#i am cursed but you are blessed

[eliotbaum]

Them³. 

Some people expressed interest in the backstories & relationship between these characters so it’s under a cut. Beware, it’s full of Vallaki spoilers and. very long……. 

Lydia Petrovna/Fiona Wachter/my pc Father Dunant

Alright so, a not-so brief overview of each individual’s background and where their stories meet. Mind you, that is everything I currently know about the characters, and I'm pretty sure Lady W is still hiding something.

Lydia Petrovna has always been a frail, meek-hearted woman, but with a kind soul. For what she lacked, her best friend from ever since made up for it; Fiona Wachter was everything she ever wanted to be. Strong, assertive and with force of will. 

But Lydia also desired her in a different way, one that went beyond friendship and admiration. Fiona was not aware of those feelings and pursued Nikolai, while Lydia fell for Vargas, despite Fiona’s warnings and wishes for her not to do so. It fell on deaf ears, as Vargas seemed like a genuinely kind man. Suffice to say to those who played the game: the good qualities Lydia loved disappeared over time and he ended up emotionally abusing her, smothering her in a way where she completely lost who she was. Lydia was always desperate to help others despite her constitution and lack of powers or influence, so she thought putting on a bright face and encouraging the "all will be well" ideology would suffice. But she suffered greatly under it, too, coping with solitude and drug/alcohol abuse. Regardless, she kept holding onto hope, believing a better tomorrow will come one day. 

Vargas growing more paranoid of everyone ended up manipulating Lydia into believing Fiona and her husband were not to be trusted. And with Lydia’s facade steadily replacing what Fiona loved about her, ultimately drove the friendship to a breaking point after decades.

Fiona Wachter received a prophecy from an oracle (Madame Eva) while she was a young lady. The prophecy foretold of an outsider coming into Vallaki to bring great ruin, but his blood would also bring back sunlight to the town. She believed in this prophecy ever since, all the while pledging allegiance to Ravenloft as a family tradition, which earned her conflicting powers. On one hand, she could perform miracles and harm with radiance, on the other she received darker powers from her pledge. As such, she is also caught between two fronts — wishing for sunlight to shine upon the lands again while serving Ravenloft as is her family tradition. (This is something my PC challenges her with a lot)

This was all kept secret from her best friend as Fiona had always been a cautious woman. Fast forward to her strained relationship with Lydia that broke apart during Nikolai's early death. 2 years before the campaign starts, he died of an illness, and when Fiona turned to Lydia for comfort she didn't receive it. Lydia pretended like everything was fine still, and tried to deflect any mourning or sadness with Vargas’ messed up ideology. Suffice to say, Fiona felt betrayed, bereft, in more ways than one. And then, her daughter, who was to be betrothed to Viktor Vallakovich, Lydia's son, went mad after prolonged contact to Viktor. Fiona went scorched earth and planned an assassination on Vargas ever since.

In comes my lil guy! Father Kasper Dunant, a humanitarian priest always striving to be virtuous, to be of help, but who leaves calamity in his wake for whenever he tries to do good. Up to a point where experimentations with blood healings destroyed his hometown, (if this sounds like Bloodborne. big inspo haha) and he fled — only to get trapped in another ruinous and cursed place. In Vallaki, he helped with the St. Andral church and Father Lucian, Lydia's brother. Vargas also took a liking to him, which resulted to Kasper and Lydia growing closer. He was attracted to her gentle heart, her kindness he found beyond her facade. They became light in each other's darkness. 

Meanwhile, Fiona Wachter invited him & the party, intrigued by hearing of outsiders. She had hoped they could be part of her prophecy, and she intended to more or less rope them into her assassination plans. Now this being conflicting with many values and relationships our characters built, the party took a "safer" angle, in which we removed the biggest threat (general Strazni) from town and saved townspeople during riots following the assassination; Lydia being among those saved, who they hid away at the Martikov’s tavern. Lydia, who had fallen for Kasper early on, held onto him as she had lost almost everything (Vargas assassinated, Viktor teleported away) and they both found new hope, comfort and love in eath other. 

And in a way, Fiona also freed Lydia of the shackles of her abusive marriage.

Fiona would've taken charge of Vallaki had it not been for Kasper's suggestion to establish a council instead of a single ruler. Consisting of him, Fiona, Vasili (completely different character in our game and not secretly, yknow), a homebrew NPC and Ireena. Fiona and Kasper started to develop this dynamic of push and pull, feeling for how much they can trust and work each other with their opposing views in terms of politics and Ravenloft. But they had one moment where they forged a bond; Kasper, a blood cleric, summoned a mock sun through 'Daylight' for her (my flavor is that he spills blood for some spells). 

Voila, exactly what her prophecy foretold. She understood it wasn't real, but Kasper promised her to bring true sunlight back to Barovia. In a moment of fervor, Fiona suggested they could rule the town, the country together.

They are still very cautious but enjoy the tension and mystery they have about each other. Lydia, in the meantime, has been growing conflicting feelings about Fiona. While she was certain old feelings have been put to rest, the things Kasper tells her of Fiona seemingly awakened something again. There's a lot of guilt and hurt there, though, muddled with affection, and Lydia is sorting out her feelings still.

Meanwhile, Fiona still resents Lydia for her weakness. It was always clear how much Fiona cared for Lydia, repeatedly challenging her to put down this mask, to be herself again. And being hurt by seeing her friend lose herself so easily.  It's bitter, but Kasper has been meekly trying to calm the waves, to little avail so far. 

It is, A Mess to say the least, and Kasper together with Lydia have been growing concerns and worry for Fiona’s safety and ultimately, herself, since she changed so much, became so much darker since her husband’s death. But those two idealists hope there is still a chance to save her 🥺💦

tl;dr young outsider priest becomes entangled in noblewomen’s personal drama while both believe the gods and fate has sent him their way as he tries to mend a broken relationship 

[passionartx]

Tails when I start thinking about my fic, au and art ideas I’ve had lingering in my brain for years but almost all of them involve making him sad ^

Sorry little buddy <\3 😔

[jae-o15]

So are we just not going to talk about how poetic it is that they're kissing during the last twilight of the day or..?

Because this :

Is literaly driving me very insane

[whenfatecollides]

Xena Warrior Princess 3x07 The Debt (2)

You mean that I should serve someone who hates me. More than that, you need to serve someone you hate. I'd rather die. You've been a dead woman for a long time now Xena, I'm offering you the chance to live.

[heeliopheelia]

no cause i've just listened to sweet venom and it sounds so... generic to me 🧍

ever since tamed-dashed enhypen hasn't put out a comeback that i actually enjoyed 👀

[sunnibits]

the way I can literally trace over any image I want and nobody can stop me

[thegunslingerfollowed]

The problem is I have chronic guilt about something that I can’t control but everyone on tumblr would tell me I’m a bad person for. Unfortunately, this is the only place I can vent so this particular issue will just destroy me from the inside

[juniperhillpatient]

the ways in which a creative project will rot your brain are so fucking funny. decided to treat myself to a midnight bourbon & root beer as I scroll tumblr & watch YouTube ‘cause why not & remembered a scene in my story in which a character makes tea & gives everyone a shot of bourbon in it except the two small children whom are given hot chocolate. bourbon & chocolate go great. why would everyone not have hot chocolate? why the tea? it could so easily be modified to be a shot of bourbon for everyone except the kids my god. but I’ll edit it in the morning because if I open that fucking document I will not close it til 3am I know myself I know it’s a trap

[koskela-knights]

The Koskela Fan Experience

Shoutout to @zephyrone01 @amiracleilluminated & Champion of Light for extracting the Koskelore

[lord-squiggletits]

Starting to realize that the reason I beef with Transformers canon and fanon is because it feels as if a lot of people involved either haven't read war stories as a genre or they haven't paid attention to real-life wars so their takes on "necessary evils" or "hypocrisy" or "pacifism" come off as overly simplistic

[lokidokeyartichoki]

Me: we are going to send an important email we are not going to fuck this up

My Brain: okay!

My Email: hello friends and members of the intergalactic council

Me: THE FUCK DID I SAY?!?

[spaciebabie]

AMETHYST,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,,.,FROM STEVENM UNIVERS..,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,,,,.,

[the-girl-with-too-many-ideas]

I started getting into Heaven Official's Blessing, and the similarities between Xie Lian and Guda have me sobbing.

Both were seventeen when their lives were irrevocably changed forever. Kind and naive teens, with hope in their hearts of saving the world. Only to have it all thrown in their faces in the worst ways possible. Forced to become hardened and cruel when all they want to be is kind. Sacrificing so much, even parts of themselves, only for it to mean nothing to ungrateful masses.

Two people who have taught themselves to be overwhelmingly optimistic or be crushed with the absolute horror and trauma of all that they've endured.

All I can imagine is Xie Lian being summoned as a servant towards the beginning of Guda's journey. Seeing this poor kid put in this horrific situation in which they have to save the world or risk extinction, and them accepting it with absolutely resolve and unwavering determination. Looking at them and being reminded so much of himself and the words he once uttered so long ago.

"I wish to save the common people"

Remembering leaves a bitter taste in his mouth and thinks, 'Not this child. I won't let their journey turn out like mine'.

When the singularities are resolved and humanity restored, Xie Lian is desummoned back to his own world. He is left feeling sad having to leave Guda (who he has come to see as his own child), but proud about how it all ended without them losing it all. He is happy that Guda's journey ends in an optimistic note.

Until he is resummoned during the lostbelts, and is met with the broken down shell of who Guda used to be. He is beyond horrified and devastated at the realization that not only did Guda's journey continue, but had gone down a much more horrific path than his own did.

Nothing is worse than thinking you've saved someone, only to realize that you didn't and that their fate was far darker than yours ever was.

[ratcandy]

Hi Clam. Question about CoGR. I know you didn't have the fic finished when you first started posting. Did you make an outline for the whole fic or did you just wing it?

I'm struggling to keep my longfic together and could use some pointers.

Oh worm! Coming to me for planning tips is a dangerous game considering I change it up with every fic hdKJH

But in the case of CoGR specifically, yes, the entire fic was outlined before I started writing! Every chapter had a very basic concept attached to it so I understood what was meant to happen + how his Thought Processes had formed. And at the very top of the doc I had the entire Zote History written out so I could keep it in mind as I wrote

I also color-coded chapters based on where they were taking place, unless something important was discussed in that chapter, in which case they were color-coded with red text (hence my author notes referring to certain chapters as "colored red"!)

actually i went digging thru my files and I found the old planning doc, so if u were wondering how the cogr plan looked, well. here u go,

and yes it's in chronological precept order, meaning my plan was backwards. i only figured out that I wanted to go in reverse precept order After I wrote down the initial plan, lmao

But even with an established outline far in advance, stuff was constantly getting tweaked and messed around with as I wrote. Really big plot points stayed relatively the same (such as Chapter 47 - the plan for that stayed pretty cut and dry from start to finish) but some things ended up being added or changed as I went along (for instance, the entire grub arc was a sort of last minute decision; I got the idea a few chapters in advance and went 'hey fuck it that'd be fun to add' so I Did, and I found it made the chapters where the grub was included far more interesting than if they were never there!)

So my advice would be to make an outline but not be too hard on yourself when it comes to sticking to it. I find an outline to be SUPER helpful, as if I don't plan something well in advance I just end up writing myself into a hole (R.I.P Tinnitus), but adding little things as I write can make it all the better. So make a plan, yeas, but give yourself breathing room for changing things/adding stuff!

Hope that helps at all!!

[toastytoaster22]

Ooh is there anything you can tell us about your original work? Or is it fully a secret for now :3c

Ahhhhh I have kept this story so hush hush for such a long time, it feels weird to even mention it online. I've been working on it since 2017, and its a work of fantasy, so the first few years was near exclusively spend worldbuilding. And its me, so i mean I built everything from the ground up, literally. I spent so much time watching geology micro-documentaries. Gathered info on ecology. Weather systems. Volcanology. Birds. Weasels. What would happen to the food chain if certain animals never evolved. if other kinds did. I made a whole planet and drew it and my husband framed it for me for Christmas three years ago. The characters are most of the way there, as are their growing bonds and dynamics. Its been fun to make OCs and really dig into them in a way I don't have time for in fanfic. I love them all very very much. To no one's surprise there are lots of children. The story will be much like Issho and Nightjar in that the story is child-centric, but not necessarily a children's novel. It'll be a bit long and a bit too in depth on some sensitive topics for it to be "for kids" specifically, but I'd never stop a kid from reading it. The plot is... still very much in construction mode. I make wild changes nearly every day and my friends who are in the know about the story can barely keep up. But they all feel like changes in the right direction! So its a very exciting time. I'm soaking in the spring air and going wild with creativity. Its been YEARS since I made progress like this. Maybe unprecedented amounts of work being done.

Would you believe its Gay Dads and their Three Adopted Children With Issues?

[thebitchkingofangmar]

right at the beginning of the Silmarillion (literally on chapter one) at some point it says that on everything that was made on Eä over the first days, Aulë had a part, and what makes me deeply insane about that is the same fucking wording used to talk about Mairon’s involvement in Melkor’s work. I am once again unwell about Mairon being unable to escape being a Maia of Aulë, because what if the true thing that you cannot escape is you.