#but I was still filling in details and expanding on stuff

[wavebiders]

complaints like "my character wouldn't do this" about key elements of an optional narrative are always so weird to me like what do you mean not everyone treats their first playthrough of an RPG as a rough draft to use to figure out what kinda character would best suit their preferred storyline and love interest?

[thornquillthefiendish]

My art process takes days. For what reason you ask? Tiny brush. It’s the only way things will come out right when I draw

Mapleshade might actually just kill me fr fr

[bonefall]

i’m curious- can you explain, from prepping to actual processing and cooking and such, how the clans make sausage? is it really that easy?

SAUSAGES!!!

It's SO easy. The WHOLE process from prep to cooking is essentially 5 steps. Sausage is so old that it predates the historic record. The earliest record of it is from 4,000 BC-- but it's SO simple to make that it's almost a guarantee that any carnivorous society would learn how to make their own.

You don't even need fire. Most types of sausage are made by cooking the meat with heat or smoke, but you can get SALAMI through passive fermentation and air drying. Pepperoni is also in that same category of "dry sausage"! It was an invention of Italian American immigrants modifying sopressatta back in the 1920s.

Sausage is how you can use every last little scrap of meat on an animal, AND preserve it while you're at it. There's a ton of different types of sausages, but what binds them, literally, is that they're meat stuffed in digestive tract. ALL types of meat. The filling can be offal, muscle, or even blood, packed in with varying types of preservatives and spices.

(though in modern sausage production they use don't use natural cases as often, because it's more expensive than artificial collagen casing. that's actually how you can tell right away if you're at a quality pizza place or not-- if your pepperoni "cups" up after it's cooked, it's made with the real stuff. That's caused by the natural casing shrinking because of the heat.)

the TL;DR of making sausage is collect, scrape, soak, stuff, dry. Five simple steps. I am going to create an incredibly detailed walkthrough of it, every little tiny thing, from harvest to mealtime.

Minimum tools needed: a flat rock and a dark place, such as a cave.

Recommended tools: A flat rock, a bird bone with a stick, a cold underground den, fire.

It usually begins when an animal is brought back to camp, though it could even be started right in the field where prey is caught.;

CONTENT WARNING

This post contains discussions of evisceration and unsanitary topics in the context of natural butchery.

We're going to talk about disembowelment and processing animal organs into food. This includes how to open a carcass, and washing out the things that intestines usually contain. There is also an image of sausage casings at various stages of processing, including when it's still raw (but clean) intestine.

I was taught how to clean a deer carcass when I was only a teenager and I've never been squeamish, but everyone's tolerance for this sort of thing is different. It's okay if this isn't something you can handle; just know that the process of sausage making is easy, yet still a work of skill.

Appreciate the effort that goes into making your food! Just remember; there's a reason why they warn you about "finding out how the sausage is made!"

Step 1: Collecting the offal

You might think that because the prey that Clan cats hunt are so small, there would be some animals they can't make sausage from because of it. That's not the case! Bowels are naturally stretchy and will expand when stuffed; even a mouse can make for snack-sized sausages that a cat would enjoy.

(Remember; an entire mouse is approximately 1 meal for a single warrior.)

Removing the intestines is easy to do, requires no fire, and is necessary for avoiding parasites. Even a canon-compliant Clan can, and should, do this as part of their food processing. Canon treats claws like they're small knives and I do too because it's cool as hell, but if your Clan is more tool advanced, you could even allow them to use knives.

That gruesome phrase, "there's more than one way to skin a cat" is EXTREMELY accurate for ALL types of skinning. EVERY hunter and butcher you will meet will have their own method. Here's ONE way to do it, for right after the carcass has been bled dry and skinned;

It is helpful to hang the carcass by the legs, but not required. Especially for a large animal like a hare, this will make gravity your friend in getting the organs out. Clan cats have access to plenty of twine for this; brambles, willowbark, flax, etc.

Cut a "circle" around the anus first, under the tail. You want to keep the whole tract in one piece. If the intestines rupture, it might contaminate the rest of the ENTIRE carcass. This part you cut now will be the back end of the "tube" you're going to pull out.

From the bottom of the "circle," slit carefully down the belly until you hit the bone in the middle of the ribcage. This is tricky. If you go too deep, you'll cut the guts and spill waste everywhere. Don't go deep enough and you won't even get through the membrane. A good mentor would guide their apprentice's paw at this point, showing them how to carefully hook one layer deeper each time and how to angle the claw so they don't cut deeper than they mean to. (NOTE: the sternum is a lot shorter in most four-legged animals than it is in a human. The warrior's cut will be much further down the "chest" of the prey than you think.)

Now, the guts need to be cut from the back of the cavity. This is MESSY, but not tricky. This is the part where an impatient warrior would mess up, start yanking, and puncture the gut. If the animal is hanging, this is MUCH easier as the anus is still "anchored" to the pelvis like a big noodle.

Lastly, reach down and pull the throat up, then and take the whole tract out in one piece! In a very "large" animal like a muntjac or a hare, a more advanced Clan might tie off the colon with string before pulling it out, to avoid making a mess.

That's it! You now have the entire GI tract of an animal, including esophagus, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, and all the extra species-specific organs (like tripe or gizzards) they contain. An experienced butcher can do this whole process in less than a minute on a smaller animal-- and the small intestine of a mouse alone is over a foot long for making into sausages!

(In Clanmew, this "tract" is called a gwussip. It basically means "pile of slightly processed food." It's also used to refer to the dough used to make tunnelbuns in WindClan, and the minced meat that will be used to stuff the sausages later.)

Various types of sausage are made from the stomach down. Haggis is one type of sausage, for example, traditionally made of a sheep's stomach. The esophagus doesn't have the same "stretchiness" that the intestines are known for, and is more often made into a mince and sauteed if it isn't just wasted by being tossed.

BB!ThunderClan in particular likes to let it slow cook in fat and fruit sauce until it's more tender, but still delightfully chewy. It's not enough to fill a warrior up, but it makes a good snack for in between mealtimes. If you're familiar with Mexican cuisine, pig esophagus is prepared as "buche."

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

But, digressing,

Now that you have your intestines, it needs to be turned into casing.

Step 2: Scrape the inner membrane

Intestines are full of fecal matter. We all know this. Especially if you collected it correctly, it's going to be full of unwanted liquid when you first pull it out. Thankfully, it's just a tube and it can be washed.

These organs are made to contain everything icky inside of the gut, protecting the rest of body with its specialized buffer layers; the meat itself is perfectly fine.

The first thing a warrior needs to do is run it through a clean stream of running water, just like rinsing out a reusable straw. They'd be taking care to rub every fold clean, like a raccoon washing stockings in a river. Depending on the species the organ comes from, the culture of the Clan, and the condition of the animal before it was killed, some intestines might smell worse and need to be washed for longer than others.

BB!ShadowClan is different from other Clans in that they will flush it with a mix of vinegar and water to clean intestines. Especially since so much of their territory is stillwater, they're extra concerned with making sure their offal is cleaned. Other Clans find vinegar repulsive. ShadowClan finds other Clans dirty. Other Clans point out that they're the ones that eat literally anything. ShadowClan says they'd be able to stop wasting food if they spent less time whining and more time food processing. Cultural friction ensues.

After it's flushed, the cleaned intestine is turned inside-out. Just like a sock. From there, the inner layer of membrane is scraped off.

A long, flat rock is the best tool for this, or a good bone scraper. I've also heard of people doing this with a knife, so the rock is actually still technically optional for even the most thumbless Clans... but the cats can weave ropes out of grass canonically. They can use a rock.

(meanwhile in the background the bb!cats are playing instruments around a fire, absolutely ignoring canon's inconsistent tech level)

This is what it looks line at each stage of this process. Totally raw intestine looks like the image on the left. When turned inside-out, it resembles the middle. After scraping, it looks like the right.

Now there's just one more step before you officially have casing.

Step 3: Soaking in salt solution.

This is actually the hardest part for a Clan trying to be ecologically accurate. Salt is very rare in most forest environments. If your Clans are set up in a place with a natural salt source (near a beach, or near a geological deposit), you'll have no problems!

But... most Clans would, logically, not be so lucky and need to get creative.

The first option is stealing salt from farmers and hunters. Salt licks are usually left out in large, white blocks for sheep in fields, and deer in the woods. However, BB!Clan cats, except SkyClan, strongly avoid interacting with humans. That includes not approaching the salt licks left out for deer and livestock.

So, traditionally in the Forest Territory, they used the second option: Slowly burning the roots of coltsfoot. Dandelion also works, but will give you much less salt. In the Lake Territory, cats are sent on regular "Salt Patrols" to the ocean, bringing back bags of ocean salt from evaporated water for medicinal and culinary use.

Once that's done, simply toss the intestines in salt water for a few hours. That's it. You now have casing.

Step 4: Stuff the casing with mince.

Mince is just finely shredded meat, mixed with any spices your little kitty heart desires. Humans use a lot of herbal spices such as fennel, but as obligate carnivores, warriors prefer mushrooms which have compounds resembling the taste of meat.

The real secret to stuffing, though, is to make sure EVERYTHING is chilly before you do it. Cold mince is less sticky, keeps its shape better when being handled, and the fat is distributed more evenly in the mix. Sausages made during winter come out better than ones made during summer, for that reason.

Don't overstuff and try to keep it even. You can do it by paw, but it would be MUCH easier with a simple gadget. The earliest sausage stuffing tools we know of were as simple as a funnel and a plunger like this antique;

But since Clan cats are stuffing little animals, they can work with much smaller natural materials. The bones of birds are naturally hollow-- just clean one out, get a stick to push the meat through, and you're making tiny sausages.

And the last, but most important part,

Step 5: Dry it by way of heat and smoke (sausage) or fermentation and air drying (salami).

What you have in your paws before you start this process is, essentially, a little bag of raw meat. Most food preservation can be understood as the simple act of drying. Salt, fire, smoking, wind exposure-- those are all just fancy ways of removing moisture from food.

So generally, the more moisture the technique removes, the longer it will last.

"Fresh" sausages, your bratwurst, cheap hot dogs, bangers, the ones that are JUST made of mince and casing and you're not planning on doing anything else, those get cooked and eaten immediately. These types are actually pretty "recent" historically speaking, because it was a luxury to not be making sausages to store and transport meat.

So to make it last, they will usually be "cured." That means that the mince was mixed with salt before stuffing. Simple as that. Smoked cured sausage is self explanatory once you know what the terms mean-- it's been cured with salt, and then put in a smokehouse to dry.

(side note: curing is also required for smoking, else the conditions inside the sausage become the perfect breeding ground for botulism)

But the thing you're really waiting to hear about is "dry sausage." NO refrigeration required, NO fire needed at any point in the process. Salami specifically is cured, fermented in a dark and humid place, and then air-dried. This process takes only a few days if it's hot, and up to a week if it's cold. There are often starter cultures and sugars (fruits) added to the mince which reduces the "failure" rate, but this can work completely on its own.

Its taste will also vary depending on the cultures of bacteria doing the fermenting-- but that's unironically the kind of thing beyond the scope of this. That's culinary science.

This is where a dedicated "den" for hanging fermenting sausage would be handy. You can make do with a cave, but being able to completely control the environment can be the difference between having food in two days, versus having food in a week. You can even store it while it's fermenting for months if you can control the environment perfectly.

The last step is simply to take it out when it's at the absolutely perfect conditions and stop fermentation. If it ferments ALL the way, it will taste so sour it's inedible.

And that's it.

It's that simple. You hung it up in a cave for a while, and now you have shelf-stable meat that doesn't need to be refrigerated.

The catch; this works best in hotter, sunnier, southern environments, where the post-fermentation process is finished off with air drying. Drying is VERY GOOD because it totally removes the moisture. BB!Clans, in Northwestern England, prefer to finish this off with smoking unless they're doing it in summer and the weather cooperates.

Air drying is better because it typically removes more moisture and makes the sausage hard. Finishing fermentation with smoking causes it to be "semi-dry."

This far north, the days are cloudier, darker, and colder than it is further south, where the most famous dry sausages are made. It's not impossible to make fully dried sausage here, but it's a LOT more precise of an art.

If your Clans are based in the USA, don't worry about that. Dry fermentation is possible everywhere there except Alaska. Even if they're at the very tippy-top north of the continguous 48 states, they are barely higher in latitude than Paris, France. To put what BB's environment is in context, remember that you could walk a straight line across the globe from Liverpool, UK and be somewhere near Edmonton, Canada.

(in fact, dry fermentation can be done easily anywhere it isn't too dry or too cold. RIP Southern Chilean fanclans you will simply have to smoke it just like the Brits.)

And that's sausage. That is an in-depth guide to how salami can be made by Clan cats.

[accio-victuuri]

NOVEMBER 19 : The Full Story 📝

oh well sort of, cause this is what is known and shared publicly with tons of filling in the blanks by cpfs. someone made a side by side incidents during this day and time for the past years 2017 to now 2023 and it’s good to see it all laid out. it’s hilarious to see the realization among turtles that we could be wrong about their anniversary date. for years, we always talked about the month of June but now, November is making a great argument 😂

( these freakin masterminds are so naughty! I swear!!! 🤣🤣🤣 )

source of the compilation i’m using to outline is 圣衣雪琳 cause they perfectly summed up the key points very well. I already talked about some of these in my previous post but this is for the “11/19 lore” exclusively and so we can expand on other years.

I’m a sucker for timelines so let’s go 💪🏼

2017: At this time, they already know of each other and depending on who you ask might have already been low key stalking the other. LOL. WYB’s was about Just Dance and ZZ is a selfie and hotpot ; the latter post about going home.

I don’t think that this holds much significance in terms of an actual relationship and stuff happening behind the scenes. However, it feels like fate that they both posted on this day even without that significance being there. We cpfs love to talk about how they are fated and certain things, no matter how mundane, turned out to be a piece that completed the puzzle. There is some push back with some turtles saying this shouldn’t be included cause it seems like the start of this 11/19 is 2018 but again, just leaving this here. I could probably add 2015/2016 if we really wanna back track lol

2018: THIS IS THE KEY CPN IN ALL OF THIS. I have already explained it here. The infamous Japan trip. How both of them seemingly making references to their post from this year vs today (2023) especially XZ who even posted on the same time. There are so many rumors about this timeline, even going as far as saying the next day, they started living together. How this was WYB saying it’s WYB, not LWJ. So the relationship they have now is not between fictional characters but the real one.

I’m eating this candy whole. No one can tell me otherwise. I’m sold 🤣🤣🤣

Have we been wrong? did they officially become together 11/19/2018. Some are even pointing out that one of GG’s photos shared today appears to be him traveling back from IM to Beijing.

and who is in Beijing? His home. Yibo. 🏡

We love to think about them sharing photos to each other and i’m imagining this is ZZ sending something similar to WYB and saying that he is on his way back.

2019: Bazaar video was released, it’s message being a favorite among BXGs. Going by the assumption that this is their anniversary of sorts, it makes sense to have a message like that to be delivered.

how he met his love in a dream ( presumably that summer and playing wwx opposite wyb’s lwj ) and when he woke up, his love is still there. meaning even in reality, he still feels the same. no. it was not scripted, the one who shot it said it was xz’s answer and he was shocked too.

They posted some work related stuff on that day, with WYB’s being audi’s. the part of the caption we are clowning about is : Don’t blame me for not reminding you. Which in the original post and context is about the benefits you will get if you buy an Audi. but in cpn speak it could mean that ZZ probably forget, but he actually didn’t cause that bazaar love confession was clear.

2020: I already talked in detail over here #2 with was going on at the time.

It’s also the start of the whole Thursday is a good day to see you, in reference to WYB’s vogue post. Then it snowballed into a whole CPN of it’s own.

I forgot to add one important thing tho, around this time 11/18 there schedules were public and both are supposed to go back to Beijing. WYB was from Hangzhou and ZZ was from Nanjing. The incident of WYB changing his flight 3x so he can go back to Beijing is this time 11/18. We clowned that he was so eager to be in the same city with ZZ but with what we think now, it could be he wanted them to be together badly because it’s their anniversary the next day 11/19. 🤯

2021: Both of them posting a Douyin video that involves changing clothes. Which is a very common transition trend on the app but seeing it done on the same day was a treat and unusual. GG’s was posted 11/17 and WYB was 11/19.

I wanna remind people too that this is the same month we got the mysterious “voices” both in Shenzhen Vlog ( his husband wang yibo ) and talks of ZZ being at the Luoyang press conference filming. The same month the whole Ximalaya CPN started too. So they were definitely “acting up”.

2022: No actual posts but a parallel. 11/17, Guangdian appeared on the itunes chart because of fan’s effort. 11/18, WYB released a song ( government related ) called Light Chaser. So spotlight = light chaser has similar element and theme of light. Then on 11/20 WYB’s shared a douyin with 👀.

2023: Probably making up for how quiet last year was, they decided to give us a big hint/s of what 11/19 is all about. 😂😂😂

This is all fake and cpn talk. I do enjoy when candies go years back! This journey of trying to piece things together is a bxg’s strength so we’re really thriving today— with all the possibly unrelated events we have managed to stitch together into this! 🙃

[the-gateway-to-madness]

It sorta bothers me that post-series people are still complaining about 3Below being disconnected from the rest of Tales of Arcadia. For me, it was a refreshing break from the densely-packed fantasy lore and an intriguing peek at the way the universe beyond Arcadia and Earth functions. I liked the character arcs and interpersonal connections. And there was ample room for me to come up with a bunch of my own headcanons, which I love! I absolutely love being able to slot pieces of my own mind and soul into an existing world! I don't like shows where I'm told how every little detail works, that's way too much to remember. Instead I want enough to create an idea of the rules and how things might have gone/might continue to go and fill in whatever else I want.

Also, I think 3Below was SUPPOSED to be a lot more connected before Wizards got cut down. Tons of ideas didn't make it into the limited series run- I remember hearing stuff about Mordred being involved, a lost Krel arc, and I'm sure a lot of lore that would have bound the worlds together more closely. When they mentioned Gaylen's core came from Earth, there was clearly supposed to be more to that, but it got cut out. I'm like 93% sure Gaylen was a being who was part of or similar to the Arcane Order, but was drawn to the cosmos rather than to a part of the Earth. That would indicate that Akiridion tech and magic are compatible because Akiridions' energy-based life was initially magical, but those roots were largely forgotten because of how old a civilization Akiridion is. They've been spacefaring since humans were cavepeople. If the Order existed from the primeval dawn of the world, and Gaylen left not long after that, Akiridion could be millenia ahead of Earth. Or, heck, maybe Earth was the first or only livable world, and Gaylen created the Order to look after it before going off to try to find or create life elsewhere. I always headcanoned that Seklos was more powerful than most Akiridions or even the Royals that came after her, given the fact her core alone was enough to stop Gaylen while in the modern era it requires two royal cores. Maybe she was created by Gaylen to be Akiridion's version of an Arcane Order type being, and she created normal Akiridions, which she then had kids with, diluting her power in the Royals that followed. There's so much ancient history to unpack from just the tidbits we were given.

As for the modern era, there seems to very distinctly be a major intergalactic connection. The drunk ship operator in episode 3 of 3b s1 that the Zerons interrogate talks about ship classifications, which indicates a universal or at least an interplanetary system of ship ratings. We also see interplanetary tourism, and signs that Akiridion is one of the most advanced and influential planets out there.

3Below doesn't need to continue the plot of Trollhunters to be a valid part of Tales of Arcadia. It brought an energy to ToA that was somewhere between Star Trek TNG and Babylon 5, and I love how it expands the weirdness of Arcadia. If it was supposed to be a continuation of Trollhunters, they would have made more Trollhunters. But it's not Trollhunters, it's 3Below. And Wizards isn't Trollhunters either! I honestly think that Camelot, Douxie, and the world of wizards could have been written such that the Trollhunters cast was much less focal, and that if they'd given the show the time it needed and deserved to tell its story, it would have been fleshed-out and fascinating all on its own, with or without the TH gang. Where are the magic users beyond the reach of Camelot? Are there merfolk, sirens, harpies, dryads, more dragons, or other sapient races living on Earth with their own civilizations and magic and cultures? There are so many worlds and so many potential stories out there, on Earth and beyond, in the Tales of Arcadia universe. Arcadia just happens to be the narrative meshing point of them all. And I think that's a really cool way to build a universe.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk, here's more Akiridion development as a treat for making it this far.

[ms-moonlight-inn]

“Shame-proof” DVD Commentary

Thank you to @shamelessdvdcommentary & to the anon to requested us (whoever you are, we love you!). My bestie @notherenewjersey & I are here to answer all of your burning questions (do you have the syph? why's it burning? it's not supposed to burn.)

Anyway, here's our stuff... hopefully it'll help with that itchy burny.

Which fanfic is your DVD commentary about?

“Shame-proof” is about two childhood actors who lose contact with each other after their series wraps. Quickly, we find out that Ian had been harboring a deep crush on Mickey, who had basically been bullying Ian the whole time. Confessions & apologies ensue.

Also, a friend called it an undercover RPF... and if that’s how you choose to look at it, well we’re not gonna stop you.

NJ–  it COULD be RPF but that’s not how it was written. We weren’t imagining Cam or Noel’s childhoods here, aside from what we stole of Mickey’s back canon that Ian watches as he pines.

Give us some stats - (when you wrote it, word count, how long it took to finish, is it a one-shot/multi-chapter, etc)

The outline started on 4/16/24. 22887 words posted. Posted for the Summer Camp project on 8/3 but we were done before that.  Moonlight was convinced it would be 10k but I knew it was bigger. And this was without us going down every rabbit hole we saw. It’s 8 chapters, most of the chapters start with a flashback to the past and then jump to the “present.”

Moonlight– seriously, NJ dragged me away from some other HC I had kicking around, & we dove into this one instead.

What was the initial inspiration for your story?

I read Jeanette McCurdy’s book, and as with any time I read anything, my brain said “What if this was Gallavich?” I know Moonlight is an L.A. girl, so I knew I wanted her input. I think I had a rough outline already when I looped her in, but she immediately took what I had and expanded and deepened it, as she always does.

Moonlight– God it’s so much fun to talk trash about all the things you grew up with & around. Los Angeles is filled with opportunities for trash talking. LOL 

If the story is written from a character’s POV, why did you choose this character?

This didn’t start out as either of us deciding to stay in Ian’s POV, but in order to keep Mickey’s motivations a little more opaque, we landed there. Until the latter chapters, at least. For the drama.

Moonlight– No further comment.

What was your favourite scene to write?

All of them? I like Sue so much, and I love writing Frank’s bullshit. RuPaul is fun, too. 

Moonlight– I’ve got two favorite scenes. The first is the scene where they’re kids doing the campground episode. I adored the moments of discovery Ian had there –figuring out that trees existed in southern California, figuring out that he had a serious crush on Mickey, and then the boy he meets on set as he’s running away from his problems. (BTW, 10 punk rock points to anyone who knew the song before I remembered to add a link).

The other scene I loved writing was the rimming scene. In the outline NJ said, “they get together in the sexiest and most romantic way.” And I wanted to throw my laptop at her face. SERIOUSLY, what the actual fuck?! So I got them all the way up to the part where Ian’s naked and stalled out for, like, two weeks. I was on a call with @mybrainismelted saying, “I’m stuck on this scene. I’ve managed to get one dick out, but I haven’t quite figured out how the other one’s gonna get naked AND STILL KEEP THIS BULLSHIT SEXY AND ROMANTIC.” Needless to say, I figured it out. 😁

NJ– Yup! That was, I think, the entire outline for that chapter, originally. One line. I knew that’s what happened at that point in the story, why bother with details? LOL

How did you come up with the title?

Oh geez. Trying to come up with both an AU of Shameless AND a reboot name, both of which would sound semi-natural was tough! But Shame-proof is more than just the title of a fake TV show. It also speaks to how Ian and Mickey were able to finally live wholly as themselves. No more hiding, nothing left unsaid. Without shame, shameless in the very best ways.

Are there any little moments or references you hope readers will notice?

I always throw things in. We both do. But hopefully, readers who haven’t read either our individual or joint back canon can still enjoy the story.

Moonlight– See easter egg question.

Was there anything you struggled to write? If so, how did you overcome this?

No.

NJ– if one of us is stuck, the other usually isn’t or can jostle the other into being unstuck. We’re good like that.

Favorite line in the story?

NJ– @gallavichgeek pointed out two of my favorite lines, but I will repeat them here because … yeah. 

“Hey, come back,” Mickey says softly.

“I’m still here,” Ian answers, a little confused.

“Yeah, but all of you. M’ not ready to let any of you go a moment sooner than I hafta.”

***

“I’d say,” he hesitates, then goes on, “that someday you’re gonna get everything you ever wanted. That all the bad shit, the bullshit, and the pain, it’ll all be worth it.” 

***

If I crash, I’m coming back to haunt you, Ian had answered.

If you crash, I’m diving in after you.

***

Moonlight– “What the fuck? How ‘bout double-dutch no with a cherry on top.” Mickey steadily refuses. (Anytime Mickey is being creative with his cursing & curses is a good time. Bad language & mockery are his love languages.)

What are you most proud about in the story? (plot, characterisation, dialogue, twist/cliffhanger, etc) 

All of it? It’s a great story. 

Moonlight– I’m also proud of the structure we used. It was NJ’s choice to do what basically amounted to two mini chapters in one –past & present colliding, if you will. And it worked so well for this storyline. 

Are there any deleted scenes that didn’t make it to the final story?

Not deleted, so much as we had ideas that didn’t make it to fully fleshed for the final draft.

Are there any ‘behind the scenes’ info you’d like to share - e.g. what’s going on in a character’s head in a certain scene or how you came to write a certain line?

NJ– It’s important for people to know that Mickey in the past was protecting Ian so much more than he was protecting himself, with his bullying behavior. 

Moonlight– God, yes. 

Reading back the story now, is there anything you’d change or add?

NJ– I want more of Ray, more of Sue, more of the Random Studio Infant now grown up. More of Sheila and of Kermit. I want the world to be fuller. And maybe it will, eventually.

Moonlight– Def’ more Ray, he’s funny & I’m sure he & Ian had so many stupid adventures. I think I’d like to see a few of the conversations between Ian & Mickey, but I struggle with that ‘cause I love when there is that air of mystery to a storyline. I don’t necessarily want to be told everything. But I think at least one of those late night conversations we reference would be nice to see.

NJ– yeah, we did have a time limit so some of the scope got condensed. I agree, those conversations would be incredible to see/hear. 

Would you ever write a sequel to this story?

Well…. This story has legs. It has scope beyond what you’ve seen. I have believed, since the outline began, that this was the fic that would make the leap to traditional publishing. Moonlight and I are hoping to expand it and bring it to a publisher. “It’s a crossover between Shameless, I’m Glad My Mom Died, and RWRB.” Who wouldn’t wanna read that? LOL The Gallagher family will shrink a little, Terry will still be his monstrous self. So no, there won’t be a traditional fic sequel. But if we’re all very, very lucky, there will be an expanded version that scratches the same itch.

Are there any ‘easter eggs’ in your story - e.g. references to other stories you’ve written, a trope you often use etc?

The Saint Christopher’s medallion that Ian receives from Mickey? Yeah, the person I wrote that for knows it was for them. 🫶 

If you’ve chosen your most popular story, are you surprised by the popularity?

By far NOT our most popular story. Yet.

Were you nervous or excited to post this story?

I HATE waiting to post- posting a fic like this where it’s all done upfront is hard for me, emotionally. So I was beyond excited for people to read it and love it as much as we do!

Moonlight– NJ really hates not posting immediately. Like, really hates it. This fic was written for the @gallavich-fic-club Summer Camp Event & we had to wait our turn. Which she HATED. 🤣 

Did you have a beta or a friend who helped you as you wrote?

Can we count each other? I’m a genuine writing freak- fast, thoughtless, and I rarely edit beyond typos. (many of which elude me and still end up in the final draft.) Moonlight is the opposite- she’s incredibly deliberate and also deeply and passionately devoted to the editing process. When we edit together, it can look a little argumentative, but we trust each other, so a lot of those conversations end up like, “I don’t see the issue, but I trust your judgment.” We both say it all the time.

Moonlight– D’aw, bb. You’re making me blush. You’re right, I am a meticulous asshole, but your brain is fast & witty. Together, we write good shit. 

NJ-- Also, god the verb tenses in this story gave me fits. I am a grammar nerd, so is Moonlight. But skipping between tenses for the past and present when we wrote straight through- she never had an issue but I regularly was in the wrong tense and had to go back and fix, cursing my own self the whole time. Loudly. Often on the phone with Moonlight. 

Moonlight– 🤣🤣🤣 yeah…

If any one has any comments, words of praise, complaints you’d like to register with our headquarters, please let us know. 

NJ - in the greatest detail, if you’d be so kind.

Anything else you’d like the readers to know about the story?

Moonlight– Yes, the cheese sledding story is based on semi-true events. The guys at my high school used to carry large blocks of ice to the top hill of the local golf course & ride them down. Years later, a dorm mate I knew in grad school told us about his Vermont cheese tour where he saw “giant wheels of cheese” that he swore he could use as a mode of transportation. And so, the cheese sledding story was born. 

NJ-- And I made sure it was at Trump’s golf course because a few years back, a man in New Jersey did some fun vandalism like that and I find it deeply satisfying.

🧀🛷 

[the-darklings]

Hi, I absolutely adore tibyim I know lots of people have said it but you really capture dream so perfectly and I am loving reading the whole story and all of your drabbles. I also love your additional things like your playlist and Pinterest boards. The whole picture you paint is beautiful and I just wanted to let you know that. I know you are accepting some requests for drabbles but if you could possibly do one for dream saying “I don’t think you understand the… effect you have on me.” (From the Pinterest text posts for dream/wanderer 👀). Please don’t worry if not I just love all of your content for this fic, thank you for all you are doing and this whole story is helping me deal with a lot of personal stuff I have going on atm and I just wanted to thank you for adding some rays of sunshine into the world. ✨

pea-sized because i'm about to head off and shower. I've been a bit :/// these last few days, so apologies for the slower replies/interactions. not proofread. We die like Corinthian's lovers.

“I do not think you understand the… effect you have on me, Wanderer.”

Your mouth wobbles, resting agape while you process his words. It's rare for Dream to cut you off mid-speech—rarer, still, for him to do so with sudden, quietly fierce declarations.

"I was just talking," you mumble, your brows knitting at once.

"Yes, quite so," he agrees quietly, still peering at you intently.

Your mouth presses together this time, reading the small tells. Details you've come to decipher in him the way one may solve a puzzle. Dream of the Endless is near impossible individual to read. A tall, severe, often sullen paradox, unmoved in his iron-like convictions and stubborn ways.

Nearly, but not entirely.

Balancing on your heels, you prowl closer, your hands falling to rest behind your back. You stop right before him, gazing at him from beneath your lashes. A small, playful smile plays across your mouth, and Dream's chest expands with a silent, rather telling breath.

"And what effect may that be, Dream Lord?" you ask.

Your faux-innocent, coy question is met with a dry: "A highly vexing and a deeply distracting one."

Your mouth shapes a small 'o'. "Then I'll speak no words, offer you no smiles, and bestow no kisses upon you. It would be rather disastrous if I distracted one of the Endless so terribly. How selfish of me."

Dream's features ease slightly at your teasing, the tiniest of smiles edging across his mouth. "Most selfish indeed. But I'm afraid I will have to renegotiate."

"Oh?" you prompt with a raised brow. "Which part?"

Dream takes a step closer, and the space around you fills with him. The Dreaming, as always, moves with its Lord and cold night, dry books, and daydreams in their sweet, velvety softness wrap around you. An arm around your waist, a steadying body pressing into yours. Endless. With power, few could ever match.

"All parts," he replies.

Your smile widens, your fingers knotting in the lapels of his midnight coat. "Rather selfish of you. If Dream King wants a kiss, he needs only ask for one."

"Nicely, I presume?"

A small hmm vibrates in your throat, implication laid bare, and Dream's silvery, glowing gaze darkens. "Stardust..."

You slant closer, holding him by the lapels, and Dream's soft exhales kiss over your mouth. He leans into you as you did, his grip around you constricting, fingers knotting tighter around you though his features betray little of his internal struggle. You veer left at the last moment, just when heat grazes near your parted mouth, instead skimming your lips across his cool, hollowed cheek. You linger there, imprinting love and devotion there.

This close, Dream's exhale is shuddering, near pained, but it's hard to judge if it's frustration or elation or a wicked mix of both.

"Yes," you hum happily as you pull away, releasing your hold on him. "It would seem I do have quite the effect. I'll be sure to abuse it in the future. You can never escape my evil wiles now."

A deep, rumbling sound builds in Dream's throat. He sweeps his coat around you abruptly, and your delighted, knowing laugh is lost in the pockets of the universe.

You don't make it to bed. Not any tactile version of it anyway.

[peculiar-potato]

Among Us animated series trailer analysis post!

(+ a theory on who dies first and who the impostor might be!)

here’s the trailer if you want to watch it yourself :)

This is going to be pretty long, whoops.

~~~~

Firstly, overall impressions on the tone/artstyle!

I mentioned a lot about the art style and everything in my first analysis post, but I just want to reiterate that it’s fun and I like it, and I like seeing how they take details of the game and translate them into the show.

From what I can tell the tone seems pretty lighthearted, well, as lighthearted as a murder mystery can be. It’s a little silly but in a charming way- but with a slight hint of dread. Kinda what I expected.

I think there’s still probably a little way to go before the show is ready considering there were no voice lines in the trailer, and it seemed more like “these are the characters look how fun they are” then actual plot/scenes, but that’s okay I actually really like that we’re not really seeing any glimpses of the plot or voice acting yet!

Anyways, now to the actual trailer!

So opening shot here is The Skeld. We already kinda knew it was going to be set there, but confirmation! At the moment I don’t think the planet/moon/asteroid thing behind them is important, it’s probably just to fill up the background, but who knows, it could be something!

Maybe impostor(s) come from there or something… or maybe it’s just a rock in space.

(My theories get better I promise)

With this image, we finally have an answer to my question from last time- what kind of pizza do the beans eat?

I noticed immediately that there was prosciutto and arugula (a specific kind of bitter lettuce) on the pizza, and with a little googling and a few subsequent suggested searches, I managed to find recipes for fig and prosciutto pizza with, you guessed it, arugula and cheese. (There were multiple kinds of cheese it could be- goat, gorgonzola, mozzarella to name a few)

So those round things are figs. Who would have thought?

Next up we see our first glance of the additional room they added to the Skeld for the show- the kitchen! And the first glance at a depiction of an impostor!

Yellow and Brown seem like good buddies. I wonder how long that friendship will last when impostor stuff starts happening.

My guess is the depiction of the impostor here is a bit more figurative- Nobody really notices them (expect one bean, but we’ll get to that later), and they just kinda seem to be lurking around being scary. Feels more like, idk the idea of an impostor than the actual impostor? I don’t know if I’m explaining that super well.

Maybe this is like the impostor checking out the crew before they start actually impostoring. Idk.

Also, seems like one shadow (although who knows honestly). Maybe it’s a sign of there just being one among the crew? …or maybe I’ve flipped the other way and am interpreting this too literally now.

Regardless, the impostor(s) do/does certainly seem very alieny.

(Alternate impostor conspiracy theories- impostor switches between crewmates/they’re all impostors (which would kinda defeat the purpose tho) or everyone’s just paranoid and there is no impostor (I feel like people would get disappointed by that though so they wouldn’t do it)).

After that we head to navigation.

Here, Red is slacking off playing video games (oddly enough with a human in them- as someone pointed out in the Innersloth discord server, which has some interesting implications. To expand on that myself, it seems like a kind of ancient-civilization human, which is interesting. I tried to figure out what game this is with a reverse image search but I couldn’t, I wonder if it’s a real game or something one of the devs made or something else.)

Anyways Red receives a call from a shadowy figure, presumably a boss of some sort, and scrambles to look like they’re doing what they’re supposed to. The image looks kinda similar to how they’re animating the impostor, but this could be an intentional red herring or just how they’re showing an unrevealed character or an “everyman” type being. Regardless, vaguely ominous.

As for navigation itself, I like the vibes honestly. I want to go there. I love the little headslug bobble head and a lot of the details in the background. Can’t assign everything there directly to a task, but it does have the three consoles and the chair. Also I noticed the bright yellow sticky note- like the “dum” visor cosmetic! I wonder what those papers on the floor say.

Next we’re in the cafeteria. (You can tell by the coloring of the wall, this is probably the vent near weapons)

A couple things I noticed here!

First of all, everyone’s very nonchalant about Lime venting. That seems to mean it’s established that Lime is an engineer like the role in the game (honestly I’m a little surprised a new role was included here!) and that the crew knows this and doesn’t think Lime traveling though vents is a big deal. Will this extend to other crewmembers? Will this put suspicion on Lime as things progress? Who knows!

Also, small thing here, but Cyan signs Orange’s waiver (on the clipboard they seem to carry with them everywhere) simply as “Cyan”. I assumed they would just be going by colors the whole time and not have names or anything, but this kinda confirms that.

(By extension, maybe colors aren’t even codenames or anything for them lore-wise, maybe their names are literally their colors. Also makes me think there may be just one of each color in the entire series if they sign simply as a color. Then again, here I am over analyzing small details again.)

We follow Lime through a vent and into the reactor, which is being watched on the cameras by Purple.

I don’t have a ton to say about Purple, they just seem to be doing their job here. I do find it interesting that the shadow blocks out the reactor camera and then makes it malfunction (is something going to happen in there?) but it may just be a kind of moving the trailer forward type thing.

Also, side note, what’s Lime’s deal with the reactor? They run up to it and snuggle it with hearts floating above them. Engineer really loves their engine I guess haha. I know people have to have already been meming this.

Next is a scene in the medbay.

They do seem to have the medical scanner in the background there, so I wonder if that visual task will ever come into play.

Also I see the MIRA logo on a poster in the background, so my guess is they are somehow under/related to the MIRA corporation.

Green is blushing as Blue checks their reflexes. I remember Blue’s character being described as very attractive, so it could be possible that everyone gets that way around them, or it could just be Green. Idk I’m not here to navigate the minefield that is shipping beans.

White is busy swirling around wine(?) until of course, the impostor shadow thing creeps in as with all the other scenes.

This time, however, someone notices. White.

My guess is White is going to die, and they’re going to die pretty early on.

I was already kinda suspecting White was going to die first simply because of how their character is described. Rich, here because they won some kind of contest, seems to be a bit of a jerk. Feels like the kind of person who would die first idk, just a vibe I’ve had for a while.

Also, I was thinking that 11 is kind of an interesting number, especially considering there were 12 original colors. (Side note, my guess is they’re waiting to include Pink alongside Coral and Rose as “the pinks” or something if they add the new colors in a later season). I feel like maybe they wanted a main crew of ten (because that is what the original lobby size is and thus what a lot of people associate with the game), but needed someone to die early to set up the plot so they needed up with 11.

Now, White being the first and only one to notice the shadow creeping around, and to immediately look terrified and be overtaken by it on screen? My guess is they’re the first to go.

One could also argue that this is an indication of them being an impostor, but idk that feels too obvious of a way to reveal that. (Also I have a different theory as to who it could be). My guess is we won’t know who the impostor is as the audience for a while.

Finally we have this image. I have quite a bit to say about this one!

First of all, I just love this image in general. Makes me so happy to see all the beans!

Anyways, the impostor shadow thing comes in and covers the “not” in “we’re not dead” and I love that I think that’s fun. Also, again, love the falling apart blinds (why are there blinds on a spaceship?) and the balloons duct taped to the window.

We also see them eating the aforementioned fig and prosciutto pizza. There are also a lot of red spheres on the table, which I haven’t quite figured out yet. Fruits of some kind? Or decorations perhaps? Maybe all red gumballs? Whatever they are, Orange is holding one. There’s bologna or summer sausage or something near Brown, and a gray disk in front of it. Not sure about that either, looks kinda like a giant coin, or one of those round lights you tap to turn on and off. Red’s reading what seems to be a rule book (they really don’t seem prepared aha), and there’s also an image of a crewmate on the other side. I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be Pink or Tan.

Blue has a piece of paper with a skull on it which looks pretty ominous, and Brown is holding a knife, but I think those are just red herrings related to their professions. Blue’s a doctor and Brown’s a chef, and Yellow is also holding a cooking implement.

Also, once again, no sign of an emergency meeting button. (Unless the weird gray circle is related somehow?)

With that I was almost ready to wrap up the analysis…

but then I noticed something.

Idk if it’s just me but this image is giving the vibe of the Leonardo Da Vinci painting The Last Supper. I don’t know where my mind pulled this from, but I just kinda looked at it was like… wait this looks familiar. At first I thought it was just my brain making connections, but when you look at the two images right beside each other, it seems like a pretty deliberate parallel.

If it is intentional… Orange is in almost the exact same position that Judas (the betrayer) was in in the painting.

Just saying ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe the red gumball thing made them an impostor /s

Also, just spitballing here, not really part of the theory, if Orange is working against the crew (either as an impostor or an accomplice), and they’re apparently affiliated with HR… what kind of implications could this have for the lore as a whole? Red’s probably just talking to their boss or something, but it feels ominous- what if MIRA (assuming that’s who’s in charge here) is in on the whole impostor thing?

But again, this is also kind of obvious of a hint, so I’m slightly skeptical of it.

Anyways, lots to think about with this, as you can tell I’m pretty excited.

[mayhems-cannon]

Show us your oldest piece of art you have on hand.

What is your favourite piece that you have done?

What do you like drawing the most?

List at least one of your “artspirations.”

What do you think you could stand to improve on?

ahh!! this is gonna be a long one! aaaa

Show us your oldest piece of art you have on hand.

i have this old Papyrus drawing from a 2018 sketchbook i filled way too fast. i was really into deltarune back then, and it expanded a little to undertale as well, since there was quite a bit of overlap (obviously).

What is your favorite piece you have done?

probably this one, since i spent so much time "in the zone" doing it. it was an extreme trance, it felt so nice... i suppose it's moreso tied to what i felt drawing it than what it looks like in the end (even if it still looks pretty nice)

What do you like drawing the most?

bodies are really fun for me to draw, but i also really enjoy sketching outside, whether it be in the commute or just standing somewhere and drawing a sculpture or anything.

List at least one of your artspirations.

there's actually a ton! but i guess, here's a few that come to mind:

Francis Xie, because of fucking course (aka the guy who got me into almost everything i'm doing now, from ultrakill the game to actually drawing digitally as a whole)

Milkywaes, with her very cartoonly and self assured drawings!! her works are basically what i aspire to achieve in terms of an alternative art style, she shares it with Yoh Yoshinari as well

Kabi Nagata, for her very raw yet very simple depictions of human emotions

Shin'Ichi Sakamoto, for his eye for keen detail and chirurgical precision, and his use of metaphors for expressing sounds without onomatopeias

Ayami Kojima, for her beautiful bodies and poetic renders

Mossacannibalism, he draws very consistently and always what he wants, i aspire to his level of free spirit in what you wish to draw and in doing it without asking yourself anything else

Kim Jung Gi!!!!

Akihiko Yoshida, who inspired me to go into making art specifically for games

Alphonse Mucha, Renoir, Caillebotte, Sorolla and Claude Monet for the more classical artists

i also just try to look around and observe and assimilate things that interest me, those can come from anything, literally. juice bottle, childrens' books, a graffiti on the wall, anything can be source for study and observation in my book, but maybe i'm just being a little weird. whoops

What do you think you could stand to improve on?

i'd say faces and dynamic shots, panelling as well. faces of literally any kind, i mean. i've stopped drawing faces consistently once i got into Ultrakill and only now am i understanding both how they work and how i never actually knew how to draw faces decently. dynamic shots and panelling go more hand in hand, stuff like two characters fighting or cooler looking pieces. i think i'm not good at drawing pieces that are meant to look cool in a shounen like way, which ties into panelling as well since learning how to panel things include subjects such as fighting or action scenes, but even regular panelling i think is something i really need to work on... ah well

[after-witch]

Hello! feel free to ignore this since it can be a very abstract/long thing to delve into but when writing a fic how do you go about it? I really admire your writing style because I feel like you always use the right amount of describing the setting/use of dialogue/feelings that immerse the reader completely. I've started writing a fic for JJK and it feels...flat? Somehow? like I don't know how much I should include or assume that the reader knows this about the universe. I also feel like pacing can be a tricky thing and I want the reader engaged but I don't want them to get bored. This is prob just my anxiety talking but anyway, I do really like your works and you're a big writing inspiration!

So I'm actually surprised to hear this because I often think that my pieces don't have a lot of world related details, and they often read like you're just familiar with the world because you're a part of it.

But if you do think they have enough detail, maybe that's why? Usually when I'm writing I try to write it from the perspective of a character that's existing within that world, so details that are included tend to be things that you, as a character, would notice. If that makes any sense?

My typical process for writing involves expanding whatever spark the story, whether it's a prompt or a piece of dialogue or a scenario. And then I kind of just pick a point I want to get to, even if it's one scene away, and I start writing an outline from there. usually once I get writing with an outline, I try my best to finish it in a few sessions so I stay in the groove

I wish I would keep some of my outlines so I could show people that want to know, but it's basically sort of like first draft impressions plus directions for filling in stuff.

Like it might be something like--

Chrollo sits so still you think he might be dead (if only) but then--

"I was thinking, dearest"

You freeze, disappointed gutted wishing he would just go the fuck away for once

[Chrollo explains that he thinks you ought to not be left alone anymore]

I do think outlines help with pacing as well I sometimes break my outlines down with little dashes into separate parts, which I may or may not keep in the final piece. Like you want each scene to kind of be the same length or if you do have scenes of different lengths, stagger them alternatively. Like long scene, short scene, long scene, short scene. Although that's just personal preference and you can do it any way you like!!

I'm using voice to text so this is getting a bit rambly but I hope this helps

[raid3r-r4bbit]

I cant tag you for some reason @acesatyr but I have typed all this up. I will get to fishing and foraging at some point, But this was already really long, lol.

I had originally written this in another word doc and realized I had typed over six paragraphs about seeds and germination alone. I really like farming.

Overall, this is mostly the generic info; I can detail or explain anything in depth, but I’m summarizing the important stuff, and the details are easily researchable. :)

A Revised and Bullet-Pointed Essay about Organic Apocalyptic Farming

Seeds, the basics:

-Stock up on seeds, they come in packets and are usually cheap depending on where you get them from. I like to store seeds in a mason jar, with a tightly sealed lid. It’s important they’re dry, and if possible, refrigerated. if not, any cold, dark, dry place will do.

-Germination is an easy process, DAMP (not sopping wet. DAMP) peice of thin cloth or paper towel, seeds laid out evenly, and put into either a ziplock baggie or something like a pyrex container. Again, air tight, low-mid light, warm (not hot, not direct sunlight) enviroment.

-if you see a lil mold it’s okay, as long as the root sprouts they’re still viable.

Plants I would Reccomend:

-Peppers are great because they grow quickly, can be canned or stuffed and add a lot to you meals and food. They also don't really take up as much room as some of the other plants i'm about to list. They aren’t the most filling and you cant live off of them but if you want to improve your quality of life or make a lot of money at the end of the world I guarantee you anyone who can actually cook or has the spices and foods to do it is set for life. I would legitimately kill a man for my mom’s pepperoni stuffed pickled peppers. I stabbed my brother over a jar once I am not kidding.

-Pretty much any kind of spice or herb really, I would HIGHLY recommend growing lavender, mint, thyme, and anything lemony or citrus scented, as I mentioned on a previous post, they’re good for pest control. lavender is a very temperamental plant, but most herbs, once ou get them going can be pretty hardy for lil leafs. Also, depending on the amount you’re growing of each most of them don’t take up too much space. Also basil cause it smells nice and I told you to.

-Corn, wheat, and any kind of grain is obviously a good idea if you want bread, but all of them are pretty difficult and require a lot of space. Potatoes are great because they can be used to make bread and alcohol as well.

-Zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes, and summer squash, and pretty much any gourd/melon/squash plant are easy to grow, but keep in mind many of these are expanding and/or vine plants and require a lot of space. They make a lot of food, but tomatoes and cucumbers in particular will actively choke other plants. Like vines wrapping around and leaves growing over top and roots entangling level of choking. Keep apart. but they’re good for you. eggplant, tomato and cucumeber are the highlight here.

-For leafy greens kale and chard are super easy to grow and grow pretty fast. Like any leafy green, too much sunlight will scorch them so be careful. I like to grow chard in an old (was some kinda biohazard barrel my dad stole from some pharmaceutical company, and cleaned out) cause it’s more than deep enough for the roots, but also wide enough to grow plenty. Also kale is high in vit c so if you don't live somewhere tropical you won't die of scurvy :)

-If you plan on raising animals or having a crop FIELD and not a PLOT, then grow long grass into hay, because it is good feed, but can also be used to cover ground to protect from birds. If you sow seeds by yeeting them into the dirt, birds will eat them if you don't cover them and you will die hungry.

-If possible, Alfalfa is also good for animals ( in small quantities) because they like it, or sunflowers. you can eat sunflowers, they produce a lot of seeds adn the seeds can be used as feed. ( same with corn.)

-Mushrooms. can be dried, easy to grow, grow really fast, and can be used as filler for meat dishes. (you can also grow the drug kind because it’s the end of the world and no one is going to stop you)

-tobacco for tabacco

AMNIMALS:

-unless you have a lot of very protected land you’re going to want animals that are small and potentially multipurpose.

-chickens are great because they dont need an exorbitant amount of space, can be used for eggs and meat, their feathers can be used for a number of things, if you dont like eating chicken guts (whats wrong with you) then they can be used as fertilizer, bait or as part of stock, and the bones can also be used for broth or to make small simple tools like needles or pen nibs. However, they actually need a more varied diet then you’d think. if you dont have calcium powder, their own unfertilized crushed up eggs, or scrambled with the shell is good for them once in a while, or chopped up leaves from your plants. Otherwise, a mix of corn and seeds is pretty good. DO NOT feed chickens wheat, oats or bread. Once in a while maybe, as like a super special treat, but too much can be harmful. Also, they eat bugs so they can just be outside if you’re okay with that.

-Goats produce milk, fur/wool (not all breeds do both, most don't do both, actually) and they’re more portable than cows. they also take up less space. A big downside is that goats are not only social animals, but they also need a good bit of stimulation and activity and they can be pretty noisy. My uncle built a jungle gym pyramid for his goats, but be warned, Joe Bob chewed his way out of the barn and needed rescuing from the top of the tower in the middle of a hurricane once. Goats will pretty much eat anything, and their poop is good for compost, Joe Bob and his siblings pretty much live off scraps and they’re happy lil dudes ( ladies actually, Joe Bob is the only boy)

-Rabbits! (the rabbit in raider rabbit is actually because i used to raise rabbits and am fond of them as a farm animal and because nobody can pronouce my name so they just call me Bun but we dont talk about that) probably one of the quietest animals you can keep on a farm, they can be kept in cages, breed quickly, can be used for fur, leather (rabbit and goat leather is great for making paper and cloth, not really good for protective leather) meat, and bones. The biggest issue I can see in the event of a wasteland survival situation is rabbits need a lot of clean water, salt and if you get angouras they pretty much need constant brushing. Be warned, if you dont know how to properly care for and breed them the females will castrate the males or eat her babies :) it is just a traumatizing as it sounds :) I speak from experience :) A good and cheap meat rabbit is the california white rabbit, they're about small to med size, and really simple to look after. Angouras are not great for meat, but their fur makes amazing wool. They eat veggies ( not carrots, too much sugar) oats, hay, their babies, and other leafy greens.

-Quail are something im not super familiar with that was my sibling’s thing, but from what i understand they need less space then chickens, and they’re good meat birds. eggs can be good for feeding other animals, but they’re not really good for much else. Also they’re really fucking loud and will fight each other so maybe not?

-Ducks are a lot like chickens, again, all of them can be eaten or used, and also eggs. eat more leafy greens and stuff and really like having somewhere to swim, better for more open environments. Ducks like to eat a lot and will get really fat really quick ( not a good thing) so be careful. however, if they imprint on you, they will follow you everywhere which makes rounding them up easy.

-Fish are great because their water can be cycled and the yuck water can go to the plants, which is great cause all that fish poop and algae is really good fertilizer. Fish are good for you and I love them. An while they’re not easy to port around, if you feed them micro worms or lil shrimps you can grow their food mostly indefinity and freeze it even. Also ive never heard any fish ( other than that one pufferfish) make noise. keep in mind, you will still have to maintain the water levels and the ph and all that, and they can take up a lot of space.

WHAT METHOD? HOW DO THE FARM? OTHER?

-this is pretty much up to you, I’m a really big fan of hydroponics, but i typically stick to “recycle farming” which is basically using whatever I have on hand and getting creative.

-if you’re going to use a plot of land, its a good idea to make sure you have a fence that goes around, over and under. Pests like groundhogs, rabbits, deer, ghouls, and myself will do more then just walk up and take you plants and animals.

-I recommend quiet animals that can be stored in cages and indoors to avoid larger predators, but any animals will attract them. Bears will break into pens, so if possible either store them INSIDE INSIDE, (like concrete building) or outside in a pen so you dont die.

-Living in the wasteland, or growing up with parents that think it basically is will teach you to utilize anything and everything. bottles and cans are great pots, old trashcans can be used if your dad wont steal chemical barrels from your local pharm plant for you, tires can be shredded into mulch, old rebar is my favorite thing for climbing plants ( sturdy, easy to stick into the ground and remove, pretty source able) Animal parts can be used for fishing bait or fertilizer, corn husks and other dry leaf litter can make good ground cover is hay isn't an option, ect.

-Plastic sheets and table cloths with holes cut in them for the plants are great for vine plants to grow through.

-scarecrows ain’t shit. Most birds are too stupid to notice and the ones that will are smart enough to figure out it’s not real pretty quick so all you’re doing is wasting good clothes and materials and scaring the shit out of yourself when you forget and look out the window and see a giant man in your field. Get a cat.

-it’s the apocalypse. grow weed.

How source plant food?

-poop and leafy plant scraps. animal poop, your own poop, your neighbors poop, poop. plant scraps, leafy greens, peels, rotten material.

-Get a big plastic tub or my favorite stolen barrels and shovel in some dead soil, layer in some plant scrap, dry leaf litter or corn husks, poop, leaf litter, and add creepy crawlies if you can. give a stir or shake every so often.

-avoid flies. as gross as it is, it’s a good idea to keep it warm, moist and humid, so very closed to avoid them.

-you can also add egg shells to give some calcium to your bug buddies.

-corpses.

What do I keep? how do I use it? (animals)

-egg shells are useful for a number of things, dried and nicely crushed they can be used for calcium for other animals. Or protection spells.

-bones for the same thing just don't feed the animals to themselves. I joked about this with the rabbits a bit ( a little cannibalism with them is inevitable and wont hurt them, but still) but cannibalism can lead to a lot of really bad neurological conditions that can harm you as well if you consume their products. Same with chickens, you feeding them scrambled eggs and shells once in a while is good for them, but if they start consistently eating their eggs you need to seperate them for a bit.

-fur and skin are great, esp for tanning, hides can make all kinds of things from paper, to water pouches and other bags, and fabric in general. being able to make cloth and leather is something a lot of people really overlook.

-Bones but for tools. Having a good needle and thread is really underestimated.

-Intestines can be used to make sausage, and other things.

-i will eat the chicken liver if you don't want it but it’s your anemia.

-make jerky/salted meat. both wont last forever, but you dont need to freeze it if you dont have power and will last longer then raw or cooked meat. salt cured meat lasts about 2-3 weeks, so if you’re solo or a small group and you did what i said and got small animals you wont be wasting food, and you dont have to butcher something every day.

-jerky can last a lil longer if stored properly, say it with me now! *air tight containers* you might get a solid month or so out of jerky, and it can mostly be rehydrated, or eaten as is.

-rendered animal fat or tallow makes good cooking oil, and while a little time consuming is not super difficult.

-make butter and cheese, not for survival, but quality of life.

Help I grew to many plants!

-can them, dumbass.

-fr though, canned foods can last a decent amount of time and can be really useful if you live somewhere with a winter, or can farm constantly. I mentioned already, but canned stuffed peppers are a favorite of mine, along with pickled eggs, which I make pretty regularly because a world without pickled eggs is the darkest thing i can imagine.

-feed them to your animals or back to your plants.

-throw them at your friends. (you haven't lived until you’ve hocked a rotten pumpkin at your little brother)

-dry them, fruit leather and veggie chips can be rehydrated and stored even longer than certain canned or preserved foods.

What else?

-learn how to purify water. there’s a million non tech versions, but in a sinch, the boil method is good if you just need to water plants. just dont pour boiling water on your crop.

-do use boiling water for weeds though. you can also feed weeds to your animals, but boiling water is just water, it’s not going to kill the soil or poison you.

-learn to fish and forage, theres a whole lot of things that aren't easy to grow or raise that can be tasty and good for you.

-learn to make fire. be prepared to put out fire. Dry crops will burn for days, so keep them watered, but you need to be able to burn exccess compost and cook.

-farming smells so bad. I love farming but animal poop, rotten veggies, innards, decay and compost, burning compost smells. if you cant stomach it and want the easy way out, thats called starvation or you better be beefy and prepped enough to raid others. or both, gorw your shit and steal from others, i dont care.

-forgot to mention earlier, but fermented foods like kimchi, kombucham etc are really good for you so yea. I might also teach you how to make kombucha cause my mom made me drink it so by god ill make you drink it too. ( i actually love it and it's good for making vinegar.)

-And forgot, legumes, like beans, peanuts, letils etc are really good plant protein. just not fun to grow, (ecept for beans. beans are actually very fun to to grow.)

[chaos-era]

Moonflower [Deena/Selena]

So, I've been completely brain-rotting over these two for a while now (if it wasn't obvious given the sheer amount of art I've done and the fact that I plan on making a full fancomic off the premise). I was going to wait to implement and write all this out through the comic, but frankly, I'm a full-time student AND have a full-time retail job. Free time does not exist.

So, my solution is to word vomit all my ideas about these two, their story/relationship, etc. Things are subject to change as things progress but lord only knows I believe I will simply implode if I can't throw this all Somewhere.

So I present to the five of you active in the Nexomon fandom:

An ungodly long textpost about a relationship that an autistic 20 year old is very mentally ill about:

So, some basic questions out of the way:

Who the fuck is Selena?

Selena is the name I gave the female protagonist from the first Nexomon game. I've given her own character and backstory that follows the first game's plot and all that jazz with some added details relating to her family. Basically, I actually made the protagonist from the first game an actual character.

Why Deena/Selena?

This entire ship became an idea in my brain solely because of the canon appearance of Solus's human form. I saw blue hair and an unknown second parent, thought about the sheer angst of it all, and my brain went on a god damn spree. With some time, I thought even just first game Deena/Protag was cute, so thus, the brain rot continues.

Moonflower?

I think having ship names be something more than just smashing their names together is better. The name itself is from Deena's whole plant/flower/life thing and Selena is because, y'know. Selena. Name relating to the moon. Moonflower. I'm real creative.

Why the name Selena for the protagonist?

Similar to the whole Moonflower name I just based it off another thing, that other thing being Solus/Omnisun. Sun and moon. Once again, I'm super creative.

How close to the canon plot is this AU/story?

So for most of the plot of the first game, it's pretty close. Some scenes would be expanded on, developed relationships more, etc., but otherwise the plot was fine. Soon as we hit the complete ending? Take the previous plot and go ahead and chuck it out the window.

There are similar elements, of course. Raging tyrants, Vados and Amelie, Solus (obviously), but the timeline and characters present is completely different and thus relationships between characters is also very different. Characters like Metta (James) and Ellie are not only still around but are active parts of the story instead of being swept under a rug.

---

So, the way I explain things best is through a QnA sort of format, wherein someone asks a question and I answer it, and go from there. So that's how this is going to be formatted. You can skip around and stuff easier that way too :)

Plot holes that I filled:

Why was Deena a similar age to the main protagonist of the first game?

So, the main protagonist is canonically a child, around 15. They're called a child, act like a child, very clearly a child. The Nexolord (Metta/James) is very clearly an adult. All seems fine there. The problem is:

How is Deena so much younger than all her family?

Deena is canonically kid number 4 out of 7, yet she looks and acts the same age as the main protagonist. And it's not like she just looks young, we see her in Nexomon: Extinction as a whole ass adult, same with the protagonist.

My "fix" for this is to make it that she was not in a place where time ticked by the same way. That place being the Netherworld.

In canon, time doesn't move the same way in the Netherworld that it does in the real world. It seems to either put a complete pause on it, or it moves really, really, slow in comparison to the real world. Which, given it's the Nexomon equivalent of the afterlife (not sure if it's just Hell so I'm just gonna stick with it being the afterlife), makes at least some sense. Time doesn't matter once your dead, whomp whomp.

So how/when did Deena get to the Netherworld?

In my AU, she flees there after being disowned by Omnicron. More specifically, she flees at the beginning of Ulzar's crusade against Omnicron. She knows he's hunting down the children of Omnicron, and after all the damage her siblings and father have done to humanity, she knows he's not going to listen to reason. Not wanting to be found by either her family OR Ulzar, she takes her chances in the Netherworld, where she hides out for a very, very long time. She watches her father and siblings be defeated and their souls are locked away in the Netherworld, and believes all will be fine. All of them are in a place they can't just get out of and do more damage, and she's also safe from them - separated.

That is, until a certain bowling ball with ribbons starts resurrecting them.

Deena catches on to what the Nexolord is doing, and, realizing she can't sit idle as her family tries to destroy the world again, decides to return to the real world. But, because she's been separated from her family for so long and time just doesn't work the same, she looks and acts like a fifteen year old girl. She doesn't know how things in the modern era work, she knows plenty about history, and so hides her lack of knowledge under the guise of being an explorer.

---

Now, onto the more fun part:

How the hell did that relationship become a thing.

On Selena's side, it's real simple - human emotions and all that. There's a joke somewhere about how in my AU Ellie was her childhood crush and something something green hair, light eyes, etc. but that joke comic was made already and go find it on my page /lh /j. Selena's just a simple girl who thinks the green-haired ditz is cute and will follow her around like a sad, lost puppy.

For Deena, however, tis a bit more complicated, but it can be summarized akin to meeting someone who's as passionate as you are, someone who matches your passion and drive and energy.

Selena and Deena both want both monsters and humans to live together happily. The one thing that made Selena "different" in comparison to other people with those ideals is that instead of wishing and waiting, she actually went out to try and do it. She chased down the Nexolord, she fought Omnicron's children, and she never once turned back.

That bravery is something Deena aspires to have. She fled from her father's wrath before, but now, here, was this mortal girl with no special powers facing off against demi-gods without a second thought because she believes in her cause. That, to Deena, is worth so much. That's what makes Selena so special.

All that to say, their relationship is complicated. It's impossible for it not to be. But that whole "fighting for what she believes in" comes in again for Selena - she does really, truly love Deena. She did before and after finding out about her true identity - that didn't change anything for her. And it's through Selena that Deena can really see the best humanity has to offer, and she doesn't want to lose that. Selena has devoted herself entirely to Deena, not as some godly figure or because she's a scary monster, but because she's just Deena, and it's the first time she's been appreciated as herself and not as a title.

They're not perfect. Deena hides her problems and bottles up her emotions while Selena doesn't know when to sit down and stay down when it comes to fighting for what she believes in. They get frustrated with each other, they argue here and there, but they work on things.

And that progress definitely gets accelerated by Solus being born. Hard to argue with one another about how they shouldn't bottle up their problems or should stop letting comments get under their skin about a dumb plan if your trying to keep a small, helpless creature destined to become a literal God in your care.

That's all for now from me but I am ALWAYS open to questions. Anon or not I do not care I am ill about them :3

[hirukochan]

Hi I'm wondering how to improve my writing

Hi there!

Oof, idk if I'm the right person to ask there. Writing has always come natural to me. I started creating my own stories when I was a child. Storytelling just has always been a part of my life, but I will try!

Practice.

Writing is a skill. It may come easier to some people just like art, dance, crafts - any creative activity really - but it is still a skill and a skill can only be improved by doing it over and over and over.

Don’t be afraid to try.

I’ve seen countless posts of people being stuck on their worldbuilding for years without ever writing a single word. World building is great, collecting resources to improve your writing is all good and well but they will be of no help to you if you don’t ever actually start to write.

Don’t be scared to suck.

I’ve written plenty of stuff that’s bad. I’ve deleted entire chapters and started over because it was just not working. It can be frustrating and it’s fine to take a step back for a moment and come back with fresh ideas. Not everything you write has to be shared with the public. Scribble down brainfarts on a napkin you never look at again. Fill notebooks with story shreds you’ll never expand on. Just write. Get comfortable with writing. Try out new things even if those aren’t what you want to write. Every creative writing class will tell you to not write fiction and while I disagree with the notion that fiction is somehow less, it is not bad advice to step out of your comfort zone and challenge your skills. I wrote a few short stories that were set in the ‘real’ world and while it was hard, I think it really helped me improve.

It’s worth experimenting with different mediums as well. Some people prefer to write on the computer, some do their best work on paper. I like to switch between the two when I notice myself getting stuck. I have one story I write almost exclusively on paper. It’s annoying to type it all into my computer after but it’s worth the extra effort.

Read a lot. Artists look at other artists’ work and study every detail of their work. Every author has a different style. By reading other peoples’ works in different genres you broaden your own horizon.

For years I got stuck on all these rules some people have made up for writing and while some of them are sound advice, most published authors break those rules too. Unless you want to get traditionally published, writing is a hobby and hobbies are supposed to be fun. Don’t get hung up on trying to be perfect. Just write. You can come back later and edit or don’t. I don’t. I do some haphazard spell checking and that is it. I don’t enjoy editing. I don’t like rereading my chapter over and over to try and get it perfect. Perfection is a myth anyway. Some people will not like what you write and that is fine. Your audience is out there, even if it might take a moment to find it.

It’s easy to get discouraged when you don’t get the response to your work you crave. No amount of telling yourself you write for yourself will change that. In the end, we know our stories. We don’t need to write them down to know them, nor publish them on the internet. We do that because we want to share our little world with other people and in a time were kudos and comments are at an all time low it is easy to feel like you are shouting into a forest and your words get lost between the branches.

I’ve let myself get discouraged by this too. It’s the reason A Servant of Death hasn’t been updated in forever. I recently published two oneshots I’m pretty proud of but because they are both rare pairs, I got barely any responses.

I can’t tell you how to deal with disappointment. It’s something I struggle with. I just have to believe that my stories reach people. That someone is glad they were written even if they are too shy or busy to tell me.

Find fandom friends. I find it is much easier to deal with my disappointment when a story doesn’t do as well as I think it might deserve (and I’ve been spoilt rotten with the responses to ‘Your tears are of no relevance to me’, going back to my rare pairs and less popular ships after that was and is a hard transition). Join a discord, be active on tumblr, find your people that share the same brain rot as you. I’ve made so many great friends over at the Snarriet Discord, it’s a wonderful community - you just need to find it.

Now I know that even if no one else will read it, @snapesmorningcoffee and @loneamaryllis are always among the first to read my sick and twisted stories. I can’t tell you how much of a difference that makes!

So…yeah. My biggest advice is to just write. Forget all else. Set a timer for five minutes and write as much as you possibly can in that time even if you just end up writing ‘idk what to write’ over and over. You’ll automatically get better at it the more you do it, the longer you do it.

[redux-iterum]

Question for you both. Did you the amount of plot you've condensed surprise you? After all, Tigerstar was the cause of a lot of unnecessary fluff, before and after his death. I can't help but wonder how much stuff is going to be cut and rearranged before you reach the lake lol. -Formerly known as Ravenwing anon, now an anon no longer!

LYNX: Yes and no. A lot of excess fluff in Warriors is due to page-filling exercises of hunting and patrolling and (more relevant to TPB) getting into pointless battles. Time that could've been spent developing characters or culture or going into further detail for the plot. I've yet to see the exact numbers on this, but the core series books are 60k-65k words long, with a full arc being roughly 375k words long. A Kindling is 102k words long, Burning Hearts is 93k, and Charred Legacy is shaping up to be roughly 150k words long, and I have no idea how long the final book will be so I'll just lowball it with 100k words. That's probably going to pan out to 445k words in total, longer than the median length of an arc.

I think Warriors' issues are more of a consequence of focus. They have so much to do, but too little time to do it. I unfortunately wasn't able to read Thunder, but at least from what I heard, Frostpaw developed entirely off-page. Closing out her chapter she is learning to relax and opening up her next she's like, "I KNOW ALL," like, something's missing here. An older example: Into the Wild skips two months from Firepaw joining the Clan to meeting Yellowfang for the first time. The story just tells us he's gotten more acquainted with Thunderclan without letting us see it, preventing us from getting to know his Clanmates and their culture more. Why not develop myths of the Legendary Clans? Why not let Firepaw babysit for Frostfur? Why not let the characters breathe?

Reading a Warriors book feels a lot like being at an airport: hurry up and wait. Hurry along the plot, but then suffer another damn hunting scene shut up shut up shut up no one cares about your stupid mouse this is not relevant to the plot nor interesting in any way.

DULLARD: No longer in the void of anonymity! Welcome!

As for the question, we did actually just cut two chapters for being unnecessary fluff. Those chapters took up an entire subplot in canon and wasted some valuable time. I think you'll figure out which subplot that is once chapters start being posted.

I would say that the changes made to remove fluff aren't what surprised me. Rather, it was the stuff we kept. We largely have the same foundations as canon, just simultaneously condensed and expanded upon. In some areas, we did swap stuff out for something we consider more interesting, but it's remarkable how many things still remain. Granted, they're going to be painted in a different color, but they're still there.

[pianostrings]

Rebel Moon: The Scargiver Novelization!!

Contains spoilers for Rebel Moon Part II: The Scargiver under the cut:

Opens with Noble being revived. Cassius is informed of a list of approved "bio-enhancements" that will change his "biology on a molecular level". Cassius ponders whether he has chosen the right person to throw his lot behind (spoiler alert: he has not).

Kora and Gunnar's sex scene is expanded on 😌

(This is also super nit-picky but the tense in the sex scene changes from past to present and it really bothers me haha)

Flashbacks to Kora's time at court. Word of Balisarius's butchery as a general reaches the king and the king chews him out with Kora present. Rather than punishing him, the King makes him a senator instead.

Balisarius invites Kora to his villa, which is apparently filled with only pictures of himself in various suits of armor in battle (this is so on brand, I’m crying). He calls her Kora, which I thought was odd, since she was re-named Arthelais? Not sure whether this is a typo or not.

Kora watches Balisarius perform his first speech as a senator. It's a passionate anti-immigration speech ❤️ goes over really well with everyone except the King and Queen. Kora is initially concerned about his use of wording: "darkness" from "the outer worlds" but then she thinks, hey it's cool! I'm not from one of those ugly places anymore.

In the palace gardens, Balisarius reveals he will be Regent Militarium one day and Kora will replace the princess. She is much concerned. She and Issa have a cute smiling moment, which is sweet, because I’m sure nothing bad will happen to her.

Something bad happens to her. Kora has no clue the assassination is taking place until everyone is being stabbed. Princess Issa gets a moment to sass Balisarius but Kora does, unfortunately, still shoot her.

THE KALI ARE EXPLAINED. At the core of every dreadnought, an ancient female humanoid is kept in a half-conscious state, bodies hardwired to the ship to drain them of their energy. They are fed the organic matter of conquered worlds, which is what is shovelled into the furnaces (not magical space coal).

Cassius recalls how Noble's first campaign out of the Academy was disastrous and that he would never have come back from it if he wasn’t from a military family from Moa.

LIVE REACTION FROM DEN as Kora and Gunnar take the walk of shame together. He is CRESTALLEN, friends. Tarak and Titus giggle like schoolboys at Kora and Gunnar's appearance (why was this not left in the film? Incredible team building stuff).

Tarak has the audacity to claim bundling grain is "women's work". Oh you precious royal boy. He has a love interest, Hervor, and she is a MILF. Good for them both.

Eljun is Nemesis's biggest fanboy as the kids argue over which of the rebels is the strongest. Eljun is confident in Nemesis. This is so sweet. I’m sure nothing bad will happen to her either!

Kora likes Gunnar more than any of the lovers she'd taken on other campaigns because he makes her laugh. Oh. 🥹

Aris speaks to Cassius via transmission. Aris quotes a concerning motivational line he attributes to Cassius: "every child screaming... every mother crying..." ⁉️ Cassius tells him that line originates from Balisarius, actually (of course it fucking does.)

In the background, Noble has clued on that Aris has betrayed them and wishes he killed him along with his sisters. They wait for information from the Hawkshaws.

At dinner, Milius and Hagen have a sweet moment where they talk about their own past, in a similar village.

ARIS KISSES SAM 💋

The team have their backstories moment. There’s a tad more detail in Titus and Milius’s backstories

Noble has a flashback after his failed campaign, which is upseting because 1) Cassius wasn't with him and 2) his father, Dominic, is pissed. He is sent to the Vori, a gangster planet, where he remains as a guest, shadowing the warlord, Gregor. He passes a test where he kills a Motherworld noble and is given the tattoo near his eye. He also meets the twins for the first time. Deep lore here. Deep deep lore.

Tarak hooks up with Hervor the MILF. This r-rated cut is just going to be everyone going at eachother.

Jimmy kills the Hawkshaws, just as they're about to tell Cassius about Kora's dropship.

We get some backstory about the Hawkshaws. They are the Anuran species and their home planet is Anura. When the Imperium attacked their world, they put up a good fight and the Admiral in charge of the invasion offered an alliance, by offering their skills to the Imperium.

Kora gets to sass Noble a bit before the battle

R.I.P. Den. Gone too soon. Noble’s bio-enhancements come in handy during this fight.

There's so much swearing during the battle—Milius tells a soldier to 'fuck right off, motherfucker—it’s poetry and I really hope this is all in the R version.

The Kali speaks to Kora!!! It forgives her, like Issa, because it knows one day she will "wake [her] sisters and their wrath will be [the Kali's] vengeance. Yesss queens 👏🏼 it’s giving inter-galactic feminism

Kora kills the gunnery crew and redirects the turrets to the conning tower where Noble and Cassius are. Noble legs it for the elevator and abandons the crew. Cassius is right behind him but Noble 😮 shoots him in the face.

Nemesis gifts her daughter's pendant to Eljun as she dies. Her death is a "final act of love and comfort." 😢

Aris joins in the battle and kills a guard, avenging his family.

Kora blows up the engines and beheads Noble. No further resurrections for Ed Skrein, it appears.

Gunnar and Kora 🥹

"[Kora] looked back up to the burning fields of Veldt and the rising smoke. The cost of rebellion is always loss. The legacy is freedom and dignity."

The team assemble! Devra apologies to Kora for arriving late and says that her “brother was right” (assuming this is a throwback to Darrian wanting to take the rebellion more public)

A young Veldtian girl sings a ballad at the funeral pyre

The last scene is of Balisarius being dressed. We finally get the "I do love this part" line from the trailer. He is told of the destruction of The King's Gaze and surmises it was Kora's doing. Hundreds of thousands of Imperium soldiers chant his name as he prepares to hunt her down.

Additional Notes:

Ok more thoughts now I’ve had time to reflect on the text:

- I can see why this novelization release was pushed back. I don’t know what the deadline was like for the author but it felt very rushed and the writing is… not great… at times. The romance was, in particular, pretty cringe.

- Aris and Devra Bloodaxe felt very sidelined here. I thought Aris would at least have an unpacking his past moment with someone? Devra just turns up and we don’t learn anything about where she’s been or the Base One she returns to at the end of part 1? I also thought we might get more Darrian (or how the Bloodaxes operate) through Milius’s flashbacks.

- I don’t love the characterisation of any of the villains. Balisarius comes across cartoonishly evil and it’s hard to pinpoint any kind of affection Kora has for him in her flashbacks, other than maybe loyalty through self-preservation. Noble veers a little too close into bumbling idiot territory. Cassius’s POVis baffling and he spends way too much time worrying about Noble trying to challenge Balisarius, which doesn’t seem remotely believable

- I kind of thought Milius and Tarak were going to end up together? Or that they at least had some kind of friendship, but they seem to barely interact. In fact, it feels like we see the least of Milius out of the rebels

- Hagen and Kora should have had more moments TBH. Feel like she needed that positive comparative father figure

- The ending makes it sound like Kora is completely done with Veldt and she’s ready to move on now that there’s nothing there for her. I guess this works if the team are now off on a quest across the galaxy to save the princess but it also seems a bit… blunt

[animehouse-moe]

Hi! If you can I would love to hear your thoughts on chapter 236 of the JJK manga

First of all, very cool to see a Gokurakugai pfp! Secondly, man this is a very fun question to answer. So broad and open that there's so much I want to talk about. Obviously spoilers for people that haven't read the chapter yet so be warned about reading further.

Okay, so interesting stuff, lots and lots of interesting stuff. First of all, I think Gojo getting (potentially) off-screened is incredibly hilarious. Yes, I'm a diehard Gojo fan, but before that I'm a Gege fan. The idea of the "The Strongest" not even getting a death that's shown to viewers is just so damn great that it's funny to me.

Following that up though, I love how far they're digging into Sukuna now. The torch of "the strongest" is being passed to Sukuna, and with it he has to carry the burden of that isolation. It's a feeling that characters like Gojo can really relate to, and I think it's great to see Gege explore that.

Now, I'll skip over all the ideas of reading into the "dream/death" sequence since it's been done to death in regards to the concept of rebirth and enlightenment, but I will say this. I've had friends say it and I've seen other people express it as well. Confusion as to why everyone's young in the flashback.

It's a valid question, and I think there's quite a few answers. Nanamin's answer is one of them, and it's where my response stems from. This time in their lives, the trip to Okinawa, the days of Jujutsu High filled with excitement and happiness. It's something that they all missed. In their minds, those days were the days they were their ideal selves. Haibara and Geto remain the same for obvious reasons, but Nanamin and Gojo revert back because of that. They lost the people most important to them back then, and it's no lie to say that in both cases Itadori was what filled that hole. Gojo's comment about getting Geto to pat him on the back, and Nanamin's relationship with Itadori in general are the vestiges of that past. Anyways, where was I. Right, regression to the ideal. The whole reason they appear like that is because it's before all of that trauma, before all of the terrible things they've had to face in their life.

In a way, it's both fitting and unfitting. It's really interesting how Gege works in that regard, as Nanami and Gojo's paths have been largely similar in my eyes. Not so much in the details, but the broad paths they trace in terms of satisfaction in their lives. The most unfitting part though is Gojo being young in the flashback. I feel like if Gojo is to truly die, that we'll see him once more at his current age in this dream sequence. But I don't feel like that's going to happen. I'm pretty comfortably in the camp of "Gojo survives" and for a few reasons.

Firstly, Sukuna. Yes, Sukuna's "reality slash" fodderized Gojo but there's more to it than that. It is still an extension of one of two techniques, of which the chapter leans towards "cleave". Mostly because Sukuna confirms that the initial target was Gojo, but that the attack expands past him. Dismantle is typically used for inanimate objects while cleave is used on cursed spirits or other living things.

This part is a pretty wild idea on my part, but bear with me. Sukuna is a stupidly prideful sorcerer, do you really think that he would let Mahoraga deal the final blow to Gojo Satoru? I don't believe so, so it presents a contradiction. Sukuna's fanaticism with threes. In the prior two fights decided by cleave, Sukuna has obsessed over the number.

The first instance is against a finger bearer in chapter 8.

And the second time we see him kill using cleave is vs Ishigori in chapter 216. Where he states that he was aiming for 3 slices on the first failed attempt before delivering on the next.

So why now, why of all fights would Sukuna not only not deal the final blow himself, but do it in such a half assed manner? It's not a real kill, that's why.

Let me use the Ishigori example once more. Sukuna attempts a simple slash against Ishigori before getting a read on his ability. Realizing that his "simple" cleave did not kill him, he could form the conjecture that Ishigori is a high level sorcerer, one that could possibly use reverse cursed technique to heal himself. Because of that, he goes after the head so that Ishigori has no possible way of healing. Something that he doesn't do against Gojo. The questions continue to pile up in regards to Sukuna's conduct. He uses Megumi's technique as well as dismantle and cleave, but not the unknown technique he used against Jogo. Of course, it was for the act of embarrassment, but that's something that Sukuna would endeavor to do with Gojo anyways.

There's just too many pieces that contradict Sukuna's behavior through this chapter, and a lot of it does stem from the fact that content was passed over (for the time being). Sukuna still hasn't healed back his hand from the prior chapter. The act of cleave is denoted by an attempt at threes, but in this example it's one. There's a lot of oddities that point to something more going on with the chapter.

But because of that there's also so much potential. I think most people share in the opinion that while Kashimo's fighting Sukuna, the goal will to be to find a way to help save/revive Gojo.

There's three characters that we know of in the group that can use RCT: Hakari, Shoko, and Yuta. Kusakabe's a wildcard due to his grade 1 status without a cursed technique, but it's not likely. Anyways, the idea I've chatted about at end is that Hakari joins Kashimo out on the battlefield to stall using his domain expansion. It's a guaranteed four minutes and eleven seconds of unkillable (as far as we know) time, so long as he hits. During that, Yuta and Shoko will attempt to secure Gojo and use RCT to bring him back. But that's just one part of the puzzle, I'm very curious to see how the rest of it goes that Kashimo's chomping at the bit.

Overall, as a shock and awe chapter it's borderline perfect. It gives readers an intense feeling of despair, just the right amount for them to dig incredibly deep into the content of the chapter. To find all the odd pieces, to discover the incongruencies and ideas that don't quite sit right. I'm definitely not perfect with my ideas, but at the end of it all Gege's goal was to get everyone's brains into overdrive, trying to figure out what they'll do next. So while I may be in the fetal position thinking about Gojo being dead, I'm still incredibly excited to see where Gege goes with this potential.