#(me projecting onto link tbh)

[arteapotstudio]

It's one hell of a hot summer, innit?

[exopelagic]

supervisor was met. god help our souls

[bryngmemoney]

✁FASHION FLIRT✃

Megumi Fushiguro x Reader

⭑story masterlist link

tw: mentions of death (just jokes)

Writing in between messages!!

🪡Chapter Twenty-four: Beading & Braiding

“Look it’s you!” you lifted up the notebook, with a simple portrait of Megumi, based solely off your memory and what you could see on the call. “It’s me,” he said while giving you a short laugh.

“Show me yours!”

He complied, lifting up his paper with his portrait of you. The paper covered up most of the camera, but you could see his eyes peaking over it looking at you.

“So you’re just good at everything?” you asked, surprised at what he had managed to make in the ten minutes you had set the time limit to.

“Just incredibly talented,” he said while lowering the paper down. He leaned down to his side out of your view, reappearing with his white dog in his lap. You laughed as you could see he was struggling to lift him up into the frame.

“He misses you,” Megumi said while the dog leaned completely in covering up camera with its nose.

“Aw hey there!”

You were about to continue praising his dog, only to be interrupted by the sound of a door slamming open, followed by Megumi’s voice.

“What the hell are you doing!?”

That was the last thing you heard before seeing the call end on his side.

You stood in front of the door to Megumi’s home, waiting for him to come open it after having sent the text that you were here.

Nobara had arrived around ten minutes ago, currently sitting next to Yuji and the couch as he basically explained what he had finished and what parts she was in. They both turned around to face the sound of a door opening seeing Megumi walk out, looking down at his phone before heading straight for the door. “Where are you going now?” Yuji asked, looking at his friend. “Nowhere, someone’s here to help me with a project,” he answered, opening the door to reveal you standing there. Nobara and Yuji were taken aback, especially since you greeted him so sweetly.

“Y/n?” Yuji asked, Nobara still staring you down.

“Hey guys,” You waved. “So, little suprise..”

Next day, and you were sat in class next to Nobara, helping her with beading a string she needed for one of her shirts. “Are you almost done?” she asked looking over at you.

“No, no i’m not almost done, you’ve asked that three time now.” She just huffed going back to sewing a button onto a pair of pants. “Serves you right.”

Maki slid a shirt, cut in the back to make stripes of loose fabric. “When you’re done, help me braid the back of that.”

“You guys suck for this.”

Panda, who was up looking for something behind you threw you three a glance. “I was gonna ask you for something, but I think those two have done enough.”

“Thank you for your mercy.”

Author’s Note: well they found out 🤗

erm also regarding last chapter when i said 7-8ish chapters left it’s probably closer to 10-11 chapters after this one tbh was feeling silly and added things 😋

hope you guys enjoyed!

Taglist below, feel free to comment or dm me to be added!!

TAGLIST

@iridescentrays @gumimegz @maya-maya-56 @mamafly @lunavixia @swissy23 @coltsgf @m00nglad3-mp3 @etsukis @xosren @qtnfer @oengleli @harek89 @y-sabell-a @morgyyyyyyy @getolvr @liliumaraneae @k3lbade @aiieera @dancedancey @get0sfav @chuyasthighs0 @hyssoplampflickers @kpopanimen @sad-darksoul @vivi-loves-penguins @kasumitenbaz @talkingsperm @nymphsdomain @inlovewithlondonn @rzcnlb @enchantingkitty @fuyuzemi @lysaray @ni-ki-ismyluv @renemy @frumira @mixzimi @miralunaela @dreamxiing @p3achiee @anianurst @nishii28 @arguendo @samutoru @hallothankmas @invisible-mori @aiserex @all-in-the-fandoms @milza12

[decepti-thots]

here is an ask that is a free excuse to talk about any disco elysium prowldome thoughts you have because i am FASCINATED by it in the abstract but having a hard time nailing it down

so your original tags on the post this relates to specified that CD is Kim (and therefore, Prowl is Harry) and that is what actually made me really interested. because not making the self-destructive amnesiac character CD (who in canon is... that in a different way) was SO interesting to me. i will cut this both for potential DE spoilers and also so people can choose whether or not to read my overlong ramblings. lmao.

so the thing about DE as a text is that it's doing a really specific thing gameplay wise, derived from the biggest inspiration it has mechanically, which is the game Planescape Torment. specifically it is doing this thing where the idea of the amnesiac protagonist as a 'clean slate' is troubled by constant catastrophic interaction with NPCs that knew your player character before they lost their memory, so while you as the player are roleplaying as them as vessels to project yourself onto because of their diagetic memory loss, you are constantly having that fantasy of 'starting over fresh' and total control over them as an agent undermined by the reality that other people remember them, and their influence on this fictional world pre-dates your own.

i think that's SUCH a fascinating lens through which to look at what Prowl does as a character; his constant attempts at- and more to the point failure at- reinvention, because the thing that constantly gets in his way is always... himself. his own past actions catching up to him and his inability to handle that. right? so he's an incredibly interesting kind of archetype to put into this story just because the thing that always undermines him is his inability to get away from his impact on other people. he can change how he feels or who he is, but he can't change what he's done. this is a really great character to put into a narrative role like Harry in DE.

the thing is that Chromedome is not Kim, because the entire point of Kim is to give you someone to make that new first impression on. right? Kim is the character from out of town who knows of you by reputation but has no pre-existing relationship to you as an actual person. who you decide to play Harry as in the moment becomes who Kim knows you to be.

if Chromedome is anyone, surely he's. you know. Harry's ex he keeps alienating by calling her and freaking her out begging her to come back because he thinks they're inevitable and he refuses to tolerate life without her. he's Dora, at least very loosely. (well. he could be Jean, i guess. but like. I do not give a fuck about Jean. sorry.)

so i was thinking this over and like... a DE version of these two where the twist is that you think Chromedome is Kim and this is how these two meet on a case and become (professional) partners, and in reality he's been lying since realising that Prowl has no memory and he is, in fact, the ex that Prowl's limbic system keeps dropping hints he's really fucked up over (and who he has lingering repressed guilt over the knowledge he did in some way fuck over)... i think that's how i see this working tbh. it's fascinating to imagine how Chromedome would like. respond to that. and what his motivations are- both what they start off as and where they end up depending on how things go, and what an amnesiac Prowl decides to do and how he chooses to conduct himself.

there are a lot of things that i think are completely inextricable from DE even in the context of vague wonderings about silly hypothetical fandom AUs. first off, DE is about politics, and the kind of person Harry becomes in the face of his amnesia is tied extremely closely to that. fandom tends to gloss over the fact that a ton of Prowl's negative development in exRiD specifically is also linked to that comic making some points about politics, i feel; it's not that they're subtle or anything lmao, fandom just tends to focus on characters in a very individualist sense that doesn't always line up with what that comic is using them for. Prowl is someone who refuses to relinquish wartime power (and the abuses thereof) in the aftermath of a (from his perspective, still ongoing) conflict. and he is the guy, in DE, who would have been intellectually sympathetic towards the revolution, but he'd also have been working to put it down. (also, this is clearly different from Harry, who grew up in the aftermath of its failure, the generation dealing with an after that was traumatic.) and so much of Prowl's moves towards that tight grip on authoritarian power in exRiD comes from a contextually developed fear- both for himself (if he relinquishes his sunk cost fallacy there are a lot of things he did that were not justified) and for the society he imagines is under constant risk of falling into chaos if he does not. but what does he believe when he doesn't remember all the things that brought him to that point? i mean, the prowl we saw in Shadowplay thinks very differently than the one we see in the present. and specifically Roberts writes Prowl as someone whose initial drive was to try and escape the war and its conflicts altogether. so your angle there is very in line with what DE does with Harry and his amnesia, I think.

Chromedome meanwhile... i think the idea of a post-war Chromedome who has survived his own attempts at self-destruction and come to loathe Prowl playing this role of silent, judgemental observer of Prowl with this ostensible opportunity to change, who lies about not knowing Prowl as a kind of mirror to the way Chromedome has erased other relationships in his life to avoid confronting the pain of them... is really interesting, honestly. (there are versions of this where he is married to Rewind and there are versions of this where Rewind is at least temporarily still dead, and i like both tbh.) does Chromedome want Prowl to be able to genuinely change through this? perhaps the cracks in his story start showing when unlike Kim, he responds with increasing frustration at Prowl actually doing so, a thing it doesn't make sense for him to be bitter about if he's really a stranger. meanwhile Prowl is clearly and immediately latching onto Chromedome as someone he has decided he admires, and declares trust in. (harry idealizes kim a lot; the vision he has of dora, too, calls him out on literally deifying her; and we see in idw canon that for all his irritation with Chromedome now he casually asserts ludicrous stuff like 'you're literally too fantastic at your job for it to kill you' and so on.) had Chromedome comfortably convinced himself that was all bullshit and Prowl has no actual remaining feelings towards him, that it was all just to get Chromedome to do useful shit for him when he snapped his fingers? does seeing evidence to the contrary- that Prowl's feelings continue to be, annoyingly, real and genuine- destabilize him?

god there's a TON more i want to think about here. obviously there are a lot of things DE explores that bringing into this complicates as well. DE talks about suicidality and addiction extensively, obviously, for starters. (which are probably themes most people would automatically project onto Chromedome, which makes this specific configuration really interesting, i think.) the inevitable futility of trying to be an individual who is 'one of the good ones' in a system where that doesn't matter and will never allow you to be. you could probably tie that in with functionism if you wanted, and Prowl's seeming baseline agreement with at least some parts of that system on some level despite it clearly not benefiting him overmuch. right? there's a lot of potential room to engage directly with not just the basic plot setup of DE but its actual themes i think, which sort of surprised me to realise. (and is why it kept bopping around in my head, because that's really the only way i would be interested in a fusion AU kind of thing modelling itself on Elysium; i'm not here for the trope-y setup, i'm here for what DE actually does thematically and the crunchier topics it commits to exploring.)

anyway. please consider. you know that skill check you can get in the last dream with Dora? the one you can 'succeed' and it's really, really bad to do so, actually? yeah. please consider that skill check in this context. ahahaha. I SURE AM

[iamgodsoopsie]

Astarion Headcanons (that you probably won't like) Pt. 3:

Part 1 link

Part 2 link

More Astarion headcanons that are mostly me projecting onto a fictional character to help me process my own trauma!

BG3 does an excellent job at depicting SA trauma and the beginning of the healing process/journey. Many of the headcanons I've seen floating around (intentionally or unintentionally) gloss over the uglier side of healing from (prolonged) trauma. I'm not judging anyone for magically healing him, he's fictional after all, but I'd like to make some more ...realistic... headcanons.

Disclaimer: Everyone's healing process looks different, but they tend share commonalities. These headcanons are based on my own experiences. Not everyone who is healing from their trauma will experience what I have or have experienced it like I have.

[Please don't message me with explicit details about your trauma. I am at the point in my healing journey where I can share my experiences, and commiserate with other's similar experiences, but I am unable to support others in a more personal manner at this time. I wish you the best of luck in your healing process/ journey.]

Spoiler warning

Mental illness, SA, & SH (suicidal ideation) Trigger Warnings: More descriptive and potentially triggering than part 1, but about equal to part 2.

These headcanons are based on an Astarion who is still a spawn and romantically involved with a Tav who honestly loves him and isn't abusive or manipulative. Also Cazador is dead and Astarion got to stab him. They also assume that he himself does not turn into Cazador 2.0 or wish.com Cazador.

Have things been going well for awhile? Is he reclaiming his sexuality at an exponential rate? Does he think he's practically conquered his trauma?

-> If you said 'Yes' to any of the questions above, then be ready for: A trigger he didn't know he had hitting him out of no where and setting his mental health on fire.

->-> If he's at a place in his healing journey that he is able to recognize what happening and use his healthy coping tools/ honest communication to process his unexpected emotional (maybe literal) flashback then it'll be a not fun time for him, but he'll get through it fairly quickly with minimal mental damage.

->->-> If this happens closer to the beginning of his healing journey then be ready for him to spiral and catastrophize. He'll insist that he'll never truly be free of Cazador, that he's broken, that he isn't allowed to be happy, etc. All you can really do during this time is be there for him. Reassure him that you love him and that you believe that he will get better.

->↑ This is a normal part of the healing process, it's shitty and God-awful- but it gets easier to manage and happens less frequently over time.

Even if he weren't an immortal vampire he's still a high-elf and will probably outlive you. And boy oh boy the pressure he's going to put himself under to hurry up and heal is going to be immense AND counterproductive!

-> Poor bby is terrified that he'll finally be happy only for it to be ripped away from him.

->-> Him rushing his healing will only make it harder for him to heal, and he knows this. But Gods damn it all he can't seem to shake the feeling that he's running out of time (okay Hamilton).

->->-> I gotta be honest, I have no fucking clue how to help him with this. I suppose that the only thing you can do is love him with the time ya'll have.

->->->-> TBH I can see him deciding that he'll KHS when you die. I know you have the best intentions, but asking him to live for you after your gone will (probably) be perceived as very manipulative.

->↑ I honestly don't think ya'll are going to come to an agreement on this if you're vehemently against the notion. It may be best to make your preference known and then leave the topic alone- as pressing it will only cause him to double down. (After 200 years of not being allowed to make any decisions for himself, he's not going to let anyone tell him how to 'live' or die).

Surviving "200 years of shit, PURE. SHIT!" had to have been exhausting. And healing from trauma is exhausting. All Astarion wants to do is rest but he feels that he can't truly rest until he heals from his trauma and he's so damn tired and has to keep dealing with this shit and he really wants to give up somedays but he'll be damned if he lets Cazador 'win'.

->↑ Healing is hard work. But it is so damn worth it.

I'll go back and edit any grammar and spelling mistakes later, but I'd really like to post this now.

[what-big-teeth]

After playing with the demo for a bit, I have a general idea about the love interests available to romance. Please note these are just surface-level thoughts and opinions. For more info, I would suggest trying out the free demo yourself through Steam or itch.io (LINK), visiting the Kickstarter page (LINK), and the studio’s tumblr page (LINK). Or if you want more theorizing, search for Touchstarved using the Tumblr search function.

As you can see from the title screen still above, the love interests will run the gamut of being monstrous in a humanoid sense to a more eldritch sense. So there’ll be something for everyone, which is nice. Now onto the love interests themselves. You get to choose from: A magical himbo

A literal angelic doctor (damn but he’s gorgeous)

Mr. Made-a-Pact-with-a-Tentacled-Deity

A murderous, anti-social birb (they/them pronouns)

And an ancient beast that would/could sell you for one corn chip for shits and giggles (depends on how he’s feeling, tbh)

As stated on the official social media pages, each love interest is hiding something. And as you figure out the best way to deal with your curse (a touch that literally drives normal humans to incurable madness), you’ll end up uncovering the secrets behind these pretty/handsome faces. You can also decide your MC’s name, pronous, and background. You’ll pick the latter from three choices, and as a result, they’ll react to the world and the love interests differently based on the knowledge they already possess. Even more interesting: depending on how you play the demo, you’ll get options which pop up in red. These may reveal a bit more about your chosen love interest, or make a certain situation more romantic in nature. But if you play your cards wrong, your MC will die. So it’s up to you to decide if your chosen route will be a true gothic romance or something straight out of a horror movie (some of you are probably into that, which is understandable). In any case, Touchstarved looks interesting and even has a cool animated trailer you can watch here (LINK). Just be warned that if you’re a 90s kid like me, the trailer’s song may rattle you because...it isn’t expected (for me, at least). I mean, it goes with the game’s theme, but again, I was caught off guard. And that’s all I have to say! I’m not sure when the full game will be out as this is a side project and a labor of love for the creators. So if any of this sounds interesting to you, check out the demo. Peace!

[roseofcards90]

6, 43, 44, 50, and 61!

HI HI RAINBOW!!!! :D I HOPE YOUVE BEEN DOING WELL

6: Pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal, or sportswear?

Tomboy!!! :3 idk if I’d be able to pull it off but maybe if I had clothes for the style I could 😭

43: Hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket, or bomber jacket?

Hoodie all the way!!! They’re literally the only things I wear in the winter LMAO

44: Favorite scent for soap?

I like any kind of lavender or fruit scent! :D

50: What made you laugh the hardest you ever have?

Omg, tbh I laugh at like everything LMAO but there was this one moment recently during last Christmas, I was with my old childhood friends and we were being silly and dumb fr. We all just like, had our usual silly banter and then we started passing around someone’s random massage remote and idk it was dumb and stupid, but it reminded me of back then and how much I had fun with my childhood friends during those times

61: Favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tb show/etc.?

Ahhh, there’s probably so many examples I want to use, but I think this one is one of my top faves! This is from Persona 4 the Musical, which was a fan project done by fans of the game before Atlus had shut it down. Persona 4 is already a game near and dear to my heart, so when I found out about this fan project, I got so excited because I also love musicals so it was like my two favorite things fdjfjfk

It's amateurish I'm not gonna lie, the musical is rough and ready, but the passion is there. You can really feel the spirit of the original game and its story here, especially in the last song "Maybe That's The Point". It would take me too long to explain why it means so much to me, so I'll just show the quote here:

"We've always been here for you, and she can hear our voices too, and see the links that we have tied, we're by your side." <3

Here are some other ones that are my top faves:

"If rescuing you is a sin, I'll gladly become a sinner. This is a story about love, and it will end with love." - Honkai Impact 3rd

"At the end of everything, hold onto anything. / I want to hope again, and I want it to hurt. Because that means it meant something...It means I am something at least." - Night in the Woods

[nsfw-kill-me-now]

I must be going crazy...

I had this sudden urge to read old voltron LD fics and I went onto Ao3 to search for this one soulmate au pidge x lotor fic (sue me I luv this ship) where Lotor is already emperor and decides to peacefully ask Earth to join the Galran Empire (bc he learned is soulmate is there). He rescues Matt and Sam Holt and returns them to Earth and he meets Pidge

Tbh I'm usually not into soulmate au but this was enjoyable.

However....

I CANT FIND THE STORY ANYWHERE!

And no I can't remember the name. But I've looked through all the tags for the fiction I can remember individually (too many) and I couldn't find it!

So yea if anyone in this mostly dead fandom involving this unpopular ship happens to know this story and somehow knows/has a link to it plz help me I beg u

Edit: Found it!

[da-owo]

GOOD MORNIFN TUMBLR IT IS CURRENTLY 2 PM FOR ME AN I AM FEEELIN VERY GOOD VERY COMIC MOTIVATED to answer some questions tho - do i sleep? absolutely even if its only a couple hours i have horrible insomnia and i tend to have to exhuasted myself to an extreme deal if i want to sleep more then 3 hrs which is why sometimes ill be alive at 4 or 5 am , this is also why i stated updates will be random , tho i dont like posting at 3 am i will if i want to move onto my next project -you've noted my bio says full time nsfw artist , is there going to be nsfw in the comic? if there is it will not be plot related and it will kept to my nsfw accounts ( i will not be sharing a link here or in the comments of this post as i have already shared where you could find that content ) - i'm really fast how am i getting this much done this fast? i work from home an yes do art full time , i do live in stream commissions so i just have "trained" my self to move faster when it comes to my art that way i can do more then just one persons commission in stream so now out of habbit i go go go go i've been called the "amazon prime" "same day shipping" artist haha tho sometimes a really really big piece comes through an that is a all day project but nonetheless anyone can practice enough to do stuff fast i also have been a full time artist for 5 years now ( sometimes even just taking a day to do fast sloppy sketches really helps with getting speed but speed should not be you main focus your growing as a artist and should enjoy the process and the art you make <3 -anything cosplay related , since i have gotten a vast amount of questions there -my wigs are all to mostly from arda wigs ( my jack frost and danny wig is a jet wig from arda, jacks is a silver in jet and danny's is a pure white in jet but i cut it in half to dye the under cut black ) if my wig isnt from arda they are mostly from amazon map of beauty is a good start for someone who wants a cheap wig to start with - i have been cosplaying for almost 12 years now i do not use name brand make up tbh my foundation is super stay from walmart in the lightest shade since i dont get to see the sun very often haha , i will always recommmend TRANSULUCENT setting powder -Contacts! yes sometimes i wear them but my eyes are very sensitive and i am very blind so most the time i am just editing them to the color i need them lol please stay away from ttdeye contacts they can damage your eyes DO NOT SHARE CONTACTS if they hurt TAKE THEM OUT NOW , contacts can cut and damage your eyes very easy - my jack frost cosplay staff , my staff is over 6ft tall ( i am not very short so i had to make it sized to me ) its a pvc pipe i had laying around and on the top there is a piece of a different broken prop hot glued to hell and back and heat shaped to make the hook then i i cut up a bunch of random lengthed shapes of foam and glued it around from the base to the very top and then sat there with my hot glue gun and added wood texture with hot glue , painted it a off brown , then dry brushed white all over it my staff is not perfect but for having made it all in one day i love it

if i missed anything feel free to ask im sure have an answer haha also been debating a name for my comic so might be refering to it as the golden dream but im unsure if i want to commit to it haha

[ratwars]

Who do you think is the deepest character in diabolik lovers and whyyyyyy :3 (sorry if this is weird btw :,))

Tomà out here activating my dialovers derangement syndrome 🥲 ty ty ty also sry sry sry in advance 🙏💜

Minors dni with this post

This is not weird omg no one ever asks me about dialovers you need to understand I was into VNs including otome before I was into any anime (including bsd) and diabolik lovers is my longest term obsession that isn't music 💜🙏 This is mostly going to involve things from the games (because the anime was basically silly fanservice that barely scratches the surface for anyone) but I'll leave out drama cd stuff because I would actually need to go refresh myself on those.

Absolute novel under the cut sorry. also cw noncon, cw dubcon, cw abuse, cw csa, cw suicide, cw matricide

Anyone not familiar with the series who decides to continue pls be aware of these warnings and take care of yourself. Also pls understand everything I say is in terms of the series and setting. Absolutely nothing that happens in these games would make any of these characters redeemable irl. This is fiction and a trashfire Do-S fetish franchise. Trauma doesn't excuse abuse. I don't condone any of the bad behavior from this series irl. (Sorry since this isn't my sideblog I feel I need to explain this so ppl don't come at me thinking I'm excusing stuff for reals with this little analysis)

Also this is probably going to have spelling mistakes and horrific formatting because I wrote it on mobile so my bad on that too.

This was so hard to answer because so many of them have serious trauma, maladaptive coping mechanisms, and large amounts of growth throughout the various sequels. I think you could make the logical argument of depth for every single character. The Sakamaki triplets are def the most tragic of the first two games in this regard though (maybe only rivaled by the Tsukinami brothers once we get to Dark Fate because of the whole being the sole survivors of genocide thing)

But as a whole I think Carla and Shin deal with their predicaments in a more outwardly focused manner (which makes sense given their stories and roles as antagonists in their debut game) so I don't think I could objectively call them the deepest esp Carla even though he is my fave.

So out of the Sakamaki triplets I am going to go with Laito. Shocking I know because I have said before he is the one I am the most terrified of. But hear me out.

(I'm using HBD (haunted dark bridal) to refer to the first game, and MB (more blood) to refer to the second game going forward)

His first route in hdb is a stomach twisting mess of isolation, noncon, gaslighting and victim blaming. It is also the only route in that game where Yui tries to kill herself, which imo is really notable. Tbh the first time I played it I was so deeply uncomfortable I didn't really give his character a lot of thought. During replays and some of his drama cds though it def changed my perspective of him (in terms of the deepness of his character, not my dislike of him)

Here are my arguments in topical format because I don't really want to go through and do the research needed to refresh myself and make this chronological. Also if I am mistaken with anything I've paraphrased my bad it's because this isn't a real essay more of a rant that you might regret reading lol.

- Cordelia

We can't go into the rest of my arguments without the facts. He was groomed by his mother and experienced a childhood of CSA at her hands. And he is absolutely confused and suffering when he has his flashbacks. Yes he kills her with the other two triplets, but that didn't actually solve anything for him internally, and I think it is a pretty clear-cut argument that his negative traits and behaviors can be linked back to his unresolved trauma from this. He even says it himself too when he tries to project onto Yui and claim her hatred for him must be the same as his for Cordelia (though unnamed in his quote im pretty sure) that a hatred can run so deep that even killing the person won't relieve the burning. The other ironic part of this is that in the dialovers universe it is explained multiple times that the highest act of love for a vampire is murder. So. Every LI (Reiji, Laito, Ayato, Kanato) that committed matricide out of their hatred probably has some deeper more complex feelings going on than that. (You could also argue maybe a similar thing about Carla and patricide as well though he is Founder/First Blood not vampire. But he is more open about his reasoning and feelings around his parents and why he did what he did imo)

- His disdain of purity (plot twist. It's jealousy).

We repeatedly see him mock both Yui's purity and religiosity. He is arguably the worst out of all of the LIs when it comes to this topic, and hits this point right out the gate when he assaults her in the abandoned church. It is simultaneously a logical and also weird choice on his part to continue on with when you realize how unwavering her faith actually is, and if you do other routes before this one you are already coming in realizing no matter how much she "breaks", "changes", or "gives in" in other ways, she never actually abandons her faith completely even in future games when she is living quite literally in the demon world. Even in routes where she becomes a vampire she doesn't eschew God. However it is canon that she is a devout Catholic and that she originally wanted to be a nun (before the events of the game screw that up for her), so it is still relevant.

While it may have started as a way to try and break her down, it really becomes more and more clear through his routes that like a bunch of his other behaviors, he is projecting his own struggles onto Yui.

He is jealous of her purity, so he attacks it. He is jealous of her faith, so he attacks it. He is jealous of her unwavering belief in goodness and in humanity, so he just. keeps. attacking. it. Because seeing it exist in front of him hurts, but especially early on he isn't aware of his own emotions or why he acts the way he does. So many things in his routes and his monologues highlight the fact that Laito views himself as permanently dirtied by his past, and this behavior is tied to that.

- His inability to identify his feelings from his fake front and his use of sex to maladaptively deal with his trauma.

** I wrote way too much on this and decide nvm I think even if someone has only seen the anime his hypersexuality probably speaks for itself. Plus this is getting so long 😔**

-His lack of control in MB and "forced" behavior. His confusion over his own tears near the end of HDB.

There are various instances (esp in MB where his characterization is wildly different and desperate compared to HDB) where we see his mask start to crack, or realize that his mask wasn't actually very good to begin with and the exhaustion from the continous abuse in his routes has caused both Yui (and us as the reader) to fall for his bullshit more easily. He plays the part of a pervert, but Shu (who arguably is a massive pervert) calls him out in MB for being a phony. His behavior in MB makes him come across as desperate and out of control, as opposed to his calculated sadism in HDB. This all comes back to his inner turmoil, unresolved feelings, and trauma and we slowly unpeal those layers through the rest of the series.

I think at baseline it is really easy to dismiss Laito. I did from the beginning too. Plus he never stops calling Yui Bitch-chan no matter how many sequels he gets 🤦‍♂️ But that is just falling for his fake front, exactly what he wants you to do because then he can just keep carrying on without dealing with his bs and let off steam temporarily in the process. But under the surface there is a lot more going on. And he definitely is a character that has an insane amount of depth.

Sorry for the multi part novel. I don't even like him as an LI even in this series. But for a series with so many inconsistencies, retcons across games, and questionable writing choices, they did a good job with his character. I just need him to stay far away from both me and Yui 🥲 Imagine if you had asked me something that prompted me to talk about my faves 💀💀💀

[splatbandsorter]

hey yall i made a character sorter for splatbands!! its a little bare bones (no undo button, exclusion options, etc.) but it gets the job done!! feel free to reblog or reply with your results :D!

link to the sorter!

(if the link doesnt work, you can access it through this blog's desktop url! make sure if you're on mobile that your browser is set to 'desktop view!')

general info about the sorter itself below the readmore!

where are the idols?

this sorter was made specifically with the splatbands fandom in mind, rather than the broader splatoon fandom! so i left the idols out considering well. just how popular and relevant to the wider community they are. yes, they technically are band characters, but they're front and center to just about everything else about the game. so theyve been left out here.

now, if enough people DO want them added? i will absolutely add them in a heartbeat! but for the time being they will remain out of the list.

what about turquoise october and octoplush? what about dj octavio?

sort of the same reason as the idols, though in 2/3 of those cases, it's sort of the opposite? there's not really all that much characterization to turquoise october and octoplush, as they're just anonymous collectives of musicians. and this sorter was intended to highlight the characters of the bands, not just the bands themselves. if that were the case, it would be a splatbands song or band sorter, not just the characters! so, they're also being left out. buuuut again, the same thing goes for them! if enough people want them added and ask for it, i will absolutely load them up into the character list!

why use the non-localized character names?

because i have a personal vendetta against the underpaid noa intern that localized them <3 next question JOKE JOKE THATS A JOKE FOR LEGAL REASONS THAT IS A JOKE in all seriousness though, im just used to them more and, as said in the idols section, this sorter was made for the fandom in mind! i'd assume people here will be much more familiar with those names! (even though i am quite partial to a few of the more thoughtful name choices tbh…) you will only catch me using 'mashup' with full sincerity over my cold, dead body, though.

why no undo button or exclusion options?

ok so. i am by no means an expert at coding. this entire project was just something i threw together in 24 hours running off of a free template and my bare-bones html and javascript knowledge. and to my understanding, in order to actually get javascript RUNNING in a custom tumblr theme, you need to jump through a whole lot of hoops and contact support about it and. i do not really have the mental bandwidth or patience to do that atm.

that being said, if anyone reading this does have that knowledge and WOULD like to pitch in and help improve the sorter in any sort of way, absolutely be my guest! you can send me an ask or a dm over on my main about it and i'd be glad to add onto this to make it better!

but as of rn? the sorter works and the little guys go into their list. i am as happy as i can be just with that alone <3

[simeffable]

Hi! Looking forward to seeing your next Sims! A couple of questions: I don't see the old pinned post about your upcoming sims, just the one about the Lost ones (which look amazing btw) and now the Buffy one I'm very excited about! Were you still releasing whichever the others were on the old pin? And Question 2: do you have any tips/can you offer any help/talk about how you make such accurate lookalike Sims from TV shows and other media? Simmers make it look so easy, but I can't figure it out tbh... Thanks!

Hi! Thanks for your question :) First of all, thank you for reminding me that that LOST post was still pinned! I pinned it for a while because a few people for people on Reddit, but I very much intended to replace it with my 'upcoming projects' one and totally forgot! It's all sorted now. Everything on that post will be released, and anything that has been is linked on it :)

Second of all, great question! I find even though it sounds obvious, always have a photo of the person you want to capture the likeness of. Don't assume you just know what they look like. I usually stick with a front profile photo to begin with, then will look at 3/4 and side views if I'm still struggling (but not always, as altering the side profile in Sims can sometimes completely change the front and make it look goofy. I'd rather have an accurate front profile and dodgy side.). I then try to have my game split screen in windowed mode with the photo along side it (if you can't get split screen there are a few apps available to overlay images onto windows) zoomed and positioned so that the real guy's head is the same size as the sim's. From there, I start by trying to get the physical features lined to match their position on the photo and get the size of them correct. Then, I always start with the eyebrow shape (sliders from @miikocc help a lot) and the eyes (again, @obscurus-sims sliders for eyelids will help capture more complicated shapes and hooded eyes). A lot of the time, its actually the width of the neck that makes a sim look goofy so @golyhawhaw 's Neck Width Slider is a life saver for male sims. Just keep going back and forth between the picture and your sim, choose the most accurate hairstyle you can and don't be afraid to download as many CC sliders as you can find as these really optimise the games' sculpting ability.

Hope this helps!

I've linked my favourite sliders below, as well as my go-to hair creators as it really is the make or break!

Golyhawhaw's Neck Width Slider (male only) | Miiko Eyebrow Slider | Eyelids Sliders | Squeamish Sims Temple Slider | Cheekbone Slider | Scalp Slider (male only) | Luumia's Assymetry Sliders, Ear Slider and Presets

Favourite hair creators: @johnnysimmer , @daylifesims , @simstrouble , @nolan-sims , @feralpoodles , @aharris00britney , vevesims (inactive I think, but creations can still be found), @okruee , @wistfulpoltergeist

[fandomanimatic-tournament]

Fandom song animatic tournament: Bracket 2 Side B Round 2

Two Birds - Regina Spektor

"Two birds on a wire One tries to fly away And the other Watches him close from that wire He says he wants to as well But he is a liar"

Love Like You - Steven Universe

"I always thought I might be bad Now I'm sure that it's true 'Cause I think you're so good And I'm nothing like you Look at you go I just adore you I wish that I knew What makes you think I'm so special"

Remember that we're voting on how Iconic they are for ANIMATICS, not for the song itself. In order to make things fair, the tone and mood of the song should not affect how iconic it is (for example, a serious song should not be considered more iconic than a joke song just because it's serious)

Propaganda and animatic links of the songs under the cut:

Two Birds - Regina Spektor

Propaganda:

This song was EVERYWHERE. If you were on fandom youtube in like 2016-2017 it was inescapable. This song had you by the jugular. Because of the imagery it uses you can sort of project the 'two birds' dynamic onto any duo of characters that have a tragic conflict/separation arc and it will work well, so this song in particular has got to have an animatic for like all the fandoms under the sun. You're laughing. one tried to fly away and the other watches him close from that wire he says that he will but hes just a liar and YOURE LAUGHING!!!

Wlell um um there are these two birds right. On a wire. And one tries to fly away qnd the otther

It is THEE fandom universal fit. Metaphorical enough that it will fit any setting. Swinging from mellow to dramatic enough that it fits any story's tone. It boils down to an essence of conflicted love/loyalty that You Know Fandom Loves To Have Brainworms About. Pick any fandom and I GARE-RON-TEE there will be a relationship it fits if not animatics already made.

it makes me cry every single time

Animatics with the song:

Genshin Impact

The Owl House

Encanto

Over the Garden Wall

OMORI

Love Like You - Steven Universe

Propaganda:

love like you is the foundation animatics were built on tbh steven universe is like the father of like every lgbt artist it’s too classic not to win. it’s also genuinely a good song the simplicity of only piano, voice, and drums does it so well and it really wrenches your heart out your goddamn chest and bites into it like an onion

Animatics with the song:

Genshin Impact

Good Omens

Heaven Official's Blessing Hualian

DSMP

Adventure Time

Please be cautious and read the title, description and warning cards on the animatic videos if you decide to watch them. If you've got specific triggers I'd recommend even more caution when watching animatics of fandoms you don't know, since sometimes canon-typical themes don't get warnings.

[fractured-shield]

Writerly questionnaire

thanks for the tags @honeybewrites and @nczaversnick!!

about you:

when did you start writing?

I was stapling together loose paper and handwriting weird shit on the playground instead of socializing for as long as I can remember, but I was 12 when I first got serious about telling any kind of coherent narrative and 19-ish when I overhauled FS into it's current form

are the genres/themes you enjoy reading different from the ones you write?

oh, nah, I'm a sucker for the same cliche high fantasy tropes as I write. I got really into LotR in 6th grade (like, reading the silmarillion and other supplemental texts the following year. don't ask me about my favorite traumatized elf guys unless you want the most incomprehensible rambling response. i've been told it's all very predictable of me on no less than half a dozen occasions) and that shit was a formative experience I can't go back from

is there an author (or just a fellow writer!) you want to emulate, or one to whom you’re often compared?

yeah i think every high fantasy writer gets compared to tolkien at some point, the whole mt fuji analogy of the genre and all that. I'm not really trying to emulate the same scale or depth of lore, but I find that a lot of the themes really speak to me now in my mid-20s more than they did as a kid, so I like to lean into some of those in my own writing, and keep (and occasionally fuck around with) the typical high fantasy trappings along the way

can you tell me a little about your writing space(s)? (Room, coffee shop, desk, etc.)

eh...don't really have one rn. i'll write anywhere from scrap paper during church (i'm a church musician only so i don't lose my skills lmao) to my phone, to actually sitting at a desk. but i recently had to move pretty suddenly and don't have much set up yet

what’s your most effective way to muster up some muse?

find yourself in traumatizing situations and project them onto your characters instead of getting therapy long car rides listening to music

did the place(s) you grew up in influence the people and places you write about?

i'm sure it did a bit subconsciously, but most of my formative years were spent using fiction as escapism, so not too much

are there any recurring themes in your writing, and if so, do they surprise you at all?

grief and trauma and coping with things out of your control, finding purpose, found family and good supportive familial relationships, feeling lonely and othered and using self-improvement as harm...etc. normal stuff like that. i'm doing so good i'm so well adjusted please believe me

your characters:

would you please tell me about your current favorite character? (Current WIP, past WIP, never used, etc.)

😔 <- character profile link. i cannot pretend anyone else is my favorite when i literally have a tattoo in honor of him. (tldr that's my protag's father. she wouldn't even be mad she's relegated to second favorite, she'd agree with me)

which of your characters do you think you’d be friends with in real life?

i think i'd get along with a lot of them actually. therien, oenith, and waith would all have some initial conflict but we'd figure it out. hal would be chill. i wish leithe and idhren were my parents

which of your characters would you dislike the most if you met them?

i think if i met maithyr he'd kinda scare me tbh. and i'd be so tired of dealing with malin's genuinely friendly extroverted behavior, love the guy though. waith's parents piss me off, as do deras and ealrid. alfrin is a little shit and, like therien, he'd get under my skin. unlike therien, i'd be too much of a coward to punch him

tell me about the process of coming up with of one, all, or any of your characters.

uhhhhhh therien and oenith kinda happened on accident...? a friend and i were fucking around and wanted some sick ass fantasy self insert ocs and now it's 12 years later and they're their own fleshed out fully different characters. waith was originally a shared oc with a different friend, and she's still pretty similar and they get consulted sometimes about how i write her. idhren and leithe were always therien's parents but their role wasn't originally supposed to be this big. maithyr and linna are shamelessly based on the vibe of a popular ship in a fandom i've been in but i made them debatably worse. hal just showed up one day and malin reinvented his whole self when i wasn't looking. ...mor and arennir and alfrin were...interesting cases...

do you notice any recurring themes/traits among your characters?

mostly the trauma, yeah

how do you picture them? (As real people you imagined, as models/actors who exist in real life, as imaginary artwork, as artwork you made or commissioned, anime style, etc.)

i've had them all for long enough that it's some fluid mix of faceclaims (one very notable story about that), picrews, video game character builders, and just imagined collections of features and vibes

your writing:

what’s your reason for writing?

idk i didn't know it'd be 12+ years of these guys with no signs of stopping when i made therien and oenith and idhren back in 2012. they're like real people to me and i'm very fond of them, so i enjoy thinking about them and i think their story deserves to be written

is there a specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating coming from your readers?

i really like when people connect with my characters. particularly therien and idhren, any "oh my god she's weird as fuck i love her" or "ohhh im sad about him i think a hug from him would fix me" is like. going to make my entire week

how do you want to be thought of by those who read your work? (For example: as a literary genius, or as a writer who “gets” the human condition; as a talented worldbuilder, as a role model, etc.)

tbh i've never really thought about how i want to be seen as a writer. i just want to tell a story people connect with, i'd rather readers find characters as inspirational rather than myself

what do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

probably characters, but only within FS. I don't think it's a strength, like any new character I make for another project is whatever, but with these guys—I hope they feel complex and realistic, I've been thinking about them for long enough

what have you been frequently told your greatest writing strength is by others?

i've been told I write dialogue well I think? I also got a comment from when I submitted ch1 of my current draft for a class critique last spring where someone said I wrote anxiety/panic in a very realistic way. that scene wasn't even in the outline lmao my characters do what they want

how do you feel about your own writing? (Answer in whatever way you interpret this question.)

it's...fine I guess? It's definitely gotten noticeably more consistent and closer to what I want it to be in the past 2-ish years, but I still struggle a lot with feeling like the style is bland and the topics forgettable. I try not to linger on it too much because I primarily write for my own sanity, the approval of any readers is just a bonus

if you were the last person on earth and knew your writing would never be read by another human, would you still write?

oh yeah, i'd keep writing. i like my characters and i like seeing new parts of them and their stories revealed to me as i progress

when you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely what you enjoy? If it’s a mix of the two, which holds the most influence?

nah, not really. i mean, aside from "if i introduce this thing earlier it'd make more sense / breaking the chapters here would flow better for readers" type things. the actual content and themes and characters are purely what I enjoy. i'm not delusional enough to think publishing is likely anyways, i know the whole "cliche high fantasy" thing isn't terribly marketable, especially how it falls in the overlap of YA and adult

open tag for anyone who wants to join! doing open tags until I get caught up I think

tag list: @just-emis-blog @orions-quill @honeybewrites @leahnardo-da-veggie @robin-the-blind-sniper-rifle

[watermelinoe]

i think totk improved on botw in a lot of ways but i also still had the same issues w it that i did w botw and it had new issues as well (the inventory was a nightmare, armor upgrade reqs were ridiculous, too many collectible-based quests esp the fucking hudson signs)

but my biggest complaint was that even with a storyline that i personally found more interesting, there is just zero connection to it at all. botw and totk feel like revenge for skyward sword being so emotional, linear, and story-driven (iirc miyamoto was not happy with its direction and he and aonuma (?) were just undoing each other's work which is partly why the game suffers from repetition)

so now we get zero emotional attachment to anything that's going on except in cutscenes that aren't even required and have no visible impact on link in any way. hardly any of the sidequests feel meaningful, and the ones that could have been always seemed to fall short. the npcs seem weirdly chipper about the gloom spreading, the ground splitting open, and the earth levitating into the sky. many of them that should remember you just... don't, for some reason, like there's so little development in any of link's relationships with any of these people, zelda included, as if he hasn't even existed for the past eight years between games, like what was with the hateno village retconning

my personal favorite quests were awakening the fairy fountains (felt like classic zelda and i liked that it made a permanent impact on the world, even rewarding you with a permanent new rendition of epona's song at every stable), giving all the bubbul gems to koltin (you have to go out of your way to talk to his brother kilton to get the full kinda bittersweet ending and it's a rare touching moment imo), and the balloon thing with rhondson and hudson's daughter (i liked that it actually expanded on a questline from botw and it was also bittersweet), also i liked penn and the newspaper questline

the biggest improvement imo was the shrines, the puzzles were so much more interesting with so many possible solutions, and the temples/bosses were so much better than the divine beasts and stupid scourges

but idk i just... feel like i wanted more from it. to me the story is just as important as the gameplay and tbh in both games link feels so detached from the plot, like it's just happening around him, not to him. and you can argue that in the older games they didn't explore his emotional state or w/e but the narratives were tight enough that you felt immersed anyway, and could project your own feelings onto him. these games actively thwart your attempts to humanize the silent protagonist bc he's more emotional about fucking cooking than about being manipulated by a creepy puppet of the woman he's been with for 8+ years at this point (should've made puppet zelda a boss again smh) or seeing memories of people dying horribly

all of which is too far spaced out between, idk, grinding for lionel parts

with the world as big as it is, nothing in it is allowed to be too big and i'm concerned that this is just what zelda games are going to be like from now on. i hope the next project announced will be something completely different.

[sundered-souls]

15. Did you build up to your OC being in their relationship? Or did you put them into it quite quickly and then filled in the background in retrospect.

(Ship and OC Relationship Creative Process Ask List — accepting)

TL;DR: depends on the ship.

(I felt inspired to talk about said ships for once XD)

That's mostly depends on whether I'm roleplaying or not, tbh. Usually in RP I prefer building up the relationship first rather than working backward, because I find it difficult to develop a character as their own person when they're so linked to another and shipping them with someone out of the blue if I've already played them feels weird. Plus, I love a good slowburn.

That being said though, my first character, Skaar, was entirely built with his marriage in mind. His story would be drastically different if he hadn't been with his husband. He would've been a completely different character.

In the WoL verse, however...

Inge and her wife started as a joke. I'm not sure who's connected the dots but that's why her wife's chosen name is the scientific name for... the plague xD (It was pre-covid, too.) So we entirely worked backward for a while, and then it evolved further as we've played them. Mostly, the development went from them being in severe denial about them being more than friends-with-benefit to finally admitting their feelings—in their own way—and being happily married. Though to be honest, it's mostly a RP ship so while they're married in the WoL verse too (it'd feel weird without her in her life XD), most of the specific details happened in our FC verse.

Inge and Y'shtola... It's the one ship that made me cave in and actually accept to ship her and Aïcha with NPCs. More than because Estinien and Y'shtola are popular, I feared that my own taste was influencing them too much, so I let it cook for a while. But while I don't talk enough about her relationship with Yersinia for people to notice, it's very obvious when you see Inge's choices of female partners that she's got a strong type when it comes to women. (Strong-willed and reckless nerds)

Mostly I know that they started getting closer during the quests in the Steppes, and Inge appreciated that Y'shtola didn't try to coddle her during ShB about what was happening to her soul (as well as her protectiveness). The fact that Y'shtola never took either WoL for granted, yet never showed a hint of subservience also played a huge role in the development of their relationship because Inge detests that kind of attention. But since they were a bit busy with saving two worlds and Inge slightly dying, their infatuation with each other didn't lead anywhere until the patches leading to EW. And that's sort of where I'm at with what happened for them to get together. It took less time than Inge and her wife mostly because Inge was, ironically, in a better state of mind for a new romantic partner in her life. Despite being slowly dying form all the Light. And Y'shtola playing Russian roulette with her own life. Again.

There's another potential ship for her currently cooking, but I'm not sure how long-term or committed it's going to be. The ideas I have are more on the side of an on-and-off relationship (without any real drama) and a strong friendship between the two. We'll see. At any rate, I don't think they'll be one more because 3 people (or two and a half) is already a lot for a character like Inge who doesn't particularly seek to spend a lot of time with her loved ones.

Aïcha and Zenos came to me when I was on the cusp of sleep and refused to let me go for weeks. But it's the one ship that actually started with the beginning: the attack in Rhalgr's Reach. It began with a simple question: why would Zenos take an interest in her like that since she lost? and then before I knew it it became a ship. An extremely unhealthy one, though, without actual love. If anything, it's a case of mutual obsession and projection onto the other as well as a lot of self-destructiveness on Aïcha's side. I never shipped her with Haurchefant but her grief after his death almost destroyed her and all she had managed to build up since her arrival in Eorzea. Zenos was basically Aïcha punishing herself mixed with some soulbond fuckery from ancient times. I find soulmates more fun when it's not saccharine. And no he didn't survive their fight at the end of the Universe. ShB was a real wake up call for her.

Aïcha and Estinien is a 'it just makes sense' type of scenario and the only actual ship in the romantic sense I have for her because they do love each other. But she's very lucky he's as patient and comprehensive as he is because they're still dealing with the consequences of her mess with Zenos. Starting with raising the kid born from said mess. I figured out how they got together after I had already decided/resigned myself to them being a couple, but while it felt obvious to me that they'd end up together, it's only after the ship with Zenos hit me in the face that I really found the spark that made me care about their relationship. If that makes sense. They're a young couple with a lot to tackle and I'm not one to decide that characters remain together when it doesn't make sense for them. So the potential for a break up is still there and it's kind of like... Yes, they are together. But also, love takes a lot of work and they're not exactly there yet in terms of stability, so it feels like I'm currently in the build up phase now rather than when I was piercing the mystery of them getting together.

And this is a very long answer XD

Thanks for the ask, @briar-ffxiv!