#wondering if they printed this one too

[maddiesbookshelves]

Alright, let's hope that the hype from watching the movie and rereading the original trilogy will be enough to make me finish it this time

[swampybogg]

[seaofreverie]

One year ago I made this lil comic about being aromantic, based on the lyrics of Eaten By The Monster Of Love! I meant to post it on the anniversary of me making it but I missed the day, oops... so today felt like a fitting alternative :3

Happy Valentine's Day!! Whether you were eaten by the monster of love or not, I hope you have a fun day today!

[randomnameless]

Why do the FEH devs insist on ignoring Nabatean lore so much?

I recently had a surprisingly cordial discussion on redshit with someone about the "nabateans = colonisers" take, and one of the main points raised was that the game was purposedly foggy around Nabateans/Sothis/their story because it would obviously favor a certain narrative (and thus make another narrative look, uh, not that marketable anymore).

To be honest, we still ended up with a product that had a lead go "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and yet that lead is still marketable enough to have raunchy cipher cards and 5 FEH alts, so I actually wonder if, while pissing on that lore had that purpose, it was ultimately pointless since Supreme Leader can still sell goodies despite her incarnation in FE16.

And not only Supreme Leader - but the entirety of WC where we basically have 70% of the cast crying/complaining about their "mixed blood" or lack of and basically adding their 10 cents to the "this race and its blood is the reason why the world sucks".

I mean, can you imagine Sylvain selling any goodies and alts if Flayn replied to his "wah wah people only are kind to me and want to fuck me because I have Nabatean blood :(" by some uncharacteristic "good for you, I have to hide my ears, had to dye my hair, have to lie about my family because if the truth is found out about my identity, I will be hunted and vivisected like an animal and harvested for parts by people who call my kin abominations - just like what happens in the game where the same people who call my kin "abominations" ally with a classmate who calls me a creature and pretends I am incapable of human feelings based on my race".

FE Fodlan's main selling point is its cast of students, for various reasons, but even if I tried to kid myself, Nopes and FEH made it clears : students are the main selling point.

If you spare more time and attention to the Nabatean plot/lore, the students either grow from "likeable" to "despicable" or worse, you won't gaf about them because yeah sure, Hilda might be upset because people expect things from her due to her crust, but it would feel like a "peanut" compared to Seteth's irrational (granted, it's not so irrational since GW exists) fear that Flayn's newest friends would dissect her if they learnt she was a Nabatean, and being conflicted by finally letting her have human friends and form bonds she crave, or protect her due to the trauma from the genocide of their species.

Don't get me wrong, I love peanuts, I mean, not everyone can have a tragik of loaded backstory!

And yet, given how this verse's DNA is "can you fight against the red emperor who uwus about you", they had to add copious amounts of Earl Grey to their games so there's no clear-cut factions :

The "Your alien blood and its influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command" vs "I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

is turned to :

"Your alien blood Crests and its your church's influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command"

"I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

Sprinkle with the cast's hammering here and there that the "reforms" might be needed - but never develop on what they are - and add a few baseless and groundless takes as a toping (basically everything Claude says about tolerance and the general "isolationism/foreign policy" stuff) and you get FE Fodlan where the Red Emperor's war isn't seen as the catastrophe it is in the other entries from the series!

Now, for FEH...

FWIW, the F!F!Billy's trailer had them try to explain that Sothis was a bit pissed about her slaughtered/massacred children when Nopes never gave any reason about why she was pissed - maybe on Billy's behalf bcs Jerry's dead, but come on, she would indeed deserve the medal of the worst parent in the franchise if that was the case, since Billy can murder her daughter without Sothis taking over ! - but given that they cannot write/go against the source game those characters are from.

They tried a bit, with B!Supreme Leader and Hegemongard's FB, but then it stopped (because she had no "new unit" released since then lol) and I can understand why : Hegemongard came out before the Supreme Emblem, and Hegemongard hates dragons who are seen/perceived as gods by some of their human followers. Come FE17, and now Supreme Emblem accepts Alear because they are "one of the good ones". We can come up with HCs and details and talk about what are emblems or if Hegemongard's views were only hers at the end of AM all day long... But imo, Doylist wise, it still feels it's a retcon because the devs from the main games tried to scrap and remove the most "controversial" traits she had.

For the other characters... Well, you see what Marianne is in FEH (but even in her base games), she's one of the few characters who reacts - in a way - to the partial history about relics and demonic beasts and all... only to give sad uwus to Maurice.

FE16 (and Nopes) refused to have any "student" character react to the Nabatean lore/reveal, about what are relics and all. There are no lines, Claude shared some knowledge in the explore section of VW's last chapter, but we don't have anyone muse or think or even talk about what are relics, what are crests, and what kind of fuckery their ancestors or the ancient humans of Fodlan did.

With that in mind, FEH can't do much : either they write Marianne in a retcon-y way like what happened for Hegemongard (and they're not afraid to piss on characterisation, look at Lyon!), or they flanderise her "character" and develop her around 3 lines she had in the game in her paralogue, and continue to give sad uwus about Momo when he was at best a guy who slaughtered and murdered so much that he abused the Nabatean turned into a relic to the point where he turned in a demonic beast even if he had a matching crest, or at worst, had been part of Nemesis's piñata party in Zanado and was something of a genocider.

Tldr :

Why FE Fodlan never gaf about Nabateans : earl grey + the marketable cast has to stay marketable and you can't sell peanuts at the same price you'd sell swordfish

Why FEH dgaf about Nabatean lore : they can't afford to retcon characters + they have to sell peanut alts with the same seasoning they had in their base game.

For what it's worth though, I think FEH is more daring than the base game(s) given how they gave more lines and screentime to Rhea - through her different alts - than GW. And they even designed her Halloween!alt's lines to piss on some of Claude's assertions, while the various FB involving members of the church also - indirectly - reply to some accusations thrown their way in FE16 when, FE16, never gave them an opportunity or lines to explain that those takes were full of dung.

*"but random, maybe she doesn't know that the crests she often decries is "dragon blood"!"

It's highly debatable, especially given what she and Hubert throw to Billy in CF - but even if she doesn't, Doylist wise we still have a character who, knowingly or not, says "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and who is never called out on her prejudice. That's more of an issue regarding the general writing though, she has to be a red emperor and took pages from Ashnard's book, and yet, the player must still feel bad and want to romance her, so her mindest/goal cannot be looked at too closely, because, I guess, even the devs thought it would be difficult to romance her (thus sell goodies!) if more light was shed on the "blood from this race corrupts our people" schtick -> which in turn would also make characters whose backstory and gimmick rely on "crying about crests" be way less likeable, thus marketable and able to sell goodies.

[haganekotetsu]

Raidou called me valuable…!

[good-beans]

My @milgramcf Zine came in last week and I just wanted to say thank you for all the hard work the mods and creators put into it!! I've never been a part of anything like this before -- it was such a fun and coordinated project, and the final book came out stunning 🤩 It's exciting to participate in a charity project, and I love my little items haha!

[darabeatha]

I F.UCKING LOVE MEN IN SUITS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jichanxo]

don't talk to me until i've had my morning kuwana coffee (yapping under the cut)

this is the silliest thing i've done in a while and it was worth every dollar. laughed so hard i cried when it was served to me (and yeah. table service means a stranger had to serve it to me. i'm so sorry to her 💀) i need you all to understand that photos don't do justice the visual impact of having this served to me irl

ate him btw

goodbye kuwana 😔

[dormiloncito]

just remembered watchmen

[adwendoodles]

tentatively final book cover design for my beloved @pearlescentpearl's fic, first rule of birdwatching club

[sysig]

Charm doll, someday.... (Patreon)

[britneyshakespeare]

I can't believe the Younger Brother (1689) by Aphra Behn has the only one bed trope

[humanmorph]

yayyyy im home (cheering)

[darkpoisonouslove]

Worst paragraph in a Hunger Games book I've ever read.

[nylonesques]

nylon's favourite fics (part 1)

hi this is exactly what it sounds like. these are some of my favourite fics ive ever read on ao3, like, truly unforgettable reads-

and then there's there's Ziracona's 'In Living Memory' which seems to sit on a golden throne, yet to be usurped by reading experience alone. i don't think it can be. at more than a MILLION and A HALF words long, the journey it took me through its 70 chapters is just indescribable.

in short, in living memory is a story about resistance against things we, as human beings, will never be able to comprehend. eldritch forces pre-dating humanity, capable of creating hell, and taking human beings ('survivor' role and 'killer' role) into that realm of hell to harvest them, slowly, over time. the cast throughout in living memory try try and Try again to fight back against the oldest thing ever not-known, And their adversaries who very much enjoy the entity's realm, And themselves - because, how, when you have died thousands of times before, and will thousands of times again, without ever aging or changing - how do you manage to not give up? to keep trying? to resist when so many have failed before?

well, in living memory explores that, through its character relationships, and hopes, and humanity, and it weaves a story that will make you shake.

my gaming life at the moment summed up to, 'pre' and 'post' finishing in living memory. it's terrifying how i likely won't read any fanfic that has made me shake, scream, cry, and have emotional genuine physical reactions in the same way this fic has. like, when you experience peak, what do you do? where do you go? how do you feel? i felt everything. years later, i still think about it, and what it made me realise, and reflect on. is it insane to say a fic made me Grateful? it made me grateful to be alive, for what i have and will have, for everything i've lost. im being so serious

this fic recontextualised the way i even Experience the game this fic is based on, Dead by Daylight, and skyrocketed my enjoyment of it. it changed the way i approach relationships and made me feel hope in a time of repetitiveness in my life. it made me a better person somehow. don't know how just did

in living memory ghosts after me when i see a man walking a white staffy-dog, like my neighbours. in living memory has made me pause before writing a letter. in living memory has made my full body twitch when i rewatch Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978), because - how can i not think about in living memory? how can't i? it's even made me look twice at a fucking comicon convention, just to look at it. just to look, at what there is, and how beautiful it all is. how much there is, so much connection in the world, so much hope and fear but hope.

and the best thing is, above all of my dramatics: the fic is just fucking funny. its funny. it's witty in a way that isn't distracting because it's just So authentic. i have so many screenshots on my phone from years ago, when i first read in living memory, where i laughed out loud and thought to myself 'i need to keep this in my photo album' nevermind my phone storage. and i haven't deleted any of those fic moments, 4 years ahead. not one. i may even upload some in a small collage, the ones without spoilers, just to look at them. and to insist upon sharing them

in living memory is the whole package and more. it's funny, the characters are likeable, the arcs are incredible, it picks you up and drops you and picks you up again, and there's always light at the end of the tunnel. always. in living memory will convince you of that.

in short in living memory made me realise what fanfiction is capable of, and truly showed me that 'fanfiction' is, sometimes, just novels in disguise that deserve to be in glass cases to be preserved. if it were possible, i would buy in living memory as a physical book, and im not even joking. i would seriously do anything for this thing to be like a 2500 page novel, or a collection of four or six chunky books. i'd buy them all and dedicate a shelf to them.

there's so much im forgetting, because i finished last finished reading in 2021, (i will soon be re-reading: it's a worthy time commitment), and this is what i remember from how dear this fic is to me, god forbid i start combing through it again and jotting down every fine thing that just made me sit back and go, 'oh my god.'

i remember reaching a certain point in the fic, where the scene depicted just made me feel so much - i will not be mentioning the chapter - and i couldn't stop crying, because i felt so comforted, and aware of everything. the world around me, the relationships. just everything, how connected everything is. the things we lose, and gain, and gain because we lose and its just. god.

and the best thing, about in living memory? if you've never played dead by daylight before in your life, you can google the characters names, without spoilers relating to in living memory - there's no main storyline in dbd to follow. or maybe, you could already know some of the characters. ever heard of laurie strode, michael myers, quentin smith, amanda young? (Halloween, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street (2009 Remake, and Saw, respectively-)) well, they're in this. and many, many more. you may even read and fall in love with one of the dbd original cast, like jake park, claudette morel, dwight fairfield or meg thomas.

you can even google the basic foundation of dbd, or listen to me ramble about it now - they're in the entity's realm, taken by the entity, 4 survivors 1 killer per trial, 5 generators to finish to let them open the doors to escape, if they're hooked 3 times by the killer they die. and the best part: surviving the trial or not, they always end up back at the campfire, and the killers are always back in their own area of territory/map, (almost always) alone.

there's so much to this fic, seriously. i know it sounds like im dramatisising but I'm really not. i don't even know what to say. sometimes, things don't have words, and we try to give them words but really all we can do is (gestures vaguely, with tears streaming down my face)

i leave you with a link, and a promise that 'in living memory' is, to me, one of the best fanfictions put to paper (doc) in contemporary fanfiction history. i cannot recommend it more, seriously. to say it's a journey is an understatement.

and i leave you a song, that is not related to the fic at all. (holding back tears)

[ickyuji]

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 thinking 'bout lovesick! yuji... best friend! yuji who is so in love with you but doesnt have the guts to outright tell you.

dies every time you two hang out 'cause you just prattle on and on about how you wish you had the experience of being eaten out... and you trust your best friend so much that it doesnt come as a shock or as anything other than a willingness to help you out when he tells you he'd volunteer.

easy to lay back against his bed, the same one you two spend so much time cuddling on in between classes and movie sessions. so easy to spread your legs for him and let him nose against your weeping cunt.

wondering why it's so warm and smells so good. eagerly nuzzling along your swollen lips, shamelessly sucking in the skin into his waiting mouth. and you don't know if its embarrasment that he doesn't look up at you once- not until you keen out his name all high and pretty.

easy to tangibly see how lovesick yuji is for you when he just sucks your swollen clit into his mouth and sucks and sucks and sucks. his hands balled into fists on either sides of your hips- not daring to touch. just follows around the canting of your hips with his bobbing head. he doesn't even mind when you buck up and clamp your thighs around his head when you cum in broken pants of his name and pleads.

pleads that fall on deaf ears because he's just too far gone, thinks that "just a little more- just a little bit more and i'll stop." but he never does.

its not until you take shaky hands and push against his forehead after cumming for the 3rd time. too weak to pick your head up off the bed for minutes at a time. and when you finally do- he's sitting there, fist wrapped around the print of his cock through grey sweats.

visibly shaking with the restrain he's going through, meeting eyes with yours when you have the ability to pick your head back up and see the way he tips his head back to stare at the ceiling- groaning an apology for getting too ahead of himself.

wondering... "do you ever wonder what cock feels like?" yuji asks, barely audible- like he wishes he could show you what that's like too. and to his dismay and utter relief, you nod pretty at him.