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1. Don't be an asshole.
2. Don't bash other people or their ships/fandoms/etc.
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stepnixI'm going to tell you about a bunch of games by Jenna Moran!
FOR FANTASY FANS: These are games with complex symbolic landscapes, a million little glimpses into larger stories, and they're literally designed for building OCs with strong personal aesthetics.
FOR TTRPG FANS: These games are largely diceless, with strong narrative infrastructure, and plenty of fuel for drama that can't be simply be solved through combat
You WILL have extended philosophical debates during play. This is a significant appeal for my particular circles.
Nobilis and Glitch
( These are the stories of the Age of Pain, and the war between Creation and the void... )
Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, and the Far Roofs
( These are the stories of... what comes after. )
The Community
The Apocynum Press Itch collection gathers homebrew and fan materials that get posted to Itch.
Karma Chameleon is a pillar of the community. As well as their lovely art, they've made the Quest Set builder for managing Chuubo's and Glitch quests, and an interactive overview of recurring miraculous traits.
Here on Dreamwidth, we have the Jennafans Community!. On Discord, there's the Ninuan fan server.
Jenna Moran herself can be found at her personal site, Tumblr; and on Patreon, where she sometimes posts draft or preview material for the games mentioned. Her older fiction can be found at the Hitherby Dragons wiki
Finally, The Flood is not set in any of these worlds. It's a game about something else entirely (poetry farming). But it does feature its own version of the recurring Arcs scaffolding, so it may be worth a look.
March Meta Matters Challenge 2025
Feb. 3rd, 2025 06:54 pmyourlibrarian
The kickoff to this year's March Meta Matters Challenge is just 4 weeks away! As usual, the challenge involves identifying and copying over meta you've created to a second site in order to ensure its preservation. There will also be several prompts for creating new meta. ( Read more... )
Feel free to ask questions about the challenge, locations, etc. at our announcement post and then look for our opening post on March 1!
muccamukkWhat Is the Canon?
Babylon 5 was a military science fiction/space opera TV series that ran from 1993 to 1998 (plus or minus a variety of spin offs and TV movies, which are not relevant to this manifesto). It followed a space station in a neutral area of the galaxy, which was built to be a diplomatic and trading hub between various galactic empires. After about one and a half seasons of trying to keep the peace, the plot moved on to several inter-planetary wars and attempts to build a new order.
The special effects showed off the very finest of computer-generated images from the 1990s, and the plot showed off one guy manically writing almost the entirety of five 22-episode seasons. It will spoil you for all other science fiction arc plots, and is also awkwardly earnest a lot. I've seen it short-handed as "The Lord of the Rings in Space" which is... fair if you forget that the Hobbits were the main characters in LotR.
Here's the opening credits from season one, to give you an idea of the tone:
(Also, every season redid the credits to match where the arc plot was, including with different music, which was really cool. Also, also the music throughout the series was great!)
Show Me the Space Ladies!
( Read more... )
Is There Much Shippy Canon?
This is admittedly more of a "two great tastes that taste great together" type ship, rather than a "Wow! It's practically canon!" situation. Because they both have separate romance plots, and Ivanova tends to be in charge of the station when other characters are off doing stuff, Delenn and Ivanova don't interact whole lot. However, here's a handful of jumping off points. ( Read more... )
So What Do You Like About Them?
( Read more... )
What's the Fandom Like?
Small. The fandom is small. There are, as of posting, forty two works on AO3, and a handful in older archives. However, what fic one can find is great quality, and the fandom's very welcoming and enthusiastic about new people joining in.
(Big thank you to
kanadka for helping me put this together, to nenya_kanadka for beta reading, and to cap-that for the images.)Game Primer: ZENO Remake
Jan. 18th, 2025 03:58 pmmarinehaddock
ZENO is an RPGMaker horror game originally released in 2015 and remade in 2021. It's only available on PC but is available in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Portuguese and English. It can take 1-3 hours for a playthrough but it took me about 8 hours for all the endings I got.
I can't speak for the quality of the Korean, Chinese, and Portuguese translations, but the English translation is... a bit lacking. My Japanese speaking friend suspects it was almost entirely machine translated; I suspect it's because the translator is Chinese and was either translating from the Chinese version or from the Japanese into English (which would be two non-native languages) and wasn't quite as fluent as people may be looking for. That said, the story is coherent except for some confusion with the localisation of "nii-chan"/"nii-san" but it's most notable for the choice to have Tsugino occassionally talk in chat speak and "something" is consistently written as "sth" (which, as a smth truther, took me a bit to work out). Also dead people are referred to as "unconscious", which makes it seem like Maeno is just in denial about the corpses. I've played through the game multiple times and while the translation issues definitely jumped out at me the first time, on subsequent playthroughs I found they weren't actually that prominent and there were no points where the translation prevented me from progressing.
( The Brief )
( Content Warnings )
( Characters )
( Endings )
( Why I Like It )
yourlibrarian
It's less than a month until the kickoff for this year's March Meta Matters Challenge! As usual, the challenge involves locating and copying over meta you've created to a second site in order to ensure its preservation. There will also be several prompts for creating new meta.
Check out our FAQ or ask questions about how to participate. Or just subscribe to
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marchmetamatterschallenge and look for our opening post on March 1!cmdonovannFirst things first. Quantum Break: What The Hell Is It?
Well, it's a video game. If you've heard of Alan Wake (2013) or Control (2019), you're already familiar with Remedy Entertainment. They also made Quantum Break, and while it's not the same genre of weird as their other, more popular titles, it's got some weirdness going for it that I really enjoy.
So what's the appeal? To me, it's the combo of characters who are all flawed in various ways, a focus on relationships and interactions between those characters, and the epic drama of closed loop time travel wherein nothing can be changed and no tragedy can be prevented because everything that's going to happen has, for all intents and purposes, already happened.
I've already written a couple of posts on Dreamwidth about Quantum Break, so you can always check those out if you want a straight-up elevator pitch for why this game is good. But right now, I wanna talk about why this game is worth your time. I wanna talk about the parts of it that I've invested my time into. Fair warning, I'm gonna say some spoiler-y things in here.
( A Quick Summary )
( The Pitch: Why You Should Play It Yourself! )
So! If you've been looking at my other Quantum Break posts and thinking "wow, I think I'd like to play that game, but I'm not entirely convinced it's worth my time and/or money yet" then here's your excuse! There's so much to dig into in this game, and while Let's Plays and walkthroughs are great, they're not quite a replacement for playing it yourself, if you can!
In short: Quantum Break is a good game! You should play it!
Well, it's a video game. If you've heard of Alan Wake (2013) or Control (2019), you're already familiar with Remedy Entertainment. They also made Quantum Break, and while it's not the same genre of weird as their other, more popular titles, it's got some weirdness going for it that I really enjoy.
So what's the appeal? To me, it's the combo of characters who are all flawed in various ways, a focus on relationships and interactions between those characters, and the epic drama of closed loop time travel wherein nothing can be changed and no tragedy can be prevented because everything that's going to happen has, for all intents and purposes, already happened.
I've already written a couple of posts on Dreamwidth about Quantum Break, so you can always check those out if you want a straight-up elevator pitch for why this game is good. But right now, I wanna talk about why this game is worth your time. I wanna talk about the parts of it that I've invested my time into. Fair warning, I'm gonna say some spoiler-y things in here.
( A Quick Summary )
( The Pitch: Why You Should Play It Yourself! )
So! If you've been looking at my other Quantum Break posts and thinking "wow, I think I'd like to play that game, but I'm not entirely convinced it's worth my time and/or money yet" then here's your excuse! There's so much to dig into in this game, and while Let's Plays and walkthroughs are great, they're not quite a replacement for playing it yourself, if you can!
In short: Quantum Break is a good game! You should play it!
Primer: Petscop
Sep. 21st, 2023 06:24 pmjellyfishloverPetscop (Pronounced: Pet-scop) is an horror un-fiction* and “This game I found”** type web series (notably: NOT an ARG***, although it was believed to be so for a while.) spanning from 2017 to 2019 with 24 episodes (ranging from a couple of minutes to half an hour long) and a soundtrack. The plot follows Paul playing through a game he found while slowly uncovering the secrets of said game and what, exactly, the developer of the secret portion is trying to say or re-create.
Due to the nature of the series, this primer contains some spoilers in order to get a fuller idea of what this web series is about.
( Primer Continues )
Due to the nature of the series, this primer contains some spoilers in order to get a fuller idea of what this web series is about.
( Primer Continues )
yourlibrarian
The March Meta Matters Challenge is focused on not just new meta, but making sure older meta gets a chance to be read and remain a part of fandom history. Join us in March to start archiving your work!
Participants will be locating past meta work and copying it over to a secondary location to ensure its preservation and improve its access. Everyone will work at their own pace and set their own goals for the month. Prompts for new meta will be offered and check in posts will encourage participants to keep going with their older work.
Visit the community for more information and join in on March 1!
Game Primer: The Caligula Effect: Overdose
Jan. 4th, 2023 03:37 ammarinehaddockLinks
Steam Price Tracker | Steam | GOG | Humble Bundle | Playstation Store | Nintendo eShop | Deku Deals Price Tracker
The Caligula Effect: Overdose
The Caligula Effect: Overdose (Known as Caligula: Overdose in Japan) is the definitive version of The Caligula Effect (a 2016 PS Vita release). It was released in 2018 for PC, Playstation 4, and Switch with an international release in 2019. It's a turn-based JRPG.
( Name Drop Everyone Who Worked On This )
( Give Me The Brief )
( Content Warnings )
( Let's Meet The Cast )
( Some Tips )
HIStory 3 - 圈套 (2019)
Apr. 20th, 2022 02:49 pmcorvidologyThe HIStory series are Taiwanese, featuring canon M/M couples. Each year they've released two short run series and we're now up to HIStory4. But enough of this completely inadequate explanation. :D
I'm here to talk about HIStory3: Trapped (2019), which centres around two couples, both cop/mobster. ( The description from MyDramaList is under here )
I love that this show isn't just about the relationships, much as I love them but that it actually fleshes out the other characters and the background story which can't all be tied up in a nice little bow. It's surprisingly funny at times, sweet, violent, flirtatious and complex, featuring all different kinds of love, including friendship and found family. I really cared about what happened to a bunch of characters in this show, not just the main couples.
While the show doesn't have great production values so it's a little creaky at times, the relationships between Meng Shaofei/Tang Yi and Jack/Zhao Lian are compelling and oddly believable given where they all start out from. They don't manipulate the characterization, in that all of them remain the men they are to begin with it's just that they find ways to make it work between them!
Also, y'know, the manhandling, wall slamming (well lots of uses of walls *g*) and partner worry just enhances the whole thing!
Let me tempt you with a few gifs:
( Two more under here )I also love the secondary couple:
( Two more under here )The 10 episodes with English subtitles can be watched for free here on Viki
One of the other HIStory series has been given a sequel so I have everything crossed that we might get one for Trapped as well. :D
MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS: ( I'm also going to tuck a couple of fanvids under here, because I can! :D )
成化十四年 | The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty
Apr. 3rd, 2022 01:50 pmcorvidology
48 episodes, available on Viki and iQiyi.
In 15th-century China, a quick-witted, low-ranking government official named Tang Fan (Darren Chen) who writes romance novels under a pen name, gets pulled into investigating a murder, teaming up with an Imperial Guard/military veteran Sui Zhou (Fu Meng-Po) in the process and crossing paths with Wang Zhi (Liu Yaoyuan), the palace eunuch wunderkind the Emperor put in change of the Western Depot when he was only 17 as one of the only officials he felt he could trust... and we're off!
Frankly, what's not to love here? It's got a beautifully complex plot, the sort where you'll find yourself thinking back over it and still not being quite sure how they managed to pack so many interwoven cases and stories into only 48 episodes. Within this plot, the character development is believable and consistent as are the relationships, often between characters that had very good reasons to dislike each other to begin with. A lot of this is down to the script but frankly a lot of the credit should also go to the fantastic acting across the board which makes it all come to life. Plot wise, it manages that hardest of all things, to convince you a character is doing 'X' which is just stupid, only to find out they were doing it for all the right reasons - People, I'm trying to avoid spoilers here! Honestly, I don't remember the last time I was rooting for so many characters while hoping so many others would die in a fire and all at the same time. This series has it all. Partner worry, FOUND FAMILY (yes, it's a bit of a thing with me), loyalty, treachery, sacrifice and love in all its forms, not just the usual romance you see in dramas. It even throws in a few fandom tropey things for good measure like tons of hurt/comfort, whump, moving in together, random child acquisition, evil twins, one of the main characters being disguised as a woman and undercover as a couple. Even the emperor is only a bit of a bastard on the 'Emperor Bastard' scale (probably a 3?), cares about his people, loves and admires his noble consort and is mostly likeable. It was produced by Jackie Chan and the fight scenes are brilliant! Ultimately, these characters care so much about each other and their society and its citizens that you can't help but care about them as well. It took us ages to watch all 48 episodes and I'm already sorry we've finished.
The most popular ships are Tang Fan/Sui Zhou, Tang Fan/Sui Zhou/Wang Zhi... and another one I'm not going to mention because *spoilers*. Personally, I'm here for the Tang Fan/Sui Zhou and Wang Zhi & Dong'er. If you don't love Dong'er, I'm afraid it's pistols at dawn!
( Two fun gifs, trailer, fanvids )
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Leif & Thorn
Apr. 1st, 2022 11:24 amsilveredeyeLeif&Thorn is a fantasy drama/comedy webcomic about a knight trying to have a romance in his second language.
The premise: Sir Thorn is a magic knight assigned to guard a foreign embassy where he meets (and falls in love with) Leif, a gardener working for said embassy. It gets complicated from there.
It is ongoing, with a new page every day (main plot on weekdays, bonus art and shorter side stories on weekends). The entire main archive is available online. There are Patreon-locked side stories and more NSFW comics, but they're nice extras, not an obligatory part of the experience.
The comic has a large ensemble cast, most of whom get some time in the spotlight (and the majority of whom are queer). It’s mostly a lighthearted comedy, but does not shy away from the darker moments – some of the characters are in very unpleasant situations or have pretty fucked up pasts. Darker storylines get content warnings in the beginning, so they’re not just sprung on readers.
Well. You may like this comic!
The premise: Sir Thorn is a magic knight assigned to guard a foreign embassy where he meets (and falls in love with) Leif, a gardener working for said embassy. It gets complicated from there.
It is ongoing, with a new page every day (main plot on weekdays, bonus art and shorter side stories on weekends). The entire main archive is available online. There are Patreon-locked side stories and more NSFW comics, but they're nice extras, not an obligatory part of the experience.
The comic has a large ensemble cast, most of whom get some time in the spotlight (and the majority of whom are queer). It’s mostly a lighthearted comedy, but does not shy away from the darker moments – some of the characters are in very unpleasant situations or have pretty fucked up pasts. Darker storylines get content warnings in the beginning, so they’re not just sprung on readers.
Why should I read it?
Do you enjoy some combo of- earnest and smart knights,
- queer romance,
- magitech fantasy world,
- people trying very hard to communicate across language barriers and massively different starting assumptions,
- iron woobies with awful pasts,
- mysterious secret agents pursuing mysterious secret agendas,
- extremely hate-able vampires in the background,
- worldbuilding that’s a combo of “because that’s cool” and well-reasoned (magical girls and knights with Utena-style magical heartswords are both reasonable career choices in this world; and the author certainly has thought about its influence on the society over the centuries),
- occasional pointed social commentary (Sønheim is shown to share some of the United States’ more interesting viewpoints, and that is not a good thing)
Well. You may like this comic!
( characters with pictures + a little about the plot )
Manga Primer: Mother Keeper
Mar. 28th, 2022 01:49 pmmarinehaddockLinks
Volumes 1-3 (Official Translation) | Mangadex | Sense Scans | Official Manga from Kaili Sorano
Mother Keeper
Mother Keeper by Kaili Sorano was a shounen manga running from 2005 until 2014. While the series was technically localised, the localisation was digital-only and at a time when that wasn't something typical of the manga industry. It was also shortly before the company shut down for good, with only 3 volumes having been translated and released. IP rights for series that were hosted on the service have a rather complex goings-on that make it difficult to know how rights will progress in the future.
( Wait, go back to how I read this )
( Content Warnings )
( What's The Story? )
( Cast! )
( Some Notes )
( I Get Into Fandom For Shipping And That's Okay )
Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I am so desperately lonely in this fandom, so please talk to me about it.
大唐女法医 | Miss Truth (TV)
Mar. 15th, 2022 10:45 amcorvidology
NOTE: If you're into Korean Pop, you may recognize Zhou Jie Qiong in the middle here, who under the name Kyulkyung performed in I.O.I, Pristin and Pristin V and possibly some other groups.
It's 36 x 45 minute episodes and is available on youtube and Amazon Prime (included in subscription). It's also available on some iterations of Netflix and Dailymotion though you have to track down the individual episodes on DM.
Miss Truth centres around Ran Yan (Zhou Jie Qiong), a Tang Dynasty (yes, you read that right) forensic coroner. Disowned by her family in childhood as a jinx who brought about her mother's death (she grew up in a house in the yard of her parent's house), she was informally adopted by a coroner who taught her everything he knew. Her focus is on finding her mother's body so she can find clues to who murdered her. However, her family has decided it's now time to marry her off in a fashion appropriate to her family's station in life. Needless to say, she's against this idea. :D
That proposed marriage, however, is definitely the 'B' plot. The 'A' plot is totally focused on solving a series of mysteries some of which link into a far bigger mystery although not all of them. The Ancient China forensic work is fascinating and the mysteries have a nice complexity to them without the series cheating us out of the necessary clues. Also, there are various subplots of shenanigans involving different groups.
I'd have to say the first half is stronger than the second half after a location change but it's still one of my favourite Cdramas. :D
( More truths, more piccies and a trailer under here )
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S.C. I. Mystery | S.C.I.谜案集 – 24 episodes
Mar. 12th, 2022 02:26 pmcorvidology
You can watch it here on youtube [WARNING: Episode 21 on youtube has no English subs] or follow this watch list to Dailymotion. Once you get to Dailymotion it's pretty easy to move from one to another. They are making a second season. If you watch this show, be sure to sit through the credits. Apart from outtakes there are also cut scenes I wish they hadn't edited out, like bed wrestling. :D
Ah, where to begin? In my head, I call this show Fashion Model Solves Crimes with assistance from his (alleged platonic) life partner.
Gao Hanyu who plays Bai Yutong, actually was a member of the Cpop group, HIT-5. I think 'fashion model' because the obviously practical clothing of choice for a detective is white, light grey or silver from head to toe no matter what he's doing. ( Even when he attends a party he's wearing a white tailcoat ). I wondered if Ginger Rogers was about to show up?This is of course after he's interrupted a lecture to drag Zhan Yao to the cocktail party with him. Did I mention he drives a white sports car? With a SCI number plate on it? This is obviously the absolute best choice when discreetly tailing people.
Ji Xiaobing plays Zhan Yao who's his oldest friend/rival and a psychologist. Together,
It's based on a BL crime novel, SCI Mystery Collection where Bai Yutong and Zhan Yao are a couple but of course it being China it got turned into a bromance... yeah. They seem to have forgotten this decision somewhere along the line as neither one of them has a girlfriend or apparently any interest – both look very confused when it's suggested the other one has one – and they spend most of their time manhandling each other and running around together when they're not basically living together -- Everyone knows to look for them at each other's house when in doubt and why wouldn't they be found with one of them stripped down to his underwear working out while the other one meditates? -- or bitching at each other in an 'old couple' way. In case I'm not communicating this drift well enough, the obvious place to discuss crimes is in urinals while using them side-by-side, ( showering in side-by-side stalls ) where they keep stepping around the end of said stalls to make a point *ahem* or hanging out in the sauna together, like you do... Did I mention bed, ( clothing ) and pyjama sharing and even doing your friend's laundry for him because the weather looks nice? ( Did I mention posing for three hours in your underwear so your friend can sketch you? ) I didn't? Well, now I have. :D
Also, also, in the BL novel they call each other Cat (Zhan Yao) and Mouse (Bai Yutong). A drinking game might be spotting all the cat and mouse references in the series including slippers, pyjamas and a sweater.
Fan fiction tropes a go-go! ( Sharing one bed ), accidental child acquisition, wearing each other's clothes, PARTNER WORRY, living together (there's another pairing also living together)... I could go on but I think you should get your own chance to sit there with your mouth hanging open.
There is a plot... of sorts... something, something... serial killer... something, something magic... And there's even an excellent and interesting villain although we don't get to spend very much time with him. Who needs either one when you're basically just watching these two lads running around together, almost dying and declaring their undying affection for each other.
Apart from Bai Yutong/Zhan Yao, there's also ( Bai Chi/Zhao Zhen ) and a little ( Ma Han/Chen Jiayi ).
Actually, in general, play spot the het romance. It's quite a hard game and it would leave you sober. The only on-screen one is an absolute train wreck.
Vids: Popped under cuts cos of potential spoilers:
( Bai Yutong/Zhan Yao fanvids )
( Bai Yutong making himself at home at Zhan Yao's place )
( Bai Chi/Zhao Zhen fanvid )
( Ma Han/Chen Jiayi's second meeting )
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rekishi
courtesy of
corvidology
Caveat: It's been a few years (anywhere between 4-7) since I read the series in its entirety and I may be forgetting a few things, and my stance towards some details I don't remember clearly may have changed in the meantime. Also, the first book was written in 1992 and the whole world developed in the 80s (I'm getting to that), so the series may have a few plot points and tropes that a reader today looks at differently.
Cool? Cool.
Because I forgot it the last time I made a post like this:
What is the story, actually?
It's hard to say! XD
Ok, that doesn't help at all. It's a collection of interconnected epic fantasy series that is extremely complex and spans various continents and many many many years. It has several storylines it follows, some of those are the personal stories of characters, some of them are about nothing less than saving the world while showing us how the characters we get to know manage it, what it costs them, and where they mess up. It is a little bit the history of the world it's set in, which makes it extremely intriguing, and one novel might cover one geographic area while the next covers around the same time frame but in a different location. A lot of these different stories do interconnect later.
The last time I made a post like this I said, "That's because this is spanning continents and people and situations, and it's a bit as if you wanted to summarize the history of Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia at the time of Trajan without going into the history and socioeconomic situation of each people and continent separately", and that pretty much holds true. How do you give a summary about all of that in a few sentences. This series is, in the best sense of the word, an epic fantasy series.
( general explanation of genre, number of books, and why it's better than GoT ever was )
( some of the worldbuilding, story, characters, magic! )
Ooph.
Srsly, these are really good books.
Don't be mistaken: They're not easy reads. A friend of mine recently said that it was a process to read them, but oh so worth it. I carried these around for years in backpacks to and from uni, on the train, bus etc, so you can absolutely read these on your commute, but this isn't a fluffy fic, and it's dense writing. Very satisfying though, and I personally really like the style (especially Erikson's).
Bottom line is, this series (at least the two main series) was thought through from start to finish, they're well written, super imaginative, and to my mind very unique.
And if you're still reading and have questions, I'm willing to answer them to the best of my ability.
rekishicourtesy of
corvidology
Farscape premiered in 1999 on the SciFi Channel and it was weird and fun and organic. It was also different starting with many of the actors accents because the show was shot in Australia and the majority of the actors were casted locally.
And maybe what's most significant, because y'all probably think I'm talking about a retro-show: Farscape visuals still hold up today!
Read the whole post on my DW
