#Sue me that I like my ships to actually love each other and most straight people do not even know what love is

[notfknapplicable]

I saw your tag about Sense8 on that post about how some 9-1-1 fans reacted to Buck and Tommy flirting and I just wanted to let you know it really tickled me (and also you're 100% right)

Oh hunny. The first time we see the heroic trans lesbian hacktivist character, she is receiving the strap from her Black lesbian girlfriend in the gayest place on earth. All to cure a headache that turns out to be much, much more. But some folks are clutching their pearls over a throwaway daddy kink joke made between two boyfriends eating dinner. I mean, we all know why they're in their feelings about it (because they want their own ship to be canon and are searching for any way to bash the Tommy character because he's been paired with one half of said ship) and they are absolutely showing their asses in the worst way.

I've been participating in fandoms and fan spaces for literal decades and I am no stranger to a ship war. But I've really never seen anything like this. I can only compare it to what happened with Arrow when they managed to bully the writers into getting rid of the Green Arrow's canon love interest in favor of a raging Mary Sue, and it made the show demonstrably worse. I really hope that they are not able to pull that off with 9-1-1 because I think they've struck gold with BuckTommy. It makes the most sense, and also let's keep it 100 here - Eddie is straight. The creators and the actor has said as much many, many times. Personally I try not to pay much attention to what creators and actors have to say because I feel like it poisons the well of fanworks and fandom, but some folks don't wanna accept that this shit walks and talks like a duck. Eddie is a heterosexual. It's on screen in the text and it's come down from the people actually creating the show.

I have only been watching this show since two Saturdays ago and I gotta say that the tinhats and BoBs here are WILD. The other day I saw a post suggesting that someone bomb the studio because of BuckTommy. Not to mention the posts claiming pain, suffering, and mental anguish over their ship not being canon after years of "campaigning." These folks either have no idea or don't want to accept that the industry simply doesn't work that way, not to mention HEY it's just a tv show you should NOT be letting it have THIS much power over you. If you're really slipping into depression over not seeing two fictional white men slappin' each other's meat, then there's something more at play here. I don't really wanna get into all of that, but I do wish those people healing.

Also, as a newbie, all of this drama and mudslinging has only made me more resolute in my decision to support the canon ships and canon queers of this program. Watching Buddie shippers get legit unhinged (bombing the studio? harassing actors on their personal social media? reviewing bombing?) over fictional people does not make me wanna break bread with them. I like plenty of non-canon queer ships (most of mine aren't canon, actually) and at one time I might have been down to get on board with that ship, but uhhhhhhh not now.

[embraceyourdestiny]

I’ve figured out how to word my contempt for “straight ships”

I don’t hate fictional straight couples outright. What I hate is the absence of effort and genuineness 90% of straight ships have.

Someone else’s love is not a right you are obligated to. Most straight couples are written with zero effort to earn the love they have. Because many straight creators think there is no work to be done. That a straight man and a straight women being together is inherent. No work is needed to be done because it’s expected.

And I hate that.

I hate it with any relationship, I like relationships because they have depth, but I particularly hate it with straight couples because that is the “normal” mindset towards it. It either happens as a man expects a woman to fall to his feet without doing anything for her or a woman expects a man to throw his life on the line because that’s what is “supposed” to happen and that is so gross to me. That’s not what love is.

Usually I dislike the straight pairings in stories because they are that. You don’t see the two people grow, together or on their own. They don’t prove themselves worthy of the others love, they think it’s something they are granted, have a right to. I don’t usually demand “evidence” for ships because it’s all make believe and for fun but I will not like most thrown together straight ships because of this very thought. There’s no reality to their bond. They do not like even like each other most of the time, and somehow I am supposed to suspend believe and think the most average or even terrible and bland straight relationship is the greatest love story of all time, every time I see it?

Some of my most special ships are between a man and a woman and sometimes I imagine they as straight but they are special because of the journey they went on together and I witnessed them experience that. Or they just have so much genuine love for each other, even if I didn’t see them get together I can still feel their affectionate in all they do. They were that well written that I couldn’t possibly deny the obvious love they have for each other.

Also. I’m gay as FUCK. The most cisheteronormative emotionally constipated strangers-at-best straight pairing will never appeal to me because I have zero stakes or relatability in that. They have no love for each other, no kind of bond or understanding or similar place in the world that lets them understand and feel and devote. They are noting to each other and therefore nothing to me.

[krastbannert]

For the ultimate ship meme…Let’s do Smellershot

As always: Jet lives, and Longshot's a firebender. And, of course, I have to repeat what I said the last I did this (cause I actually did this once before for them😅)

MAH BABIES

Yeah, I love this pairing and these characters. Sue me. I'm still upset there's no Freedom Fighters-centric series, and probably always will be.

General:

Rate the Ship -   Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs (they are literally my OTP, so this shouldn't be too surprising)

How long will they last? - Roughly: yes. They'll last forever, and then a little bit longer than that, too.

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - They fell pretty quickly into being best friends, and they were those super touchy best friends (napping other's shoulders, feet in the lap, holding hands, etc.) that literally everyone they know is just waiting for them to get together. It took them a couple years to finally bridge the gap; they've both lost so much in their lives, and they want to be sure that this isn't something they'll lose.

How was their first kiss? - The one they remember is on the steps of an inn in the middle of nowhere on the road to Ba Sing Se; Longshot was being an idiot, so Smellerbee (literally) slapped some sense into him, then just kissed him. So, kinda hard. Their . first kiss, one they both barely remember and are certain is just a dream, was back in the Freedom Fighters' hideout. They'd slept together (and I do actually mean slept - this is before they got together) that night, it's early in the morning, first light peaking through the gaps in the wood planks, and they just…kiss. Neither of them really expect it or intend for it, and nothing really comes of it - but it's their first. (And yes, there is a moment where they repeat it, and suddenly they remember.)

Wedding:

Who proposed? - Longshot. It wasn't fancy or complicated or anything, he just kind of...said it one day. He simply signed, 'Marry me', and Smellerbee wasn't sure she understood him correctly until he spoke, asking the same question. (She instantly said yes.)

Who is the best man/men? - Jet, Pipsqueak and the Duke ("package deal" they said), and his childhood friend, Chang (he is an OC, deal with it). Longshot's three closest friends.

Who is the bride’s maid(s)? - Longshot's older sister, Tomiko (also an OC) and Toph, probably.

Who did the most planning? - Smellerbee; it's her day, really, and Longshot just wants the love of his life to be happy.

Who stressed the most? - Honestly? Neither was really stressed at all.

How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 (it's small, simple, and so very, very, very sweet) | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - There's really no one they expressly didn't invite, to be honest.

Sex:

Who is on top? - Uhhhh it's kinda about half and half, really; they're not picky at all.

Who is the one to instigate things? - Smellerbee; about a 65/35 split.

How healthy is their sex life? - Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now

How kinky are they? - Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys (They can get a bit freaky from time to time - nothing too out of this world, but they're not exactly vanilla) | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head

How long do they normally last? - During the war, when they're constantly on the run, they can only afford minutes at time, really. But afterwards? Afterwards...a while, when they feel like it. They've got a pretty peaceful life, and they're going to take every moment they can and put it to very good use.

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - Abso-fucking-lutely they do.

How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 (They can be rough, but they also really like soft and slow a lot; honestly, they like it a little more.)| 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - They only have 1 child; a daughter named Jia, after Longshot's mother.

How many children will they adopt? - Every orphan and kid in a tough spot in their neighborhood becomes, unofficially, theirs. Their house kinda becomes an impromptu orphanage, with a bed/bedroll for every child who needs it.

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - They split it pretty evenly, but Smellerbee forces Longshot to take care of it at night (that she wakes him up so easily is something everyone says is amazing, because Longshot sleeps like the dead, and no one else can do it).

Who is the stricter parent? - Longshot, generally, but that's not saying much; he just doesn't want the kids to be out adding to the population, subtracting from it, and staying out of jail and the hospital.

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - Both, but they really don't have any room to talk. They did spend years living in trees and getting around with jury-rigged ziplines that weren't exactly what you'd call "compliant with OSHA".

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - He's normally up, so Longshot does it, but it's Smellerbee who makes the food (see below).

Who is the more loved parent? - It's Smellerbee; she gets in almost as much trouble as the kids do. (Who do you think gave them the idea in the first place?)

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - Longshot; Smellerbee goes if they need to threaten school administration into not being stupid.

Who cried the most at graduation? - Longshot's stoic as hell, but he cried like a baby for every single graduation.

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - Well, Smellerbee is probably in jail with the kids, so it's normally Longshot.

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - Longshot is...kinda banned from cooking. For life. One too many incidents involving burned soup, near-forest-fires, and Jet lacking eyebrows for a month convinced the Freedom Fighters that he should not be anywhere near a kitchen. And Smellerbee likes their house a lot, so she maintains the ban.

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - Longshot grew up in the FN colonies. The boy needs his spicy food. Smellerbee, not so much - she'll eat just about anything.

Who does the grocery shopping? - Together, when they can.

How often do they bake desserts? - They both have a massive sweet tooth, so they make desserts constantly. They always have mooncakes or fire-flakes or...whatever, really.

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - Meat. Always meat for them. They'll eat salad sometimes, but rarely.

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - Longshot always remembers things like that, but he doesn’t cook, so when he does get together a full dinner spread, it’s a big day. It's also usually takeout (kitchen ban), but Smellerbee doesn't hold that against him.

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - Neither, really, although they try to make an occasion of it once every week or two, just so they can go see their friends in town.

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? - Longshot, by a large margin (see above). Smellerbee isn't the best cook in the world, but she can avoid getting rid of forests and eyebrows.

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - Whichever one gets to it, first.

Who is really against chores? - They're just happy to have a place to live; they'll gladly take care of it.

Who cleans up after the pets? - Again, whichever gets to it first.

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - Considering how long it took him to admit that he had a crush on Bee, it's probably Longshot.

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - They don't really have guests, and when they do, it's normally one of the kids coming by or one of the Freedom Fighters, occasionally one of the members of Team Avatar. So they don't really stress too hard.

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - Longshot found it, gave it to Bee.

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - Bee really hates being cold, so she stays in the warmth as long as she possibly can.

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - He just kinda walks himself, honestly. They both like going out with him, but...separately. They each use it as their personal time.

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - They only do the big ones - Lunar New Year and Winter Solstice - but they go all out for them.

What are their goals for the relationship? - They spent so much of their lives just trying to survive, one day to the next, and all they really want is time to relax.

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - Longshot may sleep like the dead, but he's up at sunrise every day. Bee, on the other hand, well she'd sleep until noon every day if she had the choice.

Who plays the most pranks? - Smellerbee. She was born a troublemaker, and she stays that way her entire life. She's playing pranks into her 80s.

[hadesisqueer]

How do you feel about Yang and how she’s summarized in Vol. 8 as suspicious and emotional?

Late, but better late than ever. I've been waiting for this one. It's probably the longest because as I said, I make either two lines or just an entire character analysis lol. And I'm going to do it properly this time.

Okay, I straight (gay) up don't know where to start. I love Yang. I truly love Yang. She's not perfect, she has many flaws, but that's what I like the most about her. I can't help but laugh when some people say she's a Mary Sue.

Childhood, first volumes.

Yang starts the series as the funny blonde hot girl that goes around punching people. And I liked that, but I also like how she wasn't just that, as I said with Nora being the comic relief. Like, there's so much more in Yang than that, just like Weiss turned up to be much more than just the bratty tsundere.

Yang's mother abandoned her. Her other mother disappeared. Her sister was a toddler that didn't really get what was going on except her mother being gone, and her father was so depressed that for a good while, he wasn't even able to raise her daughters. Can you imagine being in that situation? I imagine she was, at most, six when that happened. She was forced to become Ruby's mother figure at six. She was forced to become the fucking adult in the house at six.

Damn, you can even see the difference between how Qrow talks to Ruby and how he talks to Yang, at least at the begining. He talks to Ruby as her uncle, as her mentor. He may tease Yang a little because she's still his niece, but when he talks to her, he always talks like she's an equal. Like, Tai still considered Yang a kid, but Qrow treats her like an adult, and knows and expects her to be the mature one. Because he saw her all those years, being forced grow up so fast. He trusts her to protect and take care of Ruby, and she trust him to protect her as well.

And damn, all of this really explains her behaviour when the series began. As Ruby got older and started to be able to take care of herself, and Tai eventually started to be functional again, Yang had more freedom. Her personality and eagerness for adventure and parties and all of that - is just her trying to make up for her sacrificed childhood. But even then she still was, out of all the girls, the most mature and nurturing of team RWBY. She is the party girl, yes. The hot headed one that will break legs. But she's still the adult of the group.

And then volume 3 happens. She gets framed in front of the entire world, two of her friends die, Beacon falls, she loses her arm in the most traumatic way possible; Weiss, her friend, is basically taken away from her and Blake -her partner, the girl she probably already had feelings for at that point- left, triggering her abandonment issues. And of course, PTSD, because she isn't fucked up enough already. She's so fucking destroyed that she can't even talk about Weiss, about Blake, about what happened. She doesn't even want talk to Ruby, because she can't stand the thought of her little sister seeing her at that state. She is not used to be the one people have to take care of, and it becomes more and more obvious in the next volumes.

Disability, recovery, abandonment issues

I like how volume 4 treats her recovery. I mean, I wish her storyline was longer, but I also like the DC comics. Now, the thing is, she isn't really recovered. In vol 4, she learns to live with her disability, she learns how to use her new arm, she learns how to fight better than she ever did before. It's about physical recovery. But is she okay? No. She hates being taken care of. She forced herself to be okay, or at least pretend she was, so Tai would let her go with Ruby. And in vol 5, she's anything but alright. She is pretending to be for Ruby's sake, because she is her mother figure and Ruby can't see her like that. She has to face her abandonment issues, she still has PTSD, and she is just not okay. Weiss notices right away, and tells her that it's okay if she is not okay. She noticed how hurt she was about Blake leaving. She just could see through the façade because if Weiss knows about anything, is about loneliness and pretending.

Her conversation with Raven at the end of the volume is just one of the best scenes, because you can just see how much Yang has grown. That scene deserves a post of its own because it's just amazing. But she finally faces one of her fears -her own abandonment issues, though they probably will always be there- and sees right through Raven. Because just like her, Raven just puts a façade to hide her own fears and insecurities, and the moment her own daughter isn't just taking any of that shit, she just starts crying. Because Yang is right. And deep down, she doesn't want to let Yang take the lamp, but she isn't just strong enough. Deep down, she wants to be in Yang's life, wants to protect her, and I think Yang knew that. But it was just too late.

More abandonment issues and relationship with Blake.

Now, to Yang, Blake coming back was huge. Not only in the terms of shipping, but as a whole. In her mind, Blake left her, just like Raven, just like Summer (though Summer didn't do it in purpose), and technically, just like Ruby, though she knew why Ruby did it and understood. But she's probably wondering “what is wrong with me that everyone always leaves me”. And she always has to be the one looking for the person who left her.

Not with Blake. After that talk with Weiss (bless the wingwoman), Yang was able to understand Blake's perspective better. But she didn't think Blake would actually ever come back, because no one ever does. But she did. Not only did she come back; literally, all Blake cared about once she entered the room and saw Yang was her (for once, someone is prioritizing her). And later, she was the one to walk and talk to the team, and tell them she didn't plan to leave again if they accepted her back. She didn't have to look for Blake because she was already looking for Yang. She was the one who made the effort, not the other way around. And to Yang, even though they still had issues to work through, even though she was still afraid at that moment that Blake would leave and break her heart again (All That Matters), that was enough to forgive her. Or at least give her another chance.

Now in volume 6 they clearly have issues. Like, Blake is very nurturing to the entire team because she feels like she has to make up. But mostly, she is trying to make up to Yang. She still feels guilty because of Adam, and she knew that Yang had already abandonment issues before she left and she probably made them worse. She was just trying so hard to be there for Yang so she could understand that she would never leave her again that she made things awkward. Yang is used to be the one who takes care of people, not the other way around. She thought that Blake “protecting her” was her seeing her a weak when actually, it was just Blake just genuinely caring about her but with the wrong words. Blake understood after that, and she changed the phrasing in the fight against Adam. Protecting each other. Equals. It really applies to the Bees relationship as a whole. “You're taking care of me, yeah, but I'm going to take care of you as well, no matter what”. For once, Yang is allowing someone to take care of her (well, except Tai, but again, she wasn't completely sincere with him, so technically she wasn't really allowing him to fully help her). And that's what I love the most about their dynamic, and why I ship it.

PTSD

Now (I'm sorry I'm taking so long), I've seen many, many people saying that Yang's PTSD is poorly written, or that the writers messed it up in the fight against Adam. Now, I have to ask those people: what the fuck do you think PTSD is?

If a Great WriterTM reads this and tries to tell me I'm wrong, or that I don't know what I'm talking about and I don't know anything about good writing and blah blah blah: I have PTSD myself. Diagnosed. So yes, I acknowledge there are many things I'm ignorant about, but I'm quite familiar about this topic. Yang's PTSD is, at least by my point of view, very well-written. It isn't perfect, but it's still far so much better than most PTSD portrayals I've seen in TV, along with Korra's. And I've seen people saying that Korra's portrayal was so much better. Well, let me tell you, it isn't, or at least I don't think it is. It's just different, because the worst thing about PTSD (and what makes it harder to treat) is that it's different for every person; sometimes it can be really severe and obvious, sometimes it seems “light”. Damn, sometimes it doesn't appear until years after the event; mine didn't trigger til I was like sixteen, and the event took place when I was around five or six. And yes, sometimes I have nightmares or flashbacks about it if something triggers me, but it isn't the whole time like some of you apparently think it is. I'm not scared 100% of the time, what the fuck.

When it comes to the fight with Adam, saying it didn't affect her: did you watch the fight? First of all, at that precise moment, Yang was so full of adredaline and too busy keeping Adam from killing Blake that I don't think her brain even realised he was the cause of her PTSD. Second of all, when he triggers it, it does affect her; she starts shaking, he's able to land hits on her that he couldn't before. But PTSD is different in every person, and is a defense mechanism, not a freezing mechanism as some people think. If I see the cause of my PTSD in front of me trying to hurt me again, I'm not gonna freeze; I'm gonna do whatever it takes so they don't ever hurt me again. Same goes with Yang: some people think she should have completely freezed during the fight, like “oh my god this guy fucked me up really bad and now he's gonna do it again and there's nothing I can do oh my god”. No. As I said, PTSD doesn't work like that, at least not always. She's not thinking that, she's thinking “alright this guy really fucked me up once but there's no way I'm letting him do that again”. Again, PTSD is a defense mechanism. A fucked up one, but it's what it is. And the writers handled very well.

Yang being suspicious and not completely trusting someone.

Now, I'm not lying when I tell you that I have no idea about what this could mean. Well, it could be her disagreeing with Ruby and having a bad argument, and that would really break my heart because I just love those two sisters so much. It could also be about Ozpin; she's teaming up with Oscar and hearing Ozpin is back could bring some problems. Or maybe Raven just appears there and she's like Hell Naw. I have no idea.

Conclussion.

I love Yang. She's not perfect at all. She's a bit of a hypocrite with the whole Ozpin thing because she's keeping Raven's identity as the Spring Maiden a secret as well (or maybe she did tell them off-screen? Honestly clear that up already). But she's over all a really good friend and person, an amazing older sister and just one of the most inspiring characters in the show. I see part of myself in her, and I don't see that often in a character. I just love her.

Damn, sorry I wrote the Bible but my girl deserved that.

[agentjx7]

SO I wrote this massive post in the BCB discord explaining why I still like Paulo/Lucy, and at some urging I’ve edited it for tumblr!

Now, I could start off with a lot of talking about Paulo and Lucy’s personalities and why I think they’d mesh well together, but you’ve probably read the comic. You know the characters. I don’t think the argument “they don’t have chemistry” is even on the table. Instead, I feel like most people’s arguments about the ship are either “there are healthier/better ships for both of them” or “the Ferris Wheel scene and chapter 100 sink it.” So let’s talk about these arguments.

I am not going to be able to convince anyone who thinks that their ship is “better” than paulucy to switch sides, so let’s talk about healthier for a second. Paulo’s relationship with Daisy as it stands at the moment would doubtless get mired down by Daisy’s jealousy of Lucy. I’m not saying it couldn’t be good in the future, and both of them are developing in the directions that would make that easier, but at the moment I don’t think it’d be good. And as for Lucy? The number of healthy ships for Lucy is vanishingly small. I think it’s possible that her relationship with Paulo, if it started in the next chapter, would be healthy, but I also think they both need a little more work— and I think that they’re more likely to develop in positive ways together than apart!

Now, as for their recent arguments. I do not think Lucy is telling the truth during After You on the Ferris Wheel— at least, not the whole truth. She doesn’t feel like she can do a relationship at the moment, and she’s tired of watching Paulo (who she cares about deeply) hurt himself by waiting for her. This is compounded by the things she’s internalized from December and after: she feels like all she CAN do is hurt Paulo more, and that even if she starts dating him he’s only going to be doing it because he likes her appearance. Paulo might have proved MULTIPLE times that this isn’t the case, but she’s dealing with quite a bit right now and it’s very hard for her to see the positives in any of her relationships— Augustus excluded.

During the Ferris wheel ride she never actually can bring herself to tell Paulo outright that she doesn’t love him and that she’s incapable of loving him in the future. She does say that she’s sorry they couldn’t have been more in the past, but that’s because of her crush on Mike, a crush she’s slowly getting over. When he flat out asks her if there’s no way for her to love him she gives a non-answer and then changes the subject to the time they slept together, which she argues she only did because she thought she’d never see him again. I think this is true (and it was kind of a shitty thing to do), but Lucy isn’t giving herself enough credit OR Paulo enough agency here. Her goal during this whole conversation is to convince Paulo to move on from her, so she says a LOT of stuff that’s fairly hurtful. From her own admission, though, the reason she’s saying it all is because she thinks Paulo should move on, and that she’s not worth waiting for. That’s not her call to make. Unfortunately, as we see from their next conversation, all she really accomplished was ruining Paulo’s evening.

So now the big one, High Expectations. Paulo absolutely BLOWS UP at Lucy here, and a lot of people signaled it as the death knell for the ship. It definitely wasn’t our finest hour, but I maintain that there’s a couple little things in the scene that show that it’s still got stuff going for it. FIRST of all, Paulo flat-out says he loves Lucy. This one should’ve put the nail in the coffin of “ah Paulo doesn’t care about her because of the fair” argument, but on the NEXT page we get to the big one. Lucy says she didn’t come back for any of them, and Paulo asks the armor-piercing question: “Then why the fuck did you come back?”

This scene, this panel, is the FIRST time since Love Again that we see Lucy taken off guard by one of the members of the gang. It’s the only time her “I’m a cold hearted bitch now and I hate all of you” act really drops before she has her conversation with Sue a couple chapters later (It’s All in the Mind).

Paulo is the first person to REALLY get under her skin after she returns, and it’s pretty clear the things he says in this chapter stick with her. I could talk more about that, but for now let’s talk about Paulo and why he doesn’t mean the shit he says right here about how he’s Done With Lucy for real this time™️. First of all, Paulo is right up there with Mike and Lucy in terms of emotional outbursts— the main difference is that when he attacks people he just straight-up physically attacks them instead of tearing them down emotionally, and that it’s a coin flip whether he’s going to get angry with someone else or burst into emotional tears and start hating himself (because he’s one of the most empathetic emotional characters in the comic but I digress). He’s just seen Lucy, who’s keeping up the “I actually hate ALL of you now” act, with AUGUSTUS, who to his knowledge is the guy who tried to molest Daisy and nothing else. Robbed of the context of the situation, he feels like Lucy really hates them all so much that she’d rather hang out with the creep than them— than HIM— and that shit hurts. Why? Because he absolutely still loves her.

Paulo has also had an EXTREMELY rough day. One of his best friends just slammed his face into a lunch table. He’s still on rough terms with Abbey, even if Daisy’s party has assuaged some of these fears. He’s ALREADY ready to fall apart, and then THIS hits him like a train. It HURTS, so he lashes out and storms off.

Lucy realizes that she’s hurt him, bad, and that hurts her— but we don’t get to see that because Paulo and Mike are the focus of the chapter so we’re MOVING ON now, I’ll explain in a minute.

SO! During All in the Mind Lucy has another confrontation with her friends, leading to her blow-up with Daisy. BUT CRUCIALLY she’s on good terms with Sue again, and she starts to realize that she can’t keep hurting her old friends like this. This leads directly into her behavior in Witch Hunt, which is the next time we see the two of them interact. All she does is apologize to Paulo for potentially hurting him again with the dress— but this is a bigger moment than it might seem. In the earlier chapters after her return, Lucy would’ve pretended not to care that her actions could have hurt Paulo, but this time things are different! This is her reaching the olive branch out to him, as well as her genuine fear that she’s just hurt him again. Paulo assures her it’s no big deal, and then resumes casually flirting with her (in a friendly way!), something that she laughs with and clearly enjoys. When Daisy interrupts them they BOTH start blushing.

SINCE THAT POINT, the only chapter to feature the two of them significantly interacting is Unwanted Gift. Paulo happily takes part in the celebrations of Lucy’s birthday, which he DEFINITELY would not have done if he was still in the same mindset from High Expectations. Now, I can’t claim to know what’s going to happen after the most recent emotional missile salvo of a chapter, but I truly do believe the two of them are in a much better place than when Lucy first returned.

NOW, what evidence do I have that they really do still love each other? Admittedly, some of it is just my own gut feeling about the characters. Lucy leaving for the better part of a year didn’t put a damper on Paulo’s feelings. Being told “stop caring about me before you get hurt,” ESPECIALLY since Lucy can’t (or won’t) say “I don’t love you,” is not going to stop him.

As for Lucy? Well, there’s the inherent fact that Lucy didn’t just come out and say she didn’t like him and he had no chance. Lucy is often brutally honest, and she still chose to dodge the question when he asked. But Lucy still can’t bring herself to say she does love him, so if she’s so brutally honest, she must not, right? Well, no! One of Lucy’s major character flaws is that she can’t be fully honest with people, even when it would benefit them both. Admitting her true feelings is a specific area where that’s a problem— Lucy confessed she loves someone once before, and look how THAT went. Also on the BCB ship chart she’s still listed as having a crush on him and the chart came out in *checks notes* after Lucy came back so I’m hanging onto that for dear life

So, there you have it! My overdrawn explanation of why paulucy good, actually. Thank you so much for reading if you got this far! God I really love this comic waaay too much.

[hamliet]

when does a relationship become queerbaiting? theres a book that i really like and the 2 male leads characters have a lot of storylines and arcs where they get closer and i think some of the tropes used can be similar to the typical romantic tropes, neither of them end up with anyone at the end of the story since its more about found family and the long journey the whole cast goes through. they even get shipped by another character as a running gag. personally i always saw it as being open to interpretation but recently the revised edition of the original novel came out and there were several lines those 2 characters had about each other that were kinda toned down, i didnt think much of it but i saw a post about how it was clearly baiting and the author was being homophobic for toning it down. i didnt think it counted as baiting since as far as i know, the novel was never advertised as anything with romance and the author never pretended they were gonna end up together. i am definitely a little weirded out by the decision to change those specific lines but a lot of the story stayed the same, including a lot about their relationship so idk what to think.

i guess im more confused on if it counts as baiting, or even substext??

Sooooo I am not the best person to ask about this, because I’m a cis woman who has thus far in life only been attracted in a romantic sense to cis men. I can talk a bit about baiting as a general concept in fiction, but you should definitely take it with some grains of salt. 

Baiting, for me, is like deliberately playing up an aspect writers have no intention on delivering on. Usually this is done for ratings, to tease fans, fanservice, etc, but without payoff, it is just bad writing. Red herrings are good in writing, but only can be successfully used if the actual result is more satisfying than the herring. This applies to writing in general, not just to romantic ships. However, when the baiting involves historically underrepresented groups for no reason other than to get fans to spend money consuming the story, I think we can all agree that becomes something more grotesque than just bad writing: it’s insensitive, socially irresponsible, frankly hurtful. 

Some common examples are Bridgerton which has a gay character, who is extremely minor, yet they played up this character in advertising. Also, Rizzoli and Isles I think actually had its producers mention deliberately playing up the lesbian subtext to hook the audience without ever intending on following through. 

That said, context also matters. Like, there are aspects of the culture of the work’s author, the target audience, and such that come into play here also (so like, romantic tropes differ by culture. For example, enemies to lovers is common in Asian stories but less in the west, and the “girl who pursues a guy” is extremely common in Japanese shonen in particular, while it is very much a cringe trope that almost never results in romance in American fiction. So if a writer reads, say, tropes that are common in America into a Japanese work and says it’s baiting, that’s quite possibly not the intent even if it may have been the experience of the reader. So even if there was no intent, there can still be hurt, and that hurt can be real, if that makes sense. 

The definition of what constitutes ‘baiting’ varies. I do think that, in true Tumblr fashion, the term gets thrown around a lot and loses its intended meaning, or is so rigidly defined that creators can meet the letter of the “not a bait” requirement while ignoring the spirit of it.

To start with the latter: regarding something hitting the letter of what most wouldn’t consider baiting yet not really the spirit, let’s look at The Rise of Skywalker. This movie had a genuine lesbian kiss in it... between two characters we’d never seen more than a glimpse of while others are celebrating around them. Since it has a kiss, it’s not baiting, right? Well... the director deliberately said in the lead-up to the film that he included it because he “wanted LGBT people to see themselves in the film.” If “see yourselves in the film” is like a nanosecond of background, then, like... idk. Baiting or not, it feels icky, and I know some people consider it baiting and some don’t even if they don’t like, love that representation. But I think this is more queerbaiting than like, Nobara and Maki, who don’t have explicit romantic coding. 

Going back to the former, in terms of ‘queerbaiting’ losing its intended meaning... I think there are a lot of really poorly written romantic ships out there, often het, while a lot of same-gender relationships are really well written regardless of whether there’s romantic coding within the text. The main emotional energy in stories with 90% male characters (as frankly many if not most stories are, great job world) is probably between two men. There’s just so much more potential with well-written characters who share a lot of screen time, so of course people are going to ship them. In my opinion, this does not inherently make it baiting, but it certainly creates an environment that lends itself to baiting even if the writers aren’t intending to do this. 

Like, you could say the main emotional energy in BNHA is Bakugou and Deku. However, Bakudeku is 100% not queerbaiting. It’ll never be canon romantically (I don’t even ship it lol). There has been nothing to imply romance between them even if the main emotional message can be seen in their development. Deku/Ochaco is likely to be canon, but there is a significant lack of genuine emotional energy between them (the story’s plots and themes don’t coalesce around their relationship), so it’s probably going to feel forced. In contrast, Naruto/Sasuke had an actual kiss in canon, which while played for laughs is a lot more direct romantic coding than anything between Bakugou/Deku. I actually don’t think the majority of Narusasu is baiting, but I definitely think that one moment in chapter like 3 was really poor fanservice for yaoi fans, and has not aged well at all. 

It is also the case that fans can confuse headcanons with what is actually in the text, and that just never ends well. For example, Clover and Qrow’s ship in RWBY: a lot of people read Clover as gay, which led to “bury your gays” outrage when he died. A member of the crew stated explicitly they had never intended for Clover to be a love interest for Qrow, and truthfully here was nothing strictly romantic in their relationship--nothing like a kiss or a declaration of love or a parallel to another romantic couple. Hence, I don’t personally consider it queerbaiting or bury your gays, but a lot of fans felt that it was and their pain is legitimate even if I think textually the argument isn’t there. The one thing I do think is true about this in particular is that there was also no strict platonic coding, which encourages headcanons. Clear writing, yo. It can help. 

Note the word “can” not “will,” because strict platonic coding doesn’t always fix things, either. In what was probably a reaction to the outrage over Clover’s death, you had extremely blatant platonic coding of Ruby and Penny’s relationship this season leading up to Penny’s death. Ruby refers to Penny as “our friend” three different times, wherein “friend” sends a platonic message and “our” sends an even stronger message that it’s not about the two of them despite the fact that their friendship is one of the sweetest and most interesting in the show. A lingering Ruby-Penny hug then is followed by a lingering Penny-Weiss hug, then Yang, then Blake, etc. The writers went out of their way to hit people over the head with “platonic” and yet they have still gotten accusations of bury your gays and queerbaiting because people will see what they want to see in a story. 

Seeing what you want to see in a story also isn’t inherently bad. People who are underrepresented are going to have to read themselves into stories because Lord knows writers ain’t incorporating them well enough if at all. It’s why “Mary Sues” are common in fanfiction, which is primarily written by people who are not straight white men: because where the hell else are we to see ourselves in fiction? So essentially the macrocosm of culture creates this problem, both in terms of baiting and the misuse of the term, and the only fix is a shit ton more good representation.

[darkpoisonouslove]

Riven x Musa

Ok, so I keep seeing posts everywhere that basically badmouth S8 and after seeing ten seconds of the trailer (YIKES to the animation, what’s wrong with the industry that they are making everything anime? Powerpuff Gen Z, I’m looking at you – obs: I didn’t watch it fully yet) I can see where some of the criticism is coming from but anyways…

My favorite Winx!couple EVER has always been Musa x Riven since I was kid and first watched the show (Netflix is not helping ‘cause I ship them even there).

I remember yawning at Bloom/Sky, rolling my eyes at Stella/Brandom and making a completely incredulous expression that I could literally feel forming on my face at Helia/Flora (can anyone say ‘unrealistic’?). Timmy/Tecna are a second favorite.

And why my Winx OTP are Riven x Musa followed after Timmy x Tecna? Because it reflects real life. In real life you’re not gonna stumble into people whose real and deep relationship problems are solved in twenty four minutes (not even that considering that some episodes present the “problem” half-way through said 24 minute-episode).

The breakup between Riven and Musa in S6 (spoilers everywhere after all) was one of the most mature breakups in the history of breakups with the hope for the future (yes, I’m completely ignoring S7, sue me, the whole thing was one huge filler anyways). And, after reading a lot of opinions on both ends (defending Musa/attacking Riven and defending Riven/attacking Musa) and watching the episodes in question (reuniting through reconciling) I think I can give my own analysis.

Since Musa AND Riven (individually and as couple) are my favorite characters in Winx, I think I CAN give a fairly unbiased view (hopefully).

*clears throat*

Ok, keep in mind that I’m defending BOTH of them, because I ship them too hard not to.

Musa Being OC (sometimes being called ‘brat’): C'mon, people! Musa and Tecna are OC since S4 anyways, where are the tomboy and the nerd? With the sneakers, T-shirt and comfortable-looking clothes? Noooo, now they all need neat skirts and hot pink high heels and long, glamorous hair. Do they look good? Of course, but and I would totally be less pissed if there was ANY indication on the reason for the change. Are they just maturing? Expressing themselves differently? Crowd mentality? Tune and Stella finally broke Musa down and Tecna followed soon after? Was it just to please Riven and Timmy? ANYTHING (even the 'pleasing a boy’ would at least be A reason - a ridiculous one that would piss me off, but A reason none the less), was just a sudden impulse that took?

Sure, we can talk about “character growth” until we are blue in the face, but the matter of the fact is that there was none.

The changes we see in Musa and Tecna are basically the creators making them more like the rest of the Winx (I’m including Aisha in this too, where is the sporty girl that matched the boy’s interest in extreme sports? C'mon! Even Bloom and her Girl Next Door looks are replaced with Bratz and Clueless-level of outfits).

Is anyone really going to look me in the eye and say Stella wasn’t a shallow (if friendly and good-natured) Mean Girl? She got better, but as I re-watch the show (currently in S3, meaning almost half-way through the content), Stella still worries more about her hair than anything else even while under literal fire.

More and more, Musa, Tecna and Aisha are losing their identities and what made them, IMO, the more badass Winx.

How did the two on the left went from this…

… to this:

Yeah, yeah, Musa still sings, Tecna still technobabble and Aisha is still a Warrior Princess but Aisha was the first one to go Bloom and Stella on us with Musa and then Tecna following soon after. It’s not just their clothing style, it’s the way they carried themselves too.

Right now? The only thing keeping them apart is their BF blues (different kind of blues) and some personal interests (singing, shopping, tech, the whole drama with Domino/Sparks, etc). But that’s IT, their personalities are going down the drain!

Sorry for the long-winded text, but the reason I’m expressing my disappointment at their change is because Musa’s reaction fits it. S6 we have such an AMAZING breakup (didn’t even think that was possible, WTH, right? Amazing breakup?) only for her to be mad as hell at Riven at S8? Bad writing, that has been dragging her (and the rest of the Winx) down to becoming just one unilateral, shallow character (the Specialists are also falling into that pit, what in the world did they do Helia in S8? He sounds like Thor telling about his “brave exploits” there, yikes). And continuity what? What continuity? Do they even remember how the breakup was written?

But ok, let’s put the Audience View aside for a moment and focus only on the In-Universe terms.

S6: You’ll always be my hero.

S8: What on EARTH are you doing here. 

I laughed a bit, the contrast just got to me but instead of getting mad at one or the other like most of the fandom, I laughed.

Musa followed that by saying that Riven has not maintained contact and just in that I would be beyond pissed as well and giving my support to Musa. WTH, Riven? I think that each season is more less six months to a year? Sort of? Still, zero contact for so long even after ending on amicable terms and wanting to stay friends? And he went off on his own! A text now going, “I’m not dead” would be the bare basics for Musa not to worry herself bald!

BUT then I also read comments about how this was a two-way street, why didn’t Musa call either? That’s unfortunately something that I very much doubt will ever be explained. One of those: did it or didn’t it? Musa could have called and went straight to voicemail with no signs of life from Riven or she might not have called and just expected him to call as if feminism were dead and all initiative must come from the guy (which doesn’t even fit because they parted as friends).

Since we have no info on the above, I put it on both of them. It’s not fair to say, “HE should have called!” or “Why didn’t SHE call?” because we don’t have fricking context. So the only thing we can take is: no contact.

BECAUSE I put the lack of contact on both of them, Musa’s reaction was a little too much, however, Riven shows up all smirks and leaning against a tree with his arms crossed and I would have flashbacks to S1 if it wasn’t for the animation style that made all the guys look like girls. Dude! Not the time for that kind of posture. Not saying that he should be all sheepish and rubbing his arm as if he had done something horrible (again: we don’t have context on the no contact) but a more neutral approach was warranted here. Nobody does themselves any favors with that kind of attitude no matter what how high of a horse they may be (rightly or not) riding on, if anything I would react like Musa solely on that one.

Next episode we have that Riven convinced the guys to follow the girls in some mission and Musa was angry. Again: I would be too. WTH? Yes, yes, they helped and if it wasn’t for them, the Winx would gotten seriously injured but Musa did have a point saying that this demonstrated that they had no trust in them and need their hand held, it was no sanctioned mission like on Earth after all. BUT, Riven does something that I would never expect from in S1-4: he explains, he reasons it, he puts it in all the words that he does trust Musa and co and that he only wanted to show that he’d be there for her (you know? One of the main issues in S6 that made them breakup in the first place? His inability to conciliate Specialist work with supporting his girlfriend and ultimately failing or feeling like failing in both?) and Musa still pouts, crosses her arms, and turns around. Geez. I expected that one from Stella, not Musa. I think the closest Musa has ever come to THIS was back in S2 when Jared explains that Riven was the one to recommend that he interview Musa and yada yada yada and she got mad and stomped off on the poor guy that didn’t even understand what was going on (only to immediately apologize to Jared and recognizing that it wasn’t him that she was mad at… like I said: what character growth?).

Riven then goes to show that he indeed grew when he asked for advice from Sky and Brandon (WTH, right? Can we picture that happening back in S1-3? He very grudgingly would LISTEN to UNSOLICITED advice from Nabu and Helia in S4-6). And does a very, very goofy and embarrassing show of affection. Yeah… again… I can picture Stella loving the light show with her face for IDK how many people to see but not Musa (although can we really blame the guy after the series went out of its way to make Musa all Stella-like? Clothes, attitude, the only thing missing is making Riven carry her shopping bags around and call him “Shnookums” (although the mental image is already enough for me to fall over laughing, just for the face Riven would make). Still, I have to count that one against Riven if only because (as much as the show gives only lip service to it) Musa isn’t Stella.

Riven being mind controlled (again) aside, those two are back together. And on the overall? Riven showed more growth than any other character in the show COMBINED (he is the Zuko of the show), that doesn’t go to say that he didn’t make mistakes since coming back in S8 (but that was more a guy trying to win back a girl than… betraying his friends for a pair of nice legs or… IDEK like in S1 – where, mind control or not the show itself made sure to make it clear that he had free will) or that he is now the one out of Musa’s league. I think that NOW it can actually work… if the show allows him to keep the progress, Musa is the next to see her flaws and work on them (which she showed to be able to do since S2) and put effort in the relationship. The difference between them is that Musa can actually work on herself and the relationship at the same time. That’s not me saying she is better than Riven in any way, everybody has their own pace and their own way to cope, to improve and to self-reflect.

I still root for them.

~*~

PS-IDK why, but I read posts about how Riven changed so much and posts about how all his progress disappeared and he is now back to his S1 attitude and I’m just cofused. Yeah, different of opinions and so on, but such opposite opinions on the subject of a guy whose relationship was focused on three episodes? 

[princess-havok]

Love Fast Los Angeles Readthrough: Chapters 13-18

Hooookay so. I feel like most of this book is just Al running around LA and trying to get in Stella's pants and just being generally clueless which I guess is A Thing for Davey's characters. But I have a lot of questions about real-life people in this book and who does and does not get to keep their real name. We'll get to that.

After leaving the Pink Corvette gig, Al and Sky end up in a CVS parking lot where she immediately calls in a prescription because she's freaking out and the Mythicals have her meds. When Al goes inside to pick them up he finds out they're actually prescribed under the name Emily Golden. Al has a towel in his car that he stole from the Ark that is monogrammed 'JG.' NO REASON THESE TWO FACTS ARE RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER I'M SURE, CARRY ON.

There's some awkward almost-sex and a weird hand job but to Al's credit, when he realizes Sky is not into it at all he loses his interest as well and takes her home (throwback to Pop Kids when Stella was high well past the point of being able to consent and had several guys going at her at once!!! That was fucked!!!).

Unrelated to anything, Davey proves to be way more up to date with what the kids like because he mentions Al using VSCO and this book came out in 2017 and I still don't really know what VSCO is, so. Yeah. I'm too old for all these newfangled apps.

I think it's time to talk about the use of real celebrity names vs making up pseudonyms. Stella is apparently banging James Franco, and he's just... that's his Whole Ass Name. He's just in this book (being very on brand for James Franco AS IT TURNS OUT). Al has talked about the pop superfame he's hooked up with and featured on his site, Marlena Lopez before, ands she's obviously meant to be Selena Gomez. I say 'obviously' because it is pretty clear before this but ALSO there is definitely a slip-up on page 106, the beginning of chapter 14:

"As I dug my hand into a drift, Marlena started telling Taylor while we should have a threesome. Fully agreeing with her points, I packed a snowball and pegged Terry Richardson in the center of his chest. He retaliated. Taylor pulled Selena from the war and after getting pegged twice in the head, I called a truce." (106)

So I guess somebody missed one in the Find-And-Replace passover this book got.

So, anyway, Marlena/Selena gets a pseudonym, but James Franco is just there. And Alexa Chung hangs around the Effs too like she's just another character in this book and not an Actual Person? Every time Al posts her picture he gets attacked in the comments by someone named @snowsimian which is so funny because she dated Alex Turner of... The Arctic Monkeys.

And then there's Taylor Swift. Of all the people to use a real name, it's the notoriously litigious Taylor Swift? (Full disclosure I support everything T. Swift has done in the name of protecting her work and the rights of artists. Except when she tried to trademark the phrase 'shake it off.' But her battles with Apple Music and with Scooter Braun? I am HERE FOR. But like. My girl likes to sue). The object of obsession of one of THE most rabid fanbases I've ever seen online? And whom Davey also decides to write as closeted?? Davey really said 'fuck it' and chose violence here. There is so much to unpack here!!! I want to alert the Swifties to the whole chunk of chapter 16 where Al instigates a car chase with Taylor Swift and an unnamed short-haired (butch??) lady because he sees them kissing. The tinhats would definitely take it as confirmation that Taylor is in fact gay (and that whatever ship name they had for her and Cara Delivgne or however you spell it was real) and the rest would ABSOLUTEY flood Davey's mentions with nonsense and/or alert Taylor herself and all hell would break loose and I live for that chaos. I just want to know who decided Selena can't be Selena in this book but Taylor can just straight up be Taylor.

Anyway, Sky doesn't get the role in Terror Cake. A model got it, because the directors wanted a more "all American" look so they cast... a blonde Australian. Davey really hates Hollywood lmao.

So Al and Sky make loose plans to go to Disneyland, they talk about Club 33 which makes me wonder... is Davey a member? I have questions. Then as Al is leaving, he spots Score arriving. Sky had mentioned a "meeting" she forgot about and seemed surprised that whoever this meeting was with got there so fast, and Al makes 0 connections here, even after The Barbie says '"You know Sky talks to him right?" she says while passing the chick her empty glass. "Seems like they're fucking"' (134). He assumes she means Jamie Shannon. I DO NOT!!!!! Also they're shopping for an engagement ring for Al to give Sky in this scene because Al has no chill at all.

Will Al ever figure out what's up with Sky? Will he learn to pick up on a single hint, ever, about anything? Why is Taylor Swift just IN THIS BOOK?

We may or may not find the answer to one or two of those by the end of this book.

[getreadytosmash]

💍 + Jen & Rhys

@blind-mutant

send me 💍 + A SHIP and i’ll tell you—

where they get married

I don't think they'd get hitched in a church since; A) Rhys doesn't enjoy religion any more, Jen comes back from hell and a church probably wouldn't take either of them. So I'm imagining a nice restaurant they booked in a hotel!

when they get married ( ie what time of day, what month and season etc. )

Definitely around July on a nice sunset since it's close enough to night for Rhys and Jen is very intent on being married when she's warm.

what traditions they include ( do they get married under a chuppah and crush a glass, garter toss, ‘something borrowed, something blue,’ etc. )

Garter toss!!! Oh my god I definitely think that Rhys would want to do thay, especially since neither of them have any traditions really.

what their wedding cake looks like

Honestly Jen is a freak who canonly likes cherry and,,,Grape flavoured stuff I probably think they both agreed to have strawberries and cookies together since they wanted a cake they would like rather than fancy wedding cakes.

….who smashes cake into whose face

Neither would do that to each other! Though Jen definitely definitely taps some icing onto Rhys's nose and giggles for five minutes straight while he pretends he doesn't know.

who proposed to who first

Jen did!! She's been married before so she definitely KNOWS when she wants something truly. It's a big step but one that she wants to take pride in to have Rhys to be her wonderful husband.

who walks down the aisle and who waits at the altar ( or neither )

Definitely Hulk walks Jen down and hoo boy is it a SIGHT to see big wife hnng.

what their wedding dresses / suits / other look like

In other wedding photos of Jen, she's always had some sort of swimsuit look so! Definitely a one main piece with a long veil trailing behind her while Rhys probably goes for something more pastel-y? I definitely think he's wearing a purple shirt instead and maybe a more creamy look than this.

what their wedding colour scheme is and what sort of decor they have

I think some marble-y hues like light brown, white and a splash of yellow? Something that's intended to be simple but still looks nice since this is an event for family and they wanted something comforting!

what flowers are in the bouquet ( if applicable. bonus: what do the flowers mean? )

Some yellow and light blue flowers to add to the theme! And y'know, these cheesy dummies probably call each other their sun and their sky so they'll have some yellow carnations and some blue orchids to decorate the wedding.

what their vows are ( eg poetry, traditional, improvised etc. )

Jen talks about how she knows that through life and death, she knows that Rhys is what she wants and loves. She swears to love him no matter what happens because he's the best thing to happen to anyone. Rhys is adorable and she'll adore him until the end or time.

Rhys unleashes as much as he can and tells Jen that he adores her, that he never thought he could be so happy before and how he swears to try and make every day as good as he can. I imagine then he might say a few words in Irish since Jen's always gotten purry at hearing him talk like that.

if anyone’s late to the wedding

Jen almost is and that's because I'm picturing a cheesy "the ex comes back for her" and that's how Rhys learns that while she had a fling with Hercules, she was...married to a werewolf. Dreams man.

who’s in the bridal parties / groomsmen / other

Jen has Marlo, Betty, Patsy, Sue, Thundra and Valkyrie,,,Basically everyone from the Lady Libarators while Rhys has Skaar, Rick, and Samuel yanking him out for a "Sick Boyz Night".

what their bridal party / groomsmen / other are wearing

Back at it again with the yellow and blue! More gentle colours and 100% Rick is wearing a kilt and I wanted the ladies to have a bit of a summer look! Especially with Jennifer's outfit.

who gives speeches at the reception ( bonus: what do they say? recount a sweet memory or two between them? tell an embarrassing story? )

Red gets his revenge and starts to tell an embarrassing story of Rhys being thirsty and then Thundra tells a story where she...seems vaguely thirsty about Jen??? She still is??? Rhys subtly moving to sit on Jen's lap around now.

who catches the bouquet( s )

Rhys throws it and suddenly now they have Skaar and Lyra tackling over it and Jen just snorts.

what their wedding photos are like ( are they sweet, with the couple holding hands or kissing or ~gazing into each others eyes~? are they silly, with a snapshot of the ‘cake-smash’ moment? or are they artistic, with one of them facing the sunset or holding their bouquets? )

SO many smooching photos as you can imagine. One of Jen scopping Rhys up into her arms and that sweet photo of him pressing his head against her's that she probably gets farmed after the honeymoon. Another cute on of Rhys being twirled!!

what sort of food they have at the reception

Chinese food mostly! Jen loves it because of late nights and Rhys likes it because it was pretty much always something he could get while homeless.

who cries first during the ceremony

Hulk does. Then Jen when she's finally happy and seeing her big brother cry...emotional big lady.

how wild their reception gets ( who dances the best, who gets drunk first, etc. )

Rhys tries to get Betty to dance with him and it turns out it's very funny to get a giant bird woman to dance and she accidentally pushed Rick, which led to him shifting into a ball and knocking Hulk over, much to Rhys's horror and delight.

what their rings are like

Rhys has a square one with jade in it since I like the idea of him having the shape of a ring Jen has had in her comics while Jen has something a but simpler since she can't wear rings most of the time! Something black and white that she keeps safe in a jewelry box to remind her of Rhys.

what sort of favours they have ( heart shaped sparklers, mini champagne bottles, personalised candy etc. )

Mini champagne!! Samuel probably gets them both subscriptions of new chocolates for a few months and proceeds to get an open invitation to their bed that makes him shriek.

where they go for their honeymoon

Ireland!! Jen wants to go there, nay, she demands. She's been all over the world but she wants to see her new hubby's home, maybe Ireland will make his sexy voice get even sexier, maybe she can meet his parents and murder them....the possibilities are endless!

something memorable that happens during the party / ceremony ( do they run out of ice and someone goes to get it in full formal wear on foot, does anyone fall asleep in the middle of the party, etc. )

Red gets into an argument with Skaar and long story short he catches on fire but other than that? It's a perfectly normal fun wedding nothing wrong here.

who officiates the ceremony

They get a guy who does non-human weddings specially or! Oh!!!! They ge Kurt!!! Kurt likes Jen so for sure I'm certain he'd do it.

what song their first dance is to

Dancing in the moonlight since it seems like such a happy and cute song for Jen to twirl Rhys to.

who gives who away as they walk down the aisle

Hulk does but Devil follows Jen closely so it's a bit of a joke that he actually walks her down the aisle.

[sworntoprotect]

THE MEGA RP PLOTTING SHEET / MEME.

First and foremost, recall that no one is perfect, we all had witnessed some plotting once which did not went too well, be it because of us or our partner. So here have this, which may help for future plotting. It’s a lot! Yes, but perhaps give your partners some insight? Anyway BOLD what fully applies, italicize if only somewhat. Long post!

MUN NAME: Pie     AGE: +25       CONTACT: IM, Ask, Discord (mutuals only, by request)

CHARACTER(S): Cullen

CURRENT FANDOM(S): Dragon Age

FANDOM(S) YOU HAVE AN AU FOR:  I have a modern verse for everything not Dragon Age, but I might add some actual alt verses for other fandoms

MY LANGUAGE(S): English (native), Spanish (intermediate), Korean (baby lol beginner), bits and bobs of other languages (namely French and French Patois)

THEMES I’M INTERESTED IN FOR RP: FANTASY / SCIENCE FICTION / HORROR / WESTERN / ROMANCE / THRILLER / MYSTERY / DYSTOPIA / ADVENTURE / MODERN / EROTIC / CRIME / MYTHOLOGY / CLASSIC / HISTORY / RENAISSANCE / MEDIEVAL / ANCIENT / WAR / FAMILY / POLITICS / RELIGION / SCHOOL / ADULTHOOD / CHILDHOOD / APOCALYPTIC / GODS / SPORT / MUSIC / SCIENCE / FIGHTS / ANGST / SMUT / DRAMA / ETC. (I started this and realised I’d be bolding almost everything, so: EVERYTHING)

PREFERRED THREAD LENGTH: ONE-LINER / 1 PARA / 2 PARA / 3+ PARA / NOVELLA. / ALL

ASKS CAN BE SEND BY: MUTUALS / NON-MUTUALS / PERSONALS / ANONS.

CAN ASKS BE CONTINUED?: YES / NO / OCCASIONALLY   - only by Mutuals?:  YES / NO

PREFERRED THREAD TYPE: CRACK / CASUAL / SERIOUS / DEEP AS HECK. / ALL

IS REALISM / RESEARCH IMPORTANT FOR YOU IN CERTAIN THEMES?:   YES / NO.

ARE YOU ATM OPEN FOR NEW PLOTS?:  YES / NO / DEPENDS. (after my paper is submitted, yeah sure)

DO YOU HANDLE YOUR DRAFT / ASK - COUNT WELL?:  YES / NO / SOMEWHAT. (irl makes coping difficult sometimes)

HOW LONG DO YOU USUALLY TAKE TO REPLY?: 24H / 1 WEEK / 2 WEEKS / 3+ WEEKS / MONTHS / YEARS. / DEPENDS ON MOOD AND INSPIRATION, AND IF I’M BUSY 

I’M OKAY INTERACTING WITH: ORIGINAL CHARACTERS / A RELATIVE OF MY CHARACTER (AN OC) / DUPLICATES / CROSSOVERS / MULTI-MUSES / SELF-INSERTS / PEOPLE WITH NO AU VERSE FOR MY FANDOM / CANON-DIVERGENT PORTRAYALS / AU-VERSIONS.

DO YOU POST MORE IC OR OOC?: IC / OOC. (I strive for more IC over OOC, but my queue does a lot of work too)

ARE YOU SELECTIVE WITH FOLLOWING OTHERS?: YES / NO / DEPENDS.  

BEST WAYS TO APPROACH YOU FOR RP/PLOTTING:  Talk with me over IM, asks, or Disco. I’m down for almost anything as long as I see it’s feasible.

WHAT EXPECTATIONS DO YOU HOLD TOWARDS YOUR PLOTTING PARTNER:  Transparency. If you have an idea, let me know! If you’re stuck, let me know! If you want to start something new or scrap something or whatever...LET ME KNOW! I promise I don’t bite and I understand.

WHEN YOU NOTICE THE PLOTTING IS RATHER ONE-SIDED, WHAT DO YOU DO?:  I’m not very good with coming up with plots myself, so I’m typically the weak link when it comes to that. Sorry! But you bet I’ll pull up a plot generator and start throwing things down to see what sticks haha.

HOW DO YOU USUALLY PLOT WITH OTHERS, DO YOU GIVE INPUT OR LEAVE MOST WORK TOWARDS YOUR PARTNER?:  I’m all about equal opportunity, so I try not to leave the plotting work to my partner. Let’s negotiate and find something that makes both of us happy. That’s the point after all.

WHEN A PARTNER DROPS THE THREAD, DO YOU WISH TO KNOW?:   YES / NO / DEPENDS. - AND WHY?: If you want to drop a thread, I’m completely fine with it. I want to know so that I don’t end up replying to something you have no interest in anymore. Saves both of us the time.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY LEAD YOU TO DROP A THREAD?:  If drafts eat it (as they are wont to do these days) or if I feel it has reached a natural conclusion. I rarely, if ever, drop a thread in the middle. I’ll just let you know I’m going to finish it on my side and allow you a chance to finish on yours if you’d like.

WILL YOU TELL YOUR PARTNER?:   YES / NO / DEPENDS.

IS COMMUNICATION IN THE RPC IMPORTANT TO YOU? YES / NO. - AND WHY?: You don’t need to chat with me every minute of every day, but I like knowing the people I’m writing with. Discerning your personality and your approach to your muse gives me a much stronger understanding of how to write with you, and what vibes between us. Plus, it’s easier to remember different people’s boundaries if I talk with them a lot, too.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH ABSOLUTE HONESTY, EVEN IF IT MAY MEANS HEARING SOMETHING NEGATIVE ABOUT YOU AND/OR PORTRAYAL?: I am all for constructive criticism. Even if you think it’s nitpicky, it’s going to be a great help. Good crit allows us grow as writers and as people in general. However, I am not for baseless accusations, childish name-calling, or outright insults under the name of “constructive crit”. Remember the “constructive” part: we need to build each other up. 

DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE SUCH SITUATION IN A MATURE WAY? YES / NO.

WHY DO YOU RP AGAIN, IS THERE A GOAL?: I love a good story. While I don’t agree with everything Cullen does (and no one should, for anyone real or imagined), his story is intriguing. He’s a deeply flawed, deeply broken man. I love to take on a character, toss them in every situation I can think of, and watch them evolve and grow.

WISHLIST, BE IT PLOTS OR SCENARIOS:  A real redemption arc, for one. A realistic struggle with substance abuse and recovery. A future of happiness.

THEMES I WON’T EVER RP / EXPLORE:   Rape or sexual assault, unless being spoken about as a past event (as I truly believe that Cullen was sexually assaulted at Kinloch along with the other psychological and physical torture he endured). In-game racism is baked in, unfortunately, but it’s not something I seek out to roleplay as a PoC myself. Finally, while I play Cullen as canon-straight, I will not play out homophobia and most definitely not transphobia. If he rejects your muse for hitting on him, it’s not because he’s being homophobic: he’s just not interested. That also doesn’t mean he’ll never be interested; people can and do change, and I ship chemistry overall. He doesn’t hate your muse for their gender, orientation, or sexual preferences. I feel like I really have to spell this out for people who don’t understand. If you feel personally insulted by this somehow, feel free to address me directly, off anon. It’s probably an issue of fuzzy wording that I’m 500% willing to fix and talk about.

WHAT TYPE OF STARTERS DO YOU PREFER / DISLIKE, CAN’T WORK WITH?: I love starters that set the scene and provide plenty to work with, be it in terms of interacting with the environment or with the other person. If your muse shows immediate disinterest in communicating (and I don’t mean argumentative, which is perfectly fine), I am not going to respond. I might politely ask for more if I feel like it’s a salvageable interaction.

WHAT TYPE OF CHARACTERS CATCH YOUR INTEREST THE MOST?:  Stoic soldier types, bubbly short girls, and semi-mad scientists.

WHAT TYPE OF CHARACTERS CATCH YOUR INTEREST THE LEAST?:  Characters that come across as Mary-Sue / Gary-Stu types. No flaws and barely any room to grow. 

WHAT ARE YOUR STRONG ASPECTS AS RP PARTNER?: I'm very easy-going and I have an unearthly level of tolerance for almost everything. I try to provide partners with as much to work with as possible IC, and will pretty much support your very existence OOC. I believe in open communication so you’ll know what’s going on with me and/or our threads. Also, I typically reply within a week or two. Currently I’m tethered to finishing a big paper so I’m not a good example of that right now.

WHAT ARE YOUR WEAK ASPECTS AS RP PARTNER?: I can get overwhelmed by too much which slows my pace down considerably. I’m also a bit distant and do shut down on occasion; that’s usually no fault of my partners, though. Just my brain being a dick.

DO YOU RP SMUT?:  YES / NO / DEPENDS. (the closer we are OOC, the easier getting here will be)

DO YOU PREFER TO GO INTO DETAIL?: YES / NO / DEPENDS. (it’s not going to be XXX but it will be descriptive)

ARE YOU OKAY WITH BLACK CURTAIN, FADE TO BLACK?: YES / NO.

WHEN DO YOU RP SMUT? MORE OUT OF FUN OR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?: I prefer to write smut for character development and to mark a progression in a relationship. Plus Cullen is not a “one and done” guy so getting to the smut stage will take a bit of build-up.

ANYTHING YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO RP THERE?:  Hmmm things that he personally wouldn’t go for I guess? Honestly I don’t know. And obviously, no rape/animal abuse/predator nonsense.

ARE SHIPS IMPORTANT TO YOU?:   YES / NO Ships are a great way to further explore a character and their motivations. People do not exist in pure isolation, so I don’t believe characters should, either.

WOULD YOU SAY YOUR BLOG IS SHIP-FOCUSED?: YES / NO. I bolded both because the focus of the blog isn’t ships, but this thirst trap guy is really easy to ship with other people I tell ya hwat. I am severely picky with romantic ships for Reasons, but I don’t eschew any other types of ships. I encourage them!

DO YOU USE READ MORE?:  YES / NO / SOMETIMES WHEN I WRITE LONG STUFF.

ARE YOU:  MULTI-SHIP / SINGLE-SHIP / DUAL-SHIP  —  MULTIVERSE / SINGLEVERSE.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE TO EXPLORE THE MOST IN YOUR SHIPS?: Characters who challenge Cullen into revising his point of view and force him to be a better person. Also, characters who understand his past and they are in no ways obligated to forgive it, but do recognise that he’s struggling very hard to mend whatever mistakes he can and is willing to pay the price for his decisions.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PRE-ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS?: YES / NO / DEPENDS.  - Be a good salesperson and I might buy it.

► SECTION ABOUT YOUR MUSE.

- WHAT COULD POSSIBLY MAKE YOUR MUSE INTERESTING TOWARDS OTHERS, WHY SHOULD THEY RP WITH THIS PARTICULAR CHARACTER OF YOURS NOW, WHAT POSSIBLE PLOTS DO THEY OFFER?: Cullen is a massive stick in the mud, which means it’s incredibly easy to taunt him and get him flustered all at the same time. He’s loyal, he’s intelligent, and he’s largely self-aware. He likes swords and using them. Anything your character hates about him, he most likely hates about himself 100 times more.

WITH WHAT TYPE OF MUSES DO YOU USUALLY STRUGGLE TO RP WITH?:  Those from the start that show absolutely no interest in speaking with/interacting with him. Mun and muse are going to struggle to stick around. I’m not going to fight for attention and neither is he.

WHAT DO THEY DESIRE, WHAT IS THEIR GOAL?:  Redemption. He wants to be a better person and make up for the past as much as he can.

WHAT CATCHES THEIR INTEREST FIRST WHEN MEETING SOMEONE NEW?:  He can sniff out a fellow Templar a mile away (or several miles, in the case of Samson). 

WHAT DO THEY VALUE IN A PERSON?:  Honesty, a strong will, devotion (not necessarily to the Maker or the Chantry, but to a just cause that focuses on protecting others).

WHAT THEMES DO THEY LIKE TALKING ABOUT?:  War stuff, chess, books, trebuchets, dogs.

WHICH THEMES BORE THEM?:  Lectures about anything. He did his time in Azkaban in the Circles. No more. Please no more.

DID THEY EVER WENT THROUGH SOMETHING TRAUMATIC?:  His parents died trying to escape the Blight, he was tortured for weeks/months on end by blood mages, almost all of his friends died because of it, he was manipulated and brainwashed by his superior, he was forced into a near-debilitating substance addiction by his workplace... yeah just a few things.

WHAT COULD LEAD TO AN INSTANT KILL?:  Darkspawn and abominations. 

IS THERE SOMEONE /-THING THEY HATE?:  Darkspawn and abominations. Blood mages on principle. Regular mages (but he’s working hard to remedy this extremely bad and prejudiced thinking). Himself.

IS YOUR MUSE EASY TO APPROACH?: YES / NO.    - BEST WAY TO APPROACH THEM?:  Just be polite and he won’t turn you away. He’s guarded, yes, but not impossible to talk to.

SOMETHING YOU MAY STILL WANT TO POINT OUT ABOUT YOUR MUSE?: You’ll find out by writing together! ;D

CONGRATS!!! You managed it, now tag your mutuals! ♥

tagged by: pirated tagging: anyone who actually read this

[twin-books]

For a character breakdown, I would like to see Chloe Bourgeois

Thank you for the ask!

How I feel about Chloe:I love Chloe. Like, I hated her at first, as one would. Well, not really hate. Just more annoyed by her. She was just a stupid bully trope. But then she developed more character, she displayed determination… She became a hero. Someone who was the bully became a hero. I loved that she displayed admiration for Ladybug though it made little sense to me at first, then I learned Ladybug was inspired by Spider-man and everything made far more sense. I loved she was being redeemed. I loved how she worked hard to help her fellow heroes and her friends. The way she protected Sabrina in the episode Ladybug was TO DIE FOR. She really showed how much kindness, forgiveness, and faith could go. She retained her sassy jerkish attitude while improving and becoming badass. And DON’T get me started on Miraculer. That was beautiful. She was amazing. Not to mention Queen Bee has my favorite transformation. And then… and then Miracle Queen happened and I don’t freaking care what the haters say, you can pry heroic Chloe from my COLD DEAD HANDS!

My Chloe Ships:I ship Chloe with a lot of people. I think she just needs someone to love her properly. Her dad is too freaking soft and her mom freaking sucks. She feels more lesbian or bisexual than straight to me. You could say I think a lot of MLB characters are bisexual and you would be correct.I ship Chlogami, Lukloe, Chlothaniel, Chlonette, Chlobrina, Chlolix (Chloe and Alix), Chloya, Chlogette. Chloe and Felix in some cases but rare. Chloe and Chat in VERY rare instants but never Adrien. I know that makes no sense. XD

My BROTP for Chloe:Chloe and Adrien. I really don’t like Sabrina so sorry for her. But I always loved the idea of the Chloe and Adrien friendship and was sad we were cheated out of it most of the time. They seem to really care for each other almost in a sibling way. I would have loved to see it improve with Chloe’s improvement but all of my hopes and dreams were mercilessly crushed. 

Unpopular Opinion About Chloe:I still have no idea if this is unpopular or not but I really thought she was changing for the better, it was kind of apparent. I’m also among those people that just likes to give someone a chance even when they used to be a terrible person because, believe it or not, sometimes (though rare) terrible people can change. It’s just that some people don’t mix no matter what and I think that’s the case for Chloe and Marinette. (Ironic because they’re one of my ships but I’m a very weird multi-shipper, sue me). 

One Thing I Wish Had Happened or Should Happen with Chloe:This is easy… What I wish had happened with Chloe was not Miracle Queen and her completed redemption.What should happen? She should actually get a redemption and punch Hawkmoth in the face. That’s what I think.

[italkaboutbooks]

An in depth review of Aurora Rising//Part 2

If you haven’t already, read part one here.

So welcome to the second part of my ramblings about this novel. Last time, I talked about how chapters 18-24 were some of the most confusing and infuriating chapters I have ever read, and how I hated that.

I’m actually going to complain about it a little bit more in...

Pacing!

Aurora Rising’s pacing is...questionable at best. Bad at worst.

So the novel is split into three parts. You know how some novels have specific parts like part 1 and part 2? That’s used in Aurora Rising. Immediately, the three act structure comes to mind. I understand that it may be used for movies more but hear me out.

The basics of structure and pacing is that, by the end of the second act, you’re nearing the climax. Basically, the story should be increasing in tension, because the antagonist is usually at its most powerful at this point.

Aurora Rising doesn’t do that. Or maybe it just failed me and not you for some reason. But if you remember the end of part 2 aka chapters 18-24, you would know that the characters succeed. And what that success does, is lower the tension. Because the heroes won the battle and they’re feeling pretty confident. That doesn’t raise the stakes in my opinion. I feel like if Auri actually was taken, then there would be stronger stakes, but the pacing failed in that regard. So it’s another big complaint from me.

There’s nothing really remarkable about plot of pacing for me to comment on. So let’s go to the next part.

Characters

For this section, I am simply going to rank the main cast aka the squad, and tell you my thoughts about them. 7 being my least favourite character and 1 being my favourite. I’ll talk about their relationships which each other in a separate section.

7. Zila

Zila doesn’t have a personality. She is the stereotypical “smart” person in the group that doesn’t express emotion. Or in this case, has none. She’s a robot. She has no interests, no motivations, and we’re not given a backstory. She has nothing. I personally believe that the authors didn’t even care about her. They just added her there to be smart. That is all. She shows a smidgen of an arc near the end, but it’s not even the bare minimum. I wished the authors actually put effort into Zila because it’s obvious that they didn’t.

6. Tyler Jones

Tyler Jones is the definition of the bland white boy. He is one of the worst protagonists I have ever seen in a book. Why does he suck so much in my eyes? Because he’s perfect. He’s handsome, he’s good at everything, everyone likes him, and even if they don’t like him, they at least respect him. He never makes any mistakes, doesn’t have any flaws, and has dimples. He is infuriating.

Personally, I like flawed characters. That’s what makes characters and stories interesting. If you give me a character who essentially wins every battle, I will think that they are the most bland and boring person in existence. Your characters need flaws, especially your protagonist! Remember chapters 18-24? Yeah, another complaint about that part is making them succeed just makes Tyler more of a Mary Sue.

Also there’s a scene in chapter 12 where Tyler says he doesn’t want to kill a Terran because he’s a Terran and acts like killing his own kind is unheard of. ....Aurora has a lot of explaining to do for you buddy.

Tyler gets the second worst ranking because at least he is allowed to experience emotions, and the authors tried to give him an arc. (But does Tyler really have an arc? Because I didn’t see it.)

5. Cat

I have mixed feelings about Cat. I talked before about the arc that I thought she was going to have. And the arc she gets...well it’s kind of disappointing.

Cat’s character seems to be that she’s in love with Tyler (for some reason) but he rejected her and now she’s just trying to cope with it but doesn’t do it well. She dies, but dies knowing that Tyler actually loved her all along and I don’t really like it. But at the same time, I do?

See, when I read the ending of the book, I was sad. Cat died and I was sad because of that. I’ll give the book merit for that, (especially since I’ve been slandering it.) It made me care about a character’s death. But at the same time, I don’t like that Cat’s arc was essentially her getting over a man. It feels cheap to me. My idea for her arc was her learning to listen to others opinions more and make her more loyal, which is not dependent on a man. So I don’t straight up hate Cat, but I would make a lot of changes to her character and arc.

And also she’s kind of annoying. She’s says bloody way too often and I thought the authors did that so she could be “unique.” Apparently Cat’s Aussie...somehow. I’m so sorry to Australians everywhere, I’m sure you all don’t talk like Cat.

4. Scarlet Jones

I don’t really like Scarlet all that much, but I like her more than Cat. Here’s the thing: she’s immediately better than Tyler because she actually has flaws. Which I like. She cares about her friends and the squad members. She’s a sweetheart, and I like that. Her motivations are understandable in a way, but I also relate to them which kind of makes me hate her.

Also she does some questionable things that don’t make me hate her, they just confuse me, and creep me out. For starters, she has a list of all her exes. I don’t wanna judge her because I really don’t hate her, but that’s creepy. Also there’s a scene where she drugs two guys for their uniforms, and she takes them to a hotel room, and leaves her bra there, along with some kiss marks, to give to illusion that she had sex with them. She said something along the lines of “Gotta leave some evidence.”

First of all, that’s not how you commit a crime. (For legal reasons, this is a joke.) When you commit a crime, you make sure that there’s no evidence so that you don’t get caught. Second, leaving signs that these guys had sex with you tells them that they had sex with you under the influence. They didn’t give their consent, meaning you’re making them think that you raped them. And when you think about how males usually are the ones to drug and rape females, it just becomes even more questionable.

I also need to point out the fact that her name is Scarlet, and she has red hair. Wow. Amazing. So original. Aside from that though, she’s okay.

3. Kallis 🥉

Kal is a good character. He got the number three spot and I think he deserves it. I liked reading his POV chapters the most. It shows how he’s trying to hold back from his instincts to kill because that’s how he was raised. He’s a tsundere in ways. Cold and harsh on the outside, but deep down, he does care about the greater good. We don’t really get a warm side to him in the first book, but it’s there, I promise.

2. Aurora 🥈

Auri is baby, okay? She’s had to deal with loosing her family and life in one day. Even less than that. She had to deal with visions and hallucinations and new powers of telekinesis in a very short time. Home girl was going through some crap. But through all of that, she still manages to be a sweet girl. She’s never mean to the others, except for irritation at Kal. She tries her best to stay optimistic, and I think she went through the best arc in the group. (Although it’s kind of on the nose.) I love Auri and I think she deserves all the love.

1. Finian 🥇

Finian De Steel? Did you mean, the best character is Aurora Rising?

I love Fin with my entire heart. He is literally the best. He is so funny and snarky and easily has the best lines. But he’s also the most sympathetic in my opinion, along with Auri. You learn about his past and how people tend to treat him differently because he’s disabled, and how he has a hard time connecting with others despite wanting a connection with others so badly.

He’s a great character. I also think they represented his disability pretty well. He has an exosuit which makes him move, but it’s not treated as a cure. The suit gets damaged which affects Fin’s mobility, and he experiences pain because of it. So I think they did a good job with that. And he’s just awesome in general.

I understand that the humour in this book is pretty juvenile. However, some of Fin’s lines actually made me laugh and smile, and I usually don’t laugh or smile much. Humour is subjective and I’m not going to stand here and act like mine is the best. My sense of humour is bad puns and inside jokes between my family so...it was fine for me. Granted, Fin was the only character who actually was good at humour, so there.

Character Relationships

Yes, I think that this needs a section of its own.

Let’s start simple. Tyler and Scarlet. They’re both twins, with Scarlet being the older by like a minute. I think they were written pretty well as siblings, except for the fact that Scarlet calls Tyler her “baby brother” in her internal dialogue/narration including spoken dialogue. Siblings don’t call each other that, I promise you. As someone who has a sibling, reading fictional characters call each other that makes me cringe so much.

Then there’s Kal and Auri, who are essentially “soulmates” in a way by the end of the book. They aren’t canon or anything, it’s just extremely obvious that they’re endgame. Kal told Auri that she was essentially her mate and that they were fated to be together. Some people saw it as some Wolf alpha shiz, I saw it more as soulmates personally. I don’t think that they’re a bad pairing, it’s kind of cute sometimes. But to me, they don’t feel like two people who have feelings for each other. It just feels like a pairing that is usually a popular ship in fandoms.

The best way for me to describe it to you is this. When I see Kal and Auri together, I don’t think, “Oh these two characters have great chemistry. They could be romantic partners.” No, I think, “I feel like fans of this book ship them really hard.”

So in a way, their relationship may be cute, but it doesn’t feel real, because I’ll always see it as something the fans created and not the actual authors, which doesn’t even make sense to me. I’m not even trying to hate on shippers, this pairing just confuses me.

By bigger pet peeve is that the authors seem to want to pair up every other character, because by the end of the book, Fin and Scarlet seem to crush on each other. It’s really annoying when people think that romance is the end game.

I’ve also read reviews where the readers were upset at how heteronormative the couple pairings were. And I agree with them. While reading the book, I always thought Fin was gay. To me, he was coded as gay or bi. Also, there’s a scene where Tyler kisses Kal because a guard was about to catch them. Seeing how the book was released in 2019, I can see how LGBTQ+ readers were disappointed that their identities were used as a really cheap way for the characters to get out of a situation, and not give them actual representation.

(Personally, I wouldn’t mind if Tyler got caught, maybe then he could actually have consequences for his actions.)

But you see, these relationships are okay to me. Not perfect. Definitely room for improvement, but they don’t upset me. But the found family, aka the whole squad, disappointed me. Not enough to make me not want to get the sequel, but enough to make me write about it.

You see, what I was expecting was enemies to friends. Nobody wants to be in this squad, so they constantly argue and mess up their mission because of it. After some near death experiences and real stakes, they start to become friends until they actually see each other as family in a way.

But we don’t get that. At least, I didn’t feel like we got that. Because this found family feels forced to me.

Despite them not liking each other, they don’t argue. They give each other insulting banter, but that doesn’t count as actual differences of opinions. We’re not even shown them disagreeing with each other. We’re told in one of Auri’s chapters, but that’s not enough for me. And it doesn’t correlate with the fact that they didn’t fail a mission. Technically yes, they failed the first one, but because the GIA came to stop it, it didn’t feel like a failure to me. And that was their only failure. They did everything else right, despite them being so different, and hating each other and etc.

The one time we actually got a real disagreement was in chapter 18, and we already know how I feel about chapter 18.

So yeah, their found family is cute and all, but I feel like it could’ve flowed more naturally, so that it would make sense. I remember Kristoff comparing this book to Guardians of the Galaxy on goodreads, which I feel like is insulting to GotG. Because in GotG the characters actually hate each other and go to jail because the first thing they did when they met was fight. So yeah, GotG did it better in my opinion.

And that’s enough for part 2. I can’t believe I have to make a third part, but hopefully it will be the last. If you read this far, thank you. You should consider following me because I might want to do more in-depth reviews like this.

Part 3

[too-many-kpop-hubands]

30 Day Fandom Challenge

I'm going with a musical fandom this time, one of my favorites and I still watch reruns from time to time.

As always tagging @domsberto

Day 8- Glee

1 & 2) Favorite Character & Most Relatable Character: Sam Evans [Close Call Honorable Mentions: Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson, Santana Lopez, Sebastian Smythe, Jesse St James....yes I have alot of favorites]

Reason: You guys should know first of all that this was a really freaking hard decision but I had always planned to put Sam as my most relatable character. The more I went back through my rewatch of Glee not to long ago the more I realized that the Southern Dork had my heart more than I realized. Sam can be a bit of a himbo most of the time but he has a heart of gold that got trampled on time and time again. He was willing to do whatever he could to be there for his friends and sometimes came up with insane conspiracy theories that were sometimes true, like when he theorized that the Warblers were juicing and it turned out he was right. He was a talented guy, able to sing and play guitar, and always managed to brighten up anyone's day no matter how shitty it was with one of his jokes and impressions. Sam got the short end of the stick in terms of an endgame ship, everyone he had ever been in a relationship with either cheated on him or left him. He literally stood right next to two of his ex girlfriends when they married *each other* and was still happy for them. Despite his family losing everything when the market crashed, he was grateful for what little he did have even if it meant he had to wear clothes given to him by friends or cheap items. He proved that he would literally do anything to help his family, like when he found a job as a male stripper to make extra cash to help his family afford certain luxuries they wouldn't be able to without extra help. He would also do anything for his friends, like when he helped Blaine gather all the rival glee clubs together to help him propose to Kurt. He could also be self conscious at times. He would often brag about his body but when no one was looking he found flaws that he didn't like about himself. Sam was an easy going, sweet, funny, closet romantic and I stan the hell out of him.

3) Most Underrated Character: Elliott Gilbert

Reason: The beautiful Adam Lambert only graced us with his presence on the show as Elliott for a very short time but it was enough to make an impact on me. He was very talented and a good friend to our Gleeks living in New York at the time. He sometimes acted as the voice of reason, being an unbiased middle man when Rachel and Santana were fighting. He refused to pick sides when his friends were fighting but gave them someone to talk to and vent to. He was a fun person to be around and have a way about him that made anyone at ease once they got to know him. When Blaine moved to New York, he felt threatened by Elliott and his friendship with Kurt but Elliott reassured both Blaine and Kurt that he believed in their relationship and wasn't out to come between them. He was a chill dude who was just an all around great person to be around and I missed him when he was written off the show so that Adam could go back to his music career. I loved Elliott so much.

4) Most Overrated Character: Rachel Berry

Reason: First of all Lea Michele has an amazing voice but her character Rachel is overrated because she *knows* she has an amazing voice and tends to rub it in everyone's face every chance she gets. She is always on about how she's going to be a star and how she's so much better than everyone but let's look at the facts. There are better, or equally as talented, characters on the show and when Rachel had the chance at her dream role on Broadway, she left it too soon to do a TV show that flopped after only one episode causing her to run back home with her tail between her legs to revamp the Glee Club. Sure she made it in the end after she decided to go to college (and married Jesse....yes!) But she became more humble after she lost everything and got knocked off of her high horse. I still thought she was an overrated character.

5) Least Favorite Character: Tina Cohen-Chang

Reason: Tina Cohen-Agitator as Kitty once dubbed her was one of the most annoying characters on the show. She was self absorbed, even more so at time than Rachel, and constantly whined because she wasn't the center of attention. She hurt people without any remorse, like when she dumped Artie for Mike Chang or when she dropped Sam as a prom date when he didn't get nominated as prom king. She also had her weird tendencies, like rubbing vaporub on Blaine's chest when he was asleep and trying to propose to Mike when they weren't even together. She complained about *everything* and it just grated on my nerves. I really couldn't stand her. Sorry not sorry.

6) Favorite Canon Ship: Quick- Quinn Fabray & Noah Puckerman [Honorable Mentions: Brittana (Brittany & Santana), Klaine (Kurt & Blaine), and St Berry (Rachel & Jesse)]

Reason: Before I start this, I know Mark Salling did some shitty things before his suicide and that is not ok but this reflects on his *character* Noah Puckerman, not Mark personally.

From the moment Quinn found out she was pregnant with Puck's baby and we the fans first see them alone together onscreen the chemistry insane. They loved each other but they never *really* dated despite having a daughter together and making out a few times. It wasn't until later, after Quinn went on the Yale and Puck joined the Air Force that they finally officially got together but even throughout the seasons you could see their love for one another. They were a beautiful couple who had a beautiful daughter (who they have up for adoption to give her a better life since they were only 16 when they had her), and probably more later after the show ended.

7) Favorite Non-Canon Pairing: Blam- Blaine Anderson & Sam Evans

Reason: They were best friends and there are alot of great romances that grow from friendship. While in the show Blaine had feelings for Sam that Sam didn't return because he was straight, in the eyes of the fans they were in love. They had undeniable chemistry and were cute together. They looked out for each other and would do anything for the other. I stan Blam so much. And honestly when Blaine sang "Against all Odds" to Sam, I adored that moment because Sam saw him and even though he didn't return the feelings, though I still say Sam was in denial because later he was way too focused on the fact that Blaine wanted to do him.

8) Least Favorite Pairing: Rachel Berry & Sam Evans

Reason: I thought Rachel and Sam was such a random pairing. Yeah they had their cute moments but the chemistry felt forced between the two of them, especially since Sam was still in love with Mercedes and Rachel hadn't been with anyone since Finn died. Honestly when they eventually broke up, and Rachel ended up with Jesse (yasss), I wasn't that upset by it. I was just upset my man Sam ended up being the only one left unpaired by the end of the show, minus Mercedes.

9) Favorite Part/Moment: The Double Rainbow Wedding

Reason: I stan both Brittana and Klaine so much. When Santana proposed to Brittany in the final season I was like yassss Queen because I adore them so much, though I was still kind of salty like Kurt was that Klaine called off their engagement. The day of the wedding, or days leading up to the wedding, however saw my other pairing getting back together and the reunion of Klaine was epic as always. Fast Forward to the day of the Brittana wedding and Brittany, with the approval of Santana and Sue, made Klaine an offer they couldn't refuse. They surprised everyone when they made their way to the alter walking Brittany and Santana and actually staying so that they could get married to. It was a beautiful ceremony that left me with one of my favorite quotes that I plan to get tattooed on my wrist "I'm a work in progress". It was moving, shocking and beautiful and I love this moment so much.

10) Least Favorite Part/Moment: The Quarterback - Finn's Death

Reason: First of all, Rest in Peace Cory! You left an impact and will always be missed.

Because of the unexpected death of Cory Monteith, the writers had to kill Finn Hudson off on the show as well which lead to one of the saddest and most emotional episodes of Glee ever. It is my least favorite because I can't watch it without sobbing like a baby because you can tell the emotions of everyone in the episode are genuine. It was a sad time for us Glee fans.

[horridbeaftf]

Tagged by @acosmic

I tag........... @rm-renfield @northangerland @freemasonic @ratgenders @turnipwine

Top three ships:

(I don’t really do shipping/a lot of my favourite books don’t leave much room for romantic interpretation, so who knows.)

1. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from the Arthur Conan-Doyle stories. I was super into the books when I was a kid! I love the way their relationship doesn’t really ‘work’, and how the fact that they clearly care so much about each other never totally overcomes their differences in personality and methods of emotional expression. Like, there’s one story where Watson straight up says it was worth being shot to have Holmes show him affection in a way he himself fully understands. As much as the theory that Mary Morstan was a beard is nice, seeing the two of them fall in (at least some sort of) love, drift apart, and come together again over the course of their whole adult lives gets me in the heart because of how realistic it feels. Even before I realised people were “allowed” to be gay, the idea of two men sharing their lives the way they did gave me an inkling of what I could be when I grew up.

2. Sue Trinder and Maud Lilly in Fingersmith/Sook Hee and Lady Hideko in The Handmaiden! In the book they’re way shittier people who actually feel like god-awful teens in their first ever relationship, which I love. The handmaiden is hands down the most visually gorgeous film I’ve ever seen and just. Heart-wrenchingly beautiful in every way. Sook Hee destroying the library for Hideko is the most romantic gesture I have ever seen in media. Gothicism......

3. Maldoror and the enormous, man-eating shark. I read Les Chants du Maldoror for the first time when I was 16-ish and convinced I was the most repulsive, inhuman thing ever to have existed, so a guy seeing a monstrous shark and going, “Yes, we are kindred spirits. I am in love with you.” really spoke to me.

Honourable mentions:

Chiron and Kevin from Moonlight (for obvious reasons), Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood from The Magnus Archives (fellow annoying neurodivergent monster-man Jonathan Sims finds love, Martin is wonderful), Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester (terrible, horrible, hilarious), Richie Tozier and Eddie Kaspbrack from IT (yuck)

Last movie I watched:

Hellraiser

Book I am reading:

Powers of Horror by Julia Kristeva, Of Kings and Things by Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock

Food I am craving:

Dim sum........ har gao............

[lovestrucklaundry]

ok so i didn't watch all of spectacular spider-man so idk the context well enough to make it work with the 616 symbiote instead so i'm just imagining something only tangentially inspired by what i got from the episodes i did watch. 

(and this is in fact all just because i want to give spectacular eddie the happiness he never got in the cartoon ok sue me)

so, behold, only loosely based on the actual spectacular spider-man cartoon, an au where babyfied eddie meets 616 venom sweetiote instead of abuse personified in goo:

peter finds a little stray symbiote (don't ask me how like maybe sam raimi style just randomly fell on earth with a meteorite? idk. i also don't know how it happened in the spectacular cartoon but essentially in this au i'd just like it to be a complete accident and for the symbiote to go straight to peter) and it's 616 venom symbiote and it clings to peter because it's scared and then something like 616 happens in which they don't communicate and peter just thinks it's a cool suit and then he finds out it's alive somehow and he freaks out and he tries to separate himself from it but can't so he tries killing it and it gets separated from peter when it nearly dies but it doesn't actually die so then it's Jar Time and the jar is taken to dr connors and peter is like "uh i found this uh creature a few weeks ago and idk what it is but it seems evil and dangerous don't ask me why i think that and don't ask me why i didn't bring it here immediately. also i certainly didn't touch it or wear it as clothes shut up"

so like dr connors and everyone at the lab starts examining and studying it including eddie but eddie gets really charmed by this little creacher and connors is like "don't touch it. it seems safe but we can't be sure yet" but eddie's like "but what if....just a little... a liddol caress... a pet on the head... can't hurt...." so he touches it and the touch is enough for the symbiote to communicate its sadness to eddie and eddie's like "FUCK IT FEELS AND IT TALKS AND IT'S SAD" but he can't tell anyone because he shouldn't have touched the symbiote in the first place so he doesn't and just like secretly starts talking to the symbiote while heavily hinting to people that like "Hey What If This Alien Is Smart? You Know? What If? Haha" and most don't think it would be just because it doesn't have a brain or whatever like they see it as possibly smart in the way like a slime mold can be smart but not Intelligent like a human or whatever

and in these Secret interactions symbi tells eddie about all that went on with peter and let's say peter has been acting dickishly in general for reasons unrelated to symbiotes but fully related to peter not being the best person ever sometimes and so when eddie hears about how peter hurt the symbiote (which wasn't 100% either of their faults but since eddie was getting really involved with the symbiote and could literally feel its emotions when they communicated and because eddie was already not on the best terms with peter he took symbi's side completely and personally, seeing even discovering that peter is secretly spider-man as a betrayal of his own trust) he's like Ok The Bro Has Gone Too Far and he starts getting more visibly upset at peter and everyhting peter says and does just makes it all worse just because eddie keeps wanting to hate him (and peter himself doesn't help like he can be quite a dick at times)

and this all culminates in the secret maybe-romance between eddie and the symbiote becoming not so secret as eddie bonds with it and they become venom and go after peter after maybe something big happens and venom's like That's Not Cool Bro We're Gonna Stop You and they are fighiting and peter recognizes it's eddie and the symbiote and he thinks the symbiote is controlling eddie because "my bro has been upset at me lately but he certainly wouldn't ATTACK me, right???" but it really is eddie's conscious choice, no mind control or whatever. and peter starts talking to eddie like "don't let it control you!!!" and eddie gets even more pissed because peter is being condescending to him and judgemental towards the symbiote and completely unaware of his own actions and how they play into the whole situation.

but eventually they all figure out that they are all taking what started as miscommunication way too far and no one really is bad and they talk it all through and it's all Good

(or Perhaps it's not GOOD like maybe it's just Ok like "we won't try to kill each other anymore but we're also not on bro-terms anymore" but then maybe carnage happens idk??? and venom has to team up with spidey and they actually grow closer again and THEN it's GREAT bro-ship restored with eddie and friendship gained with eddie's goo love)

[korora12]

Tagged by @corisanna

1. What is your favorite relationship type to write/read? Romantic, platonic, familial, and any subtypes.

I like romantic relationships that don’t rely solely or primarily on physical attraction, but instead on a deep similarity between the two characters. I like when two people meet eyes and realize that “You understand me. You get me better than anyone else I’ve ever met, and I feel less lonely knowing that someone else sees the world the same way I do.”

2. How much or what kind of research do you do for your fiction? If you don’t write, has a fic ever made you curious enough to research something?

Only as much as is necessary. I usually use research as a springboard for inspiration when I hit a block, letting myself wander the fields of Wikipedia until I stumble upon something that knocks the block loose.

Of course, sometimes I research stuff just for fun, with no relation to my writing whatsoever, until some random point down the line where it suddenly does and I’m super happy I already know [Random Fact #237].

3. What was the first work of fiction you remember becoming completely engrossed in?

Hmm. Probably Animorphs. I remember doing everything I could to hunt down the numerous books in the series (back in the ancient, pre-Amazon Prime days). I’d prowl the various school and public libraries near me, ask for specific books in the series for Christmas and birthdays, and even buy the occasional book at the yearly Scholastic Book Fairs, using what little money I got for an allowance.

I made it most of the way through the series, but then there was one book, near the end, that I couldn’t find, no matter how hard I looked. And it was an important, plot-changing, book that I had to read before continuing. Which meant I never actually finished the series.

Of course, nowadays you can find them all online as pdfs. Maybe I should revisit the series sometime and finally finish it. I already know how it ends, but I still feel like those last few books deserve to be read.

4. What work(s) had a lasting influence on you or your writing style?

Going back to Animorphs again. There is a straight-line connection between me reading that series as a child, through my elementary school friends Brooke, who was obsessed with dogs, and Caitlin, who was even more obsessed with dolphins (I used to find pictures of dolphins in magazines and cut them out just to give to her), through my Grandma’s love of science, all the way to my decision to study Zoology in college. If I had never read those books, I wouldn’t have developed the passion for animals and animal behavior that has shaped my life for over two decades.

Also, stylistically speaking, I really respect that series for how it treated its readers. Its target audience was grade schoolers, and yet it never shied away from showing the realities of violence and war. I don’t know that I’ll ever write children’s literature, but I’ll always have this series to remind me of what kids are capable of understanding and handling.

5. What kind of sound environment do you prefer for writing/reading? Silent, white noise, music with/without words, sitting in a public place with the ambient noise of humanity, etc.

Depends on how well my brain is cooperating. Pure silence is ideal, but more often than not there’s some manner of song stuck on repeat in the background of my mind, and the only way to drown it out is with non-lyrical music of some sort. Usually I try to pick songs that match the mood of whatever scene I’m trying to write.

6. Are you or do you like authors who are teases, in story or out?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m a big fan of the Death of the Author trope, so I tend not to get too worked up by whatever the author may be saying and just let the story speak for itself.

My first instinct is to say that an author shouldn’t worry too much about what their fans think and should write the story they want to write, and it will find readers that appreciate it. However, I recognize that the nature of serial online writing, such as fanfiction, changes the game a bit. Such authors have a much more immediate, direct connection with their readers than authors who release one or two physical books every year or so. Some authors take that to an extreme, turning stories almost into a dialogue with their readers, each new chapter in some way defined by how people reacted to the previous one. And that doesn’t even touch on Quests, a type of story on forums sites such as Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity that require player input on a regular basis to continue. In these types of situations, I can hardly blame an author for playing with their readers heads a bit. The reactions they have can be a form of entertainment all their own.

7. Have you ever experienced a “the characters write themselves” or “character rebellion” mental state?

Not yet. For the time being, I remain in complete control of my universes, but I recognize the hubris of assuming this to be a permanent state.

8. Do you have a favorite franchise crossover? Like Bleach/Harry Potter, Madoka Magica/Card Captor Sakura, etc.

I don’t know if I have a particular favorite. I was really fond of Secret Trio for a while, which is Danny Phantom, American Dragon Jake Long, and Randy Cunningham 9th Grade Ninja. I’m still very fond of the Disney/Square Enix megacrossover that is Kingdom Hearts, despite being very disappointed in the most recent game in the series. Then there’s Kino’s Journey/Anything, mostly because I love Kino’s Journey, and I love seeing her response/reaction to various other worlds.

Also, Stargate/Anything. The only reason I ever started watching the show was because I’d read several different fics, all in different fandoms (Avatar, Yu-Gi-Oh, Star Wars, Naruto), and all of which crossed over with Stargate. Despite the similarities, both being sci-fi stories set around the turn of the millennium involving mind-controlling aliens, I’ve yet to see a good Stargate/Animorphs crossover. It’d be pretty easy to do, too. There’s a point in the Animorphs series where they decide to bring knowledge of their guerrilla war to the attention of the US government. If they’re already in the Stargate universe, I’m sure the president will quickly pass the problem along to the experts, and suddenly you’ve got the perfect setup of adults who think they know how to handle the problem, are mostly right, and don’t want kids fighting in a war, vs child soldiers who have no intention of giving up the fight so near its end, even if the adults are more competent than they expected.

I’m gonna have to write it myself, one of these days, if no one else gets around to doing it.

9. Do you remember anything about the first fanfic you ever read?

Two Halves by DameWren. My first fandom was Naruto, and my first fanfic was a NaruHina fic that both introduced me to the concept of fandom, and also sold the ship for me in a way that I’ve never shaken. I remember very little beyond that, except that it managed to correctly predict that Naruto would go on a training trip, despite being written before such an event happened in canon.

10. Is there a work of fiction that you are annoyed doesn’t have much if any fic? Like Bizenghast.

Kino’s Journey, Cowboy Bebop, Double Arts (just never got enough attention in general)

11. What fictional character do you strongly identify with?

Weiss Schnee, from RWBY. While I’ve never been accused of being rich, I am a middle child with a much older sister that cut ties with the family when I was young and a younger brother that I never got along with while growing up. My parents were also abusive, my father physically and both of them emotionally, and they taught me a number of unhealthy ideas about race, amongst other things, that I’ve had to put serious effort into unlearning. And I have, since becoming an adult, traveled long distances across the world, partially for my own benefit, and partially to distance myself physically from a family I’ve never felt particularly close to, resulting in a drastic personality shift that took a couple years to complete, but ultimately left me a very different, and much better, person.

So, yeah, Weiss is basically my favorite RWBY character, and one I really need to write more often, all things considered.

That was fun! I’ve never been tagged in anything like this before. My turn for questions!

1. What is your the most recent fandom you’ve gotten involved in? Have you made any content for it?

2. Do you have a favorite AU/plotline that you love regardless of fandom (ie. Peggy Sue, Coffee Shop AU, Space AU, Self-Insert)? What about it do you like?

3. If you write, how do you go about deciding a character’s sexuality? If not, do you ever have any sexuality headcanons for characters?

4. What’s the longest fanfic that you’ve ever read, beginning to end?

5. How often do you make something you’re proud of? Doesn’t have to be writing, just has to be something that wouldn’t exist if you hadn’t made it yourself.

6. What are your opinions on OCs in fanfiction?

7. What is your favorite storytelling medium (ie. television, written word, spoken word, video games, song, etc.)?

8. What was the last song you had stuck in your head, and what was it about?

9. Do you prefer reading/writing stories set in fictional worlds, or stories set in the real world/real world analogous (ie. Supernatural or Marvel Comics)?

10. If you could bring one fictional character into the real world, who would it be and why?

11. Pick your favorite of the questions I was asked to answer for yourself.

I just realized that I don’t know how many of my followers are writers. I guess @hunkygoddess @tmifangirl21 @queendarktigress @ladyvallhalla @i-mushi @xekstrin @shinobicyrus and anyone else who sees this and might be interested. No pressure, it’s just for fun!