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Alright, I think I have the title of my next fic. Regrettably after two martinis I'm probably not up to editing the draft and posting it to AO3 just yet. That'll have to wait for the weekend.

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WE HAVE CHEST HAIR IN FEH!

(Is he really only the second one after Fargus? Or am I forgetting somebody?)

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Thracia spotted in Heroes!

…It’s not Diarmuid.

But hey, the most neglected lord in the franchise just got his 4th unit!

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Do you listen to music while writing fics? What do you feel like gives you the most creative energy?

Not really, but then I'm not a very musical person and work best in silence. Unsurprisingly though when I'm working on my YouTube videos I have to do so while constantly listening to the sound of my own voice. Listening to yourself read the same lines over and over again while you edit footage isn't the most fun thing ever.

I do a lot of my plotting via outlining and mentally staging scenes, which works well since most of my writing is dialogue-heavy so it can often feel like I'm scripting stage plays. More than once I've had to change the trajectory of a scene because the dialogue went somewhere else, which has even included sex scenes of all things. When it comes to the smuttier bits I try to have the logistics worked out first and then just get it all down on the page, but since my apparent specialty is porn with feelings sometimes it isn't that simple. I do have ideas for raw PWPs, including those that would fit into my existing continuity, although I don't know if they'll ever be realized.

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What would you say is your favorite Fire Emblem game? If it makes things easier, you can choose based on the game with your favorite story, the game with your favorite characters, etc, and separate them so you don’t only have to choose one game if that’s impossible for you.

This one's a tough call. In terms of gameplay it's almost certainly Three Houses not because of how anyone normally plays it but because it's the FE most amenable to the 100% mentality. The actual tactical gameplay can be simplified pretty easily, especially on Normal, so it's not difficult to focus on macro-level unit development across many NG+ runs. Three Houses also has some of my favorite character sets and ships, namely Dimidue, Ferdibert, Manuela, and to a lesser extent Dorothea, Yuri, Balthus, and a few others. The fanbase however is rancid, unquestionably the worst of any FE, and the only way I've been able to spin that into a positive is that it's useful for my YouTube engagement numbers. My videos always do better if I can contrive a way to stick Edelgard on the thumbnail.

As for overall story, I do really like how Genealogy of the Holy War hangs together as a tragedy that gradually turns around near the end and how its unique gameplay features do a good job of conveying its scope and gravity. Thracia 776 too works as a nice counterpoint to FE4, zooming in on a smaller conflict and feeling likewise smaller and more cramped all around...even if I generally can't stand the gameplay. Tonally Engage is great for all the nostagia sendups and just generally being fun and colorful in contrast to the muddier looks of the other modern games, but it does not understand how to appeal to 100% players and that's a massive drawback.

I think the rough midpoint of all of the above for me though might be Radiant Dawn, since the Tellius games have a solid story with plenty of gay subtext elements while FE10 has its own weird little meta way of playing via rigging BEXP levels to max out characters' stats. FE10 is also more interesting for draft runs than other games because of how you have to jump between armies.

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I’ll be honest, I’ve never played the Octopath Traveler games — and I’m not sure if I ever will — but I’ve been reading some of your fics because I really enjoy your work in general. I just wanted to say: I absolutely love the way you write. Even without knowing much about the characters, setting, or time period, your fics are genuinely engaging and a pleasure to read. I hope you continue creating more.

Thanks. Probably one the highest compliments someone could give a fic writer is that you can enjoy their stuff without knowing the source material (or more narrowly, without shipping the main pairing). When I did that challenge run I specifically tailored it for people who hadn't played OT2 because the game is criminally overlooked, and based on the comments that was a good call. It just happens to be a very good sandbox for my particular set of interests.

And I've always got more fics in the works for that series. I do have a definitive ending for it in mind, but who knows when/if I'll ever get around to that one - and in the meantime I have a bunch of other ideas I want to explore. Just now I've finished the draft of my next fic, and I'll have that uploaded to AO3 as soon as I have the time to edit it...and think of a title, because it usually takes me a while to come up with those.

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Do you think modern Fire Emblem would benefit from multiple endings? Although the multiple endings of older games feel more like failed endings and a real one, and the different routes in Houses and Fates is sort of like different endings, it's not quite the same

If it’s anything like Awakening and its last minute choice that doesn’t actually amount to much of anything, then I’m not sure that I trust IS to be able to pull that off. Even the multi-route games have endings that are very similar in tone despite some very different circumstances. I highly doubt we’re ever going to get a bad/incomplete ending again like in FE3 or FE6, because that would interfere with the player pandering.

Maybe if it’s like whether or not you spare a major antagonist (and maybe recruit them) toward the end of the game? Hard to think of scenarios that might be feasible while also not branching off into different routes.

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Owing to inclement weather, I have some long and tedious traveling to do over the next few days. Texas is involved, God help me.

Send asks. Questions about my fics are great, but I’ll take just about anything.

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Just got to finishing To Make as Much Vices as Virtues. Really great fic. I was wondering if you had a clear picture of what Georges would look like? Thanks for answering

Thanks! I'm not an artist so I don't have any definitive visuals I can point to for my OCs, and even if I were to have fanart made of my fics I'd honestly be more interested in seeing interpretations of what I've done with the canon characters, ex. Partitio in full period drag as Mrs. Vanstein, or a nude Osvald - extremely hairy, extremely scarred, and very big dicked. Ahem.

Georgette was first introduced in What Burns Between Us, where Partitio thinks that "she’s rather older than she first appeared. Under the wig and the stuffed bodice, she oddly reminds him a little of his father". In the context of that scene it's meant to suggest that Partitio feels more comfortable around Georgette than his initial confusion over the crossdressing would indicate, as well as possibly provide some irony/foreshadowing since Papp himself is revealed to be queer later in the story.

That line also helped spin Georges off into what I wanted to do with him starting in Wooing That Drifting Imagery, where he became more than just a friendly drag mother figure for Partitio and the New Delsta underground. Partitio describes him during his first on-page encounter with Georges out of drag as "a stout older man with grey hair and a pair of spectacles perched atop his prominent nose". At least to Partitio Georges and Roque must bear enough of a resemblance that his first guess at their relationship is that they're brothers...only for him to get immediately teased for his naïveté.

As one of Roque's former lovers and a representation of a life Roque might have had but refused, Georges is in essence meant to be Papp's foil. They're around the same age (so late 50s in the present day) and are both larger men which Roque has a preference for, but where Papp is rough and rural, moderately hairy and probably a little musky at all times, Georges is softer, urbanized, and from Roque's point of view unattractively effeminate. In Vices itself Roque refers to Georges as "pale and pudgy with his little spectacles and his too-full glass of wine and his broad, effeminate gestures" and is generally disdainful of his crossdressing and effete mannerisms.

In modern terms Georgette would most likely be what we'd refer to as a drag queen and a she/her gay, two things that turn off Roque in part due to his own insecurities. Papp gets to have some fun annoying Roque over that at the end of that fic, because Roque is obviously uncomfortable with the knowledge that one of his old lovers sometimes presents as a woman. It's one of the many aspects of Roque's characterization I got to have fun playing with, to see how far he could go while still remaining at least marginally likeable. Georgette though is delightfully unbothered by that, and once she gets over her prejudice against Papp she seems like she'd rather enjoy him. In Through the Long Moonlit Night I mildly imply that Georges has worked his way into having a threesome with Papp and Roque, and while that fic is non-canon to the rest of the continuity I may explore the comedic potential of that idea at some point in the future.

And on a mostly unrelated point, Georges is one of two characters in this fic continuity I've written as a total bottom. (The other is fellow OC Claudine, who's more of an "extreme" bottom: fisting, double penetration, etc.) The way I've written Osvitio leans a fair bit on the older top/younger bottom dynamic, so I wanted to have an older bottom somewhere else in the story for balance.

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Hi, I’d like to ask, what drew you into the Octopath Traveller games? What hooked you on them? I see you like them enough to write long fanfic about the characters from said games, so I figured I’d ask and see what you find so appealing about the franchise. And who knows, I might check them out depending on how interesting the games sound to me. Have a good night!

That's a bit tough to answer since what got me playing the first Octopath Traveler back in 2018 was not at all what's gotten me writing a 300K+ word fic continuity for Octopath Traveler II. Both games are fun retro JRPG throwbacks with a lovely visual style, great music, and engaging turn-based combat, and while the story approach is pretty weird (each is essentially eight separate stories that loosely interconnect at the end even if the main characters still don't interact all that much) it's not hard to get used to. I would say though that OT2 is an all-around improvement over the first game; months ago I wrote a lengthy blog post all about that.

But as for the fic writing - OT2 specifically covers a psuedo-historical timeframe that's much more in my area of literary expertise, more inspired by the 19th and early 20th centuries than the stock medieval/Renaissance fantasy setting of the first game. In my stories I get to play around with references to that era and flesh out the game's settings according to real-world equivalents. Most obviously, OT2's largest city easily reads as an analogue for a city like New Orleans or Paris, so naturally I've leaned even more into that in my fics. The second game is also much gayer as I noted in that earlier post; the single most popular ship by fic count in Octopath fandom is in the second game, and it concerns two guys. But while those two show up in supporting roles in some of my fics, they've never been my main focus since I have much more fun exploring the spicy subtext between another pair that are only the third-most popular M/M ship (and fifth-most popular overall). I even did a YouTube challenge run video with those two based on my fics that I'd like to think makes a strong case for shipping them. That you can actually do such a thing in-game is just one example of how flexible the Octopath games can be.

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How have you been lately? I (unfortunately) haven’t kept up with your blog or videos in a couple months. Just wanted to see how you’ve been. Have a great day : )

I’ve been alright, if rather busy both online and off. Monthly videos take some work to put out, and when I’m still writing fic and of course attending to my offline work I’m not left with much free time.

Thanks for checking in!

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Contrary to what some of my video engagement levels might suggest, I do take into account how popular an idea is likely to be before I pursue it.

This is why, for example, there's going to be several videos over the next few months that either center around Three Houses or at the very least include it on the thumbnail...and why my theorycrafting for more Duopath Traveler II runs will remain purely theoretical and not something I turn into actual challenge runs.

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Hi, not sure if you keep up with Fire Emblem Heroes or not, but what do you think of the new Summer banner that just came out? I’m not sure if it’s just me but Yuri’s art looks kind of… gross? Ugly? I really don’t like it which is unfortunate because I like Yuri a lot, but I find this particular artist really didn’t do him justice. I personally find his base art way more appealing than this alt. What do you think?

I play Heroes, although I don't spend money on it and don't keep up with the exhausting meta. Who even has time to read those ridiculous skill descriptions? Since I'm F2P I rarely spend orbs on banners where I can't spark, which rules out most seasonals, although I do enjoy keeping track of which characters make it into the game and slowly building up my catalogue.

As for summer Yuri, I've seen plenty of people mocking his art. He does indeed look fairly ridiculous, especially his feet. I am at least happy though that summer Balthus is about as fanservice-y as he'd ever realistically be allowed to be. He even has a bit of crotch bulge!

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On the dating sim front, BLits has recently announced a collaboration project with the director and producer of Dear Monster. I'm lightly optimistic about Seven Nexus since DM had a good plot hook and story mapping to go with the erotica, even if this new game so far looks a bit tame on the monsterfucking angle which is kind of a shame if it is since that's not as common in these types of games.

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It's funny that I still occasionally get troll anons even when I'm busy and haven't posted anything on here for several days. Someone is dedicated, apparently.

So am I, though. This fic and video script aren't going to write themselves...although writing them at the same time is undoubtedly an odd experience.

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I played the Exes Assault!! demo the other day and I was surprised (pleasantly?) that the MC seems to be more of an asshole than the average VN protagonist. Not by a lot, and he's more uncaring/thoughtless than malicious so he's not unlikeable, but it took me by surprise.

The tone is indeed quite different, since the MC has been in a prior sexual and/or romantic relationship with all the love interests and now has to work through whatever baggage was left behind from what they'd had before. It's not the sort of thing one sees often in dating sims, which usually prefer first loves and virginal innocence.

Having played the whole game, a lot of it is along those lines. One love interest's route isn't complete yet and ends abruptly about halfway through, but aside from that there's a lot on offer if you're into guys learning how to be mature about breakups and move forward while also having lots of sex - some involving mild kinks like bondage. Maybe the strangest design choice is having the story play out over weeks of a repetitive corporate office routine...so much so that in every story I was actually looking forward to the weekends just for a break from the monotony of the MC's work. I'm not sure whether that's clever or dumb.

As for the language issues I brought up when I first talked about this game, they got more bearable the longer I played. The full game apparently doesn't have a Catalan option, only English and Spanish, but that doesn't mean much for me either way. The writers being obviously more comfortable with a Romance language made it easier for me to follow the sometimes clunky English - similarities in syntax across Romance languages, and all - although the occasional bits of out-of-place British English were always funny to note. There's also a lot of food in this game, with many of its dialogue options coming down to picking lunches that the love interests will like. There might be something to pick apart with its takes on Tex-Mex/Mexican (which I know to be different things, but I'm not sure the writers do?), and I always got a laugh out of their stereotypically bland options for American foods. Like yes, overcooked meat and flavorless processed cheese really is the quintessential American dining experience - that's why they're in such awe of Louisiana cuisine! Anyway....

Not the best dating sim I've ever played, but there are certainly worse out there and this one at least has some interesting angles to pursue.

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Haven't really talked much about FE6 before, so naturally the first time I do so it's (mostly) about shipping.