#USUALLY I would not post older stuff as scraps like this but I remembered what a great fucking song set it off is

[thebluestbluewords]

Wouldn’t Ever Make You Leave

(Mal/Ben but in a bisexual and poly way)

+

Mal dances up to Ben, on the neon-lit steps of the castle.  “Hey, princeling,” she says with a little smirk and a swish of her soft purple skirts. “Wanna take a spin?” 

Ben grabs on to her outstretched hand. “You know it.” he says, and lets her pull him out onto the dance floor. 

Mal, shockingly, isn’t a bad dancer. She’s not letting Ben lead very well, but it’s kind of fun to let go, and just let himself be pulled along with the music and the movement of her body, rather than trying to hold himself back with the formal steps that have been drilled into him through years of royalty-appropriate dance lessons designed to teach him just the right way to lead a lady with whom he is interested in dancing. 

It’s fun, is what Ben’s thinking. Mal must be able to feel him relax into it, because she swings him a little harder, pushing Ben into moving away and back from her again, a little swing-steppy sort of move that doesn’t really fit with the upbeat song currently pumping through the outdoor speakers that the castle keeps around for just this kinds of student event. 

She pulls him in, so that they’re shoulder to shoulder again, and bounces a bit on her heels to bring her face up to Ben’s cheek. “So, hey!” Mal whisper-shouts in Ben’s ear. “You looked pretty good up there today! Very regal, and all that.” 

Ben draws her over to the edge of the crowd before answering. It’s quieter, on the far side of the dance floor. Further away from the speakers. 

“Thanks?” he says. Is this what flirting looks like? “You looked good, too.” Oh, wait. “Very good .” he adds, with a little nudge to her shoulder. 

Mal crows out a burst of laughter, and slaps Ben on the arm. “Oh my gods, Ben! You’re awful, you know that?” 

This is more like it. Ben knows what to do with this. It’s kind of hard to reign in his grin. “Usually people tell me I’m good.” he says, pushing close. 

Mal lets him get all up in her personal space, grinning like a jack-o-lantern all the while.  “You know what I meant. You were pretty cool today, princeling.” 

“Shouldn’t you be calling me kingling now?” Ben asks, reaching up to touch the crown he’s swapped into for the party. Tradition dictates that he’s not allowed to wear the ceremonial crown for casual events, but his sense of self-importance, which he knows is something he should be working on, means he’s wearing the casual, plated one that was offered after the main coronation ceremony ended. “King of the states, and all.” 

“Mm,” Mal hums. “I don’t know if a double vote at council meetings and increasing responsibilities until age twenty-five or marriage is really enough for me to consider you a king quite yet.” She swings Ben around into a little spin, both of them ducking under each other’s arms, equal partners on the edge of the neon dance floor.  “Get back to me in a bit,” she shouts over the rush of noise as a new, apparently very popular song comes on. “I’ll have to consider it.” 

Ben spins her swing-dance style, so that she ends up with her arms crossed, tucked against his chest as he leans them both over. “That’s more than fair,” he says, burying it in the curve of her jaw, by her ear.  “I don’t know if I should consider myself a king yet either, then. There’s no official re-coronation date chosen yet, so maybe I’ll have to wait for my second crowning.” 

Mal pulls back at that, far enough so that she can look Ben in the face. “Is there going to be one?” She sounds horrified. “That’s terrible.” 

Ben laughs. “You know us royals. Always gotta be the center of attention, right?” 

“Mm-hm'' Mal hums. She seems distracted, and it takes Ben a moment to notice her staring behind him, back out on the main floor. She looks back as soon as she realizes that he’s realized, but not before he catches a glance of blue. She’s watching Evie, of course, as she goes sweeping by all glittering and beautiful on the arm of a boy whom Ben knows Mal hates. 

Ben doesn’t have anything against Doug, personally, but it makes sense that Mal would resent any boy, even a band-geeky one, making eyes at her girlfriend. 

He dares to move a hand to the small of Mal’s back, pulling her in. She doesn’t startle, of course, but she looks back to him. 

“Um,” Mal laughs. “Oops. Us villains too, we just live for the drama of it all.” 

“I’m sure. Would you ever want to be crowned, if you could go back to the moors someday?” 

The corner of Mal’s mouth twitches, like she’s trying not to smile (Or maybe not to bare her teeth at him. It’s hard to say sometimes, with Mal.) “It wouldn’t quite be going back, for me. I’ve never been in the first place.” 

Ben ducks his head. He’s a little bit lightheaded from the drinks served earlier, and a little bit flustered from being around this amazing girl. “Right,” he says. “Of course.” 

“Anyway, no. I wouldn’t want to be crowned the queen of a people I’ve never even met.” Mal goes on. “I know my mother wanted me to reclaim our homeland, and all that, but I’m not really much for….” 

“Subjugating unwilling people under your iron fist?” Ben offers. The chunks of iron sewn into the outside of Mal’s gloves are something he’s been too afraid to ask about directly. Maybe after tonight, he’ll find the right words. 

“Not quite iron.” Mal says lightly, making a fist to demonstrate. She’s right. She’s wearing a delicate golden bracelet today, draping down over the back of her hand. No iron in sight. “My golden fist?” 

He has to have seen her bare hands before this. It’s basically impossible for him to have not seen. She can’t possibly wear gloves all of the time. “Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it.” Ben manages to say. 

He wants to hold her hand. 

Mal pulls her fist back before he can make a move. “Not quite, no.” 

(Find the rest on my ao3!!)

[redorich]

Technolore??!!!! Technobackstory! Is it related to the quip about being a child slave in that intermission post a while back?

Out of the like ten people who asked me this, you’re the only one who picked up on that little hint I dropped. Congrats!

Techno doesn’t like to talk about it much, for obvious reasons. He’s a piglin, not a human, and while most piglins aren’t much more than humanoid animals, Techno has always been different. His intelligence is what gets him noticed. There’s a lot of stuff that happened to him as a child, because he got noticed.

Gladatorial combat is cool. It’s fun. In the modern age, it’s basically an old-timey wrestling match, but with swords. You pay to see some dudes fight ‘til one of them dies, and then they respawn and shake hands and it’s all very proper. To Techno, age six, gladatorial combat means soaking your hands with the blood of other children, even when there’s not an audience. Practice makes perfect, the owner manager would say. The ones who survive long enough to graduate from fresh meat status know better. Practice breaks them in, makes them malleable. In the pit of dead humans and hybrids alike, of all ages, Techno learns not to weep. 

It stays in the pit.

He’s good at fighting, remembers what he learned from peeking over bastion walls and watching the brutes practice. He watches the older kids in the pit, forces himself not to look away. They’re human, but they’re similar enough in stature that he can mimic them.

His little hands aren’t human. They can’t hold a sword like a human would. A girl not much older than him, but much taller (enderman hybrid, people say) shows him how to adjust for the presence of claws. It’s not quite right, but it works better for his hoof-nails than the human way does. He kills her for an audience, with the same grip she taught him.

Technoblade quickly becomes a fan favorite-- less for his remarkable skill and outstanding win-loss ratio, but because he is a novelty. No one has ever seen a smart piglin like him. They examine his ears, his tusks, the curve of his knees on his digitigrade legs. (They’re unguligrade, actually, but Techno knows better than to correct them.) They hand him tiny nuggets of gold like a parent would dole out candy, because he’s a piglin and piglins like gold, right? A little treat for a rising star.

He hoards his gold preciously. Anyone who tries to steal it meets their end in the pit. Techno waits and he plans. He begins to hear the dull roar of the audience in his head, even when he’s alone. There are whispers in there, intertwined so neatly that he can only barely hear them on the periphery of his consciousness. The voices demand blood and violence-- business as usual-- but the whispers are different. They tell him a story of gods and men, of a god bestowing preternatural intelligence upon a squalling infant, so that it may become his champion.

Techno’s everyone’s champion (except his own), which means that he gets privileges that the others don’t. The others despise him for it. He must defend every scrap of favoritism he receives with his life. He never receives anything that will directly aid him in a fight; that’s too dangerous to give to anyone who exists outside of the ring. But he receives a weak healing potion, nearly expired, after a match more bloody than usual, occasionally spends time being dressed up and paraded around instead of in the pit, and-- oh. Finally. Finally.

The manager gifts him an apple. It’s a little shrivelled, likely plucked from a tree a handful of days ago. Techno knows he only received the gift because the manager has no use for it, can afford to waste food. Techno remembers, hazily, his older cousins crafting a wonderful, beautiful item that the humans stole off their corpses: a golden apple. He sequesters himself away in his room, feverishly crafts his magnum opus, and runs to the manager.

The manager’s office is simultaneously ostentatious and bare. They step out from behind their desk to greet Techno, smile strained in a way that speaks volumes. If this doesn’t go right, he’ll be spending time in the pit. He takes a bite of the golden apple, nearly chokes on it-- draws his stone sword, pockmarked with battle and not gleaming in the slightest--

Techno’s bleeding so much he can barely stand, but the manager’s head is deposed from their shoulders. The young piglin, in a fit of righteous pique, snatches the bloody golden crown from the floor, where it’s fallen off the manager’s head, and wears it for himself. It’s too big.

The floor-to-ceiling mirror to the left of the manager’s desk shows a broken, scarred child with wide eyes and a tilted crown. Techno imagines that one day, he’ll look in the mirror and see a piglin strong enough to take on the world, and big enough to wear his crown properly.

[seijorhi]

hello, i love your writing and was hoping if u could write a yandere kuroo x reader where he corners her in a corner and kenma is there and is getting off from it 😳 thank u !

Asdfghjkl this was supposed to be posted on Sunday I’m sorry, bby!! I hope it’s worth the wait! 💕 also, loved this request so thanks for sending it in 😊

Kuroo Tetsuro x Female Reader, Kenma Kozume x Female Reader

TW dub con, coercion (kinda?), stalking, humiliation

Helping Hand

There’s a certain peace you find in the looming stacks of the library after the sun sets. It’s quieter then, less people milling about. You don’t have to fight for space or books, and considering you have midterms soon and essays coming out of your ears, that makes it the perfect study environment.

It’s only a little after eight, the library’s still open for another two and a half hours, but on the fourth floor it’s almost a ghost town - just how you like it. There’s a professor tucked away in the back corner, piles of books built up around him, an older librarian with her trolley, slowly re-shelving books, and two other guys around your age sitting huddled at a table a few down from yours - the textbooks and highlights spread across their desk having been long since abandoned in favour of literally anything else.

Honestly, you’d wonder why they’d bother coming to the library at all if it wasn’t an almost daily occurrence. Most days you were there, so were they - usually together, although it wasn’t uncommon to see just one of them camped out between the stacks as you made your way to your desk. The duo, one tall and lean with a shock of messy dark hair that always looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, and the other smaller, more reserved, with bleached hair and dark roots in serious need of a touch up, seemed to prefer this time to study too - not that they ever seemed to actually do all that much studying.

Usually the blonde ends up absorbed in his switch while the other casually thumbs through whichever book is closest.

So long as they were quiet and didn’t disturb you, who were you to judge?

You don’t really remember when they’d started to appear, only that they’d quickly become a fixture in your refuge - distantly familiar presences like strangers travelling on the same bus to work each day. They smile (well, the dark haired one does) and nod whenever you happen to look up from your notes and catch their eye, and while you’ve only spoken a handful of words to the both of them, they always seemed nice. 

Nicer than the clearly overworked professor muttering away in the corner at any rate, which makes them the logical choice to approach when you find your bladder uncomfortably full halfway through your self imposed study session. Realistically, you know at this time of the night nobody else is likely to make their way up to the fourth floor, much less have any interest in your shitty, old laptop or the five whole dollars in your wallet - yet you find you making your way over to the twosome’s table anyway, a faint blush dusting across your cheeks.

“… don’t want to,” you overhear the blonde mutter, his attention wholly focused upon the game in his hands. “Things are fine, why change that?”

His friend sighs, “Because you can deny it all you want, but I know you better than that. I know I’m not the only one who wants more. You can’t just sit back and…” he trails off suddenly, hazel eyes flickering over to you in surprise. 

Confused by his friend’s sudden silence, the blonde lowers his game and glances up - only to still at the sight of you.

You swallow down your nerves, plastering what you hope is a friendly enough smile across your face, “Hi, uh… sorry to interrupt you guys, but would you mind watching my stuff for a few minutes while I go to the bathroom? I won’t be long or anything, I just don’t like leaving my stuff out in the open,” you say with a sheepish laugh, well aware that you’re rambling like an idiot. 

It’s the dark haired one who answers, a wide grin breaking across his face as he nods, “Yeah, no worries. We’d be glad to.”

You smile back, ignoring the faint fluttering in your stomach (he does look kind of cute grinning like that), thanking him again before rushing away in the direction of the bathroom.

It doesn’t take long for your thoughts to drift away from the duo back to the essay you’re mid-way through drafting. You have a sinking feeling that the argument you’re trying to use in the fourth paragraph is essentially a just rehash of the point you made in the first. By the time you unlock the stall door and make your way over to the sink to wash your hands, you’re starting to debate the merits of scrapping the whole thing and starting fresh with new ideas.

You still technically have time, it’s not due until the end of the month, but you just kind of want it done so you don’t have to think about it anymore. Then again, that’s kind of your feelings towards the semester as a whole. 

Who are you kidding? University’s kicking your ass this year.

The ancient hand dryer’s almost deafening as it clicks on - it masks the sound door swinging open and the footsteps that echo out from the tile floors.

It’s only when your eyes flicker up to mirror that you see that you’re no longer alone-

Standing right behind you is the guy from before; the tall, dark haired one. 

- and jerk in surprise, stumbling backwards with a choked yelp.

It doesn’t hit you right away - no, that’s relief that has you drawing a hand over your chest and letting out a shaking laugh. “You scared the hell out of me!” you say, bracing yourself over the sink to try and calm your breathing.

No, it doesn’t hit you quickly. Realisation is slow - creeping through your veins like ice as your eyes flicker back up the mirror. 

He hasn’t moved. 

He’s smiling, grinning really, but there’s something… something off about it. It doesn’t quite meet his eyes… Why isn’t he saying anything?

W-why isn’t he moving away?

Your heart, still hammering from his shock of his sudden appearance, squeezes uncomfortably and your eyes slowly widen.

“Wh-”

A rough, calloused palm slaps across your mouth, smothering whatever words you’d been about to speak. “Ah, ah. Gotta keep it down, sweetheart.”

He winks at you in the mirror, taking a tiny step towards you and you squeak, breathing in sharp, shallow pants through your nose as a warm, muscled chest presses against your back. “You’re a nervous little thing, aren’tcha?” he chuckles. “Relax a little - promise I don’t bite.”

With one hand wrapped around your lips the other creeping across your waist, his words don’t exactly bring you a lot of comfort. 

It makes no difference either way - you’re paralysed, shaking and trembling, but utterly unable to move as he noses at the column of your throat, his warm breath tickling your skin.

You could scream, but there’s no guarantee anybody would hear you. You could try and fight him off, but he’s taller than you, and you’re willing to bet stronger as well.

Will he hurt you if you try and resist?

Is he gonna hurt you anyway?

You’ve heard the stories before about men who follow women into empty bathrooms and the awful things they do, but you never...

Those things don’t happen in places like this. The library is supposed to be safe, he- he’s been-

Your stomach drops.

Weeks. 

He’s been visiting the library with his friend, sitting across from you for weeks.

His eyes bore into your reflection in the mirror like he can hear every terrified thought that passes through your head, and with excruciating slowness you’re forced to watch as his lips brush a kiss against your cheek, lingering and sweet - a mockery of tenderness. 

A scared little whimper is all you can manage, and even that is swallowed up by the sound of the bathroom door squeaking open once more. 

Your heart skips a beat, eyes widening.

A faint burst of hope flickers to life.

You might not be a fighter, but this might be the only chance you have. You shriek again, the sound woefully muffled, and writhe against your captor’s tightening grip as slow footsteps round the corner.

Please, you think as tears stream silently down your face. Please help me.

What little hope you have is quickly - brutally - extinguished as your would be saviour steps into view.

Your legs shake and you’re almost positive that if it wasn’t for the strong arms wrapped around you, you would have crumpled to the floor.

It’s his friend, the blonde, hands shoved into the pockets of his hoodie, watching the scene before him - you struggling against an iron grip, gagged and terrified - like it’s nothing out of the ordinary. 

Your captor chuckles, relaxing his grip as his hand drifts upwards to palm at your breast and you want to die. “Glad you finally decided to grace us with your presence.”

“Shut up, Kuroo,” the blonde groans as he makes his way over, but he barely glances at his friend before his catlike eyes come to rest on you.

Your cheeks are burning, a potent mix of shame, nausea and dread churning in your stomach as you’re crudely felt up, but under the blonde’s attention you freeze.

While his face is a blank mask of apathetic disinterest, those golden irises are piercing in their intensity as they study you.

The glint in his eyes is as unmistakable as it is stark; anticipation - like a house cat watching a golden canary flit restlessly in its cage.

The hiccuping sob comes unbidden, choking at your throat as you wail against the palm at your lips. You’ve never wanted to disappear so badly in your entire life, to slap yourself awake and realise that it’s nothing but a stress induced nightmare because this can’t be happening.

Why you?

What could you possibly have done to deserve this?

“Relax,” Kuroo repeats, leaning down over you again, “we’re not gonna hurt you. Just wanna have some fun, that’s all.” You think he’s going to try and kiss you again, but instead his tongue darts out and he licks at the silvery tear tracks, groaning softly.

You shoot the quiet blonde a desperate, pleading look. He hasn’t lifted a finger to stop what’s happening, hasn’t done anything other than stare at you, but even as his lips twitch into the faintest hint of a smile you hold out on the shadow of a prayer that maybe, just maybe-

Kuroo follows your wide, panicked gaze and almost snorts. “You’re barking up the wrong tree there, baby. Kenma’s not gonna help you. He wants this just as badly as I do.” His thumb slides across your cheek, brushing away more tears, “C’mon, on your knees.”

He doesn’t give you a choice - the hand on your shoulder forces your shaking knees to buckle and you fall down to the bathroom floor.

The tiles are cold against your bare legs, but the shivers that wrack through you have little to do with the temperature. It’s far too late to regret the short skirt you’d thrown on that morning.

Kuroo hums appreciatively, lifting his palm to tap it a few times against your cheek like you’re an adorable little puppy who’s just learned its first trick, “It’s a good look for you, baby, but I think it’d be even better without this-” his fingers tug at the collar of your top and his grin widens, “- in the way.” 

Yet he makes no move to take it off for you. One look into his eyes, the glittering amusement darkened with lewd desire and you know that he won’t.

He wants you to do it, to play along in their fun - to be an active participant in your own humiliation.

And really, what other choice do you have?

It’s impossible to ignore the bulge straining against his jeans as your trembling fingers grip the hem of your top and reluctantly yank it upwards. There’s a sharp inhale - Kuroo you think - and a whistle as it comes off, baring your lacy bra and the soft skin underneath to their hungry gazes. 

Only for a moment. 

Staring resolutely at the floor you’re quick to try and cover what little modesty you have left, bringing your arms up to wrap around your chest-

Except a hand catches at your wrist and tugs it back, and when you glance up you find it’s Kenma’s. 

“… Don’t,” he murmurs. “I want to see you.”

You let your arms drop, hands clenching into shaking fists in your lap, fingernails biting into your palm.

The sound of a zipper being pulled undone is almost deafening in the quiet bathroom. Fresh tears sting at your eyes, but you can’t bear to look at either of them as Kuroo reaches inside his pants and frees his cock.

The hand that cups your cheek is surprisingly gentle as he coaxes your face back towards him and the achingly hard member in his grip. “See Kenma, I told you - change ain’t always a bad thing.”

His dark eyes flicker back to you and he grins, “Open up, sweetheart.”

[puuvillaa]

Good morning!!!

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

💖 What made you start writing?

Please 🧡

Hello and thank you for the message! 💙

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

If I'm thinking about my hp fics only (and I am because I can't really remember the fics that are older than them) I would actually say it's By Appointment Only because I started it with a relatively simple idea and wanted to explore a more complete experience of loneliness than I usually write about, but then plot keeps happening and I have no idea where it's trying to take me and then a bit more plot keeps happening and it refuses to end. Good thing I like writing it 😂

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

I have a few, yeah. One free!, one yoi, five haikyuu, two wolfstar ones. One of those was a half-baked idea that I never gave much thought to in the first place, I haven't looked at it in 2 years, I have no recollection of what I even wrote, and I have no interest in finding out. The second one is Things That Can't Be Changed from Remus’s pov, which I just lost interest in. Although I still think the first chapter was good and I've vaguely thought about repurposing it into a separate angsty Remus in 1981 fic.

💖 What made you start writing?

Fics or original? Because I've been writing original stuff since I was very young, and there was nothing in particular that made me start, it's just always been my way of communicating with the world. I started taking writing seriously when I was maybe 12 because I realised how much I enjoy it and how much other people enjoy hearing my stories.

What made me start writing fic is a harder question because I wrote my first fics pretty much exactly 20 years ago and I have no clue what was going through my head back then. I don't even remember how I decided to start writing fills for a kink meme back in 2009, although my guess would be the community. Since, you know, I actually posted those fics for people to read, unlike my earliest fics that only lived in my computer, apart from the one drarry fic I wrote on paper in 2004.

Fanfic writer emoji ask

[cutegirlmayra]

When your tired after a 16hr shift yesterday so you rant about Sonic and explain why aggressive writing vs. neutral writing helps with sharing ideas

Me and my online Sonic friend talking about Belle.  (I’m skipping some dialogue throughout the chat, this was lazily put together lol)

WARNING: It’s long, and it’s a rant. So please note that I’m blatantly aware of how wrong my aggressive, sleep-deprived rant was and that I’m stating “DON’T PRESENT YOUR IDEAS LIKE THIS!” because this is not a healthy nor effective way of sharing ideas.

ALSO, ALL THE MENTIONS OF WHAT I BELIEVE MY FRIEND IS FEELING OR THINKING DURING MY RANT ARE ENTIRELY MY OPINON. If she tells me to delete something or change it I will without hesitation but I find it funny, as I look back, to insert what I think might be going on in her mind XD She might have been oblivious to me but I’ll get her thoughts and change anything if necessary.

It’s also how most trolls and antis and even some ‘not experienced writers’ write their ideas out, and it can be easily avoided by using Neutral Writing Methods. So this is a ‘don’t do this, but try this’ post. Enjoy my badly written, sleepy aggressive rant~<3 (Also, my friend gave me permission to share this lol)

Me: She could be for entertaining little kids. But we already have too many OCs, and they're not 'dying off' any time soon so...I smell a mini-series backup plan...and I don't like what that means for Sonic. And it is cute, sorry, my brain is off the hook right now, I'll keep things to myself cause you may not like what I'm predicting and I'm getting sad thinking about it ;-; so, want to be wrong.

(Friend mentioned “Tinker Bell” spin on name.)

That's precious, but can I get a link to the reference sheet plz? Reference sheets can tell a lot about a chara's functionality if you compare it to the 'needs' of the casts. it can help predict their role. I think she's meant to help but also entertain the kids, maybe planted with a secret. Her goal could be to come back to Mr. Tinker but Eggman abuses that and tricks her into a new robot. I got a weird theory about her but I'll just say that she's probably gonna go a bit dark. But be cute and make the audience go, "Aww, poor thing! She's a cinnamon roll" at first, wonder if they'll equip her with 'happy backstory, tragic ending' kinda thing to switch the usual 'tragic backstory happy ending' but I feel this is a tragic character meant to pull emotion out.

(Friend understands my concerns but mentions there hasn’t been a ‘Bad’ Oc for the comic)

No one sets out to create a 'bad character' especially professional writers like these guys. But what makes a character 'bad' is if you ruin or oversaturate their purposes. If she's a main character that over-shines others with too much story then the audience feels 'betrayed' because they want that screen time for the main casts to express themselves and shine through. That's just an example. When working with IPs like Sonic casts, you HAVE to remember the fanbase is expecting things Do you like my OCs? be honest lol Not from my prompts. There's a specific way to handle a OC that helps the main cast shine and reveals their characters more. AU Ocs help Canon Characters in many ways.

(Friend admits they have not seen my OCs in some of my fanfictions, they’ve only really read my prompts.)

Oh, well, some of my fanfictions have OCs, not Lavinya, she's just a mascot. My Sonic OC that retried XD Sorry, I'm misspelling a lot but I hope you don't mind, my spellcheck sucks and I've given up on it lol Oh, so you don't know Harmony, Ol'Wizzy, and Data?Or the Metal Series? Well, there are specific Ocs that my readers like and they express/compliment the canon characters to where even though they're a main character, they don't intervene with the Main Cast's goals. They actually help. Then everything I'm gonna say won't have much merit so I'll just focus on waiting to see if my predictions for Sonic IDW will come true, but I really hope they don't do what it looks like they strategically might be pulling... I hate SEGA marketing- 

(The beginning of my aggressive rant, please note that I’m not thinking about my image and am writing tired and lazy. This is an example of how NOT to express your opinions in negative ways. It doesn’t influence good at all.)

Their ploys are outdated and frankly, do not work for their IPs market. They target the wrong age group, they have no idea how to organize themselves, and they don't have a leading 'elder' so to speak (just a professional among them) to make good calls. So you have young adults (not super professionals, this might be their first real company job) trying to target internet culture and failing their IPs. They're doing outdated Nintendo tactics that only worked for NINTENDO! Also some other companies that have DIED so why are you copying their marketing strats!? stop! lol

Friend: Did you study marketing because this entire convo kinda flew over my head in terms of understanding (This should have indicated to me that my words were coming off too factual and had too many ‘jargons’ going on. I was losing my ‘reader’ through my rant, but my tired brain would not cease!)

Sonic's trying to morph into something he's not and they're following outdated college course books and it's not gonna help... they're leading Sonic further down and the creators in japan have no power cause all the power is in the stock holders who are stupid money-hungry americans who have lost faith in American SEGA leading SEGA of Japan to move on to other things

Friend: mostly just got you don’t like the marketing (Huge red flag! This means my friend is starting to tune my info out, it’s because I’m presenting my ideas in a slightly aggressive writing style. There are trigger words here that lead an reader to start doubting you. This is why, in most of my answer posts, I make sure to write Neutral writing methods, but I’ll mention that more after my rant lol XP)

It's just bad. Lol I have a Frankenstein degree, (Now I’m justifying myself, which was caused by my aggressive approach. If I simply stated this in a more ‘neutral writing method’ then I wouldn’t have to worry about creditability claims because I’m not trying to sell my idea as the high authority on it.) which means I have knowledge on many different fields. I never took a fully -dedicated- 'marketing class' I took a lot of different communication classes that went to my overall major. One was directly about how you present, sell, and look at marketing tactics. So I have my fingers in many different fields, my major was "Creative Writing for Fiction and Film with an Emphasis in Video Production and a Cluster in Theatre Arts." So I can be on camera, off camera, post and pre production, creative table and actual filming. Does that make sense? (I’m not fully awake to realize what I’m writing, but it’s clear at this point I’m starting to wake up and realize I’m ranting and tossing my ideals of how to present ideas out the window, but let’s watch my follies and learn from them, shall we?) I have theories on what SEGA is going to do, and I have my worries because it's all outdated. It worked for older companies but those companies also targeted a varying audience, which SEGA refuses to see themselves as for a 'teenage audience' which is exactly why they boomed in the 90s. Their target audience is now 20s.

Friend: There are Kids who also like Sonic, even if they don’t play the games though. (Due to my aggressive tactics from not thinking clearly about, not just the what, but the HOW I’m writing, it has turned my friend into a ‘contrasting neutrality’ which is amazing by the way that she did this! She noticed my writing was turning aggressively ranting, and being my friend, didn’t want to be rude about what she was noticing. -I’m guessing lol- so instead, she took the commentary approach, which is to state the good as well. This is a terrible position to put your reader into, and you should make sure to always have good examples and good praise mixed in to contrast any opposing or aggressive statements you ever make. -though you should avoid aggressive writing at all times- Sadly, this does put the reader, in this case my friend, in a very vulnerable position. It leaves them open for attack... but thankfully, she’s a wonderful friend and had trust that I wouldn’t hurt her on her counter-follow-up.)

So instead of using their 40 to 50 year old charts, start with looking at early millennial trends and desires. They tried for 'angst' to 'adultify' Sonic but it busted because we are STICKLERS for animation. Because their story was so scrapped together and had no actual character depth, motivation, or even emotional growth to develop for future game lore, they went for the 'easy made game' (Easy baked oven quote lol that’s just mean XD) We loved the trailer, it was well made, but they threw their animators elsewhere and made the programmers (WHO BLANATLY ADMIT THEY DONT KNOW HOW TO DO STORY/GRAPHICS) and made them do things they aren't trained in. Those micro-head movements and mouths took them A LONG TIME to figure out.

(My friend is now agreeing with me several times through my rant. This is a tactic that is used as ‘avoidance’ but also for ‘appeasement’. She’s probably tuned out by now, but respects what I’m saying but is also incredulous at it as well. It’s fair, I’ve cornered her into my sleepy-time rant, and being the lovable woman that she is, she is simply waiting for me to realize my follies lolol I wish she would have told me but I think she knew I was beyond ‘logical reasoning’ at this point and was just letting me get it all out lolol What a good friend TDT)

Animation can't be learned that fast AND expect them to program a game AT THE SAME TIME. Sonic Forces was a 'split up SEGA' trying to get those who survived and said, "Yeah, I'll stay in this job." to do things that THEY AREN'T EVEN TRAINED IN. you put a game programmer on animation and some other stuff they didn't know what to do with and expect it be a top-notch seller.

Friend: (in more attempts to join in and be a ‘participant’ of the conversation I’m clearly dominating -MY ABSOLUTE BAD- she tried to engage normal conversation flow into the discussion again. At this point, she probably did notice I wasn’t my usual self, and just decided to play along and enjoy the ride lolol I’m just guessing this tho, but it’s a good chance to reflect on what ‘wrongs’ I was doing and what ‘rights’ she was doing during this situation ;)b) My big issue with SEGA is that they rush everything. A lot of things would’ve been better if they had the proper time.

That was resolved actually.

Friend: Oh? It was? (Although this looks like an encouragement, it’s actually just another avoidance tactic to help me ‘get the venting out’ but it’s clear she’s not fully onboard anymore. When you write to discuss, you have to leave room for other’s opinions to shine through as well. Healthy conversation doesn’t mean forcing the other person to comply to you. A lot of this is educated guess based on past research, she knows this, and it’s clear she’s got her own research. Please remember to never shoot someone down when they try to engage you in your conversations. But again, this is the ‘don’t do this’ and me upset at my tired self for not waking up fast enough to contemplate how I was coming across in my wordings. Let’s continue to investigate and dissect the train wreck, shall we?)

That was an issue a few years ago but SEGA is taking their time, it's just that they can't organize themselves and hire the right professionals. They have old tactics, they have rookies that aren't 'Fresh Blood with professionalism' like they need. They don't need an old fart who knows his stuff, they need a new guy who is dedicated and passionate about their company who will remain there, learn them in and out, and knows his stuff SPECIFICALLY for the things SEGA needs. You have to grow that. You have to hire a very talented and young spunky and fresh professional, have him work with you for 10-15 years, and start training others. But SEGA is already recognized as a 'established' company.

(Friend is still agreeing with me, but is aware of my way of presenting it isn’t “As nice as I usually present it” so she starts mentioning the symptoms of Japanese Work Culture. A wonderful, insightful point to mention! But let’s see how I butcher this as well...)

It's not Japan though! (Again, shutting her down. Tsk tsk, sleepy me. Wake up, you lazy bum.) They won't let Japan interfere! They're all really rude to japan actually. The guys in charge, anyway. We all respect the officials, but SEGA of America people just want results. They are just funders, they don't actually work the company.

Friend: So you blame them for everything? (She’s trying to help me see that my writing is coming off as ‘hate’ which is because of my aggressive writing follies I’m doing so bluntly. Let’s please all admire my friend’s patience as she lets me rant and kindly waits for me to realize how bad I’m handling my 16 hr shift from yesterday lolol)

Look, business is really unfair, and I get that, but if I have to rant (I’m starting to wake up more, oh goodie.) I'd say they really need to humble themselves and ask Japan to please take ownership again. They kicked out people due to a money crisis but they need a game that will be 'safe to secure money but get enough excited momentum to help us push on and continue.' which isn't Japan's strategy usually. Japan likes risks, they also like money too. They trust America too much (especially in the beginning) because America is a HUGE consumer. For the world in fact. But I think they sacrificed too much for the company (common in Japan) and trusted America too much in making decisions. The officials are too nice to say that America screwed them over because America wanted full control. Well guess what? They have too much control now and their product is sinking..

Friend:  You’ve got a lot of fire about this topic. (After I completely disregarded reading her follows-ups and continued to rant, my unconditionally kind friend finally threw in the towel, realizing I was no where near my usually ‘present’ self and was probably just flopped back in her chair smiling at my idiocy of not understanding her kind and subtly hints.) Go ahead and rant it out. (BOOM! Obvious right!? I should have corrected myself but at this point, I was writing like wild fire with droopy, waking up eyes and didn’t even read it during my long paragraphs...)

Sonic won't ever fade away due to it's fans, but the company is struggling to figure itself out for YEARS now. I just worry what they plan to do next. But I have a theory that they are really putting the next game in Japan's hands, a lot of activity is happening in SEGA of Japan, and they're spending WAY MORE TIME on the next installment of Modern Sonic (or Classic, still unsure which one it is yet.) I really think they need a remake game to give them profit, then use that profit for their next big installment. But so far, I think they are working on a game BUT corona might have effected production so I'm sure they are working but I'm concerned if Corona helped manage 'time and quality' or is helping to ruin it...That I can't investigate yet :( I just wish for the best (I’M FINALLY WAKING UP FULLY AS I STOP AND REALIZE-) Sorry for my rant! My theory talk showed through and I don't usually like doing that so forgive me. I'm tired and that's why T-T

Friend: It’s cool we all need to rant sometimes. (My friend’s going to make it to Heaven TwT she’s so kind.)

(Then I profusely apologized a billion times cause I realize how badly this all went down. lol)

(But the terror hasn’t ended... she mentioned some youtube videos mentioning other opinions as well. -which I’m usually cautious of cause some of them can be fanon.-)

OHhhh did he mention the arcade crash??? the literal WORST event in SEGA history??? That's literally where they sank the titanic, SEGA has never recovered from selling off their stocks. (I’M BACK AT IT AGAIN. -facepalm-) Shareholders are everything now and it's the biggest loss ever. Also, the problem is that kids don't play the games, (Rereading my follies and wanting to answer but still only just waking up...) but SEGA can't figure out why they like the characters and can't seem to take the FREAKIN' TIME to learn their lore. (Overwhelming the conversation again.) My easy steps: Re-establish Sonic lore CANONLY AND CORRECTLY, Re-gather the Japanese Officials original plans and notes, guides and study art, Re-make some popular games with the most details on Animation, Fluidity of motion graphics, and with modern Technology incorporated into the game. Once that is accomplished, they will have enough money to then- Create a continuity. Only with a flowing story and relevant past lore can they start moving forward. Animation will target their audience, Story and character re-established arcs will bring nostalgia and new blood to the field of their games, and then Japan's influences will keep it authentic for the continuities so we don't have fandom mixing with canon NEARLY AS BADLY as before anymore. Ugh, it does matter their sales, but I literally bought a book on the history of SEGA, and read a really compelling history article about more then just the Console Wars... I know SEGA has survived literally the edge of extinction on multiple fronts, but someone needs to take charge of their Sonic branch, and it's... it's just too outdated. kk, sorry for the rant.

Friend: (After being multiple times ignored, even after my brief moment of clarity, is still an angel. Frustrated, maybe, but an angel.) And your steps sound really good. Also mostly just listen to his vids if you ever do. It’s ok we all need to rant. (THE WORLD DOESN’T DESERVE THIS GURL T-T)

I'm tired so my 'angry' is showing and it's not professional XD do you mind if I post my rant? lol Actually, no. (Realize how awfully I delivered my ideas, this is where I begin to see my errors and where the clarity comes into play. -we all have our off days lol- )

Friend: Go for it

I want to but it's too aggressive. I'm too lazy to rewrite it out so I'll just save that for another day XD You got a rare treat

Friend: (This is actually interesting and fascinating to her. But she realized then that I finally did see my error.) Concerned you’ll get aggressive responses back?

Honest opinion is sometimes too blunt and I need to be careful about that

Friend: I mean it’s always good to try and get most of the anger out so you seem more professional (Saint. Literally. A saint. She’s puts up with too much of my crap XD)

That, and also the war of 'But this is Cutegirlmayra? She's so sweet and constantly puts her answers in supportive, positive lights so that if SEGA were to see it, they would feel empowered to try it instead of threatened and throw it off as hate or something unprofessional.' I have an image too. I can't post something super aggressive or I'll lose trust. You're right.

Friend: I’m glad you put a lot of thought into everything you post

I apologize for it tho T-T I didn't mean to dominate with such opinions...lol I worry who I influence, you know?

Friend: Most people don’t and trust me they get into trouble cause of it. And yeah.

I don't want to create trolls or heated arguments. I want to teach people they can safely express an idea without using such awful communication. Exactly, it's professional fanism. lol Positive writing is what companies and their employees actually read. (I’m almost fully awake now lol, realizing my blunder and starting to explain why I was in the wrong. Good on me, pat on the back, admitting I was coming off as aggressive is the first step to changing and getting better lolol Also, I’m including her more, and I’m saying “You’re right.” and she’s going “And yeah.” which is a indicator that the conversation is slowly returning to an enjoyable and healthy one. ;w; happy endings lol)  That's why I skip the aggressive stuff, even if it's passive, I write in a neutral setting so everyone feels safe to read, even someone who works at SEGA.

Friend: (Mentions some nintendo youtuber rant and also news as well, then says-) It was honestly very professional sounding and not rude. (MY HEART, YOU KNEW THAT WAS AN AGGRESSIVE RANT lololol So nice to me TDT)

Lol you had to have seen how slightly aggressive it was tho. (I’M CALLING YOUR BLUFF, BESTIE lol) You literally asked, "You blame America for it?" which is not always true but semi-true. They were way too prideful (Aggressive word) and haughty (Still aggressive terminology) about their success in other Japanese products that they wanted to completely change Sonic to their own wishes, pushing out Japan's creative "licenses" (I use this word loosely, and this gives a slightly aggressive feel but is also more dumbed down so it's more 'passionate' than just aggressive)

Friend: Yeah I saw it was slightly aggressive (Either is starting to realize it or at last admitting it now that I am fully aware of how I was coming across. I also used indicators to show what words were aggressive to help illustrate my point. This is showing I’m much more awake now :)b)

Gotta use those neutral tactics or no one will feel comfortable just reading your idea and instead, will constantly look for a place to intercept with aggression back, whether they agree or not, they're looking for ways to self-insert their aggression if you are also aggressive. I can't write something that doesn't somewhat support and uplift SEGA of America. Why? Because like I said, they literally have survived EVERYTHING and have stuck around. Without them, there wouldn't be an American branch and the money issue would have ended SEGA. Some might say, "But they've done so much harm than good! Why is the money thing such a thing to be praised for?" But it's huge, it's so big, it kinda does offset the wrongs. (Now I’m doing the healthy thing, doubling back and mentioning the good to try and recover. The damage may be done, but she did recommend some videos for me and was polite, so I’m just trying to smooth things over and leave on a ‘wrapped up’ conclusion. But... I should have just left it there in all honesty xD Some things you can’t double-back and correct lol) America is a great business-influenced mindset. None of us would be fans of Sonic without them.

(Friend continues to agree but realizes I may slip into ranting again. She just asks if I can watch the videos.)

America does have it's advantages in some fields and areas, but their biggest most redeeming quality is that they saved SEGA which gave us our biggest love and obsession: Sonic. Now, my usage in that writing was still off neutral, but combined with the slightly aggressive statements, made a GREAT contrast. It's still slightly praising

Friend: And they stopped Japan from giving him a human girlfriend right away.

Me: Exactly.

Friend: I will always thank them for that. (She’s still a sweetheart, working herself into the conversation so it stays healthy. lol Such amazing follow-ups too!)

So although I don't like what's happening, I'm also grateful... to a degree lol We need SEGA of America, which is why I think Japan just ignores them now lolol they know they owe them a lot. 

(Friend mentions videos and as I go to save them to my ‘watch later’ sees that one of them is about Nintendo.)

Yeeeahhh I've noticed that Nintendo is starting to trail into 'cash grab' tactics and that's sickening (MORE AGGRESSIVE WORDING??? HAVE YOU NOT LEARNED YOUR LESSON CHILD?! It takes time to fully wake up lolol) cause before, I literally thought, "Nintendo can do no wrong" their marketing was ON POINT! but the stuff they said about Peach and now... I think new, unprofessional blood (like SEGA) has entered Nintendo and the older guys are either 'training' or 'retired to other ventures'. Nintendo is having it's own 'we used to not be prideful but now we're getting a little too pompous (Another aggressive wording... This can easily trigger people to comment with further aggression either against you or for you, but no aggression is the ideal. Which is continuing to show my lack of remaining conscious lol) about ourselves' and they're starting to act like Disney before their big crash. Disney also had 'limited time offers' with their VHS movies. Now, Nintendo is doing that. They'll make money, but at what cost? When you lose your costumer's trust...

Friend: And yeah the 35th Mario thing immediately reminded me of the Disney vault

Me: Yep. I'm worried for Nintendo. Don't get me wrong! Disney is really good with money grabs, but they... they also act high and mighty (More aggressive statements, wake up, darn it!!!) and their fanbase literally calls them 'an empire' so the fan-trust is gone. That makes you 'lame/outdated' and fans begin to look for 'what's cool?' instead.

(Friend is now re-realizing I’m ‘in and out’ so is trying to use a effective avoidance tactic by asking about different things to help my ranting fully stop.)

Sorry, I'm tired, I get on these rants and I don't mean too. (Trying to shake myself awake again.) I'm sorry.

So we returned to a healthy conversation, but I hope this interesting insight has revealed how to and what not to do about Aggressive Writing. Always stick to Neutral writing if you can, putting in a compelling counter-argument. In this aggressive writing demo, you saw that I tried to cover up my follies by saying counter-praise, but praise writing can be just as bad as aggressive writing. Passive writing can sometimes be annoying (aggressive word choice) too if you come off as disinterested or uncaring, which can still result in negative comments coming at you, or someone overly praising in their writings.

This has been all I’m showing you cause it’s kinda embarrassing ^^; but I hope it helps you in what ‘not to do’ while writing your ideas out :)b

Learn from my sleepy-time mistakes! lol

[suncatchr]

Heyo if u wanna talk abt ur ocs can u tell me abt the newest ones (or at least the ones that r new to me which is all of them on the last pic of ur oc post I think?) :3

omggg thank you for asking :3 this is long sorry i haven’t organised my thoughts about them yet ahjfklsa but here we go

before i can talk abt rain n evie i have to explain the universe with kes, amaya, and rio. im sure you remember them :3 but umm you said they were based on pacific rim and i don’t know anything abt pacific rim fhjlafnj sooo i made a bunch of stuff up. soooo there’s a parallel universe/alternate dimension full of people and like, monsters. the alt. universe people r testing ways to break into our dimension and open the door permanently so that both dimensions are their domain. the... city...? that the story is set in is like a capitalists’s dream, split harshly between rich and poor with no middle class. the poor faction of the city that will be named soon is the one responsible for keeping the other-dimension-ers out of our dimension, most if not all of them are responsible in some way for keeping their area safe from those tears in the ozone layer. they in return are given technology, money, and supplies from the rich faction. those guys do next to nothing, they operate like any other city where everyone has jobs and pays their dues to the government. they are very strict about who they let into the city; they don’t want outsiders to know about their dimension problem lest they stop the warriors from doing their jobs or do something to make the tear bigger etc etc. they also don’t want poor people in the city, even if they’re responsible for everyone’s safety. I’m thinking of making the story a really obvious allegory similar to older-fashioned dystopian novels like animal farm and brave new world because i’m obsessed with those in concept. so i think supporting characters will be one-dimensional caricatures of types of people in society, and only the MCs will have nuance. this also makes it easier for me to write side characters ;3

so kestrel and amaya are siblings mostly born and raised into monster-fighting. you know when there’s a factory or whatever in town that most people in that city work at? there’s one of those but it’s like... a firehouse for monster fighting. they mostly live and sleep there, they’re fed and clothed here for free so long as they fight and they’re both content with that. I’m not sure what happened to their parents yet but they’re probably dead. not everyone’s parents are dead, some people have families that they live with at the... compound, these two are just tragic and whatnot. families are encouraged to fight together in duos or trios so that loyalty makes them fight smarter and harder to protect each other. when they’re not at the compound, like if they have shifts off or whatever, they live in an abandoned subway station and steal power from the government who’s unaware that that track is unused 😌

so as far as them as individuals, i kept the planets that u based them off of :3 kestrel is based off mars and mars is the planet of action, energy, motivation, temper. kestrel is moody and temperamental, but their choices are never made without careful consideration. they’re a quick thinker and that makes them confident, so they never back down from a challenge. they have a hard time masking their emotions and it’s easy to see what’s going on in their head. they’re hard to embarrass, though, and they’re very confident in most of their assertions. they’re impatient and crabby, but they aren’t at all shy.

amaya is based off venus, so she’s more emotionally rounded than her sibling and more interested in the poetry of life. she’s very expressive and polite, and she has a thing abt maintaining her image. she’s a bit materialistic and self-centred, focused on her looks and her space, but she’s realistic in her material n sensual desires because al things considered she lives in a subway station. she knows what to expect from life, or at least she thinks she does, and is just as confident in her own assertions as kestrel. she’s stubborn and argumentative for that reason, but her confidence makes her a natural leader and people flock to her for advice and assistance. she loves this.

and adrion, based off earth, comes into their lives later. rio used to live on the rich side of town until a second dimension creature escapes the notice of the warriors (i swear they won’t actually be called “warriors” forever 😭) and destroys his part of the city. his family is alright, but the destruction makes him feel like he could do a better job than whoever’s currently there. he leaves his family to join up with the. the compound, and when asked to find a partner to fight with, chooses amaya and kestrel because they’re a top-of-their-class team who are always talking about how things could be better. at first, they don’t want him bc they’re lone wolves and they do not like to be told what to do. but he’s a tough fighter and he’s got the motivation to be good, so they let him stay on the team. as far as personality, rio is really chill and understanding, often willing to let other people’s faults slide. as long as he’s allowed to do what he wants to do, other people can have their way. he’s cheerier than the other two but he’s quieter and more in-the-background. his strong will makes him sensitive and he refuses to change his mind often because he’s quite naive and gullible, making him easy to trick and take advantage of which makes him insecure. this makes him prone to snapping when people put pressure on him.

now for rain and evie. i originally created them as prototypes for their own narrative but the story seemed really similar to my other stuff so i scrapped it BUT i thought the characters themselves worked in this story instead so i kept them :3. rain and evie are brothers who were initially raised in a fighting ring. they live on the poor side of town but they never worked for the compound. they make a living by gladiator fighting, people pay to come in and bet on them and obviously they’re paid for winning fights. rain is an extremely adept fighter and usually manages to beat opponents with brute strength. evie is smaller and less physical and usually fights by using the opponent’s strength against them. they’re simultaneously popular and unpopular in their neighbourhood as they’re like. cool for being good in the ring but they’re really weird otherwise. they’re aggressive, angry and irrational, they act like they’re always in the ring. rain is more sociable and capable than evie, who tends to be reactive and angry. he doesn’t want to be here, but rain is more content in his abilities, so he handles mostly everything so that evie doesn’t have to be responsible for anything. they end up moving on from the ring after evie takes on an opponent that rain tried to tell everyone that he could never beat. evie takes a violent blow to the head that leaves him comatose, and rain spends a huge chunk of money for a piece of technology that replaces the damaged areas of evie’s head and functions in its place. no one tells rain, though, that the thing he put in evie’s head is technology from the other dimension. after the two leave the ring, they decide to make themselves useful and fight the monsters that forced them into this life in the first place.

personality-wise, rain is a laid-back, go-with-the-flow kind of guy. he likes to let things take their course and he isn’t much concerned with proceedings outside of himself and evie. he purposefully denies himself negative emotion and usually tries to fake that everything is good all the time. despite this, he’s emotional and reactive and extremely defensive. he doesn’t like to be challenged or made unhappy and in his dream world he and evie are always just hanging out doing what they want and not having to answer to anyone. people often find him charming bc he’s able to finagle most situations into him getting his way, he’s exceptional with people but he doesn’t like them.

evie is more sullen and droopy. he almost always lets rain do all the talking and he usually appears unconcerned with most goings-on because he’s letting rain evaluate the situation. he’s usually inside his own head, daydreaming or fussing. most of his interactions with others are verbal or physical fights bc he’s unsure how to manage himself without rain around and is often willing to fight for whatever he thinks rain would want. he’s independent outside of that, doesn’t like to be told what to do or how to act. not even rain can calm him down when he’s on his soapbox because he truly believes that if he had to grow up a fighting dog he should be allowed to do whatever the fuck he wants. in downtime he’s usually a little bit more uppity than rain but still similarly laid-back and willing to act like things are okay.

the five of these characters r in the same universe and they go on missions together often, though kes and amaya don’t really get along with rain and evie because they’re all so stubborn.

next are niko and andre, who i got from sammy! we got urban fantasy going on here, and i’m thinking of setting it in like. the mid 1800-s. i’m feeling spicy. umm so i think the key thing about this universe is that “hunters” are a species of humanoid monster. this world is spinning with vampires, werewolves, faeries, demons, etc. pretending to be human in order to survive, and hunters are a mimic species that look human but just... aren’t. they have an insatiable desire to hunt and kill (used to be for food but humans make food more easily accessible), but killing humans makes them vulnerable to being found out. killing other monsters is the perfect substitute, plus humans praise them for it. they’re onto each other but they can’t make scenes in human society so they have to dance around each other to do all of their killing in secret.

andre is a hunter living in the shadow of his older sister, angel. she’s a better, more ruthless hunter than he is, with stronger instincts and a greater prey drive. she’s popular with people in town and generally just more charismatic. he really wants to be like her, but he’s klutzy and insecure and his instincts are poor cuz he overthinks them. one day he comes across niko in a bar and, perceiving him to be human bc he has 0 instincts, they get their flirt on. until niko says something that makes andre realise he’s a vampire. embarrassed and ashamed of his attraction, andre tries to turn his feeling of betrayal into murderous instinct, and he can turn that anger into his first solo kill. niko keeps chasing after andre trying to catch his non-murderous attention because he actually really likes him and doesn’t want to let what they are get in their way.

personality wise, niko is a noisy little wisecracker who likes to be popular. he’s a genuinely nice guy and is famous wherever he goes for being wise and helpful. he’s usually pretty optimistic and very charming, especially in bigger crowds where he can fit in. he can be purposefully oblivious and is very good at disguising his feelings and intentions. he’s witty and sarcastic, often masking negativity for the sake of keeping it light.

andre is a straightforward intellectual type who likes to work and create and achieve. he’s intelligent and steadfast and always strives to do his best (which is why being terrible at hunting is upsetting for him). making achievements kind of replaces his understanding of himself, and not being good at things really digs at his self-worth. he’s not much of a people person but he’s not really shy, either. he’s polite and good-natured, though his feelings are quite fragile.

next generation, same universe, next is honour (whose name HAS to be spelled with the u), journey, and solace. resident throuple. honour and solace are hunters, and journey is human. honour was raised in a big home with lots of hunters under the iron fist of like, the mean nursemaid from annie. they hunt monsters as an organised group, but its a violent institution that doesn’t believe in autonomy nor the worth of human lives. humans exist as something to blend into while they exterminate all other monsters. honour stops believing this when she gets older, mostly due to meeting journey. she assumes journey is just going to be vapid and goofy bc he’s a human, but he ends up being a really cool dude who’s just as in-depth as her and she begins to realise how terrible the lessons she was raised on are.

journey’s family were aware that they were often surrounded by monsters and as such were very protective of him and his siblings. journey never gets to go out and do things, and being stuck in the stuffy comfort of his home is not what he wants to do with his life when he knows there are monsters out there. when he and honour hit it off, they decide to run away together, deciding to shed their upbringings entirely by changing their names to the things they want most.

i set this in the 1800s JUST so that i could have honour and journey use the train to run away. not nice public transit trains, i mean they are riding the dirty rusty rails to seek a better life. they intend to ride a long time to make sure that they’re never recognised. on one of the trains they catch to head north, they come across solace, helping him onto the train as he got there a split second too late to catch it. despite his initial gratitude, solace is unpleasant to ride with. turns out he’s been on the run for most of his life and is just trying to find a place to stay where no one will care that he’s a hunter. in human-only societies hunters are known as mimics and are heavily discriminated against if you’re suspected of being one and straight up killed if you are. after living an uncomfortable life and seeing his father killed, solace decides to go from town to town until he finds a place that’s mostly hunters. when honour reveals they’re looking for the same thing, solace decides to go with them. he’s hesitant to give up his name because it was given to him by his parents, but ultimately he wants to leave that life behind and embody comfort and. yk. solace.

haven’t quite figured these three out personality-wise bc i only finished their designs and names in time for posting the art, rip

and lastly my warriors ocs! I decided to make regular fanclans as opposed to using my existing ocs in an au mostly because i didn’t wanna add in random npcs (as it were) to fill the nursery and elder’s den even tho those r important to clan life. so, i made separate ocs, they live in the arctic! summitclan in the mountains, tundraclan in the plains, and glacierclan by the. glacier. the story so far is a murder mystery, cats of all clans are being killed and going missing and no one knows why. while most warriors assume there’s a bear or fox hanging around the territories, the apprentices saw something while they were hanging out that made them decide to investigate deeper...

our mc is snowpaw, a repurposed rp oc fjdkfjld;af. he’s a summitclan cat and he’s known to be strange and standoffish. he seems cold and apathetic about almost everything and it’s hard to see what he enjoys and dislikes. his secretiveness makes it easy for him to investigate the murders, no one ever questions where snowpaw is going or what he’s doing. with his friends and family snowpaw is a little more jovial, he has very dry humour and is also always trying to help

crowpaw is a tundraclan cat. he’s stuck up and big-mouthed, very arrogant little know it all. don’t ever tell him that, though, bc he’s very sensitive and he will cry. he likes to be seen as the best at everything so he dedicates excess time to learning and is actually a very curious and adventurous cat underneath.

swiftpaw is a glacierclan cat. he’s very mature and is often rumoured to be a great deputy choice when he’s old enough. he’s calm and level-headed, a quick-thinking problem solver with a bit of a superiority complex but not one that anyone in his life would be aware of bc he’s so darn polite. the warrior code is important to him and so are rules of daily clan life that reduce conflict in any way.

teapaw is also a glacierclan cat. she, like snowpaw, is a little bit quiet and secretive, the kind of person (..?) that kinda lurks in the back of important things going on rather than offering her voice. she’s a healer’s apprentice and takes a lot of pride in being effective and efficient with all her duties. she’s curious and observant, and shes good friends with her clan’s seer, deadhawk (i split the medicine cat position into two for these clans, healers do doctor stuff, seers talk to starclan), so she tends to be up to date w what starclan says, which helps her and her friends w their mystery.

and finally, breezepaw! he’s a summitclan cat and snowpaw’s bff. he’s kinda clueless and distractable, very much a follower personality as he likes others to decide what’s important for him to do. he’s a quiet cat, but he’s not afraid to speak his mind when the time comes. kinda a goofy jokester dude, but he knows how to read a room and keep quiet when he doesn’t know what to contribute and jokes won’t help. he likes snowpaw because snowpaw’s always confident in what he’s doing and never clowns on breezepaw for not knowing wtf is going on

[mhalachai]

#hour of the wolf au where tony and chris keep meeting up at arms dealers conventions and one day chris shows tony a picture of his daughter #and tony wonders if he's seeing a ghost or having a stroke

@princesssarcastia replied to your photo post: WOW OKAY JUST LEAVE THAT THERE WHY DON'T YOU

Okay you know what, here's another spin on what might-have-been in Child of the Wolf, where Chris and Tony know each other from back in the day at all these arms dealers conventions, etc. They met each other a few years after Allison was born, and they'd usually exchange a little off-hand snarky, because Tony has no time for the small-timers and Chris thinks Tony was an arrogant show-boat. But they talk, and at least it was a relief to get away from the truly smarmy of the others at the conventions.

Then one conference, when Tony's about ready to straight up murder a bitch (specifically, the sonofabitch from Minsk) Chris decides to intervene and direct Tony out of the room to the nearest bar, and they get to talking, and Tony, who is in a foul mood, asked Chris what he does when he goes home, does he have a wife and kids and a picket fence. And Chris, who knows that Tony had been going to have a kid with a werewolf (everyone knew about the Vasquez family, after all), doesn’t want to rub it in, but Tony is really in a bad mood so Chris pulls out a picture of him holding Allison, who was about six by this point.

And Tony looks at the photograph and the first thought in his mind, that was what Clara's baby would look like, because he had seen all her baby pictures, and this little child that belonged to the blue-eyed, blond-haired guy looked exactly like his dead fiancée.

And so he does what any Tony Stark would do in the situation.

He figures he's losing his mind.

He doesn't ask how old the kid is, where she was born, does she like sushi or French fries, does she like to read, is she smart is she smart, because these are not the questions a man is allowed to ask about another man's child, because Allison is Chris’s child, that's not even a question in Tony’s head. It's so much more likely that Tony is finally falling prey to early-onset dementia than...

Than...

So. he represses.

He pushes it all down. He’s mis-remembering what Clara looked like. He’s letting grief knock him off course. It’s what happens with grief, that’s what all the counsellors he didn’t see would say.

He changes the topic.

Another year, another convention. Tony sees Chris and Chris sees Tony and this year, Pepper is with him, and it’s only when she’s gone off to try to fax something from Monaco to Los Angeles do Chris and Tony talk. Tony keeps it light, flippant. Chris responds in kind.

This time, Chris brings up Allison. He shows Tony another picture, because Chris is so proud of Allison he could burst. She’s starting in gymnastics, and Tony sees a tiny dark-haired girl in gymnastics clothes holding a bronze medal and a shy smile and it’s Clara all over again, only Clara was never shy, Clara was always bold and confident, even as a kid.

So it’s easier this time for Tony to say, “Really? Third place?”

“It was her first competition, and she was competing against kids three years older than her.” Chris puts the photo away. “She’s be able to kick your ass in the balance beam.”

“She could kick my ass on a flat floor,” Tony says, and that’s it, he can’t think about little dark haired girls who were the same age his daughter would have been. “You still making those sedge-shaped blades?”

By the time Pepper returns, they’ve both irritated each other enough to part ways.

Each year, the same thing. Allison is in gymnastics. She’s in reading club. She’s a natural at swimming, practically lives in the pool.

The year Allison was 12, Chris didn’t come to any of the conventions.

Or the year she was 13.

And because Tony is a terrible person and only a tiny bit obsessed with this Argent guy, and not his daughter who was around the same age Tony’s daughter would have been, Tony asks Jarvis to do a welfare check. They’re alive, these Argents, Jarvis tells Tony, but moving around a lot.

So that’s it, Tony reasons. Chris is just busy.

Chris shows up at the convention in Johannesburg the next year. He’s aged, even though he’s only two years older than Tony. And he’s quiet, too, but whatever.

Tony doesn’t see much of him until the third day, when he locates Chris morosely sipping scotch in the bar. “Thought you’d had enough of this riff-raff,” Tony said, dropping into the barstool beside and gestures for vodka.

“Some of us have to work for a living, Stark.” Chris rubs his eyes.

Tony busies himself tipping the bartender, then sips the alcohol. The taste doesn’t burn as much as the conversation would. “So, where you been?”

“Busy.”

“With what?”

Chris slams the rest of his drink. “Work. Moving. Family stuff.”

Tony’s heart jumps, and he is reminded that he’s a creep of the worst kind, hungry for the meagerest scraps of this random guy’s family life, and his daughter who looks too much like Clara for Tony to forget. “Huh.”

Chris looks at him for a long moment, and Tony’s trying to figure out if he’s about to get punched or propositioned. Then Chris reaches for his wallet and pulls out another picture. “That’s my sister, Kate,” he says, and pushes the picture across the bar. A blonde cutie, maybe 20, was in the shot with the ghost of Tony’s dead fiancée. Allison is 14 now and it’s like staring at Clara’s quinceañera picture, jesus christ. “She’s staying with the family for a little while.”

Right. Focus on the 20 year old sister, instead of the 14 year old daughter. “She’s younger than you.”

Chris shrugs. “It happens.” He puts the picture away and there’s nothing Tony can say. “Word on the street is that you’re in bed with the big guys these days.”

“World needs protecting.”

“Yeah.” Chris chucks a hundred rand on the bar and gets up. “Just know that the bigger the wolf, the bigger the teeth.”

Tony narrows his eyes, because that’s a very specific dig. “Fuck you, Argent.”

Chris leaves without another word, and that’s the last time Tony talks to the man.

Then there’s Afghanistan, and Stane, and Iron Man. Tony stops going to conventions, stops thinking about Chris Argent, and another man’s dark-haired daughter.

He has his theories, of course. And he’s never seen a picture of Argent’s wife, so he doesn’t know what she’s like. That’s probably where Allison got those dark eyes and her dark hair. That’s all it can be.

Because Tony knows, he knows, that the mountain lion that killed Clara had eaten their baby. That was what the medical report said. That was what the police said.

And that another man’s daughter, who was around the same age as his own daughter might have been if she hadn’t been eaten before she was born, looked a little like the love of Tony’s life when he was 20?

Tony’s Iron Man. He knows how weird the world is. Coincidence happens.

Tony has to stop thinking about another man’s daughter. Tony’s not a father and he needs to cut it out wondering what it would be like.

He has to stop.

Then Ivan Venko bursts into Tony’s life and he invents a new atom and someone digs Captain Steve Rogers out of the ice and then aliens invade New York.

It’s a busy spring for Tony and he doesn’t wonder about Argent, not even a little bit, not an iota.

Until Jarvis informs him one September day that a DNA test had matched to Tony’s DNA, with the results delivered to a sheriff’s station up in Northern California. The DNA test had been a paternity test.

And Tony doesn’t even think about any random encounters where a condom may have broken, because the report also shows that the sample was tested against Clara’s remains and came up positive and all Tony can think is that someone found the baby’s skeleton, no matter how far north it was. Someone found his daughter’s body.

He’s in the suit and flying north before Jarvis can caution him.

He lands in Beacon Hills and finds Natasha Romanoff in backwoods-beige and he is so fucking confused and angry and he lashes out, please tell me tell me, and then from a back office out walks Allison Argent.

He knows that girl. He’s seen her pictures growing up. Only now he sees her and it’s her, his daughter, Clara’s daughter.

The girl in Chris Argent’s photos.

They’re the same girl.

Clarity slams into Tony. He has been watching his own daughter grow up, raised by someone else, someone who had stolen her away.

Tony watched his own daughter grow up and he did nothing.

And so he does what any Tony Stark would do in the situation

He flees.

Natasha’s yelling after him and Allison’s just staring at him with huge, hurt eyes, but he flees.

Things go much the same as they go in Child of the Wolf after this, with Pepper and Clint kicking some sense into Tony, only here he can’t tell them about the absolute guilt eating at him. He spent so much time trying to push Clara’s memory away that he never asked the obvious question about Allison.

But how could he?

It takes Tony a few years to admit all this to Allison in CotW, and she’s hurt, she lashes out, but they work through it.

Then Tony dies to stop Thanos and Allison has to keep going on her own.

The universe start to unravel.

Allison gets flung back in time to 2012.

And that’s the one thing that makes it all easier in this divergence from Hour of the Wolf, gentle reader, for after Allison gets into a fight with Chris and kicked out of the house, gets picked up and dusted off by Sheriff Stilinski and Deputy Rushman and offered a safe place to stay at the Stilinskis’, the second thing she does, after taking a shower to get the dirt and blood of her person, is to borrow Stiles’ laptop and force her way into Jarvis’s server with less tact than speed.

“I need to talk to Mr. Stark,” she tells a very suspicious Jarvis. “Tell him I’m Chris Argent’s kid. He’ll want to talk to me.”

It takes Tony ten minutes to come on the line, and the moment he locks eyes with her, Allison can see that he knows, he gets it, the scales have fallen from his eyes.

She holds her chin up as she says, “My name is Allison Argent, I was born on Sept. 24 in Los Angeles, and we really have to talk.”

Tony can’t say anything. Allison knows he’s running through everything in his head, all the missed opportunities, all the clues, everything he saw and pushed away.

“Tony,” Allison says sharply, because the one way to get Tony to do what any Tony Stark would do in the situation, is to get him working to fix something. “I need your help.”

And just like that, Tony snaps into the present. “Who are you?” he demands.

“I was raised by Chris Argent, only I don’t know if he’s my father.” Allison cocks her head to the side. “And Natasha Romanoff is in town playing deputy and is very interested in me, which I find interesting, don’t you?”

Tony is frozen for a moment. “How do you know Natasha Romanoff?”

Allison decides to kick over every can, every anthill. She has a universe to save and only 27 years to do it. “I met someone this summer who had a lot to tell me about Natasha and everything,” she makes up on the spot. It’s a good enough lie to get most of her knowledge of the current events on the table. “First things first. How are we going to do this?”

Tony stands up. It’s all so different for Allison from the last time. This time, her father isn’t running away. “Where is Beacon Hills?”

“Second star to the right, straight on til morning.”

The corner of Tony’s mouth twitches. “Does that make you Peter Pan, or Wendy?”

“Neither. I call dibs on Captain Hook.”

Tony’s eyes glint. “See you in half an hour, kid.”

“I can’t wait,” Allison said, and her heart burns.

In this divergence, at least, Allison gets her father back without any reservations. 

All she has to do now is to save the rest of the universe.

Time to get to work.

~~scene~~

[alolanrain]

Found Family!AU *Christmas Addition*

Because I’m in a hella big Christmas Mood(Tm) and I talked a lot with @hiddenbyfaeries over this.

Hi yes, Gym Leader Opal is now Ash’s Great Aunt on Giovanni’s side

And also Reluctant Great Uncle Kabu is a thing as well

So like imagine little bby Ash and Gary flying to Galar with Daisy and Delia to see Graunty Opal to make a bunch of deserts for the other Galar league officials

And Grunkle Kabu gets pulled into the shenanigans and there’s so many pictures of all the younger kids covered in flour while a younger Opal and Kabu stand on the outer side of the group smiling and laughing

even tho Rose wasn’t a chairman just yet

He was shadowing the older head Chairman who Ash and Gary absolutely adored but Ash hated Rose with a passion

But just imagine Ash leaving for his journies and both he and Gary couldn’t help make cookies but they would face time Graunty Opal and Grunkle Kabu the day of Christmas together if the two boys could

But then Ash and Gou get sent to Galar for some mission or something and Opal and Kabu find out and kinda abduct the two for baking time

And Opal does the grandma thing where they guilt trip poor Gary into coming down

And THEN Bede joins in

And suddenly there’s posts from the gym leaders and Bedes acc

And everyone is like “wait WHAT!?”

Because no one knew that Opal and Kabu even had an inkling of any other family members

besides Opal having Bede but their not even technically family and a lot of people just thought that Opal was even around Bede just to train the kid enough so that the boy could take over her gym

But then everyone realize’s its fucking Champion Ash Ketchum and most of the worlds new found favorite Professor Gary Oak

Bede just brags about meeting Ash and Gary but quickly gets embarrassed because both Opal and Kabu coo over them and take a shit time of pictures to post on their rarely used Twitter and Pokegram

So Rose comes down with Leon, and Hop who was tagging along with his older brother, and Oleana bc they were Christmas shopping for their respected families together

So the. Leon gets Piers and Marnie to come as well

And all three kids kinda freak out bc there’s Leon but also ASH KETCHUM and GARY OAK

But Ash and Gary are both glaring daggers and Rose who does them back bc he still remembers the twerps after ten years still

But then Raihan and the younger Trainers got into this little fight on who can take the best Christmas picture with Ash, Gary, and Gou

And then it becomes this kind of... contest???

Where all the Gym leaders + plus the kids would try and get the most Christmas themed picture with Ash, Gary, and Gou

Even Oleana gets in it a little with a picture here and there but it’s usually with just a single person out of the trio

Like a picture of Oleana and Gary out and about with some coffee/got chocolate and they look like their Christmas shopping

A picture with Ash and her looking cute in matching Christmas sweaters by an outside fire place that looks like it’s back behind Kabu’s house

And surprisingly a picture of Her and Gou sharing a large scarf eating candy canes while watching Gary tripping over his feet on an ice rink while Ash laughed while helping him up

But like there’s a picture Leon posts on his Twitter of The trio with the little ones looking for a Christmas tree with an added video of Ash and Gary calling each other thots and other names while disagreeing with what tree they should get while Gou and the kids are laughing in the back ground.

Raihan post a picture with Melony teaching Gary and Alister how to sled down a hill properly while Ash, Gou, and Bae pelt each other with snowballs at the bottom

Nessa posts a picture with the gang + the other gym leader + Marnie and Sonia showing off their nails that were all Christmas themed decorated

And everyone else is just e a t I n g this up

And it hits the national news and every one who knows Ash and Gary are just laughing

Then Ash’s Legendary™️ bs starts uo

So Opal post pictures and videos of the Trio playing in the snow with the Legendary Doggo’s and it’s the most like/shared/retweeted post she ever had

Opal and Kabu win though because they posted a side by side picture of the four + Daisy during their first Christmas baking session and the newest picture of the four + Gou

And Daisy ReTweets with the words “I’VE BEEN REPLACED!!!!” But it’s all in good humor

Delia finds all the pictures taken while the three are up in Galar and prints them all out and past’s them in multiple scrap books with older pictures that were taken in some places during past Christmas and that would be Opals and Kabus New Years present when Delia could finally come back up there to celebrate with everyone else

But then there’s pictures of Ash and Gary teaching Gou and the three younger trainers how to make perfect cookies and other deserts

And it’s posted to Ash’s AND Gary’s account with the words:

“Teaching the new family generation how to make the best Christmas desserts! ❤️”

And their all covered in frosting, flour, other cooking stuff

And just Christmas fluff that gives everyone more insight into Ash’s and Gary’s life

God now I can imagine Ash bringing like a shit ton of his friends who don’t have good families to a party a few days before Christmas and both Opal and Kabu just adopts them all

Opal teaching Gladion, Ritchie, and Cilan how to make traditional Christmas cakes while Kabu teaches Lillie, Alain, and a few others how to properly decorate and wrap Christmas presents

ALL OUT SNOWBALL WAR!!!!

It happens exactly at 12 in the morning

Ash comes bounding down the halls with the younger trainers (Max, Bonnie, Marnie, Bede, Hop, and a few more people) from outside with the war cry of “MERRY CHRISTMAS FUCKERS!!!!”

They bust into the rooms of people who get worked up the easiest and p e l t them in snowballs

Everyone gets into this since they were all staying and Opals mansion because it’s the only resident that could hold them all

Kabu is the only one out of the very older part of the family to get into the fight

Agatha, Delia, and Opal choose not to be apart in favor of recording and taking a lot of pictures

But everyone’s dressed I. Their winter gear and PJ’s screaming and having so much fun

That the war last HOURS until everyone’s near freezing to death

Then they would all go back and change into warmer Pajamas and the three women who stayed out would disperse hot chocolate and drinks with a bit of alcohol to the older trainers and parents/siblings who can drink

Ash and Gary would be determined that Opal and Kabu go first on opening their presents under the massive 20 something-foot tree

But that’s on the actual Christmas Day

Before that Opal, Kabu, and Melony would drag the trio and the younger trainers (like Alister, Bonnie, Max, the Alola crew and a few more kids) to go see the giant 40 foot tree in the town square near Opals gym light up

Then they would split up and go to different kinds of shops and meet back up for dinner somewhere

HHH JUST FAMILY FLUFF

[freudensteins-monster]

There’s Something About Darcy

Found this in my DEAD folder. Apparently I was planning on doing more to it but giving it a read through now (two and a half years after it was started) it seems like a decent enough one shot. According to my notes it was inspired by THIS POST.

There’s something familiar about Darcy Lewis. It takes a while for it to register with Tony at first because no sooner had they been introduced than he attempted to prove himself more knowledgeable in the field of astrophysics than Thor’s girlfriend. Tony maintains that it was a draw, no matter what Foster says.

It isn’t until a few days later, after Foster and Co are settled in, that he really notices her. He finds his way to Foster’s lab in the hopes of arguing with her further over one of her published papers (his own work was going nowhere fast and he was in want of a distraction) but finds it empty save for Darcy. She’s kneeling on a stool, the innards of one of Jane’s machines laid out on the lab table in front of her.

“What the hell did you do, kid? Foster’s going to kill you for messing with her babies,” Tony warns though his tone is light, full of his usual wry amusement. He thinks about helping the intern (he’d completely forgotten her name) put them back together but the thought of throwing the heaping piles of scrap metal out and replacing them with shiny new ones to piss Foster off even more held him back.

“Relax bossman, I’m fixing it,” Darcy assures him without bothering to look up from motherboard she’s inspecting.

“And when exactly did you become an astrophysicist?” Tony demands to know, peering over her shoulder.

“Not until I graduate next year, but I’m pretty sure my computer engineering degree will do for now.”

“Computer engineering? I thought you majored in the soft sciences?”

“Yeah, at 20. But I got my computer engineering degree from MIT at 17. You actually gave my commencement speech,” she adds, offering him the smallest of smirks as she stares at him over the top of her glasses.

It’s that look, that barely there smirk, that sends Tony’s mind spiralling. Tony’s seen that look in hundreds photos and videos and various reflective surfaces. He knows that look. He’s pretty sure Pepper hates that look. Tony has to remind himself to breathe. He leaves Darcy to her work and rushes back to his lab under the guise of getting back to his own, but instead he has JARVIS pull up everything he can find about Darcy Maria Lewis.

Maria? Really? Tony groans, feeling the colour drain from his face. What kind of woman would have his kid and never tell him about it but still give her his mother’s name?

He looks up Elizabeth Anne Lewis (nee Benson) next and tries to answer that question. For the life of him he can’t remember her, but that does little to reassure him. He and JARVIS spend the night looking into the Lewis women – they’re both incredibly smart and accomplished, and Tony would be pretty damn proud to have Darcy for a daughter, once he got over the shock of it - but when Pepper comes to drag him to bed several hours later he’s still got no proof to support his theory. For all appearances Darcy Lewis is the daughter of Michael and Elizabeth Lewis. Tony really wants to believe that, wants to believe that they were/are happily married and that he didn’t sleep with an older, married woman and father her illegitimate child.

Ugh. It’s enough to make him want to take up drinking heavily again. He quickly throws all his research in his virtual trash can and follows Pepper to bed, blaming the minor obsession on lack of sleep.

He tries to forget about it, he really does, but every time he sees Darcy he can’t help but see bits of himself in her; brown hair, brown eyes, smart as a whip, never-ending sass, and that goddamn smirk. He has JARVIS triple check his credit card statements and travel itinerary against Darcy’s mother’s but the results are the same.

He keeps his crazy theories to himself until Cap’s birthday blowout. That night he witnesses Darcy drink Barton under the table and then proceed to put together a fully customised iPod (after Thor accidently stepped on hers) until she passed out on the finished product.

“Tony, what’s wrong?” Pepper asks in the early hours of the morning after rolling over to find Tony sitting up in bed, a haunted expression on his face. “Did you have a nightmare?”

“Darcy Lewis is my kid,” he mumbles.

“That’s a weird nightmare,” Pepper replies drowsily.

“No, Pep. I think Lewis might actually be my kid.”

“What? Why?”

“Look at this!” he snaps, waving the Darcy’s iPod in front of Pepper’s face. “She made this from scratch after doing shots of Asgardian mead. Who else could do that?”

“Tony, alcoholism and a knack for electronics aren’t exactly hereditary traits.”

“I know, but…” Tony sighs irritably.

“But what?”

“She’s got my smile, Pepper,” he says, his own lip twitching as an example. “She’s got my eyes, my smarts, my sense of humour… my taste in music,” he adds in frustration, throwing Darcy’s iPod onto the bed. “Her middle name’s Maria, for Christ’s sake.”

“It’s just a coincidence, Tony,” Pepper tries to assure him as she rubs slow circles over his back.

“That’s a hell of a lot of coincidences,” Tony mutters, but he leans into Pepper’s touch, eventually lying down next to her and drifting off to sleep.

 A few days later Pepper is making her way to Tony’s after a meeting, an espresso from the communal kitchen in hand, when she spies Darcy sitting at her desk in Jane Foster’s lab. She fully intends walk straight past but Tony’s crazy theory is still keeping him, and her, up at night so Pepper decides to talk to the girl and perhaps come away able to poke a few more holes in Tony’s theory.

“Hello Darcy,” Pepper beams startling the girl.

“Ms Potts! Um, hi!” Darcy babbles nervously, almost knocking over her own identical cup of coffee. “What are you doing here? I mean, I’m sure you can go anywhere you want, but did you want something? I will totally give you whatever you want.”

“I just wanted to stop by and say hello, and see how you fared after Tony’s party. I hear you over indulged in some Asgardian mead,” Pepper teases.

“Ugh,” Darcy groans. “I swear I’m never drinking that stuff again. I totally lost a day. I mean it, I have no idea where the fifth of July went.”

“I’m sure JARVIS could help you figure that out, if you wanted him to.”

“Oh, no, I think I’m better off not knowing.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better now,” Pepper smiles. She turns to leave but hesitates when another topic of conversation occurs to her. “Did Tony return your iPod? I remember seeing him toying with it the other day and I told him to give it back to you…”

“Yeah, he did. He left it on my desk for me to find.”

“And he didn’t try and improve it or make it sentient or something, did he?”

“Nah. It’s fine. Though I don’t remember ever owning quite that many Black Sabbath songs,” Darcy smiles, that barely there smirk, and once Pepper sees it she can’t unsee it.

“Oh my god…”

“What?” Darcy startles.

“I… I think I stepped in gum,” Pepper replies, cringing at her lame lie, not that Darcy’s noticed.

“Oh no, not your Louboutin’s!” Darcy cries, leaning down to check Pepper’s heels for her. Pepper sets down her coffee cup and leans on the desk as she lifts one foot and then the other. “No… they look okay.”

“Oh… good,” Pepper mumbles, picking up a decidedly lighter coffee cup as she straightens up. “Maybe it was just a sticky bit of floor.”

“Probably,” Darcy nods in agreement.

“Well… I should be going… and make sure Tony hasn’t blown anything up,” she adds weakly, spinning on her perfectly clean heels, hoping against hope that if Darcy notices the switch that she doesn’t chase after her.

 “Tony!” Pepper all but shouts as she bursts into his lab. “Tony, you need to test this,” she says, holding out the coffee cup like she was offering him communion wine.

“Did Natasha switch the coffee out with decaf again?” he teases.

“It’s Darcy’s.”

“Darcy doesn’t drink decaf. Wow, awesome alliteration,” he marvels.

“No, it’s her cup, her DNA. You need to test it.”

Tony freezes then glances from Pepper to the cup and back again.

“I saw her smile,” Pepper shrugs as way of an explanation. “I hate that smile.”

 Even with his top of the line private lab the DNA results still take the better part of a day to come back. JARVIS makes sure the results are for Tony’s eyes only, but he waits until Pepper’s by his side before he looks at them. His eyes flick over the DNA comparison, Pepper squeezing his free hand, and what he sees confuses him. It’s not what he thought and it takes him a second to understand what he’s seeing.

“Sonofabitch.”

 Darcy is ensconced in her Stark Tower room catching up on the astronomy reading Jane assigned her when there’s a knock at the door. To say she’s surprised to find Tony Stark on the other side of it is an understatement. When he wasn’t straight up ignoring her he was just plain weird and Darcy didn’t know what to make of it, but she filed it away as pretty standard as far as her interactions with eccentric geniuses went.

“Darcy,” Tony greets with a small nod as he fidgets nervously in her doorway.

“Hi…” Darcy replies warily. Tony’s never addressed her by her name before and she has to wonder why he’s starting now. “What’s up?”

“Can I come in?” he asks, gesturing at her couch with the tablet in his hands.

“Uh, sure. Can I get you something to drink?” she replies automatically.

“No, no, it’s fine. You might want one though after I’ve said my piece,” he adds morosely.

“Am I getting fired? Wait, you can’t do that, you’re not my boss. Am I getting kicked out?!” she demands shrilly.

“No, Lewis. Jeez, just sit down, would you?”

Darcy drops onto opposite end of the couch to Tony and regards him silently, waiting for whatever horrible news he has to tell her.

“What do you know about your grandfather?”

“Whhhhyyy do you want to know about Papa Lewis?”

“No, not that one. Your other one. Your mother’s father. Did she ever tell you about him?”

“She didn’t know him,” Darcy answers slowly, humouring the troubled looking billionaire across from her. “All my nana would ever say about him was that he was a sleazy sonofabitch and I’d do well to avoid men like him.” The silence stretches on so Darcy tries to think of something else to fill it. “She mentioned once, after a few glasses of wine, that the sonofabitch was rich and that he’d paid for her first house, even if he didn’t know it.” When Tony still remains quiet Darcy loses her patience. “Seriously, dude. You’re weirding me out. What does my absent douchebag of a grandfather have to do with anything?"

Tony offers her a sympathetic smile as he starts playing around on his tablet.

“There was something about you,” he begins. “When I met you I just felt like you were sort of familiar, and the more I learnt about you the more convinced I was that we were related,” he says passing over the tablet. “I was right. Sort of.”

Darcy’s mind reels as she scans the DNA results.

“Wait… where did you… Pepper,” she sighs. “You got Pepper to steal my coffee cup.”

“No, Pep did that on her own. After talking with you she saw what I saw and wanted to get to the bottom of it. Can’t tell you if we’re happy that you’re not my kid or not, but I suppose niece is still pretty awesome.”

Darcy gawks at Tony’s all too familiar smirk and then back down at the DNA results.

“Sonofabitch.”

[catsitta]

Handle With Care - Post Mortem

When I first started writing Handle with Care, it was going to be 100 chapters long and there were a few key differences in the plot. These changes occurred generally slowly as I gained a better understanding of my world and characters, while some shifted dramatically due to my feeling they were thematically inappropriate for the story I wanted to tell. So with the conclusion of the main fic and its various continuations, I decided to detail a little more in how I approached a 100 word daily drabble fic, and why certain events occurred or why certain characters played certain roles. This post is mostly for the folks out there who like all the nitpicky background information that goes around in the author’s head while writing.

100 WORDS A DAY

In choosing to write 100 words a day, I gave myself both a goal and a challenge. 100 words is often little more than a paragraph. Maybe two. I often found myself writing on my commute into work or during lunch on my phone, because while 1000 might feel overwhelming, 100 is not. Right? Yet some days I found just enough time to type up 100 words between work and other commitments (October was interesting, since I did Inktober and well as Promptober, on top of my usual working schedule). But the most challenging part was not writing 100 words. Writing 100 words was easy. Writing ONLY 100 words was where things became tricky.

In my original intentions for this fic, scenes were not supposed to span over multiple chapters. Each drabble was to be a self contained snapshot of time. But as the story became more emotionally centered, I shifted away from that idea and focused more on making each drabble exist as a chapter. Chapters can have cliffhangers. But they need to communicate a thought. An idea. A feeling. With 100 words a day, my objective became: Progress the story in a meaningful way or communicate some important information to the audience. With 100 words, there was often little room for getting lost in details.

Now one my ask again, why 100?

100 is the number of words in the definition of a drabble. 100, again, is an easy minimum to reach. But when you are used to writing 2-3k word chapters, flexibility is minimal and you have to decide what needs to be said, and what you were saying to fill space. And I found it a wonderful learning experience and valuable exercise as a writer. I’ve attempted to start drabble fics in the past, but rarely did they ever get past a couple chapters before I would get frustrated by the limitations. Because let’s be honest. Writing a 25,000 word story, 100 words at a time, is a test of one’s patience as much as anything else.

THE STORY

Handle with Care was originally supposed to be pure romantic comedy with just a splash of darker undertones in the background for color. But as much as I love fluffy comedies, as I wrote, there were conflicts that I didn’t feel should be glossed over. As some of my long term readers and commenters will know, I’m terribly fond of bitter with my sweet. Angst with my fluff. The bad things in life make the good all the brighter. And conflict drives a story forward.

So what changed?

There were many different variations on how Sans ended up raising Papyrus alone. Some took our overbearing science dad, Gaster, and outright cast him in the role of a villain as opposed to a mid story antagonist. Straight into, why aren’t you in jail, territory. Others barely featured Gaster at all, as he was disconnected from Sans after his son didn’t end up pursuing a ‘productive’ career in the sciences. There were even a couple considered drafts where Papyrus and Edge did have another parent and the reason Sans was distrusting and cagey was because of a broken Soulbond. (And for those of you who were Web/Sans theorists, well, there was a version where you weren’t wrong! Sans started an affair off with Web after the LOADs began as a sort of ‘regain control of his life’ thing.)

What may interest folks is that the story was originally not supposed to end with a wedding and a house in the planning. The happy ending was going to be less sugar and more height of the moment drama. Around the time Frisk intimidates Red into silence, she was going to instead start him on the path to discovering answers. No confessions from Sans. No journals. Instead Red goes on the hunt for clues and gets fragments of the story from different people, especially Gaster and Frisk. It was all quite emotional, but the pacing felt off, and I felt it would be more rewarding if Sans grew as a character and he was the one to confess all his secrets.

Another altered thread was Red being only Web’s son. Early, early on, Red was the product of Web and some other monster. I even considered that monster having died in birth with Edge. But I scrapped that quickly, and decided that instead, Edge was Pap’s twin, and that the grim mood Web was in, was because of what he saw as well as what he remembered from past timelines. He almost watched his friend and coworker dust in his arms. Properly traumatic, eh?

There is a completely cut scene that I may write in the spin off that goes more into detail about Red’s similarities to Gaster, and Sans’ to Web, and how people often choose partners that are like their parental figures. You may ask. Wait. What do you mean? Well, Webdings didn’t smoke. He drank. Red, despite having dabbled with the stuff, is never shown to drink recreationally or get drunk in the fic, for more reasons than being underage to do so. However, it is very lightly implied that Sans’ coping method of choice is alcohol, though Red quickly quashes this habit after the drunkenness incident. Now, who else smokes? Gaster. Sans doesn’t like that Red smokes (for obvious reasons it reminds him of his father and Red does try to quit in the fic, though ends up falling back on it when stressed.) There are other similarities if you look close. It’s one of the reasons that Gaster and Red don’t get along. They’re both strong personalities, and can be pretty quick to pass judgement on someone.

THE CHARACTERS

As many folks picked up on, Handle with Care, has multiple meanings. It is a moving pun based on the CAUTION: FRAGILE | Handle with Care, labels on the sides of some boxes. It is also one of the main themes of the fic itself. Everyone in the story is a person with their own pasts and pains, which makes them fragile in different ways. And some of them even represent different types of relationships and people we encounter in our lives.

Red - Our protagonist. He’s a young man picking up the pieces of his life after his father’s apparent suicide, left to raise his baby brother when he was only sixteen. He’s the child of an alcoholic and forced to take on an adult role too young. As a result, he has a few unhealthy coping mechanisms, struggles with his temper and his sense of self worth. But he’s the one that got out. That put his life on the straight-and-narrow.

Sans - The love interest. Grew up young from the sheer expectations in his life. He was never without, but when the LOADs happened, he cracked under a lifetime’s worth of pressure. He broke down. Stopped trusting anyone, including himself. And very likely only kept himself from Falling because of Papyrus. Much of his struggles is based on the single mothers who would say that their child is what saved them or got them through those darkest time by just existing. He is also the individual who was groomed for success that ended up with absoluting no proper coping skills because of his rigid upbringing.

Papyrus - The optimist. He stays positive through everything. Everything and everyone can do better, and he sees the best in all situations. But he also has a responsible streak with an urge to organize everything (clean/cook/no desserts before dinner). His relationship with Sans could have very well ended up problematic, with Paps taking on a parental role for his parent early on in his life.

Edge - The pessimist. Edge is the other side of the coin from Papyrus. While his world view is often just as rigid, he is emotional. While it is implied he was always a fussy baby, he’s very sensitive to change, and shows that children are capable of picking up on things that the adults in their lives try to hide. His abandonment issues run deep, and will cause him to lash out until he is older and learns better self control and comes to terms with his father’s death. It is not uncommon for children of single parent homes to become resentful, if not at their present parent, but at the one that is gone. It is difficult for Edge to separate his father’s death, and Red’s fights with Sans, away from himself, and his self-centric view of the world.

Gaster - The (sympathetic?) antagonist. There are points where you love to hate him, and other times, you have to step back. He’s the authoritarian parent that dictated most of his child’s life up until that child literally vanished and became a hermit for a while. It isn’t through callousness or unkindness that he acts this way, but in what he believes is the opposite. He struggles with emotions, especially showing them, an example of how often older generations, especially males, often don’t/can’t/won’t show emotional vulnerability. He wants the best for Sans and those he cares about, even if he often fails to show it properly.

Web - The dead dad. Red’s relationship with Web is complicated. He remembers when Web was a brilliant man, even if not the most fatherly of fathers. But he also laid witness to his fall from grace as well, his drinking habit the most evident. His role is ambiguous much of the story, though he’s left behind hole. His death is the catalyst to a number of the story’s events, and Red’s struggle with him in death is to show the complicated feelings people may have when they lose a loved one who may have not been the best person. Sans’ relationship with him was more to highlight how far he’d actually fallen in the end from where he used to be.

Toriel - The mother. She is a maternal presence in many character’s lives. Her mothering is revealed to be related to her inability to conceive a child. Infertility is a common problem for women. She goes on to foster, babysit and even adopt after Asriel is born. She also an example of the powerful bonds we form with others and how sometimes families are found. Toriel was as much of a mother to Sans as she was Asriel.

The Fallen Humans - The catalyst. If Frisk didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be a story. After all, she was the child that climbed the mountain, starting the events of Undertale. Frisk and Chara both are implied to have troubled pasts, which lead them to being vulnerable to that idea of absolute power corrupts absolutely. The meddle. They are often selfish and don’t consider the consequences of their actions, and when they do, there is a sense of it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters when you can manipulate reality itself. But where Frisk possess a sense of guilt for what happened with Sans, Chara does not, and even outright tells Red that he is willing to do anything to accomplish his goals (even if that means hurting everyone else). Kris is a ‘dreamer’, and while he has more control over tweaking the events that play out, he is far less calloused by RESETS and LOADS. He just wants to be close to his brother Asriel, as well as help his ‘siblings’ find a sense of belonging.

Undyne - The Protagonist’s parallel. A child of divorce, which for monsters often leads to trauma and death, she is left to be raised by Gerson. She’s angry, resentful and prone to get in fights. Red often compares her to Edge, but can also empathise deeply with her troubles. At fourteen she is old enough to understand the reality of the situation, but also young enough to be deeply affected by the changes. Given the rarity of divorce, it is implied that her home life was unstable before the events of the story. Red tries to help her as he never got help himself.

Asriel - The miracle child. Mostly a background character. Asriel’s main connections are to Kris and the Dreemurs. He was the child that a couple struggling with fertility finally conceived. His being born, however, resulted Gaster creating Red for Webdings.

Asgore - The powerful person. Gaster and Toriel both have names that are impactful in the community, but Asgore is the founder of Dreemur Medical and Biotech. He was the King of Monsters. Despite his passive role, he influences many of the character’s choices and actions but simply EXISTING as a person of importance. Gaster tries to literally create viable monster cloning/fertility enhancement methods for him which lead to Sans and Red being born. His inviting Web to work with determination led to the creation of the Machine.

Gerson - The substitute parent. His main role in the story is as a family friend of Undyne’s and in the end, her new parental figure. She resents him and he takes care of her. He cannot replace what she’s lost, but he tries to provide her a future. A hard role to fill in a child’s life.

Grillby - The old friend. Grillby plays are far more subtle part. He’s survived a broken Soulbond, he’s friends with Sans, and through every up-and-down, he’s remained open to Sans when he comes back around. Sometimes as children we form friendships with adults that are just as strong as those we form with our peers. This is true for Sans.

There are a few more characters that show up mostly for color and world building but don’t play a significant part in pushing the themes of the story.

CONCLUSION

Would I do this again? Yes. I am planning on continuing the 100 word trend in the Pre-Sequel This Way Up. It may be truer to the spirit of drabbles since we will have a lot more ground to cover since it will be telling Sans’ history. We’ll get to learn more about Gaster, Webdings, the Dreemurs, Grillby and the Fallen Humans. And for those of you who want to know more about the HwC boys as they are? Moving Day will fill in the blanks. And I also promised a sequel. Bubblewrap Blues will take place significantly in the future and center around a certain aptly named skeleton and the edgy boy that likes to get coffee in his cafe.

I’m pleased with how the story turned out.

I never expected the reaction and the feedback. To those of you who commented and kudosed. Thank you. And to those who quite literally followed me from the start, reading and commenting near every day if not every day? You’re extra amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[billiejean485]

Karmiro Kiss

https://www.deviantart.com/billiejean485/art/Karmiro-Kiss-800793669

(Text from DA:)

First of all, I'd like to state something: I don't usually upload art such as this often or at all, and I rarely even show it to anyone. Reason? Been bullied a hell of a lot for it in younger years, so I learned to keep things like these to myself. However, I am pretty sure the Karmiro fans would appreciate it, and I am having a really hard time finding artwork devoted to this ship myself (kudos to Iamaddictedtocoffee and KenKic4Ever - you guys are IMO the best I could find), and I honestly wanted to contribute.

Second thing I wanted to mention is that - although the show itself made me a huge Karmiro fan, this particular piece/sketch came as an inspiration from reading Arctimon's fics. My God - for the past 6 years I've been having a really hard time finding quality fanfics (I got older, and my standards became very high), and their in particular are among those rare that make me cling to it like an idiot, rereading it until I know it by heart (still in the process of achieving that btw XD). I haven't left a review yet, but, I can say here that that level of quality English, original ideas and great imagination is not something that you just stumble upon in the fan fiction world easily. I'm blown away. Still am. Still haven't read everything, so I won't drop that mentioned review yet. But, Arctimon, if you're reading this - you have my huge support, and I'm a really big fan.

Now on to the rant on the art aspect of this sketch.

I don't have much experience in drawing a kiss, and still learning to do that. What killed me even more here is just the position (that I probably didn't even figure out well) of the two - if you have that steamy kiss where both sides try to pull each other into it, and a couple with height differences between a girl and a boy such as Hiro and Karmi, everything gets complicated. The arm position is probably off (because yours truly was lazy enough not to reference anything). I hope at least I got their faces right - I haven't drawn either of the two enough for practice. Oh, and Karmi's hair was ridiculously difficult for me; it should be simple, but nope.

Ah, yes, and the Baymax sketch in the bg - the body probably should have been a bit bigger, but 'anatomy' wise I think it's okay. I just placed him in the wrong spot. And I have a feeling that it made perspective make no sense (he's speechless, btw XD).

Okay, and two last things.

I love the fact that Hiro is the shorter one in this relationship and is probably standing on his toes somewhat here, while Karmi has to bend down and/or pull him up. It's so relatable and heart-warming. :D I remember how all that went in those years of life (14~16). Wish we'll manage to see him grow, but who knows. Also, depends what Disney plans for the sequel of the movie, if they're even planning it (it got them an Oscar, so chances are high).

But one thing that saddens me in that is that - for most characters that appear in TV shows that are based on the movie there is like a rule that they don't appear in the movie's sequel. Which brings me to the second thing.

Even though I ship them with all my heart, I see little possibilities for these two to become something more than friends (there is more chance for that happening with Hiro and Megan, although the whole Karmutie stuff has led us on to believe otherwise up until she showed up). It seems as though Hiro and Karmi's relationship was made only to reach some "good friends" climax and that that's the whole point of it. Even Karmi's crush on hero-Hiro looks more like something that came as a product of her loneliness rather than actual need for a romantic interest in her life (I think she'd be a lot more invested in her relationship with 'Captain Cutie' if this wasn't the case). And when you take into account that this is a show aimed at kids... it all makes sense. Kids don't like romantic stuff, nor do they need it. But what do they need? Learning more about friendship, especially with that girl or boy they tend to fight a lot and don't get along well. It's a perfect reason to make you think that that there will never be anything more in this relationship. But it gets on our older fans' nerves because - naturally, the characters are not kids, they're teens. Things function differently here. I mean, okay - Karmi and Hiro may not be each other's type (debatable) in the end, but you can't tell me they don't care for each other at it's base, and that they will learn to get their rivalry out of the way to make a clear path for that. And when that happens, everything's possible.

But coming back to the first thing I brought up - the characters from the TV show rarely, if ever, make it to the sequel of the movie. Which means, whatever happens with these two, they will probably split up. It's saddening, and I wish things would change there. Hey, seeing Karmi in the sequel would make who knows how many of us happy. And not just her - bunch of other characters too. Or at least give them an honorable mention.

It's because TV shows get made for kids that nothing from it gets transferred to the sequel of the movie, which gets made for audiences of all ages. If there's something I wish would change, it's that - having TV shows dumbed down for kids. And with that I mean - seeing characters a lot older act like they're children. What the heck is that teaching the little kids? That reality will never be like they saw it on TV?

Kudos, and a really big KUDOS to the shows that are tackling this particular thing. It's good and it's healthy. If you wanna make something for kids, make it really appropriate for kids. Don't tug on the nerves of us older people, because - whatever the world says, there will always be those older ones that watch cartoons, ages ranging from older teens to who knows how old. We don't like watching those dumbed down things, no matter how profitable it is for you, content-makers, to target it only for kids, who will get you the most money. Yeah, it's harder to make such stuff, we know, but it's not impossible. At least show a little effort.

But, concerning that, I can't complain on BH6's TV show anymore. The second season was fantastic so far, and those 'dumbed-down' elements were reduced to the bare minimum. I just hope it stays that way.

... Well, this was a whole lot that came out of me just because of posting one silly fangirl drawing. XD Hope some of you actually managed to read this.... Too bad all of this is going to get dumped in the Scraps' section (please make a Sketch section, DA!), like most of my uploads do.

I live and breathe sketches. lol

Oh well - thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. XD I'm really done this time.

[koiandjelly]

So Fila’s actual past isn’t very detailed, because she’s not a main OC, and I haven’t spent a ton of time actually thinking about her as a character lol. 98% of my Creativity goes to my original content characters, cuz someday when I finish actually crafting my worlds, I’m gonna write a book. I’m aiming for the lofty goals of making a full, fleshed out, intricate— just fuckin’... a whole ass Multiverse system comparable to the Lore content of Tolkien’s works, or The Elder Scrolls— gah fuck y’know what, I’m changing this post from being about my Fantasy Life OC to being about my creation baby, the effort of about 6 years (I am 20 years old, and although I didn’t know it at the time I started, I was 14 when I made the shitty Fire Emblem Manakete rip-off race that I’m gonna actually now talk about, because holy fuck this ain’t gonna fit in a parenthesis “btw have some info” bubble)

A’ight so I have a hard time keeping track of time, especially in a large scale across years. Apparently it’s related to being severely depressed without medication (communication error on my part, my parents are very lovely and helped me ASAP when I spilled the beans) while also having moderate to severe ADD. So, ya know, keep in mind that I was yet another terribly depressed 8th grader when I talk about my creation’s early days. I wouldn’t experience that time of my life for any sort of payment ever. It was goddamn miserable, because when I was midway through the age of 14, not only did the aforementioned depression spring up, but I also realized I was bisexual (And I live in the infamous state of Alabama, for reference. Don’t fear for me though, I was too unnoticeable to be bullied if anyone did know, and my wonderful mother, whom I love and cherish with all of my heart, is one of the few Christians that actually... like... do what their own God tells em to. That is, Jesus. I’m an atheist and have a general discomfort about the idea of super powerful entities actually existing irl, but I do agree with the stuff I’ve heard and remember from a decade ago in Church about Jesus. Good guy. But yeah my mom not only accepted me and reassured me when I came out, but she’s gone even further and is of the opinion/fact that lgbt folks are, really, good and normal and that God created them, so she really genuinely just... loves and accepts me. There’s no “I love you despite of this” in the equation and I am so grateful. But again. I digress)

Pause after that sidetrack, to recap, all of my medical issues began to emerge about 6 months before I turned 15. Including what I hate most, the emergence of my Fibromyalgia and Sjogren’s Syndrome, and for an added kick to the flesh, an undifferentiated connective tissue disorder. Meaning, as what I understand it to be, a nameless chimaera of many symptoms in a way that the disorder either is it’s own thing, or just can’t easily be recognized as any one disorder. And I had anxiety. If I recall correctly on *that*, forgive me cuz it’s been a while since it’s been diagnosed/brought up in a significant way, I have or had either general anxiety *and* social anxiety, or just lightweight versions of both, or something, but at the time I was horribly shy and I couldn’t even talk to the teacher after class about schoolwork, even though I tried rationalizing it to hell and back that I shouldn’t be scared— as you’ll guess, shit didn’t work out til I got medicine for it, because no amount of logic and rational thought will change the fact that I was struggling because of a literal disorder, an error of the brain, and as with that walking with two shattered femurs ain’t gonna work, trying to talk when the talk machine broke... ain’t going to goddamn work.

God. I am rambling a lot. But anyway, shit fucking sucked as a teen for me, because I got that wombo combo, prepare for trouble, make it double, precision strike at my existence as a person during fucking already difficult puberty— I am rambling. It’s 4:55am as of this sentence lmao. I had a nasty cocktail of both mental illness and physical disorders pop up once puberty hit me, so I, through many events starting from loving to draw as a toddler, to play pretend stories of heartbreak, betrayal, and death as best an 8 year old could understand via playing with Polly Pockets, and all the creative power I inherited from my Dad, plus the motivation borne through a need to escape, I started making my own characters.

So, to return to the present state of my creations, which will now be referred to as Bounding Beyond the Stars, or BBtS, I’m gonna get some things out of the way. Just to clarify, yeah? I have created my worlds in a way that is specifically meant to stand apart from the irl universe as we know it. I’m certainly not a knowledgeable researcher with any level of comprehension on Spacial law and quantum physics and shit like that. So hey, if something ever seems... like, off, or wrong? Unless it’s pretty obviously wrong in the “hey you just googled how a thing works, and misunderstood it, and made a detail based on a failure to understand stuff and that’s dumb in a catastrophic way that even a high school level viewer would notice...” kind of mistake, then hey, shoot me a message. But if some sort of universal rule seems fucky in the way that it doesn’t make sense, but isn’t a catastrophic structural error... well, Imma use that sentence to start a better one. For an example of a catastrophic error, perhaps... this: “This planet has no seasons cuz of its shape and axis! And it is also like twice as big as Earth!” That would be catastrophic alone because anyone with a grasp on planetary gravity or something, may go and think “if it’s that big, gravity’s gonna be way more intense”. And you’d be right! Which is why I usually account for those things with... *Magic*.

Before I split this post for Length reasons, and I’m sorry the majority of this was me rambling about how my general experience with life sucked from ages 14-17, I’mma state something very important about all my creations.

Magic, which will be explained in depth at a later point, is a fundamental, essential, and omnipresent force of not just any one universe in my Multiversal Trio. It is a key piece of Reality itself, as magic is the flow of many multiples of millions of unique and mysterious energies, concepts, and laws existing anywhere that Is.

To end this post, I’m going to put a quick summary and explanation why I’m rambling about any of this: The rant about my age and circumstances at the start are relevant because it’s necessary context for the tone and type of writing my creations are built upon. The foundations of BBtS are borne from a sometimes angsty, sometimes genuinely upset 14 year old who found escape in the art of Creation. There have been many, many, many heavy edits, rewrites, scrapped info and ideas, and even more info built upon it. It used to be pretty pointlessly edgy in a lot of ways, and redundant in grimdark, morphing into *grimderp* plot devices and character traits. The way it’s written today, I like to think the lore of my many high fantasy-alien societies, and all its denizens and creators and whatever else, are still written to be dark, be dangerous, even angsty... but more skillfully so, with the sort of nuance a 14 year old wouldn’t really even begin to understand. Cuz I still like high stakes stories with real consequences and character deaths when appropriate. And I enjoy characters who have tragic pasts, but now that I’m older and I’ve seen and read about and done so much more— I can write that stuff *better*. And more over, what I’m most satisfied with, is that I’m more in touch with myself as a person, and I’ve evolved many of my personal beliefs and ideals and all the things of the world I can have opinions on. But most of all, I’ve reached a point where I have consumed enough content from others to where I have figured out how to write something that should be interesting, and maybe a bit new, because I put a looot of Damn focus on identifying, and understanding, writing structure, cliches, plot holes to avoid, character traits to handle differently, and just generally making something that’ll appeal to both me, and my audience, should I get that far.

[funtryandthepaladudes]

Ok, I suddenly had this idea. I know most of us are happily done with VLD now but I just had this thing nagging in my mind and I felt compelled to share it. So, most of us agree, that this last season was less than satisfying, particularly in some character development, or just plot threads. However, what if that was deliberate? What if there is one last chapter of this story they need to tell, and it's not in comics?

So, even at the time that I watched it, something struck me as odd about the closing scene. Sure I understood the significance of the Allura shaped Nebula, but it just seemed to have a different tone than everybody else's epilogue shots. And then it hit me, it felt like an after credit scene, and not just any after credit scene, but one that could be hinting at a follow up. Remember not to long ago, when a Voltron movie was discovered to be future project, what if this wasn't meant to be a standalone unrelated, and possibly live action, movie, but is supposed to act as an ultimate finale with a Search for Spock-esque plot? (Which, from what I've heard isn't the best of the Trek movies, but that doesn't have to be a factor here. )

Now, indulge me a bit as I break down what this film could look like. I will warn you in advance, this is going to be incredibly biased and self indulgent, so my story will contain Plance, Kallura and Hunay, but also some discussion about some plot stuff, like Keith's connection to quintessence, what's the deal with the entity, stuff like that. If you like it, cool. If you don't, I can't help you, but maybe instead of telling how much my pretend movie sucks and how much I suck, stuff I am quite aware of, why don't you share your ideal closer movie, with your otps and hcs? I would love to see what you would like to see, so long as it doesn't involve attacking anybody else with differing opinions. And now, this insanity.  Warning it’s reaaaaallllly long. 

Edit: Here’s a link to the Next part.

(Note: I wrote the above earlier this morning on the way to church, and the rest below later in the afternoon, and at the moment of writing this note, I’ve been working on this for about two hours, and I am nowhere near finishing it. So I will be finishing this post somewhere around the first act of my goofy pretend movie synopsis (Which is much longer than a synopsis should be because I keep going into more and more details.) and continue this undertaking in a future post or posts, provided this website isn’t shut down. (In which case, find me on Dischord under Dappie.)

I would open this with something I like to call creative recap credits, think Sam Raimi’s Spiderman 2. Once this sequence came to an end it would bleed into an actual scene, our Heroes are gathered together for Allura Day as per usual, just catching up. This is where I would bring the audience up to speed on their character development, and set up some Major and sub-plots. Hunk is gushing about his and Shay’s wedding, but he’s having trouble picking the main cook for the reception (He can’t decide between Romelle’s great instincts and Vrepit Sal’s experience and seniority. This should serve as a comedic subplot, and that’s all I’m going to say about it unless anyone asks for me to expand on it. Honestly, it’s probably something that would wind up scrapped for time.) Hunk is insisting that they better make it there, even if there is a world ending catastrophe. Now from everybody’s response, except Keith we’ll get to him, we get a little more insight into our characters. Shiro is content, but would secretly like to have a little more adventure. Lance seems to be flirtatious again, however his flirtations are focused on a single target. The target in question, Pidge, is receptive, yet hesitant. While this conversation goes down, Keith suddenly looks off in a random direction and asks the others if they hear something. Everybody seems confused, and they tell him that they don’t hear anything. However, Keith is not reassured and declares that something isn’t right. He walks away from the table, with Lance making a quip I’d imagine, and goes in search of the sound, at which point, we also begin to hear what he’s hearing. A woman humming. He as he approaches the humming becomes a little clearer and more familiar. In fact, so familiar that he begins to doubt it’s real. But Lo and behold, he turns that corner and there she is! Allura alive and well. Keith is completely shocked and begins bombarding her with questions, but she just keeps humming, as if she can’t hear him. This raises some red flags within him, and he cautiously asks again. “Allura, it is you, right?” To which the humming finally stops, and in a jump-scare like thing abruptly turns towards him and screams “We’re running out of time!” Suddenly, Keith is bombarded with visions of random parts of the galaxy, finally settling on the Allura Nebula. And then Keith wakes up. 

Cut to the interior of a bedroom, a communication device is ringing. The couple, Shiro and Curtis, groan in annoyance. 

Shiro: Why would anybody be calling us this late?

Curtis: It’s obviously your boyfriend.

Shiro: Hilarious. 

Curtis: This isn’t even my best material. 

After a little more better written exchange, Shiro finally picks it up. It is in fact Keith, and he’s calling to tell him about this dream he just had. We learn that he’s been having dreams like this for something going on a year now, and that the incident we saw in the Dream happened a few months ago, minus the whole Allura thing. Shiro advises him to maybe try to find out what exactly those flashes are, and although Keith is a bit doubtful, the recurring dreams do remind of the time he could somewhat sense the Blue Lion, only on a bigger scale. After their conversation end, Curtis asks if Keith had another cosmic dream. After, Shiro confirms this, he tells him about how Keith is finally going to try to find out what the visions contain, which might result in some kind of galactic road. Curtis asks him if he’s tempted to go, but Shiro denies that, claiming he’s had enough adventures to last a lifetime before kissing him and snuggling up to him. However, you can see from their facial expression that Shiro’s not completely telling the truth, and that Curtis doesn’t really believe him. 

In our next scene, we see Pidge welcoming a new batch of students to the premises. As she is making her grand speech she is suddenly interrupted by an officer, I’m thinking an alien, telling her that he is here to see her. She tells the officer that she’s in the middle of something, but the officer says that he told her say it was urgent. Pidge rolls her eyes as she sighs exasperatedly, and tells Chip to take over for her, who had seemingly been standing behind her the whole time. He eagerly takes over, and begins by asking who would like to try out the anti-gravity room? 

A note on Chip, I’d like to imagine him as a lovable little dink that instantly endears himself to all that meet him. He serves as Pidge’s little assistant, and is constantly updating his database on all scientific breakthroughs, but personality-wise is just fascinated by everything, and adores everyone, but none more than Dr. Pidge/Ms. Katie, his primary creator, and his Uncle Lance. My dream cast would be Sam Lavignino, aka CatBug, or someone with a similar energy and instant likability, slightly older sounding than the CatBug character. We’ll get back to him. Be afraid.

Pidge approaches the person who summoned by saying ‘For Quiznack’s Sake, you can’t keep on declaring an emergency every time you want to hang out with me, Lance! I had to make Chip take over my orientation tour for me. Do you know how irresponsible I’ll look to these new cadets now that dumped my job on my childlike android, right on the first day’

‘Well, if you don’t want me to pull the emergency card, then you should stop responding to it. And besides, you wind up having Chip substitute for most of the semester anyway, because you would rather be tinkering than lecturing. And they’re in good hands, he knows your material frontwards and back, plus he has better people skills than you.’

‘How dare you.’ she responds in fake outrage, at which they both laugh. ‘So why are you here. what’s the ‘urgent matter’ that made you abandon your farm.’ 

‘I’ll have you know, I’m here on official business too. You’re mother had another breakthrough in agricultural science, and I wanted to see if I could put this knew knowledge to use at my farm.’

‘Uhuh,’ she responds.

‘As for the urgent matter, I heard that some nerd was working on her birthday, which seriously comes into conflict with my plans to pamper and spoil her, and that’s just unforgivable.’

‘For the last time, I don’t need to do anything special for my birthday, I’m an adult!’ 

‘Then I guess you don’t want to see the ancient piece of technology, I accidentally unearthed.’ He says as he casually walks away.

‘You’re right, I don’t.’ She says as she begins to walk the other way. Only to turn around with the excuse, that she might as well have a look at it, since he brought it all the way here.

Lance shows her the tech, which may or may not turn into a macguffin later on, and Pidge is clearly impressed. It’s not quite as advanced as anything they have today, but definitely more sophisticated than its carbon dating (Is that a thing you do with objects?) would imply. She’s excitedly gushing about it, and tells him something to the gist of, ‘You didn’t have to do this.’ to which Lance responds something like, ‘I would do anything to make this happy.’ This suddenly makes everything a bit too real for Pidge, and her demeanor drops as she turns to have a solemn conversation that they had clearly had many times, when Chip comes around leading the group of cadets, who for some reason all have some kind sweet snack in their hands, and telling them general academic tour stuff in a cheery voice, only to drop everything and hug-tackle Lance once he sees him, all star-eyed and delighted to see his other favorite person. One of the cadets, does not quite know who Lance is asks about it. Chip is personally offended that there is somebody who doesn’t recognize the Lance Serrano (Or whatever your preferred last name for him is, in this pretend movie I intend to give everybody their missing last names.) on sight, and immediately begins launching into all his accomplishments, which of course impresses the cadets. They start bombarding him with questions, until Pidge tells them to stop, and then tells them to ask their questions one at a time. So an impromptu Q & A session commences in which it is confirmed that Lance is not Altean, (A self-indulgence for me, because it frustrates how many people have run with this fact, despite the marks being the only Altean trait he exhibits.) culminating in one of the cadets meekly asking if he would do a flight demonstration for them. At first he tries to decline, but Chip is excited by the idea, and Pidge eggs him on, bringing up the whole Tailor line. Lance takes her aside and asks her what she is doing. She responds that since he disrupted her job, he better make amends by contributing to the tour. He complains that he hasn’t flown so much as a cargo-jet in years, and how does she expect him to fly one of their state-of-the-art, not to mention sinfully expensive fighter-jets, without damaging it. ‘Please, a pro like you, it will be like riding a bike. And if you do crash it, I’ll take responsibility.’

‘Right.’

‘And I’ll go along with whatever other birthday surprises you have in store for me, without complaint.’

‘...’

‘And it would make Chip really, really happy.’

‘That’s playing dirty, you know I can’t say no to my favorite android.’

And so he goes along with it. At first he’s a bit hesitant, worried about so much as scuffing the fancy new jet, but before long he’s enjoying himself, and showboating to all the kids on the ground. Pidge looks up at him with a face similar to the one he was making earlier when he was watching her gush over the piece of tech. 

And we are with Keith again. He goes about trying to learn more about his dreams by asking his fellow Blades if they know someone, or something, that can help you get information from your subconscious. Zethrid says that she thinks she remembers an Alien race that could dreamwalk, and seeing as Keith doesn’t have much to go on, he decides to head out there. Acxa elects to go with him, as she is also familiar with the quadrant of space that this race resides in, and it’s a bit disorienting for the uninitiated. They get there, and convince the race to help Keith out. He is but in pseudo sleep state, and this time the memory is of the time he visited his father’s grave with Krolia. (We’re facing the front of the gravestone this time. And yes, we do finally find out Texas Kogane’s name.) Once again he hears Allura’s humming, except now it is slowed down. He approaches it, and again the visions start coming. But this time he is able to get a good look at all the images flashing in front of his eyes. They don’t mean anything to him, but in the last one, not only does he see a nebula that resembles Allura, but a small silhouette that looks suspiciously like...Voltron? The dreamwalkers have copies of all the images he saw thankfully, because a race like their’s would have found a way to transfer information out of a mind directly into images (Sort of a similar school of thinking like the Altean memory hologram things.) Back at the Blade’s headquarters, he asks if anybody know’s where the nebula is located. Nobody has ever seen something like it, but a few of them, including Zethrid, Ezor, and Axca, seem to recognize a couple of the other images. They realize that the other locations must be a path to the nebula, so Keith recruits those that knew were to find those locations to set out on reconnaissance mission. 

Here I’d like to jump around a bit. We’ll keep switching between Keith and crew’s journey, and Pidge’s Birthday Celebration. In attendance of this dinner are Hunk and Shay--Naturally, as they prepared the food--The Holt family including N-7 and Chip, Shiro and Curtis, and of course Lance. I would like this to be one of the more lighter spots in the movie, where we just see everybody’s dynamic with each other, and just exist, because after this act it’s going to get pretty heavy. One of the things that I would like to happen is that there is a projection in the background highlighting Pidge’s greatest achievements. (Including a clip of Chip first going operational, his first words being, ‘Please, define the word ‘mom’. Nevermind, I have found the definition in my Database. Be very afraid.) The party scene comes to an end, just as Keith’s expedition reach the Nebula. He decides to approach it alone in a cruiser, despite the disapproval of the rest of the crew. He claims that he has a feeling that he needs to do this alone. As he is approaching the Nebula, we occasionally cut back and forth to Pidge and Lance, who are having a conversation as he walks her home. They are discussing the day they had, Pidge thanks him for forcing her to attend her own party, Lance thanks her for encouraging him to fly again. Keith’s cruiser enters the Nebula and in the center is in fact a fully formed Voltron, seemingly deactivated. Lance asks her if she would like to hang out with him more often, alone. This devolves into a conversation (Heavily inspired by a textpost from @sp4c3-0ddity. I’ll try to find the link later.) about why them dating is or isn’t a good idea. Keith gets closer to Voltron, and realizes that it seems protecting something in its arms. The conversation grows more dramatic. Keith finally reaches Voltron, and discovers that there is some kind of a force field containing a floating young woman in the same position as the Nebula. (Wearing a light dress, because this is a family picture.) The force field allows his cruiser to pass through, and his scanners or whatsits indicate that there is a breathable atmosphere within. He opens his cruiser door? I don’t know spacecraft lingo, sue me and reaches out for the woman and brings her inside. He closes the door/hatch/whatever quickly because the moment he takes a hold of the woman the force field begins the dissipate and Voltron appears to be separating. The woman, who at the very least resembles Allura, flutters her eyes open and when her gaze locks on Keith she says ‘You’re here! Thank the Ancients, you’re here. Now we can...’ and she falls unconscious again. Meanwhile, Lance and Pidge have reached the climax of their argument. He doesn’t understand why she doesn’t want start a relationship when it’s clear there is something between them, and she says that it’s because she can’t be who he wants her to be. 

‘I just want you to be you, why else would I be asking you out? And don’t tell me this is because of Allura. Of course I still love her, but she’s gone now, and I am more than ready to move on. She wouldn’t want me to be in mourning for the rest of my life. Quiznak, if Curtis and Shiro could make it work despite their deceased loved ones than you have no excuse.’

‘That’s different, I knew Allura. She was one of my closest friends. I couldn’t do that to her. I wouldn’t even be able to look at you without feeling guilty. You literally have her mark on you.’

‘Stop making this about other people, and just tell me how you feel!’ 

‘This is how I feel! Why won’t you listen to me?! Trust me, if we did this I would not be able to focus on us, because I would always have her in mind, and that wouldn’t be fair to any of us.’

Lance sighs. ‘Look, if you’re not interested in me then just tell me. But don’t act like you’re doing me a favor by refusing to date me.’ 

‘My feelings for you don’t matter! I’ve been in love with you since before we even met Allura, that’s why we can’t do this! Because I would be taking advantage of her absence!’ Her eyes widen in Shock, and she covers in mouth in mortification, clearly not wanting to reveal that much. Lance is surprised too, never realizing that her feelings run that deep. 

‘Pidge, you’re not...’ Their communication devices start ringing. Cut to the other former Paladins, who’s devices are also ringing. The pick it up and are shocked by Keith’s message. 

‘I found Allura. She’s returned!’ 

Pidge and Lance look at each other uncertainly, not knowing what this development to them. 

And this is where I stop for now. Ain’t I a stinker? Because as of writing this sentence it has almost been five hours and I need me a break. 

To be continued probably....

[alexswak]

From Castlevania to Boruto: Spencer Wan Interview

I myself had all sorts of questions after watching Castlevania, and seeing that Spencer Wan was so active on Twitter I thought I might try asking him, what resulted in a long interview. The scene he is best known for is the abstract black-lines-only part of the opening, but he had remarkable participations in many other known projects despite his young age. Other than Castlevania, where he animated, AD’ed and directed episodes even, he also worked on Boruto and Invader Zim among others. My notes are in bold. Conducted on behalf of AnimeTherapy and originally posted on their website.

 First tell me a bit about yourself and how you started with animation.

Spencer: You know, that might be the only question I wasn’t prepared to answer. I’m not great at talking about myself. Okay, I’m 25 years old and I’m from a small town in the Deep South. I got into animation after seeing Norio Matsumoto’s work on Naruto. I used to watch it with my friends in high school and I’d never seen anything like it before.  I’d intended to major in illustration when I got into college, but I ended up swapping to animation at the last second because I couldn’t get his work out of my head. I thought maybe I could learn how to make animation like that at school.

Where did you start your professional career and how?

Spencer: So after I dropped out of school I spent a year sort of just wandering around and doing very little with my life. I was having a hard time finding any sort of work, let alone artistic work. I ended up working in a tire shop for a while, actually. Dana Terrace was the one who dragged me out of that. She’s the creator of the show I’m working on now(The Owl House). I’d helped her with one of her student films when we were in school, and she was doing way better than me as a professional artist. She gave me a sort of a pep talk and told me about this animation studio called Animation Domination High Def that was looking for animators.

It's worth mentioning that there aren't very many studios in the United States that hire traditional(hand-drawn) animators anymore. We were even told in school not to pursue traditional animation as a career because those jobs didn't exist. Anyway, I applied the next day, they had me do an animation test, and few weeks later I moved across the country to work for them.

The work I did there was very different from the work people expect from me now. It was mostly parody cartoons, and we had to animate 2-3 scenes a day so it was hard to make anything look very good. It was a difficult job, and it wasn't what I wanted to be doing with animation, but it taught me how to draw very fast.

An interesting backstory, really. So you stuck with traditional animation because you wanted to create something like what Matsumoto makes?

Spencer: That's how I started anyway, but he was just my first exposure to this sort of animation. When I got older I came across the work of Yutaka Nakamura, Mitsuo Iso, Toshiyuki Inoue, etc. They're all incredible in different ways, but I could feel that they were also drawing on something similar. There's a sort of feeling I used to get looking at the work of a really talented Japanese animator, and I really wanted my work to illicit that same feeling.

It would've been a lot easier to change tracks to storyboarding or design. I had enough technical skill to do it, and there were many more opportunities available, but I stuck with traditional animation because I was chasing that feeling. I knew I couldn't be satisfied as an artist until I understood it.

Alright, now to more specific stuff. How did you get involved in Castlevania?

Spencer: Well after working at ADHD, I ended up moving away from LA because I couldn't find anyone who wanted to hire me for animation. I went back to my hometown and spent a year freelancing for scraps. I actually tried to go to Japan for work at one point, but my visa was rejected because I'm a college dropout. It was around this time that Sam(Samuel Deats), the future director of Castlevania, had been emailing me to try to get me to work for Powerhouse. Actually, I rejected him the first time and tried to get my visa through again…

Obviously that didn't work out, so I told Sam I'd changed my mind and I moved to Texas to work for Powerhouse. He'd been telling me the whole time about this awesome secret project the studio might acquire soon. I completely wrote him off because as a freelancer you hear that sort of thing all the time and it's never as good as it sounds. That project was Castlevania. It ended up getting greenlit after I'd been working at the studio for a couple months. Sam plucked me off the animation team to work on it and I started storyboarding on the first episode. It was actually my first time storyboarding, so naturally I was given the scene where the crowd gets attacked by an army of creatures in an elaborate gothic city.

I see. Then can you give me a quick overview of the workflow the staff followed while working on Castlevania? From finished storyboards to finished scenes. I'm interested in the workflow you followed since Castlevania is obviously not your run-of-the-mill project.

Spencer: *laughs* Well in season one it was a constantly changing process. Powerhouse had never handled a TV show before, and so we were sort of creating the process as the show went on. We didn't even manage to standardize our storyboarding process until episode 4. Our background team doubled as our incidental and prop design team, with one of the background artists serving as a part time storyboarder. Sam was the director, but he was also storyboarding and designing all the main characters. His brother Adam, who's meant to be supervising compositor, became our editor. It was all over the place, but it allowed for a lot of experimentation. That's how I came to animate on the show instead of just storyboarding.

I'm getting kind of off topic though- the way it would usually work is that we'd receive an approved script and we'd have a few weeks to storyboard it. We didn't have any revisionists working with us, so if there was a problem, we'd address it ourselves and then Adam would cut together an animatic and add sound. It's worth mentioning that we didn't have any voice acting to work with in season 1, so we sort of had to guess at how the actors would read their lines.

After the animatic was approved we would ship it along with the designs and key backgrounds to MUA Film, our outsourcing studio in Korea. And then in some specific instances we would leave a note telling them to exclude a sequence, because Sam or I had planned to animate it ourselves. After storyboarding was done I jumped right onto animation. We were working with a pencil and paper animation studio, so even though I work digitally, I would have to write x-sheets(equivalent to time sheets in anime) for my work as if I'd drawn it on paper. At some point in the process we decided we wanted to do a much more specific compositing job on the show, and so we had the studio ship us back their cleaned and colored animation, and our in house compositing team would polish it with a mountain of after effects work. A lot of why the show looks so cinematic is because of them.

So I take it this is how it went with the average scene. But your scene in the OP, that got a lot of attention, is clearly exceptional. Can you tell me more about how you came up with this style and scene? Personally I have to admit, it’s one of the best and most striking animation pieces I have seen in a while.

Spencer: Thanks! We really slaved over that opening. It actually wasn't meant to exist- there was no time or budget set aside for it. Sam had done the storyboards for it in his free time and pitched them to the producers. They said we could do it if we could somehow find time for it. I think Sam originally intended to handle the entire thing himself, but when the time came to animate it, I was the only one available. So Sam pulled me into his office and showed me the storyboards, specifically the part at the end. He said something to the effect of, "I know I want this to look like fire. You can do it in whatever style you come up with, as long as it's done quickly." Never in my career had someone put so much trust in me. A lot of people like to compare the sequence to the music video for Take On Me, but when I was trying to come up with the style, the first thing that came to mind was one of Yutaka Nakamura's animations. It's from an anime I watched in high school called Soul Eater where the character goes to draw his sword, and the entire scene turns into this abstract looking sort of river of pencil lines on a red background(this scene). I thought maybe I could do something similar to that. It took me about an hour to realize I couldn't do it the same way, and my imitation of it was coming out far too abstract to tell what was going on. I ended up doing another pass on it, but instead of trying to copy Nakamura's abstract linework, I tightened up the drawings focused on the shadows. I thought I could try to mimic the look of how light shifts around on an ember, and that's where I got the shadows that constantly roll across the characters. The finished result still bears a lot of his influence, but I think I managed to put my own spin on it.

I remember that Soul Eater scene! Now that you mention it, I can definitely see similarities. But the Take on Me? Not really. How much time did you spend on that scene, if I may ask?

Spencer: It was something like two weeks? I don't remember that well anymore. I worked entirely through the last four nights, so it felt longer than that. I remember losing an hour to daylight savings time, and that put me in a really foul mood.

I've never mentioned this before, but it's unfinished. I ran out of time in the end, and so the part with Trevor and Sypha is just my rough first pass. I was devastated when we shipped it that way. At the time I considered it to be my biggest failure as an artist. Ironically it's the piece of work I'm known best for now.

Sypha's scene in the 2nd season is also yours right? Glad to see the same style made it into the show.

Spencer: Adam had wanted to have it in the show for a while, and I really didn’t want to do it. I was so upset about the opening before it aired that I swore I would never draw in that style again. But then the opportunity presented itself and I thought, “Well I guess it would only be for a second or so”. I felt the second time I did it it was a lot less inspired though.

Can't complain myself, it was pretty cool.

Spencer: Well I had more experience the second time *laughs*. I didn’t have to feel around for what the style was.

So moving on. The problem with your Alucard fight scene, that you had problems translating your digital motion guides into paper, you said that also happened for the Cyclops sequences. How widespread was this problem then? Did it only affect your work or the work of other animators as well?

Spencer: It would only affect animations that had large camera movements, that we sent overseas for clean up. It was a problem born from the fact that we don’t really do paper animation in America anymore.

When the camera moves around a lot, the field has to get bigger. You have to use something called panning paper in order for the drawings to maintain a proper size for clean up. But there was no one that I could learn that from. I had to teach everything to myself, and so my first instinct was to make the drawings smaller to fit them on the page. The clean up artists overseas fixed this by scaling the drawings up, but then they had to recreate my spacing from scratch and they didn’t have enough time to do it the same way. The result was that drawings would pop anywhere from a few pixels to a few millimeters out of position all the time. Adam ended up respacing everything, but it wasn’t a perfect match to the original, so drawings tend to pop around. Most people don’t notice it though.

Actually I’ve had a similar issue with other productions where if my spacing gets too tight, there’s a chance a drawing could pop out of place too. I’m still learning how to solve some of those problems.

I see! Shame you found yourself in this situation, but this is a nice segue to another traditional project I want to ask you about, Boruto. You worked on Boruto a few months ago, episode #65 specifically. How did you get involved in this project? You were an interesting case because you are not affiliated with studio LAN like most of other foreign animators in that episode, as far as I know at least.

Spencer Wan: *laughs* I could see why it seemed a little out of nowhere. It's because Chengxi and I had already been talking on twitter for a while. I consider him a close friend. He asked me to animate for him and I agreed. It was as simple as that.

Looking at your original work and the final version in Boruto, I see that it went mostly uncorrected. Why is that? Were you just given a lot of freedom in that episode? Because of Chengxi and your aforementioned good relation with him?

Spencer: Oh, it was nothing like that. I was a lot more concerned with doing the work properly than trying to stand out or show off. Chengxi's storyboards and the model sheets for Boruto were very clear. I followed them to the best of my ability, and my work ended up going uncorrected aside from a light fill being added. I should've anticipated the need for that light fill, actually. I wasn't thinking about how it would look in color.

Boruto is more of a traditional animation(paper) show, right? Didn't you have problems with that this time?  I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to Boruto specifically, so I don't know how much of its production is digitalized.

Spencer: The process was actually very similar to what I used on Castlevania, only this time there was no complicated camera movement to worry about, and I had Chengxi to help me with parts of the paper process that I didn't fully grasp yet. Some of the other foreign animators helped me out too- namely Guzzu. It was my first time not having to figure it all out on my own, and I was really grateful for that. I feel I learned a lot.

You are right, the nature of this scene is different. I thought maybe it was the Japanese industry being more used to this dual nature of digital and paper. So generally working on Boruto, although a Japanese show, wasn’t different from Castlevania and other shows you worked on before?

Spencer: There are differences in style when it comes to x-sheets. For example, the Korean x-sheets I've written list the layer order completely backward from the Japanese ones used on Boruto. Americans will write "truck out" when they want the camera to pull out, but the Japanese shorthand is apparently T.B for "track back" instead. It's a lot of differences like that, but the idea behind them is mostly the same. It was an adjustment, but not a very big one, and I was told I did an alright job writing them... I hope they weren't just being nice.

I was just watching Castlevania and now that you mentioned him, Chengxi did some animation! Also others such as Hero. Were you the one who invited them this time?

Spencer: I was the one who invited Chengxi. Sam invited the others after I’d left the production.

And you inviting Chengxi and working on #7 was after boruto, I suppose?

Spencer: Actually it was beforehand! He had to cut his work short to start working on Boruto. He did such a brilliant job regardless. That guy is a genius.

Aha, interesting. That was the last of my questions, I'm very grateful for the chance you gave me and for your amazing, detailed answers!

Spencer: No problem! I hope my answers weren’t too boring. That technical stuff can get dense.

[docfuture]

Interlude: The Book

    [This vignette occurs just after Chapter 45 of The Maker’s Ark.  The latest chapter of The Maker’s Ark is here, and links to some of my other work are here.  Updates are posted irregularly–theoretically every two weeks, a schedule I still aspire to return to someday.]

      Insomnia wasn't something Flicker usually thought about, or even noticed; when she was growing up, it was the default, and she formed her habits accordingly.  What was still new to her was considering how it might affect someone else sharing her bed.  She'd moved to the next compartment to read in order to avoid disturbing Journeyman.       The rumble of the main drive of the Learning Is About To Occur kept her company on the couch as she skimmed a translated Grs'thnk survey article on the effects of non-standard communication modes on social development.  Learning had inquired politely if she wished conversation, and she had politely declined.  The only other person on the ship who had context for what she wanted to talk about was asleep, and she wasn't going to--       The hatch opened, revealing Journeyman, in the t-shirt and shorts he'd worn to bed--his habits were shaped by the occasional need for an abrupt port.  His hat was in the form of a nightcap, which she thought was a nice touch.       "Figured," he said.  "How bad?"       "I'm okay," said Flicker.  "Didn't want to wake you just to ramble at you."       "Flicker, you can always--"       She shook her head.  "Listening is an effort right now.  And one-sided conversations are rude, especially when you're short of sleep too."       Journeyman was a pattern magician, and he had a skilled actor's mastery of gesture and nuance.  He adjusted the brim of the cap, which morphed into a beach hat.  His t-shirt shifted to a colorful Aloha shirt, a snap of his fingers made an iced drink appear in his hand, and he sat down on the couch beside her.  He stretched out one leg to rest a now-sandaled foot on the table, waved expansively with his free hand, and raised an eyebrow at her with a smile, a picture of comfortable relaxation.       He could give an eloquent speech with exactly zero words.       Flicker blinked and turned off her handcomp.  "Okay," she said.  "When I came back down from the translation session, I said I'd want to talk later.  It's later.  There are some old memories that I've wanted to share for a while, but--well, I'll explain."       "Go ahead," he said.       "Did you ever notice the old lockbox in my bedroom?"       "Yeah.  Wasn't going to ask.  Magicians know better."       "There's a keepsake in it.  I'd have told you before, but...  When I started recovering some of my childhood memories, it connected to some dark stuff, even though the other memories I have of it are good.  But it's still my most emotionally important possession."       "Keepsakes can be like that."       "Yeah."  Flicker paused.  "When Gumshoe and the Volunteer got me out of that orphanage, it was an effort for me to understand speech.  But when I realized the Volunteer was going to take me somewhere else, I wouldn't go with him until I went and got something.  He couldn't keep up with me--that's what made it obvious that my power was speed.  Also, I destroyed some doors, and was clutching it protectively when I came back, so everyone figured out right away that it was a good idea to let me keep it.  And I couldn't talk yet, but I could read, and even write a little."       "You said someone tried to teach you," said Journeyman.       "Yeah.  I'm not sure how old I was... it wasn't the last place I was in, it was the one before it, the one that burned down.  So maybe four or five?  I don't remember any details.  They might have stopped because they thought I was deaf.  My hearing was very hit or miss--that was before I figured out how to control my internal speed to make it reliable.  Every time I sped up to think, I'd stop hearing, and that chopped up sounds into bits too brief to reassemble.       "Or they might have stopped because I didn't get that pictures and words could go together.  Or maybe they were told to stop.  I don't know.  Anyway, whoever tried didn't get far.  That's not how I learned to read.  But it was enough to plant the idea that patterns on paper could mean something important.  I didn't have anything to connect them to, though.  Then, quite a while later, I found something."       Flicker smiled.  "There wasn't much written or printed material that I could get at.  A few old magazines and some scraps of newspaper.  They didn't really help.  The only thing I learned from them was that turning pages was tricky, and I needed to be careful if I didn't want to destroy them.  And then one day--I don't remember how, there are still a lot of gaps--I found myself outside.  I could move around if I really wanted.  I just didn't, mostly.  Nowhere to go, I wasn't very coordinated yet, and I was discouraged from trying for...  well, pretty good reasons if you were a nearby human.       "It was sunny out, and there was another building nearby, with a big open door, so I went in.  I didn't recognize most of what I saw, but I remember the smell.  It was distinctive--grease, oil, metal, and dust.  Old workshop or small machine shop, one that hadn't been used much in a while.  I poked around a bit.  I remember a big workbench with scattered tools and a vice clamped to one end, a chain hoist, and a metal cabinet with shelves.  And on one of the shelves was a book."       Flicker closed her eyes, remembering.  "I was very lucky.  When I opened it, and carefully turned a few pages, I knew I had found something important, something amazing.  It was full of printing, writing, that I didn't understand yet, but I sensed that I could learn.  Understanding was possible.  I picked it up, went back outside where the light was better, and started.  I don't remember anything of my surroundings after that.  At some point they found me and herded me back inside, but I didn't mind, I took the book with me.  I don't think they were ever stupid enough to try to take it away.  I know I was easier to deal with when I had my book, so they didn't have reason."       "I taught myself to read using that book.  And once I could puzzle some of it out, I realized just how wonderful it was."  She opened her eyes again.  "It was the best book in the world.  What I read... fit, with a part of my mind I hadn't even realized I had.  It was precious.  I kept it wrapped up when I wasn't reading it, and slept with it under my pillow.  The Trickster never tried to take it away, though I was afraid he might.  I don't think he understood it."       "The only time anything bad happened, was when I woke up one night and there were these bugs.  There were always bugs around, and I usually ignored them.  But these bugs were trying to eat my book.  I got really scared and mad.  I killed the bugs, then looked where they were coming from and pulled it open and there were more, so I killed them too, and..."  Flicker looked down.  "I wasn't careful.  I got rid of the bugs.  But I got rid of the building too.  That was the fire."       "Ah," said Journeyman.  "Was-- wait, never mind, stupid question.  Go on."       "What?  Go ahead, now I'm curious."       "Gah.  Okay.  That mission back when we were first working together.  I said 'You don't burn down your house to kill the bugs.'  You got upset but couldn't explain why."       "Yeah," said Flicker.  "I didn't have the memory back yet, but I still had some reactions from around it.  And there are records of people dying in that fire.  That's the worst part.  Doc thought--I thought--the fire was part of a cover-up, that the people were already dead.  But they'd have to plan that, and they didn't.  I caused it."       "Not... necessarily."       Flicker frowned.  "What do you mean?  Too much damage, too much heat transfer--boom, fire.  That was me."       "Yeah, but the Trickster was your real jailer.  Getting other people to take the fall for things he planned was his specialty.  If he wanted, he could send in the bugs with a pretty good idea of what would happen.  And even if he didn't, the scuzzy humans running the place wouldn't need any prodding to use a fire of unknown origin to explain otherwise suspicious deaths.  Their other options would be worse--fires attract attention."       Flicker thought for a bit, and blinked a few times.  "Mike, you're really good at making me feel better.  And I love you for it.  But you can't know that."       "No.  But you can't know it's all your fault either.  Accepting responsibility is one thing, but you don't have to hoard it like a miser."       "Okay.  That's... reasonable.  Sorry."  Flicker wiped her eyes.       "You said there were good memories, too?"       "Oh yeah," said Flicker.  "My book kept me occupied, and grounded.  I read and reread it for years."       "I did that with a couple of spellbooks for a while." said Journeyman, smiling.  "They were reference works, but I used them as comfort reading."       "The best kind.  What I figured out last night was what made it click so well.  That came back when I was tearing through that new Floater data dump looking for translation cues."       "Was that why you were so happy when you slowed back down?  I thought it was from the progress you made."       "That, too.  I kept jumping ahead of where Learning, DASI, and Three were consolidating.  Because the Floaters included a bunch of older scientific reference texts as jumping off points, and I already had a Rosetta Stone for that sort of thing memorized.  I know how to use formats and table descriptions and a whole bunch of other clues to learn an alien language, because I did it before.  That's how I learned English--using all the data and tables from my book and comparing with the formats and some leftover data from Skybreaker's memory.  She had non-volatile memory specifically for local physical constants and stuff, because she was created for inter-universal travel, so that's where I stored the data from the book.  That's why I never lose it from my high speed memory when I sleep.  And what made it fit, what made me sure it was important.  It was like... a guide to where I was.  Common math and purpose guided me when I read my book.  I just had to build up meanings for the symbols and puzzle out the axioms."       Flicker smiled again.  "And it was the base I used to come back to myself, after Donner's song of unbinding.  My book still helps me, even though I've updated a lot of the data.  So can you see why I'm sentimental about it?"       Journeyman stared into the distance for a bit before speaking, hesitantly.  "So.  I can guess what kind of book it was.  Are you comfortable sharing the title?"       Flicker felt herself blush.  "Oh!  Yeah.  It's the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, the 44th edition for 1962 and 1963.  3,604 pages.  I read every printed page, all the tiny writing, all the numbers and tables, all the graphs and charts and equations and footnotes.  It gave me a taste of how much knowledge there was out there, organized and beautiful, even if I didn't understand what it was all about yet.  And the first time I visited Doc's lab, and he gave me a high speed interface to his Database--I realized it was kind of like a living version of my book, bigger and faster and more up to date.  That's when I knew I was home.  That Earth was home."       Journeyman smiled.  "That's what I would call a pretty good book."       "My book.  Best book.  I'll show it to you when we get back to Earth."  Flicker yawned.  "Sorry to blather for so long.  But I think I'll be able to sleep now."       "Not blather.  We share when we can."  Journeyman stood and stretched, and they moved back to the bedroom.       This time, sleep came easy.

[lilmajorshawty]

📽Harsh aspects and signs as I’ve Experienced them in Others📽

📢📢📢📢This posts is being made as a counter measure to so many of the grim and bleak posts on harsh aspects in a natal chart especially romantic. Always remember your aspects do not define you, they’re merely a map that’s inviting you to look inside yourself and be the very best version of yourself you can be.

◼️Venus opposite Saturn: extremely patient, they have a very cute shyness about them and can be very modest. They have a black and white view on hardships and tend to go on about how nothing in life is a “given” but they tend to do this out of being protective rather then being assholes. They tend to turn into parents unknowingly when they really care about you and they’re immensely loyal. Being with them isn’t as horrible as it’s made out to be and as heavy as they can be they have a very loving and protective heart. Being with them means pulling them out of their shell from time to time and being a little goofy! Be dramatic! Be a kid! Help them forget about grouchy old Saturn for a sec. they just need to know that it’s okay to love, they just need to feel like there is a refuge just over the horizon. So be patient with them just as they are with you! And I think they’re very wonderful and very cozy men and women here :) and they’re sooo beautiful beyond what they even allow themselves to except.

🎶cigarettes after sex affection

💠Venus square Neptune: aha I’m men in can make them a mystery! They can be quiet and a bit perplexing. They can vanish from time to time but this isn’t a bad sign! Just means they like yah :) they need a lot of time to process things and I’ve noticed in a mans chart it makes him incredibly sensitive and he might feel ashamed of that part of him and may try to be 1000x more macho then he needs to be. But just try and be understanding they’re emotions blow over very quickly and they regret things the second they do it. They daydream quite a bit and women here can be very vixen like and have mesmerizing movements and personalities. Both men and women I’ve noticed with this aspect are very emotionally courageous! They just don’t know where to direct it. Being with them is so fun! Men here are big ol babies and they just want a hug! They don’t mind clingy partners and adore quiet moments but they can be very untrusting and can unfairly retaliate if they feel vulnerable. Once more just try and be calm-they feel things strongly-just make sure to be responsive and hold their hands when they get confused- the square here makes them fish out of water and the world around them easily confuses them but that being said there vulnerability is something out of this world. Women I’ve noticed with this aspect are goofy!! Super independent but longing in a way. They have this idea you know? Of something better-be it a person a place a situation? They just always have their mind on the next thing and being with her means serving as that foundation for her desires and helping her construct them into the physical world. They remind me of will Ferrell in a way sentimental and all over the place in a cute way.

🎶sza UR

🎴Mars square Pluto: they are very dominate, and the house Pluto is in says more about the “where” this dominance plays out at. But if you ask me they don’t really come across that way. They’re touch cookies and can have a mean way about showing that they’re into you aha like really harsh, but trust me them being mean is a good sign. They are very calm outwardly and don’t usually resort to power plays or bullying there partner into submission like this aspect is made out to do-I think as they grow older they just kind of ice you out and through you some attitude when they’re mad but other than that they’re so sweet not in a direct way but In an “actions” sort of way. It’ll take them awhile to vocalize there feelings for you and they may be better at showing you during the early stages but don’t worry! Saying it is hard for them! It’s laying there soul out on the table and that takes a lot out of them and it can feel like a life changing experience for them and just because they take longer than most to say it doesn’t mean they don’t feel it! Just give em Time. They speak through there actions for the most part and yes they do like sex but when they’re in love they hold off until it’s the right moment and because they genuinely want you to feel safe. Getting involved with them isn’t signing up for abuse-but it is intense and transformative and you will certainly come out of it or stay in it a more confident and blunt person. But none the less dating them is exciting and it’s very romantic and sort of dramatic you know aha.

🎶Tove lo the way that I am

🃏Venus square Uranus: now despite the hot and cold title they’ve been given I’d have to say from experience? They’re sooo fascinating. They have a very aloof yet deeply intense aura. It’s something you’d have to experience for yourself being with them but the push and pull isn’t so much as emotional as it is physical in a way? The too come hand in hand. On one hand they are immensely engaged and sometimes overwhelmingly so-there emotions come at you hard and fast yet after these big showings they retreat and often can stay gone unless they are reassured they didn’t spook you with their display. Obviously I’ve seen it with many different signs being involved be it water and air or earth and fire and so on but if there’s one constant it would be the depth and magnitude of their love. They don’t love in a usual way and can be quite nervous when they start feeling genuine feelings for you, they usually and always are thinking and practicing, planning and running through constant scenarios on how to be better and do better when it comes to “you” a lot of the time their disappearances are nothing more than them being embarrassed. They’re not lovers in the traditional sense and they’re very aware of that and it makes them feel odd being in love or having feelings for someone because they love the feeling but they also don’t understand it. They want more of it but simultaneously don’t know how to go about doing that. The thing about them is they’ll always disappear, they’ll always need moments of space and moments to collect and plan and Re engage! Be it life that pulls them away from you for a little while or be it them themselves(although not for long) they always will need to process and this is ok! It’s not a deal breaker and no the breakups aren’t incoming nor are they planned and a lot of the time it has nothing to do with you. They pull away out of uncertainty and not knowing how to convey their need to “collect” so if you like them or love them for that matter make sure you understand that it’s okay to be lovey and emotional with them! It’s okay to keep on their tail and it’s okay to let your guard down. Wether you plan or not they are always gonna be a little random and the key to having less disappearances from them is just making them feel understood and loved. Don’t try to change them and just communicate with them a lot! They learn so much from you without being told but still be supportive of them and encourage them to have friends and outside stuff from you! And no they don’t think you’re boring aha they just need to keep themselves properly dispensed but I promise they are very sensitive and remarkably compassionate and receptive lovers and people and their just a little kooky sometimes :)

🎶bonobo Kerala

♦️Venus in Scorpio: aha THEYRE SO CUTE! They have a tendency to come on strongly like in an emotional way rather than physical and can seem very standoffish romantically in the early stages because they’re “testing” so yes during this time which many don’t like and usually end up scrapping them for, they end up being stiff during this period. The thing is this is just a defense mechanism and no Scorpio Venus is inherently a monster who gets off on your suffering-they just want authenticity and someone who’s real and in their:to some seems over the top methods they weed out those who aren’t looking for something serious with them. They are honestly huge softies and have HUGE HEARTS. Many are very sacrificing and easily emotionally aroused when they’re in love. Being with a Scorpio Venus isn’t necessarily an easy task as a lot of them do have their own insecurities and walls in place to insure they’re own safety which can make them seem self invested and heartless in a way but you must remember this is just a mechanism and nothing more. I’ve learned that being with a Venus in Scorpio or any scorpio placement for that matter is just about being yourself. It isn’t about changing your ways or “being hard to get” it isn’t about mind games or being the one with the power—and it’s not at all about “proving your worth” aha being with them isn’t a job or a chore and I really wish they weren’t described this way :( but honestly just be yourself! If your loud and obnoxious and they pursue you? Obviously they like that in you so don’t change that! If your sensitive and over emotional like me? Aha be that. Scorpios are intense and want to see you laid bare so if you read to deeply into those Scorpio posts and that whole “how to pass the Scorpio test” mess you won’t really ever meet them on a real level plain field. Being with them is just being honest and being sure it’s what you wanna do.

🎶Kelela onanon

♣️Venus in Capricorn: they are actually soooo laid back! They aren’t like super serious or angry like everyone makes them out to be and I’ve seen them date young and old partners! I guess it’s more about being an old soul then it is about being old in looks. They are super easy going and have an immensely comfortable atmosphere! They are so earthy and remind me of the end of summer near fall. They do want something serious and can be very mature and heavy in their relationships but also in a paradoxical way they do better in relationships with people who are a little more lax and bubbly then they are! Not saying they can’t date someone equally as serious about intimacy but I’ve met so many of them who come out of there shell around people a little more out of their personality type. They make excellent friends and dating them or flirting with them for that matter is also fun In itself. Me being a Venus in Gemini I LOVE how awkwardly straightforward they are about romance and how many silent giggles and ignored sighs I’ve gotten from them. The low grins disguised as frowns and the red faces. They are so adorable and honestly have such warm and sensuous personalities. Being with them similarly to venus I’m scorpio is about having a sense of humor and not taking them or life to seriously. Yes they can be pragmatic and mature but often times it alludes the carefree spirit in them.

🎶Foals balloons

🀄️Venus in Gemini: ah my placement. Venus in Gemini get torn up on this site and off this site. It’s a recurring statement that we are absolutely incapable more so then any sign of monogamy and consistent feelings in a relationship. Single life am I right? Wrong. Venus in Gemini and many of the ones I’ve met are not as promiscuous as we are made out to be and I think people misunderstand the planet mercury and that’s ever so prevalent with the interpretations of Venus in Gemini. Often times Venus in Gemini are fairly celibate and for a long while-sure some enjoy the concept of a relationship but due to our highly mentally based love nature we are also aware of how demanding and emotionally elevated one must be to be with another. We look at romance from all angles and handle it cautiously. I may find someone attractive but I don’t see them as someone I intend to date for the sake of it and I certainty wouldn’t persist on sexual involvement especially considering how easily emotions and actions correlate. Venus in Gemini are if anything extremely mature in regards to emotions as scattered and turbulent as they are. Love isn’t just as easy as saying 4 letters and it’s not as easy as holding hands. Love demands a meeting of minds and a meeting of bodies. It’s a commitment to someone and it’s something that you must bare all too and Gemini venus know this is the gamble with love and many avoid relationships all together and even self sabotage but not out of a need for “variety” nor out of a need to “experiment” we are insecure-we are afraid because the child in us fears the idea of investing in someone just to have those feelings fade-to have our lovers lose interest or suddenly decide it’s not for them. For that reason Gemini venus inherently maintain a special distance especially when in love in the early stages as to make sure the love is heartfelt and genuine. To some we just don’t know what we want, but really we know all to well and mercury keeps us aware that things an change-people can change and the one thing that doesn’t change for a Gemini venus is “love” we’re picky and don’t open up easily and often times the charming and talkative demeanor is an act. Being with a Gemini venus is exciting! It’s vivacious and full of color-it’s childlike and absolutely endearing but we are complex and there are many walls that need to be pulled down before you see the child behind it all. Venus in Gemini are usually known by their trademark to always feel “iffy” about there relationships and tend to need reassurance that often they provide themselves but it’s nice to give it to them once and awhile! And despite contrary belief they do crave intimacy and love being in an emotionally expressive relationship.

🎶the neighbourhood IDK/24-7

There’s so many others I will talk about in the future but here’s some for starters.