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sorcererinthestars · 2 years

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Tattoos, Lattes, and Ghosts?

RED WEB AU! Written for the Secret Springfairy event as part of the @rtwritingcommunity! This one is for the lovely @deleriousfromcoffee. I hope you enjoy!

Word Count: 3372 AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38843610 Ship: Trevor/Afredo

Their town was known for the occult and the spooky, the supernatural and the just plain weird. Alfredo knew that when he picked out the location for his new tattoo parlor. The little venue had only been on the market a week before he had leapt on it. It was right on the main drag, perfect for tourists and locals alike. People would want a tattoo to commemorate their trip to the city, right? It was the perfect spot.

Two weeks later, he was moved in. The place was snug, but cozy. He had vintage movie posters hanging, two fun tattoo chairs for him and his assistant to work on people, a rad sign-in desk that he had worked to DIY. It was fun. It was sanitary. It was really exactly what he needed.

Opening day is a smash hit. People come from all over to get tattoos and support him. (Although the extra savings on tattoos probably also helps.) He probably does twenty in the day before they have to close up shop. But right as Alfredo moves to go close the door and clean up from a long day’s work, slender fingers wrap around the doorknob and catches it from the other side. “Hey!”

Alfredo jumps and curses. “Fuck, man, you scared me.”

The man, pale and handsome with dark hair and dark eyes, just blinks. “Sorry, sorry. I just — uh.” He’s got a small letter in his hands? Alfredo’s eyes flick to the letter back up to the man and something starts his heart beating. He’s not sure why he’s so confused by this man. “We’re closed,” he says. “If you want a tattoo, you can come back tomorrow, we’re open 10am to 4pm.”

The man at the door shakes his head adamantly. “No, I didn’t want a tattoo,” he says quickly. His slender mouth quirks into a smile. “I wanted to give you this. It’s from me, obviously. I run the bookstore next door. Just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood.” He pushes the envelope closer towards Alfredo. “I’m Trevor, by the way.”

Alfredo freezes. It’s like his brain goes on lockdown for some reason. Are people normally this nice around here? Back in San Francisco, he didn’t normally see people welcoming others to another block. But what the fuck was he supposed to know about Massachusetts? He grabs the letter and rips it open as delicately as he can.

Inside is a small card with a black cat on it — a cheesy welcome from the historic city. He opens it and skims it before breaking into a grin. Inside is a $10 gift card to the man — Trevor’s — shop. “Man, you didn’t have to do this.”

Trevor shrugs. “It’s just to welcome you. Come on over and check it out. I got all sorts of cool shit a guy like you may be into.” He gives a fake little salute and another winning grin. “I’ll leave you to clean up. Talk later.”

With that, he’s gone, and Alfredo is left holding the letter, feeling completely out of his depth.

It’s over a week before Alfredo has a moment to check out the bookshop next door. He had almost forgotten about Trevor, but it was really hard to fully forget the man after that somewhat weird interaction. As soon as he pushes through the door — which chimes pleasantly — Trevor looks up with a bright grin. “Hey, I was wondering when you would come over.”

Alfredo shrugs sheepishly. “Sorry,” he says, but is immediately distracted by the décor of the place. It’s all brick like his building and the shelves are a lovely mahogany, but the books are all old hardbacked things that seemed to be yellowed with age. There’s strange art and posters on the wall, but honestly, its nothing different than anything else he’s seen in this town. “Nice place.” Trevor just chuckles. “It’s kinda my thing. You into like — the supernatural and shit? I mean you must be, right?” He chuckles again, to himself, like it was some inside joke. “I mean, you moved here.”

Alfredo just shrugs. He supposed he did move to the town that prided itself on being as spooky as possible. “I guess so. I like mysteries.”

“Mysteries!” Trevor jumps to his feet, looking eager to help. He still has a sort of wild enthusiasm, the same that Alfredo had sensed the last time they met, making him feel a bit unpredictable. “Let me help you find a book. There’s a ton of good mysteries. Do you like them solved or unsolved?” He moves away deeper into the shelves, rummaging among the books as Alfredo trails along behind him, leaving him no time to answer the question.

The titles of the books are batshit wild as Alfredo starts to skim them. Stuff about vampires and werewolves and demons and witchcraft. Something turns in Alfredo’s stomach as he turns to look back at Trevor, eyeing the man carefully as the other feverishly scans the shelves.

Despite being oddly pale, Trevor seems normal. Alfredo quickly shakes his head, trying to cast that thought aside. What is he, insane? But he’s knocked out of his conspiracies about if Trevor was a vampire or not when the man suddenly straightens, a bright grin on his face, and pushes a book towards him. “This one. This one’s a book about the Phoenix Lights. You know, the time that all those lights were seen over Phoenix, Arizona and everyone thinks they’re aliens?”

Alfredo’s brain truly does do some sort of factory reset at that. He must stand there for a few seconds, dumbfounded, before he narrows his eyes and tries to form a sentence. “Excuse me… what?”

That devilish grin creeps back onto Trevor’s face and without another warning, he reaches out and grabs Alfredo’s hand, gently tugging him towards the front desk. “Sometimes I forget that you’re new here and haven’t heard all my random stories,” he teases. “I’ll give you the rundown because it's one of my favorite mysteries. On an evening in 1997 or so, there was this series of strange lights seen over Phoenix. Thousands of people saw them, and …”

Alfredo leans over the counter and just listens to him as the book store owner starts talking and gesturing wildly. At first, he wants to go. This man is like nothing he’s ever seen, all insane comments and a weird shop and an almost overly-friendly demeanor that leans right on the side of creepy. Like a cat when you’re not sure if it's going to turn around and bite. But he’s just so — welcoming, and he’s got this way about him, and despite not knowing what the hell he was talking about, Alfredo can’t help but sit and listen, leaning against the counter and let the man rattle passionately on.

He must have been there almost an hour, Trevor explaining the story of the lights. After a while, Alfredo can’t help but get into it and shares theories and comments. He doesn’t think either of them realize how late it's actually gotten. No one had come in this entire time but this doesn’t feel like a bad thing. Trevor doesn’t seem to care, so Alfredo doesn’t comment.

“Sorry,” Trevor does say to Alfredo though as he finishes talking, a bit of pink coloring his cheeks. Not a vampire, then, Alfredo’s mind helpfully supplies. “I didn’t mean to keep you for so long and I think I spoiled the book.” He grimaces. “Take it. Free.”

“How about I use my gift card?” Alfredo asks, digging into his wallet and pulling out the $10 card Trevor had given him the first time they met. Trevor smiles a bit. “Didn’t know if you would use it.”

“Course I will,” he replies smoothly, “and now I want to know more about those damn lights.”

They’re both leaning against the counter, close enough their fingertips can brush. Trevor abruptly leans back and Alfredo can’t help but mourn the end of their closeness, coughing a bit before he says, “Uh. I can come by again sometimes? And if you want a tattoo, just ask, man. I can schedule you in.”

Trevor nods and smiles. “I’ve got more mysteries, if you’re interested.”

“Done.”

“Great.” There’s a slight pause before Trevor smirks. “Be smart out there, Braveheart.”

Alfredo lets the door jingle behind him as something swells in his heart. Braveheart.

“Owls?? It ain’t about the damn owls, Trevor!” Alfredo bursts out as they sit, side by side, in the local coffee-shop. Alfredo can’t really trace back the exact pattern of events since that first unforgettable conversation about lights, aliens, and conspiracies. All he knows is that he’s got a pile of books in front of him and a friend(?) across the table.

They’d been doing this a while. Alfredo really doesn’t have the heart at this point to correct Trevor that he wasn’t really interested in conspiracies or time travel or unsolved murder cases or whatever the hell was the topic this week. Except… was that even true any more? At first, he was just humoring Trevor. The man was so excited about what he was saying. There’s a certain sort of edge to Trevor’s actions that Alfredo can see mirrored in himself. A little cut of loneliness that makes him lean a bit too close. Hunt a bit harder than he should for a shred of connection, a glimpse of shared experiences or pleasures.

Maybe it was that loneliness and ache for a friend — a companion, something more? — that kept Alfredo coming back. But at this point, a month into their time together, he actually cares about the mysteries. They banter more, taking their chats away from the counter in the bookshop or the tattoo shop and now into coffee shops, restaurants.

Were they dates? Neither had said anything, but both of them felt something. That, Alfredo could tell. If their hands brush when they’re waving them in excitement, neither say anything but they don’t pull away. Braveheart is a term more and more frequently used, turned first from a joke into a term of endearment.

Today, the lattes warm in their hands, Trevor finishes discussing an internet mystery named after a bug — Cicada? — that had led them through very nearly three “dates”. Alfredo had kept up as much as he can as they reference a small book that Trevor was pulling his info from. They had been jokingly calling their meet-ups “book clubs”, if that could be used for two people.

Trevor leans back when he’s finished and Alfredo just pounds the table. “That can’t be it,” he complains. “Seriously? No one knows who they were?”

“No one,” Trevor smirks. “Sorry. You should know by now I really don’t like stories with simple-ass endings.”

“I guess not,” Alfredo grumbles, “but god, it’s starting to get frustrating.”

Trevor’s smile does fall away a bit at that. “You don’t have to come out with me if you don’t like it,” he says, sounding a bit wounded. Alfredo’s quick to throw up his hands.

“No! No, no,” he backpedals. “I like it. I like you.”

There’s a pregnant pause where Trevor just sort of stares at him for a moment and Alfredo feels himself turn six shades of red. “I mean, I like your stories! I like this!”

Trevor just grins a bit. “I like you too, Fredo,” he says smoothly before standing up as Alfredo flounders. “Same time next week?”

Alfredo can barely squeak out a yes before Trevor’s gone.

They don’t talk for the next few days and Alfredo thinks he’s ruined whatever good thing they have. He can’t bring himself to start the conversation. Did he make it awkward? He wasn’t even sure what he meant with the 'like' comment. It seemed so middle school. Did he like like him? God.

But the thing is, the more Alfredo spent time here, the more he thinks he does like Trevor. More than friends. There’s got to be a reason why he’d subject himself to these horrifying tales on more or less a weekly basis. But Trevor is just so genuine when he talks, so passionate about making sure Alfredo has all the facts, and there’s something so charming about that. He has fun, too. Enjoys Trevor’s company and learning all this wild shit.

He’s just about to call Trevor to — do what, apologize? — when Trevor beats him to it. Alfredo is in the middle of a job, though, and can’t answer, letting the phone go to voicemail. When he finally grabs it, Trevor’s voice comes through. He sounds a bit awkward, nothing like his normally smooth, knowledgeable tone. Somehow even more authentically Trevor.

“Hey, Fredo. I — uh. I know you don’t really like scary things, but I was thinkin’ it could be fun if we did a walking tour of the city. I know you’re new here and it could give you a good history of the area. Plus, it’s spooky!” Trevor’s chuckle comes through faintly. “Call me back. Figured we could…you know… make it a date?” There’s the sound of shuffling as Trevor must have quickly moved the phone. “Just let me know!” he squeaks before hanging up.

Alfredo sits, holding the phone in his hand, and then bursts into laughter before quickly dialing. Trevor picks up on the second ring and there’s just the sound of his breath. No hello’s, no nothing. Just waiting.

“Count me in.”

Trevor meets Alfredo outside his tattoo shop at 9PM the next evening, looking a bit nervous. He’s dressed nicer than normal, maybe because this was a date. He looks slick and even more like the vampire Alfredo isn’t certain he’s not.

“Hey,” he hums, meeting him at the door. He’s also dressed up a bit, but nothing too wild. Trevor’s hand flickers, like he’s not sure if he should take Alfredo’s, and Alfredo just rolls his eyes. “Let’s not make this weird, man,” he says quickly. “Let’s just see where this night goes? I cannot fuckin’ believe you want me to go on a ghost tour as a first date.”

That breaks the ice and gets Trevor to laugh. “You don’t know what to expect from me by now? Me and all my conspiracy theories, weren’t like five of them about ghosts?”

Alfredo huffs. “And you should know I don’t like them, so you better be out there watchin’ my ass.”

“I’ll keep an eye on that booty,” Trevor chuckles smoothly and Alfredo can’t help but blush. It’s natural after that quip to take his hand and Alfredo doesn’t pull away as they stride down the street towards where the ghost tour starts. Despite all his teasing, Alfredo actually feels quite… calm. There’s just a touch of a chill in the air and the moon is bright overhead. It’s a rather nice night.

They join a gaggle of tourists, some dressed up, some not, some nervously looking around. Alfredo sympathizes and inches closer to Trevor as the guide appears. The man is young and has a deep voice, introducing himself as Christian. Fredo finds the name somewhat ironic, but doesn’t say anything.

After giving a brief history of the sordid affairs of the town, they start walking down the street back up towards their shop. Alfredo doesn’t let go of Trevor’s hand and Trevor continues to give him a whispered commentary about whatever Christian is saying. He cracks jokes, which helps Alfredo laugh and feel a bit braver. Stupid shit like a ghost called ‘Babyhands’, for one, based on the size of some old handprints pressed into cement on the ground.

Some of the history Alfredo already knows, based on Trevor’s extensive knowledge of the area. He had spent so long listening to the man rattle off information about this or that topic and now he’s honestly grateful he did. He has Trevor on his arm, for one, which is a fantastic bonus, but he’s also not as spooked when he already knows the story.

That is, until they approach the graveyard. It’s quiet at night. Eerie. There’s a low fog, which really isn’t fair because it makes it look just like something out of a horror movie. “So, none of the actual hangings were done in this town,” Christian says. “They were actually all conducted in about twenty or thirty minutes down the highway, back when the borders of this town stretched a lot farther. Behind the Walmart, actually.” He smirks. “But bodies are here, and so are memorials, and I want to walk you through here and see if we can’t rustle someone up to say hello. Shall we?”

The moment they pass through the gates, Alfredo knows this was a bad idea. The hairs on the back of his neck goes up and he starts clinging closer to Trevor. It’s darker now, later, probably pushing 10:30PM. Everything seems scary in the dark of the night. Trevor tries to calm him, but Alfredo's heart is racing. He’s not the only one in the crowd that seems nervous, people peering around cautiously.

As they approach some specific graves, Christian stops to talk about their history, but also the history of the hauntings that have happened on site. It’s after the third story that something in Alfredo snaps. It’s just a simple story, really — a restless ghost that likes to inhabit bodies for a while — but in the pause afterwards that Christian takes, there’s a loud sound.

Later, Alfredo probably could have described it as wind pushing something against a building, or a transformer blowing, or anything. It could have been really a whole host of things. But the combo of the eerie story and the sound is enough for his shallow nerves. Everyone jumps, but Fredo just bolts. He wasn’t about to be the one who dies for no stupid ghost tour.

“Fredo!” he hears Trevor call, but he doesn’t care about that, just backing up frantically before turning into a run. He makes it about a hundred feet before his foot catches on a small grave marker and he goes sprawling, face first, into the mud.

As soon as he hits the ground with a painful thud, reality filters back in. Maybe it was the cold of the mud, or the pain, or the embarrassment, but he realizes that he’s running for no reason after a fucking scary story, running away from his date, from a good time. He was such a coward.

He picks himself out of the mud and pulls himself to his knees, but as he turns around, he sees Trevor there. He crouches nervously, gentle, like you would with a nervous animal. “Fredo?” he asks quietly. Hesitantly. “Braveheart, you ok?”

“Should probably get rid of the name Braveheart,” Alfredo says weakly, trying to brush off his pants. “I just ran like a scared kid.”

Trevor laughs quietly once he sees Alfredo is ok, just a few scraped palms for his trouble. He takes his hand. “Nah, man. What I see is a guy who did all this, mustered up all his courage to do this thing because I wanted to and he didn’t want to let me down. Faced somethin’ that freaked him out just to give me a nice night.” Trevor’s look was earnest. Soft. “That means more than you can say. No one’s ever listened to me before, not like you have, let alone done something like this.”

Alfredo glances from the mud on his pants up to Trevor. “I wanted to spend the evening with you,” he admits. “Still do. Just no more ghost tours.”

The moon breaks out from behind a cloud and illuminates how muddy and dirty they both are. Trevor takes both his palms and gently kisses where the scrapes are. “No more ghost tours.”

There’s half a second of hesitation before Alfredo leans up and catches Trevor in a kiss. It’s soft and warm, Trevor pulling him close with no second thoughts.

He may have been a tattoo artist who ended up in a quirky town that likes its spook a bit too much for his shallow heart. He may be stuck tattooing witch hats, cats, and pumpkins until the day he dies. But with Trevor by his side, telling him the stories that fascinate him so much, maybe that won’t be so bad.

Who knows? Maybe he could be a Braveheart after all.

#red web au #fahc #achievement hunter #rt writers discord #ragehappy #alfreyco #my writing

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toburnup · 10 months

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I don’t understand why people care enough to negatively comment on work because they don’t like a character…

I don’t like some characters that my friends reblog and I just scroll past like a normal person, I’m not going to dictate or judge what people like and I can’t stand the way people say “oh I block people who like *insert character they dislike*” like it’s so petty and strange… I like all your work I think you’re a great writer do I ship all the same people as you? Nope but does it bother me? Not at all. There is no letting people have fun in this fandom I swear to god!

i find it very odd. it's especially easy to avoid on tumblr, so i don't understand people's reactions (also, sorry, i accidentally wrote a whole essay here)

i'm not sure if it's because so many people in the ST fandom are newer to fandom in general, or it's just how things are now (i'm afraid it's this one), but i find that a surprising amount of people see any interest in a character as like... symbolic of someone's personal morals and values. and this is especially rampant among steddie shippers which is unfortunate. i block a ton of people on twitter because they say "hellcheer dni" and then i see passive aggressive messages on discord about how i blocked them. is this because people make the media they consume their whole ID? or people trying to play activist? (i've said it before on here but my activism isn't an online activity for me, it's my work and it's my personal life, and i'm intentional about separating these. i don't share much about my life on here on purpose).

billy anti's are actually scary at times. i personally don't see the logic of harassing real people in the name of fictional characters (and this is a generalization, but most of the time it's white shippers pulling that shit which just feels performative at best). this isn't billy-related, but joseph quinn fans bullied a jquinn fan account (run by a woc) off of twitter because she wasn't retweeting social justice-related posts. lmao. people really see sj rt's as the be-all and end-all of Being a Good Person. like people have lives outside of fandom and they can't see that.

LONG STORY SHORT, i know that posting my hellcheer and metalsandwich fic is going to make some people hate me or whatever, but i'm really tired of feeling like i can only openly like and enjoy steddie in order to have value here. if people are going to stop reading what i write, or blacklist me or whatever, i'll make my peace with that. and let's be real, who's really the one losing out in that scenario? because it's not me.

#maybe if i say this enough i'll believe it. but i know myself and if people start harassing me for it i will leave lol #i talk a big talk but i'm sensitive about this and i'm only here for the community so if i lose that - there's no reason for me to stay #so i hope people will be able to Be Cool about me posting different ships and not make vagueposts about me again #hanging on here by a thread folks #on fandom #vio speaks #billy hargrove mention #harringrove mention #hellcheer mention #multishipping #losers DNI #long post #(accidentally)#antis get a life challenge #steddie negative

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anjael · 7 months

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TLHOD SECRET SANTA 2023 - SIGNUPS OPEN

Yes, it's that time again!

As always, even if you aren’t participating, I’d be very grateful if you could signal boost by re-blogging! I’ll also be cross-posting to my Twitter *here* so RTs much appreciated if you’re on there ~

What’s a Secret Santa?

For those who have never done a Secret Santa before, the way it works is you submit a gift request, which goes into a pool which is then randomised. The randomised requests are then handed out to the participants.

So basically, its Mystery Gift! Everyone draws/writes a gift for someone. You won’t know who it’s for, and you won’t know who is doing yours! Then at the exchange, the completed gifts are handed out anonymously to whomever they belong, via email.

Sounds good, where do I sign?

Send your email applications right here! -> [email protected]

What do I write in my application email?

1. Your name / tumblr tag / most used social media - a link to your blog would also be helpful so I know who you are and can contact you if emails are not working or something. A link to examples of your work (art tag, etc) is also appreciated!

2. Preferred gift rating. NSFW requests are totally okay as long as they are not offensive/racist/sexist but if you’d like something NSFW, please also provide a SFW alternative request as not everyone is comfortable producing such content. If you don’t mind receiving NSFW but would prefer not to submit it, please tell me and vice versa.

3. Your actual request! If you prefer shipping/non shipping, please include this in your signup email. Please try to word your request so that it can be filled by either an artist or writer, if possible, as your gift-giver is randomly assigned!

Examples of requests (just for reference, there’s no required format):

- something with your fave pairing / a particular scene

- an AU you’d like to see (please provide some details)

Your requests don’t have to have any particular theme, request whatever you like!

4. Whether you would be able to pinch-hit (fill an extra gift if needed).

5. Whether you would like to remain anonymous to your gift recipient and/or on the master-post of entries (which will be posted up on Tumblr a few days after gift exchange)

———- DEADLINES ————–

Applications Close: 29th October 2023, 00:00 GMT

Prompts Sent Out to Participants: by 1st November 2023, 00:00 GMT

Gift submission: 20th December 2023, 22:00 GMT

(Please submit your completed gifts to [email protected])

Gift Exchange: 22nd - 24th December 2023 (TBC)

———- RULES/GUIDELINES —————–

- Don’t be a butt. (generally the best rule to live by)

- Complete the gift using your MAD SKILLS, be it drawing or writing fanfic! If you have other cool magic abilities like animating, you’re welcome to use those too!

- Please submit completed works only. Your gift should be fully coloured if it’s art (unless you are specifically doing a monochrome / inked piece), and properly formatted, spell-checked and at least 1,000 words if it’s a written piece.

- For written pieces, google doc links/word documents are fine for the email exchange, but if you want me to include your fic in the tumblr master-post please bear in mind you need to post it somewhere link-able such as AO3.

- if you are submitting NSFW art, AO3 hosts art too and can be a good alternative to tumblr/twitter restrictions.

- Please don’t post any completed gifts on your blog before the gift exchange date!

- if the deadline is approaching and you know you won’t be able to submit your piece in time, please tell me as soon as possible so I can arrange for someone else to fill your assigned prompt.

- if you’d like to remain anonymous, please tell me (there will be master-posts of all the submissions a couple of days after exchange)

- I’ll be tracking the tumblr tag ‘tlhod secret santa 2023’.

There’s also a Discord group - please let us know if you’d like an invite!

#tlhod #lhod #the left hand of darkness #tlhod secret santa 2023

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kghncanonzine · 3 months

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👑 APPLICATION ADVICE 🌿

Hello! We are so glad you want to join our zine! I’m Mod Anna, in charge of writing and organization. We decided to share advice on what we look for in applications, as well as how the application is formatted. If you’ve applied to a lot of zines or none at all, we hope you’ll read through this information to guide you through our application process. First things first: a link to our info sheet is here. BEFORE reading this post, look at our FAQ and contributor application requirements. A lot of your questions will be answered here already. It helps mods if you examine our provided information before asking a new question.

Before opening the application, I suggest you know which pieces you are using to apply. An organized portfolio and strong submission pieces do a lot for ensuring we can give your application the dedication we want to in our reviewal process. If your links don’t work, we won’t be able to give you a fair review. AO3, Google Drive (with the correct sharing permissions), and any other free online portfolio will work. If you’re worried about your links working, you can check their access abilities using an incognito or private tab. Each applicant will be sent a copy of their responses so you can ensure you submitted the correct ones. For other portfolio suggestions, I will include more information later in this post.

For the application itself: our first question on the application confirms you are 18+ before applying. If you are not of age, we will not be able to accept you. If we find out you have lied, you will be disqualified from our project and likely future ones the mod team runs. I apologize if you want to join but are under 18—but this rule protects us and you to comply with labor laws as much as we can. The next few questions will ask you for general information. Your credit name, pronouns, social media links (if you have any) and a discord username. We will be communicating zine information through a Discord server, so please ensure you have an account.

Social media follower count will not be conducive to our choice for acceptance. For me, if I want to see more work from the applicant, I may check their social media if their portfolio is too small. The issue with a Certain Social Media Site, formerly known as Tw*tter, is that it does not organize your work well (i.e. RTs are hard to sort through from your personal work). I would suggest a blogging site, like tumblr, with a tag we can filter through. AO3 is similar with sorting capabilities, so you may wish to share yours even if you choose a different portfolio format.

Choose the zine position you will apply for. If you have more than one you wish to apply for, submit more than one application. If you are accepted, however, it will only be for one position. The pinch hitter question is pretty important. If we have a contributor fall through, you may be messaged to work on a shorter timeline. We have a few options of how you’d like to be considered as a pinch hitter, such as if your decision changes whether you’re accepted or not. I personally have been a pinch hitter more than once; it’s fun, it’s rushed, but it’s a job that a lot of people don’t always appreciate. Nonetheless, this answer will not affect your acceptance status.

Next is your submissions. For your submission links, artists are recommended to use Google Drive links and writers are recommended to use AO3 or Google Drive. You don’t have to host them on these sites, however, please make sure your links are easy to access and use. The harder it is for us to find your work, the less time we will be able to review it. You will also be asked which part of our zine you’re interested in creating for (Karasuno, Pro Leagues, JNT/Olympics) and whether you wish to create for our potential NSFW add-on. Page artists will be asked if they want to be our cover artist.

Each person will be asked about portfolio and submission links. The next section will help with choosing your pieces. Please include any content warnings in the space provided and keep this section SFW.

𝐒𝐔𝐁𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

GENERAL OVERVIEW: If you have pieces that feature Kageyama or Hinata, especially concerning their relationship, I recommend using those for your submission pieces. This way we will be able to understand how you portray them, and how we see that fitting in with our project. A zine team wants a range of contributors. The more flexible your work is while maintaining a consistent style, the better we’ll be able to see you creating a page we want to print. If you choose to submit pieces from other fandoms, ensure there’s a reason why you want to include them. Whether they resemble a way you’ll draw them or write their characterizations, you want to target your pieces toward showing off your capabilities, not limiting them. It is not recommended to include drafts or sketches of your work in your portfolio. We want to see what you can develop in full for our zine.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PAGE ARTISTS: Choose pieces that are as current to your developed artistic style. The way you color, render, line, light, and form will all be taken into consideration. You want at least 1 piece, if not all 3, to have full backgrounds. Your compositions and detail will be important, i.e. if you have characters in similar poses or simple backgrounds, we won’t be able to see the full range of your skill. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MERCH ARTISTS: Along with the above section, please ensure you have as many polished merch designs in your portfolio, if you have them. The more you have, the better we can see what merch item you would best create. If you apply to both positions, I don’t recommend an overlap between your main submissions—you can include them in your portfolio, but try to tailor your application to the merch aspect versus as a page artist.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WRITERS: As a writer myself, I may be biased in saying that a writer application is the hardest to craft. For one, if you don’t have KageHina pieces, the mod team has a weaker understanding of how you would write these characters in their canon scenario.

If you have any polished KageHina pieces, it is imperative you include at least one. Otherwise, if you have written any characters that emulate their personalities or how you would write them, or even other characters in the Haikyuu!! Universe, we will accept these as well. The better the mods know the characters, the more they’re likely to judge your piece fairly. As a side note, I will include other fandoms the mods are familiar with so you can determine if you have any pieces of fandoms outside of Haikyuu!! that would fit what you wish to portray in our zine.

For writing, determine the kind of relationship you want to portray in a potential zine piece. Getting together, hurt/comfort, established relationships, fluff, humor—all of the tropes you want to include and how you write them, pick the pieces that best represent them. Characterization, setting, fluid writing are all important and ultimately, the way the piece makes a reader feel. As applicants, we do not get to explain what our intent is with a piece; all we have is the work, and how a mod enjoys your pieces. Here, range is important. If your pitches are angsty, you’ll want an angst submission. If you want to write humor, the same thing. We will do our best to determine different applicants and their goals to create a cohesive, flowing piece that portrays Hinata and Kageyama in their canon element.

Pay attention to word count as well. We are aiming for 1.5k-3k word pieces for the zine. This means you’ll want at least one finished piece in this length and excerpts of this length. We will only read a max of 5k per piece so keep this in mind during your selections.

Final Points to Make your Application Stronger: we are forming a zine about KageHina in canon. Do you have pieces of them younger in Karasuno or older in JNT? You may want to include these. Especially when it comes down to your pitches in the next section.

As a final reminder, keep all pieces SFW. The NSFW portion follows a similar format, of course, but this is an optional application. You will want to include Mature or Explicit work for the NSFW part of our application.

𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐎

This is where you put your pieces that are the strongest outside of your main submission. I would recommend Google Drive Folder. For all applicants, when we review more of your pieces, we will be able to give your application a more thorough look. Just as a reminder, organization does matter. If you have extra pieces you wish to show off, this is when you would include them. I recommend a Google Drive Folder because, although more work to put together, we will be able to sort through your other pieces quicker. You could include a list of AO3 links with details about each fic, you could include full excerpts, you could include more of your range in artwork.

𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒

I love reading creative pitches. I love seeing the passion a contributor has for the zine or for the characters themselves! Feel free to think about what you wish to create for this project. Try to keep them at a reasonable length, but still detailed enough that we can see your vision. This will not determine your acceptance but it does help us figure out which part of the zine we’d like to see you write or draw for. Make sure to submit and ask any questions or comments you have. We will answer them on our twitter if we feel them relevant. You will receive a copy of your responses, too.

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍

Thank you so much for reading this, frankly, verbose post. I appreciate your attention to your application and I hope this soothes some of your worries. We are so excited to see all the lovely applications! No matter what happens, we are so happy for your passion for this project.

Much affection, Mod Anna

𝐎𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋: here’s a list of fandoms the mods have been involved in, just in case you want to pick pieces outside of Haikyuu!!

Boku no Hero Academia

Given

SK8

Buddy Daddies

Jujutsu Kaisen

Bungou Stray Dogs

Demon Slayer

Miraculous Ladybug

MXTX’s works (TGCF, MDZS, SVSS)

Ace Attorney Series

Our Flag Means Death

Good Omens

Ted Lasso

Spy Movies

Percy Jackson Series

—Reblogs are appreciated, thank you! @zine-scene @atozines @fandomzines @zinefeed

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spnfanficpond · 10 months

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Weekly Pond Newsletter!

The year is only halfway done, and yet the US Supreme Court has made this year feel like it's going in reverse. To our non-US members, please keep us in your thoughts. To cheer us all up, have a gif of behind-the-scenes Bobby and Crowley kissing.

Old Business:

Manta Ray in the discord server! Admin Stacey was originally supposed to be in the server yesterday, but due to Life, the Universe, and Everything, had to postpone until today. If you want to come in and chat, head to the discord server in about 10 hours!

It's Fishing For Treasures weekend at the @fanficocean! In July, we're celebrating RPF stories so head on over there this weekend for some quality non-SPN actor fics! In two weeks, we'll be doing the same thing here, so if you've got some RPF fic recs for us, either submit a link via the submit button on the blog, or drop a link in the #fishing-for-treasures channel in the discord server. The deadline to submit is Friday, July 14th at midnight, Eastern US time.

Last week's #TweetFicTues prompt was:

Still working on building our own prompt generator, and what's coming out of what we have so far is WILD! How about for your #TweetFicTues you have Amara as a tattoo artist and Zeus as a chef in the 1980's with singing? Remember to tag us in whatever you write so we can RT it!

New Business:

Angel Fish Award nominations for June are due tonight! Although we accept AFA nominations all the time, the deadline tonight is to be included in the raffle drawing for prizes. Check out the prize list here. Every nomination is one entry into the raffle, and you can send in as many nominations as you want! Not sure who's a member? Click here for our member list! Nominations can be submitted via the submit button on the blog, or sent by DM to @mrswhozeewhatsis. Just send us a link to the fic and a few words on why you liked the story!

Manta Ray in the discord server! Next weekend, Admin Michelle will be in the discord server just hanging out! Wanna talk about Tumblr, writing, life, poop, or anything else? Come on in and chat! You can find the exact dates and times of Pond events on the Pond Google calendar, shown in your time zone. Or, stay tuned for announcement posts here on the blog!

Do you know about the Pond Tag Sheet? If not, you should check it out! Writers can use the sheet to find readers who want to read their fics, and readers can be added to the sheet and get notifications in their inbox of new fics they'll love.

Writers: Using the filter function in Google sheets, you can find a list of readers who want to read exactly what you're posting. Readers have to ask to be added to the list, so you know that they WANT you to tag them! There is no worry that you're bugging people, because if they don't want to be tagged, they will ask us to remove them from the list.

Readers: To get yourself added to the list, send an ASK to the blog with the following information: Your URL, if you are over 18 or not, and a list of what you want to be tagged in, organized by tab and column. For example:

Hi! I want to be added to the Tag List, please! My name is Michelle, I'm over 18, and I want to be tagged in the following: CHARACTER READER INSERTS: Fluff, angst, smut, crack, orgies, OC/OFC, Dean, Sam, John, Castiel, Benny, and Gadreel. PAIRINGS: Fluff, angst, smut, crack, all pairings. RPF READER INSERTS: none. GENFIC: fluff, angst, crack, reader insert, non-reader insert, all characters. Thanks!

(Divider by @glygriffe!)

That's all for this week! To see all Pond events, and also other SPN-related things like conventions and online concerts, check out our Google calendar! We try to keep it as up to date as possible. If there's something you want to see on the calendar that's not there (maybe a convention we missed, or cast birthdays, or something similar), send us an ASK and let us know!

Hope you have a great week! - From your Admins and Manta Rays, @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @princessmisery666, @thoughtslikeaminefield, and @katbratsupernaturalwhore!

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ttrpgrisingtide · 6 months

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New RT Talk coming up this week! Join us Wednesday, 11/8, at 6pm ET for a talk on TTRPG project management with Lyla Fujiwara! Watch live and ask your own questions from the audience in the Rising Tide community discord!

[Image ID: Banner with blue splash decals; Header reads "RT TALKS" above "LYLA FUJIWARA: TTRPG project management for the new creator." Text beneath reads "Join our host Mat of Role Play Chat, and Lyla Fujiwara, a TTRPG writer, game designer, and project lead, to discuss project management for new creators." End ID.]

Posted using PostyBirb

#ttrpg community #indie ttrpg #ttrpg #ttrpg rising tide #live event #project management

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thesouppond · 6 months

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What is Gen:Lock Re:Loaded?

Hi!!! I'm so glad you're here! Gen:Lock Re:Loaded, or GL:RL, is a fan made webcomic project based on the 2019 animated show Gen:LOCK. It follows the adventures of our favourite mech pilots a year after the events of the season 1 finale as the Vanguard continue their fight against the Union. As this is a fanmade project, GL:RL has no association with RT, HBO or WB.

The Continuity

The main story of GL:RL takes place in 2073, about a year after the battle of Chicago in the season 1 finale. It takes into account the events of Season 1 and the Storm Warning novel. The DC comics are considered mostly non-canonic. If you will, the team did a mission in Japan, stayed with Kazu's folks for fun, kicked union ass, and came home. The Sycorax plot will not be relevant.

Season 2 will not be acknowledged in any capacity.

The Team

It's just me! :) I'm Aleth, and I'm the writer, artist and creator behind this project.

Special thanks to my beta reader Ender, the lovely people on the Gen:LOCK and Mechanukkah discords for adopting me despite being 4 years late to the hyperfixation and my amazing mutuals who have been here since the start.

Navigation

Start Here

Most Recent

Prologues:

Home | Safe Spaces | New Years | Catching The Past

FAQS

Do I need to read Storm Warning / the DC comics for this?

While I absolutely encourage you to read the novel and DC comics run, purely because I think they're awesome, if you've seen Season 1 of Gen:LOCK, you'll have all the context needed to enjoy GL:RL as is. You might just miss a couple easter eggs.

What software/materials are you using?

I'm using Medibang Paint, both the desktop and android versions. All my screentones come from their library. In terms of hardware, I'm using a Wacom Intuos Draw with my laptop (I'm pretty sure this tablet's been discontinued, mine's at least 6 years old) and a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 with the S pen. For poses and setting references, I mainly use JustSketchMe.

Google Doc of other assets :)

When will the next part be out?

I'm in the process of fostering a healthy relationship with my art :) So I won't be pressuring myself to follow a strict schedule with releases. BUT I do pretty much work on this almost daily, and if I can, I'll have them out monthly. Watch this space :))

(FAQS will be updated as we go :) )

#pond soup #gl:pond #genlock reloaded

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secretgamergirl · 8 months

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StarCraft 2's story- Good or garbage?

I'm kind of lurking in the discord of a new RTS that's running a kickstarter right now. I don't know how strongly I want to endorse that because while what they have in the can looks darn good in terms of mechanics and gameplay polish and the people involved seem generally cool, I don't think anything at all is really pinned down otherwise. At the very least though it looks very "I'll make my own StarCraft 2! With blackjack! And hookers!" and I'm down for a game with that flavor of mechanics doing well when made by anyone other than, you know, Blizzard.

It's impossible not to draw comparisons when a game is pretty nakedly marketing itself as "we want to divorce the things we like about this one game from the monsters who made it" of course, and so now I'm thinking about just how powerfully terrible the writing was in StarCraft 2, but I'm not going to go off about it in some poor people who I don't know even have a writer yet's forums. I'm gonna ramble about it on my blog.

Now there's two ways to look at this one. We can look at the story of this game on its own, in a vacuum, or we can look at it as a continuation of the story of StarCraft. It's terrible by either standard, but let's start by looking at it as a continuation first.

Now, I'm not going to jump in here and just slap you with a novella long list of all the flagrant plot holes, direct contradictions, and unrecognizable characters if you actually go through these beat for beat. I've done so in the past. Might have done so on this blog. I mean when StarCraft 2 came out I was absolutely insufferable to everyone around me shouting about these things. Like... I don't even know how you can drop so many balls like that. Maybe they were doing that thing where they didn't even glance at the source material and were just poking around some fan wiki populated with random crap from tie-in novels and comics by people who were just going off on their own things... I do always have to mention though that whether by intent or incompetence they seem to have totally dropped the expansion's story from the canon, at least before 2's expansions came along years later.

But no, I want to focus on just basic themes and character arcs here. So the original base game of StarCraft breaks its story into three arcs, each from the POV of a character from one of the three playable factions in the game. This isn't the greatest structure for maintaining narrative cohesion throughout, especially when one of those factions is the communal hive mind of a big swarm of space bugs who at the end of the day just want to eat everything. And if I'm being brutally honest, there isn't a whole lot to write home about in the back third either. They kinda slipped back into old habits there and it's kinda just the sort of stock fantasy story you tend to get with games. Decadent ancient space elf empire ignores a big obvious problem due to hubris and a frankly incompetent leader, turns out their ancient traditions and prejudices are total BS, go quest for some magic rocks, have your big grand final battle where the hero self-sacrifices to blow up the monsters.

That first third though, and some threads that carry through the rest, have some good stuff going on. We've got a newly appointed magistrate (the unseen unvoiced player) and marshall (Jimmy) on some backwoodsy wild west sort of planet. They're pretty young and idealistic. Space bugs attack, they try to help, trying to help gets them in trouble with their higher ups who don't really buy the seriousness of this space bug invasion. Desperate for anyone to help fight the good fight, they fall in with a fringe militant cult leader (Mengsk) and his right-hand gal (Kerrigan) who he busted out of some government psychic supersoldier program. Jimmy immediately crushes on her, she doesn't reciprocate.

The gang goes along with all of Mengsk's plans, overthrowing the government to gain control of their armies and psychic experimentation programs to deal with these space bugs, and the level of moral compromise this involves gradually ratchets up until everyone finds themselves complicit in Mengsk killing the whole civilian population of the capital by having Kerrigan set up a psychic murderbug attractor and nobody bother's to evacuate her afterwards.

The other two realize they made a really bad choice of who to throw in with, smash up some major military hardware in the process of bailing on Mengsk as he's setting himself up as dictator for life, and eventually throw their lot in with the protagonists in the third arc, just kinda helping out while they do the whole deal of defying the orders of the ancient space elf council, learning the magic arts of the misunderstood outcasts, flying a big spaceship into the main brain controlling the space bugs. Kerrigan meanwhile gets converted into a space bug/human hybrid super soldier which... honestly feels like it's setting stuff up for a big showdown that just kinda never happens.

Still, we've got characters, they've got arcs. Mostly we have Jimmy (and the silent player character) learning the hard way that long-established power structures tend to be too inflexible to be helpful, and you should never trust anyone openly seeking personal power because they will just exploit everyone around them. It all even roughly follows the classic 3 act structure (and I mean, there's literally 3 acts mapping to that too, just that act 2 is all shown from a villain's perspective). In other media, this is sort of just the bare minimum, but games rarely bother with characters growing, changing, or having real setbacks that make them question things along their way.

This was followed up with the expansion, Brood War, which mirrors that same structure. One long story arc for each of three playable factions. Space elves largely doing standard fantasy beats, middle third switching to a villainous POV so radically different the main narrative gets largely put on hold, and some really good stuff with threads stretching through the whole thing.

Here the villain interlude is that it turns out Earth in this setting is run by full-on fascists, they caught wind of everything going on in this region where there'd previously been a big rebellion, and swing back in to clamp down again. They don't interact with the actual protagonists much (generally, they see the space nazis sweeping in and run off to lay low), so we mostly just have them swooping in and quickly mopping up Mengsk's little newfound dictatorship, with the actual story being the relationship dynamic between the guy in charge (DuGalle), his right hand man he's known forever (Stukov), and a local rebel welcoming them with open arms (Duran). Long story short, Duran's actually a double agent and very gradually pits the other two against each other. DuGalle eventually has Duran kill Stukov thinking he stabbed him in the back, realizes that's dumb, ultimately fails at his whole invasion, and in the epilogue kills himself, which if you read the relevant bit of my FF14 summaries, you know is how I like my stories about clear nazi analogues to end.

In the main narrative though, we pick right back up from the big heroic sacrifice with the bummer of a reveal that killing the primary brain of the psychic space bug collective didn't really get the job done, because some of its secondary brains (refreshingly not a concept pulled out of nowhere, these were firmly established to serve the dual purposes of having clear military targets for a giant pile of bugs, and a way to actually have enough characters for dialog exchanges in that third of the story) are trying to put the band back together. In their current disorganized state though, Kerrigan is no longer a semi-autonomous corrupted bug minion, but totally has her free will and sense of self restored, while still being all chitinous and at least somewhat capable of commanding the other bugs.

So as the whole expansion plays out, and the perspective shifts from the space elves doing some real desperate migration and defense because the plan to save their home world from the big bug invasion ultimately failed, through the nazi invasion, and ultimately to the POV of the secondary bug-brain you'd previously played as who'd been buggified Kerrigan's baby sitter essentially, now forced into taking orders from her, we are mostly dealing with this big hanging question of whether she's really good and trustworthy again, or secretly still under bug control, or if she's good for now but any minute that hivemind could properly come back online and take her over again. And of course, Jimmy's all angsty and pining because he never got over that one-sided crush.

While there's plenty of red flags about her being trustworthy over the course of things, the narrative actually manages to play things close to the chest well enough for the ultimate reveal to be a pretty fun twist. She absolutely 100% is fundamentally herself again, it's just that for a series of mostly pretty well-justified reasons, she absolutely hates every other character in the story. Either they've been trying to kill her, they abused and manipulated her, or they've totally objectified her. Or they're nazis who just showed up, who you don't really need a personal reason to want to kill, but just for good measure they're trying to revive and mind control the central bug mind, so, yeah, that's a threat. So at the last minute the whole thing just reveals itself as a big elaborate revenge story with a fairly strongly gendered theme about being denied agency and being othered, where the actually quite clear-headed just ruthless girl wins.

And then, a decade later, we get StarCraft 2. And what's the main narrative of StarCraft 2? We spend the whole time focused on Jimmy, who has somehow gone from this young idealistic biker/space cowboy with thinning hair, talking like a hippie and bouncing around getting in way over his head trying to rescue people from space bugs by just lending a hand to whoever else seems interested in doing that and crushing on this girl Kerrigan who couldn't be clearer about not liking him back to uh... some sort of gruff jaded old former military general with a bunch of old war buddies, a drinking problem, and a full head of hair, cruising around on his big personal battleship saving various worlds from the big space bug threat pretty much singlehandedly, and hoping to rescue his love interest Kerrigan from space bug mind control, with the help of some kind of prophesied magic space rocks you can build a big totem out of. It even completely de-buggifies her in the end, leaving a helpless little naked girl to chivalrously scoop off the ground and carry to safety. P.S. She's white now.

This isn't like, "oh whoops, we forgot the main character lost one of his boots at the end of last season" nitpicking. This is doing complete 180s on the character arcs and backstories of the central characters here. Kerrigan not needing to be rescued from zerg corruption is the ENTIRE point of Brood War's story. Which also establishes there's no longer really a zerg threat of any sort beyond what she personally wants to tell her mindless bug pals to do. And really, even if you want to de-canonize all of that for whatever reason, tacking a "hero saves the girl" ending onto the story we had in the base game of the original StarCraft still just does not work. You're taking a story whose whole theme is "putting faith in the wrong sort of person has serious consequences" and then turning around and going "actually no it doesn't."

And you know, speaking of Mengsk, it's a much lesser point, but StarCraft 2 depicts him like he's some sort of grandiose emperor from some ancient dynasty. Big imperial palace, little silver spoon in his mouth prince of a son who wants to break from his family's legacy, the whole nine yards. Again, this both fundamentally misunderstands his part in the whole central narrative, and everything that happened to him in the expansion (where not very long at all after his big power grab the UED showed up and completely took him apart, and would have executed him but Kerrigan prolonged that to watch him squirm). And when did he have this kid of his? With who? And where is Jimmy getting all these war buddies? He didn't have'em at the start of things or he wouldn't have had to join up with Mengsk. And his war buddies from that war would just be the magistrate and the surviving protoss characters who act like they barely know him here.

So, no. This does not hold up at all as a continuation. How about if we just look at it in a vacuum then?

Nope, still bad. It leans heavily on a backstory we don't get to see. And I don't mean we're missing a ton of StarCraft 1 flashbacks. I mean, we have all these "old buddy" characters, especially Tychus, but we don't get into how they became friends or do anything to show how they still are, so there's no real emotional stakes to where that ends up going. We start with him drinking his life away in a bar over how he misses this apparent old girlfriend, but we never get into the history between them and even the depressed drinking never comes up again past that shot. We vaguely establish some bitter history with this Mengsk guy, but that never really leads anywhere at all. We just kinda have these various vague and generic handwaves at Standard Protagonist Backstory Stuff. Then we actually dive into things, and it's this very episodic affair where you just hop around from planet to planet either showing up to rescue people or showing up to collect a magic rock to help build the magic Toblerone that cures being half-space-bug. And I mean, I already covered how this sort of simplistic no tension, hero always wins, collect all the treasures for victory sort of narrative is the general baseline for game writing, but other people have been trying to move things forward the last couple decades and this is just sitting at the starting line with a princess to rescue.

Now to be fair, the original StarCraft absolutely also had questing around for magic rocks. The protoss have a totally magic rock based electrical grid, the overmind wanted to eat their special magic rocks to make them more vulnerable, the last protoss mission even had a big ancient temple that did an energy blast, but that one just killed all life on the planet outside of its immediate vicinity, which feels like a more grounded thing for an ancient alien artifact to do than... vaporize/purify space bugs and leave everything else alone. And it wasn't scattered in little bits everywhere.

And then of course there's the expansions to StarCraft 2... well the good thing here is they're so divorced from anything in the original game, and even from the base game of StarCraft 2 that you don't have to worry about them messing with the legacy. I mean, OK, Heart of the Swarm has this whole weird reset where we have Kerrigan mostly human again, just so she can go on a big spirit journey and bug herself up again, so that she's strong enough for her ultimate goal of... showing up to take down Mengsk... again. And you somehow end up with a zergified version of Stukov which... OK that's just the weirdest possible way to double back and recanonize that expansion. I'm not sure that Kerrigan and Stukov were ever even really aware of each other's existence, and he died to a bullet through the head in a military base with no zerg anywhere near it. I mean, unless you remember that Duran was a double agent working for Kerrigan. Except the thing there is if you know the plot of the secret epilogue mission you'd know he was ACTUALLY one of the secret ancient aliens who created both the protoss and the zerg just pretending to a horrible bug monster spy for Kerrigan, in turn pretending to be a normal human. And that's a pretty obscure detail I'd forgive someone for missing except that literally in the mission where you're playing as Zerg-Stukov, the whole reason you're playing as Zerg-Stukov is that Kerrigan is busy doing one of those things where the two wizards fire big energy blasts at each other like some kind of tug-of-war with weird phallic overtones, and the big energy phallus she's trying to squish back is FROM Duran, in his revealed-himself-to-be-that-whole-mess glory. They remembered one thing only to get it wrong basically.

But yeah, otherwise that one's just so wild a departure I don't even know what to say. There's just... named zerg characters? They're all like bug centaurs? Because we need people to talk to and they just totally forgot they had cerebrates to get around that problem? Instead of the ancient ancestral zerg being like, psychic ringworms gradually specializing their hosts over generations, here they're like... talking dinosaur puppies who steal each other's "essence" to get huge? Past a point there's so little resemblance to the source material that I can't even be mad. And then the protoss expansion just kinda decides that the whole casting the dark templar out of their society over irreconcilable religious differences is something they've actually done like... 3 or 4 times? So we've got the outcast invisible jedi and the outcast robots and the outcast Darth Vader wannabes with some sort of society-wide ordered queue where there's exactly one person directly ahead of everyone they're allowed to kill to move up in the world. Oh and we're claiming this one robot centaur is Fenix somehow. Despite Fenix being very dead, and this robot centaur neither having that goofy muppet-y orc voice nor the overwhelmingly positive attitude. And he also somehow doesn't notice that he's a robot centaur and not a guy in a life support pod inside a robot spider. They also expect us to believe this little naked twink turned into this pile of steroids and shoulderpads somehow:

Oh! I almost forgot but also there's this thing called the Khala and it's unambiguously this set of religious teachings defining a caste system and such... but then here someone watched Avatar so we're retconning that into some sort of psychic spiritual network you connect to through your hair. You don't plug your hair in though it's just like a wifi antenna. Also it only works if you're part of the main society that keeps throwing other people out none of these other people have hair wifi. Also like the entire deal here is that protoss just are not psychic, it's their one flaw. There's this whole thing with them representing physical perfection but being held back by being a bunch of very religious idiots, while the zerg are mentally perfect what with the hive mind but physically just, like, a ringworm, so the ultimate life form their creators really wanted to create requires the zerg to take over the protoss, or just going screw it and hybridizing the two in a lab. Again, this is one of those really obscure details, it only comes up in the weird backstory in the manual that doesn't even get touched on in the game outside the one secret mission in the expansion... but here we have the same scene both acknowledging that deep lore and totally contradicting it.

But yeah, taken as their own independent stories... well... what stories? Kerrigan wants to be a big buff bug lady so she can depose a jerk she already deposed, and she does that. There are no complications or twists along the way. "Artanis" has to go collect all the protoss the in-group don't count as people, because Satan got into their hair wifi and anyone who didn't just get a haircut turned evil. So he goes and does that. Again, no complications of any sort along the way. Also no real ideological conflicts.

The deal with the robot protoss is some idiots went "hey what if we took all of our greatest most celebrated heroes and we copied their minds into robots in their entirety" and then got super confused that they still, you know, want to be treated as people with rights and such and not just mindless robots. So, you know, simple fix there. Then the... actually just evil ones are... lead by John DeLancey. Everyone likes him. So, problem resolved? And the dark templar are already befriended from before, so nothing's needed there besides going to their homeworld to pick them up. Their uh.... home world everyone already evacuated to and then that was compromised and their leader was replaced with puppet and then everyone maybe died? But yeah they're fine.

So then after all the racism is solved forever by just... deciding not to do that anymore, Kerrigan jumps in some kind of magic pool to transform into a giant naked golden angel, and she does this to become the embodiment of purity of essence we apparently need (which also purges all zerg-ness I guess?) and... look there's no easy way to say this. It turns into Homestuck. That whole convoluted thing from Homestuck where there's this eternal cycle of universes being created by light and dark themed people teaming up to create the next one and in theory kind of operate as it's gods but not if they don't feel like it... we're just ripping all that off wholesale for this complete asspull of an ending. And then everyone shoots space satan in the face. He's a big squid. And then Kerrigan turns back into a normal human girl so she can go on a date with Jimmy. Oh and then there's a third expansion recycling the scrapped plot from that action game they were going to do back on the N64 or whatever but I learned how awful the company was before getting curious enough on that one.

It's just bad. Even by game writing standards, it's bad. And I didn't even get into how bad it is with women in particular. We've got the big doe-eyed scientist who needs to be rescued from the scary bugs and then oh no it turns out she got bit by a bug and now she's turning into one and has to be put down (and no, this has never been how that worked). Then we've got Kerrigan who aside from needing rescuing and purifying and coming out naked has this whole expansion to herself where in theory she's totally in charge and self-directing every decision, but every time you click anywhere the confirmation is just her getting all pouty and whiny? Like a toddler you're telling to put shoes on so you can go to the doctor or something? Like, is it just me? Is it the direction? Is it the voice filter? Was the actress just miserable in the recording booth?

youtube

Then she's got this little bug girl assistant who hangs down from the ceiling, kinda like the adjutant from the original StarCraft, but instead of being all detatched and robotic she's all uwu pwecious? And the protoss campaign just kinda keeps turning women into mouthpieces for Satan. It's... a whole thing.

So yeah, badly written stories all throughout, no matter how you slice it. No continuity, no consistency, no character arcs or tension, just be the big cool action hero, do some getting the band back together stuff, collect some magic rocks and ritual circles, purify this girl here with the big magic circle (3 times no less) and then whatever there's space Satan. It's a mess... did I even have a larger point with this?

Probably not, but it was entertaining I hope? Maybe throw a little cash my way?

#Starcraft 2 #blizzard #terrible writing #game writing #People always object to me pointing out Kerrigan wasn't originally white but oh wow those people have nothing on the bald Jimmy deniers #like people come up and say OK he looks bald in his chat window animations but it's an old game and they couldn't do hair right back then #except no everyone else totally has hair and mostly it looks fine for real there was a conscious design choice to give him receding hair OK #Anyway Blizzard is terrible and nobody should support them in any way just boycott those monsters please

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hamliet · 1 year

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Hey hamliet, got a bit of an unusual question for you about RWBY.

How do you deal with the negativity?

Now that Volume 9 is going to be on Crunchyroll first and free an entire year later, there's been a lot of negative talk about RWBY and Rooster Teeth. How RT is dying and a shell of its former self. That the RWBY Sub and Discord is going to pirate the hell out of the show instead of supporting it due to the poor treatment of the staff, calling Geoff's statement about how pirating will do nothing more than hurt the show as bad taste, and pretty much fine dooming the show because all that matters now is RT is supposedly a shit company these days and that's all that matters...

Not to mention you STILL have people like the Judgemental Critter releasing videos about how bad RWBY is. There's so little positive RWBY content on Youtube...

Just, how do you deal with it all, the hatedom for a show you love and worries that it might not be ended thanks to the hatedom and controversies surrounding it? Or do you think I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill?'

Sigh.

Regarding YouTube, I ignore it. Sometimes I think about doing takedowns of the Reddit Dudebros who have made RWBY hate videos, but I also don't wanna give them traffic. Instead I use the site I write for (the non-Tumblr one) to write positive RWBY content, which will go up over the next month. It won't have the same reach, probably, but it's all I can actually do.

As for the production stuff, I have mixed feelings.

I think the long hiatus has soured a lot of the trust in CRWBY, and rightly so. Yes, covid, the WBD merge (and WBD's scorched earth policies in general are creating atmospheres of anxiety and fear for all their subsidiaries), Ice Queendom, and the movies have happened, but the sudden hiatus when your previous volume ended on a literal cliffhanger is not a good look. People are going to rightly get suspicious and anxious, and frankly, I think RT didn't handle it well at all. If RWBY continues, and it better, they absolutely cannot have another long hiatus, and they should be forthcoming about things.

I think Geoff's letter is an attempt to be forthcoming. I don't think it's super clear, though, and kind of made things worse--but I also don't think that is Geoff's fault. I think the fandom, as a whole, has issues that are absolutely not the fault of Rooster Teeth or anyone in CRWBY, and are instead the fandom's issues.

The fandom has a semi-parasocial relationship with the actors and writers, which is great on one hand and yikes on the other, because the fans do act entitled in a lot of ways. Because people involved do say certain things, fans take it as Gospel Truth because Their Friend The Involved Person wouldn't possibly have other motives or be a complex human being themselves with subconcious pain and desires that may or may not align with theirs. But the people involved are all, well, people, and they aren't your friend. They're not a bad person or an enemy; they're just a person you don't actually know. People are complicated. I'm also not blaming people involved who speak out; they're doing what they can with what they know. I just wish fans would accept that what fans know is far, far less than they think.

I don't know how to say this in a way that will not get fans furious at me or think I'm dismissing the issues because I'm really not trying to. I'm just an adult who has unfortunately seen the results of simplistic thinking, and there are not simple solutions to complex problems.

If you watch any anime at all, you're probably giving money to studios that treat their workers way, way, way worse than Rooster Teeth does.

If you consume manga, you're giving money to a company that has worked numerous mangakas into permanent disabilities because of their insane deadlines and low pay. Like, Shuiesha is awful. Ishida lost his ability to taste food.

Wait, I can hear all of you now: JUST BECAUSE X DOES IT DOESN'T MAKE IT OKAY FOR RT TO DO IT! To which I say: you're hella f*ckin' right. I am not making this argument at all, just laying facts out. It absolutely is not an excuse. 0% excuse.

Get your sh*t together, Rooster Teeth.

But it is to say, if you're boycotting RT but watching something else, don't say it's on blanket moral principles, because it isn't. You're going to have to ask yourself why you hold them to another standard. And to be fair, we all have limits and our own boundaries, so it's not possible to judge others. I avoid certain media and consume others.

There isn't a great way to handle this. There isn't a simple solution that will just magically make everything okay for everyone. It sucks.

But boycotts actually, imo, not going to help and fairly likely to make the situation worse. So instead of no pay, you want them to get... no pay or jobs at all? Because it's not like there's a "good" animation studio. Trust me, I work in the arts. Having no job is awful, too.

It's not remotely the same, but I think back to the sweatshops people boycotted in the late oughts--understandably so. But here's a little known fact: thanks to all the boycotting, a lot of those women went into the sex industry, and not exactly willingly, but out of desperation. I know some of these women by name. It is not the same thing here, and I'm not saying it is, and maybe shouldn't even use this analogy, but I am using it as an example of how boycotts as simple solutions are not nearly so moral as you might think, in broad terms.

Regarding RWBY's future, I really hope we get the ending as Monty planned. I want it, and I think we only need 3-4 more seasons for it.

Frankly, I think RWBY is one of the most well-written American animated shows to exist in the past decade.

(Go ahead and argue with me, dudebros. You'll lose.) RWBY is actually very popular overseas, which also helps.

I also think of Monty's quote from when his mother passed away, which seems eerie considering his own untimely death:

“I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams are something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death.”

Anyways, the finale of volume 9 is airing on the anniversary of my dad's death, which is the same day as the anniversary of the death of the friend who introduced me to RWBY's parent as well (yes, our parents died the same day, years apart). RWBY is one of those stories that gives me life and hope again in how it handles grief. I hope there's a path forward for the story that involves treating workers fairly.

#ask hamliet #rwby #rwby volume 9 #crwby #rwby controversy #rooster teeth

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