#half of them are boring

[fazcinatingblog]

hiiii bestie !!! i saw you had a tonne of fics on ao3 and wanted to know if you had any recs for new fans og afl??? any works of your or any other peeps to check out?? thxxxx

hi bestie!!! (I don't know this person)

This is a hard question because there's so much out there - probably not much on AO3 (unless you like Alex Fasolo and then you're in luck) and then Wattpad is just an insane mix of literally everything, mostly footballer x fake sister fics (which I, myself, am guilty of, and I'm sorry)

oh, also I only really read Saving Lotte Sullivan on Wattpad which I reckon is really good but I could be bias.

Maybe I'll just make a list of AO3 fics for each club (and yes, for the dogs, it'll be anything written by AFL whores about bailey smith) and a lot of this is just tooting my horn, I am sorry.

Adelaide

Tyler Brown adjusting to adelaide life

Brisbane

Take me home country roads part 1 and part 2 (obviously)

Carlton

Okay so the best year Carlton had was in 2019 so anything from 2019

Collingwood

literally anything with Trent Bianco and Jack Ginnivan (Collingwood power couple) or Darcy Moore x Charlie James Dean

Essendon

idk if there's much Essendon fics out there so this one? i mean who likes essendon anyway? ew.

Fremantle

I can't remember what year but maybe it was 2021 when 2 guys 1 cup read out Cunfe (Cunnington x Fyfe) fanfiction on the podcast so yeah find those episodes. (The fics were all family friendly and G-rated, don't worry, you can listen to them with kids in the car)

Geelong

Has to be this one

GWS

hard to pick my favourite jesse hogan one

Gold coast

what about Matt Rowell getting mentally scarred before a game. I'm so sorry.

Hawks

either Tom Phillips starting a podcast, or Tom discussing the four P's

Melbourne

probably anything with Ed Langdon or pie boy

Norf

see Freo

Port Adelaide

Bailey Smith ripping through the entire Port Adelaide team OR those lousy five chapters I tried to write about Jack Watts

Tigs

the resurrection of Matthew Richardson (hurts a little to remember writing this after what they did to me last week)

Saints

can I say my multi chapter newsreader fic even though Rob plays for Melbourne in it and not his beloved saints. Or when Ben sits down with his accountant Callum Wilkie

Swans

probably best to go to AFL whores for this one

Weagles

who even writes Weagle fics

Dogs

anything from AFL Whores regarding Bailey Smith

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

there's just... there is no reason to make yet another cop show in this day and age. copaganda is not only bullshit, it is a failure of imagination.

you want to watch brooding characters with dark pasts investigate crimes in an official capacity? just use private detectives (cops have a miserable solve rate anyway). want eccentric geniuses & their sidekicks solving mysteries? i present you with armchair detectives & neighborhood busybodies. oh, you're craving a workplace comedy-drama starring overworked protagonists doing their heartfelt best to resolve community conflicts? social worker office sitcom! bitch this is ACHIEVABLE

[egophiliac]

I love your take on Crowley!

I know that the early, non-Diasomnia stories aren't really your thing, but are you reading the novels at all?

I have been following some of the fan translations and the second book seems intense! Would love to hear what you think about them.

thank you! 💚💚💚 I'm not really sure why you think I don't like the earlier arcs though, I love pretty much all the characters and their storis! (I think 5 and 1 are my favorite of the past episodes, though 6 infected me with the Shroud brainrot something fierce.) I just...ESPECIALLY love diasomnia. :') but there is room in my heart for all of these dweebs! like, who among us is not just as ride-or-die for Adeuce as they are for us.

that said, I don't really follow the other adaptations like the manga (aside from a dip-in just to see the new Yuus) or the novels, though I keep meaning to check them out! I do like seeing the differences between the different forms of media, and how certain things get adapted one way or another! but alas, time/a lack of accessibility stands in our way more often than not. :( someday...someday I will have time to consume all of the media...

[pineapplesaresweet]

they are talking !!

[goodold-fashioned-killerqueen]

born to draw block people making out... force to draw houses....

[satsuha]

valerio for 60min challenge

[love-3-crimes]

MERMAY!!! HMS!!! YEAH!!

for heart i wanted to pick a freaky fish bc he is a freaky guy (also bc deep sea fish are in the dark and heart is blind/sensitive to light,,,yeah)(and the lizardfish won in that poll i did)(thanks everyone)

soul bc red

(jk i thought scorpionfish were cool and went with the trident theme, the red was a plus)

mind i chose the ray bc... i forgot tbh. i think i saw blue and went "🫵😲"

(also something about using electroreception to locate prey... pretty cool i think)

[astralleywright]

and if i said that part of the reason a lot of ppl aren't as into C3 is because of the dearth of truly mass appeal M/M options.

[fisherrprince]

man i know we say it a lot nowadays but that link sure is missing

[dont-offend-the-bees]

Anyone else just not feeling like a real person much lately?

[ganondoodle]

i am being so brave trying so hard to hold back writing a rant about that 'minimizing narrative noise' comment on totk sage concept art bc its actively flying around in my head like the worlds most annoying fly

[badbugbotblood]

Watching a compilation of the many really satisfying eating scenes from Primal and thinking about KCB and how Cybugs can eat ANYTHING... also thinking abt my hc that Turbo struggled with pica (the urge to eat non-edible things) and how him eventually making it to Sugar Rush where almost everything was made of FOOD helped to alleviate it. He then (understandably) built up a sugar dependency which stayed with him after being excised from SR. He hasn't gone right back to drinking motor oil like he used to but now he DOES put candy sprinkles on absolutely EVERYTHING. Nothing tastes right anymore without a truckload of sugar!!! :(

[2hoothoots]

i was having a chuckle to myself last night about Gristol, and how his plans are basically:

Restore Ford Cruller's memory

Find Maligula

???

Profit

but then... of course they are, right? this is Gristol we're talking about. Fatherland Follies drives home again and again that he's still operating on a child's logic, a warped and reductive version of the world that he never bothered to grow out of. both of his memory vaults center on the images of his childhood, this idealized version of the past that he clings to no matter what. and that's still how he remembers Maligula, too - as this saviour figure, who rushes in to help him when he's in trouble.

[ID: Two slides from Gristol's memory vault, Glory to Grulovia! Left: Gristol clings to Maligula's back as she summons waves to sweep away his assailants. Right: Gristol and Maligula waving from a balcony as the people cheer. Gzar Theodore brandishes a dagger in the background.]

like so much else, Maligula represents a return to this idyllic childhood - to the peace and simplicity of his youth, when he was free from worries and responsibilities. in his mind, he doesn't need to make any further plans - once Maligula's back, everything will go back to normal. Maligula will make everything better.

...is what i thought, but then i remembered this line:

[Screenshot source. ID: Gristol, in Truman's body, bows on his hands and knees in front of the newly-awaked Maligula. The caption reads: "Yes, High Priestess! I am here to correct the mistakes made by my father!"]

and that's kind of interesting, right?

to be clear: this happens directly after Maligula sees Helmut-in-Gristol's-body, and recognises him. her line before this is:

"Little Gzesaravich! Have you come to pay for your father's sins?"

my first thought was that Gristol hadn't expected to still be in Truman's body by the time he managed to find Maligula, and this was him trying to placate her and buy some time until he could explain the situation. but watching the cutscene back, that's clearly not what's happening here. Gristol is answering as himself, and his response of throwing himself to his knees before her is, as far as i can tell, genuine.

so what is going on here?

in Fatherland Follies, there's this line in the ride narration that stuck out to me:

"Why didn't the Gzar help Maligula in her time of need? No one knows, but historians agree - it is Gzar Theodore's biggest failure."

other lines mention Gzar Theodore's "mistake", and it's wording Gristol himself echoes in the screencap above. evidently, he believes that his father abandoned Maligula, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the Psychonauts, and it was that mistake that lead to them being driven out of the country - that mistake which he seeks to correct. maybe he even feels like he has a debt to repay to her for his family turning their backs on her all those years ago.

the 'High Priestess' thing, though - that's kinda weird, and threw me for a loop the first time i played the game. it took me until my second playthrough to connect the dots, and remember how the room in the Lady Luctopus - Gristol's room - was full of Delugionist scribblings and symbols.

[Screenshot source. ID: left, the walls of the hidden backroom in Gristol's hotel suite, covered in scrawlings of eyeballs and Maligula's name. Right, the pinboard from the hidden backroom. On its surface are photographs and newspaper clippings connected by pieces of string.]

i mean, look at this stuff! he had a whole conspiracy board and everything!

we learn very little about the Delugionists and their beliefs as a whole during the game, but i think drawing the connection here suggests two important things. one: that Gristol was in deep with this stuff. i don't know how he linked up with them - maybe via old family connections, or just good old-fashioned digging (we know he's skilled at worming his way into peoples' good graces, after all) - but it seems likely that he's begun to internalise their ideas, maybe even warping his own memories of events. and two: the Delugionists themselves are, if you'll pardon the pun, pretty far off the deep end.

like... i understand why PN2 didn't go heavy on the "mass-murderer cult worship" aspect of things, in the end, but man this is such a tantalising glimpse into the wider mythos around Maligula. Gristol is proud and haughty and thinks himself above everyone else; the fact that his first reaction seeing Maligula is to throw himself to the ground at her feet says so much about the way he's come to see her. he's not just trying to bring back Maligula, his childhood bodyguard. he's trying to bring back Maligula, the High Priestess of the deluge, the semi-mythical figure whose supporters believe even death couldn't stop. he doesn't even flinch at the way she confronts him, and maybe it's because he's bought in so completely to this deified figurehead, this idea of Maligula; more a living force of nature than a person. and it all comes back to the same place: an abdication of responsibility, not just to the person who protected him when he was little but to this avatar of floods and destruction. Maligula will make everything better.

i'd write more about my thoughts on the Delugionists but that'd be taking a hard turn into speculation, and this is already kind of long and rambling so i'd better end it here. but what an unexpected and evocative line, right? it's some of the only stuff we have to go off of regarding the Delugionists as a whole, but i think it does such a good job of hinting at the wider story - at teasing another layer to the mythos surrounding Maligula, one whose ripples we see throughout the game but which never quite breaches the surface.

[shepards-folly]

Hi! I'm here to be a bad influence on you again, do you still like The Mason? I certainly like how you draw him so...

(consider this a free pass to doodle a little guy)

OH HO HO HO!!! Thank you for the ask :]! I will always take any excuse to draw characters i like

here’s a bunch of quick masons for the price of one aka i took this as motivation to compile some doodles and semi-finished things of them i had lying around!

i’ll probably post some close ups or ramblings in a rb later too! idk man yall might see alone on a friday night as its own post cause i think abt it all the time….

[solazu1]

I’ve seen so much shitty ship content in the marble hornets fandom since I’ve joined that I’m starting to get sick of shipping as a whole, ngl. I’m staring hard at the main contenders here, Jaylex, Brim, and Jam. Brilex is another ship I see frequently fucked up a lot too, but yea whatever. I’m not condemning people who get it wrong because I’m not the goddamn messiah of characterization either but there’s gotta be a line to be drawn, right? like with all the absurd vaguely uncensored abused x abuser content associated with jaylex, the uncomfortable brim content where every instance of hoody fucking up Tim's life on **PURPOSE** is ignored for the sake of a cuddle or for the sake of sexualization, THE HEAVY OVER-SEXUALIZATION OF BRILEX, and the fully fleshed out personalities of Tim and Jay being washed away and sacrificed for mischaracterized, stereotypical, romantic interactions that really isn’t something the character would ever do but rather something the author wants them to act out. <- honestly the last bit can be applied to all other ships too! And it isn’t my only gripe with Jam specifically but I feel like my specific criticism on it deserves another post that will probably never come haha.

[luthwhore]

i can understand people not being interested in seeing reformed lex and preferring stories of him being a villain (even if i don’t personally agree) but i saw someone leave a review on league of comic geeks insinuating that joshua williamson’s take on lex luthor was somehow indicative of his view on irl billionaires like musk and bezos and i really wanted to reply to the person and be like “hey serious question do you think ebeneezer scrooge reforming at the end of a christmas carol meant charles dickens was pro-billionaire”