#also this is an excellent example of if you want me to write more literally just shoot me an ask

[findafight]

WAIT OKAY I just read your supernatural st au and AHHHHH now I need that one too holy shit token human Steve!! Token human Steve!!!

Even here everyone’s just like I love him he’s a neat little guy he’s literally thrown himself around and been mortally wounded for the party when he’s literally the only human and everyone’s just like - him!!!! Selkie Robin and how they find out they’re soulmates!! Aaahh!!!! And that final line…… I am obsessed putting in my little request for a full fic when you can, pretty please!!!

Anon you're spoiling meeeee I love you I love hearing from people who like my writing/ideas!! Original post

This one is definitely something that has high potential of me actually writing too. Because like, yeah. The Party is Marge Simpson "I just think they're neat" potato meme about Steve. He's so shaped.

This has a readmore because it's actually got two different mini scenes in it. Enjoy~~~ (also note I included a bit of another non kinky kinkmeme prompt about supernatural baby sitter Steve in this!)

I imagine a scene where Dustin, early fall of '85, is complaining to Lucas and Mike about another failed attempt to get Steve Officially (as he can't actually be Pack unless he KNOWS he's pack, ya feel? Like he IS their pack but also he doesn't know so not really but yes but no...) In their pack at lunch, and Eddie, who as mentioned is a vampire that feeds off energy and is therefore The Most Dramatic Bitch Ever, overhears and is like

"Steve? Steve Harrington is part of your Pack??"

And Dustin goes "well he would if he stopped being DENSE about it!!! We've been trying to tell him-"

"you've been trying to tell him" says Mike.

"-since before Christmas last year! But he keeps thinking we're-"

"you're-"

"-talking about DnD!!"

Eddie is just a little shocked his newest sheepies have been trying for nine months to tell Steve, King Steve, of all people, that his preppy human ass is such a firm part of their Pack that they haven't given up on telling him.

Lucas pipes up. "To be fair to Steve, he was concussed before Christmas last year, and then again this summer."

Dustin shakes his head. "Need to get the guy a helmet. Protect the braincells he has left."

"did he have any to begin with?"

"oh, can it, Mike." Lucas says. "At least he knows about Robin, now. So maybe you should ask her for help. He believed her!"

Ohhh? Eddie was curious, because he had heard certain...rumours, about a Robin and her possible tie to Steve Harrington.

Dustin scoffs. "Okay, yeah, but she's his literal actual soulmate who he still refuses to date, and she transformed in front of him. But I don't want to freak him out. A seal is one thing, a wolf is another!"

"Dustin, you're basically a dachshund."

"fuck right off"

Eddie waves his hands in front of them. "Wait wait wait. Are you talking about Robin Buckley? The selkie in the marching band with Gareth?" The sheepies nod. "You're saying Steve Harrington, former captain of laundry basket sport-"

"actually pretty sure he wasn't ever basketball captain, just swim team-"

"-former Head Jock, is dorky little Robin Buckley's soulmate? Like full on, Selkie coat magic woo woo, Soulmate?"

They all nod, but it's Lucas who speaks. "Yeah. They worked together over the summer. Became, like, inseparable. She told him in August sometime I think."

Eddie does not know how to process that.

-----

ALSO!!!

I imagine Steves parents sitting him down, after his nineteenth birthday (which I headcanon as April first) and very carefully explaining to him that Monsters Are Real.

And Steve sitting there, nearly eight months into knowing that, trying to pretend he doesn't. Pretending that since Robin told him she was a Selkie and the Party told him about being werewolves, he'd sort of, kind of, become any supernatural beings' go to babysitter. Sort of.

It started with a litter of pups he stumbled across in the woods who seemed really friendly for being abandoned in the woods and welcomed the water he brought them and the ear scritches he gave, that he didn't even realize were werewolf children until a couple came crashing through the trees frantically and stopped to watch as he helped a puppy get a leaf off its paw. And the pups are waggled over to the woman and the man looked at Steve with a twitchy nose and then Steve realized they were scenting him because ohhhh. Werewolves.

And Steve went "uh. I think they forgot how to change back? Good luck?" And left. Because what else was he going to do?

So it became a thing. Little magical creatures were told that if all else fails, Steve Harrington will make sure you're safe and looked after until your parents could get to them. He amassed a Rolodex of the contact info near-human folk of Hawkins, and a reputation for being a damn good babysitter. And also somehow having a gaggle of kids around him whenever he went to the park.

So his parents go on and on about things Steve already knows about and he's wondering why they're telling him all of it and also how they know and then they mention how these things are dangerous. How they must be removed. Destroyed. Killed.

Because that's what Harringtons do, they hunt monsters in the night and keep the good, normal, human folks of america safe.

And Steve, who knows that there are supernatural creatures in Hawkins; who knows what actual monsters in Hawkins look like and has hit them with a spiked bat and an axe; who can't go three blocks before some pup or fae or gnome or whatever decides to follow him like a duckling; who little lost kids of all shapes and sizes flock to in order to get back home; sits there and listens as his parents tell him how to kill them. How to salt and burn the remains.

He grips the edge of the table with white knuckles and purposefully evens his breath. He will not betray The Party, or Robin, or any of the families who have found a safe haven in Hawkins to live their lives peacefully. And isn't it ironic, that the place the Harringtons supposedly live, the place they are barely in because of legitimate business and the family business takes them across the country, is a hotbed for supernatural activity. It happened right under their noses, and their only son and heir was at the centre of it. The Human in a Pack of werewolves, platonic soulmate to a Selkie, potential.... something to a vampire, babysitter of all the little creatures of the county.

So Steve tries to make a plan. He can't let his parents know that Hawkins is anything but a quiet human town, but he can't let them keep hurting innocents either. It's either a long con of taking up his family mantle and changing things from inside, manipulating the system like he did in highschool to his whims, or dismantling it loudly and more dramatically which could back fire.

Either way, as soon as his parents leave again (for human related business), he takes the family Grimoire, his birthright, and calls an All Party Meeting.

He slams the tome onto the table and says, simply,

"we've got a problem"

[bl4ckth0rn3]

Okay no fuck you guys it is 2am and I am gonna fucking rant cuz, respectfully, some of y'all are being so dumb. Like i get that different opinions are valid but the opinions are wrong and they're fuckin annoying as shit. More than anything, the criticism of the tv show changing details from the story is starting to really fucking piss me off.

1) the book is told from Percy’s perspective - there is NO WAY of making an adaptation 100% faithful from that because you don’t have insight into when he starts noticing when something’s wrong. To me, going into it knowing that Aunty Em was Medusa or Crusty was Procrustus made so much more sense. Not just because it made sense for the audience but also because we got to see how the characters acted in that situation.

2) PLUS, Percy is the definition of unreliable narrator. We finally see this shit from outside his dumbass-12-year-old-boy brain

3) if i see one more fucking comment about the solstice deadline passing I am gonna start throwing shit. It ADDED A NEW DIMENSION. It made it seem like all their work up until that point had been hopeless which was SO POWERFUL and gave us real insight into Percy's fucking resilience. Fuck yall.

4) the pearls as well. Not being funny, but that was literally one of the greatest changes. Wanna know why, fucknuts? BECAUSE the story wasn't just from Percy's POV which meant that we got more of Sally's backstory w Poseidon which means it makes sense that he would want to save her. He loves her.

5) the story is nearly 20 years old. Let Rick update it and write it the way he wants to write it in 2024. (Prime example: Medusa = still a villain, but acknowledged as a victim)

6) ABOVE ALL, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT THIS ADAPTATION WAS STAYING TRUE TO THE CHARACTERS (which a certain film or two pointedly failed to do). The characters are why Rick wrote the book in the first place, giving his kids a place to feel seen in mainstream media and offering up really positive role models whilst he was at it. Percy is loyal, and determined, and kind, and brave. Annabeth is proud, and brilliantly intelligent, and strong, and independent. Grover is true, and just, and innocent, and good. If you all really can't see past changes that really didn't ultimately dramatically effect character development/more general plot progression then honestly i wonder what you ever thought you were gonna get out of it.

7) it’s Rick’s story. Let him do whatever the fuck he wants with the world he very kindly gifted to us. This was an excellent tv show, y’all are just bitter because it wasn’t copy+pasted from the book.

[thankskenpenders]

I'm a huge fan of Ian, but one criticism of him that I've seen that I kind of agree with is that he sometimes falls into "look how much I know about Sonic" in his writing. For example, a number of references in Frontiers like Tails namedropping Dark Gaia out of nowhere. It's a nice change of pace from Sega not knowing where they wanted to go with Sonic for like a decade, but it might be too far in the opposite direction. What do you think?

There's definitely a thin line between Ian's love of references and lore and lyric quotes being fun and grating, yeah. I think he tends to do it well, choosing things that will support and enhance the story he's trying to tell rather than just dropping random references for the sake of it, but sometimes it can kinda make me roll my eyes and go "okay, Ian, settle down buddy." He readily admits that sometimes he just really wants to play with all the toys in the toy box.

I think an example I might point do would be some of the Classic Sonic comics for IDW. The Tails special in particular felt like it relied very heavily on Ian being excited to use the Witchcarters again, and to use Flicky Island as a setting, but I felt like the story left me wanting a little more beyond just "this obscure old stuff is back again." (The art in all the Classic stuff is phenomenal, though, of course.)

Frontiers absolutely is jam packed full of references, but I think it works there because acknowledging and building off of decades of continuity is one of the main points of the story in Frontiers. It's part of a greater effort Sega has been making to acknowledge Sonic's legacy after much of the late '00s and early 2010s were spent being kind of ashamed of that stuff and trying to streamline the series. Frontiers, meanwhile, wanted to look back on all those past adventures and their inconsistent writing and figure out how to wring some proper character arcs out of them, so that the cast can reflect on those arcs and figure out what they want to do next. Mining hit-or-miss old material for a compelling throughline like that has always been something Ian's excelled at - it's literally what he did to the Archie comics when he started out - and having the characters acknowledge their past adventures is a part of that. It gives us a sense that Sonic and co. really have gone through a lot together, and that those experiences have shaped who they are today.

It's also worth remembering that a ton of more casual Sonic fans aren't as immersed in the state of the canon or Ian's referential writing style as we are. When Frontiers came out you'd see people say stuff like "OMG, Sonic mentioned Jet the Hawk!! I didn't know Sonic Riders was canon to the main series! I loved those games!" That kind of reaction is probably a big part of why those references are there. Sega wants fans to know that Sonic DOES have continuity, unlike a series like Mario where every game and sub-series is kind of its own thing, and that all the old stuff still matters. And if that's what you wanna do, then Ian's the guy for the job.

[chiprewington]

Character Analysis on Chip Revvington, the Chainsaw Consultant.

Genuine Long Post Warning, as well as a LOT of images. This is going to cover literally everything we know about Chip and my take on what's provided In Canon (being his Cogs Ink profile, his Interview, the 1.3 News Article, and In-Game). This is my first try at an In-depth Character Analysis. Screenshots used are from the official Wiki.gg, In-Game, and from the Corporate Clash News Archive.

Prior to being brought on to lead the Deforester Force, it's shown he's clearly a confident Suit, and has a genuine passion for his line of work as a consultant. With his personal statement alone this can be seen on full display with how he writes about himself, including noting how he's not swayed by bribery in any manner. (also the fact he outright pokes fun at one of the bribes will never not be funny to me)

Not to mention his lack of discipline records throughout his 19 months having already worked for C.O.G.S. with his usual job as an external consultant, this plus the fact he has "positive remarks" from his previous places of work shows he's probably in very high demand and really does excel at his job.

This is also shown in his interview, where he also equally shows a lot of passion for his job and genuine interest with answering questions relating to it. Before we get into that though, I feel like it's important to also point out a couple other things that I think about a lot with his profile.

This, being referred to as the "Temperamental Terminator" in the 1.3 trailer, and considering the average age of a Consultant is ~40+ years (and I personally hc him as 48), I think it's safe to say Chip just always was a quick-tempered individual throughout his life. It's one of his less favorable traits that I personally find charming.

And these read to me like Chip's always been considered "scary" among other suits. His behavior isn't the issue (yet) though, he's just a massive guy who happens to have a chainsaw for a snout.

Which. Makes this very interesting. Jennifer, stated something similar above, but I feel as if her intentions are more... unaware than the actual company's. Jennifer sees a guy with a big Chainsaw and thinks "Oh! He can cut down trees with that!" Jennifer ily. The company on the other hand probably has had this idea of what Chip could be a candidate for. They hired him to lead the Deforester Force. His job consists of him sitting in an office. Nothing relating to physical labor in cutting down trees, he just oversees the process. "Chainsaw apparatus will be helpful [...]" suddenly takes on a much darker meaning, in my mind.

Which is how we get here. Chip being modified with a clearly experimental hardware which we all know as the Personality Override. The fact that it was only "partially successful" is a very fun thing to consider.

Note the fact that from a canon standpoint the Override was implemented "2 weeks ago". This will be important later.

(The toon who got the above screenshots is not mine!)

Another fun side-note is the fact that the Override is experimental. It's experimental hardware. Chip is the only one with it. They are using him like a guinea pig. And not to mention "Dealing with Toons far more efficiently" paired with the above company-sourced "Chainsaw Apparatus will be useful [...]", you can't make this stuff up. They turned this guy into a living weapon likely without him knowing the full scope of what would happen if he did get this position in the first place.

Okay. Now we can talk about his Interview. Which even through glancing at it you can see just how passionate he is regarding his work. He is driven and confident that his plans for the Deforester Force will work. He wants to believe that he'll set an example for the rest of the departments to execute a similar plan.

And then this question comes up. And then I have to remind you it's probably been only a couple days since he's modified. And he already has rumors circulating about him.

And the moment the subject is changed, he perks right back up into being passionate about his work.

I also feel like it's worth mentioning the fact he's been actively requesting and wanting Spruce (who recommended him to begin with!!!) to join him in the Deforester Force and keeps being turned down on it. The way this and something else I'm about to touch on are written feels like he's barely been able to see him. These two have a brotherly bond and they're being separated. He misses his brother, man.

That's not even getting into this. Even as I'm writing this I just realized the implications of something at the end of this and I'm going to have to pace around my house thinking about it. But also you can see that even though just the slightest amount of time has canonically passed since the interview, you can already see the toll the Override's been taking on Chip's behavior. While he was once passionate, he's now actively complaining about his job. It's not even about the job itself, it's about what's happened to him.

Not to mention, I feel it also displays his temper in full swing once again- even if he's justified in this sense.

I also need to pay special mind to this ending bit right here because the implication of this with everything else surrounding it fucking broke me. uugghhhhh.

Now this is something I feel is so, so, so important to his character. He actively does not like toons. He clearly shows a certain disgust for them and views them like Animals. Pests. He doesn't hesitate to proudly state his opinion on them. And then you see him in-game.

He hasn't changed his mind about toons at all. Ignoring the fact that "you critters again" insinuates this isn't even his first contact with toons (will get to this later), he's... Restrained. I don't know, this reads to me like he's actively restraining himself from blowing up. "You don't want to see what happens when I get angry." is a warning to just comply and leave.

And then because he doesn't remember he fired the rest of the Deforester Force (another thing I want to touch on), he actively gets upset and angry at the remaining flunky because of course someone as high-rank as himself wouldn't want a Flunky on such an important team. Once again, additionally showing his active temper. His active temper he just tried to restrain and bottle up.

And that's what breaks the camel's back. The Override most likely activates from excessive anger/distress, something that Chip Actively Struggles With. He has to bottle himself up because if he tries to be his usual hot-tempered self, which is who he naturally is, he's just going to lose himself. Lose himself to cog knows how long as being a lifeless machine that perfectly and efficiently complies with the commands its given.

He begs for help when he's able to partially regain control (emphasis on partially, considering the most he can do is speak and prevent Deadwood from happening), but like. Again, to me this reads as the fact he is currently Incredibly Fucking Terrified because he's completely aware the whole time the Override is active. He can see himself acting against his will. It's mortifying. He's willing to beg anyone for help because the Override is genuinely traumatizing for him.

Which makes this all the more harrowing. He can't keep the Override at bay forever (likely the only reason why he partially regained control is from the sheer amount of pain he put himself in by ripping out one of his bulbs. You can see him brace himself and wince when that happens). Once again, "save yourselves" in this context feels more like he's scared. He's terrified. Because the Override sucks. And the implication of "ALL RAM CLEARED" doesn't leave much room to assume anything other than the Override likely clears out Chip's memories in order to make more processing room for this janky hardware to run at a constant overclocked state. I wonder how much of Chip's memories have been removed because of that thing, honestly.

By the way did you know that a normal chainsaw runs an average of 12,000 RPM. Do you think about how the little RPM icon is his saw smoking as if it's overheating. What the hell is the Override doing to him internally.

Another added touch I think about a lot is how his battle as a whole is, for the most part, very predictable. You control what cheats he does. Even in technical battle terms, everything is out of Chip's control. As long as every gag hits, you're really just manipulating an enemy's AI to to make the most optimal choices to your benefit. The Override perceives "X", and responds with "Y". You're not fighting an actual individual, just a program.

Clearly, whatever it's doing to him, it's painful (not mentioning the agonizing scream he lets out during this). And thank Cog he was able to regain control at the last second because it's way too obvious that the Override's "final fallback procedure" likely involved some kind of lethal force when it lunges at the toons. (The Chainsaw Apparatus will be helpful.)

There's no sorrow in Chip's words, that's what I think. Everything here is bitter. It's numb, to me.

He's clearly been through this song and dance multiple times by now. He's pissed at the toons, at the company, and at himself. But he can't properly let it out. You know what will happen if he does. The most he can do is throw a chair and scream into the air. (which that line gets its own custom voice clip, fun fact!)

It's clear he's been isolated ever since he's been upgraded, and it seems like he's bitterly accepted it. The only thing he has left to lose is Spruce, which is why he tells the toons not to tell him. If he loses Spruce...

I don't think he'd have much left. It'd make sense why he's grown so restrained and numb and stilted in his speech. He's quickly grown to learn that he can't let himself express anymore, all because of the override.

The fact that everyone else around him views him poorly doesn't help. His employees fear him. Most of them probably don't realize something is wrong, spread rumors about him, or outright attack him through hatemail. Written in Cipher.

"Chip has some anger issues. I would be careful around him. Don't worry about the Cogs though, I'm sure they'll be fine. Might get demoted back to their initial tier, but that's what happens when you work with Chip. Good thing that Toons can't get fired-- or wait, they can, can't they? Do Toons LIKE getting fired? I will never understand those animals. And you seen Spruce around lately? I haven't. I wonder how his deforesting expedition is going. There is a secret message up ahead in Chip's room. Can you find it? If you are stuck, have you considered looking around your surroundings?"

"I can't stand Chip anymore. I know I'm a Yesman, but I have to say NO. He used to be cool up until his sensors flared off. After what he did to my fellow coworker, I don't know if I can continue working under him. Sure, he's one of the most organized managers I've ever worked with, not to mention the flowing passion he has for the Deforester Force. His personality issues can single-handedly cause all of our projects to collapse. One of my former coworkers had raised concerns about Toons taking over our buildings and ultimately undoing all work that was done on our end. That poor Pencil Pusher overstepped his boundaries with Chip when he admitted his failure to secure "our" project from the Toons. Up until this point, I have never seen a Cog fire another Cog. With a cannon."

"It grinded my gears when I saw that happen. Him and I worked nonstop for days straight, while this pile of bolts just sat there doing his paperwork. I wouldn't be surprised if he was just doing crossword puzzles or writing letters to his little buddy. If you are reading this Mr. Revvington, you are the reason for our decline. We are running out of Deforester Force members because of you. As someone who has gone through close-call battles with the Toons, I hope you experience what it's like to have boulders and anvils fall from above you. You can try to fire me with that shoddy cannon of yours, but you would have to track me down first. I've already left the area and was recruited to a new organization far more stable than you will ever be."

------

...I genuinely love Mr. Revvington. He's a Suit who's been dealt the worst hand he could possibly ever get in life. He was just like anyone else, and then everything happened ever since joining C.O.G.S.. He's isolated, he's temperamental, he's pissy, he'd genuinely be someone hard to get along with because of the fact he's struggling with all sorts of issues and would be incredibly difficult and annoying to even start talking to and forming a bond with unless you're both stubborn and have patience. He's awful, and I love him for it.

I genuinely believe he's one of the most complex, beautifully written, and depressing characters in Corporate Clash. Maybe I dive way too deep into things about him, maybe he's not that deep at all. But I like to think about him. He makes me emotional, but he also makes me happy. Thank you for making him exist.

[hopecomesbacktolife]

recently read the time magazine special edition “Star Trek: inside the most influential science fiction series ever” a good portion of it is stuff a lot of fans probably already know, but there was some info in there that was still new to me, and lots of gorgeous photos that were amazing to see in print, too, so still definitely an enjoyable read! (apart from a couple instances of weirdly superiority, bro-esque writing, but that only occurred in one of the articles, thankfully)

one thing I really enjoyed about the visual aspect of the magazine though was some of the costuming visuals! For example, these crisp shots show not only the tailoring and seams but literally the construction and stitching on the TMP era uniforms 😍😍 (check out the stitching on the sleeve ranks in particular!!!)

next up, some extremely cool science things I didn’t know about and love that they exist:

this shot is excellent both for De fans (me) and also for seamstresses and costumers (also me!) because of that excellent, and rare, shot of the back of a TOS women’s uniform with seams and construction visible… positively a seamstress dream!! such a good garment structuring reference 👏🏻

also, an up close on one of Quark’s outfits that shows definitively that this outerwear jacket is, in fact, rainbowy tweed!!, a fashion statement I vote we bring back:

(it reminds me of this couch and blanket from my childhood, it was extremely 1970s and I loved it)

this little Kirk & Spock character comparison panel appeared next to an excerpt of Shatner’s writing, and to me it would fit in perfectly with those “who’s dating who” activity panels etc in magazines like seventeen, which, excellent execution, that’s such a good vibe to have considering The Premise 👏🏻

speaking of— I wish they’d mentioned slash fic, The Premise, early fanfic mail chains etc waaay more than they did (and for that matter, highlight way more just how important and vital the women Trekkies were!) but hey, at least they mentioned Spirk shippers, along with other parts of the magazine mentioning queer and nonbinary+trans rep in trek. could’ve/should’ve been more, but—

anyways! It’s still a fun magazine to read through and has lots of fun images even if you’re already familiar with the stories. (did you know there used to be an Enterprise shaped landline phone you could buy? I didn’t, and now I very much want one lol) it also highly benefits from having article writers of multiple genders, so there’s that, too. 🖖🏻

[bison-appreciation-club]

So I am aware that I am the only person making Edward II content as far as I can see, bUT if you are writing/drawing my guy then here is some advice from a MASSIVE Edward II nerd:

let's discuss Edward's appearance in excessive detail (yay)

Ok so. The basics: he had blond curly hair that reached his shoulders, parted in the middle in the style of the time. And a beard. Or at least he does in his effigy, in which we can imagine he is 43, his age at the time of death.

I mean. Let's take a moment to appreciate his hair. It is A Look that I want to emulate with all my heart ands soul. Just me? Fine.

In earlier depictions of him he is clean shaven. For example, this drawing of him when he was accepting the title of Prince of Wales from his father

look at my little guy (literally little, because the picture turned out tiddly and I don't know why). Lmao. Anyway, here are some more pictures of Edward II.

I sometimes see people say that this is a young Edward III, but as this was produced in 1326 I doubt it. I rarely see drawings of royalty before they become active in politics, which Edward III at the tender age of 14 had not yet become. So it's more likely that this is just a very youthful looking Edward II.

Again, this is probably Edward II. It's not specified, but it was produced during his reign so we can safely assume it's the man himself.

ok, so those are some drawings of him, what next?

unfortunately we don't know what his eye colour or complexion was. I'd imagine his eyes were probably blue or grey as it's quite rare to have blond hair and dark eyes. Also (and yes, I am looking too deeply into this, but shush), both his parents had dark hair, so for him to have lighter coloured hair would suggest a lack of pigmentation in hair and eyes, which would also lead to poor eyesight. (I can confirm this because I have the same problem. Both my parents have dark brown hair and dark eyes but I am blond and blue eyed as the pigmentation in my hair and eyes didn't develop as quickly as normal - it's common for white people to be blond when born and then for their hair to darken, but with me this is happening much more slowly than it did for my parents. As a result my eyesight is so bad that I can't buy glasses frames thick enough to contain the lenses lmao.)

here are what some of Edward's contemporaries had to say about him (quotes taken from Kathryn Warner's excellent blog)

"tall and strong, a fine figure of a handsome man"

"fair of body and great of strength"

"of a well-formed and a handsome person"

"one of the strongest men of his realm"

(To be honest the fact that he was super hot seems to be his only redeeming feature in the eyes of the monks.)

Edward enjoyed 'unkingly' activities such as digging ditches, thatching roofs and doing blacksmith work, so we can imagine that he was really strong (the quotes back this up). His father, Edward I, was six foot two so Edward II would have been pretty tall too.

So, in conclusion, if you're writing/drawing Edward II give him awesome hair. Give him dirt under his fingernails. Give him muscles. For the love of God don't turn him into the Braveheart version.

(also, when I look up references to the muscular structure most of the drawings that come up look like they're on steroids. don't put Edward on steroids. The strongest men in the world don't have ridiculously defined muscles. They just look 'bulky' or 'barrel chested'. So yeah :).)

Hope this helps!!! If not, at least this has been an excuse to ramble about Edward II.

[ruiconteur]

li lianhua's final letter to di feisheng

i hear the official eng subs weren't great so here's my own attempt at a translation (under a read more bc fuck it's Long)

edit: translated qiao wanmian’s letter to li xiangyi as well, which mirrors this one!

十年前

Ten years ago,

东海一决

during the duel of the eastern sea,

李某蒙兵器之利

this unworthy Li made benefit of whetted blade

借沉船之机与君一战犹不能胜

and capsizing boat whilst battling thee but was yet unvictorious.

君武勇之处

Thy martial prowess and valiance

世所罕见

are unexampled in this world.

心悦诚服

Mine heart delights in it, and by mine own will yields to thine eminence.

今事隔多年

The affairs of today are by many years separated.

沉疴难起

By pains alone would a lingering malady be cured.

剑断人亡

The sword hath broken—the man hath perished,

再不能赴东海之约

and can no more honour the accord to duel by the eastern sea.

谓为憾事

Such is the cause for most sincere regret.

余感念君所赠之忘川

I recall in deepest gratitude the flower of oblivion bequeathed by thee,

然终有负君之所望

yet did forsake all thou hadst longed for in the end.

江山多年

The rivers and mountains of this land have many years endured,

变化万千

their changes reckoned in the tens of thousands.

去去重去去

Partings upon partings, farewells upon farewells;

来时是来时

the coming times shall be the coming times.

方多病习我之功法

Fang Duobing hath been studied in my skills,

资质上佳

and his own endowments of the utmost excellence.

不暇多日

Shouldst he not keep idle days,

定不在明月沉西海之下

he shall surely be not beneath the bright moon sinking into the western sea.

君今无意逐鹿

Thou hast not now any desire to pursue the throne,

但求巅峰

but instead to seek the height of skill.

李某已去

This unworthy Li hath since gone;

若君意不平

if thy desire be not appeased,

足堪请其代之

he shall suit, shouldst thou bid him succeed me.

李相夷绝笔

Thus end the last words of Li Xiangyi.

footnotes

i've translated this letter into (my best attempt at) early modern english to try and reflect the formality li lianhua is writing in. also because he uses 君 for di feisheng throughout, which is a literary second-person pronoun, and i wanted to emphasise that. i know thou is actually the informal pronoun, but given how archaic it sounds in comparison to you, the actual formal pronoun in early modern english, i thought it a better fit. (for all the feihuas out there: 君 was also used by women to address their husbands, so actually i thought the informality might work in my favour here LOL)

if you saw this post before, you might have noticed that my translation of the third and fourth lines changed slightly lmao. ty to @/presumenothing for the reminder and ofc my fav @/bat1lau4can4 for talking through it with me and being the 文言文 expert i need <3

for the purposes of my goal in the above footnote, i've had to take some creative liberties in my choice of vocabulary. for example: unexampled is not quite an accurate translation of 罕见, which actually means rarely seen.

i phrased 心悦诚服 as mine heart ... yields but that's a somewhat liberal interpretation of the phrase lol. there is a heart in it; it's just maybe not the thing that's yielding, to be precise. close enough imo though!

江山 literally translates to rivers and mountains but is often used as a metaphor for a country as a whole, hence my translating it as the rivers and mountains of this land.

grammar is not as important as Vibes.

逐鹿, which i've translated as pursue the throne, literally means to chase the deer, and stems from the 《史记》 / records of the grand historian.

绝笔, rendered here as last words, specifically refer to the last words written by one before their death.

[emtheanxiousdragon]

Our Hæth: A Wanderhome ARG

Ok so if you are any sort of game designer, whether that be a programmer for a mobile app, an artist for an indie TTRPG, or a top-tier producer at a AAA-game studio, you should read Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal, it inspires you to make games that don’t just form digital communities or entertain, but allow a deeper connection to your real life.

And one game that I think, with a twist, could really fit McGonigal’s idea is Wanderhome, the excellent pastoral RPG by tumblr’s very own @jdragsky . This game is beautiful, simple, and a tool for telling these lovely stories about anthropomorphic travelers exploring a recovering society and finding themselves along the way.

Now, let me introduce my idea, tentatively titled Our Hæth: A Wanderhome ARG.

You make a Wanderhome character, just like in a typical game. You also make a separate Wanderhome profile that represents yourself. (this can be your actual Wanderhome character if you want to take on an alternate persona). This secondary Wanderhome character doesn't actually travel the Hæth. They represent your journey in the real world. Your second character's playbook should fit yourself and what you hope to get from this experience. My secondary character will be a Peddler, because I want to grow my personal career.

Then you get connected to a Hæth. These are shared worlds/servers that begin like all Wanderhome games (at the start of Tillsoil very soon after the end of the war) and progress from there. You can start with other players or begin on your own and find others later.

When you wish to travel to a new area, instead of randomly deciding what it should be, you base it on your current location. It can be as simple as your bedroom or as grand as the Great Wall of China! I’ll show you what I mean with where I am now.

A beautiful pond, right? Let’s turn it into a spot in the Hæth! Our first nature is based on a literal take of the area. I’m by a pond, so the first nature will be Lake! The second nature is more metaphorical; based on what you know about your location, choose a nature that describes its personality. A lot goes on around this pond, so I’ll pick Carnival. The third nature should describe the place as it is when you arrive. The calm nature of the pond today means the third nature is Field. Build the location with the rules of each nature, combined with the traits of the season, and you’ve made a Place!

In Our Hæth, each location is permanently saved into the world you created it in. If other players want to visit this location rather than create a new one, they’ll replace the third nature and the seasonal traits and set off! They can see what you’ve written about the place and the adventures you’ve had here. If you know them in real life, you can share what the real-world inspiration is. If not, you can discuss as much about it as you feel comfortable sharing.

Once you're in a Place, great! Start playing Wanderhome. If you're alone, write down what your traveler does in this place. If you're with friends, get together in person and roleplay it out, or chat together over Discord or your online forum of choice. Their characters may travel with you for a while or your paths may diverge and reconnect later. Just remember what happens so you can share it as part of your character's story. When you make a Kith, go through the regular Kith creation process and add them to your Hæth. If other players visit this Place later, they may meet your kith and will want to know what happened.

The other big ARG element of this version of Wanderhome comes with using tokens. When your character does something to create a token, you need to do something to make a token in real life. Have a list of what different actions in Wanderhome mean for you in real life. For example, when my character Camper gives away something he holds dear, that means I have to complete some professional networking. Your token action should be challenging or good for you. Change your token action as your challenges and needs change. Make them fit your life and your goals.

Take a break to complete your token action, or write it down for after the session. You won't be able to spend your real-world token until you complete your task. Once that's done, the next time your character spends a token, you can spend one too! Your token rewards are something positive to reward yourself for putting in the effort and caring for yourself, your relationships, or the world. In my Hæth, when Camper keeps someone safe from the difficulties of the world, I get to take a nap rather than work!

The months can change in small groups when you agree to change them. In bigger groups, you may set a real-world date for the change in the months. Ask the month's question to yourself and your Wanderhome character. Consider your answer a "yes" regardless of which one of you says so. When the time comes for the seasons to change, set up a party with others in your Hæth or throw your own private celebration. Just as the holiday marks a moment of personal growth for your character, take a major step forward with your own goals. As Camper celebrates the new year, I'm going to start searching for a summer internship. I'll adapt my token actions and rewards as needed, and I'll continue playing.

So long as you have Wanderhome, you can play this game. You can keep track of your Hæth in a notebook, on a google doc, whatever. My perfect version of this project would be a little website where players can join different Hæths, watch their world grow on a virtual map, see all the information neatly organized online, and connect to a wide range of people in the Wanderhome community.

Thoughts?

[saikolikes]

Aki’s P5R  fanfic recs! (part 2)

Hi and welcome to another one of my recs posts! As you can see, this is part two: part one of this post can be found HERE and includes fics I bookmarked between April 2019 and December 2020. This second post will deal with everything I bookmarked during 2021 and 2022 (... so yes, part 3 is bound to happen some times in the future)

Here a brief disclaimer:

Everything in here is spoiler for either P5 vanilla, Royal, or Strikers;

I won’t report the tags, as it would take too long, so if you’re interested in a fic, please open the link;

Fic recs obviously reflect my tastes and preferences. For example, I love suffering and I don’t like fluff or domestic works, so browse this list knowing that;

The stark majority of the works here is shuakeshu

If you want more recs you can find them in my bookmarks, most of them are public!

MY ONGOING RECS Again, I don't read a lot of ongoing works (although, admittedly more than in the past) and these are the ones I'm subscribed to that I'm adoring!

The Lovers, Reversed by salexectria, Terra5 (E) | Royalty a/b/o AU | akeshu | series in three parts, ongoing "A Thief is caught stealing from the Northern King, and is sentenced to death for his crimes. The Alpha Prince intervenes, but at what cost to them both?" What I love about this AU is the amount of politics and worldbuilding put into it, as well as the uniqueness of double povs who constantly switch from Akira to Goro creating one back and forth that acts literally like poking into their minds. Plus the slow burn and the pining are just on point.

never die when I'm dead by threerings (E) | Royal & post-Royal | akeshu | series in 2 parts, ongoing Two one shots featuring one of my absolute flavors of this ship: sad, intense and unhinged

IDC FOR UPDATES I resolved to defeat my abandoned-wip trauma one excellent fic at a time so here's a list of works that haven't been updated in a while or the author straight up confirmed they won't keep writing them, but they are so good you just have to read them and let them remodel you. Do it. Do it now.

the year of the knife by theexistentiallyqueer (M) | No powers AU | shuakeshu | 2 chapters "The plan for Akira's junior year of high school was to keep his head down and his nose clean, but he hadn't counted on his new high school having more trouble than it was worth--and he specifically didn't plan on Akechi Goro, the haughty, machiavellian vice president of Shujin Academy's student council, dragging him face-first into political scandal and a series of encounters that would change his life." Please let teq bring you through a journey of spot-on characterization and stunning prose that will rewire your brain chemistry completely. Their take on machiavellian Akechi is really good, and the snark Akira spits in this fic is really something I cherish.

kiss & cry by MajorGodComplex (T) | Figure skating AU | shuakeshu | 2 chapters "Goro’s first thought when he hits the ground is some combination of the words ‘shit fuck hell fucking bullshit bitch fuck motherfucking hell.’ His next thought is wondering whether Akira Kurusu, senior debut, constant thorn in Goro’s side, and the only person anyone this season seems to talk about, is also trying to land a quad axel at the moment." I don't know what to tell you, the prose of this one is so witty and funny you just have to read what's published of it as of now!

honeybrains by succubused (T) | Time loop | shuakeshu | 4 chapters "a chronicle of the twenty-fourth time akira kurusu lived through the month of january 2017" What can I say, I am really a sucker for time loops and this fic took me by the heart. Tagged as character study and with rights because the characterization here is very interesting!

in the snow globe by aminami (E) | Time travel | shuake | 1 chapter "It’s your heart,” Joker says like it’s the most obvious thing. “Your desires, your hopes, your fears. I’ll carry them with me always. My little snow globe." This fic will hurt you so badly but it will be so worth it, I swear. It's just so melancholic and tender and angsty and it carved a place in my heart.

my love has never lived indoors by rhodophytae (E) | a/b/o | shuake | 1 chapter "Ren Amamiya knows he's an alpha, and he's comfortable with that, but he's pretty sure that being an alpha is, well...different for him than it is for other people. He resigned himself a long time ago to the fact that he'd probably go his whole life without finding anyone else like him. And then he meets Goro Akechi." This fic has such an interesting take on omegaverse! Paired with a stellar characterization and delicious pining, it's no surprise it's a fic I will never forget.

GENERAL RECS The fics I’ve enjoyed the most and that I go back to reading sometimes.

how joker and crow survived the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 by shntlvs (T) | Royal | shuakeshu | series of 2 works "Escaping from Maruki's false reality gets interrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic." Could you have ever imagined reading a fic centered around the pandemic? Me neither, but this one and its sequel work so well and have very compelling bits of characterization for the boys. Unexpected premise, but I utterly loved it.

straw house, straw dog by caelam (T) | 3rd sem | gen | one shot "In the saccharine utopia of Maruki’s reality, Goro Akechi’s mother is still alive." I admittedly don't read too many fics with mamakechi so I won't claim to be an expert, but this one really left me impressed with how clear and tangible the tangle of feelings is.

Knight of Pentacles, King of Spades by Naometry (M) | Medieval AU | shuakeshu | 11 chapters "“Hifumi passed on your greetings,” Akira Kurusu says, fury simmering beneath his conversational tone. “And I’m polite enough to give you my own in person. So greetings, General Goro Akechi. I am the man who will kill you.”" I started reading this fic for the war captive trope but this story has so much more to it than just that. Nao's superb skill with writing violence and viciousness will have you thrust into a cruel world where two boys seem to be bound to kill each other... unless?

Ripples by Riona (T) | gen | canon compliant | one shot "Ten people know exactly who the news is talking about, and now they’re going to have to deal with that." A peek into the heads of 10 of Joker's confidants upon learning about his death. The fic I would never imagined myself reading, but I did because it was recced to me, and now I'm recc'ing it to you, too.

When Your Eyes Meet Mine by seths_dream (E) | no powers AU | shuake | one shot "The way the bellboy lingered on him made his heart jolt, made him think that maybe, maybe the bellboy was looking at Goro the same way Goro was looking at him." I've lost count of how many times I read this fic because the horny is just so juicy, it's unironically one of the fics I come back to when I need to remind myself how to write horny stuff. (the same author also wrote this delicious pegoryu that you have to read)

a study in what not to say by succubused (T) | 3rd sem | shuake | one shot "Akira has finally had enough of Akechi's bullshit; they resolve it the only ways they know how." If you like the boys being really nasty to each other, this fic is a must. It has excellent dialogue, dynamics, and a tad of homoerotic wound tending which can't hurt no one!

MY ALL-TIME FAVOURITES The fics that rewired my brain chemistry, took my heart out, slapped it, put it back, and left me a whole new person.

27 steps to seduce a crow by relationshipcrimes (G) | Royal | shuakeshu | one shot "A handy bullet-pointed list on how to flirt with, seduce, and keep your local Akechi Goro." Still to this day, I think of this fic in terms of Goro's characterization. If I have a thing for post-canon shuake chasing each other, it's probably due to this one.

The Brigverse by TzviaAriella (E but most works are M) | Pirates AU | akeshuake | series, ongoing I admittedly don't care that much about pirates but the og fic from this series (A Brig Too Far) was being passed on so much that I gave it a try and. Oh boy. Not only is the characterization impeccable, the story compelling, and the action thrilling, but at least one scene and/or line from each work in this series has altered my brain permanently. I am a new person after reading Brigverse.

wild and free by bangandawhimper (E) | a/b/o | shuakeshu | one shot "Akira Kurusu hasn’t always been an omega. But now everyone he meets in this city assumes he’s an omega. He’s treated like an omega. He feels like an omega. He knows he feels like an omega because he remembers what it was to be an alpha." This work might have my favourite take ever on shuakeshu omegaverse, it's so fitting for them, so thought out, and the characterization is so on point... my god. Read this fic now.

The Diamond Chest by kinneas (E) | post-Royal | shuakeshu | 3 chapters, complete "Who says you have to see Morgana speak in the Metaverse before you can hear him in the real world? Not the few hundred officers who arrested Ren in Sae’s Palace two years ago, that’s for sure." Honestly everything kinnes writes is gold but I'm shouting this fic out because I reread more than a few scenes from this fic more than once, and it's a 100k-words baby. I am a sucker for heist stories, I am a sucker for dealing with trauma in very tangible ways, and I'm a sucker for kinneas' characterization of the boys.

before midnight by specterthief (Not rated) | 3rd sem, canon compliant | gen | one shot "“I—” Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Sumire sets down her chopsticks and rubs her face with both hands. “Um—who told you I was going to training camp?” (On January 9th, Sumire goes home.)" This is the stellar Sumire characterization fic you're looking for. Read this. Read this right now.

I HOPE THIS DOESN'T AWAKEN SOMETHING IN ME (DELUSIONAL) I clicked on these fics solely due to my trust in the authors/the summary/one rec and now I find myself with a new kink. Thanks.

Containment Breach by salexectria (E) | Space pirates AU | akeshu | one shot Akira gets stranded on an abandoned spaceship seemingly infested by a terrifying creature. He finds the lonely survivor of the crew and they begrudgingly start to work together to contact help and survive. I am just going to say that I clicked for salex's name, I stayed for the stellar characterization, pining and top-tier bantering, and got overwhelmed by the tentacle sex. (/pos)

it takes two by lumensd (E) | 3rd sem | akeshu | two-shots By all means, this series has some things I usually am not interested in (phone sex, degradation) but Jay is so skilled and his akeshus are so fucked in the head that now I've signed up for the masochist Joker agenda. Hurray!

i dream of you draped in wires by rime (E) | 3rd sem | akeshu | one shot "Maruki's Shadows don't want to fight; they just want to collect data. Wait, are those cat ears?" You would think a work with the tag "catboy shibari gunplay fuckordie" can't be too serious. Wrong! Excellent character study attack 🔪🔪🔪 (from the same author there's also this P5 vanilla fic that is excellent)

Darken my doorway by EnlacingLines (E) | 3rd sem-post canon | akeshu | one shot ""I don’t need to test my theory. You should be thanking me, really. Opening this door for you.” “A door to what?” Akira says, exasperated by just how self congratulatory Goro still sounds.“ Submission.” Or: I am a firm switch shuake shipper, I don't vibe with too-extreme dynamics *proceeds to go ballistics over this fic regardless*, *awakens to the wonder of d/s a lil fucked up dynamics*

[felizusnavidad]

Hi so i only recently got into hamilton and really liked lmm in it but ive been seeing a lot of pjo fans talking about not wanting him as hermes and you are a lmm expert so i wondered if you knew why people are hating on him for being casted in pjo?

first of all, i am actually flattered that you called me an expert (i am literally not but i do know a lot, i observe, i go through lmm tag every day, i get mad when i see people talk shit about him, basically i'm super loud about my love for this guy so there's that some call it dedication, i call it obsession lol).

there are a lot of reasons actually but all of them are just so silly to me. for example, some people say he is a bad actor (if hamilton is not enough for you, please go watch his dark materials, he is excellent and i will fight). others say he can't sing (he can, he may not have the most incredible vocals ever, not like most broadway stars and i know a lot of people compare him with the best singers out there, but it doesn't mean he can't sing, also, he is much better now than he used to be years ago, for example i'd recommend listening to vivo soundtrack, especially keep the beat or one more song, i mean EXCUSE ME BUT MY MAN CAN SING). another reason: some people say he is annoying because he puts raps everywhere. ok, and? he is a great rapper, i'll say more: he is also a freestyle rapper, very talented indeed (i recommend checking literally any freestyle love supreme video on youtube or you can just go through my fls tag here. making up rhymes on the spot? pretty insane if you ask me). there is also a group of people who think he is cringe, his rhymes are cringe, some of his songs are not good, etc etc (i bet those people can write better songs). i think he is one of the greatest composers of our generation and i will, of course, fight (haters, please shut the fuck up about the scuttlebutt, this song was supposed to be annoying, you just don't get it apparently? same with my own drum actually. can we just stop pretending that he is talentless because of those songs you guys literally have no taste and you hate fun and also shut tf up). oh, and also, people these days very often say he is everywhere and it's annoying (this is literally his job but whatever). and my all-time favourite: some people are mad that he was playing hamilton because they think he didn't deserve it (he literally wrote the whole thing but ok). one more thing: i have never read pjo, i literally just started reading it only because of lin, so i know nothing about hermes, but personally i really hope he will sing/rap, just because i want to see them all suffer.

there were also other controversial stuff (with in the heights, hamilton and puerto rico) but we are not going to discuss it on my blog, sorry (mostly because i have my own opinion about it and i know i will get a lot of hate for speaking my mind). one thing i can say is that nobody's perfect, we all make mistakes sometimes and i will always fight for him, no matter what.

[theladyyavilee]

This episode frustrated me how dare they say that about she she sees him more then he sees himself and how she’s different no that’s not what was shown. What was shown is that she’s not into him at all for the person she’s into him cause he died. I really truly hope buck wakes up quickly and realizes this relationship is going to go nowhere. She doesn’t care about him and the writers want us to seriously think she’s a viable love interest nope sorry not working.

love I am saying this with all the kindness in my heart (like, genuinely, it sounds like most of your disappointment and frustration might be self-inflicted!), but you literally answered your own question here - it is not working and she is not what buck is trying to make himself believe she is to him and that IS THE POINT and the writers are making that point on purpose

I do not know why you (and so many others) are so convinced that everything buddie happens on accident and that the relationships with the various love interests are trainwrecks on accident as well, like, they are telling a story here, and it is not a straight (haha xD) line from point A to point B, it's a winding path with dead ends and wrong turns and obstacles like in real life, which I personally think is a way better and more intersting story <3 and that means trying things and failing, which includes relationships that aren't endgame, but which are an important opportunity for you to learn something about yourself and what you want from a relationship and who you want to BE in a relationship

and so these relationships feel off because they are SUPPOSED to! if they wanted you to actually like and get on board with a love interest, they WOULD get you there, I promise you, the way they are handling the relationships of madney, bathena, henren and even more background couples like david and michael and toni and clive and even sue and her husband and couples on calls like the amnesia couple in 5x18 or the lesbians from 5x9 or mitchell and thomas from waaay back in 2x8 for example should tell you that they absolutely know exactly how to write healthy and beautiful and lovely relationships that feel right and satisfactory -like even for the background couples, with just a handful of scenes they got me so invested in those couples and I was rooting for them sooooo hard!!! so if they wanted us to feel that way about a buck or eddie LI, I am pretty sure they absolutely would do an amazing job convincing us (and would have started doing so waaay before this point in time if we are being honest xD), but they very much ARE NOT, BECAUSE THAT IS THE POINT, those relationships are not meant to be taken as endgame options and we are not supposed to be rooting for them and I promise your experience with this show is going to improve soooo so so much when you start trusting the writers on being able to tell you whether or not to get invested in a couple, because it will spare you so so so much anxiety, I really really promise!

also, side note, 'they' (as in 'the writers' I assume?) did not say anything at all, Buck said that she sees him, because he is an unreliable narrator and he is misunderstanding a MULTITUDE of things in very unhealthy ways at the moment, but that that doesn't make it true that she sees him in any way, shape or form, they are indeed literally showing IN THE SAME scene that what buck is saying is bullshit, because Eddie is the one who actually sees him and Buck is missing it (and they told us he WOULD miss the point this season, when in episode 1 he had that line about 'excellent options right under his nose' and 'like he is choosing not to see them'! buck is very much missing the obvious and reaching all the wrong conclusions!)

so yeah, to summarize - the relationship is feeling off on PURPOSE because that is the kind of story they are telling and if they wanted you to actually root for them, they would go about it very differently (which we know they can pull off!) and so I would recommend to have a little more faith in the writers and let yourself look at what they are really actually putting down instead of giving too much weight to bad faith conspiracy theories here on tumblr about how the writers are forcing buddie appart and trying to force us into believing in love interests that are very unsubtly and in text already heavily doomed!!!

[lryghe]

MXTX thoughts; conventions

The long awaited (not) analysis of MXTX conventions is here! I’ve literally been meaning to talk about this for months but it got sidelined in favour of vicious arguing on PDB about MBTI. Anyways! Obviously this post will contain spoilers, and something I wanted to touch on was 3rd person limited in MXTX, but I already have a post on that here, so feel free to check that out for a better explanation of it. Beware of mediocre analysis ahead, I’m a little rusty (also shoutout to the person who liked some of my posts this morning, you reminded me to actually write something!).

THE AGENDA since this post is long:

Non-linear storylines

Dying and resurrection

Colour symbolism

Character tropes

NON-LINEAR STORYLINES

An interesting thing that follows MXTX’s more thought out works, is the non-linear plotlines she follows in them. This itself is a really good convention of writing in general, especially if it’s done well, and I can safely say that MXTX did it astoundingly well in TGCF. The clear cuts between time periods in relation to each book is an incredible feat, and is something that easily trumps MXTX's other examples of non-linear storylines. Through the use of the jumping back and forth in time, specifically in TGCF, creates an excellent cause and effect, something that is definitely central to the novel. Everything done has an effect, whether that be on the continuation of the plot, or even as a characterisation point, so the non-linear narrative cements that sense of foreboding hanging over everything. A simple sentence said when Xie Lian 17 somehow amounts to a complete upheaval of the heavens 800 years later, unveiling a conspiracy well over 2000 years old. A friendship group dissolving due to difficult circumstances results in a really horrific friendship confession later in the novel. Shi Wudu trying to save his sibling ends his own demise, the crippling of said sibling, and a vengeful ghost with nothing to do anymore. This nonlinear storyline is definitely used in MDZS as well, but I found it a bit more complex, and actually, now that I think about it, is a really good reflection of Wei Wuxian in general. The thing with MXTX, is that all her novels are in 3rd person limited, so they follow our protagonist in 3rd person, but it’s tinged with their own personal views and biases that limit the omniscience of 3rd person. And with MDZS it would be a fair assessment to say that the unordered mess of time leaps in the novel are an excellent indication of Wei Wuxian’s bias leaking through the 3rd person. The incessant jumping is difficult to follow in places (don’t say otherwise), but it’s actually a genius idea because it’s an accurate assessment of the thought process that Wei Wuxian probably follows anyway. I wouldn’t say that this was definitely on purpose however, as MDZS was written before TGCF, so it could just be MXTX growing alongside her writing, but hey, maybe it is a stroke of complete and beautiful genius! Don’t bother mentioning SVSSS, it’s definitely an interesting novel, but it’s not non-linear, at least not as wholly as MDZS and TGCF are. The most you’ll get in SVSSS is like a two line flashback, plus the extra’s, but I think that’s a reflection of when MXTX wrote it.

DYING AND RESURRECTION

Moving on from serious conventions, MXTX’s trope with one of the main characters dying and then coming back later is a really funny kind of convention, because it’s not funny in the moment obviously, but the fact that it’s done at least once per novel is hilarious. Wei Wuxian’s initial resurrection after 13 years of being dead, Shen Qingqiu’s return in his plant body 5 years later, and then his return back to his ‘original’ body, and Hua Cheng’s little death defying stunt at the end of the novel. Then there’s the use of cliffs and such, like Binghe’s fall into the Abyss, Hua Cheng’s fall off that wall (forgive me its been like 3 years since I read TGCF), and if we’re being inclusive, then there’s always Wei Wuxian’s death in The Untamed. Maybe there’s a hidden meaning in there somewhere, but it’s fine to look at it from a surface level, which amounts to ‘MXTX got bored and needed some drama’. A perfectly reasonable deduction. 

COLOUR SYMBOLISM

Another thing I wanted to touch on was the colour symbolism that MXTX uses because I think it’s pretty cool, AND it has the added benefits of adding symbolism and contrast to each novel's main character and their love interest. It’s mentioned in the novel’s obviously, but it really shines in fan content and fanarts. I like the symbolism of Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu’s robes both being green before the time-skip, because Luo Binghe was a disciple at the time and a little white lotus, so the green was used to directly align him with Shen Qingqiu. After the timeskip he’s obviously got his big boy pants on and swapped to a stunning black and red ensemble, fitting of the protagonist, and that itself contrasts Shen Qingqiu’s majestic and lofty green robes, because Binghe means business with this fit. A fun thought is how green and red fit together on the colour spectrum, because they don’t, they’re contrasting colours which is some real obvious symbolism. Do I really need to spell out Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian? I feel like this one is rudimentary. White equals noble and virtuous, pure and holy, and black is evil, demonic, cruel, and scary. Simple! And Hua Cheng and Xie Lian’s red and white are a very cute mixture, because although it gives them a Bingqiu style christmas tree vibe, it’s interesting in comparison to the previous two love interest and main character dynamics, considering red and white are a lot more complimentary than black and white or red and green. And it’s a testament to how similar Hualian are with their complimentary robes, how like-minded they are throughout the novel, especially considering their predecessors. Or maybe I’m overthinking it, who knows?

CHARACTER TROPES

In regards to tropes of MXTX, I think her character tropes are incredible and have the addition of being really funny. She’s consistent enough with her conventions that clear links can be drawn with her side characters across all 3 novels. To begin with, there’s Mr Angry. I think you can guess who that is, but it's Jiang Cheng, Liu Qingge, and Mu Qing. All have a really close relationship with their related main character, all are angry or harsh where they probably didn't need to be, and all three are good fighters. Then there’s the guy who’s always smiling, like Yue Qingyuan or Lan Xichen. Complacency is a key part of their characters, and excuses aside, it’s interesting how it played out. You could argue for Jun Wu to be a part of this circle, but I’ll keep that to myself. Finally, there’s the fodder characters, only useful to further the plot in a miniscule way. Gongyi Xiao (MAY HE REST WELL), Xiao Xingchen, and once again, I don’t have a very good TGCF equivalent. Gongyi Xiao dies after the events of the water prison, and Xiao Xingchen was really just there to highlight how fucked up Xue Yang was. Rest in peace our beloved fodder, especially Gongyi Xiao, MXTX should have treated you better…

I think I’ve typed myself out honestly. Kudos to whoever reached the end of this post, I haven’t written this much since my Team 7 analysis when I got back into my Naruto phase briefly.

Word count: 1271

Reading time: 4 ½ mins

[promptsbytaurie]

do you have any good references for kiss scenes 🥲

of course!! let me know if you want/need more :D

fics for reference: good kiss scenes

the art of missing the ground - not too exaggerated of a kiss, feels very natural, sweet

paths are made by walking - a bit spicier ig?? i dunno these are more lighthearted

where you go, i will follow - kiss has meaning!!! kiss as a plot device!! good example of more 'negative' reasons ig (still soft tho)

but you saw enough - more climactic? also kinda spicier soooo...? (help me)

pick me up and dust me off - literally so soft you will get cavities. top tier fic. natural kiss too, not too exaggerated

shrapnel - good example, shows that not every relationship has to begin with or star a kiss

(ain't nothin' like) the real thing - definitely spicier. nice example of buildup and that good ol climactic approach where you're literally just screaming 'oh my god kiss already'

listen (he's already told you five times) - another good example of when kissing is not the only form of love!

i counted days, i counted miles - excellent buildup, the kiss has... meaning? it isn't just a kiss yknow it has emotional depth

but we can try - also has meaning. i'm not a huge fan of the trope where like 'oh they aren't in love/dating until they kiss' but this fic actually writes it really well!

[waddles-ex-machina]

hi please bear with me while i go insane about the colours in Hilda (aka I'm looking at the trio's season 3 designs and losing my mind)

SO in most visual media, quite a bit of thought goes into the colours they use and how those colours interact with one another - not in a "the curtains are blue bc [character] is sad" kind of way but in terms of which colours stand out and which are harmonious, and even if the viewer doesn't know any colour theory (like me, lol) and isn't paying attention to it, I think it still helps reinforce what we know about the characters, and influence what we take away from the show. visual design is a language and colour is one of the key aspects of it and if you want to hear about how Hilda uses colour in so many clever ways, to guide the viewer's eye or distinguish important characters, there's a really excellent video on that made by someone who actually does know what they're talking about, but one thing I wanna talk about based on my own limited knowledge is how it tells us about the characters -

FOR EXAMPLE Johanna - so you have Hilda, who is dressed in bright primary colours, especially her signature blue hair which makes her stand out as different even more - and then there's her mother, who has, by contrast, a much more toned down colour palette. she broadly shares the colour red with her daughter, but a less-saturated shade and her standard outfit consists of that, brown trousers and sometimes her yellow coat. Hilda's signature blue is completely absent from her design (and even if the creators didn't want to give Johanna the same hair colour as her daughter, they could have added some small blue accent of clothing if they'd wanted to, but chose not to), leaving her with purely warm, harmonious colours. she has an almost completely different palette to her daughter, but still just enough similarity (particularly with her yellow coat) to reinforce that the two are related in some way. (I'm not saying that Hilda is related to everyone who wears yellow in the show, just that the fact they share a colour helps tie them together on screen)

(yep, this is the screencap i'm choosing to illustrate this point it's fantastic)

most importantly (to me, anyway), Johanna's colours are warm. they're safe. to me, the dominance of warm colours and absence of Hilda's blue signify that Johanna is a safe person to Hilda, someone who is supposed to be a respite from her adventures rather than someone who dives into them with her (which, y'know, ties in quite nicely to Hilda's line in Stone Forest about preferring to adventure on her own and then come home to her mum, and how in the show she generally likes to keep her adventures and home life separate... (I could probably write an essay on how Hilda and Johanna's issues in season 2 were kind of a commentary on how Johanna has been coded as the safe stable bg character and how she is actively trying to go beyond that role but I shouldn't tbh)). the point is, they are connected, but Johanna doesn't have the same adventurous streak that Hilda does, so they have some of their warmer colours in common, but not Hilda's unusual, stand-out blue.

(I could also talk about Kaisa here and her copyright claim on the colour purple, but truthfully all I would be doing is paraphrasing the excellent video I linked earlier, so I won't. however I do think its fun to compare her to Johanna, in the sense that here are two adults who Hilda often comes to for guidance, and one is all warm gentle colours that match the home decor and the other all monochrome with two little hints of a colour we rarely see elsewhere in the show, suggesting that this is a character of particular interest.. it kind of hammers in how one is meant to embody the safety and comfort of Hilda's home life and the other is literally there to point hilda at things that might kill her lmao)

that was supposed to be a quick example and it got away from me so uh ANYWAY what I'm getting at here is that in Hilda's friend group, I believe their colour palettes were constructed in a similar way - they work together to tell you about the group

I feel like Hilda as a show is known for making excellent use of a limited colour palette - a lot of the characters have at least one black or brown item of clothing and just one or two stand-out colours, particularly the main trio. you can easily look at Hilda, David and Frida come away with one particular colour associated with them - blue or red for Hilda, orange for David, and...blue again for Frida, which doesn't sound great on paper but works well in the show because Hilda's palette also has a lot of red, so when the two characters are put together it doesn't seem like blue is dominating the colours. I also find Frida's colour palette (basically just her hoodie, lol) super interesting because it used to be different.

now, I haven't spoken to anyone who worked on the show about this, this is purely conjecture, but if you've ever googled the characters you've probably seen an official-looking turnaround page of Frida in a purple hoodie.

this is real pre-prod show art, and considering the purple hoodie made it all the way through the design pipeline to be included in the turnaround (generally the last stage of character design, as this is what would be given to the riggers to make the character rig)....and was even posted on twitter months before the show aired -

then I think it's safe to say that her hoodie was changed after the fact (2 or 3 episodes into production, by my vague guess looking at the date of this tweet) - not too hard to do, if your show is 2D rig animation, luckily - but if you're me and like reading into things way too hard, this begs the question of why. having purple as Frida's signature colour is perfectly serviceable and sets her apart from Hilda and David nicely. but what her new hoodie colour does is the opposite - it ties them all together

(the other possible explanation is that maybe Kaisa's design was finalised later in production than this turnaround was made (speaking purely from my own experience, secondary characters who appear in later episodes are often finalised later than the main characters, just ahead of the episode they're needed for, and Kaisa wasn't needed until halfway through the first season) and someone noticed that her and Frida sharing the colour purple made them look a little too similar...(I'm sure ppl who like the idea of Frida and Kaisa being witch sisters are yelling through the screen rn that this would've been a good thing and maybe lightly foreshadowed Frida becoming a witch, like Kaisa, but this was all set at the start of season 1, probably a bit too early to start hinting at the witch stuff :') we will come back to this tho)

anyway I love the trio's designs bc if you put Hilda and David next to eachother, they don't visually have much in common, but if you put Frida there then suddenly they're a unit. they got rid of her signature colour and gave her her friends' ones. she quite literally ties the group together so that they look cohesive as a whole

and this is absolutely me digging too deep in things here but her being the one to bring the group's colour palette together also lends itself thematically to their falling out at the end of season 1, and how Frida leaving also caused Hilda and David's friendship to struggle. they are a set and it doesn't work the same if they're not all there. Frida sharing Hilda's signature blue could also lend itself to the idea that Frida shares her love of adventures to a greater extent than David does (though maybe that's closer to 'blue curtains' territory tbh). anyway I love the design of this show so much

SO (if you actually made it this far down I'm so impressed) the thing that sparked all of this was...if this is what the trio's designs are doing in seasons 1-2.....what are the season 3 designs doing

no but this is super interesting to me, Hilda essentially just traded her skirt for leggings and left her colour palette intact, but David and Frida changed theirs entirely and I'm fascinated. both their signature colours are GONE. is it to imply that they've grown and changed in the duration of the time skip? is it David's turn on the 'having a colour in common with Hilda'?? but particularly I want to draw attention to Frida bc now that her hoodie is gone her original purple is BACK and (if there is any weight to my theory that she was changed bc she looked too similar to Kaisa) what's even more interesting is that they doubled down on the witch vibes. she literally has Kaisa's exact colour palette minus the dark purple cape lining. Kaisa's design reflected her personality as this unknowable person with a hint of mystery to her - all monochrome with that pop of an unusual colour - are we to expect the same of Frida? is this a sign that she's leaning further into witchcraft than before? does her contrast to Hilda and David signify that she's come more into her own and has a stronger sense of her own identity (something something closure for her issues in season 1)? or do we take things way too literally and assume that season 3 has her breaking off on her own from the group? or maybe it means absolutely nothing and someone on the design team just thought grey/purple was a neat combo. I know I've talked in this post as if I know things but here I truly don't and I'm obsessed w the possibilities. what does it mean what does it all mean

anyway that's all for this delusional fever dream post, hope you enjoyed and if you made it this far down you deserve some kind of prize

[lanawinterscigarettes]

how ab peter dating a s/o with witch-like powers? like they can control fire and bring ppl back to life (basically ahs 3 witch powers)

Omg this idea sounds really cool 😯 they'd literally be a power couple hehe (ignore my awful joke sksksk) also I decided to write headcanons instead of a fic, so I hope that's okay <33

Peter Maximoff with a s/o who's a witch

Warnings: swearing, brief mentions of violence/fighting

Peter first saw you one day when he was out taking a stroll in the park

He noticed you kneeling down beside a bird who appeared to have a broken wing

He was about to go over and help when he saw you pick the bird up and cover it with you hands

Once you reopened them, it flew away as if nothing happened

He was bewildered by what he'd just witnessed

Thinking you were a fellow mutant, he approached you and introduced himself

You were a bit wary, having heard stuff on the news about people with your abilities being harrassed, assaulted, or killed, but after he started talking about his mutation and stuff you relaxed a little bit and began to trust him more

He found out that you were essentially homeless; your parents had kicked you out of the house after learning about your powers and you had no place to go, so now you just sort of wandered around, using you abilities to help people whenever you could

After you said this, he blurted out, "do you want to come live with me?"

It took him a couple of minutes to explain the place he was talking about wasn't just his home necessarily, but a place for other people like you who had powers the world was too ignorant to try to understand

You agreed, figuring it'd be worth a shot to try it out

Besides, what left did you have to lose?

Once you arrived, everyone immediately welcomed you with open arms, making you feel at home there

You excelled at your classes and made tons of new friends, too

Not only that, but you and Peter started getting closer until one day, he finally asked you out (you obviously said yes)

He's constantly bragging about you and how cool you are to anyone who will listen

Sometimes you'll have races to see who can get to places quicker, him with his super speed or you with your teleporting

Spoiler alert: you tie every. Single. Time

Speaking of teleporting, sometimes you use it to sneak up on him so you can scare him

*pops up out of nowhere* "Hey Peter"

"JESUS CHRI- WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU COME FROM?!?!"

You like making random objects (specifically stuff that belongs to him) fly across the room just to mess with him

He tries to get you back by hiding some of your things, always forgetting you can easily find them with divination

Actually, he probably does it on purpose, because sometimes he'll hide things just so he can watch you find them again. It never fails to amaze him

"How the hell did you find that so quickly?!? My hiding spot was really good!"

"I used magic, duh"

Occasionally he'll let you use mind control on him (with his consent, of course) just to see what it feels like

"Woah! It's like I'm still conscious and know what's happening, but my brain doesn't have any control over my body. So cool"

You don't get mad often, but when you do it kinda scares him, because he knows just how much power you truly have that you don't let on

Let's say you're on a mission, for example, and somehow he gets hurt

Hell hath no fury like when someone injures Peter, because the next thing he knows the bad guy is writhing on the ground in pain and you're standing over them, victorious

Afterwards, you check on him and make sure he's okay, but not until you're certain the bad guy is down for good and won't be getting up again anytime soon

You do not mess around when it comes to your boyfriend's safety

~

Taglist: @anxiously-sad @iloveentrapta @ghot-girl @taecube @nevilleismywhore @xxromanoffxx @your-next-daydream

[miyakuli]

Pocket Mirror ~ GoldenerTraum

Mirror, Mirror on the wall

Pocket Mirror is a horrific game in which we follow a young girl with amnesia who is lost in a gloomy, absurd world and tries to escape through a series of puzzles. While the aesthetics and atmosphere of the universe won me over completely, I have more reservations about the writing and the emotions it seeks to convey.

❤ Let's start with the game's biggest strength: the atmosphere is insane (literally). The pixel art is highly detailed, the lighting effects are magnificent, the scenery can go from cute and neat to chaotic and sinister, and the light animations are dynamic and often bloodcurdling effective. I also loved the contrast between the horrific aspect of the scenes and the cute chara-design of the characters, a bit like Puella Magica for those in the know. There are also quite a few visual ideas that play on this contrast of tone to make you feel extremely uncomfortable, without resorting to easy jump scares or excess hemoglobin. ❤ The sound atmosphere is not to be outdone either. The music is memorable, adding a touch of mystery and disquiet to the exploration of the rooms. But the game also relies on scary sound elements (footsteps, evil laughter etc…) as well as moments of oppressive silence, which worked extremely well on me x) ❤ The gameplay is fairly varied overall, with exploration, puzzles, chases (I hated every second of it), mini-games, etc. I never felt redundant during my game.

+/- The game's puzzles take two forms: on the one hand, there's the rpg aspect, with objects to find to interact with elements of the setting; on the other, there are text-based riddles in the style of Sphynx. The difficulty can alternate between easy and a little more intermediate, which provides a bit of a challenge, but I found some of the titles very confusing and their solutions sometimes convoluted. +/- The story is captivating from the start. We face all these horrific events without understanding anything, totally perplexed like our MC who has lost her memory. But this confusion lasts right up to the end, in fact, because the scenario remains far too ambiguous, and even though the game hints at some answers here and there, it ends with a feeling of incompleteness. I did understand the underlying plot, but the way the game skims over the truth left me rather indifferent in the end. +/- The characters are excellent in their creepiness, but we don't get attached to them at all. And yet the game seems to want us to feel something, given certain scenes where the heroine sincerely tries to create a bond with them....but it just doesn't work. First of all, the main girl is just too bland and interacts with everyone in the same way (all sweet and naive) which, in my opinion, doesn't create any real chemistry with the other girls. But on top of that, these ones have very short "arcs" where we're more often dealing with their demonic character than their more human side, and as a result, I find myself rather indifferent to their fate. +/- There's a good amount of replayability given the various endings, but there's no quick skip for the dialogue and some of the cut scenes…and some of the endings are hard to reach without reading a guide, which is a shame.

✖ The game has a lot of game-overs, which isn't a bad thing in itself, but some of them occur after actions based on chance (for example, you take the wrong direction in a corridor and you die, or you make the wrong choice in a dialogue that didn't indicate any fatal fate). It wouldn't have bothered me so much if the save points weren't so far away from these events, as it often means having to take again a long path or even a cut scene that you can't always get past. It got very tiresome at times. ✖ I've got nothing against dubbing in onomatopoeia, but the little laughs and giggles from the damsels are far too frequent and almost annoying. ✖ I find the object interface a bit messy and not quickly accessible.

I was totally drawn into the world of this game, and it succeeds perfectly in its aim of making its audience both nervous and enchanted by this hellish wonderland. But it left me on the side of the road when it came to its story and its characters, who were a little too elusive for my taste.

➡ My Steam page