#(unoriginal? maybe. but also easy for me so) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hellomynameisghostface · 6 months

Text

I never understood why people hate on Amber and Richie's motive when it's far from the worst in the franchise, in my opinion. So here's a little rant of my opinions on all Ghostface motives. Billy Loomis: his motive literally makes no sense to me but because he's one of the original Ghostfaces, everyone puts him on a pedestal. He kills Maureen because she's sleeping with his father, Hank, causing his mother, Nancy, to leave them. Makes sense, he could have stopped there. Instead he targets Sidney for literally nothing. Just simply because she's the daughter of the woman who broke up his family. It would have made more sense to go after Sidney while Maureen was still alive to make her suffer before killing her. Therefore, making his motive one of the dumbest in the franchise for me.

Stu Macher: his motive is simple yet affective; he has none, or at least as far as we know. Most real life murderers probably don't have much of a motive either so while it's realistic it's not exactly the most creative motive but really, how creative can you really get? There's only so many reasons to want to kill someone especially when the main target is the same unproblematic person just trying to live her life in peace.

Mickey Altieri: I love Mickey but he has one of the dumbest motives in the franchise and no one says shit. He literally just wants to get caught and blame the movies. Nancy did the right thing shooting him.

Nancy Loomis: one of the better motives, as Nancy herself says, good old fashion revenge. It's the first time in the franchise that the motive is revenge (no, I don't count Billy's motive as revenge. Maybe when it came to Maureen but not Sidney) so it's a fresh motive in these movies.

Roman Bridger: another motive I particularly like. I think of his motive less revenge and more resentment. No motive is good enough to kill but his is one of the ones where you could understand how someone who's mentally unstable could snap. Being abandoned by your mother just for her to have another child she loves and cares for and then turns you away once you try to reunite with her? I'd be upset too. I mean...not enough to kill but you get my point.

Charlie Walker: another dumb motive that no one talks about. As a matter of fact, does he even have one? We know he's a "Stab" fanatic and a simp for Jill so what I get from this is he was easy to persuade because he was already a fan of the movies and a horny teenage boy. I don't think he could've given a fuck less if he got famous from it.

Jill Roberts: her motive is one of the best and aged like fine wine. In the world we live in today, some people would quite literally kill to be famous. I know some people have complaints about it but it's really not that farfetched, people are mad crazy these days and kill for the stupidest reasons.

Amber Freeman: like Charlie, I don't know if we really get a motive for Amber. Richie seems so much more passionate about the "Stab" movies and their killing spree becoming a movie then she does (he literally doesn't shut up about it and barely lets Amber give her motive or intentions.) What I got from watching the movie was that Amber was a fan of horror movies in general (she very clearly likes "Psycho," "Halloween" and "Friday The 13th") but she claims she's been obsessed ever since her parents bought Stu Macher's house, where the first murder spree took place, implying she didn't care as much before moving in. She also says her and Richie had similar ideas, not the same. I think her motive was more like Stu's and was to just kill for the fun of it. If her and Richie's motives were in fact the same, it's still a decent motive and original compared to the Ghostfaces before. If her motive was similar to Stu's, it's still a decent motive just unoriginal.

Richie Kirsch: his motive is a lot more crystal clear than Amber's. As I already mentioned above, he doesn't shut up about it. He hated the recent "Stab" movie and thought creating a new killing spree would provide new source material to make a better movie than the last. Considering how upset people in the "Scream" fandom got about this movie (and how other fandoms get with their respective franchises) just proves that his motive isn't that dumb. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if something like this happened in real life, especially when you take into consideration that these movies inspired real life murders already.

Jason Carvey: his motive wasn't great but it wasn't terrible. He was just another fanatic (which is repetitive of the last movie) wanting to continue "Richie's film" (fuck Amber, I guess...I hate how this movie down played her when she carried Richie) but since he was an opening kill, his motive probably wasn't meant to be all that great. Had he gotten further with his plan though, I wouldn't have hated it. PS: if you were expecting a Greg Bruckner paragraph, sorry but his bitch ass was killed before the plan was meant to be put into motion so therefore, he wasn't officially a Ghostface in my eyes. His motive would have been the same as Jason's anyway, as far as we know.

Wayne Bailey, Ethan Landry and Quinn Bailey: I'm going to include them all in one paragraph since their motives are all the same: good old fashion revenge. As Richie's father, brother and sister their only goal was to seek revenge on anyone who was involved in Richie's death. Nothing suggests that any of them had any additional motives. The motive itself is fine, I literally mentioned it was one of the better ones in my Nancy paragraph. The only problem I have with it is now it's become repetitive and unoriginal. It's basically just a knockoff of "Scream 2" with an extra killer. From my point of view, it's the only movie that straight up reuses a motive. To summarize: pansy ass mama's boy who's sad she abandoned him, psycho who was peer pressured, psycho who wants to get caught and taken to trial, mother seeking revenge, son who was abandoned by his mother and has resentment against his sister, simp horror fan, psycho who wants fame, horror fans who want a better installment in their favorite franchise, horror fans who want to continue the last Ghostfaces plans for a better installment in their favorite franchise and a family seeking revenge; notice how only one of these are almost exactly the same to another. (I guess Billy and Roman's could be categized as similar, being abandoned by their mothers, but they're different enough for me and Roman's motive was better and made more sense. Amber and Richie have the same or at least similar motive but because their partners in the same movie I'll allow it. Jason and Gregg's motive was meant to continue what Amber and Richie sought out to do but they were opening kills so their motive was kind of a throwaway and irrelevant anyway.)

53 notes · View notes

ut-versotale · 10 months

Text

A Trip Down Nostalgia Lane

This AU's been in existence for so long, and the most current iteration is so wildly different from the rest. As such, I felt it'd be kinda cool to show you guys how the AU's progressed over the years. I don't think it's too big of a problem to reveal what the initial plans were for each iteration, what I liked and didn't like, and my thought process behind forgoing the old ones

If you don't particularly care for all that, here's the iterations' major characters lined up. (Iteration 4 I only have revealed Asriel and Undyne, so the rest I've designed so far are silhouetted)

Iteration 0.5

Oh boy, where to begin with this one...?

I number it "0.5" and not "1" because there were only two parts that never even officially released on this Tumblr blog. I did upload Part 1 for an April Fool's joke a while ago. But really, it was only ever present on the TS!Underswap Discord server over half a decade ago.

To put it bluntly, Versotale at this point was just a reskinned Undertale roleswap AU. The personalities, while I tried to keep them intact, were not the main driving force. As such:

Asriel is a silent protagonist (And not in a cool clever way like Kris; I mean just straight-up silent)

The only difference with Undyne as a narrator was noting that Frisk was a human at the first save point

Flowey had a more formal speech pattern but was otherwise barely affected despite carrying Chara's consciousness. They weren't even named Asthana yet.

Frisk... well, I can give my past self this, he certainly made an effort to differentiate Frisk from Toriel. I can't say he did a GOOD job at that, but they certainly were different. Awkward dialogue, though, and not much sense behind why they were the mayor of the Ruins at 13 years old

Overall, you can 100% tell I made this as a young teen. Awkward dialogue, barely any effort put into the concept, unoriginal...

It's pretty easy to see why I forewent this version of the AU. Only two parts were ever made. I must thank @beethovenus who gave me a lot of very helpful critiques, such as giving Asriel a voice and making original sprites rather than using sprite edits, as well as encouraging me to make this Tumblr blog for it. Thus, brings us to what I'd like to consider the first PROPER attempt at this AU...

Iteration 1

Ah, this one... this ALSO lasted only two parts. Can't remember why. But I made a lot more headway on this one. Quality aside, I am happy that I had the guts to try and make original sprites of my own back then, even if they aren't particularly good compared to now.

This was where I really attempted to make the characters act noticeably different. Though there were still quite a lot of problems, some that would even persist all the way up until Iteration 4.

I wanted to give Asriel a combination of his regular and Flowey personalities. A cool idea on paper, but the lore doesn't support him acting like that well enough. Thus, I refer to this version of him as Sassriel. This was one of those problems that persisted up until Iteration 3.

Undyne having this snarky back-and-forth with Sassriel. Again, cool idea on paper, but it is not supported by her personality in Undertale, nor the altered circumstances in VT Iteration 1. Also, with Undyne being a disembodied consciousness, it means she's merely an observer of the story and not an active participant, meaning her dialogue got very boring very fast. Undyne in canon was always an active character, so putting her in a role that basically FORCED her to be a passive character was maybe one of the worst decisions I could've made that lasted way too long, all the way until Iteration 4.

You'll notice a whole bunch of characters that never actually saw the light of day in the comic. In the bottom row, starting from left to right, there would have been Pepper (Who DID have a design but I've lost it), Donavan, Dr. Aakil, Lily, and Queen Alice. There's not much to say about them story-wise since I mainly just got the designs down, and you can probably guess what the plot was gonna be like given this was the early days of the AU where it was still very much following the Undertale formula. I think the only UNIQUE things I should mention are that Aakil's version of the amalgamates would've been cyborgs.

Iteration 2

This is the one that's lasted the longest (so far), managing to push its way into the Cold West. I tried to break out of the Undertale formula a tiny bit with this one, to varying degrees of success. There's not much history I can recall or find with this iteration, but I suppose I can give a character rundown of the ones you never saw, ironically enough all positioned on the bottom row again.

Donavan... not very unique compared to Undyne. The main gimmick that separated him from her, I think, was that he had gloves designed by Aakil that were soul-powered.

Valencia... a new character who was meant to be an expanded version of Napstablook's role. Fun fact: Valencia's hooded trenchcoat design there was originally Pepper's Iteration 1 design.

Everyone else was... about what you'd expect.

Looking back on this version, I am... honestly very embarrassed by how badly I butchered the Cold West. I wanted to do so many cool things, like a bounty on Asriel's head and all. But my God... Spade and Pepper sucked so much. Especially Pepper. For characters who at this point were meant to be this AU's replacement of Sans and Papyrus... what poor substitutes.

And honestly, I think that's why I scrapped this one; because I hated the Cold West and how I did it. It felt rushed, awkwardly-written, bad characterization, horrifically-bad puzzles, etc. Thus, Iteration 3 was made.

Iteration 3: Hybrid

I nicknamed this short-lived one "Hybrid" for multiple reasons.

It's where Deltarune became an extremely prevalent influence in Versotale's universe. So no longer is Versotale just an Undertale AU, it can also be considered a Deltarune AU as well.

Many characters could be considered hybrids at this point. Asriel and Undyne shared determination and a body. And, more interestingly, the Mettaton role also shared a body with Mettaton. More about that in a bit

When I was making Part 10-B of Iteration 2, Iteration 3 was meant to flow naturally into it, effectively replacing all of what had came beforehand. That never worked out.

Ultimately, I abandoned this version because it just simply wasn't doing it for me. By this point, the project was beginning to feel stale and boring. Despite my attempts to make a new unique storyline, it just kinda... felt like it was still following in Undertale's footsteps far too much. I mean, you've got the protagonist kid, an old fallen member of their species, the double-crossing flower, a mentor who's lived in a secluded area all their life, a chef who wants to join the guard, a tough grizzled guard captain, a morally-dubious scientist, a celebrity, a monarch... you see how I became dislliusioned with the quality of what was supposed to be my "Unique Undertale storyline." The most unique thing at this point WAS probably Spade. But still, many elements of this version of the story were very fleshed-out. I tried to turn Pepper into a character who wasn't just a bargain-bin Papyrus clone, I had come up with a more unique Hotland area, and it probably could've turned out really nice.

I think the thing I genuinely really liked from this old version was that Shella (This iteration's celebrity character) actually was also possessed by Mettaton. There was this huge backstory thing where the scientist character had monster dust and was injecting humans with it, and since Mettaton was a ghost, his consciousness became attached to Shella's and served as her sort of "assistant." He gave her all the tips and confidence to become famous and gave Mettaton the opportunity to indirectly entertain humans like he always wanted. While a cool idea on paper, having... well, essentially Mettaton technically in the same place as canon Undertale again just felt cheap and lazy. Not to mention it only continued my disillusionment with my "unique story" being far too similar to Undertale for comfort.

But the Surface shenanigans this iteration... man, for as weird as Gaster being king was, I had such a cool thing planned for all the Ebottobia characters. It's something I wanna carry over into Iteration 4 to a certain extent.

Iteration 4: "King Asriel"

This one's really freaking cool. Going back to the drawing board completely, the story resembles almost nothing like Undertale's, with the sole exception of the main premise: People underground, free them from imprisonment through peace or violence.

I'm so proud of these ideas so far, you have no idea. The new Ruins area I'm excited for, the new Cold West feels like an actual proper flowing storyline now, the other areas have way more uniqueness, the characters feel like their own characters with their own stories now (Even the ones that appear in canon), the plot feels completely different... I think you all are really going to like it

That's all. Just felt like taking a trip down memory lane and share some ideas and designs the public never got to see.

#undertale #undertale au #versotale

47 notes · View notes

toastsnaffler · 22 days

Note

Would love to hear ur thoughts on Hades game sometime because I too loved but had beef with the game and I think we are the same ….

yessss, disclaimer I haven't played it for like 3 years and I only played 10 hours/got to the end once before I dropped it so i might be misremembering some things but I stick by my opinions! under the cut cuz this is long as fuck 🫣 my haterism has no limits

ok so basically my grievances w hades can be split into 2 main areas: gameplay + narrative, I'll break them down in that order.

firstly gameplay - roguelikes/lites are my fave genre so I was predominantly approaching hades from this angle + its failure here is the clincher for me.

I found the gameplay repetitive and stale. this isnt a criticism of its permadeath like ive seen some ppl make - I usually relish repetition/grind especially in permadeath-based games bc I find tactical challenge fun + love the learning curve, its soooo rewarding. but hades is ultimately just a glorified button masher. mob/boss movesets are boring + unoriginal, and can generally all be fought the same way. trying to do otherwise drags out fights; it actively discourages emergent gameplay so theres little variance WITHIN runs. the pool of rooms for procedural generation is far too small so theres little variance BETWEEN runs. there's no real challenge to combat, difficulty is mainly increased by heightened mob tankiness as you get further in a run. movement/combat doesn't flow well, its mechanically very weak, relying heavily on its permanent upgrade system instead of developing skill in the way you approach the game. all the weapons feel clunky and don't really offer any unique challenge/benefit so theres virtually no point switching between them and the grind to unlock them all is so pointless… god there are just SOOO many hack n slash crawlers that keep it fresh even for hundreds of hours and hades fails miserably at keeping it fresh for even 5 measly hours :^/

I didnt like the boon system either - its far too simplistic + shallow. its fine to rely on chance, this is part of the random generation, and I think it had a lot of potential in that it was a good way of combining aesthetic w gameplay itself. but this is pretty much the only form of resource management - and theres barely any management to it! theres no reward for exploring different builds, they dont really synergise BETWEEN gods in interesting or useful ways, so the game encourages you to just stick with one god throughout, and biases random generation towards boons youve already collected. part of the fun for me is learning HOW to design a build, and working with the randomiser to play flexibly, but hades just isnt interested in that at all...

also - I don't like the permanent upgrade system, I think this detracts from it as a rogue. every time you should be starting on square 1 - maybe you pick up health upgrades etc throughout each run, and maybe you unlock new weapons etc for the random generation pool, or purely cosmetic upgrades, but the point of permadeath is that it RESETS! zags base health + dmg should be the same 50 hours into the game as when u first open it. make a different genre of game if u dont wanna do that lol. I also think IF youre going to say fuck it and add a permanent upgrade system, you should also add unlockable permanent biome shortcuts bc ur just making it boring as fuck to have to waste time grinding thru earlier biomes with unskippable combat once youre op for them.

I GET that they did this to make the game more accessible* to players who dont typically enjoy rogues, but it just makes it really disappointing for those of us who DO love rogues, and it always feels cheap to me when games are like "well of you want challenge then set the difficulty yourself with these modifiers 🙄" like just make the base difficulty TOUGH up front and then add an easy/story mode and accessibility features* for players who don't want the challenge.. if you're gonna call yourself a rogue the gameplay should be the PRIORITY not a throwaway option

one of my biggest peeves with hades is how people now laud it as one of the best rogues - whenever I mention I like the genre I almost always get asked "oh, like hades?" and it pisses me off so much… its a rogueLITE not roguelike, ie. it has rogue ELEMENTS but its not a true one and imo, it does a pretty shit job implementing them! I would have a lot less resentment towards it if it wasnt marketed as the forefront of the rogue genre - frankly its a very basic rogue with very mid gameplay, its characters/design are by FAR its strong point and it should be sold as such. its misleading and makes me sad that this is what most people think of when they hear rogue :-(

*(side note - accessibility in this game is another major flaw. theres really no excuse for a game as popular as this to be so lacking in accessibility options. allow people to bind keys together or use coloured outlines or have colourblindness settings or alter font/text size etc - its not that hard! dead cells did a great job of this lol)

anyway... moving onto my second criticism - narratively, its also unsatisfying.

the hades plot is, loosely, about a cycle of abuse, so the 2 natural directions to go in with this are either: #1: escaping the cycle, or #2: continuing it forever.

#2 is the easiest to do with a rogue format - bc of permadeath the game is already cyclical, so all you have to do is create an ending which loops perfectly back to the start (smth like 'its impossible to truly defeat/reconcile with his father so even after zag beats him, hades drags him back to the start again). obviously this is a miserable story to tell, but tbh I think it wouldve been interesting + fitting - so much of greek mythos is about cycles and the unchanging nature of the gods, and they LOVED eternal cyclical punishments. plus theres smth rly tragic about zag gradually helping everyone else while no one else can save him from his family LOL

#1 is a bit harder to do - this is the story they WANTED to tell but I just don't think it worked… the driving force plot-wise is his desperation to escape. realistically for this to happen the game needs to be finite, which it can't be due to its rogue nature - somehow you have to end up at the very start again. the main solutions I can think of for this are:

a) after the final boss, insert some time travel shenanigans (easy to fit into the worldbuilding using a character like kronos) and all of zags progress with hades is unspooled. this can be completely out of his control, or it could be a choice the player makes (to end the game here or choose to go back and relive zags past in order to progress npc questlines). eg. what happens in dead cells. again, tragic but it makes more sense to me

-or b) bite the bullet and give the game a completely finite ending after beating hades. if players want to go back and play more to complete other npc questlines, they pick up play from before they beat hades. this isnt explained "narratively" bc the plot is already concluded and now theyre just playing for fun (eg. what going under does)

I also think for a character-focused story-rich game, roguelite was a really terrible choice of genre as it locks every interaction behind pure chance and hours of grinding - just really baffling why they decided to do this, especially when theyve had such success previously making games within different genres (transistor, bastion, pyre). the core of the issue for me is that the devs wanted to create a game that was both story rich AND a rogue - and these things arent mutually exclusive, but the best features of each contradict each other when you try to balance them in a way to appease their respective fans (ie. the challenge/complexity of the gameplay is heavily restricted by keeping it easy for ppl unfamiliar with rogues to pick up, but the strength of the narrative arc is simultaneously weakened by the fact that as a rogue it has to be perpetual bc of permadeath + you're working with procedural generation…)

I'm not going to beef with the artstyle or music bc I rly loved them both (even if I wish the body diversity was better!), or with the interpretations of greek gods bc literally every piece of media abt greek mythos has to decide how to interpret them and I think its silly to be like "this isnt CANON" - since we actually dont HAVE a strict "canon" for many of these stories bc theyve been retold/translated in so many conflicting ways lol. I've just heard ppl complaining abt that and I dont think its worth complaining about 🤷‍♀️

ANYWAY tl;dr: hades should've been an action-heavy isometric metroidvania… it wouldve made it far easier to focus on character questlines (ie. with respawn points + a fixed map), unified the story they wanted to tell with the gameplay SO much more effectively, and allowed them to reach the full potential of both, whilst also playing up to supergiant's previous game-making strengths. but thats my 2 cents!

#SORRY THIS ENDED UP BEING SO LONG I JUST HAVE A LOT TO SAYYYY #also sorry for the weird formatting i typed this out in my phone notes and copy pasted into tumblr sjkdjf. hope it makes sense #just really frustrating to me that it ended up how it did bc it couldve been soooo good if it was good. but it wasn't 💔#whats even more frustrating is that hades 2 doesnt look like its gonna improve on any of this lmao. sad well theres other games!#hades #.asks #.diaries

8 notes · View notes

recurring-polynya · 2 months

Text

Writing/Art Update 3.5.2024

So, Polynya, did you finish the fanfic? Well...sort of? No. No, I guess the answer is actually no.

Last week, I said I had two and a half scenes left, one of which was the epilogue, and one scene I wanted to rewrite. I wrote the scene and a half that were not the epilogue, and then I tried to do that scene re-write. It came out better than it was, but I still didn't love it. I figured I would just go ahead and write the epilogue and then maybe come back and try again. 3/4 of the epilogue went great, and then I just couldn't manage to end it, and got stuck for three days. I went back and tried to re-write that scene I didn't like *again*, and barely got into before realizing that the way I was hoping to make it better did not, in fact. Yesterday, after Much Struggle, I managed to pull together an end to epilogue with is...okay...but I don't love it. So the current state of things is: 107,408 words, and it is strictly speaking, A Whole-ass Fanfic, but with two half-scenes that I hate.

It's really frustrating, because I had a bunch of productive weeks in a row, and my brain has just utterly collapsed on me in the eleventh hour. I've been trying so hard to push it over the finish line, but it's one of those things where I can't just brute force it, I need to somehow have a good idea. I am also so so tired this week. I know, logically, that probably I just need to relax and rest up for a few days and this will be easy to fix when I am feeling better, but it's hard to relax when I have this stupid almost-but-not-quite-done fanfic hanging over my head.

Here are some other stupid facts:

The scenes in question are important and I want them to be good, but they aren't exactly load-bearing, in the sense that nothing else depends on them

I don't even *need* the epilogue, and in fact, after I realized that I end all my Heart is a Muscle fics with people drinking (not on purpose, I'm just unoriginal), it made me want to drop the whole thing on principle (except that I also don't because it's sort of a thematic lead-in to the next story in the series and also Ukitake is there)

The two problem scenes are way at the end of the fanfic. When I do start posting this thing, I plan to post one chapter per week like I often do, meaning that I have literal months to fix these

Chapter 1 is beta'd and ready to go and literally nothing is stopping me from posting it this very second

BUT I don't want to post Chapter 1 until my beta has seen the whole fic because what if she notices something in Chapter 12 that needs to be fixed back in Chapter 1

AND literally nothing is stopping me from just sending my beta the last few chapters with a little note on the scenes I'm not happy with. It's highly possible she might have some ideas! Or just be like "you are insane these are fine"!

EXCEPT I don't want her to see my bad writing that I am embarrassed about

And so, here we are. I am probably going to give it another day or two, and if I can't manage to fix those two scenes, I'll just suck it up and send the rest to her.

I guess I also should re-do the banner, except I don't feel like re-doing the banner. It's....okay. I don't know. I just kind of slapped it together based on a thing we were doing at Art Club. Maybe I don't even want a banner.

Speaking of Art Club, it's March now, which meant there was a new theme at Art Club (nature) and I decided to try to get back into my daily drawing. I think this is possibly what killed my momentum on my fanfic. I am just literally only capable of having one priority at a time, even if it's a little tiny one, otherwise my brain just plays tug of war with my priorities and it's hard to manage either of them.

Anyway, I've been in kinda rough shape for the last few days, but I am sure it will pass. It's got some good bits, but I think I just never really managed to fall in love with this one, and I'm really worried about it getting a cooler reception than I'm used to, since the fandom seems to have quieted down significantly since the last time I posted one of these. On the other hand, I've worked too hard on this to not post it. Also, it's got some stuff in it that had to happen for the series to progress. And maybe other people will like it! Who knows! Not me!!

I had hoped to be able to start posting it this week, but that's not looking likely at this point, so I guess you can have another preview.

--- from Ch 3

"You really didn't have to go to all this trouble," Rukia pointed out, as she methodically piled her bowl with a heaping serving of everything on offer.

Renji grabbed a big pinch of the shirasu before passing it over to her. "It's fine. I'm not sure when I'll be up for cooking again, so I'm trying to clean out my fridge."

"Oh, so I'm helping?"

Renji grinned. "Sure."

"I love helping! If you need me to take this pickled ginger with me, I could take it off your hands."

"I think the pickles will probably keep for a bit."

"Hmmph," Rukia replied skeptically, and scooped some more into her bowl.

It was always difficult not to just sit and watch Rukia eat, in part because she truly did have an extraordinary talent for shoveling food into her mouth, but mostly because it reminded Renji of why they had come to the Seireitei in the first place, of how lucky he was these days. You have to go to work, too, this morning, he reminded himself, and dug in.

"You know, speaking of helping…" Rukia said a few minutes later, once she'd managed to eat enough to shave the edge of her morning ravenousness. "There's something I want to talk to you about."

The pleasant feelings in Renji's chest abruptly turned cold and gloppy. He frowned, and raised one eyebrow skeptically. “Yeah?”

Rukia looked up at him with her big, stupidly blue eyes. “Do you remember when we talked about how important it was for you to have a comfortable and peaceful recovery from your surgery?”

“I do. I distinctly remember asking you to drop it and not bring it up, again, actually.”

“Right, well, I never actually agreed to that. I think that you should come stay at my house.”

Renji gave her an incredulous look. “Your house? Kuchiki Manor, you mean? Your house that is actually my captain’s house?”

“It’s very nice there, as you know. The food really is very good and we have a million servants with nothing better to do--”

“I am sure they have better things to do, Rukia.”

“--and you can sit in a sunny spot in the garden and I’ll read you books and it will be so much nicer than staying in the Coordinated Relief Station!”

Renji heaved a huge, exasperated sigh. “It’s a nice idea, Rukia, but think about the look on Captain’s face if you even--”

“He said it was okay.”

Renji felt all the blood run out of his face, possibly out of his body entirely. “You asked him?”

“I know you’re only getting it done because he ordered you to. He obviously wants you to do your best to heal up well. He cares about you, too, you know, in his own way.”

Renji stiffened, his fingers tightening on his chopsticks. “You probably told him the whole story, then? How I broke my arm in the first place?” His voice sounded like it was coming from somewhere far away.

“Not the whole thing!" Rukia shook her head vehemently. "He knows you broke it saving me, that's the only important part.”

Renji drew in a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. All he could focus on was the sound of his own blood pounding in his ears. “Why do you always have to do this?” he finally managed through gritted teeth. “I asked you to just leave it, but you never can.”

Rukia shoved out her lower lip. “Maybe if you took care of yourself half as well as you take care of everyone else, I would!” she protested. “Just let me spoil you for a few days, would it be so terrible?”

“Yes.”

#writing update #art update #here's hoping that posting all this will expel it from my system and i can turn around the fix my stupid bad scenes

14 notes · View notes

invece-sto-sdraiato · 3 months

Text

Rant about everybody’s waiting (and some general fandom stuff) cause I finally found words to my feelings:

tw// mental health struggles, anxiety (can you notice that I’ve never done this before 🥲)

Yes, okay at first I was skeptical about the song. Reasons? I’m not entirely sure (yet) but once I heard the whole thing, I was like, “ok, not as bad as I thought, kinda my taste but will take time to grow on me…” by now I can definitely say that it’s super experimental and brave of them to do something like this, so props to that! I think the second half of the song is what really convinced me.

Lyrics-wise? As much as I understood the meaning, the importance they held for bojan, I didn’t see myself actually “getting” them, if you get what I mean. I didn’t understand what they even meant, at first. (well, I couldn’t hear some words in the song properly)

But now these-

What a wonderful life, panicking

A perfect time to get lost in deep, unoriginal line

There’s nothing left, just flight or die

Lonesome and run down

Can’t tell the sky from the ground

Turning around

Okay now… this hit me straight in the gut. (not sure if these are accurate, feel free to correct me) This… doesn’t exactly explain my feelings, but they sure do come pretty close. This made me realise certain things about my personality which I never thought about before. I was never the “take it easy” type and these words…somehow remind me to slow down sometimes… (I’m just rambling here atp)

I’ve always, ALWAYS been a nervous wreck, since maybe I was ten? And I’ve always gotten anxious about so many things (whether they’re in my control or not) for so long, that I just thought it was human nature to feel so much, and I thought everyone else was just better at handling it than me. I’ve never thought to label it or even address it, cause it was so ingrained in my unconscious, to know that it isn’t normal.

So, seeing how important it is that bojan is addressing this issue is not only a big deal for Slovenia, it is for me too. Joining this fandom, I see so many of you being so open, so vocal about things I generally would’ve never dreamed of admitting (it also does NOT help, the fact that I’m from an extremely conservative country 🥲)

The first time I ever felt accepted, or seen was here. People in my life till this point, have shared similar opinions with me, but no one actually got to know me, the real me because there was always that disconnect that somehow made me distance myself from them. Obviously this is all online and I don’t know any of you personally, but y’alls sheer honesty just makes me go waaaahhh (the only word I can think of rn)

And I think, the real therapy for me was talking to @da-proti-toku-grem and @paperphilia thank you so much for your kindness and acceptance. It means the world to me 🥹

(especially the fact that @paperphilia you asked me “are you ok?” after seeing my rant about the jance photo shoot. That is something I will not forget for a long long time.

And maca, obviously our long conversations will always have a special place in my heart (love you!)

Huh, okay this is getting too long. Anyways whomever of the baby boos reads this, just thank you so much for being there, a part of the reason why I’m happier now. This song ended up being therapeutic for me, who would’ve foreseen that lol.

#I’m so very sorry about this long post #the words magically came to me and here we are now #pls ignore this #goes in the tag cause it’s my fucked up analysis of EW #joker out

14 notes · View notes

camaro-and-smokes · 11 months

Text

Harringrove Fics Masterpost

Masterpost for all my Harringrove fics (both on tumblr and AO3) below the cut. Unfinished fics marked unoriginally as unfinished.

UPDATE 31 Jan, 2024: I changed my blogname, so most of the links on my tumblr fic posts are now broken. Links below are fixed to work and you can always read all my fics on AO3, AO3 links work and everything is available there also without logging in. I hope you like to read these despite the trouble.

My Metalsandwich & Mungrove fics masterpost >>

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The Way It Should've Been -series (AO3 >>)

Steve meets Billy. They fall in love. This series follows them through the most important events of their lives.

Part 1: The Love of My Life 1/10 >> / AO3 >>

Part 2: Is She for Real? 1/16 >> / AO3 >>

Part 3: Little Bird Starts Nesting 1/? >> / AO3 >> (unfinished)

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

August 1/8 / AO3 >>

After his first year in college Steve comes back to Hawkins for the summer he hears there's a new king in town. It could be another easy summer fling and he'd be in charge, but little does he know what he gets himself into… (Title from Taylor Swift song)

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Dream a Little Dream of Me 1/21 / AO3 >>

Steve works as VP of marketing in a Fortune500 firm. He starts to have a recurring dream of a relationship where he feels content in a way he'd never felt before. "It's just another dream" he tries to tell himself. It's not like you can dream someone perfect alive, can you?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Pretty (wo)man 1/12 / AO3 >>

This was the first night Steve had dared to actually stop by the red light district at all. He'd driven by maybe ten times the past week and spotted the blonde in the corner four times. He knew that he would actually have to talk to him at some point. But even the thought of being close to him always made him so anxious that he just couldn't stop the car. But as the vision of having the blonde in his bed haunted his mind stubbornly, he had decided that tonight would be the night when it would happen.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Get Out Of My Dreams, Get Into My Car 1/? / AO3 >> (unfinished)

1992 in San Diego, where Steve recently moved because of his new job, he runs into Billy - literally. Billy isn't exactly what he used to be when Steve had last seen him, but it isn't a bad thing. At all. By chance, they end up as roommates and, well…

or OMG they were roommates!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The Family Values Program 1/? / AO3 >> (unfinished)

Co-written with Aggressiveviking

When society started to decline, morals deteriorate and disease wiped almost one fourth of the population in the United States, The Family Values Program (TFV) was launched—the last beacon of hope for the betterment of the American people.

Steve had thought he wouldn't need to join TFV thanks to his dad's riches, whereas Billy had done all he could to ensure he would be one of the few accepted to it, for his father's sake—hoping desperately to turn twenty-five before being matched and thus age out of the program.

So, when they got the message from the Matchmaking Service of a successful match, neither of them knew what to expect—and how badly wrong it had gone.

To Steve, finding out that he was matched with a man by mistake was just one problem. The more pressing one was his upcoming twenty-fifth birthday a week from now, effectively aging him out of the program. If their match was revoked, Steve would be cast out of the TFV zone, with a promise from his father for no financial support. Steve couldn't let that happen.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oneshots

Standalones, either my own or prompted from fandom events. Latest is always the last on the list. Enjoy :)

Surprise >> / AO3 >> Pure fluff, genderfluid Billy.

Sugar >> / AO3 >> Pure fluff.

The Smear >> / AO3 >> Domestic fluff, genderfluid Billy.

King Size, only on AO3 in full >> Lemons.

A Fair Deal >> / AO3 >> Fluff, the party.

Cat in Heat >> / AO3 >> Lemons.

Princess >> / AO3 >> Fluff, lemons.

May I feel? >> / AO3 >> Pure fluff.

Menace, My Beloved >> / AO3 >> Mild hurt/comfort, pillow fights.

(I'm in Orbit) Stars Exploding >> / AO3 >> Fluff, feelings realizations, not really character death, happy ending.

The Letter >> / AO3 >> Angst, unhappy ending, permanent character death.

Wounded Deer >> / AO3 >> Angst, hurt/comfort.

Oh Baby >> / AO3 >> Lemons, hurt/comfort.

Snow on the Beach >> / AO3 >> / Podfic on AO3 >> Pure fluff.

Take it off (drive me crazy) >> / AO3 >> Lemons.

Little Siren >> / AO3 >> Merman AU, fairy tale.

Screwdriver >> / AO3 >> Fluff, meet cute, innuendos.

Snowfall on the Sahara >> / AO3 >> Fluff

Like a Virgin (only on AO3) >> Roommates, Lemons with feelings

Something memorable >> / AO3 >> kinda fluff I guess :D

Sunlight on his face >> / AO3 >> fluff

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

26 notes · View notes

struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor · 6 months

Text

Golden review, let's go:

3D (Feat. Jack Harlow) - Just hearing Jack Harlow's voice along with Jungkook's gives me the creeps. God. His voice is so boring and he's so boring and gross. Ugh. The alternate version is a million times better, it's embarrassing for Jungkook to have such bad judgement. 7/10 because Harlow ruins the song so bad, and maybe I'm being generous.

Closer To You (feat. Major Lazor) - Jungkook's English accent is particularly noticeable in the beginning. It's a pretty meh song, basic and repetitive, but at least it's short. The instrumental should've been stronger. I'd say the chorus is the best part - it's pretty. 7/10

Seven (feat. Latto) (Explicit Ver.) - The lesser of the Seven versions but might be the best song in the album after the clean version. The instrumental is really pretty. The cringe lyrics, though, are really not it. 8/10.

Standing Next To You - Eh... I like the novelty of hearing Jungkook sing differently like this, but it's also like he's copying someone else, and not finding his own voice like he has mentioned he wants to do - it feels like he's not trying out genres as much as imitating other popular artists in order to be popular as well. The song is MJ coded in a way that's both gross and extremely unoriginal. His "uh uh"s in the end are awful. Also, the lyrics are meh too. 7.5/10

Yes or No - Typical pop crap. Except for the humming at the end, the vocals are particularly underwhelming. 6.5/10

Please Don't Change (feat. DJ Snake) - how much boring EDM does this album need? The chorus is somewhat interesting but the instrumental is just too basic. 7/10

Hate You - Oh, a pretty song in the album. That was unexpected, but I don't like the chorus. It was so good until the chorus. The verses are nice and I like Jungkook's voice, but sadly the song never developed properly 7.2/10

Somebody - This song is nice, Jungkook's vocals are different in the beginning. I like the chorus. Might be my favorite bside for now. 7.4/10

Too Sad To Dance - It's nice and has PTD vibes, but it's not really my vibe either. It's somewhat refreshing in the album. 7.3/10

Shot Glass of Tears - Typical pop ballad... But from 10 years ago? It does build up nicely and get much better over time. But it's nothing special either and the end is a bit anticlimactic. 7.3/10.

Seven (feat. Latto) (Clean Ver.) - Still probably the strongest song in the album. At least it stands out. The clean version is 0.5 points superior to the explicit one, minimum. 8.5/10

Overall, I couldn't be bothered paying attention to the lyrics, because they were pretty uninspired in general and I don't care for romantic lyrics. Also, Jungkook's accent was pretty solid but sometimes it wasn't easy to understand what he was saying. The album had an adequate flow, but the songs weren't great. Nothing about the album stands out. It's a pretty basic album. 6.5/10

I'll listen to the album again after I sleep a couple more hours. I'm not disappointed because I didn't expect much, but in many ways this is the worst chapter 2 album.

#bts #jungkook #golden #text

8 notes · View notes

em-writes-stuff-sometimes · 10 months

Note

Not the anon that asked about plagiarism, but wanted to say thank you regardless! I personally find that I “copy” writers I read a lot from (and I mean this grammatically, and maybe if there’s a phrase or word I wouldn’t normally have used. phrase wise I only mean stuff like “it’s raining cats and dogs”, idk what those are called in English sorry 😭 word wise, it’s just easy to pick up new words from other authors as I’m not a native speaker), so reading from a lot of different authors have always been my favorite thing to do when I’m writing. In this house we unfortunately only write for like a week every other year 🫡

I recently read a fic I really liked, and a few days later I was casually writing something. It took me a good few pages before I realized the structure and POV was exactly the same as the fic I had read days prior. Okay. Cool. I’ll just keep it to myself and never publish it. So, here’s another question for you: what’s the difference, in your opinion, between being inspired by and copying someone else’s work? Say, would you be okay with someone using the plot to one of your fics to write their own (for example, “Daemon marries his second niece instead of Rhaenyra) if they asked you first + linked back to your fic? Daemon marrying his second niece is probably not a defining characteristic in any fic at this point, but I hope you get the idea! I’m not asking to be rude, I hope you understand that!!! I’m curious to know what you think! Thank you so much for taking your time!!! I adore your writing, and it’s one thing I’ve found I come back to read again and again, and I haven’t felt like that since I was a kid. <3

Hey, nonnie! I think that the key difference here is whether or not the story reads as similar to the original; like, if it's the same basic premise and same POV, but you take it in a different direction, I don't think there's any problem with that.

I do want to caution against writing yourself off every time you use a similar idea to another person; it's bound to happen, and just because the same foundation exists doesn't mean the actual narrative itself will be. Of course, if you're finding your story follows the same plot down to the story beats, then that is definitely something to rework. I feel like in that case, it's difficult to deny that that work would've been inspired at the very least by a specific work, if not outright used as a blueprint.

No one can own a premise! There are SO many people who have written Daemon x Rhaenyra's Sister fics out there, so it'd be unfair of me to act as though that were my idea in any sense. However, if someone wants to take a very specific plot point I've introduced; i.e., the plot of my negotiation scene with Dorne in 'Deal', then I think it would only be fair to credit the inspiration for that. I think it's also a valid point to credit authors whose stories have formed the basis for understanding a specific aspect of world-building (for example, I've had a bunch of people reference my research on Dorne and the Conquest in writing their own HotD-era Dornish fics). I feel like people get the wrong idea about crediting - it's not an acknowledgement of unoriginality, but rather a recognition of the fact that collating that information or creating that story took time and effort, and thus taking inspiration from it is a concession that that time and effort was valuable for more than just consumers' sake.

IDK. I hope that makes sense. Thanks for the question, nonnie!

#fandom asks

11 notes · View notes

sometimesrosy · 9 months

Note

Hello! I don’t know if you’d be able to shed some light on this, but there’s a really famous fantasy book going around now called Fourth Wing. I read it, and I loved it. But, there’s basically nothing new about it. It’s a story full of cliches, with stereotypical characters, and an easy to predict plot. But, there’s not a dull moment in the book. From the beginning till the end, even all of the banter are important plot points. From a literacy point of view, what’s your take on it? Why does it work? What makes a story work? I assume it’s super famous from how easy it is to read, not only the accessible language in fantasy but also how smooth the entire story ties in, and maybe how familiar it feels.

Oh I’m dying to read that! From what I heard it’s kind of like a Pern book, and I grew up as a baby geek on the Pern books. And yes I heard it’s also derivative of another big series (I can’t remember which one.)

I actually love this question.

HOW can a cliche ridden, predictable, stereotype filled story engage readers????

My unpopular opinion?

Originality is over rated. Lol.

There are, what is it? Seven stories that humanity tells over and over again. Actually depending upon who you’re talking to, it could be 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 or 36. With different details and different characters and different settings and... that’s okay.

The human brain likes its stories. It likes them familiar so it can follow along. If we didn’t like familiar stories, then we wouldn’t keep telling the same stories. Boy meets Girl, Rags to Riches, The Fall of the Great Man, or whatever. Do we also like surprise? Why sure. Often we don’t know which format the story is until we get to the end, but our brain still gets to sort all that information and shape that story into something meaningful to us with resonance to all the stories that came before.

It’s one of the reasons that our stories tend to fall into regular formats. We’re familiar with the 3/5/7 act structure. We know the Hero’s Journey kind of by heart even if we’re not consciously aware of it. It’s one of the reasons a story like the original Star Wars is so satisfying. It feels ‘right.’ Complete. In order.

I no longer complain of stories being unoriginal. I no longer worry about them following conventions or formats. I no longer worry about stories using tropes. I actually love tropes. Once I realized understanding the tropes in a story could help guide me to the kind of stories I wanted to read and increase my enjoyment, I surrendered to the tropes.

But a good story is more than just good writing, or an original idea, or even a brilliant book. I realized this many years ago when I was reading Twilight-- which I HATED. I literally threw the book across the room. It was so poorly writen I couldn’t stand it. But then I ran after it and picked it up and kept reading because I HAD TO KEEP READING.

And that bothered me. Why was I compelled to keep reading? That’s when I realized that story telling and writing aren’t the same thing. A book can be trite and have shallow characters and be super stereotypical and predictable but if it tells a good story in a way that keeps you turning the pages and engaged in what happens next and the relationships.

And you know what? I think that IS about hooking into the collective unconscious, connecting to the stories you already love, following along with the beloved plots. Jerking on our heartstrings and saving the cat and all that.

Some books are experimental by nature and their point is to push what we expect. They can be l or they can be an incomprehensible pretentious mess. Some books are about lyrical language and poetic images. Some books are about the pain and suffering of meaningful events and the words carve themselves into your skin. You can totally be swept away in the mastery of the writing if that’s your thing. And maybe those are the books that are going to be nominated for awards and prizes. Maybe those are superlative books. I am not knocking that kind of literature.

But that’s not the only kind of literature there is. Genre stories-- fantasy, sci fi, romance, horror, mystery, comic books etc are also literature. I think it’s a con game based in classism and misogyny that says only literary fiction is worthy and genre fiction is a lesser form of literature. I don’t really agree with that. It might, however, have a different purpose for a different audience, and that’s okay.

SOME books tell a story you already know and love in a different way and YOU ARE DOWN FOR IT. You want to see two idiots fall in love. You want to see the underdog overcome their challenges and win the contest. You want to see that damaged found family come together and be better than they were alone. You want to see the end of the world and the scrappy band of survivors trying to live just another day. Maybe you’re looking for a HEA. Maybe you’re looking for gore and trauma and a catharsis. Maybe you just want to live with dragons for a while.

There is nothing wrong with that.

Genre stories for the win.

#genre fiction #literature #literary analysis #tropes #i am biased y'all i've loved sff since I was a kid but my literary education tried to beat it out of me #and the truth is i prefer genre fiction to literary fiction and no longer agree that lit fic is superior #and there is some political weirdness around writing workshops and MFA creative writing degrees that I no longer trust

10 notes · View notes

wondereads · 10 months

Text

July Wrap-Up

Reviews and thoughts under the cut

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (10/10)

I've been interested in this book for a while, but I was finally prompted to read it by the TV show announcement. And I can definitely say I wasn't disappointed. If you watch any sort of procedural show, this will be right up your alley. I loved how the actual investigation was laid out with Pip's notes and diagrams in the book. It made me feel like I was solving the mystery right alongside her. The focus is definitely on the murder, but I still got a good sense of Pip's personal life and how her obsession with the case was affecting her and her relationships. I won't lie, one of the most anxiety-inducing parts was her college applications, but maybe that's just me. I managed to predict who the killer was, but the actual story behind the whole thing made my jaw drop. I can't wait to read the rest of the series and see the show!

Guardians of Dawn: Zhara by S. Jae-Jones (5/10)

This book is not irredeemable. The plot is unoriginal but not nonsensical or boring, the magic is super interesting, and Zhara has a lot of potential as a character. However, most of the characters are one-dimensional and uncompelling and the writing is...not good. The unending focus on the romance when there were so many other interesting things going on was so frustrating. And then there was the unashamed insertion of what is clearly meant to be BTS (yes, worldwide kpop sensation BTS) that completely destroyed my immersion. Also, the disability rep is pretty dubious. I was pretty disappointed by this read, which sucks because I think it had a lot of potential.

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater (10/10)

This book is like if Pride & Prejudice and Howl's Moving Castle had a baby, and I ate it up. This book perfectly blended a historical romance with engaging fantasy elements. Dora is a wonderful main character; she's lovable and engaging while still have a completely unique personality that really makes her stand out amongst a lot of fantasy romance protagonists. The love interest is suitably snarky while still being respectful and kind, especially to Dora. Their interactions are fun while still being incredibly romantic. The plot works well with the romance and characters, culminating in a very satisfying ending. Finally, I really appreciate the ending for Dora's issue in particular; it works well for her character and is, in my opinion, in good taste. I highly recommend this book, especially if you're looking for a light, quick read!

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas (6/10)

This book was one I just read to move on to the next book. I was told to read this one before Queen of Shadows, so I did. I did find some parts interesting, such as Celaena's time in the desert, and Arobynn Hamel has to be one of the most interesting characters in the whole series. However, I do wish this were an optional installment as it was kind of boring. It didn't feel like we got any insight into Celaena's character, rather just rehashes of what has appeared in previous books, and towards the end I was skimming. Also, I'm sorry, but Sam doesn't really hold any appeal for me. The romantic plotline was rushed and he was acting so weird towards the end.

The Stolen Heir by Holly Black (10/10)

I was so nervous; as the successor to Folk of the Air, The Stolen Heir had a lot to live up to, and it did. I absolutely adored Wren; she is a complex main character who is still easy to root for, and Black has continued to write amazing, unhinged female main characters. As in Folk of the Air, the use of faerie rules to trick the audience along with the characters is done very well, and there's some great foreshadowing in there. Concerning Oak, I'd seen a lot of people online saying he was a Cardan carbon copy, but I really don't see it. He's polite, considerate, and well-raised, but he also has a shocking capacity for violence, which is incredibly interesting. The twist at the end was amazing, particularly concerning Wren and Oak's relationship going forward, and I can't wait to read the second book!

Neverseen by Shannon Messenger (8/10)

I have now officially reread all of the KotLC books I got through previously. Going into Lodestar will be uncharted territory for me, and wow am I glad I refreshed my memory. I forgot a lot of stuff, so it was almost like I was reading it for the first time. Like I predicted, this was a slower one, mostly filled with finding out more about the Black Swan and the Council, and there was a lot of Sophie and her friends wanting to do things that were "too dangerous." I won't lie, it dragged a bit, but it really picked up once Sophie started attending Exilium. I think the twins are a much-needed addition to the main cast to help shake things up and keep the dynamic from getting too worn out. Also, Calla is a particularly strong side character. While I could predict the broad strokes of the story, the actual method of getting there took me by surprise, and there's a huge twist at the end that totally restructures how the rest of the series is going to look. I'm very excited to start Lodestar!

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (8/10)

While this book isn't perfect and is somewhat dated by its use of certain tropes and plot points, The Infernal Devices is without a doubt much better than The Mortal Instruments. It definitely has its similarities (the premise and mystery of birth behind the main characters are notably alike), but it has also really improved. Tessa, while still a little passive and nondescript in terms of character, isn't just a cookie cutter protagonist, and it's actually really interesting to see how the time period affects her opinions. The plot is kind of slow, but it's much less predictable and more imaginative. Also, TID probably has one of the best-written (and best-resolved in Clockwork Princess) love triangles in YA. Both Will and Jem have their own appeal, and they are distinct from one another while still being close in a unique way. I'm enjoying my reread so far!

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (10/10)

Oh, I just loved this book. Gideon is one of the best protagonists I've read in ages; she's snarky and stubborn and incredibly entertaining. Her dynamic with Harrow that is simultaneously filled with intense hatred and co-dependency is so interesting and provides all kinds of interpersonal tension not even factoring in the other Houses. Speaking of the other Houses, even if they aren't all the most likable, they are all strong characters in their own right and each bring something unique to the story. The worldbuilding, as is often said about this book, is a little confusing, but I actually really enjoyed it. It was like a puzzle to figure out, and it helped with the immersion so much since Gideon wasn't dwelling on explaining things she already knew. The plot, despite the characters being somewhat aimless for some periods, was never boring as tension between the characters kept things moving when they were stuck plot-wise. The twist at the end was amazing and shocking and horrifying, and I've already got Harrow checked out in my library.

Painted Scars by Neva Altaj (5/10)

I got this from KU on a whim since I wanted something I wouldn't really have to think about, something quick and easy, but I think it was far too quick. While I think the characters had some potential, everything in this book was way too fast, from the build of romantic feelings to the typical third act "break-up", if you could even call it that. For a book that was only 240 pages, it was trying to do way too much and really should've just focused on the romance.

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang (10/10)

This book is pretty much perfect. The plot is engaging, the characters are all amazing, the writing style hits hard, and there’s really good social commentary that touches on, honestly, almost every issue out there. Rin has got to be one of my favorite protagonists of all time; she’s the underdog, she’s easy to root for, and our desire for her to succeed almost makes us overlook her glaring flaws. Kuang establishes Rin’s overwhelming need to succeed, to win, to be the last one standing from the very beginning, and it leads to her slow but steady downfall as she must decide how far she is willing to go for the sake of her nation. Rin’s time in Sinegard is an interesting and unique twist on the fantasy school setting, and the tone switch between the time at Sinegard and the time at war is done masterfully. Even the war takes an incredibly dark turn, goes farther than the reader would ever expect, as Kuang draws from real history to write horrors that should’ve been beyond anyone’s imagination. Perhaps the most technically amazing part of this book is that even when she has fallen so far, part of us agrees with Rin; which is the danger of it all, isn’t it?

Half Upon a Time by James Riley (8/10)

I loved this series as a kid, and rereading it was like returning home. It's actually so funny that this book has tons of tropes I love today just in a middle grade format. There's a pretty good level of intricacy to the plot, and the fairy tale elements are tons of fun. There are plenty of familiar characters that each have a unique twist to their story, often intertwining their stories with each other. For example, the Huntsman from Snow White is also the woodcutter/hunter from Little Red Riding Hood. This book also has a fun twist by being from the perspective of the character who guides someone who has fallen into another world. In most other books, May would be the main character, so having Jack tell the story subverts some expectations. The way Jack, May, and Philip interact is a little typical for the genre and time period, though I appreciate that it is heavily implied that Philip has no romantic interest in May. Finally, Jack's mysterious involvement with the Eye and his sword is one of my favorite parts of the book, and it's a pretty fresh concept.

Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce (9/10)

The reread of the Tortall books continues! I actually don't remember Wild Magic and Wolf Speaker all that well (unlike Emperor Mage, which I reread many many times), so this was a lovely trip of rediscovery. I think this may just be a side effect of Pierce's writing style, but Daine seems way older than thirteen. If I had to guess just based on how she acts, I'd guess closer to fifteen/sixteen. Regardless, she's a very fun main character and a little funny in that she's practically the only Pierce MC to advocate for politeness and etiquette. Her relationship with Cloud is a great one, very sibling-like, and I love how she gets closer to particularly Onua and Numair. The plot is interesting but, for me who has a lot of emotional connection to the series, is ultimately overshadowed by the characters.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (DNF @ 35%)

While I found the world of this book incredibly interesting and fairly unique, it was just boring. Literally nothing happened for all of parts one and two, and when something finally did happen it wasn't nearly interesting enough to make me want to continue. I know this book receives high praise, and I may come back to it some day, but my copy was due in the library and it didn't intrigue me enough to renew it.

The Lost Siren by Raven Storm (3/10, DNF @ 56%)

This was an interesting idea for a fantasy romance, but I hated most of the love interests and romantic/spicy scenes were just not good. There was very little chemistry between the main character and most of the love interests, and the constant threat of violence/sexual assault against in the main character totally turned me off. I got past the halfway mark, which is my threshold for a rating.

BONUS

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (CR, 27%)

I'm liking this book so far, but I'm getting a very precarious sense as I read it. The setup is done in a way that means very small details could ruin it for me, but so far this book is dodging them like a pro. It's been a while since I read a male main character, but I really like Lazlo! It's incredibly easy to be on his side, and I love that he's soft-spoken and academically focused. I'm not sure how I feel about the introduction of a whole new major POV with a new host of characters 20% of the way into the book, especially since I was under the impression this would be single POV, but it hasn't been too bad so far.

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (CR, 13%)

Similar to Gideon, this book is incredibly confusing, and I'm enjoying it. Harrow is a very different character and narrator from Gideon, and I feel like her sort of stagnancy is a pretty good depiction of depression. What I find most interesting is what appears to be this memory rewrite Harrow has gone through. She seems to have lost a lot of her memories from the first book and just after it, and it seems everyone knows what happened then except her. How interesting...

#books #wrap up #agggtm #half a soul #tog #the stolen heir #holly black #kotlc #the infernal devices #gideon the ninth #tlt #the poppy war #half upon a time #the immortals quartet

9 notes · View notes

pensat-i-fet · 2 years

Text

A Manchester Affair (Rúben Dias): Chapter 14

Chapter 13

Chapter 15

Masterlist

Wattpad

The day after the match, Lucía was checking her emails when she realised she hadn't been on social media since leaving Old Trafford. She had tried to separate herself from all of it until it all blew up.

Logging onto Instagram she wasn’t really surprised to see all the notifications she had waiting for her. A bit late to private the account, then.

She didn't bother reading the comments or seeing who was following her now. But she did want to delete the DMs so she could spot the ones she got for work more easily. The problem with that plan was that she could see the beginning of each message. And those weren't friendly words she saw.

Despite trying her hardest not to do it, she ended up opening some of the messages and reading what was written there.

Ten minutes later, Lucía had learnt that she was potentially the worst person in the world. She was ugly, she was a whore and, of course, she only wanted Rúben for his money. No matter how unoriginal, it still hurt.

A knock on the door stopped her from reading more.

"Come in".

It was Erik who showed up. "Morning. Can we talk?"

"Sure", she said, still annoyed about the way he had treated Rúben.

"I'm sorry about yesterday. Please apologize to Rúben for me. I…I saw you hurting again and lost control".

"I get it. But you were really unfair to him".

"I know".

“Let’s hope your next meeting is a bit better”, she said, sighing.

"So", he started again. "Are you ok?"

"Peachy".

"You don't need to lie to me. I can tell you are not feeling ok".

Lucía didn't cry last night, not in front of Rúben. But now, it all came out.

"Hey hey hey", said Erik, walking to where she was sitting so she could hug her. He gave her some time to let her emotions out before he could try and console her with his words.

But out of the corner of his eye, he could see her computer screen.

"What is this?"

"Nothing", she said, trying to close the tab when she realized what he was talking about.

"Were you reading comments about you right now? Seriously? You are a lot smarter than that".

"Maybe I'm not".

"These people", he said, pointing to the computer. "They don't know you. Their opinions don't matter".

"I know. I won't let them affect me again. I just had a moment of weakness, I guess. It’s been too many things happening in too little time”.

“I understand. But it’s easy to let outside opinions hurt us and I don’t want that for you. You didn’t see me reading comments about me after Brentford, did you?”, he jokes, trying to make her laugh.

“I read them for you, coach. They even said you were losing because of how awful your suits are”, she laughed, joking back.

“Well, what do they know about style?”

Before leaving, he turned back to talk to Lucía again.

“We are all here for you. Don’t forget it, Lu”, he reassured her.

“I know”.

And they were there for her, but they also tiptoed around her the next couple of days. It was a funny feeling. On the one hand, she had the people who knew and loved her being afraid of doing or saying anything that could hurt her. And then on the other were the people who didn’t know her but had no problems telling her all the things they knew would hurt her. The only one who was in the middle was Rúben. Probably because he was the only one who could truly understand how she felt. His privacy had been invaded as much as hers had been. But he seemed to be taking it well. It wasn’t the first time something like this happened to him.

The press easily found out who Lucía was and all of a sudden her entire life was being printed on tabloids. How ridiculous. Even her friends were getting DMs from people asking them about her.

And everyone had an opinion about everything, but it was her friendship with Pep a lot of people decided to focus on. So many theories about how that was linked with Lucía’s relationship with Rúben. Well, it wasn’t really that hard to get, was it?

It was exhausting to read so many ignorant comments.

She knew she shouldn’t, but she kept on looking at the comments made about her. It was like an addiction. You knew it was bad for you, but you couldn’t stop. The tabloids’ comments made the messages she got on Instagram seem PG.

But the worst thing about this is that no one knew she was reading them. They could see her being affected but they just assumed it was because of the articles. They didn’t imagine she was doing this to herself. And a part of her wanted them to find out just so they could talk some sense into her and get her to stop.

The media team were trying to stop the publication of more articles, but they were doing so well that the tabloids didn’t care about what United or City had to say about it. They kept on printing stupid article after stupid article.

Two weeks after the derby, Lucía was taking a shower after work when Rúben let himself inside her apartment. She knew he was coming and that he had a key, but she didn’t expect him there so early. If she had, she would have at least dried her face from all the crying she did in the shower. It was becoming a tradition for her to do that.

“What happened? Are you ok?”, he said, running to hold her.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m…”.

But she was not fine. And if there was someone that deserved to know, it was her boyfriend. He would understand.

“I can’t deal with this anymore”, she said, crying again and holding onto him.

“With what?”

“The articles, the comments, the messages, …it’s too much”, she finally admitted. And it felt good to get that out of her chest.

“Have you been reading them?”

“Yes, I can’t seem to stop”.

“You have to. This is so stupid. You’re hurting yourself on purpose”, he said, shocking Lucía with how harsh his words were.

She immediately separated from him.

“You think I’m having fun?”

“It’s as simple as stopping. I haven’t read anything so it’s not affecting me”.

“You have to be kidding me”, she half laughed. “Even if you did it wouldn’t affect you as much. All the insults are coming my way, Rúben”.

“Who cares about that?”

“I care!! I haven’t spent 10 years building this career to now be reduced to a gold-digging whore!”, she yelled, annoyed at his lack of understanding.

“But you aren’t any of those things”.

“It doesn’t make a difference”.

Lucía sat on her bed, tired of being tired. Sad and drained of energy.

“This is why I knew dating a footballer was a bad idea”, she said, not thinking about her words.

“Dating me is a bad idea? Well, thanks for letting me know. It feels great to hear”.

She could hear the anger in Rúben’s words.

“You know what I mean, Rúben. Dating you comes with a lot of good things. So many I can’t even count them, but it also includes things like this. These moments when I just don’t know how to cope with them. I didn’t choose to become a public person. I’m supposed to stay behind the scenes, not to be the one people talk about”.

He remained silent. And she somehow found the strength to say the words she didn’t want to say but felt she needed to say anyways.

“Maybe we should take a break or something…”.

“No”.

“Excuse me?”, she said, looking at him. His face was as serious as she’d ever seen it.

“I said no. We’re not taking a break. We are not breaking up over this. Can’t you see that’s what these people want?”

Lucía just looked at him, trying to process his words.

“They want to break us. They want you to feel so bad that you do this. So bad that you stay away from me so they stop writing articles about you. But they won’t. They’ll write even more. And they want me to believe all those things they say about you but I don’t give a shit because I know the real you and they don’t”.

Even though Lucía tried to talk, only sobs came out of her mouth. It was then that Rúben sat down next to her and hugged her.

“If I need to be strong for the both of us for a little while, I will be. If I need to take your phone from you so you don’t read anything else, I will do it. But you’re not breaking up with me over this. Please, just let me help you”.

“I’m sorry”, she whispered.

“Don’t be. You’re being attacked left and right. It’s normal to feel this way. But you can’t just keep it to yourself. There are so many people in your life willing to help”.

“I know. And I’ll stop reading the articles and the comments. I swear”.

“Oh, I’ll make sure you do. And I’ll tell Diogo and Scott to make sure you don’t do it at work”.

“Scott? Are you texting daily now or something?”

“Yes, we are”.

That made Lucía move back to look at him. He was actually serious.

“What?”

“He’s worried about you and so am I. So we’ve been talking, trying to see how we could help you”.

“I like that you’re friends”, she said, smiling between the tears. “At least something good came out of this”.

“Other good things can come out of this. We can come out stronger. But you have to want it, and you have to work with me for it”.

And that’s exactly what they did.

"What are you doing?", asked Scott when he saw her sitting down by herself in the canteen.

"Reading an article".

"What?", he said, taking her phone from her. Lucía only laughed at that.

"About a new treatment for an ankle injury".

"Well, you can't blame me for caring", he said, giving her the phone back.

"I'll tell your bestie you're great at your job, don't worry".

"He's not my bestie", said Scott, rolling his eyes.

"You text him more than you text me these days. I'm a bit jealous", she teased him.

"Whatever".

"I'm joking, Scott. It means a lot to me that you two get on well. Much better than pushing each other on the pitch".

"Well, let me remind you it was your boyfriend who pushed me. I did nothing".

"It must have been a first", said Lucía, laughing at his friend's face.

“You ok, though?”, he asked.

“Yes, I’m ok”, she smiled.

#ruben dias #ruben dias imagine #ruben dias x reader #ruben dias fluff #ruben dias fanfic #ruben dias fanfiction #footballer imagine #footballer x reader #footballer fluff #footballer fanfiction

43 notes · View notes

vanvelding · 1 year

Text

Star Trek: Picard Final Spoilers

Below the cut

Who had "Jack Crusher with the power of love" in the pool?

.***.

Borg Queen: "Watch. Your future's end."

.***.

The Enterprise-D is fucking cash money for such an "antiquated old ship":

-Immediately finds the Borg super-cube in Jupiter when every ship passing through Sol for YEARS couldn't.

-Takes out the point defenses of the Borg super-cube in one volley (remember when The Borg had tractor beams?)

-Star Trek XIV: Jupiter Drift

.***.

Worf didn't die. I thought for a moment, but they didn't. They just made him more badass. If nothing else, this season treated Worf with the disrespect we expect of TNG, but otherwise pretty fucking well.

.***.

"What did you do to him?" Motherfucker, she did the one thing Borg do to him.

.***.

"Man, it's easy to reverse assimilation by killing the Borg Queen." I know; it's a new type of assimilation except for when Picard jammed an assimilation tube into himself--which I guess is a thing now--and then when Jack took it out he...deassimilated himself.

.***.

Data: "The Borg super-cube has powered down its weapons and lowered its shields."

Picard: "That's an invitation."

Borg communication: "To the approaching vessel, if Will Riker is on board, we surrender. Otherwise, resistance is futile."

.***.

Lrrr, of Omicron Persei 8: "Why does the Queen not simply destroy the ship and crew which have stymied the Borg at every turn?"

.***.

I talk a lot of shit about this show, but Shaw's "The rules she breaks were probably broken anyway..." Actually good television. I'm not sure when he recorded that, but I choose to believe it's before they left spacedock.

.***.

We didn't get the Worf versus Borg Elnor fight. I...I didn't realize how much I was anticipating that.

.***.

I can't get over how this show uses blood and death and trauma to pose as mature, but erects a protective field around its main characters that would make a golden age comic blush. It's elitist trash at its core, especially when it goes all-in on making the Gary Stu that dwarfs Wesley Crusher and Picard II into the captain's assistant and Q's most special boy.

.***.

I thought for a moment, "It would be stupid and lazy and so unoriginal if they gave us an MCU-style teaser at the end of--OH GOD THAT'S Q THOSE IDIOTS DID FINALLY DID IT. DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!"

.***.

The thing with Seven and the Titan finding a way to buy time cleverly integrated so many things that had been set up in the series. It was legitimately enjoyable to watch and well-executed. The cloak didn't even fail first, which it usually does.

.***.

No Janeway. I thought we'd get Janeway. I don't have any strong feelings about this one way or the other.

.***.

Was joking about Chekov showing up (or Chekov's son? Grandson? I'm not really sure what was up with that except it was cringeworthy fanservice). I'm happy Walter was cut a check and finally canonized into the TNG-era.

.***.

This isn't a comment on the show, but Geordi if you're going to order a woman to blow up the core of a ship which is going to her kill son and baby-daddy, maybe...just do it yourself. Be graceful dude.

.***.

When I talk about "jerking off until your dick falls off," I mean going straight to the Enterprise-G when we just saw the Enterprise-F. Why show the Enterprise-F when it's going to get immediately sidelined and replaced.

Also, renaming the Titan to Enterprise erases the accomplishments and history of the Titan. I don't even care about the Titan, but that's fucked.

.***.

So what the fuck is wrong with me???

.***.

It's cute how we end on a poker scene reminding us that we've ended up exactly where we were 30 years ago, except Picard has a son. We get these huge stakes and then...poof it's like none of it ever happened. I wouldn't care if the stakes weren't so pretentiously, pointlessly high.

This is why I quit reading comics. World changing stakes once a year that...get referenced but culturally forgotten pretty soon. None of it really matters because we're computer-generating a Borg cube bigger than the last one to convince you simpletons this story is better than the last one because the odds against our heroes are larger. How could they ever get out of--they got out of it again with no consequence and no lasting effects. Status quo antebellum.

#star trek picard #picard spoilers #star trek picard spoilers #PIC spoilers

6 notes · View notes