#the-font-bandit
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i have thought of something
Considering how a lot of things have become more accepted nowadays, as they always have been, how far would toon rights have gone by now?
Also, eventually there would be a human who marries a toon, when toons have the right, how would Jessica feel about that marriage?
OKAY TOON RIGHTS ACTIVISM LET'S GO.
This is gonna get long, so I'm gonna put it under a cut.
Also heads up, because we're talking about what would have been a civil rights movement, we're going to be talking a lot about politics. So general trigger warnings for that, particularly since we're going to be dealing with, ah, voter fraud as a discussion topic.
Oh, also trigger warning for mention/discussion of suicide.
Alright, here are some links re: Toon Rights Activism and what I already had posted re: timeline canon for Jess just as refresher course (I went and checked them because I honestly didn't know what I posted and what I didn't).
Toon Rights Activists - this talks about the origins (and also mentions TWO BITS (the Toon Welfare Organization and Bureau Investigating Toon Safety)) of general Toon Rights activism as well as precursory mention of the radical split off from them. (tw: police brutality)
The Genie - this is more about the lengths the radical Toon Rights activists went in their search for said rights (and has nothing to do with the Genie from Aladdin. This is a different Genie).
Also, honestly, read the TWO BITS link posted above, too, because it gives a sort of timeline in terms of TWO BITS started in 2000, so the radical Toon Rights activists had to come after it.
Beyond that, if I remember correctly, because Jessica and Regina met in what should have been roughly 2011 (because Henry was still ten but Emma hadn't shown up yet, so it had to be pre-OUAT but not by much and OUAT s1 took place in 2011), and that was after Jessica's year of Default post-Roger's death - this means that Roger died in 2010, my verse write-up for at the seams (which was the verse where he was a rabbit and Jess was a human) states that he lived for ten years as a rabbit, which means that Jess became a human and Roger became a rabbit in 2000.
That's a bit compressed of a timeline, given that it's mentioned in The Genie above that it took many years for the radical Toon Rights activists to be able to create the Genie in the first place, which means they must have been crafting him since probably the late eighties/early nineties for him to reach completion around that same time. But given that Toon Rights activism began roughly around the end of the Vietnam War and it took almost thirty years before even TWO BITS was instituted, it would make sense for the radicals to have gotten fed up earlier. TWO BITS is great and all, but it didn't give Toons actual rights, etc.
At least Toons in America. Toons in Japan are treated differently. That's an entire other set of meta, and I'm not going there right now.
Anyway - the general idea that apparently never got posted is that eventually, due to the let's turn politicians into Toons and see how they like it aspect of the radical Toon Rights activists' plans (when, you know, turning Toons into humans didn't play out the way they wanted), that did eventually lead to Toons getting some rights. This is all stuff that would have gone on in the background of at the seams and as they fall (which was the verse post-Roger's death and post-Jess's default because I didn't have a verse for her Default year) and I think I'd planned on...roughly the rights happened during the Jess/Regina stuff? Potentially right before Jess committed suicide (not the attempt, the actual suicide).
I don't have a specific date on that.
To be honest, I don't think Jessica would have been around more than a few years at that point. The suicide attempt would likely have been within two years of meeting Regina (I hesitate on this - I feel like one year is too short but am not sure) and her actual suicide would likely have been within a year of that. So - 2013/2014, roughly, the Toons Rights activists would have succeeded in terms of Toons being recognized as a sentient species of their own with free will and deserving of bodily autonomy.
Ish.
There would have been caveats, of course. You couldn't just make a Toon and suddenly they get all the rights to all the things, just like a newborn baby doesn't get all the rights to all the things automatically (voting, drinking, driving, etc.), and you run into the complications of who is allowed to make Toons and so on and so forth. Even with licenses to make Toons being even more constricted by the legal stuff in 2000 surrounding the establishment of TWO BITS, a licensed artist would basically be creating a new being. Laws around that would probably get even stricter - and ownership would become even more complicated because of course a newly created Toon would need someone to teach them how to act and etc. in the world, make sure they wake up from their Default (because Toons in Default have no rights - they're acting on their Default, they aren't exercising free will, they technically under Default do not have free will or sentience - and if they shove themselves back into Default, they're choosing to give all of that up, which is why Defaulting is an equivalent to Toon suicide).
...we don't need to talk about the last administration to understand why future rights might have stalled.
However.
We run into the peculiar issue of if Toons are sentient beings and are acknowledged as such, then they should be allowed to vote.
Except.
Toons aren't humans.
I mean, duh, obviously.
But Toons can be created by anyone with enough money to get an artist with a license to create a Toon for them with a specific Purpose - and they can make that Purpose whatever they want: good, bad, nefarious, insidious, so on and so forth. And because Toons are being created by imperfect people--
Say someone wanted to run for Senator and knew they wouldn't get enough human votes. Say someone had enough money and enough networking to have hosts of Toons created just to vote for them. Immediately. Then you would have hosts of Toons and hosts of Toon voters who exist only to pad the vote for one politician or another and said host of Toons and Toon voters would overwhelm and overrun actual human voters--
It would be a mess. It would be a huge mess.
So, of course, despite the fact that Toons technically now have rights (and did vote for the mayor of ToonTown, where the movie is concerned, but even then, Judge Doom won because he paid off the voters (pretty sure this is actual movie canon that they discuss - and my concern is whether or not the Toons themselves voted for Doom or if there were humans making decisions for the Toons, but regardless it's still a human as mayor of ToonTown, which makes me wonder if a Toon could even run for mayor in the first place - and that would be another legal issue with Toon rights because a Toon's Purpose is to entertain humans and if they were running for political etc. and won, even outside of Default--))--
So there are still laws in place in terms of what Toons can and can't do, even if they have more rights than they did in the first place.
And it's possible that, at least initially, there was talk about how to address the Toon voting problem so that Toons could vote. Tighter rules on licensing, more than there already are. Maybe a set period on how long Toons have been around before they can vote (like how people don't get to vote in the US until they're 18).
...and now we really do need to bring up the previous administration and all of the discussions of voting fraud and you'll understand exactly why all of those in-roads and thought processes got extremely stalled.
So things are better for Toons, roughly. But not as good as they could be. It's...it's so complicated the idea of Toon rights. They're people and should be treated like people. But they're also not.
Which brings us to the discussion of Toon/human marriage.
This is different from other analogies we could draw with interracial or queer marriage because Toons are drawn, not born. A human - with enough money or connections, again - could have a Toon tailor-made to be their spouse. Or...think they would be tailor-made and then find in the process that they really aren't and something went wrong, and then that's a whole living Toon who was made to be in love with them that now gets to Fade away because no one knows who they are and the one person they're supposed to be with for the rest of their life...doesn't...love them.
And the argument - politically would be that if humans could just make a Toon to be whatever they wanted, then that would interfere with human/human relationships. Humans would just end up choosing Toons over each other, and then we'd have even fewer babies (-coughcough-), and that's not even getting into the issues of Toon/human children (it's possible, Nonnie Montgomery proves that it's possible) and what their rights are - would they be counted as Toons under the law? Would they be counted as humans?
So I'm not sure that Toons would get that right.
Even with the very long legal battle that would probably eventually get brought up before the Supreme Court because the Constitution doesn't cover Toons - it's all men are created equal and Toons aren't human beings - and I don't think they would succeed at that point.
But if they did while Jess was still around, to address the rest of that question--
It really depends on--
Well, this is timeline canon we're talking about, right?
Or, at least, a version of it where Jess doesn't commit suicide, anyway.
Because here's the thing - if Roger was dead and Jess survived that last suicide attempt and Regina offered, if Jess was better and thought that her being there wasn't making Henry hallucinate, if she allowed herself to move on, yeah, if asked, she would have married her. (That one's half up to @notoriousjae, though, because idk if it ever would have gotten to that point. Just, from Jess's standpoint, she would have, if she got to a mentally stable enough point where she would have. If that makes sense.)
Like - Jess, even now in human form, has now fallen in love with two humans (at least), and that's not a result of her suddenly being a human instead of a Toon, if she'd been a Toon in the same circumstances, she would have fallen in love with both of them, and being in a position where she knows 1) that neither of them created her and 2) she fell in love with them quite independent of her Purpose, she would want....
No, that's not how I want to say that.
Jess knows what it is to be a Toon - even wrapped in a human body - and be in love with a human...and to have that human love her back.
She would be grateful that the courts would allow for people - and Toons - to marry the people that they love, regardless of etc.
I just don't think the courts would allow it.
Not without some of the very strict legal etc. to keep people from tailor-making Toons for their own purposes, among other things.
#cobaltstarling#bandit answers questions#jessica rabbit#wfrr#who framed roger rabbit#tw suicide#suicide tw#tw politics#politics tw#this got#really really long#like i put this into word and it /just barely/ made it onto a seventh page long#(but school essay style times new roman font size 12 double-spaced)#YEAH THIS IS LONG#WHICH IS WHY IT'S BENEATH A CUT#and like#it's complicated because toons really AREN'T humans#for all that you can use them for analogies and etc.#when it comes down to it#they AREN'T#and the complications of their creation makes it very hard to legal stuff with them in a way that would be equal to humans because they're#NOT human#they're not!#but yeah#here is this#which probably sounds super rambly but here it is
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The Highwayman
"I don't respect the law, Jimmy. But I think I respect you."
thoughts and a look inside the design of the book under the cut!
okay so I've been sitting on this cover of @envelopedbyoblivion's The Highwayman for months. It's a rancher duo fic where Jimmy is a sheriff and Tango is a bandit (and so much more)! Go read it if you haven't it's so so good I promise
This was initially a passion project for my portfolio meant to be printed into a real book, but I couldn't keep up with deadlines and I ended up not being able to use it :(
However, the whole book is formatted for print (which took so many months oh my god). I'm hoping one day I can actually get it printed because it's one of my favorite fanfics of all time and I'd kill to have a physical copy.
I also got to work with them to create this whole thing. Formatting books is so much work and they were so nice and patient with me ;;; Thank you for trusting me and allowing me to do this and for creating this amazing story :] <3
if anyone is curious about my design choices I'd be more than willing to ramble about them. I spent way too long on everything from fonts to the page dividers
#team rancher#rancher duo#double life smp#trafficshipping#trafficblr#book cover#fanart#graphic design#ely edits#jimmy solidarity#tangotek#solidaritek
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Keepsakes
Status: Ongoing Ficlet collection; unbeta'd
Series: the Hob Adherent series
Fandom: The Sandman (TV 2022) Includes some comics canon, and some cameos from the wider Gaiman-verse (including the Good Omens and Lucifer television shows), but it’s not necessary to know to enjoy the story.
Rating: Mature-ish.
Warnings: Discussions of grief and in-canon character death. Some sexytimes. Some whomp and hurt/comfort.
Relationships: Morpheus | Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling, Eleanor | Hob Gadling’s Wife/Hob Gadling (past)
Characters: Dream of the Endless | Morpheus, Hob Gadling, Patrick the Bartender, Harriet Butler, Matthew the Raven
Summary: Short ficlets set in the Hob Adherent world, based on prompts received from readers. Feel free to DM me or leave prompts in the comments, and if it resonates with me, I may write up a ficlet! Thank you for the inspiration in advance.
Set amid the events of Cling Fast and Carpe Diem
READ ON AO3 OR READ BELOW:
Postcards
"So, a sword in Buckingham's army, a bandit, a printer, a shipwright and then a merchant middleman for the dockyards, a knight, a beggar, investment broker--"
"Slaver," Hob interrupts Harriet as she counts off his professions on her fingers one slow, sunny afternoon at The New Inn. "Call the thing what it was."
Hari offers him a sympathetic smile. They're the only ones in the pub proper today, as Patrick is off to tend his ailing mother, Dee doesn't come in Mondays, and Morph is having lunch with his editor.
"After which you were an MP and staunch abolitionist, a soldier again in America for the North, an industrialist and labor rights advocate, a yuppie and silicone valley early adopter--"
"Apple paid for most of this," Hob agrees, selecting a glass and checking it for water spots or lipstick stains.
"--and now a professor and publican. Am I missing any?"
“Oh!” Hob remembers as he pulls a pint for her. "And I was ruler of Hell."
She leans across the bar from her stool, and thwacks his arm. “Fuck off, you were not, you old liar,” Hari laughs.
"Was so!" Hob protests, setting her beer down in front of her. "Ask my husband. He was there. I was ruler of Hell for thirteen minutes and seventeen seconds on my six-hundred and sixty-sixth birthday."
Hari raises a challenging eyebrow at Hob over her pint glass as she takes a sip. "I won't believe a thing the Prince of Stories tells me," she says decisively, when she sets the beer back down. "And I don't believe you."
Hob pulls a postcard from L.A. off the bar back, where it's been pinned to a corkboard among a handful of others, all from the same city. This card depicts a cartoon devil drawn over a photo of the Hills, lounging on the iconic Hollywood sign. It says "Greetings from Sin City!" in bright yellow font.
Hob hands it to Hari to inspect. Her face gets drawn as her eyes flick over the handwritten note on the back.
"To my fellow former ruler of Hell; I did it! I opened a nightclub, just like you suggested. Visit me at LUX any time you'd like, Hobsie. xxx Lucifer Morningstar," Hari reads in a voice that grows increasingly strangled.
She hands the card back to Hob with trembling fingers. Then she shotguns the rest of her pint.
"So hell is real, then," Hari warbles.
Hob shrugs. "Everything is real. Humans create gods, not the other way around. If someone believes in it, it exists."
Hari nods thoughtfully. "I suppose you would know, being married to a god."
Hob chuckles. "Well, former god-ish. And don't worry, only people who believe they deserve to go to Hell actually do. Self-punishment or fulfilling prophecy, or something. I try not to think to much about that Celestial stuff."
Hari nods again, and without asking, Hob refills her pint glass. He has a feeling she's going to need it.
"But it is something I'm going to have to worry about," Hari says softly, accepting the drink with a nod.
"Not any time soon, I hope," Hob says, folding his arms on the bar top and leaning close to offer her a comforting look. "And when it does happen, I can promise you that my sister-in-law is gentle and kind. You have nothing to worry about."
Harriet runs her arthritis gnarled finger up and down the side of the glass, collecting up the condensation. "You know, that is actually a comfort." She looks up at Hob with a wicked little grin. "Especially knowing your husband."
Hob throws his head back and laughs.
#losyark#cling fast adjacent#cling fast#carpe diem#the hob adherent series#hob adherent#hob gadling#hob x dream#dream x hob#dreamling fic#dream#dreamling#lucifer morningstar#lucifer#gaimanverse#sandman hob#retirement!Dream#keepsakes
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Anet went and touched up on Dungeons whaaaat!
Ascalonian Catacombs
Fixed an issue that caused a Disarm Traps lever to be out of the reach of players.
Fixed a bug that caused King Adelbern, as well as various immobile enemies across Tyria, to be knocked down despite an active defiance bar when struck by knockback attacks.
Fixed a bug that could cause markers on active traps to not clean up after the patriarch's defeat.
Fixed a bug that could cause Tzark to interrupt himself while resetting essence collectors.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the cave troll encounter.
Caudecus's Manor
Fixed a bug that allowed Sigfast to be attacked by Separatists and potentially knocked around the area while sleeping.
Fixed a bug that caused Zojja to not be wearing her headgear during a cinematic.
Fixed an issue that allowed the “Search for the captured sergeant” objective and goals to appear before the “Overwhelm the bandit defenses” objective was completed.
Several houses no longer close their doors after the nearby gate is destroyed, to prevent players from being trapped inside.
Bandit archers now apply confusion, matching their description.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the Bridgette encounter.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the Prototype Golem encounter.
Twilight Arbor
Fixed an issue that caused the Ooze Font Waypoint's name to appear incorrectly.
Fixed a bug that could cause the Unstable Nightmare Husk to fail to become vulnerable after being hit by four Nightmare Essences.
Fixed a bug that could cause Sparki's Ground Bloom skill to continue launching fireballs after Sparki finished spinning.
Fixed a bug that could cause an airship to be untargetable with EMP skills during the bonus objectives of the Aetherblade path.
Sorrow's Embrace
Fixed a bug that could cause the Elite Dredge Resonator near the beginning of the dungeon to not retreat when players approached after choosing a path.
During the "Help Rasolov free workers by defeating foremen" event, the last four foremen will not reveal themselves until Foreman Kreutzerova has been defeated.
Fixed a bug that could cause Tarleov to fail to begin working during his event.
Fixed a bug that could cause an Elite Dredge Rifleman to overzealously announce the presence of intruders.
Fixed health bar and marker display issues during the final confrontation with General Zadorojny.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the General Molradovich encounter.
Citadel of Flame
Gaheron Baelfire no longer resets his health when the party wipes during the finale battle in story mode, preventing a desync between his health and attack pattern.
Collision has been removed from a number of flame turrets to prevent players from being stuck inside them.
Honor of the Waves
Fixed a setting that caused Honor's Voice to move erratically during combat.
Fixed a bug that caused Kulag the Fallen's Ice Storm attack to not drop ice crystals if the target was out of Kulag's line of sight.
Lowered the level of some enemies that exceeded level 80 in explorable mode.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the Champion Icebrood Goliath encounter.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the Kodan's Bane encounter.
Crucible of Eternity
Fixed an issue that allowed players to enter the Crucible of Eternity dungeon from Mount Maelstrom even while the dungeon was contested.
Fixed an issue with the front door and teleporter exits that allowed them to be used before the dungeon was completed, allowing players to escape to Mount Maelstrom before receiving rewards.
The Ruined City of Arah
Added poison aura to Risen Defilers that were missing it.
Added a teleport mote that will let players join their party if they fell behind before Alphard, Serpent of the Waves was engaged.
Adjusted Simin, High Priestess of Dwayna’s heal skill to start its recharge when her heal effect ends instead of potentially being able to immediately restart a healing phase.
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What song do you think would be the Forbidden Fruits “anthem” so to speak?
Interesting question! I don't think I really have one that plays into all the aspects I like
I can talk about some inspirations if that helps
Edit: holy shit this got long hey Anon uh, hope- hope this is somehow what you were looking for lol
You're in the Band is where a lot of Eve's character came from, mostly the mix of her motherly and rebel traits,
as well as Stick It to the Man and its reprise, with the idea of three Biblical villains coming together after being stuck with the ridiculous and impossible task of fighting God and empowering each other to be more than just a speed bump, to inspire hope of reclaiming justice for themselves when they only existed in stories to be crushed by those unimaginable odds
Only with the power of friendship and teamwork can God be killed is what i think the point of forbidden fruits is actually (not really its more about resistance than overcoming, whittling out your own little corner for those who can't fit the mould and how what seemed like a hopeless stand can suddenly become possible when you arent doing it alone, and how just maybe thats enough, you don't to be able to overcome them completely, surviving when the world wants you dead is revolutionary and disrupting by itself)
Oh, Symphony by Clean Bandit and I Hear a Symphony - Cody Fry, its all of them about each other, their world was perfect and simple and boring until they found each other and now its messy and broken and beautiful; very especially about Lilith and Eve discovering wlw after being made for Adam, parallels and comparisons with the interspecies part of Lucifer's inhumanity falling for and being loved by the first humans (choices being artificially limited for an agenda, lines being crossed and the discovering of countless hidden possibilities, exploration of the self through forbidden paths etc)
This is a weird one but Won't Be Slain Here by Musiclide, hear me out, this is the eternal debate between Heaven and Hell; This is an extremely complicated and nuanced situation, There are only two sides and to pick one is to declare war on the other
Its in the manipulation, the desperation
They are painted as monsters, they have done monstrous things, they were put in awful situations, Heaven is calm and collected and helpful, it can afford to be, it will abandon you when it can't and hell will be all you have anyway
A different ruler of hell takes each chorus before joining the backing vocals of the next, they all have the same story anyway, the same point to make in different fonts, each one is more aggressive than the last, Heaven refusal to change keeps bring it more and more enemies, and their threat is mounting into something substantial and dangerous as they find each other
Heaven has countless justifications, Hell only has one that gets repeated and layered ad nauseam but is not refuted
#yes i am queer trans and neurodivergent how could you tell?#hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel lucifer#hazbin hotel lilith#hazbin hotel headcanon#hazbin hotel eve#hellaverse#forbidden fruits#hazbin hotel headcanons#hazbin hotel forbidden fruits
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Bouteille à la mer, matelot !
C'est ouf. J'ai terriblement envie de rejouer De Niro dans sa cinquantaine et j'ose pas trop. C'est tellement le genre de personnage difficile à lier. Juste, si vous avez de la place pour un vieux bougon probablement un peu bandit sur les bords avec des gens qui accepteraient de se lier avec, pour des vrais rps en folie et qui ne sont pas bloqués par le fait que non, ça peut pas finir en ship - quoique, si vous jouez un personnage du même âge on sait jamais - , ce serait ouf ? (Forum uniquement, pas de discord, majeur et thèmes sombres avec un brin de folie préférables. Si possible du surnaturel, par contre ?) J'ai aussi des problèmes aux yeux et les thèmes blancs non ajustables me font très mal aux mirettes, malheureusement. Mais si j'ai un coup de cœur ça peut s'ajuster. )
Peut-être que cette bouteille va se perdre dans le néant et ne jamais trouver son étagère, mais tant pis, j'ai tenté !
Merci infiniment pour toutes vos propositions, je barre le sujet pour éviter les nouvelles propositions, pour le moment j'en ai bien plus que je ne pouvais l'espérer et je ne voudrais pas me disperser. <3
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If you don't mind me asking, what are your thoughts on the FDA?
There's been some mixed response to the FDA in Ravening War, particularly with some thinking it's kinda railroad-y and that it takes away the players' agency wrt the PCs involvement in the war
I think it's a fairly common way to get the group together in D&D but I'm waiting for more episodes to fully form an opinion on them
I have not seen this opinion, which is good, because it’s unbelievably fucking stupid. You are correct: this is just…how you tell a D&D story.
I think to properly understand the true depths of idiocy here, we need to understand what “railroading” is and what “player agency” is, so let’s start with “railroading”. The following response is like 2.5 pages in Google Docs (single spaced, font size 11) so it’s below a read more. I’ll note that in the abstract, sure, the concept of a secret society recruiting the party could have been executed in a way that was heavily railroaded and impinges on player agency, but at no point in the two episodes we’ve seen has that been the case with the FDA, which is why this take is so dumb.
Railroading is, imo, a neutral concept; I think it was Matt Colville who said “people seem to like trains, which, by definition, are on rails unless something really bad happened” or something to that effect. That doesn’t mean you can’t criticize railroading in TTRPG actual play (or home games), but, like all criticism that is not about one’s personal taste alone, it requires context. The most neutral way to define railroading is that the DM has pre-determined a certain path that the players cannot ultimately change. It is not the DM offering hooks that the characters will likely be interested in; it is not the DM simply having things happen that the players didn’t control. The whole point of the DM is that they build the world, which moves even when the players aren’t making it happen, the same way that you, an individual human being, exist in a world where things not caused by you and 2-6 other people occur. Is it railroading for the DM to say it’s raining when it wasn’t caused by a player’s Control Weather spell? Is it railroading for bandits to attack you on the road? No - those are just the world existing. And if the rain floods the nearby village and in helping it you learn of a quest, or the bandits steal your sword, and you follow these leads, that is not railroading; that’s called “the DM is making things happen so that a story is possible, and you should thank them and pay for snacks.”
Railroading becomes a problem when the players really don’t have any choices and truly cannot influence the outcome. I have a preference for more open-world/sandbox games, but railroading has its place. Notably, The Ravening War as a series should be pretty on rails. It’s a prequel, so the ending is already set and immutable. It’s also a limited series of six episodes. You cannot make a limited series an open world where the players can fuck around endlessly: you need to have a hook and you need to get the action going quickly, because, again, only six episodes.
Railroading can be used to good effect if the players can still influence elements of the outcome; the actual apogee solstice episode in Critical Role C3, while the build-up did get a little too rigid for my taste, was a great encounter that was pretty heavily on rails. I don’t think that Bells Hells really could have done anything to prevent the ritual fully - they were simply too outclassed. But I think had they not done the sabotage they did, the solstice effects may have been significantly worse and the situation now more dire, and had they perhaps made some different choices or just rolled better, they might have freed Caleb or Beau, or swayed Liliana, and the effects would be lessened and they’d have more allies. They still could make actions that influenced the outcome, even if aspects of the outcome were virtually impossible to change. (The same is true of Calamity - Calamity is happening regardless, but the players’ choices still very much tell the story).
The FDA is not railroading: it is a premise. It is a hook. The players could have turned it down both in the initial summons and the one in last night’s episode. They are not doing this, because everyone at this table is a good and collaborative D&D player aware that this is a limited series and that this is the premise. A lot of edgy losers who suck ass at D&D see the DM dangling an interesting hook and deliberately try to avoid it as some flat attempt at “subversion”, and those people are miserable to play with and even more miserable to watch. There’s nothing wrong with doing the unexpected! But when I think of great unexpected moments in actual play, they’re moments that still move the story forward and are collaborative; they just solve an encounter in a way the DM didn’t foresee. It’s good improv: it’s “yes and HERE’S A WILD TWIST”, not “Nope.”
I should also note that D20 is famously pretty heavily railroaded. The first few seasons were strictly pushed into a very artificial RP/Combat alternating pattern with pre-made battle maps, to the point that when the Bloodkeep crew bonded it required a rapid rework of the final battle because PvP had been assumed, and when the Bad Kids had two deaths in the first episode they were sent back in a frantic deus ex machina and then when they dispatched with too many enemies too quickly they were sent to jail for most of an episode. Which isn’t bad - again, you have to be on rails to an extent in a limited campaign, and these were early episodes when Brennan and his players were still adjusting to D20’s specific format. But to call out the FDA as railroading…I already used the phrase “to call this brain dead generously assumes the person saying it has a brain” today but I have to use it once more because truly, this is standard D&D and standard storytelling, to have a call to a strange event. This is no different than most of the Bad Kids getting detention in the very first episode of Fantasy High. They could have skipped it, but they didn’t.
And why didn’t they? Well, that brings us to player agency. Player agency is an even more fraught term than railroading, and it’s used to mean basically anything. It comes up a lot in why someone’s favorite TTRPG is the best, usually as a meaningless buzzword.
At its core, player agency really just means that the players have an ability to, through actions supported by the gameplay of the system they are using, influence the world in some way (ie, the railroading is not so locked down so as to make their actions entirely irrelevant). It means they are not stuck in a novel narrated by the GM, but rather are part of the collaborative storytelling. That’s it. Anyone who says differently is selling something, and the thing they are selling is probably a playbook for PbtA.
The thing about player agency is that technically, you can do quite a lot, but again, if your goal is to tell a collaborative story, you will probably at least check out DM hooks, even if you reject them, and you will probably at least consider what your other party members are doing and try to stick with them. There are narratives that D&D (or whatever TTRPG you are playing) and the setting your GM has created and any other restrictions you may have simply do not support well; a war where the five players are all openly fighting on different sides (or even on two different sides) is not something that is well-supported in under 18 hours of D&D. There does, for standard D&D practices, need to be some kind of unifying task! And the FDA is it. Players can still decide to pursue their own interests, and have, but they also have the FDA - which they are also, presumably, interested in! It’s not a lack of player agency if the DM says “hey you’re being recruited by a COOL SECRET ORGANIZAITON” and the players say “HELL YEAH COOL SECRET ORGANIZATION”.
I could go on about player agency forever, honestly, and you’re welcome to ask me more, but on some level it feels like the “but player agency!” crowd interprets “people considering the feelings of the other players and wanting to play in the space the GM has created instead of making a supremely self-indulgent OC as their character and acting on pure unadulterated selfishness” as a restriction on player agency. I mean, where does it stop? If the FDA is a limit on player agency by providing a compelling shared goal for five disparate characters with a complex system of alliances and interests, should the players have played characters all unambiguously on the same side so that the FDA wouldn’t be necessary as a device? Wouldn’t that be limiting their agency on the character creation side of things? Hell, why do they have to play characters from Calorum at that point? Obviously this is ridiculous, but this line of thinking is actually bizarrely common; people make D&D PCs with no thought to the setting or party comp all the time. The players absolutely could have said no, and that could have been a great story too - of five people running from this summons and bonding over that! But that still requires the summons. The DM is a player, and yeah, they have a bit more control as the worldbuilder, but also put in far more work and have far less room to fuck around. This is fundamentally how D&D works. It’s okay if you don’t like it and want true freeform improv fantasy, but then you should perhaps not be watching D&D actual play.
So: this is a very typical D&D premise, and a not uncommon low fantasy intrigue premise. The way stories in general start is when a person or group of people experiences a change that leads to some form of conflict, and for D&D specifically it’s typically a group of people experiencing some kind of event that brings them together. The FDA gathering the party is that event for The Ravening War. This is a story of five characters brought together in a secret society. The person who expressed the take that it was railroading or a limitation on player agency, rather than like, how fiction works, is a complete and utter idiot.
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ANET??? BUGFIXING DUNGEONS????
Patch notes under readmore, all core game content
Dungeons
Ascalonian Catacombs
Fixed an issue that caused a Disarm Traps lever to be out of the reach of players.
Fixed a bug that caused King Adelbern, as well as various immobile enemies across Tyria, to be knocked down despite an active defiance bar when struck by knockback attacks.
Fixed a bug that could cause markers on active traps to not clean up after the patriarch's defeat.
Fixed a bug that could cause Tzark to interrupt himself while resetting essence collectors.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the cave troll encounter.
Caudecus's Manor
Fixed a bug that allowed Sigfast to be attacked by Separatists and potentially knocked around the area while sleeping.
Fixed a bug that caused Zojja to not be wearing her headgear during a cinematic.
Fixed an issue that allowed the “Search for the captured sergeant” objective and goals to appear before the “Overwhelm the bandit defenses” objective was completed.
Several houses no longer close their doors after the nearby gate is destroyed, to prevent players from being trapped inside.
Bandit archers now apply confusion, matching their description.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the Bridgette encounter.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the Prototype Golem encounter.
Twilight Arbor
Fixed an issue that caused the Ooze Font Waypoint's name to appear incorrectly.
Fixed a bug that could cause the Unstable Nightmare Husk to fail to become vulnerable after being hit by four Nightmare Essences.
Fixed a bug that could cause Sparki's Ground Bloom skill to continue launching fireballs after Sparki finished spinning.
Fixed a bug that could cause an airship to be untargetable with EMP skills during the bonus objectives of the Aetherblade path.
Sorrow's Embrace
Fixed a bug that could cause the Elite Dredge Resonator near the beginning of the dungeon to not retreat when players approached after choosing a path.
During the "Help Rasolov free workers by defeating foremen" event, the last four foremen will not reveal themselves until Foreman Kreutzerova has been defeated.
Fixed a bug that could cause Tarleov to fail to begin working during his event.
Fixed a bug that could cause an Elite Dredge Rifleman to overzealously announce the presence of intruders.
Fixed health bar and marker display issues during the final confrontation with General Zadorojny.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the General Molradovich encounter.
Citadel of Flame
Gaheron Baelfire no longer resets his health when the party wipes during the finale battle in story mode, preventing a desync between his health and attack pattern.
Collision has been removed from a number of flame turrets to prevent players from being stuck inside them.
Honor of the Waves
Fixed a setting that caused Honor's Voice to move erratically during combat.
Fixed a bug that caused Kulag the Fallen's Ice Storm attack to not drop ice crystals if the target was out of Kulag's line of sight.
Lowered the level of some enemies that exceeded level 80 in explorable mode.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the Champion Icebrood Goliath encounter.
Fixed an incorrect marker on the Kodan's Bane encounter.
Crucible of Eternity
Fixed an issue that allowed players to enter the Crucible of Eternity dungeon from Mount Maelstrom even while the dungeon was contested.
Fixed an issue with the front door and teleporter exits that allowed them to be used before the dungeon was completed, allowing players to escape to Mount Maelstrom before receiving rewards.
The Ruined City of Arah
Added poison aura to Risen Defilers that were missing it.
Added a teleport mote that will let players join their party if they fell behind before Alphard, Serpent of the Waves was engaged.
Adjusted Simin, High Priestess of Dwayna’s heal skill to start its recharge when her heal effect ends instead of potentially being able to immediately restart a healing phase.
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I'm very, very close to finished drafting Blood Will Out (I've gotten to the big evil third act reveal I was so excited about!) and unfortunately, it looks like this scene isn't going to fit anywhere into the finished fic. But. I love it. So here you go.
(Some of the exchange in this scene was inspired by a tumblr post, which I unfortunately now cannot find. If you know which one, drop me a link and I'll add it to this post.)
...
There are hushed voices coming from the nave. Two, it sounds like, having a furious whispered argument.
And…splashing.
The argument doesn’t stop when Father Mackenzie steps out of the office and starts down the rows of pews, only grows louder. He doesn’t think either of the teenaged girls bent over the font by the door have noticed him yet.
“- nothing saying they can’t get in here! Especially not if you can.”
“Maybe not, but it’s gotta be more defensible than the motel room. At least there are more places to hide. I don’t even know if they need to be invited in, if the rooms are -”
“They don’t need to be invited anywhere, it just renders you powerless against them if you do. Edgar said -”
“Jamie, no offense, but I’m taking everything ‘Edgar says’ with a big, heaping bucketful of salt -”
“Can I help you ladies?”
The argument stops dead, mid-word. The two girls twist around to look at Father Mackenzie and freeze in place, blinking at him like deer in headlights.
The redheaded one recovers first, nudging the brunette in the side with her elbow. “Let me do the talking.”
“Jamie, you’re the one who can actually touch -”
“Good evening, Father!” the redhead all but shouts, with a big step forward in front of the font, drowning out whatever point her partner in crime was trying to make. “So sorry to disturb you, we didn’t realise anybody was here.”
“I can see that.” Father Mackenzie looks from the dripping water pistol the redhead hastily tucks behind her back, over her shoulder to her partner in crime, who seems to be trying to fill a plastic bottle of water without actually submerging it in the font, her fingers dancing at the surface like it’s hot. “You know, if what you need is to have some water blessed -”
“Hey, yeah, uh, actually, I have a question about that?” the redhead says, stepping sideways into his line of sight, poorly hiding her partner in crime’s strange actions. “Church doctrine says that any water you add holy water to doesn’t dilute the holy water, but becomes sanctified itself. Right?”
Before Father Mackenzie has a chance to agree, she’s already barrelling on with her little speech. “But, because of the water cycle, if that was true, then eventually all water on Earth would have become sanctified, and every time it rained – I mean, we wouldn’t be able to drink or cook or wash without committing some kind of sin, probably. So there’s got to be a point of dilution. What’re your thoughts on that?”
It's a lot of words, delivered rapid-fire in a bright, perky voice, like a presenter on a game show. Father Mackenzie blinks at the girl, trying to bring his brain up to speed with his ears. He’s spent the last three hours staring at spreadsheets, trying to make the expenditures for the Ladies’ Auxiliary make any sense. He has a nasty suspicion that somebody’s making off like a bandit somewhere. What they’re supposedly doing with all that lumber – “Isn’t this more a sort of question for a rabbi?”
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure Judaism doesn’t do holy water.”
There’s a hiss of indrawn breath from over by the font. “Jamie can you ask him if he has any rubber gloves -”
Father Mackenzie takes a deep breath, and offers up a silent prayer for strength. He has the sudden sense he’s going to need it. “So, you’re correct. The official position of the Catholic Church is that holy water sanctifies any water it’s added to. But – and this is just my personal opinion, my observations, which, you know, do of course officially align with the Church, but as I can see, you both understand that sometimes, we must make…practical considerations -”
“Father. Time is a factor.”
“Of course. Of course. Well. Holy water can sanctify water. Theoretically, it could also sanctify the water in a suspension, but personal experience doesn’t bear that out. Too much in the suspension that isn’t water. So, if you add holy water to…Gatorade. You don’t get holy water, or holy water with added electrolytes. You get Gatorade with some holy water in it.”
“Okay. And since the ocean is a soup -”
Father Mackenzie sighs, and embraces whatever madness this is with both arms. “Gazpacho, I believe. It’s served cold.”
“Gazpacho. That’s why the water cycle isn’t affected. Thank you, Father.”
Father Mackenzie wishes he didn’t have to ask. But, well. The redhead’s still poorly trying to conceal a water pistol full of holy water behind her back. And this is Santa Carla. “…is this about vampire hunting?”
The redhead’s huge grin freezes into a rictus. The brunette’s head snaps up, her eyes wide. A second later, she yelps, snatching her fingers away from the font and leaving the water bottle she was filling to bob gently toward the centre as she sucks the tip of each finger in turn into her mouth. And then seems to immediately regret that.
The redhead raises her voice over the quiet litany of ‘ah, ah, ow, shit, shit, shit’ coming from just behind her. “Why – haha, uh, why, Father, why would you think a silly thing like -”
Father Mackenzie lets out one last, long sigh. He’s getting too old for this shit. “If you borrow any of the silver crucifixes, just make sure they’re back by morning.”
As he turns to head back into the office, hoping against hope that someone in the Ladies’ Auxiliary is just particularly bad at embezzling and they haven’t actually started a wooden stake production line, Father Mackenzie hears the girls start whispering again.
“What a weird fucking town.”
“Tell me about it.”
#this is mary's fic tag#blood will out#the lost boys#well. it's in the world of the lost boys.#fun fact i named the priest that in honour of that lyric comic somebody posted on here from the beatles' 'Eleanor Rigby'#in which Eleanor was a face-stealing people-eating monster and Father Mackenzie had to hunt her down and kill and bury her
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anyway I've been playing morrowind lately
- by far my biggest "why..." is wrt how often attacks just. miss. like- okay brief note that I've been playing on godmode bc I got Immediately bored-frustrated by trying to maintain health and stamina while having No magicka regen- okay so I decided to test it out. got in combat with a rat, went in unarmed, just to see how long it took me to punch the rat to death. I went up twenty fucking hand-to-hand levels without landing a single hit, by which point i was bored and just re-equipped my sword for a one hit kill. the miss rate is fucking absurd
- hey speaking of godmode. what the fuck do you mean all it does is give you infinite health/magicka/stamina. why do I still have to count arrows. why do I still have to count carry weight
- I'm not hating the lack of quest markers as much as i expected to. what keeps getting me, though, is that the journal is so nonspecific even about things you-the-character definitely know. I spent fifteen minutes wandering every last layer of vivec city trying to find the damn mages guild again bc i couldn't remember what canton it was in, much less which floor, and my journal could only tell me "go back to the mage's guild in vivec :)". eventually I got frustrated and asked uesp for the answer, and I'm getting the sense that I'm going to spend a Lot of time there bc this game is. not for stupid people
- what i miss most from the other games is map markers. blease put a lil symbol on the minimap when I walk by a cave. I can't tell it's there, otherwise
- maybe the bottom left corner of the map is just comparatively empty. maybe exploration will feel more rewarding as i get further along. maybe there will be literally anything in this formless brown blob of a landscape besides me and all these fuckdamn rats
- how in the fuck do merchants magically know that i've got moon sugar in my pocket but not that i'm selling them stolen goods
- every bandit having a name makes me nervous that by exploring I am accidentally fucking myself over by killing npcs for quests i haven't reached yet
- how tf do i level mercantile. half my time is spent selling shit and yet not a single skill level has been gained
- man oblivion's acrobatics/athletics really upped the effect of leveling compared to this. by hitting 50 skill now I have unlocked the ability to... jump 1 foot in the air and to powerwalk. I miss jumping onto roofs. it's hard to feel like I'm making any progress
- also even with a font replacer i am hurting my eyes with the constant squinting. maybe i need a replacer with a more basic font
- had to turn the voice settings way down bc I can't walk two steps in vivec city without another fuckdamn ordinator telling me "KEEP MOVING" in that loudass gravelly voice. can I make a mod that just completely silences that and "wHAt do you wANt, oUTLANDer?"
- no really why tf did they go with the weirdest possible emphasis in that line
- maybe I should just reinstall oblivion. I'm starting to miss wes johnson's guard voice
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made a silly little thing
[ID: a blended gif of Elizabeth Swann from the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and Gwaine from BBC Merlin. On the left is Elizabeth in Dead Man's Chest during the fight scene against the crew of the Flying Dutchman on the island. She is wearing trousers, a white shirt, a waistcoat and a three-pointed hat with her hair loose and is wielding two swords. As she is attacked from behind, she flips the swords and stabs her attackers beneath her armpits without looking. On the right is Gwaine in 'Diamond of the Day: Part One' when he protects Merlin from bandits in the Valley of the Fallen Kings. He is in full armour and stabs a bandit attacking from behind without turning around, tossing his hair as he withdraws his sword. The gif is desaturated and overlaid with the colours of the bi flag. A line of text runs across the middle of the gif in a purple cursive font, with the same text in a larger font and in capital letters underneath with a blending effect placed on it. The text reads: 'sexuality in a nutshell'. End ID.]
#i just reached some conclusions with my last watch of dmc okay#also realised this could also work for gender but that's some fun for another day#quality isn't fantastic but whatever#i am really going to have to investigate making gifs less grainy and pixelated bc it's honestly driving me mad though#elizabeth swann#gwaine#pirates of the caribbean#potc#bbc merlin#lit gifs
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Pour Mandeville, ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler "la société" se compose de trois groupes d’individus:
•les hypocondriaques, les plus nombreux, sont dominés par leur image, ce qui implique qu’aux yeux des autres comme à leurs propres yeux, ils veulent toujours apparaître plus vertueux qu’ils ne sont, ils se payent de mots et on arrive à les entretenir et à les contrôler avec des flatteries...
•les scélérats quant à eux résistent à la flatterie, c’est le groupe disparate des individus considérés comme asociaux, dangereux, rétifs à toute autorité établie, ce sont des marginaux, des bandits, des voleurs, des proxénètes, des prostituées, des mendiants, des trafiquants, etc. cette petite caste d’irréductibles, de vils et de criminels en puissance est fort utile car elle agit comme un répulsif pour les «vertueux»...
•quant aux pervers, le "petit nombre", ce sont les pires d’entre les hommes: le plus souvent invisibles, ils profitent des deux autres groupes, ils font semblant de se soumettre à la loi dans le double but de profiter du prestige des "vertueux" (sur lesquels ils s’appuient), et surtout de faire tenir tout le monde tranquille afin de tirer les marrons du feu et prospérer sur la bête... ce dernier groupe tire les ficelles du pouvoir, et gouverne avec d’autant plus de facilité qu’il lui suffit de prêcher l'esprit de dévouement au Bien public...
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“Twenty?” Tzara Arello laughed behind her slender, silvery fingertips. The sound was all but lost in the bustling space dock, so she threw her head back to make her point. “Twenty hardly covers your weight estimate. I don’t take cargo for less than thirty, and I certainly don’t take it through the bandit belt for less than fifty.”
Her would-be clients blinked their wide, watery eyes at her, growing more restless as the translators in their ears caught up. They buzzed and clicked for a while—their language was notoriously long-winded.
“Please,” Tzara finally heard through her own translator. “Twenty is all we have. We’ll sell everything when we arrive to cover the rest.”
Tzara waved her hand at the gold plated lettering on the side of her once-magnificent vessel, visible through the wide viewing window. AMARYLLIS, it read in a large, swirling font. Just beneath the name of the ship and in slightly smaller, incredibly more legible characters, it said PAYMENT UPFRONT in her own language.
#Doing a little writing.....#new story#very Star Trek inspired but instead of military adjacent explorers we have odd jobs in space#it's called#Here and There#collection of short stories probably....
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remember how at the end of october I mentioned I was writing a story? you probably don't! anyway, sammie and i have both proofread it now, so for the occasion of my 24th birthday, the part that already exists is ready to read now up on
fluffy.gov!!
fluffy.gov!!!!
my very own page on the wooled wide web! into which I have been tirelessly typing out paragraph upon paragraph for the past 2-ish months. find all further information by clicking thwe link (actually leads to fluffysheeple.neocities.org ⬇️)
no cookies, no comments*, no SEO! layout exactly as amateurishly made as you'd expect from someone bashing her cranial plate into HTML for the first time, but it loads so quickly! and would fit (1.52MB total!) on a floppy disk if not for the load-bearing 600KB weedsnake.png. enjoy!
*feedback welcome here on tumblr of course - how's the font, the layout, the dialogue, whatever?
[2023/16/01: SYNOPSIS and CONTENT WARNING added to this post, under the cut]
SYNOPSIS: The fallout of a mortal revolution thrusts two of the younger, less well-regarded (at least among undead) immortals in the world into close proximity of one another. The Reaper of Reality, decried as a bandit and a chimaeric abomination, sees a potential rival in the Architect, themself considered (by those who care to consider them at all) to be an assimilationist traitor and a creepy recluse. Will the rapidly-industrializing city of Verredam remain home to its construct-lich and their enigmatic Spire, or will the long-hunted vampire-lich finally find a permanent place to establish her own demesne? And will it remain the Capital of Renewal, seat of mortal self-governance, or will the reactionary Coalition of undead nations reclaim the densely-populated metropolis for themselves? I'd say 'read on to find out', but it's not completely done yet. So, you know. Read on to find out partially, still!
CONTENT WARNING: Generally light-hearted in tone, but may contain some descriptions of subjects such as violence (up to and including death and dismemberment) and sexuality (mostly D/s stuff), as well as recurring themes of involuntary action and memory loss. Anything explicit or otherwise too far out of the ordinary will be signposted using the same HTML element as this more general content warning.
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I bought the French edition of She Who Became the Sun ☀️
J'ai acheté la version française de She Who Became the Sun ☀️
I had seen this book around on booklr and the internet in general but when I saw it at the bookstore, I couldn't contain myself. This book is just too beautiful not to buy.
J'avais vu ce livre passer sur booklr et internet de manière générale mais quand je l'ai vu en librairie j'ai pas pu me retenir. The livre est trop beau pour qu'on ne l'achète pas.
French editors rarely do hardcovers so when I saw it I immediately pick it up. And then I saw the sprayed edges and 👁️👄👁️
Les éditeurs français font rarement des livres reliés cartonnés donc c'est ce qui m'a fait le prendre. Puis j'ai vu la tranche peinte et 👁️👄👁️
Here's the blurb:
In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected.
When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate.
After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses takes the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother's abandoned greatness.
Voilà le résumé :
En 1345, la Chine est soumise à la cruelle domination mongole. Pour les paysans faméliques des Plaines du Milieu, la grandeur n'existe que dans les contes. Quand la famille Zhu apprend que Chongba, leur huitième fils, est promis à un fabuleux destin, tous peinent à imaginer comment s'accomplira ce miracle. En revanche, nul ne s'étonne que la deuxième fille des Zhu, fine et débrouillarde, soit promise... au néant.
Mais lorsqu'une attaque de hors-la-loi les laisse orphelins, c'est le fils qui se laisse mourir de chagrin. Prête à tout pour échapper à sa fin annoncée, la jeune fille endosse l'identité de son frère afin de devenir novice dans un monastère. Là, poussée par un impérieux désir de survivre, Zhu apprend qu'elle est capable de tout - même du pire - pour déjouer sa destinée.
Lorsque son sanctuaire est détruit pour avoir soutenu la rébellion contre les Mongols, Zhu saisit cette chance de s'emparer d'un tout autre avenir : la grandeur abandonnée de son frère...
#this is twice in two months now that I've bought a book 99% because of it's cover#good job editors#aaaand i just realized this is actually a series and not a standalone 💀#my friend said that falling for a book cover is the story of my life#it's so true ejdnekfne#she who became the sun#celle qui devint le soleil#shelley parker chan#books#booklr#book aesthetic
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