#Or maybe lore is explained more in the sequel but I'm not going to talk about that

[hermitw]

Complaint that the best thing I've ever written might be this fic where Sukuna's milk-dripping tiddies save us from the shibuya incident

[moinsbienquekaworu]

you’re my dragon age mutual— should i play it?? idk if its good or not, is it enjoyable to play?? :O

I'm the Dragon Age mutual!! 🎉🎉 wooo

This is going to be a novel but TL;DR if you get them on sale (the three older ones go for like 6€ regularly on Steam) or even cheaper (wink wink etc.) they're a compelling experience. I'm chronically incapable of shutting up but if you've got the money and a computer or console that runs them (the most recent apart from Veilguard is from 2014, it should be fine?) and the posts I keep reblogging make it sound interesting, sure!

I don't know how clear that was from all the posts but they're computer role-playing games in a fantasy world that discusses oppression and religion and culture, sometimes in a hopeful way, sometimes in a tragic way. CRPGs are like - Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, the Baldur's Gate games, the Fallout games, etc. Like a tabletop role-playing game, DnD, etc. but alone at a computer. If you would like to play pretend and make up a guy to go on adventures where you save the world (or fail to, depending), if you like games that have endearing companions, or you love lore and worldbuilding, I think they're fun, and you should give them a shot. If you're afraid about the combat, because I know I was, you can set the difficulty on easy and not worry about it too much. If you're looking for something cozy, maybe not Dragon Age, though :') it's a bit dark at times, people die, you have to figure out some rough situations, there's systematic oppression, religion that isn't always very nice, etc.

There are four games: Dragon Age Origins, spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 if that means anything to you, where you save the world; Dragon Age 2, the tragedy in one specific city; Dragon Age Inquisition, where you save the world but from a different threat; and Dragon Age the Veilguard, which is a sequel to the plot of DAI where you save the world also but it's a different vibe. If you want better summaries, I can get into more detail, or wikipedia probably has you covered.

Playing them in order, so DAO -> DA2 -> DAI -> DAV, lets your character and decisions from the earlier games be imported in the later ones, which is neat because it feels like you're playing in your own custom world instead of factory default (they didn't keep that up with Veilguard). It also introduces you to the world the "intended way", ie you're less likely to get lost in the lore and who's who and what things mean.

That said, it's really not necessary to play them in order. If, say, DA2, looks super interesting, play that one and don't worry about it. All the games have in-game explanations of who's who and what things mean, and even Veilguard, which continues the plot of Inquisition, explains what's going on. There's a wiki if you like reading wikis also. Having your own little custom world where so and so is king because you put him on the throne two games ago is fun but it's not necessary at all. A lot of people started playing with Inquisition, and nowadays they're also some people who started with the recent one, Veilguard, like me, and it's fine. Origins, 2 and Inquisition keep a relatively similar vibe, in terms of which topics are tackled, how they're handled, the writing, even the aesthetic influences, and Veilguard is different because of its development, but that's nitpicking.

I'd say, if you want to play one, Inquisition isn't a bad starting point, because it's got the Dragon Age vibe but it's a more modern kind of video game, so there isn't the barrier of "what kind of an outdated system is that" (sorry DAO combat). That said, if any companions catch your eye, definitely play the game they're from, because the companions are really fun, and if you want a specific kind of story you can look at plot summaries for the games and decide on that.

Anyway! I think that helps? Maybe? I love talking so if you have more questions, ask away, and if you do end up playing one of them, definitely tell me!

[cilil]

Would you ever write for another fandom (non-tolkien)? 🧐

Thanks for the ask!

The quick answer is yes, but also no. Here's why.

Generally I always have one main fandom that takes up the vast majority of my fixation and that I write for. There are always other fandoms too that I will sometimes visit to see what's going on and what stuff they're making, but in those I'm as much of a ghost as I used to be in Silm when I first got into it. Basically nobody sees me, nobody knows me, nobody realizes I'm there and quietly reading fic and looking at art.

In recent times, now that I'm more used to sharing what I create and interacting with fandoms, I've strongly considered branching out and maybe writing a fic or two for other stuff I enjoy, however...

I'm not comfortable writing for things before I haven't gotten DEEP into the entire thing

I'm picky with fandoms due to past issues

Let me explain.

As for the first thing, I know that many people are eager to jump right in when they find a new thing they enjoy and go right to creating fanwork and let me be very clear, that's awesome and as always you do you. But I'm both a curious kat and anxious so I need time to get to know the characters, gobble up the entire lore and make up my mind about stuff. My anxiety and perfectionism demand that I get at least a decent, if not good grasp of everything first so I get it "right".

(I do realize that there are probably a whole bunch of people out there who think my Silm takes are shit and I'm ruining this or that character and getting things wrong, but in this case I can look back at years of reading, research and headcanons, so... by all means, that's a fight we can have. I can stand my ground here.)

Again, not saying this is the right or better way, that's just how I prefer to engage with media and create for it.

As for the second thing, I'm very picky when it comes to deciding which fandoms I want to create and share writing for. No, before anyone gets any ideas, this is not about numbers. And if you don't believe me: If it was about numbers, I certainly wouldn't have spent yesterday evening writing about Mr. Manwë Súlimo out of all the Tolkien characters ;)

The main thing I look at in fandoms are their vibes, particularly how chill they are with stuff. If it's a fandom that's currently blowing up, there tend to be some pearl clutchers and bad actors coming in, so I stay out. If I see a lot of controversy, like character bashing or ship hate or bullying and harassment, I'm not willing to create for that fandom. For example I recently watched another episode of a series I'm currently enjoying (some of you may know what I'm talking about...) and then I saw several comment threads going like "these characters are totally sibling-coded" and leading into "I can't believe people ship this" territory. No, the characters were not even related and no, nobody had even talked about shipping them. That tells me everything about attitudes that I need to know. And after having my old fandom (hi there, I hate you still, hope you enjoy not getting the sequel fics you begged me to write :)) ruin my enjoyment for the ship that I came into the fandom for in the first place, I'm not doing this again.

Yes, I do realize that a toxic judgemental subset of fans don't speak for everyone and that there most likely are cool people in those fandoms too that I would be friends with, but for my own mental health that's a boundary I have to draw for the time being. It may be that my fuse is just extremely short at the moment and that I dip in my toes at a later date; after all, there was a time where I was technically writing for both Silm and my old fandom, so it's very much possible.

But for now, this is why I'm writing Silm only and have no concrete plans to write for other fandoms.

[stillthewc]

YEAR OF THE FANGAN - MAY EDITION

ꕥ DANGANRONPA UNDERLAND ꕥ

Is it a little unfair to include a story that had one of its entries already having a YOTF entry written on it? Maybe. But do I feel the need to gush about this particular part of the series anyways, since I love it so much? HELL YEAH I DO!

Okay, let me explain: in January, I covered a fangan called "Danganronpa Wonderland", a fantastic story filled with great relationship writing and a fun, engaging story. "Danganronpa Underland" serves as both a sequel and prequel to it, explaining the events of an incident central to Wonderland's conflict, while being narrated to one of Wonderland's survivors. It's very much a story I can't get super-detailed on due to spoilers, but it's one worth talking about regardless.

Now, I'll be the first to admit I'm not one for fangans where you already know the outcome of it. It's a big reason why I can't get into V2 fics (even if I want people to check out Despair From The Heart and Vicious Veracity regardless of my own disinterest of the subgenre), so knowing the key survivors of this story's killing game was gonna be an uphill battle for me. However, I can safely say that this story not only lives up to the quality of its predecessor, but improves upon its own formula.

The first point of comparison is the cast between both series. While several of the characters in Wonderland are genuinely top-notch, some cast member I liked moreso from a storytelling perspective rather than their personality traits. Here, everyone feels super grounded, with even some of the more goofy characters like Ayato feeling like actual people you can meet in real life. This mainly stems from the narrative giving time to get to know these character's lives, insecurities, and struggles, something that makes character-focused scenes (like explosive arguments) all the more compelling.

The second point of comparison, and my personal favorite aspect of this story I might add, is how the story treats the act of giving out info on the side cast. In Wonderland, while the FTE segments were quite nice, they sadly only gave backstory to a handful of the characters. Here, though? Every single character who dies in the narrative is given a spotlight chapter. Did a fave of yours die early without being able to learn more about them? HAVE SOME BACKSTORY! Did the focus on the central narrative only allow for some character aspects to be hinted at? HERE'S SOMETHING THAT'LL FLESH THEM OUT, BABY! Not only is this an ingenious way to give insight on the characters without being too intrusive to the narrative, but the flower theming of these chapters is so damn cool as well!

Now, moving away from massive improvements done to the story's formula, I just like what it does to the Wonderland mythos as a whole. While I can't go into major specifics out of fear of spoiling the first entry in the series, it's neat to see the origins of some of the characters shown in Wonderland, and highlight just how much they've changed from how they started here. I particularly like the main character's relationships with Itsuki and Taihei, two newcomers that help showcase the more human aspect of them and serve as an interesting mirror counterpart to them, respectively.

I also really, really dig how despite this being about a whole new set of cast members, the narrative still shines a light on one of their previous survivor's development through interludes. Their traumas, as well as their slow exploration of this story's narrator, add so much to their character, and is shaping up to set them up super well for the third part of this story (even if I'm incredibly scared on just what their role's going to be, considering some of the new bits of lore)

And that's all I can really say without giving out massive spoilers! Even if the information below might become a bit outdated (as of writing, the story just ended Chapter 3, and it updates relatively quickly from what I've seen), please take a look at the highlight reel, read this dang story, and join me next month for whatever the hell I talk about next!

FORMAT: Written

WHERE TO FIND IT: Ao3 (although I'll reiterate once again, please read Wonderland before this one!)

FAVORITE CHAPTER: Chapter 3, for its absolute batshit-insane trial that involves the breaking of the typical formula from before that point, recontextualization of previous story events, and a complicated exploration of character motivations for a ton of the cast.

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Yuuki Kutsumukai. A tap dancer quick to be a pompous asshole who boasts about his own greatness, "pride is an insecurity", as he hides an inferiority-superiority complex and one of the most morally-repugnant-yet-tragic backstories out of anyone else in the cast.

OTHER STANDOUT CHARACTERS: Eren Hagoromo, a dressmaker who, while catty and drama-obsessed at a glance, masks a razor-sharp wit and pure heart full of emotional maturity, and Hime Nakaya, an ice skater with Disney Princess-like qualities, noted for being kindhearted, romantic, and unfortunately quite naive.

[heart-star]

Nobody:

Me: adding in my headcanon a connection between team Ico's trilogy and other medieval playstation games believing they're in the same world and lore.

I already posted about this but I'm explaining better this time.

As some fans would know, all games have a dark entity that evolved each time (we can call it only Dormin) in the middle game it has been divided in 16th different bodies and then has been defeated again but in Ico we see a lot of humanoid shadows in one place, so what if this entity splitted way more and spread in different universes?

In my opinion, since I noticed that Sonic in some way is doing things similar to the protagonists of Ueda's games but (mostly like Wander from Sotc) I thought to see a connection between the trology world and the medieval Sonic game.

Like what if satbk wasn't exactly how seems he was telling at the end that we see, what if it was some test/trial made for him but he wasn't allowed to tell to anyone outside that world so he made up things using also Camelot's story?

It could've went totally different, for example: the knights, blacksmith and Nimue weren't exactly sosias of his friends but someone else (I like to imagine them as a variant of Chris Torndyke and his friends don't bother thinking about this) and maybe it was all a sequel to Ico with Merlina actually being Yorda, totally took over by darkness when she became the final boss, and the blacksmith was actually the omonymous protagonist of the game who grew up and worked making weapons since those are a part of his memories back then.

Maybe Caliburn wasn't actually a talking sword but a fellow magic mask like from Crash Bandicoot that had the task to helping Sonic with the test he had to do in the other world using his metal powers.

As for what happens between the 2nd and 3rd game, maybe after the kid protagonist defeated the master of the valley (orb shaped like "the end" in Sonic frontiers) it remains in that world creating chaos again and once the boy is grown he goes everywhere to fight this entity, slowly becoming Dormin, accompanied by friends from his village and peraphs people he warned of that dark being and convinced to fight with charisma until he became old but there were still people who got infected by the darkness like the witch queen we see in "The girl and the robot".

I personally, seeing that little girl with grey hair, couldn't help but believe that she was actually Mono from Sotc when she was younger and at the end she was saved by the old man who was protagonist in "The last guardian" and his knight team, with Emon between them, and around that time she first met Wander as a kid too and those 2 slowly fell in love as they grew up.

Then I was thinking even the game Medievil was connected to the trilogy maybe in another medieval world since we don't see many details from the trilogy but have the villain having horns like there are in the 3 games and uses magic to bring back the dead and making them his army, a detail that was said even in shadow of the colossus and that was probably what Dormin did as evil conquering, indirect actions, and maybe that Zarok who's the first infected with dark remains after the middle game so he has horns is the reason if in Ico all the horned kids were brought in a fortess: it was a plan, to scare everyone then go offworld so he could find the other pieces of Dormin who went more far while in the original trilogy's world the pieces inside thw bodies of the horned ones were easily reunited and destroyed.

[violetsystems]

I picked back up Horizon Zero Dawn again on the PC. It's still a beautiful looking game on a 6700XT. It's a little slow to get into and a lot more bow heavy than I'm used to playing in a game. But for the most part, the in game acting is probably what sets it apart the most. It's a strange kind of mix between primitive and futuristic but the science fiction elements grow into the plot very well over time. I credit Elden Ring for giving me the stamina to actually complete a game without getting frustrated. So I've had the chance to enjoy some things that I purchased on sale but never got around to playing. The sequel comes out on March on PC. Not really sure where I'm at with anything right now. Somebody from HR at my old place of employment friended on LinkedIn. I did apply for something there recently in a completely different area and have professional contacts that still acknowledge I exist therein. I'm also catching this weird vibe from the place I applied at that I've been under review for like the last seven months. I follow them on Linkedin and I'm getting these weird euphemistic projections from some of their posts. It's hard to explain and I don't know that I should go any further with talking about it. I messaged the person from my old job and said that I did miss the environment and atmosphere. That's not a lie. I was really hurt when I was let go out of nowhere. I probably am still hurt. But the vibe I get right now is that I'm part of some transgressive art performance that nobody let me consent to. And people are slowly figuring out that the parts that are willfully part of my life and the parts that aren't. And everybody out here thinks it's there god given or TikTok given right to judge and invade my lore. do keep applying for jobs. And I do need to get out of this limbo of being known around the world for being the guy nobody wants to admit exists. But I can't help feeling it's all getting a bit dangerous out there. This kind of stuff catches up to you after awhile. The public jokes and memes on Instagram with your friends that have consequences on people's lives. I don't act like I don't see it for my own safety. All I can say is that it isn't like other people who care about me don't see it either. When somebody digs deep here on Tumblr I generally cut them off. So if I make a mistake and block something I shouldn't? Just remember I have my shields up for more than my emotions right now. It's bubbling over into a whole other territory. Maybe not so much Horizon Forbidden West. But close.

[vani11a-ice]

Of course! Honestly, yeah, I've found very few people online who have mostly realistic/fair interpretations of Star Wars media in general so that's perfectly understandable. Your Mara Jade analysis is literally the first criticism I've seen for her as there either aren't enough who know about her, or the ones who do would not spot/do not care to find flaws in her character .0.

(Long ramble incoming)

Mara Jade fans are incredibly obsessive for sure - it's one thing to just like her, but she is definitely not immune to character analysis/criticism just because she is a fan favourite. I think, as you said previously, she's just kind of a female (possibly self) insert for Luke and they just came up with the backstory on the fly, that has tons of potential by the way, only to do nothing with it because that's all she was meant to be :(

I'm really happy you agree, I don't think enough people talk about the difference in the EU pre and post prequels. And yes TCW era (TV shows and other media) is one of my favourite eras along with TOR (All the games and novels, characters like Malgus and Revan are so good).

Thrawn was actually handled quite well in Disney (At least at the beginning, maybe not so much in Ahsoka :/), the Rebels show and especially his new novels do a really good job with him (Timothy Zaun himself wrote those novels as well :D).

And yes, whilst I do love Legends for establishing more about the Mandalorians and their culture in the first place, I agree TCW added onto Mandalorian lore quite significantly by splitting the planet into different/diverse factions. The power struggle makes Mandalore/the Mandalorians much more interesting, and I still incorporate a lot of the old Mandalorian lore in my head because it can still work.

I loved the Force Unleashed, it is just so iconic (Even if I included it in my nonsensical legends list lol). I actually really like Galen just on a personal level as well. To expand on my previous point, I definitely agree that his sacrifice starting the rebellion in the way it did was silly. The Empire knowing who the leaders of the Rebel Alliance are with certain proof a few years before the Civil War is quite foolish, because that contradicts with the OT and Leia Organa having plausible deniability until she is caught red-handed with the death star plans (It's also a huge criticism of the Kenobi show also which made no effort to hide Bail collaborating with a wanted Jedi). For me, there's also a few other things that didn't make sense or didn't have the best writing. e.g. I thought Juno Eclipse was lacking as a character (they did expand on her in the novels a bit though, so there's that), but she's the love interest I guess that’s expected so whatever. Rahm Kota being taken into the Jedi Academy (By Mace WINDU, might I add) at a much older age from a war-torn planet (I think 17-18) never made sense to me, contradicts with Anakin a few decades later, who was considered too old/dangerous to train at 9 years old by the council.

I could go on, but honestly, I never strictly saw the game as canon/completely true anyways. The game is explained to exaggerate/overpower Galen's force powers to the extreme by the writers and actors (Beating Vader's ass the way he does is easily the most common example lol, then again Darth Vader was weakened in Legends continuity more than he is in the Disney Canon due to losing limbs, which is why I actually prefer Disney's interpretation of Vader slightly).

Regarding Galen however, he's cloned in the sequel after his sacrifice and basically just becomes himself again. I'm like you where I just headcanon he never died in the first game lol

Yes, absolutely, it is insulting that they prioritised Mara Jade over Leia in terms of force ability despite that being really unfair. I think in one continuity, Yoda actually would have preferred to train Leia. And ROTJ's reveal of confirming Leia's force sensitivity was supposed to be an indication that she would be the next Jedi and Luke's successor (The title Return of the Jedi and Yoda's dying wish of 'training others') and yet, Legends and Disney seem to ignore that or not care for some reason. I definitely don't think this should override her life as a parent/politician however. But I think that's the problem with Disney and Legends - Leia, can be a politician, a parent and a powerful Jedi, she does not need to pick, at least not in the NJO period. Palpatine and Plagueis maintained their careers whilst still being successful Sith and Luke and Mara also have a child whilst being successful Jedi, so I don't see why the same can't be done here. Although, I do believe that her Jedi training/character development should have taken precedence way before any marriage/kids, which should've happened at least many years later. And finally, her importance as a character and powers as a Jedi should not be overshadowed by Luke once she finally earns her skills.

Personally, I always saw Luke as the Consular Jedi, not just because of his lightsaber colour, but also because he is shown to be powerful in the force but also a meditative/peaceful Jedi first. Obviously, there were many powerful Consulars who had the fighting prowess of a Guardian, which describes Luke perfectly. Leia I see as a Sentinel/Guardian, because she would merge her career with her skill in the force (Sentinel) but also has a strong propensity towards justice/defence and protecting the weak (Guardian). Likewise with Luke, there are guardians that match a Consular's force abilities and skills in diplomacy, which would fit well with her political background. Overall, it doesn't matter too much because it's hard to put these two in a box, but just some thoughts about it I had.

I think, unfortunately, it's a given, that Star Wars fans, even within Legends, will disagree on many things. It would be a lot easier if people were more willing to have open discussions about things without being so toxic.

Funny enough, I've also been doing some thinking about reimagining my own Star Wars canon, just for fun, and it's a fruitful exercise/response to any Star Wars media you don't happen to like as well :) Regarding Mara Jade on this front, I'm no professional writer, but your criticism is a good place to start when it comes to improving her character. Here are some of my rambly/messy thoughts as to how she could potentially be improved...

She lacks trauma/scars from her childhood with Palpatine, so maybe they should give her these aspects. She should not exist to be perfect eye candy and this should be thoroughly shown not just from the scarring of her body, but her mind too.

Palpatine should not be a doting father figure who goes easy on her for her mostly her entire life. That, to me, is mischaracterisation and goes against the only other two pieces of evidence we have of him raising/grooming children as to what he would be like as a father - Anakin and Maul. Tbf I know their backstories were introduced after hers and Palpatine wasn't expanded upon until the prequels, but that doesn't change the fact that theirs is a more accurate/well-rounded depiction of his character that is just more realistic. Mara Jade should be a victim of Palpatine, it is the only relationship that would make sense and establishes sympathy for her.

Personally, I find the shoehorned appearances of her in the background of the OT unnecessary. They should just have her be busy elsewhere/explain her absence another way without her actually encountering the main cast until post-ROTJ. That just feels like fan service.

They should go into more detail about her life pre-Palpatine. Maybe have her be kidnapped as an older child instead so she will actually have memories of an old life to reflect back on. If she is kidnapped as a very young child, however, this should be thoroughly explored on how this affected her and her emotional development and not just ignored.

She can be a bad person/a villain, but there needs to be, as you said before, an actual redemption/acknowledgement of her wrong doings. She should be different by the end of it, not just the same or hold the same opinions she did about Palpatine before. It should be a lengthy character arc that spans a long(-ish) period of time that completely changes her and her world view (This would also be the perfect opportunity to go further into detail about her trauma in childhood and how she ended up the way she did).

This is just a starting point, but there are more ideas one could put to make her more interesting:

Maybe instead of just being a force-sensitive servant/hand she should be a full on Sith Assassin - maybe have her be powerful enough in force potential to be distinguished from the Inquisitors, giving the Emperor a reason to see her potential/personally train her, but weak enough to be below the likes of Darth Vader and Darth Sidious. This would make her more of a formidable threat to Luke as well when she is finally introduced.

Maybe her original family/home life was a place of poverty/neglect, and she thought the emperor had saved her from it. This could also render her more vulnerable to grooming. The Emperor could be sweet and lulling, posing as a father figure at first so she can let her guard down, but then gradually wear her down emotionally and physically with rigorous training, abuse and manipulation until she grows too comfortable in her mistreatment to properly recognise what he has done to her.

Perhaps Palpatine makes her believe she is more important, that she is an Acolyte and not just a servant/assassin and that she will one day replace Vader as his new apprentice, that she is stronger than everyone else. This would be her ultimate and only goal/wish as she has built up her self-worth and happiness around him and his twisted sense of approval. But unfortunately, she was never going to be anything but a disposable tool to him, and she will be overtly cast aside in favour of Luke in the lead up to ROTJ. Perhaps this would explain her hatred of Luke later (?)

And post-Palpatine's death, she is lost, confused and traumatised, but continues to serve the Empire with Thrawn at the helm because all she has ever known or been is a tool. Palpatine did whatever it took to secure the Empire, so she will uphold this in his absence to justify her continued existence. Her blame towards Luke, will therefore, be a defence mechanism and a mode of denial: because it is easier to blame one of the biggest enemies of the Empire, the one who (assumedly) killed the only family she had left, than to confront the truth that her entire life was a lie and that Palpatine used her.

These are all things that can be confronted, unpacked and explored in a detailed redemption/character growth arc.

These are just some of the silly thoughts I had whilst coming up with what a new story for her could look like in my head. It's a scrambled mess of random ideas, but I thought they might be some interesting starter ideas for her. If you have any additional thoughts yourself about Mara and what could be done, I’d love to hear them!

So, any unpopular opinions about Star Wars Legends that you have? I'm perfectly willing to listen.

Lmao hi, I didn’t expect to see you here! I really liked your Mara Jade criticism/analysis, and I saw your thoughts about my silly little hashtags—off topic to the ask but yes I definitely agree it’s too late to do anything with Mara Jade now given her story already concluded in Legends/EU verse, not to mention Disney now own the rights so that couldn’t even happen. If she were rewritten however she definitely could be far greater of a character.

As for your kind ask, when it comes to Star Wars EU there’s a lot to unpack because there’s so much content, but I guess I can give an overall opinion to make it more concise (But brace yourself, I will be yapping quite a bit anyways on here lol).

I generally love Legends. I grew up mainly with the central Lucas canon many years before Disney acquired the franchise: obviously the movies and 2008 clone wars series, and then some small EU content such as video games and some children’s comics/books before I even knew what the EU was. Because of this, I think it’s easy for me and many others to look back on the old stuff and be nostalgic for it.

But now that I’m older and gotten back into Star Wars (after losing interest in it for a while due to the sequels), I now have a better grasp of Legends content as well as a lot of lore I didn’t know as a kid—mainly books about what happens post ROTJ—and one thing I’ve noticed is that the quality highly fluctuates. On the one hand you get some amazing stuff like the Old Republic era, some of the Clone wars comics, old Battlefield games, the Darth Plagueis novel, the Prequel novelisations, Thrawn, Clone Wars 2003 and ofc many more. On the other hand, you get some pretty ridiculous stuff too, like Dark Empire, Shadows of the Empire, the Force Unleashed (Ironically, I actually really like this game for the nostalgia, its gameplay, Galen himself, story potential and the memes but many events of the game itself do not realistically make sense lol) and many books post ROTJ (mind you haven’t read all of them, way too many lol) that kind of have plot points I’m not too happy with and I could go on forever about (and some others I probably haven’t thought of).

My main point is, many legends fans will always advocate that the solution to Disney’s less than stellar Star Wars works recently is doing adaptations of existing legends material. And whilst I do think that there is a lot of lore you can pluck from legends and reuse/rewrite for their potential (I mean Disney already does that with characters like Thrawn), I never would want a 1-1 recreation. First of all, Legends started before the prequels so a lot of it doesn’t make complete sense now anyways (Hot take, but post-prequel-movies legends has always been better overall in terms of quality. For this reason, Old Republic/Prequel era was handled better overall than New Republic era). Additionally, Legends just isn’t as consistent or good overall as people would like to believe. It’s a large universe with several different writers, there’s bound to be mistakes/bad works riddled throughout here and there.

I also don’t think there’s enough people that talk about (especially) the older legends materials’ problematic elements as well. I’m not always a huge fan of how certain writers treat female and even other minority/non-human characters in Legends. I’m sure you’re familiar with this with people like Mara Jade. One of my other personal main gripes just to list another example is Leia. I’ve always hated how sidelined she is because she was always my personal favourite as a child, and the writers throughout the continuity could not make up their mind on whether she should be a Jedi or not to the point where her skills largely varied between writers until they finally decided to make it official when she’s much much older. Even by then she’s already overshadowed by her children/brother. George Lucas himself didn’t always write her or other female characters in the best way either, but I always thought an EU continuity would be the perfect place to give her the attention she deserves, instead all we got was an inconsistent arc, especially after the Thrawn trilogy. Disney could have turned this around but unfortunately the exact same thing happened where they couldn’t make up their mind on whether she was a Jedi or not (and gave her the shittiest excuse for quitting—how ironic that both Legends and Disney write in immediate motherhood and marriage as a sexist obstacle rather than actually letting her character grow before/during these events).

Fanatic Legends fans will, however, unfortunately rarely agree or at least try to understand criticism of their favourite universe, and, in my view, this is no better than Disney Adults who vehemently reject criticism of some of the worst recent Star Wars media that’s been released.

To conclude this long ass rant, I just think Star Wars EU whether that be Legends or Disney could do with rewriting/organisation here and there. But that’s highly unlikely, so a more realistic solution is just to pick and choose the media you enjoy from both universes (or make up your own!) and just accept it as your own personal canon. That’s what gives me peace and mind anyways :)

[frillyfacefins]

One Hell, Two Falls, Many Snakes (Hazbin Hotel Lucifer Meta)

So recently somebody replied to me on youtube, in the context of Hazbin Hotel, with this:

"According to most lore (other than the generic "Lucifer is evil" stuff) Lucifer was expelled from heaven because he loved humanity too much and didn't like the way God treated them, so he was condemned to try and reform sinners. His punishment was that no matter what he did, it wasn't enough."

First of all: The "according to most lore" immediately had my heckles up re: Citation fucking needed. But even if that were something that was widely known (which I have never heard before and sounds very 21st century to me), I think we can assume that this is not the case with Hazbin Hotel's Lucifer.

Let me explain.

Humanity didn't start out with the concept of 'sin'. Even in a world where Lilith exists, she wasn't really a sinner as much as a failed experiment - a prototype that didn't work the way it was intended to. 'Sin' only came into existence with the Fall of Man, aka the apple incident.

A Snake by any other name

So. In the bible and in sources up to the 19th century, the snake was not really assumed to be the same person as Lucifer. In the biblical canon, I'm pretty sure the snake was just a snake. We are all familiar with the whole "'Satan' in the bible just means an enemy, but not all of these enemies are meant to be the same entity" thing.

Later, we find interpretations of the snake as a demonic creature - I'm thinking specifically of Goethe's Faust, where the snake is the "aunt" of Mephistopheles.

I do believe, though, that in Hazbin Hotel, Lucifer was the snake in the Garden of Eden. Mainly because of the apple-and-snake imagery. So if we take this as granted and go with the most straightforward explanation, Lucifer must have fallen before the Fall of Man.

So Hell predates Sin, which means Hell can't have been constructed for the purpose of 'rehabilitating' sinners.

So what about Charlie?

I feel like there is also a seed in this that would explain why Charlie, only daughter of Lucifer, seems to be so young in the show. Eve's punishment in the bible was to labor like a beast, so my current assumption is that having babies wasn't really in the original blueprint of humans. We can also assume that Lilith underwent a metamorphosis when she came into Hell, so that might have made the whole baby-having even more difficult for her.

So I basically think that having Charlie at all was pretty damn hard for Lucifer and Lilith.

(Maybe that's one reason why other demons of the fallen-angel-variety (Paimon, Asmodeus) are more animal-like - because when they fell, animals were already able to procreate, while humans maybe weren't. But that's a tangent for another day.)

I've gone into detail on my own imagination of the early days of Hell in my fanfic "The Spark that made Heaven burn", and I'm going to write a sequel to that fic from Lilith's perspective soon. I just felt kinda bothered by that reply, and wanted to get this off my chest.

Hell is Other People

I think one thing we need to remember when we talk about demons and Lucifer and Hell is that a lot of this stuff was never in the bible and doesn't have a single, "canonical" source. Most of what we are talking about in relation to 'hazbin hotel lore' (outside of the series or helluva boss) is stuff that was written by medieval or renaissance mystics who were either reworking material that had been reworked dozens and dozens of times over a thousand years, or who were making things up wholecloth.

There is no such thing as 'accepted lore' when it comes to this, only things like "according to Johann Weyer" or "according to the Testament of Solomon" and then you have to deal with the whole pseudepigrapha issue... And then of course we get 19th century occultism and new age stuff mixed into all of this, which makes everything even more messy.

Basically, if anybody tries to tell you something about demons or angels is "accepted lore" or something like that, maybe be careful. And don't get angry at artists who take a part of this whole patchwork rug of ideas and use it in a way that doesn't jive with what people say is "correct according to most sources". None of this is codified. Just relax and let people have fun.

[mobiused]

hi mobi mobiused thank you for all the loona blogging you do you’re a champion and a hero. i wanted to know what would your ideal loona album would look like in terms of songs and styling etc like if you got to be the creative and musical director on an album of theirs what would you love to see!

Thank you for the love and support it really means a lot to me. To be honest just because I know they would never do it and because Yves and I were talking about it the other night I would LOVE to see a j-idol style punk/grunge album from them. Now it really doesn't have to actually sound punk, (because 1. this doesn't work with twelve singers and 2. theyre kpop lets stick to that) it just appropriates the aesthetic from them. Ideally pulling from the j-rock scene way more than like present day cringe commercialised cleaned up bullshit you know what I mean. We can steal from the wardrobes of both Avril Lavigne and Tommy Heavenly6 though I'd be happy with that.

For the TT I'd like a shouty and fun song in major that makes you wanna sing along (Yeah sorry this is another 4th gen idol songs without a melody in the chorus LOL) like okay I'm seeing the vision it's a summer school's out anthem like mmm if I had to use examples I'd mix Billlie's Ring Ma Bell (which I thought had the right spirit but was unfortunately way underproduced) and OK please don't think I'm cringe but maybe like you know when Paramore's tone shifted and it became pop rock so yeah like Aint it Fun. So like that... Like a lot of rough guitar presence still but overall it's a good time cheerful mood you know. Maybe a little bit melodic in the chorus then I guess. And also it actually sounds good And thematically going back to the 'Schools Out' theme (And when I say school I mean way less school and way more summer holiday) we're gonna expand on what rebellion means to the girls in-lore. Like what exactly are our silent protests and what are they for. Why are the girls outsiders (aside from the obvious) and where are they taking it. Like I say every time someone asks me I would like it if they picked up the threads that were dropped in the previous MV. Like literally any semblance of continuity would be massively appreciated. And I also think that instead of a loud fuck the haters ITZY-core style rebellion (sorry I actually love ITZY but they're camp and LOONA's pretentious, so), I think building on the theme of Why Not where it's more about aligning oneself with your own values and moving forward in life independent from societal views, as opposed to that meme which is like >lives life in opposition to something >inadvertently makes entire life about said thing (you guys know what I mean. probably) would be a really good way to further it. And it doesnt have to be that lore-y its just like yeah this is a thing that fits with LOONA's brand.

And as for B-sides well they still need to do a real UK House song because flop that does not fucking count. Actually we need a Day & Night sequel forget UK house lets get UK GARAGE. Because it's fucking good and we need another. I think we can bring back a featured instrumentalist not necessarily guitar but like literally anything because getting Jungmo from TRAX on Love & Live went hard as hell even if the song itself was erm. Anyway. I also want it to be danceable because I fucking miss a classic LOONA intro (*says classic but they only did it for two TTs lol*). And I'm bored of explaining so here's the imaginary setlist 1. Intro ft. famous Korean musician 2. Kpop rock title track 3. R&B summer sunset cruising anthem 4. I actually kinda ended up liking the interpolation of Gloria Gaynor in After Like so maybe a vaguely disco inspired track because this is my imagination and I can do what I want 5. UK Garage track. Promoted Bside that shows off their vocals. Yeojin gets a part which shows off her vocals as a treat. Hyeju can have a rap with way too much english that fails to scan because I think it's cute. 6. Acid house track with trance influences and this one can be the fun one at concerts where they just kind of aimlessly hop around and pick up slogans from fans as if they're really gonna keep them

Noticeably NO FUCKING BALLADS.

...Or they could just rip off Rolling Quartz the only group that is doing k-rock right atm teehee

[korgbelmont]

Choices Insiders July 2022

So here we are once more. Lets look over this months Insiders!

RAMBLE ALERT!

I selected Gabe for this. I know we've only had the first two chapters with the wide release yesterday, but I really like her character and will definitely be playing her romance route.

Need a little more drama in your life? Or maybe some adorable twin sidekicks? The Nanny Affair 3 is now in-app and is releasing weekly on Fridays for all!

So I was mostly curious about how they were going to explain Addison was still alive which they have done. I'll be interested to see how the rest of the book plays out.

Do you like talking bears? 'Cause we've got plenty of talking bears. The Cursed Heart is now releasing for all players weekly on Wednesdays!

I am enjoying the Cursed Heart, it's interesting how they've gone about explaining some of the lore through the storypages. I haven't been selecting the flame options which does make the book more enjoyable for me.

Alongside The Cursed Heart, we've got the Immortal Desires soundtrack to celebrate yesterday's (June 6th) Wide Release debut!

Although we've only had the two chapters, I am enjoying Immortal Desires. I'm definitely interested to see how this book will play out and what the two Vamps at the beginning have to do with it all.

Yeehaw! Untameable’s VIP Finale was last month and word on the ranch is that we’re getting a book 2. And if you can handle more excitement, Surrender had its VIP and Wide Release finales and will ALSO be receiving a sequel! You get a sequel and you get a sequel!

I feel like I've said in previous posts all I can about Surrender BK1, so I'll leave that. I was actually slightly surprised to see that Untameable got a sequel greenlit, Curious to see what that will be like. Kit has grown on me throughout the chapters and like how they've developed her character.

Get ready for this month’s VIP release, Murder at Homecoming! Will your special night go swimmingly? Or will you struggle to keep your head above water? 

In anticipation for launch day, we dug through the evidence room and got some sneak peeks for you:

So I'm wondering what the green is that was used to write that. And I'm guessing maybe the razor is the murder weapon or something.

While we take all that in, let’s check on the coded message we received from the book team:

We’re stumped. Time to bust out your detective skills and solve this one for us

I've said before I'm useless with these emoji puzzle things, so not going to try and figure this out. Best I can do is the first two maybe being about the titular Homecoming, but that's it.

Going based on the description on the app store for Murder at Homecoming, I'm guessing that there may be some kind of high up links to it all or something. We'll see when it arrives.

And last, but not least… The definition of BTS: A work-in-progress art sneak peak for you!

I have seen the fully finished cover, and it does look like that we will be playing as a student MC for this book.

Any news about Blades of Light and Shadow 2? The anticipated sequel to Blades is currently in pre-production. We do not have a specific release time for the book, but rest assured, it is coming and we will update the community once we have more information.

There's not really much I can say about Blades II at the moment as we don't have any information and I can only speculate.

No new VIP titles, so there isn't really much that can be said there. It looks like we won't be getting a book publicly in August, but the Autumn looks like it is lining up to be quite interesting.

Surrender BK2 is earlier than I thought it would be, didn't expect that until maybe middle of next year, but there we are.

We’re looking forward to the launch days of The Phantom Agent, Kiss of Death, and Guinevere, and the excitement doesn’t stop there. Make sure to keep an eye out for evidence, suspects, and sneak peeks as we release more details about Murder at Homecoming. How will you search for justice during the night of your life?

I'm going to do a separate post about Murder at Homecoming's release and talk a bit about The Princess Swap as well. So for now that's it for this month.

Hope everyone is doing well and keeping safe!

[imnotcameraready]

more than beliefs (5: mother knows best)

A/N: still trying at this ! i still don't own any tables so honestly, writing has been kinda hard :') but i'm still up to a polished chapter 7 and know VERY well what is happening in chapter 8, so we're looking pretty good. i wrote all of chivalry chapter by chapter so.....hoping this goes well :'D

WARNINGS: manipulation, plotting a murder, paranoia description, blunt force trauma, assault, amnesia, blood, graphic description of violence — this chapter’s the first doozy! if i missed anything, please let me know!

Words: 4378

AO3 link!

enjoy!! <3

“Now, this might be a controversial opinion, but the second Little Mermaid movie is a top-tier Disney sequel,” the Director said, idly mixing a teaspoon around in his hot chocolate.

Roman scoffed. He was sitting on the Director’s couch, wrapped in a blanket while they watched 2005’s Just Like Heaven starring Mark Ruffalo and Reese Witherspoon. The Director had suggested they watch something from Disney, but while Roman loved the whole library of Disney movies lining his shelf, he couldn’t choose which one he wanted. To his surprise, the Director didn’t have a favorite, either. He’d said he was fond of the cookie-cutter damsel in distress narrative of older Disney stories, which Roman tried (and failed) to take offense to, but did agree that many modern movies like Big Hero 6 had interestingly complex and developed stories.

“I just prefer the expansion on oceanic lore. And I’m a sucker for a good parental storyline, when the former protag takes on the motherly role.” The Director took a sip of his coffee.

“And here I thought you weren’t one of my creative advisors,” Roman said with a smirk, crossing his arms upon his pillowy throne.

The Director scoffed, and as he rolled his eyes Roman could have sworn that he was blushing. Maybe he was embarrassed. “Just because I’m not David doesn’t mean I can’t have opinions on works of art,” he sounded dejected—Roman guessed that was fair. The Dragon and Damsel and Child, most obviously, had strong opinions on art yet no artistic inclinations.

It was still up in the air if the Thief did. It didn’t seem like he had many opinions on things that weren’t consequential to Roman’s direct safety, but he was very quiet. Roman didn’t rule out the possibility of the Thief just not wanting to share that information with him, which was….well. Unfortunate.

Roman wished he got to know his advisors better. Ever since they were separated from him, Roman feels like he’s been at the grinding stone with them all. The Thief had spent the whole wedding either swearing or screaming suggestions angrily, and when he wasn’t, he was comforting an incredibly distraught Bard. The Damsel and Playwright tried to help the most but... He had barely even seen the Artist outside of their creative sessions. He had barely seen the Dragon or Child, period.

The Director was an interesting one. Roman had everyone’s phone numbers, because, well, he wasn’t about to use carrier pigeons. Though that might be super cool to try one day. But the Director was just about the only advisor to casually reach out to him. He would send Roman memes. How did he even get memes? Roman and Remus had created an Imagination-version of the internet, so it was likely from their co-sponsored Imagination Tumblr or something. The Director putting in the effort and time to think of Roman during such small instances was what made Roman feel more comfortable here, though. That’s what made him trust the Director with these sorts of situations. Almost made them closer...

Was that selfish? To favor one part of oneself over others? Surely not. It was similar to recognizing flaws, or pimples and blemishes. Not to say any of the others were blemishes. Drats, even Roman’s internal monologue was demeaning to himself.

“Do you want any more coffee? I’m going to go refill,” the Director’s voice jolted Roman out of his stupor, and he looked up with wide eyes.

“No, I’m okay,” and after a small beat, he added, “Thank you again for housing me. I can’t imagine what Phillip would want to say after yesterday’s debacle.”

The Director scoffed. Roman snuggled into his blanket more, listening to the Director pour himself another mug and reply. “Anytime, Roman,” he chuckled, then put on one of the most outlandishly fake accents Roman’s ever heard. “I live to serve~”

“Sto-op,” Roman groaned, throwing his head back and shooting the Director a glare—well, glaring at the kitchen door. There were walls around all of the rooms here, unlike the Mind Palace.

The Director laughed even more when he returned, sitting on the couch with his legs crossed on the cushion. He held his mug in his hands for a few seconds before talking, tone much more sober.

“I do have to say. I’m surprised I was the one you came to.” The Director’s voice is a little more quiet. “I thought for sure you would have sought comfort with Cadence or Gavin before me.”

Roman blinks. “I guess….I didn’t want to be judged again.” He looked back down at his lap, at the blankets piled up there and his own coziness. “Every time I come back after an argument, or after making a fool of myself, it seems everyone has an opinion on how poorly I handled a situation. None of them really acknowledge….It must have been….”

He’d been a little confused about it, too. The trust issue.

“Janus has strung my emotions along enough for it to be fair that I don’t trust him,” Roman said, voice soft as he tried to put how he’d been feeling into words. “Right?”

That was as close an explanation as he could get to. Because it all boiled down to the trust issue, in his understanding of the situation. As much as Patton wanted him to let go of the situation, Patton was focusing on the mustache quip rather than the whole trust thing. Janus knew Roman had wanted to go to the callback. But Roman also wanted to be a good person, if that’s what Thomas wanted. Thomas wanted to be a good person so Roman also wanted to be a good person.

But when being a good person directly went against Thomas’ dreams, Janus stepped in. And sure, he argued that they weren’t supposed to be self-sacrificial, but wasn’t that a hero’s job? When did a hero ever get to keep anything before sacrificing everything? Isn’t that what made sense?

Janus didn’t even do a good job at explaining it, not until all the damage had already been done. This was different from just giving Roman the perfect set up for a theater display, this was Janus pretending that he wanted what Roman wanted. This was Janus pretending to be his friend but wanting Thomas to...be a bad person?

He didn’t understand. Maybe Patton was right. Maybe Roman just didn’t understand. And that’s what made his disgruntlement so confusing, because in his heart, Roman knew Janus was trying to help, he knew that, he understood. But then why did it hurt so much?

“Oh, honey, he’s gone way past that. Don’t gaslight yourself into thinking he’s been helpful,” Macbeth’s icy voice cut through the thoughts wrangling Roman’s mind.

The Director was so self-assured. It was comforting. He was sitting on the couch, arms crossed as he explained.

“And Patton, Logan, turning around just to say you should let it go and listen to him after he’s lied nine times out of ten?” the Director threw his head back and let out a sharp “Hah! No, your anger is rational. And defensible.”

“Why won’t any of the others agree with that?”

The Director starred at Roman for a minute. Just a little too long. His eyes seemed to press Roman into a corner, under a box. Scrutinized.

They both knew that “others” wasn’t a reference to the other Sides. The Director kept his distance from Roman’s other advisors, he knew that, but Roman didn’t know how far. The Director wasn’t the kind to just watch them, was he?

“They all have their opinions. About Disney and otherwise.” He took another drink of his coffee then shook his head, standing up, motioning for Roman to follow, “May I show you….something. Without you thinking I’m crazy?”

Now, that’s always a fairly worrying question to hear. “No, no, I trust you,” Roman said with a slight grin.

The Director must have been able to see how it waned, because he chuckled, smiled back. “I think we’re all a little zany. But that’s the charm. Phillip is undoubtedly the scariest, as much as Draco tries. The Prince, Damsel, whichever you want, has a noticeable villain complex.”

Wait, what?

The Director raised his hands in mock defeat. Showing his hands, like he were trying to assure Roman that he wasn’t being suspicious. But the hairs on Roman’s neck rose. He led Roman to the door just besides Roman’s room. When he first started visiting the Director, he explained that this was his study. Roman had never gone in. Because, you know, when you respect someone you also respect their privacy.

“I’ve only ever spoken to Marlowe, but, you know. I’m the Director of players I can never meet. I had to take notes,” he added the final part quietly.

He glanced over the combination button pad on the door. Roman hadn’t noticed that. What room would require a combination lock? And who would be….Was it to keep him out? Or someone else? Maybe the Playwright, the Director mentioned he’d been over before. Keep anyone out, it seemed.

“I….notes?” he was flabbergasted. What the fuck was happening?

“Yeah.” The Director opened the door slowly and motioned for Roman to follow.

Inside were papers. One wall was a large tackboard, photos and sticky notes and papers pinned up, connected with lines of colored yarn. Roman felt his mouth fall open as he inspected it. There were notes on all of his advisors, all seven of the others, even some of people Roman didn’t know. There was someone with four eyes. Someone with antlers. Who were they? How did this all fit together?

Why in Athena’s name did the Director have corkboard notes on the other advisors? That was a lot more than a little weird.

“I...You’re wonderful, Roman. So productive and pristine and princely, as you deserve to be. But there are some areas where you can stand to improve.” Roman was probably only processing some of the Director’s words as he rolled up his sleeves and pulled out a metal stick, one that looked oddly like a wand.

He held it in one hand, and suddenly it extended, until it was a pointer. The Director held both ends of it and watched Roman for a reaction, a response, something.

“I would have to agree,” Roman stumbled over his words a little, eyes still glued to the notes—there were some by the Child that read ‘Naive/Trusting/Problem?’—before he slowly turned back to the Director with a weak grin once again. “I mean, I might be pristinely princely, but those P alliterations don’t include perfect. No one’s perfect.”

“It may be an unattainable dream, but we’re well familiar with those. We can only strive for improvement! And when improving you and yourself, that means making changes to them,” the Director gestured up at the wall of photos, of the parts of Roman’s self, and smacked the Child’s photo with his pointer. “I actually only thought I would be reading these notes, so forgive me for any, er. Sharp language.”

Roman knew that self-improvement meant adopting new mindsets, but he had no idea that putting parts of himself into characters involved changing them as well, though it did make sense. Self-insert characters had to change if you were changing the self that was being inserted. Right?

If he wanted to improve….it made sense. He had to change himself, including the facets of himself.

“That’s fair,” Roman murmured, “Okay. These….You could take these notes to the other advisors. Surely they’d accept it?”

“At this point, I don’t know who would kill me faster,” the Director scoffed, then gestured at the Damsel’s notes, a cluster of sticky notes and drawings and photos of the Damsel at a well enough distance that it was closer to stalker-ish. “Phillip wouldn’t want competition. Marlowe agrees that he can be quite standoffish when threatened, and a newcomer claiming to be one of Roman’s advisors? Someone who doesn’t have his respect in a royal manner?”

The Director pointed to the Thief now, a even more grave expression adorning his face. “And Eric. Tell me you think he would accept a newcomer of any kind. Just tell me. Especially near Gavin. And the Child himself probably wouldn’t like me.”

Well, that sounded off. Roman leaned on the wall besides the door, back against his hands as he continued to inspect the wall. There were notes on the other advisors’ behaviors, their antics.

For some reason, Roman could almost imagine Janus or Logan doing this. It was something close to weird and something else close to endearing. Was that weird?

“Why not? Gavin’s pretty trusting.” Roman didn’t look away from the wall as he replied.

“In fairness, he might like me, but I don’t know if I could ever come around to liking him. He’s the root source of all our issues, especially our present issue with Janus, Patton, Logan. Even past issues with Remus, if I’m remembering them properly. What Gavin represents allows us to be easily swayed.”

That got Roman to look away, look down at the Director. He was glaring up at the Child’s photo with something fierce, which startled Roman enough. I mean, that was a whole child there. What would inspire this much hatred?

“Really now?” Roman wanted to know.

“He gets us to let our guard down. It’s at Gavin’s behest we take chances, but it’s that same honesty that leads us to broken promises, taking in lies like they’re candy. I don’t know what I would do with him,” the Director sounded disappointed.

That was a fair analysis. All of the advisors—the Playwright, the Thief, the Child, Bard, Artist, Dragon, Damsel, Director—they all represented different parts of Roman, similar to how the Sides represented parts of Thomas. In theory, they worked together. In practice, that was far from the truth, but Roman knew for his sake that they were trying their best.

They all oversaw different parts of Roman’s psyche, too. The Playwright, for example, was most similar to Logan in that he represented Roman’s research and organization, on a creative and egotistical level. The Playwright—Marlowe—could be trusted with knowing how many liters of blood were in the human body as well as every one of the Sides’ favorite karaoke songs, even the exact time and date they met Nico.

The Child was Roman’s belief, his ability to dream. It was fair to assume that that made him the most naïve part. Perhaps it was even a fair conclusion that the debacles with Janus were caused by what the Child represented.

Roman hadn’t thought of it like that. The last time he’d talked to the Child, Gavin, about the situation, he had seem incredibly disappointed.

He’d never stopped to ask what the Child was disappointed in, though. Was he disappointed in Roman? Or in himself? Did the Child know he was the one who had pushed Roman to trust Janus? Did….There was no way that this was….the Child’s fault. Was it?

“Huh.” Roman’s voice echoed emptily to himself. A pit opened in his stomach, something difficult to grasp. The root cause of his burdens couldn’t be his ability to dream. His dreams themselves, his hopes, his beliefs. He….he was the daydreamer, the creator. That couldn’t be a flaw, could it?

The Director watched him, but Roman hardly noticed. It was only for a few seconds, too, of stoic silence before the Director interrupted his thoughts with a huff, looked across the board. “This is quite a bit of insight at once. Maybe we should finish the movie.”

“Director?”

Roman and the Director both turned to the open doorway, the later slapping a hand over his own mouth immediately. With a flick of his wrist, the door closed quietly, clicking just loud enough for the both of them to hear. They also heard the Playwright in the living room, footsteps echoing faintly on the stone floor.

“Director?” the Playwright called out again.

“Fuck,” the Director whispered. This must have been an unplanned visit.

“What? We can just go out and say hello,” Roman said back, though his demeanor and body language spoke of worry, almost fear.

The Playwright was well known to be a pacifist. And the Playwright knew about the Director, knew about Roman knowing the Director. He was a little surprised to find that the Playwright didn’t know the Director’s name was Macbeth, but Roman knew the Director to be a man of secrets.

“He doesn’t know I….He doesn’t know you’re here. He barely knows we talk,” the Director looked around the room and pressed a hand to one of the walls, “Fuck. How are we going to get him out?”

The rock beneath the Director’s hand morphs into a doorway and he opens it. The Playwright was standing in the living room, close to the front door to the home. He looked up at them both, eyes widening when he met Roman’s. Before Roman could say anything, even think of something to say, the Playwright spoke with ease.

“Roman’s here? Thank goodness. Virgil’s come looking for him,” he gave Roman a small smile, strained but caring all the same.

“Ah.” Roman stiffened. Virgil came looking for him? In the Imagination? Why? How? He didn’t have his own passage into this space yet, how’d he get here?

He didn’t want to talk to Virgil. As supportive as he’d been, especially when it came to taking care of Thomas, there were still some areas where Roman wanted to be alone, wanted to process his thoughts alone. Virgil was...vindictive. Which was a strong word to use, but an apt one. Virgil’s distaste in Janus made it hard for Roman to form his own thoughts, which was why he often tried away from Virgil as much as Patton.

He wasn’t ready for that kind of confrontation, and the Director must have been able to tell, because he physically looked like he didn’t want Roman to go.

“I actually didn’t expect to find you here, though I’m not entirely surprised,” the Playwright must not have been privy to these feelings, glancing between the Director and Roman, shock still gracing his features.

“Really now,” the Director said, tilting his head, “Why not?”

“I just didn’t know Roman had met you, but of course, even I’m not as omniscient as Creativity himself,” the Playwright stepped closer, reaching toward Roman. “You have to come up, though. Virgil said everyone’s worried.”

Roman starred at the Playwright’s hand, unsure of what to do with the gesture. He knew everyone would be worried, on a baseline. Closed doors didn’t do well around the Mind Palace, especially his, especially after his splitting incident, but that didn’t mean he had to cater to everyone else’s worry. He was allowed privacy.

Before he formulated a response, though, the Director placed a hand in front of Roman. His smile toward the Playwright turned sour, lips pursed in a mix of thought and anger.

“He doesn’t have to go see Virgil if he doesn’t want to.” Roman felt some of the tension in his shoulder alleviate at the Director’s statement, as basic as it was.

The Playwright, on the other hand, didn’t seem to understand. He looked between Roman and the Director again, surprised even further by how familiar they seemed. There had been a fair amount of transparency in Roman’s relationships with all of the other advisors that there must be some dissonance to see him be so familiar with someone he hadn’t even expected Roman to know. Something about that surprise, the bait and switch, the lie, felt fulfilling.

“It wouldn’t be difficult to alleviate Virgil’s worried and tell him to leave again,” the Playwright explained slowly. “I’m sure, if Roman told him he wanted privacy, he would understand.”

“I’m sure, if Virgil could understand that, then he wouldn’t have tread where he shouldn’t. You can’t make him do anything.” The Director’s voice grew darker, hand unwavering.

“Make him?” the Playwright sounded so confused.

Roman was also confused where the Director’s notion came from, but it was validating to hear reminders that Roman’s decisions were his to make. But nothing in the Playwright’s tone was forceful.

For a moment, it seemed as though the Playwright would drop his confusion.

Until he took a step forward, toward the Director and Roman, with one hand outstretched. Roman didn’t know what he’d been planning, but he knew the Playwright wasn’t a sporadic man. He hated adding physicality to situations where debate and discussion could suffice. So, in hindsight, it was likely the Playwright was reaching out to make peace.

The moment passed in mere seconds.

He was taller than the Director by a noticeable few inches, so the Director bent his knees. He pushed Roman behind him with his outstretched arm, acting faster than either Roman or the Playwright could react to. The Director stuck his leg out and grabbed the Playwright by the fabric of his shirt, behind his neck. The Playwright, surprised by the sudden movements, tripped on his leg and let out a sharp gasp of surprise.

Besides them was the living room coffee table. As the Playwright fell, the Director redirected his head toward the table, shoving him away from Roman.

It felt very spur of the moment, and it happened in a true moment. The Playwright let out a scream, sharp and fearful, before his forehead collided with the edge of the metal table. He fell beneath it unconscious. Blood pooled at the Director’s feet as he stood back up.

Roman’s hands shot to his face immediately, as soon as the Playwright started falling, and he could only stare in horror at the scene. The Director, too, seemed shocked at his own reaction. He starred at his blood-stained socks for a little while, breathing heavy enough for Roman to hear. It must be the adrenaline.

“I,” the Director’s voice caught in his throat.

Roman watched. Just watched. The Director swallowed, turning around to face Roman with a mirroring horrified expression, eyes wide with surprise. “You have to make him forget.”

“What?” Roman’s voice was strained, almost a whisper, and he cleared his throat to repeat. “Excuse me?”

What kind of request….?

“If Marlowe remembers this, we’re fucked. He knows you’re here. He’s going to think I attacked him. I-I did attack him,” The Director took a slow breath, turning to look at the body on the ground before shaking his head—unable to look. “David is going to kill me.

“Make him forget. He can stay here. For a bit. We can figure this out,” he put his hands up towards Roman. “We-The other Sides’re gonna follow Virgil. We both know that. And, uh. Only Marlowe knew I was here. So we’ve got time to figure out how to, uh. Play this off.”

Roman starred at him with wide eyes. The past two days had been such a long mess, he didn’t know what to do. Physically, he could remove the Playwright memories. He’d be a blank slate of a character, only backstory. What would that do? The Playwright’s backstory was that he was the Playwright. He didn’t have some elaborate parent-death or chosen-one-esque story that he could fall back on. Poor bastard wasn’t even the one who had Roman’s memories prior.

But the Director was right, in a way. If they wanted more time to think about everything—the other Sides were looking for him? How did Virgil get in here? Why would he be looking for Roman, it wasn’t uncommon for him to stomp away from a verbal duel, why now?—then they couldn’t have the Playwright ratting them out.

When he manipulated the Imagination directly, his powers were red. Remus’ were green. It was distinctive. So when Roman sank down, put a hand on the back of the Playwright’s head, his hand turned red.

It blended in with the blood.

Roman felt vile. He had to do this, or else the others would find him. A quiet, dull part of his mind told him that didn’t matter but….he didn’t want to be found. He didn’t.

He pulled gently, as though tugging the thoughts out, and something glistened red and gold as he did. Then, Roman let it go, and it disappeared. It reminded him a little of Dumbledore pulling his own memories out in Harry Potter. Roman didn’t feel much the chosen one, either, though.

“There,” he said quietly.

The Director let out a soft breath. It didn’t sound like either of them knew what to do, to be fair. Maybe the Director hadn’t even expected this.

“I’ll….here.” The Director looked up and pointed at the wall behind the couch.

The couch scooted forward a little, enough for there to be a walkway behind it, and the room simultaneously pulled away from the couch. Then, a door formed on the wall. It clicked once, then swung open. Another room.

Roman stood still, staring at his hands—was that magic or blood?—while the Director leaned down to pick the Playwright up. The man hadn’t moved since being bludgeoned by the table.

“Under the sink in the bathroom is a first aid kit,” the Director said, voice stoic, taking the reins on the situation, “I’ll make him a bedroom and bandage his head. Then he can stay for a day or two. We must figure out what to do, about the other Sides and about Marlowe.”

That was fair. He’d only stay a little.

Dimly, Roman remembered that this was the Imagination, he mastered this world, so he could technically get rid of the Playwright’s wound. He could get rid of his memory and the wound and send him right back to his home, right back to the Artist, good as normal and none the wiser.

But….something in the back of his head stopped him. And the Director pulled him into the other room faster than Roman could overcome whatever clouded thoughts were plaguing him.

[genshins1mpact]

okay so i know i mentioned on here before that i have a bunch of dreams when i sleep and how i had that cute one with xiao & mingxiao before right?? 👀

forgot to share it sooner bc life but anyway i had a funny/cute dream with diluc the other day (i'll try to add a read more bc this got a lil long but it doesn't always work on mobile so i'll try & fix it asap if so!) but yeah this kinda turned into a whole fic of its own lol,,

☆ the dream itself is here, under the cut! ☆

basically, to not have to explain all the lore about my oc/self insert and all that again, the tldr of it is that i landed on teyvat similar to traveler but didn't really have anywhere to go so after gaining his trust and becoming close, diluc sort of just takes me in and lets me work at the tavern + lets me stay in a spare room at the winery. so yeah we often walk to/from work together if he's working at angel's share that day, and i guess everyone just assumes we're dating?? ...except for me, that is, who still thought he was in love with jean (bc of the whole stormterror thing).

one night, kaeya's been hanging out in the tavern all night, venti's already left or passed out or smth, and then once things close up, diluc and i get ready to head off, but apparently this is the first time kaeya's seen us head off together/in the same direction, and immediately decides to start teasing. he's all "ooh look at the two lovebirds, you've moved in together already? how'd you ask her out, i didn't know you two were a thing, congrats bro so glad she likes you back" kinda stuff and then i just start laughing and telling him to knock it off, wouldn't want jean to overhear and misunderstand. and they're both just like ......wait what? and i'm all "oh cause diluc likes jean right? i thought the were like an Unspoken Thing yknow??" and both stare at me as if i've grown like 3 heads and started doing a one-(wo)man barber shop quartet. lightbulb goes off in kaeya's head that i don't know jack shit & we're not a thing (yet) and diluc is just thinking like "i can't believe you're literally this oblivious, holy shit". hence kaeya's teasing The Sequel, where he just starts complimenting my uniform and says i look like a cute little maid or whatever and diluc is silently fuming behind me. he mutters something along the lines of "how oblivious can you possibly be?" and all but throws his coat/jacket over me to try and cover me "bc it's cold" (yeah yeah sure, jealous much? haha), then asks me how i never noticed how he felt about me. so i'm there having an earth teyvat-shattering moment of revelation that it WASN'T jean he liked, and that he didn't do all those nice things for me bc i'm friends with her, but because he liked...me????

kaeya smugly walks off with a little "you're welcome", after a his shenanigans, and i'm still trying to process things bc i'd never seen diluc that way, always assuming he'd liked someone else so i never really looked at him that way. we kind of quietly resume our walk back "home" and im clutching his jacket close to me, then we both try to speak at the same time, he tries to ask for my response/reaction and i was trying to ask for some time. he's kind of confused and almost looks hurt, but agrees to give me some time to think, since i explained the whole "not seeing him in that light" and didn't want to answer on a whim. that i didn't want to mistake gratitude for all he's done for me for affection and stuff so he was like hey good point i wouldn't want you to feel like i forced you into this, and no you're not gonna get kicked out/fired if you don't like me back, it's okay. diluc mentions having to be away for 2 weeks cause of a work trip and that i can respond then.

in the meantime, a bunch happened like a trip to liyue with aether & paimon, a whole girls' talk over tea with jean & lisa over the situation, and got my own lil serenitea pot so i potentially had the option of moving out now if i wanted to. i decided to my day off from the tavern to go out on a little adventure, just journey around and test out the teapot home and all that jazz. ran into noelle and we hung out/trained for awhile together and invited her in for for a tea break and stuff, like it was just really cute and fun. but apparently diluc came back a few days early and was freaking out when i was nowhere to be found, no one had any idea where i was, and was just really concerned something might happen to me. then noelle arrives through the gates and overhears him asking lisa stuff and goes all "oh she's over by (idk where i was maybe that bit of land between mond & liyue?) and he thanks her for the info and runs off to find me. he finds the teapot (somehow) on some rock but doesn't see me and i come back out of my lil abode bc someone outside kept saying my name and then i felt the teapot shake (he'd picked it up). cue a dramatic reunion in the rain bc when isn't it pouring and trying to kill me in teyvat in true romcom fashion i guess.

diluc is all "do you have any idea how worried i was about you? all alone out here? any of the abyss mages could have hurt you or taken you away or-" just rambles on and meanwhile im having this sort of Oh You're Back and I Think I'm Feeling Things realization (absence makes the heart grow fonder lol). so there's just this kind of strong, desperate hug moment and everything's quiet, save for the pouring rain and faroff occasional lightning strike. and i whispered something along the lines of "i think i'm in love with you" and his eyes widen before responding smth like "i think i'm in love with you too" with a fond smile, the first genuine huge smile i've ever seen on him (pls picture him like in the manga and not his in game ._. face PLS-🤣). cue another romcom cliche reunion hug + kiss scene in the rain, in which we take shelter from the rain inside the serenitea pot bc of how bad the storm kept getting.

(aether has tubby but i have chummy, kinda looks like the teapot salesman, and i usually just call her chums.) so we're greeted by chums who kind of is like staring daggers at diluc bc i showed up with a guest unannounced, drenched, and we're holding hands. she's overprotective in a very Mom Friend kind of way but she just means well. we change into some baggy share clothes i have and then i scrambled up something to eat (since we can apparently cook & forge in our lil pot i love that so much-) anyway so we decide to get some rest bc it's late and have the Oh No There Was Only One Bed conundrum until we agree to just share and sleep on opposite sides bc nbd right? i turned in my sleep and essentially was hugging his back whilst asleep, and he just turned over at some point and hugged me too, and booooiiii was this fire boy WARM, he felt like a personal heater and after all that rain, i slept like a log. diluc woke up before me cause he's used to an earlier schedule and slips out quietly to speak to chummy, asking if she knew where the supplies were cause he wanted to surprise me with breakfast (and man can he cook! goodbye kfc, hello good hunter). chummy is still kind of not vibing with him, until he apologizes for "intruding" and explains everything that's happened, to which chums kind of softens up and realizes he's sweet and just wants to do something nice, not go around raiding the house. woke up alone and went to look for the source of the smell, and kinda just clung to him, making diluc blush. don't remember too much more after the cooking thing though besides going for a stroll around my teapot layout, meeting all the pets that chill there, and kinda just having a relaxing day off together. the winery staff was probably freaking out wondering where we were, but we were just kinda in our own world (literally?), enjoying the peace before returning to all the chaos that is teyvat. cutest damn dream ❤

[redhexagon7]

More Research Excerpts

This time it's Der Alptraum in Beziehung zu gewissen Formen mittelalterlichen Aberglaubens. (English: The Nightmare in Relation to Certain Forms of Medieval Superstition).

You can find the PDF here via Project Gutenberg, but it's in German.

For context though: this appeared in 1902 in a magazine published by Sigmund Freud. That fact is very much apparent throughout.

Introduction

"My focus is not on the historical side but the deepest psychological meaning" phrases that clue you in that there's a lot of nonsense coming

Nowadays the word "Weib" really just reads as "woman (derogatory)"

Dream and Belief

"the breath soul and the shadow soul" I'm sorry what. What! Shadow soul?????

"Freud's discovery of psychoanalysis" I don't know that I'd call it a discovery rather than "wholesale invention" or maybe "ass-pull" but sure

You can at times REALLY tell this is influenced by Freud. Example: "The more people have a certain type of dream the more likely it is that its' subliminal content is of a sexual nature" good (?) news for all the people who dream about their teeth falling out

Something something dreaming of your dead mother or father something something oedipus complex repressed in childhood

You can really tell this was written in the early 20th century. Take me back to the 18th/19th century weirdness please

"In a court in 1516 the jury of Trojes admonished the caterpillars who had devastated some distracts on punishment of curse and excommunication to leave within a certain number of days" I have SO MANY questions

The source for the above is "Cesaresco. Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs, P. 183" which I now have to read

Nightmares

"It is generally known that nightmares have a greater influence on the fantasy of waking life than any other dream" my dude you JUST went on for a whole chapter abt sex dreams so like are you sure

"I have added that the repression of female masochistic sexual urges is more suited to the creation of the typical nightmare than that of the male one, a view that Adler agrees with" I just wanna read abt weird hairy creatures sitting on people's chests, not this nonsense

Ok HERE'S something interesting. Dude's talking about how nightmares express deeply repressed wishes like yes. This I can vibe with

"Digestive problems do not explain the appearance of beautiful women from keyholes" sure but if that were a thing I'd sure as hell take the digestive problems

Incubus and Incubation

"In the middle ages the belief was generally that there were evil spirits whose sole function was to have [...] intercourse with sleeping people" HE JUST SAYS THIS. WITHOUT A SOURCE

"A favorite form that incubi took was that of clergy. Hieronmyus reports the story of a young lady who called for help against an incubus which her friends found under their beds in the form of the bishop Sylvanus. The reputation of the bishop would have suffered if he had been unable to convince them that the incubus had taken his form"

People at the time reacted by saying "Oh an excellent example for the wizardry of Sylvanus" so I don't think this bishop was believed

Anyway I WISH that had been an incubus but it really sounds like it was just a creepy old dude

Sir why do you keep randomly throwing untranslated French quotes in this German text

Oh hey another mention of people who were supposedly children of incubi. This time it's Alexander the Great, Caesar, Martin Luther, Plato, all of the Huns and everyone who lived on Cyprus

You're right, it would be unnecessary to linger on how snakes are phallic symbols thank you for not doing that

"The belief that the soul leaves the sleeper in the form of a snake which escapes through the mouth" UM HOLD ON

I checked the source and yeah, that sure is a thing

This one's from Thorpe. Northern Mythology, 1851, Vol I. P. 289f https://archive.org/details/northernmytholog01thoruoft/page/n309/mode/2up

The Vampire

"The wish for reunion, which has its origin in the living person, is here partially projected on the dead" FINALLY some good content

"Widows can get pregnant by their vampiric husbands visiting" uhuh sure

"After the transformation into a vampire is complete it can be discovered by finding the unburied body with red cheeks, tightskin, full blood vessels, warm blood, grown hair and nails and open left eye"

May have found another source on alps here. Features slut-shaming of sphinxes as far as I can tell

"The Wallachian myth wherein dead redheaded men appear in the form of frogs, bugs etc. and drink the blood of pretty girls"

So depending on which church you were a part of before committing heresy you'd either become a werewolf (roman-catholic) or a vampire (greek)

"Like the vampire the Alp can be the soul of a dead person and suck the blood of sleeping people" whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhy do I only read this now

The Werwolf

Apollo's apparently associated with wolves, which I did not know

Oh yeah I forgot about the part of werewolf lore that's like "Yeah they turn their human skin inside-out cause the other side is a wolf pelt"

If you're born on christmas day you're apparently destined to become a werewolf as punishment for your parent daring to deliver on the same day as Mary

"The seventh son is destined to become a werewolf, the seventh daughter a mare" mmmmmmmmm there's Something here I may be able to use

Quick gallows, wow what's that? Oh. Oh it's a gallows where the person has their hands bound behind their back, is pulled up by their bound hands on a pulley and then dropped from great height??????? That's uh. That doesn't sound like a good experience

Armenian werewolves are women who sinned and were thus punished by having to live for seven years as a werewolf.

There's also a creature that's somewhat between werewolf and vampire which, apparently sucks blood from the soles of the feet of people walking by

Very rough translation but "One has to burn the werewolf because otherwise he will rise from his grave a few days later. In ravenous hunger he will eat the flesh from his own hands and feet and when he has nothing else on his body to consume he will burrow out from his grave at midnight, fall into the herds and steal the animals or even go into houses, lay down by the sleeping and suck their blood from them" this is good, actually

I cannot stress enough how openly freudian this thing is

Werewolves can apparently also leave behind their bodies and wander about at night

Devilworship

"Belief in devils can be traced back to an oedipus complex" ok. sure

Apparently the devil used to be a close parallel to jesus. The whole deal: twelve apostles, went to hell and was reborn, hot bod

The devil had his own bible which was written down in Bohemia and is now in a library in Stockholm k so who's down for a trip to Stockholm after [waves hands] all this is done

"One of the later bynames of the devil was Grendel (english Grant)"

The devil is canonically bisexual and bigender

He can only impregnate folks if he previously acts as a succubus

....Merlin was a son of the devil? He was born because the devil was imitating God? His purpose was to defeat Jesus? Is this what Fate Grand Order is about

"if a woman sleeps alone the devil sleeps with her" well good for her

The devil has a second face on his butt that looks like a beautiful woman's face. He sits the wrong way around in chairs. His genitals are on his back

The Witch Epidemic

Witches like to eat babies, especially unbaptized ones

Witches apparently sometimes turned men into horses to ride to sabbath??? rad

Or they rode the devil himself in form of a horse or goat. sure

Why would witches have stigmata. I want to know, but not enough to check the source that's cited for this

The roman-catholic church is at fault for witchcraft

Apparently 40 year old witches turn into Drude which are also similar to alps

In Conclusion

This entire thing was a trip but I cannot recommend reading it or a translation. It's far too Freudian for my tastes. At least there's a little bit here that I can use for A Pale Imitation and its potential sequels.