#In short: queer Wraith

[definitelynotarabbit]

I don't think we talk enough about how Stargate's wraith aka space vampires had one of the most outside the box vampire powers to ever grace TV. Like kudos to whoever said "hey fuck it we're gonna take one of the most one dimensional villain races we've ever made which can very accurately be described as space vampires and just completely blow that idea out of the water with a single scene showing that they have miles more depth than you could ever guess".

I mean come on why am I not seeing more vampire fanfic where the vamp can give life in the same manner that they can take it?! It's such a groundbreaking idea in a trope that short of this the most recent big change of pace was glitter.

That single scene where it looks like Todd just killed John but then he turns around and gives him back more years than he took? Mwah chefs kiss. Possibly the most efficient story telling I've seen.

Anyway I support queer agenda that episode suggested and am eternally devastated that Todd didn't become a Teal'c level character but with extra gay because telepathy.

#its 3am so this probably makes no sense but goddamn i have thoughts about this 10000 year old shithead #todd the wraith #sga #stargate #stargate atlantis #john sheppard #if you made it this far and am wondering wtf im on about #this is your sign to go watch stargate #all of it #except maybe sgu that kinda sucked #oh also #vampires #i suppose

[searchingforserendipity25]

Half-Savage and Hardy | ao3. @nolofinweanweek. TW: poison, hunting, past violence.

Aredhel comes back in winter, when all of Aman is covered in ice and shrouded in sleet. 

Her nakedness is a joy; the pain of aching muscles with running blood beneath a delight. In the shelter of Mandos' gates, she sets down her feet with intent, again and again, until she learns anew the trick of walked bare feet and unnoticed.

Only then does she go on. Into forests of slender, dark trees, through archways of brambles and bracken. She licks the blood out of her scratched arms; hungry, brimming over with new life, she forces herself to quiet her breathing and return her body to deathly stillness. 

And then - the scurrying hare, close enough she could graze her fingertips, sink them through its warm pelt.

It passes her by unharmed, ears prickling with the faint awareness of the chased. The hunt is in Aredhel, thundering in her pulse, but it is not the hunt for meat that calls to her.

She follows the hare among the undergrowth, winds through the grey rain, bespelled her presence to a false nothing. Through fits and starts, panting, hummed melodies faltering and picked up again; until at last the animal forgets its fear, and stops fleeing, and goes back to seeking its prize.

Nothing poisonous to Yavanna's creatures grow on Eldamar, but the Eruhíni are not her own, and she had not tarried in bringing forth her works. Some of them caused queer fevers once consumed; and more than fevers. 

As a youth Aredhel had chewed all the treacherous berries she could find, testing the mettle of body and spirit in intricate rituals, laughing when she found herself alive, always alive at the end of it - naked in the snow, at times, and aching, but without harm.

Now, both more ancient and young than she had ever been, she settles for waiting for the hare to chew the berries and be on its way, before picking a palm-full of her own.

Round as berries and red as blood they were, tender on the tongue. Familiar. She had not known such a taste for centuries before her death; had not been able to find anything like them, though she had searched in deep places and dangerous ones, thrilled always by the search - seeking knowledge of unknown things, studying and naming anew old places.

All old places had names already, in Beleriand. Her studies on the dark treasures nestled in hollow groves and damp caves had been cut short before their time, and a dire price she had paid for her mistakes.

And it might have a direr one. Her youngling, her Lómion, born of her belly and fed at her breast, would have choked on the fruits of bushes she had not learned well enough, and had not known to train him to eat without danger. That, more than anything else, she had grieved and resented as a wraith in Námo's Halls. 

But resentment would be a stain on this clean world, and Aredhel had returned to life to enjoy the sweet chill of the air without fear, resolutely without fear.

This time, she would not be caught out unaware in any dark forest, and bear no child - next time, if a hunter came to bring her own down like a hart with a spear through the chest, no poison at all would be able to boil her blood from within.

What kin she had on another life had waited long for her return, and could stand to wait longer still. The body is renewed, but not mastered yet. She has centuries to do that, and a mind to travel farther yet than ever she had gone into the reaches of Eldamar.

A familiar dizziness overtakes her senses. Her stomach turns over on itself, hurting with hunger. What a sharp and terrible thing it is to be alive and weak!

It would take centuries to build up her old resistance, to be wild and indifferent to poison as any creature of the wild. Aredhel leans her face on the side of tall oak, laughing.

She gathers a greater share of gleaming berries for the journey, and goes; and not even the wise hares would be able to spot her feet on the forest floor.

#aredhel #nolofinweans #nolofinweanweek #silm fic #silmarillion #my fic

[lesbiansforboromir]

Okay... listen, hear me out... is Rings of Power really ‘de-queering’ or more ‘cishet normative’ than the text? Like I keep seeing these takes from people and it honestly baffles me like yes... the short haired male elves and the beardless dwarf women are some kind of GNC loss in comparison to other adaptations (for the elf hair anyway, not like we’ve ever had dwarf women on screen before) but like... are you going to tell me that Elrond and Durin’s relationship feels entirely heterosexual? That Celebrimbor’s whole shit feels entirely cis? That his remembering of Earendil sounds entirely platonic? That Poppy and Nori’s relationship has no interpretability into queerness? That whatever Isildur and Valandil have going on has no interpretability into queerness? That Miriel grabbing Galadriel’s face had no undertones to it? That Gil-Galad’s manner and dress and unmarried status is something no queer person can find meaning in? That those three evil wraith women weren’t visually queer coded? Yeah they were really made for the straight male gaze for sure. 

Like we have to be clear, the text only ever has queer interpretability, sometimes it seems very intended, but it is never stated unequivocally and during this specific era? Where is all this queerness that we’ve apparently lost from the text? Because Sauron is seducing Galadriel as well as Celebrimbor? Because Sauron isn’t a twink like everyone believes he should be? Sorry, I’m not going to lie, I far prefer the queer subtext be given to characters other than Sauron. Of course queer coded villains have their place in queer culture and Sauron has always been fandom interpreted this way which is fine and good, but I don’t think that means it’s unreasonable to not interpret him exactly as he is fandom-imagined, especially when there is so much other subtext around. And even then, is Charlie Vickers playing this straight? Alright, he has stubble and a slight northern accent, does that make queerness impossible to interpret within him? When he changes his body language on the fly from all masc to being all coy to being all languid and touchy? 

God forbid anyone say I am saying RoP is a queer friendly show, all I’m really saying is it has just as much queer-interpretability as the original text did and I suppose... jasdhkjasd I suppose! I just have never in my life expected any adaptation of Tolkien to even acknowledge queerness, let alone portray it within it’s characters (which is why the lesbian dwarves in Lord of the Rings Online are still so astounding and delightful for me to think about) so I’m not sure what anyone else was expecting. The show is actually far less straight than I thought it would be, if I’m being honest. 

#text post #erran vs rop

[ya-world-challenge]

YA Books from 🇦🇺 Australia (mostly indigenous)

Continuing the country lists for the YA World Challenge! Firstly, there is no way I can list all the YA books from Australia - there's too many! For that reason, I'm sticking to indigenous books only for the individual books list.

If you want to find more Aussie authors, look for the #LoveOZYA tag, google some lists, browse some goodreads lists, and follow @thereadingchallengechallenge. Also check out the following anthologies to find your new favorite Aussie author:

Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology Underdog: #LoveOzYA Short Stories Meet Me at the Intersection

Indigenous YA The Things She's Seen, Amebelin & Ezekiel Kwaymullina (alt. Catching Teller Crow) 💚🦋 The Boy From the Mish, Gary Lonesborough (alt. Ready When You Are) 💚🌈 The Upwelling, Lystra Rose 💚🦋 Tracks of the Missing, Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler 💚🦋 Swallow the Air, Tara June Winch 💚 Ghost Bird, Lisa Fuller 💚🦋 Songs That Sound Like Blood, Jared Thomas 💚🌈 Calypso Summer, Jared Thomas 💚 Sweet Guy, Jared Thomas 💚 My Spare Heart, Jared Thomas 💚 The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, Amebelin Kwaymullina (series) 💚🦋 Secrets from the Dust, George Hamilton ⌛ My Father's Shadow, Jannali Jones 💚 Too Flash, Melissa Lucashenko 💚 Killing Darcy, Melissa Lucashenko 💚 Grace Beside Me, Sue McPherson 💚 Brontide, Sue McPherson 💚 Wraith, Shane Smithers & Alex Smithers 💚🦋 Fog a Dox, Bruce Pascoe 💚 Njunjul The Sun, Meme McDonald Shauna's Great Expectations, Kathleen Loughnan

Middle Grade Bindi, Kirli Saunders 💚 Sister Heart, Sally Morgan 💚 Black Cockatoo, Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler 💚 Ubby's Underdogs, Brenton E. McKenna (GN) 💚 Wombat, mudlark and other stories, Helen Milroy 💚 Wylah the Koorie Warrior, Jordan Gould, Richard Pritchard

Memoir & Nonfiction Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, Various Authors 💚 Remembered By Heart: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing, Various Authors 💚 Blakwork, Alison Whittaker 💚 Jandamarra & the Bunuba Resistance: A True Australian Hero, Howard Pedersen⌛

Coming of Age Becoming Kirrali Lewis, Jane Harrison 💚⌛

💚 First Nations Author (based on author's bios, may be missing data) 🛩️ Immigrant or diaspora 🏖️ non-native characters in or about the country (ex. vacation/adventure) ⌛ Historical 🦋 Fantasy or Paranormal 🌈 LGBT

If you know of more titles I could add, just leave a comment! (I hope my sources weren't too outdated)

#book list #australia #ya world challenge #reading books #ya books #booklr #bookblr #bookish #book recs #indigenous #loveozya

[acreaturecalledgreed]

For the Multigender question asks

1, 2, 19, 23, and 30

1) What are your genders? Either labels/terms or descriptions :)

the short sweet one i tell ppl is "nonbinary man" but its really more

-im a man -im a woman (in a cannibal wraith of the marshes sort of way) -im not either, because im nothing -im both, because im everything -my gender is many things, and i call it many things -i still use xenogender and gendervoid -not really a term for it but my general alter-human/otherkin/fickin identity is hand in hand with my sense of gender and self

2) Describe your pronouns. What are they, and why?

it/its- feels good, feels organic, thank you. really though it/its is comforting to me in a way that i find very hard to describe, but it feels like a warm weighted blanket on my brain. i really, really wish ppl were less skittish about using it

he/him- even when im a woman, im still a man, and im never a woman who isnt a man, even though im often a man who is a woman

which is to say. i like having the ""male"" set of pronouns* *pronouns do not actually have genders

19) When in a situation forcing you into one gender, what do you do?

in non-queer spaces i just deal with it. it sucks and it feels really bad but its also just not worth bothering with around people who i know im going to have to whip out a dry erase board for to explain anything

in queer spaces it actively feels wounding and isolating. i genuinely feel a deep, hurt, bitter anger at ppl in queer spaces who only accept me in a place when im the Correct Gender

23) What unique parts about your identity are you proud of?

hmn. i dunno. i guess im proud that im not yielding to people anymore on it. i used to let ppl push me into iding ways that weren't true to me or using pronouns i didnt like because it made Them happier. ive stopped doing that. ive long stopped doing that, and i dont tolerate it. if you love me you love that im a genderfuck and if you dont, burn and die.

30) What do you wish more people knew about being multigender?

i GRAB the queer community by the HEAD i HOLD THEM VERY STILL i SHAKE THEM A LITTLE

when you BASE SAFE SPACES AROUND IDENTITY INSTEAD OF NEEDS, YOU ARE ISOLATING AND WOUNDING MEMBERS OF YOUR COMMUNITY WHO DO NOT PERFECTLY FIT INTO BINARY BOXES

you Cannot exclude a group based on gender. too many of us overlap. its stupid to do so.

[feminist-space]

"In a viral TikTok video, user @uhohbigboi, who is a trans and queer health care professional, on a boat in Moses Lake Washington with their family and two pride flags. The video then shows their boat getting harassed by a neighboring vessel that spins circles around them. The video then zooms in on one person flipping them off.

“These people harassed my family because we were flying gay pride flags in Moses Lake, Washington, by racing around us and shouting gay slurs,” @retro_ushi_, who is the same person but under a different account, said on their Twitter account after the video went viral on multiple social media platforms. “Then, their boat literally blew up!”

Later, the video cuts to the same boat going up in flame with three people in the water swimming toward the Pride boat. According to Newsweek, the burning boat’s driver “literally shit his pants and everyone saw when his shorts fell off in the water.”

In the TikTok video description, the poster shared that, despite the harassment, they ended up helping the shipwrecked passengers. The TikTok user explained that they, “got them out of the water immediately” because “we were nicer than they were.”

Again, the video has trended on several social media platforms. On TikTok, the video has been watched almost five million times and when 100,00 views on Twitter. @retro_ushi_ then posted a follow-up video showing two pride flags blowing in the wind with the caption, “Happy Pride Wraith Month” hanging above it."

https://instinctmagazine.com/boating-bullies-get-burned-in-viral-tiktok-video/

[dogstarblues]

honestly not just a YA issue I’ve seen some insanely boring fantasy that’s just ripoffs of bigger series or a rehash of tropes that have already been done to death in the 90s

my dear i said in my post everythings already been done. rehash of tropes is not my problem its the execution. and YA has a specific writing style that is rampant. which is why i specifically said YA as an AFTERTHOUGHT. theres boring fantasy and then theres a hollow sentence and dialogue thats barely passable. like i know abt terry goodkind! one of the most egregious cases of direct ripoffs and a garbage cobbling of tropes!

but the thing abt YA fiction these days is that its all the same stylistically. i got so excited by Raybearer and A Song of Wraiths and Ruin (what the FUCK does that title mean btw) and Children of Blood and Bone bc i thot that authorship of color would revitalize a marketing group with deeply incestuous stylistic writing. and you know what? its the same shit with african-influenced flair! utterly disappointing. much of YA has a lack of craft. just LOOK at sjm. many of the newer writers dont challenge their audience. bc YA is abt marketing. you know whose from the old guard who has bangin' dialogue? Holly Black! ill still read her work bc shes been at the craft for a long time. even her earliest work was complicated and dark, and at many points, lovely. you know whose out here being challenging? courtney summers and melina marchetta. look at donna jo napoli or francesca lia block or meredith ann pierce if you wanna see real stylistic differences or challenging themes in writing with the targeted high school age group.

queer YA too, yes queer YA still sounds like the same shit. bc a lot of ppl who write YA only read other YA authors who do the same shit! its WILD.

however that post wasnt abt YA it was abt fiction writers at LARGE who have frail egos and insecurities that ignore craft in favor of suffering under the delusion that what theyre making is entirely singular, that what they can produce is unique. and i did say that isnt the point of writing. or at least, it shouldnt be. the point should be: because you love to create. the goal can factor in, yes! like im making a series of short stories that i want to get published abt black queer and trans characters who are somehow directly or tangentially connected to a university for studying magic. studying magic at school? its been done! a series of interconnected short stories? its been done. see: brides of rollrock island. but im not making it bc i think its so unique that i dont want to be influenced by other writers and it has to be protected. im making it bc i love my craft and i want others to engage with what i love. i want to share myself.

im also writing a fanfiction rn for the first time since at the latest 2015. why? bc im in a discord for fans of a 900page literary fantasy and they love to share what they create bc they love the material so much that they study the book to develop a sense of dialogue and characterization and try to present that in their fanfic. bc they want to do it justice! bc they care abt craft! its a tiny fandom! the most hits ppl get on their fic is 217! there are only 50 fanfics for the book at most on AO3! but they do it bc they love writing and adore the material. the discord is popping off every hour of the day and theres only 111 ppl on it. but theyre creating! and i love writing and i think this act of close-reading the material will help me develop my writing!

it wasnt abt YA. it was abt writing.

#dogstar speaking #asks for dogstar

[itsbenedict]

I didn’t post about everything I played this year, so here’s my opinions on the stuff I played that I didn’t make a rec post for:

Raging Loop 

Raging Loop is one of them twisty meta Zero Escape-y branching-path visual novels where an ensemble cast is trapped in a mysterious circumstance where people are dying gruesomely, and you have to find out what’s happening and stop it by looping a bunch. 

I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it, because... it tries to have its cake and eat it too with the supernatural elements. Clearly magic is real and has important impacts on the scenario, but then other parts are trickery you’re supposed to see through, and it’s entirely uninterested in cluing you in to how that trickery was accomplished. Not exactly a fair play mystery, in that regard- you have to kind of just be along for the ride, rather than try to figure it out.

That said, it’s a good ride- pretty strong character writing, and the central conceit of the Werewolf/Mafia-style murder scenario creates really interesting drama. It’s more concerned with making itself feel clever than letting the player feel clever, but it’s still well-paced and gripping and has a pretty decent resolution.

Detective Grimoire

I recommended Tangle Tower, the sequel, pretty strongly- and this one, while obviously a little rougher around the edges with the art and mechanics (the suspicion tracker system is a total dud; I didn’t even realize it existed until I realized I was missing an achievement for using it), it’s still pretty darn good. Really fun character designs and animations, fully-voiced, and a solid whodunit backing it all. Plus- while the two are more or less self-contained, the continuity threads with Tangle Tower raised some really interesting questions.

Contradiction - the all-video murder mystery

This one was pretty fun, largely on the strength of the actors. The main mechanic of interrogating people on evidence and using their own statements against each other was some good stuff, too. Definitely had that Phoenix Wright quality to the deductions, and Jenks is a really fun character. (Had a few points where progression was just linked to standing in a certain previously-abandoned area of the map where a clue was suddenly there for no reason, there- good thing it had a hint system.)

As a mystery, it could use a little work- most of what you end up finding out is sequel bait (for a sequel that never actually came together, unfortunately), and the actual whodunit is just sort of hiding in the cracks of all that. And... cornering the culprit just sort of happens out of nowhere once you’ve got your hands on the right piece of evidence, without much fanfare. You’re following up on leads like usual, you find a little lie in someone’s testimony, and then- oh, shit, they’re just confessing everything! Unlike all the previous times you questioned them and they were super evasive like everyone else! And then the game is over. 

All in all, it’s pretty meaty and entertaining and I’d recommend it, but unfortunately the creators have moved on to other things, so there’s not going to be any follow-up on the stuff it left unresolved.

Ikenfell

Ikenfell is a tightly-designed RPG about kids at a magic school, with Paper Mario-style action command mechanics and a battle system that makes a big deal out of careful positioning and movement, which was really enjoyable. The difficulty’s a little high (I recommend always always always speccing into max damage because killing things before they kill you is worth more than any amount of defense, speed doesn’t work, and healing is cheap), but I found it really satisfying.

There’s... something... off? About... I don’t know how to put it, it’s... doing that “yes, everyone is queer and mentally ill, deal with it” thing, which, sure, okay. But for a lot of them it’s such a background thing, like... half the playable cast is unambiguously nonbinary, but like... I don’t know if it’s trying to make some statement on how there are no rules to being NB and you can 100% perform a particular binary gender presentation but still count, or if they wrote the whole story and then changed the pronouns of some of the characters for Representation Points, or what. Probably the former? I dunno, it just feels weird. Maybe I’m just not woke enough to Get It.

(unrelatedly: why the heck is the official art they use everywhere so... off-model? none of them look like they do in-game- they look like the creator commissioned someone to draw a group shot with one reference image each and didn’t tell them anything about the characters. how much you wanna bet they commissioned a friend and it came out wrong but they were too polite to say “sorry, no, this is wrong, can you do it over?”)

Trails of Cold Steel IV

Hoo boy. It’s... not great, and it’s not great in a pretty predictable way for an even-numbered entry in the Trails series. It happens every time- first there’s a game in a new engine with new characters and a new world to explore, and it’s really nice and does interesting things... and then it ends on a cliffhanger, and then there’s a sequel game in the same engine with the same characters and the same world, reusing as many assets as possible. Also the League Of Generically Evil Anime Supervillains is there causing trouble for reasons they refuse to explain, and the plot is a storm of magicbabble and macguffin-chasing that makes little to no sense. 

Cold Steel IV is that for Cold Steel III, full stop. Welcome back to all the same places you visited last game, except this time there’s some stupid magic apocalypse happening (not that it stops you from taking the time to do random sidequests constantly, of course). The whole “oh, the evil curse mind controls people and that’s why they do stupid bullshit that’s in no one’s interest” plot point is leaned on super hard, and it’s just a big yawn the whole way through.

It’s still really fun, though, because the battle system remains really well-designed. (The same battle system that was just as fun in Cold Steel III, mind you, but it hasn’t gotten old.) And- though they’re struggling to square it with the dumb mind control apocalypse plot, the NPC dialogue continues to make the world feel believable and lived-in. They don’t slack on the parts that make Trails good- it’s just the parts that make Trails bad are making themselves more evident than ever.

did finally get to date Towa though so that’s a win

One Step From Eden

OSFE is... uh. It’s fucking hard is what it is. It’s sort of a deckbuilding roguelike, and there’s this combat that takes place on a grid, and- wait, it’s like Mega Man Battle Network, it’s exactly like Mega Man Battle Network. Man, I forgot about that, but the mechanical influence is extremely obvious. It’s MMBN meets Slay the Spire.

Except it’s super duper hard as hell, because unlike MMBN you can’t pause and swap out chips or anything- everything is just always happening so much, all at once, everywhere, and you have no recourse but to git gud and learn all the enemy patterns and the behavior of your own spells and develop the twitch reflexes necessary to not fucking die from all the shit that’s on the screen always.

(What’s the story? Uhhhh, there was some kind of magic apocalypse, and some anime girls are trying to reach a city for some reason that doesn’t really get explained ever. The game doesn’t really care to build its world at all- it’s all mechanics plus a little token character dialogue that doesn’t say much.)

The point is it’s really frickin’ hard but I am an epic pro gamer and I got ALL THE ACHIEVEMENTS, MOTHERFUCKER. If you’ve played it, I expect you to be really god damn impressed with me, okay???

A Short Hike

This one was really relaxing! It’s a platformer where you explore an Animal Crossing-y island of cartoon animal people, collecting mobility upgrades- but like, mainly it’s about straight chillin’. The flight controls are fun and there’s lots of little secrets to find and it’s just a nice time that doesn’t drag on too long. Not too much to say about this one.

Pokémon Sword

Ehhhhh.

I’m not here for the hot takes about how Dexit is good actually. Development hell happened, they had to make cuts for time, I get it. It’s disappointing and makes the game a little bit worse, but it’s not the end of the world.

Apart from that... perfectly serviceable? The Wild Area could’ve used a little more technical polish (as could most things in the game, really) but was a step in the right direction, giving the player a wider array of early-game team-building options than ever before. No HMs is good. Story and characters were kind of nothing, but that’s par for the course. “At least this time they’re not shoehorning in some kind of stupid evil-team-wants-legendary-pokemon-to-destroy-the-world apocalypse plot”, I thought to myself before they managed to shoehorn one in at the last minute with zero buildup- but, hey, beats wasting half the game on it.

It’s nothing special and it’s missing a lot of polish, but its problems are mainly due to being rushed, and presumably next gen they’ll be able to reuse a lot of the models and animations (maybe even improve the animations so they’re not so boring??? a man can dream) and make something interesting. SwSh seem like they were testing the waters for something else, and not taking too many chances in the meantime. 

(yo why would you sell all these cosmetic items and then turn them all off during gym battles, though) 

Hades

Hades is- oh, who am I kidding? Everyone knows Hades, it’s the game of the year, greatest thing since sliced bread, Supergiant are heroes, yada yada yada. I’ve played almost 300 hours of it and I’ve completed everything except all the Resources Director levels (currently a Sigma Wraith), it’s extremely fun and you don’t need me to tell you that.

Petal Crash

It was that thing the Paranatural creator helped on? It’s, uh. It’s a block-sliding puzzle game thing, sort of in a Puyo Puyo vein. It has fun character designs and some good dialogue, like you’d expect from Zack’s involvement, but it didn’t really leave an impression otherwise (besides how got dang infuriating some of its Turn Trial puzzles can be.) The story is... kinda heartwarming, kinda didactic, kinda childish, not especially deep or interesting. Hard for it to be, when it’s told through little bits of fluffy character dialogue that exist to set up a puzzle battle as quickly as possible. Not super recommended unless you really really like block-sliding puzzles.

Hollow Knight

Man, why’d I sleep on this for so long? It’s a metroidvania platformer with heavy Dark Souls inspiration, in terms of tone and difficulty and death mechanics and environmental storytelling. And it’s... apart from all that, just really good as a game, with tight controls and juicy movement and great animation. Progression is linked as much to mastery as it is to upgrades collected- I found myself in lategame areas facing down things that would’ve killed me ten times over at the start- not because I had the best gear, but because I’d learned the game’s language and understood how to move in ways that wouldn’t get me killed.

(Usually. Sometimes I’d walk into a room and sit on a bench and suddenly there’d be a boss fight and I’d get slaughtered. Ain’t that just the way it goes?)

Anyway, on top of all that it’s just charming as hell, with a really unique and well-realized world full of little bug people. I love how, like, your character is clearly some kind of eldritch abomination, but it’s small and cute and so everyone (besides enemies that attack you on sight because they’re possessed by some kinda evil mold) is like “awww, who’s this little guy? want some help, little guy?”

(except Zote, who is just an ass hole. i love him.)

#game rec #also some game non recs #long post

[mrsunstrider]

I’ve been out of the fandom side of league for a long time, but I’ve had a lot of thoughts about the current event and how much of a letdown it feels to me, and I wanted to get them written down somewhere. Spoilers ahead for the Sentinels of Light event, up until the end of part 3.

I’ll start with the things about it I like: I think all the art for the event is incredible, the art team did a really good job, likewise the music and cinematic were both good. I like the relationship and animosity between Riven and Irelia, I think this was a good opportunity to have them interacting and is one of the few things that has been done well in the visual novel. I think Gwen is very cute, and I like that it’s canon that she’s the one dressing them up. I liked the parts with Rengar - the only section that’s actually made me laugh so far - although I think he’s also been written very… out of character. I’m not a big Rengar fan, so I can’t really comment on it in depth, but I’m pretty sure he’s never referred to himself in the third person before.

As for the rest of it.... Yikes.

I understand and appreciate that they couldn’t put every champion in, but to not mention anyone directly involved in the event is a weird choice. Where are the leaders of Demacia and Noxus? Why should I believe that Leblanc would leave the (apparently incredibly easy to get into) Black Rose hideout open to anyone? I know it’s established that only relic weapons can defeat the wraiths, but does that mean every other champion just… I don’t know, died before the sentinels arrived? We see random background characters - the solari soldiers, lunari people, those two piltover sentinels - but literally no other champion who could’ve been included even if just to go “shit’s fucked huh, I gotta stay here and protect my people” or whatever.

But then the whole event seems so disconnected from the rest of the lore and the other relationships throughout it. I think Graves and Miss Fortune are the most egregious examples of this. All of Graves' lore, short stories, cinematics he’s been in have mentioned TF or shown him with TF, but when you meet him in Piltover he’s there “on vacation” and there’s no mention of TF at all. Even when you get to Bilgewater and meet up with Miss Fortune there’s no mention of him, like he just didn’t exist. It’s so heavily at odds with how they’ve been treated in the past, with being heavily entwined with each other’s stories, with TF’s multiple voice lines in legends of runeterra mentioning Graves, even with the nods to TF in the Sentinel Graves skin. 

Miss Fortune, imo, has had it the worst though. All of her previous characterisation has been ignored in favour of having her immediately betray the Sentinels for power. She’s portrayed as desperate and paranoid, convinced everyone is working against her to help Gangplank, instead of the self-assured, powerful captain Riot has been putting forward since Burning Tides. When the bio for Ruined Miss Fortune came out, I thought maybe they were trying to cover up spoilers for Ruined King, but now I don’t even know where Ruined King is supposed to fit into this narrative. Pyke and Miss Fortune seemingly don’t know each other, and none of the other characters in Ruined King are mentioned at all.

All in all the whole thing doesn’t feel like a big canon event, it feels like a poorly written, rushed AU. Done well, I think a visual novel could’ve been a cool format to tell this story, but I think it would’ve benefited so much more from being a chaptered story on universe instead. Compare this even with Burning Tides - the story, the featured game modes, changing the announcer to Gangplank - and it just falls flat in so many ways when it’s supposed to be so much bigger. @vaguely-concerned said on their post that it feels like the sort of fanfic men write to disparage women and queer people who write fanfic, and they’re honestly completely spot on, right down to the shoehorned in no-homo relationship between Graves and Vayne.

From what I’ve heard, the lore team didn’t even work on the visual novel, but the skin team did and honestly… it’s obvious. The Sentinels of Light event feels like it exists just to showcase cool things that could happen, with no regard for the established characters it’s using to do them. And while the event has been disrupted by covid and delays, that doesn’t change the fact that the writing is juvenile, repetitive and that the story has no set tone. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a serious event, when the player-character seems to only have joke lines, when Graves’ only motivation is apparently robbing people, when Rengar is sad because someone beat him up once.

I’m someone who really likes the lore in League of Legends. I thought Burning Tides was amazing, and I’ve been waiting years for them to do something similar, but this event has just made me tired and sad. The enthusiasm I had for it at the start of the month has just fizzled out completely, and now I feel like I’m just waiting for it to be over so we can wait for the next thing.

Anyway this was a lot of words to say I’m a salty TF main lmao

#League of Legends #Sentinels of Light #boy I wrote an essay here huh #here's all my feelings anyway lmao

[contre-qui]

Book 31 of 2021: A Song of Wraiths and Ruin

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

(hardback, 480 pages; YA, fantasy)

The best way to honor them would be to take them with her toward whatever lay on the other side of that marvelous sunrise. And maybe as she did, she would find her way to the answers that lay on the other side of her pain (391).

Keeping these real short and sweet because I am literally 30 books behind at this point - the worst I've ever been behind I think.Generally, I thought this was a pretty cool story! As much as I love YA, it sometimes does feel a little young for me, and this was one of those cases; I think if I had been a few years younger I would have enjoyed it even more. I definitely saw the plot twist(s) coming, but they were strong plot twists and not super obvious so I can't really fault that. The big twist reveal at the end felt pretty rushed and like a bit of a cop-out - like the author wanted to end on a big shocking note rather than this being an integral part of the story. The mythos and the magic system were really cool! It was really fun to read a new basis for magical mythos in a YA fantasy, and this one was executed really well. The whole society and worldbuilding was really strong - good stuff there! I have questions about the magic system I want answered, but I got the feeling they would be explained in the sequel. At the moment, I'm not sure if I'll pursue the sequels or not. Right after finishing this one, I thought I would definitely want to dive into the sequels, but longterm it hasn't been a book that's stuck around in my head so I'm not sure I care enough. It wasn't a life-changing book or anything, but it was well done and interesting. I really enjoyed the casual, normalized, queer characters. They were just there, no big deal, which was kind of refreshing. Overall: good plot, easy and fast-paced, interesting characters.

Props to the author and publisher! They published a trigger warning in the front of the book! That's awesome, and not something I've ever seen before, but would love to see again.

My final opinion: A solid read, just maybe a little young for me personally.

#contrespeaks #books of 2021 #bookblr #book reviews #book recs #ya #young adult #fantasy #sci fi fantasy #roseanne a. brown #a song of wraiths and ruin

[galaxia-art]

[image description: a lineup of all the queer superpowered characters (19 in total) from the webcomic someone always cares, standing in rainbow order, all in super form and wearing small pride acessories, mostly badges. they’re all chilling and some interacting with the characters standing nearby. image 1 is the full drawing, images 2-6 are the first image split up into groups of 2 or 3 characters. the final image are the remaining 6 cishet characters in a more sketchier drawing. they dont seem to be getting along as two of them are argueing and the others are very uncomfortable. longer ID continued under the cut due to length]

happy pride! ok its july now but i drew this in june, so. anyway this took. a while. suprised i managed it

just stuck to the superpowered in this one, sorry cap’s mums

[from left to right, in rainbow order, staring with black, to red, then following the rainbow back round to purple and pink. first is iris, a short demonic looking person with a ninbinary pin, nervously wringing their hands and looking to omen beside them. omen is a grim reaper looking person with skeleton limbs and nb, aro, and rainbow pins and a they/them badge.

next is xandra, a tall woman in white with a long coat and a trans pride badge and lesbian bracelet. shes smiling down at mori, an old man next to her, and holding her arm. mori has normal clothes including an old bomber jacket and trans and bi badges.

next is inkmaster, a woman dressed in red and covered in various red tattoos, as well as trans and pan bracelets. shes miling and reaching up to a fair few butterflies flying towards her, flying over the heads of other characters. above her is dominic, a large, odd looking orange bird that looks sort of like a fluffy chicken mixed with a cockatoo but also not.

below them is lin, a young woman in yellow and orange, including her wheelchair. she has a bi badge pinned to her capelet, and is exitedly talking to medicas, a tired looking woman in a green doctors coat and hijab, holding onto an energy drink. she has a heart chaped ace pin and thin lesbian badge.

next is mateo, a lanky dude with goggles in his fluffy hair and a scarf. his cropped sleeveless jacket has 6 various badges, aro, ace, nb, trans, and two pronouns badges: he/him and they/them. he also had a nb bracelet and aro ring, and is smiling and resting his elbow on the shoulder of rami, a starry eyed boy with gay and ace bracelets. hes grinning and flapping his hands.

beside him is swarm, and short woman in a white and teal suit, with horns and a lesbian badge. shes raising one arm into the air as that hand dissolves into the butterflies mentioned earlier. beside her is dante, a pointy eared shapeshifter in their usualy outfit but just blue, their hair now with shaved sides and long on top, tied in a bun. they have 5 badges, bi, aro, genderfluid, nb, and trans flags. theyre staring over at lewis.

lewis is flipping the bird with both hands over at his friend jade. lewis is is a blue jumpsuit and sleeveless hoodie, with ace and bi pins, and a trans flag necklace. between lewis and jade is arrow, a tall man looking very concerned at the two teenagers. arrow is in a white and dark blue supersuit with an arror emblem and bi pride bracelet. he has a hand on jade’s shoulder.

jade ignores him in favor of flipping lewis the bird back with one hand and a fingergun in the other. jade is a girl in lavender and poofy shorts. she also has a trans bracelet, lesbian badge, and rainbow and trans necklaces. behind her is quartz, a grumpy looking person in regular clothes and one blue-purple arm made entirely out of jagged crystal. their hair and eyes are split through the middle, blue and purple. they have a nb and bi pins, and is frowning up at the boy at the very end, who is sitting on the ceiling.

next is cam, a short teenager with purple bangs and 3 badges: ace, pan, and nb. theyre glaring up at the woman next to them, holding up a floating, glowing, circular shield between them and the woman. the woman, faete, looks like a faerie and is entirely in pink, with a tail, glowing wings, and with a lesbain badge. her arms rest on the crossbar of her sword.

above and behind her is a young man named amos, grinning and sitting cross legged on the ceiling. he does not seem to be affected by normal gravity, as if gravity falls towars the ceiling. hes oldler than he was seen in the comic, with more scars and his old braclet in addition to his brothers necklace. his hair is bright pink with some yellow strands.

the other image only has 6 characters. tornado, a woman in black and a bird mask, holding a mug and leaning away from geode, a pointy eared woman in blue, wearing a featureless mask, yelling over at her husband. between him and her however is tsunami, in a blue wetsuit and goggles, holding up both hands, palm outwards, and looking super uncomfortable.

wraith, geodes husband, is a man in dark purple, with glasses, creepy eyes, and a dark cloak. behind him is mindforce, a tall man in purple. his expression can only be seen through the eye holes but he seems concerned. lastly, a woman in orange, sun flower, just stands there, one hand face palming, the other resting at her side, next to her pistols. end id]

#sac #someone always cares #lgbtq #pride #queer

[andateandante]

Books read in October 2020

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia - Noemi gets sent to a small town in Mexico to figure out if something’s wrong with Catalina or her new family. 

 I really loved this one, terrifying in a very real way, minus the mushrooms.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruins by Roseanne A. Brown - A boy is tasked to kill a princess to save his little sister; a princess must marry and kill her husband in order to resurrect her mother.

It was not what I expected, I expected Malik to be ruthless and he’s an angel.

The Starless Sea(audiobook) by Erin Morgenstern - A grad student finds a book in the library and finds himself in one of the stories. 

This book is absolutely magical

The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante - Two sisters looking for asylum in the USA, Marisol’s only option to keep her sister safe is to submit for human experimentation.

It made me cry. It felt too cruel, too real and unreal at the same time

Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lin - A Chinese American girl cursed with erratic visions of the future must take lessons from her aunt if she hopes to find love one day.

It was really not my thing. It’s a lovely romantic story with too many descriptions of food, clothing and architecture

MEM by Bethany C. Morrow - Memories are extracted from people. The Mems are a living record of memory, with time they fade away, except for Elsie.

This book really inspires a conversation on memory, humanity, and how a single memory can affect future actions. I really loved Elsie.

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta - A Jamaican-Greek British queer boy journey to find himself in poerty and drag.

I don’t know what to say except I love it? Read it. It’s told in verse, so it’s a short read.

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal - A hunter is tasked to retreat a book and bring back magic. An assassin has been tasked with murdering the hunter.

Full of adventure, secrets and angsty conversations with amorous intent

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst - Two princesses fall for each other. Only one problem; Denna is engaged to Mare’s brother.

Horses, forbidden magic, and love; not to mention defiance against the patriarchy.

Dread Nation (audiobook)by Justina Ireland - The civil war ends with the beginning of the zombie plague. Jane McKenne, a Black girl, is sent to a zombie-killing finishing school.

It’s a genius book. I love Katherine and Jane and I’m excited to read the sequel.

Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton -  Every 7 years a boy is sent to the Devil’s forest; his life in exchange for prosperity and health of the town. The bargain’s broken. 3 teens in love go into the forest to fix the bargain.

I love this type of concept. A romance involving a devil? Sign me up! Beautiful writing as well.

#books i read #2020 reads #october reads

[personally-im-feeling-pantastic]

Stargate Atlantis Rewatch, Season 1 Episode 8: Underground (pt 2)

Part 1

Ok so the leader of the Genii just said that his scientists tell him that there's no negative affects from long term exposure to radiation, so uh, this doesn't bode well

Rodney, stop giving them detailed instructions about building weapons

Oh, and yet another civilization that our heroes have neglected to mention the reawakening of the wraith to

And a master deflection by John Sheppard

But it didn't work

And now the Genii's leader is storming off

And the Genii just showed their true true colors

"Once we have extracted all the information we can from you, you will be left on the surface. You'll be the first the wraith feed upon, I promise you." Harsh. But not surprising.

John, why are you still trying to salvage this possible alliance?? You guys can find tava beans (what they originally came to this planet for) somewhere else, your main priority is to get the fuck out and never come back!

"I built an atomic bomb for my grade six science fair exhibit." Rodney, you worry me.

"They let you do that up in Canada?" Ford, I love you.

"It wasn't a working model. Still, I was questioned for six hours by the CIA, who believed I was part of a secret preteen organization." I love this. "Actually, it led to my first job-" I love this even more. And I want to hear the rest of the story. Please, McKay, give us more.

What I want, is for them to go back to Weir, update her, and for her to go "no what the fuck!!!! Absolutely not what were you thinking???”

Yessssss it happened

"Allies? You just said these people were ready to string you up. How can you trust them?" Finally, someone with common sense

Ok, so their hands are kind of tied, the Genii made them agree to leave Teyla and McKay behind on the planet, claiming that they needed help with planning the bomb

"Personally, I stop short of offering nuclear weapons."

"They were building them anyway." Ford! I expected better

Oh and McKay didn't even win his science fair :(

Ok now I see why I've seen people shipping Teyla and Sora. God, my queer little heart

Wait are they blowing up the ship now????????

They don't have the bombs????

What?????

Ok, they're just doing a recon mission

Aren't these wraith ships sentient or something?

And I just remembered that wraith wrap people up like spiders, right as we saw some people, wrapped up like spiders

Some of them are still alive, according to Teyla

But none of them worth the risk and effort to rescue, according to the Genii

Good, Sheppard just assigned Teyla to freeing people

And Sora's dad just said he'd help her, and I can't tell if it's for nefarious reasons

Hahahaha they just came to a door, and j I was reminded of the Ronan knife scene

'How many knives do you have????'

'How many knives do you need?'

Anyways

Back to pre-Ronan times

Jump scare! Jesus

And the Genii stayed behind for nefarious reasons (stopping Teyla from rescuing people)

And he just shot the person Teyla wanted to rescue

And they were discovered by the wraith (exactly his excuse for not rescuing the person)

Oh, look, now the Stargate Atlantis team is being turned on, big surprise

But Sheppard had a plan!

"You do not want to make an enemy of the Genii." Bitch?? You?? Just?? Tried?? To accuse them of murder and then steal all their stuff??

And apparently the Genii's plan never would have worked

Also 60+ hive ships in the Pegasus Galaxy, with around 21 in their quadrant alone, yeesh I'm glad I'm not them

#stargate atlantis #stargate #sga #sga rewatch #teyla emmagan #lieutenant ford #john sheppard #rodney mckay #elizabeth weir

[michaelmilligan]

Noone:

Literally noone:

Not a soul:

Me: Okay but what about an SPN/SGA crossover with trans!Cas and also there are trans Wraith, including trans queens and trans kings, bc yes there are kings, but they are really rare but revered not just bc they can typically give birth, but also bc they are strong and resourceful and generally amazing. And trans queens generally can't give birth, but that's okay bc they are fierce warriors and take excellent care of their hive in every aspect and their minds shine brighter than anyone else's. Also they often take in younger queens or kings to raise them like their own children, and if the trans queen dies, the young queen/king takes over the hive.

Also nonbinary Wraith exist and some of them are royalty. It is considered a great honor to serve such royalty, which are rare and transcend the understanding of binary Wraith, who can only marvel at the beauty that is the gender expression in the nonbinary Wraith's mind.

Also Wraith come in all sexualities (including, but not limited to, bisexuality, pansexuality, asexuality, homosexuality, heterosexuality).

There are Wraith polycules.

There are Wraith qpr.

There are a multitude of genders, sexualities and partnerships (most) humans have never even thought of and wouldn't be able to understand.

#In short: queer Wraith #I know they're the bad guys in the show but wow did the books help me see their... humanity is a weird word here #They're living beings with feelings and a history which was anything but easy but they adapted and overcame #Also trans!Cas #And destiel of course #Sam is also on Atlantis as an anthropologist #Cas resigned from the military the day before the trans ban was enacted #Then he came on as a scientific consultant at Atlantis lol #Bc mayyyyybe Landry gave him a tip and a number to call #Dean is a lieutenant or something and has been on a gate team with Cas for years #And due to Atlantis getting more and more residents guess who has to bunk together #Sadly there are two beds but that doesn't mean they have to use both of them #Now that Cas isn't military anymore they can actually be together without the immediate fear of being thrown out #Even though I know bisexuality might still lead to problems in the friggin military #But I have decided that all superiors at Atlantis are firm allies who will not tolerate any nonesense from soldiers or anyone else #There's so much more but these are already too many tags lol #Not like anyone will read it anyway #But this is all still just in my head and I've never actually written it down #I'm beginning to think that I might need to do so at some point #Even though it's a lot of fun to keep changing things #Redo the same scenes with slight differences again and again #Change the order of things #Add new stuff #That's what I love #Not the writing part #I like that and I especially like reading it afterwards #At least in recent years where I think my writing improved #But yeah #I may just write this to finally write a trans character #Or several hehe

[uberfluss]

do them all or else

Fairy- What is something that you get excited about? camp

Mermaid- What are you looking forward to? the school year

Elf- What are you proud of? the fact i can make stuffed animals

Dragon- Sexuality? queer

Griffin- Gender? who the hell knows

Unicorn- Who do you look up to?  i dont really think i do

Spirit- Have you ever been in love? i dont even know what that means

Ghost- Favorite song? pro-test skinny puppy

Poltergeist- Favorite song lyric?  nothing matters so it doesnt matter if nothing matters OR  there are 7 billion 47 million people on the planet And I have the audacity to think I matter I know it’s a lie but I prefer it to the alternative

Ghoul- Who is someone that makes you laugh easily/who’s company you enjoy most of, if not all of, the time? maggie

Goblin- What makes you happy?  music

Dwarf- Favorite tv show? simpsons or how its made or mythbusters

Vampire- Are you currently reading any books? If so, what book(s)? nope

Werewolf- Who is your family? Who do you live with?   my friends are more of family than my family and i currently am inbetween living situations

Siren- Favorite color? pastel pink or bright light blue

Hobgoblin- Do you like anyone? my partners

Wraith- Any scars? a lot lmfao

Specter- Have you ever been in love? truly a bold statement

Chimera- Will you/do you want to get married? the fact im supposed to sign a legal document declaring i love someone and will stay with them is terrifying if something happens im trapped so... no. maybe if there are kids involved so if there’s a falling out and theres a risk of something then maybe but otherwise id really really rather not

Changeling- Do you want children?i mean i have one so

Oracle- Do you like children? yes

King- Describe your ideal day. sleeping in until 9 going to the mall and the skate park then going to downtown and doing night photography all night

Queen- Age? no body knows

Princess- What is your relationship with your parents like? rough

Prince- Birthday? i literally dont remember

Necromancer- If you could spend a week with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be? my aunt

Castle- What is something that not a lot of people know about you? i can do a back bend

Tower- What is (at least one thing) something that you’re afraid of? failure and abandonment

Magic- Describe your crush without saying their name. they’re short, they have brown hair and they’re a cutie

Enchanted Forest- Height? 5′5

Magic Healer- Any pets? If so, what are they? 3 betta splendids a family of white cloud minnows  and some other misclanious fish, a kitty and a doggo

Potions- Relationship status? taken?

Potion Making- Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? uhhhh yes definitely

Divination- What do you think about yourself? i dont have anything nice to say about myself and my therapist says negative self talk is bad so :)))

Visions- Do you miss anyone? yes

Curses- How do you show affection? physically love is my #1 but also quality time and gift giving and acts of service

Charms- Are you religious? yes

Hexes- What’s your favorite smell? pepperment

Jinxes- If you could be anywhere, where would you want to be? mannheim

[mistress-imagines]

Hello! Can I get a killer and survivor matchup? I'm a queer bisexual woman, 5'1", of mixed Southeast Asian descent, with dark eyes and short dark hair. I'm somewhat athletic, but still petite. I wear thick-ass glasses because my eyes have been bad since first grade, and I'm currently an art student. I love videogames, horror movies and cats! I can have a bit of a temper and at times, I'm really bratty. Though I love hanging out with my friends, I'm an introvert at heart and I prefer the quiet.

I match you with Claudette Morel and The Wraith/Philip Ojomo!

Claudette would love swapping glasses with you to see how you compare. She’d probably regret it, but the selfies you’d take together would make it worth it.

Both Philip and Claudette are cat people, so you can be sure to have a minimum of one in the house. It would probably be most often found in Philips lap, arguably the quietest person among the three of you.

Philip would tease you to encourage the bratty behavior, as it makes him laugh, but he’d never push too far into making you upset, wrapping you in a hug to make sure you knew he was just playing.

Being an introvert is perfect for both of them; They’re perfectly happy to just share your space and relax if you’d prefer, but can be coaxed out of the house with you when you want that, too.

#dead by daylight #dbd imagines #dbd matchmaking #dont typically do two for one but hey why not #Anonymous