#But yeah I do still think it's more about him being a proper by-the-book kinda guy

[jujus-bizarre-blog]

SOC and CK allegories for the queer characters (and other thoughts)

I was going to make a separate blog to yell about books but I decided to do it here.

I AM NOT DONE CROOKED KINGDOM AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS SO EVERYTHING I SAY IS HAVING ONLY READ HALF THE BOOK SO FAR.

The Grishaverse doesn't seem to have any form of homophobia, but SOC and CK are chalk fulllllllll of what I can only see as plots that mimic queer experiences for the queer characters in the main group.

We have four queer characters (that I know of at the moment): Jesper, Wylan, Nina, Kuwei.

So let's start with the obvious, three of the four are Grisha. Obviously not all Grisha are queer, but all the Grisha in the party are. This gives them an automatic plotline of "hide who you are".

It could be said that since Nina is Ravkan she wasn't raised that way, and no, she wasn't. However since leaving Ravka she has been forced to hide for her safety, and not only that but she is frequently told she's "too much" which sounds a lot to me like what some people say about queer people when they think queer people should be less queer. Also Matthias is all about being "traditional" and "proper" and Nina's whole thing is that she is neither. Traditional and proper sound a lottttt like some people's arguments to be homophobic.

Jesper's I think is rather obvious. His father has a clear concern for his son being Grisha since it can put your life at risk. In Jesper's argument with his dad he goes off and asks his dad why did he never let him go to Ravka where he could be himself and learn about himself and his powers. Oh not to mention the fact that him and his dad talk around him being Grisha like it's some sort of virus that can be caught by simply speaking the word.

Kuwei's took a second to hit me but when it did I was like "ah yep, makes sense" and this is probably because it took me a hot second to realize Kuwei was queer. Yeah, apparently him being jealous that Jesper only looked at Wylan a certain way didn't tip me off... ANYWAY THOUGH. Kuwei is also told to hide who he is, but his dad goes the extra length of literally making a drug to help him hide himself. Is it giving anyone else Dorian's dad from Dragon Age vibes??? Blood magic for the gay son???

FINALLY, I will talk about my baby, the character I love more than anything else. Wylan. Here's the thing about Wylan, while I was reading SOC I wasn't sure if homophobia existed in this world yet and I was half convinced that his dad disowned him because gay. While his dad obviously didn't do that, I still think at the end of the day it portrays an experience that is very similar. Wylan is shamed, hidden, and ultimately his dad tries to have him killed, all because he can't read. His dad loathes him over such a stupid reason, especially since Wylan is absolutely brilliant at tons of stuff and the cutest lil guy. But I think it's that hatred of his son over something so trivial that really lends itself to being about something else entirely, Wylan being queer.

All four of our queer characters in the main group have different plots, but ultimately they all circle around the idea of hiding who you are and being ashamed of who you are. That sounds like a very common queer experience if you ask me.

I don't know if this was intentional or just a huge coincidence. As a writer myself I am all too aware of how easily accidental metaphors and symbols can happen. But I think about it a lot as I'm reading so I wanted to shout about it either way. I also have no clue if this is a common idea or not, I just know when I pointed it out to my friends who had read the books prior, one of who loves and reads them yearly, they both kinda went "oh damn, you right," but didn't see it before I mentioned it.

Anyway, if I missed things (or you wanna yell at me about how wrong I am, which is usually the more likely option) I'd love to know thoughts :)

AND BONUS THOUGHTS

This one is super obvious but I just wanna say it. Jesper is ADHD and no one will change my mind in the history of ever. This man cannot sit still, has been described as having limitless energy, and he seeks constant immediate gratification in the form of gambling and adrenalin rushes. COME ON MAN. I know I know, there's a lore reason, something something Grisha not using magic blah blah. No. No. He is ADHD and you cannot tell me otherwise. And I love him dearly.

Also, not a theory or anything but, y'all, I love Wylan so much. I just wanna give him a hug and a lollipop and tell him it's okay. He's so cute.

[saints-who-never-existed]

One specific thing I'm thinking about Lieutenant Edward Little today concerns his relationship with Hickey.

I cannot for the life of me find it now but I'm sure I've seen a post here detailing the full depth of the "A full court-martial is technically required..." line in Episode Four. How there's a lot more to it than meets the eye and is Little really trying very hard to curb Crozier's worst urges, trying to insist on a controlled, by-the-book approach to punishment rather than an abusive, bloody, psychologically-tortuous one.

And if that is indeed the case then that's very interesting to me as it's not the only time Little speaks somewhat in Hickey's defence.

I'm thinking of his asking "What is our evidence against him?" at Terror Camp, of how he's very much right to do so because at that point, he's not been given any information to confirm Hickey's guilt other than Crozier's word (although of course, proper evidence is produced right afterwards).

He's seen Crozier come down on Hickey before with every awful, savage, psycho-sexual thing he's got so it makes perfect sense that Little would try to get out in front of that in any way he can, to prevent at best further cruelty and at worst, further violent injustice.

I don't really have a point to be honest - it's just an interesting little parallel that makes me read those scenes just that wee bit differently now.

[steddiehyperfixation]

wrong again

wrote this in an hour in a sudden burst of inspiration lol. could be read as a kinda sorta part two to this, or completely standalone. @steddie-spooktober day 21: "it's warm in here" | 1,037 words | T | cw: mild description of an anxiety attack

Steve and Eddie haven’t talked about what they are. They kissed for the first time almost a month ago, the moment something sweet and unplanned. One kiss led to more, led to holding hands and cuddling and spending nights at each other’s places, led to gifts and pet names and taking each other out to dinners and movies. But they still haven’t talked about it. Not really. They don’t need to. What they are to each other, how they feel about each other, is clear enough in the things that they do. Steve pours all the depth of his affection into every kiss, every touch, every home-cooked meal and bouquet of flowers, and Eddie has matched him - even exceeded him sometimes - in his effort, his passion, his gentleness. So even without the words to prove it, there shouldn’t be any doubt that everything Steve feels for Eddie, Eddie feels the same for him. 

Except, well…Steve’s been wrong before. Real life is not like a movie or a book of poetry, and the rose-colored clouds that cover the eyes of a hopeless romantic have led him astray in the past. He’s thought many previous relationships were something more than they were, that the other person cared as much as he did. And he’s been wrong. 

He tries not to think about it, usually. Pushing those thoughts away hasn’t been too hard throughout the past month, when a smile or a kiss from Eddie has often been enough to dissipate them. But right now, sitting on a couch at a Halloween party watching Eddie grab a drink from the punch bowl, suddenly it’s all Steve can think about. He remembers the last time he was at a Halloween party, the worst time he was wrong. It encompasses his mind like a flashback, oppressing his present senses and filling them in with echoes of the past, Nancy’s drunken speech about their love being bullshit ringing in his ears. 

His vision blurs like he’s had too much to drink and everything sounds like it’s underwater. When Eddie returns from the punch bowl and tucks himself back against Steve’s side, it doesn’t give him that easy warmth it usually does. Instead it just feels strange and suffocating. Because what if this doesn’t mean the same thing to him as it does to Steve? What if it’s all bullshit? He’s not sure he could survive this being bullshit. He needs Eddie too much, loves him too much. If he’s wrong again-

“Stevie,” that sweet voice breaks through his thoughts. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Steve lies. He feels like he can’t breathe. “It’s just, uh-” He loosens his collar, makes up an excuse, “It’s warm in here.” 

Eddie pulls away from him, studying him with worried eyes. He sets his drink down and stands before grabbing Steve by the hands to tug him to his feet. “Come on then, sweetheart, let’s get you some fresh air.” 

Steve lets himself be led outside and guided to sit on the backyard’s wide porch step. He’s still struggling to take a proper breath. He yanks his hands away from Eddie’s, can’t bring himself to look at him, because what if he’s wrong what if he’s wrong what if

“Are you sure you’re okay? Do you need me to take you home?” Eddie’s still fretting over him, newly freed hands fluttering towards and then away from him like he isn’t quite sure what to do now, if he’s allowed to touch him or not. 

Steve’s not sure either. 

“Eddie, what are we doing?”

Eddie stills. “What do you mean?” 

“I mean this, us.” Steve gestures between them, finally lifting his gaze to the boy sitting beside him. “What is this? What are we doing? Because I- I mean we’ve never talked about it, we’ve never said, and I don’t know. We’ve just- we’ve been doing all these things, acting like we’re in love and it’s all sweet and magical and we know what we’re doing, but I don’t-” 

���‘Like we’re in love’?” Eddie echoes, and Steve’s stomach drops. The past has spun on its head and rushed into the present, distorted and disorienting. Steve opens his mouth to quickly stammer out an apology, to take it all back before Eddie can jump to the same devastating conclusion Steve had with Nancy all those years ago. But Eddie doesn’t seem to take it that way, because his frown is more confused than hurt, eyes more soft than accusing, and he says instead, “Steve, I do love you.” 

Steve gapes at him, stunned into momentary silence. That was really, really not what he was expecting him to say. “You love me?” 

“Yeah, I thought I’d been making that pretty obvious.” Eddie exhales a short breath of nervous laughter, worry and doubt only just now beginning to creep into the edges of his expression. “I thought we were boyfriends, I thought we were on the same page here…?” 

“We are!” Steve hastily agrees. A wave of relief and joy rolls through him, providing him with a burst of energy that has him taking Eddie’s hands and pulling him into a short kiss. “We are on the same page. I love you too,” he tells him with a smile. “I just- I wasn’t sure. I need to hear the words sometimes.” 

Eddie smiles back, so bright and beautiful. “Okay.” He squeezes Steve’s hands. “I’m sorry I never said it before. I’ll make sure to tell you more often now. I’ll say all the words all the time,” he promises, leaning playfully into Steve’s space. “I’ll say it so much you’ll get sick of me.” 

Steve laughs. “Okay.” 

“I mean it.” Eddie grins. “I’ll say it over and over. I’ll say: you’re my boyfriend and I love you.” He smacks a kiss to his cheek. “You’re my boyfriend and I love you.” He repeats it again and again between kisses as he peppers Steve’s face and neck with them, breath warm and ticklish against his skin. 

Steve giggles and pretends to try to shove Eddie off of him, but it’s a weak effort. Really, he could stay right here in this moment forever, laughing and loved and not wrong at all. 

(ao3)

[queermania]

Wait wait wait. Jensen picked the writer who gave Dean a lesbian best friend and made him a nerd to be the show runner for his little fixit fic show? This is amazing!

when you look at robbie's run of episodes (that he wrote specifically, not produced or was the executive story editor on), a very specific version of supernatural and dean starts to emerge and it is insanity-inducing. here's a very brief rundown of the episodes robbie wrote:

slash fiction -swayze always gets a pass -dean singing air supply -"it's like eating self-righteousness' -the creation and introduction of frank devereaux -"applications for sainthood" -dean letting sam go

time after time -"what are you gonna look up more anime or are you strictly into dick now?" -dean being a nerdy little fanboy about eliott ness (and checking out a dude in a uniform but that was probably jacting joices) -dean getting excited about dressing up in period clothing!! -understanding that rufus matters and that family isn't just blood -original sam is milf!bait (and he's into it) truther -actually writing grief in nuanced ways -dean is smart and resourceful actually! -your future is "covered in thick black ooze" (which i know is just a very lucky coincidence but i don't care!)

the girl with the dungeons and dragons tattoo -CHARLIE!!! he gave us charlie. he said "actually what if hardcore fans were cool and fun and GAY and they were dean's new best friend" -charlie/dean/security guard flirting split screen -"she's kinda like the little sister I never wanted." "how does a high-school dropout become one of the brightest minds…" -basically this entire episode is just "be gay, do crime" and i love that for me specifically

bitten -not my favorite episode but as @ilarual says "it's very fun in how it illustrates Robbie's willingness to play with form, since it's all done as found footage" -and as @doctorprofessorsong says it "has the concept of monsters aren’t always bad guys" -and apparently it contains a brokeback reference? my memory of this episode is hovering at around 1% tbh but you get it

larp and the real girl -dressing dean up in little outfits AGAIN -and he likes it!!! -and he likes being a nerd! (dean is getting into it and sam is the one who is unamused mr serious guy!!!!) -and charlie is dean's new best friend! -"belladonna" "the pornstar?" -"did you break up with someone too?" -honestly you already know all of it. this is a fan favorite for a reason. what more can i say about this episode??

goodbye stranger -yes robbie was the first writer to try to give us a destiel love confession -cas practicing killing dean over and over and over and still not being able to do it when it comes down to it -"what broke the connection?" gee i wonder -first episode writing cas and he nailed the sort of unintentional deadpan humor that makes cas so lovable ("would it kill you to watch a movie? read a book?" "a movie, no, but with a book with the proper spells—yeah, it could theoretically kill me.") -"if he's so sketchy then why are you praying to him?" -pizza man reference -"do you really think we can trust megstiel?" (we get both megstiel and jealous!dean) -dean quoting lord of the rings (because he's a nerd! and he reads!) -meg roasting the shit out of sam for the amelia stuff -etc

pac-man fever -charlie reading the carver edlund books -charlie and dean being besties/getting a montage -dean telling charlie that what happened with her parents wasn't her fault/understanding the guilt she feels -"i love you" "i know" -"what about castiel? he seems helpful, and dreamy" -again, putting dean in little outfits -charlie knows how to shoot/aim a gun

slumber party -dorothy!! -oz!!! -look, is this episode cheesy? yes. but it's fun and it's so obviously a love letter to the oz source material and i love that about robbie. he does his research and he commits

first born -cain!!!! -drowley team up!!!!! ("friends. besties, actually." im sorry but drowley means so much to me personally and this is the start of their beautiful bromance) -"this is by far the dumbest idea you've ever had." "yeah, well, it's early" -cas liked pb&js!! jelly, not jam. he found jam unsettling!! -"you have a guinea pig? where?" -"you're a terrible liar?" "that is not true. i once deceived and betrayed both you and your brother." -just. sastiel shenanigans (and hugs!) -"she only asked for one thing." "to stop" -anyway. you get it.

meta fiction -dean and cas phone call smiles!! they LIKE each other -metatron media dump -"what makes a story work? is it the plot, the characters, the text? the subtext? and who gives a story meaning? is the writer? or you?" -i think it's important to note that robbie who wrote gabriel faking his own death -cas noticing something is wrong with dean pretty much instantly and then discovering the mark of cain

fan fiction -i mean. come on. -"although we do explore the nature of destiel in act two." -"you can't spell subtext without s-e-x" -sam being such a younger brother and trolling dean about "destiel" -"BM scene" -dean "you know they're brothers, right?"-ing the w*ncest stuff but just being flustered about the destiel stuff ayyyy -dean casually referencing andrew lloyd webber -"transformative fiction" -"i want you to put as much sub into that text as you possibly can" -dean quoting rent -the samulet is back! -"i have my version, and you have yours." -"he took away our own free will" <- about john!! -THE RETURN OF CHUCK!

there's no place like home -"i forgive you dean" "yeah well i don't" "i know, kinda your move" -"you hurt my friend" -"you lied to me" "you lied to yourself. that's kinda your move." -i mean. robbie just gets it, ya know?

book of the damned -cas being a huge bitch (love that) -sam being the excessively codependent one -cas and charlie get to meet! -found family goodness if only for a little bit!!

angel heart -ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!! -"i got it at the hot topical" (and claire keeping grumpy cat) -no seriously. dean and cas went birthday present shopping together for claire and they did it at a mall -castiel feeling guilt for what he did to the novak family (and amelia recognizing that cas has changed/grown) -"you were both troubled teens. you speak her language." -"bring your daughter to work day" -"i'm saying she might be stronger on her own." which is a controversial line but i think it says something really significant about how dean feels about his childhood "in fact you're not anything to her except a constant reminder of someone that's gone." -mini golf!!!!!! dean and claire bonding!!!! -the introduction of the grigori, a class of angels which may or may not be important at some point -claire roasting the shit out of dean with "you seem pretty old" <3 -"happy birthday. don't shoot me."

baby -do i really need to explain anything about this one? -"okay first of all, never use swayze's name in vain, okay? ever." -"mistakes were made" -dean having a dream about john teaching him to drive but under normal and appropriate circumstances -werepire…. ghoulpyre… -honestly just the whole episde. you know what i'm talking about. the unique perspective. the insight into their day-to-day lives. the moments that live in between.

into the mystic -eileen! my best friend eileen! -dean x mildred otp -remembering sam's lucifer/hell trauma -the whole "follow your heart" speech -"banshees go after the vulnerable, so why'd it go after you?" -dean recognizing there's something off with cas -but really the most important thing here is EILEEN

safe house -bobby and rufus!!!! -i repeat BOBBY AND RUFUS!!!! -"were you ever nice?" "1985. worst year of my life." -robbie just really GETS that this show is more fun when it's not centered entirely on the brothers. -bobby referring to sam and dean as his boys -timey wimey shenanigans -there were some interesting implications in this episode too but i'm losing steam here so i'm gonna let you rewatch and figure it out lol

don't call me shurley -the reveal of chuck as god!!!! -bisexual chuck -dean does sam's laundry (sometimes with beer) -chuck is a shitty egotistical writer -he also plays the guitar and: "i like front row seats. you know, i figured i'd hide out in plain sight." -"i thought if i could show my sister that there was something more than just us, something better than us, then maybe she'd change. maybe she'd stop being… her. but every time I'd build a new world, she'd destroy it." -"the world would still be spinning with demon dean in it but sam couldn't have that though could he?" -"you were gonna choose amara over me."

so. yeah. jensen chose THIS GUY to helm the winchesters. bold move, sir. full respect.

also, this tweet always makes me crack up

one of us! one of us! one of us!

[hannigramislife]

for my own gratification bc i just ran into nie mingjue hate in the wild, would you mind making a post that defends my poor good boy? he worked so hard and got gaslit to shit before getting murdered terribly ;; literally everyone sat there telling him "youre being too harsh" and he's just responding appropriately. like yeah, if you witness a murder, ya kinda got to do something about that as a clan leader. its kinda your responsibility, even when you care about the person who did the murdering. he was also a really young when he took on the role of clan leader and idk, it just made me rlly sad to see people dunk on him cuz wtf he's literally just trying his best in an impossible situation WHILE being perpetually fucked over by his clan's own traditional cultivation cuz now the stronger he is as a leader, the closer he is to going literally insane and dying bc of it. (mingjue did nothing wrong i will die on this hill) ((sorry for going on a tirade, im just sad and defensive of my good boy rn))

Oh no! I'm so sorry you had to go through Nie Mingjue hate! Truly tragic. I went through that once when in the beginning of me reading the books, when I still had no proper opinions, and never again.

I'm more than willing to make a post about Nie Mingjue! I'm always down to talk about Nie Mingjue tbh, he's my heart and love and if I were to have been given the opportunity to be his right hand person, I would have simply never betrayed his trust and married him. Rip Jin Guangyao but I'm different.

Anyways, I, huhhh, actually think you?? Covered it all??? Pretty much?? Yet I will talk about it. This will be long and non-coherent, because I don't have the books rn to find quotes in them and honestly, I could write essays on Nie Mingjue either way.

Nie Mingjue is a central piece of the narrative, despite the limited amount of appearances he made, and the fact that he wasn't close to the main characters at all. The entire second part of the plot revolves around him- it happened because of him. His murder is a tragedy; literally, by greek standards, man has Cassandra Curse all over him, so I don't get how people can tell me, confidently, that his death was warranted. I've been told the man had asked for it, and this has mostly been by Jin Guangyao apologists.

So let me make something real fucking clear.

Nie Mingjue did not deserve to die. Let's get that out of the way, anyone can fight me on that. Nie Mingjue had more good qualities than half the people in this fucking story, despite his flaws. After his father was brutally murdered when Mingjue was only in his teens, Nie Mingjue stepped up as clan leader. We can only speculate the hardships that await someone leading a clan at such an early age. Yet, political challenges weren't the only thing he had to battle; Nie Mingjue knew about his clan's harmful cultivation, and he knew he was going to die young. So what did he do? His best. Literally his best, always. He was always giving 100% of his abilities, because that's who he was.

Let's talk about who Nie Mingjue was, shall we?

When Jin Guangyao, still Meng Yao then, describes Nie Mingjue, he finds himself perplexed, because Nie Mingjue isn't like other men. He is not frivolous, and he has no vices; Meng Yao describes how Nie Mingjue never showed an interest in arts, or alcohol, or women. All he did was train, and fight the Wens during the war. It shows that he had a one-track mind from the start, and has got a strict discipline; yet this strictly disciplined man, leader of a clan that prizes strength, continuously indulges his lazy and undisciplined half-brother, his one and only heir, despite not understanding his interests. We gather, pretty quickly, that Nie Mingjue is a bleeding heart for his brother, and for the ones he loves in general. We see the same softer side displayed in the presence of Lan Xichen, and of course, for some time, Meng Yao.

People seem to think Nie Mingjue took Meng Yao's betrayal too harshly. As if somehow seeing a man he thought to have been just and honest commit premeditated murder, then cover it up, was something he was just supposed to get over. To this day, I can't believe how Lan Xichen was so understanding of it. But not only did Nie Mingjue catch him in a cowardly act - Meng Yao proceeds to manipulate him, using the fact that Nie Mingjue cared about him, to stab him in the back. Or front, however it happened. I get that Meng Yao was in a difficult position, that he suffered at the Jins, that he felt backed in a corner; but Nie Mingjue was a man that had extended his help to Meng Yao before, and even then, he went to find Meng Yao in righteous fury, ready to help him again. To Nie Mingjue, the idea that Meng Yao "had no other choice" but to kill - to kill in the manner he did - it could have been nothing but a betrayal.

One thing that I personally highly respected Nie Mingjue for was the fact that he did not judge Meng Yao for his background. This is not up for debate; Nie Mingjue stood up for him, quite publicly, quite vocally, when Meng Yao was being insulted over it. And not only that, but he promoted Meng Yao to be his right hand man, just like that. Because he's impulsive, and to prove a point, but it was still huge of him to do. Not even Lan Xichen would have done that - In a society built on power dynamics between social classes, Nie Mingjue was one of the few characters who did not let that define his actions. It wasn't because he was born privileged (though he was) but because he he didn't let anything other than his judgment direct his actions. Nie Mingjue also never shied away from anything; if it had to be done, he did it, no matter the cost.

Nie Mingjue was decisive, and had an iron will. When Meng Yao killed the Nie disciples in Qishan, he wanted to kill Meng Yao. Meng Yao told him, paraphrasing, that "don't you understand that if I hadn't done that, it would have been your corpse up there?" and Wei Wuxian takes it to mean "Translation: I saved you so you can't kill me, because that would mean you're in the wrong." So Nie Mingjue hesitated for a second, then said: "Fine! I'll kill you, and then take my own life!" And the only reason he didn't, was because Lan Xichen was there. Otherwise, Nie Mingjue would have killed his former friend, then followed him to whatever afterlife awaited.

Nie Mingjue is often portrayed like he doesn't understand stuff, like he's stupid, simply because of his black and white sense of morality. That's not correct: Nie Mingjue understands motive, but he doesn't accept the ends justifying the means. Scratch that, he doesn't accept or justify either, if they're unjust. The murder of the Jin commander, the murder of the Nie disciples, not executing Xue Yang - how can Nie Mingjue possibly understand Meng Yao's decisions, when Nie Mingjue would rather die, any day, than live thanks to vile actions?

And then, Nie Mingjue starts falling into qi-deviation. We know that it affected his temper the most, and his judgement. I don't understand how it works, really, so I don't know by the end how much was Nie Mingjue and how much was the mess that the spirit made of him - maybe a combination of the two. But what is certain, is that the rapid qi deviation changed him.

But I could write a hundred more pages on him, meticulously going over every single scene he has ever appeared in, because I find him that interesting. I find him the most interesting, and the most appealing character, because in a story where the navigation of the cultivation world's complex politics and hierarchies with tact and diplomacy is crucial, Nie Mingjue stands uncompromising in his principles, choosing duty and honor over anything else, even when it's hard.

[bosskie]

First Molluck Artbook Finished

100 pages of Molluck! Frankly, I filled that sketchbook sooner than I thought, in 10 months, since I haven't filled them this fast like ever, and these are mainly rendered works... And I haven't even drawn all my traditional Molluck sketches from this year to this book. So yeah, I have been drawing a lot more this year than I have drawn during the past years... Thanks to this, I feel like I have improved significantly this year.

But yeah, I felt like doing some flip through the artbook, especially when I have never done a video like this before. Couldn't get a better quality, and yeah, I did improve the quality by editing, but you can find these all on my blog anyway. I cut the video like this because I didn't wanna have my hand visible here... (I feel like I cannot stand seeing myself in any image, even if it was just my hand... I can tolerate drawing(s of) myself more.) But you can see the main stuff.

As you might notice, the artbook kinda lost its "original vision" quite soon... This was supposed to be like a book about Molluck, but then, I just drew whatever I felt like, just like I'm used to do... But this is still a Molluck artbook, and it's the main thing! Since this whole thing was finished successfully, I wanted the last page depict why or how this whole this was made:

It's not the first time you see me hugging Molluck, but this one is certainly an improved version. Man, this sketchbook wouldn't have been finished if I didn't love this Gluk so much... This just felt like the most meaningful way to end this book since it was made with my love for Molluck. I just feel like I cannot even describe how much I love him... He just means so much to me... I have still felt quite awful recently, but Molluck has been able to snap me out of thinking those harmful things.

And yeah, I also felt like showing you all my main tools I used to draw those Molluck things. I just tend to use a 0.7 HB mechanical pencil, that eraser stick thing, and an eraser pencil; this is also the reason why I call these sketches. Oh, and yeah, there's also my brown leather pencil case I ordered with my Oddworld merch from Gametee. (Y)

Here's some "artist's picks" from the book:

Frankly, if I had to choose only one drawing from the book, I would choose that "Glukkons' plan" drawing. It would be "cool" to make a proper artwork out of it, like a digital painting or something. It would require tons of work though, but I bet that it would be worth it. Gotta get that drawing tablet first though since I'm not gonna draw that with a mouse...

I'm still not done with photos here, since I also felt like taking a photo like this:

Yeah, just some of my Molluck 'n' Molluck-like stuff. (Y) I bough that hard work sign some months ago and just because it reminded me of Molluck... There's literally "hard work never killed anyone" text in RuptureFarms, though the tone is different than in this one. But even this sign is questioning it, it's only wondering why to work hard, and the answer could still be "moolah" or something. Oh, and I also got two old cigar tin boxes because of Molluck... They decorate my kitchen with that RuptureFarms sign. (Y) And yeah, I also got one bolo tie, and it was before my Molluck thing.

I have already bought like a half year ago few new sketchbooks, so all I need to do is to start yet another one. (Y) Though, I have bough that many also because I felt like dedicating them for certain stuff, like one being for general Molluck stuff and another one would be about my self-insert Molluck stuff. I have really wanted to have one sketchbook just for my self-insert stuff, but I wanted to finish this one first. Naturally, I'm not really going to share my self-insert things, also because well, for not being suitable for Tumblr sometimes... But just some quite "neutral" ones, like that hug. Though, I'm still not sure... If I'm going to post more self-insert stuff, I would like to have another blog for that. I don't even know if you would be interested seeing my drawings related my self-insert story with Molluck, but you can let me know.

Man, it's so odd to think that I have been loving this Gluk for like 3½ years, and I only feel like I love him more and more day by day... It's kinda sad too since he is fictional, but luckily, there's tech and I'm an evil (computer) scientist. (Y) (I tend to make this joke regularly...) But my point was that there do are ways to cope with this craving. Frankly, I have also been wondering if my feelings toward Molluck are this strong because it's my brain's way to keep me alive... Since I can feel like he loves me and he kinda lives inside my head, tells me positive things whenever I feel like I'm just doomed... I don't hear his voice but get thoughts "thru him". Whatever it is, I'm grateful for my Molluck experiences since he just feels so right for me and I feel so much love... This is like the first time I ever feel like someone loves me, instead of only knowing that I'm loved. I have felt like I'm broken because I cannot feel my feel my family's love, only know that they love me, but it's not my fault that I have problems with that.

I don't know what else to say but I'm glad to see that people appreciate my dedication to Molluck! So, as a lil bonus, I feel like sharing one song that, for some reason, has like Molluck vibe the most from all the songs I know: HELIUM VOLA- omnis mundi creatura. I feel like I'm not even able to explain this, but music like this just fits Molluck so well... I wanna draw/paint something one day that encapsulates this vibe. I'm not really referring to the lyrics of the song but the general vibe or whatever you would call that.

But yeah, only one Molluck sketchbook completed, gotta keep drawing!

[unsoundedcomic]

When worldbuilding for my own settings, I find that some of my favorite details are ones that I had never considered and only came up with after being asked about them. Are any of the details you share with us here ones that you created only after someone asked about them?

I know other people who create like this! I think it's somewhat common, and I think it's why collaboration can result in powerful discoveries. Humans work well together.

I personally mimic this by talking to myself and asking myself questions. I very commonly either go for a drive or a walk, or pace back and forth in my room/office talking things out with myself. Something about Q&A really gets the brain juices pumping. It helps you find the chinks in your narrative. Every artist and writer really has to learn to self-critique, and that's what this is doing, really.

But oh, like, a year ago when I was finalizing the script for this chapter I didn't really love it. It didn't have a satisfying end to the Adeliers. There are more of them in Book 2 but I still want this first book to have its own sort of finality, in case the moon crashes into the earth soon. So I talked to myself about it, and the proper ending really just kinda came to me in a flash, as the answer to questions I asked. What would Sette do to help him? What would feel satisfying but not saccharine? What pushes him forward? How can it help Sette in her own destiny? How can I present this all in a fresh way that isn't just Duane talking to himself for ten pages?

So yeah! It's a great exercise, man, I agree. And if you can't get others to ask you questions - and that's risky to rely on, people are busy - ask yourself the questions!

[im-out-of-it]

I just have some thoughts since I’ve watched the first three episodes now. some things I’m glad the show did and also the things that irritated the fuck out of me so let’s go 👏🏼

1. aging the characters up. I think this is smart to do and there’s more you can do with the rest of them if they’re in their early twenties instead of being teenagers. sorry not sorry but I’m not interested in seeing teenagers being chased by grown adults

2. Clary is still beyond annoying. I know she’s traumatized by losing her mom and not understanding this new world but literally coming in “I don’t care about the clave, about your rules, I just want to find my mom.” yeah ok we get that but there are still rules that need to be followed. you’re out here almost getting people killed and it’s all in the name of your mom. and I’m not saying the clave is trustworthy because they’re massive dicks but you can’t go around running and doing whatever you want lmao

3. please give Alec a raise or a year vacation. the amount of shit he deals with having to be jaces parabatai is too much. honestly, Alec deserves better. Jace takes advantage of Alec and I would have loved to see Alec have another parabatai, one that cares for him. I know you can only have one BUT CUT THE FUCKING CORD PLEASE

4. Magnus is fucking perfection

5. Izzy is perfection too 🔥 I do not blame Simon losing his tongue over her. my bisexual mind was like OOOOO ALEC NO MAGNUS NO IZZY NO RAPHAEL NO MAIA!!!!!!! NO ALL OF THEM

6. Clary and Jace are very cringe and I’m not sure if that’s on the acting or the writing but it makes it hard to believe they’re “in love.” I felt more connection with Alec and Magnus meeting for a second than I did with jace and clary in three episodes. even Alec and jace have a bit more chemistry than he does with clary. and that is something I DO NOT ship

Jace: I would die for you

Clary: but jace we just met

Jace: I don’t care if I throw all my friends and family away clary. we’re destined to be together

7. superb acting from Matthew Daddario. he’s absolutely wonderful and he really captured Alec’s angst in my opinion. you can see why he’s on guard not only because he likes jace (ew my man Alec WHY) and because he’s worried about the safety of his people. I feel like Matt captures the emotion without saying a thing so well. as does Harry. I think they’re both great at this

8. “This would be bad for clary.”- (talking about the cup and valentine) Simon “it would be bad for all of us”-Izzy. of course in Simon and clary world, everything is all about clary. I get simon is worried about his bff but this affects EVERYONE

9. if Simon was my bff and someone as jace talked to my friend that way, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT. she doesn’t really say much, she’s all like “we’re a package deal.” honestly clary and jace belong together because they both take advantage of their friends. they’re both so self centered so let them run away as far as possible together

10. Alec is big sad now but you will have better, just you wait. also want to add, I enjoy season one for the build up Alec and Magnus but man do I hate Alec pinning after jace 🤢 but if there isn’t any incest, it’s not a proper CC story

11. Im just here for the Malec content. stuff that show did well: Alec and Izzy’s sibling relationship. I love these two so much. Clary actually being nice to izzy and being her friend, and not being mean to her cause she’s jealous. Magnus’s whole attire. I love this bi king so much. I love magnus, I love his sass, his makeup, his clothes. I LOVE HIM. I wish they would’ve changed his hair and makeup more in the last two seasons. kinda feel like they thought oh he has mascara on, that’s good enough. that pink hair is truly one of my favorite Magnus looks.

12. last thing to add that I like what the show did. I love that Alec actually knows how to fight. it never made sense in the books that he’s never killed a demon, especially since he’s a Lightwood. never made sense to me. I’m glad they allowed in the show for Alec to actually be able to fight 🏹

that is all for now until I watch actually one of the best episodes of season one. Magnus and Alec meeting 🥰

[tohisprettyc00l]

celebrating your birthday

A/n: It's nowhere near my birthday but whatever

Amity: It's been a while since she's had a real birthday party. She used to get mager ones when she was friends with Boscha. In retrospect that was probably to impress Boscha's parents. But enough about all that it's your big day. And with money (that she totally didn't steal from her mom) she wants to make sure that you have a great birthday. She takes you to any store you want. And then gets you your favorite food.

Luz: She loves birthday parties so much!!! She goes all out. There's a bunch of decorations. And if you like having more people there, all of her friends are there. Which we know is a fucking lot. If you don't want a lot of people that's okay. She buys your favorite cake. You only turn whatever age your turning once. And now I've at least alluded to Boscha two more times than I thought I would.

Willow: She's never been one that likes big crowds. And no matter how many people are on your part she'd feel kind of awkward. So she hosts a party that's just the two of you. On the plus side, it's more special. Also, her dads make you a cake <3.

Hunter: The FUCK is a birthday? Yeah, I think I've made it clear the Empoer's coven and the Empoer himself suck. Like doesn't even know what that word means. But once he finds out he's determined to give you a good one. Despite never being to or having one himself. And it's very all over the place, You have no cake but do have ice cream. Not sure how he managed to mess up the biggest part of the birthday. He's trying okay? Also the number of gifts he good you was absurd.

Vee: She kind of knows what birthdays are. A few kids had them at camp (Which was probably sad as fuck.) So while the general decorations are kinda dull. The gifts are great! Most (affordable) things you want you get. Though there are a few oddballs in there. Like she just got you a straight-up weapon.

Raine: Pretty good birthday. The happy birthday song is 10x more awkward. Because they have a beautiful singing voice. Thankfully they also are an awkward mess when it comes to stuff like that. So they probably won't sing it (if you don't when them to.) All of the gifts they get you are sweet.

Eda: Never trust Eda to throw a party, worst mistake of my life. There are so many different shows and gamed-themed plates it's insane. The presents don't make any sense. Like a book about how to get better at abominations, while your human ass is just sitting there confused as fuck. She starts laughing and then just straight up gives you 250 snails.

Emria: She bakes the cake herself (and almost burns the house down.) She's not great at the whole planning the party thing. But it is still an enjoyable experience! While the wrapping job might have been so bad that you could see the gifts, said gifts were still great. Is her lacking ability in making birthday parties just a her thing or is her mom also at the core of this? I don't know, you decide.

Edric: Dude was stressed. He wanted it to be perfect! But, just like his siblings, he had no clue what to do. I mean he'd had birthdays, but he's not known for excelling. And with his mom being Odaila there was no chance of him getting a proper birthday. Cue the googling! The birthday isn't very extravagant, despite his wealth. But it is a fun time. He did end up getting pin the tail on the donkey. So that's pretty fun.

The Collector: Any chance to throw a party is a chance he'll take! And it was about you? That's twice the fun. He can make you the biggest cake with just a snap of his finger, not sure how good it would taste but that's beside the point. Also, the presents are great, obviously. You guys have stereotypical "girls" birthday parties. You have a slumber party, eat pizza, play truth or dare, and stay up all night.

Lilith: She probably wouldn't do anything major for your party. A slice of a cake and a small gift or two. It's not that she doesn't care about you, she does a lot! She doesn't really celebrate her birthday. (Sorry boys it's not angst this time I just don't think she likes celebrating her birthday.)  That being said, if you want a bigger party she's not totally against the idea. But the only people she has the confidence to ask are Hooty, Luz, and Eda (King probably tagged along.) It's pretty hectic, as all things with the owl family are, but it's honestly the best birthday you've had.

Gus: Gus is almost the biggest overachiever out there (second only to Hunter.) So he's more than excessive. He takes all his past parties and parties he's been to and combines them into one big party. He invited Willow over to make sure it looked okay (bless her and the crap she has to deal with.) She tells Gus in the nicest way possible that you'd probably have a heart attack from all the colors. She quickly helped him fix everything up. When you do come over it's overall presentable. It's a far cry from what Gus had planned but it is chill.

[crow-stars]

❝LET'S GO ICE SKATING❞

❦summary; ice skating can be such a fun time, though that may depend on whether you're new to the rink or have a bit of experience under your belt. ♪the characters in this story; heartslaybul; riddle rosehearts, trey clover, cater diamond, ace trappola, deuce spade, gn!reader ✎word count; ~1.2k words ❀what do the ghosts say?; ambiguous, school trip to an ice skating rink, falling chatacters, first times on ice, mentions of climates in respective twst characters homeland, fun times ☛the author's notes; nothing to note... ☪look at the catalogue?

❛RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS❜

❀ Riddle is so, so stumbly

❀ He’s trying to act all smooth, really he is! Even read a book on the proper techniques of ice skating. 

❀ Though, when the day of actually came, he was stumbling a bit. 

❀ There were many (emphasis on many) attempts from Trey, Cater, and many other classmates to help Riddle, yet he was so confident that he could do it himself, he was sure of it! He just needed a bit more—

❀ Oh dear, Riddle fell again. On his face, at that. You could probably hear Floyd’s laughter somewhere afar.

❀ Still, he’s going to keep trying

❀ I think that he would, at least, wear protective gear. He may be confident, but he’s not that confident in his ice skating skills. 

❀ It also helps when he, inevitably, falls again. 

❀ But you have to admire Riddle’s perseverance, getting back up with a huff time and time again. 

❀ (Please admire his perseverance and meager skills, he’d really appreciate it and would be trying much harder after that)

❀ Maybe, if it goes on long enough 

❀ I’m not sure if he’d do it again out of leisure. Depending on how many times he’s slipped and fallen. 

❀ Though I do think that he wouldn’t reject it if he got invited to ice skating again. 

❀ Just hold onto him, will you?

❛TREY CLOVER❜

❀ Okay, hear me out

❀ I think... Trey would actually know how to ice skate. 

❀ So, he has younger siblings, right? And the Queendom of Roses is like based off of England/London I think and in a northern hemisphere-ish area (basing this off of the map in Book 6 and Mimi rants ily), so the likelihood of things like lakes in the Queendom freezing over is high

❀ So, obviously, kids being kids, his younger siblings would want to go ice skating

❀ And, obviously, Trey needs to go make sure there aren’t any injuries or broken noses because nobody wants to be going to the hospital.

❀ So, obviously, Trey has to be there to make sure the younger ones won’t get hurt

❀ As such, he probably needed to learn how to ice skate so he can smoothly go over to his siblings to help. 

❀ So, on an ice skating trip, Trey would definitely be able to move around the ice smoothly. 

❀ He’s not one to show off, but, in my opinion, I think it’d be pretty damn impressive to a lot of people. 

❀ Like, Trey’s movements are smooth and steady. There’s no flair to it, like Rook’s though

❀ But just watching him is kind of nice to see. 

❀ I like to think he would be the type to like offer his arm if you need balance.

❀ Oh that’s actually kinda cute and attractive now that I think about it. Uuugh

❀ I don’t think Trey would ice skate outside of special occasions, (ie. going with his siblings or a school trip.)

❀ But yeah, Trey is actually pretty decent at ice skating.

❛CATER DIAMOND❜

❀ Oh Cater. Cater, Cater, Cater.

❀ He’s good, like, he can stay on the ice

❀ And you can bet he’s posting on Magicam about the trip and posting selfies and videos of him on the ice. 

❀ The second the camera is off, though, Cater is as wobbly as that one chair in class that every kid loved rocking back and forth on.

❀ He can stay on the ice, thankfully, and he’s stable enough that he won’t fall

❀ But... Cater’s legs just shake and tremble no matter what he does

❀ It’s not that he has bad balance. Cater’s spent a bit trying to figure out what the hell is actually going on with him. He brushes it off as performance anxiety or something like that 

❀ I’d like to think that his sisters probably did some skating/ice skating and brought him along for the ride. 

❀ And, as his sisters usually do, made him participate. 

❀ So that’s where Cater’s skill on the ice comes from

❀ If you needed his arm or anything like that, Cater would be happy to give it to you, and give you a few tips as well

❀ Though, he’d mostly be taking selfies with him and other students on the ice before promptly getting off off it to enjoy spicy hot chocolate or something 

❀ Ice skating isn’t an activity Cater would do for leisure, he’d rather be doing other things that isn’t shaking on the ice for five minutes straight

❀ I think he’d prefer to just watch and take pictures of what he sees

❛ACE TRAPPOLA❜

❀ Falls on his ass pt. 1 (+ pulls others with him)

❀ He has never been on ice in his life and never thought he would be

❀ Ace is flopping and falling, someone get this man a walker for the rink

❀ Except, he refuses to use any ice skate walkers or whatever they’re called (He called them granny walkers and said they looked dumb)

❀ Ace fully believes he has the ability to be able to do ice skating with zero skills beforehand 

❀ “It’s just roller skating on ice!” He said 

❀ He was wrong

❀ Ace fully believed he would be fine on the ice since he claimed that roller skating was easy

❀ He was wrong

❀ Ace was fully prepared for all this to go smoothly and didn’t get that expectation met. 

❀ Ace will do anything but use the tools offered to him. 

❀ Instead, he will cling to his other classmates and attempt to use them as support

❀ Though for half of them, he’ll end up pulling them down with him

❀ For example, Epel and Deuce. Jack actually has the stability to be kept upright and Sebek just doesn’t tolerate it whatsoever

❀ Please expect Ace (and others around him) to be covered in bruises by the next day 

❀ Ice skating is something I think Ace would want to try out, but more as a for fun thing

❀ Like, if he manages to go or gets invited, he’ll go, but won’t go by himself

❀ He needs people to use as balance

❛DEUCE SPADE❜

❀ Falls on his ass pt.2 (and feels sore for a good while)

❀ Deuce is a lot better with his balance, though he is a bit shaky on his feet

❀ He’s doing a lot better than his other dorm mates (see.  Trappola, Ace)

❀ I think that Deuce would get used to it after a while, though he will be falling a lot

❀ Help him please

❀ He’s stable, but he’s not exactly gracefully either

❀ But that’s okay, we love him anyway

❀ Deuce is definitely going to be hugging the walls when he enters, no doubt about it

❀ Slowly, yet surely, he’ll stray further and further from hugging the wall (or you) 

❀ And yes, he may be doing that weird pose where he has his legs apart and his hands sticking out but look at him! He’s trying! 

❀ Don’t be surprised if he falls again, he’ll be doing that a lot (Help Deuce up after he falls please)

❀ Also don’t be surprised if Ace is also there 

❀ You will watch both of them fall to the ground several times over 

❀ Please help both of them up

❀ Deuce will definitely be just doing small circles around the rink and nothing more elaborate (Unlike others)

❀ I think that Deuce will definitely want to come back again

❀ Like, sure, he was falling over his ass for like half the trip and sure, Ace was the reason for like half of those same falls, but Deuce had fun! 

❀ Go back with him again, you’ll have fun :)

[sciderman]

Being told Daniel Ways Deadpool is just a crazy™ idiot from a looney tunes show just to read it (for a third time, now as an adult, after seeing something past the first two issues) and see that while YES, Wade is crazy™ in the book, to the point of just randomly having halucinations and a second voice (whitch both still kinda piss me off, because while NOW it's supposed to be Madcap, back then it was just kinda offensive), he was also a pretty fucking smart individual, to the point of tricking everyone on a bunch of occasions, that whole scene of him alone on a boat after killing a shark, his sometimes dark and kinda depressing inner thoughts, it was just kinda a shock.

And while Wades jokes don't always land for me, the book actualy got me to laugh a bunch of times, while the portrayl of mental illness outside of depression is out-dated and offensive, at least he wasn't JUST a crazy idiot, and Medinas art for Wade is so good imo.

(Also the Bullseye arc was so fucking fun, with the look into Wades backstory, the more and more cartoonish violence, the art, the jokes, the pay-off at the end of the story too)

do we think that the white box is something inherently offensive? because i mean - i write wade with the white box. it's not related to madcap - it's something that's part of him - but i don't think it's anything that isn't just, part of any human – the voice of self-doubt that makes you question your worth. the intrusive voice in your head that makes you fall into destructive habits – i think it's something very real (for everyone) but it just manifests in different, more extreme ways for someone who's been through as much as wade wilson. (that's why peter has red, too. peter has his own boxes of self-doubt.)

i think there's a lot to enjoy about way's run. i love the boxes, and i think they're something that sets wade as a character that's kind of unique. yeah, it wasn't exactly handled in the most sensitive way in regards to proper representation of mental illness, but – i think it's a huge loss that it was erased. because wade could be such an interesting, unique representation that you don't normally see taken in a sympathetic and likeable light. you always see these sorts of disorders as something terrifying - something only in horrors and tragedies - you don't see it manifested in the characters you're meant to root for. the characters who are striving to do better.

i think white box was such an interesting device that gave deadpool a unique voice - gave us an in into his head - kept an entertaining dialogue going with wade even when there were no other characters present - and gave us opportunities for comedy in unexpected places. and i honestly kind of feel like it's some sort of erasure to get rid of those boxes, and make wade just like every other marvel character. i think a writer who's sensitive and creative could do something so, so interesting with those boxes.

i miss you, wade's boxes. i could write an essay on thi

[skitskatdacat63]

Prince Jenson of Somerset

+ process & lore

Yayyyyy omg finally have drawn portraits of the four main characters!!!! I'll show the process of Jenson's first and then them all four together. Though it's a shame the Seb/Fernando ones are older, I think it's hopefully obvious how much I've improved since November?

Look at him in all his handsome, princely glory 🥹 It's funny, I'm always happy with the second sketch and initial lineart, and then I start coloring it and I absolutely hate it, and it takes a significant amount of time into the painting for me to like it again. And then I reach a certain point and I'm in love with it again. Ugh though I gotta say, I love drawing the curls, it's just so 18th century, but at the same point, man I always will love my original lineart for the hair the best ah. Also yes I absolutely had to give him a big ass hat with feathers, he really is that kinda guy to me. I originally drew a bicorne and then realized that those don't really exist until basically almost a century later oops, so tricorne it is!!

Okay now omg look at them all together 🥹

Haha wow I have improved a lot! Just like the Seb/Fernando ones, Mark and Jense's were meant to be put together. I think there's a lot of inherent characterization in their poses that highlight the difference between them. Mark is looking up, very wistful, looking up to greater people, greater things. Jenson's head is tilted down, almost looking at the viewer, he is very satisfied with his role and revels in it, he's here to slay!

Okay, yes, lore, characterization, sorry that it is so far down on the post!!

Jense would probably be the fan favorite if this AU was an actual book or show or something. He's the guy you randomly find while browsing Wikipedia and you're like, woah this guy is so cool??? Unlike Sebmarknando, he doesn't really have the same level of angst, he's kinda just chilling. He's a bit harder to write a lore post about, because he's basically that character who is always magically around the corner, ready to witness some crazy thing and just breeze past it.

He is less linked to Seb than people like Mark and Fernando, because he's basically just his personal minister of transportation(read: horse fucker), so he avoids a lot of the relationship complications and drama, but that isn't to say he's completely uninvolved. He really likes Seb, and loves to hang around with him and serve him, but he's not as beholden to him. He's who everyone goes to air their grievances or to get away from the others, and he's very happy with this role. He's generally willing to play any side in an argument, but does tend to have a pretty big soft spot for Seb overall(Seb also gives him cuteness aggression, and he wants to bite him. Especially when Seb puffs himself up and acts super bratty when he gets offended at not being seen as a proper ruler.)

He's royalty from other kingdom, but pledged his loyalty to Seb's kingdom when he was quite young and has served him(his father first) ever since. He started off somewhat low in the military, rose to a pretty high rank, was a renowed war hero, and then ended up retiring pretty early to tend to Seb's horses. That's an oversimplification, but yeah. He liked the military life, was very good at it, but decided he had done enough, and wanted to be involved in more direct service, albeit more laid back. As I mentioned in Mark's post, Mark *really* doesn't understand his choice to do this, because if Mark had been in Jense's position, he can't ever imagine being able to let all that go and living the quiet life.

He is the palace whore, everyone has been with him honestly. It'll be like, some man walks into his bedroom, only to see Jenson in bed with his wife, but instead of being angry, he's like "wow you couldn't even wait for me??" He's just very carefree, and happy to just slut around and tend to Seb's horses.

I think he definitely still advises Seb, and would go to battle if truly need be, but generally seems to be living in a different world than the weird psychosexual homoerotic political drama that the others seem to be living in. But as I said, it's not like he doesn't contribute to it! He loves to goad Fernando, and constantly plays devil's advocate in "debates" between Fernando and Seb. He's also obviously the one that keep "accidentally" locking them in rooms and forgetting where the key is.

Sorry if this isn't very explanatory, I hope it gives a general idea to the type of character he is???? As always, let me know if you have any questions! I kinda struggled on what to write here because I'm finishing this at almost 8 am 😭 so I'm not sure if it's great or not. But basically you need to know: horse fucker who is generally breezy and carefree but also can be a bit of a menace to society every once in a while.

[rat-cigars]

Idk kinda random matt x fem!reader

CW: 18+, suggestive themes

(If y’all like this I can actually make it into a fic and give it a proper title)

Your phone's alarm rang to wake you up as you sighed and rolled over to turn it off. You groaned, rubbing your eyes as you finally saw the time. “Shit!” You threw the covers off yourself and hurriedly got ready to go to set.

You had been filming for a new movie ‘Baseketball’ or something like that, and you had been lucky enough to book a nice size role. The only downside was having to be there at the crack of dawn to get makeup and hair done. As you scurried out the door to get downtown, you had dropped your script in the rush. Not even realizing it as you headed down the street, already a few minutes late.

Fortunately for you, the traffic had been light and the parking situation hadn’t been too terrible. You scampered to the makeup trailer, robing up and taking a seat. In the chair next to you was one of your co-stars “Hey, what’s up with being late? Long night?” Matt smirked and teased you, rolling your eyes at him in response.

“Yeah right, we were up till 3 am last night, be thankful I even came in.” You teased him back giggling a bit. The past few days on set, you’d been asked to film some intimate scenes with Matt, this often caused you to have to do multiple takes. Sometimes it would be you that would laugh and other times it would be Matt cracking in the scenes.

“Well, did you hear what we get to do today?” Matt leaned back in his chair as the makeup crew came in to apply foundation and fix his curls up. “No, what?” You raised a brow, getting your own hair done as he let out a mischievous chuckle. “The Hot Tub Scene.” Your face heated immediately after he spoke. “Oh God,” you sighed, cringing at the thought of being topless in front of everyone.

“Hey, we can figure something out if you don’t wanna.” He offered, genuinely trying to help. “Well, I don’t mind under the water.. but I don’t know about being seen by everyone.” You looked over at him, raising a brow. “Well, we can have you in a bikini top if you want and then you can take it off or not.” He shrugged, “I just wanna make sure you’re comfortable.” You smiled at his response and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine with that.” You almost saw a pink forming on his own cheeks, but that might’ve been his makeup.

The tension felt thick as your conversation switched from talking about your scene to talking about your plans after work. After about an hour in the chair’s, the two of you headed to film. Matt walked off to go speak with Trey and other crew members as you entered the hottub, slowly sinking in and adjusting to the warmth. It was nice after having to be on your feet all day yesterday.

“Mind if I join you?” Matt sunk in next to you, scanning your face. His brows furrowed a little as he spoke again, “Are you sure you’re okay?” He smiled. “Of course.” You smiled back, reaching behind your neck as you undid your top.

“Oh shit!” He jokingly cheered, trying to hype you up as you blushed and rolled your eyes again. “Whatever, let’s get through with this.” You giggled, getting into position for the take. It was still a bit awkward but you were comfortable with Matt and trusted the production crew. You and Matt locked eyes again as you began the scene, his arms wrapped around your back, pulling you in for a kiss. You returned the affections, slightly sitting on his lap as he pulled away to speak to ‘Coop’. You bit your lip while he trailed more kisses on your neck and shoulders, half speaking.

“Cut!” The scene was called for a moment and you reset with Matt. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think you might actually like me.” You teased Matt, watching him bite his lip. “Oh whatever.” He chuckled, but you could feel his heart speed up with your hand resting on his chest.

[necros-writing-stuff]

Can I get some kinda Eden Fluff when it's period time? I'm having particularly shitty pre- cramps that are dropping me into a fetal position pretty quickly.

MORE EDEN PANICKING POVS HELL YEAH.

He's lost. Well and truly, lost. When you've spent most of your life living alone, and have never had a uterus or any of those parts associated with it, periods and how to handle them are alien.

His books are no help, it wasn't exactly a proper topic of discussion back when they were written, most mentions of it being something like "But alas, she was not with child as she had wished, for her bleeding time came as it always did."

So, when his darling spouse can barely get out of bed and is walking around hunched up like an arthritic 90 year old, his first (horrified) thought is food poisoning.

"Here, some bread." He offers it to you as you curl up on the bed once more after returning from the outhouse. "It helps."

You only look confused as you take it and nipple on the slice. "Bread? Really? I heard ginger helps, and a hot water bottle. Even orgasms. Never heard bread, though."

"... how are orgasms meant to help with food poisoning?"

Eden feels like a fool when you burst out laughing, clutching your tummy harder and letting out little "Ow,"s in between breaths.

"It's not food poisoning," you finally get out on a shaky breath, "it's period cramps."

Ohhhh. Yeah, he still doesn't understand.

"You get cramps when you have a period?"

"Well, yeah. Cause the uterus contracts and squeezes the blood out like a sponge."

He almost shivers at that. The thought of an organ just hurting when you've done nothing to the damn thing seems cruel.

"Do we have any painkillers?"

With a nod, Eden fetches his box of medicine he'd grabbed from the pharmacy. There's paracetamol, ibuprofen, codeine Bailey gave him cause the damn hospital in town requires a prescription. He lets you have your pick of which as he fetches some water to wash it down with.

"How long do they last?"

"Depends. Can be just at the start, can last a few days into it. Sometimes they get really bad and they're all the way through. And don't get me started on the lower back pain, either."

It can come with back pain? The animals in heat he sees don't seem to be in pain when they bleed. Why the hell do humans get pain?

"Oh, and sometimes you can get headaches too."

"I'm glad I don't have periods."

"You think this is bad, imagine giving birth."

Yeah, no. He's fine right now. He wants kids, sure, but thinking about labour sends his head reeling.

"Did they not teach you about this stuff in science class?" You reach for his hand and place it under your shirt, holding it to your tummy. "You're staying here by the way, no work today. Your hands are warm and it helps."

Eden almost protests before he remembers the food stores are stocked and there's enough firewood for the rest of the week.

"Like I said, I wasn't very good in school. Probably slept through that lesson." He climbs back into bed behind you, spooning you and keeping his apparently warm hands pressed to your stomach.

"... you said orgasms help?"

"Later," you giggle, "when it hurts a bit less. Right now I feel like I'll throw up on you if you jostle me around too much."

"So does the blood like... just drip down your leg? Like a wolf?"

"No, I bought pads, they're in my drawer. Might need to pick some more up, though."

"Oh."

He isn't quite sure he knows what a pad is.

[msommers]

ok obviously expanse au (whoever ur feeling) and apocalypse au + riya <3

mwah mwah thank you!! // send an au for 5 headcanons

expanse au [for lucky roll table winner] jorina

a belter born on ceres station. smth smth alienage in the human city of denerim can be a parallel to the belter city that's controlled by the UN. they're both also port cities. coincidence?? i think not. 

her family's hole (cannot believe i have to write that, instead of home like a normal person, to stay faithful to canon) was close to the station’s spin, just underneath the line of being considered too small for a family of 5 to live in. the two bedrooms were split between the parents in one and the three siblings sharing the second, and their living room had a slash in the wall that showed the native rock (never repaired, but her dad would eventually paint a mural there and blend it in). 

her mom was Definitely in the OPA, i don't even have to spend time considering it. wenna would have been a devoted member of the faction, raising her kids on all of the speeches about belter pride and the dignity they were owed, righteous in her anger over their continual mistreatment. so this means she absolutely died in a star helix raid on an OPA hideout that was suspected to be the hub of some illegal activity. it definitely wasn't and in the end it's just another for the tally of injustices done against belters 🤷‍♀️

i may be 9 books into this series and have consumed a bit more sci-fi media in general over the last few years, but my god do i still forget Jobs in these settings so easily. so after browsing a few google results, i'm thinking she'd have doubled down on studying/training to eventually become a chief navigator, with some secondary work in astronomy and geoscience. probably some just-above-standard mathematics and computers thrown in there too for good measure. she's a proper belter, they're always having to learn all they can just to adapt and survive.

she took on numerous small OPA jobs to make ends meet for the family, offered to her because wenna was well respected and nobody wants to see her family starve after she'd passed. jorina only took the ones that were simple and quick, and least likely to tie her to the organization. she believes in their overall values wholeheartedly, but didn't want to become dependent on their sporadic work for income,,,and also, yeah, maybe some of the more hardcore members scared her a bit.

apoc au riya (with classic zombies in mind)

thinks about victor's death translating to somebody finding him already killed and being torn apart by zombies. throws up, wails,, jumps off a cliff,,, at least she's starting off the journey w semi-equal trauma to canon 💜 

the girly who had too much faith in the system and thought everything would be contained in like a week so she didn't worry about preserving anything whatsoever. she's throwing a fit on day 8 because her phone is dead and she can't listen to her comfort music literally what's the fucking point anymore just take her out now-

wanna have her separated from family just for the drama of it. no solid plot reasons, i just wanna see riya having an abrupt and overwhelming breakdown like 2 months in when she realizes she can no longer lie to herself and has to accept she won't see her family again due to distance and no possibility of communication. i fear the daddy’s girl may not survive this, fellas.

unexpected tradeswoman when people realize that she's been hoarding beauty and personal care items since month 1 while normal people were stocking up the usual survival necessities. so fun picking on the spoiled girl for having her perfume in the apocalypse until you desperately want some shampoo and realize she's your only option atm.

kinda funny if riya's battle mage skills translate to her being surprisingly good at picking up combat skills against the undead in this au. 10 minute preparation speech from bastian as he's gearing up to show her how to use a pistol and she ends up sinking like three headshots on the first round, then hits him with the “what, like it's hard???” line. has to use an axe to cut her way out of a corner she was being backed into and she comes out without a scratch but absolutely raging over her chipped nails and the blood that is actively staining her $450 jacket.

[cdroloisms]

hot take: las nevadas four does not queue up a c!q redemption arc. las nevadas five makes some interesting forays in the direction of comeuppance but fails to make the narrative link between that comeuppance and, ultimately, any change. the reason for this is because the prison arc is inadequately integrated into ln4 and ln5. (i'm writing an ln5 essay rn and this is my prompt for you to join me in hell)

i think people who think LN was heading towards a c!quackity redemption arc were tripping fr 😭 like it's not that i would oppose the idea of c!quackity like, even heading in a different direction. but he didn't? he literally didn't. his interactions with c!slime were never examples of c!quackity realizing the dark course he was taking and changing his ways--if anything, they were a reason to double down? he makes a literal slime army in LN5 like. a literal slime army.

i feel like it comes from this misconception that c!Quackity's whole deal revolves around how he ~cares~ for people, and when he felt betrayed and whatever by the fiances and such then his heart froze over and he went for ambition instead. and therefore learning to care for something can unfreeze his heart and make him good again, or something (<- oversimplified). but c!quackity's deal isn't that he closed his heart off to love? like c!quackity's issue is that he's terminally insecure and therefore kinda terminally self-centered--even in c!karlnapity, he was frequently portrayed as being insecure as hell about c!karlnap and preferred when the attention was on him. when c!karl was freaking the fuck out at him in LN4, his immediate reaction to c!karl like having literal memory loss was to scream at him.

all of this is way oversimplified for the record but it's like.

like, c!quackity and c!slime isn't about redemption as much as it is giving c!quackity an opportunity. and what we largely see, honestly, is c!quackity caring about c!slime...and also grooming him to be like, the successor of his country, seeing him as something malleable that he could use to create another version of himself. it's not that c!quackity was necessarily seeking to harm c!slime, but was he being manipulative? i mean, yeah???

and yeah, for sure, LN4 and especially LN5 heavily suffer from a lack of the prison being properly addressed. the prison and c!dream in specifics haunts c!quackity throughout the entirety of LN--any conclusion to this arc no matter what direction c!Quackity took needed a proper resolution to the prison imo ???

like i don't hate purpled's revenge quest, but bringing it back to purpled-quackity-slime Again in LN5 after the conclusion of LN4 made that all hit a lot less hard. i liked the c!punz scene tbh and i also liked c!dream's ditching las nevadas, but that also feels a lot less impactful when he had like, five lines and barely a confrontation (fuck the internet connection there FR). like, c!Quackity rejecting change isn't bad in itself, but it feels like later parts of las nevadas emphasize his decisions less in favor of what's done to him, and what's done to him doesn't feel enough like a consequence of his own actions. furthermore, so much about Las Nevadas and the Prison (the revive book in specifics) has everything to do with self-centered ambition moreso than revenge, and it feels like that in particular gets kinda poorly addressed? like, the deal with c!Purpled doesn't have to do with revenge, he's not really taking revenge on Purpled--he is, however, ambitious and doing everything that he thinks will make Las Nevadas Great, and the whole thing with him still continuing doggedly on LAS NEVADAS!! even after alluvthat is much more of a commentary on his relationship with power and ambition than on revenge.

this is kinda scattered (like the LN finale LMAO!) but yeah. las nevadas is literally created as a response to imprisoning c!dream, the beginning of this arc happens in parallel to the beginning of his visiting the prison, so having c!dream play as small as a role as he did in the latter two streams really ends up hurting the arc as a whole when so much emphasis had been on c!quackity and ... violence? both outside of the prison and inside it. having c!quackity come to terms with the fact that he does in fact suck fell kinda flat without properly addressing the ways that he actually does suck...? anyway yeah not the best essay kat dorry