#you've activated my trap card

[wrenhavenriver]

every time a work or school event uses "what's your favorite animal?" as an icebreaker and i get to subject a room full of people to a brief list of reasons why geese are unfairly maligned

[plaidbear]

[distantpagesandpapercuts]

“Nap Cling”!!!!

Send Me “Nap Cling” for Your Muse to be Caught in a Hug by My Sleeping Muse!

It wasn't an uncommon sight for him to stumble across. Were it not for the color in her cheeks, Archer could've assumed the woman was dead before checking her breathing.

She overworked herself. Stretched too thin, she'd finally collapsed from exhaustion. Tucked in amongst the copious amounts of pillows and blankets she seemed to have accumulated over the years. One of her favorite comforts he'd noticed.

But it'd been going on fourteen hours now that she'd been sleeping. He'd been a bit worried for her. What if she was dehydrating? Glucose drops could be deadly out here! So gently he'd put a hand on her shoulder and shaken her slightly. Bidding her gently to awaken. Tea? Why was he asking about tea?

She's quicker than one would think. One hand bracing his shoulder, the other grabbing his wrist and pulling him down onto the bed. While strength wasn't her strong suit, she seemed to take him off guard enough to drag him into an embrace.

Amongst the nest of blankets, she buries her nose into his clothes and sighs a breath of content.

"Stay," She murmurs into his sweater.

@archerwhiterp

[guppygiggles]

*wheeze* I’m sorry. That’s adorable AF.

-🐺♠️

[thelongestway]

hey no shade but you know dungeon meshi isn't actually based off dnd right? there are definitely some overlapping concepts and it can be fun to analyze it through a dnd lens but really it's its own homebrew fantasy setting. just checking bc i nearly got in an argument w someone over dungeon meshi lore the other day only to realize it was because they were trying to apply dnd lore to it ahahaa

Oh yeah, absolutely, it's its own thing. You don't even have to go far to show how it's its own thing: for one, the whole set-up with the dungeons being what they are isn't found anywhere else in D&D-inspired material that I know. You could maybe reflavor Halaster's Undermountain to something like the Dungeon Meshi dungeons, but that would be another layer of homebrew. That said, I do have the feeling that Ryoko Kui grew up on the same kind of D&D material that I did - stuff like Elminster's Ecologies, or old school Greyhawk materials. Her story genuinely feels like an AD&D game run by an old-school DM, maybe even earlier in the editions (hi, Chilchuck and "I'm a rogue, I'm not gonna fight"!). I don't mean that she follows D&D canon in any meaningful sense--her stuff isn't set in Greyhawk, nor on Abeir-Toril, nor on Krynn, etc. But I do think she's someone who's inspired by old school stuff, even as she makes her work thoroughly her own.

An acquaintance of mine once wrote that long tabletop games gain a quality that she called "being well-trod". This is when the players and DM are so familiar with the world they live in that it becomes, well, lived-in. They don't need to look up rules anymore to extrapolate: they understand the logic of the setting, and they get the same kind of intuitive feel for the world that we do when living in our own world, in real life. A feeling of where the boundaries lie, and how things work.

This is how I feel about Dungeon Meshi and D&D. It feels like a work written by someone who walked the same paths that I did, and whose work is therefore both new and startlingly familiar. That's it in a nutshell, but then I also wrote a bunch of examples, which got very long, so cut for length and spoilers!

I wrote somewhere in the tags on my Dungeon Meshi posts that it's incredibly surreal reading a story that seems to be informed by the exact materials that you base your own homebrew games on. Kui takes her work in a wholly different direction than I did - but the disparate elements of the story would fit in like a glove, because they're based on similar logic. I could quite literally take any of the ecologies elements of Dungeon Meshi and put them into a given module I'm running, and it would need less adaptation than 5e material. And most of the cultural/racial elements of Dungeon Meshi? That, too. Where it's not a one for one match, it would so easily be explainable by "different continent".

Let's take the example you're probably here from: the Canaries and elves in general, and let's take elves in general first. In D&D, there's been a switch in models of elven aging throughout the years: from "they are literal babies up until 60-ish, and then have 40 years of actual adolescence" to "yeah they grow to full adult size at about the same speed as the other races, and are then just culturally considered too young to make their own decisions". I am decidedly not a fan of the second model - I think it takes away from the cool biologies early D&D thrived on. BG3's treatment of Astarion's age of death, for instance, keeps throwing me. Yeah, I get it: it fits in with the edition they're working off, but I hate it. That's not how things work on our Faerun! But then we get to Marcille's backstory, and we see that she has the problems old school half-elves did, and you're like "oh, well of course someone invested in weird cool biology as an author would interpret elves like that." Her treatment of age makes sense to me. She makes the races as alien as possible, and hits that vibe of "D&D-style fantasy is its own thing, with its own set of rules" that I love. In contrast, and unlike any prototypes I know, Kui takes her half-foots in a different direction! They don't live longer than tall-men, they live shorter lives, closer to goblinoids. And I think it's for the same reason: because it's that much cooler to have different experiences of life in humanoid races. This is decidedly Not D&D, but it would absolutely fit into that vein.

With smaller details, I keep joking around here that the Canaries are grey elves, and of course they're not. But then Kui keeps putting in these tiny little details - which can be either nods to existing material, or the same extrapolations that other authors drawing upon high fantasy tropes have made. The white ships that have travelled all the way from Tolkien's Valinor to Evermeet and now to Shima. The fact that the Canaries have basically the right color scheme for grey elves threw me completely: I was not expecting that! Elves being that specific brand of destructive that they are - jeez, the Canaries would be right at home in Myth Drannor, or during the Crown Wars. So I joke around about these specific dolts a lot, and I am having an inordinate amount of fun seeing if my predictions that come from running a Myth Drannor game for a good long while now come true. And it goes on. Marcille doesn't prepare spells, and the magic here is obviously not Vancian. But Mithrun's teleport shenanigans are literally stuff I've done in games. The differences between races in D&D aren't because of wishes made by mortals; they're built in by gods for their own purposes. But the towns that spring up around anomalous spots and that have to deal with the weirdness have the same vibe. Kui draws on a more extensive tradition than just D&D, of course, but she transforms the tradition in a very similar way to old D&D. Of course the elves' magic in Kui's work does weird and creepy stuff with soulbinding and immortality; that's been their dark side since Tolkien and Celebrimbor's work with Annatar, and then it turned into stuff like elves regularly sacrificing their lives in high magic rituals in Faerun. Of course Senshi's backstory is about the dwarves that have dug too deep - but they are, of course, distinct from gnomes, and the gnomes are a peculiar and interesting breed of arcana specialists. Of course Chilchuck is a Burglar - but he works on dungeon delving unions, of all things! It's a familiar transformation, so the world makes sense to me, and I love it. So yeah. Tl;dr: not D&D ofc, but the vibe is there, and I am having fun with it.

Also - can you tell me about the argument? I am super curious, and I wonder if the person you were arguing with was working from 5e material.

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

ok those cove screenshots are too good and I've heard good things about him on other polls too so I'll bite. what is our life and where can i play it. are you or any of your followers willing to write up a short pitch on why you like the game? im like 1 small push away from looking into and/or buying it for real he looks so squiggly

OK SO Our Life is a free visual novel dating sim on Steam. There's DLCs but they're cheap and not obligatory to enjoy the game.

You're 8. You live near the beach with your moms and your older sister. There's no other kid around cause all the other people living there are old. And then one day a dad moves in in the house accross the street with his kid that's the same age as you. And the dad is like "I'll give you 10 bucks to be friends with my son". And without knowing it you end up inseparable with the boy as you grow up with him.

I absolutely love Our Life because it's one of the few dating sims where you can customize ever single aspect about yourself. Appearance? Check. Sexuality and gender? Check. Whether you know how to dance or like mayonnaise? Check. You don't want to romance him and just be his friend? Check.

It's really a cute childhood friends to lovers that made me cry more than once. The visuals and music are so pretty and it's so so heartwarming. It also really change from otome games where it's just drama after drama. This story is believable and you can really lose yourself in it, and not play as just some chick that's put into wacky situations. Just be yourself and kiss your cute neighbor that's also your best friend who loves you so so so much.

[admirableadmiranda]

I haven't read the extra, but I saw the panel for the incense burner manhua. How am I going to sleep at night when I know that lan zhan and wei ying holds each other in their arms while they sleep😭😭❤️❤️

Oh anon, you think that them holding each other in their arms while they sleep is wonderful? Well lemme share some other really sweet things with Wangxian and sleep that are all hidden in the book and the extras.

All of these quotes are from Exiled Rebels Translation. Cut for length and cuteness.

Chapter 92: Longing, Part 3

He lay on his arm and stared at the ceiling for some time, turning around for his back to face Lan WangJi. Even after a while, he was still wide-eyed, unable to fall asleep. He couldn’t help but become irritated.

Back when he was playing the madman, he said something like he could only sleep when he was beside Lan WangJi. Of course, all of that was nonsense. But ever since however long ago, the nonsense seemed to have become a reality. Wei WuXian thought, What should I do now? Don’t tell me from now on I really won’t be able to sleep in a bed that doesn’t have Lan Zhan in it?

After a long struggle, Wei WuXian finally managed to clamp his eyes shut.

This is a very sneaky reveal that Wangxian have actually been sharing a bed for a while, before they got together. We don’t know exactly how long, but it’s long enough that when Wei Wuxian does try to sleep on his own, he can’t! Which can take a little while to get that comfortable with having someone next to you. Wei Wuxian can’t sleep anymore without Lan Zhan there to make him feel safe and warm.

(Yes, he does later manage to fall asleep by himself, but it is much harder when you’re used to someone sleeping at your side)

Chapter 114: Banquet, Part 2

These days, Wei WuXian adopted a strange habit. He liked to sleep on top of Lan WangJi’s body, no matter lying on him or clinging to his chest face-to-face. Anyhow, without this human pillow, he wasn’t able to sleep. Shamelessly, he turned the jingshi upside-down, and did indeed manage to dig out some things.

Wei Wuxian now has a favorite pillow and mattress! And is very adamant that he can’t sleep without it, so instead he’s going to dig around in his husband’s stuff.

In the few months he and Wei WuXian begun living together, he’d tried to set Wei WuXian’s sleeping habits right, but it was always in vain. After a disciple brought over the warm water used for bathing, Lan WangJi, who’d long since dressed himself, peeled the stark-naked Wei WuXian out of the thin blanket and carried him into the wooden tub. Somehow, Wei WuXian could continue to sleep even as he was steeped in water. Lan WangJi pushed him gently, and he’d catch Lan WangJi’s hand, kissing it both on its palm and its back, rubbing it on his cheek before he went back to sleep. When the pushing really began to annoy him, he’d whine a couple of times and pull Lan WangJi down, eyes still shut, cupping Lan WangJi’s face as he kissed a few more times, murmuring, “Good boy, stop messing with me. Pretty please? I’ll get up in just a bit. Yeah.”

And with a yawn, he’d fall back asleep, clinging to the edge of the tub.

Although he knew, even if the room burned down, Wei WuXian would probably find some other place and sleep, Lan WangJi still persevered in waking him up starting at five, then endure dozens of pecks expressionlessly.

He brought breakfast to the Jingshi and laid it on the desk that in the past only held ink, paper, and brush, then fished the dead-asleep Wei WuXian out of the tub to wipe him clean, dress him, and tie his sashes. Only then did Lan WangJi finally take a book from the shelves and flip open to the page with the dried flower bookmark, sitting by the desk and slowly beginning to read.

As expected, at almost eleven, Wei WuXian jerked up from the bed with extreme punctuality before feeling his way down the bed almost as though he was sleep-walking. He first felt Lan WangJi, hauling him into his arms for a few rubs, then squeezed his thigh out of habit.

Look at this cuteness! Lan Wangji still wakes up at five, but now his morning routine is letting his husband sleep as late as he wants while he takes care of him so that when Wei Wuxian does wake up, he’s ready for the day. He “endures dozens of pecks expressionlessly”, but can you tell me that Lan Wangji doesn’t absolutely love that part of his day? And then Wei Wuxian has to wake up by fondling and cuddling his husband till he’s ready to open his eyes and be ready for the day. And this is their daily morning. They do this every day! So precious!

Chapter 119: Incense Burner 2

(you’ve seen how they cuddle when they’re sleeping, but here’s some more lovely stuff!)

Wei WuXian, “You’ll know if it’s nonsense or not if you keep listening for just a bit longer. When you sleep, you like to hug me tightly, and you have to be hugging me or else you won’t be able to sleep;

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…” Wei WuXian laughed himself awake from the dream.

He laughed so hard he almost rolled off the bed. Fortunately, Lan WangJi’s arms were always wrapped around his waist. Along with the laughter, his entire body trembled the moment he woke up, making Lan WangJi wake up from his sleep as well. The two sat up together.

Wei Wuxian is teasing the young dream form of his husband, but we immediately get confirmation that he’s likely teasing him with the truth because Lan Wangji is holding him so tightly he can’t get away and Wei Wuxian’s laughter wakes him up! They sleep so close together!

Later when they wake up after the wild dreams they share in the incense burner, we get this when they’re getting ready to go back to bed.

Lan WangJi pulled him back onto the bed, “I will not.”

Having acquired his promise, Wei WuXian was relieved, “HanGuang-Jun, mark your words.”

Lan WangJi, “Mn.”

With three nights of toil, he felt the fatigue slowly rise. Wei WuXian couldn’t keep going either. He snuggled into Lan WangJi’s arms again and mumbled, “Nobody had ever treated me like this…”

Lan WangJi stroked his hair and landed a kiss on his forehead. Shaking his head, he smiled.

Getting ready for bed means getting snuggled and held close. It’s adorable.

Taiwanese Extra: From Dawn to Dusk

This one is all about Wangxian just having a lovely night together, first having wild sex, then grading the junior’s homework. But then later in the night, we have more sleepy cuteness!

After Lan WangJi took a quick bath and got in bed as well, hugging Wei WuXian in his arms, Wei WuXian continued to be awake for a short while, hazily whispering by his collarbone, “The kids in your sect are quite good at writing essays. They’re just missing that tiny bit when it comes to night-hunting.”

Wei WuXian, “… I told you to stop talking… Even if you say just one word, I won’t be able to hold myself from responding… Okay, Lan Zhan, let’s sleep. I… can’t anymore… I really have to sleep… See you tomorrow, Lan Zhan…”

He kissed Lan Zhan’s neck, and indeed soon fell heavily asleep.

It was all darkness and silence amidst the Jingshi.

A moment later, Lan WangJi planted a gentle kiss in the center of Wei WuXian’s forehead.

He whispered, “Wei Ying, see you tomorrow.”

No goodnights; no goodbyes. Just see you tomorrow. And also more of Wei Wuxian using his favorite pillow, since all of his dialogue is muffled cause he’s talking into Lan Wangji’s chest.

Chapter 120: Intrusion, Part 1

We have a family outing with Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and Lan Sizhui! And of course that means more sleepy fun with Wangxian!

Wei WuXian slept all the way until the sun was high up in the end. Only after much hugging and caressing from Lan WangJi did he finally manage to crawl up. As he proceeded through his morning routine with closed eyes, he even put on Lan WangJi’s inner-wear by accident. A few inches of white sleeves extended from below his outer robe, rolled up many times. It was quite unbefitting, really.

Not only does Wei Wuxian get to sleep in as late as he wants, but he gets hugs and caresses to wake up. Also we have the husbands sharing clothes, which is cute.

These are all the moments I can find of them specifically sleeping (and I did leave out the parts with them sharing a bed in Refinement, Allure and Dew just because I wanted these cute moments later in their relationship), but I think it should show that whether one of them is awake or not, Wangxian sharing a bed is just a treat!

[voxuli]

{{Wasn’t sure about the first one - would being seen with an ex-Overlord damage his reputation? XD}}

"Being an ex-Overlord isn't a problem; I can handle that. The problem here, old man, is that you tagged the music space but not Tom Lehrer, and his first album was out well over a decade before you showed up in Hell! Now sit down, we're starting with Songs by Tom Lehrer."

[penandswords]

@eraserisms Just casually kicking me back to my GOTH phase.

/ i HAVEN'T listened to ANY of these bands in forever. but ya posted MCR on the dash and NOW i'm going down the rabbit hole of these old bands./

IMMA COUNTER YOU WITH this song

[madefate]

do you ever stop talking ? / via @ blitz, affectionate / @vanaglcria

❝ And deprive the world of my correct opinions ? Absolutely not ! ❞

Blitz uses the same, breezy tone that he does with Loona - the kind that acknowledges, teases, and bounces off like water, a more unobtrusive humor that's meant to take the pressure off. He doesn't think it's a skill he's necessarily perfected, but he has had practice over the years, and he knows to turn his face away before his amused grin turns realer, more affectionate.

He doesn't really know Octavia, beyond the few fairly terrible impressions he's made on her, and he doesn't know if he'll ever earn the privilege to know her better. But he's realized, recently and in full force, that he'd like to. Without those barriers erected - the years and bricks of self loathing, self destruction, and simple deflection - that raw and deep longing for family has started to raise its head from the ashes he'd thought he'd buried it in.

But he's not stupid; if the closest he gets is tolerated - if he doesn't ruin her relationship with Stolas or with Loona - then Blitz can more than live with that.

Still, there's something fundamentally strange about being in Stolas' kitchen, in the light of morning, while Octavia sits at the table and Stolas himself is still confined to bed rest. The person who absolutely does not fit in this picture is himself - so, of course, he has to pretend that much harder that this is totally fine. It's totally fine that he has breakfast going on the stove top, it's totally fine that he spends half the time hopping up and down off chairs and counters because everything in this kitchen is royal owl sized.

What actually settles him is the fact that at least he can help in some tangible way. It's not much at all in the grand scheme of things, but even if it's just food, just little things around the house - the chance to keep an eye on the house and its occupants, putting that vigilance to work - it's something.

❝ For example, if I wasn't here running my mouth, then you wouldn't have this masterpiece to eat ! ❞ He exaggerates it, hoping the joke lands, and presents her plate with a flourish: a pile of waffles artfully cut into star shapes ( Loonie puts up with his horse cutouts, but he wanted to try something a little closer to home for Octavia ), fresh fruit, and fluffy scrambled eggs.

❝ Now, please, not too many compliments for the chef. ❞

[butchshepherd]

Good morning :) Question abou Dutchies: is there a difference in drive/temperament between short and long haired dogs?

good morning anon, short answer is it depends, but also, yes!

the individual dog is going to matter just as much as the coat variety, but generally long haired dutchies tend to be a bit softer in temperament, and noteably (at least in finland but i would assume its a widespread thing) more sound sensitive, which we can see here :

(PK is long haired, LK short, KK rough)

short hairs tend to have more drive and be overall more intense, this is because there's a bigger emphasis on producing sport and working dogs in this variant of the breed. the same temperament test from above shows they have the strongest defensive and fighting drive/will(?auto translate has me confused, you know what it is) out of all 3 coat varieties, with 70% of short hairs showing "either moderate or great desire to defend themselves" while "less than half of the long haired ones" do.

in terms of sociability there isnt much difference :

all that being said, a dutch shepherd is a dutch shepherd and if you like the temperament of short hairs more but are interested in long hairs as well for one reason or another, there will be dogs of that variety that fit what you're looking for. not only that, but there are breeders with a focus on improving on the temperament of long hairs, and building towards better working ability, which is mostly done through crosses with short haired dutchies and selecting more resilient and lively long haired dogs.

here's how one ds breeder describes them (auto translated) :

The longhair is open to people, with a temperament ranging from moderately lively to very lively. Typically [...] the calmer and somewhat more sociable of the other two coat varieties, a sensitive and soulful creature, but with a strong will of its own.

Short-haired: lively and seductive. Usually very physical, for example when obedient or playing with other dogs. [...] Typically high prey drive and temperament on the lively - very lively axis.

they also note that lh dutchies are often underestimated as sport dogs by enthusiasts of the breed, and also that they often have a strong prey drive despite a more "calm and serene appearance".

and to wrap this up because i could go on for way too long, i'll share this, from the same person, which imo is the most important part and a good way to sum it up :

[...] a Dutch Shepherd should be chosen from parents with characteristics that match your personality, training style and hobby goals, rather than, for example, looks. I think all Dutch Shepherds are well suited for hobby dogs, but different coat variations and individual characteristics will serve different handlers.

btw, it's worth noting the temperament test's data i used as reference here is quite a few years old by now (paper from 2020) but those aren't things that change overnight so i think its still valuable and mostly accurate information

(also anything that i didnt write myself was auto translated from finnish so its going to have some odd wording, hopefully its clear enough but feel free to ask if something doesnt make sense to you.)

thanks for the ask, hope this isnt too much of a mess LOL

[delborovic]

Hello Del! I'm a writer who has a request book on Archive, and I'm stumped on a writing that involves your character that participated in Law of Talos, Rellik.

You may think I need a deep answer to something, something that's utterly plot twisting,

but I just need to know if he has a house in present day. That's it, I literally just don't know if he owns a property or if he wanders the streets and ends up on websites where people post paranormal sitings and people think he's a ghost.

Have a lovely day, Del! I've loved your art for years! <3

Hi there! Ohhhhh the Deep Rellik Lore...! For starters, I must say- regardless of my answer, please feel free to do whatever you'd like with my boy, fic is for exploring what you like and making things your own! ♥ BUT I will give you the answer....

Yes, totally. Rellik is a super homebody and Things last longer than People and he likes stuff. He's accrued a lot of money from being around so long and prefers to have a cozy home base to operate out of (and keep his books and other personal affects).

Though, considering how much trouble vampires can get into... the question is if his current residence is OK or some other shenanigans have occurred. What I'm saying is that Rellik somehow having lost his house and having to bomb in on abandoned places would be both hilarious and he would HATE that, talk about maximum grumpy. He'd prefer most to have a big gothic house on a hill to be Mr Spooky out of, but with the housing market how it is these days ://///

I don't know if that helps, but go forth...!! And good luck with emo vampire!!

Also this is an entire crossover comic with Rel's house and him being particular about it as a plot point LOL

Also thank you so much!!! I'm seriously so floored and honored that people still enjoy these old comics and my boy Rellik-butt and have been checking out my art for that long :) so surreal. Thank you!!! ♥ and have fun!!!

[princess-of-purple-prose]

hi kay!! i keep telling myself i need to watch mp100 since it’s supposed to be so good, but i watched the first couple of episodes a while back and didn’t love them. does that mean i won’t like the whole show, or does it sort of grow into itself?

Hii Astrid!! 💜💜 I'm actually thrilled to get this question because I usually field it while reccing the show!! (Prepare for, just, so much text.) I promise it isn't (just) my bias talking when it say yes, it absolutely does grow into itself! I think to an uncertain viewer, the first episodes, especially the first one, are best viewed while keeping in mind that they're setting up the characters and world (not to mention showing off their animation chops) in them. I know I certainly wasn't super interested by them either when I first started watching the show, which is why I'm so excited to defend it!!

Personally, I was truly hooked onto the show by episode five! I'm not sure where you left off at, but if you didn't get to five, I think it's the first one which felt so visceral that it was upsetting AND which showcased the real ethos and struggles mob has in the show to me. After there, things start snowballing quickly, so if you haven't hit five, I'd really really urge you to watch it! In my opinion, the action and character stakes pick up right around there too, so it is 100% (hehe) worth sticking around for.

Not to mention: I think the one sad thing about mp100 getting supremely popular (plus, uh, reigensweep) is that people go into the show knowing that reigen is the most character of all time, but part of the fun is starting off FUCKING HATING HIM. I was genuinely convinced the reigen love was an elaborate joke when I started the show, and being proved wrong felt RAPTUROUS. That is not an exaggeration. There's a reason that I've rewatched the s1 finale more times than I care to count. And, just so I can make a sales pitch one more time: mob psycho 100, with no exaggeration, might be the story which has caused me to cry more consistently than any other media, which is HIGH praise coming from me. I've never met a narrative of its kind which handles its themes with more love or care. I mean it

Tl;dr: yes, the first episodes are slow, but that makes the payoff of going through with the show a thousandfold more potent!!! The pacing in the beginning is much slower, and you could say that the characters are still feeling themselves out. I am sure you'll like the show if you give it a chance, and I really really hope you'll grow to love it as much as I do!!!! Happy watching!!!!!!!

[joukaiweek]

Day 3 prompts: you've activated my trap card / winner takes all

💜 About 💜 2023 Prompts 💜 AO3 Collection

[walterdecourceys]

Hi! Could I ask what Chess is about? Your posts on it have caught my interest.

GOOD QUESTION!!! apologies in advance this is going to be a bit of a long answer

so back during the cold war, chess competitions ended up being, like, a Big Thing. it was one of the ways the ussr liked to prove their intellectual superiority, so during the 70s & 80s most of the world champions and challengers were russian. this meant that whenever one of the players was american (specifically bobby fischer) the competitions turned into really big media events, since it's an american vs. a russian and whoaaa we need to prove our country is better at chess so we can prove communism sucks or something

anyway, tim rice (most well-known for working with alw on jesus christ superstar & evita) saw these competitions and went, "hey, that'd be a kickass musical." so he teamed up with the music-writing duo from ABBA to write it.

the resulting musical was chess, which is about. Um. Well. it's about chess. but it's also about the cold war and politics and commercialism and national identity and divorce. (the divorce part is important i truly can't stress enough how much divorce is in this musical)

our... protagonist? one of our main characters is freddie trumper, a communism-hating american and (usually) the current world chess champion. he sucks. i love him dearly but he sucks. his second is florence vassy, a hungarian displaced from her home as a young child due to the 1956 invasion of budapest. she is only slightly more normal than freddie.

freddie's opponent is the russian player anatoly sergievsky, who also sucks, but in a different and more subtle way. he has a wife named svetlana who is possibly the only guiltless character in this show.

the drama at the world chess championship is only upped when anatoly and florence fall in love and florence helps anatoly defect from the ussr to england. freddie gets really upset about this and fires/breaks up (it's ambiguous as to if they're romantically involved or not) with florence. after this anatoly is (usually) the new world chess champion, although sometimes it's still freddie and they're just taking a break before the match finishes.

the exact plot of act ii varies a lot depending on which script is being used, but in very general terms: anatoly is playing a chess match. he wants to win and become/remain world champion. his soviet team wants him to lose and come back to russia. various espionage plots ensue to incentivize anatoly to return home. in the end, he wins the match (usually. sometimes he loses) but returns home anyway, leaving florence behind. no one is happy. there's like no good ending here.

one of the interesting things about chess is that there are like a hundred different versions of it. there's two main scripts (london and broadway) but there's tons of variation even within the two scripts, and some that combine elements of both (like sydney and danny "the bane of my existence" strong's book). and there's some pretty significant changes from script to script, right down to who wins the final chess game. it's really interesting.

if you want me to elaborate/clarify any part of this i'm more than happy to do so, but i hope this offers some insight as to what chess is about?? it's a terrible show and also my current favorite musical. hope this helps 👍

[apocalypticbird]

so i was explaining white holes (why they don't exist) to my sister and she said, "isn't that a wormhole?" and i said no.

and then she asked what a wormhole is. she knows what happens when you ask a nerd what a wormhole is. she begged me to please don't as i got up to get a paper and pencil.