#tldr it's not like HARD hard to do but it does take a little while

[meanbossart]

ASK COMPILATION: SHADOWCUTE, EGALITATION DU DROW, THE MAN WHO HAS NEVER HAD A COLD AND PROMISES OF FROTTING.

ALL I CAN DO FOR TONIGHT FOLKS, but I might end up doing another compilation very soon since the inbox situation is dire 💀

Thank you so much for showing so much interest in my character and my art! And an extra especial Thank You as always to anyone who has taken the time to leave a nice compliment or words of encouragement in my mail!

Now, onto the debauchery.

Surprisingly, no! While they may have been stuck at the hip since the early game, DU drow most definitely wasn't interested in becoming intimately involved with anyone at that stage - having lost all of his memories and seemingly kidnapped by mindflayers and all, he was a little on edge. Besides, Shadowheart struck him as rather juvenile in the earlier game, which kind of erased any possibility of his interest in her growing. By the time she """matures""" in DU drow's eyes he was already locked in with Astarion, and their friendship was also firmly established.

He did not. I think if he had been more observant as a Bhaalist he could have put two-and-two together - but he was far too self absorbed for that. He is under the impression that Helena (Orin's mother) had a divine pregnancy.

Besides women more often falling into a category that he is sexually attracted to (which doesn't affect his treatment of them by much either as long as he and Astarion are together, he may just steal a glance down their shirt or something) not really!

He has specific prejudices about women from the drow race for the same reasons everyone else has, but otherwise sex or gender doesn't impact his views. The one exception I can think of that may apply here is that he has a slight soft spot for mothers.

And don't worry, your english is perfectly fine!

Hello! I have gotten an ask about this before where I went much more in-depth, but I can't find it right now. The TLDR is that he doesn't care as long as you can still "pull your weight" outside of whatever the disability is. How reasonable his expectations are vary on how much he likes the person in question, but generally speaking he doesn't care and this would be something that bears much less weight than race or attitude - if they don't make it into a problem, he just won't bring it up.

He does have a vile sense of humor though; that might come up if he's trying to hurt someone's pride or, ironically, has built enough of a rapport with that he's comfortable joking around about such things with them.

Have a great day yourself!

I don't think there is anything wrong with relating to fictional characters, even if they are profoundly flawed or even straight up evil. Hopefully that's a vehicle for self-examination and introspection - after all, we are all flawed ourselves.

Honestly it is very hard for me to picture him old, at least in the conventional sense.

Truthfully, I am preeeeetty settled on DU drow being an immortal being at this point. I think it makes sense that Bhaal would have just stopped his aging at some point so he can be at peak performance while following through with his bidding, and that just seems to make sense to me based on prior BG lore. He changes over-time in other ways that I most certainly plan on drawing, but it might take a while for me to get there!

LOL, I think he retained knowledge of illness and disease just fine, so if he were to come down with something he wouldn't panic - probably quite the opposite. He strikes me as the kind of guy who wouldn't walk into a hospital unless a limb was dangling off by an artery - and even then, his friends probably had to insist he went.

Luckily he must has the immune system of vulture after so many years of eating half-cooked wild animals and rolling around in the cold dirt, so he very rarely contracts disease. When he does, he likely just tries his best to hide it or dismiss the concerns of anyone around him about it.

I'm glad to hear that! I remember being concerned that DU drow's scars may get read as rather exploitative or disrespectful when my art first started getting traction - I'm relieved that not only that seems to never have happened, but that people like yourself can actually gain some self-confidence from it!

Listen now that I know that there is an audience for it -

I'm not sure how I feel about simply making a book with art that already exists online and charging people money for it - especially when I have prints for sale that are most definitely of better quality than a zine and can actually serve to decorate your home! But I suppose if an opportunity like that popped up and it made sense, I don't see why not!

Oh he hates her guts, LOL. He would respect The Hag Grind for the pure comedy of it if she weren't so disgusting to look at or so unpleasant to talk to. He's particularly irate at her during act 3 when she tries to trick him into killing that little girl's mother, since he almost follows through with it (one of my few moments of lore save-scumming because I felt like SUCH an idiot).

He definitely didn't take up on her offer in act 1 for the failed tadpole treatment!

And as a bonus, here are some Viscious Mockery inspired taunts Ethel definitely bombarded him with during every fight.

[carbo-ships]

Okay I'm sorry to bug you but I'm so stupid. How are you guys making the yumeship things? Like the background and stuff is there a program y'all are using to get it? I've been trying on my phone and I don't know how y'all get them so perfect looking 😭 please explain it like I'm 5. If that's too much work, feel free to ignore this/delete this no hard feelings I'm just incredibly dumb 🥲😅

No worries at all!

I do it on my computer in my drawing software. If you don't have one, you can probably achieve just about everything that needs doing using this free software:

I'll break it down step by step how I made mine below the cut. there are lots of pictues. i hope this makes sense. we'll be recreating my Aether/Ardis one for this tutorial.

here is what we are going to do today

So step 1 is to download the template

I like using the transparent version because I find it easiest to edit for my purposes, but feel free to use the other ones as well if there's one you prefer. you'll just skip the first couple steps of this tutorial. Open it up in your software. I'm using Paint Tool SAI. It should look like this.

First, I'll drag in the background that I want and put it on a layer underneath the template. It will look something like this (you can also use a flat color, whatever you want)

Now I want to fill in the big boxes so that I can actually read the text, so I'll go back to the template layer and magic wand select the main bit of empty space (blue shows what's selected),

then invert it (there is probably a button for this on your software)

now I'll make another layer under the template and bucket fill what i want to be white

you can color in extra things you want to change the color of on this layer too, or just leave it as-is. I'm going to spruce it up a bit, though.

ok great. now i'm going to change the grey text boxes to be white because the light grey clashes with my pastels. this may not be necessary for yours. you can bucket fill those too on the main template, but I'm going to use what's called a clipping layer on SAI, which basically means that it's a layer that only draws on top of things that already exist in the layer under it (this may or may not exist in the software you're using, but do whatever works for you). so i'm going to make a new clipping layer over the template and color white over all the grey parts.

much better. it's time to cut out where we want our pictures to go. I find it easiest to work when I treat all the boxes like picture frames, kinda like how the ones in the bottom right are. there are other ways to do this, but this is my prefered method. so we're going to go to our template layer and magic wand select everywhere we want a picture to go (once again now highlighted in blue)

and delete those from both our template layer and our white layer. it should look like this now

so now all you do is drag in your pictures so that they're underneath your template, erasing any parts that stick out

and then you just add text and little rectangles and whatnot! (I added mine in a different program because my art software doesn't have a text feature)

I made a couple other adjustments to mine (black circle around the one photo, getting rid of the line at the bottom of the aesthetic trio) by just editing the template layer.

and that's it! all done! does that make sense? i hope that makes sense. if i skipped over anything vital or if that makes no sense, let me know.

[speed-world]

One of your precious asks gave me an idea....self aware crk....y/n gets sent to the cookie world as either a baby or a really little kid....aaand I got multiple paths with this and I'll leave the choice of which up to you:

1. Gingerbrave finds the little cookie while exploring world 1 and takes them in as a little sibling....guiding y/n around and showing them the world....aaaand protective gingerbrave would be funny to see! Like when Licorice coos over y/n, gingerbrave could be like 'you touch them and you'll be picking up your broken teeth and staff with broken fingers.' Aaaand oh....if the ancients try to do to y/n what they do with gingerbrave (send a young cookie on a super dangerous adventure) well....very angry big brother gingerbrave! (Tldr: adventures with big brother gingerbrave!)

2. The ancients and dark enchantress meet....the final battle...they are about to begin when they suddenly hear crying...and the 6 see little y/n...aaaand they all become parents for y/n.

3. This one is based off mycookie, where y/n is like the kingdom's child...running around and living a happy life in the kingdom and just chilling...not much of a story but could be a wholesome slice of life.

Assuming the story you’re talking about is “Terrifying New Dawn,” then it’s kinda hard to see the first path done since Y/N is a human child, but it would be still be very heartwarming seeing a big brother Gingerbrave for Y/N even if he’s smaller.

The second path is pretty much exactly implied as what directly happens afterwards: in the story, Y/N does show up during that battle and the Ancients plus Dark Enchantress somewhat mutually agree to cease their fight to watch over the young one.

The third path is probably my favorite as I’m admittedly a sucker for wholesome slices of life stories. Cream Ferret once again proving to be a top tier parent for cookies and humans, and I also see the sugar gnomes having their work cut out for them to accommodate the kingdom for Y/N specifically.

[isagrimorie]

People give Janeway guff about not giving Kazon replicators and transporters. Still, it's proven repeatedly that giving one Kazon faction an advantage over the other would be mixing it up in an internal war that would LITERALLY shift the balance of power.

Klingons at least know the technology they have engineers, even as it's becoming a dying breed over Warriors.

TLDR in Alliance Chakotay and Tuvok convinces Janeway that making an alliance with a Kazon faction is the way to go.

And so she does finally concede on this little experiment but with a lot of reservations going in: That once they leave the infighting will go on, and might actually have been worse.

Tuvok naively thinks it might help and bring about a Federation.

B'Elanna then pushes forward Harry's sarcastic comment about forming an alliance with Seska and then at the first sign of this, Chakotay balks.

And then Janeway says something that I feel is her guiding principle in dealing with hard decisions:

Janeway: "You can't have it both ways Commander. If you want to get in the mud with the Kazon you can't start complaining that you might get dirty."

Again, this is what I love about Janeway -- she gets flack for it but when Janeway makes a decision no one else wants to make it.

As I've mentioned in another post in tags: #right or wrong#i admire how janeway is always the one#who goes#the buck stops with me#she makes the hard choices on voyager#especially during debates#when the staff just goes around and around in circles#like in memorial where she starts just in the background#listening to the senior staff debate#from how janeway started in episode 2 of season 1#where she's presented with the horrific#sophie's choice of neelix dying because he has no lungs#and then subjecting another person to the same fate#to the (now boring debate about tuvix)#to this moment#to the moment on the memorial episode#she will take on that burden#and she will always stare at the hardest choice unflinchingly#because someone has to#as the 12th doctor once said#sometimes all your choices are bad ones#but you still have to choose#

In this episode, she allowed herself to be persuaded but she's not sold on it. But she's letting her crew run with it -- okay so we do this, but if we do this, we commit to it. And yet, at the first uncomfortable decisions... there's already balking. This was Janeway testing the waters if any other person on her senior staff could carry water about making the hard choices.

So far the ones who have stepped up were B'Elanna, Tom, and Neelix.

Anyway, I wish there was more fallout on the whole Kazon vs Trabe conflict because that was actually interesting.

But also Voyager had a Doctor Who problem -- if they meddle in the affairs of a spatial politik, they don't know the repercussions of their actions and just look at Living Witness and the reputation Voyager gained simply by doing a bit of a trade deal.

Voyager can help when they can, see: helping Brenari refugees escape the Devore. (Counterpoint).

But they can't and shouldn't really interfere with internal politics. They're not like DS9 where they can stay in one place and fix things permanently. They're just passing through.

This is also why I think she wasn't really considering Tuvok and Chakotay's thing during the Void episode where they raid another ship's resources. (Also, because after Ransom and Equinox, she knows what faltering in the Federation principles can do).

Crucially, she's also known both Chakotay and Tuvok enough that while she loves them -- Janeway knows neither men have the stomach for their proposals.

The Alliance episode was one example of that already.

Janeway, though, if she is pushed to make that commitment and there was absolutely NO way they can prevent raiding others-- Janeway would have committed to that action 110%. This is why I feel Janeway would actually come to a similar conclusion as Sisko in In the Pale Moonlight.

Especially, if she gets daily reports of Starfleet casualties. I have a feeling, there would be less kicking and screaming when Garak finally does his reveal.

Janeway has rules for a reason. She is fastidious about it. For a reason. Because once she commits to an action, it will take both hell and high water to take her off that course.

/edited

[lilbitofsomthin]

Dead Pixel Anya and Tiny Crispy Curly

⚠️CURLYA RANT INCOMING⚠️

TLDR: I only ship Curlya after the crash (I have an AU for exploring more of their relationship post crash where they don’t die) :D

Okay so imma take this opportunity to rant about Curly and Anya’s relationship and the ✨only✨ time I will ever even entertain the thought of Curlya as a ship (cause like most of it is what I see pre crash and I’m like ✨no thank you✨)

First off forget and I mean FORGET anything pre crash. My mans is not ready for all that is Anya. He’s the definition of unworthy. Has not had his ✨arc✨. Has not truly drank his fair share of respect women juice 😔

When it was Curlys turn to care for Anya he failed spectacularly, like a main plot point of the game is how bad he fucked up by standing aside and letting J*mmy hurt her. So BAM he becomes cosmically and ironically put into a mirror position to Anya’s in their relationship.

Because now, in an instant, his very life is now in HER hands. She is literally the only one who can save him. Idk all of the medical knowledge to understand just how royally fucked up Curly was, it’s safe to say that keeping him alive at any rate would’ve been difficult to do. So that fact that she did it, with only the bare essentials of medical supplies, by herself, is nothing short of incredible.

She worked herself to the bone for months to keep him alive. After knowing that he failed her. After knowing her didn’t protect her. Knowing, for a FACT, that he wouldn’t do the same, and she still saved him anyway.

I mean, I’m sure at some point Curly must have realized that too.

And like THATS the part where I’m like “if I was Curly I would’ve fallen in love with her a little bit”. Not in the “oh you saved me I’m indebted to you” or “severely trauma bonded” way, I’m speaking in the characters being able to kinda analyze even in crazy stressful situations (like all the monologues and stuff being very well written and deeply metaphorical gives me the idea that their all capable of self reflection (except of course for J*mmy but that’s not the point).

So like I imagine that Curly can reflect on the fact that, after he failed her, over and over and over again. To the point where everything literally blew up in his face. And when the tables were turned and it was his life in Anya’s hands? She held no resentment, no malice. She saved him over and over and over again. And he had to have realized how incredible of a person she was at that point.

But only now that he finally realizes it, he can no longer say do or say anything about it. And listen that’s not even getting into J*mmy revealing his more obvious abusive tendencies to Curly. Because now not only does he have perspective on how strong of a person Anya is but how horrific the abuse was from J*mmy while being on the receiving end of it. That’s like a double serving of empathy and understanding. I’d like to imagine that, if we got to play as Curly, he’d go through that realization. 🤷

Okay now that THATS out of the way let’s get to FANON SHIT!!!! Time for the happy ending aus baby! Listen I love the game but I wanna see the characters I love get to resolve their traumas cause they deserve it!! I KNOW WHY CANON IS THE WAY IT IS I JUST WANNA PLAY PRETEND ON THE INTERNET!!

Just a quick psa, okay back to it.

I like to imagine that in those rescue aus they happen riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight after Daisuke gets out of the vent and finds Anya (btw I’m gonna say at this point her body was under too much stress and she lost the pregnancy). Apparently overdoses can be reversed so let’s say our rescue team is able to work hard and save Anya and patch up Daisuke.

The rescue team is also clocking J*mmy immediately cause this is all REALLY fucking sketchy

“why’d you send the intern into a vent shaft that you knew was dangerous”

“oh Captain said if I did I’d make my boss proud 😄”

🧍🧍🧍🧍 “dude your like 40 why’d you send the intern half your age that’s fucked up”

like that alone is enough for them to be suspicious but once Anya’s up all bets are off. I mean the shit show J*mmy “captained” the Tulpar to mostly speaks for itself but once Anya can tell someone what happened to her they can put enough together to put him in whatever space brig they have. That’s because we got a rescue team of space feminists who believe victims baby!!!

“And who funded this whole rescue hmmmmm??” I hear you say? No one. Nope. 🙂‍↔️ Capitalism doesn’t get to take the fun out of my character study so imma say their “Volunteer Rescue for International Cosmic Waters” or something idk 🤷. That’s not the point. The point is that this is a big shit show that got revealed by people that Pony Express couldn’t pay hush money to. And when I mean revealed I mean, this became a huge news story cause it had such a great hook. I mean that was the whole advertisement for the game!

“Crew lost in space forced to eat mouthwash while their former captain has been mutilated in the crash”

I mean I saw that on like 5 different thumbnails. Anyway people love a good story and the one Mouthwashing tells with a RELIABLE narrator at this point is tragic BUT salvageable.

Like Curly is gonna have like serious medical intervention and Daisuke will probably need stitches for the gash in his arm and Anya will need to be hospitalized from the stress of keeping Curly alive alone. Swansea might need like, idk a Tylenol or something idk? But like they CAN recover, the wrongs that Pony Express allowed can’t be made right but can at least be helped out with.

I imagine that this news story is like planet wide news. If I know humans, we love to help when we have a target and this story was popular as hell. So id like to imagine that they could the crew with whatever financial troubles they would be having. Curly could afford operations, Anya could afford medical school (which she doesn’t need because you better believed she got full ride scholarships for SAVING A MAN MUTILATED FROM THE CRASH FOR MONTHS WITH A GLORIFIED FIRST AID KIT), Daisuke could go to college (I know some people headcanon engineering or art so take your pick) Swansea could even retire if he wanted idk.

And we get the rare satisfaction of getting to see someone like J*mmy to be revealed for exactly what he is on a global scale. He’s tried, prosecuted and the world is on the crews side and they become micro celebrities (kinda like those news stories where everyone talks about it and pushed a bunch of support for like 2 weeks then moved to the next thing) cause fuck you capitalism human nature is enriched in empathy ���

So here’s where I like to imagine where fix it fics start. The stage is set, therapy bills are paid and while everyone gets a nightmare or panic attack every now and again, things have officially been given the “happy ending au” stamp. So call “my version” of the story an angst with a happy ending rather than the original tragedy and cautionary tale 🤷

So like NOW we can START on the POSSIBILITY of curlya.

That’s right the idea of these characters getting together is a tick that has crawled in my brain and I am cursed.

Because now Curly has his chance to drink respect women juice. And you better believe my man’s gonna chug that shit. And honestly I can see Anya respecting Curly for trying to grow. Like everything is 1000% platonic (I mean maybe a little one sided crush on Curlys side and maaaybe something develops later on) and the main 4 crew are all kinda hanging out for a few reasons (interviews and meet and greets or whatever people who survive major news stories do) and also like they DID go through a shit storm together so their a little trauma bonded but in a found family way.

Anyways THIS is where I imagine all Curlya stuff to take place. This fun low stakes “we made it through the storm and now we can rest on the shore” kind of happy ending zone.

And like maybe they can get up to shenanigans and work through their trauma and love and support each other. That’s like where my fan content takes place 🧍

⚠️SO IF I EVER POST ANYTHING AND TAG IT AS “CURLYA” THIS IS THE CONTEXT IM PUTTING IT IN!!!!! I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT ANYTHING THAT WAS OFFICIALLY RELEASED IN CANON OR IN THE CONTEXT OF THE GAME!!!! I SHIP CURLYA AS A PURELY FANON CONCEPT⚠️

Like idk if this is media literacy or brain rot at this point but that’s my rant thanks for reading :D

[wildflowerteas]

🧃🍄📚🍬 ask game!!

hello rori sorry for taking forever to answer this my family was unionizing against me in a board game okay moving on

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

okay fun niko lore, for context i read very VERY fast, but basically when i was in elementary school my teacher pulled me out of class for thirty minutes and made me read a book and then answer questions about it because apparently my parents ( and her ) didn't believe that I was actually reading and they asked her to test me so basically that's when my distrust of authority began

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

okay this is me coming out as a mark and lucy platonic or romantic relationship truther hear me out when she joined the guild mark immediately latched onto her because he has a lot of siblings and of course he wanted to make her ( orphan ) feel welcomed and a part of something ALSO they have the SAME BIRTHDAY so i hc that he made it a thing to ask her every year to do something together like going bowling or going to a theme park or getting a slice of cake at a local bakery and even though she responds with as much enthusiasm as a brick wall lucy secretly enjoyed it also i think huck and tom ( his little doll guys ) think anne is pretty and like being in the room so they can see her okay that's all brain turned OFF no more thinking abt bsd American redheads

📚 ⇢ what's the last thing you wrote down in your notes app? 

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

all of my opinions are popular opinions i have no original thoughts ever unfortunately. ummmmm maybe that I find people's interpretations of kouyou to be very shallow and black/white-ish and too heavily rooted in fanon content. from what I've seen a lot of people subscribe to: 'oh her design is similar to an oiran's so it's implied she handles the mafia's sex workers and so she must be grooming kyouka' all while her obi being in the front also symbolizes being a widow ( and we know she's been in mourning over her lover being killed ) and her desire to protect kyouka from those feelings is misguided but genuine idk idk i'd need more time to put my thoughts together but tldr i feel like it's always either 'girlboss!mom!' or 'evil woman who is just as bad as mori for reasons i won't specify' and both are fine it's just character interpretation but i don't feel that way about her ( i see her as a selfish, paranoid yes, but a deeply hurt and flawed woman who needs the opportunity to do *good* for someone <- and she does by getting kyouka's papers from the Special Divison transport vehicle ) and it's hard to articulate it.

[twst-hottest-takes]

I don’t get Malleus.

What I mean is, I don’t like how the game is basically treating him and MC as BFF’s when I barely know the guy?

I just started the game like, 3 months ish ago, and have gone through the story up until the start of chapter 7. So I’m going off the main story alone here.

And??? I don’t get his character???

Cameo in book 1, during lunch I think? Exposition is cool I guess. But the goes for literally any of the dorms. And honestly the Diasomnia introduction felt more like a Lilia introduction than Malleus’s?? (I can’t recall if Malleus was physically present during the Heartslabyul-gang-introduces-us-to-the-other-dorms-scene. I actually think he was just mentioned by name now that I think about it)

It might just be my awful memory but I do not remember what he did in book 2. I know the Diasomnia guys were there at the end at Leona’s overblot. But I really only remember Lilia being there.

(I don’t even remember what book it was but)

My guy was just taking a stroll down by Ramshackle as he did before we moved in (fair enough)

Makes small talk while being oh so mysterious (you shall call me whatever you like, and MC decides to be funny and go with Tsunotarou because we can, and he goes along with it because he finds it amusing ig)

We’re apparently friends so we invite him to the VDC (sure?? I guess?? Not the first person to come to mind tbh? The game kinda makes us give it to him regardless of how we feel behind the screen)

So coolio, he’s invited to the VDC. Is intrigued to learn that Vil and Kalim (fellow housewardens) are taking part.

Then post-Vil-Overblot finds the stadium in disarray so he uses some magic to fix it up. Then says he looks forward to seeing a good performance, menacingly?? What is with his tone of voice??

He makes another cameo at the end of book 6, where he reverts Vil back to his younger self. (I have thoughts about that, but for the sake of not letting this ask get too long I will hold my tongue.)

Oh and the scene with him and Lilia in Ramshackle? Lilia sharing that ‘this might be the last time I see this star’?? Or something. Dude. You don’t just drop death flags like that?? Hello?? Malleus is reasonably suspicious and concerned.

Then book 7 starts. Lilia’s farewell party and Yuu offhandedly mentioning that maybe they might find a way to get back home. (FINALLY. I was wondering when that would become plot relevant again! I have thoughts of Yuu as a character—or lack-thereof. But again. For the sake of not getting too off topic.)

Then he overblots.

Malleus and the Prefect’s relationship doesn’t feel as fleshed out as it could be. If the readers were self projecting onto MC during their reactions I see how they could get Malleus’s character. But. It doesn’t feel like enough?

I know Malleus practically has no friends and we’re the first person to actually be normal around him ig. But??? The story pivots to him when he was not even in my periphery at times and I guess I didn’t like the forceful ‘hey. I’m here too’ approach the game has with him.

I know the little moments across the books are important to make his presence feel less jarring during book 7, because let’s be honest, Malleus as a character is a lot.

So I get why it’s happened during the course of the series. But the execution is lacking?? Or I’m just not reading into it the way the writers intended.

TLDR : I don’t get Malleus’s character. Malleus is treated like a cameo character in game and does big important things sometimes so it’s hard to grasp how central he is to the story as a whole, especially when the game refers to him as a ‘friend’ when a lot of their interactions in the main story is just pleasantries.

Now this I can understand a bit more.

I'll repeat what I've been saying from the get go:

"Malleus is too important for his own good."

Thank you for your take.

What I mostly mean by this is that he's written to be so powerful and crucial to the overarching plot that it's basically impossible to justify his importance via the superficial writing of the main game. There are so many elements they try to include with his character (more than most of the other cast members honestly), that it becomes hard to parse exactly what you're supposed to think about him sometimes. There's too high a standard to really give him the development and payoff that he needs to justify the setup they tried to go with.

I mean, he is "twisted" from Disney's MOST ICONIC Villainess. How is anyone supposed to reach that standard? So basically the story just does the bare minimum for most of the characters and a little bit more leg work for Malleus, but in the end whether or not people think it's enough will vary. I can at least say with Malleus that they tried, unlike with a lot of the other cast.

I do actually understand the stance that Malleus just might not make sense to some people. But in his defense, for Malleus, he and the MC have a unique relationship to him so it does make sense that he really values them more than they realize.

(Also quick correction, he did not in fact show up in book 1 at all. Only Silver, Sebek, and Lilia appear at the Diasomnia lunch table in that scene.)

[pruneunfair]

Hi okay- I’m a huge remarried empress fan, but I enjoy it seperate from tne fandom. That being said- you have so many great points.

1) I do believe the story may have changed, because this is supposed to be based off a web novel. Like an actual novel. Often times they will deviate from the novel to change the story. Take Who Made Me a Princess. The artist at the end of it did say they changed the story ending for it. So it’s very plausible.

2. SOUVESHU (look I’m a fan but I can never remember how to spell) DEFINETLY GROOMED RASHTA!! Though I don’t agree with her actions, I have 100% acknowledged and know she is deeply traumatized. And he most likely took advantage of that. He saw her as young and pure, something Navier was not. And he wanted to preserve that. Rashta is clearly traumatized, and her mental health is not healthy. It is easy to take advantage and manipulate sadly because she does not know the warnings. He groomed her and when she was finally trying to be more like someone she thought he wanted, Navier, he lashed out. No one gets she is constantly comparing herself!! She does not know how to love herself!! And that is the most damage. I wish they would pick up on that. I love Navier but she can be so oblivious to that due to her anger and betrayal at Soveshu. I think if Rashta had proper care and been trained,!- did Soveshu could just fucking communicate and not be a groomer, this could all have been avoided. Navier is also at fault for not see this red flag in him??? But she was so angry and maybe jealous and wanting to back stab I think it clouded her judgement. If she slowed down and actually had a conversation- it would be okay.

3) there is so much wasted potential in all the characters!! Is Navier is getting this magical stuff sorted why can’t she just acknowledge it and work for something with it? Use it to her advantage. I wanted to see her stand up to Heinrey for taking her mages. I wanted to see her stand up to Soveshu. I want to see her just fight for herself. But she doesn’t say much. She’s so strategic with everything and it’s like it wasted her potential. Why can’t she just speak out?? It does feel very much like she turned into a Mary Sue. I want to see more of her flaws. Like one we all think is pretty when is a flaw is that she has no want to speak out and is held back and refined! I think they are trying hard to point onto her upbringing and that she’s “higher” than everyone else. When like- yes she’s an empress. But there is so much more then that we should be able to read about!! We need more scenes of her having friends for peat sakes that isn’t gossiping or talking about men and other things. Where did the potential go??

I really wanna see how it ends and hope it turns into a better direction. I also need to read the book too.

TLDR: you make so many good points and I wanted to expand on it as a fan of the series who does acknowledge all these points.

1: I did read the novel out of curiosity since everyone was saying it was better then the manhwa. The manhwa was pretty loyal to the novel and while it was still really iffy with protagonist centered morality I felt it could get away with it more since it was in first person therfore it's possible Navier could be an unreliable narrator. Another difference I noticed is that while the manhwa felt actively malicious against Rashta and making jokes about her trauma when she cries or looks for attention, the novel is more complex about it and it feels more sympathetic then something to laugh at. The whole slavery being ignored and characters getting away with shitty behavior unfortunately still lasted but given how it was more complex with it's characters I think it was an unfortunate result of the author getting a little too carried away with the readers desires to see more fluff. Gotta say I don't hold as much animosity toward the webnovel but it's still not my favorite.

2: I'm really happy to see that I'm not the only one who thinks Rashta got groomed. Even if she's not a child, she's still mentally stunted and grooming can occur at any age since it is the desire to take someone who is easily influenced and molding them into whatever you desire. Honestly though I think it makes sense that Navier wouldn't immediately see any red flags from Sovieshu given that their childhood together was happy and geninune, it's common for victims in abusive relationships to not see who their abuser really is at first which really made Navier escaping even more satisfying.

3: on one hand Navier not being able to speak up makes sense since what is she really gonna do if the Emperor brings in a concubine without breaking royal protocol, on the other hand it is so OOC of her in later seasons when she is described as someone with witty comebacks and is no damsel in distress yet in season 2 and 3 she does absolutely nothing since Heinrey and her other friends do it all for her. They think this makes her really charismatic but that only ever works for villian characters who are mysterious and too classy to do the dirty work, when the protagonist does this over and over it gets boring and you wonder if she's really supposed to be the protagonist at all.

[bywrios]

Hello Sev 🐍 here I have discovered your newest abode and once I saw this blog and it’s purpose I immediately thought of 2 things 1 Alpha Wriothesley and as someone who’s supposed to be in their omega era I believe u can go from there and 2 is Wriothesley and Clorinde doting and taking care of their perfect little wife if u wanted u could even think about both them being your Alphas while u r their omega have fun with this Sev glad to have u back take care!

🐍 anon u r killing me here giving me clorinde thoughts on my men blog............................ ANYWAY alpha!wrio mmm............................

in short? a sweetheart, but just for you. he's the type of alpha i feel to be subtle about things while also making it unmistakable that you're his, and more importantly, he's yours. sometimes he'll take you out to the surface for dates and make sure they run until late at night, just so he can have the excuse to drape his coat over your shoulders, both to keep you warm and have it be scented by you. two birds, one stone, right? the next day he'll wear it proudly around the fortress, ever so often wrapping it tighter around his large frame and burying his nose in the fur at the collar to breathe your sweet scent in.

alpha!wrio has a lot of scars; from typical fights to fights amongst alphas. the latter is always more violent, fists and teeth bared between people running on nothing but pure instinct, but wrio's always come out on top, of course. he isn't the duke--the top dog--for nothing. but with that comes scars, naturally. and he doesn't have any particular feelings about his scars, he's mostly neutral to them.

but. there is one scar that he cherishes above all, and it's the mating bite you left on his shoulder. sometimes in the mirror he'll brush his fingers along it reverently, and indulge in the way it makes his entire body relax. he can feel the ghost of your teeth when he does this, something that for once broke his skin not to harm but to love. to claim. and he loves it, just as much as the one he left on your shoulder. mirrors of each other.

alpha!wrio, and honestly regular wrio too, is really protective of you, of course. you're his mate, his beloved, the most important person in his life--he wants to ensure your safety, always. he has his guards periodically update him on what you're doing in the fortress, and it's his favorite part of their reports. maybe he'll even send one of them over to you with a little gift or trinket, like a duke-special coupon for a warm cup of tea or a little note telling you not to push yourself too hard and remember to take breaks. he passes the flat of the note over his wrist once, twice to scent it before passing it to one of his guards to give to you.

tldr; alpha!wrio is so puppydog whipped for you <333

[midnightmoodlet-art]

https://www.tumblr.com/midnightmoodlet-art/766503128317280256/affogato-may-have-fallen-but-red-velvet-has-the?source=share

Ok hardest question out of curiosity and incase it sparks some art ideas or idk lmao:

Why is red velvet the better husband material? Like I simp hard for both him and affogato but I really wanna hear you out!

Sorry and idk why but this feels like an 'ok, hear me out-' moment lmao!

OKAY so I see a major distinction between the two because it is indeed a "hear me out"

Affogato is more like a "cat" husband whereas Red Velvet is more of a "dog" husband, so their affection styles are completely different from the get go. This isn't where I compare who's better, more like what vibes they give off.

How I see it, it's incredibly difficult to gain affo's affection, and it's like a long term kind of courting that you have to do with him (aka expect a 100k slowburn kind of buildup). In contrast, if you're chill with cakehounds and the cakes in general, you already have half of RV's soul in your hand already.

this is getting long so UTC <3 TLDR: thinking about it more, it depends on your taste in affection styles + they are both intense.

I think it all comes down to how open you want them to be with their affection: ❧ This is incredibly "hear me out" but affo strikes me as someone who would rather keep it private. Like as much as he might give off the impression that he's enjoy flaunting his spouse and flexing (he still does it to cookies he hates), he seems more the kind to have them all to himself. He wants to be the only one to witness the inner machinations, he's just greedy like that. Keep in mind while in public, he's get protective and try to verbally shoo whoever gave him bad vibes all the while placing his hand at the back of his spouse. ❧ RV on the other hand is more nonchalant when it comes to PDA. If his spouse likes to be picked up, well they are never walking again lmao. He'd also be a lot more transparent with his affection, since growing up within the COD gives him limited contact with the average cookie. Would also be a lot more protective and might growl towards others he deems "bad".

There's an important con to take into account with the both of them and it comes down to loyalty: ❧ They are villains after all, so they have specific "quirks" to look out for. ❧ Affo only had himself for the longest time, so there are two ways this can go: either he'll give everything of little importance and leave for "greener pastures", throwing his spouse to the wolves in worst case scenarios, or get completely utterly obsessed, and in turn his "loyalty" turns intense to the point of overbearing (he doesn't want to lose his spouse, the only good thing in all of Earthbread after all). For the former, the spouse might have been seen as a "sacrifice worth doing" to reach whatever new delusional goal he has in mind. So no matter what, obsession dictates his every action and in turn he can get a little intense to say the least. ❧ RV on the other hand, grew up by the Tower of Chaos, so in turn his loyalties lie with Dark Enchantress first and then everything else. He know nothing else so expect him to be absent for long periods deployment-style if his spouse doesn't live by the base. He'd insist they should move in and grumbles when hearing yet another "no". So ultimately, when faced with a choice between his spouse and being with DE, he might choose the latter...

[sillyfreakx5]

waow I'm actually doing contact discourse

I don't necessarily agree with the phrase "minors can't consent". While I understand how it's useful at quickly communicating your stance on chrono minor/adult contact, or how making minors' consent null in the eyes of the law can be useful, I don't believe it to be useful in terms of describing reality

if a minor can understand the situation properly and has adequate sex ed, they're able to consent. I'm a chrono minor, I'd say I'm able to consent to sex. I might be statistically a little worse at impulse control and long term decision making and the like than the average adult, but I still am able to consent

HOWEVER, and this is a big however,,,

i still don't believe we should allow or endorse chrono minor/adult relationships.

We know that they end up harming the minor in MOST cases. Even if we were to only include the relationships where the minor did actually consent, without manipulation or coercion from the adult, (though very often people aren't even aware that they're being manipulative), they still tend to cause harm.

Also, it's often hard to tell from the adult's perspective if the minor is feeling pressured to agree. Because, yk, they tend to hide that they are feeling pressured. Also, the younger someone is the more likely they are to feel pressured to do something they wouldn't want to do, even if the adult may view their own behaviour as perfectly normal

While the harm might be caused in part by ✨ society✨, with the attitudes about minor/adult relationships instilling guilt and the like in affected minors and giving them the expectation that they should be harmed by such relationships, that doesn't change the fact that the harm does happen. Even if you believe that that shouldn't be the case, it still remains reality, and probably won't change within any of our lifetimes.

(also there's a myriad of reasons why chrono minor/adult relationships have a much higher risk of being abusive that I'm not listing out.)

While there are cases of people who had no negative consequences from being chrono minors in relationships with chrono adults, (and i think it's incredibly patronising to tell them that they're just groomed and that they don't know what their own lives were like, some of them may turn out to be wrong but that's their own thing to figure out), they are in the vast minority. There's also plenty of people who came out perfectly fine after drunk driving, but we're not gonna act as if drunk driving is harmless, right?

And from an adult's point of view, it's impossible to tell whether you'll end up traumatising your partner or not. You may think you're doing everything right but the minor could still end up severely traumatised. Therefore, no one should have the right to take that risk with the wellbeing if another

Obviously, i don't think a minor should be punished either legally or socially for partaking in such a relationship. Also, letting them discuss such relationships more freely could allow them access to a support network if the relationship has problems (something that it's very likely to have)

though also in this whole argument I'm very biased since most of my mental issues stem from consensual chrono minor/adult relationships that really fucked me up :3

It's like how we shouldn't allow drunk driving. Sure, you MIGHT end up not hurting anyone but the risk of harm is too great

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

tldr; minors can consent, chrono minor/adult relationships still shouldn't be condoned bc they're extremely likely to be harmful

if you have any thoughts/questions pls pls pls share them!!! i love discussing ethics :3 even if your opinion is very different from mine!

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I won't be put out if you don't answer this question, but I figured I may as well ask. For context, I am a disabled fanfic writer who's irritated by the casual ableism in my fandoms, and this blog is a big inspiration and help to me in doing my little part to represent accurately.

The fandom I'm talking about here is Hermitcraft, if that helps anyone get the jist of this. The vast majority of the characters are seen/shown as some kind of non-human or animal person, and that's how I like to show them too. There's one character, named Cleo, who's some kind of zombie-type creature in canon. She's loud, competent, snarky but still a great friend, and a talented designer.

Is it ever ableist to give Cleo a facial difference, as opposed to a different disability or condition? (It is normal in this fandom to assign characters disabilities in fics if you want, except for a few cases where the creators say they don't want specific characters given some category of condition.) I am concerned about her specifically because of her zombie-ness in canon, which is always treated as a cool and fun design feature by the fandom but still could be/look like equating a facial difference with something bad. Obviously I intend to write her having a FD in a canon setting, if I do it, as unrelated to her zombie-ness and a neutral/positive aspect of her. Is this specific issue (potential ableism) improved if she's one of a handful of characters with FDs or disabilities, or does that not help here? If it's an AU setting where all the characters are human and Cleo has an FD, is that better or worse than being in canon? (I am not at all interested in writing about discrimination, so assume there's no real-world-typical disfiguremisia at play.)

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!

Hey,

while I appreciate wanting to include facial differences in all kinds of characters, zombies are... not great. Casting the rather uncastable fact of them being monsters aside, the popular depiction of zombies is full of connections to real life disabilities and facial differences. Think of the average zombie in any movie ever; drooling, limping, eyes unaligned, missing noses, lacking teeth. These are all features that disabled people have, but in the zombie context they're used as a shock, grossness, or humor factor; sometimes they're literally based on real disabled people because why not I guess. I don't want to be like "don't ever write a zombie with a disability/FD" but on its own it leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I know people with facial differences that have been called a "zombie" because of their facial difference. TLDR; it's just the 1 billion years of ableist connotations, not something about this character specifically or the way you are portraying her - the monstrous association is beyond any single person's control, the point is to just not propagate it further - I just don't think it's a good idea.

(The above applies to visible physical disabilities - I don't think there would be a problem having a zombie character who is autistic or has chronic pain.)

As much as I enjoy facially different fantasy creatures, zombies (or mutants, stuff like that) just aren't good choices in my opinion. There are some exceptions, so to illustrate;

if you were writing a fanfic for Zombie Land Saga - where all the main characters are zombies - and you gave Lily Waardenburg syndrome, then that's not a problem. Everyone's a zombie and one of them happens to have an FD, just like it happens to humans. That's cool.

if you're writing a fanfic where there's one character with a facial difference, and they're a monster, that's a problem. We aren't a different species, certainly not a monster one - I don't want to ramble on the whole "real life minority being a separate fantasy race" thing, but that's another potential problem that'd be hard to ignore.

From my understanding, she isn't the only character with a facial difference, which is good. If you do decide to have Cleo be a zombie with an FD, I would just try to be aware of what kinds of characters end up having them - are they all monster, or monster-adjacent? Or some other scary creatures? Do any of the traditionally cute characters have facial differences? etc. Look out for patterns.

If she was a human with an FD, I don't see any issue here - and if she was the only zombie with an FD surrounded by humans without FDs, that's not great. It's a weird association, even if you're not trying to make it.

Other species that aren't zombies or humans could also be cool. A character with FD who's a catgirl or some sort of aquatic creature would be fun. Even a skeleton would be better than a zombie (they're not associated with the above stereotypes at all in my experience, plus skeletons are more funny than scary. I've never seen a disabled skeleton, IDK).

I hope this helps. Feel free to send another ask if you have another question.

mod Sasza

edit after the replies: I'm not familiar with the source material quite literally at all, but if this is a real life thing then PLEASE don't give actual people facial differences in fanfiction (opinions on RPF aside.)

[redux-iterum]

man. i really do love the way you’ve handled tigerclaw— he’s still a bastard, but he’s a bastard who GENUINELY thinks he’s doing right by his clan, his family. the shift in motivation from “i want to conquer the whole forest as a tyrannical dictator” to “i want to isolate thunderclan from its neighbors so it can be restored to it’s former glory and flourish” is WAY more impactful, imo. i also think there’s something to be said about how he’s (maybe) willing to exempt fireheart— whose entire character has been about BUILDING bridges between thunderclan and the rest of the forest— from his hitlist and make a hypocrite of himself because he and goldenflower have a fondness for him. i choose to believe that tigerclaw is still proud of the way fireheart stands up for what he believes in, even if it is conflicting with his own goals.

tldr; loving the direction of this so far. thank you guys for all your hard work!! looking forward to my heart continually being broken in the future <3

Figured answering these two together would be ideal.

It’s excellent to hear the enthusiasm and kind words, thank you! I’ve been stowing away this discussion about Tigerclaw and Fireheart for a while, and now I get to blather!

People have brought up that Tigerclaw choosing not to hurt Fireheart is unusual, since Fireheart’s the one that’s soft to outsiders and has been on track to softening the entire Clan as well, and Tigerclaw is against that. The reason for this requires a bit of a tangent.

Tigerclaw initially was a bit emotionally distant with all his Clanmates, save Goldenflower (for the most part). Not in the sense of “I don’t care about any of you”, but more like “I care about you, but I’m not so attached that I can’t kill you to save everyone else”. He’s had the thought in his mind for years that he could be a better leader than the one everyone already loves, that these cats had impaired judgement and couldn’t do what needs to be done, that he didn’t want to commit to having a family because that could get in the way of his silent and righteous crusade. He cared for his Clanmates, but his heart was careful not to get too close to anyone, even, to a very small extent, Goldenflower. What if he needed to put her out of the way too?

And then Fireheart happened.

Initially, Tigerclaw didn’t care about him. It’s some kittypet who has a tiny bit of potential. Big whoop. He was under the category of “to be Handled if he gets too uppity and does the wrong thing”, and Tigerclaw expected he’d stay there forever. That was fine and easy, even if Goldenflower got attached to him. He could kill Lionface if he needed to, why would he be unable to take out a shrimpy outsider just because his mate likes him?

The thing is, Fireheart’s got this annoying little talent of drawing out people’s kindness and affection without even trying. We’ve seen his own gentle, broad love for everyone around him, even those he just met and knows nothing about beyond them needing help from a stranger. He is overflowing goodness and fondness and empathy in a somewhat compact ginger body, and you can’t break that or scare that out of him. And somehow, with that infallible bravery to keep being kind and polite, he manages to worm his way into the core of another cat and soothingly convince them, even unconsciously, to offer a nice word to someone they don’t like, or maybe ask a Clanmate if they’re doing okay when they think they don’t care, or even just blink trustingly to calm a frightened and starving outsider they should be chasing away. It’s difficult to catch him doing it, but as we’ll see in the rest of the series, it’s a gradual, unstoppable infection.

This talent is what made everyone (well, except for Darkstripe, but he doesn’t like anybody) so fond of him, even if they preemptively think he’s just a dumb kittypet who needs to toughen up. Frostfur is a good example: she went from apathy and disdain to offering him silent support when he brought Cloudkit home and actively partaking in conversation with him when he approached her, just over the course of this book. All he had to do was, like I said, be kind and polite, and he gradually broke down even her walls. Charred Legacy, the next book, will go more into this, so I’ll save the details for now, but my point is that Fireheart is really damn good at making his Clanmates and friends care about him and others.

How troubling (and mildly amusing) it was to Tigerclaw to find that he wasn’t exempt from this. And how amazed he was to find that coming to care for this little outsider his mate was eager to adopt opened up a whole new world for him. Maybe having kits wasn’t so bad. Maybe he could be a father and still do what he needed to do, and maybe his family didn’t need to get hurt in the process. Maybe Goldenflower was more precious to him than he realized, and maybe Fireheart was someone he could see as a son, and be proud to do so.

What Tigerclaw failed to account for is that attachment complicates things. You might have to kill someone – but no, now you come up with excuses not to. They’re just misguided, you can fix them with a couple conversations. You don’t have to take them out. They’re your family! And your family is important! Surely you can let them live, just these particular cats. You can change their minds. They’ll understand and appreciate your goal in time. It’ll be just fine, you know it.

And so it went, deeper and deeper, until his twisted mind was able to justify not hurting Fireheart ever, solely because he’s his son, and his son deserves to live no matter what. In the same way he thought of his more “dangerous” Clanmates as a liability even if they didn’t really do anything wrong, he thought of his mate and son as essential to ThunderClan, even if they went against his ideals.

He never did see the hypocrisy in that. And even to the end, he never even dreamed of hurting Fireheart.

That’s his son, you know?

[borderlands-confess]

I really think TFTBL should've given you more romance paths :(. Sasha is great and all, but it's really upsetting to me that if you didn't pick romance options.

(WHICH! While the romance itself was directly avoidable through choices, romantic scenes were not. The flower scene anyone? It was just so uncomfortable to sit there through that and Fiona's questioning. Plus a lot of times if you didn't pick romance with Sasha, you're directly picking selfish behavior on Rhys' part. It's like. Euhhhh why can't I just care about her PLATONICALLY! And she never really was given character aside from the romance, but that's beside the point)

It would've been nice to be given another option at least. Maybe not Fiona, since mechanically that'd be very hard given the fact they're the two main characters. A romance option with Vaughn might've been cool, or at least just one of those "wow you're my best friend, but what if there's something else?" Silly thought paths we all go down y'know.

Ideally I would've really liked to have been able to romance Holojack. and okay, before you go "wowww another rhackie eughhh" HEAR ME OUT.

Holojack manipulates Rhys throughout the game. This is fact. For most of the game, they're on the same playing field when it comes to a level of power— Rhys even coming out higher, actually. Since he has autonomy. Holojack uses Rhys' idolization of Jack to his own personal gain (to be validated in his identity as Jack) and his gain related to his goal.

A very large untapped potential of manipulation was emotional. It was already stated that Rhys is a fanboy more than just a casual fan of Jack. I know the fandom over-exaggerates it a LOT, but hey, he even seemed a little stoked when telling the story of how he met Jack once.

Him being alone with Holojack the way he was most of the game would make him feel special. Having Handsome Jack all to himself. (Because obviously he never does separate Holo from Jack, which I do feel directly plays into his downfall later on.) He'd be giddy about that.

You could say "oh well he's just straight ok" shut up, look at him. He likes men, okay. At least partially.

Holojack is smart. Being incorporeal, the only device Holo has is manipulation and wit. He also has access to Rhys' mind and thoughts (I'm pretty sure? I might just be mixing fic up with canon for this one. Correct me if I'm wrong)

It's inherently a Jack trait to either accept flattery or grin and bear it when it comes to more uncomfortable adoration. It's especially one Nakayama would've programmed for Holojack.

So, it's completely in the realm of possibility for Holojack to find out about small feelings Rhys might have on Jack/him, take them for partially for validation, and then emotionally manipulate Rhys.

It would have really amplified a lot of the emotions when it came to the death scene.

It also would have given Rhys a new parallel to Jack! Therefore making the choice more impactful when Rhys decides not to go down the same path. Jack had been lied to and double-crossed by friends and exes in the past, and Rhys would've had a romantic relationship along with a platonic one that would've double-crossed him.

Plus, it would have given a lot more individuality to Holojack. Anthony Burch 100% intended for Holojack to be a separate person outside of Handsome Jack— he is a brilliant writer, especially if you look at his DnD work. I'm not sure of his complete involvement in tftbl, but I do know he worked on the characters, and I do know he would NOT have been so sloppy with Holojack's character as to make him a complete 1 to 1 with Jack. That's even shown in the game with several inconsistencies in Holojack's memory. (I can even make a whole ramble on that if anyone would want?)

Anyways, TLDR; Holojack would've been a very good 2nd romance choice in tftbl.

.

[the-ghost-king]

Hey ghost do I reread trc solely bc you keep pynch posting yes or no

Tldr; I more or less recommend TRC to anyone and everyone, so yes! But if you are only interested in it for Pynch specifically, might not be the series for you?

Forewarning for some mild spoilers, but I don't tag spoilers when I reblog stuff so... maybe it's a bit unnecessary!

I honestly think it a really good series even if you don't get into it for the ships, there's a lot of care and attention to detail throughout the narrative tbh! (I will admit I wasn't super into the second series on my first read through, but I reread it and it hit so much harder.) It's definitely among my top recommended series for YA, but in my opinion it skews to the older end of YA? If that makes sense, so I feel it's also a really versatile book in that sense.

Stiefvater has a way of leading you down this path that feels intriguing and suspenseful but also it's humorous and even at times can feel like "light reading" rather than some great mystery. However, when you think back on the book and how it connects to the characters and other parts of the series and so forth you realize all the little things that seemed like throwaway lines or not super relevant to the plot actually were pretty important foreshadowing or give you more information on the characters. It's one of those books I feel like you can return to again and again and always find something new within it, which I think is really important and something that's usually pretty hard to find in books in general let alone in series.

On the topic of Pynch - personally I just really like Adam as a character, but I like Ronan's devotion to him (because let's be honest, he worships him) it does take quite a long time for them to get together though (I honestly think it's book 4 !) so if you are looking to read it just for ship purposes, I wouldn't recommend that just because it is such a slow build and Adam dates Blue for a while before getting with Ronan.

They are also long distance for the entirety of the second series, so they only have very brief interactions with one another (partially because of that and partially because Ronan is getting dragged into a cult...) so again, not the best for shipping in that regard either? There is a short story titled Opal written by Stiefvater that follows the summer after Adam graduates high school until he starts college that does actually follow their relationship (somewhat) through the eyes of their adopted psychopomp and I do really love that short story!

Apparently, Stiefvater has written another short story about Ronan helping a dreamer and she published it in some sort of zine? I think? I have not been able to get my hands on that yet, but supposedly there is no mention of Adam in the entire thing.

She definitely did not write Pynch to be the main focus of anything and there relationship in many ways seems to be a bit of a background thing, but I personally prefer ships were the story is not a love story or a meet-cute but instead just two people as part of a larger narrative who just happen to meet and get together but I am just picky like that.

[vacantgodling]

hewwo i am back to do another round of (mostly) answering all the questions of an ask game and this time it is @ink-flavored's science fiction ask game & i'll be doing it for my cyber western, the graves we dug. the thing about tgwd is, worldbuilding scifi is really not my forte; and while i have a lot of nebulous ideas about how the world works, i think this game will force me to Make Some Fucking Decisions about how the world, and specifically Rapture operates.

(actually adding to the list of influences, unintentionally bioshock but only in the sense that the city this takes place in is named rapture LMAO?? i literally didn't think about that until just now)

anyway have a little blurb about what's going on with this wip:

After the "death" of his long-time partner in crime, Dove, on a mission that went tits up, Graves has been laying low. The former bounty hunter has been hopping from saloon to saloon on the outskirts of the city of Rapture, drinking his sorrows and self pity away. His self imposed misery is interrupted when Dove, very much not dead, renters his life, with a warning: their old organization wants him dead and they’re already hot on his trail. But more importantly, the two of them have an overdue rendezvous with destiny; an obligation that Dove won’t let Graves forget. How Dove survived that fateful night is a mystery, and the anger that fuels him is also something to address. But worst of all, the painful flame of what they had before, and the feelings they feel and felt, burns white hot. The friction might be what finally bucks them off the deep end. But Graves has never been able to say no to the sinful magnetism of Dove's green eyes. And unfortunately for him, he won’t start now.

📅 How far in the future is your WIP set? Is it a “near” or “distant” future?

WAAAAY far off future with a lil mix of alt hist to some capacity bc why are we in a western in like X0XX? who knows my guy. everything old is new again, or something like that. i actually don't have any intention of making the time frame or year or anything like that known just because this isn't a hard scifi world and i DON'T feel like figuring that out. on the kinsey scale of hard to soft worldbuilding, tgwd is muuuuuuuch softer than a lot of my other wips. bc science is scawy <3

🌍 What’s the state of the Earth in your WIP? Basically the same? Better or worse? Does it even exist at all?

i think this may be a different planet that is just the equivalent of a planet wide southwest usa vibe about it ODJC. regarding earth, i think it exists just as a shell of itself and humanity migrated away from earth thousands of years ago; to the point that it’s probably more “mythos” or urban legend about what happened to it. i’m sure there’s religions centered around the worship of earth and where the forefathers came from, however for the purposes of tgwd it has very little bearing on the plot itself in any capacity.

💅What’s the state of cosmetic technology in your WIP? Are people getting painless tattoos in 15 minutes, or are they still box-dyeing their hair in the sink?

it’s sort of a mixture. cosmetic augmentations and upgrades are available to those who are extremely wealthy; but the wealth gap disparity tends to be pretty wide once you step outside of Rapture or you go to her seedier locals or saloons. in general along with synthetic upgrades, changing yourself too much tends to be looked down upon since the general population mindset is like a bizarre mixture of 1800s rancher vibes and 21st century HDDHDH. i have to think more about how that operates tbh but tldr. change in the city is more accepted than change in the outskirts. irregardless this doesn't stop some people; graves himself is a trans man and never got top surgery. and then there's uhhhhh dove's entire situation.

🔋What’s the state of energy technology in your WIP? Is solar old news, or still being fought for?

Solar is old news in the sense that the sun of this planet is "dead." i don't know if this actually means that the sun itself has DIED died, but it definitely does mean that there is no sun in the sky. what tgwd does have is an Artificial Moon. its more an artificial heat source that operates similarly to the same way that a sun would operate in a solar system, but because it is Man Made it does not give off as much light or uv rays since that is technicially bad for humanity (skin cancers and that type of shit). everything is low lit and hazy, and the "morning" is when the light of this artificial moon is at its brightest, which is basically the equivalent of a certain amount of times amplified but not nearly as much as a full moon would be. so unfortunately for all, despite the cowboys, there is no high noon lmao. this artificial moon is created and maintained by the government, but due to the more western elements of this wip i don't really go into too much depth about the science and the why Rapture acts like that. it acts like that because i fucking said so at this point LMAO.

energy technology in general though is still highly sought after, people are always looking for the ways that tech can be best optimized for the conditions that humanity is currently living in.

🚗What’s the state of transportation technology in your WIP? Are there hundreds of mass-market spaceships, or are cars still stuck on the ground?

in my mind motorcycles a la tron style are common in the city, as well as like teleportation hubs because it'd be too much clutter to have trains and public transport snaking around the sky. basically you kinda just input your key, choose your destination, and you're on your merry way. some teleportation hubs are seedier than high tech ones, and can be prone to buzzing, but there are some people who can and do take advantages of the glitches in the hubs to gain access to places where they really shouldn't be able to. there are also people who are able to make teleportation hubs on the fly within the midst of a teleportation. i don't know exactly how it works but i've decided that that's something that one of the minor characters in tgwd coffin is able to do.

actually--i think that might be an ability that is created by the bounty hunter organization bc tldr all the agents have special abilities. "warp jumping" as ig it can be called will probbaly take the form of (insert color here when i figure out coffin's palette) light around his hands :D

📱What’s the state of communication technology in your WIP? Do people communicate through their microchipped brains, or is a cell phone still the best way to get a hold of someone?

cellphones are a rare commodity, most phones are still landline and are very rarely used, only by big corporations bc they can afford the wiring into The Network tm. for most people, sending letters is actually the fastest way to get things to other people. there's a specific kind of teleportation hub that you can input letters and packages to (kinda like a post box) that'll essentially either accept your parcel into a 'hub' facility where it's stored until the person goes to another hub to collect it, or it'll beam directly to a private or designated post box to be picked up by the intended (or unintentional) recipient. Hubs are also very well equipped and encrypted and agents that work for Hubs are usually very loyal to their jobs (and they get paid well so don't blame 'em).

this is just continuing my love of mail crusade so i'm gonna go on before i spend more paragraphs detailing the mail system LOL.

🏢What’s the state of architectural technology in your WIP? Are there cities floating in the sky, or are houses still made of bricks and steel?

steel and titanium mostly, as well as titanium steel. carbon fiber is popular as well, though its flexibility is a bit questionable, but its used in a lot of support beams to absorb shock from any sort of earthquakes or explosions and the like. out in the Sticks tm (saloons and the like on the edge of rapture) they're ramshackled things, sort of strung together by what was available nearby. if there's abandonded buildings from The First Settlement (when humans first came to the planet probably like 100-200 years ago?) then they use the remnants of that, if there's preexisting strucutres like mountains or caves sometimes they can be fashioned out of that too.

🧑‍🌾What’s the state of agricultural technology in your WIP? Can any plant be grown to excess anywhere in the galaxy, or are farms still beholden to nature?

bc the general flora/fauna sitaution is akin to SW USA, i'd imagine that whatever kind of crop sitaution they got going on there, they have going on here, with some... probably recognizable but slightly altered forms of the crops that we know and love on earth so basically pumpkins/gourds, corn/maize, and beans are staples of the diet. exotic plants from other planets can be grown in greenhouses deeper within the city but they're both expensive and rare so its not likely that your average joe will eat them (stuff like wheat, rice, other cereals or grains is all like. unheard of basically). hunting is more of the thing i would presume, at least in The Sticks (which is ig what i'm calling the outside of the city of Rapture for now, i need to make like a ramshackled map at some point LOL). so slaughterhouses, butchers, and hunters tend to be very important and make Sort of decent livings i would imagine.

in general, Rapture and all the planetary system its apart of (whatever that may be) have more of a benevolent if distant trade relationship. every entity sort of keeps to themselves and there's not a huge wealth of trade amongst the planets, especially because outside of Rapture the planet (whatever its called) is sort of like the Outback/a wasteland kind of area. So, generally speaking outside of Rapture, there's not much that it can offer other, more advanced planets. this is also what makes it a good place for the EXTENSIVE criminal underbelly and more nefairous sides of society to thrive. the government is a string of puppets and underfunded and under listened to and so they take bribes to keep themselves afloat. the only thing that everyone can agree on with the other planets in the system is the maintaining of the Artifical Moon.

🎭What’s the state of entertainment technology in your WIP? Are hologram TV shows the best way to spend a Friday night, or is it still Netflix and Chill?

in saloons there's usual saloon shit so drinking, fucking, and pool. whatever their equivalent to rodeos and bull riding is a big sport on Rapture, and it is televised. other than that there's a big drug underbelly so a lot of people travel to night clubs within Rapture to get high and stuff. street performers performing various tricks are a common spectacle as well and there's a few tv programs but its not like Thee most popular form of entertainment tbh. operas and plays are also very common (dove used to be an opera singer)

🪖What’s the state of military technology in your WIP? Are armored giant robots fighting wars, or still regular people with guns?

regular people with guns baybee. spaceships (at least on rapture) aren't really as advanced as other planets so most of their ships are for transportation; either for cargo or for people. they would be permanently neutral in any conflict unless they were cut a deal to be a weapons supplier for ground troops, or if they involved any of the other criminal underbellys/the bounty hunters in either being mercs or in using their resources to help out. i didn't touch on the manufacturing question bc even tho i Do need to figure that out for plot i don't have the brain for it atm bc of plot so i skipped over it, but from the little i do know i know that in general criminaurs level of technological prowess can actually far exceed what they have on the planet proper because a lot of them tend to have connections to other planets.

🤷Are there any jobs that seem obsolete, but still exist? Why are they still around?

stable hands! because rodeos are still a big part of Rapture culture, people who work with animals especially mounts are quite a well respected, if sometimes, nepo baby position. opera singers as well!

💵Is currency different in your WIP? Is it all digital, or does physical money still play a role?

i haven't exactly decided if its physical or digital but i'm leaning more towards physical because i like the mixture of old and new tech. like you go to get a package teleported to your grandma across the city, but you gotta count out the dollars and cents and dispense them into the machine or smthn is a nice dichotomy to me. it definitely plays a role as the main orbit of the story is around bounty hunters, who work for money so lol. it's a big deal for the most part.

✊What is the social climate of your setting? Has society progressed towards equality or regressed? Has it stayed mostly the same?

REGRESSED BABY!!!! somehow this is a world where things are futuristic and technologically advanced but some of the attitudes from back in the day still persist. there is definitely stricter gender roles (i won't be getting into it because everyone who's in the story is pretty much an outcast--it may be something i touch on when i get to the shit about mr. androidson or whatever what have you but i have to decide the actual order of events). i think i also may experiment with having the dialogue be a bit rougher (including slurs and whatnot) but that sorta remains to be seen cuz i really gotta flesh out and build out the scene by scene what am i going for energy. answering this is helping though!

😠What’s happening politically in your setting? Are tensions brewing, a cold war threatening to go hot? Has there been peace for generations?

there hasn't really been peace so much as there's been government negligence, which is why the bounty hunters org that the main cast are apart of is allowed to exist :D because of general incompotency and its very little ability for involvement with international conflicts there's been "peace" as in no space-international? (is that the word?) threats and the like, but this doesn't mean its safe or that there isn't violence and the like going on.

🌌Are humans living amongst the stars in your setting? Are they somewhere other than on Earth?

yeah! this wip doesn't take place on earth but i haven't named the planet yet.

🚀Did humanity abandon Earth for other planets? Why?

well, i assume its probably some ww3 or whatever planet go boom sitaution--tgwd like i said before takes place like thousands of years removed from when people still lived on earth so earth is like mythos to them. so therefore, it kinda doesn't matter as it has no bearing on the actual story itself lol.

👋Were there any humans left behind on Earth, while the rest disappeared into the stars? What happened to them?

everyone who didn't get off planet died probably LOL. i don't think even if people were to try and find earth that it would be viable at all to still live on

❌Does humanity have any sort of “Prime Directive” à la Star Trek – are there limits about what they can do when they discover a new planet (inhabited or not)? If not, why not?

nooooot really. there isn't really an intergalactic (THERES THE WORD) organization amongst them, because thousands of years removed and planets have sort of become a giant web and mess of different relations and things of the like. and i'm gonna actually go off the grain and say that the cosmos is still only populated by "humans" -- thousands of years isn't really enough to fully evolve or transmute a species but there have probably been some changes in some small pockets of planets where other humans live. the reason that there isn't any rules is because humanity has kind of come to terms with the fact that they're the only Sentient life in the universe; animals plants flora and fauna may look different in other places and vary in degrees of dangerousness, however, there doesn't seem to be as far as anyone can tell any other sentient species that exists within the galaxy. because of this, its sort of like a free for all where if you can discover it its yours for the taking. Rapture itself isn't REALLY apart of this conversation bc of all the aforementioned shit i mentioned regarding it, but i imagine other planets fight wars over particularly useful planets and resources--Rapture's planet (it'll get a name eventually) stays out of it.

🏜️How many of humanity’s settlements on other planets have been abandoned? Why?

many, and for the same reasons as people abandon settlements here on earth: the quality of life is shit and hostile so they have to leave. i imagine in the early days of people leaving earth because of their limited tech there was limitations on the planets they could reach and they had to make do with what they had, but once they were able to create better they did that and left. i'm sure that said abandon planets are probably hubs of archaeological research but Rapture aint the type of place to fund that shit.

💡Has humanity invented faster-than-light travel? If not, are they working on it? / 🌱Has humanity invented the technology necessary to terraform planets? If not, are they working on it? / 🧊Has humanity invented “cryosleep” or some way of preserving the body indefinitely? If not, are they working on it?

i imagine some planets have! Rapture hasn't due to a severe case of being wrapped in its own problems and being generally ass backwards LOL. cyrosleep however is a common thing because that was the necessary tech that got earth off planet in the first place. transmuting the Self into an ai/android is actually a huge plot point of tgwd in general so i'd say they're working on it.... to varying degrees of ethicacy lol.

☄️Are there humans who travel from station to station, never settling down on a single planet and living amongst the stars? How do others treat them for living this way?

i imagine that space pirates or militia who live off planet are probably a thing and i think there is prejudice against both of them on Rapture specifically. they tend to distrust outsiders in all forms and because they don’t have their own formal militia, having foreign military personally within orbit of them is a bit Sussy Baka energy or whatever tm.

🐒Has humanity evolved past the point where we would recognize ourselves? Does that species still call itself “human”?

not yet but give it a couple million years! if humans are still around, biology will take its course. tbh i feel like this is the pre-alien period in history; and what i mean is that instead of it being like the “out of africa” thing where humans as a species evolved and came out of africa to populate the rest of the world and due to the environment and other factors we have such a multitude of looks and the like Now, i think how aliens will eventually come to populate the stars in this sense is that humanity has gone out of earth and began making a living for itself on other planets. as time persists and environmental changes take their toll, humans will begin to change and alter between planets and we’ll start seeing species and eventually new races begin to populate the earth. but there hasn’t been enough time for that to happen!

🛤️What does society on Earth look like without humans? Is there one?

earth dead <3 she go boom <3

💥Did the Earth go through some kind of apocalyptic disaster? What was it?

humans blowing ourselves up and probably the affects of long term climate change bullshit LOL

🏞️Is there anyone alive who remembers what the Earth was like before the apocalypse? Does anyone believe them?

nope! it’s been too many thousands of years removed and there’s enough generations of people who haven’t even seen earth in person to recognize it as it was. it exists within religion i imagine but like, imagine how people now think of the garden of eden is probably how people think of earth; some perfect paradise where humanity was less fucked up than we are now.