#I get that there are some characters in some fiction where their appearance or background is narratively or thematically relevant

[sallykie]

The only "good" (<- debatable) thing about the upcoming HTTYD live action is that all the weird racists in the fandom are announcing themselves and therefore making themselves easy to block on sight.

This is also simultaneously a bad thing, because it means the weird racists in the fandom are crawling out of their holes and being visibly garbage all over the place.

[destiny-in-the-universe]

We’re back on the road, baby! Oh my god - I never expected I’d be writing for this specific series but well, now’s a good time as ever!

I’m going to be honest: this fanfic is dark and I wrote it to be spooky. It’s a horror au so, take what you get prrr. It’s my first time writing for the characters which means you might see some OOC’bess until I get comfortable. Also because this is also an AU and exploring things they obviously haven’t experienced, they’re going to react a bit… differently, you could say.

The chosen fandom is South Park. How to even begin to explain this fic- I call it an “analog horror” but it’s honestly less about lost media than it is about… hm, an unspecified entity (I can’t say what it is right now-) hunting the characters and well, there is a bit of character death.

Read below for more information!

Plot/Summary

October has returned to South Park, and of course this means the coming of the Fall Dance, where students can bring their dates to and participate in costume contests; high school was supposed to be different, but it seems something is lurking in the shadows, waiting, attempting to select its next target. Things are going bump in the night, and well, it’s only a matter of time before the students are dragged into the mouth of the tiger.

Horror AU! Loosely Based on Appalachian traditions and analog horror.

Prompts

Alternative Prompts:

Forgotten

Time Loop

[REDACTED]

Extras/Teasers

One-Sided Pining

Neurodiverse Characters

Temporary Character Death

Spooky/Horror Elements

Aged-Up Characters

death doesn’t discriminate

Part 14 of Whumptober

[poguehearted77]

OBX Season 5: Payback for Maybank - masterlist

Actor! Au Pairing: Actress! Reader x Drew Starkey Your Character: Piper Monroe, a jack of all trades whose hustle was making a living as an arms dealer in Morocco. Until a group of foreigners find her with an appetite for revenge, and she decides to tag along.

These can be read in any order, the season summary is just to give you some background on the character and role you played in the final season. In this mini series you'll get to see what really goes on behind the scenes.

Lmk if you want to be added to the tag list <3

Season Summary: This season, the Pogues are back, and their hunt for Chandler Groff leads them through the scorching sands of Morocco—and straight into your path, a mischievous arms dealer with secrets as deep as your scars. Due to your betrayal, the Pogues are ambushed and barely survive, saved only by your last-minute change of heart. Even after your redemption and display of loyalty, Rafe still doesn’t trust you, and in your uneasy alliance, he keeps you close, sometimes too close. Tension crackles between you, with moments where his knife is at your throat, yet something unspoken simmers beneath the surface. In the final episode, as danger closes in, confessions boil over when you and Rafe find yourselves held hostage by the leader of the mercenaries, Finch. During your time in bondage, you connect on feelings of solitude and regrets, but you see a spark in him when he mentions a girl back home, a reason to keep fighting. It's a race against time before Finch comes back to kill you. To both your frustration, critical thinking and strategic camaraderie are necessary for your escape. When you find yourselves stuck in a sticky situation amidst your escape, you make the ultimate sacrifice for Rafe, reminding him, “You have someone to live for,” before initiating a human diversion in a suicide mission, giving Rafe the chance to make it back to the Pogues, giving him a second chance.

Below the cut you’ll find my masterlist of life behind the scenes of season 5. Including premiere appearances, bloopers, red carpets, interviews and your budding romance with Drew.

Lights, Camera, Action! -> It's your first day on set and your nerves are through the roof but the cast makes you feel at home. You practice your lines, but the sparks between you and Drew are unscripted.

Between the Lines -> It's the little things that go on behind the scenes between you and Drew that makes your chemistry electric.

Co-Star Confessions-> The cast takes you along for a trip to take a lie detector test. The jokes are rolling and the tea starts to spill.

Portugal Nights-> The day was tense. Rehearsals were much more heated than the lines intended and the thin rubber band of restraint holding you both apart was bound to snap, and it finally does.

The Wrap Party-> Filming is over and that's a wrap for Outer Banks. Things get emotional but Drew knows how to cheer you up.-coming soon (January 2025!)

Limelight -> Due to your smaller role in the season compared to the main cast, you only had a few solo interviews but not without a few surprises. -coming soon

Wardrobe Malfunction-> You and Drew were scheduled to make it to the red carpet by 8 sharp, but not everything goes as planned.-coming soon

Ship Wars-> The fans are back at it again, and the shipping continues. Debating that Piper and Rafe should've had a romantic arc. You and Drew are given a special interview to address them.-coming soon

The Power Couple-> Drew finally made things official, so you began to have your fun with the fans and let them put the pieces together.-coming soon

The After Party-> The champagne is bubbly in your systems when you and Drew are stumbling into your hotel room after the party.-coming soon

I do not own or take credit for the characters or cast of outer banks. These are all pure fiction and do not accurately reflect the cast.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

How to Write a Character

For creative writing to have as deep an impact as possible, you need to give the reader strong characters they can relate to on a personal level.

By borrowing from tried-and-true character archetypes and giving them your personal spin, you can create heroes, villains, and sidekicks that will affect your readers as if they were real people they knew.

Come up with a backstory

Crafting a backstory can help you flesh out an interesting character profile.

“When I’m dealing with characters,” says legal thriller author David Baldacci, “and I’m trying to explain somebody's situation and motivations, you have to look into their past, because [the] past always drives motivations.”

Ask what experiences your character had in elementary school or high school that shaped who they are today. Your character’s backstory can greatly inform your plot.

Develop a character arc

A character must evolve throughout a story.

“The character has to change,” insists crime fiction writer Walter Mosley. “The character doesn’t have to become better. The character doesn’t have to become good. It could be the opposite. He could start good and become bad. He could start off hopeful and end up a pessimist. But he has to be impacted by this world that we’re reading about.”

Plan out your storyline based on your character's goals and how achieving or not achieving them will change them as people. This sort of template can help anchor your narrative.

Do research

If you plan to set your story in a specific locale or period, do enough research to make your characters seem true to life and believable.

“What does it mean, for instance, in the Tudor era to be a male person?” asks Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale. “What does it mean to be a female person? What do those things mean when they’re at different social levels?”

Empathize with your characters

No matter what the type of character you’re developing, try to find some reason you and your reader can relate to their internal conflict.

“You’re living with these people every single day for months at a time—in some cases, years at a time,” says acclaimed children’s author Judy Blume. “You had better feel for them. So, for me, yes, I have great empathy for them.”

When people can empathize with characters, they’re more likely to find them compelling.

Experiment with different approaches

If you usually write characters from a particular point of view (or POV), change things up to challenge yourself.

“Write about someone entirely through the eyes of their friends and family,” suggests journalist Malcolm Gladwell. “So do a profile of someone where you deliberately never talk to the person that you’re profiling.”

There are plenty of ways to craft compelling character descriptions—free yourself up to try new alternatives.

Give your characters flaws

To craft believable characters, you need to give them flaws.

“One, it makes the characters human, just by default, because everybody recognizes that we all have flaws and mistakes,” David says. “But two, it gives you plot elements and plot opportunities because somebody makes a mistake. Why? Because they’re flawed.”

Learn from real people

Pay attention to real people’s mannerisms, personality traits, body language, and physical appearances.

Do research, and be respectful, when you want to write characters with backgrounds that you are not familiar with. Become familiar with different people's cultures, sexual orientations etc.

Talking to people about their experiences will help form your character’s personality.

Let your characters surprise you

Character development can proceed down a host of different avenues.

“Spend a lot of time with your characters and getting to know them,” Judy suggests. “And the way that you get to know them can be different from the way I get to know them. But my way is: They don’t come alive until I write about them, until I put them down on paper.”

As you write, your character’s motivation or perspective might change from what you originally planned.

Play characters off each other

Ask yourself how a secondary character’s personality might thwart the main character’s motivation.

“One of the best ways, as I said, to develop a character is to put that character in relationship to another person,” Walter says. “So as they talk, as they fight, as they work together, we find out more about who they are and what they are.”

The character’s close friends, adversaries, and acquaintances might all have different effects on their behavior.

Take an organic approach

Over the course of the story, be ready for your characters to surprise you as much as the people you know in real life might, too.

Your characters may take on a life of their own.

Avoid static characters by letting yours have their own lives and personalities. Let their stories take you where they lead.

Writing Notes & References

[makeitmingi]

When Flowers Bloom In The Dark [Chapter 9]

Genre: Romance, Mafia!AU, Violence, Angst, Slow burn

Pairing: Hongjoong x Reader (y/n)

Characters: Florist!Reader, Mafioso!Hongjoong, Mafioso!Seonghwa, Mafioso!Yunho, Mafioso!Yeosang, Mafioso!San, Mafioso!Mingi, Mafioso!Wooyoung, Mafioso!Jongho

Summary: When you appeared and wept at his mother's funeral, Hongjoong found himself wanting to find out more about you. A regular girl, who owns a flower shop in his territory and has a relationship with the mother that he hasn't spoken to in years, why hasn't he ever noticed you before?

[Warning(s): 18+ for violence, use of weapons, smoking, alcohol consumption, slight gore, gang affiliation, tattoos and character deaths. Minors DNI. This is a work of fiction and does not represent the Ateez members in real life.]

Word count: 3.2K

Chapter warning(s): Mentions of corruption, bounty-assassination .

Yunho had a satisfied, albeit evil, smile on his face as he hung up, putting his phone back on the desk.

"What are you smiling about?" Jongho raised an eyebrow, noticing the taller from the corner of his eye. Yunho shook his head with a playful shrug before continuing his work.

"If you get in trouble, don't make me complicit." Jongho warned with a chuckle.

"I won't. Don't worry, dear maknae." Yunho giggled. Jongho sighed, Yunho was always mischievous and messing around but got away with it because of his charming smile. Seeing how he had pulled up Hongjoong's phone location, he didn't want to know what he did to manipulate the captain.

"I'm done with my tasks for the day. I need a breather." Jongho yawned and stood up, stretching his limbs.

"Go ahead." Yunho hummed as Jongho grabbed what he needed and exited their computer cave.

"San hyung, I finished vetting all the potential investors for the casino. Here are their profiles." Jongho handed San the stack of folders with all the background checks of the investors.

"Thanks, Jongho ah." San took the first file off the top and skimmed through the contents.

"I'll take 5 and give the rest of Wooyoung." San snickered.

"He'll chew your head off if he finds out." Jongho shook his head. San shrugged, he has worked with Wooyoung long enough to know how to handle his tantrums.

"Hongjoong said there was an issue with the gardener?" Seonghwa walked in, eyes trained on his phone.

"Yeah, he was sketchy, taking photos and stuff. We suspect he's a spy so we fired him but Yunho hyung said he can handle it so I left him to it." Jongho explained. Seonghwa nodded, it was just hiring a new gardener, not a big deal that he needed to get involved in.

"Where did you go dressed up so fancily, hyung?" San asked, turning his body slightly to face the second in command. Seonghwa looked up from his phone.

"Meeting with the chief police commissioner. I needed some updates on the ground sensing." He blinked.

"Is it true that the smaller gangs are joining forces?" Mingi and Yeosang came in, having just finished their workout downstairs.

"It's too early to say for sure but they have noted a decrease in gang disputes in certain areas. There could a peace treaty or truce somewhere." Seonghwa informed.

"We should find out. I'll get my men on the ground." Jongho said.

"Thanks." Seonghwa cracked a small smile, heading up to go to his office to continue working.

"The chief police commissioner's gonna have to retire soon. We should get our hooks into the new potential candidate before he's elected in." Yeosang said.

"Hongjoong hyung's already working on that. But the current chief's influence sways the vote so we still have to maintain good graces with him. If they decide to elect someone else, like one of those upstanding justice types, it'll be tougher to get a foot in." Mingi crossed his arms.

"I'm hungry. I want a sandwich." San stood up from the couch and headed to towards the kitchen.

"Me too!" Mingi raised his hand

"Make that 3! After my shower." Yeosang chimed in.

"4!" Jongho added with a snicker. San spun around to scowl at the 3 before marching towards the kitchen to get the staff to make them all sandwiches.

"Okay, time to shower." Yeosang groaned and went upstairs. Mingi nodded in agreement and went to take his shower too.

"I'm home~!" Wooyoung declared as he entered the mansion, doing a spin and flipping the end of his jacket.

"I got a new suit." He smirked and spun around to show his outfit. The glittery on his jacket was subtle and sparkled the moment he stepped into the light, it complimented his figure well.

"How many black suits do you have?" Yeosang asked as he chewed on his sandwich. The others nodded in agreement, making Wooyoung's face fall.

"This is special. New silk lining." Wooyoung lifted one his of his jacket to show them the silver silk lining. San reached out to try and touch it but seeing his dirty fingers, Wooyoung scoffed and slapped his hand away. San yelped like a reprimanded puppy.

"Dirty hands!" Wooyoung scolded, making San glare at him.

"Mr Song, there is a visitor for you. Shall I let him through the gate?" The butler came in. MIngi frowned in confusion and checked his phone.

"Oh yeah... Okay, let him in. Have him wait in the living room area. I'll go get changed." Mingi waved.

"What visitor is this?" Jongho asked.

"The jewellery and accessories for the gala are here so I need to check them through." Mingi finished his sandwich and wiped his mouth, standing up to leave.

"Someone help me call Joong hyung to let him know." Mingi yelled to one of the remaining boys before running upstairs.

"Let me know what?" As if on cue, Hongjoong walked in.

"Mingi says his jewel guy is here with the accessories for the gala. Wanted you to check it out with him." Yeosang informed. Hongjoong nodded and left the dining room.

"Sir." The male stood up and bowed when he saw Hongjoong, knowing he was the head of the group. Hongjoong gave a curt nod and sat down. The staff came with a tray of hot coffee for Hongjoong, already prepared the moment he entered. Mingi came down in proper clothing.

"Hey. You're here, hyung." Mingi smiled to Hongjoong and sat beside him, giving an acknowledgement nod.

"Following Mr Song's request for white gold accessories to match dark, royal purple. These are what I have procured for your family." He took out trays from the box.

"Very nice." Hongjoong scanned through the tray and nodded in approval.

"This is yours, Mr Kim." The jeweller took out a velvet box and opened it, showing the necklace that Hongjoong requested.

"Asscher cut diamond with white gold, as per requested." The male said proudly. Mingi whistled while Hongjoong lifted it up, looking at the diamond right in the middle, surround by smaller diamonds.

"Nice, very well done." Hongjoong smirked.

"Wooyoung will like his new earrings." Mingi said to Hongjoong, showing him the diamond earrings.

"He's like Seonghwa, both like princess cut diamonds." Hongjoong scoffed and checked the diamonds, using the loupe from the jeweller to check the diamonds. Mingi, who usually had the keener eye for jewellery, took over to look at it.

"Damn." The other boys all came, seeing all the sparkly pieces laid out on the coffee table. Hongjoong gave out each piece to the designated owner, as per his plan.

"Nice." Yeosang smiled happily as he wore the white gold cuff on his wrist, stacking with a tennis bracelet.

"What do you think?" Wooyoung held up the collar chain in front of his shirt, showing the two diamonds at the end.

"Mmm, looks good. It'll match well." San gave a thumbs up, admiring his best friend. Seonghwa held his hand out in front of him, admiring his new ring.

"I'm glad you like it, sirs." The jeweller stood up to bow to them. Mingi smirked with confidence.

"Told you I only get good stuff." He scoffed.

"Yeah, yeah." Yunho slapped Mingi's shoulder. Once everything was settled, the jeweller packed up and took his leave.

"So, Yunho said he updated you about the gardener issue? Turns out he was being suspicious, worried that he's a spy for someone." Seonghwa asked Hongjoong as they were about to head upstairs to their offices. Hongjoong nodded his head in confirmation while Yunho snickered secretly.

"I settled it already, don't worry about it." Hongjoong replied, checking his phone. He and Seonghwa didn't hear Yunho's snickers, too caught up in their own conversations.

"You didn't have to busy yourself with that. We can survive without a gardener for a bit." Seonghwa pointed out.

"It's fine. Easily settled." Hongjoong shrugged, smiling gratefully to his best friend.

"Okay. Do you need Jongho or Yunho to vet the person?" Seonghwa asked. Hongjoong shook his head, walking alongside Seonghwa to return to their offices.

"What are you laughing about?" Mingi blinked in confusion.

"Nothing~" Yunho sang, stacking his jewellery boxes and bringing it up to his room.

"Dude, sometimes you're so weird, it's scary." Mingi said to his best friend as they walked together. Yunho turned to his best friend with a raised eyebrow.

"Coming from you?" Yunho taunted with a scoff. Mingi shrugged and turned to return to his room. It was purely coincidental that Yunho called Hongjoong about the gardner while he was at your shop. He totally didn't hope that you would overhear their conversation.

Meanwhile, Hongjoong was working at his desk, going over the number from the businesses that Ateez oversaw as a group, making sure everything was in order and there were no discrepencies.

Before he left, he had slipped his business card onto your work table, just in case you needed his number.

"Real smooth, Hongjoong." He scoffed at his actions. Would you even see the card?

*KNOCK KNOCK*

"Come in." Hongjoong looked up from his computer to see Jongho at his door. Jongho came in with a small, displeased frown on his face. He didn't say anything, merely sliding Hongjoong a piece of paper.

"What's wrong?" Hongjoong was confused but took the paper, unfolding it and reading the contents.

"What? Is this real?" He looked at the youngest in disbelief.

"Yeah, I was getting my informants on the ground to check for the change in gang related activities when this information came in. It's reliable, San hyung confirmed it on the network." Jongho explained, nodding over to the paper. Hongjoong let out a curse, standing up, he went over to Seonghwa's office.

"Thanks, Jong." Hongjoong said as he entered Seonghwa's office. Seonghwa knew it would be the leader, he was the only one that would enter without knocking.

"What's wrong, Joong?" Seonghwa raised an eyebrow. With the same piece of paper, he slid it to Seonghwa.

"You're kidding..." Seonghwa frowned as he read the paper's contents.

"No, I'm not. Jongho came to me after his informants got that, confirmed it with San too. He saw it on the network." Hongjoong crossed his arms.

"Sh*t. I was just there." Seonghwa cursed.

"We can't ask San to take the job, it's too obvious. It'll raise suspicion and be worse for us." Hongjoong said.

"Let's call the others." Seonghwa sighed, taking his phone and sending a text to the other Ateez members. Luckily everyone was home and they quickly gathered in Seonghwa's office.

"So, to let everyone know, Jongho's informants got new information. And San confirmed it on the network. There's a bounty on the current police commissioner's head." Hongjoong informed. The others all nodded, not saying anything yet.

"The bounty's payer is anonymous, according to the network. And you know the network will never give out the info." San said, leaning against the wall.

The network, a place where information and bounties were exchanged amongst all the underground organisations.

"Seonghwa hyung, you were just there. Anything?" Mingi asked. Seonghwa shook his head.

"I doubt he knows, he was too relaxed if he knew. This bounty is fresh, Jongho just gave Hongjoong to information." Seonghwa replied. Jongho nodded in confirmation.

"Can we ask him to hide then? Come back when the new commissioner needs to be elected." Yeosang raised his hand.

"No. We can't ask San to take the bounty too, it's too obvious of our involvement. It'll not end well." Hongjoong said.

"What can we do then? We need his vote for the new commissioner election. If that anti-corruption guy gets elected, it'll be harder for our businesses." Yunho sighed.

"For now, we need more info, get all your informants out on the ground. Any update, alert us immediately. I want to know where this bounty came from. Wooyoung, we'll need you to stake out the poker games. Any piece of information is useful. We'll contact our guys in the police to keep an eye out." Hongjoong decided.

"Yes, captain." All 7 replied.

"I'll go call my guy to get me a buy in for the next poker game." Wooyoung said, excusing himself to make the call.

Wooyoung was one of those that went to high stake poker games for high profile people. All kinds of people were there and all kinds of information was exchanged there.

"San, keep an ear out in the network. That's the best way to keep track of the bounty status." Seonghwa added.

"Yes, hyung." San saluted and walked out.

"We cannot alert the commissioner yet. But Jongho and Yunho, I want surveillance." Hongjoong looked at the two. They nodded and left the room.

"Would it be ironic if the anti corruption, "clean up the city" dude was the one that initiated the bounty?" Yeosang chuckled.

"I wouldn't put it past him, the whole thing with no more corruption and no more gangs is all a front. If he was the one that posted that bounty, I want proof that he did and we'll use that to sink him." Hongjoong said.

"Should I let Hyunmin know about this?" Hongjoong asked the remaining men in the room. Hyunmin was the candidate that was most likely going to be the current commissioner's successor.

"He's a blabbermouth, can we trust that he won't tell the current commissioner?" Mingi asked.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but Mingi's right." Seonghwa said with a small smile on his face. Mingi rolled his eyes at that comment.

"I'll keep it on the DL for now then. I have a lunch with him in two days. I really hope this issue gets sorted quickly." Hongjoong sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Thanks." He waved and left Seonghwa's office with Mingi and Yeosang in tow.

"San? I don't want to alert the network that we are investigating who posted the bounty, okay?" Hongjoong said to the male who had emerged from his room, dressed in gym clothes.

"I know. Don't worry, hyung. I'll be careful. I won't ask them anything directly or raise any warning flags." San smiled, knowing exactly what Hongjoong expected of him. Patting the captain on the shoulder, San walked towards the exit of the mansion to go to his fight club to work out and work.

"Captain, I got something extra for you." Mingi entered Hongjoong's office. The shorter male turned around, blinking at the taller.

"This is for you. From us." Mingi grinned, taking a velvet box out of his inner suit pocket and handing it to Hongjoong. Hongjoong took with confusion on his face.

"Oh, wow." He was speechless. There was a ring with his captain crest, studded in diamonds, on it.

"For the head of the family, the captain." Mingi explained.

"This is amazing. Thank you, Mingi ah." Hongjoong smiled softly, wearing the slightly heavy ring on his finger immediately.

"No problem, hyung. We're all here thanks to you." Mingi grinned and waved before leaving the office. Hongjoong sat at his desk, looking at how the diamonds sparkled under the sunlight.

This was his mark, a sign of Ateez's power and his own power. Hongjoong had a tattoo of this crest on the back of his left shoulder and always had a captain's band on his arm, clipped onto the sleeve of his jacket, but this ring meant something so much more.

"We're all here thanks to you."

Hongjoong and Seonghwa formed Ateez from nothing. It took the effort from all the boys, their determination and strengths coming together to get to where they are today.

Although everyone says Hongjoong is the prince of darkness, his past was the reason for that. He wasn't always like this.

"I see you got your present." Seonghwa's voice interrupted his train of thought.

"Yeah... I love it. Thanks, Hwa. I know it must have been your idea." Hongjoong gratefully smiled at his best friend. Seonghwa shrugged it off but mirrored a similar smile.

"I forgot to give these to you earlier when you were in my office. You need to sign off on these." Seonghwa put the stack of files down.

"Ugh. Can't you do them?" Hongjoong whined.

"That was our deal remember? I handle illegal signings and you handle legal signings. You need to check the property acquisition contracts." Seonghwa raised his eyebrow. Hongjoong nodded with a sigh and Seonghwa took his leave. Taking the first file off the stack, Hongjoong looked at the contents.

"Hyung, I got my buy in." Wooyoung came into Hongjoong's office. Hongjoong looked up at Wooyoung and nodded.

"Do you need to brush up on your poker skills?" Hongjoong raised an eyebrow with a chuckle.

"No! I run casinos, that's an insult." Wooyoung scoffed. He plopped himself down on the chair opposite Hongjoong and took one of the files off the pile, flipping through it.

"We're really buying that vineyard Jongho wanted?" He laughed.

"Birthday present for him. It's the only thing he wants." Hongjoong sighed. He felt like a dad buying his kids expensive presents.

"So if I want horses and stables on the property, I can ask for them for my birthday?" Wooyoung asked with bright eyes. Hongjoong shot him a flat look.

"A vineyard is a good investment. I'm not sure how horses are a good investment for us." Hongjoong said.

"Boo, you're no fun, dad." Wooyoung stuck his tongue out at the captain. But seeing how Hongjoong was alone with so much paperwork, he stuck around to keep him company, chatting with him and weighing in on certain issues.

"Want one?" Wooyoung held up the crystal glass, helping himself to Hongjoong's bar cart. Hongjoong nodded and Wooyoung poured whiskey into two glasses.

"Thanks." Hongjoong took a sip, leaning back in his chair tiredly.

"These words and papers are making my head hurt." Wooyoung groaned and Hongjoong grunted in agreement.

"I should tell Hwa to give out some of these to the rest of you to do some too. Then both of us won't be stuck with moutains of files." Hongjoong said.

"No way, please. I'm already up to here with all the account books for the casinos." Wooyoung held his hand above his head.

"Remind me what's the charity we're donating to this quarter?" Hongjoong asked.

"Children's heart foundation." Wooyoung replied, sipping the remainder of the whiskey in his glass. Hongjoong hummed and signed off on the cheque that they will be cashing, putting it in an envelope. He looked at the huge pile that was still there, it never seems to get smaller.

"Ah! Hyung, let's take a break! We've been here for so long and the sun is setting already!" Wooyoung suddenly exclaimed, making Hongjoong jump.

"Your idea of a break means leaving the work entirely." Hongjoong pointed out.

"Exactly! Let's go." Wooyoung tugged Hongjoong out of his chair.

"Where are we going?" Hongjoong asked as Wooyoung pushed him out into the hallway, turning off the lights in his office and closing the door so Hongjoong wouldn't re-enter.

"Anywhere but here." Wooyoung laughed. He sent a text to everyone that they'll go out for dinner tonight.

"If Seonghwa gets mad that I didn't finish the work, I'm blaming you." Hongjoong threatened but of course, Wooyoung didn't care.

"I already texted the others. Go get changed, we're going for dinner and drinks." Wooyoung left Hongjoong in the hallway and ran to his own room to change.

"Yah! Jung Wooyoung!" Hongjoong yelled.

~

Series masterlist

[lotusarchon]

nezha is a child in the show isn't he? why are you shipping yourself with a minor and writing romance with him?that's so creepy,,,, how are you talking about dynamicsimp when you're doing worst 🤮

Found this cute Nezha fanart anyways

I knew I had to deal with one of y'all eventually but I didn't think it'd be this soon. Damn, at least let me hit 100 followers first 😞

Anyways uh. Nezha's first introduction in season 3 came out in like, what, 2022? I'm assuming it is, because I started LMK in March of 2023, before s4 was released and already found the show up till s3 by then. S5 just released this year, of which we've seen a weird increase of Nezha screentime of which I'm not complaining.

Point blank. The Nezha age controversies are getting old and boring. New fans and old fans need to chill out with those issue about the age business.

1) It's confirmed the Lego Monkie Kid version of the deity known as Nezha is an adult.

2) This is a god of an Eastern religion who is still very much worshipped to our modern day. If you did your research, you should be able to take note that Nezha isn't only seen as a child god, but even portrayed as someone older. I'm not a Daoist nor Chinese, so I advise you check this blog ( @/ruibaozha ) for more information on the subject matter.

3) As is the case with modern media and adaptations, different shows will portray religious figures according to what works for their plot. In the movie Nezha 2019 (forgot the title whoops), Nezha is portrayed as a child, as we are seeing a comedic but angsty interpretation of his origins. In the Legend Of Hei, we see him portrayed as a child, assuming for comedic purposes and to bond with the MC Hei.

3.2) If LMK wanted to portray Nezha as a child like his appearances in Journey To The West, and the Fengshen Yanyi (?), you must understand then his design and personality would've been portrayed more childish or at the very least a mixture of mature and childish. We can see this by comparing LMK Nezha and TLOH Nezha = both are stern but where one acts, looks and often shows childish traits, the other acts like an exhausted 25 year old who needs therapy. LMK HAS made children in the past, as we've seen with the Lady Bone Demon's Host and in season 1 a few kids here and there as background characters. If the show wanted Nezha to be a child, I'm certain they would've given him a similar model.

4) If in the instance that, let's say, the god known as Nezha was a child, and LMK Nezha is an adult, you SHOULD separate fiction from religion. Do keep in mind that Sun Wukong is still very much worshipped, however, I have seen fans, in and outside of LMK, who have written heavy NSFW and simped for him. A god is not the same as a fictional character, because by that logic we shouldn't be simping much less writing NSFW of Wukong either, given his story in JTTW where he becomes a Buddha.

5) I do not like proshipping much like any sane person. I also HATE aging up minors in fiction just for something like self shipping or to write nsfw. I have been in fandoms before this one: Jujutsu Kaisen, Tokyo Revengers, and My Hero Academia specifically, and it makes me uncomfortable seeing porn written of actual minors with excuse of them being aged up. I'm not so hypocritical I'd dare to want to do the same, not when I'm uncomfortable with anyone else doing it. If LMK Nezha was a minor, and there were sources to even prove as well within the series he's a child, then obviously, I would NOT be shipping myself with him, much less write romantic/nsfw content with him. I'm an adult, and I don't feel comfortable with minors in general, so why would I want to write romantic content about a FICTIONAL minor??

If you can find any source that proves me wrong, I'd like for you to do so. But until then, you, and everyone else who still wants to entertain Nezha's age; please stop.

I get it. Some of you like to headcanon him as a child so as such, seeing content with him as romantic or nsfw is uncomfortable. I understand, I do; I headcanon Mei as an aroace lesbian so sometimes it's uncomfortable finding any kind of content with her being paired with others. I do understand where you're coming from with your discomfort.

But I feel like, considering season 5 and hopefully if there's a season 6, the whole thing is just dust now. S3 must've been released in 2022, so it's been nearly two years since Nezha's appearance in the show. People headcanon he's a child, and people prefer to like the confirmation he's an adult. We get it, that's what fandoms are, different views etc.

But calling people proshippers or creepy or pedophiles for not adhering to YOUR headcanons is not only fucking stupid, it's just hilarious and way too old, AND just...boring. Especially considering I feel uncomfortable around minors and hate proshipping with a passion. There's genuinely nothing wrong with liking a headcanon, but if someone likes something that isn't problematic and doesn't adhere to your preference, I think you need to breathe a bit.

I was saving this off for last however, you hit the nail on the coffin with this. There is a literal document talking about the disgusting actions of DynamicSimp. If you still choose to like them that's fine, but forgive me for pointing out how hypocritical it is for you to bring up the person who purposely shared porn with minors to someone who avoids minors like they're the rat plague of the Middle Ages. 🤔

"you talk about DynamicSimp but you're doing worst"

Do you mean writing porn for a character who is confirmed to be an adult? Do you mean ensuring that my 18+ blog isn't found by minors and if it is I'll block them? Do you mean supporting someone who's harassed others about Nezha's age?? Do you mean being an absolute creep around children?? Do you mean breaking the boundaries where people have clearly expressed discomfort? Do you mean romanticizing abuse amongst other things for an au clearly being consumed by minors with no regards or wellbeings?

I wonder who's the worst. Me, the adult who only recently turned 18 and has limited his interaction with minors outside of family members, or the however old they are person who has a literal document and their victims speaking up about their actions, and who to my current knowledge has not spoken up about this and is still posting and carrying on without a care in the world?

Well zoinks Scoob, guess we're not making outta this one alive 😟

Edit: .....*disappointed sighs* I think some people really oughta chill out in my comments. Anon, I blame this on you 😭 why did you bring this here holy fucking shit dawg.

Alright. Alright uh.

Okay, so while I do appreciate being told the reasons as to WHY Nezha was "aged up", because a writer wanted to justify shipping Wukong and Nezha...I feel like the entire, "ah, but this says, and that says here-" about Nezha's age is just ridiculous at this point.

Yes, I understand, this is justifiably weird.

However.

Has anyone else refuted Nezha's age?? And I mean the canon show writers? Has anyone working on Lego Monkie Kid made a statement saying: "This person is disgusting, LMK Nezha is a child." Because, respectfully, unless canon sources provide information on it, I'm not going off based on the fandom opinions.

I'm not happy I have to edit this post to add this, much less try to explain anything, but, oh well.

1) "Ali, you're just trying to justify yourself and keep writing for a child." Listen. I've been groomed and dealt with fucking weirdos my entire life. Trust me when I say whenever I hear about proshipping it SICKENS me to the core. I HATE proshipping. I don't care what the excuse is, proshipping is disgusting.

I'm not mentioning the interesting fellows in my comments because it's pointless and honestly to make drama over this is stupid. But I was given some context to understand where they're coming from, and I do in fact appreciate it. Justifiably I don't blame them for their annoyance/disgust towards the writer Sarah (?).

What I will say though; typically in a situation like this, I'm certain someone in the team would've made a statement about this to explain that the writer is wrong. I'd assume at least one writer, someone OFFICIALLY on the team would've denied this proclamation of Nezha being an adult. I have not seen ANYTHING that says the show denies Nezha being an adult.

2) My friend, who was also in the comments (hi), is a native Chinese and a Buddhist for six years. I also have another friend who I'm not mentioning but ALSO is Chinese and WORSHIPS Nezha. They have more knowledge than someone like me does have on this matter, and I find it really odd how people immediately cite wiki and website sources to say, "Nezha is an eternal child!", and, "No where else says Nezha is an adult."

As I've said. If there are sources including the staff from Lego Monkie Kid that claims Nezha is a child, then I am more than willing to delete any content I've made with him. Full honesty, I have no intention of keeping any content with canon, confirmed minors on my blog.

But not only have I found anything that says the official story writers deny Nezha's an adult, but my friends, who are again, both Daoist and native Chinese, are aware that he ISN'T an eternal child.

If you are Daoist and/or worship Nezha, then by all means you can tell me that what I'm doing is wrong and correct me about Nezha's age. I'm willing to listen. If you also find information where the writers claim Saraha is wrong for her statement, provide it. I'm a person that likes reasoning, and I'm willing to see reason.

3) "Ali, you're not gonna see reason you're just trying to defend yourself again-"

Okay, backstory time: last year when I joined LMK, when I myself was a minor, I thought it was okay to write nsfw content for the character who was Lady Bone Demon's Host. My friends at the time did not tell me what I was doing was bad, so of course I kept it up, until someone pointed out that Bai He (fan name) is actually a minor in the show and was also confirmed by the show's producers. I felt so disgusted about it I deleted all my posts made on my old AO3 about her (which is faeriicrafts and still up surprisingly) and offered a sincere apology to the fandom about writing nsfw content for her. I changed and learned, and now I feel grossly uncomfortable seeing anyone writing nsfw for her despite the canon confirmations.

Justifiably, if more information about Nezha is released within Lego Monkie Kid, of which it's confirmed he's a child, I am more than eager to delete everything I've written about him, and even apologize again for writing nsfw with a minor.

To be honest, I just feel uncomfortable with the comments who are denying actual Daoists for the sake of; "I've done my research, no other sources has said Nezha is an adult, you're lying about worshipping him!!"

It's uncomfortable and really off-putting how you can tell someone that about their religion. Yes, this is for you specifically, that one commenter who jumped in and on my friend. Even if she has long since stopped worshipping Nezha, she very much did once. And I've gone to actual Daoists to ask more information about Nezha and the religion in general, who has in fact confirmed Nezha isn't just a child. I get that this is the internet, people can lie about anything. But it's still uncomfortable, solely because had anyone else claimed they're Daoist or ex Daoist and agreed with your opinion, you wouldn't have said that.

I'll reopen my comments within a few minutes, but don't be a disrespectful cunt. And can you maybe not deny someone about their religion? Even if you don't believe them, that's genuinely not an excuse. Because I know damn well, had she agreed with your statement, you wouldn't have pulled that.

Gods. I can't say I'm not surprised, but I'm just impressed about the lengths people will go for something.

Anyways, I've said my piece. If official show writers (because my Daoist friends have already told me what I needed to know) claim Nezha is a child, I'll delete my stuff with him. If not, then I'm not stopping posting Nezha content.

Toodles.

[gildagracedent]

Harvey Dent is a working class man

I don't know why tumblr insists on cycling through such discourse and at such a vitriol level. First of all, don't harass each other - especially over a fictional character. It's childish. But, there has been some discourse that Harvey is an elitist character. Wrong. Harvey has consistently been portrayed as a man with a working class background - almost always except for one or two portrayals. The comics have established this for decades and as said, is the same in almost every portrayal of Harvey. His father was an extremely abusive alcoholic gambler. Let me tell you right now that most gamblers are completely broke. Not all, but most. Harvey would not have been able to get to where he was without hard work and dedication. He was only able to attend law school because of his scholarships and in the Arkham series, Bruce's help. In the Arkham series, Harvey lives in a tiny, dilapidated flat. From what we see of his bedroom, he doesn't appear to own much of anything. Leslie Thompkins talks about how poor he is and has to provide a lot of resources to him. Harvey talks about how he grew up in interviews and is an inspiration for other kids who grew up as he did. Batman the Animated Series has pretty much so the same situation, but without Leslie Thompkins. His father was poor and always was poor, even when Harvey visits him as an adult. Telltale Harvey has a broken down car that hardly works and depends heavily on Bruce for almost anything financial. The Long Halloween establishes that Harvey was not wealthy as he seems to have acquired either a bit of debt or at least severely depleted his funds in order to buy a home for Gilda.

Additionally, there seems to be this idea that lawyer = rich. No. it takes years to pay off college loans. A lot of lawyers - and doctors have to wait a decade or more for their degrees to finally pay off. Even if Harvey had graduated with no debt, he was still a brand new lawyer. Newly graduated lawyers do not make that much money. DA's do not make much money, especially at first. There are other law subsets that make far more money.

Additionally, it's rude to assume that everyone from doctors to lawyers to professors are all wealthy and that they didn't work to get where they are. It completely negates the hard work that many did and ignores the backgrounds that many come from. I would know this because I was friends with a lot of law students and med students in graduate school. (And before anyone comes for me, I'm a first generation college student who needed scholarships.) Trust me. They're struggling. Harvey came from NOTHING and that's one of the reasons why he was seen as such a shining star and inspiration to the people of Gotham, something the Arkham series heavily touches upon. Additionally, I have never seen Harvey or Two Face act elitist towards anyone. It's simply not in his or Two Face's nature. At the risk of sounding arrogant, if you don't even know that Harvey had an abusive father and Harvey was extremely impoverished - how can you be harassing anyone over what "Harvey really is". Harvey fans, please feel free to add on with more examples.

[revenantghost]

Kenji Muto's Twitter Posts: Part 2

Before and while Tristamp was airing, Kenji Muto made some amazing Twitter posts giving us lore and production tidbits along the way. And while I don't speak Japanese (so I'm going to have to use Google Translate for this, so take everything you read here with a grain of salt because it may be skewed by mistranslation), there was some fantastic art and really cool concepts shared, and I want to archive anything Trigun-related. If I miss anything, let me know!) It starts a little slow with stuff we already know, but there are some interesting tidbits! If anyone who knows Japanese wants to correct anything, please feel free! Now, without further ado...

Part 1

Part 2 [here]

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12:14 AM · Jan 30, 2023

方言が南部訛りのメタファーなら、 他の方言メタファーがあっても良いんじゃない？ って事で、多彩な地方出身キャラが登場。 もちろん彼らのバックグラウンド物語も構築済み。 神は細部に宿るのだ。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

If dialect is a metaphor for a southern accent, Wouldn't it be nice to have other dialect metaphors? So, a variety of local characters appear. Of course, their background stories have also been constructed. God is in the details. #TRIGUN #トライガン

11:29 PM · Feb 5, 2023

現代社会にラディカルに切り込む、第五話。 誰の中にも憎悪は生まれる。 親や国籍は選べない。 WE ARE MONEV. #TRIGUN #トライガン

The fifth episode radically cuts into modern society. Hatred is born within everyone. You can't choose your parents or nationality. WE ARE MONEV. #TRIGUN #トライガン

11:35 PM · Feb 5, 2023

風力発電だけじゃない 上質なワムズシルクも高値で取引されている。 この惑星では、 手に入るものすべてが貴重品。 生き抜くために。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

In addition to wind power generation, high-quality Wams silk is also traded at high prices. On this planet, Everything you can get is valuable. To survive. #TRIGUN #トライガン

12:04 AM · Feb 7, 2023

当然のことながら、 他にもプラントを持てない村が多数存在する。 風力発電、 ワムズシルク以外に、 ワムズ漁で生活する村がある。 例の3人組も、 各地に点在する「漁師の村」出身の可能性が高い。 特に高値で取引されるのが、 グランドワムズ類。 #TRIGUN

As a matter of course, There are many other villages that cannot have plants. Wind-power generation, In addition to Wamsilk, There is a village where people live by fishing for worms. The example trio, It is highly likely that they came from "fishermen's villages" scattered throughout the country. The ones that are traded at particularly high prices are Grandworms. #TRIGUN

11:46 PM · Feb 12, 2023

時系列を鑑みるに、 この頃はまだ、青年だった。 なぜ髪が「青い」のか？ オキシタケヒコ氏の「裏SF考証」が世に出ることを切に願う。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

Considering the time series, At this time, he was still a young man. Why is my hair “blue”? I sincerely hope that Takehiko Okishi's ``background science fiction research'' will be released into the world. #TRIGUN #トライガン

5:11 AM · Feb 13, 2023

惑星ノーマンズランドにおける、 「ハンプバック級」の巨大砂蒸気船は合計７隻存在する。 七都市がそれぞれ一基ずつ貴重な「生体動力炉プラント」を捻出して建造。 水を沸騰させて動く原始的な蒸気機関を採用している。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

On the planet No Man's Land, There are a total of seven "Humpback class" giant sand steamships. Each of the seven cities devised and built one valuable "biological power reactor plant." It uses a primitive steam engine that runs by boiling water. #TRIGUN #トライガン

12:25 AM · Feb 15, 2023

彼は誰の味方？ どっちの味方？ 国境なき、ワムズの王。 知識でなく、智恵を求めよ。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

Whose side is he on? Which side are you on? Without Borders, King of Wams. Seek wisdom, not knowledge. #TRIGUN #トライガン

3:19 AM · Feb 22, 2023

BADでRADなヤツら。 地獄のような惑星環境もなんのその。 何事も捉え方次第では ポジティブに生きられる。 バド・ラド団の第二分隊、登場。 本隊は…？ #TRIGUN #トライガン

BAD and RAD guys. What's with the hellish planetary environment? You can live a positive life depending on how you view everything. The second squad of the Bad Lads Gang has arrived. The main force...? #TRIGUN #トライガン

11:18 PM · Feb 23, 2023

名前って不思議なもので、 改造人間ニコラスは、二つの顔を持っている。 ニコラス・D・ウルフウッド ニコラス・ザ・パニッシャー 最終的に彼はどちらを選ぶのだろう？ 脚本時の名前表記が「ニコラス」で統一されていたのは、そうゆう理由だったりする。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

Names are strange things, The modified human Nicholas has two faces. Nicholas D. Wolfwood Nicholas the Punisher Who will he choose in the end? This may be the reason why his name was written as ``Nicholas'' in the script. #TRIGUN #トライガン

12:11 AM · Feb 27, 2023

地球産の動物は惑星環境に適応できない。 SEEDS船団が目的地に到着したとき、その地で育てていくために積まれていた、無数の動植物の胚と遺伝子ストックから植物や動物を複製するためのシステム、 「クローニング・デバイス」 そこで遺伝子改良され生まれたのが、トマ。 トマってすごい。 #TRIGUN

Earth-born animals cannot adapt to the planetary environment. A system for replicating plants and animals from the countless embryos and gene stocks of plants and animals that were on board to be grown on-site when the SEEDS fleet arrived at its destination. "Cloning device" Toma was then genetically improved and born. Toma are amazing. #TRIGUN

10:09 PM · Mar 2, 2023

マフラーと仮面のようにも見えるが、 実はワムズの一種。 極めて毒性の強い、 砂ムカデ類の幼生ワムズなのだ。 寒い冬に、一匹飼ってみては如何？ #TRIGUN #トライガン

It looks like a scarf and a mask, It's actually a type of Wams. Extremely toxic, It is a larval worm of a sand centipede. Why not keep one in the cold winter? #TRIGUN #トライガン

12:06 AM · Mar 6, 2023

シナーズの銃、別名プロトタイプ（改造前）のPeace Bringer。 こちらも「幻のスケッチ」にヒントがある。 なぜ、誰が、いつ、改造したのだろう？ #TRIGUN #トライガン

Sinners' gun, also known as the prototype (before modification) Peace Bringer. There is also a hint in the ``Phantom Sketch''. Why, by whom, and when was it remodeled? #TRIGUN #トライガン

4:36 AM · Mar 10, 2023

ディスコミュニケーションや地獄のような環境で踠く姿は、 とても人間らしく、美しく、 何より”ポジティブな物語”だと考えて作っているのですが。 みたいな赤裸々トークをしたFMラジオ収録。 いつOAだろう？ #TRIGUN #トライガン

Discommunication and the appearance of struggling in a hellish environment, Very human and beautiful. Above all, I think of it as a ``positive story'' when I create it. An FM radio recording of a frank talk. When will it be OA? #TRIGUN #トライガン

12:34 AM · Mar 17, 2023

成長した彼女は、強くなりますよ。 “パニッシャー“では太刀打ちできないほどに。 軍用の身体改造ナノマシンによって作り替えられた肉体。 ロストナンバー。 あくまで今回は、前哨戦。再戦はいつか、また…。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

As she grows up, she will become stronger. To the extent that “The Punisher” can’t compete with it. A body modified by military body modification nanomachines. Lost number. This time, it's just a preliminary battle. When will there be a rematch? #TRIGUN #トライガン

12:18 AM · Mar 20, 2023

プラントの力は、空間に開く無数の穴《ゲート》がすべて担っている。 このゲートは大別すると《持ってくる力》と《持っていく力》の二種類がある。 この世ではない別の場所、 別の宇宙なのか、異なる位相なのか、異次元なのか（？）に繋がっているらしいが…。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

The power of the plant is entirely derived from the countless holes (gates) that open in space. There are two types of gates: ``Power to bring'' and ``Power to bring.'' A place other than this world, It seems that it is connected to another universe, a different phase, or a different dimension (?)... #TRIGUN #トライガン

Adding a tid-bit from @pancake-breakfast here:

So, my Japanese isn't great, but I wanted to try to clarify something on here that Google Translate isn't capturing, namely from this part: Saying that there are two types of gates and then defining them both as "Power to bring" doesn't make sense in English. Why make a distinction between the two if you're gonna define them the same way? But in the Japanese, it's not quite the same words used for both: "持ってくる力" (motte kuru chikara) vs. "持っていく力" (motte iku chikara. 力 (chikara) just means "power," so we'll set that aside for now since that part is actually consistent across both items. 持って (motte) is also consistent across both items. This means "carrying" or "holding," like you'd hold a bag or a purse or a backpack or something that you're taking around with you. The big difference is between くる (kuru) and いく (iku). These are actually the kana (phonetic) versions of two kanji characters: 来る (kuru) - to come 行く (iku) - to go That provides us with a nice little pair of opposites, and changes our literal definitions as follows: 持ってくる力 (motte kuru chikara) - Power to come carrying 持っていく力 (motte iku chikara) - Power to go carrying So... they're both kinda "power to bring" but it would be more accurate to say one brings and one removes. Or, if you're feeling dramatic, one giveth and one taketh away.

1:46 AM · Mar 20, 2023

ノーマンズランドで流通している銃は、 墜落移民船のデータベースから設計情報をサルベージされ、レプリカ制作されたものが大半。 宇宙時代の銃は、設計が判明しても再現は難しい。 乾燥、砂塵の舞う土地が多いため、 故障の少ないシンプル構造のものが好まれる傾向にある。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

The guns circulating in No Man's Land are: Most of the designs were salvaged from databases of crashed immigrant ships and were made into replicas. Even if the design of a space-age gun is known, it is difficult to recreate it. Because there are many dry and dusty lands, There is a tendency to prefer those with simple structures that are less likely to break down. #TRIGUN #トライガン

1:05 AM · Mar 21, 2023

隊長、実はうどんが大好物。 憲兵たちにも大人気、 創業100年の老舗屋台”儒来ヌードル” 大墜落後の闇市からはじまった屋台が数多く存在する、旧市街の横丁。 訪れた際は必ずチェックしたい観光スポットの一つだ。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

Captain, I actually love udon. Very popular with military police, 100-year-old long-established food stall “Yulai Noodle” This alley in the old town is home to many food stalls that started as a black market after the Big Fall. It is one of the tourist spots that you should definitely check out when you visit. #TRIGUN #トライガン

12:34 AM · Mar 22, 2023

通常種／自立種を問わず、 プラントの身体の内側では、 ”サプライゲート”が無数に動いており、細胞ひとつひとつに活動エネルギーを供給し、 本来なら生物として生存できないはずの不完全な肉体を健康に保っている…らしい。 "プラント"とは、何なのか？ #TRIGUN #トライガン

Regardless of whether it is a normal species or an independent species, Inside the plant's body, A countless number of "supply gates" are moving, supplying energy to each cell, It seems that he is keeping his imperfect body, which normally would not be able to survive as a living thing, healthy. What is a "plant"? #TRIGUN #トライガン

12:48 AM · Mar 24, 2023

「記憶世界」は”弟側”からの記憶と印象値と断片で造られている。 故に、描き方は限定的になる。 “兄”の視点や感情から見た”テスラ事件”は、もっと凄惨な内容になるだろう。 描く機会があれば…。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

The "memory world" is made of memories, impression values, and fragments from the "younger brother's side." Therefore, the way of drawing is limited. The ``Tesla Incident'' seen from the ``older brother'''s perspective and emotions would be even more gruesome. If you have a chance to draw... #TRIGUN #トライガン

12:14 AM · Mar 25, 2023

あくまでドクターの仮説だが。 体内にある“ゲート“を強く開くことで、 それを物質へ相転移させることで肉体を変形させているらしい。 今後、この謎は科学的に解明されてゆくのだろう。 なぜ”弟”のゲートだけ「黒い」のか？ #TRIGUN #トライガン

That's just the doctor's hypothesis. By strongly opening the “gate” in the body, It seems that the body is transformed by phase transitioning it into matter. This mystery will probably be solved scientifically in the future. Why is only the “younger brother” gate “black”? #TRIGUN #トライガン

11:16 PM · Mar 26, 2023

地獄のような、 惑星ノーマンズランド的現場でしたが、 最後まで生き残ったメインスタッフの皆様、プロデューサー陣、制作陣、音響チーム、宣伝チーム…など、とにかく多くの人に支えられた作品でした。 何よりも、内藤先生の支えには感謝しかない。 本当にお疲れ様でした！ #TRIGUN #トライガン

Like hell, It was a scene similar to the planet No Man's Land, This work was supported by many people, including the main staff who survived until the end, the producers, production team, sound team, advertising team, etc. Above all, I am grateful to Naito-sensei for his support. Thank you very much for your hard work! #TRIGUN #トライガン

11:18 PM · Mar 26, 2023

池田さんは”血”で、松岡さんは”砂”ですよね。 「ぶにゅー」とか「サラサラ」とか、 擬音、抽象度高めのトーク���載、 ブルーレイディスク、オーディオコメンタリーの収録。 本編同様、１回や２回聴いただけじゃ理解できない、 STAMPEDEっぽい内容となっております。 #TRIGUN #トライガン

Mr. Ikeda's name is "blood" and Mr. Matsuoka's name is "sand." "Bunyuu" or "Sarasara" Full of onomatopoeic and highly abstract talk, Includes Blu-ray disc and audio commentary. Like the main story, you can't understand it just by listening to it once or twice. The content is similar to STAMPEDE. #TRIGUN #トライガン

[the-fiction-witch]

House Of Christmas P3

Media - House Of The Dragon Character - Jacaerys Velaryon Couple - None Reader - None Rating - 12 Word Count - 1170

Fictional Advent Day Tweleve

Jace hesitated, lingering at a distance as he observed the complete chaos unfolding before him. He couldn't help but entertain the faint hope that by keeping his distance, any casual observers might assume he wasn't associated with the tumult. His gaze swept over the scene as his family emerged from their vehicles, amid a cacophony of shouts and wails from unhappy babies. Each person appeared to be as discontented as possible as they ventured out into the snow.

The family trudged through the thick snow toward the inviting green door, eager to escape the biting cold. As they entered the house, they were greeted by an insane scene. Viserys and Otto sat comfortably in their chairs. Heleana stood by the window, her gaze fixed outside as Aemond sat beside her. Aegon and Daeron perched on the staircase, with Gwayne casually leaning against it. Alicent, elegant in her dress, stood poised and ready to welcome them. Harwin and Daemon burst through the door, still engrossed in a lively debate, while the spirited twins, Beala and Rheana, hurried in right after, immediately seeking out Heleana to continue a conversation they had likely been engrossed in during the journey. Leana followed closely behind, her belly swollen with pregnancy. Meanwhile, Luke assisted Rhaynera in bringing in all the necessities for baby Aegon, Viserys and still toddler Joffery.

Jace lingered at the threshold, taking in the chaos of greetings, shouting, and festive revelry.

“You certainly took your time arriving,” Alicent said,

“The roads were hardly our fault,” Rhyanera replied as she slipped off her coat revealing the skin-tight red dress.

Earring a wolf whistle from both Harwin and Daemon,

Gwayne raised an eyebrow at Rhaynera's choice. Daemon's and Harwin's appreciative catcalls earned them scathing glares from not only Viserys but also Leana and the ever-observant Alicent.

Jace stood awkwardly in the background, observing the unfolding scene of family dynamics.

“Nevertheless you're here now.” Alicent sighed directing everyone to their rooms,

“Dibs on the beds!” Luke exclaimed, racing into the room. He leapt onto one of the double beds, bouncing slightly on the soft mattress as a wide grin spread across his face.

“It’s our house, so it’s only fair that Aemond and I get the beds,” Aemond argued, crossing his arms defiantly. He glanced at the other boys, his brow furrowing with determination.

“Yes, but we are your guests and that should count for something,” Jacaerys countered, raising an eyebrow as he stepped closer to the bed where Luke was now sprawled out comfortably.

“Honestly, I don’t want to share a bed with any of you guys,” Aegon chimed in,

“Okay, let’s settle this diplomatically,” Jacaerys sighed, rolling his eyes slightly. He took a moment, gathering his thoughts before he continued, “How about we take a vote? All in favour of Luke and me getting the beds while Aemond and Aegon sleep on the floor?”

With a sense of camaraderie, both Jace and Luke raised their hands eagerly,

“And all in favour of us receiving the beds while the strong boys take on the floor?” Aemond posed the question, his voice tinged with mock seriousness.

Both Aegon and Aemond eagerly raised their hands,

“Stalemate, then. Daeron? What’s your vote?” Aegon redirected the inquiry, scanning the room for his brother. “...Daeron… where the hell did you—Ah!”

“I literally haven’t moved,” Daeron replied with a weary sigh, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.

Luke chuckled, shaking his head. “I swear you must have some sort of invisibility cloak that we’re unaware of.”

“If I did, I certainly wouldn’t be sharing that secret with you,” Daeron quipped back, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Why not just divide the beds among us?”

“Share? But we’re…” Aegon’s voice trailed off, uncertainty creeping in as he glanced at his brothers.

A moment of silence hung in the air, and a look of shared confusion passed between them, each searching for the right words.

“...Related?” Jacaerys finally suggested,

Daeron rolled his eyes dramatically. “Aemond and Aegon have one bed, while Lucerys and Jacaerys claim the other.” He gestured toward the respective beds, his tone both sarcastic and resigned.

“What about you?” Aemond asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

“I’d be more than happy to take the sofa if it means you all will just zip it,” Daeron replied, exhaling heavily as he slumped against the wall.

“Fine,” Jacaerys nodded in agreement, the decision finally reaching a reluctant conclusion among them all.

Once the room was meticulously unpacked, Jacaerys and lucerys quietly tiptoed downstairs, his eyes scanning the well-stocked kitchen for snacks to stash away in the bedroom. Thy hoped to grab a handful of treats without arousing suspicion, but just as he was about to make his escape, a familiar voice rang out.

“Jace, Luke! Come help your little brothers,” Rhaynera called, her voice warm yet commanding. Young Viserys and Aegon flanked her, their cheeks rosy from the excitement. They sat at the table, which was adorned with an array of colourful decorations and an ample supply of materials for building gingerbread people and houses. Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, and Megor were already engrossed in the sugary chaos, with Alicent overseeing, though her version of help seemed more about crafting her own elaborate creations while the younger ones feasted on candy and created a delightful mess. Heleana diligently painted intricate sigils on cookies with vibrant icing, her brows furrowed in concentration.

“Actually, we were going to head upstairs for some games with Aegon and Aemond,” Jacaerys lied.

“Jace. Come on,” Rhaynera implored, a look of gentle exasperation on her face.

“Why can’t Dad help them?” Lucerys chimed in,

“Because Hawin has gone to fetch firewood,” she replied, a slight frown crossing her lips.

“Mom, can we please—” Jacaerys started, but his mother cut him off with a stern look.

“Sit,” Rhaynera commanded, her gaze firm.

“Yes, Mom,” they both replied in unison, resigning to their fate. They sat down at the table, reluctantly joining in the spirited chaos, helping the younger children with their icing and decorations.

“How sweet,” Alicent remarked with a smile,. She then excused herself, and dragged Aemond and Aegon to come down, so that she and Rhaynera could sneak off to enjoy some much-needed wine.

“Hmmm, if I take this cola bottle… and some icing… Ha!” Aegon exclaimed, a mischievous smirk spreading across his face. “I gave him a dick.”

“Hilarious, Aegon,” Aemond sighed, rolling his eyes. “Hand me exactly sixteen red M&M’s.”

“Here you go,” Luke said, a bored tone creeping into his voice.

“...These are deep pink,” Aemond replied, scrutinizing the candies.

“Dude, just take them,” Luke retorted, exasperation evident.

“Fine,” Aemond grumbled, accepting the vibrant candies.

“Jace, come on, help me with my tower,” Luke urged, his excitement palpable.

“Are you going to transform it into a horrific tragedy?” Jacaerys asked, a teasing glint in his eye.

“Of course! It’s gingerbread. It has to be horrific,” Luke replied, his imagination already running wild.

“I want no part in your attempts to scare the little ones again,” Jacaerys shook his head, determined to remain uninvolved.

“I’ll gladly take part in it,” Aegon volunteered, a devious smile creeping onto his face.

“When is dinner, anyway?” Daemon inquired from his comfortable perch on the couch, casually draped across Leana lounging beside him. 

[homestuckreplay]

Week 1 Retrospective: Who Is John Egbert?

It’s official - Homestuck is one week old today! And while a week is not a long run for a comic, it’s already got more pages than the author’s earlier work Bard Quest, so maybe it’s something worth recognizing. So I wanted to mark a week of Homestuck by doing a deep dive on what we’ve learned about our protagonist John Egbert so far. It’s some fact collection, some wild speculation, and some ongoing questions. It’s over 3000 words, so it’s under a readmore for anyone who’s interested.

If that doesn’t sound like a fun time to you (or even if it does), you can take the John Egbert Big 5 Personality Test to see how you score on John’s five key personality traits. It’s 14 multiple choice questions, so a much quicker read.

We’re introduced to John on page 4, where we’re given five key interests of his: bad movies, programming computers, paranormal lore, amateur magic, and gaming. I’ll take these one by one and use them as a framework for John’s character so far.

“You have a passion for REALLY TERRIBLE MOVIES.”

John has eleven (11) movie posters on his walls. Of these, three star Matthew McConaughey and two star Nicolas Cage. More notably, six have a Rotten Tomatoes rating below 50%, and two of these are below 10%. I haven’t seen any of these movies, but as far as I can tell, here are the one sentence summaries [broad spoilers for all these movies].

Little Monsters: A boy befriends a monster and visits the monster world, where they try to convert him into a monster too.

Con Air: A paroled man disrupts a gang of prisoner’s escape from a prison transport plane.

Deep Impact: Earth tries to prepare for extinction after a comet is found on a collision course with Earth.

Ghostbusters II: After going out of business, the Ghostbusters reunite to combat a negative energy slime monster.

Mac and Me: A boy befriends a young alien who gets separated from his family and lost on Earth.

Contact: An Earth scientist successfully discovers alien life and travels to an alien world.

A Time to Kill: A father is acquitted in court for killing the perpetrators of racial hate crimes against his daughter.

Failure to Launch: A 35 year old man’s parents hire a woman to persuade him to finally move out of their home.

Face/Off: A terrorist and a FBI agent go through facial transplant surgery and temporarily swap identities.

Armageddon: A group of space workmen go on a mission to stop an asteroid from destroying Earth. 

Ghost Dad: A man temporarily dies but is able to interact with his children in ghost form.

From this we can see that John really likes science fiction movies related to aliens, ghosts and monsters, as well as action comedy. We also know from page 21: ‘Films about impending apocalypse fascinate you’. A Time to Kill and Failure to Launch are the only ones that don’t fit his taste. The implication here is that John really loved Matthew McConaughey in Contact and so watched his other movies even though they were things he wouldn’t usually watch.

I’m curious if these movies are intended as clues to John’s character, the future of the comic, or both. In terms of his character, they make me see him as someone who’s imaginative and goofy, young and carefree, not concerned with other people’s opinions, more interested in watching movies for their surface meanings and exciting stories, maybe wants to escape to a different world, might be a little bit gay. 

In terms of the future of the comic, it could be that we’re going to see literal aliens or monsters - they could even be already here, keeping John ‘homestuck’. Slime monsters are particularly highlighted, with Slimer from Ghostbusters appearing on John’s shirt and computer background, and his chumhandle, ectoBiologist, relating to slime. Slime invasion honestly feels too obvious, and anyway, several of John’s movies are about befriending a more benign supernatural force - could John’s Pesterchum friends be something other than human? Or maybe it’s a more metaphorical meaning, referring to John having a very different life to his friends? 

Two of these movies feature Earth extinctions by giant space rocks, but there’s absolutely no indication of this being a real world threat John is dealing with. Again, it could refer more generally to a sudden, life changing event that’s about to happen to disrupt John’s current state, something that would fit thematically with this being John’s 13th birthday, a milestone age.

There’s also a theme of crime and the legal system in several movies, including Con Air, the one that’s been most highlighted. The most obvious interpretation of John’s dad right now is that he’s a clown or performer, but there’s an outside chance he could be in law enforcement, or a criminal. It’s even possible that he’s currently in hiding or some kind of safe house. This would explain John being ‘homestuck’ and sick of spending time with his dad.

Speaking of John’s dad, I’m concerned for him based on the Ghost Dad summary - the comic keeps teasing his presence, but we haven’t actually seen him yet. Could he be a ghost? Or become one at some point? Alternatively, we know John has an already dead relative - could his nanna be a ghost? Did John dropping her ashes release her ghost? Family is a really common theme in movies, so I don’t know if a large number of these movies being about family (especially fathers) is relevant, but I’m noting it all the same.

“You like to program computers but you are NOT VERY GOOD AT IT.”

John claims he ‘likes to program’, but it actually seems to make him angry. We first learn ‘[y]ou were never all that great with data structures and you find the concept [of the stack modus] puzzling and mildly irritating.’ We then see three files on John’s desktop, two in ^CAKE - ‘pff.^CAKE’ and ‘FUCK FUCK FUCK.^CAKE’ and one in ~ATH - ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH.~ATH’. These tell a clear narrative of John trying to work on his programming and getting increasingly more frustrated with his attempts, until inevitably giving up. Both of the programming languages are puns, too. ^ is often called a carat (carrot cake) while ~ is a tilde (til death). 

I know this is wild speculation, but… John started off coding in a harmless programming language, was already struggling, then for some reason switched over to the most ominous possible sounding language, screwed it up even worse, and now… he’s constantly haunted by the ghost of failed programming attempts in the form of his sylladex, which he appears to be new to using (he had no prior understanding of it on page 7 - although this could be handwaved due to video game tutorial logic), and which operates similarly to a computer program and seems to cause John endless frustration. He’ll have to figure out how to exploit the inventory system in ways that help him, which involves actually figuring out some stuff about coding, in order to partake in some real life ghostbusting, or monster hunting, or dealing with whatever threat he’ll have to deal with by using inventory hacks.

“You have a fondness for PARANORMAL LORE,” (...)

By far the interest of John’s that we’ve seen the least of so far, John’s love of the paranormal is mostly inferred through his movie preferences, and we don’t see any direct evidence of an interest in lore. However, I can’t stop fixating on John’s chumhandle: ectoBiologist. The comic’s first act was to draw attention to giving John a name, and for many 2009 kids, the names they go by online are more meaningful and representative of them than their real world names. 

‘ecto-’ means ‘outer, outside, external’ according to dictionary.com, and it’s actually a common prefix in a variety of fields of biology, but there’s no such thing as ‘ectobiology’ as a field, or an ‘ectobiologist’ - neither term has any search results prior to Homestuck. I think it’s way more likely that this refers to ectoplasm, a term from both cell biology and spiritualism that was popularized by Ghostbusters to mean any substance secreted by a ghost, in practice often manifesting as green slime. Slimer, who we can guess is John’s favorite, is a benign ghost made of pure ectoplasm. I love the idea that John loves this dumb ghost so much that he’s memorized all the lore about them in their appearances throughout the franchise, and devised this username based on being an expert on these ghosts right down to their biology (or at least thinking he is). 

The only catch is, ‘fondness for paranormal lore’ is very passive and doesn’t even imply much knowledge, much less action, while ‘biologist’ implies that John has been doing actual experiments. The idea of John trying to create a real life Slimer the same way other kids make slime in their kitchens is really entertaining, if an off the wall theory. Does ‘homestuck’ just mean John is grounded for an unethical science project? 

(...) “and are an aspiring AMATEUR MAGICIAN.”

The magic chest is one of the biggest, most eye catching and most colorful objects in John’s room. We see its contents on page 8, which lean more into joke store items than things a magician might use, except for the trick handcuffs and perhaps the collapsible sword. The narration on this page states that John is neither a skilled magician nor a cunning prankster. I’m nitpicking definitions here, but everything John has done so far has been way more about pranks than about magic. 

John’s uses of the magic chest to date are…

various putting things into his inventory and removing them (funny, but unintentionally)

combining fake arms with cake (p.36) out of necessity, which ‘makes the cake at least 300% more hilarious’

merging hat with beagle puss to create a clever disguise (p.45) and wearing it for 25+ pages, which he acknowledges is a ‘shitty disguise’

attaching fake arms to harlequin doll (p.65), which makes it ‘AT LEAST a million percent funnier’

All of which are definitely not magic tricks, and honestly not even pranks. Arguably John’s best and most successful prank so far has been when he pretended not to have arms for the first six pages, before revealing his arms after the interface had gone to the trouble of moving the cake off his magic chest to get him some arms.

John keeps thinking about reading Colonel Sassacre’s Guide to Magical Frivolity and Practical Japery, but always finding some excuse not to. He can’t read it until he captchalogues it, but once he does that, it gets buried in his inventory. He assumes that the book can tell him the exact percentage increase of hilarity a prank leads to, but it’s too big for him to actually look anything up. 

An outside theory for this that I don’t think is likely simply because it’s so much darker than the comic has been so far, is that John loves this book, but since the incident where his nanna was killed by a copy (perhaps even this copy?) he hasn’t been able to bring himself to read it. A far more likely theory is that while John is an aspiring amateur magician, it’s more of a big idea, and he hasn’t actually done any magic yet. This also tracks with his weaksauce pranks above. And if that’s true, then it says a lot about John that he defines himself by a hobby he aspires to but doesn’t actually practice - he’s someone with big dreams and less motivation, just like his big dream of going to collect the mail from his father despite the lack of motivation that’s kept him messing around for 70 pages. 

“You also like to play GAMES sometimes.”

Potentially most important of all is Gamer John. We get a list of games John likes to play from inspecting his CD tower the same way we get a list of movies from looking at his posters. 

Bard Quest

The Caper Havers

Problem Sleuth

And It Don’t Stop

What Pumpkin?

Ghostbusters II MMORPG

Little Monsters (for Nintendo)

Harry Anderson: Call My Bluff!

The first five games all reference previous work by the author of Homestuck, and as such probably don’t need in depth analysis. However, the fact that within the world of Homestuck, these are all games (instead of comics) is one of several suggestions that we should think of Homestuck as a game, something that needs further analysis. 

The next two games are video game adaptations of movies we know John likes, and the last is a branded video game from Harry Anderson, whose book we’ve already seen in John’s magic chest. Notably, none of these are real video games in our world either. It says a lot that John plays game versions of things he already likes (he’s put ‘countless manhours’ into this assortment of quality titles). 

However, it’s undeniable that the most important game in John’s life right now is Sburb. The poster is behind his head in the first panel, placed centrally with one of the only two splashes of color in the panel. The beta release is the only thing marked on his calendar for April besides his birthday, and the Sburb logo is even the picture printed on the calendar - perhaps it’s a calendar themed around new game releases? There’s clear delight on John’s face when he thinks about getting the beta, and his quest to fetch it from the recently delivered mail is the closest thing to a story this comic has so far.

Unfortunately, we know almost nothing about Sburb, so we don’t know what it says about John that he wants to play it. It’s publicized as the Game of the Year, and according to GameBro, the game may be about houses and the player may not get to thrash anything, although these details are provided by someone who hasn’t played the game so I’m not taking them as expert opinion. It might be multiplayer - TT has been pestering TG all day about playing it with her. Maybe John just wants to share a game with his friends.

Speaking of GameBro, John can’t stand the magazine, although he for some reason has a copy on his desk. He describes the publication as ‘a joke’ to TG, and he makes the effort to take it downstairs to the fire and burn it, presumably releasing asbestos fibers into the house and causing serious lung damage to himself and his father. Does he read this because it’s the only games magazine that exists? Or did he like it just fine until now, when it trashed the game he’s excited about, and now he’s furious with it? Either way, it tracks with John’s overall fondness for critically panned media that he would be angry about contrarian critics. 

–

All of this has left me with a few questions about John as our main character. These are the things that I’m keeping an eye on and trying to answer as the story continues.

What is John good at?

We hear so much about what John is bad at. He’s explicitly stated to be bad at programming, pranks, and magic. He’s bad at using his sylladex. He’s clumsy and knocked over his nanna’s ashes. He’s got bad taste in media. He’s funny but only when he doesn’t try to be, and even then he’s sometimes the butt of the joke, where the joke is how not funny John’s joke is. He was tempted to squawk like an imbecile and shit on his desk. He has like six different prankster props and he doesn’t even use all of them. I’m saying all this with love and kindness because he also just seems like such a sweet kid, but so far he doesn’t have any defined strengths or skills. 

Is he going to turn out to be really good at gaming and kick ass at Sburb? Are we going to get a curveball where it turns out John is an amazing baker, and he hates the cakes in his room and the smell of Betty Crocker because he can do so much better than that packet mix? Or is he starting off from this low point so he can develop skills as time goes on?

What is John’s relationship with his dad really like?

John doesn’t want his dad to monopolize his time and feels trapped in his room, despite his dad baking cakes and leaving notes on gifts telling John he’s proud of him. John’s dad gets his son one great present that John’s really appreciative of, and one terrible present that John immediately hates. All of this feels very reasonable and normal for a teen feeling misunderstood by a parent who’s trying their best. 

And then there’s the clowns.

John can excuse magical frivolity and practical japery, but he draws the line at harlequins. He’s an aspiring magician, but his dad’s figurines are ‘fucking garbage’ and his dad ‘sure can be a real cornball’. John seems like somebody who gets angry at ultimately unimportant things, like bad reviews of games, too many cakes, and harlequin figurines, but because of the subject matter it reads like an intense rivalry between two highly specific subcultures that outsiders would group together. John is really making a huge deal of needing to disguise himself and mentally prepare himself to go down and face his dad, and I want to know if there’s any genuine reason behind John’s fear, or if it’s solely the overdramatics I’m starting to think are typical of him.

Is John ‘Homestuck’?

‘Sometimes you feel like you are trapped in this room. Stuck, if you will, in a sense which possibly borders on the titular.’ (p.30)

John clearly feels like he’s stuck at home, but is this the extent of the title’s meaning? His dad has recently returned from getting groceries, so leaving the house is in theory possible. Reasons why John might be homestuck include: he’s not allowed to leave the house (for example, he’s grounded, or his dad is very controlling), he can leave the house but there’s nowhere to go (he lives near major roads, bodies of water, farms, or other obstacles, and there’s no public transport to get anywhere), or he can leave the house but it’s not safe to do so (there’s some sort of external threat, either supernatural like a monster or alien invasion, or mundane like a criminal or bomb threat). Seeing out of John’s window and into his front yard does not provide any clues; it looks like an extremely average front yard with a tree, swing and mailbox, and we know the mail was recently delivered, so there can’t be anything too world-ending happening in the neighborhood. Right now John’s goal (the Sburb Beta disc) is inside the house, so this might not get answered right away - in fact, my running theory is that the game itself might hold the answers, as its logo is a house.

What’s the differentiation between John and the narrator?

My biggest question of all, and one that probably deserves its own essay. I’m fascinated by the lines ‘In a kid's yard, a tree without a tire swing is like a proper gentleman without a monocle.’ (p.27) and ‘In a home, a FIREPLACE needs a fire, because that's what FIREPLACE is for.’ (p.50). These lines carry so much opinion, but because the narrator is constantly addressing John with the second person ‘you’, I don’t think these are John’s opinions. The narrator does have a window into John’s thoughts, so the line between them can be blurred, but there's clearly a distinction somewhere, because there have been pushbacks and disagreements between the two of them. 

One theory is that John’s dad is the narrator - John’s at home a lot for whatever reason, and so the constant and overbearing presence of his dad means that he can’t get him out of his head even when he’s alone, the commands at the top of each page reflecting John’s dad’s level of control over his son’s life. But I think this question is open ended enough that I’m not willing to commit to one theory yet. After all, we ‘examine 3rd and 4th walls of [John’s] room’ which is a directly meta allusion to the comic’s audience that only really makes sense if the narrator isn’t a character in the comic itself. 

–

I think John Egbert has been really well characterized so far. He feels like a real kid, one who keeps getting off track and forgetting what he should be doing, but one who it’s enough fun to get to know that I don’t really notice. While the main character in media often doesn’t end up being the most interesting character, I do want to keep an eye on John because I think he has a lot going on to analyze. Above the style and the world and the mechanics, John as a character is the aspect of the comic I’m most interested in right now.

[1moreff-creator]

It is done. Just over 2 hours 40 minutes, but it’s done. A full analysis of the David Literature Girl Insane MV.

Some important clarifications under the cut, for before you watch.

>CW for suicide, depression, self-loathing, murder and death, fictional blood, self-harm, manipulation, among other heavy topics. It’s not easy to remember everything I covered over the span of just under three hours, but those are the biggest things which appear throughout the video.

>Since I use clips from the MV, there are flashing lights and disorienting camera angles, but I always made sure to include a warning right before they happen. You can also use those warnings to skip the music if Yoppei’s cover is annoying to you, I’ve heard some people say it is.

>The video should be available in up to 720p eventually, but keep in mind it may take a few hours for that to show up as a possibility. I kinda forgot about that when I uploaded it oops.

>Please ignore the tangent at the start about FNAF. I uploaded this to a channel where I had already uploaded a few FNAF videos, so that’s for the viewers who where there from before.

>Also, the audio is not great. It’s especially bad at the beginning, but it eventually gets good enough. I apologize, I hope it’s bearable.

>Obviously, a lot of this video is very subjective readings of David’s character, the lyrics, and the excerpts in the background. Different opinions are valid.

I am. So tired.

[kwanisms]

Kinkuary 13 Changbin — formal wear // choking

➥ power bottom!Changbin × switch!Reader summary: Looking at Seo Changbin, one would expect him to be a dominant kind of man but that couldn't be further from the truth. At least, not with his girlfriend. She's the one who calls the shots, especially when Changbin is wearing his suit and tie. wc: 2.7k warnings: afab reader, adult dialogue, alcohol consumption, established relationship, sexual content (minors dni!): switch!Reader, power bottom!Changbin, formal wear kink, sensory deprivation (blindfolding and that's it lol), choking kink, Changbin has an oral fixation, teasing, use of pet names (reader calls Changbin sweet things like babe, good boy), tit play, Changbin is very vocal, let me know if I missed any warnings! a/n: normally I'd write Changbin as a dom or as a switch at the very least but I wanted to try something different. I hope I did well and you enjoy this part! Thank you for reading and as always, this is a work of fiction and all characters are not reflective of their respective irl counterparts. for entertainment purposes only. banner made by me. I do not allow reposts or translations of my works. All my works are ©️ kwanisms. Permanent taglist: @yoonguurt @candidupped @dejavernon Kinkuary full taglist: @baldi-2 @wonderfulshinee @lacie220900 @sup-dallyboy @drunk-on-dk @violagoth @mixling-blog @kosmoreads @yourfavoritefreakyhan Stray Kids taglist: @niktwazny303 @g4m3girl @rapmonie2047 @indigo35 @witherednotes @cixrosie @fay-ebrahim @kirooz @flowerboykun @beomgyusbabygirl Strikethrough means I cannot tag you. MINORS WILL BE BLACKLISTED AND BLOCKED. Join the taglist!

════════════════════════════════

“Well don’t you look nice,” you said, glancing up as Changbin entered the room. He looked down at where you sat, eyes looking him up and down. 

It was no secret between the two of you that you loved it when he dressed up, especially in a suit or a tux as he was wearing now. You always liked it the most when he came home all dressed up. It was like getting a present.

Noticing the look in your eyes, Changbin tried not to think about how you looked like you were about to jump his bones any second. ‘I should have changed at the building. She’s about to make it very difficult for me to leave.’ 

His cheeks turned pink, images playing in his head about why he might be late before he turned to search for his shoes. “Where are you going?” You asked, settling back against the couch as you returned your attention to your book, the tv playing in the background.

“One of my manager’s is getting married today, remember?” Changbin answered as he finally found the shoes he was looking for and moved to the dining table to put them on.

You did remember. You remembered how he came home and told you the news. You were happy for his manager but when Changbin said that he couldn’t bring you, in fact that he was forbidden to bring you with him, you suddenly weren’t as happy as before.

Truth be told, you were actually pretty bitter about the whole situation for a few days but as time went on, you eventually forgot that bitterness and went about your life as usual. Until Changbin appeared in his suit anyway.

Now you were bitter again.

It wasn’t like his managers didn’t know you existed or that you and Changbin were together. They were well aware and never made any demand that Changbin end things or hide you away from the world. Even the fans knew you existed.

So why you were forbidden from attending the wedding was beyond you and it was beyond Changbin as well.

“Well, have fun,” you said shortly, not noticing the way Changbin threw a guilty look your way. He felt beyond horrible that he had to be the one to tell you that you couldn’t come to the wedding with him. He wanted nothing more than to take you with him, show you off, and dance with you.

But his manager was adamant. You were not permitted to attend the ceremony or reception.

It was no secret his manager, for some reason, didn't like you and Changbin couldn’t fathom why. You were always polite, extremely intelligent, unimaginably funny, and a complete joy to be around. It was a mystery not only to him but to the rest of Stray Kids as well. Neither he nor his friends could figure out why his manager seemingly detested you.

He couldn’t do anything about it now. It was his manager’s wedding after all so it was his decision.

Changbin got up, shoes now tied properly and walked over to where you sat, leaning over the back of the couch and kissing the top of your head. “I’ll be back later,” he said softly. You hummed in response, keeping your eyes on your book. “I love you,” Changbin whispered.

You set your book down and looked up at him. “I love you, too.”

He took the opportunity to steal a kiss from you, his body demanding more as he pulled away, not knowing your body was craving more but you’d have to wait until he got home later.

“I’ll see you later tonight.”

You occupied your time with reading until you finished your book and decided to get some chores done. The laundry was waiting to be done and the dishwasher needed to be emptied and refilled so you started with the laundry, making sure to empty both yours and Changbin’s hampers.

While the washer worked, you emptied the dishwasher, putting away the clean dishes before filling it with the dirty ones and shut the door. The washer buzzed, signaling it had finished some time later and you started the dishwasher and moved to put the wet laundry in the dryer.

While the dryer ran, you watched some television, catching the tail end of an episode of a drama you’d already watched with your boyfriend. You decided to tidy up to kill time until the dryer finally dinged, letting you know it was done.

With the fresh laundry in a basket, you sat on the couch, folding your clothes, sorting between yours and Changbin’s as you worked. You flipped through channels, trying to find something to watch but finding nothing. Instead you booted up Netflix and put on a movie you’d been meaning to watch while you folded laundry.

Once done, you took the clean clothes to the bedroom and put it away, hanging up your nice blouses and Changbin’s shirts. You put away the rest of the clothes and put the empty basket on top of the dryer, closing the folding doors and heading to the kitchen to make a bowl of popcorn before heading back into the living room to resume the movie.

As the movie was wrapping up, the front door opened and you glanced over as Changbin arrived home. He kicked his shoes off, tossing his keys onto the counter as he locked the door and walked further into the apartment.

His eyes landed on you and the previous expression on his face melted and softened as he moved to throw himself onto the couch. You let out a cry of surprise as he threw himself onto your lap, burying his face in your waist as his arms wrapped around you.

“Changbin, what the—?” You started but he shook his head. “I missed you,” he said softly. You hesitated before relaxing against the couch, running your fingers through his styled locks, messing it up but you couldn’t be bothered.

Changbin loved it when you ran your fingers through his hair.

Your phone buzzed on the coffee table and you leaned forward to grab the device, ignoring Changbin’s whines of protest. You unlocked the screen to see a text from Chris.

Chris🐨: did Bin make it upstairs okay? You: yeah, he threw himself onto my lap as soon as he got his shoes off Chris🐨: good. He did not have a good time tonight You: what? Why? Chris🐨: he missed you a lot. He wanted you here You: i wish i could have been there but not much we could have done about that Chris🐨: i know it just Chris🐨: i’ve never seen him like this before Chris🐨: it really tore him up, not being able to bring you with him You: i understand, thanks chris Chris🐨: no problem y/n

You set your phone aside and looked down at Changbin. ‘Poor guy.’

“Did you have too much to drink?” You whispered, expecting him to say yes. “Not really,” he grumbled. “Just not in a good mood.”

Your brow furrowed but chose to ignore it. “Anything I can do to help?” You asked, noticing the way he merely shrugged.

“Oh hey, I didn’t get a good look at you before you left,” you said suddenly.

Changbin lifted his head to meet your gaze.

“Get up,” you urged, making him whine in protest. You nudged him until he conceded with a whine. He got up and stood before you for a moment before sitting down. “That wasn’t nearly long enough,” you pouted.

“Do it again.”

Changbin whined but stood up again, cheeks burning as you checked him out.

“Are you done?” He asked, drawing your attention back to his face.

You got up slowly, hand moving up his chest to his shoulder, then down his arm to take his hand in yours before tugging him from the living room and to the bedroom.

You pulled him into you, lips meeting and surprising him but he welcomed the kiss all the same as his hands found purchase on your waist. “What’s gotten into you?” He mumbled as your lips left his, trailing down his jaw to his neck. “Hopefully you will,” you murmured cheekily.

Changbin groaned, his hands moving to your hips, pulling your body closer to his.

“Shit, Y/N. All this because I wore a tux?” He asked, a hint of amusement to his voice. You nodded, turning him to push him back onto the bed, causing him to laugh as he landed on his back on the mattress.

“You’re something else,” he said as you undid his jacket, making him sit up to push the article off him, your hand going to his tie and pulling it loose. “You know you’re supposed to wear a bowtie with tuxedos,” you chastised him jokingly.

You pulled the tie off as he chuckled. “I don’t have any bowties here,” he answered as you undid the knot in the tie. “Then maybe you should get some,” you replied, holding the tie up.

“Keep undressing me and I’ll get something,” he retorted as you carefully wrapped the tie around his head, tying it firmly to restrict his eyesight. “What are you doing?” He asked, looking around blindly, making you giggle, pushing him onto his back.

“Keep it on,” you warned as your fingers moved to undo his shirt one button at a time until you got to his pants. You undid the belt, pulling it from the loops and threw it aside with a grumble when it fought against you.

Changbin laughed from under you though he couldn’t see.

Your fingers fumbled with the button and zipper on his pants until you were finally able to pull his pants down, climbing off him and taking the fabric with you and throwing it away. You pulled him up to sit and pushed the shirt off him.

“You’ve taken so much off me,” he said as you climbed back onto his lap, his hands moving to your waist, fingers toying with the hem of your shirt. “But you’re still fully clothed,” he pouted.

Without a word, you pulled your top off, dropping it behind you onto the floor. Changbin’s hands slid up your sides, moving to your chest to cup your breasts over your bralette.

“Am I going to wear this blindfold the whole time?” Changbin asked as your hips moved, grinding against his cloth covered erection. You nodded, humming in response. “Until I say you can take it off.”

You pushed him back onto the mattress, leaning over to take his lips in a teasing set of kisses, making him chase your lips each time you pulled away. “Stop teasing me,” he groaned, his hand grabbing the back of your neck and pulling you into a rough kiss, his other hand grabbing your thigh, fingers digging into your skin.

Your hips continued to move, rolling and grinding against him until Changbin couldn’t take it anymore. “You just gonna strip me down and not fuck me?” He growled.

You sat up, climbing off him. He thought he’d fucked up until he felt you tug his underwear down, probably throwing them somewhere in the room. You always undressed him so hastily when he came home dressed up.

You climbed back on top, taking in the site of your blindfolded boyfriend below you. Taking his cock in your hand, you gave him a few strokes before sinking down, your lips parting in a moan as you took him in one motion.

“Fuck,” Changbin hissed, his hands grabbing your hips. “That’s all I had to say?” He asked with a chuckle, letting out a moan as you rolled your hips experimentally. “Don’t talk back,” you warned. “Or I won’t let you cum.”

Changbin fell silent, letting out a groan as you lifted off him, sinking back down on his cock and setting a steady pace, lifting your hips and sinking back down on his cock. “Oh fuck,” he moaned, hands moving up to your chest.

“Oh, you finally got fully undressed too?” He asked, cupping your tits and squeezing gently. “Only because you’ve been such a good boy,” you replied, drawing your bottom lip between your teeth as his hands moved, thumbs brushing over and circling your nipples, the skin pebbling under his touch.

“He noticed how the skin changed under his touch. “I don’t even need to see to be able to affect you,” he chuckled, rolling your nipple under the pad of his thumb.

“I wish you’d let me fuck these,” he added, squeezing and pushing your tits together. You moaned, walls clenching around his cock. “Shit,” you hissed.

Changbin sat up, lips finding your nipple and taking it in his mouth, his tongue swirling around and lightly flicking against the sensitive bud while his other hand kneaded and teased your other nipple, gently squeezing and rolling it between his fingers. “Keep going,” Changbin said breathlessly. “Keep riding me like that.”

Your thighs were starting to burn but you weren’t going to give up that easily. “You sound so pretty,” Changbin whispered as you moaned, resting your forehead against his shoulder. “Are you getting tired?” he asked in an amused voice. You lifted your head, putting your hands on his shoulders and pushing him onto his back.

“Stay down,” you ordered, making Changbin chuckle. He loved it when you tried to act like you were in control.

“Whatever you say, babe,” he said teasingly, his hands moving to your hips. “Just ride me.”

One of your hands moved to his neck, wrapping your fingers around his throat lightly.

“You talk too much,” you snapped breathlessly, squeezing your boyfriend's neck slightly.

Changbin has never regretted teaching you how to choke more than right now. He never expected you to actually use it against him but he'd be lying if he said it wasn't a little hot, your hand on his neck as you rode him, chasing your own orgasm.

He was fine with you cumming first. You usually did and he normally made it his mission to make you cum first so when you sank onto him one last time, moaning his name as you came, he was more than happy to take over.

He ripped the blindfold off, tossing the silk tie aside as he sat up, pushing you onto your back and immediately resumed the same pace, thrusting into you, pushing your thighs back and folding your body in half.

Not only was this his favorite position, he got to help you ride out your current climax while also speeding you towards another one. You didn't even have time to catch your breath before you were cumming again with a cry, chanting Changbin’s name over and over like a mantra as your walls convulsed around him.

The fluttering of your cunt sent him over the edge as he came, burying his cock as deep into you as he could reach, his load exploding inside you, filling you up as you shuddered. “Fuck!” Changbin hissed, arms shaking as he tried to keep himself from collapsing onto you.

He let your legs go, one at a time and finally laid down, resting his head on your chest, cheek pressing to your skin and hearing your heart hammering in your chest almost in time with his own.

“You okay?” you asked, fingers combing through his hair, pushing his sweaty bangs off his forehead.

“Yeah,” he panted. “Just give me a second.”

You hummed in response, continuing to card your fingers through his hair as you both came down from your post orgasm highs, the exhaustion passing and giving way for the euphoric feeling that always followed.

“You wanna shower?” Changbin murmured, finally breaking the comfortable silence that had settled between you.

You nodded. “I could go for a shower,” you sighed. Changbin finally pushed himself up, his cock already having slipped out of you and his cum working its way out of your cunt. “Keep that in there,” Changbin said softly, using his fingers to collect the small amount that spilled out and pushed it back in.

You slapped his hand away playfully, admonishing him. “Changbin!”

He smiled cheekily as he rolled off the bed and waited for you to get up to join him.

“Now we're showering, right?” You asked as he took your hand and dragged you towards your shared bathroom.

“Right? We’re showering, aren't we? Changbin?” You asked as he chuckled.

“Maybe we are and maybe we aren’t,” he answered as he pulled you into the bathroom with him.

“You’ll just have to wait and see.”

[kevinsdsy]

heyy idk if you’ve seen but apparently olympic athletes have to record themselves saying their names so that i’m assuming viewers and announcers have a reference for how to pronounce them? and apprently at least in some cases those audios didn’t get edited at allll lmao and you can hear background conversation and stuff and the first thing i thought of was what those would be like for the aftg characters that went on to play in the olympics

brought to you by this appearing on my fyp:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe78YUEP/

AHHHH I ACTUALLY HAD SEEN A VIDEO (i hadn’t seen this one yet but the one with the moroccan football soccer team) AND IT WAS SO FUNNY TO ME BECAUSE:

some of them were so confused if they were supposed to pronounce it in arabic or french (since arabic has a few letters that dont exist in the french alphabet) so i would imagine it for nabil to go like that where he goes: “nabil ma-moud” and laila goes “ma7moud. don’t you know how to pronounce your own name?” (like i said we have letters that dont exist in this alphabet so we use numbers to spell pronunciations sorry besties 🫣) and so he goes “oh we’re doing arabic? not english?” and they have to assure him he can just pronounce his name correctly.

and (2) apparently they also indicate that the players need to pause and one of the moroccan players went: “name” “pause” “name” as in they LITERALLY pronounced the pause out loud 😭😭 which i havent been able to stop thinking about like 😭😭 i’m trying really hard to think of who would even do such a thing because it’s SO SILLY but i can’t think of anyone— like sure we could say jeremy, but i feel like he would know better. we could say shawn, but he’s just a silly fanon socmed character atp yk. so idk 😭 i think i would love this one for matt where he doesn’t really think it through and he’s just reading out loud what’s in front of him SHDJFHFJ

i watched the other video that was put in the comments too of the tiktok you sent and jean moreau would definitely be serious about this and then you would hear jeremy in the background playing ping pong and yelling 😭 i think this could also work with kevin say and the foxes— so kevin is being all serious and then u hear nicky yelling in the background.

renee would do so well and it would be absolutely correct and perfect— no notes.

and i hate to go back to the moroccan team, but sadly i’m not just a sports fan in fiction, but i also support a sports team irl… i kid you not one of the players went: “[name] two. [name] two.” and then it had to be cut off and they had to explain to him “no. your name. then u pause. and then u say your name again.” and he was like :O without the two? LIKE MY BROTHER??? WHY DID YOU THINK U HAVE TO SAY THAT???? this too is something that’s so silly i cant even imagine someone of the aftg characters doing this 😭

but honestly i think overall the characters will do well without too much trouble. there might be some background noises— especially with the trojans because they’re such a big team and have do spend a longer period of time doing it while the foxes can just tell each other to shut up for a few seconds or either dan or coach will threaten them with extra laps around the court.

((anyways im not sure if anyone is interested in listening in to the moroccan team but here is a link anyways just in case: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZIJnEkJUV/ — it’s a mix of them speaking darija, french and spanish so yeah 😭😭 it adds to the messines))

[explaining-homestuck]

I know the23 are just random background trolls who get killed off fur no reason but-

Do they have names like Swifer Eggmop and Cliper Borden?

Are they references to Hussie's real life friends, or fictional characters from other media, maybe?

I'm probably overthinking it

Oh, that's an easy one!

Sorry this blog has been gone for so long, various stresses and other blogs took over, but I can get back into the swing with this short one perhaps.

These, respectively, are Mierfa Durgas and Nektan Whelan. They are fantrolls, created by SympathyPlan and Jedediah Long, who were the two people who donated $10,000 to the Hiveswap Kickstarter, for which the tier reward was to have your own fantroll design appear on a page of Homestuck.

As such, Mierfa and Nektan both appear on page 5966.

You will note, however, that the donation only specified appearing on one page of Homestuck. This is why, on the very next page, they are immediately killed.

Which is very in fitting for Homestuck.

(The "surviving longer than a single page" was actually another reward tier, for $100,000. Nobody ever reached it. There was another reward tier above that, too: $1,000,000, to have them become the most important character in Homestuck.)

They were killed by Calliope and Caliborn's father, placing them some time (likely in the far future) in Universe C. However, where they are, when, and which timeline (or even if it's Meat or Candy at all) in unknown.

They were *also* featured in this art update during Hiveswap's initial development, along with many other T-poses and 3D models of various characters, some of whom (like Joey, Jude, and Xefros) appeared in the actual game. However, as Hiveswap is a 2D game, none of the 3D assets were used, and are unlikely to be used in the future.

Here's there wiki page with more information, as well as info on the third fantroll, who was in Hiveswap, and *definitely* isn't a Limeblood. Trust me.

Oh, and also Sweet Jeff and Hella Bro cosplay as them to distract/attract Tavros during Summeteen romance. That sounds like a joke but it's not. Don't read Dave's dialogue on the bottom section of the page if you want your mind to ever feel clean again. (The funny thing is, what he's describing happening actually happens in the panels underneath, or at least the first part.)

Here, also, are wiki pages of the original fantrolls with more information.

[windmaedchen-oceanhorn]

The badge of the Heroic Order. They are personalized. Valen carries his on the left shoulder, underneath his fur cloak.

Valen - Headcanons .............................................................

I like the apparently ditched background info for Valen (see this post again), but in case you don't know it, here's a short summary:

Valen's born into the ruling family of Stoutstone Isle but has never taken interest in that heritage, often running away to explore the surroundings and mingling with the common folk and soldiers, joining them at their campfires to dream about stories of heroism, all for the girls. xD He kept his true identity hidden but it was revealed when he wanted to formally join the army (navy, in this case) at age 16. The soldiers now treated him differently, particularly as he was given a fake superior title. In anger he demands to go through the training properly, but his grandfather (and ruler) denies equally angrily. So Valen throws out his rank and walks off, leaving the island behind. He continues as a mercenary, traveling all over the Empire, until ... (my headcanon starts here) ... being dragged into the Heroic Order by Hogan. Since then he's a member of the Heroic Order and Solitaries, living in Holistone.

I am placing this isle in the rough region of north/west Great Britain. Same weather, same grey tones everywhere, same accents… xD I don't think of his family or home as a pretty castle full of glitter and pomp. It is just as gritty and dirty as the rest of the island, dark rugs on the walls and all wealth hidden behind thick grey stone walls, stashed away inside trunks. It's probably VERY far from Holistone, being on the other side of the Lightbearer Empire.

His dad is some low-level admin under his grandfather's rule. He might never rise to the throne, though, giving way to others to administrate the island until Fay's take-over.

When he was 8 years old, Valen's mother died shortly after giving birth to Fay. She [Valen's mother] always encouraged his son to explore the world with his own eyes, instilling in him the belief that actions speak louder than words or ranks or titles. He then begins to "run away" regularly from home to seek out the truth outside the castle walls.

Valen never went to a school (properly). He had private lessons, of which he sat through enough to know the basics. Most knowledge is self-taught, by reading or talking to people. This means he can have entertaining bouts of ignorance! xD

When there is something he's interested in, he takes the time to educate himself. He is reading educational books but is not at all into fiction. He does read poetry for inspiration on how to charm the girls (in exchange for intel, of course).

He most certainly does appreciate beauty whenever he sees it. Be it a beautiful appearance, a wonderful character, a moving situation, a good piece of music, a stunning picture… but as a man of (charming) words, most of all, a skilful application of words strung together poetically.

He strangely feels inclined to write experiences and emotions down poetically. Hence his admiration for those who can and his understanding for those who cannot but try. Since his penmanship is not of importance to him, and the ladies usually don't need anything very complex to cooperate, he isn't excellent but also not bad. He's right at this place where one wants to try badly, but is too aware of one's weaknesses, so that nothing would ever be sufficiently good enough to match the need.

Valen is stupidly confident and nonchalant about it, which bothers his colleagues sometimes often. It's hard to describe, but it's just this little sting of jealousy, if you perceive someone else to succeed so seemingly easy, as if it was no big deal. It appears as if Valen doesn't value the effort to get there or has no appreciation for the potential risk involved, and that can be off-putting for others. Firstly, that is, of course, not true and it is always their own insecurities at play and not Valen's fault. And secondly, this doesn't mean Valen's free of doubts or insecurities himself. ;-)

............................................

Valen isn't interested in the conflict with other factions. He's not the guy to "rescue the world". But he IS the guy to rescue "HIS world". He is concerned with the well-being of those in his immediate surroundings because that's all that matters (and from there the results ripple like waves beyond his world).

Hence the good relationship between him and Merlin. He takes care of her, while Merlin is taking care of the world at large. Merlin's power forces such a responsibility on her, removing her from the small worlds people live in. It is making her dependent on people such as Hogan and Valen, who keep her involved in the small worlds of theirs. Human well-being depends entirely on these real, small world relationships (and keeps them humble).

He has failed some previous jobs. Not everyone or everything can be saved or protected. It is still gnawing on his mind occasionally, making him feel rather small and powerless in the face of destiny. Then, for a short time, the smile on his face fades.

..............................................

His scar happened among the things that led to Hogan engaging Valen around 5-6 years ago. Valen somehow was at the right time at the right place and got entangled with some business near Holistone. It was an injury taken because Valen stepped up to go beyond what was ever expected from him. Hogan immediately liked the young man and offered him a place to work. Valen was unemployed at that time and Hogan didn't expect he would win him over with the "meagre" pay he could offer but Valen ended up accepting after all.

Valen really just lives by his own honor code and as long as he serves the one he chose to follow (Hogan), all is well for him. In the end, serving under Hogan in the Heroic Order is just his latest choice of work, not least because it granted him the knighthood. There is probably nothing better than that but as hinted at, I think he would have a difficult time later to decide upon his future if Merlin ever made him choose between becoming her life-long personal knight or staying with Hogan. (He said so pretty much straight at the beginning but I consider that a move which had more to do with drawing the truth out of Merlin rather than being a serious consideration at that point.)

Valen also has no real military training. xD LOL But he got a quick run-down from Hogan, not personally, but he arranged something so that Valen could catch up. There was nothing much he needed to learn, other than how exactly the hierarchies are structured and what bureaucratic requirements must be met etc.

................................................

I think Stormcaller is a fabled sword actually originating from Stoutstone Isle. Owning that sword is basically a childhood dream since it features so much in local folktales. They say its true potential can only be unlocked by someone worthy of wielding it. How it ends up in an auction, in Holistone no less, I don't know. But it seems to have been considered as nothing but a pretty sword to be kept on a wall, being mindlessly passed on from one rich to the other. Until Valen happened to walk past the auction house seeing the items on for that night's event. I don't know how exactly he got it, but I am 100% certain that he did not simply make a bid and won it. xD Nonetheless, the sword seems to be rightfully in his hands afterwards, as there are no claims made otherwise.

Stormcaller makes use of gems, by the way. Fay would probably have tons to say about that. xD The electricity we see in-game is actually known to Valen also. He can feel the buzzing power running through the sword when he touches it and how it enables him to move faster and deal more than melee damage to his foes. While those he attacks get stunned by the magic, Valen only takes the positive effects of it, making him… truly the one who is worthy of wielding it.

Regarding his second sword (further HCs recorded here): Valen says "it's not the right time to use it", suggesting that there is going to be a specific time for it to be used. Reminds me a little of Walker who used his old friends gun to get revenge. At the moment, this is a bit too much of a stretch, thinking that Valen might use it in similar fashion. He isn't really the character for such actions. Instead, I think it's more along the lines of a promise made not to use it until a certain condition is met. A promise important enough to carry that sword for years. To whom he made that promise? Hmmm… ;-)

...............................................

Valen started playing poker when he became a mercenary. He enjoys the psychological tactics it involves and uses his out-going inclinations to massively confuse the other players. xD

He's frugal by being too lazy to shop. He saves up merely by not knowing what to spend it on. Most of his salary goes towards food and drink. He lives very minimally.

Even if, further down the line, his family house came hunting him down, he would never return to Stoutstone Isle. He just doesn't see any scenario in which he'd be happy doing so. He makes to claims to any heritage rights, either. He's left and he's gone, leaving the isle fully to sort out it's own problems. (Maybe a reason why that canon was ditched, since it seems irrelevant to his backstory if it never came up again in any sort of relevance.)

And that's it. For now. xD Again, thanks for reading this wall of text. <3

EDIT: ditched the idea about Valen's dad and leaving it open regarding his mother, being dead or not... Also added a link to the headcanons regarding his second sword.

[mrborocs]

And here it is again all over again

When episode 6 of v9 came out. A certain circle of people became hysterical about Weiss' reaction to Jaune. Strangely enough, it was mostly WR fans and Bumblebee fans agreeing with them or Jaune haters. Even before the release of episode 6. Some artists and WR fans decided to make fun of Weiss' words about the beautiful knight.

Here's a meme for you about this. At first there was denial. Mostly on Twitter, of course. WR fans called it a bad joke from the writers and just trolling. Their main argument is that WK will not be canon, so we were told on Twitter. I have already said that there is no real confirmation of this.

Or they claimed that it was completely out of character for Weiss. The screenwriters ruined everything and in fact Weiss has no sympathy for Jaune!

The first battle ended with shouts, tears and crying. WK fans didn't even show up for the battle. But this does not mean that everything will just end like this. Small outbursts of indignation appeared on all sections of Twitter. In the end, WKfans began to respond, this is: the opinion of WRfans is not taken into account.

Then this happens. The first powerful blow. Where WRfans tell that objectively WK is a bad and boring ship and their opinion is not subjective. The focus is on the good guy trope. Supposedly boring heterosexual trope, when a girl rejects a good guy, and then realizes her mistake and gets him as a prize. I'll give my opinion briefly. No it's not. Jaune and Weiss at the beginning of their development were not the most beautiful characters. Both had a huge baggage of shortcomings. Jaune is an infantile and arrogant guy who wants to become famous. He is a little selfish, because he puts other people at risk with his desires. He is indecisive and weak. He can't immediately fight back against a bully. He does not see the personal boundaries of other people trying to attract attention to himself. Over time, he realizes his problems and gradually solves them. In v1-2, it was really difficult to take him seriously. This no longer fits the trope of a good guy. Just like Weiss, Jaune has changed a lot over time under the influence of other people and each other.

A typical example of toxic WRfans. The main difference between him and others is that he does not hide and does not try to say what WRfans think in a more veiled way. You have no right to wish that WK would become a canon! Others handle WK differently.

You can immediately see how WRfans began to develop the topic of other Jaune relationships. WK this is disrespectful to Pyrrhus. Jaune should actually date Neptune. Which of course is very funny. Not only that, both characters did not show attraction to men, but on the contrary. So for all WRfans arguments about WK, Neptune and Jaune are not connected in any way at all except for Weiss herself. There was only a strange rivalry between them. WKfans tried to object to something in the comments and there were quite a lot of them. Therefore, the battle ended in a draw. The parties went to the corners accusing each other of bias. WRfans didn't stop there. Deciding to attack his old enemy again. There was an attack on RG.

I didn't go into much detail, but this is something allegedly related to the sexualization of Oscar and Ruby. Suddenly, everyone started shouting that you can't do this. However, WR and bumblebee are engaged in the same sexualization. You can say that Oscar is still a child. I will object to this that the guy is already old enough to fight the forces of evil and in general this is a fictional character.

Of course, WRfans hastened to say that they are nothing here and in general they don't care about RG.

That's what WR fans really think.

Here is a rather interesting opinion about WK. Of course, she's right about something and WK has a pretty big gap in development. But their contradictory beginning, and after a sweet friendship in the background, still shows that the ship has a character and minimal interaction. While with v7, WR is very bad with development.

And here we go to the final. Finally, the last powerful blow. WRfans will show these heterosexual bastards who is in charge of this show!

Her didn't like the joke in the show. And he decided to tell everyone, calling her the most terrible. And of course, it didn't play any role here that she was WRfans. Humor is subjective, and I also don't like humor in v4, for example, when Ruby laughs at Jaune rabbit or Jaune runs away from grimm without a weapon. I didn't expect that after everything that happened to these characters, he wouldn't become at least a little serious. Although it was later fixed. If you don't like the joke, you can safely keep silent about it and not ironically attack the fans of another ship. For example, I don't like many bumblebee moments either. Although I do not sympathize with Black Sun. I could say similar things about WR, but when was the last time there was a meaningful interaction between them? There was a moment in v9 when Weiss accepted Ruby's choice when she shouldn't have. A very strange attitude of the best friends. I can't criticize WR because I'm subjective and I only see them as friends. For me, the main thing is that the ship would bring emotions to people. WR has a huge fan base - so there is something in it! In general, all normal people who enjoy their ships and do not attack others! You are beautiful!