#the process of creating the plot for this together with my awesome writer

[duckprintspress]

DPP Contributor Interview: A. L. Heard

A. L. Heard is one of the founding members of Duck Prints Press and has been a part of our planning team since before our official inception, offering her advice and expertise to the Press since mid-2019, and she’s been an editor on our anthologies Add Magic to Taste, And Seek (Not) to Alter Me, He Bears the Cape of Stars, She Wears the Midnight Crown, and Aim For The Heart. She’s also a prolific author of stories of all lengths and in all genres, and one of the most active authors involved with the Press.

Pre-orders of the revised edition of A. L. Heard’s debut novel Hockey Bois open on December 1st, 2023!

Want to meet A. L. Heard and ask her YOUR questions? YOU CAN! Join us TOMORROW, Thursday, November 30th, at 8 p.m. Eastern time (converter) on our Book Lover’s Discord server for a very special Ask Me Anything session with the author of Hockey Bois!

Author Biography: Ashley, pen name A. L. Heard, fandom name jhoom, is a 35-year-old teacher, writer, and mother of two little boys. She’s been writing fanworks since she discovered fanfiction.net back in her middle school days; the platform has changed and the writing’s improved, but Ashley ultimately still spends her free time writing about characters she adores in worlds she’d like to explore. Her first novel, Hockey Bois, was published in 2021. In between writing projects, she works as a language teacher in the Pittsburgh area, plays hockey, and plays trains with her sons.

Links: Bluesky | Instagram

-

How did you pick the name you create under?

It’s a combination of my [real life] name and family names, making it unique but also still connected to me.

-

When and why did you begin creating?

I started writing fic during middle school and went through phases where I’d write fic and original work and then long periods with no writing. I’m happy to be settled into writing on a regular basis 🙂

-

What’s your favorite part of the creation process?

The brainstorming and playing around with a new story and characters, where everything is still possible and I haven’t had to commit to any particular plot point.

-

Describe your ideal creation space.

An office that’s well lit with an endless supply of tea or coffee or snacks, with no distractions or extra noises except birds. Either that or a brewery or cafe with background noise.

-

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

Tea, coffee, and baked goods (cookies, scones, that sort of thing)

-

What’s one thing (style, genre, etc.) that you think you’ll never do, and why not?

Epic fantasy – they’re awesome stories but I don’t have the creativity/brain for a large scale world and magic system like that.

-

Short Stories A. L. has published with Duck Prints Press:

Brady Jensen vs. Haunted Houses (modern high school Hockey Bois au, m/m, getting together)

Brambles, Pollen, and Other Natural Disasters (modern college Hockey Bois au, explicit, m/m, sex pollen)

In Which James Willoby Enjoys a Ball Far More Than One Should (victorian, explicit, m/m, secret relationship)

Masquerade at Melchor (in the anthology He Bears the Cape of Stars) (science fiction, m/m/m, heist rivals to lovers)

The Musketeer’s Daughter: The Tale of Jacques Toussaint (in the anthology Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers” – coming to our webstore in January, 2024) (historical, f/m, trans musketeer, getting together)

The Offered Ones (fantasy, no ship, found family, children lost in the woods)

The Princess and the Maze (fantasy, no ship, fairy-tale vibe)

Princess Antonia del Montari aka The Accidental Barista (modern, f/f, coffee shop fluff)

Snowbound and Love Sick (modern college Hockey Bois au, explicit, m/m, snowed-in together)

The Tasty Crumpet (in the anthology Add Magic to Taste) (modern with magic, m/m, idiots to lovers)

[ghostie-jakxy-gray]

First off all the love to the above @witchyravenarts <3! Awesome person and awesome writer all around!!! (but also how dare you make me to pick a favorite fic of mine TT)

If I Haaaaave to pick favorites:

1. The Rat That Feeds The Rattlesnake (Hadestown x Content SMP)

Part of the larger Gut and Idyll series that Morgana mentioned above, but pretty self contained entry point to the main series; also one of the longest fics I've actually finished. I love it so so so much. Basically, Folly gets yoinked into Hadestown plot and she and Rat and Lux have to figure out if there's a way to be un-yoinked.

2. A Cultural Study of Akliss Burae and the Assumed Fears (original)

otherwise known as the fic that taught me ao3 hyperlinks lol; a mini little character-study I did on one of my OCs as part of their culture and race. Copious amounts of linguistic finnicky translation stuff for my conlang also included, but I like it a lot

3. Study Of A Body As A Haunted House (proprioception invents a mouth) (Arcane)

Part of my OC-gets-isekai'd series, and one that almost certainly won't be finished for a While, but I really like the way I go about detailing thought processes in here. Plot is- OC and Viktor share a body, have to get through the Arcane main plot in spite of this.

4. Gods With Many Faces (fractured and repaired) (original)

two gods who were broken by the universe and broke it in turn make friends and meet up in a tree. Idk man, I have my pantheon and I love them so much.

5. Why We Build The Wall (Hadestown x Three Houses [malloy] )

Currently writing this one, it's part of the prequel-era Gut n Idyll, and it has The Lesbians. It's also hopefully not gonna be seven billion k long, and doesn't need that much if any prior knowledge to hop in on. Also, it'll introduce you to some actually awesome musicals.

~

As for other people's fics? (aside from those already tagged - go read those as well, they're Fun with a capital F.)

1. Dreaming Of Sunshine (Naruto Self-insert)

Holy mother of hell, this one is long and glorious and technically still updating, and so good I read the whole thing twice despite basically never going on ff.net. Brilliant brilliant brilliant, and the recursive community on ao3 is just the funniest best people ever? Cannot recommend this enough.

2. May Death Never Stop You (JJK x MHA)

Once again an insanely long isekai but this time it's Gojo Satoru reincarnated as Todoroki Touya. I am only in one of these fandoms but goddang if it hasn't hooked me since the start. It's long and fulfilling and has the sweetest of politically-relevant romance and I love it so so damn much.

3. Safe Place (Detroit Become Human)

... or just in general anything by AsexualofSpades but this is a fav of mine. Don't be fooled by the title tho, it's prominently Hurt/Comfort. Just a sweet little tidbit on some fool androids getting traumatized by - and then untraumatized by - their dad.

4. For A Diamond Is A Marveled Thing (Steven Universe + others)

Genuinely the fic that most impacted how I write fanfiction. In that it is a Massive Sprawling Everything of a fic/series, weaving together anything and everything that can and should fit together, with some sections being small little poetic snippets of info and others being long plot-heavy things filled with triumphs and pitfalls and comedies and resolutions. It's permanently unfinished, but honestly I don't mind, the world created is cohesive enough it can stand alone.

5. A Twin Of Light (Dream SMP)

Best consumed in small bites. It's dark and awful in that cathartic way that I love so so much when I'm in the mood, and even when I'm not honestly. Basically the Streamers get yeeted into a realistic (for given measure of realistic) DSMP and have to con their way into not being killed. Follows the Fucker; but at this point I'm counting it as taking the character played in the internet-divorce to read fic of him. Anyway, there's something hypnotic about this fic. It's horrible for my mental health but I also want to curl up inside it and stay forever, exactly like the characters therein. Beautiful beautiful beautiful can't recommend enough, unless you are in any way not mentally prepared. (also it's a long mfer, but what of my favorites isn't)

Tagging:

@campfire-octopus @aoipuff @

... I genuinely don't remember which of y'all that I follow/follow me write fic, so anyone who sees this consider yourself welcome to join the bandwagon!

fic authors self rec! reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love!

thank you for tagging me @mangostarjam 🩷

is it casual now? (hinata shoyo)

notes: probably my favorite shoyo fic I've written, there's just so much of how I imagine him to be in this one and idk I just love the charming, flirty, kind, slightly possessive picture of him I painted here

surreal, but nice (miya osamu)

notes: I wrote it for bloomy's romcom collab and it was sooo much fun to put osamu in a notting hill setting! I still wanna write a part 2 really bad

like real people do (itoshi rin)

notes: I'm really happy with how the dialogue/dynamic in this one turned out, I got to balance sincere love, angst, complicated sibling relationships and hopefully gave rin a break lmao

et nunc et semper (aiku oliver)

notes: ancient rome au is so special to me! I also really love the dialogue, settings and dynamics in this one. I thought no one would be interested enough to read it but everyone has been so immensely nice

should've known better (rengoku kyojuro)

notes: hurt quite a lot of people with this one, sorry! I still adore it

rain is bad luck (shinazugawa sanemi)

notes: my first tumblr fic!!! also first fic I wrote in english :')

all eyes on you my magician (jjk various characters) (dark content)

notes: the secret history au my beloved!!! dark academia my most beloved!!!!! I love this one so much despite the heavy content, this fic probably has my favorite gojo

no pressure tags: any writer who wants to join + @strawberrystepmom, @nagumoan, @heavenlyakin, @tohruies, @lvmimis, @kweenkatsuki-fics, @gojoest, @yuujispinkhair, @ms0milk, @comatosebunny09, @chimielie

[biasto-bias]

Re: that "not reading wips feels anti-fanfiction to me" post -

I think it makes sense. I agree with the general idea - I think the point of transformative fandom is creating things together! Even writing fanfic in the first place is, in its own way, creating something together with the original writer.

But it made me think about why I don't, personally, read WIPs (in most circumstances). I've actually been thinking about it since I saw the post yesterday. Fair warning, this is a long introspective ramble about my fandom-related preferences, and may or may not interest you.

I know it's because reaching the end of a WIP bothers me and has a negative effect on my mood. (Of course, that's enough - I don't have to look into it more - but I get curious about my own psyche, so here we are!) I think that happens because commenting on strangers' WIPs - participating in the writing process that way - isn't enough of a collaborative thing for me.

I LOVE bouncing fanfic ideas back and forth in a Discord server or (previously, RIP) Twitter threads. I love making up stories with friends. "And then the blorbo suffers!" "Ooh, but what if their love interest suffers along with them?" "YES, and then they can comfort each other afterwards!"

I like that when I do that, the story isn't pinned down yet - it can go anywhere. And even if one of us writes a more traditional piece based on what we talked about, and posts it on AO3 or wherever - the other participant(s) in the conversation, or even some other random fandom member who woke up too late to participate or something (if the conversation wasn't in DMs), can write their own piece, with their own interpretation of the idea, and that's encouraged. Two cakes!

Now, I know that some people would absolutely love it if a stranger read their AO3-posted WIP and went "I couldn't bear that it was unfinished, so I wrote my own ending." I'm one of those people! But I also know that some people would take offense. And that doesn't feel the same, to me, as starting with a collaboration - it feels closer to writing fanfic of original fiction. (Which I obviously think is awesome, but it's a much more distant form of conversation.)

When I read a WIP, I know the author (usually/often) has an outline for the rest of the fic. They know exactly how they want the plot points to go, if not the details. There is an ending, most/a lot of the time - I just don't know what it is, because it's not written/posted yet. And that bothers me. I think it would actually bother me even more if there wasn't an ending yet, even in the author's head! I'm the sort of person who seeks out spoilers - I want to know how the story ends before I invest in it. I can't do that with a WIP.

But with fic-spitballing, often the ending is the first thing you come up with. Or the second. Or you have a vague idea, and then you decide on something else. In any case, you're not at risk of investing a bunch of energy into something that surprises you with a final ending you dislike. If you dislike the idea your conversation partner(s) have for the ending, you can just make your own.

And importantly, that ending is just as much a part of the quasi-fic as theirs is. You're not changing their story, you're just making a new branch of the idea. I think that's the thing, for me. If I read a WIP, I'll finish it in my head, and that ending will become the "real" ending to me - even if I read the creator's original ending later. And that bothers me.

When I come up with a fic idea that changes canon - maybe a Bad End, or a genderbend, or something silly - it comforts me that canon is still there, and I can't actually change or erase it. It'll always be the "real" story to me. The fic will always be the derivative.

I prefer writing love letters to canon, rather than hate mail - I used to be in the Destiel fandom (Supernatural is famous for screwing its Destiel viewers over); now, I'm in fandoms for canon M/M romance, and I'm much happier. I don't think either way of engaging with canon is objectively better, and I know some people prefer the hate-mail one and find more meaning in it, but I do know that the love-letter one is better for me.

So I avoid canons I know I'll be unsatisfied with. And I do the same with published fanfic. If I know I'll feel like "this story isn't enough, I want to fix it or finish it" - even if I'll also feel like "this is good, and it inspires me" - most of the time, I won't even start, because that feeling (and the way I deal with it, by making my own version, whether or not I write it down) frustrates me.

Fic-spitballing, on the other hand, feels more like just an idea. A beginning. It's not something to fix or finish - it's not supposed to be a real story yet. It's not supposed to be "enough" yet. It's the birth of a story, one you get to participate in. And that works better for me - creating stories from the start, instead of fixing or adding onto a story that already exists.

Anyway, WIPs are great. I hope the culture of posting WIPs and commenting on them as they're uploaded never dies down. I've posted some of my own WIPs before, and getting comments on each chapter was essential to my motivation for writing the next one! It's just not something I, personally, can healthily do for other people. I'll stick to the form of creating-things-together that works for me.

If you read all of that, and you have thoughts about your own preferences and participation in fandom, I'm super interested! Please feel free to reply or reblog with your own rambles. :D

[canariie]

Canariie! I don't entirely remember how (erm, or when) we first met (though I'm sure it was mutual participation in HitsuHina events) but I wanted to let you know I've had such a good time getting to know you better over 2022. I value having Writing Friends so much, and I love the way you talk about your stories--what you were going for, what inspired you, how the process went. Thank you so much for all of your support as well. <3

You mentioned in an AO3 comment that you loved the way HitsuHina fandom was building off one another and creating this hivelike fannish ecosystem together and I am 100% with you on that; it is my favorite, favorite thing. Looking forward to more/better/wackier in 2023! You are awesome! :)

Aww thank you Whipple for this kind message! It truly had made my day! Such a lovely surprise but something that I have gone back to reread again and again!

I have immensely appreciated getting to know you over 2022 in writing and interacting with other writers in the Bleach fandom but especially in our Hitsuhina corner :) Your writing has honestly inspired me in my own ideas and prompts that I have so many little plot snippets in my phone that excites me to explore and expand on the universe that you so eloquently write of! I think the way you capture the Bleach universe is so fresh and nuanced and adds a whole level of depth to what we already know :)

It has been extremely gratifying to see how we riff off each other from @rays-of-fire-and-ice coordinating events and her detailed headcanons of key moments missing from manga; to @alexiethymia's ability to analyze even the briefest of manga panels and create headcanons that just add so much more depth to canon material; @rainfestive's impeccable skill to convey gentleness and intimacy in her lovely drawings. And like you said, we are truly carving our own corner in the Kubo world and I absolutely love how the ideas we individually write to just even the smallest comment finds itself in other people's work--which just makes participating in the fandom so much more enjoyable! It's really become a special place <3

To be completely honest, I've taken a slight break from tumblr (not completely!) just because the end of last year with all my writing slightly burnt myself out! I didn't get to rest as much as I needed so it feels a little difficult to start writing again. But I assure you, that I will be back with some fics and I promise I'll open requests to celebrate my 100th reblog milestone!

Thank you again!

[felassan]

Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[atalienart]

I've been writing for almost 20 years now so I have tons of tips. Focus on what you want to write, even if it's just one scene that really, really sticks out to you. You can build up around that one scene later down the line. Do not be afraid to just put notes in if you can't figure out the words RIGHT NOW. Even if it's just "Idk he danced what more do you want from me" as a place holder, it's fine. Your drafts are for YOU and to help you build your story - no one will see them.

Oh! I ran out of space in my last ask, but my BIGGEST piece of advice is READ YOUR DIALOUGE OUT LOUD. Please. Read it out loud to yourself. Act it out if you have to, but it honestly helps to hear it spoken to make sure it sounds human or that it makes sense. Like I just read this ask out loud to myself to make sure it made sense.

--------

Thank you for the advice! :) I'm not sure if you mean to write a scene and build around it when you start putting a story together or when you're already in the middle of writing. If it's the first one I must admit that it's hard for me to start writing in the middle of the story, unless it's just a random idea that I plan to use later, but if not I need time to figure out where to start and go from there to be able to start writing the first draft. If it's the scene that appears during the process of creating then true for me too, there are scenes that must be written otherwise will keep your brain working for weeks xD

As for place holders, they don't work for me at all. For 206 pages I wrote I only have one, I marked it as XXX to easier find it and it still bothers me. I only leave names to come up with later, every time I don't know someone's name I just type "IMIĘ" but that's ok xD Otherwise I feel stressed that it could change the plot or character's personality too much if I don't figure it out right away. Or it would mean leaving all the tedious work for last and who wants that. I must admit that my draft is pretty clean. I know there's going to be a lot of editing but still, I don't want to leave plot holes and patch them later. I'm actually pretty impressed seeing people leave a lot of things to fill in later. How do you do this knowing the info you omit can significantly influence the plot? Sometimes I think writers' drafts look like my notes, when I hear someone changed direction of a plot or switched a character in the second or third chapter and just kept writing I'm like, how are you going to deal with it later? I would be so, sooo lost later, I'd cry and it would be chaos xD I guess your brain's bigger.

And reading dialogues! Absolutely agree! Of course without action tags and all that. And sometimes I read everything pretending I'm a book lector xD it helps catching weird bits. Also, text has its melody and reading out loud allows to notice the tempo, interpunction mistakes and awkward phrasing.

And wow 20 years of writing! That's so awesome :D

[carnal-lnstinct]

for the writers ask: 💖 ✨🫘 🦷 ?

💖 What is your primary writing goal for this year?

Finish DWD and Delicate.

✨What's one area of your writing that you think needs the least amount of improvement?

I like to ramble set up a story as if I can come back to it for more, so I guess the length of a fic? xD

🫘 Spill the beans. What's a new project you're doing this year?

More holiday events! If I space them out right. Bringing back Scourge of the Stars and Smutember, and I will be doing Kinkmas and something special for Spring season that's a little similar to VDay Event ♥ It's early in the year so if any other events come up, I may try them out if I like them. Also, I was inspired by actually chatting with some friends before about what I write it made me want to open up more about my writing process and things I wanna do with fanfics. But I couldn't really find any group chats I trusted at a glance or find anything for dbz fic writers (specifically spicy content 👀 but not entirely the premise). I really wanted to take the loneliness out of the writing process and create a space for other dbz writers to have the same. Somewhere to come together and chat, be weird together, bounce ideas, simp and gush over dbz f/o's, share their updates, writing events and fics to help boost traffic to their stories and generally support each other! But I am old and know nothing of discord anymore! so it's a "project" but very much still an idea. It was something I enjoyed in my RP groups that I really miss a lot and hope to find in others who share my love for reading and writing dbz fics ♥

🦷 Is there a chapter, scene, or WIP you're dreading to write (but is necessary to your plot)? Share a snippet or tell us about it!

So a looong time ago, I started working on a FINAL final chapter for Conton City Lockdown to play around with the soulmates/destiny trope and it got pushed deep, deep down in the WIP barrel. I said I would come back to and finish. But it got lengthy with JUST dialogue and now I kinda don't wanna fill in the blanks uwu so idk what to do with it but I don't wanna give it up either. Here is a Snippet w/ some context. The CCH essentially doesn't believe in destiny (despite literally being the one to save all of history), but she starts to ♥

TP: "Could you see yourself doing anything else with your life now? The Time patrol does kind of take over."

Goku: "I guess not anymore. Not knowing what I know now, anyways." "It makes me think a lot about the first time I saw you."

TP: "Stopping Mira? That was a pretty big win for the Time Patrol with your help."

Goku: "It was." "But that wasn't the first time I saw you."

TP: "..What?"

Goku: "Don't you remember? You fell out of the sky." "It was a miracle you came when you did. Ol' Raditz was really giving me and Piccolo a hard time, he really had us thinking on our toes and nothing we hit him with seemed to work. It looked like we were really done for. But then you suddenly appeared." "You saved me." "But I guess we undid that when Piccolo shot me."

TP, surprised: "..My special mission.." "My first time patrol for Supreme Kai of Time was to save you?"

Goku: "Really? That's pretty awesome!" "The first time Supreme Kai of Time came to me for help, she was sending me to help you with Mira. Isn't that something?"

TP: "Holy shit.."

Goku: “Yeah, I didn’t really remember too much about you until I saw you again. All I had was this vague memory of a strong warrior who helped me and Piccolo. I could remember your strength but nothing else. I wanted to see them again.” “Then I finally found you, fighting again, way stronger than you were back then. It all came clear. Knowing that we both had become stronger since then made me excited!”

WRITER GOAL ASK LIST FOR A NEW YEAR 🎉

[allthatsentimentalcandyfloss]

Self Love Retrospective

rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2021. tag as many creators as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

tagged by two most wonderful humans, @elwon and @bitterleafs ♡

so tell me to leave

It had been the first piece of a puzzle of accidental memories he’d made with Jason, each of them carefully tucked away in the corners of his mind for it to paint a picture with. Except fate had ripped the painting apart before he could ever hope to finish it, and now all Dick’s left with is an incomplete outline of a boy he used to know, sharp in places and blurry in others.

— i always tell everyone that self-indulgence makes for the best writing and art, and this was me practising what i preach. i wrote this story about rain, to the sound of the rain outside my window, and as an homage the role rain has always played in my creative process. also, the amazing @mlim8 brought this story to life with her beautiful, beautiful art and my darling @nerd-by-definition (who will forever be writing goals to me) inspired a little sequel that was also a joy to write.

put my finger on your tongue

“Fuck, Kon, this is so not how I planned for this to happen, it’s not how it’s supposed to happen, I’m sor—”

Kon shuts Tim up with another kiss, and this one’s nothing like the one from before. He’s grinning into it, bright and brazen, with one of his hands on either side of Tim’s face, kissing and licking his way into Tim’s mouth like he can’t get enough of the taste of him; of them, together. Tim feels himself go boneless, melting against and into Kon because this is all him, forever the reckless abandon to Tim’s meticulous planning; infuriating as all hell and yet nothing short of heart-stoppingly perfect.

“And when have you ‘n I ever done things the way we were supposed to do them, huh?” Kon asks with a wink, and places another gentle kiss on the tip of Tim’s nose.

— this story will always have a special place in my heart because it is the love child of @mlim8 and me and our many feelings about timkon. i also got to write some cynical, angsty, bisexual vampire!tim who desperately needs a hug and gets a one (and a little more) from his supportive kryptonian best friend, and i enjoyed that so much that i may just come back to this ‘verse one day.

between the neon lights and the moon

He doesn’t know if it’s Dick’s voice, so full of unspoken promise, or the unbearable softness in Dick’s eyes that renders him powerless to the words that follow, “We could just be us.”

“And what would we be doin’, just bein’ us, huh?” Jason finds himself asking, realising too late that it’s as good as giving in when Dick’s nervous smile turns radiant once more.

“I don’t know,” Dick breathes into the air between them, blazing eyes flicking to Jason’s mouth, “We can do anything. What happens in London stays in London, right?”

— a fanfic-shaped love letter to london, but first and foremost to my dear friend, the wonderfully talented @the-man-moth. this story is very much no plot just vibes, but i really poured my heart into it and i had so much fun writing all these little scenes of dick and jason exploring london as well as what they mean to each other.

no pressure tags for @elise-51-blog @ajsregrettabledecisions @thewaynemanner @rawrbin1 and @thedailylifeofafailedvodkaaunt (whose works i could not recommend more, they are all incredible writers!) ♡

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket Manga Review , ch 109

-The Tragedy of a an episodic format attempting to connect narrative in a series: (Tohru’s Background or Kyo’s Focus?)

One of my issues with se03, ep6 (other than it being 3 chapters combined horribly with new material added for shock value) is that it was weakly undecided who would be the focus? who would the narrative follow?: Is it tohru’s own pov abt herself? is it the gramps giving boring exposition abt tohru over weak still images of flashbacks or is kyo thinking abt tohru’s pain?

The truth is, it was all the above in the manga, but the manga gave each a chapter focus so that the chapter is well-directed with focused narrative. The anime weakly jumbled the 3 chapters together as they always do. You mix chapters & tada~ you got an ep, you only need a broad weak theme that connects the dots! here: it is tohru! & that’s it. As long as the 3 chapters discuss tohru in any form & manner, nothing will seem off if we put them next to each other in a 20 minute ep! right? riiiiiight ????

.. this was never a correct way. Just like a chapter needed a narrative direction, the ep is the same!!

ch 107: The beginning of tohru’s pov on her realization abt loving kyo.

ch108: tohru’s full pov of shock upon reaching the conclusion that she loves him & the beginning of her mom’s issues & abandonment.

ch109: Kyo’s pov abt tohru’s pain & his involvement, guil & the sheet hug.

ch110: (completely cut from the anime!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Kyoru’s part: the aftermath of kyo & tohru crossing the line of being in the most vulnerable & intimate, building towards a more crushing impact of the climax. The stronger & more painful their love is, the more it will hurt. Also a yuchi buildup?!!!!

-so, you see each chapter has a direction i& a narrative it follows independently that is weaved together to make a connected tissue of the overall plot. The anime puts the 3 chapters next to each other & we are lost on who to follow? kyo or tohru or the gramps. That’s why it feels tohru is weak & her two chapters worth of pov is stolen from her cuz it cut or shortened to include the grandpa, kyo, isuzu, shigure & let’s not forget (kazuma, yuki & haru) at the beginning, the dramatic shock value addition & OP & ED. All these take valuable screen time. The ep shocks us by moving from tohru to kyo. One minute she’s crying with him on the streets, next he’s at the grave & she’s visiting isuzu.

Kyo said he isn't going to the grave in the ep, upon seeing him actually going, I just assumed he wanted to avoid, hana, cuz I’m so invested in his story that I remember sth happened in se1, ep 14.. ages ago, The anime didn’t even allow kyo to inner talk abt avoiding hana... In their weird mind, kyo only inner talks in dramatic situations..See the difference!

Not only the writer (a) reminds us why kyo avoided the grave visit, she also (b) seized the opportunity to shine lifht onto an issue that will be the center of kyo’s struggles: Running away!

The anime introduce this in kyo’s pov only when kyo confronts tohru. Only when it was needed & couldnt be avoided. This is sth that will be the core of all the climax & the aftermath as well! Kyo running away.. How bad are you if you avoid inserting one line only that can be said in few seconds & establish great deal & foreshadow plenty!!!!!!!!!! I can’t for the life of my understand why short lines are cut from kyo when in the anime they have him be standing silent in the graveyard. Like slap the line above the silent scene!!!!! But doing so means the anime team understands tohru & kyo’s issues. They don’t. Not the slightest.

-Ep 6 signals the beginning of the anime moving from episodic format of se1, 2 & 5 eps of se3 & entering a connect plot. The anime doesn’t know how to do that & screwed tohru in the process. The protagonist’s main issues are one ep worth only. The antagonist main issues are one ep only (ep7).  Ep 6, was treated as a stand alone ep (minus the inserted shock scene to create a lingering issue that needs a following ep to explain. TOLD YOU they don’t know how to make a series!). Thus the following ep 7 is akito’s focus. Everything that was established in ep 6 was pit on hold until akito reaches the craziest mindset for the climax. See why ep 6 was so bad? it is Should NOT be a stand alone ep.

-The plot connects kyoru emotional & physically: (Kyo’s chapter with a tohru’s focus:

Unlike the anime, the chapter knows what it’s presenting 7 where it’s going. Kyo’s issues. This ch focuses on him uncovering parts of his past as it connects with tohru’s. Unlike the anime, we know why kyo's connection to kyoko’s past. The anime is hiding this for the climax, no problem, it can still work both ways. However, hiding kyoko /kyo connection doesn't necessarily mean hiding kyoko/tohru connection. But the anime is cutting this to milk it in an ova or series next year~ no problem,  it can still work if you handle this ep’s  flashback better. for all the artistic creativity they inserted in the added scene, they failed miserably in tohru’s flashback portion. how?

By choosing a frontal pov shot in tohru’s grandpa flashback as if the audience are the ones who abandoned tohru or opening the door to find her alone. it does NOT work at all. why? the audience are encouraged to be like tohru since ep 1 as tohru is the mother, angel, fixer & endearing hopeful girl. The audience will NEVER abandon tohru, that’s why tohru’s story felt disconnected & weak in the anime. Not knowing what kyoko did, who would abandon such child?! differently not us. so why use the frontal pov shot? -_-’

-tohru confesses her pain to kyo without being ushered by isuzu, without any outside factor. She simply visited the grave & came home. hiding her pain. once again. like she always do. One question by kyo, prompts her to “ complain a little” call back to se1, ep5 as he advised. we see tohru get out of her shell little by little. NOT SCREAM OR SLAP. She opened up. why? cuz the story is abt “ opening the lid” not abt “ snatching the lid”. No need for shocks. Yuki opened his lide slowly, tohru even slower, kyo is resisting opening his altho it is cracking in this chapter. When your story focuses on character buildup it pays!

-I’ll give the anime credit when it due. The hug scene is so good both in manga & anime. but so awesome in animation, colors, music & voice acting. It’s breathtaking & painful. The most beautiful kyoru scene in the whole anime.

-It represents their mutual vulnerability, understanding, pain & determination to love the other but not also let go. kyo has made his mind to be locked in order not to hurt tohru & tohru has made her mind that she can’t let go of her mom.

You see, the scene’s meaning hits different between manga & anime; In the anime: tohru has already challenged the sohmas & screamed to be with kyo, while kyo is still decided to leave her. In the manga: they’re both at the same spot (undecided). I like both interpretations but I’ll choose the manga’s version. Simply cuz it means tohru is still uncovering her issues which means more focus on her, & more explanation of why cant tohru love her mom & kyo at the same time.

-This expression on tohru’s face is a the complete opposite of the shock value expression in ep 6! T_T. I do’nt even hate the shocked scene addition itself that much, I just think (a) this is NOT its time! Tohru deserved better spotlight! (b) kyo didn’t friggen forget! ah! THIS I HATE! (c) the whole shocked scene was so wasted in ep 7. tohru return to her stupid dumb lalala~ land, cooking & forgetting kyo. what growth? what determination & screams to isuzu? what enduring kagura’s slaps? nope! just happy & cooking, lalala~ no one was freaking over her mom’s picture~ lalala~ & kyo just slept it over~ shhhh... its okay. he’ll forget again... see? totally wasted!

The anime knows nothing abt connected narrative! augh!

Side Notes:

We see kyo asking the gramps why he’s offering him info abt tohru which is so logical! XD. I love it.

I’ve read ch 110 & wanted to insert the kyoru scene in ch 110 here, & put yuchi alone in a different post, then I realized I’ll need to talk abt it again once I analyze yuki’s own expressions! XD. so, I’ll put all ch 110 together in one post. It kinda half written by now, so I’ll publish it very soon in two days time. I didn’t read ch 111 yet tho.

I hope ch 110 is the last I feel this much disappointments in furuba’s anime & by ch 11, it hopefully be be minor changes altho I doubt that cuz the manga needed to dwell into tohru’s mindset & the anime kinda stopped after ep 6. so, yup! more big changes coming!

The sheet hug is so brilliant in theory & application! so romantic & so endearing! love it so much! The anime did it so well, too!

I love kyo’s narration & pov cuz it’s so refreshing change from the anime where he rarely does!

I really wish they kept the kyoko abandoning tohru part in the anime... sigh~ it has nothing much to affect her story with katsuya. so it won’t ruin the spin off/ ova or whatever it’s called. 

I love the light focus on tohru in this chapter & how organic & natural it is opposed to how forced the plot seems in the anime....

[earlgreytea68]

Hi! I loved your post about fanfiction and “official” literature, it resonated with me on a multiple levels. I started reading fanfics at the age of 16, I guess, and never really stopped since, now I’m in my mid thirties. Sometimes I read more of it, sometimes I got sucked into the new novel by my fave author, but I always come back. Because reading fanfiction opened up multiple universes I could wander through endlessly, and never get bored. I switch fandoms, and every time I discover something unique and awesome. I can’t stop thinking about how many talented people are out there, I’m so grateful for all of you guys, and I hope you get all the love appreciation you really deserve. And also, having the amazing possibility to say how much in love with a certain work you are, or even discuss something about the plot or ask a question directly to the person who wrote it, maybe even in the process of creating the said story… I think it’s a very special privilege, we all should be grateful to have it. Bless you, and I mean it! Oh, and this bit about seeing all the reviews of hmt and aren’t able to read them, really got me in the feels. I totally understand how it must be tough for you at the moment, and I sincerely wish, that maybe later this year, around Halloween or with a cup of hot wine in your hand near the Christmas break, you’ll find yourself in the right mindset to read some of them, and enjoy it. I only got to see one of those on my dash, and reading through it made me happy and hopeful, I have a very slim chance to see them, and god knows how it will look like next year, but the sentiment is still there, this guys make me happy. I wish you a very nice and cozy fall season, stay safe 😊

Awwww this is a very sweet and lovely ask, thank you, anon.

I have a whole rant that I do elsewhere in my life about how fanfiction is its own genre, that's not confined to "work based on other people's creativity" but is, in fact, a type of story-telling that is based more heavily on characters and emotions than on plots. Once you find this genre, you might read outside of the genre every once in a while, but you go back to fic the way someone who likes mysteries gravitates toward mysteries. It doesn't actually matter the fandom, the storytelling vehicle remains the same.

And I agree, that we are so lucky how many of us want to share and create with each other in this space, and how we can all interact, in a way that published fiction really never seems to have. I've been a published author, and I missed desperately the community of fandom: the other writers whose stuff I could squee over, the readers who feel comfortable telling me what they loved, what they hope for, what confuses them, etc. All of that makes the stories we tell so much richer, because they are not the stories *we're* telling, but the stories we're *all* telling, together, in this vast interrelated tapestry, and that is how storytelling was in the very beginning of its history and I think it's actually what humans need storytelling to be (hence the enduring popularity of fic in the first place, the need for humans to engage with the stories they're being told instead of just being passive consumers of it). And sometimes I worry about fandom going away, about people thinking that this way of creating isn't worthwhile because it doesn't make them money, and it makes me sad because I think it is the BEST kind of creating and we should all be so lucky, as writers, to find people who want to love our characters so much that they chat with us about them. Like, that is the dream! It's just so incredible!

~~UNCONNECTED HMT BITTERNESS LOL~~

I really am trying to be A Bigger Person about the whole HMT thing but there is a vast gulf between "thing I know I should be able to get over" and "thing which irritates me every time it comes up" lol. I have tried really hard to just...be all happy about HMT, but in truth the effort of trying to force myself to be happy just ends up making me extra-resentful, and so it's better that I just...try to avoid HMT in the hope that maybe eventually, someday, I won't find it so annoying and will be able to think about it without wanting to cry lol. I mean, emotions just take time to work through and become more rational, and it has not been nearly enough time for me, in my trauma-exhausted pandemic state, with all the other stuff I'm also trying to emotionally manage right now. At one point I just realized that the whole HMT situation was taking up way more time and mental and emotional energy (and money) than Fall Out Boy honestly really deserved, considering they have no idea who I am and don't care about me lol. Anyway, I haven't broken up with Fall Out Boy, which is good, because I worried I might, but we definitely seem okay; I've just broken up with HMT. I am really, really, really pleased that the tour is almost over and maybe I can go back to following FOB social media again and maybe I can be more successful pretending this tour never happened lol. And probably eventually someday I'll forget all about why I was upset and it'll all be fine, as you say. I know that everyone else seemed to have a really lovely time at their concerts and I'm very glad that they did.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

(Accidental 150 Follower Special) IOTA's Top 10 Worst Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug (Part 1)

If you saw one of my earlier posts, an anon asked what my favorite and least favorite episodes of Miraculous Ladybug were. So, I decided to make a little list explaining the best and worst this show has to offer.

A few quick ground rules here. I'm not going to list any episodes I had previously talked about in some of my other posts. This includes “Kung Food”, “Animaestro”, “Syren”, “Reflekdoll”, “Chameleon”, and most of the episodes relating to Chloe's “damnation arc” that Astruc planned since he first created the character (“Despair Bear”, “Queen Wasp”, “Malediktator” and “Battle of the Miraculous”). Also, I'm not counting the specials, mainly because aren't listed as episodes, and because I don't want to talk about them.

Other than that, anything goes, so let's get things started with the worst list.

These are the Top 10 Worst Episodes of Miraculous Ladybug (in my personal opinion because your opinion is also valid)

#10: Stormy Weather 2

“Stormy Weather” was the very first episode of the show, and it really made a good impression on new viewers. So naturally, when it was announced that Stormy Weather would return, fans were excited. Then when the episode aired, Hawkmoth gave her even more powers, including the power to create a volcano big enough to potentially knock the planet out of orbit when it erupts. So Ladybug and Cat Noir have no choice but to stop the villain once again.

What does this plot lead to?

Yep, this episode is nothing more than a clip show. I understand that clip shows and bottle episodes are a necessary evil, but why would you set up something this awesome with a fan-favorite Akuma like Stormy Weather, and then not even bother to show it?

This episode is yet another attempt at showing that the show totally has character development. The whole reason Aurore is Akumatized into Stormy Weather again is because Chloe says that people can't change because Astruc (who was one of the four people writing this episode) is determined to make you hate this teenage girl more than the main villain of the show.

So of course, everyone spends most of the episode talking about how much they've changed, which is represented through clips of past episodes that do a horrible job at actually conveying any development.

According to Marinette, Adrien has “become a friend she can talk to about anything, except when it comes to her feelings for him”. Ah yes, you can tell they're friends by the fact that they barely hang out together, much less share a conversation because the writers are going to drag out the whole “Marinette stammering in front of Adrien” until they get tired of it. So basically, never.

All Alya and Nino talk about is how Ladybug helped them become a couple, and become superheroes, even though neither of those are actually related to character development. Though that is a fitting metaphor for the way both of their personalities have basically devolved to “the couple”.

Chloe talks about how nicer she's gotten, while footage of her doing awful things is played. I wonder who wrote that part in...

Even Ladybug and Cat Noir talk about how much they've grown and how stronger they've gotten, as opposed to focusing on STOPPING ANOTHER ICE AGE FROM HAPPENING. How can Hawkmoth even think this will get him the Miraculous? Yeah, sure I guess he can get them from the frozen corpses of our heroes, but what then? He still doomed humanity, and I don't think he can reverse the damage like Ladybug.

Towards the end, the clip show becomes slightly interesting, as Adrien mentions an unsigned card he got for Valentine's Day in “Dark Cupid”, and how similar the handwriting looks to Marinette's.

Does this lead to Adrien figuring out Marinette has feelings for him? Is the sky bright red? Both of these questions have the same answer.

Yeah, out of nowhere, Adrien just mentions Luka, who wasn't mentioned at all in this episode, and immediately thinks Marinette is in love with him. And that's how the episode ends.

I put this at the bottom of the list because I don't think it's completely fair to judge clip shows, but even some clip shows at least try to put in some effort and justify the clips, like what The Legend of Korra and some seasons of Power Rangers did. And the fact that the whole point of the episode is a poor excuse to claim that there's character development in the show only makes it even more infuriating.

Oh my God, this is only Number 10...

#9: Oblivio

While I already talked about “Cat Blanc”, this episode shares a similar theme as that episode: Giving viewers what they've wanted for three seasons, Marinette and Adrien finally learning each other's identity and starting a romantic relationship... only for the reset button to be once again slammed, making the entire episode pointless.

The only difference is that unlike in “Cat Blanc”, where there was an actual love confession that made sense, here, Marinette and Adrien find out the other's identity when they get their memories wiped by the Akuma of the week, Oblivio.

From then on, it's just fanservice. Instead of actually developing the relationship between Marinette and Adrien, the writers just decide to cram an entire episode worth of Adrienette content into a single episode just to tide fans over. Marinette and Adrien seriously fall in love despite only knowing each other for like, an hour at most. And the fact that the writers undo all the romantic progress of the episode makes it come across as pointless.

But the ending is what really cements this episode's spot on the list. As soon as Oblivio is defeated, Alya takes a picture of Ladybug and Cat Noir kissing without their consent and then rubs it in Ladybug's face.

Even though Ladybug doesn't know the circumstances (she has no memory of the events of the episode), this was still an invasion of her privacy, and she looks horrified by the picture that Alya is obviously going to post on her blog.

And of course, Cat Noir is more than happy to see it, ignoring how Ladybug feels and claims that they'd make a great couple. Because everyone knows good couples are formed by someone gaslighting the other into going out with them.

But wait, it gets better! In the next scene, we learn that Alya and Nino were akumatized into Oblivio... because they were caught in an embarrassing situation by their peers.

Alya: Remember when we visited Montparnasse Tower? Well, we went and hid to play Super Penguino, but Ms. Bustier caught us, and...

Nino: And you guys made fun of us for playing that game, saying it wasn't our age and all.

Alya: We were totally embarrassed at getting caught.

This was my thought process when I first heard Alya and Nino's explanation.

How can Alya claim to take a compromising picture of Ladybug, ignore how she feels, and not realize the similarity from when she and Nino were akumatized? This is what completely killed Alya for me in canon. This was the point where I couldn't care less if Marinette was friends with her or not. Sure, there are still fanfics, but those actually portray her with some kind of conscious. So to summarize, Fanon Alya is awesome, but I hope Canon Alya's 4G plan runs out.

This episode is just forgettable, but the ending made things worse. Apart from, I guess the action scenes and some funny jokes, this episode has no redeeming qualities. Like, literally the best thing to come from this episode was @miraculouscontent​‘s LadyBugOut AU, as it actually addressed the hypocrisy of Alya's character, among other problematic aspects of the show.

#8: Oni-Chan

Just a heads up, most of the episodes on this list are from Season 3. Just want to give you an idea of what to expect.

This episode is about Lila tricking Adrien into helping with her homework, when she is only doing it to get closer to Adrien. Marinette tries to spy on the two and stop Lila from hurting Adrien... even though she knows Adrien is aware that Lila is a liar, and is visibly uncomfortable around her.

And because the episode spends so much time on Marinette following Adrien and Lila, the buildup to Kagami getting akumatized is incredibly rushed. Seriously, she gets a single line of dialogue before she gets akumatized, and the motive is ridiculous too. Lila sends a picture of her forcing a kiss on Adrien, and Kagami immediately bursts into tears at the sight of it.

But wait, it gets better! When Kagami is akumatized into Oni-Chan (the writers know that's a term used for males in Japan, right?), she turns into a psycho hellbent on killing Lila because “Adrien doesn't deserve her”. Most of her dialogue is her saying how much she loves Adrien, making her come across as, for lack of a better word, a yandere.

This episode just destroys Kagami's character, making her as unlikable as Katie Killjoy in the process. If it wasn't for “Ikari Gozen” actually treating her like a human being (obviously Astruc's planned character development from the beginning), I'd completely hate her.

It also shows how much of an evil genius Lila is, as she has the brilliant idea to convince Oni-Chan to kill the only person capable of saving her from the Akuma's wrath. And this somehow gives Hawkmoth the idea to forge an alliance with Lila. It's also another reason why I believe in Darwinism.

This episode is low on the list because it does have a few redeeming qualities, like Lila facing consequences for lying, however brief they may be, and it has a great character moment with Adrien realizing on his own how terrible Lila really is, a far cry from what he was like in “Chameleon”.

Other than that, it's pretty bad, and still deserves a spot on this list.

#7: Antibug

HA! I said MOST of the episodes involving Chloe's “Damnation Arc” wouldn't be on this list, but not ALL OF THEM, so this one counts! Take that, convoluted rules I made up for some reason!

What was I talking about again? Oh right, “Antibug”. Oh crap, “Antibug”...

This is one of of several episodes in Miraculous Ladybug that really should have been a two-parter. It tries to be daring and includes two Akumas in one episode, but both of them are poorly executed.

An invisibly entity starts harassing Chloe, so Ladybug and Cat Noir start an investigation. It turns out to be Chloe's lackey Sabrina, who was akumatized after a falling out between the two. Well, I say “falling out” lightly, because what actually happened was that Chloe and Sabrina were cosplaying as Ladybug and Cat Noir, Chloe pretended to be the real deal while crashing an interview with Jagged Stone before Sabrina accidentally blew her cover, causing Chloe to be humiliated on TV and end her “friendship” with Sabrina.

Ladybug learns this from Chloe's butler, while Chloe never mentions the incident. So when Ladybug and Cat Noir engage the Akuma, Ladybug ignores Chloe's advice on where the corrupted object, naturally not trusting her judgment. And this is portrayed as a bad thing.

This episode is the start of a long-running trend in Miraculous Ladybug: Marinette needing to learn a lesson, while Adrien/Cat Noir is the one to help teach that lesson.

Chloe did nothing to help, only made things worse, and lied about why Sabrina got akumatized. It's kind of obvious why Ladybug wouldn't trust her word. The whole point of The Boy Who Cried Wolf wasn't to trust the liar after all.

But if that was all the episode did, it wouldn't be on the list, because now, the narrative wants to make the audience feel bad for Chloe before she gets akumatized into Antibug... who is just a lazy palette swap because new character models are expensive.

This part of the episode isn't nearly as bad as the first half, but like “Oni-Chan”, Chloe's akumatization is incredibly rushed, and we don't really get a chance to sympathize with her before she goes full Antibug.

Even Antibug herself isn't that interesting of a villain. The whole idea of an evil doppelganger is that they're a perfect match for the hero, but we only see Ladybug and Antibug fight for a few seconds, while Cat Noir does most of the fighting with her while Marinette's Kwami recharges. I like that Ladybug and Cat Noir show their teamwork to defeat Antibug, but I feel it would have been more interesting to see Ladybug and Antibug duke it out before Cat Noir helps turn the tide.

Again, this episode really needed to be a two-parter to better expand on the story presented here, because it had a really interesting premise. I'd personally read the version of “Antibug” in @justanotherpersonsuniverse​‘s “The Adventures of Panthera Noire” (an AU fanfic where shy girl Juleka gets the Cat Miraculous instead of Adrien). Not only does it have two separate chapters for Vanisher and Antibug, it also does a good job of setting Chloe on an actual redemption arc, unlike Astruc's “damnation arc”.

#6: The Puppeteer 2

As much as I've ragged on Adrien/Cat Noir in some of my other posts (and will continue to do so in this list), that doesn't mean I think Marinette has problems too, and this episode is a prime example.

Marinette and Adrien go to a wax statue museum with their friends (and Manon), but because of a poor choice of words by Nino, Adrien thinks that Marinette hates him. So he does something that everyone loves, practical jokes.

Adrien seriously thinks that pranking Marinette will improve her opinion of him. Even the prank is ridiculous, pretending to be a wax statue to make her laugh. And it leads to... Oh God... This is easily the contender for one of the worst moments in the entire show. Marinette goes up to the statue and... gets close to it. Yes, we, the audience know that this isn't a statue, but putting that aside, just look at what Marinette does to the “statue” (AUTHOR’S NOTE: I made a gif from the episode, but it wouldn’t go through, so I recommend you check out the episode and watch the statue scene for yourself if you don’t value your sanity). Even Adrien, as dense as he can be, is a little unsettled by what Marinette does.

If the scene was about Marinette talking about her feelings for Adrien, I'd be more lenient on it, but this? This is just uncomfortable to watch.

Even the dialogue makes Marinette sound incredibly creepy.

Marinette: Wow... it looks so... real. The wax is nearly as hot as skin. It even smells exactly like him...! Oh, beautiful statue of Adrien, your wax is so soft! Your yak hair is silky. Your eyes are so green. Oh, shall I be a statue, too! Everything would be so much easier. Why haven't we been molded together in the plaster of destiny? Marble to marble, wax lips against wax lips, entwined for eternity...

I think Gilbert Gottfried said it best.

This scene alone put this episode on the list, and the Akuma doesn't make it better. I really liked “The Puppeteer”, and I thought her ability to control past Akuma victims was incredibly fun to watch. And when she returns to take control of the wax statues of past Akumas they... don't use their powers (with the exception), and serve as cannon fodder for Ladybug and Cat Noir to plow through, making the return of the villain very underwhelming.

Even the end where Adrien tells Marinette that he is in love with someone and only sees her as a friend. This should devastate Marinette, but in the next scene, thanks to some fortune cookie nonsense from Tikki, she's still unsure about her relationship with Adrien, and that's how the episode ends. Seriously. Because just need to keep the status quo consistent, right? It's not like Marinette doubting her crush on Adrien and worrying that she's just wasted her time would have been interesting to see, right? Play that happy ending theme already!

Of all the episodes on this list, this is the one I was dreading talking about the most because of some of the moments here. And yet, there are still episodes that are worse than this one...

Here’s Part 2

[reyeslonestar]

an incomplete list of lone star fics that I love 5/?

this is mainly an opportunity for me to collect my favourite fics into a system that makes more sense to me, and spread a little love to the fabulous writers who create these amazing stories

fics containing explicit smut are marked with an *

lead me somewhere i've never been by terramous

TK didn’t realise he could miss carpet. That was until he stepped out onto the rink and his feet immediately started sliding. In a panic, he steadied himself by clinging to the wall of the rink.

💗

Marjan teaches TK how to roller skate. Or she tries to.

this one is great - a lovely insight into marjan and tk’s friendship as she tries to teach him about roller skating. also a great little bit of hurt/comfort at the end.

white noise, what an awful sound by @morganaspendragonss/hollyhobbit101

"Their unit is not on the grid. It’s like they have disappeared.”

If Grace says anything else after that, Carlos doesn’t catch it. A ringing erupts in his ears and he staggers, all the breath sucked out of him. TK’s missing. Not running late, not on his way; missing.

.

a 2.08 speculation fic

spec fic angst!!! oh this is so good I have reread it so many times. holly ties in so many dynamics and plot lines and does it so well and Carlos’ worry is delicious.

Love Me More Tomorrow Than You Do Today by @djdangerlove/DjDangerLove

"Carlos meets his gaze in the mirror, taking him all in and realizing with gut-wrenching clarity that every little thing he’d been annoyed by this week had been signs that something was wrong."

Or: TK struggles with the urge to use

this is such a lovely fic, I really like the angst in it, it feels plausible without being destructive to the dynamic, and I love the way it resolves. it ends up so soft, I love it.

if we lose the fight, your spirit will live through me by @trkstrnd/trxtr

Carlos knew the difference between “I will always come back to you” and “I will always fight to come back to you.”

or:

When tragedy strikes, Carlos is left with a ring around his finger and a family that he didn't know he had.

okay heavy heavy warning on this one for major character death. it is an incredible fic though, delving into the experience of grief and how you process it. be prepared to sob.

Maybe My Heart Needs to Break to be Sure by @officereyes/tiniestmite

“Carlos,” TK all but yells. Instead of the firm tone he had heard prior, it comes out more panicked.

It isn’t until Carlos whips his head back to the road following TK’s gaze that he sees the deer standing in the middle of their lane. Knowing it’s too late to slam on his breaks, Carlos panics and does the only thing he can to avoid hitting the live animal; he swerves, turning the steering wheel all the way to the right and crashing through the fence, into the trees off the side of the road.

~~

Or after the fiasco at the farmer's market, TK and Carlos don't exactly make it home.

ohh so many layers of angst in this one. a whump-ier edition of 2x04 with heavy emotions and broken bones. a rollercoaster of emotions for this awesome fic!

i’m gonna be the man that wakes up next to you by @howtosingit/howtosingit

“You’re cute when you're half asleep.”

*

TK Strand loves waking up next to his favorite person.

this one is so lovely and comforting to read - its the softest of fluffy fics to round out this rec. a wonderful insight into mornings with tk and Carlos and how they feel about one whole year together. 

[andromeda612]

Another exposed Lila prompt

Lila outed herself by telling the wrong lie, to the wrong people in front of the wrong witnesses

Before Ladybug (in this timeline the episode never happens) Adrien is in a photo-shoot just because. And if you saw some of my posts you can say that I’m very in love with Marcaniel, so of course I have to put my OTP somehow here. 

-So Lila is a narcissist so is obvious she doesn't pay much attention to anything but herself, unless is for her favor (like what would be interesting for her classmates, or if they are being fooled by her) but is not like she makes her research (the Jagged’s kitten for kwami sake), so of curse she knows Nathaniel makes a very famous comic book about Paris heroes with the help of a black haired boy, Marc was his name if she can remember of every time someone talks about them or their stupid comic (ugh is annoying) but she doesn't know that the pretty same boys have a blog named "Creations" but different from their comic in which they sign with their real names, in the blog they use a pseudonym (Pen Magician for Nath and Arc-en-ciel for Marc) despite that everybody that is fan of their comic knows about this 'cause they told this in one of their comics when they first created the blog. (And both their classes know because every one of their friends and classmates read their comic)

The blog is for their original creations, other fanfiction and for commissions (of art, comics, or stories) and a way to interact with their fans. They were already very famous for the comic but the blog is threefold successful, Marc' stories are awesome and Nath's draws too, let's not talk about their combined projects. Also they have lots of commissions, and the fans are very happy to interact a little more with their favorites comic creators. They also caught the attention of people like Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale (Marinette may or may not had talked about the comic or the blog with them, but once they saw it they loved it) so they are very popular ;)

-So obviously Lila can't help but want to lie about knowing the creators (their official name when talked about both of them) she would be so famous! Maybe she can get Alya to interview her again, the journalist is also a fan.

-So she does, one morning to the art gang (the more excited about the blog) and in front of the rest of the class (who also like said blog), and backfires horrible since every time she talks she just dig her grave even more, like she says that Arc-en-ciel is a cute girl (because is obvious Nathaniel has something for the writer so saying that she could totally set them up would win her some points).

-But is common knowledge that Marc, sweet and patient Marc, HATES when people thinks he is a girl. He is aware of his androgynous factions, but is how he was born is not his fault and he is a boy damn it! Is of the few things that can make him really angry.

-Is also common knowledge that the only thing worse than telling Marc he is a girl, is telling that Marc is a girl in front of his PROTECTIVE BOYFRIEND NATHANIEL, his equally protective best friend Alix, and his too protective cousin Marinette (is a luck that she is late, because otherwise Lila would be in even more trouble).

First red blag

-And everybody knows the comic duo have been dating for MONTHS, they aren’t even subtle about it! Whoever seems them can see how much in love with each other they are! (Is too cute that is almost painful, even Alix cooed at them even if she denies it later)

Second red flag

-Also she would say that Pen Magician is a cool Lycee boy, maybe Arc-en-ciel’s old brother, and that he is totally infatuated with her. (Because an older boy interested in her? Adrien would be so jealous!)

Another red flag

-Nathaniel is their classmate and again he is dating Marc.

And the class is in shock because Lila is lying in their faces! HOLLY SHIT! Marinette was right!! If she is lying about this, what else was a lie?

And then she makes a comment that snap some of them out of their shock (the art gang)

-She says that she is the illustrator’s muse and she actually helped the writer with several of “her” stories, she also came up with the plot of their most popular comics! She actually was the one to encourage them to create the blog in the first place. She even help to make it.

-NOP, they all (the art gang) know that Marc and Nathaniel work TOGETHER and ALONE, if someone gives them an idea they would ask to use it and give credits. They know how much effort and love Marc puts in his stories and Nathaniel in his drawings, they also know the double love and effort they put in their combined projects, the care, passion, the joy and all the hard work they put in their comics and blog to be where they are. And Lila is taking the credit of that!

-They also know that it was their editor who came up with the idea of the blog, and were Alya and Max the ones who help them to create it.

The final flag

-Finally the rest of the class finish to process the shock and confront her. Lila doesn’t know what went wrong. She tried to lie her way out of this but to no avail, nobody believes her anymore, and there is no sympathy, just angry glares and disgust.

-When Marinette finally shows up is to see her classmate staring at their phones, some are frowning, Rose is at the edge of tears, Alix looks ready to hit someone, Nathaniel is sitting with Ivan and Lila is alone and fuming in her seat.

-When the class acknowledge her presence they immediately jump from their seats and apologize to her, for not listened to her and for being harsh to her for a liar.

-She forgives them, after all they were good friends, after Chameleon they never treat her bad and everybody makes mistakes, is not a crime to be fooled and manipulated.

-She ask them how they find out though.

-“Oh, she just told the wrong lie, to the wrong people in front of the wrong witnesses”

And just to know, Lila knows that somehow she was exposed but she can’t tell why she just know it has to do with that damn blog! And the stupid creators, the class won’t tell her anything. “Let the liar make her research for once”

Bonus: since Lila is exposed they eventually find out about her truancy, and she is punished. Also since Adrien still doesn’t know the extent of Lila’s danger is the class who explain him that his high road in real life is actually an awful advice, after he finds out what happened, the class also finds out that he knew, they confront him about it and when he explains his motives they understand that the boy didn’t knew better (Gabriel’s fault probably) and maybe Nino and Alya explain him the reality of the situation, he understands and apologize to Marinette for his bad advice.  

Now, you can change the lies she tells about the creators or the blog, you can actually change the thing she lies about, I have this same idea, but instead of lying about the blog she lies about knowing Marc, and the art gang already knows she is a liar. You can add some salt if you want. I don’t know if this count like salt, because she is exposed but since this is before Ladybug she didn't do anything too bad... yet. And as I say in one post before, when I’m writing salt/bashing is focused just in Lila, but is up to you if you want to be more salty. 

[petekaos]

2020 creator wrap + a follow forever

rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

hiii hello everyone! sorry it’s taken me so long to get on this BUT it’s all for good reason! i thought i would combine this post into me sharing some of the works i am most proud of this year as well as spreading more love in this wonderful little community because i truly love you all tons and being a part of such a lovely group of people has made me beyond happy this year. it’s been a difficult year for all of us and i’m just so glad that i can give back the love and care y’all can give to me 💛

onward to spreading love to people who tagged me, in no particular order! thank you all for tagging me, it means so much and know that i have read through your posts at least twice with a smile on my face.

@wjmild: kylie!! you constantly surprise me with how kind and insightful you are, as well as your dedication to watching absolutely every show with lee thanat in it. you are so smart and educated and every time you talk about your research and your studies i can’t help but feel so incredibly proud of you. i really hope life brings you the peace and fulfillment you deserve. i love you!

@gigiesarocha: cata - it is always such a pleasure to see you on my dash. i can rely on you losing your shit over ingredients every two weeks and every time i see jeff doing things it 100% reminds me of you! you possess such a kind soul and i’m so glad to have had the pleasure of following you this year :’)

@yihwas: sometimes i still can’t believe you know who i am and that we’re grouped together, soph! your blog is such a refuge to me, i adore scrolling through your replies and laughing at all the witty things you say. you are simply so kind and thoughtful in your responses and criticism and you have such talent in gifmaking! i am forever grateful to you for introducing me to new lakorns and to you and shannon for creating @lakornladies​. 

@morksuns: sumaya! my url twin! i absolutely love seeing you on the dash, it really is that trans desi solidarity, no? your moodboards are always so aesthetic and your blog is so soft and calm. i see you sending such lovely asks to people, including myself, and i truly admire your personality so much!

@gayvlad: nico, my sibling! i love you so much and seeing you on the dash always makes me smile. sometimes you’re too hard on yourself, but that’s okay, because i’m always here for you. i loved your reactions to dbk in live time, and that you’re now as attached to the show as i am. we love a lot of the same things, and i’ll forever be grateful to you for indulging my headcanons and developing them with me, like the ram and bohn friendship. the ram fic of him finding the gym as a home was developed through much of your influence, and i’ll never stop being astonished at how kind and supportive you are. i love you! 

@khaotungthanawat: saaaam! your gifs are always a beauty to behold. i admire you so much for making those bl compilation gifsets because that takes so much patience and dedication, especially to find all the moments. i can always count on you for underrated gifsets, too, and i smile every time you send me an ask!

@tanwirapong: roa! oh i adored getting to know you better this year through the gifted gays gc. i remember still when you made a post about there’s an art to honesty and it truly made my day - i sent it to my partner and best friend and they were so fond as well! i will always be so happy about the fact that we both lose it over petekao every now and again, it means the world to me :’)

@emisfritish: your wisdom and way of expressing your thoughts will never fail to amaze me, emma. i can always count on you for calling things like they are and writing out well-worded, thought-provoking posts that express everything i have ever thought about fandom but could never quite write down. it’s such a pleasure seeing you on my dash and honestly, whenever i see tay, he reminds me of you!

so that was everyone who tagged me, for which i am eternally grateful! (if i missed anyone... i am so sorry ily...) now onto me rambling about how much i love specific people in the fandom generally that i haven’t already mentioned.

@earthfluuke: maddie... where do i even start. getting to know you this year means the absolute world to me and i love how many thoughts we can share together and how many aus and ideas we can plot out to the finest detail, but i also love how we can talk about serious topics and irl issues affecting us both and know that the other person will be there. i admire you so much for going on and persevering despite the many difficult factors in your life right now. know that i will always be there - to listen to you, to support your gifs and fics, to develop characters with you, to weigh in on problems or ideas you have. i love you!

@asianmelodrama: faiza!! i can never address you without immediately adding ‘jaan’ after it honestly. you are a sister to me in all things and knowing you has been such an honour. your wise words, your calmness in dealing with things, your infectious excitement - they are all facets of your personality that i both admire and adore. whether it’s getting angry about shitty muslim rep or freaking out about a movie, i know that i can always count on you to be there for me if i ever need it. i hope light and love touches your life always, and you find peace in everything you do. if i ever happen to be in england, i am definitely coming over for your chai :’) i love you!

@yioh: yura my laddoo! i say this all the time, but i simply am so grateful that we met. i love seeing your tags on my posts and i just... adore seeing you doing your thing on your blog, your posts always make me smile. i know school is hard right now, but know that i’m always rooting for you and believe in you completely. words cannot express how happy i am to have found another tamil lgbt person who can understand the same experiences, it really does mean everything to me. and know that i will begin reading tyk soon, i promise, and i’ll tell you all about my thoughts! i love youuu!

@1akorn: shannon!! i still cannot believe people group us together because i’ve always admired you from a distance - imagine my absolute surprise when i found out that you followed me! i 100% rely on you for the good mek content and love your gifs so much. you’re so articulate and speak your thoughts incredibly well, which i truly admire.

@brightwin: jelly - you already know the amount of love and fondness i hold for you. you’re such a kind and bubbly person and your personality shines not only through your tags and responses to people, but also through your gorgeous gifsets that are just so warm and lovely. i can always rely on you to give me updates on all things related to brightwin and 2gether. you’re wonderful!

@yibobibo: aamna! i know i can always get my yibo content from you, and i adore it. i love seeing updates about your bunnies and your kind responses to your anons, you truly are a ray of light! you’re also one of the fairly concentrated cql blogs i follow - and for that i am always grateful.

@metawwin: ali! your gorgeous gifs are always such a light on my dash. i remember once you called me ‘rahulito’ and it made me so soft. your voice and songs are so lovely and i don’t even know where to begin thanking you for sharing your art with us. i know it means a lot to me, and it means the same to many others.

@taytawan: nuriaaa! i remember seeing you so often in the petekao tag and i gotta say that your sets of both petekao and sarawatine, especially the heart eyes series, always make me so soft. and of course, the fact that you gifted me this wonderful url! i will always be thankful for that and for your general kindness and warmth that you bestow upon everyone.

@piningbisexuals: axelle! although we don’t talk that much, i always love seeing your gifs and your thoughts on shows on the dash. i’m wishing you all the best with your thai classes and hope that everything goes well with you! also, you should know that i read that manboss fic you gifted to me at least once a week because it just means that much to me - and i’m so glad i got you into this little silly ship of mine. 

@sunsetchimyeon: nene, my pk anon! i love seeing your asks in my inbox and writing essays as replies. having conversations with you was one of my absolute highlights and i’ll always be blown away by how kind and calm and supportive and patient you are! i hope life is treating you well, my friend.

@toptaps: zey!! oh i love seeing your gifs and kindness on my dash and know that whenever i see toptap in anything, he always reminds me of you! also your gifs of sammy? absolutely gorgeous!

@giftedgays: i love you all SO much it is truly insane. being part of our tumblr gc that evolved into a discord server with a thousand channels has been one of my 2020 highlights. i loved yelling with you all about tgg every week and i must thank you all for sitting through my chanonpom breakdowns every second day. 

in particular: 

@pangwave - dawnie, i love you! i admire you and your no bullshit attitude so much. i know you’re going through a process of change right now, and i could not be prouder of you for persevering through it, regardless of the painful and strange circumstances we find ourselves in. i have full faith in you, and i know that you got this. we’re all here for you! 

@doctorbahnjit: - alexa! i still remember when you wrote the first manboss fic and an anon sent me a link regarding it. you are genuinely one of the funniest people i know and you deserve the absolute world. i read out of the blue every day, no kidding, because it means so much to me! thank you for being my fellow chanonpomer, my fellow manboss-er, and just being an all around ray of absolute sunshine.

@gunatps: vee! i have already embarrassed myself enough in my post to you but it’s worth repeating. i adore our eden chanonpom breakdown sessions, which we should have again soon when you have time, and i love us roasting modi in the chat, it truly cracks me up! we have so much in common and i just want to say that i am so proud of you for studying and taking your exams - i know how difficult they are. 

@wavelovespang: cass!! how i adore your analyses and breakdowns of scenes and relationships, you have so much insight and wisdom that you spread in such thoughtful ways! you’re so supportive and kind and such a great teacher, i know that. your writing is so wonderful and i’m truly so honoured that we all get to read it, it’s a gift!

@class2clown: angel! i cannot say this enough but i admire your art so much, it’s so so beautiful! you’ve always been so kind and lovely, and just like with cass, thank you so much for organising the gifted week events! although i couldn’t properly partake this year because of time constraints, i loved seeing everyone’s creations and it was super thoughtful.

@soulmatelines: i’ve said this before, jo, but it must be said again: i cannot believe you thought i was cool. i’ve always adored your gifs from afar and you’re such a sweet person! i love love love talking with you in the kpop channel (even if you personally hate 3racha smh), and you truly do bear the novel agenda! i’ve learned about so many more novels i must read and for that i am so grateful :’) 

@billkinpp: violet, i will never fail to crack up at a) your and kylie’s plans to run away and get married, and b) you having a thousand sideblogs and complimenting yourself on your own gifs in the tags, as you absolutely should! i hope the next year is kind to you and that your sleep schedule isn’t too fucked up :’)

@vihokratanas: mel, i will always be in complete awe of your gifs! they are always so clean and crisp. i remember still when you were fondestphan and my phannie days flashed in front of my eyes fhsnfg but either way, you’re so kind and sweet! 

@pvrrish: eleni!! i don’t think i’ve ever told you this before but i’ve always loved the 2gether poster that you made, i sometimes go on your blog to look at it for like 5 minutes, it’s truly so beautiful! i hope you’ve had an okay year, all things considered, and that life is kind to you!

@lee-thanat: another leesbian, ke! y’all always crack me up in the lesbians for lee thanat channel truly. your simping for ms ladda is so valid, i miss her so much honestly. i hope that the coming year is kind to you, and that you find the peace you deserve!

okay, so i think that’s everyone that i either talk to regularly or admire a lot! in case i didn’t mention you, please please feel free to reach out to me because i mean no offense at all - my brain is small haha. would also like to shout out all my anons who send me asks and bear with my late responses these days because of life, i adore you all and i love answering your asks.

if you’re still reading after this... whole monster of a post, i’m just gonna quickly mention some things i’ve been proud of either writing or making this year. in no particular order:

1. my weary heart has come to rest in yours. this is a fic i wrote in an... interesting headspace, and i was really going through my chanonpom feelings at the time. i’m really proud of how it came out and i adored writing chanon through pom’s pov. also i kinda love how i tied in p’bird’s song prip dtah in with the fic because i adore the song and it fits so well with them.

2. petekao week 2020. i guess this is sort of cheating, because these are technically 7 fics, BUT. i am actually proud of myself for writing seven, and i think they’re all of fairly good quality. i just really love this little universe i created for the dbk characters after the show and this whole week was just so warm and lovely to be a part of.

3. this set of num and prang from a gift for whom you hate. this moment really stuck with me from the finale and i actually am really proud of the colouring and how it came out! i think the blues really popped and i managed to lighten this dark ass scene without whitewashing mek or aye. the fireworks gif also is one of my favourites i’ve made! num and prang’s whole relationship was so pure throughout the entirety of this show, i adored them. 

4. but love is impossible and it goes on despite the impossible. this is the longest fic i’ve posted so far and i’m super proud of it - it’s also my most well-received fic. the yunmeng brothers mean the world to me and i just... wanted to write about jiang cheng and his love for his brother and give them a somewhat happy ending, in one future at least.

5. there’s an art to honesty. i think i really nailed my version of kao in this work! i just really loved writing this fic so much, especially because it was right after the whole ‘scandal’ with new happened. i was really just finding a way to separate kao from him, and i delved into my feelings with this fic as well, because i relate to kao in multiple ways. either way, i thought writing this fic was fun and a lot of people loved it too, which made me so soft!

if you’ve read this far, i personally adore you! while this has been a difficult year, i am blessed to have been part of this loving community, and i really hope that next year will be kinder to us all and give us good shows and discussions! i love you all. stay safe and stay kind, friends 💛

[on-a-lucky-tide]

I got tagged by @in-love-with-writing002. Thank you, lovely.

I debated doing this because of overwhelming imposter syndrome in the face of some very good writers doing it (and a comment on a work this morning that left me feeling crappy), but you know what? Yeah, I’m quite proud. I’ve written a million words since January. Here are my favourite couple of k.

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

1. Piece Me Back Together, Dear Heart (102k)

This is possibly the most well-known work of mine (I say that, there are thousands of people in this fandom, so it’s a niche). It’s a post canon “fix-it” - but not really - where Jaskier travels with Eskel after breaking up with Geralt. Geralt dies early and comes back thirteen chapters later (via game canon). I really wanted to build a realistic, loving polyamorous relationship that felt... well, real. I really enjoyed writing the series and I still have two more parts planned out to finish it off - one set in Hearts of Stone, the other in Blood and Wine. It’ll follow the trend of filling in gaps around the main three characters, and weaving/warping game events. I’ve learned a lot more about lore - and the Witcher in general - since writing Dear Heart, but still I’m pretty proud of it.

2. If These Scars Could Speak (100k)

Modern AU study of the abandonment of heroes once they’ve stopped being “useful”. I drew on a lot of the themes for the Witcher and tweaked the characterisations for amusement - i.e. Lambert is the best cook out of all of them, haha - but worked hard to stay true to who the characters were at their core. It started in response to media using the “hero” rhetoric for people being forced onto the frontline of the COVID-19 crisis. Not because they’re not, but because people used it almost as an excuse to not give them proper protection, or look after them in any way. “That shop worker hasn’t been given a mask... that nurse is working sixteen hours without PPE...” Oh, but they’re heroes. To be a hero, you’re meant to sacrifice and then when you’re sick, or unable to do ‘heroic’ things anymore, you get abandoned. That sucks. So yeah, that work took me a while to get my head around.

3. Petrichor (93k)

It’s A/B/O time. It’s light touch as all hell (it was my first look at the trope, and there were lots of bits that I was not okay with). It was the first big thing I wrote. It’s fluffy and full of love. Jaskier, Eskel and Geralt get married. They retire to Corvo. They sing, they dance, there’s a lil’ bit of angst. It was just fun to write, okay?

4. Cabinet of Curioisities (151k)

My collaboration with @round--robin! It started off as “hey, what if we look at some of the unpleasant parts of Jaskier and whack it up to twelve?” It then grew a plot, became 150k words, spawned the Vipurr (Letho/Gaetan) ship and made her love Letho (mwahaha). It was really good fun, and I learned a lot about someone else’s writing process, and a bit about what I could do better to improve.

5. Sonnet X (20k)

The first one. I’d never been part of a fandom before, or written anything for public consumption. My friend read it through for me. I was so nervous posting it, but I’m glad I did. It was pure Geraskier too! It was a very blatant study of grief/depression and what it does not just to the person suffering, but also the collateral damage to those around them. Geralt is literally almost consumed by the poison from the monster, which is spawned from the grief of a mother who has suffered the most harrowing loss. I was still dealing with a loss in my own family and it was damn cathartic - low and behold, a coping mechanism is born.

I tag: @cylin-aka-ankamo; @round--robin; @goldandlights; @tumbleweedtech; @stardustlupin.

[felassan]

Highlights and insights from the MELE launch cast & crew reunion panel

[rewatch link] [highlights & insights from the N7 Day 2020 reunion]

In case a text format is better for anyone (in terms of accessibility for example). Cut for length.

Some paraphrasing.

If anyone’s interested in just the line-reading session, it starts at timestamp ~1:04:45.

In addition to the cast and crew from the N7 Day reunion, at this reunion also in attendance were: 

Mac Walters (Project Director for MELE, Lead Writer of the og MET)

Melanie Faulknor (Lead Producer for MELE)

Crystal McCord (Producer for MELE)

Fred Tatasciore (Saren)

Seth Green (Joker)

Kimberly Brooks (Ash)

Ash Sroka (Tali)

This was the biggest reunion / meetup of the cast so far, and some of the cast and crew were meeting for the first time here.

It’s been so long since the og MET that PW & KW are getting to watch their kids experience playing it for the first time

JHale doesn’t play but since MELE she’s been sneaking around Twitch jumping into peoples’ MELE livestreams to lurk, watch and comment a bit

What drew Seth to the character of Joker? The whole concept of the game. He likes games and MET’s mechanics (different trees of adventure, stacking reputation, choices carrying between games) at the time were the most sophisticated that he’d ever heard pitched. He thought this was new and exciting and wanted to be a part of it. For the character they cast him based on his personality traits (i.e. he sounds quite similar to Joker personality-wise)

Would Seth ever want to play Joker again if the opportunity presented itself? Sure, he loves the character, and if the writers ever had more things to explore/expand with Joker he’d be down for it. 

Seth said that it’s a different kind of fan that approach him about this project. The fans have spent many many hours in an intimate exchange with “him” that he hasn’t been a part of, but they experienced it nonetheless. “I’ve hugged a lot of strangers, you know what I’m saying? It’s great, you get an interaction with fans that you never get as a performer in any other experience”

Seth has been a space guy since he was little, it inspires him

With the state of the world the way it is now [covid, masks etc], does Ash think Tali’s story will be more impactful now than it was before? Ash hopes so, and that anything they do here will have a positive impact on a bigger level. Ultimately that’s why most of them do what they do, they want to reach people in deep ways. She hopes Tali is an inspiration in courage, bravery, standing up for what’s right and thinking about the greater good

The [MELE I think] dev team had a last team meeting with Greg Zeschuk, one of the founders of BioWare, who they had invited to it. He was regaling them with stories of the inception of Mass Effect. “You would imagine this sort of well-laid out, drawing boards everywhere... [but] it was basically just a napkin sketch in a Greek taverna with him and Casey going ‘We wanna do a space opera’, and then it took off”

The process of creating lore through development is very organic. A lot of it comes from character and story development. It builds up over the course of the game’s development. They did the codex entries at the end, the idea being that if they saved them for as late as they could, then they could pull from the story, characters and meaningful moments, and build them from there

PW wrote a bunch of the codex entries, elevator banter & lots of little bits of lore. They describe their time on the og MET as being a “baby writer”. They originally came in after Mac had back surgery and a junior writer was needed to fill in. “It was really fun, it was us sitting in a room together going ‘What do you think a hanar or a krogan thinks about this or that’?” For a first project for them this was an amazing experience - the world building itself creatively with all these awesome people

They tried to add multiplayer in every game but only got it to work in ME3

They had a lot of plots laid out in ME1 that they called “global plots”. These were outside the core critical path and would take players from planet to planet, and were sprawling stories. They pulled out a lot of really interesting concepts and ideas from these that did make it into the game, but all of the global plots ended up getting cut due to time. Mac still has old diagrams and spreadsheets which detailed how all of these would have come together

Q. If you all had to take a long-distance road-trip with two squadmates, who would you take and why? PW: “Jack and Mordin. Mordin because the drive would never lack for things to talk about at length quickly, Jack because you know you wouldn’t pay for the room. You wouldn’t know how you’d get the room, but you wouldn’t be paying for it.” Courtenay: “I’d take Mordin because there’d be singing, and FemShep just to have this thing - happen. In the room that I get for free.” JHale at this point fistpumped while saying “Yeess” [then I think what she said was “steaming hot”]

Seeing as asari are long-lived, how open is Ali to one day reprising her role as Liara? “She’s a character very close to my heart, it was such a great opportunity. In some games that we work on the character has already been created or voiced by someone else, but this was really a group effort. When I first went into the booth, the only thing I’d seen of her was a sort of like, rendering, and we slowly kind of came to her voice and presence. I would love to bring Liara back any time... hey, she can live a really long time guys. :D”

Caroline and people who do what she does (Creative Performance Director) are so critical to the quality of games. Caroline: “This group of people are extraordinary. We were lucky to have such an extraordinary cast. Every [recording] session was new and challenging. It was a labor of love. I’m tearing up right now thinking about it. I’m remembering my last session with Jen, she was the last session, just sobbing and sobbing”. When JHale was trying to say the lines of Shepard’s goodbye with Garrus, a line hit her like a tonne of bricks and she was in tears and was like “Shepard does not cry”. “It took me a second, I got it out and took another run at it, it was in there but stuffed down as it should have been, and I finished the line [and there was silence in the booth when usually Caroline would have been talking to give direction or instruction] Did we lose her? Did Skype crash?” and it transpired that what had happened was that Caroline was in floods of tears

ME was the first time Keythe had ever come across branching dialogue. “Normally when we work on a script and it’s from page 1 to 100. In this it was get to page 5, then go back to page 2 and play it a little differently. The skill and the fun and joy of it was to be able to go back and play a scene in a different way, with different writing, with different outcomes. This was not only a challenge but a real treat. So to all the writers who dreamed up how this build-your-own-adventure plays out, you have my undying respect. It was a real pleasure”

VEDA is a proprietary system that BW use to record the dialogue, which is the closest way of having it feel like having people in the booth together (it’s all digital and VAs get to hear the line someone else has done in that scene). Caroline really pushed for this because of the amount of time etc that was wasted due to lack of this sort of thing on ME1. William: “It was a god send for me, thank you, getting to hear a cue from Jen or Mark.” Ali: “Us being able to bounce off each other helps make it more real. This for me was the most real acting experience on a game I had ever had - the writing being so good, Caroline helping us through, being able to hear each other.” JHale was always early coming in to record relative to the others so only got to use VEDA a few times - a bit of Liara content and the scene with Anderson towards the end. “Those two times, oh my god it was amazing”. VEDA being a thing also helps from a scheduling standpoint

Seth and Tricia Helfer (EDI) only got to be in the booth actually together 1 time, to record/shoot a piece of promotional video. “We actually got to record a scene together and we were like ‘oh my god this is the best thing ever’. It was great, even though I had to stand on a stool. She’s the best”

Seth: “As an actor, the kind of opportunity to do this kind of material in games just didn’t exist.” Fred: “Oh, never! I had never had a villain part that was complicated like that. In a game? Never before, it was really interesting”

Raphael always goes back to the fact that ME brought more women into gaming than any other game before it. “The writing and the complexity of the relationships gave us so much ballast”. “This set this apart from running, shooting, gunning, looting”

JHale: “What I noticed in the times before when I got to be around fans, there was a huge hunger among women in the gaming world for something they could really jump into. They were starving for something which fed them what they deserved and needed”

Mac: “[praising Caroline] Caroline would often come to us as writers and challenge us and say, as an example, ‘Do we really need another male character to do this? Why are we writing another male character for this?’ She pushed that very early and to the betterment of everything we created”

PW: “Karin and Cookie and all of the editors across the trilogy, [were critical in] making sure that Shepard sounded consistent - [especially since] we had a large writing team, writers came and went, Mac is the only one with a significant writing contribution on each of the games”

PW: “[on game dev] It’s a process of getting hundreds of people pointed in the same direction, all believing that this is something worth doing”

Ash: “Having all the different possibilities and avenues, going back to play them all out in the different ways [really helped to round the character of Tali out and make her feel like a natural person]”.

VAs only get paid for the original recording sessions, not again (as in they don’t any royalties or anything from something like the remaster)

In MELE, they left all the original credits at the end of each game in

Fred: “It’s creating in five dimensions [because of all the outcomes and relationships etc]”. Seth: “The cool thing is that the audience feels that. They’re immediately struck by how dense, thought-out, prepared and planned the entire universe is”

How was it for the new MELE devs coming onto this? Crystal: “I knew it [the series and fans’ love for it] was big, but I didn’t know it was BIG! Working on MELE there was this infectious excitement. Being part of it was so exciting.” Melanie: “I came on at ME3, I had a 3 or 4 year honeymoon period with BioWare. Coming onto MELE, I’m getting really emotional. One of my first meetings originally was going into a cinematic review for an epic Tali scene in ME3”. Crystal: “On MELE, we had an hour or 2 every day where the team came together to play the game. In those reviews, a lot of the devs who worked on the original would tell all these stories. It was really fun to hear all the inside stories on ME’s creation and be a part of that”

DC: “Should this unit get vaccinated?” Ash: “Of course”

How do they think ME will be viewed in the next 10-20 years, what do they think its legacy will be? A piece of history, ground-breaking. It broke down some barriers and opened doors for people. It’s a powerful, powerful community. It’ll continue to age quite well and be enjoyed by a new generation, it’s original and evergreen and there’s a lot in it that people go back to. There’s a lot of universal things in it (personal experiences, like there will always be love, people fighting to belong, trying to make sense of their pasts etc)

JHale and Alix did the “I love you Shepard, now go save the world again” Shep-Sam exchange and both got teary. It was then Seth’s turn to line-read: “Jesus Christ, now that I’m good and choked up, fucking mess”. Ali was also actually crying from it

Seth: “It can’t be overstated, this community is so large and global, it is one of the most powerful fandoms that I’ve ever been greeted with. Thank you”. Ash: “It’s the most amazing group of fans ever. We’re all so grateful”

Some funny anecdotes/stories:

PW didn’t realize that Alix could do different accents. They remember a time when they were listening in the booth and an Alliance soldier was complaining about the gear had been given. They said “Wow that’s really good, who is that?” and the VO producer said “That’s Alix, Patrick”, “because she wasn’t doing her [normal British accent but was doing a Californian accent instead]. Alix roasted me later for not recognizing her voice and never let me heard the end of it”

Alix: “[on Sam’s toothbrush] Caroline’s like, ‘So then she pulls her toothbrush’ and I’m like ‘What? Sorry? A toothbrush?’ and obviously it’s funny now as everyone knows that Sam’s thing is her toothbrush. Caroline’s like ‘Yeah, you’ve gotta like, flirt, over the toothbrush’ and I’m like ‘Who wrote this - a frickin toothbrush, are you kidding me? Really guys?’ ANYWAY. I was wrong and it worked. :D”

Fred: “I remember a 12 year old kid coming up to me and being like [flat tone] ‘Oh yeah. I killed you’.”

Keythe: “The other assasin I play is Kellogg in Fallout 4. People come up to me like ‘Omg. I love you so much. And then I fucking KILLED you!’”

Courtenay once went out to dinner in NZ with a few prominent people from the Game of Thrones cast. “Everyone around was making a big deal out of it like ‘Omg, it’s so-and-so from GoT’. I was feeling a bit like ‘Hi, I’m here, just nobody’. And I looked around in the restaurant and there's one guy in the corner and he’s got an N7 shirt on and he’s just looking at me like [knowing look, does a peace sign]. And I’m like ‘I got one! I love you guys!’”

PW: “I have a question for the cast members, because I don’t know if JHale has done this to all of you or if she just does it to the devs. Show of hands if Jen has ever made you do push-ups.” JHale: “It’s just you guys”

Karin: “One of my favorite editing files that I ever had was a ME file. It was before Seth was coming in for a session. I opened it up and it was just 20, 25 lines with the word ‘Shit’, over and over again, and I was like, ‘This file is perfect, I don’t need to do anything to it, have fun!’”

Seth: “Didn’t we do a track that’s like 60 seconds of laughing? Escalating laughing? I don’t know about other actors but for me getting into a laughing fit is kind of like trying to get into a crying fit, it takes the same level of commitment, you start to follow a path until like you’re hysterically uncontrollably laughing. I remember looking through the glass, and I’m deep in it at this point, and I make eye contact, and I can see from the other side of the booth and they’re like [making ‘okay you can stop’ now gestures] - ‘Like that’s plenty, we got it’ and I was like ‘okay, okay [dying]’”

JHale: “The craziest thing Mark and I had to deal with was how many times we had to say ‘I should go’”. Mark: “We also, Caroline and I tended to use that as short hand when I needed to go to the bathroom”

The panel host: “The first time I interviewed Ali was a decade ago. She did the ‘I’ll flay you alive with my mind’ line halfway through, it was my first interview and I literally fell out of my seat [from being star-struck]”

Ash line-read Tali’s drunk omni-tattoo scene and in response DC said “I totally get why people wanna romanticize all these characters :D”. Karin: “We’ve had more than one person come up to us and show us actual tattoos that looked like that”

[source]