#*˖ ⊹ meta. ╲ self promo. ⋅

[violethowler]

Constructing Kingdoms Episode 19 Is Now Available on YouTube

My newest Constructing Kingdoms video is now live on YouTube. This time, I'm discussing how the KH narrative references elements of the other games in Final Fantasy's Fabula Nova Crystallis subseries aside from Versus XIII.

[mjrarcana]

mjrarcana: a persona 3/5 multi muse by topaz - sideblog to ochazos (x)

| rules. | muse list. | credits | prompts | mains |

[crow-aeris]

My little Fox!Tim au thing. You can find it on AO3, alongside the other- barely edited- works in the series, but you can read the first thing here too. I’m looking to post all of them here eventually, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If asked about him, the few people who have interacted with him will say, “Timothy Drake? Why, he’s such a polite little child! Timothy’s a darling, his father’s a Hunter, hear? Jack’s one of the world’s finest, and don’t forget about Janet either. She’s the best tracker money will find you. I’m sure the kid will grow up just like them. Timothy is a Drake through and through.”

His father would place his hands on Tim’s shoulders, nudging him forward with a broad, charming grin. His mother would smile too, sharp and cold and cunning.

If asked about him, people would not doubt that he’s a human. Timothy acts like a human, smells like a human, and has a Hunter for a father! Why would Timothy Jackson Drake be anything other than human?

Well, there are two reasons why.

His too-sharp senses, his pointy teeth, and his eyes, weren’t they glowing just a second ago?

As a child, Tim remembers his mother whispering in his ears just before she leaves with Jack on another Hunters’ trip, “Remember, my Moon, I love you. I know you’ll miss me, and I’ll miss you too, but this is for your own good. I will return soon, I promise. And when you’re old enough, I’ll tell you everything. I Promise.”

She would kiss his forehead and a blanket of warmth would settle over his shoulders, and he would feel safe and content.

One day, while Tim was perusing the Drake Manor Library, he stumbled across a book written by an author whose name was scratched out long ago. He was leafing through the pages, something guiding his hands and quietly telling him where to go. His hands stopped at a page written in another language- images drawn in dark ink, punctuated by splashes of bright cinnabar. The pages, no doubt once a beautiful white, were now a washed-out bige.

Tim ran his small fingers down the image of an elegant fox, whose body seemed to twirl and writhe despite being confined to the smooth, aged bamboo paper. Wide blue eyes were filled with indescribable awe as he drank in the picture of the creature. The words describing the creature, although foreign, were clear and legible.

After feasting his mind on the knowledge of the Huli Jing, not-quite-human and not-quite-fox creatures who could shift between both forms, Tim darted back into the main body of the manor. The housemaid would be here soon, and Tim doesn’t want her reporting back to his parents.

Throughout the rest of the day, Tim couldn’t get the thought of the Huli Jing out of his mind. Every time Tim tried to do something else, the memory persisted.

Honestly, it was growing annoying.

Even as he settled down to try and sleep for the night, he dreamed of scarlet foxes dancing around him. Some had two tails, others had seven, but foxes had nine. Despite this strange and confusing scene, Tim couldn’t help but feel drawn to them. The foxes herded Tim in front of a mirror, where he peered in to see a pair of pale blue eyes staring back.

Tim yelped, jerking back on paws that replaced his hands and feet. His fur bristled as his ears pinned back against his skull. Distressed cries spilled from his lips as he turned and streaked away, his heart pounding jack-rabbit-fast in his chest.

The world around him rippled and twisted from a milky white to an inky black in mere seconds. He cried out as something caught on his paws, tripping him and sending him tumbling. He let out a wordless scream as he began to fall, a feeling akin to thousands of ants biting into his skin drove the child on.

“MOM!” Tim cried as he fell off a cliff, his body hurtled towards the bottom of a thousand-meter deep ravine.

Inches away from meeting a pancake’s end, Tim jolted awake with wide eyes, sweaty palms, and a heart that was beating far too fast and far too loud for his liking. His bedroom seemed so much brighter than before he went to sleep, almost as if someone had turned on his nightlight.

Tim’s blood roared in his ears, pounding in time with his heartbeat as he forced himself to take deep and measured breaths. But when he tried to clench his hands into fists, the sheets under his fingers came apart with a riiip, and Tim jerked back to see the fabric torn to shreds. He whimpered softly, hissing in pain as he accidentally pricked his lip with his tooth.

What in the world was going on?

He carefully unhooked his hands from the sheets and examined his new, sharpened, elongated, claw-like nails. Each one of his fingers seemed tipped with ivory talons that gleamed under the bare moonlight. With only a second’s thought, Tim brought the claw to the back of his forearm and pressed down. He could only watch in a weird sense of fascination as his skin parted with the pressure, but the scratch almost instantly healed with a rush of chill.

Tim needed to head to the library now.

He tried to hop off the bed like he usually would, but his blankets wrapped around Tim’s legs like a snare and sent him crashing to the floor with a startled yelp.

As soon as the impact registered, a harsh wave of cold tore through his body and forced a pained cry from Tim’s lips. He gasped softly, screwing his eyes shut and sobbing as his entire body shuddered. Tim could feel his bones crack, break, and soften before hardening into new positions.

“M-Mom,” Tim sobbed, screaming as he was suddenly hyper-aware of each and every bone in his bone painstakingly snap and reheal themselves in different positions, “M-mom! It- It hurts! PLEA-SE.”

Tim’s eyes snapped open, his cries stuttering to a brief halt as he felt his face change and elongate, the process stalling in response to his sudden wave of panic.

Ivory laws scrambled against the wooden floor in his desperation to find a mirror- anything to confirm this was real. Tim hissed as his still-soft bones wailed in protest, whimpering every time he placed weight on even one of his limbs.

After a painstaking four minutes of searching, the young child found what he was looking desperately for.

He came to an abrupt stop, shock and confusion flooding his brain.

Tim’s pupils were different from their usual round shapes, and his pupils were now vertical slits surrounded by his familiar pale-blue irises. They were almost… Cat-like. No- fox-like.

Tim felt exhausted and collapsed into a heap, allowing his muzzle to finally finish taking form.

He was… a Fox?

It took some getting used to, but Tim eventually figured out what had happened.

After his initial shock and terror had faded, Tim spent the entire night and most of the next day struggling to turn back into a human. Each attempt yielded massive amounts of pain, and he was tempted to give up more than a few times, but he pulled through.

But now, there was another problem. A big, intimidating, and potentially life-threatening problem.

Tim huffed anxiously, pacing back and forth in his room. His parents were due back in a few days- What was he supposed to do?

His father is a Hunter, a person who traps and kills creatures like werewolves, creatures like Tim.

Was his mother a fox as well? Is that why Tim’s a fox? If so, then why would Janet marry Jack, an infamous Hunter? Why would his mother continuously choose to put her life in danger?

He took a deep breath, absentmindedly noting how his sense of smell increased dramatically since last night, before realization smacked him square in the face.

The manor smells human.

The manor smells human.

Specifically, the manor smelled like a human Hunter.

That was why his mother married Jack Drake!

Tim’s father was a Hunter, and Hunters always smelled strongly of residual magic, blood, and something else, so there would be no wonder that a Hunter’s partner and a Hunter’s son would smell so strongly of magic. Being so close to a human would also make Tim and Janet smell human by proxy!

Tim’s mother was so clever.

He grinned, a burst of pride soaring in his chest as he twisted around to stare into the mirror. Tim’s eyes were still their usual pale, nearly white, blue, but his pupils were finally back to their rounded shape.

With an exhale, Tim tightened his resolve and steeled himself.

This… Is fine! Tim can handle it! He’s four, a big boy, and so all he needed to do was lay low and keep calm.

As long as Tim lays low and keeps his discovery to himself, Jack will never find out.

Yes, that’s exactly what he’ll do.

===

Yall are the ones who explicitly stated that you wanted it, so here yall go!

@icereader12 @summermermaidfariy @mushroom-wife

[konstantintreplev]

tip jar open (+ commissions?)

hey! so i have no idea to go about this, but here goes -- if you're interested in 'tipping' me for any of the graphics i do, or videos i make, or essays i write (or anything else), i have a tip jar here (via ko-fi).

it's a thing i'm opening up while i'm in school again. it's mainly to help me get by each week, since working regularly will be difficult. (my school hours as they are, i only sometimes have evenings and weekends available, and the way my art-making works, i can at least do it virtually anywhere/anytime, so long as i have my laptop.)

for those wondering, i'm studying theatre directing just outside of London, for my MFA, with the hopes of getting my PhD two years from now, and working as a theatre creative and academic here in the UK.

i'm considering opening up commissions for digital art/video editing efforts -- would anyone be interested? definitely negotiable on rates, but if there's a song you're dying to hear set to one of your favorite fandoms, or a rarepair you'd like graphics/gifs of that you'd love to see in the world, consider me!

[canonical-transformation]

Seven Prayers for Seven Archons (a Genshin Impact fic)

Let me tell you about this fic! I published it in early 2022 and, despite the fact that it's quite outdated, I still think it's a pretty fun read. (It's definitely a weird read, at least!)

Here's the pitch:

structural formalism as an evocative device (in hindsight, I'd cite Italo Calvino as a major influence);

style and syntax as character voice (there's a recipe section!, for some reason?);

a comparative character study of the entire Genshin cast circa v2.4.

Just kidding! That was not actually the pitch unless you're one of 3–5 very specific followers who I'm guessing might appreciate that.

Here's the actual pitch:

Genshin characters' Vision stories; every single one (v2.4). Some are simple remixes of canon, others fill in missing scenes.

Includes:

an Ayaka training montage (tragedy);

Yun Jin's greatest performance;

the Kokomi-Orobaxi conversation both of them deserved;

an informal meeting with the Yuheng;

if you've read Barbara's Vision story then you know what you're in for;

Alatus meets Haagentus and Morax;

...and, one of my personal favourites:

“Once upon a time, there was a Hoarfrost Heiress, destined to be a Darkrime Duchess.”

[ruiination]

𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 noun - the action or fact of ruining someone or something or of being ruined. / the state of being ruined

Multi-fandom multi-muse featuring muses from: final fantasy, vinland saga. alan wake, persona, re:zero, outlast, bioshock, ace attorney, undertale, deltarune, life is strange, code geass, steins:gate, and danganronpa. / promo template by freerps

[bulletblessed]

tags

[desalvar]

TAG DROP

[whinlatter]

Hermione —> Overrated? Or underrated?

Do you think Harry or Ron would have been incapable of finding the Horcruxes without Hermione? Do you think their capabilities are overshadowed by Hermione since she’s so smart? When they became Aurors do you think they flopped or thrived without Hermione?

Anon are you trying to start a war in my ask box with this one…

You know, I think I would say Hermione is increasingly underrated in certain fandom spaces, after a long time being maaaybe idealised to the point where her character had all her flaws erased and the backlash was bound to happen. I love Hermione as a character, talents, flaws and all. I love thinking about her arc, her motivations and emotions and relationships that we don't glimpse through Harry's narration (her friendship with Ginny being a great example - I loved loved loved playing with it in Orchards). I just always enjoy exploring her inner life and her joy and fears and more intimate feelings when writing or reading fics (something this recent piece, something so tender (i can't explain) by @incalculablepower, does so so well). When I was much younger I used to be a bit ambivalent about Hermione as a character, for reasons that are almost cliche now: a reader who are themselves a bookish girl seeing too much of themselves in Hermione's worst moments and not enjoying the invitation to look inwards that those moments prompted, lol. (I remember little me reading the part where Ron mocks Hermione for jumping up and down in her chair while putting her hand up in class and being like sorry do other people... not like it when I do that in class... oh no oh no)

The boring answer is I don't think Harry or Ron would have been able capable of finding the Horcruxes without Hermione, but I also definitely don't think Hermione would have been able to find them on her own. Back in the day in fandom spaces, I think Harry and Ron were a bit caricatured as useless clowns bouncing off walls with Hermione being the only one with any sense. These days, at least in the fandom spaces I interact with, there've been a lot of big steps towards giving Harry and Ron their completely deserved credit for being smart, strategic and impressive throughout the Horcrux hunt (digression but I was doing a re-read of Malfoy Manor chapter the other day and sorry Harry and Ron double act in that scene is so impressive when they're dealing with Wormtail. Auror skills absolutely at work in that moment). I think Harry and Ron would do well in those early years as Aurors without Hermione, in part because they have learned from her over the years, but not solely because of it.

For me, it's so interesting to think about how a lot of Hermione's character growth and arc would happen after the war. Although I don't think the transition to Auror life would have been straightforward for Harry and Ron, I think Hermione would really struggle with going back to Hogwarts. It definitely makes sense that she would want to go back and try and get back on her pre-war track, but you know what they say: you can never really go home. For Hermione, going back to school would have been extremely dislocating and challenging, for so many reasons: the absence of Harry and Ron socially (and ofc being long-distance with Ron), but also the experience of going from being a war hero on-the-run back to the very controlled and arguably infantilising life of a boarding school, alongside peers who lived a very different war to her and went through Hogwarts under the Carrows. Hermione would have her own post-war traumas to deal with, but no longer be alongside the two people who shared hers most directly. Then there's also the context with her parents... I think the 1998/1999 academic year was a rough one for her, in ways that are so interesting to think about as a writer.

(Now if only someone... would write a fic... about the girls at Hogwarts in their seventh year... where we might explore these themes... that might begin with b and rhyme with feasts... maybe... might be nice...)

[carpeomnes]

tag drop

[violethowler]

Constructing Kingdoms: Episode 20 - The Almighty Author is now live on YouTube!

[mythicluke]

Earlier today I started a new blog on Wordpress where I will provide meta analysis, reviews, thoughts, and personal ramblings about my everyday life.

My first post is about five of my favourite Luke Skywalker works and it would be awesome if you checked it out and maybe reblogged this post to spread the word about my new venture!

[hexiewrites]

Self Rec Game

Thanks for the tag @riality-check!!

Rules: recommend three of your own fics (1 most popular, two hidden gems) then tag some people!

Most popular

[I'm going to cheat a little and give you my most popular ever AND my most popular Steddie, cause I know what all of yall are here for these days]

ever: Don't Take This Sinner: A post-war Dramione marriage law fic, with a major twist! Ft. a significant amount of pining, an atrocious overuse of pretentious literary quotes, definite infidelity that isn't really cheating, and, yknow, some good good smut.

steddie: same as it ever was: Steve and Eddie grow close after defeating Vecna in 86, and then one day Eddie packs up and leaves, sending Steve into a very confused spiral. They reconnect in 1990, with Eddie on the verge of fame and Steve finally secure enough to realize why Eddie leaving fucked him up, all those years ago. Told in two timelines, ft. a significant amount of angst, stress, pining, and, again, more good smut.

Hidden gems

i met your ghost (he followed me): Steve grieves the loss of Eddie post-Vecna, until... he starts to see him, and talk to his ghost. He learns more about himself, and his feelings, and also, about what ghosts really are. Ft. Steve finally gets to have a lil breakdown as a treat, ghost sex, dubious science, and also: a happily ever after where Eddie is very much alive.

I thought I knew what love was (what did I know): Three times Eddie Munson doesn’t go in Steve Harrington’s pool, and the one time he does. Ft. Eddie having many gay!panics! over Steve Harrington and his pool. fluffy and sweet!

no pressure tags: @strawberryspence @thefreakandthehair @flashyysins @toburnup and @ anyone else who wants to do it, tag me so I can check out your recs!

[formeravatar]

V O I D S E N T

(about.) | (rules.) | (writer.) | (verses.) | (tags.) (promo template.)

[canonical-transformation]

INT. TV STUDIO - ON SET - KEEPING UP WITH STAR RAIL

Dan Heng: “Hello, everyone. I'm Dan Heng, a Trailblazer aboard the Astral Express.”

Owlbert: [pause] “...anything else you want to tell our viewers?”

Dan Heng: “I manage the archives and data bank.”

March 7th: “Dan Heng is really good at Paper Scissors Rock. Last week he beat me ten times in a row, in his sleep.”

Dan Heng: “I did?”

Owlbert: “Fascinating. What was your strategy, Dan Heng?”

Dan Heng: “I wouldn't know. Apparently I was asleep.”

Stelle: “He picked Paper every time. March kept picking Rock.”

Dan Heng: “Oh, that makes sense. She always picks Rock.”

[ruiination]

RUIINATION - a multi-fandom multi-muse roleplay blog by topaz. featuring muses from alan wake, final fantasy, persona, dead by daylight, and more. ( template. )