#and the level of friendship will vary for each characters

[cosmerelists]

How Well Cosmere Characters Would Do At Speed Dating

"Speed dating" is an event where a bunch of people move from table to table, having like 5-minute conversations with a bunch of different partners. Then people fill out cards ranking the people they met, and the organizer pairs up any people who both feel that they hit it off. Basically, it's a way to meet a lot of potential romantic partners in a very short span of time.

So let's say that yesterday, for Valentine's Day, Cosmere characters attended such an event. How did it go for them?

1. Kaladin: It went badly; 0/10 stars

People have to reach like Friendship Level 5 to unlock Kaladin's tragic backstory. People talking to him for like five minutes will only read his surface vibe: glowering, uncomfortable, and tall. He might get some good ratings for sheer hotness, but I don't think he's walking out of this with any dates (if only because HE doesn't rate any particularly high).

2. Adolin: It went SO well; 10/10 stars

Adolin (single in this universe I guess) is personable, good at flirting, and very adept at getting dates. He's being ranked as a top-tier catch by everyone he meets, and he's ranking everyone he sees as top-tier too because hey, he could probably maybe see it working out for a while. That boy's calendar is FULL for the next month.

3. Elend: It was not great; 3/10 stars

Elend is obviously carrying a book the whole time, and he has a tendency to start reading during the conversation, even though--again--each conversation is only five-minutes long. Most of his partners find this rude and off-putting, but he'd get a least a couple who are intrigued either by him or by his book.

4. Leshwi: It was okay; 5/10 stars

She's magnificent and tall, so that's gonna get her some positive feedback. I also do genuinely think Leshwi is good at connecting with people. On the other hand, she keeps asking when the "stabbing part starts," and, uh, that doesn't go over very well with most of the people.

5. Denth: It was pretty great; 8/10 stars

To be honest, Denth would be GREAT at speed dating. He's disarmingly funny and self-deprecating but in a self-confident way. He might lose a few potential partners who are like, "Ew, mercenaries" but I do think he's walking out of there with plenty of dates if he wants to.

6. Ulaam: It was mostly a failure; 1/10 stars

He's quick with a compliment, but his compliments are usually along the lines of, "What a nice elbow you have. Can I have it? Only after you die of course, ha ha!" I'm sure there's at least one person who's into that, though.

7. Kelsier: It went great; 9/10 stars

I think Kelsier would be great at speed dating if he wanted to be. He can definitely smile and get people on his side. He 100% has an ulterior motive for this speed dating thing, though...

8. Shallan: It was so-so; 5/10 stars

Can Shallan rock a social event? Yes. Can she resist making that slightly inappropriate pun when the opportunity presents itself? Absolutely not. For this reason alone, I think her ratings are...varied.

9. Charlie: He ranks it 10/10 but everyone else ranks it 0/10

Charlie has EXACTLY the speed dating experience he wants! AKA, he is as boring as possible so that nobody wants to date him. He has a great time. Nobody else does.

10: Nightblood: People died; 0/10 stars

The people who partnered with Nightblood either tried to unsheathe him and died, or being near Nightblood just made them feel sick. Nightblood had a great time! (And is not allowed back.)

[theresattrpgforthat]

What do you think are good games to replicate kingdom hearts would be? in terms of general structure/atmosphere, if that makes any sense

THEME: Kingdom Hearts

Hello friend! I really think you should talk to @monsterfactoryfanfic about this one, and I think you'll see why in a minute.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Roll, by Peach (@khttrpg).

Re:Roll is an ode to the Kingdom Hearts series, built from a love for the games and a desire to translate its mechanics to a tabletop format. Re:Roll draws its inspiration directly from mechanics across the entire Kingdom Hearts series, reinterpreting its features and modes of play into a customizable format. While there was significant effort to make this game easy to use for newcomers, you may have some difficulty connecting with the framework of Re:Roll if you don’t have at least a passing knowledge of Kingdom Hearts.

This game is a fan-game designed specifically to emulate Kingdom Hearts. This will have a lot of elements reminiscent of games similar to D&D - there are difficulty levels, character classes, and stratified combat. The entire game is also free, which is a big bonus in my books! The game is still being worked on, so you’ll see in the link above a number of documents, including Abilities, Classes, Weapon Classes, and a Feedback Form for you to give feedback to the designer!

My Friends are my Strength, by Peizur.

My Friends Are My Strength is a PBTA rpg where players use powers to overcome threats thrown at them, form meaningful bonds that serve as the foundation of their strength, and try to achieve a goal that means more to them than life itself. It is a game where players make friends and draw strength from those friendships. It is a game where players strive to fulfill a grandiose goal. It is a game where anything can happen.

If what you’re looking for is a game about friendship and bonds, My Friends Are My Strength take that trope from many an anime and game-ifies it. I really enjoy the Why Play? section of this game - the designer is able to give you a quick pitch on the kinds of people this game is for. PbtA games encourage collaborative setting creation and often give your players bonuses based on the relationships they have with each-other. In My Friends Are My Strength, this is represented via your characters Bonds, links you will have with other NPCs. If you like games where each character has unique and varied relationships with the people around them, you might like this game.

Interstitial, Our Hearts Intertwined, by Riley Hopkins.

Interstitial: Our Hearts Intertwined is a tabletop RPG about our connections with other people, the power we draw from those connections, and traveling to different worlds.  It runs on the Powered by the Apocalypse engine.

In Interstitial, you will travel through the barriers between Worlds with your party. You'll meet new friends, enemies, teachers and learn about yourself. You will also be able to visit and partake in events in your favorite intellectual properties or your own worlds ala Kingdom Hearts. In short; Take two worlds that don't fit each other, smash them together, wipe away the dust and find out how they do.

This is another PbtA game, like My Friends Are My Strength, but it’s explicitly inspired by Kingdom Hearts, similar to Re:Roll. Interstitial is a game about taking two (or more) different franchises and putting them together - and telling a story that spans both worlds. It has similar themes around the power of friendship, but it gives your game group more freedom to choose which franchises you want to incorporate, while still providing a guideline on how to make sure everything works together.

If you want to learn more about Interstitial: Our Hearts Intertwined, I definitely recommend checking out @monsterfactoryfanfic's video essay about this game.

[tiredsmashbros]

ASKBOX REOPENING

finally, after a good break they are once again open!!!

📌 if you are curious about any rules or concerns, go to this post! {click}

as before you're free to ask regular and lore-related questions to tsb, general questions to me, and oc requests! i haven't decided whether i want this to be a limit time open till the end of the party, or keep it open long-term. guess just depends how many questions i get oh boy... go stupid aaa go crazy aaa

⚠️ WARNING / HEADS UP, tumblr likes to gatekeep me or glitch out more than i would appreciate it to... so some asks may get accidentally "hidden" until... i have no idea... i will be doing my ABSOLUTE BEST to get to as many in a quickly manner so the risk of anyone's ask disappearing lessens. but please refrain from spamming requests / ask if i have not gotten to you yet!!!

if for whatever reason the ask button is not appearing, i may have forgotten so expect a minor delay or lateness just in case if this issue occurs

...

...

...

huh? whats this suppose to be?

starting today until the end of the party, i will be sprinkling under every post tsb fun fact / lore. these will primarily focus tsb's background of each character he have a big connection with. may vary or change if my mind changes, but that's the main theme! enjoy!~

mon: smg3 and tsb did not start on friendly terms at the beginning stage of their friendship. they disliked each other for various stupid reasons on a mutual level. till one day, tsb assisted smg3 in saving eggdog when no one else was available. this adventure helped grow their understanding of one another, and began bonding more as the series progressed.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #26 – The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

This was my monthly dose of high literature, chosen because I subscribed to the author’s substack for a while and generally liked it. After somehow accidentally grabbing historic fantasy and dystopian sci fi, this time it did was actual proper adult contemporary litfic, even! So y’know, horizons successfully expanded.

The book is honestly a caricature of what an outsider would guess contemporary litfic to be. Meandering and plot light, eight different POVs whose chapters’ are largely character studies of their own interiorities and relationships, deeply preoccupied with the process and structures that produce Fine Art, about a bunch of miserable queer grad students in Iowa City. It did at least refrain from having a character actually be an author attending the Iowa Writers Workshop so like, not totally free of restraint here, but it’s still nearly overpowering.

Saying ‘plot light’ is still almost overstating it, really. Each chapter is a vignette from the perspective of a different character, with varying levels of personal connection to the other protagonists. Some individual characters have little arcs, but none exactly undergo a profound transformation – the book is largely just a study of them, their relationships, their damage and their neuroses as they drift through a year of their lives.

The characters themselves are all resolutely unexceptional. No prodigies, no savants, no stars in the making – they are all talented and dedicated, but in ordinary and unremarkable ways for their milieu. It’s precisely that ordinariness that Taylor seems most interested in – how people conceive of their relationship to art when they’ve devoted everything to a craft that only barely seems to love them back.

The relationships between the characters is the other real driver of the book. They’re all..kind of dicks? In the thoughtless, inarticulate, emotionally-illiterate-lashing-out way of incredibly stressed people in their mid-20s (though exaggerated a bit for effect. Or at least, I hope so). Everyone is broken and jagged, and rubs up against everyone else only with violence and force – resentful friendships, unhappy romances, comfortable enmities. No one ever makes a clean break with anyone – no one shows much sign of being able to even if they wanted – and what character growth there is is a matter of compromise and accommodation, making peace with the people you love around you whatever their shortcomings.

The characters are all very well-drawn, their neuroses and struggles believable and mostly compelling. There’s probably one or two too many of them – at a certain point I did start having trouble with whose tragic childhood (they of course all have tragic childhoods) or insufferable emotionally unavailable boyfriend was whose – but in the final analysis they all mostly worked for me. That said, the two female POVs seem almost..tangential? Less connected to everyone else, less richly examined, less grounded and dirty and vicious. Which is a bit unfortunate, both in terms of the novel’s overall strength and because almost literally the only other women with lines in it are a bunch of deeply unkind caricatures of poetry/literature-as-activism types in one of the character's seminars.

Speaking of relationships – if you don’t know what the stereotypical litfic sex scene looks like, this book overflows with examples to learn from. Partially just trying to be true to life about a cast of horny gay guys in their mid-20s – if you draw a chart of who fucked who I’m pretty sure it connects every man in the main cast – but the book also just tries to get a lot of characterization and symbolism across through sex scenes, and ends up devoting more word count and flowery prose to them than anything I’ve ever seen besides outright erotica. All the sex scenes do have a fascinatingly vast variety of valences and tones, though – some are passionate and romantic, some flagrantly exploitative or transactional, some are just something to do on a boring break in the middle of nowhere. The sex can get a bit monotonous, but at least it’s never one-note.

Taylor’s very interested in the culture of like, capitalized prestigious Fine Art, its production, and the relation of the university to both. The book, broadly, seems to take the point of view that the whole edifice is one great machine for chewing up and spitting out hopes and dreams. It’s a recurring theme that even among these people who have dedicated their entire lives to poetry or dance of the piano are unable to spend it making the kind of art they want. And that’s not even getting into how all the people you’re supposed to be making art with are the most insufferable pieces of shit to ever see the sun.

And on the note of insufferable pieces of shit – there’s also just a very strong recurring theme of class. Getting a MFA is largely the province of people who don’t really have to care about a near-future paycheck, and the cast is divided between those who fit the description and feel varying amounts of repressed guilt and awkwardness about it, and those that have to work some job to pay the bills and display a remarkable amount of restraint in not decking at least one classmate a day. The irony of art imagined as activism or world-changing being near-exclusively the result of elite educations and trust funds is bitter and plentiful, especially among the poets.

It’s, I think, a very sort of subtle humour that across the first half or so of the book the really poetic prose and most evocative imagery is used near-exclusively to describe the vulgar, low-class survival work that the less fortunate half of the protagonists do to support themselves – meal prep in a hospice kitchen, preparing cuts of beef in a slaughterhouse, recording porn of oneself to post online – while the actually art they create isn’t much described at all. This doesn’t last, but it’s a very funny joke while it does.

The book is, on a sentence-to-sentence and page-to-page level, really quite beautiful. Unfortunately, it ends up feeling like less than the sum of its parts. There’s a bit of a running narrative connecting half or so of the protagonists, who really are major parts of each others lives and enrich each others narratives with an outside view – and then the rest only appear outside their own chapters as cameos, if that. Exactly one characters gets two chapters from his POV – the first, and about halfway through the book – and he’s one of the people who barely touches the rest of the cast, so it’s not like he’s actually the protagonist or propelling the narrative. You end up with a novella and a bunch of short stories that, put together, are both constantly hitting the same beats but also lacking any real through-line tying them all together and pushing things forward. Which really isn’t helped by the fact that the ending reads like someone gave Taylor a maximum wordcount 5 pages before he hit it and he just did the best he could.

[skelevenn]

Repostober 27 - 2015

A small series of "Flower Language" (and leaves) portraits for some gems. I definitely did research (though couldn't tell you the sources anymore) and picked stuff out for all the major characters but only finished these three. Actually I found the notes doc I made, helpfully with reference pictures, so I can tell you what each of these ones are and what they mean! Under the cut.

Amethyst

Clematis (large light purple flowers) - Artifice/Trickery

Larch (pink and berry-looking) - Audacity

Sloe (blue berries) - Difficulty

London Pride (white with pink spots and middle) - Frivolity

Jewelweed (purple heart-shaped flowers) - Impatience

Coriander (background foliage, small ruffled leaves) - Hidden Worth

Peridot

Hollyhock (white, sort of trumpet shaped flowers) - Ambition

Euphorbia (small yellow flowers in clusters of three) - Persistence

Rose, yellow (...I think you know what a rose looks like.) - Jealousy

Clotbur (large three-pointed leaves) - Rudeness

Lapis Lazuli

Mourning Bride (large bunches of tiny white flowers) - "I have lost all"

Anemone (white star shaped flowers with deep blue middle) - Forsaken

Columbine, blue (Small white flower with long periwinkle outer petals) - Desertion

Jacob's Ladder (small purple flowers with long stamens) - "Come down"

Aloe vera (long thin spiked leaves) - Grief

Oak Leaves (wiggly? hopefully recognizable lol) - Bravery

I remember looking at a lot of different sources to get the kinds of meanings I was looking for. Not the usual stuff for bouquets that all mean varying levels of love and friendship and whatnot. So some of these could be kind of made up! You can never trust the internet. But I tried.

[hetafice]

hi hi !! loveee your blog so far, it’s v nice to see more hetalia writers popping up again. if you’re interested in tackling this request, i’d like to see your take on how a yandere romano would deal with feelings of jealousy in regards to his darling getting a little too close than what his insecure brain’s comfortable with to his brother veneziano? 🫶💕

tysm! these are still yandere hcs, but i actually ended up also doing a small character study. i’ve been wanting to do those more recently so if you’re interested send in a request! bonus points if it’s not a super popular character. + this came out a lot longer than intended, so enjoy.

This is something Lovino would not be able to handle.

He has spent centuries trying to navigate the minefield that is the relationship with his brother--with varying degrees of success. One thing that has remained constant, however, is the fact that people overwhelmingly prefer his younger brother.

Romano has seemingly tried everything. Careful imitation, acting the complete opposite, sabotaging from the shadows, acting as right-hand man, you name it. Nothing has seemed to stick.

Even now, he’s invisible. Reduced to the lesser half a whole. Forever shackled to his brother, effectively prevented from exercising his own agency.

It’s never fun to be stuck in someone's shadow, but for the person whose shadow you're stuck in to be so unflinchingly blasé about it? For one to be as stuck as long as Lovino has? Being forcefully denied your own personhood like that often breeds contempt. Hatred like that can simmer under the surface for decades, even centuries before bubbling over and being noticed by others. Holding hatred like that for so long as he has? It’s almost enough to drive someone mad.

But when he gets you and has something of his own for once he relaxes a bit. There’s no need to be on edge, to constantly put on airs, because he has someone in his corner. Someone who has taken the time to know him on a deep, personal level. Someone, who despite his faults, is willing to love him, and in turn trusts him enough to love them back. That alone is enough to satiate him, to quiet his restless mind, and dull the sharp blade of self-hatred that’s been lingering within him for so long.

So when he discovers you calmly conversing with the man who has unknowingly tormented him for so long, he almost does not know what to do with himself.

It’s almost as if he’s on autopilot, mindlessly drifting over to where the two of you stand, immediately trying to assess the situation.

 In your eyes, the conversation with Veneziano was just much overdue. It was impolite to not introduce yourself to someone so close to your partner. Lovino would never say so, but sometimes the refusal to introduce you to his loved ones felt intentional. Whenever you would press the issue, he would hastily arrange a meeting to calm you down. It worked a few times; you got to meet a few of his friends, and even his pseudo-guardian/older brother/ mentor (you never were quite sure of the nature of their relationship), but you never got the chance to meet Veneziano. Occasions where you two were set to meet would mysteriously get canceled due to unforeseen circumstances. You also noticed that he would always get strangely cagey at the mention of his younger brother. 

At first, he would try to covertly sow discord between the two of you, in hopes that you would have a falling-out. In his mind, if he could manufacture situations to make you see his brother’s shortcomings, you wouldn’t want to be around him.

When he discovers, to his horror, that you have grown closer to his brother despite the careful machinations, he would spiral.

To you and Veneziano, your friendship is as right as rain, completely unforced, and a natural progression. After knowing each other peripherally for so long, making friends with you just makes sense.

But to Romano, this is yet another event point, in a seemingly infinite pattern of behavior. Time and time again, Romano finds something of his own, takes a liking to it, starts to cherish it, but only until Veneziano comes along and tries to take it. He always manages, because he is always successful in everything that he does. Afterwards, Romano is then left with nothing but more hatred to swallow and another large bruise on his ego. He can’t let it happen again, not this time, not after cultivating a relationship so pure, not like this, not-

He devises to stop it. Whatever it is between the two of you. Immediately.

Lovino, who has always been romantic, will up the ante. You suddenly find yourself whisked away on trips abroad more often than you are sat at home. How could you find the time to catch up with his brother when you have a date that night, another trip to pack for? To you, it seems as though you have entered a second honeymoon phase in your relationship. Unbeknownst to you, he’s tirelessly working to separate you. He shall get Veneziano away before he tries to take what is rightfully his for the umpteenth time.

Before your increased contact with Veneziano, your relationship was, by all accounts, normal.

You met Lovino by happenstance, and your romance blossomed at a pace that felt comfortable and right. He was nothing but loving and attentive, if a bit temperamental at times. But after you meet his brother, you notice a palpable shift in his attitude. He snaps at people more and always seems to be in deep thought. But he’s kinder in some ways as well. He’s now always concerned about your safety and likes to know where you’re going beforehand, not after the fact like you used to do. He figured out that you love the gifts he gets you, so you now receive way more of them. He’s more appreciative of everything you do as well. So much so that one day, after a particularly elaborate meal, he suggests you quit your job to take care of the home. To his delight, you eventually agree, but any joy is quickly stamped out when he hears you happily explaining your new living arrangement to his brother.

He can’t stand it really, as his mind sails through countless scenarios, unearthing trauma he thought had been resolved (or safely buried) since the early Renaissance. He doesn't know why his mind takes him in this direction, but then again he doesn't know a lot of things. He doesn't know why efforts to separate the two of you don't work, or why nothing he does ever seems to work. Why is it that he is never enough? Why, after so many attempts and failures, did Grandfather never really seem to grow fond of him? 

After yet another night of being forced to confront these long-dormant worries, he decides enough is enough. If you cannot take the hints he has so kindly given you, then he will separate the two of you by force.

Long gone are your days of exploring the city alone. No more impromptu cafe trips, walks around the park, or unsupervised trips to the post office. You are expected to stay at home, and at home you stay.

“Amore mio, it’s too dangerous out there,” he says. “There’s nothing nearby worth seeing, and you know how I feel about you driving.”

And you believe him because why wouldn’t you? He cares for you more than anyone! More than your coworkers, your friends who stopped visiting, or even your family who mysteriously don’t care enough to call anymore…

And just like that, you have been delegated to remain in the domicile. Showering him and only him with your seemingly infinite divine grace for as long as time permits it.

It’s so simple that he regrets not doing it sooner.

As for his ingrate brother, he will do anything to ensure he does not go sniffing anywhere he need not be. 

It takes nothing to ruin Veneziano’s reputation. To oust him as an incompetent womanizer. Someone whose words of concern should never be taken seriously.

To Lovino, it is well worth it. He’ll put an end to the madness, he must. Even if it means making you unhappy, or betraying his own blood, or dirtying his hands with sin, or being at the receiving end of your icy gaze for the rest of eternity.

But you aren’t unhappy, are you now? You’re over the moon, and why wouldn’t you be? You are given everything you need and more. Besides, Lovino doesn't like it when you frown.

“Look happy now. You have no reason not to,” he always says.

[goblinmatriarch]

Drarry 2022 Roundup!

Just some drarry I loved in 2022.

Love to do year round-ups weeks after the year ended and with zero system or approach except scrolling back through my bookmarks and being like "aw yeah, that one! Nice!". Anyway, here are 16 drarry fics that got me through 2022.

Contretemps by @moonflower-rose (8.5k)

This was my erised gift and it's perfect! Some really fun magical lore, a perfectly fumbling bumbling Harry with a crush, and the rare oblivious Draco. It's quick and witty and sparklingly awkward.

The Unknown Door by waterwings (70k)

This fic was in a class by itself! The house magic was eerie and Draco's post-war fate was bleak, and then there is a slow, glorious healing of everyone through a community of misfits. Really imaginative magic and a lot of finding of lost ways.

The Stuff of Clouds and Skies by @myrtlefics (7.5k)

Harry with an obvious crush and ANOTHER oblivious Draco, truly 2022 was my year in that regard! And then there are the 17th century ghost bros, and Draco helplessly finding himself having to do things he thought he'd never do again to save Harry. And THEN Draco has to spend a bunch of time stumbling through an Auror investigation with a competent Ron and it's all just.....unf, so good.

Romp and Circumstance by @wolfpants (35k)

Like drinking champagne while horny. Such a sexy, fun fic, which makes sense as it's from Bodice Ripper Fest. Draco as the virginal ingenue meeting Harry's rake seduction head-on was delicious and overwhelming and full of 'technically' not crossing any sexy sexy lines, which, if you're into that, is hot as all get-out. (Spoiler: I am into that)

Eager for the Sky by @oknowkiss (35k)

Hogwarts AU that puts Harry and Draco on the same team and also makes quidditch have some level of strategy, a feat in and of itself! Harry is a confused, bumbling seducer who is so bad at it that Draco has no idea, which means......another oblivious!Draco! It's funny and insightful and poignant and well worth a read.

In Free Fall by @kbrick (81k)

Harry is an adrenaline junkie doing stunts all over the world. Draco is a big old nerd. They grow to understand each other and make space in one another's lives. This was really thoughtful and insightful about like....mm, maybe what it's like wanting things different from the standard, and I was enthralled by the way Harry shaped and reshaped his life. Honestly don't think I'm doing this one justice, just read it.

Yours Truly by @skeptiquewrites (14.5k)

Ahhh this one is so much fun! Fake dating! Fake dating! And then a furious but handsome Draco, a community of friends, some very cool magical jobs, and Drunk Hermione my love.

The Truth about Love by waterwings (52k)

Pureblood magic and rituals being dismantled! All the fun of learning about ancient, complicated snobby binding rituals AND the joy of Draco's personal growth being in dismantling them. Lots of great friendship stuff, with Pansy and Hermione especially as affectionately mocking allies.

I have not yet forgot myself to stone by @elskanellis (3k)

Absolutely haunting Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind LCDrarry crossover. It's ambiguously tragic and lovely and fragile and beautiful. It takes the trope of them finding each other over and over no matter what and turns Harry's utter faith into a tragic flaw.

Welcome! Everything is Fine! by @melociraptor (12k)

A smart and funny Good Place @lcdrarry fic with pitch-perfect character voices. Truly worth a read for drarry encountering Jason Mendoza alone, and then there is EVEN MORE to love beyond that! It's sort of picaresque scenes from a year, varying between hilariously silly to startlingly poignant, and it's worth a read even if you're unfamiliar with the original work.

Our Time by @mosrael (40k)

Another fic with astonishing world-building and deeply cool magical lore. I've never seen the work it's based on (Arrival), and I did not care. The driving magical mystery was exciting, and the drarry relationship develops naturally and joyously alongside it.

Silverpoint by @tackytigerfic (8k)

I could have linked p much any tackytiger fic I've read this year buuuut this one is most recent in my bookmarks so it gets the shout-out 😂. It's a lovely, short, second-person look at Harry's observations of Draco over the years. Read it and then also the rest of tacky's fics.

Tis a Far Better Thing by @the-sinking-ship (37k)

This Clueless AU sent me on a tear through all of Sinking Ship's fics, and I stand by that choice. Draco's voice blends beautifully with Cher's, and Draco as the lost, confused fashion plate socialite discovering himself is absolutely perfect. This reclist could maybe double as an oblivious!Draco one because guess what he's here, too, and I love it.

Little Deaths and How to Avoid Them by @dustmouth-blog (96k)

Comfort read that feels like taking a long hot bath then crawling into clean sheets for almost 100k words! Harry has some mh stuff to grapple with, and there are some gentle negotiations around sex and relationship stuff, and it's all so careful and soft and soothing.

Exposure by @margeurite (6k)

Suuuuch a hot fic omg. Draco accidentally discovers Harry's exhibitionist streak alongside Harry himself awkwardly realising oh no he is into this and it's just. Hoo boy. It's steamy.

Come as you Are by @peachpety (3.5k)

Peach is a master of texting/social media in fics, and this was the one that made me fall in love! Sweet little high school AU with awkward sexuality and a lot of fun online gossip

Potential Gravity by zeitgeistic (32k)

This one stands on its own; I can't really compare it to any other fic. Harry's lack of care for his own life is in full effect, and Draco is so angry at him for it. Some cool looks at magic and magical govt outside of England (in Beirut!) And also there is a baby manticore.

Knead, then let rise by @softlystarstruck (7k)

I guess another theme of my year is soft, gentle, soothing fics of healing. Real mystery, that, cannot even guess why that might have been 😅. Anyway, it's lovely and domestic and sweet.

And that's all, folks! Read em, don't read em, but those were my favourite fics that I read in 2022! Thanks to all the authors for making me laugh, cry, or soothe myself to sleep!

[temnurus]

Wangxian Top Ten Fic Recs

So. I got into MDZS/The Untamed back in February, & I've sort of fallen into a Wangxian black hole from which I am not sure I will ever emerge. Thusly, I've been reading a ton of Wangxian fanfiction lately & have acquired quite a few favorites. Naturally I had to eventually compile a rec list lest I combust with all the barely suppressed love I have for this ship.

Now you lucky people get to reap the benefits of all my hard work because not only have I ranked my top ten, I am also including a bunch of honorable mentions because I'm ridiculous & have no self restraint because I'm such a kind & generous person. Note that the honorable mentions are not ranked & are listed in no particular order.

Fair warning, all of these recs are rated Explicit because I enjoy either a sprinkling or a flood of adult content with my fics. It's far from the focus of many of them, but it's there to varying degrees in each. Also, some of these fics cover some heavy content that may be triggering for some folks, so please do mind the tags & any authors' notes for your own peace of mind.

And with no further adieu, onto the recs!

1. Scars Where They Used to Be by CwythanWind (E, 58,467)

Thoughts: I lost count of how many times I cried in this fic. It was gorgeous in every sense of the word. The characterizations were phenomenal. Wei Ying’s pain was palpable, & the pining was agonizing. Lan Zhan conveying his love through poetry made me sob like a baby twice. The prose was just that beautiful. I can’t recommend this enough. As soon as I finished it I knew it was going to become my favorite Wangxian fic, & nothing has managed to top it yet.

2. Beneath Your Skin by Wrenwolf (E, 147,201)

Thoughts: I was sold on tattoo artist Wei Ying from the word go, haha, but Lan Zhan as an antiques dealer was also surprisingly on point. I go on about characterization a lot in these recs, but I have to tell you that Lan Zhan's here is one of my absolute favorites. I felt like I'd crawled into his skin & was just living there right along with him. And don't get me started on Wei Ying in this fic. I just.. fuck, I cried so much, y'all, & it was incredibly cathartic. Nie Huaisang was my favorite side character in this, & they were an absolute BAMF! You can't go wrong with this one. It's just stunning.

3. Pentimento. by orange_crushed (E, 72,966)

Thoughts: This fic was full of sentiment: regrets, longing, & so, so nostalgic. The love of art was apparent & beautifully on display here, & it added a richness to the whole thing. I cried several times during this from the empathy I had for both Lan Zhan's & Wei Ying's experiences (can you sense a theme with my favorites making me overly emotional? lol). The tone got heavy in places, but it didn't feel graphic or overwhelming at any point for me. The writing was just fantastic, & I've enjoyed a few more of the author's fics since I read this one.

4. i'm gonna drown when you wake up by teenjiism (E, 51,752)

Thoughts: I related to this fic on several levels because both characters are portrayed as neurodivergent in ways that felt very authentic, & I rarely see it done as well as it was here. I have ADHD, & Wei Ying's headspace felt extremely familiar, ha. Lan Zhan & Wei Ying's friendship was so lovely here, too. I adored their easy intimacy & how they were each other's favorite person before Wei Ying even realized he was in love with Lan Zhan. Oh yes, this is another fantastic oblivious Wei Ying/One Brain Cell WWX Strikes Again fic. The pining was perfect, & the overall sweetness of their relationship made this a very floaty/happy reading experience for me, personally.

5. Nothing But Trouble by brooklinegirl (E, 60,318)

Thoughts: Continuing with the theme of One Brain Cell WWX Strikes Again, this was a hilarious & heady fake dating scenario fic. His cluelessness reached new heights in this one, & I about died when he came up with the idea that naturally he & Lan Zhan should practice things like kissing for authenticity's sake. (Oh Wei Ying, you sweet summer child... he kills me; can you tell?) I loved how matter-of-fact Lan Zhan was about the whole thing, too. I laughed a lot during this fic. I even blushed a couple of times, too! Highly enjoyable & a must-read for me.

6. you've ruined my life (by not being mine) by cicer (E, 132,713)

Thoughts: None of the parents in this fic are doing a good job, but hey, they didn't in canon either, in my not-so-humble opinion. It's not what I focused on in the fic, but the tags certainly amused me. I haven't come across many texting fics in MDZS, so this was a pleasant & welcome surprise. The whole fic wasn't done through texting, but their text exchanges were SO CUTE. Lan Zhan texted exactly how I thought he would in this, & it made me laugh every time. The pining was lovely, & when they finally got to see each other in person again in New York I was glued to my computer until I finished the fic. I adored the tone of this one. It was great & just a really fun read.

7. and so my heart beats wildly by lily_winterwood (E, 106,435)

Thoughts: This was one of the most original modern AUs I've seen & featured competitive cultivation that had a Hunger Games meets professional figure-skating competition vibe. It was wild, but it made sense when I read it, I promise. The author was very good at fleshing out their world, & I was fascinated by the concept. Wei Ying once again failed to notice Lan Zhan was in love with him, & his confusion over their interactions never failed to entertain me. I never get tired of their dynamic, y'all, & it was just perfect here. I highly recommend this one.

8. Falling to the Rhythm by Selenay (E, 128,916)

Thoughts: Ever seen So You Think You Can Dance or Strictly Come Dancing? This was basically that but Wangxian! Wei Ying was stunning as a professional dancer being handed a socially awkward, concert violinist Lan Zhan & having to teach him to dance in front of the nation for 12 weeks, & I absolutely loved Lhan Zhan in this. He was precious. The sexual tension during some of the dances was electrifying, & watching them fall in love over the course of the filming of the show was a delight to read.

9. Two Dollar Coffee by marizousbooty (E, 145,286)

Thoughts: I almost fell out of my chair laughing because how do you acquire an accidental sugar daddy?! Well, if you read this fic, you'll find out. One Brain Cell WWX Strikes Again! Yeah, it's one of my favorite AO3 tags, so sue me, lol. The sex was obviously one of the highlights, which I am known to enjoy in a fic (don't judge me, Puritans), but it certainly wasn't the only thing that was well written here. I loved everything about this from beginning to end.

10. things that make it warm by yabakuboi (E, 33,327)

Thoughts: This fic hurt my feelings, not gonna lie. I cried ugly tears at the break up, but I've always had a hard time with reconciliation fics. It was very worth it, however. The way the fic covered their relationship growing & changing over time was very compelling, & a highlight of this for me was Wei Ying's relationship with the Wens, particularly A'Yuan. It was very sweet amongst an ocean of angst, haha. I read this in the span of a couple hours. Just couldn't be torn away. If you're a sucker for angst with a happy ending, then you might want to check this one out.

Honorable Mentions

The Simplest Way Forward by harriet_vane (E, 70,972)

Thoughts: This was so heartwarming I couldn't stop smiling over how adorable it was. Kid fics aren't typically a favorite of mine, but I do enjoy a really good one every now & then. This was one of the best I've read, to be honest. A'Yuan was the sweetest little angel, & he was so cute with Wei Ying spazzing out about every aspect of his care. Lan Zhan being the quiet, responsible source of reason & support was expected but of course always a welcome addition to the mix. Accidental Baby Acquisition isn't a tag I'd seen before, but it's a new favorite when it comes to Wangxian getting to be surprise parents together, haha.

undone (the spreadsheet song) series by spookykingdomstarlight (E, 282,452)

Thoughts: This is a two part series that tells the same story from each love interest’s point of view, a la Rivals by Reiya in the YoI fandom, which is one of my favorites of all time. Similarly, this story is also phenomenally written. I was sucked in immediately & read both fics over the span of like 3 days. I actually read Lan Zhan’s POV fic (the second in the series) in a single day. I was spellbound by the whole thing, couldn’t get enough. I highly recommend this. The characterizations are incredible, & the emotions are so intense I couldn’t help but feel everything right along with each of them as the story progressed.

My only word of caution is that if you have a hard time reading about Wangxian being intimate with people other than each other you might want to skim/skip those sections of the second fic like I had to. The author makes it fairly easy by giving a heads up in the author’s notes at the beginning of each chapter in which that occurs, which I very much appreciated.

Many happy returns. by orange_crushed (E, 25,470)

Thoughts: This fic started with a very serendipitous first meeting between businessman Lan Zhan & Wei Ying, who he mistook for the (non-sexual) escort he'd hired for the evening. I nearly died of mortification right along with poor Lan Zhan when he figured out his mistake. Him confessing this to Wei Ying was painfully awkward & hurt my heart, but fear not! We all know I can't handle a fic without an eventual happy ending, haha. Watching their instant connection develop into something more was such a treat. I loved this fic quite a lot for it being a quicker read for me.

Multiphonics by androkastia (E, 63,705)

Thoughts: Wei Ying was such a lovable disaster in this (as he often is, bless him). Him & Lan Zhan both being in the orchestra was a fun idea, & I loved the author's choice of the harp for Lan Zhan's instrument. I thought it was very different from the usual violin or cello choice I've seen previously but still suited him perfectly. I also loved his overall characterization, down to his fashion sense being tastefully eclectic when his style is usually portrayed as very stuffy & conservative. I really enjoyed this college/university AU, & I've read quite a few of them at this point. So obviously this one stood out.

No Compasses, No Signs by brooklinegirl (E, 36,041)

Thoughts: Ah, finally! A soulmate fic. A Temnurus rec list really wouldn't be complete without at least one. This was a modern AU, which made it especially fun when their soul bond inexplicably manifested as they literally collided with each other on the sidewalk. It was painful watching them fumble for answers to why they suddenly knew things about each other they had no way of knowing only moments before, but the sweet conclusion made it more than worth the temporary angst.

A Haunting Love by Selenay (E, 64,621)

Thoughts: This was another very unique modern with magic AU, & I was nervous because Wei Ying was a ghost haunting Lan Zhan's new house in the quiet little town he moved to in order to write his next novel. Naturally Lan Zhan became ensnared by the mystery surrounding Wei Ying's departure. This had a very romantic feel to it, intensely poetic in a way that I found very alluring. There were even thriller-esque moments towards the end of the story, so it had a bit of everything, all of it equally satisfying to read.

love, in fire and blood by cicer (E, 360,042)

Thoughts: This was an example of a cool MDZS-specific trope I hadn't seen before, & in it Wei Ying, the infamous Yiling Patriarch, was a cultivator who had achieved immortality (aka, he's OP as fuck but in a fun way). The great sects enlisted his help to win the Sunshot Campaign, & what did he demand in return? Lan Zhan's hand in marriage, of course! It was a fantastic slow burn in which poor Lan Zhan suffered the mortifying ordeal of falling in love with his own husband. An amazing & complex plot, chock-full of angsty goodness.

a place to hide (can't find one near) by yiqie (E, 76,091)

Thoughts: I'm giving y'all a heads up first thing that this fic pulled no punches when it came to the heavier subject matter covered in the tags & author's note. Some of the descriptions were fairly graphic, so please take care of yourselves when considering this one. That said, it was a powerful portrayal of someone suffering from mental health issues & the long & often complicated journey of healing. This one also happened to contain a love story so beautiful that I was brought to tears several times by Lan Zhan's patient & loving care for his most important person, nevermind all the times I cried at the sad parts! I found the emotional cost of those very much worth the payoff of their happy ending, which is why I just had to include this one.

Just You, Just Me (Just Us, Just We) by wincechesters (E, 19,777)

Thoughts: Lan Zhan thought his brother made him an appointment at an acupuncturist & was aghast when he discovered it was for a session with a professional cuddler instead! Enter Wei Ying, gratuitous cuddle therapy, & his usual chaotic charm. Poor Lan Zhan being so overwhelmed while also becoming hopelessly besotted made me laugh, bless his fragile little heart. This was an adorable & light-hearted fic that made me want to go back & reread it almost immediately, haha.

my age has never made me wise by idrilka (E, 63,439)

Thoughts: I absolutely loved this. It was pretty CQL (The Untamed) compliant & told the post-canon story of Wei Ying wandering alone as a rogue cultivator after the events of the show. Of course he was pining after his zhiji the entire time, so when he heard gossip that the Chief Cultivator might be married by summer's end it nearly undid him. The angst was excruciating, but at the same time, One Brain Cell WWX Strikes Again fics somehow always manage to be fun at the same time. I've read several post-canon, wandering Wei Ying stories, & this one was particularly good.

[deramin2]

I love how fucked up last night was (Critical Role C3 E63). There's another timeline where they reconciled their differences through their brief friendship. But maybe not for those specific people in their places of trauma after those last few days and seeing each other's actions.

On the one hand, it's justifiable because he was trying to do the same to them and likely would not have stopped. They started the battle saying they were just going to knock him out. But on the other, it was not necessary in that there could have been other paths.

That's what's so good about it as a story: the characters know this, openly started it, & they'll have to carry it questioning it. It's going to eat at them. It scares them to know they're capable of it. It feels like losing an idealistic part of themselves.

Because ultimately it doesn't matter if it was the totally optimized gamed out best solution. The characterization is how in that moment it felt like the only answer. The only way to not be hurt further physically and emotionally. A need for control.

They're going to have to figure out what they tell their friends when they meet again. How much they share (they'll likely omit the good times). Will they keep to themselves out of shame or the desire to not burden anyone else? Push it away into silence?

Last night changed them. It changed how they felt about themselves and their bond. It changed how they view the current conflict. What they're committed to and why. Who they think they're up against at all levels. What the other side motivation is.

Orym kept the locket because he wanted to believe those followers were misled and could be saved. But now? Fuck that. He's seen that connection isn't possible. It will be used to stab them in the back. To be another ambush like Zephra and try again.

There's no coming back from this for any of them. Stopping Ludinus means stopping his true believers. All of them. They can't be trusted and they don't want to be saved. They already believe they're saving themselves and the world by unleashing Predathos.

And who's to say if that's right or just? Real people are varied and I'm sure many could be persuaded to stop. Orym's been operating by trying to see the good in people. But right now he's thinking, "When people show you who they are, believe them."

Laudna has resisted being the monster she's been treated as. The monster Delilah is & encourages her to become. She's resists what her powers are bound to. She's not that. But last night she was. She was everything Delilah promised she could be & it felt good.

Ashton is processing how his village and his family were wiped out by true believers like this. A destructive cult where many got themselves killed. And he just helped one of them who's slipping back in that thinking. He can't escape this conflict.

And Prism can't turn her back either knowing this is what they're up against. And this is her chance to change the circumstances she's been being smothered under. Finally have her skill be appreciated. (Beau would be proud.)

There were no easy answers last night. No simple right or wrong. People caught in a conflict they are so small against & just trying to survive the night. It's a war, & war is not a noble and righteous thing. But it's sold to different groups as necessary.

[empressofthewind]

Hi! So, not a question but I saw your recent post asking why some people see Mello and Near as sibling coded, and wanted to reply but ran out of space within the character limits in the comments area so thought I would just send this message.

Zero pressure or expectation on you to reply to this or do anything else, but I just wanted to share my thoughts. I can’t say I’m new to Tumblr but I -am- still bad at it, so sorry if this isn’t the ‘right’ way to reply.

The development of sibling-like feelings isn’t necessarily tied to genetics alone. Unrelated kids raised in the same household can and often do nonetheless see each other as siblings, and Mello and Near were essentially raised like foster-brothers. They have the same prolonged exposure to each other in their formative years, have shared history and childhood experience (including trauma, loss, grief over L), were raised in the same environment, and molded by the same “parental”-like authority figures using the same childrearing practices and philosophy. Typically this type of intensely intimate shared history is more exclusive to sibling relationships cuz, well, most kids are raised in their family household, not in an orphanage that never intends to let them be adopted out. In many ways how Mello and Near interact in canon is similar to a complicated sibling relationship – they both show to varying extents feelings of competitiveness and resentment but also understanding, care and protectiveness for each other. The same principles would apply to any of the kids at the Wammy’s House, but it could be even more intense for Near and Mello because as the potential successors they likely had a whole other level of expectations and pressure that was unique to their situation and that the other kids who are not in the immediate running for the title wouldn’t necessarily experience or relate to.

So although it's not the primary way I personally contextualize their relationship, I think it’s not altogether misguided to think of them as sibling coded or that on some level they might relate to each other in that way, whether consciously or not.

But most importantly at the end of the day they’re not genetically related so they definitely can and should still fuck.

Hi!! Thanks for sending this through (this is a perfectly fine way to message me, for the record)! I debated whether or not to reply since I don't want too much discourse on my blog, but it felt rude to leave it unanswered, so this will be a limited edition response from me :-) also placing it under a cut because this is already a long post as is hgsjhgsd

I DO feel the need to say that I'm very familiar with the idea that non-genetically related people can see each other as siblings!! This is the case with foster siblings, adopted siblings, step-siblings, so on and so forth, and I know found family is very much a real concept as well. The thing that's always confused me, as I mentioned in my post, is that there seems to be a very strong insistence from a large (or at least, vocal) group that Mello and Near specifically are like siblings, which very often comes from people who ship other combinations of the Wammy's boys or broadly do not insist the same about others also raised in that same environment. For example, to me, Matt and Mello exhibit a lot of the same traits you mentioned that could be viewed as sibling-like - they were both raised in the same orphanage under the same principles and authority; Mello often gets annoyed with Matt but still seems to care about him to some extent; they lived apart for about five years, but when Mello recruited Matt as a last-resort ally, Matt was still willing to help him. I suppose the distinction relies on how you define the essence of a sibling relationship, with regards to what criteria would need to be present in a relationship to skirt into that territory. Matt and Mello definitely have more of a friendship-like foundation that makes them seem quite comfortable with each other, but Mello and Near have more of a reading each other's minds/always on the same wavelength kind of thing going on, which could also be taken as a familial trait.

Your point about them being the potential successors is interesting to me as well! I suppose it really just depends on how one chooses to interpret Wammy's House as an institution. I've always imagined that most people in the program are quite competitive about it, and that Mello and Near were chosen fairly soon before L's death, but this isn't strictly canon either, so if you assume they were quite young when they were both picked, then this interpretation could work! It does absolutely make sense to me that, if you don't see their relationship as romantic, viewing it as familial in nature would be another way of interpreting the vague sort of fondness they have for each other despite Mello's entire life revolving around his hatred of Near.

On the whole, while it's not my personal interpretation, i find it very insightful reading some of the varying perspectives on it!! I was mostly just curious to know where the idea comes from, as I very commonly see people insist that there's no other valid way to read it/that their dynamic was specifically "coded" to be sibling-like. I don't mind it as a headcanon at all as long as people don't use it as an excuse to bash the ship :-)

[allwaswell16]

A fic rec of One Direction fics where a character has an unusual pet as requested in this ask. If you enjoy the fic, please leave kudos and comments for the writers! You can find my other fic recs here. Happy reading!

—Louis/Harry—

🐒 Ace of Spades by @allwaswell16

(E, 80k, monkey) Living as a sheltered omega in a farming village has not prepared Harry for life aboard the most notorious pirate ship to sail the Atlantic.

🦜 A Certain Romance by DragMeDownFuckMeUp

(E, 53k, parrot)  the one where Harry and Louis meet on tinder and things are going swimmingly until they realise that their daughters know each other... not only do they know each other, they may or may not be trying to date each other!

🦔 our friendship will never die, you're gonna see it's our destiny by yoobanana

(NR, 43k, hedgehog, monkey, turtle) The adventures of Louis and his hedgehog Bernard and how they inevitably lead to Louis meeting Harry and then even more so inevitably of them moving in together, adopting loads of animals, and then getting married. (Harry and Louis, not Louis and Bernard)

🐿️ But Why Wonder, Why Wonder? by @100percentsassy

(E, 30k, squirrels) The one where Marcel Styles has improbably landed a job in the fashion industry, and Louis Tomlinson is the actor-turned-lingerie-designer he’s been infatuated with for years.

🐹 Lost My Senses by louislittlesuns

(NR, 20k, chinchilla) Your classic university best friends to lovers story but with an unhinged Niall, the fluffiest chinchilla named Peach and far too many descriptions of Louis' mesmerising eyes.

🐮 What To Do With Magic Beans by  LadyLondonderry / @londonfoginacup

(T, 22k, cow) a Jack and the Beanstalk AU featuring Harry as Jack, Louis as a prince, Zayn as a nanny, Liam as the reasonable one, and Niall as whatever the fuck he’s doing.

🦎 I Didn’t Fall For You (You Fucking Tripped Me) by @allwaswell16

(E, 20k, monitor lizard) These days Louis tends to steer clear of dating alphas. He’s dated too many knotheads in his time, and he’s ready to just focus on school and his friends and his pet monitor lizard, of course.

🦎 Apparently by Chance, at Precisely the Right Moment by @lousmoonshine

(E, 19k, bearded dragon) Alpha Harry doesn’t believe in soulmates. Omega Louis has been looking for his soulmate all his life.

🦜 That’s How I Know by @allwaswell16

(E, 19k, parrot) the one where Harry’s African grey parrot spills his dirty secrets to his very hot neighbor.

🐐Maple by tobesokaylee

(T, 5k, cow, goat, pig, snake, hedgehog) Louis is crazy about animals, so Harry is determined to get him all the pets he wants even if they are unconventional

🕷️ Lonely Boy by RBBLivvy

(T, 4k, spider/snake/crab/lizard/gecko/squirrel) He really wishes his resident Harry wasn't so cute, because that's a no-go, but he also wishes Harry would stop trying to keep hermit crabs and lava lamps and every other code violation in the world in his room. 

🦜 Ours is Organized Chaos by ILoveLouis4Ever

(G, 3k, bearded dragon, parrot) upon stepping into their lush estate one is immediately assaulted by children with nerf guns seven dogs of varying sizes and energy levels a parrot with no manners

🐀 a complainy popstar by snsk

(G, 2k, rat) Harry wants a baby. He settles for a pet rat. Louis sort of hates the pet rat very much a lot.

🦆 summertime and butterflies by dadlouis

(T, 2k, duck) Louis and Harry go in for a pet and get something a bit different

—Rare Pairs—

🐒 Hi, Hey There, Hello by orphan_account

(T, 14k, Louis/Nick Grimshaw, monkey) Louis can talk to animals. Nick can't, but he tries anyway. Louis likes that in a guy.

🐀 Creature Fear by @dearmrsawyer

(G, 8k, Niall/Harry, opossum) Louis is an Opossum, and he's moved into the walls.

🦎 I Pray to God I Didn’t Waste All My Good Years (It Was Always You) by versacezayn

(M, 5k, Zayn/Liam, lizard) It’s been four years since Zayn left the band.

[variouspolltournaments]

Some of these may be background ships, others may be canon by word of god.

Propaganda

Buntoine: Unlike Sonic's many, varied, and often contentious matchups in the comic continuity, Bunnie and Antoine are a stable, happy pair that complement each other perfectly. And they come together based on what each character wants and needs most in a partner! Bunnie wants to be treated as a lady despite her cyborg limbs and combat capability, and she needs to be fully accepted as she is no matter what choices she makes about that, and Antoine gives her that. Antoine needs someone to see how hard and how constantly he tries despite his fears and his having none of the fantastic powers or super-level intellect of the rest of the team, and he wants to be viewed as an equal and key player, and Bunnie gives him that. They’re both huge romantics who love all that courtly romantic stuff. And they compliment each other's skills and personality - Antoine’s finesse and fussiness and eye for detail, Bunnie’s sheer power and practicality and big-picture sensibilities. They make perfect sense, and they’re adorable together.

Jurien/Garlan: Jurien and Garlan are childhood best friends because Jurien's mother had died giving birth to her and her father was always away with his knightly duties within the Order of Caldira, so Jurien was raised alongside Garlan by his parents. Once they were adults, Jurien wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and join the Order of Caldira, and Garlan joined the ranks because he wanted to stay with Jurien and watch over her.

Garlan is pretty much head-over-heels for Jurien but never really plans on acting on it because he doesn't want to ruin their friendship if she doesn't feel the same. Jurien on the other hand is kinda oblivious to his romantic feelings and just enjoys his company.

They do end up together in all 5 routes of the visual novel game if I remember correctly, even if it's not confirmed until the sequel game, but you can get a more in-depth read on their relationship if you play Karma's route in the first game because Karma's route is the one where you spend the most time with Garlan and Jurien and you can actually help Garlan confess his feelings to her!

[tsupertsundere]

HELLOO. i see you reblog a lot of hindi cinema!! i would love to watch more of it, what are your top 10 favorites?

🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩😍

this might be my favorite thing I've received in my inbox.

wh I well I wh how could I possibly refuse hee hee hee hee

limiting this to hindi cinema helps!! or so I thought, before I went through several rounds of intense interrogation and several scribbled pages of notes and realized this just outs me as a baby shah rukh khan stan, which I am. I resisted every impulse to try to make the list broad and varied and kept only repeating 'what are your FAVORITES, what are your FAVORITES' and even then narrowing everything down was really painful... I feel like I've watched very many but then not very many at all.

There are another half-dozen more I had to cut with great anguish (Paheli, Ram-Jaane, the Don films) OMG EDITED TO FINISH MY FRIGGIN SENTENCE: BUT I PRESENT TO YOU AND TO ALL: VI TSUPERTSUNDERE'S TOP TEN:

Mohabbatein ("Love Stories", dir Aditya Chopra, 2000)

A young men's college ruled by a headmaster who disdains love--can one music teacher help three love stories grow, and let love tower above all? ✫ My first hindi film. Still can't think of a better introduction. Truly has it all. My favorite ghost story also!! ✧ Standout number: the three ingenues have an incredible dance sequence - it's the emotional climax of the film for me.

Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai ("Say You Love Me", dir Rakesh Roshan, 2000)

When Rohit, an aspiring musician, meets Saxena, a rich bussinessman's daughter, his dreams of stardom glimmer right within his reach. Life has other plans. ✩ Hrithik Roshan's debut - and what a debut! My first introduction to a beloved facet of hindi cinema - double roles!! ✫ Standout number: The number that takes place in Cafe Indiana, Ek Pal Ka Jeena, accurately conveys how it felt like to go to a Rainforest Cafe when I was very young. Truly thrilling!

Muhjse Dosti Karoge! ("Will You Be My Friend!", dir Kunal Kohli, 2002)

Childhood friends Raj, Tina, and Pooja are caught in a classic love triangle - Pooja loves Raj, but he only has eyes for Tina. When he moves away, Pooja poses as Tina as they email back and forth and their friendship blossoms long-distance. A decision made in childhood brings problems to Pooja's doorstep - as they all graduate high school and become adults, Raj returns home... ✧ Rani Mukherjee and Kareena Kapoor are the real MVPs here - shining stars in every movie they're in. ✩ Standout Sequence: The medley, seen above, brought me to my fucking feet when we first watched it. The characters diagetically are singing these popular songs for each other at a wedding celebrations - each song's lyrics weave in and apply on multiple levels, depending on who knows what and what they mean, up to and including Hrithik Roshan reprising Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai! Genuinely one of my favorite sequences I've seen period on film, if I could ever put together anything half as layered I'd be patting myself on the back forever.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... ("Through Smiles and Through Tears", dir Karan Johar, 2001)

The wealthy Raichand family splits in half when elder son Rahul falls in love with a lower-caste girl and marries her - younger son Rohit watches his beloved brother disappear to England and the light in his home wither away. When he becomes an adult, he's determined to find his brother and unite them all again. ✫ These three fuckers as a dad and two sons just make a fascinating family together, let alone the kind of heavy hitting talent you get from Jaya Bachchan (indeed married to Amitji) and of course Kajol my beloved Kajol most of all. 'It's All About Loving Your Parents' is a much much much... much harder sell than I'm prepared to give - at the very least, it's all the drama I can watch in. ✫ Standout Sequence: Bole Chudiyan above is so much fun, of course, but Say Shava Shava is also a really great 'here's how fun things are when things are GOOD' establishing song. When Amitji says 'EVERYBODY' he is not asking!!

Those four films are a truncated highlight reel of the 8 or so films I like watching around the holidays!! They work really well together and I associate them with each other a lot.

Darr ("Fear", dir Yash Chopra, 1993)

Kiran Awasthi has a freshly minted college degree, a bus ticket home, a beloved boyfriend in the Navy... and a stalker. A young woman is slowly driven mad by a ruthless specter who will stop at nothing to be by her side. As she and her boyfriend escalate... so does he. ✧ Truly breathtaking. A breakout role for SRK, another hit cementing Juhi Chawla my fucking beloved Juhi Chawla as the OG expression queen. My favorite horror film. Rahul Mehra deserves to be in Dead By Daylight so he can fight Leon in a twink off. Simply the bloodiest there is. My Halloween costume next year. ✩ Standout sequence: Any time Juhi Chawla is on screen and I'm not kidding.

Chaahat ("Desire", dir Mahesh Bhatt, 1996)

When the father of a father-and-son comedy duo gets sick, his son, Roop, would do anything to secure the money he needs to restore his father's health. So when he catches the eye of a wealthy club owner's sister, he can't say no, no matter how much her desire consumes... ✫ Diametric opposite of Darr, now Shah Rukh Khan is the target!! As a carnivore girl lover I can't not adore it. ✧ Standout sequence: Chaahat Na Hoti, pictured above. This was the frame that made me sit up and go 'oh I have to... I gotta watch this movie right now. Right now.' And I was so right.

Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani ("Yet, I Have the Heart of an Indian", dir Aziz Mirza, 2000)

Ajay Bakshi is a hotheaded, loudmouthed reporter - a rival media network hires his counterpart and superior, Ria Bannerjee, to try to take him down. ✫ A gag-a-minute comedy with more gumflaps than brains, just like our lead. Juhi is heaven in this. I can only describe this as 'I think this is what the guy from American Psycho THOUGHT was going on.' Was a flop - came out right after Kaho Na... Pyaar Hai and couldn't compete - but it hits the zany button like nothing else. ✧ Standout sequence: The inventiveness of the sets in pretty much every song is my favorite. CONTENT WARNING: There is an awful anti-Chinese gag sequence at about the middle of the film. The two leads pose as Chinese reporters to get into somewhere, and it's just wall to wall racial caricatures. I hit that ff button through it myself, a truly unpleasant marring in an otherwise goofy-ass romp.

Chak de! India ("Let's go! India", dir Shimit Amin, 2007)

Can a disgraced former field hockey star turn 16 proud, contentious players from all over the country into one unified team as their coach? Can each young woman play her all on the field - for herself and for her team? ✩ A sports anime fit into one film, I wish it were several seasons long. Each girl is spectacular and is a joy to watch!! ✫ Standout Sequence: The character work is where this one shines. Bindiya Naik is my personal favorite (and not just because the instant I saw her performance I went 'omg, she's playing my OC almost exactly. I'd cast her in a heartbeat!)

Fan (dir Maneesh Sharma, 2016)

Aryan Khanna is the King of Bollywood. Gaurav Chandna is almost him, but not quite - knows everything about him by heart, uses him as the light in his life, and Gaurav even looks just enough like him to boot. All Gaurav wants is five minutes of his time. Just five minutes... ✩ Eminem's 'Stan' as a feature length thriller that literally no one else could make. I can only quote this letterboxd review, because it's right: "even if there was another celebrity who could pull off tearing himself open to splash his own imposter syndrome onscreen, they wouldn't dare try...happy birthday to the only actor good enough to make his fans sympathize with his own stalker". I was SO upset to learn that this flopped. ✫ Standout Sequences: the practical and special effects used to differentiate SRK's two roles bar none some of the best I've experienced - uncanny valley is real here, and half of the horror is the ALMOST. but not quite.

✫✧✩✫✧✩✫✫✧✩✫✧✩✫

While I followed a loose, non-ranking order for the preceding nine entries, I had to save the only possible film for number one:

Om Shanti Om (dir Farah Khan, 2007)

"30 years ago," irrepressible junior artist Om Prakash Makhija has only one dream grander than making it big in the film industry - to get a chance to act alongside his greatest inspiration, superstar Shanti. His wish comes true, but, well... some dreams, one lifetime is not enough... ✫ THE BEST MOVIE THAT EXISTS. THE BEST MOVIE THAT DOESN'T EXISTS. Don't believe me? Let these ladies convince you - when I learned that somehow The Coolest And Most Sparkling theater troupe on the face of the planet staged a production of this I literally got so lightheaded I couldn't see for a second. This movie came out when I was thirteen - if I had seen it then I think it would have made a huge difference. As it was, I saw it at the second most perfect time: when I was/am also a 30 year old irrepressible junior goofball, just like Om. Farah Khan is one of my favorite directors for certain. A film about the hindi film industry, I place it last also because the more faces you recognize, songs you can pick out, movie references you can catch, the better - and it's incredible even still. ✧ Standout sequence: I can't say the whole movie (... minus Deewangi Deewangi it's the Yakuza 4 of this movie) can I??? Let me just say - long story short, Farah Khan got the idea for this film when Andrew Lloyd Weber had her to choreography for his stage show, Bollywood Dreams. She thought the plot, a poor junior artist becoming a big Bollywood star, was eye-rollingly unrealistic. She could do better, she thought... and that idea eventually became Om Shanti Om. The climax is her proving she could do Phantom of the Opera better than him, too!!

✫✧✩✫✧✩✫✫✧✩✫✧✩✫

And, if you'll indulge me... in thanks for giving me a really fun thing to do today, I have one more film: one that I think you would like, based off of the vibes of the journal entries I got to read!

Veer-Zaara (dir Yash Chopra, 2004)

An Indian pilot and the daughter of a Pakistani politician fall in love, but are wrenched apart when the pilot is imprisoned on false charges. He languishes 22 years in prison, never saying a word, until a young Pakistani lawyer is assigned his case and she is determined to see him freed... ✧ Certified Mom Movie and is an absolute banger. When I thought 'who would be a character who I could see Estelle looking forward to meeting for lunch', Rani Mukherjee's lawyer was right at the top of the list. ✫ Standout Sequence: My personal favorite, Main Yahaan Hoon, is the song linked above. It drives me Insane absolutely Insane - this depicts 'they're not in the room but they're the only thing on your mind' in a way seldom more effective!

✫✧✩✫✧✩✫✫✧✩✫✧✩✫

omg NOW I'm done for eel. This was a terrific exercise in tilling the soil in my brain - I'm really inspired by the all visual direction, the colors and depths, the sensibilities in general exemplified by the movies here, and hope to one day reflect it in my own work! I have to make the Yash Raj reshade shaders I want to see in the world.

Please don't hesitate to drop me a line about anything you find interesting here, other movies you've seen, or anything else! Genuinely truly always love getting to see your work. Thank you for reading!

[vendetta-if]

How does the romance system work in this game? Will we enter a relationship with an RO once we reach a certain romance level? If we flirt with one RO then enter a relationship with another, will that negatively impact our relationship with that RO? I ask because I've been flirting with RO's to see what their romance path might be like as a way to choose who to go for, but I don't want to do that if it ruins my ability to have a platonic relationship with them

For the romance system, you’ll have to choose the romance options and choose to go down the RO’s hang out routes later on.

In each playthrough, you’ll get to choose 2 ROs’ routes to focus on later on and in those routes, there’ll be time to finally lock in the romance and for MC and the RO to finally become official (if you’ve been showing interest to the ROs, if you’re choosing their route too just to just strictly become friends, then there will not be any romance choice to become lovers).

And once you’ve locked in their romance and become official, I’ll grey out the flirting interactions with other ROs, since I’m not too comfortable or enthused about having to write that kind of stuff (I think I’ve talked about quite a while ago about not being comfortable about writing cheating stuff).

As for the flirting with all the ROs mechanics before locking in an RO, I will put them under the cut since I’ll be explaining what I currently have in mind and it’ll be quite long 😄

I’m not sure yet about flirting with another RO in front of the other ROs you’ve shown interest in as well (before becoming official) and its consequences. I think it’ll vary based on the ROs’ own personalities. Some are more okay and understanding of flirtatious MC compared to others, especially in the beginning.

For example, I think Skylar and Santana wouldn’t mind much if you guys haven’t been official, I think (subject to change); Skylar because they can be quite teasing and considered flirtatious as well.

Meanwhile for Santana, they would be more logical, thinking something along the lines of, “Oh, so MC is a flirtatious person, no wonder they’re flirting with me as well.” Or “Well, MC is not their partner yet, so they can’t really stop them from flirting with other people.”

But, as you keep showing interest in them (constantly choosing the romantic options) and have high romance points with Skylar or Santana and still flirt with other ROs in front of them later on, I think you might get some consequences. So, if you’re just being charming and flirting with them and other ROs in the beginning, it’ll be okay, but the longer you keep showing interest in them, but still have the gall to flirt with other ROs in front of them, they might feel sad and a bit hurt and feel like MC might just be stringing them along and is not serious at all about potential relationships with them.

Rin and Ash are more sensitive about that kind of thing (unless if it’s about each other, then, they would be more hesitant and a bit confused and conflicted 😂 Especially with the poly being possible). But, if you’ve shown clear interest in both or either of them, and then flirt with Santana or Skylar in front of them, you will get consequences.

For Rin, it might either be a decrease in their trust point, romance point, and/or in their friendship point. For Ash, it might either be a decrease in their romance point and/or friendship point.

At least, those are what I currently plan and have in mind 😅 I try my best to treat the ROs like real people instead of only characters.

Also, Uncle Luka will be exasperated with your MC 😂 “Get a grip, MC! Jesus, you’re even worse than Viktor. At least your dad just flirted and teased people instead of falling in love with all of them as well!” 😭

[deripmaver]

I keep sending you links (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)

Interested to hear your opinion on this: https://www.jacksonpbrown.com/anime-and-manga/2020/7/26/on-berserk-and-femininity

Have a good day <3

HAHAHA that's fine, another incredible article and I absolutely agree with all of it. I love the varying portrayals of femininity in Berserk, and while I do grumble about how all the women are attracted to either Guts or Griffith, outside of that they're all three dimensional with their own dreams, goals, and stories.

I think when a lot of male writers try to make feminine but still badass characters they sort of over-correct with the feminine aspects of them, very much like... "She can kick ass while still in heels!" Even if that's not realistic. I love how all of the female characters in Berserk. esp Casca, have this dichotomy where they feel insecure and incomplete for not being feminine enough as dictated by this misogynistic society, feel resentment for society for forcing these feminine ideals on her, and meanwhile are being crushed by the hatred the world has for them for being women. They don't feel like they're trying too hard to be "female characters," they're characters who have realistic reactions to being female in a misogynistic world with all its contradictions. It's kinda wild to have that level of complexity from a cishet male mangaka.

Both Casca getting her period and also Casca's later miscarriage feel very appropriate - in a violently misogynistic society, the very aspects inherent to being a (cis lol) woman can become violence in and of themselves.

ALSO IM GLAD THAT THE AUTHOR BROUGHT UP THE CLEAR DIFFERENCE IN FRAMING BETWEEN THE GUTS X CASCA SEX AND THE GRIFFITH X CHARLOTTE SEX SCENES. On the one hand you have two characters mutually coming together, with Casca's POV at the forefront - on the other hand you have Griffith coercing and dominating Charlotte to reclaim some sense of power after being left by Guts. Also >inb4 this isn't some ship war nonsense ok but the circumstances leading up to each individual sex scene very much set the stage for how they are framed, as below:

Just like I said in my meta!!!!! Hehehehe

There's so much more to say about all the women in Berserk which are outlined in the article so I def recommend reading it. My one very minor gripe is that I think it's a bit harsh on Charlotte LOL because I really like her as well. I do get how she functions as the "ideal woman" in the story, who Griffith overlooks Casca for, who is small and delicate and feminine while Casca feels manly and ugly, but I think it's ultimately Griffith who deserves the approbation for how he uses Charlotte at the expense of the rest of the BotH, Casca included, to fulfil his power fantasies. I think she's very naive and childish, and the more I think about it I think even in the latest arc she's intended to be the sort of "ideal woman," cooking for Griffith even though she's a princess and why tf would she do any cooking LOL. However, I also think it's inevitable that she's going to be in huge trouble soon, once she's outlived her usefulness to Griffith, or if she tries to defy him, which could serve as an interesting commentary on how the "ideal woman" is not afforded any agency and will lose her status if she ever tries to gain some.

Also, this article was written prior to the continuation, but I think it'll be interesting to see Charlotte and Sonia's reaction to Casca's trauma now that she's in Falconia. For both of them, it opens up two possible paths: shake their faith in Griffith and have them, as women, support Casca against him, or have them dig their heels in even more. Miura has been really into the inherent safety of female friendships up to now, so it'll be interesting to see if he keeps with that theme, or if he does change it up a bit.

Anyways that's it LOL tysm again!!

[carrie-tate]

Tina Caylock

A character created for the Pjo and Hoo universe, tag #pjo oc

And even though essentially everything I have about her is written about her in those three posts with Tina, I will collect this information here in one place.

Tina Caylock, half-breed, child of Janus, god of doors and choice. Being the child of a minor god, she did not have any outstanding abilities (only she sometimes manages to open door locks without a key). Tina initially spent a couple of years at Camp of Jupiter, presumably in the fifth cohort. Even then it was clear that the girl was not quite suitable for life in the legion (sloppy and absent-minded). So, after the events of The Blood of Olympus, when the camps began to actively interact with each other, she decided… To transfer from one camp to another?

Actually, it is now clear that the child of the Roman god was forgotten in the Greek camp.

I still doubt that, even with the active construction of huts for the children of each god, the camp will soon begin to build dormitories for the children of exclusively Roman gods (like Janus). Quite the opposite. So I’ll allow myself the thought that the hut of Hermes, like in the good old days, gathers not only the children of Hermes, but also (for now) homeless singles without homes. Including Tina, who in my head is still listed as a resident of the eleventh cabin.

Who do we have there? That's right, the most notorious sons of Hermes, the Stoll brothers, who found a lonely newcomer and with whom, as a result, Tina was able to more or less adapt to the Greek camp.

And here Tina’s ability to unlock doors with varying success is very useful for Connor and Travis. There are so many opportunities for their mischief. So it was in their interest to keep such a person as a friend. And Tina (in fact, not disdainful of participating in their jokes) is only glad that her ability is of at least some benefit. Although in the end their friendship will grow from simple mutual benefit into a strong, trusting relationship.

I wish Tina could get along with Niko at least on the level of "well, we know each other and she doesn't piss me off." And they would have met because Connor and Travis would have noticed Tina staring curiously at the only occupant of the Hades cabin, who was also sitting alone at lunch. And they would push her “let's go, talk, if you’re interested” to his table, with a clear desire to see how it would all end, and how likely it was that Tina would be buried alive.

Unfortunately for the Stoll brothers, no one was buried.

And yes, because I had a huge crush on Leo (and he's still one of my favorites), Tina has a crush on him too. Which Travis and Connor constantly tease her about.