#<- since i . keep drawing stuff for that? i will have multiple interests and just Slap em together ig

[lordichamo]

soug milgram redraws. souggram if you will

[kujiba]

【Mew Mew Bitch】

୨୧ — ꒰ Cat!reader | they/them prounouns | Sagau | cultish behavior

A/n: silly little idea after writing gore

Mondstadt / Liyue / Inazuma / Sumeru / Fontaine / Natlan / Snezhnaya

— Okay but Cat reader who gets thrown into Sagau

I like to imagine Cat!Reader gets worshipped like cats back in ancient Egypt lmao, In mondstat you're basically just chilling around roofs and stuff which makes the character's panick internally telling you to come down since its dangerous

But you couldn't give af so you just jump down and land on your two feet casually making the subjects look dumbfounded. You're still restricted though from the roofs since you could get hurt (as if)

Venti is DEVASTED he is unable to come close to you because of his allergies, bro is just watching you from afar like some wife investigating on her cheating husband

He does frequently assist you through wind currents and help pick stuff up from heights you can't reach, hearing you be thankful for him is worth sneezing so much!

You and diona are literally bff's with each other! Diano absolutely looks up to you like an older sibling and you look back at her as your own.

Whenever theres some drunk weirdo coming towards her with bad intentions you always just use your claws to scratch the persons eyes or any part of their body.

You're pretty confused by Diona's plans to destroy the wine industry that diluc runs but tag along anyway since there are pretty few people who are like you

Speaking of diluc, you actually visit him sometimes... Well not him but his garden, it's your #1 spot to hang around aside from the rooftops of people's houses.

Diluc eventually made a hobby to just watch you from the balcony or window of his home while drinking some beverages. He's pretty amused to watch you jump and catch butterflies or insects flying around his property, he occasionally stops you from eating them too. Much to your dissapointment

Klee is also one of your playmates, both of you adore going fish blasting or catching some interesting stuff from the forests to keep as little treasures or trinkets.

The only bad part is when you guys get caught by Jean and get put into temporary solitary confinement, but you guys past the time with drawing stuff you had capture or saw and make more plans to go adventure! Maybe even invite diona next time.

Two more people is Aether and paimon! You were pretty much just really hungry and accidentally began to nibble on paimons arm making her almost pass out thinking she was going to get eaten by you

You did eventually made up to them by cooking the two a meal which paimon happily accepted. Aether likes it whenever you're around, not just because you're basically the creator but also since you were great company to them!

While assisting them in a adventure you were able to track down multiple targets in a span of minutes just by your animal senses which impressed Aether because he won't have to go through so much trouble in bounties anymore

Overall, Cat reader best au because meow meow

[sepublic]

The Owl House Pilot Leak!!!

            Oh my titan.

            The Owl House’s original pilot episode (basically a bunch of voiced-over storyboards) just got leaked and OMT. Watching it felt like experiencing the original magic of the show all over again… Reminding me what it was like to fall in love the first time!!! The hype and rush, the excitement to type down my thoughts after a new episode, analyzing and gushing over both big and small moments, the details!!! The pilot has reiterated all over to me again why I love these characters, from Luz's powerful earnestness, to Eda's chaotic demeanor! It’s like having the whole show open ahead of me, the possibilities endless when knowing this is just the beginning and we could go anywhere from here!

            What’s interesting is that Luz’s conflict with Camila doesn’t really exist here; In fact Camila isn’t present or mentioned at all! What brings Luz to the isles is Amity, who’s been learning in the human world, under the guise of being a human by disguising her ears! It’s alluded to that Odalia and Alador made her do it, though we don’t know why…

            But WOW that must’ve been so meta, doing S3 with Amity stuck in the human world with Luz, hiding her ears! It must’ve been a fun way to bring back the older concepts in new form! And indeed, we see a couple of stuff we’ve already gotten glimpses of, such as the storyboards of Luz offering her friendship art to Amity! I love that we get to see the actual scenario of how Amity accidentally defended Luz in the first place, since we heard that but didn’t get to see how it turned out.

            It’s interesting that Lumity is basically the inciting incident of the story, though I can see why the final version opted instead to emphasize Luz’s conflict with her mother. Especially with how she chooses to stay in the isles in the final draft, which leads to guilt over lying to her mom, having her ‘coming out’ moment that eventually occurs in Yesterday’s Lie, etc. So more agency when it comes to Luz losing her access to the human world. Plus in the pilot, there isn't the same emphasis on Luz trying to live out her dreams of being a witch, and her obsession with stories that ties back to Manny and forms the basis for a lot of other themes and arcs.

            That said, I also appreciate what this alternate take offers, and how Lumity helps tie everything together, it really is the queerness that is such a foundational part of the ‘weirdness’ theme that the show is about, and it’s intertwined with the pilot! God Luz being heartbroken when Amity dismisses the drawing… And then crying when Eda compliments it without realizing who it’s about! Or maybe she did, she could’ve recognized Luz there and figured out a way to stealthily make Luz feel better…!

            I love Luz routinely lock-picking her locker because she presumably forgot the combination! And it’s interesting that we have a setup of there being multiple dimensions that the Boiling Isles has access to, and not just the human world and Demon Realm. That plays a role in the climax, more on that later. Given we have what is basically an airport for different dimensions, I wonder if we would’ve seen Luz find her way back home much earlier on, under much less intense circumstances, in a S1A episode?

            The ‘Emperor’ is also alluded to in the pilot, which we didn’t get actual mention of until the fifth episode in the final show. He apparently dislikes humans and wants Luz brought over to him, is this still operating off of the ‘Pupa’ version of the character who claimed to speak on behalf of the true ruler, trapped in their metamorphosis by him? So maybe he wasn’t always human, or maybe this is Belos’ hypocritical way of ‘protecting’ humans by keeping them away and in blissful ignorance of the demon realm.

            We also establish Hexside much earlier! IIRC Hexside was always part of the show, but executives pushed for it to have more emphasis, which the crew continued to follow through on in S2 onwards because that had already been set up. Lilith is the principal, and I recognize the storyboards of her, including her bat transformation! We get a Tinella Nosa cameo, we see Amity, and there’s also a brief cameo of Willow too! Nice way to set her up before her proper debut.

            The ‘barrier’ containing King’s crown turns out to just be a regular human locker, which makes me wonder if the writers updated the final draft to make it a force field that only allows humans through, because of the whole Belos twist. Which makes me wonder if in this draft, Belos is Pupa, who never was human, or maybe they realized the opportunity to insert foreshadowing into a big twist regarding the main villain. Makes me wonder if the house we see Amity enter in the pilot, which is on sale, would've had any significance like in the final show. Love how Tinella Nosa is a student at Hexside, and also Dana having to occasionally insert lines for Wendie Malick and others was great.

            Lilith is a lot more openly adversarial, which is different compared to how her actual debut provides a softer side to her; I imagine this would’ve been apparent in a later episode of the ‘Pilot AU’, and her transformation has me curious; Was she originally the one with the curse, but then the writers changed it to Eda? Or did they both have a curse? Eda also has an owl form she can summon and control at Will, maybe all Clawthornes have a beast mode that’s less of a curse and more of a talent. Lilith ends up trapped in another dimension, which makes me wonder if she’d have a temporary replacement –possibly Pilot Bump- or if she’d return offscreen. We see the portal key get destroyed under much more casual circumstances, though it’s less as big of a deal for this and the established ‘dimension port’ we saw before.

            (Also, Amity recognizing Luz in the hallway… Everything to me!!!)

            Warden Wrath doesn’t exist and neither does the Conformatorium, it’s Lilith and Hexside. With her as principal and Amity as student, I wonder if we would’ve gotten more of their relationship in the pilot AU, if Covention was a way of carrying over that former connection since Amity would be a teacher’s pet in either version of the story. And speaking of ties to Covention, it’s interesting is that Eda’s chest gem seems to be linked to the Emperor’s Coven, as ‘Pilot Kikimora’ uses it to control her. Curiously, we have a scene at the end mirroring what we got with Lilith in the final draft of the show!

            I feel it implies that Eda DID join the Emperor’s Coven with Lilith, if only for a brief moment, but then defected; But the chest gem is basically the pilot version of the Emperor’s sigil, except with the explicit function of being a shock collar. I find it interesting that Eda still has the mirror to contact the EC with, instead of just getting rid of the thing. Is she a rogue agent who hasn’t totally cut ties, because she can’t? Won’t?

And the fact that Pilot Kikimora can just shock Eda at will makes me wonder if the Emperor is low-key just letting Eda roam around, which makes me wonder if he’s aware of the familial connection, is using Eda to find Luz, already knows about her doing that because of the time loop, etc. We’d of course have gotten an episode where Luz finds out about Eda’s connection and helps her deal with the gem… I realize now that Luz learning Eda also wanted to join the EC with Lilith is a carryover of this idea.

I can see the ups and downs between both versions; The final draft sets up Luz’s conflict with Camila and the reality camp, which is foundational to her character arc throughout the whole show. Her pain over being ‘sent away’ is just so vital that I appreciate its inclusion in the first episode. But I also like the inclusion of Lumity and the earnest desire to be friends with someone who showed her, unwittingly, any kindness at all! We get explicit bullying from Luz’s peers in the pilot, but in the final draft we also get her thoughtlessness that plays a big part in her S1 arc. And Luz’s arrival in the isles is more intertwined with Eda and King in the final version, which also feels right; The show is about these three in particular!

All in all, this was wonderful to watch! The magic was experienced all over again, not just in watching an episode, but also commentating on one that was just ‘released’ as well? I thought the last time I’d do anything like this was with the series finale Watching and Dreaming… But as Luz said, it really comes full circle with watching the first episode all over again! So maybe we have other stuff to still look forward to after all… At the very least, we have an eternal anticipation with an unexplored universe ahead of us, that will never reach completion; So it's like our ever-lasting final gift from TOH, and a good last one. So until next time: BBBBBYYYYYEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

[ohno-the-sun]

Oh uh forgot to ask in the previous ask (the one with the digital piece of candy and scurrying and stuff)

How do you draw art so good

Like

Is there a method you use or is that just the style you've gotten over time?

you've activated my trap card

I'm just gonna preface that this tutorial is from someone who was not professionally trained and didn't have a lot of free time for art, so a lot of the tips I have is short cuts I use to get the best results quickly

If you genuinely want to get better at art then please look at references and practice that is always the best

However if you are like me and only really do art for fun but want to go faster then these are for you pfppt

Overall I'd say my style is influenced by speedpaints I would watch when I was younger, I like analyzing how people do things and what makes something look "good" to me

I always recommend watching them because they will often have techniques you've never seen before or do things a certain way that you can try out yourself

I consume good art, it feeds me

but seriously it can be super helpful when developing your own methodology, or just generally trying something new

Usually it starts with me pulling some references from artists I really admire and sort of sketching out how they do the things I like

For example 8um8le has like super good anatomy and poses so I focused on trying to replicate how they do that

venemous-qwille is super good at color and pulling focus so that's what I focused on in my study of them

In general I'd say my process is sketch -> silhouette -> color -> shading -> render

I really don't like doing lineart lol

I'd say for the sketch the most important part is using references and just kind of fudging it until it looks correct anatomically/physically

General rule of thumb is spend time on areas of interest, and keep non important areas light (like the stitching on his pants)

I don't do lineart because I think its unnecessary for most paintings I do

I naturally tend to put more time and focus on areas of interest (like hands and feet) and if you use a brush with opacity for the sketch, those areas are naturally going to be darker in the final sketch

Of course this is gonna be different for everyone but it's what works for me

Sometimes I do a really really sketchy layer underneath my sketch/lineart, just so I know where everything is going

Use thumbnails! They are great to help figure out the general layout of things and what pose I wanna do

Next is what I call the "silhouette" layer

This is super important for me cause it helps me refine the figure and make sure the pose/anatomy looks correct, also depending on what color I choose for the silhouette helps guide what colors I'm going to use on top

This piece is a good example of how it works. The silhouette shows me how the figure interacts with the background, how the pose looks and if its any good

The silhouette layer doesn't have to be super clean, as long as it follows the sketch decently well and shows where the figure is then its fine

I also sometimes make the silhouette layer multiple colors to help guide shading and vibe

Next is the coloring layer. I usually make this a clipping layer on top of the silhouette layer, or I change the silhouette layer to alpha lock, either way it saves me time on coloring everything in

Sometimes I am super rough with the coloring too, using like an airbrush or my fav watercolor brush just to generically block in color where I want it

Works out cause most objects have like a bounce light to them from surrounding objects, so this is sort of a cheat I use to get that effect without all the work lol

Also don't be afraid to have the lower silhouette layer shining through, having multiple colors sort of subtly shining through the piece helps lots

Next is the shading layer, this is usually another clipping layer, usually set to "multiply"

The colors I pick here is usually within this range, any color works, just depends on the piece and vibes.

Since this piece is set in a sunset forest I choose a more desaturated orange for the shading layer

I know there's a whole thing about multiply layer being a crutch (and it kind of it) but it is a useful tool when you just want some darker values across the piece but don't want to go through the process of color picking every single darker shade

Also in my opinion it looks better than picking a darker color and setting it to a lower opacity, idk I just think the color has more "depth"

Next is the hardest to explain, sort of the vibes layer

Usually its just a layer of more concentrated color on top of the normal color and I fudge with the settings and values until I get a result I like

Next is the longest step, is the "extra" or the render stage.

Usually I add a background before this step so that if I need to merge the figure better with the background I can

If I render with a white background but he's supposed to be in a dark forest, its going to mess with the lighting severely

Also this is when I add more "vibe" layers on top to get the figure to match the background better

Backgrounds in general I recommend checking out @/derekdomnicdsouza on instagram he's got lots of great tutorials for breaking down backgrounds simply

I'd say general rule for the rendering layer is to focus on the areas of interest and spend less time on areas you don't care about

I even blur stuff out on the edges I don't want people to see, partially to save time on fixing mistakes in areas I dont care about (oop), but mainly to help draw the eye to the areas I do want people to focus on

Theoretically parts of the background should like mesh with the characters, parrallel lines are a no no unless they are directing a viewer to look somewhere, things that are perpendicular help bring things together

tbh I'm still not the best at layout and probably need more practice, but overall this is what I like doing

Overall this is what my layer set up ends up being

Sort of a sandwich with the lineart/sketch as the "meat" lol

Color and basic shading below the sketch, clean-up and rendering on top

I like this method cause it's super flexible if I ever want to try something different or try to replicate someone's style

I can make each step less or more messy depending on the end result and can add a lineart layer if need be. Also if there's a part that is straight up not working or needs to be removed its super easy to do cause I can just paint over it on the "extras" layer, color picking from the surrounding area to get the same vibe

Generally rule of thumb for my style is: get the initial layout of colors, form and shading to look good, then the rendering should be smooth sailing

Really the best advice I can give to get better at art is to enjoy what you're doing and become very very obsessed with drawing a silly little guy

You'll eventually get very good at drawing them pfptpf

[docdufresne]

how r you so good at drawing (halo) armor. You’re literally one of the best I’ve ever seen. Tips please if possible? (specifically for the shapes of the armor)

Oh god heLLO; I'm super bad at explaining my process of drawing RvB armor, as it's been multiple years since I've done it up until recently, so I'm super rusty but I will do my best to explain myself!!!

I've never made any sort of tip guide or tutorial, so please bear with me!

USE REFERENCES!!! This can go for renders from the Halo games directly (ArtStation was a great place to start, I'm not sure how things are post AI ""art"" surge, though) but at the very least, screenshot the heCK out of the series from whatever season you want to draw. There are a lot of different angles, and after they started to animate, it made it easier to get references with arms up or splayed out to the sides, or legs bent and hand motions!! Depends on what you're looking for!!

For this Reference, I used a Halo 3 render, as well as the Caboose-isms poster render. There are more clear renders out there, I'm sure!

First step that I take in learning to draw a new set of armor is color coding the sections that I'm going to draw, and then labeling them with points of interest that make me remember the detail later; Like grooves, or a bevel that looks weird or silly. Color coding and labelling the parts made it easier for me to break it down into smaller bits to draw piece by piece, bc let's face it; Armor can be super tedious and daunting, especially if you're just starting out.

Remember It's ALL SHAPES!!! IT'S JUST SHAPES!!!! Break them down into more simple shapes to find what works best for you! Keep it loose in the sketch stage, so you don't get lost in the pesky details

Remember that the armor goes on TOP of a body, and isn't a part of their body! Halo Infinite dOES have prosthetics that are a bit smaller than the armor, which adds depth and flavor to your armor though!

When in doubt, draw it larger than you mean to, and size it down to fit your other pieces!

SIMPLIFY IT!!! TRACE TO LEARN!!!! Really just figure out where the pieces go and put them together like a puzzle! Armor is simply just, hard, and there's no easy way to learn quickly how to do it efficiently and well; It really does take a lot of practice and trying and sketching and watching clips and staring at other's art to maybe notice shortcuts or even details you didn't notice before!!

But the biggest tip that I can give you is just, don't be afraid to make "bad art" don't be afraid to draw "bad armor" !!! It doesn't have to be perfect, the details don't all have to align on model 100% of the time! All of my art, paintings and all, have things that I fudged or missed, or messed up on and didn't notice, but I still have fun painting and drawing because I like making people laugh with my comics and I like having them feel stuff about my paintings!

Sorry if this wasn't what you were looking for, but I hope this helps even just a little bit!!

[wrtingsoftheunknown]

Vincent Sinclair HC

Vincent Sinclair hc SFW and NSFW

I’ve haven’t  been seeing my boy get repped recently so I have to do it myself. My first time writing something on here or towards this character ,I promise I will get better y'al,l I made this super quickly not proofread oops.

SFW

-While he can be insecure about his face he definitely has an ego from being the favorite child and having perfected his craft.

Lester drags him out to go for a ride around town or force him to come to his place for some quality brother time (Bo joins every now and then but wants peace and quiet dammit )

‘I know a lot of people have him learn sign language but I think he either writes what he wants to say, speaks as best as he can, or gestures, ( he was born in the south to parents that I don't think cared about communicating with him too much but he could have picked it up later in life maybe in his teen years or middle school era)

More sadistic than Bo when it comes to killing, he doesn't care if they are dead or alive when working on them and takes satisfaction in the result of his work

He prefers to work in silence but you can catch him humming now and then some country song or a guilty pleasure pop song from the 80’s( I see you Vince)

I think he partakes in multiple forms of art besides wax work.We see he’s able to paint, draw, but he also  takes pictures, , sews, writes, makes videos, anything artistic he’s learning and keeping up with new techniques.

Since he takes video of the killings at times I think they sell them as snuff films to make extra cash on top of stealing and selling victims stuff. (At least that’s what I thought when I first watched the film anyone else or just me)

Rarely happens but will keep victims that interest him like Bo ,but dispose of them when they get boring  or no longer match up the ideal version of them in his head.

-Does want a lifelong partner, the white wedding and picket fence, kids,  but knows it might be difficult with the line of work he does.

- He can talk but only does when it’s important or to emphasize something. He does have a southern draw like Bo and I imagine his voice to sound similar but raspier, maybe deeper/ quieter from not using it as much.

-like I said earlier you have to really catch his attention and be able to hold it for more than a week, if that happens then he’s obsessed and protective maybe a little too over protective.

Does indeed have a hair care routine I believe this full throttle and no one can can tell me otherwise I'm not listening.

NSFW

I don't know if he’s a virgin, I don't think he is something is telling me he isn't, but i’m not sure

He has no problem with nudity, bodies are seen as art, there's not as much of a sexual connotation with them as with Bo and Lester .

He wants to be in love with the person he is intimate with, he wants to be worship and worship his muse.

Drawings  of his partner naked as well as in the midst of a passionate night, he might tease them all night to make sure the sketch is as life like and accurate as possible

Good size and thick that's all I gotta say

Praise kink hard core, hearing his partner call him a good boy or how he makes them feel so good he will crumble

He starts slow and sensual, enjoys the control he has and having someone at his power.

I think he will edge you and leave you high and dry when you act out but he always caves by the end of the day and gives you what you need.

Can last a long time surprisingly

Mainly a giver but someone please for the love of god give this man the nastiest had he’s ever received will make the prettiest noises 

Is down to try anything new and more open about sex than you would think.

When he’s horny he comes up behind his partner and starts caressing every inch he can reach, while resting his chin on their shoulder acting as innocent as he can.

[localceilingdevil]

off string designs for visceral growths. puppets actually built for moving around!!!

myths is technically already an "off string model" so i won't draw her design :p but here's the others

since they can't function without their neurons they have tiny ones inside of their body!!! i could go on about the functions. thinking about this stuff is so interesting to me.

rambles below the cut

ok so uhm the main thing i had to keep in mind with their off string design was mobility. OBVIOUSLY. their legs are built the way they are for the sake of traversing through harsh, bumpy and uneven terrain (for a multitude of purposes. i think in general their ancients would just want them to be mobile for important meetings and even in case of emergencies! ancients thinking about the future that DOESN'T involve mass ascension ... unheard of) and have springs based off the "prototype"'s (myths.) feet to absorb impact when falling. fields especially has a special ability to jump higher from the added mechanisms he has in his legs :]

their feet are talon-like for the sake of grip and their legs are generally very agile despite their chunky design! with multiple joints that allow for flexibility. their hips are also built to allow their legs to stretch to the side and whatnot. they're just very flexible in general.

now for my favorite part!!! the jelly-like substance that each of their puppets has acts as their "blood". despite being considered iterator blood it isn't fluid, and is comparable to the texture of the silicone from a breast implant—doesn't spill, is a great regulator for heat, and prevents any possible damage to their innards !!! the ancients figured that they'd need their neurons to function properly sooo they just shrunk down copies of their data into tinier neurons and just. filled em up with them. the neurons float around freely inside of them.

i also think that their cores are somewhere inside their torsos like a real heart, protected by the silicone. they also have a bunch of wires and functions inside that require frequent coolant so they probably have a bottle for it somewhere along their back that can be taken out at any given moment.

i think that's all i have to ramble about so far. they're so neat and fun to think about and ough. they're just like their superstructures fr fr <333 I'll probably yap more later but for now that's all

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Idk if you already discussed this but how do you feel about Adrinette being canon when there wasn‘t a reveal yet? Because I think the show just took all the exciting aspects of the love square away by making one side canon and the others strictly platonic.

Sure, they‘re cute and whatnot, but I don‘t think they‘re exactly interesting without the identity shenanigans and stuff? Especially because (to me at least) Adrinette always felt like the weakest side. It‘s a school crush romcom type of love, which is great and all, but like…. You have superheroes in your show?? Hello??? Why not combine the two elements more effectively???The others are either badass superhero couple (I loved the Ladynoir dynamic in the movie for example) or one superhero hangs out with the civilian and they bond. That‘s literally all of fanon Marichat, and I personally think it works with Ladrien too. There‘s different aspects of those relationships that can be explored and create problems that they have to overcome (like the power imbalance with the civilian x hero ships, how do you handle that while dating?)

I wish the writers would use the square more effectively

I'm not against pre-reveal dating, but I agree that Adrienette is the worst side to chose from a story telling perspective because - as you so rightly pointed out - it's arguably the side with the least identity shenanigans and the side that has the least ties to the superhero stuff that's supposed to be the show's main focus. Adrienette is the side you chose if you're focusing on civilian drama which, to be fair, was season five's main focus even though Gabriel had stolen the miraculous and we were all expecting that complication to be the focus of the season five plot.

Instead the focus was "will Marinette ever have the courage to say a kind word to Adrien's face instead of just telling others how much she loves him even though she knows that he explicitly returns her feelings, making this plot kind painful on every level" which was... a choice.... Five seasons and we're still doing this shit? Really?

This may mean that the writer's plan in season six is to continue to focus on civilian drama or it could mean that they didn't think further than season five and we're about to get a lot of awkward writing. Who knows? I have no idea how they're going to handle civilian dating plus secret identities for long since the writers chose the only side of the square where running off to fight akumas isn't a given thing that the couple-in-question knows will happen. My best guess is that the writers will probably just avoid putting Adrienette in the type of situations Adrigami and Lukanette were put in, I guess?

No matter how they handle it, I don't expect major identity shenanigans because the show has never done much with identity shenanigans probably because quality identity shenanigans require you to be able to draw out plots over multiple episodes and then resolve those plots. This show cannot have that kind of plot progression given it's formulaic nature and the "there must always be a secret between Adrien and Marinette" rule, thus the identity shenanigans being so limited.

This means that the side best suited to the show's writing is probably Ladynoir. Still room for the minor identity shenanigans that the show limits itself to, baked-in-yet-low-stakes tension from having to keep the relationship a complete secret, and a much more logical result of the writing in the first four seasons. While Adrien is far from perfect and has issues to rival Marinette's, his crush always felt like the stronger one given that he actually spent time with Ladybug and had a true relationship with her.

Marinette, on the other hand, barely talked to Adrien because the show literally has a rule that she can never successfully confess her crush, so they needed to keep her and Adrien from becoming close to make those continued failed confessions somewhat plausible. Given all that, it's hard for me to buy that Adrien's crush flipped to this girl that he barely knows. Meanwhile Ladybug's crush flipping had a pretty strong setup given that Chat Noir has been her loyal support in her darkest hours.

But that's not what they went with! Instead of having the secret be the low-stakes identities secret, the secret between them is, "Your father was a super villain whose minions killed you on multiple occasions and whose death you were arguably involved with. While were on the topic of your messed up family, you're an artificial being whose creation killed you mother. Oh, and we're also hero partners, which feels like a minor thing compared to all of that, but we might as well mention that, too."

...choice were made folks. Choices were made. This is so not how you write a formula show! You never go this serious!

Since you mentioned the Civilian/hero pairings, let's talk about those both to end on a lighter note and because that's where my personal favorite lies as I am here for identity shenanigans. That's right, folks, I am once again here to sell you on my Ladrien supremacy agenda.

While I have nothing against Marichat, it is not a good fit for canon. It's simply too limiting because Marinette is not a celebrity. There's a reason that of Marinette's canon hangouts with Chat Noir (and almost all Marichat fics) start on her balcony. That's really the only place they can meet up without drawing attention, which should be a major concern for them.

I physically cringed when the show had them go to the movies and on an ice cream date because Chat Noir was being so irresponsible! He cannot be shown to have a close relationship with a civilian, which is the excuse he should have given at the end Elation since that the episode included Gabriel discovering their relationship. The excuse Chat Noir actually gave feels pretty dismissive of his canon relationship with Marinette. She has canonically spent more time talking to Chat Noir then she's spent talking to Adrien and the same actually goes for the amount of time Ladynoir spends talking about non-hero things, so this feels off:

Cat Noir: I’m sorry about what happened, Marinette. You’re right, you have the right to love anyone you want. Even a superhero. But it’s easy for a person to mistake idolization of a superhero for love. So, even if I like this person very much, I could be taking advantage of the situation, and I just can’t do that. It would be wrong.

Evil Illustrator, their heartfelt talk in Glaciator, the movie date in Glaciator 2, and a bunch of other little moments add up to somehow make Marichat the deepest side of the square, which is painfully bad writing given how little screen time this side gets, but it's still what canon gave us. Marinette is not just a fan who only knows him from a distance. They are friends and even occasional teammates. The only reason this pairing doesn't work in canon is because there's nowhere for the relationship to go until a partial or total reveal happens.

Prior to that, it's just these two hanging out on her balcony or maybe going on secret dates around the city. Cute, but not suited to a silly superhero romcom aimed at kids where every story needs to be told in about 20 minutes. It's best left to long form fan content that is allowed to be more about drama and romance than the actual show and also a little more spicy than the actual show because - let's be real here - those rooftop dates would not just be talking. I don't know how you'd write this pairing in a way that's both genuine and well suited to the intended audience. It's simply way more suited to a teen drama than a kid's show.

Ladrien, on the other hand, could work if canon wanted to go there. I don't think it would be a good fit for more than a season*, so Ladynoir is still the better pick for canon's format, but Ladrien could be a nice bit of pre-reveal padding to draw out the reveal and add some fun comedy if the show were allowed to have a reveal.

Because Ladybug and Adrien are both celebrities, you can have them interact in diverse settings without anyone thinking twice. This allows for a good amount of hijinks where Ladybug is trying to protect her boyfriend at public events without revealing their relationship while Adrien is trying to get her to let him run off and transform.

You can also do things like the public seeing them together, thinking they're a couple, and having them both deny it because they aren't, leading to Ladynoir comedy where Ladybug cries because she wishes they were and Chat Noir is like, "Wait, what? You what? ...My Lady, as your loyal partner who is here to support you in all things, I will get you your man even if it kills me!" The thinking-they're-a-couple thing could also be solved via Ladynoir by Ladynoir going public while Adrien remains "single". There's just a lot of potential for the show's style of absurdist humor here.

*Ladrien does eventually fall into the same issues as Marichat where it feels like the reveal needs to happen otherwise you're just repeating the same plots or going too spicy for a kids show via bedroom-based meetups, thus me saying that it's only good for about a season. There's also the problem that Akuma fights and supervillains are endless fodder for Ladynoir issues, but the only issue Ladrien could possibly address is Gabriel and Marichat's got nothing save for maybe Lila? So if you don't want to let a reveal happen, Ladynoir really is the best pick by far. Adrienette can work, but it's way less fun since they have to keep all these secrets while Ladynoir really only has one major secret or, at least, Ladynoir should only have one major secret (the identities). Canon has really dropped the ball on this one.

Now that I've written all this out, maybe the spicy issue is why canon went Adrienette? It's a lot easier to limit their alone time than it is to limit the alone time of any other side. I maintain that you could get away with it in pre-reveal Ladynoir by just ignoring the issue and giving them things to fight any time they try to have a date. You could also end episodes on them starting their date, leaving everything to the imagination but also keeping the setting relatively public (rooftops and the like) unlike the civilian/hero sides whose dates are going to be way more private. I fully understand why a show aimed at 5-to-12-year-olds wouldn't want to go there. That is far more suited to the teen drama Miraculous so desperately wants to be based on the ill-suited plots the writers keep going with.

[nsfwarros1]

do you think a limit will be reached for gortash' size? he's really losing his mobility now, is that something the either of them would want? i know health isnt a factor for them and i imagine cas would want gort as big as he could possibly get him. narratively gortash giving up his entire self to cas in the form of immobility is so interesting

hmm so the limit of Gortash’s size really is just the fact that canonically they just don’t live for long enough that he gets completely immobile even if he comes close, which is also the reason why I doubt I’ll draw him casually immobile since it’d always be an AU or an alternate timeline really. But generally saying... no Gortash doesn’t stop gaining weight it just more or less slows down due to his size. I’ve mentioned this a few times but Gortash shows his devotion to Cas in this way but at this point it’s also the fact that Gortash doesn’t know what else to give him. Like it’s very much a “Gortash is afraid of Cas slipping away if he ever manages to fuck this up” that also causes Gortash to intentionally lean into it more and even try on purpose. It’s multiple things causing this to be stronger now really, like Cas having left before and Gortash having had to experience the coldness of Cas after a fight where he just didn’t want to touch or feed Gortash like that anymore as well as Gortash slowly admitting to himself that Cas is just… greater, in a way. This never mattered to Cas really but there is something about Gortash getting over himself to the point where he needs to admit he’s just a mortal without any insane magical skill or something similar compared to Cas. so all in all he’s not really afraid to lose his mobility if it came to it

The other thing is also that the bigger Gortash gets and the more unable he is to do many things by himself the more he knows that he can trust Cas. Gortash not even really having to communicate it (because he still has a certain pride when it comes to things) but Cas knowing and doing it anyways. Things like getting around but also stuff like needing Cas to bathe him and take care of his skin or needing Cas to help him with pains etc, as much as an asshole Cas is this is never something he brought up or didn't do whatsoever

I also wanna mention that health isnt a factor yes however still only in a vitals way - he still definitely suffers from the weight physically (like his joints and other pains) but he never really cared about it because Gortash very much sees it as a necessity to keep Cas’ love, if that makes sense. Not even in a “hes gonna leave if I don’t get bigger” way thats not what I mean it’s more like a… you can’t love a devil deeply without it hurting way🤕

As for Cas, Cas doesn't know limits and Cas' jealousy and possessiveness will always outweigh whatever sane thought there might be about how he actually does enjoy things that require Gortash to be mobile, so that's just that😖

[ckret2]

Does bill have "a type"? Since you said he only dates every millennium, what kinds of stuff would catch this lunatic's eye? What would motivate him?

You're getting a read more because I listed every single blessed thing I could think of. The tl;dr:

artists (who depict him)

hot eyeballs (subjective)

no head

bright natural coloration

emotional doormats

party animals

nerds, provided they're also attractive other ways

worshipers

things that can injure him

getting gifts

someone who expresses interest first but lets him take the lead

really tacky expensive displays of wasting wealth

someone he thinks is similar enough to "understand" him

This is the first point because it's the answer he'd give: if you ASK him, he'll say he's "a complete sucker for those deep, brooding artist types." He'll say this like it's his biggest weakness. He says it like it's a charming little character flaw. This is the narrative he tells himself. What he ACTUALLY means is if you hit on him, and if you have created art of him (visual art, sculpture, music, poetry), the odds that he'll return the interest go up by 1000%. He is incredibly vain, he loves art of himself, and "willing to give Bill art of himself" is an insanely attractive trait.

Some species have sexy eyeballs. Other species don't. It just so happens that Earth, as a whole, has evolved an array of eyeballs that are by and large pretty sexy when compared to the multiversal baseline. Those little, like, thready filament things in the irises? Mesmerizing. Visible veins?? Drive him crazy. Bloodshot eyes? Gonna be haunting his fantasies for weeks. Top tier is those frog eyes with multiple colors or crazy crackly-looking patterns.

He's not a fan of heads. Like, when a species puts a face on a little bobbly looking thing separated from the rest of the body, rather than right on the torso where it belongs? Looks weird. It's not a dealbreaker but he's definitely more attracted to species that put their faces where they belong. Similarly, a mouth without an eye in it looks weird.

Big fan of bright colors. You know what's attractive? Looking like Lisa Frank colored you. Wearing bright colors isn't as good as being bright colors, but he still finds wearing bright colors to be an attractive trait.

If you combine the last three points, I think that I accidentally made Bill's ideal lover a poison dart frog.

Usually at some point pretty early in the dating process he's gonna say something like "Just so you know—really, I'm not as bad as all the rumors and gossip and ancient legends and globally-broadcasted warning PSAs make me sound. But: I am totally crazy. You wanna stick with me, you've gotta be cool with crazy." What he's looking for is someone who says "oh I am SO cool with crazy, I am the MOST cool with crazy, crazy is GREAT." When he says this, he's not saying "I'm actually mentally ill and need someone who's supportive and understanding." He's also not saying "I'm a wild crazy fun party guy and I want a partner who can keep up with that lifestyle." What he's saying is "I am an inconsistent and inconsiderate asshole who will show no regard for you, and in a year when you're complaining about the selfish harmful things I'm doing, I'll get to roll my eye and go 'I THOUGHT you SAID you were COOL with crazy. Are you NOT cool with crazy??' And then I'll complain about you to my friends." So: he'll focus on naive emotional doormats he can push around. He'll probably draw back from someone who stands up to him, unless he got seriously interested in them before they grew a spine.

But that said, he is also more likely to show interest in people who can keep up with his lifestyle. He parties with apocalypse machines. If he sees an alien at a party where three absolutely wasted demigods started mixing sink chemicals and accidentally set off a big bang that took out half the neighborhood, and the next weekend he sees that alien at another party? That means they party hard, they don't scare easy, they don't die easy, and they avoided the cops. That's somebody he wants to spend time with. If they're not lover material, they might be Henchmaniac material. Similar opinions on substance use and mass destruction a plus.

He's kinda into nerds. Not in and of themselves, but if they already hit other traits he likes, that's a plus. If he has a choice between two identical people and one's dumb as a rock, he prefers the one who knows lots of things and likes to share facts and trivia. Bill goes for long, long stretches without feeling curiosity, and those stretches typically coincide with when he feels most depressed; someone who can drive him to think a little bit is a godsend.

If someone literally worships him, like as a god, he's into that. It's not partner material but he'll put a star next to their name in his booty call list.

Any novel Extreme Sensations, he likes. Particularly pain. Not a lot of stuff can hurt him in his true form. If someone can make him feel pain, that's interesting to him. Not even necessarily in a BDSM way. If holding someone's hand feels like being electrocuted, or they give off a gas that makes everything too loud and makes him see weird colors? That's someone he wants to touch.

I think I've just added another trait to the "poison dart frog" column.

His love language is gifts & favors, both giving and receiving. If somebody gives him a gift, he'll remember them positively. Even if it's a kinda lame gift. It makes him feel liked. Roses & chocolates would work on him.

He's not liable to be the first to express interest, because he finds being rejected utterly devastating. On the other hand, he prefers to take the lead/call the shots in a relationship. So if somebody lets it be known that they're interested in him, but then hangs back to allow him to make the first move? Appealing.

He's a sucker for gold and tacky displays of wealth. Like he's sort of disgusted by wealthy people, but he's very into wealth. If you're rich have fun with it. If you're not ordering a $900 sundae coated with gold leaf just because you can then what's the POINT. Also, Bill is tacky. If some multidimensional billionaire decides to show an interest in him by gifting him an extremely ugly diamond-covered top hat, he'd probably let them do things to him that he wouldn't even confess to his doctor. (He doesn't have a doctor but.) I think what this boils down to is that he's only into rich people who are living like they want to go broke as soon as possible.

He goes through most of his existence feeling like Nobody Understands Him. Part of this is because he's bad at communicating his sincere feelings & emotional needs and even worse at relating to or caring about other people; but part of it is just because there's not a whole lot of people who can directly relate to "my ambition drove me to destroy my entire universe and ever since then I've been grappling with the paralyzing guilt while struggling to find a new universe." So when he DOES meet somebody who he believes can really, truly understand him the way most people can't? He emotionally latches onto them HARD. Not necessarily romantically, but it easily could be. This is last on the list but probably the most important point to getting a genuine emotional connection rather than fleeting physical attraction from him.

Example that hits multiple of the above points: one of his longest & most emotionally meaningful relationships was with a sentient black hole who—quite literally—destroys anyone who gets too close to her, and is constantly wracked with chronic pain due to being a fucking black hole. She did poetry at open mic nights. She'd go up to a mic and say something like "this poem is called The Taste Of Unwillingly Consuming The Solar System You Called Your Home" and then scream into the microphone for five minutes without pause. Bill was like "she's the only one in the multiverse who Gets It." He is a sucker for brooding artists. She let him get away with unspeakable things because he's one of the only entities powerful enough to get physically close to her and survive. Which was incredibly painful, but hey, he was into that too.

Maybe they'd still be together if she looked like a frog.

[i-arch-my-backula]

Reading to the Lost Boys

I'm trying to work on requests still and I've been thinking about these goobers so I thought I might as well write a little something about them and Y/N who reads to them.

Warnings: Swearing, light teasing

David

He's probably the most educated out of all of them, at least from a literature standpoint so having you read to him is a fun experience. I feel like he's a busy man with shit to do so being able to listen to a book while working on something is great for him.

He's read all of the classics already, probably around the time they came out since I headcanon him to have turned in the 17 hundreds. So you can be an introduction to new types of genres to him if you read things outside of classics.

I feel like David would enjoy dark academia and fantasy novels a lot. I can see him getting really invested in the book drama of it all and having discussions with you about what you think is going to happen next in the book or what character will do what.

Dwayne

Despite being around the longest as a vampire I feel like he's not read that much, at least English book wise. Dwayne's actor, to my understanding is Native American so I feel like that plays a role in part of Dwayne's backstory. But to sum it up I feel like Dwayne speaks multiple languages fluently or semi fluently but he still doesn't read that much.

But he's always happy to sit down with you and listen to you read to him. He's partial to more 'serious' stories like classics or stuff like that. I can also see him being a fan of horror novels that aren't afraid to get really nasty with their content.

He can read pretty well on his own so he'll probably follow along with you as you read to him but he won't stop you from reading out loud to him. He'll honestly savor these moments with you and try to make it a regular, scheduled thing between the two of you.

Marko

Will (lovingly) call you names because you like to read. He'll say it's 'boring' or 'how can you even do something like that without falling asleep' but if you can draw him in with a good story he'll be hooked. I can see him having you finish a book in one sitting if it's really that good to him.

He'll prefer fantasy or sci-fi novels over other stuff. Classics probably put him to sleep and romance will just earn a bunch of comments made by him during the reading of it.

Will want to physically touch you while you're reading to him. Cuddling or just hand holding is mandatory during you reading to him and he claims he can't focus without you touching him in some kind of way.

Paul

Oh my god this man will call you so many names you'll think you're in elementary school again. 'Smartass' 'nerd' and 'point dexter' are probably his favorite names to call you. But if you can lure him in, then he'll behave himself.

He'll want fast paced, action type books to keep his attention. If it's not filled with a bunch of fighting and dragons and stuff he's probably not interested in it.

I can also see him secretly liking romance novels, but in a sort of guilty pleasure way. He'll never admit that he actually likes those novels, but you should keep reading them to him, just for yourself and totally not for him.

[nite-puff]

How do you headcanon Mondo to be as a child (5-8) personality/body type/interest

(i would die for that boy)

little mondo!!

okay uhhh…

- he’s mondo without the shame. without the pressure. he has yet to have the weight of the entire world crush him. he is cringe and free.

- mondo didn’t remember much about his parents since daiya got them out of there when he was still pretty young (like 4 or 5). he always just kinda knew they were bad people, and that daiya made the right decision when moving them out. but he never knew the extent of it or specific details. daiya just kinda let him be blissfully ignorant and saved the details until he was old enough to handle knowing them.

- he was pretty rambunctious. he had a lot of energy and not a lot of room to take it out on (the owadas had no yard where they lived and daiya didn’t want him running inside the apartment with it being small and crowded with their stuff). so daiya always took him to a nearby park to run around and play in. he was the type of child who hurt themselves doing something stupid but would brush it off and keep playing while bleeding.

- “daiya! DAIYA!!! watch me! watch me!” *proceeds to attempt some sort of jump and falls on his face* daiya has no clue what he was trying to do but laughs anyway.

- he was always bad at making friends. despite him liking to spend his time outside and not cooped up in his apartment, he always had this shyness when people other than his brother talk to him. of course, that would always translate into him being awkwardly evasive of the person or just straight up yelling at them because he can’t control his nerves. he’s made multiple other kids cry without meaning to.

- the first real friend he made outside of daiya was michi. when he was like 9. all because michi wouldn’t leave him when he started yelling.

- the park the brother’s went to was located in a better, safer part of town. mainly because daiya didn’t want to have to worry about other things happening while he was watching mondo. the park they went to was also next to a dog park. and mondo would spend a ton of his down time just sitting by the gate separating the two and looking at the many different types of dogs. if he was feeling brave that day, he’d ask the owners if he could pet their dogs. if he wasn’t as brave, there’d always be at least one nice owner who noticed him watching and offered him their dog to pet.

- then he started building a fascination with dogs. that was his first big interest. he only used the library at his school for one thing and it was to check out books about dogs to bring them home. one of them he liked so much that the librarian practically had to force him to turn it back in for a couple weeks because some students were looking for it and wanted to check it out themselves. he had a bunch of drawings of dogs in his notebooks. he could tell what breed a dog was just by looking at it. and he would always bombard daiya with the dog facts he learned that day. and never what he learned at school.

that’s all i have for right now. maybe i’ll make a part two if i come up with any more.

[morethansky]

***THE ACOLYTE SPOILERS***

• Me, seconds before I could hear millions of thirsty voices crying out: Oh my god is a nymph-bathing thing about to happen, is he legitimately about to strip

• Sadly, unlike Osha, I am immune to the Stranger's practically full frontal, but the reveal of his little tied-back hair bits at the same time had me screaming into a pillow, so we all win.

• So the island was definitely meant to evoke Ahch-To, right? This was a very The Last Jedi episode (it even had the same mismatched pacing for the three storylines lmao), and the Kylo Ren theme was the most prominent it's been in the end credits. I think the theories about Qimir being a progenitor of the Ren are spot on. I like this quite a bit; it would be smart to build off of High Republic stuff while cementing Resistance-era lore. This would line up with the Bad Batch building off of the Clone Wars stuff while cementing Resistance-era lore. I also personally find it a bit boring that Bane's lineage is laid out all neatly and am particularly interested in darksiders being outside of it. And it would mean the show is drawing even more from the books and comics, which I'm always in favor of. And fun fact, my second-ever SW fic was based on the Rise of Kylo Ren comics!

• But ALSO, given that they clearly showed the cortosis vein, it also evokes Bal'demnic, the planet where Plagueis kills Tenebrous omg??? Not to be an annoying fanboy, but I adore the Darth Plagueis novel and we're apparently supposed to see two additional Sith Lords before the season ends somehow??? And in the novel, Tenebrous secretly trains multiple apprentices. I could totally see the season ending with Qimir suffering a vague fate and an extremely brief Tenebrous appearance that leaves the door open for a season 2 big bad. That David Harewood casting rumor is too delicious to be fake!

• On that note, since episode 2, I haven't been able to stop thinking about how when we're introduced to Qimir, he's sleeping, and he's awoken by Mae, who is now confirmed to have been his apprentice. Which is notably how Palpatine kills Plagueis. It just feels so much like a neat little allusion to me.

• Did this episode not have such Mend This Old Wound vibes?? Waking up in your enemy's lair, finding out your wounds were tended to by him, realizing he really wants to convert you, discovering he doesn't find you a threat, being surprised by his vulnerability, being surprised by what of his past and his inner self he's willing to divulge. Tbh I hadn't even realized how tropey those elements were until I watched this lmao.

• Sadly, despite my lifelong love for enemies-to-lovers stories, I don't vibe with a lot of M/F ships, bad boy/good girl ones especially. I'm happy for the Oshmir shippers, though, and at least it's happening in a story created by a queer woman, so hopefully it'll be done tastefully. Hmm... Perhaps if I genderbent Qimir I could get behind writing something, and then the seduction to the dark side would be strengthened by the queer metaphor...

• BUT ALSO YOOO OSHA/JECKI CONFIRMED???? And after Dafne Keen confirmed that she played Jecki as having a crush on Osha?? Y'all, Osha was TOTALLY floating the idea of asking Jecki out on a date with that whole "the next time I'm on Coruscant" thing, oh my goddd. The gays continue to be buried, but at least they exist, and I guess at least everyone else is buried, too?

• I love that we got a quiet moment of Sol grieving because finally there was nobody watching and he couldn't hold it together any longer. This is what I was begging for the entire run of the Bad Batch. Wonderfully acted, too. Lee Jung-Jae's expression work is so good, and I love the long, lingering shot and how you see the tears well up gradually.

• I love when actors have to act as characters acting, and Amandla Stenberg was already acting as two different characters that they had to keep distinct from each other, but in this episode, they had to act as one of their characters acting as the other character lmao. Incredible.

• Halfway through this episode I was like, why does it feel like we're getting blueballed for information omfg. We're definitely getting the second Brendok flashback episode next week, and obviously they had to keep it at the forefront of the viewers' minds without giving it away, but I feel like structurally they could've lined this up in a different way that didn't just reveal nothing in order to kick the can down the road lol. I guess this is a pretty classic issue in mysteries.

• I've been deeply confused as to why there's been so much Jedi-good/Jedi-bad discourse lately, but I don't see them as firmly in either court and that to me feels like the entire point of the part they play in the story?? Which is why I always love seeing the tension in the Jedi-Senate relationship and the way the political machinations play out, especially when Palpatine's not involved (at least overtly).

So I really liked Vernestra's conversation with the senator and the line about the Jedi always being transparent so an audit shouldn't be an issue and how the show clearly illustrates that that's not remotely true. Which is also really interesting because we have Sol doing a cover-up, possibly him and the other three Jedi who were Brendok doing a different cover-up, and also Vernestra, who doesn't know about what happened on Brendok or what Sol is hiding, clearly looking uncomfortable at the suggestion that the Jedi are transparent, pointing to other things they (or she specifically) haven't been disclosing.

I'm a sucker for political corruption in stories and when well-meaning people's hands are tied, so I'm eating it up. And of course I love how they're setting up the Jedi's fall from grace and building out context for why and how they would walk into Palpatine's trap.

• Qimir talking about being a Jedi a very long time ago is very intriguing. Upon seeing his scar, my first thought was Force lightning and that he was talking about being abandoned by a Sith master. But with Vernestra's whip making an appearance that doesn't add anything to the story otherwise, the show is clearly presenting it as the cause of the scar?? Which is VERY interesting.

• Mog's suggestion that Sol killed all the Jedi made my jaw drop because why would they even speak this outrageous idea into existence if it doesn't have truth to it in some way??? Like oh shit, that's REALLY fun. Has Sol killed Jedi before? Would he? Are the other Jedi wary of him? Do they feel the same way about the other three Jedi who were on Brendok? Mog specifically notes that Sol is very powerful. We already saw this with him going up against Qimir and surviving, so why this line?

• Sol was already my favorite character from the start just with how warm he was and how full of regret and how much he clearly loved Osha even though he wasn't supposed to, and every episode has drawn the darkness simmering within him closer to the surface, which brings him even closer to the kind of character I'm particularly fond of, so I'm very, very interested in where the show takes him. I don’t know if they could really swing Sith Master Sol, but Lee Jung-Jae sure as hell could act it.

• Can I just say, the writing for this show is definitely wobbly, but I at least appreciate that showrunner Leslye Headland has a refreshing understanding of story mechanics, even if she might love foils a little too much (and this is coming from a total foil whore). What she said about a good plot twist being built up so that the viewer realizes what's about to happen just before it's fulfilled instead of coming out of nowhere and being a total shock literally made me pump my fist because I've been complaining about the internet's poor understanding of this concept for literal years!! And the way she talked about how when you watch Jecki die, you want her to move out of the way so you can see the Stranger's face, and how in thinking that you've betrayed her and in a way become complicit in her death, is SO good.

• It's too bad all live-action Star Wars ever is doomed to have mediocre dialogue. But at least these things make me feel fairly confident in having high hopes for the Brendok reveal. And regardless of what happens, I am so excited to see goddess Mother Aniseya again next episode, omg omg!!!

[greetings-inferiors]

Okay so I saw a post about loving when fantasy points out that humans are weird because it's something that I absolutely love about xenoblade 1 and hate about xenoblade 2 okay here we go

So in Xenoblade 1, there aren't such things as humans (okay technically there are but not in the world you play the game in). What the closest analogue to humans are are the homs. They have their own fantasy race name, and the different races are treated like differ not races in a DND sense, as if they were different species. And they do really cool things with it! Nopons have distinct vocal tics and habits from the rest of the races, but that's completely societal - it's actually a defence mechanism that evolved once the Nopon came into contact with the other intelligent races to come across as cuter and not be hunted! Nopon that are raised in Homs or High entia society speak the way everyone else does (not to say that the Homs and High entia speak the same, they still have a lot of differences!). It really helps the worldbuilding. It makes the world feel ALIVE. There are tons of quests Including adopted Nopon or immigrants and it's all really well done. There's a really interesting quest where there's a high entia that keeps a nopon as a pet, even though he's a fully sentient and unwilling person. And the high entia in your party doesn't see the problem until talking with the Nopon in question, because you have to unlearn these things. All of the races feel so unique and realistic and special and specific, even your boring run of the mill Homs (which I do have the least to speak about but trust me it does stick out)

But then Xenoblade 2 has a... Different approach. Mind you I love xenoblade 2 to death, this is probably my biggest problem with it, and even then it's not really a bad thing since it works for the themes I just don't like it in a worldbuilding sense.

So with xenoblade 2, 4 here are three categories of intelligent life (maybe? It gets greyer when you talk about stuff like tirkin but moving on): human, blade, and titan. And even then titans are just a later stage of blade.

The problem I have with this is it means that there's a "default". Each race is a different kind of human, gormotti and Nopon (I'm 99% sure they count since humanity's used as a blanket term) and urayans etc., but there's a default human. People from leftheria or mor ardain are just human. But then people from gormott are gormotti, but also human. But then Nopon aren't from a single "place", since the trade guilds are artificial civilisations, not built on continental titans, but can be found in most places, a lot more frequently than any of the other races (except default humans obviously). Idk it just feels so murky and muddy. They never draw attention to it, it's a lot closer to race in our world than in dnd (except for Nopon, which once again are a weird exception I think?). I just wish they used Homs for the default humans and still used Humanity as a blanket term instead of just not giving base humans a name. It also focuses a lot less on the races as a whole, in part because the themes aren't as dependant on multiple races coming together as much as it is two types of organism working together, so it doesn't bother discussing race dynamics to focus on the much more pressing driver/blade dynamic, but it was such a cool and special part of the original that I feel is sorely missing. They started to do some cool things with the gormotti as they're clearly the most marginalised, being refugees that the indol spit on and having the base humans from mor ardain trying to colonise their land, but it's just not brought up for more than like two cutscenes each and maybe a handful of side quests. And it makes the world feel a lot less living and realistic to me. It's still incredibly living and realistic it's a xenoblade game monolith soft are certified architects when it comes to creating worlds and civilisations, it's just even though each town and city may even be bigger and more intricate than xenoblade 1's, they feel so much smaller and more video gamey. Torigoth almost felt like a Pokémon town to me whereas colony 9 (which is probably just as large if not smaller in terms of actual people and things there) felt so interconnected and sprawling with the lives of the people who lived there. Idk.

It's just that I think xenoblade 1 is the best game I've ever seen do this and xenoblade 2's is just... Okay at it. And it's always annoyed me since I read "humanity" on the box.

And I get that it is set in our actual world whereas xenoblade 1 is set in a different world but shut up every "human" is descended from rocks they bear no actual relation to actual real life humans like klaus asides from the name. The urayan titan is just as "human" as Rex is.

[hizznbyte]

is there any lore about neri/neni/your sona? id like to know more about them :D

Oh heck yeah! I’d be happy to talk about it [but be warned, once I start talking I’ll never stop..]

Nerium/Neri, the weird hijabi cat you might see everywhere on my blog is my main persona/mascot and basically just an artistic representation of myself, so anything that applies to them also applies to me LOL.

Neri is genderfluid/nonbinary and fluctuates with using any pronouns! It doesn’t really care about labels and is, truthfully, just a creature. An entity if you will. He doesn’t enjoy the idea of being perceived and prefers to be a background character. Neni is what I call that stupid chibi version of him with the big ass eyes. His design is always changing cuz I’m never satisfied sighh.

She has the social, navigational, and life skills of a toddler [that is to say, she can’t really do anything right]. She’s pretty slow and clumsy, always stumbling around and losing a constant battle with the world [he is not gods strongest soldier] Also, he’s an insomniac, so I often draw him with eye bags. Neri would prefer to stay indoors and sleep until noon, but he’s got work to do and is something of a procrastinator.

One of the most important things about Nerium is that they are kind of state of like? Mental disassociation? Their mind is so fractured and split that it kind of manifests as these multiple alter egos or personalities? Typewriter/Type being one of these. I call them PersoNeris :3

Typewriter is the more serious, stoic, work oriented one and is the biggest perfectionist ever. Constant resting bitch face. A bit of an ass. I made this comparison before but he’s kinda like the Inner Critic to Nerium LOL

As for Noodle… that’s what I call the ugly tiny little doodle version of Neri. The Neri Doodle. Noodle if you will… Typewriter has a version of the Noodle called a Toodle! Their designs are meant to simple and drawn super quickly so I don’t waste time on details [Noodle specifically doesn’t have arms unless absolutely necessary, then it just appears out of thin air!]

I will say, Nerium doesn’t have much “lore” [as in, fictitious story lore] because like I said, he’s just an over exaggerated version of me. However!

[I know you probably didn’t ask but I enjoy yapping] Since maybe… four or five years I’ve been working on this original world building project called Blood Magic, and it is so dear and special to me and I could talk about the lore all day long. I’ve spent countless hours working and writing stuff for this story I’m sorry I get annoying about them. Basic rundown is that there are two gods -an author and an illustrator- called the Higherups, a council known only as the overseers, a tribe of demons and angels [typical fantasy story shtuff], a planet I dubbed Planet Nerium inhabited by humans, animals and… furries..

The two main characters are the false-protagonist/antagonist type character named Trinity -Trick- Ambrose and a furry cat protagonist named Trip Sterling. I’ve drawn and posted about Trip before! My daughter!

Blood Magic is split into two “seasons”, each with multiple acts. There’s BM: Total Anarchy and BM: The Heart Keeps Beating [TA and THKB for short]. The idea is to turn this into maybe a series of novels or some sorta indie animated series? We’ll see.

I’ll save the lore dumping for some other time, but only if yall are interested XD

Thanks for the ask anony!!

[snows-2am-thoughts]

Dazai Headcanons

I have a few headcanons on how Dazai acted before he came to be in Mori’s care. There are a lot of theories about where Dazai came from and I love most of them honestly. There are so many possibilities about how Dazai came to be and honestly, I need a light novel about it. Unless they’re going to make it important to the plot and it gets revealed in the next arc or sometime later in the manga. 

My favorite theory that I came up with was that Dazai came from a wealthy family. He’s probably the youngest of 2-3 siblings and his parents were the cold and distant but loving type. I like to think that Dazai had a nice family but something happened that pushed him to where he ended up. I am taking inspiration from the protagonist of the No Longer Human book by the irl Dazai Osamu so tread carefully since I will mention some of that stuff. I am trying to keep this one more lighthearted and introspective so some stuff like the se*ual ab*se Ōba Yōzō went through won’t be mentioned. 

Warnings: I talk about ADHD, some implied mental illness along with some trauma because Dazai. All of the warnings that can apply to Dazai should be warned (aka his unaliving tendencies)

Anyways the headcanons

INFANT Dazai (0-1 year old)

Was a quiet baby, never really cried and babbled

It actually worried his parents at first because their other kids made a lot more noise as babies

Only really cried if he got super frustrated when he couldn’t communicate his wants effectively

Did started making noises and saying small words around the 10 month mark

Wasn’t very interested in the baby toys that made noise

Building blocks held his interest a tad bit more but even then he grew out of them fast

TODDLER Dazai (1-3 years old)

Started walking around the 1 year old mark

Still wasn’t a big talker but he would give one or two word answers, he just didn’t feel like any more words were necessary

Would walk and point to things if he could, words once again weren’t necessary

Wasn't very interested in toys the kids his age liked

Did have a small interest in listening to his parents work, mostly because his brain was a sponge soaking up all it could

Taught himself to read around 2.5-3 years old, he would memorize stories that the maids would read to him then open the book himself and memorize the words. Basically he worked backwards to learn to read

With the early reading came the early education once his parents noticed his only interests revolved around his brain

Numbers and the lot came easy after learning the basics

PRESCHOOL Dazai (3-6 years old)

Didn’t really understand people and even more so after starting school and started being around kids his age

He observed and copied the actions of the kids around him to not draw attention to himself (*cough*masking*cough*)

Started to make himself act like more of an outgoing and friendly child even if he didn’t understand why that seemed like the preferred personality that people wanted from children. (aye practice for his future self)

Although he transitioned into his persona slowly as to not raise suspicion of an overnight personality change

Thought that his persona could let him understand people a little more but it made him more confused

He totally gave his teachers so many headaches when he first started school

As I said before, tried to mask and hide his intelligence for a while because he didn’t need any attention on him

This failed as he got way too bored of sorting shapes and numbers but he was already reading at a 16 year old skill level at 6 years old

His teachers tried stimulating his academically until they deemed it was better to just move him up grades

Went from his 6 year old class to a class filled with 9 year olds to test the waters

They had to move him to a 12 year old class only a few days later when he made multiple children cry after a multiplication game

SCHOOL AGE (6-12 years old)

You will have to physically rip ADHD Dazai away from my cold dead hands, I stg (I could do a whole separate headcanon for this because him and Ranpo basically make up AuDHD)

I feel like around his 7-8 year old mark is when he really started going tired around the uninteresting things of life, he’s a severely bored kid who doesn’t understand nor have a will to live

I do think around 10-11 is when he started getting interested in suicide as a coping mechanism for all the intricacies of humanity that he did not understand and the fact he started realizing he didn’t have a reason to live

At this point he’s observed people for so long that the masks he parades around of a cheerful but academically gifted child is concrete and there’s hardly anything that can make him break it

Knows why and how people feel certain emotions or react a certain way to things but he doesn’t understand it, not really

There's an ever bigger disconnect between him and people from when he was small that he starts to think of himself as something other than human

Had a bunch of issues trying to stimulate his brain in a way that would take away his boredom as school couldn’t do it for him

While he couldn’t ever really take away his boredom completely, he would take up new puzzles or games to try and give his brain new things to think about. I’m talking like the 3D crystal puzzles or the puzzles with no edge pieces

Anything that could capture his attention was bought in bulk until he eventually got bored of it again (neurodivergent child)

Started taking university level courses around 11, he probably could’ve taken them sooner but his teachers and parents didn’t want to overload them