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thevagueambition · 3 years

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Tagged by @everyonewasabird - thanks!

1) how many works do you have on AO3?

2) what’s your total AO3 word count?

207,828

3) how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Let me go count 😂 I tend to write oneshots for random things then never write more for that fandom (when it even has what can be called a fandom lol)

Hmm, something like 24?

Les Mis and Harry Potter are definitely what I’ve written for the most. I’ve written a fair bit of Star Wars stuff as well, but most of that is unpublished wips.

4) what are your top five fics by kudos?

Oh god, I don’t like the first two anymore

1. Mr. Harry Potter, a trans guy!Harry ficlet (this was originally just a headcanon post)

2. Practice, a B99 bi trans guy!Jake ficlet

3. Aching for You, MDZS Wangxian porn with plot (that novel blue balled me lmao)

4. Just Like That, Disco Elysium Harry/Kim (I still really like this one, it was one of the first in that tag too)

5. Handsome as ever, Doctor Who fic where Thirteen and her companions meet Jack Harkness (written before his canon reappearance)

5) do you respond to comments? why or why not?

Usually, yeah. Not if it’s just a heart of a single word comment, though. Not that I don’t appreciate those comments, there’s just not really anything to respond to. If someone does it on every chapter of a longer fic, I might go like “thanks for taking the time to comment!” on one of them to show that I appreciate it.

6) what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, I’m more of a hurt/comfort than outright angst sort of guy... particularly in terms of endings, I really like things to be really angsty but then end on that note of “things are going to be okay”?

That said, it’s probably In Other Circumstances, a fic based on the movie Joyeux Noël, which is already fairly angsty, given the subject matter (that time during WW1 opposing armies celebrated Christmas together). That, or the Dumbledore fic To Be At Peace.

7) do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really. I do have a little bit of a Les Mis/Order of the Phoenix mash-up where Dumbledore’s Army do a student activism after Dumbledore is sacked (Lamarque is dead!) lying around somewhere, but I think that’s about it. God, that was a good idea though. I should get back on that some day.

8) have you ever received hate on a fic?

I think I once got one from a terf on that trans!Harry one but it was pretty vague lol

9) do you write smut? if so what kind?

Yeah, occasionally. I have a lot of kinks in the bdsm area of things, so that’s always pretty apparent in the smut I write. I just think power dynamics are sexy lmao

A lot of the smut I’ve written is original work stuff though, so that’s not up in the same place as my fanfic.

10) have you ever had a fic stolen?

Doubt it

11) have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, Just Like That was translated into Chinese.

I’ve also personally translated a Odin/Loki fic I wrote in Danish into English. Fun fact, it’s way harder to translate than if I’d written it in English in the first place. I like to write fic in Danish where it makes sense to, though.

12) have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope. I’ve partcipated in events where I’ve drawn and the other person written, but never co-written. Frankly I’m not even sure how that works.

13) what’s your all-time favourite ship?

Gah, idk. All-time, huh? I shift between fandoms too much for that.

Obviously I ship Enjolras/Grantaire a lot and have for a long time, but then I’m also super particular about what I want that to look like lol.

I still really love Sirius/Remus even after all these years. Disco Elysium’s Harry/Kim deserves mention here as well, although that’s a lot newer, so it’s difficult to talk about in an “all-time” sense.

Despite not really caring about any aspect of Marvel anymore, I also still really love Matt/Foggy from the Netflix version of Daredevil.

14) what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

A lot of unposted stuff 😂 Maybe once I finish Elysium I’ll pick one of those up again... If it’s a wip I care about, I won’t start posting it till I have a good sense that I’ll continue being able to update.

15) what are your writing strengths?

Hmm, I think I’m good at inserting myself into the mindset of the protagonist. This is also why I practically never write alternating pov, I’m filtering everything through that protagonist so shifting around would be harder. Dialogue tends to come easily to me as well.

16) what are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions, moving characters around in space in particular. On a more meta level, plotting things out to the right degree where I still actually want to write it but I’m also going in a particular direction. Just... plot, in general, really.

17) what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Generally speaking, if my character speaks the language in question, the dialogue will be rendered in the same language as the rest of the text with a dialogue tag like “he said in German” or w/e. If they do not, the dialogue will be rendered in the actual language being spoken.

Of course this is also hugely guided but what languages I personally speak. I will never use google translate for something like that because I personally find it infuriating when people do that lmao. It’s like saying “Hey, you, who actually speak this language? This isn’t for you. Fuck you. This is just here for flavor. Surely no-one who actually speaks this language will ever come across this.” I’m sure that’s not what most people who do that are thinking, but that’s what it feels like to read. So I won’t do that.

I can’t recall if I’ve done this in anything that’s up anywhere, but if I wanted to include a foreign phrase I would either use Danish, use triple checked German or ask someone I know who speak a given language about the phrase in that language. Or, you know, just use an established quote.

An exception is Latin, particularly for Les Mis fic, where I follow the brick’s habit of rendering Latin untranslated, despite the pov character understanding it (but again, these are always established phrases).

If I wrote something in Danish taking place in the modern day, I would render English untranslated as well, since that is just how young Danes talk and I can assume that 99.99% of potential readers will be able to understand it either way (this, I think we can assume, is also what was going on with Latin at the time Hugo was writing).

18) what was the first fandom you wrote for?

Probably Harry Potter. That, or Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don’t really remember. The first thin I put on FFnet was certainly Harry Potter, though.

19) what’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Predictably it’s On the Path to Elysium. As I’ve mentioned before, I wasn’t really able to write long things before Elysium. Most of my fics are oneshots and while I really like oneshots, I had long been frustrated that I never managed to get any of my longer ideas off the ground. Elysium represents a lot of growth for me as a writer.

Apart from that, like I said, I’m still very fond of Just Like That, if nothing else then because I wrote it in an emulation of how the game itself is written.

I tag @thebearmuse @teddy-stonehill @antirococoreaction (no pressure ofc, just if any of you think it looks fun)

#tag game

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hunxi-guilai · 4 years

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Hi! Your meta for CQL/MDZS is amazing. After reading your ask earlier about colonialism and western audiences consuming a non-western media product, I was wondering if you had thoughts on types of AU fanfic that work for this fandom and types that don't? Seeing fic based on European history/royalty or European fairy tales seems strange in this context, and sometimes a little tone-deaf. It's obviously a complicated topic, but do you have any thoughts on AUs or tropes people might want to avoid?

you know, this is an intriguing topic and I’m not sure if there’s a clear-cut answer to this, but it’s definitely worth thinking and talking about!

I guess a big part of this question is how much a certain character is defined by their cultural milieu. For some reason, my mind immediately jumps to the Les Mis fandom as a point of contrast; at least in the fics I’ve read, I never got the feeling that their ‘French-ness’ was an integral part of their character (which isn’t to say fic authors haven’t written gorgeous tone poems on characters and their Parisian surroundings!) -- for the most part, you could pretty easily transport Les Amis into a nebulous American college without losing the essence of their characters. It also makes it much easier to racebend/offer alternate castings for characters, since Enjolras remains Enjolras, no matter what skin tone he happens to have in this iteration

But it’s important to realize that Les Mis is a text that exists in a center of power -- Western, hegemonic, already established in a canon that doesn’t have to fight to be recognized -- which is why fandom can freely re-interpret and re-claim parts of the text to offer more representational iterations of characters and their relationships. This gets a bit into the dynamics of cultural appropriation, and why we judge cultures existing in positions of relative power with one standard and historically subaltern cultures with another.

The challenge with CQL/MDZS AU’s, then, is determining how much of the cultural context of the characters affects what we perceive as the essence of their characterization. Can you imagine a Wei Wuxian on a small liberal arts campus on the East Coast? Can you imagine a Lan Xichen who runs an small coffeeshop in New Zealand? What language is Lan Wangji speaking in your English-language fic? Do you need to include an explanation for why Nie Huaisang is studying abroad in Europe right now?

I feel like a big part of why CQL/MDZS might be so hard to write AU’s for is because how much these characters are entrenched in these familial/clan/sect dynamics, so the question of whether or not you can write, say, European history/folklore!AU’s of CQL lies in the question of whether or not you can successfully translate these dynamics into said setting.

I don’t think I’m qualified to make a judgment on whether or not there are AU’s you “““should””” (or should not) write, because in the end, the purpose of writing fanfiction is writing the content you want to see into the world. And if what you want to see is an Orpheus-and-Eurydice retelling of wangxian, then sure, go for it -- I don’t see any immediate harm in that, but it might read a little weird, because then you have to write Hades interacting with Lan Wangji, and boy that’s an image. And I don’t know, I feel like transporting Jin Guangyao into the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV, would be a wild time. But again, it’ll be up to you to figure out how to handle the dissonance, of how much you need to ‘explain’ the presence of disparate elements in your fic and how they can co-exist.

As for things to avoid...again, I think it’s hard to make absolute statements because fanfiction and fandom is an arena of content consumption and production that pushes boundaries on what is deemed conventionally acceptable. Any rules, I think, would come out of the rules of just being respectful in your interaction with media -- don’t orientalize. Don’t fetishize based on exoticized or cultural or racial grounds. For the love of all that is holy, do not whitewash the characters.

#guess who's been listening to 'Wait for Me' again #this was a hard ask to write! and I'm sorry that I couldn't give you a more definitive answer #but I feel like it's super situational #I personally wouldn't go for European history/royalty!AU's because... why #you have in-house dynastic history/royalty!AU's RIGHT THERE #but I don't see any inherent harm in it?#you're either going to have to do a lot of explaining about your AU worldbuilding there #or never address it #ask and ye shall receive

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mysunfreckle · 4 years

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Tagged by @starkey 💕

Name: Freckle/Sunfreckle/Mysunfreckle

Fandoms: That I’ve published fic for? Les Mis, Jane Austen, Hades, Undertale, Sherlock, The Adventure Zone (Balance, Amnesty and Graduation), Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines.

(I have written fic for other stuff, but since I’ve always kept it to myself and never interacted with other fans, I don’t count that as the full fandom experience.)

Where you post: AO3, Tumblr, formerly also on FF.net, which I never deleted.

Most Popular One-shot: ...a smut fic

Most Popular Multichap: Happy Family, a fluffy canon continuation for Undertale. It is by far the most popular thing on my AO3 both in kudos and hits. And while I am painfully aware of how much better most of my other writing is, it does pretty much embody what I want to put into the world and it was my first, bewildering introduction to ‘proper fandom’.

Favorite story you’ve written so far: Oh I have no idea. I’m still very proud of Coffee and Faerie Cakes / Les Conte de Café for Les Mis. But also of Fullerton Parsonage, a Henry Tilney POV retelling of Northanger Abbey. Those are not the ones I go back to reread though, so...yeah I don’t know.

Fic you were nervous to post: In the beginning I was nervous about all, nowadays not so much. I remember that I was very nervous about 16 Lies and Counting, because I felt like I was diverging from fanon and I was afraid that would get negative reactions (it didn’t). My poor sister had to listen to me whine about it incessantly.

How do you choose your titles: I usually try to get a reference to something said or done in the story. Or something meta. If that doesn’t work I usually end up at alliteration.

Do you outline: I usually write rather short pieces and if I outline those, that means I am Forcing It. Multichapter stuff I usually do outline a bit, but as vaguely as possible. My stories tend to be character-driven, not plot-driven and the more I plan the more I suffer

Complete: About 75? Most of them from a particularly escapist period in my life

In progress: I planned a TAZ Balance fic with my sister that I’d love to finish but...not happening. I have one original short story that has all the elements to be great, but again, not happening. I stared a VtM LA by Night fic that is also not happening. And I have a Hades fic that may be getting there.

Coming soon/not yet started: I recently planned and outlined a queer regency romance that has since, as predicted above, done nothing but make me suffer

Prompts?: I adore prompts. A lot of my non-fandom urban fantasy drabbles on @laurasimonsdaughter come from prompts and at the height of my Les Mis days fluffy prompts were my bread and butter <3

Upcoming work you’re most excited about: I’m afraid excitement and energy are exactly what is lacking. Sure would be great if my regency girls actually got to touch gloved hands though

I will tag: @fishandchipsandvinegar but also for podfic and @burntblackfeathers but definitely including original writing!

#tag thingy

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skewed-logic · 4 years

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DRABBLE ★ the Third Party Conspiracy

Title: the Third Party Conspiracy Word count: 1269 Characters involved: Escargoon and Meta Knight

Summary: Meta Knight finally talks to Escargoon about the Nightmare situation. References RPs / shared HCs with @nightmaresindreamland

“Escargoon,” Meta Knight’s voice sharply interjected into Escargoon’s thoughts from seemingly out of nowhere and he paused in his step, staring hard into the surrounding darkness of the hall. He’d been on his way to his room for the night, after having snagged a cup of chamomile tea from the kitchens, and held his cup in one hand and his candle in the other. He’s even wearing his nightgown.

Meta Knight’s form materializes soundlessly from the shadows to his left; and Escargoon very nearly startles enough to drop his tea.

“STARS, Meta Knight, are you trying to give me a heart attack!? What d’you want!?” he’s stage whispering so as to avoid waking the rest of the castle.

“Forgive me for startling you, it was not my intention,” said Meta Knight softly; he doesn’t have to whisper as much as Escargoon, when his voice was naturally this quiet.

“I do not mean to interrupt your nighttime routine, but I have something important I’d like to discuss with you, if it is not too much trouble.”

Such a request seems to give Escargoon a moment’s pause. Since when did they know one another well enough to be asking favors? He wants to cross his arms but he can’t exactly do that, given that he’s got both hands full. Instead, he’ll favor him a particularly unimpressed and somewhat wary look.

“Sure, I guess... What’s this about?”

“Not here,” Meta Knight all but hissed, and Escargoon drew back from him in surprise. He’d never heard such urgency in his voice. Well... not in a very long time, anyway. The last time he’d sounded like that had been literally hundreds of years ago, in that far-away and long-destroyed Realm of Evil. A place that was dead to most folk’s memories, but which Escargoon couldn’t seem to let himself forget.

“Uh, ok? You uh, wanna step into my quarters then?”

“If you would allow me the intrusion. Please.”

A few minutes later, they’re standing in Escargoon’s living room. Rather, Meta Knight was standing and Escargoon was sitting bewildered on his couch, sipping from his tea and staring at Meta Knight like he was some kind of specimen. The knight had personally insisted on checking the locks after them, making sure the door was double locked and bolted. This task done, he’d whirled upon Escargoon, quickly withdrawing his hand back into his cape which he then bundled tightly back around himself. So tight in fact that it seemed to Escargoon that the fabric was straining.

He couldn’t help but be somewhat awed by this whole charade. He’d never seen Meta Knight nervous before, yet here it is right in front of him. It’s evident not only by the unsettling stillness of his posture but also by the searching quality and intensity of his gaze. It’s clear that whatever he’d wanted to speak with him about was incredibly important.

After a few moment’s silence Meta Knight seemed to remember himself, and the cape slackened a little as he reached forth once more. He held out a single page of notebook paper with writing on it, and a hefty hardbound book. Escargoon set down his cup of tea and reached forth to accept them. He set the book on the couch beside him after he gave the title a bemused cursory glance. ‘Spanish All-In-One for Dummies’? What in the world??

He turned his attention to the paper now and that confused expression deepened to one of absolute bafflement. Rows and rows of tight, neatly written cursive. All of it in Spanish. There’s no way he’s going to be able to read this tonight.

Escargoon blinked. “Did you write this?? Why?? Is this for me??”

“Yes, I wrote it; but I cannot tell you why. At least... not aloud. That information is sensitive.”

“Uh.. okay... Well... why did you feel the need to write this when you could just tell me what it says??”

A sharp sigh. Perhaps of impatience. “You’re a smart man, aren’t you Escargoon? One of the smartest in the Kingdom, I would dare to say. If I felt I could speak with you directly of the matters I wrote, then there would be no need for a note. The information is encrypted so long as I write it in Spanish. And I expect you to translate this note with the resources I just provided you.”

Escargoon leveled him a blank stare which quickly grew irritated. “Or, alternatively, I could just feed this to my papershredder and pretend you didn’t barge into my room at midnight. Either you tell me what this is about or I want no part of it!”

There’s a beat of silence.

“Pesadilla,” said Meta Knight seemingly at random and he stepped closer, bending the paper towards him so he could tap the spelling of the word on the page.

“’Pesadilla,’ huh. That’s your answer.” Goon sounds less impressed by the minute.

“Jes. It is a noun. Why don’t you look that word up first. Then you will know what this is about.”

And without waiting for Escargoon’s reply, he turned from him and opened the locks on his door, letting himself out as quietly as he’d first let himself into the room. Escargoon can’t hear his footsteps retreating down the hall, but he senses rather than perceives his absence by the tension fading from the room.

After a long few minutes of stunned silence, holding that paper in front of him with numb fingers, and not really reading what it says... he remembers his tea. He reached forth and took a slurp from it, then set it back on his living room table with a clatter. Then gave the paper a closer look. He didn’t think Meta Knight to be the kind to communicate with letters like this, but there must be something really important at stake for him to want to speak in such a roundabout way.

Without even knowing what the words say, Escargoon tries to read the letter anyway.

Escargoon,

Perdóname por comunicarme contigo de esta manera, pero no vi otra forma de hacerlo de manera segura. Trataré de que esta carta sea breve y con una redacción simple para minimizar el largo proceso de traducción para usted. Eres un hombre muy inteligente. Sé que podrá leer esto con algo de esfuerzo. Por favor, no ignore esta nota.

Te escribo para pedirte un gran favor. ¿Recuerda esos muchos años atrás, cuando forjamos las estrellas en mi nave, la Alabarda? ¿Recuerda también esa gran fuerza del mal que pensamos haber destruido? Pesadilla está de vuelta. Sabe dónde estamos, gracias a las recientes compras monstruosas de Dedede y tú; solo será cuestión de tiempo antes de que venga por nosotros.

Me visita en sueños todas las noches, para hablar conmigo extensamente en un intento de descubrir mis planes para encarcelarlo una vez más, esta vez, con suerte para siempre. No le pediría esto si no creyera que sería un asistente capaz en este esfuerzo.

Necesito que me investigues un poco en las bibliotecas del castillo sobre algunos temas diferentes, el primero de los cuales son las propiedades antimagia. Lo haría yo mismo, pero los libros están en inglés y, por lo tanto, si Nightmare ve el recuerdo de mí leyéndolos, entonces sabrá lo que estoy planeando. Busco liberar al Universo de este gran Mal, pero no puedo hacerlo sin tu ayuda.

Por favor, piense en mi solicitud. No es para mí. Es por el bien de todos. Estoy dispuesto a negociar el pago de sus servicios si es necesario.

Castor.

Stars, thought Escargoon as he set the page down on the book and cradled his head in his hands. This is going to be a long week...

#‹ ⋆ : Escargoon : general ›#‹ ⋆ : Meta Knight : general ›#‹ 📺 : Meta Knight : v1 : don’t believe the church and state ›#‹ 📺 : Escargoon : v1 : Ain’t you ever heard the expression a ‘snail in the grass?’ ›#‹ ♚ ›#nightmaresindreamland #stcrfought #//tagging y'all 'cause y'all're involved in this mess too!

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meta-squash · 5 years

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Les Miserables 1.1.8 After Dinner Philosophy - Atheism and pleasure for the rich, God for the poor.

I think I’m a little too late to catch up to the current Brick Club that’s happening, but I am rereading Les Miserables and I want to write some meta and stuff.

I’ve just reached Book Two but I want to go back a little ways and go over 1.1.8 and the monologue by the Senator the Comte de ----- on humanism, atheism, and self-reliance etc, because this was a monologue I wanted to close-read my first read-through of the Brick but never got around to it because I was busy with school.

So the Bishop goes to visit Senator Monsieur le Comte, who is described as not a bad person, but relatively self-centered. Hugo writes that he thought “himself a disciple of Epicurus, though he was probably simply a product of Pigault-Lebrun.” Epicurus’ philosophy was that of self-reliance (though he encouraged friendship) and the pursuit of pleasure by living wisely and with sober reasoning, maintaining awareness of pleasures that may cause suffering to oneself or others. Pigault-Lebrun, on the other hand, was a French novelist/playwright who was staunchly anti-Christian (and write a book of anti-Christian quotations that apparently was banned but published anyway?). Everything I’ve looked up about Pigault-Lebrun points out that while his writing was somewhat popular with the middle class, he basically had absolutely no effect whatsoever on the social or political institutions pre- or post-Revolution. So essentially what Hugo is saying is that the Senator thought himself a great philosopher but really he was just a guy who was well-liked by the middle class but ultimately unremarkable and with no lasting social impact.

The Senator then goes on to monologue about his own philosophy, specifically atheism. This begins with a hatred of Diderot who he accuses of “basically believing in god” (Diderot was a deist in his early days) and of being a revolutionary (he was friends with Rousseau) and a demagogue (probably because of his popular but raunchy novel The Indiscreet Jewels). He calls him “more bigoted than Voltaire.” The example he gives re: Voltaire is the feud between Voltaire and John Needham, where Voltaire circulated the myth of Needham being an Irish Jesuit due to an argument regarding one of Needham’s theories. Needham believed in spontaneous generation (the idea that living organisms can develop from non-living matter) and did experiments attempting to prove this theory. Voltaire, on the other hand, disagreed with the theory because he was afraid that it would encourage or prove atheism. Hence, our atheist friend the Senator calling Voltaire bigoted.

The Senator moves forward with Needham, citing Needham’s experiments with “eels” (nematodes) apparently springing to life in water. The Senator says that this spontaneous generation proves god unnecessary. He likens the creation of earth to vinegar and dough, because of the way the reaction between vinegar and yeast will make bread rise. To the Senator, man is the eel who spontaneously generates on earth, rather than being created by god. Therefore, god is useless. He also accuses deism of creating people who are starving both physically and intellectually, presumably because they don’t indulge in pleasure through food or in any sort of pleasurable intellectual passion aside from religious texts.

He then goes on to show off his Epicurean ideas. First he mocks the Bishop by saying that he’s “confessing” to him, as he is a pastor, that he’s “not wild about your Jesus, who preaches renunciation and self-sacrifice in every field.” Then he rambles about his lone-wolf philosophy, how every man should be for himself and it’s more natural to be looking out only for oneself rather than bothering to help others who are suffering. It’s funny to read this section: two hundred years later and we still have guys who think themselves philosophers going, “Look at nature! Wolves don’t help other wolves, why should humans help other humans heh heh heh.” The Senator does the every man for himself spiel and also a “there is no god or afterlife, so this is the only life we have and I’m going to use it to help myself, not others” spiel.

He does say that others have encouraged him to think more seriously about philosophy: good and evil, justice and injustice, right and wrong, because he will be judged after death. He rejects this, insisting that there is no afterlife: “After I’m dead it will take minute fingers to pinch me. I’d like to see a ghost grab a handful of ashes.” He says “There is no good or evil, only vegetation.” Because of his next few sentences, I assume what he means is that there isn’t any divine good or evil, no god or devil to push you in a direction, only the actual physical earth. Man is generated from the earth, not god, and so there is no afterlife or god to go back to. Because he then moves on to say that he thinks immortality and life after death is just a false promise, an illusion, a “will-o-the-wisp”. He mocks the idea of heaven, the idea that souls remain in the sky somewhere, going from star to star, mocks the idea of angels.

He calls god a “monstrous myth,” but he does admit that he’s not going to say that publicly, he’s not going to publish it anywhere, but he will say it to friends. To the Senator, using your time on earth to try and get to heaven is useless, “like leaving your fortune to a corpse.” He points out that he did not exist before his birth and therefore will not exist after death, and that he has the choice of pain or pleasure on earth, and he’s going to choose pleasure. He doesn’t say it outright, but it’s definitely a jab at the spartan way of living that Myriel and other religious people choose. His next few lines can be summed up by some of the new lines written for the 2012 Les Mis movie: “Everyone’s equal when they’re dead.” The Senator’s thought, essentially, is that everyone is equally nothing when they’re dead, so he’s going to take advantage of the life he has and live it for pleasure, without worrying about other people’s suffering. He mocks god as a fairy tale for adults, because no matter what good or bad you did in life, when you’re dead, you’re dead and it doesn’t matter anymore. He says “Live, then, above all else; use your self while you still have it.” He tells the Bishop that he thinks the poor and unfortunate are the only ones who are desperate enough to have religion, which are “myths and chimeras” that they’re given to nourish the soul. The Senator says, “He who has nothing else has the good Lord--the least good he can have.” He gives no objection to allowing the poor to have a false belief, but boasts that he holds the truth of atheism for himself.

Of course, Bishop Myriel then does his good-natured response in order to gently mock and/or reproach thing. He immediately points out that the Senator’s “pleasurable” way of life is materialistic, and mocks this atheist belief. Once you’ve got all this stuff, he says, you won’t let yourself be fooled by religion or the idea of self-sacrifice. Once you’re an atheist with epicurean ideals, you won’t feel obliged to help other people if you see a political wrong (Cato) or a religious one (St Stephen) or a historical/military one (Joan Of Arc). People who believe in materialism, in this total self-reliance, will shamelessly take anything and everything because they believe they deserve it, since they have the ability to take it. The Bishop interrupts himself to clarify, “I’m not referring to you, my dear Senator.” But he does go on to point out that this “philosophy” the Senator has just expounded on is only accessible to the rich, that only the rich can actually indulge in the pleasures the Senator thinks are so important. He mocks the Senator’s last words, saying “you are good princes” to allow the poor to believe in god instead of actually helping those who are suffering, “much as the goose with onions is the turkey with truffles of the poor.”

It is this conversation, I think, and the later one with G---- that really establish the Bishop’s opinions and beliefs regarding people with differing religious, philosophical, or political opinions. You can pretty easily contrast the two, in that by the end of the Senator’s monologue, the Bishop has a fairly well-constructed argument against his philosophy, because he can see how the senator’s status and politics inform his crap opinions. By the end of his conversation with G----, the Bishop’s ideals and beliefs have been somewhat shaken, and he’s realized that G----’s politics and experiences have actually formed a philosophy that is for the people, and that G---- actually is worth listening to. The difference there, of course, being that the Senator is fairly rich and G---- lives in a hut in the middle of nowhere, alone. Again, quite an obvious contrast, the Senator living large but only thinking for himself, G---- living very much alone except for one young servant, thinking of the people and his former acts for them, and the Bishop in the middle, living with his sister and Madame Magloire, thinking of the poor and essentially Robin Hood-ing his own expenses. One that the Bishop tries to teach (or at least reprimand) and one that the bishop learns from.

#les miserables #les mis #les miserables meta #1.1.8 #after dinner philosophy #bishop myriel #les mis meta

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wowheadquarters · 6 years

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I have a little idea for the 1k followers. As I followed this blog recently, I was wondering about his history. If you feel like it, could do a summary? Like, why did you start it? Your first joy/disappointment. Any thing that we haven't see that you might want to share. Absolutely anything about the blog and you. (If you're comfortable with it of course)

This is a very good idea, lovable anon, I’ll try.

History:

It was 17th November 2015, somewhen in Tuesday afternoon. I don’t remember what exactly sparked the idea of starting this blog, but I can say for certain that it was heavily inspired by the @bleachlists (which is, if you ask me, better humor than canon Bleach). And thus the first list was born.

(I never expected this blog to get famous. Or followers besides bots for that matter. I hoped, maybe, for a little circle of, like, 5 actual readers. I certainly didn’t think I would keep this blog for longer than 4 months. That’s how it is with me usually, I have bursts of inspiration but lack long-term dedication. The fact that this blog is still going is a miracle.)

At first the lists were written in the “chat” style. I had to make up my own prompts, because the two followers or so only hearted the posts but didn’t interact with me at all otherwise. That’s why the activity was very irregular at the time, I was writing when I was inspired and thus a month could pass without a word from me and then boom, three posts in a week. Additionally, I wasn’t writing only lists, but also short stuff, kind of like “Slice of life from Azeroth.” Of these the most famous is Chromie and Dragons and in my opinion the best one and not enough appreciated one is Kel’thuzad’s Heard Of Sylvanas’ Plans.

The first breakthrough came in January 2016 when an anon, who made me happy so much that I called them “lovable” in the list and kept on doing so for all following anons, requested the very first requested list, the Care of Babies list. For a long time this has been the list with the most notes. Now there are too many lists to keep count and Tumblr doesn’t do “the best of your posts,” but still it is one of the most popular posts I have and along with the Chromie and Dragons it still pops up in my notifications. Around April 2016 I had stable enough queue of requested lists to stop making up my own prompts, thus I could completely rely on prompts from followers, most of them from anons.

Another important milestone was August of the same year: First of all, I came up with a posting schedule (Fridays and Mondays, but two months later I understood that was too fast - It ate the prompts faster than they were prompted, and I wasn’t managing it). Then Taedal was added to the lists, at first he was meant as a joke, as I keep reminding him and everyone else, and somehow it happened he stayed here. Additionally, Varian and Vol’jin’s deaths were acknowledged, putting Anduin on the list. Soon after, Garrosh joined in from beyond the veil to annoy Vol’jin in his afterlife.

About this time the blog began to create it’s own lore (and not only the L.O.R.E.), and I even had the (short-spanned) will to mystify people that Taedal is going to get his own expansion. I even had a sideblog dedicated to Taedal (in fact, it was Taedal’s own blog, intentioned as a RP blog but somehow it never…got much traffic) and even a wiki. The wiki still exists! I like to think of this as the Golden Age of HeadQuarters verse, when I even got fanfics on AO3 and a dozen of drawings for this blog even. This blog lives in an alternate universe where there is a new isle west of Pandaria and Garrosh adopted 37 dead children in the afterlife and learned to be a better person (not necessarily the same as good person, but let’s not lose hope).

I don’t remember exactly on what occasion in the 2017 the Interviews were added, but they were the first not-list which were requestable (that is, they weren’t the short filler stuff I used to make before). I think it was to celebrate the first 100 followers but I might be wrong. The first Interview was held with Taedal, by my decision, and ever since then the Interviews went by request every twenty days, moved to every other Wednesday, later as of not-so-recently, every other Tuesday. In the history of the Interviews, there happened to be only one which wasn’t published, because nobody asked any questions. (It was Interview with Kel’thuzad, pt. 3, and I jokingly said that “ when we met, the Archlich thought I used the Interview as an excuse to go out for a date with him and things went awkward” which resulted in this Top N list).

From there things went rather fast. To here actually. As a celebration for 600 followers (or was it 500? Memory fails me) I began writing Top N, sort of as of a filler in between the Interviews, so actually now this blog has moved back to the biweekly posting scheme very close to the one from 2016. Earlier this year (2018), there was a list about attack on not-Theramore, where I made up a character especially for my timeline speculations - because timeline shenanigans, it is a bronze dragon, and because it is representing me, the character is called Authormi. That is a very poor play on the word “author” (because I am the author of this blog) and the “-ormu/ormi” suffix characteristic for the Bronze dragonflight. Coincidentally, it was also the first time I have referred to myself with any sort of name here on this blog (besides the FAQ where is a link to my main blog) and I am using it since.

An important part of the blog is post maintenance when I try to at least twice a month (but if I’m very responsible, then every Friday evening) go thorough the blog, update the Interview, Top N, and L.O.R.E. pages, delete old request asks and so on. However, over the years a good number of not-request asks had piled up in here. They were…not filtered here and the blog seemed messy with them. Which is why Authormi vs. Inbox tag was created and from time to time when too many not-request asks pile here, I dump them into these post as a sort of archive. I admit that it is not, uh… ideal in case you are looking for something specific, but it keeps the blog clean. Well, cleaner.

The most recent new development of the blog was the addition of the Allied Races leaders - Alleria Windrunner for the Void Elves/Ral’dorei, High Exarch Turalyon for the Lightforged, Jaina Proudmoore for Kul Tiras, First Arcanist Thalyssra for the Nightborne Elves/Shal’dorei, Mayla Highmountain for the Highmountain Tauren Tribes, Overlord Geya’rah for the Mag’har Orcs, and Princess Talanji for the Zandalari. The choice of the leaders is taken from the information on the Allied Races from Wowpedia.

Speaking of Wowpedia, it is my primal source, besides personal experience, when it comes to writing the lists. I used to rely on WoWWiki, but, uh… that one turned a bit messy a couple of years ago and I never get around to check on it now. When I don’t know something, I look it up on Wowpedia. If it’s not on Wowpedia, I consider it a Free Real Estate lore wildcard, which means I can bullshit it out as long as it is lore/character consistent. I pride myself on giving the characters (leaders) some actual character, because, now correct me if I am wrong, Blizzard writers confuse character personality for that wind flapping pole. I am not saying that I am writing “good” or “pure” characters. They have faults, they are prejudiced, foolhardy, depressed (in not romantic ways), mean, holding grudges. Some, like Garrosh, Genn or Gallywix, are more straightforward in their flaws than others, but I am pouring a cup of sour traits to everyone here. (What I am saying here is: Be critical when you read your favorite leader’s opinion. They might not be right and/or honest.)

Overview, as of today, Monday 19th November 2018:

Published 174 lists, 24 more in the queue + bunch of requests hanging in the asks among the posts. (Somebody needs to do their maintenance)

Published 25 Interviews, 9 more in the queue + some in the asks too, I think I saw one request or two.

Published 21 Top N lists (most favoured number for N is 10), 0 in the queue.

1009 followers, woooo! I love you all. Except the 1009th one who is a porn bot, you can go fuck yourself. ‘Xcuse me. 1008 followers now!

The blog is 3 years and 2 days old. Happy birthday!

Authormi’s pick of lists to read (besides the one linked):

What they say far too often: Vintage one, so you see what the old style was like.

What do the think of the heroes: Meta one!

Their pick for a movie night: There were no guesses on what movie is a Ayeroth-verse of what Earth-verse. I am proud of some of those titles.

No Orc Invasion: The first timeline speculation, which I really lvoed. If somebody was to write that AU, I’d read it actually.

If they could erase one person from existence: Another timeline speculation. I like making those!

Draw the squad: Maybe you could draw the squad?

Watching Les Misérables: This one was an especially important journey for me, because this list is why I saw the musical in the first place. Later I read the book too (I love the book), got into some Les Mis RP, made some very good friends out of that… Yeah, I owe this one lovable anon who requested it a lot. (More or less, now I am also a professional Valjean RPer, except I don’t get paid for it. Whenever somebody who knows me joins a new RP server and they haven’t got Valjean, they usually ask me. Like… what? How? Why? Why do you all think I am a good Valjean? Why- Never mind, this is a Warcraft blog. Moving on.)

Spell of the Violent Tongue: The first time it has been brought to my attention that I think about the characters in a way a lot fo other people doesn’t, because this list surprised a lot of readers, and by surprised I mean hit into feels so hard they complained to me. I talked about it with my mum later (family support is an important thing for me and mum is fan of Warcraft), and I’ve been told that “I treat the characters maybe a bit too realistically.” PSA for everybody: Warcraft is a story about broken people and violent racism.

Their God Tier: For the people who are fan of Homestuck too. (Homestuck itself is good. The fandom is weird)

Garrosh’s 37 ghost children: By which they became more or less canon on this blog, a regular stuff which is to be counted with.

How do they insult people: The most recent popular post.

Interview with Azshara: My personally favorite thing I have ever written for this blog, as in, I don’t think I am going to peak it.

Interview with Luxien: Because I want to press Taedal’s story and “expansion” to everybody, read the interview with his older evil sister.

Top 10 favorite characters: I suppose you are a bit curious who my faves are, so here you go.

Top 10 changes to the story I would do: By heart I am a storywriter. I give such things a lot of thoughts. But as I’ve mentioned earlier, lack of dedication is… making things hard.

Other cool stuff to check out (maybe?):

Taedal’s expansion wiki, of course. I have a lot of thoughts about that world and story and… I would love to went about it a bit, too.

This very cool fanfic on AO3.

The official portrait of Taedal.

The official portrait of Authormi.

The description of this blog, as taken from my personal blog:

wowheadquarters (WoW HeadQuarters, World of Warcraft Headquarters, WoWHQ) is by far my most popular blog, despite being younger than SNTS. I add new content twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday. I never thought I’d make more than 10 posts in total, but there we go. I admit that the original idea comes from bleachlists, but it has sort of evolved since then. I am trying to keep the blog not contradicting the canon, but some things in the HeadQuartersverse might not always agree with the official lore

Final words from Authormi:

Oh my fucking god, this is really unbelieveable that this thing is still going on. I never expected this blog to live beyond a month. I never thought I’d get more than 20 followers. I have 1000 now? That’s… is that Tumblr-famous? I’ve never had this many followers. Do you all read this? All the stuff? Am I shaping your view on the Warcraft universe? This is too much power for one person to have.

You want to know what’s actually my happiest memory connected to this blog? It was actually some time back (because my memory is a mess, I can’t tell you how far back), I had a really, really stuffed couple of weeks. A lot of to do, but also mentally exhausted, I was in a bad place for a bit there. Usually I am able to kick myself in the ass, sit down and make up the list on the go, even if it is bound to be miserable wreck of text, I write it. Sometimes when I am super done and tired, I write it on Saturday evening and pretend it’s Friday and so far everyone’s been so kind and there’s been no comment to that. But in those two or three weeks I just… couldn’t. Even clinging to this self-made structure was too exhausting. I wasn’t on Tumblr for basically the whole time (my main blog was fuelled by the queue). Sometimes when I am in a good place, I write lists in advance and schedule them, but at that time no such a thing took place, so this blog went silent without announcement and I couldn’t care less. When I finally found it in me to come online, my inbox greeted me with various people who were asking me if I was okay and whether or not I am still alive written in a very worried manner. And you know… reading that helped me a lot at the moment. It was a reminder that somebody here cares for me and cares for what I do and… Yeah, it was a damn motivation to get myself together a bit and write stuff and do some stuff. Since then I’m trying to announce in advance if I think I am not going to make it, and even then I am still trying to write the list as soon as possible when I am fit to.

A story for your amusement on this “write it when possible” note. This summer I was with my 4 younger siblings (my oldest sister, still younger than I, turned 18 last Thursday, the youngest sibling who also happens to be a sister is 4, but I don’t live with all the siblings, blah blah divorced parents blah blah, not related) and dad and grandfather in the beautiful village (or town?) of Au in Austria. I took my old laptop with me (I’ve got a new one recently) which had battery that could live on it’s own for, like 10 minutes. The house we were living in had no wi-fi, but there was a village-wide public wi-fi… which din’t reach the house. The nearest was at the bus stop, but that one was shaky, and the good reliable hotspot was at the park, 10 minutes of walk away from the house. Now, it was nearly Friday and I needed to post the list. So I wrote it int he laptop’s notepad, then turned off its life support, took it and dashed across all of Au to the wi-fi hotspot, formatted the document into a list, and hit post. About 2 minutes later, the laptop died.

I am thinking about making another blog directly meant for the asks, request or not, and those would stay there. What do you all think? Maybe I would lose things there, I am quite capable of it.

I’d love to talk about Taedal and his demons and his entire story a bit more. But I haven’t got, like, a reason to do so. I am sort of insecure in this matter, I sort of have the feeling that nobody really cares for Taedal here. “What are you thinking, a ‘good demon’ OC?” (Ask me about Taedal and his faction and the Broken and Distant Worlds expansion. I have an expansion and half planned in my head.)

There is some kind of an expectation or anticipation in me to have someone from Blizz discovering this blog and some big consequences happening. I am not sure whether I want it to happen or not. I mean, I am a bit… too-critical of their work in attempt to please the crowd here. (It’s easy to search for flaws when you take the good stuff as the norm. You are actually doing a good job, Blizzard, in the terms of game developing and marketing. But there is that one post going around which says that Warcraft lore/story is written by 9 people who cannot talk to each other. In this spirit, I am sure that there are 4 people writing charcter psychological profiles who don’t know of each other’s existence. Your animation is a snack, though.)

Wow. I suck at summaries. This is as brief as it gets.

#long post #even by my standards

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