#I just know nothing about the game and it looks hilarious from an outside perspective

[hungry-skeleton]

Cookie run fans will be like "omg rainbow shard god cookie just dropped" like bestie they aren't cookies anymore they don't even look like cookies You are playing People Run

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

I’m not sure if you’ve ever said anything about this, but the first time I read new moon, the vote chapter, there was one bit that really stuck out:

(from Bella’s point of view) Edward grabbed my face in his hand, forcing me to look at him. His other hand was out, palm toward Carlisle. Carlisle ignored that.

Bella later went on to say it was hard to talk clearly with how Edward was holding her jaw. I don’t know if I’ve misunderstood what exactly was happening, but why did the entire family watch that and do nothing? I’ve read the metas where you’ve said it’d take a lot for Carlisle to realise what Edward really is, but surely that’s a pretty massive indicator and Carlisle actively ignored it?

Anon, you're hilarious.

An Aside in Which I Say "Look in the Mirror"

I've been running this blog for a few years now (a terrifying thought) and I'm both a) one of the most critical of Edward in this space (which is not a bad thing, mind, people are free to do what they like) b) often get asks in which I am asked by anons to justify why I think poorly of Edward.

This is on top of the thousands of metas I've written pointing out various things from canon, where I've presented many arguments, and anons still will ask me to make more arguments.

This is fandom, anon, relatively objective observers who are privy to information the characters in the story don't have. We know Bella's exact thoughts, we know how Edward has interacted with her in private, and we even know Edward's private thoughts for at least the duration of Twilight because of Midnight Sun.

AND YET, I AM HERE.

And you ask this as if it should be obvious to the most casual observer.

Back to Your Ask

I've discussed this at length in posts I'm too lazy to look up at the moment but the crux of it is that

a) Edward's a beloved family member and it's deeply hard to think ill of those we love and we want to justify their actions

b) the family doesn't see most of what goes on with Bella and are only told things by Alice and Edward with Alice being firmly on Edward's side

c) Due to his having previously had a redemption arc in which Edward came back unprompted to the diet even though it must have been not only humiliating but terrifying, Edward comes across as one of the Cullens who best understands that human life is worth protecting and just why they're all doing the diet.

This particular moment though, I'd also give Edward a pass if I was present. To touch Bella at all, to move her like this, Edward has to be extraordinarily gentle and careful. If he was at all rough with her, at all, Bella would be dead or seriously injured (with her jaw crushed between Edward's fingers, her neck snapped, etc.) Basically, for Edward to do this at all, he's being incredibly mindful and the Cullens as vampires are very aware of that.

Add onto that that Bella can speak, when this is a guy who's hand is made of stone, he has to be holding her incredibly gently from his perspective for her to be able to speak at all (and not have a broken jaw).

Also from the outside perspective, where Bella and Edward are in this romantic relationship (even though they just got out of being broken up) and they all know Edward's deeply in love with Bella, this looks like an intimate gesture than it does a "LOOK AT ME" gesture. It's not something any of them would do, or a normal person would, but they're also not dating Bella/convinced they're soulmates with her.

Add into that that they're in the middle of a very intense day, in which Edward had just tried to kill himself and is very emotionally fragile, Bella's now asking to be turned directly, the Volturi barely pardoned them, and Edward is coming unglued with the idea that Bella's going to be turned and the Cullens aren't at the top of their game.

They're just trying to get through the conversation where they tell Edward (and Rosalie) that, yes, they actually do have to turn Bella.

This doesn't register as physical violence to them, and I don't blame them for this one.

[fervency-if]

Maybe a bit silly, but how would ROs react to a completely oblivious MC? Each and every hint/flirt they give to them just goes completely over their head to a frustrating (and probably amusing) extent. Even if they go "I love you" MC takes it in a friendly way- not that they aren't interested romantically, but they can't wrap their head around it

What about with a typical 'tsundere' MC with the mindset of "not like I like you or anything..."? All grumbling and bumbling but still giving the RO that sweet affection anyway (and loving it!)

Ah, I don't think this is silly at all! (Even if it was, though... well. Silliness is fun!)

The Physician, regarding an oblivious main character: This would be amusing at the beginning. As a matter of fact, it would be amusing all along, but she would feel sorry for the poor person... and herself, in a sense. She would soon be very clear about her intentions, telling them straight out that her feelings were romantic, making sure to use the word romantic to describe it.

The Physician, regarding a 'tsundere' main character: This, too, would be quite amusing... A bit frustrating, but look at their antics! She wouldn't expect herself to be patient with this attitude. She cherishes sincerity, after all... but they would give her a laugh. What an imp. She would probably continue the way she did; happily receiving and giving the affection, while laughing at their demeanour.

Aubrey, regarding a oblivious main character: Trial and error. This didn't work? They didn't understand that hint? Let's make it clearer... No, they misunderstood that, too? Let's try something else. It would almost turn into a little game until he gave up, being completely overt. 'This is me flirting with you, you know...'

Aubrey, regarding a 'tsundere' main character: What kind of games are they playing? Are they trying to get a reaction out of him, or...? If he actually caught on, understanding why they acted like that - they did like him in that sense, that was just their general demeanour - he would play along, but being obvious with the fact that he was joking around. Smirking, saying 'well, I don't like you either' when he was doing something sweet and affectionate, and so on. If he didn't catch on, it would be quite frustrating to him, though. They want it, yet they don't? What is going on?

Vesa, regarding an oblivious main character: Here, she wouldn't play any games. She wouldn't be coy. She would want them to know very quickly that she was attracted to them.

Vesa, regarding a 'tsundere' main character: She would be such a tease. 'You don't like me, you say? Then why did you do this and that? It seemed to me like a sign that you like me... But I must have misread your intentions! Such a shame... If only you liked me!'

Narciso, regarding an oblivious main character: It would be highly amusing to him. Endearing, even. They seem a tad naïve... Nothing wrong with that. It's almost refreshing, in a sense. He would be honest and clear quick enough, though - the last thing he would want to do was to deceive them. It was fun and cute while it lasted, though.

Narciso, regarding a 'tsundere' main character: He would have so much fun with this. A ridiculous amount of fun. There would be some childlike glee inside of him. He shouldn't find it that hilarious, but yet... He's good at reading signals, so he would quickly understand what game they were playing. What an amusing person. If only they could see themselves from an outside perspective.

Roswhen, regarding an oblivious main character: This would be altogether confusing to them. They wouldn't quite understand if they did this to be polite, their way of turning them down, or if they actually, sincerely, didn't understand that they were attracted to them. After a while, the confusion would get too strong; 'are you doing this out of politeness, or can't you see that I'm flirting with you...?'

Roswhen, regarding a 'tsundere' main character: They would stop flirting with them for a while. That's the polite thing to do, isn't it? They did say... If they read their signals well and noticed that they missed them flirting with them, though, and continued to give Roswhen affection, they would start again, discreetly yet kindly, making the best of an odd and confusing situation. Eventually, they would even grow used to it.

Elan, regarding both: He would take all of it at face value, interpreting it literally. The oblivious main character just wants to be friends. The 'tsundere' main character doesn't like him in that sense. He would stop trying, because what's the use? He has a good friend/he has a good, yet somewhat... moody friend. That seems to be it. Well enough. They could expect a nice friendship with him, that's for certain, but anything romantic? No. He wouldn't dare to be even remotely flirty with them - he genuinely wouldn't understand.

[sybaritick]

I know it's not finished yet, but can I ask about Tephra Year?

8. What inspired the title for this fic? Is that usually how you choose titles?

15. Was there anything you had to research for this fic? Do you usually do a lot of research?

21. What is something you didn't expect people to notice or gravitate towards in this fic?

(for behind the scenes fic asks!)

8. What inspired the title for this fic? Is that usually how you choose titles?

Talked about this a bit here, I'll quote it!

If you just Google it, tephra is "solid material ejected into the air during a volcanic eruption." The reference in this case is to the Year Without a Summer in 1816. There are several reasons I picked this subject but the primary one is just to highlight/draw a metaphor to the way that Baldur's Gate, and to a lesser extent the entirety of the Sword Coast, might struggle with the aftermath of the events of the game, even more so depending on how things were handled and how long it was allowed to go on before the Netherbrain was defeated. Especially if Gortash is like, still alive and not even a little bit sorry (as is the case in my fic), which implies that certain elements of the story were probably never found out by the public. the resonance of the ashen sky blocking out the sun so it's only at partial strength, an empty, cold eeriness to the world following a distant cataclysm not fully understood... in the winter chapters, i hope to discuss this (the world outside Gortash and Gale's little bubble as it worsens) a bit more. <3

It's not how I usually choose titles-- I'm generally a bit more literal with it. But this fic, since it's longer, seemed like it could handle a dramatic metaphorical title.

15. Was there anything you had to research for this fic? Do you usually do a lot of research?

oh god, yeah

when i have to look stuff up for tephra year it's either something like Cortical Neuroprosthetics from a Clinical Perspective or something like "types of bread" and nothing in between it's hilarious

The most surprising thing I had to research a bunch was the layout of the area surrounding Baldur's Gate and a bit of political stuff about the setting. I know very little about D&D lore, so there was a lot of reading about nearby cities, checking common exports, looking for local foods, et cetera. I figure it helps me "get" the setting more for future fics too. I do a lot of research because I enjoy it, even if much of it never even makes it into the fic :)

21. What is something you didn't expect people to notice or gravitate towards in this fic?

I was so pleasantly surprised by the number of people interested in the technical details of Gortash's cruel engineering projects / the stuff Gale is working on. On one hand it's like, boy, pressure now-- I'm no neuroscientist and now I know people are enjoying those bits so I better not be wrong in some obvious way. On the other hand I love pressure and I love mad science so this is based as hell.

[piltrafas]

Biphobe anon here. I have a question, but no hard feelings if you ignore: What assumptions am I making? Is it because I don't expect people to see things from my perspective?

I saw your RB on my initial ask. I can clarify:

attraction inevitably leads to action

bisexuals are promiscuous and less prone to monogamy

bisexuals are more likely to cheat

[some] bisexual women are just quirky straight women (or the flipside of bisexual men are just gay men in denial)

I don't buy into these points. Maybe I'm not communicating well enough to get that across. I sometimes suspect the "quirky straight woman" stereotype on account of having dated somone who fit this profile.

When I talk about uncertainty, I mean that I expect most bi partners to want a straight relationship for the long term. It has nothing to do with cheating.

Hi, anon! I can try and explain ~ To get it out of the way, let me just say: in regards to your messages (when I commented on your assumptions/ask ratio I was thinking of the previous ones too) I made a lot of assumptions myself because I genuinely can't connect the dots of the stuff you talked about so it became a game of free association trying to understand. I have no doubt I'm misreading, overthinking a lot of it, you might disagree with your own phrasing or my interpretations, etc and as you say, you apparently don't recognize in yourself the biases I mentioned, and that's fair, I don't know you so I can't judge.

I decided to break down all my initial impressions so at least you'll have an easier time seeing what it looks like from my side. This is long as fuck because I had fun breaking it down. Gives me an opportunity to examine my own thought process, ya know?

how do you deal with the uncertainty of dating someone who is bi?

Uncertainty when dating someone bi is far from universal. When reading the message it seems you think that that uncertainty is, well, a certainty. I'd expect someone who is aware that this is a personal thing might phrase this differently, something like: "I have feelings of uncertainty in regards to dating someone bi, how can I deal with it?"

so how can you not be wary of a bi partner?

You're wary, you assume others would be too. If you wanna expand on how these things connect I'd be very curious. It's never occurred to me that a relationship's dynamics might change based on my partner's sexuality. In fact, I have never even asked what sexuality label anyone used? I have never been asked either. If someone hits on me they're attracted to me, that's all I care about. I actually don't think I've ever said the word bisexual aloud in my life outside of memeing. It's hilarious how it's just not something that organically comes up in conversation in my experience.

Is the fear that they will break up with you eventually? I genuinely don't understand what the wariness is about.

When I talk about uncertainty, I mean that I expect most bi partners to want a straight relationship for the long term.

Why do you expect that? I think this just comes across to me like you're projecting, that maybe if you could choose to be in a straight relationship you would and you can't see why everyone else wouldn't. You mentioned you live somewhere conservative, so I expect that plays a role? Then again, wider society is more socially progressive here, but my area is actually full of religious people that wanna make their faith everyone else's problem and none of the bi people I know or their partners think this and I'm struggling to think where this idea comes from. The people I know that have a set idea about who they wanna date long-term decide it more in terms of things like: whether they want to move abroad, want to marry, want to have children, are okay with adoption, and things of that sort. This doesn't automatically make their ideal partner the opposite gender. If anything, the reverse of what you propose is more familiar to me, because a couple of bisexual women I know exclusively date women (for different reasons iirc). I guess the point is that people with a long-term gender preferences are bound to exist, but they're certainly not the majority or even common ime, and because of that the expectation you have that most people want this seems out of proportion. But yeah, for the record, the qualifier of "long-term" is what gave me the impression that cheating and/or promiscuity play a part, by the way. It's a common stereotype that people say they're bi in their youth just to slut it up but will go have a "respectable" relationship once they settle down a bit. I don't know how you think of sexuality so we might be operating on completely different frameworks here but I think if you wanna make out with women, for quirky reasons or otherwise, then you're not exactly straight to me. (To each their own, I'm not gonna tell anyone how to identify, just a personal appraisal I guess). You said you knew someone like that, but I don't, so I'm not sure how one defines who fits the stereotype: bi women that abandon that label later? The ones that get cold feet about being out? Bi women that end up in long-term relationships with men? I know a malicious version of these people exists, I know they do. There's 7 billion people in the world and there's bound to be a subsection of people roleplaying at any number of things to get whatever attention/power/money they think they'll get out of it, but how statistically significant is this really? Is it worth even thinking about when dating? For me, no. YMMV.

Literally nobody else acts like this is the case outside of the internet.

That's. Simply not true? Just. Even virulently homophobic communities have queer people existing, living content, if private, lives. Some of them are even out and proud and fight for queer rights publicly. I just don't know how to disprove this one, short of dragging you to dinner with me and my friends. About half queer, half not. When conversations touch on sex or romance, no one is playing the pronouns game, no one blinks an eye, no one is worried or ashamed or self-conscious. "Out and proud" looks different for everyone. People who are content with their queerness exist where you are too, you just can't tell on sight. And I mean, personally, I feel no more pride in relation to my sexuality than I feel in connection to anything else I am (that I haven't achieved through hard work), the 'pride' of queerness for me is a direct counter to the shame people try to give me. But I'm certainly not unhappy or ashamed or would pick anything else if I had the choice nor have I mentally locked myself into a relationship with someone of a different gender just so I can pass for straight. In my life I've met exactly one person who agonized about their queerness.

I’m not going to blindly uproot my beliefs and agree to everyone’s outlook just because that’s the polite thing to do.

… is that the polite thing to do? No one responding was asking you to uproot your beliefs for their sake, and if they were they had no right to. But someone challenging what you say, disagreeing, explaining how they moved past their similar feelings isn't demanding anything of you in terms of character growth, in fact, dare I say the outlook most people have on anyone magically changing decades worth of feelings is uh, pretty bleak? It's a nice fantasy to think if you phrase something juuuust right, just persuasively enough that it will make a difference, but it's a fantasy, and I bet the average person reading wasn't holding their breath or grabbing the pitchforks. But for what it's worth, I agree with the overall point you made. We shouldn't blindly accept people's words.

I seriously doubt that half the people who go around telling others to go to therapy have actually done it themselves.

I mean. I hate therapy, I undiagnosed myself and stopped going at multiple points. It's painful and expensive, and that's a feature not a bug. I tell people to go to therapy because I have been to therapy and it's a great tool to change your life for the better. It's hard. I only manage it because I have a group of people that hold my hand through all of it, answer all my questions, helped me find a good professional, taught me how to judge that, taught me how to make the most of each session, and so much more. Accessibility for this kinda stuff is shitty, it sucks, I found it in internet friends that don't even speak my native language. But anyway, yeah, this one, this one is just wild to me because IDK about where you live, but where I live it's actually a stereotype that people who go to therapy get a lifetime debuff that makes them unable to shut the fuck up about it. I think you probably got a lot of words about therapy on account of the aforementioned debuff so I won't go point by point on what you think a therapist does and such, because I bet people have explained, but yeah, your ideas regarding that are disproportionately cynical and at times just plain wrong.

I think it’s important to be honest about my feelings, even if that means being an ass.

No one with a brain is gonna think you're an ass for being honest about your feelings. It's about context. I don't think you're an ass but if I did it would have more to do with your generalizations than with your honesty. You didn't come across badly imo in the offensive sense, just like you were spewing BS.

I don't think the appeal of this is something that anyone here has the background to really grasp.

I think you'd be surprised. A lot of people that I know that hang out/lurk that tumblr (and that are hardcore socialists or anarchocommunists for example, ideologies I don't share) have backgrounds of having been anti-sjws, or hanging in far-right crowds. So did I! A lot more people than you think get the appeal, either because we were there in the past, or our friends were or are attracted to certain parts of it now. Like you said, though, it's not an ideal environment, so people move away. And listen, maybe people won't admit it aloud or whatever, but that doesn't mean it's a category of people that doesn't exist.

I'm sleep deprived and English is hard and a bunch of this probably sounds condescending, so I'm sorry about that. Feel free to come back and call bullshit on all my stuff now (and name yourself something other than biphobe anon if that grates lmao)

[miraculouscontent]

There was an anon who responded to this post about “what if they make Luka evil to try and end Lukanette and make Adrien look better by comparison” and it was absolutely fantastic so I’m just gonna slap their whole thing here:

Anonymous asked:

i wanted to respond to that anon asking about "wyd if they make luka evil" from a slightly more metatextual/philosophical angle, bc "dealing with a thing you like doing something you dont like" is something i'm pretty interested in as like, how do you enjoy fandom if the thing you like could be ripped away at any moment by shitty writers? and the answer, ive found, is to just say no

stepping back a little, let's look at the idea of the spacetime continuum. (bear with me lol.) as most people with an interest in the area know, space and time are not so much separate things as merely that we are fourth-dimensional beings who can only view the lower 3 dimensions. from a 5th-dimensional perspective, time is just another dimension, and the whole of time can  be viewed in its entirety from outside of itself, in the way you can view an entire rubix cube by picking it up and moving it around

and what is a story, but a single spacetime continuum? a single ribbon of time and space, which we move through, and then can step outside of and view from a nonlinear perspective? fanfiction (especially "missed scene"/"canon divergence" fanfic) is essentially taking this ribbon of spacetime and picking spots along it wherever you like to flesh out or peel off and explore alternatives

now, moving back into the question. all fiction is equally fictional. fanfiction is not any less fictional than the original work; the original work has no more weight on reality than the fanfiction, because both are equally made up. the only difference between fanfiction and original fiction (beyond the parent-child difference of derivative work and the work it derives from) lies in the capitalist realm of profitability and copyright law, social structures which lend more weight and power to original fiction than derivative fiction 

stepping back again. have you ever felt like you're "not allowed" to put down a book, even if you aren't enjoying it? like it's some sort of crime not to finish what you've started? i think most people have. there's a pervasive myth that you owe something to a story you are reading. reality is, you can just stop. you can put it down, and never find out how it ends. and - here's a fun kicker - you can still write fanfiction about it. if you got halfway through a book and suddenly it started not being fun, that doesn't negate the fun it was before 

this ties into some mild discourse ive seen (by which i mean one post that i thought was fucking hilarious in a "damn you really live like this?" way) about if salty miraculous fans should be "allowed" in the fandom. which is a ridiculous statement on its face; as if you can just decide a whole portion of the fandom "isnt allowed" and they'll all just shrug and pack their bags. but like, of course you're allowed to make art about something you don't like. as long as you're still having fun, you can interact with a work however the hell you want. even if youre not having fun tbh! tho i don't recommend that lol, there are better things to do with your time than pursue a hobby you don't enjoy

gonna loop into a completely different fandom; homestuck (sorry). at a point late in the game in the story, a narrative decision was made that would negate a LOT of the previous story. a lot of fans were understandably upset by this; they felt as though it negated the entire reading experience, as if they had slogged through, enjoyed, gotten invested in, THOUSANDS of pages, THOUSANDS of words of dialogue, TONS of character development, for nothing.

but imo, just because later in the story that stuff no longer exists, doesn't mean it doesn't exist earlier in the story. this isn't a rewrite before a final draft is published; this is an ongoing tale. the previous stuff still happened; you still experienced it; you can still write those versions of the characters, write in that portion of the timeline. however much the retcon powers may pretend to be retcon powers, those pages didn't get deleted. your experience of them didn't get deleted.

you can simply decide to ignore the parts that you don't like and continue writing as though they never happened. you have the power, and the right, to do that. canon isn't any more real than fanfiction, and fanfiction isn't any more fake than canon. you can just decide that canon is wrong, and operate under your own series of events. it's basically what saltfic writers are doing anyway; deciding "canon is wrong for declaring these mean things about marinette, we are going to declare they are untrue and write accordingly." capping this off with a little love note to saltficcers - i havent actually seen beyond s1 xcept for select episodes, but i got sucked into the ladyblog au and have been mildly in love with the entire salty half of the fandom ever since. yall make such phenomenal art and it makes me so happy ♡

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

can u recommend any good underated lore streams? i want to get some good insight into characters and go outside of the ccs that get the most attention

Hmmm...underrated, good insight and outside ccs are three different criteria, so these recommendations may not fit all three of those for every single one, but I’ll try my best! And my definition of “lore stream” is gonna be a little loose here, since that term wasn’t as well-defined in the earlier days.

Sorry for putting so many here, but I have a lot of VODs I like haha. Thanks for giving me a chance to recommend some! This was a lot of fun to put together.

Alright! Here we go.

---

A list of underrated VODs I’d recommend!

---

First up, here’s one I’m always down for recommending, and it’s short and sweet.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAAP7CpYfkQ

Skeppy properly joining the server this time and briefly speaking with Dream. They end up getting into a debate about L’manburg, and if you were ever unclear about what Dream’s motivations/justifications were, here they are! Which ends up being some interesting set-up for the election arc, which tackled the issue of L’manburg being European-exclusive as a major point. It’s a great debate (even if Skeppy ended up taking back everything he said the next day)

-

Next up is the start of Captain Puffy’s hero arc! This is sorta the point where she turns from being more supportive of Dream and Niki to being on Tommy’s side. This was also the night that the Eggpire formed.

Archive can be slow to load with long videos, but here’s the link to the full thing

https://archive.org/details/dream-smp-a-new-arc-sponsored-vikings

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Then there’s the Final Pet War!

This one ended up being more easily forgotten due to it taking place the night before November 16th, but it’s very underrated and sets up a lot of the characterization between Sapnap and Tommy in Season Two, as well as ending with an emotional moment as Sapnap releases Mars. So if you want Sapnap lore, this is Sapnap lore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z_kdlivG0M

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This one’s a good one for insight, and it’s extremely underrated by nature of being way too damn difficult to find (oh Tubbo VODs channel, how you cause me such pain). This is directly after Tommy’s exile and the Mexican L’manburg Revolution and features a very interesting conversation between Dream, Tubbo and Ghostbur in New L’manburg! This is the stream where Ghostbur gives Tubbo the Your Tommy compass, and Tubbo and Dream have their chess game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OOhY8jemO0

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Not to toot my own horn, but here’s something I worked on -- one of Eret’s August VODs, the day Niki joined. Very, very incomplete, and hopefully we might get the full VOD some day, but Eret looking down on L’manburg from afar while Wilbur sings the anthem to the L’manburgians is one of my favorite moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o554R8XHtlI

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Now, this is 100% due to recency bias as I’ve literally just made a compilation with it, but 

The day or so after the Festival is way too under appreciated of a stream considering how important it was. Even if you’ve already seen it, it’s worth taking another look! This was the first time the Button Room was ever shown, it was Quackity switching sides — if you want insight, you’ve got insight right here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lXuZvCQXLg

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If you never got a chance to see Jack Manifold’s death to Tommy in exile from his perspective, here’s the link to that! Obviously a pretty big point for his character arc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UygIc5YSA_Y&t=2842s

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And here, in case you haven’t seen it, is the Red Skeppy stream, which, as we all now know, is pretty much the basis for Bad’s entire character arc with his corruption by the Egg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYL94Tynl8M

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And of course, how could I forget the best lore stream of them all?

Here’s Antfrost’s Eggpire bathwater stream! Ant returns to the server after Doomsday, gets filled in on what’s going on, learns that L’manburg has been destroyed, and — well, you know. Bathwater.

If Dreamon Hunters is your kinda thing? Same vibes. This stream is great. It becomes retroactive angst later, but it’s absolutely hilarious.

https://archive.org/details/dream-smp-im-backkkkkk

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Now, if you want some real heart-wrenchers from the beginning of Season Two, I cannot recommend this arc enough. It is wayyyyyy too underrated and has some of my favorite moments from the entirety of the season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edzJwEXFYa0

First up, towards the beginning of the arc, with an interesting conversation between Fundy and Jack Manifold about how he feels concerning the recent appearance of Ghostbur, and his feelings about Wilbur’s death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R-8pbcpAt4

Then you’ve got Wilbur’s stream as Ghostbur building in L’manburg. He ends up talking with Phil, asking about how he was in the past.

And then…oh man. This one hurts my heart more than any other. One of my favorites in terms of acting. If you want canon family dynamic drama, if you want Ghostbur and Fundy showing their characters’ mindsets at full swing, if you want Angst and good acting, here ya go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyKYLaRmb5c

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That’s about it for now! If you haven’t seen Foolish, Hannah or Ponk’s recent lore streams, I’d highly recommend them. Those are more recent, though, and you can just go to Twitch to find them.

And lastly, this fits literally none of your criteria, absolutely none, it’s not even a lore stream, but I will put the link here as a bonus because the only way to access it is with this link and I want as many people to know about this fever dream as possible. The VOD was deleted seconds after he ended stream and nothing’s ever been the same since.

https://youtu.be/b2M2al2ZW4Y?t=1276

Happy watching!

[felassan]

Check out this video interview with Mark Darrah, ‘On Anthem’s Launch, Dev Advice, And Leaving BioWare’. It’s interesting and pretty substantial. He talks about a bunch of different things, including his YouTube channel, things BioWare could’ve done differently, crunch, whether he’ll write a book about his gamedev experiences, gamedev pitfalls, Anthem’s troubled development, the development of projects he worked on including DA2, cancelled projects (and what happened to them) including Jade Empire 2 / ‘Jade Modern’ / Revolver and Mass Effect: Corsair, the reasons why he left BioWare and Dragon Age 4.

I recc giving the whole thing a watch, but if you’re not able to, here are the Dragon Age 4-related quotes and other especially interesting-to-me portions transcribed for ur convenience! (under a cut due to length):

Mark: "There is a tendency for projects that are small to think they're amazing, because it's so much easier. Like when I ran Sonic [Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood] - it was a 20 person team - it's just so much easier to make things go smoothly than when you have a 200 person team. So I think that we've made progress, but as Dragon Age pivots into production and that team gets bigger and bigger, it will be interesting to see if that's true or if it's just the blindness of being a small team. Like when Inquisition was in the throes of shipping, both Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem would love to talk about how they were 'doing things right!' and then they fell in totally different holes, but still fell in a bunch of holes after Inquisition shipped. So I do think that there is a hubris that comes from a project in early development where you feel like this time you've figured it out."

---    Mark: “As Dragon Age [4] was moving towards production, I could see that like, the team, I've been told by people that they've never met a team that more wants to be in production than Dragon Age team. But what ended up happening was, in order for the team to really explore the space properly, we had to sort've train them to be in pre-production. But that meant that that team no longer really wanted to be in production, they wanted to be in pre-production. And so, looking at what was going to be required to pivot that team into production, it wasn't a challenge that I thought I was up to any longer. I think that team, once they get into the mindset, is capable of moving entire mountains, and will move entire mountains, but they need someone that can lead them through that."

Interviewer: “Yeah, from the outside it's striking that you and Casey Hudson left at the same time. It sort’ve definitely implies a ‘fuck this’ moment for the two of you. If it was just you saying ‘I can’t do it’ then it’s understandable.”

Mark: “Yeah, no, I mean, it’s hilarious, because, we definitely were not coordinated. That was, as near as I can determine, there was nothing that triggered us on the same moment other than maybe just a sort’ve mounting, just, like, this friction, being at the, I would say, the GM and EP, the point at which the [something?] friction and the project friction meet, and you’re just sort of grinding there. But I don’t think there was a massive injection of anything late last year that triggered that. Not that I can point to. For me, yeah, I do think it was, weirdly, a coincidence. Casey and I have stayed in touch, we didn’t leave to go form a studio together or anything.”

---

Interviewer: “Are you being torn apart a little bit internally about that pressure of, ‘I know if I just made a video that said, The Secrets of Dragon Age - not even Dragon Age 4, whatever the hell that thing’s called at this point - but just, The Secrets of Dragon Age: Origins’, like, you know that  audience surely would show up. I imagine there’s that community that’s screaming at you, like, ‘Tell us something we don’t know about Dragon Age, tell us about the future!!’, versus, trying to play it a little more straight and actually offer gamedev advice.”

Mark: “Yeah, for sure, absolutely, like, looking at, there is an entire segment of YouTube which is ‘Dragon Age fans talking about Dragon theories and watching the trailers and picking them apart’ and I could do that, and that would be, I feel like that would almost destructive to everybody, because I could deflate all the theories, some of which are completely completely wrong, some of which are amazingly right. But I think, like, I don’t think the community actually wants that. They might sort’ve think they do, but I think if I just sort’ve pulled away the curtain, I think it’d be like, ‘Ohh.. but now what are we gonna talk about? :(’ Like I don’t think that anybody wants that honestly. It would be great for my metrics but I don’t think anyone really wants that.”

Interviewer: “And not to offer you advice, but like I think there’s somewhere in the middle. Like when they have the next teaser trailer for the next Dragon Age project, you could do a reaction video to that and it would be your most viewed thing by a mile, and you wouldn’t be stepping on anybody’s toes.”

Mark: “Yeah, I have thought about that exact thing. Cause we’ve now moved, I think, beyond the horizon of anything that comes out of Dragon Age at this point, like if they’re at EA Play, and I don’t know if they’re at EA Play or not, then whatever that is will be something that I didn’t have anything to do with, so we’re reaching the point where I can now, I feel like, start to provide, yeah, reaction videos from the perspective of, an incredibly well-informed outsider.”

---

Interviewer: “And you must know, even though you’re not inside the studio, like, just have an appreciation how much that [MELE’s good success and good reception] can do for the studio’s morale. I’d imagine it’s just night and day.”

Mark: “Oh, absolutely, like. Andromeda and Anthem being the last two things before the remaster, that is a cloud that hangs above the studio for sure.”

Interviewer: “Yeah, I mean I remember visiting for Dragon Age: Inquisition, it must have been, and it was still, like, the Mass Effect 3 ending, I feel like, even visiting the studio for two days, you could feel that like, funk, of just like ‘ugh, good Christ, we’ve gotten the crap kicked out of us’.”

Mark: “Yeah, I mean. The Mass endings is an interesting one for me. Because, it’s not the choices I would have made to end the game, but those are the choices that were made. I wonder... I don’t like ultimatums, and I feel like with Mass 3, the team kind’ve gave into an ultimatum. The community was so angry that we then released new better endings to ‘fix it’, and it’s not that that’s a bad piece of content, that’s a good piece of content, but I just worry that, the internet today, seems almost like... a reaction to the Mass 3 endings. Almost like, the internet learned that if you just yell loud enough you get what you want. And I don’t think that’s real, because it’s Mass Effect, it’s not Star Wars.”

Interviewer: “But I mean, if it wasn’t the ending of Mass Effect 3, it would have been something else in that era of Voices On The Internet Being So loud that it causes a big company to pivot and be like ‘Okay, we’ll try and make you a little bit happier, please just relax everybody’.”

Mark: “Yeah, totally. So I mean, I don’t think Mass Effect bears the brunt of the blame of toxic fan culture. But certainly it’s one of the very first examples of that culture managing to make something happen.”

---

Mark: “Now I do feel that maybe I overlearned that lesson, because, something that I did a lot on Anthem was talk about how, you know, ‘this is not a BioWare-style game, this is not gonna have the storytelling that you’re used to’. And I think maybe I overstressed that. I do think that at the end of the day where we are with Anthem today, if you were a BioWare fan that liked all our other games, and you play Anthem with an eye to playing it as a storytelling game, it’s certainly not our best, but it’s not bad.”

Interviewer: “So Anthem marketing and messaging was hurt because you were overlearning the lessons from Sonic, that’s the takeaway?”

Mark: “I do think so. I do think that like, I don’t think it was from the marketing perspective, but I do think that both Casey and I overstressed [that]. We didn’t want people to get mad at us for making a game that wasn’t a very good storytelling game, so we wanted to get ahead of that message and say like, ‘it’s not a very strong storytelling game, it’s a game about all this other stuff’, but, at the end of the day, it is a storytelling game, it’s still in there. And those are the people that stayed away. And if those people hadn't stayed away, I’m not saying the game would have suddenly done [awesome], but it would’ve softened the narrative a little bit, I think.”

Interviewer: “Yeah, yeah. I mean, I’m sure you understand this better than anybody, but that’s such a loaded term to say ‘This is a BioWare-style game’, and obviously there’s that era of EA where they were trying to say that every project within EA was a ‘BioWare-style’ game and so, it’s interesting to hear you kind’ve, hemming and hawwing about how much to lean into, ‘no no, this one is 100% BioWare, this one is 73% BioWare’ - it’s such a murky thing.”

Mark: “It absolutely is, I mean, and I even said these things. Like we made MDK2, well, we made it, so I mean is that a ‘BioWare-style’ game? Is Baldur’s Gate a ‘BioWare-style’ game? But if it is, then how is Mass Effect a ‘BioWare-style’ game, and certainly I don’t think anyone would argue that Mass Effect is not a ‘BioWare-style’ game. So that term has to evolve as the studio continues. But I think for whatever reason, for a variety of reasons, I guess, with Anthem we were worried that maybe we’d pushed it a bit too far. And then I guess we did.”

Interviewer: “Did you enjoy any part of working on Anthem, or was it just a matter of putting out so many fires that it was just nothing but stress til the end?”

Mark: “It was stressful for me. I mean. I have a weird - the last ten years of my career at BioWare seemed to involve a lot of helping people land their planes. And that’s what Anthem was for me, I wasn't there from the beginning. I was helping to land it. I think there’s a satisfaction that comes with landing a game, with finishing a product, and I felt that with Anthem as well, and there were a lot of talented people on that project that I’d never worked with before, and that was great. It was great to, y’know, figure out these people that had only ever worked on a Mass Effect, that I’d never worked with before, their skills and abilities. I really like understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a person and building around that. I didn’t really have an opportunity on Anthem to do that because y’know, we were just trying to get the plane on the ground, but I think, having learned about what those people could do, that’s very gratifying because it lets you imagine what you could do with them in the future.” 

Interviewer: “Yeah, if things aligned magically, but for you you realized it never was gonna align, and it was always just right on the horizon of being able to cobble this amazing talent together and focus it down.”

Mark: “Yeah, I mean - I think that I, the mistake that I made on Anthem, I think the biggest mistake, was I’m used to getting a team that pushes back on me in a certain way. So as I’m sort’ve pushing the stick down to get the plane to hit the runway, I’m used to pushing it sort’ve too far, because I know that the team is gonna push it back and then we’re gonna end up where it should be. And I think that given the state of the team on Anthem when I came on, and given the differences in personalities of the leaders there, versus the ones that I’d been working with for ten years, that’s not what happened. I think if anything, I pushed it down, and then they grabbed it and pulled it even further, because they were desperate for help in decision-making, and I was providing decisions. And they were grabbing onto that, and so I thought we were on this glide slope [motions], I was aiming at this glide slope expecting that we were gonna be like [this], but instead we were like [this], and so we, yeah, we landed that pretty rough. But, I mean, it was my call, I’m the one that said we shouldn’t push to move this, not because I thought it was perfect, but because the only path I could see to making it way better was moving it a lot. And when you’re in the last eight, nine weeks of a project, I could only see like, if we were gonna move it, we [would] have to move it like a year. And that’s - in a public corporation that’s a hard argument to make.”

---

Mark: “One of the most expensive things a project can do is slip. Because, your team, when you do that your team is at its maximum size, so if you got 200 people working on a project and you move a month, well that’s 200 staff months, you just got a bunch more expensive just by moving a month. Whereas actually adding more people, well if you only got a month left, to add 200 staff months to a project, you gotta add 200 people, that’s a lotta people. Moving the date is one of the most expensive, and you can reach a point where it’s like, look, it’s not worth it, if we move the date it’s gonna cost more to continue this project than it’s gonna make, so we’re not gonna. But rarely is that the case, you’ve already spent the money you’ve spent, so the only cost that matters is the cost going forward.”

Interviewer: “So, do you regret not pushing for Anthem to be delayed a year or was it good just to get something on the ground so that we could start building to take it off again with a living game?”

Mark: “Yeah, honestly, I don’t regret it, the [team/game?] was tired and it didn’t have another year in it, and I think a lot of the things that are super obvious now, some of them we knew, some of them we knew, like the balance, we had done one, clean balance pass, by having QA come in and hotseat their way through the game over Christmas break. Like literally playing the game 24 hours a day. We’d done basically that once. So we knew that, we knew that. But a lot of the other things kind’ve only came out once it was out in peoples’ hands. I think the path that I wasn’t capable of seeing at the time that could’ve maybe resulted in a better game would’ve been to put it into beta, like a real beta, in the state that it was in, and run it like that and then release it a year later. But I don’t know if there was the will to do that frankly. There might be now... I think Anthem taught EA a lot of lessons.”

Mark: “[on Cyberpunk] I think many of the same things happened there [as with Anthem]. They had a team that was tired and it wasn’t ready but they couldn’t see the path to getting it more ready. If the team is too tired, just taking another two months just isn’t gonna get you what you think it’s gonna get you.” [source]

[chaoticrumii]

A LITTLE MORE THAN FRIENDSHIP

summary : kazunari seems odd, and although he denies it, you see right through his lies. the falsehood of his own existence is eating away at him, and as a good friend, you do your best to try and assist him.

genre : fluff

perspective : second person pov

pairing : kazunari miyoshi x gn!reader ( they / them pronouns )

word count : 1.5k

warnings : spoilers for kazunari miyoshi’s backstory

“ director-chan~ ♪ ! looking forward to work today too ☆ ” - kazunari miyoshi ( introduction voice lines )

You had always believed that Kazunari had something to hide. Not in the shady sense, but something was definitely off about him. It wasn’t in the way he laughed, nor in the way that he would grin and wave at almost all the people walking down the street.

Those were just his quirky qualities, weren’t they? Yet again, maybe not. It was hard to tell in the midst of all his hellos and goodbyes whenever he would meet up with you, and the constant texting to other friends on his phone. The way he would act was normal for someone with connections like his, but something was itching in the back of your mind.

It’s strange, it’s strange, it’s strange.

It bothered you immensely, although you had told yourself you would leave it alone. One day when the two of you were hanging out in a cafe, you just couldn’t keep all the questions in.

“Hey Kazunari, are you okay?” You asked.

He looked up at you from his phone, and cocked his head to the side questioningly.

“What do you mean, Y/N? I’m completely fine! Thank you for worrying about me though!” He said, grinning with that smile of his.

“No. There’s definitely something you’re hiding from me.” You pushed, crossing your arms over your chest.

Kazunari’s face morphed into one of confusion, his brows furrowing as he brought his cup up to his lips and sipped on his drink. He placed it back onto the small coffee table with a tiny clang, looking you dead in the eyes.

“I’m really okay, Y/N. There’s nothing wrong with me, and I hope you don’t continuously worry about me like this.” He said quickly.

You didn’t believe it for a second, but then again, you couldn’t really describe how weird he had been acting ever since you’d first met. It was still an enjoyable experience though, and you thoroughly wished you could get to know him even better than you currently did. Hopefully one day you’d be able to gently tug that secret he was hiding out of him.

“Anyway, do you wanna go anywhere? You promised me a day of friendly fun together, right?” You asked, slumping back into the soft armchair.

“You can decide! I’m good with any place you want to head to.” Kazunari said, typing on his phone again.

“But like, do you wanna go anywhere? I don’t really have anything in my brain right now, but I want to go somewhere exciting.” You said, waving your fist in the air, imaging a large rollercoaster that you and Kazunari could ride together.

“Well, it would be cool if we... you know what, you can make the choice. It’s me who invited you to hang out, and I really don’t mind where we go to!” He said again, waving his hands in front of him, shrugging it off.

Like you had thought previously, his behavior was only getting increasingly strange by the second. It was still worrying, and since you didn’t seem to be getting anywhere with what you were attempting to do. Instead, it seemed better to take a different approach. You pushed yourself out of your chair, grabbing your bag and slinging it over your shoulder.

“Well, I think I’ll head home for today. It was nice seeing you!” You said, walking out the door, leaving Kazunari dumbfounded as he sat there in the cafe.

Of course, before leaving you slipped a few bucks into his jacket. It wouldn’t seem right to leave him to pay for your drink as well. It wasn’t that you wanted to stand him up like that, but if you wanted him to open up about what he was hiding, he’d have to do it on his own, and willingly so. Maybe it just wasn’t the right time for it.

First thing the next morning, you had received a text from the one, the only  Kazunari☆. He had asked you to meet him in a few days at an arcade. It was slightly strange, since he never showed a large interest in playing games at all, other than the occasional Mahjong game with some of his friends he’d invite over. You couldn’t really remember any of them other than one called Citron, who seemed to wrongly pronounce and speak a lot of Japanese words. It was hilarious though, and you’d enjoyed conversing with him when the Mahjong sessions would occur.

You couldn’t stop thinking about how Kazunari had acted in the few days between when you were going to see him again. What was he hiding? From how he was acting it was plainly obvious that something was going on. It was just a matter of what it was. Of course, you planned to accept it regardless of what he told you, and as time ticked by, you silently hoped it wasn’t something illegal.

The day had come for when you were going to meet Kazunari at the arcade he had sent an address to on your phone. It was a rather old arcade, and a lot of the games seemed to come from a decade ago. At least that was what you could see from the outside of the shop. Who knew Kazunari was into this kind of stuff?

“Boo.”

You turned to feel arms wrapping around your middle, hands squeezing tightly around your waist and a familiar chuckle emitting from the tall, green eyed boy behind you. Kazunari was wearing his hat and classic THREE THREE THREE shirt, and he was wearing a small smile on his face as he grabbed your hand.

“Come on, we’re playing Mario Kart.”

“Is there any reason why you brought me here? Didn’t know you were into this kind of stuff, and even if you were, you never told me.” You asked, tilting your head to the side as he dragged you through the aisles and aisles of arcade games, to stop at the large Mario Kart set-up.

“I used to really like these back in middle school, but I stopped for a while because I was bullied for being a nerd.” He said, a sad smile etching across his features.

“Wait, Kazunari-”

“Regardless, let’s play a few rounds. If you can beat me, I’ll tell you the full story.” He said, smirking mischievously as he placed his hands on the wheel in front of him.

“You’re on.”

And so, the fight ensued. After multiple rounds of intense mushroom consumption and shell throwing, you had won two out of five matches. You sighed to yourself, feeling the failure sink in slowly. You wouldn’t even be able to hear about what he had to say this way. You were only a few seconds off.

“I really was thinking you were going to beat me, Y/N. Still, I’ll tell you all about what happened.” He said, tapping you lightly on your defeated figure, which bounded up the moment he had said that.

“In short, I fabricated a lot about myself, and my own life to fit the people I wanted to impress. People just thought that was my personality, befriending others and being an overall very popular person. I didn’t think anyone would ever pick up on the fact that I was lying to all of my friends. Some of them, to an extent, aren’t even my friends. Certain relationships I have are quite shallow, to say the least, and I can’t help but feel guilty that they are so. Still, I was able to grow close to you.” He said, looking towards you with a grateful smile, one that made his eyes twinkle as he gazed at you.

“It was something strange that had urged me to become closer to you, and I didn’t really know what it was. I guess now I know. You were able to see through the facades I had put up and see me for me. And I thank you for that, truly.”

Kazunari leaned his forehead onto yours from where he was seated on the machine, his hat in his hands, fiddling with it slowly as he closed his eyes and simply felt you next to him. Your heart was beating at 200 miles per hour, and you let a smile spread across your face.

“No problem...?” You mumbled, unsure of what to reply with.

He laughed, a hearty laugh that echoed through the silent arcade, only faint grunts and the clicking of keys in the background. 

“I want to get to know you better, Y/N.” He whispered, grasping your hand in his.

“In the friendship kind of way?” You stuttered, silently letting loose a slew of curse words that you had managed to stutter while talking to him.

“Mm, maybe a little more than friendship.” 

::

written = 20.07.2021

proofread = 23.07.2021

© chaoticrumii 2021 ; all rights reserved ; please do not copy / reference / utilise my works without credit

[verycharismaticdragon]

flash meta ask game chapter 53 & other thoughts on Zhang Chengling's arc

@willowclarissoon: Chapter 53, please! Thank you for doing this :D

Oh, New Year's chapter! It’s so sweet and funny and warm, always makes my heart full.

There is a lot of hilarious character stuff there (Chengling’s epic battle with the chicken is a prime example, but my personal favorite is Lord Zhou the kitchen disaster failing to light a stove, nearly setting the place on fire, then trying to pretend it’s not his fault and he knows what he’s doing), and some uh… less hilarious character stuff too (the Ghost Master being literally the only one of them capable of cooking anything that isn’t ‘meat roasted over bonfire’ is funny in passing, but then you start thinking about how he had to care for himself and a toddler, while being a teenager and living in the closest place to hell on earth, with nobody to rely on...), but I think the part that’s most interesting from perspective of analysis is when each character in turn reflects on their past and present over the celebratory dinner.

...Now, I initially planned this meta to cover all three of them, but unexpectedly managed to put together a lot of thoughts about Zhang Chengling, and you know what? Son boy deserves the meta spotlight for once.

So, here’s what Chengling is reflecting on for New Year’s:

While earlier in the book, Chengling felt so hopeless and lost he wasn’t sure how to continue living –

(chapter 36)

– now, when he considers his situation, he finds that even though his family is gone, there are still people willing to look after him and support him. His life is not what he expected it to be before the tragedy struck, but it is also so much better than what his mind came up with when he was at his most despairing. In other words, he had passed the dark time of his life, and found that there’s still joy to be experienced on the other side.

...Then, thinking about what this chapter establishes for Chengling made me think about how Chengling’s arc in general is a good example of Tian Ya Ke’s relationship to the genre.

Many have pointed out that his story is that of a classic wuxia protagonist: he had lost all of his family, now he has to train up under mysterious master(s) to level up get stronger and seek revenge. Except Tian Ya Ke completely ignores the parts of the arc typically glorified – even Zhang Chengling killing the Scorpion, which can be counted as getting revenge on at least one of the perpetrators, happens completely offscreen, and he doesn’t get anywhere close to taking on Zhao Jing – and instead focuses closely on a toll it all takes on this young boy. Zhang Chengling suffering from nightmares and trauma-induced memory loss, struggling with expectations that he has to step up and seek revenge, having to weather scorn when he, a 14-year-old kid, is not up to the task… Tian Ya Ke looks at the classic plot and goes: okay, but what does this do to a person psychologically? (Wen Kexing’s story, by the way, is also an exploration of this same question, just in a different light.)

At the same time, as our actual protagonist and primary narrator is Zhou Zishu, Tian Ya Ke also provides a look at this storyline from outsider’s perspective. And what does Zhou Zishu think of it all?

[Zhang Chengling] felt like everyone was staring at him, gossiping about him, forcing him to give them an explanation, but he truly knew nothing. Zhou Zishu [...] felt a surge of anger when he saw Zhang Chengling’s empty expressions. He wanted to push at everyone, then drag the young boy far away from all this filth. (chapter 30)

Zhou Zishu goes, actually, this is a child. He shouldn’t have to deal with that. And the narrative fully supports him on this: after Zhou Zishu takes Chengling away from the jianghu’s politics, Chengling gets to have a childhood – maybe not a normal one, but at least he isn’t forced to grow up before his time, and nobody is heaping adult expectations on his head, – and he gets to have a family too, those two ridiculous shifus who’ll always watch his back...

And here’s the thing: it is thanks to that care and support, not trauma and revenge, that Zhang Chengling gets to grow into a true wuxia hero we see him be in extra 5.

––––––

- tyk meta masterpost -

[solange-lol]

hiii in celebration of AUctober, what are some of your fav solangelo AUs?

Anonymous said to solange-lol:

Hi! Kinda a random question: do you have any favorite riordanverse fanfics that you’d suggest reading? I’m looking for ones to read, but I’ve been having trouble finding new ones! Thanks!

rec list #1 | rec list #2

all recs can be found under the tag ‘lizs solangelo fic recs’ on my blog!

technically its past auctober now, but better late then never to drop my third solangelo rec list!! especially considering the state of the world rn ... lets just say its a celebration of me actually participating in sw for the first time in a while

rec under cut as always!! its not all aus but its the count that thots

Find Another Place to Stay by @unwieldyink

personally i think breakup fics are incredibly underrated, and i also think annie is incredibly underrated, so enjoy ur little cry if you read this one (tw // violence in this one)

Hershey’s kiss by @unwieldyink

we love a godswap!! it’s actually been a while since ive read this one and i reread this while making this rec list and can i just say that zeus!nico and hermes!will are both such valid concepts and this just has a rly good dynamic to it

Actors by @buoyantsaturn

i could talk about this fic for hours but lets just say ao3 has told me ive visted this fic 40 times. im not kidding. fake dating is just a godtier trope

start of something new by jinniefic

if you know me, you know that i fricken LOVE high school musical, and this is literally just the start of the first movie but solangelo and honestly a little more iconic please read even if ur not a hsm fan

paper/plastic by @rosyredlipstick

the fact that this is from 2018 and took this long to get into my rec list is tragic because i think about this fic a lot... a lot. mortal au. very chill, strangers to lovers, very good vibes, will be rereading soon (everything rosy writes is amazing we already knew this)

10:37pm by @buoyantsaturn

surprise another cj fic! fun fact she debated with us for a good half hour about what to title this fic so go read it so you can tell her you like the name (and the fic itself... its a very good fic) (tw // alchohol and drug use for this one)

Sunflower by ChiseHatori

3 days in the infirmary is probably the easiest trope u can find in the solangelo tag but i have to say this one really made me soft just bc it feels a lot more in character than some of the others ive read, and it basically picks up right where they ended in the books

Will You, or Will You Not? by @thebluesideofmyworld

marriage fics... also very soft. just boys bein boys. dual engagements. mortal au. all that good stuff vv soft i loved it

let your heart win by @justanothervampiregirl

this one is short but its also probably one of the most in character fics ive ever read and i really like this style of writing mixed with canon compliance so :)

The Magic of Naomi Solace by Sweetymomo

naomi solace, underratted legend. i aspire to have her relationship with will. lots of familial background if you like that!! and its set at a bnb!!

forget all the shooting stars and silver moons by itotallyreadthatbook

when i saw this in the tag i was SO excited bc we love high school aus here and it was!! very good indeed!! this trope is one ive never seen before and i recommend 10/10 good banter

They won’t always live by Phantomxlegend

will overworking himself and coping with loss always makes me :(( so if ur okay with some will angst then buckle up

“I am fully capable of kicking your ass” by @unwieldyink

i remember i saw the email notification for this one and immediately was like yup absolutely im in and it 100% lives up to its title we love capture the flag solangelo

the night we met by peachyytomlinson

a lil ooc but also very angsty and did make me emotional when i read this late at night. i think i wrote something similar a while back but i just aaaaa will angst man

“look how hard i can cry FWSHHH”  by @buoyantsaturn

call me biased bc i like to claim that i originated the idea of demeter!will and cj dedicated this fic to me but like BRO its so soft and i love it here nico leave the plants along challenge failed

femboy hooters, or the time percy jackson failed to keep a secret by luciethebean

its all fun and games until the fic turns out to genuinely be really good. like, yes the title is exactly what you think it is but it doesnt matter bc its so fricken well written im^@*#&(*)($_$#&^@$(@*)* yeah

Of Ties and Significant Annoyances by seokjinvilla (@thechampagnecocainegasoline)

we dont support jkr in this household but what we do support is this bc this plot is genius and i love it

everything’s going swimmingly by tsunamiroll (@catboy-ethan)

fun fact i posed the idea of a sports/team prompt to the sw mod crew literally just so someone would pull through and write a swim au and ethan DID without even knowing. i love them and their writing style is so !!!! please read it

when you smile (the whole world stops) by tsunamiroll (@catboy-ethan)

another ethan fic!! this is the perfect fic for a rough day where u just want some cuddles bc thats literally the plot of the fic. i love this one with my entire heart its very fluffy 10/10 do reccomend

pumpkin spice (i hate it, it's not nice) (ok maybe it's a little nice) by tsunamiroll (@catboy-ethan)

ethan fic part 3!! bc i binge read these all in one night!! literally again their writing style is so amazing and the witty banter!!!! also we love a retail bookstore au 

Burnt Plastic (and Other Bad Ideas) by More_of_This

so this one isnt exactly romantically solangelo but it is hilarious in my opinion and i absolutely adore well written college aus and while i know nothing about college this fic is so funny to me (if you read the tags there is, in fact, a raccoon involved) (tw // drinking for this one)

all because you kissed me goodnight by @buoyantsaturn

i have been WAITING for a mortal counselors au and im sure theres some out there already but y’all already know im a cj stan! lots of slowburn, friends to lovers, coworkers, all the good stuff (and i named this one and offered cj a lot of materials from my own camp so this one especially hits!! i reccomend for those good ol summer vibes!!) (tw // drinking for this one)

Waiting With You by @buoyantsaturn

oh boy buckle up if u want an angst ride because this fic tore me apart. i keep threatning cj with “dont pull another waiting with you”. that being said, very much feels like a movie while youre reading it, very fluffy in the middle, we love mutual pining. 

Little Italian Boy by @buoyantsaturn

stream little italian boy by grace gilmore. youll get it. thats it.

The Clues by @thebluesideofmyworld

secret dating when done well is legit one of my favorite tropes of all time and this!!! this!!!!!!!!! its outsiders perspective also which is another one of my favorite tropes, and just little views on nicos life and i love it

So Come On, Talk it Out (your voice brought me back from the dead) by @buoyantsaturn

will solace, sponsered by kitkats, cj edition

no but if you read tower of nero you’ll really like this missing pieces pre-ton fic this is a really soft little fic with a bunch of easter eggs from the book in it, so i highly recommend! if you havent read ton yet and are still avoiding spoilers, come back to this one!

reaching for the sun (you, you, you) by moonswords (@tortadelimao)

i just read this one about 2 hours ago for the first time and i am Still thinking about it. its like the getting together that i literally feel like is canon and the vibes are Immaculate (also william “what about me looks straight” solace)

“Are we on a date right now?” by @unwieldyink

overworked will, nico helping out in the infirmary, first dates & hikes, canon compliant, we love to see it (also its an annie fic so ur required by law to read it)

Outrunning karma by Phantomxlgend 

more will angst! featuring angry overworked will!

Everlasting Ring by minyoongurt (@blueblackslowtown)

i was Very excited when i read the summary of this one, and i think minyoongurt did a really good job!! healer will, injured nico, the whole dynamic. also i love the idea of nico only knowing “thank you” “go away” and “fuck you” in sign language. im pretty sure thats canon

The Little Thing by Rainbow_Mess

i belive this is also a pre-toa fic thats just exploring all the stuff we found out about will in ton and its very short and sweet :)

and of course, a few of my recent works for your consideration

who is he (and what is he to you?)

just doing my silly little tasks

i don’t need three bars to tell me we’re meant to connect

truly, madly, deeply

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

Hi again! Honestly, I kind of love your meta about the Cullens with and without Edward as a framing device. They're so delightfully fucked up. What do you think the Cullens like about each other? Like, do Jasper and Rosalie ever just share a commiserating glance when Edward is getting particularly judge-y? Does Carlisle ever tell Rose how proud he is that her self-control is That Good? Do Emmett and Esme hang out, does she appreciate how light-hearted he is? Like - other than their "mates" do you think the Cullens are super close? What do you think it would take to get them there/what's the ideal "family" dynamic?

Thank you, and for reference, Edward's thoughts on the family.

All the Cullens about all the other Cullens? Well, this will certainly be a large post. I guess we'll tackle this one at a time and then get into what an ideal "family" dynamic even is (especially for vampires).

Let's buckle in friends.

Alice

By far, Alice is closest to Edward.

When she first sees him, she runs to him and embraces him as a brother. Throughout the series, Alice and Edward are the ones that share a close bond with each other, rely upon one another, and hold each other in the highest esteem.

Much of this comes from their respective gifts.

Per their gifts, they unwillingly invade the privacy of everyone close in their lives. More, it's something that forces them to see the world differently beyond even Jasper (who is also gifted). They have a strong sense of kinship with one another.

Bella is important to Alice not only because Alice sees her as a friend but because she is the one who will make Edward happiest. And that means quite a bit to Alice.

Otherwise, Alice isn't that close to any of the others.

Bella comes in slot number two in Alice's esteem and that's very telling, because Alice treats Bella like her life-sized Barbie doll and makes it clear on a number of occasions that she's more than willing to risk Bella's life for the sake of Edward's happiness without a hint of remorse.

Then there's the rest of them.

People, to Alice, are a bit like pawns in a chess game. Part of this is because of her gift, she sees so many futures that it's very easy for her to dehumanize those around her. The people she's closest to aren't people, but a collection of possible choices, and Alice helps guide those choices to the ones she finds preferable.

And preferable, here, is preferable to Alice. Oh, it might work out for everyone else, and Alice will tell you she looks out for the future of everyone over all, but ultimately because everyone else is just a collection of choices it's what happens to Alice that matters.

Alice is with Jasper because a vision told her to be, nothing more, nothing less. Every interaction they have just emphasizes that they are nothing together, not even a real emotional bond.

The others don't even seem to share a connection with Alice at all. She's in their lives, is this perky kind of fun girl, but that's it. They barely know her as she seems to barely know them.

Alice is with the Cullens not for the Cullens themselves but because visions have guided her to be there as the best future for her. Oh, she treats them like family, but I imagine she'd be the same with anyone else had visions dictated a different path.

As for why the Cullens, they're large and very talented, and Carlisle is one of the few vampires in such a large coven who would not use Alice's gift as a means of war or expansion. It's really the safest place for Alice to be, and why she'll likely do everything in her power to keep the coven together.

Carlisle

Despite Edward's, Edwardness, Carlisle is incredibly fond of Edward and does see him as something of a son. He's also very devoted to his marriage to Esme, despite its unseen flaws. And he seems to be very close with Rosalie, easily seeing her as a daughter and acting much like a paternal figure to her throughout the series.

He doesn't seem as close with Emmett, Jasper, and Alice. This is in part because Emmett doesn't really reach out to him the way the others do, Jasper keeps very much to himself, and Alice is Alice.

However, he's very fond of the Cullens as a whole and looks on each of them highly, even if they don't really deserve it all the time. He would be devestated were the coven to fall apart.

Emmett

Emmett's closest is with Rosalie, for obvious reasons, but even they have a pretty dysfunctional relationship. What Emmett appreciates most about Rosalie is her beauty, when it comes to her personality, he openly admits he's not the largest fan (but what are you going to do, it's the wife, amirite?)

Otherwise, he's a very amiable guy and gets along well enough with everyone, but doesn't seem particularly close to any of them. He wrestles with Jasper and seems to engage in the most 'fun' activities with him, but Jasper is a very haunted soul with a difficult past that Emmett doesn't touch with a ten foot pole.

Emmett tries to bond with Edward, but they just don't understand one another. Especially as Edward seems to go increasingly mad when he decides he's in love with Bella Swan, Emmett doesn't know what to do with that one at all.

Emmett never embraces the whole Esme and Carlisle as his parents thing, and to him it's likely a hilarious joke, but otherwise he doesn't bond with either of them too much.

So, when you get down to it, it's pretty much just Rose.

Esme

Esme adores the family, and by the family I mean Edward. Edward is far and away Esme's favorite child, really the only Cullen I'd say Esme considers her child, and she makes no pretense otherwise and openly says as much.

That said, if you asked her, it would be about the family unit as a whole. And she would be devastated if the Cullens fell apart on her, though not as much if one of the fringe members left vs. Edward leaving.

Otherwise, there's Carlisle, who she adores as her husband. Though they, too, have significant issues. Specifically, neither of them truly knows who it is they married and one day they will find that out. Personally, I think Carlisle ranks far less in Esme's priorities than Edward, in part because he doesn't need her quite so badly, and also because in a way he just is Husband to her and little else.

I think she has very little connection with Jasper and Alice specifically, as they came in so late and in a way are so self contained. Emmett I think amuses her, but he's not really a "child" per se. Rosalie's closest, but as Rosalie doesn't need her as a mother I think that puts a wedge between them.

I also think that Rosalie and Esme wouldn't really understand each other. Despite having lived through similar experiences as humans, they are very different women from one another. I just don't see the bond there.

Jasper

Jasper seems to be the eternal outsider in the family. Edward despises him, but more, I think he doesn't quite know where to fit in with these people. He came from such a different from world than each of them and lived a very different life.

We see him wrestling with Emmett, so there's a bond of friendship there, but I never saw it as a particularly deep one. They'll wrestle, play games, but they never have the hard and difficult conversations in life.

He and Alice have their relationship, but there doesn't seem to be anything really holding them together. The conversations they need to have don't happen, and Alice manipulates his life like a piece on a chessboard, and he consents because he has no trust left in himself at all.

We see Jasper despair to Carlisle in Breaking Dawn that Bella, a newborn, has better control than him but this seems to be an extreme moment for him. It doesn't seem like he and Carlisle are talking often even if, perhaps, they should if only to gain more perspective from one another.

Jasper didn't come to the coven for Alice, nor is that solely the reason he stays, but he very much is an outsider and the one who doesn't quite fit in with the rest of them.

Rosalie

Rosalie is very invested in the family itself. She loves these people, even the ones that aren't so hot on her.

Yes, she wishes she and Alice had an actual relationship, and is pissed off when Alice blows her off for Edward's human girlfriend of all things. Yes, she wishes that she and Edward could get along, but she sees him as the brother you sometimes have a rocky relationship with.

Point being, to her, they are very much a family and she strives to keep them together.

As for who she's actually close to, I'd say it's Emmett and Carlisle. Her relationship with Edward is tense at best and antagonistic at worst. She and Alice have virtually know relationship at all, Jasper keeps to himself, and we don't see her really connecting with Esme.

On the other hand, in terms of her education (pursuing all she can and especially getting her medical degree), her strict adherence to the diet, she seems to emulate Carlisle in all that she does. He's very much a father figure to her and someone she wishes to be like.

So, I do think Carlisle tells Rosalie he's proud of her and she beams up at him. That one I do very much see happening.

Emmett is her rock, the man who keeps her steady and pulled her out of misery, who loves her near unconditionally. For the wrong reasons, perhaps, but time will tell if that relationship works out for them.

Summing it Up

The Cullens are actually fairly disjointed. They may look like a single cohesive unit, and they are in a sense, but if you look closer they divide down into cliques and subgroups quite easily. Not one of them is equally close to all other Cullens, and most of them are strangers to at least one of them.

This perhaps isn't surprising, given I think the coven is ultimately doomed, but it lays the foundations as for why it's doomed. Edward tells us this himself, what holds them together (vs. other smaller covens) is the diet. Edward, of course, didn't mean it like this, but to me that spells a very tenuous bond. One that, with not much of a catalyst, will break.

And I don't think they're going to get to the point where they reach that family ideal.

First, they'd have to truly understand each other, and understanding Edward would break the coven. So that's not going good places.

More though, they're such different people who ultimately do not share common ideals. They don't want the same things in life and certainly not for the same reasons, and because of that they're not going to be incredibly close to every other person in the coven. And that's fine, they don't have to be.

To be honest, I'm not sure the family dynamic is something they should strive for. They already, mostly, care about one another deeply and do live together. Why should they emulate human families?

The place where it falls apart on them is that half of them don't know who the other is, they all think they have different values than they actually do, and Edward is Edward.

And there's no getting around Edward being Edward.

[feckin-zicons]

that's why i hate larries, i hate them with all my heart. besides being boring they are hypocrites 🙄

Hey nonnie, sorry its taken me so long to reply but if you’re following me you know I’ve been travelling lately and have been more scatterbrained than usual. Not that I’m ever not scatterbrained, but its been just a little crazier than usual!

Now I wouldn’t go as far to say I hate Larries. After all their delusions can be pretty funny sometimes!

Joking aside, I don’t hate Larries, I love Larries, I’m a Larry, so I really hesitate to tarry the whole group with the same brush. However I do strongly agree with you that there are those who are complete hypocrites. Nothing annoys more more than when Larries ™ treat the other boys, other celebrities, their friends and even family as one more side character to the Larry Show.

In particular when Larries ™ flood comment sections asking or in some cases, ordering people to confirm rumors/the couple being together. The absolute fucking disrespect. Not just because they’re flooding comment sections in videos streams, tweets, what have you, that sometimes have nothing to do with the couple in question, but because its presumptuous and rude as fuck to think they’re owed a coming out- just because they’re fans of the boys.

Stop it. Thats fucking ugly as hell.

While I have no doubt all the boys will one day be out (as referenced by their continued efforts in fighting the closet. I don’t get the sense the boys will just stop at being freed from their contractual obligations). It should and will be on their own terms. Provided they’re not forcibly outed some other way.

Coming out is a deeply personal experience and no one, no one ever, has the right to out someone else. I’ll never not be absolutely furious at the Larries ™ who posted about having ‘receipts’ that would out the boys. Which… tbh weren’t receipts at all but thats a whole other story. I’m also still angry at the reactions after Liams Attitude spread that wouldn’t have been as bad if not for the entitled fandom that peddled ridiculous claims beforehand about Liam confirming Larry to be real.

I mean… What the actual fuck. Setting aside the fandom experience of the time, and boy was it an experience. What right would Liam have confirming Louis and Harry’s relationship? I mean, get some perspective? It doesn’t help that a lot of fandom adults were the ones coming up with, and reblogging those theories and the younger fans ate it up. It would have made more sense for Louis and Harry to do it but idk maybe I’m still out of touch for thinking so. I mean, it felt like every other week someone was talking about Larry coming out. It was such a shit storm oh my god.

Biggest issue I still have with them is that the entitled behaviour hasn’t stopped. For some it seems like, Larry coming out is it for them. Like pack it up, goodbye, shows over, Louis and Harry are gay and in a relationship and everything is rainbows, we get to see cute pictures of them and everyone lives happily ever after.

Yeah, no. Coming out, for anyone, is just the beginning, can’t even begin to imagine what its like for them. They’re still going to need everyones support, and it irritates me that for some fans it seems so fucking conditional.

Time and time again, I’ve seen tweets, and posts, and videos, whatever, going on about Larry coming out and it reads like a fucking wattpad story. Not just that but its always on the assumption by the poster, on the off chance they consider the other 3/5ths of the band and Ziam being a possibility, that Larry will come out first?

What?

I’m sorry but, what?

Everything I’ve seen from the boys tells me they’re all in this together, they support each other and are working through the bullshit as a team. We have all seen the No Judgement music video yes? The merch, posts, double speak etc referencing each other, yes?

I mean, I suppose if you only look at Louis and Harry, like so many do, sure. Only Larry matters, everyone else is a side character in their life.

(Lemme just, scream for a second).

However, that kind of thinking leads them to the wrong conclusions. Like… assuming the SBB/RBB countdown was attributed to nothing, when it counted down to Liam finally being free of Sophia. In the years since, I’ve seen Larries ™ backtrack on claiming the bears had anything to do with the boys, that they weren’t behind it at all, or that they were just trolling the fandom.

You know, despite all the proof otherwise, and some really, really good posts breaking down clues about what the boys were trying to tell us. The moment something might not actually be about Louis and Harry its like all their thinking shuts off. Its frustrating. Really fucking frustrating.

Seriously, fans of the other boys as individulas, not just Ziams, have been talking about the stunts too and how they fit together. Its why we tend to be right, because we’re considering the entire group. They’re still a group. They’re not free until all of them are free.

Just for that Nialls coming out first. Lmao. I’ll call it now. Lets go Niall, whens the baby coming. We all wanna know. Its been years.

Imagine, imagine! Acting like coming out is some race to be won. The fucking audacity.

Go outside and touch fucking grass you absoulte ninny.

I get it, you want to be vindicated, you want to be rewarded for putting your faith in two celebrities being together.

Newsflash you dandelionfluff, its not a race, Louis and Harry coming out isn’t a fucking prize. Thats not what supporting a relationship looks like.

Its worse when someone admits they don’t know much about Ziam or the possibility of Niall being LGBT+, and claim they’re open to it, but then immediately tweet or reblog or sub tweet or tag comment a post or answer an ask from another Larry ™ talking about how Larries ™ are the most marginalized and persecuted group.

???

In what fucking world?

IN WHAT FUCKING WORLD?

If we wanna play that game, boohoo, the media claims Louis and Harry aren’t friends anymore because of crazy shippers. Meanwhile Zayn publicly isn’t friend with anyone and “left” the band… despite the Ziam fandom calling the stunt about either Louis or Zayn “leaving” and getting it down to the exact week (the second article coming out a week before about the Ziam kiss pretty much cemented it for Zayn leaving. Which did a lot to fan the flames of the already rabid fanbase when Ziam got two articles confirming a Ziam kiss over the years and Larry got nada. Like that actually means anything).

Not to mention Larries ™ using the hetties and management tactics against the other parts of the fandom to silence them.

Who cares what the media says anyway!  TPTB, 1DHQ, The Sun, The Mirror, Simon and his minions and their unpaid interns have used the media to split the fandom apart and it worked.

Who the fuck cares if the media calls the 1D stans delusional, you know the truth! The truth it out there and you’ve seen it! The truth is coming! Who gives a damn about what some two bit “journo” who failed out of their creative writing course writes? They get worse by the year. If it wasn’t so pathetic and hilarious I might actually feel embarrassed for them. They can’t even come up with new stories and have just taken to copying old articles, but you’re upset with them??? Give it a rest. Honestly.

The sense of disconnect, entitlement and victimhood of some Larries ™ is absolutely ridiculous.

Oh my god they’re Karens. I’m not trying to be insulting, but thats exactly who they remind me of.

I’m not going to say its a surprise to me that so many in the Ziam fandom are POC, LGBT+, and Neurodivergent and any combination of those, but I am going to say I’ve read a lot of Larry fics that just have Het sex made gay. Those in the Ziam fandom just tend to look at facts in a different way than Larries do due to their life experiences. A interfaith, interracial, relationship where one or both partners fall under the Bi umbrella (not saying Louis or Harry can’t be or aren’t Bi+ but rumors, and the way the fandom markets them, puts them firmly in the gay category) looks very, very different than gay or straight relationship. Both looking from outside and being in one. There’s just different dynamics at play that aren’t often realized or understood by the gays and hets.

Its not a bad thing. All relationships are different. The issue is that theres a lot of biphobia/racism/religious prejudice etc that arises from people being unwilling to understand the inherent differences.

Taking myself for example, I’m bi, like, bi as hell, and I don’t understand how gays and hets only like one gender. I just don’t. Can’t wrap my head around it. If someone asks me to choose one gender over the others to prefer I can’t. Its so stressful. My brain goes into panic mode and it feels like I’m being torn apart. My sense of identity is shaken- its a shit feeling. I just can’t lie to myself like that. If other people feel the same well, its no wonder bi+ have such high rates of depression and suicide. Its not about choosing who to like, there is no choice, I just feel attraction to everyone. Aces, I get. Its similar to being the opposite of what I feel, or not feeling an attraction to someone I’m not interested in. Easy. Gays and hets? I’m completely lost on.

Completely, and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. But that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to try and understand where they’re coming from. Its alien to me, personally, but I’m not going to shut down the fact, that theres a fuck ton of people who only like one gender or try and make up reasons as to why they’re actually bi+

I digress, none of the boys fall neatly into the gay stereotypes, its just that parts of the Larry fandom have boxed Louis and Harry into certain roles to fit preconceived notions (likely do to them initially fitting in better with the white, sassy, somewhat effeminate twink thats been plastered all over Hollywood as their “LGBT+ representation” for years. Gag), they can understand better, and only look for proof to back up their theories but don’t look at things objectively.

They really need to get out more and make some LGBT+ friends that aren’t on the internet and talk to some gay elders. They need educating that’s not the often sanitized and insulting Hollywood version, that’s all I’m saying.

They made Louis and Harry more palatable for themselves and its… really gross.

I don’t know, I don’t get it.

Some Larries ™ turned the boys into their fandom and fanfiction stereotypes when they’re so much more than that. The Sony leaks should have been enough to dissuade the fandom, and prove that the brand sold to the broader audience is just that- a brand, and yet… Niall only talks about food and golf and Ireland and is only allowed to be straight or ace. If he exists at all its just to be Capt Niall. Liams slow and dumb and depending on the day he’s either Capt Liam or a horrific abusive homophobe. Zayns just The Worst, a unstable drug addict, and the boys hate each other, and they should have kicked him out of the band sooner because he never wanted to be part of them anyway, etc.

It drives me absolutely around the bend some days. They’re real people who don’t owe anyone anything, especially not coming out.

Yes, I think they will. But they’re not obligated to. They can change their minds, I’ll support them regardless of an “official” coming out or not.

Look, a part of me gets it. They wanna be right, they wanna prove the haters wrong, they want to be able to say I called it all along! The vindication will be sweet.

But like, it takes a quick look at someone other than Louis and Harry to realize theres something hinky going on with Liam, Zayn and Niall. Please listen to their fans who have spent just as much time as you have looking into Louis and Harry compiling together evidence.

It might take a weekend to watch the ILYSM and pterodactyl bros videos and a few more hours looking into some Niall blogs, which isn’t much compared to the hours I know they’ve spent looking into Larry. At least then they’ll have enough information to form an opinion on things.

I wonder, for some, what would happen if Larry didn’t come out, or didn’t come out first, or one of the other boys was outed against their will. Because… I don’t know. It seems like some would rather just be proven right at this point.

I get it. We’re tired. Its been eleven long years. But this isn’t a television show were everything can come to a head with a s3 or s4 cliff hanger and fixed in the series finale. Its real life, and they started off as boys trusting industry veterans who never had their best interests at heart.

Iduno. I just want some Larries ™ to take a step out of the echo chamber, realize life isn’t The Larry Show & co. And especially. ESPECIALLY, that every instance were someone, friends, family, co-works, industry peeps etc support the boys they are SUPPORTING THE BOYS, NOT THE FANDOM. They are not “confirming Larry for the fans” they’re doing it to support the couple, not to cater to the fandom. Please stop confusing the two. There’s a huge fucking difference. Learn it.

[dickspeightjrs]

Do It For A Dollar (au / 1.5k words / college student!cas / actor!dean)

Prompt 18 from my ‘30 Destiel Prompts’ for @breathingdestiel

ao3 link

The warm heat of the New York summer clings to Castiel as he walks along to his favourite coffee shop. (It’s his favourite for one simple reason - it’s cheap and he’s a broke college student.)

Despite the air conditioning of the shop welcoming him in when he arrives, Castiel decides to take a seat under the awning outside. As a student, struggling to pay for college, and all the other costs that come with simply being alive, Castiel has to find entertainment in the smaller things in life. One such entertainment is buying a coffee and sitting, just watching people go by. 

It’s a beautiful day outside so there’s plenty of people for Castiel to flit his eyes over as they walk past, going about their days. He’ll likely never see them again and that thought alone fascinates him immensely. The idea that your life can seem so huge and overwhelming and yet there’s seven billion of them walking around the planet at this moment. Seven billion perspectives. 

Castiel’s eyes follow a bobbing balloon, clutched in the hand of a small child babbling to his mother. As the balloon disappears out of eye shot, Castiel’s focus is snapped to what looks like a couple of trailers pulling up and some guys with cameras jumping out. It looks as though they’re filming something across the street. 

That was something Castiel had found it odd getting used to about living in New York. There was always some movie or show being filmed around the city. If he didn’t see it himself, he always heard about it. He’s at college to study film after all. 

He squints against the beating sun, to try to get a better look. People watching is sure to get a whole lot better if the people he is watching are celebrities. 

A couple of minutes pass and Castiel is starting to lose hope that he’s actually going to see anything before he leaves. He’s just about to get up from his seat when he chances a glance across the street again. 

It seems something must be starting as there’s a rather hyper looking man holding a microphone and talking into a camera. The man must be introducing someone as he suddenly holds out an arm to bring someone into shot. 

Oh god, it’s Dean Winchester! That man is a legend in film and he’s only thirty. Castiel had been hoping that they’d study some Dean’s movies and performances in his classes. There is so emotion Dean can’t portray with intense accuracy and believability. His latest movie was a heart-wrenching story in which he played a monster hunter who fell in love with his angel best friend, only for them to be ripped away from each other in a scene that left Castiel breathless. 

The man with the microphone is now shouting things at people on the street, while Dean seems to just be standing next to him. Castiel can’t quite make out what the man is saying but members of the public seem to be bewildered and are walking away quickly from the mad man - Castiel can’t say he blames them. 

Both men suddenly pick up the pace, jogging down the street until they stop abruptly and a microphone gets put in another strangers’ face. This person looks confused until they do a double-take and spot Dean. Finally, Castiel thinks, everyone should know who Dean is. The stranger says something that makes Dean throw his head back with a belt of laughter. 

Gosh, that man is truly beautiful. Castiel doesn’t imagine they’ll come over to his side of the street and he is definitely much too nervous to pretend to casually cross the street as if he had no idea what is happening there. Instead, he decides that, if Dean is still around after they finish filming whatever this is, he’ll pluck up the courage to go over and say hi. (To brag about it in class tomorrow, if nothing else.)

“Would you kiss Dean Winchester for a dollar?!!?” Castiel hears the hyper man’s voice shout to the next unsuspecting member of the public. He snorts to himself. There’s no doubt, he would do a lot more with Dean for a lot less than a dollar, if given the chance. 

Whatever game the two men seem to be playing carries on for a while longer. Castiel sits and watches them film for a while, plans to leave forgotten in favour of watching Dean. 

Dean looks like a nice person. When the microphone man shouts at people and even pushes some away, Dean always makes sure to catch them before they leave and give them a hug or handshake. And Castiel can’t help it every time Dean laughs, he lets out a little laugh too, though he covers his mouth so the people enjoying their coffee around him don’t think he’s strange. 

Eventually, it looks like filming is winding down. The camera guy drops his camera from his shoulder and walks off back to one of the trailers. Now the spotlight is off him, the mad man’s energy has left him and he’s just taking in quiet tones with Dean. They must be saying goodbye because Dean claps a hand on the guy’s shoulder and shakes his hand before heading towards the trailers too. 

Castiel drinks the final drops of his coffee and Dean doesn’t return. Figuring he’s missed his chance to say hi to Dean (not that he’d have worked up the courage anyway), Castiel picks up his things and throws his coffee cup in the trash. At least, he got to see one of his favourite actors in the flesh, not many people can say that. Plus, he couldn’t stay for longer, he’d already spent too much on coffee to keep his seat outside, which wasn’t good for his student budget. 

Compared to the walk to the coffee shop earlier that day, the weather is now cooler under the setting sun and Castiel relishes the reprieve from the heat. His mind begins to wander to other things, mostly his new short film he’s got to work on for school. 

Just as he’s about to cross at the end of the street, he hears someone shout from behind him.

“Wait!” 

Castiel frowns and turns to quickly look over his shoulder, though he’s not actually expecting the person to be shouting to him.

Only, when his eyes fall onto the source of the voice, they immediately go wide in shock. 

Dean Winchester is standing in front of him, green eyes filled with… nerves?

“Uh,” Dean says, as if he wasn’t expecting Castiel to actually turn around, “I noticed you watching us film from across the street. And I guess I just wanted to say that you look cute when you’re laughing. You shouldn’t hide it.”

When Castiel’s brain finally decides to reboot itself, he replies. “I was only trying to hide it because I didn’t want to look like an idiot.” 

“I’m sure you could never do that, man.” Dean says, a small smile creeping at the corner of his mouth. 

Castiel blushes and looks down at the pavement. 

A comfortable, happy silence falls on them. 

But then, Castiel frowns when he sees Dean reach into his back pocket. He tilts his head in confusion.  The confusion doesn’t clear when Dean pulls out a dollar. 

Castiel gives Dean a questioning look. 

Dean clears his throat and holds out the dollar to Castiel. “Would you kiss Dean Winchester for a dollar?”

Castiel makes an unattractive snort of laughter at Dean’s gesture. He places his hand over Dean’s and gently pushes it away. 

“I don’t need a dollar to want to kiss you, Dean.” He whispers, finding courage from the kind eyes Dean is showing him. “Plus, it’s a little crowded on this street, and people are starting to watch.” He flicks his eyes around them where some people have started taking their phones out to film Dean Winchester talking to this random guy on the street. 

Dean deflates slightly under the attention. 

“But,” Castiel says and notices Dean brighten up again, “if you wanted to find somewhere more private and, perhaps, put that dollar towards dinner, maybe we could talk a little more about that kiss.” 

Dean’s smile could rival the beaming summer sun. 

*  *  *

Two years later, Billy Eichner (turns out shouty microphone guy had a name, who knew?) presents them with a gift at their wedding. 

Unbeknownst to them until that moment, some of the crew had noticed Dean run after Castiel on the day they met and they’d filmed what they could from afar. 

All their guests chuckle when they see Dean try to offer Castiel a dollar to kiss him. Dean groans and hides his face in Castiel’s neck. Castiel runs a comforting hand down Dean’s back. 

“In your defence, it was incredibly adorable.” Castiel says. 

“Ugh”, Dean groans, “that doesn’t help, Cas.” He lifts his head to look at Castiel in the eyes, pouting like a sulking child.

Castiel smiles at his grumpy husband, and places a soothing kiss to his lips. 

Yes. He definitely didn’t need a dollar to do that for the rest of his life. 

-

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it Ivana! Sorry it took so long, I had a whole other idea before this but scrapped it because I couldn’t make it work lmao

If you’re not familiar with ‘Billy On The Street’ go look it up on YouTube. It’s hilarious. 

-

TAGS: @eccentriccas @starrynightdeancas @credentiast @imbiowaresbitch @starclaire @cockleslovesdestiel @bend-me-shape-me @destielfactory @dea-stiel @wendeano @wingsandimpalas @aggressivedean @flowersforcas @chill-legilimens @pancakesofthelord @saltnhalo @caslikescoffeeandfreckles @assbuttboyfriends @jhoomwrites @breathingdestiel @simplymisha @thekingslover @aelysianmuse @2musiclover2 @cas-you-assbutt-dean-needs-you @50shadesofsubtext @destielle 

(let me know if you’d like to be added/removed from the tag list, we don’t have to be mutuals!)

[sarkywoman]

Writing Asks

Tagged by @under-the-shady-tree, thanks!

20 questions, writer’s edition, let’s go!!

How many works do you have on AO3? 85

What’s your total AO3 word count? 712708

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Oof, uh... since like, 1999? Um, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Andromeda, Supernatural, Heroes, NCIS, DC, Marvel, The Umbrella Academy, Kingsmen, ASoIaF/Game of Thrones, Borderlands, Community, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Doctor Who/Torchwood, Final Fantasy, Harry Potter, Misfits, I think I’ve forgotten some...

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Noble Blood (Game of Thrones, ASoIaF - GRRM)  A Song of Bastards and Wards (ASoIaF - GRRM, Game of Thrones)  Young God (Borderlands)  Story and Sorcery (Loki: Agent of Asgard, Marvel)  My Shame is True (The Umbrella Academy (TV))

Do you respond to comments, why or why not? I try to! Comments are so important in the fanfic community and I know how hard it is to think of something to say about a story, even when you’ve loved it to bits, so I don’t want people to feel ignored. Especially because I appreciate comments so, so much! I will say though, I have lapses, often when my mental health isn’t good, where I simply don’t know how to respond to people and then months go by and I feel weird about replying... so sorry if you’ve ever commented on one of my stories and got silence - it was me not you!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? The Aimless One (Misfits (TV 2009)) Straight up the saddest story I’ve written, no question. Normally writing sad stuff doesn’t make me sad but I had to take a break in the middle of this to just try and grapple with the idea I’d had because it tapped into a lot of depressing thoughts I have about life and death in general. The comments were all complimentary but so upset that at first I was like ‘hooray, it had the desired impact’, then after a while I started to think ‘why did I want to hurt people like this?’

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? Probably  Realising All You Ever Wanted, a Hobbs/Dirk fic for the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency fandom. There’s such minor conflict in that one that the sugary sweet ending isn’t out of place. 

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written? Well. I have some fandoms that are sort of crossovers already, things like Marvel where you have comic versions and movie versions and it doesn’t really feel like a crossover to be picking and choosing. Same with a Dirk Gently/Thor fic I did, because Thor cameos in the DG canon, but not this Thor. I think the most ambitious crossover I’ve worked on was a collaborative chatfic with @freshgratednutmeg that we’re never likely to post, where the need for more background characters in an Umbrella Academy A/o fic led to it being crossed over with Marvel and Brooklyn 99. (Leading to such amusements as Diego sparring with Rosa, and Five competing with Shuri in class.)

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Yeah, but it’s never been very well-reasoned so it’s been fairly easy to dismiss. Some people expect everyone to share their own perspective of the characters and it’s weird.

Do you write smut? If so what kind? Not really. I can go there and have done on occasion, but it doesn’t interest me very much. I think I did it more when I was younger because I felt like it was a necessary aspect of grown-up fanfic writing (when I started I was a teenager amongst mostly adults... or other people lying about their age too lol). These days I’m more likely to fade to black or allude to the acts. But I’m not averse to writing it or anything, but it’s never the focus of my story.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Only in the sense that I see them on other sites I didn’t upload to, sometimes in other languages, sometimes not. They normally say my name somewhere on them so they’re not stolen as such, but it’s still uncomfortable to see my work circulated to other sites without my permission.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Not with my permission, but yeah. I don’t know how to feel about translations. Obviously I want people of other languages to be able to read my work, but at the same time I’m not fluent enough to be able to check the translator’s work, so I won’t know if they’ve done any better than google. Word choice is pretty important in fiction. A bad translation can totally warp a text.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not for posting or sharing, but me and @freshgratednutmeg cowrite all the time.

What’s your all time favorite ship? All time?! That’s impossible to answer. I’m a multi-shipper for starters, in pretty much every fandom I’ve been in. When I find a ship I love, I love it intensely above all others for the duration of the fixation. Then eventually it gets set aside when I find a new fandom. I’m also indecisive enough to not really have an all-time favourite anything. 

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? A Song of Bastards and Wards (ASoIaF - GRRM, Game of Thrones). I can’t begin to describe the pages of notes I have for this beast. Unless I threw them out, which... scanning my room... is a distinct possibility. Ouch. I’d hoped to parallel the books for a long time with this one, but the amount of work for a project like that is too much when you’re no longer as passionate about the source fandom. I suspect what I might do is scenes with interconnecting notes, just so people get some sense of closure.

What are your writing strengths? Dialogue, baybee! Kinda makes me want to be a scriptwriter. People are always telling me that the characters ‘sound like’ them. I think it’s from reading voraciously from when I was young and being quite a social child, that moving speech patterns and quirks into writing is something that comes very naturally to me. Too natural, in fact, because IRL I write how I speak and that’s not always suited to the situation.

What are your writing weaknesses? Most things other than dialogue. Even thought processes are an internal dialogue, so they’re okay, but then like... a fight scene? A sex scene? Just even... what are their hands doing while they’re talking? How are these people physically present? Where are they? Are they inside, outside, is the building on fire? My descriptive skills are lacking, to say the least. It’s something I’m working on.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I’m not quite sure what’s meant by this. I’m not fluent in anything other than English so I don’t see that would work well for me. I know a few phrases in German/French/Welsh/Latin/Spanish but nothing useful for conversation. Dropping in words can work, if it’s the same way the speaker would use them amidst their English. Most of the time the characters I’m writing wouldn’t be speaking in another language anyway. We can blame the tag-team of English colonialism and American media for that one I think. I think that sometimes authors utilise a character’s language in a way that just exposes how little the author actually knows of the language and that’s a bit cringe for me.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Buffy the Vampire Slayer. None of those are online atm because they’re so so bad XD I should post them just so people can see improvement but... I can’t even read them, they’re hilarious. The most gratuitous self-inserts, the most ludicrous arguments, the most out-of-character romantic declarations.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? Hmm, that’s a quandary. I think I’ll differentiate between favourite to write, and favourite end product. Favourite to write was probably  Noble Blood (Game of Thrones, ASoIaF - GRRM) because it was just a romp through my favourite themes. Given it’s one of my most popular stories, I’d say that just proves you should write what you want! I was going to quickly say  Young God (Borderlands) is my favourite fic for quality of the finished product, because I pretty much just sat down one evening and spilled it into a word doc then reread it back and thought ‘huh, did I write that? Awesome’. But I’m happy with a couple of more recent things I’ve done for The Umbrella Academy fandom, notably  The Price of Parenthood, which is very different to what I usually write and is a look at the life of one of the mothers who gave up her child to Reginald. Also The Water Calls, which was the only thing I managed to write for the recent MerMay event. It took me a little while to puzzle out how it all fit together, then once I had it worked out it came together wonderfully and I was very happy with the tone of it. 

Tagging anyone who fancies doing it.

[therappundit]

***BEST OF 2020: The Best Rap Albums From a Historically Horrible Year***

So much has been said about this year, so on the last day of 2020 I don’t need to dive any further into exploration of what made this year so challenging (both at a personal and global level), but on the bright side I will say that two unrelated forces saved this year for me: 1.) my amazing baby daughter, and 2.) the seemingly never ending cycle of new, interesting music releases.

Before we dive in, just two points on my criteria for this list:

- must be released within this calendar year (1/1 - 12/31/20)

- must consist of at least 7 tracks

- rankings are according to a combination of my own favorite albums, and other impressive pieces of work that might not be directly up my alley, but I still found truly impressive

So for my last post of 2020...here are the Top 100 Rap Albums/Projects of 2020 (and a more than worthy list of albums that belong on that same list, further down the page):

10. HOMME by Kipp Stone

Without a doubt the most under-the-radar project on this list, and technically a mixtape and not an "album"...but that doesn't matter much to me, because this effort contains every bit of passion, every bit of perspective, and every bit of sheer love for rapping as any of the the best rap albums of 2020. It's hard to say whether East Cleveland is headed towards similar territory that Detroit, Buffalo, and Rochester now occupy, but with HOMME Kipp Stone captures the hunger, anxiety and forever shoulder-chipped struggle of having big dreams that seem more like unlikely fantasies. Kipp was buzzing a few years back, but making his grand return with this project is confirmation that he is next level talent and is more than ready to make a big splash in 2021.

9. Reasonable Drought by Stove God Cook$ and Roc Marciano

Quotes, on top of quotes, on top of quotes. Not sure what else to say about Roc Marciano's protege at this point, who came out of nowhere to close out 2020 as one of the most sought after feature-verse assassins in the business today.  Yes, his bars are hilarious, but it's the outside-the-box references and unpredictable bar pairings that truly made this project such an impressive debut. Roc provided high quality instrumentals for Reasonable Drought, but it's clear that he was intentionally lurking in the background to allow the Stove God to stand on his own two. While the album is probably not at the level of Jigga's classic Reasonable Doubt debut that this project tips its' cap to, it's not hard to imagine that someday we will look back at Stove God Cook$' debut as the coming out party for one of New York City's finest MCs.

8. Àdá Irin by Navy Blue

I never imagined that one of the biggest challenges at this point would not be whether or not Navy Blue deserves to be recognized as having one of the top rap 10 albums of 2020, but rather which album to choose for the top 10!? From Earl Sweatshirt affiliate and Soundcloud producer to standout solo talent, the west coast born by east coast stationed MC/writer/producer/model/skateboarder (!?) had himself a banner year. Of his many gifts, his strongest is his ability to craft beautiful, soulful soundscapes that blend the best elements of the NYC lofi scene with shades of late 90's L.A. underground. Dealing with themes of love, loss, joy, and depression, Navy seems to possess wisdom well beyond his years, and it enabled him to craft not one, but two of the most inviting and accessible offerings from lofi circles that I have heard, and I mean that in the best way possible.  

7. From King To A God (Deluxe) by Conway The Machine

He did it. Griselda's top muscle came through to deliver his most well-rounded, and arguably strongest overall project yet. Everything from the bars, to the varied production, to the bleeding soul of this project exemplifies the difference between an album and a "tape". The Machine was a machine in 2020, blitzing an astronomical number of feature verses, but FKTG was the gem he needed in his crown to solidify himself as a contender for best MC in the game moving forward. While this is not his actual Shady Records label debut (who knows when that will arrive now), this certainly feels like his major league arrival.

6. Alfredo by Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist

Two hip-hop specialists getting together to drop a project just for fun in the middle of a pandemic...what could go wrong? Well, almost nothing, actually. Freddie arrived dripping with soul and Al slid a nice little package of beats his way, and what we ended up with was a strong partner-project to FETTI (their previous stellar collaboration alongside Curren$y), only packaged with little snippets of personal revelations and free-flowing opinions throughout. Gibbs is one of the masters of hooking you in with his voice and contagious flow, so much so that his skills as a talented writer are often overlooked. While not necessarily the incredible revelation that his collaborations with Madlib have been thus far, there's enough strong chemistry here between MC and producer to lock Alfredo down as easily one of the best rap projects of 2020. And the Grammy's would certainly agree.

5. Descendants of Cain by Ka

One of the genre's true master writers, Ka albums feel like audio literature placed over hard-nosed rap beats. Many rappers view themselves as true artists, but few can say they are capable of weaving the type of rhyme poetry that Ka seems to wield with casual ease. The truth is that it's not easy, we just aren't around to witness the care and editing that goes into Ka's work. Featuring too many stirring quotes to single out (and let us not forget an incredible surprise verse from fellow Metal Clergy-man, Roc Marcinao), Decendants of Cain is yet another impressive addition to Ka's catalogue, doing more to capture the paradoxical surroundings of environments that are equal parts harsh and loving - and often doing so through religious metaphors - than many MCs can do in a year. His lyrical paintings of the world may be bleak, but they are not without hope.

4. As God Intended by Che Noir & Apollo Brown

Apollo Brown has been one of the most revered - albeit not loudly proclaimed - underground hip-hop producers of the past decade. He has joined forces with many talented MCs to drop full partner projects, but perhaps none as under-the-radar as Buffalo's Che Noir. But what Che Noir lacked in household name status heading into 2020, she more than makes up for with conviction, writing ability, and the skills of an elite MC. The result of this collaboration is a beautiful, personal, at times painful, and at times just straight badass album, and one that deserves recognition from top rap circles. In my opinion, this is the greatest production work of Apollo Brown's career thus far, and it's hard to say where it will rank for Che Noir since she seems to be a fresh talent that is very much still on the rise - but as of right now, you have to call her one of the best in the biz today.

3. Pray for Paris by Westside Gunn

Westside Gunn is one of the masters of the volume game. That's not to say he - or anyone in camp Griselda - sacrifice quality over quantity, but it's safe to say that you know what you're gonna get with a Westside Gunn album. Welp, WSG rewrote the script with this one. What began as an art-inspired passion project between album releases ended up being the overall strongest Griselda project of 2020, and one of the year's most fascinating rap albums. Since his highly regarded Supreme Blientele album, Gunn has gradually been pulling his own lyrical content out of the spotlight, opting to play cook and curator, throwing a mixture of in-house producers and rappers in a pot with outside talent, to mirror the ambiance of a dark, gritty rap fashion show. His projects are less statements of content, than they are audio "scenes" that the listener is invited into, as if they’re Basquiat level exhibitions quantum-leaping forward in time to now live amongst a hungry, thriving rap scene in upstate New York. That's not to say that PFP isn't a lyrical feast as well, with everyone from Tyler, The Creator to Joey Bada$$ to Wale to professional dancer Cartier William having their turn in the spotlight. All thanks to Westside Gunn, the rare MC that enjoys being the host of his own party more than being the center of attention at one.

2. A Written Testimony by Jay Electronica (featuring JAY-Z)

While some are waving the Act II flag as Jay Electronica's "real" debut album, I am less interested in a cool collection of mostly-finished old songs, and much more interested in a polished,  brilliantly produced project with (again, mostly) new verses from both Electronica and JAY-Z. It's easily the shortest selection on this list, but I feel like the quality of each individual song makes up for the brevity. I couldn't care less whether anyone thinks this is more of a duo-album or a solo piece, because the themes are certainly coming from Electronica's wheel house, and the fact that Hov was able to tweak his content to meet him there, is one of the things that makes AWT so special to me. 

1. The Price of Tea in China (Deluxe) by Boldy James and The Alchemist

No, it doesn’t represent a seismic shift in the culture, and no it’s not *the album* that we heard blasting out of everyone’s (or anyone’s) car speakers this year, but when it came to sheer execution, and mastery over the style of music they were aiming to make, there just simply wasn’t one flaw in Boldy James and The Alchemist’s The Price of Tea in China. From the distinctly moody production, to the guest verses, to the steady hand of a wizened veteran of the street life, intent on sharing unfiltered tales of his underworld without any additional bells or whistles, it all clicks so well that I can’t picture taking the project out of my rotation. Uncle Al went deeeeeeep into his bag with this one, and Boldy seems to have returned from the industry grave to reach the highest level of recognition of his career. In a year stuffed with a plethora of high quality examples of every flavor of rap music imaginable, The Price of Tea in China is the ideal pick for album of the year, because it’s prestige is built upon it’s ability to simply be what it wanted to be without turning an ear to trends or reaching for broader recognition. TPOTIC’s broader recognition is made possible due to Boldy & Al’s artistic commitment to just making the type of music that a MC from Detroit and a legendary underground producer from Los Angeles love to make, and for that we should be very grateful.

Top 100  (all belong in the Top 25-50, but…there’s only 100 spots in the Top 100, so here we go):

11. FlySiifu by Fly Anakin & Pink Siifu

12. Song of Sage: Post Panic! by Navy Blue

13. Eastern Medicine, Western Illness by Preservation

14. Too Afraid To Dance EP by Chuck Strangers

15. Noise Kandy 4 by Rome Streetz

16. Mt. Marci by Roc Marciano

17. Burden of Proof by Benny The Butcher & Hit-Boy

18. Battle Scar Decorated by Monday Night & Henny L.O.

19. We Know the Truth (Deluxe) by Drakeo the Ruler

20. The Allegory by Royce Da 5′9″

21. Bag Talk by yungmorpheus & Pink Siifu

22. Innocent Country 2 by Quelle Chris

23. Weight of the World by MIKE

24. Kontraband by Rome Streetz & Farma Beats

25. BRASS by Moor Mother & billy woods

26. Try Again by ovrkast.

27. Shrines by Armand Hammer

28. The Smartest by Tee Grizzley

29. Good Energy by Grafh

30. Substance Abuse by Rigz & Futurewave

31. Cold Water by Medhane

32. King’s Disease by Nas & Hit-Boy

33. Milestones by Skyzoo

34. Young & Turnt 2 by 42 Dugg

35. My Turn by Lil Baby

36. Manger on McNichols by Boldy James and Sterling Toles

37. The OutRunners by Curren$y & Harry Fraud

38. Mach’s Hard Lemonade by Mach-Hommy

39. Sages by Henny L.O. & Ohbliv

40. E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front by Busta Rhymes

41. Lake Water by SeKwence

42. At the End of the Day. by Fly Anakin

43. Sole Food by Deniro Farrar

44. The Oracle 3 by Grafh

45. The Blue Tape by Tree

46. lo&behold by lojii

47. Who Made The Sunshine by Westside Gunn

48. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels

49. Whitehouse Studio, Pt. 2 by Various Aritsts [Detroit]

50. Carpe Noctem by Big Ghost Ltd

51. Infinite Wisdom by Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon

52. The Throwaways by The Opioid Era

53. Anyways by Young Nudy

54. PTSD (Deluxe) by G Herbo

55. Holly Favored by Monday Night & Foisey

56. THE GOAT by Polo G

57. Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition by Your Old Droog

58. The Face of Jason by ANKHLEJOHN

59. Two4one by Jay Worthy

60. Poetic Substance by RIM & Vinyl Villain

61. ve·loc·i·ty by H31R (Maassai & JWords)

62. UNLOCKED by Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats

63. Slim E and Friends by CHASETHEMONEY

64. Alone Time by YL

65. FLYGOD Is An Awesome God 2 by Westside Gunn

66. OBLIVION by Black Noi$e

67. Sleeper Effect by Sleep Sinatra

68. Savage Mode 2 by 21 Savage & Metro Boomin

69. Thug Tear by Big Kashuna O.G. & Monday Night

70. II - The Next Wave by Quakers

71. Demon & Mufasa by Yhung T.O. & DaBoii

72. Eternal Atake by Lil Uzi Vert

73. Miles by Blu & Exile

74. IMMORTALKOMBAT by Al Divino & Estee Nack

75. The Baltimore Housing Project by Jay Royale

76. I’m Still Perfect by Baby Smoove

77. The Grotesque & Beautiful by Teller Bank$

78. Crime Scenes by Ransom & Nicholas Craven

79. Streams Of Thought, Vol. 3. by Black Thought

80. Ways and Means by Rasheed Chappell & 38 Spesh

89. Sacred Psalms by El Camino & 38 Spesh

90. As Above So Below by ANKHLEJOHN

91. Tomorrow Is Forgotten by Stik Figa & Conductor Williams

92. So Help Me God! by 2 Chainz

93. Sauce Monk Volume 3 by Sauce Heist & Camoflauge Monk

94. A Beautiful Drug by WTM Scoob

95. Don’t Play It Straight by Small Bills (ELUCID & The Lasso)

96. No More Humble Fashion by Flee Lord

97. Pharaoh Chain by Planet Asia & Tha Musalini

98. Numb by Sha Hef

99. Interstate 38 by 38 Spesh

100. Get Money Teach Babies by Heist Life & Spanish Ran

THE REST OF THE BEST (all belong in the Top 100 releases of 2020, blame 2020 for being such a stacked year for music) - in no particular order:

Assata by CV$ a.k.a. Con$piracy & Teller Bank$, Spencer for HIGHER 3 by Vic Spencer & sonnyjim, Big Bad Boldy by Boldy James & Real Bad Man, Da 5th Power by Mooch, Muthaland by BbyMutha, Act II: Patents of Nobility (The Turn) by Jay Electronica, Long Story Short by Heem, Eileen by 14 Trapdoors, Free Drakeo by Drakeo the Ruler, Da Fixtape by Da Cloth, The L.I.B.R.A. by T.I.,  Sinners & Saints by Rasheed Chappell & Buckwild, Black Schemata by yungmorpheus............... Polly by the Powder Keg by Chuck Chan & Pad Scientist, High Off Life by Future,  Memphis Massacre 2 by Duke Deuce, LSD by The Leonard Simpson Duo & Guilty Simpson, Funeral by Lil Wayne............ RAW UNKNOWN by Spectacular Diagnostics,  Nezzie’s Star by Eddie Kaine,  ShrapKnel (self-titled),  The Bluest Note by Skyzoo & Dumbo Station,  WUNNA by Gunna,  Meet The Woo 2 by Pop Smoke,  Fresh Air by UFO Fev & Statik Selektah,  Vito by Vince Ash, Avenues by Tony Seltzer & Adrian Lau, Spilligion by Spillage Village, GRIMM & EViL by GRiMM Doza, Closer Than They Appear by Lyric Jones, RUDEBWOY by CJ Fly, Wired Different by Ty Farris & Bozack Morris,  Rocket to Nebula by Killah Priest,  NO Blade of Grass by V Don,  I’m My Brother’s Keeper by Yella Beezy & Trapboy Freddy................. Carhartt Champions by Tree Mason, No Hook 3 by Dunbar,  Rowhouse Whispers by Ray West & Zilla Rocca,  Magneto Was Right #4 by Raz Fresco, DUMP LIFE by Tha God Fahim, Jay NiCE & Left Lane Didon,  FNTG: From Niggaz to Godz by Squeegie O,  PANAGNL4E, Vol. 2 by Los and Nutty,  Thank You For Using GTL by Drakeo & JoogSzn,  Adjust to the Game by Larry June, BETTER by Deante’ Hitchcock,  No Cosign Just Cocaine 3 by Ty Farris, Vangarde by Mr. Lif & Stu Bangas,  MSYKM by Tsu Surf,  Your Birthday’s Cancelled by Iron Wigs.................. LULU by Conway & The Alchemist, No One Mourns The Wicked by Conway & Big Ghost, Talk Soon by Nolan The Ninja, FULL CIRCLE by Medhane, Detroit 2 by Big Sean, Juno by Che Noir & 38 Spesh, Send Them To Coventry by Pa Salieu............... Marlowe 2 by Marlowe (L’Orange & Solemn Brigham), The Versace Tape by Boldy James & Jay Versace, The Balancing Act by Statik Selektah, Capital Gains by Willie The Kid, Deutsche Marks 2 by Willie The Kid & V Don, Keep Going by Larry June & Harry Fraud, The Sharecropper’s Daughter by Sa-Roc, Seven Times Down Eight Times Up by Elzhi & JR Swiftz.................... The Ghost of Fritz by Jamal Gasol, Don’t Feed the Monster by Homeboy Sandman & Quelle Chris, Anime, Trauma and Divorce by Open Mike Eagle, Brentwood by Poloboy Nunu, The Listening Session by Billy Danze & TooBusy, Midnight Sons by Zilla Rocca & Chong Wizard, A Piece of Mine by Bub Rock, The Rock Period by Bub Rock, WINTER by DJ Muggs, Bartier Bounty 2 by Sada Baby, Cincorginals by Tobe Nwigwe, Director’s Cut (Scene Three) by Ransom & Nicholas Craven, Rather Be A Real One by Vic Spencer.............. Exhibit Q by Deniro Farrar, After 12 by Che Noir, Blank Checc by Baby Money, Jesus Is My Homeboy by YL, The People’s Champ by Flee Lord, In The Name of Prodigy by Flee Lord & Havoc, Culture Over Corporate by Uptown X.O., Sell Sole 2 by Dej Loaf, Progress by Struggle Mike, Merry Wickmas by Shawny Binladen, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Donsmith, Serene by VRN Hayes, In My Life by Dat Boi Vic,  Ho, Why Is You Here? by Flo Milli, Limbo by Aminé........................................thank you, and cheers to a happier, healthier New Year. 🙏