#I want more of that I want a ton of the rebels to have lasting scars from this mental abuse

[bonefall]

What kind of dishonor titles would the imposter whip up?

Ok so, in BB!TBC, I'm planning to overhaul many of the cats who get exiled. Ashfur IS a... 'competent' leader this time around, and being in his Clan is hell on Earth. But he does know how to run it without exiling everyone who breathes funny.

I think Blossomfall in particular should comment about how much this reminds her of the Kin, only...

"I hate to say this. But Darktail was more calm lol. Ppl would disappear but he didnt call a meeting every 5 minutes he did it"

The way he gives Dishonor Titles is by finding their insecurities and throwing it back at them. The point of DTs is that they're supposed to make you sit with your mistake and they're supposed to be VERY serious, egregious punishments.

But Ashfur is just trying to break his cats and make them not want to defy him. He wants them to hurt.

Cats who will almost definitely get a Dishonor Title:

Blossomfall = Clearface, because she might as well be invisible. No one wants to hear from her, she's worthless

Sparkpelt = Flickercry. To remind her about her failures, remember that she's made worse mistakes than anybody else and should be mindful of how she chooses to criticize others.

Twigbranch = Fumbleclaw. For a hunting mistake, he says she's clumsy and lazy and doesn't deserve to eat from the pile until she learns how to catch her own food

In addition, I can see him really WANTING to give Briarlight a Dishonor Title, but politically, it's too far. She's defiant, loved, a beacon of light that keeps people united. To brand her would be a mistake, it would make her a martyr.

I may rework the Sparkpelt Dog Situation to be his attempt to get rid of Briarlight. I think that would make a MUCH better sendoff to her, dying as a result of the wonderful person she is, instead of the garbage greencough death back in AVoS.

[gildeddlily]

this is literally me being excited about the new star wars show I just watched going on any social media and only finding people hating on it for the dumbest reasons

[utilitycaster]

Voting sticker was sent via DMs because it's shaped like the state I live in lmao. Also, if someone reading this is in Fly Free or Die by some minuscule chance, please look away now; there be spoilers ahead.

The character I'll tell you about is RH-1/Istra Gryffis/Cassiopeia Wulfren/Stellasa Drith, a Human Replica Droid in an SW5e campaign. Originally an Imperial Agent, she was sniffed out by the scientist she was monitoring on her very first assignment, subdued by him, had her programming jailbroken and a teleportation device installed in her chest, and was then just turned loose on the galaxy to make her own way.

She still believed herself a tool of the Empire, but a broken one, who failed in her mission, and couldn't bring herself to go back to her handler/creator/mentor so spent a few years just roaming the galaxy aimlessly doing small time security work.

Eventually, a smuggler she was contracting with (one of her party members) got into a Situation with a crime syndicate, and the pair had to run off into corporate bureaucratic hell to escape their eyes--or rather, the smuggler did; she suggested that specific approach because the last she knew the scientist who jailbroke her had been planning to go work for that corporation. With danger pushing her toward decisive action for the first time in years, she took that as a sign to go and hunt him down to bring him back to the Empire and get back in its good graces. And, perhaps, demand to know why he shoved a unique piece of tech into her chassis then just left her to do what she wanted with no guidance whatsoever.

Regardless, working for this corporation put her and her smuggler buddy into the party, working shipping as contractors for a major corporation. The details of our current, first arc are, while interesting, also mostly unimportant to what I want to talk about regarding party dynamics/info.

Essentially, the party (who don't know she's a droid) includes her, the smuggler (always getting himself into situations), a clone (hates droids), two droid-specialist engineers (one who just unreservedly loves droids and the other who isn't exactly pro droid rights but wants to rehabilitate their image), and a (secret) Jedi. Various dynamics:

The smuggler is someone Cassioepia's decided she's responsible for the well-being of, because she develops strong loyalties very quickly (great trait for a spy).

Thus far, there have been multiple arguments over droids and how much they matter (she comes down on the side of "just tools, and unreliable ones" like the clone does, if less adamantly).

The clone appears to be coordinating at least a few small rebel groups, and is very anti-Empire, as well as looking to her as essentially his second-in-command.

The clone and one of the engineers are on opposite sides of idealism-cynicism, and she's had to mediate a couple times now.

Finally, in the most recent session, the Jedi used Sense Force (equivalent to Detect Magic) on her. Said Jedi sensed nothing from her since she's a droid, EXCEPT the teleportation device in her chest, which sucked the Jedi's perception in, knocked her out, gave Cassiopeia a heart attack essentially, and knocked her out (also granting her, a droid, Sense Force as well) and that's where Cassiopeia left off.

Word count (after the 1st paragraph since that's unrelated): 518

(Quick note: if you're reading this, yes, DM-ing me the sticker/proof is an option if the sticker reveals more about your location than you wish to share (whether it's that you don't want to share your state, or whether you have a county or city-specific sticker, or what); I will not tell people where you live.

so I do NOT know a ton about SW5e (I saw Starstruck Odyssey and I have seen. the original trilogy and like. 4 other Star Wars movies, none comprising a full other trilogy?) but I love when a character has complicated and conflicting loyalties and a strong sense of duty, which she clearly has, and that is a GREAT cliffhanger that seems primed to absolutely blow your party's collective mind and reveal a whole lot of messy truths, and that's really the best possible thing you can hope for in a TTRPG!

[angstflavoured]

You have any fic recommendations? Any fandom really lol. You have good takes and interpretation so I feel like you’d have some fire recs

AWH WELL THANK YOU !! I dont actually know how great the ones I read are gonna be since usually the fandoms Im in are scarce on content 💀 but ill go ahead and list a bunch of the ones I really like. I definitely spend way too much of my time reading one shots. REALLY wanna get back into longer fics, but its hard to find ones I care enough to sit down and dedicate time to these days 💔

Smiling Friends

bittersuite, charlie/pim: AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED !!!!! THIS FIC CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER !!!!! It is hurt/no comfort, but its soooo good it hurts so good and also there is supposed to be more eventually so i'd get on this one first bc when the second one drops its gonna be a day in history

Dimples, charlie/pim: I just read this last night and was so pleasantly surprised ☹️ Its so damn cute and I love how it delves more into both of their characters.

Portal 2

interface, chell/wheatley: HANDS down, best portal 2 one shot out there. the way the characterize chell is fucking insane, altered my brain chemistry forever. also wheatley is so hehehheheheh

You Do It, adventure/fact: I have a very love/hate relationship with this author..... Im not the BIGGEST fan of how they characterize them, esp Fact, but its definitely the most decent factventure content out there. I so like this one quite a bit, though their ideas are definitely better in theory than completely in practice. That's how I feel abt a lot of their works, but this person unironically holds the title for like 90% of the factventure content. If you just want some quick cute smut of them, i'd say you should check out their acc, cus I get the factventure fandom is starving LMAOO

I've got the fuse if you've got the light, adventure core/reader: ....erm, very self indulgent for me hehe!!! i was so fucking excited when this dropped

Half-Life/HLVRAI

Autonomous Sweet Mesa Response, benrey/gordon: THIS FIC IS SOOO FUCKING FIREEEEE !!! OH MY GOD, I can't even count the times I've read this one. their dialogue is as good as it comes next to canon. If you like this one, this is the first in a huge series and litearlly all of them are just as good as the first. such a good sit down and binge author. They also have a shit ton of other good hlvrai stuff on their page and they make fire art

If You Asked Me To, benrey/gordon: the way they wrote the sex scene in this changed my brain forever, it was so fucking awesome.... frenrey dynamic makes me WILD

Whispers and Moans, barney/gordon: this whole author has a lot of super cute freehoun :'[ this one deals with them before the resonance cascade AND after and shows how things changed between them and its so precious grrraah

Promise, barney/gordon: again, deals with the timeskip stuff which just always makes my heart hurt... also shower sex smiles

It’s Only Natural, barney/gordon: I DIDNT REALIZE THIS FIC JUST GOT FINISHED THIS YEAR OH MY GODDDD I WAS OBSESSED WITH THIS need to reread this immediately

Team Fortress 2

He's a Rebel, sniper/spy: SUPER fucking cheesy and corny but oh my god its like one of my fav fics ever..... it's just so much fun, like stereotypical fanfic and that's always a good time to me. biker gang member/school teacher au are you fucking kidding me i'll vomit

It IS the Size That Matters, sniper/spy: erm.... BLOWJOBS!! always find myself coming back to this one sorry i really like it hehe

Secure, demo/solider: Not a lot of fics of these guys, which really sucks!! super underrated ship. I liked this one a lot tho, its pretty cute and a little emotional

Something to Rely On, sniper/spy: casual sex but really sniper is in love will forever be my favourite thing ever, it never gets old istg

The Silent Game, sniper/spy: can you tell I really like sniperspy, MORE BLOWJOBS!!!

Disco Elysium

The Collision in Cardiozone HQ, harry/kim: holy. fucking. shit. actually life changing i am not joking. so fucking heartbreaking, it left me hollowed out for like a WEEK after the ending. A longer one for sure, but SO worth it like oh my god

The Catacomb Killer, harry/kim: I don't think I ever fully finished this one, but I remember REALLY liking the whole case the fic was set around. there was so much thought put into it, it was genuinely interesting like a murder mystery show

Retour à nouveau, harry/kim: I did really like the whole plot and buildup in this one, but from what I remember, them getting together was super anticlimatic :P i recall being disappointed, but the whole actual case and their interactions during the fic are super cute

Mortal Kombat 1

the game of idiocy, johnny/kenshi: BY THE SAME AUTHOR AS BITTERSUITE!! this one is sooo fucking cute, the way they write them interacting is so much fun. a little troupey and on the cheesier side, but cmon who doesn't love that

Undertale

Flowey is Not a Good Life Coach: no ships but delves a lot into flowey and papyrus relationship and there's so much good sans development too. SUPER GENERIC, it IS one of the most liked fics, but I remember reading it back when I was a teenager and it blew my fucking mind. ghhghggh i love the way they write the brothers interacting so much

The Party Incident and Other Embarrassing Anecdotes, sans/reader: uhmm.... soo sorry, this fic will forever hold a special little place in my heart. I'm sure if I read it now it would be SO corny cus oh my god it was fucking 2016 like are you kidding, but I'm just a fucking sucker for fake dating. there like 5000000 troupes in this one and theyre all so cute and its just a fun and silly time. it subconsciously inspires so much of my writing in fics. will probably forever be unfinished before they get together though HAHAH so definitely do not read if you're looking for a solid ending. its just about the journey i swear

[rileys-battlecats]

Finally made some simple reference sheets for my little guys :D I also put together some little facts about them and their personalities :P

Minare

pronounced mee-NAH-ray

Half leader, half figurehead to the rebellion against the current king and his heir

The people who work with her respect her as the last scion of the true royal line, but also they have known her since she was Fresh Out The Womb so she's also kind of their baby. Collectively. Collective rebel baby

Disregard the fact she's like. Early twenties. That's their baby girl

This makes Minare A Little Insane. She loves the rebels, they've supported her and her family through the worst times they've seen in living memory, but also She's An Adult and she NEEDS to have someone respect her and her decisions.

Her opinions don't always hold the weight that she thinks they should, her being the future ruler of the kingdom and all

Much of her work in the rebellion is stunted by the fact that she is THE last of the true royal family, so she is Not Expendable. They have to keep her safe, and she knows why, but it's also a little infuriating that she can't help more

Dangerous missions are an Absoultely Not, but Mina still helps by doing safer missions and planning/strategizing

She's been given tons of self-defense training, and she carries a short blade with her just about everywhere. This is seen as slightly unusual, but ultimately understandable for a young lady when she's traveling on her own often. Like having a can of pepper spray with you

Makes casual friends very easily; she manages to seem incredibly open and personable while simultaneously telling you Nothing important about her personal life

That being said, she doesn't have many close friends. She doesn't want to put anyone in danger, and she also doesn't want to put herself or the rebels in danger by making an opening that could be exploited. Her friendship with Vaitus is something that happens without her really meaning for it to happen. She just looks up one day and realizes she's gotten way too attached to this guy that was supposed to just be another acquaintance

She's got a protective streak a mile wide. if she makes the connection in her brain that she's responsible for someone, they INSTANTLY become someone Under Her Protection. This clashes with the inherent sacrifices she has to make as a leader of a political rebellion with high stakes consequences for each decision made

If one were to ask a random citizen of the capital if they know Minare, 9 times out of 10 they're at least acquainted with her. she's always keeping an ear out for people who need help, and is known for being able to give them a hand. If she's not doing the helping herself, she probably knows a guy

Loves finicky work. tinkering, fixing things, touching up stuff, anything that most people would find boring to work on, she's your gal

Vaitus

I'm. not sure how to explain pronunciation like I did with Minare. It's 'Vai' like in 'vital', and 'tus' like in 'tusk'

Doing His Best™

Crown Prince of the kingdom. I think I might name the kingdom 'Acora' but I haven't decided on that quite yet

"Crown" Prince is kind of an unnecessary title, since there's no other heirs. There used to be! Up until Vaitus was around 7 years old, he was one of the last in line for the throne. But then An Event occurred. I will get into this event at another time, I've got a few animatic ideas for it :P

Vaitus is less than enthused (read: terrified) by the idea of becoming king one day, but he's also aware that the kingdom would almost certainly fall into chaos if the current king died without a ready heir. A rush to fill a power vacuum could tear the kingdom apart. So he just. keeps on keeping on!

Fantasy autism. it's just like real life autism except the royal physicians diagnosed him with "occasionally possessed of foul spirits and daemons" so the diagnosis wasn't really helpful. He has no idea why he suddenly loses the ability to speak (or sometimes even think) in high stress situations. this is especially unfortunate when most of his life consists of going from one high-stress situation to another

Very thoughtful. will not speak until he's got the full sentence ready + 3 possible follow up sentences depending on where the conversation goes

Animal lover. but he doesn't know this until he gets to interact with an animal. he meets one (1) stray dog and is so normal about it (lying)

TERMINAL rbf

Was told as a child that it's impolite to not make eye contact with people, so now he makes All The Eye Contact. he's being polite. wait what do you mean he's being scary

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

Armour Astir Advent

https://weregazelle.itch.io/armour-astir A game about mechs fighting eachother! What else to do with a giant robot, I mean You could stand around and yell about ideology for a while, but what is this? Gundam?

Touchstones: Gundam (Turn A especially), Breath of the Wild, Escaflowne, Mazinger, Ghibli movies (add a quarter)

Genre: Mech game, PBTA, High Fantasy

What is this game?: Armour Astir: Advent is a game about mech pilots fighting against an oppressive empire, fighting using not only head to head mech combat, but also stirring dissent, using backhanded diplomacy, and guerilla tactics

How's the gameplay?: AAA has one of the most unique bits of gameplay I've ever seen in a PBTA game, refer to the Apoc World write up for the basics of the game, because there's a lot to unpack here. AAA's got a ton of standout mechanics, Let's start with Gravity Clocks! You got 3 Gravity clocks to use on anyone, and one to use specifically on your rival, Gravity clocks represent the volatile relationship you have with 4 different characters, the clock always has a value, starting at +1, that you can add to any roll related to that character, when you do so, you tick up the clock, when the clock is full, your relationship levels up, you change the nature of your relationship and that +1 becomes a +2 babyy, This encourages players to choose carefully what relationships they want their characters to focus on, and adds a lot to the Drama. AAA also has its really cool mech creation system, it's a bit too complex to get into here, but its less like Lancer's Subway style mech creation, and more like cooking from a recipe, you get to create some of your own abilities, and pick from a few pre-made ones, all mechs also have a type, which works into a weapon triangle type mechanic where certain mechs are better against other mechs. Another thing about AAA is the Faction Turn, the player's rebel group is made up of many smaller factions, each with a different role, while the empire is one group with small divisions, the idea is that while the authority is one imperialist gestalt, the rebels are more of a confederacy of farmers, local mercenaries, villagers, etc, but because of this, a lot of drama and miscommunication can happen, the Faction turn represents this, its intricacies are a bit complex to really get into, but basically during each Conflict turn, players run a scene where they instead of the big damn heroes, play as random soldiers and mooks from the individual factions, and try to fight back against imperial schemes, or try to solve local problems, this is meant to humanize the soldiers in the war, as well as show that the players aren't the last bastion against the Authority. That's about it for the gameplay, I tried to be brief but AAA is just something really really special when it comes to how it plays, there's a ton of other intricacies I couldn't even touch on here Oh right, half the playbooks don't even use mechs, they can fight during mech battles but are significantly worse during them, they're instead intended to help on the intrigue part of the war, commanders, celebrities, diplomats, footsoldiers, people who would be more connected to other parts of the war that aren't just the mech fights, during mech fights they play on the "B-Plot", basically a second narrative layer usually going on around the same time as the mech fights, think of it like a gundam episode where the main newtype child is fighting against a person who could have been a friend in another timeline and at the same time the soldiers inside the main base need to figure out who's been stealing their food supplies What's the setting (If any) like?: AAA is Setting Agnostic... kinda, there's 3 universal constants: - There's an authoritarian group known as the Authority, being fought by a union of scattered factions under one banner known as the cause - Magic exists, is fairly common place but restricted to certain people, and is connected to how mechs work - Some smaller chunks of lore like the existance of Angels, Demons, Eldritch entities, smaller scale vehicles called Ardents, etc, stuff you'd expect to see in any fantasy setting

What's the tone?: AAA is a game with a tone set by players, but the overall tone is not asimilar to that of most post Gundam mech anime, there's an overwhelming sense of war being hell, but there's still hope in fighting an evil fascist empire, also there's always expected to be a little bit of Angst

Session length: This is one of the few games I've written about I've actually sadly never played, but from reading the rules AAA does lend itself to longer, 4 or so hour sessions

Number of Players: 4+ is recommended

Malleability:  AAA is as said above, setting agnostic, if its got mechs you can run it in AAA

Resources: AAA has a fanmade google sheet, a few fan-made expansions, and two official expansions, Encore (more playbooks) and Amor Astir (romance rules, yeah idk either)

AAA is one of those games that is just a mechanical treat, everything works really well and serves a greater tonal purpose, just a really good game

[galactic-space]

Making a follow up post for my stupid ass MHA X Monster high x Ever after high x fucking Winx club??? Ehhh???

Anyways…

Soooo answering this dude up here ^ @faemagic88 let’s just say I got a few ideas

So basically, for anyone who didn’t see my last post?

Quirk toddler uses quirk on Izuku, bakugo, and denki and sends them to monster high, ever after high, and Winx respectively

Lord explosion god dynamight and his fairy tale adventures

For ever after high I totally want bakugo to be apart of the school purely because he heard how the school has a lot of secrets and magical items that might help with his issue, so he decides to force his way in to get back to his universe ( somehow… he’s working out the kinks of his plan )

While there he’s definitely gonna throw a ton of kids for a loop. Not caring about royal or rebel because A. He’s from another universe and B. He just thinks it’s so dumb to follow the paths of your parents just because of something as silly as “destiny”

He’s the type of person who believes that you chose your life, and he’s not gonna be silent about it.

Is he gonna cause more drama in this school? Yes, but this school is already filled with it so whatever

I don’t know what fairy tail he would pretend to be. I think he might pretend to be the son of “Momotaro” from the story “Momotaro; the story of the son and the peach” where basically this boy is born from a peach, soon taken in by a couple. When the boy turns fifteen, he goes off on a journey with a dog, a monkey, and a pheasant to slay the demons on an island, before returning home to be with his family

It makes the most sense, as Momotaro is fairly popular in Japan- or so I’ve heard

But an alternate story I thought of was of him pretending to be the son of Kintarō, “the golden boy” who is a warrior who goes on many journeys throughout his life, slaying beast and saving towns n what not.

Neither story would explain his weird… “explosion magic” as people call it, but hell it’s the best thing that he gots so.

I was thinking of mimickings ever after highs small story structure and maybe have an “episode” where Apple white realizes that he doesn’t seem to care about her, her status, her story, or even her looks and how that kinda bothers her ( more like gets her all riled up. She’s not used to boys just… not even giving her a second look. )

And then another small “episode” of bakugo deciding to take part in a sport cuz… well… let’s just say daring and his group found out that if you tell Bakugo he can’t do something, he’s gonna do it just to show off

Thing is, cerise is in the sport as well in the opposing team, and maybe bakugos team is like “well most of them are girls maybe we should go easy”

Cue the “equal rights equal fights” from bakugo, and basically forces cerise to show off her wolf abilities if she even wants to try to actually win against him.

And… who knows maybe that’s when people realize she’s haft wolf or something lol

I was also maybe having him be apart of the Dragons games??? Like maybe he wasn’t gonna be apart of it, but when Apple white accidentally releases the evil queen and the evil queen he senses some shit is about to go down and thinks “ugh, god, not more bullshit”

Also maybe he gets his own dragon for the games by literally TACKLING AND SUBMITTING ONE OF THE EVIL QUEENS BAD DRAGONS so he could ride it and use it so he could be apart of it.

And yes, Goldielocks did record this for her mirror channel and a bunch of kids did just see one of their “new students” fucking wrestle a dark dragon just cuz he needed a dragon to be apart of the games

Also maybe bakugo finally talks about his… HIS… FEELINGS?1!1!2??2!2?2 GASP lol

But that’s enough for bakugo

Next up

Dekus freaky experiences

Ok so deku… doesn’t know what the FUCK anything is. He just appeared in like the monster high catacombs, got fucking lost in them til Operetta finds him in there.

She’d probably be like “woah hey aren’t you a normie” and dekus like “wh- huh???”

Course before the two can get more into it maybe the place starts crashing down. Cue deku quickly realizing what’s happening and using his quirk to save operetta, there for showing that he definitely is a lot more then JUST a normie

Operetta concludes that deku might be a hafta like Henry Jekyl, and takes him to monster high to help him

Cue deku realizing that he’s NOT where he’s suppose to be. Maybe he tries to explain it to operetta, but when she simply gives him a weird look and ask if he’s ok, he realizes that no one is gonna believe him. So with a deep breath and shaky smile, he simply goes “maybe I just hit my head to harshly…????”

Which- yes, that’s even weirder, but he isn’t about to explain how he’s a human with a quirk when it’s so obvious that everyone is weary of him because of his human look ( he can always tell when people look at him with pity or fear. Being quirkless for most of your life then suddenly having a terrifying, powerful quirk will teach ya that ) so he does his best to just seem normal

Maybe he’ll pretend he didn’t know how he got here, talks to headmistress blood good and asks if she could PLEASE let him stay cuz “he doesn’t remember anything”

And- she’s nice, so she’ll let him stay just as long as he promises to help around the school anyway he can ( she is letting him stay here for free, it’s the least he can do ) and deku agrees to it

Now deku is… SOMEHOW a student at monster high. Everything is weird, but… here comes Frankie, who totally gets his feeling. She helps him out, teaches him all he needs to know, and helps him out- cuz, she knows what it’s like to be the new ghoul in school, and she can tell he definitely needs the help.

Cue Izuku befriending her, and maybe some of her friends.

Of Course, he still wants a way back home, so he’s gonna do everything in his power to do research into this world and ( hopefully, maybe ) try to find something to help him back home.

He’s probably not gonna tell the ghouls what’s actually happening with him til he literally has no where else to go to.

Cue the ghouls helping him go back to his comic book like world ( and maybe finding a way to get there cuz… heroes???? Villains??? Sounds like a scare-tastic experience! )

And ysaaaa they find a lot of secrets in this school. Like a lot. Oh dear

Also I totally want a scene where toralei just drills it into izukus head that he definitely isn’t gonna be all accepted here just cuz he’s “1/3 of a monster” and that he’s definitely gonna have people having it out for him because he’s mostly Normie in nature.

Idk, maybe Izuku might have some dejavú about feeling excluded because of his apparent lack of something

But it’s ok cuz Frankie would definitely cheer him up by saying “haft normie or not, you’re a great person Izuku. Don’t let someone like Toralei get under your skin, she doesn’t know what she talks about. Me and the ghouls care about you, Freaky flaws n all. And nothings gonna change that.”

And have him feel so… happy, because let’s be honest he was only accepted back into society cuz of his quirk. It would probably heal the poor little quirkless kid within him because she basically just told him that he matters, not because of what he has but because of who he is as a person and UGHHHBBN

But that’s enough of deku. Let’s talk about… denki??? How did you get here-

Denki kamanari and his strange, magical journey

Admittedly, I don’t have a lot of ideas for this one. I seriously need to rewatch Winx club, it’s been ages for me lmao

But the basic idea is that he appears right near “Redfountain School for Specialists”

Naturally, he’s freaking out cuz WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS PLACE

After a while of freaking out, he looks up to see the WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT??? THATS A GIANT ASS PLACE

But as he looks around, realizing that there’s only trees for miles on end, he decides to head into the school to try and find someone to help him. Because… where the fuck is he? He just wanna go back to Izuku and Bakugo :(

So he heads in. I was thinking that it’s probably assembly day, and the kids around him just assumes hes just some poor new kid who’s about to get in trouble cuz he’s not in uniform. It’s an important meeting for the school, so he just gets dragged in with a bunch of boys who are about to be late.

I imagine he’s just trying to ask questions, sees these boys running, and says “what’s going on??” And they turn to him and go “dude, important assembly today! We’re about to be fuckin late, come on”

And they just run off.

And welll- denkis confused and weirded out but… if it means finding someone who can find him, then he’ll just follow behind and play along for now

Long story short, he ends up accidentally becoming a part of the school cuz- just- no one is questioning this yellowed hair boy with a lighting streak on the side. He’s not the weirdest thing they’ve seen. Not to mention- school in the middle of the forest, not really seen by outsiders?

Most people probably wouldn’t think it’s an outsider. I mean… who the fuck would be out in this forest anyways?

And well- it’s probably only haft way though does denki actually tell them what happened to him. And maybe they don’t believe him at first, but once he shows off his “magic” they might start to believe him.

Thing is, the show never really went into this school a lot ( at least what I remember ) sooo I might just make up a bunch of shit for this

I mean the other plan is just to have him be in the fairies school, they quickly realize he’s not suppose to be here, and probably do everything in their power to bring him back to his old world so idk

BUUUTTR the idea of denki learning to fight with a sword is cool and funny at the same time SO-

Also also I’m definitely gonna take some shit from the scrapped monster high x ever after high movie that was suppose to be made but never was, so that’s actually a perfect way to get deku and bakugo back together

Not to mention I’m probably gonna have Cupid ( who actually appears in both shows as an important side character ) to be involved. I mean, dimensional traveling? That’s kinda her thing, I think she would catch wind very quickly that bakugo ISNT from a fairy tale story.

But uhhh yea that’s all of my ideas I guess. Do with them with what you want lmao

[comicaurora]

any tips on how to write a non protagonist-y protagonist? (as in, a protagonist that is not at all the leader of the team, generally isn't the most Morally Righteous, and has more lancer characteristics than protag characteristics)

I could probably give helpful thoughts if the question was more specific, but this is hella broad. The protagonist is just the character who's the central focus of the story, there's nothing inherently heroic about the role. Following an unheroic lead can be compelling for all sorts of reasons, but they're all very specific to the character and story.

Just for a quick look into the scope of this question, a few examples: Hamlet is compelling because he's a Hot Mess in a world of slightly more lukewarm messes; Chicago is compelling because every protagonist is so spectacularly awful you're rooting for their success just so you can watch them crash and burn; Death Note is compelling for similar reasons, with the added bonus of watching two terrible people pitted against each other - but while stories with protagonists that are terrible people can be fun in a "watching a trainwreck" sort of way, there are also stories with unheroic protagonists that the audience hopes become more heroic, which is the entire pull of Logan, Mandalorian season 1, the early stages of The Last Of Us, and basically everything in the "serious grumpy dad" genre where we spend some time waiting for the damaged loner to figure out he's adopted a baby.

Tons of stories have main characters that aren't the leaders of whatever team they're on, and that can be fun because it gives them a leader to follow or rebel against - Hellsing Ultimate is all about the chain of command on both the protagonist and antagonist side, and the nominal main character Alucard is a morally incomprehensible eldritch abomination who's the scariest thing in the entire show. He's fun to watch because he's a literal living nightmare and every time a bad guy looks like they've got him on the ropes he just goes "neat" and farts out a hellhound or a knife tornado or something and rips them to shreds. Then there are about a million cop shows with a protagonist who's a Loose Cannon who Don't Play By The Rules, almost always defined by their rebellion against the exasperated leader who has a duty to actually follow and enforce the law. Copaganda aside, there's a lot of ways to write a character operating under a protagonist-y but potentially unhelpful authority.

Hell, if you squint, a ton of heroic characters are ultimately motivated by entirely selfish drives - which, if unpacked, end up looking very questionable in the morals department, despite the protagonist being a broadly likable person. Last Airbender has this in spades, with Aang's entire arc taking him from the starting motivation of "my responsibility as Avatar will stop me from having a life and I don't want that so I'll run away" to "my responsibility as Avatar is at odds with my Air Nomad philosophy against taking life and I don't want that so I'll find a way to stop Firelord Ozai without killing him". His initial motivation was obviously a lot less heroic, but through the entire story Aang holds onto his personal wants and desires, which is on paper a selfish and unheroic thing for the Chosen One to do - but in the context of Avatar, a war story about a group of children saving the world, it is the ultimate victory of the story that Aang and his friends don't have to sacrifice their personal happiness to win. The fact that Aang can still be a little bit selfish means that the war didn't take everything from him, and if he'd done the "heroic" thing of selflessly sacrificing his own spiritual needs to end the war as fast as possible, from a narrative standpoint it would've been a pyrrhic victory at best, because the Fire Nation would've succeeded in destroying him.

These are all wildly distinct stories, and trying to draw a few easy tips and tricks from them would be borderline impossible, since they're all doing "unheroic protagonist" in totally different ways.

[fandoms-in-law]

Muddy Letters - The Beginning

Authors Note: I have 2 possible summaries for this fic and neither really work for posting it all in one story. Instead both the summary I want to use and the story is in 3 parts: The Re-Beginning, The Beginnging (you are here), The Conclusion

Contrary to normal expectations, I suggest reading the Re-beginning first.

Summary: It starts with a car theft an apology note. It ends with a fathers anger and another apology note.

/\/\

Dear kids in this house,

Dad says he had to steal the car but I’ve passed here before. You’ve got an angry dad too. I’m sorry if he takes it out on you or is angrier because my Dad did this. I hope you’re okay.

I’ll bury this in your garden hoping you find it. Dad’s don’t dig but kids do.

Sorry again, Eddie, that isn’t my real name in case your dad sees this.

>

To Eddie

Do you like that name cause I wanna keep calling you it?

He was angry but I could hide. They’ll be on a trip soon so I’m not worried.

I’m Steve, and you’re forgiven if you need me to say that. My nanny says that’s how I should respond to apologies but you’re apologising for something your dad did so I’m not sure. You’re forgiven anyway.

From Steve.

<

Hey Stevie

I like Eddie more than my real name, Please do.

This is fun, burying letters, much better than sending the,. It’s like we’re rebels planning to take down a corrupt kingdom in secret-

>

Eddie?

Were you hurt? You looked hurt or I think it was you I spotted from my window. Do you need help? I can try to do something. Just tell me what.

Steve

<

Stevie, don’t worry.

Dad got mad and interrupted me writing that note but never fear, I am fine.

I don’t like my Dad. We’re staying with Uncle Wayne now, or I am. Dad keeps disappearing. I think it’s cause he’s stealing things and Uncle Wayne says I’m smart for noticing that. My teachers and Dad never thing I’m smart.

You’re my friend, my digging friend, so I can tell you all that. And about this book Uncle Wayne has.

It’s called ‘The Hobbit’ and is about more people who dig! Just like us! But they have hobbit holes or smiles and dwarven mines. They’re so awesome. When we’re older we should dig a hobbit hole and live in it together. Eddie and Steve of the Hole in the Woods!

From Eddie

>

Eddie

That sounds fun! I can get blankets and pillows. Let’s just start digging now actually. A bit further into the woods than this so my Dad won’t notice. I’ll start looking for where there’s a glade or something we could manage it now.

We could make it our secret den if you want to meet?

I tried asking if I could read the Hobbit but Mom doesn’t think quests and battles should be read about and Dad called it ‘fantasy mumbo-jumbo unbecoming of our family.’ That means I’m sure it’s brilliant but don’t think I’ll get to read it for a while. Can you tell me more about it?

From Steve

<

Dear Eddie

You’re my friend. I was surprised but you’re my friend and you know who you are better than me. If you say you’re a boy called Eddie then that’s who you are.

Please come back, Steve

<

Stevie

I shouldn’t have run so quickly before. Thank you for being so sweet. See you here on the weekend?

Eddie

>

Eddie

I know you were still sad when you left. Men can have long hair. I saw it on Dad’s last city business trip. We could grow our hair out together if you want, be two long haired boys. That’ll make growing it out of the buzz cut more fun, right?

Look at this book. It’s got tons of hairstyles we could try.

Steve

<

Dad’ll never let me do that. He’s so pissed I cut all my hair off I don’t think he’ll come back for a while. He even his Uncle Wayne when he called me Eddie. I don’t want him to take me away again, Steve.

You keep the book. I bet you’d look great with any of those haircuts.

Eddie

>

Eddie

My dad found the letters so I have to stop. He – I – I’m saving the letters I can but I have to stop. I’m sorry.

We’ll get our Hole in the Woods one day, I swear.

Steve

<

Steve

Here are the ones you sent to me. Uncle Wayne would keep them but he clears my room out occasionally. Look after them. I’ll find you again.

Eddie

>

Eddie

I wish I wasn’t a Harrington. I’m sorry, so sorry for everything Dad wants me to be. I – I don’t want to die but I can’t survive unless I become him. I’m sorry, please hear that, read this.

Steve

<

I guess you never checked for this. I hope I can give it to you one day. I’m Still Sorry.

[foster-the-world]

Ethiopian Dinner

A new Ethiopian place opened a few blocks from us a few months back. I walk by on my way home from work and rarely see people. Which makes me nervous. I think its so brave to start a business and am always afraid it won't succeed. Admittedly, weird to be worried about people I don't even know.

Took the kids last night. Rebel loved it. Bee a little less so but was still happy. Baby boy did pretty well. It's a little small/open for his loud self. I prefer places with booths or more distance between tables for him. But we gave him a phone about 15 minutes in and he was quiet as a mouse. Of course, he ate a ton. He eats a ton of everything. I'm so glad my kids are into trying lots of different kinds of foods. They def aren't totally healthy but they are very adventurous eaters.

The restaurant was busy as we were leaving. It has a nice vibe. They were playing Ethiopian music videos and had an area for Ethiopian coffee ceremony. I lived in Ethiopia about 5 months at least 10 years ago. Its a beautiful place. I was working in a refugee camp on the Somali border. I was lucky to do a vacation with my boyfriend at the end of work schedule. They have these amazing churches built in the ground. The food is amazing. Although at the refugee camp we had to beg for injera/Ethopian food. The local ladies who cooked for us wrongly assumed we want the Italian food - that is also common due to Somalia's colonial history. Except they didn't have real Italian food just nasty canned pasta sauce and plain noodles. For obvious reasons it was difficult to get food in so we at plain jarred pasta sauce and noodles for meal after meal after meal after meal. We each had a tent. The threat of kidnapping was real. It was an interesting time. I'm happily still friends with that ex-boyfriend. He came and stayed with us when the girls were little. Nice guy with a lot of his own demons he struggles with. My husband also liked him. Its funny how little I think about the almost ten years I spent traveling the world to places like that. Whenever something brings back the memories i'm always so thankful for that time while being glad its over. Maybe we will do it again when my kids are out of the house. My husband is always up for an adventure.

[anemonet]

oh my god thats so sweet of you!!!! thank you :DD also super sorry for deleting your ask btw

To get down to business well uh iterators huh, so I can tell you have read some of my ramblings before (very fun) and I will say in general I stand by those ideas - model differences and stuff - with some smaller changes here and there, for instance I made pebbles antennas stupidly long cause I think it looks funny - plus tons of tiny refinements, but generally I dont have too much to add unless theres something specific your wondering about - so I wont focus to much on that. Instead I'm gonna chat a bit about the other stuff you mentioned (NSH and wire headwear) ^-^ so heres the guys! (I'm gonna expand a bit on their design designs)

Ok so you have actully managed to point out something I really hoped no one would notice, which is that I never draw No Significant Harrasment (NSH) - who I hope you meant when you asked about sig, if not then dont look at me - and that is because I despise him with my whole heart. Or well, his design, the character is fine but I cannot draw this guy, I hate his colour scheme and his stupid little cape and why is his head symbols green on green - who allowed this - and in general we are not friends, which is a pity because I have alot of headcanons about him. But as you can see above I have semi settled on a design for him (note the semi, I am not super happy about it) and I do have some toughts and explanations.

So first of, I put NSH as being from the same model generation as suns - so predecessing moon and pebs by a bit - with older designs that have a larger focus on "religious stuff" combined with the anchients overall bonkers fashion sense - more is more - if you wanna read more about that its in this post about suns.

- I would also, this is a side note btw, like to mention I think having them being older models gives room to have some key differences between the oldies (NSH and suns) and the youngsters-ish (moon and pebs) in that one, they have older machinery and also early machinery which means both rougher quality and more wear and tear - which I like to think give them both the idea of slugcats as messangers earlier than most, as they knew their easily damaged functions (broadcast masts for example) would not last forever, which gives them a reason to want to solve it (by breeding scugs I guess) and added onto that I - and this is pure headcanon and speculation - like to imagine a lot of the "taboos" that pebbles and moon have - or well that I speculate they have, the no killing yourself or harming citizens taboo is confirmed canon, but I dont think its farfetched to asume they have other restrictions programmed - something that would most likely be added in later modles, but would be absent in the earlier ones like suns and NSH (not the earliest models but early) which theoreticly would give them a bit more leeway and "creative freedom", which ok why am I talking about this back to why NSH looks like that. -

Back to that, so suns and NSH will share design similarities: lack of face (to represent a lack of ego), lots of robes and layers, which leads us into the slightly more relevant sidenote of iterator clotheing:

So fashion comes and goes in cycles, your mom rebeled against her grandmothers clothing choises and is horrified when that fashion comes back via her daughter who think it looks cool again (20 year old rule or whatever) and that also applies to iterator design (look at that old suns ask for more info on this). So while I have talked about general trends a little, now I wanna talk about waistlines - in robes, because I have wanted an exscuse to talk about it, I be brief promise!

: so like you probably havent noticed all my iterators have different waistlines, or at least the ones from different generations - ignore moon, I'm a no robe for moon beliver, I like to draw joints and wires to much to give her robes - and I will sadly report I have not looked to closely at actual anchient fashion for the choises I made, but well cant have everything. So the most notable is probably pebbles, where I, ok Imostly fell for temptation of a modern highwaist cut, which while moslty being about my own tatse, also is an atempt to convey some form of "modernity" because while its a bright orange robe on a robot, it has a similar cut to highwaisted jeans. Which gives the silhoute from a couple years ago with a big bulky upper body and stick legs. But pebbles isnt intresting in that way, no its because every other design is a resistence against that.

And this again leads into the cycles of fashion. Because we know iterators were built under many cycles - however long those are - so we can asume it will be kinda like how fashion has changed from the 11th centrury to now. Which gives to reason that iterators have been dressed differently too. This added with that - from what I understood - different iterator cities (colonies) had different cultures (boradcast, red, in sky islands) all this then makes me kinda figure that the iterators should have different robes. Yes that was a long winded way to say that characters look different.

So back to waistlines and how their all anti pebbles robes - the most notable difference is of course suns, who has no waistline. They are not only without to create a bigger difference between them and pebbles, but to also lean a bit on - and this might not be the same for every culture - but on the general idea that older clothes were more "modest" or in this case, there are more layers and any hints of there being a body under there is desperatly covered. and that "modern clothes" have less layers and have show more skin - not that pebble is showing skin, but hes wearing one robe instead of seven. So with that the idea that suns is older is conveyed a little bit at least, and the same then applies to NSH. NSH while also having lots of layers, is different from suns by having an empire waistline, mostly because I think their cute and need them to look different, but also to give a hint that they have different city fashion cultures and also because when I see empire waists i think old paintins and old paintings=old.

-also while I'm on the subject of cultural differences between iterator facilities. Can we talk about how we only really get to see anchient society as its presented in moon and pebbles (shared?) facility. So really its very possible the whole aestetic is complelty different like five local groups away. Food for thought. -

So faceless and robe-rich is a similarity between suns and NSH, and I could mention many more, but I'm gonna restrain myself and only talk about headphones. As you can tell I - and most fanartist here - like to draw their antennas differently for all of them! which is also canon, but I also ignored canon so were gonna talk about it. Mostly the antennas give room for some fun mini details, like how moons look like wings or fins while suns are just sunbeams.

Anyhow so most people make NSH bald, me included, mostly because the super cool official art of him gives him no antennas (sad). I asume that means he works via bluetooth.

(I was about to start speculating about their headphones but that got to boring even for me so sorry if your super intrested in why iterators probably have headphones)

But I had a ulterior motive with bringing up the headphones - and not only to be able to point out moons antenna, which I delight in drawing - but also so that I can transition into the second part of this way to long response! itertors hairdos... wire-dos? basicly this \/

(im reusing my wip because these are a pain to draw so we use what we have - I coloured them in a bit for better oversight.)

(also I was gonna start talking about if iterators would actully do personalisations like this - as we can argue about if they concepulize themself as their puppets and see a meaning to decorating them - I would argue yes but also its complicated- and also explain how iterators have different prefernces, which I realised most people probably already asume so I didnt need to explain that - anyhow so that got to long so I'm not gonna get into it. Instead were gonna go into this section with the assumptions that they do fun things with their wires. and also that the wires connect to their nape and backhead instead of their back or spine.)

So to me th biggest thing to remember when we talk about potetial wire headwear is that:

- iterators live 24/7 without gravity and because of that cannot be bothered by to heavy headwear, therefore theres rooms for them and anchients (and me) to get funky with it without having to concider gravity.

-anchients wore absurdly many decorations - and while giving iterators flashy decorations does take away from my earlier statement that they were based on more humble monk stuff, we are going to asume they used the fancy headwear for cermonies and festivals (which we also know anchients did) and that it was used for showcasing and fun. If some iterators preffered to keep them afterwards is another query.

So with that in mind lets break these headwear thingies down!! :D

so as you can (hopefully) tell there three components in the headwear. The headphones that are different depending on iterator and are not removable (or as unremovable a computer part can be). Then theres the actual headpieces that keeps the wires togheter. These can be switched out and changed depending on whats preffered - also I drew them in gold but any material works, if were being closer to canon they would probably be made of some purposed organism and maybe be neon pink - theres also pearls dangling from them because its a perfect opertunity. Third theres probably the part I think is the most fun which is the actual wires. They obviously go through the headpieces and then are set free via wiretassles (that also comes in different forms) and after that is where my own speculations about wires comes in. Which is really simple in that iterators can most probably move the wires at will - they can control their arm thing, pearls and other objects in their chambers, reasonably they can move the wires - and I think its fun if different iterators move them differently. Like suns keeps them straight and neat, or pebbles moves them in syncronized formations or moon who just lets them hang, so many oppertunities ok ( you can see the general idea in the drawing). The wires then connect to their movement arms and connect to the mainframe.

And thats kinda about it? I dont have like anything super intresting to say about just the hairdos other than that I think its very fun and also that everyone is sleeping on wire customizations I am obbsessed with the idea send help.

Ok I think I'm done chatting!! Hope your still here and that this wasnt insufferable to read. Uh, thanks for the ask :D

(NSH for your enjoyment)

[strawglicks]

Sorry for the ramble in your inbox incoming- I'm a really huge fan of your analysis type posts like the ones about Cathal and recently Flint ;A; So I hope its ok to maybe throw in my own 2 cents about Cogs/their society- (Sorry this gets rambly I thought about this last night and writing this like an hour after waking up lol)

I think what alot of people kind of (I wouldnt say ignore- more of:) don't really get is that I dont believe characters like Cathal or Flint have bad tendencies because they really want to in a way, (I kind of worded that poorly but point is) but because their society rewards and encourages that type of behavior. I think you said something kind of similar on Cathals post- But especially for Flint, whose a Bossbot (Who are literally the embodiment of a toxic workplace and elitism. I believe a old snippet from the TTO magazines says "They have no real skills of their own, just the ability to push down others and stay on top!" Or something to that nature.) he has to be demanding and imposing. There is no benefit to him in being kind. (Like looking at Misty for example) And don't get me wrong I don't believe that if Flint and Cathal were removed from Cog society they'd be better/objectively nicer (Like Flint not being condescending to Toons and Cathal not making people do things for him and being encouraged to try) But I do wonder how much of it is pressure, or how much of it is egged on and rewarded. Atleast in the aspects it relates to how they treat others.

(..And also I wonder what happens to Cogs that don't get jobs and are seen as ..not functioning. Since Graham was freaking the hell out in "Meeting Of Two Minds" over the possibility of not getting the job. I have a whole thing about this actually in my oc lore but thats another thing entirely I'll write about someday I swear)

Also I gasped when I saw the doodle of Graham in the MSI shirt finally a MSI listener Graham truther. I think he'd like the album "How I Learned To" and of course "You'll Rebel To Anything". I associate him mainly with the songs "Lights Out", "On It", and "You're No Fun Anymore" :p (This has been my favorite band since I was like 13 and now I get to spill all my opinions xD) I always imagined him doing the guitar backbend their bassist does! And my final hc is that Flint plays bass and Graham plays the main guitar. I think it fits them .. some people overlook bass when its actually pretty hard to learn from what I hear and vital to the song. (Like heres Feel Good Inc w/o the bass.. feels wrong x_x)

Anyways thanks for reading ;A; take care and happy new year!

RAHHHH EATING THIS UP YUM YUM YUM YES YES YOU GET IT

THe biggest issue with Cogs Inc is that it REWARDS and ENCOURAGES these poor behaviors, worsening these characters as people. ESPECIALLY cathal considering the position of power they’re in. I’m sure it applies to a ton of other cogs too, but unfortunately I haven’t gotten to them yet bc I’m not as insane abt them . LMAO

And yeah since cogs are literally built for work, it’s a wonder what happens to those who can’t find a job as easily as others. Hoping that gets built on since it’s clear in MOTM that these cogs have to actually apply and go to interviews and probably face some trial and error to land a job, just like people IRL.

ALSO. THE BAND HCS. I love it and you’re SOOOO RIGHT about the backbend that is so grahamcore. And yes I’m pretty sure Flint does play bass, I think his creator mailman said smth abt that on their blog . AND IM SO GLAD YOU BROUGHT UP FEEL GOOD INC bc i did draw flint in a demon days shirt in that same animatic . And ive def drawn them in the same shirt a couple times in the past too . I’ve always imagined him to be a Gorillaz fan, maybe graham too

Anyway ty for these thoughts im eating them up and leaving no crumbs . I love when ppl come to ramble in my inbox bc discussing this stuff IS SO FUN and a good outlet for me esp when i might be having art burnout rn .

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

Desix vs. Barton IV: how two missions reflect Crosshair's character

I'm back with another Crosshair analysis. One thing I noticed on my rewatch of "The Solitary Clone" and something I discussed with my cousin was the whole mission on Desix. The mission plays out like an episode of Clone Wars. Think about it: Crosshair is under the command of Cody, a seasoned military commander, they have to go fight separatists and droids, and liberate a government official. In Clone Wars, we have tons of characters fighting against separatists in order to liberate something or someone. Even Rebels had an episode like this called "The Last Battle." I personally think that this was intentional. The writers didn't have to bring back Cody or have a whole mission that plays out like a Clone Wars episode. It was something that my cousin said that made everything click: the mission is similar to Clone Wars because it represents everything Crosshair's holding on to.

Before the Republic fell, Cross and his brothers would be constantly going on missions to fight separatists and swarms of droids. In the Empire, the missions are to occupy planets or assassinate potential defectors and anyone who stands against them. When we meet Cross in the second season, he's struggling greatly; his internal conflict his eating him alive. His conversation with Cody at the end indicates just how tormented his truly is. But when he goes on the mission, he's presented with very familiar things that are reminders of days long past: Cody, separatists, and droids. Being a soldier is a big part of Crosshair's identity because he doesn't know who he is without it. I think in his mind, Crosshair continues to hold on to the Empire because of familiar missions like Desix. This reminds him of the good old days and if he can keep it that way, then he'll be fine. After all, this is what he was made to do and it gives him purpose. At the end of the mission, Crosshair shoots the governor after Cody refuses. And in my eyes, there are two interpretations as to why he made this decision. The first being, he's sparing Cody from making a hard choice. Cross is clearly attached to Cody as I mentioned in my past post. When Cody can't take the shot, Cross takes it to spare him from facing the other imperial governor's wrath. The other, even bigger, reason is because he's still holding on to his deep desire for belonging and the past. If Crosshair doesn't shoot the governor, then what happens to him? What happens to Cody? Will he be discarded? Abandoned? Crosshair can't fathom that idea. And so, in order to preserve everything that he fears will be lost, he makes the shot. On another note, Desix's color palette is all warm colors. While not very inviting colors, there's still a warm undertone nonetheless. Warm colors make people feel comforted and that's certainly something Crosshair wants.

Compare that to the mission on Barton IV. Barton IV is an ice planet; it's cold with an even colder color palette. There is no life other than the harshest creatures and people. The faces are also very unfamiliar to both Crosshair and us: Nolan and Mayday. In "The Solitary Clone," we still had Rampart and Cody, two characters we've known for years. If Desix was everything he was holding on to, then Barton IV is the complete opposite. In this episode, we see Crosshair letting go, both willingly and unwillingly. Cody made a choice to go AWOL, but not Mayday. Mayday wasn't given a choice and he died. Crosshair had to witness someone he cared about die before his very eyes. Has that ever happened to him before? Probably not. The mission itself is anything but familiar. There are no droids or separatists. It's actually a very dull and mundane task: watch cargo. When you think of the clones and their purpose, the first that comes to mind isn't watching cargo. And that cargo turns out to be nothing more than equipment for the new recruits aka, not clones. Is this what Crosshair signed up for? No. He's a soldier and the Empire is giving him a purpose. They are willing to keep him and send him out to do missions and maintain its grip on the galaxy. But that's not what we see on Barton IV; Barton IV is where the scrap heaps go: a rookie lieutenant who hasn't been on a mission in his life, unwanted clone troopers whom the Empire could care less about, and a forgotten sniper that desperately clings on to the remnants of his past. This is not a place for anyone.

The juxtaposition between the two is clear as day: Desix is warm and full of familiarity. Barton IV lacks any source of familiarity and is as cold as ice (pun intended).

Furthermore, "The Outpost" is Crosshair's breaking point. After trying to cling on to everything in "The Solitary Clone," he has to let it all go in "The Outpost." There is no life on Barton IV; it's all stripped away. Now that I think about it, "The Solitary Clone" represents Crosshair's mask while "The Outpost" is his true self underneath. The mission on Desix feels very familiar and makes Crosshair feel useful. But in "The Outpost," we see a dull, barren wasteland with a mission as bleak as the terrain itself. Crosshair's internal mental state is also just as bleak. He knows he can't keep going the way he has; all semblance of the old days are gone. The Empire doesn't care if he dies. If anything, the Empire is trying to rush along his deterioration so they can get better replacements.

It's so interesting to see how two different missions on two very different planets can reflect a character's internal growth. Crosshair is such a well written character and I love him so much. He's definitely one of my favorite character of all time.

I do have one more analysis planned, this time on the rest of the BB so keep an eye out for that. Thank you for reading and take care!

[therealsinnohdawn]

things i would have liked to see in season 3 (excluding all the things i want to see purely for selfish reasons, i legit think these would make the writing and pacing better)

-scene where sonic asks nine “where’s shadow?” upon returning to the grim. the show does a lot to emphasize that the two care about each others’ safety, and it feels wrong that sonic doesn’t even question shadow’s absence at all and just presumes him dead without a word

-scene where mangey and sails talk to nine. the only person who ever tried to reason with nine was sonic, and i think it could have been really interesting to touch on how nine could have turned out if he had friends

-scene where renegade knucks and dread talk, or a callback to “a captain makes sacrifices.” dread’s redemption, while interesting, didn’t seem to really be motivated by much of anything. you could say he was inspired by the friendship he saw between the roses, but that’s a stretch at best. it would have been better if he did try to steal the prism first, got his ass beat and then rescued by his crew, and THATS when he realizes that the treasure was friendship.

-more interactions in general between the various counterparts. in season 2 the show makes a huge point of saying “when two counterparts meet it’s super weird,” then suddenly rebel and prim are besties with zero time spent on their first meeting.

-establish sooner that “taking sonic’s prism energy away will kill him.” this is pretty easily inferred by the audience but it could stand to be more explicit.

-various loose ends that never got tied up. what is the “eternity of darkness” in the void? they made a huge deal out of it by shadow almost dying to it, and it was never mentioned again. i get that they probably just ran out of time but another plot where perhaps nine stumbles into it and sonic goes in to try and get nine out could be super interesting. or other scenarios, im just spitballing. also, why couldn’t shadow pass through gateways? how did five eggmen end up in one shatterspace? why are there five eggmen but only three of everyone else? there are a ton more worldbuilding questions that could be answered, but these questions are glaring holes that probably should have been wrapped up.

-the last episode in its entirety just feels rushed. nine realizing his mistakes, the chaos council getting canned, sonic dying and then being saved all happen in the space of like ten minutes whereas the battle in the grim lasted like an hour and a half. why spend so much time building to a resolution for the resolution to be so rushed?

idk it just feels like this script could have used a few more passes. i personally think the pacing and everything of season 2 was so much better, and this season feels like they just forgot about a bunch of stuff they were building up.

the roses were perfect though, zero notes on them.

[buff-electra-truther]

(I don’t have a ton of photos of him onhand ao here’s some really random ones)

Stex Appreciation Month Day 3: Greaseball

Fav actor: Honestly I’m not very picky on Greaseball in general so I don’t have strong preferences.  I just like as low, rich, and powerful a voice as possible for him.  Vocally I like Andreas Wolfram on the 2013 cast recording (being great at rapping in German with an Elvis inflection is one hell of a statement) and the very brief Megamix footage I’ve seen of Lashane Williams as him.

Fav song/scenes: Pumping Iron, One Rock and Roll Too Many and clowning around with Dinah in the megamix.  Honestly I liked basically everything he was in onstage irl last year, he was probably my favorite of the main characters since his numbers are almost more fun if you don’t know what he’s saying and view Elvis Train as the real protagonist for saving us from the REAL big bad: romantic ballads.

What Time Is It? is offensively bad as a song but I just love the concept of him and Electra having a rap battle and wish it was longer/more intelligent and more about beefing with each other vs fighting over some girl they both barely know. 

Fav costumes: I’m content with pretty much all of the replica ones, since they don’t vary too much

Ships/Friendships: Him and Electra as enemies with benefits especially if it plays up the irl arguments of diesel vs electric. It’s not a very deep relationship, they just want to kill each other but also make out violently.  If they joined as comrades maybe they could beat their real shared nemesis (automobiles, and Trucker Caboose as a minion of them) once and for all.  I’m way more invested in the potential of their rivalry vs the actual main plot tbh.

He doesn’t deserve Dinah (and she deserves better than him) but I don’t see them separating, they just seem too attached to each other. I definitely prefer their more recent dynamics where she’s way more assertive because it’s funny to watch her boss him around (I love Dinah harassing engines in general) 

Headcanons:  He’s practical and pragmatic, if perhaps a bit too dismissive of doing things in newer/smarter ways vs past proven ones.  Electra thinks he’s disgusting the way nonsmokers view smokers (it’s how he is about most combustion engines) but finds something alluring about his diesel clatter and how he feels alien to someone who mostly works in urban environments where it’s electric-only.  

Unpopular opinions: I’ve been haunted by the thought experiment of “what if Mykal Rand played him in another timeline?”.  He’d probably pull it off but has SUCH an un-Greaseball face that you have to just forget about him looking like Elvis and find what else works with the general vibe and themes of the character.  Which opens the door to “what else could they have done with Greaseball if he varied as much as Electra visually/character-wise?”

I think he’s fine as is and doesn’t need changing because he just works (there’s a looot of things that need fixed in Stex before even thinking about that).  But if I had to modernize him slightly, I’d make him more like Gene Simmons/KISS in general to scoot him forward about two decades.  Still a VERY visually iconic inspiration and it would barely change the vocal style, over the top macho character, and “rebel” turned rock establishment aspect.  You’d even have a free excuse to finally give him some fun makeup for once!  It would also be relatively easier to genderbend him because Gene sings a bit higher and his costumes have always tried to make someone lanky/soft look bulkier so you wouldn’t have to struggle to find actual Chadettes with the right look already. 

In a similar vein, I also like the idea of cat facepaint Greaseball the longer I think about it.  It’s such an ironic animal motif for a macho character but it suits the “cat whisker” livery of a lot of midcentury locomotives and the diesel engine purr/growl. Also ties into the KISS thing in a way that won’t lead to copyright issues lol

(I can’t really say much on Wembley Greaseball other that I’m intrigued by the concept and will draw my own idea of female Greaseball eventually (metal-leaning design based on Floor Jansen and Noora from Battle Beast).  From what I’ve seen just doesn’t seem to look/act tough enough for me and the costume is too narrow/glossy for my liking but I think the idea has potential.  I am always in favor of randomly butchifying male characters because it’s fun.) 

[rileys-battlecats]

anyway here's a big sketch dump of my children :) not sure why the image quality is Garbage but whatever lol. im still ironing out their designs but i think ive got their general vibes figured out!!

If you've seen the video I posted on Christmas then you've met Vaitus already! The other character shown here is Minare :)

Info about these two and their world is under the cut :P

This has been kinda hard to write tbh!! I have a giant document with a ton of stream-of-consciousness writing about the world but now I have to think of a way to explain it in an easy to understand way HAHA ^^;; I guess I can start with the main characters!! I'll start off with Vaitus, since I introduced him first with the video :)

Vaitus is the crown prince of the kingdom that the story takes place in! In this world, some people have magical abilities that are unique to them (or to their family), and Vaitus's magic is the main source of conflict for his character. His ability allows him to drain the life-force of any living thing he touches, be it plant, animal, or person. He doesn't want to use his magic to hurt anyone, but his father, the king, sees potential in this ability. Why not use such powerful magic to make a statement? So, the king has Vaitus use his magic to execute his enemies. They have plenty; even now, nearly one hundred years after his ancestors took power over this kingdom, the people whisper their dissent.

Minare is a member of a rebel organization, looking to dethrone the current king and place a new ruler in power—the last descendant of the original royal family from a century ago, the only one with the power of light to vanquish the monsters and purify the cursed grounds spreading through the land—Minare herself! She has quite the network of friends and acquaintances throughout the kingdom, and makes a habit of getting to know people all throughout the capital city that surround the castle; she'll be responsible for protecting and leading them in the near future, if all goes according to plan. As a normal civilian, she claims her magic allows her to create simple spheres of light; a helpful, if ordinary, power. In reality, her light magic is capable of powerful protections against the evils slowly gaining power in the kingdom. However, her light magic would be incredibly recognizable as being inherited from the original royal family, so she has to keep it a secret while she hides in plain sight.

Ordinarily, these two would be on opposite sides of the conflict (and they are to an extent), but they've also found themselves in a very... interesting situation. See, through a convoluted series of events, Minare and Vaitus have managed to befriend each other, with both of them hiding their true identity from the other.

I've got lots more to share, but I think this is a good introduction to the characters and world for now!! Also it's late so I'm gonna go to bed soon :)