy about them until mx6 is reunited and beyond. Thank you for sticking around with me ♡

(P.S. I am calling these my favorites and audience favorites because what even is popularity on tumblr, and also I am horribly indecisive and can rarely stick to one. Please enjoy the occasionally unserious post descriptions!)

January ⟡ My favorite(s out of an unusually prolific month): ‘Beautiful Liar’ lyrics + reflected shots, control imagery, & Minhyuk/Changkyun choreo; besties livestreams ft. minhyuk about to get his ass kicked by an indignant noodle & besties again not fighting ⟡ Audience favorite: Reason concept ver.3 (where did all those notes come from) followed by Hyungwon in Love Killa/Gambler/Beautiful Liar

February ⟡ My favorite: Besties Lone Ranger recording, Honey PD ’괜찮아’ Recording (ft. bonus honey threatening offering to kiss minhyuk on the lips), Hyungwon ‘Beautiful Liar’ mv + photoshoot behinds, & the following ⟡ Audience favorite: Unofficial art director Lee Minhyuk

March ⟡ The (only) favorite: Hyungwon FRED x Marie Claire (my favorite photoshoot coloring of the year)

April ⟡ My favorite: Minhyuk in Reason era & besties ft. not-very-tsundere hyungwon ⟡ Audience favorite: Hyungwon John Varvatos x GQ

May ⟡ My favorite: Besties All In mv + filming (for the 7th anniversary of All In) & the following ⟡ Audience favorite: Lights album preview

June ⟡ My favorite: Overdrive & “always you and me” besties ⟡ Audience favorite: Minhyuk x Singles

July ⟡ My favorite: Hyungwon x MV water imagery ⟡ Audience favorite: 1/2 of besties enlists (sobwail)

August ⟡ My favorite: Fighter performance video (…ft. besties), besties massage (fail), & the following ⟡ Audience favorite: Changkyun x Marie Claire

September ⟡ My favorite: Jaechan ‘Time’ ⟡ Audience favorite: Minhyuk vs the prop pear

October ⟡ My favorite: Besties with or without mx ⟡ Audience favorite: A pretty Joohoney

November ⟡ The (only) favorite: Minhyuk x Floun

December ⟡ My favorite: Giuk 'My Blue' & the consequences of putting besties next to each other in dance relays ⟡ Audience favorite: Hyungwon Givenchy Beauty x Singles

[feuqueerfire]

Lovely Runner Live Blogging

I've been seeing the “i found you girl i like being around you” edits on tiktok but before then, i’d also heard about the show and saw an ep 1 clip of when she runs up to him at the swimming pool. i’m a time travel show enjoyer and this show has been getting such good reviews, so I’m excited. my last few shows have been quite dark and violent and i kinda wanna go for another such show but think a lighter (yet emotional) show might do me some good so that i don’t burn out

Ep 1 (June 25)

2009

omg…

ah, he encouraged her to live through this time when she was contemplating suicide and ig later on she will do the same bc he unfortunately takes his own life before the time travel i think

Dec 31, 2022

13 years, how old were they then and how old are they now?

oh i knew she was a fan but she’s a biiiig fan

ah, they were in high school at the same time and his high school was across hers

some fans hate Sunjae bc he’s too popular and getting opportunities

the band members also seem to not like him and it could be bc of his popularity but he also seems resistant to being an idol in general and wants to retire so that might have smth to do with it

wow she’s really having a tough day: rejected from job bc it has no elevator and she has a wheelchair, late to the concert, and then lost the ticket omg

this scene of Sunjae putting in his in-ear and going on stage is now iconic to me bc of the edits, kept expecting to hear “i found you girl i like being around you” as background music loll

she’s really determined to be positive and make the most of everything, i expect a breaking point soon though

oh, in hyuk doesn’t want him to retire

phone crack

wheelchair stops

yeah the tears finally. what a fucking day

hehe they meet in the current timeline

lolll her getting annoyed that her friend came just when she could’ve been getting a ride w Sunjae

what is that jar that she gave him?

was it Sunjae who saved her from the accident?

the watch was weird for a second. i guess that's gonna be The Object that takes her back/causes everything

ahh he took meds and jumped off into the swimming pool.

this reminds me a bit of True Beauty but like the friend who passed away

time of death: Jan 1, 2023. 12am

dead at 34, so was 21 in 2009? 19 or 20 interactional age?

The fact that she Just saw him alive and seemingly well a few hours ago must make it even more unbelievable

Traveled back

her legs work again

okay, I'd seen this Instagram edit of this scene as the very first thing I saw from this show but I didn't know when I first watched it just how awkward/embarassing this is T.T

aw, is he also going through something now? her talking about how he went through this alone made him soften

SHE SAID SARANGHAE SUNJAE-AH?! please

her still being like 'this is my dream' oh she's gonna be mortified when she realizes this is real in a time travel universe

lolol she's like I'm not dreaming? Fuck, am I dead?

pls i'm dying, Sunjae's so confused while she's acting as if they're both dead now (and mustn't cross the bridge)

so did Sunjae take the watch?

Ah, he probably had to quit being a swimmer and become an idol in the original timeline too because of his shoulder

June 2008

So are they seniors in high school right now?

ahh she gets to see her grandma from 14 years ago when she still recognized Sol before alzheimers or whatever T.T

Aw, Sol cries every time she looks at Sunjae

ah, the parallels of Sunjae holding the umbrella over Sol and asking why she's crying now and in the original timeline

I watched around the first 30-40 minutes of this episode on my iPad while I was on the train (and also like 10 minutes in a restaurant lol). I'm likely going to have to take the train a lot starting the second week of July so I had been thinking that maybe I'll save this one for that time and watch like some raunchy BLs and GLs now that I can't watch on the train but the first ep was quite good, I think I'll binge it now oof.

Ep 2 (July 6)

Since Episode 1, I've watched My Stand-In Eps 1 - 11, Blank Season 1, and reread Mistborn: The Final Empire.

"i can fool a 19-year-old, right?" lol Sol

who is this guy? i know there's a love triangle, is this the second lead?

the people who go back in time/become younger scolding the other kids who seem the same age as them is always funny

ah, so funny, he's the first guy Sol stanned

lmfao please why's he running after the bus

the little icons getting farther and farther away and the song about going farther away playing lmfao

omg, she can't tell him the future/what will happen if he does something? time stops?

woah, you really could just stop time and do a bunch of stuff while shouting future facts lmfao

pls, this future-telling grandma cosplay

Sunjae jealous of Taesung already

how does she keep finding herself in these situations, plssss

like Sunjae is literally so correct to be like what the fuck like actually but also T.T

that guy is indeed Sunjae's father and lmfao Sunjae was the one who borrowed the porn/erotic VHS that Sol's mother has been on the dad's case about

overly dramatic crosswalk scene but i guess it's fine since it's mirroring how she probably got into her accident originally and she has trauma from it

she's the one who gave Sunjae an umbrella first! Also i've def seen this scene from a tiktok or smth

pls so he didn't even mean to borrow the erotic video? smh

this is kinda like My School President when Tinn was trying to impress Gun but everything went wrong and he was being a loser lol

so these two episodes effected the future and there's a photo of Sunjae and Sol on the table but it didn't change the death

Ep 3 (July 6/7)

ah, so he didn't injure himself this time?

hilarious that he can't seem to confess while she's fangirling and cooing over him

the dad left his shoe like cinderella lmfao

eughhhh she's like fuck, you don't want me to be your fan anymore? let's be friends! while he's trying to confess

Sunjae's dad dramatic + full of expectations and pressure + getting ahead of himself

and Sunjae also not tell him about the injury

omg her brother and her friend are both home not noticing the fire in their sight?

does that much water even do anything to a fire? feels like you're not supposed to be doing that...

I wish they hadn't done this fire scene so humorously with the brother and friend, kinda took away from the weight of it. also i wonder if the fire or her mother burning her hand won't still happen bc stuff like the shoulder injury or the ball hitting Im Sol still happened even if in a different way than the original timeline

aw, glad his dad understood

lol she's drunk, how cute

is she gonna forget the confession and kiss? since she's yknow legit drunk. i wonder if ppl made a fuss about it because if it was a bl, this would def have been Discussed in the fandom

ah, ofc she doesn't rmr

bruh aghh it's like I can see where this is going with her listening to the recording + Taesung spotting her + Sunjae being far enough behind that he'll see them (+ he thinks he confessed last night and expects her to remember the kiss too)

i'm gonna kill somebody, she didn't even pause so the "I like you" is just playing with nobody to hear

omg travelling to original timeline

girl what?! how could you say you want to date Taesung or is that not really happening or like what's going onnnnn

Ep 4 (July 7)

Oh, Sunjae had not only saved her but was at the hospital too. He'd liked her throughout his high school time i guess but what about that final night, did he recognize her even then?

oh, he had. wild

ohhh she gave him a bunch of the candy that night that she had given him the very first time when she mistook him for a mailman

hmm okay so the Sunjae POV we got of that night was the original timeline before Sol's time travel thing, right? because the photo wasn't there? and the timeline that Sol's waking up in right now is slightly different based on what she had done?

ok the future had indeed changed

omg what the hell, why did that timeline's Sol reject Sunjae like that, like in this timeline, they were friends??? unless Sunjae was being a creep fr

i got spoiled about she can come back 3 times but how does she know only 1 time is left? also it's just been 10 days?! so why did Sol react like that, wtf

ah, so it's like she's kinda fighting with her 19-year-old self from the past who's in love with Taesung? and doesn't know Sunjae?!?! weird...

so the 19-year-old Sol thought she was possessed because her memory from when older-Sol came back was missing... interesting and complicating

lmfaoo exactly, I was saying she could stop time but shouting out future facts. hilarious to have her shouting celeb marriages

plsss how's she asleep on his floor

"i don't make friends with girls. how can a girl and a guy be friends?" alright lol.

why do we have Hyunjoo pooping her pants and that furthering her romance (?) with Sol's brother come onnn

ah, Taesung mommy issues and feelings of abandonment

yknow I do like Taesung and Im Sol's banter and back-and-forth

i'm cryinggggg, not young-Sol's birthday event for Taesung

it's suchhh a long song, i'm dying. and young Sol's fashion pls

hehe Sol telling Taesung how to treat young-Sol is cute actually

so many weird men... that taxi that went away? and now this guy...

is this Sol's accident but in this timeline?

ah, Sol realizing that Sunjae had saved her

okay, in that original timeline, i thought they just called a random number maybe and was confused and ig that's true but Sunjae specifically called Im Sol's number? or what? how'd he know it? and he knew that it was her he was talking to.

Ep 5 (July 7)

i wonder how the accident happened the first time and why Sunjae was there back then

this bra returning scene reminds me of True Beauty but I can't remember what Suho was trying to give Im Jukyeong, idk why I keep thinking pads??

okay i was gonna be tormented, so I skimmed and it's on ep 2 of True Beauty. She accidentally gave Suho a bag that said "thanks for keeping my bare face a secret" but he hadn't recognized her, so to get it back, she'd said that it has pads (i remembered this part at least)

cryingggg at her being like hmm he said he can't be friends with girls, so all those "just friends" rumours with girls were all real romances (as idol Sunjae). anyway i doubt it bc he seemed to forever be in love with her even over a decade later and that's just a trope I'm gonna have to get used to.

yesss i love a girl saving a guy from the common motorcycle/car trope and also girl kabadoning guy

Sol is cute trying to block all mentions of the swimming Olympics from Sunjae but plsss it's all becoming romantic moments and also iffy when you think about young-Sol having a boyfriend

oh, cop mentioning burying a body... i think I've heard that this show has a serial killer

in the original timeline, the taxi driver with the key indeed did something? but this time the other guy got there? and he's the serial killer or what

damn, taxi driver has Sol's flip phone

not Sol's brother and Sunjae meeting but Sunjae being punished for giving Sol alcohol

cryinggg Sunjae being curious and looking at Taesung's profile but he finds out

pls Sunjae getting mad at Sol's inability to bike reminds me of Tinn yelling at Gun about not knowing any math (My School President). when even the down bad secret crush bearing Sunjae and Tinn lose their minds teaching Sol and Gun lmfao

girl, why is Sunjae buying the same jacket as Taesung T.T but ig they're gonna have him fill in for the vocal... but he's not gonna fill in for Taesung

how humiliating to run into Taesung just as Sunjae bought and wore the bright red jacket because Taesung owns it too yikesss

and that's how the eclipse happened, though Taesung isn't in it for much longer i guess?

Taesung watching Sol watch Sunjae perform reminds me of Twinkling Watermelon

oh, intense yelling from Sol

double whammy of hearing the confession recording finally and Sunjae also telling her to break up with Taesung at the same time

Ep 6 (July 8)

ah, I’m Sol broke up with Taesung but I don’t know if that’s the end of it… but she also knows Sunjae’s confession…

sunjae is quite fun to watch like his despair at his “breakup with taesung” thing going wrong vs joy when taesung got broken up with

Sol’s brother does bother me, why is he so annoying

pls both Sunjae and Sol holding back to appear cool/not “shake the other’s heart” aghhh

Taesung’s “Oh, I think I liked you a lot” is funny

not Taesung getting into a car crash, damn it

so is Sep 1 the day her accident happens? I don’t remember the date. is it gonna happen again even though the bridge thing already happened? or is it a different thing?

Taesung’s dad (?) Kim cop is investigating the case of a he dead bod?

nooo now he has their address bc of grandma

oh, Sunjae confession

Taesung in hospital but his dad doesn’t visit and his friend doesn’t believe in him + he calls Sunjae to let him know that Sol’s mother is at the hospital, oh man

aw mannn Sol rejecting Sunjae because she knows she’s not in the right timeline and is gonna have to leave soon etc. does she realize she’s the one he liked in the original timeline too? he’s talking about liking the rain and on the original timeline radio show he also mentioned it

not having to take an umbrella to Sunjae on the day of Sol’s accident! and after she almost stayed home all day

omg she’s realizing right now that she was his first love back then too and she didn’t “confuse him”

tbf maybe this mans would’ve gotten her even if she didn’t leave right then. a fucking kidnapping

omg this taxi fucker really took her Again D:

Ep 7 (July 8)

oh on that original accident too Sol missed her stop on the bus and Sunjae was waiting with her in the bus, that’s how he was there on the time of her accident on save her

i’m watching this on the subway on my commute to/from work but there are two people talking in korean beside me and i feel awkward watching a kdrama beside them lol

okay they left a couple minutes later

oh at this bridge where her original accident happened is where she dropped that watch and the first time she time travelled, right?

omg who the hell grabbed her in this timeline? bc taxi driver was in the taxi still

good job to sunjae for connecting everything and figuring out the reservoir lmfao

ah, she went back to her time again and the young-Sol is back but also that's kind of oh no in a way, though Sunjae's clever i wonder if he'll be able to figure it out?

i knew from pics i saw that she can use her lefts in the future

Sunjae survived too

pls not her getting mistaken for a sasaeng, i don't even wanna watch anymore

what a different life

damn, young-Sol had another kidnapping a year later?

oh naurrr is Sunjae doing the "who are you? do we know each other?" thing because young-Sol did this to him after he helped her with the kidnapper?

oh he's not even here, it was a scenario in her head lol

lmfao crying, this Sunjae lovesss the attention and fame (though not the stalking)

the shenanigans of them justtt missing each other every time

i can't believe we're getting random enemies-to-lovers right now, especially with them texting each other antagonistically, this is soooo fun

i seriously need to go to sleep but ahh

owww

oh, the concert didn't happen

ah, and they met on the bridge again

35 minutes after my bedtime already, gonna take a while to fall asleep too, whelp

Ep 8 (July 9)

omg Sunjae got the time capsule egg before it got torn down and he even waited on Jan 1, 2023 fully expecting her to come - and she did, so why didn’t they meet?

and Sunjae got the watch from the time capsule

hmmm would he happen to travel back in time at all? bc she travelled back with his watch and maybe he can travel back with her watch?? esp if smth happens to her idk

lmfao pls not the hotel where they can be alone together

but also he’s an idol going with a random girl lmfao

i loveeeee Sol omg she’s so funny and endearing as she’s talking about how she didn’t mean they should have a passionate night and also mentions that they had crushes on each other in a throwaway line but she doesn’t wanna skip intros and get to the conclusion But she’s not judging sunjae for thinking that, they just have different values lmfao what a cutie but sunjae’s gonna act clueless like oh? what were you thinking as if he doesn’t know what this insinuates

i loveeee celeb/non-celeb romance esp when it actually shows the reporters and rumours and fans and such and how they can affect/limit the relationship

he has such a big house why not hide the cut out in some random storage room omg

pls and now Sunjae thinks she plans to stay the night and have sex lmfao

true Inhyuk would be like what the hell, Sunjae can’t fall for Im Sol again!!

Taesung?

Inhyuk talking about how Sunjae’s liked only Im Sol this whole time and kept going back to her old house whenever he was drunk while Sol can hearrrrr

ah, she confessed that she used to like him too

i kept being nervous that Taesung would somehow be in the house but Sunjae/Sol first kiss!

isn't it crazy fr, after 15 years you finally meet again and this time the girl you've loved forever confesses back and you kisssss and it's not a shitty one either

what the hell, the fuckass taxi driver is here too? that was indeed Taesung before right or did i mistake taxi driver for Taesung, I hope not

"Even if somebody sent me back to the past, I would never gamble with my future" whelp Hyunjoo, don't foreshadow too hard

the stalker makes me nervous both in terms of what if that person was the person who was knocking or whatever the night Sunjae died and also what if she finds out that Sunjae's dating Sol and does something to either of them?

okayyyy, so the taxi driver mans went and attacked Sunjae, was it the same thing in the previous iterations too?

I listened to the Afternoona Soju podcast episode and learned about 2 scenes: Sunjae and Taesung drink and do karaoke together and cuddle to sleep, and Sunjae's speech envelope + Sol's resignation letter get swapped so he ends up saying that out loud as a speech

Ep 9 (July 9)

so as hinted, a year after she came back to the current timeline, in the young timeline 2009, the taxi guy kidnapped Im Sol again and Sunjae saved her again and that's what caused that guy to get jailed until now

i loveee 2009 freshman Sol's hair, beautifully bangs and wavy hair

Hyunjoo's joyoush "hmm" and nod at 33:50 after Sol asks her if it was her idea is sooooo good omg i replayed several times

omg, the sudden "are you really from the future?" that had like no build-up, so I was surprised hehe

ahhh they kissed accidentally ofc they did, ig we'll see Sunjae and Sol married by the end?

Ep 10 (July 10)

ah, makes sense that Sunjae wouldn’t actually believe the time travel stuff oof

pls hiding under the table is so T.T

oh she’s telling Taesung about the time travel too

i like it when in a love triangle the guys try to impress the family like now with the flooding and in Ture Beauty with the dumplings but it’s annoying when they let it get the best of them and don’t care about what’s actually happening like why are you up arguing and making a mess instead of helping clean up wtf

i do like Sunjae Taesung antagonizing when it’s like verbal and witty not physical fights

oof Taesung telling Sunjae that he shouldn’t even be jealous of him bc Sol clearly likes Sunjae

Superstar K vs going to the states

ah, he digs up the time capsule and figures out that he dies (possibly because of trying to protect Sol) that time in the future

oh, the billboards changed and Eclipse is releasing their new album instead of Sunjae’s stabbing hmm i can’t tell bc im watching on my phone but is Sunjae in that photo?

Ep 11 (July 10)

ARE THEY GONNA GET BACK REFUNDS FOR THE PLANE AND THE REHABILITATION? and are they gonna get the luggage back?!

not this kissing gossip lmfao

yknpw technically this is a noona romance in this timeline 3x Sol x 20 Sunjae (krn age)

the “should we roll back another minute? if you give me another chance, i’ll do my best” thing is soooo cute like Sunjae fr was just going for the remote not the kiss like Sol thought

i’m crying from second hand embarrassment at the parents and brother finding them like this and am dreading the hundreds of condoms reveal T.T plssss and even Basic instincts got brought up again and Sunjae having to cover Im Sol’s ears i cannotttttt, how humiliating

the condoms flying out like this is really and truly killing me i can’t watch fuckkk if i was sunjae i would have to leave move away say good bye to Sol like life death and time could not make me stop loving you but this… in front your family? yeah i’d learn to live

lmfao the family meeting was very funny

he sings sonagi for her on a stage ahhh first of all he’d died but she gets to see him sing again + knows it’s about her this time

ah this fucking killer mans

Ep 12 (July 10)

ofc both Sol and Sunjae are gonna try to stop the murderer

lol will Sunjae get jealous of In Hyuk lmao

i can't watch this toilet water nothing pls at least use the water that's stored in the tank of the toilet not in the fucking bowlll

is the institution just that they made out? because i don't think they had sex?

lmfao maybe now the MIL and FIL will finally get along

omg, she's pretending to have gone back so that Sunjae doesn't stay with her at this place where the attacker's gonna come

oh also i'd figured out the 3 lives thing a while back btw i'd been like how does she know w/ certainty that she has 3 chances but the clock said 3, then 2, and now it's at 1

Ep 13 (July 11)

just go so frustrated that Youngsoo figured out that Sol was setting a trap bc that guy put his hand on her to check but Sol ended up shouting for Detective Kim eughhh such planning and yet

and Sunjae runs into him right then ofc

not Sunjae getting knifed! and falling off he cliff!!!

oh, Sol returned

girl where the hell is Sunjae like nice to see Sol’s life and Taesung but c’mon

i got spoiled about the letter switching and Sunjae giving actor award speech from Sol’s resignation letter so i don’t have like The Suspence for this

ohhh Sunjae’s watch also became a time machine

oh my godddd his time machine also takes Sol back in time for some reason and she literally cuts it off right at the beginning?!?! doesn’t give him the umbrella in the rain

curious about how they’ll explain the killer stuff in the past if Sunjae’s not there to save Sol?

Ep 14 (July 11)

so Sol and family just move away soon after like Sunjae still has his sling? yknow what let me not think too much

lolol articles coming out. i didn’t realize he was just gonna be mc-ing

ahhh Ryu Sun Jae is gonna be acting in Im Sol’s script?!

ouch the script hurts (though she’s plagiarizing so hard from alternate timeline Sunjae!!)

both of them busy trying to reject the script/actor but omg poor Sol. it sucks so bad to be the one who remembers, like when Sunjae used to remember while young Sol forgot and now thisssss after everything

another enemies to lovers arc

okay i was wondering how we’d go back to Sunjae knowing but ig he’ll get dreams and memories

oh, the murderer is gonna attack the sasaeng girl instead?

Sunjae is just Meant to be obsessed with Sol in every timeline ig

yaas the lottery tickets truly a must for a fucking time travel anything

ah the ferris wheel

Ep 15 (July 11)

the taxi driver can’t be obsessed w Sol in this timeline too right esp bc it’s been 15 years since his interest in the original tl

not Sol’s mom trying to set Sol up with sunjae now loll how the tables have turned

lmfao this time it’s Sunjae hiding from Sol when usually it was the other way around in the past timelines

oh, the killer is actually targeting Sunjae straight up this time maybe, not Sol first

Sunjae’s memory coming back in flashes

oh, he's got it all back

omg dramatic. killer guy almost got Sunjae again and then for a second I got nervous that Taesung was gonna crash like the other way so that killer T-bones his car

Ep 16 (July 11)

last ep!! 1h 19 mins instead of the usual 61-63 mins

killer dies just like that

ahh meeting again after remembering

"because he died, somebody else might get to live"

they kiss pretty nice

the parents do make me laugh, the dad being like hah i know Sunjae chose a good, beautiful girl to date while the mother's like hah i know she's no beauty

ah, marriage and wedding, cute

Overall:

A fun show with a fun concept and great acting + romance. It was funny and delightful most of the time, there was a kind of killer/suspense aspect but that wasn't really ever the Focus, Sunjae being killed was the focus; similarly, they didn't thoroughly explain the time travel because the mechanics wasn't the focus, Sol going back was the focus.

I liked Sunjae and Sol together and it was fun seeing how Sunjae was slightly different in the different timelines lol I liked seeing the couple on high school, college, as idol!Sunjae and actor!Sunjae. It did feel a bit like consistency was lost in their relationship but that was the point i guess. It was a very romantic concept, the way they were falling in love in every timeline.

Everything about it was good and I was engaged, I just don’t think I’d think about it much though. Kinda reminds me of When I Fly Towards You c-drama in that way; a cute youthful romance drama but I'm not hung up on it. At least it kept me company during my commute of the first week at my new internship.

Rating: 7/10

[kellyvela]

do you have the link to the interview (and the quote) of grrm saying there's more than one timeline while he was creating asoiaf??? 🙏🏾🙏🏾

THE SO CALLED ASOIAF "ORIGINAL OUTLINE"

The “original outline” is a three page letter from GRRM to his publisher, dated October 1993, along with the first thirteen chapters (170 pages).

The three page letter was made public on Twitter in February 2015, without GRRM consent.

(…) George said he was “pissed” that the outline was posted in the office building and that someone took photos and shared them. He said it was a letter for him and the publisher only. He was very firm when telling this and it showed on his face. He then said that he is not good with writing outlines, making book deadlines, and that often in outlines he was “making shit up”, and “characters changed along the way”. —Balticon Report 2016

~~~

FIVE PAGE LETTER OUTLINE FROM THE SUMMER OF 1994

Question: Do you think it will take GRRM more then 7 books to finish ASOIAF?

Answer: I begin to wonder—though 7 is what we currently have under contract. I remember when he called me, years and years back, to confess that his little trilogy was…well…no longer a trilogy. He predicted four books. I said Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Then he said five books. I said Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Then he went to six. I said… Well, you get it. Finally, we were on the same page. Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Good. Only, as I recently learned while editing THE WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE (another awesome thing you must buy when it comes out!), there are really technically eight kingdoms, all having to do with who has annexed what when Aegon the Conqueror landed in Westeros. So, maybe eight books for Seven Kingdoms would be okay. Also, he has promised me that, when he finally wraps this great beast us, I can publish the five page letter outlining the bare bones of the “trilogy.”

Question: Did you realize when you started editing the ASOIAF books for George that it would be a lifetime commitment? Do you ever despair of seeing the end of the story?

Answer:  No. I first fell for the book in summer 1994—twenty years ago, when only 100 pages and that five page outline I mentioned earlier existed. Books one and two came out in fairly short order. And book 3 was not too bad. Then I met and married my husband in the gap while book 4 was late. (I kept worrying that George would deliver and scuttle: 1) Our first Christmas together. 2) Our first summer vacation together. 3) Our wedding and honeymoon. I should not have worried.) In the time George was late with book five, I had a kid. There was this hilarious moment back in late 2008 when I was very pregnant, and both George and Connie Willis were very late with their books. George proposed a race to delivery, and that whoever won could name the baby. I declined the naming thing, but I shouldn’t have worried. Connie DID beat me by two months, but she would have provided a lovely and sensible name, I am sure. However, as I do get a certain perverse pleasure in telling George, I beat him by a two and a half year old walking, talking human being. But I do remain optimistic! I want to take this one from start to finish, whatever it takes.

—Q & A with George R.R. Martin Editor, Anne Groell - May 2014

So far we have:

Three page letter from October 1993 along with 170 pages (thirteen first chapters).

Five page letter from the Summer of 1994 along with 100 pages.

These two documents are clearly different:

There are 8-10 months of difference between these two documents, from October 1993 to the Summer of 1994 (From June to September). 

There is a difference in the letters: one is a three page letter while the other is a five page letter. 

There is a difference in the number of pages attached: the three page letter was attached with 170 pages (thirteen first chapters), while the five page letter was attached with 100 pages, no number of chapters specified.

And to make this affair even more mysterious, GRRM has also mentioned a two page outline from 1994. 

~~~

TWO PAGE LETTER OUTLINE FROM 1994

Question: You have been inventing A Song of Ice and Fire for over 20 years and it’s still on the run, has it been difficult to keep up with the original idea?

Answer: Well the original idea has grown. I’m not the first author to experience this. I mean JRR Tolkien, when he started Lord of the Rings was basically intending to write a sequel to the Hobbit. And like the Hobbit it was supposed to be one book. But he said famously that the tale grew in the telling. And so did mine... I mean additionally, back in 1994 when I first sent in the first 100 pages and the two-page letter about where I was going, I was selling a trilogy, 3 books. And at that time, if you look at my earlier books, I was generally writing one novel a year, so in my innocence, ah… sweet summer child, I thought I’d finish the whole thing in 3 years. So in that case my trilogy would have been up by 1997 or 1998. It’s taken a little longer than that, as you may have (noticed?  13:21). And here I am still writing it. I had no idea how big it was gonna be, or how long it was gonna take, but you have to follow the story wherever it leads. And it’s lead to some very interesting places, including Guadalajara.

—JUEGOS DE TRONOS de George R.R Martin en la FIL de Guadalajara - December 2016

The year of the letter (1994) and the number of pages attached (100 pages) coincide with the five page letter sent by GRRM to his editor Anne Groell, but there is a difference in the number of pages of the letter.

~~~

Hope this helps!

[romaine2424]

Daily Blog June 21, 2023

Hi! Welcome to my first day of fandom blogging! I'm very excited about doing this and hope you'll join in on the conversation and really hope that you might start one of your own!!! So on that note, lets get going.

What I'm reading:

I'm currently re-reading The Changeling by @annerbhp. It's a canon rewrite of sort, with a big twist. Here's the summary: Ginny is sorted into Slytherin. It takes her seven years to figure out why. It's 182K from Ginny's POV. It does follow canon to a point. I read this about 6 months ago and I still think about it when writing Drarry. I now have to give Ginny a positive break-up with Harry. LOL No dissing her because she's such a badass in this story. While it's listed as Harry/Ginny, it really is mostly a Ginny story for the main story. There's follow on stories after this one that are fab too.

It starts with Year 1 and the house sorting. Ginny is surprisingly sorted into Slytherin. She at first thinks its a joke done by her twin brothers, but then reality sets in. Most of her family is devastated and she feels completely isolated. This is a Ginny you'll recognize from canon and then so much more. If you longed for more Slytherin background and lore than canon gave us, this you will love. And if you think Slytherin is dominated by the males...well this will give you a headcanon that you won't forget.

What I'm writing:

The Azkaban Letters, which I'm so far behind on I want to cry. It's a 2007 WIP I started right before HPDH came out. So it's canon divergent after HBP. I did edit the first 7 to be more in line with canon and post canon. My issue is I have too much in my head and too many ideas to get down on paper...er on the computer. When I stopped writing it in 2007, I had posted the first 7 chapters on The Hex Files. It came over to AO3 during the transfer and has been staring at me in the face since then. I'm now up to 16 chapters, which sounds like a lot, but there's 4 sections to the story and I'm in the middle of section 2. sigh.

Tumblr Posts of Interest:

@xanthippe74 on her blog has reposted her 2020 fic, Follow the Water in honor of summer solstice. If you have not read this fic, you are in for such a treat. Perfect summer fic. Give her post a reblog and fic some love!

@julcheninred posted on her blog yesterday that it was the 5th anniversary of Draw Drarry badly. I so love her block H/D art, and so happy we've had five years of her sharing them with us. Make sure to reblog to share the Drarry fun!

3. HDMpreg2023 has posted the reveals on A03. TWENTY fics in all. I only got to read about 1/3 of them, but whoa there are some serious gems. (If I find the Tumblr post for this, I'll add it.)

4. @lcdrarry has also posted their reveals! My apologies to the fest and authors/artists. I've only read a few this round but plan on diving into the treasure trove of Drarry. This was a new fest for me to watch when I came back to fandom. While I don't watch many movies or watch tv much anymore, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to follow/understand the stories as well as I should. I was wrong. Most I have found I could enjoy without knowing the source.

Tumblr Drarry Fic/Art Resource:

I'm guessing most of you follow @drarryspecificrecsdaily, but in case not, you should definitely follow! They post Drarry completed fics which have been posted on AO3 for the current day. I have found some amazing gems from this resource. Fics I haven't seen discussed or recced anywhere else and authors I haven't been blessed reading before.

Okay, that's it for Day 1! Hope you found something interesting. I'll be switching around the categories on a daily basis. Tomorrow, I'll be adding in Fic Rec from the way past. Feel free to comment. :)

[hccn-overseer]

Issue 18, 8/16/2023 - The Overseer

Issue Masterpost About the Overseer

Affiliate Happenings

By Roo

Grian: Old buildings? Moldy bread? Pterodactyls? What do the Grian affiliates not have?

Joe Hills: (This is never going to end, is it?) Joe Hills.

Mumbo Jumbo: More like Mumbo Jellyfish, am I right?

Pearlescentmoon: I think the day that the Pearl affiliates are not wet cats in the rain is the day we should all fear.

Now onto other news below the cut!

Remembering TFC One Year On

By Corundumcat

TW: Mentions of death. 

I think 2022 was really hard for the MCYT community, especially the Hermitcraft community. We as a community lost one of the most dedicated Hermits. One year on, not much has really changed and yet a lot has changed. TFC was one of the quieter Hermits who had a distinct style of gameplay and editing. 

TinFoilChef was born on June 29, 1959, and was aged 63 when he passed away. He lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma USA, and was a true Hermit. In the 1970s, he went off grid for about 10-20 years and was found working as a Pizza Hut employee. 

TinFoilChef joined Hermitcraft during Season 2, and played up until his death in Season 9. While many people did not see him interact with the other Hermits, he was always involved in the background. 

May he rest in peace. 

Helplines:

Guestbook for TFC

Obituary 

Grief Support

International Suicide Hotlines

Words on grief

Beyond Blue

Weekly Weather Report

By Lydia

Temperatures are represented using Celsius. Sorry, Americans!

Wednesday: Temperatures will reach a high of 25 degrees and a low of 12 degrees. Skies will be mostly cloudy throughout the entire day and evening.

Thursday: Temperatures will reach a high of 32 degrees with a low of 17 degrees. Skies will be rainy throughout the entire day and clear up around the evening.

Friday: Temperatures will reach a high of 30 degrees with a low of 19 degrees. Skies will be partly sunny.

Saturday: Temperatures will reach a high of 27 degrees with a low of 15 degrees. Skies will be mostly cloudy with scattered showers throughout the day and brief stretches of sunlight.

Sunday: Temperatures will reach a high of 29 degrees with a low of 16 degrees. Skies will contain brief thunderstorms throughout the morning and clear up around the early afternoon.

Monday: Temperatures will reach a high of 33 degrees with a low of 21 degrees. Skies will be mostly sunny, but humidity will be very high throughout the afternoon.

Tuesday: Temperatures will reach a high of 31 degrees with a low of 19 degrees. Skies will have heavy downpours throughout the afternoon and evening after a clear morning.

Wednesday: Temperatures will reach a high of 26 degrees and a low of 13 degrees. Skies will be partly sunny and very windy, though the evening will be mostly cloudy.

Lost and Found

By Lydia

All of the following items have been brought to The Overseer staff’s office for safekeeping until they are claimed. If you recognize one of these items as yours, please visit us to receive your items, or contact us at lostandfound@thehermitnews.org. Lost items will be sent to Twinkly Trash if not picked up after two weeks. Thank you! *Not a real email address.

Item 1. A clock made with jade and diamonds This clock, made with jade and diamonds, has four hands: one for the hour, one for the minutes, one for the seconds, and a fourth hand that seems to point in a different direction each time one sees it. An attempt was made to locate Bdubs to ask if it was his, however, he was not found.

Item 2: A brooch made from sturdy bone depicting a seahorse This brooch appears to be partially made with whalebone and depicts a seahorse made of pearls. It was found not far from Atlantis and shimmers in the light. It also appears to have been made approximately six years ago and was found covered in redstone.

Item 3: A very fancy journal This journal looks like it would belong in a library in an RPG. Inside of it are contents divided into three sections: travel logs, an unusual shopping & to-do list, and finely detailed architectural sketches that almost look like monochromatic photographs. In the middle of the book lies an elegant quill with a violet-midnight-blue gradient with a gold tip.

Item 4: A jar of blackberry and pomegranate jam This jar contains jam made from blackberries and pomegranate and has a label pasted over it depicting a very muscular, pale man with a small bowler hat, a white button down shirt, a rusty orange vest, and a band-aid over his nose. The label also advertises that the consumer will feel an intense increase of focus upon eating it.

Item 5: A case of dark blue lipstick This was found in Pearl’s Alien Base in a small treehouse among several notes regarding “Moon Magic,” a concept as part of a tabletop roleplaying game based upon Pearl’s biome. Aside from the basic premise and a few statistics concepts, no other notes were found.

Item 6: A round jewelry box filled with magenta powder This powder, rumored to enhance taste, is stored in a very light purple round jewelry box adorned with emeralds and citrines. It was found inside of Welsknight’s cathedral in a confessional booth. Parts of the booth itself were also covered in the same magenta powder.

Issue 7: A pair of brass knuckles These brass knuckles were found in the middle of the desert and appear to be very old with various marks of wear and tear on them.

Item 8: A chiller box of noodle kits This box contains a monthly supply of frozen noodle kits with many variations, including Frozen Soba, Pad Thai, Mie Goreng, Pho, Japchae, La Mian, Spaghetti Carbonara, Ramen, Kuay Tiaw, Cincinnati Chili, and many more. The box also comes with noodle toppings. The finder of this box has taken the extra copy of the recipe booklet.

Item 9: A TIE fighter drone This drone wields a knife, but the laser fires are fully functional. The controls are stuck on maximum sensitivity. It might be someone’s custom free cam.

NOTE: Lost items will be sent to Twinkly Trash if not picked up after two weeks. We are also in need of window and wall repairs and the dodo is missing.

Fun and Games

This week's fun and games are brought to you by Lydia and Azure!

Word Search and Crossword by Lydia

Brain Teasers by Azure

And that's all for this week folks! Thank you for reading and have a lovely week :D

[kamryn1963]

Little rant about my writing that I'm going to share here since this is my blog ;)

I just wrote/posted my 50th fanfic. I started posting just over a year ago (June 1st, 2023 was when I posted my first fic)

Since than I have:

• Wrote 207, 314 words (of posted stuff)

• Wrote 45 Chicago PD fics

• 5 FBI fics

• And 1 Harry Potter fic (a crossover with one of my PD ones)

• Met some great people through writing/fandoms that makes me grateful I stuck with writing

Most written characters:

• Alvin Olinsky (42 fics)

• Hank Voight (40 fics)

• Trudy Platt (28 fics)

• Michelle Sovana (12 fics)

•Antonio Dawson (11 fics)

Favorite Ships:

• Alvin Olinsky/Hank Voight (33 fics written)

• Jubal Valentine/Isobel Castille (4 fics written)

Favorite fics:

I didn't know where else to go (Al/Hank) https://archiveofourown.org/works/53003194

But I love you so (Al/Hank) https://archiveofourown.org/works/53452423

Can you hear me screaming? Please don't leave me (Al/Hank)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53750464

I laugh like me again (Al/Hank. Flufftober spring edition prompts) https://archiveofourown.org/works/54401797

Dead Man (Al/Hank) https://archiveofourown.org/works/55401649

Neck Of The Woods (Al/Hank. 1st Autistic Alvin Olinsky fic) https://archiveofourown.org/works/55709563

I Remember Everything (Al&Kim) https://archiveofourown.org/works/57695629

Tales From the Waiting Room (Al, Hank & Trudy) https://archiveofourown.org/works/58704355

So Long, London (Al centered fic. 19/30 chapters) https://archiveofourown.org/works/57182827

If I Died Last Night (FBI fic. Jubal/Isobel) https://archiveofourown.org/works/57928621

Mr. Perfectly Fine (FBI fic. Jubal/Isobel) https://archiveofourown.org/works/58187560

Special Mention:

My first fanfiction; You're not okay (Al, Hank & Trudy) https://archiveofourown.org/works/47568775

Prompt Challenges I've Participated In:

• Whumptober 2023

• Sicktember 2023

• Comfortember 2023

• Whumpcember 2023 (full month)

• Febuwhump 2024

• Flufftober Spring Addition 2024

• June of Doom 2024 (full month)

• Sicktember 2024

I'm not quite certain what the point of this post is, but I guess I just wanted to share a bit more of my writing (as not all my fics are cross posted here) and my accomplishments, I guess.

<3

[nerdsleaze]

Street Fighter™ 6

Release Date: June 2, 2023 Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, PC Rating: T for Teen Genre: Fighting Number of Players: 1-2 Format: Digital/Physical Price: Standard Edition - $59.99, Deluxe Edition - $84.99, Ultimate Edition - $104.99

GAME OVERVIEW

Here comes Capcom’s newest challenger! Street Fighter™ 6 launches worldwide on June 2, 2023 and represents the next evolution of the Street Fighter™ series which has sold more than 47 million units since its debut 35 years ago. Powered by Capcom’s proprietary RE ENGINE, Street Fighter 6 spans three distinct game modes, including Fighting Ground, World Tour and Battle Hub. The experience also includes innovative new gameplay features, plus enhanced visuals for every aspect of the game.

Standard Edition ($59.99; Digital/Physical) – Includes the base game of Fighting Ground, World Tour, Battle Hub, and the 18-character launch roster

Deluxe Edition ($84.99; Digital/Physical) – Includes base game, Year 1 Character Pass (containing four characters), colors 3-10 for each of those Year 1 characters’ Outfit 1, and bonus of 4,200 Drive Tickets for in-game purchases

Ultimate Edition ($104.99; Digital) – Includes base game and Year 1 Ultimate Pass which contains content from the Year 1 Character Pass, two additional costumes and their alternate colors for the four Year 1 characters, two more stages, and a bonus of 7,700 Drive Tickets

FEATURES

Classic Experience Built for a Modern Era: With all core gameplay modes present, plus two brand new modes and enhanced visuals, Street Fighter 6 redefines the classic fighting game genre.

Distinct Fighting Styles to Master: 18 diverse characters including legendary World Warriors and exciting brand new

characters add their own flair to the game at launch, with more to be added post-launch.

Brand New Game Modes: The Street Fighter franchise continues to hone its skills and redefine the fighting genre with the introduction of three new foundational modes – Fighting Ground, World Tour and Battle Hub.

Fighting Ground: Street Fighter 6 unites core fighting modes from previous titles – including Arcade Mode, online matches, Training Mode, local versus battles and more – to the Fighting Ground experience.

World Tour: World Tour is a single-player immersive story mode that pushes the boundaries of what a fighting game is and allows players to leave their own legacy with their player avatar.

Battle Hub: Battle Hub is a destination that provides players with new and unique ways to engage, communicate and interact with fighters from around the world.

In-Game Commentating: Street Fighter’s first-ever Real-Time Commentary Feature, supported with subtitles in 13 languages, incorporates the voices of popular Fighting Game Community (FGC) commentators and personalities like Vicious and professional wrestler Thea Trinidad directly into the game to narrate what is happening on-screen just like a real tournament.

Two New Control Schemes: Classic Controls returns alongside two brand new options:

Modern Controls allow you to perform special attacks with simple button combinations and are designed for players who want to fight without memorizing and practicing special move button combinations first.

Dynamic Controls only require a press of the Auto-Attack button to perform attacks and is a great control type to use when you have friends and family over for a quick, casual game.

[headphonemouse]

Major orv spoilers discussing the Oldest Dream that quickly veers off-course into an investigation on Kim Dokja's age

I was thinking about the confrontation with the Oldest Dream. Kim Dokja doesn't look anything like his mother, so does he look like his father? An image of his father appeared once in the text but I forgot if his details were described. An uncertain amount of time over 13 years ago, his father might have been in his late 20s or early 30s. Having both come at that young boy with a blade, the similarities are really painful to think about

Imagining a world where he is so much more (powerful, adored, charismatic, courageous) than he is, maybe he felt like that other version of him was better off living instead. But he still didn't believe any version of himself had the right to exist happy and whole. Even so, he wanted someone to stop him from destroying and cutting off parts of himself. His frail, shameful past did not wish to be shorn off so callously

As a side note, I think the song Lion's Teeth fits him

Side note 2: I like to think he was 10 or 11 when his mom went to jail, 15 when he discovered WOS (canon), and [EDIT SEVERAL HOURS INTO WRITING THIS: EVERYTHING PAST THIS POINT HAS BEEN DISPROVEN (???) IN A REREAD OF CERTAIN SCENES (details below)*] 17 or 18 when he was seen at the train station (to account for the breadth of his knowledge of WOS. Sure the fixation could have settled in immediately but we don't know how far those first few chapters covered so im giving him a few years. Also imagining the scene where the outer god kings are holding him up in a human chariot with a big red arrow pointing at him like "South Korean Citizen of legal voting age" is funny.)

Okay because I just went into a research rabbit hole I'm breaking up the paragraph:

1. 18 is the age to vote in Presidential and National Assembly elections. 19 is the age to vote in legal elections (link, paragraph 1).

2. As of June 2023, South Korea has written their Korean Age Based on the New Year out of law (link, paragraph 2) so it's possible that when KDJ said "I'm 28 years old" in 2018, he was using his Korean Age. His International Age (age calculation system used by the entire rest of the world) would have been one year younger (thankfully he was born near the beginning of the year or else the age difference would have been close to 2 years). More evidence supporting his use of Korean Age instead of International Age: he said he was 15 in 8th grade. 15 is the age in Korean Years that kids attend 8th grade while their International Ages are 13-14 (link, section: School Grades).

3. If 8 in Korean Years is the age that kids enter the 1st grade, and his Korean Age is about 13 months over his International Age (did I do my math right???), he would have been on the older end of his grade level, at 7 years old in International Years among 6-7-year-olds. None of this has much to do with my original post, but it is interesting to note when thinking of his relationship with his peers and how small he seemed.

One more thing: South Koreans also age out of foster care at 18 so he would have REALLY needed the 999gang at this point. BUT: 1. I don't think bouncing around relatives counts as being in the foster care system and 2. Didn't he move out on his own early? I think I read that somewhere. I remember thinking that was way too young.

AHA

Chapter 408:

"I recalled the day I left the relatives' place for lodging in a hostel. I was seventeen back then."

THAT IS WAY TOO YOUNG. HE WOULD'VE BEEN 16 IN INTERNATIONAL YEARS. HE WAS PRESSURED BY HIS RELATIVES TO LEAVE AND SINCE THIS ISN'T PART OF THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM HE DIDN'T EVEN GET ANY SEVERANCE PAY. ON TOP OF THEM HAVING STOLEN LEE SOOKYUNG'S MONEY I WISH THEY HAD SURVIVED THE APOCALYPSE JUST SO HAN SOOYOUNG COULD RIP THEM APART

Here's an additional passage from chapter 534 supporting my idea of when he became the Oldest Dream:

"Kim Dokja, 16 years old. 17, 18.

He'd consume this story and grow older, and eventually, become the 'Oldest Dream'."

Meaning he became the Oldest Dream AFTER turning 18 in Korean Years, 11th or 12th grade, 16-18 in International Years. He was still wearing a high school uniform so he'd have been 19 in Korean Years AT MOST.

[*Details from after rereading more scenes:

Chapter 285:

"During middle school, I even drew charts in the corner of my textbook."

Chapter 513:

"A thin, small-statured child who might have passed off as an elementary schooler were it not for his school uniform, was sitting on that bench. As if he was trying to memorise English words, he was busy scribbling something like a chart on his notebook."

SO. His uniform was NOT described as a high school uniform. He was small enough to be mistaken for an ELEMENTARY SCHOOLER, and he was doodling charts. This all points to him being 15 at the time they meet him on the platform.

Caveats: we still don't know how much was covered in the at most 11 months he's been reading WoS. It might be enough to get a basic understanding of power balances but it has nothing on adult KDJ's 13 years of reading. Also, the line from chapter 534 does not support the idea that he was still 15 when he became the Oldest Dream.

Maybe an 'oldest dream' is just a dream that's been held onto for a long time, instead of being a snapshot of a particular version of Kim Dokja at a particular age. Maybe all of him ever since the moment this dream germinated on that train platform has been the Oldest Dream.

This is ridiculous. Kid discovers a book he really likes and the first time he thinks "man I wish I could help these characters out alongside them" a future version of himself (who may or may not look just like his dad) pops out of a train and tries to kill him and then himself. And then his favorite characters also come out and lift him up, though it's uncertain if he's even read up to the 999th regression yet. I mean 1/13 of 1863 is 143 so if WoS were evenly paced no he would not have read about them yet. But WoS was NOT evenly paced so we can't tell.

[openheartfanfics]

Newly Added Fics

April 1 - 7, 2023  

🎭 Angst  |  🦚 Angsty Fluff  |  🛸 AU  |  ☁ Fluff  |  ♥ NSFW  |  📚 Series  |  📷 Edit  |  📱 TextFic  |  Ⓜ Mature

BRYCE X F!MC

Unspoken - @storyofmychoices 🎭

Olivia comforts Bryce after a difficult day at the hospital. [Hurt/Comfort]

ETHAN X F!MC

Almost - @socalwriterbee 🎭

After a night spent together, the reality of what happened three years ago starts to hit Ethan.

Breaking News - @liaromancewriter ☁

Cassie interviews Ethan about a special project.

Can’t always get what you want - @coffeeheartaddict2 🎭Ⓜ

Ethan and Casey’s rendezvous at Dagger mountain becomes the talk of the hospital. The fallout from this will be explored. TW: Sexual content, mentions of mental illness [2.14]

Changes - @coffeeheartaddict2 ☁

It is the Hopeful Hearts gala. Will it be enough to save Edenbrook? [2.17]

Intern Year - @cariantha  📚📷

[extended: wip] Follow Sawyer Brooks through her first year of residency at Edenbrook.

Independence Day

Like Ships in the Night - @txemrn 📚Ⓜ

[extended: wip] Anthology series about how fate tried bringing Tatum and Ethan back together during their 15 years apart.

Unloving You

Love Again - @headoverheelsforramsey 🦚

He is watching his best friend fall in love for the second time and desperately praying that it doesn't lead to disastrous consequences like the first time. Feat. Tobias Carrick

Moonlight - @jamespotterthefirst ♥

After an argument, they finally let their desire win. Part 3 of Flowers and Because.

Undefined - @coffeeheartaddict2 🦚

A trip to take Louise to rehab enables Ethan and Casey to have an honest discussion about their feelings. The kindness of strangers gives Kyra an idea. [2.16]

What happens in Vegas does not always stay there - @coffeeheartaddict2  🎭 Ⓜ

Casey and Ethan find it difficult to get into a professional rhythm, especially with their personal feelings still simmering hot. TW: Physical confrontations, sexual references [2.15]

Wrong Number - @headoverheelsforramsey 📱

Ethan sends a text to the wrong number.

JUNE HIRATA

Change of Heart - @coffeeheartaddict2 🦚Ⓜ

A look at the arrangement between Tobias Carrick and June Hirata from Tobias’s perspective and also June’s for some part too. TW: Mature themes incl. sexual content

Part 1 | Part 2

Mine - @alj4890 ♥

Touches on June’s relationship with Tobias and then her reaction along with Chris to finding out about the other.

LOVE TRIANGLE

The Triangle of Choice - @hopelessromantic1352  📚🛸

[mini: wip] Ethan x F!MC x Tobias

Chapter 2 ♥

SIENNA X M!OC

Wedding Traditions - @liaromancewriter 📷

Cassie shares memories from Max and Sienna's big day.

TOBIAS X F!MC

A Glimpse - @alj4890 ☁

Just a few short glimpses into the future for Tobias and Chris and how they spend their wedding anniversaries.

Crash - @jerzwriter 📚 🎭

[mini: wip] Tobias and Aurora rush to Edenbrook after learning Casey was involved in the chemical attack. Tobias is determined to find a cure, but will he be on his game?

Part 1

Enchanted - @jerzwriter ☁

The only thing Tobias was willing to commit to was remaining a bachelor. But after a brief meeting with this woman, he could not get her out of his mind. [2.3]

Homecoming - @jerzwriter ♥

New parents Casey & Tobias have been given the "green light" by Casey's OB/GYN, and they are determined to make it a night to remember.

Learning Curve - @jerzwriter ☁

It's "Bring Your Child to Work Day," and Sammy has some preconceived ideas about how it will go, but at the end of the day, she's in for some sweet surprises. [Domestic; Family]

On The Run - @alj4890 ☁

Just a short drabble of Chris seeing what kind of doctor Tobias is once he’s at Edenbrook.

The Date - @alj4890 ☁

Tobias invites Chris as his date for his mother's wedding.

The Offer - @alj4890 ☁

Tobias is offered the chance to not only join the staff at Edenbrook, but also the diagnostic team.

The Reason - @alj4890 🦚

Tobias and Chris have been secretly dating up to this point. Set before the Edenbrook/Kenmore softball game. [2.8]

The Wake - @alj4890 ☁

In this short drabble Tobias and Chris have been dating for about four or five months at this point.

_

SUBMIT OPEN HEART FICS & WRITERS HERE

[hatredmadeofgold]

Unfortunately not a new chapter but a current status update (same text as in the link):

Sorry, this isn’t Chapter 7 yet, but a status update and I will NOT abandon this don’t worry

Hey hello, Pulsar here. No worries, this fic not going on hiatus, I just felt bad that there’s radio silence and no new chapter update yet. Also, I had no idea how to reach many of my readers in any other way because my username until a few weeks ago didn’t match my handle anywhere else, but I’ll be linking to my social media at the end of this message.

I can assure you though, I will never abandon this project. My therapist pointed out to me that writing this helps me a lot with my own mental health and recovery, so basically, I must write this as if my life depends on it. /hj And honestly, I noticed that as well after he pointed it out, and recovery is my number one priority in life anyway, so. Hope that’s reassuring enough for you guys that this fic will be finished in full, including all the additional stories, even if it takes 5 years or longer than that. I am one of those people who stick to the same main interest/fandom for a decade.

Anyway, let’s get to the actual status update:

I absolutely underestimated how much work it takes to finish the script, originally I wanted to continue writing when the script for Arc 1 is finished but hahaha that’s unfortunately not how that’s going to work out and I hate having to make people wait for ages (I am not that patient myself), but I wanted to be transparent about the current writing process 😊

Chapter 7 will come out still this month (June 2023), and I am very sure that I can guarantee that. But I recently discovered that I misinterpreted some aspects of MGR itself while watching the Japanese dub out of curiosity, and I am not satisfied anymore with the 2nd version of my script as I already said when I published Chapter 6, which the first 4 chapters were based on. Hence, I will have to edit (almost) all of them, but thankfully it’s really minor changes and additions as well as some formatting, and none of these changes affects the story so far. But if you want to, you can read them again from the beginning once Chapter 7 goes online. I will delete this announcement then and move some of the info here to the author comment section at the end of Chapter 7. With the addition of the prequel I Come With Knives, Sam got an entire backstory now that did not exist in the 2nd version of the script and it affects the story very positively. It makes it a lot more complex, a lot more consistent and a lot more enjoyable for me to write and (hopefully) also a lot more enjoyable for you guys to read. The downside is, that with the 3rd version of the script, all the additional stories also came and the ‘lore’ of Sing to Me became very fucking massive – I am not joking when I say this is nearly as complex as the Solid series – and that makes the development of the script a little more ‘difficult’. I am not a perfectionist, but my brain is only satisfied when things make sense. I have 29 script files at this point and they will become even more (but at least it’s very organised). Not that I cannot handle it, but at this point I have a small development team who help me with research and discussing ideas, giving me feedback etc. I am just a tiny bit insane about this project but in the best way possible (One of my mutuals even joked that I am a fusion of Hideo Kojima and Rohan Kishibe when it comes to being an author lmao). Honestly, another reason I decided to rework my script is also the fact that it focused too much on Raiden and too little on Sam in the first and second versions. And I think there’s enough focus on Raiden already everywhere else (not that that’s a bad thing), but Sam deserves as much attention as Raiden does – and during the 3rd script development I was sometimes scared that it would now be imbalanced in the other direction, where the focus lies too much on Sam lol. But thankfully that didn’t happen, it’s pretty 50-50. Also, I am sure that even 75 chapters won’t come close to how long this fic will be, like, at this point I believe 100-125 chapters is more realistic but who the fuck knows. I know this is insane. I am enjoying every bit of it <3

Long story short, the two paragraphs above explain why I couldn’t get back to my insane writing speed from January in which I legit wrote 5 chapters in a single month yet. But hopefully, I might get that speed back as soon as I finished the preparations that need to be done for me to continue. However, I’ll also go back to vocational school sometime around August and I’ll have to see how I manage my studies and writing together. Also, dragonfly1212 asked me a while ago that due to the amount of research that I am doing for this story if I would share it eventually, and he’s got a point. My plan is to probably make a tumblr side blog where I will share all the lore over time, as well as reference sheets, character information, inspiration, etc. Drawings I commissioned as well as ‘fanart’, playlists, and fic updates. With the amount of detail and complexity this fic project has, a ‘wiki’ certainly would help I guess lol. Since it’s unrealistic for me to finish the entire Arc 1 script as fast as I’d like to, I will do this in smaller steps instead. As for now, I have nearly finished the fine-tuned scripts for Chapter 7 until Chapter 13, which will finalise the first smaller arc of Arc 1 :D Chapter 13 is probably going to be my next favourite one to write after Chapters 5 and 6, but the fine-tuned script for it is already 8 pages long and it doesn’t make sense to split it up because it would kill the tension if I were to do that. I hope that it will NOT be extremely long, but I am afraid I will have to ‘assault’ you guys with a chapter that’s going to be over 10k words long. Oh well, please don’t hate me. With Chapter 13 this fic will also officially move its rating from Mature to Explicit. If you’re somebody who does not like to read sexually explicit scenes though, I already decided that chapters with such scenes, first of all, will not solely consist of that alone, and secondly, I will also give a marking/note in the top author comment above such chapters where it starts and where it ends, so you can CTRL/Cmd + F and skip over those. I am not sure yet how, but I might use symbols for that as well, so it’s easier to skip, especially for those of you who prefer to read on mobile devices (I am one of those people myself). Also, it’s unlikely that there will be a lot of such scenes in this story anyway, at least in proportion to the length. I care a little bit more about the plot and the drama hahaha.

Community Discord Y/N? Additionally, I’ve been asked now by 3 different people if there’s a discord server about this fic. I didn’t think people would be so curious or interested in my creative work that people would ask if there’s a server lmao but honestly? If there’s enough interest, then I might make one – and please give me feedback if you’d be interested in joining such a community. In the case I might make a discord server though, it would not be exclusively about Samuraiden, Metal Gear or any ship or fandom in particular, and not just Sing to Me, although the main focus would still be on this project. I thought, if anything, it would be a small creative exchange between artists and authors or just people who enjoy reading this story and want to talk to me about it or others as well. This server then would also have an additional corner for you to share your own creative work, be that art, writing, or any other form of artistic expression, and it doesn’t have to be fandom-specific or fanwork at all, it can be original as well. I thought that I may also use such a server to help and support other authors and artists, and maybe give feedback on other people’s stuff when I have the time and energy to do so. Additionally, I could use that server to give updates on the progress of the fic overall, which is a lot better than inappropriately using AO3 like I am doing it right now. This will be the only time I will make an announcement like this anyway.

I’ve otherwise made such announcements already on my social media accounts before, but I haven’t had them linked in my AO3 profile until recently either. You can find me here: Twitter: R3DR4G3dotEXE tumblr: R3DR4G3 Instagram: R3DR4G3.exe Carrd: R3DR4G3 Discord ID: R3DR4G3#3952 (Yes, if you read my fic of course you can add me, I’d love to chat!) Anyway! Thanks for reading, I am sorry that this isn’t Chapter 7 yet and I hope to see you guys soon! ;^;

[thegreatlukeski]

Luke and Carrie's Bad Rapport Episode #143: 20 YEARS of Friendship!

The first two 15-minute segments of this episode were recorded in June 2023 when Carrie and Alexann were visiting Luke in Burbank, and features them and the Bad Rapport debut of Luke’s new roommate, Santana Maynard! The next 5 segments after that were recorded in July 2023, and featured Carrie talking about travel woes, Luke talking about getting high on the 4th of July, and we both review “Peacemaker” Season 1 and the first 7 episodes of the anime “Komi Can’t Communicate”. At that point (months before the SAG/AFTRA strike, which we both support), I was supposed to have finished editing and posting the episode. Well, real life got in the way as it always does, which kept me from editing the episode for 3 months until after FuMPFeST 2023 ended.

Carrie pointed out that we were closing in on October 25th, 2023, which is the 20th Anniversary of the day Carrie and I met. Ten years ago we did a whole huge special episode recapping the first ten years of our friendship (Episode #93). So we figured it made sense for us to record a couple more segments having an unprepared (my fault) conversation about some of the highlights of what she and I have been doing together and separately over the past 10 years to commemorate two decades Carrie interrupting Luke and Luke belching on the mic to annoy Carrie. So that’s what we did. You’re welcome, I guess?

Also, there hasn’t been a Bad Rapport podcast posted in the month of October since 2019, so I have been saving up some HALLOWEEN BANGERS for you all to rock out to! The comedy and music tracks for this episode are by The Ghost And Molly McGee, the great Luke Ski, Peter Hollens, Whitney Avalon, The Muppets, MC Lars, Schaffer the Darklord, Josh Gad, Alex Brightman, mc chris, Adventure Time, Rob Paravonian, The Cuphead Show, Skunk Barf, Art Paul Schlosser, brentalfloss, Mighty Magiswords, Insane Ian, TV’s Kyle, Eminem, WandaVision, Wig Wam, Peacemaker, Freeced featuring Awkward Marina, Mega Ran, Devo Spice, Jeff Whitmire, Carrie Dahlby, Chris Mezzolesta, Green Jelly, Posehn, and Trevor Strong. What do you get when you put it all together?… You get Episode #143 of “Luke & Carrie’s Bad Rapport”, featuring an AMAZING commissioned piece of art by FuMP superfan CHUCK! Please follow her on social media, @vv3spa on Instagram and Twitter, her commission prices are pinned to the top of her feed! Speaking of ‘feed’… “CHICKEN!”

Episode length: 4:04:04 (4-4-4: Two-Thirds of the Beast!)

Listen: http://badrapport.com/2023/10/25/episode-143-20-years-of-friendship