#I mean of course it's a dark and edgy oc

[shenzaibird-art]

I've had a new OC (actually a revamped old OC) for exactly one month now and I already have 25+ arts/sketches and 28+ lore notes/story scenes related to him.

Send help.

(Also sorry if this looks morbid, it was supposed to be goofy I swear)

[ohwormwood]

ISAT OCS: character sprites and (quick) introductions!

Part 0 | Introductions | Concept Art Dump | Ornithomancy | Memes | Trivia |

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Meet the party! And our antagonist!

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Celest | The Card-Reader (Celestine) (belongs to me, Paper Type, she/they)

A silent card-reader who has an unusual fascination with stars. Her predictions are unnervingly accurate, even if they don’t always happen as expected.

 A walking Greek tragedy, shameless Islander insert oc, and the most emotionally dysregulated being in the Universe next to Siffrin or Himawari, but is VASTLY worse hiding it. She's honestly one of my most fleshed out characters, and if I'm being honest I've vastly enjoyed writing her interactions with the party. If you were given a nickel for every time she had a mental breakdown and/or cried during the course of the plot you’d be able to retire even in the United States economy because she may say absolutely nothing but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t burst into tears like someone watching Bambi’s mom die on repeat. She makes up for it by probably being the Universe’s second favorite mistake of nature next to the Siffrins and having Universe-powered deus ex machina moments, including:

Predicting people’s deaths! 

Finding a series of long lost gods, which definitely has no consequences at all! (lie)

Solving Zelda dungeons using the power of playing cards!

Unlocking forbidden knowledge! With no consequences at all! (even bigger lie)

Avoiding asking for help because of a misguided sense of independence and a self-imposed obligation to base the worth of her life off of carrying out the Universe’s will and helping people to make up for the crime of predicting people’s deaths!

Resurrecting the dead!

Predicting people’s deaths and resurrecting them!

Gambling!

She uses tarot cards as a conduit for her craft– all her craft skills are named after specific major arcana cards, and each party mamber has a designated card.

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Himawari | The Ghost (belongs to @dasnercaret, Rock Scissors Type, he/they

Mysterious and tall, with a eagle-like lacquer mask and unusually traditional wear. They're really a nice person underneath their ominous exterior, and have plenty of interesting stories— even if they occasionally contradict.

Default party leader, Meta Knight gijinka (as coined by @smokin-salmon), and the local Dark Souls boss who can and will beat you into the ground at a moment’s notice. But don’t worry, he’s got a heart of gold– no, don’t look at the body count. Has a tragic backstory befitting of his edginess that boils down to having his dad instilling in him a martyr complex so strong that we’ve lost track of the amount of times he’s probably been in near death experiences because he feels a personal responsibility to protect the party. He proceeded to spend the next nine years disassociating so hard that even Siffrin would be impressed, before being forcefully adopted by a 12 year old who decided that they’re friends now and are having soft tacos later. He dies, but don't worry, he gets better, just. Not fast. A solid 50% of this story's angst is sourced directly from this idiot's siffrin-level repressed mental issues. His plotline essentially drives this entire story to the point that he is literally the final boss. no, i will not elaborate on that.

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Ori (Orion) | The Wallflower (belongs to @scramblecat, Paper Type, he/him)

A traveler from Vaugarde, able to bring his origami creations to life. His kind and welcoming personality makes him easily likable… but for whatever reason, he has a tendancy to be forgotten.

The consequences of fusing Isabeau and Odile into a person who is the most functional and average human being on earth, except for the fact that he’s got the transgenderism, runs with a gang of trauma-bonded idiots, and accidentally turned himself into SCP 055 Lite by choosing the name of a constellation for his name before the Island got Nuked™. Now everyone who meets him turns into you when you can never remember the name of that coworker you’ve been sitting next to for two years straight and talk to every day. His power is being annoying to any enemy in his vicinity by giving everyone papercuts and buffing the party with the power of paper crafts until they turn into the fantasy RPG equivalent of the Russians in the 2020 Olympics. If it wasn’t for him being the most emotionally stable member of the party the other three would have probably succumbed to the disaster that is a plot with no levity or character development and serves only as the fuel for an AO3 author’s hurt/no comfort addiction.

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Haruka | The Child (belongs to @aquakirb, Rock Type, she/her)

A cheery runaway kid studying to become a healer. She does her best to help out the party in any way she can, however small. 

Literally the purest thing to grace the Universe. A ray of sunshine that knows no bounds. If you even consider making her sad, you will have half of Ka Bue on your heels ready to kill you, including Himawari, who will probably get to you first. She’s the party’s Bonnie, but do NOT get it twisted that she's a Bonnie clone; she doesn’t have a clue how to cook and doesn’t have nearly as much repressed anger. Actually kind of the opposite. She's strangely mature for her age despite being relatively cheerful and coming off as more childish from an external POV.  Her mom is a mysterious but well-known healer who's been training her since she was six and has essentially turned her into a pint-sized emergency response team.  She has the brand of ADHD that pulls out random information about their interests at the most random times and with zero context.  Also she technically killed a god, but that’s not even worth going on her resume.

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Aega | The Eternal Rest (belongs to @dasnercaret, Scissors/Rock Type, she/it/they)

A broken and corrupted Expression, existence wiped away alongside The Universe and it's guides. She wish is to restore that which has been lost, to be remembered... no matter the cost. Her Craft spreads across the land, warping reality as it attempts to restore her power through the dreams of those who fall under her spell. 

This bitch. THIS BITCH. I have never simultaneously hated and loved a character in my LIFE. To pair down an extremely complex and lore-heavy explanation, Aega is what happens when you make a god that has extreme power and then make all of reality forget she exists. She's the Expression of the Moon, and essentially presided over the night in its entirety, including the massive amount of constellations that make up an entire religious sect of the Universe Religion; it takes every white girls obsession with their horoscope and the absolutely astounding level of syncretic dissemination that buddhism had on the world, stuffs it in a blender, and makes a smoothie that tastes like existential loneliness, mommy issues, and almost a decades worth of stored up power that she can and will use to do whatever the fuck she wants. And what she wants is for people to stop ignoring her! she doesn't care if that involves the dismantling of reality or the destruction of entire human race, because when you're a god, your sense of object permanence is so skewed that you may as well be an Elden Ring character. Her entire motive is pretty much a mimic of the King, except instead of freezing people in time she puts them to sleep and freezes them! But it's less freezing and more turning them into a cocoon because the Lady Ethereal butterfly dream symbolism energy is OFF THE CHARTS. Her color is that electric blue that everyone wanted to dye their hair in the 2010s and also her namesake. Bet you can't guess what animal it is. (It's a butterfly.) (The Aega Morpho.)

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next up! a dump of oc content, misc. notes about the party, and more!

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Part 0 | Introductions | Concept Art Dump | Ornithomancy | Memes | Trivia |

[i-cant-sing]

How do you're ocs treat Reader to a self care day?

Theodore is beating his chest with thunderous hands and opens his arms wide and that is your cue to fucking jump on him and let him cuddle you- cuddle the sadness, the depression, the fatigue OUT OF YOU. At least thats his idea of self care (that and shooting people... and breaking stuff... and causing chaos and destruction) but he'll compromise and do whatever you wanna do, as long as he gets to grumble and hold your hand (at least, he loves physical intimacy). Honestly, u can get him to agree anything u want if u just give him a kiss on the nose- and he will instantly melt. He will still complain, thats non negotiable.

Dimitri is a man of money. He will spend his entire account on you if it pleases you, and if retail therapy is your thing, girl u just hit the jackpot. Of course, hes down for seggsy times too, but thats really his idea of self care and if you wanna do something else, he can put his needs aside for now even though he promises you would've felt 100000 times better by the time he was done with you. But like i said, he's a rich guy, he will give u his credit cards and money if u wanna do something else. Hell, he's even rained them bills on you. "Do you want to jump on a pile of money, pchelka? Hm? I can arrange that for you, darling." (pchelka = little bee)

Eros... the golden boy, the charmer. He will literally sweep u off your feet with how sweet and caring he is omg he will actually drop everything he's doing the moment he hears you sigh out the wrong way. Like you take one breath way too deeply and he's right in front of you, holding your face ever so gently and asking you whats wrong. And you dont even need to tell him anything because he's just so darn smart and he can read you like an open book and thus, he knows what you need. He knows if its a "retail therapy" kinda day or "stay at home, do face masks and watch comfort movies" or "take long bubble baths together" kinda day. Please rant to him, he pays close attention to all of it and has the best and most appropriate reactions and... he just loves your voice. And the thing with Eros is that he doesnt just make it a self car day- no, its a self care days/week/months or however long HE deems that you need it. He's the best, i love him.

Magnus is... not the dude u wanna self care with. Like dont come to him and say "can i have some space/leave the house for a while because I desperately need some me time." because to him that means he needs to STEP TF UP and be there more for you as if u werent already tired of him breathing down your neck 24/7. "Hm, what did you say? You want some space? Oh but angel, that's not what you need. No, silly! God made us for each other, we're soulmates! And we need to be there for each other, in sickness and in health! Aww but I don't blame you for getting confused about what your body needs! Its what happens when you dont have a baby in you. And it has been a while since we had our last! I think its time for baby number 8! :D" And you best believe the cult members are glaring at you through the windows of your house, pointing their pitchforks at you to fucking follow your husband to the bedroom and let him put another baby in you or they will come in to help him do just that (and maybe beat u up a little when he's gone for baby shopping).

You say self care and Lucifer's mind goes to torturing souls and eternal damnation. But thats what he likes, and now that he likes you, he will let you express your preferences. I mean, personally he would kinda try to get u into adding more oil into the fire that burns souls, but he knows you dont like it when they scream... maybe he can pull their vocal cords out?? Hm, maybe. Lucifer allows u to do whatever you wanna do as long as you do it in hell/within the premises of his home(castle, really. Real edgy dark, satany theme going on). One time, you wanted someone to just hold u and since Lucifer is the only one who is allowed to touch you, you climbed into his lap and let him hold u for hours as he sat on his throne, and he swears he's never felt more content in his life than with you softly snoring in his arms and shuffling closer to him every now and then, with him carding a hand through your hair and kissing your soft cheeks.

[hazelenergy]

5, 12, 19?

5. How did you figure out your oc's identity?

Prior to character creation, my soon-to-be Storyteller told us to come in with a general idea of a normal person that exists in this modern world and a few important people in their life. This was a lead towards making touchstones. I genuinely, thought of the person who'd become Hazel was... alone. I was then told that's not an option and I slapdash created a girlfriend for her, and bam. Lesbian.

12. Does/did your oc ever wish they could change the way they are? Why? If it's in the past, how did they get over the feeling? (this can be about internalized homo/transphobia)

[Answered] Hazel of course has wrestled with wanting to be accepted, to be "normal." And she has a long history of not always wrestling with these feelings in healthy ways. But ultimately, what does it even mean to be "normal"? And would she be happy in this state?

Her identity in being queer never really got shaken by these. Her battles with addiction, those hit harder. She knew that people despised her for not being clean and it made her entire life difficult. She rarely got sympathy for relapsing, she often had to rely on her own wit and survival to get what she needed.

She never really gets over this feeling. She knows she won't ever be magically "fixed." However, a relapse or using again isn't defeat. It doesn't devalue all the work and effort she's put in- even if she feels like utter shit.

19. Do you have preferences about depicting homo/transphobia in your stories? What, and why? Does it vary by story?

[Answered] Typically it doesn't come up, in the sense that I have to deal with it in real life, I don't wanna deal with it at the table. But, if it does, its always to depict a bad thing. An NPC thats transphobic is a clear indicator going DING DING DING hello players free kill shot! In truth, a lot of the people I enjoy playing with are queer, and we deal with that horror daily. WoD is a grimdark setting, there's plenty of other edgy bs to go dark with.

[nevesmose]

So the last time I posted anything was way back in 2016 when I had just moved to England and was working in a shitty hotel. Finally after ten thousand years I'm back, and in the intervening time I, in vaguely chronological order:

Had various celebrity encounters (details available on request)

Got married

Moved to a new city

Worked in a different shitty hotel

Worked in a shitty call centre

Joined one of the Big 4, iykyk

Had a kid

Moved back to Scotland

Got diagnosed with autism

Had another kid

And now after all that character development I've come back to a Tumblr account untouched for almost a decade and a screen name I first came up with almost two decades ago. Christ I'm old.

Why?

Let's slam on the auld accelerator all the way back to summer 2006. I was a complete antisocial nerd and not in the cutely engaging likeable way but in the cold, creepy hate-filled way. The undiagnosed autism probably had a lot to do with it tbh.

My only social contact was as a cringy hanger-on to my friends' band, and when I say friends I mean people who we had no choice but to be around each other in class. It's like going to sea in olden times, or having a cellmate with a pretty enough mouth. You make do, but it doesn't have any deeper meaning or connection.

One weekend they promised everyone that they'd be getting played on the radio. A small local station that no longer exists, practically hand-cranked. So me and various others tuned in and waited for hours to hear them. Did they rock the rural Scottish airwaves all the way from Lochaber to Fochabers, Invergordon to Inverbervie, Pitlochry to Pitmedden?

No, no they didn't. The mid-2000s were sadly denied their ten millionth landfill indie band and life went on. I never found out why and I didn't really care because my thought at that moment was just - fuck this, I want to do something for myself.

Another thing about me at that time was that I was a huge Metal Gear Solid fan - still am in a lot of ways. I played the heck out of MGS3 and liked The Sorrow so much that I habitually wore a commando sweater because I thought they were cool.

Reading that back it sounds like the start of a particularly gross Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life parody but I swear it's true. In any case, I had found a bunch of MGS3 fanart and such on Deviantart but was too paranoid and anxious to actually create an account.

Up until that day, anyway. I wanted to do something for myself so I took the plunge and did it. Met a lot of really great people and had some wonderful times over the following 10ish years. It was nice, in the most meaningful way, to make my own little identity for myself when I didn't have anything else going on that really mattered to me as a person. Also I wrote a lot of edgy Dark Eldar fanfiction.

Of course, life went on and I ended up drifting away on the tide of gradually building up other things in my life, even in my own slow way. Which brings us to now.

It's pretty pleasant, in a nostalgic way, to revisit the online footprint of the person I was then and to look at his antics with a little more, dare I say it, maturity and self-awareness than I had at the time. But I'd be lying if I didn't say it's also pleasant to recapture a little of how it felt to be that person whose responsibilities extended only as far as creating OCs and adding the right amount of XD, x3 and ^_^ emotes to every comment.

What a dork. But it was fun to be that dork.

[kharonion]

@totentnz / @wanderingaldecaldo — lumping y'all's together! 🤙

edgy/misc oc asks | oc list

3 | What is your OC’s fatal flaw? Are they aware of this flaw?

Vikt's wrath, the inferno of revenge that blazes in his core. It's a treacherous—and nothing but tragic—path that starts the moment he's fired from Arasaka. He's not cognizant of it for a long time; these intense episodes of rage are moments that are complete lapses in his memory. But unfortunately, Vikt can't even change it even when he grows aware. It's ingrained in his systems now, a part of his personality, and so, he has to cope with it versus eliminate it. But, it is a start, at least, for him to be aware enough to actively avoid scenarios that may trigger it.

12 | Is your OC self-destructive? In what ways?

[previous answer copy-pasted] The short answer is yes, though most of his manners of being so are more subtle nowadays. Vikt, by default, pushes people away, keeps them well out of his personal bubble, and he tends to choose avoidance over other coping strategies—or a bottle or few of gin.

On a grander scale, one could argue that his constant bouts into clear danger during his time as a merc—and very rarely afterward—fall into self-sabotage. Indicative of a time in his life where Vikt simply lived day-by-day, and he didn’t really care about seeing the next. A dark time, leading only to dark behavior that he still struggles to shake.

24 | What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they’d made those decisions?

Oh boy, I love thinking about this... as heartbreaking as it can be sometimes (stares at the nomad AU in particular). The most recent one that's been a Brainworm is Vikt's pursuit of a different path after his sudden firing. He doesn't go into merc work, but he instead lands a position as a dancer at Empathy. It's not a coincidence that he chooses such a bustling braindance club smack in the city's center; Vikt knows that Arasaka wouldn't dare to risk pursuing him there.

Of course, this also means that none of the Relic happenstances occur. But by the same token, this also means he really struggles to work through his behavioral issues and brainwashing, no longer having those pivotal points to instigate change, and he grasps for a true purpose versus continuing the "same shit, different day" pattern he's accustomed to. So, perhaps it's a more tragic path than it appears...

[linagram]

Umm, hi! (´• ω •`) I have no questions for you right now, but I just wanted to say that you're doing an amazing job, really! Usually I do not pay much attention to OCgrams, not in any way because they are bad, but because I'm just not interested, but I literally fell in love with your project, I don't know why, it's just!!! so cool!!!! o(>ω<)o All the work you do for this, all the arts, all the ideas and descriptions, the plot — it's all so damn interesting to read and watch! (★ｏ★)/ Speaking of the plot: it's really impressive how you kept the old concept and added a lot of details that made it much more interesting! I was also thinking about creating my own OCgram, but stumbled on some things that worked in the original Milgram, but most likely wouldn't work in my project. And looking at your work, I thought, "HEY. Actually??? That's literally genius????? Damn" ( ºΔº )

I don't even know what else I want to say, but I definitely want to wish you good luck with your project!! Thank you for doing such a great job!!!! ☆:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:☆

thank you so much omg this made me so happy!! 😭💖 i'm so glad that you love my ocs and my ocgram, it always makes me happy to see people enjoying it!

and about the plot: yes, i love canongram a lot, of course, but since we still don't have any info about how some things work there, i just kinda decided to come up with something myself! i also have this headcanon (and i guess it can be considered canon if we count the novel) that all, uh.. how do i even call them.. basically all milgram projects were different in some way? like, according to jackalope, other guards were more cruel than es and also the guards have a lot of freedom to control the prisoners and the prison in general, so i'm assuming that all those guards made their respective projects more unique in that way.

also, i just kinda took the concept of canongram, looked at it and went "okay but how can i make it even more dark" sjdjksksl. not in an edgy way, but i really wanted to see how far i can go, you know what i mean? :'D actually, this season's voice dramas will reveal, uh.. that the guards are actually more vulnerable and they're in a bigger danger than they think. it will most likely sound very weird and make no sense at all if you try to keep things canon, but i feel like it makes everything more scary and also makes it feel like not only the prisoners', but the guards' lives may change completely because of everyone's verdicts.

and also thanks to the new mvs i'm not afraid of my mvs being too weird or creepy sjsdksks

again, thank you so much! <3

[elizabethrobertajones]

can i get 7, 8, 11, and 14 for your creatures re: edgy asks, thank you,

What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

I feel like my mental image of who Frog is has never wavered, so Galvin time >:)

I did use my level 50 fanta to make his eyes bigger and wider and his lips less pursed looking, because he was giving me kiiind of creepier vibes than I ended up feeling after spending time with him. Also once he had reminded me of where all my SMN buttons were I swapped to Black Mage practice and my general playing competency drops from incredible, to free company messages about how many times Galvin has been murdered by whatever challenge I'm currently up against :')

It made me start to see his character differently as well because Summoner does sort of come with the Allag stuff and there's a kind of smarminess that Galvin was giving off about it, like, I gave him the casting glam from Labyrinth of the Ancients and my fc yelled at me for making an Allag lord reenactor or something else devastating. It was all very funny but in the end I felt like I wanted him to be a bit less weird in this specific way and there's something I felt was a bit too secretly cruel or heartless in his expressions, mixed with all the jokey Galvin Lore we were spinning up.

So he got a soft reset as a bit more cringefail and harmless, and it made his personality make a lot more sense even with a lot of the teasing we'd already spun up before I wandered off on my own to give him a more thorough inner life. Like of course he'd be wildly attracted to Urianger on sight to Thancred's horror and confusion, just because the guy talks smarter than everyone in the room and Galvin is a complete nerd who also devoured books in lieu of human company and felt like a complete outsider. Of course he'd be drawn to dark arts but only in a purely intellectual way and be a little alarmed that people think it's weird and creepy, because he doesn't mean it that way, it's just interesting. and different. And people tease him for being weird and creepy so of course he likes that sort of thing.

Would your OC ostensibly be able to get away with murder?

First of all Frog did do all the DRK stuff as canon, so while she still wonders who knows about it and whispers about that incident and believes one thing over the other about what happened there, and how much her connections in Ishgard kept her safe (having started playing it much more once I was in SB), so I do know she CAN get away with murder.

I feel like if she did have to kill someone in any scenario it'd be completely justified and barely feel different to her than doing it as necessary for a quest she's on, so she'd feel like arguing her case to prove it was justified, and on her word as WoL, would mean she could also get away with murder in any scenario. If she felt like she'd done great wrong, she's the kind of person who'd turn herself in voluntarily even if she could have got away with a perfect crime >.> And then she'd probably still get let off for being a good egg.

What is your OC's weapon of choice? Have they ever actually used it?

I think the only weapon Frog goes back to with any regularity, is that the Moggle Mog RDM rapier is her sword of choice and no other has ever matched up to the feel of it.

.... I feel like the second half of the question is aimed at OCs from elsewhere than a game with oodles of combat, but actually, the answer is no! It's always been a glam over stronger weapons, but I think it's pretty canon there's a psychological element to fighting (thanks Dynamis)... Let's say that any other sword that didn't go "Kupo!" on being drawn wouldn't inspire Frog to do the horrible bright RDM LB3 :D

aaaand answered here! :D

[xweetok-starmap]

/excited realization/

I’M LIKE A SMALL STATURED WARRIOR CAT AND HOW THEY ALWAYS TALK ABOUT HOW THAT MEANS FIGHTING TECHNIQUES ARE DIFFERENT well except I don’t keep the whites of my nails at equi-length (or greater than) to the pinks of my nails and at sharp almond points anymore like I used to for years, but YEAH LIKE A TINY WARRIOR CAT

ooh but when I had Warrior Cats OCs they were usually very large cats, actually; the opposite of my actual body. And either just plain medicine cats OR medicine cat hybrids (like Brightheart) OR warriors turned medicine cats, since I’ve always been just as interested in how the medical parts of healing bodies work, as how the physical parts of active bodies work; and that shone through to my cat OCs.

I was soo meticulous about tracking all the different herbs in the Warrior Cats books as I read them, when I was a middleschool! I had a notebook that I handbound and wrote all the herb details about in, and everything!

Later, a lot of those OCs would have strange tie-ins with the Dark Forest cats, where they’d like wander in as kits or SOMEHOW BE BORN THERE CAUSE THEIR MOM GOT PUT THERE SOMEHOW DURING BIRTH and have to leave and try to resume a normal clan life; but they’d maintain their relationships with the Dark Forest cats and often they were parental and then later became romantic/sexual (AND very gay), bc of COURSE it had that progression, of COURSE it was very gay, this is Warrior Cats OCs and Warriors is how you process EDGY STUFF /giggles/ and I didn't even know back then, this was years ago just pure private OC character exploration, it just all goes ALL THE WAY DOWN

in case anyone was wondering /excited little beam bounces/ the most recent names/name theme that I used for Warrior Cat OCS were

Saffron Patch that Grows Through Snowmelt

or Saffronsong. ETA found another one while looking for something on my laptop: Chevrilwish

[patrolclaw]

ranting abt the wc "lemon" issue, tw for all the big bad stuff (zoo/pedo/rape/etc). i will be discussing this in detail, so please be aafe and don't read if this may trigger you.

i'm gonna preface this by saying that i know nothing will be done about this. i know ao3 in particular is a huge enabler for these kinds of people. this will never go away.

but i'm frustrated. sickened.

i remember being a kid and learing about fanfiction for the first time. and what did i find? something called "lemons". a lot of them. being that i was looking for warrior cats content (y'know, the books about CATS?) finding anything sexual is concerning. but it wasn't juat sexual. oh no, that would be too simple. not edgy and taboo enough.

i still remember some of them, more vividly than i would like. there was one about tigerclaw coercing cinderpaw, to spite fireheart, apparently. there was the brambleash hate-sex/borderline rape fic. the one where dustpelt comforted fernpaw after she was raped by darkstripe by... also raping her. the one where squirrelflight taught her underage daughter about sex by shoving her tail inside her. there were a number of those tail-sex fics. always an obsession with heat cycles. far too many about older cats "teaching" younger cats, or just straight up kittens, about mating.

this, of course, was not good for my developing mind. warrior cats was not the only culprit, but it's something i loved then and still do now. it's an issue i've seen ongoing for years. about 14 years, actually, though i'm sure it began just as soon as the series did. it's personal. it warped my perception as a child. it made me normalize these awful things, because surely it can't be that bad if people are writing these things, right? it hurt me.

i will also say that yes, you can explore "dark themes" respectfully and appropriately in media, even media like warriors. i read a really good oc fic once about a cat recovering after being raped by her clanmate. it focused on her recovery and inner turmoil. at the end, she has a loving network of friends and even a mate. when she decided to tell her mate about what she went through, as well as her doubting herself for giving away the kittens sired by her attacker, she is assured that no, she didn't deserve to hurt, and that she made the right choice. throughout the story, she suffered and struggled with her trauma. but never once was it sexualized. the incident even happens onscreen, but it was done without any of the gratuitous cat genital descriptions found in the countless other fics that include sexual violence. it can be done. but the people who talk about "dark themes" really just mean they want to write porn. that's the difference.

like i said before, i know this will never go away. truly, i do. but that doesn't mean i'll ever be okay with it.

this is an example of the kind of content i'm talking about. every time i go to ao3 to check if the fics i've been reading have updated, i'm greetes with things like this. every time. i'm sick of it.

unfortunately there is no resolution. that's all there is. i just really needed to get that off my chest. if you read all that, or even skimmed, thank you.

[seginbeats]

/clips out of the backrooms and sits down.

I think it’s really telling that “edgy” and “angsty” content, tropes and characters still have a stigma of shame attached to them. It’s still the butt of a lot of jokes and is usually assumed to be “vent writing.” Of course, there’s nothing wrong with vent writing, it’s extremely healthy and a very valid way to process things, but, content like that shouldn’t be hailed as “good” only when it’s labeled as a personal vent.

But on an actual serious note, this is something that a lot of us (myself included) were shamed for enjoying once we became preteens and teenagers; I think that’s where a lot of the stigma still comes from, being told that your emotions are ridiculous and that expressing them with alternative music, dark fantasy books and strange coping mechanisms was bad and weird. Don’t feel bad for your edgy content! Process your emotions, get them out, explore the psychology of your character’s ups and downs without being worried about being called “edgy” or “angsty”. That’s the whole point. Bringing things forward and looking at it from a fresh angle. Writing gives you the incredible chance to explore darker topics in a safe environment. There’s nothing wrong with you if you ENJOY exploring those topics— it doesn’t make you an ax murderer or a psychopath or an abusive person, it doesn’t mean you’re trying to achieve a fulfillment fantasy, and if someone tells you otherwise, they’re incorrect. Frankly, the nicest people I know? They write the most fucked up shit. Just tag the triggering content and all is good.

Angst and edge are cool like I’m sorry you can’t handle my OC Shadow The Hedgehog Linkin Park - Crawling Music Video .WMV. I’m edgy and free.

[a-lonely-dunedain]

ok sorta-crack theory for why the Black Numenoreans are called Black Numenoreans despite being Very Pale (in LOTRO specifically I mean, that's where my support for this comes from)

I mean sure it works fine if you just say they're called that because they're serving the Dark Lord or their hearts are blackened in a more metaphorical sense, but a little idea came into my head and has been rattling around in my brain (ok this ended up longer than expected, I'll need to put it under a cut)

so my thought kinda came from looking at them in LOTRO and being like "ok but why is their skin purple-grey????" and then it hit me, their blood is black! it probably has a lot to do with the evil sorceries they all seem to be so well-versed in, maybe the result of a ritual they willingly undergo to intentionally make themselves look Like That as a sort of badge of honor to them.

like a way to more clearly differentiate themselves from the other humans in Sauron's order, because if there's one thing we know about these guys it's that their incredibly prideful. they're Black Numenoreans, the favored servants of the Dark Lord, entrusted with powerful magic, and they want everyone to know that! so of course they want black blood and yellow eyes and are willing to endure physical mutilation to get it, what self-respecting servant of Sauron wouldn't?

more support for this lies in the fact that in the early game, (iirc) the only purple-ish Numenoreans we see are Mordrambor and Amarthiel's other champions, y'know really high ranking dudes, and the lower ranking unnamed ones actually have pretty normal skin-tones. it makes sense that Mr. "Horrible Dark Magic Man" Mordrambor would have these traits while the others haven't earned the right to it yet.

weirdly enough tho, later on as we get closer to Mordor every Black Numenorean you encounter seems to have it. I don't know if that's the devs retconing the idea that only higher-ranking guys have the Black-Blood™ and saying they all have it, or if the ones located within Mordor are considered More Important by default. because like, we see some labeled as "apprentice" who still have that signature purple-grey skin.

or maybe they've just been getting their character models mixed up and I'm overthinking this! (I mean that first picture of the Normal Looking Guy is actually from the Dale-Lands which is post-Mordor content sooo *shrugs*)

anyway I'm just rambling, I thought this was gonna be a short post but I guess now that I've started posting about my OC that has a Personal Connection™ to this stuff I now have Opinions and Theories about it! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ idk I just think the visual of blackened blood is neat. yes my OC has black blood, what of it? am I not entitled to a little shameless edginess every now and then? as a treat?

(as for why Margim still bares those marks despite having never undergone any of those rituals and knowing approximately zero magic, it's probably that in some uncommon cases those traits can be passed down to their children. not often, but it happens. wow Margim is so lucky! :)))))

[mahou-furbies]

Do you think having magical eggs is too similar to Shugo Chara? I'm planning a magical girl webcomic and I really like the idea of taking care of an egg, keeping it warm and making it hatch to obtain powers. I also want to use the theme of being kind with animals and such, so, I think the egg is a good addition to it. But I'm worry people will compare it to Shugo Chara.

Comparing stories is inevitable, like people who have never seen a magical girl show will call any magical girl anime a Sailor Moon copy, or those who complain about edgy stories will label anything remotely dark as a Madoka ripoff, or on fanwikis in the trivia sections you can find "this was possibly inspired by ___" speculation over the flimsiest connections. If it isn't clear from the tone I'm not a huge fan of this, but regrettably I have to file it under "people having different fandom opinions on the internet over ultimately insignificant issues" and move on.

However I think there can be more than one upbeat magical girl story, or dark magical girl story, or a magical girl story with eggs for that matter; just because there is some common element doesn't mean the stories can't go into completely different directions. Other than the egg your premise sounds very different, with the focus on animals, while Shugo Chara (IIRC) is about growing up and identity, with the eggs being more like props or metaphor. Or Kira Kira Precure and Tokyo Mew Mew both have an animals+sweets theme, but TMM focuses on the animals/conservation and Ichigo's romance with the cafe being more of a backdrop, while KKPC focuses on the sweets/cafe side and is themed around... I can't remember, finding, enjoying and spreading what is exciting to you? Just because Shugo Chara has eggs in it doesn't mean that no other magical girl story ever is allowed to use them.

Also especially for fan creations, I don't think it even matters if you take your story to a different direction. I think it's totally fair to be like for example "Sailor Moon is my favourite anime and I find its premise interesting, so I made my own version with magical girls based on the planets and the moon one being a reincarnation of a princess". You probably should be honest about the inspiration (and not pretend it's all your very own original idea) but if anyone has a problem with it just block them.

However, (no longer related to your question but) I think one should be more careful when it comes to other fan creations; I think any big commercially published works are fair game when it comes to taking inspiration, copying, making your own versions, and so on, but seeing someone else's OCs and making your own be very similar feels unpleasant to me. Like if someone's flower-based magical girl team inspires you, feel free to make a flower-based team yourself but maybe don't use the exact same flowers for everyone, and try to come up with different clothing motifs and story ideas. Though of course with fanworks too there are concepts that are general enough that you really can't claim ownership over them ("I made an element based magical girl team and now nobody else can do that or they're copying me!" "Only my season-based magical girl team gets to have a white-pink-green-orange colour palette!" "My pink heroine has a miniskirt and twintails, don't steal my idea!")

[evangelifloss]

Omg!! I love this. Thank you so much beloved mooty for tagging me!

When I was little, my very first oc was pretty much a self insert so I took inspiration from that. I made her when I was ten, her name is Artemis Von Tenebris AKA Artemis The Darkness.

I've always loved having silver hair, and the red eye combo, and I wear Lolita as well so here you have me as an edgy elf-girl who used so much forbidden magics that it caused her to grow a third eye which allows her to see past illusions. She can also see the auras of other people and make judgements of their character. Her silver hair has flared off into a dark corruption which will consume her if she uses too much magic for too long, call it a dire side effect, so now she wanders between realms and keeps to herself. Artemis abstains from magic use altogether, preferring to use "human" means even if it makes life considerably harder. Sure, she can teleport away from a mob of angry humans but that would be too easy. Being her companion is tiresome, but past her witty sass and "serene" metaphorical sayings, you'll have a ride or die chaos companion. Just try not to betray her, she's sensitive when she let's someone "in"

---

Tagging people who HAVE to do this fun post: @alice-kuonji

And of course, friends I invite at their discretion: @onewholivesinloops @boymagicalgirl @feartheoldblog @toskarin

And anyone else! Its free real-estate

starting a tag game inspired by this post!!

so make an OC that's basically just a darker edgier version of you! and tell me what cool abilities or powers they have! act like you're 13 again.

i'm using this picrew

i don't have a name but they're like the personification of impulsive decision making. see a bird? try to catch it. want to go somewhere faster? just jump down a building. wanna have something? steal it. but also they're like super skilled in something i have yet to decide on and people groan at having to deal with them but they can't do it without them so they have no choice but to ask them for help lol. in general people seem to treat them as if they're an wild animal (and they're not completely wrong, they do eat raw meat. with their hands. lol) they're not malicious but they're just very focused on themselves. gender is something else everytime you ask them but most of the time they just sidestep the question.

tagging: @roseofcards90 @frogizz @geometricalien @jabbajacks @megacarapa @vampireboy-girlfriend and anyone who wants to!!!

[beevean]

Let's run the gauntlet! Rate each IDW storyline and Netflixvania season against each other! Like who gets first place in shittiness, who gets second third etc

Not really fair since IDW has more arcs, but I'll try :P

The "best" parts of the two works are S1 and... uh... well this is hard, but I'll go with the very beginning of IDW too. There are already some problems (excessive swearing, lack of Grant/Mr. Tinker and everything related to it), but overall, they're solid, short arcs with not many of the problems that would plague later arcs. I like the fight between Trevor and Alucard, and I like Metal Sonic raining fire and brimstone in his quest to revive his master. Nothing much to say.

I would compare the Surge arc with S2, because, well, #girlboss. Those arcs are all about this new shiny villain strutting their stuff around, declaring themselves the hottest shit ever, shittalking the main villain, and being very, very, very annoying (at least Surge isn't a fake radfem, and tbf, the story never wants us to love her because she's a girl). The heroes take a stepback in favor of the OCs, and a few interesting scenes (the fight against Dracula, the potential of Surge's brainwashing and Kit's cutting speech against the "heroes") don't salvage what's ultimately a very boring, drawn out arc. I can also draw a parallel between Sonic being an utter smug asshole, and Alucard being so mean to poor Trevor.

Not sure what I'd compare to S4 because IDW isn't over yet. Mmmh, I hate S4 because of shipteases that lead to infuriating scenes, so... the current arc? The Whispangle apology drama vs. the "cute" Lenector scenes, both examples of jarring morality? Carmilla and Lanoline being both ineffectual unlikeable #girlbosses? An unlikely villain (whatever passes off as Death/a growing city) that diminishes the importance of the original villain? Yeah, let's go with this.

First place in utter shittiness goes, of course, to the MV arc of IDW and S3 of NFCV! Three words to describe them both: pointless misery porn.

Characters suffer in graphic detail for the sake of suffering, the morals (if we want to call them that) are cynical - the world is unfair, you can't trust anyone, if you're kind you will pay for it - some scenes are simply unfit for the series - many The Walking Dead vibes in what's supposed to be a Sonic adaptation, the two random sex scenes in episode 9 - and characters are at their most stupid and most OOC, and dare I say unlikeable - this is where Sonic officially turns into a preaching asshole who thinks begging Eggman to turn good and throwing Espio's trauma in his face are good things (plus, you know, the whole Metal mess), and whatever salvageable things about Hector as an anti-villain get thrown down the drain as he falls for the same "pretty vampire manipulates him" strategy again. The ending has some bullshit choices too: Super Silver manages to somehow rip the metal virus away from the molecules of the infected people, Isaac conveniently is redirected to a giant mirror that would bring him and his army straight to Syria.

And at the end, all that pain? No longer matters! Cream is happy-go-lucky after watching her mother "die" and being infected herself. Alucard gets over his trauma after one episode. Hector is willing to exchange stupid dick jokes with the woman who turned him into a pet.

But fans appreciate their "depth", although in different ways: for the MV arc, it's the whole dark and edgy vibe and the "moral conflict" of "should Sonic have killed Mr. Tinker?" (no the whole problem is that Sonic let Metal go and no one cares); for S3, it's everything about Isaac and his "character development" that is supposedly peak writing (yeah I sure like the poor little thing who stole Hector's arc and also killed a bunch of innocents without that ever being addressed again).

[pika-ace]

Ask you about your Dark Choco Cookie joins the Brave Squad au (please I'm curious)

I explained the basic premise in the replies of the original post but FUCK IT, I've had time to ruminate, it's time for more details!!

SO! We begin right after the Brave Squad have their fight with Dark Choco. Everything basically plays out the same, but maybe with a few more added lines from Gingerbrave, saying wholesome things and basically being a foil to DC's edgy bullshit.

DC: I once clung to the naive notion of friendship and happiness, but I was wrong

Brave: Well...maybe you didn't have very good friends back then. ...You could be OUR friend :3

Wizard: BRAVE, NO-

Anyway, they go on the usual story, blah blah blah, White Lily Cookie, crystal cage, whoopsie we freed Dark Enchantress Cookie, oh shit, she just summoned that huge monster from the opening cutscene. FIGHT! Dark Choco watches the fight, and for the first time, he feels...impressed, watching these kids fight. This monster is showing NO mercy, but they're still getting up and going. They're not giving up even though they're getting the tar beaten out of them. Of course, they win, and DC is just confused as all hell. These cookies were able to best him AND Dark Enchantress Cookie?! Dark Enchantress then starts her evil manipulating talk that she says in the scene. 'You lost to kids, wow, you suck, but if you do what I say, then I'll make SUPER strong >:3'

And before DC can respond, little Brave pipes up 'He's NOT weak! Don't listen to her, mister! Just because you lost once doesn't mean it's the end of the world! Heck, we've gotten kicked around a bunch of times on the way here! But we didn't give up, and neither should you! You ARE strong, and she's just taking advantage of you!' The rest of the kids speak up as well, mostly agreeing with the point that Dark Enchantress is absolutely tricking you, she doesn't have your best interests at heart, don't just blindly do what she says, and Dark Choco is basically reeling. No one has said that to him in so long and maybe that was something he really needed to hear...?

Before he can really have a crisis about it though, DE is absolutely OVER this mushy friendship talk, and while they're distracted, sets up for a powerful magic attack. Dark Choco sees this, and the next thing he knows, he's between the kids and the attack, deflecting the magic blast with his sword, and honestly, EVERYONE is caught off guard.

Brave Squad: :Oc

DE: Did you just...BLOCK MY ATTACK?!?! >:O

DC: ........I guess I did 8/

Jokes aside, Dark Choco makes it clear that he can't let DE hurt these kids. He has no idea why or what is going through his head right now (feelings???) but whatever it is, it's something he can't ignore, just like how he was drawn to the cursed sword. Dark Enchantress is obviously pissed about this, saying that if that's the path he chose, then he would die with the rest of these miserable little cookies, and the portal opens. The school goes boom (I'm going out on a limb here, I mean they kinda skipped what happened after the giant hell portal with a dragon opened up, so I ASSUME that a lot of nearby areas got kinda fucked up) and the Brave Squad and Dark Choco are left in the rubble, a bit banged up, but alive.

Now, in a normal situation, the Brave Squad would press on and keep looking for the Vanilla Kingdom, but they kinda have to address the big, scary, dark, cursed elephant cookie in the room. Brave is the first to jump up in excitement, gushing about how FREAKING COOL it was when Dark Choco deflected that attack like that, but DC isn't exactly in the right mindset for this right now. He just betrayed his Dark Master and now he has nothing left for himself. But of course, Brave jumps in, 'Don't be silly, you have us!'

DC: ...?

Brave: Look, you really saved us back there! I don't think we'd be here if it wasn't for you! I wasn't lying when I said you were super strong! And now, since Dark Enchantress Cookie is gone, and you don't know what to do...why don't you join us?

Squad: WHAT!?!?!!

(cue Wizard Cookie yanking Gingerbrave aside for a VERY SERIOUS group discussion!)

Wizard and Chili Pepper are the ones most against this. I mean LOOK AT HIM! How can we POSSIBLY trust this guy?! But Brave shoots back, 'Uh, because he saved us! Duh!' Strawberry is mostly just terrified of him and Custard is ruminating on the idea of having such a big strong swordsman as one of his royal subjects; I mean, his manners could use some work, and maybe he could dress a little less 'black' but, he has potential... The discussion basically goes nowhere, cause Brave is DEAD-SET on this, no matter what anyone says. Eventually, Chili caves, saying that if he tries anything, they can just beat him up again, which seems to calm Strawberry and Wizard who also puts in the condition that he is going be keeping a VERY close eye on him, and if he so much as TWITCHES wrong, he's getting a lightning bolt to the FACE. Brave is perfectly fine with these terms, they break the discussion circle, and Dark Choco is officially on the team!

Dark Choco has no idea what he just got himself into, especially when Chili Pepper comments that she's so glad that she can FINALLY stop being the 'adult' of this group cause the stress was killing her. ...This is gonna be quite an eventful journey.

Tune in for more when pikaace is able to farm enough EXP jellies to actually level up her damn cookies and progress past World 9 XP