#I never would have started my original stuff without the confidence I got from the manga

[cerealforkart]

The day before new episodes is always the worst

Not because I’m itching to listen to the new episode, I regret to inform that when I say I care about this podcast a normal amount I’m being honest. But there’s a kind of eugh… I don’t really want to draw manga pages this week… that I always get before episodes come out

It goes away once I actually listen to the episode and start working but the day before always sucks

[physalian]

In Defense of Fanfiction (Or the perfect starting point for your original novel)

Fanfic gets a bad rap pretty much everywhere except Tumblr. It’s misunderstood and misrepresented by its average works, seen as juvenile and cringey, or a banal point of contention between a famous person or piece of media and its fans.

Outside of fanfic that writes about real people, especially smut fics of real people, I support the art wholeheartedly. Fictional characters are one thing, but personally, caricaturing a celebrity’s life for public consumption and writing or drawing them in compromising content without their consent is a little weird. You do you. Don’t like, don’t read, as they say.

Fanfic is the perfect starting point for a few reasons:

It places you in a creative box and forces you to work within those constraints

It does all the worldbuilding and character concepts for you

It lets you write way outside your comfort zone

When published and receiving feedback, it boosts your self-confidence

It's incredibly flexible

It’s practice. All practice is good practice

—

Behold your creative box

When I was little I had no idea the majority of fanfic was shipping fics. I always pictured and looked for canon-divergent alternate universes. Like, what if X happened in this episode instead of Y? What if this character never died?

Fanfic demands you work within someone else’s canon, whether it’s an OC in the canonical world, or the canonical characters in an AU. These are like little bowling bumpers saving you from the gutter, but also keeping you on a straight-ish path toward the pins.

The indecisiveness of too many choices can be too intimidating when you’re first starting out. You want to be a writer but you have no idea where to begin, what genre to pick, what characters you want to chronicle, what themes you want to explore.

Even if it sits on your computer never to see the light of day, you still got those creative juices flowing.

Pre-packaged worldbuilding

Sometimes all we want is to get to the good stuff. Maybe I want to write a story about elemental magicians but Last Airbender already exists and I just want to play in a pre-existing sandbox. So I write some OCs into that world and have a free-for-all.

I don’t have to come up with my own lore, world history, magic system rules and mechanics, politics, geography—any of it. I get to just focus on the characters.

Even if you’re writing an AU, like say a coffee shop AU, you don’t have to think about brand new characters, you can just think “What would M do?” and go from there. The trade-off is your readers will expect canonical characters to behave in-character, but I think it’s worth it.

Stretch beyond your comfort zone!

Do you hate writing action scenes? Go practice with a shonen anime fic. Need work on dialogue? Write some high-fantasy fic, or a courtroom drama. Practice a fistfight by watching fistfights and writing what you see, and do it over and over again until what you read makes you feel like you're watching what’s on screen.

But beyond that—practice genres that you aren’t super familiar with. If you’re new to fantasy, write fantasy fic. Or a mystery novel/show, thriller, comedy, satire, adventure, what have you. The nature of fanfic still gives you those “guardrails” and you can get some brutally honest feedback on how you’re doing.

And, of course, the realm of M-rated romance and smut fics. I haven’t because I think I would die of embarrassment if I tried and I never intend to include sex scenes in my works anyway, but if you do want to, use the internet as your test audience. Post it on a throwaway account if you’re nervous.

Build that self-confidence!

The fandoms I used to write for are super dead, so it’s insane how I still get email notifications that so-and-so liked my fic to this day. Comments are as elusive as ever, but random strangers on the internet telling me they liked my work is a magical reassurance that my writing isn’t actually awful.

Random strangers on the internet are, as we all know, beholden to no moral obligation to be kind to your little avatar face, or be kind to be polite. So a rando taking the time to like my work or even leave a positive comment can feel more honest than one of my friends telling me what they think I want to hear.

I tend to avoid the more present aspects of fandom like online communities, forums, social media, what have you, so I get a delayed and diluted aspect of any given fandom through completed works. Which means, in general, I get to avoid the worst and most toxic aspects of fandom and get to sift through positive feedback and critique.

Even if your fanfic isn’t written with stellar prose, it’s fanfic. We don’t expect Pulitzer-prize winning content. And if your work isn’t up to snuff, people are more likely to just ignore it than put you on blast (at least in my experience, I never got a bad comment or a “flame” in the old FFN days).

Fanfic doesn’t care about the rules of published literature

On the one hand, try not to practice bad habits, but with this point I mean that your layout, punctuation, formatting, paragraph styles, chapter length–all of it is beholden to no rules. I get as annoyed as the next reader with giant blocks of paragraphs, or the double-spacing between pages of single-sentence paragraphs, but if the story’s good enough I might ignore it.

There’s more than just straight narrative fics, though. People write “chat” fics, or long streams of text and group chat conversations. The scene breaks can come super rapidly–I’ve seen fics with a single sentence in between line breaks to show the passage of time. And without the polish of a traditionally published novel, I’ve never seen a purer distillation of author voice in any medium more than fanfic.

All practice is good practice

Even if it’s crack fiction, or a one-off one-shot, or something meant to be lighthearted and straightforward and free from complex worldbuilding and intricate plots. It really helps break writer’s block when you can shift gears and headspaces entirely and you can get relatively instant feedback to keep you motivated.

Beyond that, the “guardrails” help you stay consistent as far as character growth and personality if you struggle with designing rich characters.

The most recent fanfic I wrote was just a couple years ago, for a dead fandom I didn’t think would get any traffic whatsoever. It wasn’t my original works, but the feedback on that fic gave me the kick in the butt I needed to get back into writing more seriously.

—

In short, I support fanfic. I may not be proud of my earliest fics' prose now, but I am proud that they walked so I can now run.

[rqbossman]

Hello Mr Bossman! (and possibly anyone else who reads this)

Its an honour to be here, I have a few questions. First i appologise for the long paragraph, you may dismiss it for the questions at the bottom. For context, i am here after finishing TMA and being up to date with TMAP, i then went over and listened to RQG, and have just finished listening to Epilogue 3 and might i just say, good sir I am grateful for your podcasts. I am currently just a few months away from my final exams of High School, and as someone who even just 1 year ago was very lost, struggling with school and being just overwhelmed. TMA isnt exactly comforting, but the characters and plot managed to serve as a good form of escapism while sorting myself out. I found my self engaging more in creative things that i had originally put aside in favour of maths and science (which i hated but thought i needed to do). I started drawing again, even if just fanart. and i found things going well. By finding podcasts, story telling and these communities have helped me in my own understanding of what i want in life. I got an ADHD diagnosis earlier this year, and almost directly after started RQG and as my first hyperfixation (that i was aware of as an hyperfixation) gosh dang it hit hard. (in a good way). Ive been able to do so much more creative writing and drawings, and got re-involved with a small dnd group with some friends who i played one game with almost 4 years ago now. So overall, inspirational sounds cringe, but it was. Im doing my best with the upcoming exams, but trying to get in to Medicine is not my only prority, and the fact ive been re-introduced to my first love (Literature and story telling), im planning to go do an Arts degree and i know i wouldnt have been able to confidently make this decision, or even have survived this long in the school system without the work you and your coworkers do. Now the sap is out of the way, Question time! (if you could answer even just one of these questions it would be so cool)(they go in order of RQ relevant to random stuff)(dont feel pressured to answer all/any. i know i wrote alot): 1. what would you say is the best way to draft out a long-form story. (with "Erasing the Line" as an example) Did you start at the end, with the links to the overarching plot.

2. When working with the players (in a form of TTRPG), what did you do to make sure you didnt miss relevant timing of plot points/ avoid creating spoilers while still giving enough detail?

3. What are good places to start with making a job out of storytelling/voice acting/audio etc. In the case of RQ, how is this a job and where do i sign up please! /j (what i mean is, how is best way/how did you find all the people involved and was there a common path that you were all on before getting to where you are now?) 4. Do you have recommendations for Terry Pratchett Books, i may be an literary-leaning student, but it seems i have never actually properly read any of his books. so where is best place to start?/What did you read first?

5. Similar authors or similar inspirations? Did you have a favourite podcast you listen to in your free time that you havnt had a hand in producing/directing/working on. 6. Favourite song/album/artist. And more specifically, what you like listening to in background when doing either writing or (for ttrpg) character research/game planing. 7. Since the olympics are on at the moment, what has been your favourite sport to watch, if you have been watching at all. Thank you for your time :)

Thankyou for all the kind words. Knowing our work is helping people really keeps our engines fired up. Let's see if I can't answer your questions: 1. I "sandbox" which is where I just shove everything I can think of into an unorganised bullet point list. Characters, setting, plot, all of it in one big mess. Then I decide what type of story you want to tell, copy and paste to a new document and then start to organise the thoughts (with the sandbox on standby if new stuff comes in I don't know what to do with). I think of it like scultping, you cut away bits and reshape until something comes out the other end that is story shaped. Only then do I attempt to build the sandcastle and put something coherant together like a synopsis or scratch draft etc.

2. Very tricky. I did a complete review and update of all notes after each recording session and don't forget the audio eas edited. I made lots of gaffs that you never heard as audience.

3. I contacted anyone I could convince to take part and just proved I was serious by overworking. I don't reccomend that route. Unfortunately it really is "who" you know. That doesn't mean chase established professionals as much as it means you need to get out there and associate with other up-and-comers who match your vibe. For me the route was long and windy and not a particularly good example. 4. I normally recommend people do not read his books in publication order. Don't get me wrong, its wonderful watching his craft grow from one title to the next but I would recommend new readers tip their toe into his later works to see if they like where he ended up before committing the time. I often recommend 'Monstrous Regiment' as people's first one. My favourite though is 'Thief of Time.'

5. I don't get much time to listen to podcasts in the last couple of years. I used to listen to a lot of non fiction. 'Stuff you Should Know' and that ilk. I also read a fair amount of classic YA fiction to unwind (Windinsger trilogy, Bartimeous, stuff like that.) 6. Paul Simon's Graceland but when working I assemble a playlist for each seperate project that is tonally appropriate. If I really need to focus I listen to Classical Minimalism. Or the Old School Runescape soundtrack. I'm allowed to be ecclectic. 7. I am actually in an incredibly busy work crunch at the moment so haven't seen any of it!

[bibibbon]

Hi! I was wandering through your blog and saw some of the asks about rewriting Katsuki, and I hope you don't mind me popping in, I'm sorry if this is a bother. I saw you talk about Katsuki bullying Izuku pre-quirk, and I find those scenes super interesting, because the voice actor, particularly in original, actually really improves these scenes for me since they seem to be playing it as genuine. Pre-quirk Katsuki seems to genuinely be confused about why none of the other kids can do what he can, why can't they read, why is Izuku uncoordinated and clumsy when Katsuki isn't? It sort of makes me think pre-quirk Katsuki is proto-Katsuki, just a dumb little protege who doesn't understand why he no one else is keeping up or challenging him or the hurt he causes by pointing it out. And then quirks or lack of, and adults telling him he's so gifted and talented and special and that's why everyone else can't keep up, and it's turned up to eleven and starts getting nasty.

Thanks for the input! I will be honest, I mainly just read the manga and watch some anime scenes with my friend who watches mha, meaning that there is some stuff from the anime that I can sometimes miss in my posts!

That being said, recontexulaising the scenes of pre-quirk katsuki as him genuinely being ignorant and unaware of the harm he causes is probably the most plausible explanation and makes a lot of sense. In the manga katsuki's memories, pre quirk are heavily biased and infulenced by his current internal monologue and thoughts that are hard to miss and due to this one can easily mistaken it as him just being like that since day one, so I will take your word with the VA making it seem that young katsuki wasn't truly aware of the harm he was causing and that harm caused was unintentional and not done out of malice but rather out of ignorance.

The show seems to establish from both katauki and izuku's perspectives that bakugo was the 'prodigy' and the manga does try and convey the consequences of this (rather poorly) with katsuki being fed the constant sentiment that he is the best and that he will make it far in life due to his capabilities whether that be him with or without a quirk. The sentiment was instilled into katsuki ever since he was a child (which is why after he gets a quirk, it's a very quick spiral into him, starting to beat kids up) and we see this through izuku's own description of pre quirk katsuki never being "good or bad but filled with confidence I admired."

From what we see in the manga, katsuki is depicted as the prodigy that then gets thrown all these expectations and titles by adults around him, naturally expecting him to be a hero or something great due to his quirk and his circumstances in life and we see that older katsuki echos these beliefs that the adults place on him whether that be his breakdown after the kidnapping or where he confronts izuku angry that izuku somehow got into UA saying that he was supposed to be the only one in their year and school to get into UA aka katsuki was supposed to be the legacy child he is supposed to be the greatest because the people have always expected that and thought of him to be that.

I think the river scene echos this messaging best imo. When katsuki leads his group through the forest and falls into the river, the entire group (minus izuku) responds by simply asking if he is okay and not even waiting for a response (almost as if they remember that this is katsuki) and simply believe or assume that he is obviously okay because he is strong. The more I think about this scene, the more it seems to vaguely remind me of how hero society treats all might. Why would anyone ask all Might if he is okay? He is the strongest of them all in the group of heroes? It's almost as if the thought doesn't even pop into their heads, and it's why barely anyone realises the state of hero society and how all might is hanging on by a thread because they always expect for the strongest to be okay because they are the strongest.

Essentially, this scene, along with Katsuki's inner thoughts, solidifies the consequences of having a societal expectation pushed onto an individual as we see katsuki and many other characters suffer because of this.

We see how this expectation of katsuki causes him to develop a unique mix of both a superiority and inferiority complex which seems to be an inner conflict that he struggles deeply with although I think hori misses quite a lot of times to fully flesh this conflict out.

In the end, katsuki becomes so disillusioned with social roles in hero society that he literally spirals when izuku does not conform to this social role and when this 'pebble' chooses to rebel and become a bigger obstacle in his supposed path to greatness. Izuku is everything that katsuki isn't, especially in society's eyes. Izuku is supposed to be the person that katsuki is supposed to be better than but what society tells him about izuku doesn't actually fit who izuku is as a person and it drives katsuki up the walls because even when izuku may be shaking with fear he still stands and does what he believes is right which is all something that doesn't match up to katsuki, this isn't something that society or the people have told katsuki will happen, this isn't supposed to happen but now it does and it is happening and katsuki starts to question his role in society believing that izuku is after it (this belief is further emphasised when izuku states that he wants to be a hero)

However, I do think that there needs to be acknowledgements made that while society and katsuki's parents are at play to the person he became so is katsuki himself.

I find it quite interesting that Katsuki, for all that it is knows exactly what's right and what's wrong. He knows that what he told izuku was wrong, and even if he somehow didn't (which I find completely unlikely), his lackeys tell him otherwise. Katsuki, for all that it is in his middle school class he isn't popular, but people simply acknowledge his power and strength. We literally see that it really is only the teachers that kiss up to katsuki and that his classmates are shown to take offence when he calls them 'extras', literally telling him to "get over himself". I find this interesting because izuku (oh the dear unreliable narrator) tells us that he is suprised that 1A is calling out bakugo's behaviour when his behaviour was being called out in middle school although the voices weren't as loud and they also seemed to heavily judge izuku as well.

For all that it is, katsuki's so-called middle school friends are literally just some random that follow him around, probably due to his strength and what that has to offer to their social roles in society. Katsuki seems to be quite the hypocrite as well calling out the lackeys for smoking because if they get caught, it would affect him, but he doesn't care when he gets called out after literally suicide baiting izuku. This seems like katsuki hangs out with them because they stuck onto him, and he may be a bit lonely for all we know due to his unlikeable personality but it seems like he does care about his image to an extent. Katsuki may have a horrible personality but he seems to care about his image and reputation as that's a key part as to how society views people and that he needs a spotless record to get into UA and actually be allowed to access various life changing opportunities.

[artist-issues]

I was writing out a really long meta analysis piece on the og Beauty and the Beast on how music and lighting were used to tell a story and I tagged you in it because I thought it’d be fun to debate some of that stuff with you but now I can’t find it in my drafts at all! It’s all gone 😭 so I came to your blog to make myself feel better and found your post about Zazu in the Mufasa movie and seeing you draw the characters in the original Disney style really cheered me up. Their animation used to be so beautiful and had so much love in it (your art was gorgeous by the way, it actually looked like a real lion king film!)

Anyway! If it’s not too much on you, I’d like to hear some rambles on Disney, it could be about anything really, but I’ve just gotten some really awful news tonight and I need something to take my mind off it please

Oh I'm so sorry to hear that! I want to be there for you. You're so kind about my art, thank you; I wish I'd seen the post. I’ve had it eat my drafts before like thirty times; recently my phone is doing this fun thing where I can’t type more than two paragraphs without tumblr freezing up, so I’ve lost more that way.

Let’s see…let’s talk about Disney’s Sequels! In these trying times of remakes and prequels, the Direct-to-Vieo Sequels start to look pretty good right about now, don’t they? I think they actually got better as time went on and money went into Disney Toon studios, but I’ll list my top three and explain why!

Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (no I’m not biased leemee alone)

‘The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride

Bambi II

I can explain myself.

Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch

This movie is amazing. It repeats the best things about the original Lilo & Stitch (tight focus on character-relationships, character-specific comedy, and a simple story) while still having its own vibe, as if these are the exact same characters you know and love, but they have a recently-new normal.

Stitch isn’t a destructive artificial-brain figuring out how to think outside his programming anymore—now thinking outside his programming is the new-normal, but he still has to learn how life with a family works. Lilo isn’t lonely anymore, but she is still stuck in her own little world, in a way. Nani isn’t struggling to keep her family together anymore, but she is still struggling to keep them all happy. And Jumba and Pleakley get character arcs, which is beautiful.

If you’ve never seen it, I don’t want to spoil it. It is a really good movie. They took this concept, which was originally from Chris Sanders’s early story ideas for the first movie, where Stitch is in danger of death but Lilo’s love revives him. And they made a movie out of that.

It’s great, because Lilo is still working through missing her parents. The movie doesn’t brush that aside, or act like having Stitch fixed everything for her. Instead, she’s become singlemindedly focused on winning the same competition at hula school that her mom did, because she wants to feel a connection with her mom, and because her peers are still treating her like she’s worthless.

The thing is, Lilo gets the confidence to try and win this because of Stitch. She’s downcast and believes that her bullies are right. You get the idea that this is how she would feel if she were still a lonely orphan. But this time, because this is the sequel, Stitch is there.

So he tells her they’ll win the competition together. And in this movie, while Lilo is struggling with getting her sense-of-worth from Stitch, or a hula competition, Stitch is struggling with his sense-of-worth, too. He’s glitching out and his programming is forcing him to act destructive all over again. He’s not sure if he’ll always be bad—he’s wrestling with the possibility that he’ll hurt Lilo and his new family.

And in the meantime, Jumba is trying to solve the problem, but he’s afraid he’ll fail, and lose his worth in the eyes of the family, as well as lose Stitch. And David, in a little side-story, is afraid he’s losing Nani, that she doesn’t value him.

All of which sounds really dark, but it’s really an interesting place to take the characters, and truthfully the whole film is so lighthearted where it needs to be, but not afraid to be earnest and emotional, either. And the point of it is really good. It’s “love is more powerful than death.” It’s powerful enough to overcome questions about self-worth, and it’s powerful enough to overcome the gaping hole that loss and failure and other forms of death leave. It’s gorgeous.

2. The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride

People take issue with this sequel because…I mean, look at it. There are parts of it that are animated really well, and the character designs are good, until you measure it up to the original Lion King, and then it’s just not even the same league. Besides, the writing is very dramatic, sometimes the sound editing for the characters’ dialogue is placed strangely or feels like the pacing is weird…

But I love it, and not just for nostalgia. I love it because it is about a new set of characters (like a sequel usually should be) but the previous set of characters still act in-character.

Not everybody agrees with me. Because Simba seems much less fun-loving, and so uptight and formal, that he doesn’t feel like the same character we knew and loved in the original Lion King, at all.

But it only takes like one second of thought to realize that, as a brand new king who’s uncle murdered his father and emotionally blackmailed him, and was able to do so easily because Simba himself was so self-centered and reckless as a child, and then Simba made big mistakes by running from his responsibility for so long…

…where we find him in this sequel makes total sense.

Of course he’s feeling like he has to overcompensate for abandoning the kingdom and getting fooled by Scar. Should he realize that not everyone is going to betray him, and he is the real King and can rule gently and fairly without being over-controlling? Should he? Yeah. But like. This is Simba. His major character flaw is thinking too much about himself—it used to be thinking he was awesome, then after his dad died it was thinking he was unable to be a good leader and everything was his own fault. Now, everything he ever dreamed about being a King, he dreamed when he was like the lion-equivalent of nine years old. And found out it was all wrong. He’s having to figure this out with only his father, whose very absence is a sore spot, as an example. Of course he’s suddenly obsessed with being just like his dad, and that makes him talk all formal, and pass strict judgement, and say things like “I’m seeking counsel from the Great Kings.”

Of course Simba would be protective of Kiara. Overprotective. Lying and controlling. Because as a child, he and Nala almost died over and over. And the worst of the worst things happened to him, as a cub.

Of course he wants to banish Kovu. It’s not because he’s racist. (What does that even mean?) It’s because he was betrayed and manipulated as a young, naive cub by someone who claimed to love him, then broke his heart and his life. So when a dark lion who literally looks like and claims connection to Scar waltzes in and appears to be manipulating his daughter and stealing her young heart? Yeah, no, it wouldn’t be Simba if he didn’t overreact.

But that’s enough about Simba. I think the movie’s real strength is symbolism and premise.

First off, it continues the symbolism of a reflection in its own unique way. The movie is very on-theme. Its point is “Hate divides us, but love completes us.” (Its not “We Are One,” that’s just Movie-Speak)

Kiara feels incomplete. Divided from a whole other half of who she is. She says so as a cub. She’s not just a princess; she feels like there’s a part of her that wants to be capable and bold and take action. But she can’t be that, she has no outlet for that, because as the Princess, everyone is always over-concerned for her safety and wrapping her in like, wild-animal-bubble-wrap. Then she meets Kovu, and he is capable, and bold, and takes-action—he seems independent. (He’s not, at first, but he has more control over his immediate actions than Kiara seems to.) And he gets her and loves her, and she loves him, despite their flaws, so that is her missing half.

And with him, he doesn’t know how to just enjoy life. He’s been trained his whole life to act out of passe-down hatred; he’s been run through drills, and there’s even a scene where Kiara has to teach him how to play…and then he goes back home to his sister, who clearly also wants to play, but just calls it “fighting.” That’s the world he comes from.

But he meets Kiara, who is all about trying to enjoy life and have fun, and it’s a whole new outlook for him. It’s what he had seeds of before his mother’s hate stamped it out, and Kiara completes it for him. So they really are each others’ other half. And they have that in common. Kiara could be independent and a capable leader, if her father’s hate (which manifests as paranoia and overprotectiveness against danger) weren’t stamping it out. Kovu could have fun and protect good things instead of killing, if his mother’s hate wasn’t stamping it out. Dividing the good parts of them. But then their love for one another overcomes all that and brings them together.

And they do that literally, with the reflections in the water. Simba needed to learn his father lives in him, he’s a part that can’t be separated. Kiara and Kovu needed to learn that love makes them part of one another—that’s the key to no longer being divided.

Just like how, in the end, love forgives—so the Outsiders are able to come back into the Pride. Instead of being divided, the prides literally merge into one, and are completed. Love all that.

If you think of it all as like, “how do we make Simba into a strong King when he has so much baggage to overcome?” And this adventure with his new family teaches him that? Then you can see it’s a really beautiful movie.

And I love, of course, that Mufasa appears to be orchestrating all these events. Like, there’s a Higher Power at work. It’s all good.

Bambi II

This movie has the same vibes as Lilo & Stitch 2, even though it’s a midquel.

I love that Bambi gets his own characterization and character arc in this movie, even though he’s pretty one-dimensional in the classic film. But yet, none of this feels out of character for Bambi. He’s sort of gentle and very young, but you can see glimpses of dreams and ambitions and even strength that show off what he’ll be like as an adult Great Prince of the Forest.

I think the animation is very good, soft and cute. It’s not so much about realistic-cartoon-animal movements, graceful and charming, like the classic was, obviously. This animation is more about emotion and appeal. Which I appreciate, because the story is, like most good Disney sequels, very relationship-based.

It’s about Bambi being cared for by the Great Prince, and how the relationship between a father and son is about more than duty; it’s about nurturing. I just love that. I love how carefully they build up Bambi as feeling distant and unsure of what’s going on in his father’s head, but wanting to please him nevertheless. I love that the Great Prince doesn’t know how, exactly, to care for or relate to Bambi, so he defaults to just telling him how to be dignified and Princely.

I especially love the scenes with Ronno or the Great Prince. I like the fact that those old Disney sequels can take a character that didn’t have a lot of dialogue or screen-time in the original, and build out a whole story around those characters, giving them personality and writing that somehow always feels true to those characters. The Great Prince might not know how to father, but even when he’s insecure he has a kind of put-on calm and reserve. He’s not made a fool-out-of, ever, or bumbling. I love that Ronno, on the other hand, is ridiculous and brutish, just a little-boy bully…but he’s also truly threatening, for Bambi and Faline and their friends.

I think the emotion in this movie hits really well. Because they’re so careful to interweave Bambi’s emotions about losing his mother and wanting to find the same feeling of safety he had with her in his father, with The Great Prince’s emotions about wanting to “do his duty” even if it hurts when he feels he’s not what’s best for Bambi…

Because they build that up believably and spend all their time on that instead of big, epic adventures or larger-than-life tales, the movies turn out really well.

Honorable mentions to Cinderella 3: A Twist in Time, The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning, Tarzan II, and Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure

I hope your day is better tomorrow, friend.

[daughterofapollo-official]

Alex Fierro Headcanons!!!

Yayyyy! My first set of headcannons out side of Greek/Romen mythology!

Starting my Norse mythology stufff!

I have read all three books lmao.

All of these a pre-death.

To be honest….

I do have much on Alex, becuase he is such a mystery. And that’s 100% intentional. Alex was hurt to much in his young life to be vulnerable and readable for everyone. Fuck you. He’ll tell you shit if he fucking wants too. Stop being a nosy bitch.

She has diffidently done drugs. (Please that is not not an encouragement to do drugs. I personally am very anti-drug use unless it’s for medical reasons, however this is not me but how I picture these characters after dissecting them.) she has access to her father’s money, money he won’t miss. The man did not love her enough to pay enough attention. And she grew up in a verbally abusive household. Plus she had to be cool in freshman year.

His whole mysterious vibe, and being very good looking and rich. He was invited to parties. And he did eventually try a few substances. He never really got too into it, but it was fun once or twice on weekends.

Alex may have died at 15 but she did a lot of adult stuff before then. Including kissing her virginity. Alex used to sneak out and had a lot of liberty due to the neglectful relationship with her father she was able to do things like this very often.

That being said, Alex didn’t give away his virginity so easily. This is because of his gender identity. Alex doesn’t have really strong dysmorphia, he forces himself to not think that way and always tries to be confident and positive about his body. There’s no point in getting upset over his genitalia or lack of breast.

Because if she ever got top or bottom surgery she would have the opposite problem.

Alex isn’t transgender he is gender fluid. So preeminently changing his sex is counter intuitive.

The reason her gender identity held her back from having sex originally. Was because of her relationship with her homophobic father and probable past with bullies.

We saw in the second book that when he was firstly introduced he was very defensive about his gender identity very quickly even without it being attacked.

So I think she held back because she was very nervous and scared that her partner would tell people that she was biologically male, and said gossip would undermine his indignity.

Eventually he trusted the person enough and no, it did not become gossip.

Alex will leave a hang out or date abruptly if she knows she is going to be late for pottery class.

Alex will absolutely love dressing you up like his doll. Doing your make up.

If you guys are a similar size she will dress you up in her clothes. And Will somehow always convince you to go to parties matching outfits.

Matching party dresses, make up, ect.

Once he trust you, which takes awhile he will act like there are no boundaries between you two.

She will go though your closet and judge your style, insist that you should let them dress you, becuase ‘you look like shit when you try on your own’

He will put on your lipstick without asking. And go though your underwear drawer.

(if you’re a girl) If she is feeling feminine she might try on your lingerie without asking and look at his figure in the mirror, sorry you’re figure.

He will wear bras despite not having boobs because it makes him feel ‘Bonita’. But not bras with cup because… well, there’s no breast tissue. But he loves cup-less bras, especially the lace ones.

She will even wear women’s sports bra to the gym because ‘a lady never shows her tits to anyone but her besties’

He is the type to kiss his girl best friends for fun.

[shortystack75]

I just did my annual rewatch of Stars Align aka Hoshiai No Sora and now I once again have too many thoughts. Anyone seeing this is now the victim.

So basically this post is gonna be a long post explaining a tierlist I made for the kids and how they were effected by their parent/s. I made the tierlist at like 3am this morning and immediately passed out while working through my thought processes

OTHER PEOPLE ARE WELCOME TO READ MY RAMBLES TOO IT'S PRETTY ACCESSIBLE BC I EXPLAIN EVERYTHING

So I'm actually going to go from the bottom and work my way up bc I have so many more uncoordinated thoughts about Touma, Tsubasa, and Nao than anyone else.

RINTARO His adoptive parents have done everything right, he and they are delights. his main issue is the FACT that he's adopted. he feels like there's something inherently wrong with him that caused his birth parents to not want him. at the end of the series his birth mother gets ahold of his adoptive parents and wants to meet him, its assumed she shows up at the tournament but leaves before he can catch up to her, making him believe that because he lost his match she doesn't think he's worth even meeting. And yea I'm with the theory that he's Touma's twin and that makes his mom Rintaro's mom and boy would that fuck him up even more and I so wish we could've gotten our original 24 episodes. Overall his ACTUAL parents that he grew up with and currently have did not cause his problems so 10/10 love them sm

Arashi + Class Pres They are rich kids and though we dont see them being effected by this very much i assume they are negatively effected but overall their parents are probably okay

TAIYO Very soft spoken and probably would roll over and die if a bully or mugger approached him. His parents, while very well-meaning, dote on him in a way that probably killed any kind of confidence he had. "It's okay if you dont win" WOULD be good parent words, but they were followed up with "tennis is a two person sport, so its not your fault if your partner messes up" Taiyo actually scolds them for this which made me really happy, as by saying this not only are they making a dig at his friend and partner(who does not need anyone hurting him anymore goddamn), but also could be interpreted as if they do win then it could be all his partner and not him Overall 8/10 this boy just needs more confidence and screentime

ITSUKI He was hard to place because his parent situation has already been handled actually. he got todorokied as a kid. When he was a baby, his mother clearly suffered from some pretty hard postnatal depression, and possibly other stuff, and poured boiling water onto his back. this left him with some pretty horrific back scars that he actually doesn't mind but he clearly doesn't like talking about it, as shown in the show by him not changing in the club room until about halfway through the show, after he'd already known the MC Maki for a while. He's shown to have a very easy trigger to violence however when people belittle his homelife. Without even knowing about his mother, some bullies come talk down to him about his mother being out of the picture and his response was to bash them over the head with his racket 8/10 Current situation, we never see his dad but we can assume he's doing a decent job as a father bc Itsuki and Namie are actually kinda well adjusted despite his lil aggro moment

Mitsue Mitsue is not part of the tennis club but hands around them as the only people she can stand coughcoughADMITTHEY'REYOURFRIENDSLOSERcoughcough and uses their matches as inspiration for drawing. Her parents belittle her passion for drawing and tell her seemingly often that she'll never go anywhere in life, its implied that she starts hanging around the tennis club and Maki's house to get away from her parents as long as possible until she actually starts liking them

Yuu Yuu is a canonicaly non-binary/X-gender character and i love them but their mom is transphobic and yelled at them and was really shitty i hope she dies. not directly related to their mother, but we also see other students bullying them for being gay (no one other than Maki, their mother, and their sisters find out about them not being cis, but most people seem to know theyre gay or at least suspect it) they are physically harassed early on, only to have a friend, Touma, step in and literally scare off the bullies(more on that when we get to him) and towards the middle of the show some other sports guys come into the tennis team's room to talk and start to make comments on Yuu being gay. This is immediately shut down by several of the tennis club members showing their clear support for them at least in the gay sense.

SHINGO His mother is either dead or otherwise out of the picture completely but there seems to be no ill will from him or his father, who remarried. Father is great and supportive of him. His step-mother however... She's constantly comparing him to his mother who she clearly doesnt like and wants as little to do with him as possible. Shingo has a little half-sister whom he adores and she adores him right back, but his step-mom HATES them interacting and does everything she can to discourage it, despite his little sister's clear adoration and love for him. He overall isn't super outwardly very effected by her, but is still clearly put-out by her random hate towards him and likely feels very uncomfortable in her presence. 6.5/10 overall, 9/10 dad but 4/10 step-mom who gets a"Not being as bad as you could've been" award

Now we're getting spicy

MAKI Our main character Maki! He's an overall quiet but pleasant person who has a very realistic outlook on life. His single mother is amazing towards him but works very long hours at her job and so most of the chores fall into him, not that he minds all that much, when he was younger he was often looked after by his mother's friend Shou, a canonical transman that lead Maki to be very informed about gender and was just what Yuu needed. His father however.... physically and financially abusive. despite being divorced he shows up at their apartment when he knows his exwife wont be at home to steal money from them and be mean to Maki. in the after credits scene of the first episode he hits maki so hard something in his mouth starts bleeding(he likely bit his tongue or a part of his cheek) and he curls up into a ball and waits for him to leave. He's terrified of this man. Later in the show he shows up to terrorize maki again and Touma, Maki's doubles partner, gets involved to put an end to it. Throughout the exchange Maki is practically cowering behind Touma which is so jarring because Maki's normal demeanor is so nonchalant and calm. It's implied he's been abused for as long as he could remember to some extent. We see a couple other time that he has an interesting reaction to threats and violence, such as another character threatening him with a racket(he doesn't react and simply says "Use your hands") or upon learning Itsuki bludgeoned a guy with his racket(tells him not to break the equipment because its expensive) Oh also his mother is in the process of getting a restraining order but its not in place yet Mom and Shou are 8/10, dad is 0/10, overall 4/10 experience for our sadboy Maki

TOUMA He's some kind of neurospicy i just know it. His father is ??? never see this man but we know he;s in the household, i think he travels for work or smth cause its mentioned he's rarely at home His mother HATES him. like for no reason. She gives us a lot of vague words she says to his older brother, who seems to be Touma's only positive family relation, at one point she says that he scares her but she also yells at him all the time and compares him to his brother and basically constantly belittles him for no reason. He seems to blame everything on himself but silently. When the tennis team isn't doing good he blows up be throwing his racket on the ground and storming away, but later reveals to his brother that he thinks its his fault and that he's a bad captain. Similarly, when the team is having a celebration he stays to the edges and explains to Yuu that he doesn't like being around people who are having fun because he feels like he's going to ruin it be engaging. We can actually tie this into a little moment he has with Maki during a game when Maki turns to him exactly and goes "I really love tennis!" and Touma stands there with awe on his face as if he couldn't imagine someone having fun by playing with him. Speaking of Yuu, back when he scared off the bullies, 2/3 of the bullies were IMMEDIATELY scared upon seeing him walk up, they told the third one that "Everyone knows he's a psycho" while Touma stands there with a blank face. This coupled with how his mother talks about him makes me think he's had a little bit of a violent streak that may be linked to autistic breakdowns Back to his mother, it is revealed at the end that there's a third brother we've never seen or heard of when we get a scene of his mother and older brother talking. his brother says "I love both of my little brothers" and later that episode his mom calls him to tell him she's divorcing his dad and taking his older brother with her. I just know he'd be even more messed up if Rintaro ends up being his twin brother. Anyway his dad is 4/10 for absence and his mom is 1/10 for doing the bare minimum (really sad that she has any points at all). Overall 2.5/10

TSUBASA he's my little crunchy guy i love him so much We very very briefly see his mother have worry for him at a bad moment but never goes after him when he runs away and she never seems to check on him at any other point. The bad moment is when he falls down the stairs. Specifically he is hit in the face by his father so hard (on a flight of stairs) that he slams into the wall and then loses his balance and falls backwards onto his dominant wrist hard enough to break it. Let me backtrack a bit. at about 2/3 through the anime, we get a scene of him at home watching tv with his 2 older brothers. His dad comes through the door and the music stops, all three boys look tense but Tsubasa specifically immediately gets a fearful look and when addressed by his dad tries to leave the room. Tsubasa is a very loud and confrontational person, likely caused by his dad's toxic masculinity, and says something that isn't important but causes his father to follow him and grab his wrist so hard he looks in pain. What follows is the stair incident. He then runs out of the house in the middle of the night and ends up in front of Shingo's house. Shingo is his tennis partner. Shingo sees him, Tsubasa tries to run away but is quickly caught by the hurt wrist. After Shingo realizes he's hurt he immediately gets his dad to take Tsubasa to the hospital. When the doctor asks if anyone else was involved, Tsubasa denies this and calls himself an idiot with the most heart wrenching expression on his face i swear. He later confesses to Shingo he's sure his dad hates him all because he's not as good at soccer as his older brothers, and blames himself for Shingo not being able to play in the upcoming tournament. When asked why he came to Shingo's house he responds with "I didn't know where else to go" Which makes me want to hit someone, personally. At the start of the series there a part where he raises his racket as if to strike Maki with it, but backs down when Maki doesn't even flinch. I'm taking this to mean he was never actually planning to hit Maki, but acting big and threatening violence is likely something he learned from his dad. When it doesn't work he immediately backs down and leaves the situation, similar to how he acts with his dad. He's also one of the few we see get physical with anyone else. Barring Itsuki and the racket incident, Tsubasa is the only member of the tennis team to threaten another middle schooler. In the club room incident where Yuu was starting to be harassed, Tsubasa was one of the three (Touma and Maki were not present) out of 6 members to intervene. While Shingo and Itsuki told the other boy off and insulted him in turn, Tsubasa actually got up in his space and grabbed a hold of the other boy's face, lightly shoving him. The other boys immediately backed down after this like Tsubasa was assuming they would, like how he learned to behave with his father. Mom is like 4/10 for being useless 🎉and Father is 0/10 for an overall score of 2/10!!!

and now... for NAO My head is in my hands over him So to start, he's an only child and his father is distant and doesn't seem to interact with him or care for him whatsoever(unlike with Tsubasa and hopefully Touma, he's somehow being an absent parent while sitting right! next! to! him!!!), leaving him with no help or reprieve at home from his monster of a mother. She never physically hurts or lays a hand on him from what we've seen but she clearly has deep-rooted mental and emotional manipulation that has negatively effected Nao very deeply. We see a lot of signs early on that we brush away as little quirks he has, such as telling a lot of lies or "fairy tales" as the tennis club likes to call them, staring off into space, or even just looking impassively at what transpires around him as if he wasn't apart if it. That's right this boy disassociates. hard. His mother, to put it lightly, is an extremely controlling and authoritarian parent who wants to hand steer every little thing he thinks, feels, and does. She's constantly complaining to the principal about the club and lying or exaggerating in order for club activities to be suspended or halted because she doesn't think he gets anything from playing and would rather he spend all his time studying. Speaking of studying, that's what she has him do constantly at home. His room doesn't look like that of a middle school boy. It has a desk, a bed, and a dresser. I would even go so far as to say some of his spacey-ness comes from exhaustion. who knows how long she has him studying every night, and its revealed he gets up early so he can go on runs and practice swinging because she doesn't let him after he gets home from school. All of this feeds into his lies. He's learned that whenever he tells her the truth he gets yelled at and belittled and punished. So he lies. he tells her what he thinks she'll want to here and this bleeds into all of his relationships. Upon meeting Maki he lies immediately, something broad to appeal to everyone, but its called out by the rest of the club and he just sits there smiling through it all while looking at the sky. He's left handed and she hates that. He uses his left hand to eat once and she yells at him, making him freeze up and pull his right arm into his center, almost mimicking the fetal position. SPEAKING of eating... boy unintentionally has an eating disorder. We are shown multiple times when he is at home he pushes his food around his plate and eats little to none of it. While there are other scenes of him with food away from his mother, I dont think he's actually specifically shown eating then either, and could've easily not eaten anything there. OKAY so onto the really scary/sad part. There's a part where Shingo brings his little sister to watch their practice game with the girls' team, and she gets lost in the school. She ends up found sleeping in the nurses office, but they skipped over it bc the door was locked and figured she couldn't have gotten in there. They only find her when Maki hears the keys jingle in Nao's pocket and realizes he locked her in there. Nao himself seemed shocked that he had the keys and was the one to lock her in there. His mom had been yelling about the practice game and wanting it cancelled the night before. He found her, and instead of telling everyone or waking her up, he disociated and locked the door, than lied that he hadn't seen her. He seemed so shocked that Maki even thinks that he'd thought his own lie was real. Think of how scary that is. I also think he's neurospicy which his mom would absolutely fuck up even more but thats just me things Dad gets a 3/10 for personally pissing me off and his mom gets a funny lil 0/10 along with the two other shittiest parents. Overall a 1.5/10!!!

In all seriousness In my own little world most of them move in together and share an apartment. Yes ive seen the extra scenes no I dont care im ignoring them.

[sleeplesslark]

Fic writing ask game!

9, 10, 16, 26, 27

Omg thank you!

This gets ramble-y fast so going under a cut

9. How did you get into Fanfic writing?

I'm going to give two answers. How I started posting fanfic vs writing, if that makes sense.

I started writing and posting fanfic because I have always been more "in" fanfic than original fiction spaces. Idk why but the attitudes around writing in fanfic spaces have always gelled more with me. I wrote a lot of shorter fics but couldn't really get into it the way I could with original. I liked the process of fanfic more though, not having to advertise and not looking to make money of stories.

I struggled to find a fandom that clicked with me. The closest was Alice in Borderland but even then it just didn't stick in a hyperfixation way, more a "this is easy and fun" way. Original fiction was my hyperfixation for years.

Then, Kabuto. I've never hyperfixated harder than on him and writing for him was the reason for it. I think the best way to put it is that I'd never wanted to commit to a fanfic the way I did original fiction before Loyalty's Price. It's wasn't just, "this is technically done and I don't have further interest" it was "I want to write this story and write it well". In a way that's probably the best thing that happened to me writing wise, I hadn't finished a draft in almost a decade before LP because I got very perfectionist about it needing to sell and be worth real money.

What got me into Kabuto was initially his english voice actor's work (which is odd for me since I usually don't notice that stuff). Then it spiraled into me looking for fic and while I was complaining with a friend that I was curious about an exploration of him and Naruto's bond, which there wasn't much fic of, the friend told me to write it and I said "idk he seems happy with orochimaru. Ig i can't see how it would happen" pretty much verbatim. It was something on he Every-Kabuto account during the sannin deadlock that had me rethink that postiob and inspired the set up to LP (which is why the account gets a shout-out in LP fics). From there just trying to figure out Kabuto's voice and the Naruto world led to more analysis of the characters and series which led to more fic ideas...and now i hope genuinely I never stop writing him. It's the happiest I've felt writing since I started.

19. Are there any ships or characters you'd like to write but haven't yet?

Naruto, Misumi, and Yoroi. Headcanon, but I tend to have Misumi and Yoroi as survivors of the Nine-tails' attack, and unlike many kids they kind of remember it. I think it'd be fun to have Naruto interact with these two who were directly impacted by the Nine-Tails but are more neutral about it. Yoroi and Naruto also share something with the backstory I gave Yoroi that would be fun to explore.

Kabuto and Iruka, in a teacher student capacity more than a romance, but I tried to set up something for them in LP but it hasn't panned out, not enough room to let Iruka and Kabuto talk really.

I'm enamored with the idea of Iruka taking this polite but underpreforming student under his wing, not knowing he's a spy, and kinda pseudo adopting him alongside Naruto. I think his friendly but hardass vibe would be fun to give Kabuto as a parental figure and teacher.

16. What do you struggle the most with while writing?

Depends on the fic. I'd say generally anything physical like combat or smut that requires knowing where characters are in relation to each other and exactly how they're moving without it making it read like a script.

Resonance, I struggle with character voice, I hadn't written Misumi or Narutos perspective before which was a challenge, and tone. I don't want it to be too dark (lol it may have passed that signpost). I like analyzing my own work so:

Loyalty's Price: not just rehashing canon, I feel like I do sometimes. Early on confidence was a big issue. I could tell in LP and LP Interlude there were times I was almost like "haha yeah this scenario is impossible Kakashi wouldn't let Kabuto on the team" and talking to those readers rather than the people who were there for the what if.

This One's for the Lonely : (childhood friends au) characterization. Idk how to make Kabuto come off as Kabuto sometimes without his greatest tragedy. And plot, trying to decide the details of how this changes canon.

Inverse: (prison au) plot. It's meant to be very character focused but it can be hard to direct scenes or decide how to get to the ending. Part of me wants to give it a plot anyway but I'm not sure yet.

Shiver/Lose Yourself in Pieces: wording.

Oto's finest: characterization, Kabuto Misumi and Yoroi are a hard relationship to nail down.

I also compare fics to each other too much. I am too much of a perfectionist to the point where it actually inhibits more than helps.

26. Do you ever "prep" your fics with outlines or warmups before you start writing or do you jump right in?

Idk if this means before I start the fic or before the writing session and ahh, it varies. Sometimes I write and rewrite a paragraph for 45 mins before I get going. I generally outline as I draft whether that be on the computer or on paper and edit to that outline.

27. Are any of your fics based on personal experience?

How Kabuto and later Yoroi experience anxiety and dread is how I do. I don't do much research so I use personal experience with mental health stuff like that. Kabuto finding out about Nonou is more akin to like, a phobia-type fear and the way he feels post Sasori’s death and Yoroi generally is more like what ocd does to me.

If anyone else wants to ask me things and get a long rambling answer, this is the game!

[daftpatience]

hi pen friend!! I got a pilot kakuno pen recently and I am playing around with it. However!!! I learned that I really like having thicker bold lines and I’m kinda sad that the non on my shiny new pen is so so very fine. Is there a way to broaden the nib a little or do you maybe have recs for a pen with a slightly broader nib? (I have been preferring pilot pens with a 1mil nib size, those have good thicc lines that I like. Even a little thicker without being a marker would also be IDEAL) This is gonna be a work pen for me so being durable would also be a nice bonus.

ooh so!! there are a couple things you can do in this case!!! IM PUTTING IT UNDER A READMORE CUS I RAMBLEEEE letsgooo

• swapping out the nib pilot kakuno nibs are compatible with many other pilot pens including the 78G, Prera, Plumix, Penmanship, and Metropolitan! it can be hard sometimes to find spare nibs for this brand, so if this is what you wanna do i'd suggest hunting around any local pen shops that might carry nib replacements + ebay/facebook marketplace/etc.

• grinding the nib down this option is usually not recommended for beginners, but i'm all for fucking around with things i own (sometimes to my detriment) so i'd definitely look into it! especially with something as affordable as a kakuno - most fountain pens are tipped with a somewhat fancier metal (iridium, osmium, gold, palladium, etc) which you Don't want to grind all the way away, but kakunos are not tipped with anything special. they're just plain stainless steel through and through, and i see no issue in giving grinding a go in that case! you'll definitely want to watch a lot of videos on the process - most involve a whetstone and/or extremely fine grain sandpaper & lots and lots of smooth, confident hand movements.

the two i learned are these: smooth, long strokes where you tilt the pen from a low angle to a high angle, and figure eights. the angle of the pen is extremely important, and you'll have to be careful to ensure everything is balanced.

i've ground down a cheap knockoff lamy to a WIDE chisel before, and it came out better (albeit still a bit scratchy) than it used to write (because it wrote like shit originally) imo, as long as the inkflow is even and consistent i don't mind a little feedback on the page.

• getting a pen with a broader nib ok this is where i recc some more pens!!! if you're looking for a workhorse that's a little broader or juicier than a kakuno, i cannot overstate my love for the platinum preppy in 05 (medium nib). this little thing is an absolute legend. they can sit inked and idle for an entire year thanks to the cool seal mechanism in the cap, and i've never had one dry start on me before. they're cheap, feel amazing, i can go on. since they last so long, usually the first failing point is their bodies rather than their nibs, so if you want something a little more durable you can upgrade to a platinum plaisir (which is just a preppy with a metal body!)

i can also highly reccomend Lamy safaris for their ease of nib swappability and range of options! you can go all the way from an EF to a 1.9mm chisel tip >:)

the pilot metropolitan is a universally beloved pen for its quality, though i don't have one so i have no personal stuff to say! this and the lamy are a little pricier than the preppy/plaisir/kakuno but with that comes the bump up in quality and longevity. things to consider!

in general i'd say that any fountain pen with a snap cap rather than a screw cap will work well for work - since unscrewing and rescrewing a cap all day as you do things is sort of a pain in the wrist. i find myself leaning to my lamys & preppies when im working since its so much faster and easier to pop that thing lol.

[cartoonbabbles]

Some Breakdown x Bumblebee headcanons since I’m watching Comodin Cam’s G1 marathon video and I’m seeing snippets of G1 breakdown

- I’m headcanoning BD and BB as both young adult (ish)? Like. Transformers maturity wise. Mid 20s is my guess, older than during the height of the war, still plenty of fight in them but they’ve lived enough to have a kind of routine between the two of them.

- BD puts on a cool and confident face for Bee’s sake. If he showed how scared he actually felt, Bee would have forced him to quit the race, and they’d both have gone into hiding. But he knows that both he and Bee like the thrill. It’s their thing

- Bee is slightly younger, BD is going through a crisis. (I mean why wouldn’t he be, he’s a fugitive and a war criminal, but no less than any of the other cybertronians, yet he’s somehow gotten the short end of the stick and doesn’t want to stay to find out what prison is like)

- Bee is super reassuring of how much he cares. Which is tough given how they ended up on opposite sides of the war.

- Bee can technically become a combiner limb. Does this make any sense? No. Fuck you, I want funny combiner shennanigans. Also Knockout can too (yes I’m throwing him in here). The poor other limb (likely Arcee) has to listen to her younger brother girlfail his way through coordinating movements while she’s the one doing the punching)

- Breakdown flusters easily, but likes to flirt and be seen as suave and as hot stuff. He’s a glass cannon and can dish it but can’t take a compliment without popping back into his alt-mode for a breather

- Bee (if they’re alone alone 100% for sure zero agents tailing them) is relentless in his flirting.

- Breakdown doesn’t actually have a driver’s seat. It’s all a hologram. He had a bad experience with a human who tried to drive him recklessly (scratched his new stripes too) so he figured out how to transform and not have any passenger seats on his own. It was painful, and Bee found him two days after a race he was scheduled to be at sulking in a cave, half transformed.

- this is more of a realization but I think the reason Bee started winning races was to take attention away from Breakdown. Notice how Schloeder never realized the same fucking muscle car barely tailing his black and yellow striped quarry

- I saw this funny post about spider man a few months back about how everyone knows who Spidey is or has some personal story with him, and rumors fly but you’ll never get anything if you pry. Same with Bee and Breakdown. Whispers of that time two drivers in sports cars flung their vehicles into a burning building and came out with seven people unharmed. A story about how a giant robot saved a kid from a rabid animal. Maybe a couple of voices deep in the woods comforting a crying teenager, telling them not to give up on asking the person they like out. Schloeder knows those stories are out there and it drives him nuts he can never get any first hand accounts

- Bee and Breakdown shared a garage in the Phillipines post war.

- Breakdown was sympathetic to the original Decepticon cause. He got involved more because the entertainment union took up arms with the original cries for revolution (he’s a Stunticon, and lord knows the Functionist senate didn’t give a damn about who got injured during a show)

- Breakdown painted the stripe himself. He wouldn’t stop bragging about it to Knockout and Bee. This lasted for a month. Knockout and Bee decided to get stripes to match (this is why Bee has stripes on his sports car mode)

- Bee has a human “sister” named Charlie in California he met during the war. She wasn’t a soldier or anything, they just hung out and vented to each other sometimes. One day, after Bee went into hiding, she was feeling bummed out and her car starts talking “yeah I miss him too.” The car was Breakdown. She gives him “the sibling talk” and is all like “if you dare hurt him or break his heart I swear-“ and all that and he’s genuinely scared of her bc he’s seen her disassemble and reassemble cars in her sleep (she did it to Knockout once on accident)

- Bee and BD have never kissed (AND THEY NEVER WILL UNLESS HES ALIVE HASBRO IM BEGGING YOU) but if they were to kiss it would have to rival Alex and Dot’s kiss to the mid season finale with that explosion of Purple Hearts behind them like. GIVE ME GAY MEN I DONT SEE ANY OF THEM BEING MAIN CHARACTERS IN CARTOONS ENOUGH.

- “Hi I’m Bumblebee and this is my boyfriend Breakdown and our husband Knockout and his boyfriend Starscream and his fiancé Soundwave and Soundwave’s friend with benefits who’s ace but still likes to get funky Shockwave and Shockwave’s ex Megatron who’s currently dating Elita and OP who are both married”

- Mo and Twitch ship Bee and Breakdown, though you never find out how they found out (it was Nightshade)

- Breakdown supports trans rights.

- most of the transformers do

- tangent but I feel it would be fucking hilarious if Shockwave were a queer ally but still fucking refuses to address the Terrans

- Breakdown once almost killed the governor of Florida (this one’s for me okay I need my catharsis)

- DW he didn’t but the dude resigned almost immediately after and kept seeing a muscle car coated in pride flag stickers at every stop sign for a month (Breakdown was bored)

- I’ll throw Tarn in here. Tarn has a good ass singing voice. That’s for funsies. Nobody invites him to karaoke though because people will literally do anything he says once he starts singing and that’s how Bee ended up with a tattoo on his (mic gets violently pulled away from me)

[meekswillinherittheearth]

What the Poets are like in my DR!

this is a response to this ask! hope you enjoy!! posting it a bit earlier than originally intended bc i couldn't take the anticipation anymore :)

Neil Perry

my found family brother!!

always looking out for me

he was the first person i met when i started at Welton

we do bicker like siblings but it's okay

i love going to his plays, watching him perform is so much fun and he is so happy

seeing him like that is enough to heal the soul

we share books a lot

i do his stage makeup!

he makes the strangest little sounds sometimes

it will be dead silent and he'll make a silly little squeaky sound

always joins me and my dad (mr keating) for family time

Todd Anderson

he's so sweet and caring

he can be very sarcastic though

insert the "the one with the buck teeth?" situation 😭

he's super funny without trying to

we're both super anxious and it's nice to have someone around who understands that

amazing hugs!! not often, but they are healing

that time i was having a really stressful day and he hugged me and i immediately cried

he can be insecure about his relationships with people because he thinks people don't wanna be around him and just hang out with him out of pity

he needs reassurance but refuses to act for it

really good at painting! i got him watercolors for his birthday <3

he deserves everything. if i could give you the moon i would todd bb

Charlie Dalton

outrageous drama queen

he loves dancing

never said he was good at it though!

it's mostly just twirling

flirts with you to antagonize you but only if you tell him it's okay, he would never wanna make someone uncomfortable <3

my number 1 supporter since forever

superrrr competitive

can and will turn anything into a competition

massive cheesy nerd but denies it adamantly

he cares about his friends more than anything

very very affectionate

wants to be touching someone at all times

his love language is 1000% touch

very talented at music, he can play guitar, sax and a little bit of drums

doesn't sing often but definitely can

hates studying, not because he doesn't care about his education, but because it's not stimulating enough for his brain and he gets distracted really easily

i've said it once and i'll say it again, he is EVERYONES BIGGEST CHEERLEADER!!!

we're polar opposites but will match energy when needed

knows when to be hyperactive and when to be chill and quiet

sarcastic, always being a little shit

"hey charlie, will you pass me that?" "um, no" as he's passing it to you type of thing

gets me out of my shell, which i appreciate so much <3

i really benefit from the confidence he gives me and he likes being around someone who doesn't expect him to be going at a million miles an hour all the time

Knox Overstreet

my gossip buddy!

when we're bored we sit and people watch and make up life stories for the people we see

he has the silliest, most giggle

can and will lift you up

on his shoulders, picking you up and spinning you around, no matter what, it will happen

i watched him pick Charlie up and shake him and nearly peed myself laughing

very platonically affectionate, like little cheek kisses and stuff

it's his way of showing gratitude

hes also pretty sensitive and emotional

he read pride and prejudice and cried his eyes out

type of guy to kick his feet and giggle while twirling his hair

Gerard Pitts

hits his head off things at least once a day

so long and gangly and strange

like those things at car dealerships (affectionate)

he's so sarcastic and goofy

we always gang up on Charlie when he does/says something stupid

he takes his grades very seriously

but he isn't a stick in the mud about it

loves music so much

its one of the main things i hear him talk about

finds and keeps cool rocks

gives them to people when they're having a rough day

penguin behavior tbh

he is just a silly guy!

Steven Meeks

this is gonna be a long one, buckle up lovelies

we met and instantly clicked

inconsolably sweet, all the time

also kind of a chronic people pleaser but we're working on it okay!

we both have an affinity for latin

we have secret conversations in latin sometimes <3

about a week after we first met he asked Charlie if I was dating anyone but made him promise not to tell me (which didn't last long)

when we met i complimented his glasses and he blushed and went "thank you, i need them to see. i like your freckles."

he did not realize how hilarious of a response that was until later

falling asleep on his shoulder when we're up late studying <3

GETTING PRINCESS CARRIED!!!!!

he always wants to carry me places. who needs legs honestly

flustering him is so easy and i love to do it because it's so funny

trying to teach him how to dance and he trips over his own feet

he has the softest most beautiful curls ever

tiny little ringlets by his ears!! my heart is melting!!!!

and his eyes.... cut the cameras

hes so pretty

him laying in my lap while i read to him

leaving lipstick all over his face and him not realizing.... the literal cutest

he is always the first one I run to when I get off stage after a recital (they all come to my ballet recitals in my dr)

us always getting caught staring at each other <3

writing poetry for each other!!!!

his love language is acts of service and quality time

his glasses are somehow constantly fogging up

he always offers me his sweater/coat/jacket when i'm chilly

my love im kicking my feet and giggling writing about him

he feels like the song 'let the light in' by lana del rey

[desire-turns-to-ashes]

Hi, it’s me again! Oh my goodness, this chapter gave me diabetes from so much sweetness! I want more, please!!!!! Girl, what was that? Lying on Edwin’s lap out of nowhere?! What kind of guy is this? Bold, isn’t he? But he’s so in love, telling him to calm down because he’d never touch Edwin without his permission, and then Edwin stroking Thomas’s cheek, wondering if his hair is soft! So sweet, my heart was melting reading every word.

They’re going on a date!!!!!! YESSSSS!!!!!! The hand kisses!!!! Thomas’s lovestruck gaze, waiting for the right moment to ask our boy out, and Edwin just smiling so fondly. What kind of look is Niko going to help Edwin choose? A classic one? Modern? Cute? He suits classic, but a cute look works too. And Thomas? He’ll definitely look amazing, as always.

Thank you for answering my questions—I was so excited to read your response! I have a few more questions, if you don’t mind:

First, you made it a bit clear in the earlier chapters that Edwin only wanted to marry someone he truly loved, and that way, he could have a family, since he mentioned a few times that he didn’t want children with Simon. So, if Edwin married Thomas, would they have kids? Second, does Edwin play the piano or any instrument? Third, how would Thomas react to seeing Edwin in a wedding suit? Fourth, would Thomas give Edwin expensive gifts, like jewelry or designer clothes?

That’s it for now. Thank you so much again. Does Thomas have cats?! He NEEDS to show them to Edwin!!! Hugs and thanks again for reading my messages.❤️❤️

Omg I feel so awful that I never spotted your message!!!! I’m so sorry!! I wasn’t ignoring you, I promise, I just didn’t see it 😭😭 (knew this would happen to me at some point)

But I’m here now, not sure if you’re still keeping up with the story because I can tell this was a few chapters ago 🥰 no worries if you’re not but I’ll still answer your questions anyway in case others were curious 💛💛

I loved writing that chapter so much!!! It felt so tender and heartfelt… it was basically Thomas’ way of proving to Edwin he was in safe hands, and he believes him! (Also… Thomas just lounging on his lap like a cat!!!! Just saying 😂😂😺)

Thomas is honestly down so bad for Edwin!! What started as pure attraction is definitely becoming something much stronger and deeper between them! 💛💛

Here’s an outfit I found on Pinterest for what Edwin’s outfit would look like 🥰🥰 it’s the one on the right, he doesn’t have that fabulous coat on the left unfortunately but you get the vibes 😂😂

1. So I do have an epilogue planned but can confidently say no kids are involved ☺️☺️ they probably would talk about starting a family together but wayyyyyy down the line and probably not in the fic!! Edwin wants to experience life first since he kind of missed out on that in his childhood so starting a family is the furthest thing from his mind right now, especially considering that’s what was expected of him when he got married

2. In this fic Edwin can play the piano and he’s VERY good at it!! I was originally going to have a moment in the beginning where he plays Ludovico Einaudi’s song Nuvole Bianche at some music concert that Charles ended up going to see while they were still at school together and they were going to have a chat about it where Charles absolutely butchered the song name by calling it New Blanche or something 😂 but it was going to be a moment where Edwin realised that people actually did listen to him and showed an interest in him. He wasn’t just ignored by other anymore… was going to be very sweet but it just didn’t fit

3. Oh god, think Thomas would expire if he saw Edwin in a wedding suit! But that’s probably a story for another day 😂😂

4. He would probably think about buying some fancy stuff for Edwin but he learns pretty quickly he doesn’t care that much for shiny objects. But 1st edition of a classic book on the other hand?? That would absolutely be the best kind of expensive gift for Edwin!! I also keep meaning to add a little moment where Thomas gifts Edwin a piece of his clothing but it never happens 😂😂 I’ll put it in at some point!! I promise!!

Also… yes!! Thomas has cats!! And I’m hoping they’ll make an appearance in the future!! 🥰🥰

Sorry again for my VERY late response!!! 💛💛

[snicker-dooodless]

gonna do this one also and so it's not repetitive and before I start sounding not genuine for not picking a specific one, bc yea that's kind of a shit move, sry abt that😅

❤️ for a fact about our relationship.

🎧 for a song that reminds me of us.

🎁 for a gift f/o has given s/i (or vice versa).

🌒 for something f/o loves about me.

for WhiteRabbit - Abbigail x Ekko

also this ship name is sooo cutee!!! love it, don't exactly understand it bc I'm slow but I love it so much and I think it's really cute :3

AAAHHH ANOTHER ONE! EVE DONT WORRY ABOUT NOT PICKING A PARTICULAR SHIP, I LIKE IT WHEN I GET TO RAMBLE ON ABOUT WHATEVER I WANT LOL!

Also! Their ship name is WhiteRabbit because personally I see Abigail as a bunny/rabbit. Idk why lol, when you think about it bunny’s are usually portrayed as cute or innocent but for some reason with Abigail I see them more teasing and flirty?? Maybe because of playboy bunnies?? Idk

but it’s specifically WhiteRabbit because that’s the rabbit from Alice in wonderland, the rabbit with the…clock?? Get it…? Time? Clock? Cause Ekko…his whole thing is….you know….time?

SPOILERS FOR ARCANE SEASON 2

——————————————————————————————————

❤️

I think that in the alternative universe that Ekko and Heimerdinger are sent to, Abby wouldn’t already be at the bar and have already met that universes Ekko. The original Ekko and Abby met in the FireLights. But if in the alternative universe the FireLights don’t exist, Abby wouldn’t have met Ekko and vice versa. So I like to think that when Heimerdinger got there before Ekko and realized this, him being the little WhiteRabbit shipper he is, would go ahead and find Abby so this universes Abby could be with Ekko if he decided to stay like Heimerdinger said he should. another note about the alternative universe, Abby wouldn’t have her scar, she would have never gotten addicted to shimmer in the first place. So it really makes Ekko feel weird. He loves that part of Abby, her scar, not the pain behind it, but because it’s apart of her. So seeing her without it is unsettling. It’s also unsettling to see how much happier and confident Abby is without it, which means that when Ekko gets back he’s sure to give Abby a bunch of compliments about it, kissing her all over while she’s trying to push him off

“Ew- Ekko get off your giving me cooties.”

——————————————————————————————————

🎧

here’s their full playlist (feel free to give out recommendations, I suck at playlists 😭)

but for a single song? I have to go with A Lovely Night from La La Land

——————————————————————————————————

🎁

I’m actually not really sure about this one. I feel like Ekko would give Abby flowers and stuff, mostly just the ‘cliche romantic’ stuff because she’s just really ‘classy’ (at least he really thinks so) and it seems like should would like stuff like flowers and chocolates and stuff, you know, the classics. Which is true, she does. But she also wants him to not worry about it, to get her literally whatever he wants, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy, after she makes that clear, he starts to make metal roses made of scraps, awkwardly giving it to her while she’s stopping herself from jumping up and down while giggling.

Abby on the other hand would probably just get him whatever scraps of metal or technology she finds, awkwardly shrugging saying that she didn’t know if he would find them useful or not. She would also probably get him a lot of books. In my heart I think he would like to read. Sure some sciencey, nerd books, but also fairytales, fiction, sci-fi, she knows he didn’t have a perfect childhood, so she tries to give him stuff from her own. ——————————————————————————————————-

🌒

I can think of the main few, stuff like how she’s good with the kids at the base, how she’s hardworking, selfless (which sometimes he actually doesn’t like, because in his opinion she’s sometimes too selfless), her sarcastic comments, etc

But the main thing I can think of Ekko really liking about Abby is her confidence. She’s not really confident about her looks sure, especially her face, but she’s confident in her actions and plans. And that reassures him even if she’s not doing it on purpose. If he’s nervous about a mission but sees Abby walking around the base, oozing confidence, he’s almost immediately calmed. ——————————————————————————————————

@tinyevelyn (just tagging you cause I know Tumblr sometimes messes up and doesn’t notify people lol)

ALSO! BECAUSE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING IN THESE- pssst, here, a little sneak peak of a certain someone’s sona

[fightingthetides]

'small things' for Yamamoto <3

[Original] ||Accepting|| @ukigumos From a meme tag in my other blog

Readmore, because it got long (~18k) when I went through canon source, because there isn't too much content for me to go through in threads (yet).

When thinking about Hibari, you mostly think about his grouchy cat-like temperament, but there are sides to him that make him an interesting person to figure out. Sure, he’s got a temper and sure he seems uncaring at first, but that’s not necessarily true- if you know where to look. Each person has various facets to them, ‘duality’ if you will.

There were some memories that Yamamoto had of Hibari that could give others some insights into the otherwise ‘fightophile’ skylark that everyone feared (for good reason).

To begin with, the time when the Ring battle between Vongola 10 and the Varia were going on, Hibari had left some lasting impressions on Yamamoto. What sorts of impressions you ask? Haha! Alright, alright, he’ll tell you.

During his battle with the Gola Mosca, anyone could tell just how formidable it… no, he was? Man, the arena sure looked intimidating. There were gatling guns around the perimeter that would shoot any moving object it sees within 30m radius, pressure sensitive mines buried underground, and the walls were entirely covered in barbed wire.

Hibari, named the strongest of the guardians, is their ace. The way he walked into the arena so calmly and confidently—man… he’s just really cool! Gola Mosca could fly like some kinda jet pack fighter all Zuzuzuuuuuu, and Hibari went bakbak!

That was it.

So anticlimactic, but that’s what makes him so cool. He walks in, wins without breaking a sweat, and hands the ring off. That really was what gave off a dominant stalking black panther vibe to Yamamoto.

“Now, you, the one sitting over there. Come down here. Until I bite you to death, monkey boss of the mountain of monkeys, I can’t go home.”

This fight was way more interesting to watch. Xanxus stepped on a landmine and used the propulsion to launch himself to the side. He drew Hibari into the line of fire of the gatling guns, but both of them seemed unperturbed by the nuisance around them. The only thing on their minds was to fight- and win.

Hibari managed to force Xanxus to raise an arm in battle though he said he won’t raise an arm. Pretty sure he fought aiming to force him to raise an arm to gnaw at his pride a little bit. Just a theory of his.

Gola mosca started going crazy then after having shot Hibari in the leg.

Some stuff happened after that but… that’s not really relevant right now.

The next thing that happened during the Ring Battles was when everyone was poisoned by the uh… huh, they never were given a name, were they? Whatever it was! They were all poisoned with something that could subdue an elephant- but that’s not enough for Hibari!

Yamamoto distinctly remembers hearing the heavy sounds of metal slamming into metal as Xanxus and Tsuna were having their own battle. That stubborn guy really managed to get himself up onto his feet, beat a pole to death and free himself of the poison.

He then fought Prince Belphegor, the genius. He couldn’t see the battle happening himself, but he knew that Gokudera was helped by Hibari’s quick thinking and swift actions. With him released from the poison, he could help Lambo.

The guy is secretly a team player when he needs to be. He came all the way to help Yamamoto get the Rain ring to be freed from the poison.

“You would mess up the discipline if you die don school grounds. If you want to die, go do so outside.”

That is so like him to say. Yamamoto likes to believe that Hibari was really telling him to get out there and do what he does best: be there for his friends as support. Even though he was beat up pretty badly, he still tried to move- probably to seek the others who were in need of help. That’s when Yamamoto suggested a player change, which he agreed to, handing off his ring to Yamamoto.

In the meanwhile Gokudera saved Ryohei and ye, the rest is history!

The stoic guy may mask some of his concern or care behind Namimori, but he does have the ability to work with others… on his terms. There was something about seeing him beaten but still silently intending to do more made Yamamoto realize just how much responsibility and drive Hibari had.

It was so much that even Yamamoto had to feel impressed by it. That’s their ace for ya! Leading by example, showing the rest of the guardians the kind of level they have to get to.

No wonder he considers them all as weak herbivores, huh?

(ref ch. 118-120, 127-128, 130)

-

What else was there? Ah! That representative battle with the little guys? He can’t forget about the time Hibari really joined another team JUST so he could have his fun in fighting strong opponents and also be unhindered by ‘crowding’. That is so like him, haha!

Hibari came out with a baby atop his head instead of one of his little birds. The resemblance of the two is uncanny, and someone may have leaked the information to the rest of them at one point that the two were actually related. How exactly, he didn’t know, but it seems that the bloodline runs strong.

Anyways, it really didn’t take long for Ryohei to have lost his ‘match’ against Hibari. Yanno how it is, Ryohei runs in head first, forgets about protecting the watch and loses instantly. Really speaks to Hibari’s focus, Yamamoto thinks.

He may like to fight, but he’s goal-oriented. He won’t forget about his task: defeating his opponents. Any opening to destroy a watch will be taken advantage of, even if it means the ‘fun fight’ comes to an end quicker.

“There was actually one other reason that I didn’t join your team… your team is full of people I really want to bite to death.”

Yanno? Yamamoto was kind of excited to hear that from him at first. He’s usually only ever referred to the guardians as weak bugs or herbivores, so acknowledging that he wanted to bite some of them made it seem like he acknowledged their strength a little bit.

Yamamoto really admires Hibari’s strength and his drive, so being regarded as worthy enough to want to bite to death (and it not being something related to having broken a rule to warrant it in the first place) was a good thing.

Okay, it’s also kind of a bad thing, ahaha! Yamamoto doesn’t know how to feel about having Hibari boring holes into the back of his head because he wants to fight.

As much as Yamamoto find challenges to be fun, Gokudera and he had their roles to play as support for their boss.

“You aren’t the same species as me, you’re just bugs. Weak little bugs.”

Ah… maybe he should take that back. Maybe he didn’t quite see them as worthy then. Maybe that’s just him taunting them, trying to goad a reaction out of them to rile their fighting spirit?

You think he’d answer if asked?

(Ref ch. 361 + 363)

-

Hmm… some other memory that made a lasting impression on him? Ah, there was that one time he found Hibari injured and had coaxed him into allowing being escorted to the hospital. On one hand it was shocking to see him injured to begin with. It wasn’t anything fatal, but it was still significant enough to be worrying.

Initially, Hibari was being stubborn in wanting to be left alone, to deal with his injuries by himself- but you know Yamamoto! He’s a stubborn one! Like one of those Shibas who will stamp their butts to the ground and allow their leash to squish their face beyond recognition as their owners desperately beg to go home.

Hibari has a nice view of Shiba Inus, finding them loyal and intelligent- which isn’t wrong! Many know them for their willful nature. They’re quite loyal and loving if you’re close to them.

He still thinks about it every now and then, but maybe it’s the whole tranquility thing, that allowed Yamamoto to slowly coax Hibari into allowing him to take him to the hospital. If you were to ask him, he thinks the big turning point is the apple rabbits. His tune really changed once Yamamoto mentioned cutting some apple rabbits for him.

Not only that, when they approached the hospital, he not-so-subtly reminded Yamamoto about the promised apple rabbits. Guess it’s true that the guy has a soft spot for cute little animals. It as a bit of ‘gap moe’ as Haru termed it.

“Hahi? Sure, Hibari-san is still a bit scary, but when he’s surrounded by cute birds or a little hedgehog, the cuteness factor cuts some of his scariness! He gives into them if they speak upon Haru’s behalf you know? It’s scary and cute!”

When Hibari asked if Yamamoto would allow it to be lonely, he honestly… thought it was kind of cute? For a guy who was a lone wolf and hated crowding, he was quick to suggest allowing the lone apple rabbit to have a friend. He did hear that rabbits were social creatures and should ideally be kept in pairs, and if that was the thought process, it was kind of cute that Hibari would be so considerate towards apple rabbits.

It was like he could see what Haru meant by Hibari’s consideration to cute little animals by listening to them or by wanting for them to have a companion to not feel lonely.

Now if only he could be that considerate towards his human companions, right? Haha! That would be a dream- or maybe a nightmare in Tsuna’s case. Poor guy would probably have a heart attack.

Now, Yamamoto had absolute confidence in his vision. As not only an athlete but a swordsman, his vision and his hearing were sensitive. He didn’t miss the smallest hint of a smile upon nudging the two apple rabbits closer together.

What neither of them would know was that both parties were thinking something was cute in that very moment.

It came as a surprise! Hibari and cute in the same thought? Gokudera and Ryohei both would rush him to the hospital for a brain scan if they’d heard him say so. Mn? Maybe Haru would agree with him?

Not gonna lie, it was kinda nice sharing apple rabbits together. It is possible to have a conversation with Hibari and it not evolve into: Let me bite you to death for [insert some kind of Namimori rule here].

Huh? Cheating? Look, Yamamoto can’t remember all the rules, okay? There are some real arbitrary rules there- like, ‘no crowding’!

Eh? What was so impactful about this? Ahaha! Yeah!

No, huh? Hahaha! YEAH! That’s all you’re getting from him!

Truly, Yamamoto isn’t beating the Shiba Inu allegations.

(Ref thread ehe)

[zozthethird]

Happy 1 year anniversary to my ghost animation!

and massive thanks to everyone that's shared it!

More on the development and stuff under the cut. (it's long)

Character concepts!

I wanted to have some really simple and complimentary characters for this one, the ghost was pretty much set from day one. There were a lot of changes for the main character, they started as this hat wearing design, then moved to the hooded style (better and simpler for my rudimentary 3d skills at the time!) Everyone else was pretty much one drawing and done since they're so referential, we've got slimer, sadako and of course the interpid ghost hunter team.

Animatic!

You can see that the gensis of this was really 'One background, that never changes PLEASE' which I think is sucessful as it can be, it makes the ending more powerful. Absolutely one of those things that more confidence with the software would improve on a follow up anim.

Textures/Assets!

Originally this was all planned to be a kinda 2.5d animation, so here' a lot of the original textures and assets from Illustrator

Anim and Development!

So all of this was put together in Blender 2.79 as that was all my poor suffering laptop could take. First time using it, so absolute learning curve.

Any texture work was produced in Adobe Illustrator and any animated texture work was produced in After Effects, including all the facial animation (which was animated separately, then added to the face as a texture).

I wanted to animate it all in AFX, but oh my god that program, absolute love/hate relationship, so while it is the backbone, Blender is the real hero, everything originally made for AFX was remodelled in Blender.

I made this anim at a pretty low place and while it wasn't completely responsible for getting me outta my ditch, I absolutely wouldn't be where I am right now without it. Thanks so much for all the love and comments over the last year!

[reina-royale]

Don't you think you are missing the point? Because of how often Ron is overlooked whenever he gets any ounce of attention, it usually goes to his head. I think the chapter focused on this flaw not to make the conflict as one-sided on kim's end. Ron was being a bit patrionizing through the episode. So, Ron acknowladging it was the Kim factor, despite being Ron who defeated the villain showcase his character growth and is a sign of humilty and modesty.

Is one of my favorite moments of his character, I like how supportive and kind he is to Kim. Maybe what was missing was Kim acknowladging Ron more often? how would you've liked to see the episode/ending play out? What would you change?

I wouldn't say I'm missing the point. I'd say I'm saying it's stupid. Huge difference.

Furthermore, as I have rewatched the series recently, I can confidently say that, attention does not, actually, go to Ron's head when he receives it.

(And even if it did, that's not an excuse to constantly beat on the guy's self-esteem when even the anon asking this question admits he's constantly over looked.)

At this point in time, "Ron Millionaire" hasn't happened yet, so Kim's only examples would be "Bueno Nacho", "The New Ron", and "Two to Tutor", and in none of those did Ron get a big head.

(But if you're someone who's threatened by other people being successful and confident, it's the same thing.)

In "Bueno Nacho", Ron invented the Naco and got the job as the boss because of it. Being good at his job and actually enjoying it doesn't mean it went to his head, nor was asking Kim to do the job she originally signed them up for.

In "The New Ron", Ron started caring about fashion and hair-care, but this still doesn't mean he had an ego problem.

In "Two to Tutor", Ron was successful, popular, and confident because of his baking skills, and that still doesn't mean he had an ego problem.

Know why? Because he was enjoying the positive attention without putting down others or making fun of them.

Was Ron a little rude in this episode? Yes. But to say it's a recurring problem when it provably isn't shows more about Kim than Ron.

Namely that, to Kim, it doesn't matter if Ron actually has an ego problem or is just confident, it's unacceptable for Ron to be anything but her insecure, bumbling sidekick.

(Seriously, Kim is allowed to say she can do anything, but Ron isn't allowed to say he's good at one thing? How is that a fair and equal relationship?)

It's also worth mentioning that, yes, Ron is provably important to Kim's success, because she has failed any mission she tries to do alone.

Ron's already humble and modest, to the point of insecurity and self-deprecation. He really didn't need to be told, again, that he's nothing special.

How would I have liked this to go? Easy:

It starts out pretty much the same, but, at some point, Kim is watching feeds of her missions and sees, from an outside perspective, how important Ron actually is to her success.

*cue dawning look of realization*

At the end, after Gemini is defeated, we get an exchange like this:

Kim: "I was so upset about this whole Ron-factor thing at first, but, after watching some surveillance videos, I realized they're right."

Ron and Rufus: "Huh?!"

Kim: "I'm really good at the action stuff, but your quick-thinking and resourcefulness has been more helpful than I realized. I'm sorry I never acknowledged that before."

Ron: "Thanks, KP. That means a lot. Sorry I was kind of rude earlier. Friends?"

Kim: "The best."

*hug*

Ron: "But, for the record, it's not you or me, it's us. We're a team. It's not about a Kim Factor or a Ron Factor, it's us together that makes it work."

Dr. Director: "Hmm...perhaps we should spend time studying both of you."