#alpeana

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

#ultimate obscure blorbo #polls #round 4 #Alpeana (Otherverse) #Amber (Some Girls)

[jamiethemagpie]

Az (left) and me (right) nerding out over the web serials, Pact and Pale

Raffle art ft. @asrielcat by https://sfw.furaffinity.net/user/alator

Text on Az's side: That quip from the lawyothers about Blake's inheritance being a purposeful orchestration is 'kinda nifty. Molly aside, it's pretty interesting to consider how other heirs would've dealt with things, with or without vestige-assistance. Or maybe even like, if they'll join in later down the line? Battle of the Mansion 'kinda deal? Irene's side of the family is a total dead-end considering the enchantress but it'd be cool for Paul's side to get in on the fun (I mean, what karma does Blake even have left to lose, introducing 15 people to the practice?)

Text on my side: I liked downtime in Ward and I like downtime involving the Kennet Others and the Kennet trio but I simply Do Not Care about the rest of the school or about the trio's families. well okay Jeremy, Melissa, and Pam are interesting for the personal connections and Lucy's family is cool. but give me more Snowdrop hanging out with goblins or Alpeana doing her rounds or the Faeries bickering with each other or Matthew and Edith having a barbecue or John playing guitar or Miss doing whatever she does to pass the time. I guess keeping outsiders away and scouting out practitioner recruits is a full time job

#pact web serial #pactblr #pale web serial #paleblr #art #furry #commissioned

[booksandchainmail]

Pale Arc 10

So I gather that Pale has finished. In a way, this takes some timing pressure off of me: while I have not been liveblogging at a particularly speedy rate, I've been aware that more Pale kept being added faster than I was catching up. Now any time I read a chapter I'm actually catching up, as opposed to losing ground! I would love to say that I'll be picking up the pace from here on, but I said that last time and it was blatantly false, and also I think work will be busy for the next few weeks.

I've also been going back and archiving my liveblogs locally, just in case, which has reminded me how different my format was for the first arcs: I switched from end of chapter recaps to live reactions in early arc 4. No wonder I was going through chapters so quickly back then!

And I have a favor to ask if anyone wouldn't mind: I know there are stats floating around about Pale's length, but I'm worried about running into spoilers. Could someone let me know a) how many arcs there are b) what the total word count is and c) what the word count is as of where I am?

Housekeeping aside, thoughts on the arc:

Interesting structure, reminds me a bit of Worm's Sentinel arc

Really effective at building my knowledge of and engagement in the various new Kennet Others

Lots of reveals: Toadswallow's interlude blew my mind from a worldbuilding perspective, and Edith's unwrapped another layer of the mystery

Snowdrop and Avery! No thoughts, just feelings.

So now we know that Edith was for sure involved in the murder (which at this point was obvious, and has been pretty clear since the beginning). But then there's the immediate twist that she's not running it, or even seemingly part of the main group of this scheme. I do like this structure, where there's an obvious suspect from the beginning, it turns out to have been her, and it feels like a bit of a letdown, only for there to be another twist. I think a lot of mystery novels/tv shows do this probably? But on the scale of a single book/episode, not something as sprawling as Pale.

Actually, going back to those early arcs where I was doing a lot of theorizing, one of my guesses on how someone could arrange the Carmine Beast's death without having to reveal or lie about it was "There is an obvious killer, but they’re a fall guy acting on someone else’s behalf". Which it looks like it is! Edith is suspicious from the beginning, has no way around hiding her involvement while being honest and open, and the plan was probably for her to get caught from the start (I mean, maybe the real mastermind(s) didn't think the girls would get this far, but it does feel like Edith was expendable).

But now we're back to trying to figure out members of this conspiracy, knowing that Maricica is involved. There are three basic options for conspirators: 1) original Kennet Others 2) new Kennet Others (hid their involvement from the start and used recruitment to come in) and 3) people outside of Kennet.

I can't think of anyone outside of Kennet we've met who makes sense for that, so that idea might come down to "new character", which seems unsatisfying, so I'm going to skip theorizing about it.

Characters I don't think are involved: Tashlit, John, Alpeana, Toadswallow, Nibble and Chloe, Crooked Rook, Miss, Guilherme. We've seen inside almost all their heads, Edith and Maricica seem opposed to them in private conversation. Putting a caveat on Guilherme because Faerie.

Matthew could go either way, he's been involved with Edith's hostility but clearly doesn't know everything.

Charles is suspicious to me based on vibes and ability to lie, Bluntmunch seems to not be trusted by Toadswallow, Cig is working with Edith but it seems like a recent arrangement, Montague is very convenient to the conspirators but seems friendly, no idea about Lis, Ken, Jabber, or the new goblins.

#booksandchainmail reads pale #pale #wildbow #otherverse

[thetallowman]

More side media - this time the girls' notes on the ritual. They covered a lot of the same ground as I did, but with a few more details. (Lucy wrote them, which makes sense - she seems like she would like having her thoughts out on paper, easier to review and reference.)

The trio really doesn't like Charles. Most of their criticisms reference his appearance/vibes, rather than concerns over the forsworn thing, so I'm still chalking this up to karma. (Has anyone explained karma to them? It's less of a concern when your family isn't ontologically evil, I guess.) They do point out that he can lie now, which is not something I had considered.

Matthew's last name is Moss, and he's a "Host." No real clues as to what the means - maybe some sort of inward-focused shamanism? Pulling in specific spirits, one at a time, and using them? Similar to Evan's firebird routine?

Edith's last name is James, and she's called the "Girl by Candlelight." Not much to go on here either. The specific title and the fact that she's "complex spirit" make me think she's a unique case, not falling neatly into any category - though the eyes and the hat remind me some of the Little Match Girl? Could be a ghost or ghost-adjacent along those lines.

Guttermuck girl is named Alpeana, and she's a "Mare" - a nightmare, presumably? I think there was one of those in Pact, in the interlude with the interview about master/familiar relationships. No clue what that shakes out as, theme-wise.

Big guy and winged woman are both Faeries, which I was not expecting. Winged woman is Maricica, of Dark Autumn, and big guy is Guilherme, of Summer Above. Those are presumably Courts? They sound pretentious enough. (Strange that they seem to get along, if so. Also, there's no mention of them being exiles - so why are they in nowheresville Kenneth?)

John (last name Stiles) is a "Dog of War." Gave Lucy bad vibes, but the other two seem less effected. Does he work for an Incarnation of War? (My gut says no, as that would be too similar to Conquest for Wildbow to want to retread that territory.) Is it a practice style, then? Conflict, battles, contests - victory and triumph feeding a ever-hungry fire? Magic war profiteering?

The singing kids are officially "The Hungry Choir," and they're a "Ritual Incarnate." Still no more details on their physical appearance, which makes me think it's not important - they're not zombies. All damage seems to be to the mouths and teeth, which would fit with them being "hungry." Are they like piranhas then, smelling blood and descending in a frenzy? The result of a successful ritual, or one interrupted, left unfinished?

Miss - unknown. Still the suspicion there is a red herring. Her unknown nature might indicate that she was around even before Matthew/Edith entered the scene?

Base on this information alone, my top suspects would be Guilherme (because Faeries suck, and he seems like he might be a Hunter) or John (if outsiders are drawn in by the murder, and bring conflict with them, he might stand to gain).

#Pale #Lost For Words 1.3

[shsl-heck]

Pale Live Read Part 3. Stolen Away

After like 10 days I’m finally posting this! The arc was great I just got distracted and didn’t start reading it until a couple days ago, then it turned out I had a lot of thoughts. Once again  warning for heavy Pact spoilers since my thoughts are heavily influenced by reading it before this.

Greg isn't in their class anymore and no one seems to remember him. So presumably the choir severed his connections to everyone not at the ritual location. Very Urr adjacent feeling. This is definitely something I can see being listed alongside Corvidae as an Other people assumed was a demon at first. I'm 99% sure it's not though. It seems to lack the ambient corrupting effect they have.

The fact that Lucy used to blame herself for all the problems in her life but now chooses to get angry and do something about it is interesting to me. I'd argue that it's honestly healthier to get mad like that than to wallow in self loathing like Avery does. Lucy is giving off very much an "if there can be no victory then I will fight forever", or even an  "I had to try" vibe if we want to tie it into a certain other web serial. 

Verona's dad continues to be the worst. Acting like that because your daughter forgot and didn't get you a birthday gift is just beyond my comprehension. Like I get he's got his own issues but Jesus christ, he needs to put on a brave face and do what has to be done for his daughter's sake. This is like peak parentification.

On a much lighter note I love these girls' friendship. It's so nice to read a Wildbow story where the central characters like each other and aren't constantly destroying every relationship in their life.

They used to do a similar fake nation project at my school in geography class. Not really relevant to anything but I thought that was neat.

I really like Reagan. Hopefully she doesn't get killed or worse by the Choir, and I doubt she's Innocent anymore, so it might be interesting (and not too karmically costly) for the girls to send her in the direction of the magic school Miss mentioned. She'd make a good practitioner I think. 

Okay now Lucy is distrusting Verona because she's talking to Miss on her own. This is closer to the Wildbow protags I'm used to lol.

They're going to see the faerie! I'm sure this will end well for them. In all seriousness though, after The Girl in the Checkered Scarf's interlude from Pact I'm a bit nervous about long term consequences. If anyone can weasel out of the oath at the awakening ceremony it's probably a faerie. 

Just noticed the name of this arc which makes going to see Faeries even more ominous.

I know I just talked about them being dangerous but Marcica and Guilherme are delightful. The exiled faerie of Jacob's Bell were obviously a little menacing, but the two in Kennet have a great little Odd Couple dynamic going on here that makes them seem less threatening. That just makes them more dangerous though.

Marcica is being more generous than I'm comfortable with. The gifts are uh, of varying quality levels but it's still a lot. Verona's is especially worrying given she already wants to become something other than human.

Alpeana lives with the two fae? I desperately need a version of Pale that's just a sitcom about these three being roommates.

Marcica's interaction with Avery here, teaching her to use glamor, is actually a very nice moment. Her sharing her thoughts on gender and expression while basically doing Avery's makeup really feels very intimate. We know there's a trick here, but I can't fault Avery for falling for it. The way Marcica advises her to just go with what happens and work with instead of against the glamor also explains why her court loses the least to Winter. Presumably immortality is less miserable if you're willing to play along and just accept things.

I don't know if I like what Avery is doing with Pam here. She's like 12 so I get that these things have not occurred to her but it's a little creepy, and the kind of thing that could come with long term consequences. Pamela already has a bunch of self esteem issues and I can easily see her questioning the "why" here as time goes on.

Lucy maintaining her appearance out of spite feels like something that could easily become super self destructive. I also feel the need to point out that it's not actually that different from if she went the route Avery is and blamed herself. In that case it would be her fault she was ranked last, and so she has to try harder to be likable and attractive. Instead she decides to say fuck them (which I again think is a good idea), but she still ends up trying to improve her appearance to prove them wrong. It's the same end result, just different justifications! I don't think Lucy has let go of who she used to be as much as she likes to think she has. 

Her family dynamic is really interesting too. Aunt Heather gets introduced and I actually like her a lot. Of the three girls she seems to have the best home life but that says more about how bad their situations are than anything about Lucy's. I really want this to work out but I'm not optimistic about the chances. I'm even less optimistic about whatever went down with this Paul guy. Presumably he's the reason Lucy's mom was so devastated that one night.

Okay I know they saw a classmate maybe die, and John pulled a gun on them but so far these girls have had it pretty easy when it comes to dealing with the practice. Because of that I think it's easy for Avery and Verona to not realize the risks they're taking, or that this relative safety won't always be guaranteed. Lucy seems to understand a little better in terms of the harm the Faerie might do to Pamela, but doesn't seem to put together that one of them pretending to be Kell would also turn Avery saying "you won't see this face around here again" into a lie. Right now the Others of Kennet can't hurt them directly, but none of them, not even Lucy seem to realize what they're messing with, or that the training wheels are still on. Just compare their uses of glamor to Blake's. Verona turned into a mink and snuggled, and Avery had a weird pseudo date. Blake broke into the house of a rival family in order to stop a ritual targeting him and barely managed to get out by disguising himself as a child and working around the no lying rule in clever ways after he stopped them by calling 911 instead of using Practice. Both of these are very early in the story and really demonstrate how disconnected the girls are from the very real danger Others and Practitioners can bring. 

That was a long tangent but uh suffice it to say that Lucy is right about Avery and Verona needing to think more. Lucy may honestly be underselling it a little by accident (not that that would be her fault). 

Lucy is absolutely not over blaming herself after seeing this conversation with Paul. It's heart wrenching to see her like this, and even worse when you realize how long she's had to hold onto all of this. The worst part though is that seemingly all of what she said was true, or true enough for the spirits at least. I sincerely hope Paul gets hit hard by that curse.

Ms Hardy is weird. Maybe this is a cultural thing but her not wanting to talk privately with Avery because that would be crossing a personal boundary is more than a little ridiculous. Like you as a middle school teacher are there to help your students learn and grow during one of the most complicated times in their lives, and a student privately asking you for advice about something is in no way a violation of your professional ethics. If you personally don't feel comfortable engaging with kids one on one when they have issues then you should have a different job. Honestly, bringing up the possibility of having another teacher, or even worse, other students (especially when you already know their home life is not great and they have a history of being ignored and emotionally neglected) is far more of a potential violation of the trust put in you. I've just gotten more fired up as I wrote this section so honestly I'd like to formally say fuck Ms Harding. Is this a common opinion? Or am I going to start disc horse by saying this?

Sheridan and Avery's conversation was nice. It really captured a certain type of small town ennui, and the odd sorts of relationships between siblings who have a decently significant age gap. 

And the trend of humans being awful continues with yet another appearance by Verona's dad. Him just knocking three times to summon her, and especially when he started talking about his anniversary and Verona's mom not wanting to have sex or even get a massage is so sad, but in the way that triggers your disgust reaction when you see it, which is something that happens a lot in real life but not in fiction. Misery is frequently gross and ugly, and that's not necessarily any kind of failing of the immiserated (though it is in this specific case). I feel the need to clarify bc this is tumblr which notably has excellent reading comprehension as a user base.

Very funny to see Verona ask Avery about what she wants her life to look like in twenty years. It makes me think back to Pact when Rose said "I don't think anyone is pretending Blake is long for this world" to which Blake's only objection was "I'm pretending!" Like these two stories and sets of protagonists are so different, and so are their situations. I hope the girls manage to make it out if this and live full happy lives without losing too much in the process, but my impression of the Otherverse from both Pact and Pactdice is that there's not a great chance it happens. 

Return of the queen! Alpeana is back again! Someone asked on the last post who my favorite Other in the story was and my response was tentatively Alpeana, but I can now more confidently say that her, Marcica, and Guilherme are all up there as current favorites. 

The Ruins are neat! As someone with a love of decomposers I can't help but enjoy learning they break down things like Echoes similarly to how the Abyss broke down more physical things. It does make me wonder if there was some sort of argument about Blake though. He existed as a physical person, but he was also a vestige. I feel like it would make sense for him to go to either so I'm curious how it worked out. We do see it raining in the Ruins and the part of the Abyss Blake landed in was The Drains. Those are both watery in theming, maybe the Drains is the part of the abyss closest to the Abyss. Runoff from the Drains falls down into the Ruins as rain or something like that? It would even make sense if we assume that once the Abyss was finished grinding down the person Blake that the spirit/vestige-y bits would go down the drain into the Ruins so it can be fully decomposed.

I love Lucy shooting the eye here and the detail that it would likely sting or blind one of the spying practitioner's eyes. It's a very cool moment and oddly enough, almost the exact same thing happens in a surprisingly excellent middle grade book called The Candy Shop Wars, which is about a group of kids recruited by an elderly candy making witch who's super shady to be her minions. I wonder if Wildbow read it and this is a reference, or just a fun little coincidence.

Collette is probably going to be hurting for a while. This eye stealing Other seems pretty nasty, and I imagine that eyes and more broadly Sight is pretty important for an augur. That's of course assuming Guilherme doesn't do something worse which is a possibility. I'd much rather have to deal with even a bounced back eye monster than a Faerie. 

Cherry is kind of cute. I'd say she needs more confidence but encouraging a goblin to be confident seems liable to end poorly for all involved..

Munch's honesty about targeting bad people not actually making goblins "good" is refreshing in its honesty. I love the faerie in this and Miss is great but it always feels like they're the ones pulling the strings. Also, the goblin queen he mentions here is the same one from Maggie's interlude right? Like it's the  blood and darkness one for sure.

These goblins having to adhere to pg 13 language is incredible and I love it.

So the Carmine Beast was there when John killed Yalda, which I don't think we knew, and it actually helped pick its own potential successor which is interesting. Did the Carmine Beast know all the way back then that it would be dying soon? ("Soon" relative to the timescale Others work on at least). Does Yalda's death indirectly lead to the Carmine Beast being gone? Like my understanding is that Black Dogs like her cause lots of sickness and curses to the people who are responsible for hurting them. If John killed Yalda on the orders of the Carmine and other judges would part of the curse transfer to them? I don't think she would be strong enough for her curse to actually like kill the Carmine Beast, but it could have weakened them and made it easier for someone else to do it. 

It seems like somehow Edith knew that the Carmine was gone before Munch came to tell her. How? We haven't seen a lot of her and Matthew since the beginning of arc 1, which makes me suspicious that Wildbow might be keeping them in the background for now only to reveal that they played some big role in the death of the Carmine Beast later on. Those two (especially Matthew) do seem to be the ones with the most knowledge of the Practice… (Other than maybe Miss who I don't believe was knowingly involved)

Verona laughing and giving the goblins the finger after they tell her she needs to be rude when saying goodbye to them is just such a fun moment. Seeing characters interact almost casually with Others is strangely heartwarming. (Even if that interaction is flipping off goblins)

I feel like I get Verona a lot more now. Hearing her talk about the existential dread of going to highschool and college just so you can get a job you hate and take on massive debt, and (if you get lucky) stumble into a strained relationship that's likely to end in disaster. 

Lucy has an affinity for slasher movies! She also has rules about them being fair. At first I thought "oh if she likes these kinds of movies maybe she'll try working with bogeymen", which would fit with her being the one who likes curses and more violent magic. As she kept watching though we got our explanation of her very Hammurabi-adjacent system of fairness. When I think back, yeah she's interested in curses and such,but generally it's been to punish them for something specific. Maybe she and Paige should hang out and Lucy could become a law mage meting out punishment to those who transgress. 

I'm really invested in Lucy's family dynamic at this point. I want it to all work out for them. Everyone involved is trying their best to keep it together and take care of each other, but it's hard! It shouldn't have to be hard, but it is, and for reasons mostly out of this family's direct control.

We're discussing familiars again. This time in the context of Avery bringing one to the trails with her. She brings up my bestie Alpeana, but I don't think she'll actually pick the mare to be her familiar. I do kind of hope one of the other girls does though. No matter what, I think we're getting close to the first Essentials ritual and it's going to be one of the girls (probably Avery) taking a familiar.

Miss is Lost. Neat. I don't feel like I know enough about that to say anything insightful yet, but I'm interested in hearing more about her time wandering the Paths. She made it through the Forest Ribbon Trail by instinct alone which is incredible, and she's constantly avoiding being slotted into a ritual or something by the universe. We already knew Miss was knowledgeable and I assumed she had a decent amount of skill using whatever abilities she has, but this makes her seem like she's on a whole other level compared to most Others we've seen in Kennet and Jacob's Bell. 

Snowdrop is a delight. I love this angry possum. She hates Avery so much and it's a lot of fun. She's also giving lots of seemingly bad advice. Is the trail different than usual somehow? Like can the Belanger's mess up the ritual somehow? Or did the girls just screw up?

The basket being hidden like that is a real dick move by the trail. Also, I don't know what's going on here! The giant babydoll head or whatever is freaky, and it doesn't seem to be talking. I'm not sure  if that's a blessing or curse in this situation. Tattoo guy and the lady holding the opossum are both kind of weird too, then there's just a guy. Tbf though him just being some guy probably makes him the weirdest one in this context. 

Changed my mind, the opossum lady is the creepiest Lost here right now. She asked "don't you want a boon companion who can't lie?" So that's seemingly confirmation that Snowdrop can lie, which we could kind of assume already but still. 

Holy shit the cat skull was even meaner than the basket. This trail fucking hates her. Doing the opposite of what Snowdrop says seems to be working though. Is that the possum trick? Not just being able to lie, but always giving the worst advice possible?

The doll head is Nicolette! All of a sudden everything has gone wrong. Snowdrop has been snatched by the Belangers, and Avery somehow messed up negotiations. I'm beginning to think picking an old wolf was a mistake. A younger one might have been faster, but it being less cunning seems more important.

The comic is ominous, but I'm not totally sure what's going on in it. The branch with no ribbon is gone. Is the wolf trying to keep Avery from finding the detour?

Nicolette interlude! It seems obvious in retrospect but I didn't see it coming.

The Belanger Circle seems like a real boys' club, which I think was a smart decision on Wildbow's part. It instantly makes me a lot more sympathetic towards Nicolette. Like I'm now completely on her side when a paragraph ago she was the trio's first real enemy.

Is the whole church Alexander's demesne? That's impressive if so. Even a large room invites quite a few challenges based on everything we saw in Pact. It doesn't quite fit with the vibe I'm getting though. So far Alexander reminds me more of Duncan Behaim. That's to say he doesn't seem like a particularly good practitioner, more like the kind of person who's powerful chiefly because of the clout the Belanger name gives him, or the amount of people he has dirt on. He feels like every rich failson I've ever seen.

Chase comes from a practitioner family other than the Belanger Circle which is interesting. Fits with my idea that Alexander relies on relationships with other practitioners for influence. Chase's motive for picking Nicolette is really gross, but also Wildbow be normal about fat people challenge. 

So the eye thief Other was a collector. Interesting. It didn't seem to have anything other than the necklace on it so I wouldn't have guessed that was the case. It certainly did a number on Nicolette even without items. 

Nicolette's parents are officially joining the ranks of Verona's father, Carol Dallon, Heartbreaker, and most of the Thorburn line as "just the worst parents a kid could ask for".

The Hallow in her head is scary! It could cause a lot of problems down the road if she ever slips up even a little.

Fuck this Belanger Circle nonsense. I think Nicolette should be allowed to beat them all up. The way they talk to her is so skeevy it just makes my skin crawl. Alexander is the worst one though. He's doing the thing where he acts nice and protective but we also know that he wants the exact same thing Seth, Tanner, and Chase do. Maybe even worse depending on who he'd marry her off to if not himself. This makes the Duchamp Coven feel feminist. 

I need Seth to get his shit wrecked. I need all of the Belanger Circle to get broken and brought low. Someone get Pauz in here. I know that would be giving demon's ground but I think it would be satisfying enough that it's worth it. In the meantime though at least the Omens she set on him will cause some problems.

No wonder Nicolette seems so well disciplined for a relatively new Practitioner. She had to strictly set rituals for herself to claw back sanity from the spirits in her Hallow before she even knew things like that actually existed. She's had to struggle for every scrap of power she has and it shows.

Miss is managing to stay out of sight of the augurs which is a big relief. Also very funny that the animal masks are throwing the Belanger's off like this. I wonder if that was why the Kennet Others had them do their awakening ritual like that in the first place. 

Alexander was the one who got Charles forsworn apparently, which also means Alexander supports the private prison industry. Yet another reason this guy is cringe.

I know I've been taking Nicolette's side a lot in this interlude but like come on. They warned you to back off! You tried to mess with them and now you've been seriously messed up by the nettlewisp. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I only wish this didn't give Alexander more points on her.

Even though Alexander was friends with Charles he doesn't seem to know much about Kennet and the truth of its "patron".

Now the Belangers have Snowdrop and are trying to interrogate her, but they don't understand her gimmick. I think I know how this is going to turn out and I'm very eager to see it, especially now that Alexander has left. 

"You'll stay put and won't touch anything and be good?" "Yes. Absolutely." I love this God damn possum. She's skyrocketed past Alpeana, Marcica, and Guilherme to become my favorite Other in the story so far. 

Holy shit. Snowdrop just destroyed Nicolette's whole life if she can't catch her and fix the destruction. On the one hand go Snowdrop, but on the other I'm absolutely terrified of what this could mean for Nicolette.

Looking at the comments apparently a lot of people hated Nicolette? This is weird to me, but I'm also a big fan of Rose in Pact so I shouldn't be too surprised to find out my thoughts on a character like this are more positive than a lot of readers'. 

I loved this arc. So much happened in it, (especially towards the end) that I almost forgot some of the earlier chapters were part of the same arc, but that’s not a bad thing. It only makes it hard for me to summarize my thoughts here at the end. Lots of cool character building going on here as always. Avery, Lucy, and Verona are all great, and it’ll be interesting to see how they rank compared to Blake and Taylor by the end of this. Uhh, it was nice to meet more of the Others around town since we hadn’t got to see much of them, and I’m curious to see how the girls react to now having to deal with the Hungry Choir and the Belangers at the same time. That’s about it for my thoughts, but I do notice these seem to be getting longer so I may switch to doing one of these for each half of an arc. Let me know what you think of that though.

#pale wildbow #pale web serial #pale live read #pact spoilers #I'm absolutely in love with this story so far #but bring Louise back! #I want to see more of her

[defuse00]

I'm going to talk about some of my fanfic stuff on here, because 1. I saw a post saying that I should make my own posts, if only to give people on here a taste of my voice and blog and stuff(thanks @toasthaste) 2. Because some of this will probably never be posted due to the fact that I will probably never finish it and I don't like posting unfinished things.

Let's talk Pale. When we first meet Alpena and get her backstory, there's an insane parallel between Alpena and Avery. They both grow up in families with lots of children, and they both start slipping through the cracks and find practice. Alpena becomes a Mare, Avery Awakens. This not only serves as a confirmation of something revealed earlier(the girls were chosen because they were close to becoming Others), but also a point of sympathy between two fairly different characters. And then this is never followed up on. For understandable reasons, Avery's experience becomes much more about the Paths and Alpeana is sidelined(her accent is a bitch to write). But I do love the idea of two very different people learning to work together, and so in my fic this is one the things that happens.

This isn't even the third most important thing in the fic and Pale fic doesn't really have readers, so it's posting chance is small. But still.

#pale web serial

[fleshmongler]

I just finished 5.d of Back Away, which means I have finished Arc 5 as a whole. Such an awesome ending for this hectic and troublesome adventure of an arc. I loved the shifting perspectives. And boy was I glad to see Miss again. I really, really missed her. Toadswallow was great too, and goodness, Matthew's Doom was terrifying! It was also nice to see Alpeana and Maricica hanging out. So much fun!! It was a great pallet cleanser after being in the perspective of Aware three times this arc (not that those weren't amazing chapters in their own right). I wish the Kennet Trio big bundles of luck, cause they're gonna fucking need a ton of it.

#pale #pale web serial #pactverse #otherverse #yapping my mouth #chapter 5.d

[incorrect-wormquotes]

Lucy: WAIT it’s moving Verona: What’s it trying to say?? Alpeana, through the Ouija Board: I-T-S  P-A-S-T  Y-E-R  B-E-D-T-I-M-E  G-O  T-A-E  F-O-O-K  T-A  S-L-E-E-P

#pale #parahumans #wildbow #lucy #verona #alpeana

[fipindustries]

to celebrate alpeana’s interlude and locke and key hell and gone today, this little joke as a warm up

#sandman #the corinthian #alpeana #pale #wildbow

[mrcatfishing]

A spooky lass and 10/10 sleep paralysis waifu.

#Pale #Parahumans #Alpeana #my art

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

#ultimate obscure blorbo #polls #Alpeana (Otherverse) #Alpha (Terrain of Magical Expertise) #round 3

[john-cherry-the-6th]

Alpeana, by ChanPotei

#wildbow #Otherverse #pale

[booksandchainmail]

Pale 5.d

welp. those poor boys. I hope they're not dead, and there's a way to get them back. Thinking on karma, and what their parents said in the paper, that they only got hurt because they tried to help

also I love these little local ads in the paper, one of them written in comic sans

... is slippery nick the dolphin an other. Nine years would match up with the timeline

goblin interlude? fascinating

“Point of order number seven.  There’s a fight coming.  I don’t think everyone knows there’s a fight coming, but we’re rounding up help because we can’t do all of this alone.  Two sides are picking their teams but one side doesn’t even know.  You are not on these sides, Bumcake.  You’re on my side, understand?”

hmmmmm. Kennet Trio on one side, people who killed the CB on the other? With goblins neutral? I think this is maybe confirmation that Toadswallow wasn't involved with the CB thing. And if the Kennet Trio is the side that doesn't realize they're picking a team, who have they been picking? Snowdrop obviously, maybe Alpeana or John? Or could it count people outside of Kennet, like Zed.

“Five rules,” Bluntmunch growled.

ooh. So he doesn't know about rules 6 and 7? Is this because he's not preparing for the fight, or because he's on a side?

“They didn’t share that.  They’re keeping things close to the chest.” “Yeah,” Matthew said. “But so are we.”

this is ominous! Seems like Edith more than Matthew is opposed to the girls, but at least neither of them seems happy about it?

He hadn’t voiced it to Edith, and Edith hadn’t voiced it to him, but there was the possibility of killing Brie and releasing the Choir again.  A horrible thought and a thought he wouldn’t have had a decade ago. 

if a decade ago Matthew wouldn't have considered killing to release the Hungry Choir, I don't think he would have considered creating it either. And if he wasn't involved in creating the HC, he wasn't part of planning to kill the CB that far back (he could have joined later I guess)

“Tha lassie liked yeh.  Verona did.  If ye’d like to be less lonely, an’ if ye’d be good, we’d have yeh.”

nice that Verona followed up about her. And presumably the eye girl will have some goodwill about it, which could come in handy

The woman stood with one hand to the wall.

Miss?

These places were woven together. The weave wasn’t always obvious, but there were ways to work out their design.

like a fucked up escape-the-room style point and click adventure

“Any one of you can say that!” he called out.  “I’ll try not to kill you, but I can’t have a strange Other wandering around!  Places like this are too sensitive!”

Because the world of the otherverse is so dangerous, you have to interact with caution and suspicion. But that puts you at odds with all others, who also can't trust you. And then things just keep getting worse, because everyone has to act to defend themselves.

The trajectory of her fall shifted to a right angle, plunging her into bright daylight.  The remnants of a neighborhood with brightly painted houses tumbled through the air with her.

is this what happens to the houses from zoomtown?

“You picked us because you think we can do it, but the actual culprit is likely to think we can’t,” Lucy said. “Yes,” Miss told her.

ooooooh! That's a pretty good reason. Also. I think that wording rules out Miss being the culprit? Not discounting that she's using a way around full culpability like I discussed way back in arc 1, but I'm getting more trusting.

Lucy nodded.  “Matthew makes the most sense as the central figure.  Then people like Maricica, Edith, the Choir, and maybe Charles as accomplices.  Though that’s based on a coin turning up in a few ways, instead of anything concrete.”

hmm. I hadn't thought about the driving angle. Still not sure about that making it Matthew though, I think someone could probably have procured a car for Charles to drive. And Matthew's POV earlier didn't seem that suspicious. How would becoming Carmine affect his Doom?

#booksandchainmail reads pale #pale #wildbow

[st-just]

Everyone from Jacob's Bell is actually borderline incomprehensible, Wildbow just translates for us because he didn't want to pull an Alpeana for an entire book.

I mean unironically I'm surprised Crone Mara ever bothered learning English.

But otherwise sadly the canonical location of 'medium-sized town in the process of being annexed into the GTA' basically locks the majority of the cast in as having the most boring possible standard accents. Well, except Mags, never got a clear idea where she's from.

(Conquest for sure sounds like he was frozen in 1812 and just got woken up, though)

#reply #anon #pact web serial #wildbow #parahumans #shitposting

[theaudientvoid]

Avery is taking Snowdrop as her familiar, and it seems inevitable at this point that Verona will take Tashlit, but who does that leave for Lucy? John seemed like the best fit, but he’s been ruled out. Alpeana has expressed an interested in familiaring for one of the girls, but she honestly doesn’t seem like a great fit for Lucy. Maybe a winterized Guilherme? Or Montague?

#pale #wildbow #parahumans

[bad-pun-king]

I should probably do the magics from Dashed to Pieces.

Refresher on the previous schools of magic,

1. Shamanism (runes and curses)

2. War magic (the weapon ring)

3. Summoning (John's dog tags summon John, and they know rituals for summoning Alpeana and the goblins, which Tashlit can also use)

4. Faerie magic (Sooooooo much glamour)

5. Goblin magic (Goblin tools and being allowed to use the local goblins' weapon forms)

6. Finder magic (Paths, Path boons, Path items, and typical Finder tools)

7. Technomancy (Items confiscated from Brie)

8. Enchantment (Alcazar ritual and that doll they made to pet Snowdrop for a few hours)

9. Necromancy (Their echo based method of accessing the Ruins)

10. Elementalism (The transient items)

11. Binding (Do I even need to explain?)

12. Warding (They used warding techniques to protect those they care about)

13. City Magic (Nettie's pin she gave Avery)

Now for the new magics. Oddly enough, only Verona has introduced new schools despite the self subversion since for Avery it was using disguise glamour and for Lucy it was cursing, which both have done but shied away from as they expended their abilities.

14. Collection magic (Nicolettie taught them a Collection ritual for identifying items awhile ago, but only now has Verona used it)

15. Alchemy (They got access to alchemy tools abandoned by some nearby alchemists and Verona unlocked her inner mad scientist)

16. Heartless magic (What Pale calls halflight magic in Pactdice would fall under Heartless magic. Yes, she achieved it with the Sixberry mixture using alchemy, but she still learned it from a book on heartless magic)

17. Host magic (Verona hosted the spirit of Long during the attempt at arresting Maricica)

17 schools of magic out of 35 in Pactdice. That's a lot better than Blake got. I think he only had 6 to 8 total? I don't remember off the top of my head.

#Pale #Wildbow #Verona Hayward #Lucy Ellington #Avery Kelly #Dashed to Pieces spoilers