#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

[rocker-socks]

There is something so funny about Billy LARP-ing an ancient Greek youth in those "JL think Marvel got deaged" AUs because either he fully commits to the bit (vague backstory inviting implications included) or he just shuts down harder than fort knox

Billy is out here either with a twelve step God informed (plus Solomon and Achilles) backstory about being a poor boy from Olympia in 400 BCE, just regular ol joe no need to worry haha or completely blue screening and banking on the fact that only one other person can speak ancient Greek in this group.

Except its also the exact same person who has a LASSO OF TRUTH. Billy's brain is just throwing up "ERROR!!" and hoping that if he keeps his mouth shut nothing incriminating can slip out

[bluuscreen]

finally played the murder of sonic the hedgehog and i like the art so much i wanted to try and emulate the vibe.. bg is loosely referenced from a photo on unsplash, outfits are from pinterest [except sonics shoes, those are from my brain] [pretty sure his jacket/skirt were based on rainbow dash but whatever they suit him too]

[plagueislost]

I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON JASON WING AU THE WAY HIS WINGS CHANGED AND SUCH

do other people who use the lazurus pit experience changes in their wings or was it bc he changed as a person before/after his death

do you think people who go through trauma experience changes in their wings

also what does family preening look like

i am obsessed with the wing au

THANK YOU FOR ASKING I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS AU.

i originally got the idea of his wings turning white from that streak in his hair that appeared after the resurrection. i figured hey, if the lazarus waters can do that to someone’s hair, it can probably do that to their wings too, right? it allows for Bruce to not realize Jason is Red Hood for a little bit longer, and it lets you visually separate these two halves of Jason’s life.

I honestly got pretty lucky that pigeons and doves are the same type of bird, and that their symbolic meanings are so contrasting. Jason was a street rat before the resurrection. even after becoming robin, his entire outlook on life was informed by his experience on the streets, and his wings reflected that.

after the resurrection, he becomes in a way haunted by his previous life, and is stuck in a state of grief over what he lost and what he can never again be (robin, bruce wayne’s son, whatever). doves are a symbol of peace, which is a nice contrast to the red hood persona, but they’re also a symbol of grief and mourning (well, technically mourning doves are but shhhhh).

I imagine that since Jason is the first to be revived fully from the dead by the lazarus pits, he is the only one to have experienced significant change in his wings. it’s possible Ra’s might have some white speckling from frequent exposure to the pits, but i honestly haven’t decided yet.

about the trauma causing changes in wings thing, most likely it wouldn’t be anything so drastic like Jason’s change but it can definitely leave lasting effects. i heard somewhere that birds in very stressful situations will over-preen themselves, essentially plucking out perfectly healthy feathers until skin is exposed. This is probably a behavior that would manifest in people in this world too, as a form of self harm. It’d be pretty hard to hide, though, so if someone were trying to keep up appearances they’d likely search for other avenues.

lastly, family preening i’d say is similar to social grooming behaviors in apes or birds. I’m not sure about the social structures behind preening in birds, but i know a lot of species will groom each other in order to bond. We don’t see a lot of social grooming in humans because we’re able to stay rather clean on our own, but i’m sure that would be a different story if we had large appendages in hard to reach places covered in feathers that won’t necessarily fall out on their own when they need to.

social preening would look different on a case-by-case basis, depending on living situations and interpersonal relationships. for example, someone who lives alone would probably invite friends over so they can preen one another in a giant pile on the floor, but a group of people living together wouldn’t need to make an event of it and would just idly groom each other while watching tv or something. people probably sell tools that allow you to get to those hard to reach place on your own if you don’t have anyone to preen you, but they aren’t a huge industry. also, you can go a while without preening before it gets dangerous, but it’s uncomfortable and itchy the whole time. with the Wayne foundation, theres likely preening centers across Gotham where individuals (homeless or otherwise) can get their wings preened if they don’t have anyone to preen them and can’t afford the tools.

Jason is still pretty testy about preening now, but before he reconciled with Bruce, his wings were in a constant state of disrepair. He had the money (from crimelord-ing) to pay for the tools to preen himself, but he wasn’t taking very good care of himself overall during that period, so it took a back seat.

thanks for indulging me with this au you guys have been very kind about it :)

[hausdellamorte]

veilguard having woke necromancy but still sending skeletons to work in the necropolis' corpse gulag - ghoulag if you will - is such a bizarre choice and also frankly quite hilarious because you can tell that they didn't want to commit to anything fucked up and unethical because why would they

oh no we don't *actually* resurrect dead people against their will. these are just wisps who have no prior memory of being a sentient being. skeletons are just empty vessels because the essence of that person left so it's not actually questionable for us to use people's remains. also people fill out consent forms to be resurrected and used in the ghoulag. also yes only good people can become a lich because the lichlords - that we somehow have now - do some serious soul sifting and ONLY the people with good intentions - like reading books for the rest of all eternity - are allowed to become a lich. no emmrich having a little skeleton servant isn't unethical because he wasn't a person before, he was a wisp - you know our new ex machina - and he really wanted to be a necromancers servant and learn and it was HIS choice all along.

because we at bioware are all about informed and consensual necromancy because why would we have something morally ambiguous going on? or even actually question the ethics of our companions? have challenging discussions about morals? what do you expect us to do? make things actually interesting?

[harbingersecho]

MAKE-A-NOSSIE IS NOW LIVE !!!

Make or recreate your own Nosferatu!

Currently this maker has 5 different faces, 6 skintones, and several different, movable facial features. Also includes stuff like piercings, boils, and wounds on top of accessories like hats, masks etc. Ghoul pets probably incoming at some point too.. Pets are now here!!

! CW for blood, body horror, eye trauma, teeth etc. Basically, there are parts for walking masquerade violations so… Remember that.

You can request some stuff too if there are parts you would want added <3

(I also have a ko-fi if you wanna throw in a buck or two)

[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...

[lesbianfakir]

For anyone who missed when I talked about this, I’m organizing a low stakes mini zine for princess tutu. Soley because our tag is SO EMPTY rn and I want to generate an event in the fandom.

Planning for a tentative release in September so it can be like a fun summer tutu event but I’m workshopping this with a friend who knows more about zines than I do—release date can be pushed back if needed.

Any and all contributors are welcome (since it’ll be a pdf I don’t foresee needing a set page count so anything goes) though I will be checking in with everyone to make sure their pitches are appropriate for the zine (and by that I mean do NOT make me look at the teenagers having hardcore sex pls and thank you)

Finally I wanted to throw this out there:

Feel free to send me your ideas on how to make this a fun event for everyone. Whether that’s gamifying it by like assigning people teams or giving out silly rewards (I desperately want to make an ultimate #fakirgirl badge/sticker for our bravest soldiers) or I don’t know, making themed sections of the zine so we have a part where people say pick a fairytale they like to theme their piece around. We’re in the planning phase so no idea is a bad idea

I just want this to be a fun, collaborative project so we can come together as a fandom and enjoy a show we love

[broareweabouttoviberightnow]

pony was a chronic homework n notes page doodler. he was ALWAYS gettin hollered at for it. he'd get bored n start sketchin n suddenly he's got half the science notes n a page full of three horses, the view out the window, n four doodles of Johnny knocked the fuck out on the desk beside him. also. common Pony occurance.

[veesespuffs]

Mystic Flour Cookie - Pure Vanilla Cookie Burning Spice Cookie - Hollyberry Cookie Shadow Milk Cookie - White Lily Cookie Eternal Sugar Cookie - Golden Cheese Cookie Silent Salt Cookie - Dark Cacao Cookie

PLEASE tell me you guys see the parallels.

[the-shy-artisan]

Friendly reminder that real live rabbits and baby chicks are not Easter gifts. They are long term commitments.

Buy your children stuffed animals.

[thecrowfinder]

i call this one "The Only Part Of A Benrey Design I Can Actually Pin Down Is The Eyes So I Just Gave Up And Got Silly" and you only get to see it because all my friends hyped me up so so much about it. everyone say thank you to my friends

[crickit-song]

I've figured out why Natlan's stories feel so weak to me:

First off, this is the first time there's been NO human vs human conflict in a archon quest AT ALL. Liyue had the us on the lam, Inazuma had its civil war, Sumeru's got the akademiya sage scheme, Fontaine's quest was half a legal battle, and even Mondstadt's simple "beat the dragon" quest involved us stealing the lyre. Additionally, The Fatui have been a constant battle since the beginning, and even when we were working together, there were still plots and at least a little nefariousness going on where we couldn't see. The Fatui have always been a big part of the worry throughout the story. However, in Natlan, at literally no point was the Captain any kind of threat. The mystery stuff at the beginning excluded, Capitano was just giving us a thumbs up the whole time.

Two, for a plot about collecting a group of people to save the world, this story was not at all about the people in Natlan. This story was focused 100% on the Abyss the entire time. I like Natlan's characters because they're fun to play, but none of them have any meaningful internal conflict brought about through the stories in Natlan. The only thing that happened for them was "hey traveler, You can do it, I promise. The abyss is here and bad." Kinich had no conflict, just annoyed by ajaw. Mualani was literally just confident the whole time. Xilonen was offscreen 90% of the time. The list goes on. I have no reason to care about what's going on for them. They're cute and all but they seem shallow and flat, like they have one character trait and that's it. Additionally, none of their personal stories or traits contributed to the archon quest. The side quests were just "hey forget about the abyss for a hot sec, I have this completely unrelated thing going on." Same for the world quests. Il Capitano's fight with Death was boring bc there was NO build up for it. "Oh, he hates death, oh he beat her with a loophole right now he didn't introduce until a second ago. Cool i guess"

Natlan was advertised as a Nation of War, and i was excited to see war. I was hoping for different tribes fighting against each other, needing to be united against an evil, perhaps by a new archon (to draw in the purpose of the archon system). I would have even had the fatui join them after a bit. However, the was no interesting emotional conflict at all. The bad guys were completely unfeeling and definitely in the wrong, which makes for boring story.

[lyxchen]

You know I really love how Squid Game pushes it's scenes so far that it makes you feel that sense of urgency and distress that the characters feel. It can easily happen that if a scene goes on for too long for the purpose of keeping you in suspense that it then gets boring or annoying. But that never happens in Squid Game. Some scenes are incredibly long, especially the games, I know I got so stressed out watching Dalgona for the first time because the scene just would not end. But that's exactly what the length of that scene is supposed to do for you. Often when you are feeling a lot of anxiety or are in a moment of intense stress everything around you can feel slower. Like time takes longer to pass. Especially when you have a time limit and still need to concentrate and not make any mistakes. And in my opinion Squid Game conveys that perfectly. The games, they drag on even though a game itself is often not that long. Red Light, Green Light has a timelimit of 5 minutes. That's so little!! But they make you feel every damn second of it while watching. I'm not sure if the actual scene was longer than 5 minutes, but it probably was. But they don't cut out stuff. Often when things happen over a span of time in shows and movies they don't add in parts where not much happens and just cut to the part that's interesting again. But in Squid Game because it is life or death and because of how anxiety can make you feel like time is passing slower every moment for the players feels so long and every moment is important. And that's what I really love in how they made the show. Because yes scenes may be going on for a long time. But they're showing you in the most realistic way possible how the players experience these moments. Add to that that there's almost no added in music like pop songs and in general there's not that much background music either. Because it would just take you out of the intensity of the scene, seperate you from the character's point of view. So a lot of scenes are very quiet in the way that every sound you hear is also a sound that a character inside the show is hearing too. Squid Game, just in the way it's made and filmed and in how long scenes take, is made to be so realistic and wants you to feel as closely as possible to what the characters themselves are feeling too. I really love this way of making a show

Btw I made this post because I realized that this doesn't just happen in the games but also outside of them. When Gi-hun is searching for the recruiter we get a montage of all of them searching, the days passing and Gi-hun ripping off pages from his calendar, but even here that montage takes longer than a montage to show the passage of time usually takes. Because it is long. They can't show us every day of Gi-hun just searching again and again but they can sure make us feel like we've just watched that. And you start out watching it thinking "oh they're gonna show us them finding him in like the next 30 second" but they don't. And there's one point where you think the montage is over but then it isn't. And you get frustrated watching it because "why can't they find the recruiter already?? This is taking so long" and that's Exactly how Gi-hun is feeling in that moment. They drag it out, they show you so much of everybody just searching and days passing and they Want you to be annoyed, because then you're really getting it. You're really getting how fucking long it took to find the Recruiter and what a painfully and annoyingly slow and exhausting process it was. And that's just another way that this show is so damn amazing!!! Because it's so fucking good at making you feel exactly what a character is feeling!! They're not just telling you "oh yeah this took long but they did it", no. They're Showing you exactly how long it took.

And suddenly we've arrived at one of my favorite story telling rules which is "show, don't tell" and I think Squid Game applies this rule really really well

(I have more rambly thoughts under the cut that have a little bit to do with this post but focus on another part of it. Also if the structure of this post feels weird that's probably because I had many different thoughts and just kinda put them where I felt they fit in best so idk, I have a hard time rereading stuff I've written so sorry if the flow of it feels off)

Tbh I think it might also be a little bit why the show appeals to so many people and why so many people go and participate in Squid Game the Challenge or that Mr Beast shit. With the way Squid Game is made and filmed to be so immersive it has the power to give the viewer that same rush of adrenaline that the players inside the show feel. But us viewers sit at home and we know we are safe and so we want more of that adrenaline. It's maybe kind of like Bungee Jumping. You get that rush, that thrill of "holy shit I'm Falling", but you know you're safe. You're doing something you would otherwise only experience right before death. And obviously that is what Squid Game the Challenge is like, because being in it you know if this was real, as in real the way it is real in the show, then you'd be very close to death at any given moment. But you're not. Because you don't die if you fail. But you still get that thrill because of that association with death without actually having to be afraid of it. And that's when it gets fun. And while I don't think that this was intended the show is partly also as popular as it is, Because just by watching it you get a little bit of that adrenaline that's fun for you because you know you're safe

Also another thought about the 'show, don't tell' point of it all. There's not that much talking happening in Squid Game. Like people obviously speak to each other but often there are also long periods of time where nobody is speaking at all. But that doesn't matter because this show is so good at showing us everything that is important without much words needed. I'm pretty sure you could watch it without sound or subtitles and still get most of the plot of it. And that's really impressive

[catenary-chad]

The whole intent and dialogue around that statue in Times Square that pisses people off for being so radically average (Grounded in Stars) is so relevant to how I see Electra. Electric trains are just so invisible and never given serious media attention in the Anglosphere for how much they quietly keep society running and are genuinely superhero-tier stat-wise compared to any other trains (the environmental angle woefully undersells them they are OP in general).

Anyways, the more people go out of their way to make Electra anything but a regular electric train (which are SO rare in English-language fictional media) to villainize them, the more I make Electra a radically average fat middle aged commuter train with realistic “stuck in the 70s-80s” aesthetics. Because it makes you question everything and long for revisionist Train Wicked, because media misrepresenting and erasing electric trains for so long is such a silent but influential problem in the Anglosphere and has FASCINATING implications. The fact that people bend over backwards to praise steam engines for less than mediocrity but scream at electric trains for anything less than perfection (and ignore them otherwise) is telling and could be made so meaningful.

Anyways, flounce on New Jersey Transit Electra. Her hair is made of those coiled wires like on telephones. I may spin her into an OC because NJT is all electro-diesel bimodal engines and she really does feel like a midpoint between Electra and Greaseball lol

[reminiscentrainclouds]

They infect my art history notes once more.