#but i really liked my idea for the last mort and for that one to make sense i had to do it. i'm sorry mort please forgive me 😭😭😭

[1morteveryday]

363/365 👣

[hedgehog-moss]

do you ever read scifi or fantasy in french? i am trying to read more sff that was originally published not in english but it's not easy to find 💀

I do! It’s not my favourite genre but one of my friends loves it so I read a bunch of SFF books every year ahead of her birthday to try and find a gift for her. I’m glad I do this because it’s allowed me to discover N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy which was amazing, and I don’t know if I would have picked it up otherwise!

Here are some French-language authors I’ve read or plan to read (unfortunately English translations are few and far between :( I bolded the names for which I found English translations—if you read in another language you can check out the non-bolded authors, there are often translations available in other languages long before English ones)

When it comes to classics you've got Pierre Boulle (Planet of the Apes of course; also Garden on the Moon, which is (deservedly imo) less known), Jacques Spitz (La Guerre des mouches—it was translated but not into English), René Barjavel (The Ice People, Ravage, Future Times Three—I read them a long time ago but I remember them as very sexist even by French classic standards), Bernard Lenteric (La nuit des enfants rois), Alain Damasio (La Horde du Contrevent—maybe too recent to be a classic but it’s everywhere. I was surprised to find no English translation!), Bernard Werber (I feel like he rehashes the same 3 ideas again and again but some of his earlier stuff was fun), Alexandre Arnoux (Le règne du bonheur), Jules Verne of course, Stefan Wul (Oms en série which was adapted into the film La Planète sauvage—Fantastic Planet in English. I like the film better!) And some I haven’t read: Georges-Jean Arnaud, Serge Brussolo (I liked his Peggy Sue series when I was in middle school but it spooked me so much I haven’t dared to pick up any of his SFF for adults, like Les semeurs d’abîmes), Élisabeth Vonarburg.

Newer authors: Estelle Faye (L’arpenteuse de rêves, Un éclat de givre—I tend to like her worldbuilding more than her plots); Sandrine Collette (The Forests—if you count speculative fiction as SFF) (I didn’t like it at all personally but others might), Jean-Philippe Jaworski (I really liked Janua Vera; didn't like Gagner la guerre but it was mainly because I have a low tolerance for rape scenes in fantasy books) (he’s about to be translated into English according to his editor), Stéphane Beauverger (Le déchronologue)

More authors I haven't yet read: Pierre Pevel (The Cardinal's Blades—I've been told it's "17th century Paris with dragons"), Romain Lucazeau (Latium), Laurent Genefort (Lum’en), Christian Charrière (La forêt d’Iscambe), Roland Wagner (La saison de la sorcière), Aurélie Wellenstein (Mers Mortes—I love the synopsis for this one), Magali Villeneuve (La dernière Terre, trilogy)

And non-French, non-anglo SFF authors: Maryam Petrosyan (my review of the Gray House last year was that I understood maybe 1/3 of it but I liked it anyway!), Hao Jingfang (haven’t read her yet), Arkady & Boris Strugatsky (idem), Jaroslav Melnik (I’ve read Espace lointain (originally Далекий простір) but didn’t like it much), Andreas Eschbach (The Carpet Makers), Walter Moers (I read The City of Dreaming Books back when I was still learning German and found it very charming), Liu Cixin (I loved The Three-Body Problem but The Dark Forest was so sexist it made me not want to pick up the third volume), Lola Robles (El informe Monteverde, translated as Memoirs of an Interstellar Linguist), Elaine Vilar Madruga (Fragmentos de la Tierra Rota), Tatiana Tolstaya (The Slynx), Karin Tidbeck (Amatka), Emmi Itäranta (Memory of Water, The Moonday Letters), Angélica Gorodischer (I’ve read Kalpa Imperial and found it only so-so but it always takes me a while to warm up to characters or a setting so I struggle with short story collections. I’ll still give Trafalgar a try) Also my favourite fantasy book as a kid was Michael Ende’s Neverending Story, I was obsessed with it. I re-read it in the original German a few years ago and it was still great.

[elenasalvatore666]

unpopular opinion about HP canon.

I know that my opinion is unpopular but I really hate hinny ship. And I hate Ginny from books. She is rude ( Fleur, Ron, Luna ( Ginny was the firs who called her Loony)). She used other boys when she still has feelings for Harry. And when these boys aren’t necessary to Ginny as she has a chance with Potter she threw boys away. Her jokes aren’t funny. And I don’t believe in her deep feelings to Harry. They met only few weeks ( only one chapter in six book). She didn’t try to find way to go for hunting and to be with Harry in his dangerous adventure (what will do every girl who is in love). She told that Harry will be not happy if he doesn’t fight with Volan-de-Mort. That’s why she likes him. And I think she doesn’t understand Harry because he doesn’t want to fight but he must do it. And I hate her for the phrase - I like for this desire to take part in the war and be hero. I am sure that people love other people without any reasons and conditions, just because these people are ( girl should love Harry just because he is Harry). And she even didn’t worry that Harry could die during their hunting, but she was upset with the fact Harry had broken with her. She thought only about herself. So in my opinion, Ginny is little spoiled rude girl who wants boy from her dreams.

As for pairings…

Frankly speaking, I think that in the books there are not any good love story lines. I see really good potential love stories Harry/Hermione and Ginny/Neville. Harry and Hermione have the long story. Their relations are based on loyalty, respect, friendship and love. Sometimes it looks like they could speak with each other without any words. In the canon they were together for long period time. The Weasleys were far away, Ron had gone off and abandoned them. So they were alone in the whole world and can rely only on each other. The motto of their relations is you and I against the whole world. And really like dance scene in the film as it was definitely strong emotional moment- Let s be happy today cause tomorrow maybe not come. Their characters are good compatible - impulsive Harry and logical Hermione. They already had deep feelings between them. They just needed little romantic chemistry that would appear if Rowling did not insisted on the idea of big Weasley family. The same I can say about Neville and Ginny they are like Harry and Hermione (but opposite) where Ginny is fem Harry and Neville is male Hermione. And they can have their own story during the last year of Hog. Neville became a brave leader and he can become Ginny s own hero, and their story will not be founded on childish desire and dream. But as for Harry and Ginny they did not have anything common except quidditch. They do not have strong foundation for future relations and it was obvious that they even did not talk to each other a lot during books 1-5. and here Rowling started to make nonsense . She decided that all should marry with Weasley (I find this idea annoying. I suggest that Weasleys are good persons but they are not perfect and they have problems. Opposite, when I was reading Books i was tired from this family as they WERE EVERYWHERE as cockroaches). And because there was not anything between Harry and Ginny (well Ginny had obsession of Harry) Rowling started to create perfect Ginny that would suits Harry. And she failed with it it and spoiled Ginny as protagonist. It would be much better if she was simple girl who was in the shadow of her brothers but before the battle she showed her strengh and confronted her mother - No! I have grown up and i will stay and fight. And she would go with Neville to blow up the bridge. Insted of it in the books she is just rude spoiled girl who bullies her brother, Fleur. She can cursed everyone just because he or she have bothered her. Her jokes are not funny. She used boys and when she had chance with Harry she threw Dean away as a rubbish without any thought. And their relations with Harry continued only few weeks so there cannot be any deep feelings (JUST A CHEST MONSTER). That is why I think that canon ships are unrealistic and they are the worst thing that was with Harry Potter world. So… I prefer Harry and Hermione

[lizziethereader]

I last read...

'Mort' by Terry Pratchett

what I wanted: to slowly make my way through the Discworld novels

what I got: a nice read

what I thought: This is probably one of my favorite Discworld books so far (not that I have read many yet) because it has the typical Pratchett humor but doesn't take it so far that it gets exhausting. There were some fun moments and ideas in the story and I really like how death works here, but I do wish some things had been explored more. Overall, I rate it 3 out of 5 horse treats for a mortal horse.

[maniculum]

Google Docs vs. Geoffrey Chaucer

A while back, just for fun, I pitted Google Docs's fancy new (read: hilariously inept) machine-learning spellchecker against a chapter of my dissertation that contained a lot of quotations from Le Morte Darthur:

At the time I suggested I might go back and do the same with the chapters that included substantial quotation from the Canterbury Tales and (shudder) Piers Plowman... and today I find myself with little better to do, so let's give it a go. Below the cut.

Extremely helpful there, thanks. For the curious, gilofre is a plant; in Modern English it's gillyflower. Clowe is just "clove". "Clowe-galofre" is nowhere on Google or in the OED, but it seems "Galofre" is an attested surname, so Google thinks maybe that's what I meant.

Fascinating choices here. That is of course meant to be nutmeg, and Google Docs has seemingly decided that putting in a space to turn one misspelled word into two words, one of which is spelled correctly, is a positive development. That or this is a continuation of the previously-observed trend that Google turns things into brands and corporation as much as possible -- apparently there is a company called "Emuge-Franken", which is the only result for "emuge" on Google Search.

It hasn't gotten anything right so far, by the way -- all those red underlines I haven't screenshotted anything for, it either suggests a word that is wrong but unremarkably so, or fails to suggest anything.

(Never mind, it got a couple right in between the last one and this one.)

This is interesting in that it shows Google Docs interprets things differently based on capitalization. This instance of bityde is capitalized because it's at the beginning of the line; the other one in the phrase bityde what bityde, which isn't capitalized, Google is able to correctly interpret as "betide". However, it seems to think the first is a proper noun and makes different suggestions. (Blyde is the Afrikaans name of the Motlatse River in South Africa, it would seem.)

I am reluctantly forced to hand it to Google Docs with this one. Like, no, that's not what Chaucer meant of course, but I can respect the shot being taken. Also interesting that it gets the blue underline because you can't really spell a transliteration wrong, but that's not how the system we normally use renders it. Not sure why spere "spear" (Google suggests "sphere") and vestiments "vestments" (Google gets this one right) are also marked as blue (style/grammar) rather than red (spelling), though.

... and now I'm taking what I just handed to Google Docs back away. WTF is this? Why...? you know what, we're moving on.

Bafflingly, Google thinks there is nothing at all unusual about that first line. Yep, that's normal Modern English there.

And here's our first example in this post of Google Docs trying to suggest a spelling that is also in Middle English, because I very much suspect the data it uses has been contaminated. Actually, come to think, if their machine learning system bases its judgments on what other users write rather than the old system with a set dictionary, I bet all the people writing papers about pre-standardized-spelling English literature are really screwing up the data. Which is hilarious -- if true, that would mean that I'm actually part of the problem for writing this whole dissertation full of Middle English quotes in Google Docs.

You might think this is another example of the same, but in fact the change from -ioun to -ion makes that suspect, and the Middle English Dictionary doesn't recognize it without the <u>. And if you Google Refleccion, all the results are in Spanish. However, I can't seem to find it in a Spanish-English dictionary, and those same dictionaries tell me the Spanish for reflection is reflexion -- maybe this is a variant spelling? I only have basic high-school Spanish to draw on here, so if any of my followers are fluent and can explain refleccion to me, I would be interested to learn.

Hm... no, that's not right either. Although a quick Google search tells me that there is a YA book called Physik, so that's probably what's screwing up this one. Probably not ideal for that sort of thing to happen.

And this one, it seems, is French. (Again, according to the Middle English Dictionary, all the attested Middle English spellings have the <u> -- but the French cognate is in fact spelled just like Google suggests, as far as I can tell. I don't speak French at all, though, so grain of salt.) I wonder how that happened -- do non-English words just kind of drift into the machine-learning system's vocabulary? Possibly through the same mechanism I speculated about with the Middle English above -- i.e., people write documents that are mostly in English, but contain some quotations or something in other languages, and if that happens enough, Google starts to think it's an English word?

Wait, is that maybe what's screwing a lot of this up? Either Google's system is going "This document is in English, so all the words in it are English words" and thus stuff just keeps bleeding between languages and screwing up the dictionary, OR Google's system is just kind of language-agnostic and sees no issue with suggesting French words in a document that's mostly in English? Is this why there are so many words that aren't correct Modern English spelling, but which Google Docs doesn't mark wrong? Like, they happen to line up with words in other languages, so Google just thinks you're borrowing really haphazardly throughout?

Also, side note, it tried to correct "hir" to "hirt", which is not an English word, but apparently stands for High Impact Resistance Training. Moving on.

Shenden is a Middle English verb that basically means "to damage or destroy". You don't really see it much in Modern English, though the OED has a couple examples of 20th-century usage. Anyway, I thought this was another case of Google bringing in different Middle English words, but a quick search tells me "Sente" is a skincare brand. That's probably more relevant.

Google Docs again just ignoring whole lines.

Odd choice there, sight being closer than site in terms of spelling. Maybe the algorithm assumes that if you end with an <e> you probably mean the second one.

Interesting, Google Docs. Why do you think that should be "night"? (Oddly, it actually gets all the red-underlined words in this line correct, meaning it pretty much has the context of the word.) Somewhat weird suggestion there.

I'm about a quarter of the way through the document and I think this is long enough for now; I'll probably come back and reblog with additions later. Before I go, however, here are my lists of "things spellcheck should be able to fix but can't" from what I've gone through so far.

First, spellings that differ from Modern English by only one letter, but which completely stump Google Docs (i.e., it marks them wrong but only gives the "why am I not seeing a suggestion?" message):

Goute ("gout")

Herbes ("herbs")

Melodye ("melody")

Smale ("small")

Swete ("sweet")

Syde ("side")

Ther ("there")

Wel ("well")

And second, words that are not correct in Modern English but that Google Docs does not mark wrong:

Anoon ("anon")

Attempree ("a temperate")

Beautee ("beauty")

Bowle ("bowl")

Dar nat ("dare not")

Daunce ("dance")

Dede ("dead")

Doon ("do")

Dronke ("drank")

Dronken ("drunken")

Fyr ("fire")

Gyse ("guise")

Hadde ("had")

Hir ("her")

Hir ("their")

Hond ("hand")

Lak ("lack")

Lakked ("lacked")

Lordes ("lords")

Maad ("made")

Pyne ("pain")

Rasour ("razor")

Sayde ("said")

Shere ("shear")

Som ("some)

Sondry ("sundry")

Spyces ("spices")

Styward ("steward")

Syk ("sick")

Thencens ("the incense")

Usshers ("ushers")

Wente ("went")

Wyf ("wife")

Y-goon ("gone")

[shootingstarrfish]

THANK YOU FOR THE TAG MEL @melverie !!!!! <333

15 Questions Tag Game

01 - Are you named after anyone?

My grandma!

02 - When was the last time you cried?

...this morning in the car SHDJFJ i cry a lot anyway but i was thinking too deeply about Jack's Song by Cavetown this time HAHA

03 - Do you have kids?

Please gaze upon my darling children

04 - What sports do you play/have you played?

I started playing basketball when I was about 10, but I haven't played since I was about 17? Not for any particular reason, I just haven't found anywhere I can play at (haven't looked much either LOL) this is making me wanna look into it again though :,D

Briefly played softball for about a year in high school, it was fun! I also enjoy cycling but I dont do that a whole lot. Did a bit of boxing during the singular year I had a gym membership, and learnt that I hate arm exercises with a passion but I love getting to kick things :D I'm also a freak, a weirdo even, who likes running hahaha

This is making me sound fit but unfortunately I spend 90% of my free time drawing fictional men so I don't do a whole lot of sport... ever......

05 - Do you use sarcasm?

NOT REALLY but people seem to think so sometimes? I don't know why lol

06 - What is the first thing you notice about people?

I dont, Im really unobservant HAHAH

The exception would be if someone has a really striking or unique feature

07 - What's your eye color?

Dark brown

08 - Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings, I'm a baby i can't do scary movies :,))

09 - Any talents?

At last I can talk about my one true hidden talent, doing a Mort impression

Is it a good impression? I have no idea, but I can do it

10 - Where were you born?

Oman! The only country in the world that starts with the letter O!

11 - What are your hobbies?

Drawing, shockingly, is the main one, but I also enjoy animation and clay sculpting! I recently got into plush making, I really wanna learn how to sew properly so I can make Belphie's big human world outfit jacket for myself lol

I needle felt and crochet sometimes but those are really time consuming and take forever so Im never patient enough to pick them up for long lol

At this stage I would also consider my general zine shenanigans to be a hobby too, I can't get enough of these silly things

12 - Do you have any pets?

Okay I'm gonna talk about them fr now so meet Pepper and Chilli <3333

This is Pepper, shes my darling little angel who could do no wrong, she's graceful and beautiful and way too smart for her own good and I love her so much <333

And this is Pepper's son, Chilli, whom you could never tell was her son if you weren't told cause he's nothing like her. He's very clumsy and not very smart but he's very cute and handsome so it makes up for it and I love him very much too <33

Not a single thought behind those eyes

13 - How tall are you?

Like 176 cm? Which I think is around 5'9 or so?

14 - Favourite subject in school?

If we ignore art LOL I enjoyed english quite a bit! I know apparently the big draw of math is that there's only ever 1 answer but I'm not a logic brained person so I don't like that very much. I'm a certified bullshitter, I like being able to say whatever I want as long as I can justify it

15 - Dream job?

To draw anime boys all day...

If I was to be realistic though I think a job where I can use art and be creative but in a way that doesn't take the fun out of regular art would be ideal? I don't know what that looks like though

Or something with animals

***

I shall tag @aspiringtrashpanda, @kawree and @featheredcrowbones no pressure ofc lol

[safetyobstacles]

I finished osnf after almost 2 months and

You know that feeling when you finish a piece of media you really enjoyed, whether it be a show or game or book. And now its over and you can never go back and experience it for the first time again.

That's how I feel :,)

I made a post while I watched the whole thing, it's like if I liveblogged but I stuffed it all into one very long post. So it's kind of all over the place. But if you went through the episode you could pinpoint exactly when i added to it lol

spoilers under here

https://www.tumblr.com/safetyobstacles/733757650447335424/starting-o-segredo-na-floresta-now-im-either?source=share

thats the link to the post, its also just pinned to my blog until i start desconjuração

i would like to thank anyone who read my update post before i finished watching. and when they saw on EPISODE ONE that i was saying "dont take Thiago from me :,)". and nobody spoiled. that Thiago. dies.

:((((((((((((((((((((

also i got an irl friend of mine into ordem, she's watched the whole first series and is almost done with episode 2 of osnf. and her favourite character is Cris :) funny enough she recognized Rakin from league of legends but not anybody else

the fight against the deus da morte. SO COOL. THE CUTSCENE. bro the little buildup to the cutscene with the goo tentacles covering the screen. and the music. THE MUSIC. and then he went and hugged liz. and now she is old. and now she has no thiago. but at least she still has Gonzales' dog. probably.

the way Santo Berço died btw. ow. ouch. the imagery is gonna stick with me for a while. Cibele. he really did in Cibele like that. damn bro.

special shoutout to the Succ. rpg wouldnt be the same without it. and Felps for blindsiding me and then dying like 3 hours later.

also kinda crazy that cellbit can just keep pulling these random npc's out of his ass and making me care about them.

speaking of npc's, all of the Vulture's deaths were fucked but Murilo's made me extra sad idk why. his buddy bit him :(

i think my favourite scene outside of the liz, thiago, joui scene in the last episode, was the bit after they killed the big slug in the asylum. idk the pacing of it was just really cool to me, the drawing in the sludge and losing sanity without realizing. for me it set up this feeling of "you cant trust anything you dont know for certain about" for the entire rest of osnf.

that fucking house btw. i wanted them to leave that house the moment they got gregorio out of that room. i hate that house. i would like for that house to explode.

i want to put Arthur in a shoebox for safe keeping so that he may never get hurt again. Cesar too. Joui as well. and Liz.

ill probably take a week or two to mourn finishing this series before moving onto Desconjuração. which is a very fun word to type. probably will make another post like i did this time to put all my updates in as i watch it.

thanks ordem paranormal for injecting into my braincells i dont think ill ever be over you

dude im so sad about thiago you have no idea

[knifeeater]

director’s commentary for bruise pristine? >.< literally reread it this morning. thank u for my life ily <3

hi, ily 💕

so, little backstory, when i was listening to tvl on audiobook half awake i fever dreamed a combination of the lestat & armand palais de royal fight/tower scene where they actually hate fucked to the point that i was of the hard conviction it actually truly happened in canon for like half a year. daniel molloy tv programme voice 'can he make his dream a reality?'

smth i really wanted to focus on was fear and resentment, not only because it is so defining for their dynamic, but also becomes smth metaphysical, transmutating, erotic. it helped me to understand their characters so much by reading them through the prisms of each other, and the absent gravity well of louis between them. their initial encounter figures to me as a violent turning point in both of their vampiric existences that hooks upon their opposing forces. for armand, who's a creature of the mind and lives an almost disembodied, quasi-spiritual interned life to this point is broken down by lestat's physical violence, the first thing that truly touches him in centuries, a crack that opens him to the horrors of his past. lestat has lived his life so far through the power of his body, his strength as the sword he uses to cut through the world to pave his way. armand's mental powers are something he can not physically grasp or defend himself from, reaching somewhere inside he does not want to go because he needs to keep himself contained, a horror of loss of control that reaches back far into his past as well. this power of armand as something ephemeral and uncanny is what made me realize that this is, for lestat, what the witches' place revolves around, so that is where he sinks in his delirium at the end ('sorcière, feu d'un ange de la mort' - 'witch, fire of an angel of death').

i love a slide on spatial & temporal registers, so the repetitive framing device of the rain and the trees came very easy, the dark forest full of wolves, the savage garden, paradise lost, indifferent nature, ruins and history, sacrificial blood and the living grave. the mask of death was a small allusion to the mask of red death and the king in yellow, the facade of civility and nobility lestat likes to keep up and the beatific, static face armand puts on, rotting away. when they come together they're naked, so to speak, broken down and bare. lestat has none of his physical strength and armand's mind is frayed and vulnerable. because of louis, the gravity centre of both of their worlds, who is always in the rafters in this. it was interesting to me, that the only way they could come together was in that broken down state and to frame their encounter around both of them losing their center with no one but each other to blame.

i also just really wanted some top on top violence. lestat's masculinity is so very fragile and hinges on him occupying a dominant role, so it was extremely fun to break that down a bit and have that desire for submission be pleasurable exactly IN the shame and debasement that comes with it, while not losing his bite. this kind of violent sexuality is something very unique to them and opened up a potential for dissolving the limits of the vampiric body in vulnerability/expansion, in the way that violence and erotics and emotion rip apart and grow into each other. it was way more dynamic and visceral than what i usually write for loumand, really enjoyed the change of pace.

last 'fun' fact to close this out, 'neutral, static life' comes from having read clarice lispector's 'the passion according to g.h.' at the time and integrating her idea of losing the ego in the processes of life, emptying out the superiority of vampire blood and mixing it into the soil.

[mercurygray]

hiiiiii you know i have to ask about the bitb/rowing idea!! dick taking up rowing is something i never knew i needed until now haha

She never thought she'd see another regatta.

College felt impossibly far away from where Joan was sitting in the grandstands of the Potomac Rowing Club - the sweaters, the flags, the weight of Ben's fraternity pin on her jacket. The world had looked different, in 1939 - and while she remembered that she liked a great many things about Bennett Hilliard, she also remembered being quite sure that becoming Mrs. Hilliard while he want to law school wasn't in her cards. Still, he'd come from the right sort of family and danced well and she'd liked the way she felt in his arms. Everyone at Poughkeepsie had been talking about Helsinki, and how it was a shame no one would be able to follow up the miraculous success of the UW team at Berlin.

The river in front of her today, however, was not the Hudson, and ten years was a long time in between races - a lot of water under many, many oars. Bennett Hilliard had gone on to marry some other Goucher graduate and she had gone to war.

Someone cleared his throat - a well-dressed man in glasses and a Syracuse scarf. "Captain Warren, it's so good of you to come out today. Your husband said we'd be seeing you. Usually we have to save Go Army for the football season. I like Dickie's chances - he's got to be one of the most natural rowers I've ever seen. It's Mort Greenstan," he said, holding out a hand for her to shake.

Joan finally placed the name, and abbreviated the smile that sprang to her lips hearing him called Dickie, a name he never owned to if he could help it. "The club chairman, yes, Dick mentioned you might stop by."

"Do you mind if I join you? I brought binoculars, in case you forgot."

"Thanks, I have my own," Joan said, patting the well-worn pair that had seen her through most of Europe.(She'd noticed the woman down the row a little had a lovely pair of pearl-handles on hers, but now wasn't the time for getting self-conscious. Joan Warren didn't follow things like fashion and if she wanted to bring her army binoculars to a regatta, she was damn well going to bring her army binoculars.)

"My, those have really been through the war, haven't they?" Mort said, trying to make a joke as he made himself comfortable on the seat next to her. Joan nodded serenely.

"Three campaigns in Europe and two combat jumps," she said, and smiled even wider when Mort went silent.

Down at the dock, the competitors were just getting into their sculls, each man wearing the colors of his own home club. A few colleges, here and there, Georgetown and Harvard and even Greenstan's Syracuse colors, and the other out of towners, Hudson and Annapolis and Newport. And there was Dick in his racing singlet and shorts, arms and legs all whipcord and muscle, and she allowed herself a good long look at the man she married. He caught sight of her in the stands and smiled, waving. She touched her hand to her lips, a small personal symbol of a kiss, and watched his smile widen.

The announcer was blazing through the names of the competitors, and she caught, almost missing it as it blew by, "-Colonel Richard Winters, rowing today for Potomac in the single men's sculls."

She had been just as surprised as anyone else when she'd came home from an assignment and realized there were muscles under his suitcoat that she'd hardly noticed when she left. "I joined the rowing club," he'd explained. "They were talking about it at lunch and Ken's a member, so I started going on Saturdays. It's a lot like running - the way you can lose your mind in it."

She'd nodded and agreed and made a joke about other things he could lose his mind in that required stroking, and that had been the last they'd talked about it for several hours, at least. But he'd kept at it until it was silly calling it a hobby, and now they were here, at a regatta, in the starting heats of a crowded and talented field.

The sculls were at the starting line, the rowers crouching into position at their oars, eyes ready for the flag. Joan tightened her grip on her binoculars and waited for the starter, her feet yearning for starting blocks and racing spikes, and a sudden surge of energy filled her as the flag dropped down and the race was on, and she was right there with him in his boat, shouting for the pace.

[kingwithpaintedfingers]

As promised!! My recommendations for Warhammer 40k reading

So, rayshell22live asked me what I thought GW was doing wrong vis a vis Warhammer 40k, and I responded with a rant about Black Library instead.

Oops. (Listen, a lot of this is pent up...)

But! I promised (myself) I would list my favorite stuff I've read from Warhammer 40k. For ease of access, I have divided it into several categories.

XENOS

There are not enough stories about Xenos. And apparently a lot of them aren't good. But here are a couple I read and liked!

The Infinite and the Divine by Robert Rath: Everyone recommends this, and for good reason. Fun, sometimes lighthearted, sometimes deep, it's the story of two old robots who hate each other but are forced to work together. It's a tale of two opposing forces, the past and the future, and what they both could mean for the present of the Necron race. Come for the dinosaurs and enemies-to-friends, stay for the old man fights and pranks gone horribly wrong.

War in the Museum by Robert Rath: Basically a deleted scene from The Infinite and the Divine. A short story.

Brutal Kunnin' by Mike Brooks: Orks vs. Tech Priests. Turned out to have way more humans than I would have liked, but still fun! Includes some hell-yeah moments and very quotable lines AND includes TWO non-binary characters! Very nice. Introduces two heroes for the ages: Ufthak Blackhawk, and his squig. The best squig.

Road Rage and Where Dere's Da Warp Dere's a Way by Mike Brooks: More Ufthak shenanigans! Both short stories.

Da Gobbo's Revenge by Mike Brooks: A Grot, tired of being abused by Orks, takes up the role of the ancient Grot hero Da Red Gobbo and begins a revolution. A novella, not long but fun.

The Hand of Darkness by Gav Thorpe: A lovely audio drama about Yvraine, the last hope of the Aeldari, on a mad quest to deprive Chaos of a dangerous asset. (Or, when I want to pretend to be bitter, "Rob's Not Actually Girlfriend (Seriously, She's Just An Ally) Breaks Into Mort's Basement and Ruins the Only Piece of Art He's Ever Made" It is a fantastically emo piece of art, I can't believe I've never referenced it in a fanfic before.) It's a good audio drama, I like it!

The Child Foretold by Nicholas Kaufmann: This one. This one is so. So freaking. GOOD. I just. It's so good??? A man adopts a baby. He has no idea what he's gotten himself into. Warning, it's also from Warhammer Horror.

And, recommended by friends, though I haven't read them yet:

The Twice-Dead King by Nate Crowley: A series of novels about a Necron phaeron trying to save his dynasty. Supposed to be really good, if less humorous than The Infinite and the Divine.

Day of Ascension by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Supposed to be a really good sci-fi novel all around, it tells the tale of a genestealer uprising.

THE CIAPHAS CAIN SERIES by Sandy Mitchell

Listen, you're either going to love this series, or you're going to hate it. Most people can get over the stylistic choices (seriously, there are a lot of phrases that are repeated over and over and over and over and over again by the author), but others find those phrases grating after a while. Give the series a try (personally I think the series gets really good with the second and third books) and decide for yourself. If you like it, you're in good company, and if you don't, that's okay, you're still in good company. Personal highlights for me include The Traitor's Hand, Death or Glory, Cain's Last Stand, the audio drama Dead in the Water, and the novella Good Soldiers Never Die.

BOOKS THAT MENTION MORTARION

There is probably at least one person out there who wants to know what books I recommend for the way I write him. So I included this in its own section.

The Buried Dagger by James Swallow: my first Horus Heresy novel, and the last one before the Siege. Aka "Oh Fuck, We Forgot to Give Mortarion an Actual Personality and Now He Needs to Do Some Emotional Heavy Lifting." And let me just say, Swallow knocks it out the fucking park on this one. I cried. Then I found out he's not written like this in almost ANY other story, even ones by James Swallow, and I cried even more. Do yourself a favor, pick up the audio book, because the way Jonathon Keebler says "I know" in Interval Two is heartbreaking.

"Lantern's Light" by James Swallow: A lot of BL books have what I like to call a "companion short story" that goes with it. This is the one for Mortarion's half of The Buried Dagger. It elaborates Mort's relationship with the Emperor and why it's so bad (hint: it has nothing to do with the Emperor killing his adopted dad).

Unification by Chris Wraight: One of Mortarion's sons reflects on why he follows Mortarion into battle. A companion short story to The Lords of Silence (see below).

Mortarion Pale King of Barbarus and Verdict of the Scythe by David Annandale: While I wish they had gone more in-depth with his character, they both provide us with some intriguing details into how Mortarion wages war in the Great Crusade, and why he does it in the way he does. As well as what his brothers think of him, and how that weighs on him and his actions (a lot more than he's willing to admit).

The above are really good for Mortarion as his own character, and the tragic protagonist of his own story.

Scars, the Path of Heaven, and Warhawk by Chris Wraight: Whereas these stories are good at depicting Mortarion as his own villainous character. Most stories twist and turn Mortarion's personality to depict him as the Jungian shadow of whatever character is the protagonist of this series. Not so the Jaghatai Khan trilogy. Here he is still (mostly) recognizable as the same character as the Buried Dagger's Mortarion, but now he's a villain. Kind of. He's not the main villain of the first two books, but he kind of is for the third one? He doesn't show up often, but it's interesting when he does.

Daemonology by Chris Wraight: There's only one paragraph from his perspective, and it's the last paragraph of the story. Regardless, it provides us with a rare look at how people weaker than Mortarion who aren't on his good side see him. And it shows us that, like the witches and sorcerers he hates, Mortarion has more brains than sense.

Honorable mentions:

Grandfather's Gift by Guy Haley, because Mortarion enjoys a garden in it and it mentions how much pain Mortarion's transformation is (also, he's mostly naked for most of it, make of that what you will). Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow has one or two good scenes with Mortarion, but he's barely in it.

HORUS HERESY AND PRIMARCHS

Saturnine by Dan Abnett: Some people hated it, some people loved it, personally I'm in the Loved It camp? It had some memorable moments and some interesting battles! On the other hand, if you're a Fulgrim fan, skip it, it does him no favors. If you're a Perturabo fan, give it a try! He gets some great Only Sane Man moments (and a shirtless scene. That's not important, but it's there.)

Magnus the Red Master of Prospero by Graham McNeill: It's a Magnus book, but it's a fuckin' banger for Perturabo. Good stuff. Petition to have McNeill write all the Perturabo stuff? Just...not the War of Rust, please.

Lorgar Bearer of the Word by Gav Thorpe: Holy shit, did Lorgar not have a happy childhood. Depicts him very sympathetically!

Fulgrim the Palatine Phoenix by Josh Reynolds and Ferrus Manus Gorgon of Medusa by David Guymer: Both of these go on the list for having scenes that live rent-free in my head, most of them involving either Fulgrim or one of Fulgrim's sons. Josh Reynolds is a really good writer in general, though I think he might be the one who doesn't write for GW/BL anymore.

A Lesson in Darkness by Ian St. Martin: Creepy, serial killer fun starring Konrad Curze doing creepy, fucked-up Night Haunter shit. An Audio Drama.

Angron Slave of Nuceria by Ian St. Martin: a grim look at Angron's backstory, and how the suffering he experienced in his past doomed his entire legion. There's a companion short story called "Ghosts of Nuceria," but I'm saving that one for when I really, really need to cry as if the world is ending, so I haven't read it yet. I've read part of it already and man. Man.

OTHERS FROM 40K

The Lords of Silence by Chris Wraight: Generally agreed to be one of the best Chaos Space Marine novels, it follows the story of a warband of Death Guard, the titular Lords of Silence, as they wage war and have existential crises. Introspective and philosophical at times, and always careful to make everyone a well-rounded character, has mystery elements. The story is told out of order and in the present tense, so if those are dealbreakers for you, you'll have to sit them out. also includes a great scene with Mortarion okay thanks bye

The Way Out by Rachel Harrison: part of the Black Library's Warhammer Horror line, it's an audio drama that will keep you guessing until the end. Spooky and creepy and mysterious.

A couple more honorable mentions to round things out. The following all have scenes that live rent-free in my mind, all are either short stories or novels from Warhammer Horror, all take place in 40k:

The Deacon of Wounds by David Annandale; The Bookkeeper's Skull by Justin D. Hill; Imperator Gladio by Richard Strachan.

AND A FEW FROM AGE OF SIGMAR Not very many, though, because I haven't read very many...

Hallowed Knights: Plague Garden by Josh Reynolds: the only AoS novel I've ever read. Loved it. If Torgun dies, I'll fucking riot. Part of a series that may have been stopped, sadly.

The Vintage by David Annandale: a Warhammer Horror short story I hated the first time, loved the second time. Got a really killer premise, pun not intended. From that one year where Games Workshop decided that all of the Warhammer Horror Week stories would be about vampires.

Anyway, some of the stuff I enjoyed.

[manonamora-if]

Retrospective 2024 (4)

Last one!

As teased in the infographic, My resolution this year stays unchanged from last year's:

Get things off my desk and shelf it for good.

I want to continue completing and fixing older projects, so I can shelf it for good (like I did Goncharov Escapes! this year, and DOL-OS). But, since I added a bunch of title on my itch page, there are a few more to the pile compared to last year that needs fixing (or finishing) - at least DOL-OS is done :D The goal: Harcourt (MelS want to finish it, but it's still him dependent), The Roads not Taken (I dropped the ball on that one at the end of last year), An Eggcellent Preparation (samesies), and Exquisite Cadaver or P-Rix - Space Trucker.

I won't even try to promise I won't make new games (large or tiny), because last year made it obvious there is no stopping me. I planned last year to participate in a few comps... and ended up doing two dozens. So... At least, I won't participate in the big comps (IFComp/SpringThing) because the ideas I have for them need at least another year to make it happen... I do want to try to make it to one parser-focused comp again (either TALJ or ParserComp) and try out Moiki or DonjonFI. I'm only 7-9 games away to have 1 title/year alive...

Below the cut has more detailed expectations for some titles. Like last year, no real timeline on what will be done when - this year has shown me that life likes to throw stones at schedules... Announcements will also be whenever, because I make things on a whim :P I will try to have a better announcement schedule for updates however.

Oh! one more resolution: continue to do word crimes ~ obviously!

The trials and Tribulations of Edward Harcourt

While I've been working on the final edits of Chapter 5, MelS promised to be hard at work on Chapter 6 this following semester, which is the final chapter. From mid-January onward, he should have a clearer schedule IRL to set himself some time to write.

We hope to be done with the edits and coding of Ch6 this year.

When Ch6 is cleared, we will do one final sweep at the earlier chapters to ensure the writing style is consistent, rebalance variables and puzzles, as well as making it compatible with as many screens as possible (especially for maps). Solutions for puzzles (mazes and such) will get a special log on itch too.

La Petite Mort

The game is "technically" complete already, but I spotted a few typos here and there that could be taken out, one theme is eh... really not as pretty as I had wanted it (the "PJ theme"), and I've been wondering if I could add a few more rooms or interactions (with the animals especially).

I'm aiming for a March-April update. Though it should have been done last November already...

The Roads not Taken

I've mentioned my plan for this project the past few months (before I got distracted with other projects), which is to fix the parser mechanic (to follow a bit more the conventions and fix the frictions of the game), include the missing content from the SpringThing version (Codex and Endings), and potentially have a hypertext version (links to click) for accessibility.

I would like to be done with this before summer at the latest - by March at the earliest.

Entre-d'oeufs coquilles - An Eggscellent Preparation

A bug or two needs fixing in this game (the AEP version) - how the box is used/eggs are handled -> for the ending - as well as a bunch of typos (a small re-write may be needed).

As AEP is the most recent version, with more content, I will need to translate the updated/fixed version back to French (EdOC).

I would also like to include more pixel art for each "room". I do not know yet I would manage that, but we will see!

I think there isn't much to fix that an update before the summer could be doable.

Exquisite Cadaver

That ball-n-chain project that's been dragged around for the past year, poor game... At least, I've given up on a French version.

The same amount of rounds is missing from the playable version (21), with no real progress made last year. All rounds are at least drafted in some fashion, though not all the endings are.

A sane planning for this would be to do an update every 3-4 rounds until the game is complete. I will try to achieve this.

If I could reach the half-way mark by the summer and complete the game by the end of the year, this would be great!

P-Rix - Space Trucker

This game can't stay in this current state! I have a rough draft of the mechanic and enough bits of writing to make a coherent update with some touch-up. I know how to end the game (the "good" ending), with even an option for further "storylines" after that first delivery is complete. I even have the "stops" on planets or ships all clear in my head (RNG babyyy).

I will probably focus on this project in the second half of 2024.

Crimson Rose & White Lily

With the hiatus getting closer to a two-year one... an update is long overdue. I may break an update in multiple ones:

fixing the main story code

adding Scene 5 (needs to be written properly)

adding Scene 2 variation

fixing the Codex

including Bonus content (may be a separate "game")

I would like to have the first point done in the first half of the year, and the second... well in the second half. If the Muse is in my corner it might happen sooner, but she hasn't been here all last year, so who knows at this point...

I miss writing Razac y'all...

SugarCube Templates

Even if I've done all the "coding" templates I had wanted to do for a while, I have a handful more visual templates in my drafts (different shapes!).

Having tried all "main" Twine formats, I've been itching at making templates for Harlowe and Chapbook. Either doing a Harlowe/Chapbook version of the template already done, or just making completely new one.

Expect some to be added to itch (when I get bored/frustrated with my projects).

Other projects

If there is time/energy left in me, I would like to take a crack at:

Finishing The Dinner, with all the remaining courses and the planned final choice. Also styling it in Harlowe properly.

Finishing the OG planned story for In the Blink of an Eye, which was supposed to last "a week" in the story (instead of 2 days) and have more consequences/endings.

Finishing The Rye in the Dark City, which is missing 2 acts: the interrogation of the different peeps and the "closing" the case. A bit of re-write in the first act might be needed.

Finishing Don't Press the Button (not really IF). I want to make it work in both keyboard and mouse... If I can manage it, then it's just a matter of moving the element around the page, changing colour, and randomise whether to click or not. JavaScript/jQuery is required however ;-;

Fixing The Thick Table Tavern: first the bar (group bottles, add new ones + new recipes), then the Arcade Mode (there's a bug I've been meaning to fix for one mode + add difficulty), then the Story Mode (essentially do a re-haul + add more storylets + the main client(s) of the run).

Remastering SPS Iron Hammer - a.k.a. re-writing it, adding the whole escape mechanic, re-coding the whole thing...

I don't think I would be able to do ALL of this - with the amount of time/effort some of these projects would required, it would probably be impossible by myself. And I should probably focus on CRWL instead if I have time/effort left 😂

Other... other

I'm going to continue organising small comps and jams this year, both with @seedcomp-if (which will run all year now - 8 months of Planting, 3 months of Sprouting, 1 month of voting), and @neointeractives (8-10 jams/year).

I will probably participate in a handful of the jams I've either organised, or small program-focused jams (like with ink/bitsy), but avoid the "big" ones this year (even if the SpringThing was fun!). There are also a handful of other jams I've had my eyes on, so we will see if I can manage... Expect more short silliness on this side.

A thing I will continue doing will be playing IF games still. I have 15 games left in the IFComp (with one being an absolute beast) and want to take a crack at old comp entries (IFComp, SpringThing, and the others), especially the French ones. Reviewing takes a while, but it's a good practice to think about the positives and negative of games - and take these lessons for my own projects. Expect more at @manonamora-if-reviews (or on the IFDB).

Aaaaannnnd that's it!

That's more than enough to keep me entertained for this year. ... which may potentially be the last one in a while where I will have any free time. I am certain of one thing for next year (2025): there will be a lot of change happening IRL, which will for sure mean less time to do any fun thing (not just making IF). Probably long periods of time where I will be completely offline too. This year might be the last where I have a consistent presence online. I really want to make the most of it!

[cosmic-hoboandthehighlander]

Please tell me more about tedmort as teens if you could!

Play along with my wip ask game here!

Hi Babs! I would LOVE to!

So I was going through my drafts a few weeks back and found this silly idea I had years ago for that scene in My Girl where Thomas Jay and Vada are practicing kissing on their arms that I wrote for another fandom. I really liked the idea but wanted it Tedmort, so I wrote it….

And somehow it went from two shy eleven year olds to 17 year olds spending their last summer together before senior year. This really jump started a lot of my headcanons and ideas for a full-blown high school au (which is kind of in the works, in a variety of ways!) in which Teddy and Mort grew up together and went to school with Bob and Linda. Had to fiddle with ages a little for that one but eh, I don’t really mind!

So this is just a little oneshot, where Teddy asks Mort with help with his budding relationship with Denise by giving him some very platonic, not at all weird kissing lessons. Where he gets the idea that Mort, the weird goth kid who’s never had a girlfriend in his life, who plans pretend funerals for fun, would have any sort of experience with this, nobody knows. But it kind of turns into a whole thing; Teddy sharing a bit about his home life and how he’d like to go into the Navy after school and Mort having a hard time articulating how much he’ll actually miss Teddy if he does. Plus, there’s a bit of a coming out scene (Mort) and it’s very sweet.

The thing is, this au sort of contradicts with a few of my previous headcanons for the characters and their lives but to tell an interesting story, I think it’s alright. It’s an AU after all. I could probably ramble on all day (and I have rambled on for…probably 17 minutes in a voice memo?) on my version of Teddy in this AU and his relationship to his parents, specifically his dad. It’s not necessarily how I think his childhood went in canon, but it’s been fun!

Here’s a teaser because I have no self-control with not sharing things I’m excited about writing:

Teddy didn’t know what else to say, so he cracked a joke, “So what I’m hearing is…I’ve kissed more girls than you.”

Mort rolled his eyes, reaching over to shove Teddy’s shoulder, “You kissed the Genarro sisters.”

“You kissed Gordon Bosco!” Teddy exclaimed and Mort wrapped his arms protectively around his knees, looking very small.

“So?” He mumbled, finally catching Teddy’s eyes. He held his gaze for a long time, before asking quietly, “Does that bother you?”

“No, of course not,” Teddy said honestly, shaking his head. “Why would it bother me?”

“Because…”

“Come on, Mort, you know me better than that. So what, you kissed Gordy. Was he any good?”

“I dunno, I guess.” Mort shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. Teddy nodded, unsure what to say now. He wanted to ask when, how it happened…why. Had Mort started it or did Bosco? Was Mort…like that or was he just messing around.

He couldn’t help his curiosity, though he didn’t want to offend Mort. Touching a hand to Mort’s arm, he flashed Mort a small grin. “You kissed more boys than me.”

“What?” Mort said incredulously, leaning away from Teddy. “What is wrong with you?”

Teddy could tell he was holding back a grin and he chuckled, “It’s true! I’ve never kissed any boys. And you’ve kissed one…I mean, just one, right?”

“Uh…” Mort blushed and Teddy’s eyes went wide.

“You’re holding out on me, Mort! Guess I really did pick the right guy for kissing practice.”

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Little Things I Dig About STRANGE WORLD

Much like the one I did for PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH, this post will be a list of unorganized thoughts on STRANGE WORLD. And as usual, if you haven't seen STRANGE WORLD and were planning on doing so but haven't really had the chance nor gumption to fire up Disney+ and watch it, there be spoilers ahead!

'They're The Clades'. This is a hit the ground running opening right here. An all-too-brief cel-shaded depiction of Jaeger Clade's adventures and exploits, and how his son Searcher was by his side but was never really the rough-and-tumble explorer type. The song would do the Mello Men proud, as it recalls the songs of various live-action adventure movies that Disney had made throughout the '50s. This whole movie, if it wasn't clear before, is a massive homage to that era of adventure stories. The scene alone is evoking an early-to-mid 20th century pulp comic. Also during this sequence, we see these really lovely paintings of the Clades on their adventures. Particularly the visuals of them encountering birds of prey and a bear. It hits all those classic wilderness aesthetics in mere seconds flat.

Avalonia itself is actually quite a cool-looking world. It being on the back of a giant turtle-like beast swimming around on an all-water planet is very much Terry Pratchett's DISCWORLD, but being someone who lived the early 2000s as a kid, it also struck me as very BIONICLE. Hey, did you know Walt Disney Animation Studios was looking to option DISCWORLD for an adaptation of MORT? That was to be Ron Clements and John Musker's movie after THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, but due to rights issues, that fell through, and they ended up pitching other ideas that would later morph into MOANA.

Continued, Avalonia in the post-Pando era: The retrofuture setting, the sortakinda steampunk-like aesthetic, very TREASURE PLANET in some ways. The graphic design recalled various decades of aesthetics of the 20th century, too. Some '30s and '50s touches on Callisto Mal's ship, the Venture, subtle and neat stuff. Loved the architecture, technology, and cruisers. The cruisers, especially the one the Clade family uses to dust the crops, in particular reminded me of the hovercraft vehicles in the JAK & DAXTER series. That was another action-adventure franchise from the early 2000s that I was very much big on back in the day (and still am!).

Legend. Just Legend. He's literally one of my dogs, but in Disney animated form. Plus he's a tripod. Disabled rep, even for a doggie! It was also nice to see a shot of a disabled Avalonian, too.

Primal Outpost reminds me of game called Heroscape, which I remember being advertised a lot circa 2004... Though my 12-year-old self never played it or got invested in it, I thought it always looked cool. The hexagon pieces and such... But yes, I liked that a role-playing/strategy game played a part in this world, it just added a depth to it: This is a game that the kids/teens play. Today I learned that Heroscape ran from 2004 to 2010, and there was a failed revival somewhere down the line. I kinda wish STRANGE WORLD came out in 2004, this would've been my *shit*. Big time.

The lighting choices are what really make the "strange world" pop. The subtle sunset-like oranges and pinks, the misty-like layers, really brings out a lovely look to everything.

There's a particular shot when the Venture is crash-landing while careening into the insides of the Avalonia turtle-beast-creature... Searcher and Legend drop off as the ship is still speeding, it's a particularly well-done shot.

What little there is of the vibe - both good and bad - between Callisto Mal and Meridian Clade, particularly when it shows up during their confrontation in the Venture cockpit.

Right before Ethan meets Splat in that cave of bioluminescent creatures, some of them are apparent in a few frames: They look kind of like glass vases with fireflies inside of them. A small but cool detail, and the framerate on them is much slower.

Splat slapping Ethan when you think they're going to do the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON-esque connect-with-each-other moment, a well-timed send-up of those kinds of person-and-creature scenes.

The Clade men playing Primal Outpost is a standout scene to me, and I absolutely love the jab at the well-repeated "criticism" that Disney animated movies don't work without traditional bad guy villains in them.

How Searcher and Jaeger can't get the handshake/gestures right, they're preemptively doing a different one. It's a fun little character beat for both of them.

Everything about the much healthier insides of the beast after the heart is restored. A colorful, near-psychedelic set of images.

[amanda-519]

Expanding on my last post on how it feels like the writers are mixing the wires of their theming of “people aren’t replaceable” and “we can just go to a new universe if we miss up our old one. No biggie, everyone is exactly the same”, I wish the writers actually committed to their wire crossing and explored the theme more.

And I have an idea on how they could do that, mainly with Jessica.

Yeah, remember Jessica? How getting with Jessica was Morty’s whole “goal” of the show before Mort Dinner Rick Andre? I really wish they would bring her back, not as a goal but like, as a character. I think that Morty is really directionless without having anything to do that doesn’t affect Rick, and in the later seasons he suffered for it.

Bringing up Jessica again would be an excellent way to bring up the theme of “people aren’t replaceable”, especially as Morty is one of the characters that brings out that theme the most.

We see this in early episodes, like in Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind, when he feels replaceable and like Rick doesn’t really value him. And in later episodes, especially in Solaricks when he had to go back to his old dimension and be reminded of the fact that he abandoned his old family.

I think it’ll be really interesting if the new dimension Jessica isn’t a time god (since the family moved to a new dimension in Solaricks), it would actually make sense that Rick overlooked Jessica’s whole deal since he wasn’t with Morty when that happened.

I think having a non-time god Jessica would be really interesting, as current Morty seems like, done with girls? He hasn’t gone after a girl in a long while, plus I feel like this could show the theme of moving on/falling back into bad habits.

From Rick’s perspective, he’s been battling with his worst impulsives and trying to heal for like, a season and a half. But Morty hasn’t gotten a lot of screen time. It makes sense that when confronted with Jessica, a Jessica who isn’t a time god, he might slip into his past mistakes and try to get her to date him again.

I’ve seen some people speculate that Morty may be going down a bad path this season, like Rick is trying to get better and improve himself, while Morty slowly gets worse and worse. I really like this idea, and I think it’ll be really interesting if we ever see a swap in the dynamic, with Morty being the more unstable one/morally wrong one.

I also think having season 7 interacting with basically a season 1 Jessica would be really interesting. Morty has grown so much, he’s way more confident, I would love to see him actually trying to get together with Jessica, only to somehow mess it up (or maybe not? Like I said, I'm really just excited about how this potential plot point might be handled then stressing about how it ends)

[quietbluejay]

Dark Imperium 2

Nurglite daemons ahead!

I really get a sense that this whole thing was written with some very specific background music in mind lol

they're such a jolly group at least someone is enjoying the apocalypse

Mort is so dour though, I'm just imagining him sitting there linefacing and all around him everyone is having a party

oh, Ku'Gath is a grump Ku'Gath: EVERYONE SHUT UP THIS IS IMPORTANT

Ku'Gath: Fine. I give up.

I'm starting to see why people like the Nurglites.

More Tolkien vibes

This whole thing should be lovingly animated by an 80s animation studio.

I'm really appreciating how it's showing the villains as not cartoonishly evil bad guys but just…people doing their jobs who think they're in the right the banality of evil and it's both sides i don't think "sympathetic" is necessarily the right word for how anyone is being written but "sensible"? as in, they make sense

This is a great scene it’s doing a lot of heavy lifting - introducing Calgar, showing exactly why people would turn to Chaos, showing how the Imperium is perpetuating the entire state of affairs and also advancing the plague plot a bit

Nurgle calls!

you know, a writer could do something paralleling this and the idea of suffering for the god-emperor

okay so it sucks being a mortal/mutant living on a nurglite ship wayyy more than it does to be on a black legion or thousand son one

MY BOY IS HERE

Mortarion is alone it's just him and his ten million clocks and also the soul of his dad.

fungus XD XD XD XD XD i love fungi

oh mortarion talks to his scythe and also TREATS IT LIKE A PET okay. as you do.

having a normal one I see mortarion: you're the only one who understands me, silence The Nurglite daemons influenced him too much and now he is also stuck in the same paradigm of being an 80s animated movie villain

we're back with Calgar POV Guilliman is back in Ultramar innnteresting so Calgar used to fantasize about Guilliman coming back and fixing everything and then he did and things didn't happen like he daydreamed about his issue is how dare people not just unthinkingly bow and obey Guilliman

Guilliman is gonna build a wall and make the Death Guard pay for it!

Local autocrat still the best option they have

"tentacles for hands" ohhhh I don't like that meanwhile his friend next to him is preparing to star in The Fly remake wait how is Tentacle Hands here firing his gun OH okay his FINGERS are tentacles

I feel like that would make both aiming and firing difficult, if your fingers are both writhing AND vermicular

symbolism! also birb!~!!!!

spicy

I did NOT expect that reasoning, because it implies that if the emperor was all-loving that Guilliman would consider him worthy of worship. i thought it was going to be him talking about the Imperial Truth this is fascinating given my last glimpse of Guilliman's Thoughts On The Emperor was "the Emperor definitely meant for the primarchs to be scattered on purpose, to learn things, it definitely wasn't enemy action, he's too good at stuff for that" i mean that doesn't conflict with this, necessarily, but it felt really different

"The clock loomed over the broken altar like a murderer over his victim" beautiful

Man.

and that is how the book ends woof

I now understand the Ultradepression memes

[blackberry-gingham]

👋 hello love your blog and toad content feel free to ignore this. Maybe it will give you some ideas idk

I just was on clock app and watched Esmeralda edits AND IT FITS SO WELL with Mortimer and reader concept like that scene where Esmeralda dancing on festival (?) (I don't remember how it's called) . Unfortunately I can't send an edit but THIS THIS SCENE I'M TALKING ABOUT p. s. I'm really sorry if there any mistakes english not my native language

First of all, sorry this took so long to get to 😭

Second of all, may I just say, your username is ELITE lmao 😂 easily in my top three favorite usernames I've ever seen, right along with dilf-hunter69, I believe it was

Y'all have easily twice the creativity I do lmao

Definitely a cool idea tho! There's lots of cross over for Quasimodo's story and Toad's, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if some of his character iterations were inspired by it all. I do love a good "sad, ugly mutant man gets picked by pretty reader character". Hm....

Ooooo you know what would be cool? Like a straight up au of sorts revolving around the hunchback of Notre Dame + X-Men 👀

This turned into a little blurb, so here you go :) reader is gender neutral btw!

Imagine being a mutant rights activist at like a rally or protest or something and of course the brotherhood are in the area, possibly fighting cops or whatever- something to get the X-Men's attention ig. To speed things up tho, Magneto has the team set sights on the bystanders, which includes you of course.

The rest of the brotherhood doesn't care so they do it, all humans are the enemy after all- even ones who claim otherwise. But... Toad's not so sure. He has reservations, but as usual it only takes a stern look from Magneto to put him in his place. He joins the fight and you and your fellow protestors scatter.

You run because you're getting chased- chased by Toad, it seems. In the rush and the panic, you fall, even getting trampled by the human stampede a little. Toad's on you in no time, and there you lay... Hurt and helpless. He could kill you right now and maybe earn some approval with his master.

Or...

He looks left. Then right. Then over his shoulder for good measure. No one is looking....

"Get up!", Like you weigh nothing at all, he flips you over and sets you on your feet to face him.

You look scared- but he's used to that. Besides, he's not sure he can even blame you. Fear is better than hatred at least. And anything's better than disgust.

In a moment of weakeness, a thought comes upon him; Is this really what he wants to be? Feared and distrusted, by actions of his own doing? As though his face isn't bad enough- isn't he just making things worse? You weren't here to fight or cause trouble after all. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Lost in his mind, he studies your face for a long time... Just about as much as you study his.

A minute well spent- he lets you go gently, sneering even as he does. Toad looks around one more time, backing away to save face until at last he turns to you, a growl of a whisper as his voice, "Go on- get lost, then!", he looks at the surprise in your eyes... Then looks away. He doesn't deserve even that.

"I ain't gonna hurt you... but thems all will if yo-"

Surprise is the least of all the feelings that wash over him when your arms interrupt his warning. Hung tight in an embrace across the back of his neck- Mort suddenly remembers... When was the last time he ever was hugged?

For a fleeting moment, he thinks to return the gesture. Somehow, this feels better then anything he's ever imagined. Better then he ever thought something was silly as a simple touch even could. Your waist is right there, too.

If he'd only move his useless limbs, then maybe he could just...

But the moment passes. And with a gentle, sincere smile- another in the line of first times for him today, you let him go with a hurried thanks before turning to run.

For a long while yet, just long enough to commit your wonderful face to memory... He watches you go. Something in his chest feels tight as he watches you run from him, all the way until you're out of sight.

"Toad! You fool... You let one get away!", from somewhere far away, Magneto growls and degrades- taking a break from the mayhem to round up his troops for the X-Men's approach.

No.... Not running from him, Toad thinks.

Running from-

Erik Lehnsherr mutters yet another insult under his breath, before issuing a new command, "Don't just stand there, go with the others! Charles' men will be here any minute!"

Even as the master of magnetism threatens and barks his orders- His pathetic pawn, this shell of a man, finds he can't help but look after the corner he saw you turn just a little longer... Toad watches. And he thinks. And at last, he turns, face pinched in bitter contempt.

Maybe... Even a Toad could aspire to something better, he wonders. Better then... This. Anything, would be better than this.

But for now-

"Yes... Master..."