#(( oops this has become me infodumping now

[royalreef]

The distance to Miranda's leg down from her shoulder was, perhaps, a longer trip than would have been expected for literally anything else, and the journey was such a downward slope that Ava would have had to lean down to touch Miranda's leg proper, instead of just her back or the top of her hips or the sides of her body.

Her legs, too, were short. Perhaps comically short, considering her usual company, but unexpectedly short, a short that did not leave questions as to itself. They were the same length as her arms, after all, and those in comparison did not feel so terribly miniaturized. The distance between her shoulder and her hip exceeded the length of her arms, meaning Miranda would not be able to reach back to touch her legs without bending some other part of her body. So too, that meant it was a stretch just to reach back up, to find Miranda's hand.

As it was, the top of Miranda's hips would have sat just below a human's hips, and if she were to lean down, to touch her hands upon the ground like how her body seemed more and more likely to be intended for, then she would have been about thigh-high. With her legs sat under her body, as precariously as they were, it was quite a while to go to reach them.

Her legs, like her arms, were thick, stocky. Muscular in equal measure, coming off from her body like the hind legs of a crocodile, and made even thicker by the membrane that ran up the sides of her legs, likewise matching with her arms. They weren't plainly visible like her arms or her shoulders were, wearing an outfit that connected to her neck and stretched over her front, leaving much of her upper back exposed, but there was a distance of bare scales that could be seen below her pants legs. The membrane, the same as her arm, was thick, decorated at the edge with a strip of the same creamy yellow as her fins, with a parallel line on top of the leg itself. More than mere skin, it had to have perhaps fat or keratin inside of it, making it stiffer and thicker, so that the transition off of her muscular limbs wasn't so drastic.

It moved down, maybe connecting somewhere to her foot or to the side of her leg, impossible to tell over her shoes. On her hands, the matching membrane, turning the silhouette of her arm into a proper fin akin to that of a whale or a marine reptile, connected to her first and third digit, so, following the theme, it was likely to match. However, first Ava would have to get the shoes off of Miranda to see, and Miranda had not spoke of that permission being granted yet.

Her shoes were interesting, however. Much like the rest of her clothes, they were tailored and fashioned primarily for her body first, which belied certain underlying differences. Miranda's shoes were wide and multi-part, intended to be able to spread or to move in closer, even if the thicker material needed for this time of year meant limitations. They connected together into one surface, not suggesting how many digits she had, but it looked like she could move them, and perhaps even needed to spread them out for traction or balance. The shoe sat her ankles against the ground, so she was plantigrade, not digitigrade. There were pinched ends, points with textured rubber wrapped around them, where there were likely claws beneath, so those too were probably needed as a vital component of movement. There were four of these points spread evenly, so suggesting each digit had a matching claw, that would mean four digits per foot.

Miranda's hand suggested a little more to what her foot might have looked like. She had five digits there, standard, but two of those digits had been converted into opposable thumbs, the first digit and the fifth. That left three digits in the middle, the fingers which the membrane of her arms connected to, although they had no webbing between them. The thumbs, by contrast, seemed to almost tuck beneath the outline of her hand and the membrane-fins, making them hard to see from the outside, while the fingers sat closer together to each other in a singular shape. All suggested streamlining, but did not solve the mystery of her hands, and why Miranda had something so derived instead of a more typical fin like other aquatic organisms.

Each digit was short and thick, muscular in a way eerily reminiscent of a harpy eagle's. The expected tetrapod condition was present, with the expected number of bones to each finger, the last converted into a claw with a bony core and a keratin sheathe. This was where the comparison felt most apt. Each claw was massive, easily the length of someone else's finger, thick as a bear's and sweeping inwards with a wicked curve. Hooked, even. Each pointed inwards, towards the palm, so that if Miranda curled her hand into a fist, it would all fit together into a cage, trapping anything that happened to be too slow to escape. Even though Miranda held her hand loosely, idly letting Ava examine her without a large amount of fuss, the size and thickness of her hands suggested very few things could escape in time. Even worse to what happened to anything that could not. Miranda's claws, more uniquely, perhaps, looked a little overgrown, further past her quick than expected, but nothing unusual.

Furthermore came another point of comparison, though this one was a stranger one. There were pads on Miranda's palm and across the underside of all of her digits — one behind each of the five claws, one below that on the digits, one where each of the thumbs connected to her palm paralleling the other, and one in the middle of her hand below where the digits connected to her palm. They were large, squishy, like pressing down into a stress toy. It was even a little fun to do so, though the fatty pads represented their own mystery.

The back side of her hands was thickly plated with scales, looking the very most like armor, wrapping around the top of her hands like she was expecting someone to stab them. On her palms, the scales grew smaller, as expected. However, on the pads sitting on her palms, they grew in a strange pattern, which was especially odd, because her palms were the softest part of her so far. They were silky, soft to the touch, suggesting no obvious use and nothing that would make sense in tandem with the cage of her claws. These scales barely provided any texture, no great addition on top of the underlying skin, and the patterns that they grew in were peaked and pointed in zigzag patterns, not providing any more answers.

Miranda, less curious about her own body than Ava, leaned her head down and back to follow her, more interested in keeping watch over where she was touching. It meant her head bent more to the side, body slightly leaning forward and closer to the ground, her other arm lifting up and pressing closer to her chest, perhaps for balance.

If she was having any issue about having a harpy feel her up, then Miranda wasn't saying it, remaining with a strange, nearly befuddled little smile. Maybe she wasn't having issues, but it was odd. Especially now that she was patting her through her clothes, although Ava hadn't reached anywhere inappropriate, not yet. If anything, it was almost stranger for how much closer this resembled, to Miranda, her experience of knowing other merfolk and the way that they would touch her, pressing hands down against her body and holding her close, solely out of sheer friendliness.

"Yes — well, I do, less so of my people as a whole. Blue light, so you should be able to see, but it is not very strong compared to...." Miri dipped her head up and to the side in a sort of quick shrug, trying to gesture to the daylight itself. "Not as though it needs to be as strong, when it is easier to see down there."

Even just a single touch, gently running a talon across muscle and scale, told Ava volumes. Osteoderms, a powerful and streamlined form... it all made sense for a seagoing apex predator. It was interesting, how differently the two of them had evolved: Ava had become more humanoid than any other bird, while Miranda--part of a species that was popularized in myths as having a humanoid upper body--was anything but. She had a sudden desire to see Miranda in her own element, cutting through the water with ease and... snatching up fish, she supposed? Maybe that was just because she was hungry, though. Mmmm, fish...

She was getting ahead of herself, though. The harpy ran her hand down Miranda's leg, glancing up to meet her gaze briefly and make sure she wasn't overstepping any boundaries. She didn't want the merfolk to think she was just petting her like a giant cat or something.

"Interesting... that makes sense, though. Oh, do have any form of bioluminescence, too? Within the visible light spectrum, anyway." Ava's eyesight was good, but not so good that she could see into infrared or anything. "I imagine that would be very useful in the ocean depths."

Confident that she had no way of accidentally hurting the well-armored merfolk, Ava added a second hand to the exploration, gently patting Miranda's own clawed hand.

[randomstar202]

Spin from the wheel of aus and tell me about one (pick one and freely ramble lmfaoo)

Hi, localcanadiancreature62! I got an ask about my Dippy Pines/Stanswap au a while ago, and now I am thernked, so, I’m going to try my best to infodump as much of the whole thing as possible!

 So, the canon divergence starts at the science fair. Instead of walking into the gym, Stan has his breakdown elsewhere. Unfortunately, the Perpetual Motion Machine is VERY FRAGILE and the tarp over the top was just enough to break it. Filbrick is extremely disappointed in Ford, and kicks him out. Stan was in a different room upstairs and sees Ford getting kicked out though the window. He gives Ford the Stanmobile, and almost jumps out the window to get to him, but Filbrick takes whatever stairway Canon Ford did to get to the window unrealistically fast and stops Stan from leaving with Ford. Filbrick tells Stan that he can take part of Ford's debt, if he takes Ford's role as the smart twin too. Stan studies really hard, for Ford, and starts getting better and better grades rapidly. Eventually he starts wearing his glasses again, too. People start confusing him with Ford, and they start calling him Stan-ford, to cover all their bases, as nobody can remember which twin it is anymore. Stan is very exasperated. It doesn’t help that Filbrick consistently calls Stan ‘Stanford’, because that’s the name he chose for his ‘real' son. 

When he gets to college, Backupsmore, of course, people also call him Stanford because that’s the name his father called him and the name on the paperwork. He meets Fiddleford and is thrilled when he finds out Fidds makes robots. Together, they make Footbot a reality. That’s not important, just funny. They also start a company and sell McGucket’s doohickeys. This money funds most of their research, because Stan got a very small grant, as he wasn’t working himself to the bone for his degree like Ford, just speedrunning it. Stan decides to study anomalies, because they reminded him of his brother, and his search for the perfect place to study them led him to the most concentrated location of anomalies in the country- Gravity Falls, Oregon. 

Meanwhile, Ford lives on the streets. He studies stuff in public libraries and earns his 12 degrees while working as a paid intern for Rico. Eventually, Ford finds out that Rico is using him, builds a sci-fi laser gun, and takes him off his pedestal. They part ways as reluctant allies, and Ford “I work alone” Pines becomes the infamous Six Fingered Phantom (think Portal Ford but in his twenties). Possibly I’ll call him the Polytergeist. Probably the first one, tho. Ford is very bitter and cuts himself off entirely from his family, judging his work too dangerous and also still mad at them. Ford keeps grudges for a LONG TIME. 

Meanwhile, Stan’s having the greatest, non-traumatized time of his life! :3 Crazy adventures with his bestie Fiddlesticks, punching gremloblins in the face, alien cows, the only thing that could make it better would be if Ford were there! And he found out that the town has a Law of Weirdness Magnetism that brings weird stuff to town, so it’s really only a matter of time until Ford shows up! And then he finds a cave, with paintings of a being with answers. Stan doesn’t really need those, and he’s got a magic mailbox if he ever does, but he accidentally says the incantation while trying to sound it out. Oops.😬 Fidds is very mad at Stan when he tells him, which he does immediately. Of course he’s gonna tell Fiddlenerd, why wouldn’t he? That night in his dreams, a pentagonal star with a southern accent who says his name is Giddy Gleeful shows up. Stan doesn’t really trust him, but Gid uses a combination of hypnosis and manipulation to get Stan to make a deal with him, convincing him that Ford will definitely show up to the scientific event of the century! (He probably would, actually, in disguise.) Fidds doesn’t show the Memory Gun to Stan because he knows that Stan would definitely not approve. At the portal test, he brings it up in his rambling, and Stan confronts him on it. He confesses, and tells Stan what he saw in the portal. Stan agrees to talk to Gid, and Fidds agrees to disband his cult. Fidds goes off, but Blind Ivan wipes him clean when he tries to get rid of the Society.

 Now Stan has his paranoia era. He uses the mailbox to send a postcard to Ford that says, ‘please come!’. It’s covered in blood, because I wasn’t sure if Ford would come without a reason to think it was a real emergency. So Ford shows up at the door. Cue mutual paranoid screaming! :D In the basement, Stan tells Ford that he had one last journal to hide, then they could get to work on getting rid of Bill. And then, maybe, they could get as far away from him as possible. Do you remember our childhood dream of sailing around the world on a boat? Ford blows up at Stan for thinking of ‘repairing relationships’ when the world is at stake! They fight, and Stan falls into the portal. Ford tries to reopen, relieved beyond words when all plans are in the book he has, but that relief quickly turns into frustration when he realizes the plans are only basic outlines, he doesn’t use the official terminology for anything, and half the book is illegible! (Stan’s good at building by filling in the blanks. It’s how I think he rebuilt the portal in canon.) Ford realizes that this is going to take a while. When he goes into town for food, Ford discovers that Stan also had used the anomalies in town to make a sort of tourist trap, which he now has to run. Luckily, nobody in town can remember whether his name was StanFORD or StanLEY, so Ford manages to pass himself off as Stan while going by Ford. 

30 years later, Ford’s gniblings (great niblings -the g is silent), Dippy and Bella Pines, come to stay the summer with him. Dippy is the overprotective older twin brother who wears blindingly bright colors and uses nineties slang when he gets agitated or excited, and Bella is the extremely reckless optimistic genius who wears unseasonably warm clothing and loves pushing the boundaries of science. Dippy takes the place of Mabel generally, but also is Dipper sometimes. Also, Ford has a rivalry with an eleven year old boy named Billy Cipher who runs a rival tourist trap that’s based off of the color yellow and has an Illuminacho with a top hat on everything. Ask me if you have any follow-up questions! 😃

[mechanicalriddle]

HAPPY OCTOBER! (prompts by @bweirdart) (x)

Today(yesterday)(thedaybeforeyesterday)'s theme is favorite oc. I think it is probably obvious who is getting featured here if you have been following me for the *checks calendar* past two years

Character intro/diary/colossal infodump under the cut because I have to explain Exalted to you first before anything else makes sense in context, i'll rehash some of this in further detail for entries later in the month

WHO IS SHE?

My tabletop character.

What system is she from?

Extremely complicated question. For the completely uninitiated she is from a system called Exalted (3rd Edition), which is about spirits, gods, and the deeply fallible humans that the gods uplift to become humanity's ultimate champions. (surely they would never be crushed under the weight of their own hubris! update: oops!)

The original Exalted is a sort of post-post-post apocalypse bronze age deal. everything is sort of made of and governed by magic and elemental principles, various gods, etc etc. In the original Exalted, the titans who created the world are overthrown by their 'offspring', gods known as the Incarnae, after the incarnae choose to vest their power into their human Champions (the Exalted).

Now, for the vaguely initiated...

There is a published setting for an AU version of Exalted spoken about in quiet whispers...

Basically the main differences are:

-The Titans won, and humanity fled aboard the vast mechanical world-body of the Titan's only defector, Autochthon. then they lobotomized him and turned him into a gigantic warship

-all of this is in space. Normal exalted takes place on a large flat disc of reality adrift in a sea of infinite probability. This version is kind of like that except its three dimensional and instead of a flat disc it is a sphere that you can leave. so like the real world pretty much

-Takes place at the height of magitech rather than when Exalted normally does which is 2000 years after all that shit fell apart

The setting is called GUNSTAR AUTOCHTHONIA. If you see me make any references to this understand that this is what it is. We do also just call the campaign itself Gunstar also though, since it's the only one in this modified setting any of us have played.

OK now in context. Who is she

There is an organization made up primarily of the demigods uplifted by the god Sol Invictus; this organization is known as the Solar Deliberative, and it is a senate of god-kings of various levels of experience and corruption who rule over the Gunstar and command its forces against the Titanics. (In the original setting, the Deliberative is the ancient empire on which the world is built. In Gunstar, it remains alive and 'well'.) The god Luna also has their own Chosen, the Lunars, who are also part of the Deliberative. Lunars generally operate as the strike force of and seconds-in-command to the Solars.

Solars and Lunars are elected... Basically by lottery, from exceptional mortals who the Gods take a shine to, usually via some act of act of incredible heroism or just sheer brazen-ness. Two and two together, she won the big stupid lottery, despite not being terribly kind or clever or good natured or generous or. Well. The most important part, ambitious.

(pictured: Luna taking pity on some idiot after an Osmosis Jones suicide mission deep into Autochthon's corpus)

But Luna likes a fixer upper. Siithi is quickly coming to realize that worthiness means very little in this business, and any moron with a mote pool can save the universe, granted they're being at least halfway sensible with it. You'd think that'd be a low bar and yet she knows at least a few people personally who regularly fail to clear it.

What's she like...

She's loud, and crass, and trashy, and a bit mean. Maybe a little stupid. But she's been around the block at least two or three times. She considers herself a simple sort (except when she's contorting herself into 4th-dimensional interpersonal complexes.) She likes to drink and toke and watch wresting and hang out and take a nap. Now a bunch of jerks want her to be the savior of the people of the Gunstar or some other dumb horseshit. Fine, she said. I guess if you want me to do that I guess I can do it. Maybe I'll even be good at it. But that's not going to stop me from complaining about it the entire time. If only she didn't have this big, dumb, stupid, perpetually bleeding heart.

She has powers? Tell me about the powers.

She is stronger and faster and generally cooler than most mortals... Though that's fairly standard among the Exalted. Because she's Luna's chosen she can, of course, shapeshift. Mostly she acquires alter egos via people gambling them away to her so she can stay on the down low (deliberative members are extremely public figures so a lot of people know her true face...) She can also shapeshift into a variety of garbage animals, including her true "spirit shape" form which happens to be a fat bloodsucking worm

Most of her charms (lunar magic) are devoted to stamina charms (letting her do things like breathe poison, slow her own heartrate to become imperceptible, etc.), dexterity combat charms (useful but boring), mysticism (communing with spirits, presumably so she can rip them off somehow) but she has some fun utility charms like the one she used to pocket the craft-forward Dawn's makeshift bomb into an extradimensional space and refuse to give it back.

(It's still in there.)

Oh, yeah, also she can raise the dead. Which is not that weird in the regular Exalted setting but isn't really in vogue in Gunstar. By which I mean even foremost occult experts like Deliberative Twilights have never heard of necromancy before. She tries to be chill about this but that can sometimes be difficult, because firstly, most people think it's pretty creepy, and secondly, in a wartime economy a lot of factions would take some pretty drastic action to have that power for their own.

Now if only she could harness it to its true potential.

Give me some numbers.

She is 5'6", and 32 years old. She's about to hit Essence (level) 3, and has been exalted for probably about 6 months by this point.

Her gender seems pretty swanky.

Thank you!

She is intersex (17 BHSD deficiency) and personally doesn't identify with being transgender, but would be very hard pressed to call herself cis either.

I have received mixed messages about whether or not I'm actually allowed to say the word she most closely identifies with so I'll say it starts with a D.

Why do you have some pictures of her all scrawny and sad lookin

That is either because the drawing is well over a year old and her design has since changed, or because I'm drawing what she looked like before she exalted. At the time she was slowly dying of an occupationally-acquired disease. So you can guess why she has a weird relationship with the whole 'death magic' thing. Now she is post-miraculous recovery and much fatter and happier for it.

(happiness relatively speaking...)

Who is the dinosaur?

The dinosaur you have seen her drawn with from time to time is my friend @heedra's PC. Their name is Meteor-Dream, or Meat for short, and they are a half-creature half-spirit sort of thing known as a Dragon King. Dragon Kings are sapient dinosaurs with humanoid intelligence who retain their memories & reincarnate into new bodies every time they die, so Meat is actually rather fucking old.

Meat and Siithi are bestfriends!!! Or at least they were. They were bickering for a while. Meat has been busy slowly merging themselves, mind-body-and-soul, with the maligned violence spirit known as the Viator of Nullspace in a bid to kill their errant & traitorous god (Sol Invictus, who we've mentioned before, is actually kind of a dick who eventually switched sides, but the power of his Chosen remains vested in the Deliberative).

The pair had sort of come to an agreement about the situation, but also Meat is just getting kind of weird and hard to talk to lately & also huge and glowing nuclear furnace chest cavity and covered in darksteel plates with scary eyes and Siithi is simply not sure what she thinks about that. (Truthfully she knows what she thinks about it, but speaking it out loud would only cause more trouble...)

Is this some kind of friend-to-enemies-to-lovers thing?

Siithi is very aromantic and Meat thinks humans are disgusting little pink flesh homunculi, so... Nope!

Not to say that Siithi does not actively want or seek tail. Just not this tail specifically... that would be weird!!!

Alright. So why is she your favorite? What is the source of your obsession??

I don't know!!! She's simply funny.

I think it has to be partially an investment thing, because I have spent an egregious amount of time on her characterization, backstory etc. So I feel like I know her very well compared to some of my other OCs. I also am a huge sucker for tropey loser scumbags with secret inner worlds where they actually care way too fucking much, & then are subjected to The Horrors. Its sooooo awesome when you subject them to the horrors.

I also always get a lot of positive feedback on her! Presumably because other people think shes very funny as well. I hope you do too! But probably, if you've made it this far!

~

Thank you for supporting my work, even if you are on the barest periphery of what actually happens with it. I will continue posting more about her this month, because God Won't Let Me Stop !!!

✌️

[roads-rise-to-meet-me]

Coral Island Farmer Questionnaire: Xena

Found this template from @coral-nerd and decided I could definitely use a moment to infodump about my girl Xena! ^^ Anyone else have this weird tendency to give their cozy game OC's backstories that...Really don't fit the genre? No? Just me? Oops.

How Does Your Farmer Feel About...

Farming In all honesty, farming might be the thing Xena finds most draining about being the newest addition to Coral Island. She didn't expect growing plants to come with so much...Expectation. A rather naive perspective, admittedly; but one that blindsided her nonetheless. And after she was caught off guard in her first year by the sheer competitiveness of the Harvest Festival, it took no time at all for imposter syndrome to start to set in. And it's endlessly frustrating for her! She spent so many of her early years on this farm that she's working now. Surely she should have picked up some kind of rough skillset, right? But for the first year or so farming is the one task that Xena seeks to get over with as quickly as possible each day, and she finds it hard to take pride in something she feels she is always lacking at. But as more people start to acknowledge her hard work, she learns to hold her head up a little higher year after year.

Mining Never expected herself to care for it much, but Scott's endless quest to restore the museum's collection is a cause Xena readily takes up herself. Thus, she finds herself blazing a mighty trail through the mines impressively fast. And with Scott's tendency to stay closer to the surface, his gratitude when Xena chooses to share her hard won bounty with him becomes rather addictive for her. Also, gold bars are worth a fortune? Seriously, why is she still bothering with crops?

Foraging Foraging is great! Especially when it's after dark and the other islanders are either asleep or cramming themselves into the tavern, leaving the trails outside town mostly devoid of anyone except for her. The islanders she does run into after dusk are usually the ones she clicks with better anyway, and the island is bountiful enough that even the most lightweight haul makes her feel like she's accomplishing something.

Catching Brings her right back to her years as a child on the island catching whatever critters she could get her hands on. It's nostalgic, and reminds her of the years before her own questionable decisions led her far from the only place she ever really was able to call home. But to outsiders looking in, she simply seems to find it fun. And as long as the museum's insect collection grows steadily, no one really minds that she seems particularly taken by this hobby.

Fishing Not as active as catching bugs and ocean critters, and she's a little too impatient for it most days. But it's slightly more engaging than watering crops. So when she's truly bored out of her skull with no time to really get wrapped up in anything else, she'll throw out a few casts. Becomes quite a bit more intrigued by it when she reels in her first big catch; a barracuda.

Ranching For someone so hyper aware of the way she acts in every social interaction, ranch animals are an unexpectedly pleasant escape. They don't expect a performance; they just want food and maybe a bit of affection. Both of which she is happy to provide in exchange for a place to vent out those frustrations she can't bring herself to talk about with anyone else.

Combat After residing in the city for so long with a job that had the possibility of landing her in the literal laps of some morally dubious people, holding her own in a scrap is something Xena isn't a stranger to. It feels a little more refined on Coral Island though, especially after she's made a member of the Band of Smiles. Learning to wield a real weapon instead of her keys threaded through her knuckles or a can of pepper spray has a positive effect on her psyche; especially when she's using her newfound skills to slay monsters, as opposed to warding off sleazy strangers seeking to overstep her boundaries.

Diving It feels like an obligation, but not one Xena is necessarily burdened by. When Xena returns to Coral Island after so many years away, she returns with lessons learned and quite a few knocks taken. The island itself looks like it can relate, and the sorry state of it is the first thing that starts chipping away at the walls of apathy Xena has put up over the past few years in order to get through every single day. It isn't farfetched to say that some part of her hopes throwing herself into healing the island might help her start to piece herself back together in the process.

Interacting With The Islanders It's stressful, for a good long while. There's so many familiar faces, and to Xena most all of them haven't changed a day. But she most definitely has, and not in a way she feels she can talk with all these quaint islanders about. So she makes up stories about college and a dead end finance position at Pufferfish that sucked the life and soul out of her, remembering just enough lingo from her former clients to keep her ruse convincing. It gets easier down the line when she finally finds her place in the community again, and the one person she finds it easiest to talk to learns everything there is to know about her. (And he still wakes up next to her the next day and asks if they can make falafel.)

Other...

What is their favorite building material? Stone. Sturdy. Gives her peace of mind that at least her structures will stand up to the test of time, and she can free her mind to worry about every single other responsibility she has instead.

What is their decor style? The most unholy hybrid of beach and disco you've ever seen.

Who's their love interest? Scott. There's a simplicity about him that Xena very quickly finds herself clinging to; even when she's still making herself walk on eggshells around the other islanders. She's not intimidated by him like she is most others, and his enthusiasm for his field is both infectious and a welcome distraction from her own thoughts and insecurities that she wrestles with daily.

What's their favorite thing to grow? Cranberries. As previously mentioned, it takes her much longer to actually enjoy farming. But she loves cranberry juice. And to be able to juice her own berries that she grew from seed does give her a small sense of pride, even in the early years.

What's their favorite animal? Outside of her and Scott's canine sons from their childless newlywed millennial dreams era? Probably quail. Their absurdly small eggs amuse her greatly when she sees them for the first time, and there is something so distinctly harmless and fragile about those itty bitty birds that makes Xena sort of obsess over them.

Bonus! What Do You Associate With Your Farmer In These Categories...

Color Burgundy. Her favorite color to wear when work still consisted of catching clients in high end lounges.

Season Winter. A little icy, like her. Little to no crops to worry about, and with everyone else mostly staying indoors she feels like isn't missing out on too much of Starlet Town's bustling social scene if she chooses to spend all day in the mines or the ocean instead. Though everyone seemed to notice her missing from the Winter Fair that first year when she was working her tail off to afford her wedding dress. Won't make that mistake twice...

Metal Silver. Makes for sturdy tools that can get her through most anything. I mean, isn't gold rather soft? Who's bright idea was it to make a solid gold pick axe anyway...

[gastlygallows]

Headcanons for the maidens for the other Tarnished?

Sorry it took a while to get to you anon, but I wanted to doodle some rough ideas~ Varré's Maiden is really just my own version of her since she's meant to be a Reader Insert

More detail and some NSFW thoughts below the cut ...lemme go off! (ノ*°▽°*)

Rogier's Maiden:

The only person to sense that something wasn't quite right with Rogier, that he carried a sort of melancholy about him that she sought to remedy, but she thought she was just projecting so never questioned him

She'd try to cheer him up by acting super silly, but this was also her own way of coping with the fear eating slowly eating her up--she wasn't allowed to show any gloomy disposition at the circus, which she was sold into as an infant

Would initiate sex with Rogier and really liked sucking his dick to see him melt underneath her

"Rogier, watch me do a cartwheel!" "You don't have to do that..." (she just wanted an excuse to flash him)

Fond of D and often tried to push him to find his own maiden, but he believed if the Golden Order wanted him to have one he'd find her without looking

The incident leading to her death could've been a semi-intentional suicide on her part, if only subconsciously, due to the worsening state of the Lands Between eating away at her sanity

She was genuinely terrified of the world around her, but admired Rogier's compassion towards Those Who Live in Death and I like to think they truly made each other happy for the short time they were together <3

Surprisingly, doesn't like sweets and loves bitter candies

Gideon's Maiden:

Why is she loli coded? Idk I just see it, I do this thing call schizo creativity and whatever pops into my head just pops in there

Gideon respects her more than he respects anyone else

If he sees Nepheli as brawn at his disposable, he sees his maiden as an indispensable extra brain with limitless potential

He eventually has her partake in dragon communion when it's a safe time to bring her out

Gideon has a secret bunker somewhere that doubles as a personal library and she's there just chilling out waiting for him to level up and have sex with her

Gideon intends to put the Elden Ring inside of her if possible (if you get my drift) (but no, literally for real!)

Shy and introverted, so she doesn't mind this arrangement

Possibly underwent a purification process when she became a maiden (more on that later)

Ds' Maiden:

Imagine your GPS keeps leading you in circles and that's what this poor girl went through trying to find her Tarnished, not knowing they were one soul in two bodies

The Fingers did not account for this (grace is glitching)

Insanely devout to the Greater Will, not unlike D, and would have been a hard sell to get them to have the most vanilla threesome ever but as long as they believed it was divine fornication

They would've gotten increasingly adventurous (all three were virgins for sure) and actually would've been pretty sexy...now that I think about it...

Would've refused to use incantations not approved by the Golden Order, but super skilled at what she could cast

Had she found her Tarnished, she likely would have double suicide'd with Devin

The spiritual connection between these three would've gone so crazy, I'm sad she's not real now

Varré's Maiden (big headcanon infodump oops):

She went through a "purification" process in her maiden training which resulted in her memories before maidenhood fading away. This is sold to her as a great honor but it's really because the Two Fingers determined she was too great a rebellion risk otherwise. Most sane girls would not agree to this, no matter how badly they want to become a maiden, but for whatever reason Maiden-chan decided to throw away whatever remained of her previous life.

Tarnished cannot avoid their fate of being resurrected, but maidens can choose not to follow the Fingers. This is just my tinfoil hat theory but I think there's been a maiden shortage since the beginning. There are simply not enough Outer God-assigned wives to go around

But also: it more or less allows readers to self insert as her better when I write fic if she's more of a "blank slate"? Which is also why I don't describe her physically.

However my own backstory for her choosing to become a maiden: she was actually excited when The Shattering occurred and decided she wanted to partake in it because she was bored with her ordinary life. She knew no other belief system than that of the Golden Order, but doesn't hold any real loyalty towards it. It seems like a computational oversight of some sort that someone who once held the same potential for heresy as Varré would get matched with him, but the methods by which the Fingers matchmake Tarnished and Maiden is something beyond the minds of mortals. They do make mistakes! And the Greater Will is already gone, remember. Maiden-chan gets what she wants at what she considers a very low price for the meager power of a maiden, but then the version of her that would have appreciated all of the fear and bloodshed is long gone. However, that doesn't mean this side of her that's buried away doesn't have the potential to develop again...after all, there are some parts of ourselves that have always been there! Or is a developing taste for violence a result of Varré's influence? Hm...

Y'know it's funny, if you look at my other reader insert work I'm always taking the approach of "you're my OC and if you don't like it hit the fucking road because I owe you nothing" but I actually like the Varré sisters ( ◡‿◡ *) so I'd like it very much if you came up with your own designs and backstories for Maiden-chan! And feel free to tell me about your version of her! Mnn the other fandoms I've written for...I sortaaaa hate 90% of the people there XD and I don't like the entitlement some people have expressed re: Reader Insert fics but!!!

Anyway, back to Maiden-chan:

She's naive and more likely to take what he says at face value, has the utmost faith in him, and is completely willing to die for him

She's a total masochist which is standard if you're going to be with Varré in any capacity, haha, and she's a pervert who can never say no to having sex with him even if she wanted to because she is too addicted to him making her feel good (//▽//) What a lech!

There's very much a mutual codependency in that Varré grows to like having his ego stroked by this attractive girl who is willing to take his dick and let him rough her up

Lots of choking and blood drinking when and if the occasion presents itself...but she's a frail thing, much to his dismay

I think at first he's happy to just use her and sees protecting her as an obligation, but he does grow to love her albeit it's a very toxic sort of love...I'm a real sucker for unhealthy relationships

He enjoys that level of submissiveness, at least...pre-cult...post-cult, welllll.....

[necroangelz]

bored, so gunna do yur ask game... 💌 and/or 🫀 pwease.^⁠_⁠^^⁠_⁠^ hru today btw! ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

help this has been in my inbox for a few days oops im so sorry... i drafted up the first half of this post last friday but i forgot to continue it and i had no energy... anyways

as of right now i havent been that great, my mood swings r going crazy and im stressed over a test tomorrow, although i did a lot of thrifting on friday and saturday and bought lots of nice stuff! i'll post my entire .. "thrifting haul" when i feel like it...

emoji answers below! i decided to answer both. my answer for the heart emoji is very... long.......... but what do uu expect from an infodump?

『 💌 』

a quote or song lyric

muse just realized on muses pinned post it says "song" instead of "song lyric" erm... it's supposed to be song lyric help anyway

“ Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes. ” -Plato, Republic Book II

wow, look at the intellectual internet angel, quoting Plato /s the quote is also referenced in the secret history by Donna Tartt (hir latest obsession) at the very beginning of the book ^_^ shi doesn't really know what to say, shi just really really likes this quote! shi likes very grand lines like this—the way that a simple leisure story can become an influence to the next generation of great heroes... there's something so alluring about it.

『 🫀 』

a game i played + an infodump

the free visual novel cemetery mary by arcadekitten! i really love cemetery mary and i can go on about it for hours, which is why i'll keep this infodump short bc i might just be typing here for hours and i wont get any sleep.

it's about a girl named mary anta (design is based on a manta ray), whose parents had mysteriously vanished without a trace one day. there's rumors of a killer in her city, called the blackwood butcher, and she suspects that her parents disappeared because of the butcher. she also texts a 'mysterious number' that claims her parents are alive and well.

she may look scary in the title screen but don't be fooled! she's a sweet and soft girl who simply has darker interests (such as the concept of death and cemeteries, as the title suggests).

here's mary hanging out with the other characters—crowven, twyla, and reginald. the player can pursue a route with any of these characters where mary will hang out with them and get closer to them. each route has a vastly different story and even genre/theme, and they lead to their own good and bad endings. i feel like it's easy to get the bad endings at first though... and they can get veeerrryyy VERY fucked up. there is also a true ending which is very entertaining and mysterious but leads to a happy ending.

i have about 42 hours in the game. yeah i got very obsessed with it... i like visual novels a lot and despite the occasional fucked up moments i enjoy CM because it's very chill and the characters are written well. and there's just something about how the game is designed that scratches my brain.

i got introduced to the game by a friend 2-ish years ago. we don't talk anymore but i liked that friend a lot... i didn't start playing CM until a few months later though

also just look at mary rn. SHE'S SO SILLY AAAHH I LOVE HER how can one not adoooreee her?????/

anyway let me just speedrun describing the 3 route characters rn

too lazy to find a better photo of him rn—this is crowven corvuson, design is based on a crow, and he's mary's cousin. except they're not blood related but they see each other as family. i don't interact with the fandom but i can imagine the discourse they would have about crowven and mary.

crowven is emo, moody, smokes weed, and has anger issues. his parents are dead. he lives together with mary. he gets up to secret business.

AAAAAHHH EHHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHEHHE this is twyla sophio, design based on an owl, this isn't her main "look" though, this is her outfit for a party. she's filthy rich, she's toxic, she's manipulative, and she's relentless to uncover the identity of the blackwood butcher. she also has some kind of rivalry with crowven (apparently it's accurate to nature where owls and crows have beef irl)

i am very very very in love with twyla in a normal way and i ship her and mary together

lastly, reginald tetra, design based on a pufferfish. this also isn't his main look, but he's so handsome here. i don't really like him that much but there's some certain scenes that make me like him...

he's your local average guy. he's so average. he's so normal. there's nothing wrong with him. i swear

he also has a littol tiny crush on mary :3 they develop a nice bond

ok thats it infodump over

[omegamoo]

HI ive gained brajnrot from your oc from only the little bit ive heard of them. if youd be alright with it could you tell me iotas lore? /nf tho!! (also ive been drawing them based on art you reblogged a few days ago and ive been having a lot of fun :D they have such a cool design and aa) ((also also first ask from me hello hello wonderful mutual))

I GOT SO FAR THROUGH WRITING THIS ASK AND THEN TUMBLR DELETED IT. anyways hiiiiii beloved mutual welcome to my inbox! im literally so honored u got brainrot from my silly girly.... please feel free to share ur art if u feel so inclinced... i'd cry /pos

hope its okay im about to. infodump. im putting it under the cut. this is so long this is so much more than u asked for hopefully tgm doesn't kill me for explaining the plot. lol

alright. lets go again. iota is a part of a project called the whittled pantheon, which tells the story of eleven gods-ish and their experiences. its kinda broadly complicated and im only here to tell iota lore rn so if you want more general lore check the "whittled pantheon" tag link in my pinned!

okay so iota. pronouns she/it/moon although i largely default to she. oops. its the goddess of the wild - deepest darkest nights, moon and stars, the forests. uncivilized area. grass taller than ur head. wildflowers. u get the idea. she has a brother, agathodaemon, who's the god of the tamed (he's written by the lovely lovely tgm). iota is very introverted and prefers to spend most of her time in the woods with her conditionally immortal wolfpack. moon doesn't interact with humans and is. so very uncivilized please do not bring moon into the court room oh god

whittled pantheon itself as a story is split into essentially two parts - the old world, where the gods are born and spend the most time, and the new world, where the gods flee after the destruction of the old world. in the old world, iota's very reclusive. this is where you see it vibing with its pack and being a woods girly. she interacts mostly with agathodaemon, as well as statikos (god of beasts, written by tweewig) and palaemon (water god). she does interact with the other gods but like. infrequently. and never with humans.

so time goes on. agathodaemon builds a giant city on the coast and its destroying natural resources and iota goes okay this is no longer cool. she and palaemon get together and confront daemon and they're like hey buddy. stop. agathodaemon temporarily stops and then comes back, resulting in a massive falling out between daemon and iota. then, palaemon dies mysteriously, and his death starts the destruction of the world, starting with a flood that wipes out daemon's city. lol karma i guess.

the catalyst is what we've been calling the destruction of the world (the balance of the world is fucked up. water dries up, world shatters from inside out). the gods kinda collectively get together for once and go alright. oh shit. and Leave. but in the process they leave iota behind

iota now has to survive the literal destruction of her entire known world. moon is the only god left on the old world, and she's surrounded by humans who fundamentally make no sense to it and also need/want it to save them. but iota cannot save them because she is one god left alone. she tries, though. she meets lots of humans one of whom it becomes like. very good ambiguous 'besties' with. this is fortuna. she changes iota's entire perception of the world. but you know the world is dying and all of the humans die and iotas immortality is like. dripping down the drain and she cannot find a way back. but daemon comes to the rescue because even after everythign he loves her. the whole rescue bit has a whole Other set of worldbuilding lore and explanations that i will not get into here just know that its a thing. they make it back to the new world and start to Heal.

im not going to explain anything else because spoilers. but. i think all this is good to talk about. hopefully. or tgm will fucking kill me /j. but yeah. god. this was somuch more than you asked for.......... well enjoy anyways <3

[glitchyred]

Could I ask for some more info on Glitchy Red: Retold? I don't really have a specific thing to ask, so you can just talk about anything you want.

Hi I think this has been in my inbox since I posted a now-deleted thing saying "there is never a bad time to ask me about glitchy red retold". Unfortunately you hit the 0.01% chance of it being a bad time to ask me about glitchy red retold and then I completely forgot about this ask for like forever OOPS anyway I'm here now.

It's a little bit hard for me 2 infodump about things without Direction so here's some random unorganized trivia off the top of my head, some of which is just stuff that would've applied to the semi-canon (stuff that's only canon if you, the reader, want it to be) like the scrapped ask blog and Glitchy Red Reborn;

RED's favorite Pokémon is Charizard by default. If he was from a Blue or Yellow cartridge, his favorite Pokémon would've been Blastoise or Pikachu respectively. In reality he doesn't have a favorite Pokémon, he tries not to feel anything in particular about the Pokémon his players catch anymore

With the exception of background tiles, visual corruptions in the game are shorthand for blood, bruising, and gore. This kid has seen some shit man (also this means that retold!RED isn't . Well. "Glitchy" like people tend to draw og Glitchy. If he was "glitching" he would just be Bleeding lmfao)

RED would not lash out against younger players, even if they used destructive glitches or cheat codes. His quarrel is solely with adults

RED's general awareness and feelings towards his world, while now warped by his sapience, is dependant on how his player feels towards the game. He only started to become jaded and aware of the fact that he was in a game because of his players' growing disinterest and inability to immerse themselves. Theoretically, if someone played his game and made stuff like MissingNo part of the worldbuilding, they wouldn't feel out of place or as scary to him anymore

RED can feel muted physical sensation through the console he is inhabiting. He can feel the warmth of the sun or of the players' hands, and in Reborn the Narrator buys him stuffed animals and he can actually feel how soft they are to some degree. On a surface level this is very creepy but you get used to it

In-universe (not in-game) RED is not the only one of his kind but he is one of the most uh. Developed cases of Pokémon characters gaining sentience . Don't worry about it

Speaking of RED being really fucking weird, he (or his cartridge) is basically immortal. This one Super doesn't apply to the original story if you don't want it to (except for being hinted at; reread the first description of the cartridge again rq. Yeah.) since it can be kind of silly out of context, but it's also the whole basis for the semi-canon. His cart endlessly restores itself from all damage, though only ever to the extent that it's just barely playable. It would eventually be revealed that if RED was ever truly happy and at peace, he would lose his immortality (which is a good thing. He does Not want to be immortal lmfao)

Uhh last thing he's autistic. This is true for every Red ever but I just thought I would canonize this here this one's not optional DJAJDJAJDJ (this would've been explored more in the ask blog and Is explored a bit more in Reborn but because the formatting of Pokepastas is limiting and he's kind of in a Gameboy Game in a Constant State of Being Retraumatized this can't really come across in the og story rip)

AND one quick fun fact : I wrote the ending of the story First. In my notes app on impulse and then wrote the entire story to lead up to That Moment. I just think it's funny because I like NEVER do stuff like that I barely even heavily plan my stories ahead of time

Hope this lightning-round infodump was to your liking!

[qcomicsy]

I think whats been pushing me more and more to DC is the fact that I'm sick and tired of big boom movies.

Like movies that pass on the span of 1-3 days. There's no development the characters as stagnant, the writers tries to gaslight you the entire time between fight scenes and overly emotional moments that those guys are bonding and actually becoming friends when they don't even know eachother. It feels artificial and you have no moment to breath and care about those characters. But you need to care anyway because- Oh! Another boom moment OOPS the might dieee~~

Like no.

The last movie I've seen from the mcu that felt like it give a shit about it's characters and their development and their bond as human beings were The black widow AND EVEN SO. They managed to push in a stupid fighting in the middle of the air scene.

IN A BLACK WIDOW MOVIE??????????

The entirety of many super-hero movies this days feel like it's trying to distract you from the plot holes with shining explosions and shallow humor instead of, you know? Building a plot.

And I'm not going even start about how many characters are a shallow form of their comic counterparts.

And listen. I like big boom movies. I like explosions, I like big actions sequences and I love LOVE scream at my screen wondering if it all go to hell or they all will make it. It's rewarding it really is. When it has stakes about it.

I think the best example I could give is Transformers and Fast and Furious franchise and listen people can complain about it all they want. It's not perfect and it was many many early-2000's sins and flaws. But anyone who watched for not a single moment, a single minute, question how much those characters care for eachoter. The movies take time to introduce them, to care about their friendship, to stabilize their personality traits, to built and give every now and then little tips about their inner lives and relationships and the fucking world building.

The world building of those movies is insane. It has so much freedom and so little shame (confidence) on what their doing that "Yeah of course students from Tokyo spend their time out of school drifting with cool Y2k cars why wouldn't they?"

Superhero movies most of the time feel like they're ashamed of being super hero movies. They're ashamed of their characters having emotions and they're ashamed about their characters being vulnerable (if isn't for a cool inspirational fight scene that will look cool in a trailer).

We joke and all, but for not a single scene fast and furious were ashamed of showing how much Don Toretto love every single one of his friends. How he would die for each one of them. They hug, they joke, they laugh with eachother between scenes, they feel like a family.

All that mcu characters seems to do this days is be annoyed and complain about every little shit and every single person they claim to love. If you would take a shot everytime a mcu character bitch about something, I don't care how much alcohol you generally can take it, you'd probably end up in a hospital anyway.

Transformers were less pussies about showing a man bonding with a fucking car (with even music montage!), than mcu showing what is supposed to be a literal "found family".

Transformers had more patience of showing world building and show-not-tell about cars who were secretly space-aliens than MCU had for what twenty movies? They literally put an know-it-all character to infodump the shit and then somehow make the audience feel stupid if they don't get it.

for example there's this thing that the main character doesn't know so he goes to the know-it-all character (generally Strange but it used to be Tony), so the know-it-all character roll their eyes because how stupid of the main character not know about the fucking powerful magic pen or whatever who was made by a fucking titan-witch-who-cares-because-it-probably-was-made-it-up-for-this-one-and-only-movie and then get all passive aggressive while they infodump the instructions that the main character is going to fuck-up anyway, because they need a third arc.

Bro I'm tired.

They have no comic accuracy (which you know? whatever at this point. They're doing their own thing anyway), no character development, no respect for it's characters and/or their traumas, no actual interesting world building thats not "oh! look at this refereeeence!!! aren't we coool??? please please tell us were still cool!! 🥺🥺" , no interest in exploring or developing actual bonds and friendships, no terrifying villains, no original plot, no different methods of story telling, WHAT DO THEY HAVE????

COOL EXPLOSIONS??? FIGHTING SCENES????? Its 2022 babes you got that from commercials.

And I'm this pressed because I'm disappointed. Because it used to be great. It used to actually give a shit. Many characters are being introduced to their first time in FOREVER. And now they don't even feel like trying.

We used to go to a movie theater having no idea what they would adapt and how they would portray the character and be pleasant surprised in the different forms of telling a story. Like remember how people used to be friends on mcu?? Actually give a shit about eachoter, actually be pleased about being around eachother. Like-they made Tony Stark seem like a cool chill dude who genuinely cares about people.

They would take actual comic book arcs and introduce to the theaters in a way to explain why their characters are like that, what they stand for, what they represent. The story was made for it's characters not the other way around. It took time and care and innovation.

Fuck they even were better at making military propaganda (which I don't know how to feel about it).

I'm just not excited anymore to watch a movie and than think about it and realize I didn't even enjoy the time I had, because it never fucking stopped to breathe, so I was just stressed the whole time about the big boom thing that wasn't even that good in the end.

It's shallow, it's annoying and I'm not sure if I can do it anymore.

And as a queer person I'm also fucking exhausted about seen straigh people have all the fun all the fucking time, even when the- you know, the actual character? from the comics? Are not even straight in the first place, yeah I'm looking at Peter Quill.

Thanks for coming to my tedtalk fuck Marvel and their constipated repressed ass.

[pinkfey]

a lil infodump abt calpurnia 🌼💛☀️

as said in her initial sims post, she’s super tiny. a 5’0” little minx of a girl. she’s a garuda-blooded aasimar and has larger-scale green/orange/yellow hummingbird wings!! she goes nyoom 🧚

she’s also a sorcerer and her magic comes from her draconic bloodline but oh ho ho that’s not the coolest thing about her !! not ONLY is she related to a copper dragon, she was raised by one :]

enter SOLEIL!!!!! her great-great-great-great-grand-something who took cal in and raised her as a means of fulfilling their end of a bargain they made with their lover a long long time ago. they’re genderfluid and often switch between whichever human forms they deign to take, but their golden eyes remain the same :3 trust me they’re a dilf (dragon i’d like to fuck)

so naturally growing up in a dragon’s den wasn’t the most conventional of lifestyles but boy oh boy cal loves soleil more than anything in the world and it shows. she takes after all their draconic traits, worldly and annoying and unstable and childish, and she’s almost naively loyal to them. but this love isn’t one-sided!! soleil would die for cal and likewise :’)

she’s a quirky lil atheist but she LOVES stories so she really enjoys listening to tristian talk about sarenrae; it’s all a fun tale to her!! soleil did all sorts of things with her—read and dance and craft—so cal takes every opportunity to indulge in things so good for the soul

her magic is explosive and chaotic and when she fights battles she’s as annoying as possible, fluttering her wings and sticking out her tongue and taunting, “i’m here!! oops now i’m over here!!” and yes this is a testament to having been raised by a copper dragon

she wears clothes that can only be described as pixiecore goblincore ratcore dhdjdnfndhd withered skirts and tiny tops and the occasional musty sundress 🤩 but that’s her casual attire!! her mercenary gear is more refined—black and burnt yellow with lots of whimsical gold detailing :D

speaking of mercenaries, how did cal go from carefree dragon’s granddaughter high in the mountains to lowlife merc gunning to become baroness u ask??? the short of it is that she and soleil got separated one night, the townspeople having attempted to kill soleil or at least drive them away, and since then cal has been taking every odd job she can so she can travel around hunting dragons in an attempt to hear rumors of a copper one :[

[asmolemmeeatyouout]

The boys with Autistic! MC! part two ! SFW

(Bc I’m self indulgent and like 5 ppl wanted it so yesyesyes)

(Had my first proper spoonie day in a while today so imma finish this after what 4 months? Whoopsie. Sorry if any of the points overlap I’ve not re read my last post, please shoot me an ask if you want anything clarified/expanded on !)

Lucifer:

Has to stop his brothers from constantly bothering you when you’re overwhelmed (they’re just worried)

You very quickly learn his office is the safest place to be when overwhelmed due to the dim lighting and the brother deterring curse on his doorway

He has a record player and SO much classical music for when you need background noise

This leads to impromptu slow dancing when you insist he needs a break and there’s music playing

If you have your own records, the *smoother ones will end up mixed in with his

*smoother as in less staccato /distracting because he is most likely working

Very much enjoys spending time in silence with you, he finds it comfortng to just exist with someone without having anything needed of him

Especially if you’re both doing your own thing, like you just being in the room with him (playing a game or reading or smthn) while he does his paperwork is so soothing to him

Mammon:

Have you seen his horns? They’re so smooth and shinyyy, a+++ stimming material

He loves head pats so he’ll willingly put his head in your lap when you watch movies

he’s very proud of his demon form but also kind of shy so it’ll take some coaxing to get him to let you touch his horns but when he sees how content it makes you? It’s his new favourite hobby letting you play with his hair and horns during movies

(That said they’re very sensitive (like him) so be gentle)

He WILL adopt your love language and mannerisms:

if you bump people he will start knocking into you constantly, (wrists, hips, shoulders, head, any and all on random repeat)

if you like to collect and give things to people he will a. Hoard them in a little shrine (that he Denys. having) and b. Start looking for things he can give you back

If you rub textures you like you’ll find him stroking your arms/face/jumper right back (sometimes with his face, but only ever in private because he feels vulnerable using such a soft form of affection)

Levithian:

You cannot tell me this man isn’t autistic

Communication is SO! EASY!

Then even If you don’t understand you can just ask. You can just ask and he’ll tell you. None of this ‘figure it out yourself’ nt bullshit

Our baby has anxiety anyway so he’s probably ‘over’ explained it before you can say anything

(Over explained in the sense of nt, personally I love it when ppl get really detailed)

In that case he gets embarrassed about how much he’s talking so it’s your turn to reassure him that he’s not boring you

The solace you get in realising you like all of his autistic traits soothes your own insecurities

That being said your anxiety (if you have it) is matchy matchy so don’t expect him to talk to the cashier for you

He’s very chill with you being non verbal because either he’s absorbed in his own game/anime/show or it means there’s more room for him to talk about his interests

That being said if your special interests/ hyperfixations don’t line up on any given day? The bickering over who’s turn it is to infodump gets intense (this is the one source of all your arguments)

All the other brothers are kind of terrified/jealous of your relationship, especially when they see you talking about a shared special interest because you talk rapid fire and very in-depth. to them it’s almost like you’re talking in code or another language because they know all the individual words but what the everloving fuck are you on about

Asmodeus:

Has specific outfits he wears when he wants you to hug him (which is always). They’re made out of the softest material, or any clothing of his you’ve expressed a texture interest in.

Finds it so amusing when you come rushing over to rub your face against his chest bc mmmmm softsoftsoft

Likes to text you in the morning to see how you’re feeling (and how sensory sensitive you are because god forbid his outfit with chains and jangles stops him from seeing you)

Understands better than Anyone that affection and love can be shown in a whole barrage of ways not just physically

Figures out how you show affection faster than any of the other brothers

Immediately starts reciprocating it (partly bc he’s selfishly trying to make you love him most)

Satan:

Will learn about your special interests so he can engage you on the topic

Is the ONLY person in the house you can talk about any special interest with, no matter how niche because he loves learning (although he does prefer the *academic* side of them rather than pop culture but he will listen to both)

*academic* as in something involving learning about something or crafting or *how* to do something, not just like, maths

You’re pretty much the only person who can keep up with him in terms of knowledge and enthusiasm (even if it’s only for very specific things) and thus you become the person he talks to about his interests

Originally kind of annoyed by how absentminded you are (because you forget several dates) but once you get settled into a routine he starts to find it cute how habitual you are, and then realises it could work to his advantage.

He then schedules a date into your weekly routine (or biweekly depending on your energy levels) so you start to get upset if it’s missed bc it’s part of your routine. (Satan is ridiculously smart and is very much willing to manipulate your routine to his (and yours) advantage, he is a demon after all)

Beelzebub:

Gives the best squishes. He’s just so big he can literally envelope you (in other news he is terrified of hurting you so he’s very nervous at first, he’s used to huggin ppl very gently bc he is a muscle mountain)

Maybe don’t use chew stims around him (unless he’s eating) because seeing you use them will either make him hungry, or he’ll ask to see it and oops it’s been swallowed hope you didn’t want that back (he’s very apologetic he really didn’t mean to but it was in his mouth and chewed before he could think)

Literally the kindest man in the universe, if you have issues with shame or *guilt* (especially if it creeps outta nowhere or it relates to not being able to do something) he will a. Reassure you and give you cuddles until you feel okay (or one on one bonding time if you’re too touch sensitive) then b. Go help with whatever task was too much so you don’t have to worry

Belphagor:

Have I mentioned the stuffies? This boy definitely has a stash of soft toys that all have names and personalities. This originally stemmed from the fact he was locked alone in an attic for a year, he needed some form of company or he was gonna go crazy, and sleeping alone is meh in his opinion. But then he became attached and after you showed him yours? And you weren’t ashamed of your teddy bears or how much you loved them he confided in you about his. (And you had a tea party)

Problems sleeping ? (Me too bud it’s 3.44 am lol) nonononno baby boy has got you, just snuggle up to him and you’ll be snoozing in no time (I HC that being around belphagor just makes you a little sleepy and the longer you’re there the stronger the urge to sleep gets)

You’re at rad (or out in public and can’t leave) and get overstimmed? Belphie has got you! He keeps sunglasses on him so he can secretly sleep when he’s not supposed to. Also (imo) he’s the king of hoodies, both his main outfits have a hood (and you can’t convince me he doesn’t wear one of them over his uniform as soon as lucifer dips), my boy will slip his hoodie on you and wrap you in a hug to get you away from the noise/sights

(I am now too tired to write anymore, hope yall enjoyed!)

[sanguine-madness]

Deimos Headcanons

Because he’s my favorite Bastard™

(Oops, this ended up being super long, so under a cut it goes)

- Oh boy, Deimos... He’s somehow both like a puppy and a working dog that NEEDS to have his attention focused on something otherwise he will get into ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he can get his grubby little hands on.

- 100% the tech guy outside of 2BDamned. Sanford does his best, but he’s more combat focused and Hank... well, Hank’s not exactly technologically ignorant, he’s just more of a “It made a weird noise at me so I punched it” kind of person.

- (going off of another headcanon I saw on a blog) Deimos scavenged up a working DS with a handful of Pokemon games with it. He now doesn’t shut up about Pokemon ever and will gladly infodump everything he knows about it to any (un)willing person that happens to be in the same room.

- Following that, this man will talk your ear off about ANYTHING he likes or catches his interest. He saw a cool broken down car somewhere? That’s easily a ten hour conversation from which he will divert into 50 other topics in the span of seconds. No one knows what he’s talking about anymore.

- Sharp teeth. That is all.

- SO TOUCHSTARVED, OH MY GOD. If Deimos wants affection, he is going to get it one way or another. Again, he’s very much like a puppy even though he’s a grown ass man.

- Compounding the earlier statement, Deimos (going off of the idea that he was once part of the A.A.H.W and had a Bad Time™ before defecting), as much as he WANTS affection, he also doesn’t initiate any sort of contact for fear of both being rejected and being hurt. He’s gotten better thanks to Sanford, but my god, the first few weeks with him and Hank, this boy would spook if someone turned to him too quickly.

- Since Deimos can light his cigarettes with his thumb, I’d like to think that the skin on his fingers are like a matchstick, where it lights up when he snaps his fingers. His fingers probably smell a little bit like matches too, but not too much. Obviously he’d lose this once he becomes a lil Rock Boi.

- This man doesn’t take ANYTHING seriously, at all. This isn’t a headcanon, this is just straight facts, and I just wanted to take this moment to remind people that this is the same man that yeeted Hank’s body at an Agent, and then nearly got his ass shot by Sanford by wearing an Engineer’s mask.

- That’s probably not the first time Deimos has pulled that on Sanford before. He probably does it on the regular, and one of these days, Sanford is gonna pop Deimos in the kneecap just to call his bluff.

- Cue these two idiots coming back to base all covered in bruises, bite marks, scratches, the works. 2BDamned just gives them a look and both of them just go “HE STARTED IT!”. 2B just goes a little bit greyer at that.

- This wouldn’t even the first time those two would get into an actual scuffle because Deimos is a Brat™ that likes pushing buttons as much as he can. He tried it ONCE with MAG Hank, and ONLY ONCE, and that was because Hank isn’t above putting people in their place and will cold cock a bitch if he has to.

- Deimos has probably never shut up about winning whatever bet he made with Sanford in Incident 100a. The dweeb probably considers himself a ‘master tactician’ with 100% conviction. No one obliges him.

- Again, seen in canon, this man has the most ridiculous amount of dumb luck. He somehow avoided being shot while flash banged and also avoided having a building drop on him. Of course this only enables his inability to take anything seriously and more often than not, gets him into trouble because “Psh, what’s the worst that could happen?” “Deimos, there is a knife sticking out of your back.” “Yeah, but it didn’t kill me so what’s your point?”.

[the-dc-killjoy]

4x12 - Old Souls

Wynonna Earp's over. I'll do pretty much anything to get another season, but shows (not that I think that this show could ever get to that point. id still love WE even if it turned into whatever Grey's Anatomy's doing rn) shouldn't overstay their welcome. If this is the end, than it was a damn fine ending!

-

The cute.

I've been watching Martina sing since I was 11 years old, and it still puts a smile on my face. Rachel was iconic as always, and I'm gonna miss the most recent addition to the Earp family. I can just imagine the chaos of her, her not really but kind of boyfriend, and Randy Nedley on a tiny boat in the middle of nowhere. Poor Nedley. Let's hope Chrissy remains the only one of his many daughter figures to catch mono.

Speaking of mononucleosis- that's such an awful transition that i'm keeping it, I believe that Wayhaught has officially christened the entire homestead. Bedroom, The Stairs, kitchen floor, barn- short of just going to pound town (i'm not getting any better with sex references tonight. am i) in a patch of grass outside, they've got everything covered. Or nothing covered if you know what i mean. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Am I getting better now?

-

The random.

Nedley walking Nicole down the isle, Wynonna walking Waverly down the isle, Doc being Waverly's best man, and Wynonna being Nicole's best friend (no she will not take a secondary title. best friend will go on her tombstone)- sigh, i'm so gay. i can't really explain what that has to do with these circumstances, but i am and this makes me happy. Rachel and Nedley (and Billy was there somewhere right?) being the only people in attendance made this the perfect pandemic wedding even though there wasn't actually a pandemic in Earp land. I was the living embodiment of the pleading face emoji when they panned over the chairs. Doll's chair hurt me. like deeply. like i'm still suffering. there aren't words. fuck, i miss him.

On a lighter note, Waverly said fuck (like eight times)!!! She technically said it already, but chainsmoking-angelic possession doesn't count, right?

I'm glad that Jeremy has this new thing with Damon, but I kinda wish things had worked out with him and Robin. He officiated a wedding, got promoted, and got a handsome date in one afternoon, so I can't be too sad about his adorable self.

Charlotte Sullivan, the jilted dress shop owner/witch, played one of the earliest (in my knowledge at least. this show was my brother's thing not mine) representation of a bi woman in Canadian media. I don't know too much about her Rookie Blue character, but if you can have tolerated the will-they-wont-they, end of the world romance of the main character's kinda mediocre relationships for a couple more seasons, I'm sure you'll find out! By the nature of Canada having 16.87 actors in total, I tend to see a lot of overlap, and I have to infodump about that somewhere. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Earping callbacks! Wynonna's truck, her motorcycle, the bullet proof vest, Nedley and Nicole's father-daughter thing, Waverly never saying the f-word (and subverting that), i'm all in, even Rachel always being stuck with juice while the adults are drinking- perfect! We had a little bit of the usual supernatural insanity, but this episode was wall to wall fanservice, and it was perfectly in-character fanservice. That's the way to go! It didn't feel forced or awkward and the edited mailbox will make me tear up on rewatch

-

The relationship. (aka i wanna talk about wyndoc and had no outline when i started this thing)

The Wyndoc goodbye was beautiful. I'm not into the whole you need one person to complete you kinda thing, but the implication that it didn't have to be romantic (implying that Wynonna's person was Waverly) was great. I felt that the scene worked perfectly, and might have been fine leaving it there if there was another season clearly on the horizon. With the fact that this was the series finale (i sighed so hard typing that. my poor lungs), I'm glad that they got their own happy ending.

-

The analysis.

Nicole's and Wynonna's as individual characters mirror each other in so many ways, but I'm just gonna wax poetic about one: their relationship with the GRT. Wynonna was hurt by the town, badly. She grew up with a steady stream of shitty adults and a few who told her to shake the demons out of her head and embraced the tough love mantra. It made a lot of sense that she left as an adult. Waverly was most likely the only reason she didn't skip town before that.

Nicole had a negative integer of adult role models in her life, with the murdered aunt and uncle and the whatever-the-fuck her parents were trying to be. Sure, a little trip to the Ghost River Triangle left her with trauma that she spent a lifetime repressing, but what's a little surviving a massacre under the six year old girl bridge. Am I right?

In their early lives, these characters had nothing but negative experiences in the aptly named town of Purgatory. Wynonna was drawn back into town by Curtis' letter just in time for her 27th birthday, and Nedley applied for Nicole to start working as a cop. Neither of them directly chose to come back to the Ghost River Triangle, but both of them did have the final say.

Wynonna decided pretty early on that she was going to stay no matter what. She already abandoned her sister once. How could she do it again with all of these monsters lurking in the shadows. As time went on, her circle of people expanded, but Waverly has always been the person that fight through hell and high water for. Even when fighting wasn't necessary, when it hurt her much more than it helped anything, she did it anyways because it was the only thing she could do to protect her sister. Wynonna thought it was the only thing she could do at all. This entire season, she's been fighting a war with herself, and her leaving, Waverly telling her that it was okay to leave, was the first time that took a break, took a breath since she arrived in Purgatory on her 27th birthday. Her child and the man she loves are out in the world, but she will be back with them at her side. Maybe after a quick road trip, maybe after a few years, but she will be back.

Nicole spent a majority of season 1 and 2 feeling like an outsider. Season 3 came with the realization that these people were her family and the Ghost River Triangle was her home. Early season 4 kinda shat all over that, oops. The rest of this season has been her finding her footing again. Nicole was a wandering soul, but she voluntarily staked herself to the land, vowing to protect it and the people within its borders for the rest of her life without the ability to leave, and she doesn't regret it. Her wife, her family, her people are all in this one not-so-sleepy Canadian town.

Nicole found her place, after a lifetime of searching, and Wynonna left, temporarily, after a lifetime of feeling trapped. They might seem like opposites, but both women call the same place home.

-

Originally, I watched this show was to cope with the ending of Agents of SHIELD (which I kind of used to cope with the ending of Killjoys, which featured Emily Andras as a writer in season 1 and has near identical humor, found family, and a healthy serving of gay and wow this is turning into a bit of advertisement isn't it), but it wormed its way into my heart. I've never quite seen a show like this. Never seemed interested in a western, even a sci-fi western. Never saw the gay couple reach OTP status both in fandom and canon. I've never seen so many fan conventions dedicated to just one show. I usually stay for just one character (and Wynonna has become one of my all time favorite characters), but I find myself connecting with so many of the beautiful people being brought to life on my screen. Wynonna, Waverly, Nicole, Rachel, Dolls, Jeremy, Doc, Nedley and so many other hilarious and heartbreaking characters make this show, and every single human who played a part in this self-proclaimed shitshow deserves a round of applause and a swig of whiskey.

The end.

[kaminawi]

HCs for adhd Kaminari Denki with an autistic s/o!!

Aight so I have a hc that Denki has ADHD cause well I mean look at that boy and tell me he doesn’t,,,,so like this is kinda based offa that hehe oops

He is. So excited when he learns you have ASD

Cause like

!!!!!!Brain buddies y’know

The moment he realizes he’s in love with you is when you got really deep into infodumping about your latest special interest to him one day

Your eyes lit up, you had a huge smile on your face, you sounded so passionate about whatever it was, you were happy stimming in a way he found so adorable, and he just sat there with a dumb smile on his face basking in your glow and that’s when he realized that he was deeply in love with you

He spends a lot of time flirting with you but you never seemed to get his hints which upset him at first but then he remembers people with ASD often have a hard time understanding some things when they aren’t said in a blunt, obvious way.

So this boy spends h o u r s thinking up good ways he can flirt with you so that you’ll be able to realize that he’s flirting without him being too straightforward and awkward

Eventually he just kinda accidentally blurts out that he loves you after you’ve finished infodumping one day. You stare at him for a couple long seconds processing what he said until your face lights up and you become a flustered, blushing, excited, stimming, mess.

When you confess your love back you both turn into excited balls of stim driven energy and it’s the cutest thing in the entire world.

When you guys start dating, you get shared special interests/hyperfixations so you two will sit down and talk about whatever that is for hours and when you aren’t talking about it you’ll be watching/playing/engaging in it and when you aren’t doing that you’ll be sending each other memes about it (if it’s really niche this angel will make memes about it to send you)

The bakusquad is low key annoyed about it because you guys have been talking about this one thing for weeks now and you both know so much about it that you could teach an entire class about it. But you guys don’t care

He will use cheesy pickup lines related to your special interest. Denki is and will always be a huge flirt and will adapt his technique to whatever gets you laughing or blushing the most

He will also use pet names related to your special interests which may not make sense to everyone else but you think it’s the sweetest thing ever

Denki will plan dates to go to places that involve your special interests but you’ll both have to make sure the other is not spending too much money on stuff that you might be over in a couple weeks.

Speaking of dates!! Denki understands the struggle of sensory processing disorder so he will always make sure to have two sets of ear plugs and two sets of sunglasses with him at all times when you guys are out on dates. You guys also often go on dates at really weird times of the day when he thinks places won’t be as busy because he wouldn’t want either of you to have to go through sensory overload and ruin the fun date

If you do go into sensory overload and/or have a meltdown he will throw some earphones and sunglasses on you and get you out of there so fast you would think he swapped quirks with Iida

He’ll take you back to his place and if you’re okay with touch he will cuddle you for as long as it takes to get you comfortable again

If you like pressure stims he will lay on you until you tell him to get off or until he gets scared that he’s crushing you or if you prefer he’ll hug you super tightly while gently rubbing your back

If you aren’t a big fan of touching he’ll lay you down in his bed and he’ll sit there with you until you’ve calmed down

Afterwards you guys will sit together and watch the movie/show you’ve seen enough times to know every single word while eating your favourite food

Oh!! Also!! Since Denki also stims, you guys pick up on each other stims a lot and share new stim toys you’ve found! They others definitely notice and tease you both about it but the girls all think it’s the cutest thing of all time

Speaking of stims,,,,,,,run! your! hand! through! his! hair! It feels amazing for him and it’s so fluffy and nice for you too! It’s a win win situation!!

He also likes to activate a small voltage of his quirk in his hands because it feels nice and tingley and when he finds out you like how it feels too, he’ll grab your hands and do it all the time (while being super careful not to accidentally electrocute you) so that he can see your cute, happy smile

You guys know all of each other’s harmful stims, what they mean, and how to stop them. If you’re hitting yourself in any way he’ll carefully grab your hands and lightly squeeze them in a pulsing sort of way until you calm down. If he’s hitting his wrists together you’ll grab them and play patty cake with him for a while until he calms down

If you ever go non-verbal/semi-verbal he will assist you throughout the day as much as you want him to when it comes to communicating with others. He knows you so well that he always just seems to know what you’re trying to say even if you’re having a difficult time charading it out. He secretly things it’s adorable to watch you point to things and make cute little frustrated faces but he’ll never tell you that

All in all, you guys are perfect together. This boy is so whipped for you. He loves you more than anything in the entire world and will do anything to see your beautiful smile and happy stims.

I could write so much more but I feel like this is already going on for a bit too long 😅

[roamngreenwoods]

Wait please infodump about the gay edwardian authors!! I’m going thru a gay edwardian lit phase rn and it sounds really interesting

I… may have written a giant mess of words that tangentially orbit your ask. thank you so much for asking me though, it feels so good to have someone actually ask me to talk about this :)

 you can basically track all these authors in degrees of separation from each other! (note: i have gone back to wikipedia to refresh my memory, but i am a conscious wikipedia reader! I do obsessively read wk pages but I also mostly back that up with books or peer-reviewed sources. Anyway, I’m not making any arguments here that would require citation, just rambling on stuff I read.):

a) Bram Stoker’s admiration of Walt Whitman. They are actually Victorians, oops :/ no one actually knows if Bram Stoker was gay, but there’s enough of an argument to write part of a book on his ambiguous sexuality (which i read, Something in the Blood by David J Skal), He was an Irish author in the period, so he also knew Oscar Wilde. He wrote a fan letter to Walt Whitman saying that he loved his work, and if I remember right its pretty horny admiring. I’m imagining Richard Siken gets these letters daily lmao

Speaking of, Walt Whitman is another one of those authors who I studied in college under the misapprehension that he was straight, and his homosexuality (mostly agreed on. unless you’ve been on wikipedia talk pages. which. don’t) was never mentioned, despite one of my lit units being on ‘queer lit’. I think from reading some of his poems, and from reading some arguments on his sexuality, it’s pretty fair to say that he was gay.

This is long enough, but I just need to interject that Herman Melville was another victorian gay that has a fascinating life, especially his life off the sea. I read The Whale, which is a fictionalisation of his (gay, though never fully requited) love for Nathaniel Hawthorne, which is just a wonderful example of a book that I need a million of: not cited to the letter, but picks up a gay historical figure and RUNS.

b) John Singer Sargent! is not actually an author, but a painter. A lot of people think of him as “boring” (a description by one of my professors!!) but i will fight them. he is not confirmed to be gay (a running theme here), but there’s a great book called Sargent the Sensualist, which goes through his drawings and paintings and discusses the theory of his homosexuality and just the greater sensuality of his work, which is obviously convincing to me, and maybe to you too if you look at some of his lesser known watercolors and sketches. 

He was also pretty introverted and had social anxiety, and turned down any opportunities to lecture. He’s most known in Britain, but never wanted to be British (see my rant on how he turned down a knighthood bc it meant he would become a British citizen, ok British curators?), but he wasn’t quite an American either. He did the Boston Public Library murals though, basically an explosion of gilding and naked men. He was born in Florence and educated in Italy and France. He was basically a working artist from an extremely young age, which fascinates me. He produced art almost mechanically when it came to his commissions, but there was still some level of personality, especially his sketches and watercolors. 

Apparently, when Sargent lived in London, he was neighbours with Oscar Wilde, although I can’t find (internet) evidence of them being great friends. Oscar never got a portrait out of it, which many of Sargent’s friends did.  There was some kind of passage I read about him in a book once which was to the effect of ‘he went to parties for the eating and not the talking’ which… embarrassingly relatable. Also, there was a bio of him that said “A good American, when he is born, is born in Florence” which… you got me there.

c) idk if you’ve read Brideshead Revisited, but it’s one of the seminal simultaneously gay and (self-)homophobic works lol. Evelyn Waugh was in multiple romantic and sexual relationships with men in the first half of his life, but also was well known to be the Worst Person, he was just unstoppable lmao. He was in a club at Oxford where he just fed his alcoholism and had relationships with gay men who went on to become random high-ranking members of British society. He bullied Cecil Beaton in school, (queer photographer and costume designer) and Beaton remembered it for like his whole life. He eventually converted to Catholicism late in life (you’ll recall this is also Donna Tartt’s life trajectory, at least as far as her public narrative goes. I refer to her as having “done a Waugh”, aka writing about gay class themes and then converting to Catholicism later). 

Waugh has to be the most critical of the entire British upperclass aesthetic movement in the edwardian era, partly because he was part of it, and partly because society seems to have warped him into the bitterest, most broken man maybe ever. There’s an 80s tv series of BR with Jeremy Irons, which chronicles a transition from idylic upperclass leisure to a nihilist World War hellscape and made me so depressed i had to stop after 6/8 hours. 

There’s a bio of Waugh called Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited, which I got from the library but then never read, which spawned my favourite Waugh review literally ever: “A detailed, readable, and sympathetic bio of one nasty, little shit”  Also, a 2008 movie with Ben Whishaw, Matthew Goode, and Haley Atwell (alas! the perfect cast, but condensing 8 hours into 2 didn’t work so good :/) There’s also a series that maybe defies all odds to be good, of Waugh’s book Decline and Fall, which I haven’t read the book of, but Jack Whitehall did really good with the series. Of course, Evelyn would hate it though, he hated everything.

d) The Bloomsbury Group. Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield (author of The Garden Party, which I had to read in a lit class) and DH Lawrence were all members. Apparently Waugh was in the outer orbit of that group at some point as well, although I can’t confirm that. I just feel betrayed that we read Mansfield, Melville, Hawthorne, and Whitman in one semester and my professor didn’t mention in the gay lit unit that half the authors we read were probably gay. I honestly haven’t read that much about them as a group but I enjoy Ottoline Morrell’s candid photos of them. The idea of an intellectual set is far removed from 2020, that’s for sure. 

e) with E. M. Forrester we can say: he was gay! (feels good!) Forster knew Edward Carpenter (kind of an edwardian equivalent of a gay rights activist? idk if i can say that?), who in turn knew Walt Whitman and DH Lawrence. Forrester was also in the circle of Benjamin Britten (of Moonrise Kingdom fame, sorry to my dad), Christopher Isherwood, and Siegfried Sassoon. He wrote the novel Maurice, which I can’t recommend enough if you’re interested in gay edwardians. In terms of density, I would say the prose is on the level of The Great Gatsby, so it’s shockingly easy to read through the whole book in a single sitting.

 It’s a gay book, written in 1912, with a happy ending. That alone. my tumblr url, roamngreenwoods, is based on a quote by Forster, who says that main characters Maurice and Alec “still roam the greenwood”, or that nothing bad happens to them after the book ends. Waugh and Forster have similar ideas of British upper class homoromantic relationships and their toxicity, but while Waugh’s satirical characters sink into Catholic guilt and alcoholism, and gay characters punish themselves or are punished by society; Forster’s characters come to terms with their sexuality, and after initial adversity become happy together. Forster even takes on British classism at the same time, which although it’s a little awkward now for the time was not exactly common. (whew got into essay writing mode there haha). Anyway it was also turned into a formative movie (in my life) by Merchant and Ivory in 1987, starring Hugh Grant and Rupert Graves. It’s on Kanopy, so if you have a library card it’s likely it would be free for you. I could write a whole separate post on that movie, and I almost have here. I won’t make this longer by talking about the cinematography, but the cinematography

This is by no means ‘the comprehensive gay edwardians’, I have been deliberately avoiding the Bright Young Things/Bright Young People, because I honestly haven’t read as much about them, and I’m sure there’s been a comprehensive book that does it better, but these are just the different things that got caught in my brain at some point in the past 2 years :) this mess is now yours <3

[dolldirector]

Fallen Realm Playlist Masterpost

Big infodump under the read more, if you like my OCs and/or agree with my flawless music taste this should be interdasting

1. MUSE - Thought Contagion

Vampire stuff, punk vibes, a nod to thriller, all of the above fit the mood of a FR show + the song is genuinely very good and I could see it being used on stage easily.

2. PAIN - Call Me

Absolute banger. But that's besides the point. I see this as being the bassist Jez/Jamie's song (with a side of Deuce as the second vocalist). Jez is a fairly quiet lad who generally keeps to himself but I always imagined that he’d be secretly very flirty and cheeky, but would mostly only really express it via music. I actually wrote a lil short story where most of FR's band (minus Rex and Isabella) find themselves in some dive bar after a show, and end up performing in the place of the no-show band that was meant to be there that night. That band ends up being the very same one that kicked Jez out, so it’s a bit of a revenge story for him. This short is on my discord by the by.

3. Emigrate - Eat You Alive

Oh boy, this is a strong one. Basically, just watch this video but pretend that Axl is Richard (the frontman). That’s it. That’s the explanation.

Being serious though, RZK is and always has been a huge influence for Axl's visual design, mannerisms and on-stage behaviours. On top of that, this is 100% the type of music he'd listen to, and the lyrics may as well just be plucked right outta his brain. Are the words meant to be aimed at Valeriya in a threatening way? Or is it a cheeky flirt with Trinity? Both? Neither? We’ll never know.

Also, completely unrelated I’m sure, here’s a wip you may or may not be able to force me to finish on stream via channel points soon...

4. Axel One - Out of the Dark

Can't exactly say much about this one cause it's spoilers, but I will say it's less about the song itself and more about the video, and that it does concern the one FR character who is already dead when the story begins.

5. Lord of the Lost - Raining Stars

Just seems to me like a real good song to perform to. I can imagine seeing acrobatic stunts in slow-mo to this track. That’s it for this one, just “I just think they’re neat”. Gorgeous song and video by an amazing band anyway though.

6. Oomph! - Supernova

Kinda the same deal as the Emigrate song, you can just insert Axl into this one in Dero’s place, along with Jez, Vlad, and Thatch. Once again the style and lyrics fit him perfectly, and this one earns bonus points since Dero is actually Axl's canon voiceclaim - specifically in this era of Oomph!’s music too.

7. Die Kreatur - Kälter als der Tod

At the risk of this thread becoming Oops All Axl TM - AH YES. This one is perfect for the point where Axl finally gets the fuck over himself, and stops being horrible to Vlad because of guitar jealousy, and they become bros.

Realistically, I doubt that Vlad - the clueless human vampire fanatic - will ever realise that Axl is a real actual vampire, but he'd be so glad that they seem to have this ~shared interest~ in them, and he'd by hyped as heck to do a performance like this with his guitar buddy. By the way, Vlad wonders to himself, isn’t it odd that he’s never seen Axl putting his fake fangs in?? Weird

As for the girl on the altar, there are a couple ideas I’ve toyed with. Random audience member for fun. Trinity but Axl gets mad jealous even though he thought and said he wouldn't. (No sharing!! Not even for jokes.) Valeriya but the poor thing is scared to the point of tears because this is just a little too close to a real experience for her and Vlad just can't figure out why. Axl insists she’s just being dramatic. Rex has to rescue her because she’s too shy to put her foot down.

Or perhaps Isabella would wanna join in, but she can't take it seriously and keeps laughing which just causes a chain reaction every time with even Axl cracking a smile. There are like a million cut takes now. Send help.

All in all a fun crossover to think about.

8. Adelitas Way - Still Hungry

This one is just Diesel’s anthem. This is the story of a young punk who can’t stop, won’t stop, never gives up and needs more. Right kinda music for him too.

9. MONO INC. - Shining Light

100% a full-cast song. I feel like the lyrics apply to a number of different things about various members of the circus' backstories, and their found family vibe together - if you think about them in super vague terms, at least. I liked to consider the vocals a duet between Rex and Isabella, being the two singers, but there are a couple lines that are kinda too adult for Bella and would make the duet sorta odd so ehhh 90% of it can be that, let’s say. (This is baring in mind that Isabella is an orphaned minor and Rex is like a father figure for her - as he kinda is for many of the members of the circus)

I also did a doodle of this. This one will also be on the force-me-to-work-on-this-WIP-live pile.

9.5. Lacrimosa - Lichtgestalt a.k.a the original version of Shining Light

Same song, just German and carrying a much darker, creepier tone. It fits in new, fun ways.

10. Oomph! - Viel zu Tief

OOPS ALL AXL TM

Lyrics are very important for this one. Once again, music is the right style, Dero is still his voiceclaim, and Axl actually speaks German in canon (and NO I didn’t do that just so Oomph! songs fit him better, shUT UP)

11. Pet Shop Boys - It’s a Sin

Bit out of left field for this playlist, sure, but with all the controversy and extremely shakey morals in FR's world and with its characters, this one just seems fitting. Plus I'd want em to cover it for a show. Banger.

Honorable mention goes to Ghost’s cover of this song. I don’t even listen to Ghost but my reaction upon finding out this exists was like “lmao yes, of course, why wouldn’t they”.

This song in general I associate instinctively with Vlad, purely because its 80s and campy and I feel like he’d be the type to listen to Ghost.

12. Destiny Potato - Lunatic

Very strongly feel this is a performance song featuring Isabella. This song fits the character - and in particular her tragic backstoryTM pretty well. I’d even go so far as to say the singer would be a pretty good voiceclaim for her if her voice wasn’t meant to be more robotic in canon. This is pretty close to what I imagine, though. Strong n sweet.

13. Nightwish - I Want My Tears Back

One of the first songs I imagined to go well with stage performances. This one for sure would be a duet between Rex and Isabella.

Plus at about 3:10 there's a long solo with a bit of back-and-forth between the guitar and hurdy gurdy (I think?) that I could 100% see Axl and Vlad doing on guitar and keytar respectively.

14. Lord of the Lost - Drag Me To Hell

Yeah this one is just Axl @ his ex

15. Lindemann - Steh Auf!

Bleib nicht liegen, es wär schade - Zirkus ist heut in der Stadt

So, this would be from Isabella’s perspective. Did I mention she was orphaned? Yeah. I guess this one is a little dark.

16. Otetsu & GUMI - Disordered Self-Restraint Girl

The song itself seems to be the story of a child who is trying to coax their parent/guardian into getting up and doing things, not realising that parent had passed away from a drug overdose. Drugs isn’t the way Isabella’s parents died, but the rest of the song fits that part of her backstory imo. Plus, it’s German, and Isabella is German, so yay!

Uh oh, vocaloid.

For a long time I've associated this one with Valeria, and her feelings towards the circus in the early days. After she's accidentally turned by Axl, Val gets effectively kidnapped by FR, taken in before she can even regain consciousness and completely against her will, since it would be incredibly irresponsible of them to just leave a fresh new vampire out in the world so they kinda don't have a choice. While she eventually finds her place and elects to stay after some time has passed, there was a period of time where she definitely would have felt trapped.

This is without even going into the fact that she's now stuck travelling and living with her would-be murderer, and - due to the fact that half of the circus don't even know non-humans exist, let alone what actually happened to Valeria - many of the people around her don't seem to care, or simply do not understand why she's so scared and stressed. It leaves her, at times, feeling like she could be killed tomorrow and nobody would give a shit.

Showtime, katanamochi bunbun furimawashi kubi kara ue hanetobashite mo - ashita ni nareba minna motodoori, waratte yurushite

Translation: Showtime, even if a sword wielder slices my head and makes it fly off, tomorrow everything continues as usual, smiling, forgiving

(Don't worry, in reality Rex, Diesel, and Thatch are there for her & understand the shit she's going through. I promise the folks in the circus do actually care. It's just hard for her to see it in this period of time.)

(There will almost definitely be more songs and doodles added here in the future, but for now that’s all folks!)