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progressive-waves-art · 3 months

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A Very, Very Unfinished Pile of Theory of Everything Headcanons (Ayreon)

Last semester, my English final was a presentation relating the overall theme of the Forever saga to that of the more popular works of H.G. Wells. Details of that argument aside, the thesis was that Ayreon’s emotional core was the presence of small-scale acts of love juxtaposed against large-scale existential tragedy, balanced in their individual power. That we are messy and self-destructive, and in the grand scheme of things we mean very little in the universe, but we are resilient and alive and human and that has to be worth something.

I really like this aspect of the main story, and it got me a perfect score on that assignment. It had a ten minute time limit and I was fighting for my life to stay under it. While I was downsizing the script, I couldn’t help but think of an earlier idea I had drafted about how The Theory of Everything on its own was a really incredible example of the mad scientist archetype turned completely on its head (it was a science-fiction analysis class). Specifically how that script was almost three times longer than the original H.G. Wells one, that took me a solid twenty minutes to read aloud.

I literally wrote an hour long lecture about The Theory of Everything. No headcanons. No extra theories. Literally just picking apart its canon plot.

I think this is why I have so little extra writing for it. The story as its given is airtight and just…fucking incredible. Arjen wrote it with a very clear theme in mind like he did with Transitus, but TToE isn’t missing half of its story because he couldn’t pull in the cash to make a movie out of it. You can feel the intention behind every single character, they feel like real people, it has so many layers to it and it is literally, objectively, the greatest prog album ever made. Fight me.

But anyways: For lack of better phrasing, there isn’t much to “fix” in that sense. Almost all the headcanons I have for The Source or Transitus boil down to a few things:

I was being self-indulgent with a favorite character and it snowballed into a genuinely informative trait/subplot that informs the main story (a certain hc I have where Henry just fucking shoots Daniel in the back by mistake sometime between Two Worlds and Talk of the Town, turning into this weirdly effective commentary of how Daniel is conditioned to his brother’s shitty behavior and Abby hauling ass to get him out of that headspace)

I am curious about aspects of an album’s worldbuilding and get a little excited while filling in the blanks that were perfectly fine being left alone (doing mental gymnastics trying to build a version of The Source where these five academics, three politicians, two religious figures, one robot and one random spaceman viably know each other)

The rarer option that I am genuinely disappointed by how a part of the story was handled and completely ignore this small part of canon to make the overall story be more effective. Or attempt it, at least (Lavinia’s entire character undermining Transitus’ themes and her contradicting her own motivations, and me, in turn, just writing her character from scratch while keeping with the basic story beats [her seeing ghosts, doing shady shit with Henry, etc.])

But with TToE I’ve felt very little need to do any of these. If I were to really dive into it with intention I think I would start building off of the whole bank robbery plot in Phase III (just a slightly weirdly framed plot point for me), but I haven’t thought about it. It’s not that glaring of an issue and there’s few other places in the story where I think adding anything would make it more effective.

This isn’t to say that Transitus and The Source are objectively worse in any sense, but they leave a lot more up to interpretation, allowing me to write so many add ons that they become structured and essential to each other’s function.

It’s fun with those two albums. With TToE I really have to look for cracks to fill and it’s kind of useless.

Not entirely, though. I’ve got a few hcs, and maybe they’ll warrant dozens of google doc pages of context one day like the other two albums:

Two central things sparked curiosity. Setting, and how the parent characters came to hate each other that much. Naturally.

This started four-ish years ago when I was pacing around my parents’ house with TToE on the mind (as it often is), and my brother put on this show called His Dark Materials. I watched the intro to it all of one time and just…knew this was the aesthetic TToE should have.🔗 At least combined with dark academia. It’s an album about physics and ghosts, that seems reasonable enough.

…funnily enough, as I later found out, His Dark Materials itself has a very dark-academia-esque vibe, and the plot is entirely based upon the intersectionality between science and mysticism and trivial human attempts to make sense of it.

So. Pretty fitting.

This really stuck with me, and a handful of the characteristics of the show and books became the basis for the way I picture The Theory of Everything. Mainly the visual aesthetic, like I said, but also the fact that the story starts at a parallel version of Oxford University. I don’t have some giant case study for this like with Transitus/New England. I just think it’d be a cool and vibey setting. Maybe it’s the American in me but there’s something about a thousand-year-old college with a campus made of literal goddamn castles that borders on the fantastic.

From there, you have a decent excuse for The Prodigy to run off to Ireland, where you can choose from one of like 200 different pretty little isolated lighthouses for him to lose his mind in, far enough away for him not to be found as long as he did. Not to mention it lowkey matches with the overt Celtic influence of the music. Or Scotland, if you want some weather symbolism from the North Sea.

Solid setting, if I say so myself, and it actually influenced the family’s whole situation. Here, The Father (Mike) is a physics professor at Oxford, and The Mother (Cristina) is the director of the Bodleian Library. It’s how and where they meet in 1991 (though the mother is in an attendant position at the time), as shown by the only part of this I have drawn out:

They hit it off, and marry in 1993. Their first and only child is born two years later and they love him half to death. Everything is more or less nice and normal.

In 1996, Mike stumbles into “proof,” more or less, of the theory of everything being a singular, solvable equation through his work, practically by accident, and begins focused work on it with enthusiastic support from his wife. Life is going great, Cristina is promoted and the two are balancing things well enough.

The boy shows little to no social development into his toddler years, but his parents don’t think much of it. His father was similar at his age; they’re not worried. They even go as far to say he’ll turn out just as ambitious and smart as his dad and relatives, coworkers and family friends go along with it, setting insanely high expectations for this literal three year old. Mike keeps working on his theory.

The boy enters preschool at age four; still no improvement. Just isolates himself and draws indiscernible patterns on everything you put in front of him. His parents finally try to intervene to some degree, hiring private instructors and talking with some other psych/child development people they know through the university, to no avail. Nothing changes. He just stares off into space, doesn’t interact with any of them and supposedly doesn’t pay attention to lessons. He still isn’t speaking. Cristina is finally concerned

Around the same time, Mike makes a significant breakthrough in his work, gaining worldwide attention. He receives massive grants from in and outside of Oxford to continue his work, and quits his teaching job to make more time for the endeavor. Cristina is left as the family’s sole provider. She understands and is in agreement on that decision, that’s not the problem yet. The problem is that Mike is becoming more or less indifferent to their son hits five, not seeing any previously projected greatness he was supposed to have in his father’s footsteps. Cristina, much more conscious of balance in her life and how having kids works, isn’t sure what to make of that. Their relationship starts to strain.

From there, as Mike keeps working, Cristina takes the kid to all sorts of specialists around England but none of them can pinpoint what’s “wrong” with him. She tries much more actively to connect with him like they’re telling her to (though she still enrolls him in the university’s affiliated primary school program, against their suggestions), bringing him everywhere. Buys him little memory games since that’s all that seems to hold his attention. She’s past any belief of him being some secret genius like his dad, not that her opinion of her husband is super positive at this point anyway. She’s just dead-set on her son having some sense of normal in his life.

By 2002, Mike has completely secluded himself and works nearly constantly. He has made no progress on his theory since 1999 and the fame garnered from his breakthrough has faded. The family is running out of money and Cristina is exhausted. The boy is ostracized at school and still (almost) totally nonverbal. Her coworkers keep suggesting these weird holistic remedies that she refuses. She knows better than to fall for all that new age, pyramid scheme bullshit.

The son’s condition, whatever it is, worsens until mom, desperate, puts her foot down in 2008 (or “gives up,” if you wanna put it like that) and drags her husband and son to this private practice in Scotland she was told about by a friend, suspicious but ready to put up with anything at this point.

😐👍

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anghraine · 3 months

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Fic author interview (meme)

I was tagged by @incognitajones! Thank you very much <3

1- How many works do you have on AO3?

222, though some are very closely interconnected.

2- What's your total AO3 word count?

1,193,545, says the AO3 statistics page!

o_O

3- What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

LOL, I had just automatically rearranged my stats graph to rank fics by kudos instead of hits. It's:

Season of Courtship (inevitably), a Darcy/Elizabeth canon-compliant engagement interquel I wrote as a teenager;

But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul In Hell (always a pleasant surprise), a short AU in which Luke convinces Anakin/Vader to flee the Empire with him;

per ardua ad astra, a Rogue One+ANH Jyn/Cassian AU in which Jyn, Cassian, and Bodhi escape Scarif only to get trapped on the Death Star and forced to pass themselves off as Imperials;

we get dark, only to shine, a longggg yet unfinished AU of The Borgias in which Cesare and Lucrezia begin their affair during S1 instead of S3 (CW for canon sibling incest, murder, etc).

Contradictions and Varieties (baffling), a short Darcy/Elizabeth AU I wrote for a fest in which it takes them slightly longer to get together.

4- Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try, especially with fics I'm actively updating, but I'm always behind on it. I mostly just get distracted and forget.

5- What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Oh, interesting question! I don't write a lot of angsty endings, but there are a few options, and I think it probably would have to be the gift of men, a short (~1k) Fourth Age fic in which Eldarion goes along with a politically convenient marriage to one of Faramir and Éowyn's daughters, and falls in love with her, only for her to die of old age while Aragorn and Faramir are still alive and Eldarion remains young.

Honorable mentions: Set On This Path (Luke and Leia are brought up in the Empire + fusion with the story of the bloodbending brothers in B1 of Legend of Korra, complete with murder-suicide) and the last day (a chirpy epistolary fic that takes an abrupt turn after the genocidal attack that begins the Guild Wars games).

6- What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Um, just considering the ones that have endings, to be fair, and ... hmm, that's harder. A lot of happy endings! Probably the ones that are happiest for me, personally, are First Impressions (m!Elizabeth/f!Darcy re-telling of P&P) and whatever we deny or embrace (f!Cassian/Jyn).

7- Do you write crossovers?

Not often, but sometimes! Like now.

8- Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes! I've gotten hate more than once wrt Season of Courtship in various versions (even before it become so overwhelmingly the popular favorite of my fics). The rest has been on other fics and mostly on ff.net.

TBH the subtler stuff bothers me more than outright hate (corrections based on adaptations or fanon or expanded universe material I already said I wasn't using, concern that I might switch permanently to a new format I'm trying out, etc).

9- Do you write smut?

Very rarely. I respect people who can write good smut (hi incognita!), but I'm definitely a fade to black sort unless the ship is already so out there that I'm long past feeling self-conscious about it.

10- Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. It's happened a couple of times, but the main one was someone who stole a few Austen fics from various people and tried to piece them together into something they could sell on Amazon. One of the fics was The Rich Are Always Respectable (not what I would choose to plagiarize if I were going to, but ... okay).

11- Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, several times. I think it's cool!

12- Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I wrote a short fic with my friend @tulinlina many years ago :)

13- What's your all-time favorite ship?

Darcy/Elizabeth. Truly this ship is the terror of the seas!

14- What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Oh, man. This probably requires more self-knowledge than I really have. Um ... I hate saying it, but we get dark, only to shine is likely this. I had so many plans for where it was going to go, but I'm just in a very different fannish place these days.

15- What are your writing strengths?

It feels weird to say, but I think I write solid dialogue (it's certainly my favorite thing to write!) and fairly clean prose in general.

16- What are your writing weaknesses?

Description is my truest nemesis—I tend to place scenes in just empty or vaguely described space. Fight scenes and that sort of thing are really difficult (for related reasons). Finishing things—my stuff nearly always grows out of control and it screws up pacing and so on.

17- What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

A little goes a long way, IMO. I did a bit of it in my fic about Leia and Cassian and Alderaanian, in tongues and quiet sighs, so I can't judge it too hard, but it's very much something to handle with care (especially with conlangs—Tolkien fic can be pretty grating this way).

18- What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Tolkien! My first attempt at a fic was a Faramir-goes-to-Rivendell-instead-of-Boromir AU that never got very far.

Well, my first serious attempt at fanfic, that is—I wrote original stuff for years before that, and I guess technically I tried to write Trixie Belden fanfic when I was about 10 ... and the original stuff spun off from a piece that was basically a Secret of Mana fanfic I wrote even before the Trixie Belden stuff. But in terms of something written within a fandom community, the Faramir fic.

19- What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Hmm. I'm not sure, actually. I mostly just write stuff if I feel like it. Oh—it's cheating, but I've barely written Korra/Kuvira even though I adore the ship. I'd like to write a proper Korvira fic someday.

20- What's your favorite fic you've written?

This changes pretty often, though there are always a few that come up when I'm asked. At this moment in time, probably The Jedi and the Sith Lord, the third (sort of) of my f!Luke Skywalker fics, and the one where the story finally swerves off the canon tracks and becomes its own thing. Maybe (probably?) not my best work, but the Lucyverse is my baby and I think TJATSL is my best work in it.

Tagging: @elwing, @kareenvorbarra, @heckofabecca, @veliseraptor, @rain-sleet-snow

#long post #anghraine babbles #fic talk #sadly not tagging all the fics individually #words about words #meme #meme prattle

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strayheartless · 1 month

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I feel like with witch Genesis, they

a) have LEGITIMATE CLAWS they always have to trim to regular nail size/sharpness in order to not shank any of their lovers or ruin any books

and b) are naturally a seduction witch.

(this particular he is pretty much completely based off of a book series I'm reading these are traits of the main character) (cough cough the first book is called Wit Worthy by Juliann Whicker cough cough)

but ANYWAYS. they'd just be naturally a witch who's magic is mainly seduction based (tho he definitely has more) but a lot of it is activated/ used best when they use their voice, aka sings or READS ALOUD

omg that could be why they recite Loveless so much

but they could probably compell people to do things, or transfigure them! (and other objects!)

that situation is also from when this mob of people were chucking things like tomatoes at Wit, and as she sang, she enthralled them while she transformed them all into sheep. to bring them back to being people, she'd kiss their heads an break the spell

^ that's just so Genesis coded to me???

(claw example)

Okay! Sorry I took so long to answer, I have no signal at work otherwise I would have answered in my break!

So! I’ll start by saying this AU is totally up for however you want to interpret it, so however you see Gen, that’s how they are. Skies the limit with this one!

That being said, I’m vibing with these so hard I may change my own law!

1.) Genesis is technically speaking an unfinished Vampire. They were bitten at a party in their early twenties but has never drank blood straight from a live vain so they’re not fully turned. It’s a touchy subject for Genesis because it has still changed a lot about him physically.

For example, this version of Genesis is a vegetarian and has been all their life. Now, however they struggle against blood urges and need to at least have the flavour of blood to satiate the hunger for any extended amount of time.

The idea about him being a seduction witch is amazing. This works so well with the idea that vampires have powers of suggestion! I feel as though this is one of the things Gen has a love hate relationship with because on the one hand, they can use it against people they dislikes or thinks need punished. On the other, they are terrified that they will accidentally use it on one of the boys.

As for the Claws… that going into canon. I think I wrote down somewhere that each of them have a Witch mark.

Seph it was his eyes, obviously

Angeals was moving plant tattoos

Cloud was glowing scars

And I think I wrote Gens was a phoenix wing but I’ve been a fool! Claws it better!

I can absolutely see them staining his fingers when he over works his magic and him being incredibly Vain about them! Maybe Zack was a little frightened at first by the prospect of them in… ahem… certain aspects of their relationship. But Gens had 26 years to know how to take care of them.

I’ll have to look into that book once I’m not swamped with work etc!

Sorry again for missing this! These are awesome ideas!

#ffvii #cloud strife #genesis rhapsodos #crisis core #zack fair #angeal hewley #sephiroth #ff7 #goth witch #goth witch AU #goth witch boyfriends #ask #ask answered

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thebroccolination · 1 year

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Is it okay if you go into greater detail about Win's personality, fears, and insecurities?

OKAY SO.

Win's my favorite character! I love him deeply! And I've been enjoying his character growth in Between Us more than anything.

The interesting thing about following him as a character is that there're different versions of him with similarities and differences: currently unfinished Hemp Rope, his brief appearances in UWMA, the specials, and now the ongoing main series (currently episode four).

His character in Hemp Rope is hard for me to get a read on because we only have unofficial translations and an incomplete story, so a lot of his motivations and emotional interiority are missing nuances.

Here, have the most beautiful image ever drawn of Win, taken from the Twitter account of the official Red Thread mangaka:

Meanwhile, UWMA is tricky as well because as Boun has said, he put a lot of his own personality into the performance because he didn't have a layered character to study. He kind of created his own version of Win out of necessity. He only had about an hour total onscreen, and apart from his stairwell scene giving Dean advice, he didn't have much of an impact on the plot, so he wasn't a central character with a lot of detail.

That said, we got some crucial moments in his scenes with Team that helped us understand what kind of person he is.

So! When I wrote WinTeam fic over the past two and a half years, I used a composite of his characters in Hemp Rope and UWMA. The flirtatious side we see in UWMA, the nurturing side we see in Hemp Rope, etc.

The specials weren't meant to be canon, and honestly someone on here recently called them unofficial workshops, which…yes?! That's a brilliant way to think of them, I think. The feedback they got on the specials (mainly that they were portraying BounPrem more than WinTeam) probably helped them focus their performances in the main series.

So now we're seeing the main series unfold, and since Win has a full development arc to go through now, it's a lot easier for me to see all of these little nuances. He's a full-fledged, multilayered character! One of the leads! YAY FOR MY SON. <3

His core fear seems to be that he's going to be alone forever, and while he seems resigned to it in episode one, he still clearly has some hope by the fact that he's grabbed onto Team with both hands. Even though he also has no idea what to do to keep him, he wants Team.

I think he also has a craving for validation. That "Team helps Win feel wanted" from the synopsis has been an ongoing chant in my head for the past two years, and it's fascinating to see it play out onscreen. I want to see his interactions with his parents before I go too deep into analyzing anything with his family, but it's pretty telling already that no one's actually sat down with View – a sixteen-year-old – and explained what's expected of him. Not until Win did.

Win's mother seems to be the one who nurtures Wan, but then you have scenes where Wan is criticizing both of their parents when he talks to Tul and Win. (Maybe because she doesn't stand up for him strongly enough to his father?) I thought it was fascinating that Wan views Win as the favorite, but he doesn't seem to hold any serious resentment toward him. My guess is it's because of this "rule" Win apparently made up: they're equals to him. Even if their parents have chosen a favorite (unconsciously or not), Win isn't using that leverage over his brothers.

He's even enforced that same equality with food. Maybe it's a conscious or unconscious response to their parents making their favoritism obvious? Or it's just something he thinks is the right thing to do in general. I'm waiting on more scenes with his family, because right now I feel like it could be a number of things.

Basically, my dear Anon, I'm in the middle of a whole new Win Phawin analysis stage. I knew my characterization of him would change with his series, and I'm delighted by what we've gotten so far. :')

I hope this was what you were hoping for!

#kiranokira answers #between us #between us the series #win phawin #win phawin wanichakarnjonkul

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vacantgodling · 4 months

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LOQUACIOUS IS SUCH A GOOD WORD I WANNA SEE THAT ONE PLSSSS

AHHHH YEAH!!

so loquacious is an exploratory piece that i wrote in the hell year (2020) when i was just beginning to think i should shift vdtrt into what it is now. it wasn’t even CLOSE to where it is today BUT i was definitely thinking about softening gabe up—gabe actually used to be much angrier and gruffer in earlier versions of his character but after awhile it just didn’t feel right. so this piece is from his perspective and it’s talking about how darren is, well, loquacious (or very talkative lol) but with a caveat: he only seems talkative around him.

in some ways this is still somewhat canon. darren is a person who prefers to kickback and let others lead social interactions but around people he’s close with (like olice and like, now, gabe) he tends to talk a Lot because he feels comfortable to. actually in a lot of ways darren mirrors Me personally because i’m p chill but if i know you well i will absolutely talk your ear off, my partner can attest to this.

i never finished it tho, but i can show you what i wrote! so without further ado (also don’t mind some of the more specific details; some info is Wrong or has been retconned)

It always struck Gabe— how absolutely, incessantly, unmitigatedly talkative Darren was. Or at least, how talkative he was with him. Gabe was never much someone for breaking the silence unless he absolutely had to, but there was something about his boyfriend that loosened his tongue and eased off his usually closed shell.

When they lay together, limbs curled around one another like two overgrown cats and Gabe looked into his dark eyes and wound his fingers through his coarse hair; it occurred to him often that he’d just tune out whatever nonsense Darren was saying. About the weather, about the time, the timing of the weather and the reason for it; about the class that they shared that they both hated, or the classes they didn’t and he was curious about. He could seemingly ramble on and on about nothing, and Gabe would let him, interjecting in his chatter to murmur his opinion or hum in understanding every now and again. He wasn’t a bad boyfriend— sometimes he tuned the bloodsucker out but he was always listening.

The only reason it occurred to him at all that Darren was so talkative, was that, unless they were alone, he was oddly quiet. Rather than not having anything to say, he just took the back seat and listened.

Granted, the two of them did have very outspoken friends. Their respective best friends in particular (Michaelis for him and Marco for Darren) were two of the most opinionated, talkative people that Gabe knew— and he knew his father. Still, instead of joining in on their chatter, Darren was content to ‘kick his feet back’ and ‘enjoy the view.’

He listened when others talked and listened well, and it wasn’t as though their friends didn’t encourage him to talk— the opposite— they always hounded him to speak up more but he’d laugh it off and say “Well you all already know what I’m going to say!”

They didn’t. Not by a long shot.

Because Darren talked about everything and nothing. About small details people wouldn’t expect he’d notice, about deep philosophies that Gabe wasn’t even aware that he’d known. About inconsequential things about why does pasta taste like that (with his nose wrinkling) […]

the end tapers off into an unfinished sentence unfortunately lol. but the main bit of retconned info is michaelis existing bc he doesn’t anymore he kinda got absorbed into estel lol. also the classes bit bc it’s more focused on the roadtrip than the school like the old wip used to be. but i do still like this piece! it’s more recent so the style is much better than my older works LOL

vdtrt taglist (ask to be + / -):

@mjjune / @coven-archives / @henrike-does-writing-sometimes

#s: vdtrt #s: darren and co #ren writing

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rkrispyt · 2 years

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*sigh*

Oh boy.

What is there to even say?

I suppose my immediate thoughts are...

I imagined the worst and it was that they a. would leave Portwell without even a moment to put closure on it, see any of it from EJ's point of view, and let them move forward as friends and b. wouldn't resolve EJ's entire plotline this season, we'd never even find out what he does next or what happened with all that

...and shocker, guess what happened (or rather didn't)?

The way they treated portwell...goodness. It's like season two was a fever dream. In the end they just used them to beat a dead horse of "EJ sucks and was such a mistake, YOU'RE so much better and everything he was not" even though we SAW that EJ IS/WAS those things in season two but...again, fever dream, amirite? Sorry but...did the Ricky/Gina pairing need all that to help move it along? That seems like an awful lot. Why so much shit talking of EJ/Portwell? Damn. Just mean and not necessary.

And last but not least, the biggest shocker of this season for me: the way this show has completely turned me against Gina Porter.

I have been RIDE OR MOTHERFUCKING DIE for her since day one moment one of this series. And I spent 99.9% of this season wondering who this podperson version of her is.

Not because she did questionable things. But because there was absolutely no accountability for those things. She's 'the main girl' now, so they've Mary Sue'd her into some flawless can-do-no-wrong version of the character I loved. But that girl? In S3? That's not Gina Porter. In fact, some of us have now dubbed 'Pina Gorter'.

Man oh man, I don't know what this season was but it was not the show I have loved for two seasons. The heart of this show, the root of it, has been missing for me since 3.01. I've hated to admit it, struggled to accept it, but by the time the credits rolled on this finale, it left me with no choice but to face it.

The HSMTMTS that I loved so much is no more.

The Gina Porter I loved so much is no more.

The Portwell that won my heart has been erased in canon as if it never happened.

And the EJ Caswell that shockingly won me over in S2 absolutely deserves better. I will fight for his happiness from beyond the grave. I cannot wrap my head around all they did to him this season, why they felt he deserved any of that, and the fact that they left it all unfinished once it served its purpose of justifying Gina breaking up with him.

They really left him with no friends whatsoever, crying after his father fucking hung up on him when he tried to have a heart to heart. Which doesn't bode well for him being with everyone BUT Val as he navigates this next step of life. Lucky EJ.

Like...Val couldn't swing by Ashlyn or Gina on her way out to be like "EJ really needs a friend right now and I gotta go - get on that, bitches"? It makes so much sense for Ashlyn to be there for him, and is such a great opportunity to move Portwell into friendship post dating for her to be there for him even though things are weird because despite the breakup they DO still care about each other.

Honestly though...this show left things with Portwell as if...I mean, do they care about each other? Like, at all? I don't know that we're meant to believe they do at the end of the day.

I have so so many more thoughts on this finale and season and what on earth this means for what season four will look like for those that continue to watch.

For now all I can say is...

We are in the darkest timeline. Truly.

#rip hsmtmts #hsmtmts rant #hsmtmts spoilers #ej caswell #portwell #MY BABIES

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pisscreant · 4 months

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Oh before I forget: below, I have infodumped about three unfinished semi 'crack treated seriously' post-game canon-noncompliant ideas. I once planned to post them, but prob won't use the ideas here any time soon. They all involve trying to prevent the apocalypse and breaking the story/game while doing so.

They're free for you to do with as you please. Use the whole idea or tiny parts. Go nuts, because I sure did! (& again, pleeeease mention me and link me so that one day I might be able to come read!!) Message this blog or email me at [email protected] !!!

Fic One: Midnight, the Stars and You v2

I wanted to play with the fact that the UI is a FELD tape computer. In this fic, the player starts editing save files to help Harry navigate The Return, much to his confusion and existential horror.

Fic Two: Volta Brackets (or the Grandpa Piss Saga)

This was my darling batshit incoherent mess. I jumped the shark, and I had fun doing it.

The 'case' part of the casefic wasn't figured out yet. I wanted to explore The Return and alternate timelines/averting or delaying the apocalypse, ect. I have no idea how the fuck I planned to actually accomplish that.

It's written from main Harry's pov. The twist I had fun was with a shady old man character dubbed 'Grandpa Piss' skulking around. Shivers and other Skills mention his activities and he shows up here and there.

It turns out that's a time-travelling older version of Harry trying to prevent the apocalypse. His stats are maxed, his morals have blurred, and despite it all he still just wants to save everyone By All Means Necessary.

A less concrete idea I considered adding to this verse involved old man Harry intentionally getting ZA/UM'ed and psychic judo-ing his moralintern interrogator so their minds switch places. So alternate body-snatching Harry slowly loses his humanity by abandoning his timeline, gta-ing some dude's body and terrifying represent timeline Harry and Kim.

Idk it was a card I had up my sleeve that I loved. Grandpa Piss was some kind of personification of how I was twisting DE into something unrecognisable, but I had too much unironic fun with him. Something something 'organ thief', doppelganger, body snatcher.

Fic Three: From You It Will Spread

Harry's mind-reading powers and Shivers checks bleed over to Kim. Then to more and more of their friends. Steadily, the number grows. Revachol hivemind time! I just had fun with Harry psychically dming Kim during cases, as well as the Skills being able to talk to Kim as well. Writing Kim noticing some things that the Skills say and prompting them to elaborate was also fun. The growing prescence of Revachol being a hivemind was also interesting to try and write. Funnier still was to write it like an eldritch group chat with Revachol as the mod. My main two goals were: 1. Write weird but cute KimHarry psychic connection and maybe nasty af sex. 2: To enable my boys to directly beam their annoying selves into the minds of their friends and coworkers.

Anyway that's it! Have fun!

#ok I think I've sorted everything. I'll reblog my hiatus post one last time tonight for the night crowd and then log off #love you guys! take care!

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hiemaldesirae · 9 months

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please. I'm begging you for more crumbs about VADD!Shen Jiu and also that Roxana AU you have from that art post you did of the two.

As a VADD AND SVSSS fan, especially as a fan of the original villains— please. I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH FOR MORE. I'm actually in the process of outlining a crossover with the original goods of both.

God, the Roxana one as well— please, PLEASE TELL ME SJ IS ROXIE HE'S SO ROXANA-CODED SOMEHOW. GIVE HIM BUTTERFLIES AND POISON AND— *gets knocked out*

by the way, LOVE your artstyle. scratches an itch i did not know existed in my brain. your chibis as well. they're so cute!!

oh you have no idea how long ive waited to talk about them. this mayyy get a bit long so ill leave it under the readmore.

disclaimer: i intend on finishing these fics so what im going to be talking about is inspirations and unfinished / abandoned ideas and other ideas i have for the works instead of anything relating to the plots themselves

for svadd, sj is a lot more complicated than he appears to be on the surface. im not so sure if what i have written currently is what i /want/ exactly because i know i want his character to go a certain way. the relationships between him and his modern-day friends is one meant to parallel the in-game "shen qingqiu" sj compares himself to and in much the same way, mirror the way that sy contrasts himself with sqq in canon: but instead of being condescending and viewing sqq as a one dimensional character, sj is able to appreciate his nuance while still being rightfully angry over his actions

to me, sj is supposed to be an unreliable narrator who constantly enforces his own thoughts. he tells himself over and over that he misses his home and that he wants to go back, that he absolutely needs to- but then, he turns the other way and finds himself being sucked even deeper into this different one.

i also really wanted to explore how sjs dynamic with a lot of the characters would be affected knowing that they were "based off" his real friends, but again im not very confident with how it came off lol

there was a lot of points in the story where i attempted to add in foreshadowing for the ending i want the story to take... in any case, it definitely wont go the same way as vadd, though i did toy with the idea of a "version" of sy being the main villain haha

(it might still happen for shits and giggles)

as for the roxanna au there are a lot of things ive wanted to do with this au and its good that i havent posted because it means i can keep revising til i come up with something good lol

its a liujiu au with some bingyuan / cumplane thrown into the mix (the cumplane is overwhelmingly toxic btw bingyuan is the healthy one out of the two here 😭) where yes sj is xana !!! he really just makes such a good manhwa villainess haha

i had been puzzling over what i wanted his motif to be-- after all, sj is typically associated with the simplicity and calming bamboo so the glittering butterflies wouldnt work with him- but after some deliberation i decided with using moths for him :3c still subject to change ofc but i think im happy with this as is

the story is somewhat similar to how roxanna goes but surprise sj isnt the transmigrator here! (and honestly, roxanna wouldve been sm better if xana hadnt been a transmigrator... or maybe i just think that because it was only used as a convenient plot point for her to know crucial info. sigh.)

my outline of how the roxanna au goes is basically this:

lqg fucks around and finds out

sj who has been seeing dreams of the "book" sy read knows what will happen to his family if lqg dies

etc

at the same time: sy, transmigrator, attempts to make sure his only surviving older brother lives to a long happy life and the only way he can secure this is by fucking up that hack author

also i killed off qi-ge and idk if i want him to come back. he'll be like the stereotypical dead anime mother for this au lmao

hmm and i think thats all i have to say for these aus... thanks for giving me a chance to ramble on haha ~ much appreciated !! and thank you for the compliment, im flattered!! 🥹🥹💕

#ran rambles #quite literally #shen jiu #original shen qingqiu #svadd #sv x roxanna #svsss #svsss au

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pocket-prosecutor · 2 years

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Wereshifter Miles AU index:

Art is indicated with (a) and writing is indicated with (w). Will be updated with each new post!

(up to date!)

Main posts (in order of the timeline (as much as possible)):

Masterpost (w)

Random assortment of unfinished sketches (a)

Shrinking for the first time (a + w)

Miles sleeping peacefully with Gregory :) (a)

He gets to have some fun as well (a)

Miles is helping with a case! (a)

Phoenix coming over to see Miles shrink/be tiny for the first time (w)

Young Phoenix meeting with Young Miles after DL-6 (a)

Not sure what to call this one but it's Miles laying in Phoenix's hand (before I upped Miles's size to 8 inches lol) (a) (REDRAW)

Feeling bad about his condition (also before I upped Miles to 8 inches) (a)

Miles holding Phoenix's hand (a)

AAI1 doods ft. Franziska (a)

Kay finds out (a)

Days are getting shorter (a)

Phoenix holding Miles's hand (trust exercise saga) (a)

Miles being held in Phoenix's hand (trust exercise saga) (a) (also colored version!)

Miles obliterating Phoenix with a kiss (a)

Miles gets to see how tiny he gets after sunset (a)

A talk right after moving in together (a)

Everything below this is ...somewhere after they move in together (so not in a particular order of events):

Feeling miserable while shrinking (a)

Kissing while shrinking (a)

Dancing while shrinking (w)

Being held while shrinking (a)

A meeting running late (a + w) (writing done by pocket-attorney!)

Sometimes you just gotta lie down on your s/o's hand and feel miserable (a)

Miles sleeping peacefully with Phoenix :) (a)

More sleebgy Miles (hands are weighted blankies, right?) (a)

Uppies please (a)

Get held tenderly, idiot (a) (partial nudity cw)

Gentle kiss on the back (a) (partial nudity cw)

He's in him pocket :) (a)

Don't you love top surgert scars too? (a) (partial nudity cw)

MORE KISS! Beautiful art I commissioned from territorial-utopia! (a)

Other stuff that's no longer "canon" in the AU but is still up:

Old masterpost (w + a) (included in the list because I think the drawing I made for it is still kinda nice ehe)

Post AA1-3 scenario (a) (no longer included because it doesn't fit in the timeline + Edgeworth's office isn't in the courthouse lmao my bad) (also it's one of the first things I made I kinda hate it now)

Alternative AU where he grows instead (a)

#wereshifter miles au #index post #i dont often look back at old posts idk #especially the ones with stuff i wrote for idk it always scares me to look back on the way i write things #anyway LOOK! ORGANISATION #It doesnt seem like it's that much (yet) but trust me this is the most investment I've had in my own content in years

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64-jungle-planks · 1 year

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Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian OC Ref. Sheet

This is Tigerfrost (Also known as Frosty), this Blog's main OC! I originally made her for Demise 4 back in 2021 off of a backpack I'd bought a couple of years earlier from a cool collector's shop. She was put in OC retirement while I focused on a Minecraft SMP I was on until she was pulled back out for this blog around July-ish 2022. My original ref is here, which I'm currently still using, but I do plan to change it soon because my style is outdated on it and a lot has changed in c!Tigerfrost's story.

I've been really inspired by @/all-yn-oween's and @/lidensword's NATM2 OC's, so this is my NATM version of Frosty! They are an exhibit on Children's and Young Teen's media in the Smithsonian. The Cats are promotional cardboard cut-outs for the books that came to life through the power of the Tablet.

(favorite bits, and more about Applebreeze, Fawnpelt, Craneclaw, and Poppypool, and general about their world under the cut!)

For a while, I've wanted to write about an Anthro Warrior's AU, but I've had a lot of trouble writing and drawing about it. I've recently been really inspired by @nissabug-art's Anthro Warriors AU.

About the Warriors AU...

First, this takes place wayyy after the events of the books. I haven't read past the fourth series (Omen of the Stars) and the first few of the fifth series (A Vision of Shadows), so most of what happens after those books aren't really counted in the AU as canon. All of the book series are regarded as legends of the past, though, especially Firestar. Other things:

Almost all cats have powers like the PO3 protagonists; I added this because I thought it was fun

Instead of Code #13 (The word of the Clan leader is the warrior code) of the Warrior's Code, cats vote for decisions like they did in I believe The Dawn of the Clans and a non-canon story, The Clans Decide. Leaders act as representatives of the clan and make small decisions that don't need to be voted on.

Thunderclan is led by Littlestar (Previously Littleflower, Tigerfrost's adopted sibling, They/Them). Tigerfrost is the Deputy and their Medicine Cat (which are called Healers in the AU) is Tigerfrost's one of other siblings, Stoneheart(It/They/He). The three are extremely close and tell almost everything together. Tigerfrost's power is Yestersight, also known as Retrocognition, inspired by the 💫TIME MACHINE💫 MAP made in 2020.

(Here's a small unfinished animatic of Tigerfrost and Littlestar. I made it during lunch one evening and I don't have the motivation to finish it)

Windclan is led by Sorrelstar (Previously Sorrelgaze, He/Him), their Deputy is Raindance (They/He) and their Healers are Foxsong (They/She) and Dusthop (He/She). Applebreeze (She/They, belongs to my school friend John) and Fawnpelt (They/Them, belongs to @swagbugger) belong to this clan and they are both Warriors. Fawnpelt can shapeshift into animals with wings or horns and Applebreeze has Botanokinesis.

Riverclan is led by Coonstar (Previously Coontail, He/It), the main antagonist of the story. He wants to fuse all the clans into one and become leader of them all; basically Tigerstar 2.0. I made him with some friends at summer camp years ago, and I have no creative ideas, so he will stay as Tigerstar 2.0 for now. The Deputy is Blind Lightning (He/Him). Poppypool (They/She) is the Healer Riverclan and has Empathy.

Shadowclan is led by Foxstar (Previously Foxshadow, They/Them), their Deputy is Craneclaw (They/He), and their Healer is Rebar (He/Him). Craneclaw is romantically involved with Rebar, even though it's against the Warrior code. Craneclaw has no superpowers.

Skyclan is led by Spottedstar (Previously Spottedsky, He/They), their Deputy is Mellow Petal (She/Her), and their Healer is Streampuddle (Any/All).

Favorite bits…

I love the pull down forest background. It’s inspired by the kids corner in Barnes & Noble's. I imagine that people could pull down different scenes from the book as background when reading. It’s also inspired by four trees.

I also really like the mini book covers. They are covered up mostly, but I love how small they are. They show all five main characters plus the main bad guy.

#Anthro Warriors Cats #Anthro Warrior Cats AU #NATM2 AU #Night At The Museum AU #NATM OC #Night At The Museum OC #frosty’s art #OH MY GOSH!#This took forever #This one drawing took almost five days #I was really struggling on it #I'm glad I finished it and I'm so happy with it #I hope to work on my actual Frosty Ref soon #Character Ref #Jan. 21 #2023 #Jan. 2023 #Warrior Cats #Frosty’s Ref Sheet

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branmuffins22 · 8 months

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Moots said they wanna hear about WIPs and I feel like I gotta get this brainrot out anyways so HERE I GO

I've only got three projects I'm actively working on right now, all of which are Owl House fanfics, although I've got ideas here and there for other things (video games I might've made if I weren't so burnt out, ttrpg characters that might need their own goddamn settings and stories to themselves, a Code Lyoko fanfic, music (mostly loads of disconnected song lyrics), 3D avatars, etc).

The Owl House fanfics in question are three(-ish?) fold:

Theseus Who?, a mostly-canon-compliant 5+1 post-titanification headcanon compilation that DOESN'T just let Luz keep her titan form (mostly it's just a bunch of changes along the lines of when Hunter's eyes changed color after Flapjack saved him). - It's actually sort of a tie-in to another, bigger fic I'm writing that's gonna be point 2, so you can assume anything mentioned in this one will happen throughout the timeline of the next one as well. - I've currently already got the 5 written, so now I just need to buckle down and finish the +1, unless I decide to do another sweep of edits (I think the excessive parentheticals might be too excessive). - - I only started it like a week ago, and I've been waiting for motivation to strike again to let me finish it for like half that time.

Masha and the Very Normal Nocedas, a mostly-canon-compliant sorta-multimedia veesha longfic based on the dramatic irony of Masha slowly driving themself nuts trying to piece together what the Deal is with Luz, Vee, and the rest of the Nocedas. - by "sorta-multimedia" i mean its got plaintext segments describing the story, journal segments of Masha recounting events as they remember them and trying to organize their thoughts, chat segments when the characters interact over text, and possibly more if I feel the Need. - I've only outlined the three prologue chapters and the following intermission, only have snippets and vague ideas for scenes for the main bulk of the fic itself, and have only actually written two of the prologue chapters and the intermission. - - won't start posting it until I at least get the third prologue chapter done, so I've got a usable buffer. Hopefully that'll be sooner rather than later.

The Overthinker AU (or "The Artificer AU"? name is also very much a work in progress), a canon rewrite that I think I'll actually split into a bunch of shorter "episodes", so I can appropriately tag each one, rather than tagging one monolithic fic with Everything Under The Sun. The basic premise is "what if The Owl House, but there's more time", both in the meta sense of "not bound by the 20-minute TV episode format" and the diegetic sense of "the broad-strokes plot of the show will happen over a longer in-universe period of time" (though I'm a bit stuck on just how much more time I want to give em). - for the most part, I wanted to put more emphasis on Luz's magical development, and extrapolate a somewhat wider magic system out of what we see in the show, but I also want to go into more detail on how her actions affect those around her, even outside of all the friends she makes (stuff along the lines of the little things the crowd mentioned while protesting Eda's petrification at the end of season 1). - I'm almost (reluctantly) thinking of pulling a Grapes of Wrath with it, structure-wise, by having main plot/character development chapters alternate with shorter intermissions focused on magical exploration, worldbuilding, and so on. - this project is currently just the scribblings of a madwoman in my private discord server and three wildly unfinished fics in my google docs folder - - one of these fics is Something Like a Bible, which is essentially a condensed version of the entire broader project, boiled down to bare plot and occasional commentary. Like a series outline and a plot synopsis rolled into one, though perhaps not quite the series bible it claims to be. - - - honestly I REALLY aughtta work on this one some more, just so I can get most of the Big Ideas out of my head and share them with people. - - the other two fics are currently untitled snippets of scenes from the project, one a sentimental/instructional note from Eda to Luz, and the other sort of a ragefic twist on the ending of Thanks to Them. - this project is gonna include tons of ideas from and allusions to other fics which inspired it/me, such as The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled by IdeaHunter, All that's at Stake by The_Lampman, and Decorative by TheTokenAro, to name a few. - I could make a whole post about this project on its own (and in fact, I have before), talking about all the little changes I'd make, the developments I'd include, the more sweeping changes, the additional themes I'd toss in, and so on, but there are some I REALLY don't think fit well into the "rambling tumblr post" format (and/or just don't want to spoil yet), so I shall Abstain (for now :P).

#toh #the owl house #fan fiction #fanfic #barely-tamed ramblings of a madmind #moots eat up #timestamping Saturday August 26th 2023 (at 11:02am PST)#in case you wanna yell at tumblr for not putting this in your feed until days later #like they have with all my other posts in the last month-ish for some reason

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fountainpenguin · 9 months

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Who were you rooting for to win in each finale of Total Drama (including Ridonculous Race)?

?? It has literally never occurred to me to root for someone while I watch. TIL.

[Disclaimer - I do like Total Drama but this post involves me talking about ships and characters I don't like; I don't like putting that kind of stuff in the tags. I'm not disabling reblogs but please only reblog if you like this post and not because you want to fight; I'm just answering an Ask]

R-Race was the only one that left me truly "Aw man" about it. The characters who are my favorites to watch vs. those who I would expect and/or desire the narrative to reward with my author eyes are absolutely different, ha ha.

So for those who don't know, in the first 3 seasons (maybe more?), the two finalists each have an ending, and different endings air in different countries (I believe they were determined by voting on the Total Drama website during the final week).

All my TD 'fics take place in the same universe and the canon winners in my storyline were Owen, Duncan (who felt guilt-ridden about it, which was the plot of my one-shot "Chris Missed"), Heather, Cameron, Zoey, Shawn... I didn't post any R-Race 'fics beyond the opening bits of Lions Under Palm Trees, but I remember being disappointed by the winners. But that's more because I dislike Geoff with a fiery passion than anything else.

The characters I would argue are the narrative's main characters of their season... I would say Gwen for Island, Duncan for Action, Cody for World Tour, Mike for Revenge, Zoey for All-Stars, Jasmine for Pahkitew, and the cops for Race. Those aren't necessarily the people I personally want to be winners; just saying I think that's who the writers liked a lot and it showed.

World Tour was my first season; I was exposed to it by a sibling listening to it in the same room as me (which also means Aleheather came out of NOWHERE for me because it was purely audio exposure and missed all the small visual cues and I thought they just hated each other... I mean, I've rewatched the series several times since then and I still dislike this ship because I feel like it came out of nowhere and I don't feel any love between them, but idk how much of that was influenced by my first non-visual exposure to their relationship. And just because it's a NOTP for me, that doesn't mean I consider it non-canon... but that's how I write all my 'fics when my NOTPs are canon, so).

I was definitely exposed to the World Tour versions of Courtney's, Heather's, Cody's, Ezekiel's, and Noah's personalities before their Island selves, which I think influences my interest in them as characters in the prequels. Hands down TDWT favorite season, absolutely no contest for me. Pahkitew is close second, though.

I think Cody's the only character I would consider myself to be "rooting for" during a season. The concept of a character who got mauled by a bear in his first season, had to sit out the second season, then finally comes back and gets a fangirl who is obsessed with him to the point that he can barely participate in half the challenges because she is In The Way is SO funny. I also feel like Cody suffered more than most characters on the show due to the combo of bear mauling and having his boundaries consistently violated... He deserved a win. I know he's already a rich kid but I don't care.

In no particular order, my favorite characters in the series are Ezekiel, Eva, Noah, Leonard, Topher, Max, Dwayne Junior, and the Adversity Twins, but I wouldn't describe myself as rooting for them... they got as much screen time as they needed to. Leonard and Topher are some of the best characters I've ever seen in media though, I love them so much <3 To this day, I've never loved writing a character as much as I've loved writing Leonard. He's SO funny and he's a goofy little angel. I have so many unfinished Leonard drafts... I'd love to finish those 'fics someday, but I just don't have time to do everything.

I don't know what current fandom opinions on Topher are, but back when Pahkitew was airing, my quip to my siblings was that "Topher is so manipulative, he even fooled the fandom into thinking he's not as bad as he is." That kid played up the manipulative angle to look shallow on purpose... to hide the fact that he legitimately was super manipulative. He's fantastic. I haven't seen Pahkitew in about 7 years so a fresh watch might affect me differently, but... man. Topher, my absolute beloved.

(In my 'verse Topher is the son of Don (the R-Race host) which means he was just chilling around the elimination area in my R-Race elimination 'fic Lions Under Palm Trees, and man... my love for "character who lives in a hotel, doesn't have either of his parents around, who has mostly been left to care for himself, and he looks up to his dad with stars in his eyes despite also being the most manipulative slimeball in the world..." He's horrific, wants you to think he's a cinnamon roll but can and will absolutely destroy you just because he's bored... I love that 'fic draft so much.)

One of my favorite R-Race teams was also the couple who was super mushy at the start and then started fighting all the time (I think their names were Ryan and Stephanie, but it's been years so I might be wrong). I didn't feel attached to them as characters but I loved how they were portrayed, if that makes sense. My family were big fans of Amazing Race for years (used to watch it weekly) and we watched the second half of R-Race together as a family. We were crying laughing about how accurate their fighting was to the couples who actually participate in Amazing Race. Absolutely 10/10 characterization. No notes.

I don't know if any of that answers your original question, but that's kind of all I have to say. I liked characters who did neat things, but if they weren't competitive enough to fight for victory then they did not deserve to and I would have been mad if they ended up in the finals despite not being a good player. If you're weak then you deserve to go home like the weak links you are <3

I root for "being fun to watch" I guess. And Cody in World Tour.

(Zeke deserved better but also I wouldn't change his World Tour arc for a second. Becoming blinded with obsession to the point that you literally become a twisted, feral version of yourself and start hunting the other characters down and that's it, that's your character arc is the best thing I've ever seen. That moment of quietly cold, calculated, absolutely suppressed fury on Zeke's face after he kidnaps Chris in "All Stars" and Chris is monologuing about every horrible thing he's ever done to Zeke is my everything. That moment when you see what a broken human he's become. That moment he realizes Chris doesn't care he's hurting and doesn't want to help him because feral Zeke is "good content." I need everyone to understand.)

#99% true as far as we remember #Long post #Lions Under Palm Trees #I'll get actual tags someday sorry #The Story Where Courtney Takes Feral Zeke to Prom was one of the best things I ever wrote I think. because it makes me giggle #No Zeke Recovery Speedruns he suffers like the universe intended

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orangepanic · 1 year

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7, 17, 18, and 33 for the ask meme pretty please? 🍊 🍊 🍊

7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?

Definitely, without a doubt, Smoke, my Equalist Asami Irosami fic. It's a massive undertaking that I poured a lot into, and we're so close to the end. I've just got to be in the right headspace to do it, and to have the time and attention to do it properly. Which I haven't had for like six months. But I'm getting excited about it again and hope to get back here soon. Honorable mention to Firestorm, the third fic in my Irosamiverse canon divergence series that I half started and then actually pulled down to re-work. I still think it's got a cool premise, but need to invest in some plotting and make a few hard choices and kill some darlings to keep the narrative tight, which is what was wrong with the first version. George R. R. Martin I am not, and my original vision of writing from a lot of different characters' perspectives and locations wasn't working. But I'll get there.

17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic?

Strictly speaking, probably The Mango Tree. Not because I don't adore this fic. I do. It's sweet and sad and lovely and everyone should read it. But it's also Maiko, and therefore has more kudos and bookmarks than all but my major Irosami multichapter projects that are closer to novels, like AWOL and Smoke. I wrote The Mango Tree in a day or two. Smoke is going on two years. It's a great illustration of the challenges rarepair authors face. If you liked The Mango Tree, maybe you should give some other works a try? You might be surprised.

18. What’s your most underrated fic?

All of them. I guess I was surprised at the reception of Yaoja's Number One Fan. Or maybe just disappointed. There's pretty much universal recognition that for a main character Asami Sato is very underdeveloped in canon. To some that makes her boring, but to me that means she has so much potential! And people clearly want to read about her as she appears in just under half the fics in the Legend of Korra tag. But almost all those fics are Korrasami (like really, nearly all of them), and fics about Asami outside that pairing are rare and low traffic. I'd have hoped there were enough Asami fans in Korrasamiworld who'd be interested in a short, sweet fic about her as a kid that for once didn't center around her mother's death or any ship, but I was wrong. No one seems to love or care for Asami by herself. Low kudos might be the author, but this fic has less than 50 hits. No one is interested. Goes to hug Asami in a corner by myself making self-indulgent pity noises.

33. Is there any particular character whose scenes always wind up being longer/more frequent than you expected? Does the quality hold up?

Okay, there are two ways to answer this: 1. OMFG Iroh. This guy is so much in his head, I'll realize I've written two pages and he hasn't moved. He's still standing there doing dishes, thinking. Any one-shot from Iroh's perspective immediately becomes a multichapter slog. In fact, I went back and looked and in all my 85 works I've only written three one-shots from Iroh's perspective. Because he can't fucking do it. But I love him dearly and I guess he's just going on longer adventures.

2. Asami self-insert. You know that gif with the model walking out from the door all sassy like "heyyyyyy" yeah, that's Asami. I write fics she's not in and she shows up anyway (seriously - she wasn't supposed to be in either The Cabin or Uncle Iroh's Firebending Academy and she just decided she was needed and in she goes). Then she also doesn't listen to directions. I'm writing a fic right now (Tis the Sea Sun for Love) and she's twice wound up adding scenes because she wanted to do something else, like go get a pedicure or shop for a dress for her date. I just... I've given up. Asami is in charge and I'm just here to record it.

Anyway since these are the characters I write the most often now you understand why my fics are so damn long.

Ask me writing stuff

#ask game

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villainship · 1 year

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[Writing WIP Questionnaire]

Reflecting on my drafts folder w/ the previously-skipped section of the questions I was answering here.

If you read this: . . .don’t look @ me. LOL. (Exposing my secrets -- and also hiding from them.)

Sum up one or more of your wips!

Most aren’t for tumblr-posting, mind u. But:

(Divided up by which character has narration rights)

-a Vette story I keep forgetting abt, where she is trying to figure out TD’s post-binge fate on Nar Shaddaa, having decided she’s actually invested in this weird Sith’s wellbeing.

-Quinn experiencing TD’s response to betrayal (TD: “I’m not mad, I just want you to acknowledge your life is in /my/ hands. Forever.”)

-like 4 separate WIPs of ‘joint midlife crisis’ Zahied & TD engaging in their unsanctioned fraternizing in early times/getting to know each other -- however eagerly (TD) or reluctantly (Zahied). -Alliance-era, mid-50s Zahied thinks hard abt where he is, tells TD he ready to dump him (probably. Soon. --For real, though. NO relapses. When it’s done it’s /done/, 100%. Swearing off this shit- . . . Yes, he’ll still teach ur damn kids their hand-to-hand fighting.)

-Alliance-era TD, fraught with relationship issues/feelings(???) beyond his comprehension (dumped by his boyfriend; wife still touchy that he is hot for his boss; boss ignoring him b/c 1. she has never considered him significant or attractive 2. she’s busy with the happiness of being reunited with her bug husband), takes a team (incl. his Apprentice) to Hoth for a mission, where they lose contact with home base & can’t send an update to confirm they’re still alive. --He thinks that’s fine he didn’t want to hear from anyone there for a While anyway-- (but something else Will go wrong.) -Agent Vensys is assigned as chaperone for traitor-on-probation Sith Lord Liio (going Where? idk) -- which may be AU content, or I might make it canon. . . or I might split off into 2 different versions (one where they potentially makeout a little, & one for sailing the crack ship onward to far-distant horizons that veer OOC for at least 1 of them). Lolll. -(?canon?) Kallir has a nice day. -Kallir runs afoul of a posse of Imperial troops privately harboring anti-Sith sentiments in a garrison on Taris (? question mark). (Visiting pumpkin Agent was witnessed holding hands with a Sith who recently came by) -- I’m evaluating how much violence I’ll include as canon. (Less than I wrote. . . but some. He definitely gets bullied. Punches someone in the throat. Maybe knifes a guy a little bit?? I wrote that scene, but I’m not sure it’ll fit.) -Kallir undergoing an entire ordeal living among space pirates & becoming slightly unhinged. -in AU: Kallir (the Minister of Intelligence), dragged away from the tail end of a formal ball, puts up with Vensys plying his charms at him (again)

-total shipping AU: Kallir, Liio, & Zahied, lonely hearts club, attempt to distract one another from mountains of baggage in the only way that comes to their minds when they recognize everyone else is hot and thirsty. (Fellas. . . you’re a mess. Sorry I’m so into that.)

Which story took the most research?

Well- the extent of research I’m willing to do is stuff like “what’s this place/object look like in SWTOR?”, or “what does the internet say about these star wars aliens?”

Which story has the most lore?

TD going to Hoth to blow up a Star Fortress maybe (regrettably, I don’t know the relevant lore & I’ve been incapable of doing the gameplay I want to do to get there).

Current word count of all your main wips?

I do Not track those stats. . . I think I know which are the longest, though.

-Part 1 of Liio/Kallir/Zahied AU is. . . 54 pages (for. . .3-4 scenes, essentially. dkfshgkjf). -Part 2 combined WIPs are 15 + 6 + 3 + .2 (a paragraph) (split up due to time-jumping mid-draft, starting a new file, & returning to unfinished business when I feel like it)

Fic that isn’t a total departure from character canon: -Part 1 (of the in-depth edition) of Kallir’s pirate story is a 32 page WIP, w/ an 18-page side chapter (which might not get any longer) -Part 2: 6 pages so far. -Aftermath follow-up: 7 so far.

How many projects do you have going on right now? Are there any that you doubt you’ll ever finish?

(My answer to question 1 is more-or-less my entire list) It’s hard to say I Won’t finish anything, but also--I don’t often finish writings.

What was you first major project? How far along is it?

And I wouldn’t necessarily call any of them ‘major’ projects (pirate fic got pretty big--but. idk). . .

My first SWTOR fic was for TD & Quinn, and I got lost on it. lol. It’s one of those drafts that feels convoluted to look at (there’s a lot of patchwork pieces), & I’m not sure exactly how much of it is worth having in there or what I actually Want to write into it. (Quinn is hilarious to write, though.)

What are some tropes and character dynamics found in your wips?

. . . gay little scene-slice stories of charged & intimate interactions--aggressive or/and soothing. Just people having their emotional problems in various Situations (sometimes amid danger/stress. . . sometimes when they are trying to enjoy themselves. . . Sometimes those mix).

So. . . tame (generally tame.) psychological whump (mainly psychological.) I Guess. H/C-aligned.

Describe the setting of one or more of your wips

All my stories are in settings of Convenience, and usually defined more by who is there than details of the place itself. (eg. I’m picturing “Kallir gets bullied for having a Sith bf” somewhere on Taris b/c it seems like the kind of place where the military doesn’t get a lot of oversight). Nothing too exciting (or original).

What are some things that inspired your stories? Real events? Maybe a dream?

Game events sometimes, of course. ehehh.

I also have. . . not uncommonly come up w/ concepts for scenarios based on outfits. (Pirate fic arose b/c I previewed the Belsavis zap collar on Kallir. Vensys’ formal outfit was the starting point for that AU fic with the formal event)

What story are you the proudest of? Why?

I dunnoooo-- I have. . . a weird relationship w/ my writings. I don’t have consistent feelings about them (whether I think anything is so good or absolutely Unbearably terrible/cringe changes based on my own moods), and. . . A lot of the time I’m ashamed even making some/most of them for various reasons.

. . .BUT. I was (and still am) pretty proud of how I wrote our charas in the pumpkin-meets-Severine mini-story from a While back (which I just re-blogged cuz of the improvement edits last night). hehe. On fire w/ that one, writing a couple of my favorite personalities--successfully (I’d say) channeling a character that’s not even mine.

And I don’t feel like I wasted my time if it’s a gift 4 a friend & I’ve been able to make their day with it. <3 We luv our charas. hell yeaaaaaaa

#about me: r #raikari writes

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styxhuntress · 1 year

Text

Fanfic Idea

It’s a Harry Potter and Stranger Things crossover. The ship is Harry x Will. Harry left Hogwarts after the triwizard tournament (whether Voldie is still a problem is up to you) and moves to california where he meets Will. In my version he’s living in the Muggle world under the name Hadrian Peverell and self-studying for his O.W.Ls because of various reasons, and he’s emancipated so he lives by himself. He tutors El in math and English and gets to know Will and they fall for each other. (I hate Byler and Mike/El cause Mike is a total asshat and his relationship with El is not healthy in the slightest) Will learns about Harry’s magic and Harry learns about El’s powers and hypothesizes that her abilities are made possible because unlike most muggles she built her own connection to her magical core* (*see detailed explanation at the bottom) but anyways, Will has angst surrounding being gay in the 80s, Harry has angst because he’s Harry Fucking Potter. This is all before the main plot which is basically a retelling of Season 4 but if Harry was in their lives.

In my version he isn’t around when the early events of volume 4 take place because Will wanted to hang out with Mike and didn't feel it was cool for him to bring a stranger along, he eventually shows up at Will’’s place to find it shot up, he goes looking for him, finds him after they leave Suzie’s and then Will begs him to go help his friends in Hawkins while he goes looking for his sister, Harry does. So you end up with two storylines, Will’s slightly altered version of canon (where the tension between him and mike gets intense and Mike is demanding to know who Harry is and why Will just outright tells him everything etc), and Harry helping the Hawkins crew battle Vecna. Eddie survives and Max doesn’t end up in a coma in my version, also Harry manages to clear the entire crew of suspicion at one point or another, etc.

I also had this vision of a few chapters of epilogue where Will’s friends and Family find out about his and Harry’s real relationship, Will and Robin become Gay Buddies, Eddie too since well.. you know, and Steve being the “straight best friend” (who may or may not be bi, but that’s up to you) and also in my version Mike is a total dick, and he and El break up after she realizes what a douche he is to everyone besides her and sides with her brother after some kind of altercation. When the Byers family moves back to Hawkins, Harry moves too because they are the only family he has. The world doesn’t split open, and Vecna is dead for good etc. El is studied by the wizarding world to determine if her abilities will cause long term damage and to help her develop her core and learn actual spells.

*So basically in this universe, everyone has a magical core, Muggles included. Wizards however are born with a connection to their core and thus are able to harness it and use it. In this fic Brenner essentially forced this connection into existence which is why they have nosebleeds, the strain of focusing the intense power of their core through a forced artificial connection causes stress on the body.

Obviously you can change it to suit your own ideas and preferences, but if you do write it make sure to send me a DM letting me know you wrote it as I do want to read a fic like this. I'm also happy to help beta the fic or provide help or smaller ideas if you want, I just know that if I start writing it my hyper-fixation will eventually fade (probably before I finish it) and I do not wanna leave y’all with an unfinished fic. Send me a DM if you want me to do one of those things!

#fanfic #prompt #idea #stranger things #harry potter #will byers

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