#to much information

[spiegelgestalt]

Slay the princess thoughts/speculation

So i started playing slay the princess I'm like 30 minutes in and that game did something to me. So i've got to get these feelings out before i can go on with my day.

Spoilers for the hero and the princess; the nightmare and start of the third chapter

Tl/DR: Procrastination FTW!! I made both the narrator and the princess upset :-D!

I didn't go into this game completly blind. I watched a lets play were a therapist played the first two chapters. He became the sceptic. While watching him I wondered why he found the princess so trustworthy - her whole demeanor screamed FAY-CREATURE/COSMIC HORROR to me - the narrator was sus as hell but she was even more sus. Soooo I thought i will try my hand at it and see what will happen. This is my experience (for now)

So the first thing i tried out was what would happen if i simply walked away - it didn't do anything so i had to enter the hut. I left the knife and went straight to the basement. I knew i didn't want to slay the princess straight away and i kinda wanted to see what would happen if i refused what the narrator wanted and what the princess wanted. (look the perpetual people pleaser and coward refused to make a decision and tried to avoid conflict - who would've thought) Currently it's not going well. I found interesting that the Princess tried to act cute innocently and scared with me (while she was cold with the lets player and i noted for myself that i would trust her more if she was scared) i kinda regret that i already knew that side of her because it would've been interesting what would have happened if I didn't already knew she was SUS.AS.HELL. But because i already knew i decided to keep her locked up. And i kept her locked up. Even when she threatened hell on earth. I didn't budge. I died out of fear and the paranoid appeared (hello anxiety my old friend...) The next stage was a hellscape of darkness. And here's the thing. Im pretty stubborn in my avoidance of conflict. So i once again left the knife and went into the basement. It went even more poorly. The princess obviously had freed herself but she can't leave the cabin without me. You know what that means right - FUCK YOU NARRATOR FUCK YOU PRINCESS - You cant tell me what to do! I will procrastinate until my dying breath!! And than came the scene that did something to me: The narrator described countless lives - some happy, some lonely some normal - but during all of them the princess screamed Let!Me!Out! - until the narrator broke an i died again. And i realized something - i think i'm both the princess and the narrator - the princess is the shadow self - the narrator is rationality. And i (as i'm doing with my own life) decided to lock away a part of me i didn't think socially acceptable/unlovable - going through you life. Living a lie to a certain point because i learned fast that myself would never be accepted. And i try to unlearn this. BUT it's hard.

Or maybe the princess is just a cosmic horror and i'm just procrastinating making some hard decision. In chapter three there are suddenly a whole bunch of voices. I'm interested where they will lead me. I'm still prepared to be stubborn. I still trust neither the narrator nor the princess. i want answers and i kinda don't feel like be bullied in one or the other direction and so I'm doing nothing (struggle of my life.. executive dysfunction here. we. come!)

[text-post-rants]

[greytown]

what the fuck is going on

[supertaliart]

A continuation of my previous Skywalker Twins comic - feat Yoda part 3

[very-gay-alkyrion]

Like to charge, reblog to cast

[fonulyn]

since I've seen it talked about in several places recently:

if you are going to do a whump- or kink- or ANY-tober or other similar challenges please please please don't post them as one fic with 31 chapters unless it actually is one coherent fic. if they're 31 completely separate fics or ficlets then please just make a collection for them or just post them as separate fics. it doesn't matter if they're only 100 words or if you think they're too small or insignificant to post alone, they're not.

and why this?

because if you post all 31 of them in one fic the tagging is absolutely useless. if I look for things to read on ao3 I'm gonna look at the tags, and if the tags include something that's a dealbreaker for me, i won't even click on the fic. I might not even SEE the fic because I've filtered out the nope-tag! so I'm gonna lose out on reading 30 perfectly nice fics because of one fic that my nope-tag applied to.

ao3 is about archiving. it's about clear tagging and being informative. there is nothing informative about it if the tags in the fic apply to random chapters while others have nothing to do with it. it makes so much more sense to have each work as an individual fic with its own individual tags and warnings, so readers can make informed choices.

of course, you do you. I can't police what other people decide to do. but personally, I find it incredibly frustrating to weed through 31 chapters to find the ones I actually want to read. so I don't. I automatically scroll past all works posted like that. and I know some others do, too.

there is absolutely no shame in posting short things on ao3. there is no minimum word count. no one is going to look at you funny if you post a small ficlet on its own, I promise. it's just going to make some readers very happy when they can actually find the things they want to read.

so, please. at least consider the upsides of posting each work as their own fic.

signed, one very frustrated fandom grandma.

[bixels]

Learning that fans hated Applejack and called her "boring" is crazyyy to me because I genuinely, unironically believe AJ's the most complex character in the main six.

Backstory-wise, she was born into a family of famers/blue collar workers who helped found the town she lives in. She grew up a habitual liar until she had the bad habit traumatized outta her. She lost both her parents and was orphaned at a young age, having to step up as her baby sister's mother figure. She's the only person in the main gang who's experienced this level of loss and grief (A Royal Problem reveals that AJ dreams about memories of being held by her parents as a baby). She moved to Manhattan to live with her wealthy family members, only to realize she'll never fit in or be accepted, even amongst her own family. The earlier seasons imply she and her family had money problems too (In The Ticket Master, AJ wants to go to the gala to earn money to buy new farm equipment and afford hip surgery for her grandma).

Personality-wise, she's a total people-pleaser/steamroller (with an occasional savior complex) who places her self worth on her independence and usefulness for other people, causing her to become a complete workaholic. In Applebuck Season, AJ stops taking care of herself because of her obsessive responsibilities for others and becomes completely dysfunctional. In Apple Family Reunion, AJ has a tearful breakdown because in she thinks she dishonored her family and tarnished her reputation as a potential leader –– an expectation and anxiety that's directly tied to her deceased parents, as shown in the episode's ending scene. In The Last Roundup, AJ abandons her family and friends out of shame because believes she failed them by not earning 1st place in a rodeo competition. She completely spirals emotionally when she isn't able to fulfill her duties toward others. Her need to be the best manifests in intense pride and competitiveness when others challenge her. And when her pride's broken, she cowers and physically hides herself.

Moreover, it's strongly implied that AJ has a deep-seated anger. The comics explore her ranting outbursts more. EQG also obviously has AJ yelling at and insulting Rarity in a jealous fit just to hurt her feelings (with a line that I could write a whole dissection on). And I'm certain I read in a post somewhere that in a Gameloft event, AJ's negative traits are listed as anger.

Subtextually, a lot of these flaws and anxieties can be (retroactively) linked to her parents' death, forcing her to grow up too quickly to become the adult/caregiver of the family (especially after her big brother becomes semiverbal). Notice how throughout the series, she's constantly acting as the "mom friend" of the group (despite everything, she manages to be the most emotionally mature of the bunch). Notice how AJ'll switch to a quieter, calmer tone when her friends are panicking and use soothing prompts and questions to talk them through their emotions/problems; something she'd definitely pick up while raising a child. Same with her stoicism and reluctance at crying or releasing emotions (something Pinkie explicitly points out). She also had a childhood relationship with Rara (which, if you were to give a queer reading, could easy be interpreted as her first 'aha' crush), who eventually left her life. (Interestingly enough, AJ also has an angry outburst with Rara for the same exact reasons as with EQG Rarity; jealous, upset that someone else is using and changing her). It's not hard to imagine an AJ with separation anxiety stemming from her mother and childhood friend/crush leaving. I'm also not above reading into AJ's relationship with her little sister (Y'all ever think about how AB never got to know her parents, even though she shares her father's colors and her mother's curly hair?).

AJ's stubbornness is a symptom of growing up too quickly as well. Who else to play with your baby sister when your brother goes nonverbal (not to discount Big Mac's role in raising AB)? Who else to wake up in the middle of the night to care for your crying baby sister when your grandma needs her rest? When you need to be 100% all the time for your family, you tend to become hard-stuck with a sense of moral superiority. You know what's best because you have to be your best because if you're aren't your best, then everything'll inevitably fall apart and it'll be your fault. And if you don't know what's best –– if you've been wrong the whole time –– that means you haven't been your best, which means you've failed the people who rely on you, which means you can't fulfill your role in the family/society, which makes you worthless . We've seen time and time again how this compulsive need to be right for the sake of others becomes self-destructive (Apple Family Reunion, Sound of Silence, all competitions against RD). We've seen in The Last Roundup how, when no longer at her best, AJ would rather remove herself from her community than confront them because she no longer feels of use to them.

But I guess it is kinda weird that AJ has "masculine" traits and isn't interested in men at all. It's totally justified that an aggressively straight, misogynistic male fandom would characterize her as a "boring background character." /s

At the time of writing this, it's 4:46AM.

[hollis-art]

au idea... tng but it's set in the 80s and the enterprise is an apartment building rather than a ship

other tenants of the building include: -Picard (the head of the college that Data attends) and Q (no one really knows what he does, he just pops in and out whenever he pleases) -Troi (high school guidance counselor) and Riker (personal trainer) and Worf used to live here too but he moved out -Beverly (still a doctor) and Wesley (burnt out college freshman) -Barclay (works at Blockbusters w/ Data and Geordi) -Guinan (bartender of a secretly gay bar)

the ds9 apartment is a whole other story

[miragenite]

i have a lot of feelings about the pokemon leaks. the most prominent one however is that i love this creature. evolotto/piper/whatever it is

milk creature. useless animal. weird fetus. only 1 foot tall. it doesnt even have ears or a mouth. noone knows how its alive. you wouldve had to gamble on if it would even evolve into something good. probably has the texture of a cross between a stress ball and tofu. it would probably make a loud smack against a wall and flip down the wall slowly. i love you my strange creature

[i-ate-the-rats]

hehehehe oh shit indefinite sad dark shadow (⊙ˍ⊙).

[wonder-and-wildflowers]

Dazai canonically rambling about his loved ones at every possible opportunity is so dear to me.

Mori knew a lot of the things he did about Oda because Dazai told him. Akutagawa also knew about Oda and how important he is to Dazai because of Dazai's ramblings. Random, unnamed PM members know about Oda being very dear to Dazai, because Dazai praises him and talks about how great he is.

Chuuya knew straight away that Dazai had been speaking about him to the ADA. It wasn't something he expressed feeling betrayed or suprised about. It was just an immediate understanding that of all the ways they could probably have known about him and his ability despite it being confidential information in the PM, Dazai's ramblings were most likely the reason.

The way that Dazai speaks about Ranpo to quite literally anyone who will listen. To Fydor, to random cops, to Atsushi.

Dazai canonically brags about the people he cares about in an 'omg omg omg my person my people I love them look how amazing they are' way.

[keferon]

Did you think I was done? Ahahahaha no, I have more.

Because chapter 70 of MOMU gave me the very dynamic between them that I missed so much, I just blacked out and started drawing uncontrollably lmao

Also. ALSO. I noticed a while ago that Prowl has the habit of..like…constantly frowning. So. I did a bit of research and made this graph.

In 70 chapters, Prowl frowns rougly 104 times. And the intensity of this gesture is very clearly correlated with the development of his relationship with Jazz, as you can see ahahahahah It might be wrong tho don’t take me seriously I’m not good with graphs

[kat-aa]

[de-fanzine-cpr-pale]

PALE_ HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY RELEASED!

Totally free to download, over 100+ pages of fanworks!

DOWNLOAD HERE!!

Link takes you to an itch.io page; there are two versions to download, an HQ one that is about 1 GB in size and a lower quality one about 200 mb in size. There is also a lyrics booklet with the lyrics for everyone's song their pieces were based off!

Note: this zine contains spoilers for Disco Elysium. A Content Warnings list is provided on page 6!

This not-for-profit zine aims to create a showcase of the Disco Elysium fandom's talents! Featuring over 100 pages of original fanworks each centered around separate song lyrics picked by the artist, totally free to download.

The idea is that through celebrating this game, we keep its world and its characters and its story alive. With our love for Disco Elysium, we save it from dissolving into the Pale. We save it from being forgotten, from being erased from memory. We come together and through our love for the game, we preserve it.

This is why we are known as the Counter-Pale Resistance. This is why the title of this zine is Pale_, struck-through.

As the lines of an old song go, "All of this belongs to you. All of this belongs to me. All of this belongs to us. And it goes on endlessly."

Thank you to our contributors for joining the resistance!

Please check it out; everyone did such an amazing job!!!!! Super, super excited to share; it's been a long time coming!

Special thanks to Jay @starspaces for her help answering all my questions on running a zine! I would not have been able to do this without her.

Playlists and the Table of Contents with a list of contributors, their work titles, and their songs under the cut!

Note, some songs may not work in some countries.

YouTube (best version):

Spotify (missing some songs):

[doomdoomofdoom]

fyi, Ukraine actually maintains a website with publicly available lists of their financial/material support and expenses.

anyone can also use it to donate to any specific part of Ukraine's war effort directly. in case any nations leaders recently humiliated their country globally, or something.

[zellaspinna]

the cowboy hat rule:

wear the hat, ride the cowboy ;)