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Please use this post to promote the fandoms you plan to request, or ask for recommendations of canons that suit you! FFFX is a long-haul exchange - someone might not have time to get into your canon before sign-ups close, but they definitely have time to check it out over the course of the exchange overall.
Information you might include
Title
Please put your fandom's title in the subject of your comment. This helps people find your promo again.
Media
Approx length
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips)
What is it, in summary?
What do you love about it?
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive
Some examples: Yuletide, Fandom5k, previous fffx posts.
Please keep an eye on comments, as people may have follow-up questions about your canons.
You're also welcome to leave comments (anon or not) asking people to rec you canons that they are likely to request.
For example: "Please tell me about canons for which you'd be excited to receive interactive fiction."
If asking for recs, consider letting people know if you're interested in specific media only, or have other restrictions.
Please use this post to promote the fandoms you plan to request, or ask for recommendations of canons that suit you! FFFX is a long-haul exchange - someone might not have time to get into your canon before sign-ups close, but they definitely have time to check it out over the course of the exchange overall.
Promoting your canons
Comment here with information about the canons you are thinking of requesting, or otherwise want to get people into!Information you might include
Title
Please put your fandom's title in the subject of your comment. This helps people find your promo again.
Media
Approx length
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips)
What is it, in summary?
What do you love about it?
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive
Some examples: Yuletide, Fandom5k, previous fffx posts.
Please keep an eye on comments, as people may have follow-up questions about your canons.
Asking for recs
You're also welcome to leave comments (anon or not) asking people to rec you canons that they are likely to request.
For example: "Please tell me about canons for which you'd be excited to receive interactive fiction."
If asking for recs, consider letting people know if you're interested in specific media only, or have other restrictions.
Tags:
(no subject)
Date: 2024-07-31 03:03 am (UTC)Am I allowed to imply or even say explicitly say that pirated versions of the canon are discoverable or would it be more appropriate to not mention that at all? Thank you!
Ogi's Summer Break (Manga)
Date: 2024-07-31 03:51 am (UTC)Media: Manga (BL)
Length: 2 Volumes - about 300 pages (It took me an hour) (Word is a third volume is coming!)
Where to find it: Possibly local library (I found vol. 1 on Hoopla digital with my library).
Barnes and Noble - eBook: Volume 1, Volume 2 $7.49 ea.
What is it, in summary?
Tago is blind. Ogi sometimes likes to dress more femininely. It doesn't bother Tago, who is simply happy that Ogi has taken an interest in him. With this in mind, Tago suggests they date for the summer, and so their bond grows closer. But as the summer draws to a close, Ogi and Tago are forced to consider what they really mean to each other and whether this is a relationship that could outlast the boundaries of just a summer break...
What do you love about it?: I LOVE the variety of representation here. Gay boys! A blind character! A character who paints his nails, and wears skirts, and shares his sister's closet but everyone's chill about it and it doesn't have to be this huge thing. Tago likes him because of those things, he likes that Ogi paints his nails so he can ask what color they are and he can feel how long Ogi's hair is or hear the cute little accessories Ogi carries on his bag.
I'm just obsessed with not only the dynamic presented between the more aloof Tago and the self-conscious Ogi but because it presents so many unique situations. I wrote a series of short stories about it but I really could devour at least 10k more of them.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Post-canon or missing scene fic. There are two volumes and they fly right by, so I would LOVE to receive a fic exploring what the story would feel like as a slower burn. The story had a good enough resolution but I feel like more drama could have been injected between where the story began and where it ended.
I'm also a huge fan of slice of life and fluff. The stakes don't have to be super high to still be entertaining. A domestic plot will absolutely still grip my attention, especially if Tago is there just living his life. I love to hear about other people's lives that are so different from mine, which is another draw I have to his character. There's a lot I feel I could still have to know about his world considering he's blind.
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive: There is a scene in the first volume where Tago shows Ogi some porn unprompted and asks him to describe the acts to him.
Yes, No, or Maybe? (Movie & Light Novel)
Title Yes, No, or Maybe?
Media: Movie
Approx length: 53 minutes
Where to find it: Crunchyroll
What is it, in summary?
Kuneida Kei is a man with two personas-- the hardworking, kind, and revered announcer who works at a TV station and the crude, selfish, prideful private character who spends his off-hours eating beef bowls in raggedy sports clothes and "studying" the other news stations religiously to stay on his game.
He originally meets the love interest, Tsuzuki Ushio, on assignment since Tsuzuki is an animator creating the new intro for their program, The News, using claymation. But one day, while Kei is walking home from buying his favorite beef bowl to-go, he carelessly crosses a red pedestrian path and Tsuzuki's bike crashes into him. Since Kei is in his disguise at the time, Tsuzuki doesn't recognize him, and manages to enlist in Kei's help to finish the animation since the accident injured his wrist.
Ushio and Kei are really cute together and Kei is a huge tsundere!
What do you love about it?
I love, love, LOVE the dynamic between Ushio and Kei. I love the way they miss each other and yearn for each other and complement each other. I love everything about Ushio and how real he feels to me, like a person I'd actually meet out on the street. On the other hand, something about Kei's double-sided nature and how hard he works to succeed and be liked by others makes him almost cartoony to me. I adore the dichotomy of his character and all of the complexities that come with that– how Kunieda Kei handles a situation vs the real Kei. How he's so handsome and adored then turns around and bad-mouths people! 😂 I can relate to him in some ways, which makes me happy.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
I'll be requesting fic of their established relationship, particularly domestic moments or "all is lost" moments where they have to do something for one another to help the other out of difficult situations. I love generally anything with them but especially something placed in canon, since half of my enjoyment of the fic absolutely comes from Kei's placement as a news announcer who is thus restricted by that role and can't act out as his "true" self whenever he feels like it.
I also have a new NSFW section of my likes list that I'm trying to get some potential use out of this year! 👉👈
Media: Light Novel
Approx length: 3 main volumes, with 3 extra "Off Air" volumes that I could not currently find official English translations for.
Where to find it: Barnes and Noble eBooks at ~$8.99: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3. I was also able to find some translations online by googling!
What do you love about it? What do you think you will request?
The movie is wonderful (and faithful to the light novel), but I adore the light novels too because they dig even deeper into Kei's character (and also Ushio's)! While I know it might be a longshot that anyone will read the light novels when there's an easily accessible movie available, I swear this series got me out of a reading slump. I was addicted to finding out what new drama Kei would find himself in and how Ushio would help him out of it. I will be requesting every little scenario I can think of, ranging from the cute, soft domestic stuff to the über-dramatic situations. (Like: Kei being one move away from accidentally blowing his cover in front of the wrong person). I live vicariously through Kei and he has certainly become a comfort character for me with the way he leads his life and has to mask at work and everything. He's such a relatable character, which is why I love reading about him so much.
(Look at them both doing bleps I CAAAANTTTT 😭 💕 🥺 😭 🙏)
Ristorante Paradiso (Manga)
Date: 2024-07-31 05:12 am (UTC)Media: Manga
Approximate Length: Four volumes, light on text, all of which can be read in one sitting.
What It's About
Ristorante Paradiso by Natsume Ono and its sequel volumes, Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso, tell the story of a small restaurant in Rome whose hook is that all the waiters are dapper older men with glasses.
The series is predominantly made up of slice-of-life stories about the staff's romantic and familial relationships, with a backdrop of picturesque locations and a feast's worth of delicious Italian food. The first volume is primarily concerned with the arrival of a young woman named Nicoletta, who's come to Rome to confront her estranged mother. She gets a job at the restaurant, and as she meets the new people in her mother's life—including a shy older waiter that she becomes smitten with—the story expands to reveal more about the owners, chefs, servers, and customers of Casetta dell'Orso.
Where to Find It
English translations of the series are available through VIZ Media LLC digitally and in print wherever you buy or borrow manga, including (region-dependent) Comixology, Google Play, and many library systems.
Ristorante Paradiso (Comixology | Google Play | WorldCat)
Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso vol. 1 (Comixology | Google Play | WorldCat)
Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso vol. 2 (Comixology | Google Play | WorldCat)
Gente: The People of Ristorante Paradiso vol. 3 (Comixology | Google Play | WorldCat)
What I Love About It
While Nicoletta's story was a good jumping off point, it's the older characters in the series I fell in love with. Particularly Lorenzo, the restaurant owner and gentle patriarch who takes care of the people around him and has a boundless tolerance for their eccentricities, and his brother Gigi. the silent and superstitious sommelier who entered his life under unusual circumstances and occupies a strange but dear part of it.
These are quiet, often subtle little stories about love in its various forms and how good food and comfortable places can bring people together.
I'm Requesting
Gigi Orsini/Lorenzo Orsini (fraternal incest between two half-brothers forbidden to meet as children who reunite as adults) and Gigi Orsini/Original Male Character. Gigi is my favourite character, this delicate and doe-eyed older man who winds his way through the various stories like a stray cat who gets fed by half the neighbourhood, seeming to partially exist in his own world while keenly observing the people who matter to him. He's great, and I just want nice things for him, whether that be romantic adventures, secret affairs, new hobbies, personal growth, or just some interesting days out.
Content Warnings
One of the volumes has a minor subplot in which a supporting character meets a woman dealing with ('off-screen') domestic violence at home. There is also a non-graphic scene in which a character's parent dies.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-07-31 05:24 am (UTC)Title: Castlevania (Netflix) + Castlevania: Nocturne
Media: Animated Series (Netflix)
Approx length: 32 + 8 episodes (Nocturne season 2 will probably release in October/November)
Where to find it: On Netflix
What is it, in summary?
Castlevania on Netflix is a loose adaption of the game series by the same name. Vlad Dracula Tepes falls in love with a human woman - Lisa. But 20 years later, she gets burned as a witch, and Dracula swears to kill every last human on the world in revenge for it. Now his son, Adrian Tepes, also called Alucard, has to team up with the last surviving son of the Belmont family of monster hunters, as well as a speaker magician to fight Dracula and stop his genocide.
What do you love about it?
This show is queer as fuck, and for being a very gory horror series also wholesome. The best written character in the whole show is a gay, Black, muslim man. What else can I say? But yeah, while the original series does have some issues in the way it is written (season 4 is rushed thanks to a lot of behind the scenes drama), it is really very wholesome. But it also has a ton of really well written characters, who are just so insanely likeable.
Castlevania: Nocturne I love especially for the characters of color in it, that are actually allowed to be motivated by their anger about colonialism.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
By now I know that if the show had gotten more seasons, Hector and Isaac would have become an official couple at some point. The show did not get more seasons, so they never did. However: I love Hector and Isaac together. I love how their character arcs interact. I love Hector and Isaac together and as single characters. I just wanna read more about them.
For Nocturne I mostly just want Mizrak and Olrox. I don't care about the context. I just want more about them!
Are there sections of canon that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?
For the aforementioned reasons: Sadly no. I am more interested in what is happening after the end of the canon.
Content notes:
Seasons 1-4: Gore, violence, murder, death (also death of children), religious motivated violence, a few mild examples of homophobia, slavery, also two back to back rape scenes in season 3 episode 9.
Nocturne: Gore, violence, murder, death, racism (again: Colonialism is the central theme here), slavers
DCU (Comics): Mother Panic (Earth Prime)
Date: 2024-07-31 05:27 am (UTC)Media: Limited comic book series published from 2016-17
Approximate Length: Twelve issues, or two trade paperbacks
What It's About
Set on the fringes of the Batman comics in the DC universe, Mother Panic tells the story of Violet Paige, celebutante by
daynight and costumed avenger by other part of the night. Fortunately, it's always night in Gotham City.Violet (alter ego: Mother Panic) isn't a dedicated hero so much as someone looking for vengeance and answers. After killing her father in a "hunting accident" as a girl, she found herself sent away to a shady boarding school by her brother where the students were subject to experimentation by a mysterious group known as the Collective. Violet was held there against her will and, after proving good at fighting, was forced to receive several augmentive surgeries to increase her strength and stamina.
In the years since Violet broke free, the Collective has continued to make powerful allies among the wealthy and corrupt of Gotham, turning the city into their own sadistic art project and attempted 'disruption.' Violet wants to know who was responsible for suggesting the boarding school to her brother, find out the extent of what they were doing, and stop them from hurting more children.
Assisting her in her endeavours is Dr. Suditi Varma, Violet's love interest who's implied to be one of the surgeons who operated on her at the boarding school, who's since defected from that life. They're joined by Dominic, a young bodyguard (or possibly 'bodyguard') whose romance with his boss was cut short when he discovered what exactly the man had commissioned from the Collective. Dominic is now attending nursing school and interning with Dr. Varma. Violet also cares for her mother, Rebecca, a woman disconnected from reality whose seemingly whimsical pronouncements sometimes reveal access to information she shouldn't logically have.
The four live together in an abandoned luxury hotel and are joined by reformed Batman villain the Ratcatcher, Otis Flannegan, who takes up residence in the hotel's basement with his crew of rats.
Violet bringing Dominic home to her mother's garden at the hotel
Violet in action as Mother Panic, saving Dominic
Violet in action as Violet Paige, celebutante
Dr. Varma reading in bed when she's interrupted by Violet
Dominic chats with Violet's mother
Violet talking to Otis about Batman
Where to Find It
Individual issues and the two trade paperback collections are available in print and digitally where comics are sold. Information about the trade paperbacks is available on the DC website: Mother Panic vol. 1: A Work in Progress (issues #1-6) and Mother Panic vol. 2: Under Her Skin (issues #7-12).
What I Love About It
First off, it's a solid superhero story that occupies the edges of a broken-in setting like Gotham while still standing on its own instead of requiring knowledge about other series or DC lore. It's dark and has some weight, but it also features a character who loves her mother, cares about those closest to her, and finds herself helping kids the way no one helped her when she was young, with payoffs that are awkward but touching. I also appreciate Violet and both members of her support team being queer, with complicated cross-faction relationships (Dr. Varma being in love with Violet and seemingly having left the boarding school's employ sometime after meeting her, Violet reconnecting with a girlfriend who betrayed her in their youth, Dominic having dated his older employer before discovering the extent of his darkness). There are complicated people making in-the-moment moral decisions and ultimately starting to come together as a family, and a whole lot of story to explore in light of the series only making it twelve issues.
I'm Requesting
Anything involving the four residents of the Pike Place Hotel where Violet has set up operations as Mother Panic, Violet Paige/Suditi Varma (a canonical unrequited ship), Dominic/Alfred Pennyworth from the Batman comics, and Dominic/Original Male Character in Silver Fox Age Range (because he deserves a replacement sugar daddy after the last disaster - or, hey, an older sugar baby now that he's getting paid by Violet). I'd be looking for anything and everything from plotty casefic, family/friendship drama, tropey romance, pining, declarations, rescues, mystery, angst, humour, backstory and futurefic.
Content Warnings
The violence in this series is about on par with the darker issues of Batman or other mainstream comics, and is generally for mature readers. There are several instances of children in peril and elements of institutional abuse, although predominantly referenced/off-screen and involving Violet fighting to protect the vulnerable. At one point, a sexual assault is planned but not executed.
DCU (Comics): Mother Panic (Gotham A.D.)
Date: 2024-07-31 05:44 am (UTC)Media: Comic book miniseries published in 2018
Approximate Length: Six issues, or one trade paperback, and one separate set-up issue
What It's About
Mother Panic: Gotham A.D. is a miniseries spin-off of Mother Panic (see promo above) that sends protagonist Violet Paige to an alternate possible future where Gotham City has become a dystopia in Batman's absence.
How do you make a dystopia out of a city that's already a 'dark deco' labyrinth of killer clowns and bat-men? You gentrify it. Through a series of events that doesn't bear trying to summarize coherently because it involves Doom Patrol, Violet is flung forward ten years into a new Gotham where a sinister force has rebranded Gotham and the city's heroes and villains are being hunted.
Accompanied by plucky/murderous orphan sidekick Rosie, a.k.a. Fennec Fox, Violet seeks out this future's version of her mother, as well as her support team Dr. Varma and Dominic, in an attempt to set things right and return to her proper timeline. Along the way, she also encounters several mainstays of the Batman universe, including the Joker, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Red Hood.
Earth Prime Violet missing her people
Rosie - an ordinary Gotham childhood
A commercial for the new and improved Gotham
Where to Find It
Individual issues and the trade paperback collection are available in print and digitally where comics are sold. Information about the trade paperback is available on the DC website: Mother Panic: Gotham A.D. There is also a bridging one-shot that explains how Violet came to the world of Gotham A.D., which was part of a larger 2018 crossover event called Milk Wars: Mother Panic/Batman Special #1.
What I Love About It
Predominantly Rosie. Not only is little Fennec Fox a delight on her own, but having a ward brings out a whole new side of Violet, who both struggles and grows in light of Rosie's determination to see her as a hero. I also appreciate how a certain character (no spoilers here) was brought into Violet's circle by the end. The setting is delightfully fiendish and frequently poignant, and it tugged on my heartstrings to see the team get some closure here denied by the ending of the original series.
I'm Requesting
Rosie gen and/or the residents of the Pike Hotel. Whether it's casefic, lighthearted humour, drama and trauma, a passel of heroes and former villains trying to raise a kid together, universe-hopping or grounded adventures, I just want to spend some more time with these characters.
Content Warnings
The violence in this series is about on par with the darker issues of Batman or other mainstream comics, including harm to children, and is generally for mature readers.
House of the Dragon
Date: 2024-07-31 09:39 am (UTC)Media: TV Series (based on the book Fire & Blood)
Approx length: 2 seasons of ~1h long episodes = 18h
Where to find it: HBO
Summary: An inheritance dispute within a dysfunctional royal family leads to civil war.
Loves: The family dynamics here are so interestingly crafted, even though 80% of the time they're beyond unhealthy. There's just enough intricate world-building and parallels between the cool scenes of dragons and battles for everyone to enjoy it. At the same time it's also the type of canon that makes you sigh endlessly about what could have been. It's a train-wreck of a grand tragedy (in a painfully good way).
Requests:
Aegon II Targaryen/Aemond "One-Eye" Targaryen
I love these doomed destructive brothers who are each horrible so horrible and yet somehow sympathetic in their own way. Terrible Targaryen-Hightower family dynamics and vicious cycles of intergenerational trauma... How their fraternal relationship is twisted both by their family's incestuous custom, their human desires for love, and their believed birthright as dragon-riding royals. Their specific dynamic also changes throughout the story, so there are so many fun points to set a story in (or take it through them all)!
Alicent Hightower/Rhaenyra Targaeyen
The (friendship?) breakup that broke the realm in two </3 The entire show is arguably centered around their relationship and the consequences of its deterioration. The angst! The drama! The what-could-have-beens! Will either of them ever regret the choices which led them down the path to civil war and tragedy?
(no subject)
Date: 2024-07-31 09:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-07-31 02:05 pm (UTC)Midsomer Murders (TV)
Date: 2024-07-31 04:12 pm (UTC)Approx length: 142 episodes of 1 hour 30 each/ 12780 minutes
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips): https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/midsomer-murders. You can change the country to your own to see if it's there! If not, you can find it on google.
What is it, in summary? A long-running murder mystery with so much heart and humour. And amazing characters!
What do you love about it? Not toally sure, honestly. I think I just love trying to figure out the crimes? As well as the characters! Not only is the main cast super charming, I also love most of the different characters specific to 1 or 2 episodes!
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Murder mysteries, stuff between hte main characters, letting characters who never met do so, post-epsisode studff for "Henry Marwood"... the works!
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships? Yes! Not all episodes are needed for my requests! For my Henry Marwood/OPeggy Aynscombe request, only season 9 episode 5 (Four Funerals and a Wedding) is needed. Seasons with Charlie Nelson= 16-18. Jamie Winter= 19 onwards. Ben Jones= 9-15. John Barnaby= 14 onwards. So you can watch whichever episodes in that space to learn about my requested characters!
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive: No warnings for my Henry/Peggy request (season 9 episode 5), but show in general can have that. It's a murder show, but not a super gory one! We might see someone stabbed, but they don't show when someone's head was cut off (ironically enough played by the guy playing Henry Marwood, years before he played Henry). Episode 1 has full on incet, but that's not needded for my requests!
Hudson & Rex (TV)
Date: 2024-07-31 04:22 pm (UTC)Approx length:100 episodes of ~45 minutes each/ ~75 hours
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips): https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/hudson-and-rex You can see here where it's available! They are also available through googling if you do not have them available.
What is it, in summary? Another crime show! Not all episodes are murder mysteries, there's also kidnappings, robberies, hostage situations, attempted murders etc. Plenty for everyone!
What do you love about it? I am in love with so many things about this. Rexie (cutest dog fr), the bond between him and Charlie (his human partner NOT handler thankyouverymuch), the banter/ close-knit team vibes between everyone... It's so good! And the nature (mostly set on st. John's, Newfoundland) is sooo pretty. Season 6 episode 1 has whales!
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Murder mysteries, whump against characters (mostly Jesse, he's my punching bag who I also hug dearly), romance between my requested ships... everything!
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships? For karma poole-related content, only season 5 is needed, as that is the only episode she's in! Otherwise, other than episodes 15-16 of season 5, the show is mostly self-contained. You won't need to watch every episode to get a feel for the characters! For whump/ emotional whump of Jesse, I recommend season 1 episode 1, season 1 episode 4, season 4 episode 9, season 5 episodes 15-16, and season 5 episode 20! Feel free to ask Modzilla to email me about other recs (ha, rex...) for episodes!
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive: It's a crime show, so there's the uual stuff like murders, explosions, kidnappings etc. I don't remember incest. Season 2 episode 2 has (probably unintentional) transphobia, as the team continues to use female pronouns after a person expressed that they're transmasc. That's a one.off for the show, not a recurring thing!
Shishi no Odoriko (Manga)
Date: 2024-07-31 05:42 pm (UTC)Media: Explicit BL/yaoi manga
Length: 1 volume
Where to find it: It's not licensed in English, and I recommend the 2nd Life Scans scanlation. You can find it in Japanese via the creator's Pixiv.
What is it, in summary?
Yoru has been forced into prostitution after it came out that he was misleading audiences as a circus performer. He is not the beautiful fox hybrid people were paying to see: he's just a normal human who loves to dance. He's purchased outright by Amran, a high-ranking lion hybrid who happens to run a bridal company and who's loved by his staff. But it turns out that Yoru and Amran have a longer history than Yoru realised, when it's revealed that Amran has been trying to support and save him since a chance encounter long ago.
What do you love about it?:
IT'S GORGEOUS. And, as someone whose favourite yaoi experiences of the late 1990s/early 2000s were Ai no Kusabi, Mirage of Blaze and Sukisyo, it gives me massive nostalgic delight despite being from 2021.
I find Amran and Yoru delightfully iddy and sweet despite the story's kind of ludicrous set-up. In IRL loving your rapist is unhealthy, but frankly, if your rapist is a man who can turn into a lion, you probably have bigger problems. ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)
I'm not someone who's very good at enthusiastic adoration, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about this manga for m o n t h s. A downtrodden redhead who loves music and dance being saved by someone they don't really trust then coming to love them in the end is everything I've ever wanted from a smut oneshot.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
I just want more! More smut, more of the characters interacting with each other, more in this weird world of hybrids where hybrid/human marriage is frowned upon. I wrote a fic about Amran and Yoru getting married—I'd love to see what someone imagines happens further down the line for them, or another take on how their relationship might go. Make Amran cry more please.
I'd love for Havil to somehow find his way into a sexual arrangement with Yoru and Amran, or else just for Amran and Yoru to interact with Havil independently from each other, maybe complaining about something in their relationship? I don't know, but Havil is chief captain shit-stirrer so set him up with a pot and watch him go. I'd also love to see Lailah and Nina kiss (lebian catgirls in my yaoi? be still my big bi heart).
Content notes: The manga is very smutty, and includes dubiously consensual sex, involuntary prostitution, and one chapter including explicit bestiality, which can be skimmed or skipped (it's very clearly telegraphed, and the narrative relevance happens outside the pages where you can see a lion's sex face).
Re: Shishi no Odoriko (Manga)
Date: 2024-07-31 07:58 pm (UTC)Also, hell yeeeah!! Dubious sex and handsome men!!! If it's ludicrous and a little convoluted, all the better for me 🤤
Triaina Academy - Leo
Date: 2024-07-31 08:35 pm (UTC)Media: Text based Choose your own Adventure game
Approx length: about 75k words or about 1-2 hours per playthrough
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips): Dashingdon (https://dashingdon.com/play/leoxii/triaina-academy---wip/mygame/)
What is it, in summary?: It is a sci-fi romance story surrounding students attending a prestigious boarding school as war seems to loom on the horizon
What do you love about it?: The setting is really what drew me in. It's a cool sort of sci-fi spin on low fantasy with ever fun task of trying to navigate what is essentially this worlds version of college.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Anything that explores the relationship between Ren and MC and delves into Ren as a character. Setting Aus as I feel like the characters would be really interesting into different settings
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive: Pg-13 violence, bullying, Xenophobia & Prejudice
The Nanny Affair (Visual Novel)
Date: 2024-07-31 08:42 pm (UTC)Approx length: Three titles within the game about 8-9 hours in length each
Where to find it: Full game: Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixelberrystudios.choices&hl=en_GB), App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/choices-stories-you-play/id1071310449), There maybe full playthroughs available if you google
What do you love about it?: I love how messy some of the characters are and the character interactions in this are really intriguing and entertaining for me
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Setting AUs involving Robin and Sofia manipulating and tormenting the MC. A lot of people like to white-wash Robin and Sofia and I would love a fic that actually delves into hoe terrible these two really are
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Book 2 has the most interactions between the three requested characters so really if you only want to play/read that you should be okay
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive: Infidelity, Strong Language, Mild Sexism
The Elementalists Visual Novel
Date: 2024-07-31 09:47 pm (UTC)Approx length: Two titles within the game about 8-9 hours in length each
Where to find it: Full game: Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixelberrystudios.choices&hl=en_GB), App Store (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/choices-stories-you-play/id1071310449), There maybe full playthroughs available if you google
What is it, in summary?: It is a Fantasy romance set in a Hogwarts like post secondary-school setting where the Main Character who is suddenly dropped into the magical world must work to find her place while outside forces scheme to use them in their plans
What do you love about it?: I'm honestly a huge fan of post-secondary academic and Magical Academy settings and this is the best of both these worlds. I also really love the magic system as well as how the characters develop over the series
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I love fics that center around the relationship between Shreya and the Main Character. I enjoy dark fics and AUs especially setting AUs since those have the most impact on the character interactions.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: You only really need to read the first book to get a handle on the characters. There is also a side story called The Elementalists Winter's Past that is much shorter that can be read which will give you a solid understanding of the characters and relationships
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive: optional sexual content, mild Pg-13 violence and strong language.
Something Dark and Holy Series (book)
Date: 2024-07-31 10:19 pm (UTC)Media: Books
Approx length: between 400 and 544 pages
Where to find it: Available on Amazon or another retailer, or your local library! Also available as audiobooks. You can probably find versions of it if you google!
What is it, in summary?: the series in set in fantasy!russia and fantasy!poland, two countries at war because of religious differences - fantasy!russia has a pantheon of gods and clerics, figures that are able to communicate and wield the gods' powers, while fantasy!poland has said "fuck this shit" and invented magic of their own, which upset the gods and caused war for the past few centuries. our protagonist is nadezhda "nadya" lapteva, the last of the clerics, able to commune with the entire pantheon, and who leads a mostly normal life in the monastery where she was abandoned at - until the prince of fantasy!poland comes knocking to kill her. nadya flees, and ends up meeting a mysterious soldier from fantasy!poland, alongside his two traveling companions.
What do you love about it?: I like the cast - they're a bunch of extremely competent people, who also happen to be a few of the biggest losers you've met. I also like the magical systems - both feel rounded and robust, and although they're not the main focus, you can still feel like they make sense. idk I just really like these books
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I'm requesting shippy content but I'd be genuinely down for Anything
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: just reading Wicked Saints would be good to get you writing!!
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): blood, self harm, heavy body horror in later books
Ever After High (Cartoon)
Date: 2024-07-31 10:26 pm (UTC)Media: tv show
Approx length: ~29 hours of content, divided between episodes and movies
Where to find it: Available on Netflix and archive.org!
What is it, in summary? Ever After High is a early 2010s cartoon about the children of fairy tale figures, such as the Evil Queen, Snow White, the Mad Hatter, etc, all with rigid destinies to follow - until Raven Queen, the Evil Queen's daughter, decides to rebel against her fate, much to the displeasure of Snow White's daughter, Apple White, who she was supposed to poison. Raven does NOT want to follow her destiny, and Apple is all but poisoning the apple herself to give to Raven.
What do you love about it? honestly, i just love how it's a fun cartoon for children with pretty clothings. yeah it's an ad for dolls, but they look good and it's pretty cool. i also like how distinct each character is, and how they're developed through the series.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? i'm requesting ship content for apple/darling, and the wonderlandians in a polycule!
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships? for the wonderlandian content, watching Ever After High: Spring Unsprung would suffice. for darling/apple, watching Dragon Games would suffice.
Re: Shishi no Odoriko (Manga)
Date: 2024-08-01 12:06 am (UTC)Anyway, I'm definitely gonna look into this!
Hellblazer: Rise and Fall (DC Black Label)
Date: 2024-08-01 05:11 am (UTC)Media: Comic
Approximate Length: A three-issue miniseries
What It's About
A standalone story in the wider Hellblazer series, Hellblazer: Rise and Fall sees occult detective John Constantine teaming up with Satan himself to investigate when some of the wealthiest people in the world begin falling from the sky with angel wings attached to their backs.
Why does Satan, aka the First of the Fallen, care about a couple of dead oligarchs? Because it's his own stolen wings that are involved in their deaths. Together, he and John get their buddy cop flirt on as they pursue the case back to its roots in an early experience with dark magic in John's childhood and try to set things right.
Where to Find It
The three individual issues and trade paperback collections are available in print and digitally where comics are sold. Information about the trade paperbacks is available on the DC website: Hellblazer: Rise and Fall
What I Love About It
It's the one where John Constantine and Satan make out. I'm not going to lie, that's the main attraction—or rather, John and Satan getting to have a good time together is. This is one of Hellblazer's lighter outings, still dark in content but much less harrowing in tone than some of the series' previous iterations of the same topics, and it's overall a fun little horror adventure with former enemies working together and enjoying each other's company.
I'm Requesting
John Constantine/First of the Fallen, thanks to scenes like the following.
Satan surprising John in bed
(And turning out to be trolling him)
Satan keeping his horns visible for John's benefit
"My hero"
Meeting John's abusive father.
Threatening John's abusive father.
"Go get him, tiger"
Kissing in the men's room
Content Warnings
While this is milder in tone than some Hellblazer arcs, it is still very much a horror comic and contains graphic violence, supporting character death, death of a child, and psychological terror, as well as touching on more grounded dark issues such as child abuse and death in childbirth.
Green Hornet
Date: 2024-08-01 11:22 pm (UTC)Media: TV show
Approx length: 10 hours (One season of 26 episodes which are each ~24-25 minutes)
Where to find it: YouTube!
What is it, in summary: It's a show from the sixties--contemporaneous with Adam West Batman (Britt and Kato even show up there for a crossover at one point), but much less camp while still very aware of just how absurd the premise is. Britt Reid, "Owner-Publisher of the Daily Sentinel" has a secret identity as notorious criminal The Green Hornet, which he uses to infiltrate crime organizations, usually in a very dramatic fashion while wearing a mask and wielding a weapon called "the Hornet Sting" which does whatever Britt needs it to do for the plot, so the District Attorney can take them down. The intersection of running a newspaper and playing a criminal who is often written about in the newspapers is a frequent plot point. (Also sometimes known as The Show That Gave Us Bruce Lee, as playing Kato was the role that introduced him to Western audiences.)
What do you love about it: the tone! So much the tone! It plays the premise completely straight, but you never have any sense that the writers weren't fully aware of just what kind of show they're making, so it's just this magnificent little exploration of "Okay, but what if." Like, this is the show where one of the murder weapons is a trained leopard... which is used in the news offices which are up on a high floor of the newspaper building. Another one features people stealing a tank from a military hardware storehouse. Both of whom are still serious, dangerous antagonists.
Sections of canon: It's a sitcom from the sixties; everything is the same in most episodes, so you can really get a strong sense of it after you've watched any five or six episodes past the first few-- although the later episodes give Kato a lot more to do, so it's any grouping from the back part of the season. ("They Preying Mantis" showcases Kato pretty heavily, "The Ray is for Killing" gives Casey a bit more than usual to do.)
Requests for it: background and character development, mostly, especially worldbuilding-- I want to dive into the logistics of working with the Green Hornet.
Content notes: more for specific episodes than the show as a whole; in particular "The Preying Mantis" gets a heavy dose of period/genre-typical Orientalism.
Re: Shishi no Odoriko (Manga)
Date: 2024-08-02 01:31 am (UTC)Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (TV) - "Those Old Scientists"
Date: 2024-08-02 07:56 pm (UTC)Media: Television
Approximate Length: Two seasons of ten episodes each, but for the purposes of my own request, I'm promoting one 48-minute episode that I think can stand decently alone if you have a general knowledge of the Star Trek universe.
What It's About
"Those Old Scientists" is the seventh episode of the second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and is a crossover episode with Star Trek: Lower Decks.
In it, the 24th century Starfleet crew from the USS Cerritos (from Lower Decks) are investigating a portal on an uninhabited planet. Orion crewmember D'Vana Tendi shares that her people first discovered the portal a century prior. However, she's doubted by her human friend Brad Boimler, who questions whether Orions—primarily known as pirates—even had scientists back then.
Time travel portaling ensue, and Brad ends up transported to the 23rd century where he meets the crew of USS Enterprise (from Strange New Worlds). There, among his general fanboying for his historical heroes and his comedic attempts not to mess with the timeline while trying to get home, he ends up uniquely positioned to stop a potentially deadly incident when the Enterprise encounters an Orion ship that they take to be a pirate vessel—but which Brad informs them may in fact be on a scientific mission.
We then meet Orion Captain Harr Caras a few times across the episode, from a first mistrustful encounter, to tentative bargaining, to a sweet culmination where he and his crew are finally recognized for what they are. What's left is a lot of questions and possibilities with regard to who Captain Caras is and what life is like on his ship the D'Var.
A compilation of a few relevant scenes
Where to Find It
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams on Paramount+.
What I Love About It
This is a fun episode that combines culture clash time travel comedy with some sweet and genuine Star Trek feelings about the explorer tradition of Starfleet and what drove these characters to the stars. I like that this is extended to the Orions, who are often stereotyped as only spacefaring for crime and profit, and whose complexity as a people is given faces here in the form of Captain Caras and his crew.
I'm Requesting
Char: Harr Caras and Harr Caras/Original Male Non-Orion Scientist. Whether backstory, mission fic, humour, drama, worldbuilding, cross-cultural romance, or so on, I'm just interested in stories that touch on what it's like to be a scientist on Orion / what doing science the Orion way looks like, and how Harr Caras interacts with the wider world of intergalactic scientists.
Content Warnings
None that I can think of.
Our Dreams at Dusk (Manga)
Media: Manga series
Approx length: 4 volumes, complete
Where to find it: Barnes and Noble (Paperback for $12.99 or ebook for $8.99)
Content warnings (moved up because there's a few big ones, and you might want to see them before going further):
Homophobic slurs, hate speech, minor character death (vol. 4), terminal cancer (vol. 4), suicide attempt/thoughts of suicide (vol. 1), body dysmorphia, misgendering, sexual assault (vol. 2, ch. 9 with passing mentions elsewhere).
What is it, in summary?: A coming-out, coming-of-age story centered around Tasuku Kaname, who is a closeted gay. At his lowest moment, he meets Someone-San, who introduces him to the drop-in center, a place where he meets people whose problems aren't much different from his own.
This manga has a really diverse representation of queer identity, from asexual characters to trans characters, all depicted in a realistic way. It explores their lives, their struggles, and the community that keeps them together.
What do you love about it?: Its ability to absolutely devastate me emotionally. I thought I was doing pretty well, and then I hit the ending and ended up bawling like a baby. It's such a raw, genuine depiction of what it's like to be discriminated against just because of who you are or who you love.
But there's also tender moments, and growth, and the main character, Tasuku, comes out of it a stronger person. All the female characters are particularly strong too, including Daichi-san and Someone-san. One of my favorite lines is Daichi saying, "Gay people are not zombies who only think about love and sex twenty-four seven". (But if you really want to talk about my favorite line, it's, "Look, dad. Your favorite person's here.")
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:
I'm going to be requesting a crossover with Arima Yuu from Boy Meets Maria. On the whole, I would like more exploration of the characters and their world, queer representation, found family, bonding, kissing, etc. This is a canon that is very character-driven and thus drives me to want to know more about the characters 😂 And hopefully in a way where they can be happy in the end.
Boy Meets Maria (Manga)
Date: 2024-08-03 02:16 am (UTC)Media: Manga
"Wouldn't it be cool... if there was an actor who could play both male and female roles?"
Approx length: One volume (complete)
Where to find it: Barnes & Noble for $8.99 (ebook)
What is it, in summary?
A story about the main character Taiga falling in love with a boy he initially mistakes as a girl who acts for the school's drama club. The beautiful actor in question is Arima Yuu, whose mother raised him as the girl she always wished she'd had (and which is, naturally, the source of the manga's name— Maria). As Taiga and Arima grow closer, Taiga learns more about Arima and his struggles with his gender identity and along the way helps Arima find the courage to act onstage as more than a dancer but as the lead male role in a play.
Content notes:
Explicit pedophilia & attempted rape at the start of ch. 4 (The explicit scene ends at pg 129 but it is still a prevalent part of the rest of the plot going forward), sexual assault (pgs 204-211)
What do you love about it?
I'm in love with Arima and his journey as a boy whose mother made him live like a girl to exploring his own gender identity as a man throughout the course of the manga, with him eventually settling on just being “Yuu.” Taiga insisted he loves Arima no matter what his gender identity is, and I loved that aspect of their relationship very much. Arima doesn't let the past stop him from pursuing his dreams of becoming an actor despite his unique upbringing. It's trauma and he's healing from it and finding a way to take something that had been torture for him into a tool to improve his acting. Both male and female roles!! Ahh, he's so handsome and beautiful and amazing and— and— [etc.]
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Absolutely more Arima. More of his snark, more of his face, more of his acting and putting his foot down. I will be asking for character-driven works about a crossover between Boy Meets Maria and Our Dreams at Dusk because I think they would fit each other's universes quite well with the emphasis on LGBTQ+ themes and exploration. I'd love to see more acting, and kissing, and maybe other things! Arima still has more of his charm to flex and I want to see all of it.
Elden Ring (Video Games)
Date: 2024-08-03 02:56 am (UTC)Media: Video Game
Approximate Length: 150+ hours
What It's About
You are one of the Tarnished - someone who, ages ago, was cast out of the Lands Between by the god-queen Marika the Eternal, and has now, centuries or possibly millennia later, been brought back after death to seek the title of Elden Lord, consort of Marika, and unearth the secrets of this now-broken world.
Since your banishment, several wars have come and gone; nations have fallen, crusades have been carried out, and a beloved demigod, Godwyn the Golden, has been murdered in an event known as the Night of the Black Knives. In the aftermath, Marika the Eternal in her grief shattered the Elden Ring (a configuration of Great Runes which shapes the laws of reality in the Lands Between), a crime for which the Greater Will (an alien cosmic horror and capital-G God) crucified her. Her remaining children went to war with each other to claim the pieces of the shattered Elden Ring and become lords or gods themselves.
It is your mission, o Tarnished, to kill the demigods and take their power for yourself, reforging the Elden Ring how you please and becoming the Lord of a new age. You are guided by the light of Grace and several individuals with mysterious intentions - and you are not the only one who seeks to rule. There is also Gideon Ofnir the All-Knowing, another Tarnished like yourself, who is collecting both Great Runes and secrets; Ranni the Witch, a demigod chosen by the Greater Will's emissary to become a god, but whose Age of Stars is forestalled by her brother, Starscourge Radahn; the Lord of Blood, a mysterious figure with a Great Rune of his own who seeks to bring about an Age of Blood on behalf of the outer god known as the Formless Mother; and finally, the Empyrean Twins Malenia and Miquella, likewise chosen to become gods (despite having been born cursed, Malenia slowly rotting, and Miquella forever a young child), who seek to bring about an Age of Compassion for the sake of those reviled by the old order - but Miquella is said to have disappeared long ago.
Where to Find It
It's on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series One. Unfortunately, due to the way the game is written, this is not a very Let's Play-able canon to consume, but you could certainly try. The trailers for the base game and for the DLC all contain story-relevant information that does not appear elsewhere, and the full English and Japanese text dumps can be found here and here, though because a lot is communicated through environmental storytelling and visual design elements, the text dumps don't paint the fullest picture. You can find a lot of people's meta on YouTube (SmoughTown, VaatiVidya, and Tarnished Archaeologist all immediately come to mind) or Reddit - as a habitual fanon dissenter, I personally disagree with plenty of it, but seeing what other people took from the same lore can be worthwhile, and can help inform your own opinions (even if just because "that's so stupid, why would you ever think that?").
What I Love About It
I tend to get weirdly obsessed with tiny worldbuilding details and one-off characters we know one or two things about, and Elden Ring is a game that is just... full of this. A lot is left to interpretation, both thematically and in terms of piecing together the timeline, and seeing people's various theories and working out your own is a lot of fun. The lore was created by GRRM, so there's a lot of political and family drama going on that appeals to me a lot, as is the fact that, despite six (or arguably seven) possible endings, not one of them is an unambiguously happy ending. And if you find yourself drawn to messy incest ships, oh boy, is this the game for you. There's also canon selfcest and LGBT characters!
I'm Requesting
Miquella the Unalloyed/Starscourge Radahn and Loretta Knight of the Haligtree & Starscourge Radahn, though I welcome any background unrequested ships and characters as well (including other ships that involve requested characters). The new DLC recontextualized a lot of what we know about Radahn, and I'd love to see someone go hard on politics, worldbuilding, and character study, whether that's exploring pre-canon or an AU. Or even post-canon! You do you.
Content Warnings: Graphic gore and body horror, including eye trauma and immolation. Bugs. References to slavery, ethnic cleansing, incest, torture, imprisonment, child abuse, death in childbirth, cannibalism, self-harm, terminal illness, sexual violence, pedophilia, and partial mind control, among other things.
Final Fantasy XIV: AST quests and Shadowbringers/Eden raids
Date: 2024-08-03 04:45 am (UTC)Media: Video Game
Approximate Length: uhhhhhhhhh (for my requests, 60,000 words of script and lore writeup on DW for one, and around 25 hours of YT videos for the other)
FFXIV is a story-driven MMORPG where you (the Warrior of Light) and your ambiguously cult-y warrior-scholar allies (the Scions of the Seventh Dawn) fight evil empires, mind-controlling gods, and mysterious entities called Ascians, which manipulate events behind the scenes and occasionally possess your friends. But I'm not going to try and sell you on the main plot - just a couple of individual questlines: the Astrologian quests, and the Eden quests.
There's a full 60,000 word write-up of all relevant information for the Astrologian quests on my dreamwidth here, including the full script of all quests with retcons noted and explained. If you like charming, kind of dumb elves with PTSD and age gap, size difference M/F ships (or doomed teenage yaoi), give it a read! This is my favorite plotline in the entire game, and stands alone pretty well. All but two minorly-relevant quests ("Love, Astrologically" and "A Literary Delivery") can be played with the current free trial.
(These quests apply to the ships Leveva Byrde/Jannequinard de Durendaire, Rufin Byrde/Jannequinard de Durendaire, and Carvallain de Gorgagne & Jannequinard de Durendaire. Content warnings: PTSD, familial abuse, implied alcoholism, death of a loved one, mentions of arranged child marriage.)
The other plotline I'm going to try and sell you on takes a little bit more explaining, and cannot be experienced with just the free trial, but I have a bunch of YouTube videos, if that works.
The Ascians ("those without shadows") are mysterious robed and masked entities that look human but aren't, and manipulate events behind the scenes to cause chaos in the hopes of starting off apocalyptic events called "Calamities", "Rejoinings", or "Ardors". They worship a primordial god of Darkness called Zodiark (in opposition to the primordial god of Light the players serve, called Hydaelyn), and throughout the first several expansions of the game, they very occasionally show up to cackle evilly or rant about technobabble we don't pay much attention to. Here's a two part YouTube video of all relevant scenes from 2.0-4.56, 3 hours in all, or an incredibly brief summary below if that sounds like a lot and you just want the basics.
SUMMARY OF 2.0-4.56 ASCIAN LORE
In 2.0/A Realm Reborn, we meet Lahabrea, who has possessed our friend Thancred and is manipulating the big bad (Gaius van Baelsar, general of the invading Evil Empire of Garlemald) into causing a Rejoining. In a job sidequest we learn that only a select few Ascians, called Paragons, can possess living people. The others aren't strong enough to suppress someone's will, and instead possess corpses. There are allegedly three Paragons- Lahabrea, Elidibus, and a third we much later learn is called Emet-Selch - but it's worth pointing out that Elidibus is always seen wearing a corpse.
In 2.5, we get this scene with Lahabrea (being uppity), and Elidibus, the white-robed Emissary of Zodiark, reminding him of his place. (Yes, I ship them.)
Over the course of the game we learn how to kill these unkillable beings, and defeat Lahabrea in 3.0/Heavensward. Elidibus hangs around, trying to become our friend and talking about the importance of the balance between dark and light, but he very much still wants to destroy the world, so we don't bite. Still, sometimes he and his allies help us out, including a young Warrior of Light named Unukalhai, who is one of the two lone survivors of a previous Rejoining and whom Elidibus took under his wing. (These cataclysms, as it turns out, are combining our world with alternate realities - annihilating those worlds and causing heavy losses for our own.)
He sets various enemies against us to retain balance, then possesses the corpse of another Garlean big bad from 4.0, Zenos yae Galvus, and does politics, I guess? Meanwhile, Emet-Selch, who we learn secretly founded Garlemald as a tool for the Ascians, has decided to involve himself in the main story quest, which in 5.0/Shadowbringers takes us to another dimension, called the First.
5.0/Shadowbringers brings with it a lot of Ascian-related plot reveals, recontextualizing the Paragons as the tragically doomed heroes of a long-gone world. I can't say more than that without spoilers, but all main story cutscenes from 5.0-5.3 total just about 15 hours, which can be watched in this playlist (nothing past 5.3 is necessary: 5.3 is the official end of Shadowbringers and Elidibus' storyline). Alternately, you can also speedrun the Ascian lore with this short cutscene from about halfway through 5.0, then the final zone of 5.0 (about 1 hour of video footage and three short sidequests), then 5.2 and 5.3 in full (3 hrs total) - all you're missing from 5.1 is a single line of dialogue spoken by Ardbert, or someone who looks like him: "Hope...? Yes. So long as I yet live, I would see that feeble flame rekindled."
The Eden quests can be watched in full in these three videos, as well as the Savage version of the final fight, which has an additional fight and dialogue. Slightly less relevant to my requests but still fun to watch if you like these guys are the time-travel-to-12KYA Pandaemonium quests: 1, 2, 3, 4.
(These quests are relevant to my request for Loghrif/Mitron & Elidibus. CW: omnicide, dehumanization, corpse desecration, possession, memory loss/ego death, brainwashing, fantasy religious extremism, parental abuse.)
Our Flag Means Death (TV)
Date: 2024-08-03 04:56 am (UTC)Media: Television
Approximate Length: Eighteen half-hour episodes
What It's About
Our Flag Means Death is a historical comedy with a central romantic plot and additional dramatic elements set in the Golden Age of Piracy. Very loosely based on real events, it follows what happens when wealthy landowner Stede Bonnet has a midlife crisis in 1717 and abandons his home and family to attempt a career in piracy. His endeavour soon brings him to the attention of famed pirate Ed Teach, also known as Blackbeard, and subsequently into a romance with the man.
While the first season predominantly follows the direct and indirect consequences of Stede running away to be a pirate, the second season brings in larger forces such as Pirate Queen Zheng Yi Sao who aims to recruit Caribbean pirates to her fleet, and a member of the British royal family whose failed attempt at the adventurer's life sees him vowing to destroy the world of piracy.
The love story between Stede and Ed is a focus of both canon and fandom, but the show is made up of an incredible ensemble cast whose characters all have their own interesting backstories, romantic chemistry, relationships, and heaps of charm. It's primarily those characters—members of Stede and Ed's crews or social circles—who have been nominated this round of the exchange.
Some gifs and pics that cover this year's nominated characters and (where possible) ships:
Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Fang and Izzy Hands
Jim Jimenez and Izzy Hands
Fang, Izzy Hands and Ivan
Fang and Roach
Roach and Izzy Hands
Lucius and Fang
Frenchie and Izzy Hands
Lucius Spriggs and Izzy Hands
Stede Bonnet and Izzy Hands
Stede Bonnet and Lucius Spriggs
Where to Find It
The show originated on HBO Max is available for streaming or digital purchase on various platforms depending on region.
What I Love About It
The way it opens with the question of "Who would you be if you had the freedom and means to choose?" for its protagonists, and the possibilities on that front that it presents for the motley crew of eccentrics and lost souls who get swept up in Stede's philosophies and his romance with Ed. It's a show where queerness is the default at sea, and in its strongest moments it's the perfect balance of humour and heart for me. As a fan of supporting characters, I love that this show gave me so many who were distinct and intriguing enough to be the heroes of their own stories. The journey that the character of Izzy went on in particular, up until the finale, was hands down the exact kind of story of change, belonging, and queer community (complete with musical number) that my heart is always craving.
I'm Requesting
Fang/Izzy, Fang/Izzy & Original Child, Frenchie/Izzy, Izzy/Jim, and Izzy/Stede, with any sort of content as long as it's got a happy ending. Canon divergence and alternate reality AUs, backstory, cozy vignettes, plotty adventures, high drama, intimate moments, humour, hurt/comfort, D/s, it's all good.
Content Warnings
The first season has several scenes with largely cartoonish gore and isolated moments of more serious violence, including spousal abuse and murder. The second season trends darker in places, with more scenes of serious violence and abuse of authority, attempted suicide, and major character death.
Re: Our Flag Means Death (TV)
Date: 2024-08-03 05:39 am (UTC)Re: Our Flag Means Death (TV)
Date: 2024-08-03 06:57 am (UTC)Yotsuba&! (Yotsubato!)
Date: 2024-08-03 11:40 am (UTC)Media: manga (there is no anime adaptation)
Approximate length: 15 volumes, 113 chapters (ch. 105-113 have not gotten a volume release yet)
Where to find it: it's published in English by Yen Press and their website lists multiple places you can buy it online, both in paperback and in digital formats; paperback is $13 USD per volume, digital is $6.99 USD. it is also easy to find if you google around.
What is it, in summary? it's a slice of life manga about a five year old girl called Yotsuba Koiwai, her dad, their neighbours, their other friends, and their everyday adventures.
What do you love about it? it does a fantastic job of actually showing the childlike ability to find joy and delight in the smallest things, and makes me as the reader appreciate them and get excited by them right alongside Yotsuba. she's the most fun child protagonist in any media I've ever experienced -- she's written with the appropriate level of maturity for a five year old, she's never annoying, and her interactions with the world around her are genuinely really funny, to the point where I've laughed out loud multiple times reading this manga (a rare feat) and I routinely reread it as a pick-me-up. it's just really fun!
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? i already have, and you can find my FFFX request for it here, but the tl;dr is that I would essentially want more of what canon gives us -- Yotsuba's everyday adventures, her interactions with the people and world around her, the relationships between different characters, just casual slice-of-life stuff, not necessarily fluffy, but definitely low-stakes. 10k/10 pages of Yotsuba just vibing, hanging out with her friends and neighbours, and experiencing the world like only an excitable 5 y/o can? yes please!
Beneath a Steel Sky & Beyond a Steel Sky
Date: 2024-08-04 02:12 pm (UTC)Approx length: How Long To Beat suggests 16 hrs for the pair (6hrs + 10hrs). The youtube playthroughs I've linked gives about 10 hrs (2.5hrs + 7 hrs).
Where to find it:
Find Beneath a Steel Sky here; it's free on GOG. Actually, since it's so old, you can also play it online here through the browser.
Find Beyond a Steel Sky here.
You could also watch the playthroughs, available on youtube:
Beneath a Steel Sky
Beyond a Steel Sky.
What is it, in summary?
In post-apocalyptic probably-Australia, a man (Robert) and his robot best friend (Joey) enter the walled-off city of Union City to explore and untangle the mystery of why the city is a dystopia actually. Game-play is mostly solving puzzles of the "make thing X do Y to advance plot" sort by applying items in your inventory on items in the environment. The games' humour has often got a light-hearted and playful edge but pretty dark implications.
What do you love about it?
I'm a sucker for all things cyberpunk/dystopia, and there's room for a lot of Joey pathos combined with Joey sarcasm, and a lot of Robert/Joey feelings, and Joey is not shy about letting Robert know when he's upset. I love robots particularly when the AI has a personality. I also love cities being not so shiny dystopias and I think there's plenty of room to better flesh out the worldbuilding that we got.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Anything! I would love Robert/Joey with a nice meaty exploration of Joey's feelings/programming and how they both interpret what Robert did at the end of Beneath which turns out to be a sticking point for Joey all throughout Beyond, and I would also love a nice meaty worldbuilding fic on what has happened to Union City in Beyond. There's a dark humour to this game, and I'd love anything that either plays with that humour or completely subverts it in favour of the potential for dystopia-style cruelty, drama, and betrayal in order to double down on the sickness of Union City. Whether Joey winds up being more comical robot sidekick who sounds very human and cracks human jokes, or literal-minded robot sidekick who takes what Robert says seriously to comic effect or jarring dramatic effect, I would love it all.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?
Yes! In fact, most of Beneath a Steel Sky (the first game) isn't needed. Furthermore, it's from the 90s and is pretty dated in parts, and complex to play if you're not used to the point-and-click adventure style of games of that era. (This game is also specifically known for being a bit obtuse as far as puzzle design goes.) Most of the Joey sarcasm is in the first hour or so of the linked youtube playthrough, and the last 1/2 hour or so of the playthrough to find out what happens to him and how it sets up the sequel game. That's about all you need from Beneath.
Roughly the first half of Beyond a Steel Sky doesn't feature Joey, so you could also pick this up in the playthrough after Robert gets to the Museum of New History's "Old History" exhibit, where he finds Joey's circuit-board chip (roughly at the 3hr mark in the linked youtube video).
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive
Beneath a Steel Sky: The humour definitely comes off a bit dated. At some point one of the game puzzles involves a bit of slapstick where the goal is to catapult a dog into a pool (the dog is visibly fine after). There are some very dark plots about what's been going on with Union City citizens. It's bleaker in tone than Beyond.
Beyond a Steel Sky: Once again there are some very dark plots about what's been going on with Union City citizens, namely mind control and neural experimentation on children. Milo, Robert's friend's son, is kidnapped and put in danger, and you meet at least one other kid who does not escaped unscathed.
Satanic Panic (2019)
Date: 2024-08-04 02:28 pm (UTC)Media: Movie
Run time: 89 minutes
Where to find it: Link to a list of places where this movie is streaming. At the time of this posting, it is available for free on Hoopla (a streaming service available through some public libraries) and The Roku Channel.
What is it, in summary? A campy, gory B-movie horror comedy about a virgin pizza girl who gets caught up in a satanic cult's plan to ritually sacrifice her in order to usher in a new world.
What do you love about it? It's so incredibly and totally itself. It is loud and gross and gory and over the top and has the potential to really sink down into the canon and create some fascinating lore. It also features one of the MOST fucked-up mother-daughter relationships I've seen in a long time and offers lots of opportunities for shipping the daughter and the pizza girl, the pizza girl and the mom (if you like mommy kink and/or age gaps), and the daughter and the mom (if you're into incest).
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Comics and fic of any optional length about the leader of the cult and her relationship with her daughter -- solo, gen, or ship. I will be opting into, among other things, major character death, noncon, dubcon, and incest.
Content notes: This movie is very violent and very sexual. It also features rape, major character death, and unwanted (hyper)pregnancy. It is, in short, a horror movie.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-05 01:47 am (UTC)Media: Film
Approx length An hour and a half.
Where to find it It's currently Streaming on Max and is available on BritBox or The Criterion Channel
What is it, in summary? It's 1907, and young Englishwoman Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) has embarked upon a tour of Italy before coming into her majority the next year. With her is her older cousin Charlotte (Dame Maggie Smith), who is dithery and anxious about proving herself a good chaperone. Things go immediately sideways when Lucy takes a look out of her bedroom window and realizes that it opens onto an alley instead of the splendor of Florence, as the signora who owns the place promised.
Complaining about the situation in the pensione's dining room draws the attention of fiery retired journalist Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliott) and his morose railway worker son, George (Julian Sands). In spite of the weight of social propriety, Mr. Emerson cajoles an offended Charlotte into swapping rooms with the father and son, providing Lucy with the view she desires. There is, it seems, a reason behind this - Mr. Emerson is aware of George's depression and begs Lucy to be his son's friend. Shocked when Mr. Emerson reveals their family's atheism, Lucy seems to demur.
Fate sweeps the young couple together: first, George catches Lucy mid-faint in a piazza when they both witness a murder. Then, Lucy's poor Italian results in her cabdriver taking her to George during a group picnic. George is so moved by the sight of her in the springtime sunlight he kisses her. All of this finally restores George's wish to live and causes him to fall in love with Lucy. Lucy, in turn, begins to warm to George. But Charlotte sweeps Lucy away from George's reach before they can truly act on their feelings.
Back home on Summer Street in Surrey, Lucy and George are once again brought together. But they have two big problems: Lucy's still in denial about her feelings for him, and she has agreed to marry Cecil (Daniel Day-Lewis), a foppish society maven ruled by his mother who sees Lucy as someone to sharpen into the perfect hostess in spite of her nouveau riche country girl background. Which man will win her affection, and will Lucy ever learn her own heart?
What do you love about it? It's a comedy of class, it's a scenic feast, it's a completely credible young romance. It's an epic with memorable, breathless kisses. And it's got some of the best performances in the canon of film history. Plus there's a nude skinny dipping scene, if you like that.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: All manner of George/Lucy; something about George and his father or Lucy's relationship with Eleanor Lavish or George/Freddy AUs.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXrLu3Q67jU&pp=ygUaYSByb29tIHdpdGggYSB2aWV3IGZhbnZpZHM%3D Boom, fanvid.
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): A bloody onscreen murder, full frontal and full rear cis male nudity.
Devil Venerable Also Wants To Know (Danmei)
Date: 2024-08-06 12:30 am (UTC)Title: 魔尊也想知道 | Devil Venerable Also Wants To Know by Cyan Wings (青色羽翼)
Media: Webnovel
Approx length: ~200k words or 82 chapters including 2 extras
Where to find it: It's not officially licensed in English; I recommend the fan translation by mourningcrow! There is also a carrd available with more info about the characters.
What is it, in summary? A deconstruction of Mary Sue romance novel tropes and stallion novel/male power fantasy tropes with detailed xianxia worldbuilding, well fleshed out female side characters (well... most of them have flesh), and a sweet-but-unhinged romance between the leader of a prominent demonic cultivation sect and his quiet, stoic subordinate who's crafted himself into his Venerable's perfect sword.
What do you love about it? Everything, honestly! I'm a sucker for stories-about-stories and this is such a fun take on that- the novel begins with our MC literally getting whacked on the head with a book about himself-in-another-universe. The worldbuilding around the demonic and righteous sects, as well as cultivation methods and even the mythology of the world, is in-depth and very easy to understand- I often borrow its explanations of cultivation stages for other xianxia canons! I think it would make a good intro to xianxia tropes, too. The side characters are all so much fun- even the ones that don't get a lot of screentime fascinate me, like the Altar Masters (guy who just likes bugs a lot and guy whose power is Being Sick are my faves). There are a lot of really well developed female characters, especially Baili Qingmiao, the female lead from the original Mary Sue novel, AND the women are very shippable with each other! When it comes to the romance, it's all about loyalty and protectiveness, which is catnip for me. Guy who is a living weapon/his master is SUCH a peak trope and this novel does it in such a fun way. The main couple both read as as very demiromantic, although it's not explicitly stated, and there's ample room for trans headcanons, which I love!
What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Anything from an exploration of some of the wacky stuff going down in Xuanyuan Sect to sappy fluff to AUs to PWP. I plan to request for the main ship as well as a bunch of iterations of the three very shippable women, as well as some solo tags for side characters that I'm really interested in.
Content notes: Suicide attempt, very brief mention of rape, body horror, gore, bugs (gu parasites). There is no on-page sex but there are references to sex and implied off-screen sex scenes. The overall tone leans towards comedy, but there is some angst; the ending is happy.
飞狐外传 | Side Story of Fox Volant (TV 2022)
Date: 2024-08-06 07:39 pm (UTC)Approx length: 40 episodes, 45 minutes each ~30 total hours
Where to find it: Viki, YouTube, AppleTV, WeTV
What is it, in summary?
Side Story of the Fox Volant (2022) is a 40 episode wuxia tv series adapted from one of Jin Yong’s lesser known novels — The Young Flying Fox/Young Fox — and follows the story of Hu Fei as he struggles to piece together the mystery of his parents’ murder. This is a Qing Dynasty novel set during the later Qianlong Era (1700s) so it also has GUNS and POLITICAL CORRUPTION and some of the coolest characters known to man.
What do you love about it?
God I love everyone in this bar and I adore the world they live in with all its grief, violence, societal upheaval, and political corruption. This is a really modern looking wuxia with very classical genre roots, which is very very atypical and the fight scene choreography here are amazing. There's a LOT of use of environment and physical force. Injuries actually look like they hurt here! They really gave this their budget all, so if you come from MDZS/CQL or xianxia where fight scenes are mostly a light show, let it be known that these fights are cool but they’re definitely martial arts focused. (I also probably have an essay in me somewhere about how Jin Yong writes about power and heroism and his commentary on social systems bc that's something he does really deftly but it's a bit difficult to do without writing tons of spoilers!)
I also adore the characters. Yes all of them. Even trash son. Also the characters are really cool. Did I mention the fashion sense aesthetics are stunning and the production quality is wonderful?
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
In all honesty, I'm just here for more of all the characters in whatever form people want to write about them! I'd really like more people to see this show!
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?
No I really think this is a show that's best experienced in its entirety. Later parts will not make sense without having seen the earlier episodes.
Content notes: torture, rape, a child being disemboweled by their own parent(not shown on screen), and references to child prostitution, general wuxia brand violence, murder, poisoning, adultery, violence towards children, amputation, other things I'm probably forgetting.
Parks and Recreation
Date: 2024-08-09 06:26 am (UTC)Title
Parks and Recreation
Media
TV Show
Approx length
122 Episodes. Each episode is about 21 minutes long on streaming. (Note that there are 3 episodes that are double the regular length. Depending on the platform you watch it on, these episodes may either be one 40+ minute episode or split into two regular-length episodes. If these episodes are split into two episodes, then the episode count would be 125.)
Where to find it (If giving links, please only link to legal sources. You may want to encourage people to contact you directly if they are having trouble finding a canon and you can give them tips)
It can be found streaming on Peacock.
This website should provide info about additional places to watch it: https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/parks-and-recreation/1030230437/
What is it, in summary?
Parks and Recreation is a sitcom set in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. It follows the day-to-day lives of the employees of the Pawnee Government’s Department of Parks and Recreation.
What do you love about it?
The show has a great ensemble of characters. They all have very quirky and colorful personalities, which makes them very funny and entertaining. But the show also handles the serious emotional moments very well, which manages to make these goofy characters feel like real people who you want to root for rather than caricatures. It is a very positive and uplifting show. The bonds between the characters are very well developed, and they really feel like a family by the end of the show. It’s the type of show that really makes you care about the characters, and by the time you finish watching, you feel like the characters are your friends as well.
I specifically want to call out my favorite part of the show, which is the relationship between April Ludgate and Andy Dwyer (this is the relationship that I am requesting for my exchange). Their relationship follows the classic black cat and golden retriever dynamic. April is a cynical and apathetic loner who hates everybody, while Andy is a cheerful goofball who loves everything. But their personalities complement each other very well. April is usually gloomy and negative, but Andy is the one person who is able to consistently make her laugh and smile. She usually hates spending time with people, but she loves every minute that she gets to spend with Andy. April is usually very apathetic, but Andy’s enthusiasm wears off on her and motivates her to want to actually care about things. Andy is not very intelligent and is often prone to making basic mistakes. While other characters sometimes get annoyed by Andy’s screw-ups, April views them as endearing. April sees that there is more to Andy than his intelligence and sees that he has a lot of positive qualities that others seem to overlook. She helps him to take his enthusiasm and big ideas and direct them towards goals that are actually realistic and attainable.
While half of their personalities are very different, the other half of their personalities are very similar. Andy and April are both immature goofballs who don’t like to take anything too seriously and have a ton of fun goofing around together. They understand each other’s quirkiness in a way that nobody else does, and they are able to be as weird and silly as they want around each other. They feel like genuine best friends who fell in love with each other, and this chemistry never fades away even after they have been together for years. And even though they have a lot of funny and goofy moments together, the emotional moments between them are very sweet as well. You can tell that they are both deeply and madly in love with each other. They both have very unique personalities that would make it hard for most people to understand and love them. But with each other, they both found that one person who was the perfect match for them. They have a very special and unique relationship that is unlike any other fictional romance I have ever seen before.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
As mentioned above, I will be requesting a fic centered on the Andy/April relationship. I have read pretty much all of the Andy/April fics that are already on AO3, and I would be very excited to see any sort of new fics for them! I put together a letter with some suggested prompts for inspiration: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lOU17Nw1ixT11ypDxwL-E_JeSL1_lIklqO04rftNmnI/edit?usp=sharing. But these prompts are just suggestions. If you have another idea for an Andy/April fic, I would love to see that too!
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?
The first season of Parks and Rec is known to be a slow start, so fans sometimes recommend new viewers skip Season 1 if they are having trouble getting into the show (some fans even suggest skipping Season 2 as well and starting with Season 3 if you are really having trouble getting into the show). If you wanted to focus specifically on the April/Andy relationship, you can start with Season 2 Episode 10 "Hunting Trip", which is the episode that kicks off their relationship storyline. If you want to write about Andy and April's relationship, I would recommend at least watching the second half of Season 2 (from "Hunting Trip" onwards) and all of Season 3. I think if you at least watched those episodes, you would have a pretty good idea of their relationship and the dynamic between them. But there are a lot of great moments for them throughout the show, so I would recommend watching the whole show if you have the chance.
If you want to get a taste of Andy and April’s dynamic, here is a YouTube video with some of their key moments (note that this will contain spoilers about their relationship arc, so don’t watch if you want to avoid that):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNZz96AKJJY
Content notes (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence) - this is at your discretion and is not expected to be comprehensive
There shouldn't be any content beyond what you would expect in a typical sitcom.
Invisible Inc. (Video Game)
Date: 2024-08-09 07:36 pm (UTC)Approximate length
5-10 hours. You could watch a full playthrough in a day to see the story and Vibes, then spend a few hours reading all the unlockable lore (character dialogues, backstories, in-universe documents) on the wiki, and you're golden! Although I personally recommend playing it, it's a fantastic game :D
Where to find it?
Steam
Let's Play (first 10 episodes for main campaign)
Wiki: Lore and Characters (a very helpful resource for anything fannish as fully unlocking all the lore and character backstories requires many playthroughs!)
What is it, in summary?
Invisible Inc. is the tense infiltration and escape action sequence from every heist and spy movie, crystallised into an enthralling team tactics stealth video game.
What do you love about it?
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Fic and art! Both gen stuff and stuff focusing on my rarepairs (artist's depiction):
Content warnings
Stylised violence
TARGETED ADVERTISEMENT
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TARGETED ADVERTISEMENT #2
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TARGETED ADVERTISEMENT #3
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Serious Weakness - Porpentine Charity Heartscape
Date: 2024-08-10 04:11 am (UTC)Title: Serious Weakness
Media: horror/thriller/romance novel (M/M, but there's an F/F AU the author wrote that I'm also requesting, see below)
Approx length: ~123k words
Where to find it: there's a set of links here showing where to buy it (physical/pdf/epub). If money is an issue, DM me on dreamwidth or leave your email on my pinned post (comments are screened) and I can assist you. Also note that you might not want to poke around Porpentine's website if you have photosensitivity issues (some non-linked pages have lots of bright/flashing/eyestrain), although what I linked should be accessible to people with these issues.
What is it, in summary? In the near-future west coast of the USA, an art conservator, Trianon, is invited to a rich man's house to assess the damage on a painting. This is yet another in a long string of art vandalism crimes along the seacoast. He has a tense conversation with a man who calls himself the artist, but Trianon quickly learns that he is in an extremely dangerous situation that he will have a really hard time escaping from.
What do you love about it? Some of my thoughts are spoilery, but I'll start off with the non-spoilery stuff first. To start, I absolutely love the characters. Trianon, Insul, and Oenone are all really interesting people who I think about all the time; I personally found it really refreshing to see neurodivergent characters act in really messy/destructive ways. Secondly, this book is super fucking funny?? Between pages of reading through my fingers at the intense horror and violence, there were sections where I was laughing out loud. I think you might need to have a certain sense of humor to enjoy it in this way, but I know I'm not alone in finding it funny. Last thing before I use a spoiler cut - this book feels really intense and emotionally honest in a way that resonated a lot with me personally. None of the relationships in this book are simple and easy, but they all mean something, and that means something.
Spoilers, if you want more info.
I'm obsessed with how this novel talks about disability, autism, and gender. If you live on the fringes of society because of one or more of these things, there will likely be parts of this novel that feel very real and affirming. This novel is about Trianon trying to figure out how he wants to interact with a society that hates him - as violent as Insul is, what society does to them is seen as just as bad if not worse. The way Trianon is torn between two worlds - the one that he has worked hard to fit into and the one that Insul has introduced to him - is where the real tension is, in my opinion. The ending was not at all what I was expecting but I found it incredibly empowering in a power fantasy way and weirdly uplifting and hopeful despite, uhh, everything. The romance that blossoms between Trianon and Insul feels genuine and sweet at times despite the, uh, not ideal circumstances in which they met or got together! I am so into them being hot messes together, and I hope someday that Oenone will join them (platonically or romantically), or that she at least is released from everything like they are.What sort of things are you likely to request for it? Pretty much everything! I like all possible media types (art, IF, fanfic). I'm requesting Insul/Trianon, Blake/Insul, Insul/Oenone/Trianon, and Insul, Oenone, and Trianon individually. I'd love post-canon explorations on how everyone's relationships with each other and society change, the canon F/F AU (see below), pre- or post-canon character studies for anyone... Blake/Insul is also deeply interesting and tragic to me and I would be so down for more of that, either exploring the dynamic in more depth before its inevitable conclusion or an AU where things end differently. Oenone might sound like a bit of a wildcard due to her role in the story, but I think she's super interesting and I think that she has potential, and I'm so down for any of the dynamics Porpentine listed in their retrospective... I will say that this is one of my only canons where I absolutely don't want my requested characters to die (except Blake), if that influences whether you're up to creating for me or not.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships? Not really! You might be able to just read Serious Weakness But With Girls, which is short story length and is free, if you wanted to fill my F/F request, but you'll be missing out on some context. If you're on the fence and don't mind spoilers, this might be a good teaser to figure out if you'd vibe with this canon though. There are some plot differences in SeriGirls but there's a lot of similarities and I fuck with both of them heavily. Note that the same content warnings apply to both, more or less, but swap out "school shooting" for "poisoning/mass murder".
Content notes: from the website: "kidnapping, violation, stalking, piss, puke, mutilation, autism, disability, crossdressing, guns, school shooting, drugs, confinement, abuse". Some of my own (mostly minor) spoilery thoughts/additions in the below cut:
Spoilers
A big part of the novel has to do with abusers using disabilities against the disabled person (in order to control them or make it so they can't do things). There is copious slur usage (primarily the homophobic f slur and the ableist r slur, but some others show up too). Coerced pet dog murder occurs in the chapter "Dies Caniculares" and is pretty obviously telegraphed. Some of the anal rape in this novel contains scat elements; in SeriGirls, there's rape while a character is menstruating. Lastly, I wouldn't recommend this book to people who want escapism from climate change. If you need more details or want to know if something is/isn't present, feel free to leave a comment or DM me!(no subject)
Date: 2024-08-10 06:25 pm (UTC)The Fall (Video Game series)
Approximate Length
Cinematic let's play: < 2 hours (!!!) (Part I), 4 hours (Part II)
Playthrough: Variable
Where to find it
Cinematic no-commentary Let's Play: Part I
Cinematic no-commentary Let's Play: Part II
Steam
What is it, in summary?
The Fall is an incredible story-driven puzzle platformer indie game about an AI in a combat suit trying to keep her pilot alive while bound by her core operating parameters and coming into conflict with other AIs. This game is part of a three-game trilogy, the second game is a bit longer and the third has not been released yet. However, it stands incredibly well alone!
What do you like about it?
It's just such a fantastic story of AI awakening. The characterisation of A.R.I.D. is great and the voice acting nails the complexities of her character. It's wonderfully atmospheric and takes a few obvious visual style pages from Limbo. It also shares a lot of positive beats with Portal - the morbid sense of humour, and discovering all the bad things that previously happened in this desolate, abandoned setting where only robots still persist. The way the videogame medium is used to convey the themes of the story is incredible. The interactions with the (limited) cast of other characters, all of them AIs, are amazing. It's a work of art.
What are you likely to request for it?
Anything and everything! I haven't decided on prompts yet, but definitely all mediums and formats :)
Content notes
Some disturbing content, dead body parts, nothing too graphic. The second game has some discussions of sexual violence.
Fandom Promo - All for the Game (AFTG)
Date: 2024-08-23 01:00 am (UTC)All for the Game (series).
Media:
Books.
Approx length:
Four book series. HOWEVER. The first three make a complete series, with a single, deliciously unreliable narrator, approx 970 pages. Book 4 was only just released this year, many years after the main series. It’s dual POV of two of the barely mentioned side characters in the first three books, and they will have another book coming out in this ‘world’ sometime soon. ish. maybe. You don’t need to read book four
(you absolutely need to read book four).Where to find it:
eBook, audiobook (including spotify), libraries, hardcopy from amazon.
Book 1 is free on most ebook platforms, and the others are less than $2 each.
What is it, in summary?
All for the Game is bizarre and wonderful. Sports Gays! Made Up Sport! Mafia! Multiple Identities! Trauma! Dysfunctional College Students! Found Family! Slow-burn Romance!
The blurb for book one, The Foxhole Court, reads:
Neil Josten is the newest addition to the Palmetto State University Exy team. He's short, he's fast, he's got a ton of potential—and he's the runaway son of the murderous crime lord known as The Butcher.
Signing a contract with the PSU Foxes is the last thing a guy like Neil should do. The team is high profile and he doesn't need sports crews broadcasting pictures of his face around the nation. His lies will hold up only so long under this kind of scrutiny and the truth will get him killed.
But Neil's not the only one with secrets on the team. One of Neil's new teammates is a friend from his old life, and Neil can't walk away from him a second time. Neil has survived the last eight years by running. Maybe he's finally found someone and something worth fighting for.
What do you love about it?
Did I mention it’s bizarre and wonderful?
The writing is, on one hand - not refined (it could have done with some editing, no doubt)- but on the other, it’s so fucking good, the storytelling is brilliant and the first time I finished the audio I literally went back to book one and started again.
The characters are real, and messy, and yeah, there’s romance here but it’s slooooow, and probably not in the direction you might think. The adults are also real, and messy. The bad guys are bad. The good guys are, also pretty fucked up.
I would die for every single one of the foxes. Fuck it, I’d probably even let them kill me.
Online reviews include things like:
1* DNF
1* This is the worst book ever i loved it
5* I loved everything about this book i’ve read it fifteen times in three years i am obsessed
The fanart for this series is next level, and as for fics? GODS TIER. I will happily feed you when you’ve finished the series and come begging for more.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?
Canon compliant, canon divergent, alternate universe.
Fics, art, podfics, other clever creations.
Creator letter here.
Content notes
Are plentiful - this tumblr post has spoilery CWs, and this one is detailed, but not specifically spoilery.