#you really really have to have a compelling af plot to keep me there

[riderofblackdragons]

Day 2 - Paralytic Drug

Another one in the Experiments in Blood au! I am playing fast and loose with these prompts tbh, and ive realised that the last time i wrote proper angst i was both unmedicated and therefore depressed af, so this month might not actually be all the whumpy lol

Hope you enjoy!

Tonight was the night. All three vampires knew it, could feel the anticipation. Tonight they were getting out of here - or at least, Damon was. Both Kol and Enzo had passed Damon their shares of blood for the past year, even as Damon had tried to refuse Kol’s. And now, a year on, it was the New Year’s party for the Augustine Society.

One of them, most likely Damon as he’d been the best behaved the past month or so, would be brought upstairs, and paraded around like a puppet. Escape would be easiest there, with so many humans gathered, and only a single ankle chain and the threat of punishment to keep him from it.

It was carefully plotted, of course. Kol and Enzo also wished to escape, and Damon was to come back down after them when he’d finished off the guards and scientists upstairs. They’d carefully planned to be rowdy and uncooperative with their jailers, to make Damon seem like the best option for this party.

They only knew if it had worked, or not, when the night of the party itself came. The guards came, and for a second it seemed as thought they were going to pick Kol anyways, who was nearly grey with how little blood he’d gotten over the past year.

Desiccation, as he’d told them, would be setting in soon after the party, if he didn’t get enough blood in time. Death would follow, but it was a death the ordinary vampire could wake up from, and so definitely wouldn’t harm him in the long term.

In the short term, well… That depended on what the scientists did to him whilst he was still desiccated, and therefore unable to properly heal himself until he got more blood.

Thankfully, their plan when off without a hitch, Enzo watching as Damon was, in the end, chosen for his good behaviour, their captors not even once considering that they could possibly be smart enough to orchestrate anything like this. If all went well, they wouldn’t realise until they were dying, staring up at their former victims in their last moments.

And then, all of a sudden, it all went wrong.

It was the typical New Year’s party. Random members of the Augustine Society milled around, some having the guts to come up to Damon and have a proper look. Some even had a private conversation with Dr Whitmore, standing close by Damon, ready to show off his prize to anyone who asked.

The problem was one of the men who did so.

“You’ll stay here and be good for me, won’t you?” The man, nearly unrecognisable from the other suit-wearing men in the room, peered into Damon’s eyes, and the vampire could almost swear he was being compelled. “Not cause any trouble?”

It sounded like a question, but both knew it wasn’t really one. This man was no different to the rest, even asking Dr. Whitmore about observing in his experiments.

No! Damon screamed into his mind.

There was no way he wanted this man anywhere near him, and he desperately hoped that the doctor would refuse him. But luck was not on Damon’s side, and the doctor agreed. At that moment, Damon knew he had to be getting out of there, before this man came back the next day and helped slice him open. Or worse, slice open one of Damon’s fellow captives. There was just something about him that gave Damon a bad feeling, and he was somewhat used to listening to his gut feelings.

It felt worse, when he tried to move, to lunge at this off-putting man. Damon’s eyes widened in panic, his mind urging the rest of him to do anything. But his body didn’t repsond, instead staying completely still, as though he was paralysed.

His mind flashed back to the words the man had said. Stay here and be good drifted across his ind. Don’t cause any trouble.

In front of him, the man hummed in delight, as if he knew that Damon was trying to break free. He straightened his jacket lapels a little, smiling as the doctor discussed him coming back to the lab the next.

He did move on, finally, when his name was called by one of the other members of the society, and he politely excused himself with another indescribable look at Damon. As his shoes clicked on the floor away from him, Damon tried to commit the name to memory. Elias, they’d called him.

He’d have to tell the others, later. When the party was over, and he had to deliver the news that he’d failed at escaping.

[teaveetamer]

i read through a lot of your analyses and i still can't tell what some of your stances are, but i just wanted to know how much you agree with my own stances on edelgard and dimitri/3H.

3H is obviously not a well thought-out political treatise on the ramifications of war and different styles of political change. it just isn't. it ends far too quickly and is too simplistic to ever be anything similar.

what 3H is incredible at is character writing. this is why i simply don't understand why people "hate" edelgard OR dimitri. neither of these people are saints. they've both done horrific things. but they both portray trauma in such fascinating and complex ways that you rarely see in videogames. the parallels they have and the way they see the world are just so compelling to me that i actually avoid finishing CF/SS/AM because it always leaves me feeling so emotional afterward and sometimes i just want a nice comfort game.

that being said, i do take issue with the way dimitri's arc resolves. i think it's extremely unrealistic how he just "snapped out" of his intense mental problems. as someone who has also struggled with mental health, it's a very slow process and often it feels like one step forward, two steps back. i wish that they had left his recovery a lot more incomplete, or that the game had lasted longer so his recovery felt more organic.

this is why i prefer edelgard purely as a character because i think the way she represses her emotions completely and is slowly corrupted by her inability to trust or love herself is a story that makes a lot more sense to me.

I'm not sure in which respects my stances are unclear, but I'm always happy to clarify if you just ask! Keep in mind that this blog is like three years old at this point so if you go back far enough you'll probably find contradicting things, as my opinions have developed and changed over the years. So if that's the problem just assume the most recent stuff is the most accurate.

I will say that while 3H can have some very good character moments, I also think it's incredibly disappointing in a lot of ways. The plot, writing, and worldbuilding being so messy just doesn't give the characters a good foundation to stand on, so character moments often come across extremely hollow to me.

I could name countless examples but I think the most obvious one that everyone picks up on is Gronder Field. First, we're told that this is extremely sad and difficult for all of the characters involved, despite never or almost never seeing the students from different houses interact with each other at any point during the main story. If you don't recruit then it's entirely possible to go the entire Academy portion of the game without seeing a single cross-house interaction beyond the house leaders.

They all point to the feast they had after the battle of Eagle and Lion in the Academy part, but that happens entirely off screen. It's not even really described beyond "it was fun" and "we were all sitting together". Emblem Claude in Engage gives a better idea of what happened there than 3H ever does. A piece of DLC for a completely different game in the series describes what is supposed to be a key interaction better than the game it was actually from!

And then you actually get there and it's contrived AF. There's literally no reason for the BL and GD to be fighting each other at any point but they all kill each other anyway. There's no fog of war. Characters will even recognize each other before they fight and then continue fighting each other anyways despite having absolutely no reason to?

And then it just ends and we're all told to feel very sad about it, but why should we? It's not earned. These characters don't know each other or care about each other, most of them weren't even on opposite sides. It comes across as feeling dumb and unearned, which makes the characters reacting to it completely 100% straight as if it were this huge but unavoidable tragedy come off as confusing and overwrought.

Edelgard's writing as an entire other can of worms that I've gotten into too many times to count, so I'll try to keep this short.

I'll preface this by saying I don't have a problem with people liking or relating to Edelgard in any way. Also, just because something has problems doesn't mean you can't have found meaning in it. I can tell you really enjoy the character anon, and that's great! I wouldn't want to take that away from you.

Buuuuuut since I'm giving my opinion here... I don't agree with her being a well written depiction of trauma. I feel like, especially now, the fandom tends to engage with the Edelgard we all wanted instead of the one we actually got.

Again I'll use a specific example (well actually two) to illustrate my point.

It's hard to take her trauma seriously when it's immediately undercut by her doodling pictures of her crush, getting embarrassed about it, and getting teased. This happens twice. They do this twice! Once in the explore section immediately after Ladislava and Randolph literally die right in front of her, and once after you could have potentially killed Claude and she's talking about being locked in a fucking dungeon!

Like it blows my mind that more people don't talk about this, especially the latter example. You have just potentially killed someone. She's sitting there. Talking about being locked in a dungeon, tortured, and experimented on. And then your character's reaction is to tease her for doodling a picture of you. And they did this two times, so it's not like it was an accident!

So like how am I supposed to read this, exactly? Either the entire scene is bunk and you're not really meant to take the trauma portion seriously, it's all just a big joke, or... or you're supposed to find teasing someone going through a genuine trauma response endearing and enjoyable..? It's just. I've been looking at this scene and the numerous other Edelgard scenes like it and I just don't get there. I don't understand how to read this in a way that isn't incredibly belittling or sexist or SEVERELY undercutting what should be a serious character moment.

But people want it to be this serious, well-written character moment for her. I don't blame anyone for that, because that's what I would have wanted too! But it's just... it's so crazy disrespectful on every level, to treat a female character's trauma like it's a funny quirk or an opportunity to flirt/tease? I can damn well guarantee that no male character would be treated with that amount of disrespect, and we know that because Dimitri exists and at no point is his trauma ever played for a joke or undercut like this! It's not perfectly written, but it's written with respect to the subject and the character.

There's an absurd degree of sexism baked into the writing of 3H that just doesn't get addressed by the fandom at large, so I kind of find it frustrating.

And worse, sometimes when you try to engage with that and critique it you're shouted down or treated as if you are the problem, like I somehow spoke the sexism of the game into existence just by pointing it out.

I could go on but I'll cut myself off here

[theidiotwhowritesthings]

Just read the Inevitable update and I’m obsessed all over again!! Each chapter just keeps getting better 🥹 I’m glad the reader character grabbed you by the collar and said bitch nah coz I am COMPELLED and I love the character and everything 😂❤️ could I be added to that tag list as well? Lol and really any mandalorian fic you write I would love to be tagged in 😬 thanks! Love you byeee

STOP YOU'RE MAKING ME BLUSH.

Thank you so so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying it. (And absolutely I'll put you on the taglist).

I'm also going to use this time to publicly announce my to-do list so I can fucking get my shit together lolol. I've been so lazy the last few days and it's mostly b/c work has been so crazy that by time I get home I just crash. But good news/bad news, I'm ✨sick✨. I think I caught one of the viral bugs floating around here. Which means that I'm gonna be stuck at home with my laptop getting shit done (good news) but there is a solid chance anything I write is mildly nonsensical from cold meds (bad news). Guess we'll find out!!

Next chapter of Inevitable. This gets priority since I need to update it on Monday lol.

Work on the next chapter for AFS. This won't be as hard, and will probably be the last thing I do this weekend if I get to it b/c it's already half done. #19 was supposed to be longer but I split it in half so.

I have a comfort drabble I'm working on that I want to finish today (and ideally post today at some point). I've been slacking on my drabbles for y'all so I'm gonna try to get some out.

Maybe work on my original manuscript that I haven't touched in like a week ??????

I wanna work on the next chapter of Seven Days, just b/c I'm seriously craving cowboy!Din again. (and b/c i accidentally over complicated my plot so now I'm super excited to write it all out)

Maybe write another AFS deleted scene? I guess that counts as a drabble.

And, if time willing, I think I wanna branch out into the world of Joel Miller. I have been craving that man like an addict looking for a hit (also side note to the anon who asked for the TLOU inspired drabble surrounding Din, it absolutely will be done b/c I'm obsessed with the scene you brought up I'm just slow).

ANYHOO, I'll be on and off tumblr all day long while writing so message me things. Any of the things. ALL of the things. Let's chat!

[gloriousmonsters]

N and Z 👀

Alright we got to deep cut for the N, to a story I wrote a partial draft of... more than 6 years ago?? But it's got a core to it that compels me, so I really want to get back to it someday. Anyway: Nadia, the main character of The Princess Wish (don't @ me about this 6+ year old working title). When she was eight, she encountered a fairy and wished to be a princess. Unfortunately, the fairy was an eldritch asshole, and it made her a princess in another (fantasy) world, in a kingdom experiencing a revolution that quickly gets her killed.

And she gets reborn as a princess in another fantasy world. Aaand another. Essentially, by the time of the book she's been killed and rebirthed seven times, is very traumatized and scattered due to juggling multiple lives' worth of memories, and bc of excessive court intrigue she's a very suspicious person. She tries to stay emotionally detached, but has a weakness for the few decent dads she's had; she also winds up involved in some kind of flirtation with a hot girl in every recent life, although it rarely goes far (mainly because she has terrible taste in women and they keep betraying her for political reasons). She's stubborn af and tends to assume she's right about everything, which she never is ♥. anyway i need to get back to putting her through convoluted plot twists and emotional turmoil someday

I have exactly 1 character whose name starts with a Z lol; Zella from The Devil Doesn't Live Here, a significant side character. She was a popular mean girl in high school in a very weird way (she lives in a very weird town) but cut off her former friend group and lost favor with her church when her boyfriend dies under mysterious 'last seen in an argument with her and a local weird boy with an unsettling connection to the local woods' circumstances. All grown up, she now runs her family's funeral home, is kinky FWB with weird woods boy, and practices taxidermy in her spare time. Can you believe she was originally a throwaway character from draft 2

[vermillioncrown]

"you have maybe... too much logic in there"

"i was intimidated by your definitions"

"i can tell you did the homework, but i just want the answer"

"as a notorious math-hater, i was actually excited to finally get to the math"

"you've covered your ass, alright. no one coming after your life for this thesis"

"put 'read the document' in your vocabulary"

[kdramakitty]

tumblr should be obsessed with City of Streamer and here’s why

(aka please come join me in my newest obsession)

I’m normally not one to recommend shows while they’re on air but I need more people to be obsessed with this show so we can all scream about it together. This show is really good (so far) and I definitely think people should check it out. I binged-watched the 12 episodes out last weekend and just caught up with the rest of it. In brief, it’s a historical romance drama set in 1920s China where a woman enters a family posing as a governess BUT *gasp* she’s actually there to spy on them and cause their downfall. It’s got a fantastic ship with tropes we all love: (1) a spy falling in love with her target

(2) enemies to lovers (less so on his end, though he’s suspicious and antagonistic towards her initially; but he’s definitely her enemy)

(3) male lead staring at the female lead with puppy eyes 75% of the time (also they have amazing chemistry in general)

(4) //angst// as we see the male lead become more like his father that the female lead despises

(5) even more //angst// about how much she’s manipulating him and how everything is going to go to hell later (I’m so excited!)

The female lead is also smart AF, which I appreciate. Oftentimes a show will tell you that a female lead is smart, but then she ends up acting kinda dumb. Not in this show (so far). She comes up with good plans, is quick on her feet, great at not getting caught, and manipulates her way out of sticky situations. While she does have a compassionate heart, she’s still using the people she’s spying on for her own ends. She isn’t wishy washy; she’s determined to reach her goals, which involve destroying this family.

(The above screenshot is from a plan where she keeps changing the clock to make people think it’s different times so she has an alibi. It’s simple but clever!)

I’m honestly kind of surprised that I like pretty much every character (not that they’re all good people, but I think they’re interesting and well-written). I find many of them multifaceted, and I like how the women get to voice how powerless they are and the things they have to do to try to stay afloat. The romance takes up much of the screen time, but the rest of the plot is good as well. There is some good drama between members of the male lead’s family, the female lead’s family is also compelling (I like her brother a whole lot!), and the spy and revenge shenanigans are fun.

The costumes and sets are also fantastic. I have never watched a Chinese Republican-era historical drama before and I like the aesthetic.

So, come hop on board this absolutely crack-tastic show! I’m super addicted and dying while waiting in between episodes.

[viscountessevie]

I was turned off from the hype of Brigerton early on (idk I wasn't feeling it) but I've been seeing gif sets of Kate and Anthony and I'm kind of obsessed. Would I need to watch season 1 for me to get it or can i skip right into season 2 for the kathony canon content?

Ohmygod hello! I'm so flattered you regard my opinion highly enough to ask me about this! Honestly you're so valid and I'm SO happy that Kathony is drawing in people who were never interested in Bridgerton before S2 dropped. More under the cut because as always this got LONG: 

Okay so this is tricky and really depends what you're into as a romance fan? S1 is about Simon and Daphne and they are a fake dating trope which was really fun and wholesome to watch! S2 is of course Kate and Anthony and they are PEAK Enemies to Lovers and are very HOT. While the romances each season are stand alone - S1 does have a storyline for Anthony which acts as a prequel for his story in S2 I'll talk more about later in this post. 

Honestly as much as I adore Kathony but their season was all over the place as a cohesive story - at times it felt like I was watching two different shows because there was an annoying plotline that didn't connect to the main story and romance AT ALL. (Honestly I always skip their scenes on my rewatch feel free to do the same).

It was shit as an adaptation which is why I'm currently an S2 hater like I love the Kathony of it all but the rest of the season can get fucked - and its mainly because I'm a huge fan of their book. So I would recommend just watching S2 and then reading their book for more of their scenes together - for all her flaws Julia Quinn really FED US with the Kathony content. Also Kate's family is featured more and they are so wholesome! Kate even gets a fully fleshed out backstory (minor spoiler but we were robbed of that in the show) My friend did that and she said the book after watching S2 first felt like a comfort cos you got more scenes. Whereas a book reader, we felt robbed of a lot of pivotal book scenes.

If you have the time and are up for it, I would definitely recommend watching S1 because it was a solid adaptation of Book 1 and Anthony's arc in it is so compelling - yes he was a dick and everyone thought he was annoying af (not me though I've always loved my hot mentally ill eldest sibling clown) but really it's a shield to protect himself from his past trauma - no spoilers but it gets covered in S2! So to see his development from S1 to S2 is very satisfying if you want the whole picture.

Simon and Daphne are cute until their main conflict which was pretty fucked up and going to try to keep it vague but spoilers for S1EP6 at timestamps 47:15 to 49:40 there's a sex scene that turns into an assault at 48:50 and it just soured the rest of the series for me because the perpetrator never atones for their actions. If that's a trigger for you I would suggest just skip that scene all together and come up with a conflict of your own for the couple lmao.

Other than the SA, it was a pretty solid first season, a good introduction to the main family and characters and a cohesive story, the side plots actually worked and the main characters were actually connected to most of them so it didn't feel as disconnected.

Storytelling aspect aside, I will say Kathony is the superior couple just because Simone Ashley and Jonathan Bailey have INSANE CHEMISTRY and that's what you're seeing in the gifs so I'm not surprised you're hooked! And honestly ignoring the issues I had with the season itself, all their scenes are HOT and amazing and I love these two fucked up clowns in love so much.

Do let me know if you end up watching it and what you think of the show! Honestly if you would just prefer reading, then I recommend just reading the books only (Kathony's book is Book 2 named The Viscount Who Loved Me) I wouldn't bother with the show (it's slowly becoming my new PJO movies/ATLA live action)

[southsidestory]

I’m in a Hunger Games mood, so I’m gonna give y’all my unasked for reviews of each book (while unapologetically wearing my Everlark glasses). Here we go!

In terms of plain quality as a novel, The Hunger Games wins for me. It’s so tightly plotted, the world building is immersive, the conflicts are compelling, and I love how focused the story is on Katniss and Peeta.

In the later books the world opens up, we meet so many more characters, and Katniss’s other relationships—with Gale, with Haymitch, with her mother, with Prim, with the other victors—are explored in greater depth. Which is awesome! But I love the (forced) intimacy that the 74th Games creates for Everlark. It’s complicated and messy and absolutely fascinating. What’s more, it expertly sets up the central challenges that Katniss and Peeta will deal with in the rest of the trilogy.

Catching Fire is the book I enjoyed reading most. First, because Finnick Odair is one of my all-time favorite characters, and definitely my fave in THG series. I love how Katniss has all these negative assumptions about Finnick and many of the other victors, but getting to know them forces her to accept that they’re just flawed, complicated people surviving their trauma, exactly like her.

The clock arena was a brilliant and brutal idea, and the ending was such a WTF moment that I immediately dove into Mockingjay afterward.

Best of all, we get maximum doses of Everlark all through this book. The bedsharing on the train. Peeta illustrating the plant book for Katniss. Their sunset scene on the rooftop of the Training Center. So much Everlark goodness that it’s practically a banquet.

The only major flaw I can lay at Catching Fire’s door is that the concept of sending Katniss and Peeta back into the arena feels a little contrived. BUT the execution is excellent so I’ll happily forgive that.

And then there’s Mockingjay. Which I’m going to spend too much time talking about sorrynotsorry.

I have what I suspect may be some unpopular opinions regarding the third book. First, I actually really liked Mockingjay, and I think a lot of Everlark fans don’t?

I understand why! Katniss spends a large portion of the book separated from Peeta, and when she finally gets him back... well, we all know how that turns out. However, while those things are difficult to read, I think they’re good narrative choices. During Peeta’s captivity, we finally get to see the depth of Katniss’s feelings for him. She doesn’t realize it, but her love is astoundingly obvious. Her longing for him is palpable—which is what makes their reunion all the more heartbreaking.

Peeta getting highjacked is so tragic, but imo the book needed it. Up until this point, Peeta is a beacon of goodness. Certainly he has flaws, but Katniss doesn’t really see them, and to some extent she takes his love for granted. The highjacking destroys all of that. While it’s painful to read, it’s also really fucking interesting. And it takes Katniss’s grudge against Snow to a new level. What he did to Peeta is beyond unforgivable, and after it happens, she is out for blood. Peeta’s excruciatingly slow recovery keeps the reader on tenterhooks, wondering, Will he get better? Will he regain his love for Katniss? Will he ever be the Peeta I know and love again? It’s A+ conflict with high af stakes.

But perhaps what I loved most about Mockingjay is the characterization and story lines for the other victors. Haymitch’s involuntary sobriety, and the possibly even less enjoyable role as the resident Katniss Whisperer lol. Finnick airing all of Snow’s dirty laundry, even though it means revealing that he’s a rape survivor to a public that has been slut shaming him for years. Johanna’s morphling addiction and severe PTSD, and how she and Katniss finally find common ground.

Now for the things I *didn’t* like about Mockingjay.

#1 is unsurprisingly Finnick’s death. It happens in such a horrible way, and I think Collins chose to do it because she knew that Finnick dying would hurt the worst, not because it serves the story best. Prim’s death is gutting, but it’s narratively necessary. Finnick’s death is for shock value.

The pods scattered throughout the Capitol is a horrible idea. That makes no goddamn sense. It’s clearly only there for the “Welcome to the 76th Annual Hunger Games” line and all that it entails, which is not a good enough reason. Katniss and Peeta have already been through the arena twice, they don’t need to trod through a knock-off arena in the last book. It’s repetitive, and unlike the Quarter Quell, it’s not executed well enough to overcome how contrived it is.

I’ve got other gripes, namely all the Galeniss moments. But I will freely admit that it’s because they’re a NOTP, not because those scenes are unnecessary or poorly done. On the contrary, they’re very necessary and very well done. I just don’t like them lol

But then there’s the ending to Mockingjay. It’s perfect. It concludes on exactly the right note. The ending recognizes the longevity of Peeta and Katniss’s trauma, as well as the cost of war, but it still wraps everything up on a hopeful note. After three books full of death and destruction, Katniss and Peeta are allowed to find peace and recovery. It’s as happy of an ending as books like these can possibly have, and it’s 1000% earned. No small feat.

From an Everlark perspective, I could not be more pleased with the end. I’m sure all I have to say is the word “Real” for everyone to understand why. Collins stuck the landing like Simone Biles on floor, and I have great respect for that.

Tagging @awhiskeyriver @rosegardeninwinter @muttpeeta and @badnovels because you’re all wonderful writers and I’m really curious about your opinions. I’m not expecting or looking for perfect agreement—and in fact, I’d love to hear other perspectives! Even if you think I’m dead wrong 😂

[gunshou]

oh man i can't even choose which questions from that meme to send you lmao. how about 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, and 19?

Ok, so for the sake of memes, we'll assume my fandom is just Bucky Barnes and not the larger MCU, because that's the truth.

Get a glass of water, because the waters ahead are salty af.

salty ask list

1. What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get? Winterspider. I can see Peter hero-crushing over Bucky, and Bucky being sort of bemused and flattered, but Peter is a teenager and adult Bucky would never. Aside from the fact they have almost nothing in common experience-wise (and Bucky has supertanker-sized buckets of trauma) Bucky wants a man, not a kid who can't even buy a beer. (TBH, shipping Peter with any adult freaks me the fuck out, sorry. I get why people do it, but it squicks me hardcore.)

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP? I really don't like reading Winterwidow. I know Bucky and Nat are a canon love affair in the comics (which I don't read), but if I'm gonna imagine any woman in Bucky Barnes' bed, it's gonna be me.

7. Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now? When I first jumped in less than a year ago, I was enjoying a fic that DID-style separated the Winter Soldier and Bucky, and heavily woobied TWS persona. Now I'll whump the ever-living fuck out of the Soldier and adore him traumatized to the point of barely functioning, but I don't like reading him infantilized or having other characters woobie him. And I think having a dissociated identity Bucky has to be done with careful nuance now that I'm a *cough* discerning reader. *nose in the air, lol*

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why? It's a toss-up between Tony Stark and Peggy Carter. I've explained my Tony hatred elsewhere. Peggy employed and worked beside Armin Zola knowing that he experimented on and tortured Bucky. You can't tell me that a smart, driven woman at the head of her own spy ring didn't have some inkling that the Winter Soldier project was going on and couldn't put two-and-two together.

10. Most disliked arc? Why? FUCK. YOU. ENDGAME-STEVEN. No explanation needed. 11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? I'm with the rest of the trash squad in celebrating the Karpov renaissance! I don't think he's popular outside of our little circle and it's a shame. His bond with the Winter Soldier makes him a great character to explore. He kept the code book, which indicates deliberate sabotage of the American team when they came to claim his weapon after the fall of the USSR. Or maybe he just wanted to keep the only piece of the Soldier he could lay claim to. 12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? I mean, if you count "the fandom" as the wider group beyond HTP, than probably all the trash I adore would fit here. 17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen… Oooooooh, boy. Um. I would rewrite Bucky's storyline in TFATWS. I would make his therapist explicitly a HYDRA sleeper agent employed by T. Ross to keep Bucky guilt-ridden and isolated so that he feels compelled to become the gov't's asset. John Walker would be groomed to be Bucky's new handler (blond, blue-eyed, Captain America). The fight against the Flagsmashers would start as a simple investigation into the super-serum that evolves into a world-spanning plot to destabilize countries just starting to get back on their feet after the second Snap, with the HYDRA-owned GRC poised to swoop in and seize full power. Bucky would be manipulated by judicious exposure of his trash past into serving HYDRA again only to be revealed in the climax as having manipulated them so that he could get close enough to the bad guy leaders to take them down. There'd be a truly vicious fight that calls upon every ounce of his deadly skill and capabilities so that he finally sees that while he may still be a weapon, he can aim himself now and fight for a cause he believes in. And then Steve would come back from the moon and they'd fuck onscreen. 19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom? Antis and purity police. Just let me enjoy my trash porn in peace, asshats. I guess the second thing would be the actual MCU writers, who managed to take vibrant characters and a strong narrative arc and no homo them into utter ruin and ooc behavior.

[alicejohnson]

I already made a messy post about this amazing book series here, but because I intend to use this blog as dumping ground for all of my thoughts properly now, I wanted to do an "official review".

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (In my heart it's a 5-star rating, but the plot and the writing is not THE best)

The review in itself is pretty much spoiler-free, but thoughts and interactions with this post might not be.

What is it about: A found family trope that revolves around a made-up mixed-sex sport called Exy (imagine if lacrosse and hockey had a child). Oh, and all of the college students playing in the team are "troubled children". Also, it is LGBTQ+ :)

Warnings?: All of them. All of the warnings humanly possible. Graphic descriptions of violence, r*pe, child abuse, drug abuse, overdoses, death, self-harm, suicide. Someone made an entire list here. PLEASE do go over it before reading these books.

Writing: It is dialogue-heavy, and kind of cringy in the best way possible. There are times you know there's no one who speaks like that, but at the moment it sounds pretty good. It did get repetitive and some phrases are used multiple times during the entire series to the point of "yes, I know, thank you". But the banter is just immaculate though, characters' interactions are pure gold.

Plot: The story in itself is not entirely realistic, I've heard people compare it to a very good fanfic and I agree, it has mafia elements, cult-like behaviors, and sometimes it is just quite out there in the realm of reality, but it's really compelling and perfectly paced. Also, even when it's not as realistic, everything fits into place and makes sense so it's not annoying or just outright crazy. Take the plot more as a trigger for character development rather than anything else.

And it is actually a funny book. When I was not in pain, I laughed a lot. 10/10 :)

Characters: I love them so much it pains me. The way the author describes and portrays feelings and trauma is incredible. Also, it's VERY CONSISTENT. I can't remember a time I thought "wait, why is X acting like this?" (except when it came to trauma-induced behavior that I will never understand cause I've never lived through it or when I failed to unravel all the characters motivations cause again, they are very complicated people in a complicated environment).

The MC, Neil, is a cinnamon roll, and actually has one of the best arcs I've seen in a book. He grows, learns, he cares so much, and gave me all of the comfort. I understand why all of them are in love with him.

It has good representation, (females kick-ass and are treated equally by the team, I mean the freaking captain is a woman! Loved it) and characters with very different personalities, and almost no one important is completely one-dimensional.

(Andrew is my fucking comfort character and no one can change my mind)

I do recommend it, actually, I believe everyone should read this book and learn about consent, trauma, boundaries, sense of belonging, identity, and a very specific kind of love that I've never seen before.

Thoughts: This is going to be pretty short because I left all of my feelings in that post (Edit: I lied this is long af. lol) I linked at the beginning that made no sense, had lots of grammar mistakes, and typos, but I was just feeling it at the moment.

These characters came to my life to teach me that I should not just bend over for love. That my boundaries - both respecting others and my own- can be an entirely new love language.

We carry so much emotional baggage created by just existing in this fucking world that we start to believe we are unlovable, hoping for the day some magical creature will come and suddenly lift all of the weight from our shoulders. Love will now hold it for us from that moment on till forever, and that's just not true. It's never going to happen. Yes, love keeps us moving, but it won't ever be the solution to our pain.

But, the good thing is that Andrew taught me that, instead, when this magical creature does appear, we can lean on them, work on our issues by ourselves, and the days we can't it's ok too, cause they will be there.

We don't need someone to save us, we need someone who respects our boundaries, our pain, our experiences and still loves us without us needing to be fixed as a condition, without us putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations, without us feeling unlovable for feeling the way we do.

We live in a world where boundaries don't exist anymore, hell, in the middle of the pandemic we even take classes or work in our safe place, so this book reminded me that it's ok to have them and to communicate them to the people around me.

(Thank you Neil for learning with me how to ask for help)

The opposite to The Song of Achilles, these books strip everything out of romance and leave us with the raw horrifying experience of being alive, alone, and terrified and takes it to the maximum amount of trauma and pain.

But, at the same time, it teaches us to love in the middle of all that suffering and that there are good people that are willing to be with us. (Yes, Neil, there are people in the world who are horrible, but there are also others who are not)

Side note: I'm in awe at how much the foster system sucks in the USA. These books also tackle a lot of issues around police incompetence, the State's inability to protect children, social class differences, and the abuse of power authorities use on a regular basis. Chef's kiss.

“He'd come to the Foxhole Court every inch a lie, but his friends made him into someone real.”

[dr-nero-is-god]

i felt the urge to riff on the hive streams for a little bit since discussion came up on the hive discord, namely, holding issue with the idea that the alpha stream is inconsistent in that it is about leadership when otto is the only leader, and that it’s also possible that the alphas are just kids with specialized skills, and not actually bonded by any particular unifying element.

and, in response, @vulpix-sinistre brought up a quote from the abridged hive fanfic, that goes something like: “there are four streams: main characters, stereotypical bullies, ?, and nerds.”

and i disagree with the first two ideas, but almost completely agree with the abridged fic quote. that is pretty much how the streams work, and it is IMPORTANT that that is how the streams work. 

in the end, you may conclude that the streams system still doesn’t make sense. you won’t be like “well clearly dr. nero was just logically dividing the labor of his students to reflect a specialized training program” because it’s more complicated on that. i  hate to do this to y’all, but a lot of everything streams-related requires an out-of-book explanation to get where you’re going, but i can promise that i will at least try to go

first, let’s think about why h.i.v.e. would have streams at all

on the one hand, it’s inescapable to consider that one primary reason that hive has streams is because harry potter had houses, and for the same reason that percy jackson had cabins, the 39 clues had branches, hunger games had sections (or counties, idk), divergent had factions, and so on and so on. the rise of fandom spaces on the internet was concurrent with a big ya/mg boom in the post-2005 world (after twilight was published), and within those fandom spaces it became important to identify with an aspect of the fantasy world as part of your personality. that became a very marketable thing for a while, and so separating children into streams would, to a publisher, seem like a pretty solid storytelling choice.

however! the alpha stream is not the same as gryffindor house. on the one hand, it seems easy to make an alpha/gryffindor and henchman/slytherin parallel, because one group is good (relatively) and one is bad (or at least antagonistic). but it doesn’t work because while slytherin has a reputation for constituents of poor moral character (which has been largely revised in fanon), being a henchman is where you go, according to the books, if you are unintelligent and burly. it’s not a really sexy stream, is what i’m trying to say. and though there are undoubtedly some readers who would look at the henchman stream and see themselves, i think the majority of readers would likely find the henchman stream a completely undesirable stream to be in. 

and, given how little importance the role of streams have after the first book, i will go out on a limb and say that mark walden knows that the henchman stream is unsexy. we aren’t interested in the hopes and dreams and motivations of the henchman stream; as we learn in book two, the ideal henchman is weak-minded and easily led—so what dreams would they even have? this leads me to conclude that while mark walden might have sold h.i.v.e. on the “there are personality-based groups in the school!” idea, he had something completely else in mind when he started writing and that, I think, is actually far more interesting.

but really, why would h.i.v.e. have streams at all

a few things about mark walden: 1) he studied english lit in school, 2) he has a background as a video game producers, and 3) he likes james bond. i know the first two things because i have read his bio and i know the third thing because i have read his books in conjunction with seeing all the james bond films. so we will call 1-3 facts. 

if you are wondering what a lit degree, video game production, and the james bond franchise all have in common, then let me connect those dots: all three of those things depend heavily on the study and understanding of repetitive structure in storytelling as an interpreter and creator of meaning. each one of these fields requires an understanding of how stories and words work to create meaning in order to be successful. 

and, to quote mr. walden here directly (sourced from this here link):

“So, I was playing with this cat one day and it got me thinking that those old-school Bond villains always just seemed to appear out of thin air with very little back story and that got me thinking about how they became world- conquering megalomaniacs in the first place.  It was only a short mental walk from there to HIVE.”

so, imagine you’re a writer trying to tell a story about a school for villains like those in james bond—you’ve studied storycraft and you have a lot of experience in a job finding believable and compelling obstacles for people to interact with in video games. you have noticed patterns. and you need to make those patterns work for you.

enter: streams

i have watched all the james bond movies (all of ‘em) (i mean it) (just not the unreleased one yet lol) and you know what? 

there’s probably just about four kinds of villains in those movies.

henchmen include the likes of jaws, oddjob, and tee hee. often physically disabled in a cinematically interesting way, these guys are the muscles and the machines in every bond film. they are the ones who tail bond as he takes long train rides and who try to personally throw him into shark tanks. they are the hands and feet of their evil masters and they don’t have a lot of emotional depth or backstory. 

politicians/financiers abound in the james bond franchise because he is a government employee who often hangs out with other government employees (he has no friends). these people are like colonel rosa klebb, georgi koskov, prince kamal khan. there are a lot more, as a matter of fact, because the whole point of james bond is that they are in the cold war and even people without titles have political and financial motivations for screwing around with stuff. these types of villains depend on being well and truly embedded in an existing infrastructure or hierarchy, somebody who worked their way up from being a foot soldier or clerk into a powerful leadership position that gives them a lot of state-sanctioned trust and authority.

technicians and inventors include folks like henry gupta and boris grishenko, who use technology as their primary weapon. they are often inventors or innovators and are really good at making high-tech stuff. however, i think this stream is also a direct result of the character Q, someone who is actually on James Bond’s team and who runs an entire department of people who test sometimes outlandish gadgets for Bond to use in the field. (but we love the gadgets. they are fun.) in other words, Bond arguably has a technical stream at his disposal in MI6, which means the idea isn’t necessarily evil, but, likewise, our James Bond School also needs Qs. it’s the rules. if you are familiar with Q from James Bond at all then you understand

and that leaves us with alphas... the “supervillains.” these are the famous ones. dr. no. mr. big. scaramanga. le chiffre. blofeld. max zorin. emilio largo. goldfinger. these are the ones with the master plan, the dreams to recreate the world as they see it, the passion to see their desires to fulfillment and the resources to make them happen. they are rich. they are fancy. they are larger than life. is it weird that karl stromberg tries to incite a nuclear war between Britain and the USSR so that a lot of people can die so that he can colonize the ocean? yes. but by god, it’s fancy and dramatic, and that’s what counts. 

are there other kinds of villains? oh, definitely. lots more. but you have to understand, that those kinds of villains generally don’t appear in Bond. sometimes! but it’s not a staple. for example, not many people in the bond films are motivated by revenge because each movie is kind of designed to function as a one-shot. villains don’t come back and so there is no revenge. the villain who gets the most notable reprise, jaws, actually ends up finding his true love in space. 

compare: every movie is going to have henchmen. every movie has government stooges making morally questionable decisions. (almost) every movie has Q, or some gadget stuff going on. and every movie has a big bad that has to be better than the last. 

so that explains why the streams are what they are. 

it was a jumping-off point for mark walden to figure out what this universe might look like and how different character types need to function. consider that while the core four are all alphas and are kind of insulated as a group, the teachers all kind of roughly align with one of these groups. colonel francisco, raven, and chief lewis are henchmen types, doing on-the-ground work to get stuff done. ms. tennenbaum and the contessa are political af, they are all about the corruption and infiltrating institutional power. ms. gonzales, ms. leon, and professor pike all have technical skills that help keep an organization moving forward. and over them all is the singular alpha, dr. nero, who is coordinating and monitoring it all for his own evil plan: to run a high school.

honestly, dr. nero’s hive idea operates just like a james bond villain plot! it works, or it does when pitching the idea. the problem is that the books continued after the pitch did, and with worldbuilding came some complications. namely, the fact that the megastructure of james bond villainy does not replicate well into a small friend group on which the narration focuses. so let’s return to the question presented at the beginning:

how can alphas really be alphas when not everyone on the field trip can be a mastermind?

i’m gonna give this to you in two ways. one, the way i personally interpret it as an in-universe explanation, given the background premises we have already established. and the other, why the stream system kind of ruins the structure it sets out to create.

so, for me, the alphas can be alphas because there is more to villainy than being a mastermind and there is more to being a mastermind than being in charge. as i think about it, this novelization is actually the backstory for every one of the students, who will go on to do great and scary things. they will manage big projects and come up with interesting ways to terrorize the British government, because that is what James Bond villains do (and James Bond does canonically exist in their universe). much like your actual teenage years, this is not the main event.

as students, the core four need to learn to do a little bit of everything. you gotta learn some lock-picking, that’s essential. everyone has to be able to climb a rock wall. it’s the rules. and everyone needs to be able to do some programming. that’s just the way school is. though everyone has a different personality and a different way of looking at the world, their education has to cover the basics because the fact of the matter is, none of them are villains yet. will they become one? that remains to be seen. but they are being given the tools to become the greatest villains if that is something they choose. 

the main problem that remains when holding this attitude is that the specialized skills of otto and his friends might be better suited to other streams, in which case, what is an alpha anyways?

here’s the facts: if everyone were assigned to a stream by talent, then there wouldn’t be an alpha stream.

franz? political/financial stream. 

nigel? laura? otto? technical stream.

shelby? wing? henchman stream. 

you can debate me on the specifics of those assignments, but the point is this: all the other streams are based on hard skills. franz can manage a ledger and that is a financial skill. laura can build a computer from scratch and that is a technical skill. wing can do martial arts, and each martial art is a physical skill that can be taught and performed in a measurable level of proficiency. 

the idea of being a “mastermind” is a much softer skill—which is to say, there’s no one recipe that will make it work. my manager at work has coached me by saying that leadership is often about having a “style,” and working at it that way. leadership requires interpersonal flexibility, being able to stay organized and to make important decisions rapidly, it is about being able to prioritize and delegate. and it’s very much open to interpretation, every day, all the time. 

let me tell you something else about james bond: there is a lot of classism, racism, and sexism embedded into every aspect of those films, but that goes for double when it comes to the villains in the show. to vastly oversimplify that very concept, it shows up in the bond films like this: henchmen are working class folks, the villainous equivalent of “the help,” and the supervillains are (usually) rich and glamorous and powerful. henchmen are uneducated (read as: stupid) and ugly and poor. no one cares if they die. (there’s more complexities, as always, but this essay isn’t actually about james bond so we’ll fast forward through My Opinions to the end)

the problem with replicating james bond in your villain school universe is that some of the biases of the james bond universe get replicated in there, too. poor and uneducated folks get turned into disposable henchmen whose lives are irrelevant. people who are educated and talented get fast-tracked to a more glamorous and interesting stream that will catapult them to the top of the ladder as soon as they graduate. if you look at the dialect with which block and tackle are written, they are clearly meant to be seen as a different social class than otto, despite the fact that otto is coming from basically nothing. and we understand that when otto graduates, he will be able to do basically anything that he wants to at all.

so, if you’re asking why wing has a role in the alpha stream when he doesn’t seem as leader-y as otto, there’s a simple answer: because dr. nero believes that wing can be more.

the climax of book one is dr. nero explicitly telling otto, wing, laura, and shelby that they are in his school because he believes in them and he wants to see them grow. they are given an elite status other students do not have despite the fact that they have just literally tried to escape. as we see in the case of duncan cavendish, the main way to get on that highway to a guaranteed career is to convince him that you’ve “got it.” for those who are not believed in, there is no way to make up for the special grooming. you’re stuck with the stream you’re placed in, doomed (perhaps) to be a second-in-command at best.

is all this intentional? probably not. but it is implicit in the structure of the story and, alas, that’s the way it is.

all i can think to say in conclusion is that while the stream system tends to replicate some of the unfair and classist realities present in other media and the world we live in, i think part of the reason we read h.i.v.e. is because the alpha stream is so appealing. imagine! you are competent and you have a desirable, specialized skill as well as a proficiency in many general skills and you are certain you are going to do good things—and all because someone believes in you. to receive someone else’s support and confidence can be life-changing. the magic of h.i.v.e. is that yes—lives are changed and ordinary, boring people were elevated to the level of supervillains. we are only left to wonder, are they the only people who deserved that honor?

[evelhak]

“Ancient” wlw ships

This is such a self-indulgent post but I need to get my thoughts out. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about all the girls I shipped in fiction when I was a kid and didn’t realize I was shipping them.

I mean, they pretty much all had boyfriends or ended up marrying a man, and I was pretty much on board, in my eyes it was just some part of the story that needed to happen, because it always did. I think the common thing with these characters was that the female best friend was, at least more often than not, narratively more important than the guy, or just seemed to have a much greater emotional impact in the story.

Thinking about this has been so fun and eye-opening that I just feel like sharing a list of my biggest ancient wlw pairs that I only now, years later, realize were totally in love in my mind, I just didn’t have a concept for it yet. I’m sure that’s relatable for some people, but maybe there’s someone out there who was shipping these same characters??

This will include mild spoilers. And it’ll be long.

1. Cornelia & Elyon from W.i.t.c.h.

I COMPLETELY lived in these comics when I was 8-12 years old, and nothing in it was as compelling to me as Cornelia and Elyon. Guess I was already a sucker for best-friends-to-enemies-to-friends-again, even though I didn’t realize I also wanted them to become lovers. Best friends was all there was to me back then, that was the name I assigned to the highest form of love in my head. Which I still don’t see as invalid? I just didn’t realize I would’ve related to the romance aspect between best friends a hell of a lot more than I did to any of the relationships the W.i.t.c.h. girls had with their boyfriends. Cornelia and Caled was almost as bad as Buffy and Angel! Cornelia and Peter was just boring af. All the other W.i.t.c.h. girls’ boyfriends were all equally boring to me except for Will and Matt, but that was because their struggle to admit their feelings for each other was written in a funny way, not because their relationship had any actual depth.

But Elyon and Cornelia would’ve been perfect! I mean if your best friend has the ability to understand you so well, that with her magical intuition, she can draw you a picture of a guy you’re going to fall for, a guy she has never met... why would you even want to be with that guy anymore? Why wouldn’t you just be with her instead?? What Cornelia and Caleb had was limerence (I actually applaud the comics for eventually treating it as such and showing how it was harmful to both of the characters!) but what Cornelia and Elyon had was true love that transcends dimensions. Cornelia never gave up on Elyon, not even for a moment, after she became the W.i.t.c.h. girls’ enemy, and when she was in trouble, Cornelia had a hunch from another dimension, and she didn’t hesitate to come to her rescue. (The fact that during the same mission she also manages to fall for the dude Elyon drew for her in the past seems more like an accident, to be honest. The real deal was patching things up with Elyon, it was both more emotionally impactful AND more plot-relevant!)

It was also really sad to read the comics sometimes, because Elyon was absolutely my favourite character, and she wasn’t around much after the first arc, being a queen in another dimension. But every time there was a flashback to when Elyon was still living on Earth and being cute with Cornelia I was like MOOOOORE.

2. Sora and Layla from Kaleido Star

If you haven’t watched this anime you’ve missed. SO. MUCH. This is probably my favourite anime ever. And it features another type of ship I LOVE. Which is partners in some sort of activity, usually sports. When it’s written well it’s just so impactful and intense. These girls are routinely risking their lives in their passion for acrobatics, so they need to have absolute trust in each other. And oh boy is the relationship between them written well. I love it when two characters initially don’t get the way the other thinks or sees the world, but as they grow closer, it’s the other’s way of thinking that really unlocks something huge for them.

Also what’s so compelling about Sora and Layla is that there really isn’t anything like them in any other anime, that I’ve come across, at least. These partnerships are always between two guys in a sports anime, the partnership is at the heart of the story and the emotional stakes are so high it’s no wonder most people don’t want to ship these guys with their intended female love interests. Kaleido Star takes this even further because the guy who is in love with Sora is literally a joke, or the fact that he’s in love with Sora is a running gag, and nothing more. All the focus is on Sora and Layla as partners, and how they change each other's lives for the better.

Also the way Sora pines for Layla when she’s away or not paying enough attention to her is SO... I mean you don’t even have to think it’s romantic for it to absolutely melt you. Although it feels pretty heavily romantically coded, and it doesn’t even feel like queer baiting, because it’s just SO real and honest. And how Layla can’t stop thinking about how Sora is changing her as a person. There’s no question about the fact that the relationship between these women is the true meat of the show.

3. Anne and Diana from Anne of Green Gables

I read these books over and over again as a kid, and the Netflix show renewed my love for these two. They are kind of ridiculous, but SO cute. Looking back, it seems obvious that they had a crush on each other, they were just SO giddy all the time they were alone. Sure, you can excuse all their romantic gestures (like changing locks of hair, and vowing to never leave each other with joined hands and grand words) with saying Anne just romanticizes everything, but it never really felt like just that to me.

I’ll never forget how devastated Anne was about Diana getting married, and I don’t remember the wording but initially she wished she could keep Diana to herself for their whole lives. And every time they talked about marriage it was something they were both gonna do not as individuals, but rather the emphasis seemed to be on the shared experience, and how their children would be best friends and all that. It was all about them together. Like their romantic fantasies were nothing without the other somehow in the picture.

I don’t hate Anne and Gilbert but I don’t love them either. Gilbert has always been just sort of “meh”. He’s okay, but also the kind of love interest that can never compel me much.

4. Chocolat and Vanilla from Sugar Sugar Rune

Seriously, this would have been SO GOOD if it was canon.

Think about it, best friends, chosen to compete against each other for the throne. These witches go to the human world to attract male attention and collect feelings from the men, turning the feelings into heart shaped crystals and whoever collects more will be the queen. I mean... the story was good as it is but if they had ended up together and been queens TOGETHER?? That would have been the best story. It could have had SUCH a compelling best-friends-to-competitors-to-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers storyline! There would have been room for so much character development.

And if my memory doesn’t betray me the story would not change much at all if they didn’t end up with the guys they do end up with! Especially Vanilla’s guy is like an afterthought and Chocolat’s guy is... well, a sum of my least favourite tropes, including the one that will remind everyone about Mortal Instruments a LITTLE too much, so he can get lost for all I care.

I cried many times while reading this, and it always had something to do with these two girls.

5. Yoko and Liao from Yoko Tsuno

Okay, these two might have a problematic age gap, I’m not sure, but I didn’t know of that possibility as a kid, they just looked the same age to me. I was a huge Yoko Tsuno fan as a pre-teen, and there were so many interesting female adventurers in this series but for some reason the dynamic between Yoko and Liao was my favourite, even though Liao only appeared in one album. I just really felt like I needed to see more of these characters interacting and where their relationship would develop.

There was something about them that seemed rather original to me then, and a nice change. The reader had already gotten used to Yoko as the hero, she was always saving the day everywhere, she was like The Doctor in a way and not only because she time-travelled. She is simply badass. In Liao’s story there’s a prophecy about a girl who speaks to a dragon and saves everyone, and Yoko thinks that girl is her because she’s from the future and knows the dragon is a machine, but it turns out to be Liao, and that was somehow really satisfying. Yoko treats Liao obnoxiously in the beginning, doesn’t give her much credit, but is deeply humbled after Liao needs to save her ass multiple times because she’s just too sure of herself. It was cool to see how Yoko really needed to grow in this story and realize her limitations, and how wrong she was to treat Liao the way she did and look down on her just because Liao was physically weak, had a temper, and came from a much earlier time period than Yoko.

By the end they are clearly very attached to each other (Liao weeping in Yoko’s arms and Yoko confessing how full of herself she was when they met) and respect each other, and I just really would’ve liked to see where they would go from there. I thought about them meeting again A LOT when I was a kid.

That’s my big five! :D I could go on but this is already long, I need to sleep, and these are the characters that I’ve been thinking about the most lately. If you read this far for some reason it would be cool to hear if you have any similar (or different) experiences.

[gemsofthegalaxy]

TBH............. Bridgerton is one of those curious shows where I find very few of the characters are remotely likeable lmaoooo. So, negativity below, because I’m just ranting about what i disliked about each character!!! 

(despite all this i actually very much enjoyed the show, jsyk) 

Eloise is one of the most likable characters for me, but even she is shown to be very self-centered. she hardly ever listened to others because she was too busy ranting about her own woes (of course, the lack of agency given to women does in fact suck and she’s right to speak up about that. still. she is extremely one-track minded and never pays attention to other’s problems). Also. LET HER BE A LESBIAN, I’M BEGGING YOU (along with her gay/bi brother Benedict, more on that below) 

I actually do like Daphne a lot for the most part. I liked her sense of duty and responsibility, her kind and nurturing nature, and that she is not that snobbish. and honestly i don’t blame her for wanting children and I DO blame Simon for his original transgression of kissing her while she was alone in the garden when he knows damn well he’s risking her entire fucking reputation because he just ~burns~ for her, like please. keep it in your pants.  

it’s still incredibly fucked up that she violated his consent. it sort of, idk, taints their whole relationship after that point? they really should have written that conflict differently so as to not involve rape. that goes without saying in all honesty... at the same time, important to call attention to. 

but that aside, at the end of the day... i found it odd that their characters are fundamentally incompatible without Simon changing his tune about children, which is, eehh? And, yeah, it’s sort of a stupid he doesn’t want kids just to spite his father but he WAS traumatized and, idk- i feel like people who don’t want kids generally shouldnt be made to have them or “change their minds”. But, one of them had to change and it wasn’t gonna be Daphne sooo..... whatever. 

moving along. boy howdy, Anthony was quite selfish and unlikeable. i don’t even know how to elaborate. i liked Siena enough but it was annoying watching him jerk her around and flip flop between taking care of his family, and taking care of her, which rendered him nearly useless to both (to be fair, i feel like that’s the Point- it’s just like. his Developmental Arc. but it makes him into a shit person for the first while LOL) 

I liked Penelope at first because she seemed gentle and compassionate, but turned out she’s super fucked up like. like. girl. also all that over a boy who doesnt even like you? uuugghhh. but at the same time, i fucking love Nicola and she gets points for being not stick thin, which is just refreshing to see?? (next challenge: cast plus size women in roles that arent like, the wallflower who nobody notices or somethiing, thaaaaaaaaaks.......)  

Now Marina, I actually liked a lot, she’s one of my favourites. Still, she was stubborn and often completely uninterested in truly considering what she might need to do to secure a good life for herself (like, she was great with the plot with Colin and the tea, but after that she just gave up and refused other solutions while offering NO NEW DIRECTION herself. like what were her plans? she seemed smart but only when things would be convenient for her which. sigh. I hope Philip treats her right, she seriously deserves good things). I was worried they were going to villianize her more (and I guess some people think that she was villianized w the Colin plot but idk i was rooting for her to get him and elope XDDD) which wasn’t/isn’t the cutest look given she’s the only black girl of the Young Cast..... like, I’m really glad they made her complex and I personally thought she was compelling and one of the better characters but she could have had a bit more agency and a better outlook within the narrative soo.. hmmmmmmm.

Benedict has potential, but he needed to be gayer ngl. his plotline with the seamstress was uncompelling AF because he’s just following in the steps of Anthony, yawn. if he was having a gay struggle or something that would at least make it fucking interesting???  He trule had way more tension with the Gay Artist anyway (i am glad Artist has a beau tho, that was so sweet!). idk honestly, he was just so boring once he got with the seamstress. disappointing. 

oh... I do have 1 character with zero complaints!!The Prince of Prussia was delightful. He was kind, gentle, and understanding. I miss him tbh 

anyway, moving on to more general stuff about the show, despite the fact i wasn’t rooting for most characters one way or the others, i had a grand old time!!!! I don’t LIKE non-con, esp when it’s not treated with delicacy, and the way it was handled really does cheapen and taint both the relationship AND daphne’s character, BUT.... i’m personally not gonna throw away the whole show, or the relationship because of it. ugh, i’m just gonna sort of compartmentalize that so i can save my own headaches. 

and, honestly, for the moment I’m enjoying seeking out other’s takes! it’s fun seeing everyone’s reactions, positive and critical! i’m glad we mostly agree Benedict should have been/is gay lmao and otherwise its fun to see what other people took from it. 

that being said, I don’t see myself remaining in this “fandom” long, though,  because it just doesn’t have the makings of a fixation for me... simply not enough gay relationships to get attached to,, because i am admittedly one of those queer fangirls that needs a compelling relationship to sink my teeth into and rn none of them are quite cutting it oops ^^; 

[sysba]

Hi Ross :) I started playing superstition a couple weeks ago and I’m on chapter 2 now - don’t laugh at me pls, uni is exhausting 🙈😔 - and I would love to read a review about season one ♥️

Heyy ❣ asdfg I would never laugh, life can be hectic!! Also, some stories require more focus than others so it takes longer to finish them. This is a general, non-spoilery review of Superstition (I’ve included both seasons but without any detail so it’s safe to read for you!)

𝕤𝕦𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 | my review

GENRE: dark urban fantasy

STATUS: ongoing series [2 out of 5 seasons/books published]

VAGUE PLOT: the main character is a college student who lives with their uncle after their parents’ death (due to very particular circumstances). They are suddenly thrown into the supernatural world and have to go into hiding. Nothing is as it seems.

SETTING: present; United States, unimportant 

CW WARNINGS: this story is not suitable for minors. 18+ only. Depending on the season, there’s a wide range of dark themes contained in the story. there’s a list you can check before playing, and there are more warnings in-game (for triggering topics like s*icide, there are in-game options that lets you skip a specific scene). This story contains mature themes. This includes NSFW content that can be hidden or shown (you get the choice at the beginning of the game). Keep in mind that s*xual scenes are explicit.

TUMBLR BLOG: 13leaguestories

GUIDES: <<< link >>>

↠ Main character customization:

first name

gender (male / female / nb; trans / cis)

sexuality

physical appearance 

special scar/mark

personality (consult the guide for specifics)

major & hobbies (with consequent skills & knowledge)

fears

car model

fighting style

↠ What I liked:

for personal reasons, I’ve enjoyed season 2 more. Why? Well, first of all, because my main RO only becomes a love interest in S2. But mostly, because the plot gets so goddamn interesting. THAT SAID, I’ve only got to s2 because s1 was good. I would’ve quit reading if I wasn’t extremely hyped, but Superstition is just that good in general.

Season 1 is the build up- I don’t wanna call it the ‘appetizer’ before the ‘main course’ because it’s not, it’s a whole story with a well-thought lore, a compelling plot and amazing characters. But it does serve the function to set the pace and the premise for the following season(s). Because of this, I expected the beginning to be a bit slow (it’s necessary when you’re building a story from scratch). Except it’s not? Not really, definitely not for long. You get a clear sense of the main character, the general vibe and the direction of the storyline pretty soon, in just a few chapters. Personally, I started to get REALLY hooked around chapter 2 or 3, maybe? Pretty soon, anyway.

I’m a big fan of the author and I’ve read all the IF stories they’ve written so far, so I must mention the great writing style. It’s subjective taste, of course, but in my opinion they’re a great writer.

best thing about Superstition is how organic the interaction among characters feel. it’s realistic af when it comes to portraying relationships. in my first playthrough, I didn’t know who I was gonna romance and I had collected a lot of flirt/romance point with a certain character in s1. i then proceeded flirting with other characters and having all the possible flings (because why not?) and the mentioned character kind of broke up with my mc? this was the first time i saw something like that and I loved it. it felt so real, seeing the RO as an actual person with feelings and free agency! 

Another VERY cool thing about the romance? you can either build a friendmance (basically friends/allies to lovers) or a rivalmance (enemies or reluctant allies to lovers). both bring you to a romance, but with different scenes and dynamics,

in Superstition all choices have consequences, sometimes minor, sometimes in the long term. it keeps the story interesting and HIGHLY re-playable because there’s such a wide range of things that can change depending on the choices you make!

the ROs have set genders. i know there are different opinions on the matter, but I personally prefer it this way. In season 1 there’s mostly 1 female RO & 1 male. By the end of s2 the ROs are 5, 3 men and 2 women with 1 poly route. Casual fling options with secondary characters follow the player’s sexual orientation.

the plot just gets better and better. I thought I knew what was happening in S1 but then boom, I knew nothing.

↠ Recommended if:

again, I can’t stress enough the importance of reading the warnings beforehand. you must be okay with darker and mature themes. if you’re easily triggered (especially by violence) this isn’t the story for you.

if you like IF games that are unpredictable, you’ll love this one. Superstion has a very complex structure when it comes to games dynamics. If this stresses you out, there are guides for everything (MC’s stats, romance, flings, plot) but if you prefer to just see what happens you’ll often be surprised and get unexpected scenes or results. this also makes it so much funnier to replay the story.

like supernatural lore including more ‘biblical’ aspects, like Hell/Heaven, demons&angels, and not just your typical vampire, werewolves and witches lot.

if you like explicit smut, Superstition has some of the best. it’s like honry hours all the time there. you can skip it of course, but if it’s something you enjoy then I seriously recommend it!!! 

you like found family dynamics. they’re still not entirely set but we’re getting there, and you can kind of adopt a snarky nerdy teenager (stan Bradley)

OVERALL RATING: 10/10, love everything about it, stay safe.

            <<< LINK TO THE GAME: S1 - S2 >>>

[myulalie]

S1E1 — Wolf Moon

Stiles is morbid omg, dark humor all the way! I love how Scott is like “nothing happens here”, oh boy you’re in for one hell of a ride aren’t you. I find interesting that he’s sort of good-looking already, conventional beauty standards speaking.

Stiles covering for Scott when his father catches them is goals, but I guess this one time everything went wrong. I can’t imagine the guilt afterwards, if Stiles had given away Scott’s position and both of them had gotten in trouble… A scolding is vastly different from a wolf bite, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Teen TV shows always have a dark pilot, they make the most mundane and expected event turn into some scary scene. The deer running away and bumping into Scott’s inhaler is some A+ plot imo, it raises the tension without anything supernatural having happened yet.

Damn Alpha form looks like shit. I am disappointed (be prepared for me to complain about the cast, I have face-claims and they look nothing like canon). I didn’t know Scott was bitten on his side.

Nice car Jackson, and the casual asshole move when opening the door was well played.

Stiles is so smooth with Lydia, but obviously she doesn’t care. I find interesting that Stiles teases Scott about being “the nerd” that keeps Stiles from going up the social hierarchy. I’d say Stiles is the outcast from my previous experience in fandom and the cast (sorry Dylan, this buzzcut was good characterization, but it doesn’t suit you). I can either read it as friendly banter, projecting and self-deprecation, or assume Stiles actually has some sort of social standing, but he chooses to hang out with Scott instead.

Scott, you can’t overhear Allison’s phone conversation AND give her a pen, she’d know you’re a werewolf then. Does she know already? She has to know.

Wow Stiles was a jerk move, poor girl asking how come Allison is already befriended by Lydia and you tell the poor girl “she’s hot that’s why” it’s so mean! What are you implying here? Lmao.

I was surprised by Lydia and Allison’s actresses, this is NOT how I pictured them at all, although I am told the director had something for women with strong, square jawlines. It’s interesting, it makes them very distinctive from the conventional standard. Lydia definitely has good taste in fashion though, so it goes well with her role. I think Allison’s style is so goth, fight me. The guys all look the same to me so far though.

I love that Stiles is so supportive when Scott misses the ball during lacrosse practice, and then cheers for him when he gets better. It is my understanding Stiles doesn’t really care for lacrosse but he’s sticking with Scott, which is a very nice contrast.

The rivalry with Jackson is so dramatic and we don’t even know why??? I could understand Jackson antagonizing Stiles over Lydia, but Scott? I am so intrigued.

Can I just say that Stiles has a target on his shirt when first meeting Derek and that has to mean something lmao. I wonder how/why he knows Derek on sight, just because of the fire sounds a bit flimsy to me.

I insist that Scott is ripped already and the only thing “wrong” with him is his hairstyle, otherwise I stand by my previous statement that he could be popular. I love how the cats get mad at him but he calms the dog down with his beta eyes.

Note that Allison doesn’t look like she’s wearing a bra, lucky peeping Scott.

So what she says seems to imply she knows about her family (she wants to be tough, not girly), but then she doesn’t realize Scott is a werewolf? Huh. I LOVE that Scott sorts of confesses to her by saying the dog likes her, but damn can he stop telling her about stuff he overheard that’s creepy and not helping with keeping the secret!

Jackson is actually nice to see from an external point of view, very down to earth and paying close attention to Scott (where are the homoerotic vibes???) to the point of noticing something changed.

“There are no wolves in California” sounds like a running joke at this point, just saying.

Can I just say that I did NOT imagine Stile’s bedroom like that. It’s so neat and modern??

On one hand I can understand Scott getting upset when Stiles doesn’t seem to believe he can be good at something without supernatural help, but on the other hand Stiles called lycanthropy from the moment Scott said “wolf” so… I wonder if this has already been an issue between them, especially if I keep the headcanon that Stiles could actually be popular but chooses to stick with Scott (which, once again, could be popular too as far as I’m concerned).

Them almost fighting and Scott pushing Stiles against a wall was so unexpected, kudos to Dylan for the acting in this scene, my mind was running with ideas as to what was going through Stile’s head afterwards, he looks so scared and upset!

I really like Melissa. Her dynamic with Scott is lovely and seems extremely realistic, I can never know if she’s actually doing a 360° turn on Scott about parenting (laid back and suddenly worried about not being firm enough) or really messing with him.

Derek at the party lmao. His legs are always spread so wide it looks ridiculous xDD

So at first I thought Stiles wasn’t invited to the party and Scott was only going because Allison was invited, but Stiles is at the party and he’s talking to people (popular!Stiles I say) so I’m confused now.

Jackson and Lydia’s making out looks like sexual assault to me, idk if it’s the acting that’s off or just Lydia’s general demeanor…

I like that Stiles goes to the Argents’ when they realize Derek left with her, idk if he intended to tell them about Allison disappearing or to check that she got home safely (which is smart, just saying).

OMG CHRIS LOOKS NOTHING LIKE I IMAGINED HIM. I am disappointed af right now. Ugh.

I did not expect the “bite is a gift” line from Derek, that’s interesting.

I love that Stiles couldn’t care less about Allison because WEREWOLVES, but at the same time he must talk a lot about Lydia himself so he could listen about Allison… except if Scott doesn’t let him talk, huh, I’m wondering now. He’s going to help Scott either way which, nice!

And… that’s it for episode 1. Very compelling pilot, and the soundtrack is GOOD. Looking forward to episode 2 (as I’m copying my handwritten notes to the computer I’ve actually watched 3 more episodes so...)

[fyrapartnersearch]

historical dramas, alternate universes, video game fandoms, nhl & the crown

hello!

I’m going to make this fairly short (or at least try to haaA). I am looking for 1-2 new rp partners! I work two jobs and have a pretty active lifestyle so please understand this is a hobby for me. My posting speed ranges from once every couple of days to once every week or so, but I'll always let you know when I'm busy or hitting roadblocks. Some of my stories have really slowed down so I'm looking to have a rp going that is at a pace of at least 1-2 replies every couple of weeks.

I love detailed plots and stories; crafting good posts is a huge part of why I love rping. I match/mirror my partner’s length and put a high amount of importance on compatibility as writers. Good grammar, punctuation, spelling is A Thing for me. I put 110% in. I write fully lit to novella style rps with my posts ranging from 900-1800 words average. If you want a partner that’s invested in writing together and all the joy that brings, I’m your person!

I am looking for original period piece/historical drama roleplays full of drama and angst, fallout related roleplays, roleplays centered on fictional NHL players, slice-of-life or modern romances, and a few more.

what do I write?

I can write f/m, m/m, and m/f pairings- doesn't really matter to me so long as the plot and characters are compelling. I love smut just as much as anyone but I need a good story and solid character development to go back on. I want to feel something when we write and I hope you do too! I don't have a ton of limits when it comes to kink etc aside from the basic ones, but generally each of the characters I write have varied and different interests and preferences. I'm interested in writing the following fandoms right now:

Transformers personified: Essentially, utilizing characters from the Transformers universe to make characters and stories based off of them/using them in a personified manner. We could depict the war as a political one, or with warring armies, or anything we wanted to do. I'm most familiar with Transformers Prime, and I would be really excited to talk this one over with you!

Disney personified: Similar to the idea above, we take stories/characters and springboard them into our own content and plots. Let's talk it out!

The Outer Worlds: Admittedly I haven't finished the game yet, but I would love to do some character and world building here. Canon characters could be brought in if needed.

Fallout: New Vegas: I can do OCs for this, or I can play several canon characters such as Arcade Gannon, The King, and Cass. Either way, I'd be more than happy to plot with you in this world. I'm also interested in playing out a story related to Fallout 4, where I can play Elder Maxson or Paladin Danse, or we can write OCs.

X-Men: Give me all the plots utilizing Jean Grey or Wolverine, those are my favorite canon characters to write. I can also write OCs. I would also love to play Wolverine against a Jean Grey. All in all, I am a happy camper with this one.

The Crown/British Monarchy: I have a niche interest in the British monarchy and figures related to it, specifically George VI, Elizabeth II. I'd love to take the concepts and maybe the figures and write out some stories, historically-based or not, that involve some of the character types, situations and challenges faced. This idea is really flexible and I'd love to do some world-building here!

Mafia 2: I can write a pretty decent Vito Scaletta and I'd love to write him against your OC. We can take the premise and play with it, maybe make a spinoff or a sequel, something like that.

The Man in the High Castle: I would love, love, love to write something set in this universe. We'd definitely have to do some worldbuilding here but I would love to figure something out based around this universe and the characters in it.

Right now I also have a huge interest in doing period pieces/setting slice-of-life stories in different historical settings. I'd really love to do some plotting together and come up with an intriguing original story. I would love to do stories with the backdrop of the first or second world war, the great depression, the turn of the century, etc etc. I think so many of my plot ideas would be much more interesting placed against different historical settings. I'm most familiar with 1900-1960s backdrops but I would love to explore earlier (little women, or pride and prejudice-esque) eras as well! Pleeease get @ me if you're interested in a healthy dose of history with whatever twists we can come up with :) Here are a few plots/prompts to get started:

**** (m/m) sugar daddy: My oc is a law student studying in your oc’s country in order to get their degree abroad. They’re from eastern Europe and uh. broke af. They settle into an arrangement with your oc where your oc agrees to ~pay him for his company~. We could take it anywhere- your oc could whisk mine off his feet and ‘save’ him or. Be toxic & trashy and make my oc’s life hell.

****(m/m) the guardian: Your oc is a newcomer to the NHL but is quickly making waves- think Connor McDavid style. He’s young and impressive, but mostly, impressionable. he starts to get battered around by both his teammates and opposing teams. After a few hard hits and fowl play within the game that have cost your oc bench and recovery time, the team’s coach calls in reinforcements to boost the team’s morale and serve as a protector to your oc. My oc is a player who hasn’t got the talent part but has got a huge heart. Not to mention… huge hands. Good for makin’ fists. Good for fightin’. My oc protects your oc during the games, coming to your oc’s aid, picking fights for your oc and protecting him on the ice. As such, the two players grow attached to one another.. perhaps too attached for the captain to be comfortable with. Possibilities for a love triangle and other complications, for sure

***(m/m) too good to be true: Our ocs start out in the WHL, both as promising wingers. Their good chemistry is vital to bringing back their team’s success. However, one of our ocs starts to get too attached to the other, and when an NHL draft separates them, one of our ocs is all too eager to cut contact and try to forget. The two excel in their NHL careers without one another, and end up on NHL teams with a history of deep rivalry. Occasionally, the gloves hit the ice, fueled by the tension of unresolved feelings and the pressure of the respective teams to keep up the rivalry. The two are reunited when they are both chosen to play nationally for the same team, and are forced to reconcile what they have both buried so deeply within them.

***(m/m) big money: These two ocs play for rival teams in the nhl. while their teams have a history of tension, our two ocs take it to the next level. Audiences are more excited to watch these two fight than they are to watch the game itself. There’s a market in the violence between these two, and a reputation to maintain on both ends. If the public found out that these two were secretly seeing one another, their careers would both be over.

My oc has serious commitment issues. They often go around leaving individuals after 4-5 dates, with little to no explanation of why. Your oc falls for mine, and is the first to confront my oc about their shitty habits.

Your oc is a huge fan of my oc’s hockey or political career. Your oc wins a contest to meet and have dinner with my oc. While my oc expects a boring night out, my oc is completely surprised by how well they hit it off with your oc.

My oc, your first oc and your second oc all grew up together. Your first oc has always been pining for my oc’s attention, and is thrilled when my oc and your first oc finally get together. They develop a long term relationship, but my oc knows it would devastate your first oc if they told them that they have been seeing your second oc for most of the relationship.

My oc and your oc are in an arranged marriage. My oc is actually a spy on your oc's national government. Espionage, reconnaissance, and betrayal abound.

My oc is royalty (think British monarchy) and yours is, absolutely not; either a reporter, a soldier, maybe a business person. My oc has taken interest in yours as a friend to keep them grounded... or as a thin veil for a romance that absolutely no one would approve of.

As for general OC ideas, here’s a list:

street racing, fast-and-furious-esque setting

small town canadiana or americana

fun, fluffy romance based modern settings

light worldbuilding - new to this but wanting to learn

WWI / WWII history based

something based around the Titanic (I know, so cheesy)

alternate history — I would love to work on doing some worldbuilding with you and creating some kind of retro-futuristic alt history IE fallout before the nukes dropped.

estate drama — something akin to Downton Abbey but with our own spin on it

honestly whatever you can pitch to me that isn’t high fantasy :)

I can expand on and work with any of these ideas, these are just topics. Whatever I do with you, I promise it’ll be fleshed out, with tons of opportunity for drama.

how do we get started?

Pleaaase send me an email at ehmmywrites@gmail.com; I can give you my discord if we hit it off. Please give me some of your thoughts/an idea of why/what you’d like to write with me! I can write over discord or email or both. We can sort out the brass tacks there and figure out if we’re a good match. :) Thanks for your time and I hope I hear from you!