Florgenborgen

Wings of Fire fan!! currently making an au

[florgenborgen]

Welcome!!

Hi everyone!! I'm Florgen, writer based in Cali. I'm a pretty big medieval history freak, and have 2 projects on medieval Europe and America respectively!! i'm also working on an as-of-now unnamed urban fantasy murder mystery + road trip story and sometimes do WOF, Check Please!, and Life Series stuff

[manorpunk]

"It is said that when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, God cast them out from the garden of Eden. This is because, when mankind is enlightened and burdened with knowledge but remains in the garden of Eden, he creates California."

- Maria Gurowski Kissinger Wong et al von Zuckerberg-Lorraine, Authoritarianism is Good When I Do It

[poindesticker]

"you and kent parson... there's a lot of history, isn't there?"

"yeah. but it's all in the past."

[maramcgregor]

Tell us all more about OMG Musicality Please! ... Please! Lol

OMG Musicality is like the inverse of Check Please. Instead of Bitty giving up figure skating to play hockey, Jack gives up hockey to figure skate. He is really talented with jumps and the physical requirements, but he has no ability to translate a program into art.

Bitty is the star of the figure skating world and is at Samwell for college, and he ends up helping Jack learn to translate the music into something more than just a sequence of jumping passes. "Hockey was over. As far as the media was concerned, he was the fuck-up son of a legendary hockey player who would never live up to his potential. He still loved the ice, though. It was the one place where everything seemed clear. The world fell away and it was just him, his skates, and the cold.

Back when he was first learning to skate, he remembered trying out figure skating. It wasn’t anything unusual to practice jumps in hockey skates. Everyone loved to jump and spin. But, eventually it became a waste of time if he was going to focus on becoming the next hockey legend in his family. So, he stopped playing around in his skates and focused on stick handling and scoring goals. 

Alone in their backyard, he idly switched edges, just rocking from one edge to the other, watching as his skates left trails behind him on the ice. Maybe he should get a pair of figure skates and take a couple of classes. It would give him something to do where no one would even think to look for him. And no pressure to be like his father."

And a little later on:

“Bro, it’s not like that! We just needed to commune with the ice gods! And we needed to bless these frogs.”

The other skater was in warm up gear and breezed past Eric, barely acknowledging his existence. “And somehow your bonding with the ice gods has caused you to be late in turning it over to the other people that need this rink to practice.”

Eric watched the events unfolding carefully. Just because this new skater was decently sized, didn’t mean he wouldn’t get his ass handed to him by a bunch of hockey bros. Most professional hockey players at least had a respect for figure skaters. But, the younger they were, the more toxic their behavior. Like they had something to prove. 

The group started to gather themselves together when the long haired one that spoke first seemed to get his bearings and waved a sloppy finger at the skater. “Hey, I know you!”

The skater’s face went from casual derision to panic. And that’s when Eric stepped in. “Well, I’m glad someone knows someone here. I marked the skating practice down myself. My coach is going to be here in less than 10 minutes and she’s Russian. I strongly recommend you get out of here before she arrives and demonstrates exactly what she thinks of drunk hockey players. Her ex-husband barely lived to tell the tale. I doubt any of you lot would fare much better.”

[persimnon]

two months into hockey yaoi psychosis update: 4k words in the ellipsus document about two incompatible guys from different hockey yaoi medias having pathetic and mid sex to 1) simultaneously repress trauma about and proxy fuck his ex and 2) rationalize why he's obsessed with his archrival situationship who still outwardly hates him. respectively

[florgenborgen]

you need to put me on ts right now actually GHGHHGHGHHH i love kent and shane sm wtf i need more of them

[florgenborgen]

been thinking about a check please x heated rivalry au lately where ilya gets signed to providence instead of boston... jack having his stanley cup kiss w bitty a year before scott does (this would make in-universe conservatives so pissed omg two gay captains coming out after their stanley cup wins two years in a row hello??) oh also @flannelizard @persimnon you might be interested :DD

[florgenborgen]

thinking abt this again. i wonder what kent has to think abt shane and ilya's rivalry. i mean all three of them went into nhl in the same year, and jack would have been too if things had gone the way they were supposed to. does kent see them as what he and jack should have been? also im not sure abt the stats on this would kent be still first in the draft after jack's od or would shane and/or ilya take that role?

also uhhh i just realized if ilya's signed to providence instead of boston then there isn't that huge rivalry thing. i think mayyybe if the falconers originate from like a relocation of the buffalo sabres in the 90s or smth it could work tho? anyway i just think the dynamic between ilya and jack would be so fun!! esp if jack wins the cup with ilya in 2016 and has his kiss w bitty like. ilya and shane at this point in their relationship are not to the same level as they are in 2017 and an earlier gay cup kiss before the tuna melt, before rose landry, before scott and kip have even met changes literally everything!! like ghghhghghh i cant stop thinking abt them

[florgenborgen]

been thinking about a check please x heated rivalry au lately where ilya gets signed to providence instead of boston... jack having his stanley cup kiss w bitty a year before scott does (this would make in-universe conservatives so pissed omg two gay captains coming out after their stanley cup wins two years in a row hello??) oh also @flannelizard @persimnon you might be interested :DD

[littlebearwithlittlebrain]

I see everyone comparing Jack Zimmerman and Shane Hollander and I now need someone to redraw this scene, but it’s Harris asking Shane about Ilya.

[herrmannhalsteadproduction]

For all my friends who have been loving Heated Rivalry and need something to tide you over between episodes, PLEASE give Check, Please! a chance! It's a web comic, written and illustrated by the amazing @ngoziu and it's also available to purchase as physical books! (Which I highly recommend because you're going to want to read it many times!)

Follow Eric "Bitty" Bittle, a former Georgia figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and master baker as he plays hockey at Samwell

From the About page:

Check, Please! is written and drawn by Ngozi Ukazu.

Eric Bittle—former Georgia junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and amateur pâtissier—is starting his freshman year playing hockey at the prestigious Samwell University in Samwell, Massachusetts. And it’s basically nothing like co-ed club hockey back in the South. For one? 

There’s checking.

It’s a story about hockey and friendship and bros and trying to find yourself during the best 4 years of your life.

☝️It's SO good, guys. Laugh-out-loud funny, characters you'll fall in love with, and such a fantastic, heartfelt story. I promise you will not be able to put it down. You will definitely love it if you've had a chance to read Role Model and Tough Guy from the Game Changers series. Please, please, please check it out. You will not regret it!

A little tip about how to read the web comic:

Do you see the little white circle on the right of the screen with the little arrow in it? (Near the bottom right of the second speech bubble.) That's what you're going to want to click first to read through every page of the chapter. Then you click the single gray arrow at the bottom to take you to the next chapter. If you click the double arrow, it takes you all the way to the end.

[florgenborgen]

good evening, Florgenborgisimsinism.

what have you done

[florgenborgen]

The nursing home is so great. We play bingo everyday

ofc you'd be gambling

[florgenborgen]

Hellorrrrr

hows the nursing home oldie

[tossawary]

When I first read "Check Please!" years and years ago, I knew way less about pro hockey than I do now. It was never surprising to me that some of the fandom went nuts for Kent Parson despite the fact that Parson is barely in the comic (and that there was significant fandom backlash both to him and to people who liked him, I know, which I'm not really getting into here, sorry), because he's 1) basically the closest thing that the series had to a villainous character for a long time, a haunting source of tension in the main romance, 2) pretty, 3) angsty, and 4) he never really got... a satisfying plotline in the end? Altogether, he's basically fandom bait.

Stepping away from Parson for a moment: I'm still quite fond of OMGCP, but a large part of that fondness is towards select parts of the fandom and the fanworks. OMGCP is actually quite short, its entries are quite limited, and so a LOT is done through offscreen events and implications. I enjoy some parts of this ambiguous design, some things remain mysteries in life, and find some of these open-ended aspects disappointing.

In my opinion, one of the things that initially made OMGCP so rich for fandom is that it brought up a LOT of really complicated, compelling ideas and then only skimmed the surface of them, which tends to send fans into headcanon and fanfiction overdrive regarding all these missing scenes. Curiosity and dissatisfaction can be huge fandom drivers. (Note: the fandom at large was also occasionally a fucking nightmare in many respects, so I understand and respect the author ultimately unfortunately backing away from dealing with some shit.)

OMGCP references substance abuse, mental illness, internalized homophobia, closeted relationships, toxic masculinity, toxic friendships and rivalries, the pressures of celebrity and legacy, the pressures of professional sports, the toxicity of media, misogyny and racism and homophobia in sports, homophobia from your own parents, injury and disability, the classism and privilege involved in attending college and playing professional sports, all the scandals and issues specific to the fucking tar pit that is the NHL, and so on, without... really delving into it or just how ugly any of this complicated stuff can get.

Any potential tangles in the characters' lives mostly just work themselves out. OMGCP instead ultimately chooses to focus mostly on light humor and feel-good romance. Sure. Fair enough. It's cute.

An example: Jack had a very serious anti-anxiety medication overdose, but by the time we meet him, he's already been through rehab and therapy. Drug use and addiction (whether for pleasure or painkiller reasons or both) are common among athletes, and it can start young, especially in juniors hockey or college, places not known for responsible, risk-aware drug use. But if substance abuse was ever part of Jack's issues, we never really get to see any of those personal recovery struggles from him or even him reacting seriously to anyone else risking alcohol poisoning.

Other examples: hockey is a reeeeally expensive, reeeeally white sport. Ransom, Nursey, and Chowder (and Lardo) must be dealing with racism, it's referenced, but the characters never really seriously contend with it. Dex is supposedly from a working class family, Bitty is on a scholarship and is threatened with losing it, but money never seriously interrupts anything. No one ever gets injured out of sports. Jack and Bitty ultimately have supportive parents, despite those parents being heavily involved in toxic sports environments, and Jack has a supportive employer, so neither of them have to lose loved ones or careers when they come out individually or as a couple.

And OMGCP is a feel-good fantasy comic telling a limited story, ultimately, so it's not surprising that it chooses not to engage at length with some of the uglier elements of life. Serial fiction updating as it's made comes with a whole host of issues. I also totally respect a creator just being done with a story and wanting to close it off for various reasons. But the end result is a little disappointing if you were personally hoping that the comic would actually delve deeper into some of the complicated and compelling topics it hints at, especially with its minor characters.

Which brings me back to Kent Parson. I guess my point in the above bit is that interpretation and personal headcanon was always a huge part of OMGCP and its fandom, with or without Parson, from the beginning. Now that I know a lot more about hockey and pro sports generally, it's really, REALLY not surprising that some people went nuts for him despite his incredibly limited appearances, because besides maybe Jack himself, Kent Parson is BY FAR one of the most compelling character concepts in the comic.

Like, okay, if kids want to play pro sports, they're often living away from home at some special academy or billeting with another family by their early teens. And these junior leagues can be RANCID environments in terms of bigotry and mental health and even physical health. Hazing and drug abuse and sexual abuse is way too common. If any kid is genuinely talented, they'd BETTER for their sake have a responsible, savvy adult in their life protecting them from everyone who wants to turn them into another money-making asset, who will encourage them to just... ruin their bodies and their mental health and their lives.

So, there's this USAmerican kid named Kent Parson who is really fucking good at hockey, so good that by the time he's a teenager he's playing away from home in Quebec. He's gay in a famously homophobic sport. At some point, he gets paired up with Jack Zimmermann, an up-and-coming Canadian prince of hockey, the next Next One, the son of a famously talented hockey player and Stanley Cup champion Bad Bob. If Kent's billeting with Bob and Alicia, he possibly lived with them for YEARS.

Jack and Kent are friends. They're rivals. They're teammates. They're partners. They're soulmates. They're secret lovers. They're both celebrities before they're 17 and drafted, media is swarming them at every juniors game, and probably both already have sponsorship deals. They're winning like they're never going to stop, and there's no way underage drinking isn't going on, and that's fine because "boys will be boys." They're being told by coaches that all of their nasty, aggressive edges make them better athletes and competitors, probably. Everyone knows they're going to go first and second overall in the draft, and no one can EVER know they're gay because their careers will be over before they've even started and that's EVERYTHING.

And then teenage Kent Parson's secret boyfriend nearly dies due to a drug overdose directly before the draft. And it's maybe even Kent who finds him and has to call for help. It might be Kent Parson who saved Jack's life.

But Kent still has to go to the draft because... that's his future? He doesn't know what else to do, probably. And HE goes first overall at one of the NHL's big spectacle events of the year, dozens of camera trained on him constantly, while all everyone wants to talk about is Jack's scandal: is Jack going to die, does Jack have a drug problem, does KENT have a drug problem too, did Kent SABOTAGE his friend to go first overall, are the Las Vegas Aces disappointed by getting their second choice instead???

And obviously Jack's parents have to focus on Jack right now instead of Kent, who is not actually their kid.

And afterwards, Jack doesn't die but he doesn't want to talk to Kent, and there's no way either of them knows how to handle this responsibly or in a healthy manner. And Kent goes to Las Vegas while Jack stays in Quebec, leaving Kent to wonder if it was at all HIS fault for putting even more pressure on Jack with their rivalry and secret relationship, for not noticing Jack's issues sooner and taking them seriously. If Kent actually wants to be a better person (and let's remember, he's probably like 17 or 18 here), then he almost certainly doesn't know HOW to be better person.

And teenage Kent is expected to be the face of the franchise and lead an NHL team to victory (despite the fact that everyone knows he's NOT the one that they originally wanted), and he DOES, he becomes captain WAY too young 1OA-style and wins a bunch of trophies, and he even wins the Stanley Cup, which is supposed to be everything he's ever wanted but also Jack STILL won't talk to him. (Does Kent still talk to Bob and Alicia??? Unclear!) And Kent is STILL a closeted gay man in the homophobic NHL, one of its celebrity faces, and basically couldn't date anyone even if he wanted to, because he probably gets photographed by random people ALL the time. And also toxic masculinity says that pro athletes do NOT go to therapy.

And also the media probably STILL asks him about Jack regularly, because they're bloodthirsty like that.

And while Jack is going to college instead, he gets together with a teammate who looks a lot like Kent, but is nicer and sweeter and apparently more palatable than Kent is? And is also apparently, like, the male version of the perfect, blonde homemaker / social media influencer that so many hockey players choose to marry. And then Jack kisses him on the ice in front of EVERYONE after winning the winning the Cup???

Fuck! FUCK!!! That's wild! That's a crazy situation to be in! That's an incredibly juicy narrative and it's all just going on in the BACKGROUND of OMGCP. I get why people would push the more wholesome main romance out of the way and say, "Talk to me about the deliciously problematic storyline happening back THERE."

Like, yes, it IS totally reasonable to, say, point out that fandoms almost always unreasonably favor white men, especially privileged and conventionally attractive "bad boy" characters, even when they're barely in a story at all. Jack and Bitty are also white men, but in this case, I'm referring to people choosing to focus fanworks on Kent Parson instead of, for example, far more prominent minor characters like Ransom or Nursey or Chowder or Lardo.

But Kent Parson is also one of those cases where I'm like, "Yes, but through inference, we arguably know just as much information about Kent Parson as we do some of these other supporting characters. Also, you must understand, if you follow the NHL at all and understand how the sports entertainment industry works, everything about Kent Parson's career path is NUTS. The NHL is CRAZY about their 1OAs, and if one of them (a legacy Next One of THAT pedigree) had a drug overdose and got replaced by this other kid who shortly became captain of an expansion team and won a dozen trophies including the Stanley Cup, the hockey media would NEVER stop talking about it. If Kent Parson was real, he'd be Sidney Crosby levels of famous, and people would write angry clickbait articles every year about how Kent Parson (a filthy USAmerican) sabotaging (good Canadian boy) Jack Zimmermann's draft is the reason why the Montreal Canadiens and/or Toronto Maple Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup again yet (because OBVIOUSLY Jack would have come to play for the Habs or the Leafs eventually, the articles suggest, and therefore Canada wouldn't be in this embarassing, unacceptable position of not having won a Stanley Cup since the 90s). If Kent Parson was a real person, his narratives would drive the Men's Hockey RPF shippers up the fucking walls, and people would right now be filing the serial numbers off of their RPF romance novels starring Kent Parson* to turn into original fiction booktok bestsellers that probably later get adapted into television shows streaming on Crave."

*I am aware that people have filed the serial numbers off and published their OMGCP fanfiction starring Kent Parson. What I'm saying here is that if he was real, it would be even MORE of a thing.

Kent Parson is one of the most interesting, haunting character concepts in the comic. The more you know about the machine that is the NHL (or any pro sports league), the clearer it is that this a complicated guy in a real fucking Situation here. And it sucks that the backlash against him apparently prevented his storyline from ever getting a satisfying resolution. Kent Parson as an element just fades out.

[lowercasefirey]

tpot 20 spoilers

I'm just yapping out some thoughts

Am I allowed to still hate One, I’m worried I’m missing something 😿 cause WHY is she feeling bad for herself when she chose to kill and manipulate people like what

I love a good crashout, but this makes no sense to me, is jacknjellify trying to justify her actions or am I just missing the point 😞

SERIOUSLY One pmo what do you mean killing three was an accident 😭😭🙏 you were concentrating all of your power just to kill them, you had plenty time to stop, and everyone was telling you to stop. How are you upset the other algebraliens want you to leave when you KILLED someone?? Like hello?? Why keep an active danger around?? Just because you got left out a few times doesn’t mean you should kill someone?? HOW is this her backstory 💔💔🥀

Also I get the algebraliens plan wasn’t perfect and nice, but I don’t blame them for how they reacted

please don't let there be a One redemption arc

+ You’re telling me, Two didn’t even decide to take all that power on purpose??? They didn’t even choose it on their own?? Poor Two couldn't have been be less prepared for all the risk. They were literally "in their own world" during the discussion of what to do if One comes back.

also just wth

was this necessary

one when I catch you one

bro silenced her, kept her isolated in a dark room, and then mocked her as soon as she spoke?? One is so lucky Leafy kept calm. TOO CALM BTW. WHERE WAS THE ANGERRRR???? WHY DID LEAFY JUST ATTACK THE CHAIR, THROW BOOKS, AND INSULT ONE. I WAS HOPING THEY WOULD GENUINELY FIGHT LIKE FIGHTTTT FIGHT. BUT LEAFY DIDN'T REALLY HIT HER OR SCRATCH HER OR ANYTHINGGG. HOW WAS LEAFY NOT UPSET AND VIOLENT THE ONE TIME SHE NEEDED TO BE 💔💔

IT TOOK SO LONG TO FIX THINGS WITH FIREY JUST TO BE SEPARATED AGAIN, HOW IS SHE NOT AT HER LIMIT FED UPPPP

I JUST WISH IT WAS MORE INTENSE IDK, ONE MADE IT SEEM LIKE A BIGGER DEAL THAN IT WAS

I NEED MORE ENERGYYY

[florgenborgen]

ok wait i always thought one was just victimizing herself tho

[florgenborgen]

Links for (abandoned) WOF project

Unnamed project for Wings of Fire where a lot of things change, mainly that the worldbuilding is just better. Feel free to ask questions about anything and everything!

This AU has a LOT of worldbuilding changes - as well as a few plot ones. Most significantly to the world, the RainWings are actually competent - though they still like sun and have plenty of rest time. Most significantly to the plot, Vulture joins the Talons of Peace and Onyx is revealed much earlier, and the Talons of Peace choose her as their candidate instead of Blister.

Links:

Tribe Headcanons!

Miscellaneous headcanon lists!!

IceWings

SandWings (unfinished)

SkyWings (part 2)

NightWings

RainWings

MudWings

SeaWings

~~~

Factbook pages!

Talons of Peace Factbook pages to be posted here!

UNANKHA, The Ice Kingdom (unfinished)

TENAHWA, The Empire of Sand (unfinished)

DELNALTSINE, The Horde of Red Sky (unfinished)

KAAKAHIKI, The Midnight Archipelago (unfinished)

THE SOUTHERN LEAGUE, The Rainforest Kingdoms (unfinished)

TONINALLA, The Kingdom of a Thousand Scales (unfinished) + more for Arc 2!

~~~

Maps!

Miscellaneous map plates to be posted here!

OLD NIGHT KINGDOM (unfinished)

FIVE-TAIL RIVER VALLEY (unfinished)

HUMAN CIVILIZATIONS (unfinished) + more TBD!

~~~

[florgenborgen]

here's some doodles of a seawing + icewing in my au!!

[florgenborgen]

Wings of Fire SeaWing Headcanons!

omg guys im so close to finishing these yippy!!!!

guys animus magic works different you guys can have albatross' death scene as a treat

Eagle watched as the strange structure grew larger and larger, like cancerous tendrils reaching for the endless sky. He was a guard for the Princess Sunset, who was visiting the Island Palace to oversee negotiations regarding new Sea Kingdom settlements on Sky Kingdom territory. However, Queen Lagoon seemed to be taking this as an opportunity to show off her animus dragon by regrowing a new island palace in place of the old one, which had previously gotten wrecked by a hurricane. The spiral twisted unnaturally, glowing and pulsing with animus magic. He took a look at the dragon performing the spell-- Albatross was his name, if Eagle remembered correctly. The magic continued pulsing from the grey animus' body, in slow, steady movements.

The music began rising, as the structure's spires got to an altitude around the middle of the room. Two royals, Eagle recognized as the animus dragon's daughter and her husband, looked frantic as they searched for someone, probably the animus dragonet, who was supposed to be watching the ceremony with the other royals. They sent their other dragonet outside to look for the animus.

When he turned to look back at the structure, he saw that its glow was pulsing strangely and irregularly. The geriatric animus began to shake, then toppled over. All the glow left his body, and entered all into the palace's structure. Eagle watched as the spiral grew and grew, in erratic, random directions. Then, the stone burst out, like a pile of spears exploding. The tendrils were growing so fast, there could be no escape. Queen Lagoon was the first to die, becoming trapped in the huge stone thorns and stabbed to death. Other dragons tried running away, but it was no use. The magic was too fast for anyone to outrun. Eagle watched in horror as he saw about a dozen dragons, including his princess, meet the same fate as the queen.

Eagle accepted his fate as a tendril of stone came hurtling toward him.

anyway, back to other things! i'll explain animus magic more in-depth in another post, so yeah :))

the seawings are the largest tribe! i just wanted them to have an advantage on land, so one seawing could probably take on 2-3 skywings without fire (with fire is ofc a different story)

seawing snouts are a bit longer, like spinosauruses!! i just thought it would help them hunt a lil better.

the current dynasty actually has a lot of pink accents in them!! they claim descent from a dragon named dolphin who survived the Animus Incident, but nobody knows if they're really real!!

the seawings are a lot like imperial china government-wise, and have a centralized, autocratic government with the empress at the top.

seawing court drama goes CRAZYYYY. like queen coral's thirty two sons? you BET they're gonna poison each others kids (or just. each other) like its a competition. like orca doesn't even have to try to kill off their girlfriends or anything they just do it themselves.

orca DEFINITELY killed whirlpool after she became queen. is that even a question

when orca killed coral (which is later in this au), gill took anemone's egg and whisked her away,, somewhere.

orca and anemone are NOT animi anymore! sorry guys i just dont want an animus queen + itd lowk fuck up my plans for book 2

despite its super centralized government, there have been some historically uncontrollable populations of seawings that the current dynasty has just opted to. turn into a tributary state and stop caring.

moray is totally hiding in one of those tributaries.