#short answer: It Was Not Good

[olreid]

hey I've been really loving your neverafter analysis - it made me feel like i wasn't complaining about nothing lmao and you word it much better than I could

so about that, you've mentioned the acoc finale a few times & if you have a post about that or any kind of commentary, I'm really curious to read it

<3 i dont think i have any posts from when i watched, ive deleted most of my acoc posts over the years bc they annoyed me lol. ive gotten several questions about this and will do my best to explain what i mean! it's not going to be super detailed due to i havent watched that season in literally 3 years but basically i just remember the very end of the acoc finale being really like. tonally jarring because the players were saying all this insane stuff about consolidating political power but it was being framed as a happy ending not only for the party but also for their subjects. the vibe was like, well it was tough going there for a minute but now the Right people are in charge, so it's all good now :) just no acknowledgement of the inherent violence of governance via monarchy, which again may be stupid to expect from the dnd comedy show, except for the fact that the content of the season was like. a painfully extended enumeration of The Violences of Monarchy. but i guess we learned nothing :) like let's just read from the wiki briefly about the events of the episode post-siege:

Cumulous asks Liam what is glowing in his pocket. Liam without hesitation eats the seed from Lapin Cadbury. He thinks of the change he most wants to see in the world and wishes that the creativity and magic of Candia would burst forth, and instantly Candia quadruples in size within its place on the Calorum map. Saccharina thanks Liam as the new queen of a lot more Candian land. Far off, Liam hears Lapin chuckling […] Lapin whispers to Liam on his way out, “There’s nothing wrong with being a seed guy.” A new age of Candia is born as Emperor Amethar of the House Rocks embraces his new title and brings a new age of peace to the realms […] Liam brings the Pontifex and Sir Keratin back to life in an act of mercy and locks them in prison for the rest of their lives. He leaves them, and goes back to being a seed guy […] Saccharina tries to find Cinnamon an alternative food source to Bulbian hearts, looking through all of Vegetania before returning to Candia. Just outside the castle, a tinfoil tree grows and a cranky Cinnamon eats the fruit from the tree and then grows gentle, regarding the world with love instead of hunger. 

all of this is soooo stupid and shoehorned to me... why is liam wishing for candia to grow four times larger besides that ally the player thinks that would be a good thing. WHY is liam resurrecting dead people and throwing them in jail framed as 'quirky' besides the fact that they have essentially already rolled credits and so are just ready to frame anything that happens as funny and nice because they don't want to like. get into the politics of it.

and that's not even getting into the rest of the wrap-up where like. all the bad stuff, all the outstanding conflict and tension that would naturally linger after the battle just gets done away with completely for the sake of an ending that is not tainted by even the faintest hint of complexity or violence (again, this is revealing and tells us a lot about what the table considers violent vs. what is so normalized as to not even register as violence in the moment). rather than having to grapple with having raised and domesticated a pet that feeds on people in a time of war and then still being responsible for that creature after peace has been declared, cinnamon is magically transformed into a creature that now only needs the fruit of trees to surivive. the events of the season usher in a reign of peace rather than a rocky period of distrust and repairing alliances or even open rebellion because that is the happiest ending for our royal protagonists, not because it necessarily follows logically from what took place in the finale.

all in all i feel that what the acoc finale wants to convince me of is that the season's conflict was largely a case of good vs. evil individuals rather than complex people caught in and trying to exploit violent systems, and that as long as the good people win out and have the space to rule as they want to, monarchy is not opposed to concepts like happiness or justice but indeed is highly compatible with them. we just needed a good king!!! earlier in the season it felt like there was space to question monarchy's claims to moral authority, particularly through saccharina's abuse and the outsider perspectives of her crew of outlaws. however, by the finale all of this critique has been subsumed into the narrative machine and we're back to cheering for the rulers of candia in their noble pursuit to conquer ever more land, something we hope they achieve because they have shown themselves to be pure of heart and sound in judgement. this was not a actually a forum to question whether a small group of unelected wealthy people should be allowed to govern just because they want to, but rather just an extended job interview for the rocks family, and they have passed with flying colors. anyway.

the reason i compared this week's neverafter to this particular acoc episode is that i think we are again seeing some of the limits of the table's political imagination, particularly as it relates to incarceration; imprisonment has been invoked repeatedly through the device of trapping people in timothy's book, which is either framed as a good or bad thing depending on whether it is done by a protagonist or an antagonist. if the authors or the fairies trap the characters in their respective stories, it's an abuse of power that must be challenged. however, if the party traps an annoying or superfluous npc, or a meddling princess, in their handy portable prison, it's (a) benevolent; the possibility has been raised that trapping characters in this way makes them happy, and may indeed be a way to give them a happily ever after; or (b) violent, but markedly less so than other available courses of action and thus merciful by comparison. there is no space to discuss the inherent violence of incarceration or entrapment even if it is used as an alternative to death, which IS INSANE in a season where the horror that kicked everything off was the horror that what the characters thought were their lives was actually a prison made of narrative.

across these two seasons i think we are seeing an inability or perhaps just an unwillingness to contend with the inherent violence of being held against one's will. the problem for the party seems not to be that characters experience various levels of incarceration by virtue of being trapped in narratives, but rather that the wrong people have been imprisoned while those who truly deserve the punishment roam free. the party, our protagonists, have been trapped in story despite their inherent goodness, while the true bad actors -- the fairies, the princesses, the gander -- are allowed to roam free. according to this logic, simply capturing and imprisoning everyone who advances a plan the party doesn't agree with will be a satisfactory outcome and should be enough to set the world to rights.

tldr it frustrates me as a viewer when d20 seasons make a point to explicitly raise and explore structural issues only to "solve" them at the last minute with individualist fixes that do nothing to address the root cause of said issues. it adds insult to injury when they try to tell me the ending is a happy one simply because it made the party happy, even if others had to suffer for that to be so.

[shawtuzi]

the big dick nerd!eren drabble did so good so here’s some more!!!!

let’s discuss his first blowjob shall we. the whole thing started out pretty innocent just a lil makeout session bc you were becoming incredibly bored of the movie you were watching (love & basketball—his choice surprisingly). he just looked so pretty w his hair in a neat bun and black glasses framing his face so perfectly how could you not wanna jump his bones??? eren felt your hand trail up his thigh towards the place where he needed you most and felt his blood run cold, “just let me see it renny please? ‘feels so big i have to see it,” you purred squeezing eren’s dick over his sweats. “o-okay yeah a peek wouldn’t hurt would it?” he chuckled breathlessly, pulling his sweats down mid thigh and you were met with the biggest erection you’d ever seen in your life straining against the soft material of eren’s briefs. your silence began to worry eren and just as he was about to pull his sweats back up you wrapped your dainty hand around his wrist stopping him, “don’t be embarrassed baby i wasn’t thinking anything bad i was just…..admiring it,” you smiled pressing a kiss to his blazing cheek. “o-oh—uh okay it’s not too small or anything? do you think i could make you—um f-feel good with it?” he asked his eyes wide with wonder. you moved your body in front of eren’s and laid on your stomach, your feet swaying in air dreamily. “i think it’s more than enough—in fact i don’t know if i’ll even be able to fit it all in my pussy you’re just so big ren,” you fake pouted, flicking your tongue out to get a taste of the pre staining eren’s briefs. before eren knew it his entire dick was sheathed down your throat, your spit with a mixture of his precum dripping down your chin and onto his aching, full balls. “yes yes t-that feels so good y/n. do that thing with your tongue again please—fuckkkk yeah mhm mhmmm,” eren whimpered clutching onto his bedsheets for dear life. he’d already came two times—the first time happening just from you suckling on the tip but you didn’t mind at all. not one bit.

[canisalbus]

Building on the favourite animal ask, another Very Important Question: favourite PREHISTORIC animal? And why? (I've always loved gorgonopsids and pterosaurs like anurognathus, but a new favourite is aquilolamma the eagle shark. They're just very cute).

I feel like my top favorites are pretty pedestrian, but I like prehistoric deer a lot!

Megaloceros giganteus aka Irish elk

Sinomegaceros ordosianus & Sinomegaceros yabei

Eucladoceros dicranios

Cervalces scotti

[tcfactory]

on the yqy gets truth serumed thing: we find out because during a peak lord meeting, lqg says smth smth sqq sux and i hate him, and usually what gets said is "shidi is permitted to his own opinion, of course, but blablabla-" what comes out the sect leaders mouth THIS time, however, is "oh fuck your mother you foul tempered brat; jiu can do as he pleases and so help me if he threatens to leave because of this i will use your skin as a rug ^^" no one was ready.

YES

Exactly this is the vibe I picture if Yue Qingyuan got dosed with a truth serum.

Someone says something about how Shen Qingqiu's whoring is dragging the sect's reputation down, but what could they really expect from a man like that. Complete with a meaningful glance. And of course it's expected that Yue Qingyuan will take his side, even if he tries to word it diplomatically, they all know how he is...

And then Yue Qingyuan says "I'm going to break your jaw and rip out your lying tongue for slandering Shen Jiu. We don't even have anything in the rules forbidding sex you stupid piece of-" at which point Liu Qingge and Mu Qingfang both tackle him because something is clearly wrong with him and they can't rule out possession right away.

Everybody is mortified when Mu Qingfang confirms it's a truth pollen, but Shen Qingqiu just sits there completely floored because Yue Qingyuan would commit violence for him? Despite everything?? Then why hasn't he done any of that?! At least put in a little more effort when standing up for him to discourage the rich idiots from picking on him! Useless shixiong.

They wrap Yue Qingyuan in immortal binding cables because they don't trust his word that he always thinks like this and the risk of him acting on it is not one the can take, and he kneels in front of Shen Qingqiu and tells him that he would do anything to have his trust, his love back. If Shen Jiu asks him to rip out his useless, treacherous tongue, to crack open his chest and hand him his still beating heart as proof of his love, he would do so even if it's the last thing he would do in this life.

And Shen Qingqiu swoons because okay, there's something fishy here, but that's the kind of devotion he wants (devotion to match his own) and he is still fucking mad, don't get him wrong, but keep talking he's listening.

[doctorsiren]

I saw an interesting post a while back that said “Capcom made us [Miles and Diego/Godot] only have like two(?) interactions because they knew we would be unstoppable with a brother dynamic” and tbh it stuck with me bc it was intriguing.

So yeah that potential brotherhood, but that Godot/Diego AU I made (that I still need a name for)

Also I bet Gregory Edgeworth would have smelled like a bit like coffee, and so Diego just reminds Miles of that comforting presence 😭 (the von Karma estate was a tea household, so he didn’t smell much coffee after DL-6 and didn’t realize how much he missed it/reminded him of his father)

[formosusiniquis]

When Mike Wheeler, red faced and still faintly tear stained, asks him how he knew he liked both Steve doesn’t know how to tell him it was his sister.

Before Nancy Wheeler it had only been boys. Before Nancy Wheeler Steve had been sure he was gay and knew well enough to keep it to himself; dating around enough to earn himself a protective reputation. Before Nancy Wheeler there’d been Marcus Summers, from the baseball team, during freshman year. Steve had gone to every game, and had been forced to make up excuses about schoolwork and his other commitments when asked why he hadn’t tried out for himself. Before Nancy Wheeler there’d been Tommy Hagan. The summer between seventh and eighth grade had been very kind to Tommy, he was sunkissed and boy next door sweet, Steve had wanted to hold his hand and count the freckles across the bridge of his nose. 

Before Nancy Wheeler there’d been his first love, a boy who only visited one summer, the year Steve turned ten. His name had changed every time they hung out but he’d favored E’s. Eli, Emmett, Elliott, Eric, Excalibur, Excelsior, and once for about an hour Wayne. His hair brushed his chin in pretty brown curls and his big brown eyes were always bright with excitement. He always got storm off mad when any of the other boys they’d played with that summer said he was acting like a girl, E would run off to the woods and Steve would always follow. E always came up with the best games anyway, he didn’t like playing soccer or HORSE or anything else with rules that couldn’t be bent; he preferred imagination games where they were knights or wizards. He didn’t laugh when Steve said he always liked playing house, but never wanted to be the dad because why would he want to be someone who never wanted to spend any time with his kids. E who, while insisting on being called Samwise all day, was his first kiss.

Cause he knows what Mike wants to hear. He’s seen the way Mike and Will have danced around each other since the last portal closed. He’s heard the things Mike has said to and about Will. He’s heard all about the week that Will was in the Upside Down. He’s heard all about the summer of ‘85. He’s heard all about the final off again that seems to officially mark the end of Mike and El romantically. He knows that Mike wants him to say that he’d never even thought about boys before he met Eddie. That there’s just something special about Eddie that makes him want to give up his lady killing ways. That Eddie was different. That it was okay that he was having these scary new thoughts, maybe Will was just an exception.

And Steve doesn’t know how to have that conversation. When he realized he liked both it was a relief, that maybe he could have something normal and wouldn't have to spend his life lying or hiding. 

But Eddie was different. Eddie was special. Eddie was probably it for Steve which is scary in a different way that he’s not ready to touch yet -- not when it’s only been three months.

There’s never been another girl since Nancy Wheeler, not really

There will never be another boy after Eddie Munson.

So he tries to help, as best he can. It’s easier with Eddie there, not quite dozing against his shoulder -- the kid’s emergencies always seem to come so late at night these days. “When I was ten, there was a boy whose name kept changing who decided prince charming should get to kiss his faithful knight. And when I was sixteen, your sister-”

Mike’s goodwill diminishes quickly as his sister gets introduced to the conversation.

“Stevie,” Eddie says. It’s not an admonishment for bringing up Nancy. It’s awestruck and watery. “You remember that?”

“Of course I remember the first boy I ever loved," that word catches up with him a second later. Remember. 

Cause there's Eddie with his riot of brown curls and his Bambi eyes. Eddie, who has explained why soft feminine words chafe against his skin leaving him itchy and anxious. Eddie, who has an Uncle in Hawkins. Eddie who moved to town the summer before he entered high school with a buzzed head and his mother's last name. Eddie who finally settled into an E he liked best.

"Wheeler, here's a tip from me to you," Eddie says, his advice is always better received than Steve's anyway, "if you have to ask you probably already know."

"Straight people don't really spend much time wondering if they aren't really straight," Steve agrees.

They don't rush Mike out the door, a crisis is a crisis and even in the wake of new discoveries Mike deserves to be heard out. Deserves a chance to cry and rage and feel those emotions someplace safe from his Reaganite father -- just as much as Will deserves to have someone who knows what they want come to him, deserves better than experimentation.

They cross the bridge from late into early by the time Mike sets off. The sun is creeping up over the horizon and Mike looks solid, certain; the dawn hints at the man he is growing up to be. Though every instinct of Steve's begs him to drive the kid home, Eddie's soft hand lingering at his hip holds him fast. They wave instead, encouraging Mike to go home and to bed before he does anything; knowing his front bike tire is already pointed toward the Byers-Hopper place.

"The first boy you ever loved, huh, Stevie?" Eddie teases before the door has even managed to click shut.

"And the last, I'm hoping, if I play my cards right."

"You were always pretty good at that. You were the only person that summer who called me by my name, except Wayne."

"It was your name." He knows that's too simple. Knows how hard Eddie has had it, continues to have it. But that summer it had been that simple, Eddie trying on names like shirts each one fitting until they didn't. "For what it's worth, I like Eddie a lot more than Excalibur."

"Oh fuck off, I was going through a fantasy knight phase. Which I know you remember."

"Right a phase, and how much longer is this fantasy 'phase' going to last?"

They're the kind of tired that makes you feel drunk, when Eddie tackles Steve and sends them both to the floor and to giggles. Eddie might not have been his bi awakening, but Steve is pretty fine with him being his everything else.

[lavendarneverlands]

put 5 songs you listen to, post it, then send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers <333

Thank you so much lovely🫶🫶🫶

Oh goodness this is a hard question because I like way too many songs😂 though I am a huge Swiftie & since I’ve on my TOG binge have been listening to a lot of fan playlists so let’s let my history decide🤣 these have been in a heavy rotation:

“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” by Taylor Swift

“Red Wine Supernova” by Chappell Roan

“Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter

“Blonde” by Maisie Peters

“Can’t Catch Me Now” by Olivia Rodrigo

@impossibelle @iwantavaldezinator @idfendyr @shadowhunters77 @archerons-elain @cheap-spirits @maevecrom @endlessdaydream @somethingsomewhereanywhere @korepio

p.s. as always, no pressure tags :-) 💕

(Heads up for some tags: this is my main account, the side-blog ur probably used to seeing (as I’m more active) is @acourtofquestions I have a terrible habit of mixing up pages/conversations; so if ur going “who tagged me?” it’s just me lol)

[talesfromthecrypts]

Neil Newbon in Later (2012)

[st-hedge]

It wasn’t on my 2024 bingo card that I’d draw V again. Anyway I’ll go ahead ramble in the tags

[yardsards]

i needed to express a sentiment in the creative stylings of @dunmeshiminimumwage

[solradguy]

There are too many stories where the dragons are the villains, or where the dragon was just being an animal and was killed for it by encroaching humans, or is a metaphor for human greed that is killed with violence because changing habits or retraining it would have been too much effort

I have been trying very hard to find short stories with dragons that aren't like this lately and have only found a very, very, small handful and even then most of them aren't really what I'm looking for. A lot of historical stories with dragons tend to come from Europe or near-Europe, and it's really interesting how if you go back far enough the line between "Christian demon," "actual snake," and "dragon" gets very fuzzy.

It reminds me of when I was a kid and asked my (Catholic) dad why we weren't allowed to pray for Satan/Lucifer—because he had sinned and you were supposed to pray for sinners to get better... right?—and he didn't give me a very satisfying answer and I thought about it too long afterwards, and I'm still thinking about it, and I think it's given me a disproportionate amount of sympathy for demons, monsters, and dragons.

[old-desert]

Isat beach episode

[that-foul-legacy-lover]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TWO MEEEEE

I just woke up uh

Melusine birthday

Next ask you can delete bc I just had that idea bouncing around

HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYYY SORRY I'M LATE BUT I HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL TIME

despite all that's happened, you still remember your birthday in the real world- it feels like forever ago, and maybe it was in Teyvat. you're not sure about real life, if any time is passing at all, but several months have passed in this odd, beautiful, bloodthirsty world, and when you wake up tucked away in your shell cottage you suddenly realize it's your birthday. no one knows, of course, it wasn't exactly high on your agenda when you were running from those hunting you. but now you're safe! you're away from everyone who wants to hurt you, amongst friends and family. tapping your stumpy little feet in delight, you pitter-patter over to a little table in the corner, stacked high with paper and pencils and different colors. with a hum you begin fashioning a little conical birthday hat for yourself. not really to wear, but just to have, as a way to remember the passing of time

Foul Legacy pokes his head into the room with a chitter, coming over to look curiously over your shoulder. he blinks, scrutinizing the paper hat in your mittens, before suddenly gasping and trilling in realization. a pair of claws wrap around you as Legacy scoops you up and joyfully twirls you around in midair, hugging you close before gently setting you down. the little hat is still in your hands, your tail happily wagging as he helps you set it between your two antennae. the Creator's birthday- YOUR birthday- it's something that should be celebrated by the entirety of Teyvat. but you don't mind that it's not. in fact, you don't care. all you need are your siblings and friends, keeping you in safe, happy company while you heal and begin to flourish again

you skip back to your little table, and begin making another hat for Foul Legacy

[canisalbus]

ohhhhh mtg god i just realized. machete and vasco are the color of milk and honey

Codename Milk and Honey

[sergle]

AROUND (time): 30 minute window before and 30 after. BEFORE (time): the specified time is the absolute cutoff, bordering on late, so arrive somewhere in the hour before. AT (time): be punctual and be there or be square at the time. BY (time): something STARTS at the time specified and arriving at the exact time does not count as late. This is my take. I am not taking criticism at this time.

no dude bc I think you lowkey nailed it

[thenightfolknetwork]

How do I explain to my nemesis that capturing me and trying to feed me to space sharks is fine, but attempting to erase me from existence by capturing a time god is going to far?

I hate my nemesis. Most of our interactions are great. He threatens to blow up a planet unless I turn myself in, I somehow outsmart him and wreck his plans and somehow get called a hero despite potentially maybe you can't prove anything causing a few legal incidents along the way. Hey, a creature has to eat right? Even if I am from another planet. Anyway, most of our interactions are fine! He threatens my adoptive family, or an innocent town that gave me refuge, or comes up with a plan to control more of the galaxy, or any number of things. He tends to get a bit weird about organics, but every good nemesis has quirks, right?

The problem is when his plans involve or risk much larger issues. Threatening to turn everyone in the sector into robots with his new space station is fine, for example. Kidnapping me and trying to brainwash me is fine too. But... One time he got so upset at me beating him, his next plan involved waking up a terror older than the galaxy that ate energy and let it loose with very very little control over it! And another time he accidentally replaced a planet with an almost identical planet from another dimension because he missed hitting me with it! And well... He must have been really upset with the last time I beat him because the plan I just foiled involved using a time machine to make sure he killed me during our first encounter. And of course I stopped him, I always do in the long term, even if he wins the smaller battles. But I've stopped other villains before and if I had died then, I would never have stopped them and the entire galaxy would have been destroyed! Including your planet! I have even helped my nemesis beat some villains together! But it feels like his plans are just going to get more and more worryingly dangerous to those around us... I'm just hoping we can go back to simple planet destroying lasers and abducting random people to turn into evil robots again before this entire universe is just... Gone.

Oh dear, this does sound troublesome. As you say, it's one thing when your nemesis attacks you or the people close to you – it's quite another when he's putting the rest of us all at risk, too!

I am struck by how impersonal some of these large-scale attacks feel. Letting an ancient terror loose in the universe is hardly the kind of thoughtful, targeted attack one might hope to inspire in one's nemesis. After all, that personal connection is rather a key component in a nemesis relationship. Otherwise, you and he might as well be nothing but garden variety antagonists.

You didn't mention how long you've been his nemesis, but I think from the number of encounters you've mentioned, I can infer it's a fairly well established relationship. I wonder if perhaps he's feeling a little insecure in the relationship, and is acting out to compensate.

Take a moment to consider – when was the last time you showed your appreciation for his nefarious plans? Have you lamented his wicked wiles in any recent interviews? Left a picture of his face on your dartboard for him to see while he's infiltrating your secret base? Fallen to your knees screaming his name while he makes a daring escape from the jaws of justice?

Try and find some ways to show your nemesis that you appreciate his efforts, and to reinforce the deep hatred and malice that lies between the two of you. Make it clear that, while you might fight other opponents from time to time, none of them come close to him for sheer personal vitriol. It's not enough to be your nemesis in name – he needs to really feel your spite.

You mentioned that you always win in the long term. There's nothing wrong with that per se – plenty of nemeses enjoy such a dynamic – but I'm concerned the situation may not be as satisfying for your nemesis as it is for you.

Is there any way you might be able to redress that balance somewhat, offering him the opportunity for some significant gains without putting the entire universe at risk? I don't mean that you should let him win on purpose, of course. If he were ever to discover you'd done such a thing, it would only undermine his confidence even more.

But perhaps you could concoct a scheme for him to foil that speaks especially to his skills, where the odds are stacked against you – and, crucially, where his victory would give him a genuine sense of achievement.

I can't speak to specifics, not knowing more about your situation. Off the top of my head, though, I'm imagining an encounter where the loyalty of a trusted sidekick is at stake, for example, or your own standing in the public eye – something at once significant, but deeply personal.

Hopefully, these twin tactics will work to assuage his doubts and reassure him that he needn't put the whole universe in danger to be a worthy foe. Throw down the gauntlet, and remind why you're nemeses in the first place: because there's nobody in the world who knows and loathes him quite like you.

[For more creaturely advice, check out Monstrous Agonies on your podcast platform of choice, or visit monstrousproductions.org for more info]