#hoo boy how do i tag for this XD

[flames-tstuff]

An Alternate Ending

(this is a direct continuation of this, which I posted separately for all the normies XD)

someone had to do it, okay?? I can't be the only one who thought about this....

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "An Inside Man"

The beginning of my endless stressed paranoia about Thrawn, also obvious reveal is obvious.

I expect this recap to be pretty breezy, I've already liveblogged this episode once.

Hoo boy I cannot tell you the amount of tension there was before this episode. The TV adverts were packaging the footage from both this and "Visions And Voices" together in order to hype up the midseason closer, before the show went on break for the winter.

So you know, the hype was real.

Let's get into it.

[EDIT: Oh screw you, Tumblr, that was a whole forty minutes of work that you just ate, this is ridiculous.]

Right, so that's not subtle at all.

In addition to leaning heavily into the "Axis-occupied territory in WWII" aesthetic, the smog around Capital City is so much thicker, practically a new ozone layer, ammonia yellow in color. That is not sunset that is the city lights bouncing off the cloud of pollution wafting through their streets.

I haven't mentioned it before but Taylor Gray sometimes has this way of pronouncing the word "my" that gives Ezra just a little bit more of a "folksy" drawl, fitting for an Outer Rim farming planet. I do love how you can kind of "geolocate" where different characters come from by how they talk. High British or Imperial British accent? Core World. Southern American drawl? Outer Rim.

Now imagine Pryce with an accent like Ezra's and remember that every time she speaks she's totally faking her Core World accent. XD

Looks a bit like downtown LA, frankly. Minus the skyscrapers.

Yeah no, still love this shot Ezra pulls off while balancing precariously on the speeder engine. Such skill. Much badass.

The Kanan-Ezra tag team against the walker is great too.

Oh! Just noticed the non-fanfare titlecard has a bit of the dark male chorus from Thrawn's theme. Nice.

Something nice to note, the show does multiple chase sequences on this highway and none of them feel identical to each other. They're all uniquely staged.

I rewatched a couple times and the second speeder was actually taken out by debris from the first, bouncing forward and ricocheting off something.

Fitting right in with the WWII theme, internal saboteurs at the Imperial factories is very French Resistance. I honestly didn't expect to see the Sumars again so this was a pleasant surprise. Also a bit sad now, considering what happens.

*whispers* They paralleled Mr. Sumar's first conversation with Ezra.

This attack on Lothal's factories has been in the planning for a while now, since Season Two at least I think. Even though we were driven off Lothal, it's never been far from mind, and we've been constantly trying to get back there to liberate it. To Phoenix Cell and the Alliance it's a matter of strategy, of crippling or slowing down the Empire's war machine, but for the Spectres, for Ezra, it's personal, and it's been their focus from the very beginning. (Mostly. Ezra does get sidetracked with his obsession of personally destroying the Sith. More to meta ramble about that later when we get to "Twin Suns".)

Ha ha I remember when we all thought that the "new type of weapon" being referenced here was the Death Star. And personally, as I've said before, I still think Lothal was heavily involved in the Death Star's construction, that process was spread out across multiple Outer Rim worlds, resources and materials gathered from all over the place to keep it secret.

But once they introduced Thrawn they kind of had to give him a personal connection to Lothal, too. His rivalry with Hera wouldn't have cut it, that can play out anywhere, in any theater. (Hera's own stake in Lothal is also tenuous, generic, halfway between Ezra's personal drive and the Alliance's practical strategic considerations.) His being there at Pryce's bequest to help quell the Rebellion there offers no personal incentive outside of serving the Empire. But putting him in charge of the TIE Defender's development is perfect, in-character and easy to fit into what had already been established about Lothal, that it was a primary location where new TIEs were being produced.

Recall that Thrawn is not opposed to the Empire's tyrannical authoritarianism but he does think it's often ineffective. Advocating for the development of superior starfighters is right up his alley. If Thrawn had had his way or Palpatine had listened to him more, the resources, materials, and labor pooled into the showy but money-guzzling Death Star would have gone instead to bolstering the Empire's naval superiority, into better faster starfighters, more Inderdictors, and more capital ships like the Super Star Destroyers. Things to counteract the Alliance's flashbang hit and run tactics.

And the Rebellion probably would have lost.

So yeah, giving Thrawn a pet project specialized TIE fighter to be developed and constructed on Lothal was the perfect narrative decision.

...I went way off into the weeds there didn't l? Lol. Where was I?

Right, infiltrating the factory.

Love when Mr. Sumar asks Ezra if has any manufacturing experience and when he admits no, Ryder laughs and says he'll fit right in. Commie-style forced labor gang-pressing yaaaaaay!

Once again, the imagery is very deliberate and not at all subtle.

Ezra grew up on Lothal and he doesn't know who Pryce is on sight. This bitch been shirking her planetary governing duties for literal years, busy trying to be "hip and in with the cool kids" as it were, the perfect Imperial suck-up and sycophant.

A large part of Thrawn's effectiveness as a villain in Rebels is that you never quite know just how much he knows at any given time. Was his coming to the factories to inspect them just an unlucky coincidence or did he know Kanan and Ezra were going to be there? Is he just Dangerously Genre Savvy? How does he keep turning up in places right when the Rebels have made their move? It stressed me the crap out when I was originally watching, gave me hella Paranoia Fuel, and made his presence in every scene just that much more uncomfortable.

Like right here, with this scene where they linger just long enough on Thrawn observing the disguised Ezra to make you nervous, and the feeling lingers even though he steps away, because you almost think he picks Sumar out of the line-up because Ezra's there, targeting him for execution (basically) in order to flush Ezra out.

Also, btw, love the menacing cellos that accompany Thrawn's footsteps into frame.

The absolute slow dread and dramatic irony of this whole scene. D: It just builds and builds and then explodes (literally and figuratively), Thrawn's theme coming in full strength to emphasize the horror of the moment.

See, Thrawn's not above Make An Example Of Them when he thinks it's effective. (See also having Rukh behead that one officer in Legends canon.)

Lyste, you really should start questioning when Imperial astromech droids act crazy randomly around you lol.

It's a smidge distractingly fortuitous that there's always a convenient Scout Trooper around for Ezra to steal the armor off of.

This scene between Pryce, Kallus, and Thrawn is like some kind soothing British ASMR, everyone's voices are just so calm and smooth.

Ooof, Thrawn's rare displays of emotion are always a big deal, I flinched just from this tiny flash of anger.

Something else effective about Thrawn's presence is just how much more competent other Imperials start acting when he's around. Not officers like Lyste or Konstantine but the low-level grunts always seem more keen to cop on to things, just a bit smarter and more ruthless, when Thrawn's in an episode, like he brings them up to more rigorous standards of performance just by being there.

Probably why Pryce immediately falls apart and makes stupid impulsive decisions as soon as he's more than thirty feet away from her lol.

So there's Sabine's wall graffiti, already pulled off the building, I think that painting is from TCW, there's Ezra cadet picture, the mosaic from the Syndulla house, and a bunch of ancient Loth-cave scribblings.

I suspect Thrawn grabbed the retaining wall for the starbird (incidentally getting the Loth-cat drawing he'd later use to identify Sabine's work on Ezra's helmet in "Through Imperial Eyes"), and the cave paintings, obviously, because ancient Lothal culture.

Once again, Thrawn's deductions are razor sharp, but not OP. He's noticed the Phoenix cell has a particular attachment to Lothal, thus they will inevitably try to return to it.

Slowed down and replayed Kallus revealing himself a couple times just to look at this fight, Kanan starts by elbowing Kallus straight in the collar. Kallus reflexively throws a punch which gets pushed aside by Ezra. Kallus almost kitten bats the two of them before Kanan pins him to the wall.

Still LOVE how utterly flabbergasted Kanan and Ezra are at the reveal and how much grief they continue to give him after it lol.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: Kallus gives his very slight double-take at Kanan when Kanan pulls off his helmet, like he's surprised to see the scarring across his eyes.

Living for how much Ezra just casually bullies Kallus here. <3

"Or perhaps... an expected one." Lol nope, I can safely assure you, Thrawn, they did NOT expect Kallus to be Fulcrum.

Case in point about Thrawn's mere presence making everyone else more competent, the AT-AT pilots immediately question the AT-DP's presence.

This was really clever, having Ezra drive the chicken walker behind the AT-AT and use it for cover. I may have mentioned but it bears repeating.

MONEY SHOT.

Back when the show was airing and people were speculating about eventual defeats for Thrawn I think I was one of the very small number of people rooting for Marida Sumar to get to shoot him in the face.

Still want that AU.

TIE Defenders be no joke, people. They are fast, agile, shielded, and they have hyperdrives. They would have shredded the best the Alliance had.

Still love Zeb's chagrined grimace in the background there.

Ngl, once again, the ambiguity of "Just how much does Thrawn know?" is scarily effective. Thrawn's addressing Kallus seems deliberately calculated, like he's making some kind of subtle threat.

And whew!

After the shaky quality of the last episode this return to form is quite a relief. The tension is tightly wound and palpable throughout, and there's a genuine sense of danger. Thrawn is placidly competent. We suffer an actual loss. Everything is pretty much excellent this episode, even without the benefit of seeing Kallus's turn we believe it.

Love rewatching this one. <3

[quotidian-oblivion]

Book recs!! ✨

Hi! So a bit ago, I met a lovely amazing anon on ao3 (who is a BLESSING compared to the other mean anons commenting out there, thanks Kat, you make mine and im pretty sure other author's days too). So we got into talking about books and I offered to make a list for her and post it on tumblr so other people too can scrounge through so here we are lmao.

I gathered this list from the personal notes I had made to myself to add these books to my bookshelf when i move out and also from another list i made for my little siblings because no way are they gonna not read the good stuff I found. It's like a rite of passage now.

Just a note: I don't read romance. But since books don't have the very convenient tags we get on ao3, I end up getting to romance-y parts. The only romance books I have read are middle school level romance lmao XD Nothing except kisses and stuff lol.

Let's go!

The Maze Runner series

Maze Runner

I love this book. This series. Ngl, one of the first books where I felt that heart-clenching feeling of hurt. Love the characters, the world-building was in the fandom for a brief while and I love the plot too. Better than the movie plot anyway XD

Mare Runner: Scorch Trials

Second book in the series, also very good. Literally an adventure. So many twists and turns. Once more, the characterization is also amazing!

Maze Runner: Death Cure

Third and last book in the series as a main. Heartbreaking. Did shed tears. Page 250 still kills me. O u ch.

The Fever Code

Also in the same series and OUCH. It's the characters before the whole drama happened and they're kids and higehrfwb 😭 No kidding I was squealing and nearly threw the book multiple times out of excitement. It solved a couple plotlines too. I adored it. Plus, it gave me some closure from the many many (inevitable) deaths.

Crank Palace

It's a novella, but clears the mysterious gap that was in the third book. Plus, it gives much much more closure but I'm still crying so do what you will with that information. I love the new "OC"s here too.

Trials of Apollo

The Hidden Oracle The Dark Prophecy The Burning Maze The Tyrant's Tomb The Tower of Nero

Listen- listen- I know this is kinda obvious and you might be asking "where's the rest of the pjo series?" but that's a given. My personal favorites are the pjo, hoo and toa series, but toa somehow spoke to me more because the main relationship wasn't a romantic one like all the other teen books I read. I also adore Apollo/Lester's character development? Like, at first he was this carefree god, then at the end of the series, he transformed into a person who cared so much and so deeply and was willing to die for others. That is peak character development and if I hadn't read toa, I would still be blundering around and confused with my multi-chap fics as to how characters actually develop. Because you can see that journey so clearly in toa.

Jinx series

Jinx: The Wizard's Apprentice Jinx's Magic Jinx's Fire

I love this series so much??? I am a sucker for fantasy novels and this was so so good. I love the storyline and-

AND I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE FOUND FAMILY ASPECT HERE. THIS. IS LITERALLY RELUCTANT MENTOR-FATHER AND HYPER AND KEEN MENTEE-SON. AHHH.

Anyway, this was my first found family novel. I loved the whole storyline too, this was also the series where I was first introduced to the concept of whump (without knowing what whump actually was).

The Mapmaker Chronicles

Race To The End Of The World Prisoner Of The Black Hawk Breath Of The Dragon

These were also some of the first whump books I read. And I especially loved this because the plot was it. A smartass scrawny boy who accidentally turned into a hero? Hmmm, I wonder who that reminds me of. (Tim Drake. It reminds of Tim Drake)

But the characters are also special to my heart. There is minimal romance in here. Any romance is to move the plot forward.

Also a mentor-mentee relationship here. Not so much found family to the heart seeing as the main character already has family back home, but the whole crew definitely is a family of their own. I especially adore Ash! Ahhh! She's lovely and amazing. Oh and Zain- *sighs* he is the perfect mentor figure to scrawny li'l Quinn. And the hateable characters are so perfectly hateable!! The author truly is talented at stories.

Although the second book could do with more whump

Nevermoor series

Nevermoor

This book was described in the reviews as "Harry Potter meets Alice in Wonderland" and it stayed true to its description. It had beautiful and amazing characters, and an evil-mentor & reluctant hero-mentee relationship (though not at first) and I am a sucker for that. Also, I just love the character herself. Morrigan is a very good and fleshed out character and I will love her forever.

Wundersmith

We explore more of the evil-mentor & reluctant hero-mentee relationship. But Jupiter, Morrigan's actual caretaker, is the PERFECT uncle/caretaker for her and he's so protective of her and i just-

*sobs* I stan.

Hollowpox

Here we discover some of that delicious power upgrades. I also love all the friends! HAWTHORNE IS MY FAVORITE AND WILL ALWAYS BE I LOVE HIM. Stunning characters here 💫 Also some wise comparison of the different isms and phobias (as in homophobia, racism etc.) here in terms of fantasy.

The Mysterious Benedict Society series

The Mysterious Benedict Society The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Riddle of Ages

This... was one of the first mystery books I had ever read (my actual first was Sherlock Holmes cuz I found it on my grandparents' bookshelf and read it cuz I had read every other book they owned which wasn't a lot). I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. It was calm and just- a bunch of kids going on a perilous journey to solve a mystery to save the city. Those kind of vibes. But the vibes were so good. So enjoyable. Every time I hear about this series, I just sigh in contempt.

There are very, very interesting characters here too. The characters are what made the story so good. All of them have unique quirks which they use to crack clues and form conclusions and dive into actions. Such good characters. 10/10, honestly.

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

This is part of the Benedict society universe, but it takes place years before the main events. It has adventures of the leader of the group in the main series as a kid. This book has a special mention because the storyline was different to the style of the main series and it had tropes. Just- the friend and the character itself and- dnfhbevbiluw

Okay, I admit, Benedict here does remind me of Tim (my fav character in DC). Like y'know smol Tim with the camera? Those kind of vibes. Very strong vibes. I read this way before I discovered Tim even existed so maybe this book plays a part in my favorites?

Jessica Brody books

The fact that I put the actual author's name here should tell you something.

Addie Bell's Shortcut To Growing Up

This book... brought me to tears. This was the second book that prompted salt water to slip out of my tear ducts. It was a strange feeling. Cuz I was not used to crying for books and movies and shows.

The plot just hit hard. A 12-year-old Addie magically time-travels to when she's 16 and experiences life as a teenager. The plot gives more than you expect. There are boys, yes, but that is a side plot, not a main plot. Which is why I love the book so much. Addie wants to be one of the "girly" girls who talks about boys and stuff and goes to parties like her older sister, but then as she lives the life of a teenager more and more, she realizes just how much she lost. Friendships, family, her personality, her interests, herself.

The part that made me cry was her missing her sister. Cuz, well, I'm an older sister. And my sister who is the oldest after me has the same age difference as Addie and her older sister. It wasn't just her missing her sister in that scene, it was everything crashing down on her that moved me to tears. Amazing book. If anything, I recommend you either read this or 'Better You Than Me' if nothing in this list goes towards your liking.

Better You Than Me

This was the first book that made me cry. It has two characters, one in middle school, the other who is an actress, swap bodies. So the typical middle school kid gets to live as a famous actress, and the famous actress gets to live as a typical middle school kid. Of course, neither of them end up liking their new life very much, but that only teaches them two important messages: appreciation and communication. God, I learnt so much from this book. I was like 13 or something when I read it and it resonated within me enough to make me cry. I adore this. SO much.

I Speak Boy

I actually have a library-borrowed copy with me right now XD It's about a middle school girl, Emmy, being very confused with the opposite gender. (Very much hetero, no homo despite it being published in 2021). But, once again, the reason I love this book isn't cuz of the romance (though it is kinda satisfactory but also a bit cliché). It's how the main character realizes that boys aren't everything. Just like in 'Addie Bell's Shortcut To Growing Up'. It's a lot about friendship.

The reason why I like these books by Jessica Brody (I haven't read the others yet) is because of the Bechdel Test factor in it.

S. K. Ali books

Again you have another author's name. This time, it's Muslim fiction!

Love From A To Z

The first Muslim fiction book I've ever read. And yes, it is a romance book. But it does not have any touchy-touchy stuff (except in the Epilogue and a couple dream scenes, very vague though and only kissing). As in, the main characters follow mainstream Sunni procedures and do not touch each other as they're not married. Which just leaves room for a ton of emotional romance.

I adore this simply because I'm a Muslim Hijabi myself and I am very much biased.

It deals with so many aspects of romance though, like personality first, lust last, and whether they are the right fit or not and whether they actually like each other or the idea of each other and how families play into this and online hate and emotion control and of course, the marvels and oddities of life. It is packed with so much. And when I finished the book, I had a good long cry. This is the first book that made me cry the longest. Because- because I was starved for representation! And this book did it so well! I just- love this so much.

The author has published a sequel, Love from Mecca to Medina, I have yet to read it because I'm waiting for it to be in a library. I prefer physical copy books.

Once Upon An Eid

Okay, this is very Muslim-based, but if you treat it like Muslim Christmas, everything becomes clear XD Also, Ali wrote only one story here. This book is actually a collection of stories by different Muslim authors. And each story is so special. Many people don't really know how Muslims celebrate Eid or why it's so special (besides spiritual reasons) and what it looks like. This paints an accurate picture. And it contains most, if not all, types of Muslims celebrating Eid. Sunni, Shia, refugee, African, American, revert/convert, South Asian etc. So really diverse.

Saints and Misfits Misfit In Love

Very much love-centred, but also has very vague mentions of sexual assault/rape/non-con. Yes, in a Muslim community. It exists. A lot actually. But it's hidden and hushed down. Disgustingly.

But the first book addresses it and how a Muslim girl battles it. She's in love with a white boy, yes, but she doesn't give in to her white boy desires. Neither does she fall to a non-white boy, at least not fully.

Which is why I recommend that if you're reading the first book, you definitely, definitely read the second one along with it. Because I felt even though the ending of the first book was satisfactory, it wasn't satisfactory to me. But the second book was! Because at the end of the second book, Janna (the main character), comes to the conclusion that boys aren't everything. And even though there is a very perfect boy that fancies her and she fancies him too, she takes a breath and says that she isn't too focused on that. And I adore that. But she only comes to that conclusion after falling in love with many, many, many boys. I did get a bit uncomfy cuz romance just in general makes me uncomfy, its a personal thing, but I kept reading it cuz... Muslim fiction! Anyway, good book series. But I like Love From A To Z better.

Now, those are... a lot of books. And a lot of me talking. And there are still so many more. So I'm just gonna go through some quick filtering and put the titles and authors of the other books here in dot points.

London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (my first novel, Kat knows about this lol)

Skyfire series by Michael Adams

NERDS series by Michael Buckley (it's an acronym that stands for National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society. It's weird but I laughed a lot so)

Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens

Mallory Towers series by Enid Blyton

Naughtiest Girl In The School series by Enid Blyton

Scarlet and Ivy series by Sophie Cleverly (fuck- I forgot to add this to the main list, but this book is hella hella good and I recommend it very much)

Bounce by Megan Shull (life lessons in here)

Sick Bay by Nova Weetman

The Adventurer's Guild series by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos

Luck Uglies series by Paul Durham ("DADDY ISSUES!" screams Quo. "I love this book because I have daddy issues among other issues and that is all.")

Time Hunters by Chris Blake (it is very much a children's book, not even middle school, but I read it because it has an intriguing storyline and interesting historical facts that had me raising my hand in every history lesson)

There are no classic books here because that will need its own separate post.

And that's it! Thank you very much!

[princeshroob]

Okay, so it's officially been a year since I started playing, and I was wondering if I wanted to do something for it...or even if I could do something, but I eventually came up with the idea to go over my squad in order of first acquiring them, all the way to the present

(I swear to Terra, if I get something notable from free pulls before this comes up, I'm gonna explode)

...So uh, I wanted to have Mudrock and Surtr in the same picture, but they were too far apart for that, so screw it, I'm going with two pictures at once here! Anyways, in case you didn't know, I got into this game because of Mudrock and waited until she was rate-up before rerolling, and this is basically what I ended up with. Crazy thing, I actually got her twice in the same 10 roll, so I got to enjoy her with -1 DP cost immediately! And then when I went to pull more in hopes of getting Surtr (who was the shoperator at the time) I immediately got her from a single headhunting ticket! Amazing!! And yeah, that's why I wanted them in the same picture together.

Anyways, you can also see Angelina and Bagpipe there. Angelina was from the Newbie pool, and like Mudrock I also got two of her. But...meh, I didn't really feel like building her up too much. I did e1 her, but honestly, if I got her much later on, she'd probably be sitting in e0 Purgatory. Bagpipe, on the other hand, was the first 6* I got from a Top Operator tag, and that was a heck of a lucksack! I actually got her twice total from recruits, and then another pot from the CC shop. Two more pots and she'll be epic!

so uh, anyone else in those two screenshots...Oh, Utage? I got her that early?? Dang, never realized she was with me for as long as Mudrock XD. Also Myrtle is also e2, but I think pretty much everyone has e2d her, if only for access to e2 supports. Perfumer and Cuora were much later e2s, sometime after Il Siracusano, I think? Oh yeah, I guess Indra is a bit notable in how she's a recruit-exclusive 5*, but that's it.

Hmm, a bit less things of note here. Lumen was very recently promoted to e2, although I did neglect to get his potentials since I was a bit preoccupied with getting Mudrock to e2. At least his event should rerun real soon. Meteor, Cliffheart, Courier, and Ethan I promoted to e1 since I've seen guides use them pretty often. Gavial I kinda quickly fell in love with after her Alter came out, so that was definitely a waifu e2 there! Saria tho, oh boy. She's so freaking awesome! Definitely one of my best recruit lucksacks!

Now, I think it was around this time where CC#9 started. I had Surtr that I've seen Risk 18 strats for, and I've seen strats that used Horn, so I basically fused those two strats together so I could use easier risks overall.

...Ah, funny that the three e2s on this image are those three. Anyways, Exusiai was, yet again, another recruit lucksack, and she does so much damage! Well, so long as the enemies don't have too much defense, but there's ways to make up for that. Texas was from the pinboard missions, nothing unusual there. Lappland was from the 5* selector new players get, and I got her because man, having her earlier would've made SN so much less painful...but also, just having her in general is nice. Also, Elysium I got as my guarantee 5* when pulling on a banner that had him, so that was pretty sweet.

Hoo boy, here we go. Imma be real, when I first saw Sideroca, my mind instantly went "I have to get her" and, well, she's the welfare operator from the W event, so of course I did. Also, you might think it's funny that Gavialter and Blaze are right next to each other. Well, I rolled a bit on the banner in hopes of getting Chalter (Not that hard tho, since the odds weren't exactly in my favor) and I ended up getting Gavialter. As for Blaze...shoperator. Even after rolling Gavialter. XD. I just think she's cute! Also, Click was promoted because the event made me realize how weak my caster game was at the time, so I thought I'd e2 her as a sort of budget option. Wasn't really ready to promote Amiya at the time, so this had to be an acceptable compromise.

(If you're wondering why I didn't mention Amiya before...did I really need to? Everyone has to promote her in order to complete chapter 8. That's just how it is.)

Oh right, around this time was when the first Trials for Navigator event started. I...can't quite recall if I did Ultimate TN-4, but I'm pretty sure I got all the rewards at least, so there's that.

Oh, and there's also CC#10. I...barely remember what I did, and past me didn't exactly do a good job of actually posting the clear screen of risk 18. Man, they really dropped the ball on that. I definitely baited the cannon with Mudrock tho, no way am I gonna forget her pivotal role there!

OKAY, I'M LOOKING OVER MY SCREEN AND THE SCREENSHOTS I TOOK AND I COMPLETELY MISSED BLUE POISON! Ugh, she deserves better than to be skipped over, though to be fair, I was trying to focus on getting all my 6*s screenshotted at least, but anyways, she's e2 as well.

Anyways, Jaye there is e2, my first male e2 actually, and Ptilopsis I actually got from the 5* selector we got last anniversary (I think I'm gonna go for Warfarin with the next one btw, not like I can lucksack her in headhunting outside of kernal) and she's been very helpful! Astgenne, the welfare from the seemingly mythical Dorothy event, was so cute I couldn't not e2 her! Pinecone I e2'd cuz I was coping about not having Chalter, and Hibiscus Alter I e2'd cuz purple hair is too good! As for Fartooth...I considered building her, heck I even promoted her to e1, but I just have too many other operators that I would rather build.

Hoo boy, this. This is undoubtedly the start of where my power skyrocketed! Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way, I originally wasn't gonna go for Mlynar, but I decided that I might as well go until a 6* (though my track record tends to go otherwise if I don't get a good result) and I thankfully got him, and oh boy has he been integral in a lot of my hard clears! Nightingale...right, I got her and Fartooth from the standard banner with Saga and Mountain cuz those were both 6*s I had an interest in. Well, unlike Fartooth, I actually built her (though it was long after pulling her) and she's been pretty helpful keeping my team alive through heavy arts damage. Also Proviso I promoted to e2 and it had nothing to do with her base skill and everything to do with how cute she is XD. Whislash I was absolutely dying to get so you bet your bottom dollar I e2'd her almost immediately! Ifrit I got from yellow cert shop, and she's been pretty helpful when I can make good use of her. Chen I just happened to get with a Top Op + Nuker combo cuz why not? Didn't like my other options at the time much. Mostima, unfortunately, was a Top Op recruit that I didn't want cuz I wanted Ceobe, but oh well.

Anyways, if Mlynar wasn't enough, how about the time I pulled FREAKING SKALTER WHILE BREAKING PITY AFTER SPARK? Like, she would've been my spark if I had lucksacked Nearl Alter, so that's basically the same exact event in my mind. Anyways, aside from her, I didn't get any off-rates in that banner, so I was left with 2 Penance and 4 Texas Alters from that banner. Ceobe, as I mentioned, was a huge want for me, so I of course got her from the yellow cert shop, and then Horn was from the 6* selector at that time, and she's also been super helpful for me since then. Especially for IS#3, dear lord is she good against the first endboss there.

Right, this is around when CC#11 started. Risk 18 was absurdly easy that I didn't even need a guide for that (though my huge spike in power was also a factor.) I did push for higher risk though, and ended up with risk 25.

Almost getting towards the end here. Mizuki was a spook from the Gnosis banner (I primarily wanted Aurora) and, while he may not be the best 6* I could've got, I still wanna e2 him real soon. Kal'tsit was from yellow cert shop (which was during that absolutely horrific time period of Yostar forgetting Saga exists) and Magallan was just a random Top Op roll. Not building her, too small brain to use her well. Mountain was from the gamma headhunting ticket, and he was the one I wanted the least, but I still wanted him...even if my post at the time didn't look like I did I am an unappreciative jerk but anyways, it turned out to be for the better that I got him over Pozyomka. Lin was an absolute lucksack from free rolls on the banner, and I actually went out of my way to e2 her during the event! Lava Alter I e2'd cuz again, purple hair. Then there's Eyja, who was another yellow cert grab. Do I need to say anything about her? She's been the top Caster in the game since Day 1, with only Goldenglow being a possible threat to that title! (though for top caster in my heart, that title belongs to Ceobe XD)

I think both Trials for Navigator 2 and CC#12 were well after this, but the later operators I got weren't that important for that, so I'll just go over them here. Except...I barely remember what I did for TN#2. I just know that I did the Ultimate trial, so there's that. CC#12 though, my memory's a bit more clear on that. I did some strategizing for a few risks above 18, then changed them a bit to get even higher, all the way up to 26, exceeding CC#11 by a single risk! I honestly feel proud about that!

And now we have reached the present day. Rosa and Pozy both spooked me during the Yato Alter banner, the latter of which I built up quickly. And oh boy, is she super powerful! Even in the current event, she's been integral in dealing with the boss super quickly in my auto deploy setup! But Rosa sadly will take a backseat while I wait for Typhon, because believe you me, there's no timeline where I don't get her! Yato of course I had to hit the hard pity for, but she's been working very well for me. Weedy was another random top op. She was supposedly good for CC#12, but that didn't really convince me to build her sadly. Saga I have waited TOO FREAKING LONG for her to be in the yellow cert shop. And of course, Goldenglow I got with the 6* selector from the store as of now! Oh, also I got FEater to e1 max cuz she's super cute and I hope to e2 her some day.

Aaaaaand that's it. Man, it took a while to get this done that I actually wrote this in a few sessions cuz my attention span is...not great. But at least I got it done in time!

[vartouhix]

A headcanon thingy! I’m putting it under a read more ‘cause it got kinda long...

WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE SMELL LIKE?   In main verse and most other verses, she smells like tea roses. In FO4/zombpocalypse verse, she smells more like dirt and stagnant water tbh. xD She’s got other things to worry about other than how she smells! In Pacrim/Until Dawn/HP/Valorant/LIS/JJK verse, she uses jasmine-scented body soap, so she smells a bit like that, too. In her Greek Mythology verse as Eris, she smells like wild oranges.

WHAT DO YOUR MUSE’S HANDS FEEL LIKE?    In main verse and most other verses, her hands are soft. In main verse this is natural, but in other verses it requires morning and night self care rituals to keep them that way. In Pacrim/Valorant/JJK verse, she has some slight callousing from handling mecha parts and tools/weapons. In FO4/zombpocalypse verse, her hands feel rough from dirt and handling weapons. In main verse, her hands’ temperature depends on what temperature of water she’s ingested and how long ago she ingested it, in the case of warm water. In all other verses, her hands run a bit on the chilly side. In Until Dawn/HP/LIS/JJK verse, her fingernails are either French manicured. In Valorant verse, they’re just glossy from a layer of base coat. In her Greek Mythology verse as Eris, her nails are long, pointy, and black. In all verses, her fingers are thin.

WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE USUALLY EAT IN A DAY?    In main verse, she doesn’t eat much actually. Given her ability to photosynthesize, she can survive off water and sunlight alone--albeit weakly--for weeks. Typically she’ll either eat very small meals (more like snacks) every day to keep up her energy, or she’ll eat two actual meals each week. For snacks, she’ll have a handful of Brazil nuts, cashews, or berries. Her go-to actual meal is kebabs with veggies and meat skewered on them. In FO4/zombpocalypse verse, she eats whatever she hunts and gathers. In Pacrim verse, she tends to eat sandwiches because they’re quick and portable, and drinks just water. In Until Dawn/LIS verse, she eats a lot of raw food, not because she chooses it as her dietary preference, but because it’s quick. So nuts, raw fruits, raw veggies. She does have some cooked items but they’re also quick stuff--microwave noodles, soup, grilled meat, or hardboiled eggs. In Valorant verse it’s the same, except in much larger quantities since she’s always exercising in some way. In HP verse it’s not as bare-bones because she can use magic to cook, so she tends to have proper meals. She likes Western-style breakfasts, noodles at lunch, and meat, potatoes, and veggies at dinner. She also has a huge sweet tooth, and eats a lot of wizarding world candies. In P5/JJK verse, since she’s in Japan, she eats a lot more Japanese cuisine--fish, rice, pickled items.

DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE A GOOD SINGING VOICE?    In all verses where she is an alien from Balah, she sings well. In DBH verse, since she’s supposed to be a copy of main verse Vartouhi, she also sings well. In all other verses, she can carry a tune, but it’s nothing special. Still, she has fun at karaoke/noraebang.

DOES YOUR MUSE HAVE ANY BAD HABITS OR NERVOUS TICKS?   She bites her lip a lot, and plays with her fingers. She also licks her lips often if she’s not wearing something on them--which is why in most verses, even if it’s just Vaseline, she wears something.

WHAT DOES YOUR MUSE USUALLY LOOK LIKE / WEAR?   Hoo, boy. Okay. My linked profile for my Sailor Moon/FO4/Pacrim/zombpocalypse/DBH verse has a “usual attire” field you can check. In HP she’s very Dark Academia. In Greek Mythology as Persephone, she wears a lot of white and pink and pastel colors, as well as florals and watercolor prints. Lots of pretty, ruffly blouses and skirts--both short and long. As well as dresses. Always wears white moccasins. I have a tag on her inspiration blog for her main verse (or any verse where she’s an alien from Balah) clothing style that you can check. Until Dawn and LIS verses are probably very similar, if not the same. As Eris, she wears a lot of dark red and black. Bodycon or slinky dresses. Tight dark blouses and pencil skirts. Black slacks and blazers. Heels. Almost always wears heels. In Valorant verse, she typically wears pastel croptops with a grey sports bra underneath, grey skinny jeans, white fingerless gloves, and black combat boots. And in JJK verse, her style fluctuates betweek Dark and Light Academia. Lots of vintage-looking blouses with skirts, or vintage-looking dresses, and blazers. Neutral colors, like browns, blacks, greys, whites.

IS YOUR MUSE AFFECTIONATE? HOW SO? As Eris, and in her zombpocalypse verses, fuck no. xD I suppose if she was incredibly close with someone and felt super safe in the zombpocalypse verses, she might smile more, pat the other’s head or shoulder, and lean her head on them. Actually Pacrim/LIS/DBH verse is kind of the same tbh, except the difference is that she craves physical closeness/touch because it helps her destress. She just feels too proud to ask for it in Pacrim verse and too nervous she’ll hurt someone in LIS verse, and is just too afraid in DBH verse. She’s very affectionate in main verse, Jesus Christ. I have so many previous threads where she cuddles and gives platonic kisses to her friends. x’D I guess she���s the same in any other verses where she’s an alien from Balah, too. And Until Dawn and HP verses. In Valorant and JJK verses, she’s somewhere in the middle between the two extremes.

WHAT POSITION DOES YOUR MUSE SLEEP IN?    In all verses except as Eris, she sleeps half on her stomach half on her side, with her arms hugging a stuffed animal or pillow, or reaching out as if she would be hugging something. As Eris, she sleeps on her back with her arms overhead and her legs slightly parted.

COULD YOU HEAR YOUR MUSE IN THE HALLWAY FROM ANOTHER ROOM? Lol no. She tries to move quietly in pretty much every verse. Well, except maybe as Eris. I can see Eris click-clacking down the hall in her heels without a care in the world as to who she disturbs.

stolen from: @manaborn​ tagging: you. <3

[that-tall-queer-bassist]

for the fanfic ask game:

7, 19, 35, 44, 57

Ooooh hoo hoo, these are GOOD (thank you lilac :) )

7 (post a snippet from a wip) - I think I know what I want to post a snippet from, but it will make this too long so I'll just tag you (and the post) XD (this is very exciting)

19 (do you enjoy creating OC's or do you prefer to stick solely to canon characters?) - I prefer sticking to canon characters, it's one of the main reasons I prefer writing fics vs original fiction. I like being able to have a very solid idea or picture of the character(s) I'm writing about, and being able to work off of a reader's preconceptions and assumptions makes it both easier and more fun (inside jokes my beloved <3)

35 (What's your favorite fic you've posted?) - It would have to be the one I'm working on now ( Alone? ) or Friends Forever. I like that my writing has improved and I'm having so much fun with the plot, characters, and writing style (odd because of a canon ish quirk I decided to include) and that I'm somewhat managing (so far) to work on a multi chapter fic for once, but I am still partial to the sweet fluffy vibes of my fix it oneshot. (ghost boi gets his sheep friend back in the afterlife)

44 (What is your favorite genre to write?) - genre in general is definitely fantasy/high fantasy, but fanfic specific probably canon compliant. I like elaborating on things that are already there or things that were mentioned once and then forgotten. (call that brainrot 2.0 /j)

57 (How conscious are you about including symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?) - I'd have to say, Very. Not always, but most often I am. Flowers are hardly ever not unless i mention its not in the A.N., but I love mentioning things for them to come back into play later, or just saying something knowing only those who are rereading will appreciate that little detail. It's not something I've had much of a chance to explore (my menchant for one shots stifles it :( ) but Im loving the foreshadowing I can do in the multichapter/longer fics.

[relighthatspark]

sldkghslkdfj i’m not proud of this at allllllll but i was getting sick of not working on any drawings so i said fuck it i’m gonna draw lmao 

so here’s a very shitty kinda smudged kinda terrible faceless-because-the-ref-pic-was-too-blurry-i-tried owen that i drew in like an hour :)))

anyway here’s my actually good art tho lmao

[puppyluver256]

[Image Description: A woman with light skin and freckles, short auburn hair, and brown eyes. She is wearing a beige cowboy hat with a tan band around it, a light blue button-up shirt, a red neckerchief, blue denim jeans, a brown belt with a silver buckle, and tan cowboy boots with a lighter tan Pokeball pattern. There is a grey emblem attached to her neckerchief, emblazoned with a white circle logo. The woman has a red and white Pokeball in her hand, and is looking at it while in an energetic pose. Beside her is a fan-made Pokemon design resembling a young bovine. Its body is a light orange with yellow stomach, inner ears, and muzzle. It has blue eyes, short lavender horns and a lavender brow ridge, a large blue nose, brown neck fluff, blue hooves on its stumpy legs, and a tan tail with a tuft of blue hair on the end. The background resembles the background for normal-type Pokemon as seen in Pokemon Go. End ID.]

-----

"Howdy, Trainer! Welcome to your first Cantessy League Gym Challenge! I'm Tomi, and I've been helping to raise Pokemon in these parts for a Stoutland's age, and my family's been doing the same at our ranch for generations. We take good care of our Pokemon here! Sure, they're your standard normal-types, but the normal ones often end up being the one that surprise you the most! Ready to see how many surprises we can bring?"

Alllll right! Time to start getting into Cantessy's Gym Leaders! And hoo boy, Cantessy has a LOT of Gym Leaders! Much like Unova and Galar, Cantessy's Gym Leader lineup changes depending on what hypothetical version the player would pick up. However, it's not just one Gym whose leader changes yet keeps the same type like in Black and White, nor two cities switching out Gym Leaders and type specialties per versions. Instead, EVERY Cantessy Gym Leader is version-dependent! That's right, Cantessy technically has 16 Gym Leaders! And when you make your way to Shelbyton, you'll find one of the first pair.

In Plow Version's Shelbyton Gym, you'll face off against Tomi, a ranch hand who specializes in normal-types. She's partial to dog-like and cow-like ones, and of course they raise a lot of Moofer, Tauros, and Miltank over at the Parr Family Ranch. Before you can fight her, though, you'll need to get through the Gym challenge alongside a rental non-battling Herdier. With this specially trained Herdier by your side, you'll be tasked with herding groups of Tauros and Miltank into their appropriate stalls and fight Gym trainers along the way as each properly herded group of Pokemon unlock gates to each section of the Gym in order to reach Tomi at the end.

Tomi's initial Gym battle comes after you've had quite a bit of time to train up, so her team's a bit higher leveled than most first Gym Leader teams. She has a Herdier at level 16, and then she'll follow it up with a Moofer at level 18. Shouldn't be too much of a challenge, given she's only the first Gym Leader and all. There is a bit of a battle gimmick that I'll explain later, but since you'll both have access to it that addition will just lead to some extra fun. :3c After becoming the Champion, you can rematch Tomi with a higher-leveled full team of six: Twitchail, Stantler, Muskrill, Stoutland, Tauros, and Miltank. Yeah, I added both to her postgame team just so I didn't have to stick a definitive gender on that initial Moofer XD

💖🐶 Check out my pinned post for ways to support my artwork, among other things! 🐶💖

~If you like, please reblog to show your friends! Likes are appreciated, but reblogs let more people see my content! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

Pokemon and related concepts © Nintendo/GameFreak Tomi Parr, Moofer, the Cantessy region, and artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

[rantheon]

the bakarina anime is done! it’s just a drop in the ocean that is the otome isekai genre so these are some recs + what you need to know about them. i just listed most of my favs otherwise it’d be too long :p

in no particular order. includes some non-isekai ones too. needless to say most of these aren’t completed yet

my next life as a villainess: all routes lead to doom

using this to plug that there’s more bakarina content in the form of light novels, manga and 3 spin-offs

an observation record of my fiancee - a self-proclaimed villainess

told in the pov of prince cecil, whose fiancee bertia straight up tells him she’s a villainess of an otome game from her past life

if you ever wonder what jeord from bakarina might be thinking half the time, this is probably close. cecil is the same kind of prince who initially finds things bored and predictable until they met the mc

the things cecil would get up to for bertia? hoo boy

also the way the mangaka draws hair is addicting to look at

the villainess cecilia silvie doesn’t want to die so she decided to crossdress

the title speaks for itself~ after remembering an otome game she played in her past life, cecil (previously cecilia) is now the one capturing the hearts of the academy ladies instead

it’s fairly new so there’s not much of it yet :c but it’s pretty interesting

the original otome game had a whole rpg combat system going on and i’m hyped to see how it’s gonna lead the story

the Angelique vibes are strong in this one

the villainess wants to marry a commoner

isabella used to play an otome game in a past life, but she was really only interested in a side character named ursch. and then one day she finds him in her mansion garden

her past life self is such a mood - i too have 100% otome games in hopes of side characters getting hidden routes but alas

definitely deserves the ‘video game’ tag. isabella can see status screens and character stats/skills etc, and all the gacha rewards and grinding transferred over after her reincarnation. she’s the isekai female protag we’ve always wanted

seriously the main ship is too op for their own good aha

deathbound duke’s daughter

in a past life, erika only managed to finish 2.5/7 scenarios of an otome game thanks to an unlucky encounter with knife-kun. with the different flags of her impending doom approaching, she takes things into her own hands years before the game events start

very fantasy-oriented (the most on this list) and pretty action-packed, once you get past the game exposition in the first 3? chapters

the world building is brilliant, from the hafan mages to the aurelian alchemists, and there’s beasts and wands and spells and dnd stuff sprinkled in

the cast has quite interesting dynamics and interwoven plotlines, and they’re all dorky in their way :>

beware of the villainess

melissa remembers a novel from her past life and desperately tries to cut off contact with the male leads, but they still make her life hell & she rages

she’s just so done with everyone and you can’t help but relate to her

definitely the funniest on this list XD melissa and her reactions takes the cake but even the shit characters are hilarious in their own way

there’s also a lot of parodies to memes etc & best of all, there’s cussing. all the shits and fucks. a whole lot of it

it’s great

death is the only ending for the villainess

penelope wakes up as the villainess from a game she’d been playing in her past life, only right now it's on the hardest difficulty where death is literally everywhere. thus she tries, well, not dying

what’s cool about this is that penelope has access to the original game system. she can see menus, choice options etc. the male leads even have affection percentages floating above their heads :> which is always cool to see (and what i’m a sucker for)

but it’s definitely one of the darker ones on this list. iirc there’s depictions of violence, abuse, drugs and then some. just a fair warning

the daughter of albert house wishes for ruin

upon realizing that she’s the villainess from a past-life otome game, mary decides to stay as one. chaos ensues

i love this manga so much, everyone is so quirky and there’s something to laugh about on almost every page. the story almost feels self-aware of itself and just lets the characters do whatever. like ride bikes

addie is so cute ;o;

it’s definitely something everyone should experience

i’m a villainess daughter so i’m going to keep the last boss

one of the finished ones!

post-annulment, aileen pulls a Lisa Tepes and asks the demon king claude to marry her. he refuses. hijinks ensues

mostly on the fantasy side, as it builds on the world of the monsters

the cast is pretty fun! aileen’s smart, funny and pretty competent in her own right. plus she and claude are positively adorable together

milady just wants to relax

post-annulment, ronia decides to open a cafe in the countryside. it later becomes the frequent hangout of a beastmen mercenary group, who are intensely feared by the townsfolk

well... beastmen. that’s all you need to know /wink

okay, that aside, it’s just as chill as the title suggests. ronia slowly makes friends she can trust, and the beastmen find a second home in the only cafe that’s willing to accept them. it’s pretty wholesome

the banished villainess! living the leisurely life of a nun making revolutionary food

despite actively trying to change her ‘villainess from a past-life otome game’ fate since childhood, elizabeth gets annulled, her noble title stripped, and is sent to a church in a neighboring kingdom. she enjoys it more than expected, despite the appearance of the ever watchful leonid

there’s plenty of 21st-century food like sandwiches, cotton candy leonid’s muscles <3

the entire cast is lovable, and can chris get an f for all the heart attacks leonid keep giving him

seduce the villain’s father

yereninovica (or just yerenica) realizes that she’s in the world of a novel she read in her past life, but as the aunt of said novel’s mc. after thwarting a kidnapping that’s basically the mc’s origin story, she takes it upon herself to also prevent the tragic death of emperor belgoat

a bit different since it switches the roles around (side character x side character) and goes into the “parent generation” of the original work

there’s also an interesting bit where the world seems to recognize her as a hijacker, and where that takes her, we’ll see in due time :o:

plus the way yeni habitually calls him ‘father’ cracks me up every time

transferred to another world but i’m the savior of an otome game

after a ritual gone wrong, “yamada tarou” (fake name) is stuck in the world of an otome game. the only way back is with a magical ring, normally obtained after becoming the lover of one of the male leads. he of course says no i’m going adventuring but the game doesn’t like that

it’s absolutely hilarious - the leads treat our mc like a heroine, and there’s a lot of otome tropes that are called out on/parodied. like the seiyuus’ names oh my god

tarou’s reactions are great and his appraisal skill is the funniest thing alive

endo and kobayashi’s live commentary on the villainess

in modern japan, endo and kobayashi start their playthrough of an otome game, which becomes a bit glitchy and odd. they discover that siegward, a male lead in the game, can hear what they’re saying. they use this chance to finally give lisolette a happier ending

much of the story’s focus is on the characters slowly warming up to lisolette, and a bit on endo/kobayashi’s irl relationship. despite being the primary drive of the story, lisolette herself hardly moves the plot - if you know what i mean

regardless it’s undeniably adorable

tearmoon empire

no isekai, more of time travel? chronoskimming?

mia wakes up 10 years in the past after being sentenced to death. now afraid of guillotine-kun, she strives to solve the issues in her kingdom that had previously led to her doom

a bit similar to bakarina in terms of concept: avoid death flags, unknowingly recruits the people she meets into her little saintess cult. the misinterpretation is very strong, and in brilliantly funny ways

it has really fun narration ngl especially in the light novel

of course, i’ll claim palimony!

to prepare for her annulment, yulia starts scheming recording her fiance’s meetups with the heroine to use as evidence. if you’re gonna lose a suitor, might as well get some money out of it, right? along the way she gets involved with rudonik, one of the male leads

no reincarnation. rather than an otome game, the villainess story comes from a book written by a side character, and the “heroine” just decided to play it out in real life

the cast together is a riot, and it’s entertaining to watch yulia only think in profits and every connection she can make to achieve it

the villainess’ slow prison life began with her broken engagement

no isekai, just a plain old villainess

post-annulment, rachel is sentenced to imprisonment. which she enjoys and is thoroughly, hilariously prepared for

everyone’s a little afraid of rachel and for good reason. it’s better to find out yourself through the LN or manga, but let’s just say that even the king doesn’t want to deal with her XD

the holy grail of eris

now this one is interesting, putting the villainess trope into a mystery ghost story. that said, no isekai either

our innocent heroine constance attends a party and encounters scarlet, an executed villainess from ten years ago. a body possession and some public embarrassment later, they decide to team up to solve the mystery that might be behind scarlet’s death

i mean, ghost villainess? sign me up

+ some honorable mentions

i favor the villainess (the heroine goes for the villainess- girls? girls? yes)

a bellicose lady got reincarnated (a delinquent reincarnates as a heroine; what a concept :o unfortunately there’s not a lot of english content for it yet)

it seems i got reincarnated into a yandere otome game (i like that the mc actively makes it so that game can’t ever happen the way it should; plus, yanderes are always interesting to study)

inso’s law (modern isekai, and quite cute!)

the reincarnated young lady aims to be an adventurer / holy guardian tiger (similar to deathbound duke’s daughter in that there’s more of a focus on the fantasy aspect)

expecting to fall into ruin, i aim to become a blacksmith (so far the only one with a shounen tag that i like; its main charm is probably the cast and their interactions with each other eliza best girl)

since i’ve reincarnated as the villainess’ father i’ll shower my wife and daughter with love (big big wholesome vibes)

level 99 villainous daughter (severely op lady who takes no shit from the people looking down at her, and regularly thinks about blowing up the academy within the first 4 chapters? hell yeah)

may i please just ask one last thing? (post-annulment, the mc literally punches everyone in the room; it’s great)

this is getting long now oops

edit: i also made a visual-friendly personally-tagged-by-me bookshelf here!

[gothfoxx]

Love On A Dare: prt 4

Part 3

Warning: cussing

Tag list: @jessibbb @alexa-lettuce @lallyphant @deceits-left-glove @dorkyduckling16 @newblue002 @hi-its-tutty @d-c-it @thatgaydemigodnerd @gray-skies-and-pink-clouds @sanderssides-angst @aricana8

By the time 3pm rolled around Patton had the dishwasher emptied, filled again, and running, had his third load of laundry folded, and had made a list of what they needed from the store. He was just pulling out pasta from the cabinet when the first of the kids came through the door, “Patty I’m home, Emile came over to do homework!” Remy shouts from front entryway, Emile also gives a greeting when Pat pokes his head out of the kitchen. “Hey kiddos, if you need help with any of your stuff give a holler. Dinner is lasagna and mixed vegetables tonight!” Remy and Emile give their acknowledgments and set up at the dinner table with their assignments.

About 20 minutes later a school bus stops in front of the house and 5 elementary age children get off and rush into the house giggling and hopping about. Thomas and Joan helped the younger ones take off their shoes and put their things away. Emile looks up and smiles at the scene, Nate and Toby were giving Thomas trouble while Talyn was sitting still listening to the story Joan was telling. “So then the bug lady spun a scarf out ov silk for the princess and the princess wa’ so happy she married the bug lady!” They finish and turn to help Thomas with the twins. “Did they live happy every after?” Asks Toby having gotten distracted by the story to resist his de-shoeing. The ruckus of a full house was music to Patton’s ears, knowing his siblings and their friends were safe and in reach settled his nerves as he assembled the lasagna. Even if the twins were a handful when they visited he wouldn’t have it any other way.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

The bell for last period rang, Logan met up with Deacon in their usual spot to wait for the rest of the family. Deacon already had his phone out and seemed to be focused on what he was typing

Bowser: @/Luigi you better be nice to Pat cause he’s my favorite brother now

Luigi: oh wheres all that smack talk from yesterday about hiding bodies and breaking halos now?! huh!?

Bowser: that was when we thought he might be a jerk &/ a straighty

Bowser: today proved that to be false-Lo

Mario: I thought I was the favorite brother?

Bowser: bet

Luigi: XD bitch thought wrong

Mario: rude!

Luigi: not that I’m complaining about it but what changed your mind noodle boy?

Bowser: no laughing

Mario: X❤️

Luigi: X🖤

Bowser: i was sad when he left

Bowser: its like when one of you idiots gets sick and the day feels off

Mario: he DID kind of just fit into our talks

Bowser: it’s a wonder that you had not made him part of the group before-Lo

Mario: we can talk more in person losers come on-V

Luigi: ┌(｀Д´)ノ)ﾟ∀ﾟ) fine

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

The lasagna had finally cooled enough to cut and the kids had all finished their work and were watching cartoons, “Ok kiddos dinner time!” Patton called. Seven sets of footsteps clambered to the table, cheers and thanks being given as they all found a place to sit. “Mr Talyn’s daddy, can I have juice?” Toby asks making the older kids giggle, “Sure Toby, does anyone else want juice?” Pat asks back, everyone else is fine with their milk. It’s quiet for awhile after that with all the kids chowing down until Remy notices Pat looking at his phone for the third time in 5 minutes, “What’s the deal? You got a hot date?” The boy teases making Pat jolt in surprise, “Well now that you mention it I’m going out with a um “friend” I’m just waiting to hear back on when.” He knows he’s blushing thinking about it and that Remy will tease more but he’s just too happy to care. Emile catches them all off guard by bolting up and slamming his hands on the table, “who who who!?” The teen chants excitedly, “Hoo let an owl in here?” Pat chuckles and motions for everyone to calm down, “It Remus Royal and it’s for drinks, nothing fancy.” A beat of silence then Thomas, Joan, Emile, and Remy are screaming and the little ones are hollering about the noise.

“The guy that does the wall art!?”

“Graffiti Boy!!”

“Quiet!”

“You talked to him? When? Ah!”

“Loud loud loud, shhh”

“Does he really have a tattoo!?”

“How did you get his number?”

“You gotta bring him home!”

“Who’s Remus?”

“Does he know you have a blog for his graffiti?!”

“Are you gonna marry him?”

“They have to date first! Oh my god you do have a hot date!”

“What are going to wear?”

So much for their quiet dinner.



[nightiingaled-a]

ABOUT THE MUN

Name: Rook.

Star sign: Virgo-Libra.

Height: 5′3″ - smol boi.

Put your spotify/apple music on shuffle. What are the first 6 songs that popped up?:

Into the Darkness - THE PHANTOMS 

Berlin - THE PIANO GUYS

Bad - DAVID GUETTA & VASSY 

Wolves - SAM TINNESZ

Mama - MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

Stay Here Forever - JEWEL

Do you have any obsessions right now?: surprisingly, i don’t think i do atm. Other than a heightened focus on EMT info, but that’s to be expected.

Ever had a poem/song written about you?: Pretty sure my mom wrote a few -- in fact she emailed me one that I almost printed out so that me & my coworkers could chuckle at it 

When was the last time you played air guitar?: I have never. It never seemed like my thing. 

Who is your celebrity crush?: ahem. Rich/ard armit/age, among others.  

What’s a sound you hate; sound you love?: hoo fucking boy sounds i HATE - ticking clocks, i can tell you if there’s a ticking clock in a house even if it’s four rooms over buried under a mattress. Sniffling during a test. Dogs barking. Fireworks and any other suddenly explosive noises (thunder etc). Certain high-pitched tones in music that’s often used in a lot of lo-fi. I could probably go on for awhile but these are the main ones. 

Sounds i like -- other than music -- running water (particularly that of natural water), rain, rhythmic tapping, cats purring.  

Do you believe in ghosts?: Yes. Best to leave them to their business unless they personally involve you. 

How about Aliens?: I cannot believe that a universe as massive as what we’ve already managed to discover is completely void of life, so yeah. 

Do you drive?: Yeah. 

If so have you crashed?: Personally, no, thank goodness. I have been in multiple incidents via other drivers though. 

What was the last book you read?: The Binding by Bridget Collins (fuck what a good book) 

Do you like the smell of gasoline: certain types.

What’s the worst Injury you’ve had?: other than you know...getting my tiddies removed I broke three toes and shattered some of my metatarsals as a kid by sliding full force into the corner of a cabinet. I’ve started to realize I can’t remember which foot it was though. I thought it was my left but I’m not sure anymore XD 

Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?: rarely, it has to be something incredibly traumatizing in my opinion -- namely i have grudges against my parents.

TAGGED BY: @theimpalpable

[laughingmagi]

A RANDOM OOC DASH GAME/MEME THING

NICKNAMES. Iggy or Rizu ZODIAC. Virgo/Rooster HEIGHT. 5'6 TIMEZONE. CST SEXUALITY. pan FAVOURITE BANDS / ARTIST. hoo boy, that’s hard. Probably Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD.  There are songs that flit in and out of my head all the time. I’ll admit I’ve had WAP stuck in my head for the past couple....weeks? Idek, how long has it been out? About that long.  LAST MOVIE I SAW.  Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...that I sincerely watched? Because when I get stressed/depressed, I tend to binge MST3K and Rifftrax. Oh wait! The Empire Strikes Back. I also watched the beginning of Return of the Jedi but my sleep aid was hitting me hard and I had to stop.  LAST THING I GOOGLED. Oh geez, I mean technically I googled my Chinese Zodiac sign to make sure I was indeed a Rooster, but I think the last thing I sincerely googled was to research if Aussie cops were different from the English when it came to firearm usage. I was digging up information because a certain detail was hitting me wrong when it came to the new Hellblazer issue. I won’t go into it since it’s pretty fresh and idek if anyone’s planning on reading it? I wouldn’t want to spill spoilers and make anyone big mad. DO I GET ASKS. yeah i’m just hella lazy FOLLOWING. 121 FOLLOWERS. 164 (I only felt comfortable revealing this because it doesn’t feel like a flex XD I certainly have not recovered my follower count since I moved blogs. Which is fine, if a bit humbling to realize how much of my old follower count was a matter of dead and inactive blogs as well as sentimentality that i didn’t softblock some of them to shed some of that bulk.) WHAT I’M WEARING. tights, mismatched socks, and a sleeveless top DREAM JOB. I’m a writer to my core, but honestly at this point any dream job would something that I don’t hate and that actually values me or makes me feel valuable. FAVOURITE FOOD. sushi FAVOURITE ANIMAL. cats, all cats, big cats, small cats, jerk cats, sweet cats, dumb cats, smart cats, svelte cats, fat cats, and of course baby cats PLAY ANY INSTRUMENTS. no, but I was in band briefly when I was in middle school. I played clarinet. No I don’t think I could still play it. EYE COLOUR. hazel HAIR COLOUR. a reddish violet LANGUAGES YOU SPEAK. english, and a teensy tiny bit of French. Like, I took a couple years of it in high school and can understand the gist of things, though I’ve always read it better than I speak it. My accent is atrocious. RANDOM FACT.  everything you know is a lie

Tagged by: @fasciinating Tagging: you, you, && also you~

[scarecrow-forest]

OC FALLOUT COMPANION MEME

didn’t get tagged, but this just looks so fun! I could’t help myself:’D 

If he’s not a courier, he would be a... idk, some worn out conman/mercenary or something... XD

NAME: Jax 

COMPANION PERK: Busted Luck (+6 Luck, +20 Sneak, +10 Speech, Banned from all the casinos in the Mojave)

WEAPON OF CHOICE: (★)Buzz-Buzz (Laser Rifle(+scope), +2 Perception, +2 Luck, -2 Int)

I THINK WE SHOULD TRAVEL TOGETHER:

(first meeting) “Ah hell, Why not. I was bored, anyway.”

(Ed-e or Rex is already in the party) “aww, Who's gownna kill those bawd mawns? Yews you awe! You'we gownna kill them! ...Uh, umm. *coughs* ... Can we go?”

“Huh. Didn't you say I'm too chatty to be with? anyway, none taken.”

“Ah! I know you'll need a lucky charm. Who can blame you? I'm damn lucky and got plenty of charms, ay.”

USE MELEE:

“Well... How can I tell you this delicately. ...I'm really suck at fist fight. ...Huh, that was easy.”

“I though we are gonna handle this more gracefully. ...Y'know, with guns?”

“*Sigh* O...kay, hope we got a butt load of bandages and shits.”

USE RANGED:

“FINALLY!”

“Alright! Can fuckin' do that!”

“OOH! NOW you can count on me, babe.​“

OPEN INVENTORY:

“NOW WHAT? UGH. Could you STOP picking up some random crappy shits?​“

(Whisky in his inventory) “Hey, don't you ever think about touching my whisky!”

(No whisky) “You know what i really like? Nice whiskies and caps. I'm just saying.”

STAY CLOSE:

“Cool, not a bad idea.​​“

“Aw. That's sweet. Are we gonna hold hands too?”

“OOH-. How close, babe? *giggles*”

KEEP DISTANCE:

“Yeah. Why not. Just ...don't leave me behind.”

“Cool. This will work.​​“

“Oh no. We are getting apart! *mimicking echo* Hey-, can you hear me-? *chuckles* ...Aw, come on. It was fun!”

STEALTH:

“*psst* Hey pal. I think you should duck much lower.”

“Uhh, It's nothing, but if someone starts to shout 'Thief!', just stay calm. Alright?”​

BACKUP:

”I don't think I was standing that close, but okay.”

“Oop, my bad.​“

BE PASSIVE:

“Yeah, right. ....But you should know, if they jiggle their guns out, I'll happily jiggle mine too.”​

BE AGGRESSIVE:

“OOH-YEAH! Shoot before you get hit. That's the only way to win.​“

USE STIMPACK:

“I could use more strong stuffs, but 'kay, That's good too.”

“Could you give me another one, or three? Just, I'm good with even numbers.”

“Ah, good. Can I have some whisky now?​

WAIT HERE:

(outside) “Oh great. What could go wrong? Even if a molerat can see my ass right now. ...Yeah, just don’t forget to pick me up.”

(indoor) “You go have fun. I have this whole bottle anyway.”

(without whisky in his inventory) “Didn't you forget something? ...Anything? Aw, that's just cold.”

FOLLOW ME:

“Fuckin-. phew, I thought you left me too...*Cough* I-, I mean. It’s really nothing.”

“Already? Then let me...*Gulps* Okay, now we are good. let's hit the road?”

(Without whisky) “ABOUT DAMN TIME! This fucking boredom is starting to give me a hangover!​“

DISMISSED:

“Aw shit. Was I too chatty again?”

“Umm, okay. You.. Umm, will you come to see me soon, or...? Nah, never mind.​“

SEND HIM HOME (FOLLOWER BASE):

“HOO-! Fancy presidential suite, here I come! Alright, later pal!”

“While I'm there, Can I use your bed? Your one looks way nicer.”

ENEMIES (LONG RANGE - OR COMPLIMENTS ON PLAYER CHARACTER’S CONFIRMED KILL USING A SNIPER RIFLE ON LONG RANGED TARGET):

“Oh, FUCK.​“

“Is it too late to hide? If we have a stealth boy.... Ugh, alright.”

“Oh, ohh. Yeah... I saw that one too. ...I think.”

“AGH! WHERE?! WHERE?!”

“Get down! Get down!”

“Gotcha, you assholes!“

ENEMIES (CLOSE RANGE):

“BAD GUYS!”

“HOLY-, where the hell did those come from?”

“I can see them! ...Wait. *screams* THEY CAN SEE ME TOO!”

AGGRESSION: Aggressive

CONFIDENCE: Average

ASSISTANCE: Helps nobody (will be changed to Helps Friends and Allies, after the personal quest)

Karma: Neutral

​

​

+and for fun, i added one more thing (you can delete this if you don’t have any)

PERSONAL QUEST:

​

[ ONE MINUTE PAST ETERNITY ]

​

- Jax will ask player to help finding Eternity, Jax's old ghoul friend. a little over 20 years ago, she left Jax alone in some small town in Mojave and vanished.

- player can search her trace one by one. and after the tracking the Eternity's trace, player can find Eternity's hideout.

- If player arrived at the hideout with Jax, Eternity will not show up, but if player arrived at the hideout without Jax. player can meet Eternity. 

- Eternity will tell the truth about why she had to left Jax. Eternity will give player a special star bottle cap(which Jax gave it to her almost 40 years ago) and ask player to tell Jax she is dead. player can accept or refuse the bottle cap, but either way, player have to tell Jax about her situation.

- If player has given Jax a special star bottle cap, Jax will made it into a necklace and give it to player. ((★)Damn Good Lucky Charm(+2 Luck, +15 Crit Damage, +15% damage with Guns))​

- Player can tell Jax about the truth or just simply tell as Eternity asked for or tell him couldn't find her, or even can tell him player killed her.

- If player didn’t choose the 'I killed her' option, Jax will accept it and respect her decision. if player chose 'i killed her' option, Jax will get furious and attack player immediately.

​

Tagging @rogue-snorunt , @val-rampage , ooh also @impr0bablyhighrn and @wailful-waffle 

[takaraphoenix]

You've said that female characters mostly reduced to the love interests, or that all they're thinking are their bf or love interests. But imo, this case access to the male characters as well. Percy doesn't think about Grover for example, I've always expected it to be there in his mind because of he's his bff. Instead, Grover just is... not that much of important anymore I guess? He doesn't think or concern that much about the demigods in CHB, whether they're okay or not. 1/9

They meet with the f-ing Hercules and Percy never once gets upset or brings the Zoe’s name in the ship. Instead, we see Percy’s making the dam joke in the MoA and saying it’s an inside joke. Which shows that Zoe is still in his mind. But dude, RR, please. If you’re gonna make Percy to come across with Hercules, and never once make him salty or angry with trying to acting on it while the other characters in the ship saying ‘’Percy dont1!!’ Then I’m sorry but what’s the meaning of those cases? 2/9            

7 team dynamic and friendship are basically dead. Riordan puts 7 supposedly all different characters in a ship and all dynamic that exists is mostly the love triangles. I don’t know if you talked about this issue but I’d like to see you point on this. Bc it was an important part in the series and Rick’s not playing with the potential actually is disappointing. He just mostly focuses on fricking romance instead and it’s annoying. 3/9            

Similar cases also existed in first series too. For example worst offender was whole Calypso case. I first thought that it wasn’t Percy’s fault that Gods didn’t keep their promises. But it was actually his fault, and also Annabeth and the others were at fault as well because of they legit thought Gods would keep their promises. I mean, dude. They even broke their biggest oaths and you all know it, and now you tell me that you never once checked out the gods’s jobs? 4/9            

In order to see if they kept their promises or not? Honestly it’s so… dumb? There must be a character development on this, basing on this situation, it does suck too. Percy should’ve learned that gods don’t keep their promises. And he should’ve checked it out himself after the war ends. Let’s say Percy was dumb, but Annabeth? She is a child of the Athena, who supposedly is smart, but never comes up with the idea of checking things out instead of just trusting gods to do their jobs. 5/9            

Or any other character, no one points the issue out. I’m not sure if this case was intentional or not, or RR himself just forgot about this but man, it comes across as such a bad writing. Also another biggest offender was May goddamn Castellan. So RR, you’re saying to me that no one, no Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, didn’t go to her house in order to see if she’s okay or not after war and events?In order to help her case, even if she’s still crazy or is cured? Or, was underw-kiss more important? 6/9            

After learning about her case, none of them didn’t ever wonder? What the actuality? Bob is another big offender. Not because of Percy left him; he didn’t. Bc you see, Bob was never his friends unlike Calypso. He was just a Titan, there was no actual friendship or anything. And it’s kinda dumb that Rick tries to portray Percy as a terrible friend in this case rather than pointing out other issues in his writing. 7/9            

But then in the Tartarus, they built a relationship, this time it’s actual. But when they go to the Doors, Percy never once actually try to save Bob or Damasen and it’s just…. I’d expected Percy to pull a thing in the end and sending them to the doors with risking his own life bc it’s Percy’s supposed characteristic element; he would do anything for his friends. But it just… doesn’t exist? Why it was never a big characteristic issue right there when you had to chance to write it? 8/9            

Also, at the end of the boO, Percy just generally is okay with sending his friends to fight with Gaia. They have a talk with Frank 1 minute, and after that, it’s all okay. No big issue. I guess it was so much challenging to pull that, RR. I believe that there are so much other problematic events but those came to mind at this time. Sorry if this was so much long and salty rant. *looks at the rant and cries in salt* 9/9            

Uhm, so, I love getting asks, I really do. But at a certain length, I think you should consider maybe… writing your own post and just tagging me in it if you want me to see it, because daaamn this is very… very… long. xD”

But yeah no, the boys are just as bad as the girls, that was never up for discussion. The question was just very explicitely about female characters, so I’m definitely not gonna drag guys into that. *chuckles*

Everything in Heroes of Olympus is about the romance. I mean seriously absolutely everything because even the villains shipped it - Gaia wanting specifically the blood of Annabeth and Percy because they totally are her OTP, Arachne having a tapestry of the underwater kiss how the ever-loving did she even know that happened how is that not the creepiest, most inappropriate and weird thing to happen in that entire gods damned series. They shoulda named that ship Ark II not Argo II, because it’s all about pairing up. It’s just that, in that ask, we were specifically talking about the bad writing of the female characters! ;)

Honestly. The Grover thing. I think that’s more on Riordan not thinking about Grover than on Percy. Like. I feel as though Riordan temporarily forgot Grover exists because he was so busy shipping. Because Coach Hedge should not have been on that ship. The satyr to go with them should have been Grover. Grover and Percy should have gotten a proper reunion. Instead, one throw-away dream-spy sequence where we got to see him and Rachel. So cheap.

The lack of friendship dynamics was most disappointing, yeah. Everything was about love. Even the one damn quest where all the girls could have bonded - lol nope it’s not a quest it’s actually a tea party with Aphrodite to talk about your love life!!! Because girls!!! Doing girl stuff!!! Seriously, old straight man writing teenage girls? Cringe.

Okay no I find it really asking too much that Percy shoulda pushed the gods about Calypso. Bear in mind the time. The war ended on August 18th. Percy gets abducted on December 15th. That’s four months. Four months of PTSD, of rebuilding the camp, of having a lot of other shit on his mind. If like… an actual big amount of time had passed and Percy had never checked? Okay. Yeah. That’s on him. But within four months? And… it’s not just Percy who had a lot of shit on his mind, let’s be honest, so did the gods. Tartarus was broken into, Olympus was demolished, very shortly thereafter they started having that identity crisis and souls started escaping from Hades. Four months pass in no time at all, especially when you do have a lot on your to-do list.

Same goes for May. Seriously. It’s only been a total of four months. I… genuinely would not have half a mind to care about a total stranger like May Castellan in the middle of my whole entire world kinda coming apart in a war and me having to deal with my own personal aftermath of that?? I mean, those are literal children who just saw their friends and family murdered in a war and who fought in that war themselves. I really, really do think that they had enough on their mind without caring to check in and see if this total stranger had been taken care of… And Percy, Thalia and Annabeth, were like the only ones with any kind of investment or even knowledge there, I mean it’s not like May was public knowledge and everybody cared. And who knows, maybe Thalia did go there off screen, check on her with the Hunt.

I’m generally not okay with Riordan’s attempt at portraying Percy as a bad friend in HoO. It’s wildly OoC. He established Percy’s fatal flaw to be that he would let the world burn for his friends, but suddenly he can’t be bothered with said friends? Both, Calypso and Bob, as used by Riordan, then the lack of Grover, the lack of… of any big reunion aside from Annabeth. He took this character that he specifically created as a very loving and devoted friend and suddenly made him not really care and also not really making friends. Yeah, Frank and Hazel. But… Percy Jackson? The Percy Jackson from the first series? He’d have been friends with everyone on the ship in five hours flat.

I STILL DON’T GET THE BOB AND DAMASEN PART. FUCK YEAH. Seriously, it’s been years and this still bugs me. That Percy and Annabeth were just like “Well. The doors closed. They dead now. Such a shame”. What the actual fuck was that. Try to save them! You could have still saved them!!! That was, too, so very OoC. Like Percy Jackson would just turn his back and let two of his comrades die.

[shadowsong26fic]

Fanfic ask: 1, 5, 11, 14 for Precipice and any other fic you feel like sharing for, 18, 27, 33, 34, 38, 41, 44, 49 (sorry for asking so many, I just really like these questions!)

Hoo boy! This’ll be fun :D

::cracks knuckles::

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction?

Ten or eleven, when I first figured out it was a Thing. (Somewhere, buried in my boxes of Old Papers, there is baby!shadowsong’s attempt at writing something involving Padme turning up at Yavin but with the serial numbers very badly filed off, before I learned it was possible to just...write fanfic, lol.

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

Oh, Lord, why must you do this to me. XD

I mean, I like all of them for different reasons? Writing Precipice is almost like coming home, I’ve been living in that AU for so long; The Devoted was delightfully self-indulgent and a fun exercise in worldbuilding and I do plan to put more in that AU at some point, I swear; These Three Remain also had some super self-indulgent bits and some sweet cuddly fluffy bits and yep; Distaff is so much fun to work with Anakin’s characterization and her (in said fic) relationship with Padme; I have some WIPs that I’m super excited to get out...even going back to old fandoms, HoTM and Cartography!Verse and The Promises of Angels and Serenissima (ish; we were posting it as a series of vignettes rather than one long novel) and For Sorrow Sung and all my AtLA fic, and...

...yeah, I’m bad at picking favorites XD

11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?

Not really? I’ve added extra notes and when I was a baby in the LOTR fandom I actually took a fic down because I got pounced on by a Canon Purist, but I...don’t usually change what I do have planned out in response to criticism? Sometimes I add in some filler/explanation, or comments inspire me to add thing, but...

I don’t plan things out in a whole lot of detail, but I do usually have a few Major Plot Points worked out, and I tend not to change them because criticism. I usually don’t go back and edit, either.

14) How did you come up with the title for the xxx? - You can ask about multiple stories.

I think I actually talked about this in detail last time I did a similar meme to this...aha, here we go: https://shadowsong26fic.tumblr.com/post/186756818127/a-and-i-for-fic-ask

18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

Yep, a few. Mostly, I abandon WIPs because I drifted away or otherwise left the fandom (i.e., most of my SPN fic), or otherwise got stuck on a plot point (For Sorrow Sung, which I might rewrite, I got stuck on because I wasn’t sure how to write Roslin; Distaff has stalled because I have to do a Monster chapter next because I did some things out of order; etc., though I actually do intend to get back to Distaff at some point, and am considering rewriting For Sorrow Sung or getting back to some of my other BSG fic...). ...on that note, there are several Stalled WIPs that I don’t consider abandoned, I just get sidetracked by other things even if I intend to get back to them At Some Point (Auxiliaries, Masks, a few others.)

Also, a bunch of miscellaneous self-indulgent things that I never really intended to share outside a small circle of friends that I wander away from when my attention gets caught by a similar shiny self-indulgent thing I don’t really intend to share outside a small circle of friends...

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?

Moooostly go with the flow. Then again, I don’t formally outline most things, but I generally have an Idea of the Main Plot Points I’m working towards? But those are usually Super Major Things (i.e., with Precipice, when I was going into it, I had most of Arc 1 planned out ahead of time; I knew when and how Lavinia was going to be introduced; I knew most of how Rex got brought in and at least when Ahsoka came in; I knew Ahsoka was going to be Leia’s primary teacher; I knew when and how Specter was going to die; I knew that the reunion (and the attempt to kidnap Lavinia) were going to happen (though actually I was originally planning for Saw to be behind said kidnapping before realizing that didn’t make sense); I knew when Infernalis was going to be introduced and then die; and then some Spoilery Stuff for the next several arcs :)

So, yeah. I usually have a general notion of where things are going (...most of the time; I mentioned Distaff above, and I’m waffling on how I want things to end for that one...) but a loooooot of white space and things are in flux along the way.

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

Honestly, probably the one I kept in my inbox to reread the most often was on The Promises of Angels--I got a very long comment about the things I’d done with both the focal character and other side characters and the way I’d handled the established lore (and places where canon had fallen short, re: ex-vessels and so on), and then saying they were going to rec it to other people. I’ve gotten other very nice comments since then, (Precipice gets a lot of comments, some of which are lovely, some of which are infuriating), but I think the reason that one sticks with me is because I worked on that fic for so long, and it was a 100k gen epic about a tertiary character who (at the time) had been dead for five seasons. So, a very niche-appeal fic, especially in a fandom that tends to be very shipping-focused, so the fact that it had that much appeal outside of my own brain meant a lot.

(Also, just...the fact that so many people have read and liked Precipice means a whole lot to me????? Was not expecting that for a long wandering genfic epic, lol. ...again, because the fandom I was most active in prior to that is very ship-focused; Star Wars tends to be more gen-friendly, at least that’s been my experience thus far.)

34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten?

Maybe not the harshest overall I’ve ever gotten, but I mentioned earlier that I took down one LOTR fic because a Canon Purist complained about it to me--I mean, it might not have actually been that mean if I were to get it now that I have a thicker skin, but I was Little Shadowsong at that point and it hurt enough for me to take the fic down, and it does kind of linger in the back of my mind as my Worst Comment Experience.

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

...to be honest, I don’t do a lot of collaborations overall, and most of the ones I do tend to be with people I’ve been friends with/RP’d with for a Long Time.

That being said, I’m possibly open to trying? Right now I have a lot on my plate, both fic and IRL wise, over the next couple months, but if anyone’s interested, hit me up and we’ll see if we can work together!

41) What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written?

In Star Wars? Probably Bo-Katan. I really do wanna finish/start posting our faces like a mirror before the Mandalore Arc actually airs (not that I care about jossing so much, but it’d be nice to Officially lock my canon there so I can point to it if anyone does the whole ‘but canon says!’ thing at me, lol). Also, I love writing Beru, at least the way I write her in Precipice.

If we expand to other fandoms...Nick in SPN, at least before canon brought him back wrong; for BSG...well, most of the ‘minor’ characters I like are really secondary and/or Major in one arc or two--i.e., D’Anna, Gaeta, Ellen Tigh is a lot of fun; in AtLA, I personally mostly wrote major characters and OCs (though some of those were...people who had definitely Existed, but were not named or explored in canon--i.e., Lu Ten’s mother), but my primary RP/writing partner and I worked a lot with Haru and Song and Teo and the Dai Li, among others...but said partner mostly handled them.

44) What is the last line you wrote?

((With an additional line for context; also this is subject to change.))

“True,” Sabe said. “...are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“No,” Padme admitted, after a moment’s thought. “But I think if I wait much longer, I’ll...I’ll either start climbing the walls until I run out and do something righteous and half-planned and stupid, or I’ll...or I’ll never be able to figure how to start, and I’ll just...”

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about?

I cannot, sadly. But it would’ve been 15-20 years ago, and probably either Star Wars or Harry Potter. Maybe Dragonlance or DBZ or Sailor Moon.

Ask me a fanfic writer question!

[lizzybeth1986]

Sorry for this XD, but 1, 4, 9, 11, 26 and 27 for the salty ask? If it's not too much, of course

Don't say sorry! 😁 Thanks for the ask Nonny and apologies for the delay.

I must caution you, the post is going to be long and and there's too much salt in my responses for even me to handle.

1. OTP in fandom that you just do not get.

IDK I most don't give much of a thought to OTPs that I don't get. Like that is the nature of any fandom, that you can see potential for ships even without a say-so from canon.

What I really don't get is the absurd double standards that I see sometimes - how some fans will pull down other LIs/characters to make a favourite look good, how some LIs will be nitpicked to high hell while others can say the grossest things and not be judged. How one character can be judged for the same thing we will admire in another (I'll get to this later).

It's weird, considering the app literally allows you to choose who you will fall for (unless you're wlw or like a character that's a person of colour in a majority-white cast, in which case they will dangle scraps in front of you once every ten chapters, I suppose). You don't need to trash one LI to justify your choice of another. They're there. Stop tearing down an LI while deliberately tagging the character's tag and ship tags for your notes. Go generate (and promote) content for your own ships and characters instead.

4. A personal NOTP? Are they considered an OTP in the fandom?

Hana x Madeleine. Fortunately, lots of people had plenty of problems with this pair and the way it was written in Book 3. The narrative was subtly pushing that ship over the course of Book 3, but the backlash was strong enough that they got Madeleine to issue an apology for her bullying in the epilogue instead (I doubt they even remember the chocolate allergy scene, given that the MC acts like this information is brand new).

It still left a bad taste in my mouth, because it showed me how little the writers cared for Hana as a character, but at least the fandom made sure it didn't become a ship.

9. Most Disliked Character(s):

Hoo boy. I have a freaking list. Besides the really really obvious ones:

• Drake Walker: has way more privilege than he knows what to do with. Narrative acts like he is the Voice of the Commoner...well. I feel sorry for the commoners that don't get to practically live in court without having to change their attire or yap all day about steak, burgers and whiskey. And whose sisters don't have friends that will fleece their entire ancestral house's already-plummeting finances to keep her house running while her brother trash-talks the same friend in Book 1.

• Damien Nazario: is a hypocrite. That is all.

• Constantine: Almost every apology of his has to come punctuated with an excuse. Even if it involves orchestrating sexual assault.

• Madeleine (TRR) and Mallory (RoE): The demonic duo of People PB Wants So Desperately For Me To Forgive™. Without them even having to earn that forgiveness, too (Nana deserves to be on this list too, except the question of forgiveness doesn't even arise when it comes to her. She is worshipped in this series!). I see a small step towards change in D&D Book 2 with Lady Grandmother, but only time will tell if they will actually execute the "will never forgive you" route properly.

• Penelope: is so, so fucking entitled I just can't. I understood how her condition, and manipulation from people like Constantine and Bastien, got her to the point where she would be ready to harm someone. But I can't for the life of me understand how she can forget this so easily after the tea party.

I was hoping for a redemption arc where Penelope recognizes what she's done and unconditionally tries to make amends in Book 3, but that never happened. There was not a single reference in Book 3 to the harm she did you in Book 1. We had to do an immense amount of coddling to convince her to come for the wedding, and there were consequences if you didn't call her your "best friend" or support her demands. The narrative has Drake Walker...Drake "Ambassadors Go To Dangerous Areas, Lady Kiara (So Get Over It)" Freaking Walker...reassure Penelope in a way that Kiara never gets from anyone in the group, and she suffered a knife attack. Ezekiel is literally created out of thin air as a reward for her.

Why does she need a reward again? Who knows.

• Ajay: Didn't apologize.

11. Unpopular Character that You Like that Fandom Doesn't.

(This is going to be loooong. I'm not sorry. This rant has been really, really building up. It's like a dam).

Kiara. It's popular to sorta kinda like her now, but back when she started showing feelings for Drake she got a lot of hate...hate that I feel bled into the treatment she got in the third book.

It took me a while to warm up to Kiara, but I think what did it for me was her friendship with Penelope. She was protective and supportive, even though she lacked an understanding of what Penelope was going through. I was even more pleasantly surprised when she spoke about her bond with Savannah. There was a warmth and a sweetness about Kiara in Book 2 that we didn't see much of in Book 1 and she slowly won me over. When they spoke about her injuries in Book 3, I was looking forward to seeing that story explored.

I will always maintain that Kiara in Book 3 is what happens when both the writing team and the louder, more vocal portion of the fandom are heartless towards a particular character. Heartless is a heavy word, and a word I don't want to be using willy-nilly, but I've seen enough to come to that conclusion in this case.

Kiara was often called an opportunist and a host of other names in the fandom for not supporting the MC through the scandal. Except that we all forget she never promised anything beyond supporting your claim to being picked as future Queen. She tells you straight off the bat in Book 1 that she is looking for allies and not friends (guess who is often admired for that mindset? Madeleine...well, until she harms Hana for flimsy reasons). Meanwhile we have Penelope being all adorable and happy and congratulating you knowing that you're going to be slut-shamed, humiliated and dragged out of court for a scandal she helped generate. Kiara on the other hand was honest. She wanted a job in the ministry and a bomb married life while she was at it. I'd rather have an ambitious (but won't abuse her power like Madeleine does) Kiara in my corner than a person who lies to my face about supporting me, does little more to help than just tell me who her boss was, then expects me to call her my best friend later.

Kiara had to only look at and flirt with Drake for people to hate on her. Meanwhile Olivia could spring an unwanted kiss on Liam in public, and the fandom would still be blaming Liam for not loving her back. In regular fandom content Kiara was mocked and sometimes suspected of having an illicit affair with Drake, in fanfic that featured her she was often either villainized, or written as the "other woman". Which is okay - fanfic is your own personal sandbox, after all - but it does highlight a pattern.

In canon...Kiara was made a survivor of a terrorist attack and nobody cared. Not the MC, not the country's king, not her closest friends, not the man who got injured at the same ball. It was bad enough that her parents were considering leaving the goddamn country (they should have). She was ignored in her own estate. The MC speaks to her not with sympathy and reassurances, but instead reminds her of her 'duty' and pressurizes her. (@callmetippytumbles illustrates this amazingly in her ask here, having Liam say "have a apple and buck up for Cordonia". No lie there. No lie there at all). All the 'sympathy' goes to a brother who has absolutely nothing to do with court.

She was suspected and interrogated at Lythikos. The MC has the option to be dismissive and to minimize - by labelling her "not as driven" - as Kiara literally pours her heart out about her trauma. Sample this:

(Ngl folks. Reading this was really, really triggering for me. I know exactly what it feels like to have my trauma dismissed like this. It doesn't feel great. Fuck you MC. Fuck you Drake. Fuck you TRR writers)

There are no consequences for doing this to her, btw. She still returns and she still fights at the boutique and she'll still speak very positively about you to her mother. I imagine if Joelle found out the truth of how the group really treated her daughter, she'd verbally destroy them and never support the kingdom again. And she'd be right not to.

On its own that scenario looks bad enough already, but when you hold it up next to how we treat the other ladies? Pure, stinking trash:

Madeleine: A diamond scene to console and encourage her, and all the right options are meant to support her to her parents. If you don't succeed in making her parents understand what she wants, you lose out on their support. There are consequences.

Penelope: A diamond scene to comfort and reassure her that they will not be like Madeleine. Immense coddling from the group. If you don't call her your best friend or altogether be nice and supportive to her, that negatively impacts the way Landon responds to you. AND I have heard that if her parents don't believe Penelope is safe with you, she doesn't even join the tour. There are consequences.

Kiara: No diamond scenes to even figure out how she is or what she thinks. A one-minute scene to convince (emotionally blackmail, actually) her to "do your duty", which will happen no matter which option, then a diamond option for her brother...who exists only because they want to give Penelope a reward for something I still cannot fathom. Her brother's response depends on his own issues and the presence of Penelope, and Hakim and Joelle's depend on what you do at the Festival. Kiara's situation of being an attack victim should have warranted the kind of coddling Penelope felt entitled to, yet when it comes right down to it her plight matters to literally no one.

In Lythikos no special diamond scenes for her either, just an interrogation. While we can choose to view Kiara as innocent in Chapter 11, her leaving is branded "suspicious" by both Drake and the MC by default the next chapter, and Maxwell literally says (disappointment writ large on his face) "jeez, that's one suspect off our list" after we're done. We go to her pretending to be her well-wishers, but in reality we're interrogating a traumatized woman, and not even ashamed when she trusts our untrustworthy asses with her secret.

You get the option to forget what happened to her (for which she rightfully slams you). You get the option to be a trauma-minimizing pile of steaming fecal matter (for which she doesn't slam you, even though she should). No matter what, Drake is your puppet and will agree with you, and you get away with all this. Drake stands there and minimizes her experiences with you, and shows zero remorse for putting an attack victim in that situation.

Like, it's actually quite shameful the more you think about it. Kiara was interrogated. After two traumatic experiences that at the very least should have her questioning whether we are worth her support at all. In a scenario that any fool would realise was at least scary to her if not altogether traumatizing. Madeleine and Penelope feel entitled to good treatment, Kiara has to make do with the crumbs we throw at her. She is never given a chance to speak of this as problematic, and the group never gets truly called out on their bullshit.

Even if you do pick the absolute nicest options...the fact remains that the MC, Duchess of Valtoria (and possible future Queen) and her group of influential friends, ignored the concerns a person who was badly injured at their event, pressurized her into showing support for them, didn't do jackshit to ensure her safety, suspected and questioned her when she rightfully withdrew public support, and dishonestly interrogated this traumatized woman, while still keeping the expectation that she support them. All without earning a shred of that support. They felt zero remorse, every last one of them, for putting her in that position.

Kiara not getting much attention isn't exactly a surprise. She has always been given the least focus among the ladies of the court and Book 3 wouldn't have been an exception...if they hadn't made her a victim of a terrorist attack!! Once they placed Kiara in that position, she deserved to have her concerns addressed, and addressed properly. What happened to her was a highlight of the failure of the security system at the palace and Royal Court, and to have that ignored while we had all the time in the world to address Madeleine's parents' petty family squabbles was disgusting. That there are absolutely no consequences for doing this to Kiara, while there are for not attending to Penelope or Madeleine's concerns, and it all ends with Kiara praising us to her mother, is disgusting. That the writers were more busy trying to backtrack on Driara and make the ship impossible to happen in canon, than on focusing on Kiara's own story in her own estate, is disgusting. And I cannot ignore that the latter decision sprung in a large part from the hate the fandom was spewing on Kiara for most of Book 2. The writers wouldn't have dared to do such a thing to Penelope, and it was clearly because there would be a backlash. They knew they could get away with insensitive writing for Kiara easier than they would with Penelope - and they did.

The other thing is this. Back in Books 2 and 3, loads of people in the fandom used to aggressively ship Liam and Olivia (to the point where he would be blamed for not returning her affections). Loads of people would also find excuses to hate on Kiara once she began to show she liked Drake. Nowadays, it's popular to state that "Olivia deserves better" (I'd be inclined to agree if it weren't for the way that argument is often framed. She deserves a man who loves her completely) - again, in a way that blames Liam for not returning her affections.

Yet, when people speak of Kiara's feelings being one-sided? Little to no blame for Drake there, even though he was rude or dismissive to her more than once (for me, personally, Lythikos was the last straw). Hardly a handful would say "Kiara deserves better than Drake". I can bet if Liam treated Olivia even half as poorly as Drake behaved with Kiara, we'd be bashing that man to the high heavens. I guess it's because it's Kiara who is the recipient of this kind of treatment that it matters to so few. I shouldn't be surprised.

26. Most shippable character?

Hayden xD Mostly because they're so much fun to customize, yet there's a very strong inner core there that does not change and that grounds the character.

27. Least shippable character?

I don't know. Nana?