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timesorceror · 5 months ago

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If you've found this list of fic recs via my Dreamling Fic Recs Masterpost, then you know this list is one of many.

However, if you came upon this list some other way, then know that it is in no way an exhaustive archive of the best of the best in Dreamling (especially since Tumblr posts have a link limit of 100 inline links per post – which this one, according to my calculations). For the full spiel about how this list came to be and a link to my Google Doc with the most up-to-date full list, please see the Masterpost for details.

All you need to know is that this list works sort of like a menu at a restaurant. You're here to eat at Restaurant Dreamling, and the item categories on this menu are of course:

Alternate Universe

Angst with a Happy Ending

Character Study

Crossover

Fishbowl Rescue

Fluff

Friends / Enemies to Lovers

Getting Together

Each category, of course, has sub-category flavor profiles like Hurt/Comfort, Omegaverse, and Dreamsharing, followed by the menu items (i.e., the thing you're here for – the fic recs).

All fic recs in this list are complete, for your reading consideration.

I hope that explanation was enough to get you hungry for some tasty Dreamling fics, and may you have a wonderful dining experience!

Alternate Universe

Canon Divergence AU

a lucky break(out) by cuubism | Teen

Hob acquires a familiar ruby at an antiquities sale. Said ruby summons something else into his home as well. [3 Chapters | 9,892 words]

Amor Vincit Omnia by Lalaith_Quetzalli | Teen

Death is tired of seeing her favorite brother die, cycle after cycle, unable to do anything to save him. Until she realizes that even if she might not be able to do that. Maybe there’s someone else who can. Someone who cares for her brother just as much as she does, if in a different way, someone who’s willing to kill and die and live for him, someone who’ll love him… [3 Chapters | 9,282 words]

It's Rotten Work by Rhinozilla | Teen

Hob visits his storage unit outside Buffalo, New York, on a rainy night. He’s taken to keeping caches like this one around the world…kind of a ‘just in case’ contingency plan. He gets more than he bargained for when he hears a racket coming from the neighboring unit. He didn’t really have a contingency plan for what and who he finds in there. [3 Chapters | 9,990 words]

Ghost / Medium AU

For Now by softestpunk | Mature

Dream talks to ghosts, and writes their stories. One of his ghosts—an Eleanor Gadlen—has a very interesting story to tell about her husband. A man Dream sees in his local café on a weekly basis. [3 Chapters | 18,845 words]

Magic AU

Veil of Great Surprises by equus8 | Teen

Dream wakes from his slumber to find nothing much has actually changed in his life, except how he feels about himself. [...] Dream doesn’t know what he is doing anymore: Hob Gadling, it seems, has it all figured out, and Dream has to know how he manages to keep going. [10 Chapters | 41,990 words]

Modern Setting AU

Cupid's spines by que_lla | Mature

The thing is ugly. It’s roundish and bumpy and its spines are black and irregular. The more Hob looks at it, the more he’s impressed by how truly horrid it looks. [...] “Excellent find,” a deep and beautiful voice says, making him almost jump. “You have chosen a magnificent specimen.” [6 Chapters | 13,261 words]

Selkie AU

i must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky by celestarium (meadowziplines) | Mature

Dream is missing a piece of his soul; he doesn't know he's missing it: doesn't know he's a Selkie, separated from his skin as a baby. He is depressed and feels like he's full of broken pieces, and his sister coaxes him into interacting with Hob Gadling, a swimmer aspiring to swim the English Channel. It won't fix everything. But it could be the start of something new. [2 Chapters | 6,919 words]

Soulmates AU

Eight Poppies by RedBlackOwl (Shaylayn) | Teen

Dream gets a soulmate despite not wanting one. So he chooses to ignore their existence, believing that the problem will solve itself in a couple of decades, when the human dies. Unfortunately for him, the Universe has other plans. [3 Chapters | 15,044 words]

love, i see you now by ink_and_rain | Mature

5 times Dream of the Endless calls Hob Gadling by his full name, and one time he doesn't. [4 Chapters | 19,908 words]

Wings AU

these wings of night (you were only waiting for this moment to fly) by celestarium (meadowziplines) | Teen

By the time a summoning spell rips his essence apart and deposits him in the basement of Fawney Rig in 1916, Morpheus has not let [his wings] out in millennia. They are a constant low ebb of pain, but it is easier to shove that part of himself into a box than the amount of hurt they cause when out. [2 Chapters | 4,837 words]

Angst with a Happy Ending

Age Regression/De-Aging

Dream Myself Away by Anonymous | Not Rated

Dream's emotions explode and he is reduced to toddler size, the dream vortex is still out there, the Corinthian is a concern, and everyone works together to look after Morpheus. [11 Chapters | 46,897 words]

Canon Divergence AU

You Found Me by Avelera | Teen

Hob Gadling is recently divorced and not in a good mental place when Dream walks into the New Inn over thirty years late for their appointment. So, instead of warmly welcoming Dream, Hob decides to finally give him a piece of his mind. As far as he's concerned, it's Dream's turn to be the good friend if he wants Hob back in his life. He was not expecting Dream to take him up on that challenge. [2 Chapters | 15,247 words]

Conversations

Tread of an Echo by LivingProof | Teen

Hob Gadling does not free Dream of the Endless from his prison in the Burgess estate. There is no grand rescue. No barging in, guns blazing, no daring adventure, no dashing escape. There is only this, after. Pints in the New Inn and coffee and conversation in Hob’s office and the slow, slow building of a bridge, brick by brick. Hob does not free Dream from his prison. But he might help save Dream, all the same. [2 Chapters | 14,126 words]

Different First Meeting AU

I loved and I loved and I lost you by Dino_Cattivo | General Audiences

Dream never went into the tavern with his sister. It was Death who fascinated by Hob grants him immortality. Years later Hob and Dream meet each other not knowing about each other's connection to Death assuming the other is human. [5 Chapters | 28,446 words]

Dreamsharing

A Different Kind of Burn by Ruby_Casablanca | Mature

Wherein Hob dreams of war, Morpheus dreams of an escape from his prison, and over the span of many years, they fall into dreams that blur the lines between friendship and something more. [4 Chapters | 14,142 words]

Fairy Tale Elements

the silent isle imbowers by tharkuun | Mature

Hob Gadling remembers the last dream he ever had when he was a boy; he remembers the strange man he met within it, and the war that already was consuming the Dreaming. Sometimes he thinks he would do anything to save that Dream King, if the stories happened to be true. One day, he just might. [9 Chapters | 31,422 words]

Falling In Love

Vortex Street by Ouiche | Mature

“And that’s why, when the 21st century started, I decided I wanted to understand how it worked. I got a degree in aeronautics, and before I knew it I was in the middle of a PhD. That’s how I became a physicist.” “I remember recruiting two physicists in 1909, to work for me," Dream says pensively. “Henri Bénard and Theodore von Kármán.” Hob’s eyebrows lifts. “You had a bit of a vortex problem?” [14 Chapters | 44,564 words]

Fishbowlmates AU

And Though I Burn (How Could I Fall) by Purplesauris | Explicit

In 1916, Dream is summoned by an amateur magician while chasing a rogue nightmare. In 1916, Hob Gadling is caught in the cross fire of said summoning. [12 Chapters | 52,588 words]

Human / Ghost AU

No Grave (Can Hold My Body Down) by JustJReally | Teen

“You’re a ghost,” Morpheus reminds Hob. “You’re not obligated to me anymore. You’re- you’re free to go,” he says. [...] Hob deflates. It’s strangely literal; his feet touch the floor for the first time in this conversation. “That’s. Kind of you. I think,” he says, in the tones of a ten-year-old who’s been given socks for his birthday and is trying very hard to be polite about it. “I’d rather not, though? [6 Chapters | 18,907 words]

Hurt/Comfort (Fishbowl Rescue)

Best Laid Plans by imnotcryingipromise | Teen

In which Hob Gadling intends to have a fling with a guard in Burgess' mansion and instead stumbles upon his stranger. [2 Chapters | 10,884 words]

nurse my pride, throw in a please by OrangeChickenPillow | Teen

Hob is a patient man, and Dream is a stubborn one. [...] And, naturally, he also hadn't seen it coming when she told him that his stranger needed his help. But if Hob had learned anything in his unnaturally long life. [6 Chapters | 58,368 words]

Sing Me To Sleep by Rhythm_of_Light | General Audiences

Dream’s hands were cold as they cupped Hob’s face, desperate to hold on to this reality. “I’m here, I’m real,” Hob said, wrapping the coat around Morpheus’ shoulders, drawing it around his thin frame. Or, Jessamy enlists the help of Hob Gadling to free Dream of the Endless. [2 Chapters | 3,359 words]

Sycamore, Ash, Moss And Loam by Rauchendes_GNU | Mature

Hob Gadling doesn't really expect having to save his Stranger from his prison in Fawney Rig. Dream doesn't expect to have his Endless essence ripped from him by a brutal spell that leaves him weak and painfully human. Lucky for him, Hob has gone through many lifetimes and knows how to be human. [35 Chapters | 53,572 words]

Through a Fractured Existence by Stormysaslytherin | Mature

The grimoire Burgess uses to trap Dream contains a more sinister secret, something that will strip power and essence from the Endless. [...] Hob is having terrible dreams all seemingly centering around his Stranger and the need to find him. Except he has no place to start and the journey may change him forever. [21 Chapters | 84,934 words]

Hurt/Comfort (Pre Fishbowl)

Having or Seeming to Have No End or Limit by r_n_g_are_dead | Teen

A love story between two beings who have all the time in the world, and yet nowhere near enough. A dive into how Hob Gadling and Dream of the Endless fell for each other, from their 1789 meeting through the present (and beyond…), and in which Dream breaks their 100-years pact before their pact is broken for them. Because Hob was right: Dream is lonely. [11 Chapters | 31,039 words]

Hob needs a nap by Dino_Cattivo | General Audiences

Hob can't seem to fall asleep if he isn't cuddled by someone. The problem is he has no one, ever since he was driven out of his home and to the street. Will things change when he meets his stranger in the White Horse? [2 Chapters | 8,957 words]

Hurt/Comfort (Post Fishbowl)

Dreamling Febu-Whump angst-fest by Mistressaq | Teen

Hob has settled in on a weekend grading papers on his sofa when his former-Stranger-current-Friend appears out of thin air and crashes onto his coffee table. Hob’s fight-or-flight kicks in, and regrettably, after six hundred years on this Earth, his instinct is fight. [..] He succeeds at nudging Morpheus, so he rolls onto his back and reveals the puddle of blood growing beneath him. [5 Chapters | 12.131 words]

find hope in the hopeless by Thesuspiciousflyingjellyfish | Teen

Dream breaks and becomes lost. From this comes Sleep, dreams without hope. And in some ways, it's for the better. [2 Chapters | 18,669 words]

Galaxies on the Floor by aliaoftwoworlds | Teen

Hob hadn’t planned to confess his immortality to anyone, but it had seemed the right thing to do at the time, and he turned out to be very grateful for it one day as he and his most knowledgeable student knelt on the floor of a classroom beside the smoldering body of a demon, trying to hold down a writhing, shapeshifting creature that usually masqueraded as Hob’s man-shaped lover. [11 Chapters | 55,913 words]

Liminal Space by Rhinozilla | Teen

Hob sustains a mortal wound when he instinctively blocks an attack meant for Dream. Before this, Dream has never been a witness to any of Hob’s “deaths.” Even though it’s only temporary, the shock and sorrow immediately overwhelm him, and he burns. Everything. Hob catches glimpses of the chaos during his resuscitation. [3 Chapters | 9,348 words]

Stained Glass World by BlueEcho (Zwetschge14) | General Audiences

The cracks and damages in the walls of the Dreaming - the aftermath of the Vortex - causes the dreams and nightmares of Dreamers all over the Dreaming to bleed together, and unprepared for the sheer number of Dreamers, dreams and nightmares, Dream finds himself overwhelmed and unable to deal with the situation. The only thing he can do is seek refuge with his oldest friend. [5 Chapters | 13,229 words]

Strains of a Melody by ginoeh | Mature

When Hob Gadling strands on Naxos at the beginning of the 20th century, some long-laid plans and designs unravel. While the great stories always return to their original form, for some this is the start of an entirely new narrative. The Fates, though, demand their due and neither Dream not Hob are free until all debts are paid in full. [6 Chapters | 55,526 words]

the gift of hindsight by itsthechocopuff | Teen

What if, when they meet in the twenty-first century, Hob is a little more human, a little slower to forgive, and Dream a little more cognizant of how one should treat centuries-old friends, though no more socially competent? Or: Dream's admission that Hob is his friend prompts a realisation of what else Dream's longest - and only - friend means to him. [3 Chapters | 13,733 words]

Unsung Lullabies by Cheshyr | Teen

An attack on the Dreaming leaves Dream wounded and weakened in an unexpected way- physically, mentally, and emotionally, Dream is temporarily left as a child. Hob is given the task of watching over him until he heals, which seems simple enough, but slowly through their time together he learns more about the things his love struggles with and why. He learns more about Dream’s family, and the ways he’s been hurt that he won’t admit. But with Hob’s help, he may begin to heal some of his ancient hurts. [7 Chapters | 30,761 words]

Waiting for a star to fall by Dino_Cattivo | General Audiences

After their meeting in the New Inn, Hob starts to have dreams of his Stranger, and they build a relationship in the Dreaming. But not everything is as happy as it seems. [2 Chapters | 11,805 words]

Omegaverse

In Need of Seaside Air by bookslutskye | Teen

After giving birth to his second child, Dream finds himself unable to care for the boy or even himself. Getting out of bed seems an insurmountable task, but the more he rests the worse he feels. Hob, in an attempt to get Dream back to himself, takes the family to the coast until the end of summer. He just hopes it will be enough. [10 Chapters | 20,353 words]

The New Inn is a Temple

I Threw Glass at My Friend's Eyes and Now i’m on Probation by TheStemCell | Teen

Or how to unknowingly build a shrine to the personification of dreams, only for him to appear wet and naked outside your pub. A raven is there. [2 Chapters | 16,467 words]

Time Loop

Tuesday Morning Blues by Moorishflower | Mature

Too many sad days / Too many Tuesday mornings / I thought of you today / I wished it was yesterday morning. | Hob Gadling wakes up. He wakes up. He wakes up. [14 Chapters | 36,685 words]

Character Study

Dream of the Endless│Morpheus Needs a Hug

Perspective by Ardin | Teen

The dreams and nightmares have all been returned or otherwise handled. The cracks from the ghost hiding in the Dreaming have gone - the baby may be an issue at some point, but not now. [...] So why can't Dream rest? Maybe because while everything has been put to rights, it has also changed. And so has he. It would be nice to have someone to talk to about that. But maybe he already does. [4 Chapters | 18,896 words]

Crossover

Good Omens

A Demon Walks Into A Bar by LapisLazuli13 | Teen

And accidentally finds an immortal human whom he can share a drink with and grumble about how dense some certain oblivious otherworldly beings are. Hob Gadling has only one thing to complain about in this whole situation. “I own an inn, not a bar.” “For the sake of the joke just shut up and agree with me.” [2 Chapters | 4,211 words]

strange friends in strange places by multifandom_fanfic_writer | Teen

Hob makes a friend at the Classic Car Convention and stumbles upon a strange bookshop. When his Stranger asks him for help to find a certain grimoire, things get even more confusing. [3 Chapters | 11,485 words]

Shadowhunters

A Dream of Rescue by Aria_Lerendeair | Teen

Magnus Bane receives orders to investigate what is a trapped warlock (or something demonic) in the basement of one Roderick Burgess. He isn't expecting to come across two creatures already planning a rescue of said captive. Even more than that - he isn't expecting the captive to be an Endless, of all things. [13 Chapters | 51,299 words]

Fishbowl Rescue

During WWI

what could have been by imnotcryingipromise | Teen

A multipart fic beginning with Dreamling reuniting in 1889 and detailing Dream’s capture and Hob’s attempt to rescue him. [5 Chapters | 22,441 words]

Post WWI

The Barghest Nightmare by Aria_Lerendeair | Mature

It was 1906 when Hob was bitten by a creature. Seventeen years later, after rescuing his Stranger from the basement of a manor, Hob finds out that he's not just a hybrid werewolf type. No, he's something far beyond even his own imagination, something that only his Stranger knows and understands. Now if only he could find a way not to be a burden to his Stranger… [2 Chapters | 19,195 words]

fall asleep to dreams of home (where the waves are crashing) by Thranduilland | Mature

Everyone has a soulmate and until soulmates meet, they see the world in black and white. Dream didn't think he had a soulmate, until he asks a man in 1389 if he'd heard correctly that they weren't going to die... [5 Chapters | 18,692 words]

Hob to the rescue by Anonymous | Teen

Hob Gadling attends a party at Roderick Burgess’s mansion at the request of his client, following the rumour of a ‘devil’ in the magus’s basement. To his utter surprise, Hob finds none other than his mysterious stranger. Well, Hob can’t leave him there, can he? [2 Chapters | 7,185 words]

In Awe, I Stand by sleepsonfutons | Teen

A tale of awe inspired. On one side, Hob Gadling experiencing revelation; on the other, Dream experiencing the unexpected and unbridled want of his immortal companion. [2 Chapters | 1,991 words]

In the arms of Morpheus | Dans les bras de Morphée. by aalisse | Teen

Death comes for a raven, and finds her brother. He doesn't ask her for help, but prevents her possible entrapment, so she finds Hob Gadling and suggests he do something about the situation at hand. Cue a one man rescue mission in 1926, which leads to dozens of years of platonic, yet vaguely romantic dating both in the waking world and in the Dreaming. [2 Chapters | 12,320 words]

Into Darkness and Howling (I'll Keep Him From Drowning) by TinyButFierce | Teen

It was beginning to sound like Roderick Burgess had something or someone trapped in his basement. Hob was starting to wonder if he should do something about that. [4 Chapters | 6,157 words]

little by little, and also in great leaps by she_who_loves_dreamling (all_fandoms_reader) | Teen

In one world, Jessamy and Death depart for the Sunless lands, and it will be long years before Dream is free. This is not that world. ~ Hob is eating breakfast on Tuesday, August 10th, in the year of our Lord 1926, when Death comes knocking. [5 Chapters | 21,331 words]

the price of salvation by imnotcryingipromise | Teen

Wealthy businessman, Robyn Stranger is invited to the auction of an unknown supernatural being, held hostage by one Roderick Burgess. The immortal willingly accepts the invitation -given his current penchant for liberating enslaved mortals from their deluded, “magic using” captors- unaware that he is more familiar with the being trapped below, than he ever could have imagined. [5 Chapters | 23,305 words]

The Virtue of Compassion by Konstadt | Mature

Randall Burgess survived the Gallipoli campaign, albeit only just. [...] Randall is forgotten by the wayside and finds a strange comaraderie with the being locked up beyond his reach. He couldn't imagine they had more in common than simply being trapped, much less anything that could be the key to both of them escaping their respective cages. [6 Chapters | 29,735 words]

June 1989

A Dark Familiar Stranger by PH03N1X_360 | Teen

It’s a wonder how strangled a man can feel if he cannot breathe, but he cannot die. In which the lack of air in the cage causes Dream to hallucinate and Hob breaks his Stranger out of the Burgess Mansion. [3 Chapters | 4,268 words]

All My Problems by Hopeful_Foolx | Teen

Hob Gadling is pretty sure his stranger won't show up, and right when he thinks that he should resign himself to his fate, someone else sits down. Death. Handing him a file and information on where and how to get her brother out of... captivity? Really, Hob has broken into places quite a few times, but... Maybe he should not think about what he is about to do so much. [6 Chapters | 23,635 words]

Can I Sleep in Your Brain Tonight, Stranger? by equus8 | Teen

Dream of the Endless gets more than he bargained for in the Burgess' basement. Hob Gadling is just trying to live his comfortable domestic life. Neither of them are prepared for what comes after the glass shatters. [24 Chapters | 69,079 words]

Post 1989

On Hallowed Ground by midnightstarfield | Not Rated

In 1889, Hob said something before thinking it through- or at least that's what he thought in the aftermath. When his Stranger didn't show for their annual centennial meeting, he thought he'd never see him again. However, when he has a strange dream some thirty years after he starts to think that some things might have been out of his control. Maybe his Stranger was lonely but unwilling to admit it and maybe he hadn't missed their meeting willingly. [6 Chapters | 14,420 words]

Fluff

Domestic Fluff

in a moon's turn - flufftober 2022 by neila777 | Teen

Hob opens his eyes to a blue sky and Dream, still at his side. “Hi,” Hob laughs, delight blooming in his chest. Dream smiles softly, “Hello.” [16 Chapters | 8,252 words]

First Kiss

Paleontology by softestpunk | General Audiences

In 2022, Hob shows Dream a fossil he'd meant to show him in 1889. In Hob's dreams, later, Dream explores a missed opportunity. [2 Chapters | 4,945 words]

Getting Together

Braided Longing by Aria_Lerendeair | Teen

Watching Hob Gadling weave braids into the hair of his students as he tells them stories, Dream is filled with the longing for one of the braids that Hob speaks of. One of kinship, an eternal bond, publicly on display for all. However, he is unsure if Hob feels the same. Would Hob wear the same braid to match? A braid for them? [3 Chapters | 13,450 words]

watch the world from the sidelines by hondayotas | Teen

dream has always been on the periphery of life, never wanting to get his hands messy, but hob gadling is pulling him in more than he'd like to admit. [3 Chapters | 13,450 words]

Hurt/Comfort

Closing the Distance by Ryunya | Mature

Distance (and time) make the heart grow fonder, and both Dream and Hob are very happy to be finally reunited. However, Dream gets affected by the Waking world in ways he never has before, and that complicates things a bit. [7 Chapters | 18,096 words]

If you would have me by HanaSheralHaminail | Teen

In his cat form, Dream stretched out his body and yawned languidly. The key shimmered into existence, pulled from the dream of a young writer who fashioned stories of fae queens and mortal sailors, of treasure chests and friendship forged through hardship. “The person who first takes the key from him shall become my spouse.” [2 Chapters | 17,748 words]

I cannot be gently held by imnotcryingipromise | Teen

Hob Gadling is left comatose after a car accident. Dream of the Endless seeks to use Hob’s extended stay in his realm to repair their centuries old friendship. [2 Chapters | 17,748 words]

I will find you in your dreams by Salmaka | Teen

A story where Dream, confused and weak from his time in isolation doesn't make it back to the Dreaming but ends up in Hob's house instead. [9 Chapters | 13,319 words]

Maybe I can stay a little while longer by TheOne_who_Lovesthe_Moon | Mature

Dream finally works up the courage to visit Hob after his capture. They do what they always do: Talk. Talk about Hob's life. But Hob finally wants to know more about Dream, but the Endless is unsure what to tell his immortal friend. So Hob makes it his new mission in life to get to know Dream, whatever it takes. [16 Chapters | 13,619 words]

Metamorphosis by Windsweptinred | Mature

"Where there is Time, there must be Night." "Order, Chaos" "Life, Unlife" "Father, Mother" "And found your Night, long ago, did you not?" [6 Chapters | 24,089 words]

Patience is a Conquering Virtue by Moorishflower | Mature

Hob will wait as long as it takes. A six-hundred year (give or take) slow burn through dreams and memories. [13 Chapters | 22,180 words]

Serendipity (Shall I Dream Of Our Destiny?) by LapisLazuli13 | Teen

A story where Dream, confused and weak from his time in isolation doesn't make it back to the Dreaming but ends up in Hob's house instead. [9 Chapters | 14,756 words]

Terms of Endearment by BeholdingTheGaytimes | Mature

It’s been somewhere between two or three months, he reckons, since Hob started consistently having domestic dreams about a man he hasn’t seen in about a hundred and thirty years. It’s only a bit mortifying. Dreams and the subconscious are odd, and he’s not going to start judging himself now for any wanton desires. [6 Chapters | 13,871 words]

The Weight Of Our Memories by RambleOnWaywardSon | Teen

Dream shows Hob where he's been, and Hob shows Dream something about how to heal. [4 Chapters | 6,972 words]

What our unknown years to come might do by dreamline | Not Rated

Dream returns to Hob after their 2022 reunion to find him unwell. What follows is Hob’s stubborn insistence that he is fine and Dream’s determination to see him healed. [4 Chapters | 26,890 words]

Retired Dream of the Endless | Morpheus

Normal by cuubism | Teen

Since retiring and becoming human, Dream has been far more stoic about his pain than Hob was expecting. [4 Chapters | 6,576 words]

Touch-Starved Dream of the Endless

enough for now by im_not_corrupted | General Audiences

Dream is unused to physical affection. Hob is in love and more than willing to help him with that. [2 Chapters | 5,396 words]

Flying in a dream, Stars by the pocketful by ParadoxInsanity | General Audiences

Dream looked up at Hob, eyes filled with reverence. And stars. There were stars in his eyes. Like very literal stars. Shining little pinpricks of light. Stars. Stars. "Woah." "Hm?" Dream nuzzled into Hob's hand, confused why his ministrations had stopped. "Your eyes, they– they're stars. Like a night sky. Before the industrial revolution." [2 Chapters | 2,554 words]

Friends / Enemies to Lovers

Arranged Marriage

When I Waked, I Cried to Dream Again by 27dragons | Teen

When the dreaded Nightmare King demands the knight Hob for his consort as part of the treaty that ends the bloody war between the Dream Realm and the mortal kingdom to which Hob is sworn, he is shocked… [...] Who knows what other uses the Lord of Nightmares will have for Hob once he's trapped at the heart of the Dreaming? Will the magic that makes him immortal become more of a curse than a blessing? [10 Chapters | 20,000 words]

Dreamsharing

Hope and Stubbornness Endure by icarus_chained | Mature

There are consequences to being caught in nightmares not your own, in the tormented memories of beings infinitely more powerful than you. Hob Gadling doesn't care. Nightmares can't kill him. And if this was ever real, he has no choice but to try and fight it now. To show ... to show his friend that he would have rescued him. If he'd known. He would have tried, no matter what it cost. [2 Chapters | 4,028 words]

I have lately learned the difference by Chthonion | Mature

While Dream is imprisoned, Hob dreams of prisons, until, one by one, all of them take the same shape: a glass cage. Hob doesn't realize why until he meets Dream again, and the dreams don’t stop afterward. [4 Chapters | 18,085 words]

Fix-It Fic

A Gift of Song by Konstadt | Not Rated

Hob is on a slow journey of discovering all of the many names of his stranger-turned-friend. There are a few more he would like to return to him, if he could. Dream and Hob share stories, until Hob shares one with the world and changes everything. A fix-it fic for Dream's greatest regret. [2 Chapters | 8,678 words]

Hob Gadling Loves Dream of the Endless | Morpheus

Messages from friends by manzke888 | Not Rated

Hob figures out a way to send letters to Dream, and altough Matthew doesn't like playing the role of a carrier pigeon, the two of them find confort in their correspondence. [6 Chapters | 5,842 words]

Hurt/Comfort

Afterimage by ScribeofArda | Teen

The anthropomorphic personification of dreaming is sitting on his sofa, staring at a sequin cushion in his lap. His day could be weirder, but Hob isn't quite sure how. [2 Chapters | 8,648 words]

never enough by sanyumi | Mature

Morpheus needed comfort. Not– this. This delusion that Hob was falling into. [...] That Morpheus clung to him out of want, out of affection. That Morpheus’ cold nose dug into the flesh behind Hob’s ear with intention to lay a kiss there, to bite and leave a mark. [2 Chapters |7,352 words]

Slow Burn

golden days by issylra | Teen

"I could stand to see you more often," Hob says, a little bit hesitant, and Dream’s eyebrows nearly rise into his hairline. "That is truly what you wish?” He’s looking at Hob like he’s an enigma wrapped in a riddle, which is funny coming from a not-quite-man whose name he only learned last year after six hundred years of meeting. [7 Chapters | 21,228 words]

Inspire in Me, the Desire in Me by ElloPoppet | Teen

Dream and Hob find each other in 2021, and see no reason why they have to wait centuries to see each other again. And again. [5 Chapters | 14,850 words]

Maybe This Is All Just a Dream by my_written_minds | Teen

When a man clad in all black walks through the door and admits Hob is his friend, Hob doesn't know whether to hug him or play it cool. [...] In other words, Dream starts talking and doesn't stop. And suddenly these once a century dates are no longer once a century. [6 Chapters | 9,141 words]

Something To Get Used To by my_written_minds | Teen

“I think we should stop catching up,” Hob said. Morpheus stared at him, blindsided. When Morpheus shows up at his table in the New Inn, Hob quickly notices that there's something different about his friend. Everything devolves from there. [4 Chapters | 12,502 words]

Something New and Terrifying by locamohita456 | Teen

It was a regular Saturday when Hob Gadling realized he was in love with Dream of the Endless. Contrary to popular belief, this was not good news. [...] How was he supposed to look Dream in the eye next Saturday? Mainly, how was he supposed to not look at his lips and not think about how much he wanted to kiss him senseless and—oh no! Hob smacked his forehead and groaned. [13 Chapters | 52,285 words]

Getting Together

Dragons AU

Dragon Wars by Aria_Lerendeair | Teen

The war against the Fae began long before Hob was born. When the dragons arrived, at last, they were able to properly fight back. And when the Endless arrived, the war became a stalemate. After meeting and bonding with his own dragon, Hob Gadling does everything in his power (and then some) to end the war once and for all with the help of Dream of the Endless. [6 Chapters | 39,377 words]

Hurt/Comfort

Finding My Way to You by ShadowTenshiV | Teen

A story of how Hob brings it upon himself to return the dreaming to its former glory, and if that means getting to learn about this being known as the Dream Lord as he goes through a maze, well, that won’t stop him. It won’t be easy, with many challenges to come and memories to face, good thing that he is known for being stubborn. [7 Chapters | 46,048 words]

Let me be your knight by justAperidot | Mature

Hob is delighted his Stranger—who is no longer a stranger, he is Dream—is visiting him more often and letting Hob see more of him. [...] Still, if anything else were to happen to Dream, say, for a completely random example, if he were to go to war against the army of one Lucifer Morningstar, then Hob would be more than ready to go above and beyond to protect him. No matter the cost. It is, after all, what is expected of a knight before his King. [22 Chapters | 38,532 words]

Knight of the Dreaming Hob AU

What dreams my come, when living is at an end by Sebena | Teen

The one where Hob chose to die in 1689 and joined Morpheus in the Dreaming, commencing one hundred years of slow burn. [9 Chapters | 77,966 words]

Minor Deity Hob AU

A Mug's Game by Anonymous | Mature

Hob Gadling teaches history, flirts with Death, gets a boyfriend, and accidentally breaks the laws of the universe. [4 Chapters | 14,136 words]

MPreg / Accidental Baby Acquisition

Crown of Dreams by booksluteye | Mature

Dream of the Endless is captured by an amateur magic user by the name of Roderick Burgess in 1916. Burgess is demanding gifts in return for Dream's freedom, but Dream refuses. With the stalemate, it looks like he will be stuck there for a long time, until one day when Dream is woken by an intense bout of nausea. It seems he's not the only one trapped in Burgess' basement. [10 Chapters | 12,858 words]

Temporary Amnesia

what you once wanted by astrhae | Mature

You know what kept me going, century after century?” Hob is angry enough, desperate enough, that his voice drops low, quiet. “Even when I had nothing?” The music around them crests, waves crashing against the unyielding shores of time – “Chimneys,” Morpheus answers, bland. Oh, what a bastard. [4 Chapters | 14,136 words]

The New Inn is a Temple

Cling Fast by Losyark | Mature

Hob Gadling is a clingy bastard, and he’s not ashamed to admit it. He clings to life. He clings to hope. He clings to his love of humanity. He clings to his Stranger. He also, unfortunately, has a habit of clinging to his name. Which means, when the BBC is looking for a new pet history expert to appear in their educational docudrama series “Elizabethan Manor,” they’re overjoyed to find a professor who (according to their meticulous research) is actually descended from the Master of the National Trust building they’re filming in - Gadlen House. Only Hob knows how right they are. [13 Chapters | 59,577 words]

keep your secrets by ProblemWithTrouble | Teen

Hob builds a temple, Dream finally returns, and things are left unspoken. For a while. [5 Chapters | 14,161 words]

Time Travel

Promise of A Thousand Years by Dreams_of_Raven | Teen

An AU in which Hob could travel through time, but every time he did, he always ended up in the nude. [4 Chapters | 9,132 words]

Romantic Fluff

Mine Own Heart by xxSparksxx | Teen

When Dream of the Endless comes back to Hob Gadling, Hob is determined to be a Very Good Friend to him, because Dream's been through some stuff, and if what he needs is a safe haven, then Hob is going to give him that. [...] And alright, maybe that's not all he wants, but it's not about what he wants, it's about what Dream needs, so Hob is going to look after him as best he can, and try not to break his own heart in the meantime. [18 Chapters | 70,265 words]

Soulmate AU

Passing Stranger! (You Do Not Know How Longingly I Look Upon You) by WyvernQuill | Teen

Hob has known that Dream is his mildly star-crossed soulmate since their first meeting in 1389, but believes they have a mutual understanding not to acknowledge it; Dream, meanwhile, was under the impression that the Endless have no soulmates whatsoever, up until their sixth meeting in 1889. Finding out they're wrong comes as a bit of a shock to both of them. [14 Chapters | 25,112 words]

#dreamling #dreamling fic #fic recs #long post

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balioc · 1 year ago

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Is this a concept-formulation that's already kicking around out there somewhere? It might well be. It feels like the sort of thing that someone would already have developed. But it's new to me, at least, so I'll muddle around with it as best as I can.

On one end of the spectrum, you've got the musical hook. A hook is maybe two seconds of music, if that. And when you hear it, if it's good, you get a concentrated spike of -- oh, yeah, that's the shit right there, this exact experience in this exact moment is fucking awesome. And then, as soon as it's come, it's gone. All you can do is wait for it to come back later in the track, or rewind a few seconds, or maybe just replay that tiny little scrap of music in your head.

The pleasure of a good hook is incredibly condensed. It doesn't even really extend into the rest of the song, let alone into the rest of your life. To experience it, you have to be listening to those exact few bars (if only in your mind). It has no penumbra, no shades-of-experience that color other aspects of your existence. On the other hand, well...when you're listening to those exact few bars, you know it, and it's great. If it's a good enough hook, you kinda just want to listen to it over and over again, like you're popping Pringles or something.

All the way on the other end of the spectrum, you've got something like a traditional-style TTRPG campaign.

Even when it's being run masterfully, a game like D&D has a very low proportion of that's the shit right there moments, and a very high proportion of tedious yak-shaving stuff. Every so often you get your critical success in a high-stakes moment, every so often you get your awesome monologue or your big-drama scene or whatever...but for every moment like that, there's a hundred moments or more of the other stuff. The commonplace D&D play experience is famous for its vast amounts of OOC joking-around, which is not how things look when people are deeply engaged with the art on a moment-by-moment basis. And, of course, not every campaign is run masterfully. Sometimes boredom, or eye-rolling, is what you get in almost every moment.

And yet people love their D&D campaigns, like really incredibly a lot, and are deeply affected by them, and not-uncommonly have their whole lives changed by them.

The correct model here, I think, is that the pleasure generated by that kind of TTRPG experience is super diffuse. It's almost all penumbra. The awesomeness doesn't inhere in any one moment, or even any one scene or any one story arc. It inheres in the broad strokes of the campaign, in the ongoing knowledge that YOU ARE YOUR COOL CHARACTER and you go on a million cool adventures, in the mythos and the running jokes that add up invisibly over time into magic. And it pervades the entirety of your existence. You can think about it when you're lying in your bed, you can chat about it with your friends over lunch, and the awesomeness is just as much there as it is when you're actually playing. Maybe more so.

**********

Once you start looking at art through this variable-diffusion-of-appreciation lens, you can see many different points on the spectrum.

It's obvious that a short story is more concentrated than a novel, which is more concentrated than a series; it's obvious that a movie is more concentrated than a TV show. But it's not just the choice of medium that pushes in one direction or the other. It's a million different choices concerning content and style. Lushly descriptive language, in prose fiction, serves to concentrate the reader's appreciation into the moment of reading -- it forces the expenditure of extra attention for the sake of creating a beautiful mental moment, which in the vast majority of cases will be gone and forgotten almost instantly. Abstracted and philosophical language does the exact opposite, pulling the reader out of the narrative for a little bit for the sake of giving him something to roll around in his head. Suspense, and surprising plot developments, are concentration techniques that can have their full effect only during the transition from unspoiled-to-spoiled (and they serve to emphasize and heighten the moments of that transition). Archetypical, iconic plots are diffusion techniques that trade predictability-in-the-now for satisfaction-in-contemplating-the-story-later.

Sitcoms strike me as being vehicles for diffuse appreciation, to a huge extent, even more than other TV shows of comparable length etc. Much of what makes them good is just the presence of the characters and their distinctive shticks in your mindscape, in a way that builds from episode to episode without any particular grounding in specifics. When I think about a sitcom that I like, I find myself concluding that I like the show overall more than I like any single given episode. Which is weird, right? You'd expect some sort of bell-curve thing where the best episodes, or even the best individual moments, rise up above the averaged-out mass of the whole. But no.

**********

Fannishness is, overall, a very diffuse form of appreciation. This is true in the very-obvious sense that you're enjoying the work during a time when you're not actually consuming the work, by dint of consuming/producing fanworks and talking with other fans etc. But it's also true in the somewhat-less-obvious sense that the enjoyment-of-the-thing usually ends up very unrooted in the specifics of the thing, the plot beats and characterization details and so forth. You have a big beloved vibe, with lots of bits and bobs attached, and you can take the bits and bobs you like best and rearrange them however you like best when you're engaging in fandom.

**********

I believe it is overall true that concentrated appreciation is much more legible than diffuse appreciation. More legible to artists and art theorists, more legible to marketers and consumers. When you talk about art being good or bad or successful or unsuccessful, it's very easy to think in terms of "what is it like to consume this moment-by-moment?", and much harder to think in terms of "how does each piece of the work pervade the whole of the work, and also the general thoughtscape of the consumer?" For this reason, concentration techniques are associated with prestige, and high-prestige analysis tends to focus on a work's ability to generate concentrated appreciation.

...I also believe that different people want to be appreciating art, in the ideal case, at different levels of diffusion. There are people for whom a good artistic experience means lots of crack-hit awesome moments, and others for whom a good artistic experience means getting to live in an infinite penumbra, and others who fall at every point in between.

**********

For reasons I may discuss later, I think this concept-suite is extremely valent to the construction of theater LARPs, and the tension between people who expect more-concentrated enjoyment and people who expect more-diffuse enjoyment is responsible for a lot of the Wars Over What's Good within that sphere.

#media analysis #spectrum of appreciation diffusion

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canmom · 8 months ago

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more on art production ~under capitalism~

reading Who Owns This Sentence?, a very engaging and fiercely critical history of the concept of copyright, and it's pretty fire. there's all sorts of fascinating intricacies in the way the notion of IP formed around the world (albeit so far the narrative has mainly focused on Europe, and to a limited extent China), and the different ideologies that justified the types of monopolies that it granted. the last chapter i read skewers the idea that the ability to exploit copyright and patents is what motivates the writing of books and research/invention, and I'll try and pull out the shape of the argument tomorrow. so far I'm only up to the 18th century; I'm looking forward to the rest of their story of how copyright grew from the limited forms of that period into the monster it is today.

it's on libgen if you wanna read it! i feel like the authors would be hypocrites to object :p

it is making me think about the differences between the making of books and other media, from (since this has been rattling around my head lately) an economic angle...

writing books, at least in the case of fiction is usually done on a prospective, spec-work kind of basis (you write your novel with no guarantee it will get published unless you're already an established author under contract). admittedly, a lot of us probably read books by authors who managed to 'make it' as professional authors and write full time - but this is not a lucrative thing to do and to make it work you need truly exceptional luck to get a major hit, or to be extremely prolific in things people want to read.

the films and games of the types most of us play are, by contrast, generally made by teams of salaried people - and thus do rarely get made without the belief it will be profitable. if you went on about your 'monetisation model' when writing a book, people would look at you funny and rightly so, but it's one of the first questions that gets asked when pitching a game.

open source software is a notable comparison here. a lot of it is done for its own sake without any expectation of profit, taking untold hours, but large free software projects tend to sprout foundations, which take donations (typically from companies that use the software) to pay for full time developers. mozilla, notably, gets a huge part of its funding from google paying for their search engine to be the default in Firefox; this in turn drives development of not just Firefox itself but also the Rust programming language (as discussed in this very enlightening talk by Evan Czaplicki). Blender is rightly celebrated as one of the best open source projects for its incredibly fast development, but they do have an office in amsterdam and a number of full time devs.

what money buys in regards to creative works is not motivation, but time - time to work on a project, iterate and polish and all that. in societies where you have to buy food etc. to survive, your options for existence are basically:

work at a job

own capital

rely on someone else (e.g. a parent or partner)

rely on state benefits if you can get them

beg

steal

if you're working at a job, this takes up a lot of your time and energy. you can definitely make art anyway, loads of people do, but you're much more limited in how you can work at it compared to someone who doesn't have to work another job.

so again, what money buys in art is the means of subsistence for someone, freeing them to work fully on realising a project.

where does the money come from that lets people work full time on art? a few places.

one is selling copies of the work itself. what's remarkable is that, when nearly everything can be pirated without a great deal of effort, it is still possible to do this to some degree - though in many ways the ease of digital copying (or at least the fear if it) has forced new models for purely digital creations, which either trade on convenience (streaming services) or in the case of games, find some way to enforce scarcity like requiring connection to a central server and including 'in-app purchases', where you pay to have the software display that you are the nebulous owner of an imaginary thing, and display this to other players. anyway, whichever exact model, the idea is that you turn the IP into capital which you then use to manufacture a product like 'legal copies', 'subscriptions' or 'accounts with a rare skin unlocked'.

the second is using the work to promote some other, more profitable thing - merchandising, an original work, etc. this is the main way that something like anime makes money (for the production committee, if not the studio) - the anime is, economics-wise, effectively an ad for its own source manga, figurines, shirts etc. the reason why there is so much pro media chasing the tastes of otaku is partly because otaku spend a lot on merch. (though it's also because the doujin scene kind of feeds into 'pro' production)

the third is some kind of patronage relationship, notably government grants, but also academic funding bodies, or selling commissions, or subscriptions on a streaming platform/patreon etc.

grants are how most European animated films are funded, and they often open with the logos of a huge list of arts organisations in different countries. the more places you can get involved, the more funds you can pull on. now, instead of working out how to sell your creation to customers who might buy a copy, under this model you need to convince funding bodies that it fits their remit. requesting grants involves its own specialised language.

in general the issue with the audience patronage model is that it only really pays enough to live on if you're working on a pretty huge scale. a minority make a fortune; the vast majority get a pittance at most, and if they do 'make it', it takes years of persistence.

the fourth is, for physical media, to sell an original. this only works if you can accumulate enough prestige, and the idea is to operate on extreme scarcity. the brief fad of NFTs attempted to abstract the idea of 'owning' an original from the legal right to control the physical object to something completely nebulous. in practice this largely ended up just being a speculative bubble - but then again, a lot of the reason fine art is bought and sold for such eye watering sums is pretty much the same, it's an arbitrary holder of an investment.

the fifth is artworks which are kind of intrinsically scarce, like live performances. you can only fit so many people in the house. and in many cases people will pay to see something that can be copied in unique circumstances, like seeing a film at a cinema or festival - though this is a special case of selling copies.

the sixth is to sell advertising: turn your audience into the product, and your artwork into the bait on the hook.

the alternative to all of these options is unpaid volunteer work, like a collab project. the participants are limited to the time and energy they have left after taking care of survival. this can still lead to great things, but it tends to be more unstable by its nature. so many of these projects will lose steam or participants will flake and they'll not get finished - and that's fine! still, huge huge amounts of things already get created on this kind of hobby/indie/doujin basis, generally (tho not always) with no expectation of making enough money to sustain someone.

in every single one of these cases, the economic forces shape the types of artwork that will get made. different media are more or less demanding of labour, and that in turn shapes what types of projects are viable.

books can be written solo, and usually are - collaborations are not the norm there. the same goes for illustrations. on the other hand, if you want to make a hefty CRPG or an action game or a feature length movie, and you're trying to fit that project around your day job... i won't say it's impossible, I can think of some exceptional examples, but it won't be easy, and for many people it just won't be possible.

so, that's a survey of possibilities under the current regime. how vital is copyright really to this whole affair?

one thing that is strange to me is that there aren't a lot of open source games. there are some - i have memories of seeing Tux Racer, but a more recent example would be Barotrauma (which is open source but not free, and does not take contributions from outside the company). could it work? could you pay the salaries of, say, 10 devs on a 'pay what you can' model?

it feels like the only solution to all of this in the long run is some kind of UBI type of thing - that or a very generous art grants regime. if people were free to work on what they wanted and didn't need to be paid, you wouldn't have any reason for copyright. the creations could be publicly archived. but then the question i have is, what types of artwork would thrive in that kind of ecosystem?

I've barely talked about the book that inspired this, but i think it was worth the trouble to get the contours of this kind of analysis down outside my head...

#fiction #copyright

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cindersnows · 11 months ago

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short essay thing i wrote in avf about plural tsc that i feel like people should see bc its so interesting to me

just to preface i highly highly doubt this is all intentional on alan+teams part due to the fact that plurality is just ,, not that well known. also im not too knowledgable on non traumagenic systems and all the stuff surrounding that so i will just be speaking from what i know from my own experience + research

so anyways. from the start of sec's life she has been kind of in a high stress situation. from the getgo she had to hide her existence from alan due to likely knowing the fate of the other living sticks he has made + the fact that she very much isnt supposed to be alive. she lets her guard down, makes friends, and then almost instantly theyre all deleted. although did and osdd1 form from long-term trauma (often accompanied by cptsd) and all of this only happened in a few minutes, at the very least this provides the basis for some sort of dissociation

theres a moment where she glitches and changes to black for a second. obviously back then this was intended to be an allusion to the fact that she's the chosen one's return, since alan+team hadn't planned ava s2 yet and tco was just regular dead atp, but its interesting to consider the sudden change in her personality. shes not even shown to be overly angry like she usually is, just a. Calm?? specifically the same calm that preceeds her beating up tdl in ava s2.

notably that moment in s2 where she unlocks her powers is like. sudden change in personality and demeanor, suddenly gaining the powers, and memory loss afterwards. even though she only really switches between two "modes" it's reminiscent of switching between two alters (while its uncommon for a system to have only two alters it's not unheard of, especially in cases of osdd-1a where theres not much distinction between personality states).

i said ava/e specifically because the aveducation videos in particular provide a very interesting insight into tsc's psyche. while alan said in his avg avma video that the series isn't canon, a few things about the series have already been retconned. avphys was originally supposed to be the last entry in the series, but with avma+avphys+avgeo's massive success and the lead animator's interest in these sort of topics i wouldn't be surprised if they continued to make more, especially considering that they're now interconnected via avgeo. phi, who appeared at the end of avma, is the protagonist of avgeo, and there's that scene at the end that teases avphys that i'll also get into in a sec because it's very interesting.

about why i think it represents tsc's psyche specifically and not just some math dimensions that tsc happens to stumble upon: in the avg avma video dj proposes the dream theory, that this is all happening in a dream during ava s3. noncanon of course but considering alan himself knows about it and ave seems to be gaining some kind of overarching arc, as well as the fact that its releasing between ava s3 episodes (which is going to focus on tsc's powers) i wouldn't be surprised if the episodes slowly grow more and more representative of her mental state as she works towards properly unlocking her powers

anyways speculation aside. avphys introduces a second second (haha). this is explained through the mechanics of time loops and whatnot, but at the same time, the hat tsc seems to know a lot more than regular tsc, having.. basically created the universe. even if our tsc can then explain this to the next tsc, hat tsc is shown to literally create the entire universe avphys takes place in (again tying back to her powers of creation) and also act much calmer and composed compared to our tsc. it seems like hat tsc is somewhat representative of the state tsc gets into when she unlocks her powers, shown both times in ava s1 and 2. shes cool and mysterious and all knowing i want her so bad

the scene at the end of avgeo is the most compelling thing for this idea (and the push that made me go "ohhhh my god multiplies her). hat tsc appears once more, this time seemingly wanting to communicate more with our tsc, but being cut short by tsc getting surprised and falling. the most interesting part to me is the imagery in this part— there's tons and tons of tsc's, all reflected, and being reflections makes them slightly different from what we see (of course light refraction will always make things appear slightly different; discolored, blurred, flipped etc). hat tsc is framed as Also a reflection despite being shown as different person/personality state.

i just got back from dinner and lost my train of thought. im not sure if this is enough for other people to consider her plural but at the very least i feel like interpreting her as such does enhance one's reading and understanding of her, as well as how you write her (for those who do).

#alan becker #animation vs animator #animation vs maths #animation vs physics #animation vs geometry #avm tsc #ava tsc #ava second coming #avm the second coming #theo's rambles #interesting to me. interesting #sorry theres a lot of waffling im bad at getting to the point #ava tess #cowsec

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niyalationz · 8 months ago

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my HONEST take on jhea + livdom 😛😛

(Again, assuming kayfabe. I dont wanna see any 'jey is married/rhea has a husband' shit !)

Written before the most recent UMMM episodes

JHEA

okay so lets get to basis of whag jhea (gee-uh) is

Their first interaction was like maybe a year ago i believe ? They were still enemies at the time, and rhea even went as far as physically attacking him with a brief case. She DID NOTTT want him at that point of time.

However, as time went on w Rheadom, jey found an opportunity to sliiidee in and he took it!

Good on him #king

Anyways

I personally rlly like them. AND HERES WHY!

RHEA herself is definitely a very playful and silly character. Even when she was with Liv, she was very silly and just had fun. As shown with Damian 24/7, she was ALWAYS playful sort of like a little sister! However, with Dominik, she sort of (what im assuming) started to behave in a way that would appeal to dominik's 'mami' thing. She became ruder, more dominant, and possessive. Also, i should add on, the relationship there was always very sexual. A relationship led by sexual tension will NEVER be a good relationship. Even the 'mami' title was meant to be somewhat sexual at the very least. With Jey, she doesn't have to be dominant or scary or possessive or wtv; she doesn't have to be MAMI. She can be Jey's girl, or just Rhea. She also subtly confirmed that Jey calls her BABY. THATS SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE IDC! She upgraded def.

Basically, im saying that Jhea is way better bcz rhea doesn't have to be reliable and the dominant one 24/7, and she doesn't have to play into this sexual character. Instead, she can just be herself with Jey.

However, they NEED to interact more on screen. WWE made them only to never develop their relationship anymore then a few casual glances and conversations.

HOWWWWEVVVERRRR ... ik yall see the way Rhea looks at that man. She is in elll ohh vveee eeeee eee eee and affection 🥴

That also culd technically play into sm rheadom angst if ur into that! Any woman who's able to stare at a man like that and have so much love in her eyes will never b able to truly get over an ex just like 🫰🏽 that!

Anywaysssss ....

Ok also i wanted 2 add that jhea also holds a special place in my heart BECAUSE its like chyna and eddie ykwim? Eddie reminded the world that chyna is still a lady and i feel like jey would remind US that rhea his still a lady and most importantly his lady!

LIVDOM

Yall are gonna be rrreeeallllyyy mad at this oouuu... oh well!

First of all, this is NOT a good relationship. And it's not js bcz of what u think I think it is. Lemme put yall on.

Liv constantly stalked and harassed Dominik for weeks. She touched him w/o his consent even if he told her not tew, but she didn't gaf! But, guess what, he fell inlove w her. Yall know what that is?

YH I SAID IT ! SOOOO WHATTTTT . Anyways!

The relationship also feels a little forced. Like Liv bragged abt getting w him and being a home-wrecker. Dom ykdw. Dpmo boy. It sort of feels like Liv only got w dominik because it was a way to get at Rhea. And when she realized rhea dgaf abt him no more, she brought in raquel; ANOTHER person who can fw rhea's mental. I also doubt Liv will stay with dominik for tooo long because 1. Dominik is not a good wrestler. Ok i said it his bookings are ass and he always cheats even if he is a heel! 2. He can genuinely not provide anything for liv. He can't fight the women's division for her, to protect her from any girl bigger than her because like.. not only is he a pussy but he also got bodied by rhea like three times? Raquel howrver, CAN fight the women's division. She can fight any girl rlly, bcz shes big asl and strong! Raquel is 100% more helpful to liv and she rlly dont need the judgment day or that clown dominik at all if she has raquel!

With that being said, let's look at the positives!

Ok there arent any! But hmo pls

I hated the relationship because, everything abt it is then being sexual. 24/7. Like, kissing, touching, holding each other, all these forms of pda and what not.

BUT ... that changed a bit when i seen that liv felt bad abt the cage and got him a gift! Ok we're getting somewhere w this relationship period!

Hopefully they'll keep going in this positive direction for livdom , and wont js keep having them everywhere while not building or adding onto their character/bond/ and relationship at all.

OVERALL ?

OVER ALL THOUGHTS ???????

Weelllllllll

Jhea is a solid 8.5/10, i'd make it 10/10 if it didnt feel like rhea was js using jey as a rebound since her man was gone. But, thankfully, it doesn't rlly feel like that and they both make it easy to forget she even dated dominik! Yayyyy!

Livdom is a 6/10. Not anything less than a five, but definitely not above an 8. Ykwim? I seen this clip of Liv sort of pushing dominik's hand away, and maybe that's a sign of her not rlly fw him OR maybe it's js him moving his hand away and didnt see liv's hand as she went to grab it. Idk who knows! Not me thats for sure!

In general tho, i'm glad rheadom broke up; even if it hurts my heart to admit. I deadass called them mama y papa & summerslam had my heart hurting for dayysss after.

the reason im glad they split is bczzz Dominik had always been somebodies sidekick, whether it be his dad, rhea, or liv. I wanna see dominik completely alone, and managing his way without help at all. Maybe for just a few segments or wtv! WWE has done a great job making his character look pathetic alr, but it seems a lil unrealistic as Dominik himself is REY MYSTERIO'S son. Anybody w rey's blood is gonna be somewhat good at wrestling okurrr ?

Okay i forgot what elese i wanted to add on bcz i wrote this like two(?) weeks ago and forgot all abt it thne i went to finish it but tumblr deleted what i wrote so i had to just go off the first draft .

Anyways yall have a good night its 8:29 and i spent my entire day out n about for my bday week 🫠 im DRAINED

Bye yall

#wwe #wwe raw #rhea ripley #mami rhea #jey uso #jhea #livdom #liv morgan #dominik mysterio #hot take #💗niiyah post

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lobotomyd0ll · 9 months ago

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Little Girl Lost

Getting sober from hard drugs, especially heroin really is like being reborn. I've spent years nodding off, numbing & forgetting. Each time you pull a plunger of the rig back you chip away parts of your identity... Until there's nothing left. I think that's why it's so hard to stay sober. When you realize you don't know who you are anymore it's terrifying. Your own thoughts and feelings feel foreign to you. So you run back to the one thing that feels familiar, even though its the very thing that put you in that predicament in the first place.

I've had a thousand different "personalities" before I stopped shooting up. All of them were failed attempts at trying to establish a life for myself that could never be lived because I was still killing myself on a daily basis. Each persona dying quicker than the last. It wasn't until I had spent years in therapy, without doing drugs that I finally got to know myself. People always tell you that they miss the person you used to be before you ever picked up substances. And so a lot of people strive to become the person they were before they became a junkie. The problem with that is that person is what lead you to selling your soul. The person you used to be was in so much pain they sought out a lethal relief from it.

The person you were before you got high is never going to come back. They were gone the minute you found out what it felt like to not feel at all. When you get clean you have to figure out how to live life again while trying to figure out who you are at the same time. And if you started doing drugs when you were a kid like I did, you never really had a chance to grow up either. Most addicts have some form of mental illness too. In my case I am bipolar. It took me years after getting clean to figure out who I truly am. I've been sober for 5 years now and it wasn't until about 1-2 years ago that I felt like I had finally "found myself." I hate the term "found myself" because its always used in such cliché examples, but if you are in recovery then you know that its the only way to describe what its like.

Every day I'm still finding myself. When you're in active addiction your only focus is getting drugs and doing drugs. In all that time you didn't do things that "regular" people did. You didn't explore different hobbies or watch tons of movies. You didn't binge watch your favorite tv shows or read books that changed your life. I'm not saying you never do those things while you're on drugs, but most people (like me) barely ever explore different interests because my main interest was heroin.

Now that I am sober and I am completely aware of who I am and what I love, I appreciate everything so much more now. My interests are not just interests anymore, they are my life line. My obsessions. My oxygen. I am autistic so I have a ton of special interests too, but all of my interests mean a great deal to me. Nowadays if i discover a song i like i will listen to it on repeat for 3 days. I will watch the same film 20 times in a row without getting sick of it. In my opinion, addicts never stop being addicted to something. I think us addicts will always replace drug addiction with an addiction to something else. It could be a lot of things or one big thing. It differs between different types of people. Heroin almost killed me and I wish I could take away all the pain and suffering it caused me and everyone around me, but in a weird way I am sort of thankful to have gone through it because of the way it has made me view life today.

I appreciate little things so much more than other people do. I enjoy video games that make me happy in a way that people enjoy going to an amusement park. My favorite books, characters, fictional environments and songs are all little pieces of who I am. I am so grateful for media. I'm so grateful to have constant access to it via my phone or television, etc. I love that I can write about it all I want to whoever is reading this blog. I'm not really sure with where I'm going with this post, I just wanted to share what was on my brain. I am currently trying out new forms of art and incorporating my interests into filmography, crochet, painting, etc. & I was thinking about how just 5 years ago I didn't even know I possessed the talent for some of these things. & How if I hadn't gotten sober I never would have discovered who I am. Getting sober is very freeing, but true freedom is knowing exactly who you are and embracing it. I used to try to shrink myself to make other people feel comfortable. My style was "too much" for them or the way I come off to certain people seems "weird." I decided actually pretty recently that I'm not doing that anymore. I shouldn't have to feel small because others want me to. I went through hell to discover who I am and I intend to be myself and do what I love and what makes me happy, unapologetically.

#heroin addict #addiction #heroin addiction #recovery #addiction recovery #recovering addict #self awareness #recovering heroin addict #thoughts #virtual diary #bipolar disorder #autistic #autistic addict

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goldenhickeyss · 2 years ago

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The (ephimeral) success of solo projects on Chapter 2

I wanted to write a post about chapter 2 and Jimin, the "sabotages"... but I don't know if I'm able to sort out the facts and my ideas or judgements about them properly. Nothing is clear to me yet.

There are days when a part of me believes that something is going on with Jimin and Hybe (or BH, I don't know which). But there's another part, the rational part, the part that works as an economist for 20 years, that knows that it doesn't make much sense for a for-profit company to boycott one of its most valuable assets.

In the Executive Boards, and in financial planning, decisions are made on the basis of economical evidence, which is always provided by current numbers (or estimates), not by the heart. Maybe even in the case of BTS there is some sense of fairness, I would say, at the outset. And not an asymmetric distribution according to profit projections.

In the trade-off I find myself in, I would like to share the following thoughts:

- I have recently realised that Chapter 2 is not the chapter of their solo career. It is the chapter of their solo work, which is slightly different.

- Most of them has a short time to promote their work. The average has been a "several weeks" window.

- Their success is therefore somewhat short-lived or ephimeral. It appears and within weeks it seems to fade away, eclipsed by the next in line. The nex king of "k-..."

- There is no intention of promoting a structured solo career, because 1) BTS have said (a million times) that they will be back in 2025, and 2) if we are to take them at their word, the boys will all be joining the military before the end of 2023.

- So, there is no long-term vision to support "some" and not "others".

- The support is focused on a specific work. The only exception to a more continuous commitment has been Suga and his tour.

- Everyone has their budget, their schedule, their activities for the year...

- And yes, there can be different intensities of promotional activities, depending on the defined strategy or budget or goal or whatever (we don't know the whole story because the company doesn't explain anything to us). There is a rumour that some have even put their money into some activities. But I don't know how true that is.

- And I think they all have a say in the design of their promotions, even if they don't design them themselves.

So then....I can't take the agency away from any of them.

They are the best advocates or defenders within the company. And if one of them had less influence, which I doubt, the others would not remain silent without solving the problem. Or how do we think a commitment from the 7 of them to the 7 of them is achieved to keep BTS as a unified group? There are no weak links in this group. And if there were, I wouldn't bet my money that Jimin is one of them.

Once again, there are things that I can't explain and I'd like to know what's going on (the lack of restocking, the split of Spotify streaming, the deletion of sales...). But if there really have been damaging mistakes or strategies for any of them, I hope that when the next contract comes up for renewal, they will sort it out very thoroughly. Cause this cant happen anymore.

To tell you the truth, I blame the company for many things, and one of them - as serious as their lack of planning - is their lack of communication with the fans. BeautifulPeach has talked about this in some of her posts.

At some point in its growth, Hybe became too big to fail, or whatever, and forgot about certain corporate social responsibility obligations. One of them is to talk to its most important stakeholders: the customers, i.e. the fans. And addressing some of their concerns.

Investors are important in listed companies, but customers are important too. Always.

And if they don't see it that way and continue to despise the fans (clients) in that way, then at the end “future is not gonna be ok”.

And yes, I know that K-pop is controversial. It's clear that they can't deal with every rumour, every silly trend that comes out every day on twitter, ships, solos demands, etc. But there are things that they can deal with. And some of the Jimin's events when Face happened are one of them.

A bit of transparency would be appreciated. I expect it, actually, at some point (maybe when this chapter ends).

Maybe there will be things that could be explained as commercial strategy (do they want us to buy Face instead of the single LC, for example? And that's why they're not stocking it again?). But they might also be telling us about certain difficulties. Or about certain forecasting mistakes. Or how they learned from some of them. I'm pretty sure they learned a lot from Jimin's Face era.

I don't think I will be able to judge everything that has happened until at least the end of this year, when all the solo works have been completed/released.

And I'll have to keep listening to Bongo to see if he still talks about how they are more interested in being a company that has groups rather than individual singers. Maybe that is why it seems there's a ceiling to individual success. There is nothing better than capping success with time limitation of activities ("Let's see if that makes the fans forget what solo members are capable of")

And even then, there will be differences between all of them. Quite a lot.

But we will also have to consider that they are different artists with different goals, sensibilities, objectives and situations (let's not forget that JK himself, who now seems quite greedy, has admitted that he needed and enjoyed his free time and Seven had to come along to give him a boost). So we should be careful with the comparison too.

Perhaps Jin will end up getting the most promotions when he comes out, considering how little time he has had. Poor Jin…😔 He had to wait until the end of the year to enlist, despite the bad weather, to give us the Busan concert. It was a commitment to BTS, but it was a short of individual sacrifice too… you know..they do these things for BTS.

I would also like to listen to them (yes, it's a bit ambitious on my part, but I would like to listen to Jimin and his feelings, at the end of this year... will he open up to us?)

In conclusion, I would say that if we are BTS fans and want to remain so, and if we believe in the boys' words .... I would advise us to enjoy every moment they give us for their limited time. Every campaign, every song, every vlive... and try to find an atmosphere of caution given the situation we are in.

And by that I mean that we should also be able to read that we are in the age of solos and akages. All the information about grievances or leaks that comes out usuarlly comes from the same places.

And I'm not saying it's FALSE! Nor do I mean to belittle it! Just that sometimes we should take into account the intentions behind. And before we react, let's consider the source and the context. Look at what happened to the RNX journalist we all spent almost a day reporting on for a bad translation. Or look at how, in less than two weeks, two CCTV vids of Jimin shopping with a friend (one of them clearly with Saeon) suddenly appeared just as it became known that he was going to NY with JK.

Anyway, I will be a bit cautious for now. There are still a few months until the end of the year. A lot can still happen.

Jimin could came back again to us with sth as amazing as Like Crazy. Or even better, an album.

I miss Jimin and want to see him shine again and talking to us.

And I miss jikook……arrrggg

#jikook #kookmin #jimin and jungkook #mingukkie #jikook kookmin jinkook jiminshiii jk

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max1461 · 1 year ago

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Current debate being hosted on @triviallytrue's blog involving @metamatar and @centrally-unplanned is interesting to me on a meta-level. @metamatar, a Marxist, offers what I think would usually be called a "materialist" explanation for US support of Israel: the United States gets strategic benefits out of its relationship with Israel and thus wants to keep them as an ally. @centrally-unplanned, a rationalist-adjacent(?) liberal of some sort, offers what I think would usually be called an "idealist" explanation: the US supports Israel against its own rational self-interest for ideological and domestic political reasons. Triv, a left-liberal, takes an intermediary position.

Using the terms "materialist" and "idealist" in this way has certain Marxist undertones that I don't necessarily endorse, and is maybe not even technically accurate for one reason or another, but I just needed some quick and recognizable terms in which to frame the debate. Forgive me for this.

One way or another, I have some up-my-own-ass and navel-gazatory things to say about the discussion.

I don't know a whole lot about the US's relationship with Israel on an object level. But on the basis of my priors I lean towards the materialist explanation. I think this reflects, ironically, a kind of liberal view of human nature: I model people (and organizations) as basically self-interested and rational agents, at least to a rough approximation. But I have a fairly dim view of where this leads us. I think that rational self-interest often results in murder and plunder and cold-hearted slaughter, and indeed the notion that humans are approximately rational and self-interested agents comports well with the fact that the world today and for all of known history has been characterized by murder and plunder and cold-hearted slaughter. My default assumption is therefore that, again to a first approximation, whatever is going on between the US and Israel is another instance of this.

On the other hand, I think it's interesting that the idealist explanation is here favored by a liberal, although it suggests perhaps a less "liberal" view of human nature. Under this explanation humans are foolish, driven by irrationality, ideology, and superstition, to work against their own material interests. Ok, the putative politicians supporting Israel for domestic political reasons are acting in their own self-interest, but the voters to which they cater are evidently not! Naively this view might seem a bit at odds with a liberal political philosophy, but I don't think it really it. Especially in this case, where the belief that US support of Israel is driven by irrationality and superstition actually serves to rescue the notion of rational self-interest from what otherwise might look like a mark on its good name. It allows one to avoid the conclusion that the rational pursuit of self-interest has lead the US to complicity in a genocide, which is not a very fun conclusion to reach if you endorse a political philosophy that at some level valorizes the rational pursuit of self-interest.

All in all, what is my point? I don't really have a point. I don't think this kind of psychoanalysis of others' political opinions is a very useful endeavor. I suppose I'm saying precisely nothing: the leftists in this discussion have taken up a position that indicts rational self-interest, the liberals have taken up a position that exculpates it, the centrists have taken a middling position—everyone has behaved in exactly the way our cheap psychoanalysis of them suggests they would. Nothing has been learned about the world (in this post, I mean), because although we see that the participants in the discussion are making arguments that suit their ideologies, we cannot tell which direction the causality runs. And nothing has been learned about the participants in the discussion because this kind of psychoanalysis is a crock of shit.

Keep on posting, everybody.

#navel gazing

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gpuzzle · 3 months ago

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Where's the rant on water wheels. I want the rant. Gimme the rant.

I got some methylphenidate, a coke zero, some hard bop records, and fuck all to do at work. Send it. Disclaimer, this is largely a rant about European Industrial History; if anyone has any sources on like, Indian Industrial History or Ottoman and Arabic Industrial History or others, please send it to me, I would love to read it.

It is the year 1400. Your parents and grandparents lived through hell. You are some pimply teenager who's apprenticing to be a blacksmith. You go to work on what is basically a factory; there's a blast furnace that has bellows that pump in air from the top; there are trip hammers for shaping the tools, there's all sorts of mills for grinding ore into dust. It is all powered by water wheels.

The late medieval world was so much more industrialized than we give it credit for. Once the utter chaos of the early middle ages settled, the great knowledge network known as the monasteries held the keys to the kingdom; the one transnational organization dedicated to passing on knowledge. Meanwhile, the labor in cities, between merchants and craftsmen and those offering services, began to organize and gather capital to establish these industries, for leather, for iron, for wine, for cloth, for paper, for masonry. The structures of the economy were so much more modern than we give them credit for; it's everything else that's basically ripped from the Hellenistic period at best.

Watermills factor into this because they are the basis of all economies alongside windmills, but windmills are not constant and far more expensive, unless you are the Dutch. Every monastery, every hamlet might have a handful; at least one for grains and one for basic cloth fullinh. And it's producing at a higher level than ever before.

We spend years, ages dealing with this nascent if gross industrial production. Precision isn't a quality of those tools. It's why I think people stating the old adage about how the Romans could have invented the steam engine myopic at best. At its core, despite these grand water wheels, these huge leaps, this age where you might see a genuine industrial district on the rivers of Europe, where guilds establish their great artisanal manufactories, you don't have basic machines like the lathe.

The missing parts for that precision are things which the Renaissance really brought to the fore. It's the ability to mass print technical manuals; it's the ability to draw and sketch and mass print very precise depictions of machinery. It's a need - a profound need - to measure the world to its finest detail, which gave rise to the profession of "scientific instrument maker"! There was such a demand for it these craftsmen especializing in ultra precise gear became a class unto themselves!

And you slowly see, over the course of the 17th century and through the 18th century, a scientific approach to these great engineering projects. The first civil engineers are really taking control of what was before unstandardized master mason knowledge and providing us with the exact details. This is happening all over the place. The guilds must become scientific, become academic or die an ignonimious death. And, to their credit, they very much do. It is not for nothing that economics and engineering, to start, become academic objects of study around then.

Water wheels are inescapable and so are their background noises and smells until essentially the very late 1800s, and they anchor so much of life during that point; they are the premier way of making anything that requires force. And yet, much like every aspect of industrial life, they're completely forgotten or even purposefully ignored in some cases. It's such background noise we tune it out, and slowly lose them. Industrial history and archaeology as a whole is just insanely vulnerable because so much of it can just be removed within a minute and never brought back again. The last exemplar of a Barker reaction turbine sits in Puerto Rico where before it was ubiquituous across the US. A ship mill deteriorates in 50 years. And we forget just how automated life was.

I am tempted to say I am like this because I was born in a country where that sort of industrial history is functionally nonexistant. Brazil was deliberately and purposefully handicapped by Portugal for centuries; printing machines here postdate Napoleon. So to seek to comprehend what life was like in ages past it is this vacuum I seem to comprehend first and foremost.

At its core it's probably because I was a giant Anglophile as a kid.

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windienine · 1 year ago

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YOU. Kicks my legs like we're at a sleepover. Who was the character u were posting about in the tags.. spill..

kicking my legs back, ready to paint your nails at any time soooooo

okay i already dedicated a whole 2k word post to his partner goddess weird animal who bites him sometimes personal jester friend (?) Ysmé, so this time I'm going to spill about Loïc Ard from Soul of Sovereignty (prelude), an hour-long adult fantasy visual novel preview (< link here) that arrived on itch late last year courtesy of webcomic artist GGDG (if you're familiar with Lady of the Shard or CQ, you know their work)

So. This idiot.

look at this character design. the people hunger for men with strong cheekbones and glasses. look at the robes that attach at the fucking fingertips to draw attention to the position of his hands.

He's very soft-spoken and sweet. He knows a lot about the history of his world, as well as the biology of what lives there. He's staggeringly generous to others, even complete strangers. He's good at cooking. He knows how to sing.

He's the viewpoint character for the lion's share of the story atm, we get to look into his brain a little more often than Ysmé's for reasons that Will Become Rapidly Apparent As You Play.

Loïc is a middle-aged guy (late 30s? early 40s?) who works in an unofficial capacity at an inn in bugfuck nowhere (Tarn, a northerly village miles from anywhere else and regularly frozen solid by blizzards, with a population of Not Enough To Maintain Infrastructure), helping to cook, clean, and care for its mostly non-paying clientele, who his friend Alma, the proprietress, is allowing to stay for free. It's become a glorified sickhouse and shelter. No one is paying to stay in Tarn, but Alma can't turn her back on what she considers her hometown and Loïc can't turn his back on Alma (and he's here for other reasons too) so the inn is just kind of slowly decaying as conditions get less and less profitable. This sucks.

Especially because Tarn was built less than a century ago as an adventurers' hub for treasure hunting squads looking to uncover temples and relics right nearby, and the inn used to be full of good people and good food and fire and light and Alma wants all that back so bad it hurts and she refuses to say it's cooked and move back to the big city (in this case, the Mosaic, an ark-like vertical metropolis that housed humanity for hundreds of years after their world's apocalypse. After the outside was deemed safe again a century back, many people wanted to try and make a living documenting and salvaging stuff... but most of it turned out to be decayed, empty, and/or worthless, after so much time had passed.) The Mosaic is bright and lively, but it's a restrictive place to live for a lot of people-- cultures outside the dominant (very fantasy-Catholic) one are suppressed and the focus on making money to survive is exhausting.

But Loïc makes things a little less miserable. He's got a calm and pleasant bearing, he brightens up the place with flowers and greenery he manages to get growing even in this climate (he's a florist), and he's someone to talk to. He's witty, he's thoughtful, and he's almost a little too willing to dedicate all of his time and energy to helping people, and overall he's this mundane nice fella... with one big caveat you learn real early on.

Loïc is a mage, and a really unique sort.

The floristry bit isn't just his job or a characterization quirk, it's the whole basis of his magic. Species of flowers in this world each hold a unique concept-- fire (pallisia), calm (lavender), light (white dawn's eye), mundanity (dandelion), memory (cloud sage), you name it, there's probably some obscure botanical species that represents something in the ballpark of it. A god of language (Fayim) allegedly imbued a meaning into each, and if you can commune and reflect and experiment around hard enough to unravel the concept of one, you can turn that concept into something real.

Think of it like magical linguistics -- [correct flower] + [expressed meaning] = [physical effect], like [correct phonetics] + [contextual meaning] = [language]. You can even chain a couple of them to make a more complex spell, like turning words into compounds, phrases, and sentences, but you do have to understand what it actually means to do so. You're forming a connection to Fayim's power by talking. This burns up the flower, but Loïc's extreme dedication to botany means that he's got a regular supply of the spells he uses most often.

Loïc can hand you a golden pallisia blossom, start waxing poetic about the nature of warmth, and the firelight kept inside will radiate out and keep you comfortable even in Tarn's frigid weather. It's rare and potent stuff, doubly so because worship of Fayim is dwindling-to-nonexistent in the Mosaic, where the only faith and magic most people are familiar with at all are those revering the Builder, the creator deity who erected the Mosaic and saved humanity from the apocalypse in the first place. Everything else? False gods. Loïc himself doesn't worship Fayim or the Builder; he uses Fayimic magic but is pretty disconnected from his own background + faith in general. He's interested in the theology but doesn't use prayers in his invocation if he can help it.

Magic's not foreign to this world (most people in this world know at least a little artisanry, a more logical and physical approach to magic which lets you stitch together bespoke objects out of thin air, used heavily in both art and industry), but flower reading is a rare and dying language. Loïc's cute little flower shop back in the Mosaic was also a spell broker for people in need of small miracles. Given that the Mosaic worships a creator deity, I guess this implies that magic, generally, is something humans tap into extant divinity to borrow.

So, Loïc is holed up in Tarn studying magic and using mending spells (yellow rose) to cure people of minor injuries, but everything goes to hell when a certain sickly blonde washes up at the inn's doorstep begging for help escorting her to a nearby temple please please you gotta, she'll die from turbo tuberculosis otherwise, god (not the builder, some other guy, don't ask who) said so. Oh my gosh, you will? Thank you so muchhhhhh

[paraphrased very hard]

alma: this is definitely a scam of some kind. please just talk her out of this so she doesn't get eaten by mutant wolves.

loïc: oh for sure but you don't try for scam this obvious unless you're really desperate. idk what she even wants here, let me feel her out. i have nothing worth robbing. maybe this is a trauma thing or a money thing and i can talk to her about it.

alma: loïc, that's literally not your problem. loïc there's this weird pattern where you prioritize the hypothetical wants of strangers over your own proven needs. loïc no.

loïc: loïc yes

So, of course, it ends up coming out that Loïc is in Tarn specifically because he is a single father with a daughter named Lelia who is comatose from an unspecified illness. Her prognosis is extremely grim (low chance of survival that dwindles the longer she stays out, probably terminal.)

Specifically, he's on a hopeless little snipe hunt for a rumored species (the glass bell) that could act as a panacea for any illness, if harnessed correctly in a spell, and it might either be extinct or entirely fictitious.

He knows he can't find it alone. If it even exists, it is a needle in an impossibly massive haystack. He is consumed inside-out with a compulsive need to do something about it, and when that proves impossible, it starts spreading into a compulsive need to do something for anyone. The grief of admitting that Lia is already in a prolonged state of death would eat him alive, so if he can transfer that feeling of purpose onto anything else he can buoy himself. He is spinning his wheels because confronting the fact that he has outlived his own daughter and has to go on without her is impossible.

But like... he's dying slowly, too, in this state. Like Lia. Like Tarn. It's only a matter of time before there's nothing left of himself to give, and at the impetus of the story that's basically what he wants. There's nothing left for him.

... Unless...!!

OTHER THINGS:

would give blessings to his daughter every day before she went to school

apparently has a puppy and a kitty back home

loves lavender and sunflowers most

sometimes casts so hard he passes out

including other people and making his casting into a conversation is a quirk he does and that's just super cute

carries pictures of his daughter around in his spellbook maes hughes style

besides his suspiciously alb-and-chasuble looking mage robes, wears an apron and skirt around the house + gg regularly draws him in cute dresses. this is a known victor's weakness.

the in-game glossary has botany notes from him, usually paired with him waxing poetic about each species' meaning. this nerd shit is a known victor's weakness.

you see his general bearing and a lot of people assume he's kind of this easily-flustered anxious disaster type, but he's actually very serene and difficult to get a rise out of. he'll play along with most jokes you try to throw at him. if he does actually freak out at any point, you know something is up.

we don't know what happened between him and his ex, but there are dialogue clues that point to it being weird and messy. he's played very interestingly as far as divorcee characters go (conflict-avoidant rather than desperate for love, wants to be the better person at every opportunity), what with being a man who has primary custody of his kid (and a good relationship with her!) and taking on a position that the audience would probably identify as more motherly than fatherly, in terms of western gender roles. there's this fun contrast where he's very confident in his looks and presentation and bearing (very charismatic guy!!), but a lot of that is traditionally feminine. he's just very genderous.

(all of this tragically forgoes the meat of his special connection to ysmé, but that is the core premise of the prelude and if i got into that here it would really and truly give away the whole plot. i need you to experience her for yourself. (for ten dollar.) if you do not have ten dollar i will stream the game for you and give GG an additional ten dollar. this is a threat.)

(what i WILL say is that if you read lady of the shard, looked at the "sexualized mind control" tw beforehand and went "well now i want to read it more and not less," there is a delicious taste of that here and it once again intersects heavily with themes of control and coercion over the self, skewed power dynamics, and the emotions that arise from them.)

whatever horseshit this confluence of circumstances makes you assume he will pull, i guarantee you it is not the full picture of what actually happens.

#soulsov #brainrot #kayla i love you for asking this xoxoxo #come talk to meeeee

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