#(That's why I've been focused more on answering asks than continuing the comic)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hello

You spark joy

That is all

Good day

Marie Kondo can’t get rid of me now

[burningcheese-merchant]

I have. A few things to say! First of all, thank you for writing for here (and there, but I do not have an AO3)! I’m very in much love with someone going crazy for another and *mwah* do you do it right and justice! That said, prioritize yourself! Drink water! Eat! Do not burn out, and do not feel pressured to do stuff! I hope that your spark burns for long after this fandom!

Thank you so, so much for your kind words! I know you sent multiple asks, so I'm going to try to respond to the first two in one post, if that's ok! (I'll answer the PitayaFire one separately)

Don't you know that the truest, most profound kind of love is born not beneath the soft, pale light of the full moon, not in the sound of a pair's steps as they dance the night away, not within the warmth and security of a tender embrace, but within the walls of the solitary confinement cell in the "dangerous and violent" housing section of a psych ward? LOL jk. It's really fun writing a lovesick/obsessed person for some reason. I don't have this dynamic for any of my other ships, this is the first time I've opted to explore a darker, more uncomfortable and unstable route/interpretation of a "relationship" and it's honestly been a blast lol. (I DO also ship mutual BurningCheese, but under specific conditions, AKA Burning Spice has a redemption arc and GC falls for him on her own. I just can't justify them being together if he's still evil. So long as he is, the love is one-sided)

I really am grateful for your compliments and encouragement. I've got a super big and important BurningCheese fic in the oven rn, but I do need to actually focus on real life for a bit, so it'll be some time. I'll be posting drabbles on here and a fic or two on AO3 where BS is NOT dangerously insane, just a regular asshole who's down bad lol

You can rest assured that my crazy diamond will continue shining on long after I get tired of these games about talking cookies. I always loved writing, it's my favorite hobby and it's my only way of expressing my creativity since I can't draw to save my life. I actually have a 100% original work I've been tinkering with for a loooong time, but I always wanted that story to be told in comic form, and to do that... I have to learn to draw lol. (And that's... a really big mountain to climb. I want to climb it more than anything, but I don't know if I can. Feels like I keep slipping and falling on my ass every time I try to take and retake the first step on the first rock, you know? Idk how anyone does it, honestly...) In any case, I'm truly grateful for you and everyone else who bothers to look at my work and actually thinks it's good for some reason

Did you see that gacha animation though 👀 The way BS is looking at her 👀 y'all can't tell me he ain't thirsty. Look at that twinkle in his eye. Look at that smile. He wants to tear up more than just those wings, I'm telling you 👀 Shadow Milk is a silly billy, he thinks puppet shows and gaslighting are how you flirt with people. Mystic Flour is probably just like "what. What is this. Who is this man. Why is he handsome. Why do I feel this way. Emotions are futile. Love is ephemeral. I will not stray from the path. I will trap him in my mind prison and torture him. That will fix it. He will surrender to apathy. He will return my soul jam. He will see how smart and correct I am. Cloud Haetae will sing my praises to him until he believes them. Yes. That is what will happen. Victory is mine. I am Very Normal about this." Burning Spice? Down horrendous. Down crazy. When GC is there, it's like no one else is in the room. Won't stop smiling. Only mentions the Soul Jam once, focuses on her specifically the whole rest of the time. First real thing he says to her is how much she impresses him. Throws a tantrum after their fight essentially because she didn't step on him hard enough. Down bad. Down bad. Down bad. Ain't no way he isn't. You can't change my mind

Sorry for rambling. TL;DR: Yo Socrates, it's a fucking cookie (also thank you for your support)

[slayemal-na-nerate]

//Okay, so obviously, it's been more than a few weeks, but I've had a lot more complications come up that I don't feel like listing entirely right now, and my mental health continues to be a struggle. That being said, I've put out the majority of the most pressing fires, and I do think writing helps improve my mental health when I get into a groove with it, so I'm going to end my hiatus on a couple blogs in the next week or two, primarily Bruce Wayne and Garrett Hawke. Raven and my CW Flash oc, Leia Morales, might become active again as well if people show any interest in them. I'm not really feeling much muse for Aya right now, and Lavellan will have to at least wait until I finish Veilguard (even though I expect to be ignoring a good portion of canon based on spoilers I've been exposed to). My Star Wars and Riordanverse muses will remain on hiatus until I can muster up the enthusiasm to re-engage with the source materials. Whenever that eventually happens, I'll likely be focusing on Damus Tall, one of my Zabrak twins on this blog, because he's the least depressingly affected by his trauma, which is a nice break from how heavy things can get with my other muses.

In the week or two leading up to the hiatus ending for at least two of my blogs, I'll be working on replies I owe (although, I might need to pause a couple threads that don't come naturally to me and take more effort to write right now), trying to finish Veilguard, and working on the last of my especially pressing irl issues. I don't expect to get all that done, but the only official roadblock to the hiatus ending will be finishing replies. Most, if not all, of those are for mutuals on discord, so if it seems like I'm taking a while but posting little to nothing on any of my blogs, that's why. The week or two I've given myself is a generous estimate to allow me to not rush through everything and overwhelm myself. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to plot things in advance or send asks, though only the former will receive a response before the hiatus is officially over. Replies to asks and thread responses I don't already owe will start post-hiatus, again focusing on Bruce and Hawke only, unless Leia and Raven have any interest shown towards them. Fun fact: Bruce is actually meant to share a canon with Raven, which would make her 24 (same age as the mun) currently; I'll likely add a verse to explain what's gone on with her for the past decade, but I'd probably still default to her teenage self to answer any asks. Whenever I get around to reading the Nightwing comics with the old team back together, that might change, but the truth is, she's just not fun to write consistently during a time where the team isn't together, and I don't think it'd be fun for others to engage with that version of her all the time. It's the same reason I tend to default to act 2 or a relatively happy portion of act 3 for Hawke when answering asks, except at least his self-destructive behaviors can make for more interesting interactions than Raven's complete isolation from the world after their respective breaking points.

Anyway, TLDR: Batman and default purple mage Hawke from DA2 will be coming back in a week or two. Veilguard will be largely ignored and/or altered when added to verses for my Dragon Age muses, but I'm not bringing Lavellan back until I finish it. I always have a lot of muse for Raven and Leia, so they could come back too, but only if it seems like people might actually engage with them. All other muses are on the back burner. Hiatus on the aforementioned blogs will officially end after I finish any replies I owe (mostly or entirely on Discord). I expect that to happen in the next week or two. I'll reply to PMs for plotting, but asks and new starters won't be responded to until I finish what I already owe (still welcome to send them my way before then if you're okay waiting til then, though). Post-hiatus, anything left unanswered without a request to pause is just something I'm not aware it was my turn for. I'll work on a thread tracker eventually, but until then, just message me. Expect replies to be slow, at least to start, but I'll try to get back to each thread within a week. See you guys soon if you write for DC or Dragon Age!

[dyrewrites]

In honor of WiP Wednesday...clowns?

I shared a little of this one before, but there's more now, so you're getting more. It's not explicit but it might be suggestive, and a long snip, as this is everything I have so far.

Warning, it is silly and weird and I've no explanation for a single bit of it. But under the cut goes the clown horror wip...that isn't horror quite yet but certainly teasing it.

Enjoy?

--

I never cared for clowns. Not because of any phobias related, or even bad memories. There was simply something off about a man in that much face paint and lycra smiling all the time.

You read right, lycra.

The clown staring at me from across the party last night was either going for a sexy interpretation or mixing up the circus and a King's court. In monochrome even, which was somehow worse.

A jester in black lycra with over-sized buttons, a jingling hat and a bright red nose. His face was painted white, with a big black exaggerated smile and matching hearts smeared over his eyes. Hair tucked up in the hat with all of his skin covered by that lycra mess, its color too dark to gauge any real body beneath. 

He was a jester-shaped hole in reality, with comically large white gloves floating in nothing and that stupid nose glowing in a glaring lack of color.

And he was staring. At me.

A trick of the lights made his wide eyes as red as the nose, but he was definitely staring...and dancing. Gloves flashing around in a blur as he approached. I wanted to ignore the attempt but damnit if he wasn’t on rhythm. Never mind the goofy grin, infectious through the greasy black smear of lips.

Try as I might to scoff, to sneer, he made me smile long before he reached me.

God, I hate clowns.

A testament, really, to his skill. Or the sinewy muscles and broad shoulders made clearer when he stopped a few feet away.

To bow with flourish, “Good sir knight, might I share your company?”

Eloquent, near-cooed, and I should have noticed how easily I heard him over the pounding bass of the music.

But I was too focused on the words.

See, I’d come to the party dressed as a black knight. In real armor, well, custom made of a light alloy. Had a friend with her own forge and an obsessive love affair with all things middle ages. It wouldn’t have withstood a joust or anything—too thin, meant to be a show I could dance in—but it was real, down to the chain mail shirt underneath.

Which is to say I’d heard those exact words all night from all manner of clowns. But none dressed like one, so I accepted. In character, as clearly that was what we were doing, right?

Playing parts.

“And why would one such as I wish to be seen with a fool?”

“Fair point, good sir, fair point...but you’ve not seen me dance.”

It was a dumb game, but a fun one. Back and forth we went, speaking in nonsense versions of what we assumed our costumes represented. Then we danced.

And the fool wasn’t playing around, he could dance. We became a spectacle for it, as I couldn’t keep up, resigning to my position as ‘pole’ while he slithered and writhed and gyrated around me. On me. So close I could feel his pulse through the tight, thin fabric he wore. Fabric I ached to tear off him before the song ended…

A desire he stoked by ending with his tongue on mine. So quick he grabbed and so quick I sunk. Warm, wet and ever so slightly tingling that kiss.

But he broke it, if slow and sweet, to ask, “does sir knight wish to retire to bedchambers, and continue our dance?”

In character still. A damned delight it was, truly, as it was to play along, “thou art a faster moving fool than I am accustomed.”

“Mm, sir knight speaks true,” more delicious teases of tongue on my ear, gloves too warm toying with my hair as he cooed, “yet he has not answered.”

Gasping for the voice so close, and perhaps the knee so gently placed between my legs, I didn’t keep quite to character, “God yes.”

We were serenaded by howls when he giggled and lifted me to his hips...to walk me out of the house we’d been in. I can’t even remember whose house it was, if I knew them or not. It was just one of those things you hear about on Halloween, you know?

“Hey, there’s a party going on over here. Free beer.”

Magic words those.

Magic clown too, far as I was concerned, what with how he managed to pick me up so easily. My armor was no light affair and I’m no small man, but he seemed to be. Then again, it could be all the free beer muddying my recollection.

Would explain what followed.

I don’t remember much of the ride home, but I remember it was my home we were headed to in a ride that I didn’t pay for with hands and lips and tongues continuing their salacious assault. Those gloves seemed to peel away with his touch of me, whenever they touched skin I felt skin. Heat and pulse and sweat, not the cheap fabric and stuffing they appeared to be.

All of his costume operated that way. I wanted to taste his neck, his chest, and the lycra slid open to accommodate. His face paint didn’t come off, didn’t even smear, but I took it all the same. Splashes of black and white stained my hands, probably my lips—hard to tell when they’re attached to someone else.

He carried me into my apartment too, slamming into walls with every rough grind into him I insisted on. No words. It goes that way sometimes, and I didn’t think much of it, but we didn’t speak beyond our play at the party.

Until I’d managed to get a key in the door and we collapsed onto my couch. He was so quick. On his knees before me in a flash, gloves running rough up my legs, over all the soft cloth I wore under all my metals—not quite authentic for the armor, but I worked with what I had.

[yourlocalartsonist]

Heya! I wanted to ask about your fic, "Moths Fly In Packs", that I wanted to know for a while. Forgive me if it was answered or not:

What was your main inspiration for the actual story? Was it just a Rise AU? Did you automatically create Salena for this story? I wanna know the origins of story and what got you writing the first chapter!

Heyyyyy bestie how's it goinnnnn~

Aight so this is actually one of my favorite things to talk about cuz my ass cannot shut up about this fic but it was quite a few things that got mushed together to create the fic

First off, it was originally gonna be a comic! I just got heavily back into Rise after watching the movie in January 2023 and yk the show was cancelled for a while now. I really missed the show and already read through like every headcanon, x reader, and whatever the fuck I could find at the time so to satiate myself, I decided to make a story of my own! That was kinda already the drill for me anyway; if there's a piece of media I adore that never got the love it deserved, I continue the story myself

It was gonna be a comic focused with the boys as the main characters just like the show and would be seen as a continuation. I wasn't planning on releasing it any time soon since ya know... comic but Salena was indeed still gonna be in the story. She was just gonna be a more minor character? Not background, more like on the same level as April or Splintz; pops up often but not always

And then I realized that was a stupid fucking idea cuz no way in hell I would ever survive the torture of making comics :D I don't even enjoy making em for the most part so yk-

I had a different idea on the side. I was thinking it'd be interesting to have a separate fic version of the story but told from Salena's perspective so the audience would understand her more. But then as I kept developing the story, I realized this was the more interesting version anyway! I had a shit ton of ideas and a lot of topics I could critique and commentate on. It was genuinely fucking interesting the more I looked at it, even tho I was hella nervous no one would care for my random ass OC enough to accept them as the main character over the boys-

On a more personal note, I was going through a lot of shit prior to rejoining Rise which made my senior year of high school get a very depressing start. But in a way, watching the movie and the show saved me. Not even exaggerating, this show's done a lot for me than I'll ever be able to express. When I thought about making the fic and settled on it being the story I tell, I wanted to express all my feelings and hardships I've been through. I wanted to explore them through Salena and externalize a lot of the messages I learned and Rise felt like the perfect outlet for that; the characters just genuinely fit

That's the real reason why I had the first chapter out in like a month or two. I wasn't even sure whether to post it, it was entirely an impulse move. But I don't regret it one bit

I really do hope this story find the people I want it to. People who felt just as alone as I did, I want them to know they aren't. There are people out there who understand, who've been through the same, and who've survived and gone onto thriving. I wanted Salena to feel relatable to them since she's quite literally the first character I've made who's truly based off of myself

On the flip side, I also hope it'll reach people who have no idea what I'm talking about and haven't ever experienced what Salena has. I want this story to be an opportunity for them to step into someone else's shoes and learn how to empathize. That was why I loved books as a kid; they helped me learn to empathize. So maybe, my story can do the same. Help people to empathize with folks like Salena who are struggle and have no idea how to say so

Sorry for the long ass ramble. I genuinely do believe the origins of this fic is extremely interesting so I really love talking about it ;w;

Cheers to Chapter 9 finally being out!

[ehronlime]

My Favourite Comics I Read in 2022

Blue Flag

I binged this entire series in one night (well, early, early morning lol). It's a really sweet and earnest story about a guy who tries to help a timid girl change her image and ask out another guy who he's friends with, and whoops they end up liking each other, but also whoops turns out this guy actually also likes him and it gets complicated. It handles its queer themes really deftly, and ties them really strongly to the overarching themes of figuring out your own identity and navigating the expectations of others, which resonates through all the other characters too. While the relationships between the core 3-4 characters are really well done and obviously key to the story, I also really loved the supporting cast.

I love how the series tries its best to show all its characters as well-rounded, flawed, striving, changing people. I also loved how the ending emphasized that the series has been focusing on a short, intense period of youth for all these characters, but they'll continue to grow and change in the future too. Not all loves last forever, and not all answers are found immediately, and so it goes.

Goodbye, Eri

Tatsuki Fujimoto's work has always reflected a keen interest in cinema. Characters often end up connecting to each other over movies, and the ways stories are conveyed. There's a fascination with the act of movie-making as well: the artifice of acting and editing around things that seem to happen "in real life" to become something that happens "in the movies", and yet somehow feeling truer than real. It was hugely important in the middle sections of Fire Punch, which is tricky to recommend but is a work I still find incredibly compelling, when Togata is trying to build up the movie, the myth of The Flame-Covered Man.

Goodbye, Eri similarly takes a look at the artifice of movie-making and storytelling, and plays around with it. It feels to me like a spiritual successor of sorts to parts of Fire Punch, and refines the ideas there into something much sharper and funnier. It's pretty funny to make essentially a movie about making movies, in the form of a comic, and have it work so well because of the different affordances you have in the comic form. You can play with time more and make it more rubbery in between frames in ways that you could never do in film.

And so, a comic about a movie about making movies that's also about how we think of stories in larger ways. While Look Back might be the Fujimoto one-shot with more "heart", Goodbye, Eri is the one that reminds me why I'm so drawn to Fujimoto's particular brand of bullshit in the first place.

Himawari House

Himawari House is a comic about three women from different places who live in a share house in Japan for a while, and it hits on so many themes that I care about. I'm going to repeat my trick with Everything Everywhere All At Once and link you straight to my Tweets about Himawari House because that kinda covers it and I've still got the tabletop games section to finish up!

Honourable Mentions: Kaijumax finale, Ao Ashi, You And I Are Polar Opposites, Witch Watch, Astra: Lost in Space, Elden Ring: The Road to the Erdtree, Witch Hat Atelier

[darkstarofchaos]

I've been wanting to talk about this comic page for a while, so let's talk about this comic page.

Here, Prowl is experiencing the effects of the Positive Reinforcement Prison created by Mesothulas; a form of mental prison that gives the captives "everything they want" to keep them "docile". So what we're seeing here is what Prowl wants. And yes, on the surface it can read as arrogance: the war ended in Autobot victory and beautiful peace, because Prowl and only Prowl knew what needed to be done.

However, I don't see arrogance in this scene. I don't see false humility when he dismisses Optimus' thanks. I see self-hatred and pain.

Prowl's personal story in the Sins of the Wreckers largely focused on his morality. Tarantulas brings up his periodic attempts to be a better person, we see one of those attempts play out in flashbacks as Prowl laments what he's becoming, and Prowl ultimately chooses to spare Hubcap despite initially believing him too dangerous to leave alive. With that framing, it's reasonable to look at his simulated prison from the perspective of morality as well.

Through that lens, the thing that stands out most to me is the heavy emphasis on "what had to be done". If this was an arrogant fantasy, there would be no need for that: we would get something more to the effect of, "Prowl was right because of course he was. Why should there be any doubt?" This scene is a manifestation of what Prowl wants, so if all he wanted was recognition, that would be what he gets. But it's not. He doesn't even accept Optimus' thanks at first. Because what he wants isn't recognition or praise.

Prowl wants to be understood, and perhaps even forgiven. He might not prize morality like some, but he understands it, and he knows when his actions are unethical. He knows others condemn him for his willingness to do unethical things anyway. And he wants to be right, because if he was right, then everything he's done was worth it.

There's another facet to his desires here, too: Fantasy Optimus tells him that they have "permanent, secure, unequivocal peace". This is everything Prowl ever wanted, but I also think there's more than a little trauma involved here.

Prowl never wanted to be part of a war: when asked what he would do if a war happened, he said that he would leave, and he tried to do just that. When he couldn't escape it, he tried to end it in the most efficient manner possible. And when the war did finally end, his biggest concern - his biggest fear - was that it wasn't over. And then, when Megatron turned up alive, Prowl personally became a victim of his attempt to continue the war. He was right, and because no one else was willing to listen, he suffered for it.

Moreover, he suffered, in part, because of his own attempts to keep the war from reigniting: he called on Chromedome to find out how to create Phase Sixers, and tried to blackmail him when he refused, only for Chromedome to attack him and erase the information. Later, after a Decepticon was murdered, Prowl led the investigation, chased Bombshell alone, and was cerebro-shelled for his troubles - here, his previous mistake came back to haunt him, and Bombshell noted that the damage to his memories made him easy to control.

Prowl was right once, and when no one listened to him, he became a weapon against his own side. From a trauma perspective alone, it's not hard to see how he could look at Starscream ruling Cybertron and fear a repeat: that he would once again be right, and ignored. Only this time, the entire universe would suffer. Faced with the long-reinforced belief that he would be ignored, and the recent trauma of the last time he was right, what else could he do but take matters into his own hands?

Prowl's fantasy within the Positive Reinforcement Prison is ultimately driven by fear and guilt. If he was right, everything he did was worth it. If people would listen, he could stop bad things from happening. And if he had all the answers, he wouldn't have made the decisions that got him hurt.

(As an aside, I don't blame Prowl for anything that happened to him. But I think Prowl would, because it ironically gives him a sense of control. If bad things are a result of his own failings, he can adapt and keep it from happening again).

In conclusion: Prowl needed therapy and validation for his very real fears. He got demonization and trust issues.

While the main Decepticon lineup has been vaguely stable all this time, the same isn't true of the Autobots. Who do you think should be their SIC? I've tried to include as many people who have fulfilled that role as possible.

[stuckybarton]

Something Old, Something New

Summary: It's been well over a decade now since you had pulled away from the Hollywood Limelight, to give your husband the opportunity to shine and you to live the dream of having kids of your own with the love of your life. But when an opportunity was present to you to play one of your most favorite Marvel Character, who were you to say no? Words: 1.403 Warning: None(?) Characters: Husband!Oscar Isaac x Wife!Fem Reader, Pedro Pascal MASTERLIST || Requests Are Open

Post-Thor: Love and Thunder, you had never initially expected the reaction from the fans. Post-Credit, you had expected things to just be a cool Easter egg for the comic lovers and there was yet to be a full-plan for what other show or movie you would be joining. A part of you even thought no one would welcome you back after being away for quiet sometime. From being a supportive wife, and hands-on mother, the opportunity of playing the role of Angela wasn't something you would have ever thought would be given but you were more than happy for the small window of opportunity being given.

'90's Icon Y/N Y/L/N welcomed to the MCU as the newest Aldrif Odinsdottir or better known as Angela: The New Queen of Hel.' The headline was something you've read more than once for the past few hours now.

Your newly created Instagram and Twitter was filled with notifications from thousands of individuals happy about this new role and the newest project you had since you had pulled away from the limelight. You were overwhelmed now, as you continued to scroll through the notifications of your Twitter page, a part of you should have listened to your manager and allowed her to take control of most of your social media presence.

"Need any help with your social media presence?" Trust your husband to tease you about joining Social Media far too late in your life and in your career. But Marvel as well as your whole team believe that it was never too late and the Millions of followers you've gained in the last 24-hours since you've had the account was a sure indicator of it. Still wondering why anyone would want to know anything about you, but still it was best not to question it.

"What if I send the internet your nudes?" You teased playfully remembering you did have a few in your gallery that you needed to delete just in case.

"Breaking the internet again are we?" Oscar teased approaching you, arms wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer to him. "That is for your eyes only, My Love." he winked.

"Don't I know it." You grinned leaning closer to him at this point.

Before either of you could continue on, the familiar ring of your phone broke the evident tension was was starting and the sound of your children's squeal added to things.

"You take the call, I'll see what the monsters are up to." He planned.

You nodded, accepting his kiss before you focused on your respective task for the day. Your conversation was with your agent, explaining how you had an interview with Jimmy Fallon tonight and you needed to find a quiet place for the interview. That would be easy to do, your shared office with your husband was always used for interviews throughout the pandemic and it was fun to be the one to make use of it now instead of him.

With the call done, you had took your laptop with you and headed to the chaos that had been your husband and your children in the living room.

"What did she say?" Your husband inquired.

"I've got to do an interview with Jimmy Fallon tonight." You answered showcasing your laptop you were to use for the zoom call. "Can you handle the kids for me tonight while I work?" You asked, smiling at the fact that you didn't even need to ask and you know perfectly well he would.

"Take all the time you need." He assured pulling you in for another kiss before you made you way to the office to prepare for whatever was to come in the interview.

~

"Our next guest is known for her start in the 90's hit show Full House, a Julliard-Graduate that went on to win two Oscars, a Golden Globe, and multiple more accolades throughout her career. Please welcome for the first time to the show, Y/N Y/L/N!"

You could only smile at the introduction given to you and the cheers that came from the audience.

"Hi Jimmy." You greeted, eyes lingering to the door for a moment. You could faintly hear your husband trying his best to keep your kids quiet while you do the interview. They had refused to go to bed for the night until after you were done with your interview and you have read them their story. "It's good to be on the show, even if it's remotely." You continued finally zoning back in.

"We had really hoped to have you on the show, but scheduling was a little tight for you as I've heard." He continued.

You smiled knowingly it was your agent that had made the last minute arrangements for you to be here.

"Maybe next time."

"Where are you right now and I do hope you're not stay up too late."

"I'm in New York actually, same time as you. But got a few things I need to deal with." You reassured. "Namely a husband that just got home and two chaotic children that has more energy than both me and my husband have combined."

"How is the husband and kids?" He inquired.

"Doing good." You answered blankly, still haven't been open about the fact about who your husband was. Both you and Oscar had thought it was better to have something you could keep for yourselves, away from the public eye if either of you could. "Handling the kids while we're talking." You added as an afterthought hearing them squealing for an unknown reason.

Before he could continue on with his line of question, the door had abruptly opened and the sight of your husband's best friend and your own good friend Pedro Pascal had not only made you jump but scared for your life as your husband continue to scold him.

"Mi Hermosa! I knew my girlfriend was hiding you away from me like usual."

You had hoped no one could recognize his voice, but the moment the man had made his way towards you and now in front of your camera for Jimmy to see, you know your secret was ruined more so when your husband had tried his best to pull him away and he himself was seen by Jimmy and from the cheering for the crowd with him, everyone else did as well.

Even as your husband had tried to pull Pedro away, the look of recognition was all and well evident in Jimmy's eyes from your laptop. Even as you could faintly hear Oscar tearing Pedro another hole for not believing that you were busy, it did nothing but relieve you for a moment. At least neither of you needed to hide things from anyone anymore.

"So that is my husband Oscar, and his girlfriend, Pedro with their antics, as usual." You said finally composing yourself from the chaos of it all. "And aside from my return back to Hollywood for a couple of movies, I have revealed the two idiots I have to deal with on a day to day basis." You sighed chuckling and seeing both your husband and your friend peaking through the door upon you finally admitting as such.

"Could they possibly join us for the rest of our chat if it's not too much."

You eyed them both and shrugged. It was up to them now and with your husband relenting and Pedro eventually following along, as embarrassed as he was at this point, they had joined you. Pulling up a chair and sitting on either side of you. The smile somehow found its way to your lips, realizing that it was a good moment as any for everyone to know who your husband was. After everything he had worked his heart for, it was just a good time as any for everyone to know.

"So, spoilers for anyone that hasn't watched Thor Love and Thunder, you have debuted as another one of Thor's long lost sisters, Angela." Jimmy began.

"You can thank this man for convincing me to be in the movie." You point out with a playful smile. Head leaning against your husband's shoulder before turning your attention to the perpetrator for the new mess you and your team would be dealing with. "And this man had been the one to convince me that I'm not just some 90's has been like I've once thought myself to be."

"Because you're not." Pedro pointed out with a smirk.

"How did you three meet?"

"We were both studying in Julliard, got married when I graduate and the rest was history." You spoke sharing a smile with your husband. "Then we met this pendejo after and it's been three of us since then."

You smiled allowing both your husband and friend to practically take over of the interview, amused with the antics both of them had been getting themselves into at each other's expense and even Jimmy's expense. You took it all in, happy to know that your life wasn't some big old secret anymore.

[soundsfaebutokay]

So I've recc'd this video before, but it deserves its own post because it's one of my favorite things on youtube. It's a Tedx Talk by comics writer, editor, and journalist Jay Edidin, and I really think that it will connect with a lot of people here.

If you live and breathe stories of all kinds, you might like this.

If you care about media representation, you might like this.

If you're neurodivergent, you might like this.

If you're interested in a gender transition story that veers from the norm, you might like this.

If you love the original Leverage and especially Parker, and understand how important it is that a character like her exists, you will definitely like this.

Transcript below the cut:

You Are Here: The Cartography of Stories

by Jay Edidin

I am autistic. And what this means in practice is that there are some things that are easier for me than they are for most people, and a great many things that are somewhat harder, and these affect my life in more or less overt ways. As it goes, I'm pretty lucky. I've been able to build a career around special interests and granular obsession. My main gig at the moment is explaining superhero comics continuity and publishing history for which work I am somehow paid in actual legal currency—which is both a triumph of the frivolous in an era of the frantically pragmatic, and a job that's really singularly suited to my strengths and also to my idiosyncrasies.

I like comics. I like stories in general, because they make sense to me in ways that the rest of the world and my own mind often don't. Self-knowledge is not an intuitive thing for me. What sense of self I have, I've built gradually and laboriously and mostly through long-term pattern recognition. For decades, I didn't even really have a self-image. If you'd asked me to draw myself, I would eventually have given you a pair of glasses and maybe a very messy scribble of hair, and that would've been about it. But what I do know—backwards, forwards, and in pretty much every way that matters—are stories. I know how they work. I understand their language, their complex inner clockwork, and I can use those things to extrapolate a sort of external compass that picks up where my internal one falls short. Stories—their forms, their structure, the sense of order inherent to them—give me the means to navigate what otherwise, at least for me, would be an impassable storm of unparsable data. Or stories are a periscope, angled to access the parts of myself I can't intuitively see. Or stories are a series of mirrors by which I can assemble a composite sketch of an identity I rarely recognize whole...which is how I worked out that I was transgender, in my early thirties, by way of a television show.

This is my story. And it's about narrative cartography, and representation, and why those things matter. It's about autism and it's about gender and it's about how they intersect. And it's about the kinds of people we know how to see, and the kinds of people we don't. It's not the kind of story that gets told a lot, you might hear a lot, because the narrative around gender transition and dysphoria in our culture is really, really prescriptive. It's basically the story of the kid who has known for their whole life that they're this and not that, and that story demands the kind of intuitive self-knowledge that I can't really do, and a kind of relationship to gender that I don't really have—which is part of why it took me so long to figure my own stuff out.

So, to what extent this story, my story has a beginning, it begins early in 2014 when I published an essay titled, "I See Your Value Now: Asperger's and the Art of Allegory." And it explored, among other things, the ways that I use narrative and narrative structures to navigate real life. And it got picked up in a number of fairly prominent places that got linked, and I casually followed the ensuing discussion. And I was surprised to discover that readers were fairly consistently assuming I was a man. Now, that in itself wasn't a new experience for me, even though at the time I was writing under a very unambiguously female byline. It had happened in the letter columns of comics I'd edited. It had happened when a parody Twitter account I'd created went viral. When I was on staff at Wired, I budgeted for fancy scotch by putting a dollar in a box every time a reader responded in a way that made it clear they were assuming I was a man in response to an article where my name was clearly visible, and then I had to stop doing that because it happened so often I couldn't afford to keep it up. But in all of those cases, the context, you know, the reasons were pretty obvious. The fields I'd worked in, the beats I covered, they were places where women had had to fight disproportionally hard for visibility and recognition. We live in a culture that assumes a male default, so given a neutral voice and a character limit, most readers will assume a male author.

But this was different, because this wasn't just a book I'd edited, it wasn't a story I'd reported—it was me, it was my story. And it made me uncomfortable, got under my skin in ways that the other stuff really hadn't. And so I did what I do when that happens, and I tried to sort of reverse-engineer it to look at the conclusions and peel them back to see the narratives behind them and the stories that made them tick. And I started this, I started this by going back to the text of the essay, and you know, examining it every way I could think of: looking at craft, looking at content. And in doing so, I was surprised to realize that while I had written about a number of characters with whom I identified closely, that every single one of those characters I'd written about was male. And that surprised me even more than the responses to the essay had, because I've spent my career writing and talking and thinking about gender and representation in popular media. In 2014, I'd been the feminist gadfly of an editorial department and multiple mastheads. I'd been a founding board member of an organization that existed to advocate for more and better representation of women and girls in comics characters and creators. And most of my favorite characters, the ones I'd actively seek out and follow, were women. Just not, apparently, the characters I saw myself in.

Now I still didn't realize it was me at this point. Remember: self-knowledge, not very intuitive for me. And while I had spent a lot of time thinking about gender, I'd never really bothered to think much about my own. I knew academically that the way other people read and interpreted my gender affected and had influenced a lifetime of social and professional interactions, and that those in turn had informed the person I'd grown up into during that time. But I really believed, like I just sort of had in the back of my head, that if you peeled away all of that social conditioning, you'd basically end up with what I got when I tried to draw a self-portrait. So: a pair of glasses, messy scribble of hair, and in this case, maybe also some very strong opinions about the X-Men. I mean, I knew something was off. I'd always known something was off, that my relationship to gender was messy and uncomfortable, but gender itself struck me as messy and uncomfortable, and it had never been a large enough part of how I defined myself to really feel like something that merited further study, and I had deadlines, and...so it was always on the back burner. So, I looked, I looked at what I had, at this improbable group of exclusively male characters. And I looked and I figured that if this wasn't me, then it had to be a result of the stories I had access to, to choose from, and the entertainment landscape I was looking at. And the funny thing is, I wasn't wrong, exactly. I just wasn't right either.

See, the characters I'd written about had one other significant trait in common aside from their gender, which is that they were all more or less explicitly, more or less heavily coded as autistic. And I thought, "Ah, yes. This explains it. This is under representation in fiction echoing under representation in life and vice versa." Because the characteristics that I'd honed in on, that I particularly identified with in these guys, were things like emotional unavailability and social awkwardness and granular obsession, and all of those are characteristics that are seen as unsympathetic and therefore unmarketable in female characters. Which is also why readers were assuming that I was a man.

Because, you see, here's the thing. I'm not the only one who uses stories to navigate the world. I'm just a little more deliberate about it. For humans, stories formed the bridge between data and understanding. They're where we look when we need to contextualize something new, or to recognize something we're pretty sure we've seen before. They're how we identify ourselves; they're how we locate ourselves and each other in the larger world. There were no fictional women like me; there weren't representations of women like me in media, and so readers were primed not to recognize women like me in real life either.

Now by this point, I had started writing a follow-up essay, and this one was also about autism and narratives, but specifically focused on how they intersected with gender and representation in media. And in context of this essay, I went about looking to see if I could find even one female character who had that cluster of traits I'd been looking for, and I was asking around in autistic communities. And I got a few more or less useful one-off suggestions, and some really, really splendid arguments about semantics and standards, and um...then I got one answer over and over and over in community after community after community. "Leverage," people told me. "You have to watch Leverage."

So I watched Leverage. Leverage is five seasons of ensemble heist drama. It's about a team of very skilled con artists who take down corrupt and powerful plutocrats and the like, and it's a lot of fun, and it's very clever, and it's clever enough that it doesn't really matter that it's pretty formulaic, and I enjoyed it a lot. But what's most important, what Leverage has is Parker.

Parker is a master thief, and she is the best of the best of the best in ways that all of Leverage's characters are the best of the best. And superficially, she looks like the kind of woman you see on TV. So she's young, and she's slender, and she's blonde, and she's attractive but in a sort of approachable way. And all of that familiarity is brilliant misdirection, because the thing is, there are no other women like Parker on TV. Because Parker—even if it's never explicitly stated in the show—Parker is coded incredibly clearly as autistic. Parker is socially awkward. Her speech tends to have limited inflection; what inflection it does have is repetitive and sounds rehearsed a lot of the time. She's not emotionally literate; she struggles with it, and the social skills she develops over the series, she learns by rote, like they're just another grift. When she's not scaling skyscrapers or cartwheeling through laser grids, she wears her body like an ill-fitting suit. Parker moves like me. And Parker, Parker was a revelation—she was a revolution unto herself. In a media landscape where unempathetic women usually exist to either be punished or "loved whole," Parker got to play the crabby savant. And she wasn't emotionally intuitive but it was never ever played as the product of abuse or trauma even though she had survived both of those—it was just part of her, as much as were her hands or her eyes. And she had a genuine character arc. My god, she had a genuine romantic arc, even. And none of that required her to turn into anything other than what she was. And in Parker I recognized a thousand tics and details of my life and my personality...but. I didn't recognize myself.

Why? What difference was there in Parker, you know, between Parker and the other characters I'd written about? Those characters, they'd spanned ethnicities and backgrounds and different media and appearances and the only other characteristic they all had in common was their gender. So that was where I started to look next, and I thought, "Well, okay, maybe, maybe it's masculinity. Maybe if Parker were less feminine, she'd click with me the way those other characters had." So then I tried to imagine a Parker with short hair, who's explicitly butch, and...nothing. So okay, I extended it in what seems like the only logical direction to extend it. I said, "Well, if it's not masculinity, what if it's actual maleness? What if Parker were a man?" Ah. Yeah.

In the end, everything changed, and nothing changed, which is often the way that it goes for me. Add a landmark, no matter how slight, and the map is irrevocably altered. Add a landmark, and paths that were invisible before open wide. Add a landmark, and you may not have moved, but suddenly you know where you are and where you can go.

I wasn't going to tell this story when I started planning this talk. I was gonna tell a similar story, it was about stories, like this is, about narratives and the ways that they influence our culture and vice versa. And it centered around a group of women at NASA who had basically rewritten the narrative around space exploration, and it was a lot more fun, and I still think it was more interesting. But it's also a story you can probably work out for yourselves. In fact it's a story some of you probably have, if you follow that kind of thing, which you probably do given that you're here. And this is a story, my story is not a story that I like to tell. It's not a fun story to talk about because it's very personal and I am a very private person. And it's not universal. And it's not always relatable, and it's definitely not aspirational. And it's not the kind of story that you tend to encounter unless you're already part of it...which is why I'm telling it now. Because the thing is, I'm not the only person who uses stories to parse the world and navigate it. I'm just a little more deliberate. Because I'm tired of having to rely on composite sketches.

Open your maps. Add a landmark. Reroute accordingly.

[davidmann95]

An announcement

I've known this was coming for awhile, as soon as I finished my mini-annotations for Superman and The Authority and had the Grant Morrison Superman piece I just shared in my last post published. Now that I've crossed that threshold:

This weekend or next depending on how things shake out, I'm mostly going to be mothballing this blog as it currently exists.

It's not something I take lightly - I've been doing this for 5 years, I've got a couple comics pros following me, I've made friends on here or indirectly through what I've written. It's been a lot of fun! It pretty much comes down to three reasons:

1. There's only so much room for growth on this platform, and I'm now semi-steadily getting my work actually published.

2. I think I've long since passed the point where I'm really gaining anything as a writer working on this, so while there are still times I enjoy it at this point it's mostly busywork taking up time that I could better use elsewhere.

3. I've hit the saturation point of exposure where a good chunk of asks I get at this point are variations on how I suck or should admit I have shitty taste, and while that's inevitable I don't feel like actively holding the door open anymore.

I'll leave the askbox open through either this weekend or next depending on the response, so if you have any last things you'd be curious to ask by all means send it in, especially if it's something you'd normally go "nah, this isn't the kind of thing David weighs in on"; I'll probably take a few more of those than usual given the occasion. Once I close up shop, I'll continue:

* Answering lingering old asks whenever I feel like it/finally get around to reading or rereading the subject

* Posting links to my new work, including a newsletter I'm intending to do - why not jump on that bandwagon - that'll sort of take the place of this in terms of writing I probably wouldn't shop around to other sites, though a good ways more focused and polished than what I've done here

* Sharing and maybe responding to the odd regular post on here

So that's that. I've topped out at a little over 1,500 followers, which is pretty amazing for something so outside of the type of content Tumblr's really built to propagate, and I'm grateful for the attention and engagement over these last several years.

[olderthannetfic]

When I was a toddler my parents let me watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel the Series and I was absolutely enamored with them, during the day. At night however I'd have vaguely related dreams of horrible deaths of my family members and wake in a panic convinced they were dead to the point my mom would have to call them to prove they were okay. But I still loved and love to this day those shows. Watched look who's talking when I was a little older and started asking my mom questions and she answered in ways I'd understand. Funnily enough, this did not make me hypersexual as some seem to believe it will, instead I was sex repulsed for many years. And the only kind of explicit sex I was okay reading and writing was non-con. I was eleven when I first started incorporating non con into stories. I think a factor in why I could absorb a lot of dark, violent, and arguably traumatizing media with minimum damage was because the awful things on t.v were more fun to focus on than what was happening in real life (which I've been slowly learning was probably traumatizing and helped kick start a lot of my issues to this day I still struggle with daily despite the most violent and upsetting parts I was not present for and just heard about and saw the aftermath effects on everyone). So reading a non con doctor whooves comic on tumblr was much easier than focusing on my actual friends in real life being assaulted. The only things I got censored from was things that actively caused almost immidate breakdowns or problems. I watched Scrubs just fine, but I was eventually banned from watching House in elementary school because I started getting anxious about being sick and dying all the time. I couldn't play a lot of video games if I was at home, but I was allowed to watch, and play them if I was at a different house (and not even in a sneaky way, in a my parents could be in the same room with me at my grandpas playing gta and not care). I could watch South Park if I was with my mom or dad, even if 'with' meant the basement of my dads friends house staring at south park while all adults behind me got drunk off their asses and tried to play dnd 4th edition. I've been told my upbringing was strange, and I agree, but I dont think the lack of filtering my parents did with my media consumption was horrible for me because whatever I saw, heard, or read i would babble on about to my mom who'd answer any questions or add corrections, including my little pony non con (my poor mother was so tired and confused why I continued to keep reading that comic, she eventually learned I cannot explain my love for whump and angst). Honestly the only thing I wished they had me not hear was catholicism since neither were catholic and actively disagreed with many points but still had me going to Sunday school and church where, specifically in the classes, a lot of things said were bigoted or maybe even illegal. Idk it was weird being pressed at the age of twelve that if I voted in the future for pro choice legislation that I'd be outcasted at the church (where the majority of people myself included talked to no one but their families) and that babies that aren't baptized are going to hell because of original sin. Just- Shit that fucked me up way more than any media I have consumed ever has

--

[leighways]

Y’know, I debated not answering you bc what you sent sounds like the typa shit that attracts unwanted discourse. So if that was your intent (and I mean this with all sincerity): go fuck yourself.

I’m not sure where you got the idea that I’m "still devoted to" C3, esp since the last piece of art I made for that ship was pre-KTGG -- nearly a year ago. That was also the last time, until recently, that I spoke about C3 at all. So ???

I will admit I didn’t answer that ask very thoughtfully when I originally responded -- mostly bc I assumed by now ppl understood my stance on this issue -- so I went back and edited for clarification. However, if you’d read my about page instead of jumping to conclusions, you’d know where I stood.

But since that clearly didn’t happen, I’ll spell it out for you: I used to ship C3. As of right now, I don’t. However, during the time in which I did, I was in the process of building an extensive backstory AU that I am still very much attached to and enjoy creating content for. It was designed specifically to establish Copia as an outsider -- not a member of the Emeritus family -- which has been my view of him since since day fucking one (x).

One scroll through my blog will show you none of this is new. Copia's underdog status plays a vital role in how I draw, write and headcanon him, as well my general attachment to his character. Sure, you can sit there and claim I dreamt all this up for the purpose of shipping, but you'd also be lying out of both sides of your mouth. If my development of this AU was nothing more than ""justification"" for C3, my blog wouldn't be littered with loads of art and comics focused on the rest of the family and their respective dynamics. (x) (x) (x) Not to mention the countless memes and shitposts that have goddamned nothing to do with any of this.

Anyway, for me, an AU only works if you can establish a very clear departure from what's been described in canon. KTGG presented several plot holes I had never previously considered, and these muddied waters made me unsure of how to continue world building. I don't want to publish anything until there are no surprises left, so until we get more official information regarding this lore, I have temporarily pulled the breaks on this project.

Still, none of this is reason to completely dismantle something I've been working on since 2018. Nor does it suddenly make the material itself "problematic". I should be able to keep my AU (C3 storyline or not) without ppl like you accusing me of being some incest-obessed fujoshi simply bc I chose to view the source material in a way you don't personally like.

From last summer forward, every time I’ve been asked about the topic of my AU, the answer never contained any mention of C3 (x) (x) (x) bc I don't currently ship C3. If by "devoted to" you meant "it's on the back burner and also the stove isn't on" then sure, I'm super devoted.

But even if this weren't the case -- even if the amount of currently unanswered questions didn't bother me and I plowed ahead with my story no holes barred, what exactly would my crime be? Why would an AU created to explore the non-canon backstories of Copia (a Catholic orphan) and Papa 1 (his unrelated mentor) suddenly become problematic just bc once in a blue moon a scene appears in which Copia has a boyfriend? Considering all content I've made for C3 sees them as completely unrelated and has also been 100% SFW, what line have I crossed? I know my lane. I'm not mlm (I'm not wlw either, which is what you're trying to peg me as) so I would never create explicit content for a community to which I don't belong. But if you think LGBT+ folks can only make material tailored to their specific identities in order to not be fetishy, then I've got some fuckin news for you and you're not gonna like it.

Anyhoo, I don’t believe for one second that you’re this casual by-standing "outsider" -- not least bc you knew exactly where to find the post where I first addressed the plot twist possibility, but lmfao whatever you say bubs. I also love that you’re on the "outside" while simultaneously in the know about what the fandom collective has decided re: What If Copia Is An Emeritus. You need to get your story straight.

Damn near everyone in this fandom has created some sort of AU -- whether that be a world where they self-ship, a universe in which none of the Papas died, or, I dunno, one full of dragons and dinosaurs :-) The fact that you're specifically honing in on my AU with insane and disgusting out-of-left-field accusations tells me everything I need to know about both you and your motives, so listen very closely: there is nothing wrong with creating an AU that diverts from canon. Despite what you think, viewing Copia as unrelated to the Emeritus family is pretty goddamned normal around here. And considering Tobias obviously wanted us to think of him this way (and let us do so for over a year and a half) it's easy to see why so many ppl prefer that concept to the story we'll probably get.

You are not the boss of me. You are not the judge of my character. You have no authority over me, and you need to stop talking as if you do. Your tone is condescending and sexist -- which is odd, considering you're not speaking to a woman. I'm definitely not a fujoshi, but you quite possibly might be a transphobe. Or is truscum a more accurate way to describe you? :-) Anyways, thanks for that. Getting misgendered in our own inbox? We love to see it.

This is the last time I’ll be addressing this topic. If you have any further questions feel free to call my personal hotline @ 1-800-EAT-MY-ASS.

[deniigi]

I love how you characterize everyone you write so uniquely, you're one of my favorite authors, and you inspired me to do my own writing (let's just say I've got like almost 30k of spiderman and daredevil stuff now and leave it at that), but I was wondering if you had any tips on how to get a better read on characters that give you trouble?

Anon, this is a really fucking hard question and I’ve been ruminating on it for ages.

I’m not 100% sure what you mean, is part of the issue, I think.

Are you asking me what I do when I find myself stuck in writing certain characters? Or do you mean: how do I break down characters I am not overly familiar with to write them in a coherent way?

I think you might be asking more of the second question than the first, but on the off chance that I’ve misunderstood, I’ll answer both and then we can continue the conversation based on which you need more help with; is that cool?

——————–

So for the first question about getting stuck while writing a character:

What I mean when I say ‘stuck’ is like, you find that you’ve introduced this person and you’ve built a context around them, but something just doesn’t feel right and no matter how much you write, you just feel like it’s not working or feels just plain wrong.

So you usually run out of things to say or get frustrated and can’t seem to move forward with other parts of your story.

That’s ‘stuck’ for me. And when I get stuck like that, I’ve usually got a couple of things going on, but the main two are that

I don’t know this character well enough

My narrative has problems

The first issue, I handle by doing research on a character to remind myself who they are, what their past is, what their past behavior in similar environments/with similar people has been, etc.

The way to deal with the second issue is both straight forward and difficult to hear sometimes, and that’s this:

Your narrative ain’t workin’.

Scrap it. Make a new one.

A lot of times, when I get stuck, it’s because my narrative is too complicated and I have to do too much explaining in order for me to move forward with a character or event.

Straight up? When I find myself having to explain things in big blocks of text (as in, blocks of text which are backstory and not descriptions of the scene) I know I’ve gone too far. Maybe I’ll do that once in a first draft of a narrative, but most of the time, after I’ve gotten it out once, I will scrap that piece and draft another one, this time omitting the explaining.

The next time around, I’ll rework my narrative to make a character do something which makes them reveal a little of this backstory and I’ll have someone else notice, question, or contextualize it for them.

But at the same time, if your problem isn’t about too much explaining to do (this happens most in AUs I find), it might be due an overly complicated plot (lol. See fuckin’ sidebars for that. Christ. Never again. 4 narratives is too many in one story for me)

So the answer to that is stepping back, taking a deep breath, and either relaxing the rigidity of your planned plot or dropping a narrative or point altogether.

I get that that sucks to hear sometimes because we all seem to consider a fucked up plot or a skipped opportunity to talk about X cool thing a sign of personal failure, but that’s not at all true.

think of it like this: if something’s not working, there’s no use in hammering away at it the way you have been. You’re just gonna end up with blisters when you could be making a whole new fence.

ANYWAYS. what I’m trying to say here is that your read on a character might not be the thing that’s tripping you up in your writing. You might just need to do a little reading on the character and some reworking of your narrative, and then you might find that you understand the character just fine!

—————–

In the case that you haven’t started writing yet or you have, but you keep getting stuck in breaking down a character into their parts so you can figure out what you can do with them–that’s a little more tricky.

I’m sure that everyone has their own method, so bear with me and know that mine might not work for you.

But the first thing I do when I approach a new character is that I read up on them. I use fandom wikis. I look for comic appearances, book appearances, appearances in general. I look for fandom representations of them, both the really old and the really new, in images and writing.

Basically I build a picture of what this character is to the canon and the fandom and then I pick through those piles deciding with the capriciousness of a prince what I want to keep and what I want to throw to the lions.

From there, I will take this shiny, new, bastardized version of a character who now pleases me, and I will ask the following thing from them in every narrative that I write:

What do they want?

If you constantly ask yourself what your character wants, then you force yourself to address why they want that thing and what they’re willing to do get it. (this is the actual breaking down process that you need to do to figure out someone’s characterization)

so like, as an example for you: Wade Wilson.

I fucking hate the way that people have characterized Deadpool in both comic canon and in fandom, but I do actually really like the way that Ryan Reynolds has characterized him. So working with that foundation and a lot of details about Wade from the comics, I have asked myself ‘what does Wade want?’

The answer is surprising. And it’s security.

Why does he want that thing? And how do I know it’s something like ‘security’ and not ‘chaos?’ Well, think about his background: he’s been abused by his family, which he resents, he joined the army, he’s picked a lucrative field to become a professional in, he was very attached to Vanessa.

These are not the actions of a man seeking chaos. These are the actions of someone seeking to make chaos work for him. Now you could take that in any number of ways, but since I am interested in distancing my Wade from his current context of completely “””random””” violence, I have focused primarily on him seeking happiness, satisfaction, and stability in his own ways.

As for the ‘what is he willing to do to get it’ part of that question, the comics and movie and fandom all point to Wade as erratic and unpredictable, but I disagree with that interpretation. I think what Wade actually is is adaptable, and that adaptability and the absurd lengths to which he will go to do something silly or vindictive seems to me to suggest that he’ll do pretty much anything to achieve what he wants. This gives me a sense of what Wade will and won’t do in a narrative. For example, he will use violence when he thinks it will achieve a goal, but he won’t say, fuck up a relationship with someone for laughs when that person offers him something that speaks to what he wants overall.

The main thing with characters like Wade and Peter and Matt and heroes in media in general is that, fundamentally, they cannot have what they ultimately want. They can build their whole lives around it, they can get close to it, they have even have parts of it, but if they got what they really, really wanted, for good and forever, then their stories would end. There’s nowhere to go from there.

If you want to end your story that way, great. Excellent. I whole-heartedly support you.God knows we need more happy ending in this world to give us glimmer of fucking hope. 

But if you’re working in a verse which has no clear end and you don’t want it to have a clear end (like, for example, my dumpster fires verse) then you need to keep shit just out of reach for your characters.

That will drive your narrative and it will give you room for breaking down and developing your character along the way in a believable way, at least for the narrative that you are writing for them.

——-

Anyways anon, this has been way too long and drawn out and I’m sorry for that. If you want to discuss personally what’s going on with your work, I’m happy to chat with you about it!

[minhyunluvr]

look | reconcile

"What was it that you wanted to speak to me about?" Your classmate pulled his chair out, placing his tray on the monotonous, planate table that stood between the two of you. His vision was focused on the cold soba in front of him, yet it sat untouched, even after he seated himself. The boy seemed different, drastically so. Your training together had ceased after his mother burned his face, and it was apparent that it had taken a toll on him. He had been a sweet boy in your year of knowing him, but now he came off as cold. Distant, even.

Clearing your throat along with your thoughts, you began to speak. "Can you recall training with a girl when you were younger?"

His eyes flicked up to your face in inspection. You attempted to keep your face as blank as possible around other people, but it was possible that he would be able to recognize you easier if you lifted the corners of you mouth. Begrudgingly, you carried out the action. Shouto's mother had always talked about how you were prettier with a smile on your face, and although you respected her, keeping a neutral face was more strategical. As you twisted your features into the unnatural form, his eyes widened. Instead of correcting his expression as a way of following what the two of you had been taught to do as children, the look of incredulity continued to stay glued to his face.

"Yunseo?" Letting out a breath of relief, your fake smile went away, only to be replaced with a smaller, authentic grin. To anyone other than the two of you, the small twitch of your lips would have gone unnoticed. He caught the movement, but the usual reciprocation was left undone. His eyes flashed with contemplation before returning to his normal, stoic facade. "How has training been going?"

Air blew through your nose in a silent sigh before you responded. "It's (Y/n), now. Training is similar to how it was with Enji, but consisting of a lot less... abuse. It's not direct, but Jinho has thrown me into rocks as if I were a rag doll on multiple occasions... It helps, though. I've become more resilient. You?"

The saddened look he shot your way was too much. Averting your eyes, you stared down at the food in front of you as he began speaking. "It's still the same. Stretches, gym training, hand-to-hand, then quirk training... You know the motions." Pausing, he flicked his eyes to the ceiling, hands fiddling under the table as he regained his composure. It wasn't that talking about life was the problem, it was that you had been his lifeline back at the beginning, and now you were back. You and his mother... "I've grown a lot, too. Sometimes I regret staying here, but once I graduate, I'll be free from him."

How tiring must it have been for him, a child, to scrape by all of the familial carnage that he had witnessed alone? It was clear that he had been raised differently to most people, his irregular maturity hinting toward it. It was a miracle that he hadn't ended up as a villain.

The two of you sat in silence for the next few minutes, reminiscing your childhoods. At the beginning, it was just you in an adoption home, waiting day after day for someone to take you. As the children around you grew older, the hope that they had once harbored was extinguished as the years passed.

'Why does no one want me?'

'Am I not good enough?'

Even though you had only been four years old at the time, watching people come and go had flicked a switch in you. A switch that shouldn't have been flicked for many years, a switch that some never turned on. The light that poured out of it was one of realization. The realization that humans are shallow, selfish creatures. The type that only care for themselves and what benefit them. Then again, isn't that the right way to live? Without any concern for another being, chasing after the prime version of you? Leaving the weak behind and taking in the strong as allies was the only way of succeeding in the abstract form of time that we call "life".

But then Jinho came in. In the world that had always been covered in a dark hue, he had shone a new light upon it. Jinho was a loving father figure for some time, Woojin being a supportive older brother. But once your quirk manifested, all of that changed. He sent you off to train with Endeavor, leaving little time for relaxation at home. Sometimes, you just stayed at his house over night. Woojin was a thing of the past, as he was busy training with his father, but he never changed when you saw him. He was still the same funny, overprotective and adorable brother you had always known. Jinho, however, became a distorted, fun-house mirror version of Endeavor. His morals became dubitable, fatherly affection scarce, and his old, empathetic nature was left behind. To this day, you were still curious as to why the drastic change occurred, and it would quite possibly stay that way, as it had for the past decade.

Before you knew it, the bell had rung, and you stood up to throw away the untouched food. Shouto followed behind, a dark look upon his face.

The next day, classes seemed to roll by slowly. Even more so than the first day, if that was possible. You had opted to sit by Kaminari that day, goal being to strengthen your relationships with your classmates. Iida had been sitting with Uraraka and Midoriya, the latter two not exactly being your type of people.

"So, (Y/n), how are things between you and Todoroki?" The red-head sitting across from you asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "My name's Kirishima Eijirou, by the way."

You dryly chuckled, face devoid of amusement. As vague answers were best when you weren't entirely sure of an answer, you kept it simple. "We're friends."

"Oh. That wasn't juicy at all." Kirishima whined, slurping up his noodles. Jirou Kyouka winced from his left, scratching at her temple. You glimpsed a wire-like object sliding away from her earlobe. It seemed to plug into the side of his arm, resulting in a screech from Kirishima.

"You know, (Y/n), you don't have to deal with his shit." She said, retracting the extension. She lifted up the cup and took a sip, effectively turning into a meme. "He's a little bitch, if I have anything to say about it. Which I do."

While Kirishima rolled his eyes, Kaminari clung onto your forearm to keep himself from falling off of the chair in laughter. 'God, he's extra...'

As people filed back into the classroom, murmurs began to start up about the next class. Hero Basic Training, the class taught by the one and only All Might. You stayed in your seat in the back of the room, eavesdropping on other conversations.

"I'm gonna fucking crush that number one hero!" Bakugou.

"I wonder if his smile is as bright in person as it is on screen..." Ashido.

"Let me stick my balls to his muscles!!!" ...Mineta?

"...I have come through the door like a normal person!" A tall, masculine figure called as it hopped through the door. Gasps of excitement chorused throughout the room as the students came to the realization that it was, indeed, the All Might that the students had been itching with excitement to meet.

"Welcome to Hero Basics Training, the class that will give you all sorts of experiences to mold you into the great heroes you all aspire to be!" 'Only someone as comically acceptable as All Might could utter those words without sounding like a psychopath...' You thought. "No time for dilly-dallying! Put on your hero costumes and get out to Ground Beta for battle training!"

Sighing, you stood up with much less ambition than the other students. You just never saw the hype with All Might; he had a boring enhancement quirk. Nothing special, yet he had become the number one hero. Or maybe that was why everyone looked up to him? Because he was so... ordinary?

As you strutted into the facility, a few heads turned in your direction. Your quirk wasn't really anything that needed extra costume enhancements, so when you received the request form you thought, 'Why not wear something sexy and avant-garde just for shock value?' So there you were, with an arguably too-revealing bodysuit covered by a cloak and pointy sneakers. Shouto walked in behind you, making his way over to the wall. He gave you a look that said, 'Come stand by me so that you don't do anything dumb.' Reluctantly, you padded over to your old friend. He nodded down at the cloak in silent implication to show him your outfit. Rolling your (e/c) hues, you moved so that you stood in front of him before opening the cover-up.

Shouto took a glance at the slightly scandalous attire before waving his hands for you to cover yourself back up. With a condescending smirk rested upon your face, you leaned back against the wall beside him. While re-buttoning the cloak, you missed the bright shade of pink that tinted his cheeks.

Hua's Talk

here’s the costume

[m.list]

[catgirlxox]

Why does everyone always expect Ben to have the answer to everything? 

I know that technically he is the leader of his team. But, I still believe it would be more appropriate for everyone involved to help find a solution rather than just put all the responsibility on him and wait on him to rack his brain for an answer. 

I've noticed this is usually true in situations when the problem at hand is quite serious and endangers the lives of more than just a couple people. 

This is why Ben is so important...

Ben 10: Alien Force episode “The Final Battle” (part 2)

After losing the Omnitrix to save his friends, an event that would already have a very large impact on Ben, the team doesn't really seem to come up with any great ideas about what to do next. Kevin literally asks Ben “what’s the plan, Tennyson?”  To which, understandably so, Ben reacts quite angrily. 

There’s already so much for him to be upset about. And now it’s up to him completely to fix it too? 

But that’s not even what he’s upset about. He wants to find a solution to fix everything. He literally runs away from them so that he can have some time to come up with one. And what happens in the end?

“I've got a plan.”

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien episode Absolute Power (parts 1 & 2)

This is a very controversial part of the series, and before I say any more, I just want to clear up that Ben did not WANT to kill Kevin. 

I can prove this because not only did he never say he wanted to, but he was very clearly VERY conflicted about the possibility that this might have to all end with that conclusion. So much so that he took out his anger on other bad guys because he was so mad at everyone and himself for this turn of events.

He blamed himself and knew that if it all came down to it HE would have to do it. He had many chances to finally put an end to Kevin, but he never finished him. He couldn't bring himself to do it. 

But that brings me to my point, they are all depending on Ben for an answer and solution to the problem. And he definitely over analyses every possible option because he knows this. It affects him greatly. 

Ben 10: Omniverse  episode “The Frogs of War” 

Ben was gone for about a month and, although the rest of his team was still working undercover, they didn't really seem to have an immediate solution to the problem. The Earth is literally enslaved. They had no contact with Ben since he was ejected into space, so they had to have come up with something to stop the invasion, but like I mentioned, there wasn't much that seemed to be fixed about the situation.

Even the Plumbers can’t seem to do much without Ben!

They even locked Max up in one of the Plumber’s own cells!

Things seem to get noticeably more under control when Ben comes back. As soon as he comes back, he jumps right into action and does what he’s gotta do (aka what everyone was waiting for)!

This is especially important since news of Ben 10′s return would definitely have aggravated the Incusions, and might make them increase the severity of their attack out of that anger. The fact that not only does Ben come back successfully undetected, but puts a quick end to it all is astounding. 

Ben 10: Omniverse episode “OTTO Motives”

This episode is a continuation of what was mentioned in “Mud is Thicker than Water” where Ben is seen frantically running out of the Plumber Base to go help Kevin and Rook with their situation. 

He wasn't even a part of what was going on but once again, Ben was the reason for their problem to be solved. Their solution seems to be driving away from their opponent, until they literally get thrown down into a ditch and there’s literally nothing they can do as implied by their panic. 

Meanwhile, Ben is pretty calm as he scrolls through his aliens and...

And after he fixes everything again, there is a bit of a ceremony or celebration for his success. This dialogue ensues:

Gar: Ben Tennyson, you have once again demonstrated why you are the greatest hero in the universe! 

Ben: Oh, please. You’re too kind. But I couldn't have done it without my friends here! Kevin’s car got totally messed up. 

Even though I’d say Ben did most of the work, he still points out his friends and gives them credit. (so why u guyz keep saying he doesn’t??)

Ben 10: Omniverse episode “Breakpoint” 

(I’ve been told this episode is based on a popular movie plot, so the characters are “supposed to” act the way they do. But in the context of Ben 10...)

Ben volunteers to go undercover on the mission, to learn more about Fistrick’s operation and find a way to stop them directly. Throughout the episode, both Max and Rook constantly pick on him  for “doing things wrong” but at the same time they depended on Ben to solve the problem. 

First of all, throughout the entire episode all the other characters did was make him feel inadequate. They said he had “no self control.” They implied that he always chose the “wrong alien” (Wildvine vs Fourarms). They didn't trust him or believe in him, and literally were harsh towards him because they thought he was “getting to close to the case.” 

But realistically, even though Fistrick was a bad guy, he made Ben feel included…or that he was good enough to be part of something. But at the same time, they really messed with his head with their obsession of perfection.

It’s important to realize that Ben put himself in danger. Fistrick could have killed them all with that rocket…and all that is focused on is what Ben’s doing “wrong.” He isn't even being what would be considered “cocky.” I'm sure both Max and Rook should know that even as reckless as Ben may be considered sometimes, he’s just as reliable and trustworthy.

You know how I can prove that?

Well...Ben’s been undercover this whole episode, and at the end we learn that Rook also tried to follow Ben’s lead, but he got caught. This leaves Ben to make a decision - either fight Fistrick or save his friend. 

In the end it all works out and thanks to Ben, Rook is safe and they both defeat the criminals, successfully stopping their operation.

But please realize Ben was extremely important in this episode (as well as all the other ones I mentioned above). If you take the time to just put yourself  in his position, you’ll realize where he is coming from when he (even if jokingly) says that he saved the Universe “like a million times.” 

The way everyone depends on him to ultimately “save the day” proves the show would not be better without him because without him, there would most certainly be something missing. 

And finally, I’d just like to mention that this kind of dynamic is not only portrayed in the series. It seems to be something so in character for the other characters that it is included in fan works, whether that was intentional or not. 

There is a great web-comic which shows exactly this! I’m sure it’s quite popular by now. The following pages accurately display Ben’s team depending on him and how that affects him:

5YL: Fold page 18 

5YL: Fold page 31

5YL: Fold page 35

And even if it affects him in the way it does, and he claims to “not have a plan”, he still points his team in the right direction and motivates everyone to believe in themselves. 

It’s what he always does. 

[superloves4]

Starlight Comics - Dick Grayson x Reader

Synopsis:  Dick and Starlight get closer, while Bruce decides what to do with her.

Warning: just vague references, mostly just fluff really.

Issue 3 - Wayne

Dick knocked excited on Starlight's door, after everything that had happened the day before; he just wanted to be by her side more. She looked so helpless after accepting Alfred's help and even after getting out of the suit, Bruce still seemed to scare her.

He worried again as she didn't answer.

Deciding it was better to just get inside, he opened the door only to discover she wasn't there, the empty and still neat bed suggesting she hadn't slept in the room at all.

She run away! He thought running towards the open window, hoping that if she had decided to go away, she had not gone far. So he could bring her back.

Before he could scream for her, however, he suddenly found her face right in front of him.

She was upside down, flying in outside in his borrowed clothes and looking perplexed at him. He sighed in relief and she seemed even more confused.

"You already saw me flying," she said matter-of-factly and he laughed.

"So flying is what you do? No wind manipulation?" she shrugged, still in the same position.

"I guess, that's what they would call it." he smiled, she wasn't quite open about what had been done to her, but he could figure out and so would try to reassure her.

"It's pretty incredible." she turned in mid-air, looking at him in a standing position now, she still had that questioning look but he didn't need to wait long to find out why.

"You look different." that made him laugh, she was talking about his clothes, out of the Robin costume, he probably looked weird to her.

"Had to change, wouldn't want to let people know my secret." he sat on the window, getting closer to her as she looked at him, eyes glinting.

"Secret?" she asked interested in him.

"That I'm a hero." he grinned at her, Bruce would talk about not revealing it to anyone, but he felt she could be trusted and that she belonged there with them.

"That means saving people." it only took a nod from his part and she smiled, it was her second smile since arriving and he liked that he had been the one to cause it.

"Why do you do it? Do you gain something?" she crossed her legs, still in the air, now asking as excited as he was.

"No but because people need it" she felt as his humor changed, he was still trying to be playful, most likely for her sake, but it felt forced "My parents died not too long ago because of criminals and I want to help others like me and..."

His voice cracked and she knew memories had to be creeping in, her night had been the same, if he was like her, maybe she could help him the way he did her.

She extended her hand to him and smiled, trying her best to be reassuring and once he realized what she was doing, he smiled again and took her hand.

He did not expect her to push him.

Dick screamed before he felt the wind move around them as they flew to the roof, he observed as the ground became farther away and looked back at her, she had a concentrated expression and he wondered if it was alright for her to carry him, she was still weak from DDSG mistreatments.

She left him in the roof safely, sitting on the edge, looking contentedly at the scene in front of her.

"I had never seen so many different things before" she looked to him amazed and he sat by her side.

"Did you sleep here?" he asked concerned but she surprised him by nodding excitedly.

"I had never been this free in my life!"

"I saw the starlight! And the city lights!" she continued to list all the things she'd seen since the night before and he listened to everything, her enthusiasm contagious.

But she paused in the middle, looking perplexed again.

"I don't know your name" he fell back laughing, she looked so confused and he worried but instead it was that.

"I'm Dick Grayson," he told her taking her hand and shaking it, she looked so confused at him again, he could only laugh at her again.

She decided she would try to understand him another day, so she just smiled "So, it's Dick and Starlight then"

He smiled at her and nodded.

______________________________________

Bruce observed the two children when Alfred spoke from behind him.

"Seem master Grayson is getting along with the miss"

Bruce grumbled an affirmation before continuing "It will be good for her, she could lose control and..."

"Master Bruce" the butler interrupted him softly "It's more than that no? Seems as they shall be good friends"

He looked back at the monitor of the roof camera, the kids talking enthusiastic to each other, Dick had quickly liked her and she only felt truly comfortable near him.

Bruce turned to Alfred, realizing what the man wanted him to see.

"You think I should keep her here"

Alfred simply looked at the two children on the screen, unapologetic.

"She needs a home and peace after what she has been through" he sighed, bringing Dick had been a thing, but could he really help her overcome her past, that really sounded like a joke.

"The DDSG took her in as a baby according to what you found, sir," the butler explained, he had seen her files too and looking at him in the eyes he continued "Even after your researches, you know, she doesn't have a home anymore"

"Besides, separating them now would not be good for either of them"

______________________________________

Dick continued talking about his life in the circus as the girl looked at him, eyes shining at all the things she didn't know. Until in the midst of describing the performances they would do left his neck exposed, the bandaging reminding her that she hurt him.

Her feet quietly touching the roof of the mansion, her face hidden under her hair.

"Is something wrong?" Dick asked, he had felt they were connecting, why was she hiding away again.

"I hurt you," she whispered, hugging her arms, trying to make herself smaller "I didn't want to, but I did, don't you hate me?"

He sat down and asked to sit with him, as he did the day before.

"Not at all, I like your powers!" he told her, looking into her eyes when she turned towards him, not yet out of her shell.

"Could you show me?"

She nodded, not trusting herself not to cry or shout again, so she closed her eyes and focused as she had learned.

A small flame played around them, like a dance, while the wind picked up not only beside them but in the garden too, the sound of the trees like music.

Starlight opened her eyes and saw his blue ones looking around them in amazement, seeing it she gave it more power, the flame grew and she carefully kept it away from him, their clothes flapping as the air picked up strength.

She flew above him and tried to replicate the acrobatics he told her about, with poor results but he didn't seem bothered about it so she just continued, hearing his laugh.

"Did you liked it?" she asked

He nodded excitedly.

"You know, there are others like you, with powers, like Wally and..."

______________________________________

Bruce sighed and looked back at the screen and saw that the two were no longer there but he didn't need to worry for long as both came running into the cave.

"Something is wrong?" he asked getting up.

Dick just shook his head and smiled, showing the balls he was now holding, she had the same expression as him and it surprised Bruce, she hadn't been so incautious with him before.

"Look!"

Dick threw the balls and she used her powers to spin them around, if you didn't look close it was as if she spinning all of them herself.

They then started talking about all the things they could try before Alfred chimed in, telling them to only do it outside the house and that "throwing Dick into the air with high-pressure air was not a good idea".

They left as fast as they came and Alfred approached him again.

"Are you still worried about her?"

Bruce had initially planned to start on another case but as he sat down again he knew there was something else he had to do before.

"We will need to contact the press before they assume too much and while she has good control over her powers," he said as he typed on the computer, erasing her past with the DDSG, changing it to that of a girl orphaned as a baby "but she will need to learn how to hide them from the public, she would be too much of a target otherwise."

But as he filled her new files even Alfred was surprised.

"Wayne, sir?"

He looked at the words on the screen and felt that it was the right decision.

"She will need a surname"

______________________________________

A/N: Hello people! I had initially planned to make reader surnameless, but it didn't felt quite right to me, so I just made her a Wayne! Does it bother you?

And this way she becomes the first to be adopted (snubbing...Jason? I read that he was the first, but that was pre or post-crisis? Because I've also seen Tim as the first...so unsure, sigh)

Finally, the fluff has begun! There will be more tragedy as we go along (for obvious reasons) but for now enjoy the next very fluffy adventures (I'm not the best at comedy, but I will try!)

You might have noticed, Bruce doesn't talk, or act, or do much, it's just that my comic Batman knowledge goes: death in the family(looove it), the new 52 (which is not great as this is a reboot, but not really because people didn't super like it from what I understand, so they sort of rebooted again but not really because now it sort of has some of the good of both before and after 52? Dunno, comics logic confuses the hell out of me sometimes), Batman and Robin (or this goes with the new 52 category?), son of the demon (is this still non-canon, I've seen it said both ways so I'm not sure) and a shit ton of youtube. As you see, not a lot of early Batman, basically my official comic knowledge of Dick as Robin comes from Batman and Robin eternal (is that bad?). Anyway, will try to do that better.

I'm not super sure of this chapter (for all the reasons I just explained) so I just hope you guys like it!p.s: remember what I talked about them singing? It is mostly for the later chapter, it's just that I don't know how OOC that could be, so just letting it known from the beginning, also, it's like random musical but rather look who's talking (the scene of the kitchen).