#you know theres more variation than i thought

[fireflywitch]

ten lines, ten people (rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. if you have written less than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.)

thank u for the tags! @etchedstars @itsromeowrites @perexcri

10. switching places

Zoro woke up.

9. a (home) by any other surname 

A small, careless whimper carried through the drafty halls of the boat, made louder by the great emptiness of the boat as it rocked back and forth, made eerier by the emptiness and inky blackness of the boat as it rocked back and forth on a sea that had nearly taken two more sacrifices—two days?

8. on wanting and the color blue 

When Nami first saw her, she thought, oh my god, step on me , before shaking her head and attempting to make sense of what was in front of her ( who was in front of her) (focus, Nami, focus ).

7. this timeline’s broken and we have to fix it 

The blindingly white world gripped Four tightly, fear and nausea nearly breaking him in half, and it didn’t matter if he held on tightly to the sweaty hand embracing his own or not, because his fate had already brought him crashing into the earth.

6. will didn’t get lost in the woods 

Things Steve Harrington expected when he drove over to Jonathan Byers’ house to issue his best attempt at an apology: that it would probably be awkward, definitely be over quickly, and hopefully do something about the gnawing, guilty feeling in his stomach.

5. november and july 

Max hadn’t been prepared for the cold.

4. and everything but sleep

It started when Mike was attempting to drown himself in his bathtub, which, okay, sounded worse than what it was, but it was difficult to understate the deep comfort of folding himself into a ball, submerged under lukewarm water and heavy, cloying lavender.

3. i think there is someone (you love) 

The loose stitch balanced precariously on its needle, slightly too wide—or maybe the one before it was too tight—and El squinted as she lifted it with her right hand and transferred it onto the left.

2. nothing is certain except 

Heaving breaths shuddered through his rib cage as he ran, ducking behind stone walls and leaping across perilously-placed topiaries, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds to see if he’d evaded his would-be captor—another day in the life, really, of being one of Whitebeard’s Commanders, but this particular man would not leave him alone.

1. so (so sorry) central rain 

Something was wrong.

tags (w/ no obligation ofc) @willow-lark @toystoryfan @portgas-d-aroace (and anyone else who wants to)

[artpepkin]

So my ocs Nym and Vial got so much more love than I thought they would ever receive so early into their reveal, so I decided to give y'all a little treat since I know a ton of you came originally from my killer drawing haha

But yea, thanks y'all so much for all the love for my ocs and art, and enjoy this early valentines 🧡💞💕💖🧡💞💕💖🧡

And of course tagging the killer simp- @itsxroxannex 👀🧡

Theres a couple variations below the cut, including kitty killer!! :] ->

Kitty version ->

And some hard to see pupils lolol ->

[forestryfae]

chaos lord hcs i consider canon cus thats what hc means lol

chaos lords tend to take a few traits after their familiars.

klarions pupils work the same way cats do. slits when hes relaxed, big and round when hes excited. he may purr on occasion but its usually only directed at teekl when shes snuggled into him. he likes to push things off of tables but thats not a familiar trait thing, he just saw teekl do it once and thought it looked fun.

child is cold to the touch and if the light hits her right her skin seems opalescent. her bones are partially transparent and looks like its made from opals and white quartz despite being solid bone

chaos lords need their familiars to be concious to stay properly on the mortal plane. thus, they need to sleep when their familiar is asleep. e.g. klarion wont ever discorporealize from teekl taking a catnap but he has the option of phazing in or out of the mortal plane for a while (annoying but harmless), waking her up (worse) or taking a nap w teekl (best choice)

in fact pretty much all chaos lords (and lords of order if the shoe fits) revolve their daily schedules around their familiars sleep schedules, despite familiars sleeping far less than normal animals

child cant sleep because of flaw. this does not affect her in the slightest.

sometimes klarion (specifically) will just drop dead. you know when cats loaf and suddenly their head just drops so theyre loafing face down and asleep? yeah, teekl fell asleep and klarion didnt notice and now hes fallen face first on the floor and is snoozing away. he could fall off the empire state building and not notice until after teekl wakes up

you cant wake him up. hes dead to the world until teekl wakes/is woken up and even then he might keep snoozing for a while before he wakes up on his own

vandal has, more than once, had to deal w his snoring during a meeting

his snoring isnt actually that loud if hes lying down properly. he tends to sleep like a cat tho. literally Wherever

lords of order generally dont have to be on the mortal plane very often and actively avoid it, unlike chaos lords who delight in being able to go, so its rarer for them to need anchors or familiars. nabu was basically their get out of work card

chaos/order lord language is mostly consistent of loud humming, hollow noises, and clear tones. the way electricity sounds, ice cracking, thunder rumbling, tuning forks, and so on also appear on occasion, and its easy to compare the noise they make to the sound of a planet spinning. there is a mild telepathic aspect of it used to convey mood and feelings as well. its like body language but psychich, and no actual words, thoughts or images are spoken psychically

its common to choose what noises are used based on favourite sounds and tones, hence the need for the telepathy. telempathy?? yeah thats a word now. gender is also linked to noises.

gender isnt really a thing the way it is for humans. sex as well, but genetics are. lords of whatever reproduce by deciding "i want a kid actually" and then manifesting a soul for that child. ideally you want between 2-5 lords manifesting at once so theres a variation in the powers used to bring them to life, if you only manifested a child from one lord youd just get a badly made copy of that lord.

manifesting a child is not seen as sexual, its more like witnessing a birth, so its not uncommon for children to just pop up out of nowhere in public. generally this has few reactions from others beyond congratulations. the knowledge of how to do it is still kept from children and young lords to prevent bad copies or irresponsible duplications from inexperience. not to mention that parenthood is kind of a big deal, you dont want a lord who was born last millennia try to make a shit duplicate, fail, and essentially rip themself in half, erasing them from existence

it is seen as. vulgar. to ask someone to help create a child. you generally say out loud "i want a child and need help" and suitors will offer their help. after that its pick or choose.

biological sex isnt a thing due to the way children are created, but gender still is there to some degree. some dont have one at all, while some have very strong feelings of it. its linked massively to noises and is seen as an accessory, like wearing a favourite bracelet or a cool tshirt. for some only hollow and humming tones is the perfect gender, for others low thundering rumbling with highpitched tones is excellent, and some might prefer using all the noises or stick to just one, and some may change periodically

physical bodies tend to be malleable enough to fix if they dont like what theyre given or alter if they change their mind, but they generally view genitals and sex characteristics as aestethic functions and do as they see fit based on what they feel looks nice and is more useful for them

nabu views the host body as just a host and therefore does not ever alter the host body. hes content w whatever he gets, he just lives there after all

lords of chaos and order have different dialects. its unclear to everyone else what the difference is though.

lords may take the soul of a mortal and turn it into a chaos lord/lord of order. this is called adoption :)

due to personal reasons, klarion may or may not be adopted depending on what backstory i want to use

(born as a chaoslord sometime between the beginning of the universe and roungly 5000 years before meeting vandal and was never human or anything else VS born in Limbo Town 2; The Adaption To Make It Less Lost Tribe Of Roanoke And More Homo Magi + Fae Cross Species From A Place Called Limbo Town, became a very powerful but chaotic magic user, chaos lord said "i want that one" and approaching him, klarion accepting and upon his death hell ascend, got murdered in cult ritual, became chaos lord and adopted by his mother (he has 2 now) and some time space power shit happens so he ascends into the past where his new mom who knows time chaos adopted him)

chaos lords are always red and lords of order are always yellow but the hue and saturation varies. some are more pink, some are kinda orange, some are blood colored, some have specks of different colors or ombres or stripes, some are very light or very dark, and so on etc etc

klarion has more than once refered to lords of order as "piss rocks from space"

[bookofmac]

okay okay okay, thinking thoughts

So I find the concept of Names really interesting in Camlann, reading into the extracanonical stuff put on the tumblr is giving me food for theory crafting. The Catacylsm seems to be some kind of return of magic to the world (possibly heralded by the return of The King of the Britons in their hour of need?) and thus people with significant Names have access to something because of it. they fall into the stories of their namesakes; Perry, Gwaine, and Kay are Knights, Morgan is Morgana Le Fay, and we now have a Gwen in Shújūn.

Based on Kay's dicussion with Perry if more people can fill in the roles of their stories to more 'to plan' the stories will go, Of course this is not good news if you know the general end point of Arthurian legend (Betrayal, muderer, war, most everyone dead, the 'Glory' of camelot gone). It's inherently kind of a doomsday cult if you stay in those stories, you know where parts of this are going (i'll get back to this)

it also seems like there may be some, for lack of a better term, kin drama going on. There are 900 members of the court and Kay mentions that Peredur is a really uncommon name outside of Wales, meaning there are certain knights who are more common, i assume Lancelot's, Kay's, maybe a few Talisin's, a bunch of Gareth's, and like 50 Elaines like in the legends lol

We also dont have the context for how Names work full yet and neither do our characters. I think theres a lot of answers to be had with Shújūn/Gwen with how it works, how you know other than the buzzing in you're head and desire go through the motions and Follow the Story

Now, where does Dai fit in all this?

Dai doesn't have a Name, and I think theres going to be a point where he changes his name in a major way, but not to a Name, but a Bardic name. In welsh poetic and story telling tradtions Welsh poets, THE OG Bards, will take on pseudonyms tell their stories. This practice stems from the medievil era, but goes forth to today, and many modern Welsh and welsh heritage poets have connections to this tradition (Dylan Thomas' middle name was his great uncles bardic name, Sarah Williams published her work under the name Sadie), I believe it's also a requirement to have one if you intend to perform in the major Eisteddfod, (I am Australian so my experiance of Eisteddfods here is very different so if i'm wrong on that let me know)

Why would he do this? I think Dai is going to, at least try, to write him and his friends a way out.

Much ink is spilt over how Arthurian legend doesnt have an 'orginal text', and as such there are lots of stories that are inherently contradictory; Bedwyr is the best knight, but so are Gwaine, Lancelot, and Galahad. Mordred is some random king until his Arthur's son. Arthur has a sister, no he has two, actually he has three and one of them is an Elaine. This could be used to explain any doubles (are you my Gwaine), as well as why we see a few different spelling varients which are, the very welsh Peredur as opposed to Percival or Parzifal, the anglisised and more boarish Kay as opposed to Cei or Caius (this last one might just to keep Dai and Kay distinct tho). These variations are no more or less 'canon' than any other telling of the story, and so often the writer of a given telling of Arthurian legend is going to have their own bias. But things dont HAVE to end the way they always do, and sometime you need to have someone outside the story you're caught in to tell you a new one.

You are not locked into that ever looming cloud of Thomas Mallory and Le Morte d'Arthur.

Other evidence I have for this is that Dai sings at the begining of each episode, and sings in welsh at that. He also is, to a point our narrator, existing both in and out of the current narative. Also his name is an a lyric of Sosban Fach (a song i would be surprised if it wasn't in the show at some point) 'Dai bach y sowldiwr' which is also not from the text the song was based on. Tangential yes, but i think it's worth thinking about.

I think there is also something to be said about choice in what your name is and how it feeds into the overall theme of identiy, and how that plays into other themes at play in the story, like Transness, Imperialism, and Predestination

TL:DR; While he doesnt have a Name, Dai's gonna give himself an epic bard name and save them all by writing a killer hook to get them out of the story

[historianofgalar]

Jirachi

(Art by 92ØMoomin on Twitter)

Base Info

Jirachi is a mythical pokemon that is said to have its origins in space. It is said that it sleeps deep in the mountains, only waking up every 1,000 years, coinciding with the Millenium Comet that appears. As the comet is the sky, Jirachi is awake, and when the comet disappears, Jirachi goes back to sleep. This period lasts exactly one(1) week, and while Jirachi is awake, it is said to be able to grant any wish given to it. How these wishes are granted vary depending on the culture, with some saying that you write a note on Jirachi's wings and some saying that if you sing to it in a voice of purity, the wish will come true. The eye on its stomach is said to be its true eye and opens up when a wish is being granted.

Despite popular fables showing Jirachi being able to create objects out of thin air, from the few interactions we've seen of it, Jirachi isn't able to create objects, but instead teleport them to the person.

Cultures

Obviously, Jirachi is the one that created the practice of wishing on a shooting star, because you never know which one might be Jirachi.

My favorite thing about Jirachi is how it varies between cultures. While the appearances are always similar, some shoe Jirachi being more playful and sneaky while some show it being more ethereal and beautiful. In some myths, Jirachi is shown to be a special kind of Jinn, also known as genies. In one of these myths, a man frees a Jirachi from a cursed seel holding the peace of a meteor it fell from, and Jirachi grants him 3 wishes for saving it.

In some parts of Hoenn and regions near it, there are festivals every year that celebrate Jirachi. The festivals are known as "The Star Festivals" and last for seven days to honor the Millenium Comet, taking place on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.

Creation

The story of how Jirachi was created varies between cultures, but the most common one is that the Millenium comet was given a blessing by Arceus and, depending on the version, his Sāriknight helpers. Jirachi was then given to the mortal realm as a gift, but to prevent humans from absuing this power, Arceus made it so Jirachi would sleep for one thousand years, with the comet only coming around again at that time.

Random Thoughts

Jirachi have taken different forms in different cultures, and my theory is that there is more than one Jirachi, and not in the "theres a Jirachi for each alternatate universe." I think that Jirachi is actually a species. Say what you want, but I'm someone who believes in legendaries and mythical and all of that while also trying to look at things from a logical side. It would make sense, since space is huge and the variations of myths around the world, and how they appear in multiple places at once.

[thatneoncrisis]

20 questions for 20 writers!

tagged by @waitineedaname thxx

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

21 works, i feel like thats a healthy number

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

i have 439,385 words, a very large chunk of that is from We Have Always Lived in the Apartment

3. What fandoms do you write for?

right now its the locked tomb, used to be homestuck, i have some crossovers with the magnus archives and one with john dies at the end

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

We Have Always Lived in the Apartment -- TLT horror mystery modern au

Insert Jesus Allegory Here -- solkat focused continuation of karkats pesterquest route, i NEED my new fics to get more popular than this oh my god

Gehenna the First -- TLT houseswap au with harrow as god

the gap between a tragedy and comedy (in this life its just you and me) -- TLT coffee shop au.

What's Eating Gideon Nav?  -- TLT catholic boarding school horror au

5. Do you respond to comments?

not typically, theres some weird thing with my head where i kind of hate that it counts my comments in the total comment amount. i cant explain it i just dont like how it looks, plus just repeating variations of "thank you!!" feels hollow after a while. im more likely to answer direct questions about the story rather than general commentary i do love talking about my thought process and intentions

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

ok so i cant actually tell you this because none of those fics are Done yet but all you need to know is that i consider all of my TLT fics tragedies to some extent. take that as you will. i dont even Like the word angst really it portends a level of melodrama id like to avoid

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'd say its a dead tie between A Brief Lesson In The Occult and Shit. Let’s Build A Fort. i can barely look at these anymore and if you read them and feel compelled to tell me you like them: dont. i can do better now

8. Do you get hate on fics?

never to my knowledge has anyone ever publicly disliked one of my fics. in fact sometimes i dream about someone posting it in their discord group chat and making fun of it because im so curious about what theyd say

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yes i have. i do it almost exclusively as satire or character analysis as i find like, the physicality of sex to be inherently kind of goofy. liek the second you have to describe a dick or boobs with words the magic is gone it just becomes weird silly looking flesh. so i like focusing on weird and bad sex, unsatisfying or clumsy sex. sex that changes you in no significant way

10. Do you write crossovers?

yes i have. A Brief Disappearance and Statement of David Wong are both TMA/JDATE crossovers and i DID write a homestuck/TMA crossover but its not on my ao3 i guess? odd

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no? does that happen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i think once someone asked but i have no clue if it happened

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

@notedchampagne is my co producer in all things forever but ive basically written everything myself and they help polish it up

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

shiiiiiiite uh. jade/davepeta still means a lot to me. i think there are a lot of really engaging ships in TLT but i always kind of default to griddlehark i just kind of understand them the best

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

eventually SAM and i would like to circle back to our fanventure Therapystuck but we both got really busy with school, work and a general lull in the HS fandom. also maybe someday ill go back to Insert Jesus Allegory Here i liked the direction of the story i just have to get myself back in that headspace. being into homestuck Does something to you, like psychologically

16. What are your writing strengths?

after asking some friends theyve told me im good at tone, prose, funny metaphors, and dialogue but a caveat for the last thing as "I have yet to see how your Own guys talk and how you'd handle distinct voices from scratch so I'm only giving you about 80%"

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i hate like. writing Around the important bits of a scene. i love the physicality of characters and what it reveals about them, along with pieces of the scene the narration deems important or interesting enough to mention to the audience. but im always worried im jsut fucking yapping. also i hate like, political scenes theres a rhythm to them that i dont quite understand. people sitting around using specific language that Feels important in a way that doesnt make it clear im bullshitting like 99% of what theyre talking about

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

AHAH. GOD. i actually looked this up the other day because theres an original story i want to write where i want to make it clear theyre basically speaking french the whole time, even though its written in english. i only speak english (i took some french in hs, its left me though i want to pick it up again) so i wouldnt know anything about how it reads to polyglots but i guess theres really only so much you can do outside of literally learning a new language just to write a story for free. ive seen a whole host of tips so i gues sit just matters how you employ them

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Homestuck. my only regret is that i wasnt a better writer

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

FUCK christ uuuuh. favorite right Now would be The Apartment but EVENTUALLY id like it to be Gehenna the First because its the hardest to write and i need it to pay off. if you havent read it uhhh. hi. hello. you should do that. i think its really cool and fun and junk

CHRIST who to tag i dont follow big writers uuuh @tranquilitybasehotelcasino and @accidentallyadorable sure have fun

[k9effect]

A Hangclone omegaverse au WOULD HIT. I’ve had so many thoughts about those two but put them into an A/B/O dynamic and it’s even better. Like could you imagine prickly omega hangman going against his dynamic to try and court older alpha Cyclone. Cyclone would be head over heels but at the beginning he’d be super insecure because he knows jake could do better with someone younger and who isn’t a divorcee then he and Jake make it official and maybe they get a surprise little one on the way and Cyclone is super cocky about it. Or maybe its cocky alpha hangman trying to court older omega Cyclone. Maybe cyclone already has a pup or two from a previous mating and doesn’t want anymore and he cannot understand why for the life of him an Alpha like Hangman would want to be with him when he’s significantly older, already has kids with another alpha and doesn’t want anymore and addicted to his job.

Yessssss you understand the vision!!!

Theres a lot of variations in my mind:

I think about omega!jake who had to push his omega-ness aside to get to where he is in the military cause of like, stigma or smth. He tries to just come across as a beta or even an alpha if hes lucky. He's never really gotten to indulge in omegan things. But then beau is taking a liking to him and jake feels safe and slowly leaves hints that hes more omegan than anyone suspected. Beau taking it all in stride and giving jake everything he needs to be able to really indulge. Helping him nest properly for the first time and letting him be vulnerable and put his guard down.

I also imagine omega!jake getting injured and maybe its before they get together but alpha!beau is so keyed up and flooded with adrenaline, hes pacing outside jake's hospital room cause the omega hes attached to is hurt but he doesnt know he jake wants him in there or not. So hes growling at people that walk past, almost not letting nurses in, he doesnt sleep a wink, hes so scattered and anxious and running on instincts. When jake finally wakes up he just smells protective alpha and gets this warm feeling of "safe".

And yeah, god, omega!cyclone with kids is so good. Maybe since he already had some and hes older he doesnt want anymore and hes scared that jake would be mad but turns out jake doesnt really care one way or the other about pups, he just wants beau. And honestly? If he doesnt need to share him thats a plus

I ALSO think about alpha/alpha hangclone. Like not only do they have the age gap and the rank gap, but now they have to battle the stigma of two alphas being together. Learning to work with one another and give each other what they need without being overbearing or doing it the wrong way.

Theres just so much potential and i am so fucking soft for them

[stingrayloveblog]

Whee side order

My thoughts on it! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!! Youve been warned.

So, here are my honest thoughts. Let me just start by warning further that this is mostly negative.

Took me about two hours and one attempt to beat all 30 floors. Was pretty fun. I used splattershot though because i suck at dualies.

But... it felt very quick. Felt like there was a whole lotta nothing plotwise, too. It was fun, but the plot is pretty weak. Its just another rogue-ai-tries-to-assimilate-everyone plot. Which has already been done. For some reason they keep trying to do octo expansion but again and they keep failing to do that.

Taking everything into consideration, acht really had no reason to be there. You could remove acht entirely and have the same results. And im not just saying that because i dont like dedf1sh. They dont add anything to anything.

I havent unlocked all marinas dev notes but so far theres been her motive of saving the sanitized octarians which......... i have my own personal issues with that. They seem to not be able to decide how they want sanitization to work.

Doing the pallets, i assumed they would give you some memory thing related to the associated character, but you just get a stupid little comment from the post-final boss that doesnt really add anything to the plot or the characters. Also murch is on luna blaster for some reason. I was speculating a lot on who luna blaster and octobrush could be assigned to, but seems like theyre just doing anyone. Murch is very irrelevant to everything as a whole so its kinda just like whatever.

That being said, i feel extremely bad for agent 4 fans. Those humanoid red eyed things with one of them looking like 4 and then them not doing anything with that at all was a huge fake out.

From what i saw, a lot of people were theorizing and expecting things based on all the evidence we got that we never did end up getting because they went an entirely different route. No agent 4 being possessed or whatever (unless thats still true and just unlocked much later, which im hoping because it would make everything a lot more interesting), no implied body swapping, no copybots.

And most of all, nothing from the first trailer we got. With all the concept art. I know it was just CONCEPT art for a reason, but surely you cant just show off all these things and then have the final result be absolutely nothing like it? Then again, splatoon 3 has had more than enough false advertising already, so i guess it was wrong to expect things to be as shown. I just really really liked the giant hostile architecture black spikes picture. And theres none of that at all.

Basically, everything that was expected was significantly cooler than what we got, and to be completely honest, i dont think it was worth splatoon 3 being in really bad shape for such a long time. I dont think it really justified the amount of dumb things that happened over the past few seasons.

I do still think its fun, and i absolutely am going to try to collect everything, but it was significantly less interesting overall than i anticipated.

I do think the final boss attacks syncing with the rhythm was cool. But other than that the level design is extremely repetitive and there really is no variation. Im only enjoying it now because ive used weapons that i like/dont mind using, but once i have to start using weapons im bad at i just know itll be insufferable.

Overall, i am unfortunately disappointed but i still have hope that maybe there is something more, because surely that couldnt have been it.

Also just because it doesnt go along with any of my oc stories at all and i am absolutely not changing anything on my end because frankly im sick of doing that

[sunnenfinster]

i think the only friends fandom (and ex fans?) needs to be studied, like theres simply so much more variation of opinions than i am used to, why do people view things so differently, how come there is so much difference on how things are viewed depending which platform you are on, how did some opinions on certain characters change so much throughout the show

i would also like to know what impact being a fan of a certain actor or actor pairing had on how we perceived their characters in the show because just looking at myself and my experience it certainly plays a part too but in what ways and how much i am not sure

i dont know if answers to these and more questions can be answered through a survey but if anyone ever decides to create one and share the results that would be really cool and of course i would also love to hear peoples thoughts on these

[jones-friend]

I PLAYED SOME MORE GAMES TODAY

Im beginning to rouse from my month of COVID fatigue and got 4 new games in today! 3/4 are from Pandasaurus games, which I’ll have some thoughts on later. They’re varying degrees of good!

One trend I’ve noticed is modern games like to saw two proven games in half and glue them together. Clank! is a dungeon crawler/deck builder. Arnak is a worker placement/deckbuilder. Eschaton is a deckbuilder/risklike. Emerge is if you played Yahtzee to play Carcassone.

In Emerge we are scientists exploring islands for wildlife for points. The goal is to make multi-tiered islands with lots of wildlife meeples on them. You do so by rolling dice and assigning them to actions on your player mat. There are also 4 goals to keep up with and research tokens you can find by making islands or spending unused dice. After 8 rounds the game is scored and the most VP’s wins. One aspect I enjoyed was the modifier tiles. Once per round you can remove/add/swap tiles around your board, this causes numbers to collect for different resources. Numbers are placed on your mat and can be spent together for different meeples or island tiles. So I could put a crab tile on 4 (as pictured) and spend dice from 2 and 4 to place crab meeples on my island. Islands score for the number of tiers times number of meeples.

Emerge is a bit tougher to recommend than most of my games here. I like it, it has some things I like, but it has some I don’t. I don’t think the tile abilities do enough to negate the variation and luck in rolls. You only get one roll, and granted I probably should have taken on at least one or two more tiles, but I didn’t feel they did enough compared to something like One Deck Dungeon. I feel for an optimization game, optimization enjoyers might get annoyed with bad rolls they get stuck with. There’s also a lack of meaningful player to player interaction. There’s racing for objectives first, obtaining research tokens first, and the four bird tokens that can be moved and stolen. I liked the idea of it, but I wanted more. I also felt the objectives asked a lot of you without offering enough reward for chasing them, I focused objectives while my bud islands, and while I scored all four objectives he still won by some 10+ points.

If you want a laid back dice game and you enjoy the presentation of Emerge I would say pick it up. It looks great and at times feels great to make decisions on your player mat for what goes where. If there’s an invite to a game its worth a play. Im not sure if I’d recommend picking it up unless its something you click with.

Apes together strong. After Us takes place in the post apocalypse where Apes rule the world and are racing to reach evolved intelligence. After Us is a puzzle-y deck builder. Players drsw four cards from their deck and organize them in any way they wish. You must combine costs with benefits, collects with collects, and solve the “puzzle” of what works best with what to gather resources and score victory points. The game ends when a player reaches 80 points.

Similar to Emerge theres a lot of bits I like and a few I don’t. There is a lot of simultaneous play that keeps turns from being bogged down and I appreciate that. We all assemble our monkeys together and resolve them at once. Its a brisk game that doesn’t overstay its welcome and the presentation/art is fabulous.

Where I have a bone to pick with After Us is in its RNG and player interaction. When you recruit new apes you draw from a facedown deck. You know vaguely what that ape is good at. The four types focus victory points, batteries, exile/trash, and repeat actions. You’re blind drawing from cards that don’t have specific abilities, just costs and benefits that are slightly randomized across the deck. But I ended up drawing lots of battery costs while my opponent did not, the apes I drew had a harder time with resources than my opponent’s draws, who provided and consumed similar resources. And there wasn’t an easy way out since all cards were blind draws.

The game also lacks any meaningful player interaction, its just a race. Theres a mechanic where when buying an ape you get a benefit of that clan and can pay 2 to copy a neighbor’s benefit, but it feels very stapled on last minute. Because its the only non simultaneous moment the only player interaction slows the game down.

After Us is another harder recommend. If you enjoyed Earth you will enjoy After Us. Earth similarly had low player interaction, youre all tuning engines till one pops. If you’re comfortable with that more solitaire play the puzzle of four apes in a line is enjoyable.

In Aurum players take the role of alchemists making formulas for gold. Aurum is a trick taking game with some higher level mechanics to it that will be hit or miss. There’s 5 “base metal” suits and a gold “trump” suit. Players start with a hand of base metals and one 0 gold. The leading player plays a card. The other players must follow, playing DIFFERENT suits than each other. The highest card wins the trick BUT the lowest card gains a gold card in their “collection” worth victory points. This card may also be used in tricks. At the beginning of the game players choose a number and put down a card from their hand of that number. That is their bid, they want to win exactly that many tricks. Go under and you get nothing. Go over and you score the bid in points. Match the bid and gain double the number in points.

So sometimes you wanna win the trick. Sometimes you want to force someone else to win. Sometimes you want to spend a 6-7 to lose the trick but gain a gold card of that value for points.

For a trick taking game there’s a number of things to consider. Do you want to waste a card that could take a trick on getting gold? Do you want to spend that 1-2 VP gold to ensure you reach your bid?

We played the 3 player variant and I found it to be this interesting standoff. Otherwise it plays 1v1 and 2v2.

If you’re into trick taking games and want something new. In the world of $30 medium pizzas and $10 1lb ground beef Aurum is $15. I recommend picking it up and giving it a try. It won’t work for everyone, but having a 3 player variant was fascinating. Like the other two games fantastic art direction and great quality, great presentation.

Four Humours is a prisoner’s dilemma game. Players place potions in scenes and once two scenes are full all are resolved in this order of operations how the four humors can “win” in priority order. Winning potions are placed on the board to satisfy objective cards. Whoever satisfies the most wins.

To explain the prisoner’s dilemma if you’re unfamiliar, there’s one scene in Four Humours with only two potion slots. Each can hold Choleric or Sanguine. Choleric wins if there is only one in the scene. 2+ choleric means nobody wins. Sanguine is next in priority. If Choleric doesn’t win, Sanguines all win if there are 2+ in a scene, regardless if they are owned by different players. Your opponent claims they played a Sanguine. Do you trust them? If you play your Sanguine and they played Choleric you lose. If you both played Choleric you both lose. If you both played Sanguine you both win. If you decide to screw your friend over and play Choleric to their Sanguine only you win.

And decisions like that are the core of the game. The 4-5 scene cards and 6 party tiles are all logic puzzles and bluffing/diplomacy minigames. With the mechanics behind the four humours you can goad people into making bad moves or win without actually winning the scene. You can be sneaky and crafty, treacherous or trustworthy.

Truly its mechanics are light, the game is placed between you and your buds rather than on your own playmats. With the nature of this game I wouldn’t recommend playing with less than four people, and it can hold up to six at a time. Its a great game that works off a great dilemma, trying to work around possibilities and promises of different players claiming to place different humours where feels great. Great replay value too, our game went thru about 1/2 the scenes and theres an alt game mode to explore.

I heartily recommend this one, easy pick.

One last bit before I snooze. Pandasaurus is a game company I own many games for: Brew, Dinosaur World, Wild Space, now Emerge and Aurum. Every game I’ve played from them is 80% of a really fantastic game. Its just missing a little something. The presentation is stellar, the effort is there, the creativity is apparent. I’m not trying to slam their games by any means.

Most end up relying on their theme harder than their mechanics. Games are carried at the thought of what you’re doing than the nuts and bolts behind it. Emerge, without set dressing, is a game of assembling tokens on tiles and adding base tiles to their tiles, rolling dice to do so. Wild Space is a game of playing cards to play more cards. What makes them tick is their stellar theming and A+ presentation with materials and art.

If you see this logo understand this might not be the most mechanically sound game. It also might not have the most player interaction, if any. But its going to look great at the table and each game has something that will make your brain go brrrr like the board game equivalent of a fidget spinner.

[catusbeanius]

tagged by @smollestduck-sketches !!! thankies!! also i'm gonna extend this to fics ive written but never published bc the only fics I've published were my frantic fanfics with some friends LSKSLKDJ

1. how many works?

If we count each franfic fanfic, then easily over twenty. A lot of my fics are half-finished though so if we discount them and the frantic fanfics, then more like 3 or 5? Probably just 1 actually smh

2. total word count?

Uhhh...... Lemme count rq. 1800 on the frantics (not distinguishing between my writing and my friends' writing), and then 7200 from whatevers in the obsidian document I opened. Theres more on scrivener and random sheets of paper, but my laptop is slow and I don't have time to find them all :(

3. what fandoms do u write for?

Twst and Enstars, pretty much. Technically some crossovers with Sam & Max as well!! Ig technically OM as well then

4. top 5 fics by kudos

Don't have any :(

5. do u respond to comments?

I would if I got them!!

6. fic u wrote with the angstiest ending?

That one fic about Cherio angsting over Trickstar (i think it's on my old laptop and that one's even slower smh. I gotta transfer these things at some point. If I find it, maybe I'll post it!! But it was a mild vent fic)

7. fic u wrote with the happiest ending?

All of my fics are mildly hopeful (if I finish them) but I liked this one Cherio lore Mally birthday fic I wrote where rat-kun showed up and ate his cake. I could probably post that one, but it doesn't make much sense without the Cherio lore context (which I haven't written down yet :( )

8. do u get hate on fics?

Yeah, from myself (I'm jk, I don't hate my writing)

9. do u write smut?

Teehee :3 Technically, I have. Probably won't do it again, though. Eh, we'll see.

10. craziest crossover fics?

OM and Sam & Max

11. have u ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of

12. ever had a fic translated?

Very, very technically yes though bc I would write fics in class in a secret script and then decode them at home SLKD (but, as I said, that's more decoding than translating)

13. ever co-written a fic?

Yes! The frantics

14. all time favorite ship?

Lilia Vanrouge x urmom /j Serious answer, idek ;v; Anything that makes Mika or Malleus happy, I suppose! (ShuNaruMika especially). I'd also say anything that makes Lilia happy but you can't really ship him with anyone bc he's so old it'll always be a little weird

15. what's a wip u wanna finish but doubt u will?

Cherio Lore :( I can write a synopsis of it, but I really want to organically present the ideas through typical novel writing as practice before I really write my own stories. Alas, idk what happens in the middle (as always)

16. writing strengths?

Abstract descriptions! I hope, at least. I love writing them!!

17. writing weaknesses?

Dialogue fs. Idk how people talk. Also, sentence variation. I'm a predictable guy and I have my favorite words!!

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

The thing is, if it's in a different script to the language you're writing in (for example, English and Japanese), there's not a way for the reader to read it, yk? And idk if there's a way to organically integrate a translation. Even if your reader isn't supposed to know what they're saying, what's the point in including the dialogue in the first place? You can just say they said something in Japanese. Unless it's assumed your reader knows the other language, then it adds some dramatic irony. Ofc, there's gonna be ways you can fit it in well since each situation is different, but I wouldn't add it explicitly in quotations, per se. This is coming from a semi-bilingual language nerd semi-studying to be an editor (aka, don't take it to heart bc I'm not a professional)

19. first fandom u wrote in?

Bnha. Bad, bad, bad stuff. I get chills thinking about it.

20. fav fic youve written?

Any Lilia angst, tbh. I don't even care for angst why do I always write Lilia angst istg (and it's delicious every time)

This was fun!! Hopefully it was interesting!!

I pass this game onto you, my friends :>

@unnecessarilysalty @multilevelwriter-blog

[elysianholly]

Teaser from a current unpublished WIP

So, I've decided to start writing fics in full before publishing them. But that doesn't mean I can't share snippets, right? Right. After all, I need something to post on this blog.

Unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine.

-----------------------------

Reclaimed

Timeline: Buffy Season 6

Pairing: Spuffy (obvs)

Expected Publication Date: Early 2024

-----------------------------

“I need to see you.”

Buffy pressed her eyes closed and waited for her body to do the rest. The pounding heart. The racing pulse. The sweaty palms. And the thoughts. God, the thoughts. Once those floodgates opened, it would take nothing short of an apocalypse to close them again, and she’d spend the next few weeks replaying every syllable they shared in an attempt to discern hidden meaning. The unspoken I love yous. The implied if things were differents. The flat-out false if you need me, I’ll be theres. In short, the same old Angel song and dance she’d memorized what felt like a million years ago. It was the only thing in this world that was more a certainty than death and taxes.

Well, especially more than death. Buffy couldn’t even rely on that anymore.

“Did you hear me?” came his voice again, low and intimate and Angel. “Is everything all right?”

She shocked herself by laughing. Shocked him, too, if the answering silence was any indication. But honestly, what did he expect? Yes, Angel, I’m fine. I clawed my way out of my grave and into a house that’s hemorrhaging money. My friends are in the backyard throwing out my lamp and my coffee table. There’s water in my shoes from the basement, and I just realized the only thing I want to do less than figure out my finances is see you.

Honestly, it might be worth saying all that just for the look on his face. Only, of course, she wouldn’t actually get to see the look on his face, but her imagination was pretty active these days. She could probably make do.

“Things aren’t great around here,” Buffy said instead. When in doubt, it always better to opt for the path of least resistance. The fact was she should want to see Angel. Hell, she should be halfway out the door now, careless hand-wavy excuse made to Giles, who had been right in the middle of what she was sure he’d intended to be a very rousing speech about persevering through difficulty or some other bullshit. That she’d felt nothing but a vague god, what now upon hearing Angel’s voice through the line was worrying, to say the least. Buffy had never experienced that with him. Not once. Not even when she’d been with Riley and very not-single. Some part of her had always been carved out for Angel.

It probably meant something that she didn’t feel it now. Something less than good. Just another way Buffy was broken.

“Can I help?” Angel asked. “What do you need?”

I need you to go back to thinking I’m dead.

But she didn’t say that, either. This was Angel. The one person in this stupid world that should make her heart do something other than sink. Being alive might not have been her choice but if she was going to be here, she at least wanted to feel like herself. She wanted to be Buffy. The real Buffy. Not the Buffy who was standing here, holding the phone and listening to her ex-boyfriend ask her a variation of the same questions that had been hurled her way since the great un-deadening, and with the same hollow quality in his voice that told her he didn’t expect an answer that would leave him with a to-do list.

Everyone wanted to help without actually doing anything. Everyone wanted her to know that they were there for her so she couldn’t look back at some future date and claim that they hadn’t been.

Well, almost everyone.

[dayurno]

Out of curiosity, would you ever write kerejean or some variation of it?? I've lowkey fallen for their dynamics

yEAH OF COURSE!!!!! i havent really been big on jerejean before but i lovelovelove keremy and kevjean...... i think kerejean is very interesting because theyre really complementary 🤔 but ive never been able to get into jerejean because theres not much material for it outside of hcs and wishful thinking (which is fine because those are also the prime meat of kandreil anyway)..!! nonetheless i really can see it... ive written both kevjean and keremy in the past so i'll add some snippets under the cut in case ur curious or starving since i know their ship tag is rather empty.... agh. we ought to do something about this

keremy <3

"Kevin." Kevin shifts from the other side of the couch, one of Jeremy's many USC sweatshirts engulfing his frame as he brings his knees to his chest. It's a side of Kevin Jeremy hadn't quite met up until now — with his hair tied back and his socks mismatched, he looked like he'd become one with Jeremy's dorm, his very own Palmetto souvenir. His lips are pulled into a displeased frown, more of a pout than Kevin would ever admit. He sighs before saying, "Come here." Jeremy raises an eyebrow, but doesn't wait to comply. He drops the homework he'd been pretending to do easily, sliding towards Kevin's side with a quiet question hanging from his lips. Kevin doesn't look back at him as he adjusts himself under Jeremy's arm, curling into his side by letting his head rest on Jeremy's chest. His hair smells of green apple shampoo — Jean's — and a trail of goosebumps ride up his skin as Jeremy slips a hand under his sweatshirt, gently caressing his back. "What's up, baby?" Jeremy hums, tracing imaginary circles on Kevin's back. Kevin shifts, burrowing closer, and huffs out a "Don't call me that," which neither of them believe. He pulls on Jeremy's hoodie mindlessly, bringing the fabric to his nose and nuzzling before he finally works up the courage to say, "That movie. The one we watched earlier." "What's with it?" He huffs. Jeremy raises an eyebrow. "Are you scared, baby?" "No," Kevin replies; too quick and too forceful. "I'm not scared. I'm—" he hesitates, "paranoid."

Jeremy runs his fingers down Kevin's back in thought, rubbing delicately once he reaches the spot where his back dimples begin."Hm," he says, "what can I do to help?" Kevin buries his face in the material of his hoodie. "Just shut up." Jeremy can't help it: he laughs, the rumble of it deep and low. It makes Kevin press his cheek to his neck, chasing the tremor of it, and it's so lovely Jeremy is at once taken over by endearment. "I'm here, Kevin," he teases lightly. "Andrew might be back in Palmetto, but I can still protect you just fine." His boyfriend scoffs. "You can barely throw a punch." "For you, I would learn," Jeremy solemnly promises, cupping the back of Kevin's head. "And, anyways — there is always Jean. Jean can throw a punch."

kevjean <3

Jean Moreau has been pining after Kevin Day ever since he was thirteen years old and a new recruit to the ever-feared Edgar Allen Ravens. This is as old a hat as his own old hat, a Marseilles cap that hangs from the top of Jeremy's coat rack. He knows it is a fact, and he lives with it in harmony — Jean has wanted what he cannot have for so long it does not feel like a sore wound anymore; just a tender ache. Which means that now — two years since the Nest burned, six months since he began speaking to Kevin again, five minutes since Kevin sat on his lap with a determined look on his face — he does not know what to do. Jean is a learned man, but he finds himself at loss for answers to the equation of wanting: had he perhaps wanted Kevin so bad even the idea of getting him pales in comparison? But he knows it's not quite that. His heart pounds in his chest because Kevin Day is a warm weight on top of him, his hair smelling not of the shampoo he used back in the Nest but something milder, sweeter. He has wanted this when he did not know what wanting was; when he was thirteen and holding onto the thought of a pretty smile to keep himself sane. The span of Kevin's waist is held safely in his hands, both because Jean is afraid he will fall and because he doesn't know where to put his hands. There are Trojans behind him, partying on, and he knows they must be too drunk to remember ever seeing Kevin on his lap. Kevin is sober, though. He's missing the feverish flush that comes out every time he has a drink, and his gaze is intent in a way it only is when he's sober. Crazy, then, that it is by pure unadulterated will that Kevin grips Jean's hands on his waist and uses his own to tighten their hold. Jean does not plan on thinking about that away from the privacy of his room.

[...]

He is not the person for romance, Jean quickly came to figure — when Andrew Minyard offered Kevin his entire life to do with it what he wills, all Kevin offered back was what he knew, a career in Exy and the promise of his presence. When Thea demanded a part of his life bigger than what was convenient, Kevin ended their relationship. Whatever goes on in that heart of his, it stands clear that he does not give it the time of the day. His hands slide from Kevin’s waist to his hips, resting. It pulls an uncharacteristic shiver from Kevin, and Jean frowns. "Are you cold?" He asks. Kevin shrugs. Jean starts kicking off his jacket at record speed, then wraps it around Kevin's shoulders once he can. This, his therapist tells him to stop doing. Jean has been trained to put his superiors' needs above his own, was less than human in a place where Kevin was considered number two, and he cannot quite quell the instinct to give up his comfort for Kevin's own. It is not necessarily ingrained by what he lived in the Nest anymore, but the other reason for it feels far scarier — that he loves Kevin, still, and he cannot stand to see him suffer in any capacity. That he is still the thirteen year old boy gasping at Kevin's long eyelashes from behind the security of an Exy helmet, thinking of things he cannot have from a person he cannot touch. "Jean," Kevin murmurs, mild and wispy in the cold night air.

[...]

Kevin sighs gently, offering him a cat-like glare that shows equal parts apprehension and amusement. "I'm not very good at this." "At what?" "Flirting," Kevin replies, sure enough to make Jean's mouth run dry. "I don't… I suppose if you wanted me, you would've had me years ago." Jean corrects him right away — "Years ago, I couldn't have wanted for anything. You know this." Kevin bites his lip guiltily. "I thought— I thought his death would make you… You know. Act on it. Why didn't you?" Why didn't he, indeed? Riko Moriyama's death had been a breath of fresh air in between two millennia of choking on words. It had also coincided with an all-time low moment in Kevin's life — Jean learned through pictures and rumors that the events of the year anticipating Riko’s death had killed something in Kevin he thought was invincible even in the face of unimaginable hopelessness. Jean hadn’t come to see him for an entire year, after hearing that. He did not want to have a hand in Kevin’s suffering, harbinger of doom as he is. “You misunderstand me,” Jean puts down at last. Kevin’s face falls carefully blank. “Oh,” he says, flattened into barely a whisper. “Then I’m sorry.” He makes a move to leave Jean’s lap as if the contact burned him at the presumption that it wasn’t mutually wanted, and Jean realizes his mistake before it even takes root. “No,” he protests, holding Kevin by his elbows to halt his movement. He tries to keep his grip gentle, but by the look on Kevin’s face, he’s unsure if he succeeded. “That’s not what I meant. You misunderstand what kept me from acting on it.” When Kevin says nothing, Jean continues: “You were a mess, Kevin. And you didn’t — you don’t want anyone.” Kevin’s eyebrows furrow. “You don’t know that.” “Come on, Kevin,” is all Jean can offer with a half-bitter grin. He tries to smirk, but he’s smiling. “You don’t do love. You don’t do these things. Minyard spent a year chasing after you like a puppy, barking at anyone that came close. Thea, too — a year trying to hear even a breath from you.”

[a-wild-things-rambles]

hey can i hear your thoughts on john? :)

agghhhhhhhhh. thank you!

where do i start. his story is one i know a hundred variations of, abusive fathers, absent or neglectful mothers, siblings who got out, runing away from home into the big city, finding a [fuked up]family in the punk and alternative communitys, and trying to live.

i should say that i am very biased and unrelabal about him. while i have read hellblazer im due a reread and its always overshadowed by teh real people i knows experiences? idk in my head hes just another person id meet at the pub when i visit my dads old city. a guy you her about through the grapevine doing stupid shit and getting into trouble.

another warning of how not to live a life in a long parade. the fuked up sudo- uncle who's to old to change his ways and stop his bad habits.

which is a long way to say i have a personal stake in his story. im not john but i am gemma, im the second generation, growing up to see all the cracks in the so called freedom the previous generation fled to.

guilt. so much of it. the dead and the living. those you left behind. drowning in guilt, the only solution drowning yourself in apathy. then drowning un guilt all over again in atonement. self harm and self sabotage are his bywords. hurt someone cause thats all you can do then hate yourself for it.

john absolutely plays the 'my life is shittyer' game. and he hates being proven wrong. he has to be one of the worst off. because if there are people who have it worse then hes just a crybaby isnt he? lifes tough, get over it. man up. dont cry, you have it good compared to some people.

he hates it. like a lot of city white punks, he has a complicated relationship when it comes to people who suffer more than him. he will fight for them but he wont be nice about it. he gets petty about it

hes got the basics down: but its the basics, the surface level shit. he probably has more racist and sexist preconceptions than he'd like to admit. hes flawed. whats theory or any of that? he learns politics through music, and its not exactly well balanced. hes a white queer punk in the 80s. hes still better than alot of them.

it sums up to: he aint unlearned the shit. he knows its bad, but he hasnt fully unlearned it. [again. white punk in england in the 80s.]

violence. this man is good at picking fights with a look. eventually people learn to steer clear, but theres always enough wankers who are up for a fight.

his father beat him, and so have many others, so if he wins a fight, it makes him feel 'more like a man' or as he'd say it, tough. remember what i said about knowing shits bad but not unlearning it. yea. if he loses: he gets the punishment he feels he deserves, and the fodder for his self hatred about being weak.

double standards a-plenty. a cycle of ego and beatings and guilt and self sabotage.

hes bitter and hes stubborn and hes nasty.

alcoholic to [not that he'd say], and a smoker. grew out of drugs but messed around with them plenty in the past. now he dont like feeling out of control in that way.

he'll still get wasted though [not an alcoholic mind. probrably only phycologicaly addicted]

old dog who cant learn knew tricks. brittle metal, its bent some, but it cant anymore or it will shatter.

hes better than his father. but hes not good

hes self-aware enough to not want kids, not delusional enough to think hes managed to unlearn the shit his father gave him. better that his bloodline dies with him. better that he doesn't get the chance to fuck up.

end it, or sabotage it before he can be shown to be who he is. fuck up everything good because you might as well have control over when it falls apart. cause it will anyway. you hurt whoever you touch.

your cursed john.

a cursed bloodline. whats another way of saying generational trauma?

he hates his stister for leaving, he hates himself for keeping her there, he hates himself for hating her for leaving.

cause everyone leaves him, dont they?

hates gemma for her curiosity. hates her for her interest in his fuked up life. hates her for not hating him[yet]. hates himself hor hating how much better her home is than his was.

hates is sisters husband. hates that his sister wont leave him[hates that hes glad. if she started kicking out of her life the people bad for her. well hed be fuked]

hate. guilt. hate. self sabotage.

hes a messed up guy :)

[boypussydilf]

I'm going to throw you a curve ball and say Sherly and that one guy whose name I don't remember who you ship him with (I think it's Soseki?)

idont know how to say this without unintentionally sounding mean but this is the second funniest ask ive ever gotten. (i was going to say funniest, but i cant lie even for comedic purposes- the funniest ask ive ever gotten was “shouldve KNOWN an AKESHU shipper would RIP MY THROAT OUT IN PUBLIC for mentioning shusumi”) i got curious and looked at all the relationship tags for dgs on ao3 until the site wouldnt let me anymore and i can almost conclusively say tht no one on this earth ships sherlock and souseki, which, to be honest, is kind of a surprise. on my journey i learned just how dire the state of the dgs ao3 relationship tags really are. i hadnt looked that hard, and i had thought, “oh, woe is me, only about 200 of these are homumiko” There are less than 30 with the susahao tag. theres like, a Small Handful of fics with kazuma interacting w iris or yuujin. This is. This is awful. Someone needs to fix this. What’s wrong with you people? You could have filled this website with one hundred Kazuma Asougi Gets Forcibly Absorbed Into The Greatest Family fics and you’re still asobaroing away? Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Anyway it’s completely understandable to mix up souseki and mikotoba when you havent seen a ton of them they do both . have mustaches. thank you for thr ask and also for always calling him Sherly bc its cute here we go

describe their canon relationship/dynamic

*putsmy head in my hands* they have like 2 hours of screentime interacting its hard to describe a dynamic beyond “God they are so mean to each other”. its ok though. Its ok. the concept is very clear honestly. World’s Most Hyperactive and Completely Insane Man & Completely Normal Guy Who Goes Along With It. Oh My God They Were Roommates. lets see. serious notes. they trust each other completely and implicitly (mikotoba has to find a good home for The Baby He Was GOING To Raise But CAN’T and asks sherlock and he IMMEDIATELY agrees On The Spot my god ……) look . what do u call devotion if not saying “our home” about a place youve been away from longer than u ever lived at and thought youd never even see again & acting like you were never separated in the first place. Unreal. unreal.

anyway the fact of the matter is theyre literally just another variation on the Holmes & Watson concept go read an acd sherlock holmes story and imagine if they were ace attorney characters and idk i think youd more or less have it

your ideal/headcanon version of it? how does it differ from how it is in canon & why is this your favorite version? any other alternate versions of it you enjoy?

*pulls out my giant conspiracy board and 90% of it is just screenshots of fanfic The Legendary Pair by Meowzy on AO3* IF YOU LOOK AT IT. THE NOT-REALLY-INDICATED-BY-CANON BUT MORE FUN AND COOL TO ME VERSION OF IT. it makes this A Necessary Relationship. sherlock is. smart in Some places. definitely observant. But has. 0 common sense. you would think hes never been to this planet before with his apparent complete lack of frame of reference for what is or is not plausible or likely. there is too much shit going on in his brain for him to figure out which ideas are Actually Likely without taking like 2 days to work it out. Give him someone who actually has common sense and can crossreference What Sherlock Has Actually Noticed And Figured Out with What Actual Human Beings Generally Would Do.

OHGOD MAYBE I CAN TRY TO ELABORATE IN A MORE SERIOUS TONE ON MY FUCKING “YUUJIN MIKOTOBA SILLY ARC” POST. GOD. what im attempting to drive at is thinking abt . the idea proposed of 16-years-ago sherlock being more of a prickly little bitch and, Much More Importantly, mikotoba going to britain to try and escape the Grief Of Losing His Wife & subsequent Depression That Made Him Unfit To Take Care Of His Baby . and then theyre . again, worlds most hyperactive and completely insane man, and, again, GUY WHO TAP DANCES DURINVG INVESTIGATIONS ?!!!!?!???????????

basically fuck you *gives you by chance a fundamentally life altering friendship right when you need it*

Anyway i dont think theyre that different in my head than in canon but its hard to say.

what do you like about their relationship, why is it interesting or enjoyable to you?

i like it because i think they are neat. i like it bc i love families and fuck dude they sure do have one. i like it bc i am a dgs sherlock holmes kinnie and this drives my behavior,

what about the individual characters involved? what does this relationship mean to them, what makes it unique among their relationships?

*SCREAMS* BESTIES. anyway,

sorry for once again saying serious concepts in the dumbest fucking ways possible but Pov u are yuujin mikotoba age 26 leaving ur home to try and run away from the deepest pain of ur life & deciding not to stick with ur very close friends uve known for quite a while as you do so? For some reason? AND IT WORKS ???????????? in some part bc of this weirdo freak u moved in with impulsively who keeps almost blowing the fucking house up?

This is basically something i already said in this post earlier and i STILL . cant think of an actual good way to say it. I guess just . as many people on this blog may have noticed. me wh. me when stories involve the way positive connections with others help people <3

Also basically the only 2 reactions sherlock seems to invoke in people are “this guys insufferable” and “this guys insufferable but i also admire him” - god the trajectory of this train of thought just changed drastically im laughing so hard Bear with me . mikotoba is of course in th second camp bc thats where all sherlocks Positive relationships are. this is known to us. see: thr dialogue where hes like “Well your methods are unusual but ive always been willing to try them :)” (and then sherlock yells at him for being stupid.) anyway thats wonderful and its also Wonderful. mikotoba shortly after meeting sherlock watching this man rip up a handful of grass an d just eat it and then solve an entire mystery and mikotoba has to work out if this guys a genius or insane. He quickly realizes it is both. Anyway i guess to yuujin mikotoba sherlock holmes is his dear friend and partner & also the guy who cursed him to occasionally think “i DO wonder what that grass tastes like” at inopportune times

I don’t know WHAT the fuck i just rambled about for like ten minutes. So anyhow. sherlock describes mikotoba as “the only person i could truly call a friend” so shoutout to this friendless man i guess . no but literally hes a little weirdo freak and people dont tend to. like him. societal perceptions of ND people are not conducive to sherlock holmes having close friends . (Also he might not be. or might at some point not have been. particularly social in the first place - But this is my extrapolation based on acd canon and nothing in dgs at all so it cant be counted as anything other than my female hysteria.) and like. epic win for him finding someone who can Tolerate Him Enough To Live With Him and not just that but like . Actually Likes Him. Actually Likes Being Around Him And Would Like To Be His Friend. Congrats! also a win 4 him having like, a normal human being around. who can keep track of him and yknow. Help him remember important things. make sure he actually sleeps and eats instead of spending 42 hours straight trying to make The Sequel To Toasters (It’s Also A Juicer!)

favorite interaction they have in canon

oh,my god you know the thing is theres not a Lot of them but what there is is Really Good Actually.

on one hand we have the shit from the legendary pair scene like “:/ only JAPANESE mice go Chu. make a RUSSIAN mouse noise” or “YOUR BIRTHDAY? THATS FUNNY BC AS OF TODAY YOURE DEAD TO ME :D” “measured as always.” On the other hand we have the part from the scene after the last trial where sherlock thanks mikotoba for leaving iris in his care.

Basically i dont know how to decide. im going to say the Other part of the scene after the last trial where sherlock is excitedly telling mikotoba a story about something he did. With mikotoba. like a day before. and mikotoba lets him get through thr whole fucking thing before going Yeah i was. i was there.

favorite interaction they have in your head/a situation you want to put them in

OH GOD I DONT KNOW ACTUALLY. what is there to say beyond the Default List Of Every Homumiko Fans Shared Interests. its all been done. “Remember That Time They Raised A Baby Together For A Month”; “Have You Heard Of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? Great Here’s My Adaptation-“; “Put That Beast (Sherlock) In Japan LOL”. i will say that like. i dont remember where but theres some tiny bit of optional dialogue where iris says that sherlock playing the violin was a detail she wrote into the stories for fun and then after that he felt obligated to actually learn. i think a lot of people dont know this or dont use this. which is fine its a tiny random one off line i wouldnt even be able to track down. and a lot of people have the order of events go sherlock has violin -> mikotoba learns to tap dance, Look another musical thing matchy matchy :) . which again is FINE. BUT. isnt the other order of events - the order that it’s only reasonable to assume is canon - more fun ? Sherlock goes HEY GUESS WHAT I LEARNED VIOLIN NOW WE CAN MAKE MUSIC TOGETHER. He has not seen mikotoba in person in 9 years

thats the end of the post thank you i like the dads

[autisticseaserpent]

I watched the first episode of extraordinary attorney woo. Here are my thoughts.

1. The set up with her as a kid is the worst most tropey part of the show. Though I would say keep watching it gets better. They do rely on the autistic genius trope a bit much. Like they could do the same premise with the law is a special interest and she’s really smart. Even setting that up in childhood makes sense. Rather than she has a photographic memory and her first words when she’s 5 are multiple complete sentences from a law book. (tis a stretch) Otherwise they got a lot of things right with the acting. The actress that plays her as a child did a good job. The details with the visual stimming and the autism shuffle and the trampoline were chef’s kiss. Someone did their research.

2. So when we first see her as an adult. All the whales in her room are a+. The other tropey thing that bothered me the most is the having to have everything perfectly straight thing. Where does that come from? Pretty much every autistic person I know is a bit of a mess, including myself. It’s a recurring gag so you won’t escape it watching this show. Seriously does anyone know a neurodivergent person like that? But they get the details right once again she sleeps with earplugs in and wears headphones when out and about and her Dad cut off the tag on her jacket and when she goes down the stairs she does the going down them one at a time thing.

3. Seriously, the actress playing Woo did a fantastic job. She got so many things right. I never got the sense that anything was exaggerated. She genuinely read as autistic to me. The fact that the her performance embraces the awkward (with a female main character. In media it’s so easy for female characters to get stuck in a cute or sexy box and she’s just allowed to be awkward). That her autism is conveyed in how she moves and that she is always moving. In a lot of media the default is to portray autistic characters as stiff and unmoving. Literally, a couple of months ago I was watching the thanksgiving day parade and they had a sesame street musical number. And I was watching the autistic character they have and got a sense that something was off and then it hit me. All the other puppets were doing their cartoony idle animations to the music and the autistic puppet was barely moving. Which in my experience is the opposite of how autistic people convey that they’re enjoying things. She really nailed how autistic people express their emotions through movement. The autistic eye contact, I’ve never seen someone get that right. a. she never makes “proper eye contact” with anyone. Not her love interest or her dad b. There’s variation in how much she looks at people depending on how comfortable she is. When she’s interacting with her boss theres times where she’s not looking at him at all and she’s generally looks towards her dad when talking to him. Which is how it’s been for me. Seriously this is the first time I’ve seen how I move and interact with people actually on television.

4. They got special interests and infodumping right. They got same foods right. They got struggling with simple things like revolving doors right. I definitely did the same thing when I was a kid of just repeatedly coming out where I came in. (the adult version is having to unlock something as part of your job.) Which is something that I haven’t seen done with your typical stiff white guy autistic characters and I don’t know why because it is a good comedy set up.

5. Literally how people react to her at work is every experience I’ve ever had at a job. I’ve been in the awkward situation of basically I have to disclose otherwise I’ll just get dinged more for it. I’ve had people who hadn’t even see me with clients prejudge me as incompetent because of it. How her coworkers think either she’s a dumbass or faking it, oof, that’s close to home.

So in conclusion, it’s good, watch it!