#THIS guy though. lol. lmao even. “would” as a secret character trait.

[dirtyoldmanhole]

it's a little messy but i absolutely love this shot of gunter finger-fucking corrin's mouth to shut her moans up lmao

[thebellekeys]

Reflections: She got better after Clace concerning tropes

(NB... this is gonna be my last Reflections because I've got uni and shit to take on in September 😗)

Okay, so we know Cassandra Clare uses age-old tropes in her books: enemies-to-lovers, strangers-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, the evil seductress, the fearless warrior, the secret special snowflake, etc. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, becuse it’s sort of impossible to create written media without using any tropes. It’s how you use the tropes that makes written media interesting, and what I’ve noticed is that Cassie has gotten better at using tropes and paragons since TMI in her books by adding little twists and turns to them to avoid them becoming generic.

Starting off with TMI and Clace for example, we see that Clary is the classic “special teen with hidden powers that discovers a new supernatural world”, falling into that category with Bella Swan, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc. Jace is the aloof hottie with a Dark Past, and operates like a modern day Achilles if he made it out of Elysium, lmao. He’s pretty akin to Edward Cullen, Peter Mellarke, Dimitri Belikov, etc. Clace and their character arcs especially in the first TMI trilogy were pretty generic, even at the time they were published. (NB but Jace really is Achilles man like he’s *golden*, has the military-type fighting skills and discipline, powerful daddy issues, best of the Shadowhunters kinda like how Achilles was the best of the Greeks, feared and lauded by everyone, believed he’s destined for tragedy).

But looking at TID, for example, Cassie went with the Love Triangle trope that was especially popular around the time that TID was written, and she was like “oh hell no” and then created the greatest thing in the world known as Herongraystairs *Spongebob rainbow gif*. The late 2000s were kind of a mild time, and the rule of thumb was that the the main girl just had to end up picking one man in the triangle but nawww Cassie decided that Tessa Gray (bless her) would get both of her male counterparts at appropriate times, love them equally AND have it happen without any hostility between them. She completely outdid the Love Triangle trope.

I made a post discussing why Jemma is a great ship and a great spin on the Forbidden Lovers trope already, but I also need to say that Julian is an exceptional character. He, without hesitation, takes on the most traditional of feminine roles in the series yet isn’t feminine at all- he’s a very masculine protagonist. Julian’s more masculine roles (being a leader in a political revolution, being a schemer, being a fighter) are perfectly foiled with the traits which often assigned to female YA protagonists (no sexual experience before Emma, raises his siblings and bakes and shit, isn’t the one who’s snarky and quips or gets violent quickly). In having Julian take on the main parent role in TDA, it allowed Cassie to show a YA male lead who’s secure and doesn’t depend on what others make traditional masculinity out to be in order to dictate his behavior.

Now let’s look at TLH lastly. I’m really partial to this series as you all may know *cough*. The trope here is Secrets and Miscommunication (which I know some of you absolutely hate, but I think some of said miscommunication is actually necessary given the social context of the series but alas, I don’t blame yall for hating TLH because of this at all, lol). See, what works about the whole secrets and miscommunication trope tho is that everyone is not what they seem. Like Matthew’s the Wildean Libertine right, but he’s actually managed to use that branding as a shield from the shame of his guilt (Oscar Wilde’s philosophy laudes beauty and love, yet Matthew himself does not believe himself to be worthy of this coveted love - Matthew’s soul has turned Gothic despite his self-branding as an aesthete). Grace is the Evil Seductress, the Femme Fatale who must be eliminated so the Good Girl can get the guy, but in reality, Grace is inquisitive and inventive and loving when she’s not guarded - the one woman who the world thinks is heartless is actually the one who hurts the most and enjoys hurting the least. Then we have the James who’s the Eligible Bachelor - he’s well read, a leader, good at Shadowhunting, polite, handsome, and desired by the ladies of London. Yet at his core runs Belial’s blood and his inevitable ties to literal Hell. James, who should be the classic charming hero, is running from something very unmistakably rotten within him (even though his heritage is beyond his control). So these societal paragons are all tinged with something unexpected that makes them interesting imo.

So yeah, to conclude: yes, Cassie’s writing uses a lot of generic tropes but I’d argue that her writing has improved to make age-old tropes and epithets interesting and novel as TSC progresses. I think we also could all attribute the creation of the Herondale to Cassie: obnoxiously attractive and poetic young male with a bottomless heart and strong opinions on the proclivities and capabilities of ducks? Yeah, that’s a Herondale.

[realcube]

soft haikyuu!! boys with a baddie* s/o  😈

characters:  yamaguchi, hinata, suga, akaashi, nishinoya & tendou

tw// swearing

*(a/n): anon requested a kinda sassy, sarcastic reader and verbatim ‘she is basically a salt bag, but she also has like some sugar’  so i simplified that down to baddie :) so the reader isn’t really a delinquent but they are a bit rough around the edges uffabvrslbv 

Tadashi Yamaguchi

he definitely thinks you’re really cool and he wants to be just like you :O

bc you give off ‘bad bitch who doesn’t care about what other ppl think about them’ energy and what he would give tO HAVE THAT!!

so that’s when he knew he needed to be your friend >:) 

so he was like ‘tsukki, go talk to (y/n) for me >:)’ thinking that was his first step to becoming confident pfft

luckily, god was on his side though bc the teacher rearranged the seats and you and him were sitting next to each other 

hence, he got the opportunity to talk to you without it seeming too forced

you both fell for each other so hard

like he would act tough to try impress you but you preferred his natural softness while you tried to act uncharacteristically docile so you wouldn’t scare him off but he liked you for your boldness 

it was a match made in heaven 💞

he eventually worked up the courage to ask you out one day and y’all have just been falling more ever since

although, that doesn’t mean yamaguchi’s forgotten one of the main reasons he wanted to be with you in the first place

‘please teach me your ways, (y/n)!’ he pleaded, his head resting on your lap so you had to cover his puppy-eyes with your phone

‘no, tadashi. firstly, you’re sweet and gentle- you’re just built like that. secondly, i don’t have any ‘ways’ to teach you!’

yamaguchi continued to pry, ‘then how are you just so effortlessly self-assured?’

‘who told you that, tadashi?’

‘no one.’ yamaguchi poked the back of your hand to get you to move it, ‘but remember that time one of the guys in our class tried to make fun of the size of your head and you told him to shut up?’

you rolled your eyes, setting your phone aside before placing a brief kiss on yamaguchi’s forehead, ‘he said he couldn’t see the board because of my ‘big head’, tadashi; that’s hardly an insult. also, what else could i have possibly said other than that?’

but then you remembered this is yamaguchi you’re talking to; if that was him, he’d probably apologise, move his head aside then cry in the bathroom or sumn.

‘i should be the one asking you why you’re so insecure. i mean, i know everyone is a little bit insecure about something but you just take it to a whole other level.’ you mused, absentmindedly massaging his scalp

yamaguchi frowned, ‘exactly! teach me how to stop being insecure.’

‘no please, no thank you?’ you inquired with a snicker, realising that your habits might of accidentally rubbed off on him

bc just a few weeks ago, he’d be thanking you for breathing the same air as him but now he didn’t even say ‘please’ when asking for a favour 

gasp

‘please teach me how to be resilient, (y/n).’

you chuckled, leaning down to whisper in his ear, ‘okay, since you’re so polite, i’ll tell you my secret - but promise not to tell anybody else!.’

‘i promise.’ yamaguchi replied without hesitation

‘okay, first thing you need to do is go to the depths of hell and find satan hims--’ 

yamaguchi let out a sigh as he realised that you weren’t being serious then playfully flicked your forehead away, ‘rude.’

you beamed, pressing another kiss upon his forehead, ‘i know~’

Shōyō Hinata

let’s not pretend hinata wasn’t shitting his pants when he first heard about you from kageyama

‘they called me a shitty setter the other day.’

but kageyama failed to mention the part where he cut you in line for lunch 🙄 mans had it coming

like hinata genuinely thought that if he came within a 5 foot radius of you, you’d literally come for volleyball career

plus, hinata knew he had a lot of things to be insults on (mostly, his height) so he decided to keep his distance at first 

but when he actually saw you - rather than a vague description that kageyama conjured - he kinda fell head over heels

well, not only bc of your looks - he isn’t that shallow

but the same day, you dropped your purse/wallet on the walk home and ,mhsince hinata was walking behind you, he acted as any good Samaritan would; picked it up then handed it to you 

then you said something along the lines of ‘thanks, shorty.’

not shawty. lord- shorty as in short with a y at the end

and whether you meant that as a dig or not was beyond him - but either way, he fkn adored it 

also it doesn’t matter whether you are taller or shorter than hinata- he is still short-stuff >:)

by some miracle he managed to ask you out successfully and he’s kinda been glued to you ever since

like he wants to spend every second that he’s not at volleyball club/school with you 

and if you tell him he’s being clingy, he’s going to cry-

nonono jk jk

he’d probably be a bit offended but then give you your space

also, you noticed how he was really endeared by the tad mean nicknames you gave him like ‘shorty’, ‘short stuff’ and ‘ginger’

the only ones he didn’t like was ‘boke’ or ‘dumbass’ bc it reminded him too much of kageyama + tsukishima

so you started calling him these things - teasingly - more frequently 

and he loves it ngl

as long as you aren’t truly mean to him, he enjoys being called these things by you for some reason

so, his first mistake was assuming that you’d like being called these joking nicknames just as much as he does

you were helping him with english once and it’s definitely not his strong suit

same, hinata

‘look at that! you spelt all your vocabs correctly, for a change.’ you commented, peering over the desk at the paper sitting in front of him

his eyes widened and his lips curled into a hopeful smile, ‘really?!’

‘no.’ you snickered, pointing to the first word on the list. ‘your word was taxis - you wrote ‘texas’, dumbass.’

hinata let out an exasperated sigh, propping his elbow onto the table to rest his cheek on his palm

then, he had an idea ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

‘alright, stupidface, should i rewrite them?’

you gasped, furrowing your brows at what he just called you 

for a moment, you thought you might’ve misheard him but upon observing his smug expression, you realised that he really did just call you a ‘stupidface’ 

so you burst out laughing 

obviously, hinata was rather shocked at your reaction

‘hey! what’s so funny?’

‘di- di- did you just call me a ‘stupidface’?!’ you panted in-between cackles, clutching your stomach to soothe the butterflies

hinata jutted out his bottom lip and folding his arms over his chest, ‘yeah, what about it?’

‘that is so cute!- do it again!’ you demanded, enthusiastically slamming your fist against the desk

‘IT’S NOT CUTE!’ hinata barked, playfully flicking your forehead 

once you caught your breath, you took hinata’s hands and looked him dead in the eyes, ‘you’re fucking adorable, shōyō.’

the hoarseness of your voice making it sound like somewhat of a threat 

‘you’re adorable-er, (y/n).’

‘i know.’

Kōshi Sugawara 

he admires how strong and independent you are/seem 😍

and the fact you don’t go out of your way to suck-up to ppl 

he kinda wants to be like you in that sense but unlike yamaguchi, he accepts that he’s way too much of a people pleaser for that lol

so he sticks to admiring you from afar

then he musters up the courage to ask you out with some chocolate cupcakes; the same kind that you accidentally got on his blazer on the first day of second year :))

and you say yes (╯▽╰ )

also a big part of your relationship is aggressive positivity ✨😡

like if he makes a joke about looking crusty, you’ll promptly respond, ‘shut up, kōshi - you look so hot.’

or if you berate yourself for getting a poor mark on a test, suga will interrupt with no hesitation, ‘fuck off, (y/n), you’re literally so smart and hard working - you’ll probably get 100% on the next test.’

also when he’s around you he switches between canon and fanon suga rapidly 

one second he’s like ‘aww, are you stressed bc of school? i’ll bake you some cookies, baby--’ then you’ll jokingly make a comment about his post-practise B.O and he’ll literally get so defensive

‘WOW I OFFER YOU SOMETHING NICE AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?! STOP BEING SO MEAN TO ME, COMING FOR MY INSECURITES LIKE THAT  - I WAS JUST ABOUT TO GO FOR A SHOWER ANYWAY GEEZ’ ┗|｀O′|┛

ISVBFELIAEA plz he is too much ✋

he just prides himself in smelling like ocean breeze 99% of the time so you really didn’t need to hurt his feelings like that when you caught him lackin c’mon LMAO

‘wait so are we making cookies or not?’ you inquired, stifling a snicker at his little diva moment

‘ofc we are 🥺’  

he’ll probably use red icing on one of the cookies to draw a ‘>:(’ face then hand it to you, saying that he drew you

he’ll also break of bits of his own cookie and feed it to you’re doing something that requires both hands like typing, homework, dishes etc

whether you eat it from his hand happily, decline his offer or bite his fingers off is really up to you 

and over time, he probably picks up on some of your traits too

especially being more straight-forward 

the team will never forget the first time he was chatting about something with the vice principle and ‘sorry, but i don’t remember asking’  fell from his lips 

everyone was shocked :o

tsukishima, tanaka & noya were so impressed tho

and so were you IVBEAOGVRN

‘wow, suga. you wanna be me so bad.’ you gloated, pressing your hand against your chest 

‘GAEIVBSLR leave me alone.’ he growled, toiling over the apology letter he was currently writing to the vice principal

Keiji Akaashi 

he wanted you to be the dark academia to his light academia pfft

it was very much love at first sight btw 

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ soulmates  *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

the embodiment of opposites attract

he’d write you a poem/love letter to ask you out lol

‘you’re so sappy and lame, akaashi’ you scoffed in attempt to hide the smile that was tugging at the corners of your lips as your eyes finally parted from the letter to meet his 

he couldn’t help but chuckle, ‘so is that a no?’

‘-nonono!’ you shook your head rapidly, hastily correcting him, ‘it’s a yes.’

phew 

honestly, he acted all nonchalant on the outside, but akaashi would’ve been devastated if you rejected him

like he constantly tried to remind himself that you would probably say no, i mean he thought you were way out of his league. plus, it didn’t seem as though you were as much of a romantic as him

but fortunately, apart of him stayed hopeful 

now he was cuddled up beside you on a cold winters’ evening, casually drinking is hot cocoa as you both watched a disney movie (❤´艸｀❤)

he’s the type to not even care or retort if you call him stupid or whatever

as long as your context makes it clear that you’re joking 

he’d never call you those names back though ✋

to him, you’re always gonna be ‘love’ or ‘sweetheart’

also, he’s probably equally as sarcastic as you so that’s not an issue 

ngl he probably gets really insecure when you’re hesitant about PDA tho

like he just wants to hold your hand but he doesn’t want to force it upon you and make you uncomfortable 🥺

but also, perhaps you’re too embarrassed by him to kiss him in public 

so please occasionally reassure him that you love him (；′⌒`) that always washes all his worries away 

Yū Nishinoya

it’s literally canon that he likes ppl who show 0 interest in him (kiyoko, tsukki etc)

so it shouldn’t be surprising that he’s all over you after that one time you called him a midget 

to be fair, he had it coming - he stepped on your fkn toe >:(( 

he does everything in his power to impress you and get you to take back what you said 

‘hey, (y/n)!’ he calls out to you in the middle of the bustling lunch hall, ‘could a midget do this?!’ *backflips off the table*

or when he demanded that you come to one of his volleyball games so you could see what he’s capable of and whenever he makes a good receive, he turns to look at you in the stands and winks/ points

or when he actually studies for a test just so he can flaunt his slightly above average grade to you 

‘look, (y/n), i got a 49%!’ he waves a paper in front of your face, which you stare at before lowering your gaze onto your 95%.

but ngl..he really brings out that lil’ bit of sugar in you 

‘well done, noya.’ you choked out feeling your dignity slowly fade in your chest

he’s just so enthusiastic and charming how can you be mean to him 🥺

to his face, at least

as soon as he leaves you beef about him to your friends

‘he is so annoyingly bodacious - audacious! why does he feel the need to show me all of his achievements like i care??? and why does he have to be so cute while doing it???’

‘do you think you maybe have a teeny-tiny crush on him?--’

‘never.’

nishinoya probably asks you out pretty casually like ‘lemme take you bowling this saturday and i can show how good i am at that too!’ he offered with a bright, bold smile

‘sure, whatever.’

‘kay! it’s a date!’

‘wut-’ but before you could question him further, he sped off

nishinoya really likes to fluster and tease you 

you’ll be sitting waiting for him at the park or whatever and he’ll swagger in and shout something like ‘how’s my gorgeous s/o doing today?! i hope you weren’t waiting for me too long!--’

then you’ll have to quickly shush him before everyone with a 7 feet radius is looking at you judgementally 

he also likes to call you the most extra nicknames just to see you blush

‘good morning, my beautiful, divine, radiant god(dess) who i worship every morning of my life!~’ he sung as he waltzed into your classroom to spend lunch with you 

but he only does that bc you are so dismissive of his advances lol

like if you openly adored his kisses and nicknames, he’d probably do them sparingly  

oh and he calls you ‘my hunny bunny’ too - don’t ask why 

Satori Tendō

you gave him your number/snap for a project and he’s one of those ppl that just assumes that y’all are friend now lol

but that wasn’t nessicarily a bad thing bc you thought he was really cool and you were happy that you still got to talk to him even after the project was over 

not that you’d ever admit it tho (╹ڡ╹ )

he’d send you cursed memes at 3AM and you’d reply like ‘mood’  then he’d fall for you 

you’d also have random, deep convos in the middle of the night 

hence he fell for you even harder 

especially bc he basically just shared his whole life story with you 

he’d spill out all his insecurities to you then you’d reply like ‘ok’ then he knew he had to ask you out bc you’re the first person not to have left him on read

so he asked you to meet him in the park and you’d reply ‘no lol  🖕 ‘ 

then he’d just smile at his phone like ‘wow, they’re so in love with me’

he’s just so used to his friends being mean to him jokingly that he can’t even tell if you’re being serious or not

so he goes to the park at the time he put forward, and ofc you’re there even though you said no bc you didn’t want tendō to show up for nothing 🥺

he was ecstatic that you were there and he probably brought you an energy drink or lollipop then asked you out

and ofc you said yes

i mean- you had kinda developed a soft spot for the poor guy 

you’d let him get away with certain things that others couldn’t around you 

for instance, you’d let him borrow your pencils/pens despite usually not allowing others to get ahold of your stuff

but that was just coz like- he’s your trustworthy bf- not some random classmate who had no reason or motive to be kind enough to return your pencils 

also, you’d let him cut in front of you in the lunch line and he did the same for you

oh and please bully anyone who makes fun of him 🙏

[beclynn-herondale]

Right now on of my writing projects (one of many) is what I call the "Alec corruption arc fic" mainly because I'm not 100% sure about this. I've written some of it and probably won't really start working on it until I finish up the fic I'm actively posting to Ao3 right now, but one of the ideas I want to incorporate is every TMI character's worst traits coming out.

Which actually makes me want to sit down and think of what their worst traits are. What their weaknesses are. I really, really need to re-read TMI again, but I think I can figure out what parts of these characters I can use to my advantage. (i. e. Have it make them at least some sort of morally grey.)

Jace had always stuck out to me as a very sensitive character, but he hides it with his rapier wit. Jace is the angel boy, the one who cried when his pet falcon died, the one who was never enough for Valentine. A very merry "fuck you" to Valentine for that, and all that he's done.

I won't say that Jace's sensitivity is his worst trait, in fact, his arrogance and tendency to try and cover up his emotions might be something that could tip the scales. A lot of the time, Jace tries to cover up his emotions with jokes and avoid what he's feeling. (Magnus does this a lot too, but to a different extent. Magnus will always do this even with the people he loves, Jace is more likely to break down and cry after some point.)

Clary's worst trait might be her naivety. She's new to the Shadow World, new to everything, and is more likely to believe in the mundane ideals her mother taught her, and what she learned from Simon. Although I have to point out in my fic I would want her to have grown up as a part of Shadowhunter society, so she wouldn't be that naive.

I really can't think of one for Izzy?? Then again I haven't read TMI as recently as I would like, and Izzy does have a slightly more minor role compared to the other TMI mains. I probably wouldn't do much with Izzy, she's going to be a good person for the fic, as good as she can be.

Both Alec and Magnus are very self-sacrificing. That's something we've seen so often throughout the books, they're very often making sacrifices. I don't know if I can use that as the basis of Alec's corruption arc, though. Most of the time corruption arcs happen through desperation, the need to not have to make sacrifices.

With Simon I really have no clue. The only thing that would make even slightly morally grey would be his vampirism, but one of the main points of TSC is that blood doesn't matter, we're just all people. Simon's an awkward nerd, but he's nowhere near the extent I can see Jace going.

Do you have anything you want to add? I'll assume you've read TMI more recently than me or recall the characters better. It's just interesting to me what our beloved characters have lurking in the shadows.

Hey!

This is actually a good idea!

Also, I love morally gray characters.

_

Can I just take a moment to say, thank you for understanding Jace's sensitive side, people forget how sensitive he is. As Clary and Alec say "He's fragile." but they feel only they see it 😭

Which is why the heavenly fire was such a big deal for him, because he's actually a highly emotional person.

Also, I always saw a lot of his arrogance even as a cover up for his feeling not good enough. Because if he used arrogance no one would assume he felt that way, and would leave him alone.

But you got him right.

-

Clary, yes, definitely has naivety. but we also forget she could read people well and see right through, know their weaknesses, much like tw Valentine, she just doesn't use it for evil purposes. And usually uses it to understand people. But in an au like this, you could use that.

We also know Clary has quite the temper at times, and a very "fight me" attitude as well.

But I think the way she doesn't always understand the shadow world like Jace does, can definitely be used.

-

Izzy is extremely passionate in her personality and the way she cares and loves, her temper is also passion based. And she let's that lead her sometimes.

She's also extremely protective (I love this), and would literally do anything to keep her family and friends safe, which if you did want to give her bad traits, you could use. As she'd probably take extreme measures to defend and keep them safe.

-

Simon actually, maybe this was just me, has a tendency to let others achievements and abilities put him down. He often compares himself, and he lets it rule at times, not always, but a little.

And in the beginning of TMI, I personally felt, he had that nice guy thing going on, obviously he grew out of it and Isn't like that anymore, and got with the iconic babe Izzy. but it could be used.

Don't get me wrong I like Simon. But he kinda did get on my nerves in the beginning when Jace was trying to keep Clary and him safe, but they both insisted they knew more. When Jace, in fact, was the experienced Shadowhunter. Which is why Jace looked like an asshole so often, because he had to be that way to keep them safe and out of the Clave's hands. Because as we saw in CoG they wanted to use Clary and did in a way use Simon.

I think Clary and Simon were both a little naive to the shadow world in the beginning. Simon definitely did learn the way the shadow world worked a little faster than Clary, but I think that had to do with him becoming a vampire.

-

Alec and Magnus definitely both are self sacrificing. And it definitely gets them into situations.

Alec's need to always keep his siblings safe and sacrifice himself so they can be safe and live.

Magnus' need to always help those in trouble even when he knows he shouldn't.

And Magnus' tendency to keep secrets about himself and to not talk about his feelings definitely falls under that. And the way he dodges personal questions, every single time lol. But same.

Alec's insecurities could definitely be used here too, as we know those insecurities lead him to do things in CoFA and CoLS (don't like to think about that stuff tho).

A road you could take is having them finally have enough, and being like "These people owe me now." or something like that.

Though, thinking of Alec or Magnus being like that is scary 🤣

(idk if this made any sense or helped lmao)

[discotreque]

LwD 1.10, “No Small Parts”

Well, that was the most fun I've had watching Star Trek in literally a quarter of a century.

I had high hopes for this series. I love TAS, largely because of its wacky outsized concepts that could only have worked in animation—not that they all did work, but the potential was so apparent to me, even as a kid reading the Alan Dean Foster novelizations—and as an adult, there's something about the imagination of Lower Decks's FX setpieces that transcends even the glorious CGI bonanzas of Discovery.

Pause for a confession. I've long pushed back against criticism of serialization in new Trek. That's just how TV is now, okay? Might as well complain about it being in widescreen. But I'm backing down a little, because I've realized there is something about Star Trek that's inextricable from at least a partially-episodic format. And while Picard was telling a different kind of story, I can't deny that my favourite episodes of Disco have been the ones with a mostly self-contained A-plot. After 10 delightfully episodic instalments of LwD, its focus on long-term development of characters instead of a season-spanning puzzle-plot (okay, mostly just Mariner, but we only have 10 × 22 minutes and she is the star) has been downright refreshing.

So here we are, at the end of the most consistent and well-executed Season 1 of a Star Trek series since, arguably, Those Old Scientists. And sure, if they'd had to produce another... yikes, 42 episodes? Then sure, they probably would have dropped a clunker or two—but they didn't, and winning on a technicality is still winning. I'm practically vibrating with excitement for Disco to come back next week, but damn, I'm going to miss this little show while it's on hiatus.

Spoilers below:

Something I've been keeping track of finally paid off this week! (Which never happens to me, lol.) The destruction of the USS Solvang marked the first present-day death(s) of any Starfleet officer on Lower Decks, the only other on-screen killing at all being a flashback in "Cupid's Errant Arrow". Which makes sense, being (a) a comedy, and (b) about typically "expendable" characters: it hasn't been afraid to flirt with a little darkness here and there, but killing people off at Star Trek's usual pace wouldn't just be wrong for the tone, it would be downright bizarre.

But... people die on Star Trek. That's one of the core themes of the show, really: space is full of knowledge and beauty, but also danger and terror, and believing that the former is worth the risk of the latter is (according to Trek) one of humanity's most noble traits. I'm the least bloodthirsty TV watcher I know, but the longer we went with a body count of nil—ships completely evacuated before they were destroyed, main characters hilariously maimed without permanent consequences, etc.—well, I didn't mind per se, but the absence of truly deadly stakes was definitely getting conspicuous.

Turns out they were saving it up for maximum impact. And holy fuck, I've never felt such a pit in my stomach watching a ship get destroyed that wasn't named Enterprise. It felt grim and brutal and somehow both much too quick and dreadfully inevitable—and yeah, it looked extremely fucking cool—and I'd like every other Star Trek property for the rest of time to take notes under a large bold heading labeled RESTRAINT.

Comedy doesn't need to do this, but my favourite comedy does, and in a way that few other art forms can even approach: lower my emotional defences by making me laugh, endear character(s) to me with goofy-but-relatable antics—then BAM, sucker-punch me in the motherfucking feels. M*A*S*H is probably the classic example on TV, Futurama was notorious for it, and even Archer has pulled it off a few times; it's also a staple of some of my favourite standup. I wasn't sure if Lower Decks was going to go there in Season 1—and wasn't sure if they'd earn it—but I knew if they did, that they'd nail it, and damn. Feels good to be right.

Last batch of notes for the season!!! I rambled enough already, so let's do it liveblog-style:

I fucking KNEW they were going to use "archive" visuals from TAS at some point, I KNEW IT :D

"THOSE OLD SCIENTISTS" ahahahahahahahahahahahaha

I like chill and confident Boimler a lot? You can really see—

oh bRADWARD NOOOOO

That opening shot of the Solvang tracking down to the red giant was extremely Discovery-esque... minus the motion sickness, that is

A lady captain AND a lady first officer? That's—oh hey, it's Captain Dayton's brand-new ship. Hahaha, that means they're totally fucked, right?.

Yep! They sure a—umm, wh—shit, okay, but—oh no—no, you can't—wait DON'T

...fuck

FUCK.

Narrator: "And then Amy needed a five-hour break."

[live-action Star Trek showrunner voice] "Gee, Mike! Why does CBS let you have two cold opens?"

Okay, yes, the bit with Rutherford cycling through all the different attitudes in his implant was transparently an excuse for Eugene Cardero to vamp while waiting for something to do in the story, but as far as I'm concerned they can contrive a reason for him to do a bunch of different silly Rutherfords in a row any time they damn well want, because that was classic!!!

EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP EXOCOMP

AND THE EXOCOMP IS PAINTED LIKE THE EXOCOMP IS WEARING A LITTLE EXOCOMP-SIZED STARFLEET UNIFORM

EXOCOMP!!!!!

The slow burn and now the payoff of the Mariner-is-Freeman's-secret-daughter plot has been executed so well. I'm beyond impressed with this writer's room, y'all—they are threading a hell of a needle here

"Wolf 359 was an inside job" would have been a spit-take if I'd had anything in my mouth

...how many memos do you think Starfleet Command has had to issue asking people to stop calling the USS Sacramento "the Sac"?

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THEY'VE DECORATED THE SHUTTLECRAFT SEQUOIA THOUGH

Is, uh, is it weird if I'm starting to ship Tendi and Peanut Hamper a little? It is weird, isn't it. I knew it was weird...

Coital barbs??? I take back everything I said about wanting to know more about Shaxs/T'Ana.

The "good officer" version of Mariner is... kind of hot, tbh! But Tawny Newsome has done such a great job of building this character all season that her voice getting uncharacteristically clipped and martial and "sir! yes, sir!" is also deeply, deeply weird

Ah, so this is literally exactly like when TNG (and DS9) would bring in, and then blow up, a never-before-seen Galaxy-class ship, just to underscore that we're facing a real threat this week, baby. And hey, it fucking worked��my heart was in my throat, omg, for the reveal of the—

PAKLEDS?????????

The fucking PAKLEDS have been gluing weapons to their ships for the last 15 years. GREAT.

(We interrupt the SHIP BEING SLICED INTO SCRAP for an interesting bit of world-building: on Earth, the traditional First Contact Day meal is salmon!)

"I need a dangerous, half-baked solution that breaks Starfleet codes and totally pisses me off! That's an order." I'm starting to think Captain Freeman might actually be overqualified for the Cerritos, y'all—she's REALLY awesome

OH SHIT IT'S BADGEY, this is a TERRIBLE IDEA

"How much contraband have you hidden on my ship?" "I don't know! A lot!"

Awwww, Boims!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA, FUCK THIS, PEANUT HAMPER OUT

BADGEY NOOOOO

AUGHHHHH WHAT THE CHRIST DID HE JUST—BUT—RUTHERFORD'S IMPLANT????

RUTHERFORD!!!!!!!!!!

SHAXS!!!!!!

F U C K ! ! ! ! !

ahaIOPugdfhagntpgjrq90e5mgu90qe5;oigoqgw4ouegrw5SP;IAEHURVa IT’S THE TITAN???????????

IT'S CAPTAIN WILLIAM T. RIKER ON THE MOTHERFUCKING TITAN??????????

i'm screaming I'M SCREAMINGGGGGG​TGGGTGQER;​LBHAOIBVNV;​OAPBIJNVagr;h;​oagruipuwtnaetbaetgq35ghqet

I'M SO GLAD THIS WASN'T SPOILED FOR ME WTF

I AM WEEPING LIKE A CHILD

...

(Just a brief 20-minute pause this time)

And oh wow, seeing Will and Deanna hits different after Picard too, in a few different ways, which I may even get into later now that my heartrate is back to normal, lmao

Oh, I am always here for some jokes at the expense of the Sovereign class. The Enterprise-E sucked. They should have built a new bigger model of the D and new Galaxy-class interiors for the TNG movies, and I will die on that hill

OKAY, FINE, YOU GOT ME, RUTHERFORD × TENDI WOULD BE ADORABLE AND THIS IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD SETUP FOR IT

Awwww, Shaxs though :( Congrats on the single most badass death in Star Trek history, dude. The Prophets would—well, the actual Prophets would probably be slightly confused about most of it, but Kira Nerys would be proud of you and I feel like that probably counts for more. RIP, Papa Bear

I am here all damn DAY for the Mariner–Riker parallels, ahahahahaha

Pausing it to record my prediction that Boimler's commitment to not caring about rank anymore is going to last 3... 2...

Yep.

Bradward, how DARE YOU.

"Those guys had a long road, getting from there to here." OH FOR THE LOVE OF—

What a brilliant way to resolve and renew the various character arcs and relationships moving into Season 2! The writers could easily have brought everything back to status quo—chaotic Mariner fighting with her mom and being a bad influence on Boimler, etc.—and done another 10 just like these, but I suspect that wouldn't have been ambitious enough for these writers. What a blast. I cannot wait for more.

Thanks for following along, friends! Stay tuned for my (similarly patchy and amateur) coverage of Discovery, starting next week!

[emsartwork]

this might be kind of a long ask I'm sorry! (I really love your work btw) but you know how you did the personality run down for the winx girls as well as their negative traits, I was wondering if you could do that for the specialists? (I really love your versions of them — their personalities are so nonexistent in canon)

Sure! I love giving the boys more personality lol i kind of ended up talking about their mental state as opposed to their flaws but like. ur flaws are reflective of ur mental state so. idk.

 long post sry

SKY: Sky didn’t have a good sense of how the world works before going to Red Fountain (to be fair he was aware of this which is partly why he wanted to go in the first place). His childhood was strict but coddling, he wasn’t allowed to make his own choices but he had everything he could ever need provided for him. So adjusting to real life that first year in school was ROUGH. He had his ass handed to him several times for being a royal prick and couldn’t even really do anything about it because of the identity swap. Fortunately, this did nip the worst of his ego in the bud. He has a tendency to exert his control over others as a way to sooth his own anxiety/bitterness about being controlled himself. He did this especially with Bloom in the beginning of their relationship, but got a talking to from both Stella and Brandon and knocked that shit off (with the help of therapy) This issue came up again after the season 3 disaster with Diaspro and he spends a lot of secret of the lost kingdom and magical adventure working through that before season 4 puts them on earth.

BRANDON: tbh Brandon is one of the most well adjusted characters here. He has a good relationship with his parents and a strong sense of self. It helped that he had the freedom to pursue his own interests in a safe and stable environment and that his parents feel strongly about mental health issues, having first hand experience dealing with trauma in themselves and others. Brandon is the mom friend and sometimes takes on too much responsibility for his friends’ emotional states and becomes preoccupied with fixing their problems for them. In the process of officially becoming Sky’s guard/companion in his late teens he was forced to learn to set boundaries a little better. Brandon is literally always trying to get the other guys to take advantage of the fact that Red Fountain has an on campus counseling office but they’re like “nooooooo my unheathy coping mechanisms are fine” meanwhile after every winx mission Brandon roller blades into the office with an ice coffee like “what is UP I have new trauma”

TIMMY: so Timmy was raised on an asteroid colony, and had a fairly unstable childhood just because of that environment, his mom loves and provides for him as much as humanly possible so his emotional attachments are pretty secure, but he does have issues with permanence. if something is lasting a long time (whether good or bad) he starts to get antsy and suspicious, and sometimes ends up self sabotaging by poking at the thing when he should just leave it alone. He also has some hoarding tendencies due to his childhood. Timmy also hates feeling like a burden, and doesn’t take advantage of some of the opportunities ( at Red Fountain because he feels like he doesn’t deserve them. 

HELIA: helia baby stop repressing your emotions and desires to fit into other people’s definition of success its not good for u. So Helia is a quiet person by nature, but also struggles with dissociating in order to avoid anything unpleasant or difficult. This is mostly seen by pursuing both magic and warrior training for his dads’ sake, even though all he wants to do is paint shit and write poetry. His dads would ultimately be supportive but Helia is terrified of failure lmao, and lacks the confidence to actually express his needs but also can’t pursue what he really wants because WHAT IF IT DOESN’T WORK OUT. he will also use the silent treatment/cold shoulder as a way to hurt people if he’s mad at them.  

NABU: ok like on the surface Nabu is doing pretty well. He’s got his shit together. He knows exactly what to say and how to say it. But the boy is also a mess. He does repair some of his relationship with his parents after he and Aisha officially get together, but is still super angry at them for treating him like an achievement/trophy and then essentially tossing him away when he became inconvenient. Nabu also has a tendency to be secretive and a little manipulative, secretive because it was a way to get back at his parents as a child and manipulative because he was raised to basically be a politician and doesn’t like conflict so he’ll just mess with situations and people until it’s what he wants. These aren’t big problems while he’s doing his own solo thing but Aisha is not down with this and is basically like “take steps to fix it or leave” and joining as an unofficial member of the specialist’s rescue team forces him to do some self evaluation and improvement. 

NEX: Nex is another one with good parental relationships, his issues primarily stem from his competitiveness and impulsiveness. He also holds grudges pretty badly, Thoren is helping him to work through stuff like that internally instead of taking it out on the target. His impulsiveness has gotten him into A LOT of trouble, he basically has no filter which can be fine but also he needs to shut tf  and read the room sometimes. He really wants to do a good job as a paladin but does worry he’s not gonna succeed (mostly because he’s comparing himself to Thoren which really isn’t fair lol). He and Aisha are both impulsive, and try really hard to keep each other in check(as a mutual thing) but sometimes they just end up bouncing off each other until its complete chaos. (ok my version of Nex is basically just a himbo i honestly don’t know how this happened help)  

RIVEN: yikes, ok riven has issues. At his core, Riven is terrified of abandonment, and deals with this by keeping everyone around him at arms(or farther) length so they CAN’T abandon him. This can include, ignoring, insulting, avoiding, and flat out rejecting any offer of friendship or affection. He’s also fairly defensive, and is constantly trying to “prove himself”, which great, push yourself and improve, but also you have an ideal you can never actually live up to which just leaves you feeling shittier than before so stop that. Riven also has... some ptsd? trauma. And has some trigger phrases based on the spells Darcy used to control him. In season 1 Brandon had almost convinced him to go to therapy just for his attitude and to mesh with the team better, but the whole thing with Darcy happened and he shut himself off to any perceived outside threats until around the beginning of season 3 when he started attending sessions with the Red Fountain counselor.  

[dollarstorethomasjefferson]

GUYS OMG HOW DO I EXPLAIN WHAT JUDST HAPPENDD OKASUY SO  In 6th grade I was obsessed with an AU where everyone was genderbent. I didn’t really care about anyone else’s genderbent self except my own.

 My “character” was Henry and I drew him every single day and would imagine him following me around. Eventually he got so annoying to deal with that I made him a demon (I have drawings of that too) and he would only show up when I was feeling at my lowest and most insecure (this started when I was in catholic school) 

Henry was pretty different than how I was back in that day, in fact.. it’s scary because I just read all his “character traits” and they all apply to me right now.. and his character design has the same body shape as me right now??? Which my cousin pointed out a long time ago how “thick” Henry was and all I said in response was “don’t make fun of him.” Which I think is hilarious.

 ANYWaY sO I just found a couple drawings I made of him!!!!!!! AND!!!! It’s so scary,, I think I subconsciously became him? Or maybe it was destiny? Either way It’s scaring me. 

There are lots of drawings where he’s vibin being happy, but when he’s around “me” (it’s such a long story) he would taunt me and we would argue. 

Maybe I’m looking too much into this but is this some weird metaphor explaining dysphoria? I would describe my “experiences” with Henry as a demon lurking around me, taunting me and making me feel nasty, even though I loved him more than life itself. Which is very scaring considering that’s exactly what’s happening to me right now. 

Here are some things I wrote down back in 6th grade about Henry that I found funny and also apply to me now lmao  

“People think he’s nice but he’s really just an awful, annoying person”

“Thinks he’s beautiful”

“Only kind to his family and friends, but not [deadname lol]”

“Loves tic tac toe”

“Bisexual (big secret)”

“He wears a dress when nobody’s around”

“Sensitive but won’t admit it”

“Doesn’t know how to shoot a bow and arrow”

“Has mainly Bs in his report card”

“Gay for some cartoon characters, especially [redacted]”

I tried to find my other Henry drawings but I think my mom found them on the day she raided my room :( But I’m honestly vibin so hard right now.. 

[unordinary-analysis]

AU-Thoughts: A personality/Role-Swap between Arlo And Seraphina (I thought of this while in the car today LOL!) X'D

(Edit: I hate everything i say in the top half because honestly after doing the bottom part, I don’t really agree anymore, but you know what I put time into this lmao and I need to post something, so yeah. Sorry about this.)

Sorry for late response but i think y’all know that by now lol

I really like this because, as I think I’ve said before, I really think that Seraphina and Arlo are very similar characters. Or, at least, under the right conditions, I think they could have ended up like each other.

The similarities are striking, actually. However, they really only are at that point of time before the story starts. The time that we see in flashbacks. Both Seraphina and Arlo came from impactful backgrounds or at least similar mindsets (Arlo’s background was quite different, but he was put in a similar position to Sera closer to the start of the story). Here’s a quick list of their initial similarities:

- very powerful (royals)

- apathetic to lower-tiers/anyone

- obsessed with their authority:

- Seraphina: obsessed with others viewing her as this perfect royal, a paragon

- Arlo: obsessed with using his command as a royal to maintain order

I didn’t even list indefinite personality traits (apathy is canon for both characters) and it’s easy to see how like their personalities are. I could even argue that Arlo was also obsessed with perfection like Seraphina because he really was obsessed with being the best royal. Not exactly in the same way as Sera, who was more invested in if people thought she was a good royal. Arlo wanted his reign to be just and, well, perfect.

We know Seraphina’s background was very involved with hierarchy, power, perfection. From a young age, Seraphina was shoved into this expectation of becoming the best of her peers by her parents, friends, teachers... She was really engaged in this mindset that she couldn’t let people down. She had to be the best royal because it was her responsibility as the most powerful student. She felt this obligation.

We know Arlo’s background is different. We don’t really know anything about his home life, or his family, but we do know about his experience serving under Rei, who was honestly such an influential presense in Arlo’s life that it probably doesn’t even matter where Arlo came from before that. Rei was the person that made Arlo who he is, though not exactly intentionally.

They’re both at kind of the same place before John transfers to Wellston. Both Sera and Arlo have been almost forced in a way to be part of this heriarchy. Sera by her peers and Arlo’s internal obligation to himself to make Rei proud (also could be exchanged for ‘Arlo’s obligation to fix what Rei had done by creating a perfect balance between destructive chaos and violent tyranny, honoring Rei’s reign, yet ensuring that who’s meant to be on top, stays on top.‘ But that’s too long lol).

The thing is, as Serahina’s friendship with John grew and his influence wore off on her, she gradually became less and less concerned with how others viewed her. While she used to be so concerned about letting people down, John taught her to not care what people thought. This is something that would really confuse the other royals, especially Arlo. Arlo and Seraphina understood each other, or had at some point (I literally talk about something like this in this post about ships a while back) if you scroll down my page). Then, suddenly, Sera replaces the parts of her similar to Arlo with those of John to form a new person that Arlo can’t really comprehend anymore. It’s likely why he tried hard to get her reinvolved in the hierarchy and why he felt that he had to get Seraphina back. I think that either Arlo was attached to the Seraphina that understood him, or maybe attached to her reign beside him as a royal because I know that Arlo was a very logical person, and rarely let his emotions guide his actions. Regardless, I am certain that Arlo missed the old Sera.

Anyway,

Seraphina grew away from Arlo as her personality became less and less similar to his, but it was entirely because of John. John was the sole (right?) cause of Seraphina straying from how she’d acted throughout her whole life.

In a proper au, the personality/role switch would ideally be from the beginning of the story, correct? Not just shoved in at like some random point, like now, because the characters in each situation has grown into it. Beginning Seraphina would not act like recent Seraphina. Same for Arlo. Their storylines have changed them as people and that means if we throw, say, Arlo into Sera’s current storyline, it would not be the same as his character having lived through her storyline for the entire time. This is a basic concept and I hope I’m not making people seem stupid, but maybe a better example is if we threw old Seraphina’s character into her latest storyline (basically: if Seraphina hadn’t changed at all when she became friends with John, which I believe is actually impossible because I don’t think they would be friends if Seraphina hadn’t changed but that’s off topic lol). She would no doubt act more indifferent, or probably be upset that someone more powerful is taking her old place at the head of the school (she doesn’t have her powers at this point, remember).

Because Arlo’s and Seraphina’s starting character traits were so similar

I personally believe that nothing much would be all that different.

So i know this answer is annoying as shit, trust me, but I don’t really think I can really think or prove a world where if Arlo had been put into Sera’s position at the beginning of the story, he would have acted much differently than she did.

If you guys disagree with my answer, cool. I actually do not really support this answer I’ve come up with because I keep thinking, “sure they acted similar in the beginning, but their emotions and what they feel connected to, that is different for both of them, so there’s no way of saying that something wouldn’t affect the storyline along the way. It’s called the butterfly effect.” Or... something like that idk.

Anyway. This is why I’ve decided to have a little more fun with this. Personality switch, I’ve debunked, but a less strict role swap (there’s a difference I swear)? Hell yeah.

Broooooooooo I really want to write out this small description of what this would look like so let’s go :D.

Okay first: let’s determine what roles Arlo and Seraphina have right now.

Seraphina has currently found out that her best friend of like a year, John, (??? I really need to get That timeline worked out) has been hiding something huge from her, something whose coverup gave birth to their friendship. Not only that, but his entire character, which has, Seraphina can’t deny, been getting more and more different for months now, his character, that Sera has grown used and attached to, has been completely flipped on its head. This is the friend that was there for her when Sera lost her powers, when she needed consolation, who gave Sera the courage to stand up to her mother. And he was all a lie.

Arlo has recently been facing a threat to the thing he holds above all else, something he put endless work into: the hierarchy. Arlo has put so much effort into establishing himself as leader, cleaning up after Rei, and making sure the school runs smoothly. He’s dedicated, okay. But then, because he wanted to fix another small part of the hierarchy and get a friend back, Arlo starts involving John, who despises him for it, so much so that after Arlo apologizes for bringing him back into the hierarchy, John says he’ll tear the whole system down (again: the one thing that Arlo is unbelievably attached to). One by one John is hurting his friends and there’s nothing he can do to stop him, nothing he can do. As a final, desperate blow, Arlo reveals a long kept secret to John’s best friend. If this doesn’t work, he has no moves left and he loses all the hard work he put into the hierarchy and has to watch John unravel it all.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way: let’s just... :

Arlo has currently found out that his best friend of like a year, John, has been hiding something huge from him, something whose coverup gave birth to their friendship. Not only that, but his entire character, which has, Arlo can’t deny, been changing for months now, his character, that Arlo has grown used and attached to, has been completely flipped on its head. This is the friend that was there for him when Arlo lost his powers, when he needed consolation, who gave Arlo the courage to stand up to his mother. And he was all a lie.

Seraphina has recently been facing a threat to the thing she holds above all else, something she put endless work into: the hierarchy. Sera has put so much effort into establishing herself as leader, cleaning up after Rei, and making sure the school runs smoothly. She’s dedicated, okay. But then, because she wanted to fix another small part of the hierarchy and get a friend back, Sera starts involving John, who despises her for it, so much so that after Seraphina apologizes for bringing him back into the hierarchy, John says he’ll tear the whole system down. One by one John is hurting her friends and there’s nothing she can do to stop him, nothing she can do. As a final, desperate blow, Sera reveals a long kept secret to John’s best friend. If this doesn’t work, she has no moves left and she loses all the hard work she put into the hierarchy and has to watch John unravel it all.

And guess who’s gonna stop there :DD. Me. I think- I think it’s better if I leave this here actually... Let’s you guys think about it... I don’t really want to write all this out, just trying something. I think it’s pretty good though hmm......

I still kind of think the characters would act similar, but I don’t know. I think the same things would happen regardless of the au, but there’s just something so intriguing about seeing the names in a situation we don’t normally see them in i d k.

Yo I sound so lame. I’m not new to au’s ugh I sound like a try hard don’t I? Lol.

Comment your au’s below or any criticism bye :) I’m too tired to fix this bc I know I sound really contradictory this whole time but I give up lmao (i have a 2% work ethic R.I.P.)

[scrayas-blog]

                 hey sisters ! my name’s 𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖈𝖍 ( yes, after the iconic peach salinger ) and i’m super excited to be here ! not gonna lie, i had a different idea for soraya way before i started writing her intro ( like how i wanted her faceclaim to be laura harrier but then zendaya kept calling my name lmao ), but i like how she came out !my only hope is that you guys like her too & that my intro isn’t too poorly written. it’s been a while since i’ve written a character intro, so please don’t roast me too much ! anyways, here’s my bbg soraya !

           a zendaya coleman lookalike was strolling down broadway street in their louis vuitton star trail ankle boots. soraya belanger just had a birthday bash for her twenty-third birthday. she has been living in new york city for twenty years. i hear she tends to be pernicious at parties, but also kind of soigné. ( cisfemale & she/her ) [ peach, 22+, eastern & she/they ]

statistics !

name  :  soraya evangeline belanger.

nickname(s)  :  sora, ray, raya, & so-so ( but only by her family ).

age :  twenty-three.

birthday  :  january 2nd, 1996.

zodiac  :  capricorn.

gender :  cisfemale.

pronouns :  she/her & they/them.

height :  5′10″.

hometown :  malibu, california.

nationality  :  american.

ethnicity  :  african american, german, & scottish.

occupation  :  former television personality, model, entrepreneur, & fashion insider.

label(s)  :  the aesthete, the gregarious, the sovereign & the trendoid.

aesthetics :  sexual tension, the glow of your phone at night, sharp eyeliner, glittery eyeshadow, long hair blowing in the wind, scented candles, long eyelashes, flushed cheeks, making out with someone for hours, your favorite song playing from another room, expensive perfume, rose petals on silk sheets, taking long showers, hickeys, waking up on the wrong side of the bed, gold piercings, shoes with red soles, bubble baths, golden sunsets, harsh honesty, concerts, blind faith, & red lipstick.

background !

         zorina nelson was a woman with a dream since she was a young girl and dressed up in the clothes in her mom’s closet. she loved dancing around in her heels & messily putting on her makeup – her mom never deterred her daughter either, supporting her &her seemingly outlandish dreams. she wanted to go to college for fashion, & even though she came from a family of little means in arizona, zorina’s parents worked hard to ensure that their daughter could attend school in california. four years later, zorina graduated but found herself struggling to get her name out there. she didn’t have connections like some of her classmates & didn’t know where to turn, so she began working retail while designing on the side. she was working at barneys in order to get the bills paid, but she was sad that her career hadn’t taken off the way she wanted it to.

         one fateful day, though, zorina picked up a shift on what was originally supposed to be her day off & encountered a customer that was struggling to find something to wear to an event. now, call it weird, but zorina always kept some of her pieces in the backseat of her old toyota & she ended up allowing the customer to wear her dress. the customer tried it on, loved it, & decided to wear zorina’s dress to the event. little did zorina know, but the customer was an influential woman in fashion ( think someone like rihanna but in the 90s ). skipping ahead, that same year, zorina’s brand really took off & now she was selling her clothes like hotcakes. also during this time, zorina met & married businessman nicholas belanger. the couple married in a secret ceremony in big bear, california & their relationship was known as the ‘ cinderella marriage ’ in the media.

         after a few years of marriage, zorina & nicholas welcomed their daughter soraya into the world. soraya would be their only child & the couple spoiled her almost immediately – she had any & everything she could have ever wanted. soraya spent the first three years of her life in malibu, california, but they family moved to new york city ( soho, to be exact ) due to zorina wanting to be closer to her company’s headquarters in manhattan. soraya attended some of the most elite schools that new york & money could get her, so she grew up surrounded by people of wealth & influence. by the time high school rolled around, soraya was a girl who knew what she wanted & how to get it. she wanted to be student body president ? bribe the voters. she wanted a specific superlative in the yearbook ? be fake friends with the yearbook staff. in a way, soraya was a spitting image of her father’s ruthless personality in business meetings.

         of course, it was no surprise that when her senior year rolled around, soraya was named as prom queen & most likely to be successful, or something silly like that. remember how james charles went viral by taking his ring light to take his senior pictures ? well soraya did it first, honey ! her pictures spread like wildfire all over twitter & instagram, so she soon found herself signing a lucrative modelling contract with img models ( worldwide ). her first year was rather strenuous as she was walking in hundreds of shows, but when she walked for saint laurent ss14 that’s when her career really blew up ( imagine zendaya with kaia gerber’s walk ! ). then, her covers list began to grow as well including vogue, allure, glamour, seventeen, cosmopolitan, instyle & essence, just to name a few.

         last year, soraya was cast on the e! docu-series model squad ( *devon windsor voice* do you know how hard it is to be blonde ? ) & was one of the few models uninterested in walking the victoria’s secret show. during her time as a model, soraya began dipping her toes in more than just runway & covers, including designing, collaborating, & taking a break from runway as a whole for the time being. now, she can be seen attending fashion dinners, secret shows, panels, parties & everything in between. she recently did a collaboration with colourpop & designed a collection with revolve !

personality !

         like her app says, soraya is very pernicious & soigné. as for her negative trait pernicious, it basically means that she’s super sneaky in getting what she wants. not only that, but she’s that kind of sneaky mean where people wouldn’t expect it. in front of the cameras & the important people in her life, she’s sweet & charismatic, but outside of that realm she’s the girl who doesn’t mind spilling someone’s secrets when she knows the tabloids are around or incredibly hostile around those she might not like very much. as for her positive trait soigné, it basically means that she never leaves the house looking like less than an eleven ! her edges are laid, her highlight is poppin’, & she’s dressed to the nines even if she’s only going to get lunch. all in all, soraya can be very fake sometimes & has an affinity for all things luxury.

quick facts !

100% the girl who spends most of her day in her underwear & an oversized shirt when she was nowhere to be.

never leaves the house without her bag of essentials & will cry if she’s forgotten it home.

cries very easily when things don’t go her way.

if someone asks why she’s late, her usual answer is either her eyebrows, her hair, or both.

she lives in a super cute penthouse at the four seasons which she moved into about a year & a half ago.

the way to her heart is via concert tickets, namely, rihanna & beyonce.

connections !

now, i can’t guarantee that i’ll make a page of connections or write a post, but a few from the top of my head include:

high school boyfriend !

friends with benefits / exes with benefits / enemies with benefits !

a modelling rival !

best friends !

former friends !

flat out enemies !

i’m a big ol’ sl*t for some angst, so i’d love that too !

exes on good terms / exes on bad terms !

any kind of connection from high school ?

any kind of connection from her career ?

any kind of connection at all ( i’m desperate lol ) !

[dramazones]

Oh Wow! Im finally here with a headcanon birth chart and analysis for jamie!

i'm on mobile so I cant even put this long ass post under a read more i am so fucking sowwy but anyways a lot of this was inspired from dewmie-in 's meta posts and also i rlly love astrology so pls follow them first of all or else ur a fake fan shhfhgjsjkfkd

☀️ ♓︎ Pisces Sun ♓︎ ☀️

There is no doubt that Jamie is a pisces sun. Some of the well known characteristics of a piscean are being the artistic ones, the ones more in touch with their emotions and the absolute dreamers of the zodiac, I can assure you this as a mercury and moon piscean!

And it’s quite obvious that these traits 100% match up to jamie’s surface character being a big theater nerd, writer, poet, and as an actor, he HAS to understand emotion in all its forms! While being the more compassionate of signs, that also comes with sympathy, and maybe even empathy.

to which he expresses when he tells steven that a good story with a quality protagonist HAS to include said protagonists struggles as well, now this might be a reach but perhaps this was self projecting after his own struggles in kansas, maybe even foreshadowing ooOoOh

(“a real hero must struggle” jamie struggles living in kansas, moves back to beach city, nails his first production and gains management position @ the theater, aka his heroic ending i guess idk, then more theater related accomplishments as mentioned in letters to lars ofc)

☽♎︎ Libra Moon ♎︎☽

One of the biggest desires for any libra placement is balance, And the moon sign being the emotion sign, Libra moons desire an emotional balance as much as they do in their environment. Libra Moons can also be known as a “people person” while typically depending on the study of others to lean their own nature.

Jamie fits the Libra moon description being a sort of people person himself. Though he’s capable of keeping a friendly conversation with just about anyone, There’s also no doubt that this guy has severe anxiety that affects his communication with others along with his emotional stability (even affecting him physically). The thing is that he’s managed to keep the anxiety and his social skills much more balanced the more we see him or i guess as time passes, not one of them overpowering the other. (see venus in scorpio as to why he limits himself socially as much as he would his anxiety)

While he desires emotional balance that also comes with a feeling of frustration and defeat when things are even slightly out of balance (also a symptom of anxiety ; easily irritated/defeated) such as his improv performance in letters to lars, ending his performance within a minute after feeling overwhelmed as it started going south.

So while there are several moments of him maintaining an emotional balance he also has another side of the scale that’s less balanced (astrology word play lmao) such as a general lifestyle balance, also nonexistent for jamie (even though your lifestyle heavily affects your behavior) in a sense that he lacks of a healthy sleep schedule being a mailman AND an actor, one occurring from the early morning to the afternoon and the other job occurring at night. Probably irrelevent but its MY sleepover and Ill add as much necessary info in this birth chart reading as i please.

Im also including buddys book as an example because though it was only jamie being the faceclaim for buddy theres no denying that since historical friction theres at least some parallels between the two characters sharing the same traits (being writers, returning to beach city to prosper in their careers, being absolute drama kings)

♀️♏︎ Scorpio Venus ♏︎♀️

One of the biggest aspects to Jamie’s character INCLUDES being an absolute sucker for romance so lets get this bread and talk abt his relationships w/ everyone and his views on love uwu

Scorpio being a water sign means healing is one of the largest aspects to the sign. Healing nonetheless comes with a relation to trauma being from the planet representing death itself. Life and Death go hand in hand to define each other, ya feel me.

while were on the topic of death lets bring back the parallelism between jamie and buddy thats been around since historical friction. in the play buddy is presumed dead up until william reaches beach city. ok. so hear me out. perhaps that was foreshadowing for jamie’s traumatic near death encounter with topaz and aqua. remember how I said the water element represents healing as well as trauma??? It all kinda ties in yall...

ANYWAYS It’s safe to say that Jamie is a person that’s been through his rock bottom AND trauma already (his death if you will), struggling to live a happy, or even regular (lets face it as far as we know the only thing he came back to beach city with was sunglasses, bitch was broke) life in kansas, the abduction, its not something you can heal from overnight. While he does show symptoms of severe anxiety (to say the very least) even after the abduction he’s also grown closer to working on healing, moving on from his overwhelming fear of rejection by prospering in theater (him coming back to life if u will), and as for anything directly related to the abduction is unknown, but its very likely he’s working on moving on from that on his own as far as we know!!

which brings up the next trait of a scorpion venusian! They prefer to be a mystery in order to protect themselves as a result of fear of getting hurt for trusting/opening up too much. The first time we see jamie since the abduction is during the re-election in dewey wins, where he doesn’t seem affected at all. Yes, Jamie is a pretty open book for the most part (see dewmie-in’s analogy to in/out of the closet in historical friction) however theres also moments where he limits himself, or perhaps another side to himself, a far more passionate side…

Holding back tears during his drama zone and waiting until hes alone to be excited abt delivering his letter in love letters, playing it cool when earning theater director position in historical friction, not to mention his room SHOULD play a very huge role in his secretive side. (see brodingle’s post on jamie’s room, his casual side vs his passionate side)

the venus in scorpio (or any scorpio placement rlly) also remains a secret not truly by choice, but theyre also studying others of interest. being an actor, Jamie should know a thing or two on body language and raw emotion as he sees it.

And finally, The venus is scorpio is a devoted, passionate, and emotionally attached lover. in love letters he falls for someone easily, and even if he learned in the end love at first sight isnt real he is most definitely the type to fall easily based on emotional connection alone! Also, his fear of rejection can easily play into his love life as well. Being in kansas getting constantly rejected and returning back home out of not just defeat but most likely homesickness as well. He missed his stable job. he wants stability, loyalty, commitment! yeah ok thts all i got for now ladies!

♂️♍︎ Virgo Mars ♍︎♂️

Mars being the planet of impulsiveness, energy, initiation and “doing it” being born under the sign of doing it efficiently and orderly gives a handful of traits that completely match up to Jamie and the way he puts out his energy into the world

Jamie has been the type to not just instantly put his energy into something new, but he’s also put his energy into mastering said thing! While Mars is the planet of impusiveness, Virgo is the sign of patience, the Virgo mars is a firm believer of practice makes perfect, and striving for overall perfect, which does in fact get overwhelming for Jamie the perfectionist.

In historical friction, though hesitant, he was not afraid to critique and analyze dewey’s writing skills. And although he was anxious again to go against deweys script and use pearls version instead, he went with pearls because he desperately needed to execute his first play flawlessly. this also occurs again in letters to lars, when his improv performance doesnt go as planned he doesnt just end it from there, in fact, he still has that sense of patience to critique his cast members on stage before getting completely irritated when they dont comply. imo its important to note this duality of patience and impulsiveness because this is an anxiety inducing combination that heavily matches up to Jamies energy.

it’s also important to bring Jamie’s room back in this, because while it was creepy as shit its also FILLED with books, and has really fancy stationery meaning he is in fact a writer. The Mars in Virgo is an attentive to detail oriented person, and being a writer, Jamie not only reads others’ works, he records his own with plenty of detail as seen in his love letter to garnet. Its in his nature by now to have an eye for detail as seen in his room, his costumes, his writing, etc.

Its very likely that his venus and his mars sign do sort of relate in a sense of the way he will present himself. The virgo mars wants a deep connection as the next person but refuses to express that “passionate side” as much as others, preferring to remain casual or present a “cool exterior” which plays into the venus in scorpio’s preference for a secretive side or to remain a mystery.

lets also not forget Jamie’s mime performance in Sadie’s Song. His body language easily read as excited and desperate for perfectionism. Theres no denying he spent time and energy into his act, probably studying mimes and all lol

plus the virgo mars being an attentive to detail type of person, scorpio venus’ silent study on their person of interest and libra moon’s dependance on the study of others to learn how to express emotion when and where and how all tie into each other. Jamie depends on detail before well, doing! he is the type to not just think before acting but hes also gotten quite anxious overthinking as well!

The Taurus Ascendant is a sucker for stability, loyalty, especially to their passions with change being their biggest weakness, very fitting to Jamie. Stability is what made Jamie return to beach city from Kansas because he was not used to such a drastic change in an unstable life, doing the absolute opposite of prospering in his acting career, another big desire for a taurus rising btw, they thrive for success!

They also need a sense of security and any chance at risking that security is a big no-no for the Taurus Ascendant. Jamie’s constant fear of rejection, his anxiety before a production that could make or break his career, he desires a sense of reassurance and security that will assure him that things will not turn out as horribly as his anxiety’s (cough drama zone cough) made it out to be.

⬆️♉︎ Taurus Rising ♉︎⬆️

now, in Reunited, hes completely moved on from garnet at this point. This takes places after the abduction, the only thing that would really be on his mind rn is healing and finding peace again with himself and in his surroundings. while hes handled this healing process alone (as far as we know) hes also learned about what he wants for himself including his love life. seeing garnet extremely happy and married and all makes him defeated for a moment not because “uUuuUUhH shes the one that got away!” its because he truly desires a passionate and devoted relationship as ruby and sapphires! which brings up the next topic!

In relationships, the Taurus Ascendant won't easily break up with someone they gave their heart to. Jamie wants a partner thats going to be as devoted and passionate as himself. He needs that sense of commitment and loyalty from someone and probably wouldn’t handle something as emotionless as one night stands for example! Any taurus placement has the same desires for romance as scorpio placements to be quite honest here, im just sayin as a venus in taurus and scorpio rising lmao.

🌊 Water Dominant 🌊

Ok so the thing is heres the thing. Out of all four astrological elements, Jamie exudes water energy the most, then earth, then fire, and lastly air. He’s not just an emotional person, he’s also an optimistic person, even when he overthinks things, he continuously looks into the future rather than his past so I think its important to note he also has that “psychic” aspect to him as well as having a strong sense of someone else’s emotions as much as his own.

let me also add in dewmie-in’s post where they point out tht jamie does in fact have a literal reocurring theme with water so even if he turns out to like not be a water sun sign in canon (highly doubt there will ever be a canon bday for him lmao the entire point of this post tho) theres no way hes gonna not be associated with water coincidentally. so if u didnt read their post tldr: being a fucking buffoon in the literal rain, throwing letters into the ocean, staring at the ocean on his free time, (aka during working ours, worlds okayest mailman) cries easily, buddy dying in water, jamie nearly being killed as instructed by a gem named aqua, jamie surviving in water after being THROWN off the ship. (i added a few more btw hshfhhdjd)

so yeah thats that on that, theres plenty more planet placements than that in a birth chart but i just felt like doing the usual ones i guess :P

[crowntaken-a]

- ̗̀✰ •【 TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET / CISMALE / 24 】announcing the arrival of his royal highness, ( DMITRI VOLKOVA ), the ( CROWN PRINCE ) of ( BELARUS ). I’ve heard that he is ( DOGMATIC ) & ( DRAMATIC ) but can also be ( RESPONSIBLE ) & ( CREATIVE ). ( DMITRI ) is arranged to marry ( ANY FC ). Rumor has it ( HIS FAMILY STOLE THE THRONE FROM THE RIGHTFUL HEIRS ). We hope you enjoy your stay at London!

hi friends ! i’m pluto, i’m 21, and i’m sure i’m about to ramble about dmitri for WAY too long and in a WAY too messy fashion. let’s get started ! 

HISTORY ( brief abuse mention tw ) 

dmitri was born to andrei & hanna and he was followed by two siblings

bc he’s the oldest, he was treated fairly different. their parents were strict overall but more so on him bc ! he’s probably going to be the king someday and they wanted to make sure he stayed in line. 

that meant special tutors and a lot less free time. he couldn’t tell u whether he learned english, belarusian, or russian first tbh 

it was also thanks to the tutors that he found a lot of enjoyment in writing, music, and art. an artsy boy. 

his willingness to cooperate with the life of royalty has been .. on a rollercoaster. as a child it was all he knew, but as he got older he became less and less interested in becoming a king bc he never really got a chance to just be a kid and have fun and he wanted that . promises of grandeur meant nothing when he just wanted to do his own thing 

he finally got the chance when he was 15 when his parents decided that boarding school was the best option for their kids and o ! boy ! did they regret that. for dmitri, at least. he behaved well for the first few months, not wanting to totally fuck things up, but little by little did the rebellious streak kick in. 

they brought him home after one party in particular and they finally let him in on their little family secret which was that their family ? not exactly the rightful heirs to the throne. before, during, & right after the war their family had been second only to one family. they seized their chance as soon as they could ( did they frame them for something or assassinate them ? it is a mystery.mp3 . bc i’m not sure yet. ) so God Help Him if he did anything to put a stain on their family u know ?

so holy fk did his attitude ever change. it suddenly felt like every mistake he made would be responsible for ruining their lives 

he went back to boarding school and began to behave a Lot better, but his parents checked in often bc they were sure if they let go of the leash again he would right back to his antics but he was definitely freaked out enough to not do anything too bad lmao. he got a bit more leeway when he went away to university in the uk ( idk where yet exactly. england ??? )

i’m sure there was a slip up or three while he was away tbh 

and to boot, he’s told 0% of people his secret. not even his siblings 

while he’s not totally on board with the summit, he knows he needs to commit to it bc he doesn’t know what would happen if he didn’t and he doesn’t want his siblings to have the same level of responsibility that he does -- although their’s is still pretty up there 

so ya ! he became a lot more obedient thanks to the secret being spilled but he’s found freedom where he can. the restrictions now mostly come down to his marriage and his behaviour in public. his dad’s p nasty (read: abusive) but at this point he’s conditioned to it 

he figures he’s got additional freedom away from home. specifically being that he’s at the summit where he’s going to get married to whoever his parents want him to 

provided he doesn’t do anything terrible in public, he figures he is in a pretty good spot 

PERSONALITY

responsible: having an obligation to do something, or having control over or care for someone, as part of one's job or role. in short, this is v specific to his responsibilities as the crown prince and he is very good at it. all the politics and behaving well, he’s got it covered. this isn’t to say that he can’t be reckless because he most certainly can be -- when it comes to other things. he’s also a pretty adventurous guy when he gets the chance. 

creative: relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. as i mentioned before, he’s an artsy dude ! he loves the arts. music, writing, and art are all things he can rly appreciate. he’s not spectacular with instruments or with drawing, but he does like to doodle and he enjoys listening to all kinds of music and analyzing art regardless of his own ability. writing is something he can do, though. catch him waxing poetic in his journal. but don’t actually bc he wouldn’t let you read it anyway. 

dogmatic: inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true. he is one STUBBORN mf. he’ll listen to a differing opinion but just know that his thoughts almost entirely consist of: you’re wrong, i’m right. 

dramatic: (of a person or their behavior) intending or intended to create an effect; theatrical. he’ll make a big deal out of anything baybee !!! anxious might’ve been a better word to use and this is definitely due to the strictness of his parents. small things seem so intense and he will make a big deal out of them. he’s 99% sure he’s the cause of everything bad in his life 

beyond the traits i put in his app, he’s also a ( relatively ) honest guy

i like to think that he’s a charming guy but we’ll see how well i can write charming LOL. but regardless of how well i write it, know that back in belarus most ppl love him bc he’s that charming. now just imagine that i write him like that 

he’s chill af and if ur a chill person, he’s easy to get along with. he also RLY appreciates nice people. i wouldn’t say he’s more nice than the average guy so finding someone who practically majors in nice is something dmitri likes. 

he’s a fun-loving guy !! he might not be able to go out and get crazy but he likes to play games of all kinds, go bike-riding, he rly likes to climb stuff, sit in mutual silence and read, etc. he’ll also still party behind closed doors but it’s a v specific setting. 

there’s prob more to say but idk rn 

CONNECTIONS

friends thank you ! new ones, family ones, childhood ones, i want it all.mp3

it’d also be goals af for him to have 2 close girl friends so i can reblog this lmao 

enemies thank you ! 

cousins 

if ur character is from russia or ukraine, hmu tbh bc neighbours and his family probably visited those countries the Most 

maybe someone that he was potentially going 2 be betrothed to but their family had a falling out and they had to keep it lowkey 

ex fwb 

ex relationships 

i’m the very bad at connections but uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i need everyone to please hit me up and plot with me immediately 

[rnaryjune]

alright let’s get a little more in-depth here and sort out who to root for. working backwards this time.

Raven: likes frankie grande. PASS. like the idea that she’s not afraid to make big moves, but lbh that doesn’t mean squat unless and until she actually goes through with it. the all female ghost hunting team thing is cool though it better come up in the show i demand to know about this.

Ramses: superfan, loves dan (which...okay i never actually saw dan’s season i really only know him from the coaches twist and even then i didn’t really pay attention to him? but anyway i know from the fandom that this is a good sign), he wants to do that SUPER SMART DANIELLE THING of having a person on the other side of the house and keeping track of it that way. that being said, his strategy is a little...TOO thought-out. with a game like big brother you have to be ready to make adjustments and think on your feet, and i’m not sure he’ll be able to do that if necessary. HEY HE IS the obligatory gay man...and a gay man of color at that. which....okay let’s be honest, big brother does not have the best track record when it comes to games of gmoc (Marcellas, Lawon, JOZEA, among others). buuuuuuuut....i’m willing to stick my neck out once more. KEEP.

Megan: eugh she likes frank victor and paul which like...okay tbf i kinda understand from a game perspective because they did pull some interesting moves (and ngl paul’s gameplay was always a bit like how i imagine i would play). but i think she likes them as ppl too which...no. also she says she doesn’t wanna be like vanessa???? THE SIRENS GOING OFF AT THAT STATEMENT. she ain’t gonna last. PASS. oh my god and then later in her bio “ At the same time, there is always that whiny, crying girl that just can't handle the pressures of the house. I would make her my friend and my secret ally. This is the only person in the house I will be loyal to. I'll take her to Final 2 and, since she didn't do anything the whole time, I'll win.” like girl....that’s gonna be you lmao. also she wants to buddy up with a gym-partner guy? can we say obvious showmancer? look if she can back it up with some comp wins then maybe she could pull a rachel but i just don’t see that happening. she literally says she’s gonna play scared which like...yea you’re never for sure safe in the bb house but she is literally gonna go down the vanessa path.

Matthew: HE LIKES DONNY. HE IS IN MY GOOD GRACES. he wants to align with the women too??? tentative KEEP because the fact that he says donny is a good person makes me want to trust that he, too, is a good person. but i’ve been burned before, and besides, as great as it would be to see a mainly female alliance with one guy, so far the girls aren’t impressing me much, so i don’t have high hopes for that.

Mark: you know it makes sense he likes brendon. so yea, definite showmance material. possibly with megan too actually. honestly not impressed. PASS.

Kevin: he doesn’t even have a favorite player he just “met derrick once” lol man u are DEFINITELY not gonna win. unless he can adapt quickly which...is unlikely. “I was Mr. Massachusetts and also won a hunk contest” okay buddy. also he’s all like “being myself will probably work everytime” dude if u don’t win that first hoh u are easy target number one. PASS. probably nice but will not win. no chance in hell. unless something MAJOR happens.

Josh: like evel dick so....look, i’ll be honest, i was very young when season 8 was on so like...idr all the stuff that dick pulled, i mostly know from posts in the fandom. but at the time, i was a huge fan of him, and was thrilled he won. and i mean, he did at least have some gameplay, unlike other despicable ppl in later seasons (*cough* andy). so i mean from a gameplay standpoint, i can see why someone would want to emulate dick’s game. however, i think it would require stealthier manipulation than josh thinks. and the fact that he didn’t need to be on anybody’s good side? nice thought and all, but if he didn’t have danielle and her alliances, he would have never made it as far as he did. you HAVE to have someone in your corner, even just one person. josh underestimates the power of alliance and is probably gonna end up being like a paulie. eugh. PASS. sidenote: dude wants to bring his mom in the house not because he would miss her but so she would cook and clean for him???? LOL FUCK THIS GUY i hate him already. his fun facts aren’t even fun facts they’re just personality traits lmao

Jillian: worried about saying the wrong thing? could be a bad sign or just innocent. i am intrigued by her answers though, so a tentative KEEP.

Jessica: janelle/natalie hybrid? could be interesting and if she says she sees herself in janelle that’s VERY promising. less promising is that she wants to align with a guy. could very easily get sidetracked by showmance. hopeful though, so tentative KEEP.

Jason: oh god almost forgot anbout hfajlfhghfskh RODEO CLWON JfHASFJFlshAL. ahem. he likes James which...tbh i liked him too. look if he’s good enough for natalie then he’s decent enough for me. anyway, i fricking love jason’s answer about his strategy: “yes” that’s it that’s all he says I LOVE IT. also he has a bull??? WE BETTER SEE IT IN THE SHOW. i don’t expect him to win but he seems an interesting person so....KEEP. for now.

Elena: likes james and thinks the strategy is situational aKA THE TRUTH. seems like she might actually be able to play the game???? which seems unheard of nowadays. can’t get a real idea of her character but for gameplay i’ll go with a KEEP for now.

Dominique: “nor do i shy away from controversy” is again something that could go either way and instantly makes me cautious. but let’s look at gameplay. she says she’ll take mental notes of everyone and be observant, and she can read ppl really well, so i want to think she’ll do well. but her indecision over a fave past houseguest is something that makes me take pause as well. screw it, KEEP for now. i’m curious to see what she can do.

Cody: seems smart and obviously physically capable....BUT something in his answers rubs me the wrong way. his reasoning for picking evel dick is something i can agree with, but his strategy is, once again, too airtight. where is the wiggle room? look it’s true the basic building blocks of big brother are generally the same every season but you never know what could get changed. also he’s all like “i’ve never taken a selfie” you’ve never taken a picture of yourself? ever? that seems unlikely but it’s whatever aside from assumed pretentiousness. HOWEVER the real big flag is “i have never been offended not once” buddy that is a DAMNED lie and i caNNOT WAIT until he gets pissy about something in the house and the fandom calls him out on it lmao oh anyway PASS.

Christmas: oh  my god she chose HELEN. HELEN OF ALL PEOPLE. THIS IS A GOOD SIGN. idk man i’m very hopeful about this one the fave houseguest is a good sign and i want to like christmas for it....also because her picture is gorgeous but like. she chose HELEN. like im sorry but i feel like most ppl wouldn’t even think of helen. maybe christmas can align with that guy who likes donny??? YES I LIKE THIS. anyway KEEP.

Cameron: well of COURSE his fave is ian like how damn predictable can u be. also he just reminded me of ginamarie and the fact that she won an hoh at some point (how???). that being said, the fact that he’d just tell people that someone is going after them?? bad plan. unless there’s ANY truth to it, but if he pulls it out of his ass he’s going to end up imploding his own game. PASS, not just for meh gameplay but also because he bores me. (seriously i’m so tired of ian clones none of them have been anywhere near as good or interesting why are we still doing this)

Alex: “i can manipulate anyone, including boys” aka she will probably start a showmance. idk with who and tbh idc. her fun facts are actual, legitimate fun facts, and she seems nice, but i don’t get good gameplay vibes. PASS, but i hope she surprises me.