#and I hyperfixate on the most niche things

[cheruberris]

 ൃ ̮͡ ancient texts . ` 燽 / ❛ ( . . . ) BRAVE GIRL. ❜ ─── 𝕼 . people never say that to a lucky person, do they?

▬▬ meet the sho̲w̲ 𝓇unner . your favorite ukrainian / german train wreck. minor. head president of the intj virgo ravenclaw council ( don't ask me if i'm a perfectionist. i'll explode. ) you can call me gigi, cheri or li whatever u're comfortable with. my pronouns are she/her !! :3 my sexuality is a speeectrummm, though i currently label myself as a bisexual ( with a strong prefrence for women ) i'm still figuring shit out, ok ??

don't mention these things infront of gigi ೀ ( or she'll start tweaking out )

media . all of my hyperfixations kind of revolve around media, so bare with me. when it comes to video content; i've recently gotten into smosh ( smosh games entertain me the most, though smosh pit etc. can also be fun! ) movie or niche dating show commentary is also my jam. social commentary in the form of e.g essays are great as well. kpop variety shows !!!!! you turn time to twice, or channel nine on and i start jumping. while we're on the topic of kpop, those niche kpop storing photocard videos also fill me with joy. alsooo drag race, hello??

movies . oh thank you so much, letterboxd for asking. of course i can tell you my top four movies! top. 1 has & will always be chihiro: spirited away, it's beautiful all around. second is coraline, no questions asked. now here's where it gets tricky, cause i could go the comedic / rom-com route or a little more serious. if we are staying away from silly, i'd go knives out ( both are great, but i'd pick the 2018 one ) and batman begins ( christopher nolan uuuuh ) mama mia 1 and 10 things i hate about you, would be the silly route btw.

music . i got into kpop in 2021, though i'm not THAT big of a fan anymore, i still listen to the various genres within the industry. my ults are twice, fromis and tripleS. in general i am a lot more of a girlgroup stan rather then a boygroup one. i also like anything alternative, such as alternative indie or alt. rnb. also been getting into a lot hyperpop recently, i am one of charli xcx's 0.25% listeners or smth.

a list of my ⠀︵⠀desired realities⠀◌Ⳋ𝅄

ೀ . figure skating

ೀ . singer! fame dr

ೀ . actress! fame dr

ೀ . smosh! fame dr

ೀ . percy jackson! dr

ೀ . harry potter! golden trio? dr

(i'll detail & rework these later i have an latin exam tmr peace out)

[foxykatie425]

Jedi: Fallen Order - The Musical (Act 1)

Wait, hear me out…

Alright look, I am fully aware that trying to turn Jedi: Fallen Order into a musical is a dumb idea. I am fully aware that Star Wars in general would probably not benefit from the musical treatment. And I am fully aware that even when people hear me out, there’s not a single human on this earth that really cares or has interest in this idea. And honestly, why should they? It’s not even like I have songs to offer, because despite my music degree, I am a really lousy songwriter!

However, all that being said, I really enjoy the problem-solving challenges that come with adapting a story for a very different medium than originally intended! And when I get my stupid ideas, I want to share them and get them outta my head! So while I have a captive audience, I’m gonna share some of my main ideas for Act 1 of Jedi: Fallen Order - The Musical! If anybody actually cares to read, please like this post, leave comments, reblog or whatever so I can find my drive to finish writing out my main ideas for Act 2! (And if you are not interested in reading 4500 words of my incoherent brainstorming, go ahead and keep scrolling. I will not be offended!)

Act 1

To start the show off, I think it would be somewhat poignant if, at the end of the overture, a single light comes up on Cal and he says the line “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” before immediately transitioning into Bracca.

I imagine the introduction to the scrappers guild to be a Newsies style dance number, although perhaps not quite as happy.

The opening scenes on Bracca need to lay the foundations for the audience: who were the Jedi? What happened to them? And what is the current state of the galaxy? We have to assume, to an extent, that the audience has no background knowledge of Star Wars.

We also need to establish Cal’s current state of mind- fearful and alone. His only goal is to stay alive. He doesn’t trust anyone, but at the same time he does have friends that he cares about, such as Prauf.

Speaking of Prauf, odds are he’d be adapted into a human or humanoid character for this show. There’s nothing saying his character has to be an Abednedo, and it would be a lot of work to turn an actor into this alien character when said character is killed very early on. The actor would likely join the ensemble for the remainder of the show.

Let’s talk about Cere. Not much about her character would need to change, but without video game restraints confining us to Cal’s perspective, it becomes easier to flesh out Cere’s character arc a bit more. We can have the chance to see inside her head, and we can also have one or two scenes where she has the stage to herself.

Cere’s backstory can also be expanded on. Not only would I have her tell the story of how she tried to lure the imperials away from Trilla a bit earlier in the narrative, I would also have the scene play out onstage from Cere’s perspective so the audience actually gets to see young Trilla (and it foreshadows later when we get to see the exact same scene from Trilla’s perspective). There could also be two or three scenes throughout the first act where we get to see more flashbacks of Cere being a master. Perhaps as she gives advice to Cal, she reflects on times she had to give the exact same advice to Trilla (which could also have the added side effect of making Cal and Trilla interesting foils to each other).

Now Greez you could portray on stage a few different ways. I probably wouldn’t turn him into a humanoid character like with Prauf, because 1) he’s in the show for a lot longer, and 2) if all of your main characters are human it makes it difficult to portray the setting as “a galaxy far, far away.” For an alien species that’s meant to be so short in stature, you could potentially do him as a puppet, kind of like the way Olaf is done in Frozen the Broadway Musical, but I’d probably lean away from that because with a story as serious as this one, some strong emotions could get lost in translation. More likely, I’d try to cast an actor who is shorter in stature (most likely not quite Greez sized, but we just suspend our disbelief) and give him some prosthetic makeup and an extra set of arms that can be puppeted to mimic his real arms. (You might also be able to create his short stature by having the actor on his knees, like Lord Farquaad in Shrek the Musical, but again, you start to risk turning the character into a joke.)

As far as Greez’s character arc, it unfortunately comes off as a bit of an afterthought in the game (aside from the Haxion Brood level) but there is a bit that can be expanded on. He started off accepting Cere’s charter in an effort to pay off his debts, but he eventually comes to believe in her and in her quest. It’s not highlighted very much in JFO because a lot of that growth happened before Cal came into the picture. The most we get to see is his underlying dislike for Cal at the beginning grow into respect and eventually care. In a stage show, his arc would still have to be secondary to Cere’s and especially Cal’s arc, but he could definitely be played as a Han Solo-type character who took a job for money that slowly comes to mean more to him.

You can’t have a Jedi game, or a Jedi musical, without Cal’s best buddy BD-1. Now being a droid, and a very small droid at that, BD-1 would be puppeted onstage by an actor in a similar style to the characters in Avenue Q or Finding Nemo: The Musical. I tend to imagine BD-1 being played by a petite young woman (namely, a dancer) but nothing says it has to be. Since BD-1 doesn’t speak English (sorry, Basic!) it would be a silent role with BD’s beeps and trills being produced by a soundboard, probably controlled by someone in the booth rather than by the actor. However, the actor would bring life to BD-1 through their motions and facial expressions. And despite being a non-speaking and non-singing role, I do imagine BD-1 being front and center in every dance number!

The puppet for BD-1 would need to be lightweight and maneuverable. Due to the distance between the stage and the audience, it would probably need to be larger in scale than BD-1 is necessarily meant to be. It could feature some color changing lights that would likely be controlled by the actor. The entire puppet would be independently controlled by the actor rather than being attached to Cal’s back, however there could also be another version of the puppet that could be strapped to Cal’s back for scenes where BD-1’s absence wouldn’t make sense but a lack of contribution to the scene would make the presence of the actor onstage somewhat awkward (for example, some more personal scenes between Cal and Merrin).

Next character to discuss is Eno Cordova. He would likely have about the same level of involvement as he did in the game, although some bits of his instructions may be altered somewhat to make his quest a little less of a wild goose chase. (I mean let’s be real, he coulda just said “you need an Astrium to unlock the vault, there’s one on Dathomir, go get it.”) He would probably not be a singing role, but he would be portrayed by an actor on the stage, with the hologram effect being achieved by simply highlighting him with a blue spotlight.

Okay, now we get to the bulk of the story and our three main planets: Zeffo, Kashyyyk, and Dathomir. There’s a lot to talk about with these three locations, both individually and collectively, but let’s start with set design. For any show that features as many different locations as this one, you’d be best to have a unit set that doesn’t move that can function as all of those locations. I imagine this show having a large set with several different levels of platforms (it is a “platforming” video game after all) and the primary visual indication that we’ve changed locations would be different colored lights illuminating the cyclorama, the white backdrop at the back of the stage. Likely the choice of color for each planet would match the color of each planet on the holomap in the game (green for Kashyyyk, red for Dathomir, etc). There can also be props brought onto the stage that help indicate a change of setting, such as bringing out Greez’s pilot chair when we return to the Mantis.

As I hinted at before, Cordova in the game basically sends Cal out on a wild goose chase. Yes it’s meant to test him, but ultimately the only one of those three planets where Cal actually retrieves something tangible he needs to complete his quest is Dathomir. Now that works for a video game where there’s things for the player to do along the way, but for a passive audience who is watching rather than participating in the story, there needs to be a better reason for Cal to go to each planet. That’s not to say that Cordova should give him all of the answers, but perhaps there is something that Cal needs to retrieve from each tomb. Perhaps the Astrium comes in three different pieces. Yes, there are two tombs on Zeffo and none on Kashyyyk, but Cordova was here first after all. He wasn’t going to put back whatever pieces he found, but he also didn’t get all of them because he found another Astrium somewhere. Cal knows this because he found that Astrium destroyed in the vault. So he goes to Zeffo and through the Tomb of Eilram only to find that Cordova already took the piece that was there. BD plays the recording where Cordova talks about Tarfull and Kashyyyk, leading Cal to believe Cordova left the piece there and that Tarfull would know where to find it. He goes to Kashyyyk and fights alongside the Partisans, but he is unable to find the piece without Tarfull’s help, so he will have to return when the Partisans find him. Out of other leads, Cal remembers Cordova saying something about Dathomir, so he decides to search there. When he reaches the Tomb of Kujet, he finds that he needs the other two pieces of the Astrium to enter so he can retrieve the third. (Because in this context we can’t really use game mechanics like double jumping as a reason for why we can’t continue.) At the same time, Cere hears about Project Auger being restarted, and they return to Zeffo to search for the Tomb of Miktrull. Beyond this, the sequence of events would largely follow the remainder of the game.

Zeffo would probably be the hardest of the three planets to adapt to the stage because, with the exception of Cal’s confrontation with Trilla, not much really happens there. Much of your time on Zeffo in the game is spent traversing the land and solving puzzles in the tombs, all of which is less than exciting for a passive audience. Some kind of story beats would need to be added to Cal’s time on Zeffo (especially the first visit) that makes up for all the combat and platforming that doesn’t really translate to the stage. The story of JFO already has the slight inconvenience of being largely concentrated in the second half of the game, while in most musicals the first act tends to be longer. (And the game provides a perfect built-in spot for an intermission when Cal gets captured by the Brood, so I don’t really want to change that either.) There aren’t a lot of people for Cal to meet on Zeffo, so you could create a new character(s) and give them their own little subplot, but that runs the risk of creating one too many plot lines for the audience to follow as well as having little impact on the overall story. So more likely you would use that time to teach the audience about the Zeffo and have constant communication between Cal and Cere.

Believe it or not, at one point I considered cutting Kashyyyk entirely. But it’s important to show the early stages of rebellion against the Empire and have Cal get a taste of fighting back. Plus, the Partisans create an opportunity for a pretty fun dance number! However, I probably would cut out Saw Gerrera, simply because the more iconic the character is, the harder it is to translate them to the stage. (Obviously we’re gonna run into that same problem with Darth Vader, but we’ll discuss that when we get there.) Instead, I’d probably single out Mari Kosan as the leader of this group of Partisans, but mention that she is working under Saw. The great thing about Mari is that she’s so minor a character in the game that she can be a completely different character in an adaptation. You might even call her a completely new character with only her name being borrowed from a background character in the game. In this sense, we’d get to see the extremist side of the Partisans through her actions rather than Saw’s, but probably not until Cal returns to Kashyyyk in Act 2. (Also, if it proved necessary for the narrative, you could get away with killing off Mari, something you couldn’t do with Saw.)

I talked about iconic characters not translating well to the stage. Well, let’s talk about Wookiees and Stormtroopers. We certainly can’t go to Kashyyyk without seeing some Wookiees, but we’d want to keep their stage presence to a minimum. Creating their look in a live setting, while certainly possible, is not necessarily easy, and it quickly runs the risk of appearing fake to the point of being distracting, thus breaking the audience’s suspension of disbelief. Stormtroopers, on the other hand, would be a very easy, iconic look to recreate. Too easy, in fact. Despite the fact that they tend to be the butt of every Star Wars joke, the presence of Stormtroopers still needs to be felt as a threat, and that threat can be very quickly undermined if they are overused onstage. Not to mention, the moment you put Stormtroopers in a dance number, it becomes Star Wars Weekends at Disney World. So we’re gonna leave the dance numbers to the scrappers, the Partisans, and maybe the Dathomirians.

Speaking of Dathomir, we have to get there early. Obviously in the game you have the option to go there early on, but you don’t have a story reason to go there until much later. In the game, the crew returns to Zeffo right after they first visit Kashyyyk because Cere gets word of the Empire finding the other tomb. But in this case, let’s say she doesn’t hear about that until after Cal first visits Dathomir. We need to get to Dathomir early because 1) Merrin is far too important a character to be introduced in the second act, and 2) as previously mentioned, the second act is very story heavy and we need to shift some of that into the first act to make it slightly more balanced.

Finally it’s time to talk about Merrin! Her character in the first game was so underused and this adaptation offers the chance to expand on her story. (Although I need someone to hold me back a little, because she’s my favorite character but I need to be reminded that this is not her story. She cannot be a bigger character than Cal or Cere.) Introducing her earlier gives the audience more time to think of her as an antagonist, as they watch her repeatedly reject Cal’s attempts to reach out to her.

Let’s talk special effects, because Dathomir is where that really gets fun. Much of the appearance of Merrin’s magick can be achieved with the use of clever lighting and purposeful staging. Her ability to teleport can be mimicked by having her enter the stage in darkness and then using green lighting and perhaps some fog to illuminate her. Magick flames in her hands can be a combination of lighting and some classic magician props. (Disclaimer: Serious safety precautions would have to taken if we’re considering playing with actual fire though!) And the effects of her magick on her eyes and mouth can be achieved with black-light makeup that is invisible in regular lighting.

Now if there’s one person that tries to convince Cal that Merrin is a threat that can’t be reasoned with, it’s Malicos. As in the game, Cal would encounter this “wanderer” on the path to the Tomb of Kujet. He tells Cal that he was marooned on this planet when he came to study the Dathomirian culture, and that he has been hiding from the Nightsister, who he claims has repeatedly tried to kill him without hearing what he had to say (much like she tried to kill Cal upon their first encounter). Cal offers to help him escape the planet, but Malicos rejects this offer, stating that he has not yet completed his research on the planet (red flag # 1). Cal explains his mission, and Malicos explains that the ruins are surrounded by darkness and the magick of the Nightsisters. He tells Cal that Merrin will throw everything at him to keep him from entering the Tomb, and he tries to convince him that the only way to complete his quest is to kill her before she kills him (red flag # 2). But Cal, beginning to suspect he has ulterior motives, dismisses him and continues on to the Tomb. What Cal doesn’t know yet is that Malicos is also pulling the strings on Merrin’s side and actively trying to pit them against each other in the hopes of solidifying his control over whoever came out on top, as well as to keep them from uniting against him, which he knows would likely happen if his lies to Merrin about the massacre were exposed.

I debated a bit whether I should try to work in the romance between Cal and Merrin. Putting them together in Fallen Order definitely runs the risk of coming off rushed, and the way it was handled in Jedi: Survivor was perfect and probably could not be outdone. However, musicals don’t tend to get sequels (unless it’s Love Never Dies) and especially if we’re expanding on Merrin’s character, you can’t really write her and Cal together without there being sexual tension, and the audience will want to see that resolved, so I guess we’re going for it! (And besides, it’s my musical and I want to!) However, I still want Merrin to be an antagonist for most of the story, and prior to fighting Malicos I don’t want slip into the overused tropes of “he saved her life” or “they had to work together to survive.” The dynamic I’ve come up with instead bears a slight resemblance to Rey and Kylo Ren (cuz let’s be honest, Merrical is everything Reylo wishes it was!). Their first encounter is basically the same as the game, where she tells him to leave and sends the Nightbrothers after him. Take note that when I envision this scene, I have Merrin standing above Cal on one of the higher levels of the set (she had the high ground!). However, I’ve created a new scene between them in Act 1 while Cal is making his way back to the Mantis to return to Zeffo. He stumbles upon her praying to her fallen sisters for guidance, having taken off her hood and cloak. (Metaphorically, it’s almost like he catches her indecent.) Caught off guard and scared, Merrin prepares to defend herself, but Cal shows her that he has no intention of fighting her right now, and Merrin, knowing she wouldn’t win any fight she started in this moment, stands down. This scene gives an interesting visual representation of the power dynamics between the two of them, because where she stood high above him in her first scene, they now stand on the same level, which is made even more interesting if the actor playing Cal happens to be taller than her. Cal explains that he is leaving, but will return, and Merrin proclaims that she will be ready to face him when he does. He tells her about his mission and informs her that the Jedi have been wiped out, but importantly it never comes out that she believes the Jedi killed her family. They sing a counterpoint duet detailing their differing points of view, with Merrin stubbornly refusing to believe Cal’s Jedi “lies.” (This is actually the only song I’ve named: “Fool Me Once.” Fill in the rest of the saying.) By the time the scene ends, the audience should not yet be thinking that Merrin will eventually become Cal’s ally. However, the scene would definitely include noticeable sexual tension during their argument, mostly being in each other’s personal space for a hair too long and some extended eye contact.

Now that I’ve beaten that scene into the ground, let’s go back to Zeffo. Cal explores the Tomb of Miktrull and finally finds the first of the three pieces of the Astrium before encountering (hang onto your hats) the Second Sister, aka Trilla Suduri, Cere’s former Padawan! (Dun dun duuunnnn!!) Nothing super noteworthy changes in this section of the story except that Cal doesn’t encounter Trilla until after he explores the Tomb.

Remember those flashback scenes I was talking about with Cere and Trilla? This is what they’ve been leading up to. In the game, when Trilla takes her helmet off, the only reason we know who she is, is… well, she says so. However, if we see flashbacks of Trilla earlier in the show, now the audience recognizes the face under the mask. Now I know what you’re thinking: “won’t the voice give it away?” Not necessarily, if you’ve got a good enough actress. For all intents and purposes, Trilla and the Second Sister, much like Anakin and Darth Vader, are two different characters and should be treated by an actor as such. A good actress could make her tone and delivery so different between the two characters that first-time viewers wouldn’t put them together (as long as the playbill doesn’t give it away). But even if the audience does figure it out, I don’t think the fact that Trilla became an inquisitor is the biggest revelation in this scene. Because let’s be honest with ourselves, in terms of Star Wars plot twists, that one was a little predictable. But no, the bigger revelations are that Cere betrayed Trilla by giving up her location, she used the dark side in the aftermath, and perhaps most damningly, she has been keeping secrets from Cal.

Alright let’s talk stage combat. For this fight in particular, much like the game, it would get cut short and end up being more talking than fighting. But in general, stage combat tends to be more dance-like movements than martial arts. We’re not going for prequel-style lightsaber duels here. Plus, on stage, you only get one take, so you can’t exactly afford for anyone to get hurt halfway through. We’ll talk a little bit more about lightsaber effects later, but suffice to say, the stage combat, while important, comes second to the emotions surrounding the scene.

So BD-1 cuts the fight short by activating a laser gate between Cal and Trilla. Trilla reveals her past and sings about how you can never trust anyone before leaving. Now on stage alone, Cal finishes out the song by briefly lamenting why Cere didn’t tell him the truth. He hears another disturbance just offstage and prepares to defend himself before being hit by a stun grenade and knocked out by an unknown bounty hunter. Blackout.

End Act 1

So those are my notes on Act 1 of Jedi: Fallen Order - The Musical. I’ll be posting my Act 2 notes in the near future, but before I go, I want to quickly discuss the vocal ranges of each of the characters.

- Cal: Being a classic male hero, Cal would almost certainly have to be a pretty high tenor. However, he shouldn’t be like a squeaky tenor, for lack of a better phrase; his tone should be more round and even. (I’m just gonna say it- Cal probably shouldn’t have gay voice! I’m sorry, I don’t mean that in an offensive way, I just don’t have a better way of describing what I mean!)

- Cere: She would definitely be a low alto. (If we’re talking Broadway, I’m picturing Heather Headley or someone similar.) Not only would that be a good match for Debra Wilson’s voice in the game, but a lower singing voice is often used to portray age. It helps give the audience the impression that she is older and wiser than Cal.

- Greez: He’s a little tricky, but I’d probably put him somewhere in the mid-range, maybe a high-end baritone. I’m not locked into that though, I could also possibly imagine him as more of a low tenor.

- Merrin: Okay some people are gonna disagree with me here, but I would not make Merrin an alto. She can’t have the same range as Cere. That’s not to say I think she should have a super high singing voice, more like low mezzo soprano. But her voice should be powerful; I’m thinking like an Idina Menzel-style belter. (I mean, she is a witch, after all!)

- Trilla: Lemme start by saying that Trilla would not sing with her helmet on, so her first song probably wouldn’t be until the Act 1 finale. I imagine her having a very similar range to Merrin, with perhaps a slightly darker tone.

- Ninth Sister: We’ll talk about her more in Act 2, but she would definitely be a very low alto. She’s a big character, and generally the bigger the instrument, the lower the pitch. She also leans very heavy on the melodrama.

- Malicos: Now odds are he wouldn’t sing until Act 2, but he would definitely be a low baritone, if not a bass. I’ve been comparing him to Claude Frollo from Hunchback, both in terms of his character and his voice. So I would definitely imagine his voice sounding a bit aged, although the actor would also need to be able to do at least a small amount of stage combat, so he might have to be slightly younger than we might imagine the character.

- Sorc Tormo: Speaking of Hunchback, here we’ve got our Clopin Trouillefou. Eccentric and dramatic, Sorc Tormo would be the one to have that squeaky tenor voice that I didn’t want for Cal. (Now HE can have gay voice!)

- Jaro Tapal: I’ll throw him in because I haven’t decided whether or not he would sing, but if he does, he would most definitely be a bass.

One other note about casting: I am in my mind imagining the characters being played by actors who look similar to the actors in the game, with Cal, Greez, and Merrin all being white, and Cere and Trilla being people of color. However, the beautiful thing about a story like this is that there is absolutely no reason that you couldn’t colorblind cast every single one of the characters.

But I think I’ve rambled on enough for now. If anyone is actually still reading up to this point, thank you for indulging me! You are my favorite! Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments, because I have no one to discuss this topic with and it would make me really happy… 🥺🫶

Act 2 coming soon!!

[deerspherestudios]

If the question was answered before, then ignore it.

Hii, I just want to ask one thing: How did you manage to make a mass of worms so attractive?, I dunno. How?

Actually, my question is, what was your inspiration for Atom's personality? The guy is very self-confident, and I even consider them are very... extroverted? They're my biggest HEAR ME OUTT

(I hope to be understood?, English is not my language, espero tengas buen día).

Oh my gosh,,,,,,,,,,,, I'm genuinely about to call myself out here so so so bad but uh, Atom's sort of an indulgent smoothie of all my hear-me-outs hahaha! I put them all in a blender and what came out was,,, that.

Write what you know I guess! 😳🫣!

List below; don't judge mE--!!!! But basically I took inspiration from their personalities, abilities, motivations, etc;;; I would go more in-depth explaining my fascination with these characters but um, listen,,, grabbing the images already felt embarrassing as is ok?

Hear me out cake below 🤡:

Sun/Daycare Attendant from FNAF: Security Breach

Bahahaa , ,, //sweats

Kinito from KinitoPET

Edgar from Electric Dreams (1984)

Venom from Venom (?)

Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls

[lakka-arts]

mutuals of mine, rb this to accept a whole ass infodump about my latest hyperfixation [redacted]

[creativitycache]

I love writing how tos and lists. For decades I’ve posted various guides, breakdowns, and long lists about things all over the internet.

Now in 2024 as I write out another bullet pointed list I wonder if sometimes people think I write like Chat GPT.

Then I remember that Open AI data scraped Reddit and other platforms to make Chat GPT.

And I look at my Reddit Comment Karma score, and I wonder if Chat GPT talks like me.

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

1) after my supervisor gave me feedback that I need to be less "reserved" at my job I crowdsourced ideas from my discord friends and put them into a pdf called "how to talk to people"

2) if I need to remember something that crosses two different spheres of my life (ex: bring a new good pen to work, the old one that I have refills for cracked and the spring explodes out when I write with it) then I put a mark on my hand bc then my wife goes "what's on your hand" and I go "oh! I need to put a new pen in my work bag" and this way it doesn't take a week for me to remember to do it

3) my hack for bad short term memory while baking is that every ingredient starts out on the left side of the mixer and is moved to the right side after being added

4) if I'm making something for my wife and I where the difference matters (she likes a gin an tonic with one oz gin, I'm usually putting in two) then hers goes on the left because her name starts with L and I carry it with my left hand

[suiana]

✎ yandere! overachiever fic . . .

✎ warnings . . .

― obsessiveness, kidnapping, pathetic yandere me thinks etc.

(gn! reader x male yandere! oc)

Life is always unfair. Finn had always known that.

Good grades never came easy. He had to work for it. Same with everything else. And even then

it was never enough.

Not for him, not for anyone else. He would always be subpar, grasping for whatever he could reach.

'Try harder next time.'

It was like, life was trying to taunt him. Trying to taunt him with a goal he'd never be able to reach. It sucked a lot. Because like I said before, he's subpar. Second place. The one choosing, never the chosen.

And then came you. Beautiful, perfect, smart little you. The you that he envied for always stealing first place from him. The you that always had everything handed to them.

You,

you,

you.

The you that suddenly confessed to him, telling him you loved him.

He didn't know what to make of it. Was this some sort of joke? Some... elaborate plan to shake him off balance and prevent him from being a threat? Not like that would ever be likely seeing as how you effortlessly got 100s and he would work his ass off for a measly 95 but anyway!

"You... like me?"

"Yeah, you're everything I want in a guy."

Finn blinked, unsure of how to take this. Was he supposed to reject you? Accept? He barely knew you. In fact, the only thing he really knew was that you were number 1 and always beat him in exams.

"I-"

Your lovely voice interrupts him.

"You don't have to accept. I just wanted to tell you."

Look at you, all red in the face like a blushing scholar. This overachiever doesn't know what to make of it. He's... never been someone who gets confessed to, really. He's never been confessed to before.

Scared? Yeah, he definitely is. What's a perfect person like you doing confessing to him? But more importantly, you've got his attention now.

And he wants to learn more.

"Okay..."

You're beautiful when you're rambling about your interests, Finn thinks. You're rambling off, going on a tangent about your current hyperfixation.

He's not really listening. All of it is going in one year and oning out the other. No, he's too busy admiring... you. As embarrassing as it sounds, mr second place has begun spending time out of his studies to hang out with you. That's what people do when they want to know more about someone, right?

"So what do you think of it?"

Shit.

You're looking at him, all wide eyed and smiley faced waiting for his answer. You're probably interested in what he thinks about your super niche interest. Meanwhile he was too busy thinking of how cute you looked.

"Huh? Uh, oh, it's cool I guess."

Finn raises a hand to rub his neck, offering a half-hearted smile. Shit he's so fucked... Did you aks a question? Are you asking for his opinion on it? Is his answer okay? Pleasetakethebaitpleasetakethebait-

"Really? That's what I thought too!"

Finn feels his shoulders visibly slack. Sheesh, he really got lucky with that one.

But... Why did he even doze off in the first place? He isn't normally this... distracted. Not really. He's always so focused on the present but...

Was he really just interested?

Finn isn't an attractive guy by any means. Or maybe he is and he just doesn't know it. Hey, do you think that's why so many people stare but don't approach? Because he's too sexy? Haha...

He's not that tall, like 5'11 and lanky. Dark hair obviously, and the most nerdy square glasses ever. He also has dark eyes and eyebags. What a shocker. Touching grass? What's that? He only knows how to study.

Not really the most conventional definition of attractive but hey, it could be your cup of tea if that's what you're into.

But...

"You're handsome."

Ah...

Finn feels his cheeks flush red, eyelashes fluttering as he avoids eye contact. What? So suddenly... Like this?

"Uh... Thanks."

Bro. He's actually so cooked. What is this feeling? Is he having a heart attack? There's no reason why his heart should be beating this fast right now.

"You're... You're good looking too."

The poor guy glances at your face, eyeing your expression. Hm... Was that your lip quirking up? Did you like what he said?

Finn grins a little, glancing away. God, you're so cute.

"Hehe I know. Anyway I gotta go, see ya around Finn."

And with that, you were gone again, slipping through his fingers. But he's actually thankful this time. Finn doesn't think he can handle another second with you, not after you smiled so sweetly and called him handsome. Not after calling him by his name with that beautiful voice of yours.

"Fuck..."

His hand slides down his face, eyes dark and eyebags heavy. The tips of his ears burn red, his skin running hit.

"I think I'm in love."

finn: meet me in the library

finn: please?

read at 12.34

Gulps.

It's been approximately 5 minutes since you left him on read and Finn doesn't know how much longer he can spend waiting. His clothes feel all too small, the walls are closing in on him.

Should he just leave? Maybe you're not coming. Why would you? You probably don't care... Maybe you know he's going to confess. That's why you're late. That's why you-

"Hah... Hah... I'm here Finn."

Oh.

Nevermind.

"Oh, you're here."

He pauses. You... had your hands on your knees, panting and sweating like you just ran a marathon.

"Sorry I'm late, I ran all the way from the other side of campus."

Shit, you ran here? That explains why you were breathless and red in the faced. Now he feels bad for thinking you were standing him up.

"You didn't have to..."

But you did. The black haired guy would be on the verge if a mental breakdown if you had arrived just a second later.

Finn glances at you, feeling the familiar warmth enter his cheeks as he takes in the sight of you God... You're beautiful. It doesn't matter what you look like, to him you're absolutely gorgeous.

And then you just had to look at him with those eyes.

"So what's up? Why'd you call me here so suddenly?"

He gulps and looks away, the cold room suddenly feeling all too hot. Geez, they need to turn the AC up in here! He's burning hot.

Mr second place mumbles out something incomprehensible, awkwardly fiddling with the hem of his shirt before facing you again.

"Ahaha... About that... I just... Um..."

Finn's thought this would be easy. He's thought this over in his head a million times while daydreaming about you. While admiring you while you sat in class, thinking about how you'd blush and fawn over him when he finally confessed. While watching you through your window as you scrolled your phone late into the night. You're thinking about him weren't you? You nust be thinking about him even when you're doing the most mundane of things, right?!

Yeah, it doesn't stop there. But that's besides the point.

He'd call you over, confess calmly like the chill guy he was, and you two would be happy together because you liked him back. That was the plan.

This.

This wasn't the plan.

He didn't expect to be hesitating, anxious. He didn't expect to be worried about your response. He didn't want to tell you his feelings, too afraid that you'd reject him despite knowing that you liked him.

Was this... fear?

"I..."

He gulps.

"Hm?"

"Ilikeyoualot."

There. He said it.

Finn shuts his eyes, hiding his face in his hands before peeking out behind the gaps of his fingers. What were you going to say? Were you going to reject him? Oh Finn's heart doesn't know if he can handle that...

"What was that?"

Eh? You didn't... catch his confession?

Then you chuckled, a hint of red dusting your cheeks.

"You're so cute Finny."

"F-Finny?!"

"Come here and give me a kiss!"

Finn didn't even have time to react before you threw yourself at him. He stumbles lightly, lips parting as you press your cheek to his lips and let out a giggle.

Shit, he's sweating. This is all too much for him. He swears he's used to your teasing but now...

"Get out of the library you two!"

"Haha!"

Man screw the librarian. He's a taken man now.

Right? That's why you giggled when the librarian chased you two out...

Right?

"So we're dating now?"

You smile at him and Finn swears he's been gazed at by an angel. His hearts racing, cheeks an impossible shade of red. Things can't possibly get worse-

"What do you think Finny?"

Zoo wee mama bury him alive at this point 🤑🤑🤑

Hm. Finn doesn't know what to do. He's... conflicted.

So you two have been dating for a while now, yeah? And everything's great! Fantastic even! You're such a wonderful person and Finn couldn't be happier that you chose to be with him.

There's just one problem.

You've begun showing interest in someone else.

Finn trusts you! Of course he does! You're the love of his life! His one and only! He's had many beautiful memories with you and he knows you'd never do such a heinous thing like betraying his trust.

But... you've been spending too much time with this new friend of yours and it's driving him insane.

Click. The door clicks open.

Ah, so you finally decided to come home, huh.

"Welcome back, how was your outing with your friend?"

Finn puts on a forced smile for you. Can't get you angry, what if you break up with him because you think he's too controlling? He wouldn't want that. Not at all.

"It was good. He's really cool, you should meet him sometime!"

Yeah, like hell he would.

Just the thought of you hanging out with another guy sickens him to the core. Scratch that, the thought of you hanging out with literally anyone other than him or your family sickens him. It literally makes him want to tear off his face. All that just so you would keep to yourself.

But he can't do that, can he? He's not that kind of person.

"I really enjoy his company, he's a really good friend."

On second thought... Maybe not.

His eye twitches and he has to hold himself back from saying anything rash. No... he wouldn't want to scare you. Not now. What if you end up hating him?

Finn can't handle that.

Your Finn can't handle that.

"Do you... really like him that much?"

That's... okay, right? You-

"Yeah, he's a good friend finny."

...Huh...

"Right... I understand."

Your boyfriend smiles at you, extending a hand to gently rub your head. Right. Just a friend.

He's just a friend.

Nothing more, nothing less.

He has nothing to be threatened by. Nothing at all. It's not like you'd ever leave him. You know you're all he has.

You're all that's good in his life.

You wouldn't hurt him like that. You won't.

"Hey... do you think we've been spending too much time with each other recently?"

What?

Finn pauses in his tracks, the pencil he was holding slipping from his hands. He heard you right, yeah? You said you two had been spending too much time with each other?

"Haha, what makes you say that?"

He must be overthinking it. You can't have meant that right?

"It's just... maybe we should have some time away from each other. I just want some me time."

Hah...

Ah...

Finn takes a step back, eyes widening just the slightest bit before he covers his mouth with his hand. No way, you're serious? Why? After all he's done?

"I-I didn't upset you, did I?"

"What? No no, I just want some me time, y'know?"

Yeah but...

Don't you love him?

You know how he gets when he's without you, right?

"B-but..."

Finn pauses when he sees your expression. Lips parted slightly, eyebrows furrowed just the tiniest bit.

You're annoyed.

"Ah..."

Nonono

No.

Are you breaking up with him? Is this your way of letting him down easy? Shit, he knew you never really liked it, probably just some passing infatuation because you were interested in how someone like him could be second place. Maybe it was all a ploy to get study information? All those times before you two got together, complimenting him, blushing and telling him he's exactly your type were all lies, right?

Fuck...

Your boyfriend glances up, helplessness filling his body. No... no... he doesn't want to believe it but knowing you...

Is it because you're interested in another guy?

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"What? No, that's not what I'm trying to-"

"I knew it! You didn't actually love me, did you?! You just wanted to play with me, right?! Now you're moving onto the next guy just like that!"

"What are you talking about Finny? It's not like that, I really just want to-"

You freeze.

What... what's with that look in his eyes? And why's he coming closer? Usually you'd welcome him with open arms but there's something off about him right now...

You're scared.

"Finn... You're creeping me out..."

Before you can say anything else though, he latches onto your arms, grip surprisingly strong for someone who rarely exercises. Dread floods your body and you desperately try to break free.

It's no use, of course. He's too strong.

"Finn? Let go please! I swear 'm not breaking up with you!"

"Liar! If you're not breaking up with me you wouldn't be asking for a break!"

He gets uncomfortably close, eyes wide and manic. You can hear his heart pounding, or is that yours? You don't know, everything is so loud you can't exactly focus...

"No... You can't leave me. You're all that's good in my life."

"Finn let-"

"I can't lose you."

And just for a split second, you think you catch a glimpse of the old Finn, the Finn you knew before... before all this absurdity consumed him.

That's right, you weren't exactly trying to break up with him. You just wanted some time to yourself because of how clingy he's been recently. Ever since you got that new friend, Finn's been hovering around you like some sort of demon and it's gotten really exhausting. You thought that maybe a short break would get him back to his usual shy and cute self.

You could never have expected this to happen. Never.. would have expected him to go this far.

"I'm sorry... I'm really sorry... But if I don't do this, you'll leave me. I simply cannot have that happening. You mean too much to me."

Ah...

Just like that, you were out like a light.

It's warm, at least. His arms....

"I love you, I love you so much..."

Don't ever leave me, please.

[qt800]

what if i wrote a fic about jack and larsen from prep school blues because ideas are for sure floating up here in this brain

[auxiliarydetective]

I got you @siriwesen

Inspired by recent events:

How does this keep happening?

[gingerrrrsnaps]

PERFUMES I THINK WOULD LOCK THIS TOMB

I love tlt and I love perfume, thus, this was born: scents i think tlt characters would wear or own. Sources: I have a perfume hyperfixation, a spreadsheet, and a dream

Judith - clean, linen, citrus, very close to the skin and inoffensive. Almost boring, but there’s some green notes there, maybe some tea or herbs. Green Tea by Elizabeth Arden, Naturelle by Yves Rocher, Un Jardin Apres la Mousson by Hermes

Marta - Basic Women’s Scent. Has not changed it since she started wearing perfume, wears the same thing every day without fail. May opt for an EDT instead of parfum bc it’s cheaper. Daisy by Marc Jacobs, Chance by Chanel, Idole by Lancome

Coronabeth - gourmand ICON she is a vanilla coconut amber queen. sweet, warm, almost nutty in some cases. Likes to layer perfumes, and alternates between them for the seasons. has a massive collection and tends to blind buy and gift perfumes that she wasn't a fan of. Heaven of Coconut by Clair de Lune, Tobacco Vanille by Tom Ford, Eden Amber by Claudio Zucca Parfums

Ianthe - either wears exclusively weird ass niche scents to be disorienting and unsettling OR wears the most expensive stuff she can find even if she doesn’t like the smell herself. Genuinely does like oriental scents and more unisex leaning masculine scents. Toscovat' apologist. Inexcusable Evil or Age of Innocence by Toscovat', Secretions Magnifiques by Etat Libre d'Orange, that insane 250k $ Clive Christian No. 1 Imperial Majesty Perfume (normal ianthe choices if she were actually wanting to like how she smelled would be black orchid by tom ford or memoire d'une odeur by gucci)

Babs - almost as big of a collection as coronabeth and dulcie, matches scents to lewks, really snobbish about brand names but lowkey has great taste. Probably was gifted a scentbird subscription from one of the twins and renewed it himself because he liked it so much. A Nocturnal Whisper by Gucci, Gentleman Society by Givenchy, Le Male Elixir by Jean Paul Gaultier

Isaac - Baby's first cologne. Went to Necromancer CVS with Jeannemary and Magnus and they both picked out something they thought made them smell grown up. He likes really green scents, very classic. He wants to smell like Magnus (noooo magnus don't buy me one of your favorites) but does not know how much or where to wear it, and definitely smells a little bit like bad body spray. Apollo by AXE, Nautica Voyage by Nautica, Tommy by Tommy Hillfiger

Jeannemary - Loves a gourmand and fruity scent, went full Pink Sugar, Hot Topic blackheart brand. Both she and Isaac got cheaper ones, I'm thinking bath and body works sprays, they're terrible teen mall goths what more do you expect. Blackcurrant Vanilla by Bath and Body Works, Muertos by Blackheart, Chérie by Kate Spade

Abigail - VERY CLASSY, old money and old ass perfume for the vibes. Also likes a gourmand but mixed with musk and florals , collects old bottles and wears them, so sorta smells like a grandma. I love her your honor, so she's getting some scents from my personal collection. Florence by Tocca, Honeysuckle and Davana by Jo Malone, Joy by Jean Patou

Magnus - this bitch LOVES a warm wood. Sandalwood and cedar. Put some bay rum on this man. He is very classic dad cologne to me. smells like pipe smoke and shaving cream, very warm, very cozy, very good for hugs. Time Machine by Le Frag, Acqua di Gio by Giorgio Armani, Polo by Ralph Lauren (could also wear Polo Supreme Leather by Ralph Lauren)

Camilla - doesn’t wear perfume often BUT likes skin scents, very inoffensive, just smells GOOD. Likes an amber and a woody musk. Leans more unisex but can be tempted with a soft soft SOFT floral, probably steals it from her sister. Not a perfume by Juliet has a gun, You by Glossier, The Matcha 26 by Le Labo

Palamedes - steals Cams so often she bought him his own. Loves an amber but leans more woody and musky, unisex king. I think he is intrigued by niche brands and interesting scents but he doesn't buy them. Does have Cam stop to smell samplers with him at Necrophora though. Musc Ravageur by Frédéric Malle, Cloudland by Fulton & Roark, Velvet- by Commodity

Dulcinea - FLORAL. She loves a white floral, but there’s definitely an underlying note. Powdery but sharp and metallic almost. Usually goes for a rose or iris, also smells kinda old lady. She and Abigail have similar tastes with florals, but she leans more powdery and fruity where Abigail leans more vanilla and musk. Dulcie also gets some from my personal collection. The Favourite by Penhaligon's, Alien by Mugler, Flowerhead by Byredo

Pro - Old Spice Classic. Irish spring. this one was easy for me, I don't think he really wears any specific fragrance but he uses heavily fragranced soaps and it does carry over.

Silas - plain soap, perfume is not of the Lord ™️

Colum - plain soap, perfume is not of the Silas

Harrow - Does Not Like Most Scents, probably doesn’t wear perfumes and is VERY offended by strong sillage. If she were to wear one, she would be tempted by anything that’s incense and floral, but sprays it in the air and wafts it on her instead of putting it on the skin directly. Nosferatu by Heretic, Thurible by Rook Perfumes, Gossamer Spirit by Universal Flowering

Gideon - Nav smells like lye soap and Cheap Cologne, this girl is wearing fucking Old Spice Swagger, Drakkar Noir, and Curve Black. Kiriona switches it up to Bleeker Street by Bond No. 9, Karl Vienna Opera by Karl Lagerfeld, or Green Irish Tweed by Creed

BONUS ROUND

John- lemon and aquatic scents, probably basic tbh. unfortunately,,, these are classic scents for a reason, they do actually smell good but I refuse to say jod has good taste, so mercy or augustine bought them for him. Just Bleu by Alta Moda, Neo-Animism by Mami Wata, 50/50 by Emper

Mercy - oriental florals, she is Very Particular, and has a wild taste that somehow WORKS I immediately picked Lolita Lempika by Lolita Lempika for her. Wack licorice, cherry, and ivy. Also Wanted Girl by Azzaro and Signature by Montblanc.

Augustine - shaving soap scents, clean citrus, very alcoholic based and cedar. Juniper Sling or The Blazing Mr. Sam both by Penhaligon's

G1deon - friend said that OGideon would wear Pyrrha's go to scent to feel closer to her, so thanks templar you made me cry :)

Pyrrha- unisex but specifically woody and leather. Sérénade by Vertus, Pepper Wood by ETIKK Fragrances, 100% Passion Man by Abercrombie & Fitch

Nona - FRUITY and sweet. Pink Sugar by Aquolina, Fantasy by Britney Spears, and Hippie Chic by True Religion

Alecto - water scents, sweet but unsettling, weird notes, but more cohesive than Ianthe. This is so fun for me, so a lot of these are perfumes that I REALLY want to smell, and are just weird. Dead Dinosaur by Snif, Slice Society layered with Soda Snob both by Snif, Spectral Doorway by DS&Durga, Warm Bulb by Clue Perfumery, C4R4C4S NIGHT by D4C, Wet Stone by Amouroud

[crescenthistory]

This sounds kind of vague but regulus nd reader bonding over bugs… I think this strange little guy would appreciate a good bug. Doesn’t have to be specifically romantic either I just thought it was cute

i don't think i can write a fic on this, especially as i am not an avid bug-knower myself, but i'll share my thoughts and headcanons with you of course darling<33

regulus black bonding with you over bugs

regulus bug-lover, evan anatomy-fanatic, barty carcass-searcher and pandora bones-collector; in this essay i will-

dorcas thinks they’re a bit odd but love them as the freaks they are

no, but in all honesty i can picture this so vividly. regulus has such an obsessive personality, he is bound to have some niche and severe interests

if that is bugs and it is a shared one between you two – then that's just fantastic luck, yeah?

regulus is the type of person to not just liking something, it becomes his everything (that boy has never felt normal about anything ever)

finding someone who loves the same things he loves would slot them right beside that interest in his mind, thus making any infatuation that much stronger; he associates you with what you both love

i think his favourite bugs would be spiders, of course, but also termites and beetles

there is definitely a certain level of "this creature is so misunderstood and i relate to it" going on here

on that note, he is more inclined to hyperfixate on bugs like worms, cockroaches, fleas, bed bugs, etc. than the more accepted/cutsey bugs like bees and butterflies

though i don't really picture him disliking any bugs – he would rather spend his time focusing on the ones that resonate with him

regulus most certainly has a scientific approach to his interest

he reads and learns and then reads some more and learns some more; he wants to know all there is to know and be able to use jargon and refer to biology when discussing bugs

if you struggle with reading, he is more than happy (see: fucking elated) over being able to recap any relevant book to you and teach you what he just learned

if you enjoy it as well, he wants nothing more than to ditch your coursework for the night and read up on your own interests side by side<3

my regulus is a poet, and i imagine that he would use all his scientific knowledge of bugs to use them as more effective and accurate metaphors

i think his favourite bug to refer to in poetry is cicadas

he is usually very guarded with his poetry because he writes to process and work through his intense emotions, but your shared love for bugs would be a lower-barrier entry to sharing his writing with you

he would show you some poems that focus primarily on bugs, maybe even use the excuse that you can double check them for "accuracy", and over time he grows more confident in showing you more and more

sitting with regulus in a corner of the slytherin common room or the edge of the courtyard whenever you get some alone time, looking for and admiring the bugs that creep around there

taking note of what spots in the castle are the most abundant with insects and going there together

maybe he would even call you an insect-related pet name? my suggestions: mantis, hopper, buzz — maybe any french speakers know of some cute ones in french?!

regulus feeling seen and known by you on another level as you bond over insects – an interest of his that most of his friends and family members have shunned and gagged at, but that set your eyes alight with a spark similar to his own

daring to be himself more fully with you beyond his interest, because you showed him it is okay

realising he is in love with you when you're reunited after a summer apart and you show him that you have started a journal, documenting the unique and rare insects you stumbled upon over the holidays to show him

starting one of his own for you

proposing to you by asking you to help him look for a special insect in the earth outside your flat/house and when you go you see has dug the ring into the ground, diamond poking out

[rivalerer]

Dating Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl) p1.

Disclaimer: this is based on marvel rival’s iteration of her & derives from my own personal interpretations of her + what i gather from her canon stories n interactions (And also my information on squirrels). I pull very little from other sources but encourage you sharing feedback or new information through my ask box

(you are also free to just ask or request things about other characters)

CW: Nutty Behavior, Not Beta Read, Nothin’ Else

—

- Dating Doreen comes with a lot of perks and little issues here n there- the regular presence of squirrels & other woodland critters; the quirky chatter with animals & you about her college life; near constant movement or activities to keep her squirrely nature entertained- but an undeniable quality of dating her is coming to terms with the intense amounts of fur n hair everywhere. While this initially seems like it’d be an issue, you take note that Doreen rarely appears completely covered in fur- and once you both get comfortable enough with one another you’ll begin to understand why-

- It’s Allogrooming; the behavior of grooming another creatures pelt in an effort to bond. It’s something Doreen does nightly & it’s something you will unarguably have occur. She will of course stop if you dont want to be “groomed”- but if you let her (and often tippy-toe) continue you’ll find yourself cuddling up with her frequently while she picks you clean of squirrel fur and brushes down your clothes. If you let her she’ll also be running her fingers through your hair- gently untangling any knots or snags; if you dont have any hair or have very little- you note that she’s still keen on keeping every part of you clean and well cared for, scalp massages are a MUST in her mind if this is the case. It’s all her own very special way of showing love for you. And you’re free to return the favor! You’re quick to notice that she’s very fond of having her tail or hair gently brushed- it puts her in such a lovey dovey mood every time (and as an added bonus, it really keeps the shedding down)

- And when Doreen finds herself in a lovey dovey mood- you really have a lot on your plate. Because Doreen is HUGE on cuddling and activities/time shared together. She’s a very clever woman & she will be KEEN on keeping you close so she can curl up with you or somehow convince you to look at her most recent coding misadventures (whether you understand them or not) AND SHE’LL SOMEHOW MAKE YOU THINK IT WAS YOUR IDEA?? And in a few hours later you’ll be 2 & 1/2 movies in on some niche series from 20 years ago and you’ll comprehend that you have no idea what’s going on or why you’re watching this AND YOU’LL REALIZE YOU LIKE IT?? Really and truly- Doreen must have some secret super power on getting you to kick back with her because the 2 of you will be doing SO MUCH together when she’s feeling lovesick over you

- It literally doesn’t even matter what the 2 of you are doing- she has a knack for turning 1-2 hour visits into entire slumber parties. It wont just be for her interests though- Doreen will be ON TOP of remembering your favorite activities just to have things to lure you into hangin out with her more. It’s not a malicious thing by any means- Shes just a real socialite and you’re undeniably her favorite company to have over (well- you & tippy-toe). Still- she’s more than willing to give you your alone time as you need it (she does afterall have plenty of other stuff to do)

- And if you find yourself trying to seek her company while she’s busy- god- good luck- there’s so many things she could be up to. It’ll take awhile before you’re able to really pin point where Doreen is quickly if she’s not bugging you. She has such a tendency to hyperfixate on her tasks- and because of that she can dissapear for hours without meaning to. You‘ve found her hidden away coding or doodling as many times as you’ve found her out in the middle of the woods meddling with some outlandish animal issue. And every time you’ve found her- she’s of course greeting you with hugs and kisses, but it’s still such a task to get a hold of her when she’s off doing Doreen-things. You’ve got to love this if you’re dating her I assume- but it’s definitely a little issue here and there.

- But let’s back track a little- what does time with Doreen look like more normally? Aside from doing activities- your squirrely companion has a lot of nice little quirks to one on one time. Most notable is probably the mix of physical affection & chattering. Doreen has a bit of a magic to her in the sense that she’s somehow always able to fill the silence of a hang out- whether it’s with getting you to talk by egging you on about your passions or explaining a year long woodlands creature drama she’s been following with Tippy-Toe; Doreen Green will have SOMEONE talking during your time together. If you prefer quiet- she’ll be trying her damndest to find some peace and quiet within herself for you- but know that unless you keep her busy it’ll be really obvious for anyone in the room that she wants to YAP. (Though music or her napping is a nice middle ground for her)

- otherwise- the thing youll probably take most notice of is Doreen’s fondness towards physical touch & affection. Tippy-Toe being on her shoulder so often (along with lots of other critters) has made her a sensory seeking cuddle monster. She will be doing SO MUCH to try and cuddle up with you while you both relax. She’s especially fond of finding herself a place to curl up in your side (even if you’re smaller); she’s sort of a master at it. Her squirrel senses give her a good understanding of where her weight lays when she’s curling up with you- so it’s uncommon she’ll ever be laid over you in a way thats too much for you. But aside from the cuddles themselves- she is a touchy girl. Playing with your hands, tracing physical quirks like freckles or scars, leaving random kisses or pokes here and there, squeezing you wherever she can find enough to grab- literally anything is something for her.

- And it’s all cause Doreen is making it a goal early on to learn your body head to toe. Learning what touches you enjoy, what you don’t- what things she can do to make you twitch or playfully irritate you- it’s an intimate but big thing for her. As a girl who is a squirrel- she’s always got a sharp eye & a sense to notice all the little things around her. Learning you isn’t any different from learning about the enemies she fights- it’s no different from learning to live- it’s not necessarily a desire in her mind so much as it is a natural need or process. You’re just that important to her- once the 2 of you are together she wants to integrate you into her life & her learning; you’re a part of what she considers necessary. You’re so much of what she will begin to love.

When all of the silliness and puns fall to the wayside, it’s really clear that Doreen Green cares very deeply for you. She may try to downplay the seriousness of it from time- but you will undeniably become a part of her heart just as Tippy-Toe & Monkey Joe did; if not somehow more.

[rottenraccoons]

hiya! i just wanted to say how much i absolutely adore obscura, like fr! (it's in my top 3 story games ever (* ^ ω ^) ) i love the world building and lore that's already there and im so excited to keep playing! im also wondering sum things, (totally not for my own fanfiction👁️)

like, is there cars on the surface? what kind of transport is common? are there any animals/creatures that are different to what we know? is there magic 👁️👁️ (well ik there's some kinds of magic because of the witch ring that gets mentioned in the routes but i mean like, i guess given magic? can some people be born with power? are there other gods apart from the lunar and solar gods mentioned? is there any specific reasons/meanings behind the names given to the LI's?

sorry for all the questions 🫣 obscura has become a hyperfixation of mine, please don't feel obligated to answer anything! 🫶

Wowie, that's a lot of lore questions! Most of these are something we've tackled before, so I'm gonna give you the short answer and link to a post that fully answers the questions.

Obscuraworld's tech is juuuust starting to flirt with industrialisation. No cars, the fastest way to get from here to there is still our friend the horse.

For the most part, Obscuraworld has the same sorts of flora and fauna as our world, or stuff that's "close enough".

Magic exists in Obscuraworld, but humans have no native magical ability.

The solar and lunar god make the dominant religion in Obscuraworld. There are smaller niche religions too, but around the mountain solar and lunar worship make the vast majority.

The love interest's names are all real names/words from our world, but meaning did help us decide what to pick.

[grahamkennedy]

"Who the fuck was Graham Kennedy and why the fuck do you care so much?"

Glad you asked (or didn't)! I'm kind of sick of me just plastering a link to his Wikipedia page on my pinned post and not actually explaining my kinda niche special interest to followers and mutuals and why the hell it became one. Not quite a primer, more like a personal essay.

The TL;DR is that Graham Kennedy was an Australian television comedian, variety show compere, game show host, actor, and a whole bunch of other things. He was hugely influential in midcentury Australia, one of the most highly awarded personalities in our local television industry, and while largely forgotten now, used to be so famous in this country that they gave him the title 'The King'. Like Elvis if he made dick jokes for a living and was also, like, insanely gay. Like really, really fucking gay.

Intrigued? Probably not but let me explain myself and his personal significance to me more autistically under a read more anyway

(The main source I use for information below is the brilliant book King: The Life and Comedy of Graham Kennedy by Graeme Blundell)

Graham Kennedy was a name that kind of floated around my periphery for much of my childhood. My dad is a Baby Boomer so I knew of him, but not much about him. In my early teens I first encountered the game show Blankety Blanks, on late night cable, and it became a comfort show for me in some of my darkest moments. It was bawdy, crude, and not particularly cerebral, so it was perfect background noise for me.

It wasn't until a hyperfixation in the show The Newsreader (a show set in an 80s Australian newsroom) popped up that he became a significant part of my life. I began researching important figures in Australian television and his name kept coming up over and over again.

He intrigued me. He was lowbrow, irreverent, controversial, and often extremely camp. His personal life was gutwrenchingly tragic, which made me both incredibly sad but instantly curious.

And what really drew me in was that often, his comedy was just so extremely queer. What do you mean, that one of the biggest celebrities in this country used to be a man who would flirt with male costars, kiss them on air, fondle miniature statues of David, and strut around in a sparkly suit and huge crown like this?

Kennedy never publicly came out, but he alluded so heavily to his own sexuality that it felt like queer performance art largely ignored. No one seemed to talk about how his work itself was gay as hell, the narrative around his sexuality seemed to be that he was simply ashamed of it and that's why he never came out as gay. But I asked myself, why would anyone who was disgusted by who they were wink and nudge so heavily, be so homoerotic? It seemed weird to view Kennedy's closet as one made of shame. The public certainly seemed to know he was gay.

The thing is, Kennedy was not treated well by the television industry, especially in the early days of his career. He was over worked, and scrutinised by his bosses and the public for his perceived effeminacy. One coworker, writer Hugh Stuckey, claimed to see actual physical abuse by a program manager on Kennedy's first variety show, In Melbourne Tonight (or IMT, as it was often shortened to) because he was too effeminate. He was stalked and harassed by fans, and forced to fake dates and hint at relationships with female costars. He was scared to go into his backyard because people would be peering over his fence.

In the last years of his life, he would tell one of his closest friends, Tony Sattler, that he never should have done IMT, the show which made him famous. The years on TV, the constant scrutiny, lack of privacy, lack of creative control, and a disastrous and unfulfilling love life compounded. He became bitter, angry and cruel, and the way he treated those he worked with as his career reached it's end could be absolutely abhorrent. He retired to the Australian bush, became a recluse, and essentially drank himself to death over a period of 15 years.

It felt to me like society had failed this man, who was, yes, complicated, and not exactly perfect, but who had been hurt so much by the industry he worked in. And when people talked about his comedy, they didn't talk about brave it was to be so outwardly flamboyant and bawdy and homoerotic when people cared so much about this man's sexuality.

Some of his comedy is extremely dated. Some of it really doesn't stand the test of time. But some of it feels like the jokes gay friends make to each other around the table at the end of a house party. It wasn't gay in a polished and digestible way, it was gay in a crude and very REAL way.

(I have a short compilation of gay jokes I love here.)

As of the time of writing, I've been obsessed with this man for a little over a year. I've collected books, magazines, DVDs (I have 16 individual DVDs of his work), and even an LP he recorded in 1973 (one of the worst albums of recorded music I have ever heard, btw). I have written poetry about him, I'm in the middle of making a video essay about him, I have introduced countless people to this guy who has intrigued in a way no other celebrity, living or dead, ever has.

And so. I actually decided to make a post that answers, at a little bit, the question above. Now you hopefully know a little bit about who the fuck Graham Kennedy was, and why the fuck I care so much.

^ If you read this whole thing I'm doing this to you

[damianbugs]

DEBUNKING SOME COMMON COMIC COMPLAINTS:

the funniest shit ever is when i say "oh hey friend you should give batman comics a try i think you'll like them!" and the response is "no thanks he's a bad dad in those i'll stick to fics." because like... i swear to you on my life Bruce Wayne Ao3 has done worse shit in fics than he ever has in canon.

"oh but you can just filter those tags/ignore those stories—" you can. do the same with comics... this man has been around for decades. do you think every story was exactly the same? not even the SAME writers write him the same way twice. (EXAMPLE: Frank Millers 'Batman Year One' has bruce jump off a bridge to save a baby. Frank Millers 'Batman and Robin All Stars' has bruce feed dick rats.)

"oh but fics are free—" so are comics 🏴‍☠️... unless ur a coward. whoever told you that you have to buy comics to read them or enjoy them is a liar and you should explode them. spending money and collecting is a completely personal (and life altering) decision.

"it's so hard to find specific comics/dynamics/tropes etc" the internet is truly a fantastic place. you can find a reading list or blog for the most niche of characters, so you will have absolutely no problem finding one for the bastard man who appears in every single comic ever published by dc. if not, ask your comic friends and not friends, comic blogs, tiktok comment sections etc. there will be one hyperfixated enthusiast eagerly awaiting the opportunity to give you their extensive guide.

"i just want to read/create my own story with them" you and me both buddy. reading comics doesn't mean you are not allowed to let yourself indulge in completely impossible fanon scenarios that heal or ruin your life. in fact, do you know the inexplicable euphoria that comes with stumbling upon a fic that rewrote a canon event? continued a badly finished comic story? it's life changing. fun to write too!

if you don't want to read comics for whatever reason, fine, literally whatever — but if you want to and certain things are holding you back from doing do, this is for you! who gaf about fandom discourse and "name me three batman comics"-ism, just don't hold yourself back from exploring this media even further! if anything, having a couple comics under your belt makes analysis and discussion far more genuine, and not like your chatting shit from out your ass.

[tagamantra]

realities, maximalism,and the need for big book™️

some gubat banwa design thoughts vomit: since the beginning of its development i've kind of been enraptured with trying to really go for "fiction-first" storytelling because PbtA games really are peak roleplaying for me, but as i wrote and realized that a lot of "fiction first" doesn't work without a proper sort of fictional foundation that everyone agrees on. this is good: this is why there are grounding principles, genre pillars, and other such things in many PbtA games--to guide that.

broken worlds is one of my favs bc of sheer vibes

Gubat Banwa didn't have much in that sense: sure, I use wuxia and xianxia as kind of guideposts, but they're not foundational, they're not pillars of the kind of fiction Gubat Banwa wants to raise up. there wasn't a lot in the sense of genre emulation or in the sense of grounding principles because so much of Gubat Banwa is built on stuff most TTRPG players haven't heard about. hell, it's stuff squirreled away in still being researched academic and anthropological circles, and thanks to the violence of colonialism, even fellow filipinos and seasians don't know about them

this is what brought me back to my ancient hyperfixations, the worlds of Exalted, Glorantha, Artesia, Fading Suns... all of them have these huge tomes of books that existed to put down this vast sprawling fantasy world, right? on top of that are the D&D campaign settings, the Dark Suns and the Eberrons. they were preoccupied in putting down setting, giving ways for people to interact with the world, and making the world alive as much as possible.

one of my main problems with gubat banwa was trying to convey this world that i've seen, glimpsed, dreamed of. this martial fantasy world of rajas and lakans, sailendras and tuns, satariyas and senapatis and panglimas and laksamanas and pandai... its a world that didn't really exist yet, and most references are steeped in either nationalism or lack of resources (slowly changing, now)

i didn't want to fall back into the whole gazeteer tourist kind of shit when it came to writing GB, but it necessitated that the primary guidelines of Gubat Banwa were set down. my approach to it was trying to instill every aspect of the text, from the systems to the fluff text to the way i wrote to the way things were phrased, with the essence of this world i'm trying to put forward. while i wrote GB mainly for me and fellow SEAsian people, economically my main market were those in the first world countries that could afford to buy the book. grokking the book was always going to be severely difficult for someone that didn't have similar cultures, or are uninterested in the complexities of human culture. thus why GB had to be a big book.

in contemporary indie ttrpg spaces (where I mostly float in, though i must admit i pay more attention to SEAsia spaces than the usual US spaces) the common opinion is that big books like Exalted 3e are old hat, or are somewhat inferior to games that can cram their text into short books. i used to be part of that camp--in capitalism, i never have enough time, after all. however, the books that do go big, that have no choice to go big, like Lancer RPG, Runequest, Mage, Exalted are usually the ones that have something really big it needs to tell you, and they might be able to perform the same amount of text-efficient bursting at the seams flavor writing but its still not enough.

thats what happened to GB, which I wanted to be, essentially, a PbtA+4e kind of experience, mechanically speaking. i very soon abandoned those titles when i delved deeper into research, incorporated actual 15th century divination tools in the mechanics, injected everything with Martial Arts flavor as we found our niche

all of this preamble to say that no matter how light i wanted to go with the game, i couldnt go too light or else people won't get it, or i might end up writing 1000 page long tome books explaining every detail of the setting so people get it right. this is why i went heavy on the vibes: its a ttrpg after all. its never gonna be finished.

i couldnt go too light because Gubat Banwa inherently exists on a different reality. think: to many 3 meals a day is the norm and the reality. you have to eat 3 meals a day to function properly. but this might just be a cultural norm of the majority culture, eventually co opted by capitalism to make it so that it can keep selling you things that are "breakfast food" or "dinner food" and whatnot. so its reality to some, while its not reality to others. of course, a lot of this reality-talk pertains mostly to social--there is often a singular shared physical reality we can usually experience*

Gubat Banwa has a different fabric of reality. it inherently has a different flow of things. water doesn't go down because of gravity, but because of the gods that make it move, for example. bad things happen to you because you weren't pious or you didn't do your rituals enough and now your whole community has to suffer. atoms aren't a thing in gb, thermodynamics isn't a real thing. the Laws of Gubat Banwa aren't these physical empirical things but these karmic consequent things

much of the fiction-first movement has a sort of "follow your common sense" mood to it. common sense (something also debatable among philosophers but i dont want to get into that) is mostly however tied to our physical and social realities. but GB is a fantasy world that inherently doesn't center those realities, it centers realities found in myth epics and folk tales and the margins of colonized "civilization", where lightnings can be summoned by oils and you will always get lost in the woods because you don't belong there.

so Gubat Banwa does almost triple duty: it must establish the world, it must establish the intended fiction that arises from that world, and then it must grant ways to enforce that fiction to retain immersion--these three are important to GB's game design because I believe that that game--if it is to not be a settler tourist bonanza--must force the player to contend with it and play with it within its own terms and its own rules. for SEAsians, there's not a lot of friction: we lived these terms and rules forever. don't whistle at night on a thursday, don't eat meat on Good Friday, clap your hands thrice after lighting an incense stick, don't make loud noise in the forests. we're born into that [social] reality

this is why fantasy is so important to me, it allows us to imagine a different reality. the reality (most of us) know right now (i say most of us because the reality in the provinces, the mountains, they're kinda different) is inherently informed by capitalist structures. many people that are angry at capitalist structures cannot fathom a world outside capitalist structures, there are even some leftists and communists that approach leftism and revolution through capitalism, which is inherently destructive (its what leads to reactionaries and liberalism after all). fantasy requires that you imagine something outside of right now. in essence read Ursula K Le Guin

i tweeted out recently that you could pretty easily play 15-16th century Luzon or Visayas with an OSR mechanic setting and William Henry Scott's BARANGAY: SIXTEENTH CENTURY PHILIPPINE CULTURE AND SOCIETY, and I think that's purely because barebones OSR mechanics stuff fits well with the raiding and adventuring that many did in 15-16th century Luzon/Visayas, but a lot of the mechanics wont be comign from OSR, but from Barangay, where you learn about the complicated marriage customs, the debt mechanics, the social classes and stratum...

so thats why GB needs to be a (relatively) big book, and why I can contend that some books need to be big as well--even if their mechanics are relatively easy and dont need more than that, the book, the game, might be trying to relay something even more, might be trying to convey something even more than that. artesia, for example, has its advancements inherently tied to its Tarot Cards, enforcing that the Arcana guides your destiny. runquest has its runes magic, mythras (which is kinda generic) has pretty specific kinds of magic systems that immediately inform the setting. this is why everything is informed by something (this is a common Buddhist principle, dependent arising). even the most generic D&D OSR game will have the trappings of the culture and norms of the one that wrote and worked on it. its written from their reality which might not necessarily be the one others experience. that's what lived experience is, after all

*live in the provinces for a while and you'll doubt this too!