Gale is totally pansexual too. He doesn't care what gender you are, he barely cares if you're an incorporeal blob or mass of tentacles.

Idk, TripleClick dubbing BG3 with the playersexual mantal is mostly irksome. Much like with DA2, as a bisexual playing an RPG, I want to imagine Tav in a found family of messy queer characters. They can romance whoever they're drawn to that way. (Honestly, often it's just me pretending they're one big polycule— a lot easier to do when the party are all over each other to varying degrees).

It's also that sexuality isn't a stereotype, yeah? The camp vamp can fall in love irrespective of gender and they can unpick his complicated relationship with sex together. The masculine scarred hero can be a sweet bisexual mess. The big beautiful butch can pick up whoever she wants to squeeze to her chest.

Is that Scourge in the background when Brick says that Redrock no longer falls under their authority?

Maybe. >B)

girls who are doomed by the narrative!! girls who have been dead since the beginning. girls who are dragged into death not kicking and screaming but clinging on to the brink until their fingers ache with the weight of the years they’ve stolen. girls who’s every last words are already etched on the stone of an open and waiting grave.

AU where Leo is trapped in the Prison Dimension for months instead of minutes and the only way he gets by with his sanity intact is through recording himself talking to his wrist comm.

When they finally manage to get Leo back and make him rest up to heal, Donnie can’t help but listen to the recordings left behind.

He’s not sure what exactly he’s expecting, only that his subconscious is screaming at him that it has to be heartbreaking, that it has to be torturous.

Instead, what Donnie is subject to is a full thousand hours’ worth of Jupiter Jim and Lou Jitsu crossover fanfiction. More than one part in the series. Spanning well over a million words.

(The worst part is that it’s actually good.)

the elusive 7 act Structure

watching the sdcc panel and i am just very :) about how sweet their answers to “what are some of the micro moments from the game that have stuck with you the most over the years?” are. taliesin saying what the fuck is up with that which was the first like The Party Gets To Know Each Other moments of c3. travis saying asking his wife if he could kiss her in campaign. marisha going way back to the cannonball competition in campaign one. ashley choosing the beauyasha date but also just the silly goat noise matt made. liam adding onto that to compliment matt roleplaying grass so well and then saying his favourite moment was writing a story for laura and reading it to her as caleb for jester. and then matt saying that was his answer, and that his favourite moments of the game are when they find ways to give gifts to each other whether tangible or not. and sam saying his favourite moments have less to do with the story and is more so when he can just. see his friends across the table from him. when marisha perches and when laura and ashley are (badly) drawing dicks and liam saying he loves when sam sneezes and ashley tells him to stop it and just. yeah. they Are an extremely popular online powerhouse, but i’m so happy that they’re also friends building a world together out of gifts to and love for one another.

like i Am so enamoured with the characters and the world of exandria but the moments when you can feel the love that those people have for each other reach out from behind the stained glass of their performances (to steal a metaphor from brennan lee mulligan) are so extremely special and i am endlessly grateful that they decided to share their silly little home game with the world.

so listen. we all know that if they ever made a tlt show it would be bad pretty much no matter what. so my pitch is let’s just give the project to steven moffat and see what he does with it. by the time he’s done we’ll have a show called “john” all about how tragically and manlily sad jod is and how you know what maybe imperialism is ok sometimes. tamsyn gets buckets of cash, some white guys get acting roles that they’ll regret the rest of their career, and i get a new hbomberguy video essay to rewatch every six months or so. someone call the fucking bbc ive solved this.

Home was the only place left.

Prints

I find it incredibly funny seeing some fans complain that the movie wasn't "lore accurate" as if FNAF has ever been consistent with its lore, like

Wow, the movie changes a lot of stuff and is not accurate to what we thought we knew? *looks at The Silver Eyes trilogy* I can't believe that, how horrible *looks at The Silver Eyes trilogy* Who would've thought they'd change stuff that makes us doubt what we know about the series *looks at the fourth fucking closet*

on storytelling and repetition

“...the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again.”

— Arundhati Roy on Indian mythology and folklore, in God of Small Things (1997)

“It was only once – once – that an audience went to see Romeo and Juliet, and hoped they might live happily ever after. You can bet that the word soon went around the playhouses: they don’t get out of that tomb alive. But every time it’s been played, every night, every show, we stand with Romeo at the Capulets’ monument. We know: when he breaks into the tomb, he will see Juliet asleep, and believe she is dead. We know he will be dead himself before he knows better. But every time, we are on the edge of our seats, holding out our knowledge like a present we can’t give him.”

— Hilary Mantel on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, in “Can These Bones Live?”, Reith Lecture, 2017

“So what makes this poem mnemonic is not just repetition. Rather, it’s the fact that with repetition, the repeated phrase grows more and more questionable. I’ve remembered “Come on now, boys” because, with every new repetition, it seems to offer more exasperation than encouragement, more doubt than assertion. I remembered this refrain because it kept me wondering about what it meant, which is to say, it kept me wondering about the kind of future it predicted. What is mnemonic about this repetition is not the reader’s ability to remember it, but that the phrase itself remembers something about the people it addresses; it remembers violence. Repetition, then, is not only a demonstration of something that keeps recurring: an endless supply of new generations of cruel boys with sweaty fists. It is also about our inability to stop this repetition: the established cycles of repetition are like spells and there’s no anti-spell to stop them from happening. The more we repeat, the less power we have over the words and the more power the words have over us. Poetic repetition is about the potency of language and the impotence of its speakers. In our care, language is futile and change is impossible.”

— Valzhyna Mort on Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, in “FACE – FACE – FACE: A Poet Under the Spell of Loss”, The Poetry Society Annual Lecture, 2021

Fantasy Racism in DnD:

Cross-cultural bigotry is a common element in fantasy because of the genre's relationship with exploring real world social, historical, and political conflict through allegories. However, the depiction of fantasy racism can be insultingly colonialist (this is why decolonisation of literature is important) and real world racism is often written into fantasy worldbuilding. The Hag archetype being anti-semitic, for example, or having a dehumanised "evil" race. DnD racism is particularly messy because the bones of the worldbuilding was set in place decades ago.

Here are some thoughts on how the BG3 companion bigotry is handled:

Shadowheart is not a bigot. She's responding to the role the Githyanki play within DnD (also, she just stole from them and doesn't want Lae'zel to look closely at what she has). Which is to say, she's responding to a Fascist cult that frequently raids Faerun. The Githyanki being an autocratic culture AND inhuman former slave race is one of those baked-in things DnD has been trying to fix over time. As they have with the Drow, Half-Orcs, Goblins, Gnomes, and sentient Monsters. It would be more accurate to say Shadowheart is anti-Fascist. Which... I'd hope we all were?

Lae'zel is very bigoted, but it's a testament to the writing in how well the allegories work with her. She is part of the attempt at decolonising the writing. Her being a party member and slowly unpicking her conditioning shows that there's no such thing as an "evil-aligned race". Lae'zel is a 22-year-old former child soldier who has been aggressively brainwashed by Nationalism into unquestioningly following the orders of her goddess/ruler. It only takes one visit to Faerun for her to (very slowly) question what she's been taught. Lae'zel's mind must be a warring house of bees throughout the first two acts, how could anyone blame her for being cranky?

Astarion's bigotry is far more personal. He's an extremely damaged and vindictive fellow, so it makes sense he'd take vicious delight in hating the Gur for the role he sees them as having played in his death. This begs the question, though, what the hells did Gnomes ever do to earn his eternal ire? Anyway, his issues with and abuses against the Gur are what he needs to face. The outcome and journey depending on what instincts the player encourages him to embrace. (Though, I like to think he'd continue to grow further in a non-ascended route. He's got the capacity).

the thing is, i WANT to read stories where The Bad Thing happens. you know, the narrowly-avoided outcome, the thing where the protagonist and friends are like "phew! glad THAT didn't happen!" i want to see it happen. i want the protagonist to get held captive and experimented on, maybe for a prolonged period of time. i want them to make a deal with the devil and live with the consequences. i want them to be forced to work for the enemy. i want the bad things to Happen, and i want to see them Happen for more than a single scene.

#attaboy.

— the love was there. (it didn't change everything, but it changed me)

x. // erin slaughter // state of grace - taylor swift // x. // architecture - maisie peters // white ferrari - frank ocean // begin again - emma lord // x. // lunar years - maisie peters // king lear // hope ur ok - olivia rodrigo // cheryl strayed // 19 - xana // begin again - emma lord // the only exception - paramore // anne sexton // there it goes - maisie peters // road to hell (reprise) - hadestown // the things they carried - tim o'brien // in case you don't live forever - ben platt // molly templeton // for good - wicked // jeanette winterson

* 😚😳 *

Storytelling Techniques

A good storytelling method is essential for writing good fiction. There are many storytelling techniques that can be used to create engaging and memorable stories. Here are some common techniques you can use in your stories:

Use sensory details: Including sensory details in your story can help your audience imagine the scene and get emotionally invested in the story. For example, you can describe the colors, sounds, and smells of a place or event.

Build tension and suspense: Tension and suspense are important for keeping your audience engaged and invested in your story. You can create tension by introducing a conflict or challenge that the characters must overcome.

Foreshadowing: Foreshadowing is a technique used to hint at future events in the story. This can create anticipation and keep your audience engaged.

Use pacing effectively: Pacing refers to the speed at which the story unfolds. Make sure to vary the pacing to keep your audience engaged. For example, you can slow down the pacing during emotional or reflective moments, and speed it up during action scenes.

Show, don't tell: Instead of simply telling your audience what is happening in the story, show them through vivid descriptions and actions. This can help your audience feel more immersed in the story.

Use metaphor and simile: Metaphors and similes can help create vivid descriptions and comparisons in your story. They can also help to convey complex ideas in a more accessible way.

Flashbacks and flash-forwards: Flashbacks and flash-forwards can help provide context for the story and create tension. Make sure to use them sparingly and at appropriate moments in the story.

Use humor: Humor can be a powerful tool for engaging your audience and making your story more memorable. Just make sure that the humor is appropriate for the tone and subject matter of your story.

Suspenseful chapter endings: Ending chapters on a suspenseful note can help keep your audience engaged and eager to read on.

By using these techniques and others, you can create a compelling and memorable story that will engage and entertain your audience.

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