#Do they qualify as monsters of most of them are just guys?

[penofdamocles]

I can play Duel Monsters now and almost all my monsters have swords. 

[lgbtlunaverse]

I've seen a good number of people ask a question along the lines of "why do characters like Falin and hate Laios when they're so similar?" and i've also seen good analysis on the differences in how the touden siblings carry themselves that would, despite their shared traits, make a person gravitate to one more than the other.

But i feel like we've overseen one very central thing here.

People don't like Falin

Like... the average person in dungeon meshi doesn't like Falin. She was deeply ostrasized by her home village, in magic school she had zero friends before Marcille and the others generally saw her as strange and a bit offputting.

Characters like Namari and Chilchuck like her well enough but not necessarily more than any other member of their party, including Laios. Neither Kabru nor his party think much of her. The canaries don't give a fuck about her. Toshiro's retainers don't see her as anything else than the weird foreign girl their boss has a crush on.

The reason we think everyone loves Falin is because, despite all the indifferent side characters, the 2 most important and central characters of the story are Laios and Marcille. Who are NOT representative of the average attitudes to Falin! But necromancy georg number 1 and 2 are our main eyes into the story and they love Falin so much that it colours our perspective of the whole world.

The only side character who qualifies as liking Falin and not Laios is Toshiro (at least at first, as he ends the story on much better terms with Laios) and that says a lot about his character, with him drifting to the quiet Falin precisely because of her oddness but being both uncomfortable with and deeply jealous of Laios' much more open expression of that oddness. Because he's a repressed guy from a culture where etiquette is incredibly important.

But like I said, that's a specific aspect of him, not to the world at large.

Because there's also people that click more with laios than with Falin.

Kabru, for one, who is initially distrustful of laios but clearly also deeply fascinated by him and drawn to him.

Minor spoilers, and you don't have to read too deeply into this, because I don't think Kabru particularly dislikes Falin or anything. But it's interesting that when he talks about his distrust of the toudens in ch.32 he's talking about them both. But his big friendship declaration in chapter 76 is aimed squarely at Laios, he doesn't say "you and your sister" he says "you"

And Senshi!! He instantly clicks with Laios, well before he does so with anyone else in the party– who he also becomes friends with, it just takes a bit longer– specifically because they bond over their shared special interest in monsters!! Senshi is kind towards Falin and cares for her wellbeing, but he also... doesn't know her. The reason he is even here, helping to save her, is because he and Laios bonded over monsters and he wants to help his new friends out!

Of course, the theme of neurodivergent isolation is very present in Laios' story. I'm not denying that. He does turn people off, without meaning to and unable to fully understand why! But so does Falin. And just like there are people who like her despite of or even because of those traits, there are people who do the same with him.

In conclusion: "Average person loves Falin and hates Laios" factoid actually statistical error. Average person is neutral on both Falin and Laios. Georcille, Laiorg and Geoshiro, who live in the dungeon and think over 10,000 Falin-loving thoughts a day, are statistical outliers adn should not have been counted.

[hollowgears]

SHOWDOWN!

"If you're ever in the desert of the underground you better watch out! In the wild east lies a city full of criminals and outcasts who bow down to no one!"

Their sheriff is just as insane as the rest of them, always itching for a fight, the spotlight hog of the wild east, North star! If there's one person the scoundrels of the city listen to it's him, after all no monster can argue against a gun pointed at their face

Still- rumors say that the cruel sheriff actually has a heart behind his act, the monsters working under him act with a lot of respect, many rebels say that he gave them a home safe from the royal guard when no one else would...maybe there's still a heart of gold behind that rude exterior? Who knows!

Thoughts and extras:

Woah! I can't believe I finally got this done!

Starlo was a challenge to design for sure, his canon look is already so good! It was hard to make it different while still looking like something starlo could wear

My art has definitely improved quite a bit since starting this au (god I already feel like I need to redraw martlet!) and I wanted starlo to feel special as he was the first design that really...clicked y'know? I look at it and go: that's my boy!

Working on the au has also been a blast, and I can't thank you guys enough for the support, every reblog or fanart makes my days so much better

But enough about that! Let's talk of the star boy!

As you can see I struggled quite a bit with his outfit (this is not by far the first attempt I made at him) in the beginning I almost took his poncho away! The blasphemy!

Well I guess even now it doesn't exactly qualify as a poncho...but hey close enough

Starlo uses three guns, although only two of them are seen most of the time, in this au starlo actually gets a proper genocide fight, and that's when he pulls out the big guns! (Haha get it-)

He would also have a special type of attack, yellow bullets that cause bleeding (think like karma damage) however the number of these types of bullets he fires is completely dependent on your LV

I'll answer any questions y'all have about him on asks- trust me I'm always itching to talk about these silly guys...

Perhaps ceroba would be next? Although she will take a while, god my wrist needs a break! (And the pile of studying I have to do keeps growing larger...)

[boombox-fuckboy]

any podcast recommendations for guys Going Through It. im a sucker for whump and i’ve already listened to TMA and Malevolent sooo

Fiction Podcasts: Characters Going Through It / Experiencing the Horrors

Gore warning for most, here's 15 to get you started:

I am in Eskew: (Horror) David Ward is arguably the Guy Going Through It. Stories from a man living in something that very much wants to be a city, and a private investigator who was, in her words, "hired to kill a ghost". Calmly recounted stories set to Eskew's own gentle, persistent rain. The audio quality's a bit naff but the writing is spectacular. If you like the writing, also check out The Silt Verses, which is a brilliant show by the same creators.

VAST Horizon: (Sci-Fi, Horror, Thriller/Suspense Elements) And Dr. Nolira Ek is arguably the Gal Going Through it. An agronomist wakes from cryo to discover the ship she's on is dead in the water, far from their destination, and seemingly empty, barring the ship's malfunctioning AI, and an unclear reading on the monitors. I think you'll like this one. Great sound design, amazing acting, neat worldbuilding, and plenty of awful situations.

Dining in the Void: (Horror, Sci-Fi) So, the initial pacing on this one is a little weird, but stick with it. A collection of notable people are invited to a dinner aboard a space station, and find not only are they trapped there, but they're on a timer until total station destruction: unless they can figure out who's responsible. And there's someone else aboard to run a few games, just to make things more interesting. The games are frequently torturous. If that wasn't clear.

The White Vault: (Horror) By the same creators as VAST Horizon, this one follows a group sent to a remote arctic research base to diagnose and repair a problem. Trapped inside by persistant snow and wind, they discover something very interesting below their feet. Really well made show. The going through it is more spread out but there's a lot of it happening.

Archive 81: (Horror, Weird Fiction, Mystery and Urban Fantasy Elements) A young archivist is commissioned to digitize a series of tapes containing strange housing records from the 1990s. He has an increasingly bad time. Each season is connected but a bit different, so if S1 (relatively short) doesn't catch your ear, hang in for S2. You've got isolation, degredation of relationships, dehumanisation, and a fair amount of gore. And body horror on a sympathetic character is so underdone.

The Harrowing of Minerva Damson: (Fantasy, Horror) In an alternate version of our own world with supernatural monsters and basic magic, an order of women knights dedicated to managing such problems has survived all the way to the world wars, and one of them is doing her best with what she's got in the middle of it all.

SAYER: (Horror, Sci-Fi) How would you like to be the guy going through it? A series of sophisticated AI guide you soothingly through an array of mundane and horrible tasks.

WOE.BEGONE: (Sci-Fi) I don't keep up with this one any more, but I think Mike Walters goes through enough to qualify it. Even if it's frequently his own fault. A guy gets immediately in over his head when he begins to play an augmented reality game of entirely different sort. Or, the time-travel murder game.

Janus Descending: (Sci-Fi, Horror, Tragedy) A xenobiologist and a xenoanthropologist visit a dead city on a distant world, and find something awful. You hear her logs first-to-last, and his last-to-first, which is interesting framing but also makes the whole thing more painful. The audio equivalent of having your heart pulled out and ditched at the nearest wall. Listen to the supercut.

The Blood Crow Stories: (Horror) A different story every season. S1 is aboard a doomed cruise ship set during WWII, S2 is a horror western, S3 is cyberpunk with demons, and S4 is golden age cinema with a ghostly influence.

Mabel: (Supernatural, Horror, Fantasy Elements) The caretaker of a dying woman attempts to contact her granddaughter, leaving a series of increasingly unhinged voicemails. Supernatural history transitioning to poetic fae lesbian body horror.

Jar of Rebuke: (Supernatural) An amnesiac researcher with difficulties staying dead investigates strange creatures, eats tasty food, and even makes a few friends while exploring the town they live in. A character who doesn't stay dead creates a lot of scenarios for dying in interesting ways

The Waystation: (Sci-Fi, Horror) A space station picks up an odd piece of space junk which begins to have a bizzare effect on some of the crew. The rest of it? Doesn't react so well to this spreading strangeness. Some great nailgun-related noises.

Station Blue: (Psychological Horror) A drifting man takes a job as a repair technician and maintenance guy for an antarctic research base, ahead of the staff's arrival. He recounts how he got there, as his time in the base and some bizzare details about it begin to get to him. People tend to either quite like this one or don't really get the point of it, but I found it a fascinating listen.

The Hotel: (Horror) Stories from a "Hotel" which kills people, and the strange entities that make it happen. It's better than I'm making it sound, well-made with creative deaths, great sound work, and a strange staff which suffer as much as the guests. Worth checking out.

[fave-fight]

ROUND 1, MATCH 26

NO MAGIC, POWERS, OR WEAPONS

Dr. Coomer:

“i… don’t think he would win.”

“HELLO, GORDON!”

Floyd Leech:

“If he stays in human form and has no mage stones, he's just Some Guy, so he still qualifies. This mafia motherfucker would FIGHT. One time when faced with a monster, everyone else was like "oh no, we need magic" and he was like "nah, let's punch it" and then he DID. He hasn't used his pointy teeth in canon yet, but he could in theory bite someone if necessary, and it would hurt like a bitch. He'd fight dirty, I just know it. Let him punch everything and then get punched in the face, it'd be so great.”

“This guy is a menace who almost never uses weapons or tools to terrorize people. He's strong and athletic, smart enough to get what he wants on a whim, and squeezes contract-breakers until they faint on a regular basis.”

“NOTE: Floyd is a magic boy, but the “no mage stone” thing is there because it means he won’t be able to use magic, because people in Twisted Wonderland can’t without accumulating deadly magic toxin unless they have the stones. He’s also a merman, but he’d be in his human form. His human form does have pointy teeth (like the anime character kind) but I’m not sure if they have any real effect in game other than to intimidate people. Other people in this game have them too who are allegedly “human.” And again, plenty of “human” anime characters have them. Myfeeling is that they shouldn’t be disqualifying on their own.  This game is about magic boys at a magic school, but don’t worry, they get into traditional fist-fights so often it’s literally a randomly generated event that can happen in your Guest Room space. And Floyd Leech would never use magic in a fist-fight. He’d think that was “no fun” or “totally lame.” His signature magical spell just nullifies other people’s magic that targets him… so he can fight them with his fists. Since no one else here has magic, it’s totally irrelevant.  Also I’m not sure he uses fists so much as he does something to his opponents that he describes as “squeezing” them. I don’t know entirely what he means by that when he’s in his human form, but how much it scares the faceless NPC students indicates to me that he’s found a way to make it work. I do know it’s supposed to have a whole mafia vibe to it. Because his dad (and his childhood friend he lowkey sort-of works for) have real mafia boss energy. And Floyd’s basically decided that if he’s going to do this mafia shtick it’s Capo or bust. Floyd doesn’t always feel like doing stuff, due to his wildly unpredictable mood swings, but it honestly seems like the thing he can most easily be convinced to do is beat the shit out of people. During the “Beanfest” event (which was somewhat analogous to a paintball match), he insisted on throwing his weapon away and beating up aforementioned childhood friend even though the game was over and he’d already lost, just because apparently “once Floyd has decided to fight nothing can be done about it" and you just have to fight him if you want to get on with the rest of your day. He’d started out that event “not really in the mood” but somehow ended up spending the entire day beating the hell out of every person he ran into. In the camping event, when all of the boys were being picked off by a monster in the woods one at a time and were panicking because they didn’t have magestones or cellphones and therefore couldn’t defend themselves with magic or call an adult for help, Floyd was literally just like “why don’t we just beat the shit out of it?” And then he DID. And it was awesome.  But before you think he’s just some sort of dumb thug, let me assure you that Floyd is actually one of Night Raven’s most intelligent students. He has a photographic memory and can create valuable gems in alchemy class with minimal effort. Unfortunately, his mood swings make it impossible for him to maintain a decent GPA. But he’s actually a smart, tactical fighter. He’s just violent and unstable. Oh and if you’re wondering, his personality is generally abrasive and confrontational. He regularly starts arguments with the most volatile people at the school, just to mess with them and see where it goes because he’s bored.  Finally, if it sweetens the deal for anyone, Floyd would wear some killer designer shoes to this fight. Don’t worry, they wouldn’t be dangerous/weaponized. They’d just be expensive and custom made. You know, so he can get upset when someone scuffs them up.  Like for real, is there anyone who deserves to be in a crazy bitch fist-fight more than a moody mafia prince who’s secretly some sort of genius, but seems to only truly love fighting and designer footwear? If there is, I can’t think of them. ”

[morally-grey-girlbosses]

The top two characters will be eligible to proceed into the bracket.

Art used courtesy of various artists here on Tumblr! Annabelle Cane and Distortion!Helen were illustrated by @accidentalautomaton. Agnes Montague was illustrated by @andrastism. Gertrude Robinson was illustrated by @spiralstain. Check them all out, they're all fantastic!

Propaganda under the cut!

Annabelle Cane:

She is a boss. A girl boss even. I mean she does manipulate, that's her main thing and she's not above murder. She's also not above kidnapping protagonists boyfriend. Or having a cool arachnid form. She's living her best life. Also she has second most beautiful voice on the podcast and I love her

Helen Richardson / The Distortion:

Yes, she tortures and kills people, but so does everyone else, so why shouldn’t she enjoy it? She’s just as evil as the Archivist, but she’s fun and a girlboss. She just wants to have a good time, gossip, and drive people insane.

Agnes Montague:

she was created to be a messiah that would bring about the end of the world in fiery destruction but instead she ended up falling in love with some loser who worked at a coffee shop and going back on it. despite that she has killed hundreds to sustain herself. shes a really tragic character with complicated morals but the whole fandom made her into a poor little meow meow who has never done anything wrong and i hate that!!!!

Gertrude Robinson:

She is the definition of the trolley problem. Sacrificing those who trusted her in order to save the world, only to find out the world would have been safe either way.

Gertrude is a badass old lady who killed many people and many monsters, ate people’s fears and forced information out of them. She manipulated folks into doing what she needed, neglected the health of one of her closest allies, and stopped several apocalyptic rituals. She was only stopped because the guy trying to manipulate her into ending the world shot her in the chest three times. Morally gray queen, rest in violence maam

(This one was written by me as the pollrunner since I also submitted her!) She once dismembered a guy and dumped him in a sinkhole, destroying an entire town, in order to prevent the end of the world. She's dedicated to preventing various armageddons, and her favorite methods to do so involve plastic explosives.

[stormyoceans]

might be a weird question BUT if you had to put the couples/friend combos from we are into a different genre, what would they be and how do you think it would go?

it’s not weird at all, anon, this is actually such a fun and interesting question!!!!! which is why it took me some days to answer you, because i’ve probably thought about it way too much ;;;;;; i also wasn’t sure if you meant picking different genres for each pairings and friendship combinations, or for the ensamble cast in general, but in the end i went with the latter because otherwise this would have gotten way too long ;;;;;;;

ANYWAY. my first thought for this was some kind of mystery comedy!!!!!! something like only murders in the building, or scooby doo, or even ghostbusters, where the premise is ‘group of people not really qualified to do so looks into murders or paranormal activities’

i just can perfectly imagine peem, q, tan, chain, and pun establishing a paranormal investigation service and having the most bizarre encounters and chaotic adventures. toey and matt would be their very first real clients: they found a body somewhere and there were weird lights and noises all around and they can swear they saw some kind of creature not of this world floating above it but the cops didn’t believe them so they decided to go to peem’s friend group’s agency after seeing one of their ads on the internet. and guess who are the cops who are also investigating on the case and do not believe in the supernatural and are always clashing with peem and the others!!!!!!! why of course phum, fang, beer, and mick. well to be fair mick does believe in aliens, monsters, and ghosts, and beer is a ‘when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth’ kinda guy, so it’s mostly phum and fang costantly bickering with peem and tan and thinking their agency is a scam, at least at first. however things only get more complicated when phum and fang actually start believing them (and developing feelings [coughs]) because their father is like. a chief inspector or something and he wants to shut the agency down, which makes his relationship with phum even worse

the other genre that i think would fit we are really well and that would be incredibly interesting to explore due to the big cast and all the different relationships between the characters is survival thriller/horror!!!!!!! something like lost, or yellowjackets, or the wilds, where they end up stranded somewhere and have to find a way to survive and then weird shit starts to happen. im personally a sucker for this genre, for some reason i just love it a lot, and i think that when it comes to we are it would showcase all the dynamics really well. my only issue with this one is that i wouldn't want anyone to die, which does kinda take the edge off from it, so im having a bit of a hard time coming up with a plot that would work out

aaaand this already got incredibly long so last one im gonna mention just because im obsessed with it is PERIOD PIECE!!!!!!!!! i don't care if it's not gonna be historically accurate, just give me everyone dressed in suits and slow dancing and sexual tension so astronomical they could never make the characters meet indoors because having so much of that in such a confined space would kill everyone around them immediately!!!!!!!!!

[badassbutterfly1987]

Black Sun Rising ch. 15 live read

This is a long chapter with a lot to say so next few chapters will get their own post.

before we get to the fun stuff, the chapter starts with a teen on a magic drug trip. he's having a great time until something attacks his mind/soul? and he's unable to return to his body in a legitimately unsettling scene.

trio arrive in a dae (town?) called Briand to shelter for the night. Damien notes that there are protective sigils on the gates, some of them designed by Ciani who is no longer able to recognize it, which can keep out lesser monsters.

interesting to note that Damien also has an insecurity that he manages well: he is someone that needs to be active and feel needed, an aspect of himself that he's funneled into service of the Church and helping people.

note that he realizes the innkeeper at the place they're staying is upset about something, suspects it's a family matter, and immediately offers to help (you know how characters are sometimes compared to specific animals? he's a sheepdog to me). turns out she's the mother of the teen at the beginning of the chapter who is now in a coma. Damien examines him but can't identify the cause and his Knowing is actively prevented from reading the state of his soul and brain activity.

with how quickly he's gotten attached to Ciani, I really want to know his previous dating history. is this a pattern for him? is he one of those guys that starts contemplating marriage within a half year of dating? oh, he's going to pair delightfully with Tarrant!

Tarrant finally enters the scene and it's wonderful. Damien is quick to describe how attractive he is. "attractive to women", sure Damien, that qualifier definitely makes it less gay.

worldbuilding: most people don't carry guns (which I did not expect to exist in this world) because technology plus fear of failure or in general can either cause it to fail or outright explode. That Tarrant carries an UnWorked pistol (does a vampire really need a pistol?) marks him either as incredibly reckless or an Adept.

Possible favorite moment of the chapter: Damian tries to perform a subtle Knowing on him, is immediately blocked by a Shield, Tarrant notices and Damien realizes he's been noticed, and Tarrant is implied to get a better read on him and is just kinda amused

I can just imagine Tarrant thinking: "oh this is the priest Karril mentioned? this is going to be fun". Love the Vibes here.

Ciani decides to get to know him the old-fashioned way (by straight-forward conversation) and Senzei makes a dumb comment like "women, am I right?" which marks the second time a remark about women inherently being a certain way (in contrast to men) which I'm willing to be lenient on because it was the 90s.

interesting to note that despite Tarrant acknowledging he knew Ciani and wanted to help her, he doesn't acknowledge that her and Ciani doesn't recognize him. Either they hadn't met in person and only knew each other by association/communicated through letters, or Ciani's forgotten him and he's playing coy for now

the group chats but everyone is evasive (especially Tarrant) about what they're doing and why. progress is only made when the topic of the coma teen comes up and Tarrant offers to help.

to speedrun: Tarrant identifies the problem very quickly and Damien is both unsettled and intrigued by everything about him. The boy's mind/soul/sense of self was permanently separated from his body and is functionally dead. Tarrant misleads the mother into thinking it was an overdose from illegal drugs while admitting to the Damian it was something using dark fae, which he confirms is similar to what happened to Ciani though he doesn't specify that to Tarrant. Then Tarrant goes full "eh, he's practically dead anyway, might as well speed along the body's death" which Damien objects to on the grounds he doesn't want to kill an innocent life.

here's the thing: I get what the author is setting up; Damien's firmly set in his moral code while Tarrant has ruthlessly tossed that aside and their dynamic will include that contrast.

but Damian's trained as a healer, he has to know when someone is too far gone to be saved. This is the equivalent of a coma patient without brain activity on life support; instead of Tarrant deciding to take care of things himself, wouldn't it be interesting to have Damien talk to the boy's mother and get permission before doing it, essentially taking the responsibility for it? It would establish him as someone willing to make the difficult choice while still retaining his empathy (which he'll probably develop into but still) and since I skimmed the next couple chapters, I know Damien is going to be second guessing this scene and wondering if Tarrant was manipulating his perception; how much better (or worse for him) if Damien worried he'd been manipulated into killing an innocent that could have been saved?

they part ways after this point because while they're both heading north, Tarrant only travels at night and Damian's a bit too weirded out to bring him into the group.

[specialmouse]

THANK YOU i cant fucking stand cryptotheism and i hate how much i see them on my dash. i feel like they lump in asian culture and religion with like "occultism" ie "dumb mystic bullshit its okay to make fun of bc im an enlightened athiest." idc if you (general you not you specifically) believe in anything but its fucked to treat the beliefs and culture of asian people as like funny meme material. esp since its never genuine criticism of religious institution its always like acting like people practicing and believing in buddhism is as dumb as a bunch of white guys in the forties deciding to worship satan and do magic for shits and giggles. flying spaghetti monster level shit. if that makes any sense at all. i could be wording this much better but i cant stand it lmao

No dude its so infuriating i cant stand themmm i really cant! Idk im not the most qualified person on this but i think when youre learning about something all you wanna do is talk about it and thats fine but when its something like eastern religion/judaism/“foreign” cultural practices in general and youre a white westerner it can come off as really disrespectful to just joke about it all the time. As a hobby i dont think researching that stuff is bad at all but they treat it like fodder for their posts and it always leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[atokirina-tsuki]

@shit-hit-the-fan

here. i'll send yours when you reply to this post

Prompt: "Why?" [pronouns here] cried. "Why are you helping a monster?"

a/n: guys i’m sorry this is so bad, i promise i tried.

Darkness slowly peeled away from the edges of [name]’s vision, and a dingy light assaulted them in its place. She reaches up to rub her eyes tiredly, mistaking the dimness for the usual dark light of her bedroom. 

She is restrained, however, shackled to the wall, and the metal is cold against the soft skin of her wrists. She doesn’t know why she’s here or how she got here until memories start to wheedle their way into her mind. 

Her best friend’s hands pressed firmly against a white cloth, holding it to [name]’s mouth. The smell of chloroform works its way into [name]’s nose, and she blacks out without a second thought. 

[name]’s eyes widen, and panic drowns her, pooling in her eyes. She thrashes desperately against the cement wall but to no avail. She only succeeds in injuring herself further than the dark, bloody scratches pockmarked throughout her body. 

Of course, the door chooses this time to swing open, revealing two figures, one easily recognizable as [name]’s best friend. At least, she was once. [name] thought drugging your best friend and chaining her to a wall qualified as a good enough reason for a bestie breakup. 

The other figure, however, was tall and lean, vaguely masculine. As this figure steps into the light, his features are revealed. [name] knew this face. She had seen it in her nightmares. Her father. Her father, who hurt her over and over and over.

 [name] had escaped him though. She was sure of it. She went to the country to teach. Yes, that’s where she met her best friend. She had been free. 

Now she was anything but. 

“Just as toothless as ever, I see.” It’s [bff/n]. Her voice is a sharp stab to the gut, and tears well up in [name]’s eyes. But she doesn’t let them spill.

“Just as bitchy as ever, I see.” She bites back, her sadness growing teeth and claws. Her father's eyes darken as he watches the exchange. He strides over to [name], each step purposeful, and slaps her straight across the face. Her head snaps to the side, hair hanging over her face.

The teeth and claws don’t sheath. [name] glares up at her father, storm clouds bruising her face darkly. 

[bff/n] laughs, high and cold. 

Thoughts are swirling wildly in [name]’s head, and she backs down again. She knows she shouldn’t, but she’s honestly so broken. She doesn’t know what to do. And so, she looks up, ignoring her father, and asks the question burning in her mind. 

“Why?” she cried, “Why are you helping a monster?” 

[bff/n] struts toward [name], and bends down to her ear. “Because I’m one too.” She whispers darkly. 

Fear fills [name]’s eyes, as the person she loved most and the person she hated most walk out of her prison, together. 

[secretlilsis]

Pt 4

You were sitting on a cozy blanket outside in the beautiful garden with him. The sun was shining brightly illuminating the sheer vastness of the garden, the trees, the pathway that followed a square shape all around the garden long enough to qualify for a short walk. The beautiful collection of flowers and bushes all over.

You had finally mustered enough courage to actually go sit down and talk to him, not evading it any longer. He had suggested for you two to talk somewhere more relaxed, so now you two were sitting here. Surrounded by an incredibly idyllic feeling that couldn’t change how strange and disturbing your actual situation was.

He gently smiled at you, as if he had done no wrong or atleast wasn’t aware of how wrong all of this truly was and had been. But truly, his demeanour never had been frightening, he always had that lulling tone of voice that seemed to make you feel a false sense of safety.

He didn’t look like the kind of guy to silently collect women, entrance them and keep them trapped either. There was nothing sinister looking about him. If you were honest at first your impression of him had been of a rather mellow guy. He seemed like someone who couldn’t quite assert himself if pushed to him, but not quite like a coward either - more like someone to friendly to put his foot down. You wondered at this point how aware he was of how he appeared and how much of it he was actively using to do what he was doing. Appearing harmless could be an advantage esp if you weren’t afterall.

And even now that you had seen what he was actually like, you had rarely seen him make an expression that didn’t look friendly. All that shit about the eyes showing what a person truly was seemed to not add up with him.

He had pet you gently most times you woke up back in this place, had looked at you with that friendly expression that reached his eyes as well, even if he had been the reason your own mind and body were betraying you and you were incapable of escaping him.

His actions indicated a cold, calculating person with little regard for other people’s feelings but each time you were in his presence his entire demeanour projected that of a trustworthy person, more than that a person that sees you and understands you.

“You know, I’m not a monster.” He finally says, fishing a petal out of your hair. As if he had read your mind.

“I.. Guess it’s difficult trying to actually speak to you.. about what I’m thinking.” You admit, feeling uncomfortable with how familiar his small gesture felt, how close you felt to him even though you didn’t trust or understand him.

“Why?” He simply asked to get you to share yourself even if he was pretty certain he understood why just fine.

“Well.. I’m basically your prisoner. And I’m starting to accept I can’t escape just because of the things you put into my mind. Don’t you think it’s dangerous for me to try to understand this or get to know you as a person?” You explain with an almost shaking voice. That weakness being so audible irked you. Being on the Defense made you feel much stronger. This here, not so much.

He laughed a little bit, it sounded friendly enough but you were not amused.

“My dove, wouldn’t it just be fair? Afterall I know you very well too. You’ve told me everything about you whilst under trance. Don’t you want to even the playing field a little?” It sounded innocent, his tone was that of someone giving earnest advice. It felt manipulative though.

“I guess if you know me so well you’re aware of that it bothers me because it feels like giving up. I’ve tried running away a million of times, it didn’t work. Now I’m making nice to you instead.” You eyed him with that curious look in your eyes as you spoke.

He looked at you with such tenderness. You didn’t really get it or whether he wasn’t just acting.

“But I know how you’re structured, how you make decisions and I’ve never applied so much force you’d feel compelled to give into me out of sheer fear. You know, I might’ve put you in an mental prison of sorts, cut you open and put a few rules and restrictions into you.. but I didn’t really act destructively, did I? I’ve merely made you mine. So I know that we aren’t sitting here because you fear me, we aren’t here because of that at all.” He eyed you carefully as his words rained down at you. He put his arm around you and you were pretty sure he only did it to emotionally strip you naked even further. This should’ve felt invasive given how much you didn’t like what he was saying but instead the touch was soothing. Like your body intimately knew him to be someone to be relaxed around, like only your mind knew better.

“This shouldn’t feel that nice.” You simply said.

“You can’t give yourself that many times to someone like you did with me, enjoy it that much and not have your body respond with trust.” He explained whilst gently squeezing with his arm around you.

“Have I..? I literally cannot remember and that’s .. your fault. If it’s even true.”

“I suppose you wouldn’t be satisfied if I told you, under trance you agreed to this. So yes, I’m to blame for that. And to be honest I quite enjoy it.” His voice was so incredibly soothing but his words were not.

“Right, because you put me under trance god knows how many times and completely disregarded what a sane me would decide.” You sighed. “But what’s done is done. The situation is what it is. And given I’m not the only girl here, but they seem to even defend you.. how did this start?” You reminded yourself of why you were even talking to him, not to argue, not to fight but to understand him. Learn more about him.

To indulge genuine curiosity, which you still struggled to admit to yourself.

“I will tell you how it started if you promise me you really care to know and it’s not gonna be something you’ll try to use against me later.” His voice was smooth like water, even and balanced.

You hesitated. That wasn’t a proud moment for you, for sure. But you sighed once more and then nodded “Yes, I’d like to better understand you. So, how did this start?”

He looked directly into your eyes now “You didn’t say you won’t use it against me in the future.”

“You cant be serious.. come on. Fine. I won’t. I won’t use it against you.”

“You might not believe it but I’m actually making myself vulnerable here and I’d like not to be unpleasantly surprised for it later.” He explained softly. Maybe there was even something a little condescending about how he said it.

Sure. The guy that kept you here was the vulnerable one, you would’ve rolled you eyes but instead you tried to look nice enough and nodded.

“Well, I suppose it actually started in childhood in a way. This night piss you off, but I always had a pretty intense empathy - but also a very good control over said empathy. I always ruled that empathy and it never me. So, I liked girls feelings, experiences and thoughts. I liked them trusting me and confiding in me. I liked seeing how they are constructed, how they make choices and why. I suppose attraction has always played its part in it…” He paused a little bit as if the next part was going to sting a bit to admit, he looked uncomfortable. “But well.. If I fixated on someone specifically I truly wanted to know everything, and .. maybe I made the experience that people consider the extents I’d go to to understand creepy.. crossing boundaries.. and so on. And maybe I didn’t exactly care about that being the response I got.. I didn’t see anything wrong about it, really.” He watched your face for any sort of response.

You simply nodded, doing your best to hide any feelings or thoughts this produced in you. It wasn’t exactly judgement you felt anyways, curiosity maybe, feeling him as more of a person as he had been to you just seconds ago.

He continued without urging you to share your thoughts “and then.. I grew older and once I hit puberty I started to recognise I really also wanted to own the people I fixate on. Maybe by truly understanding them I both felt close to them and like they were mine but unless I could actually tangibly tie them to me it wasn’t enough, really. They had to never get to reject me breaking into their minds nor should they be able to leave. I crave that closeness and that intimacy more than you’d be capable of believing, it’s a rush. But owning someone.. almost goes hand in hand with it.” He looked quite insecure as he laid that bare to you. Like he had said, vulnerable.

“And you truly think you have the right to do this to someone?” You asked sounding as neutral as possible. It was an actual question, not judgemental.

“Yes.” He said. “I truly believe I have the right to do that. It’s instinctive to me, sure when it started to become truly romantic and sexual it got more complicated but even as a child I’ve never not been that way, really. And I refuse to believe the way I was born is wrong. I have a right to you, to the others. You belong to me, I’ve made you mine. And my attraction to emotion… to exploring the other.. makes me want to see you thrive and happy within that. So honestly, you’re benefitting from it as well. So how could I not think I’m in the right here?”

You looked at him, mustering him like he usually did to you. Trying your best to stay composed.

“Do you..” You hesitated for a second. “Do you generally maybe.. don’t feel guilty a lot no matter what you’ve done?”

He grinned, flashing his teeth for a second. “Trying to assess and categorise me as means to block your actual reactions to me out? Sure. I’ll oblige. You’re correct, I could most likely do things that I’d actually consider cruel without feeling guilty about it but I assure you that I have no interest in cruelty for cruelty sake.”

You nodded.

You were getting a better idea of him, as far as you could tell he was being genuine.

“You can label me pathological. You can find a diagnosis that would fit, I’m sure. But you’ve given me more than you think even as you were trying to guard your actual reactions to me safely inside you. And I am happy, very happy that you feel that way about everything I’ve just trusted you with.”

That bothered you a little.

“I know how to read you even when you think you’ve tucked it all away successfully.” He told you as clear as the blue blue sky above you two.

His hand wandered to your throat now, very slowly - he put it around it very gently. For some reason you had to tear up a little and you weren’t quite sure why. You couldn’t identify that feeling, or maybe you didn’t want to.

“I know you have so many more questions, don’t you? But I don’t think I want to answer all of them today, it’s such nice weather.” He casually explained as his hand gently squeezed your throat.

You didn’t feel exactly threatened by it, he didn’t look angry or hateful doing it and his grip wasn’t violent either.

He just looked at you with his hand around your throat.

“I know you like your defenses, my dear. You like your anger, you like the walls you build around you. You like it. And I respect that you find strength and enjoyal in what your experiences made you into. The distrust. The distance. You don’t see it as something unfortunate that was done to you, no, you’re attached to it. But I also know that you also crave the flip side of this. You crave surrender, you crave being owned. Guarded. Held. I would never take something from you that matters that much to you, and we both know I could’ve removed that defensive part if you.. but I understand why you like it. But now my dear, I’d like you to surrender to me and give me what is mine.”

You struggled with not moaning against the grip on your throat that was now getting stronger. He looked at you. Looked into you, maybe.

You conciously wanted to reject him. You wanted to tell him how wrong he was, even if he wasn’t. You wanted to attack him, dismantle him and make him doubt himself.

He looked at the few tears running down from your eyes as he choked you.

„It’s your choice, you know. You can let go and let the trigger I implanted into you that takes all of that struggle away, that lets you fall into true surrender take over. Or you can reject me, tell me to stop, which I would, my dove. I know what’s inside of you and I know sooner or later you’ll accept that you are mine, deeply and undeniably. I have no need to force it.“

You looked at him with outright anger now.

You felt powerless and helpless and you knew, you knew better than this.

As interesting as he sounded.. There was just no fucking way.

You felt an intense cocktail of emotions, knowing full well that there was something deeply wrong with him - but knowing wasn’t believing. You knew it as a dry fact. But it wasn’t truly representative of how you felt for him.

Then you decided to give in.

You liked how it felt when you decided to do that. You liked how easy it was. You liked it. You didn’t really need to feel conflicted here, did you? Sure there was no natural way to push all these very reasonable doubts and angry feelings away - but you heard it like a whisper inside your head and if you focused on it, it got louder.

Just give in.

You could feel this state he had implanted into you take over with your permission.

You felt all of the anger, the need to defy him melt away within seconds.

Your tears stopped.

That smile he had conditioned you to wear once you entered that state slowly formed.

Your thoughts got fuzzier and warmer. You could feel his control all over your brain.

You couldn’t see him as anything but your master.

„Yes, master.“ You said automatically without really meaning to. Just how he had ingrained into you.

He let go of your throat just to be looked at with utter adoration from your side.

„Who do you belong to?“ He asked.

The question that usually would’ve given you a headache and given you mixed feelings now sounded so simple.

„I belong to you.“ You said ecstatically.

He started to kiss the throat he had just wrapped his hand around so tightly, slowly and sensually.

„And, do you think anything I’m doing here is wrong?“ He asked.

„Of course not, master. I love it more than anything. I love love love it! It’s the best that could’ve happened to me.“ You say. It’s like every part of you that is doubtful or critical is simply cut from your awareness. You speak from a place you’ve never heard yourself say out loud before. But you can’t question it, really. You simply lack that capacity in your current state.

He smiles proudly. „And did anything I tell you turn you on?“

„Almost all of it, master. I’m so happy you’re the way you are. I could get addicted to learning more about you, master.“ You sound so happy and fullfilled.

„You don’t feel like there’s something wrong with me?“ He asks patiently whilst starting to massage your breasts through your dress. Kneading them nice and evenly.

„No, you’re perfect master. So incredibly perfect. Im so happy you found me. You’re even more perfect after learning all of this about you..“

You rub your thighs together to create friction, clearly impatient. You want him to fuck you already but you’re also going to let him decide the pace of this. You’re going to let him be in charge. As you should.

„It’s quite beautiful to see you like that. And very very flattering as well. You truly love that I’m like this don’t you?“ He turns you on your stomach and pulls your dress up and panties down with two swift movement, you look like you’re in a daze and just let him do whatever blissfully.

„Yes master, I love that you’re like that.“

„You know, concious you would tell me this is wrong to think but like you’re now.. you get it don’t you? In your normal state you might’ve actually decided to fuck me with all these mixed feelings in the way and you would’ve hurt yourself on me doing that. But no matter how rational it sounds to call having installed the state you’re in now as wrong.. you’ll never take any damage from this. You desire this. You’re experiencing this without any filter that would make this sting. And your subconscious isn’t concerned with what you believe is right or wrong or should or shouldn’t be.. only with what is.“ He calmly explains as he spreads your asshole with his hands.

You twitch at his words and touch, eagerly.

„I love when you talk like that, master. I love it. I love you. I love this.“

„And I love your honesty, esp. when you can’t help it. And now be good and let me deflower your asshole.“

He then thrusts one finger into your asshole that is wet enough by how much your pussy has been overflowing.

Then he adds a second finger and you just take it. You feel how tight your asshole is around his two fingers. But you’re also excited that he’s going to fuck you very soon.

„You’re gonna let me fuck your asshole, mh?“ He asks more to tease you, not in the now, but he can gauge how you’ll feel once you’re back to normal - this time without having blacked out - so far.

„Of course I am, master. You literally own me. And I can’t think of anyone I trust more to do it right.“ You say blissfully aware of that he was teasing future you.

He finally pulls his fingers out and starts pressing the tip of his dick against your asshole, entering it. You moan loudly and uncontrollably. The sensation turns you on.

„Who do you belong to?“ He asks once more.

„To you.. master. To you..“ You voice sounds sexed out, barely coherent. Rich with anticipation.

„And what do you think would you say to me in your normal state about this?“

„Hey, that’s not fair, master.“ You protest playfully „I’m sure I’d know I’m yours even then.. but I’m not sure I’d say it as readily.“

„Then let this be a reminder.“ He exhales, then he pushes his full length into your asshole, slowly to make sure you can take it but without ever pausing. You’re so deeply tranced and relaxed that his dick goes inside of you so easily, stretching your aushole as he does so.

You moan your little heart out as you take him all inside of you, it feels intense and stimulating.

He starts to fuck your ass with hard precise movements and you almost start to drool on the blanket beneath you two. It feels unlike anything you’ve experienced before. You hadn’t expected anal to feel that pleasureable. But it was mind wreckingly good.

Then he suddenly pulled out, you could physically feel yourself stay open.

You gasped.

„What does it say about you that you want my cock back inside that little asshole of yours so badly, mh?“ He demanded to know.

„That I love it when you fuck me there?“

He looks at you satisfied even though you cannot see it as he is behind you.

„Any other suggestions?“

„Mhh.. I guess it means all my holes were made to have your cock in them. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t feel that good if that wasn’t the case.“

He plunges himself inside your asshole again without warning, your hands dig into the blanket beneath you as you practically moan so loud it might qualify for a scream.

Master is filling up your senses.

Master is ruling over your body.

Master feels good. Master feels incredible.

He puts a finger on your clit from behind you as he feels himself cumming, to time it just right to force you to climax as he does. You scream loudly as you orgasm and every muscle tenses before you collapse, you feel his cum shoot into you.

After a few seconds he pulls out and you feel some of his hot and sticky cum leak out of your asshole.

First time you had your ass fucked and you got creampied there directly.

He turned you back around so be could see your face, you looked blissed out. He gently kissed your forehead.

He pulled your dress back down and then got up, lifting you into his arms „I consider you’ll want to be alone to process this once you snap out of it..“ he explains as he starts carrying you back inside.

He gently places you on your bed and even tucks you in, gently.

„ .. Just remember whatever you’ll feel once you come to it.. I own every thought and feeling you have. I own your confusion. I own your defiance. I own your ego. As much as I own your blissful obedience. And that asshole I just stretched out with my cock.“

He looks at you for a second, then he leaves and closes the door behind him.

Leaving you to slowly get out of the trance.

[princess-of-the-corner]

I don't watch the show I just read fic and summaries but why does lila exist if TA decided chloe was just a cacklingly evil monster willingly working with hawkmoth. that's Lila's niche

So like.

THEORETICALLY

If ML was a show that actually had a solid plan and followed through on said plan instead of retcons out the ass.

Lila was introduced in Season 1(Volpina) just a short time after we got an episode showing that 1.) Chloé does care for her few friends, even when they fight 2.) Ladybug, a Hero, is the person whose words mean the most to Chloé and is someone she aspires to be like, and 3.) she can learn and apologize and make amends.

Those Chloé things were set up for Season 2 and 3, where we'd learn more about why Chloé is Like This™(her mother's abuse and father's emotional neglect and enablement), along with her working to become a Hero and join the Good Guys and slowly but surely become a better person. Which she was doing! Not perfectly, of course, but she was making progress. While she still lashed out, she apologized and fixed it afterward. She did great as a Hero and told the Villains to go fuck themselves when they tried to recruit her. When there was an emergency and she was the most qualified person to handle it, she stepped up to the plate and did her job and helped save people.

With this shift, we needed someone to fill Chloé's role as an antagonist in the Civilian Plots. Which is where Lila comes in. But because it would be annoying/obvious if they just made her another Alpha Bitch who comes in and starts bullying Marinette, they made her the liar and manipulator where all the class thinks she's sweet except for Marinette because she's the victim of the bullying.

This manipulator thing, plus her joining with Hawkmoth, is not just a replacement for Chloé once she went Hero, but an escalation of the stakes. It's harder for Marinette to fight back against someone who isn't openly hostile. It gives Gabriel an advantage because he has a minion to cause chaos.

However.....

Whatever happened happened. And they not only took away all of Chloé's development and her arc, but attempted to retcon her into being worse than before. And now they had all this stuff with Lila that they couldn't just put on Chloé because they wanted to just make Chloé mean and dumb, she can't be the master manipulator that becomes a new Villian, so they have to stick with both of them and making Lila the actually competent one.

[mllemaenad]

The Magnus Protocol: Pet Project

This one seems to be about the illusion of control in almost the opposite direction to Futures. In Futures you were looking at someone who was obviously deluding themselves from the start. Even without the supernatural aspect, Darrien's little plan was almost certainly going to crash on him eventually – and with it, he was always, unquestionably, monster food.

Alyssa, though, has reason to think she knows what she's doing. This is her job, and the first half of the statement is just a cool, competent assessment of what she finds, and what she needs to do about it. It's only when the situation turns weird that she finds herself flailing and out of control.

What's especially interesting, though, is the inference, never outright stated, that maybe she should have known how to deal with this. She just missed the signs and treated it as an ordinary squirrel problem, rather than a supernatural snake-vomiting problem.

Chester/Alyssa Dad, this is for you, for everything you taught me, everything you shared. I need you to know what happened and I know you’ll believe me. Don’t blame yourself for not answering the phone. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. – The Magnus Protocol: Pet Project

First, the implication that Alyssa's father is somehow especially qualified to understand what has happened to her, and the fact that she seems to have called him first when she knew she was in trouble. The police are her fallback option when she couldn't get through to her dad. And honestly, what are the police going to do, even when they get there? She's already infected.

That was such an odd little piece that I hopped over to the wiki to see if there were any Becks I had forgotten in The Magnus Archives. There don't seem to be, but a) Beck could be Alyssa's married name, or she could simply have a different name to her father for other reasons or b) this is a new universe, so it's entirely possible this is the introduction of an entirely new dynasty of monster experts.

The whole thing feels like something of an homage to the Jordan Kennedy and Jane Prentiss situation, though: the exterminator turning up to a normal job that abruptly turns into a horror story; the whole range of potential contaminants in the place (rodents, mosquitoes, spoiled food, ants); the spread of infection by a scratch, like poor Harriet; the itching; someone basically dissolving into an animal mass.

I don't necessarily mean that there's the same kind of entity at work here – presumably the ones in this universe don't work exactly the same way – but the similarity is nevertheless striking.

So, what then? Well, the noteworthy thing about Jordan Kennedy is that he eventually came to work for the ECDC.

Jordan Kennedy At the time, I didn’t really connect the two. I was too busy trying to comprehend what had just happened. And when trucks from the ECDC showed up to put me in quarantine, it slipped my mind entirely. They were surprisingly forthcoming about Jane Prentiss and what had happened, and after an extensive debriefing, they actually offered me a job. Apparently, disease control and pest control often go hand in hand, and I’ve been working for them since. Most of the job’s been mundane – a couple slightly weird, but nothing like those two. – The Magnus Archives: Pest Control

In The Magnus Archives, the problem of monsters and eldritch gods was at least well enough understood that major institutions had some mechanism to deal with it, even if it wasn't discussed openly. Everybody needed at least one person on staff who wouldn't freak out if some many-headed sharp-toothed horror careened down the corridor toward them.

In The Magnus Protocol we know that (for good or ill) the OIAR fills a similar function, and presumably there are other examples we haven't yet got to. Should Alyssa have known about this, because her dad was the guy who won't freak out?

Chester/Alyssa When I unsealed the shop floor, the shopkeeper seemed obsessed with continuing his sales pitch to the pair. He was adamant that they purchase a snake and pretty much ignored me entirely. It made me a bit uneasy, so I hung back to watch. Thinking back, I should have noticed he was… off. – The Magnus Protocol: Pet Project

Second, Alyssa berates herself for not noticing that Anthony Walker was "off". But the thing is ... she did notice.

Chester/Alyssa Requested shop to be cleared of customers for full inspection. Client’s agitation increased, presumably due to business worries, resulting in a brief altercation. Kept mentioning “his burden” and grabbing at my sleeve. Received slight scratch by accident, but no escalation or violence, so no need for full incident report, although anyone following up should be advised there may be a mental health problem. – The Magnus Protocol: Pet Project

Things Alyssa noticed about Walker:

He had a bunch of weird scratch/bite marks on his neck

He said things that made no sense ("his burden")

He was excessively agitated about the whole situation, which, from Alyssa's side of the job, boiled down to "squirrel got in through open window"

He became violent when Alyssa requested that he ask the customers to wait outside

Alyssa saw all of this, but attributed it to mundane problems (mosquitoes, money woes, mental illness). Is the suggestion perhaps that she had all the information she needed to make a very different kind of assessment? That "off" does not mean "mentally ill", but rather "infected with something supernatural". And had she put it all together earlier, would she have perhaps called her father (or someone else with the right toolkit for this) much, much earlier?

She didn't seem to recognise The Magnus Institute, though, although it would still have been up and running when this happened.

So whatever Alyssa should have known, she got it from a different source.

And it's all relevant because, when Chester finishes speaking, it becomes apparent that he was probably telling this story to Gwen.

Sam (quietly, to himself:) No. No. Could be any institute. Gwen The letters, you mean? Sam Jesus! (catches his breath) Don’t sneak up on people like that! Gwen (putting bags down) I didn’t “sneak up.” It’s not my fault if you’re distracted. Sam When did you get here? Gwen Just now. (swivels on the chair) Seems pretty straightforward to me. Snakes, not sure what the collective noun is, horde, maybe? Cross-link with infection, too, probably. I wouldn’t have thought the letters have any bearing on the classification. – The Magnus Protocol: Pet Project

She's clearly been there for most, if not all, of the case: she knows how to classify it, and she can state with confidence which bits are relevant and which aren't.

Chester's got a point to make, here, it seems. Gwen, too, knows her job. It's a point of pride with Gwen that she is very good at reviewing and classifying the cases.

Alice Zombies would have been fine. Gwen A) no it wouldn’t, and B) there’s at least three pages of subclassifications for zombies. He’d be here for hours. Alice And I’m guessing this dedication to detail is why you’re so behind? Gwen It’s why I have the highest accuracy rate in the office. – The Magnus Protocol: First Shift

She's also an old hand at the OIAR, and aware that there is something, well, off about the place.

Gwen What do you think we’re actually doing, here at the O.I.A.R.? Alice Apart from mortgaging our mental health for a wage packet? Gwen We’ve both been here long enough to know this place. We’re not doing good. We’re not just – sifting random data. There’s something wrong here. Alice What are you getting at? Gwen You never wonder what the point is? Who benefits from all this awfulness? – The Magnus Protocol: Getting Off

She's been meeting with Externals, and people have died. And in this episode, specifically, Lena is unhappy with her. What has Gwen done now? It sounds as though Chester is saying that Gwen has all the information she needs to make a determination on something – the OIAR, the Externals, monsters in general. She knows all the classifications, and their sub categories. She's seen the monsters with her own eyes.

And maybe, just maybe, it's important that her last name is Bouchard.

Then there's Alice. And ... well, I hope they go somewhere with her soon. I mean, I get it. This is deliberate. It's not simply that she deflects with humour, it's that she's obnoxious about it. Her jokes tend to be slightly cruel, or at least mocking. She's overbearing with her wit. I honestly don't find it charming at all. And I don't think I'm supposed to.

People do small talk with Alice, or some light banter, but they don't really talk. If the conversation goes in a direction she doesn't like she'll turn it into a bit. And then you have to put up with the bit until she gets tired of it ... which is frankly exhausting to contemplate. You also have to put up with this at 3 AM because you work a night shift. So best not to risk it.

The trouble is that it works. I also tense up when people try to talk to Alice, because it's going to be awkward and irritating.

It's a contrast with John back in The Magnus Archives. He was undoubtedly also quite obnoxious, specifically in the early seasons, but you spent a lot of time in his head, so the process of understanding why was smoother. We never hear Alice's internal monologue – only the rubbish she talks to avoid saying anything.

I don't mean that I'm unsympathetic. Alice is a main character, she seems to be in some distress, and she's intriguing in many ways. Just ... ohhhh I hope they do something with her soon, or I'm just going to die of second hand embarrassment.

[woodswolf]

🌿🏜️🔪🪲?

writer's truth or dare ask game

🌿 ⇢ give some advice on writer's block and low creativity

honestly? just don't be afraid to step away. sometimes you're not in the right headspace for a project and that's okay. work with your brain, not against it - whether that's on a different WIP or just taking a break for a while. sometimes this means the WIP sits for a little while. sometimes this means you abandon it. roll with the punches, don't dodge into them.

like for example, i've been having One Of The Weeks Of My Life at my job recently and just feeling really burned out and depressed on the Major Fucking Crunch Time this project is getting into. i didn't feel like working on chapter 5 when i was feeling that terrible, but i was able to channel some of that energy into a side story. i've barely started it as of yet, but it's got a lot of potential, has required a lot of research, and just. it's helped burn off a lot of the negative emotion (because it involves a very similar kind of negative emotion and focuses on a kind of burnout recovery. lol)

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

long analysis comments are like the #1 kind of comment to get in my good books. i get an excuse to talk about Fun Details whether intentional or not and just generally feed information to someone who isn't fully aware of all of the complexities of a project yet (usually my partner lol)

however.

i personally consider that the highest honor i could ever receive would be recursive fanfiction. fanart as well, yes, but fanfiction in particular. it's more or less a reflection of my own process in a way; i write a lot of recursive fanfiction relative to my output, but i only write recursive fanfiction about fanfiction that really, really resonated with me, or that often were incredibly formative to me in their own specific ways. it's not enough for it to be a good story - it has to change something about me, alter my perspective or open my eyes to an entirely new world. often these end up feeling like (or just being) treatises on a particular subject; there are fics on hope, on grief, on forgetting, on becoming monsters. and it's just.... it's powerful.

i could link all of these if anyone is curious.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

honestly all of the research i've done for DLD and other fics in the DLDCM (Dogs Leading Dogs Cinematic Multiverse) qualifies as really weird. outside of the semi-standard fanfiction-writer fare (e.g. symptoms of various injuries, or how to identify certain types of injuries like with that shoulder test), there are two broad categories of "what the fuck" research that i've gone into very extensively.

the first category, which i keep coming back to over and over, is all of the speculative biology shit. basically NONE of it is going to come up until more than halfway through catch/cradle at minimum, but at this point ive probably put close to ten hours of research into figuring out what the fuck is wrong with these things. (and that's just the research, not the processing that shit afterward.) i know what this guy breathes. i don't know exactly how his metabolism works, but i do have a general outline that seems approximately sound, and have a general principle for how it interacts with other metabolisms. i don't just know HIS metabolism by the way, i know like three other components' metabolic interactions and life cycles and to some extent their histories. and then we get into all of the other lore shit that is Very Present and Very Real and Very Probably Isn't Going To Be Written Down In Any Fics and also isn't strictly research based as much as vibes based but it doesn't have to be research based because my source is i made it the fuck up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but tl;dr there's a CRAZY amount of various kinds of biology lore and 90% of it is never going to see the light of day most likely

the second category which has generally come about more recently is primitive / historical technology. generally just a lot of how you would do certain things - such as making paper, or refining clay, or working metal or glass - if you were starting from (almost) nothing.

additional shoutout to when i did some brief research on akkadian for one of my recurive fic projects, that was fun but really overwhelming and i ended up not finishing it myself lol

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

from chapter 5:

The ship doesn’t need any additional explanation. “I’ll set the course,” it says. Brief and to the point. He can’t help but appreciate that right now. The controls shift ever-so-slightly under his hands as they start following a slightly different autopilot route. It’ll set them up for the approach path they discovered on the second day — one that doesn’t cut through as many of the giant trees.

thanks for the ask!! :D

[tciddaemina]

Putting absolutely no limits on it, what does your ideal dragon look like?

(Not in like a monster fucker way, not asking about the most smashable dragon, just like generally as a fantasy creature... That is the same thing innit... Shutting up now.)

😂😂😂😂😂

lol the fact that even has to be qualified is proof we live on the right side of the internet.

i mean, yeah, we've seen the results of me designing a dragon recently in with the tail of the snake (which, also, is a fic that is your fault tenshi, for sending me that ask. so like congrats, a long ass fic of dragon smut now exists entirely bc of you). with that one i went with a wyvern type design, black, with your traditional enjoyable horns and long tail.

idk tbh, i vibe a lot of the different varieties of dragon. eastern style dragons are very fun and have their own charm (they're so graceful and cool). but also i do enjoy a good bulky western-style dragon. if i had to say one thing tho, it is that i admittedly do prefer wyvern to traditional four legs + wings dragons. idk, they just feel a little more grounded and interesting, because its more similar to how most legs+flying irl animals are shaped.

(this guy is pretty peak aesthetics tbh - sourced from Jay Choi on ArtStation)

absolutely though, whatever dragon it is has to have horns. there's so many fun shapes, and they add so much character. generally also i enjoy dragons that look quite predatory, with proper claws and a dangerous sort of look. sue me, i like them more as intimidating forces of nature than as being cutesy or regal and friendly. when i enjoy a dragon most is when they legit look like a dangerous carnivore, like they hold themselves with that animal grace. the same sort of feeling as seeing a tiger at the zoo - impressive but also like, holy shit would not want to be in there with that

also fun - the elden ring ancient dragons are very cool, with their six wings and red lightning. like those are some good fucking dragons. (shh, i definitely don't have a eventual fic idea about elden ring and dragons and also sentient swords)

anyway yeah, to put this all together. eastern long-boi or wyvern style dragon + horns and proper claws + dangerous looking, predatory, and graceful + yeah okay i am a fan of some good black and red

[fave-fight]

ROUND 2, MATCH 44

NO MAGIC, POWERS, WEAPONS, OR ADDITIONAL HELP FROM OTHERS

Isabelle:

“She's in Smash, also she's best friends with Doom Guy”

“She's probably got some pent up rage about being stuck with mayor duties, especially when the player neglects the games. She's cute and this tournament need more women. I'm so happy someone else thought about her, too.”

“If she can hold her own in Smash she can hold her own here. She deserves the chance let loose too. Let her wreck some people!”

Floyd Leech:

“If he stays in human form and has no mage stones, he's just Some Guy, so he still qualifies. This mafia motherfucker would FIGHT. One time when faced with a monster, everyone else was like "oh no, we need magic" and he was like "nah, let's punch it" and then he DID. He hasn't used his pointy teeth in canon yet, but he could in theory bite someone if necessary, and it would hurt like a bitch. He'd fight dirty, I just know it. Let him punch everything and then get punched in the face, it'd be so great.”

“This guy is a menace who almost never uses weapons or tools to terrorize people. He's strong and athletic, smart enough to get what he wants on a whim, and squeezes contract-breakers until they faint on a regular basis.”

“NOTE: Floyd is a magic boy, but the “no mage stone” thing is there because it means he won’t be able to use magic, because people in Twisted Wonderland can’t without accumulating deadly magic toxin unless they have the stones. He’s also a merman, but he’d be in his human form. His human form does have pointy teeth (like the anime character kind) but I’m not sure if they have any real effect in game other than to intimidate people. Other people in this game have them too who are allegedly “human.” And again, plenty of “human” anime characters have them. Myfeeling is that they shouldn’t be disqualifying on their own.  This game is about magic boys at a magic school, but don’t worry, they get into traditional fist-fights so often it’s literally a randomly generated event that can happen in your Guest Room space. And Floyd Leech would never use magic in a fist-fight. He’d think that was “no fun” or “totally lame.” His signature magical spell just nullifies other people’s magic that targets him… so he can fight them with his fists. Since no one else here has magic, it’s totally irrelevant.  Also I’m not sure he uses fists so much as he does something to his opponents that he describes as “squeezing” them. I don’t know entirely what he means by that when he’s in his human form, but how much it scares the faceless NPC students indicates to me that he’s found a way to make it work. I do know it’s supposed to have a whole mafia vibe to it. Because his dad (and his childhood friend he lowkey sort-of works for) have real mafia boss energy. And Floyd’s basically decided that if he’s going to do this mafia shtick it’s Capo or bust. Floyd doesn’t always feel like doing stuff, due to his wildly unpredictable mood swings, but it honestly seems like the thing he can most easily be convinced to do is beat the shit out of people. During the “Beanfest” event (which was somewhat analogous to a paintball match), he insisted on throwing his weapon away and beating up aforementioned childhood friend even though the game was over and he’d already lost, just because apparently “once Floyd has decided to fight nothing can be done about it" and you just have to fight him if you want to get on with the rest of your day. He’d started out that event “not really in the mood” but somehow ended up spending the entire day beating the hell out of every person he ran into. In the camping event, when all of the boys were being picked off by a monster in the woods one at a time and were panicking because they didn’t have magestones or cellphones and therefore couldn’t defend themselves with magic or call an adult for help, Floyd was literally just like “why don’t we just beat the shit out of it?” And then he DID. And it was awesome.  But before you think he’s just some sort of dumb thug, let me assure you that Floyd is actually one of Night Raven’s most intelligent students. He has a photographic memory and can create valuable gems in alchemy class with minimal effort. Unfortunately, his mood swings make it impossible for him to maintain a decent GPA. But he’s actually a smart, tactical fighter. He’s just violent and unstable. Oh and if you’re wondering, his personality is generally abrasive and confrontational. He regularly starts arguments with the most volatile people at the school, just to mess with them and see where it goes because he’s bored.  Finally, if it sweetens the deal for anyone, Floyd would wear some killer designer shoes to this fight. Don’t worry, they wouldn’t be dangerous/weaponized. They’d just be expensive and custom made. You know, so he can get upset when someone scuffs them up.  Like for real, is there anyone who deserves to be in a crazy bitch fist-fight more than a moody mafia prince who’s secretly some sort of genius, but seems to only truly love fighting and designer footwear? If there is, I can’t think of them. ”