#i'm so mad though because i WANT to do something for year of the dragon because i have THIS CONCEPT

[speakeasier]

testing a new pen out for fun.

[conkers-thecosy]

Been a while since I last made a fic rec list, and I recently went through all the newer bagginshield works on AO3, so I wanted to share some of my favourites! These are all amazing, please go give them a read if you haven't already! 💛 These are all completed, but if anyone is interested I might also do a list of incomplete works in progress that I'm feral about as well!

~

"Green-Handed" by lotusOkid Post-BotFA, while Thorin, Fili, and Kili are slowly recovering from their wounds, Bilbo finds himself subject to a condition that hobbits might experience at a few very particular times in their lives, under very particular circumstances, none of which apply to him. Very confused (and somewhat embarrassed) he decides to keep it a secret during this delicate time in the mountain. This goes about as well as you might expect.

~

"The Burden of Choice" by @fantasyinallforms Thorin Oakenshield is the crown prince of one of the strongest kingdoms in Middle Earth, but in the last year, the kingdom has struggled to keep its place among the ruling powers of Middle Earth. Erebor was held under vicious siege by the dragon Smaug, who terrorised the land and wiped out the nearby human settlement of Dale. The hardship forces Erebor into a difficult position, creating no other choice but for King Thror to seek alliances with other kingdoms and races through the bonds of marriage. Will Thorin see this as his duty to his kingdom or take another path entirely?

~

"No Grave Can Hold My Body Down" by @chaoticangel666 Bilbo returns to The Shire after the Battle of the Five Armies. He might be going insane though, because why does the ghost of Thorin Oakenshield keep showing up when he least expects it? Follows the events from the end of The Hobbit until the end of The Lord of the Rings.

~

"Handsome Stranger" by kriegswaffel A handsome stranger arrives at Hobbiton, both reminding and distracting Bilbo Baggins from the upcoming negotiations between a Dwarven Envoy all the way from Erebor and the official-inoffical leadership of the Shire regarding trade. As he gets more wrapped up in matters, can he find something true and lasting with someone so different - and maybe entirely different from what he expected? Or will he get his heart broken again, at long last, having hoped where there was no hope, or even only betrayal?

~

"What's In A Name" by broken_pencils A short scene that takes place post-canon, in which Bilbo and Thorin discuss the uniquely hobbit custom of family surnames. ~ "And Watch Them Grown" by @sunnyrosewritesstuff Thorin survives his battle to find Bilbo laying unconscious in the snow. Unable to carry him down, Thorin leaves him with his ring on to get help. Only he doesn’t make it very far before collapsing. Waking in the healing tents, Thorin comes to realize no one made it back up to save Bilbo! ~ "The Kitchen Thief" by @mordellestories There are pests. At first, Thorin thought one of his assistants was stealing from him. And that may have been why he was a bit harsher on them than what was deemed necessary. But one by one, the workers were replaced only for the goods to keep vanishing into thin air. It was driving him to madness. And when Thorin wasn’t at peace, everyone knew it. So, it had to be pests, right? Pixies, brownies, rats, something was pilfering his hard work and it was happening more often as time went by. ~ "The things you see in the market." by GothicMama Krelven just wants to explore the market on his day off. But instead he gets thrown for multiple loops when he sees two extremely familiar faces.

[diminuel]

Ok back to the main stories.

All i can think about is the aftermath of Croco vs luffy.

I imagine when he was younger Ace got into an argument with croc or dragon and he tried to run away thinking they didn't want him anymore. Which upset luffy but que big hug session with everyone. And they tell ace and by extension luffy that even if they get mad at each other even if they fight that they will always love them.

So just after luffy takes the win he runs up to croco and gives him a kiss on the forehead and tells him he loves him before running off with his friends.

Epilogue: croco crying cause he is so proud of his strong little shit of a good son.

To a lesser extent very funny family fights when the kids are older and hitting those grumpy tween years where they all have yelling matches that end with them storming off before coming back a second later to shout "I LOVE YOU!" Then storming off again cause they still agny. Or instead if the "I HATE YOU!" Angst trope its "I LOVE YOU BUT YOUR SO FREAKIN ANNOYING LET ME LIVE MY LIFE!" Or something like that.

Strong silly family bond for the win

Ps if Ace still joins white beard i like to imagine him calling white beard grandpa instead of dad cause he is like i have a dad but you can be grampa cause my other one super irritating and i like you better

Pps white beard quietly adopting dragon as his son cause why not

(Too many ideas cause your so talented it cause idea landslide)

(I'm glad my silly AUs are inspiring you to come up with such ideas!!)

I do love the thought that they do always make sure to tell each other they love each other and that even if they find each other annoying at the moment, it's a thing that they'll get past.

I think that it might lead to tension when Ace starts questioning himself due to Roger's bloodline to be so reviled that it caused a lot of innocent people to die in the crusade to eradicate it. And maybe it doesn't matter how many times Dragon and Crocodile tell him that he is loved, he still struggles and that might lead to an argument that drives Ace away? Like he was most likely doing some sort of self-sabotage where he believed that he must be hated and that his parents secretly hate him too and that if he pushes enough they'll get angry and that will then be the proof that he is unlovable and shouldn't have been born. (;w;)

And now I'm thinking about the Alabasta fight. I can imagine Luffy, seeing Crocodile defeated, has a moment of terror and softy calls "I love you?" And Crocodile, even tough the hit was hard enough that he's hanging on to consciousness, says it back. Because if he can't Luffy can't go on.

And then when he's on the marine vessel on the way to prison he's so proud of his damn kid even though everything is falling apart around him.

Well, his son's out there and he's going to be great.

(And *lol* at Whitebeard hearing what a shitty dad Garp was and thinking "well, if you don't want him I'll take him". Not sure Crocodile would like that, whatever the history between them is *lol*)

[dduane]

From the Writing Advice dep't: A complicated ask, a serial answer (part 1)

Every now and then I get an ask in the box that's complex enough that it has to be taken apart and answered in pieces. Also, sometimes I get queries in that are painful enough (in varying ways) that I elect not to attribute them when answering. This one is both.

I read the ask (and reread it, and rereread it, four or five or six times after it came in, and a bunch more times while I was on my back this week being sick), and gradually came to realize that for it to be properly handled I had no choice but to break it into pieces for best management.

There are three main strands to the issues this ask brings up: motivation, growth as a writer, and coping with or succeeding despite the current state of the publishing industry.

So let's dig in. Here's the first part of the ask:

I know there's no One True Path, but I'm struggling with this, and I'm sure others are too, so I'll just ask it. I want to make a career out of writing, but with shrinking attention spans and so much content to mindlessly consume, how do you keep the motivation to write? My friends get mad at me for getting discouraged when not even they read my writing. They get mad and say, "write for yourself, not for the validation!"

Welp. (sigh)

First of all, I think your friends are absolutely right. But we'll come back to that.

You have to understand that as far as the Search for Motivation goes, I'm probably Spiders DD, the outlier who seriously should not have been counted. I have been motivated to write stuff pretty much nonstop since I was eight, and did my first novel in crayon in a school notebook. (It was one of the thick notebooks. The ones with the black and white marbled covers. Most of you who come of US schools know the kind.)

So I'm really the wrong person to be asking about this, especially since it's now nearly the Year of our (Wood!) Dragon 4722, which would make me nearly, uh, six Years of the Dragon old. And being of such age, and a career midlist genre writer, I have the same source of motivation as the vast majority of my similarly-aged colleagues: the need to write or starve. (There's an Irish saying perfectly descriptive of my situation: "Too old to dig ditches and too scared to rob banks." That's my situation exactly. There's nothing left for me to do but to write.) :)

...Anyway, it's kind of amazing how that kind of motivation'll focus your intention, and help you keep it in place, once you're been working with it for a while.

At the beginning of a career, though, things can look a lot different as you start getting a handle on exactly what it is you like to write and why you like writing it. And having another job to keep you afloat while you find your way is seriously a very good idea if you can manage it.

It sounds very much to me as if you're still in the early "finding your way" stages. This is a place that a lot of writers pass through, so don't be concerned. It's rare for sudden perfect motivation-to-write to crystallize out of nothing. And never forget, the word itself is based on old Latin roots for movement, and provokes the question, "Yeah, okay, but which way?" Movement without intended direction tends to turn into a lot of unfocused flailing, which looks good on Kermit, but not so much on the rest of us.

(inserting a cut here, because honestly, this is gonna go on a bit)

So you need to sit down and start asking questions—and answering them—so you can draw some kind of map. "I want to make a career out of writing"? Fine. What kind of writing? Fiction? Nonfiction? If fiction, what kind? What do you like to read? Why? Is that something you'd like to write? Why? Why not? If there's something else you'd rather be writing—what else? And why?

The more you ask the questions and answer them—"Keep asking the next question," Ted Sturgeon never used to stop saying—and the further along your investigations get, the more likely you are (as you get close to the answers that matter) to start getting the itch to write something, something in particular. This process may take a while, and the itch may take a good while to manifest. Don't be alarmed by that. The old saying is that the fire from Heaven won't descend until you've built the altar for it. And it may take a while piling the rocks up into the right shape. Don't hurry. If this is something you intend to spend a lifetime on, make sure the foundations are sound. The time taken will be worth it.

And BTW, do you intend that kind of length of commitment? If you're not sure, that's fine. But there's no one else to ask at this point who can give you meaningful answers. This is the time to get into it. Work out what "having a career in writing" looks like for you. Then start investigating to see whether your conception has any foundation in reality as a kind of lifestyle you actually have decent odds on achieving. (Again, I'm an outlier here. I'd been writing for pleasure for a long time before I had the good fortune to befriend an actual career writer, examine his habits [and those of other writers in the LA area] at close range, and realize that this line-of-work choice was actually something that could be successfully pulled off by mere mortals.) After investigation, this is a call that only you can make.

But anyway. Once you've started experiencing the kind of motivation that comes of increased certainty about what you want to do and why, you'll find you're way less concerned about sourcing or supporting it externally. It tends to fuel itself. (As once it does descend, the fire from Heaven is tenacious stuff: more Greek than otherwise.)

But also: trying to designate outsourced exterior stimulants for motivation is a bad idea. The reason's simple: one day you'll need them and they won't be there. Conditions will have changed, or the outside-of-you sources into the hands of which you've resigned your motivational agency may not be available for one reason or another, temporarily or permanently... and then where are you? The concept's a nonstarter. If your motivation's acting up, you need to be looking inward, not outward, for ways to kickstart it. This is one of the most personal parts of the writing process. You need to own it.

(And yeah, even career writers' motivation slips sometimes: annoying career things happen, cyclic lows cut in at a bad time, you name it. Most of us work out ways to jar the motivation back into correct operation when it acts up. But for such corrections to work you must first know what it's like to generate or mine yours yourself... and you're still working on that. The methods you find to generate motivation toward doing the Work will also assist you in diagnosing it when it goes south, and putting it right again.)

Also: (sighing) Please let your friends off the hook as regards reading your material, and feedback. Your motivation to write should not be dependent on their feedback, and it's not a good idea to try to make friends feel responsible for keeping you on the creative track. Chief among reasons for this: they may not feel themselves up to the task of giving you the writing support you're apparently asking them for—possibly because they simply don't feel competent to. (This is where we could get into how I had to stop @petermorwood from rewriting his third novel for the third time due to conflicting notes from friends... but let's leave that for later.) At best you're possibly making your friends deeply uncomfortable. At worst, the pressure may damage the friendships.

Tl:dr; our friends may love us dearly, but that doesn't make them competent editors. If you're online, so are many writers' groups who'll welcome a new member who needs advice. Wait till you've got more data and clarity on your motivational issues, and then start shopping around for assistance that seems friendly and trustworthy.

And finally (for the moment), about other people's attention spans:

It'd be good if you can start training yourself away from the habit of worrying about those. For one thing, there's absolutely nothing you can do about them. You might as well worry about the 11-year sunspot cycle. The attention-span issue is just one more distraction from things you should usefully be thinking about. But also: A lot of what we hear about that situation strikes me as fearmongering (as, IIRC, it was supposed to cause the downfall of western civilization around the time I started writing for Scooby-Doo).

If you look around, you'll see that loads of people are willing to spend HUGE amounts of their attention on stuff they love. (I mean, have you been on AO3 lately? And we're just talking about free stuff, there. Lots of other people will do the same for traditionally published work, given the chance and the money.) Your job is to get on with writing, start putting what you're doing out there where people will have a chance to fall in love with it, and then deal with the consequences.

More of this next time. (And please bear with me, as I'm still not up to best operating speed after the last week's illness. I'll get to everything else you sent me, I promise.)

HTH!

[tozettastone]

Scrapped excerpt: Maddie takes a ninjutsu lesson with Uncle Hidan.

---

"Horse, dragon, tiger, hare. Most fire stuff will end with tiger, but you put the hare seal there to make it weak."

Hidan was sitting on the ground with his legs stretched out. They were both basking in the warm sun and cool breeze of Wave's coastal climate.

He looked bored. Probably e-ranked elemental techniques didn't thrill him. But Maddie wanted to learn, and Hidan did like being the centre of her attention.

"Weak?" she repeated.

"Yeah... because fire's an easy element to make, but a hard one to control."

"So like... the opposite of water?"

"Uh-huh. So weak fire techniques usually have limiters like that, so dumbass kids don't kill themselves. And because, you know, do you want to light a cooking fire, or burn it to a crisp?"

"Cooking fire," she agreed dutifully. Although, despite this, the idea of a giant maelstrom of fiery death did flicker through her brain. It might be nice to feel like she could burn someone to a crisp if they scared her.

But that was kind of a dumb fantasy. Ninja weren't dangerous because of their stupid flashy techniques, and knowing one wouldn't necessarily help her. Ninja were dangerous because they were sneaky and tricksy as fuck. If you got to the stupid flashy technique phase, something had already gone catastrophically wrong.

"Here."

He ran through the seals in about one second and then the air around his fingers caught aflame with a whumph, flaring brightly. It was indeed weak: an orange flame, tall and flickering, which lasted only a few seconds. In short, perfect for lighting a fire.

"Can you show me those seals again?"

"Horse, dragon, tiger, hare," he said, showing them.

"Wait, wait, slow down. What's horse?"

"You're not usually this slow, come on," Hidan whined. But obligingly he held 'horse' until she got it.

"I've never used a seal before! Dragon now?"

"Are your fingers busted?"

She scowled. "No. You shinobi train for this shit."

"Hey, hey! I didn't train for shit. I barely remember being a kid. You're just bad at it. Do you have any idea how fast Kakuzu can do this?"

It really checked out that someone like Hidan, who had at some point decided that suffering was the most important human experience, didn't remember much of his childhood. Maddie thought this with sudden, crystal clarity. And then she shut her mouth and kept it to herself.

"Well, he's a ninjutsu guy, I guess," Maddie mumbled. Also he'd been making his fingers do this for like eighty years or something, hadn't he? Of course he could do it so fast...

The transition from horse to dragon to tiger was easy, as they all featured similarly interlocking fingers, but the sudden switch to hare was surprisingly tricky. She'd never felt so clumsy.

"You could say that," said Hidan, in an amused tone that suggested she'd made a profound understatement. Whatever. She didn't have a reference point to know how good or bad someone was at ninjutsu. "He'd be better at teaching you this shit."

"No he wouldn't," Maddie disagreed. "He might be better at ninjutsu but that doesn't mean he can teach it. He'd get mad and fuck off." Or, you know, kill someone.

"Oi, oi, oi, is it okay for a little girl to have such a foul mouth? Besides," he added, leaning over to manually, and not very gently, change her finger position, "I'm about to get mad and fuck off."

"Hang on," she went through the signs slowly. It took her about twelve seconds.

Hidan was smiling at her, but it was the kind of smile you wore when you watched a puppy try to open a door with its face. He was such a dick.

"Is that right?"

"Sure. As long as what you want to use it on is tied down, I guess."

Moving chakra around was surprisingly — and pleasantly — easy once Maddie had the seals down, though. She barely had to do anything. She just cycled some of her chakra to her hands, which was way easier than water walking, and the seals defined the shape it took.

She produced a flicker of fire. Unlike Hidan's version, this one was only about as large as the flame from a lighter.

"Huh," said Hidan. "First try! I guess your control's pretty good..." Well, she had a lot of practice. Ami had made her learn control exercises very young, and she had been water walking every day for years now. "You're still wasting heaps of chakra. You gotta practice shit like this to get it right."

"Right," she agreed, trying again. She could feel exactly what he meant when he said she was wasting chakra: it bled off when it was trying to convert to fire. Her affinities were for water and lightning, and a lot was being burnt up in the conversion. "I don't really understand how to change it into fire."

"Me neither," Hidan said, unhelpfully. "Elemental ninjutsu is Kakuzu's thing. My technique doesn't use any of that."

Maddie blinked. "What does it use instead then?"

"Uhh... all techniques are kind of based around the physical and the spiritual elements, I guess. Mine's all yang chakra stuff, making a sympathetic link with the blood and then sharing physical wounds."

"Should you be telling me that?"

"Eh? It's not a secret. Anyone who actually got a forehead protector could figure that much out. But most people are cowards and heathens. They wouldn't want to use my ritual."

"Huh," said Maddie. Then she thought: I could, though. She could cut her own throat, in a real pinch. She felt nervous just thinking about it. But she'd had her throat slit before. She could... she could do it. If she had to, to keep herself safe from actual death or like... ongoing harassment. "I don't know, it's a cool technique. You just have to be willing to get a bit hurt."

Hidan looked at her, mouth curling into a strangely soft little smile, which was when she realised exactly what she'd said.

"I don't want to get hurt!" Maddie amended in a rush, which on reflection was was also ill-considered.

But instead of hitting a berserk button, this just made Hidan's smile turn wry. "Ah. Don't look so worried. We'll fix that one day."

Grrreat.

"Anyway, of course it's cool," Hidan said, as though this was to be taken for granted. "I developed it myself."

"Really?" she said, starting again. A steady chakra stream, even and controlled.

Horse.

"What's that meant to mean?" Hidan scowled. "Do you think I can't make my own techniques?"

Dragon.

She really hadn't. Didn't that require, um, being smart? Was Hidan smart? She didn't... think so?

She licked her lips. "Obviously you can. I just thought it was connected to the greater... Jashinism... sect?"

"Oh. Nah. I'm the only one blessed like this."

Huh, that was interesting news.

Tiger.

She could feel her chakra doing the conversion, slowly and sluggishly. Burn, burn burn. She held if for a second.

This last bit was the hardest for her fingers. Hare, and then release.

She moved her hands at last. Har—

Hidan poked her in the ribs with two fingers.

Her fingers slipped, and an enormous gout of flame flashed to life above her hands, huge and blue-edged and flickering, eating up all of the chakra she'd fed into the technique in an instant.

Hidan whooped with delight and the smell of burning hair filled Maddie's nostrils.

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

I have a bit of a dumb request, sorry if I'm bothering you/requests are closed!

So you know how in some species of animal the male will kill the children after they're born? How would Yandere Malleus, Leona and Jamil react to their pregnant + beastman darling trying to run away then in an argument the darling just goes "I won't let you hurt my baby!"

"I won't let you hurt my baby!" | Yandere Twisted Wonderland

Malleus Draconia

"I wouldn't dream of it! Please, my love, rest easy."

He'd never hurt the product of your love

and you wouldn't be escaping by any means necessary

To be honest, fae-dragons aren't something the world has in abundance

he's possessive like most dragons, so you'd think he wouldn't be open to there being anyone soaking up your attention

but dragons are also lonely and so is he

So having more people not-so willing to be around him is great

Not to mention its just further proof of his ownership over you

He's not going to hurt you or your baby

In fact, he's more willing to start the apocalypse

"I'd freeze all of Twisted Wonderland before hurting either of my loves."

Leona Kingscholar

"Well, now I just want them gone even more!"

It was a passing thought

To end your child

All he really registers in your pregnancy is that you're more complacent and cuter than usual

And when his in-the-know assistant Ruggie brings up the concern

he grumbles about it

"I hate kids."

You running from him or worse being close to success in your escape makes everything worse

He's really mad and threatens to take it out on your kid

He's just so tempted to fling the little bundle off the balcony but your face looks to painful despicable begging

But just because he'd rather not see his mate beg

He hates how the sting of jealousy pierces his heart

And how devastated you are about this little booger

Don't despair though, he can come to like the child

But it'll take time...he's not fond of kids....but this his kid

his and your kid

He'll protect him only because of you

but you need to satisfy his needs first

The kid will come later, like his love for them

"For our kid, it's not entirely hideous...he has your eyes."

Jamil Viper

"That hurts (Y/n), don't you realize it only helps my goals?"

He wants you

That's really all

A kid just reinforces that

Not to mention you’re just so much easier to sway when your sleep deprived of caring for a baby

He thrives on control and thus is quite pleased for this baby

"No, no I'm incredibly pleased."

On a deeper level, he doesn't want his kid to get caught up in servant-hood

So he's going to enjoy them in their later years

Especially because they'll be open to his...persuasion

But he will tease you about possibly harming them

if only to keep you complacent

"Don't cry. I won't hurt them as long as you obey...can you do that for me (Y/n)?"

[thecomfywriter]

You're not a bad writer. You're just an inexperienced one.

Writing is a skill that requires practise and honing. It requires dedication and repeated stimulation to grow as a writer. You aren't going to show up to your document one day with the perfect writing style that encapsulates your voice perfectly or is stylistically engaging. Oftentimes, it takes a lot of trial and error to figure out what your writing style is yours. But that isn't to say you're a bad writer. Just that you're still learning.

I'm going to give you an example of what my writing sounded like just a year ago. Draft 4 (the Blasphemous Draft, as I like to call it) was literally so atrocious, it forced me to go back to the drawing room and create the masterpiece that is now Draft 5 (the Canon Draft) of ToV. I wasn't a bad writer. It was just a bad draft that didn't represent the story I wanted to tell properly. Therefore, I thought the writing was bad, when in fact, i just needed to retry and approach it in a different, more authentic angle. Here's the excerpt from each draft of ToV to show you how I've personally grown:

Draft 1 (the OG-OG Draft):

I don't have any excerpts from it because it was wiped off my laptop lmao rip. It was iconic though.

Draft 2 (the Trauma Draft // the OG Draft):

 "You must realize what a great honour it is to learn like we do. Humans believe there are selected few with magic in their blood, able to do what Cairoyas do. Those are their supernaturals. Whereas we, Cairoyas, can learn magic as a skill, as easy as it is to learn art or music, but a lot more difficult too. You must make terrible sacrifices to learn magic, Alan. To learn, you must give me your time, time that will take out of your sleep, your lunch, your leisure activities. And much effort is required. Strength, control, endurance, and much much more is needed. You must also be able to take the pain and a whole lot of it as well. I will torture you in many lessons, the magic will show you no mercy, and you must be able to fight it, to endure it, and you mustn't give up. Magic has a way of twisting your mind boy, so listen to me clearly when I say this: if I say something, you do it. If you feel the magic telling you to do something though, use your judgement. Many magicians have gone mad with magic- the power intoxicates you, and you'd do anything for more. Be careful my boy. You must remember who you are. The last sacrifice you might make is yourself."

Draft 3 (the Campy Draft, aka the goofiest draft that I still quote to this day):

Ahh, but dear Erevena… if you bring a vampire in the sun, its skin will set afire and it will burn. Similarly, if you stab a Mezomeena’s eyes, their ability to shapeshift will cease to exist. A wizard is nothing without his wand, a witch is helpless against water. Mermaids are confined to the water, and even dragons are limited to their primitive minds. But us, Cairoyas, we’re innovative, smart, advancing with the times. We have the ability to strengthen our bodies, adapt to our surroundings, grow stronger, more powerful. We are not limited by our abilities, nor are we weakened or killed by bodily imperfections.”     The change in Hilbert’s tone was beginning to scare me more than fascinate like he intended. The image of the fallen dragon beneath his feet kept flashing before my eyes.     “We, are, perfect. Simply limited by our moral obligations and our bodies weakness, easily soluble problems. Imagine, a man above all, who is not held back by societal expectations, or physical weakness. Who’s mind is elevated, unsuspectable from corruption, external or internal.” The glory of his vision twinkled in the blues of his eyes as they focused on mine. He pointed his bony finger at me as a grin grew on his face.     “You, Erevana, will be that man. We will train profusely, until your muscles have the strength of ten dragons, and your mind elevated to their heights of the Arcane World. You will be my prodigy.” 

Draft 4 (the Blasphemous Draft, aka the bane to my existence):

“Ahh, but dear Erevana— if you bring a vampire into the sun, its skin will set afire and it will burn. If you stab a Mezomeena’s eyes, their ability to shapeshift will cease to exist. A wizard is nothing without his wand, a witch helpless against water. Mermaids are confined to the sea and even dragons are limited to their primitive minds. But us Cairoyas, we’re innovative, smart, advancing beyond our times. We have the ability to strengthen our bodies, to adapt to our surroundings, grow stronger and more powerful. We are not limited by our abilities nor weakened or killed by bodily imperfections.” The change in Hilbert’s tone was eerie, scaring Alan more than it fascinated him like Hilbert probably intended. The image of the fallen dragon beneath his feet kept flashing before Alan’s eyes.  “We are perfect. The only limitations we possess are our moral obligations that we ourselves create and the easily soluble fatigue after long durations of magic use. Imagine a Cairoyas above all, who is not held back by societal expectations or fatigue. Who’s mind is elevated, unsusceptible from corruption, external or internal.” The glory of his vision twinkled in the baby blues of his eyes as they reeled in Alan’s direction. He pointed his bony finger at Alan, a grin growing despicably on his face.  “You, Erevana, will be that Cairoyas. We will train profusely, until your muscles have the strength of ten dragons and your mind elevated to the heights of the Arcane World. You will be my prodigy.”

Draft 5 (the Canon Draft):

“For Maadh’s sake, Markum... Nevermind that. It appears our first lesson is a history one. I’m afraid we will not have time to introduce any actual forms today, as the Flame seems to be setting now, but I will end today’s lesson off with this: non-mages are not of our world. They exist in their own pitiful societies, in a land of their own, to live out their mere lives engaging in odd conflict, loathsome diseases, and perhaps the most unfortunate of their states— a lack of magic. Ay, cursed they are without any ability to manipulate any form of magic. Among them in their world sometimes lives the odd supernatural, but they too are limited by flaws, their power unmatched to our own. [...] Ah, but dear Erevana… if you bring a vampire into the sunlight, its skin will set afire and he shall burn. If you stab a Mezomeena’s eyes, their ghastly veils will die and they will cease all ability to shapeshift. A wizard is nothing without his wand, a witch helpless against water. Mermaids are confined to the sea, and even dragons are limited by their primitive minds. But us Cairoyas? We are innovative, smart, advancing beyond our time. Our capabilities to strengthen our bodies, adapt to our surroundings, grow stronger and more powerful— they are boundless. We are not limited by our abilities nor weakened or killed by bodily imperfections. [...] We are perfect. The only limitations we possess are of our own moral obligations, and the easily soluble fatigue of overexertion. But such is not a design imperfection. I tell you this, Erevana— imagine a Cairoyas above all, unbound to societal expectations or fatigue. Whose mind is elevated, insusceptible to external or internal corruptions. [...] You, Erevana, will be that Cairoyas. We will train you profusely, until your strength exceeds that of ten dragons and your mind is enlightened past the glories of the Arcane World. You asked of me to become your mentor, and I said I’d make a Limious of you. These are the fruits you shall bear. You will be my prodigy.” - Hilbert to Alan (‘We are perfect’ monologue), Chapter 7 

You will grow as a writer. Grow into your style. Grow into your confidence. Grow into your pride for your work. You will grow. You just have to water the plant and feed it with the warmth it needs to blossom.

[thedeathlysallows]

Is It Over Now? (13)

Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x Aemma Velaryon; Aegon Targaryen x Aemma Velaryon

Summary: My hand was the one you reached for

Warnings: canon typical Targaryen incest. Stockholm Syndrome, infidelity, manipulative Aegon, discussion of character death. Smut, fingering, using murder as dirty talk, hand job, public sex.

Aemma's coin has finally flipped, but where will it land? Greatness or madness?

Tag list: @callsignwidow

You aren't sure how or when it happened, but it's as though something inside you snapped, slowly but surely shifted your love and loyalty from your mother to Aegon. All your plans, all the playing pretend melted away until it became your reality. When did that happen? When did you become so pathetic? Was it the abject horror of seeing Aemond loving another woman in Harrenhal? Or were you always this weak?

"You seem deep in thought." Aegon looks down at you, head tilted slightly so that the rubies of the Conqueror's crown glitter in the sunlight.

"I suppose," you respond dully.

He hums in annoyance before looking away abruptly. You aren't sure why he insists on walking with you through the gardens, but it was the one reprieve he allowed after your escape. You're kept under a smothering watch at all times now except for when Aegon fetches you for your daily walk. He never lets you go with guards. It has to be him, and you just don't understand it.

Annoyance rises in you, bitter and dark. "I don't understand!"

"What don't you understand?"

Lots of things. You don't understand lots of things, but you don't want to discuss the complicated relationship between the two of you, so you say, "You told Aemond to seduce the witch. Why? Why would you do that?"

Aegon tosses his head back and laughs. "Is that what the bastard told you? And he says I'm the degenerate one."

"Aegon, this isn't the time for jokes. I want the truth." You turn to him fully and he's struck suddenly by the fire in your eyes. It's been so long since he's seen it he thought you'd given up your spark completely.

But of course not.

Of course your fire is still there because his is still there.

Aegon still burns every second of every day for you. The two of you are the last flickering twin flames of Old Valeyria, meant to merge together and raze down everything standing in its way. He loves you, desires you, needs you more than Aemond possibly could.

"You want the truth, my little dragon?" He steps closer to you, following as you move away from him. "I'll give you the truth, but I want you to remember that it was I to do so... not Aemond."

You suck in a deep breath, overwhelmed by Aegon's presence crowding you against a tree. Rough bark bites into your exposed back and arms. Suddenly, the gauzy dress you chose this morning doesn't feel like it covers enough.

"Aemond would never lie to me," you eventually say.

"I see. Is that why he blamed me? All I told him was to keep the witch loyal to us. I don't give a single fuck about her happiness or comfort... but Aemond does, doesn't he?" Aegon traces his thumb across your bottom lip before continuing.

"Let me guess: he told you not to worry and that she could never compare. I've told Helaena the same about my whores. I suppose, in a round about way, it's the truth. She's kinder than them, more of a proper lady. She deserves better."

You want to strike out at Aegon, your palm itches for it, but you stay still. He pets you so gently, running his hands over your body in a comforting way that brings tears to your eyes. You want to ask him why he doesn't give her better if she deserves it, but you already know the answer.

You.

Aegon has spent years pining over you, spiraling when you were taken away like some sort of toy. He's a spoiled brat. You love him anyway... but you love Aemond as well.

"Is love enough?" Your voice comes out as barely a whisper.

"Enough for what?"

"Anything." For Aemond to be loyal, but you don't say it out loud.

Aegon knows what you want to say, but won't say. He knows you better than anyone. Maybe even better than you know yourself. "Love is enough for us if you'll allow it."

Your lips curl up in a wry smile. "You're being awfully sweet today, Your Majesty."

"Maybe it's because I see where my brother is failing and I decided I need to take this chance."

"Failing on your orders."

"Not my orders. I never told him to fuck her, but we both know that's what he's doing." Aegon presses his lips to yours, hot and persistent. "Don't you want revenge, little dragon?"

Yes.

Yes, you do want revenge.

You want blood and revenge and for this foreign anger inside you to end.

Aegon's lips trail from your lips to the column of your neck, teeth sinking into your skin every so often while his hands grip your waist. He grinds into you and you feel the delicious drag of his hard cock between your thighs. "I have plenty of information from the witch. So much that her life means nothing to me now. You could kill her if you wanted."

Kill her?

"H-have you ever killed anyone?" The idea makes you nervous, but it's hard to concentrate on those nerves when Aegon's hands are slowly bunching your dress around your waist.

"Yes. Would you like to hear about it?" He nips at your ear, chuckling darkly when you yelp. Two of his fingers circle your clit before dipping into your cunt and he moans when he finds you absolutely soaking wet.

You nod, letting out a little whimper. "Yes... please..."

"Mmm, good girl." Aegon pumps his fingers in and out of you at a punishing pace. "It's better than any drunken high, any fuck... it's... ah, fuck, yes..."

Aegon's head falls to your shoulder when your hand slips inside his trousers to stroke his length. You wrap a leg around his waist, silently begging him to go deeper.

"Oh, fuck," he breathes against your skin. "Such a good little whore for me. D'you like this? Like me fucking you in public?"

You do. You really, really do.

"Say it," he demands, wrapping a hand around your throat. "Say how much you like it."

"Aegon... please... I love it."

"Say you love me."

You nod. "I love you!"

Aegon's grin is almost terrifying when he says, "I want to watch you kill Alys Rivers."

The pleasure that had been building in the pit of your stomach crests and washes over the rest of you, leaving you to spasm around Aegon's thick fingers. He kisses you all over as he reaches his own orgasm, spilling into your hand.

"Good girl," Aegon whispers into your hair. "Fuck, you're so good for me. We need to remind Aemond how good you are, yeah?"

That's all you really want, you think to yourself. You just want to be good for the people who love you. That's all you ever wanted.

[quitealotofsodapop]

One of the firsr times MK actually sees Luzhen acting serious and maturely is during the New Years fiasco. When Wukong got captured by the Spider Queen, Luzhen has wanted to go to him immediately but Wukong had mad him swear to make sure MK and his friends are safe first so he ended up with the team that went to the Celestial Realm, this ended up being a benefit because that means they had someone familiar with he place.

He and MK ended up pairing up to get the Furnace, but they both ended up trapped inside. While they were there, Luzhen had a lot of memories and regrets from long ago pop up, being in the same device that was once used to torture and nearly kill his older brother. The Furnace that took Wukong away from him. And MK notices this during his own self-deprication episode.

MK, feeling bad for himself: This is all my fault, why did I ever think I could ever do this!? I can't ever live up to the Monkey King!

Luzhen, quietly and turned away from MK: Yeah, I know the feeling, kid.

MK, realizing for the first time he wasn't ghe only one trapped: Huh? Luzhen!?

Luzhen: Yeah. I'm stuck here too, kid.

MK: Oh great, not am i useless. but I got the Monkey King's brother trapped there too!

Luzhen: Kid, it's not like that. I'm in here... because I jumped in on my own. Same as you.

MK: You... jumped in on your own? Why!?

Luzhen: Aw, c'mon kid, you know the story don't you? How did Dage get his Eyes of Truth?

MK: The gods put him here, in an effort to burn the immortality elixir out of him... right? Only instead of killing him he got gold vision.

Luzhen, nodding: For nearly fifty celestial days and night my brother anguished in here, burning alive from the heat of a primordial flame... all because I made a mistake that he took the fall for.

MK, suddenly realizing: Oh...

Luzhen, quietly, eyes dtill fixated on the corner wall: Wukong... I owe hin so much. He's my older brother, he always took care of me... protected me. I knew he was special, even moreso than me, and I swore I would repay him his kindness and care one day by making sure everyone knew thay. I hadn't meant to hurt anyone but... Wukong was so shy and timid back then, still is in some ways. So when he learned the truth about how much of an insult the position of Biwamen actually was and was going to just... let it go... I snapped.

MK: Are you saying you're the one who... caused the Havoc?

Luzhen: No. I caused the events that led to the Havoc. I'm the one who threatened the dragon gods and removed my brother's name from the Book of the Dead, I'm the one to let all the horses loose and then declared for all to hear that Wukong was the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. Everything that happened after... *Luzhen shakes his head as he starts to get emotional* I owed my brother everything, but my stupid, reckless actions were what led to his downfall.

MK, worried about the implications: Luzhen... why did you jump in here?

Luzhen: ...I-I don't know... *huffs in hysterical amusement* I guess... I guess wanted to. No... I needed to know. What he went through in here, to try to get an idea of what I did to my brother. See what it was like for myself. The stories say that he survived because he his himself in this corner right here. *points to the side he was facing, where a very old imprint of scratch marks lay, as though something had been clawing at the walls* It's marked by the wind trigram and had less of the fire. That it was his cleverness that let him succeed... but I know my brother.

*Luzhen runs an hand along some of the faded scratches*

Luzhen: Wukong wanted to make sure he could come home... the only reason he survived was because he was determined to make it home to us... to me.

Luzhen may not have known it at the time but hearing his own thoughts on the Furnace and how Wukong had survived had inadvertently given MK the push he needed to find a way to get them both out. After all, if Wukong had survived being in here for that long to get back to his family, the least they could do was escape the damned thing and save him in return! Both MK and Luzhen have a silent pact not to bring up what happened in the Furnace or the conversation they had up, What Happened in the Furnace, Stayed in the Furnace.

YEE

Luzhen is such an interesting character to unpack in this au simply due to his role as the "dodged culprit" in the Havoc in Heaven. And he's never forgiven himself for it.

He's suffered the ultimate pain of being the younger brother who Wukong would do anything for. Nearly losing him.

A lot of MK's feelings of unworthiness are mirrored in Luzhen, who's lived his entire life as a mere shadow to his brother, not even believed to be a real person by many.

His big bro's successor is a good kid. Not like him. He shouldn't have to worry about this junk,

Though I love the idea that they spent the time in the Furnace hashing out emotional issue they have, and both agree that "Furnace-stays in the Furnace"

[thinkingfandoms]

An accurate list of the best movies I've ever seen

This list also includes reasons that are all too objective and nonsensical. Avoid asking too many questions. And share what you think in the comments!

Hercules

Hercules is probably my favourite Disney movie. And I also think that's where my interest in Greek mythology started. Hades is my favorite villain from this company and he's such a mood.

The Prince of Egypt

Oh dear you don't know how much I love this movie. I know every song by heart and was lucky enough to sing them with my choir. I'm a big fan of animation and despite how old is this movie, I think it remains one of the best ever produced. I cried more times over this movie than over all the others on this list combined.

Friends & Family

I only discovered this film this year but it quickly became one of my favorites. I have never laughed for so many consecutive minutes at a movie. I approached it because it's unusual to see a gay mob-themed movie, but I immediately fell in love with all the characters and the final scene remains one of the most comic I have ever seen.

Treasure Planet

I have a soft spot for animated films about great adventures and self-discovery. Jim has been my only animated crush for years, and his story has always resonated with something inside of me (maybe the desire for adventure and his recklessness, idk). Plus, of course, "'I'm Still Here" is one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever created.

Howl's Moving Castle

One of the first films I saw by Studio Ghibli and my absolute favourite. The love stories created by this Studio are always wonderful, and this one is no different. Plus I always saw myself in Sophie (especially about the crush on Howl) and, well, there's Calcifer, what more do you want?

Les Choristes

Another thing I love: movies about music. It may be that I've been playing an instrument for years and singing in choirs, but I've always cried watching kids rediscover a new side of themselves through music and songs. And these songs are composition's masterpieces. I still remember them all by heart even though French isn't my native language.

A Christmas Carol

I'm slightly obsessed with this story, with Charles Dickens and with Christmas. I was born on Christmas Eve so you can imagine how close this theme is to my heart. I have seen several versions of this story though, and for some reason, this one remains my favourite. It may be that it's different from other more colourful versions and really shows the darkness behind the original story, idk.

How to Train Your Dragon

I literally grew up with this saga: I was 8 years old at the first film, 12 at the second and 17 at the third. I watched Hiccup grow up with me as a friend and Toothless as a fellow adventurer. I'll forever be grateful to Dreamworks for creating the best-animated saga that cinema has ever seen.

The Three Musketeers

This movie is so random that it's perfect. I watched it again recently (after like 8 years) and realized that maybe my daddy issues come from this movie: Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom and the freaking Mads Mikkelsen together, seriously? I'm not surprised it was one of my favourite movies growing up.

A Monster in Paris

The love I have for this film is enormous. I could never get over the beauty of the songs in it. The characters are so well written and Francœur will always be in my top animated characters. It's too amazing to be real.

Rise of the Guardians

I could talk for hours about this film and have not even touched the tip of the iceberg. I have an insane obsession with all the characters, starting with and especially Jack, my top animated crush for years. It's all so perfect that I don't see how people never nominate it when it comes to top animated movies.

The Hobbit

Again, I have serious problems with films about fantasy adventures. I have always preferred The Hobbit saga to its sequel because the story has always fascinated me more. And the main character especially: for me Bilbo >>>> Frodo. And then there's Thorin and Luke Evans. You know, daddy issues.

Mune: Guardian of the Moon

Another French animated movie, another obsession, another adventure, another animated character in my top. This is an example of how to do good animation. There isn't a colour out of place. The settings are authentic, the characters are original, and the adventure they make gets me every time.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I'm maybe a Muggle, but I prefer Fantastic Beasts to the Harry Potter saga. That's not to say it's better, mind you, but it reflects me more. We all know how we Hufflepuffs (and Ravenclaws) have no real representation in the HP movies, so to be able to have at least one prequel saga starring a Hufflepuff (in which I also find myself far too much) as the protagonist is wonderful. And I have an unhealthy urge to become a magizoologist.

The Greatest Showman

It's the movie I have watched the most of these. I know every song by heart and every line too. It always manages to be a roller coaster of emotions. And it has Hugh Jackman in it.

The Boy Foretold By The Stars

I'm a big supporter of the Philippine's film company. This is one movie is gentle, funny, and not based on the usual drama between Christianity and LGBT+ people (which is what I thought when reading the plot at first). Moreover, another underrated thing, the Philippines' music company here has thrown in masterpiece after masterpiece of songs, perfect for this movie.

Bros

This is my top comfort film in the last year. It's like watching a Hallmark movie but hotter, much more sincere and gay. Very gay. And the relationship between the two main characters is so cute and sweet. And funny.

Top Gun: Maverick

I love this saga but especially love this particular chapter. I love Maverick and his relationship with Rooster, and all the other characters are so well-written. And don't get me started on the story... I LOVE it. There isn't much else to say except that Cruise is a great actor (and a terrible person).

Glass Onion - Knives Out

I love my silly little gay detective. And I have a little passion for movies and mystery series. I found this saga's chapter more compelling than the first one, and the characters gripped me more. Also I fell in love with the setting. Oh and then there are Daniel Craig and Hugh Grant.

[foundry-fabrications]

Happy Halloween everyone! It's that time of the year again and that means it's spooky project time! Those who have been with me for a while know that every year for Halloween I put out some big thematic project for my favorite holiday. For this year, I wanted to keep the rework train going and rework a previous year's project. And that project is my Corpseweaver class!

Before we get started I just want to take a second to shout-out @dm-clockwork-dragon and his Necroficer class, which helped inspire many aspects of my own take on the "Frankenstein-ing" monsters together concept.

I also want to mention that I still have a huge GDrive folder of 100+ creepy creatures and malign monsters pulled from across the internet to inspire your own amalgams!

In a way I got lucky this year. I started reworking my corpseweaver MONTHS ago so I already had a lot of it done. I was hoping to have the basics done in time for a campaign I was going to be in but time got away from me and I ended up playing something else so I've just been slowly working on it over time. Before October even began the entire base class and one of the subclasses were mechanically done, which left only two more subclasses to finish and I needed to rewrite all the fluff text which was honestly pretty cringeworthy in my opinion.

So what are all the changes? IT'S A LOT! I reworked how the class collects resources and the amalgam creation system completely from the ground up. The old systems were overly complicated and REALLY bookkeepy so I simplified them. Now you get Flesh, Bone, and Exotic from creatures and you use those in specified amounts to make amalgams and make alterations. The system for doing so has been greatly streamlined. Now you have a dedicated stat block that all amalgams are based on and that gets modified throughout the creation process.

Another major change is that the base class is no longer a spellcaster, so all those features have been moved to a subclass of their own, the Skaab Scribe. I didn't like how based in normal magic the old class was as I always wanted it to be more focused on mad science, alchemical formulas, and occult ritual.

And one of the last huge changes is that the Soma Smith has been removed from the class completely and will likely never return, though the name does live on as the Fleshwarper has been renamed. As much as I liked the idea of the old soma smith, I felt that it didn't fit the class upon further examination. Its whole deal was about creating new life basically from scratch and that's not what I want this class to be about. That's actually a theme that I kept seeing in the flavor text throughout the class as I've been working on it, creating new life, and it's a goal of mine to remove it wherever possible. The class does not create life, it reanimates the dead, and in my mind those are very different things.

So yeah, on that note those are the biggest changes but obviously everything got touched in some way. As with many of my reworks, this one is an overhaul on a grand scale, and one I'm honestly quite proud of.

As for the updated aesthetics, however, I have mixed feelings. Overall I think they fit the class much better than the default theme I was using before but there's a lot of visual jank that I'm not a fan of. I also would have liked to use better artwork but I had so little time to finish this as it is. I was also forced into using GM Binder for this project instead of Homebrewery because the theme I chose doesn't work with HB very well so that was less than ideal. For smaller projects it's not a big deal but for something this huge all the weird little issues I have with GMB start to compound and get frustrating. It's not a system I like but it has its uses sometimes.

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[chaos-shifts-111]

ask game — 🐞

also tell me absolutely everything u can about ur dr(s) i love listening

🐞; name three oddly specific things you’re excited to witness in your dr.

a thunderstorm - we rarely get thunderstorms where i live, and i'm so excited to see a actual big one!!!

the stars - the night sky is wayyyy clearer there, and we can see pretty much everything

all the creatures!!! - our world is filled with things like hippogriffs and dragons and all sorts of things and i cant wait honestly

everything else below the cut because there's going to be A Lot

thank you sm for asking that because i could talk about it for YEARS

a little bit of backstory first: the dr ive been talking about is my home, and it's a bit complicated. I used to live there as an immortal with Order (my name's Chaos) until i decided "hey, ive got an amazing idea! i'll be a human and wipe all my memories! dont worry though because if everything goes to shit all my memories will come back and i'll go home :3" and then all (most) of my memories came back about 8 or so months ago, but i'm fuckn stuck here??? so. thats fun ig. but anyway i brought Order here too he's currently living in my head (i'm plural temporarily sort of) so we're here together working to get out :3

so thats my backstory!!! im a master shifter who is completely stupid lmao

anyway on to my dr!!!! my name's Chaos, and i'm immortal!! i usually look aroud 22-26 (so like early 20s) and have super fluffy black hair and gold eyes that i miss a lot. Order's blond (like a loserrr) with bluish-grey eyes and hes always mad at me for something (not really lmao he loves me) and we're complete opposites. we're both shapeshifters and i can see the future, but i choose not to most of the time because i love being surprised!!! we live in this biggggg house full of plants and old books and it always smells like pastries because i love baking lmao (Order has me bake maple bars all the time he loves them) i absolutely love all the creatures there, and i have 10+ notebooks studying them. we've also got a hugeeeee old growth forest (that i planted!) in our backyard (i guess you can't really call it a backyard, it's way too big) sometimes ill go out there and sleep because it's so comefy??? have you ever tried sleeping on a moss bed??? my room changes constantly because i cant choose what i want it to look like lmao. but it's always full of plants and books!!! (i should make a post with images from pinterest with images of what our house sorta looks like, ill do that later) we also have the beach, you can see it from the balcony in Order's room, the sun rises over it and golden hour is beautiful with the ocean (look it up its incredible) also i just realized theres no paragraph breaks in this and i am so sorry guys i dont know how to format D: but anyways!! everything like the grocery store and bakery and park and stuff are all within walking distance from our house, and me and Order would go on walks all the time and it was super amazing!! and we knew most people in our neighborhood, and they knew we were immortal because yk it's a bit hard to hide if you don't age, and it's fine, sometimes a dragon flies over the town, sometimes 2 immortals live in your neighborhood, whatever.

thats all i have for you guys rn but feel free to ask questions, because its really hard to go into detail without specific guidelines lmao. but yeah!!! ily all <3

[flowerandblood]

Hi, Hagi! ☺️ Can you do a director’s commentary of your choice? ⭐⭐⭐

Hi! I'm sorry it took me so long. I decided to write about The Fall from the Heavens. ⭐⭐⭐

When I started this series, I knew that I wanted it to be longer than the others and what I wanted the main theme to be. The titular fall from the heavens is the children's collision with reality, the world and situations for which no one has prepared them.

Their heaven was the relationship they created with great difficulty just for themselves − it was important to me that the reader did not enter a world in which they immediately was close friends. I wanted to show the way children think, their naivety, innocence and ease of making rash decisions, the fact that they do not think about many things and take others for granted.

Their love is filled with idealism. As a child, Aemond does not know that having seven children is not easy, that his wife will have to experience the agony of difficult childbirth, which he has never witnessed, because it always happens behind closed doors. He thinks that taming dragons without riders will be easy, he plans it in his head like a hunting expedition.

His Rhaenys, on the other hand, is convinced that the adults around her know what they are doing. That her mother, when she is forbidden to see her uncle after he lost an eye, saying that he is tired, is right and it is the right thing to do − let him rest.

The clash between naivety and reality is painful and leaves them wounded and defenseless. Aemond locks himself in his mind, but his Rhaenys is unable to do so − she pours everything she feels into letters to him.

This is the only thing that saved them both from madness − while reading them, he still lived in the conviction that she had never forgotten him and, despite his rage, his hatred did not turn into what it became in Stay and love, leave and die.

That's why when they meet in King's Landing after all these years, everyone around them thinks there's going to be some incident − we know that Jace thinks their uncle simply despises them all.

He doesn't know yet about the hundreds of letters that Aemond had been reading for years and which, whether he wanted it or not, he kept deep in his heart. When they look at each other, only they both know it, and even though they would like it to be otherwise, they suffer at the sight of each other.

Aemond doesn't want to allow himself to think that seeing her again brings him any kind of contentment or satisfaction − he's excited and filled with emotions he doesn't know what to do with. When his niece comes to him, he uses passive aggression to push her away, knowing that if he doesn't, something in his mask will eventually crack and expose him to ridicule.

That's why when she kisses him, he doesn't push her away − he just accepts it with relief. Although they both believe that they have lost these years, thanks to her letters, they have never stopped missing each other, and what happens between them that night is their desperate, wordless attempt at reconciliation.

Even though Aemond never wrote her back, he had unknowingly proven to her then, though she didn't understand it at the time, that he had never stopped thinking of her as his future wife.

He unintentionally uses the phrase "− your husband will treat your body with a proper respect −" and thus reveals what he really thinks. He was her husband in his mind even when they were children. His first question after what they did was "Do you still want to marry me?" and he adds "− we will finally end these years of misery −".

He means his own misfortune, his own suffering, believing that she felt exactly the same.

All the while, bits of who he was was emerging from underneath the stone fortress he had created around himself, and that was my intention. Create characters who experience something inside themselves, who really feel, who really suffer. I wanted readers to believe they are truly in love.

Ask Game: Director Cut

[blubbledia]

I read - Dungeon Meshi - 2014/2023

"To eat is to be alive."

I saw it was completed and thought, "hey I read like half of that a couple years ago and really liked it!" So I promptly didn't read it. Instead I waited until I saw too many spoiler images on my dashboard! Which didn't really hinder me, so I started at the beginning and devoured the whole thing in two sittings. Very apt for the material. Also that I got around halfway through before starting over and making my way all to the bottom. No sister death for me though. The rest of my thoughts below the line.

So many elements of this manga weave together to create the best atmosphere. Like good ingredients making a good meal. OK, I'll stop with the food comparisons.

I think the most stand out piece for me is the story's pacing. I just appreciate a goal that, initially, should be a quick adventure, twisting and turning into something more complicated, while staying relatively short. Every goal, Defeat dragon and revive Falin, defeat Falin, defeat Mad Mage, become dungeon lord, defeat demon, and finally resurrect Falin? Fit. On some occasions, writers would use these extended and adjusted goals to artificially increase length. Here it not only feels natural, but even the inciting incident is justified by the twists. They only encountered the red dragon right at the beginning because the Mad Mage was sending it to look for the king.

Characters are absolutely stunning. From design, to motivation, to their growth. Every one has realistic growth. Laios never becomes a perfect leader. Sure he becomes king, but even in the epilogue he's still a goof. He is absolutely not good with people, honestly I don't think any of the main crew really are. But they are good with the people in their party (mostly). It even touches on how a new member fits in, and the realities of your adventuring buddies kind of just being work friends. Izutsumi is baby and I love her. Falin is adorable and I want to hug her.

The art is so fun and good and excellent at setting tone. The amount of times all things in a box will be shaded with one method, even the same density, but still clearly delineated between fore and background is amazing. Ryoko Kui also did designs of the characters as various races, which works so well for identifying the key features of a design. I wouldn't know what to say about page layouts, it's just not something that registers to my brain. I will spare another sentence to commend character design. How they look just makes my brain happy. I think it's the noses.

I could not in good conscience release my thoughts on this work into the aether without touching on the titular aspect of the work.

Food

The most interesting part to the food, is that the monsters all mimic real creatures. Nightmares are the ones that come to mind; aside from a fantasy element, they are mollusks. It makes it easy to connect to the reader and show food that they would also find appetizing. I'm a vegan but don't know the morality of eating monsters. Like, do the walking mushrooms count? I don't know enough to say. More importantly, food as a thing. To live is to need to eat. Of the base level of needs to survive eating is the one we have the most leeway over. You can choose what to eat and prepare. It can be done as an act of love toward others. There is a time where Laios brings up that at times when the worries and anxieties of what needed to be done were getting to him; that food grounded him, allowed him to calm down.

I should get some friends together for a meal.

[firegirl888101]

what's the next story gonna be about? (sorry if it sounds like I'm asking for spoilers, I'm just really curious)

I was looking through my inbox and thought I'd answer this quickly before I go to bed. (I'm not even halfway through my exams and I want to kill myself - the stress is unreal)

ANYWAY

This was asked back in January. JANUARY. I am so sorry to everyone who's requested something, the earliest is from November last year 😭

I think this is referring to when I hinted at possibly making another Sagau fic. There are plans for another, but that will be planned and written after I finish writing Insatiable Madness and its sequel, take a break by writing about Hazbin Hotel, and then have a good nap.

I guess I could say that whilst the Harbingers will be mentioned throughout the story, they will not be the love interests. The Archons though... ohohoh, they will have a much more important role to play. + Neuvilette, because he's my husband. I love dragons :3

I haven't decided whether I want the reader to travel with the traveler (who will be Lumine because Aether is the canon one in IA.) or if I want the reader to have their own goals for moving from nation to nation. Either way, they will be travelling for plot reasons and for character development reasons.

It will most likely be the former of two ideas since it's the easiest to explain and write, but I want to be different and try to write a whole different angle. But would people be okay with that? I can understand that most people read fanfictions for the fictional characters, not the Y/N's. Hell, I do simply because it's fun to imagine a character never seen before in a world you know and love 🤷‍♀️

I am so tired, I need to revise more quotes for my english lit exam.

'IS THIS ANXIETY I FEEL BEFORE ME? THE CRIPPLING PARANOIA TOWARD MY MIND?'

(is this a dagger which I see before me? The handle towards my hand?)

Okay I'm seriously posting this now, I love Shakespeare because the majority of his plays are funny lol. I'm tired don't judge me.

[yourlocalstranger123]

I've seen people running out of ideas so I'm here! :D

You can adjust some things

Also note: I am very into a sub character...sorry if you didn't like it, you can adjust it though!

Warning: smut, and as you can see, I pick favorites....sorry (as favorites I meant fandom, not characters since I cannot decide and it's worser since I like hot women and hot men. Well...i like men more although i still think womens are seriously hot)

Advance apologies; sorry if the ideas are actually similar to others. Since there is a lot and there's probably some out there that's similar

Genshin;

(Fluff angst) a bit of yandere Zhongli. Zhongli as in his younger ages, you being an unknown outlander (or maybe a God from another world 🤯) companying him. He enjoys your company until one day when his beloved friends, etc. Dies, you disappear. He cried and cried. He's different from the Zhongli we know....he's calm, collected, etc. but the only difference is that he's cold. No emotion until he felt your presence once again, he looked around wondering where you were. He saw you....he broke down in tears as you cup his head with your hands, soothing him. He accidentally went to his human dragon form. You didn't mind, you pat his head and kissed his forehead. He wagged his tail like a dog, as you try to let go his grip tightens and his tail wraps around you. He finally felt your warmth once again. He's not gonna let go now.

Smut; dottore (Dom reader) he is also at his young age, he found you. Although he thought you were gonna annoy him, your presence felt....nice. of course he's never gonna admit that just yet—....... later when he becomes a harbinger, he felt uncomfortable though 'what is this feeling?' He began being desperate for you, you were nowhere to be found. That made him go even more mad, he didn't even bother about his experiments! Until you sighed up to be an assistant for everyone that needs help, that even angered him more, you were supposed to be his! He began to hog you more but the other noticed and they took a liking to you they love you and became jealous that you give him more attention to them! ( this could be a whole series or something )

Sagau; shy reader! (Reader is also smart as heck-) You get isekai to genshin, you seem to be summoned since there was a summoning sign, etc. They felt so happy! They found out you were shy, they didn't mind. They thought it was cute! Some are definitely gonna tease you. You were also really smart, you helped tignari with his plants telling him what's wrong with it because the plant wouldn't grow. You told albedo/dottore the mistakes they made, you also made them really strong when you weren't isekai to genshin and they are very happy with it. This one time, you were so serious and hot when they saw you pin down someone that was sneak attacking you/them. Although they were suprised...maybe even turned on— I mean *cough* *cough* who wouldn't? the person being pinned is very flustered of how hot you are. Your people perhaps are jealous and want to be pinned down by you like that.

Diluc; being quite very shy around you and poor little you thought he didn't like you :( you began being frustrated so you pin him against the wall and asked him why is he avoiding you with a sad frown. Although...you felt something poking you (the rest for you to do 🥲)

Obey me;

(Oblivious dom reader) Lucifer is becoming impatient with you. You haven't even made a single move! You guys been dating for half a year by now! He sure he sent obvious signs like bending down infront of you to get his pen that he 'accidentally' dropped. His pride is about to break down because he thinks he isn't attractive enough to turn you on! When you went into the shared bed, he broke down on his knees. Begging you. Just what are you gonna do?

All; everyone was there. Even the angels and lucifer enemy! But anyways they found out you were a royal and everyone was oh so curious. The moment you were summoned you were still wearing a robe (inspired by my summoning gone wrong)

Of course these two are my main post since I haven't yet post any other stuff either has anyone asked me to post something else. Of course your welcomed to when my request are open :D