#'THOUGH FAR AWAY WE'RE STILL THE SAME' IS HOW THEY'RE SEPARATED BECAUSE ONE IS IN THE WORLD OF THE LIVING AND ONE IS IN AVALON

[justatalkingface]

Let's talk about the Nomu and the Remnants

So, among all the other fuck fuck games Hori played with late-game MHA, I don't think anyone has really... picked up on just what implications he's made when it comes to Remnants.

You see, once upon a time, Remnants only existed because OFA let them, kept them, empowered them. Even when it wasn't really expanded on at the time, the fact that Izuku had them was a sign of his Heroic Mandate (TM) and Destiny(TM), it was something unique to him, something that even All Might didn't have. But... you know, now AFO is just filled with a screaming chorus of those he has damned or something.

Let's... let's ignore the general clusterfuck of AFO for this, and just... all the late game stuff. Let's just talk about one thing: the fact that he has Remnants, and the fact they've been trying to talk to (murder) him.

And first off, that's a big retcon, because even if the OFA Remnants didn't want to murder their users, I'm pretty damn sure they'd want to talk to them all the same, and yet somehow only Izuku noticed, even before the clusterfuck of the extra Quirks kicked in.

But even that's not the point, that's just an appetizer. Because the thing is? The Quirks AFO is holding aren't the only Quirks he's taken, far from it.

There are the Quirks he's given to various people throughout the years, subordinates, would be supporters and probably some random people he wanted to torture.

The Nomu he's made, experimented on for decades.

Hell, all the Quirks he and Dr. Diablo Ex Machina have made (somehow) throughout this time.

That's hundreds, maybe thousand, of Quirks. Millions potentially, if we're looking at the copies and trying to get a number out of the vague 'and then we invented a whole new science just to fuck other people over' bit. And according to this late game stuff? Every single one of them is host to the mental copy of the person they were stolen from (or cloned from, presumably). And outside of a few exceptions, (vanishingly few; while there were people in the past, and in rare occasions the present, who didn't want their Quirks... the magic dream copy in the Quirk would still have their Quirk. For them, the problem hasn't gone away at all! Maybe some of the reason they hated it is gone, but even at best they're still bearing that thing they've always hated... and that's not even getting into people who just... hated them, or thought they were wrong. Or were afraid of hurting someone... only to be given to someone who doesn't share those same concerns, or even the same level of restraint they had. Even though the actual person got what they wanted, there's a copy of them that is still in hell, and knows they're never going to escape it, because they are their own nightmare.) every single Quirk was stolen by force. Every single one of the remnants in these people are just... suffering, and for all intents and purposes will remain that way, until the person bearing them dies.

And all of that? All of that doesn't get into the Nomus. The largely brain dead living corpses made smashing together likely Quirks with the same energy of a child trying to force together Legos, even before whatever process happens to condition them into being loyal. What the hell does that do to a mind? Do they stay separate? Do they... blend together? Does the body/dominant mind/most powerful Quirk just get implanted with memories and desires of complete strangers?

Every single one of those exposed brain monstrosities is a walking, talking torture device filled with damned souls of some unknown number, and who even knows about how much is in the High Ends.

Hell, what about the copied Quirks? Do they retain the full knowledge of who they were? Or does each copy... lose something, each in generation away from the original? Do they realize that they're missing some fundamental portion of themselves, that they're not real?

I'm pretty damn sure that this, like so many things, is something that just happened because Hori didn't think it through, because this is horrifying on levels it's hard to comprehend. It's a level of human suffering on the level of you'd get from the Dark Eldar in WH40K, and on both Hori and AFO's parts, it's entirely accidental. And yet, I don't think there's one part of this that isn't canon compliant, that there's nothing to disprove the idea that, somewhere in Aoyoma, there's some poor sod that was shoved in there, that inside AFO there's a copy of Eri.

Just... just something I want people to think about, because I don't want to be the only one.

[homestuckreplay]

Mommy Issues: The Flash Game

(p.388-390)

Page 388 is our first interactive Rose page! I guess p.138 could technically count, but it's the first where we can see her! It's also an iteration on p.90, where John Strifes with his dad. I've been looking at these pages side by side (yes, with the music layered on top of each other), and the animation in Rose's page is both longer and more complex. Even the idle animation - what's happening when you don't click any buttons - has more going on, with Rose doing two separate youth rolls and Rose's mom reacting to attacks, interestingly even when Rose isn't doing anything. Perhaps she is very used to this

We then have four options to choose, compared to John's two. They follow a pattern - the more attack-based moves (shown in Sburb green) begin with AG (Aggress and Aggrieve) - the new one, Aggrieve, is also the name of Rose's theme music that she plays on the violin (p.222) and gets featured here. The more defensive moves (shown in blue) begin with AB (Abjure and Abstain). These are actually Latin word roots, with 'ag-' meaning 'to' or 'towards', and 'ab-' meaning 'away' or 'from'. In the internet age where it's very easy to look up definitions and origins of words, I love that Homestuck is linguistically dense like this, and it doesn't stop it from being accessible to people who are younger or don't have advanced educations.

brief discussion of each of the four options below the cut!

So, these options! 'Aggrieve' is Rose's attack with knitting needles (her kind abstrata) just like John's 'Aggrieve' was a hammer attack - and in both cases, the opponent parries with their own weapon. John's dad almost certainly uses cakekind, while Rose's mom uses... boozekind? beveragekind? martinikind? which gives her incredible possibility for molotov cocktails if she was ever facing down a more formidable foe. It's again a more complex animation than John's, which I think speaks both to Hussie gaining confidence with the flash medium, and to Rose being more experienced with using the knitting needles and with fighting her mom - we learn on the next page that this is a 'daily quota' for Rose's mom.

'Aggress' appropriately becomes 'Passive-Aggress' when we try to select this option. Rose sticks her knitting needles into the broken power socket above the bronzed vacuum cleaner and attempts an 'empty suicide threat' which is some very strong imagery, and honestly a way more manipulative gesture than just passive aggression. We don't see a reaction from Mom, which implies again that this is a daily occurrence, and emphasizes more than anything else so far (in my opinion) just how unhealthy this relationship is. If your kid is making suicide threats, even if what they're trying wouldn't work, even if you think it's "for attention," you should get them some help. What I'm saying is that Rose needs a tentacle therapist of her own.

'Abjure' results in a Guardian Rubric, which for John's dad was 'coddlebrand'. This is from 'coddle' - 'to treat indulgently,' and 'brand' - 'to burn a mark upon with a hot iron', which is really evocative of how John reacts to his dad's coddling, and I think shows us that we're still seeing the fight from John's perspective, even though his dad is the primary actor. In the same way, Mom's Guardian Rubric is 'ironic indulgence', because Rose interprets all her mom's actions as ironic, whether or not that's her mom's intent.

Rose's mom gives her a beautiful pony. Like. For no reason. She brings a living animal into the house, one that requires a lot of skilled care and attention. And it's just a gift she gives her daughter on a whim on a random Monday. I think this shows Mom as a negligent parent far more clearly than any of Rose's words do. If Mom has bought a pony presumably without setting up a stable or learning how to take care of one, it's easy to believe she did the same with Rose - deciding to have or keep a child without understanding how much work went into that, or being willing to learn.

Rose is as resistant to the pony as John was to the cake, but in both cases, they eventually accept the gift. John does this reluctantly because he sees this as the only way to end the strife, while Rose does this after the strife is already over. She creates an illusion of reluctance, but the heart above her head on p.390 suggests that she actually likes this creature. I think Rose is an animal lover in general, someone who'd describe herself as liking animals but not people. She obviously loved her childhood cat a lot and likes this pony too, but overall finds it much easier to acknowledge liking a creature if it's not something typically thought of as 'cute', such as Fluthlu.

Ponies are most commonly an interest of young girls, and the addition of a pink heart and bow make this a very traditionally feminine gift. The same is true of the Pretty Princess Doll on the couch. I think Rose knitting the princess doll an eldritch head and arms is very queer coded, as she twists typical femininity into something less societally approved. I can't wait to see if she does something similar with the pony, maybe swapping out her pink ribbon for something darker and spookier.

The final option is 'Abstain,' another Guardian Rubric. This one is 'ironic negligence,' where Rose's mom offers her the martini to drink and Rose parries with a bottle of water, and as discussed above I don't think it is ironic. I was wrong in an earlier post where I guessed that alcohol was off limits to Rose. It looks like she's been offered alcohol, maybe often, and has responded by being Extremely Straightedge. Maybe she only drinks water and won't even touch kid-appropriate drinks like juice and soda. I think it's not uncommon for children of heavy drinkers to make an effort to not fall into those same patterns, and I also think that Rose intentionally tries to have opposite opinions and behaviors to her mom (even while she's not always successful) and the combination of these two things easily lend themselves to a hardcore water drinker.

Just like in John's Strife, we get to choose which options to click, in what order, and how many times, but we can't win the fight for them. John as the main character had to do that for himself (with some help from the player). In Rose's case, there's no win condition at all and no real goal for either of them. They fight for a while, and then it ends, and they return to their previous activities - Mom doing very real and unironic housework, and Rose leaving the house angrily. John and his dad had conflicting goals they were trying to achieve, but Rose and her mom were fighting for sport because this is a primary way they know how to interact - something to keep in mind for both relationships.

I like seeing the animation get more advanced in Rose's strife - it gets me really excited for something similar with Dave and GG - but honestly nothing in this page beats the sick ass moment where Dad clicks on the lighter and then the music starts playing at the moment all the candles catch fire.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for pulling my younger brother from his bedroom for "sleepovers" in the living room in the middle of the night?

I hate how clickbaity that is, but it really is the most succinct way I can try to paraphrase this. I have submitted here before for similar reasons, so this setup may or may not sound vaguely familiar, but this is pretty self-contained as a separate issue, I think. Quick preface- I am one of four siblings. Ages aren't particularly important for this, save for the fact that the oldest three are within a handful of years of each other, while our youngest is several years our junior. I was 11 when he was born, for reference. We'll call him C, and the two middle brothers A and B.

We somewhat recently (within the past few years) moved to a new house with a few more rooms, which shook up our previous sleeping arrangements. Now, instead of A, B, and C sharing the same room while I had my own for gender-related reasons, A gets his own space while B and C continue sharing a room. This means that my room no longer immediately across the hall from all three. A has a bit of a history of being loud in the middle of the night and getting mad when others ask, request, or tell him to be quiet, so this was a relief.

However, my new room is still just a few feet away from B and C, and now B is doing loud enough things to keep me awake- mainly playing video games and either not using headphones, constantly humming loudly along to the music playing, or saying something about the game. As a "bonus," he insists that C has to watch him play the entire time.

Even though this runs well into the early hours of the morning most nights.

And C still has early-morning school to worry about.

Previously, I'd just resigned myself to shutting up, jamming earplugs in my ears each night, and dealing with whatever weirdness is making one of my ears painfully itchy on a daily basis as a result. However, recently our parents started giving C flak for staying up late. They also made sure we knew they wanted B to stop keeping him up, but I'm not sure B actually knows or cares.

C and I did a bit of kvetching about unrelated topics today, this subject came up, C told me he doesn't enjoy being kept up that late either, and I had the idea that, should midnight come and go without B quieting down, I would interrupt whatever they're doing and "ask" C if he wanted to come sleep in the living room with me. I'm putting "ask" in quotations because I voiced this idea almost immediately, and C agreed this would be helpful just as quickly; me asking would serve solely as a way to have me interject into whatever B's doing and give C a quick way out.

At the same time, B can get touchy if he thinks C is brushing him off or I'm "butting in." I mean, C and I kinda will be doing both those things if we wind up needing to do this, but B seems intent on monopolizing as much of C's time and actions as he can get away with. I don't really think they need to fully stop interacting, but maybe B needs some time to himself instead of constantly wringing attention out of the baby of the family.

Then again, B is an adult. Like, legally. He'll be able to drink in a few months. He doesn't need to act like I'm interrupting his playtime with his favorite action figure whenever I remind him C isn't required to pay attention to him 24/7.

Idk. As far as sleeping arrangements in the living room would go, there's enough furniture to go around. I'm just not entirely sure if butting in would be an asshole move. Justified? Almost certainly, I think. An asshole move? That, I don't know. Whatever the case, I'm hoping these things work out quickly enough that we don't lose much more sleep. We're tired of finally managing to get to sleep at 3 AM.

What are these acronyms?

[beautifulterriblequeen]

We're getting to close to seeing how Callum and Runaan are going to interact! They both love Rayla, but will they let that outweigh the fact that Runaan killed King Harrow?

Rayla and Callum love each other, but their fathers were on opposite sides of a deadly clash, and one of them didn't survive. It's going to be intense, no matter how it falls out.

But we've seen this particular tangle come up before. And there's a wide range of results so far:

Zym and Ezran are bonded closely and can read each other's thoughts when they want to. But Ez's dad killed Zym's dad, and before that, Zym's dad killed Ez's mom. Yet that doesn't stop them from seeing each other as friends. They don't blame each other for the choices their parents made.

Rayla and Soren have talked through what Viren did to Runaan in TTM - as far as Soren knew and could guess at, which was that Runaan was messily dead dead at Viren's hands. And Rayla was still happy to be his friend, when he showed his true colors. She didn't blame him for what his dad did to hers, even when she still thought Runaan was gone.

These friendly pairings are all about people from the same generation, people who were hurt by or who were not involved in the deaths that occurred.

It's a little different for Claudia and Rayla. They've generally been on opposite sides all along, and we might see some closer context for Rayla and Callum from looking at their situation.

On one hand, they both know that Viren cursed Lain, Tiadrin, and Runaan into coins. There could be plenty of fallout to come from this knowledge on Rayla's part, and maybe even on Claudia's if she gave those coins away when Viren had some kind of plans in mind.

On the other hand, they also both know that Rayla tackled Viren off the Storm Spire, and he died, and it took Claudia two years to fix that.

Just like it's been taking Rayla two years to "fix" Runaan's coin situation (with vengeance, which will probably now shift to rescue instead?)

But when Claudia and Rayla clashed in S4E9, their issues with each other stuck to what they had done, not what their fathers had done.

And though the angst potential is great with Runaan and Callum potentially squaring off and forcing Rayla to choose a side, etc etc, I think there might be one more example to look at first:

Ezran and Rayla.

They've already bonded as children made to carry a heavy burden of responsibility by their fathers, of feeling separate and weird, not fitting in. They both know what it feels like to have a father who takes lives, a warrior who defends his people - and who kills the fathers of other children. And they're still friends. They're very good friends.

I think Callum has every right to be angry at Runaan, when they meet again. I think he will be angry. He's an angry person with a lot of hurt and stress. And that might be how he deals for a while, because I don't know that Rayla or Runaan himself will really be in a position to help smooth things out.

But Ezran could be, possibly more than anyone else. Harrow was his father, too, so he can speak to Callum from a place of true empathy. But Harrow took Avizandum's life and left Zym without his dad, too. Ezran could help Callum see their shared pain from the outside, even when he's angry. Ezran is the King of Katolis - made so by Runaan's attack, in fact. Ezran rules because of Runaan's actions as much as by the good people who rescued him from Viren's cell.

Oh yeah, how about that: Ezran knows what it's like to be locked up by Viren, too.

They were both betrayed by supposed allies, and Viren pounced on the opportunity to lock them both up.

Bringing Runaan back might divide Rayla and Callum for a while, if Callum can't sort through his feelings. But I think Ezran is the key to helping everyone involved move forward.

[darkdisrepair]

missing imogen/laudna hours meta

you know what's interesting about imogen and laudna where they sit in canon right now?

i think they're the ones who know the least about how they feel about each other.

and hear me out: you may be saying "no, there's no way that they don't know- they're the characters we're focusing on" but you see, i don't think that's true.

i think the other members of bell's hells have had separate experiences where they see how much imogen and laudna care about each other:

laudna, after breaking imogen's rock: sobbing her heart out to anyone who would listen, stressing about how to make it up to her, "let her step on me," how everything was about fixing her relationship with imogen, how it consumed so much of her thoughts that she was blindsided by yu's betrayal/romance

imogen, after laudna's death: inconsolable, devastated, in denial, isolated, lonely, withdrawn, "you know you saved my life, right?" "know that I love you," sundering delilah briarwood

but here's the thing: for both of these, the other girl didn't witness most of what the other was going through.

obviously laudna was dead.

and imogen, though she and laudna made up and talked about how preoccupied they were separately when they were fighting, there's a difference between talking about it and seeing it.

they both have been through hell for each other. laudna, killed by otohan- imogen's adversary.

imogen, killing delilah- laudna's adversary.

but it's so strange, because they're so intertwined in each other's lives but they're also so separated from each other, in such different headspaces?

i think, in the bell's hells minds, the two of them are far closer to some kind of revelation in their dynamic - romantic or otherwise- than they actually are.

but in practice- they're still stuck. on paper, they're moving forward. laudna conquering her trauma, imogen being pushed toward her destiny- but when they're together, there's this block in their friendship that is the other person.

they love and care so deeply that they forget to love themselves. laudna, brushing away her trauma of waking up in whitestone when imogen messages her mom. in some ways, holding herself back from healing because she wants to help imogen so badly.

imogen, pushing away her feelings about her mom (that situation is so fucking sad to me, by the way) because how could she be sad if laudna is alive but she should be sad.

not that they're toxic to each other. that's not what i'm saying. but i think they try so hard to make the other better that they forget to take care of themselves, and they're trying so hard for each other that i think it's going to come back and hurt them, one way or another.

my prediction: i think imogen is going to break first. i think there's so, so much that she hasn't processed yet and i think her mother's lack of contact has started a chain reaction that we're going to have to deal with, eventually.

i, for one, love the idea of laudna having an early-on healing arc. i don't think that's a disservice to her character at all, to have that as early as episode 40. her story doesn't end just because she's finally processed her delilah storyline.

she still has so much to learn about independence, self-confidence, and love. she has so much to receive from the world. i think it would be beautiful, actually, to have the yin-yang dynamic of one character rising from the ashes of her past while the other falls from grace, pulled down by the weight of her future.

i think that's a beautiful theme, for the two of them: the push and pull, of how to lift someone up while trying to do the same for yourself. i think in the end, that's what i love about them, and why, again, the romance will they, won't they isn't as important to me.

[desultory-novice]

Am I the only one who thinks Shiver Star and Forgotten Land both can be post-apocalyptic human planets and finds the multiverse theory kinda... stupid? I mean it's entirely possible that each Kirby game has a couple hundreds of years between them, and even if that's not the case, it's still entirely possible that Shiver Star was some form of Earth 2,or some people from the Forgotten Land settled down on earth millions of years ago. Idk. I just find the multiverse hypothesis kinda stupid and imo, it takes away from the lore because I think it's more interesting if there are multiple "One True God" like entities in the Kirby universe, without the whole multiverse thing separating them. Like. Imagine the possible interactions behind Void and Eifilis in the past.

Well... I don't think the multiverse theory is "stupid" per se (...And I :cough cough: am actually really fond of it... ^^; )

But I completely agree with everything else you've said! I think the idea that Kirby has these world saving adventures once a month, once a season, or even once a year is just enforcing restrictions that don't need to be there. Pop Star COULD get invaded once a week, but it could also be so much longer!

I mean, these are little adorable alien creatures we're talking about. We don't know how or when they age! What time even MEANS to them! (Except "nap time." That time is ALWAYS important!) There could be large gaps of time between adventures, no problem! Why is Kirby still referred to as "a youth?" Maybe Kirby's species doesn't reach maturity for a millennia? Or maybe "youth" is just what you call a puffball that doesn't have wings yet!

The only landmark we have for time passing in a way that our human minds can comprehend is the existence of human characters like Adeleine. And that doesn't even really answer much because the Kirby Encyclopedia implied Adeleine was off an adventure with Ribbon between Kirby 64 and Star Allies, so for all we know, they could have existed in different time streams for a while like... uh, any of those movies were people age differently because of the flow of time? "Voices of a Distant Star"...?) Maybe Ado is Adeleine's ancestor!

And certainly, Shiver Star and the Forgotten Land could be different planets. Shiver Star technically looks more...err, "technically" advanced than the Forgotten Land. Maybe when the ancients departed for space, they got as far as Shiver Star and... heck, maybe "Old Earth" had been destroyed once, was starting to recover again, and then was re-destroyed by the FL-ilans?! We don't know! XD

(And tbh, Shiver Star's texture map being based off of Earth feels like a cheeky easter egg that has probably caused no end of problems for the post-Shimomura Kirby team. Which maybe why they have generally avoided coming back to it.)

All that said, I like the idea that they're the same planet just as much as I like the idea that they're different ones! ^^

As far as the "God" thing goes, that shouldn't be a problem as I believe it was already mentioned in an interview that Void isn't even close to being "the one true god" of the Kirby-verse. That was entirely based off of Hyness's misunderstanding of the ancient texts + his need to have an almighty figure to believe in/use for his plan.

Though, my favorite reasons for backing the existence of a multiversal Kirby is that I'd hope it would allow us in the fandom as a whole to stop saying things like "But Galacta's NEVER been canon!" "The Soul battles NEVER happened!" "The Spinoffs NEVER happened!" etc etc!

[biblicallyaccuratepigeons]

Angels/demons vs humans let's go

((For clarity: I've referred to them as angels and demons because those are the names we commonly call them. It's important to note that "angel" means "messenger," and the idea of angels and demons that we're most familiar with is Platonic. In the Bible, our spiritual enemy is called "the satan," which means "the adversary." We know that the satan is not just one, but many demons, who hate humanity and try to keep us away from God; and that they used to be with God in the way that the creatures we call "angels" are, because they're the same kind of creature, which is "elohim." Therefore, I've put them into one category for the sake of this "Venn diagram," and will henceforth refer to them under the collective name "spiritual beings.")) (please keep in mind that I am simplifying things quite a bit, because 1. I'm not an expert, and 2. I have work in four hours.)

Ok first let's talk about our similarities:

- made in God's image (aka we're God's kids)

- have the ability to influence others on a spiritual level (truth vs lie, gentleness vs wrath, etc.)

- can be sent from God for an angelic purpose (according to the above-mentioned definition)

- have the capacity for good or evil

- are spiritual beings with form

- are involved in the spiritual war (by virtue of choosing good or evil)

- were made to glorify God

- are called gods and have authority over things on Earth; also have hierarchies amongst ourselves

- cannot easily exist in the physical world without a body to inhabit (2Cor 5:6-8; Mark 5:1-13)

The ways in which humans are unique:

- were given physical bodies and live in the physical world. These bodies are us, and belong solely to us, but also function as houses which we can share with other spirits (note: God has appeared to us in visions in the same form as He's given us, though far more radiant, and became a human to save us)

- can accept co-heirship with Christ, who is above all spiritual beings; though that does include us, it appears to mean that we'll also be over the other spiritual beings (and in fact, we can exercise this authority as an ambassador would even while our bodies are alive, as long as our spirits are) (also this seems to mirror the way Jacob was Isaac's heir instead of Esau, though that's just my brain braining; I'm not sure how much correlation there actually is)

- while our bodies are alive, can still choose whether or not we follow God; this choice appears to be much more flexible than it is for spiritual beings, though it does become irreversible once our bodies die or Jesus returns to bring the new creation

- start our lives spiritually dead because of the Curse (our intended state is fully alive, but we have to choose life)

The ways in which spiritual beings are unique:

- can come in many forms (meaning their specialties appear to have direct correlation with their visual forms: seraphim being healers and fiery snakes with wings; cherubim being throne-carriers and worshippers, with many wings, eyes, and faces, and whose souls are kept within intersecting wheels; demons being described as darkness; etc.)

- in the vein of above, can change forms (taking human shape in multiple recorded places, including other mythologies; a spirit in 1Kings and 2Chron "going out and being a lying spirit," implying that they were not one all the time; etc.)

- are all submitted to God's authority (meaning that though they do have the ability to choose whether they want to continue to be His children, they all fear God.

- In the vein of all above, this choice fundamentally changes them in a way that appears irreversible (this choice to become separate from God contrasts with our choice to become alive from death)

My conclusion: humans are just another kind of elohim, sitting in our own place in the hierarchy and with our own role in this big spiritual war

Ok, that's all I can think of right now. If anyone has any questions or additions, please feel free! Again, I'm not an expert, and I haven't read Enoch, but any opportunity to research is welcome <3

@toytanks my friend, is this what you wanted? Are you happy with the thing you asked for? I give it freely. Eat and be merry.

[crystalelemental]

Kitties update. Interactions and Coco's Braveries.

Let's start with individual celebrations. Gia is no longer running from us as immediately, and is willingly receiving pets with her meals. She's still less affectionate than Coco, but she's never mean, just not as engaged. She's our independent daughter.

Coco, meanwhile, is getting so close to a Category 5 Lap Event.

We brought out a step for Bond, because he's old and can't make it to the couch. Coco has decided this is her perch, although if my wife isn't on the couch, Coco will sometimes come up to the far side of it with me. Please note: Coco on her perch would not look at me, because cat mother was playing video games and she has front row seats.

When I'm not on the couch, she will steal my spot. Every time. We're getting to the point I can pet her on the couch, but only if I'm standing. If I get to close while sitting she doesn't seem to love that, but we are getting better about it. Moreover, I was able to give her a Coco Kissie today. It was on her back when she wasn't looking at me, because she gets scared if my face gets too close. She startled at first and made to run, but then realized she wasn't being eaten and came back. She seems to be a bit calmer about me getting close now, and is getting very direct about seeking attention. She tried to jump the baby gate one day, and is getting close to the bedroom when I wake up. I was also able to coax her out from under the guest bed, which is absolutely huge. We'll get her to that vet appointment yet.

Now, we're still acclimating Bond and the gremlins. It's very slow going and I don't think it's quite perfect, but it's improving.

While we're home, we leave the baby gate down and monitor them. This is, in part, because Bond had to have some teeth extracted. He's old, they knew he had a cracked tooth, but apparently it got infected. They told us that during surgery, two of his teeth just fell out on their own once the first was taken. So apparently, some of his harder to read behaviors may have been because his entire face hurt. Hard to say how long he was like that, but we seem to have caught it before infection could spread all that far. Crisis averted.

Anyway, while hopped up on painkillers, he was as zonked as you would imagine, which meant he wouldn't be aggressive toward them because he barely registers that they're there. This went okay. He'd wander around, completely oblivious, and Coco would kinda stay away and hiss a bit. She does not like him very much, but she's at least not hostile. She'll run if he gets too close. And being younger, she and Gia can jump around to the window alcove, where he can't reach. Which is good.

The problem right now is that it seems Bond is food aggressive. I assume this is because he isn't getting as much food as he was before, in part because he is super chunk and needs to lose a bit of weight, but also in part because he seems to think all people food is his food and I don't play that game. So if he sees the other two eating anything, he will growl at minimum, and charged Gia about it, so Gia's actually scared of him. He did get scolded though, and I like to think the other two recognized we're keeping them safe too.

The only reason this creates a problem is that right now, Bond is coming out of his stupor and is hungry, but he can't eat easily. So he sees their food and wants to go for it, but that's not his. We'll set out the same food for him in a separate bowl in a separate spot, but he won't eat his, he goes after theirs. It's difficult to get him to differentiate. Also difficult to get him not to be a bastard. The girls eat intermittently for a few hours after being fed, and we want them to have that, but if we let him out in the living room to sit with us, he'll get aggressive about seeing them eat. We could feed them in a separate spot, but the house is small and I can't think of a great space for it. Also I feel like eventually we need to figure out a way for them to get along, even with food present, so I'm not sure how to introduce all that.

Still, the fact they're tolerating each other from a distance is a good start. We're using the guest room to mingle scent, giving Bond access some days and the girls access other days, as a sort of "common area." I'm thinking this might be where we feed them when we go into work, so it's an associated location that alternates. We did have a toy exchange. Coco liked Bond's plush banana, and he liked a little jingle toy. Neither was the other's favorite, but it is coated in their scent, so again, we're hoping the exchange works.

Slow but steady progress. We're not quite at unsupervised mingling, and Coco does not yet trust me enough to be placed in my lap, but we're close.

[jaymesyourplaything]

If you want my input? By all means, Dump has every right to feel hurt about not knowing your Jim blog and Blurry's were related, and to cut contact. I'm no psychologist or anything but it does come off as a bit of an overreaction? Blurry was just trying to explain and apologize, literally made multiple posts to clear up that the character and the mod are separate entities. Only reason I see that they'd react like that at first is being called the r word set them off. Again, no shade if that's the case, even if someone can reclaim a slur that doesn't mean everyone is alright with being called such things. One must respect that. Don't have the context for the Moriarty's post part. Womp womp. And yet when someone else apparently tried to explain you both were a part of a dissociative system, that's apparently demonizing mental illness? Oh dear, your existence is a demonization of OSDD? I guess we'll have to cancel you. :/ - 🖤

yeaaaah, i tried to point out that in their perspective "i" came out of nowhere and slurred them, like that's intense. kin tried to explain the best he could he didn't mean offense, that that's blurry's shtick lol, and even agreed they won't interact with them. so we were honestly confused that dump was still bummed about it, when we did our best to not interact when we found out they didn't want to interact with [kin] "anyone in the "system"."

kin and i both find using the r slur appropriate in certain contexts, especially since we're on the spectrum ourselves. this is another point of confusion in general though, as it's in question. neglect and OSDD are signs we're not actually on the spectrum and are stunted due to our abuse. i feel our r-slur pass has been taken away from us </3 granted i try not to use it, but i'll say anything in character. that's what playing a character is. (if there's something i'm uncomfortable with, i likely wouldn't be playing that character. ) (so yeah, reclaiming is fine, but not everyone has to be okay with it. kin uses the f slur too but we have friends who hate the f slur. )

but the crazy thing was dump blocked and unblocked kin a total of 3 times, so after the second time kin blocked them back. kin had to unblock them to take that screenshot but had seen they had unblocked again at some point. now blocked again. they seemed confused themselves on if they genuinely wanted to forgive and forget, but if someone blocks kin then he will block to make sure people don't do that flip flop thing we saw dump do here. john does that a lot too, he'll block you and unblock multiple times over the course of a day for some reason.

i personally prefer to be seen as separate from kin, we don't even use "system". we prefer to say dissociative disorder, admitting to OSDD is still very scary to us, especially because we've had a few people cut contact with us since discovering this. it's very difficult and brave of people to be themselves and understand that, but it's far too new to us and it's so scary still. it's so overwhelming because we never knew how to talk about this stuff, so when john outed us we were thrown into deep water suddenly. i don't mind if people don't want to talk to either of us, but we did everything we could to be respectful of their decision (we didn't tell them we both "are in the same system" but just continued with the decision of "not interacting". from their perspective, we pretended we weren't, in one conversation. but from our perspective, we found out they blocked each other so i stopped interacting. nothing crazy, idk. )

so yeah i agree with you, it's valid of dump and their feelings, but strange they're so closed minded and can't understand it was just a misunderstanding. i didn't know, when i found out, i stopped interacting. so manipulative lol

[bonesandthebees]

So the new Glass chapter. No time for a proper analysis so have my immediate thoughts:

Crime boys fight! I love your fights. They’re always set up so well. The first time crimeboys fight is when they are stuck in their little co-dependent bubble and know each other well enough to have serious ammunition to hurt. I am still obsessed with the way you allow characters to dig and get bloody down to the bones. (I also really love the words as knives and actually cutting open Wilbur’s mouth as he draws blood methapoheres.) I wish I’d known there would be a fight, I would have gotten popcorn. Several of these lines made me winch.

Also, Wilbur’s whole, I’m not a person vs. Tommy caring about him and seeing how much it’s hurting him is very on point this chapter. Same with the co-dependency. Wilbur has spent very little time apart from Tommy. This shows especially in the entire market scene. On both sides btw. Wilbur is very overwhelmed and Tommy helps clam him down just by being there and holding his hand. Wilbur gets more stressed when Tommy is gone.

Also, Tommy’s idea to go out is very stupid, but his plan to prove that Wilbur wants to stay is even dumber and putting them both through so much stress. Like Tommy was very sure of himself, but as he actually left Wilbur alone the anxiety probably kicked on cuz of Wilhur had left, Tommy would be in some much trouble and Wilbur would end up back in his cage. Also, Foolish noticed (and recognised?) Wilbur and might be able to get that info back to Eret. The question is what happens then. Also it was way to risky either way. Also, Charlie finally getting a tooth as bribery.

I’m ignoring a lot for now, but I do want to talk a bit about Tubbo cuz I totally forget Wilbur didn’t clock him as hard-hearing and it made me laugh. Also, Tubbo hops on the bandwagon of “doesn’t fully understand or trust Wilbur, but knows he will keep Tommy safe and is grateful for that’. Also, I like him forgetting his clothes, it makes him feel more human despite the fact that we’ve mostly seen the worst of him.

One more detail, after the fight, Wilbur takes off his blindfold and the narration reverts to just pronouns again. He goes back to being nothing. And that, with the context that he just screams that he’s empty at the top of his lungs, hurts so, so, so much. This chapter really came for our throats, damn. I just remembered Wilbur there’s also the Wilbur (not) deserving better comment. Bee, what are you doing to this poor man.

Actual last comment for tonight: We get vicious Wilbur again! Yeay! I missed him! He’s fun when he’s got bite!

-🌲

SPRUCEEEE <33

YEAHHH the fight was so wild to write because, um, well here's a fun fact about the chapter.

the fight wasn't planned literally at ALL. there wasn't supposed to be a fight in this chapter! it just happened!

literally wilbur and tommy were supposed to just talk about going to the night market and that was it. no arguing. no disagreements even. but the dialogue just ran away from me and next thing I knew they were in the middle of a very intense argument and I was like "well okay I guess we're going with this now" and i had to sit back and rethink my entire chapter plan to see if i could still do it because it was a huge tone shift from what I originally had in store. tbh though it works so much better this way and I'm so glad you enjoyed reading the fight. I love writing fights. it's a constant balancing act of "how far can these two characters push each other before things move past the point of no return?"

oh yeah they're so codependent at this point. wilbur was overwhelmed in general from the night market because he literally hasn't been in public spaces like that for basically a decade at this point. like yes the palace held balls, but those weren't super frequent, and that was just about the only time he was around more than a handful of people at any given moment. so he was going to be anxious no matter what, but the separation from tommy really got to him.

and also yes the second tommy left wilbur to go get the food he was like "what the fuck did I do what did I do I'm so goddamn stupid fuck shit-" because he was terrified wilbur was really going to leave. he'd been acting confident, but their argument shook him way more than he let on. so yeah it was really stupid of him, but it worked!

the funny thing about wilbur is that he's so absorbed in his own problems half the time he won't notice the most obvious shit like tubbo being hoh. tbf both times he witnessed people signing at tubbo or tubbo signing at others he was stressed out about various other things, but still dude c'mon.

the reason I included tubbo forgetting his clothes was bc i realized i had already described him folding his arms over his chest and stuff which he wouldn't have been able to do with clothes in his arms, but I didn't want to go back and rewrite wilbur initially seeing him to say he had clothes in his arms either. plus, I needed something he could say as he left, so I just ended up throwing in the line about him forgetting his clothes bc I thought it was funny lol

:) I have a great time deciding when to just use pronouns for wilbur vs when to call him the pythia. it's something I'm always aware of when I'm writing this fic and it's so fun to play around with. poor guy :)

YES VICIOUS WILBUR I loved writing him being a dick again I've also missed him

[lovecolibri]

I just hope that tomorrow apart from the " do more" we' ll have some eddie scenes, because the way they're underusing him in s6 it's criminal, ofc since kr hates him and likes to keep him far away from buck the moment he'll start to date again we'll see him 20 min for episodes because no homo, like there wasn't really any other sl for him but dating again right?

I know that whatever we get from all the cast tomorrow is gonna be soooo good, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm trying to keep my expectations for how much Eddie we're getting low, just so I'm not overly disappointed. I wouldn't necessarily say KR hates him (that argument could be made of Oliver too since Buck's personal storylines outside the firefam have been trash since she took over), which we know isn't true, she's just....bad a coming up with storylines in general across the board 🤷🏻‍♀️ Honestly I think that's what him dating again is about too.

A) TPTB haven't fully pulled the Buddie trigger (I expect that Tim wants to be around to get the credit for that and also she's....not the one anyone would pick to head that train), and these guys can only have so many scenes screaming each other's names while single before they gotta wedge some woman in there to "prove" there's nothing to see. 🙄

B) KR is bad at coming up with ideas and while I don't think she hates Ryan/Eddie, I DO think that she just doesn't find the character interesting so she doesn't know what to do with him. It's the same with Chim who is getting the first storyline centered on him since season THREE when Albert showed up. Everything else has been about Madney and he was written off the show for most of that, and their breakup AND resolution/working things out happened off screen. JLH has negotiated for limited time on set apparently but they continued to squander the majority of the time she DID have on random stuff instead of making sure she was included in firefam stuff like being the one at dispatch on big calls which she could film separately from the team to fit her schedule. Bobby has this WHOLE arc with Wendall, and yet KR didn't think that name needed to come up a single time before 6x09 and Bobby spent the previous 8 episodes being a background character with nothing going on. Ravi is supposed to be back with a big episode and his name hasn't been mentioned a single time in 10 episodes. Hen was apparently going to officially leave the 118 to continue med school and it wasn't ever mentioned until suddenly there was a going away party. There was no Chim being nostalgic on calls that "this could be the last time you have to hold the vomit bag in the back of the ambulance" or anything. Honestly, I didn't even KNOW she was resigning, until that party because everything was about her passing the test to move on, it never came up that moving on would necessitate her leaving which SHOULD have been a huge plot point. Chim was going to lose his partner and we didn't hear anything about it until we were watching her going away party! Yet another of the things KR had in her notes that she didn't think needed to make it on screen so the audience knows what's going on. And it's not like there wasn't time for all that ins 6a because nothing much else happened.

Point is, we've got some GOOD writers and directors back, and the cast is really excited about the work they've been doing (though it's good to remember what an actor finds exciting to DO and a fun experience for them ACTING, doesn't necessarily translate perfectly to what the audience prefers to SEE on our end), but at the end of the day the same person is still making the decisions and planning the arcs. And unless someone higher up steps in (as they did with the L mess and what appears to have happened with the sperm donor arc given that the interviews are showing distinctly opposite answers to what they were after 6x09), we're still stuck with someone who has proven since taking over partway through s4, that she fundamentally doesn't understand the characters or what motivates them, or what the audience wants from the show. The tone of the seasons has swung wildly all over the place and been horribly inconsistent, and either nothing is happening or they're trying to pack too much in to an episode.

So for my personal edification and to make my experience as enjoyable for me personally as possible, I'm working on managing my expectations so I'm either right, or pleasantly surprised and delighted by what's delivered. And as I said, at the very least, whatever we DO get, from Ryan or any of the rest of the cast, is gonna be GOLD.

[linagram]

>:D Now you have to tell me what songs you'd assign to Eiji and Miki!

OKAY OKAY so i actually did have some t2 covers for them in mind, but i don't think they're gonna get a new profile this time because uhhh, i feel like "the end of the first trial" and the pre-t2 vds show their personality changes well and also if i tried to describe their t2 personalities more, it would be like "but you will see that in one of the future vds!" or "but i can't say much about it because spoilers!", like sure, i have to keep a lot of info about my prisoners secret too, but when it's the guards who are like, literally the protagonists, it's very hard to hide everything. and i didn't want to make a whole new profile just so for their covers (and possible voicelines) soooo yeah i'll talk about them here! also i was too lazy to draw their t2 versions.

Milgram covers.

Eiji: Yeah, he gets Bring It On this time. I had to do it to him. I also thought of giving him Harrow, but let's be honest here, I like to joke about Eiji and Kotoko's similarities, since both of them are so passionate about justice and both of them punish the guilty prisoners, but.. That's where their similarities end. Also, I don't know much about Kotoko, I'm not like, her biggest fan here (though I don't dislike/hate her), so I can't say much about her, but I feel like Eiji is more.. uh.. Basically, sure, he wants to punish all criminals and he wants to see them in pain, but it's not because he wants to make this world better or anything. He's just really obsessed with revenge and he wants to feel in control for once. Honestly, it's actually kinda scary to think about, because like.. What if Eiji went "You know what, maybe I shouldn't focus only on criminals AND I SHOULD JUST HURT EVERYONE". I feel like it really could happen if after T1 there were more guilty prisoners and not the innocent ones. Also I just think his Bring It On cover would sound really cool and that last scene with Fuuta looking anxious and staring at his phone and realizing what he had done?? LITERALLY T2 EIJI SEEING EVERYONE'S VERDICTS AND DOUBTING HIMSELF.

Miki: She gets Triage! I feel like her cover would sound really soft and pretty :) The lyrics sound a lot like her T2 version: yes, she's still blaming herself for Asahi running away from home and not protecting him enough and she also wants to help the guilty prisoners, but also now she knows how much influence she has over everyone here. She can save them. She can save both innocent and guilty prisoners. So please, give her another chance. Yes, she thinks she's worse than all the prisoners here and she thinks she's the worst older sister ever, but also, she's one of the guards. Most prisoners like her and Eiji is willing to listen to her. She's indispensable.

DECO*27 covers.

Okay, this one was hard because to be honest, I was just kinda planning to make them follow in Es's footsteps and cover Hibana together dkdksdlsl. But I tried my best to assign them separate covers.

Eiji: Hmm, I don't think it sounds like something he would sing because I imagine Eiji usually covering more "loud" songs, but I decided to go with At! Now, again, as with pretty much all DECO*27 songs, this one is about a romantic relationship, but hear me out. Like, look at the lyrics. "The day after you die, I wonder what I would eat", "If I voiced it out, you would have gotten mad at me, so I'm keeping that in my head", "Why is it when I'm certain of it, I end up wanting to cry alone".. Or how about "The day after I die, I wonder who you'll rely on"? Or "And I'm surprised, you've been having the same thoughts as me"?? OR "UNTIL THE FAR, FAR FUTURE, LET'S KEEP HURTING EACH OTHER"?? OR "BECAUSE UNTIL WE GET TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER, I'LL NEVER LEAVE YOU"?? OR "HITTING AND SHARING THIS EXPERIENCE TOGETHER BECAUSE WE'RE WRONG, WE'RE SHINING MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE NOW, RIGHT??? Yeah, I think you know who I'm talking about. I was so shocked when I read the lyrics because?? THIS IS LITERALLY KEI AND EIJI'S RELATIONSHIP?? Like, even lyrics like "So as we feel troubled, let's tell each other "I love you"" sound a lot like them because GOD THEIR DYNAMIC IS INSANE. Eiji constantly reminding Miki how much he hates Kei for everything he did to Eiji and having understandable reasons for wanting to kill him, but instantly going "protective older brother (who is actually younger)" mode when he sees Kei suffering?? Like seriously, if he could kill Kei, he would. But he didn't. Kei is injured, but still alive. Why did Eiji hold back? Is it because he's still scared of him? Is it because he's so used to Kei's abuse that it feels weird to do the same thing to his older brother? Is it because in a very twisted and also sad way, it's too hard for him to let Kei go and he actually loves him?

Miki: I decided to go with Find the Light! (Both songs are also from the same album, so yay, they match!) The lyrics sound so much like her T2 version and they actually sound a bit scary in this context: "The light slowly vanishes here in this dark world" (her talking about Milgram in general and how there's three guilty prisoners now and the prisoners' relationships are starting to become more toxic and even her relationship with Eiji is a bit different now), "Loving yesterday but hating tomorrow" (She actually gets to hang out with some prisoners sometimes and she ends up having fun, but then she remembers about Trial 2 and Trial 3.. and yeah, those thoughts scare her), "Only a monochrome black and white is reflected in my eyes" (The whole "Innocent or Guilty" thing), "Pushing back the needle of hopes with a finger" (She really is the guilty prisoners' only hope right now and the innocent prisoners also have to ask her for help too).. Some of them are kinda wholesome though, like "So that even if this voice breaks, cry out with a voice that reaches out to recolor the darkness" or "The smiles that I want to protect are right here".. Miki is such an interesting character to me, because at the same time she's a very naive girl who genuinely wants to help others, but also, just like Eiji, she really wants to be in control. Not for the sake of revenge though, but for the sake of stability. She just wants everything to be peaceful for once. And if anyone tries to disturb the peace, well, here's another reminder that she's still one of the guards.

Non-DECO*27 covers:

Again, I wanted to give them one song as a duet and that song is Punishment Game by Kururingo! Like it describes their T2 dynamic so well, or at least that's how Eiji sees their relationship now. Miki is mostly chill about it, but Eiji is slowly starting to see her as a rival. Some moments are so fun to imagine with them too, like "You're wearing that docile expression just to hide your own nervousness, am I right?", "You look like you're enjoying yourself", "You’re trying to keep up that quiet personality, but it’s falling to pieces, I can see it on your face", "No way, could it be that I was the one struggling uselessly this whole time?" and especially "Punishment game, but I'm not laughing, the person on the other end of the strings that move this world, who is it?"/"Hmm, I wonder who it is..".

But if I had to give them separate covers..

Eiji: Hitori Yurari by Kanaria and Maretu! Again, IT'S BECAUSE OF HIS DYNAMIC WITH KEI. IT'S A BIG PART OF HIS CHARACTER PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME. (Or maybe I'm just in that mood because Kei's profile is next and I'm. I'm looking away from his VD. His album trailer voiceline is also such a huge spoiler actually.) But honestly, I'd just love to hear his cover and I think it would sound so cool! The lyrics describe his and Kei's dynamic well too, like Eiji constantly repeating "There's still just no love at all" and also some hints about Kei's past are also there ("You're reeling alone, reeling alone in your dreams, you cried under the shade of a tree in an empty corner") and also lyrics like "Complaining about this and that, you looked down on me, "I love you!", "I hate you!", such an absurd character" and "The way things have gone, I'd prefer it if you'd fall down into hell" AND THE SONG ENDING WITH "I CRIED UNDER THE SHADE OF A TREE IN AN EMPTY CORNER" AND "I WANT TO LIVE WAY LONGER THAN YOU"?? YEAH.

Miki: This one is probably a bit sudden, but.. I decided to go with And Then You Became The Moon by Kikuo. I JUST HAD TO GO WITH A KIKUO SONG FOR HER THIS TIME IDK WHY LIKE I FELT LIKE I HAVE TO DO IT. Now, why this song in particular? Well, this is a cute song about two children playing in the snow and then both of them dying in a blizzard and becoming the Moon and the Star. So, uh.. Miki and Asahi <3 LIKE. THIS SONG SOUNDS SO CUTE AND SO SOFT BUT MIKI SINGING IT MAKES ME SO SAD. She literally thought her little brother died and she blamed herself for it 😭 Honestly, I feel like this song would sound cute as their duet too. I think Andou siblings' voices would sound very soft together. And also the lyrics like "At the very bottom they are together forever" are making me go :') because.. yeah.. It literally took both of them becoming a guard and a prisoner to finally reunite.. So yes, both guards get songs about their siblings this time!

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

I was thinking about your point of how it likely never even occurred to the developers to wonder about how the Jubilife settlers understand the clans, since realistically they'd speak different languages, and was trying to figure it out myself. What I ended up thinking was that Kanto/Johto, Hoenn, and Hisui are all islands in close proximity to each other (which I think is actually canon) and their ancestors likely came from the same place and thus they share the same base language, like Latin for the romance languages. They separated long enough ago, and the Hisuian clans are isolated enough, to have created something unique, but because of the Ginkgo Guild traveling/trading between them so much they're still similar enough that if you know one you can probably pick up the others pretty quickly. Kamado obviously would have made it a priority to learn it himself to avoid as many diplomatic incidents as possible, and I can see him encouraging the villagers to do the same for the same reason. The wilderness is dangerous enough without Corps members having to worry about potentially getting hurt due to a language barrier. Fun fact though, apparently in the Japanese version of the game, Kamado actually slips into a different dialect at times.

ok dont get me started on hypothetical languages in the pokemon world i HAVE spent too much time thinking up headcanons for this for no real reason. mostly the main thing here though is that: remember that the galaxy team is made up of people from everywhere. not even just people from the hoenn/johto/kanto landmass, which could reasonably be expected to have some crossover and be possibly mutually intelligible (i could go into this but. that's all headcanon. so we'll just leave it as that) but also from as far away as galar. and if we're setting it kalos war contemporary it wouldn't be massively shocking that a solid chunk of these people who are leaving their homes to try and build a new life are from the region that's actively at war.

so you're gonna have a fuckton of different languages flying around there. languages that are radically different and not necessarily mutually intelligible. (this could actually go some way towards explaining laventon's role in the team if he was there pre-survey corps: going by the character archetypes he seems to be playing off of, i wouldn't be shocked if he was fluent in several languages, and could act as a translator)

so the first thing is that i feel like it would make sense for everyone in the galaxy team to pick up the language the clans speak as a sort of common-ground language. the alternate (or joint) option is that jubilife is actually the origin of a completely new language that's derived from/made up of all the different sources that were being spoken by the various groups. a solid chunk of it—names for native wildlife and geographic features, in particular—comes from hisui, but scientific terms are from galar, building/construction words are hoenn, food terms come from johto, etc. this might actually be the native language the protagonist speaks, if they're the dpp protag and live in modern sinnoh.

ANYWAY. i think it's neat yeah.

[quelsentiment]

3, 15, 17, 18 for the weird writing asks!!

Thanks Fee!

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

Okay, so I used to write on Google Docs for the longest time and then a few months I told myself that maybe it wasn't the best privacy-wise. So I've switched to using Open Office, which I think helps me focus better because having it on a separate window away from my web browser reduces the temptation to stop mid-sentence to check another tab, you know? But at the same time, this feels VERY cursed because my version doesn't have any kind of spelling check, plus my WIPs are now saved on my internal drive, and since I don't make backups of them that often, I live in fear or my laptop dying on me and making me lose weeks of progress

Oh also, there's basically no word count lololol

Am I gonna do anything about any of this though? No, we're raw-dogging life over here 😎

15. Do you write in the margins of your books? Dog-ear your pages? Read in the bath? Why or why not? Do you judge people who do these things? Can we still be friends?

I already answered this earlier but the short answer is I currently don't, but I don't judge people who do (unless it's a library book or something)

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

I guess I'll talk about my fic for the Zouis Fest (although it might not even be part of it in the end, because I keep writing for the Dream Team fandom instead rip)

Anyway, I'm still not sure exactly what I'm doing with it. Like the main idea is that it's a Zayn-POV, canon-compliant(ish), present day fic where they run into each other in Hong Kong and are kinda forced to acknowledge what happened all those years ago, and figure out how to move forward. So like, lots of angst and feelings of betrayal and conflict and serious conversations because that's basically all I know how to (and all I want to) write lol

At the moment I'm not sure whether to keep it focused on their friendship or introduce some kind of romance aspect to it (toying with the idea that they had some kind FWB situation going while they were in the band). But since it's canon-compliant I'd feel kinda iffy doing that. I've never actually written canon-compliant before, and I have to admit that it scares me a bit, also because I've been extremely removed from the 1d fandom lately

Anyway one thing I'm sure about is that I want a scene to be inspired by the following verse from Blur's My Terracotta Heart:

And when we fly tomorrow over the Java seas And my younger maps will be there with me 'Cause they remind me of swimming out too far one day Then the coral was gone, but I didn't care anyway

Something about Zayn going too far to swim and Louis watching him almost drown but not realizing what's happening, as a metaphor for what went wrong between them

Yeah, that's pretty much all I can share at the moment. I should really get back to it

18. Choose a passage from your writing. Tell me about the backstory of this moment. How you came up with it, how it changed from start to end.

Zayn Malik is, without a doubt, the most beautiful person Louis has ever had the privilege to lay his eyes on. To the point that if he were to explain aesthetic attraction to someone, he’d probably say something like: “The feeling I get when I look at that gorgeous guy in my English 586 class.”

That's the opening line from Situations Like These, my aro/ace Zouis fic from the first Zouis fest.

It's one of those stories that really started out with just a scene rather than an idea/concept, which I think is the case for a lot of my fics actually. I mean, I did have a prompt for this fic, which was something like "they're both ace but don't tell the other for fear of driving him away", so it was pretty vague in terms of setting and everything else, really.

I remember coming up with that opening scene and the bits of dialogues at my grandparents' place right before getting on the road back home with my parents, and since I'd rather die than write in front of them, I just had to make sure to commit everything to my memory by repeating it all in my head throughout the day, until we were finally home and I could write it down. But that's something I do a lot, I think, just come up with stuff (typically dialogue) at inconvenient times and praying that I remember it by the time I can write it down 😬 And then of course when you actually settle in front of your computer, you feel like all your inspiration is gone

Anyway, I think this might be one of my favourite opening scenes I've written, I feel like it's pretty fun while setting the tone and dynamics for the whole fic

writing asks

[capricornyc]

how did you get here? - I watched both JackSepticEye and Markiplier play FNAF Security Breach and the boys just caught my attention.

why these characters in particular? what was the hook for you? - Honestly? I'm not sure, but I think it's the fact that there's so little canon content that we can mold them however we like, aka there's basically no 'wrong' characterization.

how long have you been here? - Since about 2 months after the game came out, so around 2.5 years

have you actually played fnaf sb? - Sadly no, my laptop is far too weak, and I haven't had the money to buy it for the switch yet. (plus I'm terrible at video games so I doubt I'll play it much once I do get it lol)

if you make content, what's your favorite piece you've contributed? - Probably the first fic I wrote (for this fandom), Violence begets Rage, begets Vengeance. I desperately wanna write the second chapter, but have been lacking inspiration.

what's your favorite sort of art or fic? what genre/flavor/style? - I mean... the main content I consume is all spicy, so I guess as long as the characters bone at least a little bit, I'm in XD

what's your favorite au? - Ooooh, that's a tough one. I genuinely don't think I have a fave, but Mafia is definitely up there, same with Mers, Nagas, and A/B/O.

do you have any ocs, or have any ocs you're fond of? - I do! My baby Star is definitely my favorite, though Nightshade is also fun.

what do you think of the dca's canon appearance? Scary? Cute? Something else? - They're a little creepy and their proportions are completely ridiculous, but I still love them.

what keeps you in this fandom despite the very small amount of canon content the dca had? - All the fan content, plus the Sun and Moon Show constantly putting out new stuff. I've definitely shifted more towards TSAMS and away from classic DCA, mostly because there's always new content.

be honest: if you had to pick only one, sun or moon? - Moon. Without hesitation. I adore Sun, but Moon is and always has been my favorite.

thoughts on eclipse? - I love him. Both the canon and fanon versions. In Ruin he's absolutely precious and I'd love to see more of him.

thoughts on pre-glitch sun? - Because we're given so little info on the boys, I can't really give a specific answer. I love all the different possible versions; anxious and neglected, sweet, soft and well adjusted, rude and overbearing, etc.

thoughts on pre-glitch moon? - Same thing for Moon. I've seen such a wide variety of ways he might have acted, and I love all of them. Gremlin, soft and sweet, calm, angry, reclusive, popular, etc.

do you interpret sun and moon as two sides of the same person, or truly two separate beings in one body? does it matter? - I've always seen them as two separate people, rather than like, different personalities of the same person. Just makes more sense to me.

what's something in the fandom you'd like to see more of? - A/B/O. There's a very small amount of it and I'm feral for more.

what's something in the fandom you'd like to see less of? Human designs/AUs. I think some people are really creative and make beautiful designs, but I personally just can't see them as Sun and Moon if they're human.

anything you're looking forward to? - More fics, and continuations of the fics I'm reading!

do you think you'd actually get along with the dca if you met them irl? - Maybe? I like to hope so lol.

free space! talk about whatever's on your mind! - I desperately want to make more content for this fandom and I'm really hoping I'll be able to. Artblock/writers block have just been a major issue for me, but hopefully I can push past them.

alright dca fandom, here's some questions bc i'm curious. the funky jesters make our brains go brr, but why? treat it as an ask game or answer in the tags if you feel like it! :)

how did you get here?

why these characters in particular? what was the hook for you?

how long have you been here?

have you actually played fnaf sb?

if you make content, what's your favorite piece you've contributed?

what's your favorite sort of art or fic? what genre/flavor/style?

what's your favorite au?

do you have any ocs, or have any ocs you're fond of?

what do you think of the dca's canon appearance? Scary? Cute? Something else?

what keeps you in this fandom despite the very small amount of canon content the dca had?

be honest: if you had to pick only one, sun or moon?

thoughts on eclipse?

thoughts on pre-glitch sun?

thoughts on pre-glitch moon?

do you interpret sun and moon as two sides of the same person, or truly two separate beings in one body? does it matter?

what's something in the fandom you'd like to see more of?

what's something in the fandom you'd like to see less of?

anything you're looking forward to?

do you think you'd actually get along with the dca if you met them irl?

free space! talk about whatever's on your mind!

[camelotsheart]

I still consider this thread to be one of the best things to come out of the Merlin Official Twitter account