#including some other character stuff that led to me discovering a new ship but maybe we'll get into that later lol

[persephoneggsy]

i’m doing a new game plus for witcher 3 so have a sebhawke witcher au

ft. Sebastian, a witcher from the school of the griffin, and Marian, a sorceress originally from Skellige, whose paths wind up converging when Marian is hired to track down the seemingly insignificant witcher by someone very important in Nilfgaard...

[c1tyhaunts]

@tinzony: can you share how your OCs (or maybe a particular favorite) came to you? was it something specific that sparked the idea, or did they come to you in the dead of night like a fever dream? what parts of that/those OC(s) do you feel most connected to?

*cracks knuckles* Alright party, we bout to pop off on the dash. First off, thanks for the question! I think the best way to talk about this may be to focus on my central 4 girlies (Avian, Lilah, Terrah, Ivy) as they are the ones who really take the main stage in my head. I'll probably go with overall themes first and then deep dive into each character in two separate posts. I want to start out with the early-era Xera OCs with Avian & Lilah since they have a lot deeper context to them!

Central Thoughts

Most OCs (excluding Lilah and some of them) came from me making them my playable character for the game I was playing at the time. Avian came from Fallout 3, Terrah from The Outer Worlds, and Ivy came from The Forgotten City. Lilah still came from a video game's influence (Life is Strange), but she wasn't a PC.

The majority of my OCs characters are black women/fem-presenting. Love a black woman from infinity to infinityyyy. This one is simple. I'm black, I'm fem-presenting and proud. I don't get a lot of black fem characters as protagonists in stories that don't involve black pain, so I wanted to do something different and complex. So that aspect is important to me. That baseline alone makes me connect to my girls so deeply. I heard fem ocs aren't popular on tumblr and? I don't care? I'm kinda here hanging and vibing.

The majority of them came to me instantly, but their development takes about 1+ years for it to be fully formulated. This goes for most of my OCs - I don't feel like I ever grasp their voice until I've had them fall on their face a bit.

Avian Esparza Created: 2012-2013 Original Names/Incarnation: Avridianna "Avrid" Fields

Old Description: "She’s one of those people who judges everyone. She can be a bit cocky, and she’s really snide and sarcastic. She likes to make a dangerous situation into a snide or rude comment. She has a soft spot for kids, but she doesn’t show it. She loves learning, education, reading… practically anything to advance her knowledge. She likes to make science references and she likes to explain stuff more elaborately than they need to be. She can be a bit trigger happy, but that is only when her gun is in her hand. Other than that, she always take the passive way out of situations, using her logic than her brawn. In a way, she’s somewhat manipulative and have a way with her words when she’s trying to convince the other party to step down, she only uses the manipulation for good, not for anything else. She serious 91% of the time, the other 9%… she’s playing tricks or entertaining wasteland kids out of the goodness of her heart. She’s a generally good person, but when push comes to shove, she’s willing to go the darker route. Before she ever does something of the sort, she thinks about what her dad would have done… " (Circa 2013)

Don't you love when your first baby was a mary sue? And you know what? I don't care, she deserved to have her moment back in 2013. Pop off, baby girl.

Anyway, Avian is the 1st "original character" I've ever made. She was the character I brought to Tumblr 10+ years ago after discovering Tumblr RP and she has been a long-standing character since. In the 2+ years that I wrote her in the Fallout fandom, she has undergone a fucking cycle of character development, including having my first single ship that developed through to marriage and a family. She got the full nine yards of character development from a harsh exterior to the kind soul she is, and it was pretty fucking cool to see.

Now, as I've grown older, I started to crave more dynamics, which led to me being more open to multi-shipping to explore Avian's personality and who she is. I did take a hiatus around 2015-2016 to hyper-fixate on a new character (see: Rachel Amber/Lilah & Jacket) before I stepped into college, but Avian has always taken a soft spot in my heart. I'd like to say officially in 2021 I decided to revive her to her current incarnation which is a massive transition from the original tomboy she was. With more nuances and more connection to Avian as a bisexual (sapphic leaning) character, and the eventual revelation she has ASD, it helped me to have a better understanding of who she is and where she could go. It's kinda like two different eras

It's funny, with Avian being my oldest OC, you'd think she's the most fleshed out and developed but I really put a revamp on her to some degree. Out of my muses, she's probably the most vulnerable to change again, because of how much I put her through in the past. This era, the Avian Esparza era, is more at its opening stages where she needs to learn her place again. And it gets me hyped to get her started again.

Lilah Lyons Created: 2015 (As Rachel Amber); 2020-2021 (Officially as Lilah) Original Names/Incarnations: Rachel Amber, Rachel Amello

Old Description:  On the inside, however, Rachel Amber is the mess of the century. She keeps up with the perfect persona while breaking herself apart to do so. She's harshly critical of herself and sensitive of other's comments and actions around her. Everyone claims she's the leader, but she's a follower to the crowd--a model to the people. She's hyper-envious, hyper-sexual, and hyper-depressive. She feels unfulfilled where she is, and continues to chase what she assumes will give her success: love and modeling. Sadly, she couldn't get her way. (circa 2015)

MAN.... MAN... WHAT A TIME CAPSULE. I unfortunately never deleted this blog so it is still out and open to the public and you know what? I am going to own up to it. 2015 Xera? Kinda a dipshit highkey. I was so over in my head thinking I was hot shit.

But you know what 2015 Xera did RIGHT? Create that Rachel Amber blog, like... wow. For context, that blog started JUST as LIS was getting started, barely when the 1st episode was out. Then, I was literally captured by Rachel Amber as a character. Because we had very few things to go off of with Rachel, she practically became an OC for me. She was the first time I got to experiment with darker subjects and nuances, and it helped me to create a complex but likable character. As a teenager, I didn't have a lot of the nuances to really delve deeper into this character, which led to a lot of problematic decision-making and writing on my end. Nothing extravagant, just a lot of what dumb teens would do. But, I still loved this character deeply. However, the LIS games went on and I wasn't in love with what direction they were going. Also given some issues I had with the fandom at the time, I decided to make Rachel Amber into an OC with my characterization of Rachel Amello.

The Rachel Amello period was a bit... rocky. It wasn't the best. I wanted to keep the essence of what I loved about my Rachel Amber muse and so I made an entire backstory that... just wasn't clicking with me. I did some funky things to experiment with her like getting her story involved with devils/supernatural stuff, but Rachel Amello wasn't as clear as Rachel Amber for me. I tried holding on because I adored the characterization, but it wasn't 100% slotting in for me.

Then, I was working with my buddy Rachel @hesperid and somehow developed... Lilah Eve Lyons. I took the concepts of what I originally loved from Rachel Amber and slotted it to Lilah and that started to click so much better. As I have grown older, I started to acknowledge the nuances of predatory relationship dynamics, how we villanize women and such, and Lilah started to make more sense as I continued to write her and realize... how hurt she was. How much damage others have done to her. And from there, I started running hard. Writing Lilah now brings back a lot of those similar sentiments I had writing Rachel Amber years ago, and it's good to bring it back.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Revolution Theme, Part 2: War of 1812

READ PART 1 HERE

Wow! Thanks @wdway! Love all this!

You’re right that that the Crossing of the Delaware painting makes a lot more sense, now. It also made me think of the more recent pilgrim paintings we’ve seen the past few years. I think we can work those in as well. The pilgrims were somewhat revolutionary in their actions. Not so much in a massive war or battle sort of way, but they left England (yes, Britain) to find freedoms their mother country wasn’t willing to give them. Which is revolutionary in its way.

But more to the point, that was the first step that would eventually lead to a war for freedom between Britain and the American colonies. So, you could see them as the precursor to the revolution. So, it makes sense to use that painting for TF and TWD right now, because what’s been happening the last season or 2 is the precursor to the final, big revolution.

When you got into talking about 2 revolutions, that makes tons of sense as well, and I totally agree.

When you talked about the white house and library of congress being burnt in 1812, about six things came to mind, lol.

When Eugene was at the Sanctuary (which I 100% believe foreshadows the final revolution, Beth, and what Eugene’s role will be in it) he played the 1812 Overture when he did the science experiment for Negan’s wives. (Including Amber, who looked like Beth and Tanya, who had a lot of Beth’s dialogue with Eugene). I’ve kind of low-key obsessed over that song and why they used it, but other than foreshadowing a final battle with Eugene as I’ve already said, it was hard to connect anything more specific.

The 1812 Overture was not actually written about the War of 1812. It was written in celebration of Napoleon’s retreat from Russia. Basically, he tried to invade Moscow early in 1812 but failed miserably and eventually had to retreat. Not so much because of being out-fought, but more because of weather, illness, lack of supplies for the army, etc.

Now, that’s not the same thing you mentioned in the British fighting Napoleon before turning their attention to the American colonists, but the link is still there. Napoleon/Russia>1812 Overture>Napolean/Britain>Britain/American Colonies. See what I mean? So, the idea of two wars or a war on two fronts really makes sense.

I’ve been trying to find out if the 1812 Overture has a d.c. al coda in it. I don’t think it does, but I’m having a hard time finding the sheet music online. You can find it, of course, but often it’s blurry or watermarked in such a way that it’s hard to read, and that’s because they want you to buy it to remove the watermark. I’ll keep looking.

But I do know it has a coda. Maybe not a d.c. al coda, but a coda of some kind. In fact, while I’m still not sure until I can clearly see the sheet music, from what I’ve read others saying, the final, super-loud, exuberant part of the song that’s often used in U.S. Independence Day celebrations IS the coda. And it represents Russia winning the war over Napoleon. Coincidence?

So, Napoleon fought many wars on many fronts. There’s that. But as you said, the British first fought Napoleon (perhaps that will be the Commonwealth) and then turned to the American colonists. And given what was said in 5x09 about a rebel group fighting against the “republic” using what amounts to guerilla tactics, that does line up with how the American colonists fought the British during the revolution. So clearly that’s the one that will involve Beth and TF (though of course they will probably be involved, at least to some extent, in the Commonwealth bit as well).

Also, also. You talked about the LIBRARY of congress being burned. I’m not sure how, but suddenly I feel sure all the books and librarian stuff must be connected to this. To the revolution theme. I still remember watching the beginning of 6x16 and thinking it was SO significant, but I had no idea why. It’s where we see Carl lock Enid in the closet to keep her safe, and she’s yelling at him things like, “what if you don’t come back?” And he tells her, “just survive somehow.”

Meanwhile, that scene is intercut with Negan’s guys chasing the librarian they end up hanging over the bridge with an X spray painted on his chest. And then he gets…burned?

I remember thinking that just FELT like a big war that was coming, but back then, I really didn’t know how to interpret it. Of course, AOW started soon after, but the librarian group wasn’t a big part of that. If we’re honest, they really were just random side characters, which was odd because that sequence FELT so important. So, I’m betting we ought to be connecting them to this as well.

The Native American Symbols

For the record, a couple of things I’ve been trying to look into and haven’t found much (mostly because I haven’t had much time to do so yet) include what role Native American tribes played in the American revolution. Some were loyal to the British, others to colonists. As I said, I need to do more research, but little tidbits like this one are interesting:

“Their biggest contribution was as spies going to Canada and returning with news of the English plans, and attacking English coastal shipping. The Indians played a leading role in preventing an English attack on Machias by sea from being successful. “

(AL’s voice coming out of the radio in 5x09: “At least 68 citizens of the Republic have been killed in four deadly attacks along the main coastal district. The group has continued their campaign of random violence, moving across the countryside unfettered, with the Republic’s military forces in disarray.” Just saying.)

The other thing I’ve looked into is Francis Marion’s (Swamp Fox’s) connection to Native Americans of the time. During the revolution itself, I’m not finding much. But we do know that he learned a lot of his battle prowess from fighting the Cherokee Indians as a young man.

What he learned there is what made him so effective against the British. So, I’m wondering if that will translate with Beth in that she’ll fight the CRM or perhaps even in battles with the Commonwealth early on and that will give her what she needs to triumph much later in bigger battles. Or maybe they’ll connect it even earlier back to early battles with TF and what Daryl taught her. The possibilities are endless. ;D

@wdway:

If you do a search, it's quite fascinating and well worth the time to do two searches. One on the burning of the White House and then the other one on Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans.

There are things that I just did not go into like the connection with Napoleon that we've seen hints of in the past couple of seasons and didn't know why. The Cherokee Rose, which has been a symbol for so long and I do not think it was their intention in the beginning but what most people do not understand is that the Cherokee Rose has a strong connection to Andrew Jackson.

Andrew Jackson had a singular focus on driving the Native Americans (mostly the Cherokee Nation) to the West. Lightbulb moment here, but maybe that might be same of the meaning of Indian symbolism.

Jackson had a major part in the Trail of Tears, which is basically the story that Daryl tells Carol after walker Sophia was discovered. Jackson was a brilliant military soldier, but he was not known as a compassionate person. His nickname was Old Hickory (a tree reference) because the hickory tree's wood is known for its hardness.

A few years back, tptb did a promotion showing nuts that had a hard outer shell. People didn't understand what that was, but I knew because it was a hickory nut. A very hard outer shell and then inside is the actual nut. Hickory wood was the favored source for making baseball bats back in the day because they would not easily break.

The other interesting fact about Andrew Jackson was his love for his wife, Rachel. It was a legendary love. He might have been an asshole to the entire world, but Rachel was the love of his life. When she died, he did not simply bury her. He entombed her in her own little Mausoleum at his home, The Hermitage, just outside of Nashville.

Jackson fought both in the Revolutionary War and the 1812 war, in the Battle of New Orleans. He apparently had been imprisoned by the British for a time during the Revolutionary War, which fired his hatred for them.

Am I the only one thinking about the connections between him and Negan? I'm thinking of the two wars, the Commonwealth and the war against the CRM. I want to think that the Commonwealth conflict is represented by the War of 1812. The larger, more overall important conflict with a CRM will be the American Revolutionary War, with Rick replacing Washington as the leader.

I was freaking out when you mentioned the Overture of 1812. I don't care if it was written for the war led by Napoleon with Russia. If anything, that makes it even as stronger clue that we're on the right track because of the Russian satellite and Russian dictionary that little Judith got from (wait for it) the library, for Eugene.

One other thing, @twdmusicboxmystery. I thought about this earlier today when I was reading about the 1812 Overture, but I wanted to do a check before I mentioned it to you. 

Two very famous pieces of music came out of the 1812 wars. The 1812 Overture about Napoleon and Russia, and The Star-Spangled Banner, our U.S. national anthem written by Francis Scott Key about The Battle of Fort Henry. Both Fort Henry and The Battle of New Orleans were fought in 1814 but were known as being part of the War of 1812.

Can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Definitely very interesting! Thanks for all this research @wdway! 

[tbhwhocaresanymore]

Nancy Drew 1x13

This show continues to thrive in all the best ways. And even though it veers sharply away from the books, it makes sure to keep dropping Easter eggs for the fans. Larkspur Lane, and now Hannah Gruen?? For those of you who don’t know, Hannah Gruen is very important in the books. She is the Drew’s housekeeper, and Nancy’s mom died when she was a kid, and so Hannah is a lot like a motherly figure to Nancy growing up. I was beginning to give up hope on seeing her in the show but here she is!

Okay so The Whisper Box was amazing. This show generally does a good job of keeping its admittedly large cast balanced, but then it goes and drops an episode like this that is totally centered around the main five and the characters just SHINE. We got to see the Bess and Ace friendship, Nancy and George friendship, Nancy and Ace friendship, Nancy and Nick relationship, and even some Nancy and her dad. Sal continued to be a quality addition, although there is still the unanswered question of why he is a repeat patient at a mental asylum. Onto the plot.

I thought this storyline was really good. Nancy is so observational that it makes sense she would notice when there was some type of discrepancy. Although it was a little weird to see her and George such good friends. (Drewdles 😂?) The solving of the graveyard mystery was a solid plot, even if it did eventually end up being useless. And the storyline with Nancy’s mom was really tragic, to learn that the cancer testing was negative and to see her realize that if she stayed in this world she could be with her mother. And then at the end, to see her accepting that it was not real, and even thought it could hurt she had to go back to reality where her mom was dead.

The Tiffany video. Okay so we now know that Lucy was haunting Tiffany before her death, and that Tiffany looking into Lucy’s murder is what got her killed. This ties into the masquerade episode where Lucy said her death led to Tiffany’s. Now Tiffany was obviously not as okay with Lucy’s presence as Nancy. I will assume for the moment, since Tiffany was also trying to solve her murder, that Lucy was doing her best to be a helpful ghost to Tiffany. Maybe she was just new at it, or Tiffany wasn’t receptive to being haunted, but for whatever reason Tiffany was afraid of Lucy. In the pilot video of her death, we see Lucy approaching her, so I think it’s likely that Lucy was trying to warn Tiffany. What I want to know now is what did Tiffany find out that got her killed. We already know she was investigating the Hudsons when she died, and so if she stumbled onto something to tie them to Lucy’s murder it may have been enough to get her killed. I was talking with @ofhergoldenhues and she thinks Lucy herself may have been the one to kill Tiffany. I personally disagree, for two reasons. One, Tiffany was investigating Lucy’s murder and after 20 years I would also want my killer caught by this point, two Tiffany was poisoned to death with a very rare poison and I think Lucy would’ve struggled to get her non-corporeal hands on it. Speaking of Dead Lucy she was beautiful this episode, minimal as her time was. Where she was floating behind Tiffany at the end, after the initial jump scare I laughed so hard because I was just imagining how uncomfortable the actress must have been all suspended in midair like that. And whoever is in charge of Dead Lucy’s appearance needs a raise, I am going to go as her for Halloween 2020.

At the end, when Nancy was back in the real world and talking with the others about who they were in alt-reality, I loved her moment with Nick. But also did you see George in the background, turning to stare at Nancy and Nick for like ten seconds before going into her office? The feelings are there. Anyway, I was really surprised that Nancy was about to admit to Nick that more had happened between them. In the alt-reality she apologized to fake-Nick for not fighting harder for them, maybe she wants to rectify that now. But it’s competing with her belief that as she told Ace, she thinks Nick is better off without her. And Nancy has by now definitely picked up on the vibes between George and Nick, but it’s still progress that she’s opening up more to him, especially considering that was why he broke up with her in the first place. As for George and Nick, I am still convinced it is going to happen eventually, probably sooner rather than later. George is definitely feeling some feelings, so I think the question is will Nick start to see her as more than a friend? However I also think that if George at all suspects he still has feelings for Nancy she will keep him at bay with a ten foot pole, because after her affair with Ryan George does not seem like the sharing type. Which I mean good for her, but also Nick just had/has such strong feelings for Nancy that I don’t know if she would ever be able to get past that. It’ll be interesting to see how the writers throw them together, and if so how long it will last.

You guys I’m sorry but the shady priest was the funniest fucking part of the whole episode he was acting like a drug dealer and the dude legit teleported out of the car I was just cackling the entire scene. “The church won’t approve” like what are you worried about not getting permission from the non-existent regulation committee of holy water like you could bless a bottle of Mountain Dew if you wanted and no one would care, just give them a jug of the stuff and be done with it.

Moving into next week when we hopefully find out Tiffany’s murderer. Suspects include: the Hudsons, the Marvins, Lara Tandy (who I don’t believe but feel obligated to put), and Lucy. The Hudsons might have killed Tiffany for something she discovered while investigating them, if so probably in relation to Lucy Sable’s death. The Marvins I don’t have a lot of evidence for but they are a rich twisted family and Owen has been cozying up to the investigators and since Lucy knew about the affair, she also technically knew Marvin family secrets and could have known more and so they could have killed Lucy and 20 years later killed Tiffany to cover it up. Lara Tandy because of all that stuff Ace said about the money from their parents and blah blah don’t buy it. Lucy I also don’t buy, but the trailer seems like it wants you to think it, we know Lucy was haunting her, and Tiffany saw Lucy right before her death. Let me know if you guys have any ideas about the killer. I will also be doing a rewatch likely over the weekend to prepare for episode 14 (WHICH DOES NOT AIR UNTIL FEBRUARY 26 BECAUSE THE GODS ARE CRUEL), and I want to hear your theories on Tiffany’s murderer. Based on the promo Lara Tandy is officially up and kicking again, and I have to admit I love her character, so I am excited. Send me your theories or asks about mine or come into my message box and let me know if you ship Nancy x Nick or Nick x George.

[musicallisto]

Hi! I'd like to request ships for the PJO, Marvel and Playchoices fandoms (my fav books are ES, TC&TF and ILITW) if you don't mind! I'm a straight female (she/her) who's intelligent, hard-working, ambitious, sassy, sarcastic, determined, helpful, caring, logical and analytical, but also arrogant, bossy, stubborn, overly competitive, fussy over my friend's health (both mental and physical) and very averse to big changes. My dream is to become a lawyer because I want to use my skills to (1/2)

Help others. My hobbies include reading books, watching films and over-analyzing both. I suck at anything remotely physical but I'm rather good at all things school-related. For the song thing I'm going to choose Avicii's "Without You" because it's been stuck in my head all week xD. Anyways, thanks so much for doing this and sorry if I made any mistakes, English is not my first language 💙💙💙

I Ship You With...

Percy Jackson

there’s surely a lot of energy going on in this relationship, but even before you two were together, your friends used to say that even Mount Olympus could collapse with the strength of your passion (passion meaning ‘stubborn as HELL tendencies’, but I didn’t tell you that)

it’s honestly kind of tiring at times to be the protective, caring, and even fussy girlfriend of a demi-god who’s been the chosen one of probably 12 prophecies (and counting) and has a knack for fighting ancient monsters of legend and immortal creatures

you have to practically beg Percy for him to lay down a little so you can take of his injuries and take a nap with you, mainly because you’re so concerned about his physical and mental strain, but also for the selfish pleasure of having him only to you

“Oh come on, I’m gonna be fine, it’s really no big deal” “Perseus Jackson you have been fighting mythological monsters for two weeks straight I am COMMANDING YOU to take a nap with me”

him being the cheeky hero that he is - “well, if this is what my general commands” with a sly smile, but you can read the absolute exhaustion beneath his sea-green eyes

he never really had much interested in anything acamedic or school-related, what with his dyslexia and ADHD making it harder for him to concentrate for long periods of time on given subjects (and, you know, the occasional saving-the-world thing taking up a little of his time), but once he discovers how passionate you are about school stuff he’s tempted to make an effort and support you

when you have a big test coming up and you have to study, Percy typically sits (spins, actually) on a chair in your bedroom while you’re at your desk and randomly exclaims pop quizzes about the subject to make sure that you know everything

“what was the name of the gladiator who led a slave uprising against the Roman Republic?” “Spartacus” “correct. The gods talk about him sometimes. Jason heard he’s a fun dude.” “Percy, you’re not helping me” “I am helping you! how many students in your class have heard from Jupiter himself that Spartacus was a fun dude? you’re really gonna make a difference thanks to me.”

he just asks for a kiss in return; consider it payment for helping you pass your ancient history exam with flying colors he’s an all-around amazingly supportive boyfriend, though

Tony Stark

did you just say you’re overly competitive? oh mygod

if there is one thing that Tony Stark hates more than losing, it’s losing to you. when you get that smug little smile of yours and start prancing around the Avengers Tower like you’re queen of the world because you beat him in whatever stupid thing you were both doing and it’s !!!! ARGH infuriating he hates it. no, really, he does. totally does not like it at all. it’s only for the pleasure of CRUSHING YOU to pieces that he constantly challenges you to anything and everything.

chess nights at the Avengers Tower have never been wilder and tenser. (except for Bruce, who just enjoys the whole debacle, giggling in the background, because he can see you’re both so bad and he could have won this whole thing three rounds ago. unless you’re looking to prolong the fun?)

both of you taunting the other to give up now and save themselves the humiliation of the slaughter you’re preparing. metaphorical or physical slaughter, no one really knows, especially because it never comes. the only way these dreaded, hellish chess games end is either in blood after Natasha throws the board in utter despair, or with you both having fallen asleep in the middle of moving your knight

there is a tenderness, however, in the way you care about each other, but you don’t show it that much, as if this sudden vulnerability came into conflict with the other sides of your personality. but it is undeniable. you care about each other, deeply. it’s enough to see how whomever woke up first from the infamous chess half-night wraps the other in a blanket and gently eyes them as the sun rises slowly

how you nag him to take a break when he’s been overworking himself, fighting all the threats and taking upon his shoulders the responsibility of saving the whole universe (and more)

and how he holds you steady, close to his heart, in the dead of the night when New York City almost falls silent and there’s nothing but your appeased breathing and the faint echo of a moonlit breeze

Lucas Thomas (It Lives In The Woods)

nerd meets prep in three, two, one...

(notice how I didn’t clarify who’s the nerd and who’s the prep)

I mean, if Lucas isn’t a nerd already, he turns into a big one whenever he’s with you. how could he not? you exude radiance and positivity and passion whenever you explain in great detail whatever you book you finished last week and you’re still obsessed with. how you pick up on the character development and how clever the symbolism is and just... ugh Lucas please baby read it you’ll see it’s just so good. with a laugh, he says he’ll try to fit it in his schedule. it sounds like the lame excuse you’d give someone when you’re not interested at all, but actually the first thing he does on his way back home from school is stop at the public library and borrow the book

he finishes it in one night, as you can tell by the foot-long bags under his eyes the next morning at school (longer than usual, anyways), but also by the content, even smug little smile that he wears on his face.

“so, what did you think about it??” you ask, hopeful, when you notice that he doesn’t seem completely apalled by the experience

cue montage of you two enthusiastically discussing every aspect of the book and the writing and the worldbuilding over lunch, in between classes, and even when you’re supposed to be studying

when you actually do study though, it’s always very intense because Lucas takes his homework and academic success very seriously. maybe even too seriously? you’re the one who makes sure that he catches a break every two hours to grab some water or take a breath of fresh air

he doesn’t need it, though, he retaliates, and you would find it agonizingly cute and endearing if you weren’t so mad that the boy will NOT listen to you. “you are my breath of fresh air”, he murmurs with a boop on your nose, before getting back to work

that absolute, lovestruck, handsome and brilliant fool

[basic-cable]

Fic Rec Bingo

I saw this making the rounds on Twitter and decided I’d like to try it (mostly because I enjoy going back through my list and reminiscing about the ones I love but haven’t read in a while), but didn’t feel like Twitter was the best place to post mine. I’ve got both Dreamwidth and Pillowfort, but I haven’t really used them. This is probably the kind of thing that should go there, so maybe I’ll post it there, too. We’ll see. 

Anyway, I only read in four fandoms, so maybe my recs will be boring to most people. But they’re good stories, and maybe there are even some people out there who haven’t read them. 

I don’t expect any reblogs or anything, but maybe people will see it and decide they’d like to take part, and then there will be more fic recs out there making the world a better place.

I put them under a cut because the descriptions and stuff take up so much space.

1. A fic you love without knowing the source material Take the Pieces and Build them Skywards by quarterturn Bandom ** Frank/Gerard ** 44,816 ** Explicit ** Character Death Gerard's not happy with his life, but that doesn't mean he's particularly thrilled when he wakes up dead. To add insult to injury, he finds out that instead of crossing over, he's been chosen to join the ranks of the grim reapers. Things get more complicated when he falls for one of the living, a waiter named Frank Iero. And just when everything finally seems to be falling into place, Frank's name shows up on the list of souls to be reaped. Loosely based on the TV show Dead Like Me.

I don’t know anything about the TV show Dead Like Me; when I first read this fic in 2009, I had never even heard of it. I’ve wondered since then if I like it even better because I don’t know anything about the source material, but I’ll never know.It made me laugh and cry; it’s an emotional roller coaster, and I love it.

2. A fic with a premise that shouldn’t work but does

An Inexplicable Occurrence of Angels by stele3

Bandom ** Frank/Gerard ** 35,192 ** PG-13 ** No Warnings

I've messed with the band timeline, clearly. This is set in summer of 2005... but it ain't the Summer of Like. This is a story about second chances and gutting through your own failures, but never letting them defeat you. Take that, bitches.

Frank (Frank!) is a literal angel, okay, but there is not a thing I don’t love about this story. It’s angsty but still manages to be cute and charming as fuck, and the characterization is great.

3. A fic you’ve reread several times

Seeds by thesardine

Sherlock ** Gen, supposedly ** 5,475 ** PG-13 ** No Warnings

In a fit of boredom Sherlock plants some seeds, may or may not eat one cracker, and definitely waxes dramatic on the sofa for a while.

Sherlock struggles with a bit of depression caused by boredom, and accidentally discovers a hobby he slowly learns to allow himself to enjoy. I love this a lot; the author takes us into Sherlock’s headspace, so you’re painfully aware just how much he needs a distraction, and how much better off he is with John in his life.

4. A fic you still remember many years later

In Care Of by Fangs_Fawn

Harry Potter ** Gen ** 45,319 ** PG-13 ** Child Abuse

During the summer before sixth year, Harry finds an injured bat in the garden and decides to try to heal it...and an unwilling Snape learns just what kind of a person Harry Potter really is.

Between the Dursleys getting what’s coming to them, and the redemption of Harry, Snape, and Dumbledore in each others’ eyes, this story has really stuck with me through the years.

5. A comfort fic

Nature and Nurture by earlgreytea68

Sherlock ** Sherlock/John ** 203,273 ** Mature ** No Warnings

The British Government accidentally clones Sherlock Holmes. Which brings a baby to 221B Baker Street.

Thousands of words of fluff. Literally. There’s not a lot of conflict in this story, which makes it a great comfort fic when your mind is too busy or real life is too depressing.

6. A cathartic fic

The Quiet Man by ivyblossom

Sherlock ** Sherlock/John ** 157,369 ** Explicit ** No Warnings

"Do you just carry on talking when I'm away?"

Post-Reichenbach John is walking the line between fantasy and reality, choosing to stay with the Sherlock in his head rather than deal with the reality where he no longer exists. He eventually manages to attempt a normal life, but he’s bored and basically sleepwalking through his days, so when Sherlock finally reveals himself, it’s the best kind of relief. They go after the last remnants of Moriarty’s web, in hopes of a second chance at the life they should have had together.

7. A fic you’d print and put on your bookshelf

Saving Sherlock Holmes by earlgreytea68

Sherlock ** Sherlock/John Mycroft/Greg ** 139,494 ** Mature ** Underage

Okay. So. This was literally supposed to be, like, three or four chapters as a prologue to the show. Sort of a "what happened in the Holmes childhoods to make them the way they are today." That's why it's set in the time period it is, because I thought I was eventually going to leave them to go on to the show. And then...I got a bit carried away and thought, Here I have established the two young Holmes boys. Now what happens if, instead of making them wait twenty years, I give them everything they need to fix themselves right now? Forty-three chapters later, you have this story.

To be honest, I would like to have most of my favorite fics in book form, with actual pages, that I could pluck from my actual shelf and sit and read without the glare of a screen between us. But I do enjoy the feel of this story, and I do believe it would make a good actual book.

8. A fic you associate with a song

Unholyverse by bexless

Bandom ** Frank/Gerard ** 186,764 ** Explicit ** Violence & Character Death

“He thinks I have stigmata,” Frank said, because what the fucking hell, it couldn’t get any worse. He might as well just lay it out.

“Oh, well,” said Brian into his hands. “Of course.”

Every time I so much as think about this series, MCR’s Heaven Help Us starts playing in my head.

9. A fic that inspires you

Turn by Saras_Girl

Harry Potter ** Harry/Draco ** 306,708 ** Explicit ** No Warnings

One good turn always deserves another. Apparently.

Frankly, I love every single thing this author has ever churned out, but this one is my very favorite. Harry gets a glimpse into what his life could have been, and a chance to make big changes he desperately needs. 

10. A fic that brought you on board a new ship

So, So Fucked by Anonymous

Bandom ** Pete/Patrick ** 12,565 ** Mature ** No Warnings

Pete accidentally "outs" himself and Patrick on Good Morning America. Only problem? They're not gay. What now?

I was reading strictly in Harry Potter at the time, and wasn’t interested in bandom at all, but my best friend was doing betas for someone who was writing in bandom, and she ended up getting into it and then wrote this one, and kept calling me about it to bounce ideas around, and the story was so cute, and Pete and Patrick were so cute, and I suddenly found myself totally invested. Honestly I think it may have been one of the best things that ever happened to me.

11. A fic you wish could be a movie

The Anatomy of a Fall by novembersmith

Bandom ** Frank/Gerard ** 107,525 ** Explicit ** Violence & Character Death

The unholy union of a high school AU and a ghost story. Gerard's life takes a strange turn when his family moves to a small town in Vermont and he discovers the locals aren't all what they seem to be. Also includes: unexpected nature walks, murder, pining, improper treatment of crime scenes, a number of bone-related puns, high school bullies, and a short-range shrub named Ferdinand.

This story has excellent imagery that I think would work really well on the big screen. Plus I can’t even hear the name of it without my heart doing flip-flops.

12. A fic that led to you making friends with the author

Seven ficlets for Valentine’s Day Part VII by RedOrchid

Bandom ** GSF ** 1,042 ** Mature? ** No Warnings

Panic-as-cleaning-equipment-AU Valentine's Day GSF.

I technically don’t have a fic for this bingo square, but this one comes close, I guess. The author was already in my larger circle of friends, but we didn’t actually talk to each other? She wrote this crack ficlet around the same time we started talking to each other more, and I still vividly remember it because of the genius involved in turning band boys into literal cleaning equipment. The line “Ryan bristled” has stuck with me to this day.

13. free space

Elf ‘Verse by mokuyoubi

Bandom ** GSF ** 103,247 ** Explicit ** Underage

Modern AU where Ryan is a famous poet, and he and Spencer are fiercely private and insular and stupidly co-dependent until Jon shows up and effortlessly breaks down all their walls.

Or

Wherein Brendon and Frank are Christmas elves who, inspired by Will Farrell movies, venture into the real world to become rock stars. Or something of that nature.

I’ve got a lot of love for this universe for various reasons, but it’s also fun and heartwarming and honestly, I don’t really need anything else.

14. A fic you’ve gushed about irl

Harry Potter and the Battle of Wills by Jocelyn (and her mum)

Harry Potter ** Mostly Gen ** 137,385 ** Basically PG-13 ** Character Death

Harry mourns his godfather as the war finally begins in earnest, bringing tragedy and new struggles for all those on the side of Good. If they hope to win, all quarrels must be set aside, new alliances must be forged, and Harry Potter must find the courage to face down dark wizards, his own emotions, and a destiny he did not choose. Snape blows his cover as a spy to save Harry from Voldemort.

This begins after Order of the Phoenix, and the story and characters read more like canon than any other HP fic I’ve read, so because of that and because it’s so, so good, I like to rec this one to people who are new to fandom.

15. A fic you associate with a place

Stately Homes of Wiltshire by waspabi

Harry Potter ** Harry/Draco ** 57,582 ** Explicit ** No Warnings

Malfoy Manor has mould, dry rot and an infestation of unusually historical poltergeists. Harry Potter is on the case.

Wiltshire! I’ve never actually been there, but this author is really good about details. The story is also lovely and funny.

16. A fic that made you gasp out loud

Home is a Name by Arsenic

Bandom ** Frank/Gerard ** 39,314 ** Explicit ** No Warnings

MCR Clinic of Love. Companion fic to Wednesday Night Boys.

Okay, so this one is actually a sequel, and the first installment, Wednesday Night Boys, should 100% be read first. It must be said, though, that while the sequel doesn’t have any warnings, Wednesday Night Boys is about the Panic! kids as prostitutes, and has warnings for graphic violence, rape/non-con, and underage sex. The MCR guys work at the free clinic, and Home is a Name focuses on them. They’re honestly both gorgeous stories.

17. A fic you found at the right time

real or not real by thearkdelinquents

Anne with an E ** Anne/Gilbert ** 11,587 ** PG ** No Warnings

“I could do it.” Gilbert said, looking straight ahead.

Anne stopped. “What?”

He turned to look at her; they were just outside Green Gables now. “I could do it. I could court you.”

“What- We- You- I- You don’t like me like that.” Anne sputtered.

Gilbert smirked at her. “Well we could pretend. I could court you and be your fake boyfriend.”

For one of the few times in her life, Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was speechless.

-

a fake dating fic but it's basically just a shirbert To All The Boys I Loved Before au.

I really, really loved Anne with an E. When the final season was released, I spent a weekend binge-watching the entire show, and then it was over and I was bereft, so I decided to see what was available on Ao3, and I found this, and it was exactly what I needed. And now I have another fandom.

18. A fic that you would read fic of

Left by lifeonmars

Sherlock ** Sherlock/John ** 45,153 ** Mature ** No Warnings

John Watson is left-handed.

He’s tried not to let it affect his life, but as any Lefty knows, that’s almost impossible.

In this universe, all right-handed people have some kind of power, or ‘knack’, most of which are mild and easily categorized. Sherlock’s is rare and believed to be the only one like it in the world. John is left-handed, part of the 10% of the population without a knack. I would read all kinds of fics of this fic.

19. A fic that made you laugh out loud

What to do When Your Flatmate is Homicidal by hyacinth_sky747

Sherlock ** Sherlock/John ** 58,650 ** Explicit ** No Warnings

Sherlock takes Molly's advice when dealing with his dangerous flatmate.

Heartwarming and hilarious. I laughed a lot.

20. A fic with a line (or two) that you’ve memorised by heart

A Necessary Requirement by Bexless

Bandom ** Frank/Gerard ** 3,759 ** Mature ** No Warnings

Right, here is the extremely silly storylet I wrote BY HAND on holiday. On PAPER. With a PEN. My god. The things I do when I'm separated from my beloved net. It is set during the Summer of Like (Warped '05, for those of you who don't know) and is basically a product of my reaction to various pictures of Gerard groping himself on stage, which led to me obsessing about his dick and what it might look like. As usual, I chose to work this obsession out through Frank.

This fic could have gone to multiple other squares, but I am not usually the kind of person who can quote lines from things, and I have many lines from this story committed to memory. I’ve read it multiple times, because I read it every time I need a pick-me-up or a good laugh. Or if I’ve read something scary and I need something lighter before I can actually get up and move around my house...

21. A fic that gave you butterflies

Pretty Much A Sex God by adellyna

Bandom ** Spencer/Jon ** 3,985 ** PG-13 ** No Warnings

Jon and Spencer’s first date.

The Jon in this story is so soft and warm and fluffy and his character makes my heart and stomach do weird things.

22. A fic that embodies something you value in life

A Marauder’s Plan by CatsAreCool (Rachel500)

Harry Potter ** Harry/Hermione ** 865,520 ** PG13 ** Violence/Death/Underage

What if Sirius decided to stay in England and deliver on his promise to raise Harry instead of hiding somewhere sunny? Changes abound with that one decision...

ALSO

Harry’s New Home by kbinnz

Harry Potter ** Gen ** 318,389 ** PG-13 ** Abuse

One lonely little boy. One snarky, grumpy git. When the safety of one was entrusted to the other, everyone knew this was not going to turn out well... Or was it? AU, sequel to "Harry's First Detention". 

In these two stories, Sirius and Severus throw everything they have into creating the best possible world for Harry, as he is their number one priority, because that is exactly how parenthood should be. 

23. A favourite AU

Performance In a Leading Role by Mad_Lori

Sherlock ** Sherlock/John ** 156,714 ** Explicit ** No Warnings

Sherlock Holmes is an Oscar winner in the midst of a career slump. John Watson is an Everyman actor trapped in the rom-com ghetto. When they are cast as a gay couple in a new independent drama, will they surprise each other? Will their on-screen romance make its way into the real world?

This has got quite a bit of schmoop, which isn’t usually my thing, but this story is so, so good, and I always love stories that describe Sherlock realizing and appreciating how extraordinary John is.

24. A fic you stayed up too late to finish reading

Collared by VelvetMace

Sherlock ** Sherlock/John ** 83,028 ** Explicit ** Violence & Rape/Non-Con

In a world where the British Empire is still strong and slavery is her economic backbone, John has become a terrorist for the abolitionist movement. He is caught by Mycroft, enslaved, and given to Sherlock for training. The goal: To test a new kind of slave collar with the power to break even the strongest willed fighter. One that will make even John learn to love being a slave.

Dubious consent, and humiliation. I remember staying up very late reading this one, even though I had to work early the next morning. I just couldn’t put it down. 

25. A fic that made you feel seen

Buy Handmade by jjtaylor

Bandom ** Frank/Gerard ** 18,755 ** Mature ** No Warnings

He knows something else is going to happen; his life isn't always going to be this. He just doesn't know what has to happen for that change to come, for him to wake up and become an artist with an Etsy page and a home studio, and to never have to see a cubicle again.

This is the story of my heart. I have felt Frankie’s feelings and thought his thoughts, and I love that he does something about it, and I love Gerard so, so much. I first read this in 2009, and my love for it has never wavered. I could have used this one for a good half of the bingo squares, but it’s the only one that could go here.

[rekkingcrew]

Rek DMs, Some Thoughts

Buckle up, it’s Edge of the Empire tabletop Roleplaying time.

Yeah, I know I don’t post here much. I’m still doing the devaron’s angels thing, which is scratching a lot of my online itches, and I’ve got a part time job and full time parenting. 

I’d really planned on doing regular updates of what happened each session. Aaaaand that didn’t happen. Which is a shame, I’d love to be able to have those summaries to look back on. But here’s the short version:

The gang, who are a crew of space chancers and criminals rolling around in a stolen police ship, were doing odd jobs together for a while, including some for the empire. Their contact, a Pantoran spymaster whose cover was as a children’s entertainer, congratulated them on their most recent heist job (where the campaign started in medias res), and gave them a new job: deliver a mysterious sealed orb to the leader of the peskiest rebel cell in the general area, led by a Rodian pirate by the name of Cheng Maxeda. They said maybe, took the orb, and then checked around and picked up a delivery job for their local Hutts going the same direction for some extra cash. 

They were brought in because the Hutt shipments had been interfered with by somebody. Their Hutts weren’t sure who, but were damn sure they were going to pay. The gang defeated a whole crazy mess of people who were being lead and bolstered by a falleen who had been surgically altered to boost their pheromone output. Then they picked up the package and made the poor decision of looking inside. It was the carbonite frozen but still living body of the cop who’d previously owned their ship that they were now knowingly handing over, because they couldn’t bring themselves to cross the Hutts. 

Moral issues aside, it was an easy job, they got well paid, the team failed a bunch of social roles and divulged more information than they should have to the Hutt point man, and Brick, the party’s wall of meat, got signed up for a pit fight. He won his round, but imperial troops broke up the match before he could win completely. TK cornered but lost a rebel bomber, and Eshi got contacted by a rebel who recognized him from a bit of backstory. Nyla chased down one of the other gladiators, an old clone with a sword who’d entered the fight because the prize included a bacta dunk and he had a friend who was hurt and dying after being caught by the Hutts trying to bust up a slaving operation. And that’s when the bomb went off, destroying some major imperial instillation bits and projecting a 40 foot holo-image of Cheng the punk rock rodian pirate queen striding across the smoking crater proclaiming she had come to liberate the outer rim. The party was presented with three job options: 1) after Brick’s pit win, the Hutts were down some muscle for a convoy and ready to pay reliable thugs 2) the rebels were looking for a study ship to bust up the hub of a spy satellite network 3) the clone and his weequay buddy (Edge and Horm) still wanted to stop the slave convoy (which was, as the party figured out, job 1). They opted for job 2, leaving town amidst a firefight with the imperials, and brought along Edge and Horm, providing Nyla with a sword fighting trainer who’d studied under a jedi, without being a jedi himself. 

The guys busted up the satellite base by hijacking a shipment truck coming in (I’d provided them information for a couple of routes, including asteroid hopping amidst giant vacuum-proof winged frog monster creatures, and they figured this best matched their skillset). Inside they found tech that looked a whole lot like our droid character TK, a completely brainwashed cyborg engineer, and the control rods that were their target. TK, who is a droid with multiple program personalities, suddenly and without warning displayed a program personality they had never seen before and destroyed the computer mainframe, remembering nothing afterward. The cyborg also had hardware a good deal like Nyla’s, and contained a message begging for help from someone held against their will and being moved between facilities. They blew up the station, retrieved valuable tech, and flew off, triumphant, to get their payment from the rebels. 

The rebels welcomed the gang, who got to know the faction a little bit better. TK nearly started a gunfight, Nyla got a haircut, and Brick and Eshi developed mouse droid beer pong in order to provide historically unique droid bits to an eccentric collector for the last bit Eshi needed to build his machine from the prototype he’d stolen from the corporate sector in his backstory, which runs on two kyber crystals and provides a similar benefit to the force power “foresee”. He used this to figure out the sphere they were carrying contained an intensely virulent ship killer plague that would likely kill them as well, and they resolved to throw that in the sun. The gang foiled an assassination attempt on Cheng and got a new assignment: break her old pirate buddy out of maximum security prison (again, they were presented with several possible assignments, some of which tied in to other plots.) Nyla and Cheng also worked out mutually that they were both force sensitive. 

The prison break went off well. It was a sort of siberian gulag set up on an ice planet, plus some eight foot carnivorous burrowing worms- yeah, those walls are pretty short, prisoners, but where are you gonna run? The gang picked up some extra supplies by agreeing to break out a Hutt operative while they were there anyway. After some exciting sky battles, Nyla and Eshi turns the ship’s forward shields into a battering ram. They made short work of the guards inside, but discovered that there was an unexpected other party there- a wookie bounty hunter who was looking into the disappearance of the guy they handed over to the hutts. That guy was a tough fight even for the team’s big heavies, and they set a load of prisoners free to help them- taking the risk that the maximum security violent shipjackers would not decide to jack their ship to escape. Luckily between the two heavies and the giant devaronian pirate they just released, they were able to intimidate them into just accepting a ride off planet. Nyla, meanwhile, fought the wookie’s cat beast in an enclosed tunnel and nearly died, but won a pretty hard solo battle, enabling her to pick up the Hutt contact and a delirious nautolan who she had a force feeling about. Eshi forgot he was a reptile and went out in the ice with no coat, then defeated his own personal corpsec bounty hunter’s attempts to come at him with robots. With great success, they headed back to rebel space, got paid, and received a message that their former imperial employer was officially fucking pissed at them. Also, the nautolan was force sensitive and having visions of the inquisitor who tried to murder Nyla. 

Faced with mounting tension and the inability to continue lying to each other, the team pretty much spilled all their secrets to each other in the absolute most fun room mate meeting I have ever witnessed. Nyla is a force sensitive ex-imperial pilot ace, TK has an extra personality, Eshi has an I-assassinated-a-king level bounty and a machine that tells the future, Thirteen (the bothan spy) knew all this and told no one, Brick likes light beer, etc. They decided they really need to murder the children’s TV spy master as their next move. Their bothan spy provided them with a dossier on him and his six lieutenants. Nyla and Thirteen went to go meet the spymaster and try to throw him off, and had to fight the stealth assassin lieutenant, which they survived. Eshi hacked the slicer lieutenant and stole her state of the art surveillance droids. Brick checked up on the Hutt-embedded spy and learned she was a pretty awful person. He also ended up scheduling a rematch with the douwutin he beat in the pit fight, who the Hutts later dropped a word in that they wouldn’t mind if he just happened to kill in that fight. The group’s one cop friend, a red-string and corkboard conspiracy melitto, got attacked by assassins, because the spies and the governor were working against each other. Nyla and TK accidentally killed the master of disguise spy lieutenant without realizing who he was. They turned the surveillance droids on the Hutts and found out the Hutt-embedded spy was working against the spymaster as well. 

The spymaster was scheduled to attend the Chancellor’s day gala on Naboo, which is fancy far outside of anything the party is probably capable of pulling off, but I wanted to give them the opportunity to try. One of the spy lieutenants there, a slimy alderaanean lesser noble, has found a packet of forbidden information that had been stolen and hidden there, and the spymaster is going in person for the hand-off. Rebuffing an offer from the planetary governor, the group made a very temporary alliance with the Hutt spy to kidnap the noble spy and use him to force a meeting with the spymaster on their terms. And that’s where we are now. 

___

All in all, I’m really pleased with how this is going. I’m having a lot of fun and my players are absolutely great. I’d... assumed that would take less time to type up, and it’s leaving out a whole lot of stuff. I started this in October, so that’s about seven months worth of weekly sessions. That it breaks pretty easily into arcs, I feel, speaks pretty well for what I’d intended of it. I have SO MANY FUCKING named NPCs. It’s over 50 at last count. Factions are helping a lot. Each faction has a main plot that’s going to move along no matter what the PCs do, hitting beats whenever I need something interesting for the background. 

I’d like to keep making some posts here about what I’ve learned, what’s worked and what hasn’t, and about each player and their character. I personally think it’s interesting, and it helps me collect my thoughts. But for now I think I’m going to bed. 

[ericadownunderpart2]

The Great Barrier “Ralph”

Tuesday and Wednesday I checked off one of my bucket list activities.  I took an overnight boat and snorkelled thr the Great Barrier Reef.  We visited one of the Outer Reefs, the Thetford Reef, 3 hours out from Cairns.  One of the ost spectacular sites ever!

So full disclosure, this might be one of my least visual appealing posts because I did not have an underwater camera and really didn’t use my phone too much because everything on the boat is soaking wet all the time.  Most of the pics from topside are mine, but all the fish/coral pics are courtesy of the internet.  They are all things I really saw though..Anyway, sit back, put your comfy pants on, get a glass of wine...cause this is a long one.

My Great Barrier Reef (GBR) voyage was aboard a small 65 foot motor sailing schooner called the Rum Runner. It was advertised as "an affordable reef experience for backpackers and budget-conscious travelers" (You know how I love a deal) It lives up to it's no frills expectations. The boat is owned by a man named Richard who is also known as Rum. He also owns the hostel I am staying at...another no frills frills experience. Rum is a kind of wiry frantic man, who when I told him that the door to the refrigerator fell off when I opened it, he said  “Oh yeah, that...well, you can put your stuff in the other fridge.”  Hmmm.  No frills indeed.  But it is actually a nice room with my own bed and A/C.  All the basics covered.

Anyway, back to the reef...the captain of the Rum Runner was also quite a character.  His name is Jace and he looks exactly like what you would imagine a grizzled sailor to look like (only he’s on the small side).  Long, unkempt hair and covered in nautical tattoos,.His personality is a grizzled as his exterior would suggest.  Classic! (No photo, use your imagination)

A motley crew

We were at full capacity on the small boat with 16 passengers and 5 crew.  (I actually think we might have been over capacity, but its not the kind of boat that is concerned with that kind of thing.)  My fellow passengers on the trip were a fun and eclectic mix of international backpackers hailing from 9 different countries including Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, New Zealand, France, etc.

The ride out to the reef was a 3 hour trip.  It started with fun a chatting and general excitement.  Things quickly turned sour.  The reason I named this post The Great Barrier “Ralph” was due to the rough seas heading out to the reef and the puking/ralphing fest that ensued.  Of the 16 passengers, at my best count 9 were lined up along the side of the ship throwing up for most of the ride out.  A seasickness extravaganza.  I was shockingly one of the only people not throwing up.  Considering my general aversion to water for most of my early life, I was shocked to be one of the ones who had my sea legs.  This air of cockiness would catch up to me later, but more to come on that...

By the time we got out to the reef, most people, although a little sad, queasy and haggard had stopped ralphing over the side and it was time to get our diving/snorkeling on.  Most of the passengers were certified divers.  There were only three of us who opted for the snorkel only package, which proved to be the best decision.  My snorkel buddies are my new favorite travel friends, Sophie & Oscar.  Sophie is a “Kiwi” (a person from New Zealand) and Oscar, Sophie’s BF, is originally from Sweden.  They would turn out to be my travel companions for the rest of my time in Cairns.  

Snorkel buddies

The three of us had nearly free reign of the reef on each dive, as the crew was preoccupied with the divers.  On day one, we did 4 dives at sites around an Outer Reef known as the Thetford Reef.  Although the GBR is in danger due to global warming, it is absolutely huge and some parts of it are still flourishing.  We were on just one of over 3,000 reef groups that make up the GBR!

So what is it like to snorkel in open ocean?  Absolutely terrifying.  Thanks for asking.  If I’m being totally honest my entire first & maybe second dive I was freaking out.  I made them give me floaty because I was scared I would drown and never be seen again.  As it turns out, it is salt water and we were all wearing wet suits so, I was so buoyant I couldn’t have drowned if I wanted to.  It took a few dives for me to realize this.  Most of the reefs we saw were shaped like giant mountains or mushroom clouds under the water.  You can snorkel right over the top of them and the corals are only a few feet from you.  Once I got over the initial fear of drowning or being eaten by sharks, I discovered it is one of the most magical experiences ever.  You can swim with schools of beautiful, iridescent fish.  There are so many of them.  The fish and the reef are ever color imaginable and they are so close to you!  One of the best experiences is when you swim over the top of the reef and get to the edge...all of a sudden it drops off into huge caverns, sometimes hundreds of feet deep.  It feels like you are flying.  You’re first instinct is that you are going to fall off the edge, until you realize you are floating above the void.  It is literally like flying above mountains and valleys, except they are underwater and made of coral.  

In the deep dropoffs there are schools of large fish, we saw Tuna, which are huge and Unicorn Fish, which are hilarious.

Again, disclaimer, I did not take these photoss, but this is what they look like.

“Unicorn Fish” -  Naso brevirostris

Tuna

In the shallows of the reefs, we found Nemo!!  (Clown fish are the cutest), these crazy neon blue worms that hide when you splash water at them, and other smaller fish.  Some of my other favorites below:

Butterfly fish.  So cute, they were always swimming in pairs.

Five banded Damselfish.  I could just swim right in the middle of a school of them.

Blue Puller Damsel Fish

Bi-color Clown Fish Nemo!)

Coral Trout

Giant Clams

Table Coral

Brain Coral

Blue Coral

Each dive was about an hour and I didn’t want to come back each time.  It was beyond words...]

Pics from rear of the Rum Runner at dusk 

The other thing that is amazing about being out on the reef  is the sunset and at night there is almost no light and we were out on a clouody night.  We had dinner and a beer and headed to bed in our tiny bunks.  I don’t think I have ever been so tired.  I’m pretty sure I was asleep by 8pm.

The next day we were up at 7am for our morning dive.  The first of two for the final day.  On each dive the reefs got progressively more amazing (maybe because I could finally fully relax and enjoy them) The abundance of fish chasing each other around the reef and hiding in little reef caves was phenomenal.  On our final dive of the day, we swam out to a large, shallow thin reef, with deep crevasses running through the reef.  I was swimming a little further away from my companions, near a crevasse, and all of a sudden a HUGE fish came out of the black of the crevasse and swam right past my face.  It was what is known as a Humphead Wrasse.  They are one of the largest fish in the reef.  The one I saw was easily 4 feet long.  

Humphead  or Maori Wrasse (They can live up to 30 years, but are currently on the endangered species list)

Of course, I immediately thought it was something that was going to eat me.  I panicked and swam down to avoid it, this led to me taking in a ton of water into my snorkel and completely forgetting how to blow it out again.  I ended up swallowing a TON of salt water in my panic.  I eventually pulled myself together and figured out the fish was completely harmless.  I then took off in pursuit of it.  After sprinting after it for several minutes I finally caught up to it and swam alongside of it for what felt like hours, probably a minute or so.  Then, it hit me...I had just swallowed an inhumane amount of salt water and was completely wiped from chasing the fish.  My bravado in being one of the non-pukers caught up to me.  All of a sudden, I just lost my cookies and puked in the ocean.  I had officially left my mark (and my breakfast) on the Great Barrier Reef.  And that friends, was my final hurrah on the Reef.  The Wrasse had disappeared back to the depths of the ocean and it was time for me to swim back to the boat.  Epic, right?

Anyway, the conclusion of this story is that I continue to leave my breakfast in the GBR for the rest of the 3 hour trip back to Cairns.  Seasickness is no joke, folks.  Lesson learned, don’t eat a giant breakfast, swallow a ton of salt water and then ride on rough water for three hours.  Was it worth it?  YYYYYEEEESSSSSSS!  In fact, I couldn’t ask for a more hilarious and epic final hours on the Reef.  This will probably go down as one of the best experiences of my life.  It was also one of the best moments ever to stand on solid ground, take a shower in my hostel, take some anti-nausea medicine and sleep!

[ihaveseentruebravery]

Intro Analysis

So I had many, many thoughts about our lovely new intro. 😅

Intro Structure and Order

The order of the new intro is something I find fascinating. While I've kinda paid attention to intros of other shows, the order of them have often made a lot of sense and were typically all pretty similar in how they ordered their crediting to their actors and whatnot. However, the Mighty Nein intro is different even from the intro of Campaign 2. The only thing that stayed the same was that Travis and Marisha were first and second to be credited, respectively, while Matt was very last.

In the new intro, Nott/Sam is third, (while he was 5th in the other one), and Jester/Laura is fourth (while she was 7th previously). Travis, Marisha, Sam, and Laura (and their chars) are all introduced in the first 30 seconds. Then it cuts to their ‘beginning’ as a group after the Trostenwald meet-up when they get a cart and head north to Allfield together.

At :37 seconds and :40 seconds respectively, Liam and Ashley are credited, spliced with scenes (presumably from both of their character's pasts, if they were keeping consistent with the Jester past scene and the Caleb past scene shown). We then cut to other miscellaneous scenes of the group and animations of their fighting abilities (which are gorgeous). At 1:10, Taliesin is credited with a Caduceus shot (shoutout to the purple Mollymauk butterfly symbolism shown here and at the beginning group shot) for obvious reasons. And then, lastly, we get our darling Matt Mercer, same as the previous intro.

Now, we can analyze this order through a couple methods.

Chronologically:

1. 

Fjord's ship exploding that happened a few weeks before their session zero. His inciting incident to track down Jester (as Travis mentioned) because he'd seen her do magic and thought she might have answers or a way to get answers.

2. 

Beau facing the monks also could have happened a couple weeks before their session zero. (Maybe her inciting incident for leaving and heading out of Zadash)

3. 

Nott fleeing guards (could have happened the night before the start of EP 1), as Nott mentioned trying to steal stuff and almost getting caught when we're first introduced to her.

4. 

While we get a scene of past Jester, we also get their ‘starting out’ scene with her and the group in the cart leaving Trostenwald to head north towards Zadash and eventually the Soltryce Academy, as per the original plan of Fjord and Jester.

5. 

We then get a scene of Caleb being traumatized by fire, that could reference ep 7, and then ep 18 where he explained his trauma (the past scene here and his fellow students).

6. 

We cut to Yasha in a battlefield next which could also reference ep 16/17 where she explained a little about how she'd previously ‘gone to battle’ when asked if she'd killed any of her fellow peers (playmates) and her questions about the battles happening in Xhorhas in that Zadash arc of Harvest Close and the Victory Pit. We also see her current pursuit of the Storm Lord's mission as she's referenced many times.

7.

Taliesin is a bit of an outlier in the order and for obvious chronological reasons, so that doesn't need much analyzing.

Narrative Impact:

1.

Fjord and Beau have obvious and not so obvious inciting incidents to their individual journeys that are part of the reasoning behind the formation of the Mighty Nein. They're a big duo in the decision-making of where and what the Nein are doing. It makes sense for them to be at the beginning.

2.

Nott's inciting incident is inextricably linked to Caleb. However, her past can come back to bite her in the ass at any time, and she is always, always aware of that. That's symbolized here with her fleeing this guard and her general narrative impact on the formation of the Mighty Nein. Caleb continually checked in with her about why they should stick with ‘these weirdos’ and in the beginning she always said they should, because it was safer for the both of them. And later she mentioned that it was really nice to be around people that weren't mean to her and physically abusive towards her. ('it's nice having conversations instead of people throwing rocks at me'-ep13)

3.

Jester being fourth also makes sense. If Fjord and Beau are logical decision-makers, Nott and Jester are also a duo for the heart of the Nein. Caleb will do what Nott wants. He cares a great deal for Nott, and tends to follow her lead (especially in the beginning episodes). Nott and Jester were immediately friends, which made Caleb friendlier towards Jester. Nott and Jester wanted to stick together, and they, in ep2, became ‘Detectives!!’ together. Fjord and Beau wanted to do what Jester wanted. Yasha and Molly as well, were pretty charmed by Jester. And with the dissolution of the Circus, Molly was happy to tag along because he felt Jester, and Beau sort of, were fun to be around.

Additionally, what always struck me about both Nott and Jester, was that they truly felt like they were on a journey of self-discovery. Other similarities include: both of them are often underestimated by others, they're unpredictable, they like discussing romance with each other or Beau, and like playing tricks on people together. They both had a purpose (Jester to find her dad, Nott to be safe and be stronger together), but these two characters really seem to be searching for something, for some part of an identity they haven't yet found or decided on. It feels very 'YA fantasy heroine' as I think a few others have said. Jester's scenes/intro, really highlight both that aspect, and her impact on others within the narrative.

4.

Caleb n Yasha being highlighted after a couple group shots, (Liam and Ashley being credited one after the other) is fascinating to me. It really made me sit up and go ????. But then narratively, it makes a certain amount of sense. Caleb's past has been the defining aspect of his characterization, and his effect on the others. I've thought for some time now that Yasha's characterization may have defined her in a similar sort of way. Caleb and Yasha have had a strange sort of kinship, as both Ashley and Liam have mentioned. They're both awkward sure, but I'm leaning more heavily into the theory, because of the subtext around Yasha, that they might also have very similar pasts. 

The violence, the manipulation, the isolation of Caleb, could also be in aspects of Yasha's past when you consider some of the things Yasha's said. Additionally, it feels like both of them are seeking redemption, though for what in Yasha's case, I wouldn't know. But undeniably, both of their character arcs are going to have a gravitas-a narrative weight, on the setting of the Dwendalian Empire/Xhorhas that perhaps the others of the Nein wouldn't. Both of them will most likely have an impact specifically within the confines of the Empire/Xhorhas conflict.

5.

Again, Mollymauk's coat, and then Caduceus being shown with Taliesin's credits, doesn't need much analyzation. The impact of both characters has been made obvious enough. And boy do I adore Caduceus’ lil purple butterfly.

Analysis of Timing/Structure

This part is more the light-hearted, subjective analysis of the timing/structure of the intro. There's a few things I just was delighted by because the timing of them just suggested certain things. First off, my hat goes off to the timing of the animation between :49 and 1:05. In order in this sequence, we see Caleb, Fjord, Nott, Jester, Caduceus, Beau, Yasha. Guess what that suggests for combat??? Ranged(Caleb, Fjord, Nott)->Mid-range/Melee(Jester, Caduceus)->Melee/Close combat(Beau,Yasha). That's just…awesome. I love how they structured that.

Another good sequence to analyze is from 1:15 to 1:20. In order, we see shots of Fjord and Jester, of Nott-Caduceus-Beau, and of Yasha and Caleb. With the Fjord and Jester shot, the lyrics of ‘Can you answer the call’ are overlaid, implying the trope ‘Call to Adventure’. If Fjord had never searched out Jester because of his inciting incident, he wouldn't have been Jester's ‘herald’, ie: her call to action, for her to go north instead of staying along the coast to search for her dad. If she had never met Beau by not journeying with Fjord north and them all meeting in Trostenwald, they never would have been led to the Gentleman, to the answering of Jester's own quest to find her father.

Another fascinating lyric is ‘Diggin deep in your soul’ heard over the shot of Nott-Caduceus-Beau. All of three of these characters have been set up by events in the narrative, to question their purpose, to do some soul-searching. For Nott, this is first done by Caleb, ('why should we stick with these weirdos?' - ep2) and is also done in Ep19 when the Nein questions her self-hate, and done again in ep 27 when she affirms that she loves the Nein, and that's why she's sticking around. Molly left his mark on Nott, and she has since his death, wanted to make sure that they all stick together, because she believes that they can do amazing things together, and that all of them are a little bit better as a group than what they could be on their own by themselves.

Caduceus’ whole thing is try to find or discover what his Goddess wants of him, of what he can do to save his home. Self-reflection and soul-searching come hand in hand with that kind of story. Mollymauk wasn't like that at all, he just lived life, but that Caduceus is almost the exact opposite kind of character, has an implicit connection to those lyrics. Beau is arguably, the one most affected by Molly's death. Previously, she'd been ordered to search out corruption and question everything, but Molly dying also made her question herself and her purpose. That sort of change is almost electric it's so exciting an effect. By her own self-reflection and soul searching in the episodes since, Beauregard has really come into her own and quickly become one of my favorite characters of anything I'm currently watching. If she continues in her path, she'll easily become the driving force, or the leader, of the Mighty Nein.

The following lyrics ‘As the legend unfolds’ over Yasha and Caleb made me squeal a little I was so excited. Of all of the Nein, the characters of Caleb and Yasha feel like they have the most narrative gravitas, the heaviest weight of impact. It would surprise me not at all if Caleb and Yasha are spoken of as legends from where they come from. If Caleb redeems himself, maybe those in Blumenthal will consider him a hero. If Yasha saves her people, maybe wherever she comes from in Xhorhas with consider her a legendary folk hero. We just can't quite get a handle on their mysterious pasts or what their ultimate goals are. Both of them are toeing a pretty fine line in my head, that makes me really want them to be heroes by the end of this campaign. All of the Mighty Nein should be, that would be amazing, but Yasha and Caleb in particular, have the potential for renown in their home villages, so to speak.

Symbolism/Details 

There's a ton of both symbolism and little nods to the show in the little details all throughout this intro, so this is just my special shoutouts: 

The doodles throughout Jester's room and her unicorn bedsheets.

The purple butterfly that symbolizes Mollymauk that's with Caduceus in a couple scenes. 

The Nott wiggling her flask in their cart that's so reminiscent of Sam. 

The fact that the Caleb in the cart next to Beau says 'fire' as he's watching through Frumpkin's eyes reminds me of them finding Allfield under attack and then it automatically switches scenes to Caleb's trauma/past. 

Yasha slicing off heads of the Hydra (that fight stressed me THE FUCK out yo and thank all the PTB for Yasha). 

The raven on the coat. 

The guest stars being highlighted from Matt's book is just 👌👌👌. 

I made out details of Lorenzo and the phase spider from the sewers in the little showcasing of the villains in the last shot and thought that was pretty cool. 

Did I watch this at half speed at least ten times??? Absolutely I did. And now I'm off to do it again! 

[sixth-light]

Yuletide letter 2018

Dear Yuletide Author,

First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this! Yuletide is one of my fannish highlights of the year and I’m really looking forward to whatever you write for me. If you’re interested in personalizing things a bit more, read on. 

General preferences:

Stuff I really like in fic includes: people being kind to each other, science (and SCIENCE!), mystery plots/casefic, found family, loyalty, women bonding and female friendship, humour, happy endings, the exploration of worldbuilding and its implications (including via AUs), the use of minor canon details, and cracky premises/tropes treated with some seriousness.

Stuff I would really prefer not to see in a Yuletide fic includes: dark interpretations of characters (or darker than canon, where relevant), brooding, angst, endings that feel hopeless, infidelity, noncon/dubcon, explicit or detailed violence, people being humiliated, embarrassment humour, and canon being changed or rewritten Just Because. That said, in general adult elements of all sorts (sex, violence, swearing, discussion of mortgage tax) are fine, especially if appropriate to the canon.

Fandom-specific prompts/notes:

Death in Paradise (Camille Bordey, Humphrey Goodman) I watched the first four seasons of this recently (am working on the rest) while out of internet range and was outraged to discover upon regaining internet that fandom hasn't really stepped into the breach for Camille and Humphrey, who DESERVE A HAPPY ENDING. (I know vaguely what happens with Humphrey's love-life later in the show and I don't care.) 

Camille is my favourite character of the show so far - I love her competence and her ambition and her ability to have fun - and I shipped Camille/Humphrey before it was canon, which led to many high-pitched squeaking noises during the season 3 finale. Ship-wise, I love how much Humphrey openly admires Camille professionally and personally, and while I was very sad she left the show, I actually really liked his temptation mini-arc regarding her paperwork and his confession in the episode where she left. My favourite thing about him as a character is that while people routinely mistake his kindness and absent-mindedness for weakness, in the crunch he understands (and holds) his own and other people's boundaries very well indeed.

What I would PARTICULARLY like for these two is some sort of future fic reunion get-together - not a fix-it but a fresh start, as it were. If the ship is not your cup of tea then I would also love, in any timeframe, gen with them hanging out - murder-solving always welcome, or maybe just exploring cultural differences. If it's during the canon course of their partnership then any of the support cast are welcome additions. Either way, use of ridiculous tropes (There Was Only One Bed In The Inn, etc) is encouraged. 

Please no extensive pining from Humphrey if it's not a resolved ship fic, because canon gave me enough of that. I am open to interpretations where Camille had some idea about his feelings (she's a DETECTIVE) but didn't say anything because [she wasn't interested at the time/he was her boss/she thought if it was real he'd find the courage to speak up/etc].0

 Also please no Camille/Richard or references thereto - not my thing. 

Think of England (Archie Curtis, Daniel da Silva)

I did a re-read recently and remembered how much I enjoy not only the romance in this book but also Archie and Daniel’s complementary spy team abilities. I’d love to see them solve some sort of mystery, from the small-scale to the large. If the mood takes you, I also wouldn’t mind seeing future Archie and Daniel in the WWI or interwar period.

I haven’t specifically requested them, but Fenella and Patricia are more than welcome to make an appearance. Either Daniel or Archie learning a new skill (that’s not in their usual skillset) would be neat if it works with what you want to write. 

While I would enjoy seeing Archie and Daniel thrashing out things within their relationship (and Archie dealing with his newfound conception of himself as queer) it’s also OK to ignore those aspects of the book and in any case, please no angst about it; happy partnership is what I’m here for. Essentially gen fic with background established Archie/Daniel is fine. 

The Daevabad Trilogy (Nahri, Darayavahoush e-Afshin, Alizayd al Qahtani) I read the first book in this series recently and was CRUSHED when I thought it wasn't nominated for Yuletide - until I realised it was there under the series name (phew). I particularly enjoy how more or less everybody’s point of view and motivations are sympathetic despite the radical political/religious differences between them and, er, all the murder. I love the contrast between Nahri, who is still mostly out for her own survival/Learning Cool Medical Stuff and slowly picking up the hero baton, and Dara and Ali, who are both trying to do the right thing for their people (even when they're not necessarily right about what that is) and compromised in it by forces beyond their control. I am also very into Nahri and Ali's immense nerdiness in their particular fields of interest. 

Really all I want is for the three of them to hang out and snark and have adventures and not kill each other...again..., either as an out-take from the first book or in a hypothetical future. Feel free to handwave as much or as little as you want around the potential future plot and unresolved mysteries like Nahri's parentage and Ali's marid(?) superpowers(????). If you're interested in writing something lighter, I would definitely love comic shenanigans involving Ali and Dara having to deal with the human world (where Ali is FASCINATED and Dara hates all of it), guided by Nahri.

Ship-wise, I'm into basically any combination of these three characters, although if you want to try any flavour of Ali/Dara a) I am impressed at your commitment and b) please not in a way that excludes Nahri. Gen is also welcome. Background Muntadhir/Jamshid is also EXTREMELY welcome if relevant.

[lauramkaye]

On Research And Fanfiction

When you hear someone talking about research for their fanfic, what do you think of? A historical AU, maybe? Or an AU where the characters are part of a different, very technical profession? It’s true that it’s important to research for those kinds of stories, but I’d like to make a case that making research a part of your normal writing process will lead to better stories.

I’m trying to think if there is any story I’ve written, at least in the last several years, where I didn’t research at least something, and honestly even the very short ones had some element of research to it. For example, for Problem To The Answer, I looked up the original news story that inspired the fic, as well as travel times between New York and DC. In Storage War I looked up information about storage units, not because it was specifically going into the story, but to give me a better mental image of the setting. 

Now, when I say “research,” I’m not always talking about the kind of research you’d do for school; a lot of times it’s as simple as a quick Google to check on something. For example, I’m currently working on a story that is set in May 2009. I wanted to include a throwaway line where a character makes a joke about the show Jersey Shore. So I looked it up, but discovered that Jersey Shore started airing in December 2009. So out the line went.

That’s not to say that everything has to be accurate; I change things for artistic reasons all the time. But I only do it on purpose, when I choose to, for things that are important to the fic.

For a longer example, I will take the story I finished most recently, my C/C Exchange fic, A Guy Like You Should Wear A Warning. On the face of it, you wouldn’t think that story would need that much research, right? It’s a soulmate story set on a cruise ship! It’s full of absurdity!

It’s also full of research. I researched the HELL out of that story. How, you ask? (Note: the following list will spoil some plot elements if you haven’t read the story yet). Behind the cut, a description of the stuff I researched while writing it:

Historical setting: whether I like to admit it or not, 2004 was 13 years ago and things were different then. I looked up things like fashion trends, makeup trends, hit songs, and most notably, the state of cell phones. 2004 was the year that the Motorola RAZR was the hot new phone, and smartphones just weren’t a thing yet. Some of this went into the story (for instance, Tyler’s clothing choices, Melinda’s pink lipgloss, that they all have flip or candy bar phones) and some were just to get the setting clear in my head while I wrote. I also consulted calendars for 1992 and 2004 to make sure I got dates and days of the week correct for the sections of the story set then. 

Story setting: The story action largely happens on the David Hasselhoff fan cruise. While the actual DH fan cruise occurred in November 2017, I relied extensively on the information available online about it when writing the story. Specifically, I moved it from early November 2017 to early November 2004. I also moved the meet and greet event from an afternoon event to a brunch for plot reasons. Everything else about the trip is accurate: the way that they would have traveled to the cruise from New York (I looked up flights), the way they would have gotten to Rome, the cruise schedule and stops. I also looked up maps and photographs of the cruise ship and referred to them extensively; I spent a lot of time on cruise vacationer forums while writing this story.

Phil’s studies: I looked up various colleges with good reputations in Phil’s field, and the sorts of classes he would take; I looked up actual classes at UMW; I looked up actual cryptography and cipher information. This is all current rather than historical, but I figure it’s close enough for these purposes. The point of the research isn’t to be completely 100% accurate in every respect, but more to make sure that nothing is obviously, jarringly wrong for most readers.

Events on shore: In the part of the story where Phil goes ashore in Rome, he goes to shops that really exist on the road that the story says he is on, and he goes to them in more or less geographic order, according to Google Maps. I also looked up actual products from those stores to describe. Now, these items are current (2017) rather than historical (since it wasn’t easy to find 2004 stuff online), but I still think it helps give these parts of the story verisimilitude. I also looked up the kinds of agriculture done in Catalonia for the big showdown at the end, and the actual area of Catalonia (so that when Phil says “this farm is fifty acres, I doubt that’s even one percent of Catalonia,” he is actually verifiably correct.)

Russian stuff: Since Clint’s soulmark is in Russian and Russian language is key to the story, I spent a lot of time working on the Russian parts of this story. For Clint’s soulmark, I posted a question on an online forum for Russian speakers to help me figure out something that would be appropriate. My first thought was to ask the translation for “Are you fucking kidding me?”, but as I engaged with the Russian speakers, I learned that it just wasn’t that simple. Profanity in Russian is very different than it is in English, and so much depends on the context and relationship between the speakers. The phrase we finally settled on, Еще чего не хватало, is literally translated something like “this is just the last thing I need,” but has a negative and somewhat sarcastic connotation, so that a good idiomatic equivalent in English is “I need this like I need a hole in the head.” For the other Russian, I depended on a really cool website that isn’t a dictionary but a translation search engine called Reverso Context. The great thing about this tool is that, unlike dictionaries, you can search entire sentences and phrases, and get an assortment of translated passages that match, so you can see the various ways the phrase might get used. It means you’ll get a better result than just typing something into Google Translate would give you. I use Reverso Context in combination with dictionaries and Google Translate in order to get the best idea possible of what I’m saying. It doesn’t substitute for a native speaker beta, but it’s a good fallback position. I also did a lot of research into Russian nomenclature and diminutive names, and into Russian profanity (which is SO INTERESTING, look up mat sometimes and read about it.)

David Hasselhoff: I looked up his albums released up to and including 2004. I listened to clips of his music (it is so bad you guys) and watched videos of his concert performances (OMG the LED jacket is really a thing). All the songs and medleys and such that I describe him doing are real things he’s really done. I also looked up his online merch (Melinda’s bedazzled Don’t Hassle The Hoff shirt is real) and watched the video he made promoting the cruise, to get an idea of his speech patterns for the few places when he speaks in the story.

There are a lot of other little miscellaneous things I looked up - how far ahead of getting married in NYC you need to get the license; a real place in South America that had a munitions depot explosion; grain silo explosions and how they happen; the average temperatures on the Mediterranean Sea in November; how much a suit costs at Brioni; the organizational structure of the FBI, etc. Even Barney Barton being in the FBI is rooted in canon - that’s something that Barney really has done in the comics.

This probably all sounds like WAY TOO MUCH WORK, but most of these things didn’t take a huge amount of time - it was more like “oh, wait, they didn’t have smartphones in 04, did they?” and then a quick Google, or scan of a wiki page. I spent my writing time with a lot of open tabs of maps, cruise ship layouts, etc., that I would refer to when I was trying to figure out where the characters were going. Because I have research baked in to my process, it happens mainly when I am outlining, with occasional quick Googles to double-check stuff I throw in when I’m writing.

Would the story be worse if I hadn’t done all this? I think it would. I think the research makes the story feel true, rooted in the real world, and that gives me a lot more latitude to go nuts with things like soulmates and Russian mob bros and throwing David Hasselhoff’s mimosa in someone’s face. Also, hopefully, if I have a reader who happens to know a lot about Russian, or Rome, or majoring in political science, or David Hasselhoff, that reader won’t be thrown out of the story by something obviously wrong. (also, open invitation: if you are reading a fic of mine and see something obviously wrong, I WELCOME THAT KNOWLEDGE and will fix it if I can without having to rewrite major bits of the story.)

I don’t expect everyone to be QUITE as intense about research as I am--I admit I’m pretty darn intense about research. But I would like to encourage other writers to make at least some research part of their process! It leads to better stories all around, and sometimes the things you find out help you make your stories better in cool new directions.

[kalena-henden]

Deadline AwardsLine Timeless Screening + Panel | April 26, 2017

Here’s a little write-up of the screening and panel. This is from memory so forgive me for any errors.

They screened the fourth episode “Party at Castle Varlar” with James Bond writer/real life spy, Ian Fleming, Nazis and, the scientist who would eventually help us get to the moon, Wernher Von Braun. I really enjoyed seeing it on the big screen. This was the episode that where I went from like to love with this show. Adventure, mystery, danger, bonding and fun mixed perfectly. I’ve seen this episode several times but it was surprising how much more detail I was able to pick up on not just visually but with the music queues as well. The audience laughed alot!

For the Q&A they started off with a few questions for the producers. Many of their answers were things they’ve said before like they are never going to do a Titanic episode and they did the Hindenburg first because they were never going to get to spend that much on one episode again. Malcolm did joke that, if they did the Titanic episode, it would only focus on one member of the band (the bass player, I think).

A few interesting things: Shawn Ryan was the one who insisted Amy Preston disappear at the end of the pilot. Through the writing processes they discovered that having the emotional impact on the characters would be more compelling than say world changing events like Fidel Castro disappearing. Also, *SPOILER ALERT* they said they are planning to do alot more of this in Season 2 (if we get one) where things in the present will be drastically altered after missions. Another storyline that Shawn would like to do is the Orphan Railroad which happened from about 1870s to 1920s where street orphans in the east coast cities were shipped across the country to new homes. His own ancestors were apart of it as orphans. Some of the orphans went on to find a better life and others not so much, including getting separated from siblings.

Kripke was asked how they keep all the information and timelines straight. He joked about having writer’s rooms conversations that made him want to kill himself. Everyone laughed. Then Shawn and the host teased him about it. He joked he constantly has Blue Oyster Cult playing in his office. I can’t remember the answer if there was one, just alot of teasing and laughter.

Onto the cast! They were all asked how it was to play their character’s arc over the season. Matt started, he talked about Wyatt’s emotional journey of learning to let go of his past which he was really getting to him towards the end of the season. The three of them (Lucy, Rufus and Wyatt) really need each other not just for their different skills but as people. That Lucy in particular has helped Wyatt move past some of the hurt and hopefully he will have moved passed it so he can move onto other things in the next season. Then Abigail said, “And he LOVES Lucy!” lol Matt emphatically responded “Well, I wasn’t gonna say it!” with a grin because it’s totally true. The host mentioned something about Lucy going bad at the end of the season which didn’t quite make sense but Abigail laughed at it and Matt slyly jested “Wyatt likes bad girls”. I don’t think it implied anything other than what we’ve seen onscreen. They just appeared to be going along with the host in the spirit of the moment. But good or bad, Wyatt loves Lucy.

Abigail talked about how Lucy went from being very reluctant about participating in this adventure at all to the end of the season where she’s determined to Save the World. Malcolm talked about going from being an agoraphobic techie who didn’t really want to participate in the outside world or forge new relationships to someone who asks out the girl, gets out and does stuff, and has become good friends with his teammates.

Next they asked what things were easier or harder to film. Abigail talked about the fight scenes where like 8 main characters need close-ups and they have to shoot for hours and hours to get it all. The easiest scenes are just the trio getting to play off each other and goof off a bit which they all agreed on. Malcolm talked about the rain in the 1980s episode. He also talked about trying to get through the really serious scene in 1x16 when he’s holding Jiya and telling her how much she means to him. Claudia would tease him between each take to try to get him to crack. Malcolm attempted to imitate her “Is that a tear? Are you crying?” with a terrible British accent which Matt and Abigail protested didn’t sound like her because Claudia is originally from Australia. But Malcolm said that’s the only accent he add in his pocket, it was the closest thing he had. lol This was payback because he did it to Claudia ALL season long. Then Matt teased Abigail for mentioning the fights cause she just sits on the side of the scene in the fight while he’s the one doing all the fighting. The host joked that she stole Matt’s answer and she joked that she was just setting it up for Matt and trying to find the antique lamp to hold during the fights. BTW the cast was really friendly during the panel with many shared asides to each other that they didn’t say into the mics. You can tell they have excellent off-screen camaraderie.

Then they asked what was their favorite episode. Obviously, hard to choose. They all love the fourth episode which was screened and the director of that episode was in the house (they did a little shout-out to him). Abigail talked again about how much she loves the costumes which led to her picking Bonnie and Clyde as her favorite episode. One, she loves the clothes of the era but also because she loves that they humanized Bonnie and Clyde, getting to learn about them as people, and she and Matt had a ton of fun goofing around. Malcolm said they are constantly doing “Schtick” (theirs is physical comedy) in every episode and kept teasing them about it during the panel. In the Bonnie and Clyde episode in particular, Abigail said during the couch scene which is the first time that Lucy and Wyatt are physical for an extended period of time that she and Matt kept trying to top themselves doing sillier and more outrageous schtick every take. Hopefully that’s on the gag reel!

Matt’s favorite episode was the Alamo because the setting and feel was so different than any of the other episodes. He mentioned how crazy it was seeing the Alamo in a Vancouver parking lot (where they filmed). Kripke joked the Vancouver parking lot is where the real Alamo was located. Malcolm’s favorite episode was the Western (aka the Lone Ranger episode) because he LOVES Westerns and used to dress up like a cowboy as a kid with a cowboy hat and galoshes (which he imagined were his cowboy boots). He loved riding the horse and he wouldn’t take the costume off. Matt jumped in to say that 3 days into filming Malcolm was trying to talk him into going “halfsies” to buy a horse farm. Then Abigail jumped in to say she’s got 27 pictures of Malcolm in that costume.

Questions from the audience were next. I’m only going to write about the ones I thought were interesting. A woman asked if maybe many of the women we thought were gone or dead might actually be alive and in Rittenhouse’s clutches: Amy Preston (Lucy’s sister), Lorena and Iris Flynn (Garcia’s wife and kid) and Jessica Logan (Wyatt’s wife), and asked if Jessica was part of Rittenhouse. First, there was major confusion with the cast and writers on who were Lorena and Iris. Kripke literally said, “Who’s Lorena?” lol And Shawn Ryan was just as confounded. The woman had to explain to them she was Flynn’s wife, that’s when they realized they had put their names on the tombstones. Kripke said that even in the script for 1x16 the character was named FLYNN’S WIFE. Until this question had been asked, they considered all those women dead but now he joked who knows if they’ll stay dead.

A kid had been raising his hand for awhile. It turned out to be Abigail’s son, Roman, who hilariously asked the producers a question (instead of his mom) about how they choose which stories to tell. Shawn Ryan answered that they always try to decide what the characters are dealing with first and then build the story and time periods around their issues.

The last question was someone asked Malcolm how they got representation so right every episode. He joked how he “nailed it” everytime before segueing into a more serious and detailed answer about inclusion. The producers added the more they brought in these sidelined historical figures the more they felt they found the heart of the show. They plan on continuing to find and tell these untold stories.

Whew. It took me longer to write this up (and edit it multiple times) than the entire screening and panel took to experience. lol Hope you enjoyed it!

tagging @onlymorelove @wedlakeserenities i don’t know if this works when it’s under the cut, so let me know.

[clan-fuildarach]

I'm not sure if you talked about it more before I started following your blog, but I'm pretty curious about the origins of your dragon characters tbh. Like, are they like ur OCs you had in a big story you had in your head or smth that you adapted to write as dragons in a separate AU-type thing? I'd love to hear more about it or be directed to a place where you've written about it somewhere.

well you’re mostly right! many of my characters here (luke rúth delta neven john mikaelxandra rezann leo) are just au versions of characters i already had. and it’s less a big story i had in my head and more a 10-year project that’s over 2 million words long and 2 rewrites deep atm - i’ve written eleven or twelve books (it’s subjective) and done countless more au stuff and exploratory stories that just get into anatomy and worldbuilding and stuff like that (so like... stuff that would be really boring to anyone but me). i’m not saying any of it is any good or worth reading, but it sure is a thing. 

i stopped incorporating my old characters into fr dragons in 2015 so any dragon i’ve made since then is original to my fr lore (which started off as a fantasy version of my other story but then diverged wildly off into completely different territory) 

i do have a blog dedicated to it but it’s password locked and i’m not giving out the url. i do have a blog supposedly dedicated to my personal creative work over at @fuildorcha but it’s been a while since i posted there (but i might start posting soon since i’m starting to get back into writing and planning and what have u) 

uhh i’ll do a really basic bare-bones plot summary and a quick intro paragraph to where each character comes from under the cut here so u all know where i’m coming from 

basically it’s a first-contact story? but with alternate dimensions/parallel universes rather than straight-up aliens. each one of the characters listed above (except for the last 3) belongs to a different dimension, and the story is basically about how they meet. and there’s the added uh emotional poignancy in the fact that the first 6 of them are not human and are supposed to be the only ones of their kind, so basically each one has lived a life expecting to never ever meet another like them, to only have humans for company. but obviously they do meet. and they end up doing some really dumb but also heroic stuff while also liberating a bunch of people from oppressive regimes. they also learn that maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way 

the main character is luke who is fond of making these super unhelpful crusades against those he considers to be his allies but really no one wants his help because he just makes things worse like constantly, as a habit, without really caring about consequences. he’s a jerk of course and permanently fucked up after the death of his sibling way back when. but one day he makes a Big Terrible Mistake that killed a lot of people, irradiated a major city, and would have resulted in him being imprisoned for basically the rest of his life and also introduces the concept of laser superweapons to humanity (this can only go well lmao) and - as a knock-on effect - the ability to break the dimension barrier. like he really fucked up. but instead of being sent to jail he gets forcibly drafted into the service of a government scientist, emma, who gives him an ultimatum: work for me for free and get exploited endlessly, or rot in jail for the rest of ur life. his treatment at the hands of his captors (who pretend they’re on his side, they’re very evil) results in a vengeance crusade on his part that sets off the whole first-contact chain of events. he lives in a world like ours, except that there was a rebellion against the british monarchy a couple hundred years ago. on the run from the law he meets a very lost and very confused stranger who doesn’t speak a word of english and is also rúth. the two of em fall in love. aw (luke is still nonbinary and given the chance would use ‘they’ pronouns here too but i wanted to make the world like ours as much as possible and luke hates standing out in any way so he wouldn’t want to use a non-standard pronoun set. so he just uses the set that matches his name) 

john comes from a radically different dimension, one where the monarchy spread and basically controls the entire planet. but, unsatisfied with that, his queen alexandra began colonising other dimensions and stripping them of their resources (and thus ensuring that her own home is the best-equipped and richest and all that). john is the queen’s weapon, it’s his job to “quell dissenters” which is a nice way of saying that he goes in to contested areas and massacres everyone. but he is beginning to doubt his role and the ethicality thereof, and is very curious about the numerous blank patches in his memory that seem to coincide with every previous occasion he entertained potentially treasonous thoughts. seeking to put an end to luke’s campaign against her, emma reaches out to the monarchy to ask for aid. the queen sends in john to do his normal job but things don’t go as planned. john switches sides and becomes basically the most wanted person in the universe.

rúth’s dimension is inextricably linked to john’s - it is the victim of the monarchy’s first attempts at extra-dimensional colonialism. the monarchy fucked up a lot back then, before perfecting its technique, and the battle between rúth’s predecessor and john’s predecessor over the territory completely destroyed the entire mediterranean, turning it into a desert. rúth’s predecessor lost the fight and the monarchy took root in france and spread south. but an unintended consequence of the battle were the chemical reactions in the soil and atmosphere that led to the formation of dye deposits - the only ones of their kind in any dimension. if not for them, the population would have left the desert, but they hung on to mine out the dyes. rúth lived a relatively peaceful normal life until accidentally stumbling through a monarchy portal into luke’s world. with a french-english dictionary and a lot of sign language, luke manages to communicate to rúth that he needs help to fight against john

now ok, neven comes from a parallel version of rúth’s world where the monarchy lost the big battle, but the desertification happened anyway. neven’s people sought safety in the monarchy dimension and took on the mantle of being imperialist jerks. eventually a bunch of bad shit happens and the dimension becomes uninhabitable, so they do the most logical thing and build a space ship to live on. neven is there the whole time, being treated as the avatar of god and the champion of their race etc etc. in the early 1900s, the space ship breaks into a new dimension which it allies with, and neven finally meets another one like them. the two never get a chance to communicate much, but they fight together for about a hundred years and neven falls in love. aw. eventually one of the space ship’s oldest allies - the monarchy from john’s world - gets absolutely destroyed via mysterious circumstances. commander of the space ship, rezann, decides to take the opportunity to cannibalise the monarchy’s remains and execute anyone who might attempt to resurrect it - this includes john.  

delta (for it is he whom neven loves) is literally the parallel version of luke. like they are the same person, genetically identical, but their dimensions veered off very early on, so due to the two of them growing up in completely different circumstances, delta bears almost no resemblance to luke besides appearance (and then only barely). delta comes from a wonderfully idyllic background - sent to a workhouse when he was young, he was part of a rebellion that saw the workers take control and basically start their own little settlement. this prospered for hundreds of years, with delta as its guardian, until that world’s monarchy went to war. the men of the village were hit by the draft and delta decided to go with them to keep them safe. unfortunately he was discovered as Not What He Seems by the king and instead of helping his settlement, he inadvertently causes it to be wiped off the map by revealing its presence (and the presence of its pagan, blasphemous population) to the king. delta gets mind-wiped, forgets his real name, and gets thrown onto the front lines to fight beside neven. later - years and years later - he gets in some real bad shit, gets basically everything taken from him, and would probably die alone and in pain, but he gets rescued. he gets a happy ending 

leo comes from a completely different unrelated story, he’s a frustrated IT technician working in a computer shop who basically becomes the plaything of the gods. but there’s no real plot to be had, i just liked his character enough to move him over into fr at the time (2014). fr!leo has had way more character development than og!leo who i don’t really write about any more

[artlessictoan]

ICTOAN’s Big ol’ Planned Fic Masterlist:

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but now’s as good a time as any, so; here’s a list of all the fics I’m currently working on and plan to write in the future! (I’ll keep this list updated any time I finish/start/think up something new and there’ll be a link to this page in my blog header)

I’m hoping that getting myself and other people excited for my planned fics will encourage me to crack on and finish my WIPs

Current WIPs:

Here are all the fics I am currently working on, I’m still trying to find a balance where I can update more regularly without sacrificing quality, I don’t know if I’d be able to work on more than 3-4 fics at a time, but I will probably be experimenting with having five or six on the go at some point – I do tend to get easily distracted and having more fics I can bounce between might actually be easier for me

Like Smoke into the Sand – 50% complete

Breaking the Cycle – N/A (no set plot or plan)

Nice to Meet You – N/A (oneshot collection)

The Fearful Unknown – 25% complete

Heliotropism – 20% complete (very rough guess)

False Starts – On hold until I figure out my.. Feelings on this one

(note that these are rough estimates and I have been known to extend a fic’s planned length by a couple of chapters before, so take these percentages with a grain of salt)

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Planned Multi-Chap Fics:

My ideas for future fics (in order of when I will most likely start them), they’re mostly still in early stages of development and everything here can and probably will change by the time they actually come out

Next in the Gem AU –

·        Sequel(s) to ATFC

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, NaruHina, HinaGaa, NaruHinaGaa, SakuTema, SakuTemaTen, KakaIru, KankuKiba, InoShikaCho

·        Follows directly off of ATFC, the second act of the overarching LTL plot, will be similar to ATFC but more action and plot oriented

·        There will also be a third fic to follow, along with a few spin-off oneshots/collections

False Starts – 

·        Kase-san fic

·        Pairings: KaseYama, Aroace!Mikawa, maybe others

·        AU setting, the girls never met at school and thus led very different lives, Kase went on to become a star sprinter, but, with her entire life revolving around athletics, as she grows older and her star fades, she finds herself lacking motivation and teetering on the edge of depression, meanwhile Yamada has done exactly what was always expected of her, going to a local college, taking a course she liked but didn’t love and eventually becoming a teacher, never realising the option to follow her passion was even available

·        Story follows Kase as she’s forced into a long-term ‘vacation’ back to her hometown to rehabilitate and rediscover her drive, while there she meets Yamada and they strike up a friendship and eventual romance, helping each other find out what kind of life they really want to live and realising that it’s not too late to try

·         Mid-to-long fic, mostly fluffy, slice-of-life romance, but with exploration of things like depression and mid-life crises, the girls will be about 32-34 in this, possibly a little older

Liquor Bottles and Ukuleles –

·        Pairings: ChoGaa, ShikaTema, SakuKarui, InoTen, ex-LeeGaa, ex-ChoKarui, Aro!Kank

·        Long-ish fic, college AU, Chouji is a happy but lonely student, who has accepted that he’ll never meet ‘The One’, until his best friends shove a cute redhead in his direction, mostly a fluffy romance fic, though there will be some drama

·        Blind!Gaara

·        Lots of close friendships (InoShikaCho, ChoKarui, ChoOmoi, ChoKaruOmoi, InoTema, Sand Sibs)

College AU –

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, HinaMatsu, possible others

·        Short fic, each chap split into two sections, one following Naru/Gaa and one following Hina/Matsu, though they will sometimes intersect, both pairs will be getting equal billing, mostly a sweet and fluffy fic, it might (Might) have some smut (mIGHT)

Ghost Hunter AU –

·        Another series, made up of short stories following a particular character/pairing

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, SakuIno, KakaGai, TemaTen, HinaOmoiCho, ShikaShino, KankFuu, possible others

·        Each fic will be standalone, but will reference other fics in the series (first in series will likely be NaruGaa, then SakuIno), Team 7 are a gang of ghost hunters who travel the country dealing with paranormal activities, meeting all sorts of new people and strange situations along the way

YodoChou Fic –

·        Pairings: YodoChou, probable others

·        Canon-verse, next gen, I’m thinking this fic will be much more similar to the Naruto manga than my other fics with an action adventure story that has ninjas doing ninja stuff, though that doesn’t mean I’m not going to just ignore Everything that happens in Boruto, it’ll be more like the first few arcs of Naruto where the conflicts/stakes are relatively small scale and it’s more about the characters than any big world-shaking events

NaruGaa Gym AU –

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, SakuTema, probable others

·        Short fic, modern AU, Gaara is the sickly noodle boy who is roped into going to the gym with his big sis, where he meets the chipper, chubby gym-bunny Naruto, who peptalks him onto a treadmill and then laughs for ten hours when he Immediately trips over literally nothing and sprains his ankle (and then buys him a coffee to apologise), meanwhile Temari has managed to get into a weightlifting competition with buff lesbian Sakura and it all gets a bit out of hand

InoHina Modern AU – 

·        Pairings: InoHina, NaruHina (kinda), probable others

·        Based on this post

Post-college AU, Ino owns and runs a small boutique, when one day a shy, modest-looking woman comes in and starts browsing the more ‘scanty’ range, quickly picking up on her uncertainty and discomfort as she brings a miniskirt and low-cut tank top to the counter, Ino decides to help her get the guy she’s been mooning over for years (Naruto) by giving her a makeover that works with Hinata’s style, before realizing that she’s totally fallen for her somewhere along the way and now has no idea what to do about it

SakuKarui Modern AU – 

·        Continuation of this drabble

·        Pairings: SakuKarui, HinaTema, KankuShino, SaiFuu, Aro!Gaa, InoCho, NejiLee, OmoiNaru, possible others

Short fic, post-college, Karui is a struggling artist trying to make a living as a recent grad, Sakura is her loving, but delinquent, girlfriend, a med-school dropout, who somehow always manages to get into fights, both dealing with quarter life crises and trying to build a life together

Mythology AU – 

·        Pairings: TemaRui, SakuInoHina, Aro!Ten, KarinFuu, KurotsuFuu, KureKonan, Aro!Yugito, ShizuRin, KaruraKushiMei, ChiyoNade, possible others

·        Continuation of this drabble

Not entirely sure what I want to do for this, but I just really like the idea of exploring the ‘all the nart girls as goddesses of war’ idea somehow, will probably be a short drabble collection, each chap focusing on different characters/relationships, I’d like to keep this to only the girls (though some will be nb in this)

Hospital AU – 

·        Pairings: SakuTema, InoKarin, ChoGaa, KankuKiba, NaruHinaLee, Aro!Shika, ex-TemaTen, ex-NaruSaku

·        Continuation of this drabble

Short fic, real-world setting, most of the gang works at a hospital, centres on surgeon!Sakura and administrative manager!Temari’s mutual unrequited love, and the scheming of their friends who’re trying to get them both to realise how head-over-heels the other is for them, a fluffy comedy with some Sad

Sci-fi AU – 

·        Pairings: HinaMatsu, ShikaNaru, InoChoTema, LeeGaa, NejiTen, KibaRui, ShinoOmoi, KakaGai, AsuKure, Aro!Saku, Aro!Sasu

·        Continuation of this drabble

·        Long-ish fic, (light) sci-fi setting, a team of scientists from all fields is on a (likely one-way) expedition, hoping to push the boundaries of human knowledge and discover more about the galaxy and potential life outside the solar system (without disrupting it if at all possible, I’m really keen to try and keep any colonial themes out of this) sending any knowledge back to Earth to help humanity improve itself, while trapped on a ship with little to no hope of ever returning, the crew build new lives and relationships slowly develop, will probably be a slice-of-life fic with the space stuff just as a background

Will definitely have alien life, but I’m not sure if I want sentient aliens who’re as developed/more developed than humanity, I’d like to keep this to the more “realistic” end of the genre and the focus to be mainly on the crew and their friendships, but thoughts would be welcome!

Olympic Lesbian Shenanigans – ***

·         Pairings: uh, idk actually…… Every Girl x Every Other Girl?

·         Loosely based on Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

·         Short-mid length fic, modern au/period setting, a pair of girls (leaning towards Ino and Karin but could go any way at this point) end up on a multi-week cruise ship with the Konoha Ladies Olympic Team (which will somehow include any non-Konoha girls too)……. things get very Gay

·         Possibly smutty?

·         …Probably smutty

·         Purely me-pandering ngl

·         Oh god what am I doing

Spy AU –

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, InoTema, ShikaCho, HinaTen, NejiLee, possible others

·        Long fic, plot-focused action thriller, will likely end up exploring dark themes, but also I might change my mind and go for a more fun 70s spy-thriller type vibe (I’m thinking about making Gaa a trans woman in this one but I’m still kinda unsure? Feedback would be welcome)

Sand Sib Fic –

·        Possible implied NaruGaa and ShikaTema, but the focus will be on the sibs

·        Will probably be similar in style to BTC, following the sand sibs and their relationship as it changes over the years (not sure if I’ll go right from the beginning, or just from the chunin exam arc up to the end of the war arc), going into much more detail about their development since Kishi dgaf about them, especially Gaara’s struggle to change himself after the exams, how and why he got Suna to accept him, Kank and Tem and their very complex relationship with Gaara (and each other) and Gaara’s long recovery from.. y’know. death. I’ll probably diverge from canon in some places (like the Rasa/Gaa reunion during the war)

Samurai AU –

·        Pairings: NaruGaa, SakuHina, TemaTen, KibaIno, ChoKarui, possible others

·        Similar to SITS but more plot-focused, long fic, historical drama, set in Sengoku era Japan (or more likely a version of the Naruto world based heavily on it), no fantasy elements, might get dark in places, the story will mostly be focusing on Naruto, so it might be split into a series or have short spinoff fics focusing on other characters

Jinchuriki Fic –

·        No pairings planned thus far

·        Canon-divergent, after the chunin exams, instead of deciding to become Kazekage, Gaara instead wants to be for the other jinchuriki what Naruto was to him, follows the time-skip with Gaara traveling the continent and inadvertently starting a nomadic jinchuriki tribe, will probably be slice-of-life, though I might also just run with the idea and rewrite the whole Naruto plot based on this (and other) changes, for example:

·        Temari takes the position of Kazekage and her and Kankuro are taking steps to change their village for the better (they’re in regular contact with Gaara and constantly send letters to his new friends reminding them to make sure he eats)

·        Hinata and Neji are both much more active in their goal to destroy their clan’s caste system

·        Sasuke returns to Konoha earlier and him and the other rookies do their own investigating into their village’s long history of reprehensible actions

·        Cut the entire war arc. All of it.

·        Make the conflict less about big grand battles against ultimate evil mcbadguys and more about actually revolutionising the ninja world at its very core

Model AU –

·        Possible pairings: NaruGaa, probable others, it’s all very uncertain

·        ……. Look idk the idea just won’t leave me alone ok?

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Planned Oneshots:

(Same deal as my planned multi-chaps!)

Narugaa, based on this post, Naruto trips over at a train station one day and ends up cackling uncontrollably on the floor, even as a cute redhead helps him up, the next day a friend shows him a craigslist ad from someone who helped up a laughing man at the train station and was too shy to ask his name at the time but was hoping that he was alright

Narugaa, based on this post, Naruto lives in the same apartment building as The Most Beautiful Man In The World, unfortunately they only ever cross paths when Naruto happens to have horribly embarrassed himself in some way, meanwhile The Most Beautiful Man In The World has been quietly trying to find excuses to see his cute blond neighbor, who must be really confident to not care about that giant salsa stain down the front of his shirt and wow he wished he could be so free and self-assured

Temari-centric oneshot about her strict training and life growing up

InoShikaChoTema, ot4 fluff oneshot

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If there’re any fics I’ve spoken about here that you’d really love to see, then do let me know! I can push the stories with more interest to the top of my agenda, keep in mind though, that I won’t be starting anything new until I’ve at least finished ATFC (possibly SITS too) and that my more ambitious fics will require a lot of pre-production before I’m willing to start them – I spent a good six months doing research for SITS – so fics like the spy au and the samurai au will need a lot more time to get started than, say, a college au

As always, I’m open to requests and if anyone has thoughts on anything I’ve already got planned that they’d like to share, then I’m open to chatting! Almost all of these fics (apart from everything in the LTL series) are still very early in development, so things can change a little, or a lot! I reserve the right to reject ideas that I don’t feel comfortable writing/don’t fit my vision, of course, but I’m pretty opened minded about this stuff, so don’t be afraid to gimme a shout

[beardedd0nut]

Pissing in the wind

First day in Brussels has been an interesting one that's for sure. I thought that I would wander around the city and scope this out a bit, leading to a couple of cool finds and also a couple of sweet nothings. The first place I decided to go was a "church" that I had seen the night before while on the way to get some food.

I traced my path back and found that this was no mere church, it was the cathedral of Saint Michael and Saint Gudula. This place is astonishing. I don't think I've ever seen a cathedral this old and this grand before. It has been on the current site since the 9th or 10th century, but the current gothic facade began to be created in the 13th and took 300years to finish. It's easy to see why, the place is massive with several seperate prayer areas, beautiful stained glass windows and intricate stone sculptures all around. The bells in the tour still sound off each 15 minutes, I know because walking around and seeing almost all it has to offer was a good 45 minutes.

After that I went for a wander following a map I had gotten at the hostel. The film and art museum however was closed and the place it recommended for lunch was also not open when I had arrived so with no time to waste I thought fuck it and just kept wandering through the city. I realised pretty quickly that they were setting up for something big, and only found out later that the Christmas festivities start on the 30th of November so there are little stalls popping up all over.

While on this wander I passed a church that had urinals placed the outside of the facade. Having spent many a big night out on multiple pub crawls and the like all I could think was what a great idea. It's not like you'll miss the church, maybe Melbourne should implement this and save some hassle...

I sat down for lunch at drug opera, far less interesting than the name suggests, and watch stereotypical Asian tourists, far more French than I expected, take selfies on the tinsel laden staircase. The lower end of town is far nicer than the top end, it just feels more like how I expected a European city to be. Cobblestone streets, smells of waffles as you pass the shops, old gothic style buildings, it's lovely really.

Managing to scope out where my tour was to be held I caught a glimpse of a familiar blue thing in the distance. It was a big smurf sitting in a round about just outside what I was about to discover is the museum of original figurines. This museum is made up of figurines donated by local collectors of all different kinds of classic comic characters from Brussels, the most famous of course being Tin Tin. There is a rich history of comic culture in Brussels and this museum shows it's beginnings, the most popular characters and some bits and pieces in between. Well worth checking out, and a nice little hidden gem within the city.

After the visit to MOOF it was on to the main attraction of the day, a walking chocolate and beer tour through the city of Brussels. The tour ran by a lovely ex-Spaniard Daniel was amazing. We started off at a shop called chocopolis, unique because it's owner is lactose intolerant so they developed a way to create dark chocolate replacing the cream with coconut cream and still getting a delicious result. They also ship from a website so it is possible to try some of what I had 😉. Within chocopolis we had 2 of our eventual 12 treats. This included a taste of the 60% dark chocolate, and a chilli chocolate, that didn't burn, but had a nice warmth to it.

After chocopolis it was on to our second destination Frederick Blondeel, another artisanal chocolate shop. This was a family run shop that had spent time travelling around the world and had several single origin chocolates on offer, as well as several with fillings. We found out on the way there that the original idea for chocolates in the city originated from how difficult it was to originally swallow medicine in the old days. Because of the rough chemistry set like flavours of the medicine a local chemist started to cover them in chocolate to make it easier to take, eventually this led to removal of the medicine and insertions of ganache and other things to create the chocolate we know today.

At Blondeels I partook in a piece of 75% single origin cocoa from India, a raspberry caramel filled praline that was amazing, a cayenne pepper and lemongrass chocolate that was surprisingly refreshing and lastly a small piece of 100% dark chocolate and a roasted cocoa bean. The 100% was pretty nice, but the bean tasted like I was eating red wine, horrendously bitter and not that tasty overall but each to their own.

From there we moved across the street to what was described as the coco Chanel of chocolate, Pierre Marcolini. Marcolini started out as a pastry chef but eventually turned his fine work and flavour combinations to the world of chocolate and while it is some of, if not the most expensive chocolate in town it is truly delicious. Here we tried out a 75% single origin from Venezuela, that had a totally different taste to the one tried from India, it was much less smooth and more like what you'd expect a dark chocolate to taste like. There was a chocolate infused with violet, that we did a pseudo experiment on, holding our noses at first while chewing the chocolate then opening it and allowing the flavour to really explode outwards proving just how much smell affects taste, lastly was one named the melting hug, while not my favourite of the bunch it was sort of like the rich popcorn equivalent of chocolate.

After this we had a little history tour of the city. Passing through some more of the cobblestone streets, we saw buildings that had been up since the 16th century, part of the old city wall that once encompassed the city and got little tidbits and facts about the town along the way. We also got to hear tales about and see the iconic Mannekin piss. This is a statue/fountain of a little boy pissing. Several legends surround why this little boy came to be, including a Braveheart esque inspiring of the troops as a small child ran onto a battlefield and pissed on their enemies. He is kind of cute and funny, and has got more than a thousand outfits created for him over the years. It is also the symbol of the city and shows that they don't take themselves too seriously.

Our final chocolate stop was Mèert, a French chocolate shop in the shopping gallery. Within this shop we got to pick any two on display, so I went after a fancy snickers like nut and caramel one and a black currant jelly filled one, similar to a Turkish delight. I didn't realise how tasty chocolate could be, and I don't think I'll be able to find anything at home that loves up to what I've tasted here.

The next part of the tour was dedicated to beers of the area and visiting a few different pubs. The first one we went to was family run for over 5 generations and the last owner even has a mannekin piss costume designed after him. It was here that we tried a Lambek ( I think that's the right spelling) which is a sour beer with cherry flavour. Much alike champagne this style of beer can only be called a lambek if it is made within the area of the city, which I forgot to mention has around 1300 different beers within it. The second beer we had was a golden Carolus triple, the triple means triple the alcohol. What we learnt about this was that doubles will always be dark, triples will be blonde, and quads could be anything. The triple we had was quite frothy and about 9%.

The second bar of the evening brought us some more new age beers of the region. This included the Delta IPA, One that was far less hoppy than what I am used to back home, and the Jambe de bois triple, a late hopped triple that seemed a little closer to the stuff I'm used to. About now was when the beers started to hit and the points Daniel made were coming to fruition, mostly being that you can't really have a huge night out in Belgian beers because of their power.

The last stop on this trip found us at the oldest pub in the city. So old that the walls were soaked with nicotine and when some of the artwork was moved you could see the original paint below. We finished off the night with a Trappist double, a dark sort of stoutly beer, and a St Bernardus quad that while also dark was not as nice as its counterpart. Overall it was an amazing afternoon/evening that only left me feeling a little groggy the next day.

What I realised this next day was that I had forgotten how tiring it is to walk around all day, and thanks for the heads up mum and dad for how much the cobblestone seems lovely but also sucks to walk on all day.

Anyway today was a much quieter day. It began with a revisit of the hotel de ville, or town hall we had seen the night before. A grand spire adorns the building and its pretty damn hard to miss it, it was one of the only buildings not to be destroyed int he bombing of 1695 and still holds strong today. Across from this is the history of Brussels museum, housed in a stunning black gothic building it holds so much information about the expansion of Brussels throughout the ages and holds some wonderful works of art as well. The city itself has been surrounded by two walls, the first of which was eventually absorbed into the city, and the second built so large that it was not broken down until the 19th century.

From there I went in search of lunch and managed to get the shittiest sandwich I possibly could, note to self don't trust the pictures. It's meant to be some Brussels thing with chips and meat and salad all in the one sandwich but honestly the best part was the bread. Maybe I just chose the wrong place but was not impressed.

From shitty lunch it was up the hill to the museum if musical instruments. This museum was truly incredible. It must have hundreds of instruments from all different parts of the world and all different time frames. There were Jews harps, and harpsichords with stunning paintings on the lids. There were weird tribal bagpipe-esque things and synthesisers, the place was just packed. The really cool thing was also being able to hear some of them with the audio tour, even if some of them sound terrible, but to be fair it would have been a little underwhelming without the audio tour. There's four levels to the museum and after that a 10th level restaurant which I was told had a great view of the city. It did, but you couldn't step outside to get a good photo so a little bit sucky.

Quite frankly after all of that I was pooped. Quickly dropping past the mannekin piss I found him dressed up in a little costume today, and then it was off to get a nice tasty waffle for a snack. I'd love to say I did more after that but alas i did not. The walking had seriously taken it out of me and I need a decent rest to see what I really came to Belgium for, Bruges.

So until I arrive in Bruges and have some stories to tell you about that town I bid you all a good evening or morning depending where you are. Brussels has been a nice place to start the travels off and I'm sure it will get better as the days go on.