#i. other kept silences ⦙ dev .

[windywriter]

Really long rant

Tldr: I wish people would stop comparing obey me to what in hell is bad. And it's wild complain abt a gacha game only to recc ANOTHER gacha game

It's wild as hell to recc obm as a less predatory gacha over whb. Like I know whb has its problems but obm is almost no better. The only reason (in my opinion) they're starting to get their act together is bc they saw how popular whb was getting. Plus like, there are events almost every other week that you have to farm daily if you wanna get a decent place. Not even mentioning the headaches that are celestial blessing events. Gacha(2).

Also God help you if you only get one of the event cards. You gotta get multiple ur+ cards if you wanna place anywhere decently or even finish some of the sheets in time. And if you don't you better have a bunch of devil points/energy drinks and a shit ton of time to just farm.

Plus we had a whole debacle surrounding the fact that they started hiding goodies/advancements behind card skill lvls. And I'm talking outfits you can use for stages with special voice lines AND the ability to lvl up your card past lvl 70.

Also, you do remember how obm said that they WOULDNT drop the original game only for them to drop it like a hot sack of coals the second NB came out. With small announcements of them shutting down the original with no more daily chats and replacing the "next" door with a pop up saying "continue the story in Night Bringer"

AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN TRANSFER YOUR STATUS AS A VIP MEMBER OVER TO THE NEW GAME! So you had to set up a whole new subscription for NB!!! And they still kept the vip subscription open in the original.

Not to mention the quiet and sudden replacement of birthday events to birthday gachas. Which while the stories were getting sort of samey could be completed without having to roll for event cards.

People saying that obey me was gonna go under for months. And the devs don't listen to fans and were being greedy (sound familiar?) And it took months for the new updates to roll put. NB did a big questionnaire for improvements and had radio silence about it until the updates were announced.

[rhupdates]

I quit. Half a year too long of supporting and promoting what is clearly wrong.

TW swearing, performative activism

So. Recently I've learned quite a bit of information that I did not acknowledge until far too late into my burnout. This post is intended to sum it up, explain my choices and spread the word. I'm no longer going to be covering Royale High updates, I'm quitting the game and I am refusing to enter it even to check out anything new. The blog will be kept to archive that which was posted.

Details, distasteful language, rant and sources below.

Royale High was my childhood game. I always idolized the developers, believing that they are just like me, designing something that they love for others to enjoy. I was a young fool, unaware of what was actually happening behind the curtains on software I never touched. I liked participating in the community, I liked being helpful, I liked getting back home from school every day to play it with my friends.

That was then. And this is now.

I've dug into some areas to look for more details regarding the upcoming waves for the new school, and I've found some unsettling things on the bird app that I cannot quite get over. This includes the following: (note: this is all old. i am behind the times. however, it is still very much an issue and nothing has changed.)

Performative activism during 2022 Valentine's Event - still not settled. You may have heard what happened during 2021's event, but you may not know that multiple black creators and activists were asked for their help with the BHM stand. None of their work was accepted by nightbarbie, and a part 2 for that part of the event was cancelled with barely no communication to the team contracted for it. Sources: twitter, wayback

Over 400 people were not paid properly after making faces, clothes and hair textures for Royale High. For a game that makes thousands DAILY off of their work, they should at least return some of that money to artists who carry their success. Diamonds, badges and lofty 'exposure' does not pay the bills or fill the belly. A majority of the people who submit their work are minors, and they do not know better. They think that compensation in exposure is enough - and oftentimes, they don't even receive that. Here is a spreadsheet of all the unpaid artists.

Possibly silencing people speaking up against them on the basis of the in-game Code of Conduct!!! Despite me agreeing with safety policies to protect younger people, the way that it is worded allows the developers to ban the community for saying anything that they don't like. If anything, that should have been the biggest waving red flag for me from the very beginning.

I'm done with this fucking dev team, done with the community, done with the economy, done with everything being pushed back and back to cover ANY form of dissidence. I'm not going to handle this anymore! I quit!

[saibug1022]

Two Birds On A Wire

Word Count: 1.7k

Lincoln McQuoid/Aquino & Valen Ebony (ILITW MC), background mentions of Lincoln x ILW MC and Lucas x ILITW MC

A/N: Fun fact for those who don't know, for the second half or so of ILW I was actually on the dev team, first as a senior tester and then as a junior writer. As a result I got to program some scenes into my person copy of the game, one of which is this one! I finally turned it into a proper fic and I plan to do the same with a Dan x MC scene later so stay tuned

“Which reminds me,” Lincoln said with a small smile and a sidelong glance at Val. “I actually legally changed my name just a few days ago.”

“You did?” Abel replied.

“Yeah. I took my mom’s maiden name,” Lincoln nodded. “So I’m Lincoln Aquino now. I didn’t think I could handle that name following me around after all my father did, so…”

Val’s eyes fell to the ground at the reminder. ‘My’ father. Just a few weeks ago he wouldn’t have blinked an eye. But now it came with a bit of sting. Not that it wasn’t honest. Matthias had him only to be used. He’d never considered Val a son. Never kept an eye on him, probably didn’t even know his name. Only led Val’s friends to resurrect him to further his own plan. He wasn’t even the man on Val’s birth certificate. But that was why it stung. Technically it should be ‘our’ dad. But it never really was.

But if he was honest with himself, the lack of the word ‘our’ hurt less in relation to their father and more in relation to Lincoln. Val was no stranger to absent parents, so that wasn’t anything new. Siblings? Val was still wrapping his head around that. Lincoln was his brother. And neither of them had said a single thing about it, at least not to each other. They just kept dancing around each other and honestly? Val was perfectly happy with that.

If they never had a conversation Lincoln wouldn’t say the things Val was sure he was thinking. Val wasn’t just his half-brother, Matthias had him via an affair with Val’s mother (which they had a very spirited conversation about that involved some screaming, some crying, and threats of divorce). Val was a reminder of what a horrible person his, their, father was, and especially the horrible things he’d done to the mother Lincoln adored. Lincoln was a great guy. Val didn’t think Lincoln would blame him, even if Val would get it if he did. But he imagined it must be hard to look at him.

No matter Val’s own feelings, Lincoln seemed to be shedding his past, and Val couldn’t help the pride that overtook that little sting. It honestly sounded like a great idea. Not that Val really had anything to change his last name to. For just a moment he caught the eye of a certain ex-class president across the yard and couldn’t help a small smile. Maybe he would one day.

But for now, Val looked over at Lincoln with that same smile. 

“I think Lincoln Aquino is a great name,” He said.

“I agree,” Abel said. “You don’t need to carry something around that reminds you of him, especially not after what he did."

Lincoln’s smile turned sheepish as he looked at the ground. “Thanks.”

Abel paused abruptly, craning his neck and looking around. He must have found whatever he was looking for because a smirk appeared on his face for a split second before he hid it, clearing his throat and standing.

“I think Amalia is calling me over,” Abel told them. 

“What?” Lincoln glanced over at Amalia who was mid-conversation with Castor and Jocelyn. “No she’s not.”

“You two have fun!” Abel grinned. Oh that little shit. Val and Lincoln must have figured out what Abel was doing at the same time as they both spoke up.

“Wait-” Val objected as Lincoln simultaneously protested “Abel-!”

But Abel completely ignored their pleas and wandered off to Amalia, Jocelyn, and Castor, leaving Val and Lincoln alone at the fire. 

They sit there in an awkward silence, Val just messing with his necklace praying Abel would come back and give him an excuse to leave. He couldn’t just get up when it was just Lincoln, it would make it so obvious he was avoiding him. He switched to lightly biting the ring pendant on the necklace as he thought. He had to say something, right? Unless Lincoln was avoiding him too in which case maybe he should stay quiet for both of their sakes? Well unfortunately this silence was eating him alive

“So uh,” Val cleared his throat. “How’re you and Julian?”

Val knew the answer. He’d talked to Julian not even ten minutes ago.

“Good,” Lincoln replied. “We’re good.”

“Great.”

More silence. 

Eventually Val sighed. Obviously avoiding each other was getting nowhere and he had a sneaking feeling Abel not returning was on purpose.

“He’s probably right,” Val pointed out. “We should talk about this at some point.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lincoln admitted. “But what do you even say about this kind of thing?”

Val snickered. “What, you’ve got a secret bastard brother three days before your father dies trying to kill you both?”

“Don’t call yourself a bastard,” Lincoln snapped. Val’s eyebrows raised in a mix of shock and confusion.

“Why not?” Val wondered. “I mean, I am. Matthias obviously had me while he was still married to your mom. It was an affair, plain and simple. I, I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me for it.”

“Why would I hate you?” Lincoln questioned, genuine confusion on his face. 

“Because I’m living proof of your dad being a cheating asshole?”

“No.”

Lincoln turned in his chair to fully face Val and Val turned to meet him, the awkward tension of his shoulders turning to anxiety as he waited for whatever Lincoln wanted to say. Lincoln met his eyes and Val found he actually wanted to meet them. Whatever Lincoln said he wanted to truly absorb it.

“Look, I don’t really know what I’m doing here,” Lincoln confessed. “I have no idea how to be a brother. I screwed up the closest thing I had to it, bad. But I don’t think you’re a bastard.”

Lincoln’s face shifted from solemnity to rage. “If anyone’s a bastard it’s him. He had you just to use and then throw away when it suited him. It;s messed up and wrong and…and you deserve better.”

For a moment, Val didn’t know what he wanted to say. Even if he did he had a feeling the words would get caught on the emotions clogging his throat. This hadn’t been how he’d expected this conversation to go. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting exactly but he’d considered anything from indifference to disgust to full on hate. But what Lincoln was looking at him with felt more so like affection. Protectiveness. 

Lincoln leaned over and after a moment of consideration put his hand on Val’s knee and Val froze. Something felt fragile about this. Rather than two adults navigating a complicated a difficult family secret they felt like two hurt boys who more than anything were scared. Scared of their dad, scared of the monsters in the woods, and scared of the big feelings too complicated to understand. One wrong move could send one or both of them running but there was a gravity pulling them together and blocking out the rest of the world.

“This whole thing is messed up and weird,” Lincoln said.

“Us being messed up and weird too doesn’t really help,” Val commented.

“Not really,” Lincoln agreed. “I want to be part of your life, and I want you to be part of mine. We may not have grown up together but he took everything else from us, I don’t want him to take our chance to be brothers too. But only if you want that too.” 

Val was grinning so wide his face hurt, his vision blurred from slight tears. Val had never had a sibling, hell he’d never had family that wanted him. Connor was the closest thing he’d had. But here was Lincoln telling him that even with everything that had happened and their origins he still wanted to try to be Val’s brother. 

“I’d like that,” Val said. “I’d really like that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” Lincoln grinned too. 

“You being in Vegas might make it a pain though,” Val remembered. “Give me your phone.”

Lincoln unlocked his phone before handing it over. Val opened the contacts and entered in his name and his new phone number. Connor had helped him get a new phone finally, one that didn’t die fucking constantly. You handed Lincoln his phone back.

“There,” Val said. “And you better actually text me. I know technology isn’t your strong suit.”

“You talk to the twins too much,” Lincoln sighed.

“I’m gonna be talking to them way more now.”

“We’ve been brothers for five minutes and you’re teasing me.”

“I have twenty-two years of it to catch up on!”

“You have a point,” Lincoln hummed in consideration and glanced toward the cabin with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “You’ve known your friends since you were little, right?”

“Oh no, no no no no,” Val shook his head. “This is backfiring fast.”

Lincoln barked out a laugh and Val joined him. The sound broke the fragility around them and Lincoln sat up, his hand falling off Val’s knee. But neither of them ran. Now the silence was comfortable and easy.

“You know,” Lincoln spoke up. “I don’t go back to Vegas until tomorrow afternoon.”

“Are you asking to hang out with me?” Val grinned.

“Maybe I am,” Lincoln smiled too.

“We’re definitely hanging out now,” Val declared. “I know where we’re going too. If you really want to learn about me as a kid we’re going to Pizza Mega.”

“That sounds like a place middle-schoolers hang out.”

“That’s because it is.”

The two of them conversed a bit about their schedules and picked a time, including some logistics before Val spotted Abel on his way back over so he stood up but Lincoln stopped him before he could walk away.

“I’ll see you around, buddy, okay?” Lincoln said and Val’s heart soared at the casual nickname.

“You’re damn right,” Val agreed.

With one more wave to both Lincoln and Abel. Val returned to the rest of the memorial.

[themysticsword]

Quitting RoR2 Modding

(posting this in case anyone who plays my RoR2 mods isn't in any of the discord servers lol)

So, basically, yeah, I'm done with Risk of Rain 2 for good. Don't wanna associate myself with the game. Just really want it gone from my life. I don't want to think about it.

All of the mods I made out of my personal interest are now marked as deprecated, and potentially will even be deleted later. The only things that will stay are projects that were either made for friends, had contributions from more than just me, or are funny enough that I feel like they should stay.

Why? For a lot of reasons.

The Community Manager

So, SeventeenUncles (or Suncles, as we all call him). The guy may seem like a chill person on the twitch streams, but god. He's Bad at server moderation. Everybody in the server knows it. And if somebody has any kind of complaint about that moderation, he silences all the critique and tells to open a ticket via Modmail, which will not result in anything because why would he care lmao he's the community manager and he makes all the rules.

Like this one. I wrote a proper, consise ticket about my mute (which was unfair, by the way!), expecting to either get unmuted or at least get a response or have a conversation as to why they think it was fair. Guess what I got.

you're welcome suncles.

There's a lot of problems with how he's running the server, which I'm not gonna talk about, because, luckily, someone else has already done it, in detail! https://www.tumblr.com/gabrielultrakill-bigboobs/723312859455651840/the-official-risk-of-rain-discord-and-its-hellish?source=share

A lot of nasty stuff. In the official server, mind you.

But yeah. He represents the company Hopoo Games, and who am I to support a company with a prick as their representative :)

The Community Itself

Now, I know this is a dumb reason to quit over, but it's not the reason. It's just one of them.

It's toxic. Elitist. And, most importantly, way too controllable. We have, like, 4-5 mainstream content creators, and almost all of them manage to give the worst tips to newbies despite sinking hours into the game and, supposedly, having a lot of experience and knowledge.

It's so bad to the point where some youtubers call out the wiki for giving "false information", so their fans go on the wiki and make edits while parroting whatever Mr. Youtuber said.

Picture this: you're a new player, and you have unlocked a hard character. You struggle with them, so you go to the wiki, and the first thing you're told is that you actually need to unlock a different ability for them to make them playable. And only 7-8 paragraphs below, the wiki tells you how to use the base abilities properly. You know. The ones that you have right now, as a new player. While also making them sound weaker than they are in reality. Doesn't this sound like imposing someone specific's preferred playstyle onto everybody else?

Constant arguments. You open the discord server, or the subreddit, or a youtube video, just about anything, and you'll see people disrespecting each other over a video game. These arguments usually stem from someone being incorrect, them getting corrected by others, and that person fighting until the end of times just to prove that they're actually right, because, for some reason, they can't accept being wrong.

And I kept seeing these arguments. Engaging in them. When you want to interact with the community of a game on this scale of popularity, you just can't not encounter the bad parts. Statistically impossible.

Oh, and you know why the community partially is like that? Because the devs and the moderators are fine with that behaviour. The devs are known to be all mean and like "massive trolls" or whatever. Meanwhile, you don't see this shit happening in the A Hat in Time or Celeste servers.

Other Projects

Lastly, I've been meaning to quit RoR2 for a long time now. I want to move on and do something else. I've been making RoR2 mods for 4 years now, I think? It's a shame I have to leave like this, but eh, whatever.

If you're reading this, I hope you're doing well! I'm doing well, because I got rid of the part of my life that's been bothering me for way too long :3 See ya in other games that I'll mod!

[the-carlos-cow-eyes]

ALRIGHT, LAST IDEA.

WHAT IF DEVON FOUGHT AGAINST A POSSESSED-BY-CHUCKY ANDY??

Okay, Devon knew he was fucked.

Like, royally fucked. Somehow, someway, Chucky managed to possess Andy and ruin the trio's chances of having a normal summer. Andy, somehow, got access to a sword while Devon didn't have any weapons. Hell, all he was wearing was a pair of swim-shorts, sandals and the popsicle stick in his mouth from just being in the pool at the hotel they were staying at.

"You still don't know who I am?" Andy asked, a smile on his face.

Devon scoffed. "I'm not an idiot, and you're Chucky." He spoke. "So, you don't only go after possessing underaged teens like the creep you are."

"No, of course not." Andy said. "And I don't think you have ANY right to call someone a creep when you, are a pervert yourself."

Devon frowned. "Don't try to bring my personal shit into this. None of that matters!"

"Well, I guess you do have a point. What only matters is me killing you." Andy said, making Devon hold back a laugh.

"Really? Try it then."

That's when the fight really began. Andy swung the sword, Devon easily dodging. Then he swung again, and again and again, Devon using simple dodging techniques and ending up behind the man, taking the popsicle stick out of his mouth and flicking it on the floor.

Chucky scoffed, before swinging the sword again, Devon dodging and ending up behind the man again, kicking his sandals off, one foot in front of the other, hands up. But that didn't stop the other as he swung again, eventually leading Devon to start running. The place they were at was too small for him to actually fight the man.

Where would he go, though? Which place has the most space?

That's when it clicked. Going upstairs and dodging the occasional swing or thrust of the sword, Devon ran into one of the adult's bars, which thankfully - no one was rarely in.

Even while in the bar, Devon kept his same moves. Weaving and dodging, dodging and weaving. Now, he stood on a couch, still dodging before grabbing the man's shoulder and jumping, pushing Chucky on the couch in the process and landing on his feet.

It was a temporary setback, but Chucky got back up, almost immediately. He came swinging again, and Devon grabbed a small coffee table, which the man cut through that.

He got up, still dodging as Chucky's attacks grew relentless, kicking him when Devon least expected it. Thankfully, Devon dodged but it led him to getting knocked into the bar, setting off flickering and bright party lights.

Even in the flickering, Devon could see the man smirking. "Hey, I gotta give you credit when credit is due, Dev. You're actually not bad, not bad at all." He complimented, but Devon couldn't help but rolling his eyes.

"Say, what'd you do before this?" He asked.

Devon paused, before deciding to answer. "I was a podcast host. I still am."

Chucky tilted his head, as Devon got into a similar fighting stance. "Well? Bring it, doll."

It was complete silence, before Chucky charged in, Devon once again dodging the swing and hitting the man twice in his stomach, staggering Chucky back.

But unfortunately, that possessing motherfucker just didn't know when to quit. But then, he looked at Devon's forearm, a smile on his face. Devon looked down, seeing the open wound.

Chucky managed to cut him.

Devon knew he had to disarm him, one way or another. So when Chucky just charged it, it was almost perfect. Clearly he knew how to use a sword, but not as well as Devon originally thought.

That's when the real combat began.

When Chucky charged it, Devon grabbed his wrist, setting in down on the floor, harshly. But Chucky could see was he was doing, grabbing the back of the boy's neck and spun them around, but Devon managed to kick the sword across the room last minute.

As expected, Chucky immediately went for the sword, feeling arms wrap around his neck as Devon at the very least tried to weaken him. Obviously, compared to a grown man, Devon had a disadvantage.

It led to the 17-year-old constantly blocking hit from behind the other, and just as Chucky was about to turn around, Devon jumped and kicked him in his chest, again, staggering him back..

Chucky had to admit, Devon was good. Better than he thought he was. He had taken Jake for someone who knew how to fight, but Devon? The twink?

He looked around, seeing discarded glass bottles.

Well, this just got easier.

Quickly, he got up and starting throwing them, left and right, not even for real aiming at Devon. When it came to dodging techniques, and strength, Chucky would say Devon was better than most boxers his age. Not to mention his punches felt like he was fighting a grown ass man.

Devon dodged, trying his best not to get hit, when Chucky just stopped, looking at his work. There was only a small circle of clear floor, the rest of it was glass. If Devon tried to fight, he would most likely step on it, weakening his fighting abilities and Chucky would kill him.

In short, Chucky set a trap, and Devon was a dumbass and walked into it. He could see the smirk on his face, the man being the only one wearing shoes as he picked up his sword.

"Let me guess, I bet you were one of those guys who constantly got into fights as a kid, aren't ya?" He asked.

"Maybe. Maybe not" Devon responded. "But, enough about me. Why don't you tell me something about you? About your past."

Chucky chuckled. "That's the thing Devon," He began. "Unlike most killers, I don't have a sobstory. I...don't have a past."

One second.

Two seconds.

That's when Devon started laughing, almost doubling over and laughing, loudly. It took him a while to get his composure back, as Chucky just looked at him unamused.

"Ah-hah. I'm sorry, really, I am." He apologized, wiping a tear from his eye. "It's just...now I think I finally get it." Devon began. "I guess, I hate to admit, but we're similar like that. We both despise or don't care for our pasts. You've completely turned your back on yours, as I have. But fuck that, now that's being a coward."

Chucky almost laughed. "What? Gonna start a therapy session now?"

"Nope. I'm gonna be honest," He began. "All this time, I've let you have control over me. Because you knew my past, you knew I was dangerously talented. And you used that, because you knew I was afraid of the people I loved leaving me because of it. You refuse to acknowledge your past, but me...I have no choice but to embrace mine. Accept what happened, what I did. Accept...me, I guess."

Chucky just laughed.

Devon took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He spread his feet apart, hands up and open to take anything. 'I'm staying calm,' He thought. 'Just like you taught me, Mom.'

He didn't care that he was opening himself to attack, or just relying on instinct. This was acceptance, this was bravery. As Chucky charged, Devon only turned his head, dodging the sword before disarming the man and elbowing him in the neck.

This is when he opened his eyes.

Quickly, he kicked the man in his chest and onto the ground. And with a grunt, quickly non-mercifully punched him, knocking both Chucky and Andy out cold.

"I didn't hesitate," he said out loud. "Just like you told me, Dad."

Thoughts?

Holy shit, I love this!!

[jainaism]

Very important retcon that is often ignored

What are you talking about? I do not seek Thrall's death, nor do I have any intention of betraying the pact we made.

Some people may say that between Theramore and the horde there was some kind of agreement, but it's not true. Yes, in wc3 Jaina and Thrall made the pact, but this moment was slightly retconned in "Cycle of hatred". Jaina was leader of the alliance (which at that time simply did not exist, despite the words of the devs, but mkay), not Varian, but in WoW things were changed. Theramore is a part of the alliacne, it's not a neutral city.

“We signed no treaty, you and I.” Thrall started in immediately, not even returning Jaina‟s greeting. “We made no provisions for our alliance. We trusted that our bond had been forged in blood, and we would never betray each other.” “I have not betrayed you, Thrall.” Jaina tensed briefly, but with the ease of long practice, kept her emotions in check. She didn‟t appreciate the blanket accusation of betrayal witd his out-of-nowhere belief that she‟d broken it—but the first thing she had been taught as an apprentice mage was that strong emotions and wizardry didn‟t always mix well. She increased her grip on the ornate wooden staff she carried, a legacy from her mentor, Archmage Antonidas. “I do not believe you have.” Thrall‟s tone was still belligerent. Unlike his fellow orcs, gruffness was not Thrall‟s default manner, no doubt due to his human upbringing. “However, it seems your people may not hold to our bond as strongly as you.”

Chronicles Vol3:

Jaina and Thrall continued to communicate, and their uneasy truce developed into something more permanent. Both leaders declared that they would respect the other’s territory and refrain from any acts of aggression.)

They understood that most of their people dgaf about their alliance, so both Jaina and Thrall come to a fair conclusion - their factions need a real signed agreement that would prevent the occurrence of similar situations described in the book.

“Indeed. It was far easier for our people to cooperate with the Burning Legion as a common enemy. Now…” His voice trailed off. Silence hung in the air for a few moments before Jaina spoke again. “Before, I said that after this crisis was solved, we would speak of a treaty between our people.” “Yes. If this alliance is to outlive the two of us—and it must, if both humans and orcs are to survive—then we must formalize our alliance.” “I suggest we meet one week from today at Ratchet—it‟s a neutral port, and we can work out the specifics.”

Whether they met in the Ratchet or not, and what they discussed is unknown, but in the end they decided to call Varian to continue the negotiations, because by that time the Alliance had rallied around Stormwind, and now it's up to him to sign such agreements. The idea of the treaty belonged to her, and she proposed Theramore as a place where, under her control, the parties without weapons could discuss everything (again, in dev's mind this thing made the city neutral during the meeting, but mkay). Varian did not reach Theramore, later it will be found out why.

In the comic book (which is already partially canon) Jaina says to Thrall when he begins to doubt the necessity of this alliance due to problems in the Horde: "A real alliance would benefit both our people," which they do not have at the moment. They did not conclude anything between themselves either before or after. Theramore is part of the alliance, and such "personal" agreements with the horde contradict the definition of the alliance. However, while Varian was "missed"(the WoW manual):

The war between the Horde and Alliance has been at the core of the Warcraft mythos for years. Recently, a ceasefire was agreed upon by the Horde chief Thrall and the Alliance leader Jaina Proudmoore, but the fact remains that animosity is still high between the two factions. In some places, this undercurrent of hostility has erupted into open warfare. In World of Warcraft, the tension between the factions is reflected in the player versus player game system.

The meeting still took place, but they could not conclude an agreement — the Twilight Hammer disrupted the negotiations. Theramore was attacked, and while Jaina and Aegwynn were dealing with Garona, the Horde and the Alliance were preparing for an expedition to Northrend.

There were traitors among the forsaken who caused too many people to die at the Wrath Gate. Whether their leader Sylvanas knew about this or not is a mystery, but the conflict between the factions still flared up. Jaina asked Varian to let her go to Thrall to sort out what was happening, telling the latter that there would most likely be a war, but she hoped that everything would work out. This also indicates that there are no agreement between Jaina and Thrall.

Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: Thrall, what has happened? The King is preparing for war... Thrall says: Jaina, what happened at the Wrath Gate. It was a betrayal from within... Lady Sylvanas Windrunner says: Lady Proudmoore, the Warchief speaks the truth. This subterfuge was set in motion by Varimathras and Grand Apothecary Putress. It was not the Horde's doing. ..... Thrall says: Know this, Jaina: War with the Alliance is not in our best interests. If we are forced into a conflict, the Lich King will destroy our divided forces in Northrend. Thrall says: We will make this right, Jaina. Tell your king all that you have learned here. Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: l will deliver this information to King Wrynn, Thrall, but... Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: l fear that the rage will consume him, Thrall. l remain hopeful that reason will prevail, but we must prepare for the worst... for war. Lady Jaina Proudmoore says: Farewell, Warchief. l pray that the next time we meet it will be as allies.

This war hard and claimed many lives, which worsened relations between the horde and the alliance, but this time they managed to sign an official agreement.

(Cairne) Garrosh referred to a treaty between the Horde and the Alliance, signed shortly after the fall of the Lich King. Both factions had been sorely damaged by the long battle, and both sides had agreed to a cessation of hostilities, including the struggles at Alterac Valley, Arathi Basin, and Warsong Gulch, for a brief time. - The Shattering.

(Jaina) We knew when we signed the agreement that there would be a few holdouts, on both sides. - The Shattering.

There was no separate agreement. There was one for the Horde and the Alliance, which includes Theramore. Also in the Shattering Biane considers Jaina as a "noble enemy". She could not be an enemy if there is a treaty between Jaina and Baine (= the horde).

[innocence-wont-save-you]

[An overseer is ‘sitting’ next to the scavenger as they look at Innocence’s sleeping form.]

Hey bud, isn’t it kinda weird our friend is uh… still sleeping? Like, we should be moving out by now. I mean I know we’ve been waiting for like, six minutes, but it feels like a month! And yeah, I know you don’t understand me.

(OOC: Heyyyy so uh, sorry if it’s rude but I didn’t see a place to submit an ask on the website so I’m asking here. Is this blog ever going to be updated in the near future? If not, do you plan to still continue it or is like, irl stuff putting weight in your shoulders? I wanna join the disc and ask questions but stupid anxiety is making me not do it. If you’re still working on it or left the project, don’t feel pressured to continue, it would be selfish of me to ask that of you.

tl;dr: I kinda just want an update on the current situation Innocence Won’t Save You is in.)

OOC: YES HI HELLO I'M STILL ALIVE THANK YOU FOR ASKING ACTUALLY

Short answer: Yes there's. Shit going on in my life. Mostly school work; this has been one of my busiest quarters so far and I'm constantly swamped with work and haven't had the free time to really sit with IWSY and work out what I want/need to do.

Longer answer: Yes there is currently no way to submit on the website I am so sorry. When I said this would move off Tumblr I meant it and I was finding ways to do that, but I kept hitting roadblocks because I started learning web dev Solely for IWSY. Ultimately my progress on the javascript tutorial stalled (due to aforementioned busyness) and other people let me know that Neocities isn't... the best place to host comments locally? So that threw a wrench into the plans.

I've admittedly not written much for IWSY in the time since I announced we'd be migrating off Tumblr. In hindsight I kind of wish I'd waited a little, but I think this quarter would have done this to me regardless of if I'd wanted to migrate or not. However, I still want to work on IWSY. This project is NOT abandoned. I'm just very busy :'D in a good way though! After a bit of a rough spell, my life right now is, without exaggeration, the best it's ever been, and aside from just plain being busy, I'm also trying to enjoy being alive for once. Unfortunately it means things have been and will continue to be very, very slow here for the foreseeable future.

But I do have a small update. I gave up on trying to code comments locally, and instead found an open source commenting plugin called Isso that I'm hoping to install on the website. Actually doing so will require time I don't currently have since I. Uh. Don't know python. But if all goes well, I will have that set up at some point, and then I can get started on scene 14. I can't guarantee anything on that while this quarter is still going on unfortunately, but I will promise you all that once my summer break starts (which is in June since my school runs on a quarter system), I'll put more time and effort into this again.

If you'd like to help get the comments set up I would deeply appreciate it, but again I don't think I can see myself writing any long form creative fiction until I have the time to dedicate my mind to it, especially given what IWSY is. I'm really sorry about that, but I'm glad to hear that you're still interested in this story! So sorry about the radio silence, I really should have updated a few times since the last post I made, but thank you again for asking and reminding me to at least say something.

So TLDR, no the story isn't dead, I'm just hella busy and trying to appreciate life.

[motocorsas]

That was a really good explanation, lot of thinking points. And totally agree with what you said. Jotting down a few things that popped for me.

I think generally fans of marc understand that he is unhinged, it might come across as joking or haha uncomfortable laugh but it is genuinely every time he is on track understanding that he might be in the gravel or seriously injured. Or that he will push himself to the limit to just try.

I think le man encapsulated him beautifully. He said, I will be at the front and let us see what happens. I have to try. He will try to do all to put himself in the perfect position and will try if something opens up. Now is this annoying and most often disrupts other riders like a cat among pigeons? Putting them off their lines? Yes but isn't that what racing is about (aside from ramming into them, i am not excusing his Argentina type crimes)? Otherwise you would race in a straight line. And if you don't push then what are you as a rider. Isn't it just a manufacturer thing? You win because you are on a Ducati Yamaha factory team satellite team etc etc. How is your merit as a rider proven if you don't push beyond the bike?

For example in le man, I kept saying, 5th is ok marc, you are on a gp23, then he went up, and I was like, 3rd is ok, you are on a gp23. But he tried and he got 2nd. That's on him, not the bike.

But the place where anons comment rubbed wrong is that all the greats were exactly like marc. Jorge raced 36 hours after he had an arm surgery or something ? Casey would win and then go lie in his motorhome in anxiety and guilt. Vale has charm on his side but has done enough shenanigans to gain one over his opponent. Anon came across as saying I hate marc because of this this this. When those qualities were not marc specific at all. It is just amplified now because other riders are not like this. Not his fault the aliens left before him. But there used to be 4 others like him. That time no one was talking about they win too much, they committed too much (wall in the middle of the garage please).Or maybe they did and we are in a cycle.

But if they hold marc to this standard they need to hold the others to the same too and where would be then with this sport. Most of the famous races are because of unhinged behaviour. And maybe they do. Maybe their favs are non alienish perfectly good riders like Dovi who I adore. We will have to see how Pedro grows into his shark behaviour.

As for his Honda bike, just today in a podcast someone mentioned brad Binder developed the ktm for himself for the past 3 years and Pedro is running circles around him in it. So like bike development is not specific to marc. However, marc developing the bike around him, and yet it trying to kill him? It wasn't developed for him then fully or even safely right? They just relied on his ability to save things. Doubt that he said build shit I will manage. He is known for not complaining so maybe his silence implied it. But he did leave when he finally saw they weren't taking him seriously. How much of bike dev culpability is on Honda & how much on marc.

He also doesn't seem to glorify his pain even when he narrated it in his docu? It's more, I hope this matters, I've given up so much. Which could be taken as glorifying but he doesn't go this is what I had to do for my 8 championships. Nico rosberg I stopped cycling and lost muscle type of stuff. This is what it takes to be faster by a sec stuff. I don't think he could do that because his own brother rides with him. It would mean he thinks Alex needs to go break a few more bones to win. He does have a no pain no gain on his insta. And might not show how bad his situation is while it happens but he does show himself looking back and going that was messed up, I was losing it, it was a nightmare, etc etc. It feels more like helplessness. He said it was like when a toxic lover who calls and you go (when asked about his eye injury reoccurring at any point). The helplessness of passion. He can't not ride. It's something you and I would do. Ending up with broken hearts instead of bodies.

But I do understand what you said of the system and sadly it won't change overnight. Also for the riders already brought up through it, it will not matter.

Meh rambled through many topics and ended up with half thoughts I think.

idk if i can address all of this but i see where you're coming from even if i disagree. often watching marc fans try to make "haha war criminal" or "unhinged" jokes makes me feel uncomfortable for reasons i don't know. as far as the bike being made for him -- it was never a perfect fit, it absolutely was twitchy and hard to ride, but he got the last word on everything. "marc developing the bike around him, and yet it trying to kill him? It wasn't developed for him then fully or even safely right?" -- well, no, but a bike's performance differs during every race. on days that they couldn't get the setting right, the thing was volatile and dangerous. but when they were able to make all the right tweaks, even if it's just a change to TC or something, he was unstoppable.

i'm not accusing marquez of trying to romanticize his own suffering, but he still sees it as something worth enduring in order to keep riding. if he didn't see it as worth it, he would have quit. that is a normalized sentiment that presents dangerous realities when taken too far. obviously marc isn't the only rider who feels like that; i've been vocal in the past about how operations like arm pump surgery are being framed more like routine physical maintenance and less like the invasive and potentially risky surgeries they are. and the system won't change overnight, and likely never if racing continues to be presented as this fictionalized, mythologized entertainment product.

[app-oh-sigh-oh-pieces]

there is no perfect version of 999

I originally played 999 as part of the Nonary Games edition on Steam. I really enjoyed it, but I found the Adventure / Novel distinction annoying. In Adventure mode, you can see the art better and almost all text is voiced, but you're going to miss a lot of context. In Novel mode, you get more context, but you're going to be sitting there reading in silence a long while.

The port of VLR handled this better by deciding how the game would display for every line of dialogue in advance.

I tried to watch a playthrough a voice actor did, hoping the narration would help the experience, but they turned on Adventure mode immediately and their cohost kept stumbling on puzzles in a way that was painful to watch. But in the comments I saw someone say that the DS version handles this split better, with one screen being Adventure and the other being Novel.

And checking out the DS version, it is a lot more straightforward to follow in that aspect! No worrying that I'm missing something important, no text covering up the picture, no... voice acting, no... checkpoints, no... auto-advance...

Okay, seems like there are some tradeoffs.

My ideal version of 999 would have:

High-def text for ease of reading

Flowchart unlocked only after you've reached an ending—it would show branch points off of what you've currently seen, but not where that branch point goes until you've gotten there

Auto-advance toggle (holding down a button does not count, that's physical work)

Adventure and Novel either displayed simultaneously or swapped intelligently

FULL voice acting. Narrator too.

The narrator being voiced is important to me because this game has a lot of wordy exposition and frankly, if I wanted to read a novel, I would prefer to read a novel—the ink and paper type. I found it legitimately difficult to stay engaged for the long stretches of time between escape rooms, even though I cared about the plot, because my options were to click a button every time I finished reading a line (oof ouch my hand) or to hope that I processed the text in the time it was on the screen.

But wait, isn't there a good reason in-game that the narrator isn't voiced?

Yes, there is. And I know that reason. But I think I have a solution.

Major spoilers under the cut for the true endings of Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors and Virtue's Last Reward.

The reason the narrator in 999 isn't voiced is because the voice itself would be a spoiler for a major twist. The game is narrated by the child version of Akane Kurashiki, and even if a player didn't work out that it was the same voice actress, it would still be deeply odd, not knowing the twist, that it was being narrated by any child.

But my solution bypasses that entirely: Recast old Akane from VLR with an actual older woman using a naturalistic voice, and use the new actress for both 999's narration and old Akane's VLR dialogue.

Why old Akane? Well, time is already screwy, so why would an older version of her be any stranger than a younger one? An older person sounds like a suitable narrator in a way that a child doesn't, and it would be easy for players to assume the devs just wanted someone who wouldn't be mistaken for a member of the cast—Lotus, the oldest woman, is in her 30s-40s.

Why recast? Because a narrator needs to sound like they aren't putting on a voice, and no shade to Cindy Robinson, this wasn't the direction she was given, but I can tell she doesn't naturally sound like an old lady. And you'd want to give people the closure of hearing the same voice in the next game to cement that it really was Akane.

But what about the reveal? Excellent question. When the reveal happens, the voice acting switches to child Akane and continues for the rest of the game. In my dream version, upon clearing the game you'd unlock spoiler narration and could replay with child Akane the whole time.

A similar thing in reverse could be used to voice Sigma in VLR, though you'd only need to swap his dialogue voice and not his narration (because he still is mentally a young man).

[asoulofstars]

We are having a month of daily spooky prompts at the Dev tea room discord server to be used as starters or drabbles!

October 13: A church right after a funeral, a small handful of people dressed in black hanging their heads in silence.

Five Times Riona Attended a Funeral (And One Time It Was Hers) ~ Multi-Verse

Under a cut for obvious related triggers, such as death. Y’all know Riona’s story. AUs include her general human AU, Star Trek AOS AU, Lost AU, The Boys AU, and then a role-reversal in her main verse.

I: Soll (Human AU)

           Riona was still sitting by the headstone. She knew the only reason that she was there was because her parents could not afford to allow their image to be ruined. They had said such scathing, hurtful things to her. Aislinn sat at her side. The pair of them were both in black, but Aislinn had brought Riona a purple hair ribbon. She had tied it around Riona’s hair, making it pull away from her face. Riona almost flinched at not being able to hide, but she knew she would never have to hide with Aislinn. That was part of the point.

           Other people were still milling around as well. Everyone dressed in black. Everyone mourning for a child. But Soll was never just a child. He was her brother. He was her everything. Riona didn’t know how to move forward from this. It had been excruciating to listen to the priest. And her parents. She kept swallowing and trying to hide her tears, but there was really no point in it.

           She hated Church now. She hated how these people said all these pretty words and offered their prayers. What good were prayers? What good was God? How could He have let this happen? She had so many questions, and she knew that there were no answers.

II: Aidan (Star Trek AOS AU)

           After everything was over, they were finally able to honor Aidan. She didn’t know how to do it. It was like losing a limb. They had the death rites; they spoke the words that needed to be spoken. But it felt like…it felt like she was just going through the motions. She knew that she had the right to mourn. Death did not come easy for them. But they had also accomplished so much. And the victory felt so hollow now. It was…it wasn’t right. Something was fractured. This was what she had wanted, but there was no joy. Only a bleak sense of the void laughing at her.

III: Sawyer (LOST AU)

           He jumped off the helicopter. He had wanted her to survive. He had wanted her to have a happy ending. He didn’t seem to understand that she wouldn’t be happy without him. She wished that she had been able to convince him of that. She wished that she hadn’t had to say goodbye.

           There was a public funeral for Oceanic Flight 315. Jack said some words. All of the Oceanic Survivors were expected to be there. They read off the manifest, and Riona couldn’t stop crying when James’ name was called. Her fiancé. The father of her child. She wouldn’t get that life with him.

IV: Becca (The Boys AU)

           It was her idea, actually. Mallory had gotten Becca’s body. They had a service, with a priest, and they let Butcher say goodbye. But Riona felt the need to say goodbye, too. Even though she hadn’t known Becca for more than a day, she felt like she’d known Becca forever. After all, this whole thing had been for her. And Riona was beholden to her promise to Becca. Butcher would not be alone. Not now, not ever. She thought it was important that Becca knew that she would take that promise seriously.

V: Butcher (The Boys AU)

           They buried him next to Becca. Riona had gotten on the first plane she could, with twin newborns, and she returned in her mourning dress. Another October, another funeral, another death-versary. She was really starting to hate October. But the twins were born the same day, right as the stars came out, and she at least had that.

           “It’s not how I wanted, but we did it,” she whispered to his headstone. “You’re with Becca. Vought’s gone. Everything we worked for. And the twins are here. Shiv and Liam. I’m going to miss you so much, Butch. I really wish you’d seen an after in all of this. Maybe if you had, you’d be here with me. I love you.” She touched Becca’s headstone. “At least you get him back. Your turn to take care of him again. We both know he’s not one to sit still, so you’ve got some work to do.”

           She swore she felt the wind laugh.

+1: Role Reversal—Soll’s POV

           “Rona should be here,” Soll told his parents.

           “Soll, let us finish the rites,” his mother scolded.

           He shook his head. “She saved me. She should be here.” He never talked back to his mother, but he felt like she wasn’t listening.

           “She was very brave,” Papa agreed. “She did a good thing.”

           “Did the stars tell her this would happen? Did she know? Why isn’t she still here?” Soll asked question after question.

           His mind was all questions. His first memories were of Riona smiling and trying to show him how to fly. It was Riona who had always been there for him. He didn’t know who he was without Riona. It wasn’t fair. Why was she not here?

           “Death is not easy,” Queen Roisin said to him. “Especially for one so young. You have much life to experience, Soll. You will understand someday.”

           “Understand what?” he asked. “I want my sister!”

           He flew away, going to the tallest tree he could find—that wasn’t the Queen’s Tree—so that he could look up at the sky. He wished he could hear the stars. He needed answers. He needed to know why he had lost his sister. Riona believed in the stars, and he refused to believe that they would let her go unprepared. Which meant that she knew she had to protect him, and it was his fault. The stars could not speak to him, so he just stared at them, trying to find meaning in the way they shone.

[rdwyns]

          hey y’all, it’s kit again ! swapping jeyne out for anya, my muse from the last iteration of warofcrowns but with some obvious edits ! if you remember her from the old version, fair warning, she’s gotten significantly worse. her intro is still absurdly, ridiculously long, i am well aware and will not apologize. but if you do manage to read the whole thing you have my eternal gratitude & admiration ! i’d also really, really love plenty of plots and connections for her so if you want to plot, here’s how: like this post if you don’t mind me messaging you, or get a head start and shoot me a message either on IMs or on discord !

⤷ ( kit. cet. 22. she / her. violence against children. ) the courts offer bread and salt to anya caron née redwyne of house caron. many say the twenty-five year old ruling lady of nightsong is known to be poised and insightful, though ill tongues whisper that she is insecure and volatile. when her name is uttered, one is reminded of a faint light in a sea of fog, sweet fruit souring into wine, & a dark stain spreading over silk. may she be blessed and protected in this war of crowns.

        tw - discussions or mentions of alcoholism, childbirth & pregnancy, domestic abuse & neglect, suicide by drowning, food & disordered eating, forced marriage, mental & physical illness, misogyny. ( yeah it’s a lot, don’t mind me. )

basics.

name. anya caron née redwyne. nicknames. age. twenty-five. traits.      + educated, reverent, insightful, poised, curious, resourceful, sentimental.      - guarded, resentful, volatile, insecure, transgressive, dependent. titles. ruling lady of nightsong. loyalty. house targaryen.

family.

desmond redwyne, ruling lord of the arbor. ( father ) viola redwyne née ???, ruling lady of the arbor. ( mother , deceased ) ??? redwyne, heir to the arbor. ( half-brother ) ??? ??? née redwyne, lady of the arbor. ( half-sister )

??? caron, ruling lord of nightsong. ( husband ) amerei caron, lady of nightsong ( sister-in-law )

pre - history ; house & parents .

the redwynes were always military men. had to be, really, being island people, more isolated and often more endangered than their mainland counterparts. really, there was nothing quite so loved as war, except perhaps wine.

an old, proud house, the redwynes and their fleet have fought for targaryen kings for centuries — they stood by aegon in the dance of the dragons, stood by jon & daenerys against cersei lannister, and even stood by maegos against the dornish and northern rebellions.

lord desmond redwyne took his father’s seat in the reign of king aeron. in a prosperous and peaceful time, men drunk on dreams of a glorious war grow restless — so he hunted, and whored, and drank, and none of it so much as touched his reputation. no, lord redwyne was an honorable man, a true servant of the realm, an example to many.

lady viola redwyne might have said otherwise, had anyone asked her. prone to bouts of melancholy, often disagreeable, and with a reputation for refusing suitors, she might have even succeeded had she not been so beautiful. lord redwyne must have her, and her father could not refuse.

his second wife, fifteen years his junior, and unhappy with the match, she could not love him, nor his other children, nor the arbor. a lack of love in such close quarters sours into hate over time, like bad wine. one of her few reliefs was that he already had an heir and a spare. poor health and misery would not have made her a brood-mare of any longevity.

family history & early childhood . 

as it stood, anya was more an unexpected result than a desired outcome, and ultimately even a bone of contention. she bound her mother by love, to the arbor and the man that she hated.

they were left well enough alone, for a time, viola and her daughter, the septa, and the maidservants. even the wet nurse sent away. anya’s infancy brought a modicum of respite, but it would not last more than a handful of years.

by that time it aroused suspicion. lady redwyne would hardly leave her chambers, refuse to let the child out of her sight, would not see her husband and even refused food for periods at a time. it was unhealthy, unnatural, they soon started saying. in inns and winesinks at ryamsport men would murmur ‘poor lord redwyne, imagine a wife that beautiful going mad on you,’ into their cups, laughing at their great fortune to have avoided his.

and perhaps there was something real to it, perhaps there really was something unsettling about the arrangement. perhaps not. but in the end it was only the talk that mattered. once it reached lord redwyne’s ears, red with shame at being laughed at by traders and fishermen, he put his foot down. viola’s whims were not to be indulged or tolerated any longer, and besides, ‘the child’—by this he meant anya—‘must grow to be a fool or a half-wit if left in her care.’

and so anya was removed to the care of a cousin, mostly sheltered from her mother’s influence. there were fights about it for months. the withdrawn lady redwyne who would not speak but to her daughter and her maidservant and looked to the window whenever anyone looked at her had disappeared. she raged, schemed to steal her daughter away, wept, wandered the halls at night, and made trouble.

lord redwyne even tried being gentle, for a time, speaking in soft pleading words for her to be reasonable, but gentle or harsh it made no difference. if she saw anya twice, even three times a day, it was not enough — to her mind, he had stolen her daughter, stolen her life, stolen her freedom and anything else he might think of taking, and she wasn’t wrong. but when she threatened to throw herself from the eastern tower, she sealed her own fate.

on horseshoe rock, one of the smaller islands in the waters surrounding the arbor, a small stout keep was furnished and staffed, and lady redwyne was sent out of sight, out of mind, and certainly out of the way, where she couldn’t cause another such a stir — and most importantly, after a while, the talk died down.

personal history .

with all the difficulties tended to, and all the loose ends and loose canons carefully tied down, anya’s upbringing was left to a succession of septas, servants, and after a time, an aunt, newly widowed  and returned to the arbor.

out of her father’s favor for as long as she could remember, with a rocky relationship with her siblings ( i won’t go into detail in case my wc is picked up ! ), anya found little relief within the castle walls. she attended her lessons dutifully, could sew and sing and smile, recite the houses, their sigils and heroes, and it all meant little and less to her.

she wanted to set sail, she had always insisted — since before she knew what it really meant, just uttering phrases picked up along the way the way one does around seafarers — but desmond redwyne would not suffer any of his daughters to venture so far beyond his control. he knew better than to trust sailors, and certainly never trusted women.

so instead anya spent years at her window, watching sails shrink and disappear over the horizon ; by the sea, swimming in a cove under the watchful eye of the septa ; sneaking in the fields during harvest, stealing grapes ripe to bursting. searching desperately, maybe shiftlessly, for a little bit of sweetness. all the while she visited her mother only rarely, on namedays and holy days and days when, for whatever mysterious reason, her father’s pity won out over his good sense.

she studied too, though silently, mostly unnoticed. the kitchen girls, the household guard, the way people talked when they didn’t think anyone was paying attention. watched her father most of all, and had no illusions about him. even if she still aspired to please him, somehow, to gain his approval, she knew: he was a cruel man, harsh, childish, selfish, drunk on wine and himself, and yet still too clever to let all of that be his ruin.

her betrothal, like any lady’s, was inevitable — on the horizon of her future, marriage appeared to her like a fog, uncertain in all aspects but its impending approach. in the end it was a transaction, as these things almost always are. a dowry of ships, wine, and gold ( but really, mostly ships ) was enough to make anya a desirable bride despite the whispers of madness that clung to her mother, and she was promised to the heir of nightsong without even the illusion of being well-matched.

demure, docile, even shy, few suspected that, days before she was to leave for her wedding, anya would disappear in the night. would sneak from the castle in the dark, with a torch and one gold dragon, paid to the wife of a fisherman who, in her husband’s small boat, rowed anya to the shores of horseshoe rock to say goodbye to her mother one last time.

it was a mistake, but she couldn’t have known that. she came at night, the only time she could, but to viola, startled from her sleep, she was a ghost in the moonlight. after the truth came, ‘i’m leaving. father says i must,’ her mother, in tears, threw herself in front of the door, on the ground, wept in fits and refused to let her leave. it was the first and last time anya ever truly believed her mad. with promises that she would refuse her marriage and sail home as soon as she could, she left.

she was guilty, of course — so guilty it ate her up, and very nearly killed her, but not so guilty that she turned back. her mother could not bear for her to go, but anya felt she would die — truly die — if she were forced to stay.

the preparations were already well underway by the time word reached them from the arbor. lady redwyne had disappeared. alseep in bed at night, swore the servant, but gone in the morning. the island was searched for weeks, coasts scoured, sailors and captains interrogated, but to no avail. some say she escaped, others that she was kidnapped, and yet others know with conviction that she simply walked into the sea and drowned

though she wore the her house colors instead of black, anya was married in mourning. the wedding was a ridiculous affair, lavish and splendid and festive, and it only made her all the more self-conscious. she was polite, sweet, but in the momentary lull of conversation she looked lost. doe-eyed — not innocent, but wary, reproachful.

( note --- everything that follows may be changed at a later date if / when her husband is applied for ; i’m trying to keep it as vague as possible for that reason, sorry. )

it was a relief to be gone from the arbor, that she could not deny, but things at nightsong were not better. she was withdrawn, in mourning, clumsy in her attempts to draw affection from her husband and all the while mistrusting him ; even at the arbor she knew the household, was familiar with the scullery maids and the maester. here she was a stranger in her own home, and resentment blossomed as easily and intractably as wildflowers.

in the end she found she had traded a familiar prison for one completely alien to her. in the end it was probably worse. she did not sour quickly, no --- it took time, but sour she did. 

tl ; dr , personality .

a traumatic, tense, and lonely childhood, ghost-like and disconnected. mommy and daddy issues, because why not. that and a poor marriage leaves her bitter, withdrawn ; there is a deep, foul darkness in her that she does not have the strength to keep at bay.

haunted by rumors of madness passed down from her mother, hard to disprove when she seems to be turning into her more and more every day. more recently questions of her fidelity have been raised ; she ignores them publicly but remains wary. honestly she’s not ‘mad’ it’s just what they call women with big emotions and opinions, y’know.

despite all that she still seeks sweetness, tenderness --- she is seriously traumatized and seriously sentimental, but not necessarily a good person. she might try to be or think she is, but in the end she’s also very shady and good at lying to herself, or aspiring to goodness. wants intensity above all else, whether good or bad. 

basically what happens when you put a sweet, sensitive girl into the rough, careless hands of men ; even when they do not mean to misuse her some damage is inevitably done. that’s not to say she’s only a victim ; she can be as cruel as she is tender, and hurting only makes her want to hurt more.

very insecure, which manifests itself in a lot of different ways ; does she try to make herself big and powerful ? does she try to turn herself into whatever it is she thinks someone wants ? does she overthink things and say too little end up seeming like an absolute whacko ? does she get overexcited and yes.

poised and image-aware but resents it. she should have been the daughter of a miller or a fisherman or even a knight, but not of a lord ; harbors secret dreams of simple domesticity but she’s been told at every turn that makes her weak or small-minded so she dreams of nothing instead.

plot ideas !

cousins. i haven’t yet decided what house anya’s mother is from, so there are plenty of options for familial attachments there, though probably a house from the reach / southern kingdom ! her father also probably had sisters, although they’d probably be another generation older and have adult grandchildren at this point, so. second cousins ? i think ? 

failed or cancelled betrothal. this is also super open ! again, would probably be someone from the southern kingdom, all things considered. what their relationship would be or whether they had even ever met is all very much up in the air. 

former flings. again i like to keep my plot ideas open to customization and further plotting ! but i also think that she may, probably, arguably, definitely have sought comfort elsewhere after realizing her marriage was not going the places she was hoping. idk man she just wants to be touched. how intense it was or how long it went on or what it meant are all very very open to discussion, i love a little drama but i definitely don’t need this to turn into a ship or anything ! and again this would be open to any gender because all my muses are bi !

enemies. i cannot stress this enough, i love enemy connections. maybe anya’s jealous and petty which she is perfectly capable of being ; she loves herself a backhanded compliment and has a bad habit of lashing out when she’s feeling upset or otherwise justified in her shittiness. could also be enemies due to bad blood between their families, since her dad is fairly shitty also. 

family ward. could go two ways ; either someone who spent some time in their childhood at the arbor or somewhere anya might have been sent for some time in her childhood ? she was fairly isolated at the arbor for most of her childhood but i would love for her to still have some childhood connections or something.

#badreputation friends. anya adores her sister-in-law amerei more than she can express ; both of them have a dark cloud of a bad reputation hanging over their heads. anya’s a madwoman and a whore, and amerei’s killed all three of her husbands, if the rumors are to be believed. which means that anya absolutely adores any lady with a bad reputation, especially if that reputation is only bad because of misogyny. they also don’t necessarily need to be friends, but anya definitely finds them more interesting than most others.

little sibling-ey relationship. yea i’m braindead and not thinking of cool names for these things anymore. anyway, gimme a muse who’s still all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and brings out the very best in anya ; she’s always been the youngest sibling but with an intense need to protecc ( catch her rehabilitating birds with broken wings and defending the baker’s boy from bullies ). also has loads of mostly half-bad advice to pass on ! 

literally anything else ! please ! i just love intense, extensive, or lore-heavy plots but also anything casual and fun i am not picky ! i just ! want plots and connections and muse to write !

[phoenixresistance]

The Phoenix Resistance- Book 2 Chapter 28 FINALE!

A/N: Well... here we are on the last page. Nine months all lead up to this. This is the ending for now but make sure to stick around for the character epilogues in the next few weeks for more endings!! As always: Mina belongs to @lifeofkaze and also Ava in mention. Artemis in mention belongs to @the-al-chemist and both Henry and Ellie belong to @thatravenpuffwitch. Enjoy!

Ministry of Magic, Atrium, London - May 2nd, 1998, 6:13 AM

A few hours went by as they waited. The atrium was completely silent for all of them but Devon. As much as she tried to push out the thoughts of her friends, they kept sneaking in. Each one of them were scared, some more than others.

Many of them paced back and forth, occasionally glancing down the dark rows of fireplaces when they thought they heard something, forms stiffening and the grip on their wands tightening only to relax when nothing came out of the darkness. Devon stood directly behind the barricade, never taking her eyes off the entrances. Her legs were stiff after hours of standing and the pain in her ribs was steadily getting worse but she refused to sit down, even after multiple suggestions from Henry. Dried blood that wasn’t hers caked her pants and hands.

It was just after sunrise that finally they saw exactly what they were dreading. A green light flickered and flashed deep within the darkness and they heard the roar of flames as a figure emerged from the floo network.

Mina and Eloise stood up from their places by the statue and they all approached the barricade as a group with their wands pointed forwards.

“Hey, stop right there!” Kaari called out loudly to the figure that got closer and closer.

The tension in the room relaxed as out from the shadows stepped a man with dark skin and rich purple robes. It was Kingsley Shacklebolt. Everyone’s wands dropped to their sides, except Devon who remained in place, her wand shaking slightly.

“If it’s really you, tell me your favorite type of bread,” Devon sent into Kingsley’s mind silently.

“Cinnamon raisin, of course,” she heard him reply back into her own mind.

“So, did we win?” Kaari inquired.

“Yes. Harry Potter has defeated Voldemort once and for all,” Kingsley’s deep voice filled the empty silence.

What followed was shouts of joy and exclamations of relief. Devon stood staring forward in shock before her knees finally gave out and she collapsed to the floor. All the adrenaline in her system crashed and the weight of the entire war came crumbing down upon her shoulders, like Atlas holding up the sky. Everyone was safe. Nobody else was going to die under her command.

“Dev! Oh Merlin, are you ok?” Henry immediately rushed to her side and scooped her up.

“Yea, I’m fine. I just need to rest for a second,” she signed.

Kingsley had climbed over the barricade and now crouched down next to them, his hand outstretched towards Devon who shook it gladly.

“Thanks for holding down the fort, Marlowe. I’ll take it from here,” he smiled gently.

“There’s one more thing I need to do, if you would allow me? In fact, I could really use your help, Kingsley,” Devon signed and pushed herself to her feet, Henry supporting her from one side.

...

With Kingsley’s help, the Phoenix Resistance wrote and printed one last newspaper together. This one, however, had no enchantments placed upon it to obscure the words.

Witches and wizards all around England watched as papers appeared with a flash from their floo networks and fell gently from the sky, a dark winged shadow accompanying it. The gold fiery Phoenix symbol blazed at the top of the paper, now visible to all.

Headlined right at the top with large letters said “Harry Potter Defeats The Dark Lord!”

The paper also went into great detail debunking the false muggleborn propaganda that was spread during the war. It included some damning evidence against many Death Eaters, calling them out by name. The puppet government was also revealed to the public. Pius Thicknesse had been under the imperius curse and Voldemort was the true leader during the war.

With that, the Phoenix flew one last time. However, this time it didn’t fly under the cover of night and it wasn’t exchanged by the hushed whispers of people in taverns. It also wouldn’t erupt into fire and burn away. This time it was persistent and loud.

At the bottom of the paper, where usually there was a blank space, now was filled with words.

“By Devon Marlowe”

The author of the Phoenix Paper was finally revealed.

As for what was to follow in the next few months after, Devon Marlowe would work under Kingsley as one of the head lawyers for the Death Eater Trials. The information she presented from the notebook she kept during the war was instrumental in the arrests and trials that followed.

The Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley, London - May 6th, 1998, 5:04 PM

The next few days passed in a blur for most of them. Kaari was more drunk than he was sober as he had a celebratory drink with anyone he came across. Devon on the other hand had buried herself in her work.

Tonight, however, Henry had managed to tear her away for a moment. The two of them held hands as they entered the Leaky Cauldron. Heads turned and hushed voices whispered as they made their way to a small table in the corner that already had many figures crowded around it.

“Hey, is that her? The former leader of the Phoenix Resistance?”

“No way.”

“Look at her scars. Of course it’s her.”

“Then those people at the table.. are they-“

“There she is! The woman of the hour!” Kaari loudly exclaimed, raising his tankard high in the air. Clearly he had started drinking early.

“C’mon, grab a seat!”

“What seat? You guys couldn’t find a larger table?” Henry laughed, pulling up a few more chairs from a nearby empty table.

It looked like they were the last ones to arrive. Along with Kaari Arcano, the table was surrounded by Mina Pendleton, Ellie Hopper, and even Eloise Yaxley. It was a shame that Ava Campbell and Artemis Hexley weren’t here, but Devon knew they were here in spirit.

Once everyone got settled, Kaari ordered a round for everyone. They spent the next little while in idle conversation. Each of them took turns talking about their day and what they had gotten up to in the last few days. Devon found herself laughing often, something she rarely did the last ten months. They were finally free from the darkness.

A bittersweet sadness sat in Devon’s chest as she couldn’t help but compare this to one of the first drinks she had in the Lone Star. Back then, it was just her, Henry, and Kaari. Their family had certainly grown since then. However, they had also lost family.

Immediately after they had sent out the last Phoenix Paper, the five of them left after their coup on the Ministry to deal with their fallen friends.

Mirai Wilson was cremated, matching their other fallen companion who was already ash. It was easy enough for Kaari to sneak into the back garden of the Wilson Manor, as he had done it once before. There, he watched as her ashes were picked up by the spring breeze and scattered through the grass and flowers. As long as Lenwin and Kiri stayed there, they would be close to her. Even if they didn’t know it. Lenwin would discover a piece of parchment jammed into the kitchen window, telling him of her passing in the line of duty. Her life was given so that many others would live.

Eleanor and Eme’s ashes were somewhat mixed and intertwined as they laid upon the Ministry floor. The Resistance combined them and after some discussion, they decided to take a trip to Pendle Hill together. Four hundred and two years after they were born, the twins finally returned home to rest.

The Resistance stood side by side and watched as the ashes blew up into the slowly darkening sky as the sun set over Pendle Hill. After a while, they all said their goodbyes and parted ways. Not forever, of course. They would always be friends.

It was now only a few short days later and they had reunited once again to have one last drink for the ones that they had lost. It was then that Devon stood up.

“To Mirai and Eleanor,” she signed before hoisting her tankard up high.

“To the Resistance,�� Kaari added after translating for Devon.

The others stood up and joined her in her toast, their glasses lifting high into the air. They were surprised when their voices were joined with many others, echoing out around the entire tavern, their glasses raised in solemn recognition.

“To the Resistance!”

[didhedietho]

not enough people know about the one and only Dr. Albert Krueger, and it’s a f#cking shame considering what a bastard magnificent character this man is. if villain why hot? dino explain! therefore, I will take it upon myself to introduce you to this twisted and horrifying figure. I’m also far too broke to donate and feel bad about it, so here’s my contribution to the dev’s work.

Dr. Krueger was an enigma. he raised many questions and even more red flags. he was hard to read and far too charming. the way he used everyone around him, only paying attention to his pleasure. it felt wrong to allow him to toy with you. the way he kept lying, patronizing, and gaslighting you. both his sides overlapping. one second he was the ever so beautiful, successful, intelligent, funny, and trustworthy man; the other, something darker, scarier, peaked through. worst part was that none of those sides seemed fake. that was simply the true nature of Dr. Albert Krueger, a man who could make anyone weak in their knees and used it however he wanted just to satisfy his twisted needs.

– Something wrong, dear? - the way he said it made it so sweet, so affectionate. yet, the look in his magenta eyes made it more concerning than anything.

– Not really, no. - both of you knew it was a lie, not a very good one at that. yet, he didn’t seem interested in finding out what truly had been flooding your mind. either that or he simply already knew the answer. he only hummed in response and once more allowed the music to fill in the silence.

he was an old-fashioned man, so the soft sound of a song playing from a vintage radio was not an unusual setting in his office. the melody so inviting and calming. such a contrast to the way his sharp canines dangerously peaked through his lips stretched in a lazy, somehow spine-chilling smile. what was unusual, however, was the proposal he made mere… how long have you been at it again? any sense of time and reason seemed to disappear the minute your slow dance began. Albert, as expected, was an excellent dancer and he made sure to carefully avoid all the furniture in his office as the two of you swayed through the room.

he was clearly enjoying himself, regardless if you accidentally stepped on his foot or not. he would only dismiss it with a deep, yet soft chuckle that rumbled through his chest. as for why he didn’t really mind whenever you slipped or made a mistake - well, that would remain a mystery.

what really mattered was the moment you were sharing. with the little space left between you two, his hand just a little too low on your back, his breath tickling your ear and his fingers tightly wrapped around your hand; it was all a bit too much to be considered appropriate for a doctor and their patient. Albert didn’t really seem to mind, and neither did you. 

the danger was lurking somewhere, ready to reveal itself any second now, you were well aware of it. yet, the tenderness of the moment was far too inviting to pass up on. who knows, perhaps you were enjoying this game just as much as the man beside you.

one was certain; Dr. Albert Krueger was going to be the death of you. 

THE CHARACTER BELONGS TO DINO999Z ON TWITTER, INSTAGRAM & TUMBLR. GO PLAY THEIR GAMES THEY’RE F#CKING AMAZING

[cinnamonest]

I got these and more asks regarding the post from last night so I wanted to elaborate and explain some things, and also make another point about the anniversary thing and clarify for anyone confused. After this I promise I'll shut up about this lol sorry

1) yeah please do NOT come after the VAs for any of this, not even the actual developer side either is at fault. This is largely an issue with the PR and marketing and higher up people. It's really awful that some people are harassing people who have no responsibility here. And thanks to the original asker's reply, I feel like I'm really bad at conveying my thoughts so I tend to overexplain lol, but thanks that means a lot.

2) I have seen people confused on this so if you didn't already, you should know that this isn't just about the anniversary so much as the anniversary was a final straw. While Honkai has similar rewards/exchange for irl money as genshin, mihoyo itself has some of the worst in comparison to other gachas from other developers. Games like Arknights, Granblue, Azur Lane, Dragalia Lost, hell even a cutesy casual gacha app like LoveNikki have much better real money to game currency ratios, huge anniversaries where they give out tons of free shit, and much more generous systems (such as Arknights giving free 10 pulls with a lot of events/new characters/etc). All despite being smaller, less profitable games. There's major glaring issues with the game that have gone unresolved for a long time despite people asking over and over to change it. It's a combination of the rewards, general stuff, and mihoyo's refusal to solve certain issues for a long time that has people upset.

In any industry, any company is going to be held to the standards set by the mainstream industry, which is what is happening here. It is natural to hold a company to it's competitors for comparison and expect them to match standards, especially when the company that is lacking is the richer one and could easily meet the standards if they were willing to.

This is especially true for people who put money into the game. Due to the nature of gachas/online games, companies that produce these games are usually very adamant on rewarding players because whales/P2Ws, people who buy welkin and similar stuff, etc keep the game alive. When they do not match the standard of the industry, those people will feel unappreciated and go elsewhere eventually, which means they will not be able to afford much progress, then even F2Ps won't have content, and the game will burn out.

3) I probably should have clarified this last post but, I know review-bombing does seem like a kinda shitty tactic at first and I get that, but the reason people are doing that now is because mihoyo has completely ignored people complaining for months normally, and even now has started to censor and ban people, deleted critical posts, etc. Basically it's clear that mihoyo will just ban and censor criticism until people do something that actually forces them to listen, hence review bombing. Banning/censoring criticism is a really, really bad move for any company, historically speaking, it's insulting to players who keep the company afloat and results in losses. The review bombing + a lot of people uninstalled the app apparently + people who usually pay refusing to do so anymore, all of that hits them to where they can't afford to ignore it when people do it en masse. Because it will cost them money/players.

What people are kinda really upset about, even more than rewards itself, is just the silence and censorship on their end, which is more frustrating than the lack of rewards itself. I did have some sympathy for them up until they started censoring and deleting criticism on their site. At that point they're doing this to themselves by doing that.

4) Also, notably, this has worked with plenty of other game devs. You may remember the disaster that was Fallout 76. Bethesda also responded poorly at first, but spamming bad reviews and horrible coverage for Fallout 76 got Bethesda's attention, and they went the whole nine yards formally acknowledging the complaints and more or less apologizing to the whole world of players at E3 and even gave refunds, which is a very surprisingly humble thing for a company of their level of fame to do. The situation calmed down because people felt listened to, and while Fallout 76 was kinda a lost cause and didn't get fixed, the idea is that the refunds/open and honest communication restored the consumer base's relationship to Bethesda. That was a big blow, but Bethesda was willing to take that hit to maintain the sense of communication and mutual respect/value between players and devs.

In contrast, with mihoyo, what most people have been trying to beg/bargain for for an anniversary rewards is a free permanent banner 5 star, which would cost mihoyo essentially literally nothing.

So far they have responded by banning people for literal years on hoyolab, deleting posts, banning people from various social platforms etc, for criticism. Even putting whether or not that's ok aside, it's very unusual and not how game companies usually handle these things, and can only end badly for them.

Also mihoyo has had time to fix this -- it's not like Fallout 76 where they released the game and then the backlash came very suddenly and they had to scramble to prepare a response/plan and needed time. People have been complaining about these rewards for well over a week, so they could have easily fixed it by now if they had any intention of listening to people's complaints, especially considering the proposed fix of a single free permanent 5 star would be very simple and quick to implement.

5) also? it's extra unfortunate and really a marketing team issue bc they could have *profited* from giving more, if they opened rewards to new players as most gachas do. Genshin is incredibly popular right now, to the extent that a lot of people in the gaming/weeb sphere who don't play it, but still know of it, and even know a bit about it.

If you were someone who had never played genshin but had been considering downloading it for a long time, but just kept putting it off or forgetting, and heard "hey join now and you get free Diluc/Keqing," that would have convinced a lot of people to go ahead and join, and they would inevitably get sucked into the game and bring mhy profit. So it's a little strange imo that they chose not to do that, it would have been beneficial to them.

6) also, be aware that the glider we're now getting was supposed to be paid originally. Releasing it free now is damage control. It's also, well, a glider. Again, while it is pretty, it's paltry in comparison to the industry norm and does not have much use to most people.

Finally, criticizing all of this/the game/mihoyo does not mean people hate the game. I do see some people lashing out in defense of mihoyo and I get that bc they produce something we all really like. I really really do not want to see genshin become "that one game that was super popular for a year or so and then died" -- that's why people want improvements, because if improvements aren't made, that's where it's headed. What people are asking for right now is stuff that is very easily in mihoyo's capability and would not cost them much of anything. It would be one thing to ask them for something that would cut their profits or take time to develop, but that's not what's happening. People are asking for very little in the scope of their capabilities/the norm.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

2022 Reads

It’s that time where I start a new list of the books I’m reading this year. I might try again to do blurbs about them as I go and link them but uh... I’ve never kept up with it so no promises. For my 2021 and previous year reads, go here and follow the rabbit hole. For 2023, go here.

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive^ by Stephanie Land

How to Lose the Time War* by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar~

Sorcery of Thorns^ by Margaret Rogerson

The Animals in That Country^ by Larua Jean McKay

Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana MIkuta

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States: ReVisioning American History by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower (novella) by Tamsyn Muir

A Winter Haunting^ by Dan Simmons

The Binding: A Novel by Bridget Collins

Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah

The Dark Lord of Derkholm^ By Diana Wynn Jones

Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea* by Sarah Pinsker~

Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan

The Song in the Silence* by Elizabeth Kerner

How to Do the Work: Recognize Your Patterns, Heal from Your Past, and Create Your Self by Nicole LePera, PhD

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell^ by Susanna Clark

Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning

Dark Currents: Agent of Hel book 1 by Jacqueline Carey

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esme´ Weijun Wang

Pride and Prejudice* by Jane Austen

The Lesser Kindred* by Elizabeth Kerner

Lincoln in the Bardo^ by George Saunders

Emma by Jane Austen

Accessing the Future edited by Kathryn Allan and Djibril Al-Ayad

Redeeming the Lost* by Elizabeth Kerner

1984 by George Orwell~

Kushiel's Chosen* by Jacqueline Carey

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

The Secret History by Donna Tart

How we Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary edited by Joan Nestle, Clare Howell, and Riki Wilchins

The Deep by Rivers Solomon (novella)

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler

For the Love of Men: From Toxic to a More Mindful Masculinity by Liz Plank

Contact by Carl Sagan~

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen*

Parable of the Talents by Ocatavia E Butler

Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems by Alexandra Stein

The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West by Jeff Guinn

Circe by Madeline Miller

Autumn Bones: Agent of Hel Book 2 by Jacqueline Carey

Ice Planet Barbarians by Ruby Dixon

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin

True Irish Ghost Stories compiled by St John D Seymour and Harry L Neligan

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir~

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Penguin Book of Hell edited by Scott G Bruce

The Devil and Harper Lee by Mark Seal

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth

Mostly Void, Partially Stars by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Lefanu

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors* by Sonali Dev

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims^

Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie

Dracula by Bram Stoker*~

The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGurie

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Red Azalea by Anchee Min

The November Girl by Lydia Kang

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle^ by Haruki Murakami with Jay Rubin

Poison Fruit: Agent of Hel Book 3 by Jacqueline Carey

Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende

Make You Mine This Christmas by Lizzie Huxley-Jones

*Re-Reads ^Chosen for me by someone else ~Reads done with spouse

[w1ndrunn3rblog]

Blizzard’s Hypocrisy - Hear No Evil, See No Evil

For some reason I saw this Tweet from Soul on my timeline today (even though I don’t like the guy) and I just had to say something:

Isn’t it funny how YouTubers and Blizzard suddenly bring death threats and harassment to everyone’s attention for sympathy whenever it’s Blizzard’s own employees on the receiving end, but when it’s their fans who have been getting it for the past THREE YEARS because of their own deliberate shit-stirring…they’re oh so conveniently quiet. Where was Soul and his other fellow ‘influencers’ calling out Ion and his minions for ‘that interview’ where they happily admitted to dragging Sylvanas through the mud to divide the playerbase on purpose? Why was their no outrage for the Devs openly and gleefully admitting that they had manipulated us for the past 3 years by deliberately stirring this “drama” up? Where have Soul and his fellow ‘influencers’ been with their anti “Harassment of Fans” videos when the the public hatred of Loyalists across every social media platform and forum site has been at epidemic levels for the past three years? Where has Blizzard’s public denigration of the abuse and death threats us Loyalists have endlessly received been for the past three years? Why is it only when they themselves are the target of the threats and harassment that they suddenly give a shit and call for it to end?

You know Blizzard, it’s not like we haven’t made you blissfully aware. It’s not like we’ve Tweeted you and reached out to you over and over asking for you to please take charge and publicly denounce the very real and endless hatred the community is throwing at us. And it’s sure as hell not like every major YouTuber and WoW Twitch partner out there can claim somehow that they are totally unaware of this. I wouldn’t buy that bullshit excuse for second. I’ve got a nice unhealthy collection of screenshots of the kinda abuse we Loyalists have been receiving for years now. I’m almost tempted to Tweet you and ask them “Where was your concern when WE have been getting this?”, but who am I kidding - we both know I know you would just ignore or Block me anyway. And so instead all we get from you is silence. We get ignored. We get ghosted. Nobody gives us a voice to defend ourselves with. And you should be the one’s giving us that voice.

It sure is a coincidence the only time this ever reaches the public eye of the community at large is when Blizzard is the victim, but when it’s their fans they simply could not give a shit. No acknowledgement and sure as shit not one ounce of responsibility for their direct role in the abuse we’ve been receiving. Not even once in three goddamn years of hundreds, if not thousands of fans, telling them to take ownership and support us…even since that interview! God forbid, even just one of them to publicly hold their hands and say “Sorry guys, this affected the community way more deeply than we anticipated. Please stop harassing and threatening other fans because of what we did”

Blizzard wanted to eat their cake and have it. They wanted to appease the bloodthirsty misogynistic dudebros by giving them another woman to endlessly hate while also appeasing to the Loyalists by constantly stringing us along with endlessly vapid episodes of “Wait and See”. Shock horror, it’s now come back to bite them in the ass because they’ve written themselves into a corner where they can only please one of them, and this time it’s the neckbeards who are (finally) suffering. Ergo, I have absolutely zero sympathy for a company receiving death threats and harassment when the same company purposely turned the playerbase in itself for the sake of “drama”. As I’ve said before, I don’t condone it but I sure as fuck don’t feel sorry for them either. You play with fire you get burned. It’s called karma and it’s time Blizzard sucked it up and dealt with it rather than trying to play the sympathy card. It’s like they committed a murder, confessed to it, and are now protesting their innocence. You can’t have it both ways, Blizzard.

And as for the ‘content creators’ out there that played ignorant and dumb for the part three years and kept their traps shut all the time it wasn’t hurting Blizzard or their clicks - it is no wonder you get called shills, because that is exactly what you are. Shame on you and every bad manipulative Blizzard decision you stay silent on. You are as much as part of this problem as Blizzard themselves.