#don't @ me because i didn't alter the posts/followers/following numbers

[hms-tardimpala]

Ficbinding: A Complete Kingdom by Komodobits

The fic: SPN, Castiel/Dean Winchester, 85k

This fic had me staying up until 2am to read, it swept me up and flattened me. It's so well-written, so faithful to the characters, so well constructed that all you can do is strap in and enjoy the ride and hope you're not sobbing by the end (a vain hope). It's such a good story, period, that I think it can be enjoyed by non-SPN people. Mind the tags. Summary:

The sea; it swallows me. It comes up to my knees and it swallows me. The boys owe Jody a few dozen favours, and so when her niece goes missing near an old fishing village on the coast of Maine, Dean, Sam, and a newly human Castiel agree to take the case on. They settle into an old abandoned lighthouse-keepers' cottage, and slowly the tide comes in. (post-s8)

The bind: I'm so proud of this one, guys. I tried new things, pretty much everything worked, and I learned new skills!

Let's start with the colors. The story is sea-themed and stormy, so I chose black, dark blue and silver for the cover and light grey and light blue for the headbands and bookmark. I meant to use white for the headbands, but discovered I don't have white ones. It's the first time I do an overlap of fabrics and it turned out awesome. The silver stripe is a simple gift wrapper ribbon.

Typesetting:

The title font is so cool, with a droplet effect. For the part titles I chose a kind of blurry, hazy font because this story is about perception of reality and the loss of it. The chapter titles of the first part are solid, then they're altered in the following parts, to symbolize a slipping grasp on reality as time goes on.

I put headers and bottom-of-page numbers this time, which forced me to figure new things out in LibreOffice and do some maths 💪

The image of a lighthouse also changes in the three parts of the story. If you've read this fic, you know why.

Little wave as a divider.

Making the book:

I hadn't made a big book (printed at the A5 format) in a while and it felt amazing going back to that. It stretched my maths muscles. It's relaxing to do a book and not have to fight for every millimeter, like with small books. It's a more forgiving format.

Trimming went amazingly this time, I'm finding my footing slowly.

I had to sandpaper the edges to color them silver. I don't mind working with sandpaper, but it's quite brutal on the book, and wouldn't do it every time.

The edge painting was made with a silver marker, so I knew it wouldn't be perfect, but it looks good enough and doesn't peel away.

My corners are improving! They look almost perfectly square.

In reaction to the last bind I made, I augmented the overhang (still don't know if that's the word) between the edge of the covers and the edge of the textblock. From 3mm to 5mm. I'm very happy with this, it looks much better!

It's rare that I'm disappointed in a fabric, so I'll highlight here that I don't like this endpaper. It's pretty, but it's a sort of glossy magazine paper that didn't react to glue so well.

Overall, I love this book and this story deeply. I think it may be my best work technically so far.

Fonts: Rained (title), Moonrising (author name), Louis George Cafe (text), Brightness, Brightness Book and Brightness inverted (chapter titles), Snorter (part titles). Materials: 2mm grey board, 80g/m² ivory Clairfontaine A4 paper, synthetic ribbon and headbands (found on amazon), black and blue cloth and endpaper from Schmedt, silver non-textile ribbon (bought in craft store).

Feel free to ask me more about materialsand fonts (or whatever), it won’t bother me at all to tell you what I used, but I’m too lazy rn to write it in this post that’s long enough already.

#ficbinding #bookbinding #my bookbinding #spn fic #komodobits #a complete kingdom

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  Sleepingoffyourdemons! They have 6 works posted to AO3 and all of them are in the Steddie tag!

Nevertheless_5 recommends the following works by @punkslovepoints:

in the back of your girlfriend's car

The most that I could give to you is nothing at all

"The A is for Ally"

What Happens at Comic Con Stays at Comic Con

obliterations everywhere (we blaze with scorching heat)

Sleepingoffyourdemons’ fics are character studies, grounded in reality with all the painful angst, real world consequences, and heartwrenching love you could want in your Steddie wish fulfillment. They hurt and heal in equal measure. They feel immersive in a comforting way. I fell in love with the first fic I read, and proceeded to read everything else by the author. Also, the research put into the time periods and info in notes is just icing on the cake. -- Nevertheless_5

Below the cut, @punkslovepoints answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

I don’t know! I didn’t watch season 4 and immediately think, “These guys are in love.” In fact, during Eddie's first scene, I didn't really even like him. Then, existing on the edge of the wider Stranger Things fandom, I saw a few fics showing up here and there and that was what really pulled me in.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

I love a good missing scene fic, although I can understand why there aren’t many of those in this fandom, given that staying true to canon leads to a very grisly end to one half of the ship. I also like a slow burn, friends to lovers and a wee bit of angst.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

Honestly, the same that I like to read. I try to write for myself and hope that other people will like it too. As difficult as that can be sometimes, like everyone, I also crave external validation where every comment makes your day.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

A Certain Type and the rest of the series by @anniebass. It’s one of those that burrows into your chest and lives there for the rest of your life. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about that fic.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’m annoyingly resolute to sticking as close to canon as possible (Eddie dying aside!) so I’ve never really strayed away from that. But have had an idea for an AU for the upcoming Steddie Big Bang that I think I could write with enough connection to canon that it’ll keep the part of my brain that screams ‘that wouldn’t happen!!!’ quiet.

What is your writing process like?

I tend to get an idea then focus on that until it’s done and posted. I don’t write that often, and I obsess over small details. I must have read each one of my fics twenty times or more, just going over and over them before I post.

Do you have any writing quirks?

I don’t know! There’s probably a lot that I’m not even aware of. Most of my fics have a lot of references at the end, even ones that aren’t specifically historical, so that’s probably a dead giveaway that a fic is one of mine. That and going off on tangents for whatever my special interest is that month.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Definitely when I’ve finished. Although as I’m posting, people’s comments and feedback may inspire me to make small alterations or add scenes here or there in future chapters. I wrote an extra scene into the final chapter of The Most That I Could Give To You… to give an OC a proper send off because of the number of comments I’d had earlier in the fic from people who loved him. I also re-wrote the final scene of “The A is for Ally” the night I posted it because I decided I didn’t like how it ended and changed it. 

Which fic are you most proud of?

Probably “The A is for Ally”, because of the sheer amount of research that I put into it. I wanted to write an exploration of queer history that focused on queer joy in the early 90’s. It can be hard to find that balance, writing queer ships set in less progressive times. Because it wasn’t all sunshine and roses, but, equally, there were moments of joy and communities of real queer people living their lives and fighting for those queer spaces. I wanted to pay tribute to that. [Side note: The title is a joke, the A is not for Ally].

How did you get the idea for What Happens at Comic Con Stays at Comic Con?

As with most of the fics I've written, I wanted to read it, so I wrote it. I was looking for something set at comic con and was shocked when I couldn't find anything, especially with the source material being what it is. I later discovered Descent into the Depths of the Earth (Or at Least Milwaukee) by disastardly on Ao3, but by then I'd written mine. Luckily they are totally different, and I'd highly recommend that one too.

When writing "The A is for Ally", what was something you didn’t expect?

How popular it got! I’m still a small writer, not a big name or anything, but I got so many more comments on that fic compared to all the ones before and @cemeterylight even drew art of it. It was so nice that something I wrote resonated with people.

What inspired in the back of your girlfriend's car?

There’s a song by Lucy Dacus called Christine that has the lines “You're falling asleep on my shoulder in the back of your boyfriend's car” that is a beautiful portrayal of queer longing. Loving somebody who is with somebody else who obviously isn’t right for them. I love Nancy, and wanted to follow that thought: What happens if Steve does win Nancy back, but they’re both different people now? My pitch for the fic is that it's an exploration of trauma and chasing highs, loving multiple people in multiple ways at once, messy relationships and making out in cars. All with a Steddie endgame, of course.

What was your favorite part to write from The most that I could give to you is nothing at all?

Probably the couple of chapters in California. Eddie and Steve have been hooking up on and off for a few years long distance, and after it all blows up, they agree to spend some time getting to know each other without letting sex get in the way. It was fun to write in that space where you have two people who are obviously in love, have a history, but are trying desperately to avoid falling into old habits. That simmering sexual tension.

How do/did you feel writing What Happens at Comic Con Stays at Comic Con?

Really nostalgic for going to comic con! I haven’t been to one in a few years and it just made me miss the feeling of being in a space where everyone is as weird and nerdy as you are.

What was the most difficult part of writing obliterations everywhere (we blaze with scorching heat)?

I hadn’t actually written a proper fic before when I wrote that one. I had written two drabbles over a decade ago and that was it. So just writing it was difficult. At the time, there were next to no fics where Eddie was the one having a bi crisis and Steve was fairly chill in his sexuality (there still aren’t enough in my opinion, it’s a top tier trope) so I just wrote what I wanted to read.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

Probably the whole conversation this snippet is taken from within The Most That I Could Give To You… where Steve has the charm turned up to eleven and Eddie is fighting for his life (figuratively this time). I adore writing the Stobin back and forth dynamic too, so there's this one from The Most That I Could Give To You… where they're talking about Sisyphus and May 29th 1992 from “The A is for Ally” where Robin sees something she wishes she hadn't. I also got a lot of nice comments on this scene from “The A is for Ally” where Wayne mistakenly thinks Steve and Eddie are dating and “Steve didn't correct him, didn't feel the distinction was all that important.”

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

I’ve just posted a new one, Pebble and I've got another one that I’m part way through, both of them returning to my roots and featuring Eddie having a bi crisis. I’m also planning on taking part in the Steddie Bang, but obviously can’t talk about that! 

Thank you to our author, @punkslovepoints, and our nominator, Nevertheless_5! See more of Sleepingoffyourdemons' works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

#steddie #steddie fic recs #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve x eddie #stranger things #writer's wednesday #ao3 writer #steddie writers

[nobodysdaydreams]

A Special Treat for My Wolf359 Friends: Oddly Specific Christmas Songs that Remind Me of Wolf359 Characters

Happy advent dear readers! 'Tis the season for festive head canons, and as a lover of very obscure Christmas music, here are some tunes that remind me of Wolf359 characters. I included links to all the songs listed, so have fun listening! I think most of the songs I found fit, and I found two songs per character (plus some bonus tracks...), so let me know which ones you enjoy!

I included explanations for why I think the songs fit the characters, feel free to disagree.

Side note: Please don't put any spoilers on this post, as I've only listened through season three at this point. If you want to follow my reactions to Wolf359, you can do so under the tag "#Bods Wolf359 Reactions".

Doug Eiffel- Christmas Tree On Fire / Christmas in Jail / Who Spiked the Eggnog?

Why does Doug get three songs instead of two? Simple. Because he deserves them.

The first one is 100% a Doug song. I just need to close my eyes, tweak the lyrics slightly to make them about a fire he started because he didn't do a very simple task that Minkowski asked him to do, and it's Doug singing it in a southern accent.

As for the second one, there are a concerning amount of Christmas songs about alcoholism or spending the holidays in rehab and/or jail. This made it very hard to narrow it down, but this song is specifically about going to jail for drunk driving, so...um...it fits? In a very sad way, but I feel like Doug would sing this in a drunk moment of self-loathing, that Hera and Minkowski would talk him out of.

The third song fits Doug because to be honest the whole vibe of Straight No Chaser fits Doug, and this song reminds me of when Kepler demanded an explanation of what happened to his Whiskey. This is the song Doug would sing after assuring Kepler that he would stop at nothing to find the culprit.

Hera- The Most Wonderful Day of the Year / Somewhere in My Memory

The first song is from the Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer movie. It's about toys that were built incorrectly, so they are put on an island where misfit toys go and sing about how sad they are that they don't get to celebrate Christmas with everyone else. I don't think I need to explain why this song fits Hera.

The second song is from Home Alone, and I think it fits Hera, because of the how much that one episode focused on her memories, good and bad. Plus it's a very beautiful song, and I think Hera would appreciate that. This song has a long musical intro, so you might have to listen for a bit before you get to the lyrics.

Renee Minkowski- That Christmas Morning Feeling / Have Yourself a Merry Christmas

For the first one, no, I have not seen the movie, but this song came on my Christmas recommend, and you can't tell me that Minkowski would not go for a big festive Christmas musical number.

As for the second one, it's from the musical "Meet Me In St. Louis", which I'm sure Minkowski appreciates. Any musical Christmas song would fit Minkowski, but this one is a classic.

Alexander Hilbert- The Nutcracker: Russian Dance / A Mad Russian's Christmas-Insturmental

I chose the first song from the Nutcracker, since it's a Russian ballet. I feel like Hilbert hates holidays and would only even consider tolerating classical instrumental traditional Christmas music (even though Minkowski forces him to sing carols).

The second song is also instrumental, and I mean, well, just look at the title of it.

Isabelle Lovelace- Christmas Isn’t Cancelled (Just You) / We Wish You Weren't Living With Us

For the first song: tell me you couldn't see Lovelace singing something like this to Cutter or Hilbert. Very fitting too considering Cutter ordered Hilbert to kill everyone on Christmas. Lovelace would hear about that and chose this as her revenge song. It's another song where I can close my eyes and see her singing it with slightly altered lyrics.

The second song could easily be everyone singing about any of the villains, but it would especially fit the oddly specific situation of Lovelace sarcastically threatening Hilbert when Minkowski tries to make them all play nice and sing Christmas carols together.

Warren Kepler- Christmas Whiskey / Six Cups of Eggnog

I don't need to explain my first choice. Kepler sings this song alone in his office to a full glass of Whiskey, which he saves specifically for December.

As for the second, I can see Kepler singing this to lecture the others on the proper way to enjoy a drink, even though absolutely no one asked and no one cares.

Alana Maxwell- The Season's Upon Us / I'm Getting Nuttin' for Christmas

For the first choice, I don't know much about Maxwell, but I know she doesn't talk to her family, and this seemed to fit that.

For the second choice, the song fits because Maxwell is not getting anything for Christmas, because she's dead, and she did bad things. (I'm sorry Maxwell stans, but I struggled finding songs for her, and you can't say it isn't true, though this second choice does apply to multiple characters).

Daniel Jacobi- This Christmas (I'll Burn It To The Ground) / Please Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas)

The first one could fit a lot of villain characters, but I chose it for Jacobi because he loves explosives. That's pretty much it. I had trouble finding songs for the SI-5. But I can see Jacobi screaming this song violently at a Christmas party, right before someone brings up the subject of ducks and sends him cowering to the corner.

The second song is because Jacobi seems to have some issues with his air force father (I was tempted to use the song for Doug's daughter, but figured that would be too dark). A close second for Jacobi was "The Twelve Days of Christmas" because there are a lot of birds in that song, and I love mocking Jacobi's fear of ducks. However, decided to go with other options because A) the 12 days of Christmas is already a pretty well known song and it doesn't fit that well and B) ducks are not explicitly mentioned in the song. But if anyone knows of a Christmas tune about ducks, please drop it in the tags.

Marcus Cutter- You Ain't Getting Diddly Squat / I’m Gonna Kill Santa Clause

For the first one, the song fits mainly because of the singer's high pitched cheery voice and the way he gleefully tells a bunch of kids that Santa hates them, and they're not getting anything for Christmas. I can listen to this, close my eyes, and see Cutter singing this as he happily informs the crew that they're all about to die on Christmas.

For the second one, it's fitting because Cutter ordered the deaths of multiple employees on Christmas, and if he lived in a universe where Santa Clause did exist, he absolutely would try to kill him and take his power. The line "nothing against him, it's just business" and part of the song where he sings about the elves being his prisoners are very on point.

Miranda Pryce- I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday / I Want an Alien For Christmas

This first song choice won't make any sense to you UNLESS you've seen Black Mirror, because if you have, you'll know it makes a disturbing amount of sense. So...for those who haven't seen black mirror and are wondering how on earth this song fits her character, here's the clip to provide some context. Some horrifying, terrible terrible context.

The second song honestly fits Cutter better, but he already had two songs and doesn't deserve a third one. And I don't know as much about Miranda at this point, except she's apparently down with the whole aliens thing, so I figured it would fit here too.

Dear Listeners- Silent Night / A Spacemen Came Travelling

The first one is a Christmas song from the 1920s about a silent night. I don't feel like I need to explain this choice.

The second is a song is a gentle tune about a man from space who comes to visit baby Jesus and his mother and wish them goodwill. I also don't think I need to explain why the aliens fit this one.

Blessie (the plant monster/specimen 34)- Percy, the Puny Poinsettia / Christmas Tree Farm

Yes, any song about plants or Christmas trees in general is appropriate, but this first song is fitting not only because I'm still grieving the death of our beloved Blessie, but also because before I knew his name was Blessie, I named him "Percy the Plant" or "Percival B. Eternal".

For the second one, the singer sings about wanting to go back to a Christmas tree farm, so when I listen to it, I imagine Blessie up in space, dreaming of the day he finally reaches earth so he can be among the other plants, Christmas trees included.

Rachel Young- Elf's Lament / You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch

I don't know as much about Rachel at this point, but a song about working in unfair conditions and regretting signing up for the job you chose seems like it might fit. Whether she'd be singing it about herself or those working under her, that's up to you.

The Grinch song could be sung about many characters on the list by so many characters on this list, but I can imagine Rachel thinking of Cutter every time she hears this song even though she does work for him, and I think the song describes her as well.

BONUS TRACK 1: This one is for Eiffel's daughter, Minkowski's husband, and everyone else left back on earth missing their (presumed dead) family: Blue Christmas

Sadly, I think this one speaks for itself...

BONUS TRACK 2: This is a little tune that Doug Eiffel and I would sing to Cutter, Pryce, Kepler, Jacobi, Maxwell, Hilbert, and Rachel: Put One Foot In Front of the Other

The song is from the movie "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". It's a song where a young Santa and his animal friends encourages the evil Winter Warlock to change his ways and become a better person. Perhaps this song too could inspire many of our morally bankrupt Wolf359 friends to either grab their redemption arc, or as the song says: "walk out the door" (straight out the airlock). And it's a children's song, which I think is necessary, since so many of them seem to have trouble grasping the basics of human decency. Hopefully this will make it easier for them to understand.

#bods wolf359 reactions #wolf 359 #w359 #alexander hilbert #alana maxwell #wolf 359 spoilers #renee minkowski #doug eiffel #hera wolf 359 #wolf359 Hera #daniel jacobi #warren kepler #isabel lovelace #rachel young #miranda pryce #marcus cutter #Wolf359 #wolf359 podcast #w359 podcast #wolf359 spoiilers #podcast wolf359 #podcast w359 #hera #dear listeners #blessie #specimen 34 #the blessed eternal #blessie the plant monster

[ofduskanddreams]

On Eris Vanserra

Let me say that I would much rather put my time and energy into writing my fic (you know--the thing that brings me joy and is the reason I'm here in the first place), but the selective comprehension in this fandom has seriously been grating on me.

Now, before anyone gets butthurt, I'm not here to tell you that you have to like Eris or think he's a good person. Whether you do or don't is totally your choice. What you believe, what you want to believe--that is your decision. I'm not here to invalidate anyone's opinion or the choices they make based on their personal experiences and feelings. I'm here to articulate the facts as Ms. Maas has written them, because I think there's some unecessary confusion going around.

Let's just get another thing out of the way now: I like Eris, I acknowledge that this makes me predisposed to bias. I will also tell you that I didn't like him at all when I first read the series, but several deep rereads since have enhanced my comprehension and altered my opinion--that is why I'm here.

Today I will be discussing the misconception that Eris had any direct involvement in the brutalization inflicted upon Mor by her family, by which I mean the act of driving nails into her womb. There's no question that Mor was significantly traumatized by his actions (and inaction) and none of the discourse to follow excuses anything Eris did, I'm just trying to complicate the conversation.

This is the point where I remind you that you have the choice to ignore this post and peacefully keep scrolling should you not want to hear what I'm about to say.

Cool? Great. Let's move on.

I'm going to lay out the textual evidence in the order it appears in the series, and then we can talk about it. All italics appear as they do in the text, except for Mor's flashback. I will be making some parts bold for clarity. All page numbers are referring to the kindle versions of the books.

ACOMAF

Chapter 41, page 397 Rhys is explaining Mor and Eris's former betrothal to Feyre.

"Her family... they... " I'd never seen him at such a loss for words. Rhys cleared his throat. "When they were done, they dumped her on the Autumn Border, with a note nailed to her body that said she was Eris's problem."

Chapter 44, page 431 at the starfall party, Morrigan is talking to Feyre about the time she slept with Cassian.

"He [Rhys] and Cassian... I've never seen them fight like that. Hopefully I never will again. I know that Rhys wasn't pissed about my virginity, but rather the danger that losing it had put me in. Azriel was even angrier about it--though he let Rhys do the walloping. They knew what my family would do for debasing myself with a bastard-born lesser faerie." She brushed a hand over her abdomen, as if she could feel that nail they'd spiked through it. "They were right."

ACOWAR

Chapter Twenty-Six, pages 275-276 Azriel, Rhys, Mor, and Feyre are meeting with Eris in the Hewn City.

Eris looked between them [Azriel and Mor], smiling faintly. Secretly. As if he knew something Azriel didn't. "I wouldn't have touched you," he said to Mor, who blanched again. "But when you fucked that other bastard--" A snarl ripped from Rhys's throat at that. And my own. "I knew why you did it." Again that secret smile that had Mor shrinking. Shrinking. "So I gave you your freedom, ending the betrothal in no uncertain terms."

"And what happened next," Azriel growled [referring to Eris leaving Mor where he found her].

A shadow crossed Eris's face. "There are few things I regret. That it one of them. But... perhaps one day, now that we are allies, I shall tell you why. What it cost me."

ACOFAS

Chapter Six, pages 59-60 Mor's pov, a flashback to the day her family dumped her on the border.

"No one touches her," he said. Eris. "The moment we do, she's our responsbility."

Cold, unfeeling words.

"But--but they nailed a--"

"No one touches her."

Nailed.

They had spiked nails into her.

Had pinned her down as she screamed, pinned her down as she roared at them, then begged them. And then they had taken out those long, brutal iron nails. And the hammer.

Three of them.

Three strikes of the hammer, drowned out by her screaming, but the pain.

She began shaking, hating it as much as she'd hated the begging. Her body bellowed in agony, those nails in her abdomen relentless.

A pale, beautiful face apeared above her, blocking out the jewel-like leaves above. Unmoved. Impassive. "I take it you do not wish to live here, Morrigan."

She would rather die here, bleed out here. She would would rather die and return--return as something wicked and cruel, and shred them all apart.

He must have read it in her eyes. A small smile curved his lips. "I thought so."

ACOSF

Chapter Seven, page 83 Cassian's thoughts about the alliance with Eris.

No, Eris was their ally. Rhys had bargained with him, worked with him. Rhys trusted him. Mor, despite all that had happened, trusted him. Sort of. So Cassian supposed he should do so as well.

Chapter Fourteen, page 164 Cassian, Rhys and Eris meeting in Spring.

"You left her there to suffer and die," Cassian spat. His Siphons flickered, and all he could see was the male's pretty face, all he could feel was his own fist, aching to make contact.

Eris sneered. "Did I? Perhaps you should ask Morrigan whether that is true. I think she finally knows the answer."

Chapter Fifty-Seven, pages 588-589 Eris is dancing with Nesta in the Hewn City. (Not as direct of a relation, but this is one of the few times we actually get some insight from Eris' perspective.)

Eris spun her, and when she returned to him, he murmured in her ear, "Don't believe the lies they tell you about me."

She pulled back just enough to meet his gaze. "Oh?"

Eris nodded to where Mor watched them from beside Feyre and Rhys, her face neutral and aloof. "She knows the truth but has never revealed it."

"Why?"

"Because she is afraid of it."

"You don't win yourself any favors with your behavior."

"Don't I? Do I not ally myself with this court under constant threat of being discovered and killed by my father? Do I not offer aid whenever Rhysand wishes?" He spun her again. "They believe a version of events that is easier to swallow. I always thought Rhysand wiser than that, but he tends to be blind where those he loves are concerned."

Alright class. What have we learned? That it was Morrigan's family who brutalized her before they dumped her on the Autumn border. Look back at that first ACOSF quote. Do you really think that if Eris was party to the initial physical brutalization of Mor she would ever trust him in the least? Hell no. That is point number one.

Secondly, we know that Eris was aware of the fact that Mor did not wish to marry him. When he found out that she'd slept with Cassian he "ended the betrothal in no uncertain terms." The note her family nailed to her called her Eris's problem. Eris (surrounded by 5 other soldiers whom, I want to point out, may or may not have been loyal to him as opposed to his father--the father that's tortured him and he fears will murder him if he steps out of line publicly) knew that they couldn't touch her or she would become their responsibility. He already knows Mor doesn't want to be in Autumn and yet he asks her again before he leaves. From my perspective it seems like Eris has no good options, but that doesn't excuse the harm his choices caused. At least he eventually admits that he regrets this.

From the canon text, it is quite clear that SJM is hinting at another reason for the way everything went down. Multiple times she brings up this "truth," this reason which Morrigan has finally become aware of yet keeps to herself. I don't know what SJM is referring to, maybe we'll find out in later books. But it's mentioned frequently enough to suggest that things are more complicated than the IC believes.

I hope you don't take my saying any of this to mean that I think Eris leaving Mor at the border was okay. As Nesta so aptly put it, Eris doesn't win himself any favors with his behavior in canon. I'm not arguing against that. I personally like Eris for his moral grayness, his asshole-itude, the mystery of him, but everyone has different taste. I am saying that we shouldn't ignore what's written in canon.

I also want to point out that the vast majority of what we canonically know about Eris Vanserra is coming from the point of view of Rhys, Feyre, Mor, Cassian, Nesta, and Azriel meaning that information is inherently biased against him. The series is written in first person/ close third-person meaning that the character whose POV is being written carries their prejudices into their narrative. I'm suggesting that we acknowledge this and maybe try interpreting things with a grain of salt if you're open to it.

Finally, I suggest taking a quick look at Chapter 79 of ACOSF, it's only five pages and Cassian makes some fascinating points.

If you want to discuss this further, my asks are always open and please feel free to reblog/reply as well. If you disagree with something that I've said, let's talk about it. As long as things remain respectful, I'm more than happy to have conversations and hear other perspectives :)

#eris vanserra #eris acotar #pro eris #acomaf #a court of mist and fury #acowar #a court of wings and ruin #acofas #a court of frost and starlight #acosf #a court of silver flames #acotar thoughts #acosf thoughts

[brokenfoxproductions]

Probably the first bit of discourse that I'm going to post on here intentionally, but as someone who used to self identify as having did before I got a proper diagnosis, I really just wish people had the nuance to understand that you can assume that you might be dealing with something, but you are not capable of diagnosing yourself with a complex dissociative disorder the same way someone who is gone through 12 years of med school and a psychiatric rotation would be able to, and it really really bothers me seeing people trying really hard to push themselves into acting how they think someone with DID would actually act while ignoring that they have very textbook symptoms of things like a personality disorder or complex PTSD or even other dissociative and delusional disorders that simply are not DID.

I'm not saying that self diagnosis is always invalid, especially for things like autism where the majority of providers don't know the updated criteria for diagnosis and it's something that tends to not really go away or change, but there's a big difference between my partner who hasn't gotten into a psychiatrist self-identifying as autistic because it allows him to get the things that he needs to be able to function and someone who has access to psychiatrist but refuses to go to one or who does see a psychiatrist but refuses to believe them purposely trying to push a narrative so that they get attention online from a specific community.

I did that as a teenager. I used to and still do dissociate very frequently and whenever I was a teenager I thought that everyone with dissociations had dissociative identity disorder so I started making up alters like the way a lot of teenagers on tiktok and on here do, but unlike most of those teenagers, I was actually in psychiatric treatment and acting out this way didn't get me temporary Fame. It got me hospitalized, forced into a RTF where I was horrifically abused for a year, and then it caused me to go to foster care. It also caused years of not getting proper treatment because you can't get treated for what's actually going on with you while you're obsessed with a diagnosis that you don't have.

Self diagnosis and lying about my experiences and condition as a teenager cost me 2 years and 5 months of my life. People who are still doing this and encouraging it are feeding into ableism and they're making their situations worse.

If you want to diagnosis yourself with a debilitating mental health condition, eventually you're going to be treated like you have it. And I don't mean attention and Tik-Tok followers. I mean like, not being able to drive. Not being independent. Long term inpatient stays. Residential treatment facilities. Medication. Therapies. Debt. Facing ableism. Actual diagnosed disabled people seeing you as mocking them. Facing hate crimes. Having your life ruined and your rights taken.

Maybe you should consider just getting a real diagnosis instead. It's easier than leaving your actual condition undiagnosed and untreated so you can get the attention you think is trendy without trying to get better.

(And inb4 "waaaahhhhh not everyone can access services!!!1!!!" If you're not working and can't get workplace insurance, go to your local assistance office and apply for medical assistance, and then call the number on your insurance card to get on a wait list for a provider. If my broke, crippled ass can manage that, so can you. If you can't, get a caseworker to manage it for you. Google "mental health case manager" and find who's closest, they're county funded and their job is to help you get services. There's no excuse for being a burden on the system, those around you, and people with actual diagnosed disabilities.)

#anti self dx #anti self diagnosis #nuance #self diagnosis #actually disabled #discourse #to clarify #i understand self dx for autism but not psych disorders #you're not a psychiatrist and your POV is skewed by your symptoms and culture #trauma #childhood trauma #ptsd #ableism #actually traumatized #actually ptsd #actually bipolar #actually mentally ill #actually autistic #fox bites sometimes

[valaruakars]

Hi y'all!!

Specifically: Hi friends who've been following along with my year long adventure in gym hell. You know it (because I never shut up about it), you love it (I hope, if you haven't stopped reading yet??)--yeah, it's Let's Get Physical.

I've been slowly working on an update to the current chapters since the beginning of the year, and I'm planning to post it on Sunday. It's fairly minor, and won't change the story. I'll be overwriting the current version on Ao3, and on the original posts here on tumblr. Obviously I can't do anything about reblogs, so that is what it is.

Just giving anyone who wants to save them as they are an advanced warning! If you're like why? What's changing? And what the fuck are you doing? I'll tell you my secrets under the cut ;)))))

First and most importantly: It's fanfic, and I can do whatever I want 😘

I'm only saying that to reinforce it for myself, and for anyone else who has regrets or little things that bother them within their stories. We do this for fun and for free, and there's no hard and fast rules! Just common etiquette, ofc, which I don't feel this violates.

There are things I'm tired of being hung up on, so for me, the best way to move forward was to change them. Here's what I did:

Switched the whole thing into present tense.

Altered some whack sentence structures, grammar and punctuation.

Pulled details I felt were extraneous.

Filled something very small that I felt was a plot hole.

Refined a few areas I was unhappy with.

None of this would necessitate a reread when I post the next chapter!

That said, number one is the biggest, most noticeable change and 99.9% of what motivated me to do this. I've always regretted writing it in past tense. Maybe that's silly, but I was trying to challenge myself to do something different than what felt natural and it really backfired long term. Rather than letting it continue to hold me back and slow down the (already very slow) process, I just went fuck it and fixed the problem. I'm much happier with it now, which is all that matters.

The rest is all small potatoes. It just kind of happened in the process. I didn't use any kind of tool to change tenses, I went back and did it manually to retain the flow, integrity, and general vibe. Naturally, I found some stuff with fresh eyes that I wanted to change or fix. Nbd really!

This whole thing isn't that big of a deal, in my opinion, but I didn't want to blindside anyone. Yay transparency!

If you read this far: Thanks so much! If you have any questions: Feel free to ask! I'll have time this weekend to answer them with my assistant ↓

#the mortifying ordeal of making a psa #going back to my cave to emotionally recover #personal

[brain-in-a-skin-suit]

Okay so disclaimer i haven't seen Dead Apple in a while, and I also didn't go into writing this with a conclusion in mind, so its a bit of a mess.but! i did reach a conclusion! Sorry for any inaccuracies, I was working from memory for a lot of this. please correct me if im wrong about something! Also pretty please add any connected theories if you have any

Warning: long post

I remember watching Dead Apple and being really thrown off by the fact that Fyodor's ability seemed to be chill with him. Every character aside from him who had an ability manifestation was fighting their ability. This makes me think that in his natural state (not affected by Shibusawa's ability), Fyodor is already fighting his own ability, so when Shibusawa was doing his thing, the relationship flipped and they got along.

In chapter 108 of the manga, fyodor suddenly says he's controlled by "a demon" and follows it up with this:

then he says this:

which is really key. It implies everything i suspected from Dead Apple-- Fyodor's ability is his enemy.

Of course, right after this scene, he stabs Sigma and basically says "teehee I was lying the whole time"

But I don't know if I truly believe he was lying (which isn't a hot take, I've seen other people who believe the same thing). What he said earlier really fit with the conclusions that could be drawn from Dead Apple. There is a real possibility that he when his ability regained control it just, ya know, lied.

Okay fine, whatever, what is his ability?? who, or what, is he? to be fully honest, I don't know.

But here's what we do know -- or for many of these, what we suspect (in number list so i can easily refer back to them)

1. Fyodor might be immortal. A very popular theory based mainly around the fact that he is everywhere in the BSD timeline but never seems to age

2. His ability probably works against him in some way, likely taking over his body due to some "weakness" that was brought forth by the ability, and then taken advantage of. I am going to refer to the "good" Fyodor we briefly see in ch 108 as 108!fyodor just to make things easier for myself.

3. He can kill non-gifted with a touch of his hand. I don't think he can kill gifted the same way (he had to shoot the cat-lady, plus every ability-kill we've seen thus far has been of non-gifted victims)

4. Nikolai does not know how to kill him (still unclear on the whole poisoning plotline-- I have seen the theory that Nikolai didn't poison them earlier, but the "antidote" is poison. Still not fully clear on how all of this fits together), and wants Sigma to find out his ability so he can kill him.

5. In Dead Apple, he was split into "Crime" and "Punishment". One person was an ability manifestion just like everyone else had been dealing with, the other was Fyodor himself acting as part of his ability-- which is odd because the ability is supposed to sever the gift from the gifted. and yet fyodor was still part of it, just fragmented. This supports the fyodor is not fully human idea presented by Sigma's question of "what are you?" and the immortaity theory. It also supports an alter-ego, as he had two personalities there.

6. fyodor has some vendetta against the gifted despite being a gifted himself

7. gifts are typically a result of some type of trauma or past experience. we do not really know his backstory.

so point 4. Nikolai doesn't know how to kill him. Assuming everything 108!fyodor said was true, this dagger could kill him:

sword Kladenets is an established sword type, typically belonging to a hero (interesting that fyodor has one...)

"In some heroic poems and ancient Russian legends, a sword Kladenets acts as a self-cutting sword, which, on the orders of its owner, can cut down an entire forest or at least the whole enemy army. Other weapons could heal or make their owners or holders – invulnerable."

interesting stuff. invincibility? Well, fyodor may be immortal (see point #1), so that could go hand in hand with that. It would also explain why a sword Kladenets would be needed to kill him-- any other weapon would fall short.

Also, fyodor's "ability" involves being able to kill other people easy-peasy by tapping them (point #3)-- which is the same thing the sword kladenets does. Remember, every person he's killed with his ability bled out where he touched them-- as if they were cut with a blade!!

But why can't he kill ability users? my theory is that abilities are on the same level as a sword kladenets, and therefore the sword cannot do it on its own. Fyodor can only be killed by the sword kladenets that he wields and not by an ability; he cannot kill an ability user with the sword. makes enough sense to me

okay, what else can we learn from the sword?

Everything I read about the sword describe that the hero has to find the sword; by digging it from the ground or taking it from a dead body, or some other way of earning it. Then the sword will work with the hero. But Fyodor's ability (which I am beginning to believe is simply the sword he wields) works against him (see point #2), which makes me think he obtained the sword without earning it. This could be the "weakness" that was brought forth by his ability and allowed for his ability to overtake him-- which makes sense!! he would not have that weakness had he not obtained the sword!

The sword is also often given a personality-- it is a character in itself (which would explain the alter-ego point #5)

furthermore, how could he have a sword in prison if it wasn't part of his ability??

So! what I am trying to say is that fyodor somehow wrongly obtained a sword kladenets (or perhaps in this universe, the sword kladenets), and is now controlled by it. this led to him form an alter ego (the sword's personality), which overtook him due to the fact that he did not earn the sword, and was not powerful enough to control it. The sword gave him the ability to be unkillable (and therefore immortal/unaging), and the ability to kill non-gifted easily by simple contact.

i would like to emphasize that i am very likely wrong, as this is BSD we're talking about after all. I am working from memory and a very small amount of research, and also using this as an excuse to procrastinate. Take this with a grain of salt. but also, please add onto this if you have thoughts. I have not read Crime and Punishment (I have copy but I've been busy) or any other Dostoevsky book, so if you have and you think this relates to his books in any way (or that it contradicts them) I'd love to hear it!

#bsd #my posts #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd chapter 108 #bsd manga spoilers #bsd fyodor #bsd fyodor dostoevsky #bsd theories #okay im out of tags #i need to study for calc now bye #sorry for the typos #using my rambling skills here #i sat down at my desk to study and an hour later we have this

[longitudinalwaveme]

King Lear vs Nahum Tate's Edgar-Marries-Cordelia King Lear

As anyone who has been following my blog for the past few months can probably guess, I am a big Shakespeare nerd, and King Lear is my favorite Shakespeare play. Because of this, I decided to track down Nahum Tate's "happy ending" rewrite of King Lear (written around 1681) and the anonymous King Leir (written in the 1590s and one of Shakespeare's sources for his King Lear) and see how they compared to Shakespeare's version. The results were...interesting. And hilarious.

This particular post will be about Nahum Tate's Lear. King Leir will get its own, separate post. I'm starting with Tate's Lear because it's probably more widely known (and, being a rewrite, naturally is much more similar to Shakespeare's play than King Leir). Here's what stood out to me:

-Nahum Tate actually reworked a more substantial number of lines than I expected him to. Most of the play is generally the same as Shakespeare's version, but the specific word choices are different (and often not nearly as impactful). That being said, he still kept enough of Shakespeare's lines to remind you that this is basically just an edited version of Shakespeare's play. And that it was much better before the edits.

-The play actually opens with a modified version of Edmund's "Thou, nature" speech, rather than with the conversation between Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund (which is cut completely from the play, unfortunately). He also explicitly tells us that he's been working to set his father and brother against each other for some time now, so the scene where he shows Gloucester the forged letter is now not the first part of his plan. Needless to say, I prefer the Shakespeare version, especially since the loss of the Kent/Gloucester/Edmund speech means that some of the nuance in Gloucester and Edmund's relationship gets lost.

-The King of France just doesn't exist in this version. The Duke of Burgundy is still a suitor for Cordelia, but she wants to marry Edgar here. I would make fun of this, given that Edgar and Cordelia never speak in Shakespeare's play, but I sort of ship Cordelia with the Fool, and they also never speak with each other in Shakespeare's play, so I'll let Tate off for this one. Except I won't, because while I love writing King Lear fanfic, I have never decided that I could write Shakespeare better than Shakespeare and then altered the original play so that her actual husband doesn't exist.

-Substantially more annoying than the Cordelia/Edgar thing in general is the fact that, rather than refusing to participate in the love test because she doesn't want to falsely flatter the king by competing in "Who Loves Daddy the Most", she here refuses because...she doesn't want to get married to Burgundy. I mean, I'm all for not wanting to marry someone you don't love, but Cordelia's motivation in the original was much more interesting, and I kind of feel as though the rationale Tate provided for her was included solely because he thought Cordelia's initial reasons for refusing to participate in the love contest made her not feminine enough.

-Weirdly, even though Cordelia didn't want to marry Burgundy in the first place, when he refuses to marry her after her father disowns her, this for some reason makes her suspicious of Edgar's motivations in pursuing her (even though he's clearly interested in her after she's disowned!) and so she basically calls off their romance (at least temporarily).

-Also, since there's no King of France, Cordelia is just sort of...hanging around in England offstage somewhere while the remainder of the first two acts go down. She does pop back up again in Act III to go out into the storm and find her father, but I have no idea what she's doing in between the first scene and when she finally reappears.

-The Fool doesn't exist. At all. And his lines aren't given to anyone else, either. This is a major disappointment. It also means that Kent (who does at least still get to disguise himself as Caius) is the only important character who ends up going out into the storm with Lear.

-Oswald doesn't have a name in this version. He's just called "Gentleman" throughout (it's even what's used to delineate his lines!)

-Throughout the entirety of the scene where Edmund is trying to convince Edgar that their father is super angry with him for some obviously non-Edmund-related reason, Edgar is so busy moping over Cordelia dumping him that he barely even pays attention to what Edmund has to say, and Edmund has to try much harder than in Shakespeare's version to get the message across. Clearly, Edgar has his priorities straightened out.

-Edgar's "I'm going to pretend to be a naked crazy person" soliloquy includes several references to Cordelia, because we're never going to see the end of this added plot element.

-Regan starts expressing a romantic interest in Edmund the first time they meet (in what would be Act II, scene i of Shakespeare's play). Shakespeare's play doesn't have her mention Edmund in any romantic capacity until Act IV, scene v, well after her husband's death.

-Most of the rest of the stuff leading up to Lear running out into the storm plays out the same as in Shakespeare's version, though with altered lines and with all traces of the Fool eliminated. Though the absence of the Fool also means that the entirety of Act I scene v of Shakespeare's play is absent from Tate's version, since that scene consists of nothing but Lear talking to the Fool.

-Kent has to sort of take the Fool's place in the storm scenes (leading to the somewhat odd effect of Lear calling Kent "my boy" and "my poor knave").

-Both Goneril and Regan are openly pursuing Edmund by the start of Act III (he already has love letters from them both in what would be Shakespeare's Act III, scene iii!). This is especially notable in Regan's case, since she does not attempt to cheat on her husband with Edmund in Shakespeare's version.

-A more interesting addition is the fact that in this version, the common people are fed up with Goneril and Regan (and presumably the Duke of Cornwall as well) because they "Already have impos'd the galling Yoke Of Taxes, and hard Impositions on the drudging Peasants Neck, who bellow out their loud Complaints in Vain". This is sort of hinted at in Shakespeare's version, but not to this extent and not until rather later in the play (most of the anger in that version seems to stem from Gloucester's blinding, which hasn't happened yet in Act III scene iii).

-Also, Cordelia pops up in this scene to beg Gloucester to help her father. He's understandably surprised by her concern for Lear, but tells her that he is, in fact, going to help her father (and that he was planning to do that anyway).

-And Edmund immediately decides that he's attracted to Cordelia in addition to both of her sisters (his affair with them seems a lot less politically motivated on his part than it does in Shakespeare's version)-----and then moves far beyond the pale of even allowing his father's eyes to be gouged out when he decides that he's going to have his men kidnap Cordelia so that he can rape her. Just in case the audience hadn't worked out he was the villain yet!

-Because women were allowed on stage by the time Tate did this rewrite, he decided to add in another female character named Arante. She serves as Cordelia's lady's maid, but sadly doesn't get enough stage time to get a personality or do all that much. If you're going to add in new characters, why not go whole-hog and actually develop them?

-The scene where Lear puts his "daughters" on trial in the farmhouse is cut entirely (though the "Let them anatomize Regan" line gets to stay in).

-Lear's "when the mind's free, the body's delicate" line gets given to Cordelia, who is wandering the heath with Arante in search of her father. Then she and Arante get attacked by Edmund's goons, only to be saved by Edgar.

-Unfortunately, this results in the rekindling of the romance between Edgar and Cordelia.

-Regan is now aggressively flirting with Edmund right before Gloucester is brought in to be blinded.

-Regan does not get to kill the servant who stands up to, and mortally wounds, Cornwall. I guess Cornwall just kills him? That's disappointing.

-Before committing suicide, Gloucester actually plans to actively go around showing people how awful Regan and Cornwall are in the hopes of getting them to revolt against the two older daughters. That's a clever stratagem, though I'm surprised Gloucester's mentally stable enough to come up with it, given how he's just gotten his eyes gouged out and all.

-The revolt is also being supported by some dude named the Duke of Combray, who apparently just hates the Duke of Cornwall for old family reasons. He doesn't appear in person in the play at all, and he doesn't exist in Shakespeare.

-Tate's Act IV begins with a completely new full-on love scene between Regan and Edmund. Mind you, Cornwall's actively dying while this is going on, and Regan even says that she hopes that he will die so that she can marry Edmund. Again, there's not a trace of this in Shakespeare's version; Regan doesn't mention Edmund romantically until scene five of this act, at which point her husband is very dead. Regan also finds Goneril's love letter to Edmund during this scene between them (not the "kill my husband" letter, the other one from earlier. Goneril sends two letters to Edmund in this version.)

-Oh, and Regan also gets Goneril's "my fool usurps my body" line.

-Because there's no King of France, the French invasion becomes a sort of civil war, one that comes in large part from a peasant's revolt. That's actually a neat idea, even if it removes any semblance of moral ambiguity from the upcoming battle (and indeed raises the question of why Albany fights against them at all).

-Kent, Gloucester, and Cordelia meet together in a sequence that doesn't exist in Shakespeare's version (it comes midway through Shakespeare's Act IV scene i). This also means that Gloucester learns about Kent's disguise in Tate's version (there's no indication that he ever learns about it in Shakespeare's).

-Even though Regan got a new scene to be romantic with Edmund, the scene where Goneril does the same (after Edmund escorts her back to her castle) is missing entirely. And so is Edmund. And so is Albany, meaning that her argument with him is also missing entirely.

-Goneril is the one who tells Oswald (excuse me, "Gentleman") that he should kill the now-blind Gloucester, rather than Regan being the one to do it. This in turn has the knock-on effect that Act IV scene v (the one where Regan first expresses interest in Edmund in Shakespeare's Lear, tries to read Goneril's letter to Edmund, and tells him to kill Gloucester) is also entirely cut.

-Cordelia explicitly does not go to the battlefield in Tate's version (whether she does so in Shakespeare's is unclear, though she does seem to be in charge of the French army there). Instead, Kent seems to lead the forces that are in support of Lear.

-Tate's Act V begins with Goneril putting the poison into Regan's drink onstage (before they've even won the battle!)

-Conversely, we don't get to see Edgar giving Albany Goneril's letter to Edmund and offering to fight Edmund on Albany's behalf.

-Instead of Edmund telling the soldiers to hang Lear and Cordelia, Goneril does it instead. I...actually don't mind this change too much. Especially since this Edmund is already an attempted rapist, so he doesn't really need to be MORE evil (and Goneril was in on the plan to have them hanged in Shakespeare's version anyhow).

-Edgar challenges Edmund to a duel on his own behalf, rather than on Albany's (and indeed, Albany doesn't know about the fact that his wife is plotting to kill him to be with Edmund since Edgar never gave him the letter, so he doesn't charge Edmund with treason himself at all!)

-The scene between Cordelia and Lear, rather than being at the beginning of the last scene, instead takes places partway through it, though rather than being taken to prison, it happens when they're already in prison. Kent is there too, and he's an awkward third wheel.

-Edgar also doesn't fight the duel in disguise---Edmund knows it's him from the get-go.

-Edgar finally gives the letter to Albany once the duel has already started.

-Regan is actually onstage for the duel in this version (in Shakespeare's version Goneril's poison does her in much more quickly and she's already dying offstage by the time the duel starts).

-Oh, and instead of Goneril committing suicide, she and Regan have an argument that leads to the revelation that Regan poisoned her too. Which sucks, because Goneril running offstage and stabbing herself is much more memorable than having them both poison each other.

-Weirdly, the scene ends with both sisters and Edmund just sort of shrugging and going offstage to presumably all die together (I mean, at this point I guess there's not much else for them to do).

-Edmund at no point repents and tells Edgar and Albany to save Cordelia. The two of them just go off to talk to Edgar's father. So...uh...no idea how they later know to go to the prison, since nobody told them about the murder plot.

-King Lear saves Cordelia from two of the men who have come to kill her (rather than just killing the one who hangs her, as per Shakespeare's play). Then Edgar and Albany show up to save the day, so Cordelia and Lear don't die. And neither does Gloucester, who survives the revelation that it was his son who's been leading him all around the British countryside. -Lear gets his crown back, and Edgar and Cordelia get married. And everyone is happy (except the reader, maybe, who probably remembers how powerful, though bleak, Shakespeare's ending is).

-Also, Albany just gets the shaft throughout the play. He's not a super active character in Shakespeare's version, but he basically accomplishes nothing at all here.

TL;DR: Tate probably just should have done his own take on the King Lear story rather than trying to improve Shakespeare's.

#william shakespeare #shakespeare #king lear #nahum tate's king lear #goneril #regan #cordelia #edgar #edmund #no Fool

[rpg-weather-cycle]

Out of character: We're really tired, so we'll probably regret posting this later, but I just wanted to talk about the coloured souls saga (what I'm calling the current stage in weather's existence). I for a while had been wanting to make weather a system, but that wouldn't really fit the character as is. So I did the whole thing with them messing with their code to try and give themself back their freedom, but backfiring. The original weather cycle will come back if you miss them (but all the colours are here to stay as well), although the plans for that are progressing a bit slower than I hoped.

anyway, why did we decide to make all the colours so weird? Well, each one represents a way alters formed by lots of trauma can behave (I'm sure I've missed a bunch, but these are the ones we have personal experience with). The original plan for this arc was meant to be for each colour to learn how to deal with their own problems, and find ways to interact with others without upsetting anyone, but still keep what makes them who they are. I also considered having there be a theme about others trying to pressure them into recombining into the original weather, and their refusal, eventually ending up with weather returning as an equal to all the rest, but I quickly scrapped that idea, both because it would involve asking other members of the epprbcu to be arseholes to the weathers, and because it would probably be quite triggering to write.

I still want to continue with the original theme, but it's kind of taken a backseat, because it turns out we are not very good at writing that kind of character development. I'll still try to get it across as much as I can, but don't expect me to do a good job. Below are each of the characters, and my thoughts on them:

The original: Probably the easiest to write. I wanted to make a formal, weird, and kind of emotionless character that didn't seem like how robots are depicted in most media, and I think I did an ok job. In hindsight, I kind of made them a metaphor for masking in some ways (or maybe it's just me who sees that). The problem was it was really hard to find convincing reasons to get them to interact with other characters, which is another reason I started this whole colours thing.

Yellow: Also fairly easy to write. They are meant to be one of those system members who respond to trauma by always being happy, and I guess manic. They are smarter than they act, and often realize things but decide to pretend they didn't, because it would make the situation more entertaining. They are actually based off of a lot of alters in our system, and are kind of a mix of different character traits taken from them.

Crimson (previously called Red): Partially based on our only persecutor, but that's not the role they fill in weather cycle. They responded to all the trauma weather went through in their backstory by constantly reliving a loop of the worst events inside their own mind, so that the others don't have to remember as much. They haven't had much screentime yet, because they were trapped by all the remaining restrictions the original couldn't get rid of. I don't want to spoil too much, but they often blur with Yellow, which can be interesting.

Pink: It isn't that obvious, but Pink is basically always dissociated. They have trouble understanding the world that they see, but this lack of distractions actually allows them to interface with a lot of the games code. We have a few system members who have similar problems with reality, and I wanted to make a character where that was a strength, rather than a weakness. If you were wondering, there is some logic to the numbers, but not that much.

Blue: Blue is probably the hardest to write. I wanted them to follow rules and always believe in their own rightness not because they actually thought that was how they should act, but because they desperately needed something to cling to to keep themself from falling apart. I don't know how well I managed to convey this, but I don't think I did a good job, and it's also really hard to get their tone of voice (or tone of writing I guess?) right. Probably the only one who isn't really based off anyone in our system. (although there are some similarities with a few of us)

Green: Green is really depressed. They are really tired, and they kind of act as a counterweight to yellow, the misery to their joy. They try and do what they think is right, as often as they can, but every time they talk to someone, it just seems to make them worse. Some of the others are trying to help, but it doesn't seem to be working. The system member(s) that they are based on have asked me to not share how this relates to them, so I won't. Green is easy to write really, I just sometimes forget to show how sad they actually are.

#out of character #I cried while writing this post for some reason #possible spoilers

[firelordgrantham]

me: sees my dash overflooding with politics from another country, which are sometimes mildly funny or relevant but which don't interest me that much for the number of posts I see about it.

me: OK, time to make fun of some fictionnal character and change the subject.

On that subject, imagine the twolegs attaining the thundercamp in forest after the great exile to the lake, and being like ''oy, mates, let's move that big stone'' and they dig and see just that... that kittypet's collar. And one of them is a big fan of cats (maybe the same one who took Graystripe home) so he looks up the name/number and realizes it's a cat that has been missing for at least like three/four years. And they just found his collar - and just his collar- burried in a bizzarely altered circle of ferns (since the thundercamp at the time was hidden by ferns and brambles).

And then he connects this to the rumour that the forest is haunted because at every full moon you hear meowing for hours and there is sometimes thunderstorms when the sky was clear two minutes sooner, and the fact that a large group of cat seems to jump out of the bushes whenever they are cutting a large pine (shadowclan camp) or anything, and the fact a big group of cats freed the trapped animals, and the fact there was this big, dangerous for kids, group of rogue cats (the blood clan) that disappeared in like two days top after a forest cat was seen following one of the weird punk cats to their house, and also since Tigerstar probably didn't have a funeral so there was this gigantic main coon with enormous claws found by hikers who was cut open neatly and spilling its organs all over the floor of the Three Pines Hiking Trail.

And then I don't know, Jessie, Princess, all the kittypets who knew firestar or who were helped by him in the illustrated novels and everything just... seem to have gone into mourning and the cat they did take from the forest (Graystripe) is hysterical, and...

And basically all the twolegs just desert the thing, the construction project is stopped, and the forest is inspected and then they discover some kind of endangered frog or whatever they didn't find in the first place and it becomes a national park and hikers don't go anyway because the forest is haunted and they don't want to be cut open like the large maincoon or pushed from a cliff like the whole pack of guard dogs that disappeared in the forest and were found six months later, drowned at the feet of the cliffs.

And Rusty's collar is the reason why the clans' home is preserved.

And they don't have any idea of that because they're on the lake.

#warriors #warrior cats #firestar #graystripe #tigerstar #the prophecy begins #the new prophecy #rusty's collar #tw blood #tw wounds #tw cut open

[armoricaroyalty]

hi! do you have any tips for a new/just starting out royal simblr? anything you can tell me is greatly appreciated.

also, one more thing: any tips for how to place/adjust tiaras using the hat slider? i’m seriously losing my actual mind over here trying to position tiaras and i don’t even know if i’m doing it right 🤣 ty!

You know, a while ago I actually started writing a guide for new royal simblr but it ended up in my enormous pile of "projects I'll return to when my free time returns from the war!" Here's some of the highlights.

Know what you want to get out of your story... Are you telling a story because you're excited about the community aspect, meeting new people, participating in community events, and making friends? Are you looking to challenge yourself and grow your skills as a story-teller, pose-maker, or editor? Do you want to dress your sims up in pretty clothes and make them smooch? Figure out what you want to accomplish with your story, and prioritize the parts of it that enable you to do that thing.

...but don't do it for notes. There's a big difference between joining a community to make friends and enjoy your shared hobby and joining a community with the intention of building a following and getting a lot of likes, comments, and asks. We all like it when the numbers go up, but focusing exclusively (or almost exclusively) on the numbers is a great way to kill your passion for your story. Comparison is the thief of joy. Write for yourself, not the audience you think another simmer has.

Start small, start simple. Your story will naturally develop in complexity as you revise your outlines and edit posts. The stories you follow might be packed with intricate drama and lots of moving parts, but they (probably) didn't start out that way. Don't feel like you need to roll out a complicated story with a cast of dozens and extensive family trees...you'll have a hard time keeping track of it, and so will your readers. Some of the best story-telling advice I ever got came from a tabletop roleplaying game manual via an actual play podcast: draw maps, leave blank spaces. Know the shape of your story but leave yourself space to improvise and embroider later on.

Pick a good entry point. Expanding on the point above, (imo) the best way to get started is to have a small core cast with clearly-defined relationships reacting to some kind of status-quo altering event, and then building the plot and world out from there. For example: what happens when the elderly king's only living child dies? Does he divorce his also-elderly wife and marry his 20-year-old sidepiece in the hopes of producing a new heir, or does he reconcile with his estranged brother and declare him heir? That's a cast of four (five if you count the dead son) with a lot of baked-in drama and intrigue. Readers are going to want to know what happens next. I want to know what happens next. Someone write this story and send it to me.

A lot of the rest of the guide I have drafted is just me tiredly making a case for making sims who don't look exactly identical, so I'll save that for another day.

ETA: no tips for the hat slider, sorry. i’m constantly fucking that one up, too.

#armorica asks #Anonymous #i was just spitballing on number 4 but i might just actually incorporate that plot #into my plans for the future #like i got a character coming up who is a little turd who WOULD divorce his grieving wife to go have a Replacement Family #hell yeah i talked myself into that get ready for like eight generations of fucking assholes lmao

[disgaearpg]

Disgaea 7

I've ordered a physical copy of Disgaea 7, for my Nintendo Switch, release date October 3rd, 2023. I played the demo when it first came out and I'm tempted to take some screen shots and post about the demo before the final release date. The demo is good. I mean, I think I should take some time to talk about D6 before jumping into D7. I really liked D6, but I know that it gets a lot of criticism for the mechanics, storyline, gameplay, value and time to completion. For me, I would probably have to rate the NIS Netherworld Games like this:

Disgaea 1

Phantom Brave

Disgaea 5

Disgaea 2

Makai Kingdom

Disgaea 6

I really lost interest while playing D3 and D4, so It's not such a fair list. Also, Phantom Brave is such an excellent game, it's really hard for me to put it at number 2, but D1 is just that much better and so D1 takes first place. I'm also leaving out La Pucelle: Tactics, although it's a great game, don't get me wrong, even D3 and D4 were amazing, but for me the hierarchy is based on my interest and how liberating it was for me to learn the gameplay. All of these games have ludicrous storylines, absurd leveling, immature potty humor, and are full of Japanese anime clichés. What brings me back, every time, is the consistency of gameplay, with solid leveling, even into absurd levels, systems and mechanics on top of systems, creating unique strategies, deep mechanics, combos and tactics that you just can't find in another series. Siralim is the closest game that I've found that scratches the same itch. I could also list some other titles, like Soda Dungeon, Dragon Quest titles, even Final Fantasy titles. Games that have in-depth leveling and character level-up choices, that scale and can be altered, have the greatest potential to entertain consistently through very high levels. So when it comes to D6, the problem is that it was a little too easy. The speed to unlock systems, just seemed arbitrary and intentionally limited. Once the stat milestone of 20 mil was reached, the next was artificially capped by limiting 40 mil to extracts only. You could say that all the games have artificial caps, but in D6, you hit 20 mil so fast that the work to 40 mil seems unnecessarily throttled. What I'm looking for is a consistent pace, that rewards clever strategies and has a wealth of combos, so that you can spike your level-up growth if you find savvy exploits. This is mostly done by limiting the number of guides you watch and the amount of forums you visit while playing through your first playthrough. Also, if you can take your knowledge and speed run through the game to post game is also a plus. So yeah, I'm excited to play D7 and I didn't hate D6 at all. I'm curious to see what people are saying about D7, because most reviews are saying that D7 "fixes" some of the problems of D6. I'll follow up and post next week or sooner.

[moonlitcravings]

𝕴𝖓𝖙𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 ▸𝓐𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓶𝓮

— ❝ 𝘞𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘻𝘦𝘳𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴. ❞

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𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐒 ▸ 𝐒𝐡𝐞/𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐄 ▸ 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐁𝐓𝐈 ▸ 𝐈𝐒𝐅𝐏 𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐀𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐌 ▸ 𝟒𝐰𝟓 / 𝟒𝐰𝟗 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 ▸ 𝐄𝐍𝐆 / 𝐄𝐒𝐏

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About Me

I'm a writer and a fanartist. I've written it countless times so at this point those two things are to be known. So if you didn't know, now you do.

This blog was created so that I could share my written works, characters, and headcanons, amongst other things that are unlisted.

Other places where you can find me (or where you may know me from) are Wattpad and Quotev. If you know me from either of those places, you should be acquainted with my writing.

I don't follow a schedule. Don't expect me to be posting/writing on a specific day of the week. I'll be posting when I feel like it (and frankly, I feel it should be that way).

Main Account: @taintedbenevolence

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Rules

Smut? ) There'll be explicit content in this blog. It will be seen commonly. Since there will be explicit content, I would ask that no minors interact with such posts.

Yandere Prompts? ) I'm fine writing/taking Yandere prompts (I'm more than happy to), I'll willingly write them. I will, however, still stick to canon. Just because I altered the character with Yandere traits does not mean I will contort the actual character to the point they're just basically an overwritten blank slate of obsessiveness.

No Spoilers ) Please do not give me spoilers on a series/fandom I am in. Unless I specifically say I've finished it or am comfortable with spoilers of said series, don't spoil anything. It just ruins the experience.

Anons Allowed ) I've seen it around, so I'll just mention it. Anonymous asks are allowed, feel free to make yourselves at home and send some asks, I don't mind at all. I encourage it.

Limited Requests? ) It's never a good thing to feel overwhelmed with the number of requests one may be tasked with. Be aware that I hold my right to refuse a request/ask if I don't feel like it or don't agree, so if I don't answer in a long period of time (over three days), it's most likely that I have decided to ignore your ask. (Either that, or Tumblr has eaten your ask or something...)

Discussion? ) I am more than happy to discuss fandoms, ships, theories, and such. Ask away all you want and I'll be delighted to answer. I'll be happy to discuss and talk about it.

Recommendations ) Feel free to recommend to me a series, anime, song, artist, etc. that you like and enjoy! I'll look into it and watch it when I have the time. It's likely I'll be willing to discuss it too once I'm done with it. If you want me to write about it, I'll also consider it.

Minors DNI Posts ) I'll say it once and I'll say it again—this blog has dark content. Most of my posts will have the Minors DNI text. Do not interact with such posts if you are a minor, please.

Blank Blogs and Bots ) If I see that your blog is blank, has no BIO/has the basic Tumblr pfp and/or zero reblogs/posts in it (blank), I will soft-block you. Don't be the person who got blocked by accident.

Blocked Accidentally or Intentionally? ) It's not likely I'll block you accidentally, but, if you have been blocked [ or soft blocked ], feel free to go to my Wattpad and DM me about it. We'll talk about the matter and deal with it there. If you have been intentionally blocked and message me through Wattpad/Quotev about it, I'll explain why you have been blocked. I'm open to hearing you out.

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𓆩⟡𓆪 Fandoms 𓆩⟡𓆪

Red - No spoilers, please Purple - Spoilers allowed / Finished Green - Unfinished, I don't mind spoilers

✦ 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 / 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐮 𝐧𝐨 𝐓𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢 ✦ 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧 / 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐤𝐢 𝐧𝐨 𝐊𝐲𝐨𝐣𝐢𝐧 ✦ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐒𝐭��𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐕𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐬 / 𝐕𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞 ✦ 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚 𝟓 ✦ 𝐏𝐨𝐤é𝐦𝐨𝐧 ✦ 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐢: 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐑𝐚𝐢𝐥 ✦ 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐢 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝟑𝐫𝐝 ✦ 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 ✦ 𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐤𝐲𝐮𝐮! ✦ 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞 ✦ 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 ✦ 𝐁𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐮 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐃𝐨𝐠𝐬 (No Spoilers from S4-S5)

Important Note!

I'll be writing OC content here, so, do expect that. If you want me to write about my OCs, feel free to ask about it. I'll be willing to write depending on the request. I also write AUs, so, go wild.

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𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐒 ▸ Where you can find me

𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐩𝐚𝐝: 𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫_𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 / 𝐀𝐳𝐮𝐫𝐚 𝐐𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐯: 𝐀𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐬𝐭𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞 / 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞

#introduction #my writing #intro post #introductory post #alt account

[trendingfact01]

[alisoncooper]

the league of gentlemen ladies + instagram aesthetics (1/?) (click through for higher quality)

val denton // pauline campbell-jones // bernice woodall

#the league of gentlemen #val denton #pauline campbell jones #bernice woodall #don't @ me because i didn't alter the posts/followers/following numbers #i'm very lazy by nature #loginsta* #also i forget how much fun i have making these until i start again #and then i want to make loads

[saintqueer]

This is why I follow you Jordy. So tired of fandom dividing into the ‘crazy Larries’ and the ‘calm and cool Larries’. Like the entire premise of Larry is considered crazy— there’s literally no point in ignoring potential signs from them in favour of being liked by some anti. At this point we’re not gonna be different from the hets in a few years. So what if it was a reach and we were wrong? At least we’re receptive. Harry and Louis need people who are open to their messaging ffs. 1/2

hiiii anon, if you don't mind i'm gonna use your messages to make my thoughts on the crazy shit going on with promo and the leak a little clearer.

i said i'd make a longer post on exactly why i think harry is a loose cannon right now, why he is reminding me of aug-nov 2014 harry a bit.

i wanted to use your messages as a jumping off point because i think you are right when you say an album leaking more than a month before release date is strange as fuck. this fandom is not unfamiliar with leaks, even purposeful leaks, leaks for promo, etc. but an album leaking exactly one whole month before release breaks pattern and is a huge risk for sales and streaming numbers. a week before release wouldn't have too much impact and might just drum up excitement but a whole month before risks diminished numbers from hardcore fans once actual release comes around.

i'm gonna simply offer a few strange things i've noticed in the past few weeks and allow you to draw your own conclusions:

i've heard from multiple sources that sony was NOT behind the leak and they were scrambling to figure out the source.

the album was leaked on 4.20, the wednesday before coachella weekend 2. the exact same day that lizzo was contacted by harry to perform I Will Survive with him. incredibly last minute and unusual for a festival so big.

louis was in an excellent mood on his 4.20 concert and We Are the Champions was the post-show song.

a bunch of unreleased songs, most of us had accepted we might never hear, were piled on with the leak of hs3 which is a bit unusual.

harry's mood and demeanor at coachella weekend 2 was chaotic, to put it simply kdjfghkdj. he was a bit wild, strangely aggressive and intense.

he added medicine to his set only after the studio recording leaked. and he was fascinatingly explicit in his performance of it.

on saturday, harry is seen with the entire stunt crew and he looks entirely stoic and uncomfortable except when conversing with corden. the videos are legit painful to watch. he looks incredibly anxious and is constantly looking around. we've seen harry have fun at concerts and this was not that.

harry's magazine cover debuts along with an interview that is at the same time more revealing than usual and also filled with repeat quotes that are slighted altered. i couldn't help but get the feeling that harry offered an in-depth interview that was cut and spliced with chunks taken out and replaced with old quotes altered in the final revision and okay from his team. part of it felt like it didn't match with the rest. so i believe the sections where he talks about his cleanliness clause and celeb documentaries were representative of the whole interview he actually gave but big chunks were taken out after the fact by his team to be replaced with the bits we recognized from so many previous print interviews.

olivia was served on stage on the 4.27 and the next day, on the 28th, harry is papped driving in LA.

later that night, harry posts directly to his IG story (nothing on HSHQ) an extremely low quality pic that, according to an app, was only taken 10 minutes previously of the back of the album laid out on the grass.... (grass...the album was leaked on 4.20...weed....maryjane...dots connecting)

a whole hour later, a proper high quality picture of the tracklist is posted by hshq. almost as if harry went rogue, announced it early and hshq had to scramble to catch up.

on 4.30, we get 60+ pap pics and videos from backgrid of harry and jeff on a hike in LA. these are likely quite a bit older than the 30th. as it seems like harry might have been in london yesterday. however, things look tense. even worse than they have looked and harry has looked pissy pretty much every time he is papped or spotted with jeff since after the grammys in early 2021.

any and all articles that have been coming out this week about harry with either these pap pics with jeff or the ones in his car have revolved entirely around olivia without mention of his new upcoming album.

everything around this promo is odd and off. plus them not getting harry out of this messy legal situation with his beard is ugly. it seems they are doing the opposite, rather than using any pap pics for promoting his upcoming album they are using them to publicize her messy shitty legal situation for abandoning her own children.

i realize i just kind of messily threw out a bunch of random facts but all these feel like really important things that have taken place over the last few weeks. that if they were put together with the billion other strange things that have been going on around harry over the last two years might help to start make sense of what's happening behind the scenes.

all that to say: the low quality picture of the back of the cd on a patch of grass being posted on harry's ig only made me far more sure in my theory that harry leaking his own album is somehow related to harry's, what appears to me, ongoing beef with his own management team.

this is not by any means comprehensive but my groupchat buds are composing a huge masterpost of all the shady shit thats been going on surrounding harry over the past two years so that should be coming soon. it's a really long list kjfhgkj.

#thanks so much anon for letting me use your kind message to go over on a long ramble that hopefully at least partly sensical #love yall for entertaining all these theories #and remember keep throwing crazy shit out there #you are right that the only way these things become powerful is if we notice them #so keep noticing shit even if you turn out wrong #anon