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go-learn-esperanto · 1 year

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Watchers - Evo, ATUS and Fandom

It's very common to see people blame ATUS for the way the fandom sees the watchers now but... How much did it actually come from there?

Wings (and statues):

Although the depiction of Watchers specifically having wings does exist in ATUS it's very clearly originated from Evo itself as Grian was once left a statue of what Grian called at the time "an angel lady" who had wings Grian was tasked with burning down (they represented his greed)

You can see the EVO symbol in glass above the statue.

Even though the statue isn't exactly stated as representing a Watcher it's not really stretch, specially since the statue appears to have a obsidian staff, the same obsidian the Watchers used to cover Grian's chests.

Puzzles and riddles

Evo originated. All it's presence in ATUS comes directly from Evo. The only change might be the inclusion of stained glass windows depicting Watchers. Although I wouldn't jump to conclusions if someone right now decided to draw Watcher Grian stained glass art as it's a very common trope in general with God-like beings. Very much brought by Catholic representations if angels, saints, Jesus and the likes.

Masks

This one is one I can safely say, if you see fanart like this with a mask that isn't see through with the Evo symbol it almost certainly came from ATUS. Variants with a blindfold instead of mask might be inspired by this too. Even if the artist isn't exactly aware.

Eyes

Very nuanced topic. For startersthe name Watchers automatically inspires the idea of eyes. Of being watched too. But there's more options.

Evo never explicitly represents the Watchers with eyes.

ATUS does it a little bit. At one time when one of the masks is taken from a Watcher (that isn't Grian) they're face is shown to have a lot of eyes. However this isn't the full "wings and whole body are full of wings". Not even "Void with eyes" you now see a lot too in fandom.

I have multiple theories. The most obvious is Biblical accurate angels. Lots of wings, circles, eyes in the whole body, these are almost certainly angel originated.

Now the idea of being able to watch everything could've come from a lot of places. Even some Magnus Archives influence can be here (even if some minimal)

I will say the Watcher in ATUS are a bit disappointing in the "all seeing" department. They can sense some things but they aren't that powerful or at least scary with that.

Controlling worlds

Evo originated as the Watchers gave clues to the players so they find portals to the next updates + the puzzles + gifts and punishments. They were very much in control

Purple

Evo. From the literal Minecraft portals to the Evo icon it was very much present the whole time.

Powers

ATUS makes use of some powers like telekinesis and the like. There is even some mention to being able to use blocks that aren't allowed/present.

The telekinesis part is very much an ATUS thing even though again - if someone is going to give powers the ability to magically move objects would be the first choice.

The part of bloks that aren't accessable to a normal player are more nuanced. In Evo the Watcher did build structures with obsidian and bedrock which are either extremely tasking to get or impossible so the grounds for that are very much there.

The ability to show up in dreams is present in ATUS but considering Taurtis' lore in Evo I'm not surprised it was inspired by that. It's not the same as the Watchers never appeared in Taurtis' dreams but Taurtis did miss going through the portal because he was sleeping and woke up to seeing everything purple with a portal animationor even more likely: the ATUS part came from the angels showing in people's dreams in the bible so again - might be in ATUS but it doesn't mean the people who write / draw stuff with it took it from there.

The Watchers destroyed Evo

Surprisingly, Evo based. As someone reminded me well, after Grian left the Watchers threw a meteor at the Property Police I believe. This leads to

Watchers are Evil

Depends of who you watch. Grian's playthings gives room for doubt. They give gifts and punish. They seem neutral at least. You could argue though that a lot of Grian's punishments were deserved. They were because Grian basically liked to prak and blow up other people's stuff.

They can be about platful as I saw someone describe them once.

Also the modification of the end poem, the one that reveals Grian turns into a Watcher himself, is quite fond.

Martyn and Jimmy on the other hand play the Watchers as more evil even in Evo. As they are more connected with the Listeners and the Listeners oppose the Watchers.

In ATUS they are shown as feigning compassion and being very manipulative.

But if you follow Last Life canon they are also shown as manipulators.

+ In Grian's lore specifically they are canonically a representation of the viwers (you and me) but this has seemed to change in Jimmy and Martyn's lore.

So I'd say ATUS made popular the "Grian was taken by the Watchers and they were awful" but the truth is that there was some ground to that already.

Watchers came from the void

Not specific stated in either Evo or ATUS actually. I don't think we ever really know where the Watchers exist in Evo but in ATUS they are from (a special kind of) the End... But there's also a logical reason for it.

Elytras and all the obsidian. And in Evo Grian got turned into a Watcher after he fought the ender dragon and used the end portal.

The idea of the void most likely comes from the void that surrounds the End.

Watchers are eldritch abominations:

Well, the Watchers in Evo don't have a canon physical appearance and in ATUS they are quite tame. A bit taller than maybe the average human, have wings, use robes... But nothing too monstrous. They use staffs and magic weapons to fight.

The idea if cryptic abomination comes from somewhere else. Probably a mixture of Biblical accurate angels and maybe some other pop culture monsters.

Bird features

100% neither Evo nor ATUS. Recent development that came from the wings and Grian's association with birds in Hermitcraft.

Grian's Watcher name is Xelqua

Surprisingly not ATUS! And not Evo either! The name is from Grian's old YouTube name but I don't know where the idea was first introduced. It wasn't in ATUS though.

Conclusion:

Except maybe the masks almost all stuff, even if more elaborated in ATUS, all the stuff as either came from Evo itself or even been inspired from something else (most likely biblical accurate angels). In fact I believe the stiff in ATUS mostly came from biical accurate angels too or just normal angels (long robes, stained glass windows)

So I think accusing all fandom depictions of the Watchers as all coming from ATUS is very silly. ATUS might have popularised the appearance of Watchers in Hermitcraft and in a way to have some Grian angst but it definitely isn't all there is to Watcher depictions. Besides that other fics have come and did things differently.

For exemple I have already read two fivs where Grian (a watcher) is a monster in the boaten hole. Yes. The idea he was like transformed into whatever he is by the Watchers might be very loosely be based on ATUS (although Watcher Grian in ATUS was never an eldritch being. He was just like a person with wings and a mask and he was still himself and capable of communicating) which in turn came from Evo but it's already very far removed from it.

Fandom changes. You might want people to watch Evo to take their own conclusions and you might ask for more variety but saying ATUS is the sole responsible for the state of fanon Watcher Grian is just false.

#mcyt #watcher grian #evo smp #the watchers #and the universe shifts #atus

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goldendusk-if · 2 months

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Hello!

I’m here with half good and maybe bad news(?) So the last Character & Word count were in fact very inaccurate by a LOT. I didn’t realize I have a bunch of extra stuff and drafts of the story beforehand in it so twine included that…Um, so the updated and more accurate one will be included.

And I’ve decided to also do Female Mc’s and the story text will be different because of gender at scenes as well. So, Male Versions of the Ro’s will be made and depending on the Ro so will be the backstory/personality by a little bit. And to be quite honest, I’m not sure how I’m going to write crushes especially same-gender ones mostly because I don’t want to be cancelled and I personally have no experience so, it will be difficult.

Sorry, this is long but, I have a feeling I won’t be posting a lot unless it’s profiles or asks.

I’m a very much newbie and rookie to writing, it’s really not great but, I do have ideas and I want to share them, that’s why these are here. So, I would very much appreciate tips, and help whether that be story plot, rewording, or just spelling and grammar. And I’m an avid want a dash of romance not the main focus because I cringe A lot type of reader, the same type of writer as well. So advice on writing romance and dialogue is a must, that’s why I’m planning on the romance to be a more minor part.

I also realized I should probably focus on finishing writing the first part of the demo I’m planning to release in one of the upcoming months or weeks. And also, post something about the personalities the Mc can have. ❤️

Thank you for reading my rambling and being interested in my if.💗

~~~

Character Count: 51553 (just the story not including profiles, glossary or world lore)

Word Count: 8567

Features(first part is same bottom is new):

-Meeting the Mentor and Homie(By having a flashback) and setting their gender

-Customizing Mc including hair color, length, skin tone, name, nickname, petname, gender

-Finding out about your Father and seeing a new side to your mother

-Age from 16 to 20(idk if that's significant-)

-Choosing a personality type from Diplomat, Charmer, Fighter, Scholar, Spiritual, and Deceiver

-Choosing to be a early bird or night owl

-Go on an errand and have your Mentor kidnap you casually

-Profiles in-game are done technically though I have to add actual descriptions of their personalities and skills but, the ones here are currently way more detailed

-Are you more expressive or expressionless?(will be applied differently depending on personality)

-Will receive something from your Mentor

-Start your Journey To Nadripur and stuff

-Find out the Mc’s eyecolors

-Learn some Banglish(Bengali-English)

-Find out more about the world you live in

-Either be as rude as possible to a old man or attempt to be less rude to a older lady(Mentor)

-Choosing to be more decisive or indecisive

#update #goldendusk #interactive story #itch.io #twine #twine interactive fiction #twine sugarcube #word count #send me asks

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radiant-vulpine · 1 year

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Status Update 5: April 2023

We're here again with another update! Unfortunately, I ended up losing an initial write of this. So, we've had to redo it.

But, that being said, here's what we've been up to. ENGINE STUFF

We've been working on wrapping up our engine, which is the forefront of development! As soon as its done, we're gonna be easy sailing! ( Note that Susie's sprites will be replaced with the Chapter 2 ones soon! )

MUSIC UPDATES

We've worked on cleaning up older songs, which now have improved mixing and instrumentation.

As well as that, we've finally put out STARDOME'S track!

NEW CHARACTERS?!

We're doing a proper reveal for designs of some of the characters in our take! Including one who you're all too familiar with...

ASRIEL DREEMURR

The dorky college kid Asriel Dreemurr is here, wearing his Blood Crushers T-Shirt... though it's shrunk a little. He's a lot larger than he was, looking a lot more like Asgore.

CUIRASSIER LONDE

The powerful and intimidating lead of the HOLY CAVALRY, Londe is a girl with a flaming attitude you don't wanna mess with. She's mean and tough, good at strategizing... but she's also friends with Dirk.

Her design was done by https://twitter.com/bep_celeste!

MANTLEKEEPER

Though I'm still on the edge about revealing any lore information, Mantlekeeper's design is done!

The sprite is done by @scratch-lunin (note I may end up trying to modify the palette a little bit xP)

OTHER STUFF

This stuff is all just a guesstimate of what we've got done. Note that this isn't going to be accurate, at all! Art - 45% give or take. Music - 82% Sound - 35% Story - 72% [On Paper] Writing - 25% [Currently, only Chapter 3 is being written fully.] Programming - N/A [Waiting for the engine to be done!] That's about all I've got, but we're still working real hard! So please look forward to it! ... Oh, and here's a little script preview.

#status update #deltarune fangame #deltarune chapter 3 #deltarune #SoundCloud

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steamberrystudio · 5 months

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03/12/2023

Hey everyone! Time for the bi-weekly tumblr update for Steamberry stuffs!

Summary

Finished editing Chapter 5 (WSC)

Decided an additional chapter was needed to fix pacing/plot stuff.

Received some new BG art (WSC)

Worked on the GS lore book including adding profiles and short stories

Ramble

Okay so in my last update I was in the middle of editing chapter 5 and was nearly to the start of chapter six in editing Asher's route. I finished up chapter 5...

At that point when I was looking ahead, I started feeling like I wanted to add in a transition scene to move between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.

As I started plotting out this scene, one of my ideas took on a life of its own and I realised that it might be better to interject a new, fleshed out story incident that would allow me to slow the pacing as well as flesh out the setting and universe a little more. This incident would also let me tie into some earlier events and connect them to something that occurs in chapter 6, also foreshadowing the chapter 6 incident.

Ultimately, this became too much to call a "scene" and I decided to branch it off into a supplementary chapter (IE a chapter a bit shorter than the others and meant to be released along with another chapter.

That is what I've been working on since the last update.

This chapter has now served to set up multiple important things.

And is currently 17000 words long (it's going to end up closer to 25k by the end I think. There is a pretty significant story branch that happens at this point based on a specific player choice (That is or is not available based on other factors). If the choice is available and if the player makes that choice, it leads to an entirely different flow of events for a substantial portion of the chapter. That's what I'm currently working on writing.

I have it plotted out in a very detailed way and just have to write it.

Chapters with heavy branching are always a bit of a doozy to write and the WSC chapters are pretty long in general (the longest chapter is 62,000 words right now). So yeah.

Adding new content is still a part of editing I suppose. At least sometimes. I was so excited to cut 4000 words of content in chapter 5.

Then I added 17000+ more. So.....

That sounds accurate for me. 😱

I've been having a lot of health struggles the last couple of weeks mostly related to chronic fatigue and pain. That, in addition to some really irritating "real life" stuff. But things are still moving forward.

Current word count is 440,000 words.

Regarding the GS lore book - I've been adding character profiles to a "people" section and have also been working on some of the short stories/drabbles. It's close to 300 pages at this point. 💪

Other Stuff:

As usual, I have received a completed BG and sketch, acquiring the game environments at a steady pace.

Upcoming Weeks:

This is getting into a busy time of year so I have a lot of real life distractions even apart from HEALTH. ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 Progress always slows a little for me during this period since we have a lot going on.

But here is the plan.

Try to finish adding the profiles to the lore book. (Noooot sure I will. There are still a lot to go and the formatting for them is tricky. And I'm alternating between adding profiles and finishing writing a few side stories I've had ideas for for a while)

Try to finish chapter 5.5 for WSC

That's all for this week. There should be on more update here before the end of the year. See you then! 💪💪

#whenstarscollide #indie otome #amare game #gilded shadows #updates

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phinix53 · 3 months

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Hoi Hoi!

Time to update the masterpost ✨

Thank you for coming to visit and explore my page. There’s a bit of everything here and I do try to tag stuff as accurately as possible.

I tend to jump around from story to story fairly fast. I have so much I want to make and share and I’m just excited to be here.

Oh and a small reminder that this isn’t an RP account.

So here are the current things happening ->

Technoid

I plan on the comic starting this year, I’m super excited for it and I can’t wait to share it with you all. Of course the prequel is already out if you’d like to check that out.

Technoid is set in a dystopian future after the collapse and rebuilding of society. Any questions you have you can ask here.

The comic will be here -> Technoid

If you like info dumps -> # TechnoidInfoDumping

Thermonuclear

Big plans for this bad boy. I’ve had to do some major revisions to the story and I think it’s turning out awesome.

An AU set after a nuclear apocalypse (is that a running theme?) basically nuclear winter and everyone can die. Definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, the whole story is just death.

The story will be here -> here

Witch Woods

Witch Woods can be found on ao3 -> here

Witch Woods follows our favorite twins as they go on an adventure of a lifetime. A fantasy world full of magic, mystery and betrayal. There’s a lot of lore so I recommend checking out the Witch Woods tag to find out more. Or just ask.

That Zombie AU I talked about a while back

A few years back I was working on a zombie apocalypse themed story. Well, I am making a comic for it. It’s going to be super short and just like an intro as to how Dream ended up where he’s at. If I am up to it I might continue past, but we will see.

Crystal Sleep

I haven’t talked about this one much, but later in the year there will be a short comic coming out about it. But it’s a super secret project so don’t tell anyone ^^

Of course if you head on over to my AO3 you will find some other stories I’m working on.

West Valley Hospital

Midwinter

Twin Fin

Moonstone Ranch

My side blog Phixwips is were you’ll find works that will never be finished, anatomy practice and some written works.

Some fun facts about me ^^

I have a cat named Azula, she’s the cutest ✨.

I will read nearly anything, I tend to not read tags (I like the surprise).

I’m not super talkative.

I love fashion and design.

I really enjoy scary movies.

My birthday is in May, I’m 26.

If you want to know what I’m doing other places here’s my Carrd.

I’m most active on Tumblr tho

Alright I think that covers everything. I hope you enjoy your time here. Have fun and be well!

See ya soon!

Phix

#the master post #ask

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necros-writing-stuff · 1 year

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This is gonna sound like such a dumbass question and I’m so sorry in advance but.. are you and/or Inky DoL devs? I’m hella new to this game and I love both y’all’s content and some of the things y’all post make it sound like y’all are developers for it 😅

Hey! Not a dumb question at all.

So no, we aren't developers. There are only two, Vrel (the og) and Puri (who was made an official dev this update after all the years of hard work he put in).

Inky and I are writers. In the discord, you'll see people floating around with orange names. This means they're a contributor to the game. It's all free to do, it's basically doing it because we want to help the game and/or it's fun. Some members are purple (VIPs), and this means their contributions have been in there for a long time, they are significant or something else, I'm not entirely sure tbh.

There's writers, coders and spriters, and we all co-ordinate in contributor chats (which is how I can post potential bugs and get feedback for y'all). However in 99% of cases, a contributor doesn't know any more lore than the average player. Some do, but they're outlier cases and it's usually for very good reason. We always need more coders and spriters, so if anyone interested come along.

The coders are rarely just coders. They're often writers and coders, and they do most of the heavy lifting with contributions. I'm trying to learn to code myself to help out more. Writers have to be very patient if they can't code, as it can take months before a coder is free enough to squeeze your stuff in. You write it, post it and hope that one of the coders gets googly eyes for it and puts it in straight away (kinda like sending fic requests to your favourite tumblr writer lol).

We're managed by contribution managers, who I think do know a bit more of the lore, or at least can receive it upon request to help them decide what gets in and what doesn't. They ensure that when things are OOC, when kinks that aren't allowed etc don't get in.

What Inky and I post on here in terms of writing, headcanons etc is still just fanfic in terms of how lore accurate it is most of the time. We're guessing based on what we can observe about the characters so far.

#spill your guts #anonymous #not writing #dol support

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solvicrafts · 10 months

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I can't turn my brain off right now so I'm gonna ramble a bit about my vision for the site.

So, like I said earlier, I'm starting small as I keep going through my courses on web design & development. I do have a good bit of memorized knowledge of HTML & CSS from when I went to school for computer science a few years back, but I'm really rusty AND I had to take an extended break when COVID hit and I had to work more (yay for being a sacrificial essential worker, right?)

Version 1 of the site will still be really nice when it releases and will have a good amount of content and features to it, but since it'll be made with WP it'll have some limitations. While that site is up and working, I'll be continuing my schooling and working on building a full community site from the ground up, and I'll be rolling out updates as-needed and with help from more experienced developers I know.

Version 2 of the site will have everything V1 does, but with way more interactive features for roleplaying, community building, and so on.

As I work on both sites, I am going to show off some of my progress periodically, and more importantly, I'm going to be holding polls and asking for feedback for everything from the site design to its features to additional content people want to see.

I will also be participating in our group Discord as often as I can, but I'll be posting most of the site-related stuff here so that people who aren't interested in the Discord or aren't part of our particular group can still see and participate in discussions about the site. Also, I don't want to burn myself out and crash and might just want to take some breaks to goof off, which Discord is great for.

The most important features I want to have on V1 early on are the community library and bazaar, because my main reason for building the site is to help out the fandom. That means providing accurate information about the source materials and novels, world-building/lore/character guides to help people out with their campaigns, and a way to shine a spotlight on authors and crafters who might otherwise struggle to be seen. Jarlaxle canonically loves giving creative people a boost so it's only right that we do it, too.

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valenhell · 3 years

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From the studio that brought you “I can’t find good Byler fics in the ao3 tag”, comes:

"The Definitive Byler fic rec list"

Literally no one asked for this but because I spent the majority of last year (...and 2019, and 2018...) reading byler fics and coping with life, I thought I’d make a list of some of my absolute favorites.

The other day I was basically starving for some byler fics and the angel @magicalfairy provided me with some of her faves so I thought I’d do the same, because I love reading, and I love all of these fics and I appreciate their writers💗 And fic writers in general, come on!

- This is a mix of long works and one-shots/short stories. - Everything is mostly fluff with a tad of angst and a lot of internalized homophobia conflict. - Every fic is completed, except for the ones I mention that they are not. - I try my best to lay out the stories in a way that I won’t spoil you the plot but also warning you of some stuff you might don’t like. Either way, all of these fics are correctly tagged by their respective authors/owners, so read at your own risk. For better understanding, in between brackets I denote Rating, Words and quantity of Chapters. - I feel like I should clarify, none of these are narrated in the singular first person. None of that “And I told him...”, no.

Long fics

a dream always the same (T, 99k, 35 chapters) What happened in those few weeks between the Battle of Starcourt and the Byers leaving Hawkins. Literally a satisfying and very needed fill in of season three, with a good dose of Mike’s thoughts and conflict. Mike’s characterization is specially amazing in this one. The writing style is amazing and I know the author put everything into making it historically accurate, and it was really sweet. You probably read it, it’s by the amazing sevensided here on Tumblr🧡

Spring Break (T, 120k, 14/15 chapters) The slowburn of my dreams. Lots of internalized conflict and conflict with each other. Conflict within the Party (uhh kind of), conflict with Mike and Will. Byers family has moved and the kids are visiting! Chaos. Characterization is on point. Yeah, I know it’s unfinished, but the fourteenth chapter actually serves as a pretty nice ending.

This is where it starts (M, 148.8k, 24 chapters) Aged up characters. The Party is in college and Will disappears again, but now it’s different. Mike knows he didn’t vanish from thin air, and the discovery he and the Party end up making is pretty insane. Mystery solving/fantasy/third dimension, throw in a bit of D&D and Mike realizing some shit, and you get this marvelous fic. It’s a breath of fresh air. The world building is definitely one of the elements that stands out the most, because it’s very nicely described, it sounds like a dream and it’s completely immersive. Absolute gem of a fic.

there’s a Starman waiting in the sky (M, 30.6k, 8 chapters) Do I need to say anything? Will is out there living his best life and Mike realizes that wow, umm, maybe his best friend looks a bit too nice with that costume... and wait, is he getting horny? It’s actually really fun and sexy.

The Evening Speaks (T, 23k, 7 chapters) In where Mike is a late-night college radio host and Will is the art student that stays up till late to catch up with Wheeler on the Mic. They flirt through songs y’all, this one is really sweet.

heads or tails? (E, 24k, 3 chapters) Aged up characters. I know most people don’t enjoy sex in fics and with specific characters but this one is insanely well written. It’s a slowburn that commits to the tension and with every word you are grasping and anticipating their next move. I think you can find the author here on Tumblr as yousaidyes🧡

The Man of Average (M, 56.7k, 5/? chapters) Aged up characters. No but you don’t understand, the writing here is absolute gourmet. The story is exciting as well, it’s super interesting. Weirdly enough, for being very aged up characters, they are well characterized but they don’t feel like teenagers. They are naturally Mike and Will. The author really captured Mike and Will’s essence. I know, it’s unfinished and it’s updated very rarely, but this is the typical fic you can’t believe someone just posted on the internet for free. I will say though, I think it’s definitely not for everyone. Read at your own risk.

Heartstrings (E, 82.8k, 24/? chapters) Aged up characters. By the same author of The Man of Average. A collection of memories, the road to Mike and Will’s happy ever after. And fucking hell!!!!! You’ll cry and get angry, you’ll cheer for them, then you’ll want to crash their faces together because god dammit you love each other!!! But yeah, same thing here. The writing and the way the story is laid out as a nonlinear narrative is brilliant. And I also think this is one of the best Will versions I’ve read. The author might as well be the og creator of this two characters tbh. You can find the author here as mylesimeblr🧡

Sinners behind the walls (T, 1.5k, 1/1) And because I can’t stop recommending this author, a little thing of Mike tormenting himself but also being too deeply committed to Will.

The Red Envelope series (T/E, 167K, two completed works) Something happens that Will thought was impossible and from there, pure drama and romance. Anything by this author has the potential to become your absolute favorite fic, but this series in particular is amazing. I doubt that any of you haven’t read this, but it doesn’t hurt to put it in this list. I’m pretty sure the author is serendipitous-magic on Tumblr🧡

A New Fight series (T, 91k, two completed works, one WIP) And finally the Star Wars AU that we all needed. But this isn’t your typical “Mike is Han”, “Will is Leia” and “El is Luke”, it’s way more interesting than that, and the author has appropriated the Star Wars world like no other. I’ll admit I’m not a 100% fluent in SW lore but this is amazing to me either way. This author is also on Tumblr, tea-for-one-please🧡

- Yes, most of these are (if not all), in a way, canon compliant/canonverse/canon continuation into fanon. (In a way)

One-shots and short stories

Sundae for Two, Please (G, 4.8k) Steve being the supportive friend and older brother these kids collectively need. (not Jonathan erasure, we love him). Steve is very sweet himself, and this little cute thing through his POV is gorgeous. Yes, it’s byler.

Backstage (T, 10k, 2/2) Jonathan, you forgot to mention to Will how hot your new band’s guitarist is, dude. Now he’s hyperventilating and weirdly flirting with him in the corner. Background Stonathan because why not.

102 Peach Street (G, 3.8k) Established relationship, but not only that, they are married :’’))) PURE fluff. Extreme fluffiness. Diabetes.

sweatshirts and bottled up feelings (T, 3.2k) Or, Mike thinks that the sweatshirt Will wears looks insanely good on him. And kitchens are for lovers.

kiss it better (T, 16.3k) Basically one of the best character studies of a few precise moments of Mike and Will’s relationship and feelings.

will wonders ever cease (T, 11.3k) #i ship will and happiness. Omfg what a beautiful piece of fanfic. Will centric, this kid really deserves all the good in the world.

The Calm After the Storm (T, 1.6k) Tooth rotting fluff, boyfriends in love. Boyfriends being lazy, cuddling, love words, kisses. Boys loving each other’s company... Basically, Mike and Will in their element. What more can you ask for?

neither of us ready to let go (T, 4.8k) That scene from season three, but a bit of a fix it.

Still in love (G, 1k) Domestic, married life au fluff. Y’all, I’m a sucker for established Byler, even if I can’t find many fics with it. But this is very sweet. It takes place in 2020, but I don’t think there are any mentions of the COVID-19 crisis that I remember.

I Nver Find Out ‘Til I’m Head Over Heels (G, 12.5K) Classic 5+1 fic. If you haven’t read it, where have you been? This is your moment. In where Mike keeps inviting Will to the school dances and Will thinks it’s just a joke until he realizes it’s not.

Before You’re Gone (T, 5.9k) Will is leaving Hawkins and Mike thinks this is a great moment for a confession. This one I discovered last friday, thank you friend @magicalfairy 💗

You’re weird Wheeler (M, 4.5k) Mike unintentionally starts a tradition of going to each other to talk about their sexual encounters just after they finish. Will keeps getting more explicit with the details he shares, and he makes his best friend interested. This one is really fun y’all.

Out-Of-Town Friends (N/R, 4.6K) It’s not rated. I haven’t re- read it but I’d say it would probably fall in a T rating. So cute!! Will has new friends and sneaks off every friday and the Party doesn’t know where he is going, so Mike decides to follow him and is surprised.

Snowed Under (G, 1.3k) By the same author of The New Fight series. Mike is spending christmas by himself in college because a snowstorm hits Chicago and Nancy can’t drive to see him, but then he has a surprise visitor. Ahhh just a lil sweet holiday fic. Super cute.

you love me anyway series (T, 7.1k, three completed works) Literally just the cutest thing ever. Established Byler. Will loves to take pictures and he loves taking pictures of Mike. It’s adorable.

you wanna be friends forever (i can think of something better) (T, 9k) This one is so amazing. So. Amazing. From Will’s POV, my kid deserves the world and he gets it.

okay not to be okay (T, 4.9k) Mike is a bit sad but then everything is okay.

can’t hold out forever (G, 18.4k) Y’all!!!!! 5+1 sweetness. Mike has been falling in love since kindergarten. And it’s long af, you’ll enjoy it.

even if it takes forever (G, 1.3k) College short AU, they miss each other, they love each other, they promise all to each other. It is sappy y’all.

clear as day (N/R, 18.4K, 4 chapters) It’s not rated, but I’d say it falls in the T category. Strangers to friends to lovers. And also, everyone is pretty gay; we have our dynamic trio Mike, Max and El as disaster lesbians (and gay). Will works at the library and he is also gay. Lucas and Dustin and Will are the best friends we needed. It’s very sweet and the Party is kind of formed here!

I went overboard with the one-shots, so you must have realized how much I love long one-shots and I favor them over long works lmao but they are all amazing!!! If it’s on this list, I probably read it at 2 am, sobbing in my bed. So. Hope you enjoy it☺️🧡

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thefirstknife · 2 years

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Since I'm malding about no season finale, I'll talk about some new stuff we learned from the new trailer and an article that popped up on GameInformer.

A reflection of Savathûn’s mind, the Throne World is an old Hive Realm that is being remade and blessed by the Light that Savathûn has stolen. “She has the Light, so she has this opulent, well-manicured castle. Cool sculptures, courtyards. It’s not the typical Hive area. Then you have this swampier, bayou kind of area that she has not yet rebuilt with the Light. And then there’s this underworld section as well.

This bit made us consider that Savathun is still decorating her Throne World with the Light which is why some parts look better than others. She's actively still working on now that she has the Light. Some of the pictures of the Bowl (TM) made me think though.

Enhance:

This is the bell that we see in the other trailer from the other day. But we see this structure and this bell in other pictures and trailers, including WQ reveal trailer where ... it looks different:

Rest below:

This made us search for more images of the Bowl (TM). We assumed that maybe the current image is the more accurate one as the reveal trailer was shown to have "pre-alpha" footage so the design may have changed, however:

Both of these come from recent trailers. The surrounding area of the Bowl also looks different. At this point, I assumed there's two different Bell Structures (TM). Artist rendition:

Then it was pointed out that the first image from above has another Bell Structure visible to the left of the Bowl, which updated the possible look of the Bowl to this:

But then we found this image:

The building on the left is also visible in one of the pictures above, but the Bell Structure is different again. So either there are inconsistencies with the images, which isn't very likely considering most of these are gameplay footage and seem to correlate otherwise. Or the Bowl is ever-changing as Savathun is live-decorating. Final artist rendition:

I made another proposition: the Bowl mimics a clock and rotates/changes hourly/daily. This would fit with Savathun's love for cycles and trickery. We did see a statue of a thrall shift in front of our eyes in another trailer and Savathun saying that her Throne World is "twisted" and that things are never what they seem. A bell tolling and marking the new shift in environment would be really cool and creepy.

I doubt there will be too much "shifting" of scenery as that would be way too confusing and impossible to have a map of, but will some pieces be tricking our minds? For sure. We've already seen the thrall statue. I would like to also see the Bowl rotate, but that may be too much of a mechanical problem to execute so I'm not gonna bet my life on it. But it's definitely strange that the Bell Structures don't look the same in all photos and seem to be not in the right places in different images.

Some other stuff I like:

The new Warlock exotic name. "Osmiomancy" would roughly translate as "osmium used for divination." Osmium being a cool name to use here, given Osmium Court and Osmium King of the Krill and ancient family of the Hive siblings. I am wondering what will be the lore tab on this. Also interesting that it's a dedicated Stasis exotic.

Tumblr isn't letting me upload more images, but there's a cool shot of Savathun about to Nova bomb the hell out of the fireteam attacking her. And when I looked at it a few times, I also noticed that one of the Guardians is SHOOTING A WORM AT HER. LMFAO.

"What is the Relic on Mars? The power to create your own weapon."

This bit from the beginning of the trailer is also interesting. This "Relic" seems to be something that will pop up on Mars after it leaves the anomaly and since it looks very Pyramidal in aesthetic, it seems like something Darkness left behind from the anomaly. Reminds me of the Ziggurat on Europa: a piece of Darkness left behind on a planet to give us powers and connect us to itself.

Anyway, that's Tuesday update when no Exorcism.

#destiny 2 #witch queen #lore vibing #long post #the bowl is vexing me

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satellite-trash · 4 years

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what i did the past few weeks... is create a 5Ds animal crossing island!! and good god i have sunk deep into it!

SO I made three Island Residents, and I’m kinda proud of how they look

Jack:

(NOTE: Yusei and Jack’s custom outfits are NOT my own! They are from a Pinterest user from a 3DS custom pattern! will add the link in edit when i find it!) The hair is the same (kind of) spikes, honestly jack was the hardest (wink) to make because of eye colour (so he has brown eyes in animal crossing...) and the hair is obviously nowhere near as spiky and blonde :( Jack is the Resident Rep, the one I started the Island with, mostly because I was going to use him to make the most money and basically be... KING... of the island. haha - YUSEI:

(the boots are the recycled boots because of course yusei would wear stuff from junk... I mean..... its yusei)

I LOVE the square-y eyes, and I used them for yusei because theyre the most accurate to his anime eyes which kind of have a square shape but are also pointed........ also i didnt want to reuse the eyes i used for Jack so. I’m so happy you can use custom designs as face paint... he has his signature marker which makes it more obvious who I’m trying to make!!! (this might be why i least like Jack’s villager look... no marker = no distinguishing feature :(( )

I give Yusei all the crafting recipes I can to make sure i keep track of what DIY recipes I know (balancing it through 3 accounts is impossible!) also he has a second outfit with just the basic tank top and a tool bag which I loVE the physics of this game!! the bag bounces when you walk at a medium pace itS SO CUTE i love this game omfg

oh and yusei hates bugs like blathers, thank you 5Ds dub ep 2 for that totally not forgotten lore : )

CROW:

(he has the uwu mouth because i just wanted to use that mouth on someone i love itttt)

Crow’s hair is as accurate as it can be, without that damn bandanna!! i dont even think theres a headband-bandanna item in the game so thats not happening! (he looks bald without it agh)

Crow is mostly my “museum-lover” account - whenever theres new fish/bugs i need, or just to go around collecting the daily fossils, i make sure its through crow (although im very disloyal and often just cba swapping acounts so i catch stuff with yusei and jack because as i said im lazy)

-----

Here are some screenshots I took (whenever theres two characters, I used the joycon controllers in co-op mode to play with myself because im very lonely its lockdown still OK dont judge)

this is Crow finding jack’s outfit. i love the “heh heh” its very... Crow. also yes i gave jack a “King” outfit with a crown. i had to try and act the part y’know.

Crow in the residential district of the city just thinkin’. idk i love the look of the streetlights I LOVE THIS GAME did i mention that?

I made custom outfits of the 5Ds gear and slapped them on jack and yusei, and honestly # ad ?

crow fishing with the lads. (he’s the only one using the flimsy fishing rod because he is a rebel)

an unlikely duo O.O

Yusei just enjoying the nightlife in his PJs

awwww bros makin’ snowbros together (crow’s is kinda lopsided but we still love him)

(YES I TIMESKIPPED THIS ISLAND IS JUST FOR FUN OK DONT KILL ME)

yusei and jack in the fireworks! jack had a golden wand because flex

hard at work with his iron wand and random dog in the background ?

(i love the city wallpaper and it works for him! the houses are still in progress lol)

erm next one

these are the posters i made using the animalcrossingpatterns website, its so fun and it makes it that tad bit more geeky and frankly wtf am i doing with my life im making an animal crossing yugioh 5ds themed island why am i doing this wow what is happe

OH GOD Yusei’s worst fear A BUG

a SCORPION! THis image shows the ULTIMATE DUEL between Yusei and the enemy, Scorpion! How will Yusei win such a disadvantageous duel!! FIND OUT NEXT EPISODE!

and finally , the 3!

(the only way i can get all three in a pic is through harv’s island, im not paying £100 for another controller I’m not that sad can you believe!)

---

i hope you enjoyed that update on my way of coping with the current world mess - ive just escaped into a fictional world in a fictional game-world, Yugio 5Ds through Animal crossing, fiction-ception! Might post more random pictures if I actually make more progress, I recently made BANK from turnips so hopefully I can do something besides crying at how weird my island layout is currently... (oh and i know my digital art is trash but I drew the three as portraits and i wanted to at least try and make it look digital and cute ok)

pls dont judge me on how sad i am doing all this... im very sad bUT AC exists. just probably not for this purpose.

#yugioh 5ds #animal crossing #animal crossing yugioh #jack atlas #crow hogan #yusei fudo #AC 5Ds #wowwww im sad #but i made a nice environment to be sad in

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gizkasparadise · 4 years

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1, 3, 5, 7

Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

yay! long post ahead

the fury (game of thrones, gendrya) is a canon-divergent AU that breaks off just before the end of s8 and focuses on gendry becoming a lord w/ team stormlands (arya, davos, brienne, podrick, sandor, hot pie, and later some OCs) behind him. progress is good in the sense that it’s 75% done, and the rest is solidly outlined (with potential sequel, we’ll see how we all feel by the end of it). progress is slow in that i’ve hit a writing slump the last few months, but i know i’ll get back in it eventually. my favorite thing about it is that i got to do a lot of lore-building around the stormlands, since in show-canon there’s like...nothing on it. i had a lot of fun fleshing out Houses or creating new ones, and making up OCs

a lot like never (OG x-men movieverse, rogue/pyro) is a canon-divergent au following the days of future past movie/timeline reboot. progress is weird LOL. a reviewer called it something along the lines of “the fic that won’t be killed” and that’s accurate. i started it in 2014 or some shit, picked it back up after someone asked nicely, and have since been sporadically updating. it’s got the loosest outline of any of my fics, but i know the general chunks and we’re about to move into the last one. favorite thing is the alternating POVs, because pyro + rogue are both sassy and it’s fun to play around with stylistically

i loved rome more (star wars kotor, revan/malak) is a canon-divergent au (i see a trend here) where revan never lost her memories and there’s an explicit past “romantic” relationship between her and malak, and how that would change the plot of the game. it’s also around 75% done, with the rest outlined. i anticipate this will be a quick finish once i get back into writing-- korriban is just too damned long lol. favorite thing is writing a real fucked up relationship and getting to play with a morally dark grey protagonist. i love writing both of these things, especially together

satellites (star wars, reylo) is yet another canon-divergent au where anakin never betrays the jedi and rey becomes his padawan while ben follows in his grandmother’s shadow as a politician. progress is slower than i’d like, mainly because i bit off more than i could chew. i’ve combined acts 2 and 3 into one, corellia-focused arc, so im hoping that helps me finish. my favorite thing on this one is thinking through the family dynamics of house skywalker and what a fucking mess they are despite never becoming estranged/dead/evil. i also like writing Naive Jedi Accidental Relationships and integrating EU into it (esp Kyp as Jedi Grandmaster)

What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

i’ve always really wanted to write a Clue/whodunnit AU, but gd that would require some set-up i dont have it in me to do.

What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

depression-den luke skywalker or gendry i think. im a big grump

What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

blunt? or understated? im a visual thinker so i often feel more like a transcriber of the scenes i see rather than someone who does prose. i feel like most readers who are reading more contemporary stuff would agree.

#asks!

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drinstadiscourse · 5 years

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what... is a komaedalovemail

ok brace yourself for this fuckign reply because i dug through 4 years worth of posts to try and explain this whole thing. tldr its a tumblr blog that was normal for 3 seconds before suddenly having lore and a story but its chilled out now and you can join the mod’s minecraft server . also im pasting this from a word document i wrote while i was “”””reasearching””””””

komaedalovemail is a lot of things. in january of 2015 it was posing as a positivity blog using komaeda as an avatar/roleplaying as him?? but after 5 months of being pretty normal they started posting cryptic shit like this and saying that they didnt have much time left

then they fucked off until july of 2016 where they started posting again, there were still some positivity posts but they started posting weirder and weirder stuff as the year went on. from september onward the blog was extremely active, posting a lot of the same weird and cryptic arg-like talk as well as some surreal joke posts. (if you dont know what an arg is heres the wikipedia page )

though at that point in 2017, they started posting links to other pages on the blog, which make things really interesting. these pages are mainly what made people think it was an arg, due to the amount of interactive dialogue-based pages. the posts tended to tie in at least somewhat with the linked and discovered pages, and some of the pages were more serious than others.

the blog has gone through a lot of phases, and on multiple occassions the blog was assumed to be dead bc of an announcement by the mods followed by a lack of activity.

ive been tryign to write this for a while so im losing motivation but the blog got REally active in late 2017 and at some point new pages werent being made as often. there was a phase where th eblog was horse themed and no one liked it. right now the blog is themed around the fuckign uh. komaeda deity thing they made. theres a lot of komaedalovemail lore because this shits been around for so long. they made like a whole page that was like a story about like komaedalovemail mod society or whatever the fuck. the blog was themed around clowns for a bit before it was themed around horses. and also fetus hinata exists and i dont know where he came from.

theres some pages that are formatted kinda like visual novels and theyre.. interesting. the ffirst one i foudn was one where you talked to a clown komaeda and he tells you to take his bloon and it scared the shit out of me for some reason. also its voice acted which is weird as fuck

this post is pretty much an accurate summary of the majority of the blog

i dont remember the status of updates on like all the pages and stuff like that, at some point the mods made a post about not updating stuff anymore or soemthing

heres a link to most of the main pages i think, sorted by phase and order of creation

its a mess and a rabbit hole and my original point was if someone did all this weird shit on an instagram discopurse account it woudl be fucking hilarious for one and for two it owuld be interesting.

thanks for coming to my FUCKing ted talk. this was going to be way longer be glad i cut out the screenshots of individual pages and shit . this was about to be an in depth history of the whole ass blog.

#long post #ask #mod post #anonymous #komaedalovemail #Anonymous

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answrs · 4 years

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Pauper and a Prince (doppler au)

so like. i have literally zero idea on the lore of dopplers in the series so there's probably a million and one things wrong with this but the line in brothebro's All the World I've Seen Before Me Passing By's newest chapter about them being generally benign if a bit fond of mischief, the nilfgardian aligned ones being outliers to the norm, and it somehow brought me to the idea:

jaskier is just 2 or 3 years into his travelings with Geralt when he receives a message from home that his father is dying and he Is Going To come back and Fulfill His Responsibilities, with whatever implications of it not being a request and him having no choice in the matter.

so he makes his way back, attends to the deathbed and wake, and is now morosely being prepped for this new rest of his life he very much Does Not Want, running and attending to the needs of Lettenhove. he knows it's a great life, he appreciates the luxuries of this noble status, knows others would literally kill (and have) for his position, but being on this side of the table at the lavish dinners and social gatherings grates against his very core of being a free spirit and it gets so stifling so fast and he is miserable.

he's escaped to one of the gardens for a moment of peace one night, in what feels like the first time he's been alone in weeks. he notices either someone trying to sneak over the wall to get in, or what looks like a soldier/guard attempting to sneak away with a lumpy bag over their shoulder.

basically it's a doppler that's gotten desperate for food/coin and is in a last ditch attempt to help their adopted family by using their magic to get into the guarded manor where a little missing food here and there won't be as quickly noticed. but now they've been caught by Viscount Julian himself and are terrified they and their family will be tortured or executed or some other horrible fate. except… he's not calling for the guards? or threatening them? or… anything at all really, except offering them some coin and wine and a bit of conversation? what????

they get to talking and, long story short, Jaskier offers them and their family a place in the manor, food and lodging and all, and in return they pretend to be and act as him when Jaskier just can't take it anymore and needs to get away. there are assistants and advisors that would help him do his job anyway, and he'll obviously come back too, not shirk the responsibility altogether. (he'd still help them if they say no, but he won't let this once in a lifetime opportunity go without trying.)

(maybe the fast trust is because they were secret friends when he grew up and after he left the family fell into bad straits? that or jask has just gotten seriously desperate)

long story short, they make a deal and over time it eventually evolves into Jaskier secreting himself away to join Geralt for a few months at a time, then returning home for winters and certain events, probably a couple months here and there too. they keep in touch regularly with either enchanted messenger birds or other more subtle ways, updating the other to events or asking opinions on political decisions, stuff like that. if Julian (the doppler) can't fill Jaskier in well enough on a matter that's come up when he'd been gone they might relieve an advisor for the day and subtly help him with cues, or he just hides out (which he learns is far harder to do when there's staff everywhere and he can no longer fit under furniture so easily as he could as a child) while they finish whatever process they'd been working on before he got back.

Geralt is, of course, Completely Oblivious™ that this is all happening behind him. Jaskier occasionally asks for opinions on "hypothetical scenarios", or has to take off quickly for events he's supposedly been hired at, meanwhile 100% refusing to play in or even be seen near courts within a certain area of the continent. the witcher assumes it's just Jaskier Quirks™, or that the bard had angered some nobleman or another nearby.

and then!!!!!

then of course there's the essential reveal scenario, where they are desperate for supplies and medical care and coin and they have Ciri to protect etc etc etc and Jaskier has to shove away his terror of their negative reactions to his secret coming out and get help from home without destroying the facade.

(so far my fave possible scenario is where they meet Julian outside the city and Jaskier tries to introduce them as his twin that rules in his place, but Geralt senses the doppler and throws himself at the "impostor", thinking they're trying to trick Jaskier into trusting them by pretending to be his sibling. being admonished by a completely unmoved bard when the doppler jumps back and changes form while shrieking like a banshee is hella confusing for the poor man. he gets the real story after that and is absolutely peeved at the deception but also honestly begrudgingly impressed they've kept it hidden so long.)

Thinking of calling this some variation of “reverse prince and the pauper doppler au”. Pauper and the Prince? Well, viscount, but y’all know what i mean. doppler!jaskier isn’t exactly accurate (though i absolutely considered them swapping in and out between one travelling with geralt and the other taking care of the city, if only that pesky amulet/witcher senses wouldn’t see through the ruse immediately. unless maybe jaskier was some other flavor of non-human that also set off his amulet and whatever reason geralt doesn’t pay attention to the very small smell differences because perfumes and that elven lute has GOT to have SOME sort of magic signature going on there, but that’s another au. or an au au, idek anymore. i have been trying to post this for 4 days now rippppp)

#the witcher au #doppler au #doppler jaskier au #(OF A SORTS)#pauper and the prince au #mine #witcher

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siarven · 4 years

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NaNoWriMo Update #4 - Final

Hello friendsssss!

It is 01:49 on the first day of freedom except I’m moving straight into fluffcember *eyebrow wiggle* but shhh I have no idea how long I will keep up with that xD (yes it took me that long to decide on an excerpt shush)

...and I am tired...

but also happy?

I wrote maybe 35k that can actually stay in the story. Which are words that I like, which I am going to keep. Which is far too little considering that this is what my final statistic looks like--

But then I remembered something!

I also did a lot of worldbuilding lore, and I figured out my DAMN PLOT, something I WAS STUCK ON SINCE MARCH, and my characters make so much more sense now, and I had a breakthrough regarding the changes I made to the characters, and how it’s going to affect the ending, and ahhhhhh the ending is WORSE now, but ALSO SO MUCH BETTER, and more meaningful, and asdkfjsldf

I may be dissatisfied with how many words actually ended up in the manuscript, but I shouldn’t discount all the words I used to discover things about my world, and to explain it to myself in ways that made sense, and to have an actual reference library of my own world that I can look at when I forget details. Before, all my stuff was... partially from 2014, partially still accurate, some of it from 2016, some of it from last year, pieces of all of them still right, but most not ... and some files are still like that.

BUT I CLEANED UP SO MUCH, AND IT MAKES SENSE NOW.

I can’t discount that.

So while I may be very dissatisfied with the wordcount that ended up in my manuscript, I got damn far in terms of transitioning into the third draft, and making it easier for myself in the long run, AND FIGURING OUT THE DAMN ENDING. :’)

AND I WROTE A TON OF WORDS!!!! Even if most of them are stupid. XD

So heyyyy

Excerpt

Here is a smol excerpt, from Elinor’s POV, below the cut... It’s very first-draft-y, and I’m still not sure about her character voice. Or any of that. But this is the gist of it, and I hope you like it :’)

You do not wait when you get summoned by the Regulator.

You dress in your best clothes, get your hair tidy, make sure to polish the Mask, and then you leave. You make sure not to run so you don’t sweat when you get there, but you do walk fast.

You do not let the Regulator wait.

My thoughts are in shambles when I arrive at his estates. I’m still not over meeting my sister and mother, but even less over… the other thing.

Can’t even think about it. Too much tied to that, too much pain, and—

Take a deep breath.

You can do this.

…I can do this.

While the rest of the city is basically a collection of houses stuck on top and next to each other, sorted into Levels and made to stabilize each other into tower form, Level Eight isn’t quite like that. It’s more like a million individual rooms than houses, haphazardly called Asimdrium. I still think it’s not an actual word, but everyone calls it that, so I guess it’s one now?

The only place that doesn’t fit is the sprawling complex belonging to the Regulator. He rarely leaves it, only adding to all that mysticism… and now he’s summoned me here. I never much thought about him before—everyone meets the Regulator once in their lives, during the Testing, but few see him again after that.

What does he want from me? And why in the dead of night instead of at a more reasonable hour? I have to get up early tomorrow. It’s not fair—

He’s probably busy. I shouldn’t question him like that.

… no, in fact I mustn’t. He’s the most powerful man in Merreadon. The second most-powerful one in the entirety of the Empire…

And he knows my name.

Alright, to be fair… he knows everyone’s name. Still, he does not summon most people to his office at such a late time.

I take a deep breath— …I hope it's not connected to Ben… —knock on the door to his office.

Nothing moves, and nothing happens. For a few moments I just stand there, heart straining against my ribcage, fluttering like a caged bird, trying to escape with every iota of its feeble strength.

Close my eyes.

Take a step back.

He will answer my knocking.

He summoned me.

It feels like ages until the door finally moves, basically noiselessly.

I kind of expected there to be someone else, a secretary, maybe, someone like that.

But no.

It's the Regulator himself, in all his scary glory.

He is the only one with a Mask quite like this, this… creepy. He is also the only one with such an imposing presence, or, well, at least here. There must be others in the other big cities, or at least in the capital cities of the different provinces.

“Good evening, Elinor Arborea”, he says. His voice is calm. Basically inflectionless. For a moment I have this really weird scene in my head in which he stands in front of a mirror, practising how to creep people out the most, testing around with the way he says certain words. Of course he's much younger in that scene.

…though it's really hard to tell how old he even is, exactly? And somehow that gives me hope. If he's not dead yet, the rumours must be true. There must be a way.

“Good evening, Regulator. Sir”, I say, trying to sound as dignified as I can manage. I kind of fail, but, well, I haven't had time to practise in front of the mirror, either. You have to take what you can get, right? And I don’t even have a mirror.

I can't tell what he thinks at all, I can't even see his eyes behind the Mask. It's like there's a shadow clinging to it, hiding every sign of him being an actual person. Maybe he isn't one? Has anyone ever seen the Regulator without Mask? Maybe he's dead. Maybe he's just a walking corpse—

“You know already”, he says. For a second, I am terrified that he can read my mind, and that he’s addressing my corpse-fears. Then I realize that he must be talking about Ben. No…

“Yes.” My heart is going mad. I can feel it. It won't be long until it escapes.

“In that case I will spare you the explanation. As you probably know very well, you are a talented and hardworking young woman, showing great promise within the Asimdrium. I have been paying special attention to you for a while now, and today that might… pay off. For both of us.” He pauses. I have no idea what to say, and besides, there’s only dread and fear inside of me. I wish I’d never come.

“Your brother is of… let us say, special concern to me. I have a proposal to make that will let both of us get what we want.”

He stops talking. I get the disconcerting feeling that he's staring at me from deep within his Mask.

I've never felt more uncomfortable. Except maybe at the Testing, don't remember much of that, though. It was a long time ago. This… it feels like he's staring through me. Into me. As if he can read my thoughts just by looking at me. As if he can hear my heart. I feel laid bare, on a far deeper level than mere nakedness.

“Alright?”, I ask carefully, trying to suppress the tremor in my voice, the fluttering traitor living in my chest, the shiver running down my spine, like tiny frozen spider-feet.

“I want you to go home”, he says, and for a tiny moment I think I have died and gone to the Eternal Sanctuary, that things will be alright, that I will get to go home—

“… sometime during your evenings, and to then report back to me on how your brother is doing.”

It doesn't matter that I can't read his face, his voice, or his body language.

He paused like that on purpose.

It tells me several things about this entity, this mystery, this man—because now I know for sure that he's still human underneath all of that. Maybe he's no longer the person he once was, but he's still unmistakably a person. A petty person who likes playing with people, in fact.

Which is something of a relief, to be quite honest. Who knows what to expect from an animated corpse, or some other kind of inhuman creature posing as one?

It still doesn't explain his eye-shadow but I guess that must be a Regulator speciality.

“You want me to go home in the evenings to check on my brother because you want to keep an eye on him and can't go yourself?”, I ask, doing my very best at not mentioning the word spying.

“Exactly”, he says.

~~~

But also, if you got this far. Let me rant a tiny bit. XD Dreams is going to be very long, I think XD I made a handy graphic:

Let’s hope I manage to cut some of those 35k words. XD or make the rest shorter XD

(yes that is my excel outline, it escalated a bit, but it helped immensely in figuring out how elinor impacts things, especially with the timeline, I usually just have an unsorted doc with notes in it aaahhhh)

especially since this is Part One: Dreams in more detail :))))))) AKA, just the red part.

I doubt Draft 3 will be less than 200k, to be honest. Whyyyy

@warmbones @wilde-writing @thereisnothingwrongwithbeingmad @authordai @madmoonink @lynnafred @prismalicht @sincerestaffect @romenna @zekethegm @hypnocutiegypsy @random-stuff-thrown-into-a-pot @els-writes @randooooooooooom @asttralhell @paper-shield-and-wooden-sword @jellybeanwriter @kittensartswriting @purpleshadows1989 @raiswanson @ettawritesnstudies @writingwordsanddrawingpictures

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harusha · 4 years

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What are your top pokemon games??

Official or fangame? I’ll just list both. I will say Pokemon Reborn is my top-rated overall if we combine both lists (with HGSS and Collesseum/XD following as 2 and 3 respectively.)

On Official, it’s

1. Heartgold/Soulsilver (My favorite region is Johto, and Ethan is my favorite Pokemon protagonist so…unsurprising. The games are still genuinely good though imo because of the massive amount of content and post-game and QoL stuff like following Pokemon, auto-run, etc.) I also love the nostalgic feeling of the region. Lance is also here, and I like him and his design a lot, not as much as Volkner though. Also Proton is here, and I love the dude so. Pedometer is included here.

2. Pokemon Colosseum/Pokemon XD; I include this together since they’re a duo set in terms of story. XD is the better one gameplay-wise because of the new additions of Shadow moves, more Pokemon choices, QoL changes like saving, etc. but Colosseum is the harder of the two games imo b/c of the sparsity of Pokemon–if you can play it on laptop, mod XD with Pokemon XG for massive QoL changes (Fairy Type, more shadow Pokemon, upped difficulty, etc.)

I like how this set tries new stuff and it honestly showcases how if you the Pokemon IP to a third-party, you end up with something that tries to be different and actually plays pretty well.

3. Pokemon BWBW2; included as a set because of joint story line. Honestly, I feel like BWBW2 are objectively the last great mainline series additions. Even if you didn’t care for the story, they at least tried with it and the rivals. You had the nice rival in Bianca and the “focused/ruder” rival in Cheren, and both encompassed the themes of the game (Truth with Bianca as she realizes her ineptness as a trainer and Ideals with Cheren who strives to overcome his boundaries and the player even if he never can). N is pretty awesome, and I think Ghetsis is a better Lusamine (sorry, idc for how Lusamine’s actions are brushed over and blamed on the space jellyfish). There’s a lot to enjoy in Unova imo.

Also massive post-game stuff like Join Avenue (which encourages one of the main tenets of Pokemon, interacting with others and trading; ex. “Magnemite Coil”), half the region opening up for Post-game (White Treehollow, Kyurem’s abode, etc.). The Legendaries also have home locations for the most part, and their items aren’t just given to you by random people. A lot of stuff to do that isn’t just breeding mindlessly for shinies (I mean I love doing that, but options ya know?) or online battle.

4. Pokemon Conquest; Fire Emblem (or more accurately, Nobunaga’s ambition) meets Pokemon. I like turn-based grid tactic games, and this one’s actually pretty fun. You’re encouraged to roam around and give people different Pokemon to see which ones they’re compatible with. Also another example of what can be done if Pokemon is given to a another developer.

5. Pokemon Explores of Sky (and to a lesser extent since it’s the base, Time/Darkness); you can swap this with Colloseum/XD, BWBW2 or Pokemon Conquest depending on if you prefer Pokemon’s style of play, tactics games, or dungeon crawlers. I like this one since the story’s actually pretty good, the difficulty’s nice, and especially the post-game dungeons and content.

6. Pokemon Platinum and Diamond+Pearl to a lesser extent– the region that actually has a reasonably difficult Elite Four and champion. I love the additions they have like distortion world, the melancholic feel you get at times in the Chateau area and snowfields, and the post-game Battle Frontier. However, the games run so slow without Drayano’s mods. In terms of husbandos, Volkner’s pretty nice as well, and he’s pretty high-tier for me. Cynthia’s here as well, so I guess she counts since she’s a feature every time she shows up.

7. Pokemon FRLG-The definite version of Kanto for me. Sevii Islands, callbacks (callforwards?) to the Johto games with the Rocket Admins, decent difficulty and ability to sequence break somewhat, etc. It gives new experiences for those who’ve played the OG versions, but doesn’t change them drastically. The “you can’t evolve anything outside of the OG 151 before post-game” is stupid though. Lance is here as well, but his half Dragonite/Dragonair team annoys me b/c of how repetitive it is, but product of the time as well and the HGSS first battle had that as well but at least they’re all evolved.

8. Pokemon Red/Blue Rescue Team-I like this one since the story’s still good and incorporates the idea of a human being transported to a Pokemon world, but I just feel like Sky’s gameplay improvements and portraits for everyone trumps this one. I like Gengar a lot and his team. I also think the difficulty on this one (depending on starter and partner) is fairly good at times (The Moltres fight is actually pretty difficult if you don’t have Pikachu or a water type partner).

9. Pokemon Emerald and to a lesser extent Ruby/Sapphire–Battle Frontier, Scott and Smeargle cave (ie. post-game content), beautiful promotional artwork (including ORAS’s), fairly difficult battles at time if you aren’t prepared/going in blind with no excessive grinding (2nd May battle, Flannery, etc.), hidden secrets like Regis and Secret Bases. However, the latter half is so boring with the excessive surfing and lackluster variety. Steven’s here, and he’s a dreamboat even with the sprite graphics.

10. Pokemon Channel and Hey you, Pikachu!-Weird I know. This would be higher if I didn’t think this was a niche pick. It’s just really relaxing, and I want another one, especially if you can get more Pokemon to raise. It’s a lot more fun once you play it. I like exploring with Pikachu and it offers a look into the world of Pokemon as a non-trainer. I really want another one tbh.

11. Pokemon Rangers series (Ranked from favorite to lowest; Shadows of Almia–>OG–>Guardian Signs; all are good but that’s my preference) The gameplay is actually pretty fun, and I wish we got another one. They could use Joycons as a styler. Spencer, Sven, and Lunick are also pretty cute

12. Pokken Tournament- What battles should feel like in mainline if they injected millions of dollars into the mainline, so unrealistic expectation. I think Pokken is a decent fighting game. The moves are nice, and the music is good. This can go lower if you don’t care for fighting games.

13. Pokemon Battle Revolution and Stadium games-They’re mostly battle simulators with some mini-games. The animations are actually pretty lively and fun compared to SWSH’s. I would like to rank this higher, but there is no story mode sadly. It’s great if you want to see what Pokemon would look like in-scale.

14. Pokemon X/Y-I think these are actually pretty nice if only for the fact there isn’t excessive handholding; it’s there but it doesn’t force me to put down the game out of boredom. The outfits are genuinely pretty cute. However, the rivals are ridiculously terrible, difficulty is either too low or unbalanced if you use/turn off exp. share. Let’s put ORAS here as well b/c I think the lack of Battle Frontier and mediocre post-game, getting Lati@s early, etc. drops it down from Emerald. The PSS system is amazing though.

15. Pokemon Trozei and Pokemon Pinball series-Yeah, I’ve played these. Trozei’s actually pretty cool as a match-3 game, and pinball is pinball. You also get slightly more lore into the Pokemon world with Lucy Fleetfoot. I like match-3 and pinball so very much a YMMV. Pop Gates to Infinity and Super Mystery Dungeon here as well. Idk, they just lack the magic of the first two entries.

16. Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Dash, all the other spin-offs I didn’t talk about-they all offer something fun, but I just wish it was either updated for modern times and not released again (like with Snap) or a bit more (in the case of Detective Pikachu and Pokepark series). Pop Puzzle League games here as well. I like them, but they aren’t much besides Tetris games. Same goes for the Pokemon Trading Card games; they’re nice, but not super great imo.

???. Pokemon Box/Ranch/all the other storage games and stuff like Dream Radar-Idk what you’d want me to say since they’re storage space or gimmick games to catch HA Pokemon. You do get Extremespeed Zigzagoon which I love since the little buggers are very adorable.

Bottom Tier. Pokemon SM and USUM. I hate these games. They’re cash grabs (more so than usual) with being $40 a piece and the updated versions being barely changed (and actually feeling like what should have been released first). Incredibly handholding, areas feel half-baked, lacks areas to explore for the most part, Lillie is kinda annoying for me tbh (which hurts because you’re supposed to feel for her and the game’s story hinges on that), and the player is an actual detriment to what they’re trying to achieve story-wise. A big shame b/c Alola is a pretty region and Team Skull is great in concept, but execution is awful. Stated as someone who has bought all 4 versions to keep, and 2 extras for gifting.

Absolute Bottom Tier- Pokemon Masters, incredibly terrible mobage game coming from someone who plays FGO, FEH, etc. lack of meaningful content, grinding but meaningless b/c of said lack of content (ex. FGO gates you with mats but it makes you feel like you’re growing with your servants and offers a story and events to compensate; basically, a sense of achievement). CO-OP is pretty bad when you can just hop over to GBF or something if you want guilds and group content. I’m still gonna wait for Ethan and Volkner to appear though.

Unrated-OG RBGY and OG GSC (the remakes are superior outside of nostalgia factor imo so I think it’d be unfair for them to take a spot), LGPE (didn’t buy them b/c pricing but the colors are vibrant and I love that), SWSH (didn’t buy them because I have opinions on the cuts and stuff and price point doesn’t look appealing for what’s offered), Pokemon Mini (these were included with Pokemon Channel), Magikarp Jump+Duel (Duel was a cash grab and Magikarp Jump is cute but no real opinion on it), Pokemon Go (weird spot where I like it, but I don’t live in an area with safe walking areas so very much area-dependent), Arcade games (I don’t live in Japan for that), Perdue Farm games (they’re flash games made to promote so…), Pokemon Rumble (enjoyable but not memorable for me imo) etc.

Fangames-

1. Pokemon Reborn-150+ hours of content, visible themes that permeate the story and characters, beautiful spritework for some of the areas, intuitive usage of TMs/HMs and some logic (ex. Field Effects that emulate anime battling in turn-based rpg such as Corrosive Field; using Rock Smash to break the glass in some areas to solve puzzles, etc.), actual difficulty that hinges on how much you understand Pokemon (ex. IVs, stats, EVs, etc.) that’s fair but still difficult, puzzles and rewards for exploring and coming back to areas, etc. Fantastic game that I wish Gamefreak had attempted to emulate (perhaps not the darker themes but the ambition basically). Has some kinks with the revolving door of characters and such but still fantastic. Also offers custom shiny sprites, custom egg sprites, and online play like Wonder Trade and battling.

2. Pokemon Rocket Edition-Not done but I think this is a fantastic hack so far story-wise and how it implements its mechanics. You’re a Rocket Grunt, but you aren’t OP. It deals with the politics behind Kanto and Team Rocket. Still being worked on.

3. Pokemon Viridian Version-Another “play as a Rocket” game. Funny yet still can be serious; it takes the tone of the anime and understands when to be serious and when to not be. It feels like it would fit into the canon tone-wise, and deconstructs the “it’s cool to be a Rocket!” thing.

4. Pokemon Gaia-Excellent and a huge callback to classic Pokemon in story. It’s an OG region and offers a lot to do.

5. Drayano hacks- QoL updates but his work actually adds a lot to the games+new events.

Anyways, that’s my list. There’s a lot of Pokemon content, but this is how I feel for the most part.

#long post #i will say Piers is high tier husbando though

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