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Fic Update: An Ending, Guided by Compassion

Title: An Ending, Guided by Compassion, Chapter 8

Rating: Explicit

Pairings: Miquella/Radahn, Miquella/Tarnished, Miquella/Tarnished/Radahn, Miquella/Radahn/Mohg/Tarnished

Summary: In which the Tarnished in made aware of the consequences of Radahn's renewal. Or, ''It Gets Worse,' the Chapter.'

Warnings: Everything in the fic up to this point, please read the tags.

Link: HERE

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Fanfic Update: An Ending, Guided by Compassion Chapter 7

Title: An Ending, Guided by Compassion

Rating: M

Summary: In which the day's business is concluded, and Miquella gives the Tarnished a tour of his and Radahn's quarters. Another voice rises out of the dark.

Warnings: Unreliable narrator, exhibitionism, dubcon, manipulation, mind control, voyeurism, disturbing themes, improbably large demigod dick...

Link: HERE on AO3

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I love memetic communication when it gets to the point of being incomprehensible because can you imagine showing someone this picture

And asking them what Greek god it represents

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Ok, so my personal deal with worldbuilding is that you have to gradually fold it into the setting. Ideally there'd be worldbuilding everywhere. The world should feel alive. But there's a risk of turning a reader off if you do a big infodump especially if your setting is really fantastical. My answer is 'lots of worldbuilding but with caveats.'

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Fic Update: An Ending, Guided by Compassion, Chapter 5

Title: An Ending, Guided by Compassion, Chapter 5

Summary: A new day dawns in the Lands Between. Miquella holds court, and the Tarnished spots a familiar face.

Chapter Rating: T

Warnings: Mind control, Miquella

Link: HERE on AO3

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I have to say I love miquella. I adore his aspirations and desire to relieve the suffering of others.

but he has suicide bomb soldiers in the Haligtree!

I aint TRUSTING someone who can charm people and has fucking SUICIDE BOMBERS. No matter what justification you have for that! Whether they figured out how to do that on their own, or Miquella just intended to give them a blessing, or whatever you can think of.

A leader who commands that level of belief and fanaticism, whether intentional or not, NEEDS to look in a fucking mirror.

LIKE, HOLY FUCK

Soldiers shouldn't WANT to sacrifice their lives! A kind leader would want them to try to fucking survive, yeah?

I know I couldn't stand the idea that someone, BECAUSE of their belief in our cause, or worse their belief in ME!? would choose to MARTYR themselves rather than run!

the suicide bombers were in the Haligtree! Miquella only shed pieces of himself AFTER cocooning! which means the soldiers became like this while under his rule! Before the cocooning!

That shit was BEFORE the dlc!

acting like Shadow of the Erdtree was a straight up lie, a retcon, and betrayal of the previous writing on Miquella is honestly very fucking irritating.

It's a consistent expansion on his character! Someone who's so desperate to do the right thing that they're utterly blind to the folly of the actions they've taken along the way, or FAR worse, rationalizes and justifies them?

screaming

Additionally, the defense of Miquella's charm being "he used it in an ethical way" is fucking laughable and I utterly hate it.

That power is unethical.

Full. Stop.

Coercion is already evil.

And directly influencing someone's mind in a way they literally cannot resist (the only person who could resist it was the tarnished because we got his great rune) is far worse.

No person, god, or BEING can just use a power like that ethically. The power to do that is a temptation in and of itself.

Try to look at things from an angle of power imbalance, will yah? There's a reason power corrupts etc. is a saying.

Whenever a person holds great power, no matter how pure their intentions, they will misuse it and cause suffering.

Which is why I could never willingly let Miquella become a god. I'd sooner see him dead than that, because there's no way he could possibly make himself "pure" enough by removing fucking pieces of his very self!

A god who never feels doubt, indecision, fear, and love?

That's just a tyrant with even more tyranny than before!

A leader HAS to doubt their actions! If they cannot doubt, there's no room for anyone to protest their decisions!

The options, given his powers, are literally either killing those who resist or fucking brainwashing them!

in the end, this game, and this dlc, are

A

FUCKING!

TRAGEDY!

ALWAYS HAS BEEN.

Rant over. Sorry if this hurt anyone's feelings, I'm just so irritated it's turned to anger, and I NEEDED to let it out.

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Me with too many fics, stop me.

oh no my pornography is turning into an angst-filled character study

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morgott :)

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Welcome to my Radamohg headcanon, because there's totally some Mohg still in there. Somewhere.

Mohg and Radahn glimpsing into the memories of one another.

Radahn seeing Mohg's devastation and heartache over Morgott choosing to dedicate himself to the Erdtree.

Likewise, Mohg glimpsing into a memory of Radahn. That churning feeling of repulsion gazing upon mountains of corpses, charred, half-digested. And the disappointment as he beholds Rykard's serpentine form in the center.

"... Brother... I love you... I always have. I always will... But I cannot follow you down the path you have chosen..."

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This is so real I don't even know where to begin.

New Ask game. Send me one of my fic titles and I'll tell which was THAT SCENE for that fic.

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posting niche fic on ao3 is like releasing a small creature into the wild and hoping it survives and finds sustenance

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Fic Update: An Ending, Guided by Compassion

Ok, I frankly forgot to even post this here at all when I started it BUT better late than never lol

Title: An Ending, Guided by Compassion

Summary: (Alternate title: Heart-Stolen)

Your heart was quite artfully stolen when you challenged Radahn and Miquella at the Gate of Divinity. With your help, Miquella's Age of Compassion is rather forcefully brought to the Lands Between. But what is a Tarnished warrior to do when there are no more battles to be fought?

Mind the tags, seriously, mind them!

Second person POV

Chapter 4 Summary: In which the Tarnished and Miquella clean up and retire to his chambers. Miquella introduces the Tarnished to some of her new duties.

Rating: VERY Explicit

Pairings: Adult Miquella/Tarnished, Radahn/Tarnished, Miquella/Radahn, Miquella/Radahn/Tarnished (not yet but soon)

AO3 Link: HERE

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Who Needs Maidens Chapter 68: The Radahn Festival Part 2

Who Needs Maidens Update!

Chapter 68: The Radahn Festival, Part 2

Rating: T

Summary: In which the warriors of the Festival prepare to meet a possibly unbeatable opponent. Said opponent is more than ready.

Link: HERE

Notes: Yeah the Festival is going to be in more parts than I'd originally planned...mostly because 1. pacing and 2. the DLC gave me feelings and I therefore need to deal with this in different ways, AUGH. Anyway, update!

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blade aloft, blood afire

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See him move through smoke and mirrors

Feel his presence in the crowd

(The royal portrait of veiled Morgott)

He and Messmer need to hold a contest for cutest scowl.

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New Fic: Where Life and Death Converge

Welcome to me getting some of my DLC Feels out! ;_;

Title: Where Life and Death Converge

Fandom: Elden Ring

Rating: T for canon-typical violence, angst

Pairings: Gen, Morgott/Tarnished IF you squint

Summary: SPOILERS FOR ALL OF THE DLC --

In which the Tarnished enters the Land of Shadow and stumbles across Miquella's quest for godhood while trying to make a decision about the Elden Ring. Along the way, they notice that some of the animals look a little...strange. And that some of them act a little strange. And some seem to be following them...

Link: HERE

DLC spoilery pics behind the cut...but you can see some of what I'm talking about.

There are way more, but I don't have good shots of everything. I need one of the tortoises because those are adorable.

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After watching Cinderella (the original animated movie, which was my favorite as a child), it strikes me how it solves many common problems people have with this fairy tale. Like:

Why did they try to identify the mystery girl using her shoe size? Because the bullheaded king's only clue to her identity was the shoe the Grand Duke picked up off the steps.

Why didn't the prince recognize her by her face? Because his father wouldn't involve him in the process at all, and wasn't the one going around trying to find her.

Why did the prince want to marry a lady he only met that night? Because his father was going to force him to marry someone, and he genuinely liked this woman.

Why did Cinderella want to marry a man she only met that night? Because marriage was her best and most secure way to freedom. Fucked up, but you can't say it's unrealistic for the setting of a fairy tale. She also genuinely liked him.

If they're using the slipper to find her, wouldn't it be more sensible to search for the person with the other slipper? Yes. The King is purposefully nonsensical and the Duke is purposefully terrified enough of him to carry out his orders to the letter. Furthermore, they end up doing that in the end anyway, because the Duke's glass slipper is shattered, and Cinderella brings out the one she has to prove her identity.

Why didn't the stepmother and stepsisters recognize Cinderella at the ball? Because they were dancing too far away, and then left the party to dance in private, which was possible because the King wanted very badly for his son to hit it off with someone and tried to arrange the best conditions for that to happen.

Why didn't Cinderella save herself? Because in real life, abuse victims should not have to shoulder that responsibility, and usually can't. In real life, you need and deserve an external support system. Asking for help, in this kind of situation, is very important. She is saved by others because she is loved. Because she is not alone. Because she has friends who love her, and want her to be happy and safe and free. Because in real life, people who want to help someone who is suffering are like the mice. We can't pull out miracle solutions, but we can provide companionship and if we're in the right place at the right time, we can help the person find a better life.

Why didn't the fairy godmother save Cinderella from her abusive household, or try to help her sooner? Because she's magic, and magic can't solve your problems. Quote: "Like all dreams, well, I'm afraid it can't last forever." This (and Cinderella's dream of going to the ball) is a metaphor for pleasurable things in bad circumstances. An ice cream won't get rid of your depression, but it will provide you with momentary happiness to bolster you, as well as the reminder that happiness in general is still possible for you. Cinderella doesn't want to go to the ball so she can get away from her stepmother and stepsisters, or so she can meet someone to marry and leave with. She wants to go to the ball to remind herself that she can still have things she wants. That her desires matter. This is important because the movie does a very good job of illustrating Lady Tremaine's subtle abuse tactics, all of which invisibly press the message that Cinderella doesn't matter. While going to the ball and fulfilling her dreams may not be a victory in the material sense, it is still a victory against Lady Tremaine's efforts.

Why is Cinderella's choice to be kind and obedient framed as a good thing, when you are not obligated to be kind to your abuser? This one walks a very fine line, but I think the movie still makes it make sense. Lady Tremaine never acknowledges her cruelty. She always frames her punishments of Cinderella as Cinderella's fault. Cinderella is interrupting, Cinderella is shirking her duties, Cinderella is playing vicious practical jokes. Cinderella is still a member of the family, of course she can go to the ball, provided she meet these impossible conditions. Lady Tremaine's tactics are designed to make Cinderella feel like she must always be in the wrong and her stepmother must always be in the right. If Cinderella calls her stepmother out on her cruelty, or attempts to fight back, Lady Tremaine can frame that as Cinderella being ungrateful, cruel, broken, evil, etc. If Cinderella responds to her stepmother's cruelty defiantly (in the way she's justified to), she's not taking control out of Lady Tremaine's hands. Disobedience can be spun back into her stepmother's control. She wants Cinderella to be angry and sad and show how much she's hurting. So since Cinderella is adapting to her situation, she chooses to be kind. Not only because she naturally wants to be and it's part of her personality, but because it is a form of defiance in its own way, and it allows her to keep a reminder of her agency and value. Her choice to be kind is her chance to keep her own narrative alive: she is not obeying because her stepmother wants her to and she has to do what her stepmother does, but because she wants to. It's a small distinction, but one that makes all the difference in terms of keeping her hope and identity. (Fuck, I wrote a whole paragraph about how this doesn't mean you can't be angry at people who hurt you or that you need to be kind to deserve help, and then deleted it by accident. Uh. Try again.) Expressing anger and pain is an important part of regaining autonomy and healing. Although it is commendable to be kind while you are suffering, it is NOT required for you to get help or be worthy of help. If Cinderella's recovery was explored beyond "happily ever after" she would need to let herself be angry and sad to heal. Cinderella is not only kind because it comes naturally to her, but because it's her defense against the abuse she's suffering. Everyone's story and experiences are different, and one does not invalidate the other.

Bonus round for answers that aren't part of the movie:

Why didn't Cinderella run away? Where would she go? Genuinely, in hundreds-of-years-ago France, where would she go if she snuck out of the window with a change of clothes? With her step-family, she's miserable and abused, but she's fed, clothed, and in no danger of dying or being taken advantage of by anyone other than her stepmother and stepsisters. Even if she escapes and manages to find financial security, her stepmother might be able to find her and get her back.

Why didn't Cinderella burn the house down with them inside it/slit their throats in the night/poison their food/etc.? Because that's a revenge fantasy, and this story is a fantasy about being saved. There's nothing wrong with making Cinderella into a revenge fantasy. That's perfectly fine, as long as you acknowledge that the other type of fantasy is also a valid interpretation. (I mean, the original fairy tale features the stepsisters getting their feet mutilated and all three of them getting their eyes pecked out, so go for it.)

Why isn't Cinderella more proactive in general? Because she's a child who has been abused for the back half of her life, who has had to be focused on survival because. you know. she's an abused kid.

How did she dance in glass slippers? Gotta agree with you there man, that's weird.