#i see a creative fantasy setting with lots of lore and i want to tell a story in it

[silencingspellsongs]

would it be crazy to say that i think playing a ttrpg type game based in the redactedverse would be like so much fun actually 🫣

don't ask me what system or how to adapt it to work because i don't have the technical brain for that, i just know that the worldbuilding and the magic system and everything is so interesting and well thought out and the idea of making and roleplaying ocs in this universe with other fans seems like it would be sooo much fun can you tell i'm having withdrawals from my dnd group not playing for months and so i'm projecting it onto my other interests 🫠

[homestuckreplay]

acrobatically fucking pirouetting off the handle so hard i turn into my best friend

(page 607-614)

9/7/2009 Wheel Spin: Sburb Lore Verdict: i fucking wish :(

9/8/2009 Wheel Spin: Character Switch Verdict: HELL YEAH JOHN’S BACK !!!! :D

A couple of shorter updates compared to the bumper 13 pages on September 6, but it’s all relative, and would be silly to complain about.

The narration on p.607 tells Dave, ‘It is time to face your destiny.’ In the short term, this obviously refers to the trap that Dave’s bro has set up for him, but it also gets me thinking about whether destiny more broadly will play a role in this story, and if so, what Dave’s might be. On p.293, GG – who appears to have knowledge their friends don’t share – theorizes that saving the world is John’s destiny. Nannasprite in her exposition refers to John’s ‘purpose’ (p.427) but it’s left very unclear whether this is a fantasy-novel style Prophesized Destiny, or just a result of John choosing to play Sburb.

I think this might be intentionally vague in the story right now, either to allow for readers to theorize, or because Hussie hasn’t yet decided the exact nature of the story. However, when destiny is a theme in fantasy, a chosen one's destiny is usually to defeat a great evil. I think it'd be neat if Dave's destiny was actually to defeat Bro once and for all - probably the most evil character we've seen yet, and certainly the one who's most affected Dave's life - which would make this line on p.607 end up looking really prophetic and bringing things full circle.

I am wondering just how many Smuppets Bro owns, and what the turnover rate is like. There’s at least 20 in the puppet pile Dave’s stuck in, and a lot of them get sliced in half. Bro needs these for work and has a large collection to draw on at any time, but they’re regularly getting destroyed, so logistically I am imagining a large crate of a couple hundred Smuppets showing up at the apartment each week, which is a horrendous thought. No wonder they are in Dave’s dreams. The ‘puppets per square meter’ and ‘new puppets per day’ are probably much higher numbers than the equivalent for harlequins or wizards in John and Rose’s houses. If these decorative choices represent sources of alienation and anxiety for the kids this could suggest that Dave’s mental state is even worse than that of his friends.

Also I think that if Bro really wants to be Jigsaw so bad he needs to put some variety into his traps. Puppets every time is nowhere near as creative as the saw traps in the movie.

Page 611 repeats a Dave-Rose Pesterlog from p.522. I like when this happens – it clarifies where we are in the timeline, as well as giving the characters equal importance while showing both perspectives. Earlier when Dave referred to himself as ‘enrobed in chafing, wriggling god fucking damned puppet pelvis’ I did think he was exaggerating for effect, and was just describing the puppet-strewn living room with an overactive imagination. Reading this for a second time knowing that Dave is being extremely literal is very different – it feels like someone begging to be taken seriously and failing, instead of someone committing to the mutually constituted bit.

Dave’s bro referencing Sweet Bro & Hella Jeff – ‘where doing it man where MAKING THIS HAPEN’ – on a sinister note pinned to the crawlspace hatch with a weapon feels really insidious. Taking this piece of art that Dave made and is proud of, and turning it into something threatening, is upsetting to me. What does Dave get to have for himself? Is there an aspect of his life that his bro doesn’t twist into something evil? Does Bro know about Dave’s friends, and if so, does he work them into his schemes too? And yet it’s effective despite all this – it does provoke Dave into action, jumping up and escaping the puppet prison, leaving Dave’s story on the cliffhanger of what exactly Bro wants to ‘make hapen’ as we smashcut to John.

I am very excited to see what John and Rose get up to and I hope it is not famous last words to say that it will surely be less disturbing than what is happening with Dave. At the very least, I feel lighter and freer knowing that I don’t have to think about Dave’s bro for a few days.

[ordinorultor-if]

So I decided a while ago to do some facts about me when the demo dropped. Even though the demo’s been pushed back to Friday, I wanted to share some stuff about myself anyways!

So! You guys can call me JB, and today is my 21st birthday (shoutout to that one anon whose birthday is also today). I’m a cis man, and while I’m questioning my sexuality, I’m fairly certain I’m bisexual. I’m a practicing Roman Catholic, but I’m not an asshole about it - be who you wanna be, love who you wanna love, and believe in what you believe in, as long as you’re not an asshole I’m cool with you.

I was born in Chicago and lived there for a while, but me and my mom moved to Wisconsin shortly after my father passed away. Up here we basically live on a farm. We have a garden and lots of animals - two dogs and a whole flock of chickens, and we used to have horses and ducks too. I also used to have a bearded dragon (named George, because of St. George and the Dragon), but I took terrible care of the poor guy and he got sick and passed away.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a scientist really bad. To some extent I still do, but I’ve always loved story telling, so a few years ago I realized I wanted to be a creative writer instead. While I’m currently on break from university, while I was attending I had an English Major with a Creative Writing Focus. I never declared a minor, and I was intending on a Chemistry Minor, but I might decide on an Engineering Minor when I return.

Besides reading/playing IFs, I’m into video games, TTRPGs (which is actually how I got into Interactive Fiction), firearms, history, religion and mythology, and general culture stuff. Seeing some of that, I think you could see how I ended up with the ideas for this game lol. Some of my favorite games include Crusader Kings 3 (which is how I came up with the idea for this game, playing a custom character in the Duchy of Aquitaine), Hearts of Iron IV, Skyrim, Fallout 4 (I haven’t seen the show yet, please don’t spoil it ~_~), and Cyberpunk 2077.

As mentioned above, I got into Interactive Fiction because of my love of TTRPGs. I think I’ve mentioned this story before, but I’m into Vampire: the Masquerade, and shortly after V:tM - Night Road released, I bought and played it. Around this time last year I looked into Choice of Games because of it, and the rest is history.

Also, since I couldn’t fit it in anywhere else, some genres and writing/trope stuff I like:

Childhood friends to lovers (all time favorite romance trope)

Peggy Sue fix-it fics (after all, I’m writing one over on AO3 lmao)

The former friends reconciling while facing impossible odds

Blending genres, like with sci-fan or gothic western

Related to the above: when fantasy settings have sci-fi lore/origins, and vice versa (FE3H my beloved)

Tarot motifs (again, FE3H my beloved)

Eldritch/cosmic horror

Gothic settings

Dragons that are really weird (FEA my beloved. And again, FE3H my beloved)

Anyways, that’s really all I can think of. Also, a reminder: Warlock is the best class in D&D 5E /s

[shuttershocky]

Finished the FF16 demo and while I had a decent time with the combat (don't believe the internet though this is hardly DMC level of combat don't expect that sort of depth) I found—to my horror—that I did not care about anything that was going on in the game.

Nothing about its setting felt remotely interesting, none of the characters are any fun to watch, I cannot tell you a single personality trait of any of the cast members. FF15 ran circles around 16 personality wise in its first 5 minutes where you just push a car with the bros than 16 did in 3 hours of its demo. Every character can be boiled down to "some guy with a thick british accent".

It takes itself so seriously, and not in the charmingly hammy way Final Fantasy takes itself so seriously. There's blood and gore and heaps of Clive saying "Fuck!" and two pairs of characters that almost fuck so you know it's all adult and this ain't your mama's Final Fantasy back when they would censor Barrett by having him say "sh't", but shit dude you gotta give me a reason to care first and playing through all that while also reading every lore entry in their big codex that you can check anytime during cutscenes* never gave me a reason to care.

I don't like any of this. I'm pretty damn easy to please (I mean, I'm a fan of FF15, you don't have to be a very good or even finished game to please me) but this was some PGR vibes the way I was satisfied with the combat but was completely uninterested with the world and story no matter how much I tried to pay attention.

It's obviously very competently made. The accessibility options are especially impressive: you can customize SO much from getting a slowdown dodge prompt to actively dodge attacks yourself even with bad timing to just autododging and autocomboing if you really can't do real time combat, to having visual indicators for sounds from behind the camera if you are hard of hearing, to having a dedicated button telling you where to go in case you forget, there's a lot of good stuff in here. It makes my apathy with the game all the more frustrating.

I'm pretty disappointed. I really wanted to see a singleplayer story made by the FF14 Shadowbringers creative team, since I keep hearing it's peak FF but can't play it for myself, but this did not excite me even a little.

I suddenly appreciate FF7R more now. I got to hand it to the weird Destiny ghosts I was too busy getting mad at them to ever actually get bored.

* actually kind of a rad idea btw. Getting to press a button and get an explanation in case you don't remember who this guy in the current cutscene is is a really good feature for working adults that can't really play through a game straight and remember every detail.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

glorious masquerade: final thoughts

I’ve received several asks requesting that I share my opinions on certain aspects of the event, so I’ve compiled and condensed all my major thoughts into one post! ^^

***Spoilers below the cut!!***

I think the setting of Fantasy Paris the City of Flowers is a really interesting one that provides a ton of unique locations and cool lore! From their stalls to Noble Bell Academy campus and its bell tower, to the local specialties and legends, and its jolly people… It’s such a charming place!

It was fun to see the dynamics of each group and learn miscellaneous facts about them through their banter. This is something that TWST has pretty much always excelled at doing, so I can’t say I’m surprised.

The touring the city highlights for me mainly revolve around Sebek being fucking ridiculous 😂 Insisting he isn’t hungry, trying to impress Malleus by answering a history question correctly, chasing the goat around, the coffee mix-up, trying to sit in Azul’s lap, constantly sobbing and shouting like a kid despite trying to be an adult… chsvsidnksne god, it’s so funny OTL

I wasn’t expecting more lore about Trein and his wife, but it was a really welcome surprise. You can tell just how much Trein cherishes the dates and the other memories he had with his beloved in the City of Flowers… ashbldbiyasdbiald AND THE NRC BOYS KIND OF TEASE HIM AND ASK HIM ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP 

Something else I really liked but wasn’t expecting was actual adult involvement in the story, even if it is pretty minimal. (It’s still a lot more than Crowley intervening.) Like, Trein actively tries to guide his students and he cries when he thinks they’re acting unbecoming. He genuinely cares for them and wants them to become upstanding gentlemen.

I was 100% anticipating RSA cameos ever since the event was pitched to us as a gathering of students from various magic schools. It was a treat to see Chenya and Neige show up and actually do something meaningful; their sacrifices really highlight the difference in values between RSA and NRC–and it shows just how much they cherish their friends, something the NRC boys have yet to fully embrace themselves.

I adored the plot twist of Rollo’s true motives and the contrast between the facade he puts up and how maniacal he is behind that cold mask. Rollo in general is just a really fascinating character to me.

NOT TREIN HAVING HIP PROBLEMS, NOT LILIA HAVING HIP PROBLEMS SDHABSIDASLIDASBIDAS

I’m not super bothered by Yuu not being involved in the main conflict; they did their part by helping the townspeople. Even if they are magicless (and thus unaffected by the crimson flowers), it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’d be helpful in combat or anything (being magicless does not ward the flowers off, it just means they don’t attack a person/they can touch a person without bringing them harm); Yuu would just be another body to protect as they ascend the bell tower.

The cutaway gag to Jack and Ace on NRC campus wondering what the symposium attendees are up to was AMAZINGLY TIMED. Ace saying he wished he was with them right now before the game goes back to Deuce having a not-so-fun time with the crimson flowers… That’s peak comedy right there.

I mentioned this before already, but this event showcases how resourceful the NRC boys can be, specifically in the use of their unique magic. They’re limited in what magic they can use to begin with since the crimson flowers suck it from them and become stronger as a result, so they’re forced into corners where they need to come up with creative solutions. For example, Epel uses the coffin conjured by Sleep Kiss to protect Riddle from making contact with the flowers. Ruggie and Jamil use their respective unique magic to get NBC mob students to do the fighting for them. Azul uses It’s a Deal to borrow Deuce’s Bet the Limit/Double Down in preparation for the battle he anticipates with Rollo at the top of the bell tower. It’s so masterfully done!

I also enjoyed seeing Sebek and Silver fight together. Despite how often they are at odds with each other with their personalities and general demeanors, they are perfectly coordinated in combat and their grueling childhood training comes in clutch here.

GARGOYLE-KUN 😭 I’M SO GLAD HE AND HIS FRIENDS CAME BACK

The NBC students and Gargoyle-kun are useful side characters that help paint a nuanced image of Rollo to us long before learning the truth of his dark machinations. They see him as such a good and reliable person, and cannot fathom that he would stoop so low, which makes the tragedy all the more bittersweet.

THE SSR CHARACTERS FOR THIS EVENT WERE ACTUALLY IMPORTANT. Every character gets their time in the spotlight, but I really liked that the SSRs actually played significant roles in the story (unlike in a lot of previous events, especially the ones involving an extensive cast of characters). Malleus actually leads the trio as their powerhouse, Azul strategizes, and Idia is there to emotionally shame Rollo/foreshadow the twist with his little brother. They actually earned their standing as the event SSRs, and their strong ties to the event story makes me feel more compelled to actually roll for them.

AZUL AND DEUCE’S UNIQUE MAGIC INCANTATIONS AAAAAAAAH

I’m not a fan of Malleus at all (and I’m still not; he continues to be my least favorite character by far), but he’s significantly more interesting in this event than in his other appearances. Most of this is due to the fact that he’s actually allowed to be in an active leadership position rather than sit around waiting for others to act on him or to him (as is the case for a lot of the main story).

I don’t like the moments where Malleus lashes out in anger, but I did appreciate the parts where he was a gracious and strong leader. He thanks his peers for volunteering to be decoys, he praises Sebek and Silver for their vigilance, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get to Rollo and stop him. Malleus realizes the threat that Rollo’s plot poses to his country (which is predominantly fairies, beings of magic), and he’s finally behaving like a true king to the Briar Valley, doing all in his power to save his people. This is admittedly very admirable of him (well, if I focus on the duty he has to his people rather than the petty personal grudge he has with Rollo).

I really want to see more complex aspects of Malleus’s character like this rather than the emphasis on his woe-is-me loneliness that so often occurs within the fandom and in the main story; however, this really isn’t different from what my opinion of him was prior to Glorious Masquerade. I have always known that I was dissatisfied with his general portrayal and that I wanted something more substantial to him. It’s just that the game is now finally getting around to providing the kind of Malleus content I was hoping for, but it doesn’t necessarily endear him to me or make me like him. This is just him meeting my bare minimum 😂

Malleus fanboying over meeting Gargoyle-kun though, that was 👌 Gargoyle is best boy.

ROLLO UNIQUE MAGIC????????!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?? HELLOW???!?!?!?!?!?

Man. Rollo’s actions are so atrocious and unjustified but you also end up feeling so bad for him when you learn about his full backstory 😭 This is the kind of content I live for, characters and stories that make me think deeply about what drives them and why they act in the ways that they do.

Yo, Idia laying the verbal smackdown on Rollo????? Shaming him to hell and back????? AND DARN IT, Idia’s speech made me remember episode 6 and I started crying all over again OTL

THE GARGOYLE GIVING AZUL MALLEUS AND IDIA NICKNAMES AaAhHhHHHHHH AnD OFFERING TO LISTEN TO ROLLO’S WOES 🥺

THE NBC MOB STUDENTS BEING SO SWEET AND WORRIED ABOUT ROLLO????? ADMIRING HIM SO MUCH??????? GOD THEY’RE SO PURE AND INNOCENT THEY LOOK UP TO THEIR PREZ 

Rollo’s punishment is so ironic, but I think it’s perfect for his character. Living with the weight of his sins is worse than death itself for Rollo, someone who heavily internalizes guilt.

Aaaaaah, I love that Rook is super proud of Epel and how much he has grown up… asbhldilbasdbas and how he talks about telling Vil about it when they get back?? Pomefiore family for the win…

SILVER AND SEBEK TOSSING PEOPLE INTO THE AIR TO PRAISE THEM ASDKHABSILDLABISDBIASBD THAT WAS SUPER CUTE, AND I LIKE THAT IDIA SUFFERED FOR IT

The two rhythmic sections were cute! (GRIM SPINNING LIVES ON IN MY HEART FOREVER) Malleus, Idia, and Azul providing a song with lyrics in the second one caught me off-guard but it was super enjoyable and the vibes reminded me of a grand and somber opera.

Idia suffering is my bread and butter of his appearances cbjsvsjshwksns The way he just hides behind a pillar while his classmates praise him and he complains all the way up to the performance, trying to stave it off or to avoid it entirely… Relatable.

ROLLO AND MALLEUS SHARE A DANCE TOGETHER AT THE END????? I like how this is how they “reconcile”, it’s so awkward. LIKE. Malleus asks Rollo to dance with him, Rollo tells him to fuck off find another partner, and then Malleus guilts him into accepting by saying “Oh, are you really going to refuse an invitation from an HONORED guest?” AND THEN ROLLO PASSIVE AGGRESSIVELY DEMANDING MALLEUS’S HAND??? Hey, baby steps I guess 😂 (One of my friends was screaming about how the ending felt very “enemies to lovers” to them, but I was just excited for the prospect of Rollo’s return in the future!)

It’s interesting the way Malleus talked about being fearful of Rollo almost like it was a positive experience 😂 I guess that’s a novel feeling for the oh-so-great-and-powerful Malleus Draconia so anyone willing to approach him (regardless of their reasons for doing so) excites him. And that weirdly gives him a playful “rival” dynamic with Rollo, who still pretty much hates his guts cldbskxbjsmdkzh

… As expected, Yuu learned nothing in the City of Flowers which would help them find a way home 😂 I knew Crowley was full of bullshit.

I’m surprised that I like most, if not all, of the Groovies??? Usually I find event card Groovies to be kind of unappealing (*stares at Groom Ace*); I think the last one I was SUPER crazy for was actually Groom Idia… but the Maskquerade Groovies had a ton of atmosphere, nice lighting, fluttering fabric, and the boys just looking like they’re enjoying themselves. I do find it kind of odd that the background looks so empty for a dance (you’d think there’d be more people), but I can forgive that as the artists probably wanted to avoid clutter. The SSR Groovies were especially a treat; the lighting there is so heavenly and the detailing on each individual student is astonishing.

Overall, I really loved this event! I might even call it my favorite one so far!! ✨ I definitely appreciated its more serious vibes and how dark the story got. It was balanced pretty well with the light-hearted moments and worldbuilding, and a lot of characters had their time to shine. I’m hoping that we get more events with similar vibes to Glorious Masquerade in the coming future!!

[sanctus-ingenium]

answering your asks in one big post because you sent so many of them (update: added 2 more that just got sent)

hi guys. what the fuck

in plain text so i don't have to type out a million image IDs

Anonymous asked: "I am obsessed with your metal beasts and lore!! The designs are *chef's kiss* gorgeous and inspired and if you were to ever make print versions of the kinda diagram-like side view pieces of them I'd slap that stuff all over my walls ❤️❤️"

Answer: I'd have to pretty them up a LOT to get them print ready. But I think it would be cool to do a blueprint style version kind of like old diagrams of machinery with additional embellishments

like this (source)

Anonymous asked: "have you ever posted any art of the dragons you've mentioned before? im really curious ab them"

Answer: I've posted sketches. I have trouble drawing diagrams because I am STILL torn between radial and bilateral symmetry... i know it should be radial but in my heart I prefer bilateral. So I'm thinking maybe it is radial but with a pseudo-bilateral look. It's definitely on my to-draw list

Anonymous asked: "just wanna pop in and say i love all your worldbuilding its so creative and fun, but as a dragon lover i ESPECIALLY adore your weird and funky dragons. i think its so cool when people push the boundaries on what a dragon can be (that versatility is a big part of their appeal to me in the first place) and your take is one of the most fun ive seen in a while"

Answer: as a marine biologist, I-

the dragons came after the beasts. I wanted to give them a reason for existing and 'knights fighting dragons' evokes such a great retro fantasy vibe that i loved it. The reason Pantera is a leopard (and not any other kind of big cat) is because in medieval bestiaries, leopards were said to fight dragons using their 'sweet breath'. You can see where I went with it. But dragons in these bestiaries have such variable appearances and can be virtually anything, like you said they're so versatile. For the people in this setting, the most they ever really see of dragons are the legs, tendrils, and the massive beak (which is mineralised like the pen of a squid). It's a creature really too big to comprehend, so they depict it in their diagrams as a bird-headed creature with wings and a back end made of serpents. but you can always tell in these illustrations whether the artist has actually seen a dragon in person.. because they won't draw it like this:

@our-tiny-hotel asked: "where did you get the idea/inspiration for these stories?"

Answer: for mez, i like zoids, retro fantasy, speculative biology, and stories which explore themes of religion and its role in highly gendered systems of oppression (lbr it is fantasy catholicism. that's right... this is also a story about gender)

for inver: fairies man

Anonymous asked: "is nosewyse a dog? i cant find anything about it on your blog"

Answer: You can find Nosewyse here. He's the smallest Holy Beast and by far the most pathetic

@raskies456 asked: "Re: your tags on the Taurus art, how DO the smiths manufacture such massive single plates of metal?"

Answer: I'm going to draw some diagrams to explain but basically the theocratic empire sits on a massive wealth of iron ore so there's no shortage of it. Smiths can manipulate metallic elements using the dialogue tattoos on their palms - Mercury and Mars are the titles for enginesmiths and armoursmiths respectively. Enginesmiths use mercury because it doesn't interact with incandescent dragonsblood, and it's a liquid metal which in alchemical theory is Pure and extremely close to gold (free of sin u might say). The quicksilver is used to manipulate the insides of a working engine without having to physically touch it. Armoursmiths work on iron, but here's the issue: solid metal won't budge. It needs to be softened or liquid for the dialogues to have any effect. So the armoursmith teams are blacksmiths who heat up these mass amounts of iron using dragonsblood furnaces until the iron is malleable, and then in teams of 50 or more they slowly and painstakingly stretch and shape it into the desired form. that's how they make armour plating for Holy Beasts. The use of dialogue tattoos isn't like psychic telekinesis, but more like playing an instrument where the position of each finger has to be perfectly accurate in 3D space to produce the desired effect. it's a very physical job and incredibly skilled. Taurus's barge took decades to construct and thousands of workers.

Anonymous asked: "are you ever going to publish the book are you are writing"

Answer: maybe. the idea of traditional publishing doesn't appeal to me. might just be a "buy this pdf on itch.io" sort of deal

Anonymous asked: "Hi, im new here. I hope this isn't rude, but from what i can tell the gist here is that medieval people dug up what i can only assume are the still-living skeletons of otherworldly beings or perhaps demons and went "Wouldn't it be cool if we put flamethrowers in these guys and rode them to war" and then they do that thanks to jellyfish ooze from giant violent sky jellyfish?"

Answer: I can neither confirm nor deny (yes but also nooot quite ;))

Anonymous asked: "Jowd you learn how to draw machines? Is it hard to draw all the Bits on those mechazords in the correct place when theyre like jumping and run ing and shit?"

Answer: I learned a lot from building zoids, putting them together, watching them move etc etc. At the same time, it's also sort of basic anatomy too? Your hinged elbow joint is a mechanism and if you just made the same joint in metal it would work the same way. But ALSO when i draw them, I follow the ref sheets for big parts but mostly bullshit the details because who give a shit at the end of the day if I put a screw wrong, no one's going to care

Anonymous asked: "Idk if this helps you at all but on r/zoids on the Dreaded Reddit people talk about 3d printed zoids so maybe you can get your zoids that way"

Answer: I am a member of r/zoids lol... that sounds really cool though. I've never seen a 3D printer in real life before tho. But I can't be out here getting more zoids when I have had my HMM command wolf half-constructed for literally over a year because I keep procrastinating on it

Anonymous asked: "A lot of libraries have 3d printers and some people will like. Hire theirs out so people can print stuff"

Answer: Not in Ireland they don't

Anonymous asked: "Is it illegal to make beaft ocs".

Answer: I'm not a cop and my main stance is: do what you want, I can't stop you. If you would like to design a mech animal using medieval bestiary aesthetics - go for it, it's fun. However, why does it have to play by my setting rules? Wouldn't you prefer to make something wholly belonging to yourself? You can invent a million new ways to use this sort of mech design in a story with a whole new setting, all yours. It just won't be one of mine or in my setting.

Anyway you couldn't make a beaft oc in my setting anyway because you don't even know what they are or how they work

[theimaginatrix27]

My Personal Approach to Fantasy AUs

I have received a number of comments on my Deep Space 9 Fairy Tale AU, Seven for a Secret, to the effect of "I love how you've kept everyone so in-character!"

I also recently sent a friend part of the first chapter of a prequel fic in the same setting, and they said they're not usually interested in AUs of this nature, because too often, they've seen characters written in ways that make them less recognisably themselves. But they did like my writing.

So I'm going to try and explain my process in a way that hopefully makes sense to everyone reading it. I'm absolutely not making this post to gatekeep fanfic, or to tell someone how to write their story, I'm just explaining what I do when writing a Fantasy AU within a fandom context.

For clarity, this post is about AUs where the characters were born into a high/epic/secondary world fantasy setting (I have heard all these terms before). It is not about charas being isekaied into fantasy settings for crossover purposes (that genre encompasses portal fantasy, doesn't have to involve the charas dying), though tbh I love those, too. Excellent fun. But the characters in those cases are still the canon ones, just being put in a situation. I actually plan on writing a series of DND campaign fics with the casts of my three favourite classic Trek series that are basically this premise, but that's not what I want to talk about today.

In a lot of cases, when someone has written a fantasy AU, the characters are changed so much that you could, theoretically, file off the serial numbers, switch out canon references and turn it into an original novel. This is also not strictly a bad thing—I've done it myself, and although that story never got finished, it paved the way for those that followed, so it's helpful in the creative process to recognise when you have enough material for an original spin on something.

However, for me especially, it is more fun to see and recognise the fandom characters, and then watch them navigate a story that is both unique and would not be the same without them.

Presenting Exhibit A: The Princess and the Dragon, a fanfiction for Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, written by my dear friend, @kohakuhime

This was one of the first fics of this nature that I came across in my wanderings through the blighted wastelands of FFN—Kohaku's fics were very much an oasis in the desert, so refreshing and vibrant were they, but this was her big fantasy baby, centred around a ship we both loved, and rich with lore and magic and mystery. It was also peppered with canon references, and all the characters were kept breathtakingly in-character—I won't get into spoiler territory, but let's just say I could hear the voice-actors saying so many of these lines, they were so good! My bar for this type of AU was set pretty high in large part because of this fic.

To be quite fair, Kohaku has said she could probably file off the serial numbers of TPATD, change some of the components of the magic system and release it as an original novel, as the concept itself (again, avoiding spoilers by going into details out of respect for this friend and her excellent story) is a fun twist on a particular trope. But although there are many original elements, it still feels like a Yu-Gi-Oh! fic, because of all the grounding points woven throughout, and how familiar the characters are.

This fic was not the only story I found that helped shape my approach back in 2012—there were a couple other fics in the Dragon Ball Z archive on FFN that also contributed, but they were both written a long time ago and I'm not sure they'd hold up nearly so well today. One of them was a fairy tale retelling (well, a Disney film retelling, but it was really good from my perspective as a fic newbie!), and this plus some other—shall we say, less interesting adaptations in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom inspired me to write the fic now known as Wild Swans of Domino, which I'm not linking here because I am in the process of editing it up to my current standards. Seven for a Secret is, in its way, a spiritual successor to WSoD, though I do intend to finish the latter (and the sequels I developed over the years). WSoD was my practice ground for developing the approach I wrote this post to explain, and it kinda shows in the current version, because I started out simple, and then my brain started generating lore and places for more canon references to go and the story got away from me. That—happens to me a lot.

My approach with this type of AU comes down to one major point: If I am writing a fairy tale adaptation (it's usually a fairy tale adaptation that starts this for me), or some other fantasy story in an alternate universe which these characters are, for the purposes of the fic, native to, then both they and the setting must have some familiar aspects tying them back to the source material. The characters, especially, must still feel like themselves, or you may lose readers' interest, because "Benjamin Sisko wouldn't do that!" or "Seto Kaiba wouldn't react that way in this situation! Stop making him quote the movie's dialogue, it sounds so contrived it is painful to read!"

... Ahem, moving on from bad memories of bad fics.

WSoD and Secret are both based on a fairy tale I already have an original story idea for (several, actually), so I don't need or want either of them to be unique enough to divorce them from their fandom origins. Therefore, while developing them, I have done/am doing my utmost to weave in as many threads from canon as possible within the boundaries of the setting, and have also done my best to preserve the characters' personalities. And according to those aforementioned comments, I'm doing pretty well!

To be absolutely fair, in both cases, the fandoms in question are either another form of Fantasy or as close to Fantasy as a Sci-fi setting can get (Sisko's an honest to the Prophets Chosen one, for goodness sake!). But I do believe you can do this with any character, from any setting, if you put enough thought into it.

And maybe that's part of why I don't see it around as much, because some (often younger but not always) fic authors can have a concept float into their head or sent to them by another fan, and bang out a fic in a week that hits all the points they wanted it to without too much brainstorming behind it. Whereas I, a perfectionist and possesser of an increasingly plot-tribble-infested brain, can't make a single plot decision without pondering it for several days, and fret over little logistical details until I'm purple in the face (probably. I don't have eyeballs and thence can't look in a mirror). But I still think it's doable for any character.

To do this well, you must consider what fundamentally makes this character who they are. What traits would you absolutely have to keep (aside from physical appearance in most cases) to ensure this character was familiar to the reader who clicked on the fandom tag and subsequently your fic. If you ran across Sherlock Holmes in, say, the Pokémon world, how would you know he was Sherlock Holmes? Why, he'd be solving mysteries, and doing so by analysing all sorts of details, noticing things others failed to, putting pieces together that formed a solution others wouldn't have even considered, because the majority of those puzzle pieces were overlooked! And he'd probably be skulling shuckle juice when he didn't have a mystery to solve. And obviously he'd be autistic.

Are you imagining it? I hope you are. Now imagine a character, or several, from one of your fandoms, that you love. Imagine what you love best about them, what makes them who they are, from your perspective. Now imagine a setting that's different from their source material—there are any number of AUs you could pick. Now, think carefully about how you would write them in this setting, while focusing on changing as little about them as possible.

In Secret, Ben and Julian are both princes (this is revealed in Chapter 1, I don't mind telling you). The Dax symbiont is a Fae being magically bound to Jadzia, who is a mage. Their personalities are still familiar to the reader. Miles O'Brien has barely changed at all, because he doesn't need to.

And there's the single golden rule: When writing an AU like this, only change as much or as little as you absolutely need to for your story to work. You can, of course, have fun with how you change things—just check out Innate Conditions and its companion fics by @tokidokifish for a DS9 example (Cardassians are shapeshifting dragons! How cool is that?)

I hope all this makes sense. And again, this is not an attempt to dictate how you, personally, write your stories. I do hope you at least give it a little thought, though, if you haven't already. Most importantly, have fun!

[briarborealisart]

tell me about your favorite characters (or ocs if you’d like) 👀👀👀

this post is going to be long so: oc info under the cut! i guess this is a good time to tell anyone who doesnt know me from other sites that i have a bunch of various ocs in my brain always. fun fact: originally this blog was going to be my art and oc blog! hence: briarborealisart. unfortunately the allure of fandom reblogs Got Me and now my blog is a deeply disorganized folder of Interests rather than me putting anything of my own out there LOL. maybe i should make an oc sideblog or smth but i feel like i wouldnt keep up with it </3

OK SO I HAVE A NUMBER OF OCS FROM DIFFERENT WORLDS. i'll go in order of world age (mostly---i don't remember the exact chronology) and stick to my main oca. anyone who i tag as a collaborator/co-author also has ocs that interact with mine and did a great amount of the worldbuilding and u should check them out hehehehe!!

WHOOPSVERSE

whoopsverse is a world jointly created by some friends and i (@natyune-art, @catatonickeeper and alythea). it's an epic fantasy and it is also falling apart actively lore-wise because we all became Adults With Jobs who had some creative differences regarding what we wanted for the roleplay SO its kind of a free for all rn. BUT IT IS SO DEAR TO ME. it started out as an offshoot of the google plus roleplay community World of Alengra by derbybubblefish but it quickly became its own thing. i technically have a billion and a half ocs from this world but most of them are defunct/shelved for now (read: dead)

my two most active ocs from whoopsverse are vas and kiska

vasushri jilpa nuriya, aka vas, is a mortal girl who keeps getting reincarnated with the same voidkin attached to her soul. voidkin are minor gods who are born from the void, a nebulous sea of chaos. they are goopy fellas and can latch onto mortal souls to give them innate void magic. void magic involves portaling, hammerspace, and in rare occasions, shapeshifting into a voidkin. vas has the rare shapeshifting bond.

kiska, aka the godkiller, aka tempest, is a once-mortal woman, now immortal, who is blessed by the death god with immortality and great power. in return, she is to wander the earth exterminating rogue immortals. she's like a very specialized grim reaper.

kiska frequently runs into vas in her many incarnations and adopts her.

PROJECT STARSTRUCK

@ask-projectstarstruck (mine and @doeblossom 's poor abandoned baby) is an ask blog set in a world much like our own, except that magic exists! it takes place in a fictional college and follows two (or three? 👀) students. blog spoilers to follow!! (also, the concept existed before and continues to exist outside of the ask blog, lol). MY two (most active) ocs in there are austral and boreal

austral lucis is a college student at the university of lenton springs! she's a business major and communications minor who graduated valedictorian of her high school class, and got a full ride scholarship to this ivy league college not too far from her home. she's a huge stick in the mud and very VERY type A. her story revolves around learning how to be her own person instead of doing what everyone expects/wants of her. her college roommate is callista aka elise, @doeblossom 's oc!

boreal lucis is dead. no, really! she's a ghost, and austral's twin sister. through an uncanny twist of fate, or maybe magic, when boreal was stillborn her life force attached to austral, and her ghost grew up with her. austral is the only person who can see her, and ghosts/hauntings aren't really well researched in the world of project starstruck, so... austral has defaulted to pretending she doesn't exist, so that people don't think she's crazy. boreal is a silly goofy guy, because you've got to have some way to entertain yourself when the only other person who knows you exist pretends she doesn't. boreal's story is ALSO about learning to become her own person, but this time a lot more literally.

boreal is very protective of austral, the both of them having grown up with a mother that was very demanding and dismissive of austral's emotional needs. austral would prefer not to talk about it.

SILLY SUPERHERO STORY

THIS ONE IS ALLLLL ME BABEY. i read so much of the Alernate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers tag on ao3 that i haaaaaaaad to make my own. since this is all me i have a bajillion ocs in this world.

here i'll just copy and paste over from my discord (these descriptions might not be super accurate since they were written a long time ago)

ok core cast

19 year old spiderman kinnie mc, a vigilante named leon wright. became a vigilante after his existing powers mysteriously evolved (this Doesn't Happen to other people)

15-16 year old dani wright, leon's little sister, found out leon was a vigilante and promised to snitch on him if he didn't let her join him

17-18 year old stereotypical tech/hacker/guy in the chair guy named mick simmons, technically a supervillain because he keeps committing minor cyberterrorism. his only parent was a supervillain who got arrested when he was like 14. he met leon online after hacking his animal jam account. so far he's the only one whose codename ive made and it's discord

18-20 yo main villain, kammie stoll, a deranged and unhinged cartoonishly evil young woman who leon is a MASSIVE simp for, and she is in love...with DESTRUCTION!!! NYEHEHEH

a registered dad-aged hero, brendan powell, so stressed about the fact that these kids are out here fighting, desperately trying to be a positive role model for/adopt them

a dad-aged villain, grant stoll, kammie's bio dad, they have a great relationship /gen, he is also trying to adopt all the kids because he respects their gusto and thinks they'd be great friends for his daughter

the wright parents, phoebe and cyrus; one of them knows about their kids vigilante stuff, the other is oblivious (havent decided which is which). theyre separated but friendly and have a rivalry going on about who the kids like more

the hero hq secretary, sandra flores, who has a power that "lets her type really fast" but actually its just legitimately a superspeed power and shes so cool and rad. she just lets people think she's Normal

milo pryce, mick and leon's third roommate that they picked up off of craigslist or smth because they couldnt afford an apt on their own salaries. he's pretty normal (or is he?) and just a background civilian (or IS he?) except that he's a doomsday prepper with a serious hoarding problem, but only in his room. very meticulous otherwise

and, of course, the REAL big bad evil guy: clarisse simmons, mick's supervillain mom. she's a very mysterious force for most of the story until the THIRD ACT TURN WHERE ITS REVEALED SHES BEEN THE MASTERMIND THE WHOLE TIME! or... something like that

THE WEAVER'S APPRENTICE

story MAINLY driven by @natyune-art featuring witches, betrayal, and mystery!! my character in there is named dijah

khadijah, aka khadi or dijah, is a witch. in this world, witches can see the strings of fate that surround a person and view, interpret, and/or manipulate those strings. dijah wanders the world as kind of a rogue, wandering from town to town with nothing tying her down anywhere. that is, until she arrives at a town where a string of kidnappings finally catches up to her location. a bartender she made sort-of friends with is the next to go missing, and she immediately decides to start investigating. while she's in town, she also meets auryn, a traveling performer like herself. he's extremely suspicious, but she has no real evidence that he's behind the kidnappings, especially when he agrees to help her with her investigation. drama! intrigue! romance! horror! whimsy! they have it all!!!

THE OWL HOUSE

most recently and most clearly the subject of my brainrot, @doeblossom peer pressured me to make an owl house self insert oc and BOY DID I. ITS SO FUN. in addition to being besties with toh!doe, she ALSO has interactions with @mothsha 's toh oc myrna, and @blimate 's toh oc wynter. her name is sol

solstice finch is a teen prodigy. she graduated hexside at 15 years old under the potion track, and ended up succeeded in the emperor's coven tryouts, which she had entered by accident. she quickly made her way through the coven scout ranks and at 16 is a coven official a la kikimora. she's besties with doe and hunter :) her mentor WAS lilith, but after The Season One Finale... they don't talk for a while haha. I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT HER BUT I'LL KEEP IT BRIEF: sol is THE silliest little guy. she's also basically a cat, we swear. shortly after hollow mind she defects from the coven and that's when she ends up meeting myrna and re-meeting wynter.

AND THATS IT. THATS EVERYONE THAT I CAN BE BOTHERED WITH RN. I FEEL LIKE IM MISSING SOME KEY FELLERS BUT WHAT CAN BE SAID. IM LATE FOR MOVIE NIGHT I JUST CHECKED THE TIME. GOTTA GO!

[talenlee]

How To Be: Sothe Pathofradiance (In 4e D&D)

In How To Be we’re going to look at a variety of characters from Not D&D and conceptualise how you might go about making a version of that character in the form of D&D that matters on this blog, D&D 4th Edition. Our guidelines are as follows:

This is going to be a brief rundown of ways to make a character that ‘feels’ like the source character

This isn’t meant to be comprehensive or authoritative but as a creative exercise

While not every character can work immediately out of the box, the aim is to make sure they have a character ‘feel’ as soon as possible

The character has to have the ‘feeling’ of the character by at least midway through Heroic

When building characters in 4th Edition it’s worth remembering that there are a lot of different ways to do the same basic thing. This isn’t going to be comprehensive, or even particularly fleshed out, and instead give you some places to start when you want to make something.

Another thing to remember is that 4e characters tend to be more about collected interactions of groups of things – it’s not that you get a build with specific rules about what you have to take, and when, and why, like you’re lockpicking your way through a design in the hopes of getting an overlap eventually. Character building is about packages, not programs, and we’ll talk about some packages and reference them going forwards.

Who are we looking at this month? Well, since this series was started off by Hilda from Three Houses, it seems positively rude on my part to not reach once more to the Fire Emblem well, with its wonderfully varied names and … embarrassingly limited mechanical scope.

Let’s look at a character from a Gamecube game about fighting a dragon, or a god, or the black knight, or something.

Examining Sothe

Setting aside the way he shows up in any other ‘this relates to Fire Emblem’ media like Fire Emblem Heroes, Sothe is present in two games: Fire Emblem: Pool of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. After doing extensive research into the Fire Emblem franchise, and built an extensive understanding of the game’s existing lore and general play fantasy, I have gathered information about the importance of this plot-vital character. As best I can tell, there’s no actual reason to care that much about keeping Sothe around. He’s the second thief you get in a game where you don’t need any thieves. In Path of Radiance, Sothe is there to set up his appearance in the second game, where I understand he’s much cooler. Poor guy got it rough.

Know what is cool though about Fire Emblem? It has a bunch of systemic information about the character. At a glance, I can tell that Sothe has a starting strength of 5, but a skill of 7 and a speed of 11. These are not the same stats as you’d see in D&D but you can interrogate what they’re meant to represent.

Sothe’s strength adds to his physical damage, but his skill and speed improve his critical hit rate. Critical hit rates aren’t something you can do a lot with in 4e D&D, but that’s still a sign that this character might not be the most powerful, aggressive fighter, not someone who can deadlift things, but thanks to his ability to hit things at the right time and the right place, he can do a lot of damage. Sothe doesn’t have any meaningful magical ability, and it doesn’t improve that well.

Also, in terms of what he does badly, he doesn’t have good defense or resistance, and those things don’t improve much either. In Radiant Dawn, he gets to be more or less the same thing, but moreso, with a special skill for dealing more damage to shapeshifting monsters. All of this mechanically indicates pretty much what you’d expect at the idea of a ‘sly thief’.

Alright, then, Sothe is a thief, mobile, able to engage in fights but not an individual who can pick up a horse and throw it. Light armour seems obvious, since that would be good for mobility, and he uses knives. All this stuff is covered pretty conveniently in most of our optional builds, so there’s no concern there.

Sothe’s beast-stalking seems… kind of hard to do anything with. That can be covered in D&D with silvered weapons, which are low priority in my opinion.

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

Light armour, some strength (if you can spare it), good dexterity (so picking a class and heritage that amplify those options), and skills that let you sneak around and steal things.

I mean I’m not going to lie to you, I started thinking ‘this guy is just a thief, right?’ and I’m not wrong. An added challenge for Sothe, though, is the question of how do you add variety to a build for a character who at his heart is a game piece designed to slot into the spot of ‘a thief’?

Idea 1: The Rogue

Well duh.

Idea 2: The Ranger

If you like the idea of being a sneaky damage dealer like Sothe, but for some reason, you dont’ want to be ‘a thief’ – I mean why, how, what is it about Sothe that pulls your attention here, I do not get it – another good option is the Ranger. Rangers can be built with a lot of dexterity, and with attacks that use Dexterity to attack people. The best Ranger attack, Twin Strike, is a good example too, where you can (say) throw a pair of daggers at someone’s face with your knives. The skillset mostly lines up too and you can use themes to pick up more skills that fit your vision of this thiefy character. Amn is a good one – it gives you Streetwise and Thievery, which

I mean

Sothe is a Thief. You probably want Thievery, right?

Idea 3: The Warlord

Alright, now I know I’m pushing towards the edges, but bear with me here.

Sothe does not ‘heal’ people in Forced Femblem. Healing in that game is a very specific mechanic that works a particular way. But there is a build of the Warlord that cares about making opportunities and not making its own attacks.

The idea is a ‘Lazy Warlord.’ Fire Emblem is a game where units sometimes spend turn after turn not attacking and just waiting for things to engage you. You can, in fact, just idle on a map but be there, necessarily, because of some plot reason or another. I’ve watched enough Firey Wirey Emblemy Wemblemy to know that the core of the game is very much often about parking plot-relevant characters where they can’t be accidentally critted to death by randoms and turning the map into a kill box.

For that, I would suggest, a lazy warlord. Sothe is there, but Sothe isn’t there to fight. Sothe is there to enable your fighting, and to take advantage of opportunities.

In just heroic, you can do this with the following powers as you level up:

Commander’s Strike (At Will)

Direct the Strike (At Will)

Overwhelming Force Trap (Encounter)

Powerful Warning (Encounter)

Friendly Fire (Encounter)

Destructive Surprise

Scent of Victory

With this power layout, you literally don’t need to be able to attack on your own at all. You can even take Fey Beast Tamer as your theme, and have a pet that can do your opportunity attacks or granted attacks. This is a build that doesn’t need any magical weapons at all, and that’s pretty wild!

Junk Drawer

Within the limits of a martial, non-magical character type that is lightly armoured, Sothe pretty much taps it out and reaches his goal immediately. Once you’re willing to expand a little bit, the Avenger becomes immediately obvious as an option for a weapon-wielding character that isn’t high strength, and cares about light armour and mobility. If you’re willing to allow some arcane magic into your Sothe’s life, you could also turn to the Skald, wielding a knife and letting people heal themselves while you attack around them.

I’ve talked about it before, but some characters line up obviously in what they do and how they do it. The trick then is to look for the next thing.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[erdasmcnonsense]

I have to say, I kind of love how my current fandom obsessions are like:

- A king who's only not corrupt because he isn't competent enough to be corrupt, surrounded by court members of whom most want to see him killed or overthrown but just don't want to do it themselves, and one of whom is only obeying him because he's given him basically a free pass to murder people, plus a right-hand-man who acts like exactly the type of character who's sweet-talking the monarch while planning to betray and usurp him, but never really seems to get all the way to the usurping bit, up against a trio consisting of an elven lady, a dwarf lord, and an alien (who also likes cleaning up people's stuff and leaves passive-aggressive notes if you keep your things in a disorganized mess of containers), who keep eating magical soup all the time. But also it's in minecraft and it's all in good fun and at the same time people are just building absolutely epic things and coming up with amazing creative minigames and stuff, and there's one guy who's just coming up with funny convoluted challenges for himself to do, and another who's building what amounts to basically a whole another dungeon-crawl videogame, and so on and so forth

- A tale of growing fantasy(ish) empires and realms and the alliances and conflicts and personal shenanigans of their various leaders, including, but not limited to, the sky god who keeps insisting he is super tall and sexy and stuff and also seems to be the only god actively present in the world for some unknown reason, his ...boyfriend? husband? who keeps having weird visions and prophetic dreams and maybe dimension-hopping(?) sometimes and who worships a goddess of agriculture and escaped as a child from the destruction wreaked by an evil king or something (sorry, I'm a bir fuzzy on the lore), the possibly-toy-because-the-sky-god-on-a-whim-turned-him-into-toy (look I just love this particular headcanon as an answer to if Jimmy is toy or not) wild west sheriff who is Very Done with the god's bullshit and seems to have a bad habit of alienating/driving away/getting into fights with a lot of the other characters (on the Jimmy vs Joel thing I have to say I'm rooting for Jimmy, but mostly because Joel's behaviour hits a bit too close to home with my memories of being bullied, and I'm low-key hoping Jimmy gets to enact the sort of brutal and destructive revenge on Joel that was never an option to me in real life), the steampunk aesthetic girl who doesn't remember her past but seems to be having weird dreams and visions too, plus has a random pumpkin-head dude in a cage in her home because the pumpkin-head guy kept standing in places around her home and she got freaked out. Also in minecraft, but takes storytelling and staying in-character more seriously than the above one

and

- A set of epic tales spanning several millenia set in a world that was made flawed and marked with evil from the very moment of its creation, telling of gruesome, bloody conflicts full of grief and betrayal set into motion by unbreakable oath, of loss and fall of so many great kingdoms, of struggle against terribly strong dark lords and evil that raises its head again and again every few hundred years no matter what is done to weed it out, a world so full of heartwrenching tragedies... and yet still having room for stories of hope and resilience, stories of good prevailing and beauty rising from the ashes, of good things hapoening against all odds and grace and mercy shown by... fate? god? the world itself? to characters to save them when their own strength can bring them no further. Not in minecraft.

[vegasgreys]

Mystic destinies serendipity of aeons tatsuya walkthrough

#MYSTIC DESTINIES SERENDIPITY OF AEONS TATSUYA WALKTHROUGH FULL#

#MYSTIC DESTINIES SERENDIPITY OF AEONS TATSUYA WALKTHROUGH CRACK#

Through some minor hijinks, the broody captain of the knights, Anton, decides to come along for the ride and keep the princess safe. She concocts a plan to leave the castle and hop onto the nearest ship to her shock, her personal knight and childhood friend actually agrees and insists on coming with her to keep her safe. Since he won’t listen to any reason, she decides she’s got to run away and go on a mini adventure. She wants to travel the world and see the sights but Pops won’t let her set foot outside the kingdom. Our protagonist is princess Ciel – somewhat, as her dad’s more like a governor – who’s suffering from good, old-fashioned Rebellious Princess Syndrome. It certainly delivers the funny but left me underwhelmed everywhere else. It promised to be a heartwarming, straightforward story, loaded with comedy and gratuitous puns.

#MYSTIC DESTINIES SERENDIPITY OF AEONS TATSUYA WALKTHROUGH CRACK#

It’s got the fingerprints of someone’s first crack at a visual novel, meaning the worst should hopefully be over. This is the approach I took with today’s game, Magical Otoge Ciel. In short, I don’t speak from a place of being better I speak from the experience of similar mistakes. So, I’ve always tried to approach every game I play with a critical eye, not for the sake of finding problems but for the sake of helping my fellow amateur content creators. No, the tricky part comes from something that’s about so-so, and it was clear the author was trying.īut, at the end of the day, I feel very strongly that the worst thing you can do to an artist is stay silent when they need to work on a skill. When that happens, it’s fun venting exorcise to rip in and tear it a new one. If you decide to donate any extra, it will go directly to making that dream a reality.Any reviewer will tell you that it isn’t hard to write a review of bad material. We're hoping to kick off a successful business in order to make visual novels of all genres and worked without pay the entire route to achieve that dream. Star Maiden Games is a small start-up indie visual novel team consisting of three women at it's creative core in 2015. So if you're ready to embark on a beautiful journey of self-acceptance, love and magic then press that purchase button and play until you cry." "Playing Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons will give you warm fuzzy feelings but it will also make you feel some angst as not everything is sunshine and roses. I recommend this game highly to all the otome lovers out there." I can't wait to read the other guys' routes. "All in all, it was a very great reading experience and I have to say that I have shed some tears towards the end. I think a lot of people will enjoy the characters, the art, and the music! I'm excitedly looking forward to the next route!" It's not without a few problems, but overall it's a well polished game and a great first release for Star Maiden Games.

Over six hours of content, with additional content on the way!.

Enjoy atmospheric high quality music, hand-picked for every scene.

Learn about a world with deep lore and it's own unique universe.

Read a completely different story with each route!.

Two "bad endings" mean your choices have more of an impact!.

#MYSTIC DESTINIES SERENDIPITY OF AEONS TATSUYA WALKTHROUGH FULL#

Three full length canon endings per character - depending on your choices.Experience a different kind of love story with a balance between dark and light themes, and a strong emphasis on fantasy and action.Forced to take sides even as she tries to control her unstable powers and emotions, Tsubasa is pulled into large scale business negotiations and the politics of the ancient Ryu clan.Ĭan you navigate a path wrought with mysteries and drama to find happiness? But she soon finds out that nothing is as it seems. That's Tsubasa's thinking when she chooses the ever-serious Tatsuya. ★ Tatsuya's Story ★ If you're in trouble, choosing a reliable partner is the most logical choice, right? Play as twenty year-old university student Tsubasa Fujimoto as she learns to balance her daily life with her new supernatural one - all while falling in love. This original English language visual novel tackles romance in an urban fantasy setting, with the aim of blending genres and deconstructing common tropes.Īfter a ritual forces immense magical powers onto you, you're thrown into a new world with new threats and challenges that you'd never dreamed of. This unlocks the second released main story route AND epilogue of Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons, focusing on the character Tatsuya Yukimura. Mystic Destinies: Serendipity of Aeons, the Kickstarter-funded original English language visual novel originally released on Steam comes to Itch.io!

[beels-burger-babe]

All is Fair in Dice and War

***Soooo, @bagelsinatoaster I love this request. However, you didn't specify which board game and as I am a huge nerd I decided to take some creative liberties and combine this with another idea I've been meaning to write which is: MC introducing the demon bros to Dungeons and Dragons. I certainly had fun with this and I hope you like it!*** Summary: Leviathan's world is flipped upside down when MC tells him there is a game that basically allows him to be the Lord of Shadows in real life!! He demands that his brothers join him as MC introduces them all to the chaotic shit show that is Dungeons & Dragons. For once, it was a peaceful day in the House of Lamentation. Lucifer was lounging in the living room with a cursed record playing softly in the background. For once, Satan had willingly joined him and was sitting by the fireplace, thumbing through a book on the human world. Belphie had been passed out on the couch when he arrived and was still laying there with an impressive puddle of drool collecting near his mouth. Even Asmodeus and Beel had joined in, with Asmodeus gently humming to himself as he painted his nails and Beelzebub happily munching on a snack as he enjoyed the sight of his family getting along. Yes. It was perfectly quiet and peaceful, and Lucifer didn't even have any traces of his regular migraine. But of course, nothing good lasts forever. Everyone jumped as the door slammed open and a wide-eyed Leviathan dragged you into the room. The two you very closely followed by Mammon loudly complaining. "Oi! You're gonna hurt them! Cut it out, Levi!" Lucifer sighed and closed his eyes, momentarily mourning the peace that he had just barely begun to enjoy, and closed his book. "Leviathan, let MC go. What are you freaking out about this time?" Lucifer regretted asking the moment the words left his mouth. Levi looked at it with the expression he only ever got when his limited edition Ruri-Chan merch arrived; his eyes were wide and glittering with excitement while his face bore a grin so large that Lucifer was surprised it didn't rip his skin. The third-born was practically vibrating as he let go of your wrist and pushed you forward. "Tell them! Tell them about the game!"

You laughed at Levi's excitement and casually rubbed your wrist. "I was just telling Leviathan about a game that we play in the human world called Dungeons and Dragons-" "You get to make a fantasy world that everyone plays in, and everyone makes characters. You can be a wizard and cast spells against a huge monster! Or a war hero fighter that has been betrayed by his brother! Or a noble knight who is looking for his lost kingdom! And the best part is that it's real!" Levi interrupted, nearly jumping in place as stars danced in his eyes. You put your hands out towards him to try and calm him a bit. "Well, not entirely real. It is played in person, but it's a role play tabletop game, meaning it mostly relies on the players' imagination. That is unless you have thousands of dollars to spend on 3D maps and figurines of your characters." Levi's eyes grew even wider, if possible, as he started shaking his hands up and down. "I CAN HAVE A FIGURINE OF A CHARACTER THAT I MADE?! GAAAAAAAAAHH!" A pillow flew across the room and hit Levi square in the face as a now awake Belphegor glared at him. "Will. You. Shut. Up?" the Avatar of Sloth hissed as a dark dangerous aura grew around him. Beel gently patted his twin's head in hopes of calming him. Leviathan pouted as he noticed no one else seemed to be getting excited about it. "C-Come on guys! This isn't even a video game! It's a thing that we can all do together and personalize it to be something that everyone will like. It'll be fun! Right MC?" You nodded as you gently tossed Belphie's pillow back over to him. "Yeah. I love D&D. I played it all the time in the human world. There's action, suspense, and even romance if you really wanted it," a couple of the brothers perked up at that. "I could put together a one-shot for you guys to try it out if you'd like? I'll help you make your characters, and we can all get together for an evening and play it sometime in a couple weeks." The room went quiet as everyone thought it over. Most of them had no interest in the game itself, but if it was organized by you... "I'm in," Beel decided with a nod. "I think it will be fun. All of us trying something new; it could be neat." Satan casually flipped a page in his book, "The creative aspect of it is definitely appealing. We'd be the masters of our own fate, and that most certainly piques my interest." Asmodeus smirked as he put the cap on his nail polish. "And you said it could be whatever we want? My, one might say that this game could help our wildest fantasies come true~" he made sure to wink at you as he giggled. Belphie, who had only just got back his pillow, scrunched up his face in disgust and launched it at Asmo. "Don't make this weird Asmo," he looked over at you and shrugged, "So long as you do all the work in putting together the character thing, sure. Why not?" Mammon looked over at you from the corner of his eye. "Ya mean to tell me, that you can make it so I'm some awesome, rich, and powerful prince?" Asmo scoffed as he pushed the pillow off his lap. "Please Mammon, even the world of make-believe has its limitations." Mammon blushed as he growled at his brother. You just chuckled and teasingly elbowed his side. "Don't listen to him, Mammon. There is a set amount of how much money you start out with depending on your class and background, but I'm sure we can find something that will make you happy." The second-born blushed even more as he grumbled quietly under his breath. Lucifer tilted his head in thought. "I suppose that if everyone else is playing, naturally I must as well," he stood and began to make his way to his office. "I look forward to seeing what you come up with MC." The next two weeks were spent planning and carefully figuring out the details of the one-shot and the characters that everyone was going to play. Levi was, of course, the first one who came to you to build his character. The two of you spent hours going through the Player's Handbook and sourcebooks to find the perfect build to recreate the Lord of Shadows. In the end, you put

together a human fighter that you gave a couple magic items to make Levi's vision really come to life. It seemed basic, but for the Lord of Shadows, it was perfect. The moment the two of you finished, Levi dove to his computer and ordered a custom-made mini that looked exactly like his character. Satan was genuinely interested in the game, especially after he learned about all the lore and rules behind the different classes and races. You had just been chilling in your room one day when the door burst open. Satan stood there with wide eyes holding a copy of Volo's Guide to Monsters. "MC, why didn't you tell me there are cat people?!" You chuckled, knowing exactly where this was going. "They're called tabaxi, but yeah, they're basically cat people. Would you like to play as one?" He scoffed and snapped the book shut. "Is that even a question? Of course, I'm playing as one." After some discussion and bouncing back and forth between classes a couple of times, Satan settled on a tabaxi druid; that way he not only looked like a cat, but he could speak to them as well. After a few days of you spending time with his brothers focusing on getting their characters ready, Mammon came to you wanting the coolest, most epic character ever. At first, it was clear that he wasn't fully invested in the process, but as he saw the customizable options and all the cool stuff that his character could have, you got his attention. You ended up designing a golden teifling rogue (you tried to tell Mammon that teifling usually wasn't yellow, but he gave you such a sad look that you couldn't say no) that was decked out with piercings and gems all over its horns and tail. He tried to act like he wasn't that excited about it, but one day during class you caught him doodling what looked like a stick figure version of the character on his sheet with a big smile on his face. Asmodeus came in shortly after Mammon finished,

insisting on having the most charming and beautiful character there was. You tapped your chin at the request. "I mean, stereotypically bards are extremely charming and...well seductive...almost too seductive. But that's only thei-" Asmo had hearts in his eyes before you could even finish. "That's what I want to be!" You sighed and made a mental note not to include any dragons in the session as you marked Asmo down to be an elven bard and helped him create his character sheet. You hadn't heard anything from Lucifer for nearly that entire first week, until one day as you were lounging in the living room, he walked in holding a stack of resource books. "Ah, MC. I've been looking for you. I wanted to inform you that I will be playing a half-elf multiclassing as a paladin and hex-blade warlock." You blinked at him as he put all the books down in front of you. "O-Oh. Would you like help putting together your character sheet?" He just grinned and began to make his way out of the room once more. "I've already done it. I must admit that this was quite a bit more interesting than I thought it would be," and with that he was gone, leaving you to try and figure out what had just happened. With only a few days left until the one-shot, you had to go find the twins and get them to make their characters. Beel apologized like crazy for you having to track him in down in order to get his character made. The poor guy was in the middle of peak Fangol season and had completely forgotten. Once the two of you sat down in the kitchen with an empty character sheet in one hand and snacks in the other, Beel gave you his full attention. He put a lot of thought in his character and wanted to make it really good since he appreciated that you were doing something that they could all do as a family. He bashfully decided to play a halfling. Not only did the little creatures share his love for food, but he thought it would be neat to try being small for once. His class was also a surprise. After carefully flipping through all of the class options, he had eventually settled on a cleric. "They're the healers, right? This way I can help the others if someone gets hurt." You gave him a huge hug then and there. Belphegore, on the other hand, was not so easy to work with. "Belphie, come on. Just flip through the book and choose something!" He groaned into his pillow and rolled onto his side to glare at you. "I told you I would play if you did all the work for me. Me flipping through a book is work. It's not happening." After an entire hour of trying to get him to cooperate, you gave up. In retaliation you made his character a goblin barbarian, just to drive in the fact of how much of a brat he was acting like.

Finally, the day came for you all to play the one-shot, and much like you expected, it was complete and utter chaos. You had tried to maintain some structure and keep everyone on track, but it was hopeless. Levi and Satan were taking the game seriously and, Diavolo bless them, were the only reason their party was making any progress. Mammon was trying to pick-pocket every non-player character that they met while Asmo distracted them by flirting. This worked great for them until Mammon got caught and would've died from the resulting injuries if it wasn't for Beel. Speaking of Beel, the poor fella was trying his best to do well in the game but kept getting confused by all the rules and different stats and modifiers. Belphegor spent most of his time, trying to explain it to his twin, but in the end, Beel accidentally ate his dice and Belphie passed out on his shoulder. And then there was Lucifer. He had been mostly quiet the entire game. Surprisingly, he let Levi and Satan take the charge in any investigations and puzzle-based interactions, but he did so with a smirk. You had a funny feeling in your stomach that he was up to something, and you were right. It was the final boss. Satan and Levi were on the edge of their seats, having worked so hard to get the party to this point. You smiled, knowing that one of the best parts of D&D was finally taking down the big bad. In this case, you had prepared a beholder for them to fight. It would be no easy task. The fight should have required them to work together in an epic battle of wits, magic and melee attacks. Only, when everyone rolled initiative, Lucifer went first. The eldest smiled as his eyes sparked menacingly. "For my bonus action, I'd like to use my hex blade's curse on it, which allows me to add my plus four proficiency bonus to all damage, and makes any rolls of nineteen or twenty critical hits. I will then use my long sword with divine smite at third level to attack him and attack him again using my extra attack," barely giving you time to process what he said, Lucifer rolled his dice twice. "And that would be a nineteen and a natural twenty, meaning they're both criticals due to the curse. That should hit, yes?" "Wha-" You could only watch as Lucifer, now with twice the amount of damage due to his critical rolls pulled out a disgusting number of dice and rolled them all. And of course, with his luck, they all rolled high. "So that's 90 points of damage plus the extra damage from the curse and the bonus from my duelist ability per attack, brings this 102 points," he smugly perched his chin on top of his hands as the table gaped at him. You gulped and looked down at the beholder's character sheet, "Y-You just took o-over half of his hit points in one round..." His grin widened at the information, "What, like it's hard?" You never got the chance to finish the game, as Satan burst into his demon form and pounced on Lucifer, the eldest laughing like a mad man, while Levi tore up his character sheet in a fit of jealous rage. Levi never asked to play with everyone again after that. ***This was just so self-indulgent and I just- I loved it. It combined two of my favourite things and I have never been happier. This was more crack than fluff, but either way, it was fun and I hope you nerds out there enjoyed it 🥰 Thanks again for the request @bagelsinatoaster!*** Taglist: @mimik248 @roseytoesy @ester-is-here

[snow-in-the-desert]

Dramione Recommendations

Ok so, 2020 has been A LOT but on a personal note one of the most surprising things to happen was me discovering Dramione fanfiction and becoming unashamedly obsessed with it. I really didn’t see that coming but I’m here now and I’m here to stay. 

I think I started reading in the Dramione fandom around mid July last year?? (In all honesty I’ve lost any true sense of time’s progression at this point so I could be well off the mark with that) And I’ve decided to compile a list of all my favourite fics I’ve read so far. Why? I really just want to gush over all the amazing writers I have found through this fandom because y’all deserve it. 

Side note: If any of the authors actually sees this post just dm so I can buy you coffee or post you writing supplies or something idk I feel like that’s the least I can do for all your amazing work x

Remain Nameless by @heyjude19-writing

Ok I have to start with RN because this fic is pretty much the sole reason I decided to create an account with A03 or a tumblr or just decided to get involved with this fandom at all. 

I headcannon this story hard. But I think even if you aren’t a fan of Dramione you should just read this because it is so unbelievably good and well written and poignant and Draco’s sarcastic personality in this is truly a thing of beauty in this - I relate to his inner monologue’s on a deep personal level. 

I could rave about this story any time, any day of the week, just ask me. In fact, maybe I’ll just start a HeyJude19 fan club to fulfill that urge.

There are so many elements that I love but for the sake of brevity, RN is a beautifully told story of Draco and Hermione finding love and healing in a post-war HP setting. Heyjude19 had the very special ability of making me want to simulatenously laugh, cry and swoon with the power of her words. Just stop what you are doing and go read it now if you havent already, ok?  

I also really enjoyed reading Bells on a Hill, Beers, Potions and Unwise Notions and A Shift in Focus, if you are looking for smaller fics, definitely give these a go. They are all funny and heartfelt stoires that will make your tippy toes wriggle with glee. 

The Rights and Wrongs Series by @lovesbitca8

The Right Thing To Do, All The Wrong Things and The Auction are the holy trinity of Dramione writing. I have christened it thus, so mote it be. And frankly I’m not interested in any other opinion than that one, thank you very much!

After reading this series I don’t think I’ll be able to look back on the orginal HP books without thinking of Hermione’s and Draco’s memories of their time at Hogwarts in these fics as anything other than strictly cannon. 

So many things to love about this series but I think one of the major highlights was Hermione and Draco’s use of occlumency. LoveBitca8 created such beautiful visuals with how occlumency works as a magical practice and seeing Draco and Hermione so devoted to eachother to the point of safeguarding their inner most feelings to protect eachother was unbelievably romantic and poetic. 

Also the smut is divine ;)

Manacled by @senlinyu​

My heart will never be the same after reading this story. Like I actually can’t think about this fic without getting a lump at the back of my throat. I have never felt so emotionally ruined after reading anything, compared to the likes of this fic. Just please, please read it. To badly quote HP, reading Manacled will make you suffer but you’re going to be happy about it.

The flashbacks are a rollercoaster in of themselves but the way Hermione inadvertently refers to them when she is still in a state of memory loss was so heartbreaking to read. My heart still aches for them both. Also its a truly satisfying to see Draco and Hermione written in a way were they are both so fiercly protective of one another. They make my insides go soft. 

I also really enjoyed Snow Fall, Now Is A Gift and All You Want by the author but to be honest anything written by Senlinyu is always thoroughly enjoyable and worth a look. 

The Erised Effect by @adaprix​

Ada is QUEEN of dramione smut but ‘The Erised Effect’ is top tier. Its equal parts funny, romantic, sentimental and oh so sexy. Ada really knows how to build and build on sexual tension and doesn’t disappoint on the final delivery. I’m a big admirer of her writing style and just veraciously read whatever she posts but ‘The Erised Effect’ is just golden. A must read. (Also Pansy’s sexual fantasy in this story is a visual I don’t think I’ll ever be able to remove from my brain so thanks for that Ada)

Also quick side note: Adaprix’ stories were the first I read when I was looking into this fandom and it was enough to get me hooked on the pairing from the get go so I have that to thank Ada for too. I remember devouring all the stories she had posted to A03 and when I was done I was like... now what am I supposed to do with my life?? And that’s basically when I began to look deeper into the fandom and thus the course of my life in 2020 changed for the better. 

Some other stories I love by her are Break for Me, All My Sins, The Big 4-0, The Fucklust Series and The Flat in Bath. 

Clean by @olivieblake​

This 6th Year AU where Draco and Hermione work together on a class assignment and end up falling in love had me feeling all kinds of ways when I read it. I almost don’t know where to start but I think one of the stand out things for me was how immersed I felt in reading it. 

Hogwarts is captured really well, you get a good sense of class atmospheres, character nuances and behind the scenes of events that happen in HBP but from a Draco and Hermione’s perspectives. It’s well executed and intricate tapestry of a fic. With an excellent plot twist ending! 

Also Hermione and Draco’s relationship in this is equal parts fluffy and smutty and it just ticks all the right boxes that you want to see for those characters ;)

Breath Mints / Battle Scars by @onyx-and-elm​

The angst in this one is just *chef’s kiss*

God I love this fic. The way Draco is portrayed is very true to his defensive and tetchy character in the original books but he is also given so much more depth. The way his diary entries are written are just so well executed. It’s a true testament to the author’s creative writing skill. And I LOVE how even though Draco is clearly in such a messed up place, he still has a basic level of self respect and dignity that he won’t tolerate being used or undervalued in his relationship with Hermione. 

Yep, I really love Draco’s characterisation in this one if you can’t tell.  But Hermione is also well written too. Her stuggles and trauma of returning to Hogwarts after war is described in a believable and grounded way. And my heart definitely ached for them both. I just wanted to wrap the pair of them in a big fuzzy blanket and tell them that everything will be alright. 

WANDS OUT! by @persephonestone​

This murder mystery / Dramione / Theo x Harry / AU crossover is everything I didn’t know I wanted until I read it. I felt like I was picked up and plonked right into an alternative dimension where all the characters of HP are just living it up in an Agatha Christie novel. 

It’s a funny and clever story that I found refreshing to read amongst all the other fanfics that are usually cemented in the HP timeline or universe. Theodore Nott in this fic is perfection he should be written like this in every fic from now on in my opinion. I couldn’t stop giggling any time he had a scene in the story.

And the ‘only one bed’ trope in this fic is 10/10. I don’t want to give spoilers but ohmygod. It hits all the right notes. 

The One With Technical Difficulties by cassielassie 

Cassielassie has an excellent three part series of Dramone called ‘The One with...” but I have to give special credit to this story in particular for one main reason. ELEVATOR TROPES. I can’t get enough of em. I think I have my early childhood viewings of NCIS to thank for my obsession with elevator tropes they just do something to me that simply cannot be explained with mere words. The palpable sexual tension of being in a broken down elevator with an ‘enemies to lovers’ pairing, a heated arguement breaks out followed by a discovery of mutual feelings and a romantic embrace...

Eugh. It gets me everytime. And this fic is no exception. I loved it for all the reasons I’ve already stated above but also for the attention to detail in Draco and Hermione’s careers makes this one particularly immersive. The dynamics between them established in this one-shot are convincingly portrayed and the chemistry between them is so undeniably hot. 

The Light is No Mystery by @masterofinfinities​

Yooo if you want to read a dramione fic that is a deep dive into Pureblood culture and Post-War recovery but is also a perfect allegory for discrimination and today’s political landscape of moral grandstanding for votes then look no further than this one. 

This story has a bit of everything. Intrigue, mystery, ptsd and recovery, enemies to lovers / secret relationship, government conspiracy and humour, to name a few. I eargerly await every update to this story and am anxious to know how it ends!

The Eagle’s Nest by HeartOfAspen 

Finally! A fic that gives me the Ravenclaw representation I crave. I think I could recommend this fic on the lore depicted of Ravenclaw house alone. ‘The Stacks’ and Rowena Ravenclaw’s own ‘come and go room’ are just such cool details that I could see being real in the HP universe. 

This fic is so cosy and makes me feel like I’m just popping back into Hogwarts for another year. You get to see all the usuals like prof. Mcgongall, Nearly headless Nick, PEEVES, Hagrid, as well as learn more about minor characters from the other school houses. The story follows Hermione going to her day to day classes and there are interesting concepts about magic and alchemy that are explored. 

Draco and Hermione’s relationship in this one is of course very fluffy and heartfelt. But it’s the attention to detail that really makes this fic outstanding and the experience of reading it feels fleshed out and true to HP universe.

A shorter fic by HeartofAspen that I recommend is one called Set in Stone, it has an adventurous, Indianna Jones vibe to it, that I am so down for. 

Teachable Moments by @purplesugarquills

In this fic Hermione is an innocent little virgin determined to learn everything about sex. And Draco Malfoy is her tutor. If that isn’t enough to get you on board then I don’t know what is. Both Heartfelt and Steamy. PurpleSugarQuills writes smut so well but it’s the progression of their growing attachment and the nervous treading of new uncharted waters of romantic relationships for both of them that just adds a whole other level of feels to the story. Also chapter 9 is like reading poetry - its so good. Eugh just give it a read if you haven’t already.

Les Pèlerins by @pacific-rimbaud

This story is high art. It’s transcendent. Reading this story feels like the emotional equivalent of standing around a hundred glowing fairy lights, sipping hot cocoa and being wrapped in the loving embrace of a s/o. I can’t speak my praises highly enough or even become passably coherent in my words when I try to articulate a review. 

From the very first paragraph I felt like I was just whisked away on a Parisian holiday and I’ve never even bloody been to Paris but damn it if this story didn’t make me feel like I was there. The writing style is just so tactile and intense it’s like I could feel the cold winter air brush against me as I read it. Eugh I just completely fell in love with the story and the writer. 

New Year’s resolution. Read everything PacificRimbaud has ever posted online. 

[the-dragongirl]

Hello tumblr. I have returned from a long period of inactivity, because I must bring the good word to the corner of the Star Wars fandom that used to be my main fannish home: there is a new era of Star Wars canon that was made just for our taste. It is called the High Republic.

WHAT IS THE HIGH REPUBLIC?

The High Republic is an giant multi-media project being carried out by the Lucasfilm story group to create a brand new era of Star Wars canon. It is set a few hundred years before the prequel era (so, a long time after the Old Republic era), in a period of peace and stability within the Republic. It currently includes several English language adult novels, a YA novel, two serialized comics, a manga, some short stories, and some short video blurbs published on facebook and youtube. A TV show for Disney+ has also been announced, but is a few years off. This project is unique in Star Wars, in that all of the different parts are being written together by one writing team, and are coordinated to tell a cohesive story. Also, what has been announced is just the beginning – they have stated that there will be three different sections of the High Republic, and everything we have had announced so far is just part one. As a note: this is an era for which there was NO pre-existing canon in Legends, so it is totally new territory.

OKAY, THAT’S NICE, BUT WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TO CHECK IT OUT?

There are SO many reasons why the High Republic is worth your time to explore. I will try to outline some of them here below the cut (without any significant spoilers).

IT IS A LOVE LETTER TO THE JEDI

This is the era for everyone who loves the Jedi and wants to understand how they got to the point they did in the prequel era. It shows Jedi at their best: saving people, working together, being completely in tune with the Force (in so many beautiful and original ways), demonstrating creativity and flexibility and being rewarded for it, actually thinking through the ethics of things like the mind trick, and DEALING with their emotions rather than repressing them. It shows us how the rigid Jedi culture was saw in the prequels was a corruption of something that was originally healthy and uplifting. Jedi in this era are allowed to be flawed, and to grow, and have a community that supports them in doing so. This is the Jedi culture so many of us created as fix it fic for the prequel era, but made canon.

IT IS AN ERA OF HOPE

There are some serious problems in the High Republic Era. Without spoilers, the era opens with a terrible humanitarian crisis, laid over the Republic equivalent of the New Deal from US history.  We see a lot of examples of people doing their best to be good to each other, and working for a more just and kind galaxy. They acknowledge that things are not perfect, but people from many different backgrounds (Jedi, politicians, farmers, pilots, business people) work together to try and make things better. I don’t know about you all, but with the darkness we see in the world today, I NEED some of that optimism in my escapist media. The High Republic provides that.

IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELINGS

The existing material so far is structured to really let you emotionally invest in the characters and their struggles. Unlike with many eras of Star Wars canon, characterization is not sacrificed for the sake of plot (though never fear, there is PLENTY of plot). That means there is huge scope for empathy. I’m not going to lie; I cried within the first three chapters of Light of the Jedi, as did several other people I know. It is POIGNANT in a way that feels truly genuine.

IT IS FUN

The writing team understands that, in the end, Star Wars is space fantasy. If your space fantasy is nothing but serious, gritty grimdark, it becomes pretentious and unbearable. So, for all that there is some heavy content in the High Republic (VERY heavy content – the Nihil should really have their own content warning), it has many moments of levity that keep it from taking itself too seriously. For example, the High Republic made Jedi bodice rippers canon. Also, characters like Geode exist (yes, that rock there is a CHARACTER). The result is something which honors the spirit of Star Wars, and keeps you engaged without being tedious or ridiculously depressing.

THE WRITING TEAM HAS DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

The main writing team consists of five people: Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott. You will note that includes two people of color, two women, and one out Queer person (in fact, one of the writers is all three of those things). This is a far cry from the white-cis-straight-man-dominated writing teams we have seen in the past. And when they bring in other people to the project, they make a point of looking for perspectives that aren’t represented on their team – for example, the manga is being co-written between Justina Ireland and Japanese writer Shima Shinya, and Ireland has stated in interviews that Shinya is taking the lead on the writing.

IT VALUES MEANINGFUL REPRESENTATION

That diverse writing team means a cast that looks WAY more like the real world than any other era of Star Wars we’ve seen, in terms of representation. There are multiple characters of color, who are both heroes and central to the story. There are at least five canonical queer characters to date (a MLM couple, an Ace character, and two NB character).  [EDIT: Thank you @legok9​ for letting me know about the NB characters]. Among binary gendered characters, there is a very even balance of men and women. The writing team has also stated that they will be incorporating more representation of disability in the works to come. And the story is so much better for it – representation is included here BECAUSE it makes for more creative, believable, and original storytelling.

IT IS ACCESSIBLE

Because of the multiple formats, and the fact that it doesn’t rely on you knowing any prior lore, the High Republic offers many avenues to engage for people with all kinds of needs. Know nothing about Star Wars canon and feel intimidated about catching up? The canon is all new in this era anyway, so you’re fine. Can’t handle flashing lights? No problem – the little bit of video content that exists is totally free from the strobing effects that caused seizure and sensory issues. Need purely audio content? You can still have a full experience of the High Republic with the gorgeously sound-scaped audiobooks. Don’t have the attention span for books or long movies? Then the comics are your friend.

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR ALL

Between the books aimed towards adults and teens (and their respective audiobooks), the kids books, the comics, the manga, the short stories, AND the eventual TV show on Disney+, there is going to be content in the High Republic that suits most audiences. And that is just what has been announced so far – there is still more to come for phases II and III. This isn’t Star Wars written towards one group or demographic – it is Star Wars for everyone.

DID I MENTION THE FANCY JEDI UNIFORMS?

Because cosplayers and fanartists? This is the era for you. We are getting Jedi in silks with elaborate gold embroidery. Jedi with jewelry other decorative elements. Even the practical field uniforms have tooled and embossed leather. If you want to draw or make Jedi that have some of that that sweet LoTR-esque high fantasy aesthetic, the High Republic has your back. (Not going to lie – I am ALREADY imagining the time travel AUs. Put Obi-Wan in fancy clothes!)

OKAY, YOU’VE SOLD ME. WHERE SHOULD I START?

I strongly recommend everyone looking to get into the High Republic (who is old enough to be on Tumblr) start with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. I alternated between the physical book and the audio book, and found it delightful in both formats. After that, you have a lot of options. You can read or listen to the audio book of the YA novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. You can check out the currently running Star Wars: The High Republic comic from Marvel, or the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic from IDW. Or you can skip straight to Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. Honestly, there is no wrong order to try out most of the High Republic.

IN CONLUSION

The High Republic is Star Wars written for people who DON’T want Star Wars to be a good ‘ol boys club for salty white dudes who don’t want to see anything but more of Luke Skywalker. It offers broad representation, and optimistic narrative, and whole bunch of awesome Jedi content. If you are someone who fell in love with Jedi in the prequel era, the High Republic will give you more of what you loved. And if you are totally new to Star Wars? The High Republic is here for you too.

So, go check it. And then go write fic for it (please, there are only, like, 14 fics on AO3, I am dying).

[smellycinnamonthundahfudge]

Sgt. Drew Wu of Grimm

(Asians Assemble Challenge PT. 1 \(^o^)/, link for PT.2)

Grimm - it's a really cool dark epic fantasy detective show with awesome lore and an awesome lovable cast. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT OF WHICH (for me at least heh :') is SGT. DREW WU <3.

i love him cause he's the snarky jaded lil shit who's kinda just above it all and just, ykno, the logical smart brain cell one that goes "seriously?" pointing out the ridiculousness of this fantastically dark world hahahah. AND IDK. HE'S JUST SUCH A SNARKY LIL SHT AND I LOVE HIM TOOOOOTTTT.

he also has his own arc, since he's one of the novice/normie human characters to the fantasy world. so there's this whole arc of him finding out the truth after all that he's mindfucked/gaslighted into thinking whether any of it was real.

so, like i said, capable seargeant detective, investigating THE TRUTH on the trail, AND I JUST LOVE HOW SMART AND INTELLIGENT AND CAPABLE HE IS PORTRAYED.

HE HAS AN ENTIRE EPISODE DEDICATED TO HIS CULTURE (AND A MONSTER FROM IT, OF WHICH THERE ARE MANY since it's my culture too, so yeah... i'd know, & now u kno y he's special to me :''')

AND MY FAMILY AND I LITERALLY LOST OUR SHIT WHEN HE SPOKE FILIPINO SO FLUENTLY TOOOOT.

it could have gone rlly wrong, but it didn't. they consulted him, the actor, reggie lee, listened to him. and as a result, they gave his character depth that i loved since the episode was SO CENTERED on what WU cared about.

it's just really heartwarming when instead of what you know could come out really clumsy and offensive and wrong,

you get something that feels close to home and makes you feel seen <3.

wu felt like another guy pining over his totga/childhood friend, except this time, we get to see an asian guy do it

instead of the usual white picket fence girl & boy next door.

it was just really unexpected and heartwarming to know how much mr. lee contributed to the episode, the fact that the showrunners really listened and treated it well & respectfully...

they cared enough to ask, consider the asian actor's perspective, and listen. and as a result, they got to explore a bit of the monsters of the dark of the philippines that aren't like anything else in the cultures/lore they've explored in the show before.

that's what sticks to me.

when you actually pay attention and care about the asians in your predominantly white media, you get to discover and open yourself up to a whole other world and culture that is unlike anything you know.

the asians get to be more than the brown side character, and become actual people that feel like someone you'd know...

this is the importance that comes from just the small act of ASKING the actor, "does this feel right to you?" or "what do YOU think?"

and WHOO HEY CHECK OUT THAT SEGUE MOM HAHAHAH

guess what the asian creatives, THE ASIAN DIRECTOR DID ON SHANG-CHI?

YEP, YA GUESSED IT, HE CONSULTED THE CREW, THE DIFFERENT PEOPLE OF DIFFERING CULTURES ON SET, ALL CONTRIBUTING THEIR OWN PERSPECTIVE.

BECAUSE NOT ALL ASIANS ARE THE SAME, SO THEY WOULD ALL HAVE THEIR OWN INDIVIDUAL UNIQUE TAKE ON THE SAME MEDIA.

Cretton says he wanted to tell a story about Asian identity that felt as lived-in and authentic as possible — part of which involved making sure Shang-Chi had Asian voices both in front of and behind the camera. (source: x)

"Remember, the Asian culture is so diverse," he says. "I grew up in Hawaii, [and] Hawaiian food is like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hawaiian, Filipino, all mixed together. That is kind of what our crew was: It's like this big mix of Asian cultures coming together and responding to the script and [saying things] like, 'Oh, that doesn't feel quite right.' All of that helped contribute to what I think is a really beautiful update to what started in the comics a few decades ago."

so... that's what i love about sgt. drew wu from grimm... :'')

the first time i heard someone speak my language in a tv show i loved :''') <333

and how what happened with his character reminds me of how far we've come with shang-chi :')

now it isn't just white showrunners asking the one asian dude what he thinks

now it's an asian director asking his several different asian creatives what they think...

also, he changed his name cause he kept getting called into casting latino roles, and ahh

i just... i spent a bit trying to track it down but i couldn't.

but there's this great meme that used a family guy scene, how filipinos have english first names and spanish last names, and so there's like a hybrid creature and peter's yelling "what the hell is that?!"

and hahahah aahhh

okokok my point is that being a filipino is a very specific type of asian that has a lot of overlap and that being an asian with an english first name and spanish last is only the tip of it,

but i just... i felt seen with what mr. lee went thru.

how, he had a spanish last name but he wasn't hispanic.

he's asian but he's not the "popular typical asian" that most ppl think when they think of asians.

ALSO, WU HAS A BURGER MADE IN HIS HONOR IN PORTLAND (i think) WHERE THE SERIES IS SET AND SHOT

AND IT IS *MY DREAAAMMM* TO BE ABLE TO EAT THAT BURGER SOMEDAY.

[venteamocha]

Thanks so much for the IF recs! I'd absolutely take a second post of recommendations for Twine games too if you're willing to share! <3

Of course!!

I... actually like twine games better than cog based ones, in some ways, just because they tend to be fancier and prettier, and I am secretly a ferret in the body of a human and I love shinies. ADHD, baby!

I only actually know of like 12 twine games, so if there are any that anyone who sees this knows of that I didn’t list, feel free to let me know about them! There’s a chance I do know about them and just didn’t put them here, but I would rather hear one I already know of on the off chance that I’ll get a new one dropped in.

That said! Another list of games I really like that is again in no particular order!

They’re all on itch.io by the way! They tend to work better if you download them but most can be run in your browser and most are also mobile friendly so you can play them on your phone! I’ll note which ones are.

Scout: An Apocalypse Story: I love dystopia stories, I dearly wish we had more IF based in this kind of setting. Set in a wasteland that is trying to pull itself together with people trying to find out if other settlements are out there while also trying to, well, stay alive. I gotta say, I played only E’s route for a long, long time, but once I tried the other ones I haven’t really gone back. I still love E, you can pry the childhood friend trope out of my cold dead hands, but wow. Oliver. Wow. That dude has serious UST. And Sabine!! I’ve been forced out of my little “play it the same way every time” rut and I’m not sorry. I very much like that you can choose the intimacy level, as someone who’s ace. Sometimes I like reading the smut, sometimes I don’t. Options! (mobile friendly!)

Bad Ritual: I got it baaaaaaaaaad~ I do though, I love Siruud. I have terrible, terrible taste in men. I mentioned Dracula in the other list, and here there’s an actual demon. This is a game with *sass* and I always love a chance to be sassy. I think part of the reason I resonate so much with this one is because of how jaded retail has made me tbh but that’s another story.  Honestly, if you like dark settings, I recommend you play this one first of all my recommendations. It’s just such a good game and there are so many choices and even the pronoun choices are pretty varied.  It’s just good! (mobile friendly!)

Wayfarer: Another for the fantasy list! I love the worldbuilding in this one, and the character creator is just amazing. There are maps, there’s a codex, seriously if you love reading lore, this is definitely a game for you. This is like if Tolkien made an IF. It’s amazing. I’ve said that a few times but it’s true. In all honesty it might count as one that’s not so romance focused, since it does focus more on plot. If I could just sit down and make an IF, I’d want it to be like this tbh. With a beautiful framework, a well organized space of information for the players to just look at and see stuff about the world, a way to develop and build their own character in a clear cut way, and the game immediately tells you what stats are effected by what choices. I really enjoy it when games try to work in character creation in creative ways, but sometimes I just want to sit down and go, “Okay, my character has red hair, blue eyes, is short, and has a crippling phobia of lizards” and this game lets me do that. Well, except for the lizard part. (Not as mobile friendly as the others but I make it work!)

Love and Friendship: It’s a regency game and I love Pride and Prejudice. What can I say? Something about the massive amount of rules of society just gets me. Propriety! This is a game that has a set gender protagonist, female, and it actually is a bit different from the norm in that it has two female love interests and one male, when most of the time it’s the other way around. So that’s something. You can even have a platonic route with a fourth love interest, who is also male. There really aren’t enough platonic routes, but I understand why that is, since a lot of IF players are looking for romance. (mobile friendly!)

Exiled From Court: Also a bit of the same vibe simply because of how constrained everyone is by rules. Nobility, after all. There are a lot of love interests, and one is the MC’s sister’s husband, which is definitely gonna be scandalous. Will I do it? Will I? Eventually. I do like how you can act like an absolute hellion, well, as far as that goes considering. You can try to be a better person but that’s less fun, lol. (mobile friendly!)

A Tale of Crowns: This is literally one of the very first twine games I ever played. Really! It’s got a lot of wonderful intrigue and the setting is very fun. There aren’t a ton of fantasy middle eastern games, and this game is definitely one reason why we should have more. There’s a great deal of customization, and the love interests’ gender will changed based on your MC’s gender and sexuality combination. I like R & D best, and no that’s not a pun. I think. (mobile friendly!)

For the Crown: This is a different game, I swear, they just both happen to have crown in the title, lol. You get to play as an assassin, which is a great deal of fun. The lore in the game is very nice too. I tend to play with they/them pronouns though, and there were a few pronoun hiccups in the game. Seems to be an issue across all of the games made by this author, but I know how much of a pain variables can be so hopefully those will get squashed soon. There’s an explicit content choice in this one as well, and if you turn it on there is an “equipment” choice, so this is definitely gonna be spicy later on! (mobile friendly, but after each chapter the browser shifts as it auto saves. you just have to tap restore game to keep playing.)

-These games aren’t exactly twine games, but I’m putting them here because they’re visual novels that fit the IF format for the most part and are also on itch.io and I love them and for this post at least I will bend my own rules! They all have gender choice MCs and are nonbinary friendly.-

Perfumare: This game is actually being made into an IF, with the visual novel as a sort of preview of what we’re gonna get there. I literally cannot wait for that to happen, this game is so good as it is, and from what we’ve been told it’s only gonna get better. This game has an excellent world, the characters are all messy in the best ways, and ugh it has hurt me quite a bit, again in the best way.  It’s another one on the dark side of things. The powers in this game are just so fun, I dearly want a game set in this world where we can choose what powers we have! Maybe that will be in the IF, but I have a feeling the answer is no. We’ve been teased that there will be a second game with a different MC who will get to romance the characters we can’t in this one, and that alone is enough to get me to jump as soon as it drops. The love interests aren’t gender variable but there are two male ones and one female. I, a known mess, recommend Laurent for lots of repression and pain. (not mobile friendly, you gotta play on desktop/laptop)

Andromeda Six: I’ve recommended this one to pretty much everyone I know, it is such an excellent game. The cast is a mashup of misfits and makes me miss my Mass Effect crews. I specifically set my pronouns to she/her just so they’d all call me Princess. What can I say, I like it. There’s lots of pain, lots of drama, lots of world building, lots of interesting lore, and there is much breaking of cuties. Much. Can’t wait till we get to the next planet. The author has gone out of their way to say that each love interest is gonna get their own arc and will definitely get their own share of attention, so no matter who you pick you’ll have plenty of time to be with them and watch them shine. (not mobile friendly, gotta play on desktop/laptop)

When the Night Comes: Not only do you get to play a badass hunter but it has multiple poly routes! Multiple! It’s rare when you get one poly in a game, this one has three! You can also choose to romance any of them individually if you so choose. It’s dark fantasy gothic, and I really really like that. (not mobile friendly, gotta play on desktop/laptop)

Errant Kingdom: Made from the same dev as WTNC, this one is set in a more fantasy middle eastern setting. Very pretty, lots of intrigue. You can choose between three set protagonists, who can have three different storylines depending on your choices, which is very nice for replayability. It’s got two poly routes this time, and it works the same as their other game in that you can romance them individually if you’d rather be monogamous. (not mobile friendly, gotta play on desktop/laptop)