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jujumin-translates · 3 months

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Event | Act 3.5 Event - NEW ERA GARDEN | EP: New Era Seeds

*Contains spoilers for Act 12 - eternal moment*

Shift: Whoaaa, Reni-san was so cool!

Haruto: Don’t yell! Think about the neighbors! We’re going to get complaints!

Shift: Okay, but like, wasn’t he so cool!?

Madoka: …

Haruto: What’s with the daze? Did you watch it properly?

Madoka: Ah, sorry. I was just imagining the two of you standing on that unfinished stage someday.

Shift: With your script, of course… right, Madoka?

Madoka: Yeah!

Haruto: And I’ll be the lead, obviously.

Shift: No way, I’m not handing that role over to you.

Haruto: Hmph, then you better work even harder if you want to shoot for the top. Otherwise, there’s no way you’ll be standing on that stage.

Shift: Bet. Leave it to me.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Kabuto: …So this is Yukio Tachibana and the first-generation MANKAI Company, huh?

Aoshi: …That theater will be our new goal.

Kabuto: Yeah. We’re starting over from nothing. I don’t see how we couldn’t get fired up.

Aoshi: …By the way, I won’t be able to come and wake you up tomorrow. Please make sure you set four alarms.

Kabuto: Zznn--.

Aoshi: That didn’t take long…

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Fanboy: Uwhoooaaa! I didn’t really get some of the story, but that was so cool! It was sick as hell…!

Fanboy: (So this is the first generation of MANKAI Company… the ones who started it all…)

Fanboy: (If it weren’t for them, today’s MANKAI Company wouldn’t exist… I can’t thank them enough…)

Fanboy: (It was so worth skipping cram school to watch the stream.)

Fanboy: (I’d kill to go see a play live on Veludo Way… I wanna meet my oshi…)

Fanboy: Oh, right! I gotta make sure all the other guys have seen it too…

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

*Phone notification*

Boy Who Stands Out: Hmm? “Did you watch it?”. I mean, I did, but…

Boy Who Stands Out: I didn’t really get any of it. No way it’s gonna be a banger.

Boy Who Stands Out: I’ll just give a vague response, or whatever. More importantly…

Boy Who Stands Out: …Kyaha! This morning’s post is doing crazy numbers! Literally blessed.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Young Delinquent: I-I said I’m sorry… c’mon… gh.

Boy With Birthmark: …

*Smack*

Young Delinquent: Ughh--hg.

Boy With Birthmark: …

*Two smacks*

Young Delinquent: --Ghugh.

*Phone notification*

Boy With Birthmark: --.

Boy With Birthmark: …Give me a sec.

Young Delinquent: --Gh.

*Fabric rustling*

Boy With Birthmark: “Did you watch it?” …Mmhm, oopsie, I forgot. (1)

Boy With Birthmark: “I’ll just watch the VOD.” Anyway…

Young Delinquent: Haah, haaah… fuck…

Boy With Birthmark: …You’re a stubborn one, huh?

*Smack*

Young Delinquent: --Ghaugh.

*Fabric rustles*

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

*Phone notification*

Refined Boy: “I watched it.” …And, send.

Refined Boy: It was easy to understand with the Shinsengumi theme, and it was really profound and interesting, too.

Refined Boy: I’ll have to give Dad the link to the VOD later.

Refined Boy: --Right, but first I need to submit next month’s shift schedule to my manager.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Yukio: …So, congratulations on the great success of our first-day finale, cheers!

Hiro: Cheers!

Kasumi: Good work, everyone!

Zen: Good work.

Yuzo: The number of viewers of the stream seems to be goin’ strong.

Reni: Thanks to this, the number of subscribers for the New Fleur Award Channel increased, so it was a meaningful performance for the Award Committee.

Syu: Well then, how about we hear a few words from our director?

Yukio: Eh? Me?

Syu: Since you’ve made such a successful comeback, are there any ideas you have for the future?

Yukio: Ah, the future… umm…

Yukio: Actually, I have a favor to ask of you all!

Kasumi: ?

Hiro: Some kinda reform or something?

Yuzo: Are you gonna try and make us do somethin’ else?

Yukio: …Please do theater with me for the rest of our lives!

Hiro: Hah…?

Yuzo: The hell?

Zen: You make it sound like you’re proposin’.

Syu: Hah! So you finally said it. You finally said what you couldn’t say back then.

Yukio: H-Hehe…

Yukio: I was afraid to even think about it, and I didn’t want to say anything as to not interfere with anyone else’s plans. But I’ve been thinking about that ever since Reni and I had our fight and I just wanted to say that…

Yukio: Truly, I’ve always wanted to say that.

Zen: I getcha. Well, I’m livin’ in retirement with nothin’ else to do anyway. I’m with you.

Hiro: I’m also with you. I’ll stay this time until the end because I couldn’t protect what we had back then.

Syu: I suppose if everyone else is on board.

Yuzo: You’ve got my word. I’ll see this thing through.

Kasumi: You’re the one who said “I want to stay close to this troupe and love them forever”, aren’t you? There’s no going back on that now.

Kasumi: I’ll help in any way that I can!

Yukio: You guys… are you serious?

Reni: …I’m sure what you’ll do will continue to be utterly absurd. It’s irritating, but I’ll follow you.

Reni: You’ve been cleared of our long-standing grudge.

Syu: You’re sure piling it on, aren’t you?

Reni: There’s no denying it. I just thought differently then.

Yukio: HUH!? Scary…

Yukio: But are you really finally making peace with things?

Reni: I suppose so.

Yukio: …I’m glad. Because you’re the first person I ever wanted to spend the rest of my life making plays with, Reni.

Reni: --.

Reni: …Hmph, I’m probably the only person in the world who can go along with your recklessness.

Reni: There’s no avoiding it.

[ ⇠ Previous Part ]

• • •

T/N:

(1) Wasn’t sure if I was able to make it come through clearly enough, but he ends his sentence with “ッピ” which is like, a very cutesy way for a fictional character to end their sentences.

#a3!#a3! translation #madoka ikaruga #shift arakawa #haruto asuka #kabuto amadate #aoshi shikagawa #kasumi hinamori #yuzo kashima #hiro hyuga #zen kuryu #syu otomiya #yukio tachibana #reni kamikizaka #// i love fanboy so much #he has spoken only six lines but he’s already my son i love him

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portraitoftheoddity · 1 year

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Don't Drink The Paint Water

Ok, the title is a little misleading since a lot of the paint I'm gonna talk about in this post would have been tempera or oil, and not water-based acrylic, so there would be no paint water. But as someone who worked in acrylic and definitely accidentally drank their paint water more than once, the warning is what rings in my mind every time I think of this topic.

Art is great for the soul. Art supplies, however, are not always great for the body.

Humans love smearing ourselves and our stuff with pretty colors made of shit that will kill us. Lead facepaint in Queen Elizabeth's court; Arsenic Green Wallpaper in Victorian parlors; uranium in glassware and wristwatches. And of course, all kinds of heavy metals in paints.

I talked in my post about Caravaggio about how a lot of his balls-to-the-wall batshit insane behavior may have been a result of chronic poisoning from his paints. Many artists through that whole era of history suffered from lead poisoning, to the point that "Painter's Colic" was a term for the intestinal constipation caused by chronic lead poisoning.

Now let's talk about that a little, and the various toxins that some of your favorite historical painters may have had in their systems from the creation and application of their paints...

White Paint: Lead

Lead white has been used as far back at the 4th century B.C.E. by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and was THE white pigment in western art up through the nineteenth century (and also appeared in works from China and Japan). It's important to note that through much of history, you didn't just go to the store and buy a tube of paint -- you made your own by grinding up pigment and adding it to a medium such as oil. To make lead white paint, artists would grind a block of lead into powder, releasing toxic dust particles into the air. The pigment's popularity largely stemmed from how thick and opaque it was, allowing for dense applications of radiant, warm white.

Lead poisoning resultantly affected a great many artists who worked extensively with lead white paint, with gastrointestinal, neuromuscular, and neurological symptoms. Chronic lead poisoning resulted in abdominal pain, nausea and constipation, as well as neuromuscular issues such as tremor, loss of coordination and numbness. Neurologically, sufferers could experience loss of short-term memory or concentration, depression, fatigue, headaches, stupor, slurred speech, and difficulty with emotional regulation, which may have contributed to the enduring stereotype of artists as erratic tortured geniuses.

Lead white would eventually be replaced by zinc white and titanium white.

Vermilion Paint: Cinnabar (Mercury-Sulfide)

Cinnabar is a form of mercury sulfide (HgS) that can range in color from bright scarlet to brick-red. It is the most common source ore for refining elemental mercury-- and from both its mined form and creation via synthetic alchemy was used to create a range of red 'vermilion' pigments. Cinnabar was used decoratively dating back to antiquity due to its color, appearing in fine craftsmanship and artworks ranging from China to South America, and was the primary source of red pigment in European painting from the Renaissance to the 20th century.

And of course; it came with the fun fun experience of mercury poisoning! While ingesting cinnabar isn't nearly as toxic as other forms of mercury since the chemical composition is less reactive, cutting and grinding cinnabar to create paint pigment would lead to inhalation of particles, and the more it was ground, the brighter the red it would produce. Plus, heating cinnabar would result in the release of highly toxic mercury vapor which would damage the lungs. Long term cinnabar use would lead to renal failure, and likely other symptoms of mercury poisoning such as damage to the brain and nervous system.

Vermilion would eventually be replaced with the less-toxic cadmium red.

Naples Yellow Paint: Lead + Antimony

Here's a two-for-one poisoning deal! Naples yellow -- a saturated, thick yellow that could range from pinkish orange to an almost green lemon-yellow -- is derived from lead antimonate. Inorganic and synthetically created, the pigment itself dates back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, making it one of the oldest synthetic pigments (it was predated by the Egyptians' use of the yellow pigment 'Orpiment' which was made with arsenic, for even more fun!) It was first referred to as Naples Yellow in the 17th century, and became particularly popular in European painting from the mid 1700s to mid 1800s, used by artists such as Délacroix, Jacques-Louis David, and Goya.

In addition to the joys of lead as discussed above, Antimony can cause vomiting, headache, dizziness, and sleeplessness, with effects similar to arsenic poisoning.

While there were a number of holdout artists who continued to use Naples Yellow up to the 20th century, Naples Yellow was largely replaced by Chrome Yellow and Cadmium Yellow by the late 19th century.

These are just a few of the more popular culprits in western art history -- and not counting fabric dyes such as Scheele's Green which experienced brief and deadly popularity in the Victorian era (made with Arsenic), or Uranium Yellow pigment used in ceramics and glass, which... I think you can guess where the problem with that lay.

All of which is to say, Art Was Hazardous, and a lot of artists through history quite literally died for the dyes, sacrificing their health, sanity, and years off their lives, knowingly or not, for the colors in their masterworks.

#art history #poisoning cw #paint #pigments #lena rambles #renaissance art #baroque art #Y'all loved the crazy Caravaggio post so here's some deets on what may have made him that way

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dbmars · 9 months

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Bram Stoker's HANNIBAL: Chapter 72

Chapter 72 came out today! We have some of my signature Hannibal 1st person POV at the beginning, and Randall Tier finally gets to take his steampunk animal suit for a spin. Steampunk is a genre I'd love to explore more thoroughly. I think I've read a couple of books and I do love classic sci-fi like HG Wells. It was fun to imagine how Randall would create his suit using Victorian-era tech, since hydraulics were in their infancy.

I found this page from the Art and Making of Hannibal someone had uploaded and used that as a reference for quite a bit of Randall's suit creation scenes:

When I was writing the first scene way back when Hannibal meets Randall for the first time, I realized how perfect the Randall/Renfield comparison really was. All Randall ever wanted was to be a predator, and on top of that, Hannibal can shape-shift into animals, which is Randall's dearest wish! Dracula and Hannibal really do just perfectly mesh together.

Hannibal also encounters the other creature he's created... Please enjoy these pictures of Caroline Dhavernas giving FIERCE vampy energy...

But Jack, Will, and Chilton are in investigation mode, and they head to the hospital to interview a child that had an encounter with this "bloofer lady"...

And who do they run into but one of Chilton's old medical school cums chums (that was a legit real typo and I left it because HAHAHA) Dr. Donald Sutcliffe, who was, apparently, a total fuckboy at university. We were getting pretty serious in these chapters and you gotta have some levity.

In that case, always make a joke at Chilton's expense. I LOVE YOU CHILLY

He's SO MAD Donald never returned his telegrams.

Here's the inspo for the Bloom family mausoleum.

Alas, there is no smut in Chapter 72, so this will be an EXCERPT ENDING:

The tomb in the daytime, and when wreathed with fresh flowers, had looked grim and gruesome enough; but now, some days afterwards, when the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust and their greens to browns; when the spider and the beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance; when time-discoloured stone, and dust-encrusted mortar, and rusty, dank iron, and tarnished brass, and clouded silver-plating gave back the feeble glimmer of a candle, the effect was more miserable and sordid than Will could have been imagined. He felt his throat going tight again. That Alana lay here, locked up to decay along with the flowers…

XOXO DB

#hannigram #hannibal #fannibals #fannibal family #will graham #hannibal lecter #murder husbands #hannibal nbc #dracula by bram stoker #vampire au #vampire art #vampire aesthetic #caroline dhavernas #randall tier

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wcrriorhearts · 5 months

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I am back in my Hunger Games era and I have no regrets. 10+ years and I am still writing my babies <3 I still love them as much as I did when I first read the books <3 in other words, come write with my HG muses

#ooc

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amtrak12 · 2 months

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Recently, I realized grief is my primary theme in my Lucifer fics and ideas. More than the theme even, grief is the entire plot of a one-shot I'm editing and the sequel to my current epic WIP. But I'm firmly in my mid-thirties now, so I figured that's just where my head is at in recent years. You go through cycles in life and I'm simply in my 'grief era' as some might say.

Except that's not actually true. I am successfully writing complete stories centered around grief right now, yes, but I've actually been trying to write about grief for a full decade.

Not in my Doctor Who fics, though grief is embedded in the plots.

Not in my Ghostbusters fics either. Those were written out of a mix of spite and love and explore… well I don't really know what they explored. shrug

No, my focus on grief got started back around 2014 (or 2013??) with a Bering and Wells AU that (honest to Jo) was inspired by an innocent Casper gifset @itcameuponamidnightqueer reblogged. I spent YEARS trying to write that AU. I had a ton of worldbuilding and plot elements, but I just could never find the story. There was a clear beginning (er mostly clear) but no obvious middle or end. The concept was just too big and amorphous for me to wrangle at the time. But damn if there isn't something still haunting in it.

When I remembered this, it made me want to put all the story elements together in one place again. Now, I certainly talked about this AU idea before on Tumblr. You can dig back into my 2014-2015 archives, possibly even 2013, and find messy rambles about it. And I haven't actively worked on the idea since Ghostbusters 2016 was released so some of the details are fuzzy now. But in case anyone can spot the story this was trying to be or if anyone's simply curious, here's what I had for this Bering and Wells ghost AU:

Like I said it was a Casper gifset that sparked the inspiration. Specifically, the 'Can I keep you' scene if I remember correctly. With it being late 2013, I was obviously utterly drowning in WH13/B&W feels, and we were all writing and brainstorming full-fledged alternate settings AUs. So of course, my immediate thought was 'ghost Bering and Wells AU' -- except I thought 'what if Myka's the ghost?' Because HG is the obvious candidate, being the historical figure, but I wanted to put a twist on it and then got really obsessed with the idea of ghost!Myka… and it all spiraled from there.

I decided on a modern setting, 2014, and then went college aged -- possibly because I was only a few years removed from my own college years at the time, but also Myka's relationship with her father/family as a whole ended up playing a huge factor in the world-building so that could've influenced the ages. I don't even know where to begin here because again, I never had a real plot, so let's just dive in I guess.

Helena Wells, age 20, an engineering (? of sorts?) student who Caturanga took on as an intern for his work. Now, Caturanga is effectively studying ghosts, though he dresses it up in fancier terms. I can't remember what his research goals were, but identification and communication were certainly the first two steps.

Usually when I age HG down, I make Christina a baby sister who she either lost or is estranged from to keep that aspect of her backstory. This time I decided to center her grief on her father who I made up for this story as also someone sciencey and someone Helena really admired and was close to. But he died in a car accident a few years ago (technically he might have been hit by a car while crossing the street but I can't confirm that). So Helena is interested in Caturanga's research because she would love to at least talk to her father again and refuses to believe he's fully gone. Resurrecting him is not currently her goal, though could easily come up given later events.

Caturanga isn't looking for the flashy haunted locations. He's looking for the mundane and preferably newer ghosts because they would be closer to the living and thus easier to talk to. He hears about a house in Colorado Springs in the US that can't keep a resident longer than two years so he chooses to study it. He and Helena rent it with plans on staying for a year.

Obviously this is Myka's childhood home and she is the ghost haunting the house. So what happened to Myka?

It's 1994 and Myka Bering is 19 years old. Her father still owns a bookstore, though they live in a separate house rather than an apartment above it. She still has her sister Tracy who I believe I made 15, so four years younger. Myka had been enrolled in college at the University of Colorado - Denver, but when she decided to switch majors from pre-med to pre-law at the end of her freshman year, her father complained about her indecisiveness and wasting money and pulled her out of school. He said, she could return to college when she had saved up enough money to pay for it herself.

Myka was gutted because she wanted to finish her degree so badly. She also hated leaving the friends she had made and tried to visit them as much as possible once school started back up that fall. One night when she drove up to visit her friends and boyfriend (Sam, of course), she lingered too long and arrived back home after curfew. Her father locked her out of the house as punishment, leaving her to sleep in the car in the garage where she left the overhead light on. There was an electrical fire that night. Myka didn't wake up in time to get out and she died.

Okay here's one of the rabbit holes I got super distracted by while trying to plot this out: Tracy's reaction. Because this whole thing is supposed to be a Bering and Wells AU, so clearly Helena and Myka are the main characters, right? But the more I obsessed over this story, the more prominent Tracy's role became. This was a tale of two sisters, dual POVs, each grappling with their rough childhoods in different ways. Except, there's also still the plot of Helena finding Myka, befriending her, and ultimately resurrecting her (more on this later), so how the hell were these things supposed to be balanced and woven into one coherent plot?? It was beyond my skill level. :S

In my head, Tracy had managed to skate under their dad's strict thumb throughout her childhood, largely because she just didn't care what her dad said and always opted to do her own thing. Myka did care what their father thought and tried to follow the rules which made the times when she didn't seem like more of an offense. Oldest child syndrome was also definitely at play where the youngest just gets away with more. So when Myka got pulled out of school, Tracy was less sympathetic and more 'you brought that on yourself.' I mean, it's not like Myka even needed to admit she changed majors. Colleges don't send report cards to your parents. She could've kept her mouth shut and stayed in school.

Tracy 1000% blamed their dad for Myka's death though. The electrical fire was an accident and no one was to blame, but he locked the door and didn't let Myka sleep inside that night. Therefore it's his fault. Myka was right about him this entire time. He's not just an annoying or strict dad, he's abusive. (Something Myka never said and will later disagree with though her own feelings towards their dad are certainly complicated.) Tracy's grief becomes anger and even hatred and builds until she emancipates herself from her parents and leaves home at 16. She spirals for a while (partying, reckless sex) before pulling herself out and finding some help to deal with her grief. She puts herself through school and becomes a social worker. By 2014, she's married and has two very young kids, one of which I'm 99% certain I named Micah after his aunt that he never got to meet. Tracy periodically takes them to visit Myka's grave, and did I write one of those visits in my multiple drafts? Yes, yes I did.

Making her a social worker both seemed fitting for her arc in this setting and is a helpful connection to ghosts when a certain little 10-12 year old (can't remember the exact age I made Claudia but it might have skewed towards 10) continually gets flagged in foster care because she insists she's talking to her brother's ghost.

On that note, let's jump back to the actual ghost plot. So in this universe, ghosts exist as amorphous blobs that can't be seen or touched by the living. At best, you can talk to them. Claudia can talk easily with Joshua because he's only been dead for a few years and immediately began following his little sister around. He's never been isolated. Other ghosts often are. It can take up to a couple of years for a ghost to become aware of their surroundings and new existence and if their loved ones are no longer in the same place, they might forget about their previous life.

This is what happened to Myka. Her family left the house immediately after the fire. Her room was empty when she regained awareness after her death and so her memories slipped away. After twenty-years of isolation, Myka doesn't remember ever having a physical body and doesn't even remember her name.

But she reads still. She remembers books and has stolen many from whoever was currently living in the house. She stashes them all away in the closet of her old bedroom and when these stashes are found and thrown out/reclaimed, she just starts again. Sometimes she only had one book to read over and over and over again. Other times, she had many. The reports of moved/missing books is what flagged this house as haunted.

Now, I said the living couldn't touch ghosts and that's because ghosts can't really interact with objects. It involves remembering being alive and corporeal well enough to remember what touching something like a doorknob feels like. Most ghosts can't do this without a lot of interaction with living people to jog their memories. Myka being able to touch books (only books but still) is rare and a huge discovery.

Helena finds Myka first. (Well, she finds the open book on the floor with pages moving on their own.) Communication is slow because Myka isn't used to speaking, so Helena has to figure out who this ghost is on her own with some good old fashioned cross-checking property records against obituaries. It's a bit of a gut punch to learn the quiet, book-obsessed ghost is a girl around her age.

(By book-obsessed, I don't mean just reading them. Ghost!Myka is very, very territorial and protective of her books because they're the only things she's owned since she's died.)

Helena and Caturanga's research involves a lot of equipment to try and sense a ghost. They manage to fine-tune a scanner to see the invisible ghost. This is when they learn ghosts are really just blobs and not a full-fledged body like the stories. Though, over the course of their tests, they do see Myka form pseudo-hands to carry and read her books which brings up all kinds of new questions for them to pursue.

I remember Myka never went through walls either. She could pass right through solid objects and would whenever a door was unexpectedly closed on her. But it always pinged her mind as Wrong so she would skirt under doors and around objects to get around the house. She never left the house -- though again, experiments with Helena later prove she can leave. It's a mental block. This is her house, even if she can't remember living there.

Helena works hard to get to know Myka and slowly befriends her as Myka re-learns how to talk to someone. The more she talks, the more Helena asks her questions, the more her memories return. Some of them return easily. The more painful ones, she fights and tries to forget again. She never looks out the kitchen door at the side of the house where the garage once stood. She doesn't want to talk about it.

Eventually, as Myka's learning how to grasp other objects and open doors herself and Helena's getting more and more attached to her (and feeling more and more outraged that Myka died so young), we hit a tipping point where Helena tries to take Myka's hand. Or more accurately, she asks Myka to try and take her hand since she still can't see Myka. The time Myka finally manages to touch her is when she suddenly returns with a physical body, alive once again. Apparently, a living person touching a ghost leads to resurrection.

This is where I got lost down another big rabbit hole. I was absolutely obsessed with Myka's struggles to adapt back to the world of the living. Think about it, right. She's existed without physical sensations for twenty years. Now suddenly, she has a body again. Everything's too loud, too bright, too much. Clothes hurt. Having to use energy to walk, hurts. Food???? A sensory nightmare. And when I was brainstorming this and noodling around with google, I learned about sensory processing disorder and OH MY GOD did that just send me deeper into the rabbit hole. I was so, so distracted by this topic and wanted to spend forever exploring Myka's initial months alive again. Do you understand why I could never find the plot? I was way too lost in the details to find the tent poles of this story.

Once Myka has learned to take care of herself again and has some coping mechanisms in place to help with the constant 'too much' struggle of being alive, her first desire is to return to college. Not see her family. It's been twenty years and that's still too much to tackle. But she'd been desperate to return to college when she died so that's the first thing she wants to do now that she's been resurrected.

This is when Pete and Mrs Frederick come into the picture -- though technically Mrs Frederick has been in play the whole time. Let's start with her. See, I thought a warehouse equivalent organization that was fully aware of ghosts and trying to help them would be handy for this story. But I was convinced at the time that a government funded agency didn't make much sense. Every secret organization in TV shows and movies are always government funded -- but the US government hates funding anything that isn't corporations or the military.

… So why wouldn't the secret organization actually be disguised as a for profit company instead? Insert Mrs Frederick as CEO of a long-running and ever-evolving company that currently brags about being at the cutting edge of smart home devices and appliances. Except the smart home technology serves a secondary purpose of finding new ways to communicate with incorporeal ghosts who are slowly being lost to time. The company (I'm sure I had a name for it but I can't remember it anymore) gains its funding through product sales and government tax cuts/hand outs to pursue its true goal of locating these lost ghosts and reconnecting them back to their loved ones or at least reconnecting them with community. They want to re-socialize them, help them find purpose and meaning. No one knows how to help ghosts move on or if they even should move on, though if ghost decides to try, they certainly don't stop them. They also had never found a way to resurrect a ghost. Some ghosts had asked if it was possible, so the company is researching it. But they're researching in laboratory settings and with Myka's resurrection, it becomes clear that there needs to be a personal connection between the ghost and living person to successfully resurrect them. (Hence, Claudia and Joshua being the second ones to successfully manage a resurrection.)

I'm losing steam and this wasn't super thought out in detailed back in the day anyway -- but Mrs Frederick helps Myka enroll in college in Colorado Springs and her living expenses are all funded by Mrs Frederick's company. Caturanga's research was also being funded by Mrs. Frederick, though Helena wasn't fully aware of how big this operation was until after Myka's resurrection.

Myka meets Pete at college and they become fast friends. Mostly because Pete's too chatty to care about Myka's silences and easy-going enough to roll with her quirks and continued struggles with being alive. At some point, he finds out she had died and been resurrected, but I don't remember if I ever fleshed out that reveal.

I did flesh out the sister reunion. In my head, Tracy would get pulled into the ghost aspect because Claudia is one of her cases. But she wouldn't learn about Myka until Myka decides she's ready to see her. That takes about a year (or even longer) and happens after Myka's started attending college. Tracy is shocked to learn her sister is alive again, obviously, but also happy. Myka is happy to reunite with her too but also feels awkward because Tracy is all grown up with kids and she's still 19 (well now 20). Sometimes, it seemed like their reunion should be the end point. But then there's also still so much story to explore after their reunion too. Their father has died by 2014. Warren died of a heart attack several years earlier. Tracy has no regrets over never reconciling with him. Myka does regret that he died before she came back to life. They have different opinions and feelings about their shared childhood and it creates friction between them. Their mother is still alive though, and I played through Myka reuniting with her too. That's awkward in a different way than reuniting with Tracy. The 20 year time gap still plays a role of course, but mostly it's sits strangely with Myka because her mother keeps telling her how much her father regretted that night and how much he missed her and wished he could apologize. And while Myka doesn't blame him for her death like Tracy does, there's a lot of other hurt she does still blame him for and hearing that he's sorry from Mom instead of getting to talk to him herself -- it doesn't solve anything. It doesn't make anything better.

Not to add it like an after thought, but Sam has died too. He still grew up to join the Secret Service and was still killed on duty. It hits Myka hard when she finds out. She hates that he died too soon too. It's not fair.

And… I think… that's everything I ever came up with for this AU concept? I spent most of my time on Helena and Myka pre-resurrection, Myka immediately after the resurrection, and Tracy always. I had a pretty fleshed out world and a ton of pieces that could count as plot -- but I never had the throughline that turned it into a proper narrative.

If you see the narrative in this mixed soup or if you see something in here that inspires you -- please! By all means, run with it and write your own fic for it! Do not feel like you need to ask my permission, because I guarantee you, I will never turn this into a real story. But it was nice to revisit and maybe you can still get some enjoyment out of what is here. :)

#Bering and Wells #Myka Bering #Helena Wells #Warehouse 13 #my fic #my meta #I guess????#but it's also totally up for grabs if you're inspired to do something with it #Run free little plot bunnies!#Run free!

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dramioneasks · 1 year

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Any fics that involve H paying back a debt to D? Can be non/dubcon, maybe something similar to a one shot called Debts (believe it’s on ao3)?

A Muggle-born Magic by Musyc - M, one-shot - Regency-era AU. Physician’s daughter Hermione Granger finds herself in need of a way to pay off her father’s debts after his death. Draco Malfoy, retired from the politics of the Isolationists, a group of pure-bloods bent on separating ‘true’ magic from lesser folk, finds himself in need of a tutor for his son, Scorpius, who appears to be incapable of magic and must learn to survive in a world without it. Draco also needs a wife and mother for Scorpius, to satisfy a promise to his unwell father. After she saves his son from an attack by Isolationists, Draco hires the Muggle-born Miss Granger for the former, and after a riot in Vauxhall Gardens and a scandalous discovery made by his mother, weds that selfsame Muggle-born for the latter. While making the best of her marriage of (in)convenience, Hermione discovers that Scorpius’ history of wild imaginings and dreams is more than just imagination. As she attempts to teach him about magical abilities no one expected he would ever have, she and Draco work together to raise Scorpius and learn to trust each other.

Life Debt - Trinkisme - M, 6 chapters - An act of heroism. A moment of insanity. A life of indebtedness. A short story dealing with disability and hurt. And hope. And love. Dramione.

A Year and A Day By: Mistrus - T, 53 chapters - It’s one thing to marry your enemy but it is completely idiotic to actually fall in love with him. Could it be Stockholm Syndrome? I doubt it. It could have been necessity, I mean I was abandoned by Harry and I felt alone. That must be it. DM/HG

Fourteen Thousand Galleons by Frumpologist - M, 28 chapters, Words: 110,611 - After the War, there is a boom of marriage and divorce. Hermione finds herself among the statistics of war heroes who couldn’t save their marriages. When she receives the invoice from her solicitor, she has no choice but to answer an ad in The Daily Prophet: Malfoy Heir Seeking Nanny. But, everything is not quite what it seems as Hermione navigates the waters of post-divorce life.

Quid Pro Quo by ningloreth - E, one-shot - Someone loses much more than his shirt at Draco’s gaming tables.

Aphrodisiac by CourtingInsanity - E, one-shot - After Draco saves Hermione from danger, she finds herself in his debt. His request? That she pretends to date him to repay the favour. For their first date, he takes her to the Manor to meet his mother, but Narcissa Malfoy wasn’t born yesterday. She knows that the relationship between the pair is fake, but she’s also aware that the unresolved sexual tension is almost palpable. Lacing their tea with a potion that will either make them incredibly *attracted* to each other if they are compatible, or kill them instantly if not, seems like an insane risk to take, but the Malfoy matriarch is sure it will pay off; grandchildren don’t grow on trees, you know. Written for Round 10 Dramione Duets, for the wonderful and amazing RZZMG (honestly, I died when I found out she was my partner!) <3

-Lisa

#anonymous #life debts #bets and wagers

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iggydabirdkid · 25 days

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6, 8 and 16 for the fic asks? 👀

6. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?

I'm not very confident in writing smut, so anything regarding that I can never quite make work. Most other fics I find that I can find a way to write, given enough time and finding the motivation in which to write :)

8. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment?

My favorite plot point I haven't actually written yet 😅 It'll be something to do with my Selkie AU, but it won't be for a little while yet. But it'll be devastating and so fun to write.

My favorite chapter would have to be the 2nd chapter in my Bad Day fic. It was extremely cathartic to write.

My favorite moment would be the one below. The forehead tap is a callback to when Ortega taps a romanced Sidestep on the forehead to indicate they want to kiss them.

“Julia please, please just hold on!” You place a gloved hand to the side of her face and turn her head to look at you. You can see her lips moving and you lean in close only for her to weakly raise her arm and tap you on the forehead. It takes everything in you to not burst into a full-scale meltdown and as Julia’s arm falls limply back to her side you lose that fight.

16. 3 favorite comments ever received on fanfic.

I love all the comments made on my writing so it's very hard to choose just 3! But here ya go!

@wonda-fhr left this very nice comment on Chapter 3 of my Meeting Owl fic:

The first chapter hooked me immediately.♥️ The second from Julia's perspective was captivating, Julia's anger is as palpable as her concern. ♥️ The third chapter, a joy. A gentle relief that Themmy knows more, and knows what behavior is safest when a friend acts like a wounded animal. The repeated "No promises" was painful. I'm still staring at the end and waiting for what happens 👀👀👀, I love this story.

Literally any comment @just-a-tiny-goldfish makes I love to read but this particular one on Chapter 2 of my Victorian Era AU i loved

I love the way you write dialogue so much—I’m so envious of the way they actually sound like they are having a real conversation. Ugh and the way you always seem to be able to get their characterization right!!!! I really love how you depicted Annie and their…sisters relationship🤭 its so tragic so far, and is it bad i kinda hope they make up 🫣 Like—yes shes kinda bad…but…she sounds so sweet when they were little 😭 AHHH the beautiful lady part!!!! Okay but—julia def knows Annie is connected to hg right or is she still blinded? ALSO THE CHEN THING—SHE KNOWS HIM????!!! But when you described his footsteps walking in i imagines like—the whole cabin shaking lol

And then a short comment that @ledilettant left on Chapter 1 of my Bad Day fic that made me laugh.

Harsh.

Thanks for the ask :D

#i love writing #smut I can never quite get right #but everything else!#i just keep coming up with cool thing to write XD #ask!#my writing #fallen hero

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tomionefinds · 1 year

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Hi! i recently rediscovered my tomione addiction. Do you have any recs for fics where they meet in a different time than usual (not generation potter or riddle but like maybe the 50's or around the marauder timeline)? I also love the stories were Hermione ends up taking over someone elses Life, for example Lady Selwyn or Journey of the soul

Hey Anon,

There's actually quite a lot of these. Check out our tag for Met: As Adults for several scenarios where both were already older, and we have an unofficial Tom: Shopboy tag with a few more from the era after Hogwarts when he works at Borgin & Burkes. I'll add a few more I can think of that I didn't see pull up or where she assumes another another body/persona. -JD

stardust by orangepekoelatte M | Complete | 131k Carina Black is two, and the first coherent thought that enters her mind is Harry.

She sees her twin brother, tugs at his silver locks, and thinks, Harry Potter.

Here I Dreamt I Was A Rosier by Nautical Paramour M | Complete | 41k Opening her eyes, Hermione became acutely aware that she was not in her bed, or even in Gryffindor tower. She has woken up in 1944 and must learn to exist with her "family" and their friends…TR/HG

Fountain of Knowledge by Ciule E/Ma | Complete | 66k The myriad of glittering magical shards sank slowly down, settling like a mantle on the shoulders of two people: A very tall wizard standing across the unlit bonfire and ... herself.

Behind the deep cowl, the wizard cocked his head, indicating that they should move. Slowly, she walked towards the bonfire, and he sauntered confidently to her side, meeting her halfway.

The Itch by seollem E/Ma | Complete | 76k Tom looked intrigued. “Soul Glass? I’ve never heard of it.”

“Oh, yes, it’s a very rare material, indeed! If you look carefully, you can see the other half of your soul on the other side. Perhaps that of a lucky lady?” Mr. Burke winked conspiratorially.

“How fascinating.” A slow, predatory smile overtook the handsome features of Tom’s face, something flashing in his eyes as they locked on the shadow beside his reflection. “A piece of my soul, you say?”

Inimica, Amator by QueenOfTheDreamers (QueenOfDreamers) NR | Complete | 73k Hermione falls asleep in January 2000. She awakens in a Knockturn Alley flat in 1947. Confronted by the reality that she's been hurtled through time and space to the world of Tom Riddle himself, Hermione works to get back home. In the meantime, desperate for money, she takes a job at the only place willing to hire her - Borgin and Burkes, with the disarmingly charming Tom Riddle.

Altered State by Ginnyruin E/Ma | WIP | 186k Six years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Auror Hermione Granger activated a mysterious dark object, which unexpectedly sent her decades into the past.

Miðgarðsormr by xXAonoNYmouSPXx M | WIP | 92k Tom watched as the mother and son stop at a spot by the fountain. The witch whom he's never met before in his life, with bushy brown hair atop a heart-shaped face, and the boy who looked exactly like him when he was at that age.

Peremo by virennia NR | WIP | 50k When Hermione gets stuck in the 1950's, she has no choice but to live her life.

And then, she meets Tom.

Who Are We? by BareWithMeHoney E/Ma | WIP | 15k The year is 2004. Voldemort has hidden his Horcruxes in the past and the Order is fighting against impossible odds to find and destroy them.

But when Time itself begins to unravel, a new kind of sacrifice must be made before the world comes to an end.

Bitter Almonds by Skylarparks E/Ma | WIP | 61k What would happen if the Mauraders, the Golden Trio and the Knights of Walpurgis all went to school together? Also, what if Tom Riddle developed a strange obsession with Hermione Granger?

The Pendulum of the Mind by AvaJune M | WIP | 118k Tom's fingers slid across her skin as he pulled up her sleeve, feeling irregular bumps and scarring as he watched in fascination as instead of a dark mark, he steadily revealed rune carvings. His eyes flicked back to hers, watching her reaction to his touch.

"I will give you this, witch. You are unbearably intriguing," he murmured.

Madness flies in the face of logic, and if there is one thing Hermione Granger cannot abide, it's things that defy logic. There is always something against her, this time the very laws of time and space. There is, however, a truth she now knows about herself; she isn't quite the rule girl she once thought she was. *Hermione - Tom Riddle. AU, Post Battle of Hogwarts*

A Twist of Fate by ASongofIceandHope NR | One Shot | 4k Hermione wakes up in a stranger's bed, and finds herself to be an important part of his life. Funny the things a simple ring can do.

Right Place, Wrong Time? by Shan84 M | WIP | 129k It was just another boring day at Borgin and Burkes for Tom Riddle… That is, until a certain bossy, crazy-haired witch stepped through the entrance. Is this your usual time travel story - or is something else at play? HG/TMR

And Not to Yield by ASongofIceandHope (orphan_account) NR | WIP | 10k It's common knowledge that you shouldn't touch things in Borgin and Burke's. But when Hermione, Harry, and Draco all reach for a cursed object at the same time, they find themselves thrown through time to 1948 when a certain Dark Lord has youth, vigor, power, and at least two horcruxes. Post-Battle of Hogwarts. Partially DH compliant; disregards Epilogue.

#tomione #met: as adults #tom: shopboy #post-hogwarts #borgin & burkes

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theinquisitxor · 4 months

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Best & Worst Series 2023

I saw a booktuber do a video of these questions and I really liked them, so thought that I could answer them here! Credit goes to bookslikewhoa & thoughtsontomes on youtube. Feel free repost and add your own answers!

My post from last year

In total I read roughly 32 series in some shape or form:

I read and completed 12 series this year (meaning I read books 1-- end)

I finished/wrapped up 2 series this year

I started 11 series

I caught up with 2 series

I continued with 0 series

I DNF'ed 7 series

1.What is the best series that you caught up with this year that is still a work in progress? Legendborn by Tracey Deonn for sure. I read books 1 and 2 this spring and it's a new favorite. Also the Wayward Children series deserves to be on here, because I finally caught up with the books back in Jan/Feb.

2. What is the best completed series that you are still catching up with? Technically I'm reading the Damar books by Robin McKinley. I read book 1 a few days ago and I'm currently reading book 2, so I guess I'm catching up on it.

3.What was your favorite first book in a series this year? Favorite was Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett, but I also really enjoyed A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by HG Parry and The Fifth Season by NK Jeminson too.

4.What is a first book in a series you read this year that you think should have been a standalone, not a series? Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim. I enjoyed this book quite a bit, but I think it should have been a standalone. I did not read the sequel, nor do I plan to.

5.What is your most over-hyped series of the year? The Poppy War by RF Kuang 😬. I generally liked it, but by no means thought it was worthy of the hype it got. Same with Empire of Sand.

6.What is a series that you DNFed this year? A bunch: Empire of Sand, The Last Binding, Six Crimson Cranes, The Isles of the Gods, Fourth Wing, The Mimicking of Known Successes, The Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

7.What was your favorite series finale of the year? The finale to The Expanse series, Levithan Falls. A very satisfactory and good conclusion.

8.What was the biggest cliffhanger you had in a series this year? Probably the ending of The Stolen Heir by Holly Black.

9.What is your most anticipated next book in a series that you read this year that will come out next year? Again, Emily Wilde- with the second book coming out Jan 2024.

10.What is your most anticipated series to catch up on with? The third Crescent City book by SJM. This is shaping up to be my favorite sjm series so far.

11.What was your favorite series that you finished this year? I had so much fun with the Age of Darkness series by Katy Rose Pool that I just have to include this one. It's maybe not the best ever, but I really enjoyed it. Also the Broken Earth series by NK Jemison.

12. What is the most surprising series you liked this year? I decided to give the Mistborn Era 2 a try, and I ended up enjoying it. It was a good audiobook to listen to during my drive into work, and I'm glad I read another Sanderson series.

13.What is a series you finally bailed on after holding onto it for a long time? None.

14.What is the series you meant to catch up with or finish this year that you didn't? Possibly the Veronica Speedwell books, but I haven't read one of those in a few years now, so it might just be a dnf 🤷‍♀️

15.What is a series you finished or caught up with this year that you think is greater than the sum of its parts? I reread the Heroes of Olympus series on audio and while there are certain books/scenes I like from the series, I would consider it overall greater than the sum of its parts.

If you're still here and reading, then here are all the series I read this year. This is obviously more for my record keeping than anything else!

The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books) by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Not planning on continuing any time soon.

Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. Read books 4-7 on audio. (caught up)

Ninth House (reread) + Hell Bent by Lehigh Bardugo (caught up)

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (new series)

The Folk of the Air trilogy by Holly Black (reread on audio)

Kingsbridge books 2 , 3 & 0 by Ken Follett

The Stolen Heir by Holly Black (new series)

A Day of Fallen Night by Samatha Shannon

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty (new series)

The Expanse 7, 8 & 9 by James SA Corey (completed series)

Legendborn & Bloodmarked by Tracey Deonn (caught up)

The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordian (reread on audio)

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske (series dnf)

The Mimicking of Known Successes Malka Ann Older (dnf on audio)

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri (series dnf)

Age of Darkness trilogy by Katy Rose Pool (completed)

The Poppy War trilogy by RF Kuang (completed)

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim (series dnf)

The Shadow Histories by HG Parry (completed)

The Isles of the Gods by Amie Kaufman (series dnf)

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (series dnf?)

Skyhunter & Steelstriker by Marie Lu (complete)

The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemison (complete)

Shades of Magic trilogy by VE Schwab (reread on audio)

The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordian

The Fragile Threads of Power by VE Schwab (series start)

Mistborn era 2 by Brandon Sanderson (complete on audio)

Murtagh by Christopher Paolini (inheritance spinoff?) (series start)

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance (reread) & All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows (complete or caught up?)

Howl's Moving Castle trilogy by Diana Wynne Jones (partial reread)

Damar by Robin McKinley (complete)

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (reread on BBC radio version)

#best and worst series tag #book series #2023 reading wrap up #books #bookblr #my post

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lunar-years · 6 months

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thanks so much for tag @morethanslightly and @goodmorninglovelies42 <3

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

***

Ted Lasso -

"TL-Sparks"

"TL fic-Tinsel"

"Jamie-Father Fic"

Also I have the following in my notes app that do not even have wip documents yet but do exist as vague ideas in my head. feel free to ask about those too:

"Jamie depression era"

"R/J/K Brazil trip getting together"

"Lunar Years Jamie/Keeley through the years"

"Phoebe's favorite holidays addendum"

"Keeley character study"

"Roy character study"

"Keeley amnesia fic"

"Time Loop"

Stranger Things -

"strange as angels ff"

Hunger Games-

...just "HG ff" lol (this is something I was working on during pandemic lockdown that i kind of gave up on but damn I just opened it for the first time in like 2 years and it's 104 pages and 58k words long and i only ever posted half of that, so like... maybe I should get back into that lol whoops!)

No pressure tagging @catalogercas @musicalchaos07 @gnarly-love @jamietarttdoodoodoodoo @ohlafraise

#my writing #tag games #ted lasso #the hunger games #stranger things #jancy #everlark #royjamiekeeley

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lonely-night · 2 years

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I’m trying to organize my warehouse-verse (it’s a bit of a mess lmao please proceed with caustion)

helena g wells, from the victorian era, she was bronzed hence now she was in the 21st century. originally she was an agent from warehouse 12

joan watson chow, abigail’s older sister, was a regent of warehouse but abigail didn’t know until she was recruited. joan was assigned to get hg back to the warehouse during post-instinct. in the meantime she also had to deal with another victorian era warehouse agent lena luthor

lena ‘lucy’ luthor, ex warehouse 12 agent, end up in the 21st century due to a reincarnate artifact ( @purlturtle‘s idea, check out this snippet!) hg’s ex colleague/lover, dodging the warehouse authorities ever since she got whammied, joan was sent to deal with her [insert 30k, hate at first sight, enemies to friends to lovers, angst with an happy ending]

myka bering, warehouse 13 agent, super smart, in love with hg, was heartbroken when hg chose to stay away from the warehouse, she focused on work try to move on but fail

alex cabot, scary smart lawyer, fake her own death after she was shot by the mob, went into witsec, then came back, oh did i mention she was myka’s ex gf when myka was in law school? anyway when they somehow met again years later they had this friends with benefits arrangement for a while, however myka was still in love with hg and alex was in love with olivia.

oh and alex actually met mrs federick waaaay back (check out this post and the myka/alex as ex gf post for details)

jane lattimer and amanda lattimer martin, jane was pete’s mom, amanda was pete’s ex wife (i hc her as myka’s ex wife in my mbxgfcu). anyway amanda was actually in love with jane, but jane was the regent/guardian of the warehouse, she couldn’t risk amanda’s safety hence she chose to stay away (*sigh* amanda and myka should form a support group lmao)

harry kim, ex-marine, seven amanda’s bff, janeway secretly recommend him to the warehouse after he quitted the marines (check out this post for more details on how harry joined the warehouse) why i added him in my warehouse verse you ask? no reason, I just love the guy, and warehouse verse needs more asian :) and he totally fits cuz warehouse already have janeway and seven jane and amanda

that’s all folks :D I didn’t include myka’s ex gf universe in here cuz i already have post for that. this warehouse verse is more... general i think? just me adding some blorbos from other show to make it more interesting :D

#rambling tag #i do not have a tag for this lmao #warehouse verse madness?#warehouse verse madness

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everygame · 10 months

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The Eidolon (Atari 8-Bit)

Developed/Published by: Lucasfilm Games / Epyx Released: 12/1985 Completed: 07/04/2023 Completion: Beat the final dragon. Trophies / Achievements: n/a

The Eidolon is one of the very first games I got for my Amstrad CPC. Mind those mail order club “eight CDs for a penny” scams, where you’d get a bunch of things for free as long as you give the company “implied license” for them to send you things at full price in future unless you can work your way out of it? Well, we definitely did one of those when I got my Amstrad CPC and my dad definitely managed to get out of it ahead… somehow.

Of course, it depends on your definition of “ahead.” I was given full freedom to select the games I wanted for the Amstrad, and considering I was a tiny child it’s not like I had any (literally any) critical faculties. So I know we got the Amstrad CPC conversion of the original Star Wars Arcade machine. And outside of that, I know we got Inflitrator and I know we got The Eidolon.

Strangely, I’ve already written about Infiltrator once in passing, and in a write-up of one of Lucafilm’s “launch” releases, Rescue on Fractalus (the other, Ballblazer). With Infiltrator, I could never get the bloody helicopter to take off because I was a tiny child. With The Eidolon? The disk almost never worked.

So maybe we didn’t come out ahead, even for our penny. As far as Infiltrator, I remember getting the helicopter to take off once. With The Eidolon, I remember getting it to load once, or twice, being confused by what was going on, possibly seeing the first dragon that I’d looked at for so long on the back of the box, and giving up because I had no idea what to do.

Well, it’s 2023 and I have to say that with the manual to hand, the entire interne on offer, and “being an adult” it took me a bloody long time to understand what the fuck you’re supposed to do in this.

To not get ahead of ourselves, let’s start with what The Eidolon is. It’s one of Lucasfilm’s second “wave” of releases from the end of 1985, which amounted to The Eidolon and Koronis Rift. These titles begin the “forgotten” era of Lucasfilm between Rescue and Fractalus/Ballblazer and Maniac Mansion, and are almost totally unheralded (although some people do seem to like Koronis Rift a lot.) Oddly–and I don’t have my copy of Rogue Leaders to hand, nor offhand knowledge if it even covers this–the unfettered creative hotbed of early Lucasfilm knocks out two games entirely built around the fractal landscapes of Rescue on Fractalus at once, which… well, I guess it’s efficient.

The Eidolon’s take is to just “flip” the mountain landscapes of Rescue on Fractalus to turn them into caves, which is, to be fair, a decent use. The problem is, unfortunately, the game designed around this. Designed by Charlie Kellner–who doesn’t seem to have stuck with video games after 1994’s the Page Master–the game was originally intended to be a narrative where the player plays as the dragon versus a knight, but due to the limits of what they could do with the Atari 8-bits they ended up sanding things off until all they had were, well, caves to walk around, and thanks to Charlie’s interest in HG Wells, the game suddenly became about an inventor of a mysterious craft being transported to the depths of his own mind which just happened to look exactly like a bunch of samey grey caves.

To be fair to Charlie, there’s a couple of firsts or near-firsts here. The Eidolon, in some respects, one of the earliest “first person shooters” considering that it’s the main way you interact with the world (even though, as I’ll go on to explain, not in a way you’d expect); Maze/Maze War from 1973 is definitely earlier, but there’s a dearth of examples in between, and this is (as far as I can be arsed to research) the earliest with smooth 3D movement. And The Eidolon is probably the first steampunk video game. Sure, the genre feels embarrassing now. But not if you were first!

Anyway. The Eidolon has a beautiful manual, written from the perspective of the inventor, that (unfortunately) it takes real effort to understand the intended play for, so I’ll summarise it here.

There are eight levels.

Your goal on each level is to defeat the dragon you’ll find somewhere in the maze. You can’t get to the dragon until you collect the associated crystals required to awaken in.

You collect the crystals by killing monsters, all of whom are sleeping in dead-ends in the maze until you wake them up by walking up to them.

You defeat monsters by shooting energy balls at them, usually the red ones. You’ve got four types of energy ball to fire: red (damaging), gold (only useful against some dragons, I think?), blue (freeze enemies), green (transform enemy into something else. Doesn’t transform dragons.)

Sometimes there are red energy balls flying around that will damage you; fire a red energy ball at them to turn them into a harmless gold energy ball.

Everything you do costs energy, but handily there are energy balls floating about all over the mazes and you can capture them.

When awoken, dragons will also fire energy balls at you, but you can capture those too!

You’ve got a time limit to finish the game, and only get a couple minutes added for each level you beat, so you can’t dawdle and need to accept you’ll have to map the mazes to actually finish the game (or *cough* find a map online *cough*).

You die when you run out of energy.

That’s about it, basically. It is not especially deep, and I have to admit once I’d finally worked it all out I was pretty disappointed it was this slight. While moving around the maze is breezy enough, the technical limitations make most of the action, at best, clumsy button bashing. Every enemy is just standing in a corner, basically waiting for you to walk up to them and fire just enough fireballs at them to kill them (it’s amusing that contemporary reviews complained “why can’t you talk to the monsters”) and combat with the dragons locks you into the space so you basically just have to hammer the “fire energy ball” and “capture energy ball” buttons as fast as you can to get it over with as quickly as possible. There’s supposedly some tactics to it, but fireballs are on screen for a handful of frames making it almost worthless to try and time it out.

In fact, playing this rather brutally aggravated my wrists as the final boss is a marathon of button bashing (I read one forum poster stating that they had to put their Atari on the floor to mash the spacebar with their foot!) and it leads to one of the most hilariously baffling ending sequence where (spoilers!) Robert Goulet hands you a pterodactyl egg. It is… not worth it.

I hate to say it but the problem with The Eidolon is that it’s not really… anything. It’s a collection of things, for sure, but they don’t actually add up to a video game. The only thing I really thought was that interesting was having to use the “transform” energy ball on certain enemies so you could defeat them, but that’s… not much.

It’s a real missed opportunity, too, because the smooth scrolling cave represented a perfect opportunity to push the CRPG forward. Yes, Ultima IV had really only just come out, but Wizardry had been kicking since 1981, and the tech here is good enough that it’s not like you have to do anything nearly as complex. Just a simple dungeon crawler would have been pretty incredible, but it’s possible I’m asking a bit much. I mean… if you really get down to it, Wolfenstein 3D is less complex than this, so it may simply be that this was the right seed of an idea at the wrong time technologically, and as soon as things moved forward a bit both Wolfenstein 3D and Ultima Underworld would be possible. The Eidolon just doesn’t really manage to be a forefather of either.

Will I ever play it again? I won’t. I did think about playing through the CPC version of this instead of the original, which is a bit more colourful if a touch slower. But I was worried it wouldn’t load properly. Some things stick with you..

Final Thought: Above I mentioned this was from Lucasfilm’s forgotten era, and I really do mean it: it’s quite remarkable how little information is about this game online despite being from one of the most beloved developers probably ever, and I do think it’s a shame, dead-end or not. I mean I’m very glad I finally played it. I got my dad’s penny worth. Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up a digital copy of exp. 2600, a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

#video games #games #gaming #lucasfilm #lucasfilm games #lucasarts #the eidolon #eidolon #atari 8-bit #atari 800 #review #txt #text #1985

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beckyh2112 · 1 year

Text

AO3 First Lines

Tagged by @ragedaisy.

rules: post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to ao3. if you have fewer than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics.

Cody put in the passcode to his quarters, mind chasing itself in circles.

From you hold me up (till like a leaf we fall), my Foxatine mpreg. It opens with Cody receiving a KIA notice for Fox. Title is courtesy of Pux, and is at least 50% "I don't want to just call it 'the Foxatine mpreg' forever."

2. Wolffe woke in darkness.

From only the devil gets to dream, a followup to one_real_imonkey's Going Under, which is itself an AU of their Just keep your head above the rising tide, the sea will go out again. Delicious Coruscant Guard angst with the Wolfpack to the rescue.

Going Under is a bad end AU focused on Plo Koon, and only the devil gets to dream follows up with what happens to Wolffe.

3. Sidious hadn't expected to need to brace himself.

From there's teeth everywhere on you. Sidious point-of-view on a Fauxatine relationship. Also a chance for me to try out doing his pov and having him refer solely to himself as Sidious. I do think that's the most accurate way he thinks of himself, but it also leads to "Sidious's", which just doesn't sound good.

4. Street lamps were few and far between in this part of the Middle Ring, and Long Feng refused to draw attention to himself by carrying a light.

From One's For Sorrow, which is a repost of one of my AtLA fics from 2011. One of my favorite pieces from that era, tbh.

5. Thire isn't thinking when he goes in for a kiss on Fox's cheek after their morning meeting.

From Bug Report, a fic inspired by Bluestreak945's Beta Testing series, which is some of my favorite rape/non-con Foxatine smut. Heed the warnings; don't read if it's not your cuppa.

My fic isn't smut, and it doesn't even really mention anything from the series explicitly. Mostly it's me messing with the mind control aspect. It does contain clonecest, though, so again, don't read if it's not your cuppa.

6. "Thanks, Tango!" Sapnap yelled back over his shoulder as he threw himself out the door of the older fire demon's home, tail waving behind him.

From Error 404, my Dream SMP Big Bang fic. I like the fic, and I love the worldbuilding. But it is kinda mostly worldbuilding and focuses on Sapnap and Georgenotfound, so it didn't get much of a response.

7. Gabriel Reyes, crown prince of Argia, waited for the barbarians to arrive in the outer courtyard of Alcázar de Zaindari.

The Lion's Crown and the Crown of Suns! My one Overwatch fic, very much unfinished, completely AU. I love the world, kinda wish I still had the drive to get farther with it. Just completely lost steam on it, and I no longer have much of an interest in Overwatch.

Also, I do not want to sort out Jesse McCree vs. Cole Cassidy.

8. In the Shadow Isles, there was no square inch of land that didn't hold someone's remains.

From All's Hell That Ends Well, a League of Legends fic based on Twisted Fate's Underworld skin.

Posted in 2015; there is a massive gap in my fic-writing if you pay attention to posting dates. This, the two crowns in 2017, then the DSMP Big Bang in 2021.

9. The ground rumbled.

From There's Now War in Ba Sing Se. I don't remember if this is a repost, or if I wrote it and posted it to both FF.Net and AO3. Either way, AtLA OC fic with mine and Pux's characters.

10. Bucky and Steve used to joke over his words. "She's a moll who likes HG Wells."

From Hey There, Heartbreaker, which was inspired by @suzukiblu's we are not history yet; we are happening now. Darcy/Bucky soulmate AU. I like her fic much better than mine, but I don't think mine is bad per se. It's just. There.

Tagging @one-real-imonkey, @darkpuck, @suzukiblu, @slackeremeritus, @weirdlet, and anyone else who feels like doing it.

#bexfic #meme

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