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tavina-writes · 6 months

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@add1ctedt0you responding here in a new post bc the other one was long and this will also get pretty long! (also no worries about bothering me I'm never bothered by yelling about stuff I love yelling about stuff!!)

For your second question: I think there has to be a distinction between like "cultivator" and a traditional wuxia style martial artist. I kind of use this a bit too interchangeably in meta, but technically LOCH jianghu members aren't really cultivators. They're very human martial artist who don't get the chance to be immortal (I guess unless you're Zhang Sanfeng from HSDS who apparently lived to be 230 years old.) The distinction here is that typically (from what I understand) cultivator novels/cultivators are people who seek to cultivate to immortality/godhood/etc through whichever mode of action they've chosen. In traditional Chinese philosophy this sort of "cultivation" also means secluding oneself from the outside world and societal concerns and affairs.

A wuxia novel is about martial arts heroes who are tied up with dealing with societal affairs in the Jianghu. MDZS isn't really a traditional cultivator novel either -- it's a really interesting blend of genres and ideas, and I see a lot of the bones of traditional wuxia in it! Which is one of the reasons why I'm drawn to it!

The flying on swords bit is as far as I know, a cultivator novel thing, which, since LOCH isn't a cultivator novel, they can float, walk on water, scale surfaces we wouldn't be able to etc, but they can't fly on swords. The interview you mentioned with MXTX to my recollection said that MDZS cultivators live a maximum of 500 years. So my perception has always been that they can't achieve immortality either and probably live normal human lifespans.

I think for your first question, Novel!HYS will always be the king of my heart when it comes to just HOW much of a blorbo he is. This man is a dramatic kingpin he's. he's just SO.

Have a selection of some of my favorite book related pull quotes about him:

Venerable Lingzhi coldly replied, “I did see a young lady, but the one I saw was dead one, not a live one.” Huang Yaoshi’s heart turned cold, “What?” he quickly asked, his voice was trembling. Venerable Lingzhi replied, “About three days ago I saw a body of a young girl floating on the surface of the sea. She was wearing white clothes with a gold ring on her hair; originally her face must be so pretty. Ay! What a pity, what a pity! What a pity her body was swollen by the seawater.” What he described was exactly Huang Rong’s clothes and adornments, every single one was accurate. Huang Yaoshi’s mind was greatly troubled, his body shook, his face turned pale; a moment later he asked, “Are you telling me the truth?” Everybody else clearly saw Huang Rong boarded the small boat just a moment ago; now they heard how Venerable Lingzhi was deceiving this man, taking pleasure in others’ misfortune; but even as they saw Huang Yaoshi’s grieving face, nobody made any sound.

From Legend of the Condor Heroes, Chapter 22 "Wandering on a Shark's Back."

Further pull quotes from 22:

Ouyang Feng noticed his look and realized his grief had reached its peak so he started to have a murderous intent. Although he himself would not suffer a loss this oncoming force would not be easy to resist; hence he quickly said, “I had just come in on board this board today, and it was the first time I met all these people. When this Reverend saw some floating corpses, your daughter was not necessarily among them.” Sighing, he continued, “Your beloved daughter is such a good girl; it is very regrettable if she really died at such a young age. If my nephew found out, he would die of heartbreak.” This speech had shifted the blame from his own shoulder, but clearly did not offend either side. Listening to Ouyang Feng Huang Yaoshi was completely in shock; his heart sank in an instant. He was of the kind who loved to vent his anger to others; otherwise when the Twin Killers of the Dark Wind stole his manual, why did he break Lu Chengfeng and his other innocent disciple’s legs and expelled them from his school? This time he felt his chest was icy-cold, but his blood was boiling hot, just like when his beloved wife died some years ago. His hands were trembling, his face turned from snow white to crimson red alternatively. Everybody was looking at him in silence; their hearts were filled with unspeakable fear. Even Ouyang Feng was anxious; he gathered his ‘qi’ in his ‘dan tian’, his whole body was alert, ready to take any attack. The entire deck was unusually quiet. Suddenly Huang Yaoshi let out a long laugh, it sounded like a never ending dragon roar. This latest development has taken everybody by surprise; they were startled. They saw him facing upward and laughing wildly, getting louder and louder. His laughter had caused a chill in the air; those who listened to it felt more and more miserable. Gradually the laughter turned into weeping. The people could not bear it any longer, they felt like they shared his grief and were about to shed tears too.

Like, his reaction to hearing (inaccurately) that Huang Rong had died was just SO. Like, the thing about Novel!HYS is just that his emotions are SO vivid and so huge in amplitude. His highs are SO high and his lows are so low. Insane yoyo of a man. Beloved blorbo. What a guy.

The exquisiteness of the coffin wood, the various plants and rare orchids, the different flowers that bloom at different seasons, everything was Huang Yaoshi’s personal choice. They glittered under the moonlight, each radiating its own unique scent. Huang Rong pushed the tombstone three times to the left and three times to the right; then exerting her strength she pushed it forward. The tombstone slowly moved to the side, revealing a long and narrow stonewalled tunnel. She went in; and after making three turns she arrived at another secret door. Beyond this door was where the coffin was placed. The room was bright from the oil lamp inside a precious stone container, illuminating Huang Rong’s mother’s memorial tablet. Alone in that small underground room, seeing the painting of her deceased mother made by her father’s own hand, Huang Rong’s heart was filled with a roller coaster emotion; she thought, “I have never seen Mother. I wonder after I die, will I meet her? Was she really that young and beautiful as in the picture? Where is she right now? Is she at the sky above, or in the earth below, or still in this room? I am going to stay here forever to accompany her.” Along the wall of this tomb there were precious jewels, antique collections, and paintings and calligraphy from famous artists; each worth a fortune. After his wife died, Huang Yaoshi roamed the sea and lakes to collect these precious articles. Whether it was inside the imperial palace, or inside the house of some rich government official, or in a robbers’ den high up on the mountain; as long as he knew there was a treasure, he would come and steal or take it by force. His martial art was high, he had keen eyes and sophisticated taste; hence he managed to collect quite a bit of treasures piling up inside his wife’s grave. Huang Rong could see the bright pearls, beautiful jade, emeralds and amethysts glimmering under the firelight; she thought, “These precious jewels don’t have any feeling, yet they will live for million of years. Today I am looking at them in here, but in the future my body will turn into dust while they will still be here. Is it true that among the living things, the smart and intelligent won’t have a long life? Is it because she was so smart that my mother died when she was only twenty?”

From Chapter 19 "Great Waves and Schools of Sharks"

When she was little her father often took her here; he would tell her mother anything that happened outside, regardless of how trivial those matters were. In the past several years she did not go with her father as often yet it still did not surprise her to hear her father talking in front of the coffin. She was still upset with him, so she did not want to see him. She wanted to wait quietly until he left, but what she heard next surprised her. “I have found your heart’s desire,” he said, “I know you have suffered a lot that year you rewrote the Nine Yin Manual; I want to find it and burn it in your presence, so your spirit in heaven will be consoled. I have searched in vain for fifteen years, but today I have found it.” Huang Rong was surprised, “Where did Father get the Nine Yin Manual from?” she wondered. “I did not want to intentionally kill your son-in-law,” she heard her father continue. “But it was they who insisted on riding on that boat.” Huang Rong was puzzled, “Mother’s son-in-law? Is he talking about Brother Jing? He rode on that boat, then what?” She opened her ears wide and listened attentively. Huang Yaoshi recounted how miserable and lonely his life had become ever since his wife passed away and how bad he missed her. Huang Rong listened to him pouring out his heart and her own heart was filled with sorrow. “Brother Jing and I are merely teenagers and we love each other. I don’t think it is impossible to see each other in the future; but I cannot leave my father,” she thought.

From Chapter 19 "Great Waves and Schools of Sharks"

Huang Yaoshi loved his wife very much. Moreover, his wife died because she wanted to make him happy. Therefore, he wanted to commit suicide as a sacrifice to her. But he knew his martial art was profound, he would not die easily by hanging himself or simply drinking a poison. Plus, if he died on the island, he was sure his mute and deaf servants would mutilate his body. Hence he went to the mainland and kidnapped a highly skilled boat builder to build him this fancy boat. This boat’s keel was no different from a regular boat; except that the bottom of the boat was not nailed together with ordinary metal nails, but was put together by ropes and glue. Mooring on the marina it looked like an extremely magnificent and beautiful yacht; but as soon as it sailed to the sea, the waves would disintegrate the rope and glue, and the boat would certainly sink. Originally he intended to put his wife’s coffin on the boat, take the boat to the sea and while the waves rocked the boat, he would play with his jade flute the jade-colored tidal wave song; together with his wife they would be buried thousands of feet under the sea. This way he would make a clean end to his life and not disgrace his reputation as a martial art master of his age. However, every time he wanted to go he could not bear to take their daughter along; and who would raise her if he died? Finally he decided to build a tomb and placed his wife in it. He repainted the boat every year, so it always looked new. He was going to wait for their daughter to grow up before he would take his last voyage.

From Chapter 19 "Great Waves and Schools of Sharks"

LIKE. What a guy. What an experience. We KNOW how Feng Heng died, but Huang Rong is never traumatized by the fact that her mother died giving birth to her. Her father has never hit her, blamed her, spoken (.5) of an angry word to her, disciplined her... The first time he yelled at her in her life for talking to ZBT (who he had been torturing every day for 15 years at that point! and COULD have been super dangerous) she huffily up and RUNS AWAY bc "DAD DOESNT LOVE ME ANYMORE! SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT WHEN RONG'ER IS GONE!"

Novel!HYS bought his daughter toys and is always shown hugging her when they meet again or carrying her when she's injured and taught her anything she wanted to learn even though she was never interested in anything for longer than a month. He told her about her history, never faulted or blamed her, and loved and spoiled her until she was pretty much ungovernable.

Seeing the cupboard door suddenly shatter and reveal Guo Jing and Huang Rong, Huang Yaoshi and the Six Freaks leapt back from each other, startled and delighted at the same time. Suddenly seeing his beloved daughter, Huang Yaoshi was unsure if he was dreaming. He rubbed his eyes. “Rong’er, Rong’er,” he called out, “is it really you?” Huang Rong, still holding one palm enjoined with Guo Jing’s left, gave a slight smile and nodded her head, but said nothing. At this, Huang Yaoshi’s joy exceeded all expectations; putting other thoughts behind him, he laid Mei Chaofeng’s body down on a bench, went over to the cupboard, and sat down cross-legged. One touch of his daughter’s wrist, and he felt her pulse and breathing firm and steady. Then, reaching through the cupboard doorway, he pressed his left palm against Guo Jing’s right. The many currents of sizzling qi boiling and bubbling inside Guo Jing’s body were already unbearable in the extreme; by this point, there’d been several times when he’d wanted to leap up screaming and shouting to relieve the pressure. When Huang Yaoshi’s palm came to enjoin with his, a stream of inner power flowed through with tremendous force, and instantly he felt a gradual settlement. Using his right hand, Huang Yaoshi set about kneading and massaging all the critical acupoints on Guo Jing; so profound was his neigong that, in just the time it took to make a bowl of rice, he had saved Guo Jing’s life.

From Chapter 26 "New Allies, Old Arrangements"

His HIGHS are just as high as the lows are low.

Huang Yaoshi, upon hearing his beloved daughter had somehow become the Chief of the Beggar Gang, was utterly bewildered. “What a bizarre move from Brother Qi!” he remarked. “And how heretical of him! Perhaps he’s thinking of stealing my nickname – no longer being the ‘Northern Beggar’, and instead being the ‘Northern Heretic’? The ‘Five Greats’ would then be the ‘Eastern Beggar’, ‘Western Venom’, ‘Southern Emperor’, ‘Northern Heretic’, and ‘Central Who-Knows-What?’” Her tale having reached the fight between Huang Yaoshi and the Freaks, Huang Rong gave a laugh. “That’s all,” she said. “There’s no use me saying what happened next!” Huang Yaoshi announced: “I’m going to go and kill those four bastards Ouyang Feng, Lingzhi, Qiu Qianren and Yang Kang. Come with me and watch the fun, kid.” He was talking about killing people, but because he was looking fondly upon his beloved daughter, his face was all smiles. Taking a glance at the Freaks, he felt rather contrite. Yet although he knew himself to be clearly in the wrong, he was still unwilling to hang his head and admit a fault to anyone, only offering: “The movement of qi hasn’t turned out too badly. It didn’t make me harm someone good by accident.” As for Huang Rong, she’d originally resented the Freaks for prohibiting Guo Jing from getting married to her. But now that Mu Nianci and Yang Kang had gotten engaged, this issue had already been resolved. “Daddy,” she giggled, “how about admitting to the teachers that you made a mistake?” Huang Yaoshi gave a snort. “I’m going to go and find Western Venom,” he said, changing the subject. He added: “Jing’er, you come too.”

From Chapter 26 "New Allies, Old Arrangements"

He's HILARIOUS in the book too. Like, truly, this guy is FUNNY too on top of all his other personality traits. Why do people keep forgiving him of his crimes? He's talented at everything, incredibly funny, unhinged, without any manners whatsoever, and he KEEPS DOING CRIME and ADMITTING IT whenever he's accused of ANYTHING. What a funny situation it is that he finds out about a crime (15) minutes ago and then starts going "IT WAS ME. IT WAS ALL ME! I'D DO IT AGAIN! I'D DO IT WORSE THIS TIME! ALL THE CRIMES IN THE WORLD ARE MY FAULT!"

LIKE. There's also something to be said for the way that the narrator always says, "his beloved wife" "his beloved daughter." It gets me okay, that HYS is such a deeply traumatized person who reacts badly to almost everything (and is self aware he reacts badly to everything), but the narrator cannot pry him from the word 'love.' His love for his wife. His love for his daughter. The way he himself is defined by these mentions, how Feng Heng has never stopped haunting him.

I wrote about his relationship with Huang Rong and how unaffected his love for his daughter is by his trauma surrounding the death of his wife more here.

I wrote about another key scene with HYS and his backstory here.

Also if you want to cry about the boat thing some more:

in HSDS we learn that he finally DID go suicide boating after hearing that his daughter's entire family died at Xiangyang. Guo Xiang (who is the only survivor) comes to her grandfather's house on Peach Blossom Island to look for him and there's a line of "and the docks were empty, all of the boats had gone."

Just. "All of boats had gone." BREAKS ME.

#huang yaoshi #rs: daughter and dilf #rs: one song a night for sixteen years #meta #my meta #legend of the condor heroes

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probablyahazard · 9 months

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Tagged by @nuclear-cowboy my beloved to do 15 questions, 15 mutuals so here we go

Were you named after anyone? My first name is stolen from a dnd character and a podcast character. My middle name is veeeery technically from a kpop idol? (its an english name tho, latin origin) a friend called me by his name as a joke once. I proceeded to ignore the massive amount of gender euphoria it gave me for like a year in a half. But the name means lucky so I was like 'ha yeah I'll keep it'

When was the last time cried? Idk dude like 24 hours ago? will probably cry later tho. I cry a lot.

Do you have kids? Ha, fuck no. I'm a baby. Also for other......reasons.

Do you use sarcasm alot? Yes? I think? Enough that people used to comment on how sarcastic I was?

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Is it cheating if I just say vibes? idk if i had to hazard (ha) a guess I'd say like either the way they carry themselves or how much they speak.

What’s your eye colour? Brown but like deep brown almost black looking brown type shit.

Any special talents? I'm one of those bitches who's just super good at memorizing quotes. is it practically useful? no. But it's fun. I memorize whole movies for funsies.

Scary movies or happy endings? Both? It depends on my mood? As a kid i was very into scary movies but as I get older and the world happens I appreciate happy endings more which.....ahhh.... ya know?

Where were you born? Aotearoa

What are your hobbies? Reading (so much fucking reading), drawing, writing, dnd and dming (tho that actually happens once in a blue moon), imagining little scenarios. idk dude existing

Do you have any pets? Not currently, I used to have a cat.

What sports do you play/have played? I did fencing for like 5 years, that was my main thing. Idk not really a sports person. as a kid I did miniball, touch rugby, and gym but not of those ever stuck. I always wanted to play football (soccer not the other one) but eh.

How tall are you? short.... (*whispers* like 5'1)

Favourite subject in school? Classics my beloved <3333 also drama and english. and like in theory I liked the content for my art history class but I hated the way we were taught so

Dream job? I do not dream of labor. also I have a lot of fears about not being able to hold a full time job without destroying myself for...Reasons. But like hypothetically I'd love to be a classicist or a graphic designer. or an actor but like ahhhh no.

Tagging the mutuals, sorry. This is probably not like 15 and obviously you don’t have to do this, it’s chill if you just ignore this. anyways, ur all really cool and I hope ur having a good day <3

@ghostgrrll @badfaithbanana @raemae-15 @nightlynymph @watermelon-converse @coffeeshopghost @future-banned-book-recipient @confused-wizard @angelic-flower-universe @merriweather-underground

#thank u for the tag cain!!#and again mutuals #no pressure u don't have to do this #imma just drop it and run lmao #hazardramblings

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mask131 · 7 months

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It is always a fascinating experience to see people describe their dislike or hatred of, for example, a fantasy series or a fantasy book, when you, yourself, you know that it is objectively good - as in, in term of literature and of book it is good, no matter if you actually like the story or the characters.

In general, it really makes you realize how one's reception and appreciation of a book recently has turned away from actual literary quality, and is now mostly tied to the reader's personal life-experiences and personal world-views.

For example recently - this is why I picked up a fantasy series as an example - I read a fantasy book which had as a main character a composer of music, and made music a part of its plot, a key part. I myself do not know anything about the technicalities of music, but I recognized that there was a real work of information and knowledge placed into this, and despite not knowing anything about higher musical arts, I still perfectly got everything the author was trying to carry - and it worked very well for non-experts, while also clearly being written by someone who knows what they're talking about.

And I randomly found this one person on a blog that said that this was one of the weakest and most dragging parts/aspect of the book because, and I quote, "I get people would be into reading about sword-fighting, or languages, but music? Seriously?"

This person basically said that because they found the subject silly and uninteresting outside of the book (in real life, as this person clearly has no interest in the making of music), the parts dedicated to exploring it and using it for fantasy were bad. And that was it. It wasn't about the handling of the topic, or the writing style, or how well it carried in the plot, it was just about... "Music doesn't interest anyone, so this book who is third about it is already of bad quality".

And I'm not even going to point out the obvious problems a person has when they think that nobody should take interest in music... In fact (and I am a bit jumping around here from point to point), this is something I noticed in online forums and so when it comes to fantasy reviews and fantasy audiences - at least the English speaking ones. One of their very first complaints is "Fantasy books are too generic, they're too cliche, they're too stereotyped" but when someone tries to do something new or bring something added to the table, the same people will criticize it as being too weird or unusual or not interesting enough. And with this specific "music" comment, we can unload a whole can of worms about this sort of strange "reverse-geek-bullying" in fantasy reader groups.

One of the things I appreciate with fantasy stories is variety, the exploration of new territories, the use of new sources of inspiration. A very easy way to do this is simply to focus on a part of life, a trade, a job, an element of culture that hasn't been focused on by "traditional", "archetypal", "stereotypical", "done to eath" fantasies. There are epic fantasy stories about music and the making of it. There high fantasy series about cooking and the art of food. There are weird fantasy series about poetry and how to write a poem. There are mythical fantasy stories about making books, and the numerous jobs surrounding the existence of a book. There are so many stories which aren't about just digging up treasures in lost temples, and making war against evil overlords, and having sex with pretty girls saved from human sacrifices. Fantasy series where people often overlooked in fantasy - cooks, writers, musician, poets - will have a prominent place and an important role. And what happens?

Some idiots just come in and mock this/insult it, and they typically do what bullies in real-life do when they call someone's interest or passion "geeky" or "nerdy". The two words are never spoken or outright written in their reviews, but when you consider their sentences, their points, their logic, which is "This author has a passion for a specific craft or a specific hobby I do not enjoy/I find boring/I find weird, so this is bad", you actually can hear in their unspoken word the same cries of "Look at this nerd!" or "What a geek!" bullies shouted upon seeing kids enjoy video games, play role-playing games or reading science-fiction books ; talk eagerly about math, or share a love for classical literature, or enjoy computer coding.

This is literaly the same logic, but in a very bizarre way, applied to fantasy reviews and the appreciation of fantasy literature.

I don't know if that's related to specific fandoms and authors fan-base in the fantasy world, or if it is a recurring phenomenon everywhere - but there's clearly a faction of "fantasy readers" and "fantasy fans" you must be aware of, who will complain if something is too "that was done before" and be unhappy if they are given "something that hasn't been done before". They want non-archetypal character, but standard plot-focus ; they want stereotype-breaking worlds, but that the author has the same interests as them ; they want to not see specific tropes they know too well, and yet they refuse to read about stuff they do not know about. They're just infuriating little bugs, who somehow manage to perpetuate within the world of fantasy enjoyers the same behavior little school-bullies had towards fantasy-enjoyers back in the old decades when fantasy "wasn't cool".

In fact, I wonder if this behavior isn't somehow related to the fact that fantasy became much more widespread, normal, recognized and "cool" - meaning the type of idiots who mocked non-usual and deemed-weird subjects got "absorbed" within the fantasy sphere, and simply switched from "Let's not care about fantasy cause it's weird and not real literature" to "Okay, fantasy can be good since everybody is into it, but let's still disdain and reject weird stuff within fantasy".

#another one of my vague rants #fantasy #fantasy books #fantasy literature

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wizardnuke · 4 months

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im talking about the essay grade again and i got off topic and started talking about the lit analysis potential inthe vast majority of fanfictionbjust. Ignore

i feel like it's such a humblebrag for me to be like "i don't understand how i continually get really good grades in english" because i understand objectively that 1) i am very good at analysis and/or. finding quotes to support whatever the fuck thesis i decided would be easy to support (see: "good at analysis") (i think i honestly just randomly hit the jackpot on "good thesis" but on god i just looked at macbeth and gawain respectively and was like Ah. Women's Wrongs. Easy Peasy) and 2) i know from looking at other people's essays that i am just kind of. marginally-to-a-lot better at grammar and phrasing/understand the very specific madlibs-style layout i have to use and what vocabulary that i need to be putting out. it's madlibs. there's a really technical and specific layout that needs to be followed and i just kind of follow it. it's not hard. it is boring. if i could write academic papers on the shit i'm actually interested in they'd be worthless because it's niche and/or wild tumblr user conjecture. anyone who seriously writes on. hold on i need to generate a thesis. "the cyclic nature of abuse and its direct correlation to homoeroticism in cn's supernatural" could u fucking imagine. that's hilarious. that's some hackjob shit no matter how well i could keep a straight face on the matter because all that people care about is Old Shit. i have no real vested interest in actual literary works beyond "they're important and better than people think". i have extremely strong feelings on a lot of modern works, generally movies and shows and niche dnd webshows, i cannot make a career in that shit, my english prof thinks fanfic is bullshit and i see where he's coming from! i don't think it's bullshit. but. the academic perspective on fanfiction is like "they're not making original work" because the setting/adjacent themes and characters r lifted from another work and there's no real originality in it except that the best fics i've read are like.. an alternate form of literary analysis that is so far from actual essay writing that it's unrecognizable. but people can see the themes and the motifs and rehash them in a way that is absolutely a kind of analysis of the original work, but with flourishes and new ideas and batshit choices that the og media either couldn't make/didn't feel like making/tentacle sex wasn't really thematically fitting but an author decided "hey what if i put themes into this consentacles fic" and like, i want to argue that that's legit. sometimes. but i am not going to do that bc i sound objectively insane and also sometimes it is just not that deep and that will be brought up as an argument and i just don't care enough to explain that it's still an art form even if it's not that deep. is "fun and funky fresh" not a common motivator. if "new interpretations" of works like shakespeare and shit where they plunk the characters into a modern setting and fuck with the phrasing is seen as a viable art form/type of analysis then fanfic is an art form/analysis adjacent to that. not all of it though. some of it is something else that is worse. not that i think that is in itself bad. fanfic is a hobby. can't make a career out of that. but people have made careers out of that by changing the names and setting and publishing books. and that's viable apparently. i just personally am insane and enjoy writing very serious and/or emotionally driven meta on dnd shows. i like themes and motifs and i think that while a quickly written meta post on the tragedy inherent in redemption arcs that hit 50k is absolutely not as academically sound as a cited paper on a similar subject, there's Something To It and there's got to be some kind of potential in it. i like stories. idk if i could make a living out of talking about stories especially from the insane angle that i tend to hit stories at. the possibility of making it a genuine career is driven down below ground after i take into consideration my insanity about modern stories vs my neutrality on older ones. what am i talking abt. bf is yelling for me bye

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thecomicsnexus · 2 days

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TMNT ADVENTURES: THE FOREVER WAR (kind of FAN MADE)

April 2024

By Steve Murphy, Chris Allan, Andrew Modeen, Artem Tsarkov, Arseniy Dubakov, Egor Prutov , Jon D'Agostino, Dmitry Bobrovnik, Yuri Kochin, and Jim Lawson.

The Shredder finally succeeds at erasing the Turtles from history and conquering the world. But the Turtles and Splinter will try to defeat him and ensure their existence in this conclusion of the iconic Archie series.

SCORE: 8

You'll have to forgive the lack of images, but it is very hard to scan this book (I'll see what I can do for the video review, but I may need to work with photos of it). In any case, this is another of those fan projects by Arseniy Dubakov and Andrew Modeen... but with some interesting twists in its genesis.

You probably remember that this saga was announced in 1995 before the Archie adventures were canceled, and fans have been speculating forever about how the story ended.

In 2009 we almost got the conclusion by the original team (Steve Murphy and Chris Allan), but the turtles were sold to Viacom and the plans never materialized. In any case, Murphy couldn't remember where he was going with the story, so it would be fair to say that it was never going to be the same arc.

More recently, Chris Allan met Arseniy and the two got together to make this project happen. The first chapter (which was made public at some point in the past few years), was mostly recovered from 1995, but it had been colored and edited by the new team.

As far as I know, the second chapter was plotted by Steve Murphy, and I can say that the two first chapters feel the most like the original book... with some annoying differences.

After that, the book does its job, and the story works very well. The project was promoted as "closing all open plots" of the original series, but fortunately, it only tried to solve a time paradox that has always been a problem in that book. I applaud the restrain of the writers from bringing up every single plot point just to let readers know they read the book (as is usually the case with these projects).

The art is probably the most spectacular aspect of the book. It's an updated look for the Archie adventures that for the most part, looks like a continuation of the story. There are some stylistic differences when it comes to inking after chapter one, but you get used to them after a while.

The book comes with two back-up stories. One penciled by Jim Lawson that tries to make sense of the convoluted Archie timeline (specifically about which Shredder you were looking at in each adventure). The second backup is some sort of epilogue to Forever War that will leave you with more questions than answers.

For me, the weakest point of the book is the "overwriting" from Andrew.

It's hard to explain, but Andrew goes into these long narrations directed at the reader that just feel overproduced and underproduced at the same time. There is an overuse of "Modeen" expressions that can be said by any character at any time. Perhaps because he is not doing the writing/plotting alone, this is his best story yet. We know Andrew is a fan, an we know he can write. But it would be nice if he could work on his dialogues and... I'm going to call it now... think twice before adding an unnecessary celebrity quote at the beginning of each chapter.

I am not sure if this was in the original plot, but some elements in this story were even darker than the original series (like slashing a classic character in two). I get that we all grew up and we can take it, but this should be a continuation of that book, and I feel that it wasn't this bloody (most of the time).

But again, this story worked for me, it didn't bring up characters and plots just for the sake of it, and the turtles were front and center.

Should we consider this an ending for the Archie series? Well, just like it happened with Volume 3 before Urban Legends came out, this is all we can get. It's technically just the story, and not a proper ending, so you could still consider "Year of the Turtle" the final story (I assume that it not being referenced was intentional). There is one reference to "TMNT: Odyssey" (because for some reason, all these projects need to share the same multiverse), but it can be easily ignored... I think.

Maybe one day IDW will decide to do their own version of Forever War, but I don't think Chris Allan would go through this ordeal again... I think it could be published as is (fourth-wall monologuing included). Perhaps censoring some of the blood, to keep it consistent with Archie guidelines.

Now, let's take a look at those spoilers after the break...

You guessed it, most of the chapters take place in an alternate timeline. This allows for familiar characters to return even if they were already dead. And also introduces Carter to the Archie universe... and he may be British... I don't know.

Most characters show up to die... which isn't unusual on alternate timeline stories, but feels like a waste. Carter and Claire had very little time to do anything, and Claire being April's sister is an interesting twist... but I wonder what caused it? It is implied that they may have been separated at some point, but the existence of the same photograph without her suggests there wee further alterations to that timeline.

The Mutanimals play the bad guys... probably for the better. I wonder if the reason they didn't undo their deaths, or brought back Cherubae, was so that it could all tie into "TMNT: Odyssey"? Whatever the reason was, I appreciate it.

Perhaps the biggest reveal was that Chet was the Rat King. While this is a fun twist, some things are a bit too convenient. Why did he choose the H'antaan name? And why didn't he ever mentioned this to anyone in the original timeline? (Apart from the flashback in this book).

Overall, Shredder's plan makes sense (for once), although he somehow recreated all the mutants from the original series, even the ones that weren't mutants (like Katmandu)... perhaps he and Al'Falqa simply joined the cause.

There isn't much characterization for the turtles, but I think is in line with the original book as well. And to be fair, the main focus is the story.

The Jim Lawson back-up also introduces another problem, a Shredder that finally remember everything (this may be the one in "Year of the Turtle"). Mr. Null decides to share all of this, searching for the Turnstone (a "TMNT: Odyssey" plot). I don't like these fan-projects being all connected, but I appreciate the long explanation of the Shredder paradox in the Archie adventures. It also officialized that Armaggon created the Archie universe.

I would have appreciated a Mr. Null origin story... but I guess that would have clashed with "Odyssey" (and this is why I don't like them being connected).

I may sound negative, but my nitpicks only took two points from the overall score. I am happy with the results, and I think we can now stop wondering what it could have been.

Although... can you imagine what it could have been in 1995?

That my friends... is the forever war.

[Include some super serious celebrity quote here]

#comics #review #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #post modern age #archie comics #2024 #1995 #teenage mutant ninja turtles adventures #the forever war #fan fiction #chris allan

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banavalope · 1 year

Note

Calling it an ARG isn’t just ‘technically’ incorrect its 100% incorrect. It wasn’t even a fandom thing the creator made it as an art project and it blew up overwhelmingly and now they don’t even want to do it anymore

Look bud, you’ve kind of got me between a rock and a hard place here. The artist has asked people not use his words as artillery against each other, and quoting him directly is the only way I can accurately respond to you, so we've come to an impasse.

Anyway I wanna talk about ARG semantics instead, which is an interesting conversation we can both have together.

It involves analyzing analog horror as a whole to understand how we've arrived at having both a modern, and a traditional, definition of ARG.

To make a long story short, just in the event you're not here in good faith or perhaps don't like reading long essays - also to like. Do everyone a favor rq - the word people are looking for to properly define Welcome Home is ergodic analog horror. This is the umbrella term you're all looking for. Ergodic. We're moving on now.

Might I also recommend two video essays I love if you find this topic interesting: Ergodic Literature: The Weirdest Book Genre by CloudCuckooCountry and History of Analog Horror by Alex Hera

So lets ask: What makes something (not Welcome Home, we're not talking about that anymore, I do literally mean Something in General) "technically" an ARG?

Our modern day definition of an ARG has quite honestly become interchangeable with the term ergodic literature, most likely due to "ergodic literature" being an obscure term; however, the evolution of the analog horror genre subverting what it means to be "a game" is a much more likely cause that I think is important to appreciate.

By traditional definition - perhaps having been lost to time, this was the early 00s after all - an ARG is only a proper ARG when there is a game master orchestrating a game, and the story does not, will not, and can not progress without player participation. There are quite a few famous ARGs our there that went on for years before being finished because the participants got stuck. It's entirely on you to finish the narrative. Think of them like global LARP sessions, a lot of visiting physical locations to get your next clue is involved.

There are lots of traditional ARGs, some famous ones include projects like I Love Bees, Blair Witch Project, and the very infamous "Hey Peabrain, you teleport?" that happened right here on tumblr dot com. These games are my experience with defining what is or isn't an ARG.

Of course, time moves on with or without us, and I've come to accept that ARG is a broader term than it was before.

It's important to note that ARGs are the direct birth parent of modern analog horror. In fact, while analog horror has always existed as a sort of artistic backdrop, it wasn't a named genre until Local58 offhandedly defined itself with the term "analog horror". Many well known analog horror projects such as Mandela Catelogue, Gemini Home Entertainment, or Mystery Flesh Pit National Park, take much of their inspiration from the groundwork Local58 laid, and took to calling themselves analog horror as well, as one might expect.

Now, these influential supergiants are in, what you might call, "read only" format. Audience participation is not needed for the story to progress, which is a necessary component of an ARG.

Until it isn't!

Looking at art projects like This House Has People In It, Liminal Land, Doki Doki Liturature Club, or House of Leaves - just to name a few - they are all alternate reality "games" (one of them is literally a game). AR"G"'s, if you will.

The narrative presents itself as being contained, but very much is asking you to engage with it, if you so choose. They lay out clues to be found that take you to the next Easter Egg, and a deeper story can be ascertained, but only if you want. This is, technically, an ARG.

You can also just choose to play Doki Doki without digging into the sound files and extracting the meta data to get the secret art, or just watch This House Has People In It without finding the related secret website explaining Links Disease, either option is a "correct" way to read the media. You only stand to gain a different perspective by looking into more.

Which again, that's ergodic literature.

But these projects are famously considered ARGs.

These projects were huge, some of them mainstream, and were a lot of people's first time introduction to analog horror and ergodic literature. Some of these self define as an ARG when that's technically incorrect.

Altruistically, what these projects are accomplishing, is creating accessibility to the game space of the ARG genre. Cherrypicking all the self contained, gamelike elements, without committing to orchestrating a game. Traditional ARGs are typically extremely time sensitive, and one might "miss out" for arriving late to an event, or having limited access to necessary tools. Perhaps some people feel unsafe at the prospect of going to an unknown physical location, on the hope it's part of the game. Traditional ARGs were once incredibly niche for that reason. Modern AR"G"s keep this to a minimum, if not outright omit it in favor of telling a good story.

I'm not sure if there's a recent example out there of a traditional ARG, other than Hey Peabrain? Certainly there are some, to be honest with you I've moved on from traditional ARGs in favor of modern ones and other analog horror media subgenres, but my point being that they're becoming less common as they're increasingly replaced by Hunt-A-Killer style story ""games"". Shortly, we'll see some of the same evolutions begin to happen as digital horror outpaces analog horror as the shiny new popular horror genre. With digital horror's inclusion of formats like tiktok, I would expect to see us circle around again to traditional games being explored within the alternate reality space, as it lends itself well to that kind of thing.

In general, people are going to be familiar with this form of ARG, where "game" means "a story asking you to engage with it", and will default to using ARG in that way. In the broader experience of others, ergodic literature is an ARG, even though ARGs are not ergodic literature, technically. Most ARGs calling themself an ARG are not ARGs, mntechnically.

With any luck, this essay was compelling. It's just a thinker, really, I'd be interested to hear what you - or anyone - might think.

I'll reiterate, here, in closing, that by no means is this analysis meant to be seen as being in defence of, or opposition against, how anyone chooses to use the term ARG. I'm making no statements about Welcome Home or the people who took to it as if it were a traditional ARG. Neither am I expressing my opinion on the way fans engage with art projects, or even actual ARGs. That's a whole other conversation we aren't having here.

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m-writingphase · 22 days

Text

intro !!

reading is recommended so you know what you're getting yourself into :3

last edit: 4/4/24

Hi! I'm M (or em, if you prefer)

any pronouns, i don't mind really

main blog is @meerealsssss so technically that blog's art is my art ‼️

EST

likes: pjo (all series, but i only finished the main series), bsc (im only to book 45), music, writing (obviously), drawing, rain/thunder, warm weather, reading, sleeping, musicals, and theatre

i'm a writer, i write

i may repost other work from other people because i love other people's work

mainly the things i write will be angsty (im not sure why, just the first things that come up in my mind). but i do write happy things now and then

my writing can always be used for inspiration, you don't need to tag me in whatever you're writing, you can if you want, but please don't claim it as your own idea

sometimes my silly little sentences will come with a picture, but most of the time what i write doesn't mean anything.

enter asks about my writing, or a request of something i should write about!

[BUT PLEASE, NO NSFW THINGS, OR ANYTHING THAT IS 18+ I AM ALLOWED TO REFUSE TO ANSWER YOUR ASK]

extra

capricorn (born dec. 25🎄‼️)

i play the flute (terribly)

im not religious (but i will respect you if you are)

i will love you forever if you send anon love /p

tags!

my usual writing: #*scribble scribble*

asks: #a letter!

my art: #m art

requested writing: #for you, friend!

writing specifically about a song or its lyrics: #🎵 write

quoting someone/something: #quotes for the world

may add more over time

DNI

racists, pedophiles, z00philes, porn blogs

if you hate on therians/furries, LGBTQ+, other religions, and don't respect them then this isn't a place for you

this is meant to be a safe place

where else am i?

like i said, @meerealsssss

my youtube

my tiktok (almost never active)

pintrest (like i said, almost never active)

#intro post #intro #about me

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angomay · 2 years

Note

Please do talk more about Ryuunosuke's arm guard and the stuff you found out while researching it

Ah! Well, Ryunosuke’s arm guard is never explained in game (or out of), and I don’t believe it’s ever commented upon, either? So it’s hard to know it’s exact purpose, or why Ryunosuke is so insistent on wearing it (even in his DLC outfit, where he sheds Kazuma’s armband, instead). The official art book gives us a reason for its existence, visually speaking; but no character driven one, as far as I know.

From what I’ve seen there are three possible things it could be (well… technically two, IMO, but I’ll get to that soon enough). I touched upon this in my last post, but I’ll go into a bit more detail this time.

1.) A kyudo arm guard.

This is the most popular assumption. However, I believe it’s the most unlikeliest of the three.

[ID: Official concept art of Ryunosuke Naruhodo. He is wearing traditional Japanese clothing and two arm guards. He is looking to the side, holding up a bow used for kyudo. End ID]

The biggest reason why I don’t believe it’s a kyudo arm guard is this image here; this is the only time we’ve ever seen him with a bow… and he’s using a separate armguard! This isn’t a definitive clue, per se — there’s a possibility that armguard could be for something else entirely, but then… why include it in this sketch specifically?

However, I will admit that a kyudo armguard wouldn’t be entirely out of place for Ryunosuke. Armguards are typically used by beginners — which Ryunosuke may very well be. He’s said to be bad at archery (while stationary), so it would make sense for him to use an armguard. However, since there’s so little connecting him to archery… I just don’t think this is the case.

(Side note: This sketch is also the foundation for my “Left-handed Ryu” theory… but I’ll save that for another time.)

So, onto the more likelier candidates:

2.) A kendo armguard.

[ID: An arm modeling a kendo armguard, shown from above. End ID]

The biggest factor here is how well it visually matches. I’m aware armguards are wont to look similar, no matter their purpose, but this is the closest resemblance I’ve seen. It would also connect extremely well to the most outstanding part of Ryunosuke’s design: Karuma.

Though I will admit, I’m not entirely sure about this one, either. The main reason I started considering this as a possibility is because the localization director mentions kendo directly when speaking about Ryunosuke’s bracer.

My biggest issue with this explanation is the same as kyudo; there’s so little connecting him to either sport, making it strange to include it in his design (especially when it’s one of the few aspects that are meant to help him stand out — but more on that later). The fact remains, however, that he probably did take up kendo and kyudo (especially with having Kazuma for a friend), so it’s not entirely implausible.

3.) A tekou.

Finally, there’s a tekou.

[ID: An arm modeling a tekou, shown from above. End ID]

This is the most fitting, in my opinion, and what I lean towards the most. A tekou is a traditional Japanese armguard that is worn for travel and work. It makes sense that something included with the sole purpose of distinguishing his design would be related to travel, since a lot of Ryunosuke’s character is built upon his status as an exchange student. It’s also much more logical, since, well… we never see Ryunosuke practice archery or sword fighting in either game. This post here goes more into a bit more depth about it, if you’re interested.

Now! That’s all well and good — I can sit here and talk all day about what it might or might not be. But in truth, it wasn’t really meant to mean much at all. It exists only to help differentiate his design from any other university student of the time, and to help draw attention to his objection sprite. Here’s the official quote from the art book (curtesy of this post):

“TakumiD actually told me that he wanted the guard taken away many times over, but since it was one part I couldn't compromise in the design sense, I fought hard to keep it (LOL). I considered that the arm guard would help emphasize the "finger point" signature pose; it would avoid having Ryuunosuke look like a normal student character without the Japanese sword; and it was an insurance to maintain the atmosphere of that period.”

So! Yeah. That’s about it. I’m still no closer to an answer. I don’t think I ever will be, either, because it doesn’t matter. It’s just a design quirk. Either way, thank you for letting me yell about it! It’s been driving me crazy for the past two days, and now google thinks I’m in the market for a kendo armguard. The things I do for DGS.

#TLDR; it’s (probably) a tekou #either that or a kendo armguard #head in hands. i’m still not the meta mutual if you couldn’t tell #anyway. if any of this is wrong please feel free to correct me #and if there’s something obvious i’m missing please feel free to beat my ass in the replies. the tags. my inbox even #whatever floats your boat #asks #anon

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thestripedjester · 9 months

Text

Reoccurring Themes//My Thoughts//Highlights

https://www.tumblr.com/nyekoi/723937518316371968/simon-ghost-riley-who-always-pockets-every?source=share https://archiveofourown.org/works/45500692 https://www.tumblr.com/ragingbookdragon/724226040953782272/she-feels-the-warmth-flooding-down-the-front-of?source=share ___________________________________________________________

Not technically a commonplace book without quotes so here we are: “He was alone before you, being alone after would be nothing new” -Nyekoi

“They existed, before you, and they would still exist after you“ -Peachesof_Teal

“Simon Riley will never live after—only Ghost” -RagingBookDragon ____________________________________________________________

Recently I’ve been hyperfixated on Simon Riley and here are some of my thoughts.

I think we use Ghost as an escape from our own flaws and traumas, as a reflection of ourselves and our behavior. To romanticize the way he isolates and copes with himself and his trauma. Often we’ll excuse behaviors and feelings others will have but criticize them in ourselves. Maybe we’re just coping by showing compassion to another -fictional- being that we would not give ourselves. Something else is that a lot of people gatekeep acceptable responses and feelings. I find myself doing that a lot. With Ghosts backstory and his experiences, its hard not to find his responses acceptable. Many people will invalidate their feelings and responses because their experiences weren’t ‘severe enough’ or ‘traumatic’.

=======================================================

Another line of thought I’ve been having reading different fanfics and headcanons is that while stories are simply a slice of a life, I thoroughly enjoy short form content that embrace that they are shortform, a peek into a relationship.

With that comes the reoccurring theme of impermanence of a relationship and permanence in a memory or the self in music, literature, and art.

Ghost is afraid of losing people, as all of us are. His reaction reflects his experiences.

=======================================================

The tragedy of impermanence is what makes little moments so special.

That when

we’re given scraps of vulnerability and care,

we’ll grasp them with open hands,

and hold on to them with fists so tight,

till our knuckles turn white.

Our skin rots and turn to bone,

still white, pure with love.

========================================================

There is something beautifully tragic about relationships that are temporary. For something to exist before and after.

The jealousy and betrayal of them existing after they leave you; that you cannot stay by their side till your end.

I want to highlight the part of Nyekoi’s piece that touches on the pain of losing someone, in that you must exist after them, without them. That despite how much they take from you, they leave you so much more. The anger of them being with someone new, and the fresh wound of realization, as well as the bitter acceptance right when you first come to terms that they will leave or that they are gone. That you had existed without them, and that you will have to exist without them. Ghost here is afraid of losing you, yet has already accepted that he will. Every moment is bittersweet but he refuses not to savor every moment, because he refuses to lose your memory, the you he has now, and can’t lose in his mind.

The fear of fucking up, not being enough, and the resentment for himself, who he is, what he is, being the reasoning he thinks he’s going to lose you.

The raw feeling of anger, betrayal, and overwhelming feeling of loss that drowns out the rest of the world when they are gone. Over time you’ll claw your way to the surface, and you’ll hope that it’s getting better - that you are getting better - until the waves crash, dragging you back under the water. The self-resentment that comes with thinking you haven’t gotten any better and guilt that you’re being a burden, slow, a disappointment, or weak. Dead Disco had me dead and crying. The guilt of jealousy and insecurity eating at someone is an all-consuming pain. Still, the reoccurring idea that they had existed without you, and will after, brings down the world.

Reader’s self-pity, anxiety, and insecurity brings her relationship to a halt before they can make the choice to leave her - if Ghost and Soap haven’t already considered already and done so - because the idea is overwhelming and all-consuming. This AU where Reader dies on the battlefield is an interesting reflection of the temporary moments that Reader and Ghost have together but instead of their own insecurities, anxieties, and actions being the force that tears them apart, but an external force - their job and battlefield - tearing them apart.

Here is Simon Riley surrenders himself to the Reader, that all of him is for her. Ghost will be the only thing to exist after she goes.

Whereas Simon in ‘[Simon] who always pockets’ has come to accept his existence after the Reader leaves, Simon in ‘She feels the warmth...’ refuses to except living without her and chooses to only live as Ghost without her.

_____________________________________________________________

These situations are all different but I just thought I’d just share some highlights of these pieces cause I loved each of them and they had me in my feelings.

It’s not a complete collection of my feelings and thoughts but I’ll probably revisit this later. It’s just interesting to see different interpretations of Simon Riley and how their relationships would go.

#my thoughts ig #commonplace journal #commonplace book #in my feels #downbad #i am unwell #ghost #simon ghost riley #hyperfixation #hes just a little guy #angst

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toolazytodecide · 1 year

Note

Hey! I like the fandoms you post about. Do you have any book recommendations? I need something to listen to while I file things at work but I’m bad at predicting what I’ll like because it feels like nothing I’m into has any Google-able overlap. It’s like, if I enjoy the author’s outlook I’ll love anything they make but I don’t care what the book is actually about.

I think about this quote all the time, esp when Netflix is all “you liked Buffy, you might like Vampire Diaries.”😒

“No one knew what Ganseylike was, even Gansey. Teachers and family friends were always collecting articles and stories that they thought might capture his attention, things they thought were Ganseylike. The well-meaning items always addressed the most obvious parts of him. Welsh kings or old Camaros or other young people who had travelled the world for bizarre reasons no one else understood. No one dug down past that, and he supposed he didn't much encourage it. There was a lot of night in those days behind him, and he preferred to turn his face into the sun. Ganseylike. What was Ganseylike?” — The Raven King

First of all you are absolutely correct. I had completely forgotten that Gansey quote but it really does summarise where recommendations fail so well.

My first thought was oh what do I like with similar themes or in the same category? But fuck that I'm just gonna tell you my favourites and a little about them and you can pick what interests you.

1. My FAVOURITE book is The Goldfinch. I only read it this year but it absolutely destroyed my brain and I havent recovered.

Basic summary: 13 year old Theo Decker survives a terrorist attack at an art gallery but loses his mother and in his shock accidentally takes home famous painting: The Goldfinch. First half of the story is him as a teen, second half is as an adult. Theres a lot of themes like drug abuse, internalized homophobia, PTSD and suicide. It's a great book if you love analyzing the fuck out of books. He also develops a mildly codependent (and very gay) friendship with another boy who later becomes a gangster.

It is very different to NHIE and TRC in that it's a lot more....negative? Like the plot resolves itself but you will not be satisfied by the ending. The characters are all very flawed, which I suppose is similar to characters like Adam and Devi but in different ways.

2. Six of Crows- have you read this? If you havent it's like a mandatory read. Its technically a sequel to Shadow and Bone but I read it first and it was fine.

Summary- 6 rag tag teens team up in a dangerous fantasy world to take on the heist of the century.

It's so good man. When I tell you Kaz Brekker is my favourite character of all time I am not joking. Also bonus points for a disabled main character as written by a disabled author. It's very found family with a lot of plot twists and lovable characters.

3. All for the game- this one is here because I love it but objectively I know it's an acquired taste with questionable writing.

All 3 of these so far show my love of a sneaky protagonist with an allergy to telling people about themselves. These books are absolutely bizarre and shouldnt work but they do!

Basic summary: Neil Josten has spent his life on the life from his mobster father after he and his mother escaped him. His mom just died and rather than keep hiding he allows himself to take the opportunity of a lifetime to go to college and play Exy (made up sport) for a team that specializes in taking those who have had rough lives and usually would be picked (e.g drug addicts, foster kids etc)

It's a surprisingly wonderful series about mental health, occasional murder and one of the best love stories I've read. This one is also really popular with ao3 so if you're after something that will give you a lot of wonderful ff this is the best one so far.

(There are a number of trigger warnings for this book I would recommend you look up beforehand.)

Bonus rec: Vicious by V.E Scwab. I need to go into work now but basically told from the supervillains perspective, but honestly I'm on his side anyway. Victor just got out of prison and has the ability to control pain. So he can either inflict pain or say hire henchmen that he pays by curing their chronic pain. (As someone with chronic pain I cant blame them tbh)

he also adopts this kid who can resurrect the dead and it's a great little supervillain found family. I havent read it in ages but there is a sequel I need to read and from what I remember it was very good.

#book recs #all these main characters are slytherins do i have a type #for protaganists not in women thank god #i did not proofread this bc i need to go into work hope its not crap

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naysaltysalmon · 2 years

Text

I decided to introduce myself a little more by telling you some fun facts about myself:

Tagged by @lizard-dumbass

Nay (Nayru Elric on my fanfic accs) | he/they/she | Pan/bi/queer | Genderfluid | Capricorn (☀️) Gemini (🌙) Scorpio (🌅)

~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~

🥮 My ancestors are primarily from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula. I think we were Second Generation Irish immigrants; some also lived in Puerto Rico more recently. It seems we never had any wealth to our name.

🥮 I have no idea what happened to my ancestors before they crossed the Atlantic to the United States. (I guess one of my surnames is a famous crest in Great Britain, though?)

🥮 Unfortunately, my father’s mother forbid her kids from learning Spanish from her husband due to Americanization / assimilation politics / racism. I’m doing my best to reconnect with my latine heritage by teaching myself and seeking out that side of my family now. I’ve also been teaching myself Japanese for a while.

🥮 I did English-style equestrian when I was 8-10 (hurdles, jumps, trotting, cantering). I was pretty good at it but never participated in any competitions. I miss barn/farm life.

🥮 I started learning piano when I was in kindergarten. That was over 17 years ago now. I haven’t been able to keep up with it as much since the start of college; my technicality has definitely suffered, but my musicality and intuition has improved greatly~

🥮 My family had a built-in pool when I was younger. I used to spend all my summers there – at least 2 hours a day, almost every day – up until I was about 10. I am the best swimmer I know. When I’m not near the ocean or some other large body of water for a while, I get very sad.

🥮 I grew up in the cold winters and sweltering humid summers of Minnesota. Some of y’all don’t know what true cold is; but I also can’t stand the heat, or being in arid climates for long. (I always get nosebleeds!)

🥮 I was that kid who used to love sitting alone laying out all my collections of rocks, books, legos, feathers, toy horses, polly pockets, littlest pet shop, small spoons, toy cars, etc. etc. just to see them in different color, size, alphabetical, numeric, thematic, etc. orders. I only just accepted that I’m autistic.

🥮 I’ve dealt with intense bouts of depression since middle school and crippling anxiety for as long as I can remember. My toxic childhood home life did not help with this.

🥮 Apparently I do a lot of different voices when I talk, imitating different caricatures of people when I quote them, something I didn’t realize until my last few partners started copying me!!

🥮 It’s always been really easy for me to connect with animals. They seem to latch onto my calm energy and immediately become interested in me and approach me. I go crazy if I’m not near nature (clear skies, clean air, wildlife) for an extended period.

🥮 I’m very interested in the connection between reality and the spiritual. I once wanted to become a scientist, until I realized that personal beliefs were deemed “irrational,” and supposed to be wiped clean from endeavors to understand observational truth. Science, desiring to perpetuate the human race, was blind to its own biases in assuming such an arrogant, detached position; but I think there is a lot that we cannot see at play in the world around us all the time. Things science can’t explain, but most of the scientists I grew up around were atheists who mocked anyone who believed in anything that couldn’t be observed in the data. It’s vomit-inducing.

🥮 I’ve always enjoyed animation over live-action media. Something about the inherent suspense of disbelief in a timeless art style, the carefully choreographed fluid and jerky movements... It invited me to go on a fantastical journey more than live-action could growing up.

~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~🪷~

I hope you’ll reblog and give a few fun facts about yourself so we can get to know each other a little better~! Open to all!

Tagging: @emiliosandozsequence @mirycactusito @stupidbluejay @mattbear-music-nz @jackshade21 @spatialdecay

#I was tagged #tag game #tagging #tag #Nay talks #thanks for tagging me i hope y'all'll do it!!!!!#i went into way more detail than any of the ppl who wrote it before me so don't feel pressured to write small essays

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nailamoonsi · 15 days

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2 and a half years worth of Blue Horizon book 1 pitches (mostly Pitlight) [and a bit of light novel and book 2]

The first "pitch" ever, and it mostly dealt with draft 1 of Blue Horizon book 1--back when in my mind I fancied writing a simple novella with the dads, Ranvir and Armando, before tackling an epic novel project after that (but that's now book 2).

I realized a lot in the process of figuring out book 1 through 2020 and 2021, however, and it quickly grew into a monster of a project--yet another epic science fantasy book for the series in my head. In my head I think of it as "the prequel novel." However I've long called it "book 1" online, so it'll stay "book 1." (It is complete but not yet published.)

Some parts of the pitch above barely has anything to do with book 1 as it is now...for Ranvir and Armando and friends. Weirdly, it might work for characters who show up later within book 1.

The moodboard above I'm very fond of as the first moodboard ever, and it involved the Chandrani family's energy re: ocean and water as well as a concept for "a wide open world." However I rarely wound up using it compared to the later regulars. (And apparently never for pitch practice again or any pitch event.)

A big note for all pitches is that any photography is by someone else and gotten from free-to-use stock image sites like Pexel and Unsplash BUT any drawn art is mine.

Above is the first times I tried bringing up the eerie aspect AND the soft aspect of Blue Horizon book 1. This was my experimental stage in all ways--a pitch with a mood and my first attempt at a "typical" moodboard, though obviously I wound up dropping these moodboards immediately. As can be seen with the moodboards I would settle on hereafter, I did need this stage to understand what I really wanted to go for!

As for the pitches--in the former, it basically revolves around the way the reader first walks into the novel, so to speak. In the second, it hints something about Ranvir and Armando, and brings up the Protector of Worlds without naming the role.

THIS WAS THE FIRST DEBUT OF MY MAIN 2 MOODBOARDS!!! And the first Pitlight I ever took part of in 2022. It somehow got to 23 notes without retweets (that 1 is for a quote retweet).

This was a quick Nanowrimo write-up--I can tell why people didn't take to it, but I guess in terms of pitches, I was learning and it didn't really matter, especially in the early days. Currently I'm doing Camp Sapphic instead.

This was the first time I referred to the Protector (of Worlds). It's technically a typical storyline across epic fantasies and many other types of stories--a "chosen one," so to speak, but in reality this is a job that's passed from person-to-person in their world, and was once representative of their place in the galaxy.

So this pitch very much focused on Ranvir and Armando right as I was finishing up Part 1, which is largely THEIR story arc! I'm very affectionate of it.

For a few posts in the early days, I kept reusing the first digital Armando and Ranvir art I ever drew. ; v ;

This was the first time I brought up the Mysterious Children (they keep appearing before Ranvir and Armando at different ages). This wasn't the first time I utilized this moodboard--the first time was January 2022!

But as people can tell at this point, this moodboard actually represents Alejandro Altaha and Antonio Chandrani-Rivera! Specifically, the sun, moon, lavender clouds, and the white clouds with shadowed figures skating across them with a teal sky surrounding--the shadowed figures are Ale and Tono.

I reused the same pitch for the later November Nano:

--this year however I'm doing Camp Sapphic and have let go of Nanowrimo due to its controversies. Edit in the evening is that this was the first time I got an agent like!

Even though this was extremely exciting and kept me going, I'm solo self-publishing Blue Horizon.

Next, back to summer 2022 pitches:

This was something I was hoping people would like, and in the end wound up one of my most popular pitches! :D This focuses on the warmer side of Blue Horizon and brings up a key character we all know by now--Antonio Chandrani-Rivera--for the first time!

(I'm unsure how much agents can gauge from this pitch, but I do like the feeling of it though and thus obviously used it for Pitlight.)

The rest under a cut because honestly I'll admit this is insane long.

This was the first time I brought up the children borne by magic lore! I forgot I did that when I looked back at old posts like 2 weeks ago. I'm actually surprised it got 11 likes, as I wasn't sure how people would see the children borne by magic subplot. Noticeable through the webcomic already!

So these two pitches are nearly identical; I was just worried one of the first pitch wasn't specific enough. However the first pitch got more retweets, likes and views, LOL. (It's an interesting situation--I think sometimes you wind up lucky with pitches.)

It'll become noticeable that I wanted to start referring to Antonio and Alejandro's conflicts, but Layla and Alia are major characters too, and thus I tried to put Layla in as well. However, at one point, people mentioned Layla comes off a bit random at the end of these sort of pitches. :"3c I do get that, but aw...

Overall, I realized what was best to focus on--Ranvir and Armando and their son (a.k.a. a direct connection) Antonio Chandrani.

MY FIRST OFFICIAL AGENT-RELATED PITCH EVENT... QueerPit! Official pitch events have been sporadic on Twitter since around 2022 but I was happy to catch this one.

Since I wound up emailing a lot of agents I decided not to take part in that many official agent-oriented pitch events in the end--my last was only my second one I believe, a.k.a. DVPit (unless I've blanked out another agent-oriented pitch event on Twitter). Those I won't show here directly from DVPit on Discord but from what I dropped for Twitter afterwards.

FOR THIS ONE... It was the first time I ever pitched... THE LIGHT NOVEL (also completed but unpublished). Just wanted to try.

This wasn't a real pitch exactly, and I dropped it on Twitter on September 28, 2023! However, this was the first time I brought up the scope of the epic science fantasy book 1 and its LGBT romances. My last Main pitch for Blue Horizon back a few days ago focuses on that too.

SO THIS IS THE FIRST OF 2 NEW PITCHES THAT I CRAFTED FOR BOOK 1 IN THE DVPIT SERVER ON DISCORD FOR THE OFFICIAL AGENT-ORIENTED PITCH EVENT, DVPIT...

For some reason neither were very popular on Twitter, but I like both of them a lot. My guess is due to the decision to try using a video for this one and a cropped art for the other one. [I did get agent likes...for the pitch I reused from QueerPit 😂 (which thankfully also got agent likes). However, I'm solo self-publishing Blue Horizon, as most of y'all know.]

Above is the first moment I was stressed, but thankfully by early this month I wound up cheery again.

So this was my first serious dud pitch after a very long time (i.e. my first Nano in March 2022). This one isn't the one I dropped on the actual NYEPitch day (also 1 like)--I'm embarrassed to show that one, but I was excited over people having fun about sun mage OCs at that time around the original day of January 1, and didn't think about terminology (I paid attention for my book)--since I use the term "water-bearer" and "ocean-bearer" a lot in my book, I ORIGINALLY used the term "bearer of the sun" for Alejandro [who's part of a binary star system] and "moon-and-sea-bearer" for Antonio in the pitch. (I do not use anything near "bearer of the sun" within Blue Horizon's epic fantasy books as I don't want to use similar terminology used in a popular published book.) I realized my mistake very late and changed it on January 5th, after 4 days! There's also the fact that this wasn't a pitch for book 1--I wanted to relax and try a first and second-to-last pitch for book 2~

However, thankfully that started my artist adventure because I got gloomy over only getting 1 like for the original and decided I wanted to destress.

I think it's also partly due to my showing up late and not participating with others due to it (I was feeling nasty tbh), possible shadowban (my posts at this time started plummeting in views compared to before in the months prior), and not specifying in the post that it isn't a sudden change from book 1 pitching, but a random attempt at a book 2 pitch.

It's because I got really emotional over finishing a story arc between Antonio and Alejandro for book 2, essentially.

THIS WAS THE SECOND DVPIT PITCH I CRAFTED IN THE DVPIT SERVER, AKA FOR THE OFFICIAL AGENT-ORIENTED EVENT... The only change from DVPit server is that I used Antonio's surname there, a.k.a. used Antonio Chandrani.

This IS about book 1; the epic science fantasy is a multi-POV book. I liked this one too, but I'm guessing either Antonio's depression era POV or the cropped-looking art made it not appetizing? This pitch is essentially a flip in perspective to Ranvir and Armando's perspective, and done partly due to my admitting that obviously Antonio Chandrani-Rivera (and Layla Chandrani) are the "traditional" main protagonists (though it's a very ensemble cast-oriented epic science fantasy book [and comic]).

This was for ChaosPit. Pitch as badly as you can, iirc.

SOOOOO AFTER A LOT OF STRESS AFTER AUGUST... I'M GLAD MY LAST PITLIGHT AND PITCH EVENT FOR BLUE HORIZON WENT OFF WITH A BANG...!!! On April 6th:

FOR THIS LAST MAIN PITCH FOR BOOK 1, I really really wanted to show off the "epic science fantasy" scale as well as mention tons of BIPOC and LGBT characters existing in it! (Calling back to that earlier proto-pitch.) I'M REALLY GLAD IT WAS WELL-LIKED.

I liked being able to use those emojis, too! They just feel like they give implications and have a weird or '90's clipart vibe together.

This is still the same Pitlight! I just wanted to try pitching the completed (but unpublished) light novel before I stopped pitching for Blue Horizon. Surprised and glad it was liked more than I expected! :D

Since it was my last time pitching for Blue Horizon after 2 and a half years, I wanted to drop one pitch for Book 2~! The first story arc is pretty serious but I thought it'd be an interesting note for anyone curious about Blue Horizon book 1 and the light novel.

AND FINALLY... I originally wanted a "cyclical" ending to all those months and even years pitching by utilizing my first Pitlight pitch ever (which was never reused in the interim).

It would've looked dreamy like this. However, I f*cked up the pitch due to changing the first sentence BUT MAKING A HUGE ERROR. LAST PITLIGHT WAS FUN. That's all!

#blue horizon tag #writeblr #mywrites #my ocs #writers on tumblr #long post #blue horizon heritage post #blue horizon archiving

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stockmarketanalysis · 2 months

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"Mastering the Art of Scalp Trading: Strategies, Tools, and Tips for Swift Profits in the Stock Market"

Scalp trading, also known as scalping, is a popular trading strategy in the stock market characterized by its fast-paced nature. Scalpers aim to achieve profits from small price changes in stocks, often entering and exiting positions within minutes or even seconds. This high-frequency trading approach requires a comprehensive understanding of market movements, an ability to make quick decisions, and meticulous risk management. This article explores the intricacies of scalp trading, including its strategies, tools, benefits, risks, and tips for success.

Understanding Scalp Trading

Scalp trading is grounded in the principle of quantity over quality. Scalpers are not concerned with significant gains from a single trade; instead, they focus on the accumulation of small profits over a large number of trades throughout the trading day. This strategy hinges on the belief that smaller moves in stock prices are easier to catch than larger ones. Scalpers operate on thin margins and leverage high volumes to amplify their profits.

Key Strategies in Scalp Trading

Several strategies underpin successful scalp trading, including:

Bid-Ask Spread Capturing: Scalpers often buy at the bid price and sell at the ask price to gain the spread difference. This strategy requires a highly liquid market to execute quick trades.

Volume Heatmaps and Order Flow: Analyzing volume and order flow helps scalpers identify immediate directional moves in stock prices, enabling them to execute quick trades.

Technical Indicators and Chart Patterns: Short-term chart patterns and technical indicators like moving averages, RSI (Relative Strength Index), and MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) can signal entry and exit points for scalpers.

Tools for Scalp Trading

Successful scalp trading relies heavily on having the right tools, including:

High-Speed Internet and a Reliable Trading Platform: Speed is of the essence in scalp trading. Delays in order execution can significantly impact profitability.

Direct Market Access (DMA): DMA allows scalpers to interact directly with the exchange's order book, which is crucial for timely trade execution.

Real-time Market Data: Access to real-time quotes and market data is essential for making informed trading decisions quickly.

Benefits of Scalp Trading

Scalp trading offers several advantages:

Frequent Opportunities: The strategy capitalizes on the numerous small movements that occur in the stock market daily.

Limited Risk Exposure: By holding positions for a very short time, scalpers limit their exposure to large adverse market movements.

Market Flexibility: Scalp trading can be effective in both rising and falling markets, as it relies on small price changes rather than the market's overall direction.

Risks and Challenges

Despite its benefits, scalp trading is not without risks and challenges:

High Transaction Costs: Frequent trading increases transaction costs, which can eat into profits.

Requires Constant Attention: Scalp trading is time-intensive and requires constant market monitoring, which can be mentally exhausting.

Risk of Significant Losses: While individual losses are typically small, the cumulative effect of several losing trades can be significant. Additionally, high leverage can amplify losses.

Tips for Successful Scalp Trading

To maximize the chances of success in scalp trading, consider the following tips:

Start with a Demo Account: Practicing with a demo account can help traders understand the nuances of scalp trading without risking real money.

Set a Risk Management Strategy: Establishing stop-loss orders and daily loss limits can help manage risks effectively.

Keep a Trading Journal: Documenting each trade, including the strategy used, the outcome, and any lessons learned, can provide valuable insights for improving future trades.

Stay Informed: Keeping up with financial news and market trends can provide scalpers with a competitive edge.

Use Technology Wisely: Leveraging trading software with automation and alert features can enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

Conclusion

Scalp trading in the stock market is a challenging yet potentially rewarding strategy that suits traders who can dedicate the time, discipline, and focus required to succeed. It appeals to those who prefer a fast-paced trading environment and are comfortable making quick decisions. While scalp trading offers the potential for significant profits through the accumulation of small gains, it also carries risks that demand meticulous strategy and risk management. As with any trading strategy, success in scalp trading comes with experience, continuous learning, and an unwavering commitment to staying abreast of market dynamics.

#finance #investing stocks #stock trading #stock #stock market

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