#Also probably a lot of unpopular opinion in relation to writing

[miyuskye]

HERE I GO with this super interesting event from the All Ships Ship Week event hosted by @ficwip

The ship dossier! And what ship I could've dossiered if not my current hyperfixation, aka Jon/Elias??? Sooo, the thing with loving a podcast is that you don't get a lot of official art, since the physical descriptions are also very scarce by author's choice. BUT! they recently made a TTRPG game based on the podcast, which these semi-canon designs. My personal image of the characters in influenced by the huge amount of fanarts circulating around, but, probably an unpopular opinion, I like these designs too. With reference to the image, the top one (not in the ship sense) is Jon, aka the Archivist, aka the pet project/obsession and the bottom one (again, not in the ship sense) is Elias/spoiler, aka the mentor/obsessed.

It would have been great, if I did actually understand the assignment and not gone off the trail with a full AO3 statistical analysis. Under the cut because probably not a lot of people are interested in my ramblings. The dossier is intended for both people familiar with the series, but also for people who know nothing about it. Warning for sparse spoilers about the whole TMA series (not TMP since I still have to listen to it!) (as I said, Elias is a big spoiler himself lol)

Let's begin this trip with a biiig disclaimer. Sadly for us avid AO3 users, the AO3 fandom does not represent the fandom in whole, so these stats are based only on the number of works in the AO3 context. Looking around at non-fanfic related site, i.e. reddit, I know there are some JE shipper there too, though I can't really be sure in what percentage with respect to the non-shipping community (or the people only shipping the canon couple). Links to the guru of fandom stats! toastystats (tumblr), AO3. There's also a github repository but I personally found it a bit cranky to use and it doesn't use an AO3 updated DB, though for big data statistics is fine due to the central limit theorem but for smaller fandom/tags it might be a bit inaccurate. Also the code is in python 2, which is now a bit difficult to use. I personally made my stats by doing targeted searches using the AO3 search function! Super easy to use, albeit a bit repetitive. Stats were made on Oct, 19-22, 2024. Again, I think the results won't change much through the years, especially regarding the main TMA tag data, but who knows if JonElias will surge in popularity (hehe it's a distant hope, I'm pretty much sure that the population distribution is already well-established).

TMA (The Magnus Archive) is a horror podcast, following the events of Jonathan Sims, aka Jon, aka the first part of my ship, who works at the Magnus Institute. This Institute is a facility researching in supernatural events and records supernatural encounters in the form of statements given by volunteering people. Jon is the Head Archivist, meaning he manages the statements and records some "odd ones", as per request of the Head of the Institute and his direct superior, Elias. Sooo yes, he's also his boss. :) lovely for them.

My lovely idiots are the 3rd most popular ship! Such a big achievement for me, who I usually ship obscure ships. As of today, we have 1434 JE works out of the whole 29751 works in the TMA tag. Way to go, JE community, let's keep this up!

The Jon/Martin ship is actually canon in the podcast, so that big percentage, compared to other fandoms, is largely explained by that (instead of simple popularity like Oikawa/Iwaizumi in the Haikyuu fandom). My other favorite ship is Jon/Tim, and I proudly contributed to that 2.78% (ofc also to the 4.8% of JE but it seemed quite superfluous to write).

Fun fact: speaking of spoilers, Elias' character tag in AO3 is a MASSIVE spoiler. It was what ruined the plot twist for me, because I looked for fanfics around ep 40ish (out of 200) and got that spoiled :( I understand why AO3 did that, because before the reveal the tags referring to Jonah and Elias were separated and I guess they wanted to unite them (since I also read some Jonah/Jon works before the reveal - all of them ended up having Elias being somewhat connected to Jonah OF COURSE, but I believe that before The Reveal there was also the belief that Elias was one of his descendants. I became part of the fandom after that, though, so it's just speculation based on older posts I came across).

This is probably my most favourite slide. JonElias has the highest Mature-to-Gen ratio (based on the AO3 rating system) with respect to the other ships. Jon/Martin, being 40% of the works also leads most of the general fandom stats, so it's more correct to actually cite the ship that makes the stat. I also believe that a lot of the more Gen-oriented fics feature Jon/Martin due to them being canon, that is also one of the possible factors influencing their and the whole tag ratios. Due to this, I believe that the Elias/Peter ratio might actually influenced by that, since they're a non-conflicting couple with the main one and are thus frequently included in their fanfics. The other fave of mine also has a higher Mature-to-Gen ratio than the general one, but not as high as JE.

Jon is the main character, so it's obvious that he is the most cited in all the works. Elias is the villain, so it's not so strange. Also, this refers to the characters tags, and this means that Elias might be included as a character even in other ships-based works. I believe the same happens with Tim, since ships with him have a lower presence in the fandom, but he is the third most included character. It's probably because he gets included into most of the Gen/JMart works.

These are the most used AO3 tags for the JonElias main ship tag. Do I really need to explain? They just do the talking in my place lol

A few words on the Alternate universe tag: AUs are somewhat canon in the show, due to plot-related reasons, and I believe this gives us space to imagine, stories where Jon is as deranged as Elias without denaturing canon. I personally believe Jon has the capacity of being feral as, if not even more than, Elias. Canon showed us a glimpse of what we could have but ended up not getting, again, due to plot-related reasons. Some fanfics are based on those glimpses. Also the Do not Archive will be an interesting topic to talk about later!

These are the most used tags for the individual characters. Some of them are also matching but not in their JE tagged works. For example, the tag Fluff might be present in 12% of Elias' works but more than half of those works are Jon/Martin-based works, so he's included in the work but, in a way, not actively participating in the fluff. Also, Jon is canonically asexual, hence the related tag! A few words on that, this doesn't and rightly won't stop people from producing M and E-rated works with him and characters (not necessarily Elias), contrary to what some people might think. And I assure you, as an asexual person, that no one of the JE fanfics I read (even the ones without the Asexual character tag) erased Jon's asexuality. If anything, the ones where Jon's asexuality was present and acknowledged were also my favorites!

Small digression on the Do not archive tag. I noticed that both JE and Elias' tag had a percentage of works being under that tag. Which is used when an author does not want the series staff to read their works. It's mostly used on M+E works (77% of DNA tagged works are M or E rated on AO3), as one would expect. At first I guessed it was related to the pronounced M-to-T ratio of the JE tag (which is even more pronounced on the DNA tag), buuut it turns out the main cause was just a quirk of the data/bias of the data case. As I said, there are only 1434 (as of end-October 2024) works in the JE tag and this means that this number can be biased by a single external source, which causes the shift in the data. This means that this is not a trend!

By excluding the cause from the analysis, the Do not archive tag percentages for JE are still higher than the other ships, but not by such a large margin (around 7% which makes sense).

Nothing to say here, the series reaching its peak in terms of fandom response and also due to COVID making people consume more media content, the JE rise followed the general raise of fanfics in the TMA tag. Which isn't surprising but not to be taken for granted either! Another sad but probably not a trend fact is that Jon/Elias production was slightly more flourishing during the earlier years of the series (especially 2018-2019), than it is now. This might probably related to a ship actually being made canon or probably fandom disappointment in the TMA finale (which I can understand). I read in a lot of earlier JE fanfics very excited comments about "omg I can't wait to see him and Jon in s4/5" and I was like *sad violin noises*, because they didn't get the amount of (canon-expected) interactions the JE fandom thought they would get. Again, this is just speculation and to be taken with a grain of salt.

Unexpectedly, M+E JE works have more words that Gen-rated ones (expected on the JE tag due to their M-to-T ratio, but kinda unexpected compared to the whole TMA tag).

JE fanfics are slightly more kudo-ed and bookmarked than the general fandom trend.

A conclusive remark, is that I made this just to see what behaviours could be extrapolated from such a tiny tag in an otherwise medium fandom (as for 2020, median number of fanworks in labelled big fandom was 45k. Havign roughly half of that number means that TMA is, on AO3, a medium fandom to me).

Anyhow, I wish you happy JonElias day which for me is once again every day since twp months ago :)

[alpaca-clouds]

Vampires - and the Curse of Immortality

Something I notice a lot in vampire-related fandoms is, how harshly my viewpoint on vampires differs from most other people within those fandoms. This might be, because I generally speaking see myself as part of the death positivity movement. And that is a big thing that often gets into conflict with the way how many see vampires.

See, in general vampires originally were horror not just because they drank blood, but because they were immortal. Sure, there was a big religious aspect to it. Because they were immortal and even if they died would automatically either (depending on the exact story) be doomed to wander as a ghost or go to hell, they were cursed to never be able to go to heaven. And that was an aspect of the horror.

But... Even going past it: Immortality is a curse. You do not want to be immortal, even if you think you do. Not even in some magical way in which you really do not suffer any ill consequences from it.

And I mean, vampires already suffer consequences in terms of not being able to go out into the sun and everything.

The reasons for that are quite a few.

For vampires there is just the fact that vampires are the few immortals among mortals. You will be surrounded by people who will die long before you. Live long enough and the world will be unrecognizable to you. You might actually see culture, you grew up in, crumble to dust.

Just imagine the world from the perspective of a vampire who grew up in any old culture. Be it ancient Greece, or ancient Rome, or the Vikings, or any culture outside of Europe, that ended up... well, collapsing in one way or another. Imagine how everything you grew up with is gone suddenly.

And if you live long enough you will see the same thing happening over and over again.

I am talking about this right now, because I have noticed how many people within the Castlevania fandom, do still hope that Lisa will be transformed into a vampire after the end of the series so that this time she is going to be immortal.

But the thing is: The series never answeres the question of why Lisa never became a vampire. But... I think it is pretty clear that the answer is, that she just does not want to be. Because she is intelligent and she knows the downsides of immortality. So, she simply does not want it. And because Dracula actually loves her, he accepts it.

There is probably a reason, too, why most of the vampires we see are rarely older than 500 years.

In Castlevania the only vampire we know to be older than that is Morana. And she is going to be old enough to not have seen one civilization fall, but several, given she is (according tie Katie Silva) a good 3000 years old. And just... imagine. Being so old. What you must've seen. It is going to be hard to not just go insane with all of that. (This is the reason why I write Morana so very weary of humans - she just has seen too much violence done by human hands.)

And while Olrox is just a mere 250 years old, you can also extend this onto him in a way. Given that he has seen his civilization be destroyed (even though his culture survived).

All of that is the reason why I have a tendency to let a lot of vampires die on the long term - or cure them of the vampirism. I mean, in my BG3 stuff, the end scenario is going to be for Astarion to be healed from the vampirism, because... Well, being an immortal vampire actually just sucks. (Doubly so in the DnD world, where it comes with even more drawbacks.)

I mean, all I am thinking is: Looking at some other vampire stories I know... What is the sense of living forever, if you are just miserable?

So, yeah: Unpopular opinion. Dying is okay. It might be preferable to being a vampire forever.

[bikananjarrus]

Elzar for the breakdown because I miss him

chip thank u for giving me the opportunity to talk about elzar 🙏 i miss him real bad too :(

(this got longer than expected but i have feelings about him)

how i feel about this character:

oh man, i just love him to bits. he was my favorite pretty much from the moment he showed up on page, and he's still my favorite. he's bisexual. he's a bit of a bitch. he will pout and get very sad if he doesn't get enough attention. he's a weird little jedi and just wants to be left alone to do his weird little experiments with the force. most of all i think i just love how much he tries and doesn't give up, even when he wants to, even when he's at his lowest. he's the heart!! and i just love him a lot!!

all the people i ship romantically with this character:

avar and stellan. they're the only ones for him because they match his freak <3 i'm a polycule truther, but also i love him and avar together, and also thinking about him and stellan makes me want to walk into the ocean so!

my non-romantic otp for this character:

HIM AND TY YORRICK!!!!! obsessed with their bitchy bisexual + brash lesbian dynamic. went from trying to kill each other (really just ty trying to kill him for stealing her lightsaber. understandable) to drift compatible besties. i love them <3 and no i'm not bitter that we haven't seen her at all since and elzar hasn't talked about her why do u ask

but also, cheating and giving you two more, i love him and orla's friendship, and his friendship with lina. he just keeps collecting these women who take one look at this depressed suicidal wet cat of a man and go yeah, we'll take that one.

my unpopular opinion about this character:

i am thankfully not involved with the corner of the fandom that argues about this, and this definitely shouldn't be as unpopular of an opinion as it is, but ELZAR DID NOTHING WRONG ON STARLIGHT and i will DIE on that hill! sure he killed chancey, but he had spent multiple days on a sinking space station with force creatures that were eating away at all the jedis' states of mind, and he saw somehow he knew to be affiliated with the nihil (their enemy!) and thought she was further sabotaging the station, so he stopped her. should he have asked questions first, swung lightsaber later? yeah, maybe. but he did what he did and it's fine and it's also not his fault stellan died. stellan knew what he was doing when he went down there. even though elzar blames himself, it's not his fault!

relatedly, fandom sure gives elzar a lot of crap for this when avar did almost the exact same thing. she would have killed lourna dee if keeve hadn't stopped her, and avar had a lot more murderous intent behind her actions than elzar did his. but no, let's go ahead and demonize the brown member of the firebrands instead of the blonde white woman.

one thing i wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon:

oh so many things. but really (and i understand this is probably a bit of a side effect of having multiple authors writing these characters across many years) but i think canon has introduced SO MANY cool storylines and possibilities for elzar and hasn't followed through on a lot of them. and now we only have one book left with him, and i'm a bit worried that it will be an unsatisfying conclusion for him :/

his force visions, for one. introduced in lotj, mentioned again towards the end of rising storm, and then not really talked about again, even though he was clearly connected to everything going on with the nihil and nameless through his visions. connecting him as a foil to azlin and not really going anywhere with that (which, i haven't read tears of the nameless, so there may be a bit more there, but still).

(okay, DEFINITELY probably an unpopular opinion, but it's related to what i'm talking about here, but i didn't love temptation of the force quite as much as the rest of the adult books, and i do think it diverged from plot to focus on the romance, which is fine, because i thought the romance was done very well, however. again. when we have one book left, now there's too much to cover and i feel like elzar took a step backwards idk)

overall, i think if you had to pick one character to be the protagonist of the adult books, elzar (or bell) is the strongest contender, and i feel like the authors keep forgetting that.

Give me a character; and i’ll break their ass down

[trivalentlinks]

🔥 - i'd like to order an unpopular opinion on leverage, please!

Sorry for the very, very late answer, but to make up for it, have two unpopular opinions:

The first one's a bit of a cop-out. I think it's the less popular opinion, but probably because most don't care that much either way:

I head-canon that Damien Moreau is actually a banker/financier, ie, his primary source of income is actually derivatives investments and market prediction, and all the buying countries, arms deals and other such clandestine activities is just to give markets slight pushes in the direction he wants. (I've previous talked about this here (my last reblog addition))

This opinion seems "unpopular" in that the more common reading is that he's a mob boss who just calls himself a 'banker' to make himself sound cooler than he actually is. Which I think is a totally valid reading, consistent with what we are shown in canon! Like, he's all about image, and it's totally believable that the entire financier/banker persona is just that.

One reason I prefer the actually-a-banker reading is, as I described in the other post, because I like the parallel with team leverage and their "alternative revenue stream". This is also why I like to head-canon that when Eliot and Moreau were starting out (after Eliot met Toby and left the PMCs with his newfound conscience), before things got bad, they actually did good--only destabilizing horrible, abusive dictatorships, using their alternative revenue stream to help people. The parallels are just so compelling to me this way.

Another reason I prefer the actually-a-banker reading is that it's more relatable to me. I know people who work as financiers (hedge fund/high frequency trading/crypto firm founders or high-level quants etc).

None of them (that I know of) would actually do illegal things to manipulate prices, but it sometimes seems like if they were a little less risk-averse, a little less ethical, who knows? And when they tell me about the people they know, people they describe as "if you took a person's stats and dialled 'ethics' all the way down to zero"... These friends think anyone too stupid to see through a cryptocurrency white paper deserves to lose their life's savings. So when they say someone has ethics dialled to zero, well. You don't wanna know.

On the other hand, I don't know anyone who's anywhere close to being a mob boss.

-

Here's a more genuinely unpopular opinion, in that I think most people believe the opposite, and actually do care:

I really like Jimmy Ford. I find the character very relatable and very compelling. I feel like a lot of people in the fandom just write him off as a bad father, but I don't think that's fair.

I talked a lot about this here (skip past the "..." paragraph; above that were my old early thoughts about Moreau, before I reformulated them to be my current thoughts)

As I mentioned there, I see in Jimmy Ford every parent who didn't understand their kid, but loved them, and as Jimmy said to Nate, that's more important.

Every parent who grew up at a different time, in another country, in a harder, less forgiving world, who wants to ensure their kid can survive that old environment, without realizing that that isn't the kid's world anymore, that their kid is actually thriving in this new world, the one their parents sacrificed to raise them in

Every parent who flipped out when their son decided to major in sociology instead of computer engineering, because they could never have made a living with a degree like that

(but he's going to do more than make a living with that degree; he's going to make a difference)

Every parent who constantly monitors their daughter to ensure she waits for marriage, because in the old country she would have been shunned or worse if she didn't

(but she's not there right? her parents worked and sacrificed and bled to bring her up in this more forgiving world)

Every parent who sits next to their kid for hours a day until they get their daily hour of piano practice done (and yells at them until they do every day, disturbing their neighbour, who's just trying to focus on doing her research and grading her students' papers, not that this is personal or anything), because the parent managed to survive and to move to this country by working relentlessly at everything they did and can't imagine a world where a 7-year-old is allowed to play and to find their own interests

(but they will, maybe not then, but one day, years down the line, they may even end up liking music)

Maybe it's that I'm a kid of immigrants who knows a lot of kids of immigrants, but I think I'm more forgiving of people who raised their children in a culture different from their own and struggled to adjust to that.

[another-lost-mc]

Heyy I'm absolutely in LOVE with all your works and obey me worldbuilding lore and the OC's that come with it it’s been so enjoyable to explore through the tags 💗💗

Since you've fleshed out a few characters that we don't have that much info on in the game for example Michael & Uriel I was curious on how you perceive Lilith or if you haven't thought that much about her yet, I'm kind of curious to see how people see her since she's also quite a vaguely discussed character in the story (unless she's convenient for the brothers sorrow lol) but otherwise mostly glossed over character wise except one lesson in NB

Again your works and ideas are amazing and looking at your WIP's I'm super exited to read anything you'll write I hope you have an amazing day or week!!

Before I launch into my unpopular opinions, thank you so much for your kind words!

Anyway, about Lilith. I'm not a huge fan of MC being Lilith's descendent but that could be because of Lesson 16 in general (and there are A LOT of things I could say about that whole mess). Lilith is one of those convenient plot devices that pops up when needed and kind of fades into the background to be forgotten about again. She's just kind of there.

When it comes to exploring Celestial Realm/angel lore and her role in Lucifer & Co's fall, things get more interesting. Mostly because when I think of Lilith, my first thought is something like, "She knew the rules and broke them, what did she think was going to happen?!"

Mostly, Lilith is a great example of how flawed the Celestial Realm is and how unforgiving Father is, and angels appear to be the worst sort of hypocrites when they can't even follow their own laws. I don't completely blame Lilith for what she did, even if her actions were very self-serving and short-sighted. I think she was motivated by genuine love and affection which I can understand and relate to and I admire that. Part of me thinks (hopes) that she did it knowing she was breaking a very important rule, but maybe she hoped that there would be room for leniency (I think she would've accepted a milder punishment willingly).

Maybe her demise could've been prevented if the Celestial Realm were a more forgiving place. I think it ultimately comes down to Father's rigid rules and what appears to be a lack of compassion or flexibility for angels that struggle to follow them. It says a lot about the way the Celestial Realm functions that Father would rather destroy an angel for defying him than allow Michael and the other Seraphs to find an alternative outcome.

I don't really write about her character very much. The closest thing is probably the wip Azra x Meta story, but she's only mentioned a few times (before and after they fall). She's the catalyst for the Celestial War, and that has a huge impact on the Devildom - it's hard not to mention it. After Lucifer falls, he and Azra have a very tense conversation about how they both ended up in the same place for the same reason, but in their new home they still have trouble finding common ground.

[lusthurts]

sebastian and blaine for the character asks <3

ahhh hi bestie im so excited to yap about these two <333

sebastian smythe

how I feel about this character

Sebastian is the love of my life <3 I'm obsessed with writing this character and reading this character and consuming any and all content related to this character.

I have sooooo many head canons about him, and the way I feel about him/his backstory/his personality has evolved a ton over the years, even since I've been writing about him. He has that snark and edge that I love to a character with a clearly very interesting past that we have complete creative liberties to explore. it's so fun and I love him !

all the people I ship romantically with this character

BLAINE! seblaine is of course my otp, and no ship will ever come close to them for me in terms of the extreme brain rot obsession I have because of them - I love that they sort of balance each other out and have this undeniable chemistry that's pretty monumental for both of them and leaves a lot of room for us to explore

I don't think anything will ever come close to them for me, and I fully cannot bring myself to get behind kurtbastian no matter how much I love enemies to lovers as a trope (though when my mutuals write kurtbastian I still try to read it lol)

I did enjoy writing jeff x sebastian in how bright we burn (totally snuck up on me on accident - he needed to be with one of the other warblers for plot reasons and I picked Jeff because they're always in shots together in canon) but that's not something I think I'd ever be super into on like,, a bigger scale - I love it as a platonic ship though

my non-romantic otp for this character

honestly, the warblers as a whole - I really like the idea of Sebastian not really fitting in anywhere/never feeling at home anywhere before dalton and being very reluctant to get close with them at first which resulted in him coming on a little strong/trying to take control rather than trying to develop meaningful friendships, but then by the end he's found he really cares about them and wants them to succeed and finally feels like he's found a home and core group of friends

OH and i ADORE his friendship with cooper in the I'll be there for you series - their dynamic together is fantastic and I think probably the best written friendship for Sebastian that I've ever read

my unpopular opinion about this character

I'm not sure if this is unpopular or not, but I do really like that he's an imperfect person who clearly has a lot of growing up to do. He acts like an asshole and he is one kind of a lot of the time, but even the things he does maliciously aren't meant to be that harmful, and there's clearly a complicated person beneath the surface. I love slutty Sebastian and snarky Sebastian and bullying/blackmail/assault Sebastian so so much

I also don't like the idea of him being "soft" or immediately comfortable in a relationship with blaine just because he's the person he's meant to be with - a lot of my head canons about him revolve around him having a kind of unhealthy relationship with love/relationships, and I don't think it's realistic that they'd just immediately be in a happy relationship. I love fluff as much as the next person, but I definitely don't think their problems end when they get together.

one thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon

obviously seblaine - even if they'd just given us a little bit behind the scenes (what were those phone calls and texts??? they were clearly good friends!!)

I wish he'd been around more after season 3 - I realize because of real life reasons this was impossible, and he probably would've been back quite a bit if it wasn't for the flash, but I would've loved to see him develop friendships and plots and sing more songs and maybe have a relationship or two

blaine anderson

how I feel about this character

he's one of my first favorite glee characters and one of the main reasons I still love this show

I think I relate to him more than I relate to any of the other characters in the show - he has that passionate, overachiever, ruthless drive for success thing that Rachel has but he's also clearly very anxious about things and experiences depression and has some attachment issues, and I think all that makes him a much more complicated character than he's given credit for

all the people I ship romantically with this character

Sebastian ofc - see above lol

I used to be a huge blam fan - I haven't read or written them in a long time but I still think this is probably my second favorite blaine ship - they have a lot of chemistry together with a lot of fantastic scenes and development in season 4 specifically, and I think this would've been a cool path to go down during their senior year in the post-kurt/mercedes era

I also used to love klaine (prior to realizing how toxic that relationship was lol) - they were def cute in season 2, and they were probably one of the first queer ships I saw on tv that I felt that attached too. I think if handled better in the later seasons they could've been great, and I think if they're written well they can be a lovely ship - I played blaine in a glee rpg during covid (dark times lmao) and I found writing klaine with a person who really cared for writing Kurt's character well to be super fun

my non-romantic otp for this character

definitely sam & tina! blamtina is my favorite trio in the show, and I think their friendship felt very realistic and well-developed, especially for something that really only existed to that extent for one season

a close second would be rachel - I think blaine and rachel definitely get each other in a way the other new directions don't really, and I enjoy their dynamic a lot, especially in the beginning of season 6

oh and the warblers. he referred to that group as a brotherhood and then just,, left ? makes it hard to believe they were as close as he said, but I also will die on the hill that he must've had strong relationships with those guys if they got him from how he must've felt post Sadie Hawkins to the guy that was confidently singing the lead at every performance

my unpopular opinion about this character

while I do think he was occasionally too whiny and treated as a caricature in the later seasons, I also think a lot of that was the natural progression of his character given the circumstances he was dealing with. I think it's very natural for insecurities to come up when you go from where he was at in season 2 (star/lead vocalist of the warblers, admired and beloved by his peers, confidently helping Kurt through the bullying and trauma of McKinley) to season 3 (ignored/disregarded by ND's leaders like finn, only getting the occasional line or two in performances, treated almost exclusively as Kurt's boyfriend)

he was more interesting in seasons 2 & 4 when he was single than he was at any point during his relationship with kurt

one thing I wish had happened with this character in canon

seblaine !

or honestly getting to see him in any romantic relationship with someone other than Kurt (karofsky doesn't count lol we all collectively pretend that didn't happen)

why do we know like nothing about his life !! he's one of the major characters in the show (second in solos only to Rachel I think?) and yet all we get are a few one off and very concerning lines about his dad??? then his mom randomly shows up at the wedding??? and cooper's there but only for an episode and then never brought up again??? girl what I need to know his lore

[voxofthevoid]

for the ship ask game, i saw you say you ship Nobara/Maki and Maki/Mai so i am curious now what you like about them (i love them too 😌). and Higuruma/Yuuji

(something i will never get tired of saying: love your goyuu fics! :D also i am tempted to finally watch Hannibal just so i could read your fics)

*chokes* THOSE FICS ARE TEN YEARS OLD, PLEASE, YOU WON'T RECOGNIZE THE WRITING. I sure don't. Anything I wrote pre-2018 makes me skitter away in fear.

Ahem. The ships. Good choices!

Nobara/Maki

Ship It

What made you ship it?

I was pretty 👀 after that one scene where Nobara leans on Maki's shoulder and says she respects her. Maki's reaction, while mild, was pretty cute, and it's also the most...sweet we see Nobara act with anyone. It was then followed by Nobara recruiting Yuuji to basically support Maki during the GW event, and I was sold at that point. That one manga cover where Maki and Nobara look like they're on a date certainly helped.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

They're both sharp-edged people who get a little soft for each other, and I like that. I also think their personalities would intersect and interact in fun ways—not a lot of outright complications, a bit of reserved communication that would probably get talked out, etc. And this may sound odd, but I like how the way they get along and are less prickly with each other doesn't come across as "they're pals because they're gals" but as people softening due to romantic interest. Won't lie, it's once again too tame to really light my brain up, but we've got Mai/Maki for that.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Hmm, nope, don't think so.

Maki/Mai

Ship It

What made you ship it?

I'm a simple man: throw me a sibling relationship with fucked-up vibes, and I'll happily ship it. But honesty, this writes itself. Their interactions during the GW event alone are pretty compelling, especially the clash between Mai's abandonment issues and Maki's more practical approach. Then we get the utter gem that's the Perfect Preparation arc, and holy shit.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

I love me some tragedy. The part where Maki tells Naoya that no, she doesn't have a heart because "she took it with her" lives rent-free in my head. Post-Mai Maki, from the grief-fuelled massacre of her clan to the visions she has of Mai in relation to the sword she became, makes me fucking feral.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I think they should make each other worse.

Higuruma/Yuuji

Ship It

What made you ship it?

To be honest, I think my initial draw to this was that it reminded me a little of nanaita. And I've always approached this ship as Higuruma reminding Yuuji of Nanami somewhat, so you can imagine how satisfying it was to see canon itself draw a parallel, albeit with their deaths. But even disregarding the nanaita influence, I'm pretty damn fond of this ship. I absolutely love every single one of their interactions, especially the last fight and the flashback where we see Yuuji talking alone to Higuruma.

What are your favorite things about the ship?

This is highly specific, but the way Higuruma can't look Yuuji in the eye to the point he threw/lost their fight because of it and then fucking dies while making serene eye contact with Yuuji is going to haunt me for as long as I'm in this fandom. Can you tell I love tragic shit?

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Just my usual "let Yuuji fuck that grown man" agenda.

And thank you! You're a gem, as always ❤

Ask can be found game here.

[claudiadiaries]

lan wangji!!! btw I still have your numbers ask im saving it for tonight lol

Thank you Cor <33 sorry for taking some time with it

My first impression idk I remember thinking he was very pretty and funny lol. I just really liked him from the start.

My impression now Probably one of my favorite characters from any media and also the only man in the world. Like this post.

Favorite thing about that character I like that he's very serious and kinda boring and methodical but very intense and commited not only to people but to his own principles, and his emotional journey tring to reconcile that. He's kind but not nice which is such a interesting contrast to me personally, esp since he's not like agressive, which is kinda common when writing characters like that. Also I love that despite struggling so hard to connect with people he's a teacher, and a very good one at that! Mentor characters are so good I love them. He's also very silly <3

Least favorite thing He is not very developed and I would love it if his relationships with other characters were more explored. His family life is so interesting, I love seeing how each person interprets what happened and how that reads into his relationship with justice and love.

Favorite line/scene The feeling of walking on a single plank bridge til it's dark doesn't feel so bad :) 'what is black? what is white? who is right? who is wrong?' is also a GREAT line

Favorite interaction that character has with another character So many of his scenes with wei wuxian are great but I love his conversation with him at the waterfall in the last episode. That one sect meeting where he stands up for wei wuxian and talks with mianmian after she quits the jin sect also has a lot of good interactions.

A character that I wish that character would interact with more I would love to see him interact more with jiang yanli wen qing And mianmian firstly bc he already has a lot in common with them and seems to respect them. Wen qing esp bc I think she's def more wary of him than of wwx even before burial mounds happened. Also the fact that he defended her and wen ning when they gave themselves over to the jins and we never saw it haunts me like What was all that about!!!

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character Spock even though I only watched 10 episodes from star trek in my entire life. Every bl manga love interest that is serious pretty hard to read but deeply earnest and commited. And choi taek from reply 1988 but only slightly bc I never finished it.

A headcanon about that character Related to the next question but I do think lan wangji would love many genres other than classical or traditional music... especially blues/jazz/r&b. For canon compliant hcs I like to think he's one of those people that had a hard time making friends as a kid but grows to be very beloved by their community, not as hanguang-jun but as lan wangji. He gets along especially well with housewives and little kids <3 I also like to think he's kinda vain lol

A song that reminds of that character Soldier of love by Sade

An unpopular opinion about that character So many but if you go into mdzstwt my most unpopular would be that I hate daddy dom millionaire lwj that characterization pisses me off so bad. But I think to compensate that sometimes people avoid talking about his class position as something that influences his actions a lot, which is a shame bc it's one of my favorite aspects of him! Esp in contrast with wei wuxian, who is more familiar with non-cultivators and is, very crucially, the son of a servant that dessected to help war refugees. Please can we go back to making horse girl lwj headcanons that was funny.

Favorite picture

[longeyelashedtragedy]

Frank James Lampard OBE 👀

ougughgh, you whipped out the order of the british empire? 🫡 😳 maybe i was wrong to judge them teaboos back in the superwholock days (that's a JOKE)

@protect-daniel-james i'll respond here but i might use your ask to post some more Photos cause i'm not sure how to pick just one photo of the Long Eyelashed Tragedy

favorite thing about them: uhhh...so much? he gets me right in the FEELS, man. he tells on himself constantly and seems to be completely unaware. sadboi footballer with pretty dead eyes who loves to Read and took a little notebook with him on the team bus. the intersection of having it easy/privileged childhood & traumatic things that shouldn't have happened--i relate. exhilarating to watch his old performances and he seems like he'd be fun to have a conversation with. fascinating to analyze, this all feels sort of reductive...i'm very Fond of him and some of it is hard to put into words, but i feel very "what's not to love?" about him lol. and he has such a Narrative. he's very easy to write about though it probably doesn't turn out well at all (sounds great and deep in my head though)

also i find a lot of footballers hot but don't really experience significant attraction to them but he is an exception you know what i'm just going to end this here

least favorite thing about them: he lost weight after everton BOO HISS

favorite line: omg, frank james lampard OBE is funny because he's often so intelligent and articulate and then just whips out the WEIRDEST/most cringe thing out of nowhere. some examples:

-his "fight" with klopp on the touchline

THIS wtfery:

these BANGERS:

this classic example of childhood trauma "too old when you're young and too young when you're old" (what some ppl would call "entitled male athlete" but like..i know better than that lol). it's also just patently RIDICULOUS he was like 36...bolding is mine for the classic lines

But it was while on a night out in Manchester during pre-season that the ex-West Hamer star showed his new American team-mates exactly how ex-Premier League stars like to party.

Columbus Crew centre-back Josh Williams was with NYCFC at the time and he told the story to the Athletic.

...“This place is packed, multiple levels. And as soon as we walk in, you could see everybody recognise Frank. And it’s just me, my teammate and Frank and all the energy is just on him.

"He picks up a bottle, this huge bottle of Grey Goose, picks it up, opens it, just starts downing it. Passes it to me and goes, ‘Boys, we’re not putting this down until it’s fucking gone.’”

The trio passed the bottle around three times when the rest of NYCFC showed up.

After about an hour in the club, Lampard approached Williams and asked him about 'that game you Americans play where you throw the little balls — he’s talking about beer pong.'

ok let's see...

brotp: random one but i recently learned that he and ian wright are friends? and i just love that so much both as a gooner and a person. wrighty complements him well and is very...respectful lol. if we consider lamperry to be only one-sided romantic, then definitely lamperry

notp: franko x steven gerrard...there's only One situation in which i've enjoyed that ship (and it was an au). it does nothing for me normally, and i personally don't find stevie g attractive, so! again, it's like an "ew get it away from me" notp, it's just not my vibe.

otp: i mean...lamperry requited. franko x cousin jamie jamie jamie ....maybe someday they can give romeo and juliet their happy ending. and of course, frank and mason...i just really like this ship so much and it keeps my brain so entertained...even though it's not "healthy" and doesn't end well. these ships are all SO good!!!

random headcanon: oh gosh idk...i don't think i have any "headcanons" because everything he says and does in public just kind of tracks. bet he's done coke lol. idk

unpopular opinion: HOO BOY!!! here we go!!! i am aware that i have a wooby nature, but i actually like that about myself. i'd rather approach someone--anyone with softness and then tone it down when i decide they're a dick, than be uncharitable for no reason. that's my way and that's how it's gonna be! so that said...franko gets accusations of "arrogance" and i...i don't see it at all. it might come from his disingenous press conferences at chelsea and everton, but i see that as a man who has horrid self-esteem, was used to being treated by media and fans like a Starboy, and once he started doing badly, had no idea how to handle professional failure--not one single idea. remember on "diary of a ceo" over the summer when he said his first chelsea sacking was the first time he's ever failed professionally? that's insane. Like, imagine making it to age FORTY-TWO and not having a legitimate school or career disaster. that's insane to me. so he just put up a front and got cranky and defensive and funky about where he placed the blame (and to be honest--he has not done a good job as a manager, but he also wound up in some pretty dismal positions. taking chelsea caretaker manager was really shooting himself in the foot because that season just needed to be put out of its misery lol). i'm not saying he's a bastion of humility, or some misunderstood coaching genius, but i don't see him as any more or less arrogant than someone else. idk--i see a weird level of contempt for him that doesn't really feel deserved? he's just a sad sack. sort of a hubris tale in a sense, but also a tale of a man who is still stuck as a kid in some ways...i need to stop before i write a really bad dissertation lol

uh that said...

song i associate with them:

finally a footballer i can give a good answer to this for!!!

name me a better combination than me x lamps x pink floyd x this summer! comfortably numb, shine on you crazy diamond (all of it, but particularly sections vi-ix), wish you were here...

(i know this sounds basic...i know there are more i'm not remembering)

"money" in some ways because i listened to it while writing "visited upon the sons" (it hit me afterward that the fic and the song are structured in the same way...the chicken or the egg?)

from the oooold first days of the lampardverse:

behind blue eyes/a well respected man

also! wouldn't it be nice kind of reminds me of him and cousin jamie loool

favorite picture of them:

dude idk! i really love looking at photos of him! this is granit levels of difficulty...i Cannot choose so let's go with this sad sack from the blessed everton days:

[georges-chambers]

for the character asks...ishmael, ofc :3

Idk when you sent this but I wish I had seen it earlier because !!! VERY glad to do this!!

'How I feel about this character': So Much. In general. What can't I say about him? On one hand, as many point out, he's an almost definitely some kind of undiagnosable neurodivergent and due to this is incredibly relatable. ACCIDENTALLY CLICKED POST WHEN I MEANT TO SAVE THIS TO DRAFTS. ANYWAYS. I HAD MUCH MORE: He Also Suvks!!! He knows a lot but that doesn't mean he actually believes in objectively true things! Hes aware of his own faults but we get the feeling he's not too concerned with changing them very much! I also feel like some fans of Moby Dick kind of choose to gloss over the ways in which, beautifully as he puts it, his love for Queequeg is also almost definitely through a very warped lens due to the way he just thinks of Queequeg, and at times it also seems almost obsessive. And another important part of him, I think, is that he becomes just as obsessed with things that are important to him as someone like Ahab, just in a way that doesn't lead to relentlessly chasing them down and trying to kill them. Well, breaking down a door to 'save them' is. I'm sure you can see the similarities. But of course there's the way he writes obsessively about minor details about the whole voyage and people on it and Moby Dick himself in a way that implies he has a fascination with it all borne from the trauma it gave him. Which reminds me of how much he seems to actively want to hide any part of himself and his past from the reader but where it starts slipping out are often memories that seem kind of. Worrying(?) Definitely not Pleasant anyways. Which again, he seems to zero in on a bit. Also to me he is Not Cis. Of course.

'All of the people I ship romantically with this character': Ishmael's one of the very few instances where I think the only romantic ship I have of him are with the canon love interest (Queequeg of course). Aside from probably 2 ships or so, but those are either rather RPF (about someone who is dead but nonetheless real. I mean. He's kinda implied to exist in Moby Dick too, but he's very much real, its based on the real version) focused or Angst Heavy, so I would only share those in DMs at request.

Now as for potential sexual relationships? Another entire area I will leave to DMs.

'My non-romantic OTP for this character': Okay nevermind, I lied. I could Never explain it fully because its Not in the book and not based on anything in the book, but the 2011 movie. Showed me a whole layer to the potential of whatever was going on between Ahab and Ishmael and god. The toxic workplace relationship he had with that old man. That whole movie became Their Movie to me. Queequeg can of course become involved. I also like the idea of him and Bulkington of course.

'My unpopular opinion about this character': Its hard to say what'd be considered unpopular for this kind of a fandom, but I feel like the fact that the racism from his POV was progressive for its time only makes it even more immersive to him as a character. Its the sort of thing that's like . 'This is a fascinating indication about the time and the author writing in this time' and 'This could be considered a part of the character narrating all of this and how they view the world' Can very much coexist here. To me they feed into each other and I love it. Less like that, though, since that'd probably be the more popular of the two: I feel like a lot of adaptations are a bit less than accurate to what I personally think of with Ishmael because they often make him (even including the 2011 to some degree) a lot more overtly 'benevolent' than really fits. In the book, he does shit like contemplate just boarding up the room he's in and basically steal it from its original owner, and just the near frantic, almost aggressive tone he often takes with fucking Cetaceans, In General, towards his audience, I love, and really wish there had been like. Any of, in most adaptations, which seem to want him to be a much more 'relatable nice hero' which he just Fundamentally Isn't. There are so many times reading this book and rereading it where I've just gone, 'Ishmael, whoever you're having this argument Isn't here right now. I love you, but Please.'

'One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in-canon': I feel like actually learning more about what he did in his Past would kind of spoil some enjoyable and very fitting mystery and ambiguity so really what I wish we knew more about were his travels and life in general between the wreck of the Pequod and when he's writing that. Actually, no, if I absolutely Had to choose to actually be told 1 more thing about him? When and where was he a stone-mason. I love how hes very intentionally like, 'At Some Point in Time, For Some Point In Time, Neither of Which You Need To Know, I was a stone-mason.' And its just like. Actually no. Normally there'd be nothing odd about that but no, now I really do need to know what he could be hiding with that.

Once again Thank you so much for asking this and once again encouraging me to ramble incoherently about Moby Dick

[kafus]

Liko and Nemona because I couldn't pick between the two

OKAY i'm finally getting to this whoops. i'll do both and i'll just skip questions i can't really answer or don't want to

for liko:

why i like them: liko is like. everything i would have wanted in an anipoke protagonist when i was younger. that's honestly the best way to put it, it's like retroactively healing for my child self in a sense lmao. i love that she kind of just gets to be... a character? like she's a girl but not the token girl. they aren't going hardcore on #girlpower or something, she's just... a character. who is a girl. a well done character at that - i think liko's internal struggles are relatable, and i enjoy that her compassion for others is treated as a strong point, because it is. i also just think her character design goes hard LMAO ken sugimori popped off w that one

why i don't: frankly there's not a lot i don't like about liko? this is more a commentary on horizons' writing and not her but i will say the anime is a bit slow to get her off her feet - like she's REALLY lost in internal monologue in the first few episodes and it drags a bit. but she hasn't had that issue for a while so whatever

favorite episode: oh god i have a handful of favorite episodes, i can't just pick one even if we're just narrowing it down to liko centric ones!! i guess the recent episode where liko rescues a maushold family sticks out right now because recency bias but also like, it really shows off that liko, despite her anxieties, is brave in the face of danger when it concerns the safety of others (including pokemon), and also watching her try to keep her cool after experiencing a cave in was really interesting. obviously horizons wouldn't kill her off or some shit but i will admit i was on the edge of my seat a little

favorite line: there's probably a much better answer for this but my brain is only pulling up "i'm not looking!! gurumin is gurumin!! there's nobody inside her!!" when she barges into dot's room after her computer fucking explodes LMFAO

OTP: GEE I WONDER WHAT SHIP I LIKE THE MOST (it's likodot. it's likodot so bad)

BROTP: the obvious answer is roy because they are besties and it's awesome but in my heart of hearts i need amethio to have a redemption arc so her and amethio can also be besties. Right now

headcanon: even after the pendant permanently becomes terapagos, ever since episode 15 when she had the pendant stolen and got her memories wiped, liko still clutches her shirt where her pendant would be as a self soothe/grounding mechanism

unpopular opinion: the fandom for this series is still pretty small cause the dub isn't out yet in the US so i don't really know what's a popular opinion and what isn't? is it too soon to say i like liko more than ash (i still love ash though and he's obviously iconic)

a wish: can liko get an older gen pokemon on her team before bank shuts down so i can rng manipulate it in an old pokemon game and ribbon master it Please and thank you

an oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen: i'm REALLY enjoying that they aren't really baiting liko x roy aside from perhaps ONE facial expression in a really early episode and i really really hope that they never START baiting it. there's nothing wrong with shipping them if you want to, i am just personally sick of ash being shipped with every single girl companion he has ever traveled with and feeling like the girl partners exist at least in part for that purpose. it's so refreshing seeing that turned on its head and just allowing the two of them to be healthy friends. if they start pushing it as a ship i'm going to explode (negative, bad)

5 best words to describe them: compassionate, introspective, naive, timid, kind

---

for nemona (gameverse):

why i like them: GOD EVERYTHING ABOUT HER?? i love nemona she's an icon for every autistic pokemon obsessed person everywhere. i love her passion i love that she exists. i love that she's also the first rival to actually feel more powerful than the player and you have to become strong enough to see her at her full force

why i don't: I LITERALLY HAVE NO CRITICISM

favorite outfit: this is a good time to mention in my mind, despite playing violet and being very attached to my violet playthrough, nemona should be in the scarlet school uniform. like she should be wearing orange. my mental image of nemona is very much based on naranja academy and pokemon scarlet jiodsfoijfsd

OTP: UHH god i ship her with both the protagonist and penny. i think my OTP used to be nemopen but i'm more a nemona x juliana person these days? my QPP is really into juliana and nemona together and both that and the yoasobi MV where gengar marries them sold me LMAO

headcanon: nemona's arm brace is an actual assistive tool for a disability!! she has poor coordination and weakness in her arms and without the brace she wouldn't be able to do nearly the level of pokemon training she does, not to mention just daily life tasks and things. also she's autistic as fuck

unpopular opinion: jokes about nemona being a stalker or god forbid a yandere are really fucking annoying to me. like i know it's not that deep but come on. it just makes me roll my eyes. like god forbid a girl has passion and is a little neurodivergent about it. unsettling to me that people see that as stalkerish/creepy. and people look way too hard into her showing up at the gyms you're at. i'd sooner be concerned about arven calling you on the phone when you're in the middle of a fucking desert or whatever despite not physically being there to see you yet. like arven could be tracking your location constantly with your phone (he's not, it's just a vessel for gameplay to happen, i'm just making a point) but no one jokes about him being a stalker bc of course they don't

a wish: nemona showed up in horizons for an episode, but CAN SHE PLEASE SHOW UP IN ANOTHER?? she said her and roy should battle sometime I NEED THIS TO COME BACK UP SEASONS FROM NOW OR SOMETHING. THEY HAVE TO FINALLY BATTLE

[mellancholy-morose]

🥤🍄🍬☁️

i will restrain myself i wanna ask at least half of these XD'

🥤 recommend an author or fanfic you love

Hmm hard to choose so I'll leave a couple

Pretty much anything by Sleepmarshes @marshofsleep is good shit, most people that have been in the fandom for awhile will probably already know their stuff, most of what's up is soma stuff. They're a master of emotional whiplash and can go from comedy to serious in 5 seconds flat in a way that is both satisfying and devastating.

The Moments We Touch by tastewithouttalent

A really good Stein/Spirit longfic that has them as kids, and then later as adults going through the events of the anime while dealing with their complicated relationship. It's also one of the few times I've read a fic that shows anime scenes that hasn't bored me because it was just restating what we've already seen. The scenes we see replayed in this show new context to what's happening and reframes what we've all seen before in different light.

Pray for the Wicked on the Weekend by thought

@thought-42

Stein/Spirit again. A rare second person fic, and one that uses second person in a really effective way. I'm a sucker for second person fics after Marsh subjected me to it, and they are very rare to see. I love Spirit's characterization and thoughts in this, it's very good and honestly I should reread it again.

def pacts by LikeAFish

Stein/Spirit, one of my favorites, it's from Spirits pov and has him dealing with his relationship with Maka as well as figuring out his feelings about Stein, and their past. It sadly hasn't been updated in awhile, but its still worth a read for how good it is.

I have a bunch more I could recommend probably but this is already a lot lol

🍄 share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

This is a little hard for me cause there are very few head canons that are consistent for me, I tend to change my mind on things depending on the fic I'm writing. And most of what stays consistent my brain has grouped under characterization, not head canons.

That being said after digging through my brain a bit heres what I've got that does stay consistent. Stein is a very introspective person and so is very aware of boundaries with Spirit. While he loves pushing buttons and seeing how far he can go with something, he's also very conscious of how what he did in the past affected Spirit and attempts to not further damage their relationship/make Spirit seriously uncomfortable. (Like a lower level of uncomfortable for a joke he'd be okay with, the kind that isn't wholly negative. but if it was something more than that he'd be very aware and cautious about it.)

As for Spirit I see him as being very confident with women, but the moment it comes to Stein there's always a lack of it, some form of nervousness. Which tends to change depending on the situation I throw them in, but there's always something, sometimes its because it's men, and he has less experience/is just realizing he's gay. Sometimes it's because it's Stein and their past is so complicated how does one navigate that amidst developing feelings. Sometimes it's because of what happened in the past leaves him with complicated feelings in the present. And sometimes it's cause he has no idea what Stein's feelings might be towards him.

🍬 post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

Man idk I mainly have opinions on unpopular characters I can't really think of anything for the popular characters, so I guess I'll give you something that I think is unpopular for my usual idiots.

First thought was my perception on Stein saying he doesn't understand love when fighting medusa, that he's not being very truthful with that comment. But I've already kinda voiced my thoughts about that here, while the post isn't directly related to that comment I said anything I would have touched on for it.

The only other one I can think of is that Stein and Spirit are both switches, neither one of them are purely a top or bottom. Which I only assume is unpopular based on fics always picking one or the other. But Spirit's a hedonist and Stein would want to experience anything he could just to know what it's like. And they'd both like both roles for different reasons. Spirit would like being more of a top/dominate cause making Stein who's usually so stoic into a mess of pleasure or teasing him till he's practically begging for it would make Spirit giddy, and uniquely proud of himself.

Spirit would like being more of a sub/bottom cause he's more of a sensory based guy. (like he's more on the sensing side of the perceiving axis of myers briggs typing if you get my drift, but I digress I could make a whole in depth post about both of their myers briggs types) And Spirit is the hardworking type, I don't think he remembers how to relax sometimes, so being "forced" to relax on occasion by his partner being more dominate and taking the lead is something he'd really appreciate.

Stein is used to being more dominate/leading things (meister, teacher, ect) it's a role he's used to and comfortable in outside of the bedroom, so inside would likely be no different. (Even if the universe in question he had little experience with this stuff, the moment he does he'd be comfortable with leading things) He also seems the type to me to know and remember the little things about a partners body (like an arrangement of freckles on a shoulder or something) and being in a dom role gives him a good position to observe his partner and memorize them, and their reactions to things.

As a sub/bottom Stein would like actually being in touch with his body for once, and not having to be in charge of things. He'd be happy just to bask in the sensations for awhile, or he'd have fun pushing Spirit's buttons by being a brat (if we're talking more bdsm flavored dom/sub style)

☁️ what made you choose your username?

At some point when I was a kid I was flipping through TV channels and caught a glimpse of a Shakespeare adaptation (which to this day i cannot figure out which one it was) where a character was monologing in the woods, which was first where I heard the word melancholy. I looked up what it meant, and being a bit of an edgy teen went 'yep sounds like me' I started using it for mmo's and such shortly after, which is where the double L and the Morose came from, i added the extra L as melancholy was taken a lot, and then decided I like the aesthetic's of, and the Morose came from MMO's that required a last name for your character. Idr why Morose is what i went with besides i liked the alliteration, and it sounded better than macabre.

[edwinspaynes]

what do you think is your no.1 most unpopular tsc opinion?

This is rough because I think I have a lot of unpopular opinions.

I love Chain of Thorns and find TLH to be immensely satisfying. I think that the entire TLH group consists of extremely strong characters. I think TLH is as just good as TID objectively if not better.

I think Cordelia is an extremely strong and wonderful protagonist. I Herondaisy is my favourite "main" ship and my favourite ship period besides Thomastair.

I really like the TLH "love triangle" between James/Cordelia/Matthew and think that everyone else has read it fundamentally incorrectly. I always am ready to go off about this at a moment's notice. It's Herondaisy plotline + Matthew's mental health plotline intersecting. It's not about CoRdELiA cHoOsEs BeTwEeN MeN because she made her choice when she was like 13. And Matthew knows it. And everyone knows it. I actually think this "love triangle" is genius and it's probably in my top 5 favorite TSC storylines.

I hate TDA, very much view it as TSC's only weak link, and would rather have bleach poured in my eyes than ever reread it.

Related note: I would kill Julian Blackthorn where he stood if given the opportunity and think he's a literal evil sociopath.

I unironically like TMI a lot. I think it's an incredibly fun and fast-paced series that has one of the best found families I have ever seen. Clace, Malec, and Sizzy are all super sweet ships.

I also unabashedly love Cassie herself as well as her world-building and writing style. I am very at peace with her being one of my biggest writing role models even when it feels sometimes like the entire fandom has Beef with her.

I love Tessa in the historical canon and consider her one of my fave characters, but avoid her scenes in the modern ones if I reread them. Same dealio for Jem (though I don't ever think of him as a favorite, I do really like him in TID). I think Will has been massively shafted by the way that TSC is structured and will always be really salty about Wessa. However, I do really, really like Herongraystairs and am glad that they will be the heavenly endgame.

I think that my overall most unpopular opinion though is sadly that

I REALLY LOVE THE TSC CANON.

I don't really feel any need to fuck with it beyond like, in-depth character studies and fluffy little oneshots that show the characters/friendships/ships in new situations that bring their strengths to light. I love writing fic, but I want my fic to supplement the canon rather than fight against it.

[blackjackkent]

Conrad Verner for the character thing

("Send me a character" meme)

First impression

God, it's been so long since I first played Mass Effect 1; I was in college! Hard to recall exactly what my impression of Conrad was at the time, but I would imagine it was something to the effect of "aw, that's fun, Shepard has a groupie." I doubt I really thought much about him initially.

Impression now

I like Conrad. :P Obviously he's meant to be a comic relief element but he means well and it's like running into Patches in a Dark Souls game - wouldn't be the same without him and you're always glad to see him.

Favorite moment

I love that they lampshaded the bug from ME2 where he would accuse you of sticking a gun in his face in ME1 when you didn't. :P IIRC he comments in ME3 something to the effect of "sorry if I accused you of that falsely; I was under a lot of stress."

Idea for a story

My engi Shepard was lowkey super impressed about Conrad's revelation that he had a doctorate and studied xenotechnology and dark energy integration. It's played for laughs in the game but Philip definitely thought it was way cooler than all his running and gunning. I think Philip and Conrad actually became buddies for a while late in the war before Philip surrendered himself to the green light, and that could be fun to write about.

Unpopular opinion

Probably related to the above answer but I think Shep should have more options to actually be nice to Conrad and become buddies with him and let him see Shep's human side.

Favorite relationship

IDK that I've thought about his relationship with much of anyone besides Shepard tbh. :P

Favorite headcanon

Related, I suppose, to the aforementioned Philip headcanon also but I like to think that his contributions as a war asset in ME3 end up being critical to the final steps of building the Crucible. :P

[needlesandnilbogs]

Murderbot for the ask game! If somebody already requested MB then you can do Arada Overse and/or Mensah because I know they're your Fellas

(Lol rainbow you were the first person to have sent me anything for this so I'm just going to do mb. Also I got distracted for two days by other stuff so I still want to try this ask game thing but I’m pretty sure the post got buried)

First impression: I have no memory of my first impression of it but probably along the lines of "huh, that's cool, I love this line." (I could theoretically go find where I first heard about them and whatever but I'm not going to because I purposely deleted the password to that online account)

Impression now: I like it. It's a depressed anxious aroace agender who cares SO MUCH for everyone it comes into contact with. Also it's fun to mess with in stories because of its hobby of deleting information it doesn't want to think about lol

Favorite moment: Many, but especially the moment I turn over and over in my head is that awkward moment with Farai where it's like. No. I have no idea what our relationship is. Sorry. And it is so awkward but at the same time that's the truth and it's got a complicated relationship with everyone and I love it.

Idea for a story: Canon adjacent, I want to see it trying out different types of preservation textiles with its humans while it looks for something its sensory issues can handle. AU related, something in which it learns to be a great magic user due to realizing its hacking tricks work on the universe too (this is specifically the magical au I'm fond of but any other magical au also works)

Unpopular opinion: I wish it would spend more time with Preservation, developing those friendships, rather than running off with ART at the first opportunity.

Favorite relationship: With presaux in general but also specifically I like its relationships with Mensah and with ART, especially in alternate universes where the circumstances of their meetings were different yet they still become friends. (Very very specifically I'm thinking of the set of AUs (I can think of at least three I have notes on that fit this description) in which everyone is a teenager of some type and it has a sibling type relationship with Mensah while having a best friend relationship with ART and yet the interactions are almost exactly the same.)

Favorite headcanon: There are a lot of things I think it would enjoy if it let itself try them, including: silk/alpaca blend fabric, spinning yarn, writing fanfic, singing…

[goldendoodlerlockerlove]

Character ask: Tina!

Awwwww, Teeny Tina!! 🥹❣️ Thank you so much for asking about my daughter!!

First impression: I've always loved Tina and related to her a lot. She's a weirdo who loves writing fanfiction and is also definitely autistic. How could you not love her?? I definitely relate to how awkward and shy she can be at moments because that was definitely me. It was more so when I was younger, but still. I remember seeing her fail at the toothpick challenge in the first episode and laughing my head off.

Impression now: I still love Tina, she's so sweet and has gone through a lot of development as well. She legitimately stands up for herself a lot more, showing that she knows her worth. You go girl. I also love when episodes delve into her psyche, such as the Some Like It Bot two-parter. It was so interesting seeing her almost go through with this crazy decision, only to realize that she and Tammy have more in common than she thought. It was so fascinating to see how teasing has affected her over the years and caused a negative self-image within her. I wanted to hug her so bad ):

Favorite moment: One of my favorite moments was when she was riding Jericho at the horse camp after learning how difficult it was riding an actual horse (it's not really her fault, though, she got stuck with the most difficult horse when it was her first time, which must've sucked). Another one of my favorite moments with her was when she gave Louise that bracelet, which Louise immediately decided she wanted to keep. So sweet. Also when she crashed the car in Tina-Rannasaurus Wrecks, because that entire scene, I--

Idea for a story: Maybe a story that does a huge deep dive into her relationship with Jimmy Jr. would be interesting. I think their relationship is just so interesting to analyze and has a lot of story potential.

Unpopular opinion: I'm not sure if I have any unpopular opinions about her per se?? Maybe that I think she might be straight and polyamorous rather than Bi. But I could see her being Bi, just, like, 99% boys. I just think there hasn't been enough evidence (yet) to show her being Bi. But that could always change!!

Favorite relationship: Her relationship with Jimmy Jr. is so fascinating to analyze and talk about, I could just talk about them all day. Their relationship is just so interesting. I also love her relationship with her siblings, it's always very sweet to see. We definitely need time to flesh out her relationship with Gene in particular. It's worth pursuing!!

Favorite headcanon: Probably that she's neurodivergent, because she definitely is. I love how she's weird and strange and almost no one looks down on her because of it, at least when it comes to her family. She's just her nerdy authentic self.