#I don't know what to tag this for the redux

[bonefall]

the ShadowClan talk made me look through Brokenstar's BB Tags, and. a) is Lizardstripe still related to Finchflight, if you are keeping Finch-Dawn as a couple (with Dawncloud's age redux)? b) i keep seeing stuff about Snowtuft and killing kits, but i cant find anything actually detailing on that on the blog, and one of the older posts also mentions that Blizzardwing is either his son/grandson AND that Lizardstripe's mother was the kit he couldn't kill. what is all that about, im dying to know.

This is info that's scattered across a bunch of different posts, plus more deets and changes I haven't had a chance to dive into. Snowtuft committed an atrocity which would torment his victims and descendants for generations, for both its legacy and its trauma.

SO I wanna put as much of it as possible into one place for now, so you don't have to go guessing based on older posts. Especially since some of those posts are long outdated, but I haven't contradicted them yet.

To start the story of the two families, it begins with Snowtuft and the bloody end of the Crusade Era.

CONTENT WARNING; this is one of BB's darkest tales. It involves depictions of xenophobic violence, child murder, war crime, PTSD, abuse, and kidnapping. BB!Snowtuft's a bad kitty!

SEE: Kitten Stealing

(Also: After writing it out, I kinda realized this would be great as a BB entry on its own. I should come back and clean this up someday.)

PART 1: THE LAST CRUSADE

Cedarstar inherited the Crusades from Houndstar, continuing them more out of respect for her legacy than true zealotry.

He had actually been chosen as a deputy because he would run the Clan while she was off gallavanting.

He wasn't a pushover or anything, just prefered logistics. Him and Pinestar were tragically ahead of their time.

...but like other cats of his time, he was from a culture that didn't extend personhood beyond the Clans. So, he continued the Crusades.

Even though they weren't getting easier.

Crystal of Chelford had already used a new tool to carve a red future for the cats of the town...

and what were once defenseless little targets began to unite into organized, armed response teams.

Non-BloodClan "zones" got rarer and rarer.

The territory and underlings of an influential cat named Jay were among the last holdouts, so it's where most of ShadowClan's raids were launched.

And on one of these raids... it happened fast.

Snowtuft turned an alley and was ruthlessly attacked. He defended himself.

In the confusion, another assailant ran towards him. He acted swiftly.

It was reflex! Instinct! He couldn't tell what was coming at him. It was a split second decision.

He couldn't undo what had happened. The kitten was dead, next to its mother.

And the others were screaming, crying, terrified.

Snowtuft doesn't remember what he did next. He doesn't want to.

But Puffballburr does.

She used to see it every night.

She remembers her name, too-- Pixie. And her mom. And her littermates.

And the look that washed over his eyes when he realized the ragged flesh at his feet was a kitten.

Raw shock, electrifying shame, the dawning horror of knowing you've definitely done something that you're going to get punished for.

And when his white, blood-splattered face turned slowly towards her and her wailing siblings, she recognized that emotion too.

It's a very childlike response, really.

He needed to cover up his accident.

And he almost did, too. It was dumb luck that stopped him as he grabbed her tail and dragged her out from her hiding place. One of his clanmates heard the awful racket, and Pixie had survived just long enough.

PART 2: ONE OF US

They took her away, just like any other "honor kitten," but the Clan cats believed this was different somehow.

Something about the naked horror of what Snowtuft did, maybe. Impossible to ignore.

But it's not like he faced any real justice for it, not that Puffballkit could remember seeing. So clearly it wasn't very different at all.

His mate left him, and the older warriors regarded him with a distant sort of "shame." He was ostracized from many circles.

But Puff's siblings had not been "clan cats" so the Warrior Code did not apply to them. He faced social dishonor, not legal.

Ever-merciful Cedarstar did not want to "ruin" more lives.

"Not when the kit is far too young to even remember what happened," he said. But she did remember.

And her name. Her mom. Her littermates. That face.

She just knew, growing up, that she couldn't know about it.

Because Snowtuft was always right there, just around the curve of the den, just behind the cover of the rose bush thorns, listening.

They're ALL Snowtuft.

To admit she remembers it is to admit she isn't one of them. And if you're not one of them, the law does not apply to you.

As a kid, she couldn't articulate it. But she understood it.

Deep down to her brittle, kittypet bones. Her filthy, stillwater blood.

The ungrateful heart that beat in her chest.

Fear expressed as a constant, calm obedience of authority. A permanent dread, as if living in a pack as a sheep in wolf's clothing

So she was quiet, notoriously so.

Whoever her foster was, Puff was like a little white shadow. It's where the warrior name came from, eventually-- a puffball clinging to someone's fur. (after writing this though, half of me wants to start calling her Lambfur or Lambfrost.)

ShadowClan plunged into the Campaign Era with Heatherstar's invasion of the Mothermouth Moorland, and the massacre of some kittypet family became awkward history. Those old enough to remember still kept a distance from Snowtuft... but war took its toll.

War means death and those older members of the Clan are not replaceable.

Younger cats weren't there to see the horror of what Snowtuft had done... and time would make him bolder.

Finding growing sympathy in his apprentices, spurred on by the hardening of the culture in tandem with the official birth of Thistle Law, Snowtuft started to change history.

The official Educator of ShadowClan (still unsure who this was) had one story, and Snowtuft had one too.

"Details" were quietly changed in his. They weren't "kits" but "young cats." They charged out to aid their mother. Then maybe she wasn't their mother. Who knows.

Pullball's name was left out of these stories, on both sides. No need for the kittens to know that she wasn't one of us.

And if she was? That's a good thing for her. Living the life of a Clan cat.

He wouldn't share if "he wasn't asked," but all of his actions, his language, was a silent plea to be asked.

He wanted to forget the whole thing, because of his nightmares, his constant shame and punishment, how hard the whole ordeal made his life-- but he couldn't so it was constantly coming out of his mouth.

There was a deep resentment on his end, towards Puffballburr. How she was part of the Clan now, always reminding him. Like it was her fault.

In the end, Snowtuft didn't blame himself. He blamed everything else. The guilt was killing him a little bit every day...

But not as much as that WindClan cat's claws did. Those killed him a lot in one day!

But Snowtuft's death didn't bring Puffballburr any peace. She just felt... annoyed. Which was strange to her-- she should feel relief, but, she didn't. She was just thinking about how the next battle with WindClan would be harder without an extra set of claws.

PART 3: GOING HOME

Puffballfur is the queen of low empathy, and her emotions are... hard to predict.

Not in a chaotic sort of way, but in a "Huh, interesting, I didn't think that of all things would get me going" sort of way.

She both lives in constant "fear" but also a persistent banality. It's kind of like being in a cage with a chained tiger, but you've marked the exact spot on the floor where the tiger's chain ends.

Imagine getting nightmares that stop you from sleeping, but you know that they aren't going to come true. So you lay there with a throbbing heart, mostly feeling annoyed that you're going to be tired in the morning.

That's her life.

Sometimes when she couldn't sleep, she'd roll on her back in the nest and critique the assassination attempt in her mind.

Did he think his dumb plan through? Or did he just react without thinking? It was going to be obvious he killed a bunch of kids, whether she survived or not.

Or maybe he would have just said that the rogue killed her own kits to prevent them from becoming Clan cats. They'd probably believe that.

Either way it was sloppy. Could have had more kits if he didn't kill her sibs.

She had connections within the Clan. A foster, hunting buddies, apprentice. She was kind to them, especially when they were useful. But...

It feels like she's not like them. Like they have variables to their behavior that she doesn't. Drives and desires that are pointless, sometimes even frustrating.

Like the concept of "honor." Ridiculous. Every single person who talks about it is hypocritical about it in some way, and it causes unnecessary fights in the camp and on the border because of ridiculous ego.

She just performs it because the other cats value it-- and when people like you, you get what you want.

I'm not sure who her mate was, or if it was even just one. In any case, when she found herself pregnant, she declared Queen's Rights. I feel like she might have had a fling with someone, but got annoyed by their clingy behavior.

When her daughters were born, Bracketkit and Lizardkit, she felt pride.

Because... they didn't belong to someone else. They weren't even really ShadowClan's. They were hers.

For the first time since her mother and littermates had been taken away from her, she felt like she was looking at family. People who would always be with her.

But that didn't last...

...because a chance encounter only a few moons later reconnected her with someone who remembered her.

Not a littermate, but an older sister. Marmalade. She couldn't believe that Pixie was alive.

This is a WIP zone because I'm not sure, yet, if I'm keeping Hal's attack on ShadowClan. In any case, they continued to reconnect for moons.

The fact that she was remembered, that she could talk openly about what happened, and that Marmalade wanted her and her kittens to come home made Puffballburr's stomach flutter with excitement. She felt valuable.

And with the war getting worse and worse, this was absolutely the best choice for her kittens as well. They would be safer with BloodClan than they would with ShadowClan.

No longer would she be Puffballburr. Her name was Pixie.

ENTER: LIZARDSTRIPE

Puffballburr wasn't a bad mother, but it would feel a lot better to be Lizardstripe if she could have the simplicity to just say she was.

Her earliest memories of her mom and her sibling were outside of the camp on a cool, clear spring night, laying in soft marshgrass. Puff was laying on her back with her hind legs bowed out, a kit tucked under each paw, pressed to her fluffy, warm chest. Her face was turned upward, quietly, at the moon, as her daughters slept peacefully.

She's not sure how long after she'd opened her eyes that this memory took place, but Lizardkit looked up towards the bright, starry sky... and she remembered that the light hurt.

Her needs were always taken care of, but Puffballburr hated explaining things.

You learned quick to treat your questions like a valuable resource, and to listen carefully.

Lizardkit was sharp, much sharper than her sister. She caught onto the way that her mother viewed relationships in a very transactional sort of way-- and stayed aware of her balance.

And had to consider the cost of doing the things her mother was fond of, versus what the other kittens and queens in the nursery expected of her.

What Puffball didn't realize when her children were born was that they were family, but they were also ShadowClan. Even if this was not something she had ever felt a connection to.

Deep down, it didn't truly click with her that her children were not extensions of herself.

And when Lizardkit was a child, learning history from the Educator and getting involved in more of the Clan's goings-on, Puffballburr spent less and less time with her. Because she was reconnecting with Marmalade.

When Bracket and Lizard had their apprentice ceremony, Puffballburr was not there.

Lizardpaw's mentor was the infamously powerful, chaotic fighter, Finchflight. Bracketpaw was assigned to Brackenfoot. (There is an earlier post suggesting that Lizi and Finf were going to be related. I decided to make them mentor/apprentice instead.)

Finchflight immediately began to stress the importance of loyalty. Being one of the younger cats who had sympathized with Snowtuft and knowing the secret behind Puffballburr's beginnings, he nurtured a pain within Lizardstripe. Encouraged her to let the distance between her and her family grow.

Eventually, Puffball told her children that they were going to leave ShadowClan. They had family in the town, would be safe there, could start a brand new life together.

And Lizardpaw was shocked.

It was like everything Finchflight had said was true.

And they were going to leave her.

She reacted violently to the suggestion, attacking her mother. Told them that she was going to expose them, lead a patrol right back to their new hiding place, bring them "back home."

In defense of Puffballburr, Bracketpaw brawled with her sister. They fought viciously, until their mother separated them with a desperate, devastating whack to Lizardpaw's head.

Laying dazed on the ground, she heard an apology before passing out.

When she woke up, she was safely protected within a blackthorn bush-- with a nick on the outside of her ear.

She stayed out there for hours, not knowing what to do, where her family had gone, or what she was going to say when she got home.

But, looking at her reflection in a puddle of water, she became so angry at the idea of this being her first scar that she ripped the other ear, on the opposite side.

When the search party found her, they asked what had happened to her. If she had seen her mother or her sister, or if something had gone wrong.

"Nah. Took a nap to get away from them. Ripped my ears on the thornbush."

Later, when she would be interrogated or questioned by people she didn't want to lie to, she would tell a half-truth;

"I did it to myself. Liked how it looked. Last I saw of Puffballburr and Bracketpaw, they were upset I'd done it and left, so I took a nap."

She didn't mind that her Clanmates thought this was weird. She didn't care about whispers that it was all done for attention, or that it was dishonorable to do such a thing and they probably met a predator after storming off, and she didn't even mind the gossip guessing at the "real" reason behind her ripped ears.

The only people who ever got the whole truth were the Forget-Me-Nots. After their disappearance, Lizardstripe didn't talk about her family for years, insisting upon having no further details. Even if it meant that mystery and suspicion would hang around her like a cloud.

BLIZZARDWING: KIN OF SNOWTUFT

Snowtuft's daughter was named Lilyfur. She was a kit when her father slaughtered Pixie's family.

When her mother left her father, she also distanced herself from him. This was something Snowtuft was outraged and saddened by.

But Lilyfur's mother couldn't stand the idea of a kitten-killer trying to stay close to her daughter. How could he look at little babies, the same age as his own child, and kill them?

Lilykit grew up very conflicted. She remembered how much she loved her dad, understood that he was a kitten murderer, but he continued to be so kind to her into adulthood.

It was hard to think of him as someone who could do something so horrible.

Earlier draft had Lilyfur die and her kittens were raised by their kin, Snowtuft, but I'm currently leaning towards Lilyfur being alive but just letting him be an active part of their lives-- in spite of her discomfort.

Because the more time he spent in her life, paradoxically, the more obsessed he became with all the "time he lost out on."

Which ended up including entertaining a lot of conversations about how he'd never done anything wrong, ever, and everyone was mean to him.

Lilyfur: "ok maybe he's not evil but my dad is really annoying <:/ but he's really lonely. He needs me. and i cant take him away from his grandkits"

From this, what Blizzardwing absorbed was the idea that love and forgiveness was always tolerating your family no matter what. This would express itself in his toxic relationship with Hollyflower.

But Blizzardwing now has a sibling. I haven't settled on a name yet-- but I'm playing with him either being Angelshade or Silkflower.

I really like the name "Angelshade" as a reference to the notoriously deadly white mushroom, the Destroying Angel. But also. someone in the audience asked if I could give the prefix "angel" to a cat because it's their name, and I feel a little bad about giving it to a character who is going to be one of the nastiest little background characters in all of BB lmaooooo

i'm so sorry angel (positive), is it okay if there's an angel (derogatory)

ANYWAY, Untitled Blizzardwing Sibling grew up adoring his grandpaw.

Radicalization can be a slow creep. He loved peepaw, so if he was asked when he was young, he would happily repeat the adjusted version of history he was taught.

And then when Snowtuft died, he wanted to remember him fondly. The story slowly changed, becoming more "accurate," just getting more comfortable with the idea of dehumanizing outsiders.

So what, if he killed some kittypet? And if some kits had already been indoctrinated into their kittypet life? It was still a gain for ShadowClan, in the end.

One summer day, without warning, he came home with two little kittens. One was white, one was brown, both had the pinkish tinge of poorly cleaned blood.

He grinned playfully at Brokenstar, and claimed Queen's Rights in a singsong tone.

Because of that rite, no one could ask where he'd gotten those kittens from. But everyone knew he'd done something grim.

Those kits, Whitewater and Brownstone, grew up under the crescendo of Brokenstar's reign, both taking part in the WindClan Massacre.

Whitewater's bloody story includes joining Mudclaw's Rebellion, giving birth to three kits, a souring relationship with her son, condemnation to the Dark Forest, ends in the Battle of the True Eclipse after killing her grandson.

Brownstone's tale includes a relationship with a WindClan cat during the bloodiest period in the history of their two Clans.

And their father's story ends in Chelford, after being exiled from ShadowClan by Nightstar. His canon counterpart is the Unnamed White Rogue from Rise of Scourge, who tries to order Scourge to be his personal servant.

(the other two cats are Braketail, the "Offbrand Brokenstar" pale tabby, and Pirateheart, the gray rogue with green eyes. Glitch Warriors for the pile!)

[nevermindirah]

I feel like I'm losing my mind, barely anyone's talking about how badly Nile was done. Or at least what I'm seeing. Sometimes people will talk about how she kicked ass in the sequel and I want to know where did she get to do that really?

SAME, ANON, HOLY SHIT SAME

I did personally enjoy the São Paulo redux, and seeing Kiki's face light up when she talked about her stunt work in interviews was a delight, but in the first movie, Nile's fight scenes show us things about who she is. how very resourceful she is in fighting Andy, how determined! even after being so brave and resourceful and determined going up against Andy, Nile still kinda flounders in the church attack! that gorgeous closeup on her face in the elevator as she prepares herself to let goons treat her like a dead body in order to gain a crucial tactical advantage— (screams forever)

the way so many people talk about how Nile "kicks ass" in the sequel feels so hollow. it reveals how they (don't) see her.

so many people in this fandom love to talk about how they love Nile. she's their queen! she's the queen of all of us! she's so badass! she holds the team braincell! "I just love Nile so much lalalalallalaaaaaaa look at me loving Nile sooooooo much" they claim, in the tags on like one post every third month. but I never see them reblogging art or commenting on fics about Nile, really about Nile, about her perspective and experiences and layers.

so many people genuinely seem to see Nile as an object to show off how supposedly anti-racist they are. it's enraging but alas completely unsurprising that they're failing to see the problem in how the sequel did the exact same goddamn thing.

[rockinlibrarian]

The Lyric Game Redux Redux

So if you've been paying attention to my tags lately, or are @uniasus with whom I've actually discussed this outright (or @sunnymarbles with whom I've actually discussed this in person, but they ignore my posts entirely if I don't tag them), you might know that I've been working on an archiving project side-blog where I'm storing all my original tumblr posts (or, most of the time, reblogs where I added something significant-- although the definition of "significant" is very loose), having gone through my tumblr from the beginning (And either I didn't reblog much in the early years, let alone post anything original, or many posts have disappeared over the years. There are whole months with only four posts total!). Anyway, I'm up to Pandemic Lockdown time which curiously did not display much of a jump in posting, but I did just find the post where I attempted to resurrect my favorite LiveJournal game: The Lyric Game!

The rules are thus: I put my music library on shuffle and post the opening lines of the first ten songs that come up (instrumentals excluded). YOU reply with whichever ones you recognize (one point for title, one point for artist).

Now I had enough trouble getting people to play Back in the Day, and I feel like even less people follow me now, and I've added a bunch of really obscure music to my collection in the past five years, not to mention a lot more instrumentals to skip over (I noted when I reblog-archived the last one that yesterday my computer had decided to play at least three different Brandenberg Concertos in their entirety in the course of like five hours), so I was like, what would doing this again even LOOK like?

WELL LET'S FIND OUT.

Here are the first ten (relatively) songs from my music collection (on my computer) on shuffle. Do you recognize any of these songs? Reply with your answers! Don't cheat and steal anyone else's answers and/or look them up! Last time I gave 24 hours but that was during lockdown so I'll give you a week this time (starting from 8:30 AM EDT on May 12, 2025)! Every couple of days I'll add clues (genre, date, gender of singer, etc) to help jog your memory, so you'll have many chances! The genres in my collection span, like EVERYTHING (although there is very little country or rap, yeah I'm one of THOSE kinds of music snobs). Shall we begin?

Edit: The Answers are up!

THE LYRIC GAME REDUX REDUX

1: "Listen as your day unfolds; challenge what the future holds"

2: oh fer gosh sakes it's a piano sonata. trying again.

2 bonus. "Just ask the folks who knew me when, they'll say, "Nice boy, but he's always been..." That's awfully obscure, I'll give it to you as a bonus one and do another number 2.

2 for real. l Okay no, that's "The Maple Leaf Rag," sorry.

2. for really real: : "[title of song] before my eyes just teach me to despise" That may be a little obscure too but I'm pretty sure I got it off a "Hits of the [decade]" CD so it's unobscure ENOUGH and I give up.

3: "[Title of song and keyword repeated] I know I'll find you somehow, and somehow I'll return again to you"

4: "I found my love in [Title] beside the bay"

5: "Your eyes are burning holes through me, I'm gasoline, I'm burning clean" to be fair I saw the title and couldn't even remember the song at all myself, but NOW I remember it, and it's off a greatest hits CD so I'm leaving it.

6: "Friday night I crashed your party; Saturday I said I'm sorry"

7: "It sure was a [title of song] as far as my eyes could see"

8: "That's all I wanted, something special, something sacred in your eyes"

9: "And the [title] is on its way, I can hear the merry [word now considered a slur. But associated with the title!] play"

10. "I linger in the doorway, of alarm clock screaming, monsters calling my name."

Okay, that's a good mix. A couple well-known radio hits (not recent, but there are definitely two songs I'm pretty sure Everyone has heard), a couple lesser-known radio hits, a couple album tracks from famous/popular albums, a decent mix of genre and era though could be weirder (mostly pop in the end, nothing more recent than early 2000s)! Edit to add: also, somehow there are NO BEATLES or former Beatles on this particular list. So sorry, you can't use that as a throwaway guess.

So, play along!

[the1northlanderprincess]

It has become apparent that we're in that typical late season stage of panic and/or negativity surrounding our somewhat unique ship. I don't want to see us or this tag spiral so out of control that it causes major divisiveness. I know we've seen a "breakup" already before the feelings were revealed to be subtly romantic, but we're just about to get into the real meat of it. I want us to be excited.

Okay, now, I want to address the subject of the whole "Haladriel is toxic" thing, which @deus-sema discussed in her post. Are they? Sure, to an extent. I mean, the dude impersonated her brother AND tried to brush it off like he wasn't. And the recent obsession on his end certainly isn't healthy. But I've seen so much worse. I think for the majority of their interactions, though, has been positive. There was a lot of trust, happiness, and support. You had some small arguments sprinkled in, but they were pushing one another to try to make the other better. You need that in a relationship.

If anything, it's just a plain ol' forbidden romance; they're haunted, as others have iterated. There is no way they can be together in a balanced, honest manner, and they can't handle it. Sauron and Galadriel are both highly intellectual immortals, above common Men. Although, you could argue that they each display human characteristics from time to time (Sauron especially). However, you can also argue that there is very much a nature vs. nurture aspect present. It's safe to guess that Galadriel grew up in a loving environment, whereas Sauron was likely surrounded by cruelty and harsh discipline. He probably knew nothing of what real love was like.

However, after recently rewatching season 1 Haladriel for the first time, I was able to view their scenes in a different light. The finale, in particular, had my attention. Before the confrontation, Halbrand tells Gal how much it meant to him that she stuck up for him and empowered him. He was so grateful, he wanted to do the same for her (and I think that was genuine). He got a glimpse of true friendship and compassion, and he wanted to revel in it...and her.

That brings me to the hand-wringing over the finale, about whether or not it's going to be a redux of 1x08. I paid special attention to the raft scene. After they were arguing over semantics and the like, it came down to them, hilariously, screaming at each other and Sauron disappearing. In all honesty, not a lot of stuff happened between them. That needs to change. The two have exchanged how they feel around one another, but they really need to address the hurt and why it hurts.

If that beautiful shot of Dark Prince Halbrand is anything to go by, I conclude that when their swordfight ends, they will come to some sort of complex, uneasy truce, beginning with Gal showing Annatar the ring.

[iheartgod175]

Some Quick Thoughts...

Sorry for not being on here to make posts like this as often as I'd like, lol! The last two weeks have been busy, what with dealing with work, family and an insane burst of creativity that has kept me on the Blazin' Trails Wiki for over two weeks straight. Oh, and I've been working on some writing again for the first time in weeks, too. So I'm gonna ramble on about that.

I've kinda fallen back into the Hanna-Barbera fandom again, and dragged my buddy @blazing-shadows into this too. All because I started rewatching The Peter Potamus Show to decompress after work, and ended up getting attached to the Goofy Guards (Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey). I mean, I kinda liked them anyway, but now? I'm in too deep. Come to think of it, that's how my obsession with Ricochet Rabbit started, too, lol. XD

My mind went from just having them as a cameo in Blazin' Trails Redux, to them having their own story in Blazin' Trails Redux, to them having their own story in the For Love and Glory universe (which is my Touché Turtle story I don't chat about quite as much as BT, but still love regardless ^^). Said story featuring the Goofy Guards is titled For King and Country, and I'm still in the developing stages of the story; right now, it's just doing lots of intense brainstorming of various scenarios and convos. I wish I had the same time I did when I was wrtiing the original For Love and Glory (I think I wrote that in like 2 days when I was a full-time student, and then rewrote it in like two months. My writing output back then was INSANE O.O), but alas.

Anyway, since this story is set in the same universe as FLaG, there's three guarantees:

There's gonna be some INSANE lore with these three. The tag I put on Ao3? "Canon Gets Chucked Out the Window".

The Goofy Guards are gonna be put through HELL. They do get a happy ending, though, because my original plans were too harsh and bleak on them, to where even I felt bad. And also, my buddy Thanos-snapped one of my original plans in BT Redux, which was to kill off Yahooey ^^ But yeah, these guys get put through the ringer, and boy howdy do I mean the ringer.

Everyone gets to be badass. Sure, the Goofy Guards start out like their cartoon selves, but by the end of the fic you can pretty much remove "Goofy" from their title. Even the King gets to be cool. Well, I'd lie if I said that everyone is awesome. The King's son, who was a brat in the original cartoon, is a bit worse here.

This story, which is gonna be about seven chapters long, is most likely gonna be an AO3 exclusive, but I may cross-post it on FF.net. Who knows ^^

Since the Goofy Guards' inclusion, and since I've included a bunch of crazy lore about them in that universe, I was thinking of a few things: should I extend BT Redux into eight "seasons"? And should I keep the fantasy elements in from FLaG Relance in this? While I was going for a more "realistic" setting that kinda fits the Western time period and boots out the Hanna-Barbera inconsistencies, it doesn't seem right now that the Looney Tunes/Who Framed Roger Rabbit cast is gonna be a part of the BT Redux canon. Plus, a few of the villains from my FLaG series that appear in Redux are outright magic/relic users, and removing that aspect kinda doesn't feel right, because it kinda removes some of their original motivations. I dunno. What do y'all think.

And surprising nobody, I am doodling these goofballs. I actually have quite a few ideas of where to go with drawing them, but settled with "let's take the Goofy Guards and make them BADASS" as my first foray into drawing them XD Just posted a sketch of Yippee and I hope to follow up with Yappee and Yahooey soon!

Now, I'm gonna go and yell about these goofballs to my pal.

See ya later!

[violets-and-amber]

Six Song Soundtrack

Rules: If you're tagged, make a post with links to music and/or lyrics describing six things/events about your OC/story.

Thank you for tagging me @ndostairlyrium, I liked Tutto dentro and Wounded Healer for Ankh!

~

Vherevin Lavellan 🖤🌱🐈‍⬛

Event that defines your character's past

CRUISING TO SELF SOOTHE - Ecca Vandal

YouTube | Spotify

Brand new again

In a world that's shattered

I'm feeling better than I thought I can

Vultures in command

Don't know what's better

I'm still flying if I crash or land

I'm still flying cos I'm better than ever

Cruising on my own

I'm moving up where I belong

But at the top it's fucking cold

But I'm moving, I'm moving, I'm moving on without you

~

How your character sees themself

Walked Through Fire - Poise

YouTube | Spotify

Make no mistake baby

I'm the one you wanna be around

I walked through fire to get here

And there’s no way I'm giving up now

It all pales in comparison and

I recover so quick

I'm holding on to what I've got for dear life

And I'm gonna make the most of it

I'm gonna show you

Show you

Show you

Show you

All that I can do

Can do

Can do

Can do

~

How others view them

Behemon - FedBanger

YouTube | SoundCloud

This one’s a little silly and unserious, but the mental image makes me laugh. It’s not just just about their fighting style, it’s also their personality (collector of bones and trinkets, chaos child, local cryptid, casual mad scientist).

Everyone’s First Impression (tiny, cute, harmless), followed by Immediate Realization (oh no).

~

Their closest relationship (romantic or platonic)

rises the moon - Liana Flores

YouTube | Spotify

Vher and Cullen’s theme song 🖤

Days seem sometimes as if they'll never end

Sun digs its heels to taunt you

But after sunlit days, one thing stays the same

Rises the moon

Days fade into a watercolour blur

Memories swim and haunt you

But look into the lake, shimmering like smoke

Rises the moon

Oh-oh, close your weary eyes

I promise you that soon the autumn comes

To darken fading summer skies

Breathe, breathe, breathe

~

A major fight scene

Alien Blues (Redux) - Vundabar, Indigo De Souza

YouTube | Spotify

This is all vibes. This song is not for a big fight, it's actually a scuffle in an alley in Val Royeaux. Some city guards found the group as Vher was giving money to beggars after the failed attempts to talk to the Chantry. The guards called out for them to stop, called them a filthy, murderous knife ear who killed the Divine. Just after the vocals jump in, the cymbal hit is the exact moment Cassandra throws the first punch.

"My trainers always said, 'Cassandra, you are too brash. You must think before you act.'" Yeah, I took that line and ran with it, ahaha. Queue Varric and Solas pulling back Vher and Cass from the fist fight.

~

End credits song

Prove It - Poppy

YouTube | Spotify

Theme for everything that happens in Trespasser - the Exalted Council, the attempted siege, Solas’ reveal, the personal feelings of betrayal, disbanding the Inquisition.

I won't get in cause I re-recognize the cage

That's where I've been

Yeah, it's all writ on my face

You think I'm mean

Ah but you don't know my rage

I won't get in cause I re-recognize the cage

I won't get in cause I re-recognize the cage

That's where I've been

Yeah, it's all writ on my face

You think I'm mean

Ah but you don't know my rage

I won't get in cause I re-recognize the cage

I got no one to prove myself to but me

That's why my heels are dug in so deep

I am the blood and the guts

Smeared all over the page

I'm on the wall of a gallery, put on display

A culmination of mistakes

In a picture frame

Put me up for sale

For a price you cannot pay

~

Tagging @rea24268 @inquisiorastoria @maternal-space-person @star--nymph @picayune-artist @jefarawol @chanafehs

Blank template:

• Event that defines your character's past

• How your character sees themself

• How others view them

• Their closest relationship (romantic or platonic)

• A major fight scene

• End credit song

[hockeyspiral23]

WIP Ask Game

Tagged by @thoughtsaboutshows

Rules: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Sooooo I don't name my files. My WIPs are all in random notes in my phone. Some take up multiple notes. But this is what I've got going on currently in no particular order ... (some are actually named but very few)

(some of these are also literally just a summary of a possibility)

Three Fingers of Aretian Reserve

Rhiannon POV/friendship thing

unnamed coffee shop au

Really Great tales and stories (maybe???)

skiing au

he wears her jersey (viayn universe)

soul-scarred part two

soul-scarred part three (and beyond)

music/band au the redux

Plan? What Plan?

newer/different hockey au

Courtlyn/Lecter

Xaden Riorson, P.I.

P&P triathlon

P&P college hockey

OG fiction

... and there's no way in fuck I'm tagging 16 people. I barely know 16 people. So join if you want!

[redux-iterum]

You got harassed for writing the redux. What? Why? It, it honestly is upsetting and saddening hearing that you got harrased over writing your own version of Warrior Cats.

Well, Tumblr was an incredibly contentious place when the Redux was in swing. I won't claim I was perfect and the best writer ever - very far from that, in fact, which is why I restarted this story - but as far as I know, my popularity did not sit well with a number of people, and I got folks yelling at me over...frankly, I don't remember what. I think I shoved a lot of that time out of my head so I don't have to deal with it in the present day. But it was enough that I was dreading my inbox towards the end of the Redux's run, because I knew someone was going to be calling me some variation of "problematic" or "-ist/phobe", or scolding me for something I didn't do.

I do recall that people were especially upset over one particular aspect of the worldbuilding, that being that any cat who was biologically male was not allowed in the nursery for the safety of the kits, and that included trans mollies. I explained why this was over and over, but Tumblr at the time did not accept any worldbuilding that wasn't 10000% inclusive and accepting of everyone at all times, and the eventual conclusion was that the Redux was homo-and-transphobic, somehow. Nevermind that I had stated god knows how many times that the Clans didn't care about orientation or gender identity except in one super specific area where actual cat behavior and biology played a massive role. Someone tossed out the notion that I was homo/transphobic, and that's what I became.

I'll state for the record again that I absolutely had issues with my writing, but at some point I also had folks acting like I myself was a monster who couldn't handle criticism. I have no idea where that came from - I've always made a point of staying polite and calm with everyone in every level of hostility on their end, and I stayed out of the Redux's tag to avoid seeing anything that could potentially upset me and stir me to make a comment. I still remember someone telling me to "look at what everyone has been telling you", and I had no idea what they were talking about (because, again, I stayed out of the tag), and they refused to explain themselves to me. Criticism I always welcomed; even if I didn't agree with it, I made sure to always thank the person for their input. Maybe I told someone I didn't agree or I just didn't respond to them, I don't know. Something started that notion of "Dullard can't handle criticism" up.

It was a lot of shit like that, basically. I ended the Redux because I had no more joy in the creation of it thanks to the neverending harshness I was receiving, and even when it stopped and I explained what I'd had in mind, people were STILL giving me a hard time about some of the writing decisions. I was dreading the living hell out of Iterum's reception as a result. Luckily for me, people have almost entirely been giving nothing but praise to this version. It helps that I have someone with me who can tell me when a piece of writing is bad or how I should address this idea or that notion. Editors are invaluable, folks!

[bfdiredux]

since they appear in your pfp, how about you do price tag? --〔 >:D]

Price Tag is one of my favorite characters,,. Just for existing. I love trans rep :]

Resourceful, sensible, versatile, and deeply empathetic. Price Tag is a jack of all trades and a social chameleon.

Their long list of skills maaay lead to them trying to take on a workload that is simply too much for them and cause them to stress out. Fun little side arc where Price Tag learns boundaries!!

Price Tag is one of the two fresh newbies to join TPOT-- and it shows. Everyone else has established relationships and Price Tag is kind of there. I want to let them feel a bit overshadowed by their teammates in early TPOT so they can have a meaningful conversation with Book on TPOT 10.

I've seen people call them Naily but worse. But like? I don't see that. It's actually what inspired part of Redux!Price Tag! Maybe they do act like Naily sometimes. Social chameleon raa

Like. Compared to everyone else, who are they? There's a high chance they pretend to be someone else in certain groups to be liked because they've had a harder time making friends. Ok enough yapping about their social skills

Even in trying to be liked, Price Tag knows where to draw the line with others... But not with themself!

As TPOT continues, Price Tag forms a neutral-positive stance with most contestants. They have a strong bond with Book, being best friends, and a strong bond with Yellow Face, being business partners.

Yellow Face takes Price Tag on as an apprentice, pretty much. They learn quickly from him and establish that business partnership!! And then Yellow Face is eliminated, leaving Price Tag to take care of his business while he is away.

Price Tag also has close friends in most of Just Not. Things are rocky with them and Pillow.

The only true negative relationship they have is with Pencil. Price Tag has heard things through Book talking with them but meeting Pencil? Goodness, she's pushy and selfish.

Price Tag foils Pencil a LOT from her joining and beyond. Depending on how TPOT 19 goes, assuming Price Tag isn't eliminated,,, Pencil may decide that. Instead of taking accountability for her abuse of Book and Ice Cube, she should blame Price Tag for both of them not wanting to join her cross-team alliance.

This could mean Pencil deciding to sabotage Price Tag in the future!! Fun and exciting. It also depends on if Pencil gets better

[spiritsglade]

thank you for the tag @glitter-stained :]

Fic Writer Ask Game

1) How many works on Ao3?

33

[fun fact there used to be 2 more but they're gone now. lost media.]

2) Total Ao3 wordcount?

161,906

3) Top 5 fics by kudos

lies of omission

Something's Wrong with Jason Todd

homicidal tendencies

admonition

Unfortunate Circumstances

4) What fandoms do you write for?

27 - DCU/Batfam (26 are about Jason Todd)

3 - Moon Knight (2 of the show adaptation, 1 for comics)

3 - Wings of Fire

it's been jason todd for like 7 months straight at this point, but I do want to come back around to marvel eventually + wings of fire is like a sleeper agent that awakens every now and then and forces me to write another angsty oneshot about a children's book series. also i'm reading more non-bat dcu characters so maybe !! one day we'll get something there.

lots of unposted fics as well about ocs i have in various media (among us, hollow knight, rain world, etc.)

5) Do you respond to comments?

i am extremely inconsistent about this, but i do try! i do definitely read & cherish all of them though <3

6) Angstiest ending?

um. first instinct is protocol. because i do have other fics that end in very angsty ways but they're in like... 'hey remember this canon thing that happened? i'm gonna frame it in a way that hurts even worse' ways, while protocol innovated new and exciting pain.

7) Fic with the happiest ending?

why is my catalogue compressed misery who let this happen hang on. i think redux is the closest to a happy ending and even that is just the promise of joy on the horizon. maybe i need to be adding more fluffy codas to my works.

Something's Wrong with Jason Todd has a happy ending i think but also i am holding that fic at an arm's length still so i'm not rereading it to double check.

8) Do you get hate?

not off the top of my head, no! lies of omission gets a lot of people cursing out the characters (bruce, babs, and most recently cass) and i'm worried one day they'll figure out that it's me forcing said characters to do these things and redirect all the negative energy at me (joking)

9) Do you write smut?

nope.

10) Do you write crossovers?

no, but writing for comic characters is trying to wrangle 3 separate canons into something cohesive at all times, so it probably replicates the experience well enough, lol. i certainly think about crossovers often, and maybe one day one of my more well-formed concepts could make it onto a page.

11) Ever had a fic stolen?

i think the answer to this is no but i'm weirdly uncertain?? i know my art has absolutely been stolen so maybe i'm thinking of that instead.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope, but i've had someone ask if they could, so maybe that'll happen one day?

13) Have you ever co-written a fic?

yes! honestly it might have been more than once but the one that comes to mind is... i believe it was called Mirage, and i could dig it up if i really tried (which i will not be doing so). it was a future dystopian wings of fire fanfic that i think we got about seven chapters into and there was a general embarrassing lack of coordination between us lol.

anyway the person i was writing it with later revealed that they were multiple people using the same account and i'm still not entirely clear on which of said multiple people was actually writing it with me. you think you know a guy.

i would love to cowrite something again. it sounds like a lot of fun. does anyone want to roleplay with me and turn our transcript into a fic-- (also used to do a lot of roleplaying!! those were the days <3)

14) All-time favourite ship?

my wings of fire ocs. canary/aethon they're both fucked up and their relationship was a messy messy thing even before canary got themself blown up (don't worry about it) and it's even worse now. they're the dragons in my pinned post and i think the fact that aethon is killing canary there helps you get an idea of what their relationship is like. also acanthus is there and unwillingly part of the world's worst polycule.

for favorite ship that people might be more familiar i'm gonna have to go with marc spector x greer grant nelson (although jayroy might be edging them out for the top spot. it's hard to tell rn but jayroy has the benefit of a large fanbase throwing more propaganda in my direction.)

sorry thinking all the time about how marc's last words were him apologizing to greer because he promised he'd come back, and greer planning to break a god out of prison just to bring marc back, and neither of them were the 'first' for each other but that devotion is genuine. how greer first came back into marc's life as a way of monitoring him and he knew this and the way he betrays her trust and lies to her face later and they talk through these issues!! they make it work!! god. i lvoe them. i should probably figure out what their ship name is at some point.

15) WIPS you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

something shaped like brotherhood. fucking HATE that thing. it's um. from back in november. it was supposed to be part of what crawled out. let's not talk about it.

okay actually i will talk about it a little bit. the issue with that fic is that the plan for it was far too ambitious for my understanding of dc canon at the time and now that i do understand it slightly better, i don't think i could write it in a way that feels satisfying and true to the characters without wildly reworking how all of it works, and at this point i have other vague plans and concepts that hit similar emotional notes/plot points that i'd rather work on instead. like i guess i don't want to finish sslb itself but i do want to do things with its concepts and i'm sad that i can't reuse what i actually drafted for it without having to do major rehauls.

+ i do like the general concept for what crawled out. and i do want to finish the series but it's ughughhg. unlikely at this point. especially since i'm now rehashing similar beats in other fics.

anyway here's one of a couple theoretical summaries for it that have been Sitting There. Abandoned.

Red Hood slams onto the scene in Gotham in a meticulous, extravagant demonstration of violence. Nightwing disappears off Bludhaven's streets as everything that defines him crumbles into ash. These two things are, for the most part, unrelated.

there are fics that i really want to write and know that i realistically am unable to ever get done (cough cough suicide watch) but i'm still in denial about that and am chipping away at that monster very very slowly. if i just believein myself hard enough.

16) Writing strengths?

i like to think i'm good at dialogue + giving the narration a Distinct Voice. i love my limited third person pov that is filtered through a specific character's perspectives and beliefs!!

also TRUST that i am good at imagery. please. i know i don't dip into the flowery figurative language bucket often but i know that when i do, i do it well! i should do it more honestly. look out. i'm gonna personification all of your phenomenon.

17) Writing weaknesses?

i am weak on action scenes unfortunately :( i hate having to research and meticulously put a scene together and i think it shows a little when i vaguely navigate my way through a scene while describing minimum possible things going on. i'm gonna be entirely real. i forget how to write humans sometimes. i don't know how these bodies work despite living in one. it's what i get for being exclusively into a dragon book series for like 6 years straight.

like i genuinely believed if i watched more shows/movies with fight scenes i'd be better and more confident at blocking them out. anything including the characters doing more movement than waving their hands around a little makes me Struggle.

18) Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

hmm i don't have any strong feelings. the way i speak at home is a fucking mess of chinese & english so like yes i can see multilingual characters speaking this way, though it's only in pretty specific scenarios (like with family that also knows all languages involved). and as a reader i'm always a little excited when the writer starts blending in a language i Sort Of know so i can guesstimate at the meaning and then check the translation to see how far i got. + when people don't include translates but write the narration around it so you get the gist of conversation anyway is very fun. little endearments & nicknames (mijo, baobao) are neat. <3

but it's also like i do think if you're writing in other languages you do need to put in the work to make sure you're translating things correctly & sprinkling in the words in a way that would actually be natural for the speaker. (ex. damian calling jason 'akhi' -- akhi means 'my brother' so saying 'his akhi' just... is not right. and i've seen posts i can't find now about how that's formal arabic no one actually uses to address their siblings? take that part with a grain of salt i don't know any arabic & i'm repeating things from memory.)

19) First fandom you wrote for?

wings of fire!! my love for this children's book series about dragons truly knows no bounds. but i've also written entirely original writing back in like... fourth grade, or so. i was nine at the time, i do know that. i have an entire completed story about this girl named lokia born of the goddess of spring who had to go on an adventure to defeat the winter god after he kidnapped her mom. she met a cloud named fluff on her adventures. apparently it's titled Seasons and Dragonflies, and i actually managed to dig it up so have a lil excerpt:

“The blizzard is enchanted,” said Fluff. “It’s special.” The blizzard sprayed snow everywhere. Fluff charged into it and was whirled around by the storm, and thrown to the ground. “Oww…” said Fluff painfully. Lokia thought about what she was carrying. She knew she couldn’t destroy the blizzard with a sword. Suddenly she knew what to do. Taking out a few dry sticks, she poured the last of the fire onto the sticks. The flame flickered, then started burning the sticks. The blizzard felt the heat and melted, fell gently, like rain, and disappeared into the snow. The fire flickered and was also gone. Lokia and Fluff entered the palace with caution. 

that's the solution guys just melt the blizzard.

unsure what my first wings of fire fic would be. it's almost certainly deleted by now.

20) Favourite fic you've ever written?

one that is not on ao3... it's about aforementioned wings of fire ocs <3 whom i love dearly, and it's titled A Thousand Words We Never Said. here's an excerpt from it. my writing was Worse than it is now but the Heart of it. the CONCEPTS. they're Killing Me. and each other, apparently.

"You're distracted." It wasn't a question, but she offered a shrug anyway. "Too busy daydreaming about your pretty eyes." They were dark brown, rich, deeper than the night sky that glinted before them. They ignored her. Fair enough. "It's compromising your ability to fight." "Oh, we both know that doesn't matter. We'll just keep sparring, and I'll beat you next time." "I'll kill you, one of these days." Their eyes flickered towards her, without the slightest shift of their head. "I'll forget, or I'll overestimate you." She hummed, because there was nothing else to add, because it was true, because it ran both ways and it was just as likely that she'd be the one tearing a chunk out of their throat one day.

um for fic that you can actually read. compound fracture. ossification series in general i am very fond of compared to most of my other output.

no pressure tags: @birdieisnotwriting @havenesc @helsingvania @haithhegimp @just-a-random-dungeon-master + all my other beloved mutuals and anyone else who may want to join in!!

[heinousarrogance1]

Pinned Post Redux

OK somehow I managed to unpin or delete my pinned post and can’t find it.  So here we go again. This is a kink blog, if you are a minor please do not interact.   Yeah I get it, sex, especially kinky sex sounds really awesome. It is, but this isn’t a safe space for you to explore.  If I do find you engaging I’ll block you.  Other DNIs: bigots. Homophobes, transphobes, actual misogynists,  fascists, (yes that;s you Trump Voters), etc.  While my content tends strongly to male Dom/Fem Sub I’m of the belief that kink is inclusive. If you aren’t you can eff right off. if I find you I'll block you. I try to make this space as inclusive as I can. Tolerance is a social contract, if you don't give it you don't get it.

At  63 years old I’m  probably older than your father. If that bothers you, feel free to leave.   I have been interested in kink since I was a teenager, and consciously active in kink since at least my 30s.  Yes I do have a fair bit of experience with some things, but no it does not make me all knowing and godlike about everything kink related,  We’re always learning until we are dead. If you stop learning but still breathing you’re already  dead you just don’t know it yet.

Consent and safe(r) practices are the foundation of kink.  You can call it SSC, or RACK or whatever you want, but you must have consent and you must know enough to understand and reduce or  mitigate the risks you are taking doing this.  WIthout consent you have abuse, and without safety you are risking real injury. Some of the pictures/stories may look less than consensual. But that part of the fun of kink, playing things that look bad but having consent to do them.   I am terrible at tagging so, if you find some of my content triggering, probably best you unfollow now, or scroll quickly by the nasty bits as there probably won’t be tags on the stuff here.  Enter at your own risk. I do delve into a lot of humiliation, degradation, control, CNC (aka rape fantasy) ,S&M, female servitude  and misogynistic kinks.  Expect to see lots of that.  As kink it’s only to be practiced between consenting adults. ( see previous paragraph) The few things I do tend to be better at tagging are my writings and my asks. You can find those at the bottom of this post.

Themes I am  interested in and post about trend strongly Male Dom/Female sub.  But I often find inspiration elsewhere, so you might see bits of trans/gay/lesbian whatever from time to time.  Again no tags, so deal with it or leave. 

Lastly, as I do mostly reblogs and often add little vignettes or captions, if I reblog your content or images and you are uncomfortable with it for any reason let me know and I will remove it, no questions asked.   That said, if you want to  tell me what made you uncomfortable I can learn from the experience and get better. I would appreciate it,, but it’s never a requirement.

DMs, Asks and submissions (including anons) are open, and I love interacting with all you kinky  people here.  

[farmerbebop]

The sun was shining too bright for me to be worrying about my deadline so I guess I'll use this rare occasion to make a pinned post.

When I started blorbo posting it was simply because "If even I, who knows next to nothing about British and American TV series, can see that Patrick McGoohan was criminally underrated, then maybe this blog has a reason to exist."

The only thing I ever learned about blorbo posting is from the Columbo fandom. They have fun, and they love their blorbo. As the kids say: Love and peace on planet earth.

But McGoohan is a challenge and will never stop being one. His public image, both in front and behind of the camera, isn't that of someone who would be pleased with blorbo posting. I don't know how other blorbo bloggers feel, but I just wish I can hold a conversation with my blorbo that doesn't bore him to death or anger him to the point of throwing me out of the room.

Judging someone who talked about his nervous breakdown like it was just a cold isn't something I like to do, especially online. So if I have to talk about McGoohan, I always get quite nervous. I can only say that I regret we didn't get to know him as much as we would like to and I really wish he was still here with us.

I know many of the decisions he made, he made it for future generations. It's my privilege to say that my blorbo's gift to the three-year-old running this blog has been her greatest pride as a blorbo blogger. And her hardest and most honourable task is not to mess it up.

I actually didn't create this blog to please McGoohan (the ladies can testify to that, lol). And I think I make fun of him more than I should. But I hope he knows that life as a blorbo blogger isn't easy when your blorbo is Patrick McGoohan and maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be too hard on me.

And just in case anyone is wondering what the hell I'm doing on here, here's a short guide to my blog.

my stupid vid My McGoohan fancams are what I personally consider the funniest part of my blog. But they can be somewhat serious too, I think.

my lousy photoshopping This can mean just about anything. McGoohan as The Little Prince. McGoohan in Ingmar Bergman's films. Anything that I made with photoshop. So I have some more tags to categorize it.

mcgoohan at the museum What I love to do the most in photoshop is putting McGoohan into paintings. I don't know why. Maybe because it easily hides my lousy photoshopping skills. Or maybe because my blorbo is as beautiful as a painting.

mcgoohan album covers What can I say? “But you don't really care for music, do you?”

mcgoohan fashion Let's be honest, don't you love a beautiful blorbo?

mcgoohan posters I sometimes try not to misinterpret McGoohan's works, I don't know if I succeed though.

no context mcgoohan Mostly just McGoohan sitting or standing somewhere. But I love it nonetheless.

mcgoohan for kids and mcgoohan anime Well, it's exactly what you would expect it to be.

mcgoohan arthouse One day I'll retire from blorbo posting and go back to watching arthouse films.

mcgoohan stickers They are not as cute as cat or bunny stickers, but they stick all right.

the prisoner redux or anything redux means my lousy photoshopping for that particular series/movie. But when there are so many McGoohans in one post I get tired of tagging and I just give up.

I think that's enough of my lousy photoshopping.

wild mcgoohan in his natural habitat McGoohan as God intended him. Trying to not give away too much information in interviews.

mcgoohan lore McGoohan in someone else's words, including his daughter's. Needless to say, my words should not be trusted. You'll know them when you see them.

my gif McGoohan gifs, mostly for losing tumblr polls. Also for making this blog popular with the ladies on here.

village poetry If there's one thing that McGoohan might like about this blog, this is probably it.

village soundcloud Blorbos and song lyrics go hand in hand - Tumblr proverb.

mcgoogoo and me Just me rambling about my McGoohan dreams and my hard life as a blorbo blogger.

my lousy shitposting It has something to do with McGoohan I'm afraid. But it's fun.

I know this blog has become quite predictable and it's filled with half of my life's story. But if McGoohan was really who I think he was, that would be the least of his problems with my blog.

And finally, my hiatus is a running joke that I'm getting worse at, I hope.

[rockinlibrarian]

The Lyric Game Redux Redux Answers and another attempt at polls!

So before I go into the Answers to this game I'm going to address the second part of the title. Yesterday around lunchtime I posted a cleaned-up version of the round with all the clues consolidated for easier study, but notably ALSO with a couple of polls. Now, me, I'm a compulsive must-click-buttoner, so I was kind of surprised that by the time the polls closed 24 hours later, no one had voted in them. (Except for the one I hit by accident). I don't know if this is because no one is actually ON Tumblr on Sunday afternoons through Monday morning, or if I'm just invisible by accident or on mute on purpose, but either way, the results of a survey nobody takes can hardly help me out any. So let's try again, and this time if you see this VOTE even if you don't care! Just so I know you saw this!

*and then I explained here that someone counting in "1, 2, 3, 4!" would NOT (ironically) count as the First Line for game purposes, but someone dramatically preaching, "Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today to get through this thing called Life" WOULD.

AND I can't put two polls in one post, so I'll redo the other at the BOTTOM (reblog) of this, and put the answers in the middle.

SO, ANSWERS!

No wait, first, WINNERS!

The Top Scorer with 8 points (four correct titles and four correct artists) is my old college roommate, Tracie, who is not on Tumblr, but gave her answers in the comments of the Facebook post where I linked to this! And lest you think she had an unfair advantage from living with me for two years, I must point out that a surprising number of songs on the list were not yet in my collection in college!

And anyway @dannypageoflight lived with me for a decade and change and @sunnymarbles over 16 years and neither of THEM even bothered to guess. :P

But in second place with 4 points (2 song-and-artist combos) is Sophie who also commented on Facebook, although she did used to be on Tumblr... @fbi-angel-in-a-trenchcoat oh dude I can still tag her! Heeeeyyyyy!

And saving my sanity with one pointed response is someone I KNOW IS still on Tumblr, @rj-anderson, even though she actually responded on BlueSky.

First Honorable Mention to @alihahdnaid who didn't EXACTLY make a guess, but DID point out an interesting similarity between a completely different song and one of the lines on the list.

Second Honorable Mentions (tie) to @stephsageek and @uniasus who tried their hardest!

Fourth Honorable Mention to mine and Tracie's other college friend, Liz, who managed NOT to identify the song SHE INTRODUCED ME TO IN THE FIRST PLACE, because that's just funny.

Okay, so NOW Answers!

Also including links so you can hear the songs and say either "OHHHHHH NOW I remember" or "Oh, that's a nice song, thanks for introducing me Amy!"

1: "Listen as your day unfolds; challenge what the future holds"—"You Gotta Be," Des'ree. Immediately recognized by both Sophie and Tracie.

2 bonus. "Just ask the folks who knew me when, they'll say, "Nice boy, but he's always been…" —"Lucky Charm," by Apples in Stereo Yeah didn't expect anyone to get that one.

2: for really real:"[title of song] before my eyes just teach me to despise" —"Shapes of Things," the Yardbirds

3: "[Title of song and keyword repeated] I know I'll find you somehow, and somehow I'll return again to you"—"I Know You're Out There Somewhere," the Moody Blues Tracie got this one eventually too, perhaps after I mentioned that it WAS one I had frequently played when we lived together.

4: "I found my love in [Title] beside the bay" —"Avalon," Natalie Cole off her hit 1991 album Unforgettable on which she covered a bunch of her dad Nat "King" Cole's hits and famously "duetted" with him on the title track, which if you were alive in the 90s you couldn't avoid for awhile. Seriously.

5: "Your eyes are burning holes through me, I'm gasoline, I'm burning clean" —"Electrolite," R.E.M. Yeah, I didn't even really know that one.

6: "Friday night I crashed your party; Saturday I said I'm sorry"— "You May Be Right," Billy Joel. I am correct, Everyone knows it. Both Sophie and Tracie got it right away at least. And now the rest of you are going "UGHHHHH I DID know it!"

7: "It sure was a [title of song] as far as my eyes could see"— "Long Hot Summer Night," the Jimi Hendrix Experience To be honest the first line is actually "It sure was a long, long, long hot summer night" but I couldn't think how to say that not awkwardly. And probably wouldn't have made a difference in anyone getting it.

8: "That's all I wanted, something special, something sacred in your eyes"— "Father Figure," George Michael THANK YOU @rj_anderson for not making me think I'm crazy because no one was getting it!

9: "And the [title] is on its way, I can hear the merry [word now considered a slur. But associated with the title!] play" —"Caravan," Van Morrison off his 1970 album Moondance which is so mellow and great to chill to, everyone needs to own that album.

10: "I linger in the doorway, of alarm clock screaming, monsters calling my name." —"Imaginary," Evanescence off their 2003 album Fallen, which I first heard at Tracie's house while visiting with a bunch of other college friends, and Liz wouldn't stop talking about it and made us all listen. I told this story on the Facebook post and Tracie eventually went "OH YEAH!" and got it. Liz herself, when she saw Tracie's answer, said "oh right. It KIND of rang a bell. I still don't really remember."

It's kind of like how when we're making hot dogs I'll start singing "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggety-dog!" and my kids have no idea what I'm talking about because they don't REMEMBER being toddlers who wouldn't stop watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Kind of like that, but not much.

Anyway.

[espers-n-espurrs]

Pinned Post

ignore the name on my trainer card and call me esper, im age 15, pronouns she/her, disabled.

im also psychic though im not out about it irl, im only sharing this here because rotomblr can only be accessed by. like. a small handful of people in my universe. so its safe for me to be out about that here since i cant irl.

attending naranja-uva academy as a general studies student. though due to circumstances i keep having to flipflop between online classes and in-person.

i grew up in spikemuth for most of my life, though one thing has led to another and i am now aware that i was born and raised in kalos for some time before having been brought to galar as a younger child and i have found out a lot of what i knew was false. and as of finding that out my family and life situation changed significantly so be ready to hear me bitch about that on occasion.

i enjoy: horror, args, art, music, baking/cooking, photography, etc. and my favorite pokemon is deerling and sawsbuck.

My PKMN:

Fauna - Deerling | Starter

Harley - Maschiff | Service PKMN

Taffeta - Flaaffy

Kingsley - Pangoro | "Bodyguard"??

Eilwen - Espurr [F] | "Handmaiden"??

[ OOC: Please read under the cut ! ]

My other PKMN IRL Blogs can be found linked to my OOC hub alongside OOC talks: @grims-local-pkmn-irl-hub

BLOG RULES/GUIDELINES

Though the mun is an adult, the character is still a minor, so please be mindful of how you interact! NO NSFW.

Pelipper Mail/Malice, Musharna Mail/Malice, Magic Anons, Mystery Gifts, Union Circle: OFF

ANY kind of PKMN IRL blog can interact! Eeby Deebies, sapient/sentient pkmn, evil teams, canon characters, etc. ➥ Be aware that Esper will be fearful/hesitant when interacting with blatant legendary/mythical blogs!

IN CHARACTER anon hate is fine! Keep in mind that I reserve the right to not answer all anon hate asks though! Especially if they are something I don't feel comfortable answering!

ASK TO TAG! Sometimes an important tag may slip my mind or I may not think of it so please do not be afraid to let me know!

HIGH STAKES! This blog will delve into high stakes territory at certain points! Be aware of this for your own comfort!

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

Discussion/Exploration of trauma and abuse, discussions of death, discussions of suicide & self harm/EDs, ableism, misogyny

STORY ARCS

Moved to separate page for ease of viewing, click here to access!

General Tags

#esper beams -> Posts made by Esper

#esper rbs -> Posts reblogged by Esper

#askbox -> Ask responses

Semi-Important Tags

#dog brother -> Posts that mention or include Flynn (@/estranger-and-stranger-still) aka Esper’s older brother

#victoria / MN tag -> Posts that mention or include Victoria (@/victoria-vd) aka Esper’s girlfriend

#thievul tag -> Posts that mention or include “Thievul”

#la famille -> Posts that mention Esper's family or speak indepth about them

#psychicposting -> Posts about being psychic or sharing psychic lore

#redux worldbuilding -> Posts about different worldbuilding aspects of redux

#tribes of vianna -> Esper posting about the indigenous people of Galar (the Kingsmen and the Equirex)

#faiths of vianna -> Esper posting about the religion she was raised in aka the religion of the Kingsmen and the Equirex

Important Tags

#foresight -> Posts to pay attention to! These might provide clues or foreshadowing for ongoing or future arcs!

#miracle eye -> Offscreen posts

#blind spot -> Blind spot signifies that the tagged post is completely invisible to certain blogs linked to this one! ➥ If a post is tagged with a specific character than that specific character cannot see it while the others are able to! For example "#blind spot: esper" would mean that Esper cannot see that post! Blind Spots are completely visible to everyone else besides the above blogs so anons or otherwise are able to see and engage with these posts!

Blogs heavily tied to Esper:

@estranger-and-stranger-still @victoria-vd @jaimemes @yveltalreal @aspens-dragons @vulgrados-best @rock-n-rolycoly

And Esper <3

[icegirl2772]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Redux

I did this back in May 2024, and when I saw it floating around Tumblr again, I wanted to redo it just to see how much things have changed between then and now.

How many works do you have on AO3? 27 (and more to come - especially since I'm participating in Year of the OTP)

What's your total word count? 1,534,546

What fandoms do you write for? Big Time Rush (TV series), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Case (video game), Harry Potter, Hawaii Five-0 (2010 series), Loonatics Unleashed, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 series), Thunderbirds (1965 series), and Transformers: Prime

Top five fics by kudos: At the time of answering this: The Adventures of Avery Samuels: Welcome to Grimsborough (121), The Thunderbird and the Doctor (115), Take a Shot in the Dark (92), In the Darkness (82), Save You (82) - in case anyone's curous, I have 1,133 kudos across all my fics.

Do you respond to comments? I used to because I started it with The Thunderbird and the Doctor. But I don't really do that much anymore. I only reply if someone asks a question.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Probably Nothing For You Here.

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The Thunderbird and the Doctor since I gave my couple a happily ever after.

Do you get hate on fics? Not since I've been on AO3.

Do you write smut? Heck yeah!

Craziest crossover? Once upon a time, in my FFN days, I wrote a Loonatics Unleashed/Ben 10 crossover that I promptly abandoned. I tend to stay away from crossovers nowadays.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Unfortunately, yes. Someone took one of my fics and started posting it on Wattpad.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but it'd be cool if someone wanted to.

Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Way back when and it never worked out.

All-time favourite ship? Again, do shipping canon characters with my OCs count? Although, my original OTP was Ace/Lexi from Loonatics Unleashed...

What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Probably In the Darkness. I'm just finding that increasingly hard to write.

What are your writing strengths? Probably my cliffhangers. Although, I got a lot of positive reviews on my smuts, so I'd say I'm good at writing smut.

What are your writing weaknesses? I have a lot (my confidence is nonexistant)

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? As long as a translation is easily accessible, I'm cool with it. I've never written in another language, but I won't say no to the challenge.

First fandom you ever wrote in? Loonatics Unleashed

Favourite fic you've written? No! I won't pick a favourite child! ...jokes. Today, it's Take a Shot in the Dark!

I nominate anyone who wants to do it. @myloveforhergoeson I know you did this before (because I tagged you in it last time), but it'll be interesting to see how much yours has changed. Especially since you've got more fics up. (I promise I'll read your Daisy one.)

[karliahs]

fic writer interview!!

tysm @plusultraetc for the tag!! <3

How many works do you have on AO3?

50 exactly!

What's your total AO3 word count?

234,906, almost half of which (110k) was written/posted this year. insane!!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

darken your door (12,832)

walk a mile (5642)

swan dive (4857)

rescue (3905)

something else to pretend (3,572)

there's a theme here and it's bnha fics i wrote in 2019/2020

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yes!! with several asterisks i'll get into in a minute. i try to respond to every comment i get because:

i genuinely really appreciate that anyone takes the time to tell me they liked a fic when they could just consume it and say nothing with 0 consequences, so i want to say thank you

some comments have a rly big impact on me - change the way i feel about stuff, contain phrases i remember for a really long time, make me cry, etc - and just like how if someone writes a fic that impacts me then i want to tell them, i want to tell people how much their comment mattered

i often only figure out why i did something or made certain choices in a fic until someone prompts me to talk about it. it's such a useful exercise for understanding my own work better

i genuinely adore rambling about my fics, it's arguably more fun than writing them in the first place

it's really nice getting to chat to commenters and get to know people!

however. there is a 3-4 year period where i didn't reply to any comments at all because i got overwhelmed and then felt like it was too late to try and catch up. this still haunts me a little bit because i got some really lovely impactful comments in that era but it just feels too weird to reply literally like 5 years late 😭

2nd asterisk is some fics i feel kind of embarrassed about and so don't reply to comments on, 3rd is that i'm bad at managing my comments inbox so i'm sure i miss people out by accident sometimes, and 4th is that if i don't have anything nice to say then i won't respond...i get almost no comments i think are intentionally meant to be rude, but sometimes i get ones that rankle for one reason or another and i won't reply if i'm just gonna be tetchy bc again, i don't think they're meant badly

so very much a yes in theory but not in practice 😂

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

bargaining chips i think. the funny thing about that series is that in some ways i think things would ultimately turn out better than in canon (there's a reason the 2nd fic has akechi promise to contact ren if he does survive, a thing that would have paid off in the 3rd fic i never finished). but as of bargaining chips it's very much...this is the POV of a person who thinks the only power they have left in the world is to hurt people

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

my usual ending is like bittersweet and/or hopeful, so for example i feel a lot of things about the cathertic (for me at least) endings for redux and something else to pretend and unwanted, but idk if they can exactly be called happy.

going to my pure silly fluff fics instead where we pretty much start happy and end happy: to work, to rest which ends with the gang being happy about stickers, or class pets which ends with class a getting three (3) cats

Do you write crossovers?

nope!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

not really! probably the closest was someone commenting on pathologised with just "WHERE IS YUSUKE?" in all caps 🙄 "why isn't my fave dude in your fic" is not a genre of comment i enjoy, though it's usually phrased more politely than that at least

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

nope!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware of, though it's apparently fairly rampant in bnha fandom with those "what if deku [x]" youtube videos. i think those are reserved for fics with actual plots though

Have you ever had a fic translated?

i think i've been asked for permission for people to do so before, but i don't think i've ever actually seen anything posted...someone did translate a little section of one fic into spanish in a bookmarker comment once, which was very fun because i remember little bits of spanish from school & years of sporadic duolingo

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no but i think it would be so fun 👀

What's your all-time favorite ship?

mannnn i just cannot care about romantic ships the way that seems to be so ubiquitous in fandom. even when i try and write romance it ends up as like ambigious tenderness or Friendship With Vibes. the few times i've even written kissing it's been just a build up to a kiss after which the fic immediately fades to black, which is really funny in retrospect like...buddy, is that because you stop caring about what's happening once the kissing starts?

i am fond of erasermic, jontim and shindeku, though i enjoy them as platonic dynamics pretty much the same amount

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

it mostly doesn't bother me to have tons of unfinished WIPs, i don't really put that expectation that everything i start will or should get finished/posted.

so the only one that genuinely bugs me is the third fic in seen and not heard, because i feel like i kind of promised it to people and then didn't deliver, and because it would have properly concluded a series i know a few people really connected with...and because the draft got to like 80% done but i could just never finish it off in a way i was happy with. maybe someday though

there's also a more recent bnha fic draft that i am really fond of in some ways, but i just could not take the discourse i think it would inspire. i might finish it just for me someday

What are your writing strengths?

cribbing all these from comments honestly but i think i'm pretty good at real-feeling emotional responses to situations. emotional realism, maybe? and writing introspection/people thinking and feeling things in general.

my characterisation gets complimented a fair bit, which is funny bc i think i actually take a lot of liberties with canon characters, but i guess i'm decent at couching those liberties in a way that makes it pass muster most of the time. like passing off a counterfeit watch as genuine

i'm somewhat good with grounding things in sensory detail, but that's one of those things i think i'll always be trying to get better at

What are your writing weaknesses?

i've never met a plot in my life and i don't want to. i also can't write longfic. in real-world terms i'm a short story writer and not a novelist - all those structural narrative things people do to make a long-form story work are just mystifying to me. part of that is just driven by what interests me though - i don't read a lot of plotty longfic either

i'm also still working on improving syntax and flow in my prose in general, but that's another one of those endless projects i think

oh also having more than two people in a prolonged dialogue scene is wildly difficult to me

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i have no thoughts on this matter!

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

merlin! i wrote probably bad merlin fic on ff.net back when i was like 15/16. it's actually the reason i joined tumblr in the first place, bc my fave merlin fic writer had a tumblr and i got curious

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

i'd like to write more about my silly little video game OCs. i've dabbled in it a bit before but i've never really invested in it because i know no one would read it/care. but i'm getting better at writing for myself and it is really fun to have records of these OCs that i love, so i hope i can write some stuff about the protag i make for new dragon age that i'll inevitably get deeply attached to

it's also kind of wild to me that i've never written for homestuck or dangan ronpa given the impact those two things had on my psyche

What's your favorite fic you've written?

my answer to this changes depending on the day but right now...something else to pretend my beloved

wow that got long. not tagging anyone but if you'd like to do it, consider yourself tagged!