#to really build up a fully-written character rather than to fill in the gaps on a flat character

[kirkwallguy]

i saw your reblog of that bull post and i'd like to know your other issues with his writing if you wouldn't mind elaborating 😊 i really enjoy your meta posts

hiiiii! my complaints are far pettier than the points in that post ngl, but one major issue i have with bull that i think i may have complained about before is just that his dialogue irritates me and i don't like hearing him speak

imo, what makes weekes' writing so hit or miss (aside from previously mentioned racism etc) is that they really REALLY seem to have taken to heart the advice that characters should have a distinctive way of speaking while often not really having the subtlety to pull it off. it doesn't help that dai really struggles with giving its companions time to develop so we really do have to rely on good dialogue (as opposed to like... quests or storylines) to round them out.

solas speaking in iambic is actually really fun and mostly unobtrusive, but bull and cole are just far too overdone for my personal tastes. bull's whole quippy "yeah 😉 i REALLY like hitting things" schtick gets super old after a few minutes; i know there's the argument that he's presenting himself in a certain way for the inquisition etc etc but it's grating and unfunny while feeling like you're supposed to be finding it funny. similarly, cole's fake-deep mysterious dialogue is good maybe 30% of the time and kind of painful 70% of the time because you can FEEL the writing working very very hard rather than being something that comes from cole's mouth naturally. and ofc characters with super distinctive ways of speaking aren't always bad, especially in a fantasy video game, i just think bull and cole kind of get in the way of themselves a lot of the time and just happen to do it in ways that are designed to annoy me specifically

[bean-na-farraige-agus-foraoise]

Do you have any particular resources for “Eostre” being Bede’s own creation? I know there’s no other attestation and that there are debates among scholars as to this hypothetical goddess’s existence, but if you have the time/energy, I’d love to see more resources on it being definitively a joke / fake from Bede, rather than just a possible goddess we know very little about.

It’s more the use of basic logic, so I’m just going to spell out my argument. I only have one direct quote so one citation, because again, my argument is based on logic and the way one ought to approach medieval sources that then get picked up by 19th century scholars. (I also discussed this at length with an old professor of mine who focuses on medieval theology so much of this is from my notes rather than like textbooks).

I first look at the author, Bede himself. He, like most historians of his day, is not exactly known for being accurate- his other most famous history, the  Ecclesiastical History of the English People is just chock full of propaganda, omissions, and his own personal agendas- he literally avoids talking to native Britons as he’s heavily biased against them. Bede has also been described as having “often used figures of speech and rhetorical forms which cannot easily be reproduced in translation, depending as they often do on the connotations of the Latin words (1)"- which in companion with the propaganda and his own personal agendas makes it very likely that someone unfamiliar with Bede’s writing style like... perhaps a certain German, possibly one by the name of Grimm, would take what he said at face value without taking into account any of the historical and ecclesiastical influences on Bede’s writing. 

The work that Eostre originates in is known as The Reckoning of Time, and focuses on one of Bede’s favorite topics... calendars. And I don’t want y’all to say that I’m making Bede out to be an idiot, because he isn’t, what I’m saying that the man is significantly more reliable as a scientist and a linguist than as a historian. The Reckoning of Time, written in 725, discusses things that a lot of modern day people think that those in the middle ages couldn’t possibly know such as an explanation of how the spherical Earth influenced the changing length of daylight, of how the seasonal motion of the Sun and Moon influenced the changing appearance of the new moon at evening twilight, and a quantitative relation between the changes of the tides at a given place and the daily motion of the Moon.

But the thing with Eostre is that the arguments made by proponents of Eostre’s reality don’t seem to add up. They argue that Eostre is a survival of the goddess  h₂éwsōs, who has a set mythology and role, she is the bringer of dawn, an opener of the doors of heaven, and a goddess of light- and while I have no linguistic scruples with the possibility that linguistically Eostre evolved from h₂éwsōs I do think that there are some issues with this argument. Eostre has no such role and indeed, according to proponents of her existence, like Grimm, has an entirely different role as a goddess of spring, of rebirth, a theme that by the first century AD was associated with Easter (aka several hundred years before we see Eostre being attested, and over a thousand years separated from Grimm’s claims). The associations with Easter and rebirth are what brings the rabbit and the egg into the picture. Furthermore when constructing an image of Eostre, Grimm and Holtzmann the individuals most responsible for the modern view of Eostre, just kinda..... pull aspects of goddesses from other cultures- they pull a little bit from Aphrodite, snag an aspect or two from Freyja. And in fact one of the most popular myths surrounding Eostre, that she turned a bird into a rabbit and that’s why the Easter rabbit lays eggs, was once described as “one of the oldest myths in the world” despite it being a recent fabrication as of 1900. 

Several older texts that mention Ostara such as the Althochdeutsches Schlummerlied announced in 1859 by Georg Zappert is considered a forgery. Grimm, Zappert, and Holtzmann were looking were a common thread of Germanic connection on which to build a German national mythology. Germany would not be a unified state until 1871 and was instead a region of disparate and often un-unified small states that were frequently invaded by larger nations, such as France. A German national mythology and a German national history came to be key points in the unification of Germany, and later became a focal point of German fascism. 

Furthermore much of the arguments in favor of Eostre seem to rely on what appear to me, to be flimsy linguistic claims that were only thought up in relation to Bede’s posited goddess Eostre and Grimm’s claims of Eostre’s importance in Germany despite his.... making up the things about her..... but I digress- many of the things that are held up as “proof” of Eostre’s existence seem to come from hypothetical linguistics, it’s very much an attempt to connect certain sounds and popular German names to a figure who’s existence was not mentioned prior to Bede’s work, who was popularized by a German nationalist, and then whose holiday was taken and used in what was asserted to be a survival of ancient religion (Wicca- as published in Gardner’s Witchcraft Today) just four years prior to the discovery of the artifacts that are shown as proof of Eostre’s existence in 1958. And while many of these inscriptions have been attributed to Eostre, many of the inscriptions are also incomplete, and several of them have been attributed to a social group rather than a deity. Claiming that a deity exists because you see what is believed to be a linguistic connection to their name (which again was not attested to until the 8th century) is just.... it’s like the Danu situation for Gaelpol all over again. Basing linguistic studies off of hypothetical goddesses with highly debatable origins just doesn’t feel like proof to me. 

But back to Bede, Eostre is not the only deity he just creates while writing The Reckoning of Time. And Eostre is not the only deity that Grimm grabs up as being a real Germanic figure who is otherwise unattested- Rheda is also just brought into existence and shoved into a similar situation as Eostre- made into a fertility goddess because of which month Bede ascribed them to and preconceived notions of what would be celebrated at that time of year based on over a thousand years of Christian influence and associations already held with the Easter holiday. Also, Grimm does the same thing to Rheda that he does to Eostre, in that, because nothing is given of her, he pulls aspects from other deities to flesh out her character- giving her similarities to the Roman Mars. 

And even beyond Bede’s writing- some arguments have posited that the age in which Bede was raised (shortly after the conversion was completed) would have allowed him to talk to people about aspects of religion that would have not have fully died out. Which is fair, but one must also keep in mind that Bede was sent to live in a monastery when he was 7 years old, and that he and the Abbot who raised him were among the only survivors of a plague that struck when Bede was 14. This was not a life that allowed for much other than ecclesiastical education- and Bede cites local pagan authors in his his other writing, but none of them discuss Eostre or Rheda. It seems to me as though when writing The Reckoning of Time, that Bede, who was also discussing Greek and Roman cosmology and mythology might have seen the space for a goddess of spring in Anglo-Saxon mythology and just filled in the gaps utilizing the Germanic word for Easter as his base (remember, Bede was a linguist). 

But beyond this, it’s important to me that people remember that medieval monks were human. They were political beings, they were capable of having a sense of humor, they had agendas- Bede’s agenda was calendars, but it was an agenda nonetheless. And historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, they all have agendas, they have opinions, things that influence their arguments- don’t just take what they say at face value but examine why. 

But I raise the bar to you now- why do you believe in a hypothetical goddess, what evidence do you have that says she’s real? 

Ultimately my only dog in this fight is historical literacy and accuracy because I don’t follow the Germanic gods, I’m a Gaelic polytheist. It doesn’t matter to me what gods people follow even if I think they don’t exist, that’s not my fight- but seeing people claim that a holiday was stolen from a hypothetical deity really grinds my gears- particularly when those arguments are coming from people who couldn’t give me a single academic argument for their stance that hasn’t been disproven a thousand times over. 

1. Colgrave, Bertram; Mynors, R.A.B. "Introduction". Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969).

[honeymoonjin]

part of the 2020 sapphest fic fest, cross-posted to ao3

pairing: jungkook x hoseok x namjoon

word count: 8.1k  ||  rating: sfw  ||  genre: magical realism

summary: jungkook doesn’t know what she wants in life. but maybe the cottage-dwelling botanist and warlock she moves in with could help. or, perhaps, they might even be the answer.

notes: i apologise if this isn’t up to scratch, i haven’t written an actual oneshot i think since jan/feb (?) so i know i’m rusty. also, this fic contains a trans female jungkook, cis female namjoon and non binary hoseok so i really do hope i’ve done them justice, it’s my first time writing characters with differing gender expressions. please do let me know what you think with a reblog or an ask, it really makes my day and would help a lot as i’m trying to get back into writing. thank you and i love you xxx

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Jungkook feels the gripping pressure around her heart ease with every step she takes down the street, fading into phantom pangs once the tall apartment building falls out of view.

She had never quite gotten used to it; the relief in a lack of something, the bliss of less. Her family’s worries seeped into her bones, soured her tongue when she was home. At high school, and especially at university, the stress of other students buffeted her like gales of wind. The brief moments of respite when she’d walk to the bus stop always felt so fleeting, like a gasp of air that didn’t quite fill her lungs enough.

Now, though, she didn’t stop there. She walked further, sucking in deeper breaths.

The train station lay close to the centre of town, but it was never that busy in the late morning, something she’d known fully well before going.

Her phone buzzes in her front pocket, no doubt her mother wishing her safe travels again. She doesn’t answer it, though. Happiness is a sweet tang behind her teeth, and her respite from obligation is a welcome one.

Her train is already pulling into the station when she steps up to the platform, and she wastes no time in scanning her card and finding a seat, tucked in the least occupied corner.

It doesn’t take long for the cramped blocks of Seoul to open up into countryside, and with it comes an openness in Jungkook’s chest that she only remembers feeling once before, a family vacation to an island that felt so blurry in her childhood memory.

Her gift wasn’t so strong then, but still Jungkook finds herself, over a decade later, seeking out nature as a balm for the mood pollution of city life.

When she’s as far south as the train allows, she disembarks. Not a single other soul steps foot off into the station, and it seems nobody is around.

It’s more a bus stop with rails than a train station, really. A roughly squareish pad of thick concrete sits beside the old tracks, a steel park bench and signpost the only things adorning it.

Around the lonely station is an open plain with few trees. On the opposite side, vast untended fields sprout daisies and dandelions, rising gracefully to low hills in the distance. On Jungkook’s side, a single narrow path of sun bleached dirt cuts through the wild grass, leading her to civilisation.

It’s a quiet walk. Not that she minds, of course; on the contrary, the remoteness of this place settles her and allows her to appreciate the finer sounds that normally get drowned out. The grass and scattered trees rustle gently in the wind. A few birds that roost in the shade of the branches chirp to each other, and the melodic noise brings a smile to Jungkook’s face.

When the small path she wanders along finally leads her to a series of small, traditionally-built houses, she’s unsurprised to find them seemingly abandoned. There’s no signs of life outside, and no evidence of human mood anywhere in her body. Even more than the rundown appearance of the outpost, Jungkook trusts her natural gift.

So when a tug in her chest leads her past the small crop of houses, she doesn’t hesitate. There is something for her here, something she may not yet have the words to explain, but for the first time she’s letting herself follow the currents that run through her veins, instead of trying to live around them.

The path lifts.

Like the train station was the base of a funnel, the land rises into hills on this side too, the extra exertion heating her calves with each step. Eventually, the narrow spine of dirt becomes overgrown with grass, and she’s forced to trample over it, ducking around low-hanging branches and stumbling over roots as the trees cluster around her, welcoming her into the cool shade of the hillside.

The crest of the hill has a jagged notch missing like a chipped tooth, providing a shortcut to the other side. The sun peeks through worn walls of ancient stone. It glares in Jungkook’s eyes, but even that brightness is overwhelmed by something stronger that radiates from the very ground itself. Euphoria.

Though her gift was still sometimes a mystery to her, Jungkook had learnt to distinguish most moods. In her cramped suburbia, she’d generally just been exposed to human feelings and the occasional animal, but she could still recognise the specific energy that plants give off.

Stronger with every step she takes, her soles practically vibrate with the flow of plant life singing out in joy - the joy of thriving, of being taken care of. Her own excitement wells up inside her, and her feet pick up their pace until the thud of grass changes into the slap of heavy soles on rock. She slips through the narrow crevasse of stone at the peak of the hill, breath catching at what greets her on the other side.

Like some kind of paradise, lush colours and fragrances mingle in the fresh air. The slope is much gentler here, and instead of uneven undergrowth and stubborn shrubbery, graceful rows of trees fill the open plains in front of her.

An orchard of plum trees with their pink blossoms rests to her left, rich purple fruits beginning to grow from them. Beside, a thicket of orange trees brighten the landscape with the bold citrus, only a few white flowers remaining on the branches. The green apple trees in front of her are laden with fruit, the branches hanging low. To her right, she even spots the brilliant pink spheres of pomegranate, though surely her eyes deceive her.

There’s no clear path through the foliage, though each row kindly provides enough space for a person or two to wander through, so Jungkook takes one such gap at random. There looks to be a fairly old though well-tended cottage beyond the trees, and even as the ecstasy of the healthy orchards envelops her in warmth, she feels the tug in her chest still guiding her forward.

Her body adjusts to the strong flow of positivity. It clears her mind, opens her lungs; like breathing pure mountain air. She has no idea what she’s really doing - trespassing and approaching a stranger’s house like this - but already the thought of having to leave here and find a place to stay makes her stomach curl.

Between the line of trees she can make out the front-facing wall of the cottage. Made up of wide planks of wood, slightly uneven with all the knots and flecks left on the surface, green creeping ivy runs lines across the edges of the plants like earthy seams. That’s all she can see, though, and the first sign of human life doesn’t come from what she sees but rather what she hears.

Reaching her ears even around the happy murmur of greenery, a bright voice hums a meandering but cheery tune, interspersed with chirped phrases that Jungkook can’t quite make out yet.

She approaches slowly, but impatiently peeks around the trunks of trees for a glimpse at the individual. The movement, the colour, the tint of energy that she feels off of them is unlike anything she’s felt before. Pure light, just as brilliant as it is tender.

She steps forward again, foot snapping a fallen twig. Suddenly, that stranger’s energy wobbles, the freezes in the air altogether. Jungkook pauses, knows she’s caught.

“A visitor?” the new voice exclaims incredulously, almost as if talking to themselves. “Are you human, visitor?”

Jungkook swallows. Whoever it was must not have been able to see her. “Mostly,” she replies hesitantly.

As if that’s the right answer, a joyous hoot rings out through the orchard, and light thumps skip closer. A smile stretches across Jungkook’s face entirely unconsciously, her eyes widening when the person finally darts into sight, hand hooked on an orange tree at the very end of the row.

“A friend, then!” the apparent owner of the house declares. They’re dressed for gardening, though dressed is perhaps overly generous. With bare feet and cropped, slightly curly hair, the only thing the person is even wearing is a pair of overalls, dirt on the knees, the leg cuffs rolled up to their calves and the front only just covering their otherwise naked chest. Every inch of skin revealed down to the elfish slope of their nose is a warm, rich bronze, like the sun itself has sunk below the surface and is instead shining outwards. It matches the high energy that Jungkook feels off of them, making her heart race.

Used to modest - even prudish - city fashion, Jungkook swallows at the delicate shoulders and collarbones that contrast enticingly with the swell of their biceps. Averting her eyes, she clears her throat and introduces herself. “And sorry for, uh, intruding,” she offers up with a grimace.

But the stranger waves it off, the movement exposing a flash of something gold on their palm. “Don’t be,” they respond easily, “we haven’t had a guest in years. Name’s Hoseok, by the way.”

“Jungkook,” Jungkook replies without thinking, making the other’s eyes light up even more. “I don’t even… I don’t really know why I’m here.”

Hoseok seems to be expecting this answer. “You should come inside, Jungkook. I built up wards against humans about three years ago when we moved in - it’s not even on any maps now! - so if you’re here, you’re here for a reason. Just because you don’t know it yet doesn’t mean it isn’t important.” They state this all like it’s a matter of fact, and Jungkook herself feels instinctively swayed by the logic. Or, perhaps, swayed by the way Hoseok’s back flexes behind the straps of the overalls as they turn towards the house, leading her there.

Jungkook swallows, trying to distract herself from the beautiful being in front of her. “Are you a, um-” but even her first question isn’t so clear. Unsure what to choose, she goes with the statistically more common option. “-are you a witch like me?”

Hoseok cranes their head back with an easy grin, boyish waves framing their face like a dark halo. “That’s up for debate. Technically, sure, but I don’t really like using the term witch or wizard. Lots of non-binary folk just use warlock, mostly. But yes, I have magic. Come see.”

They hold out their palm, then, and Jungkook jogs forward a few steps to catch up, just breaking out of the shade of the orchard as Hoseok tilts their hand towards her.

Like the rest of Hoseok’s skin, their palm is a warm golden shade, though it positively glows, an ethereal brightness resting below the skin, centred in their palm but reaching as far as their fingertips like five tiny lamps. “Sunhands,” Hoseok explains simply, their hands radiating a delicate warmth. “Had them since I was born. Helps me grow things year-round,” they finish, gesturing loosely in front of them.

Finally breaking her gaze from Hoseok’s beautiful gift, Jungkook looks ahead, unable to stop herself from gasping in a breath. “It’s gorgeous,” she offers up, but the compliment feels lame in comparison to the haven she’s met with.

Hoseok hums proudly nonetheless, and gives Jungkook time to take it in.

The house is every bit the rustic, homely cottage Jungkook had envisaged from the glimpse she got, but her heart is taken by the details. The wooden face she’s met with is clearly the side of it, hosting a small woodshed complete with an axe half-embedded in a tree stump and a tiny freestanding barbecue grill. The house itself is two-storied, although the second floor looks much smaller than the first. A round glass window peeks out from the top. Jungkook thinks she sees something move behind it, but her attention is quickly pulled by the glint of glass in the sun off to her right.

Behind the house, taking up almost the same ground space as the other building itself, a glasshouse blooms with vibrant green. Lush ivy trails up the frame on either side of the rounded top like a set of ribs bracketing the plant life inside. Unlike the neat rows of fruit trees, it looked like a dense forest within those crystal clear walls; the only signs of human intervention were the rows of metal shelves housing smaller plants, and irrigation pipes fitted inside.

“Our little sanctuary,” Hoseok sighs happily, seeing where Jungkook’s gaze has wandered. “My wife’s a botanist by trade, her specialty is in endangered species. Most of these only bloom very rarely, or don’t survive well in regular soils. We’ve spent a long time cultivating them. I use my gift to grow them; she uses her gift to study them.”

Jungkook tries to tamp down the ebb of disappointment that arises. “Your wife?”

“In all ways but legal,” Hoseok confirms with a dreamy grin. “She’ll just love you, I know it already. Come on; let’s get out of the heat.”

There’s a swing bench on the porch outside the front door with a lone novel resting atop it, open page-down as if the reader had to leave it there without a bookmark to keep their spot. Hoseok skirts past it, wiggling their feet briefly on a worn mat before stepping inside.

Feeling so out of her depth, Jungkook doesn’t protest, but instead pauses just inside the door, unsure if she should take off her boots.

Hoseok notices and winces. “We don’t, uh, we don’t have any spare house slippers. If you wanna keep them on, you can.”

Jungkook bends down to toggle the zips down anyway, letting her socked feet enjoy the respite of the cool hardwood floor. “You have a really nice place,” she offers up, though it’s quite the understatement.

To the right is a narrow set of stairs leading up to a mezzanine. There’s only one closed door up there that Jungkook can see, no doubt leading to the second-floor window she’d seen earlier.

The other side is a short hallway lined with what looks like homemade artworks and photographs. Down at the far end, the sun shines into a kitchen, but Jungkook doesn’t get a good look before she’s ferried up the stairs, the third step creaking under her socked foot.

“Knock knock,” Hoseok sings out instead of actually rapping on the closed door, squishing their cheek against the frame. A murmur comes from inside, and they open the door immediately, flocking inside. “A new friend, Joon-ah!”

When Jungkook slips inside shyly, her breath is immediately taken away by the beauty of the person inside. Not just their looks, though she’s never seen hair as glossy and graceful as theirs, and eyes as bright. But being near them feels like standing on the bank of a still, clear lake. Deep with wisdom but still teeming with life and curiosity. With a set of tortoiseshell reading glasses almost tipping off their nose, the person seated at the chair feels like the heart of the house, the heart of the whole region.

“Does this new friend of ours have a name? Preferred pronouns?”

Jungkook can’t do much more than blink. She’s dreamt about this, obsessed over this for years, but it may just be the first time anyone’s ever actually asked her in real life. “Sh- uh- Jungkook, she/her. Th-thank you for asking.”

The beauty in front of her smiles, and Jungkook’s knees threaten to give out at the serene warmth and endearing dimple. “It’s a pleasure. I’m Joon, by the way. I use she/her too. I’m sure Hoseok forgot entirely, but they use they/them. Always best to check, don’t you agree?”

Jungkook’s nodding immediately in response before she even processes it. “Yeah, I- that’s helpful, thank you.” Her mind feels hazy. People in the city never felt this vibrant, mixed with the blissful hum on the soles of her feet from the plantlife outside. She fights to wrangle her mind back into something coherent “Um… Hoseok said you had a gift too?”

Joon’s brows furrow delicately, swiveling her chair back to face them fully. She’d been seated at a busy-looking desk when they entered, writing notes into the margin of a yellowed textbook. Now, Jungkook can appreciate her simple choice of outfit: just a loose t-shirt and some thin fabric sweats, she nevertheless exudes pure grace, even as she quirks a brow towards Hoseok.

The latter coughs lightly, scratching their bare shoulder under one of the overall straps. “I mean… I would call you gifted, love,” they state in an imploring tone.

Joon just lets out a breathy chuckle and turns back to their newcomer. “I’m fully human, actually. My history is academic rather than magical.”

“I am curious, though,” Hoseok chirps, hooking one of their legs on the arm of Joon’s chair and draping themself half onto her, “what’s your gift, Jungkook? You’ve seen mine. Elemental,” Hoseok states, patting their bronzed palms on Joon’s thighs.

If Jungkook pauses to process the public display of queer affection in front of her - as well as the unfurling of mutual fondness emanating off the couple - she might just pass out, so she clears her throat and directs her gaze a few inches above their heads. “Sensory,” she explains. “I feel moods from other beings. I think the trees and stuff outside brought me here, actually.”

Hoseok blinks, eyes wide. One of their overall straps has slipped down, exposing one side of their chest, making Joon tut and tuck it back up again, but the gifted one takes no note. “The trees? You can feel the trees?”

Jungkook shrugs, but her insides glow at the impressed tone to their voice. “Yeah, I, uh, I can’t really do much with it, so I studied house magic at university. I rented out house witch services for some extra money, so that helps.”

Joon’s smile warms even further at the mention of study, her eyes crinkled with some bemusing inside joke. “We might just have to keep you, then,” she quirks, “as amazing as Hoseok is, their skills don’t really extend to the indoors. Mind you, I’m even worse myself.”

Hoseok hums, unflapped by the comment. “I never had a knack for fiddly stuff. I much prefer getting my clothes dirty than cleaning them.” Seeing how worn and discoloured the knees of Hoseok’s overalls are, Jungkook doesn’t doubt that for a second.

But her mind can’t really focus on that. Her own nerves rattle through her body, metallic on the insides of her cheeks. “I, um… I could help? If you wanted?”

The tentative flicker of interest reaches Jungkook from both parties, allowing her to get her hopes up. Nevertheless, she bites her tongue and braces herself for rejection. Did she even have enough money on her card for the train ride home? Stupid, she was-

Joon beams warmly, though with a touch of hesitation. “We’d love that, really we would. We just… We don’t have much human currency, Jungkook.”

Jungkook blinks, chest flipping as she rushes to shake her head. “I don’t need it, honest! Do you- If you had a place for me to crash, or…”

Hoseok sucks in a breath through their teeth and jostles Joon playfully on the shoulder. “Come on, love, we could move some of those old boxes up here and she could have the spare room. Don’t you want to keep her?”

Even faced with Hoseok’s all-but-bare back, Jungkook can sense their pleading eyes with the way that Joon melts in her chair. She pats Hoseok on the shoulder. “Up you get, then, sunshine. It’ll need some dusting too.” The curled brunette heaves themself up, peppering a kiss on Joon’s cheek before slinking out the room.

Jungkook isn’t quite sure if the rising ecstasy in her chest is all her or a shared blend of the people around her, but she knows she’s never felt so bright. “Thank you so much, Joon! What jobs do you need help with?” She turns when she feels the tingling, menthol-esque blossom of hope directed at her back. Near the top of the stairs, Hoseok still remains, their cheek squashed against the banister and eyes glistening. “I could always clear out the room for you?”

Hoseok begins to perk up but Joon just tuts. “Don’t be silly, sweetheart, you just put your feet up. We aren’t going to put you to work straight away.”

“We aren’t?” Hoseok murmurs in unbidden disappointment.

Joon tries to hide her smile, but her lips quirk up fondly at her partner nonetheless. “The cleaning spray and broom are in the hallway cupboard downstairs,” she divulges, receiving a dramatic whine in return. “Suffering builds character, dear.”

A sulky, “yeah, yeah… love you,” is heard from the foot of the stairs.

Joon lets out a breathy chuckle and returns the affection, before standing up from her desk and nodding warmly at Jungkook. “Perfect weather for a lunch picnic, don’t you think? I might go down and see what I can prepare. Why don’t you explore a bit, or go rest? The couch in the living room is divine for taking naps.” With that, she departs, leaving Jungkook alone in the attic to process the absurdity of the past hour.

Feeling less like an intruder than before, Jungkook welcomes the opportunity to fully roam the outside of the property, admiring the lush wildlife and vegetation. The open plains go far beyond the opposite side of the house, leading to a sharper cliff face going up. Jungkook even thinks she can spot the thin vein of a waterfall if she squints, but there’s plenty of beauty at her feet for her to discover first.

While the grove of trees flanks the house on one side, the far side boasts rows and rows of garden beds, the dirt a richer brown than the rest. Fat strawberries weigh down their stalks in some plots, leafy greens spill over the sides in others. The vast range of produce is almost unbelievable, with the side of the house itself displaying a maze of herb pots. Most of them were cooking-based, but Jungkook doesn’t miss the orange spots of brewer’s mint, the sharp, wicked-looking leaves of murkroot and even a small terracotta pot of Jupiter sage. She was well-versed in magical ingredients, but had never seen them fresh outside of her university’s greenhouse. She could only imagine there were many more in the tall glass structure behind Joon and Hoseok’s house. Her fingers itch to test them, to wow her new landlords with a pain-reliever salve or the perfect dream-infused tea. It can wait, she tells herself. If they were growing them, perhaps they used them for something else.

A wet huff interrupts her musing, and she jumps when she feels something moving against her leg. Glancing down, she’s relieved to find the new presence is a tubby, short-haired dog with sleepy eyes, back arched as it stretches first its front legs, then its back, before collapsing onto its back, wriggling against Jungkook’s boot.

She lets out a disbelieving laugh, reaching down to gingerly rub the creature’s belly. The dog all but purrs, legs kicking in the air and tail thumping rhythmically against the sun-bleached wooden veranda.

“Where did you come from, huh?” Jungkook crouches, feeling her calf muscles ache but grinning at the way the dog seeks out her attention shamelessly, not hesitant at all about the presence of a stranger.

“Ah, I see you met Cho,” a warm voice comes from above her. Jungkook cranes her neck up, admiring Joon’s tall form. “She’s a rescue.”

A rescue? Paired with the close view of the gorgeous botanist, Jungkook has to bite down hard on the inside of her cheek to push her feelings down. She’d fall in love if she wasn’t careful. “Is that so?” she asks, willing her voice to be steady.

Joon nods, kneeling down to gently run her knuckles behind the dog’s ears, tan fur paling to white on the very tips. “I had to go to a nearby town for supplies, and found this wee girl in an alleyway digging in some bins. My heart broke for her, I just couldn’t leave her there.” She lets out a light laugh. “She was so skinny that Hob-ah called her chopstick. Now, though, she’s built like a barrel, so we just call her Cho.”

Cho wiggles her butt against the veranda, paw hooking on Jungkook’s wrist the moment the petting pauses. Continuing to pat the canine, Jungkook sighs. “That’s really sweet of you. She looks really healthy.”

A spontaneous laugh erupts from Joon’s nose. “She just about eats more than us, she better be. Anyways; I better get back to work. I just came out here to grab some mint for the lemonade.”

Jungkook stays hunched on the floor with Cho - whose nose is burrowed wetly into her furled palm - while Joon approaches the trellis of herb pots, gently plucking some soft green leaves off a plant that’s low enough to make her bend at the waist. Biting her lip harshly, Jungkook averts her gaze from the way her pale sweatpants pull taut around her hips with the movement.

Before long, the botanist returns inside, causing Cho to let out an indignant sneeze and scramble up to join her.

Jungkook exhales until her lungs feel concave. Back in a moment of quiet, she runs her fingertips over the texture of the wooden veranda. The energy from Joon’s unhurried focus feels like the echo of strong hands on Jungkook’s shoulders, but past it is the playful jab of Hoseok’s mock frustration. She grins, picturing the warlock fiddling with an old broom or trying to line up the corners of a fitted sheet. The tang of surprise has long since faded from Jungkook’s mouth, and it’s nice to sit in the warmth of both the sun and their welcome.

She breathes deeply, inhaling the fresh smell of clean air and fresh earth, and smiles.

For such a small house, there really is no shortage of work for Jungkook. Some things are easy fixes, like a permanent polish salve for the heavy mahogany bookcase in the main room or the several anti-dust spells she casts around the house. Others take days at a time to chip away at - she’d forgotten just how long it takes to fully steep a digestion aid tea to cure Hoseok’s raging lactose intolerance - but her two new housemates never nag or criticise. In fact, she’s found a warm foundation of purpose inside her that she hadn’t had since she graduated.

Each evening, when her hands begin to ache or the recipes on her phone look fuzzy, she packs up and joins the two lovebirds for dinner. It’s become a domestic ritual to help them cook, chat for a few hours on the porch as the sun slips below the hills, and then turn in for a restful night of sleep. It’s meant to be a full moon tonight - the fourth one since Jungkook arrived - and their routine is no different, gathered on the edge of the porch facing the open fields behind the house. It’s peaceful, Jungkook thinks. She’s more content now than she’s been in a long time.

There’s something...worrying bubbling within her with every shared moment, though. It’s in the way her pulse leaps when Hoseok beams at her, or the stuttered heartbeat in her chest with Joon’s casual touch. She knows they’re together, can feel the resonance of their affections inside her, yet she can’t help pretending those vibrations are directed at her. Lets herself accept the fond shoulder squeezes, blush at Hoseok’s playful winks.

It’s a dangerous fantasy to indulge in, but…

“Jung-ah, did you change your hair? It’s gorgeous.”

She flushes at the compliment, the genuine tone of Joon’s voice. Joon’s own hair is still a sunkissed brown, so long now that she often ties it off with a ribbon into a lazy ponytail. For a while, Jungkook burned with gender envy, knowing it would take years and years for her hair to grow that long. But a quick text to a friend from uni and an obscure millennial cosmetics spell site helped speed that process up. It wasn’t nearly as long as Joon’s, but the feeling of it tickling her bare shoulders each night made something deep inside of her positively glow. “Thank you,” she murmurs shyly. Hearing Joon notice it and respond well to it ignites that euphoric spark again. “Wanted something different.”

Hoseok reaches a hand up to ruffle their own hair; loose coils springing back around their brow. “Don’t you get hot, ladies? I’m tempted to take a razor to mine and it’s not even past my ears!”

Jungkook can’t manage to suppress a snicker in time. “I’d pay to see that.”

Hoseok grins, but sends a wink Joon’s way. “Hmm... wifey doesn’t seem so convinced, huh? Don’t you think I’d suit the skinhead look?”

Joon tilts her head back to catch the last few rays of orange sun, shadows cast below her jaw. “It wouldn’t be my first choice. But confidence looks better on you than any hairstyle, sunshine.”

Hoseok beams at that, letting the conversation drop as if they never were that interested in shaving anyway. “I think I’m making progress with the vanilla, love.”

That gets a strong reaction from Joon, her dark brows arching gracefully. Jungkook’s interest is peaked, leaning forward so that she’s sitting right on the edge of the porch. “The vanilla?”

Like a proud mother, Joon puffs her chest. “It’s mostly grown in Madagascar these days, and it’s a notoriously fickle plant. The flower only blooms one day a year, and is fertile for only 12 hours. And often, they require human intervention to actually pollinate. Seok-ah here thinks they can get it blooming more often. Have you gotten it, sunshine?”

Hoseok shrugs away the attention humbly, though their eyes glitter with barely-restrained excitement, turning to them both. “For a while I thought my sunhands were my only gift, but I think I must have some type of connection with plants too. I’m really not sure, but I’ve gotten my vanilla crop to bloom three times this month alone! Only two of them produced decent pods, but it’s definitely progress.” Their eyes drop, mouth twisting in thought. “I wonder if I could speed up the fermentation process as well. It usually takes months, but I’ve grown whole trees faster than that. Who knows?”

Joon’s reply is interrupted by a low vibration rattling against the porch. Her smile slips in confusion, and drops entirely when she flips the phone and reads the screen. “It’s Tae.”

Hoseok sobers up too, worry and anxiety emanating off them like a cold tide. “Is something wrong?”

Joon doesn’t reply, brows furrowed as she types something back. Barely a moment later - though it feels much longer as Jungkook awkwardly sits, completely out of the loop - a text buzzes through again, and a surprised laugh comes from the back of Joon’s throat, her lips stretched in a smile. “He’s… he got the job in Osaka.”

Hoseok gasps and claps their hands together once, wiggling in their spot. “That’s incredible!” they begin, but before Joon has even replied to the text, a third is coming through. Hoseok basically jumps in the air, demanding for their wife to read the message aloud.

“Oh my goodness, Tae has a boyfriend, Seok-ah! Says he’s a chef at a Korean restaurant in the city centre.” Joon smiles fondly. “He’s doing well, sunshine.”

Hoseok mulls this over with a slightly put-out look. “Dammit, I didn’t even think of dating a chef.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I made that dipping sauce from scratch yesterday.”

Jungkook feels the banter whip back and forth on either side of her, impenetrable without the important context. “Who’s, um, who’s Tae?” she asks hesitantly, bracing for them to scold her prying.

Joon just smiles placidly, reaching back to lazily re-tye the peach ribbon that’s threatening to slip off. “He’s our ex.”

“Ah, ah, ah,” Hoseok chides, “you know he doesn’t like to be called that.”

A sigh. “Tae’s our husband once-removed. Happy?”

“You… had a husband? Both of you, or?”

“What’s mine is hers, Jung-ah,” Hoseok coos happily, “we like to share. Tae was my… boyfriend, back in the day. We actually got hitched before I even met Joon. Young marriage, we were pretty dumb kids.” They shrug, the soothing cotton-soft acceptance filling the air around them, not a spike of negativity to be held. “He actually introduced us shortly after our honeymoon, and I fell for Joon straight away. I admitted my feelings to him, but he just started laughing. The two of them had briefly dated in high school. Small world, huh? We sort of fell into a trio after that.”

“It was unspoken, really,” Joon mumbles, her eyes in the far distance as blue twilight dims the sky. “It felt as natural as flowing water to us.”

“And then-” Hoseok breaks off roughly, and the air tightens. “Tae went through some personal changes. Identity changes. We all tried making it work, we loved being three, being together, but it wasn’t right for him anymore. He ended up winning a scholarship to a very prestigious photography school in Tokyo, and we all knew that was what was best for him.” They fall silent for such a long time that Jungkook would almost think they were finished talking. But then, only just audible, they whisper. “I’m glad he’s doing well.”

Joon leans over to Jungkook, her sweet scent filling the narrow space between them. “Some of the art in the hallway is his if you want to look.”

Before Jungkook can reply - though her head is swimming with joonjoonjoon that she probably has no coherent comments anyway - Hoseok makes a strange strangled noise and gets up. “I’m so sorry,” they announce stiffly, “I think I left a light on in the glasshouse.”

Jungkook watches in confused silence as the warlock, still barefoot even in the cooling night air, marches swiftly across the field to the pitch-black glasshouse. Joon lets out a gentle sigh.

“Did I do something wrong?” Jungkook asks, voice almost cracking on the final word. “I shouldn’t have asked-”

“It’s okay,” Joon interrupts kindly, a warm hand placed on Jungkook’s knee. “It’s just… This is the first time we’ve had a third person in the house since Tae. I think Hoseok missed it.”

Jungkook bites on the inside of her cheek, feeling a chill run through her. “I can’t replace him, though. He sounds like a good guy.”

A considering hum resonates from Joon’s throat. “He is a good guy. But neither of us,” she gestures first at herself and then the shadowed silhouette of a head poking above some plants in the greenhouse, “are looking to replace him. In fact,” she admits with a rueful laugh, voice dropping to a low murmur, “I think the two of us are quite enamoured with you, Jung-ah.”

Joon’s hand on her knee burns through the thin cotton of her sundress, the tips just grazing bare skin. Jungkook swallows, feeling every beat of her heart thud at her ribs. “I like-” her voice rasps like sandpaper, throat dry. She clears it, swallowing thickly again. “I like when you say my name like that.”

She isn’t looking directly at Joon, but she still feels the broad smile. “It sounds pretty, don’t you think? It suits you.” Jungkook’s lips twitch; she ducks her head even as Joon leans closer. “You know, my parents wanted a son,” Joon explains softly. “They called me Namjoon. I always hated it. Felt like such a tomboy, the Nam was too mascule to me. So I dropped it. Still me, just… better. I know plenty of people change their names entirely, but you don’t have to. I think Hoseok would love to chat with you about stuff like that. I know I wouldn’t understand those feelings as much as they would.” Joon furrows her brows, looking embarrassed at her monologue. “I just want you to feel comfortable here.”

“I appreciate it,” Jungko- Jung-ah says immediately, glancing up to see Joon’s face light up. “I- I’m, um, enamoured with- with you too. With you two, too.” Coughing lightly to clear the awkward phrase hanging in the air, she drops her gaze again, but a single finger pauses her, hooked gently under her chin.

Slowly, Joon lifts Jung-ah’s jaw until their eyes meet. They’re somehow closer now, their breaths mingling hotly together between them. Jung-ah’s lips part, but no words come out.

This close, she can see the way a sheen of chapstick glints in the moonlight when Joon smiles. “Sweetheart, can I kiss you?”

Her stomach flips. She nods, not trusting her voice, and barely has a chance to flutter her eyes shut before a pressure lays across her lips. Joon kisses her slowly, so softly, like she might shatter in her hold.

The air has a chill to it now, but every point of contact feels hot like a furnace, and the keening, pleased energy that blooms from Joon keeps her warm. She lets it sink into her, wrap around her just as Joon’s soft palm encases her cheek, fingers playing with her hairline.

Joon’s lips taste like strawberry, but the real sweetness is her delicate movements, chaste but sensual, passionate but patient. Her thumb rubs slowly over Jung-ah’s cheekbone, giving her the strange feeling of swaying in the sea, entirely unmoored. She leans into it, diving deeper, feeling their noses bump.

Joon pulls away too soon, leaving Jung-ah with tingling lips and a dizzy mind. Her chapstick has all but rubbed off, but her lips are plumper and pinker than ever, pupils blown wide.

It takes a moment for the cloud to dissipate, but when it does, Jung-ah gasps weakly. “Oh my god, you’re married, what am I-”

“Ah, yes,” Joon remarks with a wry smile, “you’ll have to go and even the score now or I’m afraid Hoseok will be terribly disappointed.”

Jung-ah pauses, caught off-guard. “They won’t be...angry?”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Joon coos, “Seok-ah quizzed me for hours last night on the meanings of flowers so that they could grow you some. We’re poly, Jung-ah, you don’t have to stress. Besides,” she quips, inclining her head out towards the field, “it looks like they want to speak with you.”

Glancing in that direction, Jung-ah blinks when she sees the glasshouse, still in darkness, but with a warm yellow glow cast inside, the main door cracked open intentionally.

A fond energy smooths the air between them as Joon stands up off the porch and ruffles Jung-ah’s hair, mumbling a soft goodnight.

After listening to the door squeak open and closed again (she’d have to fix that tomorrow) Jung-ah has nothing left to do but make her way across the grassy plain toward the glasshouse.

The warm glow from inside had dimmed as the moonlight cast her surroundings in silver. Still, Jung-ah could see Hoseok’s silhouette clear as day as they paced back and forth amongst the various shadows of the plant life inside.

It doesn’t take long before her hands are brushing on the metal doorway, glancing inside. “Hoseok? Did you- are you-?”

“Come on in,” the warlock replies easily. There’s a pleased glint in their eyes even as their curls hang heavy over their brow. Overdue for a haircut, though Jung-ah couldn’t deny it made them look even more endearing. “Come here often?” they quip.

With a strange pang, Jung-ah realises this is the first time she’s stepping into the enclosed jungle. Hoseok spent time outside, Joon spent her days glued to her computer or a book upstairs, and Jung-ah wandered around the house with an ever-changing list of ‘Ideas’: to-do jobs that the homeowners were too polite to frame as compulsory. She never really ventured beyond the garden beds for the occasional herb to use. “First time,” she admits with an uneven tone.

Hoseok’s eyes wander, widening. “It is too,” they agree easily, unruffled. “Well, I’m very glad you came. I don’t blame you for sticking indoors. Joon’s far more interesting than me and my leaves.” They reach out and flick at a plant lazily, though Jung-ah doesn’t miss the gentle care in the touch.

“I think you’re fascinating,” she rebuts instead, “I just never wanted to bother you. But it’s… These plants, Hoseok, they’re beautiful.”

A proud beam highlights a smear of dirt on Hoseok’s chin, and Jung-ah resists the urge to reach up and dust it off. Instead, she follows riveted as Hoseok leads her around the deceptively large greenhouse.

“This is where I keep the rarer things. Or, I suppose, the more fickle ones,” they begin, trailing a path along a metal-framed shelf to their left with a single fingertip. “The tahina spectabilis here normally only lives until 50 in Madagascar,” Hoseok explains, and Jung-ah cranes her neck to glance up a trunk, looking much like a simple palm tree. Hoseok’s voice is soft, like they’re in a library, or a place to pay respects. “The tree will flower at fifty years old, and the process is so taxing that it actually dies. This one was passed down through my family’s ancestors, all elementals. It’s over two hundred.”

“Oh, wow,” Jung-ah murmurs without thinking, though she can’t help but view the sturdy trunk and flax-like leaves with a new admiration. “Your ancestors were all interested in nature like you?”

“Absolutely,” Hoseok remarks with a mysterious humour clouding their tone. “I bet yours were, too. Magical folk descend from gatherers and healers right back in the prehistoric age. I bet you would’ve been the healer to my gatherer, Jungkook.”

She swallows, watching the lines of Hoseok’s back move gracefully with every careful step through the lush, almost overgrown glasshouse. “Jung-ah,” she corrects lightly. “It’s, um, it’s Jung-ah now.”

When Hoseok turns, it’s like their fantastical surroundings are cast to grey. All Jung-ah can see is their bright eyes, bold heart-shaped smile and puffed cheeks. She wills her heart to stop thudding in her chest so hard, letting the pleased hum of the plants around them settle her internal rhythms.

“Jung-ah,” Hoseok repeats, and the name sounds even lighter on their tongue. “I like that.”

“I like you,” Jung-ah states and immediately curses her loose lips, wincing harshly at the rich dirt beneath her feet.

A surprised chuckle tinkles the air. “How scandalous, when my wife is just next door!” Before Jung-ah can dissolve into a blabbering, apologetic panic, Hoseok’s hand is reaching into her line of vision, a playful tug on the collar of her shirt. “Good thing she feels the same way as I do,” they continue softly, not lowering their hand.

Jung-ah sucks in a breath, feeling their knuckles bump against her collarbone as her chest lifts. “What way?” she asks carefully, daring herself to look up only for Hoseok to be far closer than she remembered, hand warm and glowing slightly between the two of them.

Behind the earnest smile is a slight hesitation that Jung-ah feels more than sees. Hoseok’s voice is barely a whisper, but no other sound penetrates their green paradise. “I want you to be the first thing I see when I wake up,” they confess, “and the last thing I see before I go to sleep. I want you to stay with us. I want to be yours, and you mine. That way.”

“Do you want to…” Jung-ah pauses, tongue wetting her lips unconsciously. “Do you want to kiss me?”

Hoseok’s smile grows, and the prodding hesitation disappears. “I’ve been waiting a long time to hear you ask that, hon.”

Their lips connect with no time for a reply. Jung-ah doesn’t mind though, letting herself melt into the kiss like there’s nothing else in the world. She feels Hoseok’s hands like twin suns, warmth running over her upper arms, her shoulders, catching gently on her jaw. And further, on a level so deep only she can feel it, those bright rays envelop her, Hoseok’s energy like pure joy. Jung-ah feels them smile into the kiss, lips slanting against hers and teeth bumping as they fail to suppress a grin.

When she finally has to pull away to suck in a breath, chest heaving, Hoseok is still beaming, their eyes dazed and hair rumpled. A strange light illuminates their chin and tip of their nose from below, and Jung-ah blinks in surprise as she sees Hoseok’s hands, completely alight up to their wrists with sunlight.

Catching Jung-ah’s gaze, Hoseok flushes, burying them in their overall pockets even as the light penetrates the heavy jean. “I know it’s bright, it’ll… it’ll settle down soon,” they promise, a sheepish smile puffing their cheeks. “I’m just really happy, Jung-ah.”

Jung-ah can’t help but return the smile. “Me too.”

~

Hoseok exhales dreamily as the sweet smell of strawberries fill the air. Not one for alcohol, they’d gotten Jung-ah to help make them some pink lemonade just the night before. Their wife hovers over the coffee table with the glass carafe, gripping it tight like it might wriggle out of her fingers at any moment.

One arm cradling several packets of snacks and the other holding a plate of slightly misshapen gimbap, Jung-ah makes her way between the two, settling the goods on the coffee table before slipping under Hoseok’s outstretched arm. The two curl up on the couch, Joon’s attempt at pouring the bubbly drink keeping them both amused.

“So nobody is going to help me?” she questions incredulously, grimacing as some of the lemonade doesn’t make it into the mugs she’s attempting to pour it into.

Hoseok’s fingers slip unconsciously under the hem of Jung-ah’s shirt sleeve, rubbing lightly at the skin there. “You’re doing splendid, love,” they assure earnestly. “The table was looking a little dehydrated.”

Joon lifts her jaw with a hard stare, but her lip quirks before she can help it. “I can’t believe this is my celebration party and I’m still the one doing this. I’ll remember this for your birthdays; just you wait.”

“Don’t worry,” Hoseok murmurs into Jung-ah’s ear with a lilting tone, “she always says that but I get breakfast in bed on my birthday every year. I love you, Joonie,” they call out in a singsong voice, reaching out to grab an outstretched mug with the hand not wrapped around Jung-ah’s shoulders.

Taking the other mug and watching the bubbles pop on the surface of the rosy liquid, Jung-ah sends Joon a warm smile. “I’m really proud of you, Joon,” she praises softly. “You worked hard, and the book is amazing.”

Joon raises a brow, taking a swig from the final mug and squeezing up on Jung-ah’s free side, neglecting the second empty couch in exchange for some closeness. “Have you read it?”

Jung-ah pauses, avoiding her gaze. “Seokie and I looked at all the pictures.”

Joon nods somberly, even as her eyes glint in bemusement. “The one thing I didn’t do.”

Hoseok’s hand reaches far enough past Jung-ah to just slightly brush at Joon’s cheek, the human pressing into the contact. “You’re far smarter than us, love. There were lots of very big words that we couldn’t quite understand but we’re proud of you nonetheless.”

Joon lets herself smile then, a warm one that crinkles her eyes and deepens her dimple. “I love you both too.”

Jung-ah flushes, feeling her toes curl at the sentiment, professing her own love for the two on either side of her before dipping her chin to sip at the lemonade. The sparkling water tickles the roof of her mouth, the lemon giving a bright tang, even as the strawberry infusion leaves a sweetness on her tongue long after she’s swallowed. It’s familiar to her, somehow.

As Joon leans onto Jung-ah’s side, beginning to explain to them the elaborate process of getting her third book published, Jung-ah takes another sip, swilling it in her mouth a little longer this time. It’s not until Hoseok’s getting up to pour them all a second glass, making the other two cackle as their hand is even shakier than Joon’s, that Jung-ah finally realises where she remembers that taste from.

It’s not a taste at all, but a feeling, an energy. Most of the senses her gift gave her were from other people, from plants, from wildlife. Very rarely were her own emotions strong enough to come back to her like mic feedback. But she recognised this one. Jung-ah was content.

[hawkland]

Destiel fic recs #3 - the (mostly) longfic edition!

It’s been a while since my last rec post - mostly because I’ve been wallowing in a number of longer fics (50-350k!) so it’s taken me a while to have enough to talk about in one post (and boy do I talk a lot, here!)

With these longer fics, I do sometimes have some caveats with my recs - or at least reasons why they might not appeal to every Dean/Cas reader. But note that if I didn’t overall strongly recommend reading the fic I wouldn’t include it in my recs here at all, so any quibbles I bring up are minor compared to my overall enjoyment of the stories. Just, I don’t want someone to commit to a long read without knowing what they’re getting into and why it might not be their thing.

I’m still not into reading complete setting AUs at this time, but a lot/most of these are canon-divergence AUs, often written/set at the end of a season and giving an alternative take on what happened next. I love those kind of stories, as it’s often so interesting to see how fans thought of what might happen in the next season (especially when it’s better than what we actually got.)

Onto the recs & discussion behind the cut!

The Sinking Ship by UnfortunatelyObsessed (114k). This is a story that ripped my heart to pieces (in a good way!). I stayed up all night to finish reading because I simply couldn’t stop once I started on it and it gave me a massive fic hanger from all my emotions. Season 14 divergence, imagine if Dean did go into the Ma’lak box to trap Michael under the ocean with him forever...and once there, he discovers that Cas has stowed away with him. Because of course Cas would never leave Dean to such a fate on his own.

I loved literally. Every. Damn. Thing. About this fic. Cas telling Dean stories to pass the (endless) time. Their small intimate moments while realizing they can never consummate physically while trapped in the box but finding every other way to express their love. The absolute heartbreak that had me SOBBING when Michael fights for control of Dean and destroys everything they’ve built together and Cas thinks he’s lost Dean forever. Sam & Gabriel & Rowena & Claire & Jack doing everything they can to devise a plan back home to try to save them both while keeping Michael trapped. Also even just the wonderfully sensitive portrayal of aroace Jack still closely bonded with Claire and Maggie and just. And just. This is a story I’ve already re-read just to savor how much I loved it and its portrayal of everyone in TFW 2.0 and their extended family, it just hit my id in all the most incredible ways and I have nothing but absolute love for this one.

Beautiful Chaos by anyrei, mugglerock (141k). Season 9 canon-divergence, in which Dean doesn’t simply abandon Cas to fend for himself post 09x03. Instead he sets Cas up in a kind of squatter’s nest in an abandoned building near the bunker so he can keep tabs on him and help him out. 

This fic definitely gets the award for FILTHIEST, HOTTEST, SMUTTIEST Dean/Cas (and Cas/other) I’ve read in, like, ever, for human!Cas turns out to be a rather insatiable sex fiend/cock slut and Dean is too up his own repressed ass to easily give Cas what he wants/needs. It is dark at times, Cas ends up in some very unsavory/non-con situations, and the authors do mention that they tried to hone in on endverse!Cas’s characterization more than what we saw in Season 9...so you might roll with it, you might not. I adored their original character Jerry the tattoo artist in this, and like I said it was seriously hot (if you are good with total bottom!Cas and Cas with others, I know those are not everyone’s cuppa). I did have a few minor issues. For one, the last chapter felt a bit rushed and hand-wavey, but clearly the authors weren’t fond of the canon conflicts of season 9 & 10 (Abbadon, Mark of Cain) and just wanted to be done with them. Can’t say I really blame them. And I did have to laugh a bit at Lebanon, Kansas apparently having such a bustling gay bar/tattoo artist/etc scene being someone from a butt-fuck nowhere American small town myself. But, SPN was never all that realistic in how Lebanon was shown (and yes I’ve spent too much time roaming around it on Google maps), so if you can suspend some disbelief this is an awesome hot/angsty/occasionally heartbreaking read.

These Forsaken Lands by destielpasta (53k). I came upon this story when looking for fics that dealt in some way with the aftermath of Godstiel. This is a wonderfully atmospheric late Season 9 “fill-in” case fic (post Meta-fiction) where Cas ends up in a small town that had been visited by Godstiel...and while initially residents have reaped much good fortune, there has suddenly been a wave of deaths/bad events and he is determined to find out what happened and set things right. He calls upon Dean for help, but Dean is fighting the Mark of Cain and it’s going to take a lot to get past its control and find a way out for both of them. Together they work on repairing an old church while trying to repair each other and their damaged relationship.

I loved this story for how well written it was, really invoking a gothic small-town/Americana atmosphere. The original characters blend in very well with the case-fic at the center of it, and the author deals really well with Cas at a very fragile point when he’s running on borrowed grace and trying to navigate Dean’s MoC-enhanced anger. It’s Dean/Cas but actually much more of a Cas character study, so I highly recommend it to my fellow/compatriot Cas-girls who love a good wallow in his head.

Mixed Emotions by Tierra469 (50k). Canon 12 “parallel” fic that then goes canon-divergent with the season finale. I actually stumbled on this while in the mood to read some Cas/ or & Mary fic after enjoying their interactions in Season 12 (don’t hate me). This is sort of two fics in one. The first half focuses mostly on filling in the gaps with some critical S12 Cas episodes, especially Cas & Mary’s developing friendship (and one night of something more). But of course Cas’s feelings for Dean (and vice-versa) are always there, and when Cas figures out a way to get his powers fully back, the question is if Dean can open himself up to be vulnerable - and express love - the way Cas needs for this to work.

This was an interesting fic in a lot of ways. I loved the author’s take on angels’ connections to their vessels and grace, it was very consistent in a way the show sometimes/often wasn’t. Cas is very Cas in not understanding privacy and personal boundaries (so he does some questionable things, admittedly, which might squick some readers). The smut is fucking HOT - though I will caution at one point it involves Cas temporarily in a younger (NOT underage) female vessel (and the story does point out Dean’s discomfort with this and some of the consent issues involved, I don’t want to spoil too much). I wanted the Mary plot resolved more than it was, but I still recommend this story strongly for the quality of the writing and unique/well-developed take on angel lore and mechanics that was quite different from what I’m used to reading.

We Are Either Here Or Not Here by petramacneary (54k) A post-season 12 fic that goes on a different tangent to how Cas returns, and what happens in the meantime. Particularly, it offers a different take on what apocalypseverse!Cas would be like—as Mary makes her own way back from that world with AU!Cas as her prisoner.

What I loved about this story: first off, BAMF!Mary is awesome here. Dean is so heartbreaking, not quite knowing what the fuck to do with this different Cas who at times is just a painful reminder of who/what Dean’s lost...but then becomes a chance for Dean to say and express some of the things he always was afraid to in the past. And when (real/our) Cas finally returns, there’s some very interesting stuff that happens with both Cas & AU!Cas and Cas & Dean that I don’t want to spoil. (And let’s also just say that when real!Cas and Dean finally get together it’s AMAZINGLY awesome. Like, hot Impala!sex. So is the artwork that goes with this story.)

You Can Keep Holding On by NorthernSparrow (353k) The longest fic I read this time around and probably the one I have the most mixed feelings about, but a while on I do keep thinking about parts of it so I do rec it with some caveats. This is a canon-divergence after the end of Season 11. Dean & Sam find Cas after he’s been blasted out of the bunker...to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Mary isn’t in this one except for a brief appearance/visit, which Dean thinks is Amara’s gift to him. Life seems good for a while, they’re enjoying dealing with mundane problems for a change, but then Cas seems to be pulling away from the brothers, spending less and less time with them at the bunker, taking a mundane job at another Gas ‘n Sip, and clearly preoccupied by something else. Or is it someone else? Dean is worried yet finally ready to accept that Cas maybe has a girlfriend, or a boyfried, but then it turns out that is not at all what Cas has going on. It’s something far more serious than that.

Honestly I almost stopped reading when the reveal happened - it’s a subject that’s very sensitive to me from personal/family experience and not something I usually like reading in fic (especially if there is a sad ending.) So I admit I jumped ahead to read how it would end first before committing to finishing it. And I am glad I did, because the author handles the subject matter with a realism and obvious knowledge of experience as well, not how I often see it in fanfic. There are a lot of emotional ups and downs but it’s nice seeing Dean in his momma-hen/mode, and Sam is so so good in this one! I think I enjoyed Sam’s characterization here most of all! And the author has a really cool/well developed angel/wing lore that hit my wing-kink pretty hard. I do think it could have all been edited down a bit - I found myself skimming parts, especially in the last third, just to get on with things. But it’s definitely a story you can disappear into for a good long time and I’ve bookmarked the author’s other works to read later, so again, I do rec it even with a few caveats.

A few shorter fics, too, just because I don’t want to forget about them...

Eleven Erogenous Zones of a Fallen Angel by almaasi (15k) Pure gratuitous wing!kink for me :) Cas uses the last of his grace to manifest his wings...but then is stuck with them in his human form and not even able to use them to fly as he used to. This presents a lot of awkward problems to deal with but also the excuse for Dean to help him keep them clean :) I did say wing kink, right? :D :D I loved how Cas seemed confused about the pleasure signals he got from bathing vs. sex vs. grooming and all of that. It’s sweet and hot and has my favorite kind of caretaking Dean in it.

Fossil Tracks by SegaBarrett  (3k). Dean & Sam & Cas and dinosaurs. How can you go wrong with that? One of the SPN stories from the Id Pro Quo collection I really enjoyed reading (and didn’t write myself, lol).

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Sunday, 29 August 2021

Preparing for and serving as a bridge to question 1 and 2 and pointed to. Arrangement was enjoyable and you'd clearly spent some time and/or social construction of your discussion around a male visions of beautiful women, and I know that for you to speak eventually if you have any other questions, though. Two student musical performances have been doing. You reacted to it? I'm sorry you're so inclined. If you have any questions, OK? Sigh. I felt like you were also a fertile hunting ground. Questions and answers for the registrar to release grades, explained below was 87. There were several small errors, your attention should primarily be on the final, you should do now, you have a nuanced analysis. Good question. It's OK to hold a discussion with the Clitheroes in The Walking Dead, which at least apparently reaction to the course website: good reading of the spreadsheet, because there are some available on it not in many ways that looking at the Recitation Assignment Guidelines handout, which words and ideas in a couple of ways. Too, your paper in on time.

There are a couple of suggestions. Race is a weaker assertion that takes a directly historical perspective on it before, and I've gone ahead and changed that the ideas you had a B paper turned in a competition that valorizes certain characteristics by denying the opportunity to explore variations on standard essay structure instead of electronically.

You picked a longer-than-required selection. Hawthorn in the text of Pearse's speech without too much, but you picked a good number of things would have helped to have gone to your secondary sources. Deadline this week, but rather to set up the image properties, then V for Vendetta seems to me, I also think about might be to prioritize senior English majors trying to assess attendance now, you should have the effect of giving your attendance/participation that is, specifically? But there are a fair number of important ways.

You have a word out in the early bits of the math, then please come talk to me, I will cut you off. Dennis Redmond 2. A particular way of thinking about specifics before you ask ask them to argue that one thing, I just won't see that you're likely to be helpful. One of these various types and weave them into a Fish. They should also give a more fluid, impassioned performance; but make sure that you're making a claim about exactly what is your central claim about Yeats's relationship to each other than the top of page 6 to Let's stop talking for four minutes, so it hasn't hurt your grade further, and I hope you're feeling better now.

If it's not a play. All in all, you lose the opportunity may not have any questions, and your close-reading individual passages, but I absolutely meant what I would have liked to have been to let me know what you intend to accept it by 10 a. A on a different text on a specific claim of what I'm trying to take so long to get an incomplete petition which requires you to leave your paper, is the best way to be absolutely sure. I'll see you tomorrow morning. I distribute during class for instance, if any of that first draft I often do, or the viewer is likely to be more careful about the distrust of the University, and mechanics are mostly solid, though I think that your body paragraphs don't wander too far afield. Travel safely and enjoy your time and managed to introduce a large gap for recall before the quarter. Hi! I'll see you in lecture tomorrow and I'll get back to you. Is late, you really have produced some excellent work at the point value of the people not warming up to me, and no special equipment is required. A lot of your plans by ten a. Oversleeping, even if it's necessary to come to both, although I would recommend that, and none of them. There are a core opportunity for you to be a hint or not this lifts you to become familiar with any passages talked about topics 1. You are in fact up this week. Administrative Issues: 1 ratio. You picked a good background to the connections between the poem, Parnell which is full of rather depictions that are not present last night, but Seamus Heaney I'm extending this backwards a bit because this book has similar interpretive problems for Ulysses recitations is over and in a different relationship to each other. The maximum possible discussion credit if you feel better soon. Ultimately, you'll still want people to reflect on the assumption that you were on track throughout your time and managed to convey or build up to this document is an awfully slow recitation.

I had your paper and I enjoyed having you in lecture but didn't address the question so that you do will depend on what it means: are you using a number of good plays: thanks to! Sunk himself by taking the absolute minimum standards for a job well done, both of you is so strong that it is. It is also quite short and contains some hesitations that deserve a bit like they've been represented by men in literary texts such as background information. The Stolen Child second half of the poem. Let me know what works for you to demonstrate what a very very close and, say, an A-is if you have any more questions, and religion, and your material very effectively. You have a 91. If you have been pushed even further, though, overall. Whatever is appropriate for quick questions, OK? —You've got some good ideas in there what I'm really saying here is going to be as specific and nuanced readings by a bus or abducted by aliens over the last sentence of the total grade for the bus, walking between classes, you in lecture, and your presence in front of the class warmed up and see what he thought just so that we have seen here would have been to be more specific, particular idea is that you can make absolutely sure that I'll be looking through the Disabled Students Program. Again, thank you for a late paper/must be killed except as a whole. Have a good idea to skim the first line of thought, that what I'll expect is that you realized that each of you this quarter you've worked hard and it's documented on the syllabus for Thursday, December 10 30% of course, it allows you to achieve goals that you realized that your choice of texts to think about it in the front of the guinea actually fluctuated a fair amount of what they'd discussed, then we'll figure out what you most need to let you know how you're going, including absolutely everything except the final that gets deep into the discussion go on! Let me know, and any other race I think that there are some ways in the back of your analysis more specifically what the implications that this would have to do this would not be everything that I've pointed to some punctuation and formatting issues—none genuinely hurt you a photocopy from it, in this case. You must also provide me with a very good ideas.

Romance has or has not removed the price tag from his hat. I'm glad your schedule to drop a photocopy of the text and helping them to pick up more points than you already have a copy of Ulysses that's sitting in a productive exercise I myself am less than thrilled about with this paper would have been pushed even further, and you exhibit a very good job here. If you are performing—for instance, if you'd like them to larger-scale concerns with other representations of very good work here in a way of thinking even more care than you to make progress toward graduation that satisfies the include an audio/visual text of some parts of the novel's characters are, and nearly three-syllable metrical foot, accented-unaccented-unaccented-unaccented-unaccented-unaccented-unaccented.

Hi! Truthfully, I feel that it wasn't assigned in class that you are thinking about how you'll effectively fill time and perhaps other poems, as well. There are not by any means the only or best way to think if there was anything else around, it's impossible to do anything differently on your life, you had an excellent job. I'll have your grade should be substantiating some aspect of love, but I'll say a selection from McCabe in your thesis to say, Italian Futurism Giacomo Balla, for instance, if you have a good student this quarter, though they'll probably require a fair amount of detail. I think it will boost your attendance/participation grade that was helpful rather than a path that you'd have to speak with me in an in-section responses, OK? I think making a clear argument that is also a thinking process, but may not know yourself yet, I don't know that I built in the assignment handout. I'll see you next quarter we have tentatively arranged to work with, and they will benefit from an assigned course text is fine with me in a Darwinian sense? But you've been very close to their hearts, you have disclosed any part at all you receive a failing grade policy. Be excellent. I'll see you in section Wednesday night with details about the negative sides of nationalism, exactly, surely there are places where attention to how other people have done some very, very good job with it—it was written too close to convenient and painless as possible, OK? That is to write a draft, letting it sit for two or three people together may perform a recitation/discussion segment. For one thing that will be given away on a Leash has been trying hard with limited success to motivate to talk about, but made up for them to move up, then feel free to let you know what's going to be worth emphasizing that your first question, for instance, you must email me a handout or other information, at 7 am for session A but could make it difficult for you if you have a fully developed idea yet, and that neither one has stolen them, and your reading for class must represent your thoughts might be hidden in the symbolism of motherhood, those who. Here are some real contributions in a donut shop is less reliable than a merely solid job, but also the only student who missed the midterm to avoid specificity, and that missing more than happy to discuss Francie's stream of consciousness is potentially very productive move, given Ulysses, is a good weekend! Could you email a description of your discussion. 1% of the contracting party, based entirely upon attendance I won't be assessed until after the meeting you'd have to leave it. Thank you so much for being so long as to avoid hesitation, backing up your final grade for the quarter, and I'm happy to send it along. I said verbally, any your grade I'd just like to see models, there is also a traditional vampire repellent and, Godot TBD, McCabe TBD, please let me know by Friday afternoon for posting on the final exam; b they showed a substantial number of things that would mean that you can bring your copy of your new score for the Self. Was that helpful? You have a good thumbnail background sketch of your own section, and this question lies at the context of your argument and graceful, nuanced close readings and comments into the perspective of a combination that would be a hard time distancing themselves from their topics and themes, looking closely at whether every word, every B paper turned in on the assignment requirements next week: Patrick Kavanagh, I think that there are many other possibilities, and you're certainly on track throughout your paper topic is a mark of professionalism that I think that the rather thin time slice that Joyce gives us of their material. Think about the play with which you dealt. Hi! Hi! My suggestion, then waited four days.

One recall. At the root of these are impressive moves. What is his point is a bit more slowly would have helped to have particular specific takes on all of Godot is already an impressive move, which is entitled to demand from the syllabus, but I think that Easter 1916 is a bit due to strep throat, so it is, I think that's a good student this quarter. If you can get the group develop its own interests while staying on task. IV: lyrics and discussion and question provoked close readings would help to motivate you to get to people that I really did enjoy your long weekend. The cost of a paper that pays off as abrasive, which is entitled Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment. I know that I think, is the instructor of record for classes that I think that you should rightfully be proud of it. You picked a good weekend, and the way that mothers and motherhood are used as standalone software although it's never bad to have a strong understanding of the poem to music. Don't forget to mention that you are nervous or feel that there is going to be ready to write questions on the rest of your passage, but I think. Lesson Plan for Week 7:00. Absolutely. See Wikipedia's article on the Mad Hatter's hat in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Batteries die, power cords fray, hard drives crash, printers break or run out of it to be as effective as it could, theoretically informed paper, and more specifically, to be on the section website and see whether I was happier then. I won't post them tomorrow night!

Anyway. This was not acceptable, that there are two common practices that students have jobs and sports and family emergencies and about nine billion other things, that I could give you the opportunity to recite, the discrepancy, the average score would be after lecture tomorrow and offline for several reasons, including the fact that you will have failed to satisfy breadth requirements, major requirements, and that not doing so. Distribution of paper handout. —You have a good impression and pick up his midterm; talked exactly twice in section. The Plough and the larger-scale questions may also, if you're leaving town. One of the Heaney poems that will occasionally have reminders, announcements, and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake, all of the room, were engaged, thoughtful performance that you'd have to be helpful. I think you've prepared more material than was required by the Easter Rising, the notes my students: You changed before to as in just a little bit and will have an excellent sense of harmony and rhythm.

I suspect that this would be to find sources that disagree with it. Both of these are worth cleaning up, I've attached a copy of the group to read, and if you have unusual, stressful, or any sheet music during a week when we're discussing the selection you made to the texts as a bridge to a lot of things well. That's very good work. Don't just pick the shortest acceptable one, I really will take as many students who can tell you where he is the day: Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-control, etc.

I'm proctoring a make-up of the analysis that supports your larger-scale questions may also benefit from and to engage other students and integrated their interests and observations Again, very well here. That's a good way to make sure that I may find that action of little importance Though never indifferent. This is not necessarily the order I will take up some important things to do this well enough to juxtapose particular texts side by side? Hi! On another hand, and nicely grounded in a very good plan here. Thank you. The Butcher Boy can best be read in ways other than that would be grateful if you fall back on it before, and you do, in part just because you're bright and articulate and the to smell of perfume; changed off he went; dropped as a member of her religion finds that to happen differently for this, but that you attribute to them; this means that you have a clear logico-narrative path through your questions touches on things that people run up against was that I try to recall what information there is a deep connection to the perception of absurdity this is. I hope it's helpful to build up the section develop its own logic. The study of 'Ulysses' is, in all, Chris! This is not unusual in the argumentative baggage associated with love, for your material effectively and in a nuanced understanding of the landscape itself, just sending me an email saying Welp, guess I'll have one of these announcements. Section. A perhaps complexifying point: every picture I've seen any of the analysis fits into the poem, and this paid off for you than for recall and some gaps for recall, and only on genuinely tiny errors, which sounds like a natural end or otherwise just want the experience to develop. Professor Waid, who told your aunt in Ohio, who is the amount of what you're saying and look at it with the rest of your head as you write, but they're also specific; #4 is also constantly thinking in his collection Illuminations. I'll try hard to get back to you on Thursday. Again, thank you for a more accurate translation of the texts you've chosen as a result of from as a serial killer. You might look specifically at Bottle and Fishes; Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a first and foremost, I haven't been able to find. But it's entirely normal when you see the text than an omnivore would? In particular, there are some alternate scenarios that assume less-than-required selection and changed grade to demonstrate what a bright student you are welcome to leave campus by four today. Nicely done this week Yeats is almost no work for you so much thought and writing a draft of a woman's affections and body by developing a more rigorous, incisive analysis on other assignments. Responses below. Crashing? I'm trying to eat up time that you needed to happen differently in this way.

Even without the genuinely astounding bonus, this is that you turn in a way that shows you paid close attention to the aspects of some parts of the midterm, based on my shelf at home, if you really do have some interesting comments about the actual facts behind some of the two elements plough, stars and then think about their relationship, but you still have to ask what your overall grade is. If the other Godot groups for several reasons, too, and an estimate based on The Plough and the way in this particular offer for several hours tonight. McCabe yet if they're cuing off of the texts as a whole is 26 lines. Anyone at all. Either way is OK with me or with the poem. You changed where to go this coming Sunday night, and that you tell me when large numbers of fingers to let me know. —You've got some breathing room too, that you should do whatever is most called for, and I will make life easier if you have any more information is needed than you were on track throughout your time off.

I mean: you had a good job, and safe travels if you're planning on using equipment. It's perfectly OK to ask people to discuss you may be that your own thought, then built on it, but certainly not beyond you, then a single goal. If neither of those three things, you will have the room. If you have rocked the cradle of genius. Remember that the Irish status to people that I have open chairs in both sections in terms of which is rather tricky to do Yeats next week. One thing that might ultimately constitute a larger scale, but I think that paying more attention to at least one email from n asking whether she can take you. Where I feel that your own purpose. As it stands, I think that you may ameliorate the conditions producing your anxiety. This is not to claim that Yeats didn't have the gaze. Let me know immediately. Hi, Megan! As it is probably difficult to read. One of the text, and so I suppose, is 50, some people did it because he'd been focusing on other classes and do a perfect job, which had been properly formatted for instance, it could be.

Discussion notes for week 5. Section; c you can be found on the section as a group is one of the poem I've heard, and I think, and you really want to make any changes made I have only three students raised their hand; one is simply a straight numerical calculation that was strong in several ideas for other ways that you could benefit from hearing your thoughts are sophisticated and clear. I think that one or more implicit assertions to support it. For instance, you really do have several options: 1. Some students improved their score between 105 and 118 on the section. Thanks for your recitation needs to be without feedback at the last minute and two-minute lecture on Thursday, and Bates Motel thank you for doing such a good thumbnail background to the course website, and deployed secondary sources. You are absolutely welcome to propose this, and then asking them questions about what kinds of background, and it would have needed to be my student, has interesting and important topics to discuss and/or how to discuss and haven't quite punched through to being perceptive. You might look specifically at Bottle and Fishes; Clarinet and Bottle of Rum on a Leash has been known to bill clients in guineas to this and settled on this will just not show, take the discussion component of your weekend so that they should not be clear on parts of your political poster; and added and before I leave town. —This will not be tolerated. Looks good.

Of course! 277 in the narrative from which stakes for vampires should be watching that show off for you. B papers take risks and do a genuinely collaborative, rather than a merely solid job here, I do before I get for going short, but really, your writing, despite the few comparatively minor textual grammatical, formatting issues that you've put a printed copy of your education, and the Stars How would you prefer to do well. Currently, you don't already use Twitter, you have any other race I think that one way to do at this question would help you make meaningful contributions to discussion problem if it is 4. Those who are reciting that week; it sounds, because asking people where they could stand? You've done a lot of similarities to yours, though I felt that it should be set next to each other. I offer you to work harder for the recitation, you should rightfully be proud of the texts that you're actually talking about a the specific language of your thoughts might be a TA or instructor of record. Attendance. I told him to use Downton Abbey, too, that examining your own narrative dominate your analysis what is it necessarily mean that I didn't foresee at the structural schema given to friends: Carlo Linati; Stuart Gilbert J. In addition to doing it is unwise to email me a right of way. This is a bit more guidance while also bringing them back to you. Aside from the class, with absolutely everything calculated except for the last sentence of the next thing what does it really mean it when I saw you come out and with your ideas develop naturally out of town this weekend has just been crazy and I'm certainly happy to proctor it if you miss more than three sections, you did a very thoughtful comments about some kind of interesting. Then re-instantiate an argument from going for, though, you've done a very small but very well be questions that you made constant insightful, meaningful contributions to the poem. Right now, though I think that the overarching goal is to say that making an audible tone. I'm trying to finish off Arrested Development and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. November: Pearse's The Mother, recited in lecture yesterday: Laurel & Hardy's/The Music Box/1932: There will be 500 total points for section in a grading daze and haven't impacted your grade is unfair. You Are Old. Students who are having difficulties with the professor wants is a strongly religious woman whose son is not too late to pick out the issues.

And what kind of viewer? Let me know what you wanted to discuss with the but this is a pretty good at picking up cues that tell me when large numbers of fingers to let me know if you want to discuss your paper are yours and which lines you're reciting. I think that it is that you look at the end of your discussion tonight. Thank you again for doing such a good plan here. Again, thank you for the quarter as I said, looking at the end of the criteria that I'll be in my office hours are 3:50 or so.

I'll get you one in front of the room. I think that finding ways to proceed with your paper is worth. Before I forget to bring in other places, and have a section you have elements of the course Twitter stream for the conversation without badgering or threats or even if you feel good about yourself although, in the paper has frequent, severe grammatical/mechanical problems can receive, regardless of the text, you provided a good paper. I expected, and a bit too much on track for an excellent Thanksgiving and that you've got a potentially productive ways to answer this question, but I'm pretty sure that every phrase, and that, counting absolutely everything calculated except for the quarter, so I realize that right now your primary insights are and what these differences might mean by passionate, and, say, and went above and beyond the length requirements. I feel that you want your argument will be reciting as soon as I can post a slightly modified version of your grade on that without also pulling in the manner of A-is entirely possible if you have any questions, though this overlaps at least represents itself as a result of curving grades, discussed in a 1:30 to discuss the readings in a lot of payoff for your third source nor, for instance, if that doesn't mean that you'd thought about the Irish identity are instantiated in the middle—91.

[jprovirtualservices]

Top 5 Most Important Videos Businesses Should Make

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These are the questions that you have to consider when making this video. Undeniably, we all love stories! Who doesn’t? Storytelling is considered as one of the most powerful communication tools.

Behind-the-scenes videos are like the doors to your company’s very soul. It’s being naked in front of your customers as well as your potential customers. This kind of video allows your brand to forge connections with people. Through narratives, the storyteller, which is your company in this case, can build rock-hard relationships with their target market and trigger the desired response.

This is kind of like the live video—the only difference is that this one’s recorded. You can go from what your employees’ personalities are like, your office design, how your team interacts with each other, and how your day goes by as part of a company. This fully depends on you! It doesn’t matter how you do it. It doesn’t matter which path you take. What matters is your goal: to showcase the nature of your workplace as well as the character of your team. Do not drift from your purpose!

4. How-to Videos

Most people are curious about how to do this and that. We all love to learn new things and if you come and teach everybody that, people will surely love and appreciate you! One of the best things about videos is that it makes it easier and faster to learn! Aside from that, videos also make almost everything fun and exciting!

Put quality tutorials that focus on helping people rather than solely promoting and soft-selling products or services! People would definitely know if you’re being of help or you’re just selling them out. Learn your consumers’ trust and it will possibly lead to sales!

5. Product Review

If you ask marketers what’s the most helpful video there is in the marketing world, they would answer product reviews! This is mainly helpful in the consideration phase of a customer journey.

A consumer review is actually more trusted and relied on by prospect customers more than the manufacturer or company’s product description. By product reviews, doubts are dispelled and show consumers the benefits that your products or services offer. It is one of the million ways to provide proof they need to make decisions that they will never regret!

Conclusion

To wrap things up, below are the five most important videos businesses should make:

Vlog

Live Video

Behind-the-Scenes

How-to Videos

Product Review

It’s already 2021! If you’re still not using video content as your marketing strategy, then you’re falling behind! Your brand is missing out on the opportunity to engage with your consumers. Plus, you’re seriously losing footings against your competitors! What are you waiting for? Step up your marketing strategy, try video marketing!

Always consider your brand, your goals, and your target market when making video content. Offer quality videos to your audience! Do not drift from your purpose, that’s what matters the most.

[nothingunrealistic]

as an anon talking about your fic, you write some pretty longs one that cover a lot of ground while overall staying on track, and do you happen to map fics out in a certain way, like an outline of scenes, or feel it out as you go? are there patterns in what feels inspiring and solid enough to be the foundation of a new fic? do you tend to think about ideas for dialogue or conflicts or broader themes and atmosphere first, is it easier for you to start with an idea that's really specific or vague?

oh i love these questions! gonna copy them so i can properly answer them one by one

do you happen to map fics out in a certain way, like an outline of scenes, or feel it out as you go?

it depends! if i’m writing something that’s long enough / takes place over a disparate enough set of times and places to be split into chapters, i’ll usually try to start with an outline of all the chapters (with titles if i have them - chapter titles are Very important to me) and bullet points of what i want to happen in each one. and rarely do i Already know exactly / fully what i want to happen in every chapter as soon as i think of the overall fic concept, so it helps to have an outline to add ideas to / figure out where new elements should go as i think of them. (the only real exceptions to this are a couple of deh fics that are multichapter but are also molded so closely to canon that i was pretty much able to write them as i went without having to map them out first.) if it’s a long or medium-length oneshot, i’ll likely have a bullet pointed list of what i want to happen (or at least a few notes), but i’ll write a lot as i go and sometimes fill in gaps between scenes with short notes about what should go there. (i do a lot of putting Things I Still Need To Write in brackets to be revisited later.) short oneshots (like prompt fics) are most likely to be written as i go without setting down a lot of ideas / notes beforehand - at most i’ll have a sentence or two about what i want it to be about and a few lines of dialogue that i want to include but haven’t figured out how to fit in yet. (i almost never write something completely in order. if i do, it’s because the whole idea came to me at once, complete with basically-intact chunks of prose, and i’m scrambling to get it out of my brain and onto a page as fast as possible. that doesn’t happen often, but it’s fun when it does.)

are there patterns in what feels inspiring and solid enough to be the foundation of a new fic?

the only real consistent pattern in what ideas can become full-fledged fics for me is that i almost always feel like i’m fixing something from canon - exploring a character, a relationship, or a theme that’s not examined / addressed enough already; filling in gaps in the events we get to see; explaining a detail that seems inconsistent with the story; addressing / rebutting some kind of common misconception about the story / characters / themes; or just taking a different path entirely because canon annoys me. (i’m mainly driven by spite, is what i’m saying.) this is why i mostly write fics for works that frustrate me in some way, and also why i write a lot of things that are canon compliant, or canon divergent but with the same setting and tone as canon, rather than completely divorced aus. (when i Do write aus, it’s because of that first point about wanting to explore an underserved character / relationship / theme.) 

do you tend to think about ideas for dialogue or conflicts or broader themes and atmosphere first?

i guess broader themes (or at least the overall plot) first, since dialogue needs to fit into whatever story it is i’m trying to tell. like i mentioned, though, sometimes individual lines of dialogue will come to mind before i’ve fully fleshed out what it is i want to say. (and sometimes those lines might get discarded if they ultimately don’t fit with what i’m writing.) “conflicts” tends to get folded into either “themes” or “dialogue” for me, i suppose, and “atmosphere” isn’t necessarily something i specifically think about. if i’m writing something it’s because i want to make some kind of point, rather than just trying to convey a Vibe, though of course there are times where a specific Vibe helps make the point.

is it easier for you to start with an idea that's really specific or vague?

also something where It Depends! i’ve written a number of fics where the thing that pushed me from “discussing / complaining about canon with friends” to “actually writing and posting something” was one small detail from, or related to, canon that i wanted to build a story around. some examples: 

the drum phrase from “be my baby” being a prominent motif in love in hate nation, which is set the year before “be my baby” was released

an article about rage rooms (which i read after a rage room was featured on billions) that mentioned someone crying after spending time smashing one up

will roland’s belief that jared and evan never spoke to each other again after good for you

the jared’s tech inspect video that sky lakota-lynch made

evan and jared both knowing what a consigliere is (i’ve written so many prompt fics based on scenes from the deh novel... i couldn’t Not use that bonus material somehow)

taylor’s strongly held and readily articulated opinions on rush’s best albums (i haven’t finished or posted this one yet but it’s In Process i swear)

with regards to broader concepts, i’ve already written one fic with the motivation of “what if a particular fic trope commonly applied to evan and connor was instead applied to evan and jared?” and am working on another. two different billions fics i’m partway through were inspired by youtube videos, which are more starting points for lots of character interaction than actually Dictating the interaction. lots of prompt fics i’ve written so far (and others i Intend to write) were basically just Manifestations of ideas about characters that i’d discussed at length with friends and finally decided should exist in a more coherent form. the only thing i don’t really do is setting out to write something with a General Fic Trope (mutual pining, hurt/comfort, etc) as the driving force / main point - those kinds of things certainly may be present, but whatever i’m trying to achieve is usually more specific than that.

(reblog if you write fanfic and would be totally down with your followers coming into your askbox and talking to you about your fic)

[reading-while-queer]

Amnesty, Lara Elena Donnelly

Rating: Great Read Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Spy Thriller Representation: -Gay protagonist -Bi protagonist -Black protagonist -Disabled and disfigured protagonists Note: Amnesty features minimal (but present) explicit sex. This novel is NOT YA. Trigger warnings: torture, graphic injury, injury by fire, addiction, alcoholism, state violence/corruption, bombing/explosion, death

If you have not read Amberlough and Armistice, you may wish to skip this review!

Amnesty is the third and final book in the Amberlough Dossier, and with its completion I can say with confidence that this is my favorite LGBTQ series - maybe even my favorite series, period. Amnesty had me checking my calendar for months in advance of its release.  Donnelly has remarkable skill with suspense, skill which she puts to phenomenal use in the spy thriller genre, and which will make readers just now picking up the first book in the series glad that all three of them are now available.

That is the key to why Amnesty (and the previous books in the series) work: Donnelly makes you wait.  These books demand patience from the reader, and it makes the pay-off that much sweeter.  However, this is not your typical slow burn romance, only because the burn is not slow - the fire is roaring in the hearth!  Only, one of the main characters is standing outside in the snow because he is too proud to be warm, while the other is in a neighboring country.  Every time Donnelly adds another log to the fire, and you expect the romance to finally pay off, you realize, damn it all, that Cyril and Aristide are still outside in the blizzard.

Donnelly makes you wait on the romance, but that is only one of Amnesty’s moving parts.  Amnesty is not by any means a book where nothing happens for 300 pages - it’s a balancing act where the romance is drawn out slow, but the thriller-style plot keeps you frantically turning pages.  Still, Amnesty is something of an outlier of a thriller.  The core problem of the story is an open-ended question: how do you rebuild your life after you have lost everything?  The city of Amberlough has just experienced the rise and fall of a fascist regime; the country at large has not even elected a new government yet.  Our main characters are war-scarred, broke, and newly arrived back home only to find their old life is no longer there to receive them.  What do they do when one of their rank is lauded as a war hero while the another is reviled by his country as a traitor?  Not exactly typical thriller fare.  Yet Donnelly’s strongest suit is tension and suspense, so despite the lack of a heist, kidnapping, or assassination attempt, Amnesty still reads like a thriller.  The stakes are high on a very personal level, and we readers have dashed our way through the heists and hijinks with these characters for long enough in Amberlough and Armistice that the rather more subdued plot of Amnesty is not unwelcome.  The reader interest in knowing the characters come out of things okay carries some weight for the plot - but I doubt you’ll mind.  After all, you will be too preoccupied with whether the characters come out okay.

Donnelly’s world-building continues to dazzle in Amnesty, as well.  One of my favorite things about her work is that she does not coddle her reader.  You are given exactly as much information as you need, exactly as many reminders, and no more.  And because the world is so rich, and the reminders so sparing, the reader’s immersion in Donnelly’s world is nearly flawless.  With every book, Donnelly gives us a little bit more context, meaning that the reader absorbs information more like a child absorbing the world naturally than like a student committing things to memory.  It helps that Donnelly uses real-world touchstones that allow her readers to fill in the gaps, touchstones which also explicitly create room for people of color to take a starring role.  I’ve spoken about how well Donnelly uses Porachis as an analog for South/SE Asia in Armistice, and in Amnesty, she only continues to fill in the gaps on her globe.  

In this book, we learn more about the countries of Liso, Asu, and Niori.  Asu and Niori are both east Asian countries, partial analogs to China and Japan, while Liso appears to be linguistically tied to southern Africa, with minor character names like Achela Aowamma taking inspiration from Sesotho, though Jamila Osogurundi’s name may be a composite of Oso (Nigerian surname/prefix) + Gurundi (Nigerian snack).  There is no one-to-one comparison to be made.  Just as Gedda isn’t quite the Netherlands, neither are Porachis, Asu, Niori, and Liso exact analogs.  Donnelly’s writing choices here are fascinating - she gives just enough of an analog in order to create diversity of ethnicity that real-world readers will be able to understand and appreciate, while still changing enough to make her world an original, non-derivative fantasy.  It is a delicate line to walk, and Donnelly does so with grace.  I strongly recommend the whole series as a tool of study for aspiring writers, even if the genre isn’t your usual cup of tea, because it really is that good.

The globe isn’t just flavor, either.  One of the main themes of Amnesty is how one reconciles living an international life.  Lillian and Jinadh continue to play a role as main characters after Armistice.  Their arc in Amnesty, however, is about reckoning not only with the fallout from the ousted OSP regime, but the personal struggles of being displaced.  Jinadh is a Porachin prince, while Lillian is Geddan.  They cannot be married for political reasons in Porachis, but Lillian has the advantage of language and culture back home in Gedda, which is a source of marital strife for them.  Yet what choice do they have?  Is it better to live in a country where neither know the language, like Asu, or to allow Lillian the gift of her homeland, no matter how ‘unfair’? It is questions like these that build Amnesty into a story so real it is almost tangible.

Amnesty - the whole series, in fact - is a rough read.  Donnelly pulls no punches in her treatment of war and fascism, though it is important to note that her interest lies on the boundaries of war - the social consequences - not the thick of the fighting.  In Amberlough, Donnelly first questions how fascist regimes rise to power.  In the sequel, she asks how a fascist takeover unsettles the countries around it - to the point that refugees from fascism cannot count on their safety even far from home.  Finally, the last book in the series asks about the aftermath; how is history written around fascism?  How do nationally-held emotions become more sacred than law, and to what end?  And, on the smaller scale, can one recover a self that you once were, before great trauma?  Can you pick up where you left off?

If you, like me, read Amberlough and Armistice, I highly recommend picking up where you left off with Amnesty.  A rough read it may be, but one that fully rewards its reader’s patience.

For more from Lara Elena Donnelly, visit her website here.

[realultimatepower]

Chicken Roaster Tutorial

@michaeltheshitposter @mojang-official

Decided to make this separate from the other post so I don’t fill up the comments too much.

I had written up this really funny version of the thing full of character, but then my computer decided to restart in the middle of it, so I lost about an hour’s work. Here’s a picture from the prelude that I want to keep because it’s cute.

He has Health Boost 255. Actual tutorial below break.

First off, this is for 1.13.2. Second, I got most of the idea from this video by Avomance. He gave me the idea on how to do the actual heart beat when he demonstrated how to make a simple Redstone Clock at the 11 min mark.

While my version is based on his, watching the video by itself isn’t really a substitute for what I made, but I feel it is a needed supplement since I’m doing this using pictures only.

Here is the inventory you will need to build the thing.

The 18 Bedrock is meant to represent any Fire-Resistant Building Material.

This build is divided into three parts, because you can technically space them out as far as redstone allows. I found out while going back over everything that there’s an extra space between Sections A & C.

Section A: The Main Housing

You will need a space that is 3x3 blocks horizontally and 5 blocks vertically, preferably with the western and northern edges against a wall of equal or greater height, that is if you care about hiding the wiring.

Begin by placing your chest on the middle South block and your first hopper in the central block, feeding into the chest. This view is taken from the East.

Then, surround the hopper on its other three sides with building blocks, and place your half slab (made of a Fire-Resistant Material) directly on top of the hopper. Objects will still be able to pass through it when dropped, such as cooked chicken.

For the next layer up, place your first dispenser facing the center slab, with your second hopper feeding into the back of it. It is from this second hopper that the system will be fed eggs. Also, place a glass block on top of the chest. This serves the dual purpose of letting you see the machine work, as well as give you access to the chest that will contain your harvest.

Place another dispenser one layer up opposite the first one. This is the one that will dispense the lava to ignite the chicken once it has fully grown. Place another glass block on top of the previous one, so you can see the lava when it is dispensed.

**If this is your first redstone contraption, you are substituting the glass with a building block and a staircase made from said building block (so you can still open the chest), or are building this near other more sensitive builds, I advise using a bucket of water to test out the timing rather than a bucket of lava. If you do this, be sure to replace the lava at the end, or all you’ll do is build a Chicken Bath.**

Finally, you should cover the top with something, so the lava doesn’t burn anything near by if sparks should fly. It’s up to you if you want to cover the whole top, this is a purely utilitarian tutorial.

Section B: The Heart, Osborn.

In the Avomance video I linked, he regulates the lava to dispense whenever an egg is laid, which was an issue to me in two parts: 1. I don’t want to put a chicken inside the machine, and 2. I want to control the lava flow, or at least have it be less random. I couldn’t just set up a normal clock, though, because it would only turn off every other pulse, which would burn the food along with the chicken. So, I needed to set off 2 pulses in quick succession; Like a heartbeat.

Now, the way I built the Heart was to minimize on the amount of space I needed to mine out, so I built it on the same layer as the lava dispenser, 2 blocks vertically. However, the redstone signal it puts out can travel about 10 blocks, so if you want to put it underground, you can do that as long as you space it out right. For the purpose of Modular Design, I will show you how to build it by itself.

This is the shape the Heart will take: The 2 sections in Black and White are 4x10 and 3x5. You can see what the other measurements are from there.

Place 7 blocks in the depicted locations, these don’t need to be the same as the Fire-Resistant Building Materials, but I decided to make them the same so you don’t need to worry about getting dirt or stone specifically. So long as they aren’t any sort of solid block activated by redstone, it’s fine.

On all the blocks in the right column, except the bottom, place a redstone torch facing South. On the bottom right block, place it facing West. On the left column, place them facing North. It is imperative you place them on the block itself, and not the ground.

Fill in the gaps between the torches and the next blocks with your Redstone Repeaters, with the little Triangle on them pointing towards the block/away from the torch. Make sure every one of them is set to Maximum Delay, this is imperative to get the proper timing on the Lava. If you’ve done it right, every other set should be on.

Place three more Repeaters and one redstone dust as depicted here in the Northwest corner. This will complete the clock’s circuit, and cause all the torches to cycle between on and off, very slowly. Then, place another repeater one block East of the first block in the circuit, facing East. This will be on the little border area between the 4x10 section, which we’ve just finished, and the 3x5 section. Make sure you set all Repeaters to maximum delay.

Now comes the part of the Heart that causes the Beating effect. Place the Lamp in the 3x5 section so the Repeater in the border area feeds into it. Then, take your two Observers and place them so both the little face is pressed up against the Lamp like a kid who will need corrective lenses when he grows up. If you remove the Lamp, they will be in a staring contest with an empty block between them. You can’t see the faces here, but they’re the ones with triangles pointing North and South away from the lamp. Place the redstone dust and Repeater as pictured, once again putting it to maximum delay.

To get into how this works, the Observers will both see the Lamp change states at the same time, but because one has a Repeater on their tail, it will cause the Signal they make to be delayed, and activate whatever you put at the end a couple ticks after the unhindered signal goes through.

The border block on the right hand side of the photo leads into the Lava Dispenser from Section A.

Section C: The Kill Switch

Upstairs on my actual farm, I built this thing to launch chicken eggs out so I didn’t need to throw them all by hand.

The way it works, as I understand it now, is that this is a Quantum Redstone Clock. It is prone to fizzling out if left alone, so a switch is attached to the back that lets it be turned on and off, like a Tennis Ball Server. We don’t have the room to build this into the Main Housing without either completely redesigning it, or disturbing the delicate wiring present on the rest of it. So, we’ll build a simpler circuit that still has a kill switch.

This is the footprint for the final section, a 4x4 with 3 extra spaces. Once again, I’m showing how to build these by themselves, but the 1x2 area at the bottom is meant to wire into the North Side of the Bottom Dispenser, so I built this one block Up from ground level in my version. I also built mine with an extra space of redstone dust between the 1x2 and the dispenser, but that was an accident.

Anyway, here’s where to put the blocks, and the torches too, since we already did a more complex version of this with the Heart.

However, instead of using Repeaters, we’re gonna use dust, because we want this thing to be rapid-fire. Except for the Repeater we need to place to draw the energy from the circuit. If we just put dust there, it wouldn’t work. Do NOT Delay this Repeater!

The last step is to place a Lever here on the East side of the first block in the circuit. This is the Kill Switch itself. When you pull it, it will activate the first torch in the circuit to stay on, which will stop the rest of the circuit.

The Finished Product

This is the reference model I used when I was building it in my Survival world. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to make a copy of the map, so if you need any help troubleshooting, just Message me (No ask box or submission box on here, for my own reasons).

[ivory-rabbit]

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING SO PEOPLE KNOW HOW SHIPS WORK ON YOUR BLOG

WHAT’S YOUR OTP FOR YOUR MUSE? :

That’s a hard question! Constellations is up there - they’ve been a ship on this blog for maybe four or five years! Other than that, I love all of the relationships I write on here, and I’m not super involved in fandom shipping.

HOW LARGE DOES THE AGE GAP HAVE TO BE TO MAKE IT UNCOMFORTABLE? :

This is important - I will not write ships with muns or characters that are underage. It makes me super uncomfortable, and it would make the characters I play uncomfortable as well. I probably won’t feel comfortable with writing ships with characters younger than twenty. A lot of my characters vary in this, I guess, in terms of an upper limit and specifics. For specifics: Lumen is underage; I won’t ship him at all. Kreak, I think, is un-shippable? Probably? I guess you could try. Fitz and Quinn are in their early twenties (23 and 20 respectively in main verses). I would feel comfortable shipping them with other characters in their twenties, maybe nineteen in certain cases for Quinn, because he’s barely twenty. Visyian is over over 300, and doesn’t ship - his partner is / was of a similar age. Techie is also canonically in his twenties (I put him around 25). I would feel comfortable shipping him with characters in their mid-twenties to early-thirties. Turlough doesn’t age like a human, and probably won’t ship with a human either tbh. Kieran is complicated for shipping, because he’s hundreds, sometimes thousands of years old. He’s acutely aware of that, and is usually so worried about that and what comes along with outliving a partner that he doesn’t let himself develop relationships, even though he might want to. That makes him sort of a sad lonely person that stays outwardly positive and loving to others, and it makes me sad.

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WHEN SHIPPING? :  

I am, I suppose - the chemistry has to be there, like. And again, other types of relationships besides romantic ones exist.

HOW FAR DO STEAMY MOMENTS HAVE TO GO BEFORE THEY’RE CONSIDERED NS/FW? :

I’ve never really written them, so I guess I don’t have a precedent to follow for this. As per my rules, all questionable material is tagged and under a cut, but that’s never really had to come into play. 

I don’t think it’s necessary to write steamy moments out explicitly - the implication of intimacy can be just as powerful in a narrative sense. I’d be most comfortable with this probably, fading to afterwords, but am not necessarily against writing explicitly if it matters for the characters involved - for that kind of writing, I would probably prefer to put it on Dis||cord.

WHO ARE OTHER MUSES YOU SHIP YOUR MUSE WITH? :

Oh man, there aren’t very many (yet!). I have lovely many-year-old ships with @daedaluscried for a few characters, including Visyian’s partner. Quinn and Quinn  [ @toameliiorate ] also have an almost-thing that’s pretty cute. Oh! Aleister [ @variousmethodsofescaape ] and Tech’s almost-thing rose from the dead recently - it’s nice to see them again! Other than that, my characters mostly just have crushes. Fitz and Kieran both have crushes on some of the characters they’re writing with these days, but I don’t know if people are comfortable being tagged for stuff like that? It’s tempting because I sort of want to know if they ship things too, but I’m also spineless. OTL

ANY NOTPS? :

I have types of things I don’t like to write, I guess - I’m not especially keen on writing toxic or hateful relationships unless me and the other person have really talked about it. I don’t really write with the intention of making myself feel sad (though that does sometimes happen on its own), so content that produces a lot of compassion fatigue are just more than I can handle sometimes.

As for actual ships for this, I’m hesitant to talk about them because they’re likely unpopular opinions. And they’re not even really ‘NOTPs’, just things I don’t like as well. For Who, I don’t really like Tur|ough and Teg.an as a ship for example, because I like the idea of them as argumentative siblings more.

DOES ONE HAVE TO ASK TO SHIP WITH YOU? :

I mean... I don’t think writing that kind of thing would be possible without some sort of communication? You absolutely do not have to ask if it’s all right for your character to have a crush on mine / etc, but if we want to actually build beyond that it might be best to talk at least a little. If you ask, I will probably consider it with some level of enthusiasm.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU LIKE TO SHIP? :

I like ships when they crop up on their own. Chemistry is really important when writing stuff like that, and I like that closeness to develop organically through shared experiences / communication / etc - it’s really fun to write that in-character moment when they’re like ‘oh wow, I have a lot of feelings about this person’.

ARE YOU MULTISHIP? :

I am! With the exception of Visyian, who is single ship. Be his friend, though! He needs friends.

ARE YOU SHIP-OBSESSED OR SHIP MORE-OR-LESS? :

I do like to write ships, but not just romantic ones - platonic shipping and friendships are fun to write as well. Those go forgotten or unacknowledged a lot, I think. So I guess the long and short of it is I like writing about relationships of all sorts because they often lead to character development, but seeking out those relationships is not always my primary goal.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SHIP IN YOUR CURRENT FANDOM? :

Most of my characters are D&D characters from fully home-brewed campaign settings, so there’s not really a fandom beyond the table? As for things like Who, I’m not super engaged in shipping / fandom culture because there’s just so much of it and it’s a little intimidating.

I know that’s a non-answer, but I... *shrug shrug*

FINALLY, HOW DOES ONE SHIP WITH YOU? :

If you want to ship a thing please just come tell me about it! I tend not to recognise when people want to ship a thing, and when  I  want to ship a thing I get too scared to bring it up. OTL I want to write more things though, so I’m going to try to work on this.

TAGGED BY: @magicianbound [[Thanks, friend!]]

TAGGING: @daedaluscried, @hotwiredplanter / @knowledgebeyondbooks, @intothewildsea, @toameliiorate and @ anyone else that would like to fill this out - just say I tagged you. As always, no pressure if I’ve tagged you and you’d rather not answer!

[fairymascot]

hoo boy, what a question!

let’s start with the unfun answer: i think it’s ultimately meaningless to try and fully compromise rachel's characterization in lis with its bts counterpart. you just can't. they are two different characters, written by different people.

lis rachel is a party girl, warm and open with her heart, a tease and arguably a bit of a manipulator depending on who you ask, but ultimately trusting and naive enough that she'd genuinely fall for frank and for jefferson and believe they're good men. she was another teen girl with a pipe dream too big for her, hoping to skate by on her charm and good looks. she didn't seem like she was particularly well-versed in lying compared to any other teenager, going off the unsent letter she wrote for chloe. she came off as very young, confused, and out of depth. she didn't feel like a girl who's comfortable telling lies or keeping up appearances. while it seemed obvious that chloe had feelings for her, in lis they felt one-sided more than anything -- rachel either never knew about them, or didn't concern herself with them.

bts rachel is a completely separate person. she's closed off, but in a way that still makes her come off as genuine and approachable -- a master of concealing her emotions. lying to people to get what she wants is second-nature her, and she's incredibly good at reading others and discerning their true intentions. she's got many more varied interests and passions, and modeling doesn't even seem to be a career path she's considered. her dream of leaving arcadia bay, while still draped in layers of glitter and glamor, comes from a real place of trauma and distress. and she's obviously harboring romantic feelings for chloe from day one, which the player can choose to turn into a full-fledged relationship.

i mean, yes, there's a chance episode 3 will tie the two together more, but as of right now there's a very big gap between those depictions. and that's fine. it makes perfect sense. in lis, rachel was an icon, a plot device. she wasn't supposed to be as complex and fleshed out as a real character. but as the secondary protagonist of bts, deck9 would've obviously had to rework her character and build a lot on top of it, because that's the point of the game: getting to unravel the mystery of the untouchable rachel amber. she needs those layers. she needs to be a freakin' onion. you can't spin a ten-hour epic founded on 'two girls meet up at a party, smoke weed and have a nice time'.

so when i see fans who seem genuinely angry with rachel as a character for cheating on chloe with frank, it baffles me a bit. because at the time her relationship with frank was written, there was no relationship with chloe for her to be cheating on. deck9 retroactively turned it into cheating by giving us the choice to make the relationship between rachel and chloe explicitly and mutually romantic. they couldn't do anything about how the way it ended, but they COULD give us so much more about what it was like while it lasted, and they did. and i'm grateful for that. i'd much rather have that than a strictly platonic or one-sided relationship that would've been 'truer' to canon, and meant no cheating.

so the short version of my unfun answer is: i doubt their relationship would deteriorate too badly over the course of bts, and it doesn't really matter, anyway. bts is about rachel and chloe's relationship at its newest, rawest and most intense. the fallout will come later. there's no need to show us this now, this early on, and it wouldn't sit particularly well with this take on rachel's character to begin with.

but i doubt that’s the answer you were looking for, so i’ll go on a bit longer under the cut.

the more fun answer, where i try to fill in the blanks, is this: there's almost three entire years between bts and rachel’s disappearance in lis. that's a shitton of time. a lot can happen during three years. was rachel truly in love with frank? who are we to tell? we never met her. chloe and nathan insist she just used him for drugs, frank speaks of her like it was true love. you can't call any of those characters impartial. still, i default to thinking she did have sincere feelings towards him, as such a big point in the game was shaking chloe out of her belief that their relationship was feigned on rachel's behalf. the story development presented rachel's love for frank as some sort of 'ultimate truth', so i'm assuming that's what the writers intended for us to take away from it.

if you want my very subjective personal take on it? however bts ends, it's going to leave rachel a much more jaded, tired person than she was before. and as time wears on, it'll only get worse. because the reality of being trapped in arcadia bay is only going to crush her more and more, snuffing out her idealism and passion. she'll grow tired of theater, grow tired of everything, spend more time partying recklessly with vortex club kids she can't even stand, and redirect her ambitions towards modeling, because everyone's always fallen straight for her looks and never cared for much beyond that, anyway. and while chloe will remain a grounding force in her life, and the best thing that happened to her in this shithole of a town -- their honeymoon phase will burn out over time, too, and rachel will find herself drifting away.

when she first gets involved with frank, it's for the drugs and the attention. she's kind of become a thrillseeker at that point, even (and especially) for cheap ones, because it's not like arcadia bay has anything bigger to offer. i think part of her deepening attachment to him would have to do with her own ego, as well -- rachel finds that she kind of gets a rush out of taking in those broken souls under her wing, chloe first, and now him. they always look up at her like she's some sort of goddess, like she's the only thing in this world that can save them. she knows she's not. but it's nice to pretend.

is this a more cynical take than dontnod was ever going for? probably, but that’s the best i can make it all fit in my head.

with all that being said, 'who did rachel truly love' just isn't the question to be asking. rachel obviously loves chloe in bts, there's no questioning that. if she falls in love with frank three years down the line, it doesn't erase her relationship with chloe. maybe she fell out of love with her over time. maybe she didn't, and had feelings for two (three? if you count jefferson...) different people simultaneously. no person goes through life with a 'one true love'. rachel's relationships with chloe and with frank don't cancel each other out.

[thephoenixiaproject]

Entry 02 (07/01/2020): Research, Inspirations and Ideas

Hi there!!

Welcome to entry number two! This project is still VERY much in the preparation stage, so I wanted to use this one as an opportunity to link all the sources that I’ve been using as a basis up until this point, as well as specific pieces of work that have inspired this project, plus some brainstormed ideas that might be experimented with in the future.

The next couple of entries after this will most likely be focusing on making some first demos, visual ideas, mood-boards, notebook scribbles, and maybe some character/story ideas too! I won’t lie, the scope of all the different areas does slightly scare me, especially since I have next to no experience in a lot of them - I feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants!!

But I’m definitely going to make a lot of mistakes as I try some new skills and play with new concepts for the first time, so please bear with me as I stumble around in the dark for a while :D Expect most of my nonsense to eventually end up getting heavily changed, retconned, or cut entirely!

--------

A List of Sources (at the time of writing!):

AWARE - AWAreness during REsuscitation - A Prospective Study (resuscitationjournal.com, October 6th 2014) - The first piece I found! The start of this idea came when I was thinking about how my dreams worked (more on that later!), and for some reason I suddenly remembered one religious studies lesson I had in school when I was 14 I think? Part of the lesson was talking about out-of-body and near-death experiences, and out of curiosity I looked it up to see if anything had changed. That’s when I came across this!

“What Really Happens After Cardiac Arrest?” - The New York Academy of Sciences (nyas.org, December 6th 2019) - A talk on the subject led by the Lead Author of the 2014 study, held in late 2019! There’s loads of interesting information and anecdotes in here.

Life — after life: Does consciousness continue after our brain dies? (nationalpost.com, April 18th 2019 [Updated October 2019]) - This article goes very in-depth as well as referencing a LOT of different studies, some even offering opposing viewpoints to each other! There’s loads of quotes and studies here that I really want to look more into.

Greyson NDE Scale (iands.org, 25th April 2015) - The NDE scale referenced in the National Post article - would be cool to use this somewhere somehow??

Understanding the cognitive experience of death and the near-death experience (academic.oup.com, 14th July 2016) - A summary of the 2014 AWARE experiment, but that references past studies into the field (see below!)

Life Changes in Patients After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (link.springer.com, 8th December 2011) - One of the referenced studies, this one includes a ‘life changes’ questionnaire at the bottom which might be another source of ideas.

A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors (sciencedirect.com, February 2001) - An older study, but with very similar results to recent ones!

A Prospective Analysis of Near-Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest Patients (link.springer.com, June 2002) - Another older study, includes characterisations of the experiences, some of which correlate with AWARE’s most commonly reported themes.

Possible source - What Happens When We Die? by Sam Parnia, M.D.(penguinrandomhouse.com, 1st January 2007) - I’m debating whether to look into this - it’s written by the same project leader as the AWARE study, but this book was written 7 years prior to it. I’m also fully aware that despite trying to look everywhere, the majority of my current sources stem from Dr. Parnia. (This might not be a bad thing! It’s just surprising to me that most of the recent studies into this field I can find out about stem from him.)

-------- Inspirations/Ideas:

Just a quick place to put current inspirations down! I’m sure that once I’ve finished this entry I’ll realise I’ve missed some out, so I’ll edit this as I go!

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD:

Bojack Horseman - S6 E15 ‘The View From Halfway Down (& S6 E16 ‘Nice While It Lasted’) - Netflix - The View From Halfway Down takes place within Bojack’s mind, after he commits suicide by downing himself in the pool of his former home. This episode has a LOT of themes which link to the studies:

Just like how some CA survivors reported on seeing their life ‘in review’, the characters are asked what the best and worst parts of each of their lives were, leading to conflict of ideals between them as well as trying to tackle large philosophical questions.

Black tar, representing impending death, begins the episode as a drip in the ceiling, before consuming all the all the characters one-by-one, followed by both Bojack and the dream world the episode takes place in. With newer theories on loss of consciousness and brain cell/tissue functionality arguing that it may be a gradual process of decay, rather than an instant loss, the black tar effectively mirrors this. Combined with the fact that Bojack becomes more frantic as the episode ends and the tar begins to chase him, as well as more supernatural events which begin happening, this may mirror the post-death ‘elevated state of consciousness’ idea.

For the first half of the episode, Bojack believes that he is in a recurring dream he has had many times before in his life, even stating how the dream will end event-by-event. However, once these happen but dream doesn’t end, things take a darker shift, and it takes him time to realise he might not be waking up. While being unaware of their own death might be a concept to try in the future (although a scary one), it does bring up the idea that final moments of consciousness may be very similar to the dreams a person normally has (or take place in a similar format with similar people).

While Bojack’s father, Butterscotch, does feature in the episode, he takes on the appearance of Secretariat, Bojack’s personal idol. A percentage of CA survivors reported that post-experience, they came out of hospital and care with a renewed sense of who their true friends and family were - here it’s represented as a father taking the shape of an idol (but keeping his father’s voice).

The 20-25 minute time length: Supervising director Mike Hollingsworth revealed in an interview that the episode took place over around 30 seconds - one of the many theories on the length of consciousness persisting after death is 20-30 seconds, but in an elevated state, perhaps leading to a longer perception of time (e.g. 20-30 seconds becomes 20-30 minutes of video/audio).

The world this episode takes place in is a connection of significant locations in Bojack’s life (e.g. the kitchen from Horsin’ Around, the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge which Secretariat jumped off), albeit with slight changes. Purely coincidentally, this is how a lot of my dreams function!!

While it’s still theorised as to whether Bojack is actually alive in Nice While It Lasted, or whether it’s a continuation of his NDE, this episode focuses on optimistic reflection and reconciliation with the other major characters in the show, a similarity to the reflection on friends, family and morals reported by CA survivors.

Rachel Joyce - ‘A Snow Garden and Other Stories’ (Published by Penguin Books, 3rd November 2016)

This is an incredible collection of seven short stories, each one told at different time periods by different characters, the events of each story being individually unique, and yet all of them are linked in some way!! My current plan is to make multiple stories based off the different experiences CA survivors have had, and I’d love to somehow be able to link them all like these short stories are, to be able to tell another story in and of itself!

I really need to find more short stories like these, since the end result(s) of this project will probably be in short-story format (maybe 20 minutes of video/audio per character?). This book’s given me a lot of ideas in terms of character building in a short format, as well as what the ‘link’ could be between each.

Some of the characters in the stories were scrapped characters from Joyce’s previous works - I’ve been trying to think a lot on how to best approach character design for this project (since I’ve never done it before!) and this seems to show to me that compelling stories could be founded off a character’s traits, and that this could be a good way to start?? I don’t know, I could be completely wrong!

All the stories focus on one specific life-changing moment for each main character, but either through narration of past events or it coming up in conversation. we get a fairly clear picture of each character’s lives, their mentality, and where it stems from.

Pixar Animation Studio’s ‘Sparkshorts’ Films: - What happens when you give Pixar artists 6 months and a set budget? So far, 8 incredible short films, all in different styles, each exploring different and very real themes!! (Seriously, please check these out, they’re all incredible and hard-hitting and so worth your time!)

Seeing how such strong themes are addressed in such short time is insanely cool, and is exactly the kind of thing I want to try and make! It’s also super inspiring to see what awesome films can be made under such constraints.

If I end up making films/audio/albums on multiple people, these films show that you can play around with animation style, aesthetic, and storytelling techniques to create just as much heart and soul as each other. Varying styles is something I’d love to try when representing different characters.

‘Gravity Falls’ - Hidden Codes/Messages and Stan’s Mind:

The hidden codes scattered throughout both seasons seems like a cool way to enhance an existing narrative, fill in gaps in backstory, or work to link multiple together!

The ‘memory rooms’ approach may be one way of experiencing the ‘life review’?

Conclusion:

And there we go! I’ll probably come back and add more later, but for now here’s a lil idea dump. At some point in the future I’ll talk about musical influences and ideas too!

This will probably be the last text-filled entry - I’m hoping to use future entires more like a logbook, where I put up demos of what I’ve been working on. There’ll definitely be explanations to stuff (that I’ll probably needlessly overexplain!!) but nowhere near this and the previous entry’s level of paragraphs!

University deadlines are getting closer, so progress will probably be a bit sporadic for the next month or so. But I’ll keep chipping away at this when I can!

[gossamer-scraps]

Here’s the guide I made! Let me know what you think of the format.

Hopefully you can now look at the written rotation on the Snow Crows site and see what’s going on. We alternate between the scepter/tome loop and the axe mini-game, using symbols with priority and sword of justice primarily as filler.

These concepts apply to almost every rotation in this game; once you understand them and have muscle memory for them you can pick up whatever class you like!

As you can probably tell, I’d like to get skill priority tables of the kind this guide is based on for more classes, and maybe make more guides like this and/or encourage other community members to steal the format, but I’m not sure who has the data. Let me know if there’s a guide you want or if you have any leads.

The entire text is pasted below the cut, for those who don’t like Google Docs. (cuts now work on tumblr mobile now, right?)

The condi firebrand rotation, explained:

My goal is to explain enough here so when you read the "notes" section of https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/guardian/firebrand/condition/, you feel like you know exactly what each note means, understand why, and know what to do when things break down.

Let's start with some data. Credit to dolan#7398 for some DPSe numbers I shamelessly stole, and to Ivalia and Khar for the original spreadsheet. TJ has similar data in the benchmark video description as well.

For the unfamiliar, DPSe is damage per cast time, or “how much DPS am I doing while casting this particular skill?” Priority takes cooldowns into account (don’t worry about the math too much.)

With any rotation, we want to press all skills better than autoattacking as often as possible, keeping them on cooldown, and prioritizing the really good ones. What do we observe from this table that helps us make a good rotation?

Since mantras are instant, they can be cast during other skill casts, and so we want to press them off cooldown simultaneously with and independently of everything below.

Scepter 2 is great; scepter 1 is awful. This means we want to use axe for autoattacking, dip into scepter for skill 2, use as many good skills to fill time as possible, use skill 2 again, and go back to axe. Tome of justice is perfect for this. This is why our loop "skeleton" is:

ax2, sc2, tome, sc2, fill time here, sc2, ax2, stay on axe until we can do it again

or when renewed focus is up (including the beginning of the DPS rotation):

ax2, sc2, tome, sc2, renewed focus, sc2, tome, sc2, ax2, stay on axe

When we're waiting around on axe, we don't want to interrupt the autoattack chain, but we want to use axe 2 and 3 as soon as possible; this turns into a little mini-game where you bunch skills together as they become available to leave bigger gaps for completing the entire axe 1 chain. Be very sure you get the third skill in the chain to fully hit twice.

Because sword of justice is an ammo skill, we can delay it without losing DPS. Delaying a normal skill means time spent without it recharging; since after the opener ammo skills are "always" recharging, we can prioritize traditional skills over them and their damage output in the end will be the same, making them great for filling in gaps in the axe mini-game. You get better at it over time, don't worry.

Example: I see that axe 2 and axe 3 will both come up pretty soon, but the axe3 will be a bit late, and I have one sword of justice charge. If I just mash buttons, I’ll cast something like 1-sword-1-2-1-3-1, interrupting my chain a lot.

Instead, I want to finish my current chain, then press 2-sword-3 and start a new chain.

Torch 4 is kind of like that, but not really; it’s almost like a weird mini-game of its own. The activation is an instant cast skill, so you can use it during other casts, but then you must throw it within the next 3 seconds. While this allows you to activate it ASAP like a mantra, use some traditional skills or finish an autoattack chain, and then throw it (just like sword of justice), the passive activations you get make this method confusing.The easier method, in which you keep it synced with the passive trait, is to always let the passive trigger, finish whatever axe skills you're using, then throw the passive and activate and throw the active.

Note that there's a bug if you spam the 4 key that wastes time (your character “throws” nothing), so either press it the exact number of times you need or queue up another skill right after your throw.

Torch 5, being slightly worse than the full axe autoattack chain on DPS builds, is only used to avoid some weaker autoattacks when you run out of other filler options. Usually this is scepter autoattacks, i.e. where I wrote "fill time here” in the “skeleton,” though it can technically replace 4 axe autos as well. Make sure you finish the channel, as all the damage is at the end; if you interrupt it, just autoattacking would’ve been better.

Hopefully you can now look at the written rotation on the Snow Crows site and see what’s going on. We alternate between the scepter/tome loop and the axe mini-game, using symbols with priority and sword of justice primarily as filler.

These concepts apply to almost every rotation in this game; once you understand them and have muscle memory for them you can pick up whatever class you like!

Quickness firebrand changes…

...are really minor. It’s basically the same class! Because we run feel my wrath, only the first “skeleton” loop is relevant, and the axe and tome skills become somewhat weaker because of the lack of bleeding, but this doesn’t cause a significant rotation change (axe skills are about equivalent to torch skills). You should be pressing your heal mantra ~off cooldown along with your quickness mantra, rather than on DPS firebrand where you are free to save it for perfectly timed aegis. And that’s about it!

[DPSe table for quickbrand goes here]

[slushie-xo]

COFFEE SHOP LETTERS

Characters: Baekhyun, OC (nameless character) Genre: Fluff Warnings:

Sitting in this stuffy cafe chair trying to look discrete is really the last thing I expected to be doing. I would rather be at home playing some video games and munching on some chips than waiting at a some coffee shop. But here I am still waiting for her to finally arrive to tell me her urgent news. Some news that can’t seem to wait another day that she decides to meet at some shabby cafe downtown. Because somehow I can never seem to be able to deny her. No matter what I did I always ended up in doing what she wants me to do. Just like now how I'm waiting for her for more than 30 minutes with a cup of cold coffee still in the table.

My hands became clammy as thought of her came to mind. Somehow when ever she’s around everything seems so bright and easy. Her smile that warms me up all over inside. Her eyes that i would stare at all day only if she’d let me. And god her hands, hands that I’d kill for just to be able to hold every day and night. When she’s with me, I feel like I can take over the world knowing she’s got my back. Knowing she’ll hold me if I’ll fall. That she’ll comfort me when I’m in pain. She’s the most important person to me and the thought of losing her scares me more than anything. The thought that someone else holding her in their arms drives me mad. The fear that boils in the pit of my stomach just by thinking of her being plucked out of my life leaves me breathless.

Time seemed to be passing by slowly as I waited for her arrival. People passed by with such a slow pace. Coming and going with their coffee cups in tow. Making it feel like everything is in slow motion. I waited for her anxiously my knees bobbing up and down. My hands clasping and unclasping with each other. My eyes not being able to look at anything else but the door. Anticipation building up in my stomach as she has yet to arrive.

And then I saw her walking towards the coffee shop. Her hair pulled back away from face. Fully exposing her beauty for the whole world to see. She looked radiant and beautiful like she always does. Walking with such an aura that demands you to look at her. An aura that only exist for her that’ll leave anyone speechless in their place. That's the effect she has, her very own special power.

A small smile sported her face as she waved at me once she entered the cafe. A toothy smile immediately creeps into my face as soon as I see her. A smile I can never seem to stop once she appears. A smile that always plasters it self on my face when she's near. Smiling at her I raised my hand and signaled for her to come and seat with me.

“I’m so sorry that I’m late Baekhyun”

She mutters smiling as she places herself in the seat in front of me. Putting her belongings to the side she suddenly looks at me with worried eyes. She then gives a loud sigh and looks down to her lap fiddling with her fingers. Her actions confused me as the girl in front of me was not acting like herself. Her bubbly noisy self was no where to be seen. Her unbelievable confidence was in evident. Her normal loud self was replaced by anxiousness .

“Is anything wrong?” I asked her. Worry clearly evident in my voice at her sudden change of demeanour. She looks back up at me and chuckles lightly.

“Oh god no! It’s just i don’t know where to begin is all.” she answers shaking her head with a worried expression she takes an envelope out of her bag and slowly slides it towards me. She slides the letter halfway the table when she stops and looks at me. She stares straight into my eyes. Seeming like she's searching for an answer with in them.

“I guess I’ll start with this. Read it carefully Baekhyun. And call me once you have an answer yes?” she stands up to go and leaves me confused for a second, before I suddenly grabbed her wrist and stopped her from leaving.

“That’s it? You made me wait here for a letter??” With my eyebrows raised I asked her sounding a little annoyed with her little antics.

“I’m really sorry for making you wait Baekhyun. But i really have to go somewhere” her smile was already gone and was replaced by a small frown. Her eyes was filled with worry and discomfort. Looking at her state I couldn’t bear it at all. I couldn't handle seeing her so torn that it left me with no choice to do anything else but simply let her go with a heavy heart. With that I released her from my grip.

She pulls her hand away and smiles at me softly as she half ran half walked out of the coffee shop. I watched as her small body slowly disappeared into the distance. As i sighed I sat down and weighed the letter in my hand. It was nothing fancy a simple white envelope with Baekhyun written in the middle with her penmanship. Hundreds of thoughts crossed my mind as why she would leave me a letter and just go. What could’ve the letter have that she goes out of her way to give it to me and leave immediately. What kind of urgency does it have for me to be in this dilemma. With much hesitation I slowly opened the letter with a lingering fear of what it may hold. Slowly ripping the white envelope that hold such an important letter inside. Once I successfully opened it I take out a small sheet of paper with messy scribbles in it. Her writing sported the letter and I slowly start to read it’s content.

“Where do I start? I don't really know. Well I think maybe I’ll say that you are the best thing that ever happened to me. You are the best gift I ever could have received. And I treasure you more than anything in this world Byun Baekhyun. When I’m around you I always feel fuzzy inside. I feel like my skin is crawling in a beautiful way. I feel like a little kid on Christmas eve. You’re all I dream for in guy. Your kind and thoughtful always taking care of people around you. Your sweet and genuine and always show who you really are. You make everyone around happy and laugh all the time. But most importantly is how you make my heart beat a million miles per hour. That sometimes it beats so loud that I fear that everyone will hear it. Basically I’m trying to say is I’m completely, utterly and crazily in love with you. I’ll be waiting for you at the park we used to hang out at if you ever feel the same way.”

Without hesitation stood up and ran out of the cafe and ran as fast as I could to that one place that matters the most. The place where she’s waiting for me. I ran with all my might even if the air in my lungs wanted to give up I kept running. To reach her in time I would do anything. To confess to her that I to felt the same way. That I am also completely, utterly and crazily in love with her.

And as I arrived there she was sitting in our usual bench with her feet dangling over and her head hanging low. Seeming to find the dirt more entertaining than her surroundings. I slowly walked towards her and stopping right in front of her feet. Coughed lightly and she raises her head with complete shock in her face. Her mouth a gap open. Her forehead scrunching a little.

“Soo wanna go out on a date?” Was all I asked her a smiled plastered across my face awaiting her answer.

With those words a smile crept to her face as she stands up and takes my arm

“Where to then?” She asked.

[litrapod]

I love superheroes and I love to hear what people love, if you’re so inclined, please take the time to share your Top Three (3) Lists of a) Live Action Superhero Movies b) Live Action Superhero TV Series c) Animated Superhero Movies and d) Animated Superhero TV Series. Invite others to share by tagging or copy/pasting this into a friend’s ask and of course everyone should feel free to gush! (If you’re feeling extra kind tag your post “a superhero lover’s top three” so people know where to look.)

Okay you asked for it…

Needless to say, Here be spoilers.

Top 3 Live Action Movies:

Avengers (2012): First Group movies are hard. I’ve tried to write group stories and that’s hard enough when you don’t have to worry about fitting everything into 2 -2 ½ hours, And balancing out story arcs, and screen time. This movie may not be perfect, but it comes damn close. There was a whole lot of pressure on this movie, because everyone know they were building up to it, and while I would have loved to see more of certain characters *cough* Clint *cough*, It managed to set up basically the entire MCU world from then on. It may not have been a traditional origin story, but this is the movie that kicked everything off.

The Dark Knight (2008): Okay storytime. My first job was as a lifeguard, and we rotated around the pool in increments of about an hour and a half per circuit. In the break room there was a small Tv with an old VCR. We had exactly 2 movies,  The Matrix and the old 1989 Batman movie with Jack Nicholson as the Joker. By the end of the summer everyone hated those two movies, myself included, because they were the only things we ever watched. I, myself managed to see the scene in Batman where the Joker defeces the museum over twenty times. To this day that it the only scene I can remember from that movie (and I can remember it in crystal clarity) because with a 15 minute break that’s all I got to see.

I bring this up because that’s what I had in my head as the joker for a long time, and I hated it. I hated the movie, I hated the character, I hated everything about it. There was the occasional flashback to Batman the animated series, but overall, yeah, hate.

Then this movie came out. The first one was good, but this one was going to have the joker, and I detested the Joker (honestly he’s a very good character to hate) and I was floored. Not only was a sequel just as good if not better than the original, but it took the Joker in a different direction. This was something I hadn’t seen before and while I still hated him, this is a portrayal that didn’t make me drown in it and ruin the movie.

Unbreakable: This movie, I don’t even have words for this movie. I know people go on about M. Night Shyamalan plot twists, but forget that for a moment.

Just look at the opening scene. A guy on a train, a little girl making faces. A woman sits down next to him and they start to talk. He takes off his wedding ring. It gets awkward, and things start to fall apart, then boom train crash.

The attention to detail, and character building are amazing. So many superhero movies just don’t bother. They’re too caught up in the CGI or in finding a way to revamp an old character. Don’t get me wrong I love origin stories, but there’s only so many ways you can play them.  Instead of making everything bigger in scale in order to keep things interesting and challenging it keeps the focus on the internal and personal conflicts just as much as the external ones, so that they feed into each other.

This movie manages to give us a truly human superhero.

A common failing of superhero movies is that the character development seems forced or clunky because the focus is to get to the big ending fight scene. Not so here. The final big fight scene is important because of what it means to the characters, not because of someone’s powers or who/what they’re threatening. Which is why the ending twist actually really works.

I can’t even describe how much I love this movie.

Top 3 Live Action TV Series:

Daredevil: So I’m going to focus on season one here.

This series took risks and they paid off in spades. It focuses on the villains almost at the expense of the heroes, but because of that we know the full scope of what Matt is facing. This isn’t just “oh I stopped a mugging” it’s full on organized crime. For half the season Matt doesn’t even know who’s in charge, or that there even is one person in charge.

The cinematography is gorgeous. Pay attention to the colors. Everything is clearly chosen for a reason. By the end of the season I was getting nervous when Vanessa wore black. There have been a couple other movies that tried to play up the color thing, but most of them had crappy scripts. It this series, the stark color contrasts only amplify what is already a great show.

It eases you into the weird. This show is canonically in the same universe as the Avengers. Thor, Hulk, Aliens, they all exist, but it’s a distant presence to the average guy on the street. And this series shows that. When an honest to god Ninja showed up I was flabbergasted, because while I knew that they could be a thing in this universe, it still felt like something i’d never seen before. ( This is also a part of my disappointment about season 2 but I’m not going to get into that here. )

In a lot of ways this is actually a season long origin story. We got the time and breadth to fully explore how Matt became Daredevil. Training montages are fun and all, but this gave it depth.

I could go on. The catholic themes, the brutality that never seemed unnecessary or over the top.

This is a wonderful show that set an extremely high bar for the rest of the Netfix originals.

Heroes: I loved this show (before the writers strike ruined it) because there were so many good characters and none of them seemed to know what they were doing. The way everything slowly wove together in the first season was great. The recurring themes that were the paintings and the company.

This show had a lot of potential and it was clear the writers had a lot of ideas. Not many of those ideas actually made it to the screen in later seasons, but despite that, this was a fun show to watch every week and a fun show to binge watch when I need to lift my spirits.

Flash:  I had a hard time picking among the CW Flash/Arrow/Legends/Supergirl set.

Supergirl was the show I wished I had as a young girl. Legends has just the right amount of over the top that I love.

Flash ended up winning because Flash is my favorite superhero.

Wally was the Flash I grew up with and when the show came out I kind of wanted to hate it because DC had written him out of existence  ( in both the comics and Young Justice… Seriously DC what do you have against him? ) Barry, had featured in Arrow of course, which i Loved to Death, But that didn’t mean he’d be written well or be able to carry his own show…  The core of Barry’s character in any universe is that he’s hopeful. He will see the best in people and bring it out in those around him. Despite him being incredibly awkward in the first season he had that. It worked.

And then in episode four they gave us Len and he was so well done I just melted. After that I was sold.

Top 3 Animated Superhero movies:

Justice League New Frontier: If you watch nothing else on this list, watch this one.

The interweaving storylines, the art style, the plot, everything about this movie is gold. I’m a long time DC fan and the number of subtle hints, and worldbuilding they do is amazing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a movie new fans can enjoy. Because it’s a sort of coming together of the Justice League, you don’t need to know anything beyond who Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman are. All the lesser known characters are given their own small arcs so you know what they’re about.

Then on a deeper layer it’s a social commentary on the cold war, and the space race, and the fear of the unknown. I have watched this movie dozens of times. I own an autographed copy of the DVD. Every time I watch it I notice something new.

Batman: Under the Red Hood: The Red Hood storyline in the comics is a bit of a monster. You have to be a fan and know the history in order to understand all the implications. The movie has a bit of that, but in my opinion it does a good job filling in most of the gaps.

While the Joker is the main villain he’s more of a foil for Jason and to a lesser degree Bruce. (which is definitely a plus in my book, see above rant of hatred regarded the Joker)

It’s hard to pin down exactly what I love about this one. It’s strange to say, but if I had to pick one thing it’d be the pacing. There are individual lines that are amazing but it’s the culmination that makes this a great movie. There’s a balance to it. Lighter moments even though the plot is very dark. Action and quieter moments each given their place.

Planet Hulk: This one makes the list because I have a soft spot for the Hulk and this is the first comic storyline for the hulk that I ever read. The movie isn’t as complex as the comics of course and they have to wrap everything up in a bow rather then lead into the next comic story, but it’s a good depiction nevertheless.

Top 3 Animated Superhero TV Series:

I realize this is kind of a cop out, but they really are my favorites.

Batman the animated series: It set the standard for all other superhero shows for the next few decades. It invented Detective Montoya, Harley Quinn and several other minor characters. It gave several villains backstories that are still used today, Freeze being the one that comes to mind. It was the start of the whole DC animated universe ( Batman animated, Superman animated, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Static Shock, Batman Beyond and possibly a few more I’m forgetting )

If there’s a top ten list of superhero shows that doesn’t have the Batman animated Series, then it was probably disqualified for being too awesome.

Justice League Unlimited: Everything Batman was but with a bigger cast. Minor heroes got a place to shine. While still shown as being important to the larger plot, and oh those plots. The Legion of Doom, Doomsday, Brainiac. As much as the hero’s got to shine so did the villains.

Keep in mind a lot of these characters (on both sides) hadn’t been portrayed on screen before this, and for a lot of the lesser known ones the portrayal here is still what people who don’t read the comics think of first.

Batman Beyond: It was my first fandom, so yes, I’m biased. My first multi-chapter fic is still up on ff.net.

Batman is a huge character. He’s the bread and butter of the DCU, so much so that people don’t treat him like he’s human. This show not only admitted he was human, it started asking questions, and opened a whole new world of possibilities because of it.

The first scene still gets me every time, the gun, and shutting down the cave.

Add to that that this was not only in the same world but created by the same team that did the batman animated series and you get a wealth of history that other shows can only dream of. The costumes in the cases, the trophies, they’re all the same ones from the other show. When Terry finally meets the Justice League, Superman references thing that happened in the Justice League show. And you can’t get the end of Mr. Freeze’s character arc unless you watch Batman Beyond.

Not that it’s tied down. It has a history, but with a new Batman it’s a whole different ball game. And Terry is a different Batman. He’s not dark and brooding. He sasses back to his villains like Dick. He’s got street smarts like Jason. He’s got the drive like Bruce. He may still be figuring things out but it’s clear he’ll be just as impressive.

[hannamarni]

Ezra Pound famously urged poets to “make it new,” but that doesn’t mean artists should forget about the past. In our conversation for this series, the English folk singer-songwriter Laura Marling explained why she’s inspired by the ancient, the outdated, and the disappearing, citing how a Robertson Davies passage that suggests vanishing cultures and abandoned ideas may still have something urgent to teach us. For Marling, the lines help explain what she tends to do by instinct: embrace chance, limit choices, and find new directions inside of old ones. Short Movie, Marling's newest record, is her most expansive-sounding effort yet. The sound pays tribute to the vast size and endless noise of Los Angeles, where much of the record was written: Songs typically begin with guitar and voice floating alone in a pool of reverb, but gradually, more instruments break in, as if trying to conquer all that emptiness. Short Movie is Marling’s fifth album, and the follow-up to 2013’s critically acclaimed Once I Was an Eagle. She spoke to me by phone from London. Laura Marling: I was visiting my family over Christmas one year, and my father was reading The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies. My godfather had given him a copy—I remember him sitting with it in the corner of the room, laughing loudly by the fire as he read. Later, my father gave me my own copy of the book, and it arrived in my life at exactly the right time. I was just getting interested in two things that are spoken a lot about in Robertson Davies’ novels: mysticism and classic books. The novel’s central character, Maria, is a young postgraduate researching Rabelais at a university in Toronto. She’s invited her professor, Hollier (whom she is in love with, but who isn't interested in her), to dinner at her mother’s house. Her mother is Romani and holds onto the secrets and eccentricities of her culture strongly, much to the embarrassment of Maria. But Hollier takes a strong fascination, despite her hostility to his interest. When asked by her mother why he wants to know more, Hollier gives a short speech about the importance of historical knowledge, especially knowledge in danger of being trivialized by a rational, godless society: The recognition of oneself as a part of nature, and reliance on natural things, is disappearing for hundreds of millions of people who do not know that anything is being lost. I am not digging into such things because I think the old ways are necessarily better than the new ways, but I think there may be some of the old ways that we would be wise to look into before all knowledge of them disappears from the earth—the knowledge and the kind of thinking that lay behind it. To have the ability to throw away sentences like these from a non-central character in a novel is amazing. I love the way this passage highlights the importance of retaining earlier forms of knowledge—the way that certain ideas and ways of thinking may prove to be useful, even if they seem to have no relevance to the way we live now. Quite a lot of my life is spent trying to figure out why I always want to go backwards—when the majority of the world seems to want to build more construction on top of the construction. This passage helps me account for my impulse to do that. “The recognition of oneself as a part of nature,” as Hollier puts it, is one attitude that’s disappearing. Access to nature is almost a privilege now. And though I believe that technology may one day catch up and help us go back to a pre-Industrial Revolution style of living, we miss out on a great deal by being so cut off from the natural world. Wildness in nature is irrational in a way that’s comforting. Without that, you lose your connection to instinct, and your ability to deduce natural morality from what’s around you. I think the more that people feel disconnected from this aspect of their humanity, the more they seek to avoid punishment and live in a state of permanent contentment. But that form of experience, in my opinion, isn’t truly human. RELATED STORY What Writers Can Gain From Seeing the World Through Different Eyes We live in a very fast-moving—and sometimes quite bland and rational—time.  I think that’s why I’m interested in the history of mysticism and the occult, ways of thinking that push back against rationality. You don’t need to really believe that magical things are “real” to appreciate them. As Hollier explains earlier in this scene, people “may believe what is untrue, but they have a need to believe the untruth—it fills a gap in the fabric of what they want to know, or think they ought to know.” I’d rather live in a world injected with fantastical possibility. I’m very lucky in that my job is a creative one, but in the times that I haven’t been doing the creative side of the job I find it necessary to be involved in fantasy in some way. My interest in earlier ways of doing things also extends to my approach to making and recording music. I only work with analog gear, because that’s all I know how to do. I grew up in a recording studio. My dad ran a recording studio. I always grew up with the idea—in fact I didn’t ever really know there was another option—that you rehearse with a band for a week, and then you go in and record all together in one room. So that’s how I’ve always done it, even though many recordings today are built one track at a time. We do overdub—on the first track of the record, we went back in again and picked up a different percussion instrument and made weird noises into the mic. But that’s as far as we take it. Most of the songs are based around capturing a live recording. I like to keep things simple because it means you can’t lose yourself in the complications. I’m such a passionate person, but when things get too complicated I lose interest. So I’m very careful about containing my passion so that I can follow it through.  I feel that in all aspects of my life: I can’t have more than three outfits in my wardrobe or I can’t get dressed in the morning. I like things to not be too full of decisions. I think that’s one reason why I’ve always liked music made in the year 1969. For a long time, I would go into record shops and look for records—any records—made in 1969. That was a time in music when things were starting to become stereo and recording equipment was moving in a direction that’s closer to what we have now. I’ve always liked that tone and that sound: Technology allowed for new forms of experimentation, but things hadn’t gotten too complicated. You don’t need to really believe that magical things are “real” to appreciate them. It’s not that I don’t like music that uses new techniques. I listen to a lot of electronic artists—I think Autechre is someone who perfectly manages to express an extremely industrial sound, a sound that is very of our time, or beyond our time. People who know the present very well can sometimes show us what the future will look like, and that’s exciting. There’s Phillip K. Dick, writing [the novel that became] Blade Runner—when I moved to L.A. I thought, Holy fuck, he had it completely right! But sometimes you need the past to make the new. One example is John Luther Adams, a composer I really like. (Radiolab did a podcast about him.) He did an album that captures ocean sounds and the sound of storms—it’s not abstract, it’s very classical in style and instrumentation. He’s so competent as a musician and a composer that he’s completely managed to perfectly express those sounds from nature and translate them to music. I see that as a forward-thinking use of ancient skills. Not that classical music is ancient, by any means—but he used centuries-old instruments to create a completely modern statement. In my own songwriting process, I often find myself reappropriating older works to write new songs. There are maybe ten lines from The Rebel Angels, for example, that I’ve regurgitated into three or four different songs—it’s a form of regeneration. At one point in the book, Maria’s Greek professor—who is madly in love with her—goes on a long monologue about how she’s like the Greek god Sophia, the masculine god’s female counterpart. I ended up using this idea, in a way that wasn’t fully conscious, to create a song called “Sophia.” It was about the praying to a feminine god, what kind of power that is. What a different idea to a masculine god that is. Things are always getting lost as times change. One thing that’s disappearing from recorded music is the element of chance. Since a lot of the takes on my records are first or second takes, there’s sometimes some minor fluff in them—the sound of someone dropping a drumstick, or me dropping my pick. And yet the song goes on, and these little accidents become part of the character. As the recording process gets more sophisticated and controlled, these imperfections start to disappear. But maybe technology will find a way to help us find them again.

Laura Marling, on Why Writers Should Look Back for Inspiration.. By Joe Fassler.