#chrisis-averted

[occudo]

I absolutely love your siren Jon, he looks so feral!!

he is ^^

[lichlover]

The Vogue Elves offer Taako the chance to become human when the wheel lands on 'Time', thus shortening his lifespan. He accepts because he sees it as a chance to rebuild his brand with a new name. Kravitz and Lup's reactions to this.

see, the thing is, i don’t actually think he’d do this. humans are one of several species that have shorter lifespans than elves, and besides, if taako’s got all the time in the world, he’s got plenty of it to rebuild his brand, right?

but let’s say this. let’s say the vogue elves offer taako a chance to rebuild his brand in a different way.

“Taako,” says Edward. “You’ve left your mark on the world in ways you never could have imagined.”

“And they weren’t all bad,” Lydia chimes in. “Sizzle It Up made so many people happy. You inspired towns and people alike with your style, your passion and panache—now, that’s something we can appreciate.”

Edward tsks. “But then your assistant just had to go and frame you for mass murder. What a shame, isn’t it? How quickly show business can turn on you like that?”

“You can never go back to Glamour Springs,” says Lydia. “Well, I mean, if we’re being honest—you can never go back, period, can you? To that life? To fame?”

“Yeah,” Taako drones. The color is drained from his voice as it’s drained from everything else in this godsforsaken place, and he leans unabashedly on his Umbra Staff as he speaks, because the only thing more pitiful than showing pain is pretending you’ve never heard of it at all. “No fucking kidding. But it’s over, that’s all—I mean, it wasn’t even my fault, like—who cares?”

The liches’ smile hangs dark and crooked in the open air. “Well. Quite frankly, Taako… your audiences.”

The empty space in front of them contorts and folds in on itself. Taako feels the air ripple as Magnus steps forward, but they all freeze when a young drow woman steps from the rift, shimmering and glassy-eyed, clutching a ladle and practically vibrating with anticipation.

“This little darling is Ren,” says Lydia, sugar dripping from her voice. “Quite a few years back, of course. She’s been roughing it for some time, slumming it in the alleys of the Underdark, casting what feeble magic she knows to ward off predators that lurk in the shadows.”

“Ren?” Taako blurts, but she doesn’t react. She sets her jaw, resolutely angles her shoulders, and walks straight through them. An icy thrill shoots through Taako’s chest.

Edward sighs. “Ah, young ambition. The day you came to the Underdark, she was beside herself with excitement. She’d heard the stories of Taako from TV, the elf who came from nothing and made something of himself with nothing but sheer determination. Now that, she thought, was the way to go. That was how she would get out of this cold, horrible place.”

An audience shimmers to life in front of Taako. The people are withered and weighed down, marred with the struggles that drag at their heels, but there’s a youthful face that breaks from the crowd. She holds her hands high over her head and claps and cheers over the smattering of applause. She’s shining brighter than anything else.

“You inspired her, Taako,” Lydia croons. “You gave her the strength she needed to get out of the Underdark and make a life for herself elsewhere. You did used to brag your act was… life-changing, isn’t that right? How funny it is, that it really was the case for this young woman.”

“Fuckin’ hilarious,” says Taako. “What the hell do you want?”

They don’t seem to notice his interjection, much less care for it. “There were others, of course,” Lydia continues. “The single parents for whom your free samples were a last resort. The disillusioned and exhausted who realized that if you could chase your bliss, they could too. You were the reason some lived and others survived, Taako. Glamour Springs was… unfortunate, of course, but you mustn’t understate the impact you had on your fans.”

“That’s a pretty impressive resumé, don’t you think?” Edward adds. “Wouldn’t it be terrible if it were to be… nullified, so to speak?”

Before Taako can ask what the fuck that’s supposed to mean, they go on. “If you accept this sacrifice,” Lydia says, “Sizzle It Up will be… unmemorable.”

“Good for a night of laughs,” says Edward, “but nothing special.”

“Unremarkable.”

“Mundane, even.”

“And all those people?” Lydia lilts. “You will have never touched their lives. Not those starving families, not the despairing children… not your biggest fan.” Her last word hits the ground and blossoms into the misty image of Ren, confusion frank on her face, still clutching the ladle. A signature is smudged across the handle. She looks down at it with something akin to disappointment in her eyes.

It isn’t supposed to hurt Taako as much as it does.

“But who knows?” Edward warbles, over the faint buzzing in his ears. “Maybe your show didn’t really have anything to do with it. it’s kind of selfish, really, thinking your act is the thing that saved these people from the agony of living.”

Lydia hums, low and considerate. “Terribly selfish, isn’t it, brother dear?”

“Or maybe it is the truth.”

“Perhaps.”

“We just won’t know until you choose.”

“Taako,” Magnus whispers, and Taako isn’t sure if he wants to kill him or kiss him for interrupting. “This is a lot. You—you don’t have to do this. We can take another spin.”

“Uh, you can,” says Merle. “I ain’t goin’ within another foot of that thing until I have to!”

“But what if you—“

“Look, all I’m sayin’ is that—“

“I’ll take it,” says Taako. He can feel their stares snap to his, but he keeps his back straight and his eyes straight ahead, into the blinding lights beyond the wheel.

“Taako—“

“They’re not my problem.”

“Oh,” says Edward. “Well, with that kind of rationale, how can we say no?”

The Underdark’s streets are just starting to become slick with rain as she steps under the scavenged roof. She’d wrapped the ladle in what few inches of her shawl remained, but it’s soaked through nonetheless, and the ink is starting to run and weep glitter onto her palm when she sets it on the table.

Eriel looks up from her dampened kindling. “So?” she says, and cups her hands around her mouth to exhale softly. “Was it everything you hoped it’d be? Gonna run off and become a big ol’ deal in the big city now, right?”

“Oh. Uh, naw, I don’t think so,” says Ren, and smiles weakly. “Y’know how people ’round here exaggerate their stories. He really wasn’t anythin’ special.”

[fma-facts]

What is the level of techology in Amestris? Did anyone ever wrote a compendium? They certainly have telephones, radios, and at one point I'm fairly certain they mentioned movies (although there are no televisions yet). Also, it looks like they have colored photographs.

A good question! This was actually discussed in the first guidebook, believe it or not. It’s not the most in-depth list, but it is fairly specific about what’s what, so I’ll share an excerpt from the book itself. The “lecture” is given by Winry.

Excerpt from Winry’s lecture on Amestrian culture and technology in Fullmetal Alchemist Profiles (Perfect Guidebook 1), pages 94 - 95

Food and Common Items

You want to know what kind of things we eat? The same as everyone else really. Meat, fish, fruits, vegetables, and bread. We eat as much bread as we want from the pile of bread that is placed in the middle of the table. Rice? That’s the staple food from the island country in the east, right? We don’t really eat that. Now that I think about it, even though Ed hates milk, he loves stew, which has milk in it. What a weirdo huh?

Speaker

This is a speaker. You can amplify your own voice through a microphone. It seems like a lot of fun. I bet it would feel great to use it to sing a song.

Radio

The radio is one form of entertainment. But there still aren’t very many stations yet. It’s used mainly for listening to special announcements.

Phone

This is our house phone. Isn’t it nice? Rotary phones are standard. In the city they even have payphones.

Means of Transportation

The main modes of transportation in this country are trains, cars, and horse drawn carriages. Trains are basically for long distance trips. I’ve ridden on one a few times myself, but it’s not a very comfortable way to travel. It made my butt hurt so much that I could hardly stand it. Cars are used mainly for getting around in the city, and in the countryside carriages are the most common. By the way, vehicles for air travel haven’t been invented yet. But I think they’re conducting tests of the technology.Not very many people own automobiles yet. You hardly ever see any in the countryside. It’s too bad, because they look so cool.

Winry’s Update on Trends

I’ve seen that movie about the guy that turns into a fly. Resembool is in the countryside, so a theater owner brings a movie projector to our town. So I haven’t seen too many movies yet. Next time I’d like to see one with a lot of scenes involving automail.

After that, Winry goes on for two more pages to talk about automail. As for technology not mentioned by Winry… Electricity seems to be commonplace even in the countryside (we even see power lines running through Resembool), and we know the military has tanks and flamethrowers. I can’t recall specific examples of seeing them at the moment, but I’m fairly certain typewriters and telegraphs exist as well. Other than that, I think the guidebook just about covered everything we’ve seen.

If you’re ever writing a fic and find yourself asking, “Would they have this technology in Amestris?”, the general rule of thumb I go by is that it’s equivalent to what would have existed in Europe or America in 1914. Be sure to check not only when a technology was invented, but when it became commonplace! For example, a quick google search will tell you that refrigerators were invented in 1913, but that doesn’t mean you should just give the Rockbells your average Kenmore in every fic. Automatic refrigeration technology (aka the kind where you don’t have to keep buying blocks of ice) didn’t really hit the public market until the mid-20s, and even then, the refrigerator as we know it today didn’t become commonplace until the 50s. So if you’re not sure if a technology exists in Amestris and you want your fic to be period accurate, I’d recommend doing a little research first to see what point that technology was at during the mid-1910s.

(Of course, this is all just my two cents on how I would write a period accurate FMA fic. You don’t have to follow my rules, and FMA is a fantasy series where people walk around with robot arms like it’s no big deal, so there’s a little bit of leeway in terms of technology. But now this ask has gotten off-topic anyway…)

[saintscoffee]

Hey! Who's the character in your icon? Also, yay! Another K fan! Favourite characters?

She’s Asuka from Hibike Euphonium :D

Yes! I love K Project! However, I’m mostly just an anime fan, so while I’ve read a few manga chapters and know some spoilers, I’m not super knowledgeable.

My favourite characters? That’s so hard! I love them all in different ways… I guess I’ll go with Fushimi because I loved his character development in the second season.

What about you? Who are your favourite characters?

[seiya234]

TAU prompt. Stan and Dipper in one of his "bad moments".

The idea of crawling into his father’s lap ever, let alone at the age of 16, was completely out of Stan’s frame of reference. Filbrick Pines didn’t raise no sissy boys after all.

A younger, far younger Stan would have not seen a problem with that. A younger, far younger Stan hadn’t seen and done and felt what Stan now had done.

Without any question or hesitation, Stan gathered a sobbing Dipper onto his lap. Thankfully the kid was short, and his wings had curled tightly to his back.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry Sta̤ṋ̖̗̫,̟̬̱͍̙͔̘ ̱̼̮͖̮I͉̣͔’͍͇̭̹̜ͅm̤̜̘ ̦s͙̝̳̦̻o̥ ̼͓̯̗͖͕̝s̗̜̗͔ͅò̹̟̗̤̬̼ ̝̼̻s͔̻̹̳͖͉o͇̭̝͠r͈͞r̯̦̳͚y̧̗̻͙͕̘-̲”͕̯͓͍͎̹͎

Stan patted Dipper’s back awkwardly.

“Hey kid, it’s okay. I uh, don’t mind.”

Dipper looked up at him, snot running down his face to the point it dripped off his chin, cheeks covered in golden track marks.

“No Stan. It’s not okay.”

Stan paused. Mabel, in her upset, had run off into the woods, and Stan knew from past experience that if she didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t see her until she was ready no matter how hard Stan could look. 

There was blood, red and gold on the floor, splattered on the walls of the kitchen, covering the fridge and the stove. Stan’s ribs ached from where Dipper caught him one with inhuman strength when he tried to grab Dipper off of Wad-

Stan’s eyes lingering in the kitchen fell upon a solitary hoof, some muscle and bone still attached to it but not much. It had flown in the feeding frenzy and landed in the bowl of pancake batter left over from breakfast this morning.

Stan sighed.

He didn’t need this. But then again, neither did Mabel. And Dipper hadn’t asked to be... to be like this.

“It’s not okay. But it’s going to have to be Dipper. We’ll... we’ll figure it out.”

[sunderedstar]

I'M SO BEHIND WITH LOSS, BUT hey! It's almost summer! Forget all books, I've got a goddamn fanfiction to catch up on!

yay! we’re almost there! so close to the end...it’s taken so long...

[fma-facts]

I think you should make a *fact* image for this: the actor who will portray Envy in the LA also portrayed Armin in the Attack on Titan LA. I'M...SO CONFLICTED ABOUT THIS...

I’ve pretty much stopped doing Fact of the Day for various reasons, but that’s interesting.

[sevvaddle]

back in january, @chrisis-averted​ asked me to do some illustrations for the remastering of their adventure zone fic, ‘to play the fool’.  working on this over the past couple of months has been a lot of fun; i feel my abilities have improved a lot and i’m proud of my work.  chris, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity and for your patience and encouragement throughout the process.  i hope we can still keep in touch :)

so, here’s all of the art i did for the story - please click for full size!  i had complete creative freedom in regards to scene selection and character design.  if you like these drawings, please check out ‘to play the fool’ !! thank you!!