#its lore time babey

[satiricalstardust]

So uh, creepypasta ocs anyone?

[devotion-disorder]

Hi!! I don't know if anyone has asked this before, but-- How did you go about posting your yan OCs for the first time? I absolutely LOVE yours and would love to share mine like how you post about yours, but It's soooo nerve wracking to start it... Lol, sorry if this is weird! ^^;;;;; Do you have any advice or anything?

Hihi!!!! I understand it is kind of nervewracking like oohhhh these are my silly Original Blorbos if any of you guys care. but the world could always use more yanderes!!!!!! so we do in fact care !!!!!!!!!!1

I will say that a while ago my blog was mainly DoL-centric with the exception of the occasional yan post reblog- but i honestly wish I branched out into that more early on, for some reason i was really fixated on keeping my blog centered around one thing only. At some point I just realised that. it's my blog. i should just do whatever I want lmao. and I think that's a good mindset to have tbh - its your house your rules babey

I don't know if there's anything in particular with how I did it that's remarkable in any sense, but I suppose I just tried to make sure i was presenting my oc's in a way that leaves a strong impression and is easy to digest: so a list of facts about them, some are just basic info, some are lore-motivated and some are just things i think would be funny LOL. and yanderes at their best are when they are being their most creepy irredeemable selves so I drew something extra for that too (in fact it was kind of a last-minute addition lol). but anywho i was just hoping to establish a strong impression of their characters ig.

but yes! the only real advice I stand behind is to do whatever you wanna do and have fun with it. that is easier said than done, but I think that my enjoyment of drawing and posting has really took off ever since i just stopped caring what others might think. Good luck to you and your oc's, im sure many people will be very excited about more yanderes in this world!!!!!!!!!

[isa-ghost]

Any specifically avian related qphil headcanons? I love that Phil being a bit more birdy is canon in the qsmp but whenever we get lore about it its angst

/I don't know why I'm asking if you have any, I know you got them /

*cupping my hands together and holding them out*

/give em here/

/pretty pleasee/

Oh fuck yeah man. I have an angel OC based off Phil, I've got PLENTY of avian headcanons >:)

Previous Headcanon Sets (x8)

MORE: Avian Edition

I've stated it in a prev set I think, but if you put this man in water his wings will sometimes involuntarily flap like he's in a birdbath. It's somewhat of a stim, bird brain just goes "you gotta."

I've also stated before that when he's stressed, his wings will flap kinda like the way someone might nervously shake out their hands.

Another restate, sometimes his laughs and startled yelps sound almost like squawks. Also his hiccups. It's very rare, but whenever it happens, he gets teased for it. Especially by Etoiles.

Another restate, sometimes his echolalia is his bird brain mimicking a sound he heard if it scratches an itch.

Yknow what just skim the previous headcanon sets I linked bc I talk so much about his wings & what he does with them & how he communicates using them. All those apply here.

Obligatory mirror and windows struggles mention.

Obligatory molting & preening struggles when stressed mention.

We've all seen the way he perches above everyone. It's probably his most prominent/noticeable avian trait.

Apparently camomile calms birds down. If this fool liked hot drinks, he'd have another way to settle his anxiety.

His obsession with noodles got him accused by Tubbo of enjoying them bc bird brain likes worms. He was NOT pleased. Almost gagged.

As long as you're careful around his wings, he LOVES back rubs. (It's bc the dumbass mf slept in that damn chair too much so now his back riots)

DO NOT THE WINGS. Petting them is one thing, he loves when Tallulah hugs them, he thinks it's cute. But omg do not dig your fingers into his feathers. They're very sensitive. And that could mean tickling OR pain.

However if you gently do it, his wings will spread a little and his feathers poof up, which is kinda funny. It's like how if you touch a cat's foot the right way, their toes will spread out to present The Beans(tm). Blessed.

He likes to gift his shedded feathers to people he trusts. Chayanne, Tallulah & Missa each have one. Although he's extremely close with Etoiles and Fit, he feels too awkward to give one to them yet. Feels a little too intimate.

Gift giving in general is a HUGE part of his love language though. Crow brain must give shiny things to people he loves yesyes.

Bird zoomies!! Wings poof up, he starts hopping all over the place like a big dork. He'd fly all over too, if he could.

Bobs his head to music. Those videos of pet birds dancing? That's Phil babey!!

Another one of his fave bits is pretending to understand and have a full-on conversation with birds. Loves pretending to gossip with them right in front of the person he & the bird(s) are "gossiping" about. However the crows he DOES understand & gossip with.

When he can fly, he's an expert at dive-bombing targets like a bird of prey. It's TERRIFYING. And very attractive depending on who you are (*cough* Missa *cough*)

Tallulah once tried to test if throwing a blanket over his head would make him fall asleep like how if you put a blanket over a bird's cage they'll think it's night time and go to bed. It didn't work. He was very confused.

Birds whenever they're happy to see you will stretch their wings out like "Hello yes!" Phil do happy wing stretches when he see the kids :D

His hearing and eyesight are fucking amazing. The only reason he's able to be snuck up on is bc he hyperfocuses on things or the things that sneak up on him are super fast.

Rare Isa Fluffy Headcanon: He make blanket nests.

When stressed or overwhelmed, he'll wrap his wings around himself or raise them to shield his head. He doesn't do this so much after his wings were clipped & injured. They hurt too much.

100% will spread his wings all the way out (when they aren't hurting a lot) to look more threatening towards enemies. They almost autopilot do it when he's angry, but if they hurt too much they'll stop. He's pissed they don't look as threatening after The Federation clipped his wings

[johaerys-writes]

[20 Question Fic Writer Tag]

tagged by @baejax-the-great thank you!

How many works do you have on AO3? As of now, 47.

What is your AO3 word count? 1,084,458

What fandoms do you write for? Currently neck-deep in my Patrochilles (Iliad/TSOA/Hades) obsession. But I've also written for Dragon Age (Pavelyan), Voltron (Sheith) and Castlevania (Trephacard, Lenector).

What are your top five fics by kudos? High-Flying Birds, Like Friends Do, Winter's Fruit, Jasmine and Yarrow, Where Blood Roses Bloom.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I love responding to comments!! Even if it's just to say Thank you. I absolutely love rambling in my replies and getting into discussions about lore or characters' motivations and such. This is the fanfic experience at its best for me.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Honestly I'm not great with angsty endings haha. Even if the fic as a whole is very angsty, the ending tends to be happy. I think the fics with the saddest ending are Loyal To The End and The Wound That Never Heals, both Hector/Carmilla (Castlevania). Some people have told me they found the ending of At The Water's Edge quite bittersweet.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Now we're talking haha. Of my most recent ones, Twin Flames has a very sweet ending. Fall Into Your Tide also has a super hopeful ending, and another favourite is A Place To Be. I'm all about that comfort after the hurt babey.

Do you get hate on fics? I think I've only ever got hate once or twice? As far as I remember. I honestly couldn't care less about it, I forget it as soon as it happens lol.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yessir. Not exactly sure what kind? Are there different kinds? I would say that my favourite to write is angsty smut with lots of complicated feelings. And also I do like sprinkling some kink here and there whenever I feel like it.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I've only ever written one crossover and I still love the fuck out of it, it's a Witcher/Dragon Age one with my OC Tristan Trevelyan and Dorian Pavus and it was sooooo fun to write oh my god. I would love to revisit that universe ngl!!

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of? Depends on what we mean by stealing. I have had parts of fics of mine lifted and used in other fanworks without credit, it wasn't great but it's been a little while since then and I haven't noticed anything else (not that I've gone looking though).

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! A super lovely person has been translating High-Flying Birds into Vietnamese.

Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Yes! I've cowritten several fics with friends and it's always so nice, I love working with other people.

What's your all-time favourite ship? Oof that's a tough question. If we go by number of fics written, it would have to be Patrochilles. If we go by number of words written, it would have to be Pavelyan (almost 450k 💀). If we go by number of fics I've read and bookmarked, it would have to be Sheith. So idk if I can give a straight and clear answer lol.

What's a WIP you'd like to finish but doubt you ever will? God I really do want to finish A World With You and I do think I will do it eventually, it's just that I know there's a LOT of it left and it's often really daunting. I also want to finish Where Blood Roses Bloom but, again, the plan I have in mind is kind of ambitious and it will take me a while to get there. Also, Blood Roses In The Snow is one I want to get back to, and that one would be easier to finish since there's only like a couple chapters left.

What are your writing strengths? Probably imagery, introspection, and I've also been told I write good action scenes!

What are your writing weaknesses? Dialogue, probably. It stresses me out the most haha. I also used to be able to write complex plots but it's gotten quite hard lately, idk why :(

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I don't love it. I'm fine with a word here and there or even a phrase, as long as it's been sort of explained before or it's one that's widely recognised. I just feel like having a big chunk of untranslated dialogue in the middle of a story breaks immersion and I try to avoid it whenever I can.

First fandom you wrote for? Dragon Age, specifically Inquisition.

Favourite fic you've ever written? Noooo you can't make me choose, don't make me choose 😭 Damn that's tough. Twin Flames is still a huge favourite. A Place To Be is one I often come back to and I'm super proud of how it turned out. A World With You is the first fic I ever posted and the longest, I have spent so much time with it and it has a special place in my heart. And this might be cheating because it's my current fixation, but I feel like you're a walking disaster, and yet— is some of my best writing yet, I'm very fond of it.

Tagging forth to: @elveny @pikapeppa @mary-aries @darlingpoppet @pinkfadespirit @sketchass @starlightvld @petrowriting @in-arlathan @figsandphiltatos @heypax and anyone else who'd like to do this! (Also, if you don't want to be tagged for these memes let me know!)

[miodiodavinci]

omg i get so excited hearing about dnd!!!! how many campaigns have you been in if u mind answering?

i don't mind at all ! ! ! ! i enjoy talking about dnd ! ! ! ! our group got together in 2020 has run a total of (counts on fingers) 6 campaigns and 5 one shots, with our average campaign length being around 20 to 30 sessions. each person's taken a shot at DM'ing thus far, but the forever DM and i have both run about four of those each w

also, outside of one or two one shots, it's all been exclusively homebrew ! ! ! which is fun because we've all gotten to create our own regions and design overarching lore that connects each campaign to the other ! ! ! (surprisingly, hannus barbarous is usually the connecting factor. we did not plan this but that's just how it is now KJSFLKJH)

and because i love talking about dnd so much i'm taking this opportunity to dump a whole lot of summary of each campaign/one shot in chronological order under the cut w

ON A SCALE of ONE to TWENTY .. campaign

After being shut off from the world for over a hundred years, the region of Celosia finally opens its doors, sending out an open letter to all would-be adventurers asking for help. Our party just so happened to be the fools who decided to answer (and who got lucky enough to not get eaten by wolves on the way there), and have been tasked with taking down the shadowy Emerald Division that has seemingly come to power. They'll get to it as soon as they visit the dump (it's on the way).

Our DM's first homebrew campaign and the result of all of us being stuck inside and realizing we finally had time to play together w. This was the origin of both Hannus Barbarous as a running gag (along the lines of "this is JUST like Thomas and Jeremiah") and the name Scott as a throwaway bit, and also the origin of "The Coolest Emerald Division" title w

Characters

Roachcock the Tiefling Barbarian (played by me) .. bastard at heart, just wants to split heads, get coin, and buy a boat

Babey Möd the Halfling-Tabaxi Cleric (played by @anonprotagging) .. here to eat gravy and spread the good word of Lyra

The Storm the Water Genasi Barbarian .. he's super famous dude just trust me i heard he once fought like thirty turkeys

In'hala the Tiefling Paladin of Pan .. looking for her lost moms and also stealing this guy's boots hahaaa sick

Opus Whitfield the Human Wild Magic Sorcerer .. trying to use this opportunity to set up a new storefront for his family's gem cutting business, is actually using this opportunity to get bullied

note: i don't know if the other players use tumblr so for now they'll just be identified as "Xs player" from here on out w

GRANNY'S COUNTRY APPLE PIE .. one shot

An aging wizard wishes to taste the sweet delight of Granny's Country Apple Pie™ one last time (despite the bakery closing decades ago) and thus tasks our heroes with scoping out the place and seeing if they can find a recipe. Somewhere along the way, things got weird and it turns out Granny was just an immortal 65 year old who was taking a vacation in the outer planes with her wife but she's back now :)

Pre-built one shot that very quickly went off the rails, as to be expected for my very first go at being a DM after being a player for less than 4 months. The first appearance of Hannus as an actual character and not just a running bit.

Characters

Hannus Barbarous the Half-Orc playwright and Bard (played by @anonprotagging) .. he's taking a break from his prestigious play writing career to see the sights and reconnect with the little piece of him that was shattered when his troupe broke apart (but not too much of a break not to sign every autograph he can eyyy)

Sir the Eternal Flame (and sorcerer i guess) (played by Opus's player) .. still frustrated at being locked in human form, this giant immortal moth is off doing busy work until his curse wears off (which apparently includes bakery heists???)

Tehn the Sun Elf Ranger (played by the Celosia campaign DM) .. with their giant bumblebee Spoobin and frankly obscene lack of dietary standards at their side, there's no meal that they can't tackle

THE OSSIFIED GARDENS .. mini campaign

Taking shelter from the rain in an unearthly structure, the gang is snatched away from the physical realm and into a crab bucket-like hotel for the fae. With their most prized possessions taken from them as an entry fee, the gang has to endure arduous tasks to receive the stamps of each of the five Managers in order to receive audience with the minor god who runs the establishment. Whether or not she'll be willing to give their possessions back, however...

My first solo campaign as a DM!! Heavily inspired by Spirited Away and mostly an excuse to put old game dev content to use (including a literal circus of NPCs), but ended up serving as an important event in the Hannus Barbarous lore.

Characters

Hannus Barbarous the Half-Orc playwright and Bard (played by @anonprotagging) .. on the road with Tehn to visit a trinket faire in the next town over, about to experience beginning of a long and scalding beef with a petty minor god

Tehn the Sun Elf Ranger (played by the Celosia campaign DM) .. Hannus and Tehn are best friends now—they're having soft tacos later! :)

Piers the Minotaur Cleric (played by Opus's player) .. he's just along for the ride—maybe there will be cool books! :oooo

Tess the Halfling Rogue (played by In'hala's player) .. laying low until the folks in charge of her latest warrant lose track of her (and by laying low i mean just stealing at waist height instead of top shelves)

ROLL to PHOTOBOMB .. campaign

A seemingly normal winter festival goes astray when our heroes poor fools accidentally soul-bond to an extraplanar device meant to be a birthday present for the renowned sculptor hosting the ball (spoilers: it's a camera). They have four months to take it north to Cobalt City, get the re-calibration redone, and get it back in time for her wife to give it to her for their anniversary. The only problem is, the mountain pass is closed and the only other way there is a several hundred mile road trip by wagon...

Time to take some photos in front of some kitschy roadside attractions, I guess.

Opus's player's first time DM'ing for our group (though they'd DM'd before, and frankly—their experience shows). This campaign was home to some of our most beloved NPCs like Cassidy the subterranean super organism, Barry the extraplanar knife slime, and Sir the Eternal Flame Moth (he got that curse figured out finally!)

Characters

Fafnir of the Boreal North, the human knight Mimic Berserker (played by me) .. they just wanted to leave their dungeon to find a better, damper place to sit and eat and somehow accidentally took part in the funniest case of mistaken identity this side of Alcione

Ranger Rain Rainer the human Ranger (and literal park ranger, played by @anonprotagging) .. originally here to supervise the environmental impacts of the ball on the local landscape, now soul-bound to an extraplanar camera and havin' a good ol' time hangin' with the boys :) y'want some soy sauce with that? i bought a gallon back in brass junction

Kit the Elven Ranger (played by Tehn's player) .. legitimately so traumatized he wraps back around to being the most normal person in this group—just don't mention Celestine Grove

Babu the Hobgoblin Artificer (played by the Storm's player) .. having been separated from his parents and raised by Kobolds, Babu, his steel defender Babu, and his clockwork creation Little Babu are on a long journey to reunite with them in Grand Arbor .. please do not look at him he's sensitive

THE GREAT COCKATRICE RACE .. one shot

It's that time of year—the Great Cockatrice Race is upon us!! But just as our party is soaking in the sights and staking out the perfect spot to watch, they witness a young tiefling have his cockatrice's racing gear shredded by a local gang. Desperate to win so he can help pay to treat his father's worsening eyesight (they're cartographers by trade), he asks the party for help, and they quickly oblige.

Another one shot run by me, based loosely on a one-page campaign document. Not much to say about this one beyond the fact that everyone was ready to kill for Noodles the bantam cockatrice.

Characters

Actias Saturnid the Aasimar Paladin (played by @anonprotagging) .. on a quest to popularize his deity's chosen form of entertainment—tinker vision (TV for short)

Squish the Changeling Bard (played by Tehn's player) .. here to have fun and maybe also look for his friend that went missing have you seen her please tell me i miss her ;_____;

Kai the ??? Swashbuckling Rogue (played by Opus's player) .. it's a big festival, and that means plenty of eyes and plenty of cash! not a half bad time to try negotiating some new patrons for her artist friends

TROUBLE at PORT MANDRET .. one shot

What was originally supposed to be the 58th annual showcase of Umbergate University's horticultural collection is turned sour as an incensed former professor unleashes a powerful awakening spell on the entire town. With only a few hours before the plants release spores that will spread the spell to the entire world, our party has to act fast and cooperate with a local mycologist who seems to know just the fix to this predicament.

Another one shot from me, this time entirely homebrewed! This is also the origin of Scott as a character and not just a throwaway bit, and very much the source of his dynamic with Hannie. They found him tangled up in a bunch of kudzu in a coffee shop and he sent them on a long fetch quest to help him make a cup of coffee using stolen coffee beans.

Characters

Hannus Barbarous the Half-Orc playwright and bard (you know his player by now w) .. you know, he was just trying to lay low after the whole "committing arson" thing, but now he has a gay little mushroom twink to look after and that's (????)

Tehn the Sun Elf Ranger (played by you know who w).. also laying low after helping Hannus commit arson, but mostly here to eat a bunch of plants when no one's looking

Hank the Aarakocra Barbarian (played by Opus's player) .. he's a goose who only says "HANK" and i love that so much about him

Quinn the literal, unawakened, plain old animal tiger and Rogue (played by the Storm's player) .. the reason Hannus and Tehn committed arson after discovering she was being kept in squalid conditions by a wealthy family .. i cannot stress enough that she is a literal, un-enchanted tiger

THE ENIGMA of DAHL CREEK .. campaign

Their boat having sank in a storm, the party washes up on a seemingly once populous island now drowning under webs of unidentifiable blue-green vines and the eerily human-like shapes it creates. Working to unravel the mystery of how the entire town disappeared one August day, they find the past and present blurring together in a strange and haunting way.

The Celosia campaign DM's next big campaign, and frankly the one that haunts me most to this day. I cannot put into words how fucking good this campaign was. Legitimately gave me chills and occupies a region of my brain that cannot be vacated.

Characters

Hannus Barbarous (you know him) .. just trying to recover from the fae thing and the tiger incident and then the Port Mandret fiasco and really doesn't need this right now (but deal he will)

Biscott Cortinarius the human mycologist and Necromancer (played by me) .. putting a little distance between himself and the university due to the ""legal ramifications of interviewing university property without familial consent,"" but mostly sticking with Hannus because he's a bard and... well... bards aren't exactly beefy are they ;)

The Destitution of Mires the Lizardfolk Circle of Spores Druid (played by the Storm's Player) .. to this day i still don't know what their deal was, only that they sensed and so they came, and they left just as easily

Theo the ??? Circle of Dreams Druid (played by Opus's player) .. wanted to get out there and see the world, managed to sneak onto the one and Only boat that shipwrecked that day, now paying for it dearly

TIDECLEFT ISLES .. campaign

When the great Captain Wicke died, he arranged in his will that his treasure was to be given to the pirates of Tidecleft—so long as they could find it. Having arranged a massive, death-defying posthumous treasure hunt, several teams (including our heroes) must now compete to locate Wicke's treasure if they want to claim it all for themselves. What the late captain has in store for them, however, may call the worth of the treasure into question.

The Storm's player's first time DM'ing for our group, but not his first time DM'ing by far (read: he was Tehn's player's forever DM long before he came to our group). This was a grand old romp around a bunch of islands and sea caves that culminated in a frankly off-the-walls batshit final battle.

Characters

Acanthus of the Western Isles, the Mano (shark man) Scholar (played by me) .. a doctor and academic seeking to pay off a massive debt he incurred thanks to the Silver Lampreys and their web of loan sharks .. he doesn't care for jokes... or laughing, or puns, or metaphorical language or

Lemon the Warforged Circle of Stars Druid (played by @anonprotagging) .. realized she's accrued like twenty years in paid time off from working as a docent in an observatory, now taking her first vacation with her best friend Owen Gnome :) (he's a garden gnome she found outside and decided to keep in her pocket) (may or may not be venomous)

Bellamy the ??? ??? (played by Opus's player) .. ever grateful to the squid trawlers that took him in, he's competing in this hunt to earn enough to turn their venture into a franchise .. he is shockingly normal despite the whole "may not be from this plane" thing

Rayin the Tiefling Storm Sorcerer (played by Tehn's player) .. having received that sweet sweet "got hit by a magical explosion on campus" money and gotten magical powers out of it, Rayin is ditching academia to do COOL things like throw lightning bolts and meow at people

these character descriptors are getting long sorry

MIETTE SIMULATOR .. one shot

Somehow, our band of unfortunate souls has wandered into a town caught in a frenzy, raving for the execution of a seemingly normal tiefling man for an unspeakable crime (literally, no one will say what it was). The gang decides to get to the bottom of this, only to discover the very laws of reality are essentially optional in this neck of the woods.

Hannus's player's first time DM'ing as a dry run for his future one shot, and it was a hoot. Also the first time we got to meet Ranger Rainer's brother, Shine Rainer (who is the polar opposite of his brother thanks to all the trauma that comes with being a record keeper).

Characters

Lark the Aasimar Gunslinger (played by me) .. just trying to do as many good deeds as possible to get her dad off her back so she can get a girlfriend without him scaring her off with his whole "incomprehensible being of holy light" thing

Clare the human ??? (played by Tehn's player) .. i don't remember why she was there she just was and she was probably the most okay with everything that was going on

Hank the Aarakocra Barbarian (played by Opus's player) .. he's playing it cool after the Port Mandret thing, except this is not cool this is chaos

MOON TOWN .. one shot

It's Actias! And he needs help! For some reason, they've been disconnected from their god, and they can't figure out why! When our heroes decide to help, they end up getting snatched away to an otherworldly version of the long abandoned Sun Town and need to solve the mystery of a long cold case in order to find their way back home.

Hannus's player's main group DM'ing debut. Full of fun puzzles and good laughs (I'll never forget Actias asking us for help with a puzzle and showing us one of those shapes and holes boxes you give to kids) with plenty of throwbacks to old running gags. Felt like a nice homage to what DnD had been for us thus far.

Characters

Calamund Galbraith the Reborn Echo Fighter (played by me) .. a completely average guy who just so happened to get roped into getting "engaged" to a wraith that now endlessly pursues him .. he just really wants to go home and eat soup with his birds

Squish the Changeling Bard (played by Tehn's player) .. really worried for his good friend Actias :(

Tiel Alleywollow the Halfling Warlock (played by the Storm's player) .. a girl of few words (literally, she only speaks when casting spells) and eternally fond of her fiendish patron, an asshole imp named Dition

In'hala the Tiefling Paladin of Pan (played by the same guy as before w) .. hit her head on a ship and somehow ended up far, far south of Celosia. who knows what happened? certainly not in'hala, but EYYY SHE STILL HAS THE SICK BOOTS YEAAA

Teller Artax the Warforged Gunslinger (played by Opus's player) .. originally out to hunt down his lost creator, but got sidetracked, and then got sidetracked from that sidetrack, and then got sidetracked from that sidetrack's sidetrack, and then

THE CURIOUS CASE of ACTON RIDGE .. campaign

50 years before the events of Dahl Creek, a similar event is taking place—after a shoot out in the canyon, the town of Acton Ridge is also carpeted in strange, blue-green vines and locked in time. Our heroes must unravel the mystery of their pasts and the two intertwined fates of a pair of brilliant inventors who were seemingly on the hunt for something not of this world. Ongoing!

The Celosia DM's latest campaign and prequel to Dahl Creek. A little different vibes from the last one considering most of us apparently lived here before things went to shit, and many of us have tie-ins with the events taking place. Cool, eerie mystery fun ! ! !

Characters

Outis the Warforged Paladin (played by me) .. an archaic tour guide emissary from the Feywilds who's trapped on an endless journey towards an unseen destination .. it's sassy as hell and just the right amount of british to be infuriating

Emeril the Sea Elf chef and Fighter (played by @anonprotagging) .. retired from being a soldier and running from his past to owning a small tavern (and running from his past) .. very blunt (like his cast iron frying pan)

Spinifer the ??? Bard and travel-book writer (played by Opus's player) .. looking for the scoop on the local scene in hopes of bringing more folks over from her homeland .. common isn't her first language and she delights in learning cool new words, like "paranormal" and "clusterfuck"

Phira the Deep Gnome Monster Hunter (played by the Storm's player) .. haunted by her past and now interested in that which is haunted, this little conspiracy theorist is going to get to the bottom of this mystery if it's the last thing she does (but not actually—she'd like to live you know)

[lumiereandcogsworth]

🎥🤩🏡🤔

🎥 Pick a fic and I'll tell you the song I imagine playing during its movie trailer. okay fair enough, i forced a disney question on you so now i suffer with a song question. UHHHHH???? i mean bold of you to assume any of my fics are long enough to even withstand HAVING a trailer. i guess going based on length, my longest one, my 18k pre-canon adam lore, that would could easily have my eyes by the lumineers for its trailer. as you well know that’s THE adam song. i truly don’t know what i’d pick for any of the other semi-long ones so uhhh, there’s your answer 😎

🤩 What's the most meaningful comment you've ever received? oh golly i receive meaningful comments all the time!! i’m very blessed with a small but incredibly loyal readership 😭 i have one reader who often says “i have tears in my eyes” and that always gets me. i love that i can evoke that with my words!! whether it’s real tears or figurative, i’m glad i can touch people’s hearts that way! also whenever someone THANKS me for my writing i’m like shdksjdks NO THANK YOU!!!!!!!! like gosh you’re so welcome. it is literally My Honor😭 being thanked for my passion?? my goodness. also @roberrtphilip always leaves comments that make me giggle and twirl my hair. he just Gets It. i love making alex explode with my fluff >:)

🏡What is your perfect writing environment? laying or sitting on my bed, it’s like 1am, everything is quiet, i’m Lost in the moment as i frantically type to get every idea out fast enough. ough. best feeling in the whole world

🤔What are some words or phrases you find yourself overusing? SO MUCH AHDJSJ. i’ve noticed my narration style is like, idk what the word is, a bit cheeky? i’m always saying shit like “it wasn’t quite what he intended, but it worked well enough” like idk i feel like i’m a tad sassy as a narrator but in an endearing way. “it wouldn’t possibly work, of course, but we’ll give them points for trying.” neither of these quotes are direct but they’re VERY much my narration vibe. that’s more a style though not specific words or phrases. okay uhhmmm i mean i definitely say a lot of fluffy words a lot but hey that’s my brand babey! i say “sweet” and “warm” and “gentle” and “softly” all the time. they say “i love you” all the time. tender kisses and loving eyes. it’s all the same stuff but gosh do i eat it up Every Time. and my readers seem to as well, so it’s a win-win 😌

fic asks!

[merlinmerlot]

damn that anons an asshole. what are your thoughts on d&d alignment id love to hear em

nothing would make me happier thank you anon o7

My original post addressing the anon was mostly in response to their comment about how 'd&d has alignments so it can't be black and white lol' (or at least that's what i Assume they meant. i can't say i'm too sorry if i misinterpret their words).

tl;dr i hate the alignment system and kind of think it sucks balls dick and ass.

i'll take the L for using the phrase 'black and white' fairly liberally but my general usage of it refers to things being painted into Specific Categories and there being no Fluidity between categories; Like fine d&d morality isn't black and white, its black, gray, and white. You're either good, evil, or 'ehhh can't i be both?' (neutral). You get three choices babey. (Yes, there's the lawful and chaotic sides, but imo that's another bag of beans to get into and they're Supposed to be just descriptors, not actual morality indicators. i also think the lawful/chaotic distinction sucks but ANYWAYSSS)

This is Especially heinous when previously, alignments were used to describe d&d races in their entirety. i don't think i need to explain why referring to all goblins or all drow or all orc as 'evil' is Really Bad. like Really Really Bad.

Anyways, even if the alignment system was more Fluid (like a line where the two ends are 'evil' and 'good' and you can place your character wherever you want on that line), defining a character's morality that one-dimensionally is useless at best and shitty at worst:

(As an aside: I've only taken like, basic college anthropology classes. this is using my Very Basic knowledge of cultural morality.)

Morality is Defined by your culture and society. What You might consider bad could be considered Fine in another culture. That doesn't mean your definition is wrong, or that theirs is wrong either; Just that everything, including your understanding of reality/morality, is relative. Cultural Relativism and all that.

Now, D&D's races, classes, regions, etc. all have their own specific cultures. The culture of githyanki is significantly more different then that of say, gnomes, and what is considered 'evil' in one culture might be 'good' in another. But, D&D does not take a cultural relative approach, and instead defines morality by the Faerun standard. (or, at the very least, the standards of the gods.)

This becomes very unfortunate, because what this means is that every culture, no matter how foreign, no matter if they're in a Completely different plane than Faerun (or whatever the default setting is at the time), is defined by what the 'good races' of the default setting think is 'good' or 'bad'. This is like if we were to force the american definition of morality on every other place on planet earth - ohhhh that's right, that actually happens. (DISCLAIMER: do i have to say this? well, just in case: this is not a defense of like, shitty morals. murder is bad. etc.)

And like, it gets worse, because morality is not even really an opinion that you can be ambiguous about in Faerun - There are literally Planes defined by being either Good Or Evil. The Upper Planes are Objectively, by the setting, Good, and the Lower Planes are, Objectively, Bad. What they say is the Truth of the matter, or as truthful as it gets, anyways (if I were to be kind to the setting, i would have to admit its actually a Little more complicated than that, but, i digress).

What I'm essentially getting at is because D&D was made by some white guys who based morality off of their own standards of it, that alignment in D&D is very western and eurocentric, like most of the game. Again, goblins/orcs/drows, typically seen as the Evil race, frequently were influenced by the cultures of non white pple (if you need an example, just read up on any d&d lore and look at how goblin/orc magic, religion, and social organization is described, compared to their human counterparts). Again, i don't think i need to explain how that's Sucks Balls.

Im realizing that i should probably bring this back to bg3 and why i think giving the companions 'alignments' isn't very helpful when it comes to describing them. like, take lae'zel; if we're using the Faerun definition of morality, she is lawful evil. Her society is evil by faerun standards and she follows their code entirely and she does like threatening and killing people. But like, really? From her perspective, she is just doing what is right/'good' for her people; and when she realizes that what is right for her people is different, she stops following Vlaakith and pledges herself to [SPOILERS]. maybe you could make a case that she 'changes' alignment upon this choice, but it's not as if her ideals are drastically different - she's still pretty chill with murder, and she continues to want the best for her people. And like, need I remind you that other characters that can be defined as lawful evil are like, Ketheric and shit, and d&d alignment puts them all into the same bag. So like, what now?

This became mostly rambles lol. But regardless, its not as if the D&D alignment system is Completely unsalvageable. But any usage of the alignment system must come with the caveat that it is Subjective.

[jazzmckay]

tagged by @broodsys for this writer questionnaire uvu ty, i got really into this one. the deep jazz lore incoming <3

tagging @lyriumlullaby-ao3, @inscrutable-shadow, and @skadizzleross

copy and paste-able question list at the bottom of the post!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

says 88, but one is anonymous lol 89 babey

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

824,682

3. What fandoms do you write for?

dragon age currently, prior to that, detroit: become human. some witcher and RWBY mixed in. teen wolf, dishonored, red vs blue, homestuck back in the day, a couple other things.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Truth in Melody (witcher, geraskier)

The World Upside Down (dbh gen)

left an impression on my heart (teen wolf, scott/stiles. its over a decade old i am not linking this lol)

Variable Outcome (dbh, connor & gavin gen)

Winter Chill and Summer Bloom (dbh, connor/gavin)

5. Do you respond to comments?

absolutely! if i don't, it's only because the person is being a jerk or just uncomfortable. give me a heart emoji, you're getting a heart emoji right back. boop

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i generally write happy endings, no matter how hellish the road to that happy endings is. i do, however, have a Bad End dbh oneshot. Fair Compensation. it's straight up non-con, and from aggressor pov, so viewer discretion is advised

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

gosh idk how i could pick. as i said in the previous answer, i try to leave off on a high note. Truth in Melody or perhaps Promises to Keep. wouldn't say they're happier than others, but they're among my longest fics, which means the characters had to go through some bullshit to get those happy endings lmfao

8. Do you get hate on fics?

a couple times. more often, i get weird / uncomfortable comments that i just ignore

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do! well, i'd say "kinky" tends to be a general theme ahahaha and feelsy! smut in my chaptered fics are more basic, the oneshots can be wild though. and then there's from the depths, an ancient song, where i wrote a foursome involving a LOT of tentacles. like a lot. so take that how you will.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

ive dabbled in ideas, but rarely get around to actually writing them. i do like the concept of smashing my favourite universes together, though. my dbh vampire series is basically just the lore of vampire: the masquerade, but i wouldn't consider it a full crossover

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i have! and a couple additional requests, one that i denied, and another that i agreed to but no result yet! still hoping <3

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes, for events. shout out to any of my buddies from the homestuck shipping olympics who see this :p can you BELIEVE how long it has been

roleplaying is also kinda like co-writing fics sometimes honestly. i've got some threads that have been ongoing for years and took a lot of plotting and planning together uvu

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

how dare u ask me this. this is nearly impossible aughh but i'm going to say corvo/daud from dishonored

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

basically anything from my favourite games and such that are nonetheless overshadowed by current hyperfixation. i'm forever sad that most of my many, many dishonored fic ideas were from a time when i chronically could not finish anything

16. What are your writing strengths?

i don't know, i'm bad at acknowledging good things about myself lol characterization, i suppose, that tends to be what i get the most lovely comments about <3

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

fluff, unless it's the resolution to angst lmfao i need to build up to it. drop me straight into a nothing scenario of fluff and i don't know what to DO. technical-wise, idk, descriptions i think

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

it certainly has its place and can be done well! but it's easy to mess it up, too. you need to make sure it's accurate and fitting for the scene, you need to avoid racist stereotyping, you need the story to still make sense and flow well. if the message isn't clear because most readers don't know the language, or have to keep looking it up / reading author notes, that's immersion-breaking imo. with fictional languages where much of the fanbase is familiar with the common words, though, no big deal i'd say

19. First fandom you wrote for?

honestly i think it was the cartoon, angry beavers lol i didn't know what's what i was doing, at the time. as far as serious, intentional stories, maybe firefly? or xmen?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

i cannot pick just one lol 4 is as low as ill go

previously linked Winter Chill and Summer Bloom: this is very hurt/comfort, my favourite thing, with a bunch of my other favourite things tossed in. touch-starvation, non-verbal character, characters getting away from the location of their suffering to heal in a better place, both physically and mentally, sweet slice of life stuff etc.

take these broken wings and learn to fly: more h/c! this one starts off heavy as hell and involves a lot of Process of Healing (to no ones surprise, at this point). healing has gotta be one of my favourite genders. also it's femslash.

Sight & Shadows: it's both plot- and character-driven, i'm happy with how i balanced both simultaneously. it's my vampire au, and other than the v:tm lore borrowing, it feels almost original to me. it's a rarepair, in an au--as niche as it gets, shaped a lot by the universe and story i put together for the whole series. it was a joy to create, because i truly did write this for ME. i wouldn't say any of my fics were written for others, per se, but i guess this one just felt different from the start. i wasn't anticipating an audience, i was just telling the story these characters needed, the way i like to do it. i had great friends supporting me through it, so i wasn't alone in the process or anything, it just felt the most like writing an original story than any of my other fics have

into the light of the dark black night: first of all, yes, 2/4 fics listed here are titled with lyrics from blackbird by the beatles. blackbird lyrics means intense feelings, that's just how it is. i've done it twice, and ill DO IT AGAIN. anyway, this one takes place in one of dbh's grimmest possible endings--the nuclear blast ending. i did a lot of research for this one, and also put a lot of thought into handling it with as much care as i think a concept like this requires. it's weighty, but hopeful. it has apocalypse elements, which i love. i got to do cyberpunky stuff as well. i added some of the elements i think dbh would have included if d@vid cage weren't a coward. i projected multiplicity onto some of the characters. i got to write north as the steadfast and successful leader of the revolution, as she deserves. blackbird fly <3

if you made it through all of that... thank you :>

and the template:

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

[nutria--oscura]

THE EPISODE TITLE- (me when i get a confidence boost at like 3am)(main character by will wood starts playing)

~spoilers for s2 e38~

THE OPENING YALL-

we're starting of strong bois-

i aspire to be normal oak (says the person who has never owned a heelys and has always wanted)

the roll that determines all *drum roll* NAT 20 LEZZZZ GOOOOOO LOVE WINS

we stan sparrow-

#fuck willy

shittatude is my new favourite word

taylor? taylor no-

cas and willy having good chemistry scares me. cas, girl, save yourself

normal: 'everyone gets to bully their dad' scary:

commune with the riddler? hermie can help with that (i need hermie content please anthony-)

oh yeah- scary didn't know they were married-

normal: THE gothcleats shipper

HERMIEEEEEEEE & NICKKKKK

ITS ARSON TIME BABEY- not yet? ok not yet but please-

taylor and nick content <3

normal and scary interactions <3

SCARYYYYYYYYY <3

CATBUS YAYYYYY!!!

YES SCARY! SCAM THAT FUCKER #FUCK WILLY

who- thE MAYOR???

thank you beth for that i'm gonna be reference <3

mayor margret mcsnarkles? we love alliteration

link really went from 'we cannot kill ANYONE' and not wanting mae to talk about torturing captives, to 'we could test this, by like, just shooting a few people, from here'- ik he counters it once sparrow says they don't know if they if its reversable or not but like-

HUMAN GUN HUMAN GUN HUMAN GUN

link: 'we can cast that sphere of darkness' taylor enthusiastic: yeah! normal half-hearted, sad: yea...

normal my boy, noooo-

TAYLOR-

stain glass window??? of the dads??? 'like the sort of thing we'd put on a shirt'??? you better put that on a shirt??? please???

every time they use the human gun i remember that the people they shoot are naked- and-

'there's a big tasty rat on the on the other side'

'i'm so sorry i lied to you catbus, i don't think there's a rat on the other side' YES THERE IS- FUCKING WILLY-

#fuck willy

just taylor??? oh no-

zone of truth on his balls-

... scary's the only one who can survive it? oh no-

it would kill willy, but not scary??? what-

LORE TIME LORE TIME

it's purple cause it's a combination of blue and red- ohhhhhhhh-

YES. KILL HIM.

YES TEENS SLAY (carefully)

CAS NO-

OH SHIT WILLY WHAT THE FUCK ARE Y-

W-WIFE

FUCK WILLY

i do not believe she would marry willy without consulting taylor no way in hell- engaged? fuck, mabye- but not married

WAIT THEY CANNOT KILL WILLY CAUSE THAT WOULD MEAN CAS WOULD DIE

woah woah woah lark-

WILLY. YOU MOTHERFUCKER-

normal with the heelys and scary with the doc martens <3

why are willy's fears just my fears?

noooooooo- no more love wolf sparrow-

HERMIE AND NICK <3

nick gets banished #2

LET HIM COOK

'he's playing the long game like he always taught me! wait a minute- he didn't teach me shit' taylorrrrr-

3 pissbois

terri??

CASSANDRA-

FUCK YEAH NORMAL

FUCK NO WILLY

SCARY-

THE ROLL THAT DETERMINES ALL- FUCK YEA

we love the doodler

so farrr:

SPARROW IS DRUID CONFIRMED

GRANT IS A RANGER CONFIRMED

c'mon anthony! give em to us!

in conclusion:

Therapy for all! but they've started to work through it slightly!

[astralibrary]

another year another silan portrait babey.... a few days late this time but we still ballin'

i've been very into manga cover design lately (studying them, making my own, etc) so it only felt right to incorporate that into this year's portrait, right? and go way overboard designing the entire front, back and spine including a blurb and barcodes and retail/publishing info, right?? and then go all in on making a matching japanese version with its own alternative blurb and barcode area bc u can't have one without the other, right?? obviously!!!!

like i said i've been really into manga design-

thoughts & details belooow

funnily enough this ended up being an actual portrait again after i did away with them in favor of illustrations in recent years, but ig it's fitting since this is the 10th one, right? (more on that later i wrote this out of order-) a callback to the first one all those years ago... the other reason it's a portrait is bc art has been fighting back lately and a full illustration probably would have been a lot; most importantly tho i just thought this composition would make for a cool dramatic manga cover heh heh

anyway bro the impossible happened i fully rendered flowers AND completed the portrait this year hello??? this has never happened since the v first year wait i just checked it happened in 2019 too this has not happened since 2019 wowie!!!! i put my whole ass into those flowers pls observe them (except the tall purple ones don't look too closely at those. look at the pansies they're my fave ♥️)

this year we have morning glories taking center stage, surrounded by pansies, forget-me-nots, some kind of nondescript purple perennial or perhaps lavender, and some kind of pink blossom (idk that one was just a space filler). don't ask abt the random petals on his mouth & collarbone uhh theres some kind of flowering tree growing just offscreen it's possible

anyway the morning glories are significant bc they represent sythra, silan's twin sister; in my mind her colors are blue & yellow and it seemed like such a good fit, so i'm officially adding it to the Flower Lore (there is no flower lore)

there is, however, Twin Lore; silan's eyes are brown and sythra's are blue, but when they're telepathically linked their left eyes exchange color (so silan's becomes blue & vice versa). the flowers here are meant to represent that, like sythra isn't here but at the same time silan carries her with him wherever he goes... smth like that

the plot described in the blurb is like, sort of what happens but i simplified things for the sake of a neat little fake manga blurb. nobody asked me to do this yet here we are. if i were being realistic abt it this would probs be like vol 2 BUT i made it the 10th volume bc this is?? the 10th silan portrait??? i did the first one in 2014?? hello??? time is fake (my hc is that it's a slice of life club manga about flower pressing for the first 9 volumes but it pivots hard in vol 10 bc the author got so sick of drawing flowers no i am not projecting-)

now regarding the japanese version: i tried my best*

*(if u or a loved one know japanese ur not allowed to make fun of me ok orz i used 姉妹 bc theres no way for silan & sythra to know who's the older twin & idk what u would do in that situation like do u just pick one & go w it or is there another hierarchy-neutral word for sister, 姉妹 is the best i can do w my limited knowledge and even then it probably just sounds like silan is having twin girls which like good for him but even so if i sound like a dork keep it to urself ok but actually do tell me if u know bc i would like to Learn ik this is probably the least of my worries when it comes to that entire paragraph but rn we are just going to focus on the issues i know about and pretend that everything else is fine as is ok thank u for ur time & have a lovely day ur a star ⭐️)

misc fun facts aka u learn how unhinged i was abt this:

the title is May 16th bc that's just what silan's story has always been called. luckily i have that up my sleeve or i'd have had to come up w smth out of my ass like The Silan Portrait or some shit

the author and publishing company are both called astralibrary yes that's me (it has a nice ring to it as a manga publisher name don't u think). i made up the logo on the spot it's my best work. especially the one in the bottom right of the japanese bar code area where i just typed the name and put a star next to it bc that makes it look professional somehow

i stole borrowed the barcodes from existing manga i have good pics of (bc i have an entire folder in my gallery dedicated to manga covers & jpn typography, unrelated); the english one is hanako-kun vol 4, and the japanese one is after the rain vol 10. i changed all the numerical codes tho (variations on the date 5/16 repeating)

i made up the english prices but i picked ¥640 specifically bc that's the price of the natsuyuu volumes i have in my manga covers folder, my only possible point of reference,

rated teen even tho in my mind it'd be targeted more towards young adults; it doesn't have anything in it that would warrant a mature rating but it does feel strange to categorize it in this way even knowing these ratings don't necessarily dictate the target audience

i thought about messing around w the design of the japanese version more to reflect some of the design sensibilities i've observed in japanese manga, like different placement of the text on the cover or a different spine entirely (since they tend to differ a lot between jpn and eng versions)- i even thought about trying to design an obi (long strip of paper that wraps all the way around the bottom portion of the book, usually has announcements & promotional stuff on it), but that is a whole ass project for another day i think this'll do just fine for now skdjlfkdg

and there u have it, thank u for reading my yearly essay abt drawing i did! sometimes u need to go aaaaaa about smth u drew and that's ok 👌

---

edit: oh yea i forgor i should write transcriptions of the blurbs here we go

ENGLISH

Alone with his thoughts? Not necessarily...

Silan has finally discovered the source of the mysterious voice in his head- the long lost twin sister he never knew he had...?! She calls herself Sythra and she has a serious grudge against him- but they need each other in order to uncover the hidden truths about their past.

Why didn't they know about each other? How were they separated? Why can they hear each other's thoughts?

And... What else don't they know?

-

JAPANESE

双子の姉妹がいる⁉︎

サイランは頭の中の声の衝撃的な正体を知るーーどうやら双子の姉妹がいるらしい⁉︎しかも、なぜか嫌われているようで…頑張れ、サイラン！

どういうわけか、この二人は謎に満ちた過去の答えを一緒に見つけるでしょう。

なぜお互いのことを知らなかったのか？どのようにして離れ離れになったのか？なぜお互いの考えを聞くことができるのか？そして…他に知らないことは…？

待望の第10巻がついに登場！

INTENDED TRANSLATION:

I have a twin sister?!

Silan learns the shocking identity of the voice inside his head- apparently he has a twin sister?! And what's more, for some reason she seems to hate him... Hang in there, Silan!

Somehow, these two will find the answers to their mysterious past together.

Why didn't they know about each other? How did they get separated? Why can they hear each other's thoughts?And...what else do they not know...?

The long-awaited 10th volume is finally here!

[tfw-no-tennis]

tfc thotz

so ruth and I watched tf cyberverse, and since I love to talk, here are my scattered thoughts 

so this show???? was super fun and good??? why did it take me so long to hear that cyberverse is GOOD

like, when it first came out/back in like early 2019 when I was getting into transformers, I watched a couple random eps and I was like Oh ok this isn't terrible but also its just like, episodic and aimed at kids and kinda fluffy. okay!

ok but clearly I was wrong bc this biz has PLOT, babey! 

so yeah I ended up binging it w/ruth and I had a great time. I honestly enjoyed this show more than tfp, but I think it comes down to expectations - I expected very little from tfc so I was pleasantly surprised when my expectations were easily surpassed, and I expected something different/better from tfp so I was disappointed when it didn't live up to my expectations

anyways, my actual thoughts

I love the cast?? like I love how big the cast is and how the characters in focus kinda rotate around after s1 

also I love how stupid everybody in this show is. god. like nobody has any brain cells, its just No Thoughts Head Empty at all times. like, shockwave called the seekers dumb, and that might be true, but LITERALLY EVERYONE is dumb and I adore it 

s/o to bumblebee and hot rod, who are two wholesome frat bros trying to find a third frat bro to hang out with without that bro dying (rip blurr and cheetor)

also so many people die in this show???? like holy fuck. I was not expecting this amount of permanent, on-screen death

like when blurr gets fucking thanos snapped in the Spring Break Gone Wrong episode (which I think was one of the ones I watched back in 2019), I was like oh damn okay, but he’ll be back cause that's how it goes w/a show like this.

NOPE he’s dead for good. and like so many other characters die and stay dead, and that honestly caused actual suspense, bc it was like oh daym anyone can die and they'll probably stay dead unless they're starscream whos impossible to kill 

that's also another plus of a big cast - they can just murder people left and right. like starscream murdered like All the seekers at one point but there were more on cybertron so its fine I guess lmao 

also I like that there's a lot of female robots? and they’re all different and unique which is cool

also, no humans! I don't necessarily hate humans in tf stories when done right, but there being no humans in this show allowed it to be a lot freer in what they did w/the plot and lore and characters, which I appreciated

like, I remember when that netflix tf show was announced and it was like ‘ooooh a show set on cybertron without humans, baller!’ but I have like 0 interest in it after the stuff I've heard about it lol and meanwhile cyberverse was just doing exactly that - focusing on the robots, no humans, a lot of the show being set on cybertron 

like even when they're on earth there are like...no humans anywhere lmao they just don't care about the alien robots fighting I guess

except for that one segment where they show humans like, filming them & reacting and stuff, which was funnier and better than 90% of human-tf interactions in other tf media

oh and I fucking LOVE the time jumps in this show. cyberverse does NOT care about exposition at ALL, they'll just jump right the fuck in and expect you to catch up, which I adore 

like, the fucking s2 premiere. at the end of s1 they found the ark w/all the autobots and also megatron & co are heading for earth....then s2 starts w/a smash cut to the fucking moon where all the autobots are fighting all the decepticons, and we get a super brief summary of what amounts to half a season’s worth of content - the autobots waking up, the cons arriving, the humans finding out about the alien robots, the autobots allying w/the humans, the fight continuing, etcetc. its like we jumped in at the mid-season finale, and I LOVE it 

there's also a lot of tf lore stuff, which I love! like, they have the allspark, the matrix, vector sigma, titans, caminus...I feel like they throw a lot of lore at the audience with minimal explanation, which I enjoy as somebody who knows the lore well enough to not be confused by this (not that I think it would be confusing for non-fans, they do a good job explaining what needs to be known)

also loved that they never like, formally introduced most of the characters, they were just There suddenly lmao. that way they didn't have to waste time w/episodes dedicated to establishing their personalities and whatnot, and instead we just got to see what they were like ourselves - which now that I think about it, that harkens back to g1 where character would just randomly appear cause there was a new toy so boom new character, but they wouldn't explain it or anything hbhvsdkfbjaskd I love transformers

I love Hot Rod soooo much I'm so glad he was in this, he’s my fuckin BOI and he was so so good in this 

also I can’t believe drift was here but was EVIL ALL ALONG and then DIED that was crazy man 

oh man also optimus and megatron. I love this optimus, he was so cute...like, he was clearly most comfortable while fighting and giving inspiring speeches in the heat of battle, but the rest of the time he was kind of awkward and just really cute and polite, I loved that 

and megatron was SO hammy lmfao and he & optimus are clearly going thru the world’s messiest divorce but they don't REALLY want to get divorced and that's why its taking so long

but really I did love how the autobots and decepticons actually sat down for negotiations? and the autobots were like pshhh yeah this happens every so often, and things are going ok until BAM everyone's fighting again then its back to business as usual.

I just really enjoy that interpretation/approach to the war, it’s so interesting. it shows that both sides are aware that fighting eternally isn’t the best idea, but also that neither side is willing to back down on certain points, which makes peace difficult 

OH MANNN and I fucking LOVE how we got to see pre-war cybertron??? with everybody just hanging out, pre-faction...that was such a delight 

seriously, I love that episode about maccadams where it shows the slow slide into conflict...that was so great

one detail I especially loved was that bumblebee was all starry-eyed over megatron, not optimus - like the part where you see megs and OP sitting together at maccadams and bee is like oooh windblade I gotta introduce you and you think he’s talking about optimus but NOPE he’s talking about MEGATRON 

also another thing I love is that this show is like. rlly funny. I definitely laughed more than I expected to, there were some really solid jokes

OHHHH I love that they have a sport called CUBE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love cubes SOOO much such a good shape 😍 and in that ep when windblade is all like ‘ITS CUBE!!!!!!!!! OMG CUBE!!!! DONT YOU REMEMBER CUBE, BUMBLEBEE?’ I was like OH ME LMAO....CUUUUUBE

ok so the part in that one ep where megatron beats up starscream was??? so brutal??? and it lasted a WHILE too, and since the eps are so short it was like a third of the whole episode?? I was SO not expecting that level of brutality from this show, especially at this point in s2 where things hadn't really gotten that hardcore

ok I gotta talk abt the characters now. bc I love the characters and there’s so many of them which is fantastic 

as I’ve already said I adore my boi hot rod. I also love bumblebee SO MUCH in this, he’s just such a good boy....good lad....also I’m glad he got to talk after s1, I didn’t mind the no-voice thing bc it didn’t overstay its welcome

cheetor is soooo good too HE’S JUST A BABY. A GOOD CATBOY...cheetor and bee and hot rod was such a good and pure boy squad and I’m so sad abt cheetor dying. that shit was depressing 

ruth seeing beast wars cheetor: look how they massacred my boy 😫

me: ...you know he’s originally from beast wars, right???

ruth: IM STILL RIGHT

oh ym god shockwave. him being ANGERY was so ufcking funny especially bc in a few shots he WASNT angry so that means its not that he Just Looks Like That, it’s that he really IS angry All The Time and frowning constantly hvbhfdkhsfjbhskdjf god. anyways he was literally the only character with a brain cell in the entire show, he was the only one who got shit done. that part where megatron is like ‘finally you did something successful shockwave’ was so fucking funny bc like. all he DOES is succeed and meanwhile megatron is getting dunked on every 3 seconds. oh my god

SOUNDWAV?EE???? SOUNDWAVE I love soundwave he’s legit one of my fav tf characters ever, idek why it was just On Sight, I love his design and voice and his whole deal...cyberverse soundwave was SO good, he’s just SO RUDE and I love him. I love how he was always playing music and I just adore his whole ‘come at me bro’ attitude lmao

oh man I liked slipstream a lot, and her and windblade had so much potential, I’m sad slipstream died...unfortunately she was the only seeker to have half a braincell so she had to perish (I mean all the seekers ended up dying anyways but still)

also that bludgeon guy??? wtf was up w/him???? we legit never got an explanation for why he was Like That hbvhfakdjhbfdsjkf and like idk him from any other media so I was legit just so confused abt him lmao. he looks like orange cyclonus and he’s mean bc he killed slipstream >:(

ok I love grimlock he reminds me of thor tbh and he’s just such a good himbo. him and arcee hanging out was so perfect. himbo/hermbo solidarity at its finest

I find it hilarious that it seems like ratchet is The Only medic on all of cybertron, cause we literally never see another medic on either side, and the decepticons are apparently just letting shockwave do whatever to anyone who was injured...hvsdkjnfkasfdbh its like rung being The Only therapist on all of cybertron in idw1

oh my god the wild west episode was so sad like...that was str8 up depressing bro and there wasn't even a happy ending. oof. also I love the continuity, where we see multiple stasis pods falling from the arc (one being bumblebees) in s1, but we don’t follow up on it until here in s3. nice

I liked the pacing in the show a lot - I feel like s1 was pretty basic and straightforward, and a solid season in general, but things got real good in s2 when a bunch of character showed up and multi-episode plots started happening, and then s3 was really really good with the actual arcs happening, and the focus shifting throughout different characters 

like I feel like s1 did a great job starting slow and setting up the worldbuilding for the other seasons, and s2 went All In and threw a ton of characters and more high-concept plots in, which I think worked as well as it did BECAUSE s1 was a lot more lowkey

for example, I like that pretty much the only autobots on earth in s1 are bumblebee and windblade, and later grimlock, and the only decepticons are shadow striker and a bunch of seekers; it makes the conflict feel appropriately smaller rather than jumping right into The Big War

ruth said this and I kinda agree but the weakest point of the show was probably the fight scenes, especially in s1 bvhjdkhfbjhs it’s not that they were badly animated or anything, just that they weren't that exciting and I was more interested in the plot, so I was like guyssss stop fighting and keep moving the plot forward already! which is actually a compliment bc usually I love fight scenes and don’t care as much about plot stuff lmao

also cyberverse has THE funniest scene I've ever witnessed which was of course starscream’s twitch stream funeral BHVJSDKFHBSJKDHF that LEGIT made me die laughing like...I did NOT expect that and it totally killed me, holy shit, and the fact that there’s no real explanation for why megatron decided to do a big grand funeral for starscream while pretending HE wasn't the one who killed starscream??? and he streamed it all on twitch??? like the fuckgin emotes hbvhjadkjfbsjkhf and the twitch chat oh my GOD ‘#starscreamgate’ and ‘who is storescream?’ BHJGKSDHBFSKBF I cant yall it was so fucking funnyyyyy other tf media could NEVER

ok thats it for now, more thoughts at a later date im sure!

[treesap-blogs]

Happy Saturday, everyone! Review of “The Lost Dreamer” by Lizz Hurta!

Hello, Tumblrians! My apologies for the sheer number of reviews last week, I was trying to clear all of my reading queue before I read The Wicked Bargain :). (Review won’t be in a while though, I didn’t wanna have a reading void and as a result restocked my reading queue for the next two weeks oops.) (Eh, it’s fine, it’s mostly fun!!) I’ll be changing up my format a bit, too! Although this is purely for fun, I’m not a fan of how I don’t sound qualified or put-together a lot of the time.

(No epic Story Discovery Backstory for this review! I just stumbled across it during a trip to the library closest to my house.)

Published in 2022(most of my reads are very recent), The Lost Dreamer is a YA fantasy novel taking place in ancient mesoamerica, following two perspectives, Indir and Saya. We don’t really know how the two perspectives are connected, besides them being in the same world and both characters being Dreamers at some point, until the last quarter of the book. (Dreaming being a practice where people essentially connect themselves to the spirit realm, almost always to prophesize, it’s rare for a Dreamer to actually interact with a spirit inside. It’s mainly done to observe the fates of their home/land and anyone they know.) Indir’s a Dreamer who works for the Fire Temple, and lost her ability to Dream after Dreaming for the former king before he died, while Saya’s a Dreamer who goes around village to village with her mom while she tries to pass her abilities off as her own. I was intrigued by the premise of this, it seemed very unique and I appreciated the added bonus of the dual perspectives! (That was something I liked in Hunted By The Sky, I was looking forward to it here too once I put that together.)

It took me a while to get through this book, though, literally due to the fact that its pacing was very slow. I saw complaints about that in the reviews, but I thought “it’s only 380 pages or so! How bad can it be?” and ugh I definitely underestimated that. Now, while I get that not all stories have to be fast-paced(Our Wives Under The Sea is a different genre/demographic but fits that pacing), and authors have different ways of fleshing out their worlds and introducing their lore(see: Dune), this book seemed to just be a standalone? A standalone that ends on a cliffhanger, granted, but a one-and-done thing nonetheless. Needless to say, I found that frustrating and it made this a tedious read.

Also! This is nitpicky, sorry, but I thought the perspectives were also confusing in the context of trying to connect them together. I was unsure if Indir’s events were affecting Saya(or vice-versa??? I thought from the Lost Dreamer talk Indir would find her on her journey initially), if they were unintentionally following each other, that kind of thing. It was explained by the end, though, which I thought was..strange, but explained the timeline of the perspectives, so.

SPOILER SECTION’S BACK, BABEY!!! (end of it will be listed ^^) seriously tho huge spoilers

So it turns out, Indir and Saya’s stories are not happening at the same time. Indir’s is years behind Saya’s and, essentially, history to her. Indir is revealed to be Saya’s actual mother; the one that paraded around Saya until she ran off to go on her journey was one of Indir’s former friends until she kidnapped an infant Saya. Indir figured out somehow that her daughter was going to be the Lost Dreamer, and was trying to find her all this time.

What the fuck????

Not to say that the twist came totally out of nowhere because there’s bits and pieces where you might be like “Celay might not be her real mom because she’s been relentlessly cruel this whole time and lies about everything!”, “when the spirits mentioned Saya’s mom making sure she was safe, it could be a different person because Saya doesn’t really address Celay as her mother anymore”, and I thought the second thing actually, but I was thinking it would be like a..chosen family thing? Not that route.

 I don’t know what else to rant about in the spoiler section, sorry y’all 😭literally just wanted an excuse to be like “the ending was weird what was that”.

And then we get some kind of tease that they’ll go back for the first time since The ChaosTM that left a scar in Indir’s childhood, but the story ends. It’s like sequel bait but with no sequel???!!

    Raugh.

END OF SPOILER SECTION!! I did not have a lot to ramble on about, actually. I am running out of ammo. I am drained as I write this.

Basically, for those who didn’t read the spoiler section, I just said the ending was weird and I didn’t like it lol.

Do I think this is a bad book? No. I do not think so. It just wasn’t my cup of tea, although I can see why other people may enjoy it because it has an interesting plot and background to it. It felt like it was mediocrely executed for something that had a lot of potential, and I’m pretty bummed about that. I’m worried I might be too harsh on it, though, as this is just Lizz Huerta’s debut book, so I’ll allow her some space to hone her craft before judging her as an author. 

Book Rating: ⭐️⭐️½ or ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars. 

-Paz, signing off!

(Book trigger/content warnings: Childbirth scene, verbal and some physical abuse from a parent, mentions of kidnapping, animal cruelty, violence.)

[manias-wordcount]

hey you !!! thank you!!!!!!

hi guys this is a little late to the party but ummmmm,,,,,,,, thank you so much for 2K followers !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

(me, lowkey invading the spike spiegel/reader tag on ao3):

life and my household have been very hectic lately, but seeing so many people enjoying my work makes me really happy even when i can hear my sister rant to her boyfriend about me through the walls. anyways

i started writing fanfic a long long time ago (think baby mania era) but ive only started back up right before the pandemic (literally the last week of 2019 whewwww) but its crazy to think that i started this blog back in novemeber 2020 and now have 2K followers !!!!!!

okay scroll past this if you dont care for mania lore bc im just ranting to make myself tired before finally heading to bed BUT

 i think i mentioned this a little bit before but everyone, especially my mom, assumes that i've always been a math/science gifted kid (spoiler alert !!!!!!!!!! im not babey !!!!!! never was !!!!!!!!! send help !!!!) so whenever i would write short stories to show her, she'd basically tell me to leave the english stuff to my sister bc i just was not good. jokes on her though !!!!!!!! bc in writing this shit and trying to post as much as i can, i really feel like im proving everyone wrong while honing my skills !!! im also taking a creative writing course at school during my fall semester (unless i drop it oops) so expect better quality work soon !!!!!!!!!!! 

i hope.

okay mania lore drop over. maybe you’ll get more later. if promise you it’s both interesting and boring. and not worth your time

BUT I JUST WANT TO SAY AGAIN THANKS YOU GUYS. and this doesnt go to out to just my followers but any and everyone who has read and enjoyed my work!!!!!!! its crazy to think i have people have a silly lil moment over smth i wrote about their favorite set of pixels. im happy you guys are enjoying yourselves and im happy i can make help make your favorite characters reach out to you !!!!!!

OKAY MY BACK PAIN IS BACK MANIA OUT BYE

[queenofnohr]

ok time for me to talk about ancient!Aias & Asha bc its Good Lore and I’ve been holding off on it for too long now.

oh one point before i start-start is - as established before, Aias is Aias’ Ancient name since it’s already Greek HOWEVER that will get confusing very quickly so from this point onwards Ancient!Aias will be referred to as Ajax, but know it is pronounced exactly the same as Aias. Asha’s Ancient name is Moros (and if you remember my post about Moros and Aias’ names that was more a Greek myth AU so while that dynamic is still extraordinarily tasty, it is not the relationship the two have here)

Ajax and Moros have a mentor/disciple relationship in the unsundered world

Moros is the dignified and capable shishou who diligently watches over his bright successor after retiring his seat and passing it to Ajax (and definitely only to oversee his growth - absolutely not because he has feelings disease or anything)

And Ajax is his showboat disciple who’s maybe just a little bit bratty to his mentor (“are you gonna preach at me all day old man? aren’t you retired”) who despite his teasing holds a his shishou in highest esteem and respects him greatly…… who shows off all the time even if he ends up making a fool of himself because of it because he wants his shishou’s attention and affection

and not only that but Asha’s player has opened the gateway for MAXIMUM pining in that it’s Moros this time around who will never make the first move and even though this version of Ajax doesn’t consider “want” to get in the way of the unconditionality of his love, he’s still extremely respectful of Moros and would never push those boundaries (well........... hahahahahahahahahahaha)

so. That’s the introduction to the flavor I’m dealing with now. AshAias 2.0 babey!!!! where the more things are different the more they stay the same :)

[lonelyquail]

6 is a good number

hehe so polar opposite of hugslug then... hugslug has many images and no lore. mack has no images and an okay amount of lore. alright letsgo. so my guy mack is an angel (i went googling so his name is actually short for macroprosopus but like if you ask him he'll say its short for something you Cant pronounce and He doesnt care to try to. anyway). his deal works best if i explain my other guy mortys deal because they are gay do not separate, but ill do my best to explain it without their deal.

anyway hes not. fallen but he decided that he wanted to fuck off to go hang out in the mortal world and he causes so many problems on the daily that none of his fellow angels really contested him on this theyre just like god please get out of our house. anyway being a fish out of water/deserter he does get some drawbacks like a bit of a handicap on his immortality. so hes Sort of immortal in the "only dies if killed" variety but even when he does get killed whatever deific system exists in my brain doesnt want to deal with him so he just gets sent right back, albeit at a random time and place.

anyway mack really doesnt mind this because he, is a being of pure hedonism! hes a prankster and a shitdisturber and while hes having fun its mostly fucking around w mortal people that he can never really relate to but he thinks are terribly interesting (as well as their reactions to his bullshit). also his whole Maliciously Lackadaisical attitude is only helped by the fact that dying is basically just a get out of jail free card for him, so while a normal mortal person would have enough fear of death to learn the valuable lesson of talk shit get hit, mack fucks shit up Way beyond the bounds of stupidity because 1. its not like these people's problems are going to matter on an even remotely widespread scale anyway (and really why would he care if they did) and 2. its not like they can really punish him for his actions because he's got nothing to lose, babey!

so i gave him something to lose!

somewhere along the line he manages to run into another person just as immortal as he is (thats my "god wont let me die because im already dead" skeleton grandpa morty who ill talk abt later but just know theyre my favorite <3) and both of them realize how Terribly Lonely theyve been in their own ways (morty gets too attached to the mortal people they meet and kind of Have to distance themself to not get hurt. this does not work.) (meanwhile mack as previously mentioned has never been able to relate to mortal people at all and distances himself somewhat by assholery but also somewhat just by Being Immortal) and now that they have someone they can care about and love without any fears or pretenses, they can't afford to lose each other. sooo basically mack has to clean up his act and Not get himself killed because he cant just run away from his problems now

(now heres a spoiler mack does die. a lot. but what makes me more emo is that morty is just flat out unkillable immortal so this basically means that there Is an unspoken agreement that no matter how far back, forwards, away or close mack ends up, morty will always be there waiting for him. morty's his sole rock in the stream of time and im EMO ABOUT IT!! also since morty spends so much time listening to others and paying attention to the little things while mack has all these stories of wild ass events he's seen over the times and places they both can just trade stories back and forth and rub off on each other and they have all the time in the world to listen and make new ones and wauu)

i think?? thats all ive got on mack so far?? apart from the fact that with morty hes like. still a being of chaos but a domesticated shitdisturber yknow. instead of causing a war every sunday he mixes and matches clothes from all sorts of time periods just to confuse people and grows an obscene amount of eyes just to tell morty that he only has eyes for them (which morty thinks is corny and delightful)

[imaginarianisms]

⭐

o em my friend. u already Know. litcherally all of our& founders era muses @ your three darlings ofc ! they've litcherally grown sm im& proud of them. for the sake of my& sanity, i'm& likely gonna be putting your three muses in separate categories so i can think of specific plotlines for em & a general one 4 all three.

general: ik we definitely had plots between your three senju-uzumaki siblings & my& uchiha-senju siblings considering they're third cousins iirc & likely would've grown up together back in the ol' days that i dont think we ever rly got to see sadly but its definitely never too late ! mito ( & perhaps kurama by extension ) with her three babies & toka being a good aunt to them is a given w/o question. toka is the last pureblooded senju woman considering in our& lore the senju clan died out in the male line by the second shinobi world war started & it was entirely ran by women since & toka lives for a very long time & long outlives her cousins (who may as well be her brothers) & mito as well & in her main verse she's still alive by sorcery & not to mention the senju having naturally long lifespans. madara interacting with them would be intriguing for sure, especially considering in our& lore, madara & mito were once madly in love so seeing mito move on with hashirama & how that would be bittersweet for him looking at their children would be very intriguing. i& also have sarutobi sasuke, hiruzen's father who i& barely got to portray sadly, he's a rly iconic character i made from the ground up ! ik you mentioned your babeys wanting to meet other shinobi from other nations & we have the original first generation of the nine jinchuriki fūsa arashi, nii tora, yuki shiro, terumī akane, goemon ishimaru, homatsu mizuto, tamamushi takiko, otenki b & uzumaki mito — all ocs save for mito ofc lmao for that, most of whom are either the biological or adopted children or relative of a kage but not all of them, some are close confidants of other kage. kaguya comes to mind, too, although i think she would manifest in another form. in our& lore, what's also worthy of note is that hashirama, mito & madara left the mainland to hunt & capture the nine bijuu not long after the alliance was sealed & before konoha was founded so that may be an interesting plot point. i& also have muses from other fandoms w/ narutoverse au's like misa amane (death note) & many others & i& also offer my present day era muses which likely would only apply to maeko ! danma: first thing that comes to mind are sarutobi sasuke, hiruzen's father & uchiha kimiko, hikaku & toka's youngest daighter (in our& lore, she's tsunade & nawaki's mother — completely optional w/ this one tho!) & madara. ik you mentioned danma being envious of hiruzen at some point so idk maybe he asks sasuke or maybe even madara to train him. who knows maybe one of my jinchuriki munchkins ended up killing him in war. maeko: ik we mentioned ages ago that aiko & maeko were supposed to have plots together at some point, same thing w/ momoka, takehiko & kimiko. it's been a while tho so we'd def have to check that out. i THIIIIIINK i may have had sasuke have the eight gates technique iirc so idk that may be of interest to you w/ your newer revamped verses. iirc if maeko's the last surviving sibling of the three, toka will definitely grow uber protective of her for sure. kichiroh: first thing that comes to mind is haruka, actually. iirc she ends up joining anbu at some point & she ends up being one of the greatest swordswomen & assassins of her era. who knows they might've been comrades in arms. also, ik you mentioned kiki ends up being assassinated after the destruction of uzushio. in our& lore, yuki shiro, the first jinchuriki of isobu, with the assistance of homatsu mizuto, the first jinchuriki of saiken end up destroying uzushio at the end of the second world shinobi war so idk maybe they played a role in kichi's death. i& also offer kurama by proxy of mito bc i& can definitely see that being a really interesting dynamic to see being portrayed.

Send a " ⭐ " and I will list muses I would be interested in throwing at yours, or potential muse combinations if you are also a multi. If you like any of the suggested combinations, you are welcome to come plot or start interactions with them. || @woodblxssomcrowned || OPEN; ACCEPTING.