#He has different skillsets.

[ohkate]

Mickey Milkovich is not dumb.

[goddessofroyalty]

so i remember you mentioning how viktor might have a brief moment of 'oh god am i marrying my dad' about the similitudes between jayce and vander (of which there arent really that many) and then hes just like 'no im good'. but i can see him heavily pregnant, tired and p much being angry and/or even lashing out at everything and everyone and having a brief moment of 'oh god im turning into silco' (which, again, not true LOL but be nice to him his sense of perception is fucked)

It's a very surface level reading of the both of them to say that they are just Vander and Silco repeated. But at the surface level they kind of are (Viktor is impatient in wanting to make things better in Zaun, he's got a sharp tongue and a clever mind but tends not to get along with people easily and Jayce is the more charismatic of the two who is willing to toe the line to keep the peace but once his temper has flared will bulldoze over anyone who is stopping him from getting his way). And when Viktor is having those moments of fearing he's marrying Vander and becoming Silco he's not thinking about the nuance he's thinking about that high level stuff.

And it's always those moments of high stress that the similarities seem most apparent because that's kind of where they're at. Put Jayce under enough pressure and he suddenly he's not standing at full height, shoulders back and telling the person what they're going to do. Put Viktor under enough pressure and he's cutting the person down verbally before storming off to go keep getting his work done.

The pressure and stress is on while Viktor's pregnant, he's tired and sore and cranky as a result and that means he's dismissive and snappy (and a bit not fully objective about the situation). Which he knows is so like Silco and he hates that because he doesn't want to end up just like Silco. At least reassures him that he's not when he does breakdown at him apologizing for his behavior.

[filthyfundie]

Went on the Forsyth yt, their last video was an announcement that they were stepping back from yt and it was posted 7 months ago. She’s still really active on IG, so I guessing this was an Adsense influenced choice.

But what’s important here is that at the start of the vlog Joy is chatting to the camera in the kitchen while Austin sits at the dinner table casually playing the violin. And look I know he’s a POS but I love him your honor.

[dandelioncasey]

Just came across a post which mentioned this concept and now I'm wondering - has anyone found any fics where the shooting was about Hen and Chim, not Buck and Eddie? Or where the tsunami was Chim and Denny not Buck and Chris? Because I am DOWN to read those if anybody has written them, that would change the plots so much and I'm so curious 👀

[selfship-central]

I'm sorry to say it but it is the truth: Darcy/Doom crackfics from 2013 when Darcy was the fandom designated self insert and avengers movie was a gateway to actual comic books did irreparable damage to my fanfiction engine. The premise of pairing an absolute rando with DOOM and then worldbuilding about it like if beauty and the beast had geopolitics was entrancing.

[crowshoots]

i'm struggling with exactly how to put this into words but i feel like whenever people engage with jesper, especially in a gang or criminal setting, one of the things they probably almost always have to look out for is the fact that jesper is so easily willing to reach for her gun. she has no qualms with putting it into action or using it as a threat. she uses her actively loaded and live gun to gesture and point to people sometimes. you always have to navigate or have counter measures for jesper because you know that she can do a lot of damage and a lot of damage fast.

[fatelcved]

joking around has me thinking about how ciaran likely has a deep respect for women in that he finds them incredibly strong and resilient in a way that others tend to overlook. after his parents' deaths, he was mostly supported and raised by a woman -- kaiya -- and even with all that he was going through, he saw how hard she worked and how hard she tried for his sake. kaiya still took care of her duties at cyrillo's manor, still hosted social events, still cared for those who needed extra help during their stay at the manor, all while making sure ciaran was not only clothed and fed but cared for.

she had no reason to so willingly act as his guardian, but she did so anyway. she treated him with great kindness even when she had to be tired and stressed. she's just?? the best person in his mind, and that carries over onto other women a little bit. he understands the work it takes to be someone who cares for others, and he appreciates it. he admires it. he hopes to be someone like that one day.

[iaxsl]

I've made it guys, someone is starting rumors at work that I don't do anything. I have a hater!!!! wow!!

[husband-steve-cortez]

Mostly trying to decide how talented I think Miles is given how much the vibe of Sentinel changes over the trilogy to be technically more tech focused. Barrier -> Tech Armor pipeline.

In my mind the advantage of biotic barriers is that you can consciously fine tune how much you're putting into defense and quickly fortify them when needed, while shields and tech armor flatly are what they are.

Kind of like the idea that because tech armor is so volatile you really shouldn't combine it with using biotics to reinforce your shields.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

one thing about my emmet that i really hope comes across is that whenever hes interacting with another person it should always feel like everything he does is on purpose. because it is. he's like one of the most restrained/self-possessed and deliberate people ever. this is vitally important.

[narsh-poptarts]

my dark link thoughts coalesced into wonderful headcanons and crazy amounts of forced perspectives and dutch angles

also sorry HW i would have included your dark link(s) but i do not have passion for your game <3 maybe next time

Some thoughts below

I have thoughts about dark link that boil down to basically two things: 1. it's always the same dark link, and 2. dark link has a very difficult time changing.

No matter how many times dark link is brought into existence, he is formed from the shadow of link usually to test link's will. that shadow can be duplicated (as seen in HW) but generally speaking it's the same guy, sharing the thought space, you know how it is. In terms of sentience/thinking for himself, I don't think there's all that much of it. He is a dark reflection/shadow of link, so shares his abilities and thought patterns (for combat) with added aggression and. evil. i guess.

As said by navi, "conquer yourself", and all that. He's a challenge to the inner will power.

That being said!!! he can have a little bit of individuality, as a treat. Just in the form of being mean and sadistic <3 he's got thoughts, he's not just a combat doll (tho in times of low power, or a greater power having the reins, he reverts to that), so he can be frustrated, vindicated, happy, etc etc. though when your thoughts are mainly "evilevilevilevilevil" your idea of these emotions are a bit skewed.

When he's summoned for each different link, i hc that it's all the same magic, so the same dark link every time. he "remembers" in an abstract sense of his role in the same way a link or zelda "remembers" their own reincarnation. tho his is less of a reincarnation and more being used over and over again. a persistence.

The iteration that's summoned reflects the current link at the time, the part of link that needs testing/defeating, so it's not an existence that he himself can change to match the present. he's locked to that first copy/shadow only. So if he were to have a second encounter with an older link, he'd look like the first time they fought, unless he was specifically re-summoned. i hc he's got limited magic, so this is not something he can do himself.

in a links-meet scenario, his form would be limited to those specific forms of the links, and it would always be the points in time in which he first encountered them, unless there's other magic either he or someone else has access to to allow him to change forms to match.

now you might be saying at this point "wouldn't he be a weaker match if he was put up against an older link?" yeah probably lol. but also!!! i like the idea that with the limited magic he has, he's able to change juuuust enough to stay relatively evenly matched. being able to play to different strengths and all that. but the base stuff is still the same, so he is decently easy enough to read if link remembers the kind of stuff he was pulling back when he originally fought dark link.

dark link also knows about all this so while limited to the particular skillset, is able to adapt slightly.

but yeah been thinking a lot about a links-meet au where dark link is there choosing a different link to be every time he appears to the party.

though there are a couple links that he never impersonates in their games!!! so can't change into those guys unless he gets a new round of copycat magic.

Anyways goodbye guy standing there with standard camera angle, i have dutch angles and forced perspective

[liketolaugh-writes]

Bruce looking past the fact that (recently adopted) Danny is a powerhouse and recognizing that he has other skills also. <3

Danny is a STEM kid and just as brilliant as his sister, you cannot convince me otherwise

Danny gave Bruce the handwritten list of powers in the morning. Bruce stared at it over his cup of coffee, then gave Danny a flat, somewhat disbelieving look. Danny shrugged sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Sorry,” he said, perching on one of the stools. “I can point out the ones I don’t use if you just want to work on the ones I do. At least I have an idea of what needs improving with those.” Alfred gave him a cup of coffee and a plate of bacon and French toast, and Danny smiled at him. “Thanks, Alfred.”

“We’ll have to prioritize your training,” Bruce allowed after a moment, frowning down at the paper. Dick leaned over to look and whistled. “But all of these will be addressed eventually. You should have at least a moderate grasp of every tool at your disposal.” He looked up. “You intended to work in the lab today, correct?”

Danny nodded, playing with a strip of bacon. “I’ll probably spend most of today making a big batch of phaseproof coating,” he said. “Then I can experiment with mixing it with paint and maybe coat some of your spare weapons in it? That should work for the bo staff and escrima sticks, maybe a set of brass knuckles. But I’ll need to make a different solution for the edged weapons.” His mind wandered, thinking of how he could adapt what he knew of the Bats’ gear to work against ghosts.

“Who’re the brass knuckles for?” Dick asked, raising an eyebrow at Danny. Danny flushed and shrugged.

“Batman,” he said. “You don’t really use a weapon, right?” Bruce grunted. “But phaseproof cloth isn’t something my parents ever really figured out. I can work on it, maybe, but I thought brass knuckles would be an okay compromise for now.”

“Hn.”

“Good thinking,” Dick praised with a smile. “It’ll be easy to add to the utility belt too. Should we ghostproof my main set or a spare?”

“The main, I think, if you’re okay with it,” Danny said, tilting his head thoughtfully. “You probably won’t even notice. But the edged weapons should all be spares. Ecto-treated metal tends to glow.”

“Not great for stealth,” Dick nodded. “Whatever you think is best, baby spook. We have the resources.”

“You’re hyper-specialized,” Bruce noted without inflection, sipping from his coffee. Danny winced.

“Sorry,” he muttered. It was easy to forget that all this was pretty useless outside of Amity Park. Bruce shook his head.

“It’s not a problem. But we’ll need to diversify your skillset. Your talent for chemistry and engineering should expand beyond ectoscience alone.” He studied Danny contemplatively. “Higher education might be beneficial, perhaps a PhD.”

Danny’s eyes went wide. “What? I’m barely passing high school!”

“I had Casper High send over your transcripts,” Bruce said. Danny flinched. “You had a B+ average in middle school, with a particular bent for math and science. You also participated in several advanced extracurriculars, including a junior astronaut program, space camp, and competitive robotics. Further, you clearly have a comprehensive understanding of your parents’ work, which eludes both the Justice League engineers and JL Dark. You had these talents prior to acquiring your powers, and it would be a waste to discard them in favor of your raw combat ability.”

Danny stared at Bruce, open-mouthed and speechless. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d considered even the possibility that he could have a future outside of his hero career.

“…Do you think I could do that and be a superhero?” he managed after a minute, quieter than he’d meant to.

Bruce nodded sharply. “Most Justice League heroes maintain a career outside of heroics,” he reminded Danny, without even sounding like he thought Danny was an idiot for asking. “Aside from myself, there is also a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, a museum curator, a forensic scientist, and a fighter pilot.”

Danny had known that on some level, but it had always seemed unreal. Practically a myth. “When am I going back to school?” he asked, hardly able to believe that he was suddenly looking forward to it.

“At the beginning of next semester,” Bruce said. “Your parents’ trial should be completed by then. I assume you don’t want to be announced publicly until that happens.” Danny shook his head fervently. “You may need to complete some make-up classes online, but we can discuss that next week.”

“Thanks,” Danny said sincerely. He was talking about a lot more than his re-enrollment.

[tossawary]

That "even if you're writing a non-canon pairing in fanfiction, you have to respect that these characters will probably still care on a basic level about their original love interest" post was inspired by a lot of things. But foremost inspired by any "Fullmetal Alchemist" fanfiction that tries to convince me that Edward Elric doesn't actually like Winry Rockbell at all.

Like, uh, no. Ed would die for Winry, so jot that down. Even if you're writing an AU where one or both of them are gay, which is fun and fine, Ed and Winry are ride or die for each other. They've known each other for so long. They trust each other so much. When they're arguing with each other or annoying the other, it's because THEY CARE. This is basic characterization for them.

I was amusing myself by thinking about an AU in which Ed's romantic interest is someone like Ling Yao, in which there's some dangerous situation where Ed has to choose between saving Winry (his sister figure in this AU) and saving Ling. I was immediately like, "Oh, he would FOR SURE pick Winry in most scenarios. Sorry, Ling." Which would suck for Ed, because he hates failing to save anyone, but is also funny to think about with Ling specifically, because I think that Ling would actually respect this decision more.

Unlike Winry, Ling is a combatant with bodyguards, and so can be trusted to handle himself in dangerous situations. (Which obviously does not make Ling a BETTER love interest for Ed than Winry, Winry doesn't need to be good at fighting, it's just a different skillset.) Ling is also a leader, someone who wants to be an emperor someday, and I think he has opinions on loyalty. Despite feeling grateful to be saved, I think Ling might think quite poorly of Ed choosing him (a relative stranger, even if he is a legit snack) over Winry (functionally a member of Ed's family / clan, a skilled specialist who is necessary to Ed's own combat capabilities), because Ed sure as shit wouldn't be considering future political advantages with Xing here, so it would be choosing a new love over family / a loyal friend. Depending on the scenario (it all depends on the specific situation for all of these cases), I also think that Ling might choose to save someone like Lan Fan or even Mei Chang over Ed in a lot of situations, especially because Ed would HATE IT SO MUCH if Ling knowingly sacrificed anyone for his sake.

Non-canon pairings and their AUs are interesting to me partially for how they interact with the existing canonical relationships and how they negotiate with canonical motivations. For some characters, romantic relationships are just not as important as familial ones or their own goals. Obviously, for Edward Elric, (depending on the specific situation at hand, of course) he's going to choose Alphonse over nearly anyone else.

[mmani-e]

Hello! After all this effort, behold:

DANGANRONPA DEMIX, THH EDITION!

Dr Demix 2

Finally got the talentswap designs I have for the THH characters one and done with! You can click through the read more section for some fun design insights. I'm intending on uploading a doc containing short lore bits about them eventually.

Kyoko Kirigiri - Ultimate Affluent Progeny

So Kyoko's design was both kinda simple, kinda not, wanted to give her a very fine and regal kinda attitude to her but not arrogant as that's very much Byakuya's thing. Her story is that she loves her dad more than the family business and her grandpa so she abandons detective work and just uses her brain to help her dad out.

Makoto Naegi - Ultimate Novelist

Makoto is a wonderful guy, just great all around. He loves writing children's books and happy stories. This is his main coping mechanism so he doesn't have to process any negative emotions he gets, the rest he can't process… well they go into a murderous psychopath alter.

Aoi Asahina - Ultimate Lucky Student

Shoujo protagonist Aoi. Cute, headstrong, affective, competitive, these are all the traits that make her fight for her friends and clash with Kyoko (and more often than not Byakuya) in the killing game, even when all hope seems lost… she pushes through, unafraid to let tears spill from her eyes for all those lost, but pushing all the same.

Byakuya Togami - Ultimate Detective

This one, I wanna go into more lore territory, cause I kinda memed around his last desc I gave him so here goes:

"A disgraced heir of the Togami household, Byakuya lost the competition that would've secured his riches. Disdainful and bitter, he sought out to get to the bottom of why he lost, uncovering a rabbit hole in the process. By the end, he proved his sibling a cheater, but it didn't matter because by the end as he found the sweet satisfaction of uncovering secrets and crushing liars and cheaters under the weight of their hubris far more satisfying than any inheritance."

Sayaka Maizono - Ultimate Spirit Medium

So Sayaka isn't a clairvoyant at all like Yasuhiro, in fact her entire skillset is completely different, first of all she is like an actual psychic, and I based her design off of the japanese Itako, quite loosely. Very interesting group, look it up, also she'll never use these powers in the killing game because I dunno how to even approach these rituals or what they look like or how to write them while remaining respectful, so she won't do it in a killing game for the express reason of her not having the right tools available and not wanting to disrespect her traditions.

Leon Kuwata - Ultimate Swimmer

I really wanna draw him again, all these characters again tbh, and I wanna show off the patterns on his wetsuit. It's a whole coral reef under there, that anemone and clownfish bit is only one part of a whole reef stretching his midline.

Sakura Ogami - Ultimate Programmer

Sakura has installed chips into her body to help optimize her body processes and also cause why not. As for the muscles, she's an Assembly programmer, the programs she's made can run on calculators she loves it.

Chihiro Fujisaki - Ultimate Martial Artist

Chihiro's design here with the two belts is an explicit nod to his preferred martial art - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, so unlike Sakura in canon who'd be easy to imagine cracking someone's skull in half with a chop, Chihiro's approach is more crawling onto someone and bringing them down to the floor with grappling like an angry halfling monk. As for the belts themselves, on his head is his final junior belt, while around his waist is his current belt, he's not a black belt yet because he's still too young for it.

Celestia Ludenberg - Ultimate Baseball Star

Celestia actually isn't a legend in this AU, Taeko is. Celestia hates that and wants to start a baseball career going international, whatever the hell that means is up to her own definition, but she wants to be remembered forever as Celestia, not Taeko. Also extra sentence, but this is the SINGLE hardest design I've ever had to deal with here, I think in the future I'll be drawing all her little accessories and I have an alt costume for her I have in mind.

Hifumi Yamada - Ultimate Pop Star

So I changed Hifumi's story as I originally outlined in the OG post with him. He was friends with Aoi all his life, pretty much his only friend at all, and ever since he was little he had an obsession with writing songs, because he was obsessed with stuff like anime openings and was content to just keep the songs to himself. It wasn't till Aoi convinced him to share some of his songs that he started his journey to success, but bc he's not traditionally attractive, his first hits were literally just… his voice being played over other more attractive singers and it wasn't until very very recently that he even performed a song of his for the first time.

Toko Fukawa - Ultimate Fanfic Writer

So while Hifumi was clearly a Doujinshi but due to weird translation, ended up as fanfic creator, Touko is straight up a FF then Wattpad then AO3 girl, who would get obsessed with this really shitty, tripe manga that she didn't even like reading. It did however have super hot dudes in it, so she wrote good stories of those characters when she got frustrated with the actual authorial content - which was always.

Yasuhiro Hagakure - Ultimate Gambler

Quite LITERALLY the never stop gambling meme personified into a guy. He can lose 3 mil on slot machines but always comes out fine because it means if he keeps gambling he'll eventually run into his 1/3 and win giga millions, what he needs to pay off his debts. It isn't just with luck though either because his personality and lack of intelligence or understanding of most the rules of the games he plays means he'll never react the way he should when getting a good hand in poker or a bad draw in blackjack, so he wins those games almost always through just… stupidity.

Mukuro Ikusaba - Ultimate Biker

She's number 16 in her gang, and is easily the most loyal enforcer and taskman of the gang. She does anything she's told, to a grim and disciplined degree not typical for hooligan bike gangers, she doesn't really desire a seat as top dog of the gang though, after all she's got school to worry about, and her sister.

Mondo Owada - Ultimate Warlord

So his relationship and Kiyotaka's is gonna be interesting, because I don't want him to be exactly like Mukuro at all, who was just sort of an all-obsessed Yandere. It's more like he's always chafing under Taka, who is less than friendly with him in this AU, really the main way he even lets Taka boss him around is because he pays incredibly well and helps keep his gang members from devolving back into the unstructured, chaotic criminal life, the same that took his brother years ago.

Oh and yeah, he still looks like Guile, as he should.

Sparkling Justice - Ultimate Killer Killer

Yeah it's a reference to Killer Killer, sue me I love the manga. He has Hajirahara's ahoge, and I thought it'd be cute to also give him a mask just like the other Makoto from a Kodaka game series (Raincode.) Also, while Genocide jack stuffs all her scissors in her skirt, Makoto keeps a truth gun with "truth bullets" as his main weapon, the gun he stores inside the big book in the chibi of just Makoto, and the bullets kept on his person as the red buttons all over his body, which he pulls out when he needs to reload.

"Kiyotaka Ishimaru" - Ultimate Fashionista

Unlike Mukuro and Junko, Mondo absolutely cannot hide the fact that he acts nothing like Kiyotaka, though this is surprisingly fine to everyone else, because unlike Junko who plastered herself onto literally everything, Mondo always obfuscated himself from the public spotlight, at most showing only his suits while he hid his face behind something conveniently placed. Which played primarily to his vision of an ultimate fashionista, who was above everyone and catered to the rich and powerful.

Junko Enoshima - Ultimate Moral Compass

This was a fun one, I decided to let her have her red hair because I believe it to be the "natural" look of her hair, while attaching little clips of dyed hair to her buns as a replacement to keep her shape sorta and keep the strawberry blonde somwehere on her. Understand that while she is the "moral compass" she is still pretty deranged, and the only reason she focuses so much on keeping everyone on their best behavior is because it's endlessly entertaining to her to make her fellow moral committee members upset when she blatantly makes a mockery of the rules while still keeping kids on their best behavior to make a point.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru - Ultimate Fashionista and Tyrant, the Iron Hand of Despair

Taka's design I wanted to sort of focus on this sort of, holier-than-thou idea, where I wanted to make him look a lot fancier and upper-class than Junko does in his standard highschool fit compared to him. I wanted him to have an upper-crust sort of look

If you're reading this after reading this all, thanks! You're a wonderful person :) Signing off...

Mani

[sgtpeppers]

That was... wonderful... to just hear it done for real, after... what? Four years of thinking about it? Wondering whether it would work, wondering if I'd written bits too fast, or too slow, or... to actually sort of... hear it done by real, professional people and the singers. It's... there isn't a word for it, actually.

Standing Stone, by Paul McCartney

Royal Albert Hall Performance (x)

Making Of Documentary (x)

Standing Stone is a 74 minute long classical piece of music, which Paul worked on for four years. It premiered at the Royal Albert Hall on 14 October 1997 with the London Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus, conducted by Lawrence Foster.

After his success with his first classical piece, The Liverpool Oratorio, Paul was commissioned to create some music to celebrate EMI's centenary. He came up with the idea of exploring "the way a Celtic man might have wondered about the origins of life and the mystery of human existence" and tied this in the with standing stones which to him symbolised something mystical and long lasting.

Photos by Linda McCartney, included on the album.

Paul wrote a poem to assist in getting the story he was trying to convey straight in his head, and it was printed in the booklet of the album. However, Paul wanted the music to work without the listener necessarily knowing the story, for the music to speak for itself, and so wanted to create a piece that "relies entirely on colours and effects drawn from orchestral and choral forces".

He also created two paintings to go alongside it:

I really recommend watching the documentary, Paul is absolutely delightful throughout the whole thing. It's the first time he'd used a computer and software to help him compose and he seems so excited to talk about it (and he has a Wallace & Gromit mouse mat!).

What's also interesting is how the rest of the team spoke about him. They all make a point that this was Paul's creation, and although David Matthews, John Harle, and Richard Rodney Bennet were brought in to assist with the composition, they all talk about Paul's talent, hard work, and the freshness of approach he brought. (The words 'benevolent dictator' may get used at some point, but they also speak of his kindness and generosity.)

It amazes me that someone with no formal music training could make a leap for pop/rock to classical. Composing for an entire 80 piece orchestra and 120 member choir is a completely different skillset to writing a song for the radio (and I'm not saying that's a lesser thing to be able to do, just different). The fact Paul was not only willing to take on the challenge and push himself, but created something so magical speaks to the sheer creative force that he is.

[kybelles]

ON DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DAMEN AND LAURENT

(From Pacat’s M&G that took place on Feb 1, 2025, in Sydney)

Q: What are the key differences between Akielos and Vere, and between Laurent and Damen, in terms of their cultural and personal preconceptions? How do those preconceptions challenge or break down over the course of the story?

A: I tried to make it really clear in the books that, while Laurent is very intellectual and smart, he also excels physically. And Damen, though he’s physically strong, is just as intelligent, even more so in some areas. There are moments where Damen outsmarts Laurent—he’s more emotionally intelligent, more intellectually intelligent, he outmaneuvers him, and has sort of entire mental skillsets that Laurent doesnt have, like, war strategy. So, I tried to make sure that when we return to Akielos, we see it as more sophisticated than it first appears. Just because something seems simple doesn’t mean it’s unsophisticated.

That was my goal, but who knows whether it was successful or not.

Q: I definitely noticed that, especially with how you reveal that Akielos excels in textiles, and how their fabrics, though simple-looking, are actually high-quality.

A: Exactly! Akielos has a culture that values poetry, art, and mathematics in its own way—things we don’t really see from Vere. I wanted to show that, just as Damen’s preconceptions about Laurent break down over time, Laurent’s views on Akielos also change.

Q: I think the author’s intention is important in these discussions.

A: Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Thanks for the thoughtful question, I appreciate it a lot.