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unclear-contributions · 5 months

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King, Queen, and Witch!

Heyo TC! Love what you're doing with the Dragon's Daughter.

I already answered King for Peasant. I am going to use this incredibly tenuous rationale to answer all three of these for Peasant and for the Seven Gods Legendarium. Because I can. Yeehonk, as the kids say.

QUEEN (Peasant) -- Peasant is one of the least fleshed out worlds I have, actually! At least, in this respect. The earliest planned event would likely be either the invention of Thaumaturgy or the founding of the Empire, but the two are so inextricably intertwined -- putting one before the other doesn't really make sense, considering that the overwhelming military advantage thaumaturgy grants is. Very difficult to overstate. Especially in a world without gunpowder.

The only viable military counter to a thaumaturge is another thaumaturge of equal or greater skill, after all. Or maybe fifty guys with bows.

One of those is ominous foreshadowing. Whee!

WITCH (Peasant) -- Two things, which happened around the same time. The first was ducal fantasy, a sort of subgenre in a lot of manga and manhwa, with sort of dukes-and-duchess trappings and a lot of magic, which I spliced to a magic school, because I felt like it. I wrote a scene just to prove I could, if I wanted to, and it ended up being the first duel between Noam and Emilia, which sharpened up their characters right off the bat. The story exploded out into what would become Peasant afterwards, because I am incapable of not ripping themes and symbols from anything that exists near me for more than two seconds...but that's the seed.

The second thing that followed was this snip. It came...a few minutes after I wrote that first duel, and that still lingers with me as so central to Peasant's identity, even if I don't end up getting to use it in the text. (Unfortunately, it is late summ--hang on. What am I talking about. I decide when everything is.)

(Never mind, I'm gonna slam that scene in. Hash Tag Yeet.)

Normal people can leave now. Past here be old gods.

LEGENDARIUM. #7gl. The big, old work, my first world, and the hardest to work with, but the most fleshed out by far. The only world, so far, that I've built for worldbuilding's sake, as opposed to part of a story.

KING (7GL) -- The Legendarium's my oldest project. It was my first real original world, my first big project, and it's influenced my whole life as I've grown up alongside it -- I've done most of my writing in the last three years, and the Legendarium is about three times as old as that, a constant slow-burn of research, refinement, exploration, and snips.

QUEEN (7GL) -- The histories I have go all the way back to the cosmogeny, to the making of the world. Technically, they also go back to the founding of the first Mordan Empire. But that's so far back that it's in the so-called Age of Formation, and that Empire's stood, more or less, for thousands of years.

But the earliest strictly historical event would be the assassination of the Philosopher-Queen of Danaan, which eventually lead to the homogenization of power in the kingdom of Danaan, which in turn lead to militarization and the Great War between Danaan and the Mordan Empire. This period was the Age of Powder. Something happened to conclude it, though -- most of the records of what exactly are lost. But it wasn't pretty, and now the gods are gone and the world's had about three hundred odd years to settle into the scars of whatever happened.

WITCH (7GL) -- The idea was simple. Li'l baby me wondered, hey, what if, like, physical forces were gods? Like, gravity. And matter. And stuff. So I mapped out seven gods corresponding to scientific concepts: spacetime, energy, physical laws, consciousness, possibility/chaos, matter, and absence and went from there. That was it. That was the base.

...we are so far past that.

Thanks for the ask! Have a normal and sane amount of response to it.

#do the kids actually say yeehonk #peasant #7gl #i love seeing people say #sorry about the long reply #because i am absolutely not apologetic in the slightest #and neither should y'all #if nobody asks me about the legendarium i'll do it myself #it isn't a #punchy #or obviously fun concept #as Peasant #but it's very old and deep and dear to me #so i'll talk 'bout it extensively #uc rants

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marshmallowprotection · 1 month

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Hi! How are you doing? I wanted to ask since you've been in the fandom for a long time, what are you what are some of your favorite sites to interact with other mystic messenger fans? Do you have any advice on how to deal with fans who are a little too extreme or a bully? I have played MM since it came out but only this year have I interacted with the fandom and I've had so much whiplash compared to other fandom spaces.

So far I think Tumblr is the best. I find the people here are a lot calmer and nice. I like to tweet but I don't have many mutuals there who share my interest and reddit is just... Toxic. Its odd because most of the subs I'm on are very mellow and even if there is a disagreement I don't get downvoted to oblivion but the MM sub can be high tension. There have been times where I say something like "Ray is cute" or I could be saying similar things as others who have upvotes and be in the negatives. I can at least understand more controversial opinions like "I want a Rika route" or something but it feels like once you get a "bad" opinion You're just gonna get downvoted forever even on other threads. It's a shame because I think the format of reddit makes it easier to talk to people but I feel very discouraged. I wanted to give the Amino a shot but I've heard very bad things about it so I've been avoiding it.

In that sense I appreciate your blog. Even if there's a character or a route you don't like youre very nice and understanding and you're very inclusive in your writing. It really makes my day to see your character analysis and head canons. I wish there were more forum sites without a like or upvote/downvote system. I don't want my opinions to be ranked, I just want to blab about my silly little favs. Any advice or words of encouragement would be appreciated. Thanks for your time 🙂 🩷

I interact with people on Tumblr and Discord! Discord can be tough to navigate since you can't check out a community before you join it, however, I can vouch for SapphireIceCream's server if you ever want to join a Discord community. But, outside of that, I'm comfortable in this cozy space on Tumblr! It's quiet, but that's not a bad thing. That isn't a sign of there being nobody in the fandom here, we're just here in our space, relaxing and enjoying the game without worrying about this or that.

I have a Twitter, but I mainly use it retweet other artists. I don't talk on there even though there's an active fan base over there. Sometimes I see debate, but given who I follow, it tends to be warranted analysis and/or criticism as opposed to old themes the fandom already dealt with over the years.

I haven't gone onto Reddit for the game before and I don't intend to, because I don't want to see the same arguments play out fifty times that we've already had here on Tumblr years ago and have settled in a comfortable place of peace and quiet knowing where we all stand in those conversations. I'm not sure about TikTok or who's active there, though I don't post there outside of a cosplay or two, so I can't speak to what goes on there.

I would never suggest Amino. I've heard a lot of horror stories about that place and never tried it myself because of that, not just for this fandom but for many others.

If you want my advice about avoiding conflict in a fandom, start blocking people. I think people feel like blocking is only served for extreme purposes, but that's not the case, block people who annoy you. You don't have to have an explanation as to why you blocked somebody.

They don't even have to be a bad person, maybe you don't like their opinions or what have you, and that's okay. To cultivate a space in a fandom for yourself, you have to make it enjoyable for yourself, and that means using a feature that is there for you to do whatever you want with it.

Or, if you feel as though it's too extreme to block somebody, just scroll past them. Don't engage with something that makes you upset because it's just going to sully your experience. I can give you a good example, if I see anybody write content where Saeran and Saeyoung are consuming alcohol, I either A) block them or B) scroll past the post because I simply can’t handle seeing someone disrespect the boundaries those boys have with alcohol. It feels like a slap in to the face, especially for someone with similar trauma as them.

Because, unfortunately, when I see it written, it's not somebody doing a character introspective where one of them wants to try a sip of alcohol because they want to better understand why their mother would do everything she did just for a drink that tastes like piss. It's a piece where the characters are at a damn bar and they are happily consuming alcohol with no regard to their trauma as if it was never something to begin with. For my comfort, I block or move past those people.

It's not going to do me any good emotionally to comment or reblog a post like that to start a conflict. So, I either ignore that or block the person who wrote it. After all, I can't tell anybody that they're not allowed to write something, people can create whatever the hell they want to create, but I don't have to consume or see it. That's a part of cultivating a healthy experience in fandom. The old motto: Don't like, don't read. That’s something great about Ao3. I can plug in “Exclude: this, this, this”, and I never have to worry about reading a story where something happens that gives me the ick.

People are going to have opinions, and we're not always going to agree about each other's opinions, but you have to make sure that you are in a place where you can engage with other people without feeling like you're going to get an egg thrown at your head. Like, I get people who get very angry at me for trying to understand who Rika Kim is as a person a lot. I get it, she's a controversial character, and you either love her or hate her, there aren't a lot of people who are in-between.

I want to know why she has done what she's done because I think she's interesting as an antagonist, but that doesn’t equate to me condoning or supporting her crimes. Just because you like a specific character who isn’t a good person doesn’t mean you support their wrongdoings.

There seem to be brewing problems with people’s media literacy in that regard as of late. The world isn’t black and white, it's shades of grey. It’s complicated, messy, and difficult in every sense of the word. There is good and evil in this world, and there are times when there is a sense of right and wrong with no middle ground between it—because what was done was either unforgivable and wrong or the right thing to do. But, to apply black and white thinking to every situation you've come across is a detriment to your health and world view.

I think it’s important to say you can hate and judge Rika for committing countless crimes, but it’s okay if you empathize or even sympathize with the trauma she suffered as a child, too. When I think about her as a character, I want her to face as much jail time as she deserves for everything she's done, but I also want her to be able to find a therapist who can help her find peace from what she suffered as a child. I can want her to face justice but also hope that she finds peace someday.

The nuance of Saeran's After Ending can be a minefield when it comes to online discussions and I've seen everything you could possibly think of.

People get angry with him because he decided that he wanted to forgive everyone who hurt him. But, that's another long conversation to be had about what we’re taught about forgiveness. It's also not a case of extreme thinking where you either forgive someone and let them back in or hold onto the anger forever and scorn them. Those are just part of the story of forgiveness and judgment.

Those examples are a part of what people can choose to find peace, but they’re not the only path. Saeran decided to be someone who forgives. He doesn't forgive because he wants to let those people back into his life, he wants to forgive them so that he can learn how to forgive himself, because every ugly, bitter thought and action he committed was an echo of what they had done to him, and if he could find it in himself to forgive them, he could forgive himself for what he did to the player.

He wants nothing to do with his Saejoong, V, or Rika. He just needed closure by forgiving them and finding peace his own way.

I understand why people feel upset with him because they've been taught that forgiveness is something where the only option is to forgive and forget. He chose to forgive, but he will never forget. He chose to forgive, but he will never allow them the opportunity to hurt him ever again. If you're not the kind of person who would choose to forgive somebody, he would respect you and your decision.

That's the great thing about his after ending compared to what happened to Jihyun, who got the short end of the stick. It makes it abundantly clear that no matter what you decide to do, it is your decision to make as a victim and nobody will ever take away that decision from you or make you feel like you have to choose one thing or another.

But, you can see how these conversations are filled with a lot of nuance, and it takes a little bit of time and self-reflection to understand why we feel a visceral reaction to these kinds of stories as people. It's easy for a conversation to get carried away when we're talking about something heavy, and it's even easier for us to get angry at other people as we're having these discussions.

I'm sorry you haven't been able to have a lot of fun discussing the game and everything in it, but, if you start posting around here, I'm sure you'll find a sense of comfort and community from those of us who are here.

Fandom can be hard to get into when you're trying to learn the nuances of how to interact with other people, but make sure that you're making an experience that's created for yourself first and foremost. Don't hesitate to use that block button.

#mod kait

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captainkippen · 5 years

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SEND ME FIC PROMPTS

Cyrus and TJ's relationship can be described as ‘almost-something-not-quite-there-yet” and has been at that stage for a rather frustrating six months. He's not sure why it's taking them so long to do about it, but Cyrus is certain that TJ must have also acknowledged the tension between them because there have been a few near misses so far where he's thought 'this is iT, he's going to tell me how it feels’ only for TJ to break off what he was saying and turn it into some unrelated ramble. Thanks to this, it's becoming more and more common for him to feel like he's about to tear his hair out when the two of them spend time together. He doesn't want to push TJ to do or say anything he's not ready to do or say, but Cyrus figures it's time to take matters into his own hands or they might actually be stuck at this glacial pace of romance for the next fifty years. He doesn't think he can take fifty years of longing looks and heartfelt texts that lead to nothing. He'll go insane.

The opportunity to make a move arises when Bex and Bowie finally settle on the date of their wedding. At first there's a little hesitation, the engagement has been called off and called back on more than once now and they're all starting to wonder if they'll actually ever do it, but when it's only about a month away Cyrus figures they're finally safe from any drama and starts concocting a plan.

“I need to book dance lessons,” he says offhandedly when they're all lazing around Buffy's house one day. He's sprawled dramatically across one of the couches with his feet up on TJ's lap and a bowl of popcorn on his chest. It's a movie day but the horror flick they're watching is so terrible that nobody's been paying attention for the last forty five minutes. “For the wedding. There's going to be waltzing, right? I don't know how to waltz. Andi, do you know where Bowie's getting his?”

Andi eyes him suspiciously. She's well aware that Cyrus knows how to waltz. He had taught her to waltz when they were twelve. His mom had made him have lessons as a kid. Cyrus is fantastic at waltzing, even if he does say so himself. However, TJ doesn't know that. He gives her a look that says 'play along I'm begging you've and she sighs.

“At the dance studio on second street, I think,” she says. He's so blessed to have such good friends. “Bex knows one of the girls that runs it so she's giving him a discount.”

“You don't know how to waltz?” TJ asks curiously, perfectly on cue. “Don't you do dance for your P.E classes?”

Cyrus shrugs. “It's not ballroom.”

The thing is, he's concocted the perfect plan. TJ doesn't know Cyrus knows how to waltz, but Cyrus knows that TJ does. TJ had surprised them all with this knowledge a few weeks ago at a school dance. Jonah wanted to impress a girl he liked, TJ offered to show him how to dance and everyone got their happily ever after. Except Cyrus. TJ had not waltzed with Cyrus. He's still a little bitter about it.

“I could teach you,” he offers. “Save you the money.”

“Really?” Cyrus says, grinning. “Awesome. Yeah, that would be great thanks.”

Cyrus mentally marks phase one of mission ‘get TJ to admit his feelings’ a success.

TJ comes over on Saturday. Cyrus’ mom and stepdad have gone out to some barbeque with friends and won't be back until later so he's taking advantage of an empty house as much as he can. He makes sure to run to the store in the morning to grab some of TJ's favourite chips and soda (Baja blast Mountain Dew because what else do you expect from a teenage boy), and does a rush job at tidying up even though TJ has definitely seen the house in a much worse state than it is. He's been over during family events - he knows how wild they get. There's an odd nervous sensation thrumming in Cyrus’ veins. He has no reason to be on edge. It's just TJ. He tells himself this over and over, trying to calm down, but still jumps when he heard the front door opening and TJ yelling a greeting through the house. He's been letting himself in since they were fourteen now. It's a standard.

“I'm down here,” he yells back. They're going to be practicing in the basement so he's moved the ping-pong table out the way and set up the stereo so it's ready to go. TJ's socked feet thud down the stairs and he beams at him when he comes into view. He pulls Cyrus into a sideways hug and quickly releases him, making a beeline for the Mountain Dew. Cyrus rolls his eyes - typical.

“So how do you wanna do this?”

Cyrus shrugs. “You're the teacher.”

“You got music?”

He hands him to remote to the stereo. TJ fiddled with it for a moment before switching it on to a rhythmic rock beat with a grin. He puts it down, shrugs off his hoodie and walks towards Cyrus.

“You ready?” He pulls Cyrus towards him, positioning them both carefully.

“We're really just jumping into it, then?”

“Of course. I'm gonna lead and I'm gonna explain the steps as we go, okay? Try not to step on my feet.”

Cyrus does step on his feet, several times, quite deliberately. Each time it sets them both off in a bout of giggling and they have to pause for a moment. The afternoon continues in much the same vein, Cyrus pretending to be terrible and making TJ laugh and feeling like his whole world is complete everytime he catches TJ smiling softly at him. His heart thumps when their faces get close together and he hopes and prays that his palms aren't too sweaty where they're clasped in TJ's. It feels right, the two of them together like this.

There's a moment, when they're coming to the end of a song and slowing down where Cyrus thinks this might be it. TJ might say something. They're looking into one another's eyes, the world around them faded slightly, and he's holding his breath waiting for him to say anything. Then TJ coughs, ducks his head and pulls away, announcing they should take a break and get some lunch, and Cyrus kind of wants to scream in frustration. This plan is going to take longer than he expected.

As it turns out, the plans takes much longer than he expected. TJ gives him three more dance lessons before the wedding and nothing comes of them. It's the most irritated Cyrus has ever been with him, which he realises isn't technically fair because TJ isn't a mind reader and can't possibly know Cyrus is losing his grip on reality as a result of all these pent up emotions between them, but he can't help it.

The evening of the wedding is a beautiful one. It's being held in a large white tent in the park which is lit up with beautiful handmade lamps dotted around artfully, illuminating the flowers and chairs that have been set up for the ceremony. In the dark outside, fireflies flicker in and out of existence. The stars above them are almost unusually bright. It seems like there's a certain amount of magic in the air.

Cyrus may or may not cry during the vows. He and TJ sit together, knees pressed up against one another like always, the edges of their hands touching ever so gently stop them. He thinks he might have heard a sniffle or two from TJ as well, but he doesn't comment. TJ is sensitive about those kinds of things. Bex and Bowie are so obviously in love, they both nearly sob during their vows, and for a moment Cyrus envies them with everything he has. He wants that one day. To love somebody so much it consumes him, but it makes him happier and a better person in the process. He thinks about the boy sat next to him and how it feels like he's pretty close to that already.

In typical Mack fashion, they throw a stellar party for the reception. There's a live swing band and a lot of loud laughter. Champagne flows freely and a disco ball that he suspects was Andi's idea glitters above the makeshift dance floor. Cyrus watches in amusement as the guests get drinker, the dancing gets worse and the jokes get dirtier. Everyone's having such a good time. When the first waltz comes on, he catches TJ's eyes across the room.

It seems like time stops as he walks towards him. TJ meets him in the middle with a wide smile and pulls them both on to the dance floor, taking Cyrus’ hand and placing his own on his waist. Cyrus forgets all about pretending to be terrible but TJ doesn't seem surprised in the slightest.

“I knew you were faking,” he laughs.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Cyrus says, but he can't hold back his own smile. “... How'd you figure it out?”

He rolls his eyes. “I know you better than anyone, Cy. You're my best friend. You think I don't know you can dance? Your mom's shown me the pictures of your ballroom classes before. I'm not totally stupid.”

Cyrus prevents himself from saying 'that's debatable’ but it's a close call. TJ seems to read his mind and laughs anyway.

“I don't get why you needed to pretend, though,” he says. “You don't need to come up with excuses to hang out with me. You could tell me we're going to go sit in a field in silence for four hours and I'd still come because you'd be there.”

Cyrus sighs. “I know… it's just. I don't know. It's stupid, never mind.”

“No, what is it? Tell me.”

“I think…” he takes a deep breath. “You say you're my best friend, and that's true, but I also think you're more than that. And you have been for a really long time.”

TJ just keeps looking at him, saying nothing. Cyrus continues.

“Maybe it's just me that feels that way… but I don't think it is. I was hoping maybe if we got some one on one time doing something romantic maybe… maybe you'd say something?”.

“You pretended you couldn't dance because you wanted me to admit I have feelings for you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, obviously I do. Even Jonah knows that. Why didn't you just ask?”

Cyrus gapes at him. He can't believe it was that easy. TJ hadn't even hesitated to admit it. “... I didn't think of that.”

“You know, for the smartest guy I've ever met, you're kind of dumb,” TJ says with a fond look. “You could've told me how you felt too.”

“Oh… hush,” Cyrus says. “Stop smirking it's not funny.”

“It's pretty funny,” TJ grins. Cyrus pushes himself up on to his tiptoes to reach him, and just to wipe the amused smile from his face he presses a gentle kiss to his lips.

TJ makes him want to tear his hair out sometimes, but it's in the best way possible.

#tyrus #cyrus goodman #tj kippen #andi mack #my writing

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