#The them problem is the dull-in-context thing

[hasufin]

So I don't know where the thing about lesbian sheep originated, but I first encountered it in a Charles Stross novel as a *metaphor* for people in intel circles trying to talk. It wasn't meant as being informative about sheep husbandry.

See, some people think you get Top Secret clearance and so you can read the Top Secret Daily and all the Top Secret books and reports (you do not actually want to do that, 99.999% is terrifyingly dull and the only reason it's Top Secret is that you don't want a threat actor knowing the layout of your SCIF; but it's still just an office floor plan)

In reality you get TS clearance and you can be *assigned* to work on specific TS stuff. And you only see the TS stuff relevant to that.

And the first rule of clearance is, YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT CLEARANCE. You do not talk about the clearance you have. You do not talk about the projects you were on. You do not discuss the things you did. You only talk about those things within their tiny little silo.

So if you used to work on Project Pale Horse, and now you're on Green Husky, but you realize stuff you did in Pale Horse might be useful for Green Husky... you have a problem. Because you don't know if the person you're working with knows about Pale Horse, and you can't talk about Pale Horse to anyone except while you're working on Pale Horse. So you don't have any way to find out if the other person knows about Pale Horse and you can discuss it with them.

(In fact I think Stross was wrong - there's no point where you get to discuss another project with someone outside of its specific context. There's no "Okay, we all know about Pale Horse so let's see if we can apply it here" . But in the novel it made sense. Still wasn't animal husbandry, though.)

two sheep. standing still

[jacksintention]

This artist is so good and paints such poignant pieces with such intense yet subtle expressions and gestures that they are able to make Jack and Oswald look semi interesting to me

[simpleeindulge]

The Beast and the Mouse

Info: Fem/readerxKid, semi-slow burn, mutual yearning, cussing

Context: Kid develops a crush on a girl, and he can't deal with it.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4🔞

Part 5

Kid woke up with a raging hangover the following day. He groaned and covered his eyes with his left arm. While hangovers were the worst, they never stopped him from indulging.

And I fucking deserved it last night, he thought.

After his rendezvous with the woman in the mask, Kid returned to the bar and drank for the rest of the night. Other women tried to approach him, but he waved them off and then scared them off. He didn't see any value in taking another woman upstairs when the first one actually did her job satisfying him.

Satisfied.

Kid paused and wondered.

When was the last time he was satisfied after fucking just one woman? He breathed in slowly as his head throbbed with thinking. Never, he answered himself. Oh, he would finish, but he usually would have another woman ready, but he didn't have that need this time.

And fucking wasn't the right word, either. It was by no means love-making, but it was different.

Kid lay in bed staring at the ceiling. They were setting sail tomorrow, and the rest of the supplies needed to be gathered today. And then, there was Y/N.

Y/N.

"Fuck," he breathed and then winced.

He would deal with her later when his skull wasn't trying to crush his brain. His thoughts then drifted back to the woman in the mask and what was different about her. She was feisty for one thing, and for another, she actually participated.

The woman seemed to enjoy herself and worked to ensure her pleasure. Interesting for a woman who was supposed to be whore. They typically just did whatever would finish the job so they could move onto the next client.

And she didn't exactly acted like virgin either.

Who was she?

Kid swallowed some bile that crept up into his throat and breathed.

They were setting sail tomorrow and he needed to deal with his mouse problem once and for all.

But first, he needed a little more satisfaction.

Y/N woke up early, showered, and dressed before heading to the infirmary. She started to mix her ingredients when her first patient of the morning walked in.

"Wire," She greeted and quickly poured her concoction into a small glass.

Wire eyed her warily and said, "If this is poison, I will kill you."

Y/N didn't dignify his comment with a reply and merely pushed the glass towards him. Wire glanced at the glass for a minute before reaching for it. He tossed it back and grimaced.

"That tasted like shit."

"But you won't feel like shit for the rest of the morning," Y/N replied and started on her next batch. Wire turned to leave but paused and said, "He's thinking of kicking you off."

Y/N froze, and her head snapped up to look at Wire.

"What?"

Wire peered at her, his expression unreadable.

Y/N knew that Wire was part of Kid's inner circle and that anything Kid shared with Killer typically gets shared with Wire or Heat. Though he trained her, Y/N sensed that Wire's opinion of her was always natural, which was the expectation of that day.

"You need to think if this is where you belong, Mouse." Wire said in a dull tone. "If you have any doubts, you should leave before he kicks you off the boat in the middle of the sea. He's done that before."

Y/N swallowed as she imagined Kid throwing some poor soul off the Victora Punk in the middle of nowhere. She could see him walking away from the railing as they screamed to be let back on the ship. Kid wouldn't waste a lifeboat on someone he deemed worthless.

She wanted to ask Wire if this had to do with the stabbing incident or something else. Y/N wanted to know if there was anything she could do to change his mind or what she was doing wrong. There were more questions she wanted to ask, but Y/N knew that he wasn't the person to talk to. Neither was Heat or Killer.

"Thank you for making me aware of my situation." That was all she said before making her hangover juice for the next person to walk through the door.

Wire didn't bother sparing her a glance as he left the room. More people came into the infirmary, groaning, hands on their foreheads, and looking pale. Y/N served them all her elixir. Wire's warning tumbled in her head, slowly shaking her calm facade apart.

What was Kid's reason for kicking her off the crew?

He couldn't have found out about last night. If he had, Kid would be raging and shouting at her. It was odd timing to punish her for the knife incident now. Maybe Wire had lied to her, but she didn't think he would waste the time.

Y/n let out a frustrated sigh as she set a large pitcher of her elixir on the main counter. She needed a walk to clear her head before she snapped at someone. She set cups next to the pitcher and turned to leave when Killer walked in. Y/N paused as she looked at him with surprise.

Killer didn't seem like the type to get hangovers, and with his mask on, it was hard to tell if he was experiencing any symptoms.

"If you have a hangover, I made a big-"

"Don't need it." Killer said as he walked to the counter and poured the pitcher's contents into a cup.

Y/N realized that Killer must be taking it to Kid.

"The Captain isn't feeling well?" She asked and felt immediately stupid. Kid was a big drinker, and there were mornings when he stomped in here with a foul mood and demanded she make her elixir for him.

Killer ignored her and then turned to leave the room. Y/N knew he wasn't the person to ask and that she should be a big girl and confront Kid herself, but...

"I heard that I might be kicked off the ship." She forced herself to say.

Rarely was it possible to get a straight reaction from Killer. He was the polar opposite of Kid—calm and collected. It was not just his mask that hid his emotions and thoughts. Killer's voice and body language gave nothing away, but her comment surprised him.

He glanced at her and tilted his head in thought, then said, "It's not for me to say if it's true or not. You'll have to ask the Captain yourself."

His answer cemented in Y/N's mind that the kid was going to kick her off the crew.

“Well, shit,” She breathed as she tossed down a cleaning rag she had in her hand. One hand went to her head as the other rested on her hip.

“I guess I can't blame him, but he goated me into stabbing him,” she murmured.

“Do you want to leave?”

Y/N glanced up at Killer.

“Huh?”

“Do you want to leave?” Killer asked again, this time annunciating each word.

“Of course not!” Y/N replied, sounding offended.

“Then talked to him,” Killer replied and left the room.

Y/N groaned. Maybe Wire was right; she needed to consider her opinions while they were still on land.

Y/N was still deciding what to do hours later as she helped shop for supplies. She was browsing a stall with medicinal herbs when a woman came up next to her. Y/n was about to step aside to make room when the woman spoke in a low voice.

"He wants to see you again."

Y/N froze with confusion and quickly realized who the woman was and what she was talking about.

"Does he know?" Asked as she pretended to continue her shopping.

The woman picked up a bundle of holy basil, turning it over to inspect the leaves.

"No, he doesn't."

"What did he say?"

"That he wants to see you again. Tonight."

"For what-?"

"Don't waste time asking stupid questions! You know why!"

Y/N winced at her snappy tone. The madame of the Garden's brothel was right; that was a stupid question.

"I can't. The crew is setting sail tomorrow, and I have other problems I need to deal with."

The woman set the bundle aside and picked up another bundle of herbs Y/N recognized for its use for nerves. The woman sighed and mused, "He and his money are more trouble than they're worth. I let my pride cloud my judgment."

She set that bundle next to her holy basil. Y/N breathed to speak, but the woman cut her off. Her tone was steady at first but edged near hysteria as she noticed Y/N's hesitation and reluctance.

"You will come to The Garden tonight and see him. I will disguise you better if you insist on remaining unknown. I don't care what your problems are, but he is not a man I will risk saying no to!"

Y/N swallowed the lump in her throat and pleaded.

"Can't you disguise someone else? Make them look like the girl he was with or like something?"

The woman scoffed, "If it were that simple, I wouldn't have bothered to look for you. I have my limits."

She then selected a few more bundles of herbs and paid the merchant. Y/N made her purchase as well and turned to face the madame.

"You do know that I am part of a pirate crew."

The woman smirked and said, "Yes, I know. I had you followed. Your crew is setting sail tomorrow, so I'm sure there will be one last hurrah tonight. If you are not at The Garden when he asks for you, I will tell your captain something interesting."

She then started to walk away, and men waiting at the other stalls quickly followed behind her. Y/N let out a big breath and headed in the other direction to the ship.

What she needed was a drink and a long think.

Kid was heading back to the ship. They both happened to turn the corner at the same time. They both saw each other and stopped walking.

@ella157 @bdudette @faetoraa @elen-alambil @buckysxgal @ryuv1i @ilovespicykimchi @stuckinthewrongworld @ninablue @kookydoesstuff @Kimyk10br @rivui

[yuri-is-online]

I was thinking about Kailm and Kailm Yutu. How is their relationship after Yutu makes the jump into the past, did Yutu ever run into him before going into the past?

I know you mentioned Kalim wanting to help Yutu out when it comes to his feelings towards Yuu (not knowing that this is the only time he’s ever seen Yuu healthy and without memory loss) which is really of sweet❤️ also Jamil side eyeing the Yutu since they don’t know a lot about him

(he’s probably considered using his unique magic on him) I can also see Yutu being a mellowed out version of Kalim.

As we talked about here Kalim died long before Yutu ever got a chance to meet him, but he was spared the fate of becoming a blot phantom like most of the other boys. The Kalim his Yutu sees is a skeleton trapped in the robe of the Sorcerer of the Sands next to Jamil's, it's traumatic but by the time he gets there Yutu has seen a lot of death and destruction. Not that it dulls the pain any.

And one small note before we continue, Jamil states in Book 6 that his unique magic does not work like Jade's does, he cannot get people to tell him the truth by hypnotizing them, he just makes the suggestible to his orders. When he thought he hypnotized Azul in Book 4, he would not have been able to make him tell everything he knew about everyone on campus, but he would have been able to order him to open up his books so Jamil could take a look around. Jamil is decent enough at reading people's body's language to know that Yutu is interested in getting close to Kalim, and that's enough to make him suspicious and someone to watch out for.

notes: they/them used for Yuu, for context on the fyuuture kid au can be found here and here. You can find even more stuff for it on my masterlist under the series section.

Kalim! Yutu was the picture of an easy baby. He was almost always smiles and giggles from the day he was born, seldom fussy and went down for naps easy, Yuu got a lot of comments about how lucky they were for having such a sweet baby. He keeps that easy going temperament as he gets older and the compliments keep coming, but Yutu isn't exactly fond of them. If people really think he's such a sweet boy they can compliment him without insulting his parent.

A lot of Kalim's pushiness, from my perspective, comes from the environment in which he was raised. In the absence of servants and siblings, Yutu turns into a much quieter person. He's less like a party and more like a cafe in the afternoon, still busy and filled with noise but with a noticeably relaxing effect on his environment. His peers like him and their parents like him more, and though Yutu makes a point to be nice to everyone he is very picky about who he labels his friends.

To Kalim! Yutu, your amnesia and the strange pain you feel when trying to remember is a serious medical issue, and he doesn't have a lot of patience for people who dismiss other's problems just because they don't understand them. He appreciates the little things you can tell him about his dad, how he was genuinely loving and kind person, but he doesn't want to know about those things if it causes your condition to worsen when you try to remember. As he gets older he tries to actively shut down conversation about his dad because he doesn't want to deal with the consequences. He remembers those little anecdotes from when he was younger and holds on to them tightly, kind and loving it's generic but the soft look in your eyes suggests the quality was anything but. Yutu can live with that.

He's very passionate about food and drink. He's not exactly a great cook but he's very knowledgeable about coffee, teas, and wines. He is especially fond of coffee and likes roasting his own beans when he gets older. If Yuu like coffee then he constantly is trying to make you new drinks and if you don't then he'll try to find something he can make that you will enjoy. Even if that's just slicing up some fruits and adding them to a lemonade, though he might feel a bit sad at how little work that is compared to something else.

Less of a party person than Kalim, though that's not really saying much since it seems like he'd have a celebration every other day of the week if he could. Yutu likes to sing and dance, especially if he can do that with his friends, but he doesn't like a lot of the people he goes to school with in his world. When he arrives in Twisted Wonderland that changes somewhat. There might not be much to celebrate in the future but the people are worth their weight in gold. When he manages to track down all of his friends who came back to the past with him, he's definitely going to throw a party in Ramshackle. After he begs for permission of course.

Being transported to Twisted Wonderland scares Kalim! Yutu. Learning that his father was the heir to a powerful merchant family (not that they have much of that power or wealth anymore on account of the world ending) and that he is a mage of all things is a lot of responsibility he is not sure that he's prepared for. He is especially not prepared for the amount of in fighting that the al Asim family is doing, though he does have a bit of help from Grandpa Crewel and his aunt.

One of the o.c.s I came up with for this au was a younger sister for Kalim. The youngest of all his siblings to be specific, the name I gave her was Sehrish and her existence is not exclusive to Kalim! Yutu. She goes back in time with all of the other Yutus too, but she is especially close to Kalim! Yutu. They have the same struggle of wanting to honor Kalim's legacy, but being skeptical about the hatred a lot of the older family members have for Jamil. Sehrish was too young to really remember either Kalim or Jamil, but everyone she's talked to who actually bothered to get to know her older brother said that he never hated Jamil. Crewel especially was very blunt about how he saw the Asim family's treatment of Jamil and what it meant for him professionally, and Idia is very clear that no matter what might have happened while they were at NRC it had nothing to do with this current mess.

It's something that Yutu keeps in mind when he travels back in time, but fuck if he doesn't find Jamil scary. He swears if he stays too long in the same room with him he's going to end up confessing to everything. That he's from the future, that Kalim is his dad, that time he broke something really important and expensive of yours and buried it in the back yard instead of just owning up to it, and that Jamil is going to be executed by the al Asim's sometime in the future. Not that he does say any of that but it's on a constant loop in his head every time Jamil is around. Which tends to be when Kalim is also around which makes things so much worse.

Kalim really likes Yutu. Every time I sit down to write for him and take a look at his voice lines I am reminded of what a genuinely nice and loving person he is, and how much he really cares about Yuu. He's warm, and knowing a part of that warmth is what created you makes Yutu feel so overwhelmingly loved even though Kalim doesn't know who he is. Yutu's calmer kindness is something Kalim really admires and looks up to, he's trying to be more aware of how imposing he can be on people and he thinks Yutu is a great example of the balance he wants to reach.

"oh?" Yutu does not seem happy with the compliment, even if Kalim can tell he is pleased by it. "I appreciate you saying so, but I'm not sure if you'll pick up on what you want from watching me... perhaps this is something you could talk to Yuu about? I find that they often give very good advice."

"They do don't they?" But if Yutu really believes that then why is he so sad about it?

Kalim wants to make people happy. That's the entire reason he throws so many parties and why he is so willing to spend money on his friends. So when he sees that something about being around Yuu is making Yutu sad, he wants to know what he can do to help. Jamil picks up on this and tries to point out that it might be a very private thing and none of their business, which would be true under normal circumstances but Yutu's very much aren't. At first Kalim just tries to focus on getting to know Yutu and his hobbies while sharing his own. He invites him to Scarabia's parties and gets real excited when he sees how much Yutu knows about tea. That's really important in the Scalding Sands! He insists on teaching him all about what he knows and for him to talk to Jamil if he has any other questions. This is what finally gets Jamil to relax around Yutu because he sees how the kid goes out of his way to not make work for him, pretty much exactly like Yuu does, which is a good point in Jamil's book.

I like the idea of Kalim learning who Yutu is on accident, he has a lot of voice lines about offering to tie a head scarf for Yuu so I could see him maybe offering the same for Yutu. And given that Kalim can be a bit pushy maybe he doesn't listen to Yutu's protests and takes off the hood, giving him and Jamil a very good look at his face.

"Oh wow you kind of look like me, huh?!" Kalim laughs and sets about wrapping the scarf around Yutu's head, while Jamil stares at him in such stressed shock that Yutu knows he's not getting out of this by lying. "We could be related!"

"That's- I'm really sorry!!!" Yutu instantly bows in apology to Jamil messing up Kalim's work.

"H-hey no need to do that!" The tone of Jamil's voice brings Kalim down to earth as he looks a bit closer at Yutu, and then towards Yuu for a long, good look and then back to Yutu again.

Yutu has to explain himself to everyone a few times before they fully understand what's going on. He has the benefit of being able to use Oasis Maker, which proves that he is very much a member of the al-Asim family, and his extensive knowledge of Yuu's world proves his story is true (as if Kalim's excited tackle hug at hearing Yutu just say "you are my dad and Yuu is my parent" didn't) but the idea of a future like he is describing is really difficult for Kalim to comprehend, let alone Jamil and Yuu. Jamil is especially shocked that Yutu doesn't hate him and sees him as someone who deserves to be protected. I could see him actually saying that he sees it as his responsibility as the heir of the al-Asim family and while Jamil doesn't trust the purity of Kalim's intentions, he does trust Yuu's. And after a brief bit of consideration, he decides he'll extend that trust to Yutu too. Still thinks he's surrounded by idiots though.

Of course Kalim wants to throw a party upon learning that he and Yuu get together and have a kid. It's literally one of the most important things he could ever celebrate, but instead of doing it on short notice it's something he decides to plan with a very specific purpose. If what Yutu is saying is true about the future then he's going to need help. Jamil is very smart, but Kalim somehow doubts that he'll have all of the resources he needs to prevent the end of the apocalypse if he's asked to do it on his own. The planning is a joint effort between Kalim, Yutu, and Jamil to pick who best to let in on the secret out of all their NRC classmates. Kalim promises to hold off on other party planning so Jamil can focus on this, he'd rather have all of the time in the world to spoil his spouse and son instead of the few short years he has at NRC.

Speaking of Yuu, Kalim is very worried about how you feel about all of this. Are you afraid of what Yutu told you? Does it make you question staying in Twisted Wonderland, or your relationship with him? He still really wants to be with you, there's a lot of stuff he still doesn't know about you yet that he desperately wants to, and so much about himself that he wants to offer up. I think upon learning about Yutu's existence he would ask to talk to you alone and tell you very honestly about how he feels about you. He wishes to be yours for time and all eternity, and he is willing to wait and put in the work to be worthy of you and your trust. Yes he says this even if you aren't together yet and yes he means it, especially the waiting bit.

Kalim is already such a supportive, if overindulgent, person and that carries in to how he is as a father. Sure he's not the smartest person in the world, but he knows how to get people on his side. I feel like he sees it as his role to worry about the future and not Yutu's, but he also accepts that because Yutu didn't grow up with him that he might not be willing to let Kalim take up his burdens. That won't stop him from trying to get him to relax, from what Yutu told him he never really got to experience the Scalding Sands and that just won't do. While a trip home isn't on the table right now, he can still teach Yutu everything he knows, hopefully he'll find pride and comfort in knowing about where his father is from and it will replenish his motivation to fight. First order of business on that list? Introducing him to the magic carpet and taking him for a ride!

[oh-shtars]

“This Wish” Rewrite ✨

(RFTS!Au Version)

Hello!! It’s Flicker here again!

I’ve decided to give a shot at rewriting Asha’s “I Want” song and see what I could come up with.

The original song was…okay. It’s not a bad thing to listen to. I personally think the chorus and the instrumental there is really pretty. It just felt weirdly lacking? I’m sure there are many people out there who share the same criticism with me, so I’m not going to go all out on that.

Anyways, back to the thing at hand.

For context:

RFTS!Asha is a servant girl at the castle who’s a dreamer and someone with a huge imagination for what there could be. The thing is, that spark has been buried down after the tragic loss of her father’s life. Now she’s terrified of having her hopes up, in fear of facing that same agony of losing another dream.

While she never lost that daydreaming habit of hers, Asha often finds herself cowering away rather than committing. And this often causes her to go back on some of her promises. She’s frustrated that this stupid flaw of hers is holding her back from reaching out to those she loves.

This is evident when Asha has secretly been noticing that Rosas’ citizens aren’t actually as happy as they claim to be. They’re dull, missing that zest and stuck in a cycle of dissatisfaction. She knows there must be something they’re missing but…what? As the king’s assistant, she’s the only one close to him with a chance to negotiate on what could be done to address this problem.

But it’s the king! He’s snapped at her times before. What if…? But what about the people she loves?

As Asha sings this song, she fights an internal battle within while expressing her frustrations and how she wants to break free from the chains she’s made for herself.

…………….

Isn’t this the place where dreams come true?

Then why does it all feel so way out of place?

If I could show them the life they have embraced,

Open their eyes to their own lies,

Would they question it all like I did?

But when I start, my head says “Sit Down,”

So how could I when I could barely be worth something?

For too long I have withdrawn, and avoided every song,

Now time has gone and now I don’t know where I belong,

So do I look up to the stars above me? Or keep caution at every warning sign?

Should I let the dreams within me rise and soar free?

Or should I pay no heed and stay in line?

Still, I hold this wish,

That they’ll have something more for them than this,

Still, I hold this wish,

That I’ll do something more for them than….this,

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah

More than this, (oh-ah-ah-ah)

For many years, I’ve kept my head down low,

Still did what I was told when someone told me ‘No,’

Yet, there’s a part of me who’s just yearning to glow,

A part that’s just longing to know,

It just won’t let me go!

With all these reservations and hesitations, I’m not sure where to even begin,

The risks and failures are daunting but I can’t just lose this fire from deep within,

If I could just be pointed in any given direction on where to go and what to do,

My legs are shaking but my head’s held high,

The way you always taught me to….

So I look up to the stars to guide me,

And pray that they’d send some kind of sign,

I’m sure there will be challenges that find me,

But I want to take them on one at a time,

So I make this wish,

That they’ll have something more for them than this,

So I make this wish,

That I’ll do something more for them than….this,

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, ah-ah

More than this, (oh-ah-ah-ah)

So I make this wish…

That I’ll be something more….for us than…this…..

…….

The last line is meant to end at a sad note as Asha cowers away again, thinking that her wish to the skies has went unheard as per usual. No dramatic or hype instrumental at the end. Maybe a soft and melancholic melody instead?

Phew, my girl’s self esteem really is just: 📉📉📉

Btw, I want to make it clear that I AM NO SONGWRITER. So if the words are all clunky and weird at times, bear with me. 🥲

I don’t claim that this is “perfect” and “proof I could do better than Disney.” It’s just so I could better fit the song into my own version of the story. I might make a few changes along the way but we’ll see. :))

Thanks for Reading 💖

@annymation @gracebethartacc @signed-sapphire @uva124 @emillyverse @chillwildwave @tumblingdownthefoxden @ficsinhistory @your-ne1ghbor @rascalentertainments

[peony-flowerking7]

Chonk

Taking a bit chonk of her cheek. That can be taken out of context, but ya know what I meant.

I was struggling for dear Lord, I was having trouble with Duzhe skin because their vitiligo and whenever I did try to color their skin and render it, it look absolutely horrible! It wasn't even matching their skin perfectly it just look..I can't explain it well. It look so plastic? That the best I can describe as. So here my solution to this problem, recolor their skin tone and then I put their vitiligo last, then I did some rendering although it doesn't look like there much there is rendering. The same went to Wukong except I had to render and recolor his face paintings. Anyways I hate rendering red since it always look dull and ashy so I was like

MORE SATURATION MOre MORE! So anyways. I'm working on two things, first a base for noodles and death and the second is my version of Sun Wukong. Btw Duzhe might go through some changes too I have like lots of ideas. And I like experimenting with clothes and hair style.

Uh about this picture, I feel like Wukong would definitely bite his love ones and then lick them like some heathen. I use a cats for reference I wanna do some cat memes honestly. With these two and some journey to the west cat memes. Lol

I had to both copy it and reference it.

Cat chonk

[legobiwan]

1-the character everyone gets wrong for Gravity Falls and 16-you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) for Star Wars ??

The character everyone gets wrong (Gravity Falls)

I want to preface this answer by saying that I think there are a plethora of fantastic Gravity Falls fics, comics, and metas out there that address and explore Stanley's possible mental health issues in light of everything we've learned about his backstory, which is pretty damn bleak. And yes, I do enjoy reading this angst.

The fandom tends to focus on this particular side of Stanley and with good reason - it is absolutely fertile ground for analysis and there is no doubt he is a tortured individual.

But there is a tendency to "blorbo-ize" Stan and his sympathetic history. While he was absolutely forced into some horrendous situations and had to make decisions based solely on survival probability, this is also a man who has a rap sheet a mile long, has outstanding warrants throughout the majority of the country, and is heavily, heavily implied to have been dealing in cartel business.

You don't get that far in these circles without having a backbone of steel and the capacity to do some seriously shady - and bloody - shit. Sure, Stan eventually bailed from the more hardcore aspects of his existence. And this isn't to say he's fundamentally a bad person or even liked everything he was doing - but he is a dangerous man, whether that danger comes at the end of a gun barrel or a marked ace of spades.

And I think this aspect of his character gets underplayed in a lot of fandom. (Interestingly enough, Ford is the one who is generally allocated this role, due to his dimensional hobo life on the run. And Ford is a badass, but Stan is equal to his brother in this, albeit in a different context). Stan maybe wants to forget that part of his life (understandable), but he didn't get as far as he did being a criminal (you don't get to rack up that kind of sheet and stay mostly clear of the law without some considerable feats) without developing certain skills and he'd be dead five times over if he weren't some kind of threat. Yes, by the time we meet him in the show, those instincts may have been dulled, likely intentionally, but this is the same man who admits to having 10 firearms in his household, even if his reasoning is (seemingly) ludicrous.

Runners-up: Mabel and the Flanderization of her zaniness. (Let's not forget she put the majority of the puzzle pieces together in Not What He Seems). Ford's seemingly god-like combat skills (the man gets his ass handed to him on multiple occasions in the show and is in constant need of rescue after he comes back from the Portal. Don't get me wrong - I love a badass Ford - but he wasn't exactly batting 1.000 after returning to Gravity Falls).

16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc) (Star Wars)

I fully expect to get pilloried by certain factions of the fandom for this opinion, and to be honest, it's been a long-standing thorn in my side.

The Jedi were not 100% without fault and yes, some of decisions they made fed into their ultimate demise.

Was it deserved? No. Were they evil? No.

Were they a stagnant organization led by a creature who had lived long enough to distance himself from the day-to-day concerns of the majority of mortal beings under his care? Yes. Did they have an effective strategy to combat their massive, massive PR problem - a problem which ended up with them characterized as a baby-snatching cult of superbeings that could easily usurp the will of a (corrupt) Republic government? Nooooo, not at all.

They refused to play politics. Until they had to play politics. And they lost on all sides.

There was so much emphasis on tradition and purity of said tradition in the organization - even if the highest members of the Council didn't necessarily 100% agree with this - the mythology of it was present enough in the Jedi Temple, that constant, subtle pressure to do things in a certain way, to avoid wholly the Dark Side (even if the individual teachings of the Masters went against this). The Jedi wanted to change, but at the same time, couldn't budge the 1,000 ton boulder of their past until it was too late to avoid Palpatine's machinations.

The ultimate tragedy is that the Jedi meant well, but couldn't collectively nudge their organization towards change.

And they did make some baffling decisions - Anakin being allowed to train at all being peak among them. (And then letting Obi-wan - a grieving 25-year old being held hostage by a deathbed promise - to train Anakin, as per the "will of the Force..." This was not well-thought out by anyone involed.)

Dooku had legitimate criticisms of the Order, even if he ultimately expressed his grievances by betraying everyone and everything he loved and aligning himself with an ultimate evil that not even he could overcome. Qui-gon, for all of his many fault, had some great ideas for the Order and should have been on the Council - if for not other reason, than to upset the status quo (and yes, I know he turned it down, and that's another story altogether).

It feels, that in a certain way, the Jedi were crushed by their own mythology, and by the time that leviathan breached the surface, it was far too late for change.

Discussions of the Jedi have a tendency to polarize quickly, and I'd love for there to be more space for exploration of where they did fail without consigning the whole organization to the out-of-touch and evil-by-incompetence box.

(And caveat lector: post this fully admitting I haven't meditated on Star Wars lore in quite some time, so excuse some of the broader strokes of this analysis).

Ask me a spicy fandom question

[nicolesainz]

Got me in love again (MM19)

Mason Mount x reader

Warnings: fluff, minors dni, 18+, smut context, mentions of past abusive relationships

Summary: Falling in love again is difficult. Especially after getting out of an abusive relationship. Faith and trust aren’t easy traits to give and allow someone. How far will someone go to claim them for you?

“I wish I knew what to do” Mason lowered his head disappointingly, a step away from giving up.

But he would actually never give up. He wasn’t willing to. Not in his plans.

“It takes time to heal, buddy. You can probably imagine the shock and horror she felt and was put through those years.” Declan tried to comfort his best friend, by stating the truth

She needed time to heal. Mason surely wasn’t the problem. She was the one who suggested Mason to stay away from her, but he didn’t even think of doing so.

“I feel so desperate trying to figure out what to do, what to say and how to act without triggering her.” A whimper left Mason’s mouth along with a few tears from his eyes.

Declan hated seeing him like this. And her being in the same state as well. She adored Mason. She was thankful that he didn’t give up on her. But trust, wasn’t an easy thing to be handed after all she went through.

“You’re the reason she smiles, Mase. Everyday she calls me, telling me how happy she is to be with you. And I can tell by her voice tone and how genuine she sounds”

Those words motivated the footballer a bit to keep on trying. His girl was more than worth trying.

“I’m going back home. If anything happens, I will alert you” Mason said, picking up his stuff and have a brotherly hug to Declan.

On the way home, he was trying to figure out a way to help her. Actually let her overcome her fears. Allow her to feel free again. That’s all he truly desired.

When he unlocked the front door, Y/N was sitting on the couch peacefully, humming along to some of her favorite songs that were playing in her phone.

Once she realized Mason’s presence, she immediately shut it off and ran towards him. Her arms immediately wrapped around his waist, pulling him into the tightest hug ever.

Mason’s heart warmed with this act, making him very special. Although his goal was to make her feel special, which he will achieve no matter what.

“I missed you Masey” she whispered, still refusing to let him leave her grasp.

Mason was away for a game so had to stay without his girl for a few days. To say that he hasn’t missed her like crazy too, would be an understatement.

“Oh love, I missed you like crazy” he plants a soft kiss on her forehead and keeps on hugging her. It’s their safe place, in each others arms.

“Are you doing alright? How was things without me being around?” He asks his girlfriend a few moments later whilst taking a shower.

Whenever he came back home after a practice or a game she missed, she would always sit and listen to him, even while he was showering.

“Oh yes. Sophia was around and we had a girls night, which was really fun. And then mostly work. Life’s very dull and not enjoyable when you’re not here Mase. The house felt empty”

He wanted to cry at those words. It was all he needed to hear. All he wished for to get his plan in action.

Once he was settled, they both rested on the bed, still their bodies being tangled up. Moments like these with Mason, made her feel comfortable again in her skin.

That superstar footballer, Chelsea’s golden boy, a man who can have anything he wishes for, was right next to her, making her feel more alive than anyone in the world. And she needed to reassure his happiness.

She raised her head from his chest and gave him a soft look. Mason’s eyes were glowing at the sight of her.

“What’s bothering you, dear?” He quietly asked, worried as to why she’d broken the peace

She didn’t respond, but instead leaned forward and kissed him tenderly, like never before.

Every time they would kiss, Mason gained an extra life. This was his source of willpower.

Without realizing it, her body was now on top of his, her thighs leaning in between his waist and hair all over the place.

Mason felt that she was getting out of her comfort zone, so he momentarily put her back next to him.

“Why did you lower me?” She asked, not being offended, just curious.

“I-well, I don’t know. I don’t want us to do anything without you being ready. I don’t want to push you. And I felt like you were doing this purposely.”

She knew all too well that Mason cared for her. Not only ten times more than her past relationship. Even more than her own family. She wanted and was ready to trust him at the maximum.

“I want to be with you. I need you more than anything in this life, Mason. You are not him. And you will never be. I have nothing to be scared of. You’re my savior”

Mason had never felt his heart fluttering like this before. It was an amazing sensation.

“I want you to feel safe with me. I will never hurt you. Because then I would be hurting myself.”

“Make me feel safe again. Claim me as yours. You are all I could wish for.” were her last words before their mouths started being occupied again.

His hands were roaming all over her bare thighs, playing with the lace of her blue panties. He wanted to rip off the material that was a barrier between their full potentiality.

“May I?” He wanted consent before moving on, he wanted his girl to feel safe.

“I’m yours Mason. Act and don’t ask. I am ready” she muffled between the kisses, giving him the confirmation he needed.

In seconds, the piece of clothing was thrown away somewhere in the room, whilst his head and mouth were tracing a path of kisses on her thigh, before being face to face with her already wet core.

“Oh my sweetness” he whispered before devouring her. His tongue swiped across her clit, making her exclaim a loud moan. This was better than any of the songs he’s ever listened in his life.

Her fingers are tangled in his now messy hair, pulling him closer to her. He couldn’t stop sucking and kissing her pussy. It was pure euphoria for both of them.

“My god Mase-“ groaning she said, as her mouth couldn’t bare being alone and without the feelings of his.

Before removing his mouth and kissing her on the lips again, he entered two fingers in her clit, drawing circles all over, for starters in slow motions.

“Faster” she demanded while their tongues were dancing with each other

Mason’s fingers uped the pace and we’re moving even faster. The room was filled with her moans of his name, which if he could record to listen to all day, he would have done so.

“I’m close Mase. I wanna-“ before she could finish her sentence, she left her speechless with a hard push.

“I know baby. I need you to cum. On my fingers” this request sounded more than pleasing to her, and was ready to obey.

Mason could feel the precum leaking in his fingers. He was more than happy with what was about to arrive.

“Let go darling” he finished off as she released her juices all over him. My god was that a sight for sore eyes, he thought. He made his girl feel good.

Her pussy was aching for more. Her trust in Mason made her want more from him. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her. And he would never allow himself to do so.

She was left breathless, trying to grasp the words in her mind. She never thought she’d be able to let them slip her mouth ever again.

“Make love to me, Mason” she almost begged the charming footballer, without knowing that he was willing to please her until she reaches the moon from happiness.

“You don’t have to ask twice” he grabs her thigh from underneath, as he goes in for a hungry kiss. This will be a night to never forget.

Her hands slip at the hem of his boxers, lightly feeling the bulge growing as seconds pass. She felt her brain tingling, just at the thought of how she was about to have sex with a man she truly loved and actually cared for her.

In no time, he’s left bare to her eyesight, making her with a jaw dropped to the floor. The room was extremely silent that one could easily hear the beating in her heart. And my good was it fast and loud.

To say that this wasn’t a moment she hadn’t been waiting for, would be a lie. It took time to trust someone again. Especially at this level.

Being in a relationship again can be tricky. You don’t know how to act, what to say, how to stand. She felt like everything she did irritated Mason.

Things were exactly the opposite. Mason loved every single thing she did. He adored spending time looking at her, doing even the simplest things. He was more than thankful that he finally gained her trust.

“Can I tell you a little secret l?” She whispered in his ear, after laying in each others arms once again.

“Go ahead sweetheart” Mason gave her a soft smile and a kiss on the forehead

“You got me in love again”

[celtrist]

Hot Take, I don't think some people take some things into consideration for redesigns.

Don't get me wrong, some people just do them for fun and there's a lot of REALLY cool ones out there, some I kind of prefer to the official designs to some degree. And I don't think it's a matter of people NOT doing research on the characters as that's absolutely false. But people just kind of neglect/forget/or don't realize some facts about the characters for one reason or another. A lot of designs don't even work great when you put it in the context that the characters would be animated. This doesn't mean redesigns people have done are lazy or anything, you can see a lot of care put into a lot of them.

I plan on doing a sort of "Batman Animated series next season" sort of redesign at some point, and by no means should MY takes and ideas be meant as superior to others. I also wouldn't say some of the critiques given about the official designs are unwarranted, but I think they DO get dogpiled on more than deserved (I mean, a lot of people do LIKE the designs, so they can't be that awful). Below are some things I think people forget or don't understand (again, this is not anything that should be taken as the bible, just my own thoughts about stuff and elements of characters people don't seem to take into consideration a lot):

Lucifer and Satan aren't the same person, so it makes sense Charlie isn't a goat. According to Viv, no part of her design was based on it, and it would be strange for her to look like the love child between Lucifer and Satin if she were. Though totally understand why people do it, goat Charlie IS adorable and also, where the heck does the hooves come from???

Many of the characters don't live in their time period, especially Vox and Angel Dust. I'll be a bit fair on this one, with characters being from different times, it would be visually more interesting to see those styles clash. But some characters, like Vox especially, wouldn't work with that as they WANT to live in the modern day. Vox's WHOLE THING is about staying with the times, so of course he's not looking like he's from the 50s. I've seen some redesigns revert the man to his box head, and that totally misses the point of his character and how he's opposing Alastor's want to stay with the past. I do think it wouldn't hurt to have some illusions about their time periods, though (whether through their clothes or the rooms they occupy).

Alastor is a cannibal, so it wouldn't make sense for his teeth to be so dull. Maybe they could've sharpened his canines with blunt teeth for the rest, but I think he isn't meant to be an approachable figure or anything, and the sharp teeth read as "dangerous". Also, if the canines are only sharp with the rest blunt, the toothy smile feels a little less iconic. To be fair though, a lot of characters have the sharp-tooth smile and the same smarmy face. I just think it makes more sense for his character with what he eats and the in-universe intimidation he's going for him to have full-on shark teeth. Just anything but only the blunt teeth smile, even if it works better with his smile mantra and is arguably creepier (and give his grin a more distinct feature from literally everyone else in the show.

I think the idea people have for Alastor’s colors being black and white or sepia-focused is both a good idea and a silly idea. On one hand, having his colors be like that out of a photograph would be neat and help aid in the idea of Alastor's ideals with the past always being superior to the future. He would literally look like he's stuck in the past. HOWEVER, there is a slight problem with these ideas. The issue with the black and white scheme is that he'd look like an old cartoon character rather than a man from a photograph. This would be a bit odd of a choice considering he's not associated with TV in general. Sepia is a bit better of a direction, but also a bit odd when you consider Alastor is not the only demon to hold the past on a pedestal. So why would he have the sepia scheme while others like Rosie do not? Again, bit of a double-edged sword. There's also the fact that Alastor is focused on AUDIO mediums, never visuals. So to have his scheme focus in visual mediums like being out of a photograph or old TV would be a bit odd. It would be more accurate to argue that he should look more like the invisible man with maybe only a radio head or something if you wanna make the argument about his colors not reading 1920s.

Making Alastor a full deer anthro, while cool and makes sense in theory, loses a bit of thought when there's a BUNCH of other anthro characters. Don't get me wrong, I think people often come up with some cool designs and, to be honest, look more deer like than Alastor's canon design (like seriously, those ears are not deer ears at all). However, it loses something when anthro sinners are quite common in Hell (Husker, Crymini, literally any crowd shot you see probably has an anthro character in there). So, while this might read as a bit of a personal take, Alastor being a straight up mix (dare I say a Kemnomimi) between a human and deer feels like it reads a bit better into how he died. That being, he was a man mistaken as a deer. So him being very humanoid but having the attributes that may have made the hunter think he was a deer with his silhouette and surroundings, come off as a bit stronger and better related to his death. Again, I don't think I'd call this out if it weren't for the fact we see so many anthro demons and really no kemnomimi-esc demons. Because of that, Alastor being a mix of human and animal comes off as more unique and stronger than if you made him a flat-out demon.

Alastor doesn't show his hooves because he's a gentleman! While I think they could get away with giving Charlie some open-toed shoes, Alastor is a man who wants to be fully dressed, so to have him lack shoes to show off his hooves doesn't really make sense for him. He's actually fully dressed up, no part of him showing skin aside from his head! His hands could be a bit of an argument on that, but they have been described as gloves while official merch would seem to contradict this. My fun theory is that they're gloves, but they look exactly the same as his actual hands. To follow up on the clothing thing, Alastor would never willingly show something like a tail if he has one. I am of the "he does have one" group, but I think it would make sense for him to try to hide any features that would put him as a prey animal. The following are a bit more in designs speculation territory, so take with a grain of salt:

This is a bit of a side thing and could totally be wrong, but I've seen mention that all residents in the pride ring wear/have some color of red on them. I'm not sure how true it is (I mean, when you look at all the characters seen there is some form of red on them even if it's just by eyes). This would honestly be a neat "cartoony logic you just don't question" in theory if it wasn't for the fact only the pride ring residents have this going on. If it is true, they need to have that color thing happen with other rings (so hellhounds have yellow on them, lust have purple, so on and so forth). It would be neat as then we could see where different demons come from just by their color scheme, however, that's not the case. The idea of everyone in the pride ring HAVING a bizarre dress code requiring them to wear red is more distracting and less "just accept the cartoon logic" when they're the only ring that does it. Also, I still agree that characters do not need to be drenched in color if it is a requirement in their design. Again, this is all to say this idea is true, which I cannot verify other than all the demons we see in the pride ring do seem to have some form of red on them.

Red sclera and white-ish irises might help to indicate some demons as hellborn. So this could kinda be seen as a weak argument, but I just thought it was strange how the only other times we've seen this eye trait is with hellborns: Hellhounds, Lucifer, and Charlie. And I think it would make more sense for that to be the case rather than Carmilla and her daughters happen to have fallen into Hell together. I mean it's not IMPOSSIBLE, but meh. Also, would add a bit more interest to Velvette if it was revealed she was hellborn. Thought it was a bit odd for other characters like Vox and Valentino to have confirmed death years but Velvette never got one officially (as far as I'm aware). It also would just be a nice design element that actually sort of means something (that being if you have those eyes, you're more than likely a hellborn). Especially when you take into account characters like Crymini where, if it weren't for that eye-color scheme, you would think she was a normal Hellhound.

This one is 100% headcanon territory, but I'm sharing it again because that's the power I wield. To keep it short, Alastor has high respect for women and tends to prefer their company, so maybe out of that respect/his mother possibly having it, he got himself a bob cut as that was popular with women in the 20s. The hair gets a lot of flack for understandable reasons, but I thought it'd be a bit more fun to give him a reason for having it and I also just don't think it's as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Here's the post getting a bit more into it, but pretty much the same is said just detailed.

Finally, as I've said earlier, these characters need to be animated. And most redesigns don't take that into consideration. To be fair, a lot of people also acknowledge they don't for the designs, which totally valid. It's already tricky to design characters, so to make sure they'd be animatable would be even MORE of a pain.

Again, this is just some small tidbits and by no means is this an attack on anyone or anything, just some of my thoughts and things I think people don't think about when making changes. By no means is canon perfect, I don't even think canon takes some of these considerations in to be quite honest with you and I don't think the designs are made as thoughtfully as the redesigns, but I don't really care for the "my designs are better" mantra.

All in all, just some of my thoughts on things. Lemme know if there's anything you disagree with or have your own ideas people seem to forget/not notice!

[finisnihil]

Friendly reminder things can coexist. You can have multiple reasons for doing something. Art can have multiple themes and contexts. Rarely are things only defined by one thing as that makes for a dull experience and a dull story.

For example, I saw somebody saying the new HSR animation with Black Swan and Acheron can’t have sapphic undertones because the animation is about manipulation but here’s the thing it can totally be both. Black Swan and Acheron have talked about each other in such a way that imply a tension there that can be read either way and while the animation is focused on the manipulation aspect and how Black Swan fucked around and found out it does not negate the sapphic subtext found in the approach. The hand kissing, the way they hold each other, the way she calls Acheron enchanting and beautiful, those were not necessary. Acheron would not be swayed by such language and Black Swan knows this, there was little reason for her to do that and the act of doing so only caused Acheron to let up her guard more every time she did those actions. Acheron picked up on her ulterior motives to a degree and went on the defensive. If it really was only manipulation Black Swan wouldn’t have risked her becoming closed off from her like that.

We also need to consider the artist in question, Mihoyo, who is notorious for their queer representation especially sapphic representation prevalent in the Honkai franchise. I went on Instagram and saw people bashing the queer side of the fandom for “projecting their gay headcanons” on the animation and “ignoring/disrespecting the art of it and it’s themes claiming ship where there’s manipulation” to which most of these comments in question are jokes and the queer fans do understand the underlying themes. It does not mean they don’t appreciate the art in full it means you only have a few characters in a comment to share your thoughts and not everybody wants to take the time to make multiple comments analyzing it and that’s okay. We all interact with stories differently. Multiple things can be true, as Oscar Wilde said in The Importance of Being Ernest, “the truth is rarely pure and never simple” and that’s the fact of the matter still.

In some instances it is a problem when people neglect to analyze the full scope of the art and it’s story and themes and that’s the topic of media literacy and it’s waning influence in fandom spaces which is a different topic and conversation but in this one just like these things can coexist so can a surface level expression and a deeper level understanding. I can understand the entire animation in full I literally made an analysis post not long ago but I can also make silly jokes about the sapphic undertones because that’s also part of the piece and disregarding them because you don’t like the queer aspects of HSR’s story or any story is what’s actually disrespectful to the art. You can’t criticize a community when you do the very thing you accuse them of, ignoring one of the many points for your own simplified understanding of the art.

[mysteroads]

So, fast background: It still bugs me a bit that Decay isn't Tomura Shigaraki's natural quirk.😔 There were some great parallels between him and Eri that I really liked. However, I adapted!🎉 And now I'm going to share! 'Cause that's what you do on this hellsite!😈 Mwhaha! Enjoy this short excerpt from my fic Indomitable Will. (Context: Tomura's decided to put AFO down for good and is deep-diving KingdomHearts style, and interacting with stolen quirk vestiges.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*>

This quirk looked so broken. Hunched shoulders, too skinny with a jutting collarbone and visible ribs, badly cut hair all clumpy and unkempt, knobby fingers covering its face like a weeping angel. Its edges were in a constant state of fraying. 

Or Decaying.

“You caused me a lot of problems, you know,” he told it quietly. The quirk huddled in on itself even more, trembling from head to toe. “My family, my dog, my favorite controller… all of them dust. But it’s not like you had a choice either. You didn’t pick me. You weren’t even whole. But… looking back, I think you at least tried your best to keep me safe.”

The trembling didn’t stop, but the covered face turned toward him.

“Half of the problem was me. I was always fighting you, subconsciously rejecting you. I mean, kinda obvious why, but it didn’t really help me. You know what, though?” And now Tomura smiled again, the memory of Deika City still a shining moment for him. “We were pretty badass once we got in sync.”

The quirk stood up straight, lowering its fingers enough to peer at him with dull eyes the same color as his. 

Tomura held out his free hand. “This time, let’s choose each other. I want you. No one fits me better than you. We’re two pieces broken by the same hand, two things reshaped to become weapons and not allowed to become more. No one understands us better than we do. Please, be my partner again?”

Decay skipped shaking his hand and instead threw itself at him, wrapping twiggy arms around his neck and pressing its face against his chest. Tomura bit his lip so he didn’t make any more pathetic noises and hugged his quirk as tightly as he could. “I missed you,” he admitted. “Thank you.” 

A breath, then Decay slipped back inside him, settling under his skin like a contented cat. And it didn’t itch at all.

Tomura felt whole for the first time in months. 

[utilitycaster]

(Long ask warning)

Hello! I'm jumping on the appreciation train to say thank you so much for all of your meta and analysis! I just found your blog today, and you've already given me so much clarity and context for things I've been noticing in the CR fandom lately.

I quite literally spent my summer living under a rock (in the woods leading spelunking for scouts!) and so was completely out of the loop from early June through September. And while I am not yet caught up (I'm about to start ep. 65), I have been going through the tags and ao3, because I primarily engage with fandom through fic and I don't care about spoilers. And I can't help but notice that everything being written for c3 lately is just... monochromatic. The Hells have such interesting characters and premises. One would think they're ripe for creative and interesting fic. And yet even what little gen fic that I have seen since returning to civilization has largely been boiled down to reiterative mush with vaguely shippy overtones. I can totally see this being indicative of the cresting and waning of the Imodna and Callowmore shipping you've been discussing.

I've gotta ask though, is it really just shipping that is causing this problem? Or is there something else in the source material that you think could be affecting fic in particular?

This is the first time I've been in a fandom with ongoing source material in over a decade. I'm used to watching people beat dead horses in their own little corner, safe in the knowledge that I can block them and it isn't going to affect my experience in the slightest. I guess I'm just having a hard time believing/remembering that shipping can be this incidious.

So a couple of things: first, I was not heavily involved in fandom until Critical Role; I have a decent amount of background knowledge from being on Tumblr and because I do tend to look into/research this kind of thing because it's very interesting to me, but you will probably have better snapshot of what fandom looked like 10 years ago than I do. Second, fanfic has always been a tiny aspect of what I've engaged with and I do find the bulk of it to be dull and samey (which is why it is a tiny aspect), so again, you probably are a better judge of the quality of fanfic elsewhere.

With that said, as part of a much larger discussion of which I only have as mentioned pieces of the puzzle, I do think there's been a shift over the past decade or so of like...people expecting the source material to reflect fanfic-y desires, and resenting it when it does not; people not seeing the point in enjoying non-canon ships; and a broader theme of self-infantilization. This has to a small extent spilled over into published fiction, though thankfully there's plenty that isn't that. It's not just shipping (though that absolutely can be insidious to the point that people have been harassed and doxxed over it); I think it's a general taste for pablum that has been growing within fandom spaces.

I'll link a few posts I've made and a source that, while I cannot vouch for it per se I did read and found enlightening at the end but I think a really indicative example as of late was the fandom response to the show Good Omens (spoilers for Good Omens S2 in the next link if you are by any chance avoiding those). Obviously do not do anything obnoxious to the person who wrote this question, but there are a worrying number of people in fandom spaces who believe this unironically and uncritically: fiction exists to "save us from hurtful reality." And I do understand that the tumultuous politics and world events of the past decade are probably a factor; but I mean, have you looked at literature from the first half of the 20th century (or like. the second half, for that matter)? It is, in my opinion, only going to help put our modern world and issues in better context and honestly make you feel better in the long run if you read, say, The Great Gatsby or The Things They Carried instead of burying your head in lower case song lyrics ... (hurt/comfort, fix-it, happy ending, 6k) and like, to be clear, I have written a small portion of lower case song lyric-titled fics myself but most of them aren't terribly happy, and even so, god I'd be horrified if that was all people were reading.

We've seen it across fandom at large with the polls; I have not watched season 2 of Our Flag Means Death in part because I've realized with horror that this mentality has swept, plague-like, through that fandom; people are acting like having a canon queer ship on a small premium cable show in 2022 is world-changing and unprecedented while also kind of ignoring everything that isn't the central ship (including valid criticisms of how this takes a real-world plantation owner and turns him into a goofy fop, how there's precious few female characters and none in the main cast, and how the actually far more groundbreaking nb character is pushed aside in favor of the core M/M ship). Spoilers for Good Omens again (sorry in advance, Good Omens 2 was a realization point for me how deeply and widely this rot has set in in some places and I have a bunch of sources of people being like "guys stories require conflict and tension to be good" in response to the overwrought moaning that the story wasn't unambiguously happy) but this is another author responding to the "the desired endpoint of all fiction is obviously to have your ship living in a small house together in bliss and anything else is torment" mentality.

In addition to shipping another factor is, I think, people overidentifying with characters and as such being reluctant to actually put them through any sort of hardship, however minor. I recently reblogged a post about the origin of the concept "Mary Sue" and it led me to read a bit about its history, because it was in fact created by women. It was a woman in the Star Trek fandom who was sick of spending money to buy fanzines (pre-common home internet, let alone pre-Ao3) only to find the vast majority of the stories to be this "here is my self-insert who is perfect and beautiful and pure and every other character thinks she is the greatest even if that's entire OOC". It was a frustration with the abandonment of the characterizations in the original work. And that's true today - I have read a popular Imogen and Laudna fluff fic to see what the deal was and it stripped out so much of their premises and characterizations it was unrecognizeable as them but for the hair colors and occasional cringeworthy attempts to replicate Southern US dialect - but what was notable is that those people were at least being honest and writing OCs (though to be fair a lot of them were also young white teen girls and the only woman in TOS was black and that was probably also a factor). Now, you get people who cannot tolerate any analysis of characters that is less than flattering because instead of having an OC, they are identifying so strongly with, for example, Imogen or Ashton, that they cannot separate out the real character or understand this is not an attack on them (or, to be blunt, as someone who sees some of my own worse traits in both those characters, a necessary critique). It's not shipping, but it is that same "fiction should only ever be a soft blanket or a flattering mirror, never a dark mirror and certainly never a door" mentality.

I do place a little blame on fanfiction itself; I think having something that is roughly made to order and tells you exactly what it is up front means people start to think that is the only way, and that's why we have people claiming Chipotle is the height of cuisine while making gagging noises at the authentic Mexican restaurant except for fiction. I think fanfiction can be great; it's fun to write and I have read some great pieces. But a lot of it is mush and formulaic and as that Mary Sue history points out, always has been.

So anyway, to Bells Hells: I think past campaigns also had a lot of dull fanfiction; I think the Nein lent themselves more to poorly written angst than poorly written fluff but yeah a lot of that was really samey and bland in its own way. Fanfiction has always been formulaic to a degree but I think we're starting to see the generation of people who really have read more of that than like, books, and sure there are shitty books, but man there's a LOT of shitty fanfiction, and increasingly, I find that shitty published books are bad because they're too much like fanfiction. [If I get the chance today I have a post I want to write about the ignorance of fantasy tropes in the current fandom which I think is also driving some of this and which I alluded to in my post about shipping; like, I feel the almost automatic but oddly thought-free resistance to gods and fate and the 'right' way to respond to a tragic backstory comes from this ignorance; this also is a case in the D20 fandom when they've dipped into sci fi.] Shipping definitely is a factor, and I think again C3 has an influx of fans primarily here to ship in that "my ship must become canon and must 'win' for some arbitrary definition thereof" which is probably why so much of the fanfic sucks, but again, this is a larger self-infantilizing and entitled mentality that goes beyond mere ships.

Further reading (mostly my own posts but not exclusively)

The fandom echo chamber (also Good Omens spoilers in a broad sense), not by me

Some discussion on queerphobia being inserted only as a tool to assist with specific shipping narratives (I think this ties in again to like. people need obstacles to justify why the characters aren't already in their cottage by the sea but once the characters are together they discard these obstacles even if they are systemic and would still exist, which makes for really bad fanfic bc it's clearly poorly plotted and thought out)

Me on why this campaign isn't good for shipping but a lot of the fandom showed up primarily to ship (might be the post that prompted this ask tbf)

Fandom monocropping (not my post)

My treatise on Imogen and Laudna specifically which honestly, even now that they are canon, still largely holds up re: the fandom and a related one about similarly fluff-centric Change is Evil and the highest order of fiction is Two Blorbos In A House With Zero Problems mentality (not by me but I've been part of that discussion)

[xxxevilfilms]

🔪💔🩸⛓Yandere Prompts🔪💔🩸⛓

The Tekken men react to their S/O trying to run away from them :P

C/W: Noncon/Dubcon, Domestic Abuse, Knotting (Devil Jin has a knot), Spanking, Crying, Dacryphilia, Dead Dove, etc.

Jin Kazama

In a reality where Jin lets his Devil influence him, he is very selfish and cannot understand why you are doing this to him. For the briefest moment, Jin wonders if your leaving is his fault, but his inner beast works quickly to convince him that their mate is simply having an emotional episode. Jin has no time for these childish games of yours however and reprimands you once Tekken Force soldiers bring you back to him. In your shared bedroom, you are subjected to punishments brought on by an eternally evil man who will stop at nothing to claim you as his own.

Your hole flutters and clenches around the bulbous knob of flesh that fills you, hurts you, and tries to expand within you, and yet it's too big for you to take. You cry out for some kind of mercy from Jin then, trying to placate him with sweet words and humble apologies, but it only incites more ire from him. Instead, he pushes you to the bed, hand tugging at silken locks as he forces you to take the rest of his thick cock in your ruined hole. "Let it be known that this will be the last time I will let this happen." He punctuates his threat with a deep roll of his hips that has you clawing at the sheets. "This worthless little hole will bleed red by the time I am done with you."

Hwoarang

A ticking time bomb conceded enough to believe that he's too good of a boyfriend for you to do this to him, Hwoarang isn’t too pleased to find your things gone when he returns to his apartment. Unfortunately for you, Hwoarang knows these streets like the back of his hand and catches up with you with no problem. Before you know it, you're back in the apartment, forced to strip naked and grovel for a man who will promise you basic human decency again once you manage to earn his trust back.

You snivel and shake when you peel your underwear off, shuddering under the unmoving eye of your "lover" as he shamelessly ogles your body, as if proud of what he's made of you. "I swear, I dunno why you bother," He cups you, fondles you like a whore, manipulating a trimmed cunt he took great joy in molesting. "If you're gonna act like a dumb bitch, I'll treat you like one." His grip tightens, pulling at unshaven hairs that make you yip. "A sweet little puppy bitch who ain't gonna leave her kennel till I find her a new muzzle."

Sergei Dragunov

Quiet, calm, and contemplative; deadly like a snake in the grass. He already keeps tabs on you, has taken many hours out of his week to remember all of your points of contact and potential destination spots, so for you to do this to him is of no concern to him. Your routine has been carefully memorized, documented, and laminated in crisp manilla folders; such a sudden change in such a dull schedule is bound to attract his attention. You don't even make it out the door when he catches you. Instead, you are greeted by a scarred face and clenched fists wielded by the white-skinned brute who silently menaced you with them.

Dragunov leans over you, treating your grievances like whistling winds as you blubber like a child in his lap. He grazes the red and ruddy hand-shaped bruises on your skin with creeping fingers that quickly grope your swollen flesh, kneading and squeezing, drawing pained noises from you that make the bulge pressing into your stomach twitch in anticipation.

A/N: Please be advised that I do not do reader-insert/OC content. The "you" in this context is whatever Tekken character you imagine seeing in this scenario. While I am more than happy to do more fucked up prompts like this between certain couples, do not ask me to do prompts/ideas involving reader-inserts/OCs, I will just ignore/delete them. Thank you!

[the-rat-eatery]

It’s very hard to describe what it is to be queer to me. I see men and women not much older than me and I want to be them. They make me uncomfortable, they make the world uncomfortable— I love them with everything in me. I see girls with unshaved pits and unibrows and stubble peaking through thick makeup, boys with shiny cheekbones and tooth gaps and scars like crescent moons on their chests— I want to be boyish in the way girls are boyish and feminine in the way boys are feminine. I want big, messy hair like that guy’s beard. I want a shaved head full of bald spots in the shapes of lightning strikes and stars. I want a tattoo of violets on my ribs. I love cargo pants, carabiners.

I love loving women. It’s one of the most comfortable things in my life. I love being queer. I love the optionality. I like being a girl in the way that girls like, not in the way that man ogle at— I want to make the men uncomfortable with my exaggerated hair and pants and voice. I want people to look at me and shy away. I want women that look at other women to look at me and yell— she’s one of us!— from the other side of the street.

And it’s not just liking the way girls move or the way they talk or the way their thoughts come together— it’s being queer, it’s being gay, it’s being an awful deviant. It’s shaved eyebrows and hair that looks awful out of context. It’s noses that are too big and lips that are too big and fingers that are too long. It’s the way that man’s shirt falls over his ribs. It’s the way that girl’s skirt gets muddy and tangled with her heavy boots. It’s overexposed photos. It’s women with bleeding knuckles, scraped knees. It’s raspy voices. It is stretched ears hanging loose. It’s girls that are boys and boys that are girls— girls that are girls uncomfortably and boys that are boys with disquiet.

And it is also me. Me— in my appeasing floral dress and calm hair. I don’t shave for weeks out of some sort of childish rebellion but then am not confident enough to lift my arms to reach a high shelf for fear that someone will see— eventually, I let my leg hair grow out and banish the pit hair, I figure: what’s the point if I don’t like it? I exercise. I build up my biceps. When I lift my arms to do my hair up, the muscles bulge and ripple— this feels good. But my mother scolds me for lifting too much, tells me that this is a man’s job— what am I to do with that? My nail polish is chipped and I wear boots everywhere and I stare at pretty girls when they aren’t looking. I write poetry for my best friend, poetry I will make sure she never reads. I am… adjacent to queerness. No boys ask me out despite the fact that I still want them too, I suspect they hear my baying laugh and see the long hair on my ankles and are made uncomfortable (but is that not what I wanted?— I ask myself— did I not want to displace those who have always been steady, make steady those who trip often?). But no girls ask me out either, and I am afraid of them. There are gay girls in my sphere, but they don’t pick up on the signals I am desperately trying to send out— me on my little rock stuck in open space, casting out radio signals like fishing line in the hopes that, someday, it will catch. But my boots do nothing but squeak on the tile and my hair does nothing but fall limp in the heat. I am too uncomfortable and yet too commonplace. I am stuck on the path between person and better person— the front wheel of my bicycle has gotten lodged in the mud and I keep pulling and pulling and, eventually, it will fly out and all the momentum of my pulling will launch me over the finish line.

I want to wear a suit that looks good on me. I want a carabiner, a whole collection of heavy boots and jackets. I want to be a gender-bending, fluid masterpiece. Someone that is neither man nor woman but king and queen and warlock all. I am stifled here, muted. My colors dimmed and dulled— sullied under the too bright rays of scrutiny that I consist under. The problem is— I like my floral dresses, my thick hair that gets stiff in the sea breeze. But I also like the way I look in blazers and my one pair of expensive, woolen pants. I like the way it feels to stomp my boots at a concert. I feel masculine and I am powerful in that masculinity. I also feel powerful when the sun hits my hips as I lounge next to the Atlantic— the way strangers stare at my flushed face, my full thighs and strong arms, feels powerful. Like I have and hold power in my cupped hands and like I have drunk from them. I don’t fall into the lines of butch and femme, I only stand on them, admiring the people on either side.

There is strength in knowing who you are, there is stability, there is community. There is that look that passes between people when they spot another in the crowd— a nod of respect, of compassion, of recognition. Hello there— person that is not like those around you— it says— do not fret, you are like me. I want that.

[constantlyfeelsick]

So i was reading @basil-does-arttt 's fanfic "Frustrations and Gentle Affections." and I realised something. For context, Nico has convinced the Spardas to sit down in their Devil Trigger forms and let her pick off loose scales for her experiments and creations. While she is doing this, she wonders to herself whether if demons groom themselves. This led me to the idea, what if demons moult?

(Bunch of stuff about moulting below. I'm no expert, and my sources are all online searches)

I will concentrate on bird and crustacean moulting for this. Moulting for birds is the replenishment and replacement of feathers. A bird's plummage will noticeably change over the course of the year. As their plummage dulls, they will then start to moult. They typically go through either partial moults (replacement of a portion of theif feathers) and/or complete moults (replacement of all feathers, birds typically don more vibrant features after complete moults).

Now moving onto crustaceans, specifically lobsters. Rather than an internal skeleton, lobsters have external skeletons called an exoskeleton. As a lobster grows, their exoskeleton will become too tight, and they will shed their exoskeleton and be left with a soft shell. Immediately after moulting, a lobster will pump their body full of fluids and enlarge their soft shell. A lobster grows ~20% per moult. After enlarging their bodies, a lobster will absorb water to rehydrate and will eat their previous shells to regain nutrition and protein. Due to an enzyme called telomerase, lobsters continue to grow through their lives, and the occurrence of senescence is slow. (It was actually due to this that the myth of lobsters' immortality came to place).

@basil-does-arttt 's interpretation is closer to that of a bird's moult. Individual feathers/scales fall off and are replaced. But I think lobsters' moult align more with demons. I'm pretty sure that as demons age, the more powerful they become. Lobsters also continue to grow as they age. Apart from natural old age eventually killing lobsters, another reason not all lobsters continue growing is that moulting is consumes a lot of energy, the larger the body, the more energy necessary to moult(like how triggering dt takes up a lot of energy for the spardas). Perhaps demons have a similar problem? They can't continue growing for eternity due to energy consumption, and that would explain why we haven't seen any behemoth sized demons. Lobsters' longevity is also seen in demons' long lifespans. Once again, this could be due to demons continually creating a certain enzyme to sustain them like how lobsters do. Also, I feel like eating their shedded moult is something demons would do, just feels right.

Another thing I wanted to bring up is this "cult" that is growing a leviathan lobster god. Sure, it is a joke thing to incentivise people into recycling and caring more for the earth, but they do have a point with the large lobster. The largest lobster found weighed 20.15 kgs (44.4lbs) , the average lobster weights ~0.6 kgs (1.3lbs). That means the largest lobster was ~3591.6% bigger than the average lobster. Now imagine that with demons, if the twins SDT is the average size of a demon, a levithan sized demon would be so fucking huge.

[hanzajesthanza]

So I watch videos about games to vet them before buying them cause I don't want to spend time and money on something I dislike or disagree with and came to the conclusion that I would like the Witcher 3. However when I tried playing it initially I was stuck on who Geralt was and not who other people said he was so I set the game aside and read all the books expect season of storms (I knew it came out after the game) because I figured it would help me play the game. I love reading so this wasn't a problem and I love the books and am now making my way through the game.

What I have to say is that I do not understand how someone could get the maximum amount of Witcher experience from the game alone. Geralt learns and changes in the books and you need to know him and his companions to make that games make sense.

What are your thoughts on this cause I have a friend who loves the games but hasn't read the books and yes I have told her to read them for her own benefit.

what i've found is that it really depends on the individual, what they define "the witcher experience." for some people, that's only going to be the games, for others, it will be the books first, then games, and for others still it will be just the books, and so on. i've been all three of the above, and there's even more, for instance, people who want to consume every single media that gets produced with the "witcher" name, because... witcher!

the games trilogy stands by itself as its own cycle of storytelling, apart from the books, so i can understand how some fans feel that the books aren't needed to have a "full" experience. i think even xletalis expressed this in one of his videos (i used to watch them way back when), where he said that he felt "satisfied" or "complete" after playing the games, so he didn't feel any need to read the books.

it's also up to the individual on whether or not the books will help or hinder their game experience. some context is helpful, but if you focus too much on the books while playing the games, it begins to detract from the games experience (at least, it did for me).

i really couldn't go back to witcher 3 the same way i did after i read the books, because the thing i enjoyed the most in witcher 3, and which also took up a lot of the time—riding around the map on roach—had become depressing and dull. whereas when i first played the game, it was like freedom for geralt to ride with swords on his back, doing witcher things, when i came back to it after reading, all i could think about was how alone geralt was, riding alone, with no one to talk to, no one to fill the silence. i kept thinking about the hanza's shallow graves... i missed dandelion with his banter and his lute... and i felt the weight of the swords, the desperation and frustration of losing ciri...

and this made me realize that between different medias, there are different priorities for the audience.

in the books, it's the dialogue, the characters, in short: the writing, which is the focus. and this writing is not always "fun" to engage with. yes, it's enjoyable to read, but is often about really heavy topics or feelings, bringing to light some unsavory truths, bringing you to strong emotions. and it's a dialogue with the author, whose tendencies and ideas about the canon i'm trying to figure out as i go. and the witcher largely focuses on the suffering of its characters, and though they retain their hope, their lives are not exactly power fantasies or figures i'd like to live vicariously through.

for instance, geralt as a witcher in witcher 3 feels powerful and cool, but in the books, though he has badass moments, in the storytelling it's exactly the opposite. his "witcher's work" is quite literally just his day job, one he doesn't really enjoy but has to do because otherwise he'll starve, and which often brings him to dark places and fills him with regrets and doubts.

witchering in the books is not presented as something fun and game-like, and this difference in approach makes it difficult to transition back into playing a game for enjoyment. the books, though they depict violence, are really anti-violence and usually (usually, although it's very satisfying sometimes) depict killing as a brutal necessity and not something to aspire to. ciri's story as she struggles with revenge is really best encompassing this, but it's also present in geralt's storyline.

another example is that of regis, as when i first played blood and wine i thought he and dettlaff storming dun tynne was totally badass, but after i read the books, it felt... bad. i saw him as having an incredibly complex relationship with violence and bloodshed, and self-defining as a coward... (blood and wine, though it acknowledged his sobriety, had him break it again and didn't really take the time to explore the effects of this). it didn't feel like it aligned with his character motivations and conflicts from the books.

that was how it was for me playing from a books perspective. but from a games perspective, it's different.

though there are many ways people interact with video games, and i'm not knocking witcher 3's storytelling or saying that you can't engage with video games as stories, i'm only speaking from how i personally engage with video games: i like to maximize the "fun" out of them, the interactive play element.

unlike in a book, i'm often not looking for long and drawn-out philosophical discussions, but witty exchanges or great one-liners. i want cool fights and interesting questlines that lead me somewhere as a player. storytelling is more cause-and-effect than contemplative narrative. and witcher 3 does everything about a video game really well, it's very fun to play.

when i first played witcher 3, riding on horseback with a silver sword as bright as a lightning bolt is all i ever wanted. then after i read the books, i came from this area where the witcher-ing reality was purposefully questioned. it wasn't just like "yooo, endrega nest! blow this shit up!" it was like, "i wonder what the ecological effect of destroying this nest is... oh god... did those rotfiends back there have families..." because... well, the books just make you think like that.

so, i wouldn't say that you necessarily need the books or the games to enjoy either, because for me, they're quite separate: separate attitudes, separate approaches. the books will help you understand what's going on in the games, but can also distract from what the games do well. the games are good because they're good at being games, the books are good because they're good at being books. so it's fine to want to just have one-or-the-other; just don't expect them to translate over.

however, from a cohesive "storytelling perspective," i.e., continuity's sake, i do think it makes sense to read the books to understand character relationships, as you mentioned.

for instance, i did not really understand geralt and dandelion's friendship until i read the short stories and got a better look at why they are friends (though it's also my fault for only playing the third game, they're much better in the first two i know).

i also didn't get geralt and yennefer as a couple until i read the books twice (it's more of a longer story there. but basically, i couldn't read rivia and be like 'nah they shouldn't be together'... like she died on top of his dead body. they're kind of together forever whether anyone likes it or not lol). this was also due to a lot of yennefer slander i read from more game-based fans who didn't read any of the books, but swore that she was cruel and abusive to geralt, and i made the mistake of trusting their word for it since "they know more than i do!"

at the same time, it might be more confusing for an audience, because some characters in the game get reduced to their un-developed character state from the books, so they can then arc within the game.for instance, yennefer in witcher 3 is less like the lady of the lake yennefer, and more like the sword of destiny yennefer.

additionally, some characters are just straight up changed in personality, for instance, triss who has become more brave and assertive in the games, a "pseudo-yennefer." though you can chalk this up to character development occurring in the space of time since the books ended, i think it is confusing to try and pawn it off as the same character with continuity, since we don't see any of that development happening it feels like an abrupt change.

even with characters that cdpr got really "right," i prefer to see them as entirely separate characters and canons (this is about regis. lol) because it's disturbing to see some of the changes and try to take that as a "canon continuation".

this was all kind of a ramble, so i hope i answered your question!

tl;dr my answer would be that it really depends on the player/reader and what they want to get out of the experience; if they feel satisfied with having the knowledge they have or if they want more depth and explanations, if they care to deal with the complexity of marrying two canons with each other, or don't want to get too deep into the multimedia universe.

in my own space, i like to think about the books as a complete cycle, and then engage with games/other mediums with an "i'll entertain it, if it's entertaining" attitude—so i really can't judge if someone wants to only look into the games, that's just the mirror-reverse of what i do.

however, i think it's worth it to look into the other medias, even if it doesn't end up being something you're primarily interested in. like, just read the first book, or play a little of the third game (i choose these because they're the easiest to get into). try to talk to fans who like those medias most, see what they like about it.

i think this can not only help you think about what you enjoy about your own "witcher experience," but also start to understand why other fans like this other media so much, which can then help you have, or understand, more conversations.