#podg spoilers

[common-grackle]

ooooh any podg thoughts you’d like to share?? 👀

i am SO glad you asked because i am being soooo normal about this book

podg mutuals im not tagging you but you'll probably find this regardless

i thought everyone was exaggerating how gay it was. no. no they weren't. the first scene is pretty much just basil talking about how he's in love with dorian. i mean i don't know what i expected from oscar wilde but

i was so ready to pardon dorian for blond man crimes! until he killed people!

sybil and basil deserve everything. they are the only good people in this book. i love them

henry ... i don't like you. you make me uncomfortable.

oh i cried when basil died btw

i read the whole book in a day which i shouldn't have done probably?

the descriptions are so pretty and . there are certain scenes that read like fanfic (/pos) but again i don't know what i expected from oscar wilde

this book was short but MAN. the amount of impact.

basil and dorian deserve to be happy and in love

i'm drawing art of them as i type this

i'll have more ✨scholarly✨ stuff to say once the brainrot tones down a little but. yeah.

[moth-tea-merchant]

hay so you know how we know ppl can become onis bcs in the Silent Surf frac the guy who dies is the same guy you fight in gyaladelve? [okay well ist not CONFIRMED but ist pretty damning] yeah so what if during Rama's bug freak out at the last camp the Onis got him. anyways more art of this to come later

this is messy as shit but thast how we roll here

[dyaddu]

The fact this is his actual podgy tum has me all 🥵

[scintillyyy]

in all actuality tho, steph is actually my #1 pick for "suffers a potentially career ending severe injury by the time she's 22" and my reasoning is thus

1) she's a gymnastics girlie, and not just that, she's a high school team gymnastics girlie. so she has the benefit of being trained in gymnastics by high school coaches. who. aren't necessarily super fantastic at teaching kids non-injurous ways of doing sports. especially girl kids. and she's never implied to have done anything else she's the most likely to have base imbalances that will lead to compensations in the future.

2) she was mainly self-taught for the vast majority of her time as spoiler. and the training she did receive was probably more of a hodge-podge of making sure she had the basics to survive rather than dedicated to ensuring good safe form & correcting muscular imbalances. and since her time as robin was like 70 days & frankly probably wasn't as strict or constant as any of the other robins had, there probably wasn't quite enough time to kick any bad compensatory habits she already had. so realistically she's been active for about 3-4 years with bad habits before she has a chance to really actually get some dedicated training as batgirl to fix some of her habits and compensations & it may still be hard for her to overcome given how ingrained they may be at that point.

so yea, i think she's far more likely to blow out a knee, hip, or shoulder than anyone. she won't, because comic book logic of course.

[mortuarywriting]

If I outline what the fuck i wanna see in my self indulgent au will it give me the kick in the ass to write it.

Obviously relative spoiler/high notes/plot points below

The premise is, so far, nobody has seen where Simon lives. As far as they- they being Gaz, Soap, and Price- know he has a flat in Manchester.

Well leaving base one night(ish, time negotiable), the road they were all taking in their separate vehicles is closed due to a nasty accident. Gonna be blocked for 24 hours kinda mess.

So Ghost offers to let them all stay at his place, if only for a bit or the night if they prefer

Everyone just kinda. Well this isn't what we were expecting but alright. So they follow his car, it's pissing down rain and you can't see shit before you but the tail lights you're following but they've committed and by the time they pull off the road they're fuckin nowhere. House is fairly isolated, separate garage building, coop in the backyard, and a thatch roof cottage. Whose Nan's attic is Simon living in???

Except, not a random old biddie. Just a random fat American?? It's obvious they're familiar enough with each other, giving each other shit and that there's a whole "you got back from a mission here is our you came home routine"

Whole mess. The group stays the night because now they're nosy and wanna find out what the relationship is. You both say roommates. They don't wholly believe that.

Simon and roomie sleep downstairs, he can't sleep in a bed yet after the mission and roomie makes sure there's enough background noise that he doesn't snap into combat mode everything is about to go to shit.

Next morning roomie and Simon team up to make a hodge podge of all kinds of breakfast food and between them all there are no leftovers. Concerns are had if everyone ate enough (and then biscuits and gravy settled).

Its back to routine and roomie goes out to grocery shop to stock back up on "i need to feed myself and a whole ass army dude" levels of food and snackies.

While Simon is trying to get Soap and Gaz to stop making excuses to stick around (all good-natured fun) there is a call. Roomie prefaces this with they're fine!!! But uh. They did get hit by a car. A bit. Enough that there has to be a report. Come get the groceries?

And this is the part where they find out Simon and roomie are married. Have been for y e a r s. Technically the town knows them under roomie's last name as a couple.

After the dust is settled and everyone is back at the cottage the explaining happens. Yes, they're married. Vegas happened. It's been a long time and they kinda glossed over the whole "he's a dead man" legal bit for it. Roomie still gets married rights. How do you think he has a lease as a dead man roomie legitimately wants to know. The cottage is in their name, his isn't on it to keep it all off the record if people come knocking for him.

(He does actually have a Manchester flat, though. Landlord takes cash payments however many months at a time and doesn't ask questions. Roomie gets mail from it every once in a blue moon.)

Relationship is largely "we're married but for tax benefits"esque because they're both some flavor of ace. If he's in town roomie checks on if he wants to go to the Saturday munches or not but that's sir not appearing in this fic.

But yeah. Just fun self indulgence.

Could go write the Vegas bit. Write work "being brought home". Bonding activities. List of things for when he retires. Potentially kidnapping. S o many fun options but I just. Gotta write it.

[crashing-all-modes]

UPDATE ON THE RAVEN CYCLE SCULPTURE!!

Sorry for such a long wait for the update. It was my last two weeks of school, and MAN, OH MAN, was it stressful for homework!!

Okay, so first of all, this is a long update with lots of pictures!!! (I’m going to make a TLDR version for anybody who doesn’t want to hear me yap, LOL)!

Once again, no spoilers if you have thoughts please!

As some of you may know, I had a project for my 3D design class where we had to pick a book and then create a sculpture out of the book (it can be anything, a scene from the book, a feeling you got while reading it, symbolism and so on). The one rule of the assignment is the pages of the book have to be the most prominent part of the design. So I was allowed to paint it, draw on it, and use whatever I saw fit as long as the pages of the book were included and the most prominent!!

For my project I decided to do the raven boys as tarot cards using the major arcana.

I’m gonna break this up into sections so it's easy to navigate!

Making the Hand

So funny story, I thought this project was due two weeks ago and spent all night (stayed up till 6am) working on it, only to wake up at 8am to find out it was due the following week. AH. So here’s what I did that night:

Dw, the hand looks way better after I had more time to work on it; I used about… 4 jumbo sticks of hot glue to attach it to the board? You can pick this up by the hand and use it as a weapon, and it will stay attached.

Building The Base Tarot Card

I made all 5 cards with 2 pieces: one large piece, which would be the back of the card, and another smaller piece, which would act as the part for the character to be on. I made them out of cardboard, so there’s definition.

Back Piece

I carved into the cardboard these small little triangles which was for the gold foil I planned on using! To cover the back pieces, I ripped up pages into uneven pieces and mod-podged them on there (because glue itself made the pages translucent).

Front Piece

The smaller pieces were very important when creating the cards because I used full pages from the book. I picked very specific moments in the book that helped to relate both the character and their card!

Ronan

This is the page where Ronan first "finds" Chainsaw. His card is The Moon, which deals with supernatural elements and visions, so I figured it would be a perfect page to use. Plus, it was one of my favourite Ronan moments!

Gansey

Originally, I wanted to use the page where Gansey recounted his near-death experience with the bees, but I must've used the page by accident because I couldn't find it ANYWHERE?? I opted for this page instead, because this is another instance where Gansey looked death in the eye and scared it off (his card is The Hanged Man).

Blue

I decided to use Blue for The Lovers card because I felt the irony of it was too fitting. I used the page where the reader learns about Blue's fate to kill her true love just by kissing him. The design for her card is so evil (if you keep reading, you'll see it), but it's good.

Noah

(Spoilers) If you've gotten this far, I'm hoping you've at least read the first book. Noah's card is Death, which is... very fitting for obvious reasons AND for the context of the card!! I decided to go with one of the craziest moments in the book when they find out Noah's a ghost. It's perfect for the Death card... and IT EVEN MENTIONS THE DEATH CARD ON THIS PAGE, WHICH I DIDN'T REALIZE UNTIL I WAS GLUING IT ONTO THE CARDBOARD!!

Adam

Adam is my favourite in the book and I had so many moments to pick from for his tarot card. Ultimately, I picked the scene where he and Whelk are having a face-off, and all MAGIC IS BREAKING LOSE BECAUSE HE'S THE MAGICIAN (as I've been told by many sources, I still have only read the first book)!!

After I glued all of the pages onto the smaller pieces of cardboard, I dyed them with food coloring!! I had no idea this would work, but thanks to YouTube, it worked so much better than trying to paint, and the colours turned out amazing!!

From left to right on the top row: Ronan, Noah (before tea wash), Adam, Gansey and the bottom one is Blue's!

Here's Noah's after being tea stained, I wanted his to look like it was old and worn, like it was lost in the earth. To make it blotchy, I used the actual tea bag and blotted it on the card like crazy.

I then went on to dye WAY MORE PAGES. It's surprisingly fun.

The Tarot Cards (Roughs)

So, for each tarot card, I created designs, trying to implement the original while making it my own in relation to the character. All of these are sketches, and I honestly might make them real pieces in the future!!

Blue

UGH. I think hers and Noah's might be my favourite designs (I'm very biased tho because I love skulls lol). Each card has an earthy theme, I included lots of flowers and branches!

Adam

Adam's is the closest to the OG tarot card, because I felt like it was so iconic I couldn't change much to the design. That's probably why his is my least favourite design LOL.

Gansey

Ngl, I really like the symbolism on this one. If you were to pull it in reverse it would be Gansey with the crown floating above his head, like it's his and he's close to reaching his goal.

Noah

OKAY, BUT LIKE GUYS, THIS IS AHGSSGSGHSH. Like???? I love him so much. I put him in a saint pose, like those you see sculptures in churches posing in or paintings of saints. But I love him so much.

Ronan

I love the vibe his card gives off. It's very contemplative and moody, just like him.

I love how all of the designs turned out, but I unfortunately only had time to make one, Ronan's!

Ronan's Card

To make Ronan's cutout, I cut pieces of different stained pages into the shapes I needed (like his shirt and his head), and I then drew on it with an ink pen. It was really difficult to make everything the correct size because of the way I did his card, so this alone took me an hour to do. Think of him like a paper dress-up doll, LOL.

THE FINAL

FINALLY HOLY CRAP. I'm running out of photo room for the post, so I'll make it brief here but post more on a different thread!!

Anyway, I'm going to make all of them into cards now that school's over, and I'll update y'all when I'm done!!

I just wanna give a really big shoutout to everyone who helped me decide which tarot cards to give to each character, especially @screechin-outloud! They went into so much depth without spoiling the book, and I APPRECIATE YOU!! I APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU!!!

And if you made it down this far, thank you for reading all of this!! :)

[thethirdromana]

I feel like it's worth talking about the description of the ~mysterious person~ in chapter 3 of the Beetle.

Under a cut for discussion of 1890s racism. Also spoilers for the identity of the ~mysterious person~ but I assume we all know that bit already.

The description of the Beetle is racially ambiguous. They often get identified as Arab but that doesn't really hold up with the information we're given (that is, there certainly is anti-Arab racism in this book, but the Beetle is not written as definitively Arab). What they actually are is a hodge-podge of different racial stereotypes. It's like Richard Marsh looked at one of those horrendous 1890s drawings of different people around the world and took one exaggerated trait from each race.

The Beetle's yellow skin and hairlessness seem to be taken from anti-Chinese racism, particularly Yellow Peril imagery. Their small chin and big lips often appear in anti-Black racist caricatures. The mesmeric eyes and hooked nose are anti-Semitic stereotypes; the association between Jewishness and mesmerism was well-established from Trilby, which is a vastly worse book even than the Beetle. There are probably other elements taken from other racist caricatures that I don't recognise.

Because the Beetle doesn't map on to any individual race, it's possible to read this bit and interpret it as a kind of general xenophobic blob. But it's not. There's some quite targeted and specific racism here, and I suspect that the identification of these traits would have been much more obvious to contemporary eyes.

[imtryingmybeskar]

Come Home Chapter Ten

Joel Miller x F! Reader

Word count: 4,297

The aftermath of events in the town leads Joel to see you in a new light.

Warnings for canon typical violence and bloodshed. Slight spoiler regarding a wound that Joel will (presumably) receive in the series, but no mention of how it actually happens.

Come Home

Chapter Ten - Every Cloud

When Joel wakes it’s still dark outside, the winter sun slow to rise. He stirs, sits up with a grunt and stretches his arms above his head before rolling his shoulders.

“Mornin’,” he mutters, his voice thick with sleep and even huskier than usual.

“Not quite yet,” you say with a smile. “You can get another hour if you want.”

“Naw, I’m good,” he replies before shuffling out of the sleeping bag and sitting on the edge of the camp bed. “But I think you should,” he adds as he takes in your tired face.

“I’d be offended if I wasn’t going to definitely take you up on that offer,” you joke.

He smiles and stretches again as he stands, his plaid shirt riding up a little over his hips and revealing a flash of skin, a smattering of dark hair under his belly button. You see a scar on his abdomen – a puckered and darkened circular patch that you assume must have come from a gunshot and you wonder how he could have survived such a wound.

Casting your eyes to the ground, you make a show of fiddling your book back into your bag and by the time you yourself stand up, he has strolled over to his own pack. You collapse gratefully back onto the camp bed, immediately snuggling into the sleeping bag and briefly recognising that you feel cosy and warm and surrounded by his musky, masculine scent before drifting back off.

Breakfast is brief for horses and humans alike, and by the time you’ve repacked your now much emptier saddlebags and backpacks, the sky is still periwinkle blue, shot through with clouds of lilac and pink. The plan is simple. Bring the horses to a spot near to the large store and find a suitable and secure garage to leave them for a while. Then, quietly proceed on foot and investigate what you can of yesterday’s shootout. If all goes well, you’ll hit the store after that and start the ride back to Jackson in the early afternoon. If.

The first part of the day goes without a hitch. A street of large colonial townhouses with an eerie, faded beauty that are situated between the store and your exit is discovered, and you and Joel make a thorough sweep of one before settling the horses in the empty garage with a supply of food and water.

Next, you gingerly approach the main street, skirting the alleys and smaller roads that lead away from it until you come upon the scene that you had watched play out yesterday. All is silent and still, the only movement coming from the icy breeze that ruffles the tattered clothing of the infected and the blood and brain-stained hair of the one who hadn’t been given a chance to turn.

His clothes are military, a hodge-podge of a bullet proof vest with a faded FEDRA logo on the breast, dark camo pants and battered, yet sturdy combat boots. It wasn’t a complete FEDRA uniform, and the guns and ammo that you liberate from his lifeless body aren’t standard FEDRA issue, but there was every chance that he was some sort of renegade, disillusioned with the status quo in a QZ and seeking a different sort of life beyond its walls. Or he could have murdered a group of them and taken what he wanted. Either way these clearly aren’t your run of the mill survivors and you and Joel exchange a meaningful glance and you feel the tension in the air tighten.

As you follow the path of where they had retreated, you see more dead infected – six in all, plus another of their number face down in the snow, the exit wound in his head gaping to the sky. His ammo and guns are also taken and the mental tally in your head ticks down one more. Three to go. That you know of at least.

Nothing impedes your progress along the road. There are more dead infected scattered here and there but no one else, and even as you are grateful that these people seem to have saved you the job of clearing the town yourselves, you are on edge. They are heavily armed. There are more of them than you. And they know how to defend themselves. An unhappy, acid feeling settles itself into your guts as you finally enter what was a parking lot long ago, your objective looming ahead and looking both welcoming and sinister in equal measures.

The doors are thrown open and the glass and splintered wood that lie on the ground speak to a violent and hasty entry. The ivy that has twisted its way around the debris shows that this happened long ago. The trampled leaves, however, are immediately obvious as a newer development. Joel sees it as you do, and you both draw your guns before you enter.

The store isn’t as intact as you had previously thought. Part of the ceiling has caved in, relatively recently given the absence of plant life covering the chasm above. It serves to shed some welcome light, though it also deepens the shadows at the extremities of the space. The shelves you can see are mostly bare, a few pathetic looking bottles and dusty packages scattered here and there.

It doesn’t take long before you spot it up ahead. It’s unmistakeable - that weird, hunched up way of standing some runners have, like they’re weeping into their hands for their lost humanity. Joel taps your arm and mimes to you that he will take care of it quietly, but that you should cover the situation just in case. You nod your understanding and he carefully and slowly tucks his pistol away, careful not to make any noise. Just because you hadn’t heard any clickers, didn’t mean that there weren’t any.

He sneaks between the shelves, ensuring that the runner’s back is to him. It continues to rock on its feet, making those awful sobbing noises that had haunted you for years after the initial outbreak. Closer…closer…until he lunges, grabbing the infected by the neck, his meaty forearm enclosing it in a crushing chokehold. It struggles, hissing noises and gurgles emanating from its steadily shattering larynx until finally it succumbs to the inevitable. Joel gently and silently lowers it to the floor before you move to join him. The infection was fresh, the same mix of camo and FEDRA uniform that you saw outside garbs it. Two to go.

The sports section of the store is, inevitably, a mess. Almost anything that could be construed as a weapon, as well as the weapons themselves, are gone. Shelving units lie in disarray and glass from casings are smashed to smithereens and mixed with the debris from the fallen roof. Cautiously, picking your way over the mess of the floor, you hug a wall with a tattered, half fallen banner proclaiming 50% off something or other. Joel is an aisle over, treading softly as he moves his torch and gun over the shadows toward the back of the store. You hear the soft shuffle of leather and then the scrape of metal as he picks up a baseball bat from where it has been abandoned and recognise the wisdom in having a quieter weapon to hand while you don't seem to be in any immediate danger from the living, putting your own gun away in favour of drawing your machete.

The mirrored side of a display case saves your life. A flicker of movement in its dirty glass grabs your attention a split second before a hoarse shout comes from beyond a previously unseen doorway, and suddenly a runner is barrelling at full speed toward you out of the changing rooms, its bloody fingers clawing at the air ahead of it in anticipation of reaching your face. You dimly register another scream from the darkness to your left, and push it out of your mind as you take aim and slam your machete as hard as you can into the head of the thing in front of you. Blood explodes from it, and it falls to the floor twitching, still howling, still trying to get at you until you wrench your weapon out and hit it again, this time stilling it for good.

Another scream in the darkness ahead and your blood freezes as you try to tug the machete free. It won’t come, buried too deeply as it is in the skull of the monster on the ground. You fumble for your gun instead, but it’s too late. A force slams into you, knocking you to the floor, rattling your teeth and driving the breath from your body as well as the gun from your holster. Rolling eyes and teeth and blood and deafening snarling in your ears as you brace against the writhing runner’s neck with one arm and scrabble on the floor for something, anything with the other. The broken shard of glass that you drive into its eye does minimal damage and you know you have mere seconds before it breaches your defences. Something heavy, something sharp brushes against your hand and you grab on to it properly before wedging it up between your bodies and driving it fully into the nightmare face above you. It stills, finally it stills and you push it off quickly to go and help Joel, who is in fact already scrambling to come and help you after having defeated his own foe.

“Fuck,” he breathes heavily. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah…yeah, I’m okay,” you reply quietly, your own breath coming in stunted gasps.

“You’re bleeding.” His voice is dull, suddenly devoid of emotion and you look down at your red-stained palm, holding it up to him so he can see the clean slash of it.

“Glass,” you reply. “Or maybe-“ You turn back to observe your handiwork.

“Well…that’s a new one,” he remarks wryly. The hockey skate is just as firmly embedded in the second runner’s skull as your machete is buried in the first and you can’t help the bubble of nervous laughter that bursts from your lips.

“You sure you’re not hurt?” he asks again, his meaning clear as he hands you a bandage for your hand.

“It got my coat. Didn’t go through,” you confirm as you briefly shed the garment to show him your distinctly blood-and-bite free arm. “Thank God its cold and I have twenty six layers on.”

Joel manages to wrench your machete free and wipes it unceremoniously on the runner’s jacket before giving it over to you.

“Thanks,” you murmur. “Guess there were more of them.”

“Guess so-“ he begins before you both whirl at another noise from the back of the store. No clicking, no howling screams. This sounds more like someone trying to move stealthily through the mess on the floor. Joel tenses, draws his gun again and you move quietly together toward the sound. It came from the direction of the large counter at the back, long-silent cash registers standing atop it like sentinels.

There is no one behind there, but there is a door, a large “Staff Only” sign on it. Joel motions for you to step back then grasps the handle and gently turns it, but before he can push, it flies open and another figure hurtles through. The man clearly hoped to get some sort of jump on you, but Joel is ready and merely turns, using the man’s own momentum to hurl him, dumping him to the floor before training his pistol unerringly at the man’s head.

“Don’t fuckin’ move,” Joel growls.

Your own gun is back in your hands, without you really remembering drawing it, and you step forward, also with the man in your sights. He’s young-ish. Thirty maybe, definitely born before the world went to shit, but probably doesn’t remember much about it. He has the same FEDRA vest on, the same combat boots.

Joel backs away, keeping his gun trained on the man who takes the opportunity to sit up, his hands held in surrender.

“I said don’t fuckin’ move!”

“Okay, okay,” the man acquiesces, settling back down on the floor and holding his hands up further in deference and defeat. “Let’s just be cool about this.” He eyes Joel warily, and then his gaze skates over to you. They linger on your chest and you feel a swirl of disgust in your stomach.

“Where are the rest?” you ask, your voice clipped and harsh as you demand an answer.

The man looks you up and down again before he gives a gloomy kind of giggle his head lolling back against the door behind him. “Dead. But you got ‘em from what I could hear.”

“Why are you here?” Joel demands.

“Why does anyone do anything anymore? Survival, man. A couple of us were looking for stuff in here when we heard the gunshots outside. Apparently one of my buddies got bit before he made it inside. Turned in the night. We had a pact, man. You get bit, you tell. Guess when the time came he was too chickenshit to actually do it. I hid in there." He jabs a thumb behind him in the direction of the door. "Let it play out”

“And what about you?” Joel asks menacingly, advancing a few steps forward.

“Woah, woah, easy. I’m clean. I swear.” Joel doesn’t move and you can almost hear the gears turning in his head, weighing up the cost of believing this stranger. “Though I guess I would say that,” the man adds in a quieter tone of voice.

“Prove it,” you say in an icy tone.

His voice is now distinctly skeevy for someone with two guns trained at his head. “Hey lady, how should I do that? Huh? You want me to strip? At least buy me a drink first, sheesh.”

You roll your eyes. “Look, fucko, either you can prove it, or I can shoot you. Take your pick.”

The man looks toward Joel as if he thinks he will find some succour in that granite monolith. Unsurprisingly, he does not.

“Un-fucking-believable,” the man mutters as he begins to stand.

“Slowly,” Joel barks.

The man obeys, taking off his bulletproof vest, his thick sweater and t shirt. By the time he is unlacing his boots and pulling them off he is shivering in the frigid air, but you can’t find it in yourself to care much. You still don’t know what you’ll do if he is clean. Take him back to Jackson? Send him away in the opposite direction with supplies and best wishes? His very presence so close to the town is a threat and your grip tightens painfully on your gun as he finally straightens up, now just in his boxer shorts.

“See?” he says, making a slow, shuffling revolution. You dip your torch up and down his body, checking that he is being truthful. It appears he is, though his skin is marred by reddish black bruises as well as several distinctive scars, some healed, others very fresh, one still covered with a dressing that looks to be several days old.

“Fine. Get dressed.” Joel still doesn’t move as he gives the order. By the brevity of his tone you guess that his thoughts are running along the same path as yours.

“So uh…where are you guys from?” the man says, his voice entirely too over-eager.

“None of your goddamn business,” growls Joel.

“Gotta be close,” he continues, seemingly blithely unaware of the danger he was digging himself deeper into. “Look like you’re well fed, got plenty of supplies. And I didn’t hear a car draw up so…” He trails off as he pulls the sweater back over his head and faces you again.

“And what about you?” you ask, eyes narrowing as you step forward. “Any more of your ex-FEDRA buddies in the area? Or did you just happen to come across a group of them and they gave up their shit willingly?”

The man huffs another brief and humourless laugh. “Not willingly. Some patrol moving from one QZ to another. Or scouting supplies, who knows? I lived under FEDRA long enough. My conscience is clear.” Well…you supposed you couldn’t blame him for that attitude.

“As for where we come from. Here and there. We got a camp a few miles away. Lots of people. Women and children too.” His tongue comes out to wet his lips, an involuntary gesture. “Matter of fact my girl’s pregnant. We were just looking for a place to settle, thought this might be the one-“

A harsh burst of laughter escapes your lips. “Now that…that is bullshit.” Out of the corner of your eye you see Joel’s gaze flick to you briefly as you take another step forward to fall in line with him. “And you wanna know how I know that? You’re beat up pretty bad. And I know what the aftermath of a goddamn knife fight looks like. If you really had a safe, cosy home to be in nearby, you wouldn’t have wounds that fresh or dressings that old. Or maybe your “buddies” just enjoyed stabbing you for fun, hmm?” A steely note of fear has crept into the man’s eyes, robbing him of his previous facetious demeanour and you know you’ve hit the mark.

“And besides that,” you continue softly. “You’ve been eyefucking me every moment we’ve been here. There are no women at your camp, if you even have a camp. And if there are I feel desperately fucking sorry for them. You’re a liar.” On the last word, you pull the trigger. He doesn’t even get a sound out before he collapses to the ground, the inside of the back of his skull now decorating the door and wall behind him.

Tucking your gun away, you turn back to Joel. “Well...shall we?”

More guns and ammunition are found in the Staff Only area, as well as some food and first aid supplies. The store also gives up a couple of bows and some arrows, as well as some screwdrivers, nails, winter clothing and a lone pack of sanitary pads. It holds some more frivolous items too, including what you hope will be Ellie’s Christmas present. You debate with yourself for a full minute about how hygienic some of this stuff could be at this point before shrugging and grabbing a few items of make up, feeling an odd little twinge of guilt as you do so.

The ride back to Jackson is peaceful. You feel it seep into your bones. The calm. The still. The certainty that you had done your duty to protect what you had. Joel has an air of pensive distractedness about him and has done since you had left the store lifeless and silent once again. You weren’t entirely sure what he was thinking – if anyone was a closed book it was him – but you didn’t get the impression that he was upset with you in any way. More that he was lost in thought about something or other.

You eat as you ride, pulling out a wrap of venison jerky and offering some to Joel alongside you.

“Thanks,” he says shortly, the first word he’s said since you started the journey back. You’ve just taken a much larger bite than intended when he speaks to you again and when he does his voice is tinged with soft amusement

“You know who you remind me of?”

You look over at him, raise a questioning eyebrow as you attempt to chew the tough meat more hurriedly.

“Bubbles.”

Finally you manage to swallow most of what you’ve bitten off. “Okay, Joel you really gotta stop bringing me in halfway through cryptic conversations.”

He smiles more widely at you before he responds. “You ever see the Powerpuff Girls?”

“…yeah? Didn’t think that would be your kinda thing if I’m honest.”

He drags his gaze away from you and looks out over the snowy landscape ahead. “Not me. My uhhh…my daughter, she loved ‘em when she was little. At one point I swear the whole house was nothin’ but pink and blue and green. She even took up karate, wanted to fight like ‘em before she realised team sports were more her thing.” He smiles more sadly this time and you hardly dare to breathe for fear of breaking whatever spell was making him open up to you like this.

He darts his head up to look at you again and for the first time since you’ve met him, your eyes directly meet his. The dappled, golden sun is catching them repeatedly as the horse plods on, caramel to deepest chocolate and back again as he rides. They are stunningly beautiful, soft in winter’s light and you drop your gaze to his lips, struggling to tune back in to what he is saying.

“You remind me of Bubbles. You look at her and she seems like someone who needs to be taken care of. Sweet.” Wait…does he think you're sweet?

“Cute.” Does he think you’re CUTE?!

“And then you see her in action and you realise she might just be the most dangerous one of all of ‘em.”

Gaping, you stare at him in stunned shock. Of all the conversations you thought you’d ever have with Joel this hadn’t even begun to feature, and it's not just because of the absurdity of the subject matter. You say the only thing your short circuiting brain will allow you to at this time.

“Well…she was my favourite.”

“Mine too. Sarah, she preferred Buttercup.” Ah. The mystery of Sarah resolved, and another piece of the puzzle that is Joel slots into place. His smile fades as he looks at you, and a seriousness permeates his features once again.

“I think we can keep what happened between ourselves. He died in the shootout with the rest. No reason to stir anything up back home.”

“I did what needed to be done-“ you begin, frowning, and he holds up a hand to stop you.

“I agree,” he says smoothly. “But some might see it different because he wasn’t infected. And he was unarmed. Probably think we shoulda brought him back, see how he got on in Jackson. Tommy and Maria are tough sonsabitches, but sometimes they’re too damn good. And some others there barely know what its like outside anymore. They couldn’t survive without other people makin’ the tough calls. It’s easy to judge when you’re sittin’ pretty.

You jaw twitches as you look down at the horse’s mane bobbing up and down in front of you and force down the flare of anger that threatens to overtake. You had been so sure of your righteousness, so certain that it was a good call.

“Hey.” Joel touches your arm, pulls it back so you tug on the reins and both your horses pull up to a stop. Reluctantly, you look up at him.

“If you hadn’ta done it, I would,” he confesses, and you see the truth of it burning fiercely in his eyes.

Later that evening, when you have been welcomed back into town, debriefed, and your found supplies whisked away to join the stores you walk back to your house with Joel, the thrumming levity that always came after a successful foray jangling through you. It was different, though, this time. Joel’s voice saying the words “sweet” and “cute” kept sweeping through your mind, adding to the thrill in your blood. The prospect of the winter’s dance was also a source of warm and pleasant agitation, and you couldn’t remember the last time you were excited about something that didn’t revolve around food or supplies. Then there was Ellie’s Christmas present, something which you also hoped would involve Joel, and as you walk up your porch steps you gear yourself up to ask him what you need to.

“So…I have a bit of a weird question to ask you.”

“Oooh my favourite kind,” he smiles, leaning against the wooden frame of your porch as he looks up at you.

“Are there any lakes or big ponds in Jackson?”

“Uh… not within the walls, but there’s a lake not too far out. You wanna go ice fishin’ or somthin’?”

“Not exactly. But if you can stand to come out with me for another day, there’s something I’d like to do.”

“I think I could stand that,” he smiles as he folds his arms and shifts his weight to one leg. “Wanna tell me what it’s all about, Bubbles?”

The nickname catches you off guard and you giggle. “What, have I gotta call you Mojo Jojo now?”

“Naw, no way am I as smart as that monkey.”

You laugh, fully laugh as the joy you have been feeling finally spills past your lips and his eyes crinkle to black as his smile grows wider.

“It's gonna be a surprise,” you grin. “But to sweeten the deal, I promise I’ll bring some coffee.”

“Yup. Sold,” he says, stretching out his hand for you to seal the deal. You take it, and your skin tingles as his thumb lightly brushes over the back of your hand. This time, he holds you for a beat longer than necessary and when he finally drops it you’re surprised to see his grin recede into something almost coy.

“Well, goodnight,” he says a little gruffly, pushing himself away from your porch and heading over to his own.

“Night Joel,” you reply, your voice emerging more tenderly than you had anticipated.

He gives a final wave before disappearing into his house, and you step inside your own to be alone with your happy yet tumultuous thoughts.

Taglist - @thisshipwillsail316 @prostitute-robot-from-the-future @elegantduckturtle @dihra-vesa @midwesternwitchery @just-here-for-the-moment @eri16 @readsalot73 @littlemisspascal @princessxkenobi @harriedandharassed @pagannightwitch @tentacruels @kirsteng42 @shirks-all-responsibilities @deadhumourist @pedrostories @abbyhaslongshorts @celebrtyskinz @majahu

Next chapter

[rainymoodlet]

[TJoL+] A Summary of Events,

I realize that I skip around a lot when I'm posting legacy gameplay - the truth is, my ADHD and limited play-time constantly mixes into impatience when it comes to certain stages of my gameplay! When y'all last saw Ivory, she had just gone on a date with Eva Capricciosa, so it's a little jarring that the next time we see our heir is her living with Eva and Cassandra Goth in an established relationship, right?

The reality is, I took plenty of pictures following the events of the past few days in-game - I just didn't like any of them. Figures that I got to hodge-podge them together in Photoshop to run a quick summary... only to end up loving the way they all came out. 😑

I thought I might summarize the last few days so that we can pick up with where I'm currently at in my gameplay. I'm planning on updating y'all with a more official post about the KMiK/TJoL+ posting schedule (KMiK during the week, TJoL on the weekends) while my work schedule settles in!

So, we pick up where we left off... with Ivory (after randomly pulling a "Flirty Introduction" in the middle of gameplay) having just completed a very successful all-nighter date with the lovely Eva Capricciosa. 💅⛓️

The morning after her date with Eva, Ivory had a hot daydream (left, courtesy of WickedWhims) about her ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Goth, while taking a shower. Ivory and Cassandra used to date in high school, but broke up amicably before they went to University.

Not two hours after that daydream did Ivory get a call from Eva (right). It went down a little differently in-game (Ivory and Eva didn't officially start dating until after this all went down) but it was the main inspiration for this edit.

At this point I guffawed out loud - I was already sold on Eva and Ivory as a couple, but Cass and Ivory were something I was trying to get Ivory back to (spoilers djkfhd but Cassandra is a Food Critic and was eventually going to be one of the reviewers for Ivory's restaurant - my Kruegers are establishing a habit of autonomously shortening their timelines dfkjsdf)

It was only natural, then, that Ivory invited Cassandra out to breakfast - the literal morning after hooking up with Eva. 😮‍💨

Ivory just takes gorgeous women out as an excuse to get pictures of Experimental Dishes and do research for work - she just earned the Workaholic lifestyle and it makes so much sense.

(She Dip Kissed Cass with a drink in her hand and it was just so... her.)

It seemed as though Cassandra missed Ivory just as much as she missed her, because she was instantly receptive to all of Ivory's questions about her relationship status, her thoughts on open relationships and her goals, etc. etc. etc. When Ivory asked Cass her opinion on Eva, Cass was all smiles - and the literal minute I clicked "Go Home" and the event ended, Ivory got this text message:

And that just sealed it, to be honest!

From there, it was as simple as setting up a Dynamic for the three of them in my WickedWhims settings to disable Jealousy (I didn't have the time to deal with OpenLoveLife's poly settings omg) and let Ivory and Eva take the reins from there! If I had a Youtube channel I'd have been talking you all through this as it played, so bear with my nerdy ass as I describe how it happened story-wise dkfjhsd ~

The three of them ended up "gOiNg OuT tO pArTy" in Windenburg the same night (as I said... I'm impatient) and right off the bat, Eva made good use of that "no Jealousy" rule. She and Ivory circled a very confused Cassandra, who was still processing the fact that the two women who had very boldly asked her out back-to-back

one.) knew each other and two.) were both looking at her with "I'm going to Ruin You in the Best Way Possible" eyes 👀

Eva produced a single rose, and Cassandra looked at Ivory like "... is this for real?"

And when I tell you Ivory looked at her like this.

... hell, I want her to top me. Can I say that? Is that legal?

What progressed was them literally autonomously making out and flirting with each other all night ~*~* in tha club *~*~ and when I tell you I'm so genuinely upset that I couldn't make these shots work as an individual post at all, but I think they look SO GOOD HERE?

Like, have you ever seen a Sim more down for this than Eva??? She's become one of my favorite townies and I have never touched her with a thousand foot pole... solely because I never play in Windenburg dfksdhj. I have been missing out and so are you all omg

From that night, I literally just started decorating their apartment as you see it here. (MDNI with that post just because it has the minutest of Cassandra side nip but still) because, say it with me now... I'm impatient.

With limited playtime and "I look at this too long"itis affecting Ivory's small Fashion District apartment, I moved these three in the night after they started dating djhsfh

Below are some highlights of gameplay that I once again could not make work in a post by themselves... and now love what I've done with them and think they look great in the body of this post tf :/

(I didn't realize I took so little pictures of Cassandra... especially when I'm admittedly so obsessed with the make-over I gave her dskjdf)

Throughout this time, Ivory began filming herself cooking and uploading the videos to SimTube - it gained her a good bit of fame, and after advancing to Level 9 in the Chef career, she reached Level 2 Celebrity status within a week! (It took an exhausting amount of replying to comments and dealing with laggy cooking livestreams, omg)

Throughout this process, all three of them were constantly popping diaper thought bubbles - Ivory for sure had baby fever, because the minute she would come home from work and interact with her partners, she'd start thinking about lil nooboos!

I didn't know, however, that both Ivory and Eva had really low fertility - 20% and 30% respectively! (In my games, couples can have biological children regardless with a system of random rolls I developed before the Science Baby update: Eva rolled as Can Become Pregnant whereas Ivory and Cassandra rolled Can Get Others Pregnant. Which yes means that if Ivory and Cassandra wanted to have a genetic child they'd need to have a Science Baby, no it makes no sense, I know)

Eva had the Would Be Happy to Have A Child trait, and it absolutely wrecked her every time she failed to conceive. I was trying to track her fertility, get them goin' on the right days, and none of it was working. (This was before I figured out their fertility rate.)

So I -- can you believe this -- got impatient and cheated their fertility rates to 80% and 75% respectively, had them use the straight-up Try for Baby interaction instead of relying on them to abuse WickedWhims, and sent Ivory off to work with my fingers crossed.

Ivory came back from work with a promotion to Level 10, Celebrity Chef, and some fantastic news from her girlfriend. 🥹 

(whom she proceeded to autonomously massage & snuggle tf out of 🥹🥹🥹)

The cats totally sensed that Eva was pregnant, okay, it was adorable. Dolce (her Yorkie) followed her around even more, and throughout the days as Ivory climbed the ranks of stardom (she's so close to getting her restaurant and that Third Rank!) and Cassandra made more and more breakthroughs...

Well...

We pick up after that bassinet there has already been sold, friends! 😉 If you made it this far, bless you for puttin' up with me absolutely rambling about my silly little gameplay - I really enjoyed revisiting this side of their story, and I was so frustrated that I just couldn't figure out how to work it into that ~ Tumblr Gameplay Styling ~ that I prefer for my posts hrrrr

Hopefully this helps to streamline the Kruegers gameplay, and gives us more context for following the story of our Gen 3 Heir! 🥹 I'm hoping to do a more posed/gameplay story-based feel for his chapter, and I'm so excited to introduce you guys to him. :') I am genuinely going to try and be as linear with his ass as possible... at least, when he gets to Young Adult sdkfjdsf

Have a cookie, baby, you've earned it! 🍪🍪🍪

[firebound-press]

And now we’re on to my most recent project, New Game +, by @tayani!

I’m still so so proud of how this one turned out, especially the typesetting and cover. It was my first time actually painting on the spines and covers, but I think they turned out super good. For the design, I wanted to mimic something in the fic that’s technically a spoiler, but just know that it worked out really well.

I didn’t have any gold HTV or foil, so instead I ended up mixing modge podge and mica powder in order to get that shimmery gold look.

As for the typesetting, my goal was to mimic the style of the game as much as possible, and I think I did a pretty good job of doing that!

The total page count ended up being nearly 1000 in total, with roughly 350 pages per volume. With a 300k word count, this is by far the longest fic I’ve ever bound, but I’m still so so proud of how it turned out.

You can read the original fic here:

[waklman]

3 WIP tag game

Rules: Post snippets/screenshots/etc. from three of your WIPs!  Art or Fic! Tag as many people as you like! (created by @limetimo)

fake it chapter 5 (jake seresin x reader, college au)

-sharing a snippet between jake and bradley because no jake and princess spoilers (bc i’m evil)

It was one thing to be woken up by some girl asking where her underwear was, and it was another thing to be woken by his friend’s crusty face, demanding to know how many unused meal swipes he had left.

swimmer bradley knows italian

-might scrap this but who knows my italian is so horrible even though i’ve been studying it for the past year 😭

And when you thought his deep voice couldn’t possibly drop another octave, it does when he expertly spoke to his old coach. It hardly soothes your nerves when you notice that the usual raspy bite in tone comes out even more.

the after party chapter 1 (bob floyd x reader, college au)

-i abandoned her a little bit, but i miss working on this

No matter how far he travels from his childhood home, Bob finds himself in the same unescapable scenario. If it’s not his towheaded baby brothers waddling into his room for attention, it’s his fraternity brothers doing it instead. Sticking to their routine, Mickey and Reuban are already letting themselves in, pushing the crack of his door wider, probing at his already decorated space.

Sliding off the metal frames pinching his nose, Bob hangs them onto the collar of his white tee. Maybe it’s better that he can’t clearly see Mickey toying with his pile of mod-podged puzzles or worse—Reuban lazily sniffing the flower lego set Bob built, curious to see if it was scented or not.

thank you for tagging me pretty!! @elusive-honeydew ⭐️

no pressure tags: @bradshawed @wkndwlff @blue-aconite @sushiwriterhere @roosterbruiser

[moth-tea-merchant]

Love Cerus's eating animation

[hinataoc]

KHOC Week - Appearance

It’s that time of year again for @khoc-week​! I don’t have too much prepared for this week, but thankfully refs are easy to put together. As always, I have to share Hinata! 

Hinata is my main Kingdom Hearts OC. She’s kind, forgiving, passionate, and just a lot of fun to work with. I’ve been writing her story for the past seven years! This particular outfit is her main look from her third book, The Forgotten Traveler. 

She mainly fights with twin dao blades, but also fights with a shield, plasma guns, hand to hand, water magic, and limited other magic as well. Her blue tattoo was something she received during her time in Atlantis and it enhances her water magic. It glows when she uses her magic, but also when she is experiencing intense emotions. 

If you’d like to read her story, you can find them on Fanfic.net and on Ao3! 

I have another character to share, but it contains major spoilers, so beneath the cut it gooooes.

The other character I’ll be sharing is Thaanix, Hinata’s Replica. 

Thaanix was created at the beginning of The Forgotten Traveler in a lab on Kamino. Her mind isn’t quite right and she has an overabundance of darkness ever so slowly taking over whatever mind she has left. 

She destroys everything she touches and feels intense self-hatred afterwards, which leads to her going on the run trying to be left alone. Except... the darkness inside of her continues to lash out and Hinata and her team can’t exactly let a crazed Replica remain loose in the galaxy. 

She gathers whatever she can from various worlds she runs to. Things that are familiar to her, bring her some form of comfort. Which results in a hodge podge of fabrics and things that she uses as clothes. 

Anyway, that’s all for today! We’ll see if I manage anything for the rest of the week.

[lookbluesoup]

3. What was your first impression of the three major City-States, Ul'dah, Limsa Lominsa, and Gridania? Did these change over time?

5. How did you feel about being invited to join the Scions of the Seventh Dawn? Did you travel to the Waking Sands to hear their pitch? What was your initial impression of Minfilia, and her reveal that she also had the Echo? What did you make of the rest of the Scions?

Let's see if I can be REMOTELY succinct about this hahaha (spoiler, I won't be)

Nahte's favorite city of the three is Limsa Lominsa by far. It's not exactly safe but, y'know, neither is the Black Shroud when you live so far out even the Wood Wailers don't tread. It's the only city that allows beast tribes to come in and trade, and has such a modge-podge of citizenry thanks to its bustling port that you can always find someone with a story or a job, if you know where to look. Nahte came here to study Arcanistry at around seventeen years old, and lived in the city for probably about a year, give or take. He'd visited several times before that in his wanderings, and even did a stint on a fishing boat with a Sunseeker tribe which remains one of his fondest early memories. So he knew this city very well by the time he meets Y'shtola on the coast fending off a rampaging goobbue, and Hydaelyn yoinks him into her crusade. He grows more critical of Limsa Lominsa over time, especially as he becomes involved in Scion business trying to mediate their conflict with the Kobolds and Sahagin, and that ARR finale where Merlwyb and the Elder Seedseer just... leave the Scions to die, certainly soured him on both leaders for a while.

Ul'dah is less enjoyable from the start. Nahte had also visited here a few times before the Admiral sent him as an Envoy. It's where he first met his mate, A'mahl Tia, which is about its only redeeming quality. Nahte feels significantly less safe here than in Limsa Lominsa. Though the architecture of the city is beautiful, and he spent some time learning from the craftsman's guilds there in his youth, he has no fondness for the church where heaven is literally bought with gold, or the government where extreme wealth is the one, only qualification for a seat on the council. He was horrified to discover poor like the Ala Mhigan refugees being worked, literally to death, for mere pennies, pulling metals from mines that made the owners rich beyond comprehension. Nahte spent some time using his skills as a healer to mend injured refugees that would otherwise starve for want of coin. And while Nahte acknowledges that balancing an economy in a city is very different from living off the land in a small tribe isolated deep in the woods, and that he certainly doesn't know enough to know how to "fix" things... he felt when he first came to the city, and continues to feel, that Ul'dah is the cruelest place he's ever been to. And that's saying a lot because:

Gridania is... ugly. Nahte grew up in a traditional Moon Keeper village deep in the Shroud, and as such was raised to be wary of Wood Wailers and Gridanians. When he began to wander, as Moonkeeper men do, he did eventually grow curious enough to investigate the hamlets and attempt to meet people and trade. He experienced firsthand how cruel Gridania's paranoia about offending the Elementals could become. He was called names, threatened, even attacked a few times by Wailers who assumed him to be a poacher without bothering to ask questions. He's seen them leave people to die that they could have helped, in the name of their benevolent Elementals, and justify hurting strangers for the same, but eventually came to believe that most of the time the Elementals didn't care at all. Close-minded people did. And they used their pseudo-deities as an excuse to act, or not act, whichever was convenient. Most of their rules were actually about enforcing a kind of uniformity in their citizenry. Despite how homey and familial Gridania claimed to be, people who were different, who were outsiders, were not welcome. Not all of them are bad, of course, and he did make a few tentative friendships. But it was dangerous living in the city's shadow growing up, and that absolutely influenced his view of the place.

He was extremely reluctant to enter the capital with Merlwyb's missive for the Elder Seedseer, as it was his first time visiting Gridania proper. It didn't go as badly as he thought it would. The Elder Seedseer was very polite, and most people were tolerant - presumably because his clothing and the size of the population meant nobody knew right away that he was an outsider. Future visits endeared him to the place slightly more, when he takes on the mantle of a Scion, and later his sister Tsimh is chosen by the Elementals to become a powerful White Mage, which both lead Gridania to take an overall more positive stance toward the Vhia clan, Nahte's family. Unlike Ul'dah, Nahte feels Gridania actually takes steps to improve over time, so they win some brownie points for that.

--

5. Answered Here! :D

--

New Adventurer Asks

[bowiesdreamreality]

Yeah so I feel like ranting for once publicly ahaha, this is about Moonage Daydream and will contain “spoilers” and also harsh opinions so… read at your own risk lol

After reflection I am entirely divided about my opinion on the documentary. First things first though: as a presentation of Bowie as a figure, as a musician, as an artist, it does a good job. It fulfils that in a broad sense, in a ‘yes I can grasp abstractly where he was coming from’ kind of way. (There are clips of him painting in the 90s, there’s a slideshow of his paintings, there’s a very cool bit of cinematography where we somehow go inside the Metropolis Diamond Dog set sketches.) The abstracted quotes from interviews and movies (questioning this choice a bit, because they're not really his words then, are they?) build up a basis of identifying how his mind worked and his responses and thoughts about different periods of his life. Okay, fine.

But that’s almost all it’s got going for it, in my opinion. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, I did immensely and quite a lot of it had me in awe—in the moment. But then, that didn’t last. And that’s a problem, because Bowie himself does last. Think about a performance of his that runs about in your mind for hours after you see it because of his unique approach to the wording of one line. An expression, an emphasis, something that caught your eye. The doc tries to do this, tries to capture it, but it fails, because its focus is uncertain.

The doc opens with one of Bowie’s ruminations on Nietzsche—which, okay, I’ve nothing against that, it was a rather large part of his own hodge-podge philosophy. And this quest for spirituality does run through the doc in a way I really enjoyed (this personally being one of my pre-occupations when it comes to considering Bowie and his work and everything else therein implied). But there’s no link from this rumination to his work, no concrete sort of connection. And that loss of connection between the voiceovers and philosophical ruminations and the visual elements doesn’t exactly jive.

All that, though, can be written off, dismissed, because, yes, it’s incredibly hard to compile material together into an innovative way that captures an iconic figure in a new light. But then, it fails to do that, because most of the footage is everything anyone who is familiar with Bowie will have seen a hundred times over. The Ziggy Stardust motion picture performances, scenes from Cracked Actor and Ricochet (for some reason I haven’t quite puzzled out yet, there is a preoccupation with slicing film from Ziggy with Ricochet, which doesn’t make much sense give their distance in the timeline (was the ten year mark between then of some import? It doesn’t really end up pulling out many differences or contrasts, however.)) Much of the time I felt I could have stayed home and pulled up the footage on YouTube myself. And that was incredibly disappointing.

Of course, there’s a lot to be said for restoring and remastering, but the weight that was carried by all the more or less common film was disappointing. Morgan spent two years with the archives, and yet ends up using familiar footage for 97% of the film (perhaps more?). There is, we know, an immense amount of material that is in those archives and it seems that Morgan decided to lead with the best quality footage and save himself the work of presenting lesser quality, but previously unseen, footage.

This skittishness is apparent in the documentary itself. There IS new footage, but it’s sliced in between everything else. Shown quick and then spliced back with the familiar. For every extended performance from, say, the Ziggy film, there may be a few seconds of new footage and there were no full unseen performances. This is incredibly disappointing, in my opinion, because it is apparent that all the uncovered footage is of relatively good quality—or was made to be such. Did the pressures-that-be demand a visual extravaganza such that any hint of sub-par imagery was immediately meant for the cutting room floor? It is quite sad if that’s the case. There were clips from the immensely valuable ‘74 Soul Tour, brief glimpses of things from ‘76, Bowie’s own recorded footage presumably from the same period, work on the Diamond Dogs film perhaps (though that’s never made clear). There was footage from the Berlin recording studio, of all amazing things! And yet these are all only splices, mere seconds it feels like, cut between the familiar tones of ‘there’s a fly in my milk’ and the red light of the Ziggy Motion Picture and the clean white suited figure that glides through Thailand in 1983.

I want more, honestly, and this feels like an opportunity that slipped through Morgan’s fingers. There seems to be to have been a great deal of potential that got squashed by the need to present something perfect in the view-obsessed, commercially driven era we find ourselves in. No one wants to see grainy, unclear footage, overlaid with a gravelly war-torn voice, do they? Give the people what they want: show them the obscenity and outrageousness of Ziggy Stardust, balance it with a glimpse of Bowie’s (carefully approachable and relatable and sensible) philosophical side, show a bit of his range as an artist, and make it all as shiny as possible. (Do not, by any means, touch upon any controversy. Run past footage from 1976. We don’t need the possible threat of cancellation.)

Ironically, the climax of the film, the ultimate point of tension, centres on the creative wasteland Bowie felt the latter half of the 1980s to be. That period in which he catered to the audience, when he played to the gallery, and found himself creatively stifled because of it. Was Morgan listening? Or are we too wary in our modern age to do anything truly daring?

[ragdoll127-ffxiv]

Apollo Lore Post

It occurs to me I haven't talked about R'alma's Azem much. Let's remedy that.

The Basics

Name: Apollo Gender: Fluid (biologically male) Pronouns: Literally Anything (you'll probably guess wrong anyway, she doesn't mind) Sexuality: Asexual/Polyamorous Height: Average I Guess? Age: God, Who Knows Relationships: Domestic partnership w/ Hades and Hythlodaeus (when she can be bothered to be home) Combat Jobs: Mage (SMN-adjacent) Non-combat Jobs: Azem/Traveler/General Troublemaker

Apollo was the last occupant of the Seat of Azem on the Convocation of Fourteen in Amaurot. She was insatiably curious, insufferably eccentric, and incomparably powerful.

She had pale skin, bright teal eyes, and fiery red and gold hair. Her hair was by far her most notable feature, impossibly long and always in some manner of mess. Hythlodaeus would often try to braid parts of it to help keep it out of her way, but then she would wind up sticking odds and ends into the braids -- feathers, pretty stones and gems, bits of wire or ribbon, and other trinkets and paraphernalia from her travels.

Unlike her fellow Amaurotines, she simply could not stand the drab black uniformity of the traditional robes, so she tended to be seen sporting an array of pastel colors instead. She favored mint green and lavender, but never wore white or gray.

Part of what made Apollo so eccentric was the fact that, ever since she was very young, she was graced with dreams of the future. On occasion, they were brief, unhelpful, and tied to individuals that she had little-to-no personal connection to. Most of them, however, were dreams of her own future, or of the future lives her soul would eventually live. These dreams were so vivid and real, she felt like she lived a thousand lives constantly instead of just her own. This was also responsible for her fluid gender identity, as she spent so long resonating with so many different personalities and genders that they all bled into her own.

This is Abaris, one of Apollo's favorite traveling companions. She's nearly as eccentric as Apollo is, idolizes her immensely, and tries to follow in her every footstep. She gets along very well with Hythlodaeus. Hades considers her a bad influence and an enabler of Apollo's antics.

She is hopelessly in love with Apollo. Apollo is aware of this, but regrettably does not reciprocate. She feels very badly about this, but doesn't feel she'd be able to love Abaris the way she deserves, and hopes that one day their future souls can be together properly. (Spoilers, they are.)

Apollo is notorious at the Bureau of the Architect for submitting the absolute most batshit crazy concepts. The mount that Emet-Selch rides in Elpis was actually a gift from her, and a perfect example of her really weird design aesthetic. Most of her creature and familiar designs are literally just a hodge-podge of seemingly random features. Despite this, however, even Hythlodaeus can't deny the fact that her designs are almost always perfectly viable. Whether they're practical is another matter entirely...

This is one of her familiar designs, complete with notes from Hythlodaeus, which was later used to recreate R'alma's body to look more like hers.