#and I think theyre a good thing and I think they deserve to be represented and appreciated

[arolesbianism]

Not to acknowledge homestuck's existence but if there's one thing that I legitimately like abt it that no one gets like I do it's troll romance. Aka I'm apparently the only fucker on planet earth who read the romance part of that. Can anyone hear me.

[evieelyzabethh]

hiii i was wondering if you could do platonic Mel x reader headcanons? (like theyre friends and reader is on the council???)

thank youu and have a lovely day💗

omggg thank you! i always worry that everyone skips the mel sections. there is not nearly enough love for her, and she is literally my fav character

Contrary to popular belief, Mel is not a cold person in the slightest. She is certainly a bit hesitant to affection and softness, but it isn't unwelcome. When she first arrived in Piltover, freshly cast out by her own mother for her aversion to violence, she is very off balance. You don't become the richest person in Piltover in such a short period of time by being friendly, wealth is won through strategic kindness and an ability to play the long game.

It would be hard to crack that exterior at first, partially because she expects that everyone else is playing the same game she is. She thinks that the friendship is less soft and more professionally symbiotic. You scratch her back, she scratches yours kinda thing. And it's no reflection of who she thinks you are, she's not even aiming to form any personal judgements or get to know you outside of work, but politics is a performance. How genuinely you play your role is of little importance to her, as long as it benefits you both.

This being said, you are far more tolerable than the rest of them. Besides actually being her age, she respects the approach you have, you are always forthright with your goals, even if the plans you have to achieve them are under the table. You're consistent and she appreciates this. Though she understands the charade of smiles and civility, she knows that most of these people don't care about much other than keeping things exactly the way they are.

Early on in her journey in Piltover she doesn't care much about the fate of the Zaunites, this isn't her home, and that instability is one she is largely ignorant to and doesn't believe it's her responsibility to fix. She does want change. Is this desire to make waves to prove a point to her mother overseas, initially yes, but the point still stands that she wants to do something. That may be what she likes about you most. Not only that you want change, but you want it for yourself. You are here to represent your family, but you are so much more than a name. She admires that you want a legacy of your own, that your morals are your own, that your goals work toward a vision that you dreamt.

While she has Elora to remind her of home, she has you to help build her future in Piltover and figure out what she actually wants. As she warms up to you, you have somewhat of a mentor/apprentice type relationship, though far less formal. Besides teaching her of the culture, what happens in the Undercity, and your personal thoughts and opinions on the cycles of violence, you learn about Noxus. You learn about all the places she'd want to take you to, the difference in politics, how much more aggressive it is.

Mel is someone who usually keeps a calm and cool exterior but being friends with you allows her to break it down. Especially after days where she begins to wonder what she's even doing here, days where she just feels like a pawn still being moved around the board by her mother. She's good at the politics, but it's tiresome, still having to constantly play by someone else's rules. It dawns on her when you are the only person she can think of while sobbing alone in her all to big room that maybe you aren't just some work acquaintance.

Now that the very long introduction is out of the way, Mel is such a hugger. She is very physically affectionate; it's her way of catching up on all she missed out with her mom. She's the type to cradle your head in her hands and rub your back

She is also the 'break up with your boyfriend' friend. If your partner is not giving you what you deserve, she really doesn't see the point in continuing the relationship. She is truly baffled by the excuse 'but we've been together for x years, I can't leave them'. YES YOU CAN! AND YOU SHOULD! People are replaceable, she does not believe in remaining in the company of those you don't like, especially if it doesn't benefit you.

She was also robbed of a traditional sort of girlhood, so she adores those kinds of hangouts. So many sleepovers, except instead of junk food and soda, its wine and fancy charcuterie boards. Self-care nights involve super expensive skincare and a terrible movie playing. If you two get drunk enough, you may even get into a pillow fight and leave the room covered in down feathers and empty satin pillow covers.

Assuming she's still dating Jayce, you definitely know a bit too much about him. It's very hard looking him in the eye after being told about the time she caught him shirtless in a stupid pair of heart covered boxers.

She gifted you one of her paintings for your birthday one year and almost cried when you started crying. Her art was always more of a hobby to air out her big emotions and her heart practically bursts with happiness every time you enter a room. You hang it right over your bed for protection in your dreams and it makes her beam with pride that you love it so much.

She is also such a good gift giver in general. I think she'd be super into journaling and would have like a million of those things, one of them dedicated to her friends and their interests.

Speaking of her journals, I think she'd have one for different goals. For example, one for all the books she wants to read for the year and dedicated pages to rank them and give her opinions. Maybe one for all the places she wants to visit one day. You two would totally swap books and have a friendly competition with your reading goals

[fuckyeahisawthat]

thank you so much for that excellent chani post. i've seen some annoying takes on twitter about how not making her totally devoted and subservient to paul makes her 'unlikeable' and i'm like. buddy. i think that speaks more to how you see women. than anything about her. this chani is very dynamic and interesting to me.

i'll be honest and say i've not read the books. this is me speaking from what i've seen of summaries, but i think giving her a real cause to fight for yet also genuinely loving paul gives her an interesting struggle, and also plays into how the portrayal of the fremen (seems to me to be) more diverse and nuanced. as in, the fremen themselves seem to have more of a push-and-pull to them. the clarification of how different fremen believe differently (the south being more fundamentalist) is a very important thing to include in a movie where you can run into the danger of saying that all adherents to a foreign, islam-adjacent (in coding) religion are all fundamentalists. that can (in less nuanced hands) be a pretty irresponsible thing. so showing that there's also more secular/pragmatic/less dogmatic sectors of the culture seems a pretty good counterweight.

so yeah. this is how i processed it as a movie-goer. and having chani represent that aspect (believing in people over prophecy, action over religion) and having stilgar as the humanized face of the southern peoples (showing that yknow, regardless of being fundamenist beliefs, theyre still PEOPLE with the capacity for love, friendship, honor) makes total logical sense. you're not just "telling" us that there's different aspects to fremen culture, you're SHOWING us by showing different characters who represent those aspects, without demonizing either or turning either into a one-note stereotype.

Thank you! I'm not someone who was a long-term fan of the books before the movie came out (I tried reading Dune as a teenager when I was reading a lot of classic sci-fi but found it too boring) but I did read Dune and Dune Messiah after the first movie came out, both because I wanted to know what happened next and because I wanted to have an opinion on how the movies worked as adaptations.

(book and movie spoilers below and also I basically ended up writing a whole essay in response to this)

My single biggest frustration with the book is that after they arrive at Sietch Tabr and Jessica drinks the Water of Life and becomes Reverend Mother...the book up and skips two years of the story and when we next see Paul he's already got Fremen followers who are ready to die for him and he's in an established relationship with Chani. Oh I was SO MAD when I got to this part. I was like FRANK. FRANK!!!! Did you seriously just skip two years of the most interesting part of your own story???

The thing is, even though I know that Frank Herbert's intention was to write a critique of the idea that oppressed people need an enlightened external (white) savior to liberate them...if you don't provide an alternate explanation for what's happening then you end up falling into some Orientalist tropes anyway. And because, in the book, we don't see the process of how your average background fedaykin comes to trust Paul as a military and political leader, there is nothing in the text to counter the idea that the Fremen are a bunch of unquestioning religious fanatics easily swayed to do violence by belief in a prophecy.

My second biggest frustration with the book is that we're given no reason at all why Chani would fall in love with Paul. While she has some memorable scenes, she doesn't have a lot to do as a character in the book, and she's missing from a whole chunk of the end...because she's in the south...because she and Paul have a baby, Leto II, who's then killed off-page when the sardaukar attack the south. (I'm honestly really glad they cut this from the film, because it never seemed to be given the narrative weight it deserved in the book.)

So you can imagine how happy I was when the Villeneuve movies figured out how to address both these frustrations by tying them together. The fedaykin don't just blindly accept Paul because of some prophecy. They come to trust him because he proves himself as a fighter, and because he starts out from a place of genuine solidarity and humility--which it is possible for him to do because he has no structural power over them at that point. And Chani falls in love with him for the same reason, in that heady environment of fighting side by side for a political cause, and maybe for the first time in a while starting to believe that you can win.

I think the Villeneuve movies improve a lot on what's in the book in terms of how the Fremen are portrayed...when we're with the fedaykin and/or Chani and Stilgar. There we see political debates and discussion and the fact that not all the Fremen think the same way. And we also see little humanizing moments of folks just hanging out, celebrating after a victory in battle and just shooting the shit and being friends.

I do wish the movie had extended this to more parts of Fremen society. If there's one thing I could have added, it would be seeing more of daily life in Sietch Tabr. It makes sense that when we're seeing things from Jessica's POV, she is more distant from and suspicious of the Fremen, seeing them as a force to be manipulated, but I wish we had even one or two scenes of people just being people in the sietch. It felt kind of weirdly empty and not particularly lived-in as a place, and I think they could've easily countered this, with scenes from Chani, Stilgar or Paul's POV, and that would have made it hit even harder when the sietch is attacked.

If there were two things I could have added, I wanted more exploration of the people of the south. Why are they more fundamentalist than the Fremen who live in the north? (We get one line about how "nothing can survive [in the south] without faith" but I wanted more than that.) While I think the movie did a fantastic job of humanizing and differentiating the Fremen we see around Paul, when we get to the south it does backslide a little into "undifferentiated mass of fanatics." Surely the people of the south also have some diversity of political views.

I think there are some interesting threads they could have pulled on in terms of how proximity to direct colonial violence shapes people's ideology. Sietch Tabr is one of the closest Fremen communities to Arrakeen, the seat of colonial control. They have probably had to mount some kind of armed resistance for generations just to keep from being wiped out. I can see that producing skepticism of the prophecy ("well I can't sit around waiting for a messiah but I do have this rocket launcher") as well as resentment at the idea of someone swooping in and taking credit for a struggle that you've put your life on the line for, and probably a lot of people you know have died for. There seem to be some generational differences, too, where young people of Chani's generation put less stock in the prophecy, while the true believers are mostly older. I can see faith in the prophecy coming out of despair--when you've been fighting for decades with no change, maybe you draw the conclusion that only an outside power coming to your aid will make a difference. While the people of the south are still under colonial rule, maybe being generally outside the reach of direct Harkonnen violence (the Harkonnens don't even know they're there) makes the concepts of both oppression and liberation feel more abstract and more receptive to being filled in with Bene Gesserit mysticism. It seems absurd to want more from a movie that's nearly three hours long already...but I wanted more of this.

Still, I do think they managed to improve on a lot of things that frustrated me or are simply dated about the book, while keeping the political thriller/war drama/epic tragedy elements that I think are the heart of the story, and in some cases drawing them out more clearly and effectively than the book did. The best kind of book-to-film adaptation imo is one that has a strong point of view in terms of what the story is About, on a large-scale thematic level, and is not afraid to change individual elements of canon in service of telling that story the most effective way possible in a cinematic medium. While there are always things I want more of, I feel like Denis Villeneuve really, really understood the assignment in terms of the overarching themes of the the story and he delivered so fucking well.

[creatingblackcharacters]

forgive me if the time for talking about this has passed , but i picked up Arcane recently and was just reminded of people posting mel,ambessa, and ekko for the "favorite Black characters" ask game. and tbh, no ill will but i think your followers fell a little short on describing these characters. bc i was told they had little to no screen time, i wasn't expecting literally anything while watching the show! but all three of them are insanely well written, and mel is a HUGE aspect of the story. (IDGAF about jayce. everything he did is only because mel allowed it lol)

ekko and ambessa are side characters, but their inclusion and depth is masterful- like- i have no idea how accurate ambessa's writing is to a Black mother specifically, but i felt *every* one of those scenes with her and mel. she's a great example of "love to hate" where you know she's unambiguously terrible, but her writing is a complete MASTERCLASS! same with ekko! the artistic direction for him is just stunning. arcane works in "twos", it has two sides of one situation and you're meant to weigh both. but ekko represents the third option, the "wait, fuck that! i'm doing my own thing!" option, the nuance. (youtuber Schnee has a good 20 min essay on him.) i think its severely underselling both their presences and characters to say theyre "barely there", especially when theyre set up to have even more influence in the next season (inb4 their characters are butchered and i look stupid)

this (https://www.tumblr.com/wlwmedarda/762678221428899840/sevika) is a really good post on how the fandom undersells these characters. if youre an Arcane fan i would suggest reading this to reevaluate how this fandom space treats Black characters. also maybe watch the show again, because were you even paying attention??

👀👀👀👀👀 okay okay! That's exciting to hear. Maybe people were saying that in comparison to everyone else they weren't receiving the due they felt these characters deserved. Imma let y'all's season 2 drop and if they all come out of it unscathed, we'll discuss me watching it. Bc tbh they're the only ones I want to watch it for 😅 and TV shows have an unfortunate history of shafting the Black characters or their good writing.

[petalkitshadow]

I’m terrified of the fall out of this when it comes to Petalpaw’s reputation in the clan. Obviously the emotional toll/grief is gonna be rough, but on top of that she basically has no support system now. Her little siblings are going to need her support, not the other way around, and they’re her only remaining kin. I don’t trust Petalpaw’s new friends to not turn on her after this either, so they’re out as well. (Although I’m very open to being wrong about that, bc I really loved their dynamic in the previous chapter!) There’s also only two surviving witnesses, one of them being Petalpaw herself, and having been caught in the position she was in (and being Maple’s bio daughter), I’m extremely worried that Petalpaw is going to be framed as responsible for Appledusk and Reedshine’s deaths. Reedshine, the one cat who would definitely 100% defend her and explain what really happened is dead. I know Perchpaw ends up okay, but I’m worried that his grief over Appledusk and his tail are going to lead to him acting out and blaming Petalpaw as well. He’s like her only hope and I love him so much… he’s so well written… but I do not trust him at all. The only character who I’m sure will support Petalpaw is Eeltail, but only emotionally as she wasn’t a witness. And even then, poor girl is already going have her paws full dealing with Petal’s younger orphaned siblings. This also makes the warrior name Petalshade go from super cool to absolutely soul-shattering, and I’m super excited to find out what the in-universe justification for that is going to be.

Apologies for the super long ramble, I’m just so invested in this fic, and I wanted to share how much it’s rattling around in my mind. I’m terrified. You are an evil genius /pos

thank you <3 <3!! I love getting long messages and hearing peoples thoughts, it means a ton to me when people want to engage with the story i'm telling!!

I am super excited to write Petalpaw and Perchpaw's development going forward. Both of them mean a ton to me and I think this event plus their development is like getting to see what they're really made of!

I am also excited to explore the seasonings for their names. I put a lot of thought into the suffixes they got, even though theyre both "legacy" names i still wanted them to have meaning and represent the characters theyre given to.

I thought maybe Perchshine being named after Reedshine, as well as the timeline being shifted so her kits were born BEFORE maple's return, would make it kinda obvious she was going to die... but based on peoples reactions, i guess not!! LOL the response to the latest chapter has been overwhelming in a good way. I'm so glad everybody seems to have liked it! like I said, the original draft of it was the first thing I wrote for PkS, late last year, so I've been sitting on it for a while now. I didn't think I'd ever actually get this far in writing a story. The support from everybody has really helped, getting feedback and having readers engage with the story really motivated me to keep making more, I can't thank you all enough!! i became very nervous to kill Reedshine (even though i've had it planned since the very start) since she was a definite favorite among readers... hopefully her sendoff did her justice!

If it's any consolation, I imagine now she's taking care of Patchkit and Larchkit in StarClan while watching over Petalpaw and her other kits. She can finally have the quiet, uneventful life she wanted (and deserved, tbh!)

but yes, again, thank you everybody who has taken the time to give my fic a chance, i really appreciate it <3 <3

[suffarustuffaru]

hiii i made another rezero spotify playlist again.

so this goes through subarus Entire character arc from arc 1 all the way roughly to arc 8!! gonna put notes under the cut.

theres a few repeat songs from my other playlists, mainly from the emilia playlist and the other subaru playlist i made, but i keep it to a minimum!! these songs are important okay.

i use several rezero songs because. well a lot of official rezero songs are from subaru's pov if you look at the lyrics + play in certain crucial moments. and also theyre bops and this is my playlist so i do what i want HAH

also in general i wanted to choose a blend of. more depressing songs. but also more upbeat ones. and a mixture of both of those. subaru has a rollercoaster of an arc hah i had to get a specific Tone here.

the first three songs are the intro songs!! the ones that summarize subarus entire character <3 okay also i know "the whole being dead thing" is an absolutely hilarious choice for a subaru playlist. even in just the song title alone. but LMAO i stand by that choice. 1000%.

"waving through a window" is like. just a bit pre-arc 1, then "connect" is the arc 1 to arc 2 transition

"relive" and "peace and love on the planet earth" mark memory snow and the end of arc 2 overall. "all i've ever known" is in this section because of remsuba growing close together. "ceilings" and "same boat" are in this section because i think they kind of fit the specific kind of Yearning subaru has. just in the sense that rbd undos time hes spent with the others; he loves them, but do they love him back? he knows them, but they dont know him. that sort of thing. i had to acknowledge it ;-;;;

"wrecking ball" (yes i know its a very fitting song title aljsldf) to "mr loverman" are arc 3!! also yes i know theres a lot of songs from the show crazy ex-girlfriend in this section but like. hear me out okay those songs fit. i think it's easy to tell what theyre referring to with the song titles alone also alksdjfljksfd

(and yes "what is this feeling?" is referencing subaru and julius's unfortunate first meeting. i couldnt resist.)

"realize" (this is specifically the cover that subarus va did!!) to "hopes and dreams" is arc 4. "look whos inside again" and "this is me trying" can be seen as references to subaru's first trial also.

"haven't you noticed (i'm a star" to "fightsong" are the transition from arc 4 to arc 5. and yes i had to include the song "boy bi".

"theater D" to "zero to hero" is the rest of arc 5. and yes theater D is an extremely good song okay it deserves to be in this playlist twice. the second time just represents sirius fucking shit up <3 "i see stars" is supposed to represent subaru's heroic speech to the entire city!! "immortals" is also in reference to subaru learning reinhard can Also die and come back.

"soldier, poet, king" is the transition into arc 6. you can also see the "soldier, poet, king" as julius, subaru, and emilia.

"demons" to "soap" is the rest of arc 6 <3 and if you so desire it you can see "at my back" and "what else can i do?" as julisuba (platonic or otherwise) songs.

"collusion" and "malachite's theme" are the transition into arc 7-8 and the rest of the songs that follow after are the rest of arc 7-8!! "run boy run" marks the start of the child subaru arc yes.

"your reality" is the finale song... i know it's like a pretty calming choice for a subaru playlist aljsdlf but i feel like the lyrics are fitting for the entirety of his character arc and the possible direction it might take yes!!

[creativesplat]

Mipha!

Mipha… where do I start!? 

First impression: 

I thought she was a very pretty fish-lady, and was instantly blown away by how romantic her memory with Link was (some poeople already know, but before I played the game I looked at fan art and stuff and really liked the concept of ZeLink people were drawing - it must be a canon ship if people are so intense about it right? and I almost always fall for the canon ship in a piece of media. So I got into the game wanting to rescue the princess Link was in love with. Turns out that princess wasn’t Zelda, and from my first impression I was like ‘oh ok, so we’re not avenging zelda then… we’re avenging fish’

Impression now: 

She was so wonderful why did she have to die!! Link loved you, your design is so cool, why did you die!! A strong powerful (dagnam play AoC and you’ll see what I mean) warrior princess who loved her people and her family and Link. what a woman she was (and is in aoc).

Favorite moment: 

Okay, so I know its a bit basic and there are some awesome moments in AoC (like the date her and link so on) but the first memory, the first time you’re introduced to her, it still gives me chills. Mipha's touch is and always will be my fave. I love it. 

Idea for a story: 

The tensions between Hyrule and Zora’s domain bubble over, leading to a siege or something, and link betrays Hyrule to join Mipha and bring the war to an end. 

Ooh another one: Link tries to run away from the duty assigned to him and is forcibly kept at the castle by Rhoam but the champions help zelda and link and they leave central hyrule to try and figure out the various powers without the added trapped in the castle stuff. Mipha rescues link from a tower like rapunzal effectively. 

Unpopular opinion: 

Link should have rescued her instead being with Zelda during the calamity. She was strong and could battle effectively, but if Link had gone with her, they would have dominated water blight as a badass couple. If link and mipha had defeated water blight, they could have joined the rest of the champions (due to the sheikhah slate being available for teleportation), weaken Gannon through attacking the blights and then go and kick is butt in the castle. What a good happy ending that is! (I think I just described AoC a little bit…) anyway. 

Favorite relationship: 

LINK AND MIPHA THEYRE SO CUTE TOGETHER AND SO BADASS AND I LOVE THEM. 

They are the perfect couple, and the proposal armour is just so sweet and I adore them both :) 

Favourite headcanon: 

Oooh. There’s a lot to pick from… 

The symbols on the Zora armour represent Link and Mipha’s marriage, and tying the families together:

the Rhombus with the luminous stone is what I head canon Link’s family sigil/ crest to be:

And obviously the three cresents are Mipha’s family crest 

And here we see them combined, with a white stone in the middle 

White gems are often related to hope (link), healing (mipha), unity, and wholeness. So a unity between the rhombus and the crescents and the ideas of healing and hope? Am I reaching. Yes. Do I also love this head canon? Yes. 

2) Link understands Zoran (the Zora language) but can’t speak it very well on account of the fin movement and whistling required. Mipha regularly says ‘I love you’ or other comforting things via subtle tail or fin movements when in company. He has little hand gestures he uses, sign shorthand I guess, to tell her the same.

3) the champions all knew about Mipha and Link's relationship. because their little found family deserves to have a fun time trying to set them up on dates or make them do things together, so that even though things are tense between hyrule and the domain, the two can spend time together.

[othystt]

okay so @whatacreepything im putting this in a separate post because of how long is got but basically ive been playing around with the idea that instead of going to a literal "hell" in your dream with like fire and shit, everyone has their own personal hell that revolves around their own flaws/sins/fears

we see kevin's as the stereotypical "hell" because of how he views things in such plain black and white. for kevin, what scares him the most is the idea of disappointing Heavenly Father and his peers and that he isn't a good mormon. so kevin turns into a bad mormon: his uniform and garments are ratty and not taken care of, he's dirty (mormons have a strict hygiene rule), he's defacing his book of mormon and breaking all the rules, etc etc. this is why we see him drink coffee, get reprimanded by jesus, have metaphors for being gay, etc, in his helldream because they all represent what mormonism goes against.

connor's greatest fear is giving into the temptation of his sin of (what mormons like to call) "same-sex attraction." he presents more flamboyantly and wears tight and revealing clothing, makeup, etc—all the things he's been taught would make him "effeminate" and "weak." however i ALSO like to think his actual hell is him fantasizing about the beach with steve/kevin like he talks about in Turn it Off, but they arent the real versions of themselves. theyre weirdly twisted, etc, and the whole atmosphere feels wrong, until steve/kevin eventually do something fucked up and connor gets dragged under the water and down to hell. (i touch on this in my fic we don't deserve love on ao3)

as for arnold i dont really think he has regular helldreams for a few reasons. arnold's parents are relatively softer than connor and kevin's as you can see in the beginning of the show (his mother especially) and we know that he has never read the book of mormon and is super hyperfixated on all his fav medias which further proves the point his parents arent strict. if they were strict then they wouldnt let him focus on all his favourite things and disregard the BOM. however, arnold's dad is more pushy about it (again we can see that at the beginning) with how he talks about his dad being "stuck" with him. so if arnold had a helldream that wasnt the stereotypical hell because of all his fantasies, i feel as if it might be an unending office building or maybe even an empty church to signify how he thinks a world with something boring like an office job or the book of mormon is boring and he wouldnt want to live in it. hes also disappointed his father greatly in the dream

so yeah these are my thoughts on helldreams and stuff lmk what you think hehe. i loooove talking about headcanons/my aus/fics etc so my inbox is always open you guys

[antia-calviz]

watching httyd makes me feel so many things

it inspires me so much, its such a successful combination of great talents. to think the amount of decisions, money, time, rewriting, designing that goes into something like that never fails to astound me

everytime i watch it i kind of check in with myself where im standing in my own professional journey. i havent stopped since i graduated and even though ive had significant achievements, im realizing my attitude and my artistic quality are not yet good enough to break into a studio like dreamworks. i havent even managed to land a job abroad at all

i need to be more selective of the freelance gigs i accept, because even though theyre growing my portfolio, my signature and my enthusiasm as an artist are being crushed both by myself and by the state of the industry. my spirit feels crushed. i feel so tired. if i ever get into dreamworks i need to start working smarter, not more. the time has come for me to take up self teaching and personal work.

i feel so strongly abt httyd bc it represents the dreams of my inner child. im sure this is true for many other animation artists out there as well. i live for 3 things: my parents, my career, and my friends. i need to believe i can make it. i have the artistic capacity, i have the courage, i definitely have the stamina. i have what it takes. i need to keep riding the high httyd gives me to keep learning from the greats! to appreciate my job. to tackle things head on. to take better care of myself. i can turn things around. i deserve to achieve this, to be happy. i want this so bad and i need to start acting like it. no more apathy

[dualglitch]

in your personal tastes from everything we have so far. also my own design notes/tierlist below the cut. pls add your thoughts

2nd/personal fave it's a close tie between nibbly and tinky for me but ill go nibbly. i really like tinkys true form/doll design but i wish the npmd costume incorporated more of that tealy blue contrasting eye/tongue color, it works so well. that wouldn't have translated super well on stage I guess? dunno slap some blue horns on him. or hey he already has goggles but theyre red?? make that shit blue.

first: wiggly. i like that wiggly is the eldest/leader and also has a design that most closely represents the 'classic' eldrich horror cthulu look! i think his design is just the most solid, there's really nothing id add or subtract from him. his palette of soft and dark greens look great and the yellow/red eyes are the perfect extra pop of color. not my personal fave but once again I think his design is objectively the most solid

nibblys doll design is eh but the stage version is just PERFECT truly could not envision him better. nibblys just a mouth so they were forced to get creative and god damn did it pay off. the visor and bangs drawing attention to the teeth is MWAH. also Kim was just the perfect person to cast for this.

pokey is also great. major props for how creepy he is, and the otho puppet in yellow jackets is just fucking ASTOUNDING. one of the reasons i view yellow jacket at the best nightmare time story ever. prob would win if it wasn't for just personal tastes here. stage design is pretty good too I just think those fur ruffs are kinda ugly. theyve all got a little fur on em somewhere and i think pokeys is the least well utilized idk

blinky is eh. I like the color palette and doll. I think blinky is even harder to conceptualize than nibbly but I feel like they could have done a reverse thing with blinky in some kind of mask that covers the mouth? Lauren slayed but the designs still the weakest

i guess it checks out that webby is the most normal since she likes humans/ she wants to look human for Hannah/lex, but eh I'm tired of the The Girl One Is Pretty trope, she deserves to be as eldritch and monstrous as the rest of them. i wish she was more spidery. maybe theyll drop a true form reveal at some point? i wish she had a doll. all in all she's just A Person. id like them to do a jane doe and give her some blackout lenses or somethin

ranking: wiggly nibbly tinky pokey webby blinky

[hyukascampfire]

dear ashlynn,

i, chestnut, humbly apologise for ghosting you for a bit. however, it would seem that from today onwards i can breathe a little. hope you’re doing well (´♡`) and love your new theme! your worries about the upcoming arc are totally understandable but i know for sure you’ll eventually come up with a satisfactory course of events, as you usually do. if anything, i’m surprised at how well-paced tsfawc has been so far — especially since pacing is what a writer might struggle the most with when they work on their own. ultimately, tsfawc is all yours and i’m just happy to be here and watch it unfold.

on another note, i’ve recently been meaning to read more books that revolve around the fae (or european folklore in general) to rediscover the whimsy i lost to adolescence and emily wilde’s encyclopaedia of faeries really did it for me. i’m so glad tsfawc triggered this hyperfixation because i at least have something to keep me busy now, as i impatiently wait for part six to come out. since you’ve recommended holly black’s folk of the air series before i was thinking of extending my streak with it but i have yet to figure out how to get my sister to lend me her most cherished babies (the books.)

all in all, i suppose it’s impossible to please everyone when the stakes are high in a story but as long as you trust that the choices you made will reap the most satisfying results, you should be okay ♡ i’m also relieved to hear that you weren’t much affected by the bomb cyclone. keep warm and stay safe! (and if you have more fantasy books to recommend, i’m all ears!)

with much love,

chestnut 🌰

p.s. please tell me that receiving a letter from me makes your heart flutter like yeonjun’s do with mc or else… i threaten to cry uncontrollably.

omg!!!!!! hi baby!!! i’m so happy to see you in my inbox! not to say i was impatiently waiting, but i was impatiently waiting. i’m so happy you’re able to catch a break now, you deserve time to yourself!

i’m so glad you like the new theme, it took so much work but it just feels so right.

i’ve been so so so worried about how things are going to go, but i’m going to try and trust my intuition. you guys are darlings and know just what to say to comfort me. pacing is absolutely tough when you’re writing a story without editors or beta readers, but especially one this long and fleshed out being posted chapter by chapter, it’s a lot of pressure to not be able to go back on things if they’re constraining or end up running you into a dead end. i do a lot of work plotting to make sure that my story points don’t do that to me, that’s where most of my anxiety comes from, i believe. but the reward has been so unbelievably worth it, and i’m so happy with how the story has gone, so i’ll continue to do just that. i love the story and it’s so cool to have you guys there with me while i develop it.

european folklore genuinely has that FEELING that you lose when you grow up. i understand exactly what you mean. theyre some of the oldest stories in the world, that is hard to replicate or capture in stories today. it just has this whimsy that i am in love with. i 10000000% recommend reading the folk of the air when you can get your hands on it (the main story has three books, so renting from the library isn’t so bad if she doesn’t let you borrow, lol!) and honestly i think that it’ll itch a similar spot as TSFAWC. you’ll find a lot of similarities (like a LOT.) and i’m so glad to spread my authentic faerie agenda around. it’s such a fun form of fantasy that i think requires delicate attention to portray. i actually haven’t read emilia wilde’s encyclopedia but i REALLY want to. it’s on my tbr for sure. is it good?????? and for my reccs, i actually haven’t really found a fantasy world that replicates one similar to TSFAWC or the folk of the air, and usually fae are represented in a way that isn’t true to folklore (ahem sarah j maas) so i can’t help because i’m still searching myself 😣

i thank you so much for reading and coming to talk to me about your interests and about the story, it makes my heart feel so warm.

the rain wasn’t so bad really, the wind was eerie sounding in my house but otherwise, nothing i haven’t seen living in this wet state! thank you for checking on me, love 🩵🩵

(receiving this letter of an ask was absolutely heart-fluttering and just as romantic as yeonjun’s, i’m giggling and blushing and kicking my feet. kiss kiss!)

[zackcharine]

character appearance 18+19? for anyone or all of them wersdg

18. Does your character have a favorite outfit?

AUGHHH I wish could draw them so you could like. see what im talking about, but im really tired so im leaving that for future Isaac JDJDHD

• BF :

His fav outfit is the one he usually wears ! He loves the super baggy white or black t-shirt + sweatpants combo and that's the majority of his wardrobe LMAO

• Pico :

Pico fucking loooves the sweater he gets halfway through S2, its like, his biggest comfort item but his fav outfit is something i have yet to draw. Black turtleneck (or tank top) + cardigan that's way too big for him + ripped black jeans. I don't think he cares about shoes JDJDHD

He rarely puts a lot of thought in what he wears/what he looks like, but this is one of the few things that he feels really fucking nice while wearing it !! He only uses it when he's trying to feel cool/fancy

Gf likes playing dress up when she goes shopping (and she then proceeds to leave without buying anything) and sometimes Pico and Bf go with her, and that's how he got them :D

• GF :

Gf's fav outfit is pretty much just her usual look but add a leather jacket + some fun looking earrings and maybe different heels !

Fun fact: that's what she was wearing when her and Bf first met in swim slowly :]

It's still pretty close to the stuff her parents would normally get for her to wear, but it's still customized enough to add sentimental value to it lololol ( the jacket has a bunch of cute pins, and then some patches. Courtesy of Bf jdhdgd he loves customizing stuff)

19. If your character had to get a tattoo what would it be?

GIGGLINGGGG I'm probably only gonna do Bf for this one bc I'm still unsure about the other 2... BUT THIS IS SOMETHING I THOUGHT A LOT ABOUT

This is another thing that I still have to draw jdhdgd But Bee actually gets tattoos after he's been together with Gf and Pico for a while. He has two bugs on his ribcage: a stag beetle for Gf and a moth for Pico !!!

I still gotta think about a more natural reason why chooses these djdhdh but they represent some pretty important things about the way i characterize them in S2

I chose a beetle for Gf (bc theyre cool and biasedjfhd) bc they have a strong exoskeleton that protects + shapes them. This reminds me a lot of her issues in S2 and how she had to build strong walls to survive the environment she was raised in + and how that extends to her shapeshifting. This results in her appearing to be put together when she's not and the moment she leaves her parents house to live with Bf and Pico all these do is make her feel trapped/isolated from them. She has to go on a really long path to break them + get used to the way things are now.

I think it's kinda obvious why i picked a moth for Pico djhdhd he's constantly chasing warm/comfort/safety no matter how much he tries to convince himself that he doesn't deserve good things. I love him. The yearner. He's constantly throwing himself in dumb situations and then being like. Idk why i did that!!! It's because he's so lonely and keeps isolating himself. It's because he's desesperate for human connection

[sqvar3w4ve]

the whole 1975 thing pisses me off. people cant seem to comprehend that this isnt some black and white situation where its just homophobia because its so much more than that. i couldnt care less if he jacked off on stage, the problem is that he did this in a country thats incredibly queerphobic and because of that is incredibly strict on what bands can play here and what they can and cant do/say. We malaysians don't get alot od international bands as is, so bands like this and the strokes coming here of all places in our shit hole country is huge. but him saying and doing all that did this:

- cancelled the entire event because our government caught wind of it and shut it down after the first night when it was supposed to go on for 3

- probably made the rules and restrictions for bands to play here even tighter

- made other bands hesitant to play here

- maybe even tightened up the laws on queer people here in general, even more worse than they already are

- possibly put a lot of queer malaysians in general in danger because if the pigs suddenly decided to investigate the event further and question the organisers or people who attended and those people happened to be queer and they found out? theyre going straight to jail because that's how queer people are treated here by our government

yeah there are a good chunk of people here angry purely because of homophobia, that fact isnt something that can be denied or glossed over. but the most important thing here is the queer people that are gonna be put in danger. we're already consistently used as a political scape goat. but now we've finally started to take baby steps in the right direction of progress after finally electing the first pm in our history thats leftist (when in reality he's centrist at best) and now with how matty healy behaved and what he said, our governments fear of queer people have been confirmed and we might be in even more hot water. they've already discussed about making being queer a mental illness and this might give them the push to confirm everything.

what he did did nothing but do bad. we didnt need some white guy to tell us how oppressed we are, how queer people are ridiculed discriminated and abused, trust me buddy, we've lived here all our lives, we know, we dont need any white saviour telling us this.

people will scoff at countries like Malaysia because of how queerphobic it is and simply throw any empathy and kindness out the window, but people seem to forget that this queerphobia exists for a reason. the queerphobia here exists because WE exist, because WE QUEER MALAYSIANS EXIST. it doesn't just exist just because, they're hateful of us because we are here, they're hell bent on getting rid of us because we are here.

I've seen some people say "then just don't get international bands" why? why dont we get to have the opportunity to see the bands we like? why dont we get to have fun? what makes so inherintly lesser that we dont get to indulge in stuff like this like people from other countries do? we already are barred from being openly queer, is it so much to ask that we just want to have a good time by seeing bands we love? do we not deserve that just because people think our government and the shit heads here represent our entire country, acting like theres absolutely no queer communities here constantly fighting for our right to exist? is that why people think so lowly of us?

queer malaysians are now in danger and our progress have been set back 50 steps thanks to matty healys "activism". I understand that he did it in good faith, but it just came off as entitled, privileged and selfish, especially with how he handled it after the fact.

if you're here to argue or insult me on this post, dont bother, im blocking you. im not wasting my time.

[nicegaai]

I used to not care about Sweden ships that much but then my third eye was opened to his shipping potential and I now love every Nordic ship with him.

SuFin - need I say anything? Iconic. Next.

DenSu - Enemies to friends to rivals to friends again to fuck buddies to lovers

SuNor - surprisingly sexy. Ship that's able to simultaneously bring out the best and worst in both of them.

SuIce - why just give him Ice a big brother kink? Give him a daddy kink TOO

All this to ask, any headcanons for SuNor specifically or for Swe ships in general?

HELLO my dear my beloved my angel of the askbox. i love this journey youve been on, you are completely correct in everything and ur suice take made me scream out loud btw <3 i want my babybabyboy 2 have a daddy kink so bad <3

YES OFC 🫡 SYNTHESIZING MY MINDS VERSION OF MRSWEDEN INTO SM COHERENT FOR YOU POSTHASTE

(edit: this was not very posthaste of me.................... enjoy anyway if u are still out there... i love you...)

hard agree that sunor is So Hot. im obsessed w them as a concept. like. you dont even know

first of all sunor has the norice problem where ppl want to assign them Platonic Sibling energy but then u look at them and its like why is there clearly sexual tension here...... i suspect its norways fault for havign that sexy voice disease where everything he says comes off flirty. and sweden is -- 🧠💥 wait wait wait wait wait

its coming together. sweden spent a lot of his life as a closeted gay man and was very uptight about it (source: look at him), claiming to humans that nations dont do sex and that he is a good asexual boy with no impure thoughts and other times pretending to have interest in women to fit in, depending.

but norway is shamelessly himself in every era—at least in comparison to sve... he wont pretend to be something hes not. and he wouldnt hesitate to fuck a strange man for fun, even in times where getting caught would severely damage his reputation. sweden even in modern day would not do one night stands. or you know. never say never, but hes LEANING never. norway is leaning Always.

what im saying is. sve would be so jealous that nor is living his best life and doesnt feel shame, even in an era(s) where he really should. and i think due to a series of cinematically coincidental outside circumstances (my brain is writing a fanfic without me rn) (edit: i have since forgotten the fanfic), they would start butting heads about it, not in the same way su and den fight... theyre passive aggressively sniping at each other. sve wants him to represent himself better, and nor is like i can literally do what i want forever.

from the outside it looks like a brotherly disagreement over differing life choices, but its 100% sexual tension fueled. nor is like lmao why are you mad? are you jealous? and would come onto him to freak him out and sve would be like STOP this is WRONG but he wants it so bad and they both know it. he hates nor because hes hot and fucking everyone but him and the one thing he can't do is admit he wants him. ...all norway has to do to win is keep teasing him until he breaks, but it would take several years. not decades, bc even if the flirting is infrequent sweden is not strong enough for this treatment.

... in general, i think they have different views of sex. to me norway has a high sex drive, lower than average standards, and doesn't feel shame as acutely as he does and sweden cant stand it. that's my sunor headcanon. they fuck anyway ofc but in modern day sve has made nor get std tested at least once. but could they be exclusively together like a monogamous ship? .............. i could be convinced.

OTHER SU SHIPS, QUICK FIRE ROUND

sufin - need we say more? i want to anyway... i love them married with kids i love them divorced i love them in a 500 year unlabeled situationship i love them one-sided and i dont really prefer one dynamic over another tbh. actually wait i do have a hot take. i think finland deserves to top sometimes. FinSu nation rise up <3

densu - what can i even add to this... they should look like the happiest couple on the surface but be crazy & toxic behind closed doors. theyre perfectly normal guys when separated but when left alone together they scare me. this is a good thing to me btw

suice - jsgdk gjk s klga liwi egi j tjil 2 t. g 8aw9e gae0jo d ;gawj dp2gjawodgijl aij e 0g;eglj aw irgl ajoweg lahrigawi egji awlji dg d i need to write them together more i could get so insane ab these two & i have a scene planned for my longfic where they fuck like crazy and i think ab it once a week. suice is so cute. theyre so cute. AHH

[oathofkaslana]

bronseele vs kiamei vs elydenponia ultimate ranking

OUGHHH.

kiamei i love the way the late game treats them and i love how their relationship always emphasizes them as equals <3 their genuine devotion to each other and the way they both represent goodness/community to each other makes me weep since both of them struggle with viewing themself as good or human or worthy of company.. also banger lines what the fuck "lofty aspirations such as saving the world, i too understand this. but how can i endure when i know deep down in my heart that compared to the world, you are more important." "and in my heart, you're the most special part of all the beautiful things in the world." HELLO????????????????????????????????????????????????

bronseele FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im such a bronseele warrior but i do think the fact that it relies so heavily on azure waters brings it down esp since i genuinely think they couldve focused on the themes within them even more and made it hit so much harder. but also i will take absolutely no slander on them they make me weep theyre literally just kids who saw the truth in each other in an orphanage that was their first real point of reference for a stable domestic life. they made each other feel normal which is important bc their lives suck ass!!!!!!! the fact that they keep saving each other in part because theyre really the only ones they feel like they can rely on makes me sick

elydenponia i love them i really really really do but they are definitely my fourth favorite hi3 pairing because the flame chasers arc didnt have enough of them to outweigh the insane horses that are kiamei, sakukallen, and bronseele to me. they deserve so much more recognition though of course elysia and edens appreciation of humanities, eden and aponia's grief over elysia, elysia and eden being able to lift aponia out of the darkness, eden and aponia both choosing to stay in the previous era (eden especially because she "belongs in the previous era"), ely's goodbye love song, aponia merging w the elysian realm to honor elysia's memory, eden's sim shattering so that mei could revive elysia's sim and saying that "to be apart of her forever is the most romantic nding" or sm like that, aponia and eden being made to work together and always being paired together in art, apoeden "im the bearer and youre the giver"..., THEYRE SO GOOD.

[proxythe]

Hello dear mutual

I JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU I ADORE YOUR ART!!! Call me your biggest fan if u dont have one already /hj

Always wanted to interact w you more but!!! Interactions are scary!!! So I'm sticking w liking your art and rb.......

but honestly, you really inspired me, because im a transmasc and well, god gave me two big naturals and honestly, I don't want to chop them off!! so seeing your aki really help me feel way better :')

AGHH I WANTED TO TELL U THAT YEAH HAVE A GOOD DAY

and one last thing.... im really curious abt your hcs on akishinji or akihiko in general... so if you want to spare some..... no pressure though.... okay bye...

hiii ooomf 🙋

thank you sooo much for saying this 😭😭 no one has ever told me theyre my biggest fan before… im really flattered thank you so much!!

i also overthink interactions real bad but if you ever want to message me or anything, you can !! i would seriously love to talk to you !!!

and im also transmasc w a large god given chest and i think ive said probably both these things before but that is also why i like to draw and represent that!!! ill never get tired of showing these bodies thru my art 🫰it makes me really really appreciative and happy when people tell me this .. i am Certain ive said this before… but i never get tired of letting anyone who tells me that i am really grateful to be told that my art helps in any way.. it makes me really happy i could cry

finally…. for my hcs�� lemme separate them so the post doesn’t look so cluttered

me hiding an underwhelming amount of hcs under this cut im so sorry oomf im really bad with headcanons for some reason but let me try to think if i have any lmfao

- i think them (literally) sleeping together is a big hc for them in general but that’s probably my favorite akishinji hc of All Time … it can do no wrong… its perfect…

- (more likely fits post canon/shinji living route) shinji being clingy asf is also one of my faves idk i think there’s just something in seeing him happy and shameless for once in his shit life 😭 getting hugs and physical contact he used to not think he deserves … i eat it up …

- aki being a cat person i think is a hc … it mostly came to me from pq when hes being so dramatic about koromaru licking him … he loves koro yes but i believe he is a cat person at heart … shinji is generally an animal lover but he’s also just a dog person

- p4au debunks this with that god awful design but i’ve always believed it: aki’s wardrobe is immaculate. guy is always dressed in some nice ass clothes and perfect style. ignoring p4au i also think aki would dress nice even in timeskip

- this is also popular methinks but them taking in ken and koromaru time skip is another that i basically just treat like its canon lmfaoo this one also is just perfect… does no wrong… amazing …

erm i think that’s all i can think of rn bc for some reason when someone asks me to specifically name hcs i kinda sorta forget every single one that’s ever entered my mind whether ive drawn it or even spoken it aloud … am i stupid ?