#croik

Did you know there is a gritty steam punk soulslike action rpg featuring beloved childhood literary classic Pinocchio as a sexy teenager? He shoots electricity and fire and sometimes bullets out of his puppet arms. He's going to fight the Wizard or Oz next (maybe).

There have been soulslikes before. There have been gritty remakes of childhood classics, including Pinocchio. But you can't tell me that when the first trailer dropped your jaw wasn't on the floor. "This game is WHAT??" we all said, baffled. Even more baffling, it turned out to be really good.

How many amazing Pinocchio soulslikes have you played? A thing can be completely original and also completely a remix. It's hard to explain to these people who are interested in products instead of making things, but "nothing is 100% original" is as true as it is irrelevant. It's like yeah, and? You have these people claiming that they have great ideas but don't have the time and talent to execute them, but the moment you start to press them on it, they retreat to the argument that its not possible to have original ideas, either. So what are you contributing at all?

Us fanficcers understand better than anyone that being inspired by something and having original ideas are not mutually exclusive. You cannot use that as a defence for what AI is doing to creative industries. But augh it's hard to put into words, especially at work, orz.

THE HUSBANDS ARE GETTING RINGS

Oh no why are you losing

"tim no eyes oops" is a very silly name for an actually relatively serious fic set in season four! it's a tim-lives AU where jon has figured out how to quit the institute, gone to martin, gotten martin's refusal, and then gone to tim, who agrees to quit with him. i haven't written out the actual quitting bit, or the aftermath of it, just the conversation leading up to it, but i've written tim and jon as ever so slightly more agreeable towards one another (especially now with the circus gone and jon having been in a coma for six months) so i've planned for them to help one another with the process and the recovery, if only so they each have somebody to keep them from dying. i do eventually plan to finish it, but i have absolutely no idea when 😅

here's a little snippet!

Oh, did I ever showed that I have a beautiful book version of this masterpiece?

Cover art is made by the incredible @delborovic

The Hunter introducing someone to the BOOM HAMMER!!!

OK this one imma do today, because idea struck me :D 

For all his ostentatiously pious ways and staunch belief in the doctrine of the Church, Alfred isn’t ashamed of the few deviations from the norm that his strict upbringing somehow didn’t manage to straighten out. The Hunter takes them all in stride, glad to see something akin to a spark of humanity in these little acts of personal rebellion that make his accidental friend into more than just another soulless zealot. 

“Grasp it firmly and be careful when you strike the spark, this part catches a bit.”

“I will.”

But none is as endearing as Alfred’s complete and unadulterated fascination with the Powderkegs. You’d think that for a man nearly welded at the palm to something as cumbersome as a Kirkhammer or as pompous a spiked wheel, he’d be more of a traditional kind. 

“Swing from the hip. It looks lighter than the Kirk, but it really is not. Spare your back.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

But no, explosions seem to hold some inherent charm to him - the bigger the better. 

Or maybe it’s the ‘hammer’ part that fascinates him so?

“It’s loud.” The Hunter warns. “And the recoil is immense.”

Alfred smiles at him like a freshly beatified saint, eyes shining with excitement, hands tight on the worn leather twisted around the crude iron handle. “I would’t expect anything less from a Powderkeg make.”