#and also i feel like that sort of stuff is more ran by established good artists yknowyknow

[cat-clawz-art]

Couldn't decide on whether I liked it better with the words or without, so have both!

[gallus-rising]

mp100 horror fic recs 👻🎃

For a while now I've been thinking about mp100's amazing horror potential and how it really doesn't get enough attention. SO! For the spooky season why don't you settle down with a nice scary story ;D

All of these fics are complete and have no shipping. I've only linked 1 fic per author so this list doesn't get bloated, but all of these wonderful authors have other fics just waiting for you to read them ❤ Some definitely freaked me out more than others, but I'm not gonna give any particular ratings since "scary" is so subjective. All fics are properly tagged and you know your own limits better than I do.

Also feel free to add on your own recs!! My general reading preferences and parameters when making this list is only a small sampling, so please share any and all of your favs ❤ Hope you enjoy!

If you see an "N/A" instead of a Tumblr UN that means there wasn't one linked in either the fics' notes or author's bio. If you know the author or are the author yourself feel free to let me know so I can edit the post :] And now in no particular order I present:

The Immeasurable Dark: @tinkertoysdamn Immediately breaking my own "no ships" rule just this once because I can't resist a good House of Leaves inspired story! If you've read HoL is you know what's up. If not expect a fucked-up house and impossibly large spaces, funky text formatting and footnotes, maybe a minotaur. Ship featured is background established serirei.

a pilgrimage: @tooomuchtofu Divine Tree arc bad ending. Told from the PoV of an unnamed worshiper on their first visit to "the capital" aka an overgrown Seasoning City. Uses second person pov wonderfully to build the dread.

And Who Is Killing Me?: @sammisafetypin Koyama beats the shit outta Mob a little harder than in canon, hospitalizing him and delaying the 7th Division rescue arc by [TIME NOT FOUND]. The Awakening Lab kids are so minor I tend to forget they even exist, but oh my god does this author make you care about them! This fic is written with great suddenly swapping PoVs that keep you feeling off kilter without making you lose track of the story. It's the longest fic on this list by far but 100% worth every second of it. A real gut punch.

Adoration: (N/A) The Divine Tree takes a particular interest in Reigen. I don't think I've ever seen anyone properly touch on how creepy the Psycho Helm constructs themselves are like this fic has. God, those things freak me out so much. Features "shipping" in the sense of a sentient broccoli becoming fixated on a guy. Keep in mind that the Psycho Helms look like Mob if you think that'll squick you out, but for me personally it added to the horror.

Similarities: (N/A) Reigen receives a fucked up email. Ends on the sillier side, but BOY is that email fucked up!

The Water Ran Clean: @bandtrees A Mogami-mentors-Mob AU and a damn fine one at that. Love the sort of fragmented style it's written in, and the exploration of Mogami's fucked up moral code is great. There's some Choice viscerally described imagery here 👌👌 Features a drawing of Mob covered in blood just in case that freaks you out; but worry, it's not his :]

An Outlier Among a Sea of Common Denominators: @hebezunet A rewrite of the early Divine Tree arc that asks the question we've all been too scared to consider: What if the brainwashing was like cordyceps? In particular I want to highlight the opening scene where after eating the broccoli powder cookies Teru has to physically rip florets out of his body to resist being brainwashed. Very gnarly stuff.

Prison Surveillance: (N/A) Touichirou was a very bad boss so Hatori pulls a The Ring to torment him in Psychic Supermax Prison. Was written pre-season 3 so Hatori doesn't work for the government.

Stairs: (N/A) Reigen and Mob have a job in the woods. There are some stairs. Inspired by an r/nosleep story which the author links to if you'd like to check that out as well.

Fight, Flight, or Fraud: @cowardlybean So everyone's got a really specific supernatural fear, right? Something that could absolutely never happen in real life but when you see it in media it freaks you the fuck out? Mine is someone I know being killed and replaced by an evil doppelganger and I'm the only one who knows. I've not seen anything since The Magnus Archives that's properly captured that fear like this fic, which is some of the highest praise I can bestow.

In Quicksand: @ghoststrawberries Reigen catches a nasty cold and by that I mean he gets possessed. Very fun the way Reigen's train of thought and feeling shifts around as the evil spirit tries to influence him while he's unconsciously resisting it. The scene where the gang realizes Reigen's been possessed is a real "OOOOOH, SHIT!!!" moment, but I won't spoil ;D

Playing Human: (N/A) Espers and psychic powers might not be real but spirits are. Poor baby Mob is a ghost possessing his own dead body. Features Dimple as the bad guy.

Mithridatism: If I may be so self-indulgent to list one of my own fics here :3 Absorbing evil spirits while still alive was actively killing Mogami and I wanted to dig into that! Features my Signature™ (lol) "HEY, DON'T EAT THAT!!" style of body horror.

[spaceguy44]

2024 US Election Post-mortem

I need to get my thoughts out about the election. I'll split it into a few main parts. (This will be long) 1. Why did Kamala lose/Trump win?

There's 2 main reasons for the result.

1. The biggest thing isn't that Trump gained a lot (he did somewhat), but that Kamala lost hugely. Kamala ran an "strong" but status-quo style center-lib campaign. This was not the right move to capture the electorate in today's America. It hasn't been since 2012. People at every part of the political spectrum have expressed disdain with the way establishment Democrats have run things. People want change! They have since 2008. Obama convinced everyone that he represented change. Hillary lost in 2016 because they didn't get that change after 8 years, and wanted something new no matter what. Biden did a good job in 2020 of being somewhat of a change candidate, but it was really COVID that allowed him to win. I do think Trump would've won in 2020 if it weren't for the pandemic. Kamala had momentum at first because she literally was "change." Biden was hugely unpopular, and people didn't like the return to liberal status quo, even if he did do more than even Obama to bring (domestic) left-wing policies to the forefront imo. Kamala represented hope at first that we could get away from the Biden that everyone hated, and bring in a whole new kind of politics and movement that would take us out of the neoliberal malaise that was the again Biden. What happened in stead was the establishment decided that there was a contingent of Americans that were allergic to left-wing politics, and they need to be captured.

THIS IS THE MAIN POINT OF FAILURE FOR BOTH HILLARY AND KAMALA. I do not believe there is a (large) population that is inherently right-wing, and another that is centrist, and another that is left-wing. I do think there are some that you could never convince one way or another, but it's just impossible that so many people could vote for Obama, and then turn around for Trump if people had some sort of weird internal political compass that they adhered to regardless of policy. No, Trump (and the right more broadly) MADE his base. This is the other reason Trump won.

2. Trump did make some gains, though I believe the right campaign from Harris could've overcome that. I think the Trump gains are more indicative of what Harris lacked. Kamala tried to adjust her campaign to match an electorate. Trump didn't give a fuck. He said what he wanted, and people liked that. They don't care about decorum. They don't care about "unity". They want someone they think will "fight" for them. People saw Kamala bringing in the Cheneys and just saw another neolib that would flake on any conviction to grab a vote. People don't want a policy. People want a candidate with conviction. Trump was also adept at playing on people's fears and insecurities. He MADE them into Trump supporters by playing on those fears. Harris did not try to make Harris supporters by playing on fears (at least enough). She was best with the abortion stuff, but that wasn't the issue that exit polls showed people care about. The top issue was the economy. Yes, "the economy" is objectively doing better if you look at the stats, but people don't feel like it because prices are still high despite the buying power of the dollar recovering (inflation was reduced!). People felt that because corporations kept prices at pre-inflation reduction levels. Harris briefly flirted with price capping, which would be the exact sort of populist policy that directly addresses people's fears/insecurities and breaks from the status quo that could excite a mythical "Harris base" that maybe existed for 2 weeks.

It's the same with immigration. Trump created a "big lie" about the border being in crisis, and played on the truly hurting average middle-American's insecurities. You have a population that is hurting for corporate consolidation destroying small local business, that has been devastated by opioids, and is seeing the towns and culture they grew up with decay and seemingly leave them behind. Are Trump's policies going to uplift them? Hell no! Does he talk to specifically them all and directly address their insecurities though? Absolutely. In stead of addressing these people (these are the ones on the red arrow map that's been going around), she accepted the lie about immigrants and rejected making any radical policy change from the system that threw middle America under the bus.

I should say I am literally living in a small rural city in a deep-red state, so I know what they're saying. These people aren't necessarily bigots. Some are, but I think most think they aren't. I think anyone can be prone to getting caught up in a hate movement if the right buttons are pressed, and Trump deftly presses those buttons. What needed to happen was pressing the right buttons to address their insecurities and fears that doesn't rely on hate and scapegoating. This is what I think Bernie Sanders does well in general polls, but there's too much movement within the Dems to preserve the liberal status quo. That needs to change or, the Dems die. LIBERALISM IS DEAD. We address the fears that made people Trump voters, or democracy dies! Here are 2.5 other smaller reasons: 3. Sexism, Racism, and Religiosity. I will not deny that these do play a part in certain parts of the electorate. However, I don't think they're insurmountable hurdles in a general election. I think Obama's campaign is proof of this. But we shouldn't deny that there are a significant portion that wouldn't vote for Kamala for purely bigotry reasons. Hell, I know some personally. But I do think it is a mistake to blame these for our failures. WE LEARN NOTHING OTHERWISE! 4. Believe it or not, but there's just a lot of people out there that just don't care or avoid politics all together. These people aren't bad or deficient, but they just don't include thinking about politics constantly as a part of their lives. They think about the election for a few days, and then get on with their lives for 4 years and tune out everything. Generally, these people are privileged, though there's also some that have been so hurt by our system and policies, that they tune out in pure nihilism about it all. These people vote on vibes, they vote based on what those they care about support, and many just sit out the whole thing. Voter apathy is definitely a thing, and it hurst especially the left imo. I do believe the majority of people would loath Trump's policies if they actually knew what they entailed, so this apathy only takes away from the left. 5. Kamala did NOT lose due to the Gaza protest. She might have lost a bit of support by not being an empathetic foil to Trump's "glass the whole strip" rhetoric, but I don't think it made a significant difference. And I'm gonna be real with y'all; Tumblr is mostly full of it if they think they can accomplish anything with a protest vote for Gaza. I learned this in 2016. That action won't do anything, and it's too risky when a literal fascist is on the other side of the ballot. Yes, I hate that Kamala did not oppose the current Biden policy of letting genocide happen, but Jill Stein/no vote can't pressure these people in the establishment without hurting their campaign financing. The votes are in, and 3rd party votes would not have saved Kamala.

2. What happens now? What is a 2nd Trump admin like?Maybe this is a bit of copium, but I do think that Trump will still be overall very incompetent and unable to enact the worst of his policies. Terrible things will still happen (and I'll get to that later), but I think some of the catastrophizing is a bit overblown. Let's take the mass deportation policy for example. This would be a horrible campaign on the level of the worst historical genocides. He would need to create an ICE apparatus so large that it would rival the fucking gestapo. Just think of all the agents and infrastructure that would need to be developed to round up ~20million people and transport them to the border and detention facilities. There's no practical way to deport that many people. The logical end point is concentration camps. Yes, we have them already to an extent (I mean the euphemistically named "immigrant detention facilities"), but we don't have anything that could handle "mass deportation." Building the facilities, hiring the agents, buying the buses and trains, and executing the warrants all takes a lot of time and money. None of this goes unnoticed, and it won't go without resistance today. Congress still controls the purse, despite what the supreme court says about Trump's immunity to do whatever he wants. SCOTUS said he can't be prosecuted for committing a crime, not that he can break a constitutional rule. The margins are too thin in the new congress, and I genuinely do not think that he has the political tact to navigate around how much resistance he'll get. My main evidence for this is the border wall. He had all the support he needed within congress and his base to try to "build that wall." The GOP even controlled both branches of congress, and shutdown the government multiple times to try to get his way. They had a majority in the house his first 2 years. It meant nothing! He got a regressive tax cut passed, and that's about it. I know there's a lot of bullshit he can pull to push terrible things through, and he'll have ghoulish cronies that will be the actual brains behind things, but honestly, they're dumb as shit too. They're too evil for their own good. They will eat themselves alive through infighting and liberal resistance before they can start a genocidal campaign on American soil. That's not to say there will be some horrible things. Here's what I do think he'll be able to do: - Ban abortion nationwide either through the Comstock Act or SCOTUS. - Completely fuck up half of our federal institutions that keep us informed and safe (ie. dismantling or gutting of Dept. of Education, EPA, FTC, NSA, HHS, and more). - Allow for more religious integration into our public institutions like schools - Essentially turn our government into an oligarchy (or more of one than it already is) - Reverse gay marriage rights (overturning obergefell) and restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ in the public sector overall. - Exacerbate the Gaza genocide - Let Putin have his way with Ukraine - Royally fuck up the economy with Tariffs - Probably get us into some kind of overseas war - If he survives to the end of his term, I do think that our democracy will be incredibly fucked. Like, I think they'll be able to push through so many bullshit rules that we won't be able to come back unless an actual leftist populist makes huge rounds.

Overall, it's gonna suck, especially if you're LGBT in a red state. I think he'll also continue targeting undocumented migrants, but I doubt he'll be able to put together the infrastructure to genocide them. Yes, Hitler and his regime were incompetent too, but it was really the enabling act post-Reichstag fire that allowed for him to start pushing the policies that would become the holocaust. It was only at that point that he had no more resistance, and could order whatever he wants. We're definite not there yet with Trump.

3. What do we (the left) do now?Honestly, just stay vigilant, be active within your community, make connections (even with Trump voters), and don't give in to the despair. Once you're hopeless, it will only make it easier for them to keep winning. We fight against the fascists until the bitter end. The only endpoint of fascism is self destruction. I am a leftist, but I am not a revolutionary. I think armed action rarely leads to good outcomes, and history shows that. However, if we get a Reichstag fire moment or an enabling act moment, that's not the point to lose hope. If people start turning their neighbors into the gestapo-fied ICE, that's not the point to hide. These represent the time where politics should be abandoned, and an actual violent fight for freedom and liberty should begin. I pray we never come to that point. Hopefully, these next four years will look like a continuation of 2016-2020. We'll have a slow degrading of our rights, but if too many of those we all care about are hurt, we can come together and help to reverse it. I know things are super polarized and we all have our own little bubbles in society, but there comes a breaking point where too many people are hurt, and even the biggest MAGA head will have someone they deeply care about that is very hurt by Trump. This is my hope, though it unfortunately relies on things getting worse first before becoming better. 

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

wither rose alliance........gneder

i assume this is in reference to the transgender/appearence headcanons post so thank you for your service anon gender you will get. for all of them, even. you will get it under the cut however because empires has so many members to discuss and they're all getting a good two paragraphs worth of thoughts.

ok so first things first just wanna establish the rules we're working with here, cause i think about this a lot. for humans (so the entire wra, joey, joel, and pix), we're living in a sort of medieval era in terms of science for trans folks, though not medieval attitudes. this is not to say there’s no transphobia or anything, cause like, there is and there isn’t. i’m not gonna be discussing anyone experiencing really aggressive transphobia here, but i’m still gonna be discussing gender norms and worries and passing and stuff, y’know? it’s a much more modern attitude towards gender than medieval times, that’s for sure, but it’s not a perfect world cause i like to project. but generally they don't have like, hormone therapy or anything like that. for the non humans, each race has varying approaches to gender, so i'll touch on them when i get to them.

starting with the humans!

fwhip

fwhip uses strictly he/him pronouns and is a trans man. he's the shortest member of the wither rose alliance, not because he's actually particularly short, but because the rest of them are all 6' or taller. depending on how i'm feeling for the day, he's somewhere between 5'6" and 5'9", but he's also constantly wearing shoes with subtle lifts in them, so most of the emperors are under the impression he's about two inches taller than he is. he's also the skinniest of the wra due to being just slightly malnourished (a thing i could get into but i will not do that here).

fwhip realized he was trans when he was in his mid-late teens, around 15-16, and spent no real amount of time in the closet. this was also around the time fwhip was beginning to be abruptly trained to be the emperor of the grimlands after gem ran away, so he didn't have great control over his gender presentation until he became emperor. at that point, fwhip chopped his hair off and began to present significantly more masculine, binding (i am giving them binders, for no reason other than i want to), speaking in a lower register, and defaulting to more bulky/form concealing clothes. this is partially because of the gender, but also because of the aforementioned "kinda small and malnourished looking in comparison to most of the people he hangs out with" so it is also in an attempt to look more intimidating.

gem

gem uses she/her pronouns and is a trans woman. gem is the tallest of the wra, standing somewhere around 6'2"-6'3". she is similarly lanky to fwhip (as she also is a bit malnourished, again for reasons i could but won't get into), with most of her being legs, but she gets a bit more muscle as the series goes on and she starts training more in martial fighting alongside magic. she also has a tooth gap, and is very pale and freckles easily.

gem leans pretty heavily into feminine presentation, skirts and very long hair and chest padding and all that, as she is much more used to the gender presentation of the grimlands, moreso than any other empire. gem realized she was trans not long before she ran away, and had slowly begun to come out of the closet when she decided to run away (that and the wizard thing are not related to her being trans, no more than they are related to her being alive, y'know?) the crystal cliffs has only ever known her as a woman, and she greatly prefers it as such. generally, the roseblings are the members of the wra who care the most about passing. gem also got her name from her late mother.

pearl

pearl uses she/her pronouns with most people, but if she likes you enough you might get he/him privileges, and is transfem. her gender is probably most adequately summed up as lesbian. pearl is about 6' even, and she's very muscular, with broad shoulders she's a huge fan of. she's built like someone who fights regularly, but also like someone who's been doing farm work since she could walk. powerful bones and muscles.

she has long hair, with an undercut, in order to make keeping it out of her face easier and to keep her cool in the heat. other than the long hair, she doesn't tend to lean wildly feminine in her presentation. she wears dresses pretty frequently, but it is simply not practical to do most of the work she does in a dress, so her closet's about a 50/50 split. she also doesn't do any of the cosmetic stuff (including shaving super frequently, but she also doesn't grow much facial hair naturally, just some stubble) and doesn't wear a bra. simply not her thing! also, pearl is her birth name, her parents were going for cool and gender neutral and then she became transgender.

sausage

sausage uses he/any, in the way that he knows exactly how he looks and presents and that most people will default to gendering him as male because of the way he looks, carries himself, dresses, etc. and he doesn't really care enough to correct them. their gender would probably most accurately described as genderqueer, but the better descriptor for both his gender and sexuality is bear.

as you might've guessed sausage is FAT and STRONG and HAIRY. she has very dark and thick hair literally everywhere, including a very thick beard. he's the middle of the road in terms of height for the wra, either the same height as pearl or a hair shorter but it evens out when they're in shoes. and i'm saying it again because i truly cannot stress it enough- sausage is fat and has a lot of muscle mass. that custom sword was a great sword those things are fucking heavy.

joey

joey is a trans man who uses he/him pronouns. he stands around 5'9" (the lucky bastard) and is very twink-ish. just generally very lithe but in an actually well fed way this time. he doesn't wear a binder because he doesn't really feel the need for one, and also he's in the jungle hanging out with solely animals all the time anyways. who even cares. joey kind of naturally passes well but he truly doesn't care about it at all outside of keeping his hair short, and even that's more a practicality thing than anything else.

joey has been locked into his gender ever since he was very young, and most of the people he grew up with only ever knew him as a man. he also absolutely abandoned those people and moved away, but this is also the only way the other emperors have ever known him to be, so. joey generally doesn't put a lot of thought into his gender outside of "i am a man", and frankly, good for him. also yes i'm implying he's just walking around tits out all the time and YKNOW WHAT. good for him. fuck it who cares.

joel

joel uses any pronouns, though he usually defaults to he/him, she/her, and whatever neopronouns you want forever. joel is the shortest of the human emperors, standing around 5’5” (sometimes shorter depending on how i’m feeling), and he only accuses his friends of transphobia when they make fun of him about it sometimes. ze is a very compact person, fitting a surprising amount of muscle into a (comparatively) small frame. joel is definitely wider than ve is long, y’know? also joel’s a butch lesbian argue with the wall if you think otherwise.

joel, despite being human, doesn’t quite have the usual human conception of gender. she's been on her own for a very long time, as her parents passed away when she was very young. he’s been a wanderer for most of his life, never really settling down long enough to get entirely mixed into the culture of any given place. the only human empire that joel spent any significant amount of time in as a kid was pixandria, which already had a laxer approach to gender than most of the other human empires (i’ll get into it), and most of joel’s childhood was spent in various small settlements or caravans that had a ton of non-humans in them anyways. this results in a joel who doesn’t really have a grasp on “traditional” human views of gender, and who doesn’t really care to learn. like, if you asked, he’s probably going to tell you he’s a man, or maybe transmasc if you really press, but it’s not a label that xe particularly cares about.

pix

pix uses they/he pronouns and is agender. they’re one of the tallest human emperors, standing somewhere around 6’2”-6’4”. gem’s usually still taller than them in heels, but they’re probably around the same height if neither of them has shoes on. pix is strong, i’m thinking like an mma fighter build. you can’t really see the muscle under all those flowy desert fabrics, but if you get into a fight you’ll know it’s there.

pixandria, due to being so far away from most of the other human empires, has a lot of more notable cultural differences. one of these things is their approach to gender, which has always been a lot more lax in regards to people who aren’t really a man or a woman. as a result, pix has been agender basically his entire life. as a side effect of this and being the oldest of the emperors, he was also inadvertently gender awakenings for a lot of them when they first met for diplomatic reasons. and sexuality awakenings for some, because they’re also so pretty. they’ve got very beautiful tan skin and hair that falls somewhere between their shoulders and mid back, depending on the time of year, and a bit of facial hair and they are just peak gender.

and now for the non humans!

lizzie:

lizzie uses she/they pronouns and is probably most accurately described as transfem, but labels get weird in this section. she’s about 5’7”-5’8” when in her human form, and then solidly 10’ in her ocean queen form. they’ve got broad shoulders as well, and is pretty much the definition of a swimmer’s build. she presents very femininely solely for the joy of it- flowy dresses and spiny skirts are so fun!

lizzie and jimmy are not the only fish people in this world, but they’re the only ones who are Like That, but they do both have experience with the fish folk that is reflected in their views on gender. due to becoming an amnesiac after crawling out of the water, a teenaged lizzie was taken in by some of those aforementioned fish folk who integrated her into some of the land dwelling fish cultures before she struck out on her own. fish folk do not have anything even approximating the human concept of gender. some fish can change sex depending on what their environment needs, like, let’s be real with ourselves here. the fish folk are aware of the concept, obviously, they interact with humans all the time, but most of them don’t do that and never have. lizzie, as such, has no concept of gender either. she uses she/they pronouns because she sound nice next to her name and just Feel Right for them as a person. they don’t have the gender attachment to these pronouns in the way a human would, but an attachment is absolutely there, and it feels very weird and strange for her to be referred to with any pronouns outside of she/they.

jimmy:

jimmy uses he/they/se pronouns and is a trans man. i know jimmy didn’t get the same ocean orb transformation lizzie got, but i’m letting him be at least a bit different on either side of getting his memories back. when he’s at his most human, jimmy’s about 5’6”, when he’s at his most fish, he’s about 6’7”. yes se gains literally a foot of height, it pisses off everyone in seas immediate vicinity. jimmy is very gangly and even after living on land for years, not super used to walking like a person, and it shows. he and lizzie are also two of the palest emperors, as they both are deep sea fish who are not meant for the amount of sun they get.

partially due to having integrated into land dwelling society when they were younger and partially due to the codlands being right on the border of mythland (and having a lot more shared culture than most human and non human empires would usually have), jimmy has a much more human understanding of gender than lizzie. hence the fact that he identifies as a trans man- when they crawled out of the ocean, people called them a girl, and jimmy found that to be not right, so here we are. the cod folk have different concepts of what being a certain gender means than humans, since they’re incorporating the idea of gender into a culture that didn’t originally have anything even close, but they have still picked up the gender thing more over time, y’know? jimmy’s more open to fucking with sear gender due to being a biologically different species from everyone sea grew up with, so yes, sear a man, but only in the ways that matter to sear, not everyone else (codfather vs codboy is partially a gender thing for jimmy. trust me. this is the voice of a person who thinks about this jimmy clip everyday.)

katherine:

katherine uses she/fae pronouns and is a trans woman. she’s 5’4”-5’5”, and has a very lithe and lightweight build so that her wings can actually support her body. those things are so small her bones have simply GOT to be light as hell. she has very long hair, coming to around her butt, that she spends a whole lot of effort on perfectly maintaining. fae presents very femininely, less out of a desire to pass and more because that’s just how fairies present in general, regardless of gender.

fairies have a concept of gender, though there’s a lot more nuance to it than human gender, with it being a wide spectrum rather than a binary. (obviously i am aware gender is not binary i am literally nonbinary but you know what i mean here). the fairies have just wildly different social hierarchies and systems going on, so their views on gender are a lot more complicated and tied into that. because fairies are also so tuned into magic, they’ve also got the closest we can get to medically transitioning in this universe. y’know the shrine that the wizard has in stardew valley that allows you to change your name, appearance, and gender, and nobody will ever comment on it and they’ll act like you’ve been like that the whole time? yeah that’s basically what katherine did as well. fae’s got her own gender she presents as to the fairies, but it has a similar sort of effect on non-fairies as well. no one remembers faer name before fae was katherine, for example, and she likes it that way!

shrub:

shrub uses he/she pronouns and is non binary. this is one of the most important ones on this list to me, to the point that i forget it's not canon and think people are misgendering shrub sometimes by accident, lol. shrub is the smallest of the cast by far, at 4'3", and is short and stocky. she is also fat btw. important for you to know this. his hair is quite short, mostly because he hates putting in more than the absolute basic amounts of work to keep it maintained. as such it never gets to be more than a bob. similarly, he defaults to shorts and pretty simple shirts because it's the easiest things to wear and run around in.

the closest things gnomes have to a gender binary comes in the form of pronouns. they don't have gendered pronouns like we do, but they do have different pronouns that are specifically used to signal what type of job the person in question holds. this means they have a ton of them, as you might expect, though there's obviously not one for every individual job, but rather groups. this also means that depending on the locale you're in or the dialect you're speaking in, what jobs correspond to what pronouns can vary a bit, for fun and profit. shrub is kind of aware of the human concept of gender, but her closest friends on empires are a fairy and a man who doesn't super care about all that, so the grasp she has on it is slim. as such, he doesn't lean particularly into any given presentation of gender, and defaults to he and she pronouns when asked because he likes the mouthfeel of them, honestly.

scott:

scott uses he/they pronouns and is nonbinary (though this is another one where the labels are weird). scott is tall for the emperors, at about 6'7", but actually pretty short for an elf. he is all limb, with very long arms and legs, and they're on the skinnier side. they also have the light bones thing i mentioned with katherine, but their wings are much more adequately sized, so it's not as intense. scott tends towards more masculine gender presentation, but in the ways elves are usually masculine in fantasy media. it's a very pretty and flowy masculinity that also sometimes includes skirts if you're scott, but only sometimes. also his hair is naturally blue. elves just have weird as hell hair colors (xornoth's hair is naturally magenta, for example).

elves simply live too long and are too generally disinterested in human matters to have human concepts of gender. that's a human problem, not theirs. due to scott's status as a diplomat and prince/king of rivendell, however, he's been engrossed in human life and culture his entire life, so he's very aware of the concept. this is doubly true for him specifically because every other emperor in his generation is also trans, and because the closet human empire to him growing up was the grimlands, which has the closest equivalent to real life strict gender roles. scott is well aware of the fact that he doesn't really have the same understanding of gender as his human friends, but he really wanted to fit in as a kid so he just started grabbing at things that they heard about from various humans they interacted with frequently. thankfully for him he gravitated towards nonbinary as a label very quickly, and he and they pronouns were just what everyone was calling him when he went places, and it didn't feel wrong, so, sure, why not?

(i'm not giving xornoth a whole paragraph due to the.... craziness, but xornoth is also nonbinary and uses he/they/it. when it was human, it defaulted to a more masculine presentation, such as growing facial hair, and never really going for skirts in the way scott does.)

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

Chapter 21 of Chained: To Wield The Blade We Have Forged

A/N: This chapter is stephcass focused enough that I think people might enjoy this as a standalone thing, so I'll be posting the chapter both on AO3 as usual, and right here in this post! This also connects to the reblog I wrote up the other night gushing about Batgirl (2000) #19 and the potential in a Cass vs Jason confrontation!

For this chapter only, NOT the whole fic: Rated T for Teen Ships are Stephanie Brown/Cassandra Cain and vaguely hinted at Jason Todd/Tim Drake There's gonna be a LOT of plot points that don't seem to go anywhere, cause they're parts of much bigger arcs, but there's some really sweet talk about deep stuff towards the end and the start is Steph handling a deescalation scenario Hope you enjoy ^w^ !

Dear War Diary,

You know, some days I don't even think Ivy should be in Arkham. Logging, pollution, hair spray tearing a hole in the ozone layer, pesticides - if I could feel plants' pain as they were broken apart, I'd want to feed people to ambulatory venus fly traps too. Heck, back in high school I was sure tempted to let her have at some of my more obnoxious classmates.

Unfortunately, today was not one of those days.

We knew something was weird this time around when the docs at Arkham called warning us that she woke up screaming and her powers went out of control. Usually when this sort of thing happens she goes towards a clear goal. Like, there'll be a construction site or a factory or something damaging the land and drawing her out.

Thing is though, the more we chased her, the clearer it became that she wasn't running towards anything.

She was fleeing, and seemingly had no clear place to bolt to. First she fled to the meat packing district. Then she ran down to the water, and like, we expected her to follow the coast? But she just swam right in! Left huge algal blooms in her wake too; like the lacy train of a queen's dress. She even left Gotham altogether for a hot minute only to turn back again for no reason. She was very obviously out of her mind frightened of something, but we had no idea what it was, and frankly, we still don't.

Tonight had real big 'predator running from the wildfire' energy, is what I'm saying.

It took several days, but eventually she gave up on running and bunkered down in one of the parks. The concrete storage shed she picked as her new home was so overgrown by the time we got to it that it was impossible to see a single square inch of the structure. The hardwood and thorn vines covering it had to have been at least a meter thick.

And that little backstory finally brings us to tonight's patrol.

I tapped my earpiece, "We getting anything on the seismic, O?"

"Nope. If she's digging she's doing it slow enough we're not gonna get any warning. Good news though, I finally got an answer back from Waller. Harley Quinn can be on the line within ten minutes notice."

"Awesome. Speedy, you good to cover me?"

"Yup! Got a whole quiver full of tranquilizers and frog crotch arrows ready for her."

I snort-laughed, "God, what a name!"

"I know right?! But yeah, you're good to go. I'll be aiming from the East, so gimmie a sign if you think you'll need me at a different angle."

"Got it. Alright O, give that ten minute notice and I'll start the approach."

Step one: Get the cops to back up the perimeter by at least ten feet all around. Frankly they were gonna be useless in a fight if it came to that, and the whole goal here was to get this done without bloodshed.

This part was pretty damn easy. I knew one of the cops there by name and she was more than happy to back her fellow officers out of the negotiation zone.

Step two: Establish a desire for peaceful communication.

I spoke through a megaphone into the general direction of the tree-bunker, "Doctor Isley? Would you be willing to come out and talk?"

The woods creaked and groaned, shifting minutely. My heart pounded in my chest, waiting, watching, every leaf bud an acid spitting behemoth in the making.

Nothing came out.

I called out to her again, "Okay. Doctor Isley, you seem really upset, and we don't understand why, but you haven't hurt anyone yet so we're not going to hurt you."

I glanced around surreptitiously at the cops. Lucky for me they all seem to be on their best behavior tonight. No one was grumbling about wanting to hurt her loud enough for me to hear, and I just had to trust that meant the grass couldn't hear them either.

"If you don't want to talk to me, that's okay. We want to get you some help, so we're going to try and get Harley on the phone so you can talk to her."

Against my ear, the phone crackled to life.

Time for step three: Get negotiation partner on board.

"Which bat-brat do I have the displeasure of speakin to today!?"

"It's Batgirl; we need your help getting through to Ivy."

"HAH! Well fat fuckin chance, asshole! I ain't talkin her inta anythin she don't wanna do!"

"And we're not asking you to! She hasn't even hurt anybody, and she's not making any threats, but she is clearly terrified. We think there's something or someone after her, and it's not us."

I gave her a moment to think it over. She's got to know we wouldn't let Ivy die, but there's always the chance we're just lying.

"Fine. Alright, what's the plan here?"

"Thank you! I'm gonna hold the speaker up to the megaphone, and you let her know you want to talk, then I'll slowly approach and once in speaking range I'll take the megaphone off of the phone to give the two of you some privacy."

"An you'll still be listinen the whole damn time of course."

"Yeah, sorry about that, but at least the cops won't be."

Harley sighs, "Turn the lights down in the house and start the music then. Lets get this show rollin an' over with."

Step four: Negotiate and deescalate.

Through the phone megaphone combo she said, "Hey Sweetpea, mind lettin me hear yer pretty voice again?"

The protective wall started growing again, getting thicker. I chance a few slow steps forwards anyway, since nothing offensive starts growing either. Or at least I hoped there wasn't something offensive in there.

"I've missed ya. Not the same kickin ass with these bozos in here, ya'know?"

As I got closer, the smell of ozone got stronger, breathing started to feel weird, and every drop of sweat evaporated off of me, leaving me parched. Her hypergrowth vegetation was stripping the carbon dioxide and water out of the air so fast that the atmosphere around it was going haywire.

Just as I thought she was waiting for me to get close enough for her tree's roots to just use me as a nutrient bag, an opening formed over the doorway to the storage unit, and she shakily poked her head out, calling for Harleen.

She was messed up. She clearly hadn't been able to take care of herself and

I'm not writing the next part down verbatim. Just seems too... invasive. They said a lot of sweet an

I don't feel great about this, but just in case I need it, I am going to record what I remember of how Harley talked her down.

Harley said, "Pumpkin, I'm so sorr

Okay. Third time's the charm?

This was not a criminal wrecking havok for profit. This was not a terrorist making demands. This was someone having a breakdown due to forces outside her control and her girlfriend comforting her as best she could. I shouldn't even have been hearing it, really, so yeah I think I'd feel too skeezy to keep dinner down if I wrote it all out 'just in case'.

Informationally speaking, hopefully the only part of their conversation I'll ever need to know again is that Ivy said "The green is dying" and "She's made the world barren; the flowers will never bloom again" and basically made it really clear that the damage was already done and no one was after her.

If you're reading this Future Me and you desperately need to know exactly what happened, sorry not sorry, get a time machine or something.

Anyways, after it became clear that there was nothing we could do for her other than get her back to mental help, I gave Speedy the signal to take the shot. The tranqs hit her before she realized anything was up, and there were only a few seconds of scuffle, then she was down for the count.

I picked up the phone again to cut the line and Harley said, "So that's it, huh? I talk her into openin' the treeline, you drug her up, and that's curtains?"

"There clearly wasn't anything else we could do for-"

"Fuck off you insufferable, controlling, shitty, furry knock off cops! I shoulda told her ta mulch ya!"

There were the muffled sounds of the phone being taken out of her hand, and then a voice I didn't recognize, "Well, I hope that clown to plant heart to heart was worth the favor."

"Zero injuries, zero deaths, zero horrifying poison scares: I'd say it was."

She, whoever she was (I assume it was Waller) chuckled, "Well you aren't the one picking up the tab. Tell Oracle it was a pleasure doing business again."

The line went dead.

"You get that O?"

"Loud and clear. And hey, don't let what Quinn said get to you. You did great."

"Thanks," I kinda didn't feel it, but the sentiment was nice.

The rest of patrol was a long and boring ride on the top of a police van, making sure that no one ambushed her on her way back to Arkham, and then a short conversation about what they're going to do to keep her there this time.

They've had a couple different ways to cut her off from whatever The Green is for a while now. Every method has nasty side effects, and half her breakout attempts were in direct opposition to using them. At this point their policy is to just help her manage being connected. Considering what I saw that connection putting her through tonight? The docs rubber stamped cutting her off from The Green again, at least temporarily, and I'm pretty okay that.

So yeah. We won. Yippee. And all it took was arm twisting a woman held prisoner by a shadowy government agency in order to trick the love of her life into making herself vulnerable to us...

God this job sucks sometimes.

And the suck was not over yet, not by a long shot! And the suck was not only reserved for me either. Uh, okay obviously since Harley and Ivy, but also!

Oracle called to tell me this: "I need to give you a heads up before you return to base, and Speedy needs some time to handle a private phone call so I'm telling you this now. Black Bat got into a fight that upset her pretty bad. She's been on the training sims and dummies for over three hours, and I'm kinda worried she's not gonna sleep unless someone helps her untangle her head."

"I thought everything went smooth on her end, what the heck happened?"

"Easier if I just show you," Oracle said and fed a video taken by one of the Bat-House's internal cameras into my HUD.

It showed Ca (gah trying not to write anyone's names is a mess) Black Bat in civilian clothes, standing in a doorway. She's staring at the Red Hood from across the room with an expression of frustrated determination.

He ignores her for a while, continuing to read, curled up on the couch in a posture so terrible I have to wonder if he's trying to give himself back problems.

She just... kept staring. And staring.

Finally he asked, sounding very snarky and annoyed, "Can I help you?"

"Why did you pull the trigger again? You were better. You did better for so long. Why?"

"I don't owe you that shit," He narrowed his eyes at her, "And you don't get to decide I was better just cause you liked it more when I was docile."

She marches over to him, "I know how it hurts. I see it hurt you! I want to help. I want to know why."

"No," He said, standing up to loom over her, as though she couldn't kick his ass five ways from Sunday with a hand tied behind her back, "You want me to get on my knees and sob and beg for forgiveness. As though any of you shitheads ever even deserved my forgiveness!"

"No! I want to see you get better! I wanted another little brother!"

"Well congratu-fucking-lations, you got one! Don't worry, Dickie hates it just as much. I'm sure he can give you some pointers on how to go fuck yourself about it."

My jaw started hurting from how tight I had my teeth clenched as I watched her face twist in open rage-hurt-sorrow, "Why won't you stop burning our house down!? You're in it!"

"I. Don't. Owe. You. That."

She glared up at him defiantly, "You owe someone."

"No. I don't."

"Sheezus!" Black Canary said as she entered the room, "I leave you alone for five minutes and you're already picking a fight with her? Seriously?"

Black Bat's anger simmered below the boiling point again, "Not a fight."

"That sure looked like-"

"Not a fight." She declared bitterly, storming out of the room.

BC raised an eyebrow at Hood.

He smiled all teeth and irritation, "Not a fight!"

She rolled her eyes and took her post back up as the video ended.

I sighed, "Well. That'd do it. Thanks for the warning, I'll see if I can talk to her, take her mind off it."

"Appreciated. I tried but... I dunno. You'll probably have more luck."

"We'll see I guess! So, am I good to check in with Speedy, or is she still on her phone call?"

"You're good."

When I grappled up to the roof she was on, Speedy looked pretty damn unhappy. So, like, clearly tonight was sucking complete ass for everyone. Mercury in retrograde or some shit, idk.

"You got news I take it?" I asked.

"Mhm, great news! By which I mean totally shit news. Apparently the lab I get my bloodwork done at broke, as in everything is giving false negatives. So yeah, all my bloodwork for the past who knows how long might have been wrong!"

"Oh shit. You want us to test you in the Batcave? Guarantee the lab down there could handle whatever you need!"

"I appreciate the offer, but I'll need to fast for twelve hours beforehand no matter what, so it wouldn't really be any quicker. Also my civilian GP would be pretty leery of a Bat-Diagnostic, especially since they already got me an appointment with the closest available people."

O cut in over comms, "That is suspiciously fast..."

Speedy shrugged, "I've got a feeling Green Arrow might have pushed me up the list somehow. He might not be (secret identity stuff I can't write down here :P ) anymore, but he's still got some pull."

"Hmm, well, both of you get back to base and we can figure out the logistics once you're here."

"Roger."

"Aye Aye Captain."

Once she cut off I offered, "Grapple line tag on the way there to take your mind off it?"

"You know what? I could use something to stretch my legs out after all that sniper crouching. Fuck it, let's do this."

Swingy swingy swingy over the buildings, across the bridge, to grandmother's imposing, minefield-surrounded cave we went!

We got into the cave, changed out of our gear, and sure enough, Black Bat was still in the training section, running herself ragged. Speedy went up to get some sleep since she couldn't eat dinner now anyways (do NOT envy that). So I went straight into an attempt to pry Black Bat off the training mats.

"Heads up!" I called out and tossed a bottle of water at her head.

She caught it without even looking, swapping to kicks and using her other hand to demolish her sandbag opponents, "Been drinking enough just fine."

"Sure. What'll it take to convince you to take a break and drink it with me anyways?"

She paused, leg still raised to kick, perfectly poised like gravity wasn't even a factor. It always makes my legs hurt looking her like that. Makes the rest of me swoon too.

"Would um..." She frowned, like she expected me to think less of her for making the request, "You bring dinner down here? For us both?"

I gave her a smile, "Yeah, of course. Mind saying how come?"

"Because Hood's up there and I want to fight him more. If I fight him, have to look at him. Have to watch him feeling and thinking and..." She finally put her leg down, and fidgeted with the cap of her water, "And I just don't want to."

"Didn't realize you hated him that bad."

"Not sure I do? Messy."

"Yeah, messy for me too."

Translation: I still don't know how to feel about him taking grisly revenge against Black Mask 'in my honor'. Still also super don't know how to feel about his welcome home gifts of a gun and an offer to come murder criminals with him.

Then I add, "But I'll have you know I'm a first class mess messer with-er! So if you want to talk about it, I'd be happy to."

She very briefly smiled, then her face feel again and somber moment passed before she said quietly, "Yeah, okay. Bring food down and... we can talk."

"On it."

"Um, wait!"

"Huh?"

She caught my arm and reeled me in for a kiss on the cheek, "There."

I laughed and gave her a proper kiss, "There! Love you."

Diary, have I ever told you about how she looks when she blushes? Because I seriously think I'll need to pull out the old poetry textbooks in order to do it justice.

Upstairs took me passed the dining room, where Red Hood and Red Robin were talking.

"The fuck is that?" Hood asked, leaning over his shoulder.

"Blueprints. I'm having a section of my house renovated while I'm stuck here."

"Wwwwhy?"

"I am swiftly being driven mad by boredom and saw a really neat indoor garden set-up on pinterest."

"An indoor garden? In Gotham? Do you fuckin want to get strangled to death in your sleep by vines?"

RR does the little 'tch' thing he picked up from Robin, "Whatever, it'll be fine, these are tiny little arboreals and I'll have reinforced airlocks leading in and out."

"That does fucking nothing for attacks in your sleep."

"Which is why I'll have the whole lockdown system automated. I was already going to do automation for the plant care stuff anyways, cause lets be honest here, there was no way I was ever going to keep them alive on my own."

"...The speed and ease with which you oscillate between self depreciating paranoia and megalomaniacal hubris is fascinating."

And even as pissed off as I am with both of them, that still almost made me friggin lose it laughing, RR seemed so offended too, it was great!

And speaking of pissed off? Yeah, seeing RR acting so chummy with Hood was kinda making my blood boil! Like, maybe he didn't even know they fought. But he's supposed to be her friend too, and it's still sticking in my craw, and I'm busy with the whole damn city needing patroled, and so bottom line: I didn't talk to him tonight, and I'm probably not gonna talk to him tomorrow night either!!

Agent A had several plates set to the side already when I got into the kitchen. I think he assumed at least a few of us were gonna go off in our separate corners after the argument. Made it nice and easy to snag two and bring it down.

She had clearly been pacing, waiting for me, back down in the cave.

We sat together and she held my hand while we ate - pretty awkward, but super worth it. We stayed quiet, me cause I wanted to give her the space to start talking, and her probably because she wasn't sure where to start.

Once all the peas and mash were gone and she was pushing her drumstick around the plate she asked, "Ready?"

"Go for it. All ears."

"It's a guilt thing I think? Least a little?"

"Kinda always figured you were uh, how to put it, I guess invested in him, cause of that sort of parallel between you two?"

She nodded, "Not all of it's that, though. Different guilt," She gives me a rueful smile, "I'm layered in it, huh?"

"Like a lasagna of angst," I told her solemnly.

She huffed a quiet laugh, fidgeting with my hand, "Am I um. A tasty lasagna?"

"Oh yeah, you're delicious," I said with a cheesy wink.

"Terrible," She laughed a bit more, running her thumb over the back of my hand, and the nervous sad crept right back in, "You know about um... One day, I rescued a man? Murderer. From the gas chamber?"

"Yeah. Not well, you've never said much, but I've read a bit about it. Was kind of a big news thing."

"On the way out I met the mother of his victim. She demanded justice. She demanded his death. I didn't know how to- to reconcile her grief. Still don't. But back then... I put him back in the gas chamber. I look at Hood. Wonder if he's the murderer or the mother or the executioner. Wonder what the mother was. Wonder what I was. Wonder if the distinction matters at all."

"Hood's trying to cut all the bad people out, trying to bleed the world better. You're trying to keep it all alive, trying to keep everyone growing. Maybe the other distinctions don't matter, but I think this one has to."

She squeezed my hand tight and kissed every one of my knuckles delicately, "I hope so. Trying to believe so."

"I kinda think you already do. You may be an angst lasagna, but you don't do what you do just out of guilt, yeah?"

"Guess so... I wanted so bad to find out that they'd been replaced by aliens or something. Find out that wasn't him. Not now and um. Not on TV all those months ago. At the very least I was hoping to find regret."

"I really wish I had something better to say than, you know, his determination to be an asshole isn't something we can fix. Just gotta keep growing our garden and hope he decides to join us for real sometime."

"Yeah..." Another round of knuckle kisses, "Yeah, you're right," She wrinkles her nose, "Sucks you're right."

"Yup."

She pressed her forehead against our intertwined hands for a while.

Then she asked, "Tell me about one of your shows?"

"Sure."

So I chattered about some light stuff she nodded along to until we were both ready for bed. It was honestly really nice, and I think I needed it too, a lot more than I realized.

So yeah, here's hoping tomorrow is less of a complete shit show from start to finish.

- Batgirl IV

[blues-valentine]

I am not surprised the Gossip Girl Reboot got cancelled because it was boring and I couldn’t finish season 1. I think the creators thought having that property would be enough for the show to be successful and focused all of their energy on those outfits and soundtracks but did nothing for the show to actually work. My opinion on why the reboot failed to impact audiences that no one asked for:

It’s not like the original GG was a writing masterpiece but it came out at the right time. In 2007, while there were a lot of successful shows, a lot of the teen shows like The OC, One Tree Hill, Gilmore Girls etc were tame in comparation to the format GG was presenting. Aside from the UK (Skins), it was unusual for American TV to exploit sex and drugs on teens the way Gossip Girl did. They turned the negative reviews into promotional banners. That was A+ marketing. They wanted to be problematic. That was their selling point. So in theory, the idea of a group of wealthy teens from NYC doing all sort of awful stuff was appealing. The show wasn’t trying to be apologetic. Yeah, some issues were too much not just Chuck but so many other things but the point stands with the show not wanting to fix it. This with a really good fashion sense — GG really pushed the boundaries on fashion during late 2000’s. It was meant to be a hit ahead of its time. The problem with the reboot is that is not new or original. Euphoria already exists. Teens doing alcohol and sleeping around has been in media for a while and people crave something new. If they wanted to stand out they need so much more than just a known intellectual property but most importantly create characters with personality and sadly, that wasn’t the case.

The characters for the reboot lack distinctive personalities and it was difficult to buy why they were even friends. Like, the group on the OG worked because there was an established dynamic but every character in the new one felt like a parody. The initial conflict was them being mad Julien had a sister. For the OG, the initial conflict worked because at first Serena presented herself as a mystery – as the IT girl that ran away and no one knew why. That increased her mysterious persona and her popularity. She ran away because she slept with Nate (Blair’s boyfriend) and while she was away Blair managed to establish herself as the IT girl. That made the rivalry between Blair and Serena more believable and so Serena's dynamic with Nate. Blair had reasons to feel insecure over Serena because she had the influence and wealth to out power her. They tried to recreate that with Zoya and Julien but failed miserably.

I think every character in the OG group had a very established dynamic and propose. Serena was the mysterious girl that created the rivalry with Blair and also presented herself as a bridge outside of the Upper East Side because of her relationship with Dan. Blair was the "mean girl" — the one ready to create chaos if she feels like she is being displaced from her status. Julien never gave me that energy. Neither did Audrey. None of them were able to go the lengths Blair would go for a little drama. The closest thing to Blair they had was Monet and they didn’t give her enough to shine but that’s also the thing. Teen media keeps trying to recreate their very own version of Blair Waldorf but fails everytime. Every teen show after GG now has their sophisticated "mean girl" that is able to quote books and movies (aka Veronica Lodge or Cheryl Blossom) and it fails every single time. Blair worked because of what Leighton Meester brought to the table but also because Blair was actually really mean and unapologetic about it. She wasn't meant to be taken as a parody with some mean one liners. Her only characteristic wasn’t just being mean, it had realistic layers. And even when I feel she became a bit of a parody the later seasons because the show not longer needed her to be mean, I think she remained charming mostly because of Meester.

Serena worked on early seasons then she became unnecessary and boring. Her character only worked because of Blake Lively's charisma which I feel a lot of the new ones lacked. Then there was Nate. He was like, just there. He wasn’t that problematic until that season they made him date a minor for zero reason. I would assume GGRBs version of Nate was Obie (?) and that was such a boring character. Now, Dan was a good character until they needed to use him as a plot twist because they didn't know who GG was and needed a finale. Dan was the one that was inside the elite but hated it and brought interesting points about their privilege and had not problem in checking them once in a while because he was like the impartial one. Again, they tried to make Zoya the one that wasn’t in their circle but her character was just boring, the actress did good with the material.

And Chuck, he was introduced as a rapist from the get go and didn’t deserve to get as far as it got or even a "redemption". Blair deserved better and I will never go down with the Chuck and Blair train. Blair coming back to him on season 6 after learning her own value and worth outside of Chuck's shadow and toxicity only to make her regret it was character assassination. Chuck should’ve died on Season 4. Now, here's the thing. It was clear Max was supposed to be their unproblematic version of Chuck and it's a shame because Thomas Doherty was giving THE perfomance. I wish him luck in his career. Also, Savannah Smith as Monet did good when given good dialogue and stuff to deliver.

Jenny was an interesting character. It gave the show the outside drama it needed. Georgina was an amazing villain. Even Rufus and Lily served. GGRB had potential but didn't give anything interesting. OG GG embraced being problematic and the reboot tried too hard to be "woke". There's nothing woke about a group of wealthy kids (and not just any money but generational wealth for some of them) that don't need to worry about paying the bills. Maybe if they didn't take themselves so seriously it would've worked a lot better. They should've allowed Monet to be the mean girl she was clearly destined to be. Luna also deserved her own plot not just a sidekick.

Lastly, their biggest problem: GG being the teachers. The teachers story line made me cringe. It was so weird and unrealistic. The thing about GG is that it could be anyone. It was the anonymity that made it fun. GGRB fumble by giving GG a face and an underwhelming one too. In conclusion, while I loved the diversity of the new cast, none of them had the charisma on screen except for one or two on occasions and charisma is what carried the original series until a season 6.

[greenerteacups]

have a few questions for u! i loved your latest chapter, i believe it’s my favourite one to date together with the yule ball special :)

01. since u’re writing a (very intense) re-write of book 1 to 7 canon, how happy/sad were you about draco’s arc in the books and films? it always bugged me that him and the slytherins didn’t get to shine that much in both aspects, and that’s why we never really got to appreciate them a lot when the books and films came out. would love to hear your take on this!

02. not sure if this has been asked before, but what thing/s inspired you to write lionheart? i recall reading it was because of your love for to all the young dudes, but i’d love to hear you talk about this more

03. if j* r****** weren’t as awful a person as she was (and so terribly closed minded too) do you think there would have been a way for draco and hermione to be together in canon, or at least be some level of friends, if not together romantically?

04. i’m a narcissa black-malfoy apologist and stan, and can i just say, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for writing her in such a beautiful and heartbreaking way. i cannot wait to see how you write her arc in books 5-7.

05. an absolute, absolute shot in the dark - but since friday’s last update was sort of a cliff hanger - would you be open to a double update or an earlier than usual update this week? we aren’t entitled to anything but i swear to you, i was biting my nails and at the edge of my seat fr the minute i ran to the friday update. draco and sirius’s conversation was too real and too beautiful i sobbed so much.

i love you!!! may the universe bless you with all the good karma (is my boyfriend, is a god, is the breeze in my hair on the weekend)!!!

hello! thank you for all the questions, wow!! will probably answer some in separate posts because tumblr usually censors my craft glitches out when i write long asks BUT

how happy/sad were you about draco’s arc in the books and films?

[looks at 400,000 words of AU fic about draco's arc] oh yeah i feel normal and care a regular amount about it

Man, it makes me sad. It makes me sad that almost all the Death Eaters are also children of Death Eaters, establishing this as a familial cycle of violence and hatred, and that's just... left to sit there in the narrative, implicating.

Draco’s arc in particular is a flat downward descent from schoolyard bully into a fascist death cult, and it’s bleak as fuck. like, if these books are written from Draco’s POV, it is some gruesome and deeply cynical stuff, guaranteed. which is a shame, because I think “reluctant and begrudging reformed villain” is an amazing character type that he could have fulfilled perfectly. doesn’t even have to go on tour with the Golden Trio, either; because I lost hope for Redemption Arc after the end of book 6, my ideal world going into book 7 was just having Draco stuck in Grimmauld Place, being bitchy and ill-tempered about the Order’s witness-protection equivalent, while the others treat him like a house-elf. “oh, yeah, that’s Draco, he used to bully us but now he has to ask us to buy the tea he likes at the grocer’s,” etc. I mean, full redemption would have been great, and by far the most rewarding for him/me personally as a reader, but I kind of figured by the end of HBP that it wasn’t in the cards. JKR writes characters in a particular way when she’s interested in them as people, and Draco was just never written with that level of attention or care. 

he’s not even given a particularly rewarding antagonist arc. he doesn’t follow through and kill Dumbledore, thus giving him something irrevocable and life-scarring to repent for; but neither does he join the Order (e.g., Disappearance), meaning his ultimate contribution to the war effort is just this listless, choiceless trend of enabling. he’s forced into the plot with the Vanishing Cabinet, but can't kill Dumbledore; he tries to hide Harry’s identity from Bellatrix in Book 7, but it doesn’t work; he tries to catch Harry in the Room of Requirement and fails, then has to be saved by Harry from fiendfyre his own incompetent sidekick conjured. cringe failson. it’s also hilarious put in contrast with this fanon we have of hypercompetent draco — it’s like we all saw him and were like god bless can we please get this man a skillset. jesus christ he is getting killed out here.

but anyway tbh I think the most character development we see from him in all 7 novels is when Hermione slaps the shit out of him in POA (call that spell of Shutting the Fuck Up the way he doesn't even try to retaliate). The bathroom scene in book 6 is huge, because it’s the first time we get a modicum of sympathy for him, but that’s not followed up on — we just sort of leave him with “yeah, that’s tough.” we don’t even know why the Malfoys go back to Voldemort, because by all accounts, they seem miserable. Lucius seems miserable even before he hits his Flop Era in book 6-7, but he’s also broadly miserable all the time when we see him (likely bc we only see him when he’s plotting/scheming/exploding in rage when Harry manages to yet again Scooby Doo one of his plots, but who knows). I think the seventh book subtly implies the Malfoys are so close with Voldemort because of Bellatrix, and [spoilers incoming] I myself lean heavily on that thread in later sequences in Lionheart, but in the books it’s up to the reader as to how much the Malfoys really believe in the Dark Lord versus just comply with his orders from fear.

[the-friendly-warden]

I dunno if these guys will eventually get their own blog or not, but I got the idea of a necromancer becoming allies with a warden, then I remembered a character I created in high school, Mezrith, a melanistic deep elf necromancer who was also a vampire and his familiar a white cat he creatively named "Cat". So he's been reborn, and has been adopted into a warden pride.

You can interact with them and ask them questions if you want!

Voryth is actually Zylarath's sire.

Seraphis: Usually fairly lazy, but can be very aggressive and territorial like a normal warden. His colors are more towards greens. He will sometimes try to challenge Ophelion for leadership of the pride, but always fails. The big, powerful old warden can easily kick his ass to the surface and back again any time he tries. This never seems serious, and they always get along just fine after one of these noisy spats

Ophelion: Incredibly old and powerful. Thick in build, tall and muscular. The long bone growths denote his age and power. Ophelion is surprisingly patient, especially with Seraphis. His power is immense. Ophelion can flatten most other wardens simply due to age, experience, and size. His territory is vast and well established, and very healthy. He's a good pride leader, looking after Seraphis and Voryth and keeping them safe. He's sired cubs with both of the smaller wardens, though the pride doesn't have any cubs currently.

Voryth: Fairly chill. They may be where Zylarath got their friendly demeanor from. Voryth does have the natural territorial nature of a warden, but they generally don't really care too much. They leave all that stuff up to Ophelion. They very much look up to the big warden.

Mezrith: A deep elf who grew up in a viciously abusive home, seen as cursed due to a birth mark on his chest (Not shown, he keeps it covered). He was seen as a bane on the family he was born to, and his brother, Triew, was especially nasty to him. He ran away from home and took up studying necromancy when he was around 12 years old. He learned a lot as he grew, but he ended up getting exposed to the blood of a vampire, which caused him to turn. This angered him because it made necromancy MUCH harder. He found notes about wardens, and decided to try to seek out the sculk, to see if he could learn how their sentinels worked. If he could figure out how to harness sculk spores to animate corpses, it would take far less energy and he could get his vengeance. He eventually encountered Ophelion, who sensed that the deep elf was hurting and had been through a lot of pain and strife in his life. The big warden decided to adopt the elf into his pride, despite Mezrith being in the equivalent of his 30's. While he wasn't so sure at first, having a found family that treated him well made him feel a lot better. He ended up deciding against seeking vengeance because he realized it wasn't worth it. His family was cruel and chaotic, they'd have their own downfall given enough time and he would be thriving with his familiar and his new family. He's generally quiet, cranky, is not fond of people at all. He gets along well with the three wardens, though has a special bond with Ophelion.

"Cat": This is not her real name. Cat is a grimalkin, a creature that can be compared to a sort of fae cat. They are shapeshifters, able to take a human form, highly intelligent. They always have split tails and are poly-dactyl. Cat, of course, is not her real name. She posed as a normal cat to give Mezrith comfort when he was with his abusive family, and once he was away from them she revealed her true nature, shaking off the glamour spell that cloaked her. She decided to keep the name "Cat" because she found it amusing just how "creative" Mezrith was at naming. She's spoiled, can be sassy, confident, and not at all afraid of the wardens. Grimalkin are fierce and proud creatures, and incredibly powerful in their own right. She has a special bond with Voryth, often sitting on their shoulder. She is known to sometimes flirt with the warden in her human form, because seeing them get flustered amuses her. She's a bit of a trickster. She loves food.

[mdhwrites]

You mentioned knight Boscha once and it got me into shipping mood for real, I thought a fic idea in milliseconds. Royal Amity having Boscha as knight who's trying to get her attention so hard, add childhood friends to that and it gets even better! And Luz getting into the picture later on, making Boscha jealous for drama points ☕

Luz could be a merchant? Or from a different kingdom.

.

Also I'm so into the trope of Boscha having a secret crush on Amity even if it's just fanon sadly. Me being a BoschaxAmity shipper just getting excited for little content that I can find with them that's not toxic bs or another mock at Boscha for being a mEan bUlly for the hundredth time 🙄

Seriously people can't see more into a character beyond canon establishment and it's gets boring and lazy, and Boscha has all that potential still intact somehow sitting there not taken advantage of by the fandom. In a perfect world I can imagine L/mity not being rushed and have my bochamity moments beforehand so I can get good fanship content at least. (I don't really ship l/mity, not as much anymore, sucks that Amity doesn't get content beyond that tho)

.

Well I just felt like rambling about ships 😅 I got no asks about the show rn

As I posted last night, this was the post that for whatever reason made my brain buzz and make a brief AU one off about a Blighted princess, Bosched Knight and Luckless Luzer. If you think this is all the Amischa content I have... Well, I focus a lot on Rich Witch and Power of Love for what I promote here because they're the easiest and tie directly back into themes of TOH because they are the ones that took TOH's ideas and ran with them the furthest. The ones started when TOH was full of possibility and such an open space that I feel it COULD inspire a billion stories, while honestly I feel like each special actually shrinks the potential of it and S2 had already done plenty of damage to the world and characters. Got a bit sidetracked but the point is that I do have a LOT more out there (I have literally 43 different TOH stories and 18 of them feature Amity and Boscha in them) so I thought I'd use this post to share some positivity towards Amischa because I think the ship is great. I think the two's relationship in general is fascinating. Though I actually want to say first that I don't think it was ever something the show really should have explored. Not once the first season came out. Hell, I commonly argued between S1 and S2 that the show had so many other things going on, and Winging it Like Witches felt like such a good climax to Hexide elements, that if we never saw Boscha again I wouldn't be surprised. The show was simply past dealing with bullies at that point as it turned its attention towards bigger threats so now that Amity was a friend... Why not move on? BOY WAS I PROVEN WRONG! *eye twitches at the first half of S2 which just kicks its feet as it focuses on not moving the plot at all* Anyways, let's ignore all that and let me flood your timeline with story pitches, hmm? Oh, I will be linking the Lumischa stuff too because I've also done lots of that because... I mean, when I write Lumity, I'm effectively writing S1 Lumity rather than S2 and I still love those two together. They fundamentally changed what I wrote going forward. Boscha just later kicked down the door, took a seat and demanded she was staying. XD Joro Rigged Pets: The barely fanfiction Lumischa story I really need to keep working on since I actually have the cover already commissioned for when I convert it to original fiction. This one features a non-binary Luz who inherits a pair of spiders who aren't spiders but actually the Jorogumo Boscha and the spider she has been incubating for a thousand years, Amity. And that time of transformation is quite close at hand and with it will come complications, love, fears and hungers the sort that no human can understand. Also has LOTS of identity themes in general.

The Crow House: I won't do a hard sell on this one because it died far earlier than I wish it had. A Swap AU is going to feel more like a fix it fic if you're not happy with the source material and that's not what I want to write. As for who was swapped? So many people. Amity and Luz, Lilith and Eda, Kiki and King, etc. Boscha's swap was with Willow where she actually had so much corrupted physical strength as to not be able to safely TOUCH PEOPLE. She literally couldn't control it so a light tap might accidentally come out as a hard jab. She literally shatters multiple of Hunter's bones in her first appearance while trying to apply only a little pressure back. Not that Amity gives a damn. She'll still grab the demon because while Boscha won't touch her, Amity can still touch her hero, regardless of Boscha's protests. A Player, A Scout and a Lich Walk Into An Evil Resident: Technically a future AU with adult Amity and Boscha already in a relationship doing a mission for the Emperor's Coven that ends up not going the way either expected. Fraught With Emotions: Not an AU! Finally. This one has me having Amity, Boscha and Luz go to the Emotionarium, a place where you can have your emotions soothed, twisted, enhanced or even removed. Now why might two old friends want to be in a place like that?

Amity? is Your Baby Tonight: Inspired by a very good Whitney Houston song in my opinion, it's time for Amity, while still having green hair, to serenade and seduce the girl she loves. Where did she get such confidence though?

Amity's Many Misspellings: First just Amischa story with a coffee shop AU! And Amity of all people for some reason being unable to ever get Boscha's name right. Amity's Private Penstagram: Luz and Amity go on a trip down memory lane to pictures Amity had never shared with anyone else before. Especially the one who's picture she took most. Boscha's Best Bedside Manner: A bad night gets worse? when Boscha shows up out of the blue. How could someone as rough and blunt as Boscha ever help with a problem after all? Let alone one that seemed so entirely insurmountable to Amity? (This might easily be the best one off I have for showing why I think Boscha helps complete Lumity as a note). Under a Tree of Love: Two links on this one. This first one features a very short story about Amity growing up under a suspiciously alive tree while finding love with her best friend Boscha under its same branches. If you like it though, I actually expanded it into a full length novella, with a similar but more thorough structure, called Under the Boughs of Love that you can check out through the link on this paragraph. Chapters Left Behind: Amity and Luz sure did abandon their club stand in Sport in a Storm, didn't they? What happened to those books that were left behind? Discarded like Amity had once thrown away a large chapter of her life before? And was there still room for both in her life? I left out a couple AUs that hadn't ever gotten very far and two stories stories that I wrote for a friend that are more sad than anything else rather than hopeful like all of these. I do hope this shows JUST how much I've done with these characters though, especially when I remind you that The Power of Love is still over 300k words, The Eyes Beneath the Water (which has barely had the Amity and Boscha inspired characters even talk to each other, hence why it wasn't linked) is over 80k minimum (haven't done a word count check in a while for it) and Rich Witch is also over 80k words. And most of that writing was done back in 2021 when something about TOH and its community opened up my brain and just let me type. Type so much that in the span of 8 months, I wrote over five hundred THOUSAND words. And boy would I love to return to even a fraction of that strength again. *sigh*

[rpgadverts]

Name: Charmingly Splendid

Type: Based On/ Supernatural

Site link: https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php

Discord: https://discord.gg/HBxyFZWFJb

Thomas ❥ Original Canon ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Rival to Leo

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=581&st=0&#entry1300

Thomas is a rival to Leo Wyatt for the position as a Charmed One's whitelighter. He is good at what he does, follow rules to the T, an Elders' pet, and as far as he's concern, he is more fitting to guide the Charmed Ones. As this character is predetermined by our site admin, if you're interested, I'd recommend you to contact our admin Ruby for more details! I personally would like this character for IC drama purposes! Suggested FC: Rege-Jean Page.

 Glen Belland ❥ Canon ❥ Human ❥ 26/ 27 years old ❥ Open Profession

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=53

Glen Belland is Paige's high school (and perhaps even current) on-and-off boyfriend, the best friend who knows Paige very well and vice versa. The plot goes that Glen has left for Australia sometimes when Paige was in college, and even though they are worlds apart, I'd assume they keep in contact still! I'd say, perhaps Paige still has feelings for him and hoping that when he returns they could pick up where they left off (and vice versa). However, when Glen returns, perhaps some supernatural stuffs happened around Paige, and they could find out that she's a whitelighter together or not. But regardless, Paige would love to has her buddy around. If they would end up being together or not, is up to the player to decide. Glen and Paige should be the same, or similar in age (hence 26/ 27 years old). And he should count as a canon. FC suggestion: Cody Christian, Booboo Stewart, Tom Holland, Logan Lerman, Colin Woodell

Kira ❥ Original ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Strength: Martial art and war tactics https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=881

This is who I'd like to call "Kira". Kira is a whitelighter who is skilled in martial art and perhaps also war tactics, she has been training with her father since young and died a hero protecting another, which was what gave her the chance to be a whitelighter. I like to imagine her to be fierce and kind, dedicated and at times naive. She joined the Rogue way Leo did and I'd like to envision them sharing some sort of friendship/ master-student relationship. I'd like Kira to be a Korean descent or at least part-Korean due to the FC choice. FC suggestion: Arden Cho

Isabela Harris ❥ Original ❥ A Harris Witch ❥ 51++ years old ❥ Open profession ❥ Vincent's Badass Mom https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=592&st=0&#entry1328

Isabela Harris is from a long line of Harris witch, but was outcast after she ran off with a warlock. The Harris witches pride themselves as one of the good witches who would never stray from white magic or marry the mortals. Isabela is fierce and protective, typical badass witch. She teaches Vincent all the good values growing up. She also teaches Vincent that magic aren't inherently good or evil, instead, it is one's actions and intentions that make a person good or evil. That being said, Isabela does practice darker arts herself. Two of her active powers are established, namely telepathy and suggestion. I'd like to see the rest of her powers being an expansion of the first two. FC suggestion: Rachel Weisz

[rockinroleplay]

Name: Charmingly Splendid

Type: Based On/ Supernatural

Site link: https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php

Discord: https://discord.gg/HBxyFZWFJb

Thomas ❥ Original Canon ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Rival to Leo

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=581&st=0&#entry1300

Thomas is a rival to Leo Wyatt for the position as a Charmed One's whitelighter. He is good at what he does, follow rules to the T, an Elders' pet, and as far as he's concern, he is more fitting to guide the Charmed Ones. As this character is predetermined by our site admin, if you're interested, I'd recommend you to contact our admin Ruby for more details! I personally would like this character for IC drama purposes! Suggested FC: Rege-Jean Page.

 Glen Belland ❥ Canon ❥ Human ❥ 26/ 27 years old ❥ Open Profession

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=53

Glen Belland is Paige's high school (and perhaps even current) on-and-off boyfriend, the best friend who knows Paige very well and vice versa. The plot goes that Glen has left for Australia sometimes when Paige was in college, and even though they are worlds apart, I'd assume they keep in contact still! I'd say, perhaps Paige still has feelings for him and hoping that when he returns they could pick up where they left off (and vice versa). However, when Glen returns, perhaps some supernatural stuffs happened around Paige, and they could find out that she's a whitelighter together or not. But regardless, Paige would love to has her buddy around. If they would end up being together or not, is up to the player to decide. Glen and Paige should be the same, or similar in age (hence 26/ 27 years old). And he should count as a canon. FC suggestion: Cody Christian, Booboo Stewart, Tom Holland, Logan Lerman, Colin Woodell

Kira ❥ Original ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Strength: Martial art and war tactics https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=881

This is who I'd like to call "Kira". Kira is a whitelighter who is skilled in martial art and perhaps also war tactics, she has been training with her father since young and died a hero protecting another, which was what gave her the chance to be a whitelighter. I like to imagine her to be fierce and kind, dedicated and at times naive. She joined the Rogue way Leo did and I'd like to envision them sharing some sort of friendship/ master-student relationship. I'd like Kira to be a Korean descent or at least part-Korean due to the FC choice. FC suggestion: Arden Cho

Isabela Harris ❥ Original ❥ A Harris Witch ❥ 51++ years old ❥ Open profession ❥ Vincent's Badass Mom https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=592&st=0&#entry1328

Isabela Harris is from a long line of Harris witch, but was outcast after she ran off with a warlock. The Harris witches pride themselves as one of the good witches who would never stray from white magic or marry the mortals. Isabela is fierce and protective, typical badass witch. She teaches Vincent all the good values growing up. She also teaches Vincent that magic aren't inherently good or evil, instead, it is one's actions and intentions that make a person good or evil. That being said, Isabela does practice darker arts herself. Two of her active powers are established, namely telepathy and suggestion. I'd like to see the rest of her powers being an expansion of the first two. FC suggestion: Rachel Weisz

[jcinktinder]

Name: Charmingly Splendid

Type: Based On/ Supernatural

Site link: https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php

Discord: https://discord.gg/HBxyFZWFJb

Thomas ❥ Original Canon ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Rival to Leo

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=581&st=0&#entry1300

Thomas is a rival to Leo Wyatt for the position as a Charmed One's whitelighter. He is good at what he does, follow rules to the T, an Elders' pet, and as far as he's concern, he is more fitting to guide the Charmed Ones. As this character is predetermined by our site admin, if you're interested, I'd recommend you to contact our admin Ruby for more details! I personally would like this character for IC drama purposes! Suggested FC: Rege-Jean Page.

 Glen Belland ❥ Canon ❥ Human ❥ 26/ 27 years old ❥ Open Profession

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=53

Glen Belland is Paige's high school (and perhaps even current) on-and-off boyfriend, the best friend who knows Paige very well and vice versa. The plot goes that Glen has left for Australia sometimes when Paige was in college, and even though they are worlds apart, I'd assume they keep in contact still! I'd say, perhaps Paige still has feelings for him and hoping that when he returns they could pick up where they left off (and vice versa). However, when Glen returns, perhaps some supernatural stuffs happened around Paige, and they could find out that she's a whitelighter together or not. But regardless, Paige would love to has her buddy around. If they would end up being together or not, is up to the player to decide. Glen and Paige should be the same, or similar in age (hence 26/ 27 years old). And he should count as a canon. FC suggestion: Cody Christian, Booboo Stewart, Tom Holland, Logan Lerman, Colin Woodell

Kira ❥ Original ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Strength: Martial art and war tactics https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=881

This is who I'd like to call "Kira". Kira is a whitelighter who is skilled in martial art and perhaps also war tactics, she has been training with her father since young and died a hero protecting another, which was what gave her the chance to be a whitelighter. I like to imagine her to be fierce and kind, dedicated and at times naive. She joined the Rogue way Leo did and I'd like to envision them sharing some sort of friendship/ master-student relationship. I'd like Kira to be a Korean descent or at least part-Korean due to the FC choice. FC suggestion: Arden Cho

Isabela Harris ❥ Original ❥ A Harris Witch ❥ 51++ years old ❥ Open profession ❥ Vincent's Badass Mom https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=592&st=0&#entry1328

Isabela Harris is from a long line of Harris witch, but was outcast after she ran off with a warlock. The Harris witches pride themselves as one of the good witches who would never stray from white magic or marry the mortals. Isabela is fierce and protective, typical badass witch. She teaches Vincent all the good values growing up. She also teaches Vincent that magic aren't inherently good or evil, instead, it is one's actions and intentions that make a person good or evil. That being said, Isabela does practice darker arts herself. Two of her active powers are established, namely telepathy and suggestion. I'd like to see the rest of her powers being an expansion of the first two. FC suggestion: Rachel Weisz

[jcink-resource]

Name: Charmingly Splendid

Type: Based On/ Supernatural

Site link: https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php

Discord: https://discord.gg/HBxyFZWFJb

Thomas ❥ Original Canon ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Rival to Leo

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=581&st=0&#entry1300

Thomas is a rival to Leo Wyatt for the position as a Charmed One's whitelighter. He is good at what he does, follow rules to the T, an Elders' pet, and as far as he's concern, he is more fitting to guide the Charmed Ones. As this character is predetermined by our site admin, if you're interested, I'd recommend you to contact our admin Ruby for more details! I personally would like this character for IC drama purposes! Suggested FC: Rege-Jean Page.

 Glen Belland ❥ Canon ❥ Human ❥ 26/ 27 years old ❥ Open Profession

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=53

Glen Belland is Paige's high school (and perhaps even current) on-and-off boyfriend, the best friend who knows Paige very well and vice versa. The plot goes that Glen has left for Australia sometimes when Paige was in college, and even though they are worlds apart, I'd assume they keep in contact still! I'd say, perhaps Paige still has feelings for him and hoping that when he returns they could pick up where they left off (and vice versa). However, when Glen returns, perhaps some supernatural stuffs happened around Paige, and they could find out that she's a whitelighter together or not. But regardless, Paige would love to has her buddy around. If they would end up being together or not, is up to the player to decide. Glen and Paige should be the same, or similar in age (hence 26/ 27 years old). And he should count as a canon. FC suggestion: Cody Christian, Booboo Stewart, Tom Holland, Logan Lerman, Colin Woodell

Kira ❥ Original ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Strength: Martial art and war tactics https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=881

This is who I'd like to call "Kira". Kira is a whitelighter who is skilled in martial art and perhaps also war tactics, she has been training with her father since young and died a hero protecting another, which was what gave her the chance to be a whitelighter. I like to imagine her to be fierce and kind, dedicated and at times naive. She joined the Rogue way Leo did and I'd like to envision them sharing some sort of friendship/ master-student relationship. I'd like Kira to be a Korean descent or at least part-Korean due to the FC choice. FC suggestion: Arden Cho

Isabela Harris ❥ Original ❥ A Harris Witch ❥ 51++ years old ❥ Open profession ❥ Vincent's Badass Mom https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=592&st=0&#entry1328

Isabela Harris is from a long line of Harris witch, but was outcast after she ran off with a warlock. The Harris witches pride themselves as one of the good witches who would never stray from white magic or marry the mortals. Isabela is fierce and protective, typical badass witch. She teaches Vincent all the good values growing up. She also teaches Vincent that magic aren't inherently good or evil, instead, it is one's actions and intentions that make a person good or evil. That being said, Isabela does practice darker arts herself. Two of her active powers are established, namely telepathy and suggestion. I'd like to see the rest of her powers being an expansion of the first two. FC suggestion: Rachel Weisz

[notallwonder]

CME 17x08, what have you for me...

- this Lawrence Durrell quote "the richest love is that which submits to the arbitration of time"...in Emily's voice no less. I assume it's about Rossi, but a girl can twirl her hair and think of other applications.

- this Rossi stuff with Jill. Hmph. And Prentiss talking about... falling in love with your best friend's wife, and timing... teehee

- the way Emily listens and responds, reminds me of their chat in season 7. Can't remember the episode atm but it's when Rossi is thinking his ex wife (#1) wants to rekindle and Emily tells him to take the leap. I love that little scene, so this reminder was nice.

- JJ & Luke in the field. looking foine

- I like the way the Stuart house kids think Voit's a little bitch

- I really like Rebecca. Tyler's sort of growing on me, like some kind of inoffensive fungus maybe. I'm not a fan of whatever they're doing to Luke with this alleged "triangle"

- so all the Gold Star doctors/psychologists are dying/killed...I see where we're going here. Jill you in danger girl.

- Paget's hair so pretty 😍

- Tara is gorgeous, always. But those pics of Aisha directing the last ep? I nearly passed away 🔥🔥🔥 holy shit 🔥🔥🔥

- wait WHAT. Did I fall asleep? (that's what I get for watching this in the middle of the night)

- WHAT???!!!

- going back to watch what I missed

- I gotta be so honest. I just am not that interested in Rossi's emotional turmoil, his inner world. I'm sorry old man. I just....I just want to see more of JJ, more of Luke, more of Tara, more of Emily. Voit in s16 and now Gold Star in s17 have both built to/been aimed at Rossi at the last chapter, and I just do not find that particularly compelling. I think this is a result of the 10-episode serial format. They have to make the overall arc "big" and they make it about "the BAU" and who is more representative of the BAU than Rossi. I like Joe Mantegna, but of the limited time we get the fact that it's Rossi, over and over, is a bummer to me. ftr this is also why I am pleased that Spencer is not in evolution - bc I don't think they could resist making it all about him, somehow.

- I did like the way they had him zoning out while JJ etc delivered the profile, and then she clapped real big.

- wait a minute here. We were led to believe that Gold Star had *national security* implications. Now it's come to light that Jill used the white paper to draft a proposal, and the proposed project was funded by a mysterious *private entity*. Is the supposed blowback that the FBI sponsored research that eventually led to the creation of these killers? So the FBI has an interest in not letting that information go public, in order to protect its reputation (lol)? And you'd think, if the FBI director "had it out for" the BAU, what better excuse to reorganize or dismantle than to let the "founders" of the BAU take the public fall. Idk it just feels weak to me, the way this is all supposed to hang together. I suppose if there really are other facilities besides Stuart House, that were more successful (ie their patients became agents of state violence rather than uncontrolled killers), the gov would want to keep that secret. It's a pretty dark view of the establishment, that CM doesn't generally express. But we are no longer just a CBS procedural...

- the scenes with Jill and Damien. Ran counter to my expectations. It happened so quickly, that she convinced him his training had been a lie, that he killed his foster dad for no good reason. And then he's dead??? I honestly would have liked something more with this guy. He already knew quite well that he had been made into a monster, and was apparently exacting his revenge for that. So why give Jill any time at all? Because Jill manipulate him by using his given "purpose" (to "save the children")? And Damien and Jade have a fairly deep bond, so why does he commit suicide by her hand, leaving her alone? I'm confused by how that all went down.

- seems like, at this rate, we're unlikely to get any further follow up on how JJ is doing with BAUgate. great

- also side note but did Emily officially step down/was demoted from Section Chief? She's UC but no longer SC I think.

- hoping and praying for Jill to interact with any other member of the team going forward. Especially JJ. Not Tyler

- this show is so disappointing! I feel comforted by that. And disappointed lol

- maybe on rewatch this will flow together better for me...

I'm sure my overall impression of this episode was damaged by the fact I fell asleep for half of it and woke up to the climactic tragic. Lol moment

[1010lilfoot]

It must be tough to draw such big shots like the latest update. How do you do it? ><

It can definitely be tough! Some are harder than others. As you might expect, the fabled crowd shots are rough ones. This wasn't so bad, but I've had to draw shots with like 40 characters milling around (I made myself do it so I have no one to blame lol).

The hardest part for me is that I get bored halfway through. I don't like spending too long on one page, or even one panel, haha. Well, it also gets difficult to keep track of all the little details. I must train harder...

My advice for big establishing shots? Just stick to it! Don't get bogged down in details. You'll be done after a while and you won't be bored anymore!

Okay I did have very vague thoughts when drawing the background characters for this one, so I will elaborate on them! Going from top to bottom/left to right!

Fishhead Guy: He's part of security for the event! A wise adult. He can only drink salt water, and Partridge keeps a steady supply for him. Keeps a small aquarium at home. Has he ever taken a sip of the water? That's for him to know and for us to never find out...

Below our group of known characters is...a whole bunch of NYSM members! Yes, they are a big group. The size is more like TDD than TDL.

Blond Hair and Green Dress: Young adults dancing around a relationship. Both are thinking the same thing... "Does she like me back?" She does! Work it out! In terms of their Talents, Green Dress gives totally accurate horoscopes. When Blond Hair feels down, her presence turns into that of the sea at night, when it's completely dark. She draws you in, and if you take her hand, you'll be lost at sea... Not on purpose, though. She's nice!

Suspenders: They are good friends with Blond and Green. They don't actually have a Talent, but they're a part of NYSM nonetheless. When Green became Talented, Suspenders joined her in leaving home to find a Talent City. Suspenders is very, very good at math. A lot of Talented ran away from home/left society as young teenagers, so being good at math is like, an insane skill.

White Fire and Suit Friend: Besties. :) White Fire acts on impulse 99% of the time and Suit Friend enables him. They're cool kids who like to...uh, loiter. White Fire tried to skateboard and completely wiped out, once. Suit Friend's Talent is being literally impossible to knock over. White Fire's Talent is self-explanatory. The fire isn't hot, but it has zero functionality.

Birdcage and Puffer Jacket: Birdcage's Talent is reminiscent of a phoenix! Fire will randomly generate in her birdcage head–also not hot. She heals fast, and is immortal (except for old age). She doesn't know a lot about her Talent because, like...how would she test this stuff? Bubbles will spontaneously generate from Puffer Jacket's body. This is all her Talent does. She knows a lot about it, though, and in a dangerous situation, she can create a bubble smokescreen easily. Birdcage thinks she's super cool.

White Hair and Star: Star looks familiar to me too... She's not a reference or anything though, so I probably just reused an old design on accident. She can jump on those stars and use them as platforms, but they shrink and disappear quickly. Her Talent is like a real life video game platformer. White Hair can find any sort of plant in their sleeves. They've learned how to make tea/herbal remedies/etc. because of this. They're shy but they'll give you a flower.

Feathers, Green Hair, and Red Jacket: All adults! Feathers' Talent is just that–growing feathers like a scarf. He really likes it and think's it's fashionable. He's a bit narcissistic. Green Hair can change her hair like a chameleon. It usually happens on accident, like a mood ring. She can't control it well and she's a chaotic person, so it's constantly changing. Red Jacket is doing their best to make both these weirdos chill out. It is not going well. Their Talent means everything they touch with their bare hands will be stained red. It washes out eventually, but they wear gloves, for practicality.

[therpdirectory]

Name: Charmingly Splendid

Type: Based On/ Supernatural

Site link: https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php

Discord: https://discord.gg/HBxyFZWFJb

Thomas ❥ Original Canon ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Rival to Leo

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=581&st=0&#entry1300

Thomas is a rival to Leo Wyatt for the position as a Charmed One's whitelighter. He is good at what he does, follow rules to the T, an Elders' pet, and as far as he's concern, he is more fitting to guide the Charmed Ones. As this character is predetermined by our site admin, if you're interested, I'd recommend you to contact our admin Ruby for more details! I personally would like this character for IC drama purposes! Suggested FC: Rege-Jean Page.

 Glen Belland ❥ Canon ❥ Human ❥ 26/ 27 years old ❥ Open Profession

https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=53

Glen Belland is Paige's high school (and perhaps even current) on-and-off boyfriend, the best friend who knows Paige very well and vice versa. The plot goes that Glen has left for Australia sometimes when Paige was in college, and even though they are worlds apart, I'd assume they keep in contact still! I'd say, perhaps Paige still has feelings for him and hoping that when he returns they could pick up where they left off (and vice versa). However, when Glen returns, perhaps some supernatural stuffs happened around Paige, and they could find out that she's a whitelighter together or not. But regardless, Paige would love to has her buddy around. If they would end up being together or not, is up to the player to decide. Glen and Paige should be the same, or similar in age (hence 26/ 27 years old). And he should count as a canon. FC suggestion: Cody Christian, Booboo Stewart, Tom Holland, Logan Lerman, Colin Woodell

Kira ❥ Original ❥ Whitelighter ❥ Open Age ❥ Strength: Martial art and war tactics https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=881

This is who I'd like to call "Kira". Kira is a whitelighter who is skilled in martial art and perhaps also war tactics, she has been training with her father since young and died a hero protecting another, which was what gave her the chance to be a whitelighter. I like to imagine her to be fierce and kind, dedicated and at times naive. She joined the Rogue way Leo did and I'd like to envision them sharing some sort of friendship/ master-student relationship. I'd like Kira to be a Korean descent or at least part-Korean due to the FC choice. FC suggestion: Arden Cho

Isabela Harris ❥ Original ❥ A Harris Witch ❥ 51++ years old ❥ Open profession ❥ Vincent's Badass Mom https://ecs.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=592&st=0&#entry1328

Isabela Harris is from a long line of Harris witch, but was outcast after she ran off with a warlock. The Harris witches pride themselves as one of the good witches who would never stray from white magic or marry the mortals. Isabela is fierce and protective, typical badass witch. She teaches Vincent all the good values growing up. She also teaches Vincent that magic aren't inherently good or evil, instead, it is one's actions and intentions that make a person good or evil. That being said, Isabela does practice darker arts herself. Two of her active powers are established, namely telepathy and suggestion. I'd like to see the rest of her powers being an expansion of the first two. FC suggestion: Rachel Weisz