#bc now i have to stick with the specific plot points i set up in that. i can't rewrite everything again

[misterbenzadrine]

ACTUAL binary bfs x school spirits au

okay while the last one was purely self-indulgent, this is actually school spirits-related lololol

so first,

demetri as simon elroy

both are intp (like me teehee) so they're both naturally inquisitive. buuuuuut they're also both extremely loyal and dedicated to the people they care about, specifically maddie/eli. demetri, like simon, would totally accept that his best friend is totally just a ghost now and, yeah why not, only he can see and hear and talk to him because, sure i guess, they love each other so much that it pierced the veil between the living and the dead. just an average tuesday, where's the shovel?

simon is also pretty solid in his individuality, much like demetri. the others call him crazy and encourage him to search for maddie irl bc "she's just missing, she's not dead". but simon ofc is like "well i saw her ghost with my own two eyes so, yup, seems pretty dead to me". he doesn't care that everyone else would never believe him, he's dedicated to solving maddie's murder on his own if he has to (and he mostly does). dem is way similar. when the rest of the kids join cobra kai and take it at face value, he sticks to his mindset of "this is stupid and toxic". yeah he goes back a couple times but let me remind you HE IS BITCHING AND COMPLAINING THE ENTIRE TIME. like that boy did slightly give into peer pressure, technically, but he is still extremely set in his own beliefs and opinions, no one is changing that until he sees it with his own two eyes.

and also they're both so cute and so smart like yuh, that's boyfriend right there.

eli/hawk as maddie nears

this is mainly out of convenience for the plot but maddie and eli do have some similarities.

despite having a best friend who thinks the world of them, both of them feel pretty alone and as though they're drowning in the world. neither of them feels supported by their mom and they both have a lot of trouble verbalizing their issues to the people around them. so when in doubt, push everyone and everything away. which is what happened between maddie and claire.

also the peycob vibes ??

like i said mainly for plot but i'm all for other reasons.

so together, hawkmetri being parallel with saddie makes SO MUCH sense.

so, as stated before, simon/demetri think the world of maddie/eli. they have so much love and respect for their childhood best friend that they are so willing to do anything to pull them out of the darkness and into the light. when simon found out maddie was a ghost, he continued his work trying to piece together what happened but he also immediately jumped into working with her and accepting every word she said (not that he had a reason not to). like for sure, yeah, i can talk to you. okay, there are other ghosts i can't see, gotcha. mr. anderson and claire aren't guilty? faulty logic there but i'll still look into other suspects. in s2, after he has his doubts but confirms maddie is real, he works even harder to get her body back. THAT ENTIRE S2 FINALE WAS ABOUT GETTING HER BACK TO HER BODY. like he was non stop on maddie's side through the whole show and consistently wanted to make sure she never gave up hope. same with demetri. even when hawk was off being an asshole, he was still kind of on his side. in s1/2, he didn't like the hawk stuff but he still hung out with him and adjusted to all the cobra kai stuff. when kreese assaulted him and hawk attacked him OVER AND OVER AGAIN, guess who didn't immediately go to the police? and it's because he was still on his side. he chose to suck it up and go out of his comfort zone and join karate so he could get through to hawk in a way he understood, karate. and when hawk has his whole mental breakdown in s4, demetri is right there so scoop him up. he admits he didn't like the karate stuff at first but he does now, and he knows hawk does. he pulls him up throughout the season until hawk trusts himself enough to win the whole tournament. so there's that.

AAAAAND not to point out the obvious but

simon throwing his northwestern interview bc maddie wasn't going anymore (or so he thought) and demetri rejecting mit bc eli wasn't going anymore. thinking thinking...

also some extras

the living group:

demetri as simon miguel as xavier sam as claire robby as nicole

claire and sam, the popular rich girls who everyone makes assumptions about but if they took a second to get to know her, they'd realize she's just a kid like everyone else and she needs support every now and then.

xavier and miguel, lowkey i had no justification besides his dynamics with everyone (again, plot convenience). him being close with eli pre-ghost and demetri not really liking him, then kind of going being eli's back with sam (who would have some weird rivalry/neutral relationship with eli), then having a weirdly clashing relationship with robby and demetri (who, in ck, were both in miyagi do and hated ck) before finally settling in as a goofy guy and being a complete 180 from his intimidating reputation.

nicole and robby, both overhated, both being pushed to the side by their "friends," both trying their best to solve all the problems on their own before realizing it's okay to accept help (i'm specifically thinking of robby joining ck and his sekai taikai arc in which he thought he was in control of everything but realized everything was way out of his hands and he needed help from everyone else)

the ghost group:

tory as rhonda kenny as janet silver as mr. martin moon as wally and of course, not pictured, eli/hawk as maddie

rhonda and tory, hurt strong girls who keep everything inside bc they're too scared to let anyone in again but they realize some people really just want the best for them. also they were both victims of grown men being creepy and disgusting. also angry lesbian. that's it.

janet and kenny, i could say so much. they were both really hurt and scared but excited and ambitious young students that were disadvantaged due to something out of their control (kenny was really small and janet was a girl). so they trusted an adult to guide them but all this adult did was trick them into thinking they cared and force them to do awful things for the adult's personal gain. THEN when janet/kenny lash out, everyone acts like they're evil but they really didn't want to hurt anyone, they just wanted to heal the part of them that was destroyed by other people. then they come back to the "good side" and allow themselves to heal and accept help. LOVELOVELOVE

mr martin and terry silver, uhhhh die? jkjkjkjk, i really don't like either of them. they both suck, they both manipulated kids. i don't care what their justification was, i don't care how many years they were spiraling. i really don't care. they both hurt my bookies sooooo disappear.

wally and moon, my beloveds, they're so cute. i mainly did this for plot but they're both super cute, sometimes seen as aloof, individuals who really just want the best for everyone around them. they're also both reformed bullies who would go to the ends of the earth to protect their token gay best friend (thinking of wally with charley and moon with demetri). but, for plot reasons, eli and moon being together in the afterlife and him questioning if he even wants to be alive again with demetri if he could have moon. liiiiiike INSANITY.

so yeah, to start from the beginning, eli is forced out of his body and kenny takes over. demetri finds out his best friend is now a ghost, miguel/robby/sam momentarily freak out bc they think they're responsible, mr. anderson is johnny and he's pretty close with eli but he is also momentarily a suspect. robby/sam/miguel all work together to find eli but demetri's weirdly avoidant like "guys he's dead" and conducts his own murder investigation with eli's ghost

when they find the person who's been doing all these awful things, and it is in fact eli/hawk, demetri freaks out bc "great ! great to know i really am going crazy ! and i just didn't want to accept that my best friend changed and did all these crazy things ! good to know, goodbye forever !" and eli manages to get through to him to prove he is in fact a ghost but a kid named kenny is walking around his body, doing all this random stuff, and running away from mr. silver, who all the kids trusted until they realized whoopsy ! he's not really a good guy !

and when they get closer to bringing kenny/eli back to campus to switch him out with eli, demetri is hurt to find out eli is hesitating. he doesn't know if he wants to come back if it means losing moon. and this breaks demetri's heart even more. bc he thought when eli chose miguel over him, that that would be the last time he broke his heart. but eli again chose someone else, namely a dead girl, over demetri. he was considering staying "dead" and letting demetri graduate and leave so he can spend eternity with a girl. a girl who's the complete opposite of demetri in every way.

and when they finally go to switch, silver pulls another cheap shot, moon tory and kenny try to stop him and eli decides to help them. but his body is dying without a spirit and demetri is panicking bc he's so close to getting his best friend back. the first time he thought he died was the worst period of his life. and he can't go back to that now that he would know for sure that he's actually dead and his spirit will still exist, stuck in the school. so he tries to go back in to find eli but he doesn't realize eli just barely got back to his body at the last second. and now demetri is stuck with silver and kenny. BOOM ABSOLUTE CINEMA

i need more ck x school spirits crossover. there's not enough for my liking (i've done absolutely nothing to search for it LMFAO)

[havenesc]

4, 10, 19 and 20 for the ask game!!

(meta asks for writers)

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you're really proud of (explain why, if you'd like)

someday soon i'm going to clean up this smut and take the sap out of it and post it but i just think this specific passage for a night watch fic was pretty nice. i think jason loves with all he has. i think he can get very black and white about how he feels about things and he's all or nothing because he's a guy who is just always kind of subtly begging to be loved as much as he loves. which is a lot. sex in general isn't something that he seeks out, even less so from a place of casual hooking up, and he's not sickeningly in love with percy yet -- but he does WANT him. he wants that connection, he wants that physical closeness, he doesn't know how to be normal a day in his life and he's not about to start that shit now.

10. How would you describe your writing process?

depends on what it is! if it's a oneshot that only has one or a couple of scene sets, i'll just wing it and go with the flow. if it's a longfic usually i put together a rough outline/stream of consciousness for how i want to to progress, then i'll split it up by chapters/add notes for worldbuilding. both options still need me to sit and marinate them in my brain to see if i actually want to put in the effort to write it lol.

and then i usually will write fairly linear -- i have a lot of issues with writing chunks and bridging them together, because i usually introduce little nuances that change smaller details down the road and have to end up rewriting what's already been written. sometimes i will write pockets of dialogue or character meta that i want to keep, and they go in a separate doc for dropping in later.

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favorite verb, something you describe 'too often', trope you can't get enough of?)

HMMMMMMM this is a good question. i don't think it will make it into more than one fic bc i've been Catching It but i started to describe anxiety as being a stone that sears out of your chest and works its way into your stomach. that very specific comparison showed up in two other WIPs after i wrote it the first time and i had to kill it in at least one of them fdibgdb

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you've included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

okay i've been rambling more about this lately to friends already and there are. fat spoilers for rancher au so i'm putting this under a cut in case anybody wants to avoid for whenever i eventually kick it out the door <3<3

bruce as it stands is a difficult character for me to grasp on a good day, and that has been a large part of what is making this chapter for ibgitd (and future ones, I'm sure) go so slowly. big thank you to M for all your help and letting me throw spaghetti to see if all my ideas seem like they would stick. i have been agonizing over choices that this guy would make, ones that would directly alter key plot points.

bruce makes a choice, in a very vital moment, to save dick rather than a copycat "jason", and by extension a slew of gcpd also suffer the consequences of this choice. the trolley problem is something i will sit and think about for a while as a thought exercise, and i introduce it here -- if he saves dick, he fails to save multiple people, if he figures out how to save multiple people, dick dies, if he's too slow or refuses to make a choice, everybody dies and it's over in short order. when it is clearly a do-or-die situation, it is dick he chooses.

on a surface level, it's a clear "this is my eldest who i am crazily codependent on and therefore my favorite of course i'm going to save him" moment. but jason has been failed before. jason is being failed again, even unknowingly. jason is not going to be bruce's first choice -- and it is not because bruce does not love him. bruce has already watched his son die once, twice, now a third time, because of choices he actively made that did not prioritize him. jason's first death and his batarang death (i personally do hold fast to the idea that it was a murder, regardless of if bruce is aware of that or not, because this is bullshit dc comics and i think it's narratively a more interesting choice re:pit mechanics) were failures on bruce's part.

jason is a priority for bruce in some ways, but he is not THE priority for bruce. in some way bruce has already watched the son he lost die. the son he got back was different. it didn't look like the boy he loved. i reiterate again that bruce does not hate jason, or at the very least loves him in some capacity, but it is not the same kid he mourned. his perogatives are different, his methods are ones bruce would never use, he is unrepentantly violent. jason is used to being a second third fourth or later choice.

bruce has learned how to operate without him. but he cannot, under any circumstances, operate without dick grayson in his peripheral. he just can't. not as a functional person. dick also has had to learn to live without jason, even if he was more proactive on learning how to live alongside this new one, and he can never not be at bruce's beck and call.

idk if any of this is articulated well or appropriately -- i keep dozing it's been a long day LOL -- but just in exploring the themes of rancher, which are so much about separating yourself from what you knew about your personal identity and self worth, especially the things curated for you by your father.... i don't know! i just think this particular piece of it is a good callback to canon events, even for a canon divergent piece like this, and it will be reiterated in different ways.

[pumpkinsy0]

this might be a weird question but if you were to make the TWTTIN movie how would you have written curly in it? and follow up question, if you could make a movie JUST following the shepard family, what kind of plot would you want?? and any other details you wanna share!!

interested to hear your thoughts!

OoOoOo VERY FUN QUESTION!!!

OK SO

first off w how curly was portrayed in the movie, ion like it, especially in the beginning where he jumped m&m and he sang fucking jingle bells, I DONT MIND CURLY DOING THAT I GUESS, but it knocked down his cool points a bit</3333, but towards the end I LIKED HOW HE WAS ACTUALLY

SO NOW if it came to how i’d portray him

when it comes to others outside his family: id want him to be a bit more erratic, not in a “laughing hahahah im so crazy #joker” era way, nonono, i mean in a “do what i say, anything u say or do can set me off, ill get real up close and personal” kinda guy, he looks up to tim, and wants to mimic him in the way of how he thinks tim acts!!! hes got this façade up so he could come off as more intimidating

when it comes to being near friends/family but hes around strangers as well: hes more open to telling crude jokes to get the others around him to laugh or entertained, a people pleaser in an odd way, still trying to act like tim but more obviously cruel in his own way, his own personality is sticking out a bit!!(this is the version of curly most ppl would see)

when it comes to just being around close friends/family: NOW hes more like a goofball, still up to his stupid antics and cruel, but way more way smiley, hes a family guy what can i say, this is when hes more caring (hes caring through his actions, however, when it comes to words of affection, he only rlly resorts to that when someone he loves is all down and beaten mentally, like angela bawling out her eyes, tim at the dinner table drinking, and he feels like they NEED it)

NOWWWW FOR THE PLOT WOOOOOO

now the shepard gang is seen as a more organized crime gang, so thats what id wanna focus on, however id wanna show what LED them there and why they had to do it, but the main plot point would be about the shepards THEMSELVES being in danger because of this deal went wrong, tims on edge, curly looks to tim for guidance but tims pushing him away so curly gets upset and tries doing what he can to help in his own way which leads him into deeper shit

and considering this is like 60s or 70s era, OBVIOUSLY id want to focus on racism and how to relates to the justice/police system, but also bc i hc my shepards as haitian id want to focus on a bittttt of pan africanism and specifically noirisme (black movement from haiti)

curly would b the protagonist but angela and tim r deuteragonist :P

se hinton u wrote these characters but theyre MINE now

[elithedndyke]

I don’t know if it’s Post-Lockdown fandom or how The Youths™️ are just engaging in fandom right now- but I need y’all to understand that if you don’t like a new season of something you can just stop watching it. It’s okay to grow out of something and stick to the nostalgia of what you do enjoy.

I saw this with Critical Role and am seeing it currently with Yellowjackets. “I hate that they’re doing this.” “The writing is sloppy.” “It’s become too corporate.” “There are so many plot holes.” Even if these things are true, there are people that still enjoy the media being actively produced.

And these small minority, negative posts flood an otherwise healthy and positive fandom space. It’s infuriating. Make a snark sub or page if you truly feel so negatively about it but won’t stop watching.

Like with Yellowjackets specifically, no they will not have goats and rabbits native to the area on set bc they’re WILD. It’s a safety issue, not a plot hole. The girls building a mini-society and quite frankly shitty hutches during a time of prosperity is not unreasonable or unrealistic. Have you seen the study where they did lord of the flies in a completely monitored home? Just let a bunch of kids in there separated by gender. The girls did REALLY well compared to the boys. When they aren’t strapped for resources I have no doubt that they could create shelters and round up some animals. More food + more resources = more activity = more progress.

And I’m not saying people are wrong! The writing this season is odd to me. I’d love to see what happened post cabin burning. But they only have ?? What, ten episodes? To tell the story they want to tell.

Anyway, that bit was a tangent but my point still stands. Write a fanfiction that shows the post burn content. Create art showing the depravity of what’s “really” happening during this mass hallucination you believe them to be in. Or take a step back, take a deep breath, and just admit it’s not for you anymore. When you engage in fandom healthily your mindset should be, “I hope it goes this way but it’s okay if it does something else.” Because writers cannot read your mind. And if it’s truly egregious enough, you can just step away and find something else.

[convenientalias]

West Out of Yu Men/Parallel World Review

Bc I just finished watching it yesterday!

I really liked it :D

I think it had a very unique aesthetic. It's set in the desert or in cities located near the desert for the most part, and you really feel it. The characters don't always look like they're hot, but there's always a dry, gritty feeling to the air. The fashion, tooo, was pretty unique. Ye Liuxi is very rough and tumble action girl with a little bit of sexy thrown in; Chang Dong mostly dresses kind of generic, practical and understated; Ding Liu dresses kind of cutesy-garish, loosening up both in attitude and in fashion as the show progresses; and then everyone in the parallel world dresses like they're in some historical fantasy with a touch of apocalyptic. So that's all just fun to watch. I love when a show has a unique visual feel to it.

In terms of plot, the show is a little wandering and not super tight, but that makes sense for a show about two characters both investigating a mystery and traveling through a different world. It's about discovery, meeting people and seeing wonders--eventually with some political intrigue as well. I honestly wish it could have been a little longer. Give it another five episodes, and I think we could have tied up some loose ends and gotten a more satisfying ending for a couple characters (specifically I'm thinking of Gao Shen and Jiang Zhan, but even Liuxi... well, I could watch several hours more of just Liuxi lols).

The acting was all pretty good. I have to admit I was not equally invested in all characters. This is definitely the Ye Liuxi show. Everyone else can be as cool and complex as they want, but we're all here to watch Ni Ni beat people up, open up portals, drive through the desert, cut melons, flirt obnoxiously, make threats, and so on and so forth. Previously I had only seen Ni Ni in The Rise of Phoenixes, and she's good in that but more of a trickster character, clever but not exactly intimidating. I love seeing an actress in a role where she's really allowed to dominate everyone around her, and I hadn't known Ni Ni would be so good at that. Now I want to finish watching The Rise of Phoenixes at some point but I don't know if I'll feel disappointed seeing her in a role that's less absolutely tyrannical.

The other lead actor is of course Bai Yu.

Tumblrites probably know him as Guardian's Zhao Yunlan, which is also where I first saw him. In this show he's much more subdued and serious, which I think is necessary to counter such a powerful presence as Ni Ni's Liuxi. He and Ni Ni have great chemistry. It's less sexy and flirty, and more familiar and comfortable, though slow-won. There's one scene where Liuxi pokes a brooding Chang Dong with a stick until he takes the end of it, and when he lets go of it she pokes him until he holds it again, and they just sit together in silence. For me, that's kind of what their relationship is about. They understand each other and offer each other comfort and support. At the same time, they have a strong sense of physicality for a cdrama. Again, not necessarily in a sexual way, but Liuxi is the kind of person who will just drape herself on someone, hook an arm over their shoulder, rub legs like an obnoxious and kind of sexy cat... it adds to the warmth of their relationship. (Though I would also have been fine seeing the two remain platonic, but as ships go, it's rather nice.)

That said. This show also had a couple ships it did not need! Gao Shen/Ding Liu is okay but underdeveloped and kind of just background noise; Fei Tang/A He is where I enter "okay, so now you just need to pair up EVERYONE" territory. None of the ships were annoying exactly, but apart from Liuxi/Chang Dong, I just feel like you could have left them out and you wouldn't lose much. If you're going to include them, give them some damn development! That's all I can say on the matter.

I enjoyed the villains a lot. There's a variety here: Some typical shady bureaucrats, a scheming woman to serve as Liuxi's foil and rival, and a man from Liuxi's past who has a complicated relationship with her. My favorite was the last of these three, Jiang Zhan! And I won't give more spoilers than that but can I just say: Jiang Zhan deserved better!!! Will someone please write hurt-comfort fic for my boy!!

Anyway! I recommend West Out of Yu Men if:

-You like Ni Ni or Bai Yu and want to see them doing something a bit different.

-You would be interested in an atmosphere of urban fantasy meets desert epic.

-You want to see a woman playing the amnesiac "chosen one" warrior trope (and with flair).

-You like to see an ensemble go on a road trip, gathering members along the way and getting into magical shenanigans. (If you HATE road trips, though--not a reason to skip. Travel is an aspect but there's still plenty of plot to go around.)

-You want to see Ni Ni cut a melon with a big knife (you can get this in episode one. Just one episode to appreciate the glorious THUNK of a melon being cut with a large knife).

You can also watch it if you want to write fanfic for it to satisfy my current cravings for 1) femslash and 2) anything about Jiang Zhan. (I haven't talked about the possible femslash ships bc they are pretty much my imagination but Ding Liu is very cutesy and friendly with Liuxi and also that female villain I was talking about above HATES Liuxi in a way that is quite fun, so. There's that.)

Now I have to find another badass woman show to satisfy that particular mood. If you have any recs along those lines, let me know ;)

[llycaons]

now that I'm home, a brief summary of the new (historical) fantasy books I AM interested in. there are still nonfiction (essays, social commentary, biology) that are on my list but THIS is more my jam. putting this under a readmore but 1. if you've read any of these I'd love to hear your (non-spoilery!) opinion of them, and 2. if you have any recs based on this list, feel free to reply or send me an ask!

The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang: if this book is bad I'm going to cry. it looks like it could be everything I've ever wanted. I love when lesbians are anti-authoritarian and I love wuxia settings. the rebel love interest has tattoos 😍

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec: I haven't actually read much norse mythology-inspired stuff except that pjo spinoff that wasn't very good (and one set in 9th century greenland that was HORRIBLE) but this was suggested a few times and I think it looks very promising! it's always neat to see older women as protags and she's bisexual and maybe polyam as well, which I've only ever seen in baru cormorant and the broken earth iirc

The Forever Sea by Joshua Phillip Johnson: this doesn't look GREAT but I looovvee environmental fantasy so I'll give it a shot

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo: this one looks WILD

The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker: this one seems a little more YA than the others but the concept is pretty original so I'm curious to see what they do with it

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard: the description made me cringe a bit but the idea is pretty cool and it seems like YA but it's marked at adult?

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho: another wuxia-inspired book!!! please be good PLEASE be fucking good 😭

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse: this one is sparing in the description but I have a sense it'll be VERY intense

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang: I may struggle to keep focused on this one but I thought I'd check it out bc in theory it's interesting

The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang: I didn't really understand the summary but it's hopefully good? I'l always check out a wuxia and I like a sibling dynamic

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig: PIRATES, BABY!!!!

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, Katherine Tiernan O'Connor (Translator), Ellendea Proffer (Annotations/Afterword), Diana Lewis Burgin (Translator), Hans Fronius (Illustrator): *points* like from tumblr...in all seriousness I HAVE heard some really interesting things about this book and the relationship so I'm glad to add it to my list

The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar: the first book of this series sounds really boring ngl but this one oohh 👀

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: I heard high praise for this one so while it doesn't specifically appeal to me, I'll give it a shot

Sistersong by Lucy Holland: I like a sibling story!

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh: this one could touch me tenderly I feel. I like when love interests are nice. whenever I see those setups that are like 'oh he's got an OBNOXIOUS and HOT partner' I'm like well this projection isn't working for me bc I'd leave then. I don't want to be annoyed by someone I'm supposed to like. I am aware this is a big setup for CR arc of mdzs but the annoying guy is my actual younger brother and my dear dear friend wwx so he can do whatever he wants. and also lwj really does have a stick up his ass and wwx is acting significantly more normally all things considered. anyway. this gay tree man may touch my heart

books that are ALREADY on my list/I have read excerpts from already

The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick: this one is pretty YA but I enjoy the writing and the setting, and the plot is exciting. I look forward to reading more

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley: I think my mutual suggested this to me and I tried reading it but I found it really hard to read but I am going to try it again because it sounds so intruiging!

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty: I'm on the fence bc while I liked the city of brass, I thought this one was a bit weaker so idk if I'll keep reading. I like the concept tho

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro: this one's strange and mysterious and I love the almost primordial atmosphere of england 1000 years ago...the ancient and massive landmarks around the elderly characters as they go about their relatively small lives. kind of frightening, kind of magical

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong: I haven't read any of this and it DOES look pretty YA but the setting sounds fun so why not

[kentuckyfriedmegumi]

Hi KFM!!!

For the fic writers ask:

How about 4, 7, 11, 13, 14, 23, 24, 46, 61, 68, and 76 (for CTD)? thank you :)

(that was a lot sorry lmao)

HIII FJSLDK SORRY IM SO LATE THE HOLIDAYS GOT CRAZY

ok ok ok let me pick apart this BEAST let's GO

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

so it just kind of depends. i base things roughly around my life experiences. for example, CTD started out as an online gaming fic, based off my experiences playing minecraft as a wee babe, but as you can see it quickly devolved from there to something much, much more. another life experience that i took and turned into a fic was my degree, which is how HOTP was born. i also will sometimes draw inspiration from songs, like i did with skinny dipping, but i feel like for the most part, i just sort of take what i know and either build from there or i dramatize it for story purposes!

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

i guess it just kind of depends on the story? in yuji's plan, i sort of did both, but that's mainly due to it being my first fic and getting back into creative writing. for my other works, i tend to switch back and forth bc i like giving the readers a full perspective, but in the event where i want to keep something secret (such as HOTP yuuji's reason for quitting boxing), i sort of have to stick with a single pov. i want to leave some suspense in some of my stories, so i usually come up with a general outline and major plot points, and from there, i decide which POV would be more impactful to learn it from.

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

easy. i re-read this often.

my blessing; my love. by toomanyonions Twitch Streamer Yuuji and Youtuber Megumi by kat_likes_writing (@kat-likes-writing) Perfect Shots by narutanjiro

13. what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

don't get too granular. i learned this in one of my college journalism classes, where my prof had once said not to get too hung up on the little details. that's something that i try to avoid but often find myself stuck in. when you write yourself into a corner, you need to know how to get out of it and how to avoid doing it. you don't want to be too detailed, because in the end, it's not that important. you want to be able to tell a story and to set a scene, you want the reader to feel present and invested, but not every little thing needs an explanation, or you'll find your story dragging a bit too much.

14. how do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

emotional scenes come to me pretty easily. i sometimes do draw from personal experiences to get an idea of things. first kisses, arguments, crushes, things that i've experienced, i think back to how i feel and write that for my characters while keeping their personalities consistent. it's kind of hard, and i often have to stop and ask myself if this is something a character would actually feel, or does it only feel right because i felt that way. i try to balance it out by reading previous scenes and other material for a character, so i can keep who they are as a person in mind when i write.

23. Best writing advice for other wirters?

take notes. i've talked about this with @hijinks-n-lowjinks before and how we like to take notes when we read. it's something that i've done since i was little. it's not like crazy annotations or stuff like that, tho i have done that in the past and i tend to sometimes do that in my monster comments, but when i see something i like - a specific transition, a phrase, a metaphor, etc. - i write it down in a note on my phone and use that to draw inspiration for how i want to shape my writing. it helps when i'm sort of stuck on how i want to describe a scene, because i can go back to these other great examples that i really liked and try to emulate that feeling while staying original to my work and writing style.

24. Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

this is hard, because i can't think of a single piece of advice that i've ever been given where i thought it was bad or terrible. i guess one thing that didn't work for me, specifically, in the past would be when i was told to just keep writing. like no matter what. while i think it's good to keep the practice up, burn out is real and there are times where it is necessary to take a break. i took a five year break, and there was a point where i didn't think i'd ever write again, but here i am. but it was definitely necessary for me to do that so i could get to where i am now. i think even if it's a few days or something, taking a bit of time to breathe and marinate in your writing really helps you from feeling like your drowning.

46. How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

oh this is interesting, i'm not too sure, honestly. i guess i would say that i'm pretty character driven? i like to focus on the who's and their actions to continue a story, but i also feel like i do a good job at focusing on their emotions and using that to create tension. this is tough tho, i hate perceiving my own writing ksdfljsd

61. Why do you continue writing fics?

part of it is that i just started writing fics back in august of this year. i had actually never read any sort of fan fiction before in my life, and then about a month after that, i thought "hey, maybe i could try writing again." part of it is that this is a good stepping stone to get back into creative writing; i have a lot of abandoned original stories that i always wanted to get back to, but never knew how; and another part of it is that i love writing stories for these characters. i think that's a good combo that will keep me in the ao3 world for a while.

68. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

it depends! sometimes i listen to music or read other fics, other times i like to picture myself in a scenario to really try and get into the story myself. from there, it's sort of like "ok this is how i felt in the situation," now try to imagine that for this character. as for coming up with a story to write in general, ideas just kind of come to me out of no where. whenever something jumps out at me, i like to latch onto it and mold it until it's something that i think i can build a story off of.

76. Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of CTD?

this is sort of a scrapped idea in one of my earlier outline drafts, but originally, in CTD, yuuji was not supposed to know that meg knew about his "childhood friend" until chapter 13. that's the only major deviation from my original outline that i can think of, which would have made a specific megumi line at the end of chapter 13 hit a bit harder because he reveals that he knows yuuji is still in love with his childhood friend. but the boys tend to rewrite the story for me, so you all got out of a bit more angst than i had originally intended.

END

WOO and i think that's it??? thank you so much for this ask, it was sooo fun to really get into my writing process and share some things about my works and show off others that i enjoy. thank you!!! <333

[blu3haw4]

Fic asks 2,12,18,24,37

2 What's your shortest fic? What's your longest?

Looking this one up, but my guess? (on ao3, bc clexmas 24 has short short short one shots) i think LexaClarke? A One-Shot, not much backstory that i can remember, and just a short silly thing

Longest? Posted, i think is gotta be between poor judgment and gamer girls, i dont think parting gift makes the cut and though they're one shots (as of yet) i dont think multichapters one have that many words posted (girl 🤨)

(Wiritten, is my baby, bitch's got like 15, 8-12k chapters SO FAR, and only the first couple has happened 😅)

I checked and ... oh im way off ��� with the shortest one. Im actually not that far with the longest. To be fair, i forgot i had those many posted fics and oneshots.

So! Shortest is Pauna's Nightmare, from clextober 19, with 545 words, LexaClarke is up to 3k lmao

Longest is multi-chap The Horizon Rivalry, When the Sky faces the Ground, from clexaweek 2020, with 17k and 3 chapter. Gamer Girls is top 3, with one chapter and 13k, while Poor Judgment is 7th with 9.7k

12 What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Clexa baby, the one and only ;) (well i guess the 100, since i have written for Ranya specifically)

I've got a caitvi idea sketched out from a fanart but idk, it's not inspiring me, i might make it Clexa... I is similar to a clexa scene from another fic

18 What's your most used additional tag?

Gotta look that up, give me a sec; it's Fluff (24, meaning half of them) and Modern setting Honestly... pretty accurate, nothing too crazy

24 What are some of your favourite tropes?

Ohhhhh, i recently realized Music/entertainment Industry is a BIG one. Two of my favorite fics of all time have it and I eat them tf up. The first one is one of the first fics i read, so 2018 or so, and its Like an Open Wound, then we have Rock and Roll from... right now, and i was reading a toxic exes one where they're Actresses and god i loved it (it's on hiatus)

Well, also enemies to lover never fails, and meet cute is a nice one too :)

37 Do you have any older fics you would consider rewriting?

YES! i don't think all of them... but most. i made a list not so long ago of all my wips and there's a bunch of them that are labeled something like work on-long ones.

i just... I had such bad English back then, i mean i gotta cut myself some slack, im self taugh + basics from school,so i know i did the best i could with the tools i had at the time. But the ideas? The ideas were so good, im still really proud of them and think about most, it's just... a big thing to tackle, lots of words, lots of plot changes that could happen and the constant debate with myself of do i stick to the original or do i just make it better?

I tried my hand at it with the Christmas fic i fixed up a few months ago and it went pretty well, i think it made me realize it isn't that hard. a few days ago a comment (a really nice, thoughtful comment that made me tear up) got me thinking about a clextober 19 fic that would be... a lot to fix up lol, but again, the idea is soo good, it'll take time and a lot of work, and i made the decision that when i do fix it, I'll add it as another chapter and continue from there... I have this... believe that someone with the same level of English I had back then could find it and either compare it to recent one and say 'oh, you can actually make it there" or simply realize there's not wrong point to start at :)

[sonodaten]

Different anon but could you share more about the Divine Comedy references in PTN please? I've already caught up with the story! You're not the first person I've seen mentioning their similarities which is why I started to read it last week (tho progress is slow 😅)

Yeah, sure! I’ll put this one under a read more bc of the spoilers (up to the end of Ch 8 and some stuff from character profiles) and it’s gonna get a little long. I’m also sorry if you have been waiting for this, I’ve been distracted by the World Cup and general holiday craziness this weekend.

First off, congrats and good luck on the read through! Nothing wrong with taking it slow! If anything, it’s way better. Reading a poem is a lot different than reading a book, and with something as dense as the Divine Comedy it’s way more important to read to understand than it is to read for speed. Knowing what’s going on and what Dante and Virgil are talking about after 20 cantos will serve you better than getting through those cantos after a couple hours or so.

I’ll be sticking to the Inferno, bc as I said in my very first post, most of what I’ve seen and parsed through is referring to the Inferno. That’s not to say there’s no references to Purgatario or Paradiso—there very well could be and I’ve missed them—but one literary hurdle at a time. I will also reiterate from my last post, that some of this will be conjecture due to how little story that is released so far, and the nature of literary interpretation. How I’ve understood the Inferno and how I relate it to PtN’s plot/characters may be different from how you or anyone else does, and that’s great! Differences like that is what makes discussions about the game, theories, and it’s source material interesting.

Now, in the Inferno, Dante travels through Hell with the spirit of Virgil as a guide at the request of Beatrice in an attempt to change his path in life. Dante and Virgil descend through the rings of Hell, meeting individuals that serve as commentary on various point historical figures and events at the time.

In Path to Nowhere, the story we have so far mirrors this pretty well. We have the Chief’s initial awakening and being set on the path towards change (Prologue), the initial foray into danger (SALVA Chaos), the literal descent into the unclaimed crypt (Unclaimed Crypt; complete with ominous message on the wall!), and the Chief’s continued figurative descent after falling out with the MBCC and under the 9th Agency (Keylan Square, The Carnival).

But that’s just a quick overview. I promised this would be long, so let’s get into specifics:

The opening scene of the Inferno has Dante confronted by three animals: a leopard, a lion, and a wolf. These three animals are meant to represent different manners of sin, and chase Dante into darkness. In the Prologue, after Chief awakens the introductory combat situation pits you against Wendy and EMP (Violence and Treachery respectively). It’s also where we meet Virgil and hear of Beatrice’s request, which could be argued are paralleled by Hecate’s (and even Hella’s) guidance of the Chief and Suspect R’s request that Chief follow the clues with the promise that she will be “waiting with answers at the end” (but I’ve gone through so many notebook pages about those three it’s really up in the air for me at this point LMAO so I’ll leave that there for now).

Side bar: that monster we saw in the prologue? Why I’m considering the MBCC is also playing into the Greek Mythology side of Minos. The Minotaur that was being kept in the eponymous Labyrinth as it were. But then what were they sacrificing to it hmmmm…? But that’s another post hahaha

SALVA Chaos (Chapters 1 and 2) follows Dante and Virgil’s journey through Limbo and 2nd Circle. Limbo is part of hell, but souls sent here are not tortured for sins and are mostly just kind of there. Dante and Virgil travel through Limbo to reach a citadel, where they meet other philosophers and poets, like the Chief’s own struggle through Syndicate to reach SALVA. Obviously Syndicate and Limbo aren’t a 1:1 allusion, but not everything between the two will be. Circle 2 is where sinners are punished for lust, and I believe it was changed to Love in-game—though not baselessly! There are actually many places throughout the text that speak to the power of love to inspire sin, both great and small. And in the end, both Dante and the Chief knock tf out. Bless.

Unclaimed Crypt (Chapters 3 and 4) like I said there’s the literal descent into the crypt itself and the ominous message on the wall. Now, the message in the Inferno is seen as Dante is entering hell, and in PtN it’s already by the time we’re pretty far underground and written on the wall in blood, but like I said, not everything’s going to be 1:1 between the two of them. There’s also the presence of the crypt itself and it’s connection to the Inheritance, which could be a reference to the punishment of the 6th circle for heresy (trapped in tombs and set on fire). After all, the arc did end with the crypt exploding in a sea of flames.

Keylan Square (Chapters 5 and 6) the 7th circle of hell is described as containing ruins and shattered stones, similar to the landscape of Keylan Square after the outbreak of the Black Ring. The 7th circle is also where sinners who commit acts of violence are punished, which fits pretty well considering the landscape at the time was supposed to be formed and abide by Zoya’s mind (Zoya is assigned to Violence in the Libram). I also believe the Corpseborne is meant to parallel the Geryon—a monster that’s part human, part scorpion, and part reptile—that is encountered by Dante and Virgil in this circle and they need to pass in order to reach the next.

The Carnival (Chapters 8 and 9), reflect the 8th and 9th circles respectively. The 8th circle of hell punishes sinners guilty of fraud—specifically even a portion for punishing impersonators—and that’s what the Carnival and the revelers within are revealed to be: a massive illusion and Corruptors masquerading as a parade within the Black Ring under Hamel’s power (which in it’s own way is revealed to be a sort of impersonation when the truth about the Corpseborne and Phantom Hamel come to light). The 9th circle of hell is where sinners guilty of treachery are punished, and it’s environment is described as a frozen lake. Similarly, after defeating Phantom Hamel and dissipating BR-0001 the Chief finds Hamel beneath the surface of the frozen lake they first saw her dance, where Hamel traps the Corruptors in her final illusion.

Mmm I know I said it would be long but I didn’t realize it was that long until right now! Wow! And that’s still just glossing over it all. But I don’t wanna spend too much more time sitting on this in case someone is waiting for it, especially since I’ll be going on vacation soon. I hope that answers your question, Anon. This long and hard to scroll through on my phone, so it’s hard to review, but if there’s anything that needs clarification or if you just want more elaboration, please feel free to let me know!

[thetaoofbetty]

I think at this point the writers will just keep pushing the bh ba love triangle bcs thats the only thing that give them engagement, so do you think ba could last until s7?

have they really ever pushed it as a triangle tho? i'm not really one for too many fandom conspiracy theories tbh so i'm not going to give the writers motivations that they themselves haven't been caught outright doing or admitted to but i will say roberto has teased a triangle multiple times and has yet to actually deliver.

if they actually do their version of one, i don't even think it would qualify as a real one in the end. this show doesn't do slowburns (sorry, b/as, what you're getting is not even in the actual realm of a real slow burn. it's more of a dramatic carrot used as a plot device bait which is why people roll their eyes when it's deployed seasonally) which i think people forget because of the 180 they did at the end of s5 and the long ass hiatuses since 2020.

is it possible they're going to do a triangle? sure. i can 100% see the set up for one (and i'm sure if they do one, tabitha will be as important to it as she was in the 100th...) and it's true that a triangle with 2 guys/1 girl (do not make the joke, don't make it, do not do it) is usually far more palatable for viewers than the other way around but my expectations on it are pretty low. now, the fact that they got veronica out of by way of her own choice has me believing it's slightly more possible than i would otherwise and that they're very obviously setting up a plot arc with the 3 of them makes me think if they're doing it, that it was actually maybe planned in advance and has me side-eyeing but again, we'll see.

the thing about b/archie is that they have a very specific way they treat them that almost makes me curious to see how they're going to handle it this time. they usually get what? an episode or 2 of focus before their separate plots have them barely sharing the screen and then they rarely talk. they've sexualized them almost to the point of parody since they're not writing them with any real intimacy. even when they had the chance to do it over s5 and in the event, they followed their own formula of paying the ship dust.

now, putting bughead back together onscreen with archie as an added sticking point can either be really smart (these characters never deal with anything until it blows up—and using bughead as a bomb with archie as a match is what should happen with them having a plot with the 3 of them) or they know enough to know that they need betty and jughead working together, at minimum, to maintain any sort of semblance of their own mystery plots moving forward. especially since they're giving archie his own brand new hiram (which has varchie plot vibes written all over it) and they've kept the tbk behind for betty—and we know who is going to be helping her with that.

i'm not saying they're going to do it well but i am saying that if you took out the last couple eps of s5 and only watched the 100th after being told that these new couples are dating, it feels like an extension of s5 into 6 with the same trajectory and i've never changed my mind on the predictability of what's going to happen eventually. that being said, if it were any other show i'd say that sure, b/a could go to s7 but riverdale doesn't even write them like they like them so if they go on longer past mid-season, them being written like varchie sometimes is/was when they're in their own plots instead of bughead feels more likely than not (and by that i mean that they might be "together" but will they share scenes unless it's needed? if betty is working on a mystery and archie is working on some town related thing, i'd vote probably not).

although, i think the most interesting thing about all of it is how it's definitely always felt more like it was a thing between betty/jughead/archie vs veronica/betty/archie and maybe they'll finally let it come full circle. that there are swaths of people in this fandom as a whole doesn't see the comic aspects they've brought in while also whining about the comic canon is...hilarious to me.

[someotherdog]

get to know the author!

name : velouria! mutuals can call me rachel if they want since it's my real name but i respond to both

pronouns :  she/her

preference of communication : i prefer tumblr im to start with so we can get to know each other and do some light plotting. then move onto discord for in-depth plotting if our personalities mesh well :)

most active muse :  i go through phases where i'll have a lot of muse for a certain few one week and then lose their voice the next week lol, and a lot of the muses i have are quite selective because their setting/personality is very specific and can sometimes be hard to tap into. generally, i'm always rarin' to go with jeannie, ingrid, lisa, gideon, heidi, vikram, and taher. (now actually getting people to rp with these hoes is the hard part lmao)

experience / how many years : i don't want to talk abt it... jk, i started in 2005 i believe? on myspace mainly and i lurked a few message boards back in the day but never actually used them. i wasn't always roleplaying though, i'd often take long breaks throughout the years, sometimes for months, but it's been a part of my life for a long time! after myspace shut down, i went on to roleplayer.me until 2015 when one day i saw an rpg promo in devon bostick's tag (that name's a blast from the past, i know) and i subsequently made the permanent switch to tumblr :) so you can pretty much consider me a veteran around these parts. i remember the days when people used the cast of one tree hill when it was actually currently airing as fcs (or playbys, as we called them) and every third muse was named seraphina!!!

best experience : i think one of the best times i had on here was during christmas 2015 in the rpg hell state bc it was very active and i had a lot of good storylines going! the best time i had on rp.me was the group verse i had for a knockoff of terra nova called alia terra, which i actually made into an rpg on here and then made a closed verse between lucia and i so we could continue some dino fun! but i did it on rp.me shortly before i made the switch to tumblr so i kinda roll that all into one. i mean don't get me wrong i've had some great experiences on here, and lately have been having an amazing time with my writing partners, new and old, but those two are events that stick out in my mind. and also meeting lucia in 2015 duhhh of course!!!!!!!

rp pet peeves : honestly i don't want to say bc i don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or discourage people from writing with me lmfao, but i'll just say it has to do with dropping articles and using two certain french words 😬😬😬

fluff, angst, or smut : if i could crush up angst and snort it i would. i don't write smut (just a personal choice, not a judgment!) and fluff doesn't really interest me unless there's an undercurrent of angst or toxicity lmaooo, but i'm mostly interested in genre fiction like horror/slasher or sci-fi anyway and angst is kind of a package deal with those topics

plots or memes : i like to start with a general idea and then just kinda improvise. i also don't mind having structed plot points like going from a > b > c but having the freedom to do what we want in between those points. i also have absolutely no issue with changing or adding things as we go along! i'm basically very hype for anything

long or short replies : i'm a wordy bitch! when it comes to replies, i tend to stick with 2-4 for my 'shorter' threads but i have no issue getting up to 5-9 paragraphs if i'm really feeling something. no worries about matching length, btw, as long as it's not egregious like getting a few sentences in response when i wrote you four paragraphs, because i feel that's just rude. i also tend to start out small and get bigger as we go on, since i do like to begin with a general idea and add on from there

time to write : so before i started my current job, i only wrote at night because writing when the sun was up seemed morally wrong lmfao. nowadays, i sometimes write my replies at work on my google drive and then edit/format them once i get home, but that's only when i work alone and it's not super busy, and i actually have writing muse for that day. after work, i'll get on after midnight since i don't get home until late and need to put on my jammies, take off my makeup, eat dinner, and watch some tv. even on my days off, i most likely won't get on until late in the night because my family actually has the audacity to want to see me during the daylight hours 🙄

are you like your muses : i have a lot of muses that share similarities with myself, but i also have muses i have absolutely nothing in common with, like blair the satanic serial killer or lauren the son of a cult leader turned political campaign manager. more than likely they'll have something random from me like also being allergic to penicillin or they drive a buick like i do lmao, but i don't have a muse i would really consider my 'self-insert' character!

tagged by: @thewolfruns

tagging: i feel like everyone has been tagged to do this already?? so if you haven't, pretend i did so you can have some fun too :)

[hayleysayshay]

Hi! :)

I was wondering if you could expand on why ppl were unsatisfied with the ending of C2? Is it just bc some plot strings were left unresolved or a different reason? When I saw your post it got me thinking bc I hadn’t really considered that other ppl would be unsatisfied with the ending. No shame to anyone’s opinion, I’m just curious is all! Thank you!!! :)

Okay this is just my observations and not an actual analysis of the plot because I haven’t seen C2 other than random clips and general synopsis so I’m not actually the best person to talk about it with. But maybe I am since I have no real emotional investment! But the general vibes (most have to do with Caleb):

Trent should have been killed by Caleb at the very least, or his downfall should have been an actual arc

The Cerberus Academy was not resolved properly and put aside in epilogue

Caleb’s story in general being put in the epilogue

People don’t like the Essek redemption?

Uk’otoa not properly finished and left hanging for Fjord

General ideas that the Lucien plot took up too much time and they should have wrapped it up quicker (to get to the Cerberus academy plot lol)

People mad that Widogast happened but it wasn’t explicit and calling it queerbaiting

I’ll say even among ppl who like the ending the Cerberus Academy and lack of a ‘proper’ ending for Trent Ikithon tend to be major sticking points.

And all this often leads into some sort of dissatisfaction with the ships, specifically Beaujester and Widojest? And then it leads to the conspiracy that during the pandemic break, there was some change of direction for the campaign, and the cast decided to wrap the story up in forty episodes with the ‘most boring ships’ and this conspiracy has now developed into C2 was purposefully ‘tanked’ abruptly to market TLOVM and tie in a campaign with TLOVM because a year into C3 the VM references are really strong. Cos it’s an evil company. Or something.

I think there’s some merit that C2 had a set ish date in mind to end so they could move into EXU and C3, so they were always going to end it around that time. And because C2 is a lot more sandboxy than C1 or C3 is shaping up to be, plot threads were going to be unresolved. I think they (mostly Matt) probs thought Lucien/Mollymauk was a good way to finish the campaign. And the endings defenders will say the campaign was not about revenge against Trent Ikithon it was always about moving on, self forgiveness and opening up with your new family. Which is what annoys me about the conspiratorial side of the C2 ending critiques; it can’t be subjective taste, it has to be an objective truth that the campaign was trashed to make way for a TLOVM linked campaign.

[oswald-privileges]

ALL RIGHT BUT YOU ASKED FOR IT

Power of Three as a series is just. full of weaknesses, most of which come down to poor continuity and structure. I'm not gonna try and fix ALL of those, bc that'd be laborious as hell, but I will pick out things that I feel are the most egregious as case studies.

What Po3 does have, tho, is an absolutely shining strength in the concept of its three main characters. After twelve books of Blandly Heroic Protagonist Syndrome, Jayfeather is an absolute godsend. He's angry! He's rude! He's unhappy! He's not nice. I Love Him And He's My Son. Lionblaze has his invincible pride (hah) and emergent bloodlust, and Hollyleaf has her moral absolutism and certainty. These are good starting points for characters. Sadly, the lack of continuity undermines what could have been three really good character arcs.

So! I present to you:

HOW TO MAKE "WARRIORS: THE POWER OF THREE" NOT COMPLETELY SUCK ACCORDING TO MY PERSONAL TASTE; A NON-EXHAUSTIVE, NON-CONSECUTIVE LIST BY ME

ONE

- Have there be a persistant, overarching series threat. Sol is a character with amazing villain potential who does literally nothing except hang around, and do exactly 2 Bad Things completely off-screen. This Is Not Good.

- Instead, have him be present from the second book onwards- initially introduced as a friendly but enigmatic outsider who is slowly revealed across the series to be a complete black hole of a personality, a social parasite quietly rearranging whatever community he's a part of to just-so-happen to benefit him as much as humanly possible. His "preach individualism not starclan" methods are not so much values as one strategy out of many. (to those who know me- yes i have a type. no i will not apologise.)

- Maybe his ultimate goal is to dissolve and centralise the clans or something so that he can live out his life as a political puppetmaster in all the cat-luxury he likes. idk it's hard to imagine overall stakes for this rewrite BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL DOESN'T HAVE ANY

TWO

- For gods sake you don't have a series based on the premise of "the main characters develop super powers" and then only have the second power confirmed by the end of the fourth book. I understand the first book mostly focusing on Jayfeather- his powers are obvious from the start, he's got the strongest personality of the three, he gets access to most of the prophecy plot stuff because of them. But you NEED to have the other two show an interest in something concrete happening to them beyond that, and you need to at least hint towards the other two having something unique to them even if nobody clocks it yet.

- Have Jayfeather tell his siblings about the prophecy by the end of book two at the latest. The amount of time he spends noodling around not sharing it with them is inexcusable. It's not that it's out of character for him to hang onto a secret for a bit, it's just that there's no point and it slows everything down. It would be equally in character for him to go to his siblings and be like "look, i'm SPECIAL. well you as well but ALSO ME". Boy starts off as desperate for recognition, what can I say

THREE

- Have Jayfeather discover that StarClan don't withhold signs or information on purpose for the sake of "building courage and faith" or whatever nonsense. Seeing and communicating the future is metaphysically very difficult, so interpreting signs and messages is a genuine skill, or even an art. The cats of StarClan, however, really are just ghosts, much more similar to living cats than the currently living believe. This is the impotus for Jayfeather's discarding of his reverence for StarClan, which remains consistent throughout the series.

- Have Hollyleaf and Jayfeather both still change their cat careers in the first book, but put place more attention on the fact that they basically switched jobs. Have a scene where they end up yelling at each other, because can't the other see how lucky they have it? The tension breaks when they realise they've both lost something important to them- Jayfeather his chance to prove he's as capable as a sighted cat, and Hollyleaf her path to helping her clan in the way she thinks is best. They commiserate together, and reluctantly promise to do the best they can with their lots, so they don't waste the path the other wishes they'd taken. This closeness is eroded over the series as they disagree more and more on the subject of StarClan and its role in their moral choices and obligations.

FOUR

- Speaking of Hollyleaf! I nearly threw my phone across the room when the first Omen of the Stars book claimed that Hollyleaf "worked so hard to discover her power to help her clan". Where, Ms Erins??? I would have LOVED to have seen that!! Hollyleaf expresses absolutely no concern over the details of what power she has/will develop, and only has a couple of scenes even touching on her ambitions to help her clan. She has some vague ideas about becoming leader and like one scene where she gets to do some leadery things, but that never gets followed up on. What does happen is that the whole "warrior code" thing becomes more and more a part of her personality (for no clear reason) until she snaps.

- Hollyleaf going off the deep end is something I wanted so badly to get into and be moved by, because I could see where it comes from! Her moral certainty is fascinating, especially since it's based in something as abstract as the warrior code- which, when you think about it, isn't really... anything. There's no concrete set of rules that make it up, no traditional wording or cat philosophers, not even any fables. It's a handful of agreed-upon, common sense rules- don't cross boundaries, don't take prey that isn't yours, respect your ancestors, and don't murder. That's it!

- So, combining the above points, I think Hollyleaf not being one of the Three should stay, but both the audience and the characters are given good reason to believe she is. By around the third volume, make it so that Hollyleaf has found that her power is to get cats to "Do The Right Thing"- i.e. what she wants them to do. She sneaks off often to see Sol, who teachs her how to use this power. Her siblings are concerned about this new power, having already gotten a glimpse at what Sol can do, but she's confident that she can only use this power for good. Volume-specific plot happens, Sol manipulates her into causing him to win, she is shocked and horrified, and vows to stick ridgedly to what she knows is right i.e. The Warrior Code

- However, the more fervently she tries to stick to this abstract idea, the less it gives her results, the more her power seems to be failing. Believing that StarClan is taking her power away from her, she becomes caught up in a faith-guilt spiral that puts her in the position to snap at the end of the series. By that point it's clear to her siblings that Hollyleaf has no power- she was just very, very good at persuading people to do what she wanted.

FIVE

- Lionblaze is a girl now because I Said So. This Cat Is Trans And There's Nothing You Can Do About It.

- Her relationship with Heathertail stays the same- childhood sweethearts who are torn apart as they begin to understand the nature of the societal divides that exist between them.

- This can be used to contextualise the whole "half clan/outsider blood" thing as a cultural contradiction. In reality, inter- and outer- clan relationships aren't at all rare. They can't be, otherwise the whole society would be inbred out of existence in like five generations. But if at least one society of humans can spend a good 200 years pretending Sex Is Bad And Sinful Actually then cats can have persistant cat-racism in the face of all logic. Heathertail clocks this contradiction, Lionblaze doesn't.

- Her relationship-to-power arc doesn't need changing all that much either, other than starting much sooner and being more consistent. At first, she's completely overjoyed by her power, since unlike her siblings, it lines up so well with her ambition- become the finest warrior any of the clans have to offer. As the berserker rage aspect becomes more prevelent, she becomes more and more disturbed by the fact that she isn't disturbed by what she can do, and that she doesn't want the escalation of her power to stop.

- Tigerstar still does his thing, but Brambleclaw knows about it. He recognises the signs from when his father used to visit him, and tries to train Lionblaze in his own way. She ends up caught between wanting to be a good warrior, and testing the limits of her power.

SIX

- Jayfeather can stay basically the same because he's my perfect little angy boy and nothing needs to change. His arcs can be strengthened by having a more robust relationship with Yellowfang where they try to out-bitch each other, and coming to terms with his internalised ablism. Maybe he has a chat with Mothwing about faith a couple of times. Him furiously lashing out at being offered help transitions into an acceptence and understanding of his abilities more naturally. He never stops being A Grumpy Old Man.

- All fucking past-lives unexplained time travel goes in the BIN. Doesn't fucking happen. You can have that lore dump sprinkled across the books, or come from going deep into the tunnels and having a surreal meeting. Make it properly eldritch-level scary, shake Jayfeather's confidence in the idea of them being just a bunch of ghosts.

SEVEN

- Have the way Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight present very clearly as parents to the Three be explicitly, textually unusual. One of the things I liked so much about the first series was an almost total lack of emphasis on who was mated with who, and who was related or not. It felt very real to how feral cat colonies form, where raising kittens is a communal job. This gets completely dropped the moment series 2 starts and now the cats have monogamy.

- This emphasis on the family unit and fostering close relationships between parents and kittens is deliberate on the part of both Leafpool and Squirrelflight. Their aim is to cover for Leafpool so she doesn't lose her role as medicine cat- something she already gave up Crowfeather for before she was pregnant.

- In that little bit of backstory, have a robust reason for both Leafpool and Squirrelflight to leave the camp while Leafpool is pregnant and giving birth, possibly one that ties into the present day story in some minor way. I don't know how, it would just make that element of the story a lot more ground than "we left, the kits were born, then we came back and everyone was cool with it"

- When it comes to the "I am Not your mother" reveal, Jayfeather and Lionblaze are confused and hurt that they were lied to, but come to the reasonable conclusion that well, since they were raised mostly by Squirrelflight, saw Leafpool often, and are loved by both, they don't hate her. Lionblaze has something of a crisis over being half-clan, possibly initiating an attempted reunion with Heathertail. Jayfeather is more concerned with how other cats will think it makes him lesser, something he's still sensitive too.

- Hollyleaf, meanwhile, completely fucking snaps at the way her mother Violated Part Of The Code. It's a completely irrational reaction, but expected because she's been growing more and more reliant on The Code for the whole series, and less and less stable in her attempts to aid her clan and train to be its new leader.

- Squirrelflight is the one to murder Ashfur. This is easy to work out while reading- she's literally the only one of the four with a motive who isn't a perspective character. The mystery is less around finding out who did it, and more about why she did it (it's very ambiguous as to whether it was an accident or not). The main tension comes from who finds out when.

- Lionblaze is shocked, awed by how far she'd go to protect the three of them, and reassures her she did the right thing (as a way to salve her own uncertainty over her own longing for violence). Jayfeather makes it all about himself because he's Jayfeather- upset that he didn't know immediately, instead of, you know, figuring it out in a few hours because he can basically read minds. They try their best to hide it from Hollyleaf, who is already rattling around the final volume as a full-on antagonist, but are unsuccessful. This almost costs them something incredibly important- possibly Squirrelflight's life.

EIGHT

- the whole plot with the Tribe Of Rushing Water is a MASSIVE can of worms that could be removed from the series without issue. As it is:

- Characterize the Tribe as uncertain of how to fight other cats, because yes, they haven't had to do this before. DON'T characterise them as pathetic, doing whatever their leader says without thinking, and with ancestors who have Given Up

- Have some of the Tribe be really good at the violence. Worryingly good. Have others be sickened by what they're being asked to do.

- Have some of the clan cats reflect on what they've done. Hollyleaf would be all for introducing this society to jesus The Code, but even she might be horrified at being thanked by a tribe cat who can't wait to get out there and win themselves glory, only to be killed a few hours later

- The Tribe begin a new tradition of marking the walls in the mud they use as camoflage in order to commemorate their battles, and memorialise the fallen. One of the characters reflects on the fact that in a generation or two, the Tribe will feel like it's always been this way. How many of their own traditions- those that feel almost like natural law- started out the same way?

- Have Sol as the leader of the invaders, or maybe having insinuated himself into the tribe as a "mediator" and doing his charismatic cult leader thing.

NINE

- Cinderheart isn't a reincarnation of Cinderpelt. She's just named after her bc Cinderpelt saved her mother from a badger. this is because I think the reincanation thing is stupid and I can't think of a way to make it good.

TEN

- No more using tails as hand gestures like covering people's mouths. Never. None of it. It's expunged from existence.

Disclaimer: I haven't read Omen of the Stars yet, so I can't account for anything that might happen in that series that's grounded in Po3. I'm like... two thirds of the way through the first volume. I'm Not Impressed.

[enbyboiwonder]

lol in book 2, we take that “gays are all perverts who prey on children” bigotry and beat it over the head with a stick

It’s 12 years after book 1, and Van’s back after a year-long stint at the border doing alone what would take 5 normal Herald-Mages. He thinks people’s awe and fear and whatnot of him is just because he’s gay, but it’s actually because of his magic and how powerful he is (most people don’t even know he’s gay)—except back home, where’s he’s just the prodigal son with certain proclivities no one likes to talk about, rather than some unknown, powerful force. His father’s pretty bad about the prejudice, but the priest is even worse. So with him, Vanyel acts as gay and feminine as he can and pretends to come on to him to freak him the fuck out and get him to flee, it’s great

Also I think it is book 3 that we finally meet Lendel’s reincarnation (Stef, I’m pretty sure; I did a bit of skimming and that name stood out to me). So I have no idea what happens in book 2 lol I don’t remember it at all, since it would have to be book 3 when the Herald-Mages start being killed one by one (or at least when it becomes clear that though other Heralds are dying too, Herald-Mages are being specifically targeted), which is the next major plot point I remember

Last night I finished book 1 and wanted to start book 2 and read until I passed out, but I had work this morning so I couldn’t stay up too late and so decided not to start it until today, but then I ended up staying up until like 1:30 anyway bc my brain plopped a few 2.43 characters into this setting and gave me a fic that’s probably a bad idea to start writing now considering it’s apparently set during book 3, but oh well. Also it’s so angsty, help. (Chika’s Vanyel, Yuni’s Tylendel, and my brain landed on Aoki as Stef. And it’s set during that scene after Stef lifebonded to Vanyel—which Vanyel hadn’t wanted to happen—and in doing so veritably saved his life after he was attacked. Don’t remember by who/what though. Or if his aunt Savil was still alive at that point or if it was a different Herald/Herald-Mage in that scene. Augh, and I can’t spend literally all day reading, so it’ll take me at least a couple days to get there. It’s killing me!)

[miraculouscontent]

Didn’t Need Burrow (May 23rd-25th)

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Astruc admitted Sabine was based on an ex and Marinette is what he imagined their daughter to be like. He later admits Audrey was based on an ex and Chloe is what he imagined their daughter would be like. Despite moving on, he still bitter and created two teen girls as "payback" against his exes.

The whole “virtual daughter” thing still squicks me out.

Also, I don’t actually take “Didn’t Need Burrows” referring specifically to the staff/fandom since that’s outside of the show, but I also definitely think about them all the time and like sticking them in here.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Building off of the "Adrien knows about Marinette's crush on him and tells Plagg about it" Burrow, Plagg will point out to Adrien that this is a bad idea and what he is doing is wrong and that Adrien is leading Marinette on so as to stroke his own ego. He will not be listened to, and the show portray him as in the wrong, despite him being right, because anybody who stands up for Marinette's agency deserves to be shut down. In the meantime, Adrien will be allowed to continue

Bonus if Plagg will be considered “wrong” because Adrien not leading Marinette on would lead to him being sAd because Marinette isn’t fawning over him anymore (as if he doesn’t have a million fans).

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Zoe will be presented not only as "Chloe if she was good person", but also as "Marinette if she wasn't constantly making mistakes"

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Zoe will be basically  Marinette if "Marinette's Mistake of the Week" formula never existed.

Sounds about right.

Amazing what can happen when the show doesn’t have a gun to your head telling you to make mistakes in every episode.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: The show delves into a shitty harem as the writers forget that Adrien is not the main character. Who knows, maybe Zoe will join the harem.

The only reason I feel like Zoe wouldn’t be a part of Adrien’s harem is so she can ship the love square.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: There will be Animaestro-type episode where Marinette "makes alliance" with (read: is manipulated by) Chloe or Lila against Zoe. In the end she is only one punished, while her "partner in crime"  (or rather person who manipulated her) walks away completely scot-free.

To the surprise of no one. Can’t have the antagonists be punished, because that would make sense.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: (narrative-wise) Agreste's family drama and Bourgeois's sisters drama will overshadow whatever Marinette character arc will be in season 4.

I’m taking this a step further and saying that Marinette in generall will keep having her plots/”arcs” overshadowed by everyone else.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Marinette will be akumatized. She will be easily defeated due to "bond" between Chat Noir and Temporary Ladybug Zoe. This will be presented like Ladybug's constant refuse to "bond" with Chat Noir was reason why their fights with Akumatized Villains are so hard. (bonus: This episode will be followed by a group of fans that would state that Zoe should replace Marinette as Ladybug Miraculous Holder and not Chloe as Bee Miraculous Holder.)

Uggggh, I’m always waiting for the “love square magical bond” garbage.

Also, the bonus reminds me of the fact that I don’t understand people who hate on both Marinette and Luka but continue to ship the love square. Like, wouldn’t they want to ship Adrien with someone “””worthy””” of him??

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: If Marinette akumatization has Miracle Queen-type set-up, Chat Noir will quickly defeat her and whatever all other Miraculous Holders alone (or optionally supported by Temporary Ladybug Zoe). This will be presented by narrattive as proof of why Chat Noir is Brawn in Ladybug-Chat Noir duo. (Bonus: After that episode Adrien stans will make mass of "I hope this will shut up everyone who think that Chat Noir is useless/weaker than Ladybug/etc." type posts)

At this point, I’ve just grown numb to Chat suddenly being able to do things that don’t make sense for him.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Temporary Ladybug Zoe

Okay but is she keeping the black highlights or do they turn red. These are important questions.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Kagami will be changed (ret-conned) into  Adrienette (or other Love Square's part) shipper after "Lies"

Something similar is already on the card so that’s fun. :’3

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Zoe, not Marinette, will be wearing that dress from the Season 4 Concept Art.

*eye twitch*

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Rena Rogue will be appearing even when she isn't needed to defeat Akuma of the Week. This will be probably used to justify Chat Noir's increasing resent up towards Ladybug and (probably) consequent reversal of Love Square.

anything: *happens*

Chat Noir: bad Ladybug

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Ending: Marinette will willingly sacrifice herself to wake up from coma/ressurect Emilie. Both Adrien and Gabriel will be happy that Emilie is back. Adrien will have his happy relationship/ending with Zoe whom personality is (or was ret-conned into) "Marinette in anything but name". (Bonus points: if everyone behave like Marinette never existed after Emilie revival)

I’m sad.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: If Akuma of the Week isn't Reflekta/Mr Pigeon/Gigantitan/etc,.Pig Miraculous"s "Gift" power will basically fail and only make current Akumatized Villain angrier and more determined to achieve his goal, basically restarting whole fight against Akuma.

PIGELLA NO

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Lila will never react to Zoe becoming more popular than her

I imagine Zoe isn’t the same age as Chloe since they’re not twins, so Zoe at least won’t be in Bustier’s class.

Now, if they make her a Lila slave, then we’ll see.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow to know that Marinette is going to hate Zoe for being related to Chloe and this will be limited to her or she'll be the only one scolded for it (likely by Adrien), because you can't hate someone for who they're related to (which actually is a good lesson but ml will probably f it up somehow).

I feel like the writers just look at a character and go, “okay, how can we engineer them in a way for Marinette to mess up around them?

Anonymous asked:

Didn't need Burrow - Chat will find out Rena Rouge knows her identity and becomes angry bc "You and me against the world, m'lady." This will cause one episode of Adrienette becoming closer and Ladynoir drifting apart before Chat magically forgives her like it was no big deal after she makes a huge gesture to get him back.

You’d think they’d have worn out the reset button by now...

Anonymous asked:

Didn't need burrow: one of two things will happen, either Adrien will try to help Luka get back together with Marinette (basically the same plot as Mr. pigeon 72) or the relationship will not be brought up ever again and Mari and Luka don't really directly interact with each other anymore

“Bonus” if Adrien is “taught a lesson” that he shouldn’t meddle, and it’s only because he chose to meddle in Lukanette. “Double bonus” if his attempts actually get Lukanette back together but this is presented as a bad thing (for some reason)..

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Zoe will be(e)come pernament Bee Miraculous Holder.

This won’t be added because I think we already got official confirmation on this?

Oh, or do you mean “permanent” as in her keeping the miraculous eventually?

edit: yes, that’s what they meant (also, A+ pun)

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Every Miraculous Holder introduced in Season 4 will be will lose right to their Miraculous, except Zoe/Vesperia.

lol me just imagining them struggling over either making models or trying to not use those miraculouses anymore.

Anonymous asked:

Didn't Need Burrow: Luka will be forced to say Adrien and Marinette are perfect for each other in "Optigami".

Wow, show, why don’t you just prove more that you’re purposefully pointing out that you’re giving Marinette a grand total of One “Obvious” Option.

Anonymous asked:

Unsure if this one has been sent yet but | Didn't Need Burrow: Alya is going to continue Marinette to pursue Adrien even after Marinette broke down and said she doesn't have time for love right now.

We have some similar ones I think.

“Marinette’s feelings towards moving on are invalidated/ignored by one of her “friends” to push for the Love Square“

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Sandboy 2.0: Ladybug's nightmare will be about Chat Noir abandoning/hating her

I was dumb enough to raise an eyebrow at this like, “Would they really reuse akum--oh wait.”

Anonymous asked:

I'm gonna try and go for a good Didn't Need Burrow: WHen Sole Crusher gets Marinette we'll either get a lovely King Kong moment between them, or Chat Noir will come in and save her (and it'll possibly be a moment of reverse love square).

If they have Marinette doing the cliche “crushing because they got saved” I’m gonna throw hands.

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to burrow:

Marinette will never have a heart to heart with Luka revealing she's Ladybug or even explain the reason for their breakup.

Just gonna slap a big asterisk on this because it’s like:

*despite Luka being an obvious choice and they could’ve worked out the issue but the show is afraid of the side ship they’ve created working out better than the love square itself

Anonymous asked:

Don't need to Burrow: For Optigami, the episode will barely or never acknowledge Luka's and Marinette's relationship/breakup. It will be ignored and we won't have any cute Lukanette moments. As long as Adrien is in the picture, Luka will be always sidelined.

Honestly that last one is basically one of the commandments of this show.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Lila will now only appear in cameos (probably without even any voice lines).

show writers, shoving Lila under a rug: Leela Ransai?? Never heard of him.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Since Lukanette is over, Luka can be ret-conned from show. Everyone will behave like he never existed at all (and Lukanette never hapenned).

We at least know that Luka now appears in a later episode, but this could easily be worded as “Luka can be retconned away from being Marinette’s love interest and everyone will act like he and Marinette aren’t that close or never made soft eyes at each other.”

Except I wouldn’t count on Lukanette being retconned because that would stop the show from being allowed to make Marinette feel bad and guilty and possibly cause another akuma over it, plus possibly Luka “rejecting” his feelings for her and thus making her feel worse that he sees her in a lesser light.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: There will be an episode that will break "Mr Pigeon" episode record of  "Don't Need a Burrow" and close calls.

Not gonna lie, I would be legitimately impressed if that happened. I’m just wondering what predictions would be mashed together to make it as such.

Anonymous asked:

Didn’t Need Burrow to know that Zoey (I heard somewhere that that’s how her name is going to be in America, it might be wrong), is going to get involved in the love square somehow.

Bonus:

Or she will replace Kagami’s role as Marinette’s friendly rival, and when her heart gets broken Marinette will be the one to blame, for no reason, like always. Or she will have an interest in Marinette, since it seems they are going to be close friends, only for Marinette to put her in the friend zone, and she gets akumatized. People will blame Marinette for giving false hopes to the girl, even though, she never acted different than how a friend would act.

All girls exist to comment/have an opinion on the love square, obviously, and they’re antagonists/villains if they have a negative opinion on it.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Writers will use Alya bashing concept of Alya proposing Lila as potential new Miraculous Holder. Marinette will obviously refuse, but due to fact that Lila is suddenly ret-conned into being good person this is Marinette's Mistake of the Week. She will repair it by making Lila pernament Miraulous Holder

Waiting for the one episode long Lila redemption...

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Sabrina will be redeemed. She will change from Chloe's servant... to Zoe's servant.

and it’s fine of course because Zoe and Sabrina are best friends and Sabrina is doing this all happily and willingly.

Anonymous asked:

Don't Need a Burrow: Alya will be changed into basically Marinette's Guardianship mentor

Somehow, this is one of the ones I hate the most because it seems accurate so far.

[stealingpotatoes]

I am OBSESSED with your Desmond lives AU!! I want Shaun and Rebecca to be able to give Desmond all the hugs, I want Desmond to be able to choose to be an Assassin, to be able to help save the world again. Also, I am very curious about how you would resurrect Desmond, because I’ve had similar thoughts on such an AU, but I currently stick it near the end of Valhalla with the stuff that happens there. If you ever feel like expanding on it, I'd be super excited to see more!!!

first of all, AH THANK YOU!!! Yes those are ALL points that are very important to the Des Lives AU! Second of all, thank you so much for this ask in general!!! I was hoping someone would send an ask like this so I’d get an excuse to talk abt the AU more lmao XD!! I made this AU back in March last year, so there’s no Valhalla stuff in it, and it’s set right after/ during the Odyssey DLCs. 

The long story short for my Desmond Rez (rezmond, if you will) is “shroud of eden, abstergo, and some Isu bullshit”. The long story long, however, is uh- you know what? I’m going to use this opportunity to explain the vague story I worked out last year -- but dw, I WILL get to the full ressurection explanation I thought through. However... I’m gonna have to tell the story in smaller parts because I’m lazy and can’t be bothered to write the whole thing out right now. So rez comes later and not in this post. 

also uh-- before we start: I’m going to apologise for like… everything about the way I wrote this. It’s sort-of half fic, half that-way-your-friends-colloquially-tell-stories-that-you-can’t-keep-up-with. Mainly the latter. If you can make sense of this babbling, well done.

 Anyways, without further ado, welcome to:

POTES TRIES TO EXPLAIN HER DESMOND (SORTA) LIVES AU: PART ONE

On the 21st of December 2012, Desmond Miles dies. 

It’s not for nothing -- his sacrifice saves the entire world from a solar flare -- but he is dead. big ripz. The Assassins, his family, do not manage to recover his body. Abstergo gets it first. The Assassins hold a funeral as best they can. They mourn (all in their own ways), they keep fighting (for his memory), and they try to move on (they can’t). 

On the 21st of December 2012, Desmond Miles died -- so when he shows up in a city in October 2018, almost 6 years later, it’s a bit of a shock for everyone. What’s even more of a shock is the fact he’s glowing like an Isu and has some abilities he DEFINITELY didn’t have when he died.

So Desmond wakes up in the middle of some city in he doesn’t know where (yeah ok i just never really worked out where the secret lab would be), with 1. no idea of how he got there and 2. no idea why his arms are glowing like that. He doesn’t get much time to think about it because then there’re a load of Abstergo goons with guns surrounding him. Des may have no idea what’s happening, but he knows one thing: when u see an Abstergo, it’s on sight. So he’s fighting them -- which is admittedly not fun or easy when you’re in the middle of a road and only have your fists as weapons. It’s not going well and then someone definitely manages to shoot Desmond which is very bad -- but then Des feels some very weird (but not unfamiliar) feeling and when he looks up from the bullet wound, every one of the Abstergos are on the floor???? He doesn’t think to check if they’re dead, just legs it out of there lmao. 

//

Elsewhere, in an Assassin safehouse in an undisclosed location (can you tell I just didn’t think about the geography of anything), Mr Shaun Hastings is chilling on a balcony after a mission well done. Good for him. Then Rebecca Crane (queen ilu) yells “Shaun?” from inside. 

“Rebecca?” 

“Come inside. Now.”

Shaun immediately does so because he assumes it’s important or they’re under threat. “What happened? Have we been compromised?”

Rebecca doesn’t answer. 

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Shaun says, mostly joking and with a little smirk -- though Becs looks spooked. 

“Desmond’s alive.”

Shaun’s not smirking anymore. “What?”

“Desmond’s... he’s alive.”

“What are you talking about? Are you high?” he’s totally about to look at her eyes to see if they’re all dilated and druggy. 

“No Shaun, I mean it!” Becs harshly shoves her tablet into his hands. 

Shaun doesn’t really know what he’s expecting to see when he looks down at the screen. What he’s not really expecting to see is Desmond Miles, who’s been dead for six years, fighting a load of Abstergo people -- while lined in Isu markings (also he’s not wearing a shirt forgot got to mention). ??? But wtf??!?! Desmond’s dead. That’s...

“It’s security camera footage from [the city]... About two hours ago.” Rebecca then swipes through more footage with shaky hands and explains that Des very violently burst out of an Abstergo facility in the city with glowing eyes and light leaking out of him (almost like an Apple of Eden). Then the glowing eyes and shining lights shuts off abruptly and Des is standing in the middle of the road looking very confused at his precursor-ass arms and chest. But Shaun is barely listening to what she’s saying and barely even looking at the screen. 

“Where did you get this?” Shaun asks with a hollow voice, not looking up. 

“The Initiates.” (bc who else)

Shaun looks at it again, then at Rebecca, and he’s mildly aware of the fact he’s slightly tearing up; “That’s fake. That can’t be him. He’s dead, Becs. We both saw the…” They both saw the autopsy footage the ac4 researcher got from Abstergo -- or at least, tried to watch it; they shut it off as soon as Shaun ran to the bathroom to throw up and Rebecca quickly joined him. They spent the rest of that night crying and drinking way too much. 

“He died.” Shaun concludes firmly. 

And so Becs is all like “yeah but what if he didn’t?? We need to find him. We need to investigate this.” There’s a determination in her eyes and Shaun knows he’s not going to be able to convince her to drop this -- not that he would. Desmond might be alive, and there is no way they’re going to leave him again. 

They’re both standing there in pure shock and confusion, not saying anything. 

Rebecca’s comm device lights up and starts buzzing, snapping them out of their general ????-ness. Becs goes to her desk to grab it, glances at the caller id and then shows it to Shaun. It’s William Miles. 

The two of them share a Look. They know what he’s calling about -- what else would it be? There’s a stilted moment of neither of them doing anything before Rebecca finally accepts the call. “William?” 

“How quickly can you and Shaun get to [city]?” William sounds shaken -- probably the same way Rebecca and Shaun are -- which is a very weird way to hear the Mentor of the Brotherhood sound. He’s seen the footage, hasn’t he? 

“In a few hours,” Rebecca replies. 

“Good. You need to get there as soon as possible.” 

Everyone’s silent for a few moments. 

“Is this about Desmond?” Rebecca asks. Dumb question. 

There’s a pause. “You’ll be briefed on the ground.” And then he hangs up before Shaun or Rebecca can yell at him.

This is all moving very fast. Shaun and Rebecca share another look. Guess they’re going to [city].  ???

// 

Fast forward several hours and Rebecca and Shaun are in The City [might just have to make the city london bc it’s the one city i actually know well -- however for plot reasons we’ll see later, a swiss city might be better… moving on!]. They get to an assassin base and meet up with Galina Voronina and 2 local assassins. Idk if you’ve read the comics, but to sum things up quickly, Galina and her team were investigating and then ended Project Phoenix -- so Galina now really wants to find out if the whole Desmond thing has anything to do with that. 

Galina also wants to help Shaun and Rebecca get their friend back. They’re her friends, but equally she just lost one of her teammates to Abstergo (while ending Phoenix like 2 months ago, in the comics) and is uh- idk how to say it but she wants to help Shaun & Becs who have a chance to get their lost teammate back.

What follows is cool gang-gang trying to track down any trace of Desmond. You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to find a person who literally glows, but Desmond’s had centuries of Assassin training and knows how to hide lol.. which is making the Assassins’ job harder lol. 

What’s making it even harder is the Assassins know they have to be quick because they know Abstergo is gonna be looking for Desmond too -- and they have way more resources and stuff. That being said, they’re also currently dealing with the fact one of their building and a decent amount of their guards just got absolutely mullered by weird-glowing-desmond. 

The third issue with their entire thing is that they have no idea what they’re going to find when they find Desmond -- or if he even is Desmond. Is he going to be the man they knew but with weird powers? an Abstergo isu-clone? evil? they don’t know, and so they know they’ve got to be wary with him. 

The Assassin gang spend some time (a couple of days at the very most) trying to track Desmond down. Rebecca is using all the tech she can get her hacker mitts on to find a trace of him and equally throw Abstergo off Des’ trail. 

Soon enough, they get a solid lead -- don’t ask for the specifics, i don’t know them. But they get a lead, and it winds them up in an abandoned apartment building or also abandoned building site or something (a building in the city where there aren’t any people, basically). 

Galina scans the place with Eagle Vision and she’s like “There is something very strange about this place.” (someone?) But she doesn’t see a person-shape anywhere. The 5 of them are hopeful but somewhat on edge. 

They go about searching for any sign of Desmond. Galina’s pretty sure her Eagle Vision is just… Messing Up A Lot lol. Like something’s trying to heck with it. So she’s not quite sure it’s working correctly when a load of red figures appear somewhere below them. 

She becomes a lot more sure when the red figures come into sight and START SHOOTING AT THEM! IT’S ABSTERGO!! CRAP! they found them!!

The assassins get down and a really cool fight scene w them vs the Abstergos in the building/ building site starts playing out. Woo Shaun and Rebecca electro-hidden-blade moments!! The fight splits the squad up and Shaun and Rebecca are away from Galina & the others -- but they dispatch the Abstergo guards near them.

They’re about to radio in that they’re all okay/ check if Galina & co are also good when they hear a slightly-too-loud footstep. They whip around to see an Abstergo guard aiming right at them, too far for either of them to get him before he shoots them. crap crap crap.

They would have been shot -- if someone hadn’t come up behind the Abstergo guard and snapped his neck (ouch). 

The Abstergo drops to the ground, revealing the person who saved them and… Shaun and Rebecca stare in shock. 

They’re both looking at Desmond Miles. 

Desmond Miles, who is very much alive (and wearing a hoodie that is 100% stolen). And… with a load of glowing yellow lines on his face. But it’s Desmond -- it’s Desmond for sure. Holy shit.  

Desmond doesn’t seem so shocked, only relieved to see them. Then his expression turns into serious confusion; 

“What the fuck is happening?”

///

ok sorry leaving it there for now! hope you enjoyed what is here will continue soon