#also i may write the other idea i had which is essentially like. The above but in a uni au where they’re both broke

[roraruu]

YOTO: April

Ignatz/Dorothea. Canon divergence/“no I’m not dating your brother”.

Derdriu was the last place Ignatz thought he’d ever seen Dorothea Arnault.

It was a momentary glance, as he left a client’s business on behalf of his parents. The gold jingled in his pockets, hitting against his thigh. His eyes trained to the ground, he focused on the salty, sour scent of the nearby sea, the cool winter air, the sounds of merchants advertising their wares and people passing and—

The softest, sweet tone took to the air. He listened harder. He knew that voice.

“Dorothea?”

A pair of jade eyes looked back at him, pleading and overjoyed.

“Ignatz?”

—

Dorothea is as charming and bewitching as she was in the academy. And she eats—her manners impeccable and conduct befitting of a lady—like she hasn’t seen food in a month.

The restaurant is warm and bustling. After noticing the cut of the dress Dorothea wore and her pale complexion, Ignatz requested a table closest to the hearth and speedily ordered a pot of tea.

She is all graces and thank yous, gentle inclines of her head in which her bangs fall into her eyes and she continuously pushes it behind her ears to stay away from her lovely mouth.

She explains, between a delicate sip of her tea that she had helped with the dispersal of the Enbarr Opera House and the Mittelfrank Opera Company, her alma mater.

“I wanted to help people.” She murmurs. “But…”

“I understand.” Ignatz says as another bowl of bread arrives, and with it another refill of the teapot with hot water..

“My finances aren’t exactly liquid. I managed to find a way from Enbarr to here. Bern was kind enough to convey me, without her father’s knowing, but she couldn’t come with me.”

“Why the Alliance?” Ignatz finds himself asking.

Dorothea’s face takes on a grave countenance. “I love Edie… Loved. But I cannot stand by while she murders innocents.” She says softly. “And the Kingdom did not seem much better.“ She forces, what he expects was to be a chipper giggle, but it’s a defeated chuckle. “I’d probably freeze passing over the border.”

“So you came here.”

“I had the pleasure of taking tea with Claude once or twice, and unfortunately, Lorenz too. They made this place sound beautiful.”

“It is quite breathtaking.” He says, glancing out the far-off window. If he squints, he can catch a glimpse of the grey sea.

“I crossed the Bridge of Myrddin and came here. Most of my funds are gone, but…” She forces a smile. “I’m here.”

“Are you going to stay with Claude?”

“My housing situation is… it isn’t fixed.”

“Well then you must stay with us.”

“Us?”

Ignatz nods. “My family.” He explains. “My brother is studying beneath my father to inherit the business—the Victor Trading Company—and he sends me out on small jobs.” He makes himself sound brighter. “Like today. I had just finished a commission before crossing paths with you.”

“I couldn’t impose.”

“Dorothea,” Ignatz says firmly. She meets his gaze. He notices that she’s grown thinner, her face pale. “I must insist.”

She heaves a sigh, reaches across the table and pats his hand. He feels his face heat. “At least… At least let me ask.”

Ignatz smiles. “Whatever you please.” He agrees and encourages her to take the last sweet bun.

***

A plan is worked out over steaming cups of tea. It takes a little lying—but with Ignatz’s newfound confidence—it is nothing more than a bent truth.

With his cut from the commission, he puts Dorothea up in an inn for the evening—specifically the Kristen Cottage run by his best friend, Raphael. When the jovial brawler sees Dorothea and Ignatz he pulls her into a bear hug and twirls her around. His little sister, Maya, almost drops her dishes upon seeing the famed Mystical Songstress herself.

Raphael closes the tavern, insists that Ignatz stay for a drink while Maya helps Dorothea upstairs and tends to her. They talk, and when Dorothea returns, she relays her story to the Kirsten siblings. At the end, Raphael asks the crucial question:

“So, what happens now?”

“Well, Raphie, that’s where you come in.” She says. “I need work. Have you any need for entertainment? I can sing, dance, I’ll even help in the kitchen!”

“But what about…” Ignatz falls silent as Dorothea grabs his hand beneath the table.

“Of course we do!” Maya exclaims happily.

“My, Grandpa hasn’t approved—”

Maya turns back to Raphael—she’s tinier than him but just as loud. “Raph! A former opera star in our joint? That would drag! The! Customers! In!”

Dorothea smiles softly. “It would…” she says. “I remember all of my best roles!”

Maya turns to Dorothea, eyes wide. “R-Really? Oh, even as Marguerite?” She asks. “She’s my favourite one of your roles… The songs were all so sad, I cried buckets!”

“Well I hope you have a pail,” says Dorothea with a wink. “if Raphie has me, I’ll sing them all for you.”

“Please?” Maya whines.

Raphael gives in. “Alright, of course.” He says. “But we can only put you up for a while. It’s sorta packed in here tonight. You could stay with us, we’re downstairs in the basement.”

Dorothea’s eyes grew glassy. “It’s more than I could’ve ever hoped for. Thank you Raphael.”

As the night drew to a close, Ignatz begins to say his farewells, promising to check-in on them the following day. Dorothea, unexpectedly, throws her arms around his neck and hugs him tight.

“Thank you Ignatz. For everything.” She whispers softly.

He feels himself blush again and promises anything for her.

Over the course of the next few days, in between Dorothea working tirelessly as the new—and showstopping headliner for the Kirsten Cottage—and Ignatz’s own duties keeping up client communications and other duties, they met a few times in the warm tavern.

It was after close and Ignatz comes for a sole glass of wine. Dorothea sits beside him, humming softly under her breath.

“Do you still draw?”

His ears grow hot. Guiltily, he replies. “W-When I have a moment of privacy, yes. But those moments are few and far between.”

“That’s sad.”

He remains quiet. “It must be gratifying to do what you love as a career.”

“I mean, look where it got me.” Dorothea muses. “Getting into Enbarr during the military lockdown was a nightmare, and then to break up my family… It was hell.”

Ignatz inclines his head. “I’m sorry Dorothea. I should’ve been more prudent.”

“It’s fine.” She says before tapping her nails across the table. “But…”

He looks at her encouragingly. She leans closer, glancing towards the kitchen where the Kirsten siblings clean up for the night. “Somedays I wished I never sang at all.”

“Really?”

“Mmhm.” She nods. “It’s… I love it, but constantly singing over and over… It takes all the meaning out of it.”

“But you do what you love.” He asks, surprised.

“Yes, and I get tired of it.” Dorothea says before hastily adding, “but I’m eternally grateful to Raphael and his family for giving me the work… I just wish… I wish I weren’t so tired of singing.”

“You…” Ignatz murmurs before meeting her gaze. “And it isn’t like you can afford to take a break.”

“No.” She confirms. “Unless I make up a paycheque in another way.”

Silence falls between the two.

“I still… I can’t believe you don’t love singing anymore.”

“I do it so much, the joy is stripped from it.” She confesses quietly to him.

The words stalk him all the way home and up to his room where he gazes at his painting tools before succumbing to sleep.

***

Ignatz’s mother—Cressida—and his younger sister a year his junior named Celeste—are more shocked when he says he’s met someone.

Cressida’s eyes widen and she lowers her teacup very quickly. Ignatz has always known his mother to be refined and ladylike: calm, quiet, watchful. He feels her brown eyes—the only thing he got from her—on him as Celeste prods him.

“A lady friend?” She smirks, at the age of 19, and still as annoying as she was at seven. “When do I buy a new parasol and lace and welcome a sister?”

Quickly, he insists, “She’s an old friend from Garreg Mach.” Ignatz explains, watching Celeste’s mischievous look.

“Probably some baron’s daughter. You could do worse, I suppose, Brother.”

“She’s passing through Derdriu.”

“Where to?”

“Gloucester. She will be singing for the Count and his son.”

Cressida studies her son’s face. He’s gotten too good with lying; for years, he’d fidget with his hands or look away… A small tic that would render him guilty. “She is a singer?” She inquires.

“Formerly of the Mittelfrank Opera Company.”

Cressida looks intrigued. “Oh. I recall seeing the company when they were in Derdriu before the war and when you were at the Academy.”

“You would have missed her. She was one of my classmates.”

Cressida remains silent.

“So why’s she talking to you?” Celeste prods. “If she’s some big opera star…”

“She confessed that she always enjoyed my company.” He lies. “And I enjoyed hers, so we have spent a little time together.”

Celeste smirks, then murmurs under her breath, “here comes the bride…”

“Celeste.” Cressida says quietly. Celeste stops humming and turns back to her eggs which are now cold.

Her brown eyes fall on Ignatz, encouraging him to go on.

“I would like host her for a meal.���

“Very well.” Cressida agrees. “Your father and Atticus will be dining out tonight, so bring her around.”

Ignatz tenses. The plan was to have both his father and brother around. Without him, his mother will never offer accommodations, at least not without a push.

So Ignatz, for the first time in his life, pushes.

“Might she stay the night?” He asks, his face reddening. Celeste’s eyes go wide as if she’s about to snort at him. “I would like her to meet Father.”

Cressida narrows her gaze on him. “Why?”

“I think they would get along, Mother.”

Cressida pauses, sips her tea and then acquiesces. “Very well. Bring her to the manor at five and no later.”

***

If there was ever any doubt as to Dorothea’s charms, it was dispelled in the moment she met Cressida.

Ignatz had always known his mother—like his father—as hard-to-please, but Dorothea was the most satisfying creature to her ever. Even Atticus, who had always been her favourite, was quickly forgotten when Dorothea engaged her in conversation.

As Celeste serves the coffee, she murmurs to Ignatz, “Okay, maybe I doubt you, but never again.” She promises. “She’s gorgeous.”

Ignatz acquiesces. “She is. And she’s quite kind.”

Little lies and bent truths are shared that evening. Dorothea explains that she’s passing through to sing for Lorenz and his father—the name drop impresses Cressida—and then she details her roles, and as they sit in the drawing room, Cressida insists that Dorothea sing for her.

“Oh, that’s not necessary,” Ignatz insists, turning to his mother nervously. “We wouldn’t want to impose on our guest…”

“No,” Dorothea says gently. “I’d love to sing for you.”

Ignatz thinks back to the conversation in the tavern. How she began to loathe singing. But as she sings her bars and warms her voice up, Ignatz cannot help but long to paint her. Those jade eyes, that chestnut hair, the willowy frame and ruddy cheeks… She is an artist’s dream, walked off the canvas.

She sings beautifully for almost a half hour. Cressida is highly impressed and gives her ready approval, and even Celeste is shocked when Dorothea proves not only to be witty, beautiful and talented, but also kind.

Cressida insists that she will stay the night and tells Ignatz to set her up in the east wing of the house, prefacing that she may see the lovely sunrise that pales in comparison to her beauty. After they say goodnight, Ignatz offers her his arm and leads her up the staircase.

She reaches for his hand and smiles at him. She gives it a reassuring little squeeze, and he gives one back. As they reach the top of the stairs, Dorothea whispers to him:

“Will you show me your paintings?” She asks quietly. “I know art’s a personal thing… I don’t think I could ever show a half-finished song to someone else…”

“Y-Yes…” He finds himself taking her hand and leading her to his room. The moon streams into through the lone window of his sombre little room.

He turns to the closet and pulls from it a few sketches and his tiny easel which has a half-finished still-life of the view outside his window. Blushing and embarrassed, he practically throws them at Dorothea, hurriedly insisting that he knows they’re not good, that they’re nothing special.

“Ignatz…” Dorothea barely breathes. “These are beautiful.”

He looks up in shock. “B-But…” He scrambles for words. “I was so insensitive to your feelings about art!”

Dorothea smiles gently and touches his hand reassuringly. “Ignatz, I’m not me, and you’re not you.” She says gingerly. “We’re different people with different outlooks… You want to become a painter, right?”

He nods sheepishly.

“Then I hope, with all my heart, that you can become one someday.” She turns her eyes back on a sketch of Saint Cethleann. “You’d be a wonderful artist. I’m certain you would be.”

Ignatz blushes softly and moves closer as she asks a question about the next sketch—of Saint Cichol, his wife and their daughter—and he explains the details. His hand brushes against hers, their fingers intertwining briefly—

“And who is this?”

Ignatz jolts at the deep voice, his blood running cold. His face goes red. In the doorway is his elder brother, Atticus. Dorothea glances his way and smiles softly, curtseys and introduces herself as the evening’s guest and her credentials.

Atticus studies Dorothea before making a comment beneath his breath about his “useless drawings” and leaving the two. Dorothea’s smile fades.

“He’s exactly the type of man I’d hate to be with at the opera…” She whispers to him. “And exactly the one who’d pay for a dinner with me.”

Ignatz’s stomach rolls with anxiety.

Dorothea steals a glimpse at his expression and laughs softly. “Don’t worry, I’m not dating your brother.” She promises.

“Thank the goddess…” Ignatz whispers.

She hugs him. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

He hugs her back and smiles. “Anything for you.”

He shows Dorothea her room, and upon returning to his, takes charcoal to paper and attempts to sketch the likeness of her face, falling asleep in his art before long.

***

Ignatz’s father, Augustus, makes quick decisions. It is, perhaps, what has kept him in business for so long, and flourishing for just as long. And that morning, when Ignatz nervously introduces the two, he immediately takes a liking to Dorothea.

She turns on the charms quickly, and as she’s about to collect her bags and return to the Kirsten’s Cottage, Augustus asks to see her in his study. She winks at Ignatz and he waits nervously outside, in the drawing room with Celeste as the plays the piano.

When Dorothea emerges, she wears a self-assured smile. Ignatz quickly gets up and meets her in the hallway.

“Your father says the garden is pretty. Will you show me?” She asks.

“Of course.” They go outside to the frosty garden and walk a few paces away from the windows.

“Well?”

“Your father… he asked that I shadow you. He thinks that we could be a good selling team.” Dorothea says. “What do you say, Iggy?”

“Iggy?”

“You needed a nickname. Your name, though it is handsome, is a bit imposing and long.” She says. “You okay with it? You can call me Thea, if you’d like?”

“No no,” He declines respectfully. “Your name is too beautiful to be shortened.”

She smiles softly. “You think so?”

He nods. “I do. And as for the partnership, I don’t think I could ask for a better match.”

Dorothea smiles, and then stands on the tips of her toes and pecks him on the cheek. Ignatz goes bright red.

Gazing at her, he smiles and confesses, “I don’t think I could either.”

***

In Imperial Year 1185, on the day of promised meeting, Ignatz Victor and Dorothea Arnault arrived at Garreg Mach Monastery together. The three years since their reunion in Derdriu had proved fruitful: Dorothea joined the Victor Trading Company as a sales agent, working alongside Ignatz. She easily used her wit and charms to seal deals with particularly hard-to-please clients. She’d also passed on that charm and confidence to Ignatz, which his former classmates noticed immediately.

In addition to his newfound confidence, Ignatz had gained a deeper reverence for his artistic side. After being found one night attempting to paint Dorothea’s likeness, she modelled for him. His parents, finally understanding the depth of his talent, allowed him time off—though minimal—to study and paint.

In their moments of peace, it was said that Dorothea and Ignatz would share their talents together—Dorothea, who had retired from the stage, would sing only for him, and Ignatz would happily draw anything she wished.

After the war, when Dorothea completed an opera—called the Crimson Flower, based upon her late, dear friend—Ignatz was the one to paint the posters and served as creative consultant. While not singing, Dorothea directed the opera to critical acclaim, and acted as a guardian to the new talent she selected for the show.

When the two had grown tired of the stage, they departed for new lands. Ignatz’s work, which grew in popularity thanks to the production and his own skills, was in demand and often peddled by Dorothea. It was often remarked, by friends and complete strangers, the couple were an odd, but well-suited match.

[oktopiasscarletqueen]

Neurotic Erotic (Bloodweave Fic) playlist

Alright, so, heres the playlist I made for the fic and unreasonable analysis I made relating the songs to Gale and Astarion.

I know writing all this is a touch cringe, but I’m at peace with that; BG3 is a special interest of mine, and so is musical/literary analysis. That being said, I’m not trying to write any kind of groundbreaking, profound interpretations here. Moreso, I’m yelling my funny words at you because I like to yap. And, sometimes this is what me and my little sister do for fun; J and I put on music and go, “ [insert character would like this sound in a Modern AU” or, “this song is incredibly [insert character]-core because…”

Before you jump in, I’m gonna warn you, the transition between ‘Francis Forever’ and ‘Cancer’ (track 6 & 7 respectively) is a touch jarring, as is the inclusion of ‘Cancer’ in the middle of the playlist  in general, lol. Second, I’ll warn you this list is bound to get updated here and there eventually. Also, I may update/add to these in future.

I have put the songs “in order”, or as best “order” as my brain can think of right now.

Oh, and of course, spoilers ahead for essentially the whole game.

Fic Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56262295/chapters/142934368

Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/@Oktopiasscarletqueen/playlists

Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3BIufG9W5783HUh3OvDboD?si=675313ddfbbe4664

Song list, and correlation (with my interpretation and justification, if that interest you at all, lol):

INTRODUCTION:

¡Aikido! (Neurotic/Erotic) – Everything is a Lot by Will Wood & The Tapeworms

This song is about being obsessed with death, or the idea of dying; Theres something very Gale & Astarion about it (one being asked to die and the other literally being dead). Astarion being dead is a sort of representation (within this fic) of Gale’s later focus and near idolisation of dying, which really reminds me of the song. It’s title and the general idea behind it inspired me to write this fic. Mostly the title, its catchy and interpretive whether you know the song or not.

2. Maya the Psychic – Hesitant Alien by Gerard Way

So, y’know the tadpoles, right?

3. Starman – The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars (2012 Remaster) by David Bowie

So, y’know the “Dream Guardian”, right?

GALE:

4. Cover This Song (A Little Bit Mine) – Everything is a Lot by Will Wood & The Tapeworms

Early game, Gale’s caught up on Mystra, and that’s an objective fact.  That’s what this song is in relation to him. Wishing to have her back, or at least her grace and favour. Like, imagine being cast aside by a god. A god who was your previous lover and kinda decides your fate.

5. First Love/Late Spring – Bury Me at Makeout Creek by Mitski

More Gale “pining” songs (you’re gonna see a lot of this). In the case of this one, the song is a sort of ‘love, life and duty is painful’. After the Mystra heartbreak, I can imagine Gale’s not exactly keen on letting anyone in else they abandon him again (Gale has a big ego, but he feels he’s not enough—he’s scared he’s not enough). Also, a few lines stick out for interpretation in regards to Gale. ‘One word from you and I would jump of this cliff I’m on, baby’ is very fitting for Mystra being like “lmao, kys” and how Gale is fully ready to do that as a show of faith. Another line that I wanna note, ‘And I was so young when I behaved 25…’ reminds me of not only Gale’s early magical prowess, but the fact  Gale being only 8 when he met Mystra for the first time; Gale had big shoes to fill, extremely high expectations to live up to and also an omnipotent, ever-present god leaning over his shoulder. This is where I’m gonna put a link to this Tumblr post because the OP does a fantastic job at dissecting all that (TW: mentions of grooming): https://www.tumblr.com/kirain/739521230081851392/i-want-to-take-a-moment-to-talk-about-gales

6. Francis Forever - Bury Me at Makeout Creek by Mitski

Kinda similar to above, but more “romantic” in a really twisted way. Gale really did love Mystra, I think; In the case of this song, it’s less about him as a character but more his past feelings and the grief there (obviously this isn’t what the songs exactly about, but we’re running on interpreting them into fictional characters, so… lol.

7. Cancer – The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

So, y’know the Nether Brain fight and Gale’s Orb, right?

8. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Remastered) by Elton John

Acceptance and a return to the “average”. If you don’t let him ascend, Gale has the option to just live life at his own pace, and for me that’s his canon ending. My boy deserves a rest, and this song just remind me of that.

BLOODWEAVE (songs that just scream them)

9. Cannibal Queen – Tell It to the Volcano by Miniature Tigers

I just feel like the lyrics suit Gale’s feeling for Astarion in a really  fun way, idk man. It’s just weirdly them-core.

10. Baby You’re a Haunted House – Single (no album) by Gerard Way

Another ‘Gale to Astarion’ song. ‘…you’re a haunted house’ as a lyric reads as someone who has a lot of metaphorical ghosts in them (closet full of skeletons). Shout-out to the versus: ‘In the dark, we dance together…’  ‘In the dark we laugh together, because the misery’s funny to you’ ‘Sometimes you scare me, but I’ll come around to you… And I’ll find a way to scare you too’.

That’s just them (you’ll hear this from this section a lot).

11.  Red Moon – Everything is a Lot by Will Wood & The Tapeworms

First and foremost, this song is SO underappreciated (as is the album). It’s one of my favourites. This so in particular just sounds like the embodiment of Bloodweave. I take a lot of inspiration from this song when it comes to Neurotic Erotic (the fic). This song analysis would be paragraphs upon paragraphs long, so I’ll sum this up as simply as I can:

- Astarion is kinda ethereal looking (moon-elf-core) - Gales heart go doki-doki later in fic (referring to the 5th verse: 'Waxing to the rhythm writhing my chest’) - Gale and Astarion are drawn together by circumstance - They remain in each others orbit regardless of circumstance - Night is their time

Theres so much more, but I’ll leave some of the linking to you, lol

12. The Rhumba of Death – Camp Here & There: Campfire Songs Edition by Will Wood

*see to every other comment in this section*

13. We’ll Never have Sex - Single (no album) by Leith Ross

I think it’s not necessarily an argument that Astarion has issues around intimacy, particularly sexual intimacy. That’s what this is; this is why the song is here.

TRANSITION (A heads up to Astarion Territory, lol. Plus, I just like the song :P)

14. Interlude – Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance

Every playlist needs a good intermission, and this one has an Astarion-vibe to it. Serves as a good heads-up for whats to come and as a cool down from the previous song instead of just jumping right into a different tone. Plus, I’ve not gotten over my emo days, so…

ASTARION

15. The End – The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

The end. The end of Astarions mortal life, the end of being under Cazador’s thumb while tadpoled.

16. Dead! – The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

You can’t put ‘The End.’ without ‘Dead!’ and vice-versa. But, the lyrics do speak to me in encapsulating some surface-level Astarion plot, especially when it comes to his mortal, Magistrate days. Did Astarion get what he deserved? (referring to the versus: ‘I’ll be here waiting, babe; Did you get what you deserve?’). The BG3 artbook tells us Astarion was a corrupt magistrate, so this feel fitting. It’s speculative, but I think Astarion wasn’t too popular when he was alive, lol.

17. The Sharpest Lives – The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

‘I’ve really been on a bender and it shows’Astarion doesn’t have the best coping mechanisms and skills, and this song is that. Plus, it’s another vampire-related song so it fits in well. And the lines below feel like they were written for him (y’know what I mean?): ‘You can take off your skin in the cannibal glow, Juilet loves the beat, and the lust it commands, Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, Romeo’

18. Brand New City - Lush by Mitski

I feel like Astarion has a lot of issues around control, like specifically in regard to needing to be in control in some small way. He’s emotionally withering away with his destructive ways, but it’s the only way he knows how to grasp onto some semblance of control over his life. ‘I think my ways are wearing me down, But if I gave up on being pretty, I wouldn’t know how to be alive,’

19.  The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill You – Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance

This song is about Gerard Ways substance abuse and struggles with it, his addiction personified as a woman. In a similar vein, I’m using this song as a representation of Astarion’s own addiction (or obsession) to power and revenge. Its fuelling him, but its also slowly him a dark, toxic (and even dangerous) path.

20. Hand Me My Shovel, I’m Going In! – SELF-iSH by Will Wood & The Tapeworms

Another case of a song about self-destructive behaviours that just really fits Astarions own trauma and his response to it. Will Wood is a genius lyricist, don’t @ me, and this is a prime example of his work capturing addiction and other self-destructive behaviours, feeling powerless in stopping/not being able to stop, even though you could (with a lot of effort of therapy, mind you).

21. Kill All Your Friends – Famous Last Words by My Chemical Romance

The opening lines capture more Astarion plot:  ‘Well, you can hide a lot about yourself, But honey, what’re you gonna do?’ Mainly, this song just feels like it fits him, especially with ‘I was killing before killing was cool,’.

22. Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!) – The Normal Album by Will Wood

Another vampire song, so naturally its here. A number of the lines in this song feel like inner turmoil within Astarion, but I can’t just copy paste the whole thing here, lol. Side note, this song has been in my private Astarion playlist for the past 2-ish years and I’ve always been like, ‘man, I wish I had the time to make an animatic to this (or Hand Me My Shovel) for Astarion’, and recently I stumbled upon an Astarion animatic someone made to this song and was SO SHOOK. So, I’m going to link it, because its fantastic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWKObQgHaGg

23. Your Body, My Temple - Camp Here & There: Campfire Songs Edition by Will Wood

POV: Astarion’s manipulating you.

24. Vampire Reference in a Minor Key – “In case I make it,” by Will Wood

Very Astarion-core song, but specifically in regards to his softer side (in the case of this fic, his feelings down the line for Gale). Obviously the vampire song is gonna remind me of the twink vampire.

25. The Chain (2004 Remaster) – Rumours by Fleetwood Mac

So, y’know Cazador and Astarions “siblings”, right?

26. Against the Kitchen Floor – “In case I make it,” by Will Wood

So, yknow the confession Astarion has in act 2, right? My canon ending for Astarion is him healing, finally. He’s a spawn, yes, but he’s making the most of that his immortal life as he can. I’ll say it again, Will Wood is a GENUIS and (most definitely because it comes from his own experiences) he captures the process of healing but not being fully there in this song. In relation to Astarion, this is him trying—genuinely trying to be better and work out what he’s going through. He’s not there, he won’t be for a long time, but he’s willing to try. Trying is the first step.

[piedoesnotequalpi]

92sies Crutchy, or: I Managed To Write About Newsies For An Actual Grade One Time And I'm Going To Make That Everyone's Problem

@chair-in-a-ditch, @make-friends-with-the-rats, and @echofive7567, ask and ye shall be received...or something. Disclaimer that I have no idea if this is particularly novel analysis; for all I know it's been discussed to death years before I joined the fandom.

So! 92sies Crutchy! You hopefully know him, you hopefully love him.

When I decided to write a paper for my disability studies class about disability representation in Newsies (i.e. about Crutchy/ie), I had to a) find relevant sources (surprisingly challenging) and b) rewatch 92sies and Livesies and take notes on every scene Crutchy/ie appears in as well as transcribe potentially relevant lines. Until that rewatch, I'd always had one question lurking at the back of my mind: why is Crutchy/ie the only newsie who bothers to pronounce Wiesel's name correctly? And through my research + reading an earlier draft of the 92sies screenplay + rewatching the movie with disability representation in mind, I found a potential answer that also explains (some of) what previously felt like inconsistent characterization.

Crutchy has no trouble being rough/rude amongst the other newsies/amongst peers - in Carrying the Banner, he fights with Mush and Blink; he's also one of the people who takes part in making fun of the Delanceys (albeit while surrounded by other newsies who would back him up in a fight and are saying worse things about the Delanceys than he is). Later, in The World Will Know, David argues against beating up scabs and claims they'll get a bad name for it; Crutchy cheerfully responds that their reputation can't get any worse ("Not only is Crutchy very aware of their already-poor reputation here, he's also happy to choose violence if it will further their mission."). Meanwhile (at least before Jack ends up in the Refuge), he is very polite to all the adults he interacts with, more so than the other newsies are: he is the only newsie who pronounces Wiesel's name correctly and says please when asking for his papes (even though he laughs at everyone else calling him Weasel), and he addresses Snyder as "Mr. Warden Snyder, sir." So, why the difference?

In one of the papers* I read as part of my research, there was a discussion of how well-rounded portrayals of disability can (and do) show how disability is not just due to impairments, but also societal factors (too many stairs, flashing lights, ableist attitudes from other people, etc.). Another paper** discussed the history of violence against disabled people (of which there is a lot) as well as how "viewing disabled people as being inherently vulnerable may cause them to be seen as 'weak' or 'helpless.'" Essentially, the way he interacts with adults is a matter of safety. In my paper, I argued that Crutchy's politeness is to keep himself from being a target for violence (which ultimately fails!): if he sparred with Wiesel, he'd draw attention to himself and potentially face consequences; if he openly defied Snyder, he'd be giving Snyder a reason to single him out in a negative way and potentially injure him further. Obviously the other newsies who do these things draw the same attention, but they are all able-bodied, which affords them a level of privilege/safety that Crutchie doesn't have (see above point about violence against disabled people being very common). This fear is verbalized somewhat in Livesies when Crutchie references the potential of being locked up in the Refuge, and obviously there he's only explicitly talking about his mobility or lack thereof, but I think there's a larger implication there of just not wanting to draw attention (and that being rude/sassy with adults while being disabled is especially dangerous, given that Livesies!Crutchie also pronounces Wiesel's name correctly).

(But Isabel, you ask, what about the sauerkraut incident? I'm getting to that.)

Going back to the quote about vulnerability, I think that ties into why Crutchy doesn't want Jack, or anyone, to carry him out of the Refuge - being carried would mean publicly acknowledging that he's a) not immune to needing help and b) vulnerable to being injured. Crutchy is for the most part treated as a peer amongst the newsies (and is asked by Jack to carry out multiple important roles in the strike, like starting a strike fund and carrying the news to other neighborhoods), and he probably does not want to lose that status.

Once Crutchy knows he's unlikely to get out of the Refuge anytime soon (and that his strategy of caution around authority figures did not keep him out of the Refuge (arguably, he was not being cautious when he was ripping up all those papers during the strike action, but see the above point about attacking when surrounded by people who will back him up)), only then does he try deliberately rebelling without the other newsies behind him: he steals a potato off Snyder's plate and spits in his sauerkraut. This still isn't open rebellion, though; this most likely happened out of Snyder's view. It is only once he is a) surrounded by other newsies, b) free of the Refuge/Snyder, and c) in a situation where the police are very clearly on his side that he is openly rude to an adult (the Delanceys don't count since they are close in age to the newsies): he tells Snyder to make friends with the rats, and gleefully slams the door of the police wagon behind him.

TL;DR: Crutchy/ie is a bastard (affectionate), but there's an added layer of calculation with respect to his personal safety that the other newsies don't necessarily have to make.

Anyway, those are my semi-organized, probably unoriginal thoughts on the matter. Enjoy, I guess.

--

*Holcomb, J., & Latham-Mintus, K. (2022). Disney and disability: Media representations of disability in Disney and Pixar animated films. Disability Studies Quarterly, 42(1). https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v42i1.7054

**Ralph, S., Capewell, C., & Bonnett, E. (2016). Disability hate crime: Persecuted for difference. British Journal of Special Education, 43(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8578.12139

[crooked-wasteland]

Hazbin Hotel Live Blog: Welcome to Heaven

Coming back I found I did enjoy the last episode far more than I did the others. It obviously suffers from who the director is, but I could still see the more competent writer underneath certain portions of the episode. This one is written by Adam Stein who was credited for six episodes of Harley Quinn, a series I admittedly do not particularly care for. I wouldn’t consider the series bad and I enjoy scenes more than the whole, but its clear that Hazbin and much of Medrano’s writing ideas are in many ways ripped off from Harley Quinn far more than Bojack Horseman. To be frank, if Medrano had stuck her comparison to Harley Quinn, I doubt she would be criticized nearly as much as she is for her writing. I know, for myself, if she had compared her shows to Harley Quinn and never once breathed in the direction of Bojack Horseman, I wouldn’t have ever been motivated to even criticize this series. I think a comparison to Harley Quinn is fair, it is an objectively worse version of Harley Quinn, but it is better suited to the style and audience of that show far and above something of high art and value like Bojack. Harley Quinn is simply not my tastes, I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but even with a gun to my head I could never in good faith consider it good. It’s better than Hazbin and Helluva Boss, but its also a fairer comparison.

Vaggie adds “gah” to her line about being a liar in the most painful way. While they obviously paid Stephanie the most, they in no way paid her enough to care. It was physically written into the script and it highlights how little the actress actively participated in the series. She didn’t even try to make it sound natural, she doesn’t care for the character she is playing and she doesn’t care whether or not we know.

It makes no sense that Angel Dust is still working for Valentino. He could just stay in the hotel and ignore Val’s calls and texts like we have actively seen him do. So it’s like he hates working for Val, does so under duress and due to a contract on his soul, but Charlie is the princess of Hell whom Valentino openly stated he was threatened by and her hotel and patrons are under the protection of Lucifer who aligned himself with Charlie and her goals…. Just don’t go? There is Vaggie, Charlie, Lucifer and even Alastor who are more than capable of handling someone like Valentino on their own, let alone as a united front. Why is this still happening?

The physical comedy falls flat. Cheri grabs Sir Pentious’ hand and it cracks and is all mangled like it is broken, but he has zero response to it. The humor requires there to be a reaction to the level of violence displayed. Having not even a minor one means the sequence may as well not have happened, and it frankly feels like an excuse to just say Alex Brightman was in the episode and have him say as many lines as possible regardless of whether or not he should. I genuinely don’t understand why this character is even in Hell. Who is he as a person? Just why?

Sera says she only green-lit the exterminations so that Hell didn’t act up, and places the blame on Adam for Lucifer getting involved. But then she just… keeps letting Adam do what he’s doing, which is what caused her to feel threatened like this in the first place. So essentially “This is all your fault because of the things you’ve done. So keep doing them.” I don’t even get why Sera or any of Heaven feels this way about Hell. I assume Sera knows Charlie’s plans about redemption, but she seems threatened by it? When in reality treating Heaven like a prize for sinners seems like a logical way of cooperating with Hell and even maintaining civil relations.

Also, can I just point out how the character designs really fail to send any sort of message. Alastor, Niffty, Velvette, Carmella and her daughters, Rosie, and Mimzy are hyper humanoid demons in a Hell where non-human designs make up a majority of the cast and the distorted, abstract and animalistic designs in Hell make sense, whereas Heaven is mostly humanoid with random demonic designs walking around. It fails to send a message as well as just makes Heaven and Hell entirely the same. It fails to really sell the idea that Heaven is in any way better than Hell. Honestly, demons should have less human designs and appear more twisted and deformed. Heaven should have prioritized humanoid figures. Especially seeing as Medrano with a heritage in Latin America and Christianity would know that the idea of Christianity she is supposedly criticizing emphasizes that humans were made “in the image” of god and angels. It also sets up an idea of one’s soul being cleansed by having this “godly” form. Mixing in furry designs at the same rate as Hell collapses any argument for media literacy or messaging being made.

Welcome to Heaven as a song is the best song of the show thus so far. It is the One Short Day of Hazbin, a vapid superficial scene-setting song that isn’t meant to further the characters, just the plot, and it actually succeeds. I’m not amazed by it, never would i play it for enjoyment reasons, but it works for the role it plays and is the only song that does so well.

Adam is telling Vaggie her own backstory, my favorite bad writing trope.

Additionally, I thought heavenly weapons were the only thing that could harm an angel. But Lute just rips off Vaggie’s wings with her bare hands. It really confuses the world when you don’t even keep to your own rules.

In the previous episode, Charlie says the hotel isn’t “working”, this episode has Adam demanding “evidence”. The lack of understanding what Charlie is looking for when she says Progress is never defined. On one hand she says Angel Dust is making progress, but just the last episode said that the hotel wasn’t actually helping anyone. Even at the start of the episode we don’t see any change in Angel Dust, just that he’s sad. He still swears performs sex work, is rude and crude, and at no point has his situation with drug addiction been addressed in any way. I can appreciate not wishing to say someone performing sex work is committing sin. As well as the implication that how one holds themself is unimportant to Heaven. But I think everyone can agree that drug addiction and abuse is harmful to those in the addiction and those who care for them. And also, it is extremely difficult to break. Drug addiction would be an excellent analogy for sin and breaking it would work as a parallel for redemption easily. So why is it the one thing you had going for you in way of themes and a show of progress and character growth we’ve never actually even addressed. In fact, Loser Baby enables the idea that Angel Dust’s use of drugs is fine because he’s a loser anyway. Just give up on yourself. So when this episode inevitably implies that Angel has actually been making progress on that front, it’ll make no sense.

That happened a whole lot sooner than I thought it would. And it being Husk saying he thought Angel was “Better than that” really does make his whole message in Loser Baby hypocritical. Him being the one to judge others on how they cope, offloading his hypocrisy on the excuse “I’m not trying to get to heaven”, but then still performs the emotionally abusive tactic of publicly and maliciously shaming is partner into a form of compliance. And this is the romantic relationship I’m supposed to be going nuts over? Even in the case where one can argue he is doing it from a place of concern, he has never once cared about Angel’s drug use in the series. It has never been mentioned in any detail of it being harmful. It is literally placed on the same level as his hypersexuality in the song Loser Baby, which we are supposed to wave away as not being harmful because he enjoys it. The line is he “samples” every sex toy and drug. This is just the Alastor must be lying because nothing makes sense argument, except its the world that doesn’t make sense and thus nothing can be trusted and the suspension of disbelief and the act of world building is inherently gone. This isn’t even a story at this point. It is merely a bunch of drawings doing things for nearly half an hour because time is money, and Medrano likes money.

I feel the setup isn’t too bad. It’s the story of Job, which, yes, you should use the material you are criticizing if you are actually seeking to criticize it (whether or not Medrano’s is even attempting a critique on Christianity is hugely up to debate, but that’s not for this kind of post). It’s Lucifer in the Bible coming to the court of god and saying he’s been on earth observing the humans. He claims humans would never worship god if not for god incentivizing them through blessings and so god is like, “bet, do your worst”. Except, in the Bible story it shows god’s callousness. He allows Job to suffer and gives permission to Lucifer to torture this faithful man, of which when Job laments, god chastises him for doubting. This removes the negative qualities of god from the story by just watching Angel Dust make his own decisions. Which works for the idea of free will, I suppose, but the idea of free will being imagination from the last episode to now just waiting for Angel Dust to choose to conform to an idea of morals takes away any meta critique on the nature of heaven. Just saying.

Still not a fan of how infantilized the show makes Niffty.

The scene with Angel standing up to Valentino was such an attempt at an emotional reaction, and in reality it only succeeds in tiptoeing the edge of emotional catharsis. It never gets to reach that point because we don’t actually see the way that Val and Angel interact most of the time. And I’ll just say it, the Poison sequence ruins this scene. It set up this idea that Angel Dust has complicated feelings for Valentino and in many ways their relationship is just as much an addiction as the drugs. But we never see the harmful side to Angel’s drug addiction and nor do we see his complicated feelings for Val break down as he grows closer to Husk. It is unearned. And then having Charlie point blank say why that scene exists for the narrative kills any and all investment. It was there just so Angel Dust can fit Adam’s checklist. So there is no authentic emotions attached to that scene from the ground up. It is a contrivance that feels almost hateful in its existence.

Why is Adam treated as Sera? Adam was the one who made the list, but Emily contributes it to Sera. Sera didn’t even know how a soul ends up in heaven, all she says is “he was the first human soul here”, meaning she defers to him to understand. To have her be the one saying not everything is written in ink, when she openly is the first one to say she hasn’t any idea, really confuses the lack of story you are trying to tell.

So, the whole series has now confirmed it has no clue how to tell a story. “If Hell is forever then Heaven must be a lie”, so the idea of moving between heaven and hell is not a concept. Someone from heaven cannot fall to hell and someone from hell cannot enter heaven, except they can. Vaggie. Her entire existence is proof that heaven isn’t forever, so why would Hell be? If anything, Vaggie should be a spark of hope for Charlie. Additionally, the threshold of whether souls can be redeemed has nothing to do with if they can or not. Rather, it ends the same way it began. No one is in control and no one has any power one way or the other. But Vaggie being in hell, despite being an angel, who was never held in a court to determine if she should fall or not and was deemed unholy by humans, not the council of angels, just brought this whole house of cards down. In fact, the person on trial should have been Vaggie, and in extension Lute. Who is Lute to have the right to make such a call compared to Emily? Why does no one bring up this discrepancy? And having Vaggie on trial instead of an ignorant Angel Dust being critiqued without his knowledge would have been a better vehicle for not just exploring Vaggie’s past, but also the ideas surrounding redemption and banishment and the values/hypocrisy of heaven. As it stands, this episode was a waste of everyone’s time.

Adam Stein brought nothing to the table, all the same issues in Medrano’s writing are present and played out here. Adam may as well be a ghost writer as he didn’t even attempt to bring any of his own strengths to the script. I can’t say I’m surprised at this, however. It is just Harley Quinn after all.

2/10

[sparrow-in-the-field]

I haven't shared any random Bobby/Don ideas lately and I'm procrastinating working at my job rn I have several for "Don away at/immediately after the war" that I'm not convinced I'll ever write into a full fic because I have a weak heart (cries, do not separate them!).

I figured I might as well share them here, since otherwise they may never see the light of day (that being said, maybe if y'all like them enough, I can be convinced 👀).

Anyway here we go, my Bobby/Don war times head cannons:

Before Don leaves, Bobby gives him a ring to wear. He had his father make a pair, with "Moch" and "Hume" engraved on the inside. Bobby keeps the Hume one and gives Don the Moch one. He asks Don to wear it on his ring finger and claim to be married while he's away.

They write letters to each other obviously, and Bobby always just signs his as "B.", so the content can still be lovey/candid and Don can claim the letters are from a girl with a B name if needed.

Because I am weak of the heart, even in my head cannons, I imagine Don doesn't really see much of the actual war front because his engineering skills are what is put to use (I think that was a thing irl?). He has mixed feelings about this, some guilt, some frustration that he's essentially just doing his same job but forced to do it far away from home/Bobby. Bobby is grateful that Don isn't facing any danger, even if he realizes it's selfish.

Similarly, Don very selfishly is glad that Bobby couldn't join the army because of his health issues.

Bobby relies on friends a lot for support while Don is away. Joyce of course, because it's me, but also some of the other guys who couldn't enlist. They all know about Bobby and Don's relationship at this point.

I have an idea that is pretty much the closest to an actual fic plot of Don figuring out that another guy in his unit is gay and they befriend each other. It would include letters between Don and Bobby of them talking about it discretely.

Now, when Don returns when the war is over, nsfw but I imagine the two of them just fucking ravish each other. Like Bobby at one point is like "you better not expect to leave this house, this bed, for at least 3 days."

Related to above but the bullet was getting to long: They keep swapping between really hot/horny "meaningless" sex and super emotional lovemaking. They figure out early on that they have to decide/tell each other which it's gonna be so they're both on the same page lol.

After the war they still wear the rings :') maybe they have to switch them to the middle finger or right hand instead, since they live together and clearly not with wives, but still, they know what the rings mean.

I think that's it! Sorry for any heartache if you're like me and thinking about it for too long makes your heart hurt 🙏 knowing me, even if I ever wrote it I'd somehow manage to turn it into fluff lol.

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 15

Hey it's those guys!

So the party was actually paralyzed rather than killed by the Treasure Insects. I guess that makes a bit more sense. Still, if part of the treasure insect life cycle is to be carried to new places by people, why would they attack the party?

A whole 2.78% discount!?! How generous.

So magic can leave lingering effects on hair and that can be used to make charms against ghosts. Okay.

Yep. "In a gold rush, sell shovels." The corpse runners may be providing an essential service to adventurers, but they and probably everyone working the adventurers guild are ultimately taking advantage of people trying to seek fame and fortune.

I bet if a party refuses to pay for revival, the get blacklisted by the guild and are left to rot the next time they die.

From this angle, it appears the tower interior stopped right where the water is, which necessitated making the hole in the wall.

Back when 4F was first explored, the makeshift docks may have been placed from that lower opening. Then maybe someone had the bright idea to make the hole a level above so that it would be easier to scope out the area since there's a walkway that goes all around the tower there. It may also have been easier to lower the dock sections into place rather than try carrying them across the already laid docks and set them around corners.

What are tentacles? They were labeled separately from krakens so it's not that.

We got some names. The human mage is Rin and the kobold is Kuro.

That was a real lose-lose scenario there. Because those mermaids were singing their siren songs, the party had to wear earplugs to keep themselves safe. But then that left them vulnerable to an ambush by the other mermaids lying in wait.

Where is Laios's party right now? Are they still at the center part of 4F but on the upper level?

Of course Laios doesn't recognize the human adventurers but he does recognize the kobold.

At first, I thought Chilchuck was dragging Rin by her hair, but then I noticed that he's actually pulling her by the arm.

The fact that Laios knows the mermaid song implies a few things. Someone or a group of people decided to listen to and record the mermaid song so others can hear it. I assume there's no magic that can record sound, which means that whoever recorded the song willingly listened and kept enough of their wit to be able to remember and write the notes of the music.

I don't think the mammalian and piscine mermaids were working together. The mammalian ones seemed to just be singing for the sake of it and weren't paying Laios and Chilchuck any mind until Laios started singing as well.

I'm curious if they use echolocation under the water. Maybe they can also stun fish when they sing under water but on land it only has the charm effect.

And since they're explicitly stated to be mammalian, then they likely had an evolutionary history similar to whales, seals, and manatees where they were land creatures that evolved to live in water. If any other humanoid creatures with sound-based offense appear, maybe they will have a common ancestry to the mammalian mermaids.

I kind of understand Chilchuck's discomfort. The piscine mermaids likely have a humanoid shape through co-evolution and all the similar traits are coincidental.

Trying to argue why it would be okay to eat the mermaids to someone opposed to it is going to devolve into justifying cannibalism at some point because the only real reason to oppose it is because of their humanoid traits.

This is also ignoring how the mermaids attacked the other party first and probably is okay with eating humans, so this is just a moral high ground being applied to a survival situation.

Laios's mask of sanity fell off for a moment. I'll have to keep an eye out for that.

At first, I thought the piscine and mammalian mermaids might just be opposite sexes to one another and the mammalians lured in prey while piscines ambushed anyone lured by their songs. And I even considered there could be a potential clownfish scenario where they can morph into one another depending on sex ratios in their groups. What convinced me otherwise was that mammalian mermaids have actual hair while piscines do not. If they could morph into each other, then they should both have natural hair.

Chilchuck's really bummed that Marcille isn't really bothered by what should be a morally dubious meal. It's grain porridge pilfered from dead adventurer supplies and mixed with the "hair" of a human-looking creature with the presumed intelligence to forge weapons.

Chilchuck used Marcille's staff while yelling at Laios.

The only reason Chilchuck is willing to drop the whole conversation is because the porridge cheered Marcille up and she would definitely have stressed out if she learned those were piscine mermaid eggs.

Chilchuck seems to be trying to sort through his feelings on the whole matter that happened this chapter. I should remind you that last chapter, the party ended up killing a kelpie that Senshi loved and he chose to butcher it after. And Marcille initially argued against butchering it. But Senshi chose to do that despite his feelings for Anne.

The whole matter of what is and isn't okay to eat is always a slippery slope. It is based on arbitrary norms set down by different cultures and a person's own feelings on the matter. From a pure reasoning perspective, anything that isn't toxic to you should be okay to eat. The piscine and even the mammalian mermaids should be okay to eat. The only reason Chilchuck isn't comfortable with that is because it hits too close to a personal taboo against cannibalism.

Granted, I think Laios was in the wrong here ultimately. I personally don't think there would have been anything wrong with eating the piscine mermaids. It's not like Laios is actually hunting an intelligent creature just to eat it. However, he wasn't willing to respect the party's boundaries here. They made it clear that demi-humans are off the table when it comes to eating, and instead of respecting that, Laios tried to argue that piscines don't count.

This is probably a matter that will never get a consensual resolution. I think food preferences are one of the most common cause of strife between people in their normal lives. Eating is necessary to live and eating together is a powerful bonding activity and if a group can't agree on what to eat because of personal preferences, religious beliefs, or allergies then engaging with a necessary action to live becomes a very stressful activity.

After saying this, my heart goes out to people with gluten allergies. many food items are a complete non-option for them so it must be difficult to actually engage in social eating.

back

[fabdante]

Have you ever considered Kat finding & meeting other witches either pre/mid/post canon? I included this idea in my version of the reboot once upon a time (where I made witches & subsequently kat half demons) and I was thinking about it for my sequel idea with her training people in witchcraft in her & Dante's revival of the order (that includes protection instead of just surveillance)

Also have you seen the last witch hunter back from 2015 because I had a fetus of a softcore plagiarizing au of that for the reboot and as much as i like the idea of kat having a witchy shop too i like the idea of a witch-only bar that could give Dante a non destructive outlet (despite his lack of a service industry disposition imo)

Yes and no!

My take on the magic system in the reboot has always been that anyone can do it, essentially, you just have to learn it. I based it off the idea that the magic is largely just manipulating the body of Limbo into doing what you want. And I say body because I write Limbo functioning more like a body then a place. Like the lower demons it summons are essentially antibodies it creates to attack Dante, as it senses he is an intruding foreign body. That kind of thing.

So if we look at Limbo as a body, that means you can manipulate it if you create the correct mixtures of pheromones and stuff. And this is essentially what Kat's spells are, manipulating those pheromones and Limbos weak spots to get a response.

I don't know if in at least the Swan Songverse that I base most of my reboot fanon on that she's ever really met other witches outside of the Order. But within the Order she has a whole department under her which studies this phenomena and are essentially fellow witches and psychics that work alongside her! So they're all in active collaboration all the time, and Kat is training them alongside herself as her knowledge grows in magic use.

Now, even with the fall of Limbo, I think there's a lot Kat can do with her spells and stuff. Like with Limbo merged with the real world, there's still the lesser demons around that can be manipulated in this way and I have to wonder how Limbo mixed and mashed with the real world, as it can't just...have been wiped out or something. I imagine mixing with the world like that leaves it ripe for new ways to manipulate it, possibly even stronger ways then before because the connection is now more direct then between dimensions like she had been working before.

And stronger, more practiced witches might have figured out ways to harness the abilities of demons and such through spells utilizing them. Like I have to wonder if there's ways to use something like...idk the twins blood to create spells to speed up healing, for example. Like if in my read at least the magic system of the reboot is all about utilizing spells to manipulate things into producing a favored outcome, there has to be a way to do that on a more direct, intentional, and intense scale once the middle man (the veil between Limbo and the real world) is out of the picture. Much to ponder.

This all brings me to your second thought! Because I have never seen that movie but I have always LOVED the idea of post game Kat opening a witch shop attached to Devil May Cry (they share front and back of the same building in my mind asdfghjk and then Kat and Dante live in apartments above.) I'd even named it, the Third Eye, asdfghjk and after establishing the Third Eye I think it'd introduce Kat to a LOT of the local, more established, witches in a way she's never done before. Which could open up a lot of learning back and forth between things Kat's developed but also things these other witches have.

so, long story short, yes and no asdfghjk I do think she had a hand in training a lot of witches that worked under her in the Order. And I think in the post game she would meet a lot of witches in the local community. But I don't think before or during the events of the game she really was exposed to this wider local witch community outside of what was in the Order, at least in my fanon of things.

[lets-try-some-writing]

Do you have any tips on how to write good world building? You’re so good at it and I must know your secrets!!!

I've been doing this for a handful of years now, but I am no master so take all that I say with a grain of salt. What I do is generally calibrated toward my particular habits and tendencies. But with that said, I do indeed have some tips and tricks for you lot!

Find the Theme

Even if you know exactly what you want to do, my suggestion is still to find your theme. Are you trying to do some worldbuilding for something Sci-fi? Fantasy? Grimdark? Dystopian? or Modern?

Find what you are working toward, and then keep it close to yourself as you work. It helps keep me on track and sift through a lot of ideas that otherwise would break up the flow of the world I am working with. With that in mind, the example I will use going forward will of course be Transformers, which is technically part of the Sci-fi genre.

Locate the Subject

Now with your theme in mind, this is when you start trying to trim down things to find what exactly you want to focus on. This is arguably the most difficult part of worldbuilding. It's hard to not try and add lore for everything and anything, but seriously, calm down. Take time to find one particular subject to work with. It does not have to be as focused as a small law for a city somewhere, but you should choose a field in a sense.

An example of this would perhaps be, "Titans and their Origins on Cybertron". This is a subject wide enough to be played with but also not so specific as to end up being impossible to work with. You can get into the fine details later, for now, find your subject. If you start worldbuilding with a subject like "Laws of Praxus Bounty Hunting Crews" you could theoretically still keep working with it, but that can be a tad overwhelming considering how niche it is in concept and how little information there is on the surrounding subject matters.You need to start big and work inward bit by bit.

If need be, imagine it as making a pot. You need to start with a pile of clay and mold the shape. Then once you have it, you can begin decorating and going more in depth with adjustments and adornments. After that you can work outwards and make more things to go alongside it, but you always have to start simple, or at least specific. You could choose to talk about a city, place, time period, ritual, or anything of the sort. But try to keep your subject wide enough to be worked with but specific enough to have a frame to work within.

Find Inspiration

Once you know what you are aiming to work with, my suggestion is to find inspiration. Now for everyone this can come in different forms. What I tend to do is consume some media related to my subject matter and find appropriate music to get the brain cells working. With the Titan example I listed above, I would look at some artwork, maybe read up some other ideas people have had, or even just take a look at Sci-fi art. You never know what will get you inspired and ready to get creative. For music it’s the same deal. Find something that gets you thinking about your Theme. 

Now you may not even need to worry about this section if you already feel ready to roll, but if you ever hit a roadblock or can’t find your motivation, doing this may help. Sometimes all you need to do is take a look at what others have done and listen to some good music. 

Begin Conceptualizing 

Now this is the fun part. This is when you start going nuts brainstorming and coming up with IDEAS. There is no real method here, just thoughts. What I end up doing is coming up with a general idea, and then going down a rabbit hole regarding it. Ask questions, play with concepts, go crazy with ideas and imagination. This is the part where you essentially chuck law and order to the wind and play. Using my prior example, my thought process would go something like this:

Where do the Titans come from? 

The Well of Allsparks? No, they are too large. Metroplex was the size of a city, there would be no way for him to get out of there, meaning that Titans would need to start small.

Are they not native? In that case, how do they have sparks? They wouldn’t fit in properly and that’s a whole other rabbit hole.

Do they start out small and get large? If that is true, do they have a life cycle? Are they forged as normal Cybertronians and then just get bigger?

Are they part of the environment and grow like plants? Do they gain sentience later or are they essentially like the bots forged from hotspots? 

As you can see, I’ve played with ideas and messed with one part of the whole concept of  Titans. I picked a beginning, and at this point I would recommend not going too much further if your thoughts work like mine. Too many ideas will leave you overwhelmed, so try to keep them somewhat organized and neat, or at least categorized. Don’t dive TOO deep down the rabbit hole until you go through the nex part of the process, which I call the “World Reliability Test”. 

World Reliability

Now this is only relevant if you are not building your world from scratch. Or rather this applies if you have a world already set up with known laws and customs. So if you are building an original world, you should take into account what you have already established in this part of the process. And if you are like me and write fanfiction primarily, you should take into account already established lore to look over and either mess with, alter, or apply. REMEMBER: You do not need to stick to lore super closely if you don’t actually want to. It all depends on what you are writing.

Too much retconning and adjustment will leave your world feeling off, regardless of if it's original or not. So this is when you take your ideas, and you run them through the filter of “DOES IT MAKE SENSE” unless you intend for your lore to deviate from already established ideas. Using my prior thought process as listed above, I would consider the established lore and pick what I am going to agree with.

How are Titans formed?

Canon states that bots emerge from the Well of Allsparks, come from hotspots, can be cold forged, come from ‘budding’, or be built through the assistance of Vector Sigma. 

The Quintessons were known to create all sorts of monstrosities and lifeforms that could theoretically result in Titans being a thing. 

Fanon states that bots can be made biologically or through alternate means.

What continuity/rules will I abide by?

Aligned continuity (canon particular). 

In the Aligned continuity, Titans are known to have existed prior to Quintessons arrival.

Quintesson creation no longer applies.

Budding and Vector Sigma construction no longer apply.

Fanon biological creation no longer applies.

How closely am I going to follow canon?

Relatively closely but with a bit of creative liberty on my end. 

What are my options now?

Cold construction.

Emergence from the Well of Allsparks.

Hotspot forging. 

The thought process can go on forever, but essentially just make sure you don’t have an overpowered or absolutely insane mess of a concept that makes no sense whatsoever. You can get away with all sorts of crap if you play it right, but there MUST be a reason. At least if you are trying to make something that is not designed to be comedic. 

Get into the Worldbuilding

Once you have everything established, this is when you begin adding to your creation. Work through what you are making logically. The process differs widely from person to person, so these are just my tips and tricks to make your worldbuilding seem far deeper and richer than it may actually be. 

Add tidbits and lore. You want your worldbuilding to feel real and alive, but you also can’t be everywhere at once all at the same time, especially within the confines of a story. So make the people of the place you are working with interact with the thing you are worldbuilding. If you are discussing a city, describe the citizens and their behavior. Is the city colorful? Does the city have any unique oddities either in itself, its environment, or its population? Are there any little rituals that set it apart? Just dig into these smaller things when you can in order to bring everything together. It makes your work feel more realistic, or at least more acceptable to the human mind. 

Discuss how your subject affects the wider world. Those who look at your worldbuilding are going to want to know how your subject affects that which it interacts with. So if you are discussing a living forest, you might want to think about how it affects the locals. Are there locals? Do they have any stories about the forest? Has the forest left a mark? Does it have a reputation? Does it have any strange abilities that affect the land around it? Try to consider your subject and its influence. It need not be world shattering, but using my example, I would run down the thought process like this:

Titans start small and grow into their full size over time.

What do they consume? Does it affect those around them during their growth?

Do they shed their armor and is that used elsewhere? Or do they instead grow like organics in that their plating grows with them?

Do they have parents and loved ones who will miss them when they begin to grow? How does their growth affect others? Is it well received?

Titans find a location to settle before their growth completes.

Does this interfere with trade routes?

Are there those who wish to stop a Titan from settling?

How does the local ecosystem respond?

Titans eventually turn into living cities, even forming hotspots over time.

How do they gain citizens? Do their citizens come from their hotspots?

Do they raise the young that come from their hotspots alone? Or do they lure others in to help?

Why do they become cities at all? Is it biological? If so, why?

Are there different kinds of Titans? Are there only cities or are there other living structures?

You run down the list asking questions. As you answer those questions, your worldbuilding comes into play. Then all you need to do is pretty it up and make it into something readable. 

Final Note

From here you should take the ideas, questions, and answers you have created and put it into a format of your choosing. You can make it into a story or something more informational. It's all about preference. Worldbuilding is meant to be fun, so nothing I have stated above is set in stone. Some folks do it differently, but this is my general method. Consider the factors, take them into account, ask questions, create answers, and then put it all together. 

Oh and as a bonus, here is a little tip from my writing buddy @spreadwardiard:

“MAKE SCRAP UP.”

[dawnxd]

So what do you have on Dust already?

The obvious spot in canon for a sandwing/nightwing hybrid is Thorn having more than one egg, so Sunny could have a sibling. Dune getting told she’d had one and being shown it and Six Ckaws the same and getting shown Dust’s egg in a separate location, as Thorn was being extra careful, would be a straightforward way to write in an origin point? There’s also the opportunity to easily justify Dust being an animus with an animus father that way too if it’s what you’re going for! Dust would then have a way to feasibly gain skills and contacts/companions if you wanted Dust to subsequently travel somewhere etc and not be a soldier in the succession crisis.

There’s no pressure with the above paragraph but I thought I may as well attempt to be helpful as design wise it looks like his mother was a sandwing (since there’s the whole hybrids taking heavily after the parent who laid them thing). Who knows it may be entirely off base but that’s why I’m curious if there is anything you have so far?

(also Dust with a sibling or parent, whoever you think they may be, or just a small hatchling dust, could be adorable if you wanted to make a drawing from this)

At your request, here's baby Dust taking a nap! (absolutely love how this turned out)

While that is indeed an interesting idea (seriously, I would love something like that), all of my OCs exist in a separate universe from the canon plots. This essentially means that none of the canon characters, past or present, exist in this universe. For example, in the universe I have created for my OCs, instead of Clearsight being the common ancestor for Hivewings, it is instead a group of Pyrrhian dragons (mostly Nightwings with a couple of others sprinkled in) that found Pantala. This "alternate universe" gives me more freedom to mold the story and world as much as I like.

And, to answer your question on what I have so far for Dust and his background. Dust is the child of Rattlesnake (Mother, Sandwing) and Sandstorm (Father, Nightwing/Sandwing hybrid). He is mostly Sandwing, which is why he doesn't really have much Nightwing traits beyond some darker coloring, his bright blue irises, and the star scales on his wings. As for backstory and such, all I know for sure is that, for some reason I haven't decided yet, Dust despises his mother. I also know that he is currently a traveler, wandering between the kingdoms of Pyrrhia and doing odd jobs to make ends meet.

[ducktracy]

Have you ever wanted to join the writers room of SpongeBob and the Patrick star show?

THIS IS A TIMELY QUESTION! i was just discussing this with my director a few weeks ago. tldr before i even get to the long part: not necessarily, it's never really been something on my radar and so i don't feel as equipped for it but that could--and i hope it does--change!

LONGER EXPLANATION.. i was in a meeting with my director recently pitching my boards to him, and we got spitballing back and forth and we essentially just started joke pitching an idea for an episode. he was like "yknow that's pretty good, i could get you in touch with our script coordinators if you ever felt you wanted to take it further" and my response was like ahhhhhhh nah i could never write an episode i wouldn't know where to start blah blah blah, and we basically had a talk that amounted to "don't knock it 'til you'll try it" and so it's definitely been more on my mind lately

IT'S AN INTERESTING SITUATION. i'd consider myself a decent writer and i certainly enjoy doing it, most of my free time is spent writing my reviews! likewise, i LOVE breaking down and analyzing dialogue and coming up with random character conversations. talking to the person who typed the entire Hamlet soliloquy in Porky's stutter one time because ?. i think i'm more interested in writing than i think i really am

but something about writing for cartoons has always been very intimidating to me HAHA. i'm not really someone who is sitting on a wealth of episode ideas and dying going like "ahhh man i wish we could see SpongeBob and Patrick doing this", etc--if and when i have those moments it's usually very spontaneous and in the moment! like what i mentioned above when i'm spitfiring in a meeting. i think i get intimidated by the "where the hell do i start" and "how do i organize this" aspects, because i have had ideas for cartoons before and aim to act on some of them! i still haven't forgotten the "Porky and Daffy are competing salesmen" cartoon idea i thought up in 2020 which is also partially responsible for my job in the first place. but it's like a blip, a skip in a record in that i struggle untangling and organizing and really establishing a working structure. i am a VERY detail oriented person and so i think i like working smaller and more intimately, where i can add my own personal flair to something that someone who may be more proficient in establishing a foundation has done.

BUT! maybe i just say all this because i haven't done it yet!! don't know it unless i try! for my purposes as an artist now i enjoy drawing and embellishing pre-existing ideas and suggesting gags and getting into the nitty gritty of the details on a small scale, but i also don't wanna put myself in any boxes and restrain myself from trying, either. i don't talk about them as much on here just because they literally dominate every other aspect of my life (well that and NDAs forbid me from doing so!), but i love SB and Patrick and all the Bikini Bottomites deeply! i'm so lucky to get to document their lives. they really are like real friends to me and i hope i'm lucky enough to find more ways to fraternize with them and learn about them and bring out their tics and habits and traits and how they contrast and support one another. i do that best through drawing right now, but i'm excited for all the ways i'll be able to expand beyond that. and maybe one day that'll include writing!

ALSO KINDA FRAGMENTED I KNOW i just made my closing statements above. i apologize for my pedanticism. but TPSS doesn't have a writer's room to my knowledge because it's board driven! we get to sit in on storyboard pitches (just had a wonderful one this evening) and watch the artists pitch their boards and it's such a wonderful experience. i have thought "i wonder how it would go if i pitched to the network like that" in sitting in these meetings. BUT JUST WANTED TO CLARIFY i know writer's room is an all consuming term and i'm being pedantic. but it's very neat that we get to work on a board driven show to begin with and has made quite a difference and so i just like pointing it out :) i love what we're doing

[cats-and-confusion]

I have no idea if I've asked you before but here we go! Your PA headcanons! Please dump them on me!

SO YOU HAVE CHOSEN DEATH

Ok ok ok so. I'll go by order of character. Some of them may or may not be mutually exclusive

Olive

A god (of halloween and the dead) similar to those in 90%s other game, Cool Kid Cody. Essentially they can canonically see the hearts above people's heads and are aware of the time shenanigans - they just say the same things each time so that outcomes are predictable. They don't mind dying, and the player is a power they contacted with magic. Theoretically at the end of each game they make a little pocket space in the clouds where they hang out with their friends in semi-god form, but also it's more fun to think no one knows (except patches but that'll be explored in his section). It's even FUNNER to think that they're not keeping it particularly secret, it's just that no one has asked so they didn't say anything. Olive is the shortest aside from Angel. Their house is in the god realm which means in the normal realm they're technically homeless which is why Coco had trouble contacting them in PA2.

Brownie

A chubby lil' corgi. Goes to parties and has a somewhat rough relationship with her parents because she keeps going off and doing things. Her family's rich. She paid for the milkshakes at the end of PA1. She's only marginally taller than Olive. She's a great negotiator, and has the best danger-meter of the group. She could be a powerful manipulator but really just prefers to be funny and cool. Has lots of connections. Might grow up to be a lawyer-

Sparky

Sports guy!!! Plays hockey but also does track and baseball. Has a sports scholarship. Tall as fuck (taller than Patches, even) and is constantly restless, balanced out by the sports. Known as the humble cool dude in his team. The guy you'd trust to hold your drink. Has good self-restraint and strong morals, but is not immune to temptation. Fairly good self-esteem, usually.

Coco

Such an older sister. Values honesty and reliability - would keep a promise if it killed her. Naturally volatile, but likes being kind and getting compliments. Her love language is gift-giving. She pays the bills by doing magic jobs. Her parents are dead (rip) and Angel is all she has, and the main thing she lives for. Before murdering Hachiko High, after finding out Angel was dead, she cried for six hours straight before wrecking her kitchen and crying for 12 more hours.

Angel

He has an inferior twink body and used to wear his hair in a braid. He has low blood sugar and has trouble eating, but Coco helps him. He likes sweets and books and blueberries. He's bi for men and enbies. He has memory problems from being resurrected, and mourns all of himself that he's forgotten. Prone to cute things.

Patches

His mom is dead and his dad fucking sucks so he likes to stay at Olive's house. The first time he went to their house was right after PA2 when he was in Angel's body and collared, which was also when he found out Olive is a god. Olive made him have fun and take care of himself. He hated it. Still has a craving for blood, and each of his friends have a different way of helping him with it. Sparky likes to spar, Angel urges him to write, Brownie gives him snacks (eat a snickers you're not you when you're hungry), Coco beats the shit out of him, and Olive hugs him until he feels better. On a few occasions when Olive has accidentally gotten hurt, Patches has drank their blood. Olive is okay with this. Patches listens to mother mother.

Let me know if you want me to elaborate on some things or ramble about other characters I'm so fucking excited by this game

[abyssmalice]

so, hmmmmm.

i caved and wrote up a rough overview of the snezhnaya princess tonitoni AU :)

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To start - while I have specific ideas for this AU, I still intend to write this verse very loosely. Which is to say, while there are some core details that will be prevalent no matter what, everything else remains up for negotiation/discussion when writing together.

This verse is super duper suuuuuper non-canonical as is and for pure indulgence - I'm not going to be very stringent in how this verse plays itself out, essentially.

Core Details:

As this AU implies - in this verse, Tonia is officially recognized as the Tsaritsa's daughter.

However, she is NOT her biological daughter - even publicly, she is understood to have been adopted, though her exact origins are a mystery to everyone besides the Tsartisa's closest and most trusted.

Additionally, while Tonia is considered a princess as part of the Tsaritsa's lineage, she is NOT recognized as her successor - which is to say, she is not expected to become the next Cryo Archon nor even a human Tsaritsa to rule over Snezhnaya.

Semi-Core Details (aka how I personally justify this AU existing, and will primarily run by this premise unless discussed otherwise):

Tonia's origins still align with canon - she was born to a large middle class family in Morepesok.

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However, like the primary Harbinger AU, she had followed her brother into the Abyss, died and was resurrected by the Irminsul, and returned to Teyvat as the sole survivor - similarly, her traumas unconsciously influenced the local leylines, causing inexplicable natural disasters in the region.

.

But here is where it diverges - one of these natural disasters ended up being a rare earthquake-caused tsunami, which due to the already chaotic nature of the leylines at this time, was amplified to the point of having a very devastating impact on the port town of Morepesok.

Even more unfortunately, this tsunami wiped out the rest of Tonia's family from how extremely abrupt and immensely dangerous it was. Tonia herself survived only due to her Irminsul biology forcing her into a hibernating, preserved state akin to the Petrified Trees in domains.

Due to the sheer scale of damage, Dottore was not the only Harbinger dispatched to the area. As such, when Tonia was eventually located in the submerged ruins of the town, the doctor was not able to freely spirit her away in secret for closer study in his labs.

Instead, with the permission of the surviving residents of Morepesok, she was taken to the capitol by the Fatui as a special but proper patient - with her case eventually presented to the Tsaritsa, once a diagnosis of her clearly inhuman condition was determined and Resin was used to wake her up.

Of course, Tonia wasn't happy to learn what happened while she was essentially comatose - hearing that her hometown was nearly wiped off the map and her whole family's passing, on top of her other traumatic experiences with her brother and the Abyss... she nearly evoked every possible natural disaster at the same time from the sheer devastation of the news.

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In light of this entire situation, the Tsaritsa thus took Tonia in as her own child - promising and reassuring Tonia that as an Archon, she would not be defeated or killed so easily, and thus never leave the girl alone.

That said, adopting Tonia does serve multiple purposes for the Tsaritsa. For example, this allows the Archon to keep a cautious eye on a girl with strange but immense powers. Additionally, Tonia will receive protection against other forces who may want to misuse and weaponize her, such as the Abyss Order. And - most importantly, it grants a new, loving family to a child in tragic need of it.

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As a result of all of the above - Tonia is very emotionally dependent on the Tsaritsa, who she calls her Mother. Tonia also suffers from PTSD, anxiety, abandonment issues, and a mild fear of drowning.

In terms of personality - she is a quiet and soft-spoken girl with a rather caring heart. So caring in fact, that she may become a little to extremely willful and stubborn, if only in wanting the best for others, and especially those she loves.

Altogether, this makes her carry a faint air of naivety, but not innocence; her eyes remain a very dull blue even years later, as her memories of the Abyss and the traumatic experiences that followed will never leave her, and she's still more than capable in a fight - even if she's not on par to stronger people like her mother.

Due to having been raised as literal royalty with the consequent quality of education and tutoring, Tonia is fairly learned in multiple aspects. She has elegant etiquette, cultured knowledge of Snezhnaya and the world at large, and can handle the average conversation with diplomats and politicians. She's much more average with mathematics and the sciences however.

After the experience of being forced into a "petrified" state as a child, her hair is now wired to be a permanent gradient of brown to silvery-white, with the ends of her hair always being the latter. That said, if using her abilities to the fullest, all of her hair will turn white, and can still grow out into branches of Irminsul in extreme cases.

"Not as crucial and can be ignored if you want" Details:

Tonia carries around a plush toy gifted to her at all times. All. Times.

Her moniker/nickname is "Snowflower" - or "The Pure Flower of the First Snow" among the more flamboyant (and hobby-less) tabloids, as she is likened to a flower sprouting and blooming after overnight snowfall; lovely and kind, with no noticeable flaws or obvious complaints surrounding her, though her general quietness ensures she tends to be overlooked, much like any white flower would be against a backdrop of white snow.

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There is a notable fraction of nobles in Snezhnaya's politics that tend to debate and encourage for Tonia to be acknowledged as the Tsaritsa's official heir - either for the throne of Snezhnaya or Archonhood or both. Of course, the reasoning is often not benign; there is a hope for political or financial benefit that may be reaped by associating and/or currying favor with Tonia on some level.

.

While Tonia isn't being trained as a successor, she is nonetheless assisting the Tsaritsa in a secretarial fashion (or rather, forced her way into the role, because she really really really wants to help :( and spend more time with her mother). Her primarily duties are clerical work and managing the palace staff - nothing more, because the Tsaritsa wants to keep her out of the political and militaristic side of things.

However, Tonia's affinity for the leylines allows her to gain information wherever - as a result, she's become her own one-man intelligence network independent of the Fatui, and has been sneakily adding her findings to her mother's reports where possible. Though she has to be inconspicuous about it, lest someone start questioning the source of said additional info.

That said, because of said intelligence work + occasionally sneaking looks at more confidential documents that Tonia isn't supposed to be reading, only organizing for her mother - she's gradually noticed the more morally grey to black activities that the Fatui commits and that the Tsaritsa technically stamps her approval on. Tonia has yet to raise the subject, since she dearly cares for her mother and understands what kind of person she is, but she is also a little uneasy and concerned because of it all.

[ao3gobi17]

I wonder what the plot would have been like if Paz had survived the gunshot but had lost her mind due to PTSD. She would either go to a mental health center or stay under the care of the Mccoskers and Spider, because she would not be able to function normally in society. I actually have two versions of this question:

1 - what if her persception of time stopped due to trauma and she still had the impression that Spider was 7 years old and she was in a relationship with Quaricth? (If you know PJO, it's based on May Castellan) How would Spider react if after the kidnapping she behaved as if she was still with Q and they were a happy family?

2. She would recognize Spider and the McCoskers but she wouldn't be fully aware of her surroundings, she would withdraw into herself when anyone other than them tried to talk to her, if you watched His Dark Materials something like Elaine Parry's behavior. Would Quaritcg kidnap her too? How would he treat her knowing that she was only a shadow of her former self? If Spider was very possessive and protective of her, would he try to separate them somehow to have a chance to renew contact with him? (In this version she wouldn't recognize Quaritch as her former love)

(Follow up question to the above ^^) "To the question of what if Paz survived and lost her mind, in this version they would of course be kidnapped in a different way than in the original Custody, they would just be tracked down and captured instead of Leo's abduction."

Okay, so I really want someone to write a fic/drabble of number 1 because that's such an interesting concept - the idea that Spider is trying to protect her and get them out of there and she is genuinely unaware and is probably more comfortable and happy than she's been before Q showed up... add to that the amount of manipulation open to Quaritch and the dynamic of her believing Spider is 7 (which in some respects, Q may be very happy to play along with)... I am so down to read that, please write it aha.

But to answer the two questions...

Spider would struggle. I think he would have pretty much become his mom's carer (maybe the McCoskers would have hired someone for part of the time so he could go to school) and he would be hugely protective of her. I'm not sure in your scenario if Q actually is the would-be-killer... I could see that being a very interesting, very dark dynamic... like say she tries to leave him, he tries to kill her, he gets jailed, her injuries now make her want to stay with him, and Spider is well aware of all this. She's going to be actively helping Quaritch, Spider is going to loathe him, but be so helpless because he needs to care for his mom, Paz will inadvertently be indulging Q in the daydream of getting that time back with Spider as she's talking to him like a young child.. so Q will probably be more infantilising than he is in Custody... the whole plot would change to Spider's critical decision being whether to abandon her and try to escape himself, or somehow find a way to get her to go on the run with him. Either way, I am fascinated by the concept.

2. Spider would also struggle here, whether his mom was left behind or taken with him. Quaritch would probably take her? Like on the basis that he should be the one caring for her and it's his responsibility as her husband and he loves the person she was? And he'd probably get the recoms to help, but would step up and be that carer. (Although, if he was the one who actually tried to kill her in your scenario then maybe not, the scenario in option 1 was more him taking advantage of a 'lucky' turn of events if he was the 'killer'. In this version, if he tried to kill her then essentially he's already succeeded, so she'd be dead to him, and not worth interacting with.)

I feel like this would be slightly easier on Spider if Paz didn't know what was going on around her - though I think all the concerns about her getting proper care would still be there (whether she was with him and Q or back home). I don't think Quaritch would particularly need to separate Spider to speak to him, but he would be able to use separation as a potential punishment if he had Paz, which might encourage good behaviour from Spider. <3

[freshlybakedspiderbread]

Reisen for the ask game!

General opinion/How much I care about them: aaaaah! Even though she's a 'classic' touhou, i feel like it was only in the last several years (though with my warped sense of time, this could be be anywhere up to a decade) where she really dug out a special place in my heart as one of my favs (which is maybe a bit of a crowded category admitedly n_n) She's always been super cool/cute/funny and her backstory and development i think really nicely summarises a lot of themes from both th8 and gensokyo as a whole

A ship I love: there's a bunch but there's two i want to mention together because its really funny to contrast. one is reisen/kaguya (himeudon), which is on surface just cute and sweet, with the devoted bunny servant to the enigmatic princess who finds her cute. As the years pass, I don't think Reisen would ever stop seeing Kaguya in a majestic light, buuuut i do think she definitely becomes more wiser to when Kaguya is actually being wise and when she's instead just being quirky (but Reisen may still be happy to indulge her whims).

In contrast, i think reisen/mokou is really funny because their first meeting definitely has to be something like a horrified Reisen coming across Mokou killing Kaguya before anyone had a chance to explain to Reisen their particular pastime, so Reisen spent a while either panicking or attacking Mokou on sight until it all gradually became normal. And the idea of going from that to now when they're happy to hang out with one another in the bamboo forest or in the village. All in all its basically just another version of the cute bunny and the noble(ish) immortal who finds her cute.

A non-romantic relationship that I love: I've always prefered to think of Reisen's apprenticeship under Eirin has a sort of guardian or parental dynamic that neither ever actually had in their formers lives. I think its a really nice how Reisen's continued learning under her reflects on both characters developmenet.

One might ask what is the 'point' to Eirin bestowing Reisen with her knowledge since you may think Reisen isnt likely to ever want to distance herself from eientei to strike out on her own, and also since Eirin and crew will outlive Reisen, it doesnt seem like a matter of passing on something to the next 'generation', right? But even if there may always be some version of them that might always exist in the future, the Eirin right now with her dear Udongein is only here now and so every thing they (and all the eientei crew) do is important for one another n_n

The NOTP: I think there's a really fun dynamic to be had with Reisen and Tewi when combining the facts that Reisen didnt realise at first that Tew was essentially all of their landlord, and that Reisen wants to be acknowledged as an earth rabbit which Tewi attempts to accomodate sometimes even if Reisen's always a little weird. But there's no version of this where I can envision it turning romantic from either side...

My biggest headcanon about them:

She's not wearing that blazer anymore. That is Not a headcanon That is a Rule and if zun himself ever puts it back on her I will kill the planet!!!!!

that aside, I think she's on a variety of medication. 👩‍⚕️ Eirin's personal perscription of course for perhaps her eyes aaand a bunch of other stuff, but Reisen is the ever eager learner so she often cooks up her own concoctions too (which she asks Mokou to help test).

the doctor thing combined with the lunatic eyes makes me imagine she would partake in recreational psychotropics but its only really worth it if she can do it with someone else (and probably the only ones who would accept are mokou, maybe marisa... kaguya would but i dont think reisen would ask her)

An idea for a fanfiction I would like to write/read about them: i do want to write At Least one more reisen-starring story in the future about most of the things i described above, specifically her apprenticeship under eirin...

Something that makes me thing of them: This is really only something that happens in fanart and only because she's got bunny ears and associated with the colour pink, but i truly Feel like the colourful gyaru aesthetics fit her or would be how she'd next choose to dress if she felt more comfortable or even experimental. like the street fashion looks of long pink sleeves or socks,animal or carrot stickers on a handbag (that carries her firearm). zun take notes when you put her in the next game please along with aya please.

[phatburd]

violence!: 4, 14, 22

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

If we’re talking about my most recent block, it was on Reddit where the dude tried to argue gender essentialism at me. Basically, he asserted that my call to write women like people was bullshit and that women should be written like women (weak and helpless). Yeah, I did not and do not have the emotional bandwidth to deal with that shit.

Even better though, when other people in the thread brought up Ellen Ripley as an example of where a role was originally written for a man but Sigourney Weaver was cast instead. The dude then stated he had never watched any of the Alien movies, but he read the Wikipedia article on Ripley and assumed she must be a boring and poorly written character because she was a woman.

Yeah, dude … delete your fucking account. All of your accounts, everywhere.

Tumblr blocks? Yeah, it was the Nth blog that posted the TOG van speech verbatim and declared JoeNicky to be the most perfect thing ever. Went into the blog, found their AO3, blocked that, then blocked their Tumblr. Because clearly this person and I have nothing to say to each other, and I’m tired and I get petty when I’m tired.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

Making the bottom in an m/m ship extremely feminized, sometimes straight up infantilized. This isn’t to say there aren’t feminine gay dudes in RL, because there are. I’m talking about fan works.

I don’t know if it’s out of ignorance, sexism, misogyny, or just boring-ass heteronormativity, this idea that someone has to be the “girl” in a same-sex pairing. And every time I see it, I’m reminded of this little cartoon:

I don’t really get top/bottom discourse and especially the need to assign specific personality traits to the top or the bottom. It was something I set out to not do in my m/m Bessimu fics. I wanted to write them as equals, and I think I succeeded.

(FWIW, I see Bessimu as both being switches, because that’s more fun. I also find it hot to write Bessières as a power bottom dom and Murat as the submissive service top, and it’s not what one would expect when judging them by their public personas.)

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

From The Old Guard? Those three and a half thousand years that Andy spent alone as the only immortal on the planet (as far as anyone knows).

I’ve been wanting to explore that period and, yes, it’s fucking intimidating. Historical documentation is more miss than hit once you start going back to certain points in human history.

Three and a half thousand years is a really fucking long time. What did Andy do, where did she go? What did she see? There’s a lot of potential to mine there, and maybe I’ll do it someday.

For the Napoleonics? Joseph Fouché is a fucking amoral bastard, but I think people forget he tried to save Marshal Ney. Ney, being Ney, was either politically naive, stubborn, and/or he just wanted to fucking die already when he refused Fouché’s offer of fake papers and an passport to sneak out of France in the aftermath of Napoleon’s second abdication.

(I’ve also read that Laurent de Gouvion St. Cyr was the one who offered the passport and papers, so take the above with the proverbial grain of salt. St. Cyr did vote for exile in the final trial, which lends weight to that too.)

I also have a shitload of question marks around Bessières’ final years and the way it gets treated by academics, but that may be better off in a post of its own.

For Star Trek ... no one ever really talks about what kind of influence Sisko might have had on the Bajorans other than just being the Emissary/Space Jesus. Like, did baseball become a national sport and baseball leagues spring up all over the planet? Is there ticky-tacky Emissary merchandise one can purchase, like humans have in real life of the Pope?

(Sisko did show up on a pack of Bajoran tarot cards in Lower Decks, and I squealed over that, ngl.)

Thanks for asking! 😘

[roboska-lv]

Important notice about how long it's going to take

A while. It's going to take years. My plan is to hopefully finish it by the end of college (year 13) max, and considering I'm currently in my final year of high school (year 11) I think that's a reasonable time as I have 4 acts planned and I'm not sure how long the other 3 acts are play time wise as I've only focused on act 1, and that's going to be around 1/2 hour play time for a single route. In total the game will be around 2 and a bit hours for the pacifist route (the neutral and merciless route only have 3 acts and the 4th act is all 3D). The main reasons why it's going to take so long is that:

Like I said earlier, I'm in school and have to do GCSEs and A-Levels (which are a really big deal).

I have rushed games before and I'm dissatisfied with their quality. I refuse to rush games ever since (Sci-Fi RaiRoboska!? looking at youuuu).

Drawing all the assets takes time. That's my biggest road block. This isn't a pixel art typical 2D RPG where I could just make tiles and reuse them, all the backgrounds and objects have to be drawn for that place and nowhere else for it to look right in that style. Take for example this road:

Sure, the style is quite simple, but even this took a good couple hours. All the layout planning, lineart, colour, lighting adds up. Don't get me started on the animations.

4. I have 2 medium sized games planned to make in-between as well as a few small game jam games. This variety also helps with point 5 while making myself more well known in the indie game industry.

5. I don't want to spend every minute of my free time working on it as I'm terrified of burning myself out and losing motivation. I also don't want to end up like Yandere Dev by working on this for almost a decade only to produce a demo, but I don't think "The Sapphic Princess" is going to be too long of a game and considering there's just me, I think I can handle it. Speaking of which...

I don't trust people enough to hire others to help me. I'm very controlling and I want it to be exactly how I in-vision it. Also I find doing it all fun but if it gets too overwhelming then I may consider it but only as a last resort.

The 2 medium sized games that I have planned is a visual novel DDLC fangame that won't take too long to make (most of the time will be in writing as Dialogic is a great godot plugin and would make all the coding a breeze), and a Yandere Simulator "fangame" (more like a different interpretation from a horror game fan who actually knows how to write and design characters). I've gone into more detail about these on my main blog as linked above. The second one is quite big but not as big as my current plan of LV. Essentially this is my main project and those are short term projects, if that makes sense.

My plan is to release this on itch.io and Steam for around £3. I don't want to make it too high as it can be beaten in about 2 hours on the neutral route (ignoring the other 2 routes) but I also don't want to make it too low as I want to feel compensated for all the work I've put into, putting into and will put into. I may also make a Playstation version but don't count on it as I only have a PS4 and I don't feel like it's worthy due to it's short run time (but physical copies would be cool...maybe as a game compilation though). I'll get some people to beta test it in the future and ask what they think would be a good price.

I made this blog when I had a smaller idea for this game. Now that is not the case. I'll post updates whenever I feel like I have something worth updating about but I don't want to spoil it too much.

That's all for now. - PearlHikara