#1-10 CAV

[walkingthroughthisworld]

Vietnam, 1970. 1/10 Cavalry M-48A3 tank at 4th Division Base Camp, Camp Radcliffe, RVN.

[katakaluptastrophy]

@greatandquestionablecontent noted that my discussion of Paul and St Paul didn't touch on the latter's awful views on women and sexuality.

And while I very much hope those aren't relevant for our new Lyctor-ish buddy Paul, they very much do haunt the narrative of The Locked Tomb.

We get one in-world bit of theology in Gideon the Ninth: the Sermon on Necromancers and Cavaliers, which talks about how the Houses understand the relationship between necromancer and cavalier and god. And it's pretty much St Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, ctrl + F'd for necromancy, with a few other infamous Pauline verses thrown in for good measure, especially from 1 Corinthians:

A necromancer who must leave her House and fight requires a swordswoman./For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. - Ephesians 5:31

Our necromantic characteristics make us more like the Emperor...the necromancer and the cavalier are no different./[A man] is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. - 1 Cor 11:7

As [the Emperor] was once man, and became God...so were we dead and became alive./And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. - 1 Cor 15:22

Their love is the love that fears only for the other: the love of service on both sides. Some have tried to characterise this relationship as the cavalier’s obedience to the necromancer, but the necromancer must be in turn obedient to the needs of the cavalier without being asked or prompted: theirs is arguably the heavier burden./Loving one another with the charity of brotherhood, with honour preventing [anticipating] one another. - Romans 12:10 (I suspect this one is also meant to call to mind Ephesians 5's instructions for wives to submit to their husbands, while husbands are asked to love their wives like Christ loves the church - an instruction proponents of so-called Biblical gender roles will often describe in language similar to the Sermon as being the bigger ask.)

The love of the cavalier for the necromancer, and the necromancer for the cavalier...cannot be libidinous./But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity...because these are improper for God’s holy people. - Ephesians 5:3

So cavaliership very much reproduces the gendered asymmetries of power found in many traditional Pauline-flavoured interpretations of Christian marriage.

But when you look at some of the invective around a romantic or sexual necromancer/cavalier relationship, it's coded rather more as homophobia.

The Sermon on Necromancers and Cavaliers hedges around explicitly condemning necro/cav relationships as specifically against the will of god, but makes it clear that's very much a view held within the Houses:

"after a myriad of thought about the matter, marrying your cavalier remains taboo at best. There have been those who have argued eloquently that it is traitorous to the ideals of the Necrolord Prime."

While St Paul isn't the only source of egregiously homophobic Bible verses, he's responsible for a good chunk of them, and the idea of this specifically defying the designs of God is a recurring theme...

It's worth noting that not all of what's generally described as St Paul's writing likely actually is. And Ephesians, which features so strongly here, is one of those "pseudo-Pauline" letters - a sort of Pauline fanfiction written to fill in perceived gaps or deal with issues as they arose.

But it feels oddly appropriate that the Houses' theology of gender cavaliership, itself an imitation of St Paul, is so strongly inspired by an imitation of St Paul...

[liesmyth]

did john decide which of his friends would be the necromancer and which would be the cavs when he brought them back from the dead, or was that random?

I wish we knew for sure! John's friends ending up 50/50 adepts vs. non-necromancers is obviously one of TM's premises and was done for doylistic reasons first and foremost, but I don't think we have enough elements to conclusively interpret it as intentional in-universe.

Putting aside any kind of authorial intentions, this is what we know:

» The rate of necromancers as part of the population hovers around 30%. John's core group being 50% adepts is way off from that, and could point to manipulation, but also we're working with a very small sample size. Think about how it's very possible to get head five times in a row when flipping coins; probabilities are much less accurate on a smaller scale. I don't believe it's out of the realm of possibilities that a group of 10 people had exactly 5 necromancers in it.

» Harrow's birth. The Reverend Parents made sure she would be a necromancer by manipulating the embryo with thanergy. It's clearly not a known practice among the Houses at large, and John calls it "a sort of Resurrection" — implying that he could be able to do the same with thalergy. However, this doesn't confirm that he actually DID.

In the same conversation, John says, "This was all different before we discovered the scientific principles," which I think is also worth noting. The fact that he understands NOW how you could get an embryo to grow into a necromancer doesn't mean that he had that knowledge at the time of the Resurrection. It also doesn't mean that the same identical process would apply to making formerly-dead-people into necromancers as they got brought back to life.

It could very well be that necromancy was a generalised side-effect of the Resurrection that affected some people more than others; or it could be that John DID do something different when bringing back some people that conferred them necromantic aptitude. Even if it's the latter, I don't think we can take for granted that 1) it was intentional and 2) he fully knew what the side effects would be.

» Ulysses and Titania. Counterpoint! It's also worth noting that John's "test cases" turned out to be one (1) adept and one (1) non-adept. Like I said above, this could still be a random bi-product of the Resurrection... but given Ulysses and Titania's whole everything, their dichotomy reeks of control group. They are a big point in favour of the "John did it on purpose" column.

Still: I still don't think we can tell for sure that John knew from the moment of Resurrection that he was giving some people death powers, and how that'd turn out in the long run. Like I said above, he could have done something different when resurrecting Ulysses vs. Titania, but it doesn't mean that he knew what would happen.

(Obviously, this argument only makes sense if we assume that Ulysses and Titania were among the very first batch of resurrected. I personally think they were, but obviously it's not confirmed)

» The inner circle. From NtN

I could only trust the inner circle. My scientists, my engineer, my detective, my lawyer, my artist, my nun, my hedge fund manager. My diehards. The ones keeping the lights on.

Putting aside the fact that Lyctors exist the way they are because Tamsyn needed them to exist, and looking at the Canaan House necro/cav pairings from John's point of view: why not give ALL his friends magical powers? That's something I struggle to wrap my head around, for about half a dozen different reasons.

Mind, I don't think John picking and choosing who gets to be a necromancer is that far-fetched, but from a #character point I find it less likely than the alternative (he didn't do it on purpose but turned it to his own advantage). IF it turns out to be canon, I'd be really curious about what the watsonian reasoning for it, beyond "this needed to happen."

Most meta posts I've seen that take for granted John picked and chose his future necromancers ascribe him a level of foresight, knowledge, and long-term planning that I simply don't think he'd have had at the time (not to mention the mental lucidity). To quote HtN John again, "[he] had never been God" before. I truly think he was winging it at least 60% of the time.

[lockedtombtheories]

Thanks! I think the biggest thing currently bugging me about HtN is why every surviving lyctor, with 1 single exception, was plotting to kill Jod? My understanding is that it was only when they saw cav!Gideon's eyes on the Mithraeum that they realized Jod lied about the existence of perfect lyctorhood. So why had they spent decades plotting with BoE to open the tomb and murder God? Only explanation I've read is "because he made them kill their cavs," which seems weak.

The short answer is: They at least suspected that he lied about it even before meeting Gideon. She was just the final nail in the coffin, so to speak. Plus, he did make them kill their cavs! Their siblings, their lovers, their closest friends! They dealt with that truth for far more than a lifetime, but they just so happens that they had a lot of time to dwell on it. It’s not really a surprise that it eventually got ugly.

Long answer under the cut, because I love my followers and don’t want them to suffer.

First off: it isn't just the surviving lyctors who betrayed God. Mercymorn, Augustine, Cytherea, yes; but even G1deon was willing to share a bed with the enemy. Either he or Pyrrha told Wake about the RB's and what they do to necromancers, thereby handing her an effective weapon against lyctors. 

And then there's Anastasia, who's implied to have gone against John's orders by even founding the Ninth House. Cassie, who contacted BoE *6 000 years ago*. So who really knows what Cyrus and Ulysses were up to, or would have been if they'd survived for long enough. 

As for why? We get two pieces of explanation in the text. 

YOU LIED TO US

Could this refer to the proof in Gideon's eyes? Sure.  But I'm not convinced that it wasn't the message Cyth always wanted to send. 

Checking in with the other duplicitous sluts:

“You’ve offered us explanations for everything over the years. But—some of them didn’t hold up on examination … It was the power I could never get my head around, you know? I follow power back to its source, John. It’s the skill you asked me to perfect. And the longer I looked at yours, the less things added up.”  “This has been troubling you for a very long time, then,” God said finally. [...] “You don’t get your power from Dominicus,” said Augustine. “It gets its power from you. There’s no exchange involved, no symbiosis. You draw nothing from the system. It relies on you entirely, as we all know. You’re God, John. But—as the Edenites are fond of pointing out—you were once a man. So whither that transition? Where does your power come from? Even if the Resurrection had been the greatest thanergy bloom ever triggered, it would drain away over time. And then Mercy said to me—in a moment of true Mercy vileness—she said, What is God afraid of? [...] I never wanted to believe it when she said, What if he didn’t really put down A.L.? And then—What if he couldn’t put down A.L.?” (HtN, ch. 51)

So: they knew that John didn’t have a tangible power source; and lyctorhood was the only kind of internal furnace they know about. Ergo: yes, they suspected that John had lied about perfect Lyctorhood. He made them kill their cavs. 10 000 years of guilt, literally chasing them across the universe, and for what? For whom?

What kind of God demands such a sacrifice? I think that's one of the central questions of these books. What kind of God demands it? (compare the Binding of Isaac - John) But also: What kind of God punishes it? (compare the Mark of Cain - the Resurrection Beasts) 

But - 

“Why would one of the Emperor’s Lyctors hate him?” “Hate him?” The voice of the girl whom Gideon had known as Dulcinea rose, high and intent. “Hate him? I have loved that man for ten thousand years. We all loved him, every one of us. We worshipped him like a king. Like a god! Like a brother.” (GtN, ch. 35)

They are Believers losing their Faith. They’re questioning the entire foundation of his divinity. Augustine and Mercy are still asking, still hoping that they're wrong - “All that effort to break open the Locked Tomb,” said Augustine, “only to have the answer we wanted wander up in the form of one dead teenager flaunting your genes." - but crucially, they are also lovers going through a messy divorce. You know, when people who once loved each other and were presumably capable of communication are suddenly throwing plates at each other? “Come, swear your loyalty, my son—my brother—beloved—Lyctor—saint.” 

Possibly what Tazmuir is saying is, they're the same picture. But that might be conjecture. 

(edited to add in links to other theory posts. call it the director's cut)

[aftertheradar]

right so it's been about 10 years since i wrote my last fanfic (i was barely a teen) but I'm relistening to Gideon the Ninth and i had an idea. I am putting this out there in case this premise already exists and if not then it's so hopefully someone talented could write it instead.

Also, spoilers for the big twist at the end of GT9, and one of the twists at the end of HT9, and i guess one of the main plot points of NT9.

This would be for an AU fanfic. In the original canon work, the secret og resurrection lyctor who joined the adepts and cavs at canaan house to try to mercy kill them to prevent them from becoming more lyctors was Cytherea the 1st, who killed the real Dulcinea (and her cav) and took her place.

What if instead, the og lyctor was impersonating a different necromancer there at Canaan House instead? There could be a whole series of fics exploring the effects on the story after replacing Cytherea-impersonating-Dulcinea with another character there.

So like, hypothetical idea, and the one that works the best imo: what if the secret lyctor killed the real Palamedes and Camilla, styled himself as Pal, puppeted Cam's dead corpse to seem like his lyctor, and then the story plays out similarly from there. But now, the real Dulcinea (who would survive in this AU) is confused and heartbroken when the Pal from her letters doesn't seem to know or care who she is. And "Pal" is working to sabotage the lyctoral trials while also "using his investigation skills and psychometry" to cover his tracks. And Harrow is still suspicious of both of them but reluctantly works with both of them, and Gideon still has a crush on Dulcie and gets close with the 6th and the 7th. And in the finale of the book, Dulcie confronts "Pal" about how she realized he's an imposter, somehow sacrifices herself to try to stop him or slow him down, Gideon sees it all, and then she, Harrow and i guess Protesilaus have to fight "Palamedes Sextus" as "______ the First, Lyctor to the Necrolord Undying". And the story concludes the same way as before.

Then i guess in Harrow the 9th, Pyrrha-possessing-G1deon hatefucks Wake-posessing-"Palyctor's"-dead-corpse. And in Nt9, we have Dulcie and Protesilaus sharing a body and cohabitating with Pyrrha-in-G1deon's body and Nona lol.

Idk i haven't fully thought it thru, but i think it could be an interesting idea to go thru and see what would have to change to have the other necromancers in book 1 fill the role Cytherea does and what effects that would have on the story and the sequels. Just thought it would be fun, and again want to see if this already exists and if not if someone else is inspired and writes it

[fruitbasketball]

Nah how do you sports people do it because I have both reasonable and blind faith in uconn winning next year but idk wtf imma do with my life if P don't get her natty like if they're winning and there's 10 seconds left on the clock and they somehow end up losing what the fuck do you do.

it’s like the cavs being down 3-1 and managing to come back from that shit absolutely life ruining event to be so real

or like the fucking i*wa game this year bro

yeah i’m def more attached to this uconn team than i’ve been to a uconn team since 2016

so idk what imma do either

[crystalelemental]

Okay so I picked up another demo, now that I'm done with Unicorn Overlord demo. I am a wee bit late to the party on this, but decided to try Triangle Strategy. And this is. A very different experience.

I played for about an hour and a half. Approximately 10 minutes of that was the one (1) map. The entire rest of the game was scenes, and a bit of exploration. In comparison to Unicorn Overlord, which is incredibly fast-paced, this game is veeeeery slow.

The story itself isn't bad by any means. But it's also not that interesting? Like it's fine, but I'm not wowed by much. the protagonist is fairly bland, his friends are fairly bland, Frederica is cute but not particularly interesting, your dad having Old Man Disease at 40 is tragic I guess. The background cause of the war and the fact that all parties seem pretty on the level right now is the most interesting angle. But it hasn't exactly gripped me.

Which is really weird! I'm like an hour and a half in, with barely any gameplay, and despite all this story and character stuff, I have very little to say about them. I don't feel like they're any more developed than the Unicorn Overlord crew, which wasn't exactly a hugely developed group either. It's just an odd, slowly paced experience that doesn't have a whole lot to show for that.

As for the minor gameplay I did engage in, it's fine. Fire Emblem-esque grid movement, but you only attack on your turn (barring counter skills), and positioning matters. After each turn, you need to determine which way your character faces, and the direction you attack from matters, in as much as striking from the back is a sure-crit. There's elevation tactics as well, but that didn't seem to save the cav dude who got fucking annihilated when opponents got behind him and wombo comboed his ass to high hell. Was probably supposed to use healing items but it's map 1 and permadeath isn't a thing, your ass is grass dude. I admit that I think it's a little more involved than I think it needs to be, but I did at least recruit a girl whose stealth tactics are interestingly integrated by having two actions to facilitate getting behind the opponent to attack, and what I assume is the armor knight who moves less distance having the counter skill. Oh, and if you surround them, your ally that attacks from the other side will combo for bonus damage.

The...I forget what they're called. The 3 point stock things you can spend for skills. They're...odd. For characters like Frederica and butler-man, you need 2 for your special, and recover 1 every turn, so you can't do that every turn. But then you have the protagonist's delay attack, or Heal. And these are 1 point free actions. So I seem to be allowed to do this infinitely without any kind of issue. And...maybe it's just me, but nonstop infinite heal seems really fucking good, dude. it's also very...reminiscent of Octopath Traveler, in that it very, very feels like endgame is a matter of maximizing these points for a specific character to spam their big attack to deal with huge HP values on bosses.

I did take a peek at the forge system. Fun fact, I generally don't like forge systems. I dunno, man, just trade out the weapon. The system eats a lot of money, and takes consumable resources, which...okay. Depending on the availability of resources, I might hate this one. We'll see.

I still need to get more gameplay to feel like I have a sense of how the gameplay is. And hilariously, am still waiting for the story to actually ramp up. I'm guessing that will happen at exactly the moment the demo ends.

[yaoistri]

tagged to do this by @kimissteeringwheel !!

pairing/ship list!

here’s the rules:

1. list your top 7 ships

2. put them in order of your love for them; 7 to 1, 1 being your favourite

3. name their fandom

4. supply photos for said people

7. tyson jost & jt compher, hockey rpf

sadly there is very minimal interaction between these two anymore, but they came into the NHL as rookies in 2017 and immediately became BEST friends playing together on the worst team in the league. they lived together and did everything together until tyson was traded away from colorado in 2022. jt has also now been traded away just recently.

6. erik johnson and gabe landeskog, hockey rpf

it’s 2011 and the youngest captain in nhl history gets drafted onto a team with a former number 1 prospect who has just been traded away from his initial team after injuring himself badly, and the two become tight instantly. LOTS of twitter banter occurs, and they play together for 11 years before winning a cup together! sadly, gabe has been out for a year after badly injuring himself during the 2022 playoffs, and ej just got traded away to buffalo, MEANING that the last game they ever played together was the game they won the cup….. sooo damn tragic and poetic

5. darius garland and donovan mitchell (spidaland), basketball rpf

they’ve only had one season together on the cavs, and sadly fell short in the playoffs, but they’re one of the best guard pairings in the nba for a reason, because they literally have soooooo much chemistry. also they’re ALWAYS touching each other????? like my camera roll is so full of pictures of them hugging

4. sebastian vettel and kimi räikkönen (simi), f1 rpf

they invented grumpy/sunshine. you can’t drive for ferrari and not get shipped with ur teammate i’m sorry it’s the rules! especially when you have a reputation for being as cold as ice but whenever you’re around him you start smiling… kimi ur not slick!

3. alain prost and ayrton senna (prosenna), f1 rpf

these two were INSANE. i’m a sucker for a tragic rivalry and they are nothing if not that. the chemistry, the tension, the way alain still talks about ayrton to this day, it all kills me. there’s so much about them we will never know and it drives me up the wall

2. nikola jokic and jamal murray, basketball rpf

these two oh my goddddd. might mansplain a bit here bc this is not a popular pairing at all — they were drafted to the denver nuggets in 2014 and 2016 respectively, nikola being a nobody from serbia who didn’t get picked until the second round, and jamal being a top 10 pick with all eyes on him. these two built this team on their backs, going from one of the worst teams in the league to finally winning the championship together in 2023 after facing a major setback when jamal tore his acl in 2021. the way they have so much trust in each other and have built a chemistry that has made them the best duo in the league is so dear to me :’) the dynamic is also spectacular - massive cynical european of little words and friendly but bratty short canadian who loves to have a laugh. i think the fact that i got to watch them grow together and that there’s like 5 other people in the world that ship them just make them sooo dear to me

1. lewis hamilton and nico rosberg (brocedes), f1 rpf

i literally have no words for these two 😭 i feel like i don’t need to explain that much either, because their story is so tragic and so out of a book that everyone already knows it. the intricacies of the way they destroyed each other will haunt me forever.

ok, passing the trend on! tagging @queergrittys @unsolvedjarin @jrueships if any of u are interested :)

[kipperlillycopperkettle]

tagged by: @arithmonym <33333 ty for tagging me sorry i died for like three weeks </33333

rules: post the last lines of the last 10 things you've posted.

1. he almost wishes porter had kept going. i'm a winged insect, you're a funeral pyre.

2. instead, she looks at lucy, and her wide, pleading eyes, and the blood dripping from her chin, and the scrap of flesh still caught on the corner of her mouth, and all ivy can think is, oh, fuck, what have we done? who is the lamb and who is the knife?

3. kipperlilly thinks, distantly, that she'll be lucky if they stay friends long enough to graduate, and it’s as she thinks that that the tears she's been holding back all night finally start to fall. i can't wait to lose all of my friends tomorrow.

4. and when hardwon dies trying to get vengeance for the two people he loved most in this world — his greataxe in his hand and gruumsh’s sword in his heart — he has just enough time to think, ‘i hope that i get to see moonshine and bev again.’ i will follow you into the dark.

5. and then fig sings the lyrics she wrote about the man she loves, and she squeezes gorgug’s hand, and she’s in the studio with her best friend, and she thinks that she’s never been happier. i don't want you like a best friend.

6. augustine the first’s lip curls as he looks at her, and then he says, disdain in his tone, “you know that i’m not.” poor old sisyphus, poor old us.

7. “no.” i am not a fool entire.

8. court looks at max and then at fig and gorgug, and smiles. “yeah,” she echoes. “we’re in.” a teenage vow in a parking lot, til tonight do us part.

9. Her mini was sold during the Dimension 20 A Crown of Candy Auction for $1,250. kesaria kolbasa.

10. and angwyn leans in and kisses her again, and his mouth on hers tastes like everything she’s ever wanted. i wanna take you for all that you got.

tagging: @grasslandgirl, @jadeandquartzes, @cav-core, @aberfaeth, and anyone else who sees this and wants to !! (as always, don't feel obligated to do this if you don't feel like it/are busy/etc etc <33333)

[dreamcrow]

20 questions

i was tagged by several people (thank you @niemalsetwas, @babblish, and @creativenicocorner), who in doing so have conveniently eliminated many of the people i would have thought to tag myself, haha. let's see... @falling-hand-in-unlovable-hand, @eri-223, @sidhewrites, if you like? plus anyone else who would like to steal.

1.) how many works do you have on ao3?

41 posted; 0 drafts.

2.) what's your total ao3 word count?

189,246. (?!)

3.) what fandoms do you write for?

oh, ask not for whom the hyperfixation tolls. (toa, obviously.) i do have a few fics i've deleted, though, in fandoms i don't currently have any fics for. maybe i should republish them on anon? 🤔

4.) what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

in my sleep i dreamed of waking

all that dazzling dawn has put asunder

it's a lovely day in stricklake month

misc. trollhunters prompts

sophisticated/manipulated

oh...they're (almost) all str/icklake, lol. and so old! is it strange that i feel so disaffected by this? well, probably not. a good lesson in kudos being merely a measurement of "how many times people pushed the kudos button," i suppose.

5.) do you respond to comments? why or why not?

i try to! part of my general attitude of "fandom is a conversation." i worry i don't always have all the spoons to make my replies what i feel they "should" be, but i do always want to convey my gratitude for people taking the time to leave a comment at all.

6.) what's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

oh, that's easy: notstantinoplefic! unfortunately it's not yet approached something even remotely publishable, so that probably means very little. ¯\_( ᐛ )_/¯

other than that...probably the first or second parts of minor arcana. probably the first, more than the second. skrael's chapter ends on something awful but he's about to enjoy a good bit of (however fleeting) catharis; bellroc however doesn't get any closure for what happens in their chapter until they meet nari, a couple centuries later.

7.) what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

...do i have a fic that doesn't have an ultimately happy ending? 😂 oh, i am too soft. even the horrible vicious ancient wizard gods tend to go out with full stomachs, warm beds, and someone on their side.

8.) do you get hate on fics?

i'll not lie: i have glimpsed the occasional drama from over my meticulously-curated rose hedge. but most of it seems to be from children, and for all my various weaknesses, i think i can survive being vagueblogged by people who aren't old enough to vote. if not: my anon is on ╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭

9.) do you write smut? if so, what kind?

i am ATTEMPTING. most of the smut i've ever read has left me generally ??? baffled, glazing over, skipping through (without animus) to the next part. again, this is not the fault of the author; it's true even of things i can tell objectively are well-written, titillating, otherwise universally acclaimed. but i enjoy thinking about character exercises, and i am not completely untemptable, so this year i've been trying to make some progress on my longtime agenda of "get the horrible bird wizard railed."

...none of which is terribly apparent given that none of it is published, ofc! but. hopefully. that may change in the not-too-distant future.

10.) do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

tbh i am very picky about crossovers. but i must admit... skraelroc necro/cav au... a man is Considering

11.) have you ever had a fic stolen?

i've had people repost my art, which (as someone who does not think of himself as an even remotely skilled artist) was very surprising. but never fic.

12.) have you ever had a fic translated?

none that i know of.

13.) have you ever co-written a fic before?

the closest i've ever come is probably blue wizard boyfriends, which is inspired by some rp shenanigans between a friend and me. but even so, my take on douxie in that series has diverged quite a bit from hers! so it doesn't really feel like "cowriting."

14.) what's your all-time favorite ship?

as your #1 friendly neighborhood degenerate not-even-actually-incest pornographer, i simply must say: nothing quite hits like a ship you literally invented

15.) what's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

to be completely honest, i do still feel the occasional pang of nostalgia for my gr/avity f/4lls fic. i had a lot of world built for it, a whole sequence/interaction arc for the characters (and not just the couple). unfortunately, even this many years later—even if i never got directly harassed—the nastiness of that fandom has still left a very strong impression on me. it was the first time i think i ever saw a/ntis in action, and i don't think i have any desire to pick that story up again.

16.) what are your writing strengths?

...worldbuilding? present tense, apparently. 😂 i've also been told i have a knack for—ah, how did he put it. understated emotional closeup shots? i think of such kind comments often, haha.

17.) what are your writing weaknesses?

discipline. not using too many semicolons. recently: not using paired adjectives. mainstream fanon. not going back over published work and finding a billion small things to fix (though i'm getting better at this).

18.) thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

...mainly: "you're lucky i didn't make myself learn actual ancient egyptian for all those dumb little skraelroc shmoop fics i keep setting in ancient egypt"

otherwise? i err on the side of under-doing it, but i love doing this. i love seeing this in fic, even if it's not a language i know. it's like a little easter egg!!

19.) first fandom you wrote for?

a very old anime fandom which i will not be revealing on main. probably twenty years ago, at this point. almost certainly on ff.net.

20.) favorite fic you've ever written?

oh, i'm not sorry. i am thinking of minor arcana so often these days, but i really am pretty proud of it. even now, more than a year later! once i have the time to go through and fine-tune everything, i'm going to bind it. it's a very weird fic, probably, but one that is nevertheless (or perhaps because of this?) very dear to my heart.

[crabknight]

Thoughts on the losers

Chrom: okayish, unfortunately voiced by M*tt

Robin, whom I have named Hildegard: she's silly, I made her very pretty :]

Lissa: benched in favor of Maribelle sorry

Frederick: LOVE HE very serious. Decided on a whim he should be with Maribelle and not Sully cause I like his supports with Mari

Sully: AMAZING LOVELY SO COOL I am normal about her C support with Miriel (gonna write a fic about it later when I get the B and A support)

Virion: FRENCH JUMPSCARE no like I didn't think he'd actually have a French accent in the voice acting. He's so cool I love him

Vaike: WHORE I wanna know why he acts like that, I wanna study him under a microscope

Mirial: MY SPECIAL LADY HOW I LOVE YOU SO she's a mage and also her C support with Sully is very good

Sumia: no strong opinions, ended up benching her in favor of Cordelia. I don't really need her anymore cause she's already served her purpose of being Chrom's wife

Maribelle: THE!!!!! THE HER!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER SO VERY MUCH. SHE'S SO PERFECT!!!!!! AND I THOUGHT SHE WAS JUST A LITTLE RUDE AND BOSSY BUT THEN HER C SUPPORT WITH FREDERICK!!! GIRL IS NOT LAZY, SHE'S WILLING TO PUT IN THE WORK!!!!!!

Panne: lovely lady, adore her. I like her introduction with Emmeryn :]

Gaius: I don't use him a lot but he's poggers. I like his intro with him just wanting candy, what a mood

Cordelia: neat :] I love her intro with Phila and how horrible she feels about the other ladies dying. Just. Ough. I hope she gets a big hug or smth

Gregor: the ideal man honestly, 10/10

Nowi: I don't hate her as much as I thought I would. Aside from her design, she's great

Libra: boy man totally. Lovely design, lovely intro, very excited about his VA because I really love her as H'aanit

Tharja: did not expect to like her at all but she's good. I like her intro

Flavia: SO AWESOME I LOVE HER

Basilio: Patrick Seitz moment fr!!!

Emmeryn: blood guts horror forever. Crying 1 billion tears. Don't speak her name! amirite

Chrom: Yeah I've never been a big fan of him tbh

Hildegard: OMGGG VERY PRETTY INAUSGFIUANSDGF great design for your robin

Lissa: Yeah I mean that's fair, I have a habit it using the first healer I get as the healer for the rest of the game so I use Lissa a lot, also because I love Owain too much to not use. Don't really have anything to say about her personality

Frederik: I mean, how can you not love him, he is great, you should see his supports with chrom, I find them funny

Sully: Yeah she slaps, definitly my favorite of the two cavs

Virion: Virion is pretty fun I cannot lie, and I will say, I was fully expecting him to be french

Vaike: YESSS YOU UNDERSTAND HE'S JUST MY DUMB FUCKING LOSER JOCK

Miriel: me when big words, she is very cool I also like her, important question here, who will marry her?

Sumia: Yeah I have no strong opinion either

Maribelle: I'm very happy for you that you love maribelle this much, it's great to see

Panne: Yeah she's pretty cool, I like her supports with Virion and her kid can become pretty strong

Gaius: There really isn't that much more to him than candy puns in my experience, but he can become pretty good

Cordelia: Yes very true, her intro is definitly one of the best

Gregor: MY MAN GREGOR HOW I LOVE YOU SO YOU ARE MY HUSBAND AND I LOVE YOU FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER fun fact I married him in my most recent playthrough

Nowi: yeah that's fair, I still hate her tho I am not a fan of her personality and everything, shame that her kid is so cool tho

Libra: the man ever what can i say

Tharja: yeah honestly, behind the sexualisation of her outfit and in everything happening outside of the game, I honestly quite like her, her personality is actually pretty fun and I like her supports

Flavia: YESSSS VERY AWESOME HELLO FLAVIA

Basilio: me when seitz

Emmeryn: sorry I suppose I just spoke her name

[debbeh]

Same recap but I removed everything.

Season 1

Debbie watch TV. Elf is like, wtf I have a name? And the stick he’s holding is like, oi, my names nick. Woah! Not klling people? Crazy. JOHN AND ROBERT!!! (air horn + vine boom) OH SHIT. ITS FUCKING NEGATUS

insert literal lesbian love story that they never talk abt again. Yada yada yada… Anyways, hm this Negatus guy sounds pretty nasty huh?

Yoooo Negatus totally burned down a temple and now all the monks are homeless. Whats this? The monks can lie now??? Wahoo, Negatus gets yelled at. So sad.

OMG ITS THE OLYMPICS BUT WITH KISSSSING?????

oooh we make song for you and make your hair pretty

- oh no negatus is here! But don’t worry! He has no pants!

This episode is the Giver.). Sike, kendall is an idiot. The end

A byeeeee bitches!!!!

Elders do a lord of the flies.

Negatus gets audited.

you are geh.

Ninnies are all finance bros. Elders get pillows.

Mathew Baynton AKA gross kangaroo nany from gasleak.

Debbie joins the french revolution

Debbie saves an endangered species with phalic-ass noses.

TRANS HOTAN TRANS HOTAN

gross idiot for 10 minutes

Oh no! Old

Boo.

knockoff batman is Mr. Cav.

# dick smellz

NEGATUS IS IMPOSTER

if you’re not pretty you fucking die

travel take da pain away.

Christmas

insert balls joke Elder Vex wears sweater. Balls joke. the end :3

[saviourkingslut]

Idk if the last ask was sent but CURRY MY GUY IT'S CHOOSE YOUR LEGENDS TIME who are you gonna vote for and what are your predictions!! ☺️☺️☺️

bestie you came through the first time no worries, i applaud your sheer enthusiasm tho

hmm predictions are a little challenging bc this is the first time engage will be added to the roster and im having a hard time gauging the popularity of its units. it's decently popular afaik but since it came out almost a year ago and didn't really generate that much lasting discussion (ahem lmao) i feel like a lot of the hype has kind of died down. but at least im decently certain that none of the new feh units aren't going to sweep like last time adfasdf

in any case, i think on the men's side, diamant and alcryst are probably going to be top options. looking at the results from previous years, felix has been a consistent top 5 placer, (got 3rd twice, though he keeps getting overtaken by units that previously placed below him like robin and soren), and m!byleth also tends to have pretty solid placing in upper top 10. however, the past two years sigurd has been steadily climbing the ranks, and what with 3h fatigue and sigurd being a pretty popular lord overall, i can see it ending up being an engage character and sigurd in the end.

on the women's side, bernadetta has placed 3rd three times during the past four cyl editions, so she's got a solid chance. however, ivy's enduring popularity might just make her shoot to the no. 1 spot. and there's always hilda and azura, who consistently place high and are both popular units in feh that sell well (i.e. they have a lot of alts). i don't think timerra will place 1st or 2nd but she might place top 10.

as for my own votes i'll probably go for my standard 3x sylvain, 2x felix again. i think felix honestly deserves to get his brave alt for being such a popular unit year after year and bc he can be such a powerhouse in 3h, while his base alt in feh was a distinctly whelming sword infantry no. 252. and sylvain is one of my personal favourites, who, despite also having placed top 10 the past two years, has been shafted twice (mid summer demote, very mid cav axe (???) demote). please give him a good alt im begging.

[r6shippingdelivery]

Cav once tried to bring a 2 foot (under 1 meter) black caiman back to base once

She only made it 10 meters to the door before ash came bursting out , stomping angerly

"ABSOLUTELY NOT! PUT THAT BACK WHERE YOU GOT IT , NOW!"

The operators are determined to turn the base into a (petting) zoo (well, petting only if you're brave enough), and Ash keeps fighting tooth and nail to keep it a mostly normal base 😂

Who will win tho? In b4 Cav just sets the caiman free on the lawn and it makes its new home somewhere on the Stadium

[fruitbasketball]

nba playoffs recap 5/11

welcome back to nba playoffs recap with mina!! back by popular demand - this does not mean i’m not still posting about the women’s game!! once the w season starts in a couple days y’all will be SICK of me.

celtics v cavs: duo of tatum and brown very solid tonight, the 19 year old beats the overrated accusations today. i want to get on payton pritchard, just because i hate his face AND i feel like it’s a personal and public disservice to not hate on boston, but i’ll leave it be. feeling generous tonight. i can’t even hate on anyone too bad because even the cavs were overall pretty solid what the fuck like. guys. caris levert so average he might end up in another polo g song like idk. darius garland maybe don’t go 1-6 from 3? good back and forth, didn’t let boston pull away too much until end of the 2nd to beginning of the 3rd. idk decent ass basketball

mavs v okc: prefacing this saying i also cannot hate because i love both these teams like FUCK. sga’s just perfect huh. imma go ahead and call this a triple double bc i think he got aura on 10, plus 10 rebounds and 31 points. that’s my personal opinion!! chet baby we can do better! bro i can’t even hate on josh kiddey like 9 points, a couple rebounds and an assist in 13 mins is fine. everyone was FINE tonight bruh this is no FUN. kyrie and luka took a little break tonight to watch pj washington cook okayyyyy. yeah i don’t got too much to say here, MAVS IN 5 MFKASSSS

[crystalelemental]

Coliseum defeated. Got to around level 34 before trying again and we did manage to clear everything and recruit Amalia. I have also created what I feel is a pretty invincible team. At the very least, I haven't seen them lose to anything sane yet.

Alain

Holy Unicorn Blade (S-rank Renown, obtainable if you can beat your grandfather's ghost. Gives +1 AP/PP and debuff immunity, which I think counts status since "removes debuffs" on heals seems to remove status)

Azure Crest Shield (+1 AP)

Ring of the Unicorn (It's fine)

Knight's Medallion (+2 Def, +10% Def, Guard Rate +10%)

AP skills set Cav Slayer as priority if there are Cavs, Spinning Edge as priority if there are 2+ enemies in a row, Lean Edge as generic.

PP skills are important. The big winning move was adding Luminous Cover with the priority target "Highest Phys Atk" so he guards Nina.

Melisandre

Kingsblade Cornix (Obtained from Cornea stone tablet quest. All stats +5)

Notos' Sword (Obtained from southern(?) door shrine. +1 AP, +10 initiative, +10 evasion)

Warrior's Medallion (+2 Atk, +10% Atk, +10% crit rate)

Hero's Medallion (+1 AP/PP, Atk +20%. Was Carnelian Pendant for +1 AP)

AP has Keen Edge for Scout, Impale for any target below 25% HP, and Meteor Slash generally.

PP focuses on Hasted Strike for Scouts or Fliers aiming for a one-shot. Charged Impetus is the big focus for another AP, with the third PP going into Parry and hopefully a third Meteor Slash. That last bit is only with Hero's Medallion.

Nina

Kingsaxe Drakenash (Drakenhold stone tablets. All stats +5)

Warrior's Medallion

Ruby Pendant (+2 AP)

Green Beret (+10% Atk)

AP is Row Smash if there's armor and a row of 2+ enemies, or Heavy Smash if just armor. Otherwise, we're aiming for Assaulting Blow nonstop infinite smashmax.

PP is mostly Enrage. Heavy Counter exists but the goal is to never use it. Binding Guard also exists for armor but ideally it never goes off. Enrage is all she wants to do with her PP.

Rosalinde

Twinned Bough (Default weapon)

Sorcerer's Medallion (Warrior's but for Mag Atk)

Carnelian Pendant

Druid Robes (applied Cursed Impetus, which grants +1 AP if debuffed)

AP is weird. Elemental Roar is set as Second Action, ideally to combo with Primus Edge. Sylphic Wind activates if there are fliers, and Freezing Thrust is there if we have armor, but mostly we want Primus Edge into Elemental Roar.

PP has her using Curing Heal, with "Prioritize Caster." I've found the one thing that really hurt us on the climb, and the reason I was stopped, was status hitting Scarlett. This clears it.

As an aside, I realized a few things while playing around with Rosaline and Eltoline. Apparently, "activates at the start of battle" only happens for one ally on the team. Only one. So if the others jump queue, the others don't get it. This created a huge problem for getting those fairies active, as a faster option like, say, a Scout? Offsets Eltoline's heal and buff and Fairy to give herself her big damage attack. Additionally, it turns out they only dispel their own fairies, not the full party's. So they are actively kinda crap together, I think, because the "start of battle" setup for their big burst conflicts with one another. Only one of them can get it. I still want to shift Rosaline off this team, but she gets the job done and I don't have better ideas.

Scarlett

Precious Rod (Limited Heal to overheal above maximum)

Scarlett's Ribbon (Quick Heal added)

Sapphire Pendant (+2 PP, was Lapis Pendant)

Ruby Pendant (+2 AP, was Carnelian Pendant)

AP is Innocent Ray if there are 2+ combatants in a row. Curing Call is if anyone gets hit with a debuff, or with particular status shifted to suit the match. Holy Light if there's an armor. Then Limited Heal otherwise.

PP has Saint's Barrier and Passive Miracle naturally, while Quick Heal goes to whoever has the lowest HP percentage.

General Notes

The first Amalia fight goes down pretty easy. It's the follow-up fight that's a pain. The big thing that got us to win was Luminous Cover on Highest Atk. This prevented Nina from getting hit by Ground Shaker, which would shed one of her buffs, and one of her attacks. Additionally, Melisandre can just dodge it, so it saves the most effect. With sufficient guard, Alain will also guard her against one of the big seven-hit team-wide combos, which means she only needs to tank one hit. Luminous Cover is specifically chosen to permit that, as the boosted 20% Def actually lets her tank reasonably well.

So far, there hasn't been anything too threatening. Usually when we lose, it's because the opponent has like 10+ levels on us. Otherwise, they crush it. Usually what stops things is status on the back row. Scarlett can get really messed up if afflicted, and if we don't guard Nina from it and she dies to Burn or Poison, the match is effectively sunk. Nina is the win condition outright.

As mentioned, I really want to shift Rosalinde off this team, to something that doesn't have such a high competition for first action. I'd like to see her have a bit more utility overall. Not that she doesn't help, but she feels more like a generalized backup healer for Scarlett. Maybe that's fine. Maybe it's all she needs to be. But I want better for her.

I have some other teams I'm still testing out. I'll have to post about that tomorrow though. I'm enjoying the game, but I feel like I'm going to walk back into the main plot stuff and kinda steamroll everything now. Oops.