#are these all of my physical copies? how many copies do i own in total?

[basil-does-arttt]

been thinking about Trish a lot lately, and her connection to Eva

(Big ranty thing with some analysis into her character + my own headcanons about trish below)

She was created to be a carbon copy of Eva, right down to the most unimportant details. So much so that Dante recognized her immediately he didnt even do a double-take, as soon as those glasses were off he saw Eva standing infront of him instead of Trish. (I mean, blonde haired+blue eyed women arent uncommon and its not like Dante has never been into a public space before. Hes probably seen similar women to Eva many times throughout his life, but only Trish was so perfectly like Eva that he couldnt see anything else but his mother in her that first moment they met.)

But thats just physical features. It'd be too easy, too simple for Mundus to just create a look-alike to Eva. And i dont think that alone would've been enough to trick Dante either, Dante isnt an idiot no matter how dumb he acts sometimes. So, how deep into this "recreate Eva" thing did Mundus actually go?

Does Trish experience the same motherly instincts Eva had toward Dante (and Vergil)? Does she feel the need to protect them and cherish them like Eva did? Does she get urges to hold them, kiss and hug them and give them praise as Eva once did in their childhood? If so, does she ignore these feelings, pushing them down untill they're buried so deep within her mind that she's forgotten them entirely, or does she let them be and let them pass on their own, wether she acts on them or not. She's quite sassy with Dante in dmc4 and seems quite aloof in dmc5, so maybe thats how she copes with it instead - acting the total opposite to what Eva ever would.

Going even deeper into that, does Trish have any of Eva's memories? Even just vague snippets or imaginings of Eva's life, considering how well Mundus made Trish then that might not be an impossibility. If so, how much would she have the ability to recall? Could she even recall the fire, maybe? If she can, how would she feel about it. Would she grieve? Feel anger, regret, or nothing at all?

And how would she feel about all of this overall? Being a clone of Eva right down to the gritty details even Dante wouldn't know. Trish is so strongly contrasted to Eva in personality, style and tastes that i'd like to imagine she isnt that much of a fan, put simply. She's her own person, she wants to be her own person and she hates the person she represents. She hates how her existence causes pain to somebody she's wired to care so deeply for - sometimes against her will - and she hates seeing him cry or drink himself to death over that dusty old picture thats been sitting on his desk for decades, knowing that she'll only ever make it worse for him in the end, that his grief extends so far into the core of his being that nothing in existence will ever truly fix it.

She's conflicted.

She's Trish. But is she really? Or is that just who she says she is in an effort to push back and ignore the reality of her existence? Nothing more than a fake, a husk of a person who's time was cut short prematurely then taken advantage of by the very being that killed her in the first place.

She's Trish. Not Eva. She can't be Eva, and she never will be Eva. Nothing will change that. Not a dusty old picture, not an old man's delusions, not some dead demon king who breathed life into her form in the first place.

She's Trish. But who even is Trish? Her entire being has always been about Eva. She doesnt know anything else. So she overcompensates with acting sarcastic and sassy, looking hot and sexy and playing with guns and swords because those are things Eva wouldn't ever do herself. Eva. Again, it all comes back to Eva.

She's Trish. Devil hunter and the most 2000s representation of "hot blonde" one could get. Thats who she is. Or at least, that's who she's trying so desperately to be.

Trish needs more love from the developers, her character is so interesting. I have other analysis' of the other characters too if anybody would be interested in that but for now, ill leave you with my take on the iconic blonde from this wonderful series.<3

#devil may cry #dmc #dmc trish #trish devil may cry #character study #character analysis #headcanons #im planning to write a fic on this topic btw #something like trish having an identity crisis #and trying to find that identity through various means #might include some lady x trish in there as a guilty pleasure #ill reblog and link it when/if i do write it

[lady-harrowhark]

Started the new year off right by spending some time rearranging my Locked Tomb display!

(The top right print is by @naomistares. I don’t believe the others are active on tumblr but I can link to Instagram in the comments if anyone’s interested)

#this is directly in my line of sight from my desk and it makes me so happy 🥰 #HOWEVER it's always hard to get a picture of because the ceiling fan is in the way #i had to literally lean my phone against a light bulb to get it relatively straight on without glare #i have a few more little projects in mind for this display that i'm looking forward to as well! #are these all of my physical copies? how many copies do i own in total? #excellent questions! the answer is [semi-truck passes in front of me with the horn blaring] #the locked tomb #tlt

[2024-grimoire-challenge]

January Week 1

Welcome welcome to the 2024 Grimoire Challenge! Time to really get started everyone! This week will have a lot of stuff all jammed in. So buckle up, grab your grimoire and your supplies, and let’s get to work!

Monday

Name your book - this may seem silly and you definitely don’t need to name your book. Not properly at least. Other than “my grimoire” or “book of shadows” or what have you, which is totally fine. But some of us might feel the need to give it a proper title. “The Basil Grimoire” or “Hazel’s Handwritten Workings” something, anything, that ties the book to you and your craft. Make a title page! If you feel so inclined. If not, that’s fine too.

Definitions (New Page) - ritual and spell. Let’s define a few things. Make a page specifically for definitions, that we’ll add to through the challenge. Let’s start with a couple simple definitions. Define spell. And define ritual. Within the confines of magic, witchcraft and your practice. What is a spell? What is a ritual? What are the differences?

Study (herb) - Pick another herb from that list we made, and dig into the details. Make a page for it on its own, or add its info to another page! Whatever works for your craft. The questions to ask for these study prompts are going to continue to remain the same. Where did it come from, where does it grow, how does it grow, what are its mundane and practical uses. What are the myths and legends and stories surrounding the herb? What are its magical properties and why/ how do you think the other information you've learned about it have influenced its magical associations?

Tuesday

Outline/ index (New Page!) - it helped me a great deal to have an index or outline to my grimoire. I started this as a file on my computer as my grimoire grew and changed I could more easily manage it and rearrange it as I saw fit. Then eventually I could make it into a handwritten copy.

Study (gem) - Like our herb prompt, the gem prompts are going to always use the same outline and questions. Where does the gem come from? What is it used for in a practical and mundane sense? What are its physical properties? What are any myths, legends or stories? Where and how does it form? How does all of that relate to its magical correspondences and what does the herb mean to and for you in your craft?

Spellwriting 101 (New Page!) - make a new page dedicated to spellwriting. This is going to be one of those prompts that is focused on you and your craft. How do you write spells? How do you set them up? What components do you use? What is the format? How is it done? What does it require? From materials to timing and circumstances? Write it all out in your lab notebook. Make it a work in progress. Not all spells are going to work out the same or function the same as you perform them, but having a general layout and method helps to focus your practice.

Wednesday

Common tools - What are the common tools in your craft? That is, you don't need to have a list of every single tool ever used in witchcraft, just the tools that you use in yours. Both regularly and less regularly. What are they used for specifically? What purposes do they serve in the magical and practical sense? Are they ceremonial and symbolic or do they serve an actual physical purpose? (i.e. a wand used to direct energy serves many purposes, while an incense burner could literally just be that, an incense burner)

Year outline/ calendar - not everyone celebrates the same days, holidays or even the same holidays the same way. What are the special occasions and days in your calendar? Mark them and when the proper season/ holiday comes around, we can make pages dedicated to those days. This week this will simply be a list of these days, while later we will actually make pages for them individually. Think of it like the Wheel of the Year, Yule to Midsummer and so on. What days are important to you and your practice? Are they actual holidays? Or simply days of power like the full moon? Or is it simply days that are significant for other reasons, like the anniversary of the day you began practicing witchcraft?

Practical - tool usage - practice using your tools. For example if you use a wand. Practice using it to direct energies or whatever it is you utilize it for.

Thursday

Altar design/ work space (New Page!) - make a page dedicated to your altar and its setup. Why are things where they are? The reasoning can be simple as “that’s where it fits” or you can give it a more meaningful reason. Candles in front of or behind something to represent some purpose. Do you have items that represent the elements? Deities? Different sources of power or directionality? Different colors for different meanings? Why is your altar the way it is?

Practical - cleansing space - practice cleansing your space and tools. This is of course a physical and 'energetic' cleansing. Tidy it up, redecorate your space, clean the tools if they have dust or ash or anything on them. Sometimes it is good to have a clean start.

Friday

Personal practices - this is just a thought provoking prompt tied in with the Journal prompt below. What are some of your personal practices that you've brought into your witchcraft? Anything from little habits from your every day life to things brought from religion or family traditions. No matter how hard we try, we carry within us echoes of things not related to our practices into it. And that is totally okay. Recognizing them, acknowledging them, and truly incorporating them can be a huge step toward understanding ourselves, our beliefs and our practices all around.

Journal/ introspective/ meditations - Think about the above and write any of it down that you come to terms with. Self understanding is important in and outside of witchcraft.

Thank you all and I hope this week's prompts aren't too overwhelming! Stay tuned next week for the next set of prompts!

-Mod Hazel

#2024 grimoire challenge #grimoire #grimoire challenge #paganism #witchcraft #witchblr #witchy #2024 gc #book of shadows #dark academia #occult #occultism #magick #magic #witch challenge #witchy challenge #book of magic #grimoire info #grimoire inspiration

[sea-buns]

not really, but I suppose that’s just a difference of opinion. I do think that gorgug’s nightmare sequence was one of the weakest, especially with how it shifted topics (being dead, small spaces, not being able to escape a stereotype, because if any of these had been expanded on that would’ve been great), but I do think a lot of gorgug’s character revolves around feeling in-between, or too much one thing and not another and trying to close that gap. The best one for me was deffo the sphinx tho, I interpreted it as not *just* about him being dumb, but rather like. You’re big and dumb and strong and your main job is getting angry and hitting shit with an axe. You went to a community of gnomes and they gave you a better axe, and you loved it. You are uniquely dumb, unlike those who have come before you, because you cannot solve a specific kind of puzzle while a sphinx talks at you. You are the reason your parents cut contact, and from the beginning you were unsuited for their home. Your extended family predicted that you would grow to know only rage, and here you are, a barbarian. You, from this perspective, are not proving them wrong.

I do think that that whole sequence does reveal that he’s afraid of like. Being that stereotype? And then going yeah sure I’m stupid eat me, then moving forward and clawing your way into understanding anyways

Ahhh I see. Yeah I think I did misunderstand your first ask a bit lol

I did really love a lot of the topics his sequence brought up. Like I've read some incredibly well-written fanfics that covered the ways that claustrophobia, and imposter syndrome, and being dead have affected him. But like you said, if they had just honed in on at least one, rather than hopping back and forth, it could have done so much for that section. Cuz, personally, I don't feel like we saw Gorgug be significantly affected by any of those. At least not in a way that felt complete and satisfying.

I really like what you said about his character being "in-between". I totally agree. Kinda circles back to how his parents trying to help him calm his rage was actually stifling him.

Your family needs you to calm down; you've broken another bedchairdoorappliance. Your teacher wants you to rage; he says anger is good but you don't understand. You sing to try and calm yourself, you're always trying to be kind to others; they only use it to hurt you more and all you can do is get angry back. Your friends need you to rage. You don't have the power to protect them socially, but this you can do. You try not to rage outside of a fight, but.... they don't seem to be that bothered when you do. In fact, you watch them provoke physical confrontation when they're mad on many occasions.

(Oops dipped a biiiit into the pot of how important friendship is to his character. Did not mean to lol it's just one of my fav things about him so it's kinda subconscious I guess)

But yeah! He's also in such a limbo this season as well! You can't do this you're too angry, you're not smart enough for that, you don't rage right.

Also realllyy like your interpretation of his trial. The angle you described it at was really interesting.

I don't think stereotype is the right word, though. I would say... he's afraid of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy? I'm assuming based on your own "stereotype?" that you weren't sure about the word either.

I don't think Gorgug is, or would ever be, afraid of being a "stereotype". Like I don't think he gives a shit about the stereotype that orcs/half-orcs/barbarians only know anger and destruction. I think he's afraid of being a self-fulfilling prophecy of all the things people say that he is. Stupid, mindless, destructive, etc. To pull from what you said here (which it wont let me copy paste on mobile god fucking damnit)

"Your extended family predicted that you would grow to know only rage, and here you are, a barbarian. You, from this perspective, are not proving them wrong."

"Stereotype" for sure applies to his racist extended family. They fucking breathe stereotypes like oxygen. But the bit where his afraid of becoming what everyone says he is, I think "self-fulfilling prophecy" suits that much better. He believes he can be more than that, he knows he can, but it doesn't change the fact that they are technically right.

Okay and the giving in but then "clawing your way into understanding anyways" actually goes so hard lol. Anon, you are so right. From that pov, it's not so much a give up as it is an acknowledgment before he essentially puts the subject on ice.

Rings back a bit to the start of fhjy to me. That dread of seeing the email of school starting back up again, and the terrible sinking pit in your stomach of avoidance, because the time has come to really unpack all that. There was something specific Zac said in his little Gorgug recap before the season started that was about, like, the dread of having to figure out who the fuck you're gonna be when everyone around you seems to have their shit together. That. That hit hard lmao but the experience that he's covered is very true to Gorgug, I think.

I totally misunderstood your first ask! Though I'm happy you sent another cuz I understand a lot better, I think. And tbh I've never had the opportunity to discuss that section of fantasy high with anyone? I wasn't on tumblr or watching d20 when it first aired so I missed these specific topics. Always been v interested in what others thought of his part. Maybe I should put the vods on in the bg next time I'm play sdv. Give em a relisten. And man. The fact that I'm out here quoting your message brings me back to english class so hard. Shocked I don't hate it. Actually having a topic you give half a shit about does wonders huh lmao

Thanks for the ask! You have altered my perspective and I appreciate it. It's like how sometimes you gotta read something out loud to understand it. If all I have is the walls of my own skull, I can only get so far.

#i want ppl to send me more discussions this is fun #making me question my fucking future career choices lol #dimension 20 #d20 #fantasy high junior year #fhjy #fantasy high #fh #fantasy high sophomore year #fhsy #gorgug thistlespring #character analysis #asks #anon ask #btw yall can also dm me if you would like #i do like the public discussion but if you wanted more in depth back and forth dms are open #i did not proofread at all i have food to get so apologies lol #edited to add a read more link cuz long post

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

Are you aware that I'm-a-gay-fish and Zu ship dr//m/are ?/genq

okay so it took me a while to answer this but i finally found the words to so here goes; yeah i do know, and i totally understand if you don't ship it, neither do i, but there's nothing i can do about it?

they're allowed, so long as they don't harm people, to do whatever they want on their own platforms. and before you ask me if i support *ncest, would you actually ask someone if they support toxic relationships and murder whenever they ship two unhealthy killers with mental problems? because that's funnily enough what most people do around here! you can say it's not the same, and that they're romanticizing it, but i can personally detach myself from fiction enough to realize that while this concept depicted in their art shouldn't be recreated in real life, that doesn't mean they actually engage or support people that do that irl- they asked zu the same question so many times, and frog doesn't either and i've known gayfish for three years! you're well within your right to stop associating with them or distance yourself from their content but i myself won't.

i know fiction affects reality to a degree, don't twist my words please, but if you're too young to consume that kind of content with a nuanced perspective or is triggered/affected by it then as long as they tag their content properly then you can unfollow, block and move on. i have a habit of following and reblogging people's works before looking at their bios and before i know it find myself having to choose between two sides i don't belong to and i frankly don't want to! anti this or proship that- in this online era you have to adapt by keeping your cool and curating your own online experience and viewing people in black and whites is stressful, painful and dangerous for everyone involved. i don't even reblog the content you probably have a problem with, and i'm honestly still scared of the response i'll get-

i will not blame or hate whoever unfollows or blocks me for this, it's to be expected, but please don't think about it like some bad vs good guys dilemma? sometimes thought provoking morally grey ambiguous stories with messed up characters spark more positive discussion and healing than people looking into it because they suffer from the same delusions and want a justification-

like realistically, in my blog, most ppl here are basically shipping two literal skeletons with magic in their bones who are sometimes almost the exact copy of one another, and who theoretically have a very similar dna, and sometimes they make shipkids, which, if you know anything about *ncest, is one of the main reasons why you shouldn't bang your siblings - mostly from a moral standpoint because that's so gross i can't even think of it, but also because any offspring would suffer greatly from physical and mental diseases hidden in their genetic code- like. you could argue it's not the same but it's sancest for a reason. and even when they're widely different sanses, you wouldn't think fell x sans is wrong (at least in this specific community) but really we've all just gotten numb to how weird that sounds. trust me, there's a reason we don't talk about our ships to outsiders HHH

TL,DR: so while i greatly encourage you to block people and content you don't want to see/associate with, including me! i hope i made it clear why i, personally, don't care about dreammare and whoever ships it.

#thank you to anyone who made it this far and gave me a chance to voice my opinion :') #sorry this is long but i want to make it as precise and close as many holes as i can with my arguments before i receive an ask about it #it's fine if you do btw i wanna clear any doubts and i know for a fact a loot of you will either leave or be conflicted and trust me i know #it's the whole reason why i was avoiding this conversation! i kept on hoping everyone was on the same page but we're not and that's okay #truthfully i can only hope that the people who'll leave this blog after this take the opportunity to question the fics and media they like #-in the future. don't force yourself to enjoy something you don't but nothing is as cut to the point as 'this is gross stop talking' #for the record you won't see me reblog any dreammare or anything about it because i don't even like them like that so why would i HHH #also i'm sorry but zu is quite frankly the sweetest person i've ever met and frog has been supporting ME for as long as i can remember!! #they're such a big part of this blog and the reason for it's existence so i'll choose them and my principles over faking a view i don't hav #have an amazing day everyone and thanks again for passing by muah muah :'D <333

[andromedaexists]

It's Been a Week...

Seven days ago I introduced my book baby (Δάιος, you might have heard of it) into the world! On 10/10 Icky baby made his debut!!

So what has happened since then?

Well, my personal life has become a living hell but that's not what we're here to discuss. Today is all about self-publishing a debut novel.

Icarus came into the world on the 10th with a KDP ebook and paperback release. Those were soon joined on the 11th by an ebook, paperback, and hard cover wide release through the distribution channels of IngramSparks.

I have learned a lot with this process. Namely: IngramSparks is a fucking bitch when it comes to covers, Amazon will not provide quality author proofs so I have no way of knowing what my book will look like before it publishes, and that I need to give myself more time to work out the kinks next time.

Before I get too far into details, I want to highlight some numbers here. If you do not want to see publication numbers then you are free to go! Thank you for stopping by, though!

Okay, so here are my numbers so far:

I had sixteen (16) preorders on the Δάιος ebook through Amazon.

On release day, these orders processed. I also received another 3 orders that day, bringing the total number to 19.

Since that first day, I have received a total of 26 orders through KDP.

As you can tell, I had a significant dip right after pub day. This is mostly my own fault, as I am terrible at marketing and by virtue of my life going to shit I haven't even been shitposting about my book.

Of these 26 orders, 5 of them have been paperbacks

This is a lot better than I expected!! I think it's because I am so partial to physical copies that I tend to push those first and foremost before the ebook.

But these are just the amazon KDP numbers, I have also gone wide with distribution!

So how many orders have I gotten through IngramSparks??? None.

Not a one. That's to be expected though, a lot of indies sell through amazon first and foremost. I mostly set up ingram for two reasons: 1. I wanted to hold a hardcover edition of Δάιος in my hands but i really dislike the way that KDP doesn't offer dust jackets for their hardcovers and 2. Consignment

I just finished filling out some consignment forms for my local NE Ohio bookstores, we'll see if I get into any of them.

There is one other place I sell, though: my website. How many orders have I gotten there? 6!!

one of those images is different, because on my website I can offer something that amazon and IS can't. Physical goodies. The books on my website come with a pack of 6 stickers, a thank you card, and my signature! And technically I have 8 orders, but one hasn't come through yet from a friend in person and the other is for Shane bb who is getting an annotated copy of the book (I haven't finished the annotations yet lol)

So now that we have all the numbers out in the open, let's talk about money. How much did it cost for me to publish δάιος? A lot. It is possible to publish for much less than what it cost me, but I went out of my way to commission a cover artist that I just knew I needed to have and that cost me a pretty penny.

All in all, I spent $2,920.16 ($1,703.02 is the cover alone after conversion from GBP)

And how much have I made back so far, just in week one?

$73.46 from KDP royalties and $44.82 from my website ($94.95 - $50.13 for the books alone, not even counting the goodies and packing supplies) for a total of...

$118.28!!! That's a lot!!!

I am very privileged to have a credit card I can put my expenses on as I slowly pay them off, and I do not regret anything I have done in the creation of my book. Even if it makes me cry a little bit at how much I spent.

Now that the numbers are over, what are some positive things that have come of this and some negative things? (pos first)

I have published my debut novel!

There are 4 people who have read my debut novel and liked it enough to rate it on goodreads! (it has a 4.75 star rating atm!)

My book is BEAUTIFUL

Icky baby has been unleashed on the world!

I feel like I've finally accomplished something with my life

DID I MENTION THAT I PUBLISHED A BOOK???

the negatives:

I really don't like that the colors of the cover don't print properly, every copy I've gotten either lightens the contrast so you can't see the title or it darkens the damned thing and you can't see Icarus

I also don't like that IngramSparks doesn't support any letters outside of the basic latin letters on the spine of covers, because that means that my baby is naked under the dust jacket and that's just boring

Amazon Fuckt Up my print proof (i will attach pictures) and I freaked out about it for a good 4 days

I just realized today that I published daios with a placeholder chapter title about halfway through the book... so I fixed that but there are already more than 30 copies of the book in circulation with that error...

Idk if it's just my bad eyes but I feel like the text is too small in the print books. I would like to make it larger when I publish the revised edition next year

INGRAMSPARKS IS A LITTLE BITCH THAT WILL YELL AT YOU AND REJECT YOUR COVER IF YOU LOOK AT IT WRONG

I can order just a regular copy of daios off amazon and it will be here in two days. So why when I order author copies does it take TWO WEEKS TO SHIP

I really hate that the hardcover can't have creme paper. Like, gimme the offwhite. It looks so much better with my cover and the vibes of the story. Lemme use something other than bleach white please i'm begging

All in all, I learned a lot with this!! I had my ups and downs, I think I've done everything in my power to make this book successful, and now I just have to roll with it!

I will check in again at the one month mark, but yeah! That's it! Thanks for reading through this long winded post!!

The pictures, as promised:

And just in case you can't immediately see what's wrong:

The colors are off, the title has like a hard demarcation when it's supposed to be a soft glow and you can't hardly see Icarus down there

My name is brushed up against the edge of the book when it's supposed to have a decent buffer room

The spine is shifted. Why is the spine text partially on the front cover?

The colors are off on the back as well, the text is hard to read and it's too close to the edge of the book when it's supposed to be more centered.

For reference, here's the finally front cover on a regular paperback purchased through amazon (I.E. what a normal customer would receive):

#andi talks #publishing costs #publishing numbers #indie publishing #self publishing #call me icarus #writeblr

[epitome-of-an-openbook]

op I read your steddie fic where post and specifically the part abt Steve being intelligent got my attention bc (and also youre so right abt the whole thing)

-what about the fics where Steve is visibly (?? idk englishs not my thing) autistic? Cause if you're neurodivergent and can actually follow his thought process along he's super smart (unconventionally smart my beloved) but for neurotypicals I'm told it makes him sound some variation of stupid/oblivious/dumb (when he's def not haha)

-what are your opinions about the fics where Steve is _pretending_ to be stupid? Like, plays into the jock bit, and makes people think he's slow to use it to his advantage? not necessarily in a "bad person" way (and especially if you can tell he's smart from the outside/his own pov)? >>>esp if he doesn't even realize he's doing it?

-how about Steve's concussions/neurodivergency affecting the more "conventionally smart" aspects of his brain? like, his memory is shit and he can't spell properly or he can't do complex math, but he knows everyone's expressions and holds a scary amount of talent in physical activities he's never done before type thing (insp after me who got complimented by the "hardass" coach after trying boxing simply because I watch and calculate and how that's easy for me to switch into my own movements)

-opinions on Steve "looking dumb" because he's simply...not American? Like, his English is plenty good but that's because he's been copying speech patterns for so long now, and the Harringtons are tied to some p important Italian families so he almost never speaks English there either, and I personally like the fics where he's frustrated simply because he can't understand (like the story about the Korean immigrant and the lovely teacher) and also the scene in modern family where Gloria says "I know what I meant to mean! do you know how smart I am in my own language?"

-thoughts on someone lifting their head up from nerd shit and realizing Steve's been making like many smart remarks that nobody listens to cause he doesn't know nerd lingo?

(also unrelated but trans!Steve MTF _or_ FTM is so important to me <3)

I've a whole "trope theory" about different types of intelligence groups tend to have, and simply put it goes

book smarts, street (survival) smarts, emotional smarts, social smarts

and how those mix and match to show through in characters that are disregarded as stupid and I personally believe Steve is very Socially _and_ emotionally smart but because he's arguably in line to be the most toxic masculine people by reputation (not personality but the past -both his and his dads- linger) people don't notice it.

I'd love to chat more both abt my theory and Steve in general <3

Hi anon, of course I want to talk about Steve's intelligence - because I am so so so tired of him being written off as the fool, and I am especially tired of people pretending like he is not the most emotionally intelligent person in the show other than potentially Will or Joyce. Also in advance, I totally go on a BUNCH of tirades and rants so I'm sorry if you lose the thread at all, I just have a lot of thoughts and they all FEEL important to me. So yeah, this is a long one.

-what about the fics where Steve is visibly (?? idk englishs not my thing) autistic? Cause if you're neurodivergent and can actually follow his thought process along he's super smart?

I haven't read many fics where Neurodivergent! Steve's divergence is specifically autism and personally I feel that other divergences fit him better such as OCD (see - his need to keep things tidy, instances of reduced impulse control, repetitive/ritualistic behaviors, hypervigilance, and agitation), ADHD (see - his need to be moving lots of pacing and bouncing, difficulty concentrating on the group discussions, impulsivity), Dyslexia/Dyscalculia (personal/popular headcanon), or something that would affect his audio processing (personal/unpopular headcanon; see- being unable to get past the music on the recording, difficulty following along with the group discussions, immediately losing track of the group in the Upside Down Wheeler's house when he thinks he hears Dustin)- but I definitely read him as someone whose brain works in a way that is non-typical which is something we ABSOLUTELY see in season 3 where he focuses in on the music and it seems like he literally can't focus on the Russian words until he knows what the music is.

But what it comes down to is that so many people read the fact that he didn't get into college (which is more indicative of a lack of testing skills than it is for actual intelligence) and his inability to follow along with group discussions about Upside Down stuff (which could point to issues with concentration or audio processing or just a lack of knowledge regarding the lingo being used) as a way to characterize him entirely as an idiot/fool. This of course isn't helped by the Duffers refusing to deepen his character beyond "he was bad but now he's good because now he's interacting with intelligent™ people". So to answer this question, I'm all for fics that explore Steve's intellect through a lens of "no he's not dumb, he just processes information in an atypical way".

-what are your opinions about the fics where Steve is _pretending_ to be stupid? Like, plays into the jock bit, and makes people think he's slow to use it to his advantage? not necessarily in a "bad person" way (and especially if you can tell he's smart from the outside/his own pov)?

I'm not 100% sure I'm interpreting this question correctly but I have some issues with fics where the character of interest is 'pretending' to be stupid so it entirely depends on what the motivation behind doing so is.

If the motivation is "I play dumb so that I can fit in better and not be bullied for being smart" I don't like it that much - I feel like in a lot of media, and American media especially, there is this perpetuation of Smart=Unpopular/Bullied/Unathletic and Dumb=Popular/Bully/Athletic and I don't like that because in my lived experience that really isn't the case - I have friends that were the Valedictorian's of their high schools by gpa that were also class president and soccer captian and genuinely good people and some of the meanest people I have ever met were stereotypical™ nerds. So if the motivation is that he pretends to be dumb specifically to fit in and not get bullied I don't really like it. HOWEVER, if the motivation is "I downplay my intelligence so that people underestimate me" that's different and I can get behind it to a degree - no one is perfect and Steve was not the best person at first so him having a little manipulation bit like this would make sense.

Also this leads into another thing I feel we don't talk about enough - Steve is a jock with a head for STRATEGY and you cannot tell me otherwise. The ability to strategize is something we like to take away from jocks all across media, but as a former athlete myself I can tell you that a LOT of thought goes into athletic strategy and it translates well to other aspects of life. We also see Steve make quick strategic decisions A LOT but we never mention them - some examples include when he leads the scoops troop through the crowded russian base w/o getting caught - some of this is simply poor writing/tracking and i will admit that but if we suspend our disbelief for a second it's Steve that looks at the set up takes in the information and says "Follow me, stay low and be quick" as they navigate that scene, we also see it in season two when him and Dustin get to the junkyard and he says "oh yeah this will do nicely" and then he proceeds to set the stage for catching Dart with a clearing to trap him, a reinforced fort for protection and surveillance and honestly the only reason this goes wrong is because there was more than one demodog. So yeah being good with strategy lends itself well to Steve using his intelligence as a manipulation for others to underestimate him. I personally would love for there to be a fic where one of the kids challenges Steve to a strategy game like chess or risk or something like that and for him to DECIMATE them because strategy is the thing he's good at.

-how about Steve's concussions/neurodivergency affecting the more "conventionally smart" aspects of his brain? like, his memory is shit and he can't spell properly or he can't do complex math, but he knows everyone's expressions and holds a scary amount of talent in physical activities he's never done before type thing

For one I would like to quickly put out there that Steve almost definitely got a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) from the Russian Torture - and probably PCS (Post Concussion Syndrome) from the fight with Billy (I would also like to quickly mention that these are different things with different causes and potential future outcomes/side effects, I feel like they get confused a lot in this fandom which is totally fine but just a reminder that a concussion comes specifically from your brain impacting your skull and how he receives his head injuries from Jonathan and the Russians would indicate to me that he probably didn't have a concussion those times but when he crashes the car in season three he could have easily gotten a whiplash concussion which is something we don't talk about but does actually happen a lot and it's less likely to get treated because people don't realize you can get a concussion w/o hitting your head. Also I am so sorry about this head trauma info dump, it's just a subject I have lots of experience with/knowledge about).

ANYWAY, yeah TBIs and PCS can really mess with your head and are often the cause of things like memory loss - as well as vision and hearing impairment. Also TBIs have been studied a lot in American Football players and sometimes they can even cause shifts in personality. (Also @peter-pantomime has some really good discussions and headcanons regarding Steve's head traumas so I highly suggest their content both here and on tiktok.)

And yes, Steve consistently proves to be extremely socially intelligent. You do not get to the top of the high school food chain by simply being attractive or athletic, you have to be capable of understanding and manipulating certain social interactions - walking into a room and knowing who to talk to and who to avoid, popularity is often just a matter of networking and part of the reason Steve loses his popularity is because he abandons the network he built himself up through and switches it out for a group of people much lower on the social ladder. We also can tell he's incredibly emotionally intelligent through his interactions with others - scenes that really show this are Steve cleaning up the theater sign and going to apologize to Jonathan (some might say this is just emotional maturity but i would like to point out that he was emotionally intelligent enough to realize that it was Jonathan that deserved the apology instead of just Nancy) (s1), when Will comes home and we see him empathize with the worry of Joyce & Jonathan (s2), when he can seemingly tell that something happened between Nancy and Jonathan but instead of lashing out he supports her (also s2), when Robin comes out to him and also technically rejects him but he just treats her like normal (s3), like… every scene with him and Max in S4, and also when he tells Eddie that he needs to stop being so hard on himself when he keeps talking about how much of a coward he is (also S4).

-opinions on Steve "looking dumb" because he's simply...not American? Like, his English is plenty good but that's because he's been copying speech patterns for so long now, and the Harringtons are tied to some p important Italian families so he almost never speaks English there either, and I personally like the fics where he's frustrated simply because he can't understand (like the story about the Korean immigrant and the lovely teacher) and also the scene in modern family where Gloria says "I know what I meant to mean! do you know how smart I am in my own language?"

I have never seen this done before, but I absolutely adore this concept, if you (or anyone else) has some fic recs with this trope 👀👀👀 please share.

-thoughts on someone lifting their head up from nerd shit and realizing Steve's been making like many smart remarks that nobody listens to cause he doesn't know nerd lingo?

Yes do it, caveat: I think it needs to be Robin, Eddie, or Will - I think everyone else is a little too in their own way of realizing Steve has consistently made good points.

For Robin, as a Queer Platonic Stobin truther, I feel like if anyone were to really get into Steve's brain it would be her.

For Eddie, I feel it comes from that same vein that we see people pointing out that Eddie is the only person who directly answer Steve's questions, so it would make sense for him to be the one to say "wait hey - Steve is actually asking incredibly relevant questions that lead to a point he wants to make."

For Will, I simply think that he's the most emotionally intelligent member of the original Party and also the one with the fewest interactions with Steve so if he were to be with Steve in a time of crisis he wouldn't ignore Steve's thoughts the way that sometimes happens and notice something about how he processes information or something and be like "why did you guys all tell me he was dumb, he's making extremely relevant points right now?"

(also unrelated but trans!Steve MTF _or_ FTM is so important to me <3)

<3 Trans!Steve 🤝 GenderFluid!Steve solidarity

I love fics where Steve explores gender identity or at least his relationship with gender presentation, I'm partial to GenderFluid!Steve but regardless I love this.

#stranger things #steve harrington #steddie #let steve be emotionally intelligent #stranger things headcanons #Steve Harrington headcanons #asks #Steve is intelligent pls discuss #tw head trauma

[skiiyoomin]

I was wondering if you could write a saiki & reader oneshot fic with a reader who has DID & C-PTSD and paranoid tendencies? I understand that that might be a bit too hard to write but just in case I got some recorces that might be handy, here is the link to DID listing from my own copy of the newest version of the DSM https://www.dropbox.com/sh/htaraej65e34tg9/AADBATmelRQFUBfTMxaJ3W6wa?dl=0 as well as this website that has a lot of good info on it https://did-research.org/ and this page I found that has a brief overview of C-PTSD https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24881-cptsd-complex-ptsd but I also recommend quickly reading thru the different types of flashbacks (shouldn't be that hard to find info on)

The main idea is that because of the mix dissociation,switching,paranoia, different types of flashbacks etc that the readers thoughts are very fucking confusing to saiki (feel free to use this premise for any kind of plot you want just try not to make it overly angsty is all I ask, well as un-angsty as you can get with C-PTSD anyways lol) I just wanna see more y/n / reader inserts that I can actually relate to but the saiki K fandom is so small

Can be platonic or romantic

Hi!! So sorry for the late reply, I researched as much as I could so if theres anything remotely wrong or different please tell me! Ngl, im not very sure i like how it turned out, nevertheless I hope you enjoy :))

Also i totally get that its hard finding stuff for saiki k which is the reason why i write for it in the first place, they totally deserve more recognition!! Feel free to send more requests in the future!!

warnings: somewhat angsty but not really, i tried to be as vague as possible so as not to trigger anyone, reader suffers from trauma, DID, CPTSD, swearing, fluffy ending? slightly oc saiki

RULES !!

DO NOT COPY OR REPOST MY WORK PLEASE

REQUESTS: OPEN

NAVIGATION

WHO DO I WRITE FOR?

summary: Saiki was used to listening to many types of thoughts, and at one point, nothing he heard surprised him. However when you came around, he was beyond confused. What sparks as a little curiosity might turn into something more.

-------------------------------------------------

No matter what | Kusuo Saiki

He was used to it, or at least that's what he used to tell himself. Throughout the years he had heard all sorts of thoughts, at one point, he learned to tune them out when need be, having listened in on weird enough ideas that now don't surprise him anymore.

When you came in the picture, he was...baffled, to say the least. Confusing wasn't even close of a word to express how he felt. Your thought process was anything but simple. At times it'd be a fuzzy mess almost as if you lost part of your memory, other times, you'd think as if you were a completely different person, contradicting many of your previous thoughts. But what disturbed him most was the series of traumatic thoughts that would cross your mind. Flashbacks he realized in that moment.

In the beginning he felt annoyed, as per usual. Often times, he'd find you in class with a dazed expression, which to be frank, he had seen enough times to not give it a second thought. But then his attention would be caught when your mind would wander and you'd start thinking in a very unusual way. They were so unlike the person you presented to be, so much so that Saiki was left perplexed and in need to understand exactly what was going on.

The more it happened the more worried he'd be. There were days where you acted a certain way, and other days where you acted completely different. He could tell you weren't being fake trying to act differently for attention, after all, your thoughts lined up with the you acted and the things you said. Rather, it was the abrupt changes in your behaviour that had him thinking for far longer than he normally would.

Along the way, he also picked up how you'd flinch if you were in sudden physical contact, the way your shoulders would tense and the way your heart beat would speed up. Saiki wasn't stupid of course, he was aware that all of this was caused by some form of trauma.

He knew not to pry, yet his heart strings pulled everytime he saw you having a bad moment. So he began to follow you, in disguise of course, and even if he seemed like a stalker, he couldn't help it. Eventually he began to connect the dots, your reactions, behaviors, everything. It made sense now.

Unconciously, his words began to soften around you, his touch became gentler, he looked out for you in ways he had never done so with others. You began to notice but in no way did you mind, if anything, Saiki was someone you took great comfort in. What started of small slowly grew into something neither of you expected.

Of course, that didn't make it any less hard for either of you. Like right now. You were laying in Saikis bed, your head resting on his shoulder as you watched a movie, when suddenly a specific scene had triggered an anxiety attack. Your mind was racing through flashbacks of the many disturbing events you had gone through. Saiki was up almost immediately, having read your mind and sensed your reaction.

His touch was soft, his hands cupping your face so gently you'd think he was scared to break you, which he was. He was in no way someone who could comfort others easily. Nevertheless he tried his best. He attempted to lower your heart rate, rubbing small circles against your back as his other hand held the back of your head. No words were needed, they never were. He had, in a way, been there for you, way before you two even became a thing, so none of this was a surprise for either of you.

That didn't ease the guilt in your heart any less. You always felt bad. You knew Saiki could read you, literally. And well, it wasn't pretty. Countless times you had attempted to push him away, yet he never budged.

"'m sorry" you mumbled against his shoulder as your rested your head on it.

He cupped your face in his hands, pulling you to look at him.

`I won't let you push me away. The things you went through won't make me see you any differently, because to me you'll still be someone I cherish'

Your eyes welled up as you looked him deep in the eyes, finding nothing but love for you. Still cupping your face, he ran his thumbs under your eyes, wiping the tears away. He leaned forward, pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead.

'I love you'

"No matter what?"

`No matter what'

#headcanons #masterlist #saiki kusou no psi nan #saiki kusuo #saiki no psi nan #kusuo saiki #saiki k #saiki fanart #ao3 saiki #the disastrous life of saiki k #disastrous life of saiki k #saiki kusuo no psi nan #saiki x reader #saiki icons #saiki headcanons #saiki imagines #saiki reactions #saiki oneshots #saiki k headcanons #saiki k imagines #saiki k fanart #saiki k x reader #saiki k no psi nan #saiki k fanfic #saiki ff #saiki fanfic #anime masterlist #anime edit #anime and manga #anime gif

[mermaidsirennikita]

No please talk about how people are weird about Manacled because I see this too and yet nobody seems aware of this?

--I see multiple big name book bloggers refer to this as one of their favorite "books" when it is literally, in no way, legally or in the simple conventional definition of a book, a book. Like, I am literally this close to unfollowing someone whose recs I sometimes like because they also proudly own a professional bind-up of this book.

--Speaking of bind-ups (and when I say "professional"... book binders should not be binding fics; they are potentially opening themselves up for legal trouble, and I know that when someone offers to pay you hundreds of dollars for a bind-up of a fic it's gotta be tempting, but for the love of God do NOT do it and also don't request one, because you are also opening yourself up for some quagmires, and you do not want to get into it with JKR or her publishers or for that matter Margaret Atwood/Hulu/whoever currently has control of The Handmaid's Tale because this is in fact a fic of two different things) I personally find it incredibly wasteful to bind a fic, but that's just my personal snobbery. I cannot IMAGINE paying that much money for a bind of something I can read for free on my phone.

Like... I have respect for book-binding, it's a beautiful art form. I've seen beautiful binds of that fic. But beyond all of the risks I mentioned above, it's just honestly such a goober thing to do in my mind lol. You can spend your money how you want. I totally get why people re-bind their old copies (or new copies) of paperbacks they own and love... for themselves. And do not sell them. (Honestly, don't really know how that would work for the fic--binding it yourself and not selling it could be okay?) If I could do it, I would.

But for the love of God. I am begging people to get real with themselves about what fic is and what fic isn't.

--I really don't get how this is going to work as a reworked fic, tbh. One of the reasons why I do respect the process of converting a fic to a book in many cases, and consider that a valid form of getting a book... is that for all intents and purposes? The vast majority of these fics were essentially people writing original works and slapping vague physical features and names onto their characters. The Love Hypothesis has absolutely nothing to do with Reylo in terms of world or character development. As much as I loathed Wallbanger as a book--that is not Edward and Bella. To me, it sometimes feels like these AU fic writers wake up and go "oh, I wrote a book?"

And there is still work that goes into reworking. I read the fic that was the original form of You, Again by Kate Goldbeck. Honestly? You can see the rewrite in a big way. She did the work.

Manacled basically took a huge chunk of its world DIRECTLY from The Handmaid's Tale. And that's fine! For a fic. The fic is not an "all normal humans" AU. It's not a historical AU. It's not even a high fantasy AU. These people are witches and wizards and Voldemort won and there is a Handmaid's Tale angle. I do not know how she's going to take that into a completely different place without essentially just writing a new book lmao.

Which is the one issue I do have with fic to books, and there's no way of getting around it, and it's not immoral, it's just irritating that we dance around it in these conversations, and it is especially irritating when you get the "dur dur fic is better than original books". A hit fic does not require the same amount of effort that a hit original book does. When you read the fic you think is better than book... 9 times out of 10, you are reading it because you are a part of that fandom. You are receptive, preemptively, to that world. In fact, I would argue that you are probably more inclined to like it, subconsciously, because you are sliding into something that is familiar, or is coded to be familiar even when it's an AU.

This isn't to say that there isn't art to writing a great fic. It's not to say that there isn't a true accomplishment to writing a fic that really sticks with your audience. But the reality is that you did have a pre-set audience, "bought" by the original work that created your fandom, and that is something a truly original book does not have. When a truly original book (or, I'll give, a book based off a more obscure fic that doesn't tout itself as fic to book--and a lot of people did not do that as much back in the day, because of stigma surrounding it) hits big... That's because it did the original seduction of the audience. The author did the promo. The premise got people to open it. The book was good enough, or at least had enough "it factor", for word of mouth to kick in. I will ALWAYS give that credit to popular original books, because it is not easy to make an original work hit, and while it may not be easy for fics to hit, it is easier. And that built-in audience does travel to known fic to books.

So, because Manacled is so dependent on that HP/Handmaid's Tale world, the author is going to have to really go in on tearing it apart, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's pretty unrecognizable. It should be. And the only reason why the Manacled label will remain is that built-in audience. Which is technically fine, and I guess I should hate the game versus the player here. But it gives me the ick, I guess.

There are gray areas, I guess. I liked The Hurricane Wars, and that does owe more to SW than The Love Hypothesis or You, Again. However, I do appreciate a lot that Thea did make clear changes, and did curb the world around culture influence Southeast Asian influences. That last part especially is a big distinguisher even though a lot of the fans don't seem to acknowledge it at all but whatever.

I just don't get it, tbh.

#romance novel blogging #sort of #i guess weird fic stuff blogging lol

[copper-dragon-in-disguise]

Could you do me a favor and tell me literally every piece of info abt dnd you can? Asking for an aster

@amethyst-aster (just so you see it)

hello!

so. this is long which is why there is a cut. i feel i ought to foreworn you that i read the entire players handbook cover to cover the summer i turned 11 because i was lonely and autistic. i memorized it (mostly. little rusty on some of the magic rules but whatever). /not sarcastic so! this is EXTREMELY LONG.

first up! your basics:

dungeons and dragons is a tabletop roleplaying game first created in 1974 by gary gygax. that's not so important. what is important is this: it is currently in its fifth edition (shorthanded as 5e). that is the one i know the most about and it is personally the one i think is the easiest to play, but thats my own preference. my biology teacher thinks 5e is bloody stupid and he plays the second edition (2e), which i find much harder and more limiting.

There are three core rulebooks, and a number of supplementary books.

The most important of those three (and the only one you need to know, really, unless you're the one running the game) is called The Player's Handbook (PHB). It contains the rules for building a character and playing them.

Because it will run you upwards of $50USD per copy, here is a pdf of it on archive dot org.

The other two is the Monster Manuel (MM) (a book of all the monsters in the game) and the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) (a book of how to run a game, but you don't need it as a player). They are here and here.

There are a number of d&d youtubers who have tutorial videos on this type of thing. my favorite is Ginny Di, but there are literally dozens out there.

BASIC TERMS

A Character sheet is the thing you have all the information about your character recorded on. It comes in several variations, but this is a free form fillable pdf version, and this is a free printable (both from the wizards of the coast (wotc) website, but the second is hosted on archive.org) (wotc are the company that owns the copyright to the game).

A class is the vocation of the character. its what they do with themselves, but its not necessarily a job.

A race is the character's species. this is also called their species, but in offical material you'll see it called their race.

A background is how their past shaped the character.

A backstory is that past.

Ability scores are the abilities of the character, they are determined with dice rolls. There are six of them, and many years ago someone explained them with tomatoes and that's still the easiest way to explain them in my opinion. You figure them out by rolling 4d6 and adding up the three highest numbers, for a total of 6 times.

ID in alt text. [I cannot find the original source, I am sorry, nor the graphic's source]

There are various types of dice, conveniently labeled with this image below:

ID in alt. [Source]

The d20 is the most important; its what you'll use to roll ability checks and saving throws and etc.

If you don't have your own physical dice (they are advalible online, at barnes & nobles, and at your local gaming store, but many people don't have a local gaming store (me)), you can roll them on many websites. My preferred one is this one, but any work. Google has its own built in, too.

MAKING A CHARACTER

So. You have your dice, now what?

Now you make a character sheet! there are many videos online explaining how to do this (there is a lovely one here and here), but i'm going to explain it here how I generally do it.

Step 0- OPTIONAL:

Take your character sheet, and come up with an idea. Who do you want to play? A gay disaster who can shapeshift? a hobbit? a chaotic ginger with too many cats and a habit of making deals with eldritch powers? You can be whatever the hell you want. alternatively, you can look at the options in the PHB first, and go from there.

Step 1- Pick a race/species.

There are well over 30 of these, and I'm not listing them all. But the ones advaliable in the player's handbook are as follows:

Dwarf. Your sterotypical mining, axe wielding, beared fantasy dwarf. ex: Gimli, in Lord of the Rings

ID in alt. [Source]

Elf. Traditionally depicted as tall, graceful, and living in the woods. Generally have pointed ears. ex. Legolas in Lord of the Rings.

ID in alt text. [Source]

Halfling. Literally just renamed hobbits, so they don't get sued. Known for being short and excellent cooks. ex. Frodo, Sam, Merry, & Pippin from Lord of the Rings. (I can't seperate them, it feels wrong)

ID in alt. [Source]

Human. We all know what humans are. Generally viewed as very adaptable species in d&d! also in real life. ex. Bill Nye the Science Guy.

ID in alt. [Source]

Dragonborn. A bipedal species descended from dragons. They're cool as shit. ex. I literally cannot think of one i'm sorry.

ID in alt. [Source]

Gnome. Known for being very tinkery, small, and causing mischief. Also, for some reason, for being in gardens. ex. Pike Trickfoot from Critical Role.

ID in alt text. [Source]

Half-elf. Half elf, half something else! They generally have a lot of angst, but not always. Sometimes people say they combine the best of both worlds (elf and human), and sometimes people say they have it really shitty. ex. Keyleth from critical role.

ID in alt. [Source]

Half-Orc. half orc, half something else! I dunno really how to describe them. ex. Fjord Lavorre from Critical Role

ID in alt. [Source]

Tiefling. A humanoid species with horns and a tail, and often brightly colored skin. Extremely Gender in my opinion.

Step 2- Pick a class.

There are 12 core classes, and one more added in a later book. I'll go over all 13!

ARTIFICER. A magical tinkerer. A bit like leo valdez in pjo? Their core stat is intelligence. In my opinion they're very complicated for a first character ever, but do what you want its your game i do not care.

BARBARIAN. If you want to wear no armor, have an axe (or other weapon), and charge into battle shouting, this is the class for you! its fun and decently simple for first time players, in my opinion. Core stat is Strength (and constitution).

BARD. Someoe who uses the magic of creation to do shit. Also known for seducing anything that moves, but that's optional. Core stat is charisma. Seems simple at first, but they have a lot of spells to manage at later levels, but they're not too hard. The main guy in the d&d movie is one.

CLERIC. They're healers and warriors. Generally have got some sort of divine magic, but don't necessarily have to. Semi-difficult? I haven't ever played one, so I don't know how easy it would be for a first character ever. Main stat is wisdom.

DRUID. Person who turns into animals and respects the enviroment. Basically, the lorax, but less orange and with more turning into animals (druid lovers out there i am sorry for saying y'all are the lorax please don't come after me with pitchforks). they're okay for a first character but they can be a little confusing. Main stats are wisdom (and constitution).

FIGHTER. Someone who fights things. The most basic of the d&d classes, and one of the simplest for first time players, probably, but I haven't ever played one so who knows. Main stats are strength or dexterity.

MONK. Person who punches people a lot. Like Aang from avatar: the last airbender. Main stats are dexterity and wisdom. They seem simple, but one of the mechanics is slightly confusing, but they're still really simple.

PALADIN. Your tradition knight. A guy (gender neutral) in plate armor with a horse and loyalty issues. I love playing paladins so much, they're great. Personally I think they're a little confusing. Main stats are Strength & Charisma.

RANGER. Someone who wanders through the forest and fights things, like strider (but not like aragorn) from lotr. Core stats are wisdom and strength. My first ever character was an elf ranger named Thia Nailo. She was awesome. Rangers can also have pet panthers and shit, and sometimes small dragons (not tiny dragons, though. Like horse sized dragons).

ROGUE. A thief. My second ever character, and the first one who I played for any significant length of time (thia's campaign died out) was a half-elf rogue named Enna Helder-Kromlin. Rogues are a really good class for first time players, I feel like. Core stat is dexterity.

SORCERER. Someone born with magic. Main stat is charisma. They can be a little complicated.

WARLOCK. Someone who made a deal with some sort of higher power (eldritch being, god(s), etc) for magic. they make bad decisions for a living and its awesome. my favorite ever character was an elf warlock named Mara. Her patron lived in a shield and she had a wisdom of 5 but a charisma of 20. Core stat is charisma.

WIZARD. Gandalf. Someone who studied magic and learned it that way. Main stat is intelligence. They can get really complicated, really fast, but they're still a viable option for your first time.

Step 3- Backstory

There are other things to do, but its late and i'm tired. What you need to do from here is figure out what your character's life was like before now. Or, if you dont want to, then get a vibe for their personality or something.

NOW WHAT?

When you have a character, your DM (Dungeon master, the person running the game, the ''narrator'') will give you scenario, and you roleplay your way through it.

Literally anything can happen. It's d&d. the rules are suggestions, not actual rules. Make it what you want it to be!!!!

If you have other questions please contact me I love them even if it takes me forever to answer them sometimes.

#d&d #dungeons and dragons #asks #amethyst aster

[thepapergirlandthespiegelman]

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who still remembers and loves CDs. Vinyl records have made a comeback and are now considered cool among certain varieties of hipster and audiophile, but CDs haven't had the same treatment.

And like, to some extent, I kinda understand that. CDs aren't cool. Records are cool. They're big and textured and elegant and they're objectively old enough to feel vintage rather than dated. They're not exactly durable but they make up for their fragility with their other positive qualities, and you could certainly argue that warping and scratches add exactly the kind of character to a record that we've lost with digital music and therefore crave from physical media. A slightly damaged CD pretty much always just becomes totally unplayable.

So I get it. And I'll readily admit that the biggest reason why I like CDs is simply that I grew up with them and have fond memories of them. But I do also think it's objectively true that there are certain positive features unique to CDs. I will never tire of the experience of giving and receiving mix CDs. You can't do that with a record. (I mean, I don't think you can? Not easily, at any rate.) And it's not the same as a playlist! It's not the same. When you make a mix CD, you not only curate the music for the recipient, you burn the disc, you decorate it, you make the sleeve or pick the jewel case and make the paper insert for it, figure out how to wrap/package it. I mean, obviously you don't have to do all of these things, but the opportunity is there for a lot of creativity and love. And in the end the person gets both the physical object as well as being able to make digital copies of the songs on their computer (which also allows them to use those songs in their future mix CDs, continuing the cycle!).

The mix CD is just so unpretentious, wholesome, and kind. It gave the average person unprecedented power over how music was curated and shared. (I mean, of course mix tapes did something similar, and maybe they deserve more credit than I give them, simply because they're from before my time; but I kind of have to assume that CD mixing is a much simpler and more efficient process.) The mix CD creates a loving context for experiencing music. Here, I made this! Special from me, for you! I think context is one of the things which we most desperately miss in this modern age, where we're fed our newest songs by the goddamn algorithm (whether that's Spotify, TikTok, YouTube, or whatever). The mix CD is personal, human, earnest and sweet.

(And yes, to some extent, playlists do this as well, and they have their own advantages. But I think the shareability of playlists, while making it possible for many more people to experience your creation, has ended up discouraging the intimate act of making something just for one other person and instead promotes the idea that what is most desirable is to have your work seen by the greatest possible number of people.)

I started thinking about this because I saw another post talking about the removal of CD/DVD drives from computers and it really does make me sad thinking that this may be the final nail in the coffin of the mix CD. I've had to depend on external disc drives to make my mixes, and I'm sure that for most people, CDs have passed totally out of their awareness.

I'm not saying the mix CD is the end all be all of sharing music. There are already lots of other ways to share music and I would quite like to think that we will continue to invent new ways. But I do find it very sad that the art of the mix CD is dying, and while the mix CD itself may be doomed, I really hope that we don't forget its virtues, and find a way to keep the spirit of the thing alive. Physical object as well as digital copies that can be shared with others, permanent ownership of the music (rather than just streaming/renting), the burning and reading of this object being cheap and accessible, personal touch/high customizability (not being limited simply to song order, a single cover image, and a short description), intimacy. These are what I don't want to lose.

#text #thoughts #media #music #physical media #CDs #mix CDs

[northwest-cryptid]

I don't collect many things, but of the things I do collect I think the most surreal is physical Mabinogi merch.

To explain Mabinogi is an MMORPG that came out in 2008 and I've been playing it ever since beta. I'd argue it has plenty of charm and enough reason even now in 2023 for anyone with even some slight interest in it to give it a shot however to me (and to my partner) it has a special place. Not only is it how my partner and I met, but it's literally a game I have played for 15 years now; considering I'm 28 that's over half my entire life.

As you might imagine back in middle school and even early high school I didn't really have a lot of money, let alone the understanding of how to order things from overseas. So a very niche MMORPG didn't necessarily have a lot of merch out and about. While most kids at my school had Pokémon backpacks or some kind of Anime plastered on their shirt (normally Naruto or Dragonball) I never had physical merch. So I was always that annoying kid who had to verbally tell you how much I liked my dumb special interest.

To give you an idea of how much this game was a part of my life, my mother once bought me an actual copy of the Mabinogion, like; the book that the game is loosely based on, it's entirely in Welsh and my mom also gave me a dictionary to translate it, I was stoked about this; I was in early high school walking around with a black book with a red symbol on the front speaking in Welsh as you can imagine this did not make me popular and cool.

Now my partner and I collect actual official merch, just last year we acquired a few magazines, guide books, and even manga. It's incredible to behold such a snapshot of time from when this was all still new and popular.

This is a guide book from back when the slogan for the game was still "fantasy life" it would later become "anime life" and a few other things; but this is the one I remember from my childhood:

We were really excited to look through this and translate it, more over we were taken aback by the system requirements listed in the guide book, I mean just check out these specs!

The funniest part is that there was a time at which I was getting a new laptop because I had to travel and I specifically gave the guy at Bestbuy this almost exact rundown for the specs I needed. This was of course because my plan was to install Mabi on it, which I did. However I had a hard time explaining to anyone why I wanted these sort of specs specifically without saying "uh so I can play an extremely niche online game from Korea?"

We also got books that were literally Item and databooks which had full lists of items you could obtain in the game as well as what races and genders could use them:

This was an absolute trip down nostalgia lane for us.

I cannot stress just how cool it was to flip through these pages and go "oh shit I had those, oh I remember that! Remember this? Yea it was from an event, damn that was a long time ago; oh god I'm old."

It's crazy to see just how much detail and effort went into these! I didn't even know they existed, if I was aware of these back in school I'd have gone ballistic over them like, check this out there's entire pages dedicated to Generation 1:

of course the merch pages caught our eye looking over all the stuff we have yet to hunt down for our collection

These books are great and I personally love the manga, illustrations of the world that I've only ever seen as low poly PMGs is such a sight to behold as a long time fan.

However you may notice something, there's not a ton of physical merch. Sure there's books and manga, and it seems like at one point there were standees and a few figures, posters, and mugs; but these days getting your hands on the rarer merch can be difficult and not to mention expensive.

That's sort of why we excitedly took matters into our own hands, slowly and methodically recreating the game's PMG models as OBJs we can actually print from our 3D printer. It's not easy but it's totally worth it.

I know this probably sounds REALLY stupid to you, and I wouldn't blame you for laughing at me for it; but the fact that I have played this game for 15 years; and today I held a 3D printed figure of a Golem in my fucking hands has me feeling a certain kind of way that's hard to explain. Knowing I could print figures of our characters, our favorite NPCs, not to mention entire dungeons and create dioramas of our favorite places from a game that means so much to me is genuinely mind boggling.

I think the part of all this that still has me in disbelief is that if you asked me what I wanted when I was a depressed 16 year old in school who came home and immediately jumped on Mabi; I'd 100% tell you that I just want to live alone with a partner who enjoyed Mabi and maybe a few cats. Now I'm 28 living with a partner who I not only met via this game but who is actually significantly better than me at it lol; we also have 3 cats and our home is slowly but surely being decorated with more and more Mabinogi crafts. I don't mean to sound like my life revolves around this game, though I admit I do laugh when my partner breaks out her signature slogan of "Mabinogi is Real Life" but I guess in a sense it just feels like I've fucking made it you know? I did it, I finally got the life I was longing for and while it may not feel real; every day this sort of thing happens makes it a littler harder to deny that I'm living the dream. I'm far from rich and I'm far from healthy; and I don't exactly have a great career or anything sure, but I think 16 year old me would be happy with the way I turned out.

[skysometric]

why, thank you for asking! i've been thinking it through for the last few days, i just wanted to make sure my answer was all written and ready to go first. all... checks notes... 4,000 words of it.

ICYMI, last week i sent asks to a bunch of my friends with a simple question: "what's your favorite game you played this year?" as i hoped, y'all gave a bunch of EXCELLENT answers, all of which i reblogged on my side blog @autumatically! (if you didn't get an ask like this and you want to join in, ping me – i sent too many asks to keep track of and i probably just forgot to send one your way!)

of course i wanted to answer this myself, but i wanted to write about more than just one game! and when i sat down to write, i just kept going, and going, and going...

so we're splitting this up! every day this week, i'll be counting down my top 5 games that i played in 2023. not all of these are games that i've streamed, and only one of them has shown up on anyone else's lists so far, so i'm really excited to reminisce and share my experiences this year 💖

maybe you'll even find a new game to try out? i'm certainly really excited to dig through y'alls lists and try some of the ones i missed out on this year!

to kick things off, let's start with:

Honorable Mentions

two games came out this year that i would probably put in my top 5, no competition. so why didn't i? because i didn't actually play them!

see, as much as i love to play video games, oftentimes i also like to watch them just as much. this has always been great for games that i never intended to play in the first place, like the Final Fantasies and Fortnites of our day… but lately it's also let me take turns with my partner on who plays which new releases.

in fact, for both of the games i'm about to list, i watched my partner play them in full and i've watched no less than two separate people stream them as well. which means, with all that oversaturation, it's probably gonna be a while before i play them myself…

either way! here's my top two games that i didn't play in 2023.

Pizza Tower

this one likely needs no introduction! Wario Land 4 is one of my favorite games of all time, and the way Pizza Tower extends those basic concepts is a masterclass of game design. the moveset is perfectly geared toward accessible speed tech, the level layouts are top notch, the different forms are unique and funny, the art style is GORGEOUS, the combo system adds incredible replay value and pushes the player to their limits…

honestly the only thing stopping me from playing this right now is that the levels are too fresh in my mind, and i'd like a little time to let those memories fade before i dive back in and experience everything in a wave of nostalgia. seeing so much of the game already was totally worth it, though – i had the distinct pleasure of watching my partner learn how to P Rank most of the levels, and the simple joy of watching her build up her skills is one of my standout memories of 2023. proud of you, love!

god, Pizza Tower is a perfect slice of video game. i can't WAIT to play it myself!

Super Mario RPG

as a young kid, i always wanted a physical copy of this game. i could never justify it, though, because i already owned it on Wii Virtual Console, and it was one of the more expensive SNES games i had my eye on… a whole $40 in 2007 money! fast forward to the modern day, and not only do i no longer have easy access to that old Wii copy, but a physical cart now goes for like $90???

blessedly, along comes the Switch remake. i still can't believe this exists – it's a perfect remake in every way, shape, and form! the sprite-based animations are lovingly recreated, the battle system is rebalanced in fun ways, and the music is PERFECTLY re-arranged. even the dialog, which i expected to be completely retranslated… it's smoothed over, but mostly unchanged! the original game's unabashed weirdness and charm is fully intact, and i did NOT expect that out of modern Nintendo.

this is one that i didn't mind watching others play; Super Mario RPG is all about the vibe, and this remake captures that vibe perfectly. i'm excited to play it myself once it's had time to settle! but, for now, i'm perfectly content just vibing with others~

#gaming #writing #top 5 games 2023 #pizza tower #super mario rpg #2023 year in review

[ben-the-hyena]

Got any least favorite movies besides than Encanto?

Hmmm it is hard to think because I dislike or hate many movies but few are the ones that made me angry, this is more shows usually. So I don't know how I'll organize it

Oh well, just titles that just cross my mind : How To Train Your Dragons 2 and 3 (the 3rd is the WORST for total character and plotline assassination, the 2nd does resoect the franchise's spirit but oh boy I'd make a whole post about my problems with it), Ratatouille (not hate but I really do not care for cooking movies "OH NO HE RUINED THE SOUP WHAT A TRAGEDY !" I DON'T GIVE A SHIT and it randomly having cartoon physics in a "realistic" environment throws me off), The Wild (until Encanto THIS was the worst Disney movie), A Clockwork Orange (I KNOW it is a classic but I just find it boring and even if I DO know it IS on purpose to denounce society tgat the main character gets away in the end it frustrates me to have gone through all of that for naughts ; a good movie for that, it did its job good ! Just not for me lmao), Usual Suspect (it was SOOOOO boring I was nearly too asleep to get what was happening in the end, I found out like years later there was a plot twist in the end because it had sedated me THAT much I didn't pay attention at all to names and faces lmao), The Lion King live action remake (OOOH IT FELT LIKE NECROMANCY FOR HOW COPYPASTED BUT SOULLESS IT WAS IT HURT... I HATED IT SO MUCH I STRAIGHT UP STOPPED GOING TO SEE DISNEY LIVE ACTION REMAKES AFTER THAT), Star Wars 7 and 9 (ABSOLUTE FRANCHISE ASSASSINATIONS WITH A MARY SUE AND COPY PASTING FANDNSERVICE WITHOUT MAKING IT MAKE SENSE OR ORIGINAL, A FORCED SHIP, FORCED DRAMA... The 8th was flawed too BUT I liked it for DARING trying to be different !!!), Ice Age 5 (GOOD GOD IT WAS SO LAME AND UNFUNNY IT SHOULD HAVE ENDED WITH THE 4TH OR BETTER THE 3RD SINCE THE 4TH WAS OKAY AT BEST MEH AT WORST)... RIGHT now I can't think of more, I mostly have titles of movies I find meh or just too flawes but without being disliked either (like Wish. It is a BAD movie, objectively, Disbeh deserves this failure and I'm glad it flopped hard. Yet it was okay to me. And Rise of the Guardians was okay too, but no sorru folks visually sure it is gorgeous but plot and characters wise it is VERY meh and the ending/Pitch's defeat sucked ass I was frustrated and annoyed while I was like 14 and seeing how people adored it anyway made me understand/realize sometimes people will call media "good" only because it has beautiful looks) so idk more

There are also movies I didn't watch but refuse to because I know I WILL hate it or at the very least will be angry about for the posts and clips I saw and might grow to hate it out of frustration of seeing it praised. Like Nimona (a Tumblr/Twitter post that lasts for 1h30 and will be relevant only for 2 years. Also fugly artstyle and charadesigns, also I'm petty and I loathed how Tumblr used it to mock Elemental which was a masterpiece and the best Pixar in many years and the best Pixar romance so fuck this) and Wendell and Wilde (for all I read about the main character Idc she is grieving for her parents, she IS an ungrateful edgy bitch who actually HESITATED to sacrifice an innocent guy for her own gain but because she chose not to and because "she's a sad kid :(" the narrative passes her off as good and in the right. I'd have not been as patient as the nuns and her classmates, as kind as they were she kept hating and being angry over anything- sometimes a painful slap in the face and a kick in direction of a therapist's office is needed I'm sorry)

#movie #ask #anon #moi #encanto #more might come in mind but I won't edit that post I think or not much #i also hated a lot of TV movies my granny watches but I forgot their titles and they are not real cinema just police flicks for TV lol #NO NO I AM NOT LOOKING DOWN ON TV MOVIES SOME ARE AWESOME THEY *ARE* CINEMA BUT YOU SEE WHAT I MEANT #fun fact is I actually liked Encanto as frustrated and angry as the ending made me. but seeing everybody ignore/praise it made me hateful

[trashlie]

My Year in Review (Webtoons)

Idk if Webtoon is going to give us a year in review this year or not, but I’m making my own! I don’t talk nearly enough about the other webtoons I’ve read/been reading, so I’m going to use this as an opportunity to at least name them all and talk about why I enjoy them. Who knows - maybe some of my followers/mutuals are also reading what I am and want to gush! 

Frankly, I cannot really rank things because I’m wishy washy and terrible at listing favorites, so this will be in no particular order. Read what I have to say about it, rather than where I ranked it, haha. 

I attempted to limit the number of webtoons I fastpassed on but... uh. I wasn’t good at it. Sometimes I just did it all in one go, sometimes it’s a steady, every single week deal. These such webtoons are denoted with an F. I’m not gonna say me fast passing means it’s a favorite, because sometimes I end up fast passing because I just REALLY want to see what happens next, so... don’t assume it means it’s the best of the best lol. 

Sometimes I get SO into a webtoon that when I hit all of what I can read in English, I’ll go look it up in Korean and try to read THAT lol. I’m not totally good at it yet but it serves as really good Korean practice so I’ll keep it up. These such webtoons are denoted with a K.

Let’s dive in!

I Love Yoo (F) Drama

I’m putting this first because that’s what a lot of people follow me for, and that’s where it deserves. I haven’t dedicated this much time and energy to many fandoms in the last 5 years, and ILY just reigns supreme there. Honestly, it’s exactly what I want out of a character-driven story that explores the complexities of our experiences. I understand why people want more out of it or aren’t fans of the slower pace, but that’s them, not me, and I LOVE it. Without fail, I fast pass this one so I can barf out all my thoughts on reddit and then yell some more over here. I love grey characters, I love complex characters, I love sad characters. Everyone does it for me, I stay winning! 

How to Become a Dragon (F) (K) Fantasy

Lol I say I try to read this one in Korean but lol this one is WAY  out of my league. Eon is a creator I already ADORED from Super Secret, so when HTBaD dropped, I was so excited. I’ve been reading it ever since and it’s been a steady Fast Pass for me. Bari is just... absolutely endearing and the whole of the story is fantastic. There’s a lot of hurt in the past to uncover, a lot of character development to witness, and so much fantastic lore. Admittedly the translations can sometimes be a little difficult, but that hasn’t been a very common occurrence. I say I don’t play favorites but if I did, this would be up there. Genre-wise it’s very much a fantasy, very light on the romance. PLEASE I beg of you guys, go read this and fall for Bari’s adorable Imoogi form! 

Seasons of Blossom (F) (K) Drama, Romance

You wanna know how much I absolutely love this one? I bough physical, Korean copies! Seasons of Blossom is separated into four stories (one for each season, beginning with spring) that all weave together through the characters involved. Spring is sweet and innocent and subverts a few tropes in a fun way. Summer is oppressive and overbearing and I sobbed so much. Full disclosure, summer follows two characters still dealing with the suicide of someone five years prior. Fall is, ironically, a time for starting over, for turning a new leaf, as a character who was bullied in her youth tries to get revenge. I haven’t started winter yet... I’m bad at endings and I’m sad that this will soon be over and I’ll probably binge and catch up on it really soon lol. I genuinely, ardently love this one SO much. Please! It’s beautiful, it’s wonderful, my heart ACHES so much. It’s perfect! 

Romance 101 (F) Romance

The only reason I haven’t read Romance 101 in Korean is because it’s complete and I need to pay to do that and I still haven’t figured out if there’s a way I can actually pay for it lol. It’s one I’ve been considering buying in Korean, though, so... yknow. Romance 101 is SO well done, and I’m obsessed with the art. All of the main characters are so wonderful and endearing, and Bareum makes a delightful main character, a university student who has never made room in her life for love and is thus sorely inexperienced and also sits on the cusp of true adulthood. There’s a love triangle that will tug at your heart, and so many WONDERFUL demonstrations of friendship! That’s something I appreciate a lot - a romance that isn’t about just the romance and acknowledges the importance of platonic love as well. 

See You in my 19th Life (F) (K) Drama, Romance [completed]

I can understand why people have been put off by the “age gap” in this story - when you’re a person who has remembered every single life you’ve lived, you are mature beyond anyone you’ll ever meet. But despite that, I was really, really sucked into this one and absolutely read ahead in the Korean version lol. There’s just something about Jieum that I love so much, and the way the story connects everyone, but most importantly, how much Seoha means to her. There’s also some fantastic family relationships, and character growth that’s fun to watch. Idk I love this one and I felt SO sad when it ended! The spin off stories were sweet additions, though! Everything tied up so nicely I’m not so much left wanting more as much as just knowing I will miss this ensemble cast for months to come. 

Act Like You Love Me (F) Romance 

God, this is one hell of a love song to tropes and cliches, and I say that in a really positive way and mean it! The writing absolutely knows it’s making use of many tropes and is just haven’t unabashed fun being what it is. There’s boss/employee, cohabitation, bouts of fake dating, a love triangle, a touch of fantasy ? Idk this one is so fun to me and I remember feeling really bummed when it had a short hiatus lol. I’m not currently fast passing but I know I will when I’m ready to binge. Like, look the premise is just SO fun - possessing a plushie you can use to make a famous actor do anything you want? Famous actor and normal person falling for each other? It’s just GOOD FUN! 

Odd Girl Out (F) Drama, Romance 

This is another one that I fast-pass off and on. Full disclosure, I much preferred the first season of this story to the current one, but mostly because the first had so much wonderful friendships between the girls. The second season has a lot more focus on Nari’s romances and love triangle and I just don’t currently feel compelled to fast pass but we’ll see when it changes. Don’t get me wrong, I love good romances, but I ALSO am a sucker for wonderful girl friendships. Regardless, it’s a cute coming of age story and the plucky lead is neither meek nor dull, and the running theme of people being drawn to her for the colorful, wonderful person she is continues throughout! 

Our Secret Alliance (F) (K) Romance 

God, this is my catnip. Childhood friends to almost strangers to lovers? Fake dating? Really cute art? Man this is IT! Is the story terribly deep? No. Are the characters wildly complex? Also no. But sometimes I just want to enjoy a sweet, saccharine story filled with really pretty art, and this scratches that exact itch. It feels like it’s coming to an end and I find myself more sad that I expected to be about it. It’s just so endearingly cute to me and I’m gong to miss it when it’s completed! 

She’s Hopeless (F) (K) Drama, Romance 

From the creator of Orange Marmalade comes this story about a high schooler hired to be a chaebol heiress’s secret bodyguard. The catch? Said heiress has a nasty, nasty temper, and it’s his job to try to get her to get along with her classmates and shed her prickly exterior. This is one that I read off and on, catch up on and binge when the mood strikes. I do enjoy me a terrible female character sometimes when her motives are good and her personality is complex and this one does it SO well. It has a nice touch of enemies to lovers lite and some forbidden romance for those who dig that lol. 

Wished You Were Dead (F) (K) Drama, Romance

Man a lot of people dislike this or find it too drawn out but idk I don’t share that sentiment with them. I guess it depends on your patience and what you enjoy lol. Arranged marriage where Emperor Karloi is betrothed to the daughter of his enemy and his Empress wife, Evonne, is actually the child who saved his life many years ago. But she can’t tell him that, because she’s forced to live a lie to keep her mother safe, and a magic spell prohibits her from even attempting to reveal her identity. As you can imagine, it’s created incredibly frustrating situations where poor Evonne, who is really Rue, endures hardship after hardship, while Karloi is unaware that the person who he is so cruel to is the person who sought out his whole life. HEAVY enemies to lovers, like I mean HEAVY. A lot of people are frustrated that Karloi hasn’t figured out Evonne’s identity despite him having nothing but a nagging sense that she reminds him of Rue. It’s one hell of a slow burn and I, for one, enjoy it (though honestly I’m like is this even gonna HAVE a happy ending or is this man gonna die miserable....) 

Rewriting the Villainess (F) (K) Drama, Romance 

I know isekai is really overdone but I never read them lol so this is fresh yet to me. Liza has returned from war only to find her one true love, her fiance, Illian has fallen for the princess of the very kingdom she went to war against. Hearbroken and anguished, she drowns her sorrows in alcohol only to wake up in the modern world, where she finds not only is she a character in an incomplete story written by Doeun, but she now occupies Doeun’s body. And even worse, she finds out she was not the protagonist of the story but, in fact, the villain. Angered by the way the writer planned to complete the story, she intends to ruin the author’s life as she lives it, until the day they can switch back to their respective places but... well, that doesn’t go according to plan. Honestly this one is SO fun and there’s a lot of mystery to unravel about Doeun and how they ended up in this place at all. There’s also some incredibly WONDERFUL exploration in different kinds of loves, and how familial love vs friendship love vs romantic love all differ from each other, which is something I’ve GREATLY enjoyed. The relationship between Liza and Illian is not a very healthy one, which is something she needs to learn for herself, and boy is she loving. It’s DELIGHTFUL, I’m having so much fun with this one! I tried not to fast pass it so I could save my coins but I couldn’t help myself ;~; 

Daytime Star 

Remember my love for saccharine little romances? This one fits the bill! It’s sweet and pretty and not terribly complex but I still find myself having fun and enjoying the story. The art is SOOOO pretty like WOW so pretty! There’s a part of me that wants to fast pass because I do enjoy it but I’m saving it for now! Besides the romance side of things, it’s just really fun watching Yura, a struggling actress, finally get noticed and start to make a name of herself in the acting world, and ngl that’s probably the thing that keeps this from being a story that fades into the nether. I don’t say that in a bad way, either! 

Beyond Virtual Drama Romance [Hiatus]

Full disclosure, this one has been on hiatus for most of the year and I DON’T KNOW WHEN IT’S COMING BACK. There’s not even a Korean version of this?! Even though it’s DEFINITELY a Korean webtoon?! PLEASE I need my fix! I really, really dig this one and I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I wound up! It takes place in a near distant future where the world has fallen into further ruin due to climate change and pollution, where people turned to VR to escape the misery of the real world. In VR they can see flowers where there are none, blue skies, animals that have gone extinct, and live the lavish lives they will never have in reality. They can also participate in events with virtual reality idols, who can beat out any human any day. Sora is one such high schooler who is content to live out her fantasies in VR and go on dates with her idol bias. Her best friend, though, has other ideas, and rejects the world of VR. He’d rather be a real human, in the real world. There’s actually lol a LOT of parallels in Beyond Virtual and I really love the story being woven, and the war against VR, the fight to turn to the real world and appreciate what is tangible and real. Okay, I ALSO enjoy the friends to lovers, so sue me! 

Operation True Love (F) (K) Romance, Drama

Listen. I started this like, last Friday. lmao I JUST started it and I’ve devoured it completely, which isn’t a surprise, but I’m also fast passing it AND have started to read it in Korean AND I’m already feeling itchy for more lol. Suae knows her boyfriend is scum, but she can’t help that she’s still into him. But everything in her life goes sideways when a pink Jellypop phone appears in her locker. It’s not just any phone - it can show the amount of love that anyone will receive in life as well as how much life they’ve already received. And Suae? She’s 0/0. She’s got to convince the creator that she’s not a bug in the system and that she can defy the rules and change her 0 into a 1. And look, if she has to do it by using her scummy boyfriend’s best friend, then so be it. After all, she’s already found out there’s a lot more going on with him and her adopted sister than she thought. AND LISTEN I LOVE IT. I love it SO much. The art is so good, it reminds me a little of I Love Yoo but also maybe a touch of Daytime Star? Suae is WONDERFUL and I absolutely LOVE her antics with Eunhyeok. Raim makes for a really complex, if not awful lol, antagonist and I’m really looking forward to seeing how things play out. Look I’m all caught up with this thing and the Korean version is only one!!!! episode ahead of the English FP what the heck am I to do?! (I translated it. lmao this is my Korean practice now, translating the Korean episode.) 

When the Day Comes Drama Romance [Complete]

The creator, OMOYO, is up there with eon in that when I first started using webtoon, I binged their webtoons. The Story of Those Around Us was fantastic and I really enjoyed OMOYO’s art a lot, so when I finally got started on When the Day Comes, I knew I would be utterly charmed. And I absolutely was! OMOYO has a wonderful kind of humor and even more importantly, presents stories in a really candid way. Ngl this one really tugged at my heart in MANY ways - like I found myself having a sweet little mournful cry one night lol. It’s just. Idk delightful, really well done. I look forward to whatever OMOYO works on next! 

Rumor Has It Romance Drama [Complete]

I don’t really like daily pass webtoons because I’m bad at keeping up with them. I can’t even remember how I started reading THIS one. Boredom and need to read something, probably? It’s very up there in saccharine, sweet little stories, and follows two exes who end up as neighbors as they enter college. It’s a really fluffy story, not incredibly deep, and is a generally fun read! 

No Longer a Heroine Drama Romance [Complete]

I don’t use the term guilty pleasure, but I guess if I did, this would probably be considered one. In some ways, this story is really makjang - it just goes OUT there and there are things in it that genuinely made me go “oh shit I didn’t see that coming”! It’s also very much up there with complex, unlikable female leads. I know the art isn’t very pretty, but if this was a drama, people would eat it up solely FOR the drama. I can’t say a lot without spoiling it but I genuinely like where they went with the romance, I didn’t expect it but it was exactly what I’d hoped for! 

Back to You Drama Romance [Complete] 

Full disclosure, this is now a daily pass and I have not finished this one lol. I can’t say why exactly - I guess I kind had a feeling of where the story is going? I think maybe I could have enjoyed it more WITHOUT the romance, actually? That’s the element I wasn’t here for. The idea of going back in time to change the past, to save a person you deeply cared about? Love that. The idea of messing with time and being messed up back? SO good. The irresistible urge to create big ripples and alter the entire timeline? YESSSSS. But meh @ all the romance that happened, I guess? lol Now that it’s a daily pass idk if I’ll ever finish it? I peeked at the ending when it completed, though! I think if this were a drama, I’d probably have quit it, too, because there were some things that were just too frustrating for me to deal with lol. But it may be someone else’s cup of tea! 

The Star Seekers

LMAO look I don’t expect most of my followers to read or take interest in it but as a fan of TXT lmaooo I am. It’s cute, it’s fun, I like fast passing it, Viken is an ADORABLE rendition of Beomgyu, I’m really into the Star Seekers universe and was hoping this would give me insight to the MV storylines. IT DOESN’T! But I’m still having fun lmaoooooooo 

Special shout out to Super Secret, which is now a daily pass, that I reread again because I will never tire of it. It’s so fluffy and sweet and I just love it. I also have already reread Beyond Virtual because it’s been SO LONG SINCE IT UPDATED PLEASE BRING IT BACK 

Everything else that follows is stuff I have begun but maybe haven’t gone back to or just go back every so often to catch up on! 

Honey Lemon My Reason to Die Maybe Meant to Be  Sunny and Rainy Our House Our Time Vampire Husband Unfamiliar Our Beloved Summer Your Letter  Heavenly Eats Your Smile is a Trap Seven Years Later Exchange Student Spring Once Again

And here are things I started and dropped!

To You Who Swallowed a Star (I cannot overstate how MUCH I could NOT stand this afljkafjkajkfkjafjkafkaljajkf) A Summer Night’s Dream  To Love Your Enemy I guess Back to You? Superstar Associate Manager There’s Love Hidden in Lies What if Feels to Date You Loaf App To Love and Be Loved

One day I will properly start Purple Hyacinth and maybe I’ll get into my TBR list (and probably drop some lol) 

#ashlie.txt #webtoons #feel free to roast me for my choices lmao #alternatively feel free to throw things at me you think i'll enjoy #like i am serious if you guys ever wanna talk about other webtoons besides ily pLS HIT ME UP OKAY #I JUST LIKE TO TALK ABOUT THE THINGS I READ!!!!!!! #sometimes i just wanna YELL about things #like how FUN Operation Love is oh my GOD i'm having fun #how CUTE and wonderfully done Romance 101 is! #SOMEONE PLS READ HOW TO BECOME A DRAGON PLSSSSSSSSS #if you wanna read wished you were dead and enjoy some angsty painful slowburn that frustrates others that would be cool LMAOOOOOOOOOOO #I Love Yoo #How to Become a Dragon #Seasons of Blossom #Romance 101 #Operation True Love #See You in My 19th Life #Odd Girl Out #Act Like You Love Me #Our Secret Alliance #She's Hopeless #Wished You Were Dead #Rewriting the Villainess #Beyond Virtual #When the Day Comes #Rumor Has It #No Longer a Heroine #Star Seekers #not tagging what I dropped and the ones I don't read regularly huhuhu

[hargrove-mayfields]

tag game, stranger things edition!

i was tagged by @thatgirlwithasquid and @intothedysphoria, thanks y’all, I really appreciate it! 💕

1. ride or die ship/otp : Hellcheergroveton! every combination in this ship is adorable and it has all my favs too ☺️

2. most annoying ship : m*leven. I am beyond tired of watching a young disabled girl be taken advantage of and have it be treated as romantic. El deserves to live partner free, and M*ke deserves to go in the whole garbage can.

3. second favorite ship : Hollogrove. Since it’s not part of the core hellcheergroveton relationship, I’ll branch out a little and bring in my girl Heather. I love her and Billy I’m a relationship and can totally see them spending the rest of their lives together ♥️

4. favorite platonic dynamic : Billy and Max, or Dustin and Steve. Or Steve and Gareth. Cause I headcanon Gareth as becoming Steve’s caregiver after the events of the show leave him with cognitive and physical disabilities

5. underrated ship : Hollogrove, Cunningway, Pompompineapple, Stonathan, Cheerscoops, Calicheer, Rockie, Stargyle, Cammy, Kegboys, Steather, Argilly, and so many more but I’ll stop there.

6. overrated ship : Any of the fruity four (it makes me wanna gag just typing it) ships. I haven’t looked in the fandom tags for a year because it’s oversaturated with passionless, factory produced, carbon-copy fanworks that look like Harringrove fics put through ai to be rewritten as St*ddie, or Buckleway into r*nance. I’m sick of it. It’s boring. I’ll come up with my own steddie content, thanks.

7. one thing to change in canon : Everything. Not even joking. I’m going blorbo shopping and bringing all my favs back to my dollie house to play fix-it.

8. something canon did right : Um. I guess letting actors put in feedback and details of their own. Like Millie choosing for El to touch Billy’s cheek, Dacre giving us backstory on Billy’s mom and also on Billy’s disability (BPD), both he and Joe Keery refusing the original scripts, Joe Quinn improvising Eddie’s crush on Chrissy, and so on. All of the actor choices are the only good things about the show at this point.

9. a thing I’m proud of creating for the fandom : @disabledbillyandsteveweek! There's more information about the event over on the blog, but basically it’s an event starting in about two weeks meant to highlight Billy and Steve as disabled characters, through all kinds of fan works and different ships!

10. a character who is perfect to me : Christine Renée-Beth Cunningham. Nobody compares to my cheer girl.

11. the most relatable character and why : Also Chrissy. She reminds me a lot of myself, especially how I was when I was still in highschool, being timid and struggling a lot with my mental health. I wish she could have grown and gotten help and felt better since I’m on my journey to doing so right now, but I’m forever grateful to have seen a character with an eating disorder and an abusive family on screen, portrayed in a heartfelt and generous way- all thanks to miss Grace Van Dien

12. character I hate most and why : Neil, Karen (actually just the Wheelers in general except little Holly), Brenner, Owens, the lady that shot Benny, literally so many of them. Anyone who intentionally and unabashedly hurts other characters without remorse.

13. something I’ve learned from the fandom : To be patient, because even when things seem tough or impossible, we can make it. Together, with friends who understand us, and who share our pain, we can fight and keep going! Especially because this community will always have folks who understand and have our backs, we just have to find them ❤️❤️

14. three tags I seek out on ao3 : I actually don’t read fic on ao3. The extreme amounts of severely triggering content hosted on that site is just too much for me and I can never seem to avoid it. I only post to ao3 because I know people find it easily accessible, but I had one too many mix-ups that led to me being in a terrible state of mind, so I discontinued using the site.

15. a song I strongly associate with otp and/or favorite character : I’ll never shut up about “Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce. Conveniently off the same record as Hop has on Vinyl and Cassette, it’s my favorite song ever because it’s so tender and loving and even though it’s old people music yall should give it a listen. It applies to any ship, but especially packs a punch with Harringrove. Also “Magic” by Olivia Newton-John.

I’ll tag: @eddie-munsons-guitar86 @honey-tongued-devil @martianclown @hephaestn @jaylikesrainbowtigers @denkiddo1 @enchanted-day-dreams @stranger-themes-blog @ratbastardbilly @thinger-strang But there’s no pressure to do it! You absolutely don’t have to if you already have or if you just don’t feel like it! <3

#tag game! #billy hargrove fandom #not content #hey thanks again! it took me a few days but this was fun!! #love doing these things they’re always really positive and fun <3