#especially since the game is probably bigger than the books

[whatyouwantedmetosee]

boy howdy das a lotta notes on my batdr post anyway i got a couple of new followers so for new folks (and old ones who may have forgotten):

IMPORTANT REMINDER: I DON’T TEND TO TAG REBLOGS

my blog may contain batdr spoilers and i cant promise ill be able to tag all (or any) of them. if you want or need to avoid spoilers please feel free to unfollow me so you don’t get spoiled

#mochi talks #i think i tagged spoilers for book stuff but my health and energy are real bad lately so #i dont think im gonna be able to do it this time around #especially since the game is probably bigger than the books #admittedly i dont know how much im gonna be able to reblog anyway but!!!

[gffa]

Over the last week, I decided to go ahead with bookmarking all the fics I've recommended over the years on AO3 since I abide by tumblr poll results always (and man pour one out for all the fic that never made it to AO3 or has since been deleted, sooooo many gems lost to time!) and it was a bit more than the ~3,000 I was expecting:

Hopefully, this will be easier than browsing the hundreds of recs posts I've made, since you can filter for any of the author's tags now! These are mostly focused on Star Wars and DC fandom, but I did my time in the anime mines and occasional tours through some TV fandoms or movies. You can dig into everything unfiltered and start your own filtering, or the bigger fandoms you'll find:

MAJOR FANDOMS: Each of these should have 100+ at minimum and, in the case of Star Wars, literally almost half of them are in that fandom. Look, Star Wars fandom might be a trash fire in a lot of ways, but it is ON FIRE with some good fic. (Older bookmarks not guaranteed to match my current sentiments, especially re: the Jedi, but they did catch my fancy at that point in time!)

STAR WARS: - All Star Wars -OR- All Star Wars minus the Obi-Wan/Anakin ship - OR- Nothing BUT Obi-Wan/Anakin

BATMAN/DC: - DC can sometimes be tricky, but you can do a Batman* search and get most of them (though, sometimes Nightwing* or Young Justice* or Superman* will catch some of the others). Honestly, though, you might want to just do a search for what character or dynamic you like and have fun from there, because otherwise you're getting a face full of my Dick Grayson Is The Center Of The Universe And I'm Making That Everyone Else's Problem agenda. ;)

MARVEL/MCU: - Marvel* will probably get most of the various properties, though you may want to filter for Defenders* or Guardians of the Galaxy* if you're interested -OR- Marvel* without the Thor/Loki - These focus a lot on the Thor* fandom if you want to witness the results of like 8 years of constant voracious reading in that fandom (Minus the ship), because, seriously, I read a LOT of Odinson family fic. - Bonus, just do a search for Maximoff* to find some really good X-Men: First Class-verse because, listen, I have been ALL ABOUT the Maximoff twins since long before the movies or MCU brought them over and I will DIE ON THE HILL of "Marvel, make Magneto their bio-dad again or I'm never reading another comic of yours ever".

TOLKIEN/LORD OF THE RINGS/SILMARILLION/HOBBIT: - Tolkien* -OR- Hobbit* -OR- Lord of the Rings* searches will turn up most of my Elf-hunting, I primarily focus on the Sindar Elves, but look I can't resist my problematic Feanorian faves or that I will die on the hill that Fingolfin is the best ever. (You have NO IDEA how sad I am that so much fic on Stories of Arda or FFNET is not easily bookmarked on AO3, sob. I externally bookmarked a few of the bigger ones, but sooo many shorter faves are missing from my recs tag.)

CLAMP: - X/Tokyo Babylon legitimately bums me out because it's not a huge fandom and yet so much of what was written was pre-AO3 and lost when CLAMPesque went down or was never brought over from Livejournal, yet this fandom (well, the Seishirou/Subaru pairing) still burns brightly in my heart.

MINOR FANDOMS: Ones that probably only have under 100 bookmarks (often around the 20-30 bookmarks range), but will at least give you a place to start! ANIME/MANGA: Bleach | Cardcaptor Sakura | Dragonball | Finder no Hyouteki/Viewfinder | Katekyou Hitman Reborn! | Kuroko no Basuke | One Piece | Sailor Moon | Madoka Magica | Naruto | Princess Tutu | Trigun | Weiss Kreuz | Yuri!!! on Ice

BOOKS: Chrestomanci | Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

DRAMAS: Nirvana in Fire | The Untamed -OR- Modao Zu Shi

TV SHOWS/MOVIES: Community | Game of Thrones -OR- ASOIAF | Good Omens | Hannibal | Highlander | The Old Guard | Our Flag Means Death | Stranger Things

VIDEO GAMES: Dragon Age: Inquisition | Final Fantasy 8 | Genshin Impact | Okami

BANDS: Arashi

All right, whew, that was actually a fun project, despite how much work it was to hunt down a lot of older faves to see if they were on AO3, hopefully you'll find this useful!

#lumi.txt #fic recs #star wars fic recs #batman fic recs

[prettyboykatsuki]

warms-ups | osamu + nsfw + cream

✬ wc ; 1.5k | ✬ tags ; afab + fem!reader, mentions of creampies, kitchen sex / after hours, alchohol, childhood friends to lovers, 18+

✬ a/n ; i SWEAR i did not rig this one at all😭

There's something about Osamu Miya that sends your spine tingling.

A divine kind of irony, because upon meeting them - you always preferred his brother. Atsumu is approachable to you, always has been. Poorly dyed blonde hair, with big round eyes and a signature pout that you've hardly seen him without. Atsumu is expressive and extroverted - at times deeply stupid in a way that's incredibly endearing.

You've known the Miya twins since you were snot-nosed brats though (long before the poor box dye), and it was easier for you to be alone with Atsumu. Atsumu took up so much space in a room that you never have to worry about fitting yourself in. He fills every place with his presence in a way that lets you hide behind him. Atsumu is like the sun.

And in contrast, Osamu is a lot like the moon. It took you a little longer to understand him, especially when you were young. They were twins but Osamu felt mature in comparison. Embodied a story of level, steadiness that left you unsettled.

(You learn later that this is a deceitful interpretation. Both of the Miya twins are petty and ridiculous - it's just that Osamu schemes it and Atsumu wears it on his sleeve)

Osamu has been a mystery to you since you can remember. He was never expressive enough for you to figure it out well, your exchanges being brief and stilted. It got less awkward gradually, a sense of acceptance settling in as you entered your teen years.

There's something valuable about being alone with someone, in complete comfortable silence. At 15, Osamu Miya felt a lot like an old couch. A place to come back to, with achey feet. A place you'd fall asleep, with your jeans still on and your head somewhere else.

You were there for their many milestones. When they got into Inarizaki, when they played all their games. You were there for their metaphorical break-up as they got to adulthood and you all parted ways to your different paths in life.

You still saw the Miya twins on a semi-frequent basis. You and Osamu were the first people Atsumu always called. Always in group messages and calls. When you finally graduated college, you landed a job close to the very Onigiri Miya opened.

It was probably about then. It wasn't like you hadn't always known about how good looking the Miya twins were. Your friends used to practically beg you to set them up and you don't blame them. But Atsumu always felt like a little brother to you and...

Osamu felt...not like that. But it wasn't like you could process that information at any point. Swept up in life, in teenage insecurity (because damnit, Osamu was always ridiculously good looking too) and in the general awkwardness of crushing on someone you've known since diapers - you tried to ignore it.

You thought those butterflies would die if you suffocated them, so you buried your nose in the books. Grew from a girl into a woman, into a fully bloomed person all in a few years. None of it mattered, because spending time with Osamu always seems to make you feel 15 again.

You don't quite know when it happened. One day of deciding to do your work in a booth at Onigiri Miya turned into many, and it seems like you and Osamu see each other a lot lately.

Osamu Miya is a lot bigger than his brother, you learn quickly. Atsumu is lean from his setting, muscular in a lithe way. Natural agility all befitting of his slippery character.

Osamu, too, has grown in a way befitting of his personality. Osamu got bigger. Started hitting the weights enough that he's muscular, soft and sturdy, the kind you can only see when he flexes. They're both still tall, but Osamu... is big.

Osamu is also, very handsome. Aware of it too, because he usually uses it to reel in customers. His face is different to you. Osamu looks less like a boy you grew up and more like a man you'd squeeze your legs together thinking about.

But even now, you don't understand what thoughts Osamu has about you.

You thought you were imagining it. The intensity of his gaze when he peeked at you from the counter. The subtle touches and plates of food you didn't pay for. Maybe he felt like he should take care of on old friend. Maybe the low way he whispered in your ear telling you "take care on yerr way home," were just your imagination playing tricks.

You only learn it late, taste-testing recipes in the back of his kitchen that it was all very intentional. It's your fault for forget Osamu is the kind of person to scheme.

A little sake in your system has you stumbling over your words. In the midst of your bumbling - all it takes is one, "I've always liked you" to entangle yourself with Osamu Miya.

A little kissing, a little touching - the way he coaxes you is so much like him. Subtle but overwhelming, a full moon in a deep sky.

In the back of Onigiri Miya, Osamu has your panties around your ankle. The warmth of alcohol is bubbling in your chest and embarrassment is rushing through every vein in your body - you want to shy away from him.

Of course, Osamu won't let you. You've got your arms around his shoulder, thick neck against your forearms. Your legs are up in the air, and your back is so hot against the cool metal. All you can feel his him in the air around you. He smells like a man who works, sweat and skin and salt.

You can feel the euphoria in your body to the point it's gut-wrenching, an overwhelming sensation like you're anxious. It's hard to describe. Tacky from sweat, you feel your fingers tremble as you move your hands to squeeze his shoulder.

Osamu puts his hand over it, squeezes it, kisses your wrists with all the affection of over two decades of desire. You feel it all over your body, delirium setting in. You want him so much you don't know what do. You whine, open your mouth to say his name.

Osamu shushes you. His cock is hard, thick and so heavy. He's got hair that tickles your legs. You can feel the tip press into your clit like he's kissing it, pushing against the soft folds of your pussy makes you shiver. Arousal drips out of you, a fruit squeezed in big hands that pick them. You want to cry.

"Samu," You mumble, your lips sheen and your heart in your belly "Osamu, please,"

"Look at you," He says, sounding just as bad as you "Wantin' it so bad. Never seen ya like this,"

You've never been like this. You don't get it yourself. Why you're head feels so blank. Your jaw feels heavy like you can't close it. Inside it's all empty and you want to be so full of him, surrounded by him.

"I don't know," You hiccup, holding him so tight. You want to sob "I really want you. Wan' you to want me too,"

Osamu laughs. God, it sounds good. Deep and throaty.

"I do. Ya know I do, don't ya? Our whole lives. My whole life."

"Osamu," You repeat. He laughs a little, maybe like he's amused. It feels so merciful when kisses you. The feeling of your bare chest against his makes you feel euphoric, skin practically begging for his attention.

"That's right, 's me" He says, trailing his lips down your neck "I'm already here,"

He doesn't ask you for anymore, so it feels like he's reading your mind. His fingers grip your hips as he eases his cock inside of you. Inch, by agonizing inch - you can feel it. The rubbing of such sensitive skin. You gasp and tighten your legs, crossing your feet at the ankle. You hold his back and feel your eyes roll over into your head. Pleasure pulls you apart.

"Oh, oh fuck," You feel your nails dig into his skin, Osamu hisses "Y-yeah, yeah, like that."

You don't know where you start and Osamu stops. It's all the same, one mess of limbs and one train of thought where your feelings swallow you up. Your heartbeat beats against your ribs and you feel like you can't handle. Osamu eases into you slow, his cock makes you so full. You can't take in enough air for how much it pushes out, walls taking shape of him naturally.

"So damn good," He says with all the force in the world. You think Osamu means it when he says you wants you "Shit."

"Please fuck me."

"Till ya can't take it, yeah? Promise, promise I will."

"Want you to cum in me," You admit, shame disappearing as the seconds pass. As Osamus cock fucks you open enough to confess about it "Over 'n over,"

"Want me to cream in you so bad? Yerr so dirty, where'd you go 'n learn that from huh?" He taunts, but it's not mean. You whimper as you roll your hips, your clit throbbing's with need.

"Please, pretty please?"

"Anything for you," He says, and you feel your insides tremble with need - even buried to the tilt. He pulls out in one swift motion, pushing back in with the same force as before. You cry out his name and your body loses it's strength "Take it f'r me, okay?"

#osamu x reader #osamu smut #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu smut #warm-ups #writing tag #wow i havent written for haikyuu in ages

[lionasvault]

what are the girl's hobbies? lowkey so inspired by bestie girl @/starfxkr

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bunny has a lottt of hobbies. she's restless, we all know this - she's a bouncy girlie. she loves yoga and pilates - but she also loves sports where she can do her zoomies!! she grew up playing soccer, but she always went for goalie because she can jump! she prolly outgrew that when she was in middle school because people were getting a lot taller than her. kook!bunny def grew up doing ballet .

unsurprisingly, she loves to cook. salads and trailmix are her favorite snacks. fruit especially - she prefers that over candy. probably plays some sort of instrument - piano or violin. she never really wants to practice though. she also enjoys gardening! she has this little patch where she plants tulips or vegetables.

she loves video games- but only super calm ones. her favorites are animal crossing and stardew valley (she marries alex or haley argue with the wall). she mighttt force rafe to play minecraft with her sometimes too.

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nooow pup. pup also loves gardening, but she has trouble not getting super dirty. she doesn't ever wear gloves or use tools -- she thinks her hands are good enough-- so she always comes out of her little garden by the chateau with dirt under her short fingernails and hair messy. somehow, she gets dirt everywhere on her and john b has to give her a bath.

she loves making jewelry!! all those little friendship bracelets jonbee and jayj wear? she made those! she loves making little beaded bracelets and friendship ones. she definitely uses that to pass the time.

we already went through this but quilting!! she loves to make stuff out of jonbee's old clothes.

she also loves to play in water!! jayj and jonbee always make sure to set up a lot of sprinklers for her in the spring and summer so she can run through them and cool off. that obvi also means swimming! she's not very good at it, but she'll always want to go out for a swim with the boys. jonbee will make sure to give her some arm floaties though.

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i swear all the kitten stuff is @/starfxker credit to that girl

kitty!! she loooves doing her nails. her friends will always ask her to do theirs. she has super long claws that you know would poke out an eye. she'll mostly do them in black, but sometimes there will be a cute little print on it.

i can imagine that she rollerblades ?? maybe she does skateboarding too. she barely likes doing sports ofc, but these are ones she'll be on board for. literally. hehe.

she likes to collect stuff. but not normal collecting stuff- she'll dry out plants and put them in pots, thrift old DVDs and CDs. most her collections are her stupid little rocks + shells + dirty coins + sea glass. but she'll never put them on display, she buries them in her room in a little corner.

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lamby grew up suuuper religious so she's got all those super feminine hobbies that got burned into her brain.

like puppy, she quilts. but it always has to be perfect or else she hates it. perfect stitching, perfect designs, everything (again i already wrote about this)

lamb also bakes, pies and cakes and cupcakes, all the sort. whenever a new neighbor moves in, she always brings over some sort of baked good to them.

she loves to scrapbook! she has books and books on her shelf of different trips she's done with pope. even if it's just a day at the beach, she scrapbooks it all! she has this little camera she takes pictures with too.

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we all know and love foxy. she's an icon.

she works in a library, so that means she reads at least two books a week. she loves filmmaking and watching her favorite movies, and just like kitten, she has a DVD collection. it's a lot bigger than her's since she's been collecting since she was super young, filling at least half a bookshelf.

just like bunny, she loves to game. but uuum. not cozy gaming. she likes GTA, resident evil, and hollow knight. she also totally gets on roblox sometimes to bully kids.

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you dont wanna know how long this took me

#bunny!reader #puppy!reader #kitten!reader #lamb!reader #fox!reader

[sovonight]

i had a lot of opinions on xan's age in the mod to the point where i had a post in my drafts all written up about it, essentially just to say that xan should be younger. anyway this is that post

first off let me just put his canon portrait aside. seeing as how bg2 said "hey don't look at the old portraits, jaheira is blond and has slanted eyes now, and viconia is super hot," let's just disregard it as something that can and would probably have been retconned if xan had been brought back officially (especially since he was airbrushed in heroes of baldur's gate).

second off let's set aside all timeline considerations, because bioware doesn't care about timelines, and the video games certainly don't care about timelines, so i don't want to hear "but how could erevain reference xan's depressing attitude in iwd if xan was only in his fifties when erevain--" shhhh shh shh sh. it's okay. bioware forgot about elves when they stated that gorion's ward was 20 years old (and don't even get me started on the flimsy excuse that they're "physically adults" at 20, this is clearly a story meant for a protagonist who is emotionally considered a young adult for their race, elves are elf-20 when they leave candlekeep, thank you), the timeline issue is bigger than all of us.

now, to my point. in the bg2 mod xan's age is stated to be 263, but i disagree. here's why:

elf lore reasons (dnd loremasters avert your eyes):

according to a period-appropriate 2e text, 263 would put him in "old age". just... ruminate on that for a moment. does the bg2 mod remember that elves do still show physical signs of age? if he's 263, shouldn't xan be comfortably tucked away in a wizard tower by now? or like, just generally residing in the safety of his beloved evereska? i know forgotten realms is its own campaign world or whatever, but let’s just assume for a second that the cultural lore here can be directly translated over, because the book also says that not many elves choose to keep adventuring past adulthood. so what is xan doing still adventuring at the age of 263?

"but he's a greycloak!" putting aside how the "greycloaks" were invented solely for the video games so we know next to nothing about them, let's dig into that for a second. just because he's a greycloak doesn't mean he still has to be doing fieldwork. how is it that at 263, he hasn't already been offered some higher up position back at headquarters where he's the one coordinating who takes what missions where? it's not like he's bad at his job--both mods imply that he does well in his career. even if he's not one for management and really just excels in the field, the bg2 mod mentions that xan had a mentor in the greycloaks when he first started--so how is it that he's never mentored anyone else yet?

"sovo he's not good at his job he was literally captured by mulahey and held captive for a month" first of all how dare you, mulahey was a difficult fight with a full party and xan is just one sad little guy. second of all i kind of agree; rookie mistake to head in there completely alone. hmmm, wouldn't that invite you to place him closer to the beginning of his career...? one could even assume that this is his first big solo mission without his mentor...

xan himself

in the bg1 mod, his anecdotes are largely about his time as a student at the academy of magic & the death of his father as a child. to me, that says that he's still close to those periods in his life, and hasn't yet created many experiences beyond them. it's only in the bg2 mod, where his age of 263 is stated for the first time, that he starts telling anecdotes about past greycloak missions and lamenting about how old he is compared to charname.

confusingly, the bg2 mod also gives him a new voice that's rather young compared to his supposed age. yeah yeah i know it's a feat to get voice acting for a mod at all, and the perceived age of a voice is subjective, but it still strikes me as a weird choice that's at odds with the new narrative and dynamic that the mod is trying to push on xan and charname's relationship.

xan and charname's dynamic

in the bg1 mod, xan occasionally calls charname a child when he thinks she's being immature, naive, or optimistic (which is, to him, synonymous with naive). iirc, this is mainly in their earlier exchanges when they're getting to know each other, and charname says things that he thinks are ignorant or rub him the wrong way. this never stuck out to me because it's a usage that fits neatly into the fantasy setting, and it's not saying that he views her as a child. when he does comment on her age outright--like saying that she's surprisingly capable for someone so young--it points out that there's a gap in age between them, but it certainly never gave me the impression that it was on the scale of, like, 100+ years.

in bg1 the gap in life experience between them feels more balanced. xan has much more experience on the road, with adventuring and combat and loss, but he's clearly not... the most well-adjusted or well-rounded guy. he excels both academically and professionally, but his social ties are severely lacking for it--he's isolated, already an outcast before he ever even exiles himself. meanwhile, charname has been confined to candlekeep until adulthood, and so has very little real adventuring/combat experience, but (depending on your rp) has a much more generous view of the world than xan does, and has more long-lasting and close relationships with others (not just considering the game's companions, but the inhabitants of candlekeep).

i read xan's bg1 romance as, this is his first time being in love, ever. and he doesn't know what to do with himself, with these feelings that make his heart soar and sink and that comfort and frustrate him, to the point that his solution is to just up and leave the party. also, his justification for leaving is that he's afraid of what he's heard love will do to him--he's heard that in bonded couples, if one dies, the other will likely die of heartbreak. d'you see the picture i'm painting here?

meanwhile, in the bg2 mod, xan and charname's gap in life experience is newly defined and emphasized. a new array of conversation topics imply that xan was already past all of his firsts in life, including love. xan also now occasionally calls charname "silly girl" or "foolish girl" as some weird admonishment/term of endearment, which... i'm not a fan of, given the new emphasis on how he's so ~old and experienced~ and she's so ~young and innocent~. there's also a dialogue option i despise where charname can tell xan to focus on how young and beautiful she is to take his mind off things, and in another exchange there's an option that starts with an admonishment of "you're not my father," which given everything else that the mod has pushed forward, that comparison is kind of um, ew? charname and xan no longer feel like equal romantic partners to me in bg2, and when he calls her "foolish girl," i don't hear endearment--i hear a statement of perspective. to a 263 year old xan in bg2, she is just a girl, one year out from home.

the significance of 263

"but WHY is he 263," i hear you ask? well, it's simple. it's so simple that they literally stated it in the mod. you see, xan was apparently born in 1105 dr...the year of the guardian.

YES. YOU READ THAT RIGHT. the ONLY reason he's 263 is so that he could say he was born in the year of the guardian! you know, like how he's?? a guardian??? because of the moonblade?? OH, HOW CLEVER!

it’s just yet another way to tie everything about him back to the moonblade (which is funny, considering how he has such mixed feelings towards being a moonblade wielder, and how in the retcon happy ending, he's released from it, so, what's the point) and it’s kind of nonsensical too, because what, everyone who was born in that year turned out to be a guardian of some kind? surely not!

and in case you have any lingering doubts, you're pretty much told outright that the name was part of the reasoning because xan starts guessing charname's birth year.... based on her class. yes, he starts suggesting year names with "blade" or "shadow" in them if you're a thief class. and i thought he was supposed to be intelligent.

my fix

i prefer to think of xan as being 140, about halfway through the conventional adventuring age range of 110-174. this would put him as being born in 1228 dr, year of the tattered banners, which honestly, if you really want the name of the year to be tied to him in some way, "tattered banners" sounds worn and depressing enough to suit him. it’s a fitting age for him to be bleakly thinking that he’ll die before he ever reaches middle age bc the adventuring life will be the death of him, to still have his years as an academy student actively on his mind, and to act like he already knows everything about life without recognizing that he still has a lot to learn.

this may feel like a very simple and underwhelming answer for the journey we took to get here, and it is. really, though, i can't get over the year name reasoning. you know there's a "year of the trembling tree"? you know who also trembles? xa--

#i wasted so much time thinking about this but i genuinely have so much beef with his bg2 incarnation it's ridiculous

[silyabeeodess]

Thoughts on TWST Book 7: Knots in an Already Twisted History

Now that I've caught up to the available translations for Book 7's current chapters, I can't help having some thoughts on the lore that's been revealed to us. Much of this focuses on the world's history, specifically between humans and fairies, as there are some dots that aren't connecting when we look at the bigger picture. As this is a lengthy analysis, I've broken it down into sections. Please note there will be major spoilers ahead.

Where the history we know meets TWST's:

To begin, it's revealed to us in Book 7 that Night Raven College has been established since at least Lilia's days as a Royal Guardsman. While there weren't always seven distinct dorms, with Pomfiore's being the first/oldest, I get the feeling that at least Diasomnia's dorm must've existed by this time. My reasoning for this is because, even though Lilia's application came centuries ago, Maleficent still isn't mentioned except as a legendary figure in history.

I know there's probably some people who want to think of this Maleficent as the one from the 2014 film--especially with inclusion of Henry in TWST's story. However, I get a strong feeling that just isn't the case. All flashbacks have pointed us to the animated films alone and it's important to emphasize that the 2014 version of Maleficent is extremely different from every other incarnation of the character across the Disney franchise, including in Yuu's flashblacks. In 2014, she was painted as a tragic heroine that tried to undo her own curse on Aurora and helped save both the human and fairy kingdoms. I'd say that film was a complete middle finger to the original, but who's asking...? Moreover, that wouldn't explain how that ending where the two kingdoms merged peacefully changed to their being broken up again with no mention of how or why whatsoever.

More than likely, TWST's Henry is a reference, but not the same character. If he was, the timeframe also wouldn't fit since Maleficent is missing from Lilia's backstory. Even if we consider the possibility of her being Malleus' grandmother, it doesn't explain why Malenoa (except as maybe a Maleficent stand-in herself), Lord Longan, or Revaan exist or why Aurora is also missing. Yes, Silver is a heavy Aurora parallel, but Aurora should still exist just like every other Disney character explained in TWST's history: The Great Seven, the mermaid princess that was Ariel, the puppet that came to life as Pinocchio, etc., etc., etc. It wouldn't make any sense at all for only Aurora and/or Maleficent to be replaced across this entire game. Keep in mind, the characters in TWST mimic the original Disney ones, but those originals have also played their own, separate roles in the world. To call Silver Aurora's replacement would mean we would have to call all of the others replacements too when that is clearly false.

Therefore, the only possibility left is that Maleficent is much older than anyone we've seen and is no longer around because she was killed by Phillip well before even Lilia existed. This would also make sense with TWST's history being so distorted: Not even the long-lived fairies that were there during the events we see were old enough to witness Maleficent's downfall; ergo, none of them can say what truly happened outside of the stories that have been passed down to them. Which brings me to my bigger point: If Maleficent wasn't around to see the same conflict that we do, if her and Aurora's story already happened, what else has occurred that we didn't see?

A Fairy's Blessing:

This section is more of an in-between, but another point that adds to the events of Sleeping Beauty occurring much further in the past is Silver's and the Knight of Dawn's lineage. They're both described as these ethereal beauties recognizable for their blonde hair and unique eyes, a fact so important that Lilia was glad when Silver's hair color changed because other fairies would be suspicious of his features. As he points out though... they aren't natural colors. Just as Silver's hair turned to a color of moonlight from a Night Fairy's blessing, so should it have been that shining blonde from a Day Fairy's blessing. The Knight of Dawn was blessed the very same, having been given the ring that was passed on to Silver. And who else do we know that was extremely beautiful that was blessed by fairies at birth? Aurora.

Moving on...

Night Fairies vs. Day Fairies:

Despite the story pointing to a conflict between humans and fairies as a clash between species, although the Day Fairies have a direct connection to the Silver Owls, this alliance is never properly addressed. One would think that the Day Fairies would take issue with nature itself being destroyed just like the elemental fairies do, or that the Night Fairies would call them traitors or hypocrites, but neither happen. Moreover, again, what we see follows the flow of the original Sleeping Beauty, with the three fairies who give the Knight of Dawn his ring and guard Silver mimicking Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather blessing Aurora.

This conflict of interest was shown in both the animated and 2014 films: In the former, a matter of good vs. evil and, in the latter... Honestly, it wasn't well thought out beyond "spreading peace," since their entire characters were resigned mostly to comedic relief trying to wean off the original's. Thank goodness the names were changed so I don't even have to think of them as the same people. Maybe they were actually bodysnatchers that kidnapped the real Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather.

Let's review what fairies really are and how their hierarchy works in TWST's world. To repeat what was covered in the Fairy Gala event, the fairies aren't all one, solidary people like Book 7 presents them as. There are those like Malleus who can pass as human and there are those who take on a smaller, more traditional appearance like what we typically think of; there are those who transform into beasts and those who exist as manifestations of natural elements; they speak different languages and even their leaders won't recognize each other, just as human civilizations often don't. All of this, Malleus himself explains, which is why he couldn't help when the fairies came in and stole the mage stone. Clearly, the Day and Night fairies fall in-line with this example: They are literally named as polar opposites of each other.

There's another factor to consider as well, and that's that, just because the Day Fairies sided with the Knight of Dawn, that doesn't mean they were on the same side as Henry or the Silver Owls or are even necessarily against the Night Fairies as a whole. Why? Well, we see the Knight of Dawn disagree with Henry's actions and save Lilia with a pre-hatched Malleus. He didn't go directly against Henry because he felt indebted to and was scared for the king's life due to an illness. The Knight of Dawn was a good person forced to serve a bad one; facing Malenoa, an enemy just as prejudiced (it doesn't matter if you feel she's justified or not, she was still fine treating innocent humans like dirt like our NRC group); and doing the best he could to do what was right despite the terrible, complicated circumstances he was stuck with.

While this gets into strong theory territory, the reason I brought up Aurora before is because I think this might actually explain the Day Fairies' strange allegiance. They aren't allied with humans or fairies, but to one, special lineage: Aurora's and Phillip's. If you think about it, the Knight takes on the traits of both. He's as beautiful as Aurora, her blessings passed down to him, while as strong as Phillip in combat, his battle with Malenoa a much more tragic parallel to Phillip's battle with Maleficent. He carries himself with "virtue and truth," and even has a magic sword.

Why was he originally an abandoned orphan despite this royal lineage? Well, probably for the same reasons he died and Silver was left alone: Whether or not it was well after their deaths, someone took over Aurora's kingdom at some point in the timeline thanks to territorial disputes or other factors; Maybe even someone of Maleficent's lineage/species, since Malenoa's castle looked exactly like the Sleeping Beauty castle we know from the film. It's confirmed in-game as well that the Night Fairies had another, more fortified one that better matched Maleficent's. The Day Fairies' allegiance never changed, or at least the allegiance of three of those fairies: They've always supported Aurora's bloodline. As is true to real life, it's not as simple as one side started this conflict and is wholly evil--the Night Fairies aren't all like Maleficent; humans aren't all like Henry; and, even shown in individual relationships in the story, we have Malenoa and Lilia who weren't like Lord Longan in their original views of the world and its people--but rather that power dynamics have been constantly shifting over time with both good and evil individuals caught up in them. Moreover, because of that waxing and waning, Aurora's story is almost repeating itself in Silver's--only with other humans acting as an added threat to his life.

Is there another story playing out different from what we believe?

All that being said, there is another, small possibility that might be worth thinking about: That TWST's history as the characters know it might be real after all rather than distorted over the years as we thought. I take this into consideration because of our experiences with Mickey. Just like us, Mickey comes from another world, another reality in the Disney line-up. Therefore, there's a chance that, just like how we're able to communicate with him across dreams, maybe what we're seeing aren't flashbacks into TWST's past, but rather reflections of what has occurred in Mickey's timeline instead, as a world potentially existing similarly to Kingdom Hearts or how interactions in the parks are presented, to help us deal with the current issues we are having in TWST's world. This also would help us explain why territories are so different from the ones we know from the films. For example, barring a name change, there is no Greece that Hercules takes place in, but the Kingdom of Heroes and the Island of Woe. TWST may be taking the concept of separate canons into the realm of an existing multiverse within its lore. In this case, history isn't being twisted by those retelling it, but by alternate timelines taking shape. Because of this, anything that isn't adding up, like with the Draconias living in the Sleeping Beauty castle and the land being taken over by the Silver Owls, could be dismissed: We would have to take Yuu's visions simply as warnings and shake off everything we've known.

EDIT: Adding this late, but it occurred to me that the Tsum events could also possibly be evidence for this, as they also come from another world and act as AU versions of the characters. With those events seeming to be more of a simple, funny crossover with the brand, it's hard to consider it canon. Still, Yana Toboso is known for creating comedic side-stories in her works that hint/contain important information we wouldn't fully understand until later.

Again though, I list this as a small possibility rather than a theory. There's not much else to give way to it beyond that fact that other worlds exist like Yuu's and Mickey's. We would likely need to explore more of those worlds and how they're connected before considering this idea further. Another clear factor going against this is that there's also not enough in TWST's history altered except that certain events are being painted in a different light. Take Aladdin's story for instance: In one tale society passed down, he's a portrayed as trickster that Jafaar caught red-handed. In another, he's just a man that shared bread with starving children, leading to a saying that "if you eat a big baguette, you'll never go hungry again." They're both technically true events playing out just like we have always known them to since childhood: It's clearly how they've been told and in what way they're connected that's changed, with no one knowing that it's the same person in both stories.

Anyway, thank you all again for sticking with me through another long post.

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst spoilers #twst silver #malleus draconia #lilia vanrouge #twst henry #silver owls #twst book 7 #video games #analysis

[choicesficwriterscreations]

CFWC Writer of the Month - June 2023: peonyblossom

Each month CFWC highlights one of our talented fanfic writers, and this month’s writer of the month is @peonyblossom We hope you will enjoy learning more about them and their work below! The writer is selected at random. More info can be found on the navigation page.

Quick Links:

Tumblr Blog: peonyblossom Blog Masterlist AO3

How do you want to be known on Tumblr? Peony, Jay, or Ethan

1- When did you start playing Choices? What was the first book you played? 

I started playing Choices when it was first introduced after I saw the promos on HSS and HWU. Ofc the first book I played was High School Story!! 

2- When and why did you join Choices fandom?

I joined the Choices fandom because of Thomas Hunt LMAO. After playing the Thomas dates in HWU, I looked him up on Tumblr to see if there was any fan content, and there was (HUGE shoutout to @lovealexhunt and @gutsfics because their works were the first ones I saw). Through following a few Thomas Hunt fan accounts, I found some other stuff in the fandom, like CFWC, and decided to read some other really popular stories, and it just snowballed lol.

3- How did you pick your blog name? 

I wanted something that wasn’t fandom-specific so I could post content for any of the many fandoms I’m in. And peonies are my favorite flower! 

4- Pull up the first post in your archive, and tell us about it!  

The first first post in my archive is a reblog of a One Direction fanfic. My first original post was about the show Miraculous Ladybug. 

5- How long have you been writing fanfiction?

Ooh. A long time. Sixth or seventh grade, so nine or ten years? 

6- What is your favorite Choices book, and what is your favorite Choices book to write about?

My favorite Choices book is America’s Most Eligible, but my favorite book to write about is Red Carpet Diaries/Hollywood U. I think I just like reading and writing about stories in the film industry since that’s what I do, lol. 

7- Share the first fanfic you wrote with us. Do you still like it, or would you change it if you were writing it today?

Waiting Game / peonyblossom / AO3

I still like it! But, if I were writing it today, I would probably make it third person instead of first. It’s still cute, though!

8- What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

Okay, probably a tie between What If It’s Now? and Love Lost.

9- Do you have a fic that you didn’t expect to be well received, but it was? What about one you expected to be but found could use a little more love?

I think there are a few I thought would’ve gotten a little more attention when I first posted them, but by now, I don’t really think that anymore. 

10- If you could write only angst, fluff, or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why? 

FLUFF. I mean, I pretty much only write fluff right now; I just love it so much! 

11- Do you ever recognize yourself in any of your MCs or in your writing?

Oh yeah. I think I see myself the most in my RCD/HWU MC, Jackie. In the HWU Universe, she’s a film student, like me, and in both universes, she’s an actor, like me! 

12- What element of writing do you struggle with most?

Finding the time to do it 🥲 Other than that, probably just get started. I tend to psych myself out, especially with bigger projects. 

13- Do you have any neglected work you really want to finish?

So. Many.

14- If someone you know in real life (who isn’t involved in fandoms) asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first? 

It depends on who it is, but I’d probably let them. As for what I’d recommend, it also depends on the person. Honestly, might just send them my AO3 and let them decide ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

15 - Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing? 

Probably more than I know! I’m sure there are plenty of authors who influence me subconsciously. But, I would say I tend to be influenced by classic novels like The Great Gatsby and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

16- Which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series? 

Forever Sounds Perfect! I would love to just watch Ethan propose to Sydney 🥺

17- Do you write original fiction? 

Yeah! I mostly do screenwriting, but I also do fiction and poetry writing. 

18 -  What other hobbies do you have?

Hiking, reading, and yoga!

19 - What’s your favorite emoji? 

🥰 or 🫶

#choices fic writers creations #cfwc writer of the month #playchoices #writer of the month #peonyblossom #june 2023 #choices fanfic #playchoices fanfic

[spellbookss]

DISCLAIMER

Although I've gone through numerous YouTube videos covering practically all of Rolan's dialogue options, the story of this NPC is pretty vague and leaves a lot of room for creative interpretation. While I try to stay true to Rolan's character as portrayed in the game, I'll use headcanons to add depth to him.

BACKSTORY

Rolan's early years in Elturel were tough. He spent his early childhood in an orphanage where he endured neglect and abuse because - you guessed it - he was a Tiefling. He eventually fled, finding himself struggling to survive on the streets.

Fortunately, not for long.

Rolan's luck turned when he was taken in by the mother of Lia and Cal. Embraced into their family, Rolan, Cal, and Lia formed a close bond; they’ve been thick as thieves ever since.

It was a loving home, but a poor one. They struggled to make ends meet. 

Despite the family's financial struggles, Rolan harbored aspirations of becoming a renowned wizard - he always has. He wanted to be someone. However, the cost of arcane education was way beyond their means. Still, whenever Rolan got his hands on a spellbook, he’d study relentlessly (Lia probably stole books for him whenever possible). What he lacked in knowledge, he made up with ambition.

Over time, the family's situation improved, and they attained a solid middle-class status. 

Things were looking promising, for all of them. Especially when Lorroakan answered Rolan's letter and accepted him as an apprentice! Oh, he was overjoyed. This was a dream come true!

Unfortunately, that happiness was short-lived. When HELL broke loose in Elturel, literally, everything they had worked for was lost in an instant. 

Their mother died before they could flee.

Rolan didn't handle it well. He latched onto the idea of becoming Lorroakan's apprentice; it was a means of escaping the harsh reality of his situation and despite facing the same hardships as other refugees, Rolan convinced himself that he was somehow “better”, superior. It was easier for him to play pretend than to confront the painful truth that he was just as broken.

PERSONALITY

Due to his past, he is a very guarded person. He doesn't like to rely on others and asking for help is a struggle for him. Rolan is very ambitious, would take an arrow for those he loves, and his heart is bigger than he lets on because oh boy, we don't need more emotional pain and being a prick is a great defense mechanism.

He struggles with feelings of inadequacy hello childhood trauma and neglect, so behind all that ego is actually a very vulnerable man who puts way too much pressure on himself and is terrified of disappointing or losing those he loves.

VERSES

(pre-) ACT I ; Refugee

During or before the Emerald Grove. Having been through so much suffering, he will try to mask his fear with a cold, arrogant demeanor. Despite his apparent indifference towards others, he genuinely cares, but he suppresses it because the well-being of his family is paramount. He cannot risk losing them.

ACT II ; Lost in the Shadows

During the events at Last Light Inn, either before or after the rescue of his siblings.

ACT III ; Apprentice (main verse)

He desperately wants to make a name for himself and provide his siblings, as well as himself, with the life they deserve, enduring even Lorroakan's abuse in the process.

ACT III ; Master of the Tower

Post Lorroakan, maybe even post the events of the game. Aspiring to become the greatest wizard of Baldur's Gate. Scratch that. The greatest wizard of the Sword Coast.

#; && * 💫 #ABOUT #rolan hc #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 rolan

[tortelette]

Late night insomnia theories AGAIN I CAN'T BLOODY SLEEP PLEASE LORD I TRY TO CLOSE MY EYES AND ALL I CAN SEE IS W SKILL ISSUE DANCING

Meursault and Don are the two sinners who are seriously SERIOUSLY quite the characters that have a lot to unpack. Two characters with almost a one-sided personality when interacting towards others. Especially Don, Don has a skewed-sense of priorities in life and I was beginning to question her.

We do know in the upcoming chapters that Ishmael is going to be featured and ever since Yi Sang's story has concluded(?) (EHEM, Gubo I am coming to kill you, EHEM) I believe that her chapter revolves around the sinners "reenacting" her voyage or meeting a member of her crew who was somehow alive. Might be between those two, I am so excited with that possibility and I cannot wait what Don and Meursault's story chapters have in store.

Don might get a story that revolves around her moral sense of justice and also "personality abandonment." You think that I will forget about those Mariachi peeps back in Chapter 2??? Their comments were on point to Sinclair and the fact that they commented Don as "insincere and lack of a pure heart" iirc means we are getting on to something. I believe that Don is a person who is indifferent to many happenings in the City yet she prefers to look and take action on the smallest of things rather than the bigger of it. (That weird double faced reaction when she VIOLENTLY decided to "save" a backstreet folk and their child who violated a taboo and her neutral reaction in a FUCKING GENOCIDE TOWARDS THE INNOCENT) (Like yeah, she learned something after Verg and her idol got her cucked in the checkpoint area but there has to be an active remnant of that judgement somewhere within her during the genocide in Calw) She wanted to be the center on something especially in a situation where she can properly control hence she ALWAYS try to take over the mantles whenever she can even if it is not in her own expertise.

Hence I believe her story would revolve around the concept of her own moral judgement and how she wanted to be someone important. I also believe she wanted the attention directed at her to be a "great Fixer" she would do everything for that. Pretty much explains why one of her skill type of her default has envy (she wanted to be someone that resembles a great and perfect idea of her belief on a true Fixer and be higher or as levelled as the greatest Fixers in the City). Her story would seriously tackle on breaking her "honorable facade" and might question her validity of her desire to be a great Fixer when in truth she is not genuine on such things to do and would act like that to cover a probable rotten or indifferent personality.

I do have a personal theory that Don Quixote is actually Sancho Panza (Don Quixote's squire in the book) but that will be in a different take rather than now.

Meursault on the other hand, I believe that his story would stress around "emotional and mental breakdowns." This fucker has a decent yet extensive knowledge on distortions. Fuck, he even stated plainly that he get to witness them meaning that he witnessed more than one distortions in his life. I do have two theories on what happened to him back then and would tackle more in the future. His original novel involves him murdering someone and possibly it might bring over to the game's lore as well (more like a portion of it), and I get to say... it is quite unlikely he kills someone with a gun but rather himself.

First theory would be that he killed a person under the process or already been distorted, my friends always think that it has to be his mother because of that quote he stated back at his promotional video. Although, me and my friends would debate that the way he expresses that is either he is forgetful of that incident or that he prefers not to think about that incident and decides to detach himself away from that incident hence he cant remember the entire details of what he had done, a person who killed his distorted mother. I can probably tell that N corp is a toxic workplace environment when there are a lot of questionable acts and decisions sprouted out from the company (problematic Nagel Und Hammer and the "New League of Nine") it would be no doubt there would be a thing or two who would distort after what they have been through.

Second theory is where Meursault is the one being distorted. This is a theory that got us excited the most because of game antics (one of our own sinners fighting against us? Funny enough is that he is the strongest unit with complete full leveled IDs and EGOs ready in my team. This is why I build Heathcliff and Faust as backup in case that scenario will happen.) This theory revolves around him getting into a mental or emotional breakdown (quite difficult what irks him to bend when we know that even in stressful situations he remains a calm yet annoyed facade - Rosespanner ID) and resulted him killing his own mother without him realizing it. But my friends and I were thinking that it might not only be the reason he get into jail. One friend of mine point out that killing one person is not enough to be seen as a threat because that is quite common in the City where survival is a must have because of people getting into each other's throats with or without a valid reason. What if... he kills many people? Yet the only person he realize that was killed in the mix is his own mother. After the onslaught he just returns back to normal after a sense of clarity came to him and in that part is where he gets jailed. He was ridiculed and spouting him anger because he has the ability to distort, something that represents of showing one's true self. Final boss material right here, his story might be about overcoming this distortion problem he is dealing with and also about his perspective of everything and why he thinks of it.

Alright I am done I need to sleep or else my mother find out I am still awake and write this shit. Time to fuck off.

#limbus company #limbus company don quixote #limbus company meursault

[cut-content-contest]

Bayonetta original plot

From glimpses in the Concept Art book, Bayonetta 3 was originally supposed to have much more interactions between this game's Bayonetta and the ones from the previous game, as well as much more interesting set pieces. A very big thing about Bayonetta 1 and 2's stories is the interactions between Bayonetta and the other characters which flesh her out and humanize her a lot. In Bayo 3, she was alone for most of the game which makes the current ending very unsatisfying for a lot of people since we don't see the bonds that are supposedly there. The original story would have much more of the interactions which is especially great since Bayo3's Bayo is the little Cerezita we meet in Bayo1. As for why all this was cut, it was probably time constraints.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BQY1uJrsXk

Bionis Shoulder

It's a massive area geographically between two different areas that could have served as a way to get between the two of them, although the dev team did confirm it was just a physics/movement testing area (although if it's just to test physics it's way bigger than it needed to be); it also shows up in the background of a few cutscenes. One really really cool thing about it though is that in the game's remake, they added in an epilogue side story set a few years after the original game that takes place on the Bionis Shoulder, letting players actually explore this massive cut area in full in a legitimate version of the game and I think that's really neat

wiki link: https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/Bionis%27_Shoulder_(beta)

#cut content contest #poll #original story #Bayonetta 3 #Bionis shoulder #Xenoblade Chronicles

[cerastes]

for some reason I feel that thing about movie romances is the fault of the medium itself, and the fact that directors have to just direct people to act certain ways to make the story hold together even when it’s clear people Do Not Act Like That. Regardless of who you put behind the camera, it takes real skill to realistically capture people falling in love, and it’s probably even harder to capture people faking it convincingly

That's a good point in regards to the medium in itself, especially since movies have a short runtime, so they have to get things going and doing in more of a hurry than most other artforms. Where I think this doesn't hold up too well, however, is on the realism part of what you said: I don't think anyone with realistic expectations wants a realistic depiction of falling in love in the runtime of a movie, with all the flesh and meat that entails -- you go to other artforms with longer runtimes for that, like books or games -- what I think people want is anything that isn't the whole "Male Main Character annoys and forces himself onto Uninterested Female Character until she gives in" thing. There's definitely WAY more ways in which romance can be shown, in which romance should be shown.

I'm going to run a very different, yet comparable situation by you: The Denko situation.

If you're not familiar with the Denko story, good ol' piece of netlore, it's about a guy without social or romantic skills, well, stalking a girl because he considered her his girlfriend just because he'd sent her a truly absurd amount of texts with small talk in them, inane stuff like "do you like the new McDonald's burger?" or "I wear my socks two days in a row, by turning them to the other side" or "what a nice weather!". When people in 2ch. asked him if he was trolling or if he was seriously thinking they were a couple, the guy answered he was not playing around, and then someone else mentioned "this guy thinks real girls work like dating sim characters" as in, just by talking to them a lot, about whatever, you win them over, and if you don't win them over, then they are heartless bitches that play hard to get, and you have to talk to them more.

The Denko story is about a lot more than that, but that's the part I want to focus on for the purposes of this: Moviebros feel much the same, and it's a pretty fucking sorry state of things having to see yet another article in the newspaper being like "THIS POOR ROMANTIC PLAYED PIANO OUTSIDE GIRL'S HOUSE SO SHE WOULD ACCEPT HIS FEELINGS..." sympathizing with the guy and not with the girl. Sympathizing with the guy! The guy being a public fucking nuisance that doesn't want to take no for an answer because Popular Mainstream Media taught him that a no is just a yes waiting to happen if you try harder and taught the general populace that these constitute romantic gestures and not stalking and harassment. He's suddenly not a creep that doesn't know when to back off, he's an underdog. We root for him.

And we should not root for him for the same reason we should not root for the Denko Guy: Because That's Fucked Up! And Women Deal With This Shit A Lot!

In the end, it's all part of a bigger Alpha Male Fantasy of "pulling yourself by the bootstrings" that a lot of the mainstream film industry seems to have a raging veiny throbbing hard-on for because a lot of them are narrowminded fossils: "The girl hated me at first, but through MY perseverance... Heh, well, I ended up winning her over!"

And it's that part that I think is really bad: That's not perseverance, that's just self-aggrandizing baby behavior. It's such an easy, basic, generic, digestible plot device to sell, despite how bad and silly and overused it is. I don't think anyone wants realism, I think what we want, is not that.

#thanks for the ask anon #that's sincere not sardonic I actually love talking about these things #and your point was good! which is why I felt the need to explain my take on the subject

[livelaughlapush]

Although I am a DieHard TwiHard, I will be honest, I did not think there will ever be a reboot/remake/ spinoff, or at the very least, a successful one of The Twilight Saga films, and here is why. Even though I love this universe, when the book first came out, it was a big deal, even more so with the movies. These Films are Iconic in the best and the worst ways. Nevertheless, as time passed with the novels and films, as did the massive criticism, people either loved it or hated it, and it was a big deal until it was not. After the saga ended, it went on to become irrelevant. The actors moved on, the world moved on, even the author of the books herself, even more so now that everyone has called out the many disturbing things within them. Furthermore, we cannot sit here and pretend Twilight has left the same legacy as something like Harry Potter. Yes, like Harry Potter, The Twilight Saga was a huge phenomenon. However, the first difference is when comparing the quality between the two franchises, I think most people will probably say the same thing, "Harry Potter is Good, Twilight is Not." Most people will agree that the Wizarding World is bigger and better. The second would be it also grew in real life. Harry Potter has many theme park attractions and video games, prequels, expansion books etc.; (aside from the one Twilight ride in china) Harry Potter has become even more significant even after the original books and films with even more fans, much more than Twilight, so you cannot compare the two, except for the problematic nature of both creators, and the problematic contents with their stories. You would have to change so much, that it would not be Twilight, anymore. Moreover, even though Harry Potter is still a behemoth, they have tried and failed to have a comeback in film, the Fantastic Beasts films, and those are doing well, critically or financially. If Harry Potter could not make it work, how could Twilight? Sadly, Twilight had its time, it came, and it went. Even though there are still people like me, still fans of it, old and new. People still go to the filming locations; they still go to the real Forks, Washington; they still listen to the soundtracks; they still binge all of the films, especially after being put on streaming platforms, but it will always be smaller than it was, especially since like Twilight, YA additions are not as popular as they used to be, many YA films, especially the genre ones, all failed to be successful. Vampire Academy, Beautiful Creatures, Divergent, The Mortal Instruments, Fallen, TWICE, etc., could have done better. If they tried REVAMPING (get it) The Twilight Saga, whether it be another Film Series/TV Series, it would not work and would not do well. Twilight ran its course, and it is over; Maybe If they make it an Anime, that might do well?

#twilight #the twilight saga #twilight fandom #twilight icons #twilight revival #the twilight series #twilight renaissance #edward cullen #twilight atmosphere #bella swan #twilight aesthetic #jacob black #twilight rennaisance #twilight saga #bella cullen #carlisle cullen #esme cullen #team leah #twilightcore #twilightforever #alice cullen #jasper cullen #emmet cullen #charlie swan #billy black #leah clearwater #black pack #the cullens #unpopular opinions twilight edition #twilight reboot

[synergysilhouette]

Choices review: The Freshman

Everyone talks highly of this series, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it. Just gonna get this out of the way: This could've been GOC. There's no reason it couldn't be--though I will admit that this means Kaitlyn would either become playersexual (which some fans think would dilute her journey) or remove her as an LI entirely and just make her a platonic friend like Zac--though if MC is GOC, this could be tricky. You'd probably have to reduce their screentime if (depending on your gender) there was no reason you couldn't romance them. I don't wanna advocate for monosexuality for LIs in a romance game for obvious reasons. And since it's been a while since I played this, my review may change after replaying it or remembering certain details.

Book 1 focuses on the beginning of your journey at Hartfield University. I don't recall this book from start to finish, but it certainly had a lot of drama. For one, all three LIs are pushed your way, with Kaitlyn having a crush on you and realizing she's a lesbian, stereotypical sorority girls being possessive of jock Chris, and the studious James asks you to be his fiance for his parents. All this tied together with becoming an assistant to an English professor with a big ego just so you can keep going to college. Crazy, right? I do wish there was less pressure on the romance side. What if you had no interest in James? That'd make the lying to his parents even MORE uncomfortable, and while you and Kaitlyn work it out, I certainly wish she'd had a crush on someone else since it feels awkward if you don't feel the same. And I'm just gonna say I wish Zack had a more standout design; I know he's not a love interest, but he's one of the major characters, and yet he feels plain.

Book 2 focuses on your winter quarter at Hartfield and being a part of James' play, as well as helping Chris running for student president. Again, I do feel like forcing Kaitlyn our way with a kiss felt very awkward; if she didn't have feelings for us prior to this, it would've been fine, but it almost feels like we're leading her on or not letting her work out her sexuality. And Becca needs to go, especially since I was romancing Chris from the start, and her "not as bad as Sebastian" stuff really didn't absolve her to me--especially with her actions later on. And knowing what I know about how Sebastian's future goes, it's weird that the gang rallied around how Chris became a better person despite his criminal history in high school, but the theme of "redemption" doesn't translate too much.

Book 3 focuses on your spring quarter at Hartfield, when you meet a new LI, Kaitlyn joins a band, and dealing with classism at the school. While I like Zig, I'm not a fan of how he's essentially a repeat of Chris, having a criminal record prior to Hartfield, especially since this was covered with Chris in the previous book. I read somewhere that Sebastian made a stereotypical comment towards Zig due to his heritage, though I'd never heard the Latino-barista stereotype before; I thought him having a criminal record felt a bit more stereotypical, in that regard, along with his aggression. It would've been nice if he was written as a kid from a military family with a positive upbringing; his rough home life reminded me of the golden boy from MTFL, and it would've been nice if he was just sheepish and shy rather than confrontational--though I'm assuming the writers did that the contrast with the rest of the gang's easygoing vibe. I do feel weird about James' publicist coming onto him, and it feels like it should've been a bigger deal than it was.

Book 4 is a mini-book that focuses on the gang's summer vacation during a cross-country road trip. It kind of hurt my heart because of Brandon and Zack's relationship being broken for seemingly no reason. I get that the writers were trying to be a bit more realistic with relationships in this series, but I'd have preferred better buildup with the breakup rather than it being so random, or not break them up at all. It would've also been nice if Teddy was an actual LI for him; it was weird that it fizzled out but then we see Teddy again and ahve the option to ask why he didn't call Zack. I also think it's interesting how Zig reveals he's bisexual and it never comes up again--not that sexuality is a personality trait, but it would've been nice to see him talk more about his experience, not just the negative stereotypes he experienced, as well as the option to hook him up with someone similar to Kaitlyn and James. It's a really fun book, though--and it makes me want a Scooby-Doo-inspired Choices book ASAP.

Book 5 (Book 1 of "The Sophomore") sees you begin your sophomore year! After a less than savory living arrangement, you and your friends decide to take over a foreclosed house together, and you eventually invite Becca to live with you, and a little while later, you can date her. However, she hasn't been fully redeemed, as she tries to sabotage her so-called "best friend" since she replaced her as their sorority's new House President. It's really twisted, especially as Madison feels super guilty about it and just wants to be friends. It's pretty toxic, and I don't recall if this led to Madison giving up her position for Becca. I also feel like it's weird that James gets a love interest with Reyna when in one of the special books (which I don't cover), it's noted that he has someone who likes him. Why she isn't just made a love interest, I don't know. I did also feel bad for the pressures Chris faces being the captain of the football team. And honestly given the issue with Zig's criminal record being the hot topic a few books ago, I'm surprised his sexuality isn't mentioned to cause friction among the football team, like an exaggerated version of what happened with Manny. Granted, he was comfortable with his sexuality, and any issues regarding it would essentially feel similar to Kaitlyn's arc, but it's a thought. Btw, I love that the characters get new outfits in the Sophomore year.

Book 6 (Book 2 of "The Sophomore") has you trying to keep your house from being condemned after it's sabotaged. It was actually sabotaged by Sebastian, who tried to make amends at your house party, but only Tyler believes him. Rejected and with everyone assuming the worst of him, he sabotages the house and reports it to the house inspector, hoping you get a fine--only to be horrified that you get condemned instead. ...Really? Why are Becca and Sebastian so toxic even when they're trying to be better? Becca tries to ruin her best friend's reputation when she replaces her, and Sebastian is so lonely he's willing to get the people who rejected his friendship in trouble. But despite their spoiled and unhinged ways, I've gotta call out the hypocrisy here: the gang talks about Zig and Chris being more than their past mistakes, but they sure know how to hold a grudge against those who made recent mistakes--not that they can't do that, but it feels like they're going against their morals. Both Sebastian and Becca tried to screw over their friends, but Becca's the one who gets to stay with us and continue being high-maintenance? We may as well have moved Sebastian in too; I wanted more of him after this book (though the amount of headaches he and Becca could cause together is HIGH). Meanwhile, Tyler and Abby's relationship is fraying and part of me hoped Tyler would end up being bi and being with Sebastian (not that two men can't have platonic relationships with each other; I'm game with Sebastian ending up with MC, too), Chris' dad returning feels like it should've been a bigger arc, and a part of me wishes that Zig had been in dance the whole time, and I do wish we'd gotten more into the conversation about how sexual harassment/assault is common in the MLM community and that Manny definitely deserved worse punishment.

Book 7 (Book 1 of "The Junior") sees you getting an apartment with your LI and investigating a prank gone wrong. Your stay with your LI is pretty rough at first, and I feel like it could've been better-written to reflect the characters' personalities, though I respect the "break up/make up" option because of it. It would've been neat if your LI was annoyed by some of your choice- based decisions, as well. Entering a "fratority" with some dark secrets was fun, and it felt like it could've existed as it's own series rather than one book in a series. It definitely feel like it could've been more darker and mysterious than it ended up being. Though I will admit that despite not romancing him, I'm not huge on the "you can romance a twist villain" because when they're revealed to be bad, it makes your relationship feel like it's been for nothing. I do love that we can give the characters makeovers, though; it's nice to see them in new outfits and hairstyles.

Book 8 (Book 1 of "The Senior") has you figuring out your future ahead of graduation! I do wish we'd had a bit more legroom with what kind of writer we wanted to be and what profession we wanted to do in general. I also would've liked if we could've played as Kaitlyn and decided what kind of sound/visual her band's upcoming album would have. I don't have too many notes on this book, though I do hate how you have to go the sacrifice route; after you get a job offer, your LI is also successful with their career and is going to be in another part of the world; they essentially cut down your dreams, and it not only feels OOC, it feels almost manipulative. In the end, you have to decide if you want to go with them (and maybe find another job), make them give up their dream, or break up and you each follow your own paths. It's essentially a story with no clear winners, though I personally chose to go with them to pursue their dream.

Overall, I see why the series is iconic, and it's continuity over the app's growth really shows in it's quality, though I do wish we'd gotten more books for the junior and senior years, as well as fixing certain character issues and plot points. See you at my next review! Working on TRR right now, but let me know if there's a particular series you want reviewed! I've already done HSS, TRE, D&D, and AME. For now, I'm only making reviews for completed series, AKA 2 or more books (not counting holiday/special books) and the story is not currently in development (ie BOLAS, ID, COP).

#choices #choices stories you play #choices stories we play #choices app #choices game #pixelberry studios #pixelberry #the freshman series #playchoices

[nightsofreylo]

Rhaenyra and Daemon speaking high valyrian in front of everyone, just seems so intimate and sexy, like a secret only they know. When they make love eventually, I want them to whisper lovely nothings against their dampened hot skin in those beautiful valyrian notes! Their chemistry, even without a lot of interaction is just burning hot. And I feel it has to do with the way Daemon is, because he is a complete rogue, a rebel warring against his fortunes in whatever way he can. However, he obviously has this visible soft corner for Rhaenyra and never tries to undermine her. And this palpable fondness, without any artificial, made-up feelings is something I think Rhaenyra feels as well. Especially now, that she is getting more and more alienated...

Also I might be crazy, but something about the Daemyra dynamic reminds me of Jon and Sansa. I think it's the way Daemon always positions himself behind her, showing that he is protective of Rhaenyra, and the way he looks at her, that makes me nostalgic about the feral protectiveness Jon showed for Sansa from the time they reunited in Castle Black. I hated the way GoT ended, I hated how Daenerys died, hated everything about the last episode/ season, except the fact that Sansa became queen in the north, and that Jon chose her.

I'm probably in the minority, but Jonsa parallels sometimes creep up on me for Daemyra and somehow I seem to love and appreciate it even more?!!

Thank you for letting me vent my feelings in your ask box! I hope you have a lovely day ahead!

Daemon and Rhaenyra speaking High Valyrian is peak romance. “You taught me a secret language I can’t speak with anyone else.” They understand each other in a way that is so compelling.

In the books (which I admittedly did not finish), I was always attached to the concepts of Jon/Dany (or even Jon/Arya at times) and Sansa/Sandor. I still shipped Sansa/Sandor quite a bit in the show, but the age gap felt bigger than in the books for some reason, so it wasn’t quite the same. And even though it was set up that way, I didn’t get the romantic tension I was expecting from Jon/Dany in the show.

I agree that the chemistry between Jon and Sansa in the final season was on point — and very unexpected, since I had not considered them as a potential romantic pairing until that point. All this to say I’m a massive multi shipper when it comes to Game of Thrones!

#house of the dragon #daemyra

[maliro-t]

nat 20, crit fail, prep and tpk!

nat 20: What's the most memorable RP scene you've been a part of?

I know this is technically a question for me as a player but as a DM, there was an exchange with one of my players (in blue) as this little kid NPC (in red) after they'd saved him from a pretty horrible massacre that just went:

"Have you seen people die?"

"Yeah."

"Did you like them too?"

"Yeah. But there's nothing I could do for them. And they're happier where they are now."

"I wish you could be happy too."

"Yeah."

Which just got me real in my feelings about Mr. Mumford and made me real proud of his player :)

crit fail: Have you ever had a character death? What happened?

I personally have not! I think that's in part because the longest campaigns I've been in as a player were only over about 7 or eight months, so I haven't had a ton of opportunity to be thrust into mortal peril. Although I guess you never know lol, especially at lower levels.

prep: How much prep work do you do? How far out do you prep?

I would say it varies session to session, which is probably normal. I've played around with completely homebrewing some shorter sessions, but there honestly isn't a place for that in my work life balance, so I've turned to running published material (namely Curse of Strahd). That takes a lot of the burden of prep off, since I more rarely am designing things from scratch-- although I do my fair share of modification, and there still is plenty of stuff that I have to figure out myself! For most games I will make sure I have the sections that I will need from the book marked out and available, and especially if looks like it's gonna be a sort of open-ended RP game, I'll write out certain guidelines for myself into my campaign notebook so it's easier for me to keep track of things (I also do this for combat, in that I'll usually write a few lines about major figures' goals, if they're relevant, and maybe their first move or two). I try not to prep much beyond what I think will fit in a session (because I frankly don't have time), but sometimes I overestimate, and will end up with notes that last me three sessions. But beyond sort of vague notions of bigger picture building blocks that are moving in the background, I try to only prep stuff I think will be immediately pertinent. And I do trust my improv skills enough where a lot of that will be vague sketching! For example, in CoS there's a festival that's upcoming in one of the major cities, but the book has truly no information about what the festival itself entails beyond sort of a morbid procession, so I went into that game with an opening scene, a vague thought about ring toss, and a vague thought about local card sharks, and just kind of played it by ear from there. And it was one of our most fun games! I do prep a LOT for combat though-- we play on roll20 so I'm cobbling together maps (which usually will take an hour or so depending) and will often times write out entire stat blocks so I don't have to be looking for them. I do use the dnd beyond encounter tracker some of the time, but in big, complicated encounters, I find that can actually make my life extra confusing, so I do a lot of handwriting shit out on paper.

tpk: Have you ever had a game go completely off the rails? TPK? How did you adjust?

I did in fact facilitate a TPK in my current campaign which was !!!! yeah I would say off the rails is putting it mildly! The entire party was slaughtered by dire wolves, which was a random encounter on the way to a completely different objective so. very unexpected. It was one of those games that truly makes you feel insane, and it was almost entirely down to rolls-- I was rolling very well for these wolves (I think I crit 3 or 4 times?) and they were rolling extremely poorly. It was honestly easier for me that everyone went out than just a few people, because it meant that I could make on the fly decisions for the group and no one had to sit out the rest of the session. So, once the last person went down I gave everyone a kind of solo limbo vignette where we zeroed in on some character/backstory stuff for each of them, just to kind of settle everyone (which was really fun to do, especially since there's a lot they don't know about each other's histories, some more than others), and took a five minute recess to figure out what to do next-- I was lucky that unbeknownst to the party, they were on their way to knock on the door of a hag coven, who had their own reasons to want them alive, so I ended up having them all wake up as their captives. Congrats, you made it to where you were going! Sorry, you're still fucked! And THAT ended up being one of the most fun, intense encounters we've run. And I certainly am weaving some threads in the background about how exactly they survived and what the long-term consequences of that are.

#thank u truths! the whole list of questions is great #there are. definitely more off the rails examples i could have given #but u know the literal TPK was a big one #ask #impossibletruths #placeholder campaign tag #it speaks

[tinylantern]

Star's Rune Factory 3 Special 1st Playthrough, Part 1: First Impressions!

Welp, the day has finally come for fans of the Rune Factory series. Preorder copies of Rune Factory 3 Special are already arriving in people's mailboxes and it's not even the official release date yet. I was fortunate enough to be among those who got their copy a few days early and needless to say, I am extremely excited to finally play what is widely considered the best game in the series.

My copy was the Golden Memories Edition from XSEED's store that includes the Golden Wooly keychain. The keychain itself is extremely soft and adorable, and the other goodies included in the Golden Memories box are lovely as well. My favorite is the acrylic standee that features Micah, Frey, Lest, Alice, and Ares--while it's nothing particularly special as far as merch goes, the fact it features the protagonists of the Rune Factory games that have been released since the series was revived is, to me, pretty meaningful. Maybe one day we'll get a similar standee but with the protagonists of RF1/Frontier, RF2, and Tides of Destiny.

But we're not here to highlight what's included in the LE. We're here to talk about my first playthrough of RF3S, which at this point is only just getting started.

I've only played a few days in game so far and I have to say, while I don't dislike it, compared to RF4S and RF5, I am feeling VERY overwhelmed in the early game. A large part is muscle memory; I went into RF3S expecting it to play similarly to RF4S and while that is true in a lot of ways, there are enough differences in the UI that I occasionally find myself tripping up and hitting the wrong button when trying to equip a tool or weapon. There is also the matter of the controls themselves; Micah, at least to me, doesn't move as precisely as Frey/Lest or Alice/Ares, and so I find myself missing a lot when trying to water crops or till the fields. But from what I remember of my one playthrough of RF5, there was a somewhat similar problem with Alice/Ares during the farming segments, and those issues were ultimately fixed once I got around to upgrading the tools, so I imagine something similar might happen down the road with Micah.

I think another factor in what's making me feel overwhelmed is the cast. It's not that the cast is larger than Selphia's--from what I can tell, the population of Sharance about the same as before you rescue all of the Guardians during Act 1--but the personalities are definitely a lot louder and more prone to relying on one or two major character quirks. Collette is a glutton, Raven is a tsundere, Sofia and Sherman speak in opposites, etc. This is a double edged sword because if the quirk is something I can tolerate, than yeah, I'm all right with it. But if the quirk is something I personally find obnoxious, then I'm most likely not gonna be a fan of the character. Of the characters I've met so far, Shara, Sakuya, Carmen, Gaius, Blaise, Marjorie, Hazel, Evelyn, and Shino all have personalities that I genuinely like, but Marian, Karina, Pia, Sofia, Raven, and Sherman? All already getting on my nerves. (Especially Karina. She reminds me way too much of Bado and Elsje, and I didn't like those two either.)

But hey, it's really early in the game, and if RF4 taught me anything, it's never to judge a book by its cover. I mean believe it or not, I used to dislike Xiao Pai because I found her clumsy shtick annoying, but now she's probably my favorite of the bachelorettes. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing ends up happening here with some of the characters who I currently find aggravating.

Beyond that, I mean... jeez, this game is pretty. RF3S clearly had a bigger budget compared to RF4S between the brand new character/monster models and the new intro. I'm still disappointed there's no female player option and/or datable bachelors, but prettied up or not, RF3S, like RF4S, is a port. I guess if there's anything I would have changed up, it's the portraits. Rune Factory has long suffered from a case of giving the majority of its characters massive baby faces even when they're supposed to be adults and I find it even more glaring here than in RF4S. Like c'mon guys, it's possible to give a character softer, youthful features without making them look like a literal child.

That's all for now! I'll come back with a new post once I've talked to the villagers more and dealt with the tanuki monster everyone keeps blabbering about...

#rune factory #rune factory 3 #rf3 #star plays rf3S