#the repetition of characters being cruel is so fun

[skitter-kitter]

Grian landed gracefully on the wood floor; it hardly moved. Scar stood up shakily, the floor warping under his feet.

“Grian!” He called out. This wasn’t his Grian— he knew that— but the sight of him was breathtaking nevertheless. “Grian..!” Scar walked until he was in arms reach of his friend.

Blue eyes narrowed at him, glancing down at his sword. At the sight of the fresh blood, Grian stepped away from him. He played it off with a grin, but Scar saw through it.

Grian was afraid of him.

“What— are you dressing up as the Boogeyman, mayor?” Grian laughed, hands on his hips. He wasn’t wearing much armor at all. At least, not nearly as much as Scar was. “All gray skin and red eyes? Very stereotypical of you.”

Scar mimicked Grian’s fake smile. They were dancing the steps of a dance neither of them knew. A timeless tango. Scar could continue to dance with this blue-eyed Grian, sure, but he could also continue the search for his Grian.

“Nah,” Scar shrugged, “I’m the Red King. The blood, the red eyes. Don’t I look just like him?”

Scar gave a twirl as he laughed at Grian’s dumbfounded expression. “The Red—?”

Scar turned and began to walk out of the Barge, interrupting Grian. He ignored Grian’s sputtering by pulling out the control panel. He stared at World 24 as it blinked up at him. What else could he try? Well, there was his favorite number or maybe—

“Scar!” Grian yelled louder than he had ever heard him. His wings were spread wide, revealing white eyes in his red feathers. Scar couldn’t look away from them. They were entrancing, like a rattlesnake’s rattle. Scar wondered if there were any rattlesnakes in the desert. Maybe, he had walked past some without realizing. Did they blend in? Were they like chameleons?

“Scar.” Grian gripped his shoulder. Scar’s eyes blurred, the world turning hazy. He glanced up at Grian, half-expecting to see those familiar emerald eyes. All he got was a frozen lake. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Was he hypnotizing him? Was Scar being hypnotized? He’d tried to hypnotize his Grian once…

“I’m looking for you.”

“Uh-huh.” Grian nodded. Tears began to form in Scar’s eyes. “I’m right here.”

His hand shook as he typed in World 3 without looking away from Grian’s cruel gaze. This Grian was nothing like his.

“No, you aren’t.” Tears ran down his face. Grian smiled. “You’re cruel.”

Scar hit enter and felt his body being sucked through universes. He closed his eyes and begged the universe to send him back to his world— back to his Grian.

The universe had never been kind to him before. It wasn’t going to start now.

#third life smp #hermitcraft #hermitcraft season seven #grian #All These Paths (Lead Back to You) #goodtimeswithscar #skitty fics #tw hypnosis #tw hypnotism #I’m really tired so this is probably the last for the night #I’m having an amazing time writing the two of them being separated #the repetition of characters being cruel is so fun #i wonder who scars gonna call next hehe

[purgemarchlockdown]

Lyrical Repetition in Purge March

So I've been thinking a lot about repeating lyrics in Milgram MVs. Since Milgram will often repeat lyrics to create a relationship between the two scenes. The relationship could be Anything, contrast, parallel, irony, etc. The purpose is just to associate the scenes together using the lyrics.

I think it's really fun to check out what the lyrics and scenes are since I like seeing what connections Milgram is making and what it says about the story and characters.

So with all that preamble out of the way let's talk about Purge March!

So Purge March has this whole repeated sequence in it, but I'm splitting it up for ease.

So this lyrical repeat features a fun thing Milgram likes doing with them, perspective change! The first time these lyrics are sung we are looking at it from the perspective of Amane Punishing Herself and the second time is Amane being Punished by Her Mom.

Milgram is establishing a connection here between her Mother's abuse and the way Amane treats herself, it's being portrayed as Similar. There's also an additional layer of that the Lyrics are referring to Different People in these scenes. The first is referring to Amane Herself as the scum. As the Marching Band leader "erases" this Amane for not being able to get the performance right. She can't be helped so she must be erased.

Note that this scene still humanizes this Amane to the audience, showing how terrified she looks and how she didn't mean to make that mistake. It was an accident.

The Second Scene, however, is referring to Amane's Mother as the scum. And we aren't shown her face at all, just her hand as she's about to Taze Amane.

This completely removes any and all sympathy you could have for her. There's No Person you can latch onto, just a hand that Tazes Her Daughter.

In both cases we are encouraged to sympathize with Amane. However the first case has some Internal Justification from Amane that the abuse was "warranted" in some way because she Did "Mess up". While the second completely gets rid of that idea and showcases how truly cruel and and awful these punishments are.

Moving onto the other lines in this sequence. This continues the change in Who the lines are talking about but this time we also have a change in Role.

Instead of the one being Punished, Amane is now the Punisher. She's the one enacting punishment on the sinner. Initially she was the one who's eyes Needed to be crushed. She was the one who was corrupted and sinful. But now its her mother who needs to be crushed, her mother who Killed a Cat who did Nothing Wrong. Who broke cult rules and thus should be punished. That's how this works, that's how this Always Worked.

They never stopped treating her like that just because she was a Child.

T1 VD:

Es: Also, your dislike for being treated like a child… I never really noticed it up until now, but just looking back on it makes me angry. (sigh) You did something very unlike Milgram. From now on, I will treat you like a murderer with full awareness of their actions, prisoner no.8, Amane. Amane: Yes! I am very grateful for that… Hm?

So why should she stop just because she's her mother? Or because she's more "righteous" than her? Or because she said sorry?

That sorry doesn't matter.

The rule was still broken, after all. (Note that, unlike a lot of the other shots. The scene where the line about hopelessness first appears is in the Real World while the second scene is in the Marching Band World, unlike most of the other shots that are reversed. I don't know how purposeful this is but I think it's interesting!)

Related to all of this is how the hopeless sorry line is used to Transition between Amane's intention, there's a few lines right before it gets repeated about how Amane's mother broke the vow and how if she breaks her vow, Amane is supposed to punish her.

Right after this we have the lines where Amane is Noticeably Angry and Upset that her Mother Never forgave her even though she cried and screamed and Tried her best and how much she wants her mother to die.

The "hopeless I'm sorry" is used to transition between those two ideas. Amane punishing her mother because she broke her vow and Amane killing her mother because she Hates Her and Hurt Her.

This is a two minute and thirty second song and In One Sequence we can gather This Much Information, that's just Good Storytelling.

And that's not the Only repeated part in Purge March.

So second repeated part in Purge March. This sequence recites the main doctrines we are presented with in Purge March while also playing this line in the background.

If you become a bad girl, monsters will come out This is the magic that stops that from happening

We are associating these lyrics with each other and for good reason. The Doctrine is the Magic, if you follow that then the monsters won't come out.

We see those monsters, after all, Amane broke a Rule.

They even have the line about the magic stopping it from happening On the scene where Amane is helping the cat. A lovely bit of visual irony since this action is what they use as an excuse to punish her.

Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows more than the character and we know More than the character, we know she gets caught, we we're told what happens next, and we Can't Do Anything.

Except, the lyrics is Presenting us with a solution. Follow the Doctrine, that's the Magic. You'll be safe if you do. Amane didn't and that's why this is happening.

Now of course that isn't true in the slightest and her abusers would of found a way to abuse her no matter what.

But the point is we're being put in the shoes of this girl who wants to be good so bad it's going to kill her through the usage of Dramatic Irony and Lyrical-Visual Association. It's Good Storytelling and I think it's incredibly cool how Purge March Does That with such little time.

Those are the two scenes where lyrics are repeated in Purge March (unless I missed one somehow.) This was really fun to write and a lot of the other MVs are super cool about this too, Cat especially is fantastic at this and I might write more about it if I ever have the time. Hope you enjoyed reading!

#milgram #amane momose #008 #milgram amane #cw child abuse #cw cults #milgram analysis #milgram meta

[thirdmagic]

one thing i like about slay the princess is that its like the antithesis of undertale where instead of creating fully developed routes and directly telling you not to do them, it directly encourages you to explore every route and to see what happens if you do different things, its very premise is meant to be repayable and it encourages exploring all the nooks and crannies of the world and the story. no matter how bad, cruel, or dark are the places you go to.

for the shifting mound, every story you experience and aspect of herself born of that story is a "gift"- it's an experience that makes her fuller and more complete as a person and expands her understanding of the world, herself, and the relationship she has to the long quiet. this game treats every ending and every route as equally worthwhile, just for its own sake, for the experience and the story told in it. every different story you can tell within its framework is equally valuable by its very essence of being a story.

and you know, there are so many time loop VNs and so many VNs that play with this kind of aware repetition and use it to say something, and you can be tired of it, and obviously not every such vn will be good, but i find that fun and cool, and i think theres a reason thats a big genre, and many people don't get tired of it. i think it's telling that many people approach visual novels and instantly think 'what can i do in this medium that i can't do in any other' and see the richness of this kind of story/game mechanic, and so many ways to approach it, and this is a unique way, to have a character actively actively asking you to repeat these loops to find these different aspects of herself because these different versions of her born of different choices enrich her. and in general, just the way it avoids the approach or concept of 'good' or 'bad' ending, where the dichotomy is between happy or unhappy, or in any moral assessment of your choices or actions, but the priority is always on the richness and depth of experience. which i think is pretty well embodied in the damsel route. in that one, you do everything right, it's by all accounts a happy ending, but it makes for a very shallow princess and a fairly shallow story on the whole.

and, you know, also in the endings you can get for the 'main' story with the shifting mound, every choice you can make about your characters' future and existence has its place and, aside of some specific sub-endings, none of them are necessarily bad or good. there's just so much meaning to read into it all and the ultimate ideas and messages of it are very open.

#“is this post dragging undertale” i like undertale a lot and i think it is very good and deserving of the accolades it gets #but i also think theres kind of an inherent dissonance within its messaging and a weird contradiction that i can never quite get past #and always makes me feel kind of resistant to what its trying to say #and i like that stp is the exact opposite of that and less. judgy is the word i am inclined to use i guess. #anyway. very good game. please play. #slay the princess

[dangermousie]

Decided to continue my read of Chang’an’s First Beauty, realized I read the parts I read so long ago, that I might start my reread from scratch.

Still so good, a rare novel that isn’t just fun but quality. I’ve posted about it before, but repetition is the mother of learning blah blah. 

At first glance, the set-up is fairly typical - an aristocratic beauty in distress and a powerful young man who offers to protect her. Sweetness of the usual set up of Mary Sue heroine being protected by a powerful man for no reason, you say? Well, he “protects” her by taking advantage of her distress and offering to make her his mistress. Hard screeeeeeech of the brakes. She takes him up on it; she is scared of him and disgusted by him but speaks sweetly yearning for his money. Breaks break utterly.

This is an incredibly rare web novel where people feel like believable period people and not moderns playing dress up. Nobody is a transmigrator or a powerful martial artist or a demon or has anachronistic useful skills. (The closest we come is ML ends up having memories of his past life with past life FL but they are still normal upper class people in that past life and that knowledge doesn’t confer any super power or anything.)

The heroine, refreshingly, is merely a noblewoman of the period. She is well-educated and beautiful but that’s it. When her family implodes due to her father being framed, she is left with close no resources. Her beauty, her manners, her kindness are all useless. I love her because she’s neither a saint nor a battle axe, just an average enough woman cursed with beauty. I love how she gives ML her body and her compliance and her perfect manners, on the outside a poseable doll, but inside she’s a block of ice who is scared of him, disgusted by him, and keeps running a mental abacus in her head, viewing this as a particularly gross job and focusing on the cash.

The hero is a FUCKING BASTARD. Not in murdering children and planning an apocalypse or w/e exciting villain stuff usually happens. No, he is a typical upper class man of the period, who views the poor and non-blueblooded and women as all lessers, there to at best cater to him. He is a nephew of the emperor (but as son of emperor’s sister is exempt from succession fights which makes his position really great and as an emperor’s favorite) and is high up in the judicial office. When he meets the beautiful heroine in distress, there is nothing chivalrous. Ultimately, he wants her and he buys her, her true feelings and wishes as immaterial to him as a chair’s. As far as he’s concerned, this is a fair bargain. He is cold and demeaning; he’s never cruel on purpose or for enjoyment purposes, but since he doesn’t truly view her as human let alone as equal, he’s thoroughly cruel nonetheless. Their first time is not noncon in the ancient sense but seeing that she only puts up with it to have food and to protect her little sickly brother, and is disgusted by it, it’s horrific anyhow.

The best part of the novel is not the characters (who are all realistic; there is a secondary OTP of heroine’s unhappily married older sister and her suitor that is amazing) or the fairly interesting plot involving conspiracies, but watching ML’s slow transformation as he gradually falls hopelessly and utterly in love with FL only to slow realize how little she cares for him and how he’s wronged her and if you, like me, love watching bastards grovel and grovel and lose their damn mind, this one is for you! (One of the best things for me is that he remains a period man. He repents of how he treated her, he wants her love, he sees her as a person, because he’s fallen for her; his views on classes and genders in society outside of her remain the same.)

I mean, this is pretty early on is deliciousness. He is trying to woo her with his body and so is being the best lover he can be (in contrast to early scenes where he just sought his pleasure and that’s it and however uncomfortable she was he did not even notice) and she is just grossed out and wants him to be done as quickly as possible. LIKE YES YES YES YES!

The darkness of the night was being rendered so sultry by a man’s continuous kisses against a woman’s white skin.

It was the first time Lu Yan was so delicate and dedicated during acts of love. Her eyes, her nose, her cheeks, that spot between her eyebrows, he kissed it all with a slow relish, sporadically lifting his head and observing her face before plunging back. Who could have imagined that the same rigid hands that wrote submissions and death sentences could morph into soft and tender caresses?!

However, Shen Zhen was not enjoying this sudden novelty. In fact, it was making her horribly nervous and anxious. She remembered that the last time she had told him that she was menstruating, he had immediately lost interest, removed his hands from her body and backed away. She was afraid he was planning on pushing perversion to a new level, so she quickly called out to him, very unwilling to cross yet another one of her boundaries under Lu Yan’s coercion.

And a little later, his realization is SO GOOD!!!

And here he was, lying beside this paragon of all qualities, this highly finished piece of nature, as far away from her as if he had never met her. She had built a wall of misgivings, tears, pain, distrust and resentment to separate herself from him as much as she could.  

And he was left on the other side, yearning for her joy, her gratitude, her admiration. He wanted it all. He wanted it desperately. Lu Yan wanted Shen Zhen to regard him as the source of all her comfort, emotional and physical, to view him as the moon of her nights and the sun of her days. Lu Yan wanted Shen Zhen to love him. He needed her to love him. And this newfound knowledge of his own abject dependence on her made him want to break something. But it did not make him want to break free. Not in the slightest.

Good luck, bastardy bastard, you will need it!

PS They are adapting this; it will never ever be as good as the novel, but at least casting Jeremy Tsui as a sexy cold bastard is way on point.

#cnovel #Chang’an’s first beauty

[deadpuppetboi]

Goretober Day 15: Medical

Willow hated going to the doctor.

Even before their ‘revelation’, the doctor’s office was one of the most anxiety-inducing places any child would be in.

They'd recall the trip over, the terror of looking over the familiar building, being taken into the dreary waiting room with toys so old they may as well break down, and the misery of waiting for hours on end.

Their name would be called and their mom would drag them over to the designated room. A room with white walls with plastic images of cartoon characters all around. As if to calm them another child next door would cry out as they were given their shots, making Willow shiver before finally getting their appointment.

From this, they’d hide behind their mother’s legs and cry as the doctor called them over to check their heartbeat. Then the dreadful entrance of the nurse who, with sadness in her eyes, would get the shots ready. The lollipop was the only thing that kept Willow going at the end, tears in their eyes as they went back home with two bandages on their arm.

This foundation was no different, though, Willow would argue that it was worse.

Since day one, Willow went through a particular routine, due to the influence of their anomaly. Something that, frustratingly, had no rhyme or reason to it other than doing its job. A job that Willow would have preferred to stop the very moment they discovered it but they didn't necessarily have a say in it.

The testing process was erratic, not more so cruel but informative as many men and women in lab coats examined them head to toe.

Blood samples, skin samples, and even hair samples were taken to be examined thoroughly while Willow had to wait around for the results. And while waiting for said results they would be asked various questions about their ability or even their personal life. Willow wouldn't have a problem with it if it wasn't for the fact that they had to confess with even the most private of memories they’d rather leave behind for good.

And, while it was painful to remember those memories, it felt sorta nice to have to talk to someone professional on the matter.

And that was the routine of their new life, whether they liked it or not. Eat, sleep, repeat with the occasional therapy session and testing here and there. And while Willow appreciated getting the help they needed to better understand their ability they soon grew bored of the constant repetition of their mundane but different life.

I mean, sure, being a part of a secret foundation built to secure and contain anomalies of various natures to protect the unsuspecting public was pretty cool. That, they had to admit, was fun to realize that there was more than meets the eye, at the very least, some of those conspiracy nuts would blow up to know that their theories were right.

But what more could Willow ask for than to be set free?

Willow hadn't expected to make as many escape attempts as they’d done since they had gotten into this place. Sure, they risked getting their privileges revoked (which they did) but they had some idea of what to do and where to go. They had a better grasp of the place as a whole and soon enough they’ll be able to see and feel the rays of the sun or even the moon.

So when the rare opportunity of a security breach happened, Willow went out of their way to leave their containment. They stole the proper cards, turned to the exact directions needed, and got themselves even closer to the exit.

They had reached the elevator, quickly getting inside as they pressed a specific button. The elevator doors closed and moved along, the teenager putting away their cards before the doors came open. They passed through, eyes sharp as they checked to see if there were any lab coats or guards anywhere in sight.

Confidence managed to build within the teenager’s chest as they ran off, a smile playing on their face as they passed by another door. They had swiped a card to bypass another door, neverending how new the path was before they ran through. They had barely made it a few inches through before their foot caught onto something and they fell over in a heap.

Willow felt their teeth clatter, and their body suddenly hit with the shock of the hard metal ground below. They groaned as they turned over, frustrated over the sudden change of pace, foot raised to kick at whatever had stopped them before they looked at it.

A body lay before the teenager, the gear was apparent, the helmet broken as dead eyes stared right back at them.

“Fuck!”

Willow crawled back, eyes wide as his eyes caught onto the wounds that littered across it. Chest burst open and vacant as the only viable skin able to be seen as rotten and pale. It was as if the body had been sucked dry, the only variation of their lives represented by the clothes that they wore.

Willow turned their head over and saw that the room had been filled with similar corpses. Lab coats, guards, and D-class of all kinds were laid about, chests carved out and left vacant with various amounts of rot settling between them. The smell was indescribable and as much as Willow didn't want to admit it, they felt themselves get sick by a single whiff.

Willow covered their mouth as they made a move to get up before a bony hand grabbed at their ankle.

The teenager instinctively kicked at the hand, turning their head to see that the body they had tripped over had held on. Its free hand moved over, to grab at Willow’s leg, and dug its gloved hands into their skin. Willow screamed, continuing to kick the corpse before their other ankle had been caught as well. Another corpse, one wearing a lab coat, had held on and began to climb up the teenager’s leg, long nails digging through their clothes and into their skin.

Before Willow knew it, they were surrounded by these reanimated corpses, bony and broken hands reaching over and grabbing at each part of the teen’s body. They pulled them down, their grips getting tighter as Willow continued to struggle. No matter what they did, they were trapped, being held down as their eyes roamed from one corner to the next to ignore their impending doom.

What they hadn't expected to happen was to see a particular figure appear from the shadows, eyes shining within the dark.

“I've heard stories about your existence,” a rich voice echoed from within the figure, their form coming into sight as Willow felt cold hands hold their head up.

“Had I expected your presence, I would have had us meet under better circumstances. Please, forgive the mess, my work creates such disarray I’m afraid I cannot fix it.”

The figure was dressed in dark robes, flowing from top to bottom, swaying slightly from each step they took. What caught Willow off the most was their face or rather lack thereof, a mask resembling a bird’s beak stared right back at the teenager as they froze.

They had known this particular figure, having to read his files while they had run out of their containment many times before.

‘Scp-049: The Plague Doctor’

“When I overheard a child capable of regenerative properties, I had thought nothing more of it. Simply another poor soul to be kept in between the walls of this very foundation.”

Scp-049 had come close, watching as the people he had cured held the teenager down, restricting any moment.

“But then it dawned on me, a theory if you must, had this child been affected by The Pestilence? The dreadful curse could affect all living things and create such panic, such pain, such agony that words could not be expressed properly to be stated. Could a child, capable of regenerating from the smallest and the largest wound inflicted by hand, that of man or by monster?”

Willow stared at the doctor, watching carefully as he bent down next to them, carefully taking out a folder made of leather. Laying it out on the ground, Willow felt their heart sink as they saw the tools from within. Each sharper and longer than the last, the teenager moved to the side, only to be brought back down by the corpses.

“Would it be possible that The Pestilence would be absent? Would it cease to exist or bloom from within?”

“I don't have it,” Willow screamed, feeling the corpses reaching over and ripping their shirt apart to reveal their shaking chest.

“I don't, I swear I don't, I-I t-took all my shots! I don't need anything-I-uh-”

The teenager watched as the doctor picked apart the medical tools before him, never minding their cries. They held onto a scalpel, quick to clean the dried blood onto their robes as Willow started to feel the cold burst from their chest and throughout their body.

“Ah, that I know well,” the doctor replied as they continued to clean their equipment, “But that doesn't change the fact that The Pestilence may lay dormant within you.”

White eyes looked upon Willow’s dark ones.

“I can sense The Pestilence within you, right now, it festers within your body like a parasite. Wiggling from one corner to the other to avoid its end and knowing how your body is capable of such great things, it may have missed it altogether.”

“It didn't,” Willow screeched at the doctor, still struggling, “I haven't gotten sick in a long ass time! I'm fine! I'm not sick! I don't have whatever you said! I don't! I fucking swear! My body would have gotten rid of it years ago, I'm sure, I swear!”

“I believe, by the end of this night, we may get the answers we’ve been waiting for. For me, the destined cure for all those affected by The Pestilence and for you, to finally be rid of The Pestilence once and for all.”

The plague doctor got himself closer to the teenager, the scalpel in his hand shining by the limited light from afar.

“No, wait, please don't! Don’t! STOP!”

“Now, please hold still, this will hurt,” the ‘doctor’ brought the scalpel down on Willow’s bare chest and began to drag it down. He ignored Willow’s deafening screams as they dug deeper, eyes catching how the skin managed to heal from the sudden cut.

“Together, we will find the cure for The Pestilence.”

#tw gore #tw blood #tw death #tw medical #scp #secure contain protect #scp foundation #scp oc #willow #oc #original character #scp 049 #goretober #goretober 2023 #my writing

[who-is-page]

hey, do you have any posts on the history of the kin community and the origin of the word? I just had an encounter with someone who said that fictionkin and otherkin are somehow different from just kin by itself... :P

I don't have any specific posts on that-- or rather, I'm sure I do, but they're buried in my tags and unfindable.

The standalone word "kin" meaning one's family or relations is, of course, a word that predates the otherkin and related community; but I have a feeling that in this ask, the individual you were involved with was either arguing that the shorthand of otherkin, 'kin, is somehow separate from the community (which it isn't-- it's shorthand for a reason!) or was arguing that people who inly ever use kin as a verb to mean "to stan," "to like," "to relate to," or "to take on the aesthetics of for fun," are separate from the otherkin community, which yes, they are.

For the former, "'kin as shorthand," that one seems pretty self-explanatory: sometimes, you get tired of typing out "otherkin" in a post or essay repetitively, and shorten it to just 'kin. You can even see the shorthand applied to anti-otherkin, who are often just shortened to being called "anti-kin" or "antikin." With that said, here's one older example of an excerpt by ex-Therianthrope Lupa Greenwolf from her A Field Guide to Otherkin, which uses 'kin as a shorthand: A Day in the Life of Otherkin.

For the latter, "kin for fun" or "KFF," as it's sometimes called nowadays, the history is a bit more fraught, but no: people like this are not otherkin, therian, nor fictionkin just for stanning celebrities nor for really liking specific characters. Otherkinity and identities related to it are considered to be about identifying as and on some level recognizing oneself as being something either partially or entirely nonhuman-- most typically through psychological or spiritual explanations or reasoning, but not always limited to just those two. These identities can be silly and fun in their own right, but if someone is just having silly fun in fandom spaces by picking out their annual blorbos or squeeing over the latest pop star RPF then that's a separate phenomena. It's still perfectly valid for people to do! It's just not something that makes people otherkin.

KFF evolved from anti-otherkin shenanigans in the mid-2010's: with anti-otherkin constantly insisting that otherkinity was a choice and a common experience that anyone could have but that people who called themselves otherkin were taking "too far." Some popular bloggers ended up picking up on this rhetoric, believing the anti-kin and spreading it further (usually also alongside the ableism, sanism, and bizarre antisemitism that anti-kin would push with it, which explains a lot of the rhetoric from KFF that's been aimed at otherkin in the past that I've seen).

One particular fictionkin blogger who later ended up being revealed to be a fake--a cis-woman who was revealed to have been lying about her race, her gender identity/status as a transgender person, and other things potentially besides for the sake of Internet Clout--YandereBitchClub, especially caused problems in the community and could even be argued to in some ways be the true founder of the KFF community from 2014~ish. She pushed narratives of kin as a voluntary, social justice/morality-related, fandom concept, saying things such as how queer individuals couldn't have fictotypes with characters who were straight/cis, and that "problematique" fictotypes meant you were actually an evil person IRL. Lots of harassment brigades, lots of being genuinely cruel and awful to actual fictionkin, this person and the resounding ideas that people took from them are in a lot of ways responsible for the fictionkin cultural crash of the mid-to-late 2010's. But she's not the only popular blogger who's spread misinformation, we've also seen it from people like Normal-Horoscopes and popular YouTubers like the Amazing Athiest (yuck).

So KFF aren't otherkin, and are much closer to just a subset of anti-otherkin based on everything. If they were placed on a timeline graph would look more something like...this:

Some sources below.

General Sources:

“Otherkin - People who identify either partially or wholly as one or more non-human beings, entities, or concepts in a psychological or spiritual manner.” (2015, Kinmunity.com, now defunct. RIP)

Otherkin timeline: The recent history of elfin, fae, and animal people, v. 2.0 (Unabridged). by Orion Scribner

Otherkin Lexicon: A multi-lingual dictionary of jargon used in the communities of otherkin, therianthropes, and other similar peoples. by Orion Scribner

Addendums to Scribner’s The Otherkin Timeline. by House of Chimeras

Examples of Otherkin defined as identifying as something nonhuman over the years:

“Otherkin, n. [Coined 1990 by Torin / Darren Stalder in the Elfinkind Digest listserve. E. other additional, or different in kind from the one implied + E. kin family, kind, race. Pl. otherkin. Based on contemporary use of the word elfinkin or elvenkin for people who identify as elves. Spelling note: some authors spell “otherkin” with a capital O, some don’t, and some use either. Syn. otherkind (obsolete).]

1. (elven comm., early otherkin comm.) [1990 in the Elfinkind Digest listserve.] (Never commonly used. Obsolete in mid-1990s.) The below definition, but limited to refer only to people who identify as mythological creatures other than elves. With such usage, a group of people who identified as elves, dragons, and satyrs would be called “elfinkin and otherkin.”

2. (otherkin comm.) [Circa 1992?] (Now commonly used.) Otherkin are real, non-fictional people who identify as other than human. Otherkin identify as creatures from myth and legend, usually elves, faeries, and dragons. This is a sincere identity, not role-play. Many otherkin identify as other than human for spiritual reasons; that is, they classify their identity as otherkin as a personal spiritual belief. Being otherkin is a very individualistic thing: each otherkin reaches his own explanation for how and why he is an otherkin. Some of their common spiritual explanations include that they are other than human in spirit, or they were other than human in past incarnations. Although spiritual belief is often involved, “otherkin” isn’t a religion. As such, each person who identifies as otherkin practices whatever religion he individually wants. It has always been the case that most of the otherkin community practices Neo-Pagan religions, and so that religious perspective shapes the common views and ideas in the otherkin community. Some otherkin don’t use spiritual explanations. Some otherkin believe that they are physically other than human, or that their ancestors were.

3. (otherkin, dragon, and therian communities) [Circa 2006] The above definition, but expanded to also include people who identify as animals (therianthropes). Less often, some people use the word “otherkin” as an even larger umbrella term to include otherkin, therianthropes, and vampires. A more appropriate umbrella term has yet to be made.

4. (fiction, outside of the otherkin comm.) [Circa 2006] Starting around 2006, several novelists later appropriated (or independently coined?) the term “otherkin” to refer to fictional, physically supernatural entities. In those novels, the term “otherkin” doesn’t refer to real kinds of people Otherkin Lexicon O. Scribner 25 who simply feel other-than-human at heart. Those authors include paranormal romance novelists Nina Bangs, Anya Bast, and Delilah Devlin.″ (2013, Orion Scribner’s Otherkin Lexicon)

“Personally I would describe Otherkin as any person who believes that they are, in some way, other than their kin (kin being humans), and kin to the other (the other being non-terrestrial/mythical/religious/etc. entities). This belief is something that can be spiritual or psychological but, at its core, it is a belief and not a physical condition.” (2013, Tumblr Otherkin FAQ from someone who has been in the community for 14+ years, since their description hasn't been updated in the last five years.)

“Otherkin: There are two main definitions of this term, and both are provided here so as to denote the prevalence of both definitions being used often.  One definition is that otherkin is a general, overarching term for those people who feel they are in part or whole [non-physically] non-human, with one or more non-human otherkin types/aspects (also known as a ‘kintype); this is a category that therians are a subsection of, but it also includes a variety of other non-human creatures, including but not limited to mythical creatures.  The other definition is the same except that it is not as generalized of a category and instead only denotes the creatures that are mythical, fantastical, or non-Earth animals.” (2013 or before, Project Shift)

“Otherkin. (uh’ther-kin) n. A person who believes her/his self to be of another species in spirit, or in some other way identifies with a particular creature, usually of myth and legend. For example, a person who accepts that she/he is human in body, but believes herself/himself to be a faery in spirit, or that she/he has elven ancestry, etc. Plural: otherkin. No adjectival form.“ (2009, Otherkin News on Livejournal)

“[…] a person who believes that, through either a nonphysical or (much more rarely) physical means, s/he is not entirely human.” (2007, Lupa’s Field Guide to Otherkin)

#Ask #Anonymous #Long post

[party-in-eldarya]

Playing ANE ep 10 p2

Before you start reading: this is not the best ANE episode, by any means. Not my best review either. I think this is where the problems begin for me: the action part is almost non-existen (because what we do here can be almost called “slice of life”), and interactions are superficial, spare and with 2ndary characters. I did not enjoy this episode so far and it shows. 

Off we go to see Purriry. 

 This season we waste so much maana of chaotic Erika’s thoughts, repetitive sentences. Thus we should not waste those dialogues lines on characters that are not the main focus. I know that it would make Eel and Eldarya seem even emptier (is that even a word? looks weird to me), but I am in the middle of season and I haven’t exchange single meanigful conversation with Lance nor Nevra. I barely know those guys. In the middle of season. 

BTW, it is ridiculous: we have spent 3 days on training, and whole week on designing outfits. PRIORITIES!

So what is the thing that Erika is into? I swear to gods, Beemoov made the blandest MC ever. The only thing that turns her on is sacrifying herself. 

Hear, hear! A member of Erika’s family who wasn’t evil and with whom she spent some time! But it’s not like she miss them, no. 

It is not surprising? What is surprising is why you are shocked about it- after almost a year spent on Eldarya you should know this feeling by heart. Unless you didn’t talk about Earth with anyone, then... What happened with faeries who knew Earth? Nevra knew Twilight and Ykhar surely wasn’t the only faery fascinated by our culture... 

I kinda like her spirit. She is confident, excited about her job. Erika tho... we spent lots of maana od Erika panicking over outfits. She cant, she doesnt know if she is able, what ifs, what if nots. Boring! And lame. She has whole week for this task, why such reaction during first 15 minutes? It is def not fun to read those thoughts. I know, I know- she is humble. But... uh, this is not nicely written, and it is not interesting, I feel like I am wasting maana. 

I still think that whole (long) scene in the shop was rather dull. Sure, there was a rather nice moment where Puriry showed how passionate and serious she is about fashion which was a nice contrast to our bland, stiff and  dissociating Erika, who, I will repeat, is only interested in training with sword and dying for Eldarya. But I dislike the part where Puriry was dissing Earth for having outfits that fit all occassions (not true btw, but Erika sucks at explaining things, what’s new). This, dear Beemoov, could be a nice moment for Erika to fire back a fierce answer about pollution, fast fashion and how to be  sustainable. Quite fashionable topic if you ask me, something that Beemoov likes. But no, our MC is staying quiet, afraid to anger the cat, but in her head she repeats how she dislikes being called “a barbarian”. Sweety, you could ask Puriry to stop or you could explain to her that we do not have one outfit that fits all. Insead you chose being dumb. Worm has stronger spine than Erika. Important person my ass.

Morover, I do not think that those CATS are important enough for plot to waste precious maana on them. In TO it had some sense, as we used to pay for movement not dialogues- so having many side characters just made world more vivid. It also worked with longer season. Here, with this ‘new” maana system it is really cruel to force us to waste maana on boring conversation, when I, in the middle of season, still don’t know what kind of person Lance is. Or what was Leiftan’s plan. Or things like that. What Beemoov could have written here is Karuto’s romance, to build up some tension and raise the stakes for final episodes, but Beemoov failed here. 

After day of work I decided to walk for a while- because I LOVE eldarya at night. The arts and sprites deserve better story. 

Erika meets Aldaric, and that conversation is weird which is a given with this character. This time it’s not good type of weird tho. 

He didn’t believe in mermaids and no one told him that at least 3 stayed in Eel for years. Do they even talk in Eel? How do they communicate? Mermaids weren’t rare race, so I am sure that at least is still in Eel... unless the Guard is as deserted as it seems. That would explain why same characters are sent over and over on missions. 

Not to mention that whole conversation served nothing, unlike last one, when Aldaric shared with us his “carpe diem” motto, which was meant to help Erika cope with destruction of Eldarya. 

Same, Erika, different reasons tho. Wth was this conversation for? We already knew that sylph is ditzy.

Anyway. We didn’t learnt anything from this conversation, and it was pointless. It wasn’t even that charming? 

So far I have spent way too much maana on semi-racist conversation with Puriry, pointless chit chat with Adalrik/Aldarik/avatar guy with wings. For my personal bingo I need my familiar. 

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. What for, beemoov? What is the reason and goal? 6 maana on gems like this one:

But hey, we got those bits of “romance” we were promised: 

Considering that in TO Leiftan openly admitted he hated humans with all his black heart he won’t be thrilled. Unless ofc the writers lost those notes about him.

Erika, from me to you: 

You dumbass. 

Beemoov. I genuinely like that you are trying to mix romance and action bits and I don’t think that romance happening via Erika’s thoughts at this point of story is bad- so far I enjoy it in this episode. Would prefer if it was written during our little walk, so I could marvel at your superior backgrounds instead of reading Alda Adal the blue guy’s nonsense. You know, black background is not inspiring, but that’s fine. Please work harder on “action” parts kk? Puriry and Blue Guy parts could be better. 

We fall asleep wondering on marvelous bond between me and Leiftan (8 maana for my love btw) and we woke up to this abomination: 

It’s 12 maana spent on familiar vs 8 spent on my LI. PRIORITIES. 

And we are gonna measure all our friends, at least that’s what Erika thinks. And let me ask this question: why? I see why Erika was asked to help Puriry with designs, but why it’s her to take part in measuring? This is a bit... too much? Surely someone could be uncomfortable? Not Lance- since he is walking dick-naked around Eel with no worry in his orange head and probably not Nevra. But Mathieu? Leiftan? We do not know if HC would be comfortable to be gropped by her subordinate, surely, SURELY everyone would feel more comfortable to have it done by the usual, PURIRY. Who, btw, is not doing sewing herself- she has Jamon and ... Karuto? I guess? to do that work. I know whole scene is a fanservice, I like fanservie if it makes sense. Like LI and Erika making out while waiting in Puriry shop or something. Let’s see how the scene goes, but next time. This piece is really not good, but so it the episode. My depression hits again, the world is cruel, and it’s me playing this episode rn: 

#playing ANE what a joy #rant #i am not ok

[llycaons]

WELL I finished house. I admit I was dubious about the american old man yaoi value of this series, and it never actually hit the point of not being able to no-homo itself out of its jokes, BUT the finale where house blows up his life and then rides away into the sunset with wilson on motorcycles in leather jackets was pretty gay. so ehh. 7/10. entertaining, and enough plausibly deniable yet sincere homoerotic heart to make people go wild in 2010. interesting and fairly funny, and insane enough to be worth it. I burned out by the end of s8 though and I was really sick of the repetitive and formulaic dialogue - not just the convos the team members always had, but the words 'ass' and 'miserable' (get new words for those things!). the only interesting side characters were probably 13 and park. oh and cuddy and lucas!! and house's revelry in being cruel and bigoted sometimes felt like it extended to the writers themselves. wildly misogynistic and fairly racist. so ummm it was a fun time but that's probably it for me

#house lb #most of the house/wilson stuff was just jokes which felt mean-spirited and homophobic #but they ARE insane about each other and there's genuine love there so I see why it's compelling #I miss their toxic throuple w cuddy tho :(

[thedreamingmoth]

So I have watched the Avatar the way of water and I have to say I'm satisfied.

(contains spoilers!)

First things first I wasn't expecting anything extraordinary from the plot. It was kinda obvious that it will be a bit of repetition of the first movie so I'm not surprised.

So let's not focus on that and get to more interesting things there. The dynamics between the teens and Jake and Neytiri was so cute! How the siblings teased each other throughout the movie, I so love it!

Okay so we get four blue kids: Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kiri and Tuktirey. And one human kid Spider.

Neteyam is Jake's and Neytiri's firstborn son. He's trying to be a good son but usually gets pulled into problems by his younger brother Lo'ak who is a bit of troublemaker. Neteyam wasn't the main focus of the movie and wasn't properly shown for viewers to bond with him. His death was painful but felt more necessary for the plot than anything else.

Lo'ak is one of the characters the plot was focused on. I have to admit I like him. He has his problems, insecurities and is a troublemaker. His rivalry, if you can call it that, was funny. He was also headstrong, he wanted to prove himself so badly that he was repeating his mistakes. His part with the tulkun was nice, beautiful really. Though that part where he swum inside it was... Crazy!

Kiri is a adoptive daughter and is another character the movie focused on. I love her spirituality, how she listens to the world around her. Being different from everybody else like that, her amazement with the world. I understand that, I love that. There is this mystery as to who is her father, which in the end is not explained. This was disappointing.

Tuktirey is a side character, she's cute and small and that's about it. Brings in the childish wonder.

Now we have Spider, in my opinion he was kind of useless. He didn't do much, he just was there. He's Quaritch's son, which surprised me. And my favorite scene is that where they went to Ikran nest? Where Quaritch after learning that Jake did it the hard way also wanted the hard way. Such fun.

Okay so now we have the bad guys, mainly Quaritch. Main antagonist who wants to get revenge because he was killed. His character is more introspective now than in the previous movie. It makes him more interesting. His parts of the story are interesting and sometimes very funny (like the Ikran scene). How he taunted Jake and Neytiri, so cruel and yet so amazing! I like him as an antagonist.

So now let's go to the water tribe Metkayina. I love how Na'vi living on the island are more adapted to water. Fin on the tails, broader arms and more green color than blue. It's awsome. I won't focus on specific characters since I did not focus on the specific characters from that tribe. I like how they made the biological difference here since this is different geographical region of the moon.

There was the whole "rivalry" that I wrote before but it wasn't exactly a rivalry. It felt more like "you forest people came to us we are better". I think it's normal and nearly everywhere you can experience something like that.

And now my favorite part, visual part! The CGI and the whole world was done better. Understandable since technology is also better nowadays. The whole water filled with life, so beautiful! The amount of life in there is WOW. I love it, I have nothing here except bravo for the crew!

And now what I find not satisfying.

I think soundtrack was the worst part here, heard too many tracks from the previous movie. Expected something better and the ending song, not my taste.

Also I expected more fights between Quaritch and Jake. Okay, I understand that Jake is more responsible now but still!

The mystery of Kiri's father was also annoying. They could've given us literally any answer and it would be at least a bit satisfying! It would sate our curiosity at the very least.

So overally the movie is awesome! I recommend to see it really, if not for the plot then for the visual effects. If there will be another Avatar movie I will definitely see it, I love this world.

#avatar #avatar 2 #avatar the way of water #opinion #movie critic #film critic

[just-eyris-things]

Can I get all the preferences from the jumbo asks for my sweet baby boy Airell?

Yes. Yes, you can!

cw: bugs and eating bugs, some might find this disgusting.

adding read more because long-ass post ;w;

🔥 Give us a list of general likes and dislikes, such as colours, textures, music, weather and other stuff!

Airell loves most of music genres, he is a bard himself. He loves when the songs tell tales. He doesn't like too repetitive stuff, like Bash the Dragon song. He enjoys the festival, though.

His favourite colours are green and purple/violet. He's not a fan of orange, but he admits that it can look nice sometimes.

Airell likes warmer climates, but chilly weather is also nice. They like snow and think it's a lot of fun, but they don't like being exposed to it for too long. This changes to indifference post HoT.

Airell loves hylek cuisine. Ever since they got a taste of chak, they love adding it to their own dishes. They don't like apples, but might eat them if there is nothing else to eat and they're hungry. Similarly to majority of my characters, Airell has a sweet tooth.

🍊 What is your OC’s favourite meal? Snack? Dessert? Drink? Any reasons behind this besides liking how it tastes?

Airell's favourite is the grub and chak stew! They love the crunchiness of the chitin and the chewiness of the insects themselves! Also they claim that chak goo is perfect for making jelly for desserts and they love baking. Airell always reminds everyone to be careful with chak, because they're quite tricky to work with in the kitchen.

What is your OC’s most hated food? Stuff they can’t stand to eat or drink?

brocolli. Airell absolutely hates the texture he would rather down an expired karka dipped in toxic waste from inquest labs than eat it. He has a similar reaction to brussells but simply because he hates how the name of that vegetable sounds.

🍑 Where is your OC’s favourite place to relax or calm down? Recount a story of their time spent in this place! What makes it so special to them?

Airell's special place would be the Ameyalli temple beneath Jaka Itzel. He was taught that it was a significant place for the Itzel, so he grew to love it too. In there he feels like he belongs and he forgets that he's actually all alone. Faith in the Jungle goddess makes his life easier. He feels the connection to the Jungle itself and he would hate to lose it. He always goes there when he's troubled or needs to relax.

Is there anywhere your OC hates to go to? Anywhere that stresses them out or have negative memories of?

The fallen and rotting tree that we know as the Heart of Thorns, the place where they lost someone they held dear. Airell feels like they've lost a part of themselves and they hate to even think of that place. The world is cruel, though. They have to come back there at some point and face what they've done, even if their actions were unintentional. Airell's reawakened the Tree and made it sprout new plant people. They have to take the responsibility, no matter how painful it is.

🧡 Who is your OC’s favourite person? Why is this person the top of their list and have they actually met them (an idol or rolemodel or celeb can be someone’s favourite after all!).

It's Trahearne. Trahearne taught Airell everything he knew, from necromancy to many unspoken rules of living in central Tyria. Trahearne was also the second person Airell has met that believed them when they said they were from the West. Airell also used to be Trahearne's apprentice for a while before they actually started dating. Even after HoT, when their paths...separated, so to speak... Airell never forgets Trahearne nor their feelings for him.

Who does your OC absolutely hate, the one person who they’d sell to Satan for one corn chip? Why do they loathe this person so?

There is a lot of self-loathing in Airell, but there is also a grudge against Nia. While they are thankful that she took over the Pact, they think she should have tried harder to save Trahearne.

They also hold a grudge against Rytlock because he is blamed for Eyris's death. As Airell is really close with her, knowing that Rytlock is responsible makes them on edge and the only reason they let him breathe is because Eyris asked them to stand down.

📙 What kind of subjects (of conversation, of discussion, in school or whatever) does your OC find interesting or engaging or that they can talk for hours about? What kind of stuff do they just find fun?

Airell loves talking about music and travel, as well as cooking. He also really enjoys listening to others talk about their passions, even if he doesn't know much about them himself.

What things bore your OC to tears and they couldn’t care less about? Why?

He's not a fan of politics. As a commander he had to suffer through it, but ever since he retired he is much happier. Another topic that bores him is golemancy. He thinks minions are much better, but I'd say it's just a necromancer's bias.

Additionally, he really doesn't like listening about human gods. Trahearne used to tell him a lot about them when they were traversing Orr together and ever since their parting Airell can't stand hearing about them even by accident. It's dredging up painful memories.

#mytalikes #airell

[risingsouls]

[Finished the Planet Kanassa missions and oof. I got some mad feels and thoughts.]

[First I’ll go with just overall general thoughts. I really enjoyed it and liked the gameplay. They basically added mob fights to the game, which makes sense, so it keeps it from getting too repetitive. It looked gorgeous as the rest of the game has and I’m having fun overall with the DLC. The characters are fun and it’s neat to see their dynamics and how that’s maintained here and whatnot and just goooood shiiiit.

Now for some more specific feels. First, a small one. As far as this game goes and what I remember of the main story, they honestly somehow managed to make Bardock more brutal and callous than Vegeta. Like damn some of the shit he says is just cruel and had me muttering “fucking christ, bardock” more than a few times. And it’s like...you know he IS that way, and that’s how the special portrayed him, but I guess with the combination of seeing more of it through the gameplay and being bombarded more often these days with Super’s “softer” rendition of Bardock, it was insane. And maybe that’s also because we don’t get to see or play as Vegeta in this game in a situation like purging a planet for Freezie pop, but damn. They really are doing it wrong with Vegeta when Bardock makes him look almost saintly. In this game at least.

The other thing that I think might have been the best(?) part of this particular part of the DLC and its execution is just...that sinking gut feeling you have the entire time that comes with being in control of the ones slaughtering innocent people for an empire’s greed. Or maybe that’s just me because I RP a ton of characters tied to the Cold Empire. Either way, watching and listening to Bardock, Tora, Fasha, Borgos, and Shugesh discuss and interact with the Kanassans was like...poignant and almost hard to stomach. Juxtaposed with the characters’ excitement and enjoyment of it all it’s like this weird combination of wanting to share in the emotions of the character you’re controlling but 😬😬 on a base level you just can’t. Not completely, because you know YOU’RE the bad guy here. So yeah. I think they did an excellent job not only juxtaposing the Kanassans’ reactions to the Saiyans’ excitement, but also in getting it all to elicit that big oof feeling from the player, too.

Last small thing, more related to my bs than anything: Nabs was absolutely having a bad time watching that because it brought back all her trauma from being on the force. Even Bardock flinched a few times and that’s HIM. I’ve also been re-reading my fic so I’m in the early part and that’s full of Nabooru’s existential moral crises and then we get this SO. :’3]

#.:ooc:. #.:momo plays dbz kakarot:. #bardock dlc spoilers

[rahirah]

Pre-S7 ranting

More hard drive scrapings:  This is an exceptionally doomy and gloomy post I wrote for the Blood Awful Poet Society mailing list in August of 2002.  Boy, Past Me can be melodramatic when she’s in the mood.

At the ATAS panel, Joss Whedon said that the abandonment of metaphor this last season was deliberate; that season six was about reality, which was ever so much more painful and, uh, well, real. This was why Tara died by a prosaic bullet, the villains were ordinary humans, and Spike and Buffy crashed and burned.

I suppose I could buy that as a mission statement for the season. I don't think they carried it off well, but I could believe that that's what they were trying for. Except...(delicate cough)... the climax of the season, the Big Cliffhanger, is a whopping great return to the biggest metaphor they've got: the soul thing.

I'm betting that they are going to go with Soul!Having!Spike being a completely different person, not in a character-developy "I've changed" way, but in a "Spike is dead, long live Neo!Spike" kind of way. After all, from ME's point of view, season six was devoted to demonstrating that Spike =can't= change; that no matter what he does, he's still an evil dead thing. That I got an entirely different message is my problem. And if Spike can't change, he must be killed, and someone more acceptable resurrected in his image, because, after all, it's only the cheekbones we care about, right?

Making Neo!Spike a different person is the logical cop-out--er, way to get around putting Spike and Buffy back together after the attempted rape: they'll be together, he just won't be Spike any more. Unfortunately, and despite ME's best attempts to dissuade me, it's Spike in whom I'm emotionally invested as a character. I don't know this new guy, though I hear he's played by James Marsters, who was pretty good as Spike. Explain to me why I should care about him any more than Dawn's new pals.

Of course I'm gonna. I won't be able to help it, damn it. I feel a certain squicky kinship with Spike's musings about the hypothetical Zombie Buffy: if there's any part of Spike left, I'll love it... but I'll always be aware it's just a fragment of the real thing. And if I can't have the real thing, I want something BETTER, damn it.

From the sound of recent spoilers, the season opens with Neo!Spike tormented by his new soul, lurking in the shadows and occasionally emerging reluctantly to give Buffy cryptic advice but no real help. Well, that sounds like fun...not... and nothing at all like Angel, no sir, no repetition here! I'm interested in finding out if the text of the show backs up the various writers' assertions over the summer that Spike got the soul deliberately, but otherwise, there's a distinct lack of thrill here in Barbland, folks. I'm shallow. I'm tired of mopey Spike. I want snarky, kick-ass Spike back. I want Randy Giles in a duster. I want Xander to get that punch in the nose that's he's had coming for the last season. I want world peace and a pony, while I'm at it.

Given Joss's impassioned defense of the season's 'reality' at ATAS, could someone explain to me why Spike's big change is the result of a soul injection rather than 'real' character development? I'm serious. If we're all about painful reality now, why retreat in this one area to the comfortable black-and-white cartoon certainties of soul=good, no soul=bad, when the entire rest of the season was devoted to demonstrating that the souled characters can be as venal, destructive and cruel as any vampire ever sired?

It's not like the character development wasn't there. (Right, I'm sorry, I forgot. It wasn't. Spike never really changed or grew or experienced any internal conflict. The writers just faked us into thinking he had, and that's not clumsy or deceptive writing; it's brilliant storytelling. Mea maxima culpa.) But rather than use it, the writers dodged the question. I still think that they were too chicken to carry it to its logical conclusion, for fear of the "If even one vampire is redeemable, then Buffy's a mass murderer" thing.

I don't believe the vampire-formerly-known-as-Spike will be relegated to cameo appearances, and I do believe there'll be some form of Buffy/VFKAS ship... but I want to, damn it. I want to feel like I felt in seasons 5 and early 6, like I still feel about the AtS characters. All I want is for =Spike= to come back to Sunnydale. Good, evil, with or without Buffy. Spike, the vampire with a heart, not some guy with a vague resemblance to Spike.

Damn it, is that too much to ask?

Probably so.

I don't WANT to be cynical and depressed all summer, but my thank-god-they-didn't-make-him- human euphoria is wearing off, and the vague S7 spoilage leaking out of the ATAS panel doesn't thrill me in the slightest. Back to high school is the watchword – guess that growing up business didn't work out. Quippy Buffy will set Dawn up for a spin-off – er, show Dawn the world, and forget the shitty way she treated Spike last season; he was an evil dead thing and deserved it. Willow's transgressions will be plastered over with a good speech and forgotten, while Spike... well, Spike is dead. He died in a cave in Africa, alone, unloved, and unmourned, and Joss alone knows who's walking around in his skin.

Grrr.

#btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #meta #fandom history

[healerelowen]

hello! back with another one ^^

shining jack-o-lanterns, to twist it up a bit.. with 3 of your top favorite inscryption characters!

(have fun, m8!! ^^ i’ll be on a lookout for more 🤭)

Hello Hello! Thank you for your request!

Do I have to pick favorites? I love so many of these silly little blorblos, I can’t decide! Though, I have narrowed down to three of my top favorites. Anyways, I hope you enjoy and have a good rest of your day/night! 

Shining Jack-O-Lantern-Do they like scary stories? Which one is their favorite?

The Archivist

Archivist loves scary stories! It doesn’t really matter what; campfire stories, folklore, or books are all intriguing to her.

She loves hearing different stories and tales based around what others fear the most, what makes them feel unnerved in an otherwise safe space. 

Her favorite story would have to be the Greek mythology of The Lady of Autumn. It’s very interesting to her!

Overall, Archivist is fond of scary stories!

P03

P03 doesn’t really enjoy scary stories. In his eyes, they’re only meant to scare people and to make them extremely paranoid, which is rather annoying to deal with. 

Plus, he’d rather sit and watch a scary movie rather than sit and listen to someone talk about some stupid delusion that’s supposed to scare it.

Though the origins of how all of the traditions surrounding the season came to be is much more interesting than make-believe. 

If he had to pick a favorite, it’d have to be one of the many ghost stories. Mostly because he can be like, ‘Yeah no shit, idiots. The undead exist.’ to others outside of either the islands or Inscryption entirely. As if they know that Grimora is a thing. 

All in all, not too fond of scary stories.

The Photographer

The Photographer doesn’t really like scary stories. Reason being is they get repetitive fast. And it does get rather tiring to hear multiple people talk about one supposedly scary thing over and over again.       

Not to say it hates them, it just prefers other tales around fall than something scary or unnerving. 

If The Photographer had to choose a favorite, it would be the tale of Jack of the Lantern. The different variations of this cruel man are quite the interesting stories. 

It honestly enjoys very few scary stories, and prefers to stay away from them. 

Bonus!   

G0lly

G0lly doesn’t like scary stories at all. Why would anyone want to listen to such horrifying things? Being scared on purpose sounds awful! What good could honestly come from something so ghastly?  

Scary stories of any kind are far too scary to G0lly, the real world is scary enough! She wants an escape from that. 

She doesn’t have a favorite scary story because, again, does not enjoy scary stories and prefers much more positive and optimistic things rather than eerie and unnerving.  

Anything scary is not something that G0lly is all too fond of. 

#inscryption #inscryption archivist #inscryption p03 #inscryption photographer #inscryption g0lly #fall season ask prompts

[lovetaled-a]

15 and 19 wink

15. recommend and review a book.

okay uh ..  if we’re going with what i know you haven’t yet read i would say the folk of the air series by holly black,  the cruel prince specifically !  i read it in 2019-2020 so it’s been a little while but i remember really appreciating the whimsical feel of the world and finding it a lot more true to faerie folklore and vibes than other series that shall remain nameless.  the heroine jude is interesting and well-written without seeming cliche ( as she’s an assassin type which can feel overdone in fantasy. )  the love interest cardan is faceted and entertaining.  i enjoy the enemies to lovers here.  it does feel classic and organically YA with its take on the dynamic,  and the series as a whole manages to grasp a lot of the fun tropes that readers look for in YA without being juvenile or repetitive or derivative of other works.  the scenes flow together well and there is a component of court politics,  betrayal,  alliances,  and all that good stuff.  the magic system didn’t seem flawed to me but rather easy to understand,  and similar to cassandra cl.are’s stuff there is an element of urban fantasy woven in as well  ( elfhame,  the faerie world,  coexisting with modern day reality. )  my only disappointment is that when i read the first book i was lead to believe it would focus more heavily on the “tournament” that jude is a part of,  but that plot really takes a backseat to what goes on,  and being an aries i was like  ..  smacks lips where’s the competition.  the later additions of the series are in my opinion better than the first book as well  —  while the wicked king drags a bit in the middle.  my favorite was actually the third.  overall would recommend and am looking myself to re-read or read the extraneous content finally.  one of my biggest praises would also be how the story has a romantic plot at its center,  but it is not definitive or consummate of the characters themselves,  who manage to have interesting family dynamics and relationships play out in the story that aren’t limited to those with other teenagers.

19. most disliked popular books?

answered here !  i wouldn’t necessarily say most disliked  ..  just most disliked that i’ve actually endured reading instead of dropping them.  besides the selection which is no longer popular.

#i am not going to rant about the selection again that's so 2012 (2021) #but yeah you need to read tfota #i think it was like solidly 4 stars overall #and the fact that i find the characters memorable is a big thing because it's so easy to get redundancy in this genre #me writing nicasia without actively writing her: so... #scythed #⋆ 🦋 ◝ ooc ask. ◟ fine make me your annoying dash presence.

[silversweetpea]

(Resend of the missing ask:)

I'm mad at Tumblr because it didn't tell me you answered my ask. I had to find out on my own. The absolute betrayal coming from this hellsite. 😠 *MoonKightsoulmateficMoonKightsoulmateficMoonKightsoulmateficMoonKightsoulma-* Yay! I'm looking forward to it!

I am completely in denial about the show being over. Absolutely not, it's still running. Episode 7 aired yesterday and it was the boys just practicing some self-care and getting along. That's it. That's the plot of it. And every episode coming forward. (Ok, if my definition of 'new episode' is just me scrolling through the Moon Knight x reader tag on Wednesdays at 3am, who's going to stop me??)

I am doing good, thanks! I guess I just mentioned it because sometimes I disappear when I don't know what to add to a conversation. But *ahhhh*, the Moon Knight finale had me dealing with conflicting emotions.

*Oh??* It's actually happening?? Well now this feels *real*. Take your time! Work at your own pace. And doing research before I get into anything is something I can relate to. And so is having a hyperfixation with Marc Spector. 😅 I love both my Moon Boys equally -and I *know* I'll love Jake just as much when (*when*, I refuse to accept an 'if') they show us more of him-, but I've found it so hard to find good Marc content that I'm focusing on him a bit more. I've read too many fics where they just make him seem so uncaring towards the reader and I feel like that doesn't fit his characterization at all 😭. And I'm not talking like 'pushing them away for their own good' uncaring. Like actually not caring about them or being downright cruel to them and I just feel like that doesn't fit his character. Anyways, yes, *very* much looking forward to the wedding fic. And hey! If tagging me makes you anxious, don't worry about it- you don't have to do it. That being said, if you feel better about it when you're done and the deciding factor is solely based on my interest, I do want it. Only if you're ok with it, though.

Oh *no*, I would have cried at that 😂. I remember when I first saw the movie in theaters, I actually said what he was going to say before he did. That doesn't make sense... Uh, basically, when he said 'My name is Peter Parker' I finished with 'and I'll have a cup of coffee' or something like that, and he said the same thing I said afterwards and I was just like *no, wait, I didn't want to be right!!* The same thing happened with the 'I am inevitable' 'And I am Iron Man exchange' in Endgame. Basically, I'm not allowed to guess what the characters are going to say next because it ends up being true 😅. I *did* watch Multiverse of Madness!!! If you wanna talk about it, I'm your girl!

Oooh, I used to know how to knit when I was younger, but I forgot how to do it over time... On simple and repetitive tasks, I 100% get it. I do the same with cross stitching! It requires just enough focus that more often than not, I just let my mind wander and daydream (or sometimes I play a series or movie in the background), and it's really fun! At least for me. I'm actually working on a series of flowers that *were* supposed to be mother's day presents, but I only managed to get the one for my mom (you have *no* idea how many times I rewatched Moon Knight while I worked on it) done on time because I overestimated how much time I had left. I'm still working on the other three, though! I guess they'll just be *late* mother's day presents. And they're on this really pretty aida (the kind of fabric most commonly used for cross stitching) with these sparkly bits woven into it! Sorry for rambling on about it! I just felt like mentioning it because busywork + flowers (with your whole theme being a *flower shop*), I don't know. 😅

Awwwww!!! You reread my asks?? I'm so touched! I'm glad they make you happy enough to go through them again. 🥰

I did!!! I loved them!!! Steven Grant is a gift to the world (and so is your writing) and I will never tire of reading about him (especially fluff). I just love him so much 😭.

I'm having a lovely day, made better by the fact that I see two *more* new fics I have to read from you 👀?? A Matt Murdock fic *and* a contiuation to what is to date my favorite of your fics?? Seriously, *how* are you getting all of my favorite characters and tropes?? Are you spying on me or something?? The wedding + flashbacks idea is understandable, I gave that one to you, but apart from the Moon Boys, you're writing for Peter Parker(s) *and* Matthew Murdock?? This is getting too far. I actually haven't had any water all day, I'm terrible with remembering to drink water, so thanks for the reminder! 😅

I really am happy about the tag and I have actually used that emoji as a signature before! 🦕🦕🦕

Before I go, allow me to be the little devil on your shoulder, or angel, depending on how you look at it, I suppose, and tell you to release everything you've finished in your drafts out into the world. *Flood the blog* 😈! Post as much or as little as you want, just know that I will eat it all up the moment I see it.

Aaaaand, last but not least, about the ask game! What about... 2H and something from the range of 9H to 12H? I'm curious about all of these, so you can pick from there, or answer them all if you want. Your call.

I'm off now, I think we both know what I'm going to do next- I have two fics to catch up on, after all... Oh! Also I saw your updated masterlist that Matt's flower is 'Devil's Crown'. Sounds fitting! Do you have a scientific name for it or a picture or something? I tried to look for it and I basically get a bunch of pictures of flower crowns with devil horns sticking out of them, and somehow I doubt that's what it is...

This got a bit long. Sorry about all the rambling. Have a lovely day and make sure to drink lots of water!

Tumblr is awful about notifications these days I absolutely get that jalfjdlskafjdlksa. Sorry you had to find out because of scrolling!

!!!!!! I'm looking forward to writing it! I have the first part ready to go and I'm going to post it just as soon as I clear up some of the asks in my inbox! The first part is more prologue-y than I'd like but I like the dynamic it sets up so I don't want to change it too much and I'll just have to focus on making up for it in the second part!

I am also still in denial about the show being over. Love that the newest episode showed us exactly what Steven's method of note taking is for studying, can't wait to implement it in my classes!

I'm glad you're doing good!! I also suck at conversations I don't know what to add to. I feel a litte silly sometimes because I'll talk with someone for hours and hours and then they'll say something that just flips a switch in my brain and suddenly I have no idea how to interact with them anymore.

Yes!!!! the wedding fic is coming I just have a few projects I'm working on ahead of it but I have become increasingly self indulgent in soft fics and the premise of that sort of wedding fic makes me feel so soft. I do agree that a lot of writes have been making Marc a bit too harsh and I feel like sometimes I overcompensate by making him too soft but I think it's all about style and tone and voice I guess too. If I don't vibe with a fic these days I just assume its me being sensitive or picky.

I was devestated when I saw NWH in theaters. I literally was on A03 on the way home to find fix it fics. Amnesia stories are such a sucker punch for me and the look on his face when he decided not to tell her???? I felt truely and utterly disembowled. ALSO MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS WAS SO GOOD AND I'M STILL ITCHING TO REWATCH IT AAHHHHHH

cross stitching sounds fun! I don't think that's one I've tried but it sounds like it's similar enough that i'll have to add it to the list of things to work towards! It'll have to wait until I'm done with my blanket though, if I don't focus on it It'll never get done. You don't have to apologize for rambling, I like hearing about other people's hobbies! I don't know much about it but the fabric does sound really pretty and I'm sure that the finished projects are going to look great and your mom will love them even if she doesn't get them until christmas!

of course I reread your asks! You have a really nice energy and it's nice to revist when I'm feeling down!

fdjklafjdsklfjdsklfjds kfhdsklajfdklsajf thank you???? I'm really touched that you like them! I've said it a couple times now but I really do tend to write for myself so everytime I post it's always kind of scary in case people really don't like it.

Pinky promise I'm not spying on you we just happen to have a lot of cross over in our favorite characters and tropes I guess. I love Matt he's just tricky to get the right tone for sometimes so I have to make sure I have the right playlist on. My first peter fic is coming soon too! I just have to manage to wrangle him into a one shot instead of outlining multipart fics for him right out of the gate. I like to make sure I can write a character okay before I commit to a big project!

This is also your reminder for today to go drink water!!

I'm sorry to disappoint ''the angel/devil on my shoulder'' energy that I'm not going to flood the blog tonight either. I just feel bad about it and then I keep the fics in my drafts long enough that I want to edit them and keep tweaking them and then before I know it I have entirely new premises than the ones I started with and the cycle starts all over again. I'm thinking I'm going to have to start setting a time limit for how long projects can sit in ther!

I think I'll just answer 2H, 9H, and 12H since I don't want this post to be too long but I do like the ask game! I adore astrology themed things and this one had a lot of really fun questions!

2H - do you have any object that you like a little too much? What is it and why?

hm, well, I don't know if there's anything I'm really obsessed with in a way that's a problem? I know that I can be a bit annoying to the people around me with stuffed animals because I have like 20 of the guys that sit on my bed. They're not any one animal or brand though, I just like animals.

9H - What languages would you like to learn?

All of them. I know most people say something like that but I legitimately considered being a translator professionally at one point in my life. I think languages are facinating and a really neat way to examine the extension of a culture. Right now I'm learning Italian and Spanish and dabbling a bit in basic ASL vocab to communicate a bit with some regulars I see at my day job but I'm not particularly good at any of them yet. I think the only language (other than english) I get annoyed at or don't want to learn at the moment is french because as much as I adore all that it represents and how beautiful it is I cannot for the life of me understand it or remember how to speak it. I tried for like 3 years in school and it was just aweful. One day I'll figure it out but that day is not today.

12H - which is/are your biggest fear(s)?

Oh yikes, a more serious one. Uhm, I mean not to get too existential on main (or in this case side) but I think the idea of being forgotten or dying unknown? I think that due to my particular experiences the idea of being known is intrinsically tied to the idea of being loved and so the idea of dying without ever truely being known and understood makes me and and fearful? Not in a 'I need to be famous' way but more so in a 'will someone remember the way that I drink my tea when I'm gone' way, right? In a less existential way though I'm terrified of being stranded at sea.

So I've actually already posted a fic explaining but this ask was written before then so I'm just gonna answer it anyhow. Devil's Crown is a bit of an uncommon name for a Red Spider Lily but it's one that I absolutely could not let go of when I was looking for Matt's flower, especially when I saw that its meanings were so perfect for him. (I mean, how many other flowers are both of the heavens and related to hell and represent cycles and rebirth???)

Again, you don't have to apologize for rambling I enjoy reading them! Thank you for sending such fun asks in! I hope you have a fantastic day!!

#ask the gardener #🦕 #gardener games #I mean kinda but I'm just gonna tag it that way also!

[cj-writes-stuff]

Reading Wrap-Up | March 2024

A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft Forged by Magic by Jenna Wolfhart Brewed in Magic by Jenna Wolfhart Persuasion by Jane Austen

[mini reviews/ratings below the cut]

A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft ⭐Rating: 5/5

Starting March off strong, I adored this book. A Fragile Enchantment was my favorite read of February, so I wanted to give Allison Saft's other books a try. So glad I did. Everything from the premise to Margaret and Wes to their slow-burn romance to the climax of the hunt, I loved it all.

Listen, you present me with a grumpy/sunshine dynamic where the lady is scary and prickly with mommy issues, and the guy is a screw up who hides his pain and feelings of inadequacy behind walls of humor and charm, and you give me their slow burn romance where they slowly learn to trust each other and realize they DO deserve love and happiness even when it feels like everyone is against them... and you best watch your fingers because I'm going to bite and chew and devour it.

I'm also quickly realizing that Saft's prose just gets me. It's beautiful. I eat it up. I want more.

There are some weird things about the worldbuilding, though it wasn't a huge deal for me. Just a few moments were I had to pause and think about what time period we're supposed to be in. It's urban fantasy that surrounds alchemy, and some of that went over my head... I just filled in the blanks with my knowledge from Fullmetal Alchemist, not gonna lie. It wasn't enough of a bother to make me want to rate this any lower, though.

Forged by Magic by Jenna Wolfhart ⭐Rating: 2/5

I've been on a cozy romantasy kick, so when I came across this series I was like "Oh yeah, this sounds exactly what I want."

This book follows Daella, a half-orc prisoner to a cruel ice king, and her quest to earn her freedom only to be caught in a major storm. She washes up on this island where Rivelin, a elven blacksmith, finds her. It's supposed to be grumpy/sunshine enemies to lovers dynamic but.... ehhhhhh....

This book was a little disappointing. I enjoyed it and what it tries to do, but it had issues. The writing was super repetitive, and there's a lot of telling rather than showing. The amount of times the book just tells you that Rivelin is grumpy is too much, it even gets to the point where Daella just keeps saying that he's a grumpy blacksmith like... I don't need to be told that over and over again, you can just show me he's grumpy.

It also got so frustrating how easily they'd turn on each other and think the worst of the other, but then be quick to forgive. The romance just wasn't it for me.

The actual plot of the midsummer games was interesting, though... I just wish I liked Daella and Rivelin more.

Brewed in Magic by Jenna Wolfhart ⭐Rating: 3.5/5

After being disappointed by the first book, I had lower expectations for the second book... but this was way better.

First of all, the improvement in writing meant less repetitive telling rather than showing, though there were still moments where I was like, "god I feel like I've already read this exact sentence."

What made the biggest difference was Lilia and Ragnar as main characters and their romance. It was a little rushed but the rivals to lovers element felt better to read than the previous book's enemies to lovers. They're rival traveling brewers working the same festival, there's a mystery behind stolen barrels of ale, and they gotta work together to solve the mystery while someone attempts to sabotage the festival.

Something about these books that I need to remember is that they're low stakes... as in things get wrapped up and work out easily, and as long as I remember that's the books goal, I enjoy it way more. If I went into this looking for deep, nuanced fantasy, I would've hated the ending.

They're fun, though. Easy read, fun spicy romance. I'd read another book in this series.

Persuasion by Jane Austen ⭐Rating: 5/5

I didn't read as many books this month because I spent most of it rereading my favorite Jane Austen book. I've read this before, but I wanted to reread it for a fanfic I'm working on, plus I wanted to annotate my copy. So I spent the reading time taking it slow, taking notes, highlighting, etc.

I adore Persuasion so damn much, like I love all of the Austen novels I've read but Persuasion just gut punches me. I'm a lover of second-chance romance, of exes who go through some shit before ending up together again, and just uuugghhhhh Anne and Captain Wentworth, I can't.

Not much else to say except I'm glad I took my time while rereading. One of my favorite novels.

#cj reads stuff #reading wrap up #reading wrap up march 2024 #admittedly this month was a bit of a slump for me. i picked up a couple books and then put them back down like not as in dnf #but as in i'm just not feeling it or not ready to read it yet #plus all my reading time went into persuasion soooo yeah... hopefully april will be less slumpy