#Reed isn't a muse yet

[avictimofthejazz]

//A trend is emerging.....

[ignisregina]

Do you have any ships for Marianne or Daighre? If you do, would you like to gush about them?

i woke up to this (two days ago lol) and was like 'whoa don't give me too much platform about this topic' hahaha

okay just IM GIVING YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO BACK OUT lol no too late for that. this isn't just romantic ships but also friendships because uwu i love it when someone adopts marianne.

aight so fiiiirst, @dcwnthercbbithcle IDK MAN, I THINK WE'VE BEEN FOLLOWING EACH OTHER FOREVER why did we just talk now coz Fiadh and my baby just clicked together so well. i'm always super happy to find muses that are involved in the cycle one verse coz i think marianne is somehow a different person back then living a different life altogether. it's a pretty confined life, yes, and that's why i'm so happy she has fiadh aka literal force of nature. i think bunni just knows how to talk to me coz we just keep yelling back and forth at each other about daighre and fiadh and it's all fun and games until your bestie chooses to kick the bucket on you after all you've been through - literal lore getting written because of their shenanigans, going through a war and grief, balancing their domains and friendship together, and then she's gone and you have to go through your long lame life alone. and the best part is meeting again in the future and knowing things have changed between them but they're kinda clinging to some semblance of the past, one because she remembers, the other coz she does not. HAVE YOU SEEN THE LONG HEADCANONS BUNNI WRITES FOR THEM I CANNOT I AM CRY

next is allie. i'm so thankful for @wildcxrds for being marianne's first bestie when she got back in the rp scene. i love this because they share the same element - fire - but have veeery different dispositions. where marianne is temperamental, allie is patient. where marianne is quick to anger, allie is all patience. and extra points because allie is an orphan and yet she's the one who sort of adopted marianne. anyway, i'm so glad i'm seeing you around again! excited to write with you once more!!!

@cfgcdsandmcnsters's malakai. this guys should be a lesson to all that when you say "sEnD shIppY meMes EvEn if wE DoN'T hAVe A shIP" WILL GET YOU A MEME AND A SHIP AHAHAHA. oKAY BUT FIRST LET ME SAY THAT LILA IS LITERALLY THE BEST HGJSFGJSHDFGJHG SO AMAZINg. I'm so terribly sorry Marianne isn't as creative as Malakai and all she can come up with is a dumb nickname while she gets something poetic AF ahahahaha. I'm sorry what, i can't hear you over eventide sun HAHAHAHA. he's sooo gentle with her and it kinda annoys her? like 'wtf you can't always put me first, mal'. never thought marianne would ever hang out in a punk club but what can we do...

@vihilum and i one day jumped on discord and just planned the entire dynamics of reed and marianne and HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? OH yes because i randomly doodled a thing and bam! ship. anyway, i know you're not here a lot but i just want to say anyway that i loved what we talked about and your enthusiasm for their dynamics. your demon child reed will always have a home in marianne whenever your guys are back.

and you're last @heksery because i can (no because you have two, wtf that's illegal). this is funny coz we were both out of tumblr when it happened, there were memes before there were even ships, and honestly, the ships happened because of the memes. ironically, i haven't finished the meme that started this. it's not much but i will finish it anyway otherwise i will feel like i've tricked u into doing this HAHAHAHA. i think i once said their trope is found family but how to unfind them HAHAHA i love that Marianne gets some degree of pass from jules and pat HAHAHAHA

if you've heard of fun's some nights "coz i could use some friends for a change", i guess that's her thing with jules especially. like, does she fully trust jules? no, but she's not looking for someone who will 100% not stab her in the back and who has a shiny moral compass. she's there for jules' strength and no-nonsense attitude and her begrudging way of showing love because, i think, at the back of her mind marianne knows she has also this begrudging way of accepting love. if jules wants to take care of people but she doesn't wanna admit it, marianne wants to be taken care of but HAHA she doesn't recognize it either so jules can insult her and she can angrily accept.

idk what she liked about patrick. he's hot? but yeah no kidding, it's probably that plus the swag and power and his hair lol. that's soooo sexy to her but also annoying AF. and your boi can't resist egging her on and she can't resist wanting to take him down a notch but they have to watch their tempers because it's either breaking the bed or breaking the house probably. just like with jules, i don't think marianne would ever admit it but she feels safe in his presence because she knows he could take her attitude and he could also take her on - in a banter, in a fight, in *ahem* other stuff - like in terms of power he can match her. so it's basically the touch her and you die but also touch him and you die so just let me scream quietly in my corner thanks

haha oh well i think that's all. i probs said too much, but hey, you asked XD I just wanna thank everyone who puts up with me about this ahahaha *sinks back to the sea*

[lovelydisasters]

Muses;

Benjamin Reed. Thirty-seven. He/him. Bisexual. A small town guy, who grew up in a large family, several siblings, so many cousins. Always a bit of the odd one out as a kid. He had some (a lot) of trouble in his youth. He ended up in juvie for a while. Eventually had a falling out with his dad and left his hometown. Nothing more than a high school dropout with a history of criminal record. Now older and (a little) wiser, he has been jumping between different jobs, a bit of jack of all trades from what he has picked up and learned over the years. Currently a bartender on the weekend and a waiter at a diner on weekdays. Simply trying to stay on the straight 'n narrow and live a decent life. (fc: Chris Evans)

Jae Young. Twenty-seven. She/her. Bisexual. Eldest child. Very close with her younger brother. Failed rookie cop. Now disillusioned private investigator. Unfulfilled with her day to day of discovering affairs, searching for a missing pet or two, even hopeless cases of missing persons. She craves excitement, something deeper: unfortunately leads to her sticking her nose into business it shouldn't be in. impulsive. reckless. (not so secretly) an adrenaline junkie. (fc: pia kristine cruz)

Daniel Calipayan. The Jackal. Thirty-three. He/him. Pansexual. International Hitman. Technically a dead man, "died" alongside his father in a tragic accident that left his late father's "empire" with a vacancy, many were too eager to fill. Not loyal to any specific criminal organization or person. goes to whoever is willing to pay him the most. He provides for his estranged sister and mother, the only people he actually cares about. Cold & Efficient killer. (fc: Manny Jacinto)

Alistair King. Thirty. He/Him. (Closeted) Bisexual. Only child of a wealthy family. Workaholic CEO. All around asshole. Indifferent towards relationships (and people in general.) Always ready & willing to throw money at any problems or people. Expects the finer things in life but isn't very attached to any materialistic desires. Deep down longing for something outside of his routine yet not changing anything. Secretly unhinged, mentally unstable. (fc: Matthew Bell)

Ava Walker. Twenty-one. Bisexual. Seemingly obsessed with perfection. Academic focused. Top of her classes. Honestly? Tired, would love a long nap at any given time. Focused, toeing a thin line between her stress and anxiety. Trying to live up to the expectations of her parents/family. Pursuing a medical career following in their footsteps. Her actual passion lies with writing, she adores poetry. (fc: Zendaya)

Asher Wyatt. Twenty-three. Stoner. Party animal. Somehow still managing to not be kicked out of college and hold down a job. He is the type to drink until he blacks out. Attend any and every party on campus. Has flings and one night stands he doesn't remember. Numbers in his phone he won't call, unless he is drunk, lonely (and horny.) All around disappointment and disaster with commitment and abandonment issues. If people's expectations of him are already abysmal, what does he have to worry about? Nothing. (fc: Noah Centineo)

These will be more to come soon, no doubt I will see a fc I wanna use and be inspired.

(thinking of Danai Gurira (she is so stunning), Zoe Saldana, Maggie q, Tom Hardy fcs for some muses already.)

[genesisarclite]

Unpopular opinion below the cut, but this is something that's been in the back of my head and bugging me ever since I first played Zero Dawn way back in 2017. Just another bit of musing and a chance to get some thoughts out on "paper", brought upon by my desire to create a fic for the fandom and a growing frustration with crafting the story I wish to tell.

Aloy is, to me, one of the most remarkably boring characters I've ever dealt with in fiction.

There. I said it.

And I don't mean boring as in no personality or something like that. I mean that she's just boring. She's skilled and capable and good at almost everything, and the flaws she does have are downplayed to the point of being nearly nonexistent. Even when characters call her out for things or are hostile toward her, they are almost universally shown to be wrong (with the possible exception of Rost). While being strong and capable isn't a bad thing, and is necessary for a game and story like this to work, the problem is that it's just not balanced out by notable flaws, weaknesses, or failures.

For example, she's frequently abrasive and rude. It can be justified, of course, by her having lived in isolation for nineteen years, but when she demonstrates that trait in the real world, she's rarely called out for it. Instead, others shy away from her, grumble a bit, or just take it in stride and move on. While she mellows out a little in Forbidden West, it takes until past the halfway point for the main story to start doing this.

And the fact that she's a famous one-woman army, capable of taking down machines many times her size, and is so celebrated as though this is a rare and wondrous thing, is obnoxious. Yet, I have no problem with her being able to do it. We know she trained for around thirteen years under Rost to win the Proving, but because she proceeds to rarely fail, has few obvious faults, and is almost always right, the impact is totally lost for me.

I have many original female characters for my own original works, of course, many of whom are women of action in their own right. I have no issue with Aloy being capable and a warrior - I love Yuna, for example, and Fang, Megan Reed, Aria Argento, Lara Croft, Kasumi Goto, and so many others. I have no issue with her being determined and capable.

It's the execution that really grinds my gears.

And therein lies the issue with the fic that's been at the back of my mind since I finished "Death's Door" in Forbidden West.

In the fic I want to write, she's going to travel to unknown lands and run into a new tribe and robots. The problem is that following her canonical capabilities means cutting the tension, because we know she's faced down everything from Apex Thunderjaws to Slaughterspines. I would prefer to have her struggle and be told - and proven - that she's wrong. That she's not the only one who understands how the world works, and not everything she can do is unique. That she can still be overwhelmed. And I want to see her overcome all that and grow, become even better and stronger for it, because that sounds like it would be fun.

And so I twist myself into a pretzel trying to figure out how to join the disparate halves. A protagonist who always wins, is always right, and whose faults never get in the way isn't very interesting to read about. Aloy as she is, for me, simply doesn't translate well to written form, and the story I want to write requires that she be uprooted and forced to face new challengers.

I suppose I'm concerned how it could be taken. Will the Aloy of my fic be recognized as the same person, but with a little more dug out of her to make her feel more human? Or will she be seen as someone entirely different?

Not to mention that one of the things she has to face will be something she's not had to deal with yet. It doesn't involve spear or bow, deadly machines or ancient ruins. It comes from within, and I think it will be an interesting tale.

But getting past that pretzel is the hardest part, and I'm reluctant only in that I don't how the highly capable and intelligent Aloy being dropped into a situation where she's in over her head and not the best on the block will be taken.