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absolutebl · 3 years

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This Week in BL

May 2021 Wk 3

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs.

It’s a cray cray Friday when Vietnam gets its eng subs up before GMMTV Thailand. What alter-reality are we in? Well, the Vietnamese offerings are better right now anyway. (Oooo, feel that burn.)

Ongoing Series - Thai

Top Secret Together Ep 2 - pulping it up in the best possible way. Sure sound and production values are pants, and in classic Thai fashion the editing in post is exacerbating (rather than fixing) pacing issues, but it’s still CUTE AF. I don’t even mind the added university storyline, because they’ve got good chemistry (and a confident gay fresher after a panicked gay hazer is an old favorite... what can I say, SOTUS was my first love). We aren’t spending too much time with any one couple, so it’s weighted a lot better than Brothers was, but also character development is slow.

Siew Sum Noi Ep 2 - Unfortunately, it’s just too hard to find, plus no subs. I’m dropping it in the hopes it comes back on my radar some day.

Y-Destiny Ep 8 - (Thurs) It’s rough having a ghost boyfriend, half your friends are scared, the other half think you’re crazy, and kissing shortens your lifespan. This was a cute couple even if I wasn’t wild about the surrounding story.

Close Friend Ep 5: (Dear My Star/JimmyTommy) - about high school penpals. It had to rely entirely on voice over work as the actors only meet face to face at the end. It’s a good thing they are appealing screen presences on their own, with good vocal control. It’s hard to imagine any other BL pair carrying this kinda plot. It’s by far my favorite of the series so far, and I’m not even a big JimmyTommy fan.

Fish Upon The Sky Ep 7 - no subs. Do we care? Not really. Because we have...

Nitiman Ep 3 - currently my favorite out of Thailand. It’s the university Thai BL i’ve been waiting for since... when was the last good one? My Engineer? Yowza. Anyway we got: head on my shoulder, baby is a floppy drunk (but still wants to be in control), proximity alert, boyfriend’s closet, seme gets seriously jelly, and a cute twist on feeding him. There’s something fun and complex about Jin’s character. He’s not a panicked bi. He knows exactly what’s going on, he just hasn’t decided if he wants Bb or not. He clearly enjoys being looked after, the compliments, and the attention, but he’s not sure if he’s going to like what happens if he gives in. I like that twist on the usual tsundere uke archetype a lot, cautious rather than willfully obtuse or freaked out. We can see Jin realizing in stages: I like this person, I like that they like me, I like the romantic attentiveness. But in the background is... do I actually want to f*k him? It’s a dynamic we don’t often see on BL.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

HIStory 4: Close To You (Taiwan) Ep 10 fin - the most ridiculous show using BLs worst tropes in a sort of weird smoothie of bitter greens and too ripe banana. The ending was the sappiest cheesiest thing ever, like cheese syrup tapped from the cheese tree. So of course I loved it, but I’m pretty sure I giggled through all the bits meant to be profound. Because, in the end, to tolerate this show at all, you just can’t take ANY of it seriously. RECOMMENDED (with some SERIOUS reservations and trigger warnings.) Full review here.

Be Loved in House: I Do (Taiwan) Ep 1-2 - I don’t mind a damaged seme character but this one is a bit weird for me. Like creepy Cheese in the Trap level weird. On the bright side, the story has given our tsundere uke good motivation for his angst and great existing friendships, loyalty, and likability. Plus I’m invested in the cafe owner/innocent puppy side dishes. So if it’s only the seme character I’m not jiving with, and he’s the most established actor, it should all turn out fine. I believe in you, Taiwanese BL.

Papa & Daddy (Taiwan) Ep 6 fin - speaking of belief. This such a good show but they gave us a cliffhanger ending. Now we must hope against hope for season two. That’s never guaranteed with Taiwan tho. So, I’m docking a few points and saying, RECOMMENDED so long as you realize it’s a cliffhanger.

Love is Science? (Taiwan) Ep 1-9 (BL subplot) - this is a good het romance, but the fact that the BL subplot is a beautifully acted disaster bi + confident gay means you’re hearing about it whether you want to or not. Plus they just added in some GL! Come on! I gotta support Taiwan normalizing queer to this extent. They are fighting the good fight and if I also have to watch a career lady and her much younger softest straight boi get it on, too? Twist my arm with that service sub subtext. Go on Taiwan, TWIST IT. It’s on Viki. Join the revolution. * Incidentally if you actually like the D/s het dynamic of this show, I highly recommend Japanese Kimi wa Petto - career woman keeps a hot young dancer boy as a pet. Oh yes, an actual pet, that IS the pitch. Never doubt Japan when kink is on the line. It’s also on Viki. Go get your kink on, thank me later. (If it helps: That was not a request.)

Most Peaceful Place 2 (Vietnam) Ep 2 (AKA 5) - love triangles aren’t my thing, but if you’re gonna do it short form, by all means bring in the lead’s other BL pairing so the chemistry is on point. Now I've no idea who I want him to end up with. Can’t they just be in a poly triad?

My Lascivious Boss (Vietnam) Ep 7 - I’m still enjoying it a lot. It’s still unabashedly queer and the tension is ramping up. We now have secret identity, blackmail, femme fatale, faen fatale, and incoming seme confrontation. Best of all, the series is still airing, which makes it longer than any other Vietnamese BL I’ve seen (aside from Tein Bromance - which is just too weird to count).

Gossip - Thai BL

SEVEN PROJECT TEASERS

No one is entirely sure what Studio Wabi Sabi’s Seven Project/7Project will entail.

It might be like Close Friend (1 episode per couple, no linking),

or Y-Destiny (2 episodes per couple, loosely linked),

or The En of Love (4 episodes per couple, linked but independent consecutive stories).

They’re giving the couple’s arcs separate titles. So each one would be what? Seven Project: Once Upon a Time or the like? We’re in Taiwanese title territory people and NO ONE WANTS TO GO THERE. Anygay...

Once Upon a Time is the BounPrem (og UWMA) anchor story, and seems to be the most dramatic and likely saddest. These two can handle most of what’s thrown at them at this juncture, so it should be good.

Vs Love is a BoomPeak (og Make it Right) university vehicle. Since I thought Boom was done with our nonsense, I couldn’t be more thrilled and surprised this pair is doing another show together. I don’t think either of them are the greatest actors but I find Peak very endearing and Boom charismatic on screen, so I’ll watch.

Would You be My Love is the hotly anticipated SantaEarth launch. They’re a (cultivated) IRL ship and Earth is an established BL actor. They have great chemistry and high energy so this could be lots of fun.

We are also getting a GL from this series from established BL actresses Samantha and Pineare. Nothing teased yet on that, but I’m looking forward to this installment the most. Also curious to see how the ladies handle the branding and promo side, not to mention the culture. (Thailand variety shows gonna force *girls* to play the Pepero game?)

Secret Crush on You upcoming Thai BL with no release date, co-produced by and featuring (but NOT staring) Saint and directed by Cheewin (sigh) with all fresh faces. (Previously known as Stalker the series.) It looks like pure pulp and I’m not wild about the plot but could be better than expected as it’s adapted from a novel. Cheewin is an okay director when he has an actual story to follow.

Don’t Say No the series. Coming from the producers of TharnType this is the JaFirst vehicle many have been waiting for. Friends to lovers + a good boy/bad boy pairing on a sports romance foundation. It’s basketball so they tapped Meen as well (he’s semi-pro). The bad news? You get one guess as to who is writing the darn thing? Yep it’s MAME. So, ya know, expect some slam dunk kidnapping, a light dribbling of rape, and me turning into a basketcase. AKA...

Will I have to live blog this series in order to survive it? That seems to be the only way I can. So probably. Which means the bad sports puns will continue. Look, if I’m suffering, SO ARE YOU!

Rumors of a new YinWar vehicle The Best Story (mini series) coming in July. Also rumors that their previously announced Love Mechanics (full length series) has either been delayed, is facing money issues, or is moving studios, or all three.

Breaking News

DELAYED (I’m talking these three off the watch list until we get new airing dates)

Love Area’s release was pushed out but it got a trailer.

Golden Blood was supposed to drop Weds but comments in MDL report that it is delayed due to C19.

Love’s Outlet (Taiwan) is supposed to have started a 50 episode run (only 3-5 min each, what utter nonsense). Sadly, this delay is due to a surge in cases in Taiwan which was doing so well, but also doesn’t have many inoculations.

Bad Buddy has started workshopping at GMMTV actual.

Kang Insoo’s BTS for Nobleman Ryu’s Wedding is SO FLIPPING CUTE. You have to watch it. Trust me, I don’t rec behind the scenes stuff often.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Some shows may be listed later than actual air date for International accessibility reasons.

Upcoming 2021 BL master post here.

Links to watch are provided when possible, ask in a comment if I missed something.

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shimmershae · 3 years

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My thoughts on Episode 6--On the Inside

Very appropriate title by the way. Works in a multitude of ways.

As always, my randomness is going beneath a cut again to spare the eyeballs of those of you that don’t want to see it at all and also? Help those of you that have somehow stayed spoiler-free in this brand-new age of early release episodes. It is still so wild to me that I’m a full episode ahead of half the fandom. I don’t know what I’m going to do when we get to the final episode and they decide to make us all suffer together--because somehow I do feel they will do exactly that after spoiling us for the first 23 episodes. It is going to be agonizing.

Anyway. Without further ado, Shae’s stream of consciousness review (of sorts).

Not fair, Angela. Opening the episode with that shot of that big ass spider. I hate those suckers. So naturally, they’re an easy sell for setting the horror scene to me, lol.

Okay. Who the hell’s chasing Virgil and Connie? Walker No-See-Ums?

Barely a minute in and the atmosphere for this episode is moody AF.

What is this? Tara Jr. The Walking Dead? LOL. Where’s the Scarlett for this mini plantation house? Anyway. First three minutes of this episode? Just as attention grabbing as the first five episode openings this season. I don’t think people out there are giving our writers enough love for that. Every episode so far has opened like a mini movie.

With the way the Walking Dead logo keeps crumbling away with each successive episode, somehow it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Carol and Daryl spinoff was eventually titled The Living and had flowers growing out of each letter, lol. I mean, there would be a certain sort of life-affirming symmetry in a show that’s been promised to be much lighter in tone doing just that.

More Carol and Aaron? Yes, please. I don’t necessarily like Carol staying at home and sitting the sidelines like a figurative happy little homemaker in the B story while the rest of the mains are trying like hell to sell the A story, but if she’s going to be totally prohibited from the main storyline until it’s time to blow shit up? I’m going to continue enjoy getting to see her do what she should have been doing for seasons--interacting with others in the community, especially Aaron and the ladies.

Truly. I really am loving my girl getting some quality Aaron and Rosita time. It’s so long overdue.

Bless sweet Kelly. Riding off to her sister’s rescue.

Why isn’t Lydia shown as part of these plans? For someone that could barely read last season, I doubt that big ass map was a piece of cake for her and it’s all just guesswork anyway without her guidance. I mean, why does it feel like they are cutting some of this stuff that might not seem like much plot-wise but would go a long way toward establishing different character beats? Personally, I would have loved to see her involved in the search and sharing scenes again with Carol and bonding with Kelly.

Virgil be having that “I always feel like somebody’s watching me” feeling. Don’t you hate that, lol?

“You haven’t slept in days.” But how many days, Virgil? I’m going to need a number because I’m confused AF about this timeline at this point. What we’re seeing and what different pieces of dialogue is telling us is not exactly lining up. I’m going to find it awful hilarious if it hasn’t even been two weeks since the cave in. For reasons.

Connie’s spidey senses are clearly tingling.

Alrighty, then. She’s clearly got PTSD. Understandable. They’ve all had it. Some have been treated more sympathetically than others, though.

I mean, it never seems to cross anybody’s mind how Carol probably sees Henry’s head on that pike, Mika’s pale and bloody body, Lizzie crumpled face down in a bed of yellow flowers, Sophia with a smoking bullet hole through her undead head whenever she closes her eyes but whatever.

Okay though. But what if Connie had really shitty, impossible to read handwriting? AKA doctor’s handwriting. What then?

Leah’s face honestly twists my insides whenever I see it, lol. It’s quiet a visceral thing. No, that does not make me a horrible person. Not everybody wants or has to drink the awesome, great, redeemable villainess Kool-Aid. IMHO, she’s got a face meant for a Walker. Perfect makeover idea. Eh. Mostly it’s her expression and the deadness of her eyes.

Anyway. Why is it always the fingers? Eff that.

Listen. If ya’ll can’t tell Daryl’s conflicted AF with the situation he’s landed in, you don’t know how to read NR’s face and eyes. He’s not a masterclass like MMB but he’s pretty darn good when he wants to be.

I honestly feel sorry for Redshirt Frost.

“You do what you gotta do.” Frost knows what’s what and he’s willing to walk the walk for Maggie. Impressive loyalty. I’m left wondering how the current, colder incarnation of Maggie inspired it because I’m still struggling to see it. Anywho. My point is the dude knows the score and just gave Daryl the okay.

Daryl taking off his angel vest before stepping into the role of torturer/interrogator=him shedding the persona/the man Judith and RJ and Lydia and Carol know him to be. Pushing away his man of honor status so he can just survive somehow.

Pope never quits chewing whatever the hell he’s got in his mouth. It’s kind of distracting.

Ohhh. We’re back to the Haunted Mansion. I mean house. Where are the Hitchhiking Ghosts?

All the eyes scratched out of those creepy pictures=spooky.

The good old fogged up bathroom mirror shot. Somebody’s been watching and studying their horror movies, lol. Not gonna lie though. I’m legit bracing myself for the jump scares I know have to be coming.

I’m loving the music/score in these scenes.

Truthfully, I could care less about these Reapers. But they are hella attractive, lol. Listen. Angela knows what she’s doing.

Kelly’s horse is so pretty. Prayer chain for that baby.

More dead horses? Why?

Connie’s slingshot? Sorry. I maintain, no matter how much I like these two, that they have the lamest weapons ever. Endless supply of Virginia rocks or not.

So. Did Virgil and Connie enjoy a little equine for dinner? Did they kill it before the Walkers fed? What monsters! Yeah, no. Not if they were starving even if I personally could not have. The more probable story is they fled the camp in a panic and left the horse behind and then it went down. Sorry. I didn’t exactly study the wounds on the poor animal because it is so traumatizing to me to continue to see them meet such dastardly ends on this show. I don’t know who the hell has such a score to settle with horses but stop it.

Days. It’s only been days. Not weeks. So many times with all that Daryl and Company have had to contend with since the cave in? Those do not exist, lol. They’re just a convenient, appeasing piece of dialogue thrown at a fanbase primed and ready to read everything into not much of anything. There’s just not been enough time for it to happen unless Daryl has literally been up 24/7 for all of them. You know, strategizing how to attack the remainders of Alpha’s horde, figuring out how to defend Hilltop before it fell, healing from the wound he sustained at Alpha’s hand, sitting on that log all damn night with Negan waiting on Carol to come home, having a lover’s quarrel with his best damn everything, taking care of the Grimes babies and Lydia, being the reluctant leader. Kang, why you playing them like that? Daryl’s a super guy but he’s not a superhuman with clones. So many times my ass.

Seriously. Who been watching Connie and Virgil? The MIA Oceansiders? Beta’s Fee Fi Fo Fum Ghost?

Nice. A Michonne mention. Maybe the truth will start to trickle out.

LMAO at Connie’s “I’m not staying here.” Me neither, girl. I would be outta that house so fast.

They really “Quiet Placing” this episode. Honestly? I’m kinda loving it.

WTF was that? I know she can’t hear but you telling me all the little hairs on her arms, legs, and neck didn’t stand the fuck up and say fuck this shit, I’m gone? Pardon my language, lovelies, but that moment had my heart kicking up several beats.

Okay, okay. To be fair to Connie, every hair on her body been doing that since the front door closed. Maybe they’re desensitized.

Gollum’s chasing Connie!!! He/She wants their Precious!!!

The knee jerk reactions about this episode sight unseen are OTT, honestly. And I mean no disrespect by saying that. I can understand completely where they’re coming from because we’ve been burned so long in this fandom. But it’s obvious the spoiler source has their particular biases and reads into things in such a way that don’t line up with what’s actually being shown onscreen. Daryl’s loyalty in this episode and all along quite clearly lies with his family and his community. He’s been playing Leah since the start and is truly just trying to survive somehow.

Awful thought. The Reaper that’s so suspish of Daryl--haven’t quite caught his name or really cared to. I feel like he might try to get to Daryl somehow. When he realizes that Daryl cares no more for Leah than any human would care for somebody (they thought) they used to know? He’s going after Dog. Or Carol should she finally join this story.

I refuse to believe Carol isn’t going to be a part of this story. Because they messing with her mans, lol.

“You’re ever with us or you’re not.” Now where have I heard those words before? I wish I could find that Daryl gif because that had to be one of the funniest things ever, lol.

Unrealistic suggestion to Daryl, Leah? Breathing oxygen seems to piss off Carver. Oh look. He finally has a name for me, lol.

I love how all three of the ladies--Carol, Magna, and Rosita--look at Kelly with such indulgent, adoring “little sis, you alright?” eyes.

They are seriously the most beautiful quartet of characters. I mean all of them are lovely but Carol and Rosita this season? Ugh. The unfairness of the pretty.

Human bones. Terminus callback, lovelies. How it all would have eventually gone down if Gareth and Co. hadn’t met the business end of Rick’s red machete.

So many horror movie homages in this one.

Virgil’s like “let’s leave this Texas Chainsaw Massacre behind.”

Connie and Virgil have obviously bonded, ya’ll. I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying their scenes together when the character mostly got on my nerves with Michonne. He’s a good actor and the core of his character is sympathetic, but I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t super enthused when he was the one that rescued Connie because I didn’t know how their scenes would play out. But there’s a nice synergy there.

Okay. Does Carver want Leah for himself? Because I’m sure Daryl at this point would love to scream “take her, I know where I fucking belong!”

Daryl’s digging in deep because Carver has shown him Leah’s potential weak spot. Nuance is truly lost on some people, LMAO. He cares about Leah as a human being probably. He’s Daryl, after all. The sweet one. But he sees her as his way outta this and he’s going to exploit it.

It’s nice to have a silent Negan for once, lol. I can pretend he didn’t take my baby Glenn away from me and enjoy JDM’s pretty.

So. These cannibal people were the watchers? Hmm.

I’m really digging Virgil 2.0. Yeah. Nobody’s surprised more than me.

Sweet, sweet scene between Virgil and Connie. His determination to reunite her with her family brings back the sympathy I felt for him when he told Michonne “I promised her flowers. Every day.”

Damn. How many of those creepy crawly cannibals are there?

How brave of Connie to confront her fears to save someone she’s obviously grown to care about.

The Kelly/Connie reunion gave me chills and made me cry. Thank fuck Angela didn’t cheapen that moment by having it focus on literally anybody else. Kelly is the most important person in the whole world to Connie and vice versa. Just like Carol is the most important person in the whole world to Daryl and vice versa. Angela fucking knows. Everybody does. Except the people busy building castles out of sand while the waves of Carol’s and Daryl’s converging stories keep crashing closer and closer to shore.

Such a beautiful moment given to us by Angel Theory and Lauren Ridloff. So authentic and sweet. Kelly and Connie are home to each other.

Poor Frost. That’s all I gotta say about that.

WTF, though. Was Mel just not available or what? I want to see more of the ASZ characters that I care about, not the Reapers. Like I’d be fine with the story if all the characters not named Maggie, Negan, or Daryl weren’t surviving on crumbs during it. Especially the 2nd billed actress on the entire show. Angela. Please. Fix this.

One last WTF. Seriously. WTF has Maggie done to inspire Pope’s obsession? It better be juicy after all this shit.

Overall impression of the episode--

One of my favorites of the season so far. The horror aspects were fantastic, IMHO. I truly didn’t expect to like Connie and Virgil’s scenes as much together so that was a nice surprise. She got the reunion that felt most true and earned for the character and her story and I thank Angela from the bottom of my heart for that.

I would have loved more Carol but I always want more Carol. I’m okay with her taking a backseat because ultimately? This was Kelly’s moment with her sister. Carol and Connie will eventually have their time to sit down and talk. And pick back up their blossoming friendship because I truly do not feel Connie blames Carol at all.

I do wish Lydia had been included with the girl group. Last episode felt like it was leading up to that.

The Reaper storyline continues to be the weakest link because every time we see them the dialogue and interactions feel totally recycled from the time previous. I feel like it would have totally been helped by a tighter focus and less stretching out because 8 episodes of this is really diluting what I feel like Angela and Co. are going for. I’m not here for Leah being redeemed or being a bigger focus in any of the episodes because she does nothing of interest for me. I’m just peeking in on that story for the Daryl of it all.

Speaking of the Daryl? You lovelies out there gotta stop taking that spoiler source’s recaps at face value because it’s obvious to me at least that there’ some bias at work. Every action and word coming from Daryl is coming from a place of loyalty to his family and wanting to protect them, no matter how he has to dirty his hands. Leah is just a means to his ultimate end. She’s not his future. She never was. His future’s already spoken for and 2023 can’t get here soon enough. But like Daryl, we have to just survive somehow.

Oh goodie. More Maggie and Negan next episode and looks like no real follow up on Connie and the ASZ reunions. Hopefully, this is yet another instance of the previews being deceiving but I’m not holding my breath.

Until later, lovelies.

Hope my word vomit didn’t bore you too much.

#The Walking Dead #Season 11 #TWD spoilers #things that make me smile and cry #for reasons #ignore all the typos #with something this longwinded?#LOL #there's bound to be plenty

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professorspork · 3 years

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ANOTHER BUSY DAY IN THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY

I started the day running errands on Havarl, culminating with finishing off Jaal’s loyalty mission! I took Vetra with us thinking ‘hey, if anyone knows sibling dynamics...’ but then she factored into all of that absolutely 0%, lol @ me. but no matter! Jaal was super flirty as we made our way to the Forge, and it was adorable when he was like “HERE MEET MY FRIEND SO YOU CAN SEE AKKSUL IS WRONG” and bodily dragged me toward his siblings. their fight was absorbing and intense; I LEGIT GASPED WHEN HIS SISTER SHOT HIS BROTHER. LIKE!! the whole confrontation with Akksul felt super weighty and I really enjoyed it-- keeping my trigger discipline to not shoot that dude was really hard! there was a split second there where his bolt was headed toward Jaal’s face and I was like “if I kill off Jaal in his loyalty mission I’ll be so upset” but nope it all worked out, he has a bitchin cheek scar now, and the respect of his people, and I got a forehead touch so y’know. i melted. GOSH. then I died laughing at Akksul’s not-apology email.

now Jaal wants me to meet his mom(s) but Helen said that’ll lock in the romance, so I’ll probably wait just a little longer so I can uh keep having FWB sex with Peebee and ?maybe??? flirt with Vetra at some point? altho I teasingly called her MOM last time we were in Kadara Port so maybe not. (Jaal still hates it there, he’s so grumpy and it’s cute, but I digress)

this one got even longer than usual so doing a cut

one thing that I really like, that the game navigates in interesting ways, is that to the angara, we’re all just “Milky Way people.” like. so much of the original trilogy is about navigating the differences between all these aliens, and like, some of that is here too, esp with the krogan, but it’s actually really neat the way we’ve flattened out. and even with the krogan it’s still night and day-- like. comparing what Tuchanka is like in ME2 when Wrex is still solidifying his status as warlord is miles away from what it’s like for me to wander around New Tuchanka or, especially, just run into random krogan out and about (like the nice water scouts. WHY COULDN’T I JUST GIVE THEM THE WATER? but I’m getting ahead of myself). I know some of it has the Watsonian explanation of, like, only forward-thinking, open-minded krogan would be interested in the Initiative in the first place, and some of it is the Doylist explanation of ‘well people really liked that Charr/Ereba romance so let’s have more sweetie pie krogan’ but like. overall. it’s interesting, and I’m sure there’s more angles I haven’t considered.

I traced more of those comm buoys for Addison and learned that the doctor she’s obsessed with ran away to get pregnant! I definitely read that whole situation as Addison being in love with this lady and tbh it still doesn’t refute it? but I won’t get any more progress until I make a new outpost. the whole idea of ‘the first human baby born in Heleus’ thing is really cool, though, and I’m invested.

then I went to Elaaden! I feel some kind of way about Lexi diagnosing all of these scavengers with Brain Disease, but I can’t put my finger on it exactly-- other than, I guess, my general discomfort with pathologizing criminality. I was glad she said we couldn’t vaccinate people without their consent, but the whole thing smacks as very... self-conscious on the part of the game creators? like they thought people would say “hey it’s a huge plot hole that the Initiative screened every person before putting them on the arks and yet so many of them do crimes, explain that to me” and they were like “oh yeah shit that makes no sense, it’s not like people faced with the existential crisis of being in a brand new place 600 years away from everything they’ve ever known with no way back and not enough resources and multiple things wanting to kill them might just make desperate, risky choices, that’s not good enough, obviously we need to explain it with BRAIN DISEASE.” come on.

I made it to New Tuchanka, where the postings on the terminals are literally my favorite part of this whole game. THE ONE KROGAN WHO WANTS GINGERBREAD. THE ONE WHO DOESN’T WANT TO FOCUS ON CONS AND SUGGESTS A “PRO-VERSATION.” THE ONE ABOUT THE “PROBLETUNITY” OF MATING SUGGESTING WATCHING KRANTT HARDLY WAIT. THE ONE WHO INVENTED BLOOD RAGE FOR GUN TURRETS. but also, the best one, my favorite one of all: KRANTT THE RAGENING LARP. there is nothing I would not give to play Krantt: The Ragening.

I sort of tripped and fell and decided to finish Drack’s loyalty mission even though I intended to do more Elaaden things first, and that was a blast. Vorn is so presh! and also Drack is my dad so there’s that. I loved that Vorn helped save the day with a poison vegetable, and I love that Kesh pretended not to like the flower he got her. it was like-- okay. real talk, I just spent like 20 minutes trying to find proof that there is, in fact, a scene in parks and rec where someone gives April a friendship bracelet and she pretended to hate it until they threatened to take it back and could not find it ANYWHERE and felt so gaslit until I realized that that scene was not about April at all but Louise Belcher so. GOOD JOB ME. anyway. it was like that. kesh pretending her comm was broken when Tann tried to talk to her is the oldest joke in the book but I laughed anyway.

and then I TOOK SPENDER DOWN FOR GOOD. I’m a little miffed that neither Kesh nor Tann got to be in on that discussion; like, I recognize he was Addison’s underling but given all the bullshit he pulled with the krogan I especially felt Kesh deserved to be there? at one point there was a dialogue tree where I could either say it was Addison’s fault or Spender’s fault, and I picked the latter because I think they both such but Spender sucks worse, but in hindsight I wish I’d stuck it to Addison more because my dialogue was way too nice. when faced with the choice of jailing or exiling Spender, I picked jail despite my desire to defund Nexus Militia because I was scared if I exiled him he’d just come back as a worse enemy because of all his off-station contacts. when reviewing the choice in the codex, though, it narrativized my choice by saying I imprisoned him knowing he “would never survive life on the run from his former associates.” that wasn’t my assumption at all! quite the opposite! I jailed him thinking he’d start a coup from without if I didn’t, and it’s really interesting to me that the game isn’t framing that as a concern Ryder would have reasonably had. anyway, now Brecka has his job, which is good because Brecka is the best.

before leaving I unlocked my last memory, and SURPRISE MY MOM IS ALIVE. WELL. FOR A GIVEN DEFINITION OF ALIVE. i don’t know why I’m surprised; of course my dad sucked that much. but also, the fact that all of that got nestled in with the reaper ‘reveal’ (if you can call it that) felt... very strange? like. this is such a personal, emotional thing for Ryder. obviously for the player harkening back to the trilogy is supposed to be a gut wrench, and objectively, yes, I can see how the knowledge that they might have narrowly escaped certain death is a big deal, but like. the reapers aren’t HERE. they aren’t relevant. my MOM, on the other hand, is and is, apparently! it’s occurring to me I didn’t even try to find her mis-labeled pod, I was so turned around by all the benefactor stuff after the fact. anyway.

swung by Kadara to get drinks with Drack and had an epic bar fight, and then Lexi p much lectured us both abt it because Drack is like 90% spit and duct tape at this point. him talking about raising Kesh giving him a new lease on life was VERY sweet, tho, and his line about how parents aren’t the finish line, they’re the starting line was very good.

went back to Elaaden, which Jaal called “a big planet” while discussing hunting someone down and AU CONTRAIRE, JAAL, IT IS A MOON. wish I’d had Drack with me when I found Annea’s water because I bet he would have had better dialogue than Cora, but alas. felt very weird giving control of the reservoir to the Nexus, but like. Annea being like “you can’t, this is my emotional support monopoly on a vital natural resource” just wasn’t gonna fly with how I’m playing Ryder. I was gratified to hear the Nexus guy at Paradise say we were giving the water to everyone, including krogan and scavengers, because I 100% did not trust Tann not to overrule him with some shitty call.

then I went to the Remnant ship to stop Morda from making a bomb out of the drive core, and it was all going swimmingly until I traced the signal to that cave inside the flophouse and suddenly my triangle button stopped working, making me unable to activate the console. YIKES. a quick google of the issue tells me that this mission is buggy for a lot of people and reloading from an earlier save tends to help, but I tried that and the issue persisted so I gave up for the evening. hopefully a fresh start tomorrow and time for the ps4 to cool off is all that is required.

#leah plays mass effect andromeda

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blackasmidnightcats · 4 years

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Book 1 Nostalgia

WARNING: This post will have spoilers to the SGE series

The first book in any series will always hold a special place in anyone's heart I think. There is just something beautiful, whether the writing was phenomenal or lacking, about the introduction to a new world and the characters that you're going to know. After reading further into the series, sometimes you just wanna go back to the start, where everything was a lot simpler.

SGE kinda falls into this feeling for me.

I don't think I'm ever going to get over the interactions between the characters (and we haven't even explored most of them) because, personally, Soman is incredibly good with how he does character intercations but the story and plot have a lot to improve on.

And now comparing TSY with TCY it's very glaring.

Soman really has a problem with his plot so much so than with his storyline. It's very repetitive and the storyline suffers from it.

After Book 1, every plot seemed to be the same case; Sophie is an important piece to the main villain, Agatha tries to fix everything, Tedros is getting more crap than needed, annoyingly unhealthy romantic relationships are explored, and the other characters do things.

The last of these examples are really the only things that varies. Everything else is almost always the same in one way or another.

The first book doesn't really follow that pattern. It's a introductory book and I wish Soman did the same vibe as it in QfG.

Though Book 1 wasn't perfect. My biggest main problem with it was how Soman handled Agatha's development from thinking herself a freak and realizing that she was just a beautiful as anyone else (and Tagatha, of course. They had a very unconvincing start) compared to the detailed and precise handling of Sophie's decent and eventual acceptance her wickedness.

I said it once and I'll say it again: I miss vengeful, spited Sophie. Who made the School for Good suffer because Tedros didn't keep his promise and her very impressive Talent to summon Evil creatures at will to do her bidding.

This was the Sophie that I expected more from in the later books but might never get again. With the way that the OTK cover portrays her as the Lion, whether that would be a thing or not, it's clear that Soman wants the readers to look at Sophie in a better light and not as the anti-hero that she is but I could be wrong.

In Book 1, Sophie was incredibly selfish to the point that she wouldn't do anything for others even those that she should care about (i.e. Tedros in the Trial) and in the end, she had to pay for the selfishness by seeing just how Evil she could become and be seen as the witch that she was. Her development from Pink Princess to Witch of Woods Beyond was believable; her ambitiousness combined with her selfishness was what made her gain everything through manipulation and wickedness but it couldn't be hidden for long. Once everyone, including herself, saw what lied underneath her exterior, she lost everything and because of the things that she chooses to do, she naturally hurt and attacked the people that wronged her just as Evil does.

It was caused by a failed romantic pursuit, yes, but unlike the other later romantic relations that she had, the one in Book 1 focused more on the outcome for her character development than in the relationship itself. Honestly her relationships with Rafal, and Rhian, and maybe now Japeth, idk, make absolutely no sense with the importance that the story puts on it because these relationships didn't help further Sophie's character development. It stunted her really.

Now compare this to Agatha.

I think everyone and their cats agree that we all miss witchy Agatha in book 1 and I hope we write more of her in our fanfics like that since Soman won't do it. The thing is, with Agatha, unlike Sophie, whether she is written as a straight-up hero or as a sort of anti-villain with her portrayal as the Snake in the OTK cover, it won't be that far fetched. I don't know if Soman intended this or not but it's pretty frickin impressive with how he managed to make Agatha a pretty versatile character.

Book 1 did not to good with how she went from Graveyard Girl to Fairy Tale Princess. At most, we saw her heroic characteristics but Soman didn't put much effort with making it believable and we were left to our own imaginations with how she could have believably developed and grown into herself. It should have taken more than one chapter to make us believe that Agatha suddenly grew confident with herself and her own brand of beauty and how her relationship with Tedros should have started.

But because of the fact that she's now comfortable as both being a little different and unique in her own way but is still guided by the values of Good and holds it dear to her soul as well as her loyalty to those she loves, she can do great with the best of both worlds.

Agatha hasn't stopped growing since book 1 and I think that reason for that is because Soman knows that he has to square up whenever he writes her. Whether she's developing on her own or with others, she's always learning new values and finding ways to express them in the way that she's comfortable with.

Soman does express that he loves writing in Sophie's POV the most, but it can be a double edged sword if not careful. And I think Soman hasn't been careful.

Now back to the glory of Book 1.

Book one had the most simplest plot and most fluent storyline than in any other book. Even TLEA.

I think I could recall a lot more events in Book 1 than in the more recent ones because there was a lot more events and chapters that were actually necessary to the plot.

So, to go by statistics;

TLEA has the most recorded chapters in the series as of current before the release of OTK with 35 chapters and 3 parts to divide it.

It's followed by Book 1 with 30 chapters.

Then QfG is next with 28 chapters divided into 2 parts.

And aCoT follows with 27 chapters and 2 parts as well.

Last is AWWP with 24 chapters divided into 2 parts as well.

If going by this then OTK should either have a chapter or two more or less than TLEA but not less so than Book 1 because it's going to now be the official last book of the the series.

But that is besides the point. My main problem with the books' storytelling after Book 1 is how disoriented it has become.

Let me make an example with QfG and aCoT. These books are more or less very similar with each other in the number of chapters with only one being the difference while the start of the the "Part 2" portion was a bit different with QfG's starting at chapter 21 while aCoT's started with chapter 17.

But the reception and the fluency of these two books could not be more different from each other.

To say that QfG completely destroyed the fandom is an understatement. I can't tell of aCoT managed to regain the series's former glory for long enough to not let OTK flop but let's be hopeful.

Anyways, the fluency of the storytelling with TCY was wack and QfG and aCoT completely show that.

WARNING: Spoilers about QfG and aCoT will be discussed in this section.

I could not remember almost 70% of QfG because of how much I hated the plot and looking back at the chapters, I honestly could not believe that the asshat Rhian was only introduced on Chapter 21. Everything after Chaddick's POV chapter seemed to be a blur and Rhian's b*tch ass seemed to have corrupted the whole experience.

8 chapters. He was only in QfG for 8 chapters and yet it feels almost like he's been in it for more than half. Frick. He is traumatizing.

Basically, the middle part of the book, namely chapters 7 to 20, was all about the main cast trying to frickin understand wtf was happening. Agatha and Sophie were trying to figure out the Lion and the Snake thing while Tedros was back in Camelot doing (or failing or being sabotaged with) politics and also trying to understand why tf was Excalibur having a tantrum.

Then Rhian entered and I don't know why or how Nottingham and Robin Hood got involved but he did.

And then more figuring out stuff and sabotaging Tedros and then Rhian and Excalibur and then cliffhanger.

It was all very abrupt and confusing. More confusion was added all because there were more questions asked than actual answers and a sense of depression was felt in the end because nothing was really achieved.

Imma compare this with Book 1 later but first Book 5 comparison.

Now aCoT. It was just the storyline that we needed to get back to the hype that the series had. Was it a satisfying read? Yes but was it able to heal the pain that QfG inflicted? No.

The fandom did not come back the same again.

But anyways, aCoT, personally, had a lot more scenes and events that I remembered than in any other book besides book 1 but that there was the problem with this book.

Too many things happened with this book. So much so that the fluency of the story was sacrificed to tell it.

Look at it this way, several shifts in the book happened.

This all happened in Part 1 only;

Rhian became King and his regime was sort of explained.

Agatha was introduced to the First Years and got her Army.

Sophie was in some sort of GOT-esque knock off experience as Rhian's Captive Queen.

Agatha manages to save some of her friends.

The concept of OTK was explained.

Tedros's execution was on way.

Nevermind, Agatha and her army just straight-up hijacked it.

Prof. Dovey died as a sacrifice.

Okay, now to Part 2;

Reaper is a Gnome King.

The Crystal of Time was finally explained.

They finally find out about Rhian and Japeth's origins.

The Gnomes were ambushed and I feel sorry for them.

Sophie tipped Rhian off with the location because she believed that she would end it all.

We kinda get background with why Rhian wants to be OTK????

Rhian DIES?!?!?! and now Japeth's King ☠

They sort of manage to know about wtf happened with the Lady and Japeth

Tedros and Arthur have a heart to heart and he gets the Ring of Power.

Cliffhanger

It's a lot to take in and I don't really think that Soman should have cramped it all in one book.

Some of the plot points should have been in QfG so that it wouldn't be as depressing.

The whole of Part one was a book in itself and Part 2 was one as well.

At some points of the book, I sometimes got the feeling that it was gonna be the end but it just kept going and going and now I don't really know what's left with OTK. It can be both a good thing or a horrible thing.

Let's see wtf happens. I expect more action than drama Soman.

So again with Book 1.

Book 1 was a classic and the ideas easily hooked anyone interested.

It had the same unaswered questions with QfG but why did it suceed when QfG didn't.

First, is that Book 1 had its atmosphere clear from the start of the book. It was clear that the main thing that needed to happen was that Sophie and Agatha needed to realize the actual nature of their souls. There were more technical questions that needed to be answered but the main point that needed to be addressed was addressed by the end of the book.

And also the ending was also a cliffhanger but it a much lighter note.

Sophie and Agatha realized their capabilities and understood themselves but they still chose each other in the end and that sort of gave way to a much hopeful future for the two of them. (At that time, at least)

All the while, QfG was one depressing ball of events that led to one horrible moment to the other.

It was just sad.

And so I kinda go back to Book 1 from time to time to refresh myself with why I started this series to begin with and I'm always reminded with the possibilities and the explorations about good and evil and the complex duality of differences and parallels that so many things that Sophie and Agatha sort of beautifully personify.

I love reading the very first chapter of Book 1 because it so beautifully captured Sophie and Agatha and their complex relationship that I've always wanted to read in other books.

I always loved reading Sophie's amusing thought process and the reason why she does everything that she does; she does it because she believes that she deserves more and she'll everything to get it.

I also loved how Agatha was such a character that I've always wanted to read about. She's spunky and shy and lonely and reflective and despite everyone shunning her, she could still see the good and find it in herself to help them. She was simply wonderful.

I'm thankful that I found this series and I hope that a lot more books can talk about the philosophies and concepts that this book has managed to introduce. And despite all of its set-backs and nonsense, I would still recommend this as a read but to that they should also think about what they've read and maybe talk about what they've found interesting with it.

#sge #sfgae #tsfgae #the school for good and evil #school for good and evil #soman chainani #agatha of woods beyond #agatha of camelot #sophie of woods beyond

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katedrakeohd · 4 years

Text

A Choices: The Royal Masquerade Fanfiction

Pairings :(MC) Julia Aster x Renza Fierro,

Julia Aster x Kaydan Vescovi

Author's Note: As I transferred this story from writen page to digital it occurred to me just how long it was becoming so I've had to break it up into several parts.

...........................

Part One:

A State of Undress

The morning is sunny and warm on the day of our cruise on the Fierro yacht. I’m standing outside in my courtyard with my steward Vasco waiting for Renza’s carriage to come pick me up. As I smooth my hands down over my corset and skirts for the hundredth time, Vasco notices my nervousness and smiles.

“I suppose this will be your first time on a sailing ship M’lady,” he says.

“Yes, it will.” I nod.

“I’ve heard that Lord Hector is a very honourable man. Are you anxious to meet him?”

To tell the truth I’ve barely thought of him at all today. And it’s not Hector or the boat trip that have me feeling anxious. Since we’ll be with the Fierros, that means Kaydan the Crown Shield will be around too. And these days he has occupied my thoughts more than anything.

“I’m hoping Lord Hector isn’t as dull and strange as Lord Emery is. Such a disaster that dinner was. If it weren’t for Henry rescuing me with a new plate of dinner after Cyrus and Emery left the table I would have starved to death.”

My pet wolf cub Astro scampers around the courtyard threatening to trample the flowers. His antics have stolen Vasco’s attention and my comments go unanswered. I shrug and go back to my own thoughts.

Ever since I met Kaydan Vescovi the night of the masquerade, I haven't been able to get him off my mind. Just being around him with his dark eyes, wavy black hair and strong muscled physique is enough to make even the most sober person feel a little intoxicated. When he smiles at you and gives you his full attention it's like nothing else matters. I consider myself a lucky woman to have had the chance to spend so much time with him these past few weeks. As the Crown Shield wherever King-regent Henry Fierro goes, Kaydan isn't far behind. Between both handsome men being around lately it's like receiving two beautiful presents for your birthday when you're only expecting one.

During the joust when Kaydan and Henry both sought my favor, it was such a thrill. But when the swords came out after they had both been knocked off their horses, I realized that the rivalry goes much deeper. Fortunately the duel ended without anyone getting seriously injured. I know they're friends and I would hate to see them ruin that because of me. But still I must admit seeing Kaydan win was exciting.

In the stables after the joust Kaydan told me that it had been fun to fight Henry in front of the crowd. Being able to knock his half-brother Cyrus down a peg anonymously as the Black Knight had also been satisfying for him. His victory takes the title of Champion of the Tournament of Flowers out of noble hands. I enjoyed cheering with the other spectators, even if I was the only one hoping for Kaydan to win.

Henry is all sunshine, winks and flirty smiles. There's no wonder all the single ladies at court clamor for his attention. There's no mystery to him and he wears his heart on his sleeve. He radiates a perfect example of wealth and privilege. When I'm around him I’m polite and friendly. He's given me no reason to doubt his intentions as Crown Regent are genuine. But for me all I feel is loyalty not affection.

Kaydan is all long looks, secret smiles and quiet respect. Although he was born of nobility, he's not considered one of them. He's accepted his place as the bastard son and chose a life of hardship and responsibility in the guard.

Henry may have his name and noble house to hold him up, but it's Kaydan's humble strength and sense of duty that protects him. I admire Kaydan for that, although he won't accept the title of hero no matter how often he's earned it. There's more to Kaydan than his imposing presence. I'm drawn to him in a way that goes beyond the physical, and I’m determined to know him better.

He's worked his way up through the ranks to become Crown Shield, and earned the respect of many along the way. I've sought out his expertise in matters of security, and he's always seemed pleased to have my company. Sometimes when we're alone we comfortably lapse into conversation and he lets down his guard a bit.

In the short time we've known each other we've developed a mutual respect and kinship. When we're alone I'm just Julia the scribe, and he's just Kaydan the black sheep and we're comfortable with that.

I hear Renza's carriage approaching and take a deep breath to prepare myself to be in her company. She's as brash and confident as her brother is charming and sweet. I never know what she's going to say or do when we're together.

Vasco steps forward to open the door of the carriage for me, “Are you entirely sure you don't want me to travel with you your Ladyship? There's room for one more in the carriage.”

As I take his offered hand to assist me up into the carriage, I smile and shake my head. “I'll be fine with Renza. Please make sure that Astro is fed and properly put away for me, and then join us at the marina later for the trip.”

Vasco nods, bowing to me, “As you wish.”

Tucking my skirts around my legs I settle down on the seat opposite Renza. Once Vasco has closed the door behind me, Renza looks me over critically from head to toe and then shrugs.

“Well good morning to you too,” I jest.

“My dear Julia, please tell me you don't expect to impress Lord Hector wearing that?”

I can't help but take offense to her remark since I am wearing a gown in the rich tones of blue and gold that represent my noble house. The House of Aster. I’m not sure if her jab is an intentional insult to my house or my sense of style, so I try my stoic best to deflect it as irrelevant.

“Honestly Renza. If I must marry someone for the sake of politics, what does it matter what pretty wrapper I am presented in?”

It's not like I'm that excited to be offered up to Hector as some sort of trophy wife.

“You may say that now, but you don't need to sound so bored and dismissive about the prospect of a match.”

“I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound that way. I'm just distracted. My poor sister has still not awakened, and suddenly becoming the head of my household is overwhelming. I've barely had the chance to figure out what that even means, and now I am expected to marry myself to a total stranger to support the Crown. Whatever happened to falling in love and getting married. That's what I really wish I could do.”

Renza laughs, “Oh you're such a Romantic. Don’t forget that you're a noble now. Marriage for nobles is a contract with obligations, land titles and bank accounts. Romance is for affairs outside of marriage. Why are you so hung up on love and romance anyway? Is there someone you've had your eye on?”

“I…well. I don't want to say. That's between him and I.” I can feel myself blushing.

“Ok fine, but I'll find out one way or the other. I bet a little wine will get you talking.”

Before I can turn her down, Renza has already opened a bottle of red wine and poured me some. It's still morning but apparently Renza feels that drinking wine is appropriate for all hours of the day.

When the carriage turns off of the main road and onto her Manor's private lane one of the wheels bounces over a rock. I gasp in surprise as the wine in my goblet splashes over the front of my dress.

“Oh no! This is a disaster.” I cry.

Renza produces a handkerchief out of the bodice of her gown and offers it to dab at the wine stains.

“Well that's a shame. But look at it this way. Now I’ll have the excuse to put you in a dress suitable to impress the pants off Hector and your secret lover.”

I hand her back her handkerchief, shaking my head. “We're hardly lovers.”

“Not yet. You may have been able to charm the minds of men at court so far with your cleverness and wit. But leave it to me and your looks will charm the rest of their…parts.”

I roll my eyes, “Oh please Renza I’ve already gotten my fill of Cyrus and his brand of sleazy charm. I don't want all the men at court to start talking to me that way. I implore you to at least keep some shred of my dignity intact.”

As the carriage comes to a stop, I look out of the window and marvel at the grandeur of the Fierro Estate. Renza escorts me to the dressing room attached to her bedroom to get changed. The opulent furnishings of even this room put most of what I have back home to shame.

Renza wastes no time in helping me get out of my dress. As I stand in my underclothes she gives me another critical inspection and I feel myself blush.

“H..happy now?” I stammer.

Renza's surprised expression takes me off guard, “More like impressed! With a body like that you could make a bedsheet look alluring. I'm almost tempted to send you out like this.”

Crossing my arms across my chest I frown at her, “Renza, seriously. Focus.”

She gives me another critical inspection, making me feel even more uncomfortable.

“Natural beauty aside, whoever tied this corset isn't doing you any favors. Here let me fix it for you.”

I back away, holding up my hands. "No, no. Leave it alone. I like being able to breathe thanks.”

She sighs and then steps away from me again. “As you wish.”

I'm still standing in just my underwear as she continues to talk.

“So are you curious about meeting Hector at all?”

“I'm mostly curious about what kind of person he is.”

“Well professionally all that I can tell you is that he is a trade expert hired by the merchants across Cordonia to help improve their business.”

I try to sound interested, “So he's …business minded.”

Renza scoffs, “Well when you say it that way it makes him sound stuffy. Lord Hector sails the world and visits all sorts of interesting places. Imagine the fascinating stories he could tell."

I nod, "Well then I guess he doesn't sound so stuffy after all."

Renza smiles, looking relieved "Good now let's get you dressed. Stay here while I fetch you something to wear."

She gives me a wink and then leaves me alone. I feel self conscious, exposed and plain in such a fancy room. When I hear the door open suddenly I turn around expecting Renza. But instead it's Kaydan!

"Lady Renza, I found the --... "

He stops short and his eyes go wide when he sees me, "Julia!"

I feel myself blush to the roots of my hair, but as shocking as it is for him to see me in my underwear, I can't help but feel a rush of excitement too. My heart is pounding like crazy in my chest, but I flash him my bravest smile and place my hands on my hips and ask, "Looking for something?"

He's still standing there rooted to the spot and gaping. "I..I wasn't expecting -- .."

"Hmm?" I smirk at him, stepping closer.

He clumsily shuffles backward, trying to avert his eyes from seeing so much of my bare skin.

Renza re-enters the room and gasps, "Crown Shield, what in the world do you think you're doing?"

"But..but.." he stammers, looking at us both.

"Out, out, out! Now!" she shrieks.

He quickly shields his eyes and mumbles his apologies as she pushes him out of the room and closes the door.

"The nerve!" she exhales with relief.

Biting my lip and trying to hide my grin, I giggle. "I hope that he enjoyed that as much as I did."

Her mouth drops open and her eyes sparkle with amusement as she laughs, "Lady Julia Aster, you saucy minx!"

"What? Accidents happen. Besides he knows this is your room so I could ask you questions too."

Renza brushes off my remark and raises her chin giving a haughty retort, "Well this is my house after all. Quit avoiding the issue. Out with it, you like him don't you. And here I thought it might be Henry."

Breathing a sigh of resignation I admit it, "Yes, Kaydan is who I'm interested in. Please don't tell anyone. I know he's not noble."

Renza laughs, "True, he wouldn't improve your social standing as a match, but he's definitely an impressive piece of man to have on the side. If you're saying there's more to him than what's on the surface then I must say congratulations to you both."

I open my mouth to protest that Kaydan is more than just a side piece, but then decide to change the subject. "If I'm to impress Kaydan or Hector today you better give me something to wear."

Renza blinks, remembering the gown she has in her arms. "Of course, where was I?" she hands me the dress. "You're sure to grab attention in this."

As she lays the shimmering blue and white silky and sheer fabric in my arms I am amazed at how light and airy it feels. It's surely worth more than my entire wardrobe.

I stammer as I thank her, "Are..you sure about this? Have you nothing more plain or modest?"

"No, no I insist. Consider it my engagement gift to you. It never fit me properly anyway. Hector won't be able to take his eyes from you."

Or Kaydan either, I thought to myself.

I nod gratefully and step into the dress, "Well thank-you, could you help me fasten the lacing in the back?"

Renza smiles as I turn around. She adjusts and ties the satin lacing a little tighter than necessary, and I find it difficult to breathe. Is she jealous that the dress fits me better, or is she feeling spiteful and wanted Kaydan for herself?

As I turn back around and catch sight of myself in the mirror I can't help but smile.

Behind me I catch Renza's expression and she looks annoyed as she says, "Alright then now that you're wearing a properly fitting garment, let's be off, the carriages await."

...

Continue on here

Tagging:

@gardeningourmet @samihatuli @jovialyouthmusic @sirbeepsalot @dcbbw @mfackenthal @bobasheebaby @pedudley @be-still-my-aching-heart @krishu213 @ibldw-main

#kayden vescovi #theroyalmasquerade #long post

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hpwipfest-blog · 5 years

Text

Masterpost HP WIP Fest, part 1

Hello dear fest participants and exited readers. I hereby give you the first masterpost of the HP WIP Fest, announcing all WIP’s that have entered so far. As it is a long list, I have put it under a cut, with the WIP’s that are already on ao3 first in case you want to start reading already.

If you signed up for the fest but do not see your WIP in this list, this is probably because I do not yet have a title for your work. In that case, please email me the title so I can include you in the next masterpost.

I hope all the participants find lots of inspiration to finish in the upcoming weeks, and to our early readers, enjoy these wonderful WIP’s!

Skin Deep by @loganaa-fic

Pairing: Drarry

When Harry accepts a job at Dean's tattoo parlor, he never expected that Draco Malfoy would show up, looking for a tattoo. But then again, since when did Malfoy do what was expected?

The Boy Who Killed God by @sirius-black-killed-god

Pairing: Wolfstar

Sirius Black has a secret. Well, no, that's not true. Sirius Black has many secrets. His wand is dying, his parents more or less want to kill him, and there's the small matter of the cursed TOUJOURS PUR tattoo right above his heart, that he's had since he turned eight years old. Sirius Black is no stranger to secrets.

Then, Remus Lupin walks into his life.

Thus, begins a whole new history - one of darkness, of magic, of bravery, of family - as four boys set out to unwind the endings so many others have written for them.

This is the story of the Marauders at Hogwarts and afterwards, and all the love that lies between.

This is Year One.

Apparently by justanotherloser

Pairing: Drarry

Father says apparently I feel too much.

Mother says apparently my mask needs to hide more of my emotions.

The Dark Lord says apparently I'm too weak.

Blaise says apparently I hate too often, and Pansy says I apparently need to let go.

I never get to make choices with them. Not with my family, not with my life, not with my house.

Apparently I can only choose who I hate, and I can't even get that right.

Apparently I love Harry Potter.

Are You Here To Finish Me Off, Sweetheart? by @geekmom13

Pairing: Antonin Dolohov/Hermione Granger

Antonin gets held by the order for the secret he keeps and Hermione is put in charge of him. They end up relying on each other more than anyone had expected.

Children of war by @the-purple-black

Pairing: Bellatrix Lestrange/Rodolphus Lestrange

A promise made by Bellatrix to the Dark Lord seemed unimportant at the time, though years later it seems her loyalty must be put to the test.

Fixed Point by @frumpologist

Pairing: Dramione

Draco and Hermione are Time Unspeakables who travel through time to stop anachronists from using illegal time travel to change the course of history.

Their adventures lead them through the whole of history and the unwritten expanse of the future. Hermione learns about the History of Magic and Draco learns about science, Muggles, and falling in love.

However, there are fixed points in time, events so important that they cannot be altered. Hermione Granger’s tragic life as an Unspeakable is one of those points, and nothing Draco can do will change the path they’re forced to follow.

Not In Love (Letters) by @drarryangels

Pairing: Drarry

It's eighth year at Hogwarts, and Harry is unsurprisingly beyond miserable. Ron isn't coming back for his last year of school, Hermione is suddenly best friends with Pansy Parkinson, and Draco Malfoy won't stop ignoring him. Even all the House unity is going too splendidly to be exciting. Truthfully, Harry wishes he had never come back at all. That is, until he starts receiving letters from an anonymous sender.

Sequel to Palo Alto by @nachodiablo

Pairing: Wolfstar

Modern AU set in Northern California. It's been four years since Sirius and Remus got their shit together. James and Lily aren't doing too shabby, either. Things are going great. Sure, James still hasn't gotten any of his business ideas off the ground quite yet. And yeah, Lily's still not ready to move in with James, even though she spends every night at his place. And okay, Remus might be starting to freak a little about whether his PhD is going to land him in some no-name wasteland town for a job. And fine, Sirius has stalled out a bit since he left work to pursue his dreams of... well, to find a dream to pursue. Regardless. Things are great. Very chill. That is, until a family tragedy brings an adorable bundle of responsibility into their lives.

The End Is Just The Beginning by @the-fifth-marauder

Pairing: Drarry

When Draco decided to join the Auror forces, he knew life would be made hell for him by just about everyone in the Ministry. Yet never did Draco think he would be condemned to a fate like this.

The one where Draco gets the second chance he never knew he wanted. Before he realized that 'Happy Endings' just aren't for his destiny. Or were they?

#10

New Beginnings by @kaarina-riddle

Pairing: Dramione

Hermione comes home to find her husband in a compromising position on the kitchen table and wants to get away from everything, the perfect job opportunity as a professor of Charms at Hogwarts is offered and she takes it. Only to find that there's a surprise Draco Malfoy old school nemesis is the new DADA professor what will happen?

#11

A Girl Worth Fighting For by @saintdionysus

Pairing: Hermione Draco, Hermione/Theo

Due to the events of War, The Ministry of Magic has ordered students to repeat their final year, despite being legal wizarding age and completion of OWLs. Hermione Granger and Blaise Zabini form a friendship as head boy and head girl and find a way to use their authority to challenge the Ministry. Along the way, she finds herself caught between two unexpected love interests, while Blaise plays referee between his two friends.

#12

The Promise by @tofadeawayagain

Pairing: Drastoria, Dramione

When Astoria Malfoy learns she is dying, she asks Hermione Granger to take care of her husband Draco. It's not until the following New Year's Eve that he starts to let her. A tale about the seasons of grief, friendship and love, and moving on after a devastating loss.

#13

All the Stupid Things in Between: A Gryffindor and Slytherin Love Story by ForeverEvan

Pairing: Fred Weasley/OFC

Evangeline "Evan" Carter, the illegitimate daughter of Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, is moved from Ilvermorny to Hogwarts at the beginning of the 4th Year. She is facing the task of hiding her true identity while falling for a boy from the wrong family. Evan must rely on her brother and her teacher to navigate the dangerous world of being the daughter of a Death Eater and a killer.

#14

Prowler by @goldie-writes-things

Pairing: Harry/Hermione

Harry and Hermione thought winning the war was the hard part. They had no idea how difficult surviving it would be. Newly engaged Lord Potter and Lady Black must navigate the murky waters of parenthood while rebuilding their lives. But when their world starts crashing down around them they are faced with a startling question: What wouldn’t you do for your child?

#15

Stressed Teen to Yes Queen by @drarryandharry

Pairing: Drarry

The fab five sort out post war Harry. That’s it. That’s the summary.

#16

Shockwave by maraudersaffair

Pairing: Drarry

When Harry fled Britain he had no idea murder and Draco fucking Malfoy would follow. Now in Las Vegas, he’s faced with a vampire mystery and a Malfoy who refuses to tell him the truth.

Veelas and vampires! Yay!

#17

Destiny Intertwined by @vinoamore

Pairing: Hermione/Dolohov

In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the DFFandCabalChristmasFest collection.

Prompt: A marriage law is passed just before the Christmas holidays. Hermione is matched with a former Death Eater, Antonin Dolohov...and Hermione is furious. "Why is this happening?!" she demanded. "He tried to kill me!"

#18

The Seven Year Witch by @thelastlynx

Pairing: Dramione

A boy and a girl have been meeting, coincidentally, for seven summers. While they pretty much hate each other most of the year, for those little moments in July or August they manage to see one another in a different light. But will that be quite enough to bring them together?

#19

Distant Stars by @of-stars-and-moon

Pairing: Wolfstar, Jily

(The story of Sirius Black, a Slytherin student as he finds friendship and love from someone he never expected)

'The memory was still so new and clear, feeling like it was yesterday but an eternity away at the same time.

In first year, Sirius would have never ever imagined that on his last day at Hogwarts, he would be lying on a roof, holding hands with Remus and listening to James and Peter.'

#20

A Home For Christmas by @motherbookerao3

Pairing: Drarry

High on a barely legal pain potion, Harry accidentally ends up adopting a child with Draco Malfoy.

#21

The Noble and Most Ancient Guide to Vice and Virtues by grimyoufuck

Pairing: Wolfstar

Toujours Pur; the words had been branded into Sirius' subconscious from a young age. It was a motto he'd never been able to live up to, even when he had tried. But now? Now, he was going to escape his mother's scathing words and his father's ambivalent silence to travel the continent with his best friend, and nothing was going to stop him. His mother was determined to keep the bloodline pure, and uphold the name of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Sirius was determined to do the opposite.

When Sirius Black journeys to France to begin the first leg of his European tour with best friend James Potter, he'd expected a holiday of booze and boys. What he hadn't expected, much less wanted, was an educational trip, including nights out at the opera. But when a particular cast member catches Sirius' eye, he wonders if some good old fashioned fun could be obtained after all.

#22

Serendipity by @mrsren96

Pairing: Harry/Hermione

Like any girl, Hermione has dreamed of her future nuptials, at least once or twice. So far it's not going so well. There's a marriage law, and well, Harry Potter to deal with.

#23

Avignon by bittercape

Pairing: Gen

Voldemort is dead, and Wizarding Britain is controlled by the totalitarian Umbridge Ministry. The resistance, mainly centered around our heroes from the books (with some additions and some changes), is working against overpowering odds to overthrow the government. Think a reversed French revolution meets Cold War-era Berlin. With magic.

#24

A Bond Beyond The Vast Wave by @mangopassionfruity

Pairing: Sirius/Lucius, James/Lily, Lily/Severus

Sirius was a many things, rebellious, lazy, a prankster, troublemaker, lady's man, irresponsible, carefree. Or that is what he likes to appear as. And why break that image he's crafted for himself? Even if it'd make his life easier, especially with his hidden relationship with a certain Malfoy heir.

But things backfire and it leads to making decisions that change his way of life.

#25

Though My Mind Could Think (I Still Was a Mad Man) by Cassiara

Pairing: Drarry

After the war is over Harry thinks it's finally his turn to rest after years of pretending he's fine, and just waiting for the day he isn't needed anymore. He tries to kill himself, but of all people, Malfoy saves him. Harry realises that if he has the courage to die, he should also have the courage to live.

Ultimately this is a story about recovery, but it's also about all the things you sometimes have to go through to get there.

This is a rewrite of my fic "Favourite Scar".

#26

Explosions in the heart by @hp-rbiim

Pairing: Drarry

It's back to Hogwarts and Malfoy is annoying as ever.

Unpublished WIP’s

#27

Time is gone (thought i'd have something more to say) by Thestias

Pairing: Fremione

After the battle of hogwarts, the dead number in the hundreds; the loss of the brightest witch of their age hits hard, and for one wizard, his desperation to fix what had been broken sends him travelling back in time in a frantic attempt to save her. angst, fluff and angst, time travel, alternate universe - canon divergence, slow burn

#28

Encounters by @pottercrew

Pairing: Drarry

Harry is finding it difficult to keep his relationship with Draco apart from his relationships with Malfoy. What if he no longer wants to? Kink negotiation, anal sex, blow jobs, hard sex, bondage, voyeurism, sex club.

#29

The Side Of The Angels by @hiddenhibernian

“Focus,” Hermione told herself, forcing her breathing to slow down. “What's the worst that can happen?”

Bad question. Her heart was hammering so hard it drowned out the buzz from the bar on the other side of the door to the cleaning cupboard she unceremoniously had been bundled into. The bar was the Hag's Head, and it was usually a friendly place for the Order of the Phoenix. They were still fighting, five years after the fall of Harry Potter, but Aberforth had turned against them... It didn't bear thinking about.

Then the door opened.

#30

Not Gryffindor…? by Dracomalfoyy_youlittleshit

Harry gets sorted into Slytherin, finding an unlikely friendship in Draco Malfoy. Basically a retell of Harry Potter but with Harry in Slytherin.

#31

A Lotus In The Mud by @kaokumasparkle

Pairing: Drarry

Harry always had problems with common sense, everyone knows this. And now that he's sick with Hanahaki over a certain slytherin blonde, it looks like he may never get the chance to learn. Possible tags: mutual pining, angst with a happy ending, parseltongue Harry, Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Hogwarts 8th year, Hermione just wants ONE year where Harry doesn't almost die, jealous Draco, protective Harry, Forbidden Forest adventures, minor mentions of blood

#32

It’s A Kind Of Magic by ive_beenfound

Pairing: Drarry

It's 8th year and the war has been hard on everyone. And having a future to think about and look forward to is terrifying Warnings/Tags: 10 year time jump, difficult conversations about lgbtq and war, harry being oblivious, draco being a shite, potentially triggering conversations about family.

#33

Flirting With Chaos by @alexandrao

Pairing: Dramionarry (Draco x Hermione x Harry)

The Ministry of Magic passes a marriage law, forcing all those above the age of 17 to be married. Hermione, furious with the law, is paired not to one wizard, but two! Determined to change the law, she flirts with the line that could send her relationship into complete and total chaos.

#34

Friendship, Football, and Fireworks by @LegendaryWrighter

Pairing: Deamus

One lazy Sunday morning, Seamus finds Dean going through some old sketchbooks and joins him in reminiscing on several memories.

#35

The Winder Of My Life by @nuclearnik

Pairing: Dramione

Hermione's special bond with her Snippets of Hermione's life as she grows up raised by a single mother. When Hermione is an adult, their bond grows to include Draco, who accepts him as long as he loves and cares for her daughter. As her mother's health declines, Hermione has hard truths to face and a supportive husband who is smitten by her mother.

117 notes · View notes

mirkwoodshewolf · 4 years

Text

Aladdin Queen fic John Deacon x reader chap. 6; Princess Ali meets Prince John

*Author’s note*

Okay this was probably my most FAV. part to write (next to the magic carpet/a whole new world part that’s coming in the next couple of chapters) cause we get to what helped me win Will over as the Genie. So I hope you all watch the video I have linked below to really set the mood for this chapter. And unfortunately this is where I stop for now until I get the next chapter done (which I hope is soon). Thank you all soooo much for being incredibly patient with these updates for this series and I hope you all enjoy the binge reading that I gave you all ;)

Taglist:

@psychosupernatural

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@ixchel-9275

@simonedk

@geek-and-proud

@queendeakyy

@georgesgentlyweepingguitar

__________________________________________________________

Play video

Back in the village as usual the day went on as normal, however things started happening. Pyramids of spices began to crumble down, brass and metals began rattling together in a single beat. From the palace that the three kings plus Paul were sitting around having their tea, their cups and fine china began to rattle.

In the Princes’ bedchambers, John and Brian looked up confused from their maps at the distant rumbling while Roger was woken up from his nap due to the thunderous rumbles.

“What the bloody hell is going on?” Roger groaned.

From the village, the palace guards were running through the village entrance telling people to clear out of the way. They gathered on each side of the path because soon appearing was an ensemble of horsemen riding on white stallions.

Behind them an entire ensemble of drummers came out lowly chanting, then the horn players came out and played a fanfare as female dancers dressed like peacocks came out expanding the wings on their dresses and fanning them like real wings. It was then an ensemble of guards came marching out as they began to sing.

*Men ensemble*

Make way for Princess Ali *Female ensemble*

Say hey! It's Princess Ali

Freddie soon stood on a flower based float wearing a sparkling blue outfit that matched his genie color with a purple over coat with golden embedding designs and seams. He sung out to the crowd trying to get them hyped up for the arrival of a special guest that has come to grace them.

*Freddie*

Hey! Clear the way in the old bazaar Hey you! Let us through!

It's a brand new star! Oh come, be the first on your block

To meet her eye!

Make way! Here she comes! Ring bells! Bang the drums! You're gonna love this doll!

Princess Ali! Fabulous she!

Ali Ababwa Show some respect,

Darlings don’t be crude!

Down on one knee Now, try your best to stay calm Brush up your Friday salaam Then come and meet her spectacular coterie

The float evaporated just leaving the dancer but soon coming through the archway entrance to the village, Abu as the elephant came pulling in a camel shaped float which carried in her beautiful garb (y/n) in her disguise as Princess Ali.

Freddie continued to sing up a story that Princess Ali was more than just a woman filled with gifts and looks, she was also a warrior who took on armies of men and took them all down just by herself.

*Freddie*

Princess Ali, mighty is she

Ali Ababwa Strong as ten regular men, definitely! She faced the galloping hordes A hundred bad guys with swords Who sent those goons to their lords?

Why, Princess Ali

Darlings what’s she got?

*Men ensemble*

Seventy-five golden camels

*Freddie*

Woo! Uh-huh Now the ladies, talk to me dears

*Female ensemble*

Purple peacocks, she's got fifty-three *Freddie (spoken)*

(Fabulous darlings, love the feathers)

When it comes to exotic-type mammals Darlings help me out! *Ensemble*

(She's got a zoo, I'm telling you) It's a world-class menagerie

Now dressed in drag, Freddie was dancing with a bunch of female dancers along the balcony. Singing about how Princess Ali’s beauty has been known to even turn some girls into loving her.

Like she was a siren of the sea but with a pure heart of gold. The ensemble continued to march and dance along singing of her greatest possessions and kindness. (Y/n) tossed down some gold to the crowd who immediately went right at it.

Until finally they reached just a few feet from the palace gates, where the royal families and court all stood along the balcony observing the entire show.

*Freddie*

Princess Ali! Beauty is she, Ali Ababwa That physique! How can I not,

Turn for her, that lovely darling! So get on out in that square Adjust your veil and prepare To gawk and grovel and stare at Princess Ali

*Ensemble*

She got 95 white Persian monkeys,

*Freddie*

She’s got the monkeys

A bunch of monkeys *Freddie and (Ensemble)*

(And to view them she charges no fee) (She's generous, so generous) (She's got ten thousand servants and flunkies) (Proud to work for her!) (They bow to her whim love serving her) (They're just lousy with loyalty to Ali!

Princess Ali!

Princess—

“We're waiting for you!” Freddie pointed towards the three Kings who looked at the flamboyant young man with interest but pride that he was asking for permission to continue on. “We're not going until you go!” John’s father slowly raised his hand off the railing.

His friends and everyone in the court looked towards him waiting with anticipation.

“You can do it my darling!”

And with that John’s father gently patted the railing. Accepting their entrance.

“There it is!” Freddie exclaimed as he winked up at John’s father. They continued with their song and dance. At hearing his name, John was both embarrassed and annoyed with this and just had about enough as he walked away back towards his room, leaving Brian and Roger to look at each other.

*All*

Princess Ali, amorous she!

Ali Ababwa *Freddie (ensemble)*

Heard of a hot Prince John Deacon!

Where is he? And that, my dears, is why She got all dolled and dropped by With (sixty elephants, llamas galore) For real dears? (With her bears and lions, a brass band and more) Say what? (With her forty fakirs, her cooks, her bakers) (Her birds that warble on key) *All*

Make way

For Princess Ali!

By the end of it all, confetti shot out from everywhere as the entire village cheered. Freddie looked up at his master grinning widely at her and she smiled down at her genie, mouthing out a thank you to him.

*My POV*

Freddie and I now stood in the throne room. The only people who were in the throne room were some of the guards as well someone who looked vaguely familiar but yet not at the same time.

He had short brown hair and a mustache over his upper lip. His cold eyes stared me down as he carried a snake staff and had a parrot sitting on his shoulder. He looked like he was of high authority but not quite a king or prince. But whatever he was, he definitely gave me an uneasy feeling.

Especially since he also couldn’t stop staring at Freddie.

“Where are they?” I whispered.

“Relax darling.” Whispered Freddie back to me. It was then I saw the three kings walk in with each of their sons by their side. “Okay here they come.” I extended my small cane to them and Freddie whispered. “What are you doing?”

“I—I’m presenting to them.”

“Put your arms down.”

“But I’m presenting—”

“I said put your arms down girl!” he softly hissed.

“We welcome you to our humble home gifted to us by your people Princess Ali.” King Arthur spoke to me.

“Tell him it’s a pleasure to meet them.” Freddie advised me.

“It’s—just as much….a pleasure to—meet such regal men such as yourselves.” I said as I tried my best to curtsy, but I kept wobbling.

“You’re crossing your legs like you’re trying to take a piss. Bend your knees outward, not forward.” He said. I wobbled until I stood up properly back up.

“I’m afraid I’ve never heard of Ababwa.” The mustached man said. Oh shit. Freddie and I looked at each other before we both spoke at the same time.

“It’s North.”

“It’s South.” Oh great, now we’ve done it, quickly think of something (y/n). “It—has both a North…..and a South kingdom.”

“Yeah see if you just keep traveling you’ll—you’ll find it.” Freddie said.

“It’s there, you just have to look for it.” I snapped at him but tried to be discreate about it.

“The world is changing Paul,” Brian’s father spoke up which caused Paul to nod submissively. “Seems there’s a new country every day.” He joked towards his son.

“May I present to you in person, my son Prince John Deacon.” When I saw John, my heart raced once again. I could barely speak and I just seemed to be in a daze.

Finally seeing him like this in his full regal appearance, that was just a bonus. All I could focus on was his beautiful eyes. It felt like the world was fading away, that was until I felt a nudge into my ribs from Freddie as he whispered to me.

“Tell him we have gifts.”

“Gifts!” I exclaimed which echoed through the walls. “I mean….we’ve brought gifts.” Freddie then exclaimed in Arabic and the doors opened and all the servants he had whipped up for me came in carrying everything known to man. “Yes, here we are with gifts. We have spices, golden camels, and spoons tiny spoons. I mean how do they make them that small?”

“Spoons.” A servant that stood by John trying to encourage my spoon gift. He seemed more kinder than Paul, with warm eyes and a kind soul.

“How do they make them that tiny? We have jams!” I exclaimed.

“Jams?” Paul asked skeptically.

“Jams?” his parrot mimics.

“Yes jams. Yam jams, fig jams, and date jams, spicy….delicious, exotic jams.”

“Move. Away. From the jams.” Freddie sneered through his smile.

“We—we also have uhh….”

“Jewels.”

“We have jewels. We have plenty of those. And uhh, and that! Over there. Covered for…..suspense.” I gestured to a cloth hiding something pretty huge. I heard Freddie exhale like he was just done with me.

I cleared my throat for the servants to pull back the cloth revealing some strange wheel or something. I don’t even know what it was but I tried to play it off like I did know.

“Ta-da. It’s uhh…..very expensive and very priceless.” John looked to Roger and Brian who were equally as confused, as was their servant that stood beside them.

“And just what do you hope to buy with this expensive—thing?” asked John as he turned and looked right at me.

“You.” I said.

Allah I wish I could’ve kicked myself at that point. Why must I be so nervous at this point. Everyone was in shock of what I had just said. I treated John like he was a prized chicken at the marketplace. His brows raised up skeptically almost like he didn’t hear me right.

“Wow.” Freddie muttered softly.

“I-I mean a moment with you!” I tried to save myself. Freddie mimicked the silent sounds of an explosion as I tried to stammer out a better explanation when John spoke again.

“Are you suggesting that I am for sale?”

“Of course.” Damnit there I go again. At this point John looked like he was about to raise hell. “Not! No of course not! I-I-I was trying to say……”

“It’s cold. And-and it’s dark in that lamp. But I prefer that to this right now.” Freddie whispered to me.

“Excuse me. I need to go……find some bread.” John said abruptly before turning around and walked away.

“For the jams.” Prince Brian spoke up as he followed behind John.

“Wait, wait I didn’t mean to…..”

“I get that John can make people nervous but maybe next time think before you speak.” Roger said as he looked at me with sympathy before following behind his friends along with the mustached servant.

“Please I didn’t—”

“Just drop it darling, you didn’t do good.” Freddie muttered to me.

“You will get another chance to speak with my son Princess Ali. When you join us for the annual Harvest our Indian allies hold tonight.” John’s father said. As the three kings walked away I said as I awkwardly bowed once more.

“Of course you’re—serene….selves.” But I could see all three of them shake their heads shamefully and embarrassedly then Paul along with the parrot on his shoulder turned and followed behind the three kings.

“Smooth.” I heard the parrot mock me. As we were now along in the throne room, Freddie turned to me and said.

“In 10,000 years. I have never been that embarrassed.”

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spectrehqs · 4 years

Photo

congratulations ! welcome to spectrehqs ashcroft university. under the cut is a list of acceptances for all skeletons. thank you so much for applying & i’m so excited to start writing with you. please take a look at our checklist and send your account within the next twenty-four hours.

ANTONY: liam d’antona written by jason.

in a sea of applications, there’s something special about one that really sucks you in the way yours did, i really got whisked away. starting with the end and beginning a mystery that would have me hooked for the entirety of your app. lush with detail, i would sometimes forget about the sheer mystery of liam’s acceptance at ashcroft until you drew me back to it. in the midst of laying the seeds of his secret, you painted a picture of a character colorful, interesting and romantic, rife with nods to classic literature and film. even the side characters of the story, his grandparents and father, felt real and alive. i literally wrote myself this note halfway through – “i’m completely on the edge of my seat about why he doesn’t want to get in? it’s killing me.” and then by the end, “I’M SCREAMING.” a natural progression, of course. i loved the juxtaposition of both sides of the page in his letters – his drunk letter vs. his sober letter, and his voice was so endearing and real that by the end of your application, i felt like i knew liam but i also knew TOO much because it was so vulnerable. this application was like diving into a great book and i can’t wait to read more of your writing.

BRUTUS: christopher ‘kit’ stanley written by hayley.

i was immediately struck by the juxtaposition you presented – the romanticism of kit’s name, home, and family, contrasted with their line of work and attitude. honestly, your sentence structure in that first paragraph really hit me hard and it set a great precedent for the rest of kit’s story. my jaw literally dropped when i read PENSHURST PLACE but i’m so glad you really went there with this character, going all the way to the top with the opulence and hitting home when it comes to what both ashcroft and the imperium society is all about. if you were worried about writing a controversial character, then stop, because kit exemplifies that in a way that is both relatable and painful. the way you wrote his introduction to lysander PAINED me because when i reached that point in the story, it was so satisfying to see such a lonely boy find such a heartwarming friendship, and it quickly becomes obvious how loyal lysander is to kit, how much he cares for him. the cherry on top is kit’s resentment toward octavia and how his relationship splintered with lysander as a result – leading to our ultimate climax. then when you casually dropped that big fucking secret in so casually at the end...the comment i wrote for myself? “GASP.” because damn, what else can i say? you’re on fire. i can’t wait to see how that unfolds. it’s a bad time to make enemies.

CLEOPATRA: iskra gill written by lara.

this was not the cleopatra i expected at all – in a good way. iskra would like to be unexpected anyway, i think, she’s that kind of girl. her relationship with her family intrigues me most because it is not one of loyalty, and the way she watches her brother crash and burn ( no pun intended ) after being overlooked for her whole life is a moment that i found myself cheering for as the reader ? iskra is a character that worked herself up from the top to the bottom and then back up to the top again, and has lived several lifetimes for someone so young. her secret at first did not strike me as unique – several apps across the board expressed a secret, harbored love for the elusive octavia, but yours was the one i chose because of that realness, that raw understanding that comes with an unrequited love, and how that transitioned into her affair with titus. i also adored your ‘list’ of secrets, which really served to humanize her in so many ways, and the bachelor in paradise detail ? i was laughing through tears. her last fucking text, and all of the final text messages you wrote. words cannot express. if i wasn’t sold already, your fucking LETTER DRAFTS, all of them, heartbreaking and lovely, i felt like i gained a real and full understanding for iskra’s relationship with octavia and how utterly isolated she must feel now. i can’t wait to see every single one of these elements in play on the dash !

CORDELIA: norah bardot written by nica.

interestingly enough, norah is a character that not only exemplifies the skeleton, but also shakespeare’s interpretation of cordelia: this soft innocence, good-hearted nature that comes with cordelia, but also a realness. compared to every other character, norah is different because her story is not rife with hatred, anger, or the tragedy of a broken home. norah’s is full of love and compassion – and all the ways that isn’t enough. the tiny details, like the soup kitchen and the way you described her mother’s comments, really made me feel the difference in relationship cordelia has with each parent. this line really sticks with me – “you wouldn’t know rebellion, you couldn’t afford to. naive innocence brushed across your forehead, branding you different.” i can’t think of better words and i won’t try. i am scared to accept a character like norah, of course, her gentle kindness and trusting nature are things that are about to get her eaten alive, but isn’t that the fun of it? you also captured her sheer genius as well, which the juxtaposition of that genius and also that naivety is *chefs kiss* – you get her and your interpretation was so well articulated. i am so fucking excited to write with you and read more of what you come up with.

HAMLET: thalia lukas written by brooke.

i can feel thalia’s rage and perhaps that runs in the family; rage for her father for how he treated them; rage for her mother for how she left; rage for society for what they did to her brother. thalia doesn’t come across any of her good qualities on her own, they come from lysander, which i found interesting, and i loved how you characterized her as this hopelessly ambitious person to the point of greed and dishonesty. i think you’ve created this sort of desperation in her that’s as strong and dangerous as any sort of violence and that’s what intrigued me at the start: where is this going? what disaster is thalia going to incur next? i also am so deeply drawn to and excited by thalia’s DISLIKE of octavia because ‘if octavia was a beautiful, blossomed rose, thalia was a thorny shrub.’ – all of her actions leading up to the disaster seem to justify all of thalia’s reactions afterward as well, and what we’re left with is a strong, passionate, disorderly mess that so exemplifies thalia, and every way you describe seems to just scream the outsider-ness that i was looking for and i love that she just doesn’t give a FUCK about octavia’s piece of mind – she’s looking for her own. i literally can’t wait to watch her clash with the rest of the muses we have on board here.

LADY MACBETH: valentine vega written by kiwi.

i won’t get into how hard of a decision this was, you already know. what i will get into is how hard it was to read this application, it was dark and gritty and just the right amount of unsettling. and upsetting. certain aspects of it were so hard to read that i did have to take a break ( i think you can guess exactly where ), but when it comes down to it, valentine fits into this plot seamlessly, and while you can’t blame her for her past, you can blame her for the present; and it really made me think about the fact that her crime was not just what she did to octavia, but what she did to lysander ( which is actually worse than what she did to octavia in val’s story, in my opinion. ) i love an app that can give me a new perspective on my own fucking plot. i remember getting to the second half of your application and a LIGHTBULB dawning over my head when i realized the connection between the first half of her story and the second half, and i would have to agree with you that octavia certainly did not know the entirety of the situation at hand. but using one murder to cover up another...the skeletons are stacking up, and i love how you took the initiative to explain the blackmail in a way that also involves val – it’s nearly impossible not to sympathize with her when you look at it solely from her side. i love how perfectly composed she seems now and the juxtaposition between both contrasting letters you wrote, the one that seems proper and poised and the other that seems completely unhinged, which i sense is the direction you’re going. i am excited to watch such a poised character fall from grace, but i will feel for her at the same time – which is precisely why this works.

MACBETH: dante campana written by pepper.

i was hooked from this line: at first, he did. your characterization for macbeth was just so unexpected because to begin with, dante is such a bright person with such a big heart! he is the warm one in a family of cold hearts! i wrote this comment halfway through reading, at the part where he unintentionally starts a nonprofit: “i'm halfway through wondering how tf dante killed anybody? doesn’t make sense.” and yet, you made it make sense. through his relationship with his sister – and the jaw-dropping, horrific event that culminated in her loss, we learn so much about dante and see a changed person. i’ve been thinking a lot about the line where he learns from his family, “if you wanted love, you had to earn it,” and i think that already sets up a lot for his motivations later in his life story, when he commits such an atrocious act. and i think that’s the pull of dante; he doesn’t seem like a killer. not to me, not to anyone. all the police would have to do is GOOGLE him in order to write him off as being completely incapable. he’s a hero, and yet...the progression into villain is tragic, shocking, and morally ambiguous, just the way we like it. there are so many things about him that make him ‘good,’ but yet can we really call him that? i don’t think so, no, and i love this play on the grey areas, and the ways we don’t see the killer under our own noses because of the way they are perceived. thank you so much for crafting such an intriguing, interesting backstory, and i can’t wait to see how dante reacts under all of this new pressure. i trust you will write it beautifully.

OPHELIA: theresa rigby written by nora.

my first comment: “u knew exactly what you were doing with this beautifully crafted symbolism, huh?” BUT I LOVED IT, the water baby symbolism was just the homage to ophelia i didn’t know i needed. i got strong sharp objects vibes throughout your application, and it’s hard not to associate theresa with death, but she owns it so completely and i can’t stop thinking about the image of her scribbling frantically in the pages of a diary. there’s something slightly unhinged about everything she does, but it’s hard to blame her – you can see every reason behind her actions in the layers of her upbringing. not to mention that you have such a gift for writing metaphors and comparisons that really bring the concepts you have in mind to life ! the cheesegrater one literally made me gasp, i could relate so deeply, and your entire app is filled with small nuggets of purely good writing just like that. such a treat to read. i also had to laugh at lady macbeth being her favorite shakespeare heroine, the way that’s what resonates with theresa and why, and the way that theresa lives her life is so HUMAN to me, and she completely endeared herself when she clumsily tried to quote Ginsberg bidding her friends goodbye. she’s ethereal, dreamlike, but theresa is also real, and that’s what i loved about your application so much. i was so excited by this application and i am even more excited to see more of theresa, because i know she’ll make me laugh, cry, and everything in between.

OTHELLO: christian bösch written by em.

it was the long haul to get an application for this skeleton but so, so worth it. i’m obsessed with your take, from how his history with his sister seamlessly transitions into his relationship with lady macbeth, how you’ve entwined christian so deeply in the octavia/lysander drama on his own, adding layers to his motivation for caving to lady macbeth’s whims. christian himself has many layers, and i wrote on your app, “i have no decision to make here. why do i keep reading this app again and again?” because it was just so fucking good, one of those things you read where you forget about everything else cause you’re lost in it for a moment. also, insanely impressed at the ways you dove into connection ideas with every skeleton, drawing similarities and differences between them and it meant a lot to me how much you clearly went through all the details. also, i loved the little bits of dialogue sprinkled throughout the background, i felt like i got a great sense of christian’s voice long before i reached the letter, and by the end you really empathize with his struggle. you can understand WHY it was so easy for lady macbeth to manipulate him in so many ways, and i didn’t even start talking about max ––– there’s just so much good shit to unpack here, i love it, and i can’t wait to continue peeling back the layers. as you can expect, christian will be faced with some major choices soon. only development will see where that takes him. i’m excited.

ROMEO: william “wolfie” preston written by samantha.

oh, wowie wow. a very hard choice, but you hit it so far out of the park it’s in another galaxy. reading wolfie’s story was like reading a beautiful tragedy, starting with his parents first words when he was born and on to every expectation they placed on him afterward. i feel like romeo was one of those skeletons that had the most laid out for it due to octavia, but you took every little detail, embellished, AND ran with it, which i loved. my favorite part of your app was actually where you wrote about wolfie seeing octavia’s ghost and the first things he said to her – you described their relationship already, but that dialogue back and forth really hit home for me and made me completely understand the weight of their relationship. and why wolfie is just so devastated by what happened that it’s completely changed him as a person. loss can really do that to you, huh? i also really appreciated the way you also incorporated oberon into the story, something i didn’t really see! the way he craves validation from the head of school/the society the same way he craves it from his parents was really hard-hitting and i loved being able to get some insight into that dynamic as well. your app was infused with so many little details and i felt like you also really brought octavia to life, with her names for statues and all. i also died a little at the scene you described at his football game, my heart SUNK for wolfie, because it’s hard to watch him try so hard again. and again. and again. the letter itself was beautiful as well and i appreciated your scene setting, which not only put his words into perspective, but did more to make wolfie seem more real. sure, he’s a golden boy, but he’s also a person, and i’m excited to watch how the events of this plot show all the cracks in his foundation. he’s changed and he’s changing and i’m excited for more.

TITUS: august reyn written by moosh.

i could not accept a titus that didn’t break my heart. and august broke my heart more times than i can count now, pretty much with every single fucking bullet point. i love the little contradictions; how he hates rich kids but he is one, doesn’t yell during fights but does during debates...i think the thing about august is he is cocky, charming, and at times aggressive, but he also has this sort of interesting moral code that motivates how he treats people and acts on the field; how he SCREAMS at the ref but is patient with his teammates? iconic. i feel like i got more upset over his grandmother’s passing than i did about octavia’s, which says a lot, but don’t think it passed me by how the two people who have really cared for august are no longer around. the moment in his life where he really fights back at his bully and learns the power of WEALTH was so impactful to me, and i think it characterizes many of his actions, prior and post. also the batman comparison was on point, of course. the way his relationship with his dad develops is heartbreaking, but even more heartbreaking is the fact that he loses a support system when things are at their worst. essentially, my heart snaps for august again and again, and reading about his development post-death was raw and hard, like i was reading something i shouldn’t be. i just want august to get a fucking win but i already know i’m going to put him through the ringer, sos sorry in advance. also huge props for roping him into the scandal surrounding octavia’s death in that way, i can’t wait to incorporate that into the plot overall.

#accepted

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ginnyzero · 5 years

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Ginny O’s Method of Character Development

There is a lot of advice out there on how to create and develop a good character. There are no doubt entire chapters in writing books and I know I’ve run across blog posts on every type of social media account imaginable. And of course, a lot of it is no doubt contradictory. The best thing about advice is you don’t have to use it all or any of it. It’s simply advice, not a set guideline of how things have to be done. Find what methods of writing and development work for you.

As long as you have a character or set of characters that can carry through the story as you want to tell it. Then that’s all you need. (The same can be said of world building, plots, whatever, as long as you have enough to get through the story you want to tell and it’s not self-contradictory, then really, you’re golden.)

I am a character driven writer. Not to say that some of my plots aren’t action focused, but I love writing interactions between varying personalities and putting those personalities in ridiculous situations just to see what they’d do. Thus, for me, one of the first things I do after I come up with a concept for a story is to try to come up with some characters that I can really sink my teeth into. Some characters are going to end up being more developed than others. And that’s okay! There are main characters. There are secondary characters. There are those characters that reveal themselves over time. And there are characters who blind side you by coming out of nowhere.

I’ll use Heaven’s Heathens as an example. My idea, that squeaky of DOOM, was to take the Expendables, expand on the motorcycle club concept by adding Sons of Anarchy and add the supernatural (Twilight). But remember, vampires are/were passé. And I’d had that love of werewolf bikers kicking around my brain for a while. Here was a chance to use it!

The great thing about this concept was I could make a list of character positions that I’d need to fill up both the motorcycle club and a mercenary unit. As an eagle:beaver:koala/dolphin:otter personality, I love lists (and I love having fun, go figure.) I needed the four officers of the Club. I needed the old lady character in charge of social events, the Gemma character. Did these officers have wives? I needed a mechanic, a demolitions specialist, a sniper, a hand to hand person, a small arms marksman, a supply/procurement person, a medic or doctor. Then I asked the question. Did some of these roles double with the officers?

At this point, no one had names. No one even had gender. The first two people to get gender were Savannah and Gideon. They were also two of the first characters to get names. This happened because of the first story I wanted to tell and the way I wanted to portray the relationship of the main couple in my series. (Because I like writing couple stories. I like a bit of romance.) I wanted to write an adult couple in an adult relationship with adult problems that are slightly amplified by the physics of the world building. (I still want to use that story line, so pardon me if I stay mum.) Coming up with this story allowed me to assign both of them some roles in the story. What were their occupations and place in the Club hierarchy?

So, in the context of building my world and story, I’d created a list of roles in the story. I decided on two characters I wanted to focus on (at that moment.) I’d given them gender, names and then assigned them a role or a part.

Sometimes, this is where I get distracted and start trying to decide what they look like. Maybe I’ll hunt down an actor or actress that I like who I think could play the part. Or I look up hair styles and think about the clothes they’ll wear. This can give me more ideas on the type of character I’m making. Or just be a major distraction that I’ll need to come back to later in the process.

The next questions I wanted to answer were, what were their relationships to the other roles in the story, why were they in those roles and thus, where did they come from, what was their history?

Creating the Heathens was a very organic process. A lot of the characters development depended on other characters development. Some of the characters on my list were little more than “Hand to hand specialist,” or “bodyguard to other character, likes steampunk,” or the cryptic “Sniper.” Sometimes it came down to “what types of characters do I want to see in stories?”

Frankie is a good example of this. I had Savannah, whose role was pretty defined. She was the Vice President and heir apparent to the Club. She had a man, Gideon, who was originally an outsider, not born to the Club and its ways. Savannah, of all people in this universe, needed a best friend. And I really, really wanted to see a non-crazy River type character who ended somehow being slammed into Pinkie Pie. (I honestly cannot remember for the life of me how that exactly happened.) So, Frankie became Savannah’s best friend, the hand to hand combat specialist. Who, for some reason, guarded the sniper on Savannah’s mercenary team. Why was she guarding this sniper? Oh, the sniper was her older sister and has a lot of kids. Frankie is protecting her family.

At the same time, I was thinking about the Secretary of the Club. I wanted someone who looked relatively stupid but used big words at unexpected times. And as Secretary he had the responsibility to not only keep the Club’s books but also collect on debts. I thought it’d be interesting to be the type of guy who can’t really control himself in a fight or when violence gets involved and ends up shooting the hostages or putting the delinquent in the back of a car and doing donuts until the delinquent or informant or whatever was ready to talk. And wouldn’t be funny if this person was the father of Frankie and the sniper?

Yes, a lot of the time, my character list and development of relationships ended up being “That’s hysterical, yes, must include.”

For a while, the President of the Club was labelled Matriarch/Patriarch in my documents. I was developing a lot of the world building and researching wolves at the same time I was building my characters. I knew that it didn’t really matter wolf wise what gender ran the Club. I knew it was more important Motorcycle Club wise, especially Outlaw Club types that they are a ‘men only’ club. But I was throwing this into the hypothetical post World War 3 future, so why stick with typical gender roles. Especially, when I was trying use more real wolf science of wolves in the wild versus how humans think and act.

So, Brand didn’t really become Brand until I answered the questions of WHY was Savannah, someone who was very young by werewolf terms Vice President of the Club and what happened to make her Vice President. In order to answer these questions, I had to ask myself who the President was, was this President a parent or a grandparent? If a grandparent, where were Savannah’s parents? Why was Savannah willingly taking this responsibility? Answering these questions revealed a lot about Savannah’s past and her motivations and her moral character. (Read the books/short stories to find out why, I’m not going to tell you! YEESH.)

Making Brand male was a tough decision for me. I really hemmed and hawed over it. I wanted to show that females could lead Club charters, but at the same time, it might have taken away from Savannah’s story and her character plot line. She might be less important if Brand was say, Brandy. The story despite being set in the future still needs to have roots in the issues of our times. Females as elected national leaders, especially given the last couple of election cycles, is a huge issue of our day. The judgement based on appearance rather than record. The sexist attitudes that still pervade the media about what type of national leaders women would be despite people like Queen Elizabeth II or Margaret Thatcher.

Thus, Brand became male and the Gemma type character became female. Savannah’s past and Brand’s past were intertwined being that they were related. So, that revealed more of Brand’s character.

Usually, around this point is when I start giving the characters or noticing the characters have one or two personality traits. For instance with Brand, I’d been calling him the Patriarch for quite some time. This really helped define his role and his personality. Brand is the congenial nepotistic dictator that you don’t want to disappoint. He may be your dad like figure. He may want what’s best for you. He’s also the one ultimately in charge of the house and don’t forget it. He will protect the House from all threats and do his best to support it. In return, he demands your loyalty, respect and that you follow the rules of his house.

One of the best questions I think that a writer can answer when developing a character is, “When push comes to shove, how does the character react?” A character’s response to a stressful situation, reveals a lot about that character and where they are at in their personal lives. This is about the time I ask this question. Because, it helps a lot with the next bit.

It’s only after I assign a role, a name, a gender and a few personality types that I personally start digging into personality archetypes. Personality archetypes cover a broad range of different systems from different cultures. The most well-known personality types are the Western and Eastern Zodiac, and the Myers Briggs test. Depending on how important the character is, the more of these systems I’ll use to try and nail down a person rather than a stereotype.

Whether we like it or not as writers, readers like archetypes. Readers enjoy the comfort of the familiar in their characters. There is a reason why Star Wars is such a huge franchise. The archetypes of Star Wars are painted in huge brush strokes on the big screen and the plot is based upon the Heroes Journey, something that is older than dirt as it can be found in Ancient Greek plots!

Just because readers like archetypes, doesn’t mean our characters have to be stereotypes of these archetypes. A lot of the time I’ve noticed, especially when zodiac signs are turned into stereotypes, that the negative of the stereotype is emphasized rather than the positive. A Libra doesn’t have to be an indecisive shallow twit obsessed with the latest fashion trends. Libras are also excellent diplomats and mediators who make good companions and use their heads when taking action. (My little Encyclopedia of the zodiac has 16 good Libra traits listed versus 7 bad traits and I swear, every petty villain or unsympathetic main character becomes all 7 bad Libra traits.)

Feel free to use several different archetypes at once. Browse TvTropes and cherry pick traits you’d like to see together in one character. Mix DnD or World of Darkness character building with character blood type personalities. Pick a birthday and use Bad Birthdays or the Zodiac Guide to Birthdays. (I’m a Darkside Zodiac fan, so I like bad birthdays better.) Use playing cards, the tarot, or find spirit animals. Use the Elements of Harmony personality types! (Savannah is Twilight Sparkle/Applejack, Frankie is Pinkie Pie/Rarity.)

The most important thing I think I learned while developing these characters is that once I’ve developed them enough to get the story up and off the ground, the characters will develop more as I write. They’ll change. They’ll grow. As I write the story, I’ll learn more about them and their abilities and facets that can take the story places that I couldn’t even imagine back when I made a list of roles.

So, let me sum up. When I have an idea for a story, a concept, I sit down and I create a list of parts. (Sometimes this is easier than others.) Parts could be anything from occupation to ‘next door neighbor.’ Usually, the story idea will give me an indication of which casted roles are the most important. I’ll give the character gender and usually a name. I may try to figure out what they look like and how they dress to give me more ideas about where I’m taking the character. Then I try to build relationships with other characters on the list. These relationships can help me develop a character’s past, their motivations and emotional behaviors. I can start giving them or noting down specific traits that characters have, like they’re easy going or very organized or upbeat and bubbly.

From there, I can start researching different archetype systems, fleshing them out with the zodiac, Myers-Briggs types and others. From there I can start assigning them hobbies or quirks or personal preferences and fears. But those may not come out until I’m writing, delving into the story and trying to get inside the character’s head and making them more than a list of traits in a word file.

My method is just my way of doing things. Sometimes it works out and I get a fully developed idea out of it. Other times, it doesn’t and that’s just what happens. Use what works best for you.

#writblr #wrtblr #writing advice #writing tips #character development

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selowyn · 5 years

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The Magistrate’s Mandate

“Confessor?” The question, following a knock and asked delicately from the doorway by a soft-spoken messenger, prompted a quizzical glance up from her desk inside the Sanctum.

“Yes?” Her musical voice further broke the silence.

“Pardon the interruption. The Magistrate would like to see you.”

Oh. Ohhh. “Very well.” Her voice was far steadier than she felt as she rose to follow.

The day was clear upon the Isle, the trees ever-bursting with eternal foliage of golds and reds. A small breeze teased up from the sea and she took a deep breath to steady her nerves as they made their way across the main square and up the steps to the summoning platform. The Magistrate’s office in Quel’Danas, situated high in a tower at Sun’s Reach, overlooked the harbor with a clear view of the Terrace. She had been here a few times before. Recalling it as well-appointed, she was curious as to the occasion. When she materialized before the open door to his offices, she was quickly ushered in.

“Ah, Miss Sunhawk,” the Magistrate intoned, rising from his ornate desk in a splendor of carnelian and cream silk, the faint crows feet in the corners of his eyes crinkling with the upturn of a smile. “Thank you for coming. A pleasure to see you. Please, please, come in. Make yourself comfortable. Yes, yes, have a seat, there you are.” Bowing low at the waist in the old way, the Magistrate pulled out a chair at his conference table, into which she invested herself following a deep curtsy. After offering her something to drink (politely refused), he admitted his time was short. A folder from his desk was fetched and brought to the table, slapped down softly as he took a seat opposite her.

Sliding wire-framed glasses over glowing golden eyes, he flipped open the chart, humming idly as he skimmed. “I have been reading your file, and am taken to understand that for a time you studied the arcane.” Peering at her over the top of the lenses, he awaited confirmation.

Interesting start. “Yes. My father was an arcanist and we shared a love of books.” The ensuing surge of sadness was expected, but could not be indulged presently. It was shoved back down with an intense exercise of discipline before it could pose too much distraction.

“How lovely! A right and proper calling for a highborne.” More skimming. “Ah, but that’s not all. He was an accomplished fencer, isn’t that right? And so perhaps it was through a mutual love of fencing you eventually found your way to more...martial pursuits.” A flip of a page. “How interesting. Was that here, in Quel’Thalas as well?”

She held her breath, shaking her head. His tilted in response and he sought his answer in the document rather than from her lips with a rapid shift of focus. “Ah. Ahh... I see. Perhaps it was in the City-State of...Theramore.”

The rapid descent in his tone from praise to disappointment was palpable, and the Confessor shifted in her seat. This seemed a broad leap, glancing over many years and experiences, but... He wasn’t incorrect. “For a time, yes, that’s right.”

Tossing the dossier to the side, he leaned back in his chair, eyeing her appraisingly. “I suppose it at least shows some level of discernment that your family followed the Expedition rather than remain in Lordaeron, doomed as it was.” Breaking eye contact to peer out the window, he shrugged. “Why you all did not just...come home to the open arms of your Kingdom; well, that begs other questions.”

A swallow. “Sir, if you would like me to explain…” The wave of his hand silenced her.

“Those were dark times and Lady Proudmoore an accomplished sorceress. Many highborne cleaved to her side, and when the Prophet gave his warning she was wise to leave. Undoubtedly the Kaldorei are thankful for your aid at Hyjal as well.” A soft snort. “For all the good that’s done them.”

A blonde brow arched as lips set into a thin line, but prudence won the moment and she remained silent. Seeing no comment was forthcoming, the Magistrate fiddled with his robe before leaning forward once more to dig into her file. “Northrend. Uh-huh. Argent Tournament...working under the wing of her grace, Bishop-Confessor Morningdove...you know,” he suddenly remarked, tearing off the spectacles to rub his eyes, pausing a moment in thought. “I rather wonder how you rose to Confessorship so quickly. Not just any common arcanist or soldier can apply their brand of skill to cultivating the vulnerable minds of the Azerothian populace. Just what happened up there in the frozen North?”

She knew better than to comment, or raise objection to his tone, or to ask just how he knew all of this. His query was rhetorical, as was his pattern in this chess match. With a deep inhale, a prayer was whispered under her breath. Honestly is truth, and truth is pure. It would be her shield.

Her relief came quickly enough through his love of hearing himself speak. “Nay, please. It matters little for the issue at hand, and your station is one deserving of respect.” He sighed, his tone going conspiratorial. “It just seems the history written upon the annals our beleaguered world goes faster and faster, fate cramming as much as she can into the shortest man-measured years as possible. One war, two wars, three wars….a score of wars! One can hardly keep it all straight.” A wry hurmph is issued as he shifted in his seat. “Would that we had the long, languid eons of the past back...”

With that, the spectacles were shed, slapped to the tabletop with a clink of glass and wire. His hands wove themselves together, gathering at his midsection as he pressed forward. “Miss Silverhawk. You came here, a pilgrim to the Sunwell, and we granted your entreaty. You requested then to remain here, finding it to your liking--as many do.” His eyes sought hers. “This is a favor we do not grant easily, anymore.”

The quirk of her lips was surely visible and so he quickly continued. “Now. We understand all too well the siren call which our blessed font presents for our people; the importance it represents both symbolically and on a more personal basis.” The slightest smirk bloomed upon his face at that.

Her eyes sank downward to hide her shame. He doesn’t understand. I’m not like the others. I never sought to go to Draenor; never supped of the green crystals. I wasn’t even here when...

“We also wished,” his sharp voice cut into her internal cascade, “to display a show of good faith to your service to the stalwart Argent Crusade, in thanks for all they--and you--have done. After all, that was a very select organization, I’m told.”

“Yes, it...was.” Tirion hand-picked every one of us. Tears stung the corners of her eyes. “It still is.”

“And yet, for all the good offered the world,” and he did, to his credit, incline his head in respect, “the Crusade is just not what it once was, correct? I understand the Highlord and most of the prime force perished upon the...what are the humans calling it? The ‘Broken Shore’? And that now, the leadership has been assumed by a human paladin, a Lord Maxwell, and subsumed back under the auspices of their Order of Knights?”

A swallow. It was clear now where this was going. “Yes, that is correct.”

“Interesting.” Abruptly rising, the Magistrate recovered his glasses and wandered to his desk, fiddling with a few scrolls, fingers sliding down the pages until he found what he was looking for with a smart tap. “See here, it says reports indicate that members of this order, this...Silver Hand, have been present at the warfront of Arathi, fighting for the Alliance.” Peering up at her now, his face was void of emotion. He wielded fact with cold efficiency. “It would seem that they have chosen a side in this conflict. The side which, given the geographical location, represents a threat to the safety of the Kingdom.”

Her stomach lurched. She had wondered if and when this day would come, and...so it seems it had. Many of her new friends in the Outreach wandered in with their tail tucked between their legs, hesitant and vigilant. Is this how they felt, faced with conflicting loyalties?

Watching her a lingering moment, the Magistrate made his way to the nearby liquor cabinet, choosing a decanter of garnet hued liquid and pouring what looked to be a glass of dark port. Turning, he raised it in offerance - would she now partake, perhaps? At the shake of her head, he capped the pitcher once more and paced, robes whispering in time to the idle tapping his fingernail made upon the petite glass.

“You’ve been gone quite a bit lately,” he began again, the prior more circuitous train of thought replaced by a new level of directness. “Less and less at the clinic here, where some of our most wounded come for replenishment and renewal.” Long, pale hair shifted like melting snow with the disappointed shaking his head gave as he meandered to the window, eyeing the wide expanse of placid ocean as he sipped his drink

“Now, Miss Sunhawk, I understand completely the urge to follow one’s heart. The drive to offer your unique benediction to the far flung corners of the world, such as...salt-abraded prison islands and the shattered hamlets of Lordaeron. It must at times be practically impossibly difficult to resist.” The knowing smile he offered her with a side cant of his face made her blood run cold. “But lest you forget, you are a first and foremost, by right of birth and bloodline, belore’dorei of the Kingdom of Quel’Thalas, with all the rights, privileges and expectations that grants.

The world shrank, her vision clouding as her breath caught in her chest. With a soft clearing of her throat, she sat up straighter, mentally raising her shield to speak her truth. “Sir. With all due respect, I am, first and foremost, a Confessor of the Argent Crusade. Sworn to fight evil wherever it may manifest and offer healing wherever it is n--…”

“Confessor,” he interrupted. “Let me make this simple.” Turning toward her once more, he stood framed by the window pane, features in shadow as the light from behind streamed forward around his shape. “You will focus more upon your duties here. You will heal our wounded and you will counsel the bereaved. You will help train the Spellbreakers as needed. And you will do all of this not only because it is your privilege as one of us; but you will do this because you enjoy the proximity to the Sunwell afforded to those in Quel’Danas.”

A lead weight took up residence inside of her stomach. Her greatest failure now held her in chains. Despite all her discipline and work, the indelible mark Northrend had left on her made her vulnerable, a pawn for a war machine spinning out of control.

He must have noticed her wilt. “Oh come now my dear. Just to be clear, you are not a prisoner. No, no. However, we just wish…” He swirled the last bit of drink in his glass with a flourished gesture of his arm, casting garnets upon the wall as it caught the light. “For more of your precious time. That’s it.” Down went the dregs of the port, and so too her mood. “So. Are we clear?”

Her golden eyes meandered to the beveled glass in his hand. The intricate array of engraved facets glimmered with multidimensional promise of possibilities reflected, yet held in check by the singularly firm grip of his fingers.

“As crystal,” she whispered.

#selowyn writing #waylight outreach #argent crusade #loyalties #isle of quel'danas #battle for azeroth #elven politics #past and present #wow rp

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jacobsmith321 · 3 years

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Contextual Studies: Consumerism

I haven’t documented my contextual studies on my blog yet but for this week I will be catching up to at least get 1-2 CS out, starting with Consumerism.

At the start of the lecture we were asked “does capitalism work?” and a lot of people answered “no” because it either benefits men or mainly because an industry and trade is controlled by a the private owners and not the country or it’s people.

And we even talked about the concept of value. Value can be what something actually is or what we assume it to be, then there are classifications such as ‘Monetary Value’ or ‘Emotional Value’.

Back in the old days, Pineapples were actually highly regarded as a rare and rich item for the wealthy when they were discovered, even some architecture was based off of their appearance. This changed however because of one simple factor; pineapples were no longer rare, as they were in fact discovered to be quite common and wide spread. Because of, they lost expensive and hierarchy value, being seen as very common fruit.

This shows that the more common something becomes, it’s value may drops.

However value also has another aspect behind it, being that of labour. Karl Marx once said “Labour is the substance, and the immanent measure of value” in Das Kapital, Vol. 1. This means that something’s value should truly be within what what it put into it and not always what’s said it to be.

Although there are opposing ideals to this, like ‘Subjective Value’ meaning that it can be thought or decided upon. Max Borders on FEE.com made a point on subjective value, saying that it “ all economics begins and ends with something rather illusive”, meaning that all around it can be deceptive and value can be manipulated for benefit and to even screw over people, even making you think something should have value when it may not have it.

There was even a discussion about how if kids have a better sense of value than adults? This was in response to a clip of a little girl playing in a puddle, having fun and liking it. The answers were varied but to me, I think they do and don’t; they’ll enjoy and love playing in puddles for fun because they see them as an excitable activity but if they brake a vase that was 100 years old, they only get upset over it if they’re shouted for breaking something that “priceless” because of how old it was, expensive it had become or how many were left, where as a puddle can be found anywhere and cost nothing. But they see the value in what’s fun and exciting, not the history or price tag in something.

The idea of “Commodity Fetishism” is that items can be given an effect or ideal feature to make them seem like they have worth for them to sell and the consumer is under this impression, where in reality this is not the case and the labour that was put into it is devalued.

Though in the 1700s, wages went up, leading to people spending more and businesses grew, hiring more people, leading to an increase in wages, rinse and repeat. This was titled ‘the first consumer revolution’.

Even something as simple as the type fashion worn started to show off how rich someone may be; in the olden days, people would have wigs or overly complex dresses.

By today’s standards, social media and the media itself can influence minor things as having high value, such as a poop emoji pillow or little trinkets you buy from a shop.

Back in the old days, people would go crazy for Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. This lead to the demand being higher than the cost and people being consumed by these goods. In a short documentary, you’d see people going nuts and talking about why they wanted to buy them for their kids, not really having proper answers; an old lady even said she didn’t like them but wanted to buy them anyway.

But there’s also this illusion placed on us thinking that if we buy these things, we’ll be “happy”. This can be a dangerous though and even in an animation called “Happiness” by Steven Cutts, everyone’s a rat, it’s dark and grey, over populated and we spend all our time just buying and buying useless things that don’t matter at all, but we think they make us happy. A rat keeps driving cars, seeing people rip one another for iPhones, drinking and taking drugs. Eventually he gets so consumed by greed, he gets caught in a trap after following a dollar bill and works at a desk. This can symbolise how we can spend so much to fuel capitalism, that we end up getting caught at a dead end job, trying to get back the money over spent.

The question is, does capitalism work or not?

It’s hard to say because there are good and bad aspects. The positives of capitalism is that anyone can get into it. If you have a product that people want, you can sell it and possibly make it big. You’re not being forced to buy this stuff, you’re free to participate and buy this wealth.

It can also provide jobs and people can be trained to do their chosen jobs and important places can be built.

But old philosophers, writers and critics say otherwise, such as Charlie Dickins claiming it to be evil as producers were given horrible conditions to be in, John Ruskin claiming writing a book about how there’s mass exploitation and it ruins the environment we all live it, and how Karl Marx believe modern work was “insecure” and “alienating”.

The negatives can be that there’s an imbalance between the rich and poor, the environment (as stated by John Ruskin) can be drastically effected, consumers can be exploited and there may be cases of horrible working conditions for manufacturers.

In 2019, Sam Jacobs Studio actually created a 3D piece where you’d see fish swimming in the ocean, but slowly it gets replaced by plastic. This signifies how there will be more plastic that fish in the ocean soon.

The saddest thing that I can even admit to, was we were given images of leaves and brands, which we had to name; I and many others could only name the differences of the brand names and had a harder time defining the leaves. But we all also admitted that capitalism is in our graphic design jobs, so we’d probably end up working for this too.

Overall, capitalism seems to be more negative than positive and though consumerism helps business grow, their are environmental impacts.

Extra Topic: Love Marks

This is part of Consumerism but off topic from the negative points, there’s also something called “Love Marks”. Love mark were invented by Kevin Roberts and are essentially the concept of Love and Respect for a brand; Saatchi & Saatchi have said that “transcend brands” as they connect to your hearts, as well as minds, surpass your expectations and you build a connection to them, showing loyalty. However there is an axis for this, with the 2 elements I stated before “Love” and Respect” and there are names for this.

Commodities: Lack of love and respect.

Brands: A high amount of respect but a lack of love.

Fads: There’s a lot of love but not a lot of respect.

Love Marks: The true version being that of both love and respect being high. When we were asked what kind of things would Kevin Roberts count as a love mark. Though I am not sure if I answered this, one thing that may come to mind are Marvel movies, as anyone can watch them, they’re loved for their characters and people respect their writing.

Lastly, when we were asked what creates hype, I answered, Game Of Thrones, because it’s loved so much and if something is “sponsored my” or “in collaboration with” Game Of Thrones, so because you love a product with that brand added on, you essentially want to buy what it’s advertising, same with merchandise of that brand.

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