#y'know. the set of tags I've used to tag every post this year to keep things orderly on my blog. who could have predicted. not me

[some-teeth-in-a-trench-coat]

Ok so I was gonna go more in-depth about the timeline and try to figure some things out, but I got a little sidetracked and time got away from me so I might continue this later but for now I need to go to bed. Please enjoy this infodump about the apocalypse in Moth Wizard (my post-apocalyptic fantasy setting) and the origin of magic.

(Content warning: war, religion, death, extinction)

When exactly canon diverges from our timeline is not determined yet since I've currently placed the apocalypse really taking off "sometime in the near future" and I don't know how much of the bad stuff may or may not happen in real life. We live in scary times. Ideally I'd keep it "in the near future" for a while though, like I don't know when (if ever) I'll actually Make The Show, but I'd like for it to still be in the future when I do. It would make the "this could happen to our world" part of the "this could happen to our world and while you individually cannot save us from it, it is entirely in the hands of humans to stop it and turn things around before then" message of the apocalypse, y'know, still apply.

As I mentioned recently in a very excited tag ramble, the apocalypse has several components. I think the main ones are war, climate change, and similar corporate greed consequences like pollution, unsustainable hunting, and destruction of habitats. All of it is human in origin. This is important to me, because if it weren't humans, then it would be Hashem (G-d), and He promised never to do that again after Noah and his family survived the flood. What Hashem did was give humanity the magic that allowed them to survive (and which now fills their world with wizards).

I like to think of this as kind of an inverse of the story of Noah. Hashem did not raise the tides, it was man, and man did not create the means by which life was able to live on, it was Hashem. Are we even now? Probably not, I wouldn't claim to know whether "being even" is even an applicable concept, but I do think that this event thousands of years later changed something forever. A circle has been closed. Life on Earth will never be the same.

I'll uh, definitely consult a rabbi about this at some point though, because I'm mostly making stuff up that sounds right and fits what I have in mind for their world. I'd like to make sure it's at least not actively contradicting anything.

Anyway, so we have the nearish future timeline deviation, I hope, where everything gets worse, billions of people die in world war III and countless species go extinct. Every single country on the planet is either at war or caught in the crossfire. If not for the gift of magic, it would have been the END end of life. How long after this does the story take place? I haven't decided. It's hard to put an accurate number to things.

Let's say hypothetically, magic is introduced in the year 5800, nice round number in the nearish future (a bit over 15 years).

As I've mentioned before, the first people to discover magic were kids probably aged 12-17, because of how the magic system works. To use magic, you need to try and truly believe in it, recklessly, and I don't think anyone is better at recklessly believing in undiscovered magic than teens, speaking as a former teen myself. Too young and the line between make-believe and reality won't be the right shape, too old and they'll have lost faith in undiscovered mysteries. Teens inhabit the sweet spot where the world seems just strange enough that maybe if you really really tried, you could fly.

And suddenly one day, the teens were right.

Sidenote but what I really love about this part of the magic system is that it comes with built-in explanations for why small children are not blowing up cars on accident (it has to be fully intentional and separate from playing pretend), and why not everyone uses it enough to call themselves a wizard (it's hard to believe recklessly and intentionally enough), AND gives good excuse for why anyone desperate enough could do it in a burst of emotion (recklessness is easy if you have nothing left to lose, the exact boundaries of possibility don't seem so important anymore). It's great.

It takes a while for people to believe the kids who discover magic. Obviously this footage going viral on TikTok is faked, and now there's a whole trend about pretending magic is real. And anyone who tries while under the impression that it's fake will of course fail, they don't believe at all. But the news don't have to spread via social media, it's much easier to show people in person. And do you believe it when you see a flying car on the news? You thought this was a reliable source, why would they buy into this obviously fake nonsense? And then you meet your 11-year-old cousin who claims she can make animals talk. You don't believe her, of course, until she points to a squirrel and the squirrel addresses you by name. The world is already in chaos, and now this?

Within a year, I think, it is generally understood that magic does exist. The exact mechanics are still unclear and everyone has their own interpretation, but the fact that some people are genuinely able to do things that until a year ago were definitely impossible is hard to deny now.

Somehow, magic seems to favor saving lives over taking them. This is not actually because magic itself has morals, but because it favors vulnerability and cannot be controlled the way guns can be controlled. Governments try and inevitably fail to create magical armies. You simply can't command someone to use magic. They would need to raise such soldiers from children surrounded by cultish propaganda in order to control their faith to such an extent, which of course they do to all their citizens, that's how they ever got anyone to kill another human on command, but they didn't have the foresight to include "you will be a wizard" in their programming starting 10 years ago. And now they won't get the chance. Their time is about to come to an end.

Oceans rise. Nations fall. The world we know dies screaming.

[tickle-bugs]

Can we get directors commentary on not a house but a home and strange exhilaration please? They stories are so cute and so well written I’d love to hear your thoughts on them

Yes omg!! Sorry this took a bit to answer, I got sidetracked. Thank you for asking!!! Putting these under a cut so i can go ham LOL

Ask for more director's commentary here!

Not a House, But a Home

AHHHH ok ok this was SO fun to write because it's pre-musical Maitlands!! As someone with a deep love for technical theatre, it was fun trying to imagine what the house would be like before the events of the musical. Scenic design is a fun hobby of mine and I love what a set will say about the characters that interact with it!!

Okay so usually when I'm first encountering a prompt/idea, I get clear image of like...the center of the fic? or at least one very specific scene that I can sort of stretch like taffy and build on. The one for this fic was Barbara with the wallpaper! The very first decision I made was that they'd be fixing up the house a bit. It felt in character to me for the Maitlands to literally fix every goddamn thing they could think of instead of like...confronting their mortality LMAO so I wanted to go to a period of their life that felt new and fresh! Also I really love the pastel green wallpaper that they use on the set for the show and I thought it would be sweet if Barbara was the one to put that up. Something something she wears green the house is green something something good luck charm

Then of course the JOKES!! I'm a dad joke connoisseur myself, so it was really fun getting to pick ones for Adam to use. All the jokes in the fic are ones I've used myself, but I looked them up online for specific phrasing. It was really fun getting to play with Adam's delivery actually! To me, Adam has absolutely zero doubt that he's hilarious and will just keep on truckin' until he makes someone laugh. He's so fun to write! He's mischievous and loving and so very white, bless his heart.

I think the core of their relationship is 100% that Barbara and Adam are each other's best friends, y'know? They feel like high school or college sweethearts, or the result of a meet-cute--something sweet and forever-binding. They can't leave Target without buying a million useless things and they take turns either pretending the baby section isn't there or going in and cooing over the little onesies. They slow dance in the kitchen with no music. They have loud, dramatic sing-alongs in the minivan. I think part of that comes from being married/together, but a lot of it is just loving each other's quirks and company.

Also I wrote this in the tags of the og post but I kept making myself laugh writing it by imagining Beetlejuice like...in their walls commenting on the events and such. He's such a wretched little creature I love him dearly. During Ready Set, Not Yet when you see it live, he's bopping around and scatting with 3-D glasses and popcorn literally waiting for them to die it's so fucking funny

Strange Exhilaration

baby's first wicked fic! Wicked will always have a special place in my heart tbh and it was fun bringing back those memories.

This fic was a gift that I whipped up in a couple days, so I didn't sit with it as long as I do some of my other prompts. It was actually nice to do that. It forced me not to overthink what I was doing.

Writing Glinda was a challenge but a welcome one? She speaks in such a specific way but because the show's been running so long, it's basically a new role each time a new actress steps in. I've only ever seen it live once and that was four or five years ago? So it wasn't super fresh in my mind. It was fun trying to reconcile what I remember with what I needed from Glinda. Her vocabulary is everything to me. I stole 'seriosity' (which is a real word but hasn't been used in ages) from Newsies because I had literally just seen it, but the rest were sorta off the cuff!!

okay so first: girlies. jot that down. I love Glinda and Elphaba's friendship and all the tropes that they encompass both together and apart. Whether or not you actually ship it, I do think it's important to write them as if they're a little in love with each other...because they are! I approach the center of their dynamic like this (and I write a lot of deep friendships this way) and it really makes their intimate moments shine ;w;

Elphaba having ticklish hands and Glinda being a teasy sunshine ler were both happy accidents but so fun to write. RIP Elphaba, me too buddy. Hands are mean. But I think it speaks back to their friendship in a sweet way? Elphaba being startled and embarassed by her own softness and Glinda being genuinely 100% delighted by it is so wholesome and true to them, I think. Then of course the reverse of Elphaba allowing herself to be playful and mischievous and Glinda clearly having the time of her life. Ahhhh I love them!!!!

I was fighting for my LIFE not to use 'wicked' or 'bubbly' as adjectives in case it was corny...I think I only did it once or twice each though. I'm so brave.

[polygondotcomvideoproducer]

Did some quick maths on my year in review and fun fact: the posts I made this year only comprise around 3% of the posts on my blog

[madslorian]

madslorian weekly fic recommendations!

Some of these characters I've read so much that they will be moved off of the Misc. Characters Masterlist and onto their own! I love that this library is growing :) All of these fics will be uploaded onto my (masterlist) either after posting or tomorrow.

authors mentioned this week are:

@and-i-swear-we-are-infinte

@absurdthirst

@songsformonkeys

@opheliaelysia

@bison-writes

@slater-baby

@mylifeisactuallyamess

@starlightmornings

@ohpedromypedro

⊱{Din Djarin}⊰

GUILT (SERIES) BY AND-I-SWEAR-WE-ARE-INFINTE

Ahhh! This was my first submission/recommendation by somebody! I got a little overwhelmed by schoolwork so I'm currently on chapter 2 of 5 but I'm really enjoying it!!! Go give it a read and let Carli know what you think of it!

There are 5 chapters so far (all linked above on a masterlist) and the background is if Moff Gideon captured somebody else for his experiments after Din saved Grogu, but what if Din went back for them too? This idea intrigues me a lot plus I looove force-sensitive reader arcs! The first chapter set up a really good story so I will definitely be catching up soon

⊱{Dave York}⊰

*STORMY SECRETS (PART 1 // PART 2 // PART 3) (MINI SERIES) BY ABSURDTHIRST

NSFW! All three parts of this perfectly capture the greatest suburban murder daddy ever, Dave York. Reader is the York family's nanny (shocker, another Dave x nanny!reader story I read...) and grows closer to Dave, as Dave shows what lengths he will go to for what's his. And also poor Carol gets screwed over again... oops.

*SEVEN YEARS BY SONGSFORMONKEYS

NSFW! After escaping the murder business, reader is hiding out in a cabin in the woods for years before seeing Dave's face in the market. After showing up at the cabin and getting his ass beat, Dave reconciles with the reader and admits he wants out of the business too

⊱{Ezra}⊰

*THE EXACT COLOUR BY OPHELIAELYSIA

NSFW! This story felt so poetic and so beautiful to read. First off, artist!Ezra is magnifique, but using the metaphor of your body as a canvas and Ezra painting it felt so sensual and intimate, it didn't feel like smutty/sexual. I yearn to be touched and loved like this by my partner and I think this emphasized how lonely I am lol

ZENITH BY OPHELIAELYSIA

Another one that made me feel incredibly lonely, sigh. BUT the yearning is real guys. This little ficlet makes me feel like Ezra's kisses are filled with so much emotion and probably hold the electricity of the entire galaxy. Something about each and every one of them feels comforting and safe, and these lines made me melt: “If I told you the words, would you keep them safe for me?” “Of course. I’d keep anything safe for you”

*BENEATH THE MOON'S GAZE BY OPHELIAELYSIA

NSFW! Okay, this jumps like RIGHT into smut, but the way that this entire fic is written feels so intimate to me. Like it's intense, pushing limits, and just so heavy with sensuality. But everything about sex with Ezra seems just as poetic as his words are and this nails it

CONNECTING THE DOT BY BISON-WRITES

Pure fricken fluff, that's all. After losing his arm and dealing with recovery in the med bay, Ezra meets Dot, a beautiful gal who is mute. The kindness and softness she extends to him makes his heart just melt, and they soon become business partners

⊱{Pero Tovar}⊰

PREGNANCY HEADCANONS BY SLATER-BABY

Suggested NSFW, so mind the tags at the beginning. As somebody who heavily enjoys reading pregnancy headcanons simply because I adore children... this hit the sweet spot. This isn't even just like a headcanon it's a full-on backstory on how reader and Pero met and it's super adorable. I love the idea of big gruff man holding a tiny baby and just absolutely melting

⊱{Poe Dameron}⊰

HE'S HOME (AO3) (MINI-SERIES) BY MYLIFEISACTUALLYAMESS

Poe returns home after being captured on Jakku and reader can tell something is not right with him. The third chapter broke something inside of me I think...

KNOWING BY MYLIFEISACTUALLYAMESS

Poe comes to comfort reader after an outburst with Leia, and tells the truth about how he actually suffers behind his cocky attitude and pretty boy smile

HE USED TO BE MINE BY MYLIFEISACTUALLYAMESS

True story, this fic shoved me into an alleyway and beat me and my emotions up. ANYWAYS! I should be sorry for suggesting this sad fic, but I'm not because I believe a reader should have at least one fic that makes them feel like a bus destroyed any happiness they had for that day.

I already reposted this with my honest review of how much it made me cry so I'll keep this short. Reader and Poe are getting a divorce after Poe cheats, but every single second of this story had me on the edge of my seat wondering if they would work things out. I'm still struggling to put my emotions into words

⊱{Marcus Moreno}⊰

*ROOM REQUIRED BY STARLIGHTMORNINGS

NSFW! I had a friend send this one to me... and let me tell you, she knows my taste. Reader works in IT for the Heroics, Marcus comes down to get a replacement part, they end up having a quickie in a locked closet. Typical smut, hehe

THERE'S NOTHING SEXY ABOUT ANATOMY BY BISON-WRITES

Suggested NSFW, but no smut in this one! The line explaining the reader "felt like a baboon in heat" made me CRY with laughter and the purple dildo!! But I like character x nanny!reader fics, and it's becoming a bad habit. Anyways! Hopefully, there will be a part 2!

⊱{Max Phillips}⊰

CHRISTMAS WITH MAX BY OHPEDROMYPEDRO

Oh my god, this was so adorable! Christmas obsessed reader really hits home and the idea that both you and Max have such amazing gifts for one another is super adorable. I would quite literally die for Max, because y'know... eternal life with him and his bad old vampire self

[familyagrestefanblog]

I hope no-one minds me joining in but I saw @crocojagged tagging me and there is quite a bit I can add to this from my side. Just as a warning I'm tired as HELL but I'm gonna write this for a while now anyway so I'll take another look at this addition of mine tomorrow and see how much sense I'm making now and if I didn't adopt the wrong tone because of my sleep-deprived emotionality. If I do... please know it's not my intention to be rude here

So let's seeeeeeeee

In 2019 I posted a theory about the knight portrait in "Feast"

and "Chevalier Noir" (Darkblades french name) with 3 parts (part 1, part 2 and part 3) where I concluded that Monsieurs D'Argencourts ancestor was the english "Dark Prince" Edward of Woodstock.

I... honestly don't have the energy to summarize all of this so I linked all 3 parts above. Two things important to know though is 1) that I also choose him through a connection to Jeanne d'Arc, although for Edward it was a "HE set off the 100 years war between England and France and SHE ended it" situation. So they were never partners since they have never met.

But the most important aspect is that 2) I also choose him AS the Ladybugs "villainous" other half and but not only to Jeanne d'Arc but in a more broader sense (since they never met). Look I've been watching Miraculous with the view of "the Ladybug and Black Cat are star-crossed lovers who are always and forever destined to end up as enemies, from which the lucky Ladybug will rise to her glory and the unlucky Cat will fall to his damnation" since 2018, a couple of months after I joined the Fandom. I my opinion the franchise never made a secret out of this (we know since forever about the Ladybug Blessing and Black Cats Curse from the PV version and I will never understand why people pretend this show not having us sit down in episode 1 to hold our hands and say "Yo there is a blessing and a curse going on here but psssssst don't tell our protagonists" suddenly means that the blessing and curse got entirely written out. Have you watched the show? It's in the narrative of every single episode) but y'know 2019 was not the right time yet to talk about that in the Fandom (but hallelujah, it's almost 2022 and the show is FINALLY getting there) so I wrote the 3 part theory of the former black Cat in a more... general tone. But yeah, I chose him as a villainous foil to the ladybug.

Another thing I didn't mention is the fact that in part 2 I analyse the flag of the Knight in "Feast"

and say that although his flag could theoretically be both the flag of France or of Saint Edmund I lean STRONGLY more towards Saint Edmund but I never gave too much of an explanation for WHY.

Well, that's because Saint Edmund was the national Saint of England before getting replaced by Saint George, whose Flag is now still part of Englands official one today. Looking into Edward of Woodstocks history you find out that it was Edward's FATHER (King Edward III of England and I have no intention on assuming that Adrien is the Black Cat with Villain daddy issues) who exchanged Saint Edmund for Saint George, so having the Black Cat Knight from the "Feast" portrait/ Chevalier Noir fight against his Fathers orders to keep the former national Saint would only make sense if it were to support the Miraculous history.

Which is DOES. Because did you know that Saint George has been part of the official Miraculous lore since it feels like forever?

Here, let me show you Saint George and his Ml equivalent:

So in the narrative I choose Edward of Woodstock as the villainous foil to the heroic Ladybug in the broader sense of "He's going against his Fathers, the kings, orders who now wants to fight for the honor of a former Ladybug (Saint George) and therefore Dark Prince Edmund basically set of the 100 years war as a form of rebellion/defiance to keep the old Saint Edmund (unsuccessfully) as England national Saint. A war which was then ended 100 years later by the Ladybug Jeanne d'Arc who won the war for HER home country France and brought defeat to HIS country England."

In my eyes this made and still makes alot of sense, but concidering that now in "Ephemeral" we get Gilles de Rais as the villainous Black Cat to the heroic Ladybug Jeanne d'Arc im not sure if two (or even three with the Chevalier Noir as a separate character) Black Knights aren't too many to actually elaborate on for narrative backstory. But to be fair "Chevalier Noir" is an episode of season god damn 1, so the possibility of potentially pretty big rewrites in these story aspects should be taken into consideration.

I was rewatching Furious Fu in preparation for Ephemeral, and then I thought "hmm I should probably rewatch that knight episode since they're referencing it so blatantly here." It's not an episode I rewatch much outside of bingeing the whole series, so there was a lot I forgot about (like that it's called Darkblade oops). I'm gonna use this post to talk about things that stood out to me, potentially important for Su-Han's return in Ephemeral, potentially important for later.

The episode starts off with this interesting exchange that's immediately ringing alarm bells for me:

Marinette: And yet again, Marinette hopes she'll finally have enough time to complete her magic box.

Tikki: What's the magic box for, Marinette?

Marinette: To lock up my diary and all my secrets.

Tikki: Every little secret? You're telling me you write everything down in that thing?

Marinette: Uh yeah, something wrong?

Tikki: Well, for one: what if someone finds out you're Ladybug? And two: what if someone finds out you're Ladybug!?!

Magic boxes? Ladybug's identity revealed? I am already concerned, but especially when considering the callback to the diary we got in Truth at the beginning of Season 4.

Then we have the sheer bizarreness that is Adrien's fencing instructor running for Mayor of Paris? That part's weird, but the lore it brings up is interesting. D'Argencourt's a descendant of a black knight called Darkblade, and that's definitely supposed to be a former black cat miraculous holder, right? That's my immediate guess anyway.

This could be significant to the upcoming conflict between the Order of the Guardians and Chat Noir. The Ephemeral synopsis mentions Su-Han's insistence that the black holder must be known, so they can be controlled, which also aligns with what he said in Furious Fu. "Some jewels missing and Plagg roaming free? The end of dinosaurs and dragons, doesn't that alarm anyone?"

Wait dragons?

Huh. D'Argencourt's crest sure looks like a dragon.

Here is my mini-theory on what this means. Darkblade was a black cat holder that went rogue and used his powers to subjugate his people (even in D'Argencourt's biased positve account it's said he "ruled with an iron fist" so probably not a good person). This is somehow related to him causing dragons in medieval europe to go extinct. The fact that he was able to do this may even be how he was able to conquer Paris in the first place if dragons were a such huge danger to people that he eliminated. This would be why Su-Han is so concerned with making sure the black cat miraculous is with a holder that he can keep an eye on, to prevent anything like this from happening again.

Also worth noting that this is one of the few episodes where Chat Noir is fighting the akuma by himself for a significant portion of the episode, and this leads to lots of shots of him fencing with D'Argencourt in a way that emphasizes their similarities and differences.