umbreonpanda

they/them || full-time student

hello!! i go by panda, if you called me umbreon or anything else, i would probably not answer you. i’m 22 years old and my pronouns are they/them. i am bilingual, vietnamese/english. i am very terrible with grammar and is still working on it.

since my blog is 18+, i will occasionally reblog nsfw posts. i would add a masterlist but since im not sure how to do it. good luck with finding my writing.

> got a trigger? please block any tags that have up {tw:}

#personal

folksaga-if

20/07/23 at 4:21am 212 notes

“It is a long story, and it does no credit to anyone: there is murder in it, and trickery, lies and foolishness, seduction and pursuit. Listen."

- Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology

You are a human. A totally normal one.

Honestly.

You’re a human. You’re a bartender, which is a very normal job for a human to have, and when you walk down the winding streets of Akureyri you can blend seamlessly into any crowd of people which is, without question, only something that a human could do.

The fact that you came here two years ago with nothing but the clothing on your back doesn’t mean anything; you’re hardly northern Iceland’s first wayfaring soul. That you had no money to your name, no friends or family to speak of — that’s a fairly average human thing, too. And that little craving you have, that quiet urge to dig your teeth into any passing stranger’s throat? It's completely, entirely mundane.

It’s manageable. You’re managing.

Or you were, until someone — someone who's decidedly notas good at this human thing as you are — begins leaving a trail of dead bodies at your doorstep, and a trio of god-like siblings take a seat at your bar.

MAGNI THORSON .

No doubt the mightiest of his siblings, the eldest child of Thor is exactly the sort of person you would expect him to be: a giant (half-giant, in fact) asshole with a smoulder and a knife-sharp jawline to match. He’ll match your every word with a cocky grin and a joke that’s nowhere near as funny as he thinks, and he’ll look every inch the prince that he is all the while.

(Well, the prince that he was. Just don’t let him hear you say that.)

MODI THORSON .

For the supposed embodiment of his father’s wrath, the God of Thunder’s second son is surprisingly…not that. He’s no picnic, mind you — he’s broody, he’s secretive, and he's fucking intense, but that hardly equates to fury incarnate. You’re sure there’s something hiding under that moody surface; whether or not you want to uncover it is a different story entirely.

(Looks like even gods aren’t immune to middle-child syndrome. Who knew?)

THRÚD THORSDÓTTIR .

Valkyrie, seidhr,paragon of strength — with all of her mother’s best traits (and a few of her father’s worst), is it any wonder that Thor’s youngest child was also his favourite? Smarter than her half-brothers and more likeable by a longshot, you might find yourself forgetting how easily the fortune-telling goddess could break you in two. You might, but she’ll be happy to remind you if you do.

(Maybe a little too happy, in fact.)

KATLA B̶͍̏L̸̝͑O̵̟͠M̴̳̓Q̴̯̔V̵̺͆I̷̗͛S̵̠͒T̸̬̒ .

A fellow nomad and your coworker at Black Thunder, the first friend you made in Akureyri has remained your closest. Mischevious, magnetic, and often up to no small amount of trouble, there are times when you think you might know Katla better than you know yourself. You even know about her…well, you know that she…sorry, what were you talking about again?

(It's just that it’s nice, being close to someone who’s so very human.)

THE MARE .

There’s a voice in your head and a shadow in your dreams, and they’re telling you to run. You probably shouldn’t trust them.

(…Right?)

Customize your monster character. New life, new you! Choose your gender identity, change your name, cut your hair, and remember: if you’re starting to grow tired of running from your past, try on a new outfit and start running faster.
Play as one of three runway creatures from Norse mythology — a cunning keeper of the forest, a charming warden of the lake, or a formidable guardian of the mountains. Each has its quirks (would you prefer a hollowed-out tree for a back, or webbed fingers and forearms covered in scales?), but they all have two key things in common: they’ll killto protect their homes, and you’redefinitely not one of them.
Choose your own fate, out of the countless that are presented to you. Had oatmeal instead of skyr with your breakfast this morning? You might have just brought about Ragnarök 2.0. Nice one, asshole.
Multiple romance options, with each available to pursue regardless of your gender or background. Ever wanted to kiss a god under a starry sky? Now's your chance! Or maybe you’re through with immortal beings and desperate to ask the pretty server on a date? Go for it! She’s definitelya human too. Totally. You’d be able to tell if she wasn’t. Wouldn’t you?
Save the world — or don’t.It's your choice, and isn't that what true freedom is all about?

Folksaga is inspired by The Edda, Norse mythology, andTwin Peaks, with a bit of tweaking to the myths as needed for the sake of plot. MC backgrounds have been adjusted to fit for all players regardless of gender identity, and creative liberty has been taken with some smaller points for a smoother storytelling experience. All changes will be explained in an FAQ post (too be added in the links below ASAP!)
The current demo consists of the prologue (introductory lore + character creation), + the first half of chapter 1, about 48k words total. I plan to post it in the next few weeks, after some edits + the completion of chapter one!
I expect it to be somewhere in the range of 600,000 to 700,000 words, but this is subject to change (and likely will due to my propensity for rambling text. oops.).
I’ve written short and long-form original fiction as well as a lot of fanfic (say hello @ pentaghastly on AO3, and @kendallroynsfw on tumblr!), but this is my first IF! Bugs and coding issues may appear in the demo; please let me know if any issues arise during your playthroughs.
Folksaga is a work in progress. I would love constructive feedback when the demo is posted, as well as any bugs or grammar issues to be brought to my attention if I've missed them :) I would also love patience, because I'm a full time health care worker who gets sleepy lots xoxo
A Swedish farmer named Sven Andersson was executed in 1691 for having intercourse with a mountain nymph, or bergsrå. I will neither confirm or deny if his Wikipedia article was the inspiration for this IF, except I will confirm it and it definitely was.

MC ORIGINS | RO INTROS | DEMO!!!!! | COG FORUMS

#interactive fiction

collinnmckinley

20/07/23 at 4:21am 69,215 notes

whetstonefires

20/07/23 at 3:07am 49 notes

lyraevans

i saw your reblog of lesbianincelsnape’s post, i really want to hear your thoughts on how dumbledore and snape are similar

whetstonefires

Oh! Sure, why not. 😂 I’ll do my best.

So the position I’m adopting here is basically that Dumbledore is secretly a lot like Snape.

Specifically, the person Snape was, at that crucial juncture in his life when Dumbledore stepped up as his patron, reminded Dumbledore so much of himself at the parallel point in his own life it was like getting punched in the stomach every time he looked at him.

(I’ve also said elsewhere I think he was probably jealous that Voldemort and Lily were separate people. Like!)

The extremely vital point in Albus Dumbledore’s backstory that gets neglected an astonishing amount is: his father went to Azkaban for anti-muggle hate crimes, and never came out.

But it wasn’t really a hate crime. It was an honor killing, or vigilante justice. It was revenge for an assault on his daughter that could not be prosecuted thanks to the Statute of Secrecy.

The Dumbledore family was destroyed by 1) muggles and 2) the government. And then their mom died.

And that’s where Grindelwald found him. Recently out of school and recently orphaned, brilliant and isolated and embittered, all his lauded potential being squandered on having to stay home and care indefinitely for his disabled sister. And knowing exactly who to blame. This is an alienated youth.

Aberforth was 100% correct to come over all ‘what the fuck Rousseau you’re just going off with this asshole to chase your weird dreams and leaving us?’ although dueling about it was obviously foolish, but it’s not surprising Albus could be radicalized at that point, even without factoring in the crush.

It wouldn’t be really surprising, just disappointing, if Grindelwald had led with much more blatantly evil rhetoric than 'we will tear down this broken system with all its hideous injustices and erect a new one where we will personally ensure justice and rule over the muggles for their own good’ and still gotten him.

But regardless. First he was that brilliant, embittered, horribly lonely young englishman signing himself away on a charismatic figure’s fascist agenda. And then he was the slightly older, broken young man whose selfish choices had killed a young woman he loved, but had failed to care for properly.

Dumbledore despised the first one but he respects the sentiment of remorse enough to be able to sympathize with the second. He’s built his whole identity from that point in his own life.

Which gets him right in that weird mental spot he’s clearly got, where he wants to believe in redemption more than anything but also believes people can never really change. And that he, for example, can’t be trusted to attempt major reforms to society or government considering the circumstances of his original resolution to unfuck the system.

So although Snape doesn’t know it they’ve got this super complicated relationship where Dumbedore identifies with him a lot, and alternately cuts him inappropriate amounts of slack and is Very Weird And Passive-Aggressive With Him because of it.

What’s most interesting here is that while he did usher the guy into the life choice that had ultimately allowed him to feel like he was doing something meaningful without grasping too outrageously at power (without any apparent understanding of the differences of context and psychology that stopped teaching from being fulfilling for Snape in the same way, or of the ways this could be bad for students) Dumbledore did not seriously pressure Snape to adopt his specific coping mechanisms.

Is this because he understood that this would be inappropriate and unhelpful, or more broadly unethical, or because he lacked the introspective awareness to realize that he had e.g. spent the last 70 years in a weird internal war with his 20-year-old self? Who can say.

Interesting that the result was that Snape just stayed that exact person for the rest of his life though.

#harry potter

therealvinelle

20/07/23 at 3:07am 146 notes

Anonymous

Something that's always bugged me about Harry Potter is that there doesn't seem to be a limit to the magic. And the school system doesn't make sense to me. I get that the books aren't about the magic itself but I don't think Rowling thought about it much and instead took the "through magic, all things are possible" route.

Do you think the wizarding abilities are overpowered? Or is there a system to it that I'm just not seeing?

therealvinelle

It’s true that there’s no known upper limit, but that by itself doesn’t bother me. I don’t care much about magic systems, to me the important thing is the story. If the story needs godlike characters, then bring on the godlike characters.

But the wizards of Harry Potter are not godlike.

They’re dependent on wands and arbitrary nonsense words to even use their magic. Oh, they have the power required to break the known laws of physics, but they can’t use this power freely. Point Hermione Granger to a broken chair and tell her to fix it, and she’ll know exactly the spell and the wand movements to fix it. If she doesn’t, she’ll pour through books until she finds the right spell.

But what if the spell to fix broken chairs has never been written?

Hermione could write her own spell. I’m not sure if she has the requisite understanding of magic to do this, but this is something she could theoretically do. Judging by the sheer amount of spells in the Harry Potter universe, this is how it’s always been done - a need arises, and if the spell for it doesn’t exist then a new one is written.

No one ever seems to take a step back, and ask themselves why they’re using these words and fancy stick movements in the first place.

The incantation can be made non-verbally, as in, there was never any need for the magic word to be said aloud, the wizard just has to focus intently enough on his intent to perform any given spell. The spell can also be performed wandlessly, proving there was never any need for the fancy movement.

Take several steps back, and you start to see that the magic system is just that. It’s a system for magic, an effort to categorize and domesticate something beyond categorization, that can never be domesticated.

Magic itself is unlimited, and it is the wizards who place constraints upon themselves when they say “In order to accomplish X, I have to perform the following arbitrary ritual” and see no other way to accomplish X.

And it so happens that most of the wizards we see in canon are bad at even this. Notice how knowing a lot of spell is considered very impressive. These are not people who understand the force they’re dealing with, who have an interest in it beyond what it can do for them.

So, no, I don’t think wizards are overpowered. I think they’re fascinating in how they define themselves by something they don’t understand. They’re perhaps the ruins of a once great civilization, as someone at some point understood magic well enough to systemize it, but the years have passed and their descendants have forgotten what magic is.

#harry potter #worldbuilding

molossophone

20/07/23 at 2:44am 75 notes

making fun of the apparently canon wizarding world map:

i was thinking ““oh maybe i’ll rewrite this shitshow because- y’know, i like magic, i hate terfs,, i am trans, i want rowling 2 hate me.. n worldbuilding is fun. so.. here we go 🙂🔫

ok first of all, uh. why the fuck do the UK and ireland get their own fuckinf school? seperate from ANY other parts of europe… i-. and why does durmstrang just,, take up almost all of europe. a continent with fuckton of cultures. also i don’t think the fucking balkans want 2 b associated with students from fuckin FINLAND /hj.. brazil is fucking huge n portuguese… why is it grouped with the rest of spanish speaking south n central america? god i could go on about this forever

second of all… the names. THE. NAMES 😭😭😭😭.. they’re.. something? mahoutokoro just means ““magic place”, castelobruxo is fucking “wizard castle” aaaaand. uagadou just.. is not a word? whatsoever.. i????? and of course…. beauxbatons…. “handsome wands” HANDSOME, WANDS. atleast it means something i guess.

#harry potter #the worldbuilding for hp is so bs

g-a-y-g-o-y-l-e

20/07/23 at 2:35am 33 notes

marvel 🤝 star wars 🤝 pokemon 🤝 pirates of the caribbean 🤝 harry potter

genre-defining series that had some (vague) potential in their novelty at the beginning, but were slowly cannibalized by their own bigotry and lack of consistency, combined with the capitalistic need to keep manufacturing the same product. most of these franchises are still beating that dead horse for profit TO THIS DAY

fortunelowtier

20/07/23 at 2:30am 472 notes

Nothing is funner to me than the official map of all the magic school districts in the HP universe because of how fucking awkward some of these would be to go to

Like imagine being an english-only aussie and going to magic school, but everyone's speaking bahasa/malay so you have no idea what anyones saying

Or being a Durmstrang student in 1939 and the Polish and Romanian students walk past each other in the hallway like

Or the fact that school 10 has both India AND China, that's almost 3 BILLION people between those 2 countries, your average class there probably looks like Woodstock '99

#harry potter #the worldbuilding for hp is so bs