#i am skewering their ages a bit to make this work lol

[teecupangel]

Complete Crack but...Johnny Cage from mortal combat meets AC? I'm sure Altair and Ratonhnhaké:ton would probably find him annoying lol Ezio might find him funny.

I see your Mortal Kombat x Assassin’s Creed Crack and raise you:

“Johnny Cage meets Desmond’s ancestors as Desmond’s new boyfriend” XD

Maybe this would be like a modern day AU and, since Mortal Kombat does deal with the whole ‘there are a thousand realms out there’, we can easily make this work by saying that this modern day AU is set in either EarthRealm of MK or a whole different realm altogether.

Anyway, the idea would be that Johnny Cage is still a famous actor who just happens to frequent the bar Desmond works at and they get to talking, maybe it even starts off as a hush-hush friends-with-benefits kind of deal that ends up having feelings.

So now, Altaïr, Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton have to meet their cousin’s first serious relationship and it turns out to be Johnny freaking Cage of all people!

Unorganized Notes:

Johnny’s meeting Desmond’s cousins because, as far as Desmond is concerned, his real family is his cousins and not the ‘dad we do not talk about’.

Johnny would definitely understand what Desmond isn’t saying. He had a bad father too (understatement) so Desmond doesn’t really need to explain it to him and Desmond is grateful for it.

Because of this, the cousins would be quite hard on Johnny with Ezio being the ‘kindest’ of the three. That means Ezio is the scariest of the three though since he’s hiding his ‘hostility’ with his air of charm.

They’re all still Assassins but Desmond technically isn’t. In the eyes of the Brotherhood, his cousins compose one cell and he’s pretty much just family. The Brotherhood does become a bit ansty once words get out of some random bartender being seen as Johnny Cage’s plus-one in events. Some even ‘suggests’ that the cousins sabotage Desmond’s relationship but they all grow quiet when they get glared and threatened because, as much as they think Johnny isn’t enough and Desmond could definitely do better, they will accept him for as long as Desmond loves him.

Cassie Cage exists and she absolutely loves reminding her dad that Desmond is just a few years older than her. She gets a lot of selfies with Desmond and her followers love them because of how charmingly awkward Desmond’s smiles are in the pictures. The candid shots of Desmond’s professional bartender smile though gets lots of love as well… for different reasons.

It would be funny if this is set in MK world and, yeah, the Brotherhood operates there and Desmond’s ancestors are his cousins BUT…

Desmond himself is the Desmond Miles we know from the AC games that have been transported into MK’s Desmond Miles’ body after he activated the device in the Grand Temple. Bonus points if he gets transferred to the MK world via memory transfer that MK Desmond Miles remembered on December 21st when he was 25. Like, he’s both AC and MK world’s Desmond Miles and the only reason why this isn’t such a big deal is because Desmond is so chill by whatever fuckery gets thrown his way now.

This also gives us a bit of angst material as Desmond wants his cousins to approve Johnny because his cousins (for him) are also the three most important men in Desmond Miles’ lives back in the AC world so it would mean the world to him.

Btw… considering Spawn was a guest character for both MK and Soul Caliber and Ezio is a guest star of Soul Caliber, we can make an argument that MK, Soul Caliber, Spawn’s world and AC world are all ‘connected’. XD

[rise-my-angel]

The Rhaegar and Lyanna plot point is the one plot point that has been the most hurt by GRRM seemingly abandoning the series and projection from the show depiction lol. Personally, I don't think they 'ran away' for either love or prophecy. I think Rhaegar and the KG ran away with Lyanna to Dorne to protect her from Aerys or Aerys men because she was the KOTLT. I think he wanted to avoid conflict and then ended up creating an even bigger conflict that annihilated his family - it's the kind of irony GRRM would do. I do think Rhaegar and Lyanna fell in love/lust/infatuation along the way. I don't think both ever ran away with the intention of having a sexual or romantic relationship or to have an adulterous affair, though it ended up happening anyway.

Now, this being said, it's still super problematic and even if I believe Rhaegar had nobler intentions, than even his stans think he did, this all still makes him a borderline pedo/pedo because he's a man in his 20s lusting after a 14/15 year old girl. This leads me to my next point, I don't think Martin understood this when he wrote it. I'm just gonna say it - GRRM has a weird fixation on barely out of their pre-teens girls and sexualizing them and romanticizing these relationships they have with men in their 20s and 30s. It's a pattern across the series and I think he uses the 'muh medieval ages' as cover to depict these relationships. No, I'm not accusing him of anything IRL but I think he uncritically includes relationships like this to be edgy and because he's a bit of a freak when it comes to his writing. Like, no, Martin, a grown man lusting after a 13/14/15 year old girl was not normal or a ok thing back in the medieval ages and sure as hell isn't now. Except instead of seeing these men as deeply morally depraved for their pedo-ish tendencies, Martin thinks this is some quirky personality trait that makes them 'morally grey.'

It's a hot mess and it's one thing if Rhaegar and Lyanna were some irrelevant side relationship in one of his histories, but unfortunately they are a central couple. An under-discussed reason he's not finishing these books is because so many of his ideas will no longer fly in 2024. When you take 30 years to work on a series, social mores change so much that a lot of what was fine will be skewered by critiques and readers now as opposed to the 90s.

So you have made me wake up and choose violence, so be it.

First of all, his ideas do still fly because Rhaelya is still a popular ship that people will die on a hill defending. But most importantly, in regards to the canonicity of that ship I prefer not to speculate about grrm too much. You and I don't know him. So we have no idea what his process and ideas really look like. I do not want to have a morality discussion surrounding the intents of an author, that is not my interest in the series.

That being said, to be nice, I am going to verbatim copy and paste something from an ask I preciously answered about Rhaegar and Lyanna to explain why I completely disagree with you:

"Likely somewhere around the Vale is where this happened, considering the timeline of where all of the Starks currently were at the time she disappeared. So when she is in the south, Rhaegar has a lot more resources to do this. So he waits for a time Lyanna is alone and approaches her. Now she's just a 15 year old girl now suddenly alone with the Crown Prince, likely as intimidated as she is a little star struck considering who he is. Rhaegar needs to lure her away far enough that she won't just run for help. So he promises that as the prince, he can help legally break Lyannas unhappy betrothal for her but does not tell her how. Offer her something she wants without details and get her to come with him. By the time Lyanna likely put together this isn't what she thought it was and that she's too far away from her family to be safe, is when the actual kidnapping occurs. She goes with him willingly thinking he wants to just help her with something in her life, with no way of knowing he was about to separate her from her family. By the time Lyanna realizes she is in a bad situation, she's too far away from anywhere she knows to get help and has no choice but to go with him. She is 15 years old, she's just a girl now fearing for her life if she tried to run or fight now. And by the time he takes her to Dorne, he keeps her in a tower with three of the best Kingsguard to ensure she does not escape and no one comes to get her out. He then stays there until he knows shes pregnant, a situation she also likely did not fight back on because of how isolated and powerless she already is here. She is all alone, fighting back could mean her life. Then of course, word gets out of what Rhaegar has done, Brandon Stark, who has no way of knowing he's taken her to Dorne, goes to Kings Landing to try and demand his sisters return, accompanied along with their father to help and the rest is history. Make no mistake. They never spoke before that day. Rhaegar was the Prince and heir to the Iron Throne, who is married to a Dornish Princess and now has 2 children of his own including his own son and heir. Lyanna is a 14-15 year old girl, and the firstborn daughter of a major Northern house who live a thousand miles apart in completely different regions of the country. They would NEVER have been able to share any correspondence together and no one knew or would have found out long before that day.

Ravens dont just fly to the person the letter is for, it goes through a system of people, usually a Maester who facilitates the incoming and outgoing letters, who then either himself or a squire, hand delivers the letter to the correct person. Note most times especially in the first season, when important letters are delivered to the Starks its by either Maester Luwin or Grand Maester Pycelle, and the letters seals have already been opened, hence why they know who to deliver the letter to. Example: How would Luwin have known the letter at the start of the series was from Lysa or how would he have known it specifically was for Catelyn if he did not have to open it first to read its contents to find out. SOMEONE in the Stark household would have realized that the 14-15 year old Lyanna was receiving letters from the Prince, if not just someone important from Kings Landing, and stepped in then and there. And if he wrote her out of the blue, the first thing Lyanna would have done was tell her family that the PRINCE had sent her a letter. We know the Starks are all very honest with each other, if he wrote her out of the blue, she would've told her brothers. Also, there are spies everywhere in Kings Landing. If Rhaegar was sending secret letters, someone would've found that out and to whom. Note Catelyn had said she doesn't trust a raven to carry the words to Ned about the attempt on Brans life, or her saying Lysa's head would be on a spike if the wrong person read her letter about the Lannisters. Meaning even she well knows that it is very easy for letters to get into the wrong hands. Someone (lets be real, probably Varys) would have learned Rhaegar was sending letters to Lyanna. Which in the well over a decade after her death, would have said something to SOMEONE that they were sharing correspondence. Davos line in season 2 of "Lord Varys knows what you had for breakfast three days ago. There are no secrets here." Is clear cut enough to imply that even a man who grew up in Flea Bottom, knows that if you live in Kings Landing, Lord Varys knows you and your secrets already. Rhaegar was not sending secret letters to Lyanna and no one knew or no one said anything in the conflict that followed or in the decades since. Lyanna did not run away nor go to him willingly, she would have no way to even communicate with the Crown Prince and heir to the Iron Throne without a single soul learning that information. Her family would have found out and the Starks would have done something about it then and there. Lyanna likely went with him thinking that he was taking her somewhere reasonable to help her legally end a betrothal she didn't want, not knowing it meant he was taking her away from her family and by the time she realized, she was likely too powerless and in lands she's never been in before to try and run. Also Lyanna deeply cares about her brothers. The story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree is all the evidence needed to show that she is deeply loving and loyal to her family and the people of the North. She would not run from them just beacuse of a betrothal she didn't like, she loved her brothers dearly. She was taken from them. She was tricked into walking into a kidnapping under false pretenses. Rhaegar was a fully grown man in a position of great power who used Lyanna's young naivety and venerability to his advantage. Lyanna did not need to be carried away kicking and screaming for it to still be a kidnapping. Also the idea that Lyanna did not want to marry Robert because he already had bastards and slept around, would leave her entire life and family behind to run away with a man who is married with 2 children is braindead."

Also there is ZERO proof ANYONE knew who the Knight of the Laughing Tree was let alone AERYS. The idea thats why he took her is so out of left feild I think you just made that up. But no offence, that is the most nonsensical explanation I've ever heard.

But remember, grrm introduced Rhaegar by telling us he kidnapped and raped a 15 year old Lyanna. He did not paint this as a love story. Go re read the first book. Neds perspective showcases that this was never a love story and grrm did not start this series portraying it as such.

The idea too that he is taking so long becasue of Rhaelya is kind of dumb. Its a non canon ship that has no actual evidence what do you mean? Go re read the series and tell me where he's written himself into a hole on that one.

He hasn't. Because he has not written it as a love story.

[ocular-intercourse]

i keep going over some bits of the convo with my mom

and my favorites were when she said that i keep excusing my behavior (texting more than phone calls or face to face convos) with my autism but when i really want to do something i can do it real quick.. which, yeah, okay, i definitely get myself to do stuff i want to do quicker, who doesn’t, but that still takes me months to years to get there that’s just all a struggle she does not see, like, it took me pretty much 10 years to contact doctors regarding the transition, in her mind it’s like i just noticed and decided to transition and picked up the phone to get this rolling last year. i’m just over here laughing bitterly at the implication that doing things comes easy to me as long as i want to do them, god, i wish

and, when i told her regardless of the transgender topic, if a person comes to you and asks you not to call them something but you keep calling them that, that’s disrespectful no matter why or who’s involved, and her answer to that was just ‘we picked your name because we liked it’ as if i had told her ‘how dare you call me this hideous name', in any way ‘i wont call you this cause i just like xy better’ is not exactly a great excuse

she also said she is losing a daughter (but is gaining a son, so that note was nice at least) and that’s still the most surreal feeling about this thing, as if i died and she’s mourning now, like, if she’s really mourning losing the concept of ‘daughter’ then she never really saw me as a person in the first place, cause she’s somehow expecting me to change now that the title switched from daughter to son, like she legit told me ‘i’m still calling you laura cause i still see you as the same person’ as if that’s an excuse?? and i said ‘and i will keep being the same person??? maybe a little bit happier, a little bit more confident, but the content is the same??’, she said once there are more male attributes it will be easier to her, but i honestly don’t know which changes she is expecting at this point, i don’t know if my voice will get any deeper, looking at the men in my family beard growth is not exactly high as is, i am and have already been hairier, leg hair wise, then my brothers are for years, and am often enough wearing a binder around her, i’m seriously wondering when the switch will flip in her mind and i will be ‘male enough’ to get recognized as such

but! the whole convo stuck with my parents enough that they are now noting whenever they say my birthname, at dinner the next day my mom suggested they’d have to establish the rule that they’d have to pay 1 € any time they call me by the wrong name and maybe they’ll learn quicker

so success?? kinda? i think they understood what i was telling them, that this will not be a magical switch, that something needs to happen on the outside and suddenly it works, but that it is something they will have to practice to make it work eventually

but also the convo really showed how skewered her perceptions are sometimes, when she was talking about how bad she was doing, and crying how nobody would see it, i had to remind her that literally every longer conversation we’ve had in the last three months or so included me begging her to get some help (remember that post i made about how she thought therapy would be good for her but my dad does not want her to go.. yeah, this has been going on for a while) i keep telling her i worry and she needs to say no to people and look out for herself and fuck my dad’s opinion and everything, but in her mind nobody sees her struggling. we also had this bit about our last discussion about them deadnaming me getting cut short and me offering her, via text on the way home, that we can talk about it some more on the phone if she wanted too, and she answerd that she would only want to talk about it face to face, and then she deadass blamed me during that conversation on sunday that i refused to call her, she was like ‘i told you i did not want to talk to you about this over the phone but then you did not call me for 10 days??!’ to just chat and talk about other stuff, how silly would that have been, yeah we are in this fight rn but let’s just pretend sometimes that we are not and talk about our day to day hasdghjk i offered her that phone call for HER sake, cause i know this weighs heavier on her than me, i personally did not need to talk this through but i knew she would struggle with it till we would, but noo i never try and accommodate her. that’s why i seriously hope she’ll get therapy and work on her perception of things cause she assumes when nobody shows her her worth in the way she would that obviously nobody loves her?? i had to go on a whole tangent explaining the love languages to her, and that if nobody spoke to her in her language that did not mean there wasn’t any love expressed towards her, she’d just need to learn to see it. like one thing she said was legit ‘your father only ever tells other people how great i am but never says it privately to me’ which, okay, i get that you’d want to hear that too, but he keeps bragging about you to others?? and you don’t see how great that is??? but no that doesn’t count for some reason

that whole fight between my parents was just my mom needing constant reaffirmation and my dad being unable to provide that, and both of them going ‘you know how i am i’ve always been like this, you should have learned that by now and act accordingly’ and i can see both sides cause i am like my father and struggle with expressing or even perceiving these things, but i also see that my mom struggles with constantly telling my father she needs this but him not complying. that’s one of the rare moments she accepts my autism diagnosis and tries to apply it to my father cause we are so similar (but boy does my dad not want to hear that) BUT accepting my diagnosis might be the wrong word cause with everything my mother just sees it as an excuse, but refuses to see that there is an actual problem at the root. it’s never ‘i understand that this is because of the autism and this is harder for you than it is for neurotypical people’ but always ‘i know this is hard for you (do you??) but you should do it anyways cause i need it and you saying you can’t just means you’re not trying hard enough (meaning you dont care about me at all)’ translation being: you’re just being lazy and using the autism to make things easier for yourself at the cost of others

the new allegory i came up with was that my mom asking my dad to notice these things was like asking a deaf person to watch out for the microwave beeping, sure the deaf guy could probably find a way, stand in front of the thing to see the timer run out or anything, but it would be much more effort than it would be for a hearing person, just going about their day waiting to hear the bing. i told her that my dad would have to get creative about it and that might not be something he realizes cause he sees himself as a neurotypical person that should not have to resort to these things, cause he is normal and not noticing these things is therefore just his personality. i told her he should like.. set a timer on his phone that’s like ‘tell my wife i appreciate her’ every sunday or whatever, and my mom would be totally okay with that. i wonder sometimes, how they view my thoughts on these things, the difference between their generation and mine, are they.. impressed? at the level of reflection, the things we learn about working on ourselves and our relationships, or are they like.. silly children that’s not how this works wait till you are my age

okay this turned out a way longer rant than intended lol

[realtalk-princeton]

@Faun maybe the question wasn't submitted? just wanted to know more about life in Japan, especially culture (food, people) and language barrier

@faunJapan hey Faun, could you describe your experience in Japan? especially about the culture and people (and maybe safety)? thanks in advance :-)

Response from Faun:

Hey, sorry I’ve been away for a bit! Thanks for your question; I’ll do my best to answer it however I can. Just want to say in advance, all of this is based on my personal experience, so it could definitely vary for other people who have lived in/traveled to Japan. I am by no means an expert on Japanese culture, which in and of itself is hardly monolithic, so I’ll strive to avoid making uninformed, overgeneralized assertions about anything from my (outsider) perspective.

That being said, I think one general broad perception many people will have of Japan(ese culture) upon first arriving is the high emphasis on civility and order. Compared to countries such as the United States, Japan has a lot more organization and structure in nearly every facet of everyday life: buses always arrive on time, commuters queue up in perfect lines for the train, city streets are kept spotless and litter-free, etc. Furthermore, most people whom you meet (especially those who work in hospitality) will be extremely polite, from taxi drivers to restaurant servers to department store clerks—it’s very rare that you would encounter someone in Japan who is outwardly discourteous to you. A lot of this is derived from a sense of collectivism, which promotes group harmony and the good of the community above that of any one single person, that distinguishes Japan (as well as many other Asian countries) from some of the individualist cultures of the West. Nevertheless, I don’t think you can make any sweeping assumptions about how your interpersonal interactions with people in Japan will turn out before you actually get there.

For example, the first time I went to Japan, I lived in a fairly rural farming city in Fukuoka, which is located on the southernmost island of Kyushu, with an older couple without any children. They lived a pretty “traditional” Japanese lifestyle: their house had tatami mat flooring and sliding doors, they both took a bath after dinner every day, and we slept in futons on the ground in lieu of beds. I was only fifteen at the time, so being still a child I wasn’t really allowed to venture out too much on my own, but I remember enjoying the slow pace of summer life and the beautiful scenery of the Japanese countryside. I spent a lot of time with my host family and grew quite close to them, especially my host mother; we would pick vegetables from the garden and cook meals together, go on evening walks around the neighborhood after dinner, and sit in front of the television watching afternoon programs, me doing my homework while she folded the laundry. My host parents introduced me to a lot of local culture, bringing me to visit their family’s tea fields and taking me to various historical landmarks in the region. They weren’t super talkative, but in a way that was a plus, since it allowed me to slowly develop my comfort with the basics of the language as I lived with them. Overall, they demonstrated a lot of care for me, and I cherished them as if they were my own relatives.

In contrast, I had a somewhat harder time with my host family last year, when I participated in PII. I lived in the suburbs of Kanazawa, which is a moderately large coastal city, with a family of two parents and their two children, around my age. They had a much more “modern” lifestyle: their house was Western in style, located in a fairly new housing complex, both the father and the mother worked, and the family would take meals separately, depending on when they each came home from school or work. However, I had a more difficult time connecting with the individual members of the household; the children were usually out and about doing their own thing, and the father often came home rather late from work. I spent the most time with my host mother, but at first I had trouble adjusting to some of her stringent expectations of me—she would instruct me to put up my hair if I had it down, for example, or tell me to sit up straighter at the dinner table, and I wasn’t comfortable with such a familiar level of “parenting” in my relationship with a host family. Additionally, I struggled more with the language barrier this time around, even though I was much more advanced in Japanese at this point, likely because my host family thought I would be able to handle more complex grammar structures or vocabulary than I actually could given my current level. It wasn’t as if the family was rude or cold or anything like that; they were always kind and courteous to me, and we would also sometimes go on outings to restaurants or local cultural sites, which were pretty fun. Altogether, I just didn’t click as well with them as I did with my other host family (though in their defense, I was also severely depressed last summer so that probably played a part lol).

With regard to food, I feel like it varies so much depending on where you are, but there are a few staples that you can expect to find anywhere. In Kanazawa last year, my friends and I often ate soba, ramen, curry, etc. as well as boxed lunches (e.g. with rice, pork cutlet, etc.) that you can pick up from any convenience store. At home with my host family, my host mother would alternate between traditional Japanese breakfasts (with rice, miso soup, and some other side dishes) and more Western breakfasts (usually toast with jam and a cup of yogurt), and for dinner she’d either make something simple (like steamed fish or vegetables) or order some takeout. A lot of the foods you’d “typically” associate with Japan, like sushi or sukiyaki, are not commonly eaten on an everyday basis, and they might be different from what you’ve had outside of the country (Japanese sushi is a lot smaller and less convoluted than American sushi, for example!). Similarly, some Western chains in Japan will have different localized menus than what you might be used to, such as teriyaki burgers at McDonald’s or cherry blossom lattes at Starbucks. ALSO, the snacks and bottled beverages in Japan slap so hard—my favorites are definitely honey butter chips, kinoko no yama (lil choco mushrooms), oi ocha green tea, and c.c. lemon soft drink. All in all, some of my recommendations for food experiences in Japan include getting soba at a noodle stand (where you eat standing up), getting yakitori (chicken skewers) at an izakaya (a barlike setting where you can get late night snacks and drinks), and getting okonomiyaki (super delicious savory pancake, often cooked on a steel hotplate right in front of you) anywhere in Osaka (where it originated!).

In terms of safety, I’d say it also depends on where you go, but generally I found Japan to be a lot safer than the average city in the United States. When I was in Ishikawa last year, I would often go out on my own or with a group of friends, and very rarely did I feel any sense of unease while roaming the city of Kanazawa. I absolutely loved the freedom of wandering the streets late at night, something I never really got to experience growing up in the United States. One factor that helped was the accessibility of the public transportation in the area: there were tons of buses and trains whose maps and schedules were not difficult to follow, and in the worst case scenario I could always hail a taxi to reroute me to my destination. The language barrier wasn’t necessarily a hindrance at this stage of my time in Japan, but I would say that it’d probably be a lot harder to do some of the things I had to do, like reload a bus pass or buy bullet train tickets, if you didn’t understand/speak some degree of survival Japanese. However, I do want to acknowledge some of the privilege I have as an individual of East Asian descent traveling around Japan; because I often “passed” for a Japanese native (as long as I kept my mouth shut lmao), I rarely got any looks or stood out when I was making my way through my daily routine. I will say though, there was one time that I genuinely did feel unsafe in Japan, which took place not in Kanazawa but in Osaka, a much larger city that I had visited for vacation with a group of friends: I had gone out late on my own (while wearing a nice dress), and an older man had come up to me and tried to follow me back to where I was staying, but I eventually lost him by ducking into a restaurant bathroom. So in general, I don’t consider Japan to be dangerous for the most part, though again it never hurts to be vigilant, especially in a big city.

Wow that was a lot—I hope that was able to address at least some of the things you were asking about! I want to stress once again that my thoughts are by no means the final say on all things Japanese, and also emphasize that Japan and its culture cannot be simply boiled down into one homogenous description. Please feel free to reach out if there’s anything else more specific you would like to hear about (especially with such a broad topic as culture, there’s so much more to talk about, e.g. activities, etiquette, traditions, holidays, etc.)—I’d be happy to answer whatever I can given my own body of knowledge. Ultimately, I’m hoping that this helped to provide you with an initial sketch of Japan, and that you’ll be able to fill in the picture with your own travels there someday! :)

[apirateslifeforme123]

Awww, you guys! Ok, I am going to answer these in the order of which the fic was written. I feel like there’s a progression here, lol. So, first off, for the lovely @princesspenelopenerfherder on With This Ring, Or Fate Intervenes:

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I hadn’t written for the POTC genre in a while, and after binging on a bunch of fic old and new Sparrabeth I wanted to try my hand again. I had also been reading a lot of books about pirates at this point, doing some research for an original work that I’m still only 30,000 words into lol, and felt I had a better hold on the historical/nautical aspects than ten years ago when I first was writing for POTC. I read those fics now and literally want to bang my head onto the desk. The book Empire of Blue Water about Henry Morgan definitely inspired a great deal of it.

2: What scene did you first put down?

I had some other vague ideas first, but I think I actually wrote the island scenes first. Was definitely thinking about Jack and Lizzy on that island, lol, the ring exchange, and also my husband was watching a lot of naked and afraid at that point. I think it rubbed off on me haha.

 3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

I guess I don’t have a favorite. I kind of oscillate between third person omniscient and third person limited through out the fic, depending what it felt it needed.

 4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

Oh gosh. I love so many. But Ok, when Jack and Lizzy are in the garden during the ball, and she’s furious and sad because Jack won’t tell her what he’s up to, and she thinks Jack is leaving without her, and he’s trying to assure her that he’s just putting things to rights.

 “And which side of the law will you be on?”

“The proper side for a rogue like me, that is to say, the wrong side, though balance will have been restored in a way the law always seems to fall short of.”

 5: What part was hardest to write?

It’s always that plateau leading up to the end action that ALWAYS snags me. Always, no matter what fic. I have a complex with finishing things or something, I don’t know.

 6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

It’s kind of unique in that Jack and Elizabeth have known each other since she was a child in this verse. And also that its set in Morgan’s time, c. 1680ish, as opposed to the canon POTC verse that could be anywhere from 1730-70. Lol. It was also fun to write Jack returning to the fold of society as a privateer. Writing him at dinner with Morgan and the Governor et al was a hoot, and Lizzy kicking him under the table. haha

 7: Where did the title come from?

The first vague idea I had of this fic was Jack and Lizzy during the mar-i-age scene in DMC. I was thinking that it would be funny if he tricked her into thinking they were “pirate married” if he gave her one of his cool rings. And somehow, it evolved out into the island instead, and all the rest with it. I had rings on the brain...and the rest sounded like poetry. ;)

 8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

LOL and to elaborate on the above, I suppose I was thinking about cool pirate rings because I work in antiques, and sometimes we get those awesome Georgian gold skull rings with the steely rose cut diamonds. JFC they are COOL. I can never afford to keep them tho, so I guess I thought I’d write about it instead. Vicarious collecting, as it were.

 9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Plenty of alternate scenes, I’m sure. I keep a file of scraps and ideas, and it’s always like a graveyard for things that don’t quite make the cut.

 10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

I know I write a lot of Norribeth too now, but Sparrabeth is my original fav, and I still feel like Sparrabeth was the OTP that really *should* have happened in the movie. The fact that it didn’t was just the worst writing ever. ::glares at T & T::

 11: What do you like best about this fic?

I think it was pretty original, and a bit epic, in length at least, lol. I liked the time frame being different, and Jack having sailed with Morgan and getting screwed over by him and Barbossa on one of their raids, rather than the Becket drama as his backstory. I love thinking up different back stories for Jack, there are so many ways he could have turned out the way he is.

 12: What do you like least about this fic?

Oh god. The way I skewered James Norrington’s character, it’s sooo OoC. He’s a great antagonist in this one, Jack’s rival and all, but I look back on it now and totally face palm. I confess I really didn’t properly understand him at the time. I hadn’t seen COTBP in a while, and for some reason I remembered James being the one who demanded he make the rescue of Will a wedding present to Elizabeth. Which is so not right, lol, because actually ELIZABETH is the manipulator in that scene. But…so I thought he was the stick in the mud Navy officer who didn’t really see Elizabeth for who she was, though he does truly, twistedly, love her in this fic. It would be interesting to write a version of this in which James isn’t so out of character, it would be waaaay more complicated emotionally. This fic is pretty black and white.

 13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

I have all kinds of ridiculous playlists for fics, though I don’t listen to music when I write, only when I’m thinking about a fic, if that makes sense. At this period I suspect the playlist involved Jack Johnson and some Kenny Chesney beach tunes lol. Probably some Jimmy Buffet too…

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

I guess the thing I want people to take away from all my fics is that girls should be strong and true to themselves, and that a man who truly loves you will never try to make you into something you’re not. Hard won lessons on my part, so maybe someone else’s journey will be less painful for reading this? Or not.

 15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

I learned a lot doing research about pirates, the Caribbean at this time, boats and sailing. I’m always learning new things when I write, it’s a good way to explore a subject and really get a proper understanding of it.

[violasarecool]

Rating: Gen Characters: Mahariel x2, Cousland, Sigrun, Velanna Summary:  a few only tangentially related drabbles as kit gets to know some of the other wardens. bit of a character study.

"Why does everyone treat me like a child?" Kit complained. "I'm only a couple years younger than Quentin!"

Sigrun tore her gaze away from the other Wardens training in the courtyard below; Kit gave her an impatient look, and Sigrun shrugged. "It's probably because you're small and adorable."

"Don't you start," Kit groaned. "Besides, you're shorter than I am!"

"Yes, but I have an angry face that makes people wet their pants," Sigrun said. "You wouldn't mock someone who looks like they could skewer you."

"Yeah? Well I once skewered a shemlen for invading our forest," Kit said.

so i missed the first day of dragon age origins appreciation week, and also im not very good at following prompts lol, but when i saw the first day questions talking about warden ocs my brain was immediately like “time to write about your ocs!”

so here we have some awakening interactions with my tiny elf child