#definitely thought i was very cool for this at the time in retrospect what the fuck

[iscariotapologist]

starting to think being the prized asset in sabbath school bible games for my encyclopedic biblical knowledge as a kid gave me some kind of complex besides the kind that comes from being the type of kid who has encyclopedic biblical knowledge

[rogueddie]

Eddie couldn't take his eyes off of the ugliest, evil looking polo top that he's ever had the misfortune to lay his eyes upon. It's everything he hates in one piece of clothing, so horrible that he'd gagged at it when he'd first seen it.

His friends had laughed, agreeing that the top is an abomination and crime against humanity.

But Eddie couldn't stop looking at it.

It's the exact type of thing that Steve would wear. It's the type of thing he would love and brag about.

Even though the party, with the help of Robin, have been trying to 'fix' Steve and his taste. They're currently targetting his wardrobe and they're almost wearing him down enough to get him to stop wearing so many polos.

It's making Eddie feel... conflicted.

He agrees that Steves taste is horrible. He listens to bad pop music most of the time, he has no sense of fashion and loves romance so much that he thinks awful rom-coms are the height of cinema.

But it's Steve. Those things are what make him so... Steve.

He sneaks back to the top when his friends aren't looking, crouching behind racks to get to the till and quickly buy it. He buries it in the bottom of his bag, ignoring the bored and judgemental look the staff are giving him.

"There you are," Gareth squints at him when he rejoins them. "Where did you go?"

"Fainted," he sneers, throwing an arm around Jeffs shoulders. "All these neons and pop are making me dizzy."

They laugh, quickly moving on.

After dropping them off, he goes straight to Steves house. He doesn't want the ugly shirt on his person longer than necessary and the last thing he needs is someone finding it in his closet.

He nearly cheers when he pulls up to Steves house and his parents car isn't parked out front.

They'd only caught him in their house once, when they'd come home early, and he's sure he only escaped with his life because the entire party was there too.

"Eddie?" Steve frowns when he opens the door. "What are you doing here? Are you ok?"

"Yeah, fine, just..." he huffs, rubbing his eyes. He digs through the bag, grabbing the offending shirt, and throwing it at Steve. "Got you that. I thought- whatever. There. Good night."

"Woah, woah," Steve quickly catches his arm. "It's ok, man. If the others ask then I'll say I got it. It's... this is really nice, Eds."

"It's ugly."

"Sure," Steve snorts, looking back to the shirt. "But it's definitely my style. This really means a lot to me. I think it looks cool."

"Uh, yeah, I guessed," Eddie shifts, squirming with how genuine Steve is being. "It's just a polo."

"No, it's not. It's special to me."

"Right, because you think that pattern is 'so-"

"You saw it and thought of me. Like, you hate it, but you knew I'd like it and... it just means a lot to me, that you're thinking of me."

"Alright, it's just a shirt, calm down."

"No, I don't think I will," Steve gently tugs him inside so he can shut the door. "I get it if this is difficult for you but I'm getting impatient."

"If- what?"

"Do you need me to make the first move? Or- is this a move? Is your love language gift giving or something?"

"You've lost me."

Steve huffs, putting his hands on his hips and giving Eddie a look that he can only describe as 'disappointed parent'.

"We've been flirting for months and you haven't done anything about it." Steve falters quickly when he sees the shock on Eddies face. "Or... am I missing something? Is it the whole, like... keeping it secret thing? Because I don't mind! It's not safe to be out in Hawkins, I know, and I'm not expecting a big date at-"

"You knew that I was flirting with you," Eddie interrupts. "This whole time?"

"Well, yeah, I was also flirting with you."

Eddie stares at him for a moment. "And you've been waiting for me to make a move on you?"

"Exactly. Was I not being obvious enough? I didn't want to out you or anything..."

"No... in retrospect you were being very clear. All of Robins cryptic advice makes so much sense now. Oh, God, even Wayne figured it out."

[pia-nor481]

Empty bed Part One

Lando Norris x reader smut 18+

2.7k words

Racing was always hard on Lando, he left exhausted and with extreme back pain from sitting almost parallel to the ground in the Mclaren. Many thought he was happy with P2 most races, but that wasn't the case. Coming third means you beat seventeen other drivers, it was something to be proud about. Coming first means you won, all the effort you put in payed off for 25 points and a trophy with "1" written on the front, it meant you were the best on the grid. But second, it always came with the worst feeling. He would be ecstatic getting out of the car, sitting in the cool down room and spraying champagne on the podium, but once he reached the sofa of the post race interviews, waves of dread and disappointment waved over him. "So what about the car is proving to be so tricky for you?" One of the interviewers asked looking directly at Lando, he couldn't blame the car if Oscar. a rookie, managed to come third in the same car. A car that was made for him. "Nothing, just a ... lack of talent." The pause after was so loud, although if Max and Oscar had their mics up, it would have picked up their laughter. But Lando wasn't joking, he just broke the record for the highest number of points without ever winning a race. It was upsetting sure, but his team mate winning a race before him, even though it was a sprint, hurt him even more. It wasn't Oscar's fault Lando felt so down, he just got used to losing, 

All the drivers decided to go out to a club to celebrate another win for max. Lando loved clubs and raves, the atmosphere was so over whelming that he couldn't really think. The DJ wasn't playing as well as he should have, Lando thought, he dances around the line of confident and cocky very well, it was never a turn off. He left Daniel to go the bar for another drink, once he got his vodka and coke he debated on just staying at the bar, drinking a way his problems just for the night. He didn't have to worry about a race next week so he didn't have to easy. Taking a sip of the barely cold drink almost caused him to cough, this was not the Smirnoff he was used to, there was an artificial after taste to the drink as well. "I think you might have my drink."  The girl next to him said laughing lightly, clearly trying to hold back her tears, not from laughter but from the remaining taste of vodka in her mouth. "I think so. Well, here's your just less than full rum and diet coke." Lando said, offering a playful smile in return, offering the glass to her, she took a sip with a nod, pleased to wash the awful taste out of her mouth. "You can definitely have your glass of paint stripper back." Lando chuckled rather loudly at her comment, it wasn't the first time some one had commented on his choice of drink, but her was the funniest. "You don't sound local, so I'm guessing you don't do this very often." He had to shout over the music, in retrospect he should have listened to Daniel on how to chat girls up, but she was too cute not to try. "If you mean come to clubs and talk to strangers at the bar, no. If you mean steal the drinks of very attractive men, then yes." He could barely hear her, so he had to lean in close. Her perfume was sweet and inviting, it was as if everything she said was the most interesting thing in the world, he was captivated. He was able to take her all in, a beautiful mini skirt, it was blue and iridescent, and it barely covered anything, if an elder saw her they would claim it to be a belt. Her mesh white top didn't aid in covering her any better, it did have long sleeves sure, but you could see her lacy white bra beneath it. She clearly knew how to style herself, she had lovely little white heels on and a lot of highlighter on her cheeks. She was stunning. 

"So what are you doing here ....?" She trailed off, not knowing his name. "Lando." He almost struggled to get out, so concentrated on her. "Celebrating with some friends, What are you actually doing here, other than chatting up men?" he almost laughed out, she joined him. "Looking for some fun." She hid her face behind the glass, allowing him to see the frosty blue eyeshadow on her lids. "Is that so?" He responded in a lower octave, reaching out to touch her waist with his free hand, her back immediately arched at the feeling, he was pleased to see how well she responded to his touch. She necked her drink quickly and grabbed his wrist, going to tug him out of the club. He was shocked with how her demeaner changed, she seemed so shy, but now she wanted him so desperate. Once he caught up, she stopped her by grabbing her hips firmly. "My hotel is definitely closer." Lando said, reaching for his phone. Once they were inside the taxi, he couldn't keep his hands off of her, his tongue was basically down her throat with how much he wanted her. Once of his hands snaked up her back, running his hingers over her vertebrae, her face began to warm at the feeling. 

Lando practically dragged her out of the car towards the door of the hotel. Once the lift doors shut he pushed her against the mirrors, kissing her lips again in desperation, in the process his hands grasped he sides of her face, smudging her make up. She rested her hands on his chest before pushing him back slightly, needing air. Lando however, didn't need a break, his continued his venture of kissing every bit of exposed skin, first her neck, the collar bones, there her chest. It was at this point he could also smell her body wash and lotion, their proximity was giving him good access to her body. She began to pull on his hair slightly as a sign to come back up, she reconnected their lips while he hiked her leg up around his hip, groping her ass unapologetically. The doors opened and they rushed towards his room. They didn't stop kissing until the back of her knees hit the bed, their contact broke for a second as she fell back. This gave Lando a chance to really take her in, and she was perfect. He began to lean over her, running his fingers over her neck and jaw, until he reached her mouth, she toyed with her lips before pushing his fingers between them. She sucked lightly, not breaking eye contact, Lando's breath got caught in his mouth upon the sight, licking his lips as he felt his cock get harder in his black trousers. He slowly pulled his fingers from her lips with a loud pop. She tugged her white top over head with more pace than he thought was possible, he quickly pulled her skirt down and was met with the intricate white lace of her underwear. "Fuck me." Lando rasped out, going to pull his clothes off. "I plan to." She said back, sitting up on her knees at the edge of the bed, reaching for his cock. Lando stepped closer, rubbing the tip over lips, before lightly tapping her cheeks with it, even now he was bit of a tease. She stuck her tongue out while grasping his hip, wanting him to be still while she took his whole cock in her mouth. His head fell back slightly as he groaned feeling the tip hit the back of her throat. "That's it baby, just like that." She bobbed her head over and over, motivated by the noises that slipped his mouth. He pulled off and quickly began to glide her tongue on the underside of his cock, she kissed and kitten licked the head before taking his whole cock again. He was surprised with how eager she was, no other woman was able to take the full thing, they had to use their hands to cover the base, she didn't. Lando let out blissful sigh above her, slipping his hand over her jaw, forcing eye contact. He tightened his grip when she hollowed out her cheeks, the pressure was becoming too much for him. His hips thrusting slowly was a sign of how close he was getting. Lando's hands found the back of her head, pushing it down until her nose met his pelvic bone. He lost himself in the feeling of her mouth, his cock pulsating as he moaned out quietly. Her mouth was quickly filled with his cum. "Swallow for me." She did as she was told, looking up at him when let her tongue lull out. 

Lando groaned as he stood up, walking leisurely towards the bed side table, his hand quickly met the neck of a bottle, a bottle of Ferrari champagne. She leaned back on the bed as he slammed the bottle on table before looking back at her; spraying the bottle above her. Her skin quickly became sticky with the bubbly liquid. This gave Lando an excuse to suck on her skin again, obsessed, he needed to feel her against him. He licked his way down her abdomen, once he met her cunt he sucked her clit rather aggressively, she moaned at he contact, closing her eyes to bask in the feeling. He wasted no time slipping his fingers between her slick lips. He began to scissor slowly, hungry to hear her whines at him stretching her out. He was relentless in licking her clit, switching from slow circles to shaking his head side to side, pushing his tongue down flat and hard got the best reaction from her, so he was persistent; curling fingers every now and then to receive an extra gasp. Her heels began to dig into the mattress as her pelvis began to rise; he would gorge on the sweetness leaking out of her cunt. She was quickly becoming drunk on the feeling of her blooming pleasure; rolling out a song of moans and hums. Her hips began to twitch against his face, the orgasm was a sight to behold, let a lone something too feel as her mind began to melt as he sucked and licked aggressively. She didn't know whether she wanted to pull him closer or pull away. The stimulation was too much and she began to see stars in her new found haze, moaning out curses with a mix of his name. Lando pulled away, flashing his teeth in the process of smirking. 

Once she caught her breath, he leaned closer brining the bottle with him. "Open, baby." he tilted the bottle back, letting the champagne pour into his mouth, but his Adams apple didn't bob. He grabbed her jaw and let the alcohol spill into her mouth, she swallowed quickly, wanting to feel his lips on her, he was intoxicating, a feeling she hadn't had in a long time. She was so focused on him that she didn't register being flipped over onto her stomach. Lando pulled her hips up, supporting her weight slightly. She pushed up onto her elbows as he spoke. "You gonna be good? yeah?" he said with a tinge of sass, smacking her ass lightly. She nodded, moaning out as a verbal response. He chuckled before sliding his cock through her lips, she clawed at the now wet sheets, unable to control her self. Lando started slow needing to pace himself slightly, just kissing her got him so worked up, “Fuck.” He strained, becoming more breathless with each thrust. As he continued to press into her, she couldn’t help but clench around him, the way he was hitting all the right spots, touching her skin, groaning in pleasure, made it all that much harder not to cum then and there. His hand made contact with her ass In sequence with the thrusts, the sting was painful and yet it felt euphoric, she groaned into the bedding at the feeling.

Once he pushed in to the hilt, she arched her back further, not being able to contain herself for much longer. Hot breaths filled the air, which was already filled with sex and desire.

Lando’s hand make work up her back before drawing shapes on her shoulders. His hand soo reached her scalp, where he grabbed a fist full of her hair and tugged lightly; ensuring she wouldn’t object before he pulled rather hard, causing her back to reach his chest. He kept her hair in his hand while sucking on her neck, she wanted to feel everything and he made it happen. “Oh, please Lando, please.” She asked, gasping for air after each word.

“Why? Can’t hold it?” He teased, not that he was any better off. She just felt so good and her reactions only heightened the sensation. She whined in response as he thrusted deeper inside of her pulsating cunt. He groaned in her ear before speaking again, “you didn’t answer my question baby.” He was being cocky, but in a way he knew would only turn her on further. “I can, I swear.” Her words were slurring together, making it that much more obvious that she was on the edge of euphoria. She reached around him, grabbing his waist for some support, she could barely hold her head up anymore, the over stimulation setting in quicker than she anticipated.

Lando’s hand slid back down to her clit, aiding in the blissful feeling. Rubbing figure eights over her cunt while thrusting harder made her moan louder in between heavy breaths. He was smirking into her neck, knowing how good he was making her feel. She could feel his teeth against her skin, he was biting down, almost as if to hide his voice, muffling the groans. “That’s it baby, cum for me.” He said, voice dropping an octave for a mere second. She did as she was told, practically spasming in his arms as she let out guttural moans. The feeling of her clenching caused Lando’s cock to twitch. A mix of their cum dripped down her legs and into the bed.

“Good, so good for me. Makin me feel so good baby.” Lando whispered, pulling out. He ran his hands over her body gently, it almost tickled. By the time he got under the covers, she was already asleep; hair tangled, make up smudged and skin dotted in marks that would be hard to cover with the clothes she was wearing, or lack there of. Lando was happy, it was more than the post orgasmic haze, something about her was just right. He didn’t stop touching her, keeping his arms tight around her body to keep her warm, knowing the alcohol would wear off. He felt like he’d accomplished something more than just a win.

When Lando woke up at half past eleven, skin stuck to the bedding he was surprised and confused, until he remembered, partly, what had happened that night. He looked to his side, only to find an empty bed. He shot up, quickly looking around the room for any sign of the night. He walked through the whole “room”, past the tables and sofa, only to be met with silence. Lando walked back to the bed sorrowful, knowing his flight would leave in an hour, so he decided he needed to get ready.

Once he opened the bathroom door he first noticed it was still quite warm, it wouldn’t have been because he’d used it more than 24 hours ago. The condensation on the glass was new. Someone had definitively used his shower. Wrapping a towel around his body as he left, Lando went to his suitcase to pick up some clothes for the flight, he again noticed something was off. One of his hoodies was missing. In an attempt to find it he stumbled upon a pair of white lace underwear across the room. He was please that he didn’t imagine last night, but was disappointed she wasn’t still there. Lando was broken out of his trance when he heard the sound of a notification from his phone.

“Hope you wore a condom xx”-Daniel

Any mistakes let me know.

Part Two

[msmargaretmurry]

Well now you’ve got ME in all my HAW feels again (time for a reread!) and I’m wondering at what point Leon realized he’d fallen for Matthew for real (and also at what point he actually fell for Matthew, even if he didn’t realize it at the time.) I love ratnovel 🥲

aww thank you anon <3 the whole falling for matthew thing was a real process for leon in haw, i will babble about it a bit under the cut because that sounds way more fun than doing my job on this snowy snowy day.

so as previously discussed, at the beginning of the fic leon is in this place where he's like, he was kind of interested in matthew as a guy to potentially hook up with, and then decided he totally wasn't interested anymore almost entirely because it never seemed like matthew was interested and that hurt his pride as a noted hot bitch lmao. then during the training montage he was physically confronted with the fact that, yeah, unfortunately he would still hit that. he is pretty resigned to this being a lost cause, but then they run into each other at boots, and in the space of that encounter he starts to think maybe it could happen! and then the bj in the rv happens and it throws him SO off wrt his perpections and expectations of matthew.

he thinks a LOT about matthew in the stretch between boots and messaging him on insta before the preseason game, mostly just because — he doesn't know what happened? he thought things were going pretty well, for a given definition of "pretty well," you know, whatever. he can't stop thinking about that wall matthew slammed up after the blowjob, and in retrospect he feels like maybe something was a little off about him the whole time? he's seen matthew off the ice before and he never really had the… abrasive edge he's had this summer, maybe? he doesn't know the guy well enough to figure it out, but he feels both guilty and a little guiltily interested. and also obviously he thinks about it a lot because it was hot.

and then there's the hookup in the hotel at the preseason game, which is hugely reassuring — he's thinking, okay, matthew IS into this, and maybe he's just embarrassed about/uncomfortable with the things he's into? or something? but he's clearly willing to do stuff with leon anyway, and leon is like… well, this is not usually the kind of sex he has, but it's hot, and also he's really, really interested in pushing matthew's buttons. he has no read on if matthew is into him specifically or if he's just convenient, but he's kind of okay with it either way at that point. well, he'd prefer for matthew to be into him specifically, but it is what it is. matthew is the one who gave leon his number, so there's clearly something there.

then there's some flirting via text, etc, and matthew texts after the first flames/oilers game for leon to come fuck him, and leon thinks, oh okay so this is just going to be a thing where we sleep together when we're in the same place. he's cool with that, he's into matthew, he thinks this could be fun. but then the sex is the way that it is (not not good, but very intense and pretty fraught) and now he definitely thinks there's something wrong with matthew. not because he wants rough sex, but because of how he acts about it and acts afterward.

the way i characterize leon (in haw and in general, mostly) is that he really is a big softie — he's at his prickliest when he feels vulnerable, like his soft underbelly is showing, or is being protective of people he cares about. one way this manifests is he tends toward being soft with people he sleeps with even if they don't have a close relationship. it's not lost on him that matthew is clearly upset about something and he's decided that leon is a space where he can try to deal with that, but unfortunately leon is not immune to just a little bit of "i can fix him" disease.

over the next few weeks of texting and sexting is when he really develops a crush, and by the time matthew comes over to his place for that hookup he is definitely trying not to tip his hand that he has a little crush. it's to the point where after the game he texts matthew about johnny's injury to try to make sure the shitty game doesn't fuck things up between them. by the time matthew's texting from the club on his birthday, leon has accepted the fact that he actively likes the guy even though he's really not sure how matthew feels about him, and by christmas when matthew sends him that selfie in leon's t-shirt from boots, he's almost positive that the things he's feeling are mutual. but he knows that matthew is fucked up about some stuff, and that stuff definitely affects how he is with leon, so he keeps telling himself he's going to be careful about it and try not to push until he's really sure. but he wants to kiss matthew so bad.

and then there's the nye facetime, which, to finally actually answer your question, is when leon is really like, "oh, fuck, i'm down so bad. fuck i really have feelings." he's laying in bed thinking about matthew, because at midnight when everyone was kissing he thought about matthew, and how he would have liked to kiss matthew at midnight, and he hasn't been able to stop thinking about him since. so he's laying there thinking about how badly he wants to see him, how much he wants to kiss him, trying to do the drunk math in his head to when they see each other again, because next time they see each other, maybe leon can kiss him. maybe they can finally start treating this like something real. he's almost positive matthew feels the same. if he calls and matthew picks up and talks to him, that probably means he feels the same. maybe what he really needs to know is that leon feels the same. maybe leon just has to be brave enough to make the first move.

[historicallyaccuratecheese]

I’m now halfway through The Magnus Archives’ 1st season, so I thought it would be cool to just post my thoughts on each episode so far :). (Spoilers, I like all of them, and this podcast is going to be all I care about for a while.) Also NO SPOILERS PLEASE!!!

Link to Masterpost (contains all of these thought posts)

- Episode 1, Anglerfish 🚬

Statement of Nathan Watts, regarding an encounter on Old Fishmarket Close, Edinburgh.

Really strong start, not the scariest episode so far but definitely unnerving, and it gives a good first impression and layer of intrigue. While the story is simple in comparison to the later ones, it was still enjoyable, and I was just appreciating the atmosphere and framing device of the episode as well.

- Episode 2, Do Not Open ⚰️

Statement of Joshua Gillespie, regarding his time in the possession of an apparently empty wooden casket.

This is still one of my favorites. The whole time I was on edge, and this was the first episode that really kept me up at night. I went from wanting to know what was inside the coffin desperately, to wanting to stay away from it as much as possible. Joshua’s insuring dread and creative solution to his problems was fantastic, and it ends with some intriguing plot threads being set up.

- Episode 3, Across The Street 📓

Statement of Amy Patel, regarding the alleged disappearance of her acquaintance Graham Folger.

I think I share a common sentiment when I say that Amy stalking Graham was almost as creepy as the actual horror lmao. Overall I don’t have that much to say about this one, but it was very enjoyable, and I feel really bad for Graham in retrospect :(.

- Episode 4, Pageturner 📕

Statement of Dominic Swain, regarding a book briefly in his possession in the winter of 2012.

I…feel like I should hold off on talking about this one for now. While it was definitely well written and creepy, it just seems to be so full of setup for future plot lines that I almost don’t feel like I can form a concise opinion on it until I really get what’s going on. Honestly, my only complaint with this episode is that maybe it’s setting up TOO much in one go, but I still had a good time with it overall.

- Episode 5, Thrown Away 🗑️

Statement of Kieran Woodward, regarding items recovered from the refuse of 93 Lancaster Road, Walthamstowe.

This one actually did a pretty good job at getting me to think about waste disposal workers lmao, I never really thought about them like that before. This one was just really creepy, but also kind of fun in a weird twisted way. It did a great job keeping me on edge as well.

- Episode 6, Squirm 🪱

Statement of Timothy Hodge, regarding his sexual encounter with Harriet Lee and her subsequent death.

I am simultaneously horrified, and unfortunately aroused by what happened here.

- Episode 7, The Piper 🔫

Statement of Staff Sgt. Clarence Berry, regarding his time serving with Wilfred Owen in the Great War.

Having an episode set nearly 100 years ago is a really fun idea, and it’s executed perfectly here. It was interesting how it also featured a real person, and I liked how the paranormal activity felt more metaphorical here, it really did feel like it was showcasing the horror of war.

- Episode 8, Burned Out 🌳

Statement of Ivo Lensik, regarding his experiences during the construction of a house on Hill Top Road, Oxford.

I found this one to be very nerve-wracking, since not only was the whole scenario with the tree just, like…three creepy things happening at once, but the fact that the statement was given by someone with schizophrenia did a good job making me question it’s validity, even though I’m certain it’s true after listening to a later statement. I also hope that I get to see how the history of the house is unveiled in the future.

- Episode 9, A Father’s Love 💡

Statement of Julia Montauk, regarding the actions and motivations of her father, the serial killer Robert Montauk.

This one made me feel really sad :(. I really felt Julia’s despair in this one (Jonathan Sims does such great voice acting for every statement btw, both the character and the actual person), and I was even more saddened by the implications of why Robert did what he did. If my assumptions are correct, then…SCREW THE MOTHER! It was also the first one that got me thinking about where exactly all of the paranormal stuff comes from, and later episodes only add to my theory that it’s all due to demons/cults/higher powers.

- Episode 10, Vampire Killer 🧛🏻

Statement of Trevor Herbert, regarding his life as a self-proclaimed vampire hunter.

Much like Episode 8, this one did a really good job at making me question the validity of the statement, although I became more sure of its truth a bit earlier. I also just love how nonchalant Trevor comes off as, compared to all of the other traumatized horror victims. (Also, I’m guessing that the name Trevor and the episode title are meant to be a Castlevania reference?) While vampires aren’t the most creative thing for an episode, at least in comparison to everything else, the beast-like execution here more than made up for it in my opinion.

- Episode 11, Dreamer 💭

Statement of Antonio Blake, regarding his recent dreams about Gertrude Robinson, previous Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute.

Yeah…Gertrude Robinson did not die a normal death. My guess is that she was caught by ✨the horrors✨, but I’ll wait and see. This was another very tense episode, with the prophetic dream world being really, REALLY creepy. I do hope we get to see more of “Antonio” in the future, as I think he could be quite important. (I also hope he gets punched for DUMPING GRAHAM IN HIS TIME OF NEED-)

- Episode 12, First Aid 🏥

Statement of Lesere Saraki, regarding a recent night-shift at St. Thomas Hospital, London.

OMG GERARD KEAY HI HI HI HI HOW ARE YOU!!! Yeah I audibly gasped when he showed up again, it was such a cool moment. Anyways, hospitals already creep me the fuck out so this was pretty effective. Definitely some great setup here, and it helped to make a bit more sense of Pageturner, now that I have a better idea of what Gerard’s whole deal is. It also added some good fuel to the whole cult idea, and my god this poor nurse. Having to deal with all of this in a single night sounds like hell.

- Episode 13, Alone 🌫️

Statement of Naomi Herne, regarding the events following the funeral of her fiancé, Evan Lukas. Statement taken direct from subject.

Having a new voice in this episode was really cool, and Katie Davison did an excellent job as Naomi! It was also cool to see how Jon interacts with other people, he was…nicer than expected. This episode honestly felt like it was calling me out, as I am also someone who’s confident in my independence, but if I was in Naomi’s place I would also probably be scared shitless. I really hope she’ll get a happy ending :(. Also, The Lukas family is quite intriguing, especially since we now know they have a connection to The Institute…

- Episode 14, Piecemeal 👆

Statement of Lee Rentoul, regarding the murder of his associate Paul Noriega.

Firstly, this is probably my favorite of Jon’s vocal deliveries. His performance of Lee Rentoul just feels perfect. (Once again, this applies to both the writer and the character, I’m genuinely convinced the latter is an ex-theatre kid.) Outside of that, THIS ONE CREEPED ME OUT. The body horror was very effective, with the only thing holding it back being the fact that Lee isn’t the most likable protagonist in the podcast, but if this happened to someone else I’d be even more upset. Still though, it was a very creative concept, and the whole vibe and execution of the episode made it great.

- Episode 15, Lost Johns’ Cave 🕯️

Statement of Laura Popham, regarding her experience exploring the Three Counties System of caves with her sister Alena Sanderson.

What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fu-

- Episode 16, Arachnophobia 🕷️

Statement of Carlos Vittery, regarding his arachnophobia and its manifestations.

The way they tackled the concept in the title was really well done. Arachnophobia is seen as an irrational fear by a lot of people, so having it portrayed as an effect of childhood trauma was a good call. And as someone who is not arachnophobic, this episode got me close to feeling that way. What ever force was making Carlos relive his trauma is a sick fuck. Also the cat was a real one, glad he survived the whole situation. (Also THE WORMS, HOLY SHIT IT’S THE SEX WORMS!!!)

- Episode 17, The Boneturner’s Tale 🦴

Statement of Sebastian Adekoya, regarding a new acquisition at Chiswick Library.

This episode really compelled me to get out the rubber bands connecting images lmao. I really liked all of the connections to past statements here, like the presence of another book from the library of Jurgen Leitner, to the mention of Micheal Crew. The body horror here was once again very creepy, (outside of the flat rat, that was morbidly funny), but my favorite part of the episode was the introduction of Elias, which was a humorous, but also very intriguing scene. Also, the themes of books containing power was great as well. Great stuff all around.

- Episode 18, The Man Upstairs 🥩

Statement of Christof Rudenko, regarding his interactions with a first floor resident of Welbeck House, Wandsworth.

…ew. Ok in all seriousness, this is probably my least favorite episode so far. Still very far from bad, but after all of the extremely interesting themes and plot threads, having an episode where the idea was just “What if a guy had a house covered in meat? Wouldn’t that be fucked up?”, felt just a little bit underwhelming. Which like, the fact that my least favorite episode’s biggest problem is that I find it slightly pales in comparison to previous ones is just a testament to how much I’ve been enjoying the podcast. Still though, there were definitely a few things I really liked. The reveal of the room was creepy (especially considering the meat that seemed…alive…), and as someone who has had to deal with upstairs neighbors making noise for hours during construction, this episode definitely scared me.

- Episode 19, Confession, and Episode 20, Desecrated Host ✝️

Statement of Father Edwin Burroughs, regarding his claimed demonic possession.

This, alongside Lost Johns’ Cave, was one (or I guess, two…) of those episodes that seriously fucked me up. While I am not religious, I have always had fears of how religion can negatively affect me and the people around me, despite the good that it seems to do for so many people. So seeing Edwin be charged for every “sin” he committed by a higher power that wishes to steal its faith, and then not get judged by it, but by the people around him for his one true sin, was absolutely haunting, and I hope he turns out ok in the end. Outside of the horror, the episodes were fantastic. Listening to the events of Episode 8 from Edwin’s perspective, and seeing how Ivo’s actions saved him, was really cool, and solidifies in my mind that Ivo’s experience was real. The connections to demonic magic and Latin script thickened, and it was overall just a great mid-season finale. In conclusion, I hope that Martin feels better soon, and if he isn’t actually sick and is being plagued by ✨the horrors✨, well then I hope he survives :).

Thank you for reading my silly little thoughts if you’ve made it this far, it really means a lot to me :). I’ll probably update this every time I finish half of a season, so hopefully my thoughts on episodes 21-40 will be here in the Reblogs soon. :)

[reimenaashelyee]

The World in Deeper Inspection UPDATE Read: (Chapter 1: Pages 1 to 4)

About the comic

TWIDI IS BACK! To celebrate its 10th anniversary since launch, I'm remaking the first chapter and posting pages every Friday, accompanied by my thoughts on the original pages and a breakdown of what I've changed or improved.

Analysis under the cut.

PAGE 1 and 2

It’s March 31st, 2023… exactly 10 years since I posted the very first page of TWIDI!! I haven’t done much to celebrate TWIDI’s anniversaries the past few years (due to general Busyness – yes, yes, check out the forever “TWIDI isn’t dead” sign up on the front page), but the official 10th anniversary is a special unignorable event.

Initially I wanted to make a simple remaster of Chapter 1 – better copyediting, fixing egregious lettering and art errors, alongside a retrospective author’s note… then long-time reader Caracan suggested, why not do a full remake? That’d be fun to see. And I agree – it would be fun to see! I’ve grown my craft and sensibility as comics artist since TWIDI’s debut, and I was so curious to see how 28 Year Old Me would interpret the material that 18 Year Old me produced.

So yep!

This first page used to be so cool-looking to my 18 Year Old eyes… I can definitely see what I was trying to go for, but wasn’t quite able to reach then.

A thumbnail from 2013, with notes to myself regarding the composition. In my mind I wanted the wolves to have a James Jeanesque rendering – I was really into his Fables covers back then (still am tbh).

For the remake, I leaned further into the graphic-designiness of the composition: every element had to sweep the reader’s gaze down onto our protagonist. The wolves are expanded to actually take up half the spread and simplified down to only white lines. The trees and sky are shaped like teeth pointing down to Grimsley. The intent was to evoke a sense of claustrophobia, of the wolves catching up to Grims and driving him into a corner.

Small improvements: the energy and line of action are clearer with the new running pose. Definitely a better silhouette. And a lot more angularity with the limbs which adds to the sense of movement.

PAGE 3 and 4

This spread is one of the most drastic rehauls in the remake. Here’s the original for comparison

It’s not very good! (Sorry @ 18 Year Old Me) I remember struggling real hard with the dynamicism required out of this sequence…

Fortunately after 1000s of double-page compositions and 10 years of practice, I’ve finally cracked this once-difficult composition.

This new page does away with the concept of grids or caring about whether anything is read linearly. The sequence is supposed to evoke chaos and panic as everything is happening everywhere all at once, so it doesn’t really matter if everything can be read or arranged in a neat grid. That was the problem with the original spread: it was too beholden to the grid.

(You can see how in the original, each page was (top row: left to right; bottom row: left to right))

The new page is like this:

The page is horizontally railroaded. The main action sweeps from top left to bottom right.

The AWOOO sfx is the anchor which leads the eye from left to right. As the eye travels it may glance up or down at the panels – there’s no real need to pay attention to them; hopefully the improved clarity of Grimsley’s emotional and body acting + me actually depicting the wolf biting his neck + the spiky graphic design elements instantly conveys that he’s in trouble without much or any processing.

The newest panel – the pink grass and canine paws – is a call back for later when we catch up to this in media res.

[jennablackmorebooks]

Maybe most ineffective no-nuance writing advice is susceptible to the problem of trying to find one or a few "problem items" and thinking like eliminating them in all possible circumstances is the objective forever key to objectively good writing.

Like, for a few examples:

Epithet overuse

No-nuance advice: You're saying your character's name too much. Call them by their hair colour or height so your prose doesn't suck bad forever. Cut out names to be good.

What might help people understand their writing better and what they're trying to accomplish: epithets draw attention to the trait you're pointing out, so if you're going to use one, it might be helpful to pick a relevant trait your narrator or protagonist might notice that means something instead of defaulting to their hair colour every time. Also, most people don't think of their friends through epithets all the time once they know their names, so consider what doing this does to the perceived level of familiarity we have with the cast.

"Mary Sues"

No-nuance advice: if your character is powerful and has weird coloured eyes and hair and is good at things and people like them, that's a Mary Sue and bad forever so don't ever give a character colourful design traits or talents. Cut out 'weird' designs and any skills to be good.

What might help: the trouble with "Mary Sues" is often their tendency to bend an established story, or the story they're in, to serve them when it's not realistic (or endearing to the audience, who might have liked the established world, actually!). Consider the worldbuilding you're using and if your new character fits that without having to sacrifice the characterization of every other character or the physical limits of what are possible in the world for this one extra character. There are ways to make a character Cool without also throwing away the foundations of enjoyable storytelling everywhere else, and it probably has very little to do with their eye colour, really.

(obligatory disclaimer that the term as it is used out of its Star Trek fanfiction context is not particularly helpful at also being meaningful 21st century writing advice especially since people's definitions of it range from "a character whose existence in the narrative bends the story in ways that don't make sense" to "a woman in a story that had a role" depending on which end of the sliding scale of credibility or lack thereof you ask :( obligatory disclaimer that I am using the term because you know what I'm trying to get at in general when I put the name in the post, and it's an effective catch-all term for the type of writing advice I'm trying to make fun of here even if it's not effective as general writing advice itself).

Said is dead

No-nuance advice: said is a bad plain boring word for bad plain boring writers. Use fancy synonyms all the time instead to prove your big vocabulary. Cut out 'said' to be good.

What might help: Too much unintended and prolonged repetition can be unpleasant to read for many, and too much 'said' can contribute to this. Use synonyms sometimes to enhance the meaning you're already trying to convey, but also vary your sentence structure so not every sentence is repetitive enough in form to warrant a dialogue tag, said or otherwise. Varied sentences of different lengths and styles can provide different effects, so using the ones that will get the intended point or pacing across better will make for more effective prose. There is no one magical dialogue tag to use or avoid that will fix the actual stylings of the prose.

Kill Your Darlings

No-nuance: everything you think is good is bad and you should take out the scenes you like. Cut out the parts you love for the sake of it.

What might help: Sometimes a scene you wrote that you thought is cool unfortunately, in retrospect, does not fit the tone, theme, worldbuilding, story, or something else of the book you intended to write. Please do not hesitate to edit or remove a piece just because you love it if it harms your vision for the rest of the book. A little utilitarianism might help you put the good of the whole book over the good of the one scene if the two cannot coexist peacefully.

I think a lot of advice that tries to be a 'life hack' for Objectively Good writing is reductive and lacks substance. If a piece of advice is suggesting you to remove something no matter what, and that's all you have to do to write well, it's no better than clickbait to me. The goal should be to try to understand what effect certain elements have on a story, so you can proceed knowing if the way you would like to utilise it is effective for the story you're trying to tell. But this requires nuance on the part of the advice provider, and maybe for them to concede that sometimes things they hate reading can be used effectively, and it requires the author to know what they're trying to do with the story they're telling. So it's a lot easier, perhaps, for a lot of people, to cut all exclamation points forever, cut all adverbs forever, so on and so forth, without learning how to use them effectively.

[totowlff]

extra — anger leaves a great void

➝ as a polish writer would say, “anger always leaves behind a great void, into which a flood of sadness immediately pours and flows like a great river, without beginning or end”.

➝ word count: 2,1k

➝ warnings: none

➝ author notes: happy holidays!

NOVEMBER, 2016

— Babcia, are you busy this Friday? Around seven?

— I don’t think so, Bene — Joanna asked, walking over to the wall calendar hanging in her kitchen. Her grandson called her just as she was finishing her dinner. She tucked her phone between her neck and her shoulder while she flipped the page over from October to November. It was about time, anyway. There was nothing scribbled in for Friday, the fourth. How was it November already? Where had the year gone? — It looks like I’m free. Why do you ask?

— Well, dad and Elisabeth are having a birthday dinner for me, because they’re both in Mexico right now. Dad didn’t want us to go out like we usually do because those reporters are still hanging around.

Joanna sighed. She hadn’t seen her son since the day after she’d had dinner with him and his girlfriend. She’d said some things to her that she had since come to regret. She was just trying to protect her son from having his heart broken, really. When he showed up with a girlfriend that she didn’t remember him ever having mentioned dating, she told the poor woman some very unkind things. 

Toto had come to Joanna’s apartment the next day and gave her an earful. She initially stood by what she said, but when Toto said he didn’t want to hear from her until he cooled off enough to talk to her again. She started thinking about it, ruminating on it, remembering the way that the anger crept up the back of her neck in little pinpricks as she spoke to the poor woman — Elisabeth was her name, Elisabeth Lauda. 

In retrospect, It made her feel awful. She knew next to nothing about the woman before writing her off wholesale, thinking she was just another in a long line of pretty, shallow women who were after the money and notoriety that being with her son would give them. It wasn’t as if he’d grown up wealthy. Far from it — his wealth was self-made, but that just meant that he didn’t grow up being able to judge the kind of intentions people had when forming relationships with him. 

That’s what Joanna thought. 

But Elisabeth didn’t need his money, or his notoriety. She had a successful career of her own, in addition to being the daughter of a national hero in Austria. She spent more time trying to avoid the spotlight than seeking it out, as it turned out.

What felt worse, though, was not hearing from her son in months, and knowing she deserved his silence. She had to find out about his comings and goings secondhand through her other child, Lili, or worse — through the tabloids. His relationship with Elisabeth had gone public, and according to Lili, it had not been easy on either of them. 

Every time Joanna looked at her phone, she had to fight the urge to call Toto, to see how he was doing, to apologize, to offer her support — after all, it seemed like Elisabeth was definitely serious about him. But, she learned her lesson, and respected Toto’s wishes. She would wait.

— I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, Bene. I’d be happy to take you out for a birthday dinner this week if you’d like, just the two of…

— But — Benedict sounded equally hopeful and disappointed — I really wanted to do something with the entire family since we can’t go out together like usual. My mom is coming, too. Even Aunt Lili and Uncle Gerard are going to be there. Please, Babcia?

Joanna stared at the blank November 4th square on her calendar. She may not have always been the best mother to her children — she can admit that, now, but she always tried her damndest to make sure she was a good grandmother to her three grandchildren. It wouldn’t make up for her shortcomings as a mother, but she couldn’t change the past. Her relationship with her grandchildren was something she had control over.

— Okay. Yes. 7pm, correct? At your dad’s apartment?

The days between then and Friday flew by, in Joanna’s view. Time usually went faster before something one is nervous about, she found, and she certainly was nervous about Benedict’s party.

She wasn’t a woman who typically got nervous about things. She’d been through a lot of misfortune in the course of her lifetime — as such, it took a lot to rattle her, so she was surprised by how hesitant she felt about Benedict’s birthday party as she went about her week. She kept seeing Elisabeth’s face, kept hearing the ugly words she’d said to her, creeping in from the corners of her mind. She kept rehearsing the things she’d say to the woman, kept trying to figure out how she’d even begin to face her and apologize. 

Friday came. She got ready far too early. She’d already wrapped, unwrapped, and re-wrapped Benedict’s present, a Lego Technic set that, when assembled, would make a 48cm long model of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Lego sets had long been Joanna’s birthday gift of choice for Benedict, and thankfully, he hadn’t lost interest in them yet. The previous year’s Technic 24 Hours of LeMans car model was a hit.

Joanna’s anxiety was at a fever pitch when she pressed the button for Toto’s apartment. By the time she got to his door, she had almost turned around three times. 

“Where is the boldness I had when I had when I decided to talk to her like I did?”, she thought, when she finally was able to bring herself to press the button for the buzzer for Toto’s penthouse.

She waited for what felt like an eternity until the door buzzed and clicked, indicating that it was unlocked. Going up the elevator to the penthouse felt like yet another eternity. “Maybe this is what hell is like,” she thought. 

Toto answered the door a moment later.

— Mom… Hi — he said, like he didn’t believe that she would be standing in his doorway — Come in, come in.

Joanna walked in while Toto was telling her that dinner was almost ready. Her  eyes couldn’t help but lock onto Elisabeth’s as she was standing at the stove, looking at the contents of the pans over it, which made Joanna feel terrible near-immediately. Given the last conversation she’d had with Elisabeth, it probably made Joanna seem threatening. 

She followed her son into the living room. Lili and Gerard were there, along with Eloise, Joanna’s other granddaughter. 

— Babcia’s here! — Benedict called out, as all of her grandchildren ran up to Joanna to hug her. 

— Just a second — Joanna said. She handed over the gift that she’d wrapped for Benedict — Happy birthday, moj serce.

— Thank you, Babcia — the boy said, wrapping his grandmother into a hug. She wondered when he’d managed to get so tall, almost as tall as she was. “If he keeps growing like this, he’s going to be as tall as his father is,” she thought. 

Her memory flashed back to when Toto was still young, and how much Benedict looked like him. She shook her head as she sat on the sofa, sneaking a glance to the kitchen, where Elisabeth was talking to Toto. Toto had his hand settled onto the base of Elisabeth’s spine. 

“They do look nice together”, Joanna thought. She glanced around the penthouse for a few moments — it looked way different than the last time she’d been in here. It used to look like a serviced apartment, like it was used for long-term corporate housing, not like anyone actually lived there full-time. Or, even part-time, as was Toto’s situation since he’d taken over at Mercedes and bought a house in the UK. 

But now, there was color and life in the place — there were framed photos on the fireplace mantle, a vase full of fresh flowers on the coffee table, something that looked like Rosi had made in art class, books that looked like someone had actually read them, and a cheerful, colorful throw blanket hanging over the back of the sofa that Joanna was sitting on. It looked like a happy home instead of a cold temporary apartment. 

There was one photograph on the mantle that drew Joanna’s eye in particular — it was front-and-center, after all, as if it was meant to draw the eye. It was her son, next to Elisabeth. They were both drenched in champagne and had wide smiles on their faces. Her son was in the middle, looking so fondly at the dark-haired woman next to him, holding an enormous silver-toned trophy. Something about the way Toto was looking at her stung Joanna, but it wasn’t anger she’d felt. 

It was shame. 

Deeper shame than she felt the morning Toto surprised her with a trip to her apartment, and surprised her even more by shouting at her for how she’d acted. 

She defended herself, telling herself that she was acting in Toto’s best interests, and in the best interests of her grandchildren, trying to spare them the pain of having all of their hearts broken at their family torn apart again, but now, Joanna felt it so acutely. She thought she was trying to do what was best for her son, but she didn’t actually know what was, in fact, the best for him.

It didn't take long for Elisabeth to call everyone to the table, which was beautifully set with plates, cups and glasses, as well as a large platter of spaghetti alla bolognese. With a smile on her face, she insisted on serving Benedict, stating that the birthday boy deserved special treatment. Afterwards, she sat next to Toto, whispering something to him before serving the plate with some pasta.

Everyone ate quietly, praising Elisabeth's skills in the kitchen. She tried to downplay the merits, claiming that the recipe was Toto's, not hers, and that he had been a big contributor to dinner that night.

— Until I cut my finger, right, Liesl? — he chuckled, showing the bandage on his thumb.

— Why am I not surprised by this? — Stephanie said, making everyone at the table laugh. Toto's lack of skill in the kitchen was legendary, but even that Elisabeth had been able to work around. She made him bloom.

At the end of the meal, she got up and went to the kitchen, returning with a cake in her hands, decorated with white buttercream and topped with a few candles. Placing him in front of Benedict, she asked Toto to get the box of matches, while Rosi turned off the room lights. Then, with everything ready, the family sang happy birthday to the boy, who blew out the candles and smiled. In a corner, Elisabeth was smiling, taking pictures of Ben, who was surrounded by his sister and father.

“She really likes them”, Joanna thought, as she popped a last bite of the chocolate cake with Oreo cream into her mouth, completely lost in her thoughts as Elisabeth cleared away the dessert plates.

After handing her the plate with a smile, Joanna looked around the apartment. Lili, her daughter, was chatting happily with Stephanie, Toto’s ex-wife. Gerard and Toto were talking about something in rapid French. All of her grandchildren were playing happily together. Her family wasn’t torn apart, they were all here, celebrating Benedict’s birthday with all of the joy appropriate for the occasion, except for…

Joanna looked toward the kitchen, where Elisabeth was bent over the dishwasher, trying to figure out how to fit the pots and pans in. It was clear that she was the one who threw together such a nice dinner for Benedict — Toto was good at planning and good at detail, but not the kind you would need to host dinner parties. She’d done a wonderful job, and Joanna knew that it was because of Elisabeth that her family was all here, and gathered together. 

Almost without thinking, she rose from her spot on the couch and crept quietly toward the kitchen, trying not to make too much noise that would startle Elisabeth from being so focused on her task. 

— I think we’re going to have to buy a new dishwasher if we’re going to have dinner parties like this more often, my love — she said.

Joanna smiled a little. She must have heard her walking over and was expecting it to be Toto.

— Is there a problem, my love? — she said, as she stood up and locked eyes with Joanna. She startled a bit, not having expected her. 

Joanna swallowed before she responded, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt.

— Well, I’m not Toto, but, I do believe I have a problem. Actually, we have a problem — she struggled to keep her voice even, void of emotion — Can we talk?

[browneyeddevil]

Twenty Questions: Fanfic author edition

thank you to both @goldenslumberowo and @thesweetnessofspring for tagging me! sorry it's taken me so long to get to this

How many works do you have on ao3?

I have 10 works

2) What's your ao3 wordcount?

85,510 - which is an absurd amount given how irregularly I post

3) What fandoms do you write for?

The Hunger Games. I have thought about branching out but nothing has really inspired me quite like The Hunger Games has :)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Brightest Timeline - Canon divergent Silence me, Trust me, Love me - Post canon The Elephant in the Room - Post canon The unlikely Coming-of-Age of Katniss Everdeen - Canon divergent Isn't it Strange - Post canon

5) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try my very best to respond to all the lovely comments readers leave. I appreciate them a whole lot and find them very encouraging, I also just like to hear what readers are thinking, especially for multi-chapter works. Although, I admit, sometimes it takes me a while to respond, and there are occasions where I just straight up forget for a couple years.

6) What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

It'd probably have to be Underground; I kind of killed off Peeta 👀. It's a brief canon-divergent one-shot during Mockingjay that more or less focuses on Katniss and her grief and anger. In retrospect, it's kind of like the evil twin of "The Brightest Timeline" in which Peeta is rescued from the Capitol unhijacked.

7) What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Ohhh, Full Circle no debate. It's the happiest fic I've written, full stop. It's post-canon. Prim is alive, and Peeta and Katniss find each other again. All quite sweet and fluffy.

8) Do you get hate on fics?

Not to my knowledge. People have been critical of some of my earlier works, sort of disagreeing with my interpretations of a character, but I wouldn't call that hate. I hope I don't ever have to encounter the more vitriolic side of fandom.

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Noooo. I get nervous when describing a kiss that isn't chaste lol. I just don't think I'm very good at it, to be honest. I have considered writing more steamy scenes, especially for my WIP's, but I just don't think I'm there yet as a writer.

10) Do you write crossovers?

No. But never say never.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge. I don't think my work is really popular enough to have to worry about that lolll.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I'd be fine with it if I was asked first :) I think it would be super cool.

13) Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

No, but I wouldn't be against the idea, per se. I'd just feel super guilty, my schedule is very unpredictable and I wouldn't want someone else having to deal with my erratic writing habits, it's bad enough that I do lol.

14) What's your all-time favourite ship?

Gotta be Everlark for sure.

15) What's a WIP that you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oof. I mean... if I'm honest Stop the Clocks, I think for me to be able to finish that I'd have to sit down and plan it out properly. It's also just always been a fic that I've struggled to sit dow and actually write for. In short, it needs a LOT of work and care. It's not badly written, buttt it's also not the best.

16) What are your writing strengths?

I'm pretty good at descriptions and being able to bring a setting alive. I've been told that I write very in-character and that my characters are consistent, which is nice because writing a character's inner monologue comes quite naturally to me.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggled for a long time with writing natural and organic dialogue; it has definitely become easier with time and practice, but it's still something that I obsess over a little. Also, transition paragraphs are the bane of my existence and I tend to avoid them where possible.

18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I'd definitely be comfortable with writing in German as it's my second language. I'm currently learning Spanish, so maybe? I think it would depend on the complexity of what the character is trying to say. I think anything else, no. Not without consulting someone who speaks the language first anyway. I've seen first-hand how google translate can butcher simple phrases lol.

19) First fandom you wrote for?

The Hunger Games! My one and only 😍

20) Favourite fic you've ever written?

Isn't it Strange 100%. I put a lot of care and thought into it and it will always have a place in my heart. Rereading it there are some things that I would phrase differently now; and a part of me itches to change it, but another part would rather leave it as a time capsule to display my younger self's writing and how much I've improved since then. Weirdly enough though, it's just one of those fics that never got much attention lol *wink wink nudge nudge*.

This was super fun, so thanks again for tagging me!

I don't know who has or hasn't participated already so if anyone wants to hop on feel free to :)

[wuntrum]

kinda happy kinda sad crush night story. i got a crush a little over a year ago on someone i've seen around but not interacted with much (because of a dream where i hugged them. i woke up and was like brain wtf but it was too late). i am like. very aro but not fully (bi), and also neutral ace so i'm used to thinking abt crushes "yeah they nice but i don't really care to learn more about them and i definitely wouldn't want to date them". so imagine my surprise when i found out we share like 80% of interests and the rest was the stuff that we showed each other and went wow thats so cool. they were super nice and i thought yeah i actually want this to go somewhere, this is like a winning lottery ticket. we shared a whole bunch of adventures since then, spent so much time together and became very good friends but despite my gentle encouragement of their company and general openness i never noticed any signs that they were into me or wanted to try and spend more time with me so i started getting used to the idea of just being their friend because they were so nice and interesting. i thought it was worth feeling and experiencing anyway. throughout this whole journey i shared my feelings with a couple of best friends as emotional support, they knew since the beginning about all of this and gave me advice and just generally listened to all that. at some point early this spring i accidentally introduced one of them to my crush, my friend started flirting with them every second they were in the same room and a month later i found out from another person that they started dating. i tried to talk about it but now i'm two friends less and still with that stupid crush. i wouldn't want to delete that from my life if i could go back, but the ending sucked i'm gonna be honest. at no point did i know for sure what was going on between us there but i liked the potential. i just regret not enjoying it more, i thought it was just the beginning when it was already ending.

aw, i'm sorry to hear that anon, that sounds really tough :( i think one of the hardest parts about life generally, like not even just relationships and stuff, is that it's so hard to appreciate an experience while you're in it...it's always in retrospect when you realize how much it actually meant to you. i think with time it'll hurt less, and you'll find new potentials with other people, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't sting right now of course </3

[spaceorphan18]

Glee Musical Retrospective: Vogue (The Power of Madonna)

Sung by: Sue Sylveester Original Artist(s): Madonna

Okay... one of the most pivotal moments of the show -- right here. Look, while we'll get into the lose story connection in a minute, let's be real for a moment... The purpose for doing this is entirely for Ryan Murphy to be indulgent. This song really has no purpose except for the fact that Murphy wanted to redo an iconic music video in his own way.

And you know what? That's not a criticism. Glee is shedding its need to have the music adhere so close to the narrative and push in on doing things for the fun of it. Is that indulgence good all the time? No, not really. But this was such a fun, inspired, and brilliant performance, you can't help but smile at the ridiculousness of it.

This music video is a delight, and I'm glad that Glee just gave in to its creator's whim.

Story Analysis

The definition of the word 'vogue' is as follows...

Noun. popular acceptation or favor; a period of popularity; the leading place in popularity or acceptance Verb. to strike poses in campy imitation of fashion models especially as a kind of dance

The whole thing about 'vogue' is to be at the height of admirable popularity in the moment. Madonna was when she created the song. And Sue Sylvester wants to be in the episode. I also think there's a big fourth wall break, too, where the show was coming into the height of its popularity. It was very in vogue to be a Glee fan back in 2010 -- the show knew it was cool, and this was kind of capitalizing on that.

So, while this performance doesn't necessarily move any story beats along, it does make commentary on Sue and on the show as a whole.

I love the lengths the show goes to make this performance seem like it's something being done in the Glee world. It's Kurt's vision (with the help of Mercedes) to do a multimedia project. He has Artie direct it -- and my god, why didn't Artie put this on his resume?

(Fun fact - legendary director David Fincher did Madonna's original video, so Artie being able to recreate this is kind of amazing.)

And... it speaks to Sue's character. She wants to be the one admired, feared, loved, respected, empowered, revered, and anything else that keeps her at the center of the conversation. She wants to be the one in vogue. And I think in this meta moment, she is.

I have a few questions though --

Who thought of this song? Was it Kurt or Sue? Or even Artie? I think this song speaks to Kurt's story, too. The beginning of the song speaks to pain and heartache -- and letting it all go to enjoy the moment. I think this speaks to his personality, what inspires him, and what his aspirations are.

What were the in universe reactions to this? That's the thing about the song, though. As neat as it is to see -- there really aren't any direct story tie ins. Sue's story gets played out in other ways. And yes, this lets Kurt and Mercedes have an opportunity to join the Cheerios. But it's a shame that no one in universe even makes a comment about this video. Ah well.

The thing about this one, overall, is that while it's a big set piece of the episode, and while it does speak to both Sue and Kurt's character (and the show as a whole) - there isn't a whole lot to break down? It's funny, because I think this song is one of those things that Glee might be remembered for - but it's so kind of detached from the narrative, it makes it this interesting little side beat.

But - something to note - because this was such a hit, the show does take a turn into this direction. The show is going to push more into the spectacle of the song they've picked for better or worse, whether it's important to the narrative or not.

Technical Thoughts

Just gonna bullet point all of this...

They went out of their way to recreate the music video as much as they could -- watching the original video as they shot.

Jane does an excellent job with the song. You have to give her some bonus points, too, for making it funny on top of being an homage.

(Though if you notice - they do not make Jane do the heavy lifting dancing that Madonna does in her video. Probably for the better.)

The line 'Will Schuester - I hate you' and Kurt's reactions might be one of my favorite comedy bits from the entire show.

Speaking of Kurt -- the kid was made for this kind of classic Hollywood look. He's so good in this. (Sorry Mercedes - she's great, too, but Kurt just pulls so much focus.)

Fun fact - apparently, Naya and Heather did hand work in this, and Heather was the one in the cone bra.

They used their usual group of dancers -- and everyone in this video is just so good.

Hats off the the editors - they did a phenomenal job cutting this to be nearly identical to the original video.

I honestly don't have a ton to say about it -- it's a great performance, and you can see just how much the entire team put into making it something special.

vs. The Studio Version : There's an added two minutes to this version, though it doesn't really feel like it? The beginning is much longer, and the chorus is repeated a few more times, but that's about it.

vs. The Original Version : Well... now is your chance to compare and contrast! How did they do? Really well actually. ;) (Also - if you put it into youtube, there is someone out there who did a side by side comparison.)

[souryogurt64]

what happened on your bad date

I'll take any excuse to tell an excruciatingly detailed and pointless story

So to preface this, this guy was someone I initially met IRL. The following is for drama and context, because otherwise I feel like how this played out doesn't make sense.

He was a bartender somewhere. I was interested in going swimming over the summer there with my friend when she mentioned it because 1) Pete Wentz would fake complain constantly on his LiveJournal about how sooooo boooooring and laaaaaame it was there and how the girls were just soooo baaasiccc but soooo hootttttt then brag in interviews about how he had mindblowing sex in semi-public or whatever there. So as you can imagine, it was imperative I see this for research purposes.

[I think either Pete is not as cool as he thinks he is or it must've been cooler at the time.] Anyway 2) There is a pool on the roof and I'm an Aquarius. Literally nobody else was ever in the pool because they're too cool I guess

But anyway, there was this really hot bartender there and once I ordered a drink and he told me he didn't think I'd like it and made me his own concoction. I did not like the drink he made me because he asked me if I liked coconut and I hate it but I said "Yes" because I was so flustered, but I pretended I loved the drink. It was the kind of thing you think about forever. But I used to wash glasses at brewery and I would watch all the guys flirt with every girl, so I knew it wasn't like, real.

So, I saw him on Hinge quite a bit later. His pictures were very professional which should have tipped me off but I was feeling a bit la-la about him. I definitely felt like I was batting out of my league-- a few of my friends told me I wasn't, but they're your friends and they're supposed to say that.

Anyway, I messaged him and I mentioned the drink thing. As more context, I had to take a vow of abstinence and take pregnancy tests every month while on Accutane, two months before, and for three months after, so this would be my first date in about a year.

He pretty much immediately asked me to go to a (nicer than I'm used to) bar. He picked the place and time and asked me to go out on a weekend. Initially I wanted to be realistic and just hope I got a reliable fwb out of it, but a guy had never asked me out like this before so I was like "maybe he remembered me and felt the same way."

In retrospect, he did this because he thought I must've been someone I'm not and I would expect that level of effort. But because I was so excited and I had met him organically and not on an evil app, I started to get even more lala and think that maybe this would be real or whatever. His profile said he was from South Carolina which I thought was kinda hot.

I had been approached by guys multiple times there and had always run away or ignored them because I expected they were going to be like, well, what happened on this date. But because of where he was from plus him being the bartender, I was starting to convince myself that he was normal or something. Very naive.

So we go on this date and the first five minutes are an immediate disaster. I had looked at the menu ahead of time and I wanted one of the most expensive drinks because it looked fruity, but I didn't want to be rude so I tried to get there before he did so I could open a tab. This was my first time at a bar where you don't have to open a tab so the waitress didn't understand what I was trying to do. (For the record, I actually ordered something a lot cheaper.)

He walks in seconds after this and is like "Why is your wallet on the table, is this some kind of power move" which is incredibly rude but anyway he was very insistent about paying. Important later.

After this he starts by asking the weirdest thing about me. The weirdest thing about me is probably what I'm into in bed, but I wasn't about to say that, and I'm not a very good liar either, and he was not impressed with my answer.

After this, he noticed I was wearing a little cross necklace, because it goes with the dress and is probably the nicest piece of jewelry I own. He asks me if I'm religious very confrontationally, and that's like kind of complicated. Also incredibly rude.

Then he asks where I work and I tell the truth. This is immediately a problem, because he tells me before he was a bartender, he used to work in film. I should have figured this out based off the photo quality, but I'm a little slow. He also started bringing up that being surprising for my age because I was so young and he went on about it for too long. He was 28, I'm 24.

It also comes out that he is NOT actually from South Carolina he was born in Russia or something then moved there as a kid then lived in LOS ANGELES for 10 years and then left the film industry and moved to Chicago to start bartending and (these were not his words) he's clearly a huge playboy. So this is NOT a normal person this is a freak

After this, though, the date was actually going really well and was very enjoyable, except for when he kept trying to drop names of all these different celebrities and (I quote) "billionaires" he worked with to impress me. I didn't know who any of them were except Tom Felton and he was very perplexed by this and kept trying to do it harder until it got me going and it just wasn't happening, which goes back to him thinking I must've been like. The typical clientele of that establishment

He also insisted we go to multiple bars and I thought this was incredibly weird. Also at this point I realized I had not eaten and was incredibly drunk. Usually when I go out with friends or on a date I have 2-3 drinks over the course of several hours, and am a little tipsy but that's it.

I only had 2 over a 3 hour period, and was probably the 3rd most intoxicated I have ever been in my life. I thought it would be fine if I stopped drinking and just had water but I was getting progressively worse. In his defense, he asked if I needed food and I said "No" because I didn't want to eat in front of a boy. I'm pretty sure I started to brown out but I was trying really hard not to let on to where I was at.

Anyway we're at the last bar and I'm feeling really bad. At this point in the date, I really did want to see him again and keep hanging out but I just felt awful so I started hinting that I wanted to go home.

Because I was so drunk, I don't remember exactly what order this happened in or what happened between these, but somewhere at this point it devolves into the most bizarre 10 minutes of my life.

He tells me he's been to rehab twice and I think he maybe said he went to one of those wilderness camps and I was like "why are we both drunk then" and he was like "well it's okay because it was for drugs" and like whatever not my business. Except he also started psychoanalyzing me and tells me that I'm probably into him because I'm sexually repressed because I was raised super religious and go for him because it seems rebellious but he's "non threatening" and I "think I'm bisexual." And I was drunk enough to say "I am bisexual" and he got really affronted by this.

This was all true, but it hurt my feelings and was rude and weird. I also considered this a huge red flag because Hey Chris spent like half of his book about being a sex addict talking about women like this so I was like absolutely not. I think he was probably as drunk as me to be honest but was handling it a lot worse

The most freak behavior out of him though was that he tried to be like "So how did we split this, how many did you pay for" as if he hadn't insisted. So I paid for his last drink and-- freak part incoming-- he leaned over to watch me write the tip. I was so drunk and so weirded out by this I couldn't do any math in my head so I tipped way too much and he grabbed the receipt and got super offended by this for some reason.

Anyway despite this being insanely rude, he starts trying really hard to get me to not leave or get me to take him back to my place. He asks if he can kiss me and I say "Yeah," mostly because I was trying not to turn this into more of a huge production that it already was.

Shockingly, he was a very good kisser and it did feel pretty electric, but I had never been kissed in public before and I hated it. And also he was clearly bad news so I kept pulling away. At this point he was like "I've never had a date go like this before, I've never had a girl leave like this, this has never happened to me before, never" and I just remember how truly shocked he looked.

Anyway I fled the scene. The end

[cartoon-network-things]

As promised: the Cartoon Network UK Schedule for May 2013 (possibly the week starting from the 14th).

Like I said before, this schedule is not very good. It's nostalgic for sure, but not great in retrospect. Only a few shows during the day, and most of them consist of just Regular Show, Adventure Time, Gumball and Johnny Test, sometimes in THAT specific order. It's very lazy and boring, despite the fact that at least three of them are really good shows. It's not like CN was lacking in content at that point as the US feed was way ahead of the UK with a variety of different shows in different slots, though to be fair, half of those were aired on either Boomerang or CN Too, leaving the main channel a lot less to work with.

In terms of "new" content that week, or in this case, THAT YEAR, Gormiti: Forces of Nature is one I did not expect to see. I literally cannot recall a single memory of that show, despite being sliced inbetween Ben 10 Omniverse and Regular Show. Probably because it was only on for about a few weeks and disappeared soon after. This was however, a week or two AFTER Star Wars: The Clone Wars aired it's season premiere, so that's cool. In terms of other content, you got some early morning Chowder reruns, plus an hour of Ultimate Alien at 12pm. I was usually in school by then so it makes sense why I never saw it, despite having access to a DVR and knowing how to use one. You've also got some Dreamworks Dragons: Riders of Berk reruns exclusive to weekends, which I definitely remember seeing at the time. Notice how I managed to talk about every show on the daytime schedule in just ONE paragraph.

And if you thought THAT was bad, wait til you see the night-time schedule. Sure, you got some rather odd but cool lineup of classic cartoons from 9 to 11pm, and then an hour of Chop Socky Chooks, followed by two hours of Hero 108, also followed by the exact show preceeding it for another hour, AND THEN ANOTHER TWO HOURS OF HERO 108 AGAIN, followed by MORE Chop Socky Chooks at 5am. You see the problem? Over HALF of the graveyard slots are filled with just two shows for over 7 hours. And in case you're wondering what happened to Robotboy and all the other shows from 2010-2011ish, they were either moved to CN Too & Boomerang or just completely gone from all three (this is likely what happened with Fantastic Four). Though to be fair, it's not nearly as bad as you think because let's be real here: who the hell is gonna watch Cartoon Network at 3am? (totally not me lol)

Phew! Got tired from writing all of this shit. Maybe I'll post an ideal version of this schedule at some point by fixing some of its issues and just making something that could've been. Now if only I was this dedicated to actual important things.

[thedawningofthehour]

Are you ever going to write out the kidnapping fight between Donnie and draxum?? I want to know more about it so bad. Was it a close fight? Did draxum even say anything or did he just start trying to grab Donnie

Oh! I did a long time ago, like before I even published the fic. Originally I was going to put it right before the last Donnie chapter, where he's hypnotized and 'becomes' Galois, but with the decision to put it after that chapter I just felt like it broke up the tension too much. In a bad way.

I also thought it was kind of unnecessary, considering pretty much all the information given during it is relayed in the story one way or another, but in retrospect it might have served to include it. It gives extra weight as to why being choked is such a trigger for Galois and why he frequently feels deprived of air when he's panicking. Not to mention it would have reinforced how Donnie's stuff was planted for the fam to find and Donnie didn't do any of that himself-apparently I wasn't super clear about it, some people were still confused at the end of the fic.

Regardless, I dredged it up from the master doc! This is literally first draft shit so don't get your hopes up too much-literally, the only thing I changed since typing it was correcting 'vibes' to 'vines', because I did that several times for some reason. It doesn't even have any intro. You can also tell that is was written very early in development because I hadn't even decided on what the twins were fighting about and was using 'what movie are we going to see?' as a placeholder argument. (they were going to see Captain Marvel) And it was before I started using accents while writing, so bō is just bo. I'm reading it over and I'm really not happy with it at all-it's very short, which is fitting, I wanted the readers to get the feeling that this all happened very fast and feel a sense of panic. But I'm not really getting that from Donnie, he seems pretty blasé about the whole thing. I've thought about reworking it and maybe publishing it as a sideshot. Meeeeeh. We'll see.

No, that wasn’t fair. He sighs. Really, Leo deserves to be full of it more than Donnie does. He’s good at everything. Practically effortlessly. He can fight, do sports, talk to people, pick up instruments and be great at them in a heartbeat, understand long division, and look great while doing it all.

Donnie can do science. That’s it. And he’s very good at it, but it seems like it’s becoming less and less useful to the team lately. He’s becoming less and less useful.

It’s not Leo’s fault that he’s gifted. It’s not his fault that Donnie’s jealous. Donnie’s just being an asshole.

An asshole who can’t even go see the movie he just staged an epic fight over. He and Leo had fought for so long they missed the start time of both their movies.

He pulls up the theater website on his phone. The next showing of his movie was in three hours. God, this was so stupid. They could have easily seen Leo’s movie first and Donnie’s later. It wasn’t like they ever bought tickets or anything. And to escalate the fight like that-ugh. They were both so dumb.

He clicks on the next day’s movie times, scrolling down to look for Leo’s movie. Then he realizes he can’t even remember what movie he had been so opposed to seeing.

Donnie groans. He should head home. Leo will definitely beat him, but maybe he’ll have cooled off as well. Maybe they can watch a Jupiter Jim movie on Donnie’s tablet and drink the wine coolers Donnie totally didn’t steal from Dad’s minifridge. Maybe they can-

Something purple abruptly enters his vision, smacking his phone away and sending it skipping across the pavement. Donnie whips his head around. “Hey!”

Another vine comes straight at his head. Donnie ducks and rolls forward, retrieving his bo. One button push, one swipe, and the vine is cut free.

There he is. The big blue goat-man, standing on the parapet and looking down at him haughtily. He raises a hand, sending a few more vines Donnie’s way. Donnie twists, evading and slashing.

“Look, I’m really not in the mood. Can I just pay you to pretend you lost and we do this another time?”

A vine wraps around his ankle, yanking it out from under him. Donnie swipes his bo down, freeing himself and pinwheeling his legs until he’s back on his feet. He blocks another vine, bringing up his flamethrower attachment.

“What? No big villain speeches? Not even any playful banter?”

“Sorry. Funny, joke-around Draxum isn’t here today.”

A vine shoots out and wraps around his bo, yanking it away. Donnie grimaces. Alright, if that’s how he wants to play. He dodges the next few vines, bringing his gauntlet up. He twists to free his other hand, bringing up the command to send the help signal.

Then one of Draxum’s vines snake around his gauntleted arm. Donnie shifts to slip out of it-but they suddenly constrict, bending, pulling-

And there’s a very loud CRACK! sound that seems to steal all the air out of Donatello’s lungs.

“I would have preferred not to do that,” Draxum says calmly. “But I can’t let you have that stick back. You’ll hurt yourself.”

Donnie reaches back, fumbles for one of the hidden compartments on his battle shell. He draws out his emergency survival knife and swipes, cutting himself free.

Fuck, this is bad, this went bad fast. He doesn’t know where his phone landed and one glance at his gauntlet confirms that the screen is busted. He can’t call for help like this.

He turns and runs. He can worry about his phone and bo later. He can worry about the broken arm later. He needs to get away from here.

And then his feet are off the ground. He twists to see Baron Draxum right behind him, his stupid little hands wrapped around Donnie’s battle shell. He tries to jab his elbow back, but he can’t get a good angle. He kicks, but if Draxum even feels it he doesn’t react.

Desperate times. Donnie reaches up and hits the emergency release on his shoulder.

His battle shell releases, dropping him to the ground. Donnie isn’t poised to land standing up, but he manages to twist to avoid jostling his broken arm too much. The landing sends shocks through his legs and his healthy arm, but he can deal with that. He needs to move.

He scrambles away on three limbs. He doesn’t know if he can stand up right now. He can’t afford to test it. He can’t afford to waste two seconds getting to his feet. He needs to go, get away.

He can jump. Would a fall from this height kill him? If he allows his shell to take the brunt, he might survive. He’ll worry about the injuries later. He needs to get away from Draxum.

He pulls himself up over the parapet. He doesn’t look down, doesn’t hesitate, just pushes-

A vine wraps around his throat. Donnie grabs at it, but it’s already lifting him into the air. He chokes. His vision goes hazy.

Then he can breathe again. A vine slithers up his body and wraps around his torso, pinning both broken and unbroken arms to his side. Donnie opens his mouth-but the vine that had just wrapped around his throat inserts itself between his teeth, curling around his head and coming back around to cover his mouth. Donnie kicks, but the vines have him in the air. Draxum motions for the vines to bring him in closer.

“I’m impressed,” he says, looking Donnie up and down. “Even though your true strength lies in your mind, your fighting skills have not suffered. Still room for improvement, but there always is.”

Donnie glares at the man with as much hate as he can muster.

“Now, if you will stop resisting,” Draxum says, opening up a portal behind him. “We have much to go over, and I would prefer not to have to injure you again. Come along, now.”

Draxum motions for him to follow as he steps into the portal, like Donnie has a choice.

[ginaluvr]

thoughts after my first gone reread in years

as someone now in my twenties i’ve decided to revisit the series that changed my brain chemistry as a nine year old and will be doing book-by-book thoughts. i think the first book is pretty surface level so these are more just opinions than deep observations. let’s begin :)

firstly obvious one but fourteen is… sooo young. like these are babies.

when i was a kid i didn’t like astrid, i think i had this weird aversion to her being religious and optimistic and trying to make logic from everything. but it was so easy for me to empathise with her this time around. that’s really just her way of making sense of a crazy situation

mary is such a tragic and wonderful character. she doesn’t know how to truly take care of herself so she takes care of everyone else. my heart always breaks for her

the dialogue is so cringey in the first book and it’s funny because you can absolutely tell this was written for middle schoolers. whereas the later books… definitely pivot away from that demographic

i love diana i just love love love her. she’s also tragic by circumstance, allying herself with bad people to survive because she never believes she can be good enough to deserve community with good people. she deserved so much better

it’s kind of funny in retrospect that caine & co couldn’t even pretend to be good guys for a full week

why was howard kind of in love with orc a bit

the nicknames in this series are so funny, wdym there are people unironically calling themselves panda, mallet, orc, bug, computer jack,

i don’t really get what the entity was that was trying to tempt them to leave the FAYZ. i assume it’s mean to be the darkness, but wouldn’t the darkness want them to stay?

it’s such a cool easter egg i’ve never noticed before that lana’s recurring childhood nightmare is the darkness. it’s been with her all her life, they were bound to cross paths

on that note, lana is also the best. i love complicated teenage girls. she’s so cool

still every time i reread i find myself wishing someone had just offed drake at the earliest possible opportunity

dekka’s powers are so awesome. i know she hardly materializes in this book but she later becomes my favorite so i just have to mention her

astrid and sam really are very sweet (at least in this book) i’m sorry that my dislike for astrid as a kid stopped me from seeing that before

it’s enjoyable to me that in the sad circumstances of diana feeling completely tied to caine she can still embarrass him just by being so much cooler than he is, good for her

thoughts on hunger will follow soon :)

[odyssean-flower]

ok i played the new story update in hsr and here are my thoughts

warning: it's kinda negative

first things first: yeah i know this isn't the end of the xianzhou story, there are six ships after all and i guess luofu is supposed to be like the opening act to a bigger conflict with the aeons but m a n the execution was not good

the 1.3 story is more like an epilogue, which is fine, but it really should have been added to the previous patch. tbh the luofu story didn't need to be stretched over three patches with its overall length

i feel like everything went wrong when they decided to make the dan shu quests optional instead. i feel like they had to scrap a lot of stuff because of that? i agree that the dan shu quests felt out of place but they could have moved it around instead of just cutting them out of the main storyline. It's fully voiced after all and it has interesting lore

the problem is that the writers wanted to incorporate so many concepts but didn't want to (or can't) increase the length of the story. There are so much stuff going on like the conflict between Lan and Yaoshi, the bad side to immortality, the vidyadhara politics, the stellaron and the lord ravager, the sanctus medicus, dan heng & dan feng, dan heng and blade, the stellaron hunters, the high-cloud quintet, luocha, but all of these things only get brief moments of spotlight before we move on to something else. it makes everything feel kind of inconsequential and confusing

Especially the dan heng il thing which really should have been the main point of the story. his transformation is cool but it also feels random. the opening cutscene with blade also comes off as baffling in retrospect bc he didn't really do or explain anything??

i think they tried to rectify this by making the companion quests (like yanqing's and dhil's) basically main quests but they only raise more questions that may or may not get a definite answer. also these quests are optional

the ending is so abrupt, but they still try to tease continuations (see: jingliu and luocha cutscene at the end) even though we're leaving?? and who knows when these threads will get picked up again

Another problem i have: the vagueness of the lore and story. We finally know what dan feng's sin is...kind of. We maybe kind of know what happened to baiheng. tingyun's dead...or is she??? the writers love teasing resolutions instead of giving them, and it's honestly annoying. And im saying this as a genshin lore fan who loves finding random readables and trying to piece together what happened

The high-cloud quintet: ok this might be an unpopular opinion but i don't really care about them. maybe it's just my inherent dislike for the trope of "super elite group full of hot people who have a lot of history with each other and they feel sad about it :(" but they are just not doing anything for me right now. I like them all individually but as a group? meh. Part of the problem is that their lore is scattered all over the place and is very vague, so you really have to read between the lines and speculate in order to get their story, which requires a certain amount of investment from the start. i repeat that im a genshin lore player, but the thing about genshin lore is that it's not needed to understand the main story most of the time. Important stuff about the characters, on the other hand? tbh i care way more about spina di rosula trio or the narzissenkreuz people, and most of those people are npcs (faceless even)

honestly high-cloud quintet deserved a world quest chain or something instead of just (a very nice) animated short. as it is now i don't know why we would ever revisit them in the future considering dan heng doesn't want anything to do with them. maybe a rematch with blade?

tldr xianzhou had a lot of cool ideas but the execution was bad. oh well at least it had jing yuan