#i understand the main character is really stuck and kind of struggling but she is also kind of insufferable

[libraryleopard]

Adult lit fic/historical fiction

A book conservator living in NYC shortly after 9/11 becomes obsessed with an old love letter found inside a lesbian pulp novel while questioning her gender, relationship, and place in the world

Queer and Jewish history, archives and books and art

Genderqueer, bi, Jewish main character

[pancake-breakfast]

Moving right along with my essays on the Veilguard companions. Next up we have:

Davrin

(This series is just me talking about each of the companion characters, my impressions of them, what I liked/didn't like with their stories, etc. I'm writing them in the order I recruited the companions. Master post with other companion essays can be found here.)

Warning: Spoilers below the break....

The trope of the tough guy who now has to play father is rather popular these days, but just because something is tropey doesn't mean it's bad. As TV Tropes shows, pretty much anything you might dig up is related to some trope or another. It's what you do with it that makes it feel fun or just overused.

And it's hard to go wrong with the guy stuck babysitting the last free gryphon in a series where gryphons have been extinct since forever.

Davrin makes a big deal about it, but it's not hard to see that he was fond of Assan well before you met up with him. It's not that he minds being the dad; it's that he never expected he'd be doing it alone. Between that and his personal death wish, he moves quickly into being an overprotective parent, and in a slightly different setting, he could have easily become too harsh with Assan without even realizing it. After all, he's not trying to toughen Assan up for no reason. But tough love often doesn't feel like love to a child.

For all of his rejection of the way he was raised, Davrin is a rigid thinker. When he makes a decision about things, that's how that thing is, and shaking him from it takes quite a bit of work. We see this in how lost he is when he finds himself raising Assan alone, how he thinks of his destiny as a Grey Warden, how he butts heads with recruited assassin Lucanis. Things are a certain way for him, and getting him out of that mindset can be a trick.

I've heard that some people struggled with how much of Davrin's character quest was made up of going for walks in Arlathan with Assan, but I personally found it necessary for me to really find the balance in his character. As someone who struggles with rigid thinkers, having the time to get out and see Davrin let his guard down a bit and let his thoughts meander helped soften him around the edges. He'll never be my favorite companion (personal differences, as noted above), but unlike some other BioWare companions, I understand why he'd be a favorite of others.

I feel a bit bad for not liking him more because his companion story is a pretty solid one. He's involved in raising gryphons. Most of the gryphons get captured. We eventually find the gryphons. It might seem simple, but like Davrin, it's very straightforward, and as such it has an internal consistency and natural build that I don't think all the companion quests quite managed to grasp. I do wish it was tied a bit more tightly to the main storyline. I kept forgetting about it until Davrin would say something about the Gloom Howler and I'd be like, "Oh, yeah." Given Ghilan'ain's control over the Blight, I think it would have been a relatively simple thing to write in her mucking with at least some of the Grey Wardens, and the Gloom Howler's status as a higher-level darkspawn make her a prime target for this. It feels like a wasted opportunity.

But I particularly appreciated how it dove into a longstanding question I've had around the Grey Wardens, that being, "What happens if they go to answer their Calling and don't die?" I've been asking that question since I found out about the Calling way back in Origins.

The only other thing I really had a problem with was the Gloom Howler's death. Again, this PG-13-ass game doesn't let the Good Guys kill people in cutscenes, so no final blow is landed on her. She just kind of crumples over in mournful sadness and... dies, I guess? She was literally just tackling a gryphon to the ground, so I have trouble with the idea that she suddenly ran out of strength. It was a really weird ending. Having Davrin finally put her to rest would have been in-character for him... and might have provided a stronger bonding point between him and Lucanis than alcohol, come to think of it.

These feel like very minor complaints relative to what I have to say about other companions. There's still a chance I'll romance him in the future; I tend to build "non-canon" playthroughs for BioWare games, and I'll romance the characters that feel right for those playthroughs even if they'd never be my first choice. Veilguard's companions' canon bisexuality means I don't even have to worry about gender or race. And I could do worse than ending up co-parenting a gryphon.

[ozzgin]

I've been rewatching One Punch Man and the thought about a painfully average looking reader being so strong is stuck in my head

Like maybe the reader works at like a small restaurant that she's been working at for basically all her life and she just get so strong from doing basic chores and having the mental capacity to deal with bad customers

Maybe like one of the baki characters went to try the restaurant out and maybe gotten a big crush on the waiter, whose being harassed by some rando

But before the can tell the guy to scurry on out of here or get a swing at him, she just completely knocks him out with like a punch to the face or something, and maybe the guy was really big like nearly the size of a bear

Or we can take the Garou route and say that Yujiro decided to try the restaurant out just cause' and is like really demanding, enough to get the reader pissed and correct their behavior

And their way of correcting behavior is basically "stop that" and then BAM, they suddenly he's transported in an alleyway somewhere, conveniently forgetting what happened before

Ooo, just imagine the reaction of the baki characters like your crush basically is the strongest person in the world, Yujiro doesn't even compare

Knocked him away with a simple punch even when he's fully prepared for her

This silly idea basically was brewing in my mind, and since this has lots of Yuji bullying, I thought you might like it

Funnily enough I have an older request that was in queue to be answered with basically the same concept! By the way, turns out I've already written a reader knocking out Yuujirou in one blow! I hope I haven’t built myself a reputation as a Yuujirou bully, although this post won’t help my cause.

Also, the whole idea of reader being insanely strong from menial labor reminds me a lot of Hajime no Ippo. Main character turns out to have top tier boxing potential from working at his mom’s fishing business and carrying heavy crates for the clients. Safe to say I like the reasoning a lot!

Baki Headcanons: One Punch! Reader

I’m leaving Yuujirou as a final opponent so to say, because otherwise the whole thing would be finished in 5 minutes. Imagine the anime intro with slideshows of nature scenery, and the narrator dramatically elaborating the plot and explaining why Yuujirou is the strongest creature on Earth. And literally the next panel he’s unconscious and reader awkwardly stares at the camera. Narrator coughs and has to mumble “Well I guess that’s it” and the curtains fall. That was it. That was the whole story.

So I’m going to go for a random buff stranger to showcase Reader’s strength. You have just finished taking Baki’s order. Maybe he took some of the men out to discuss certain matters. Maybe he wants to ask Retsu, Katsumi, Jack and Hanayama about their encounter with Pickle before his fight, to get some insight. He’s heard Katsumi has a big crush on the waitress here, so he picked the spot more as a joke to tease the Karate master. While attending the table there’s giggles, side glances and elbow nudges and you can only wonder why Katsumi refuses to speak (usually he’s very chatty with you) and the others have a grin on their face.

As you walk away, you notice your newer coworker struggling to handle a customer. He’s bowing repeatedly and apologizing for his mistake to a man wearing an indifferent yet sour expression. The large man begins to raise his voice and throws in a few inappropriate insults, so you gently push your coworker away, hinting that he should leave it to you, and you promptly take his place.

The customer seems to think you’re some higher up, next in line to beg for his forgiveness or perhaps suggest a discount as a peace offering. Nonetheless, he wants to make sure you understand your situation, so he stands up. Before he can open his mouth, you loudly and curtly exclaim “We unfortunately do not accept this kind of behavior. Leave, now.”

Several people have now turned their heads as the tension increases. Katsumi is uneasy and the rest of the men are also quiet, observing the unfolding event. Baki discreetly exits his booth, ready to interfere in case the situation escalates.

The man is visibly angered by your lack of fear. Once several of his threats go unanswered, he lifts his hand. By this point Baki is walking towards you. You sigh, not wanting to cause a scene. The whole thing happens rather fast, no one is entirely sure what they just witnessed, but the window is shattered, the stranger is crumpled on the sidewalk and covered in glass shards and you’re standing next to his table, fist clenched and bloodied up.

Calling the men ‘baffled’ would be an understatement. You have to explain several times that no, you’re not a professional fighter and you’ve never trained a day in your life. In fact, you’ve been working at this restaurant from the moment you could walk. It’s your family’s treasured business and you can’t see yourself doing anything else. Retsu is bewildered and demands to have your skills tested, because you could turn out to be a fearful martial arts user. A whole argument ensues and you compromise on joining them to the Underground Arena to demonstrate how far your strength goes. This evening only, and then you’re back serving customers.

Once you defeat Yuujirou, however, you’ve sealed your fate. You can’t just demolish the Ogre with one blow and walk away as if nothing happened…

*Now this is just a random thought that immediately came to mind when reading the request. Since Reader can easily beat Yuujirou, imagine the amount of people feeling like they’ve finally been avenged. It could even be a whole arranged spectacle. You know those fairs from cartoons, where one person sits above a small pool and you pay to throw a ball towards a target in order to drop them into the water? Same concept, really. There’d be a never ending line of people that have been wronged by Yuujirou somehow, so they throw some coins and Reader goes in for another punch. Yuujirou destroyed your gym? Threatened you on the street? Scared you so much you wet yourself? Gather around and enjoy the show for a small price.

[catras-breakup-song]

What are your thoughts on if Catra left the horde and Adora stayed? (Your choice on if Adora is still She-ra or not)

adora would still innately be she-ra regardless of if she ever discovered it and accepted the role or not; it'd just be dormant within her. we know this because of light hope's repeated exposition.

i can't really plan this out in my head very well because adora being the one to leave the horde and catra being the one to stay specifically is so integral to the story and who they are as characters, but i'll try.

anyway, i watched an amazing video yesterday that went through why it was so hard for catra to leave because of shadow weaver's abuse and the consequences she feared much more heavily than adora, as well as what makes toxic environments feel so safe and familiar for abuse victims. i kind of want to make a new post transcribing the parts that stuck out to me if i can find the effort later, so here's a prerequisite for if i ever get around to that.

why is this important + relevant? if catra somehow did find the strength to leave, she'd struggle even more to understand adora's refusal to come with her since she had it so much easier growing up (assuming adora is still the golden child and catra is still the scapegoat rather than the reverse). she would probably even take it as an insult, because she would feel that she had done the hard work for both of them and her friend was undermining it. this is different from canon since from adora's point of view, it was about morality and the greater population as a whole, whereas for catra it was always about how the relationship between just the two of them functioned and i think any alternate universe would stay true to that.

as for adora, that's still the case. she dedicated her life to training because she believed she was serving the right people, convinced by shadow weaver. when catra tells her at thaymor that the horde is evil and they're the ones attacking innocent civilians, she would simply refuse to believe it. if catra already knew and didn't care (in the main timeline, at least), adora could never be persuaded. i'm going to pass this part onto @thestargayzingetherian if that's okay, considering she has been wanting to delve into adora "drinking the fascist kool-aid" for a while now and i think she would to a better service to the analysis than i could. (i believe in you friend, but no pressure if you don't feel comfortable! ‹з)

^^^ EDIT: it was done in another post!

[aiiria17]

I (re)read Warriors: Fire and Ice

The little cover box thing made me so scared as a kid. It's still super terrifying now.

tl;dr intro: read books as a kid, feel like rereading, did a post for Into the Wild so read that if you wanna.

Anyways, Hi I'm Ari

Going into Fire and Ice I remembered two main things: Graystripe being a disloyal lil' bastard and Cinderpaw...

poor Cinderpaw

Now those two things still stuck out to me and I will definitely spend some time on them and actually probably spend the most time on them (who knows I haven't written this yet) but I was also invested in how Tigerclaw was handled, Windclan's whole arc, and, least importantly of all, Runningwind (my goat). That's like 4 big things to cover and also Runningwind so oh boy I'm just going to get going

1. Windclan is introduced for the first time

If the first book flopped hard Windclan would literally just have never showed up. Just process that world for a second.

So the book opens with a little prologue from the perspective of Windclan to kind of depict the struggles of the clan. Through Thunderclan we really only know about their suffering conceptually through the fact that they were booted from their territory but the perspective lets the reader understand their fears which is nice.

Anyways that's some High School English I type analysis so let's dive a little deeper.

Windclan's suffering indirectly serves to show the comfort the cats find in their clan lives. They are held comfortable by the systems that exist and the separation shows the fact that the social structure is the only thing keeping the clans stable. They don't know how to live "in the wild" they actually have just made their own societies. The discomfort introduced to that society is why Warriors is interesting. Even just in the first two books the challenges to ideals of the clans (Fireheart joining, Graystripe's "forbidden love" which totally won't be repeated 37 times as a plot line, etc...) is what brings nuance to the ideas the books presents. The Warriors series works best as a exploration of life within a closely held social system. When Windclan is separated from their ability to feel that structure they crumble to being unable to properly care for themselves. The reason they survive is only because of their ability to hold onto things like Tallstar's leadership.

The prologue kinda slaps, what can I say.

So Fireheart then is sent to save them. Narratively alone, obviously the reader should see the big action of bringing 25% of the cats back and Fireheart, as Mr. Protagonist Cat should probably be involved. But building on what I said earlier, why Fireheart?

To me, Fireheart is kind of treated like a light. The obvious connection is fire=bright=light. He's a way forward. He'll "save our clan" (and the others too but that's whatever). I think part of why this is is because he's the main character so he'll be a stereotypical hero but still he serves as a light to guide Windclan back to their promised... land...

Is Fireheart God?

Maybe. I don't want to do that analysis though so YOU can do that one

But deity questions aside, Fireheart is meant to guide the wider clan society forwards. He's the light to a new world for the clan cats and a light back home for Windclan.

Well I think that's minimum English II tier so good enough.

2. Cinderpaw: Someone's life has to suck, or does it?

The highlight character introduced in this book is Cinderpaw: the energetic apprentice with the staple tragic life event.

Cinderpaw is Fireheart's first apprentice and he's struggling to keep her under control. She highlights his youth despite his fancy shmancy warrior name and gives Fireheart room to grow throughout this book seemingly. Obviously this gets subverted by BIG ASS CAR but she still forces FIreheart into a role he isn't really ready for.

So Fireheart is slowly helping Cinderpaw take advantage of her eagerness and channel it responsibly though there's always a reigning hint of "her excitability could lead to problems oooooo"

I'm running out of words that mean high energy.

Then she gets hit by a car. Ouch

Disregarding the Tigerclaw part her character obviously changes dramatically. While she holds the desire to be a warrior reality now works against her and the energetic nature that's defined her now starts to hurt her as she loses hope and feels like a burden. To me the apex of this is when she tries to fight Brokenstar et al along with everyone else but is sent back to Yellowfang limping away. The limping, obviously due to her leg literally not working, I believe is meant to contrast the speed and energy she ran around with earlier. They didn't choose a leg injury for no reason. The injury is made to fully inhibit Cinderpaw's life so that she can't be herself.

But the strength in Cinderpaw's character is that she isn't a burden. As is hinted at towards the end, she's going to become a medicine cat apprentice and end up finding great utility in the clan. Cinderpaw's story is one of lost purpose. She exhibits the childlike eagerness towards one specific goal and gets that dream violently stripped away from her. But she's never useless, Cinderpaw finds a new job that supports her skill set. Nobody in the clans has no purpose. There is no dead weight, and Cinderpaw shows how she's able to exist, even in an acclaimed role like medicine cat despite her new disability.

And I think that's beautiful honestly.

3. Graystripe why are you like this

You're tearing me apart Graystripe!

Okay but seriously Graystripe is kind of an "antagonist" by the literal definition because while he may not conflict with Fireheart he conflicts with the ideals he upholds and believes in.

Graystripe is having a forbidden love with Silverstream, some Riverclan cat he meets while like drowning which is not how to find a girlfriend normally. That only works in Warriors Cats and The Sandlot. Graystripe's love deal is a fun conflict because it's entirely justifiable that he breaks the code. He truly loves Silverstream and wants to be with her. Can you blame someone for love (yes here's why)

The way the conflict actually unfolds is that Graystripe straight up significantly reduces his work in Thunderclan to meet up with Silverstream. He's consistently missing from patrols and hunting, he prolongs his sickness to not have to do things other than meet Silverstream, and, worst of all he isn't there when Fireheart needs someone to find Cinderpaw. Graystripe's laxness towards having his whole heart in Thunderclan is part of the reason Cinderpaw gets hurt (not saying it's his fault, Tigerclaw's next).

Really Graystripe's conflict goes back to the exploration of a society that Warriors is all about. He breaks the bounds but it begs the question: why are the bounds there? Graystripe's life is not being actually helped by the rules and the only reason harm comes is from the secrecy. It makes the reader ask a much much larger question:

Why four clans?

Seriously the main question this asks is how does the warriors society benefit from separation.

Going to leave that lingering for now. There's infinitely many more books and I know some later arcs hit on that better (and I do plan to go until I'm bored).

Going back to Graystripe, the conflict also stresses Fireheart's friendship with him and puts his ideals at odds with his friendship. Fireheart does pick his friend over the clan which I personally believe is based in him not originating from clan life. He isn't as deeply ingrained in the clan and is therefore willing to see friendship, something inherent to him (and like, most creatures), as more important than the stability of the clan. It's why he's an interesting main character.

"Fireheart went on. 'Graystripe, whatever you decide to do, I will always be your friend.'"

4. I (Cat M) tried to bait my leader into being hit by a car so I could assume complete control over my clan. A child got hit instead AITA?

Hello Reddit, my scheme didn't go as planned.

Enough Tigerclaw Redditor roleplay (any amount is enough tbf)

I didn't appreciate Tigerclaw as a villain nearly enough as a kid. He's SO good.

Again returning to structure, Tigerclaw shows the true fragility of the Warriors world: strong evil cats can take charge shockingly easily. Brokenstar took power and ruined Shadowclan with nothing to stop him until he was ousted by Thunderclan. Tigerclaw nearly takes a similar route and Fireheart shows how little there is to do to stop him.

Tigerclaw's presence shows how much weight authority is given in the world of Warriors. Fireheart can do nothing because Tigerclaw, as deputy, will always be in the right. He's strong, so why would he kill Redtail/try to pressure or kill or whatever Ravenpaw/plot to kill Bluestar and injure Cinderpaw. Even Bluestar's reasoning for not believing Fireheart is based in trusting anyone in authority. Because Tigerclaw killing Redtail means Redtail killed Oakheart and that can't happen because Redtail wouldn't do that as a deputy. The idea of authority comes above all else and Tigerclaw takes advantage of that.

Going to hold more on Tigerclaw for now though. As a kid I really just had the first 3 books for a good few years and read them tons. I know exactly what this bastard gets up to and I'm really excited to see it again.

5. Runningwind deserves to be mentioned

Trust me

No serious analysis cause you know its about like the least relevant Thunderclan warrior but something funny I noticed.

Graystripe is Fireheart's best friend however Runningwind specifically is hanging out with Fireheart a lot in this book. There are multiple scenes of him and Fireheart just chilling together. Eating mostly but still enough that I noticed. And not like Fireheart is with like a group of warriors it’s practically always Runningwind. What an underappreciated king honestly

Look at him (according to his Warriors wiki art):

Point is I’m going to provide Runningwind updates now because…

If Runningwind has a million fans, I am one of them

If Runningwind has one fan, it is me

If Runningwind has no fans, that means I am no longer on this Earth

Conclusion Just to Feel Done

Fire and Ice is really good. I love so much of the book and I didn’t even have time for other standouts like Cloudkit, the way Winter is handled, Fireheart visiting Princess etc. because there is just so much happening.

Thanks for reading, I really do appreciate it cause I wrote way more than feels remotely reasonable . Feel free to leave any thoughts or disagreements cause I’d love to discuss this

I’m going to read Forest of Secrets now so bye bye see ya later

[aihoshiino]

Professor of Hoshino-Ailogy, might you have some tips on how to write the dear Miss genius idol herself? 🙇‍♀️ Been trying to dabble into writing stuff but her character's got me stuck. Been loving your OnK thoughts so I thought to try shooting an ask if that's ok!

Anon I know this is the joke but I am so genuinely moved at the idea of being considered a Professor Of Hoshino Aiology............ It really is all I was put on this earth to do. I immediately changed my discord name to this LMFAO

So! My recommendation would be to go back to OnK and specifically review episode 1 of the anime, as its take on Ai does a lot to flesh her out in comparison to the equivalent manga chapters. You should also check out Akane's little Pepe Silvia bit on episode 7, both so you can pick up on all that info and so you can point at the screen and go "Wow! She is Literally Me right now." (Anyone else? Just me? OK...)

And while everyone on earth has undoubtedly seen it already, take some time to chew on the Idol MV's imagery - the song as a whole and the MV specifically is basically just Ai's whole arc condensed and abstracted so it's good to look at how Ai is portrayed here and really think about why those choices were made.

After that, read Viewpoint B and 45510 side by side and do your best to put them in conversation with each other. What do these opposing views on Ai have to say about her and her motivations? That kind of thing. I also tentatively recommended reading the first chapter of Spica since it's some of our lengthiest unbroken Ai POV content, with the caveat that Spica doesn't always match up with how the main series talks about and portrays the same events so uh. Feel free to cherrypick what you take from it LOL

The Da Vinci interview and Artificial Girl are also both important in terms of getting a look at "Ai of B-Komachi" and seeing how she operates strictly in work mode. The Da Vinci interview also has some important notes about her history and relationships to certain other characters, so I think it's good to chew on in general!

From there, the most important manga chapters to review imo are 131, 136 and 137. 131 expands on Ai's history with her mom & has information about the abuse she put up with. As I've said before, her formative experiences with abuse and neglect and Ayumi's hands basically run through her entire soul like fault lines, so it's important to get a good understanding of that to start unfucking how it affects her behaviour. 

136 and 137 are also really important in understanding the emotional narrative of Ai's life, even if the literal events they portray obviously need to be taken with a grain of salt. We generally only see Ai of B-Komachi as a beguiling presence but 136 gives us a good look at just how fucking frustrating she would be to try and have a human relationship with and how this mask and Ai's general avoidance and discomfort with serious conversations contributes to her social isolation.

137 is, in my totally biased opinion, one of the best chapters in the entire series and so, so important for understanding Ai. It lays out in plain terms the most important foundational keystone of her entire character: that she was a normal, lonely girl struggling to connect and to find happiness and her desperation was taken advantage of so people could turn her into an object.

I think it's possible to get a good read on Ai just from the prologue arc, the rest of this material is important as reiteration and expansion on her core character. With all of it together, you should start picking up on patterns in her behaviour and drawing connections between her actions and the things that inform them.

If you're still having trouble figuring her out after that, here are some points I think are really important to keep in mind that often go overlooked when it comes to Ai:

Ai is neurodivergent and an abuse survivor

Ai is stated at least twice in the text of Oshi no Ko to have a developmental disorder and I think there's enough evidence in the text to say that she's intended to be read as autistic specifically.

On top of that, Ai's formative years were spent on a home environment where she could not rely on her primary guardians to consistently care for her and she was alternately neglected and violently physically abused, to the point of not feeling safe in her own house at night.

This is important to keep in mind because while Ai is pretty good at masking, her neurodivergence and her history with abuse means that she processes information - particularly social information - in a very different way to a neurotypical person.

Ai does not always lie - and her lies are different than you think

I've said this a million times before and I'll probably say it another million but a lot of the really out of pocket Ai takes you see in OnK fandom generally come from people who go to the extreme of dismissing everything that comes out of Ai's mouth as a lie and thus just completely missing out on a majority of her characterization.

Ai's "lie" is her performance - it's the illusion that "Ai of B-Komachi" is her true self with absolutely nothing else going on in her personal life. It's not a case of making shit up, but leaving things out - obfuscation and omission are the name of the game.

Picking up on when she's being honest Vs telling a lie is just something you end up getting a feel for as you get an understanding of her but generally, if Ai directly and plainly states something and it is not in conflict with things we know to be fact, then it's probably true enough.

This isn't a strict binary obviously and there are plenty of times where Ai says something that is obviously untrue but isn't her consciously lying - rather, like any human being, she has biases that affect her judgement, with her own stemming from her history of abuse and rejection and her poor self image.

The fact that Ai lies is less important than WHY she lies

This is sort of a reiteration of what I said above but where a lot of people get stuck on Ai's external behavior (that she lies) and fail to take dig into underlying motivations that actually cause her to behave that way. I know "this character has motivations" is probably like an insultingly baby mode reminder but I really do see so many people just completely abjectly failing to grasp this that I felt it needed saying lol

Deception is not Ai's end goal. Ai lies not because she wants to trick people but because she's been taught over and over her whole life that it's the only way she can be treated with basic fucking decency, and she has internalized this persistent cruelty as being her own fault. She performs Ai of B-Komachi because there is clearly something wrong with Hoshino Ai.

Even with that in mind, this isn't something Ai wants. As she says herself says in 45510, she wants people to know and accept her as she really is, flaws and impurity and all, and as she demonstrates in both Viewpoint B and chapter 1, she's incredibly quick to start opening up to people who seem to have the potential to accept her, or even just who treat her kindly. She is simply that lonely and that desperate to connect.

I hope this is all helpful, anon! I didn't necessarily want to just point by point how I write Ai just because I think that takes the fun out of things, but this is more or less the process I went through in forming my interpretation of her, and the rest is all things I've just intuited or drawn my own conclusions about from writing her - "oh, if Behaviour X, then Underlying Cause Y", that kind of thing. I hope this gives you a solid base to work on for writing her, tho - and please let me know when you're done so I can read it 👀

[thescreaminghat]

There’s so much to talk about Arcane S1 and S2, and what I want to focus on for this ramble is the issue I take with Singed being Corin Reveck. I’ve said this before, but this was one of the choices that I was worried that the writers would make back when s1 was airing. I actively dislike the idea of making Corin and Singed the same person, and not just because I think it unnecessarily humanizes the awful, awful person that Singed is both in League lore and Arcane while taking away what is a tender and mournful story revolving around two relatively unimportant characters in the broader world and stakes of Runeterra (namely, Corin and his only daughter, Orianna).

My two main gripes with this writing choice are as follows:

It makes the world so much smaller and less interesting than before. In the most recent iteration of Orianna’s game lore, Corin was a famed artificer known for building prosthetics in Piltover (this could be seen as a "doing good work for the people" kind of job, even if he is running a business). This background in itself wouldn’t be too surprising even if directly transposed to Arcane Piltover and Zaun, as even prior to Hextech improvements, we see that body augmentations/modifications are accessible to members of the council (though I much rather prefer League’s idea of Piltover and Zaun as having all sorts of inventors and academics exist in both cities, with Zaun having its own Academy of Techmaturgy, rather than having a handful of named characters be responsible for much of the city’s technological development as we see in Arcane). However, to me, what makes Corin and Orianna’s story so compelling is how easily it can be overlooked amidst all of the grander narratives in League P&Z, the in-fighting between chembarons and the class hierarchy enforced by Camille, Jinx being Jinx, etc. Corin has importance as an inventor, but there are so many of his type—perhaps not specializing in prosthetics, but another field of study—that he really feels like another “ordinary citizen” of Piltover. There is no world-ending stake involved in his and his daughter’s story, but that is precisely why their narrative is so compelling to me—when Orianna rushes to the site of an explosion in Zaun, in secret, to apply the skills she learned as her father’s apprentice in order to save others, and returns home with irreversible lung damage, I feel as though I am witnessing a ”day in the life” of someone stuck within the conflict between P&Z. Corin and Orianna are still privileged, and their situation is vastly better than the actual Zaunites who Orianna made it her mission to save, but Orianna’s biography suggests that despite Corin’s renown, he and Orianna were left largely to their own struggle following Orianna’s illness. I.e. they did not have the kinds of resources and help presumably available to the houses with even greater authority in Piltover.

When Corin devotes himself tirelessly to saving his daughter with his own skills, and Orianna is watching herself lose bits and pieces of her own body, I feel as though we are meant to understand this as a small blip in the overall circumstances of the world, that there are far greater events demanding the attention of the many, and a father’s grief over his child, and a child’s horror at how her body no longer looks the way that she remembers it, is relegated to a quiet, personal tragedy to be shouldered by the pair alone (even though it shouldn't be).

When Corin and Orianna relocate to Zaun, after Corin spends everything he had in order to save his daughter, I can imagine the kind of small relief that father and daughter perhaps felt, realizing that as long as they had each other and their passion for their craft, then that was enough for them, regardless of what happens in the complicated landscape of P&Z. When Corin subsequently falls ill due to the toll that his stress has taken on his own body, and Orianna is forced to make a deal with a chembaron to obtain a hextech crystal in an effort to save her father, we are left wondering how many Zaunites and Pilovians alike may have fallen into similar circumstances, how many secret meetings have taken place between desperate people and good-for-nothings in positions of power in P&Z. And when Orianna ultimately saves her father by giving him her last, healthy organ, the physical embodiment of her emotional core—her heart—and decides to leave her home as a machine powered by hextech, there is no fanfare, but we do get the sense that a tragedy has occurred, that even if there was no “fatal flaw” or twist villain, that something unjust has taken place in these sister cities. And that is how it was meant to be, I think, in Orianna’s story. These are characters, who, by interacting with the world of P&Z as we know it, give us insight into how this world works for its citizens. Their stories don’t need to lead to a grander narrative or tie into timeline-changing events; they are meaningful because they allow us to see how a character could live and thrive and struggle within the backdrop of the world. And that allows us to imagine other stories that could organically come from the politics of P&Z, and other ways its citizens could envision change (e.g. what if working-class Zaunites were given better protections, and Zaunite industry designed to be safer for its workers, so that explosions like the one that was slowly killing Orianna didn’t occur? What if Piltover had better medical support systems so that Corin wouldn’t have to destroy his own health in order to keep his daughter alive? Did Corin’s initial attitudes towards Zaunites change? After all, Piltover effectively failed to assist them, and he and Orianna were forced to move to Zaun in order to continue their business, something that could be regarded by more elitist Piltovians as a “decline” in one’s respectability, regardless of the quality of work produced by Corin and Orianna for their clients. Etc. Etc.)

By making Corin the same person as Singed, the possibilities that Orianna’s narrative opens up for an exploration of other people’s lives in P&Z are removed. Because Singed is so closely tied with shimmer, with Warwick/Vander, with Viktor, with the trajectory of the arcane, with the surgical “creation” of “Jinx”, there is little room to let a backstory of a father and daughter breathe, let alone introduce an audience to the non-plot-related interactions that this duo could have with the richness of the world. It also, in my view, makes the world so much smaller/more extreme (e.g. we can only have a scientist who engages with grandiose, unethical experimentation for the sake of his child, because that is what we would commonly think of when we are presented with a scientist father; we cannot have a father who also happens to be a scientist, where the focus is on his introspective, personal mourning on how his field of study and his community of peers have, in many ways, failed him, but despite that resentment, he continues with what he has, representing one path in a set of circumstances that could drive a different person down another path). And I get that Arcane s2 in particular literally opens up the idea of the multiverse and “other paths,” but that felt somewhat hackneyed, and I much prefer the idea that the multitude of paths that an audience can explore is right here, in the world we currently see, as different people live through their different circumstances.

2) Singed being Corin Reveck removes so much of what made Orianna’s dilemma—whether she is a “machine” or a “human”—so interesting. Orianna, by having her limbs and organs slowly replaced with artificial ones (I emphasize this because the nature of Orianna’s transformation becomes a “ship of Theseus” question), also loses her sense of what it means to be human (e.g. the unbridled creativity that is suggested to have previously animated her craft seems to be gone, and she instead produces “masterfully tuned mechanisms,” rather than “works of art”). She becomes “disconnected” from herself, presumably both from her internal sense of self as well as her physical body, even as her care and love for her father lead her to literally give up her own heart to keep him alive.

One can see the parallels between League Orianna and League Viktor, and how they potentially contrast (or complement!) the other. Viktor claims to have replaced his flesh with metal in order to rid himself of the weaknesses inherent to having an organic, decomposable body, while Orianna is forced to replace her limbs and lungs because she is experiencing, real-time, what the limits of that organic body are, even though she obviously does not want to experience something like this. Viktor claims that it is humanity’s emotions that leads them to make errors in judgment and hinder efficiency and progress, but Orianna’s love for her father leads her to perform a successful operation and save his life (and Corin’s love for his daughter leads him to “create” the kind of mechanical being that Viktor would praise, as part of his ideology). Viktor’s actions suggest that he believes it is necessary to move beyond “limiting” emotions like fear (e.g. his injection of that experimental serum into Naph) while Orianna’s whole struggle is trying to replicate, once more, those feelings, trying to indulge in sentimentality and romance (e.g. When she tells the automaton, Fieram: “I like to ride the Rising Howl at dusk to catch the last of the day’s golden rays,” . . . “From the very top you can see the harbor beyond the sea-gates, and the endless glistening ocean. From up there, you can imagine the smell of faraway lands.” – are these the thoughts and language of a machine, or of a human? And when she desperately destroys the casing around the automaton, believing herself to be freeing a boy like her, are those the actions of an “efficient” consciousness, or of a child encased in steel?). I can imagine, in the world of League P&Z, scientific and philosophical debates regarding the nature of Orianna’s existence (what makes her more human than machine? More machine than human? Is it her lingering connections to memory? To emotions? Or something else entirely?).

All of this to say, that there are some interesting questions to be explored through the way in which “Orianna”, whether she is an identity, a physical being, or something else entirely, emerged through Corin's gradual and necessary removal of her physical body. Making Singed and Corin Reveck the same person strips away these complexities.

Both League and Arcane Singed are awful people. That is undeniable. Regardless of his reasoning or emotions, Singed did unspeakable things to Vander, and was a catalyst for much of the violence, or its escalation, in Arcane, particularly with his production of shimmer in line with Silco’s aim of weaponizing and distributing the substance in the undercity. The circumstances of Orianna’s creation, with Singed noting that everything he had been doing was for his love of Orianna, are thus tinged with a layer of ethical wrongdoing so thick that not even Jesus Viktor could remove it. Similarly, Orianna was not replaced slowly, with the mechanical equivalents of her limbs and organs. She appears to have been yeeted back into existence with the magic shenanigans in S2 Act 3. Any interesting questions about Orianna’s identity, in my opinion, are overshadowed by the starting premises that, yes, Orianna should not have lived or been brought back to life in Arcane, if it meant that the horrible things that Singed, whether directly or indirectly, had done to the people of P&Z could have been avoided, and yes, Orianna in her current form may literally not be herself because we have seen the hexcore/multiverse/ascended hivemind Viktor shenanigans play out already. And this doesn’t even touch on the lack of agency that Orianna has in Arcane, as an unconscious thing for Singed to show the audience for sympathy points, versus the Orianna we get from League lore, who consciously made the choice to disobey her father to help Zaunites and was conscious and present throughout the entire process of her body modification/replacement.

The League lore also sets up an interesting exploration of how patriarchal power is used and its relationship to the mechanical female body—Corin comes off as not only overprotective of his only daughter, something that could also stem from class considerations towards Zaun, but as a sort of “Prospero” figure, guiding and warning his daughter to never venture outside of their neighbourhood in Piltover (like Prospero’s warnings to Miranda), while only permitting her to indulge in fantasies that he approves as “appropriate” for her (e.g. theatre performances). Even when he builds Orianna her artificial lungs, Corin keeps the key to these lungs in a safe, to prevent Orianna from leaving his sphere of authority.

When they do move to Zaun, Orianna not only takes on the traditional role of the breadwinner due to her father’s ailing health, but is in some ways able to gain more agency in her interactions with other elements of the world, such as the chembaron. When Orianna decides to make the choice to save her father, she takes with her the last object that he can use to maintain some form of control over her. While his control is not framed as intentionally abusive, it does lead to questions about how Orianna’s feelings of “detachment” from her sense of self may also be tied to the control that her father exercises concerning her physical agency.

None of this was explored in Arcane, and I never expected the show to focus so much on these kinds of issues for minor secondary characters, but that’s exactly the problem. By introducing us to Singed as “Corin Reveck,” and effectively tying him with Orianna and the intriguing possibilities available through the existing lore, Arcane, which has now ended in terms of its story, ends up failing to deliver any sort of exploration of these issues. Orianna and Corin could have been left as a side story in an Arcane spinoff, or as a cinematic like the Annie origins cinematic, etc. but because the Arcane writers seem to want to make everything “interconnected,” it just feels like we missed so much potential, and even if we did get something on these issues, it feels, from the path that the showrunners have gone so far, that they would narrow these possibilities to whatever can fit the ”interconnected stories” narrative.

Not everything needs to be tied to something else to be good, it can just be good—tying Singed of all people to Orianna’s story was the strangest of these kinds of choices made in Arcane S2, especially when we could have just explored Singed as Singed (i.e. exploring ethics in science from a broader perspective), and hopefully I’ve been able to explain why.

*Note: the above is just my opinion, so please ignore if you feel so inclined.

[problematicsashawaybright]

"Ivy is insane in a different way" PLEASE elaborate on that.

HAHAHAHA NOW YOU ARE SENTENCED TO LISRENING TO ME INFODUMP ABOUT MY OC!!!! >:))))

okay so ivy is one of the characters in my podcast. August, the main character who's perspective the story is told, is actually kind of insane. She was gaslit and manipulated her entire childhood after witnessing the brutal death of her father (not like the internet version of gaslighting, like ACTUAL gaslighting. She thought she was experiencing psychosis her entire life after the incident because everyone called her crazy and didn't believe her). She's rude, she's aggressive, she's impulsive, she is kind of selfish, she likes causing problems on purpose, and generally isn't liked.

Ivy, on the other hand, on the surface, seems "normal". Her mom died when she was 11, her dad was an alcoholic who was kind of negligent after her mom's death, so she was stuck raising her 4 brothers. She is a really good photographer and artist and after junior college got accepted into UCLA on a full ride scholarship (something that is unheard of) but her brothers all moved out across the country and her dad got sick, so she had to postpone UCLA to stay in her small town and care for him as his condition progresses.

She, in my opinion, is the only emotionally intelligent character in this podcast, because she's been to therapy and refuses to become like her dad, and has a healthy understanding of interpersonal relationships and what behavior to tolerate.

Since she grew up raising 4 boys and dealing with her dad who can be kind of mean, she doesn't take any shit at all. August will try to engage in an argument (because that's what she does when she feels insecure because it's all she knows) but Ivy won't even look up from her book and will be like "babe, you're being kind of mean. Go take a walk and calm down, and then we can talk" and she does and they have a productive conversation after.

I've always hated the trope of character A having trauma and character B either "fixing" them in a therapist role or tolerating being mistreated and justifying it because "they're struggling". That's not their dynamic at all. Ivy will love her unconditionally, however if August is being unfair or rude or a conversation is unproductive, she'll disengage until August is ready to have a normal conversation. She won't let herself be manipulated or forced into anything, so she makes August take responsibility. She's really kind and gentle, but she's absolutely not a pushover or a people pleaser.

So the way she's insane, in a different way than August, is that she is incredibly determined and can fixate on certain things and not let them go, sometimes to her own disadvantage. She is canonically disabled and a full time cane/crutches user, and she frequently pushes herself past her limits physically in order to achieve things. Like she'll wake up in pain, but insist on walking all around town to complete her freelance photography goals, and then not really rest afterwards when she's exhausted and in pain.

She also just. Doesn't let things go. Like I said, she doesn't become codependent with August or fall into a therapist role, but she sees August for the first time at the airport screaming at her brother on the phone and throwing her keys against the wall really hard, and she's like "wow she's so pathetic. I want her so bad." And she follows her around and insists on helping her every step of the way until she actually shows some vulnerability and allows her to. (Not in a way that harms Ivy, but like she sees August melting down in an airport cafe because she forgot her computer charger, and when August walks away from her stuff, Ivy leaves her own laptop charger on the table with a sweet note)

She is the type of person to work on projects for DAYS, without eating or sleeping, and when the podcast picks up and she's a part of it, there are several moments when she's about to collapse in exhaustion because she just. Can't let things go long enough to sleep or eat a meal. (This causes some really delicious internal conflict with August because she's built her entire personality over being independent and keeping everyone far far away from her heart and pretending not to care about anyone but herself, but then she sees this really annoying girl who keeps following her around being kind and understanding struggling to stand because she's so tired, and she doesn't know if she should pretend not to care or follow her instincts that feel foreign and unnatural to her and give her a comfortable place to sleep and make her a nice meal)

While I consider her the most emotionally intelligent character, she also has some trauma responses. She is usually able to deal with conflict, but if someone is accusing her of doing something she didn't do, it will trigger her responses from her upbringing with her father and being responsible for her brothers, so she'll get passive aggressive and passively angry towards whoever is triggering it. So if someone is yelling at her or trying to manipulate her, she'll stand her ground, but if someone even suggests she did something she didn't or misunderstands her intentions, it will start an argument and she won't be able to communicate as effectively.

Finally, if she is triggered, she doesn't get outwardly angry, rather, she retreats into herself. She becomes avoidant and detached, and kind of stews in her anger. She doesn't want to talk about it, and she'll keep going about like everything is normal, but something is noticably off and she is very cold and distant. Her responses will be very short and neutral and she'll be kind of passive aggressive.

In conclusion, her type of insane balances out August's perfectly. August is very outwardly angry and problematic and avoidant, but in a way where she runs from her responsibilities (when the plot picks up, she left home at 15 and hadn't talked to her family in 10 years). August is irresponsible and tends to be selfish and self destructive. Ivy has better interpersonal skills, but tends to work herself to death and burn herself out, and gets cold and passive aggressive when triggered. But it balances out because she's learning how to accept help and not be "on" and perfect and responsible all the time, and August is learning how to care for/about others, communicate directly, and be more responsible.

[watchinglikeafangirl]

"Let's talk about Chu" is actually really good

I honestly started this show out of boredom and because it only has 8 episodes, so it's easy to watch. The first episode feels like they just want to show how controversial the show is because there are several sex scenes but once the story really starts, it's really interesting. It kinda starts out as something like Sex Education but it ends up talking less about sex and more about people's different relationships.

The main cast is the Chu family which consists of the parents and their three children. There are two daughters (Ai and Wei) and one son (Yu Sen), everyone equally faces challenges and they all kinda manage. Sometimes, it feels like they really just manage but struggle to live. It's about everyone finding their happy place or reestablishing it.

There's an old marriage (the parents) and a young marriage (oldest daughter) facing the same issues. The partners seemingly have lost interest in each other, there's no intimacy physically and mentally. It's interesting and at times very sad to watch their marriages falling apart. Especially Wei's marriage, when they argue about irrational things that obviously root in distrust and disappointment. I could relate to her very much and I really like how the show points out that both are part of the problem.

The son - Yu Sen - is stuck in a weird relationship and his partner is really unlikable and doesn't want to come out to his parents. They eventually break up, who was sad? I wasn't. It marks the start of Yu Sen's arc where he meets a random, very extroverted guy who takes him to places and makes him feel alive. Honestly, I felt alive too, the guy named Yueh has a certain charm nobody can ignore. It goes so far, even though no commitments have been made, even though they shouldn't matter that much to each other, Yu Sen goes looking Yueh in the countryside, meets his grandma and helps him through his grief. It's sweet and shows different sides of the characters, my absolute favourite part of the show.

And then, there's the protagonist, the youngest daughter Ai. She and Ping-ke are friends with benefits and by the way he looks at her, one can immediatly tell he really likes her. But she sets boundaries and rules, so there cannot be more to it. They stay pretty consistent, she has something with two other guys but both don't give her a sense of love. Ping ke's still there and he sees his chance of persuing her for real. We find out there's actually a reason for those boundaries rooted in Ai's childhood and Ping-ke is there to comfort her after she remembers it again. I kind of like her but at the same time she's a bit frustrating because she doesn't have that much of an arc until episode 6, so I don't have much to say about her. I like Ping-ke's arc of starting to be independent and not living off his family's money. I could relate to a certain point. I can understand the sheer want of having something on one's own. He wants to be respected and actually do something, so he goes out and does it. I love it.

Anyway, great show, go watch it on Netflix. The story gets better and better the longer you watch and every character's arc is very valid and consistent. There are different sides to every story and the show does a really good job at showing both. Noone is right or wrong, it's sometimes frustrating how real it feels lol

[redbayly]

Zutara Fic Progress

Currently trying to get my next chapter finished for "Hot Ice, Strange Snow" and I'm getting close to smashing my laptop in frustration. It's been over a month since I've updated and I'm furious with myself.

I am so close. So very close and I want to post the chapter so badly. I probably shouldn't even be distracting myself by writing this, but it's like 1:00am and I'm tired and want to ramble.

I've been reveling in Northern Water Tribe worldbuilding and developing Gran-Gran's backstory beyond just "she was engaged to Pakku and ran away because arranged marriage sucks." There's this whole thing about how regressive policies get passed and some stuff about access to education and student activism and protests.

And then I began writing in stuff about classism and bullying and academic pressure and domestic abuse and reproductive rights and how inherently horrifying the idea of forced marriage actually is. I kind of went off when thinking about all the ways NWT culture probably messes with the people who are part of it. Not that I'm making everything and everyone terrible, I've just been thinking far too much about how sexism influences and shapes culture and people.

Obviously, Katara ain't having any of this shit.

Also, I've decided to make Yugoda a more notable character because she deserved better than, like, five or six lines of dialogue and two background appearances.

Anyway, here's where I'm at story-wise.

(spoilers ahead)

I've dived head-first into Katara starting an underground waterbending class as part of her master plan for a full-on social revolution. In doing this, I ended up giving Katara a bunch of new friends around her age and made things ten times more complicated for myself by building those OCs as characters and using them to explore the effects of NWT sexism.

Aang is having some problems in Pakku's class and unintentionally offends people wherever he goes. He also gets caught up in some tension among the Water Tribe boys that he doesn't really understand.

Sokka gets to witness the effects of sexism on a society and has a proper epiphany about why Katara has always been so mad about it. Like, not just realizing girls can fight, but finally understanding the deeper problems. He has therefore decided to be a supportive big brother who aids and abets in illegal activities if they are for a good purpose. Also, he's thinking of busting out the Kyoshi Warrior uniform for good measure because non-bender girls need a teacher, too (yes, he still has the uniform. He was wearing it when they left Kyoshi and he's not going to get rid of something that important. It's a travesty that he never got to wear it again in the original series).

The main part I'm struggling to get through is the Zuko sections. I've got him into and out of a seedy tavern and onto a northbound merchant ship where he's learning that, while being a deckhand isn't great, you can't yell at people to solve your problems. I'm trying to figure out him having a meaningful chat with the captain who hired him to give him some sort of important life lesson but I'm still feeling stuck.

I'm so sorry, Zuko. You've been taking kind of a back seat in this chapter. I promise, you'll get your spotlight back soon. You just need to get up north and reunite with the Gaang (and especially with Katara).

[lizardaggro]

student 21's villain academia, pt 1

so. not twst bully!au part 4. it's not canceled don't worry; i'm just having a couple health issues at the moment and this one was closer to being done. i've literally been working on it for 5 days, so... it was time.

this one is a bit slow to get started, as in it still hasn't kicked into action yet, but by part 3 or so you'll see my vision. this is an x gn!reader, so anyone can read it, and no, aizawa is NOT one of the love interests. i'd rather die than ship him with a student. i have no idea if this au has been done before; you don't have all the information yet so don't jump to conclusions about me copying so-and-so. this idea has been rattling around in my brain for like a year so i'm super excited to finally get it out! genre: gn!reader, fluff, found family, romance coming eventually, canon-typical angst trigger warnings: reader has a panic attack word count: 2004

You didn’t really consider yourself one of those ‘crazy anime fans.’ No, you were more subdued in your interests. You didn’t own hundreds of dollars’ worth of merchandise, nor did you insist on watching the latest episodes right when they aired. And above all, you would never try to force your passion onto others.

Lately you’d been really into a rather popular action anime by the name of Boku no Hero Academia, or My Hero Academia in English. It wasn’t perfect, but something about the characters just sucked you in. They were just kids, only fifteen years old, and suddenly they were faced with enemies backed by a villain even the strongest hero struggled against. Thus, you couldn’t help but feel little ashamed of yourself as you fell asleep to the ending song of the latest episode.

When you woke up, it was very abrupt. You were certain you’d been asleep on your couch, but suddenly you were standing in the middle of a busy street. Not wanting to be stuck there when the light turned green, you hurried to the other side. Was this a lucid dream? You’d never had one of those before, but there wasn’t another plausible explanation.

Taking in your surroundings, all the signs definitely weren’t in English, but somehow you could understand them. Was that Japanese? Huh, all that anime must be rubbing off on your subconscious. You caught sight of a TV inside an electronics store displaying the news. You didn’t know where you were supposed to be, so maybe that could give you a clue.

“Hinata here, reporting in from Musutafu News,” a young woman announced, “just this morning, up and coming villain Bakugou Katsuki wreaked havoc on a suburban neighborhood, completely destroying 8 homes. Can you believe he’s only 15?! Goodness, what has society come to? Fortunately, there were no casualties, but our experts believe it’s only a matter of time. And now, for the weather forecast…”

You tuned out the rest, in a complete state of shock. Bakugou is a villain? What sort of dream is this? Sure, he’s loud and violent and tells people to die on the regular, but he’s not a criminal! Is this some sort of joke? Is your subconscious playing some kind of trick on you? There’s some sort of nagging feeling in the back of your mind, like you should know something about this situation, but you just can’t recall.

You decide to keep walking, instead of staring blankly at the television like an idiot. Maybe you’ll find someone or something that can explain what’s going on. With luck, it’ll be one of the main characters. If you’re really unfortunate, you’ll find someone from the League. But who knows, maybe they’re the good guys here.

After about 10 minutes, it hits you. This is one of those alternate universe thingies! Your cousin, who’s far more invested in the fandom than you are, was trying to explain them to you at a family gathering, but you were only half listening. Now that was a mistake. Even worse, she seemed convinced that some people actually got transported into the worlds of anime! No wonder you weren’t paying attention. Clearly she had a screw or two loose. Yeah, there was simply no way something like that had happened to you. This was a dream, plain and simple.

But then the building right next to you caught fire. You were sure there was nothing before, but there was a fire and it was very, very big and very, very hot. Suddenly this all felt too terribly real. Was it a villain attack? Oh no, you were doomed. You were going to die- you’d only just gotten here and you were already going to die-

“It’s going to be okay,” you heard a gruff voice say.  It was probably Japanese, but you could understand it all the same. “Take deep breaths, one at a time. The heroes are already here, they’re apprehending the villain right now,” you heard him say softly. You did your best to follow his advice. In, pause, out, pause. In, pause, out, pause. After a while, it wasn’t so hot, and you could turn to look at the person who had calmed you down. You weren’t one to judge, but he looked like he needed some help- holy cow that’s Aizawa!!

Okay, you were not expecting that. Sure, you were hoping you’d run into a friendly canon character, but you didn’t think it’d happen that easily! You knew you needed to say something though, or this would be painfully awkward. “I, um,” you spluttered, “I’m a huge fan, Eraserhead. Can I get an autograph?”

“A fan, really? I don’t have too many of those.” He looked pleased, but also a bit confused. That was to be expected, considering he’s an underground hero. “Sure, do you have any paper on you?”

Ah. That was a bit of a problem. You searched your pockets, turning up absolutely nothing, not even your phone. “Nope. Nothing. Guess I won’t be getting that autograph, huh?” You were disappointed, of course, but it wasn’t the end of the world. As messed up as this world seemed to be, you were probably better off not meeting any more canon characters unless they were saving your life. This was just a lucky chance.

“Ah, well, that’s too bad. Hey, kid, you don’t seem like you’re from around here. Are you lost?” Aizawa asked. You did a double take, wondering if it was really that obvious. Kid, though? How old were you?

“Um, yeah, I’m pretty lost, I think. I’m not really from around here,” you vaguely expressed. Even you weren’t sure where here was. You were beginning to fear that this might just be your new reality, but naturally you couldn’t just accept that out of the blue. A large part of you was holding out hope that this was just a crazy dream. Because if Bakugou was a villain in this world, then what did that mean for the rest of the characters?

“You think? Did you hit your head or something? I can take you to the hospital to get it looked at,” he offered. You were pretty sure a concussion was the least of your worries, but sticking with Aizawa seemed safer than being alone in a strange place, at least. He did appear a little suspicious of your condition, but you were only telling the truth. You had no idea what was going on either.

“That might be a good idea. Thank you,” you agreed with a nod. While the doctor wasn’t likely to find any brain damage, you could at least see if you had the quirk factor gene thing or not. The odds were next to zero, but if this was a dream, you might just turn out to be super overpowered!

Yeah, right. Even if you did suddenly find yourself being up to par with some of the main characters, there wasn’t much you could do with it. Public quirk usage was illegal, and it’s not like you’d end up in a hero school with zero documents to prove you actually existed.

You and Aizawa walked in silence, presumably to the nearest hospital. You really hoped he wasn’t also a villain in this world. But if he was, then why would he have helped to calm you down? So, you were probably safe. For now, at least. You couldn’t cling to him forever.

When you reached the hospital, Aizawa took you to the emergency room. You didn’t think you were that much of an emergency, but you couldn’t provide much of a counterargument without revealing too much. What were you supposed to say, anyway? “Oh, hey, by the way, you’re just a character from an anime I watched back home, except for some reason the timeline got really messed up and now Bakugou’s a villain?” As if! He’d think you were crazy!

So instead, you went along with it as you were brought back almost immediately. You weren’t sure if it was because they thought you had a head injury, or because you were with a pro hero. Either way, it wasn’t fair to the other people waiting, those who actually needed help. But again, there was nothing you could do.

Several annoying and probably unnecessary tests later, a doctor came back to your room to speak with you. “Well,” she began, sitting down on a stool, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that all the tests came back normal. The bad news is, well, none of our staff could find any information on you. Are you sure your name is in our system correctly?”

You knew this would happen, unless the universe magically decided to cover for you. “Yes, they’re correct. I just, I don’t really remember anything else. I know that and some basic information but that’s about it. I don’t even know where I come from, just that it’s not here,” you told her, trying to be as calm as possible. You’d had plenty of time to think about what to do while you were waiting on the results, and you figured amnesia was the best option.

It was true, in a sense, that you didn’t know where you came from. You were beginning to be convinced that this was reality, but you didn’t know how. Was this some sort of parallel universe? You didn’t know how all that physics stuff worked, but that sounded the most likely.

The good news about the timeline being messed up was that you didn’t have to worry about your presence messing things up. You were basically free to do whatever you wanted. You were, however, severely limited by the fact that according to the government, you weren’t a real person.

The doctor and Aizawa shared a look. “Well, I’m going to step out and have a chat with the doctor here about what to do next,” Aizawa said in a tone that didn’t betray anything. That made you nervous. Were you in trouble because you’d said you were his fan? Were you going to be interrogated, or worse, sent off to Tartarus, never to see the light of day again?

No, you’d be fine. Everything would be fine. You just had to focus on your breathing, and try not to think about everything that could go wrong. From what you knew about him, Aizawa wouldn’t turn on you so quickly. You hadn’t done anything wrong.

After a surprisingly brief amount of time, Aizawa re-entered the room alone. The doctor must’ve left to go see other patients. “Hey kid, it sounds like you’ve been through a lot. So until we figure out what to do with you, you’re welcome to crash at my place. I’m guessing you don’t have any school to attend?”

“I don’t know, Mr. Aizawa,” you mumbled. What else were you supposed to say, anyway? Who knows, maybe you could go for a career in acting after all this was over. You’d have plenty of practice by then, that’s for sure. You felt guilty for lying to him, of course, but what choice did you have?

“I figured as much. I’ll talk to the principal at the school I teach at and see if we can’t get you enrolled when the new school year starts two weeks from now,” he supplied. You tried not to let your surprise show on your face. You were going to go to UA?! Nezu would still have to agree, but this was beginning to sound like a classic main character development. You didn’t want this hero academia; especially not when everything could be messed up!

“In the meantime, I’m sure you must be exhausted. Come on, let’s go home,” Aizawa said. Home. That was a nice sentiment. Here you were, in a new world all by yourself, unsure of what was the same and what had changed. But at least you had a place to rest your head.

taglist: @bluesherricokes

[quibbs126]

Oh yeah, might as well share some updates to that AU thing I was talking about yesterday

Okay so really the only main thing I have is that I put a name to that female character I kept mentioning. I’ve sort of just decided that she’s Hoist now

I knew I didn’t want it to just be Elita or something, because the character in my head was very much in a support role, even if she was physically powerful, and that’s just not Elita, or not how I want her to be. So eventually I was like “screw it let’s just genderswap someone else” because that’s easier

My brain eventually decided “what about Hoist?” and so yeah, I guess that’s who she is now. Not like Hoist is doing much anyways, as far as I can tell

She’s basically the Autobot medic here, though she isn’t actually a full fledged doctor in the same vein as Ratchet, she’s more supposed to be a doctor for checkups and maintenance. I was thinking that she and perhaps other members of the group share Optimus’ struggle of not actually being qualified for their current role but being stuck with them

Unlike Optimus however, she more so takes it in stride and is just trying to keep everyone’s spirits up. She’s a very friendly and sweet lady. She’s aware Optimus doesn’t know what he’s doing and just wants to try and help him, which he appreciates

She’s also probably at least mentally in her 30s or 40s I’d say? I’m not sure, but she’s definitely older than Optimus, whom I’m putting at mentally around his 20s or so here

But also I still want to keep the strong aspect of her character, so despite being a medic, she can still mess you up if you cross her. And she’s probably beefier than her original counterpart for it

Also she’s married to Grapple, who is also a woman here because I wanted to keep them gay for whatever reason. Besides, can’t go wrong with more women. Don’t know if Grapple is in this Autobot group, but if she isn’t, she’s probably on Cybertron missing her wife

I don’t know, I like Grapple and Hoist

Anyways, on to design stuff

I don’t think Hoist has a g2 design, but I’ve been looking at some of his other toy designs for inspiration. These so far have been some of my main inspirations

I was at work all day so I couldn’t draw on my iPad, but I did at least try drawing parts of these three designs on my cardboard paper there

I think I’d want to make this Hoist a tow truck, but I don’t know exactly what kind of tow truck, I’m given to understand there might be an amount of diversity in that area. But I might go with the 2nd? I liked sketching out that chassis

I really only have distinct thoughts on the 3rd one here, namely that while I don’t think the design itself fits Hoist, I did like drawing it. But also, since I’ve given this rule that the designs cannot be entirely inspired by the original designs, something at least has to be different, I think this is the color scheme I’m gonna go with this Hoist

One of the main solutions I’m allowing for the “can’t look like g1” rule is changing up colors, at least somewhat. That’s kind of what’s saving Optimus in that regard

I went later and looked at more toys, and I think this is the closest to a g2 Hoist? But anyways, I think this is what that color scheme is based on, and again, I just like it, I think I’m gonna use it

Admittedly though, I don’t really like this design all that much outside of colors. I don’t like how the entire front is just the chest. So more tweaking is needed

I’m also noticing that makes the two Autobots so far both have a notable amount of black in their color scheme. Should probably switch it up with whatever future Autobots I do

But yeah, I think that’s it on this Hoist character?

I really only have one more thing to say, it’s that I’ve at least settled on Optimus’ situation here, thanks to a comment from @godrizza

Basically, he was just a warrior in the Autobot ranks, but he ended up successfully killing the former leader of the Decepticons (who isn’t Megatron). He simply saw an opportunity and took it when the time came. Unfortunately for him, killing the leader of Decepticons came with promotions he was not expecting, and now he’s leading a team of Autobots, despite not actually being qualified for the position, or really wanting it

But he’s now stuck leading this group and learning how to manage that. He just wants to fight Decepticons man, he was mostly just hoping for a pay raise or something

I think I’ve sort of figured out what I mean by him being rough around the edges? Like I’ve said before, he still has Optimus qualities, like being kind and caring, but he’s also socially awkward and used to being alone or just fighting. He also doesn’t hate his new crew mates or anything, but he did not want to be a commander and that mixed with his awkwardness tends to make him come off more aloof and mean than he actually is

I still have absolutely no clue what to do with Megatron here

And I think that’s about it? I just wanted to say before I went to sleep today. Now to go to sleep before my hair completely dries and I defeat the whole purpose of showering at night

[ladyofchroyane]

My main gripe with hotd is mostly just me being petty. It bothers me that we do t get any real interactions with aegon and rhaenyra despite them technically being the heads of the power struggle for the throne. I appreciated them trying to have do something different by focusing on the relationship between rhaenyra and alicent but it really comes off weird when you have a confrontation at the end of season 2 when rhaenyra is like again you defend him I have to take his head to alicent when she and aegon never speak to one another 😭 to me it just comes off weird like even if we had gotten something small in season one it when they were younger but nah

hey anon!

your gripe is similar to the ones i have. one of them is that the focus of the show being solely on the house of the dragon and no one else makes westeros feel small. however, i wouldn’t have that big of an issue with this if this ‘small feeling’ didn’t bleed into the core storylines. even though the show’s focus is on house targaryen, there are still so many underdeveloped characters, relationships, plots, and places, along with several downright illogical developments. aegon and rhaenyra’s underdeveloped relationship is a symptom of this issue: hotd almost outright refuses to add depth to their narrative. everything feels simple, shallow, and small, with many events occurring merely because they have to. the show also expects the audience to accept things as they are, with no concern for the nonexistent buildup, which is why hotd is often said to feel rushed.

this may seem a bit contradictory, but while there is some ‘show, don’t tell,’ there’s a lot more of ‘the audience must infer everything’ from very little. aegon and rhaenyra’s relationship kind of exemplifies this; we know they have issues, but we’ve never seen them have even one meaningful conversation. ‘show, don’t tell’ only works if characters actually interact!

additionally, characters are often defined solely by their trauma or specific events, rather than having these elements serve as background characterization that adds depth and helps viewers understand their motivations and goals. basically, these characters are not allowed to grow, so they often feel flat or boring. it’s as if they’re all stuck in the past.

[roseofcards90]

UBW general thoughts!!! FATE SPOILERS FOR UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS ROUTE BELOW PUTTING A READ MORE JUST IN CASE 😭

I think this route was absolutely amazing. I loved every moment with how the plot just kept going and going, never really stopping for one second and I was all here for it. Everything with Archer and Shirou was just well executed, and if I didn’t have a pea for a brain, I would definitely go more into the whole ideal theme UBW has and how Shirou’s ideal and his view on that ideal evolves as the route goes on. The moment where Rin and Saber become master and servant, Archer when he blatantly reveals his projection powers and reality marble, Heracles’ battle against Gilgamesh, and Lancer in this whole route tbh were a lot of my main favorite highlights of the route!

That being said, I do have a bit of a few minor gripes for some of the writing, specifically with Rin and Shirou’s relationship and how it plays in the final act. This may be more of a personal feeling, but I’m not the biggest fan of the Rin/Shirou romantic pairing; I don’t think UBW as a whole brought enough to make me endeared to their dynamic in a romantic aspect, but I love their dynamic in a general sense because I see both of their characters as foils to each other due to their vastly different lives as a result from the same war. Not only that, Shirou is one of the few people to really understand Rin’s nature and inner kindness, as well as how she struggles with her emotions and being vulnerable. I do feel, however, that Rin’s relationship with Archer stuck out way more to me because of their trust and final parting (more similarities with the Fate route which I appreciate) and that it didn’t feel forced to be a romance; in fact, it played more off of gratitude than anything else because of how Rin saved Shirou in the prologue, because she saved him it became the catalyst for Rin to summon Archer and have him be her servant, which I felt was such an amazing tie in with both their characters and with the way the prologue addresses both of their perspectives. And this underlying gratitude and thanks is addressed again in the ending when Archer disappears because Rin promises him yet again she’ll look after his younger self, to make sure he doesn’t stray from his own path. The thanks Archer gives at the end and their parting had so much more impact for me than anything regarding Rin and Shirou’s romance if I’m being truly honest 😭

— Speaking of Rin’s character, I think UBW missed a major part of Rin’s character they could’ve addressed, and that is her relationship with her father. This is mostly glossed over the fact and is really only touched upon when Kirei reveals that he was the one to have killed him. They kind of touched upon it earlier in the route? When Rin first takes Shirou to her house and she explains how much she’s bothered by how Kiritsugu handled Shirou when it came to teaching magic. The scene here hints to an underlying resentment and jealously from Rin when it comes to Shirou, not only because he essentially became a master with barely any training in contrast to her who’s been training her whole life for this war, but also because Shirou was lucky to have a parent there with him. Shirou had a father who took care of him and stayed with him, which I think deep down Rin had wanted from her father too despite on the surface she doesn’t take criticism of her father lightly. Addressing this sort of discrepancy and complexity Rin has with her father would’ve added another layer to her being a foil to Shirou, and it would’ve shown explicitly that Rin isn’t entirely gung-ho when it comes to simply just fulfilling her dead father’s legacy blindly, that having her also question her own views of her father would’ve been so interesting to see as an internal conflict of hers imo.

What kind of mainly bothered me about UBW was how Rin’s flaws were never really addressed(?) I think is the right word I’m trying to say 😭 but with the way Rin has people here who understand her true nature (Shirou, Saber, and Archer), I do want to see a situation play out to where her emotional constipation and her struggles with vulnerability backfire heavily for her, and as a result, she herself has to fix it and learn to be more vulnerable with the people she loves and cares about. I think that would be such a great resolution to her overall character, and from what I know about Heaven’s Feel and how UBW sets up for that route specifically, I have high expectations since I’ve also heard Rin plays a major role in Heaven’s Feel as well.

— As for how the true ending played out, I was a bit skeptical as to why Shinji of all people had to survive at the end, especially when this guy was heavily implied to have sexually assaulted Ayako earlier in the route and would’ve assaulted Rin if not for Lancer 😭 the only reason I can think of as to why this route kept him alive was because of Shirou’s ideal to “save everyone” but other than that, I don’t think him surviving really adds anything else to the route itself. I also think the true end didn’t expand on said romantic relationship between Rin and Shirou that much, barely even at all in the original VN scenes. Although, from what I’ve seen of the anime adaptation of UBW, they did add a lot more to the epilogue when it came to Rin and Shirou attending college as well as additional cute moments between them that I feel the VN really needed for their relationship; the extra scene where they’ve built a grave for Saber also was very sweet and touching, so I’ll give credit where it’s due for the anime in adding more content to the true ending I feel it desperately needed.

It’s because of this lack of completeness I felt for the true ending that I ended up preferring the good ending over it 😭 and I don’t think that’s mainly because of the polycule stuff. As much as I love all the moments between Shirou Rin and Saber as a trio, I feel like this ending did a better job in solidifying the bond between the 3, as well as still establish the possibility of Rin teaching Shirou magic, so it’s not completely far off from the true end, but tbh it just feels more complete to have Saber still be there because of how important as a person she is to both Rin and Shirou.

Even in the final fight of the route, it felt more of a Rin and Saber and Shirou fight instead of an oriented fight with Rin and Shirou being the main focuses, and I think that’s what really strayed me from the Rin and Shirou romance especially with coming off of the Fate route 😭 because my expectations were that Rin and Shirou’s relationship were going to be a major focus in the final fight, but it turned out to be more of the trio’s relationship with each other instead.

— And this one isn’t really a critique, but Illya was surprisingly very absent in this route. With the exception of being in the very beginning and in one of the final fights in the end against Gilgamesh, Illya doesn’t play a major role, which I think could only mean her importance and focus is played up a lot more in Heaven’s Feel instead.

[elliepassmore]

Divine Rivals review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: historical fantasy, epistolary narrative, enemies to lovers, pen pals, WWI I didn't really think I'd be into this book, but I ended up absolutely loving it! Along with The Dictionary of Lost Words this is probably going to be one of my favorite reads of the year. I enjoyed both Iris and Roman's POVs and was engrossed in all of the plotlines. I also liked how it was set during a fantast world version of WWI. That's not a time period that gets a ton of attention, particularly in YA, so it was interesting to read about. The best way I can describe the setting is that it definitely felt vintage. Ross did a good job capturing the early-1900s vibes while still creating a unique world. Oath feels like a distinct city and you can definitely get a feel for both it and the people living there just from reading Iris' experiences living and working there. The town she's posted in as a correspondent feels distinct and you can definitely get the European countryside vibes and the unity the people of the town have. Ross also did a good job of capturing the reality of trench warfare and the horrors and trauma that result from it. She mentioned in the acknowledgements that Testament of Youth was one of her inspirations and damn if she didn't capture those vibes perfectly (sad movie, do recommend). The story is told in normal narration, but there is a pen pal thing going on, so it's also semi-epistolary. I liked reading Iris and Roman's letters and thought it was a good way to further the emotional connection between the characters and with readers. There was a good balance between the epistolary parts and the traditional narration, so even if you're not a huge fan of stories told through letters/diaries/etc., then you should still like this story. Also, shameless pluck for my favorite book ever: if you do like epistolary stories and you liked this book, definitely check out Code Name Verity. This book is action packed in a very casual way. The main plot is being a writer on the war front, and so Iris and Roman are largely focused on that. This leaves room for a lot of the tension to revolve around the conditions of war. Thus, while day-to-day things are pretty calm, there are times when raid sirens go off and characters have to scramble for cover. Likewise, there are scenes in the trenches with all the nail biting tension that brings. In this way, the story manages to be both calm and action-oriented. I do wish we got a little more background on the gods. Like, I understand a lot of it is left out because the characters themselves don't know a lot, but for a good portion of the book I had trouble figuring out which side the city of Oath was supposed to be on (and by extension Forest, which is kind of important for Iris' story). We did eventually get a little more information, and I suspect that figuring out the details is going to be a big portion of book 2, but I just would've liked a little more info in this book. Iris is the main narrator of the story and boy is she dealing with a lot. She's competing for her dream job, she's constantly low on money, her brother is MIA, and her mom is an alcoholic. Despite all that, Iris is able to push forward and stay hopeful for the most part. She's determined but not naïve, and when things take a turn for the worse, she's able to pretty quickly reorient and pick herself back up, which I liked about her. I also liked how kind and open she was to people. While it didn't come up too often, Iris was more than willing to lend a hand when people needed it, and she clearly felt deeply for those around her, even if she'd only known them a short period. Roman only has a bit of narration at the beginning, but his POV plays a bigger role later on in the story. He's definitely someone I felt for, though his struggles took a different shape than Iris' did. Roman was stuck between a rock and a hard place while in Oath, and while he could come across as abrasive and rude, even mean at times, there were moments when it was clear he genuinely cared but just didn't know how to go about it when under his family's thumb. Correspondent Roman is much more open and a more obviously caring person, and I enjoyed getting to see that side of him come out more. This is enemies to lovers (or rivals to lovers), but it's definitely one of those situations where the context the characters are in matters. Once Iris and Roman are removed from the performativity in Oath (either via the letters or via an actual change in location), the rivalry between them settles into something more amicable. It does feel kind of instalovey at times, but considering the context, I question whether they were ever really 'enemies' to begin with or if the situations they were in merely got in the way of a more comfortable dynamic between the two of them. I liked a lot of the side characters as well. Marisol is the owner of the bed and breakfast the writers stay at and she becomes something of a mother figure. She lives on the front and is determined to stay there and help however she can. Marisol was a nice adult addition to a book where, as usual, adults aren't really present. She looked after everyone and helped them adjust while also being a friend and someone to lean on. Attie is the other main side character and she's another war correspondent. She travels to the front at the same time as Iris and the two of them become quick friends. She has a big heart but also a lot of bravery. While the situation is foreign to her, Attie adapts quickly and is quick to bond with others. It's also clear that she's determined to keep those she cares about safe when it comes down to it. I really enjoyed her character and am looking forward to seeing more of her in book 2. Overall I really loved this book and highly recommend it if you're into historical fiction. The setting/time period is unusual and well done, and the characters are generally likeable and complex.

[thorntopieces]

Information Masterpost for Constellation of Hope (LU)

Since CoH is kind of a big mess of a universe (a lot of it currently being stuck in my head and refusing to be written), I decided to write a masterpost for it for those especially interested. I'll try to keep it updated as I continue to write for this series.

Last updated: September 26th 2023

Character information

Time: he/him pronouns, doesn't understand gender but presents typically masculine. He's in love with Malon and she's in love with him and that's all that really matters to him

Warriors:: he/him, cismale (for now...?), aro, technically pansexual but he's got ... issues with women at the moment that he has to work through

Twilight: he/him, cismale (for now...?), panromantic, pansexual. Not currently dating (subject to change). Is overwhelmingly supportive of the rest of the chain and will always listen to their thoughts and struggles

Sky: he/him, transman, in love with Sun but can't be bothered to label it. Sunsexual? Literally switched gender, pronouns, name etc with Sun. Has some thoughts about possibly being bigender, but every once in a blue moon or so. Struggles with chronic altitude illness which presents itself as fatigue, nausea and general GI issues. Also cannot drink cow's milk.

Legend: they/he, lived his life until TFH as a transman. The cheerleader outfit made them reconsider everything and they wrote a very panicked letter to Ravio (transman, he/him) about it. Is now out as genderqueer. Has rheumatoid arthritis and sensory processing disorder.

Wild: they/he/she, genderfluid, in a qpr with Flora. They barely understand gender on the best of the days. Was allegedly a transman before the Calamity and has the top surgery scars to prove it, but doesn't really care now. Autistic and learning to unmask (a result of her pre-Calamity life). The scars bother them from time to time.

Hyrule: fae/faer, agender, aroace. Every now and then fae will borrow someone's gender presentation. In some of the stories, fae will still be referred to with he/him pronouns as fae has yet to figure faerself out. Autistic.

Four: plural they/them, when split apart Red and Green (cismen) uses he/him pronouns, Blue (transfem) uses she/her and Vio (agender) uses they/them. Shadow (nonbinary) is dating Vio and uses xe/xem pronouns. Four is also not intended to be a DIDOSDD+ system, despite potential similarities in presentation or language. Overview of the colours' appearances here

Wind: he/him, then she/her, transfem. Wind is in a relationship with Tetra, but exactly what it is, she hasn't figured it out yet. Originally hesitates to transition because she doesn't want to upset Warriors (they talk it out). Cannot drink cow's milk.

Timeline - links are all to AO3

Prequels/pre-story fics

Indecisive - a fic taking place after Four's third adventures (a mix between Four Swords Adventures and the Four Swords Manga). Vio misses Shadow and talks to Blue about it.

Main story? (there's not really a main story, but anything including and after Dark Hair Significance is here). Disclaimer: The order you see here might not reflect the order of the AO3 series.

Dark Hair Significance - Intro fic to my linked universe oneshot collection. Teen. Mostly Four- and Legend-centric. This is where the Chain meets up (at least partially).

Course and Wale - Wind's never seen anyone knit before. Ravio shows him, and they both learn something in the process.

A Brief Respite - It's a new moon on the first night in Legend's Hyrule, which means that Shadow will be around to hang out with them. It's just a pity that things don't always work out according to plan.

The Wind Guides - Wind has some thoughts about gender and it takes him- her -some time to figure it out.

Sweet Tooth - Hyrule is a bit silly about faer needs. Time helps. Also known as the hypoglycaemic!Hyrule fic

Comfort - Wild can't seem to fall asleep. Hyrule keeps them company.