#also i might rework how i do ask blogs?

[destiny-in-the-universe]

is anyone willing to hear me ramble about one of these ideas later?

your options are;

No One Knows AU

Stank infection

Project Zero (currently working on the google doc)

Jurassic Park/World AU

Intern Randy Verse (currently being worked on- i'm hoping to finish it by next week)

[solarisfortuneia]

— 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞…

(or, in other words, promises of their dedication to you.)

✦ featuring: childe, kaeya, xiao, zhongli, kazuha.

✦ warnings: none, just the smallest smidgens of angst in some places.

✦ notes: so, this is a really old work i posted on my first blog that i'm proud of sjhhjs i found it a while ago and decided to rework it a little!! (i haven't changed too much of the original though, just tweaked some sentences and added and subtracted.)

…i’d pull hell and heaven to their knees at your feet, and i’d kneel alongside them (if I could. oh, if only i could).

childe wants to give you the world and more.

he’s almost reverent in his devotion to those he loves, seeking to please beyond all else, and what he holds toward you is no different. at merely a blink of your eyes, he’d bring you the sun and the stars, weave moonlight into fabric and find a chunk of the most beautiful emerald you’ve ever laid eyes on, and he does it all with a wink and a smile and a ‘you need only ask, dear,’

and it is true, you need only ask for him to lay out the world for you.

but alas, there is only so much fate will allow him to do. his heart and soul may rest in your palms, but he is duty bound to the tsaritsa.

ajax can promise you everything in the world, just not himself.

he cannot promise you himself in his entirety, he cannot promise you an ajax without his secrets, without an always existing barrier in between you.

no matter how desperately he wants to.

…i’d stand bare in your light, arms asunder, abandoning my secrets and shedding the shadows i once called home.

kaeya alberich fears trust.

he’s scared of what it could lead to, what it could do to him, what it has done to him. he’s a man who lives under a cloak of secrets and inside a cocoon of fear and mysteries, and for him to allow himself to expose everything he hides is no small feat.

but it is the surest mark of his trust in you, that some hopeful part of him believes that you’ll stay against all odds.

he thinks you shouldn’t, though, that it’ll cause you more harm than good— he won’t let himself want you. but you’ll know he is truly yours when he hesitates no longer to tell you the deepest desires of his heart, to bare his whole soul and lay it before your eyes.

patience, and you'll find him the most beautiful butterfly of them all.

…i’d cross the deepest of chasms, weather the harshest of storms, and brave the most treacherous of paths to return to your arms.

not a soul can say that adeptus alatus has no home to go back to. (and if they did, how utterly wrong they’d be.)

his home is the warmth of your embrace, the love in every gentle caress, and the soft cadence of your voice. it's the smile in your eyes, and the spring in your step, and the softness of your heart. he’d call it almost dream-like, but xiao knows what dreams are like, far better than anyone. he also knows that every dream— no matter how intense, no matter how vivid— always disappears.

but you’re still here, day after day,

does that not mean you’re as real as the air he breathes and the sun that sets over liyue?

xiao’s loyalty is hard won, but it is steadfast. he cannot promise that he’ll live forever, nor can he promise you happiness every single minute of the day. but what he can promise you, is that at the end of the day, he’ll fight his hardest to return to you, no matter how far away he might be.

…i’d etch your memory— from the most mellifluous laugh to every tiny victory— onto my very soul, so that not even the flow of time can wash it away.

morax has prospered for centuries.

he’s witnessed dynasties fall to dust; paupers rise to prominence. he’s come across many he was fond of and cherishes the memory of everyone he has ever cared for. 

he’s also aware that forgetting some people in the vast expanse time is inevitable. the withering of the blooms of thought spare none, not even a god, and the tree of the psyche grows ancient. after all, even the mind is not permanent in a world of transience, is it?

but zhongli would be damned if he ever let you fade.

his promise, no, his contract— one he made to himself the day the realization that you'd one day no longer be by his side fully set in— is to preserve even the last wisps that linger, encasing the thought of you in shimmering gold, so that after you are long gone, you’ll live on as part of his soul.

…i’d whisper the softest of tales into the night breeze, tales of you and i, so that even when we’re long gone, the wind will carry our stories for aeons to come.

kazuha is no stranger to the whispers of the wind.

he’s intimately familiar with them, a rare blessing he knows he is lucky to have. but his most divine blessing is the privilege of being part of a story with you. life is short, unpredictable; one never knows what their fate might be, but he's beyond glad that this part of his destiny has you.

he has no desire to be a legend, and he knows you don’t either. but he is sentimental in the regard that he wants the whispers of the two of you to stick around. he’s lost so much, and reciting stories of the two of you is his way of preservation, for nothing spoken into the wind vanishes.

the world knows only a fraction of this wanderer, but he hopes that if they remember anything about him, they remember how much he loved you.

[the-astral-express-archive]

REQUESTS ARE OPEN

Hey there, welcome to the-astral-express-archive, an unofficial fanblog for official Honkai: Star Rail resources. Everyone can call me Seven or Sev, and I'm also the owner of genshinresource (now a retired blog). This post might be long so I’ll keep the main content under break.

Below are a few things everyone should keep in mind before following/interacting with this blog:

Please avoid bringing up all kinds of real-life related controversies in reblogs. I believe people who come here all want to have an enjoyable time looking at their favorite scenes and characters and maybe, just for a moment, forget about the difficulties they have to go through in life, and this also applies to me as well as a person. While I'm really thankful when someone shares their creations or translations for non-English contents in the reblogs, sometimes the negativity coming from people who hate on some characters for how they look or act, which is seen as "controversial" in real life, affect my mental state a lot. What I wanna say is, If anyone wants to vent their frustration over fictional characters then for God's sake, please do it somewhere else, don't do it here, I really appreciate it.

This blog is NOT spoiler-free but I'll try not to post any directly without prior warnings, especially in-game contents like story CGs and such. If you’re not comfortable seeing any content(s) here, please consider blocking/muting/filtering respective tag(s).

I also don't post leaks or any content related to leaks. All contents you see here were officially released by miHoYo/HoYoverse/COGNOSPHERE and/or their respective owners in-game and/or publicly by the time they are posted.

I usually don't reply to Ask messages aside from questions, feedback and requests to minimize clutters but rest assured, I read and really, really appreciate every single positive and encouraging message everyone sends to me. They're the energy and motivation I need to keep running this blog for as long as I can. Thank you so so much, everyone.

NAVIGATION

AIO download links (Google Drive)

Artworks - Illustrations

Assets

Videos

Master Pages

[Outdated/Being reworked on] Masterlist/Tags page: This page is the main masterlist of this blog. All tags assigned in this blog are grouped into categories and there’s a filter at the top of the page if when you want to see specific groups of tags.

Character tags page: There’s a filter box to the right where you can filter characters by their attributes, factions and sexes. Click on a character’s avatar to go to their tagged posts.

Sticker page: This page is the masterlist for all previously posted Star Rail stickers. You can use the filters on the left and at the top to narrow down your searches, or you can use the search box in the top right corner to look for a specific character (first names only).

Light Cone Gallery: As the name suggests, you will find the images of all the released light cones here. Hover on a light cone to see its name and a list of characters featured in it. Right-click or long-press the image then choose "Open image in new tab" to see it in full size, or "Save image as..." to download it in full size.

Last updated: July 3, 2024

[demigod-jack-hearth]

This is to address a situation where I had carelessly modified my Circe blog @the-goddess-circe to fit my alternate universe. This caused many people to get hurt and I am addressing it.

When I created the Circe Blog on August 8, it was with the intention for Jack to get possessed by Circe, a character I was interested in because as a character Circe is really complex and fascinating, I am not excusing her actions OR morals. She had not much canon lore to work with and I was excited at the opportunity to be able to experiment and work with Circe.

During one of Jack’s possession scenes ( https://www.tumblr.com/demigod-jack-hearth/758229800393523200/open-starter )

I thought it was a good idea to make a complete alternate universe for Circe, which is how I modified her intro to the alternate universe that Odysseus has raped Circe and sexually assaulted her. I did not think of the consequences of my actions and how I was not handling this situation OR topic with the care or respect it deserved.

This is the role play thread that started this alternate universe- https://www.tumblr.com/camp-sky-heaven-on-earth/758618332716056576/i-know-it-hasnt-been-long-since-i-asked-you-to?source=share

I did not consider how this was dehumanising and triggering the trauma other others and this was not my intention in the slightest.

For this overlook and negligence on my part,

I’m am wholeheartedly sorry to everyone, those affected by my actions and my audience who have seen it.

I realise now that I have people that watch me, people that reads the things I put out and they are very real. Their feelings are real. Their experiences are real and their stories and trauma are real. This is a grave mistake on my part, and I now understand that what I say and do have an effect on others.

I did not take the correct amount of time to think this through and do my proper research on the canon lore.

This section is to address my first anon message back on August 13 about my Circe au:

Link to the post-https://www.tumblr.com/demigod-jack-hearth/758706460356149249/its-kind-of-disheartening-to-see-you-re-writing?source=share and https://www.tumblr.com/demigod-jack-hearth/758707116707119104/if-you-realise-it-was-a-mistake-it-might-be-a?source=share

When I first received this anon message, I dismissed it as something I didn’t need to worry too much about and because of my WRONG mindset that I do not share as of now, I made a very throw away and poorly worded response.

I spoke to some people I am now not in contact with and they had encouraged me to not think too much about it and reinforced my belief that I had free reign to make alternate universes without discretion. I was also unhappy with a separate issue that caused me to have a lot of pent up anger and frustration, this does not excuse the way I replied the anon.

These conversations with people who enabled my wrong view on the situation sparked me to make my response hurtful, bitter and unnecessary.

I regret making that comment and I am sorry to the anonymous message who got hurt by my remarks.

I understand that Odysseus and Circe are very important characters whose stories should not be modified so carelessly.

Now onto the important part: What I will do to amend this situation.

I am not asking for anyone to forget or forgive this situation, but I hope to at least make some amends.

First off I will be deleting Circe’s Blog and will not be reworking it until I can get an acceptable version in the works.

Second of all this is a repetition but I apologise to everyone affected and reached by this situation. I am willing to make personal apologies at your request.

Finally, this will not happen again. I have grown and understood the situation to the best of my ability and will do everything in my power (running it past people before I post things and checking the facts) to make sure this does NOT happen again.

I'm going to tag everyone because I don't know who has been affected by my actions

@ja50nt0ddwa5h3r3 @unhinged-waterlilly @zariahthewitch @thegroovydaughterofhestia @beauty-queen-official @that-girl-cupid @ariathemortal @emdabitchass @if-chaos-was-a-boy @the-gods-strange-children @silena-daughterofaphrodite @love-lightning-forethought @fabulousdaughterofhecate @weakest-son-of-sun @chaos-pers0nified @neoptolemus-achilles-son @kaiaalwayswins @bast-the-best26 @goddess-of-bubblegum @hispanic-daughter-of-hermes @gaygirldoodles @luck-is-crucial @pink-koi-lovejoy @smileyalater @the-bosses-of-you @the-goddess-aphrod1te @cloak-of-ares @heraaaaaaaa @unproblematic-hestia @theycallmejeezycreezy @queenofthedeep @giant-prophetic-snake @reyna4ever @vicious-daughter-of-zeus @itsyourboyezra @the-smart-and-the-dumb-one @feral-hermes-child @oopsies-i-did-a-thing @creature-under-ur-bed @unfortunate-daughter-of-hestia

Thanks to my friend who helped me so much with editing this and helping me make it sense

[aufi-creative-mind]

Updates about what I have been up to.

Things that are in progress!

Currently, my main focus is on completing the LU Spirits series (Formerly known as Farore's Spirits). It is my most ambitious personal project - 9 (12) part series - that I am undertaking by myself. I hope to finally fulfill a 5 year long promise to myself to give this series the artistic glow up that it deserves.

I am also part of the upcoming Denouncement of War: A Hyrule Warriors zine. So do check this out if you are a fan of the OG Hyrule Warrior games!

.

Things that I want to work on.

I plan to shift more focus towards my BotW-TotK Family and Legacy series. I have a lot of stories that I want to show to you all about Link's family and their individual character stories, Pre-Calamity, Post-Calamity and even present day BotW-TotK events. That includes fan fiction stories, including one I have started - Getting to Know You. You can read the first two chapters on A03 and HERE on this blog.

Chapter 3 is slowly being written out with a potential Chapter 4 planned as well.

I also have three folders worth of other Zelda concepts and stories that I want to show as well. Such as the pre-TotK Zelink sketches that I had impulsively made in the lead up to TotK's release last year. I might release them as soft sketches rather than fully rendered pages.

.

Things that are put on hiatus...

I have been asked by several people about my LU: Sword's Reveal comic pages and whether I am continuing it. And unfortunately, I will have to put it on hiatus until further notice.

This is because I started that comic long before TotK's release. Specifically when Nintendo made that delay announcement with that teaser of the decayed Master Sword. And the hype that created. So I was originally running on that hype energy of the unknown then. And the other reason was that....I lost the original script for the comic. And what notes I was able to retrieve no longer reflects on what I now know from completing TotK and what have in mind for the story.

So I'm not abandoning the LU Sword's Reveal comic! But it will be some time until I am able to come back to it and rework on the script and the draft pages.

.

Things that I am thinking of doing...

For those who may not know, I work as a liasion officer in medical accommodation for families with sick children. And as such, it does take up a lot of my time and energy - physically and especially emotionally - that I am unable to dedicate as much time to making art as I wanted.

I have been considering opening a Ko-Fi or even a Patreon account, but still unsure on how to go about it. I would love to hear your suggestions or feedback on this one!

.

So if you've been able to reach this far into this update. Thank you so much for taking your time and wishing you all the good vibes!

[tonydaddingham]

Some of the posts you've reblogged lately have clarified some of my thinking about how Gaiman has reworked the characters from the original text. In the novel, Aziraphale and Crowley have at base the /same/ flaw: they evade thinking about the ramifications of their actions by displacing everything onto their "job" requirements. To which the novel says, no can do. Aziraphale has his moral epiphany at the airfield before Crowley does, but it is by and large the same epiphany. Most of the rhetoric about offloading responsibility goes to Crowley, either directly or in free indirect discourse, but he's also the dominant viewpoint character of the two. For that matter, we are told how Crowley /feels/ about where Aziraphale has led him, morally speaking, but we aren't privy to Aziraphale's interiority during this moment. In a sense, though, that doesn't matter, because there's no reason to believe that the sense of liberation is any different.

In the series, though, Gaiman ramps up the tension in S1 and S2 by splitting up their problems. Crowley still has the "but it's not my FAULT" moral flaw, considerably amplified with even more suspiciously unreliable narration, and he still thinks about his work for "head office" as just that, a job. But Gaiman rewrites Aziraphale so that, as other people have pointed out, he thinks about being an angel as an identity (and being a demon, for that matter). I think you can make a good case that unlike in the novel, in the series neither character fully grasps how the other conceptualizes himself. This is one of the reasons that the novel's moral epiphany doesn't happen in S1, and can't happen in the same way in S3. Crowley nudges Aziraphale as though he were nudging him out of a job, not as though he's nudging him into an entirely different sense of personhood. Aziraphale praises Crowley's goodness because he essentializes it, seeing it as a sign that Crowley's demonself is continuous with his former angelself ("you were an angel once"). In S2e1, we have the very telling dialogue in the coffee shop where Crowley knows all of Aziraphale's "voices," but doesn't understand why it ought to set off fire alarms for him that Aziraphale so needs to report to him for praise. This sits alongside the tension in the Job minisode, in which Crowley is openly disaffected with both Heaven and Hell, but doesn't see the situation in the same existential terms as Aziraphale does. The end result is the S2e6 car crash, in which each character proposes to the other in a way that solves their /own/problem.

LWA i’m guessing that this is you - let’s face it, noone else sends me asks like this - but by some chance that it isn’t, congratulations anon you sound just like them (and now i’m slightly terrified that there might be two of you lurking around my blog).

also - apologies that it took such a long while to come back to you; my original response was approaching half a dozen pages just for aziraphale alone (and i wasn’t done by a long shot), and then i remembered to great disappointment that tumblr isn’t exactly the forum for such a long post (future rhi: haha you played yourself, this is still a mammoth response). at which point, i basically had to rewrite it all over again, condensing it (future rhi: you failed) down into what i’m hoping are my key points. i wish i was joking when i say that you’re currently reading what is probably the fourth or fifth version of this response.

i think where a lot of disconnect happens in how we view aziraphale’s journey throughout both seasons stems from thinking that the concept of being an angel is all-encompassing, instead of potentially also being multiple layers that aziraphale has steadily been shedding throughout the story. personally, i think there are three distinct areas around aziraphale’s identity as an angel; heaven, god, and being good. a lot of these overlap and intertwine with each other, for sure, but i think it's too much to ask of aziraphale, as the audience (and crowley), to be able to abandon it altogether in one fell swoop. being an angel is not the whole of what aziraphale is - this much is evident - but to his mind, it's the core. dismantling that, stepping away from that, and finding who he is might be without the overarching expectation and pressure of being an angel is no doubt terrifying... and potentially we're not giving that struggle enough credit.

to my mind, he disconnects from heaven fairly early on in the narrative, as far back as job, and continues through the ages with a sense of fear - or, at best, trepidation - from them. however, this tenuous allegiance carries through to s1 when it severs entirely with the call to the metatron; i truly do not see any instance after this point chronologically where aziraphale has any fondness or loyalty to heaven as the institution, nor the archangels. he is unique in being an angel that has experienced the fullness of earth and humanity, and this has influenced him fundamentally into being an angel that is so 'other' from his peers that he's by default unrecognisable, almost alien, and is deprecated and dismissed as a result. it's the very first modern scene we see of him in s1 - putting him in direct contrast with gabriel (arguably The angel of abrahamic religion; the one that nearly everyone recognises, and considers to be the epitome of What An Angel Should Be). crowley has similarly influenced him through the ages; he's made aziraphale think outside of the dogma that heaven instils as being the irreproachable, righteous, Good Side - as well as encourage him in his hedonism and self-interest (literally the reason why they both endeavour to stop the apocalypse in the first place) because it is important to aziraphale personally, and he takes pleasure and happiness from it. aziraphale "[keeps] up appearances" for the sake of complying with heaven and not raising suspicion, but is ultimately "an angel who goes along with heaven as far as he can".

aziraphale's relationship with god is little more complicated, but again - i think aziraphale reaches the stage where he is shown time and time again that god chooses to be distant, and not to act or intervene*, which is something aziraphale cannot fully reconcile. as he sees it, hell does bad things (as does heaven, as is demonstrated with the apocalypse), and where you have the power to stop it, you should. equally, if you have the power to do something good, you should do it. he takes literal issue with this in job, where he learns that god is resolutely refusing to intervene in whatever hell is cooking up for job and his family, and he instead chooses to defy this and go to crawly to beseech him to not hurt them (obviously not realising that crawly has reached that page already). he holds out hope that god will do the right thing, but the storm comes from hell, starts early even, and god does not stop it - would not have stopped it, even if the children were above, and not in the cellar.

he cannot reach any other conclusion than crawly must be right, and god in fact wants the children to die. when it comes to the lie, and aziraphale resigning himself to falling for it, i do wonder how he reconciles this after he doesn't fall - my thought currently is that aziraphale believes that god has seen his 'transgression', and chosen clemency - to forgive it - but aziraphale fears she may not do so again. it makes sense that aziraphale then is so resistant to the Arrangement later on, and then why he appears so set on not helping thwart the apocalypse because that would be going against the plan (despite, yk, evidently agreeing with crowley and privately wanting to stop it as much as crowley does). this is once again shattered by the call to the metatron; aziraphale holds out hope that the almighty will fix everything, surely this is the time where they would intervene, job and his family is one thing, but destroy the entirety of their creation? but... god won't even get on the call with him. that to me is, once again, where aziraphale lets go that particular strand of what makes him an angel - as far as i can recall, we see no instances in 2023 where aziraphale declares any outright loyalty to god or to heaven*, even going so far as to initially reject heaven (and god, presumably, by extension) - "i don't believe there's anything left to be said, i've made my position quite clear" - until he is given the opportunity to... fix it? improve it? mend it? restore it? semantics, but "make a difference" plainly recognises that how it currently exists, or how it currently functions, is wrong.

*although, ultimately, this is arguably the only moral solution for god as far as humanity is concerned. an omnipotent and omniscient being should not get involved, nor even a vaguely powerful one (i'll take "free will" for 500, alex).

*i've said it before and i'll say it again; where aziraphale says "but heaven! it's the side of truth, of light, of good", this to me is not aziraphale saying that heaven is itself good. that would be in direct conflict with his willingness to "make a difference". if he thought heaven was perfect as it is, 'making a difference' wouldn't even come into it. to that end, he knows it isn't - and instead i see it that aziraphale thinks these are the qualities that heaven stands for, what it ought to be... not what it currently is.

last thing on god: aziraphale even literally steps into god's shoes in ep5, during the ball - it's all very well, admirable even, that he hosts and crafts the ball to be a curated environment where maggie and nina might realise that they have fallen in love with each other, he thinks he's doing the right thing by intervening... by getting involved. but as you say, the book epiphany hasn't happened for them at the end of s1, not even in s2, and aziraphale hasn't learn the lesson of why "messin' about" might actually be the wrong thing to do. in fucking about with the ball, he completely tampers with the free will of not only the girls, but everyone else. nina reflects this back at him, and it visibly unnerves him that she does so; he is removing free will from all present (or, attempting to in nina's case), but is doing what he considers to be right and ergo what he thinks god should do (in his eyes). he doesn't reach the free will realisation, at least not as far as is evident to the audience, and it is clear that when the issues surrounding playing god are highlighted to him (by both nina and crowley), he chooses to dismiss it. he is doing what he thinks is right, but in doing so is literally demonstrating the shortcomings he has in his faith in god.

but aziraphale and the concept of goodness? ah. this, to me, is still the key part of his identity that he is struggling to let go of. aziraphale by the point of s2 accepts that he is not perfect. the first meaningful scene we see of aziraphale in the post-s1 timeline is his interaction with maggie; he forgives the rent, does a kind and compassionate thing, but very readily recognises that he did it for his own self-interested motivations and prioritising himself first (so far as to look uncomfortable when thanked for it by maggie, and referred to as an “angel” as a result - aziraphale knows that his motivation was not angelic at all). a ‘younger’ aziraphale, i do not think, would have so openly admitted to this, and instead would have laboured it as a purely selfless, kind, and benevolent thing on his part... and it would have taken crowley probing further to get it out of him that he did it out of self-interest. this doesn’t preclude that aziraphale was being kind to maggie - kindness is in the perception, not the intention (imo) - but he accepts his shortcomings as far as being an angel is concerned, and the freedom of breaking away from heaven grants him the freedom to do so. but contrast this with his taking-in of gabriel. aziraphale is not stupid, and is evidently frightened, anxious, and suspicious of him turning up at the bookshop, but what becomes clear to him is that this is genuinely someone under threat, in trouble, and lost; yes, he gets frustrated with the situation, but he offers gabriel/jim sanctuary, and is set in this decision before crowley even enters the picture. he makes the clear assessment that the wanker-that-is-gabriel is not the being sat before him, and instead chooses the route of kindness.

aziraphale is not always a good person, and there are multiple instances where this is proven, but there are equally just as many instances that show that he is - and i think he accepts that he is someone that is a mixture of both. that being said, this is still something that he is self-conscious about (if shax's jibes at him in ep6 is anything to go by), but it stems more from a place of aziraphale feeling that he is not enough for heaven, or for god - that even, perhaps, he doesn't deserve to be an angel; i don't think it's out of place to say you can accept the traits that make it so you do not fit in (and in fact be glad that you do not), and yet still feel ashamed and anguished that you have been rejected for the same. there is a case to be made that this in part may be why he accepts the metatron's offer to return to heaven and run it - that it's an offer from the voice of god himself, in acceptance of who aziraphale currently is - but i do wonder how far aziraphale believes this.

now is finally time to start bridging the gap to crowley, because it is clear that being good is paramount to aziraphale. however, the issue is that the sense of being good is paramount, and he still conflates it with what is right. crowley is not to blame for this, but he is undoubtedly a guiding principle in how aziraphale develops this sense; crowley constantly challenges aziraphale on his rigid, often deontological mindset of "the action must be good for it to be the right thing", and instead makes him consider the wider, consequentialist picture; that sometimes, "the action might be a bad thing, but if it results in a good thing, that is the right thing". he reaches, therefore, the conclusion that if crowley ends up doing the right thing, he therefore must be good - and ignores all of the events, all of crowley's behaviour, that point to the contrary. hell, he even ignores all of crowley's own protestations to the contrary. as you say, aziraphale essentialises it.

maybe aziraphale does think that crowley is, at his core, the same person he was as an angel, but... personally, idk how far i currently interpret this to be the case (my thoughts are more along the lines of 'crowley is, regardless of being an angel or a demon, a good person, and that's what counts', but maybe i'm optimistically giving aziraphale more credit than is due). in any case, upon reflection, aziraphale has not learnt from the 'shades of grey' argument... not in relation to crowley. sure, i think aziraphale accepts that he himself is a light shade of grey, but crowley? i don't think he fully comprehends that that same school of thought must apply to crowley too - crowley is not a wholly good person, but arguably is an often dark one who sometimes chooses to do good things/knows when not to cross the line - and therefore lands on the expectation that crowley would return to heaven with him to do good - because that's the right thing for a good person to do. aziraphale has turned to crowley, and holds him to the same ideal to which he previously held in heaven, and arguably in god. these are entities that aziraphale thinks ought to stand, and perhaps originally stood, for "truth, light, and good", and when that went down the shitter in reality, aziraphale has turned to his own reality and found crowley instead. the faith - and comfort that it brings - had to go somewhere. that is not a responsibility crowley should shoulder, under any circumstance, but in not recognising that aziraphale is doing it, aziraphale hasn't been dissuaded from it either.

but hey, let's finally discuss crowley (and if you're still reading... incredible). look, i've made no secret of my... criticism? of crowley, and to reiterate not only what you said in your ask, but also what we've discussed at length; crowley is not a reliable narrator. this, regrettably, makes me reconsider accepting what are posed as core principles of crowley's character. he does not give a consistent account of the fall; whilst what he does say may be, at best, piecemeal snapshots of the events that led to his fall and, at worst, be completely false altogether, the conclusion is the same - there is something missing, and i'd wager that it is something that he doesn't want to admit, confront, and/or reconcile with. add this to his reluctance, or outright refusal, to accept accountability for his actions on a number of occasions, as well as his tendency to skirt around or fudge the truth, and i naturally do not default to taking his word as gospel; that's not to say that i think he has a nefarious, hidden agenda hiding away (obviously not), or is an entirely reprehensible character, but from an audience perspective i think if we're to anticipate some Major Revelations in s3, this is a key place to start.

one quote, from s1, that sticks out to me is, "crowley was all in favour of armageddon in general terms, but it was one thing to bring it about, and another for it to actually happen." this literally is the summary, for me, of all of crowley's ouroboros/boomerang/"this will no doubt come back around to bite me on the ass" characterisation. if i (contrivedly) rephrase this, it reads to me as 'i'm not that bothered about the end of the world and humanity in theory, and happy to add in bits and pieces that would make it happen, but i will have an issue as soon as we start gearing up to press the big red button'. as such, i think we have to contend with the fact that crowley may not be as moral as has been widely accepted. maybe i'm assuming too much, but if you were truly of moral standing, presumably even the notion of setting out plans to destroy the earth would be a big no-no, if you are in fact against the apocalyse because it would mean the destruction of humanity. but of course, this would presume that crowley has any way in which he can viably refuse (which, he doesn't) - to which end, therein lies the dichotomy of the nuremberg argument. is it an immoral action when you don't have the room to consider the moral option? regardless, does that absolve you of consequence?

this would also, presumably, be at odds with AWCW's objections to armageddon as put to us in the pre-fall scene, right? so, to me, the conclusion i reach is this; first, that AWCW obviously does not want the stars, the universe, to disintegrate as a mere bookmark in the wider 'great plan', but this does not come from an altruistic viewpoint; it comes from a more selfish one. and that's totally fair - i probably too would have issues with spending my entire (and at this time, 'entire' is unquantified) existence building and creating, only to see all of my work go down the drain as if it's nothing. but - i do not see it as him having any ulterior, selfless consideration for humanity. second, crowley likes earth, but for the convenient and clever things that exists because of - and in concurrence with - humanity. the reasoning he gives to aziraphale for stopping the apocalypse is just as true for him as it is for aziraphale. there is the line of "you said you would be testing them, but you shouldn't test them to destruction...", an echo of his sentiment at the flood, that gives weight to crowley privately wanting to stop armageddon for humanity's sake. i agree with this assessment on the whole; that crowley holds it as an equally strong and valid reason for thwarting it. but i think it is also fair to at least suggest that this reasoning may also stem from crowley's own personal feelings about the fall - a group of angels that were, presumably, tested to the point of their own destruction - and how god, in his eyes, perhaps should have learnt from that event before planning to do the same to her Ultimate Creation. this, for me, is a little more in line with his characterisation as has been presented so far. 

but then again, crawly seems to be acting selflessly in the job minisode. i, once again, am largely inclined to agree... but for the sake of exploration, i do wonder how far it's entirely selfless, or altruistic, and instead how far it's a projection of thwarting god in the sense of rectifying his own punishment. a case of 'i went through this and it's shit, humanity doesn't deserve the same thing the same thing to happen to them', vs. 'i went through this and it's shit, and now she's up to the same old bollocks because she's awful, so im going to thwart it as a big fuck you to god'. maybe there is no real distinction, or maybe it's a bit of both at the same time, but the former would more strongly suggest to me that, looking at the parallel between job and the fall, crowley was the entirely innocent party in his fall just as humanity is/was, which i don't personally buy. 1827 and preventing elspeth's suicide is a little closer to the mark where selflessness is concerned; "you have sinned very bigly - trying to kill yourself?! it's not on!" strikes me that crowley is now acting out of the interest of keeping elspeth out of hell, where it is pretty clear Bad Things occur. there are other clear instances of good too* - he gets the humans out of bookshop in ep5 and brings back mr brown from hell, he treats jim with kindness once he establishes for his own peace of mind that he's not a threat, and he protects maggie from being accosted by demons (and this is not to mention how he, on the whole, treats aziraphale). suffice to say, crowley is clearly capable of selflessness, and doing both the good and right thing, but i do think that he doesn't necessarily act with selflessness and goodness as his default motivation. there are enough instances to suggest that he isn't a completely moral character.

*now that im thinking about it, it seems that it's largely when the threat of hell specifically looms that crowley is at his most selfless..? hmm.

crowley does centre around the thinking that being an angel/demon as like a job - and tbf to him, it's not an overly out-there conclusion to arrive at. heaven and hell are presented as corporations and they're referred to as "head office", he is given a workload and told to report back, he stretches the truth about what work he is personally responsible for in those reports, and crowley describes himself as a 'former demon' (as if he ever stopped being one - even as a fact of being, he is a demon). so yeah - to him, it is a job. and as you say, he assumes that aziraphale sees it the exact same way which, clearly, he doesn't. crowley states that he never asked to be a demon which may well be true, but it's equally possible that he was given the option to step away from heaven and god, and took it (not knowing that becoming a demon would be the result), to my mind, it's almost like he got sacked from a start-up because he didn't like the direction the company was going and Had Things To Say/actively resisted and denounced it, and then was forced to work in a - in multiple ways - a worse work environment. it's an understatement to say that he's under no illusions that hell is awful, and he too "goes along with [them] as far as he can". however, i'm not entirely sure that we have reached where crowley has his "as far he can" moment like aziraphale has - the fact that he says to aziraphale he said no to hell, when he absolutely didn't, rings alarm bells. 

as explained above, aziraphale doesn't see it in this way at all; what i think crowley finds difficult to understand is that aziraphale's experience of being an angel is very much different to crowley's. aziraphale has existed for millennia on earth as an angel, and aziraphale’s purpose and meaning is wrapped up in being an angel, in everything that it entails, and specifically being an angel that has walked amongst humanity. just as aziraphale is never fully able to empathise with crowley’s position as a demon, and all that occurred to get him there, crowley is just as unlikely to fully empathise with the importance aziraphale places on his own angelhood. in comparison to crowley's situation in being sacked from a start-up, a hypothetical fall for aziraphale would be like being sacked from a business that, whilst you may not agree with them in the majority, has provided you with a career that is the only thing you know how to do, continues to pay for your home and benefits, and without it would leave you stripped of any purpose and meaning, and no idea on what it makes you/where it leaves you without it. and even then this doesn't really scratch the surface - again, aziraphale doesn't see being an angel as being a job.

the final fifteen is where all this comes to the surface. when the two of them individually have their backs against the wall, with no discernible way out, they have very different responses. aziraphale fights, and crowley flees. heaven is a seemingly insurmountable problem that stands in the way of them being left alone (and being together). aziraphale's response is to try to change it, to fight. crowley's response is instead to flee the situation entirely. this is the same with armageddon - another seemingly insurmountable problem - where aziraphale's response is to go above everyone's heads and dial 9-9-god, and crowley's response is to flee. neither of these responses are wrong, both are completely valid, and i genuinely think it is equally possible to see the situation from their individual perspectives. but neither of them understand the other's. aziraphale, who sees crowley as a good person who will do the right thing, doesn't understand why crowley won't fight with him, won't do (as he sees it) the right thing in making heaven what it always should have been, and is instead choosing to flee. crowley, who sees aziraphale as someone who like him as quit his job and wants nothing more to do with either of their former bosses, doesn't understand why aziraphale is choosing to fight, won't prioritise them, and won't go off with him. once again, both are equally valid thought processes to have, but are borne out of being rather significantly off the mark in understanding the other, and instead thinking that the other will act in accordance to what they individually believe the other to be.

[jane-lynndrake-t]

//OOC

Hey I don't want to be rude but not knowing how Janet Drake dies is a red flag for an RP blog about Janet Drake. Don't get me wrong, the multiverse means characters like Janet die in different ways but I feel like you should know this.

I'm really not here to step on your toes but I feel like planning ahead is your friend. Especially with your take on Janet.

Ooc

Hi! Thanks for the concern! I want to reassure you and say, "Yes, her death is how it was canonically in DC Comic's Rite of Passage."

Just to be clear, I mean that she died from poisoned water right as Batman tried to save both her and Jack from being kidnapped and ransomed to America by terrorists based in Haiti.

The memory she has of the earth quake was just incidental and part of how Jack and Janet decided to become a couple.

So I'm not really sure what you mean when you say that I am unaware of how she died.

the set up of this blog is this:

After being dead for 4 years, she suddenly wakes up in the hands of a group with access to Lazarus Pits.

She does not remember the past 20 years before she died, nor does she remember her own death.

This “blog” is actually a journal to her that she uses to help express her feelings and organize her thoughts and actions. Fortunately, this isn’t a normal journal, as it allows beings from different multiverses (you!!) to help her and give her advice and also help her remember her past!

This means initially,

She doesn't remember that she died while on business/archeology trip.

She doesn't know she died to a terrorist group in haiti

She doesn't know that Gotham's biggest issues are no longer the mob.

As for knowing how she died, the previous posts hint at her remembering her death.

Here

Here

Here is her finding out how she died via her obituary.

This is an interactive story, so it’s up to you guys to help her figure out the answers to mysteries like,

Why did Janet Drake get resurrected now out of all times?

Who kidnapped her and nursed her back to health using the lazurus pits?

Why did they do that?

And other mysteries that are going to come as old ones get solved.

I also wanted to explore what her character might be like outside of being a fridged character.

That means taking a look into how she might view her marriage, how she views her ambitions, how she views motherhood and how she views her work.

I also wanted to explore her canonical hobbies.

Tim describes it as haute couture but I think she likes it, not for the outward reputation, but because she has personal stake and nuanced thoughts and theories on different ones.

Please rest assured, I did a lot of research on her canonical depiction, not only as how she appeared but also to other character's reflections of her.

I also have an overall plot that I’ve planned and reworked for twoish weeks. So I genuinely have planned ahead. My goal on my take of her character is also more canonically aligned than not.

This was all meant to be a fic but i don’t have time for that right now so I thought this would be a fun different way to tell this story.

Janet Drake is genuinely my favourite fridged character ever.

If you have any questions, please send in an ask! If you have any other thoughts, either the Missus or me can answer for you.

Thanks again for interacting!

[papyrus-in-practice]

Hey, y’all! I wanted to give an update on Papyrus in Practice and other related stuff.

“It’s been about a year, where’s the next page!?”

Wow, when I saw it’s actually been a year, I kind of blanched a bit. I didn’t mean for the hiatus to last that long. Next page is actually done. In fact, a couple of pages are either done or close to done. I’m trying to build up a big buffer so that, hopefully, there will be a smaller gap between updates in the future. My plan is to have eight pages completed, line art for four pages done, have the script for the next scene done, and have a couple of pages worth of sketches ready. As I’m typing this, six of the eight next pages are done with the remaining ones in various stages of completion and two of the four next pages have finished line art. I’ve been working and reworking and re-reworking the script for the final scene for the past twenty months and honestly frustrated in how to wrap up the chapter in a satisfying way that won’t make me stuck on chapter 4 for another two years because the climax and conclusion is so long. So, that’s where I’m at now.

“I wrote something in the ask blog and didn’t get a response.”

I read every comment and every ask sent to me and, most likely, have at least attempted to write a script to answer it. But, I gotta weigh my options. Do I answer it at risk of delaying Papyrus in Practice for another month or focus on the comic? Depending on how elaborate the answer is, it might take a while to make a response. There are also things I just don’t know how to answer to and, believe me, I’ve tried coming up with a good answer, but I’m also still learning about life myself and I’ve found that, sometimes, my answer to a question has changed a lot over time. Sometimes, I’m afraid of saying something that’s ultimately harmful. It’s a tricky balance. At the end of the day, I've never guaranteed a response to any ask and never will guarantee a response. There are still some asks that I'd like to get around to, maybe if chapter 4 finishes or I get burnt out while making it and need a change of pace.

“Are you actually a therapist?”

Yup. I just graduated this past May with a masters in art therapy counseling. My title right now is a qualified mental health professional or QMHP. I’m waiting to take the National Counselor’s Exam to obtain my LPC but government paperwork is a looooong process(seriously, some of my colleagues have been waiting in the queue for over a year to get their LCPC). In the meantime, I can still practice as a therapist as long as I check in with a supervisor and have been practicing and slowly building my caseload for the past couple of months.

“Can you be my therapist/give therapy to this person?”

The short answer is no. The long answer is that there are a lot of ethical concerns when it comes to providing mental healthcare and breaching ethical guidelines could impede therapy progress, bring potential harm to the client, myself, or I could get in big legal trouble. I can also only practice if the client is located in my home state and goes through the company I work for since I need supervision to practice. However, I’d be happy to provide resources like websites that help you find a therapist, even for a reduced price, or self-help sites that can help you learn skills and develop tools to use that can boost your mental well-being. I cannot, however, provide mental health services.

“Will (insert character’s name) meet with Papyrus?”

Maybe. I’ve got ideas for characters in mind, but it’s more a question of how much longer I want to be doing this for. I’ll be honest with y’all, I’m getting burnt out. I want to do different projects or even revisit older projects, but I tell myself I can’t do that until I finish Papyrus in Practice or, at the very least, finish chapter 4. I didn’t think this chapter would go on for as long as it has, but it also makes sense. We’ve already hit page 25 which is almost as long as the entirety of chapter 3 and I don’t even know if we’re halfway done with the chapter yet. The way it’s looking, chapter 4 may easily hit at least 50 pages.

“So, when will you be posting again?”

Soon! Hopefully, before the end of the year. When I start updating again, I’ll be posting one page every other week which gives at least a few months of content for y’all.

That being said, I’ll see you soon!

-Meemie

[flameleadsarc]

I have... questions about possibly coming back. And thoughts. Bear with me while I think out loud here. I'm seeing people move over to carrd versus Google Docs. Are they really that much better accessibility wise? Because, if so, I'll switch over. I'm just staring at the website right now not sure where to start, and my brain is very resistant to doing that much more work. I know I need to rework my rules anyway, but moving everything over to a new site with new formatting rules... yeah my brain said nope. At least right now. I would probably purge my entire ask box. That anxiety is not worth it. I might also purge some of my drafts that I'm just not feeling. Honestly, part of me was considering starting over completely on a new blog, but I really like how I built everything here, and I don't want to do extra work. I think that's what a lot of it is coming down to: I don't want this to feel like work. I like writing replies from my phone on Disco, which is where Roy is letting me write again. Slowly. No pressure. Coming back here would mean I would have to make a lot of changes. I don't miss how I made this feel like a job in the past, how many hours I felt I had to put into everything so it was perfect, how I continued to seek validation from my RP partners that I was good enough. See a pattern? It's me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me. So... low activity? Just come on here once in a while to write when I feel like it, have fun, ignore FOMO, and not feel obligated to be a writing machine? Maybe it's possible. Maybe it's Maybelline.

[livewireprojects]

Lost Prince AU

I had another post setup but I felt it was getting pretty long & needed more organizing so I made this to be the master post. I'll try to edit it occasionally when needed to add posts to this.

-

So basically this is my version of the Sonic, I call it the "Lost Prince AU" cause I needed to call it something & it is kind of that.

Pretty much (a rewritten version) Sonic Underground happened long ago but when they celebrated the final defeat of Robotnik, Sonic disappeared. Everyone searched for him but failed to find his body but knew in some way he was out there. Four decades later Knuckles(who was put in stasis as my excuse) meets Sonic & Tails, there were some slight changes(Sonic now having green eyes & some other stuff) but Knuckles knows enough details to know in some way Sonic is the one he use to know.

Another problem though is that Sonic doesn't remember much of his past but remembers a couple things that match with the missing prince. There are moments over time were something manages to help him regain missing parts of his memories but the effects of it scare everyone.

So pretty much Sonic going about his current life while occasionally wondering what he lost while moving forward. There's people out there that know very well who he is but there's complications with this from not knowing who these people are & also worrying about Sonic's amnesia having weird conditions that scare his friends.

Just a prince lost to time slowly finding himself as stuff happens in the background.

-

I'm not entirely sure how to type this post out.

This version of Sonic is an amalgamation of Sonic Underground, some of the Sonic games, Sonic X & a couple things I found from interesting in the comics & decided to add it. I don't read the comics the only comic I read was the Sonic Universe one were it was just Shadow doing stuff for his job then showing a preview of Lara(Knuckles's daughter) at the end. Any bits from the comics are stuff I found at some point & worked into this.(I at one point added Zonic & made implications to Scourge but took them out cause it wasn't working out)

Some stuff is getting reworked/edited, a lot of this is a work in progress at points.

Feel free to ask about stuff involving this AU, I might not be fully able to answer stuff but I can try

Previews of Sonic; Sonic during Sonic Underground, Sonic near the end of Sonic Underground & modern Sonic(outfit inspired by Miku Hatsune's Sonic outfit)

I'm not good at drawing Sonic characters in more mobian proportions unless I draw a human next to them

-

Links for stuff

Just stuff tagged for this on my blog - LINK

Posts about parts of the AU - Sonic Underground | Sonic 06(Post game) | Sonic's mask | Sonic's adventure/memento room | About Venice & Silver's Parents

Sketch refs (These are in not in order past when I decide to upload them to Tumblr)

Sonic(I rambled WAY too much in this) | Shadow | Royal Triplets | Queen Aleena | Jules & Chuck(Slight spoilers) | Big the cat | Cake(OC) & Vanilla | Cream, Cheese & Chocola | Cosmo | Maria | Blaze(More rambling) | Flare(OC & rambling) | Nicole | Gadget/Buddy/Newbie | Younger Venice & Silver | Amy Rose | Venice & Silver("Present" day vers)

Scrapped ideas - Zonic | Scourge

Old stuff - Old Silver & Venice refs(with a side of old designs & old vers of fankids) | Solaris Twins(Mephiles & Iblis) | Sally & Sally Jr Acorn(Slight spoilers & so much rambling) | All my old Lara the Echidna Bat Sketches | Comics/sketches from the predecessor to the Lost Prince AU(Contains content from when I was in middle school & high school, spoilers for the original version that are slight spoilers to the current/update version & questioning what I was on at the time)

[metalkitty21]

Duel Destinies

just finished Duel Destinies and I LOVE IT

by far my favourite Ace Attorney game, although that's probably because I watched the anime and never actually played the first trilogy. But either way this game will always hold a special place for me. It was so good despite how much I need before hand. Blackquill's become my favourite character, Athena is also amazing. It has it faults, but so does even AA game (cough cough, 3-3, cough cough)

I will be starting an AA sideblog, because apparently side blogs are all I do anymore. Might have to rework how I do my writing requests. If someone wants the link, please ask!

[cafeleningrad]

Hi !

For His Dark Materials (the first 3 books) : ❤💖

For anything : 💛💚🤍💔🏳️‍🌈💀

Hey thanks for the ask. ^^ Moreso for taking your time off while you're dealing with the flooding for something so trivial. I wish you a lot of good luck reworking the house, and on your next IKEA-endeavour. (No seriously, my very best wishes to you!)

His Dark Materials ❤ Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom? Since I have barely interacted with the fandom, I couldn't tell you to whom this might apply. That said I'm of the very strong opinion that Pullmann did his world and a characters a huge disservice by writing "the Secret Commonwealth", betraying a very poetic end.

💖 What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series? Pullman is just a bit too much in love with Lyra. Don't get me wrong, I love her too but her maturing in "the Amber Spyglass" sometimes feels more like something that needs to happen. Suddenly Lyra doesn't feel like acting like her usual. Even though her encounter with the harpies challenging her and letting her grow is quiet organic but other instances felt out of the blue. Also the fact that the grand prophecy of her betrayal is a betrayal of herself, and then even is rewarded by having a witch's ability of separating long distance from Pan... Anything bad she could ever do is lessened into a lecture, she never could do any bad herself, or face any darkness within herself whereas Will is often put in situations in which he has to question his morality. And now in every spin-off Lyra is an extra special little thing, beloved by everyone she meets, getting breastfed by a fae, she's part of yet another prophecy after the mainstory etc. Everyone is supposed to love Lyra as much as Pullman does. It all feel likes like Lyra is never really allowed to do wrong. She does face cruelty and darkness but never really in herself. She might be a cheeky, impertinent child but ultimately she can never do actually wrong. I hope it makes sense but I have the impression Pullman's favouritism and focus sometimes blurs out the world around her.

Now you just gave me free license to rant along. ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

💛: What is a popular ship you just can't get behind, and why? Gosh darn, I recently watched shows/read books that only five other people on this website blog about, soooo...

[Pachinko] Koh Hansu/Kim Sunja Oh I know Lee Min-Ho is handsome, and fandom loves the hot mafia/monster/yakuza boyfriend but since the novel/show deals with very real history it is obvious how doomed and impossible their relationship was - especially due to who Koh is. Don't get me wrong: The circumstances as to why he is how and who is are more than sympathetic. However He can never shake off his egoism. The worst thing is, he never changes - even if he regrets how badly things turned out. Sunja, rightfully, points out that she can not be a mistress, loosing her entire reputation and family. Hansu never considers that her marrying Isak was her only chance to keep a semblance of dignity, social standing, and relation to her family within Korean society. Instead Hansu takes Sunja's pragmatic decision as a personal slight. No matter how much he loves Sunja and Noa, and will also protect her extended family, he will always think of them as part of him. Every generous act of helping is tied to the expectation of getting rewarded by love or service. By bringing Sunja's mother to Japan he hopes Sunja would suddenly stop mourning the recently deceased Isak, and she would thrust herself and her family into his arms. (Even though he still wouldn't offer her an official marriage because business marriage arrangement comes first.) He graciously pays for Noa's university but reveals that it was always tied to his expectation to do what Hansu wants.

What personally rubs me the wrong way with this ship is the idea that there could be a happy ending for them. It overlooks that Hansu is fundamentally unable to outgrow his greed, and old trauma for the love of others. Trauma, remembrance, and frank coversation about unsolved injustice are important - that's the entire point of the book/show. However the sacrifice of others for one's persona spite cost Hansu his luck with Sunja, his son, and his relationship to his daughters. He could never be satisfied with a simple life surrounded by family and daily happiness like Sunja

💚What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character? Hmmm, I can't think of one right off the spot however I have the impression fandom in general is recently not dealing well with stories not wanting to be didactic. To say when stories about the complication of human interaction deal with things that just go badly because it's human nature to be faliable, learning to do better etc. - then audiences still weirdly want a resolution who really is at fault, who was more wrong... and oofff. I guess this is how we get really annoying discourse by the fact that many audience members these days can't live with ambiguity and mistakes. So it leaves me at "Yeah the character did all that but I couldn't care less it they pass a Calvinist qualification test.".

🤍: Which character is not as morally bad as everyone else seems to think? [FE3H] Archbishop Rhea/Seiros Alright, alright, I just finished all four routes two weeks ago, and FE3H five years after it'e release is like re-brewing old instant coffee... But I think the two fundamental issues in this fandom, or better, the reason why there's such a heated discourse about Edelgard is a) the fandom's misogyny b) actually not enjoying tragedy. Rhea herself is a character who is (purposefully) hard to read. Even in her support dialogues we at best learn something about Jeralt but usually Rhea is more interested in how Byleth behaves as Sothis' vessel. the entire reason why the continent of Foádlan is the way it is all comes back to her, her mental state after killing Nemesis, her fears, her wishes, why the Crest system exists in the first place. From what I read over the course of the years of finishing all routes (+ Ashen Wolves) Rhea is not intentionally cruel, genuine in her regret (to the point it causes her breakdown in Silver Snow) but simultaneously distrustful, lonely, secretive, and stuck in her grief. Rhea is compelling because she's simultaneously immovable object and immovable force. I say the fandom is misogynistic because in so many previous Fire Emblem games women are rarely the driving forces of the plot - and if they are never with such layered personality or grace of moral ambiguity (*coughs* Echoes *coughs*). Rhea is nor a sinister schemer even though she bears a lot of responsibility why Foádlan is the way it is. It's extra annoying when some fans are deadly allergic to the central theme of systematic violence (class oppression of non-nobles, female characters very often treated as means of Crest reproduction instead of... human beings, feeing racism and colonialism), and Rhea indeed using military force and intimidation to maintain the status quo. People who can only like a female character when she's a sweet wronged waifu are weak. End of debate.

By all means, I think Rhea is a good character because she can indeed be vengeful, and wields institutional power for what she perceives as greater good (which her foil Edelgard does as well). Rhea isn't a poor girl who did nothing wrong and Edelgard isn't being edgy. And no, problems can't be easily solved by Edelgard bringing forwrad a formal complaint and everyone happily goes after the Agarthans. Rhea is still afraid of the Agarthans. Revealing them to the world would mean revealing the existence of the Nabateans, which she fears would motivate humans to go full Nemesis once more. Ans also, Rhea is stuck onto the idea that the world needs Sothis divine guidance. She's not only missing her mother - to Rhea Sothis is her idea of salvation and ultimate peace. Until Sothis' ressurection Rhea will keep the world in stasis. Just one more experiment, and the world could finally be saved. Hence why she is unwilling to reform the Church and along it's reformation of a class system that is based on Eugenic (those who have Crests and those who don't). Even though Crests are slowly waning in even old bloodlines, any efforts of reformation and protest against the class system or individuals affected by eugenic mistreatment are met with violence of the theocratic militia. The system that needs dire reformation isn't reforming (by Rhea's will) which we see happening during the entire White Clouds section, so counterefforts are growing more violent. And disregarding Rhea's stasis, disregarding the theme of systematic violence leads to a very bad reading of both central characters Edelgard and Rhea and also a bad reading of the plot over all. But again, I don't think she's evil, she thinks she acts for the greater good. And she isn't necessarily delusional either. But as long living Nabaean with powers much grander than any human's, her priorities are different. It's debatable whether or not it was a good idea of hers to shoulder the weight of the world onto her shoulder (although such would mean that no plot would happen) but then again, the Agarthans would hunt down the last of the Nabateans and also not shy away from attacking the humans Sothis cared so much about. When Seiros decided to lead the continent under Sohtis' love for humanity, Seiros was lonely, the majority of her family dead, and the rest either too exhausted to go on, or going into hiding. She was lonely, and had none to share her fears and anger with, none would understand her. All these emotions are responsible why the Church of Seiros is as ruthless as it is but at the time and going on it makes sense for Rhea. There lies the main conflict between Rhea and Edelgard: Rhea has a very paternalistic understanding how to lead humanity whereas Edelgard is very much convinced that humanity is capable of making it's own decisions. At least when no superimposing power promises even more power, riches, and land. So that superimposing power ought to be removed.

Last but not least, it's inaccurate that Rhea created evil human experiments. Even though Ashen Wolves does bring extra material which is critical of the Church of Seiros as institution, the Apostates are either Nabatean-blood infused people of the first generation, Nabateans themselves. Their resurrection attempt did not involve humans, and Rhea stopped that resurrection attempt directly after it went wrong. Alferic brought his transformation upon himself. Also Sitri and her predecessors are homunculi who... are not humans. Even Byleth in only half human due to Jeralt being the only human parent, and even he has Rhea's blood granting him eternal youth, and a long life span...

💔 If you had to remove one major character from the series, who would you choose? [Sopranos] Alright, he dies anyway but after the brilliant episode 3x16, Christopher Moltisanti really grated my nerves at times

🏳️‍🌈 Which character who is commonly headcanoned as queer doesn't seem queer to you? [ASOIAF] Asha Greyjoy. I've nothing against ships but it's so weird how fandom can't handle the idea of straight butch girls. It is a general tumblr problem that working against patriarchal concepts of gender roles could only be possible when a girl is lesbian, and not a brains washed bi straight passing, or, god beware, a braindwashed striaght woman. :/ Also Sansa Stark. My girl has a massive crush on a disfigured guy but her standom is weirdly allergic to her beauty and the beast theme.

💀 If you had to choose one major character to die, who would you choose? Phew... even though I might not like a character, many good stories know exactly how to use each character ideally in a plot. To say, even terrible characters are necessary for a well written conflict. [ASOIAF] But just for shits and giggles, Jon Snow lying dead would bring massive disarray to the fandom, the fandom bros, and ending a lot of stupid ship wars.

[clunelover]

Oh man, Jeremy is dealing with someone at his work who is going full asshole - he’s a data architect, and has worked to create something Jeremy needed, but did a meh job and is now refusing to do any rework or answer any questions about it. His position seems to be: "making this thing shouldn’t even be my job, and I don’t have time to do anything further on it, and now you’re adding new requirements you didn’t say up front (but from my understanding that’s not really true - it’s just trying to make him actually deliver on the initial requirements he did not meet) also I don’t talk to you, I deal with my product owner and so you can talk to him instead"

It’s possible he has a point re: needing more support, and the thing he did not being strictly his job. But it wasn’t like Jeremy went rogue or around someone by asking him to work on it - the direction that he should take it on came from several layers above. he’s also really not done himself any favors - he’s just declined any meeting Jeremy tried to set with him, and it all came to a head with him sending Jeremy a message saying "my role is not to do [this thing]. I have other things I’m supposed to be working on, and your constant questions have derailed me from valuable work. Frankly, I’m not sure why you’re involved when [product owner] is the domain expert, and you should be asking him these questions instead of me" and then he LINKED TO A BLOG POST called "what does a product owner do?" …he also tried to school Jeremy on what agile methodology is and how Jeremy is forcing them to deviate from it.

Anyway, I’ve never actually experienced anything like this - I’ve dealt with people who disagreed strongly or were really mad about a screw up at work, but everyone I’ve worked with, up to very big deal c-suite people, has only ever done the "I’m seething, but you’d only know that by reading between the lines of my impeccably professional and restrained email" thing.

So I’m getting a lot of vicarious vindictive thrill from hearing about this and how Jeremy showed the jerky message to a pal who is on the same team as jerk guy, and that guy was like "okay have you shared this with your boss? I’d like you to, or if you don’t want to, I am going to share it with my boss…cause this is not the first time he’s behaved this way." So then Jeremy shared it with his boss who was like "okay this is a big deal, please send this to me as an email with a little blurb about the context that led to it" so he did that and then very soon after gets a phone call from a guy who is jerk’s grandboss, being like "yeah I talked to [jerk’s boss], and the CTO, and we all think this might be the last straw for this guy, but we’re going to tell him he has to meet with you and be cooperative, and just see how that goes, so please keep me posted and if he still won’t play ball, he’s out."

I know I’m biased but like, I hear Jeremy conducting his work, and while he can be a bit intense and talks too fast, he’s also really sharp and collaborative and conscientious about asking people to do things, so when I heard of this guy’s fuckery my blood was just boiling on his behalf!!

[highlordofkrypton]

No pressure to answer but I am curious about these!

How would you describe your writing style?

Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them?

What's your favorite AO3 tag?

Hope you have a good day/night!!:)

No pressure felt! Sorry for the delay, I had to drive home from my parents and immediately went to bed.

I already answered 1 & 3, so I'll copy the answers here!

1. How would you describe your writing style?

Oh gosh, are we supposed to use real writing terms? I don't know what styles there are out there, but my way of describing my writing would be: lived in.

I always say I'm a lazy writer, so I don't describe anything more than I have to. Usually, I will describe what matters to the character. I live in their shoes at that moment, and when I write, I embody their emotions as well. If the character is crying, my ass is sobbing over the keyboard. If they're angry, I'm rolling my eyes.

I do think that my style also means that the details I do include are a bit miscellaneous. It's natural to describe the setting, and clothes and items, but I feel like if you're really living in a universe, you get attached to the really random, if weird, shit.

3. What's your favourite AO3 tag?

Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne.

That's it. That's the whole tag LMAO.

2. Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them?

This is going to be a long one, I hope you're ready!

The short answer is yes, I do have OCs. I categorize them as two types. There are the OCs that I add as side characters to fanfiction to help flesh out the world and make it seem more alive/dynamic, then there are my OCs who are their own forces of nature.

Yes, I have stories for both. You might have seen on my blog I talk a lot about Rhysand's parents; they are technically OCs when you think about it since we don't have any information on them except the bare minimum. They now have their own story, and other side characters will too, including Tamlin's brothers, Andras, etc. The way I write can be so... out of left field with characterization, so I think it's fair to make them OCs.

Now, to my major players.

I have outlined a series of novels focusing on my original characters, the lore, etc. I don't know what's stopping me from starting, I actually think I have too much, so it's hard for me to decide where to start. A lot of the characters and the lore exist so vividly in my head that I start to miss them when I'm not writing them. So, you'll actually see them pop up in my other writing (such as fanfiction).

Lilith, for example, is technically a main character that will feature in my original works, but I've reworked her to fit this ACOTAR setting. Her core characteristics are the same, just the setting and interactions are different.

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK!!

[trinkerichi]

TEKVENTURES! I wanna ramble about Tekventures.

if you remember them you qualify for a veterans discount

So they were Sgt.Frog ocs that my best friend SARAZA and I made on flipnote for edgy amvs and comics. I wanna say I wassss 13? give or take. But these little guys were my EVERYTHING. We thought of a billion stories about them. Then I got sick of drawing frogs eventually and wanted to make them more of an original thing. Our first sketches were of anthro goats, but over time with my style changes, an the fact that I hate spending more than 2 seconds drawing anything, they no longer resemble any specific animal and turned into fuzzy nondescript species of alien thing. ANYWAY I wanted to make them into a "real comic series" when i was 17. That's when I started the chapters that are still up on tumblr n webtoons! and a few other sites probably that I forgot about.

I've been harsh on it in the past but honestly I still love it to bits. What's there is a solid little comic and i still think it's adorable!

The only thing is, that's judging it based on what's there. It's a basis for a cute episodic thing with low stakes! Like the early mlp fim episodes or the new care bears cartoon. But that's NOT what it was planned for in the long term. Oh no, I was so ambitious. I had at LEAST 50 episodes planned which would weave together into this massive arc that would introduce other space teams, wayward space travelers with secret pasts connecting to the main cast, sad backstories for everyone, ALL of the family members of the main cast, a villian team with like... 'anti-versions' of the main cast, and a dramatically foreshadowed final confrontation with robot clones that want to destroy their planet. OH AND ROBIN too! Besides all that, they ALSO have multiple side story episodes about crashing to earth and befriending a human girl named Robin who has to keep them secret.

That might have been um. a lot.

But when you start writing a story with your best friend when you're 13 you most likely have NO CONCEPT of "too much". Who am I kidding I STILL have trouble pacing myself. But when you come up with a story it's hard not to think it's just GOLD! And that you've gotta keep it no matter what! Because that stuff is fun!

I went full force into the comic in my senior year of highschool and eventually I finished the first chapter! It took me a year. And then I looked at my plans for the other 49 episodes and thought "maybe I need to rework some things.."

I rebooted the comic once, tried making smaller stories, all that, but I wasn't quite feeling the same drive anymore. I realized I was comparing my work to high budget tv shows with like. a full team of writers and artists. and studio funding. and greenlit seasons and all that. And it was making me feel TERRIBLE about my art!

So I quit comics! I started hating comics! I hated how long they took and how restricted I felt (with my own expectations) and I lost my confidence in finishing projects because I was so sad about giving up on my big magnum opus. and I just kinda gave up and started only doing fandom art for a couple years. I did a jyushimatsu ask blog and kept it up for ages! And then a new season of Osomatsu came out and I realized when comparing it that I was basically writing an oc at this point. And that I CAN commit to long term projects if i dont get self conscious about it!

I still didnt wanna jump into comics again. But I thought of some new characters that I was becoming attached to. the very very beginnings of what could turn into a new idea.

I thought "well i still love cartoons about space! even if im not making tekventures anymore maybe i could do another space story. a really tiny one."

so i started making an rpgmaker game! and it started taking forever. so in the meantime i made a really rough doodle comic about how the characters first met. as a little side story thing.

and THAT was the key. I had to stop thinking about it like i was making a big cool tv show and starting my career and all that. its just a fun thing, off the cuff, not overthinking it, just for fun and personal expression.

so im still going with it! and its GREAT! Rocket chip has 12 planned chapters, and I'll be halfway done by the end of the year.

But BOY did it take me forever to learn that.

[sui-imi]

UnderEats - progress report 1

First, thank you to all the new followers. Welcome!

Second, I've been brainstorming some ideas for UnderEats and wanted to talk a little about it. Like an update? Makes me feel like a Game Dev hahaha.

But before that, I did want to say that I'm thinking of creating an ask blog for the company. I would answer questions and post future art there, and have only UE-related content on it. But that will take a little while.

Back to the second point. I'll put it under a cut, since I'll probably start rambling.

The background and setting are main priority right now. I'm still working on some of the finer details (and honestly, I'm wondering if some of these details are a bit overkill haha?).

To clarify, UE isn't an Alternate Universe. It's a company that exists to connect different food services and different customers across the multiverse. It doesn't exist in any one AU, nor is it bound by one.

Despite this, I did want to give it a "home base" of sorts. Ink has the doodlesphere, Error has the antivoid, so UE should get a 'home' of it's own. Which it does! (... Once i draw it.)

I'm also working on the "how UE exists" and "why it exists" parts. The "how" is still WIP, partly because I'm struggling for ideas, partly because I don't want to write myself into a corner by going too in detail. But I'll figure it out. The "why" is... also WIP. The biggest reason is because of Exec.

Exec is actually pretty important. They built the company up, found people to help, found people to work, etc. They have motivations and rules to stick by. But then I have concepts for the story that become contradictory because of said motivations. But if I change the motivations, the story concepts don't make sense either! And I don't want them to just sit in the shadows, not really doing anything.

So Exec will probably need to be reworked. I don't know how major (I think a redesign at the very least...). But it's definitely important.

I also want to update everyone's refs at some point. Adding more details, changing the colours slightly, some needing redesigns, etc. As well as the new refs I need to make for side characters... Whew.

It's a lot to do, but I think writing it down like this helps me to visualise each step. I really do love this concept, and I don't want it to just be "Roo and some other characters" (though considering Sans' popularity it might be LOL) (which is fine if it is. But I still want to flesh out the idea). So good luck to me.

I think that's all. Thanks to anyone who read all this.

tl:dr; working on background and setting of UE, exec rework, more reference art & redrawing refs.