#and any take from someone who is just a bystander is going to be considered off the mark

[saltedsour]

Why the lens of NPD makes Blixer the funniest possible character.

NPD standing for, obviously, Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Lets get a few things out of the way. Mainly that I do not aim for this to be a demonising lens. Moreso a "hey if i was in this circle's situation id do the same". Villains being vain, narcissistic abusers is a very, very common trend, even in media that claims it is more progressive than it actually is. This isn't being written to show why Blixer is evil, but how he does everything.

Secondly. A crown on a narcissist is usually just an easy sign to go "this guy's a narcissist". Most clipart you see for "surviving narcissists" has one guy looking into the mirror, and the mirror self having a crown and being cool and evil and whatever. This sucks for obvious reasons (its a disorder. normal people have disorders, not evil kings?), but it is also a REALLY GOOD symbol to 'reclaim'. I personally love it.

Why is this circle so fucking angry?

A pretty frequent feature in the NPD package is when anything that feels like an attack on you is one. It's not an accident, that person was trying to sabotage you. In a JS&B lens, this helps explain two key moments.

Why Blixer didn't really enjoy the player at the start of the game (exploded, plus the lost chapter stuff). If you've been in a cave for one morbillion years or whatever, and someone just Dodges All Your Attacks and then walks away when you explode, it'd be pretty infuriating. Also why this guy beat up an innocent bystander. Fly high, flower.

Annihilate. This is actually the biggest one for me. Your whole little evil pink kingdom just got fucking destroyed, and then the person who did so takes a representation of your ego and just goes "hey this is mine now :-)". When NPD makes you maladaptively regulate self esteem AND you just got insulted (in your eyes) in every way possible, you might get a little upset. You might become a blood centipede monster. I would too.

He doesn't do that much bad stuff directly.

Most of the issues ingame seemingly happen from the giant industry + tower he spawned and the corruption in general. Other than beating the shit out of a guy (we don't care about them) in the opening cutscene, he really doesn't do all that much in person until the player appears.

Why? What is he doing? We all know this. He is playing guitar on top of the tower for most of the game. This is someone who finally got the ego boost / supply he needed and then had fun with his own hobbies. From the lens of "guy who feels like he needs to literally rule the world to be seen and understood."

But he still did all that shit.

He still corrupted the world though. Which was probably a bad thing. However. If all your AUs are going to make it so he originally felt isolation over the corruption, then I raise you this:

Being an absolute nobody is the worst feeling in the world.

And as soon as he took over the world and basically forced everyone to call him his king, then and only then did he just start having fun and #playing. A possible way to frame this is him being too stupid to effectively rule over the world, but I don't think thats fun.

If his main goal was to make it so he was the centre of attention AND that everyone was like him (pink (which is called bad in a fucking In-Game Tip)) then he would've basically won already in his own head by the time the game fully starts. And he can finally do regular people - shape - things. He did all that stuff, but clearly this geometric circle didn't really have any other option considering he got so pissed off he made the world evil and that's hard to come back from.

Also it's important to mention that during the moment where he actually kind of Takes Over The World he's definitely not thinking rationally after eating the tree of life.

I think he took the world takeover thing too seriously.

Or maybe not seriously enough. Depends on how you look at it.

This is me mostly making fun of this circle but can you imagine getting all this power, and the first thing you do is take over the world. That's normal. The second thing you do is make yourself a crown. Okay. The third thing you do is absolutely nothing else. He seems more focused on the image of a ruler than anything.

If everything went right, he would have even had a sign showing he was the actual final boss. Which becomes a funny meta example where that level isn't even the actual final boss and instead he (it's his tower's sign, after all) put all that work towards the image of a final boss rather than actually being one. Although this doesn't hold much weight when we consider that he became a cannon just to kill us, I think he tried pretty hard.

Why not just fix what you've done, Blixer?

Admitting you're wrong and also getting rid of the only thing keeping your ego afloat isn't easy. In fact, it's genuinely painful. If he managed to actually calm down after basically eating the energy equivalent of a hydrogen bomb, then it'd kind of be almost impossible to look at all you did and say "damn, I was wrong".

It's easier to actually know you did something wrong when the consequences hit you and you can't do anything else but accept what you did. Postgame fans write that down.

Him learning and growing to be a better person would be awesome if it's also from the lens of NPD.

If fucking Kuzco (of Disney fame) could do it he could too. NPD is a disorder and thus has disordering traits, but I do think working with this for the character kind of helps when it comes to improving it in postgame stories. He starts off with basically NO ways to work with what are life-shatteringly important needs, and does maladaptive things in order to help.

Anger? Lashing out at people that Slighted him. Being a vain little prick? Trying to keep himself on a pedestal before it crumbles underneath him. Turning yourself into a blood centipede nightmare monster? A reasonable* reaction in his perspective.

You can learn to care about people's thoughts even if you started off. Um. Taking over the world.

There's a lot more to NPD than being an evil person and abuser. Starting off with no empathy doesn't really mean a death sentence. You can have him learn helping others is Good Actually but still slip up. Imagine a beautiful world with a postgame Blixer who has friends now and still has NPD. Imagine. If he's still pink and "corrupted" while being good, you can understand a world where he can be narcissistic and still be good.

I can take you to that world 🕊️ 🌾 🌹 ☀️...

Finally: NPD is a comedic disorder

It's true. Sometimes the world feels like it breaks apart because you are being Unloved and potentially hated. Not EVERYONE likes you, and that makes the world feel like it's being torn apart at the seams. You go from feeling at the top of the world to feeling like shit.

And then as soon as you're back up and running you look back at that and go "hmm. maybe not as serious as i thought".

You can do so much with this. There's more to NPD than what the masses know. "guy who literally did all this to be cool to himself" is just an insanely funny concept to me. He could've just been at the club.

NPD isn't always about physical vanity unlike what clipart tells you. It's about Pretty Unsafe levels of self esteem (from high highs to low crashes), and him fitting the bill makes him feel like a more interesting character to me.

[bibibbon]

MHA and the bystander effect (long post)

MHA's society suffers heavily from the bystander effect.

I wish that this plot point was further explored and this could of been where we actually take all mights character somewhere and not waste him on the whole iron might bs.

It can be argued that we first see this as early as the first chapter where we have people simply standing there watching a hero take down a villain. In all retrospect when I see this I genuinely think of some kind of performance, the hero is a glorified soldier that has to elegantly perform their duty while ensuring the safety of lives and entertaining them.

We then have the attack with bakugo and the sludge villain. People again are standing there watching another performance go down except here the heroes don't know what to do and it can be argued that they aren't trying hard enough at all. The heroes look at the situation, say they don't have any compatible quirk that helps the situation and simply stand in the sidelines waiting for someone to come and help that's after the manh failed attempts. Now this absolutely wouldn't work considering the victim in this circumstance was getting choked to death and him struggling even more literally caused a fire and property damage. I think it's interesting how no one thought of simply aiming at the sludge villains eyes (his obvious weak spot) and it was izuku in his panic that actually helped save Katsuki and gave all might the strength and confidence to step up and do something. What's even more interesting is that at that moment all might like the other bystanders was also contributing to the bystander effect simply standing there distanced from the fight and involved in it at the same time.

The third time we see this is during the UA entrance exams. Everyone is focused on getting points and destroying robots not really paying attention to their surroundings. After releasing the zero pointer everyone priorities themselves and starts to run with no one sparing ochako (who is injured) an eye and offering to help her. Rather the unconscious thoughts are that someone else will help her and it's full of people trying to prioritise themselves as this is also an exam. Izuku also priorities himself and tries to get away until he sees ochako and this is the second time where he recklessly runs into danger.

I think what's really interesting is that nedzu made this the point of the test which is something that iida says to izuku when they meet again. Iida points out that saving peoples lives and helping them is indeed the point of the test and heroism yet the test is very much structured in a way where you need to destroy to save and you need to prioritise yourself which can be the test just being a microcosm for the real hero society.

We mainly and clearly see the bystander effect in action when it comes to shigaraki tomuras backstory. It can be argued that this is one of the major reasons what drives shigaraki to villainy. Throughout tenko's backstory people see him suffer yet they don't help him physically at all or are quite late to do so. This starts from his father's punishments to him aimlessly roaming the streets scared and alone just for all for one to come along and offer a hand to him. A villain ends up helping a child instead of the people who are supposed to do so (Iam ignoring the contents of chapter 420 that revealed that AFO was behind this all along)

Tenko's backstory also emphasises just how much society is dependent on heroes that they think they aren't responsible for anything and any remains of social responsibility are rather diminished as people are busy and turn a blind eye to an obviously scared kid who is suffering.

Heck we even have momo a class 1A member acknowledge that the bystander effect is a very big thing within hero society yet no one does much to reduce this. It seems that hero society actually makes it somewhat of a taboo to even intervene in situations and help people when you aren't a hero which is why labels such as vigilantes exists. This could be linked to what we find out what happens to lady nagant and how she was in charge of killing vigilantes or anyone who opposed the government.

You can say that the government uses heroes (like hawks and lady nagant) as a way to control citizens but this turns out to be a double edged sword for them as time goes on and all mights notorious reign of 'peace' falls the people start to wake up you can say.

Hero society especially with the rise of all might and the all might era has created a society that is rampant in the bystander effect and a society that relies, worships and glorifies heroes to a toxic extreme. Obviously this has negatively effected everyone in different ways. It's not only civilians that suffer but also the heroes who are put into extreme situations and have to live up to incredibly toxic and high standards while also appealing to the public. I think a great example of this is all might who is a character who suffered from the system yet upheld and was somewhat responsible for creating it.

After the war arc we see the hero society system crumble away and we see the complacent bystander effect fade away and get people become distrustful or heroes and anyone around them. During this arc we also see the once glorified and worshipped all might statue become vandalised and people abandoning any hope of the hero system or hero society in general. Chaos and panic are rampant and people have lost hope as the system dissolves.

In conclusion, if horikoshi actually handled this theme of bystander effect in hero society properly then we could of gotten a compelling story where villains or victims that suffer from it are saved. Hori could of also used this to show how flawed hero society is and how corrupt the hero public safety commission is as well.

Add on

Horikoshi during the vigilante arc also has civilians realise their compliance in all of this and how the hero system set them up in a way which they can relax and watch without having to do anything as society crumbles. It's such a shame that horikoshi takes this and basically diminishes any proper hope by making the ending of the second war arc a disaster.

[bella-goths-wife]

How you get the ghostbusters back for trapping you

Warnings: reader is super petty, non canon events, the guys are assholes in this, aggression

After being trapped for three months in that stupid ghost trap, you are severely pissed off with the ghostbusters

You’d spend months beforehand innocently haunting them and building individual bonds with them

All for them to take your one mistake as reason to punish you, you never meant to hurt Dana so why were you punished so severely

You, being as stubborn and strong willed as you are, expected them to be begging for forgiveness considering what they put you through

But they all acted like everything was going to go back to the way it was before, they didn’t even offer you the slightest apology for what they did

This did not bode well with you

In fact, it only seemed to enrage you further

You started off with your usual pettiness, but it lacked your standard playful style and just came off malicious

But the ghostbusters still found a way to make it a joke

You would mess with Egon’s lab equipment and experiments, but he’d just laugh it off in an Egon fashion and then suggest to your invisible figure that the two of you play chess again like you used to do so you could get your anger out

You’d hide the traps Winston was cleaning and storing in ridiculous hiding places, but Winston would just laugh and ask if you were playing hide and seek again

You’d turn off and change Ray’s music on his radio to something aggressive, but the only reaction you received was Ray joking that your music taste had definitely changed since you last played music together

Whenever Venkman would read the crossword prompts out to you and hold his pen out expectingly, you would write profanity in all the gaps

But venkman only sarcastically commented that “that’s definitely doesn’t fit the hint”

It infuriated you, they turned your anger into a joke and treated you like a pet who did a cute trick instead of a (spirit) person

You started to retract yourself from showing your presence to them out of embarrassment that your anger and their reaction caused you

You felt like an embarrassed child who had just been scolded rather than someone who underwent a painful and traumatic process of your spirit being caged to a small confined trap

You stopped showing yourself and kept to yourself next to janine’s desk so you could listen to her conversations on the phone as your only source of entertainment

You even tried to leave the ghostbusters HQ but found yourself unable to leave the building without attaching yourself to a human person, and you weren’t going to follow any of the ghostbusters around anymore

Despite janine working for the ghostbusters and Dana being the reason you were put in the trap, you never treated them unkindly

You understood them both and you knew that your anger wasn’t directed at them and they were just coincidental bystanders

You let your anger simmer but eventually it bubbled over the top

You heard the boys joking that soon you’d be over your “tantrum” and would come back to hang out with them

They joked about how they could ever think you were dangerous when all you’ve pulled are childish stunts

You felt yourself twist and twitch in anger and embarrassment as you heard them mock your very real emotions as if you weren’t once breathing like them

You decided that if you were originally going to be labelled as dangerous, then you would become dangerous to them

Instead of messing with Egons equipment to ruin his test results, you’d smash it to pieces and throw them at him

Instead of hiding the traps that Winston was cleaning and storing, you’d smash them to pieces and release the spirits inside to cause chaos in the HQ

Instead of messing with the radio of the car that Ray was cleaning, you’d blast loud screaming music in his ears before smashing the windows of the car

Instead of writing profanity on Venkmans crosswords, you tore his office apart and disposed of important documents before writing “fuck you ghostbusters” on his desk

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and you were living (dead) proof of that

Your anger infected you and turned you violent in a way you hadn’t been in your entire stay with the ghostbusters

And the ghostbusters weren’t sure what to do

They didn’t want to put you back into a trap considering that’s what caused this mess in the first place, and they missed you dearly when you were gone

But your aggression was getting out of hand

They decided that the best plan of action would be to find out more about your life when you were alive to appeal to your human side

And until they found something they could use, they had better get better at dodging thrown items…..

[fucktoyfelix]

Building Consent Culture

From consent.academy

"Consent” is a word with many meanings and applications. It is more than ‘no means no’ and ‘yes means yes’. These simple rules are sometimes helpful, but consent applies to every part of our daily lives - and life can get complicated!

Consent is mostly about feelings, sensations, and power. And feelings, sensations, and power are really complex things. ​How easy is it for you to talk about your feelings? Do you always understand why your body is having different sensations? Do you always know how powerful you are?

Consent is about slowing down and taking in the bigger picture. One way to understand consent is to consider it a shared feeling created together through a process of constant, collaborative discovery. It’s a feeling that comes from voluntary agreement (made without coercion) between those with decision-making capacity, knowledge, understanding, and autonomy.

Consent is present in all forms of human interaction (not just sex). 

Practicing consent creates a space where the safety and agency of all parties is honored, using healthy communication and negotiation to craft informed boundaries. Consent, explicit and implicit, is dependent on the context of the situation, and can be revoked at any time. In any given day, consent is affirmed and violated multiple times. People do it to us and we do it to other people. Creating the conditions for consent is a skill that gets better the more you practice. We need to practice consent in regular, day-to-day situations so we’re prepared for more intense ones like driving a car, being in romantic relationships, and having sex. If we violate consent in these situations, we could cause serious, lasting harm. Practicing consent everyday lowers the risk of consent violations happening, and it also prepares you for what to do when things go wrong.

How Do You Practice Consent?

There are many ways to practice consent. Below are 4 pillars to help you practice consent in your own unique contexts:

1) Capacity 

Capacity is about how able you are to both give and receive consent. How much ability do you have to describe exactly how you feel and make decisions that are right for you? And how much ability do you have to listen to the feelings and decisions of others? Slow down, pause, and check in with yourself and others on how you are really feeling, emotionally, physically, and mentally.

If someone’s capacity is lowered in some way, there’s more risk of a consent violation, so try and find out if there’s anything you can do to help boost each other’s capacity. The mnemonic H.A.L.T.S. can be helpful to check in on some important aspects of capacity - Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired, Sad/Sick/Stressed out.

Recognize that alcohol and other substances can lower your capacity a lot, if not entirely - if someone is unconscious, unable to remember what’s happening, or otherwise incapacitated, then the risk of consent violations is essentially guaranteed for most activities, but especially intense ones like driving or sex. People who are incapacitated need help to prevent harm occurring, so try to give the care they need, even as a bystander.

2) Information

Informed consent is about knowing and understanding exactly what you’re being asked to consent to. Is everyone answering questions honestly? Is everyone sharing and being open with the information they have? Does everyone understand what the words being used actually mean? Going through the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” is a good way to gather information. Pay special attention to the ‘what’, ‘why’, and ‘how’. For example, what does ‘hanging out’ mean? What exactly is a ‘date’? What does ‘having sex’ mean? Why do you want to do this activity, and with this person? What are the risks involved and how are you going to address them? The more you share and check for understanding, the less risk there will be of consent violation.

Being clear about what you're asking for is super important if you want to avoid misunderstandings and unintentional consent violations. And if someone asks you to do something, and you're not sure exactly what they mean or want, ask for clarification. You don't have to agree to something you don't fully understand.

 3) Agreement or Boundary Setting

​Once you have checked in on capacity and shared the information you need, the next step in the ongoing process of consent includes asking questions, making agreements, and setting boundaries. Being explicit is the least risky way to make an ask and set an agreement or boundary. Being explicit means being as clear and specific as possible. This includes:

Saying the words! Accurately describe the activity, how you feel about it, and if relevant, name the body parts involved. If it’s too difficult for you to say out loud, it’s too risky to do!

Setting time limits: Maybe you want to try something for a certain amount of time, or maybe you only have enough capacity for a limited amount of time. Setting a time limit is a good way to combine agreements and boundaries. For example, you might say, “I’m willing to try this, but if I don’t like it after 5 minutes, I want to stop.”

Some people say consensual agreements should be enthusiastic - enthusiasm is great, but sometimes people can seem enthusiastic when they’re actually nervous or scared. Judging someone’s body language can give you helpful information, but always ask how someone is feeling rather than assume. The way someone’s body is responding is not always representative of how they feel.

Again, agreement and boundary setting is part of an ongoing process. Take lots of breaks to check in on sensations specifically - how does your stomach feel? Is it tense or relaxed? Are your hands and feet warm or cold? How is your heart rate? Do you need a bathroom break? Asking questions like this gives someone the chance to figure out how they’re feeling by letting their mind and body catch up to each other. It also lets that person know you care about them as a whole person, and you understand that sometimes what we imagine something will feel like isn’t always the reality.

Remember that just because someone said ‘yes’ to something before, they don’t have to say ‘yes’ again. And if someone changes their mind in the middle of an activity - that’s ok! Stop and ask if there’s something else they’d rather do. Give people lots of time and space to answer honestly. Lastly, remind people often that saying ‘no’ is ok. It’s easy to forget, especially if we don’t feel powerful in a situation, or get overwhelmed by sensations.

4) Autonomy

Autonomy is why we practice consent at all. Autonomy is everyone’s inherent right to decide what’s best for their own body, mind, spirit, and story. If anyone wants to do something that involves other people’s bodies, minds, spirits, or stories, they have a responsibility to communicate and help create the feeling of consent between everyone involved. If they don’t, everyone gets to decide for themselves if they feel a consent violation has happened to them (this is when your boundaries have been crossed and you feel harmed). We all violate consent at some point, even if unintentionally, so we should practice taking accountability for our actions, as we would want others to do.  Accountability can be difficult but respecting someone’s ‘no’ is one of the easiest ways to honor autonomy. Don’t try to convince people to change their mind. Making someone feel afraid or unable to say ‘no’ is coercion, and a guaranteed way to violate consent. Also recognize that the absence of a ‘no’ is not a ‘yes’. Don’t assume that the way someone is dressed or behaving means they really want to say ‘yes’. Just don’t assume - it’s way too risky. Ask questions, listen carefully, and respect how people respond. Despite how complicated things can get, practicing consent can also be this simple.

[ahiwicave]

another discord drama post

Hi, Hiwi here. One of the mods from the Nevermore Discord server. You may recognize my name because I was put on blast and accused of some heinous things in the whole drama. I didn’t want a tumblr and didn’t want to have to do this, but I see some people are never going to let it go. Just to share some thoughts, from someone who was actually involved in everything:

Crimson did stuff in a side server, and the mod team acted swiftly in the moment we learned of it, even though it was not done inside the server we were modding

Months after an appeal was considered. The original evidence was tampered with, and the person who originally shared it with a third party was banned later for harassing and baiting other users with alts. This included being blatantly xenophobic towards me with an alt account.

The mod team (not Red) decided that a probation period could be extended since we had no other witnesses to inquire about it. 

Crimson came back, and this caused a lot of new witnesses to come out publicly. We were shocked when so many people had new information about this, as we had only the aforementioned evidence to go off of beforehand

Crimson was banned again within the hour. No NSFW was ever shared in the Nevermore Discord.

That should’ve been it, really. A lesson learned for the mod team. But it was not enough for some people.

The tumblr call out came long after the situation had been dealt with. The drama was exaggerated, with tons of misinformation and downright savage hate, blaming Red for things she never did or never were about her. Lots of people who had issues before (and unrelated to the Crimson situation) jumped on the chance to continue their beef, adding a lot of noise and ridiculous accusations, muddying the waters for everyone. 

Red was not the person who took the decisions for any of this, and shouldn't have been held accountable for something that happened outside our scope. People should've used the proper Discord channels to report Crimson’s  behavior happening outside the Nevermore server. Discord is the only entity that can truly stop an account in every server, actually keeping everyone safe. Every social media has the option to report accounts, and getting those people completely off the platform is way more effective than just removing them from a single server. 

Still, Red apologized. People that don't think it's a good apology are people that are still blaming Red for things she didn't do.

Red’s apology had a lot of context, because people decided to take everything outside of Discord and paint it in the worst possible light. A lot of people commenting were posing like innocent bystanders adding to the flames, when in reality they were already involved, and it was necessary to point them out.

Sharing the discord nicknames of people involved is not putting anyone in danger, no matter what their age is. It's not any real name or address. The same people claiming this puts them in danger had apparently no fear of confirming "yes that's me” when the information given was not getting tied back to them.

This whole tumblr thing highlighted how Red and Flynn shouldn’t be trying to mod the community, which has grown a lot more than we expected when the server was first created. They wisely decided to step back to focus on just creating Nevermore.

So Red and Flynn decided to step out, leaving the modding to over 10 people. They've not participated in the mod decisions taken since the server reopened with a new mod team, over a month ago.

Many of the people involved in the Tumblr callouts and harassment were allowed back into the server, despite publicly participating in smearing the server, the creators, and me. 

The new mod team is still figuring out the best way to mod a community this big. We want to prioritize safety while still having a chill atmosphere people can enjoy. 

The reopening brought changes to the rules and the security in the server. This included taking on onboarding, as well as required phone verification, and new rules about modding outside issues.

We started with the strict policy of no ban will be appealed. This is because giving people second chances is what caused the Crimson situation. It will probably be revisited as we continue learning and deciding what's the best approach to mod the community.

People that were involved in the tumblr discourse continued breaking the rules inside the server. We want to move on from this and letting it fester inside the server would not allow the community to heal and grow. They were warned, and a lot of them continued trying to bait for more drama, so then we banned them. There is no such thing as “banned without reason”, just “banned for a reason the user doesn’t agree with”. 

Banned people are not owed explanations or second chances. If there is no appeal, there is no reason to discuss it further with them. If you’ve been banned from a space, you’re not a good match for it. I personally would not like to go back to a place that banned me, for whatever reason. Being banned is not the end of the world, the community is far bigger than the discord server and your friends exist outside of it, too. 

It's truly mind blowing to learn tumblr is at it again. We removed Crimson immediately, Red and Flynn are no longer modding, the mod team tripled in size, there is more security in the server, and we’re actively working on making things better and opened everything up for suggestions from the users in the Discord. We’re all doing our best to avoid a situation like Crimson happening ever again.  

People who publicly claimed to leave the fandom and left/were banned from the server continue being hung up on it. Please move on. You've said multiple times how much you don't like it here. You don't want to be here, we don't want you here. Stop spreading your toxicity in a tag where people just want to move on and enjoy fan content.

You are allowed to stop supporting or enjoying anything for whatever reason. No one is forcing you to remain in the Nevermore community. 

You don’t have to ruin it for everyone on the way out. Turning on other people and harassing bystanders just because they don’t join your hate train is wild. 

Stop blaming Red and Flynn for the actions of a mod team. Your personal vendetta against creators that are just trying to write a story you claimed to enjoy is getting out of hand. Please move on, for your own mental health and everyone else’s. 

I will go back to Discord now, I just wanted to clear up some things for anyone getting bombarded by the misinformation. I hope this is the last of irrelevant Discord stuff muddying up this tag, and you all can go back to enjoying art, theories, and memes.

[wingsofmud]

The Weird Introduction of Thorn and the Outclaws

Thorn's introduction is so weird, especially compared to how she's characterized for the rest of the series. Like the first time she was introduced, I was fully convinced she was running the equivalent of the Sandwing mafia.

Like the first thing said about the Scorpion Den, where the Outclaws reside, is this:

Which, fine, they are Nightwings so obviously they'd have baised information. But when they go to meet the Outclaws, they're not allowed in without some sort of offering:

Okay, they are grown Nightwings, so I suppose a contribution might make sense since they'd probably not come because they're in need of something. Whatever. But he specifically said "no one" gets inside.

.

Anyway, Six-Claws finds Sunny hiding behind them and escorts her inside the city. She's approached by an assassin-for-hire and given his card and Six-Claws says this:

Mind you, Six-Claws is essentially Thorn's right-hand man.

Then we're introduced to the fact that the Outclaws feed dragonets:

This is something that's clearly meant to make them seem like good guys in both Sunny and the reader's eyes. But also, it's mentioned that most of the dragons here are starving or injured so they're likely impoverished. Which really begs the question, what were they giving to the Outclaws to get them to let them in? Isn't it kind of fucked up to demand something in exchange from a desperate dragon?

.

When they come across the Oasis the city is built around, we have this exchange:

You guys see how this sort of thing is a problem, right? Like this would read as villainous?

It would be one thing if this was prevention from any one group taking control of the water, but no. They control it because then they can control the city. Granted, guarding any sort of vital resource is automatically very suspicious regardless of how good your intentions are. But hey, they are intended to prevent crime and this is a very effective way of controlling the territory. Fine.

.

Anyway, we're introduced to Thorn and she kills Preyhunter. It would be one thing if Preyhunter had attacked her, but that's not at all what happened. I'll just put here the full excerpt:

This is not at all a reasonable reaction on Thorn's part. Generally, in any media, when someone kills the messenger, they're the bad guy or at the very least not the greatest pillar of morality. Because killing the messenger is a disregard of someone's life and a show of lack of emotional control considering you lashed out not at the person causing you harm, but the one who had the unfortunate job of telling it to you.

Hell, Preyhunter was the more reasonable one here. It takes Thorn grabbing him by the neck and throwing him on the ground, then threatening him with her tail, and then nearly burning him with fire for him to fight back. And does he use his built in throat flamethrower? No, he uses his claws instead. The way it's written heavily implies even this is just a blind panic reaction. And Thorn kills him.

.

The book never goes into how messed up this whole situation was. A few paragraphs later, we have these thoughts from Sunny:

Ah yes, murder is okay as long as you feel bad about it and the person attempted to defend themself.

Also she 100% did not have to do that. There's genuinely a level of insecurity you need to have to feel the need to prove to someone who is very clearly at your mercy that you have power over them.

.

It is later explained that Thorn does this because she thought Preyhunter was lying, but when Fierceteeth confirms that Morrowseer is in fact dead and the Nightwing Kingdom was destroyed, we have this:

Sunny is fully convinced Thorn intends to kill Fierceteeth for telling her a fact she doesn't like in a tone she also doesn't like.

If this were any other book, hell if this were any other character, they would be a villain. I actually genuinely can't think of a single villain in WoF who has killed some sort of messenger or bystander because they didn't like something that was told to them. Like, that is villain behavior 101.

When Sunny and Thorn mention killing Preyhunter, all she says is this:

"Yeah, sometimes you gotta show your gang your teeth by throwing down and killing a random dragon who let you know that the guy you hate is dead because you thought he was lying but as it turns out he wasn't lying and pretty much died for nothing, Beetle"

"Beetle?"

"My pet name for you!"

Am I tripping or is the sudden shift in conversation weird? After this Thorn is presented as being level-headed, kind, wise, and, in general, a good leader.

.

So what we have is:

You must give something to the Outclaws to be allowed into the Scorpion Den

Said Scorpion Den is full of impoverished and injured dragons likely fleeing the horrors of the war

It's implied Six-Claws at least has hired the services of enough assassins to recognize that the one here is "too expensive" and "barely competent"

The Outclaws feed dragonets up to the age of 8 for free every day

The Outclaws control the only water supply in order to control the town

Thorn kills a guy who tells her a message she doesn't like and dismisses this action as "showing your teeth" essentially

Please, I need to know it's not just me. Like this reads as some sort of desert mafia, right?

It would be one thing if just Sunny herself was idealizing Thorn because she was her mother and realized she wasn't as good as she thought she was, but no. All of the Outlcaws' and Thorn's actions are not only justified, but seen as a necessity in the narrative.

Thorn is basically divinely blessed to rule the Sandwings. This introduction to Thorn and the Outclaws doesn't really line up with the rest of the book(s). Am I saying Thorn or the Outclaws are villains? No. But I am saying the way they were introduced implies that they are or at the very least are morally grey. But they're not. It makes me wonder if they were original meant to be more villainous, but Tui changed her mind? Idk

[ace-touya]

Sometimes I think about Oboro and get real sad

I headcanon him and Zashi met in middle school, with them meeting Sho in UA, and like. In the grand scheme of things he was in their lives for such a short time period, he’d known Shouta for just two years. Known Hizashi for four in my hcs

But he made such a massive impact to the point where neither of them healed from losing him, over a decade after it happened

I don’t think Rooftop Trio were that well liked outside their small circle. It was the three of them plus Nemuri sometimes, against the world

And sure, Hizashi has this sort of infectious positivity and makes everyone laugh all the time but it’s definitely a character he puts on. Buried just below the surface is this angry, sad, self-doubting dude who doesn’t think he’s doing enough for the people he loves despite the fact he always puts them before himself

And in contrast, Oboro’s positivity is so genuinely real, he’s just a happy guy. He inspired them both, lifted them both up, and probably is a big reason why they even were close in the first place, because Hizashi and Shouta are complete opposites but Oboro has some shared interests with each of them respectively which makes the two of them get close, and he absolutely was Hizashi’s biggest wingman ever when he realised he loved Shouta romantically

And then like.. after seemingly dying in a really gruesome way, he got turned into a monster at the age of only sixteen, probably in a really gruesome and horrific way if Tomura getting AFO’s quirk was anything to go off of (and that was with likely a lot more developed tech considering it was so long after, and the added fact of wanting to keep Tomura’s brain in tact, which wasn’t something they cared about with Oboro)

Then he was forced to care for a child only like 10 years younger than he was, while simultaneously also being forced to be a bystander while said child is actively being groomed, by the same guy who made him like this

Into a shell of a person, noidentity of his own, no purpose except caring for this kid who was too young and too hurt to understand that both of them were trapped. He had no free will, and no real personality

And the icing on the cake is that any of the genuine care Kurogiri had for Tenko came from the love and protectiveness Oboro had for Shouta, someone Kurogiri can’t remember but whenever his gloomy little honorary son would take too many naps in one day, or stare blankly at someone he found stupid, or coo at pictures of small dogs, he’d be reminded of messy black hair and eyes that turned red, and wouldn’t know that it wasn’t Tomura he was thinking of

[cogsandgadgetry]

It was never questioned exactly why the Cuckoo Clock Maker designed timepieces for Dr. Claw that remained incomplete. To an unassuming bystander's eyes, Dr. Claw's henchmen viewed it more as a quirky novelty.

"All these clocks don't have a number twelve," one henchman would casually remark. It seemed quaint, a mere oddity for a new recruit, something to dismiss with a chuckle. But no one ever told them what was truly going on in the boss's mind. Not unless you proved yourself to be part of the MAD crime family, seasoned by years of conditioning.

For a while, the clocks were just clocks. But over time, as recruits spent more time in Dr. Claw's world, the meaning behind the design began to seep through the cracks of their understanding. When you weren't just an amateur anymore, but a seasoned criminal who had earned recognition in the organization, someone would finally point out that those hand-crafted Swiss clocks, with their missing number twelve, were no accident. They were based on the boss's own preferences, a subtle reminder of the incomplete, cyclical nature of his empire.

A reminder that nothing in his world ever truly finished.

"What do you mean 'nothing gets finished'?" another recruit questioned, glancing around the room, gauging everyone's reactions. "I thought we were getting plenty done." It was a bit of a head-scratcher, considering their ongoing battles with counter-terrorism operations and foreign intelligence agencies. Despite the odds, Dr. Claw still managed to run a global crime syndicate, his operations seemingly unaffected.

"You see—" one henchman began, trying to explain, but was quickly cut off.

"We're still functioning. Law enforcement only gets so far, even when they throw a few of us in jail," another recruit chimed in cheerfully.

But it begged the question.

"Ya know, that's the thing about Dr. Claw..." one henchman said, his voice soft, as though he were sharing a secret. "...he's got his own problems, ya see... and that idiot Inspector Gadget... he's just a bit too focused on him. But it don't matter much in the long run, you see..."

"Gadget? What about the Inspector?" one henchman muttered, shaking his head. "The Metro City Police Department's still pretty ineffectual. No matter how many small victories that idiot Inspector Gadget might steal from Dr. Claw, they never amount to anything that takes down his criminal empire. That's the point I'm tryin' to make."

"I guess in 'deh end, crime really does pay," another faceless henchman chuckled, his laughter breathless. "Chief Quimby couldn't catch a cold! We're practically untouchable!"

But what did those clocks really mean?

Despite amassing all the wealth and resources he could ever need, Dr. Claw remains fixated on Inspector Gadget. He enjoys the thrill of the chase, though his ambitions could conquer entire nations. Ever since Chief Quimby unleashed Gadget into the criminal underground, it became more of a game to him, an endless pursuit with no real resolution. Dr. Claw can afford any luxury, he can have any woman, indulge in the finest wines, live in exotic locales, and own priceless gems. Yet, no matter how much power he wields, he can never seem to end the Inspector's life.

The mystery of the clock goes beyond mere design; it mirrors Dr. Claw's own existence. The missing number 12 symbolizes his obsession: time is always running out, yet it never truly moves forward. Much like the clocks, his efforts remain incomplete, perpetually ticking towards a goal he can never quite reach on his own. With each turn of the hand, the cycle resets, and the resolution slips further from his grasp.

AN: I have a headcanon that supports that Dr. Claw must be mentally ill.

Dr. Claw's constant focus on his monitor and his isolation in a darkened room could possibly symbolize a kind of mental entrapment. His lack of engagement with the outside world, no fresh air or "touching grass," could be a parallel to obsessive online behavior or an unhealthy attachment to virtual spaces, and completely disconnected from reality...

[thecreaturecodex]

Ranna

"Slaadi" © Wizards of the Coast, by Sam Wood

[New Year, New Monsters! I am feeling much less burnt out than I was for the back half of 2023, and have built up a small backlog of new writing. I'm going to keep monsters I post to 2/week for now, to give myself time to go through said backlog in case the burnout rears up again when I'm back to work.

So for my first trick, is a monster NPC I actually wrote back in like September, but didn't post. Consider her an epilogue to the whole "Monster Girl Summer" thing. Ranna is @strawberry-crocodile's character, and fits with some of my other monstrous NPCs. She's Doctor Shiny's main minion, and their relationship serves as sort of a nasty counterpart to Gigi and Priscilla's. Of course, if you just want to use the stat block as a particularly burly slaad enforcer type, that works just as well as Ranna's baroque and macabre backstory.]

Ranna CR 18 CE Aberration This blue, frog-like humanoid has a triangular fanged snout, warty skin and enormous claws growing from the backs of their hands. A red gemstone is embedded in their skull, right between the eyes.

Marina Rhynne was an alchemy student at Endirion School in Absalom, prone to anxiety and to thinking with her stomach. She caught the eye of Doctor Agatha Shiny, who used the pretext of a dinner invitation and offer of a graduate program to abduct her and implant her with an alchemically treated red slaad egg. Doctor Shiny succeeded in one of her goals, which was to cause memories to be passed from the host to the parasite, but failed in that the resultant blue slaad did not maintain the intelligence of her progenitor. The resultant slaad, named Ranna, could recall her previous life in a hazy, dream-like way, but the predominant personality trait that was carried over was hunger.

Ranna is now Doctor Shiny’s Number One Minion, her assassin, procurer and lover. If Doctor Shiny needs someone eliminated or an unusual creature captured and brought to her, Ranna is the one to do it. She usually tracks her targets as an unassuming humanoid until she can set up an ambush and remove her greater hat of disguise. Ranna fights with her natural weapons almost exclusively, although she does occasionally toy with targets by battering them with heavy objects hurled by telekinesis. Although she is lapdog-loyal to Doctor Shiny and always follows her instructions for her specified victims, Ranna enjoys collateral damage, which usually involves biting bystanders. She views any red slaadi that are created through chaos phagethe way a proud parent views their children, and is happy to hear of any death and destruction they create.

Ranna’s personality is playful in a cruel way. She sees her progenitor, Marina Rhinne, as a pathetic figure, and has an air of contempt towards academic pursuits in general. She still appears as Rhynne when abroad in Absalom, and is the terror of Endirion School’s faculty, staff and students as Doctor Shiny’s personal assistant. Ranna is happy to play the bad guy so that Doctor Shiny can maintain her impeccable public reputation, and takes matters into her own claws if anyone gets too close to the truth about Doctor Shiny’s goals and activities. Ranna tends to dispose of the evidence of her murders by eating the corpses of her victims. She is also an excellent chef. Doctor Shiny does not eat food that Ranna prepares unless she is very sure of where the meat came from.

Ranna  CR 18 XP 153,600 Blue slaad slayer 9 (cutthroat) CE Large aberration (chaotic, slaadi) Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +19

Defense AC 33, touch 20, flat-footed 24 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +1 dodge, +9 natural, +4 armor, +2 deflection) hp 303 (11d8+9d10+200); fast healing 6 Fort +22, Ref +20, Will +15 Immune mind reading, sonic; Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10; SR 19

Offense Speed 30 ft. Melee +3 bite +32 (2d6+16 plus disease), 2 +3 claws +32 (2d6+16/19-20x3) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. Special Attacks augmented critical, opportune target, rend (2 claws, 2d6+22), sneak attack +3d6, stab and grab, studied target (swift or move action, +2) Spell-like Abilities CL 8th, concentration +11 3/day—hold person (DC 15), passwall, telekinesis (DC 18) 1/day—chaos hammer (DC 17)

Statistics Str 36, Dex 26, Con 30, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 16 Base Atk +17; CMB +31 (+33 bull rush); CMD 52 Feats Alertness,Awesome Blow, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical (claw), Improved Natural Attack (bite), Intimidating Prowess, Killing Flourish, Power Attack Skills Acrobatics +20 (+24 in urban environments), Bluff +16, Climb +20, Disable Device +25, Disguise +16, Intimidate +34, Linguistics +4, Perception +19 (+23 vs. traps), Profession (chef) +14, Sense Motive +19, Stealth +21, Survival +15 Languages Common, Slaadi SQ legendary, slayer talents (surprise attack, trapfinding [trap sense +3], stalker, street stalker (Acrobatics) Gear manual of gainful exercise +4 (expended), manual of quickness of action +2 (expended), manual of bodily health +4 (expended), belt of physical perfection +4, bloodstained gloves, greater hat of disguise, soulbound eye, amulet of mighty fists +3, bracers of armor +4, boots of teleportation, cloak of resistance +3, ring of mind shielding, ring of protection +2, potion of fly (x2), potion of displacement, potion of haste, potion of lesser restoration (x2), potion of cure light wounds (x4), masterwork cooking tools, 150 gp

Special Abilities Augmented Critical (Ex) A blue slaad’s claws deal x3 damage on a successful critical hit. Disease (Su) Chaos phage; bite—injury; save Fort DC 25; onset 1 minute; frequency 1/day; effect 1d6 Con damage and 1d6 Cha damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. A creature that is reduced to 0 Con or Cha by chaos phage is immediately transformed into a red slaad. This transformation can only be reversed by a miracle or wish. A Small or Medium humanoid with levels in an arcane spellcasting class instead transforms into a green slaad. The save DC is Constitution based. Legendary (Ex) Ranna’s statistics are built with 25 point buy, and she has the equipment of an 18th level PC. These advantages increase her CR by +1. Opportune Target (Ex) If Ranna can act in the surprise round, she can study a foe as a free action and select them as her studied target. Stab and Grab (Ex) As a swift action, Ranna can attempt a steal combat maneuver against a dead or unconscious foe, or against a studied target that she has successfully confirmed a critical hit against. A dead or unconscious opponent takes a -10 penalty against this maneuver. Street Stalker (Ex) Ranna adds ½ her slayer level to Acrobatics checks made in urban environments.

[cattimeswithjellie]

Stream Recap, Skizzleman, 6/11/24

((Skizz streams are always funny, but if you want to watch any single part of this stream, check out Skizz's digging around 2:11:00. Poor Chat. Fans of HotGuy and Cuteguy may also want to check out the shout-out around 24:00.))

05:40 Skizz opens the stream. He is dancing to the music and tells everyone he’s doing StreamBeats on Spotify. He logs into Hermitcraft, inside his base. Today’s snack is blueberries, because his energy was running a little low. He thanks subs and donos. A chatter says that Jono is mixing the Poe Poe song, Skizz thinks that is awesome. Yesterday’s stream start was one of the craziest of all times. Skizz does have a plan for today! After stream, he’s going to _chill._ Yesterday was a long day, streaming and prepping today’s new video. First on today’s agenda is recording a bit about the guide for the volcano.

9:20 Skizz talks about the podcast this week. They haven’t even filmed it yet. Impulse was sick and needed extra time, so tomorrow Skizz goes to work for some intense and specific training and a long work day, then they will record the podcast and then he has to get it turned around by Friday. It’s going to be intense. Skizz thanks a dono and massacres the username. He thanks more subs.

11:45 Skizz sets up to record, adjusting his game sounds. Chat has an argument about the pronunciation of “pthalo.” Skizz confirms he will NOT be going into Tango’s hole today. Skizz is very disappointed in whoever invented the pronunciation of “phthalo,” obviously someone who hates human lips.

14:20 Skizz begins recording his bit. He says that what just happened is cool and fun (he is not telling chat what the previous bit was) but that he’s not going to stop until he gets the Mission Possible Hat. He flies to MP HQ and gets a new MP mission. It is “Do a good deed for a Hermit without them noticing and without taking credit.” Skizz says this is right up his alley, but he needs to think about it. He jokes that because he is a Hermit, he could do a good deed for himself and get the reward, right? No, he won’t do that, he’ll do it right. He ends the recording and asks chat about who he should do a nice thing for.

16:30 Skizz lands in the eye of Gem’s base and thinks about what to do. Someone suggests restocking a shop. Skizz laughs and says maybe he should put all the glowberries back (referring to his Mission Possible deed from his last episode, where he bought out Joel’s glowberry shop). Scar signs on and says he has Skizz’s new bow. Skizz is excited and goes to find Scar. He starts at his own base, which is crawling with hostile mobs, and considers spawnproofing it for Scar’s sake. He doesn’t, instead taking off again to search. When a quick aerial search is unrevealing, he goes into his base to sleep. As he arrives back at the base, the Poe Poe song plays outside, then the “Trader Scar’s definitely not going to eat you” horn. Skizz goes outside and finds Scar.

18:20 Skizz tells Scar that Jono is remixing the Poe Poe song. Scar says he is watching Jono live on his other monitor as they speak. Scar gives Skizz an enchanted bow called “FailGuy.” Skizz tells Scar he hates him so much. Scar laughs. Skizz looks at the bow and notes that it is fully enchanted. He sighs and asks what he needs to do to earn the right to rename the bow. Scar says there can be no renaming of this bow, it will be FailGuy until it breaks. He suggests that Skizz should get out there and start shooting a lot of FailGuy arrows. Skizz agrees reluctantly. Scar reminds Skizz that all he really needs to do is believe in himself and use that space bar. Skizz insists that he used spacebar and also fired 700 rockets, it’s right there in his footage. He tells Scar to look at the bloopers from his new episode, both for proof and because they were incredibly funny.

20:00 Scar says people on Twitter are accusing him of diamond ore theft, but he is an innocent bystandard. Bystander, Skizz corrects. Scar doesn’t understand, but he is innocent. He doesn’t want any trouble with the GOAT himself, but he is having a wonderful time watching Doc rage. Skizz asks what kind of ore was taken, from where. Scar says someone is taking the ore from Doc’s fashion shop and replacing it. Doc is on Twitter, making accusations and threatening vagueposts about trains. Scar, as a train owner, is feeling very threatened. Skizz asks how much diamond ore has been taken. Scar says like two pieces. Skizz is baffled that Doc is so upset about two pieces of ore. He doesn’t know what fashion shop Scar is talking about, so Scar takes him on a field trip that may involve murder with Skizz’s new bow. They decide to get in a chat group along the way.

22:00 Scar and Skizz take a quick detour to try and kill Impulse with the new bow. They go down into Impulse’s metro system and fly around the cyberpunk city but don’t find him. Scar calls Xisuma “Dipple-dee-doppers.” They say he must be hiding. Scar says they should shoot Xisuma for hoarding the End and keeping people from harvesting XP there. ((Xisuma has been moving mobs via the End Portal and asking other Hermits to stay away.)) Skizz asks whether Scar knows about the Bop N Go. Scar says he just used it, and he likes the music.

24:00 Skizz and Scar abandon the hunt for Impulse. Scar says Impulse must be afraid of the power of the HotGuy and the FailGuy. He wishes that they could get CuteGuy onto the server so they could have the full set. Skizz protests that he is a cute guy. Scar tells him very definitively that he’s not CuteGuy, that’s Grian. Skizz points out that he used to be SpyGuy, and that was cool, and then his _buddy_ _murdered_ him and named him FailGuy. Scar leads him to the armor trim shop and points out the two missing bits of diamond ore, one on the surface and one inside the guts of the redstone. Scar noticed the second bit of missing redstone during a livestream, before Doc actually noticed it, but he did not take it. ((Scar says it was Tango’s stream, but it was Ren’s livestream.)) Scar is disgusted that Doc has a diamond boring machine and still gets so upset about two ore.

25:30 Scar is distracted from Doc’s problems by how much he still wants to kill Impulse. He insists that he sees Impulse and takes off, followed by Skizz who demands to know what kind of eyes he has. Scar insists he is HotGuy! Scar races around the shopping district, followed by Skizz, but they do not find Impulse. They do hear Joel’s honey song and are baffled by it before resuming the chase. It is unclear whether Scar actually saw Impulse at all, or if it was a mirage, or if Scar is deliberately toying with Skizz. Scar looks up Impulse’s coords but he doesn’t seem to be there. Skizz begins taking potshots at Scar, who doesn’t notice. Skizz goes home to sleep.

29:40 Skizz gives up the chase and goes to Bop ‘n Go to repair his elytra. Scar makes a difficult shot to hit Skizz while he’s bopping. Scar tells Skizz that if he does something Scar deems truly admirable, he can change the name of the FailGuy bow. Skiss promises he will do so. They shoot at each other a few more times and Scar leaves.

31:00 Skizz decides his good deed will be to replace Doc’s diamond ore. Chat doesn’t like Skizz calling Doc Doccy because that is what Doc calls his child and it is confusing everyone. Skizz does not read chat and doesn’t notice. He admits this is not really a selfless act, it’s a nice thing but it’s so he can get his token. He heads back to the armor shop. He replaces the outer block and, leery of entering the machine itself, stacks up two more ore to replace the other missing blocks. Good deed done, no credit taken! Skizz goes to collect his token.

34:10 Skizz needs two tokens to spin for the MP prize he wants (the helicopter beanie cap), so he needs another task. He turns in his task and gets one token, then collects his new task. He receives the task “create a big present at another Hermit’s base, sign it, wish them happy birthday, and put something useless inside.” He instantly recognizes this as the task Stress got and performed on him months ago now. Chat is amused. Skizz is going to think of something fantastic for this task. He unpauses his chat alerts and demands Chat tell him the most useless item in Minecraft. Chat has lots of ideas, but Skizz likes the poison potato best.

36:00 Skizz starts looking through his chest monster for useless things. He gets excited when he remembers the retextured “Diamond” stick that has been in his ender chest for a long time now. It is the perfect gift, but who to give it to? Skizz starts looking for the packaging blocks Stress used for the original present. Chat points out that it’s actually Pearl’s birthday.

38:30 Skizz reads a dono from chat and takes a contemplative sip of coffee. It is from the wrong cup and is his cold nasty coffee from the morning. He is unhappy. He tells Chat he is not going to give Pearl a fake present on her real birthday. He finds the pink concrete from Stress and gathers up some cherry leaves as well. He thinks about making a Russian nesting doll style present, unwrapped in layers. He can’t find any items frames so he steals some from his Poe Poe kit. Considering how terrible his organizational system is, Skizz knows where a surprising number of items are.

42:00 Skizz decides Grian gets the present. There’s a nice flat space right in front of his base. He builds a 9x9x9 box of cherry leaves and quizzes Chat on what memory he’s evoking here. Chat guesses the Heart Foundation. He asks Chat if they notice how slow he is moving. It is because his buddies killed him in the Void and he lost his Swift Sneak pants.

45:00 Skizz responds to a request from chat for the Skizzlefarts song, in honor of a chatter’s sister who had surgery and cannot leave the hospital before passing gas. Chat is very supportive. During the song, Skizz returns to his base and collects more cherry leaves, then starts the second inner layer. Chat begins telling him to eat.

49:00 The song ends. Chat has strong feelings about Skizz not building the inner box off the ground. Skizz does not care, but he does satisfy Chat by eating. He places the item frame and the fake diamond, then goes to sleep. In the morning, finishes the box and goes to put the sign up, only to realize he put it back in the chest when he collected the cherry leaves. He returns to base for the sign, then closes the boxes and adds the ribbon. He is just complimenting himself on his Guess-the-Build boosted skills when he runs out of concrete. Chat knows he has more concrete in his base and Skizz actually looks at chat to see it. Victorious, he finishes the ribbon, then adds a bow. The bow takes awhile.

58:30 Skizz adds the sign and calls it good. He does not sign it. Chat reminds him he must sign it to complete the mission. He says he’s not going to sign it. Chat scolds him. He reads the mission again and returns to sign his name to the present.

1:01:20 Skizz explains Mission Possible to Chat while he sleeps through the night and heads for the Shopping district. He receives his tokens and spends them on a skin. He is disappointed to receive the arrow hat. He feels better when he realizes it is a hat that makes it look like there’s an arrow through his head. He decides to head back to work, but thanks subs and donos first.

1:04:50 Skizz flies from the shopping district to the top of Magic Mountain and tells chat he wants to make a quad beacon for digging, or a “queacon.” He flies immediately back to the shopping district for more iron. As he flies, he plugs his new channel, ShorterSkizz. The channel is his daughter’s summer project because she cannot work during ACL recovery. Chat is excited and begins subbing, competing for early sub numbers.

1:07:00 Skizz arrives back at the shopping district and tries to figure out how many iron blocks he needs. Sub numbers have climbed from 15 to about 400. A chatter suggests he needs to hire Jimmy for a 700 subscribers special. Skizz likes that idea and puts a velcro bag on his head to stand in for Young Jimmy’s hair from his subscriber special. He decides he needs “ a lot” of iron, and buys three and a half stacks of iron. He decides that’s not enough and tops up to six stacks.

1:13:00 Skizz heads back for the mountain, thanking subs and donos. ShorterSkizz cracks 700 subs. Skizz stops on top of the pyramid and thanks everyone with his best teenage Jimmy impression. Chat is pleased. Skizz tells Jimmy, if he sees this, that he loves him and explains the bit. He makes sure that someone clipped that so Jimmy can see it.

1:15:40 Skizz grabs his shovel and heads for the mountain for real. Chat begins reminding him to eat. He does a shoutout to his buddy MKBean who is helping with the new channel, then scouts out a spot for the beacon, digging straight down. He sees the opening into the cave and falls in anyway, but does not die.

1:19:30 Skizz pauses to read out a dono that suggests he should buy a keyboard with a working space bar. Skizz demands affirmation from chat that they saw his episode and that he really tried to get out of the void. Chat is supportive, to a point. Skizz continues digging down and notes that he didn’t even bring a weapon on this jaunt. He arrives in the largest part of the underground caverns and realizes he went off by one while digging the beacon hole. He fixes the mistake with another hole, realizes it is nighttime and that he didn’t bring a bed. He goes home.

1:24:00 Skizz jumps back down the beacon hole and goes to fix his mistake hole, then changes his mind and decides not to. He digs down deeper instead, then goes home again to get torches and a weapon. He thanks donos and subs, and seeks more affirmation from chat about his death in the void. A chatter tells him that nice things happened last night on the channel he raided into. Skizz is happy. He talks about how funny Jimmy was in the 700 subscriber video. Skizz cannot find his sword.

1:29:00 Skizz searches his chest monster for the sword and does not find it. He says he’s tried to organize his chests onstream a million times only for Chat to tell him not to do it because it’s boring, then admits that the opposite is true and chat has basically begged him to do an organizing stream. He won’t though, because it’s bad content. It’s much better to watch him search the chest monster a million times. He realizes he might have lost it in the void. He makes a new diamond sword and heads for the Shopping district for books. He remembers suddenly that he had Looting on that sword and that somehow motivates him to turn around and search harder.

1:30:50 Skizz finds his sword outside the Pyramid and then starts searching for torches. He organizes his inventory a bit and makes torches. He collects more rockets and heads back into the mountain.

Chat reminds him he forgot his bed and the beacon, but it is too late.

1:33:00 Skizz digs a bigger hole in the mountain. He digs down to about 10 and fights a creeper, then lights a little cavern he finds. He eats and provides some birthday you-yos, then decides whether to go down further. He places more torches and argues with himself. He digs down some more and lights another cave full of mobs.

1:42:00 Skizz realizes he has lost track of the hole he dug. He finds it after a couple minutes of searching and begins placing the beacon. A chatter asks if he has forgotten the ways of the skompass. He figures out what the dimensions of the beacon need to be and starts throwing down iron. He explains how one chatter has taken responsibility to be master of dad jokes and now Skizz looks forward to them. Chat provides additional dad jokes. Skizz plays the bop song and builds.

1:51:30 Skizz is very pumped about Jono remixing the Poe Poe song. The beacon is partway built now and growing fast. He realizes that he will need to buy some beacons, and that it might have made sense to do that before jumping down this hole. He finishes the beacon base, including four extra blocks where the beacons themselves should go, and heads out to get some beacons. Chat tries to explain that he needs to remove the top four blocks.

1:56:00 Skizz flies to the shopping district and visits the beacon shop. He stares at the enormous BEACONS sign and asks chat where the beacons are. Chat mocks him. He purchases four beacons and heads back to the mountain. Skizz parks himself on top of the mountain, tells Chat not to let him die, and plays the Skizzlefarts song again while he takes a bathroom break.

2:00:20 Skizz returns, miraculously unkilled. He opens the hole wide enough for a 2x2 beacon light and breaks the netherrack pole he’d used to survey the mountain. With everything prepared, he dives back down the hole and places the beacons on the iron blocks he should have removed. The beacon does not light. He removes the beacons, removes the blocks, and places the beacons in the correct place. They light successfully. Skizz goes to find some pink glass.

2:06 Skizz heads for the shopping district and visits the glass shop. He buys a stack of pink glass and goes to get some iron. Chat reminds him he has iron. He heads for the mountain and empinkens the beacon, then activates it with Haste 2, Jump Boost, Speed, Resistance and Regen. He decides he needs to make a safe drop to let him get down without dying.

2:11:00 Skizz admires the work he has done for the mountain crew. He contemplates a top-level control room that will activate different beacons under the mountain, but that’s for another day. He tries to take advantage of the new beacon to dig some dirt on the mountain, but has little success because he is trying to dig with his axe. Frustrated, he announces that his spoon SUCKS. Chat is beside themselves. He somehow misses the hundred chatters telling him he was holding an axe to zero in on the one who assures him that grass is slower to mine than dirt. Skizz flies around a little and admires the beacon, then heads back to his base for a better shovel. He finally realizes he was using the axe. He immediately flies back to Magic Mountain to test out his actual shovel. It works very well.

2:15:20 Skizz begins reorganizing the chests on Magic Mountain to facilitate digging, setting the storage chests outside the digging perimeter. Chat suggests putting an S on the ground and calling it Skizz Mountain. He flies back home to sleep, then realizes there was a bed on top of the mountain. He thanks subs and donos again. He tries to eat a rocket. After several more birthday you-yos, it’s back to the mountain for more organizing. Skizz has great sympathy for the very confused pen of sheep on top of the mountain.

2:19:45 Skizz finds a sign that says “omg, it’s a dark oak tree!” He laughs, confused, but does not remove it. He finishes moving the chests and organizing them. Chat reminds him how nice it feels to organize and suggests maybe he could do that at his base. Skizz hopes that this will make excavation a little more enjoyable for everybody.

2:24:15 Skizz leads by example with an arrow in his head, beginning the digging himself. He digs about ten dirt blocks and declares himself exhausted. He digs some more, then realizes he just wants to use TNT again. They probably will use TNT again, but this is a good way to put a teeny little dent in the amount of work yet to be done. A group TNT day would be a very fun group recording day for Magic Mountain. TNT is unpredictable but very fast!

2:27:00 Skizz digs dirt, sleeps, and interacts with chat. A chatter tells him a joke. He gathers up a lot more dirt, then stops because he does not want to ruin the glorious TNT day. He notices a chest and bed on top of the mountain and investigates, but the chest is empty. He destroys it. All his dirt goes into the storage chests. He’s way into the TNT date idea now.

2:32:00 Skizz decides to call the stream a little early today. Yesterday he was super busy and last night he didn’t sleep well. Today was long and he needs some sun before it gets dark. Chat advises Skizz to touch grass. He returns to his base and says goodbye to chat. He raids into “Coach” Jojosolos and ends his stream.

[achaotichuman]

Day 1

Let’s rid of the evils first and save the merrier ones for the end.

Who is worse?

Azriel: Confessed his love to a woman beaten and battered, and abandoned in enemy lands by her father

Cassian: Slept with a woman his brother loved in order to hurt the said brother

You may recruit your tribe in your crusade if it pleases you. Your contenders: @litnerdwrites @fenrysmoonbeamswife @gwandas @positivelyruined @hrizantemy

[I commend your courage for claiming to know my identity. However, I assure you, my beloved liege, you know naught of it.]

I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS

Okay the obvious answer is Cassian but not for the reason you listed. I actually do not consider Cassian sleeping with Mor as a reason on the list of why he sucks.

Here are my personal favourites of why he sucks. Keep in mind, this is not all of them, just the highlights.

Emotionally abusing Nesta by constantly bringing up her trauma and using it as leverage to get her to act how he wants.

Restricting Nesta's intake of food when she was already struggling with eating.

Physically abusing Nesta as punishment via taking her on the hike from hell, and making her climb a mountain until she passed out from dehydration.

Knowing Nesta had been through SA but still cornering her while asking her sexually intruding questions (this ones from the bonus chapter I believe)

Taking advantage of Nesta sexually, by sleeping with her when he knew and had shamed her for using sex as an unhealthy coping mechanism.

I could keep going on and on, but those are just the few highlights.

Anyway, obviously I'm picking Cassian as the worst here BUT BEAWARE I AM DOING SO BEGRUDGINGLY.

When I tell you, I fuckin hated Azriel the moment he stepped onto page in the ACOTAR series, I mean I almost DNFed because I hated him so much.

Not for any particular reason (in the very beginning at least) he just pissed me right off.

But again, the example provided is hardly a reason as to why someone wouldn't like Azriel, so let's run through the highlights, shall we?

Azriel's abuse towards Nesta is quiet, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

He was in active participate in punishing Nesta in the hike from hell by purposefully packing her bag to be as heavy as possible.

When he saw Nesta's bruises from falling down the stairs, he assumed they were from Cassian pushing her and he was amused by the thought.

He was a bystander as Cassian controlled Nesta down to her eating habits.

He also regifted something made for a woman he sexually fantasized about and tried to fuck, to an SA survivor. Which is *creepy* and *weird*

He's also just overall... really fucking annoying? He can't do his job properly, he can't hold his composure (See: The High Lord's Meeting), he really on exists as pretty decoration, and that's when he's not being the biggest asshole ever.

So, once more I am choosing Cassian as the worst, BUT ONLY BECAUSE HE IS WORSE THAN AZRIEL, NOT BECAUSE AZRIEL IS GOOD AT ALL

[random-things-of-mine]

😔🥄

Mob Wally x GN Reader

Warning: Angst

- - - - -

It was really was unusual.

The mobster had considered his family to be perfect as it was at this point.

Till suddenly he saw someone, someone who had never interfered with him, a innocent bystander who would never involve themselves into his type of business or the type of person he was. Someone who's life didn't revolve around him. 

He had locked eyes with them and saw something that he wanted. And, if he wanted something, then he had to have it. 

"So, I took you. Isn't that lovely? It's not just a game of love and hate with me, I simply take what I want."

Mob was staring down at Y/n with a adoring expression. He found the confusion on their face a delight to look at as he finished his explanation as to why he brought them here.

A cruel grin spreads along his face. And, in his hands, he's holding a spoon. They didn't know what the object signified but soon came to the terrifying conclusion.

The tallest member Howdy stepped up helping hold Y/n still. 

"No no no no! You can't do this!" They panic as they trash around violently. 

"Stop moving, you silly thing..." He says, trying to soothe them. "Your resistance is only going to make this worse.

"I need both my eyes! I don't wanna lose one!"

"Need? My, my... we don't need the things in our lives. Just look at me." He says with a cruel grin, tapping the scar on his face with his finger. "We merely have them... It will take you some adjustments, but you'll live with only one eye."

"I'd say you wouldn't need me then, if you say we don't need things in our lives you don't need me." They snap back, trying to use his own logic against him.

To Y/n's unease Mob only chuckled, as he shook his head condescendingly. 

"My, you're a mouthy thing, aren't you? It's not about needing. I want you to join my family. I want to be close to you. Can't you see the difference? And I always get what I want."

"But it's not mutual, and never will be!"

Tears where starting to form in the human eyes, from the stress and fear. They could only plead or argue with the puppet and nothing seemed to help.

"You're only saying that because you're scared." He says with a smile. "I promise you'll come to love me once you are my family. So just... stop it, okay?"

Their breath hitched as they saw the spoon get twirled around in his hand. It felt more intimidating than any gun or knife could be.

Howdy was still holding Y/n down and keeping them from moving. He had a neutral expression on his face as if he wasn't fazed at all. He was simply following his boss's orders. On closer inspection many many scars where etched into his skin. 

Scars from the past, he too had once been in their position. Everyone here in the family had been. This incantation was necessary to join. 

"Please... I don't want this..."

"Oh shhh it will only hurt for a moment."

Mob cooed sweetly as he placed one hand firmly on their chin, tilting their head in the right position. His smile was furthest from comforting.

Y/n stared at him pleadingly, begging him not to do this as more tears where rolling down their cheeks.

"Alright, one.... two...."

He didn't finish counting as he twisted the spoon, scooping out the right eye with deliberate movements. 

Pain was all you could feel.

Their cries of agony were ignored as he placed the eye inside a jar with the eyes of the other members before he smiled at them, satisfied.

"And there you have it... you're now officially a member of my family. Welcome." He grins, not seeming bothered by the blood, even smiling a bit wider.

Y/n was hyperventilating as they where experiencing the most horrendous pain in their entire life till this point. If it wasn't for Howdy holding them up they wouldn've fallen to the ground clutching their open wound.

"I will never consider you my family. Nor anyone else here." They managed to say through heavy breathing, coughs and tears as blood steamed down their face soaking the gloved hand that was stil possessively holding their chin.

"That is such a dramatic response I nearly choked. But, regardless of what you consider us, now we have a physical connection through your missing eye. And that's all I need." He says, almost smugly. His smile grows more. "This eye is mine forever now. And so are you."

𝒰𝓃𝓊𝓈𝓊𝒶𝓁..

𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝓈𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒 𝒻𝒶𝓈𝒸𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃, 𝒾𝓃𝒻𝒶𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃.

𝒜 𝓁𝓊𝓃𝒶𝓉𝒾𝒸.

𝒞𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓂𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓈𝓊𝒾𝓉𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓉𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑒, 𝐼 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓃𝒶 𝓉𝒶𝓈𝓉𝑒. 

𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝐼'𝓋𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉'𝓈 𝒾𝓃𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉𝓈.

𝒞𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝒾𝓃𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜𝑜.

𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝑜𝓃 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝒶𝒸𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝓂𝒶𝓉𝒸𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝒹𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓎𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝓁𝑒𝑒𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶 𝓌𝑜𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇𝒻𝓊𝓁 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔.

𝒴𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝒹𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊'𝓇𝑒 𝓅𝓁𝑒𝒶𝒹𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝒹 𝒾𝓈 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔.

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓈 𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝒯𝒶𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒷𝓁𝑜𝑜𝒹 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓈 𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓈 𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓈 𝐼 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊.

- - - - - 

[yandere-fics]

Well, if you want darker asks, this one's been rattling in my brain for a while...

How would your yanderes handle it if their darling was a fundamentally, irredeemably evil person? Like, you can choose how they are evil based on setting, but to one-up rudie let's say they are at least on the level of "serial killer who targets loving parents specifically out of the sheer joy that creating sad orphans gives them". Darlings who are just utter despicable peices of human trash. I suspect the greatest angst in the city, where yanderes are basically soulbound to a worse monster than themselves.

♡ How Would They React To An Evil Darling ♡

♡ Miriel is delusional and will try her hardest to justify anything her darling does but I think this would kill her inside. See part of the reason Miriel only kills for her darling when she feels she has no other choice is because as an elf it's hard for her to be around death. She's very connected to the life that surrounds her so any suffering is going to weigh on her heavily and while she will follow her daling no matter what, it's difficult to see all the carnage they are causing and she would take them with her back to her village where she can lock them away for their own good. ♡

♡ Kassien was a mass murderer in the demon realm and she is only a few steps away from evil cause her kill count on a daily basis is much higher than any of the others but she also prefers her darling to be softer than her and so she will want to train this out of you if possible, otherwise she'll just try to find ways to let you do what you want because she wants to spoil her mate and well she can't deprive you if the thing you want is murder, as much as she would prefer you didn't. Though if you take it too far she'll break your legs and keep you inside so hopefully you'll learn to care about her and only her more instead of killing. ♡

♡ Nikki does not understand what is evil and what isn't. She's possibly the closest thing to evil in my oc lineup but she's not really sadistic unless someone steps out of line so she doesn't fully understand your desire to kill and hurt random bystanders but she just assumes they must have done something for you to be doing this, you are a bad influence on her because now when people bump into her or pass her she'll torture them slightly too because that's what you do though she's not going on murder sprees, she just makes them trapped in their worst nightmares for a couple minutes. ♡

♡ Nora's sense of morality is fucked up, as long as her darling cares about her, she loves them no matter what they chose to do because they are her reason for living. She has spent centuries being a walking death machine, killing without even asking The Boss why, and even prior to becoming The Boss's tamed pet she was a killer for hire. Although she never has really taken pleasure out of killing any of the people she has to, she also is not going to judge anyone who does because every one in the city has reasons for what they do. She's learned that even the most cold blooded killer in the city who she's been sent after has reasons, although she still kills them even after learning why. So an evil darling doesn't bug her, her darling is still the one bright thing in her life. ♡

♡ Rudie only kills for money but that certainly doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy the killing. She takes great pleasure in it and she likes knowing that she's extremely good at it. I wouldn't call her evil but she does very much enjoy the killing and if she ever won the lottery then she would just switch to killing for leisure instead. She herself feels she is evil and she doesn't really care but she would never consider her darling evil. In her eyes anything they do is not as bad as what she has done because she commited her first murder at 5 years old and after that she never really stopped. ♡

♡ Sawyer would burn down her city for her darling if they asked though they would have to give her plenty of affection in exchange. Sawyer adores her city but her darling comes first so if they destroy the lives of a few people then it's okay as long as she fills the void with affection towards Sawyer. For everything they break that Sawyer worked hard to build, they must do something for her to make that sacrifice worth it. She has worked so hard to protect it and has used her life force and the sacrifice of a few... miscreants in order to make it prosper so she would prefer if her darling didn't harm the citizens but she can grin and bear it for her darling's love. ♡

[choicesficwriterscreations]

August MC of the Month: Jensen Valentine

Please welcome our sixth MC of the month! Each month, we will highlight one MC or OC that is currently on our Meet My MC / OC List. The MC / OC is selected randomly on the Wheel of Names, and eligibility requirements can be found here. We accept MC / OC profiles on an ongoing basis. Please feel free to send yours in!

This month's MC of the month is...

@mydemonsdrivealimo's Jensen Valentine

In your words, tell us what you like most about your MC. 

What I like most about Jensen is his resilience. He has never been dealt the perfect cards, or even good ones, at that, but that didn’t stop him from striving for great things. He hasn’t always been like that; some setbacks were worse than others, and he considered giving up, but he knew he couldn’t let himself do that. His intrinsic motivation to amount to something has usually been enough, but it’s also his interactions with other people that have helped him along. Some of them were good, sure, but, in all honesty, it’s usually the bad ones that kept him going. 

A good example would be one of his med school professors, who publicly called Jensen out as the perfect example of what not to be like, citing how a man having painted nails shouldn’t be allowed in society, much less is it professional when going into the medical field. Jensen has never been one to sit quietly (no matter how many times it’s gotten him into trouble), and he wasn’t going to start. He pressed that professor, asking him what his evidence was, why he thought like that, and if he had any other reasons besides being a bigot who couldn’t handle seeing people different than himself. Not only that, but he also didn’t transfer from the class for the rest of the semester, making sure that the professor was as uncomfortable sharing flawed ideas as everyone else was hearing them.

The thought that there were still medical professionals out in the world who shared the same ideas the professor didn’t sit well with Jensen. No way could he let that slide when it came to patients and people seeking help, which was just another boost for him to keep going and try to make the changes he wanted to see. Even though he has been knocked down, it’s never made him hide his personality or beliefs.

Do you feel your MC is like you at all? How are you alike or different?

Jensen and I definitely share the same demeanor, especially around how people treat others. People making others feel small, for any reason and on any scale, is fucked up, and being an inactive bystander is never going to solve it. Especially knowing how American healthcare works, I knew I could never make Jensen someone who’s proud of how it currently runs and how it treats the patients. Though he is not the softest, or kindest, or sweetest, he would still do anything it takes to make some sort of change or impact, on a large scale or just one-on-one with a patient. I know I tend to come off in ways I don’t necessarily mean (it’s the rbf for the most part, lbr), and I wanted to reflect that in Jensen’s character, particularly in his day-to-day, as quiet and not-overly-optimistic characters are often synonymous with rude, brooding, or otherwise unapproachable, which is definitely not the case.

As for differences, Jensen is really like this cool, elevated, eloquent person, which is definitely Not me. I stumble through most things, and I hope I get spit out the other side more-or-less okay, whereas Jensen usually has a plan and, you know, thinks through things before he does them.

What is most important to your MC? What is their motivation in life?

What’s most important to Jensen is being able to use his position and the opportunities he’s been granted to help elevate other voices in the community and within certain issues he deems important. Being able to make more opportunities for other people, especially those who are or were in similar situations to himself when he was younger, is a big motivation for him. For most of his life, he was not in a place to be making any types of calls or really have anyone listen to him at all, and being granted such a high position within his career, and therefore his life, isn’t something he takes lightly. He has never been one to support how much power people with money or in high-ranking positions have because he knows what it's like to be on the bottom of that chain, and he knows he’s incredibly fortunate not to be in that position anymore, so he wants to able to use everything he’s been given to support others who need it or who are otherwise flushed out of “adult” conversations purely because they don’t fit the top 1%’s model.

What are their biggest pet peeves/dislikes? 

Entitled people. Of course, he has some more petty ones, but if Anyone shows people disrespect for 1. No reason, or 2. A shitty reason, he’s going to have a problem with it, and he will be saying something to them about it. He has been the recipient of it many times growing up, and he knows it is never called for, nor does it have a good impact on anyone involved. Again, now that he is in a more respected position, rather than having his “turn” as the entitled one, he will continue to stand up for those who need it and speak out against the people who treat their power like a free pass to be a pos.

If your MC could change one thing - anything - what would it be? 

Jensen has big aspirations, and while he’d like it to be the entirety of society, social standards, government, systemic bigotry, healthcare, etc. etc, I think being able to positively impact one person’s day is enough for him. During med school was when he really started carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, but after the first few years at Edenbrook, he realizes it’s an impossible goal that will only lead him to disappointment. He will help where he can, but it’s nothing compared to reassuring a patient or getting them a life-changing diagnosis, surgery, or something else. Not every case has a happy ending, but being able to take any amount of worry away from someone makes it all worth it for him. Changing someone’s view of something into a more healthy and accepting lens, whether it be their life as a whole or even just something affecting their day, is one of the most rewarding things for him.

What is your MC’s favorite quote or song? 

This was one of the hardest questions for me so I narrowed it down to a few options, and I think (one of) Jensen’s favorite song(s) would be Boring by The Brobecks. He most certainly would’ve seen it live while The Brobecks were still a thing, and though the lyrics are simple, it would’ve hit him at a very particular yet perfectly-timed place in his life. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your MC:

Being a fiction and original character writer at my core, I have poured pieces of myself into Jensen, and I have developed him during some of my worst and best moments (which, of course, changed the plot of his life). I went through many different phases and stories with him before ever joining the fandom, and years ago, when I first played Open Heart I never would’ve imagined it would end up on my hyperfixations list. I remember one night, at least two and a half years ago, I was up until 2 in the morning jotting down random backstories for him, running through the stages of his life in my head. I never looked at it again, never thought it would mean anything, and now here I am, at my one-year anniversary in the Open Heart fandom (August 2nd), with an almost completely different character that I love and think about every day.

The one thing that’s stayed the same though is how much he’s overcome. Though the struggles were very different in the beginning, his overall disposition has always been the same. He has been a loud activist for queer people and poc despite that it was never the most “convenient” for him, but he has also never been the sunshine character. Even through all the overhauls his character has been through, he has always been fighting for the same causes and has been using what he’s been given for good, which I wanted to share because it is arguably the most important part of his character. Even though he does not always have a smile on, doesn’t jump to be a part of every conversation, and doesn’t try to befriend everyone, he still cares just as much as anyone who does those things. It’s been fundamentally rooted in his character since day one, and it’s important to me that it gets seen.

[robinyourcreator]

10, 20, for your 1.5 Tavs lmao

THANK YOU FATHER FOR MY LIFE!!! anyways the 1.5 Tavs comes from the fact that both Adana and Tristana are the same person-- for the first nineteen years of their life. Adana is my Canon Tav, Tristana is alternate universe Sharran Tav who was preyed upon by the local Shar cult at a low point in her life where she was hilariously susceptible to cult recruitment. (‘Adana Taveth’ is a made up name, they were both born Tristana Bergen, Adana just changed her name after she faked her death and ran away from home.)

ANYWAYS!

under a cut for length.

10) What is their main character arc in the story? Where do they start and how do they develop? Do they get a happy ending or is their story a tragic one?

Adana: Adana’s main theme and her very conscious philosophical belief that drives most of her choices is ‘other people are worth saving even if I wasn’t.’ Girliepop is a martyr without a cause. Adana starts out as a very kind (and that kindness is an active, deliberate choice on her part,) but incredibly closed off person. She is very much trying to be the hero she never had. Inveterate meddler, always getting into trouble that’s none of her business, nosy as hell, ‘the hand outstretched.’ She doesn’t consider herself very much worth knowing, much less saving. Any bad thing that happens to her instead of someone else is a net positive for the world. Cannot, cannot be a bystander. She would rather die. SO! Her main character arc is… calming the fuck down on all of those counts. She is learning to care about people beyond how she can be useful to them, and learning to let herself be cared for in turn, and how to turn the dial way the fuck down on her redshirt tendencies. That her existence is enough of a reason in itself for her to deserve love and happiness. Just like everyone else’s is.

Tristana: Tristana starts out as a person who views everyone in the world as a tool to be used, and she excludes not herself. She’s a raw, festering wound of a woman who knows how to be just charming enough she can get away with being a terrible (and alas, terribly funny) bitch the rest of the time. Her character arc is… learning to see people as people, instead of a series of levers to be pressed to achieve a certain outcome. And that indeed, does include herself. Her character is meant to flip all of Shadowheart’s interactions in game on their head, and so she exists as something of a dark mirror to her. Or, as I more frequently think of it, that one comic with the dog looking suspiciously in the mirror. (“Where did that other dog come from? Who is he?”) There is a reason Tristana’s longfic is tagged ‘Self-Recognition through the other (radicalizing)’. They are both so very, very fucked up, and in such different ways they can safely look at the other and go, ‘wow, that’s fucked up’ and kind of shock some sense into each other.

20) Bonus question: share any additional thoughts, art, favorite scenes, anything you've been waiting for a chance to ramble about?

Adana: I… very rarely address that Adana is bigender/genderfluid, like me, because she is even more deeply closeted than I am. She’s made from Adran, my first DND character I got to play with any regularity as a baby transmasc. She’s become pretty much an entirely different person now, to the point I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to play Adran again, which makes me a little sad, but I’m far more attached to her and she’s had far more development than I ever had for Adran. Anyway, what made her my Tav is I realized I could do something very, very silly for who Emperor appears to her as: he takes the face of Adran, the perfect sunshine boy she wants to be, who she only allows herself to be when she is perfectly happy and safe. (So, almost never.) Adana is so repressed she sees Adran less as herself and more as a separate person entirely, though Adana is not a system and Adran is not an alter-- she’s just a heavily compartmentalized person. This is such a massive violation to her she lets her genuine human (or half-human, as it were) emotions show to the whole damn camp for (probably) the first time. The mask does not so much slip as shatter, and she has a massive panic attack in response. She’s had plenty of terrible things happen to her physically, but her mind has always been her own, has always been sacred, especially Adran’s corner of it. Adana and the Emperor are on poor terms forever because of this.

Tristana: I’ve made no secret of this, (though I haven’t flat out said it very often, either,) but Tristana is going the Silverheart route. The oneshots where she’s the gay little vizier to Shadowheart's Dark Justiciar are from a separate, not-canon section of the multiverse. It’s an AU of an AU. (Perhaps that qualifies as recursive fanfiction? Probably not if they’re both written by me.) ANYWAYS! While how they get to their endgame dynamic is an adventure I am being pulled upon just like the rest of you, I do very much know #tristanaheart’s endgame. It’s been silverheart and the moon lesbians from the beginning. And Tristana actually handles the initial Nightsong decision much more gracefully than Adana does. Adana cannot trust Shadowheart to make the right decision because the cost of being wrong (watching an innocent woman die in front of her! Making herself a BYSTANDER!) is just too astronomically high for her-- but Tristana has no such compunctions. The only thing that matters at that moment to her at all is Shadowheart, and what Shadowheart wants. So she trusts her, throws her support behind her no matter what she chooses. And since this is #self-recognition through the other (radicalizing), Shadowheart chooses to throw the spear away. (Tris is punished for her part in this quite severely. Maybe not on Shadowheart’s scale severely, but. Since she specifically pushed Darkness Mommy’s favorite toy into apostasy, Darkness Mommy thwaps her, too-- gives her back every traumatic memory she erased, all at once. Tris and Shads are both kind of just left catatonic with grief and pathetically clinging to each other for a long while after that.)

[hurtmyfavsthanks]

Whumptember day 19

“You are not a hero. You’re a child playing dress up. Now take off that silly mask and go home.” Villain mentor | In over their head | Trembling

Content warning: drugged drink

Whumpee was nothing short of a fool. They were a child playing in a world they didn’t understand, flaunting their powers as if they were untouchable. It was laughable, it was boringly typical, and Supervillain wouldn’t have paid it any mind under normal circumstances. Whumpee would meet the same fate as most who manifested powers. They’d fly too close to the sun, and then they would burn. Another name in the newspaper.

They'd seen it countless times. Supervillain would have let it happen to Whumpee, if not for their potential.

Supervillain watched Whumpee, who sat opposite them at the dinner table. Their posture was surprisingly relaxed for someone face-to-face with the most feared criminal in the city, an excited grin on their face. Around them was a mess of miscellaneous junk; a toy car the size of a truck, a stack of office pens, a potted plant, a bar of gold. Anything and everything Whumpee had thought of, they had simply manifested with a snap of their fingers at Supervillain’s request. Supervillain had inspected the gold; it was real as far as they could tell.

It was a fascinating ability, so much so that Supervillain hadn’t believed it was real when they’d first heard word of it. Even after they’d seen the now viral video of Whumpee summoning a house-sized cake at a child’s party, Supervillain hadn’t quite believed it. After all, illusionary abilities weren’t particularly uncommon.

So they’d sought Whumpee out themselves. It'd been painfully easy, and Supervillain had gotten a dinner invitation to them within the hour. The fact that Whumpee had actually accepted such an invitation, had brazenly walked past the line of police and bystanders and entered the restaurant Supervillain had closen, had almost been evidence enough. Only someone drunk off of their own power would walk into the lion’s den so happily.

“So,” Supervillain spoke, drawing Whumpee’s attention from the scenery around them. Whumpee had been gawking at the expensive interior since walking in. They’d been simply giddy when their dinner was served, too focused on the expensive meal to care how terrified their waiter appeared to be. It’d been amusing, seeing how utterly amazed they were at what Supervillain would consider humble accommodations. They were so clearly in over their head that Supervillain struggled not to laugh. “An everyday citizen manifests such an…impressive power. It must be quite the adjustment for you. What will you do with it?”

Whumpee hummed, sipping at their wine. “I don’t know yet. I know most people do the whole hero thing, but I’m not really looking for another job right now,” They giggled, laugh carefree and twinged with tipsiness. “I’ll probably just do my own thing, see the world or whatever. Maybe buy a boat? Money isn’t exactly an issue for me anymore.”

Supervillain resisted the urge to roll their eyes. “But aren’t you limiting yourself?” They gestured to the clutter Whumpee had summoned. “You can create your heart’s desire from thin air at the snap of your fingers. You’re potentially one of the strongest people in the city, and you intend to live a mundane life?”

They seemed to consider it for a moment. "I guess? I’m just going to do whatever I want. If I wanna travel, I’ll travel,” They shrugged. “Why not? Who’s gonna stop me?”

“Who will stop you?” It was a laughable question, and Supervillain couldn’t help but chuckle at it. “You truly think you’re invulnerable now, don’t you? Do you think you’re a god, now that you’ve gotten a taste of power? You’re denser than I thought. You would’ve been dead within a week if I hadn’t found you.”

For the first time that night, Whumpee’s smile fell.

Supervillain didn't break eye contact as they spoke. Whumpee shivered under their stare. “Do you really think you’ll be allowed to simply run free? Tell me, how many powered individuals do you know who aren’t in contracts with the city or criminals?” They didn’t wait for a response. “None. They're all owned, wanted, or dead. You'll be no different”

“I’m–” Whumpee cut themselves off, swallowing thickly. “I’ll be fine. I’m one of the strongest people in the city. If someone comes after me, I'll just leave,” Whumpee made an attempt to stand, nearly stumbling over themselves as they did so. They rested a hand on the table, tipping their near empty glass over. “I’m leav–”

“You’re not untouchable,” Supervillain cut them off. They stood, movement graceful in stark contrast to Whumpee's unstable stance. “Beneath that power, you’re still human. Still fragile, still as easily killed as anyone else. A gunshot wound, an ‘accident’ at the wheel…” They let their eyes scan over Whumpee. They were trembling, a light sheen of sweat beginning to cover their face. “…A poisoned drink. Did you really not think that this dinner was suspect?”

Whumpee’s face paled, and Supervillain couldn’t help but grin. They didn't rush as they approached Whumpee, watching them stumble over themselves attempting to get away. They saw the moment Whumpee remembered their powers, the moment they lifted their hands to summon some sort of defense. Supervillain was faster. Before they could do anything, Supervillain had them by the wrist.

Supervillain allowed their powers to flare, sending a painful shock of electricity through Whumpee’s bod. Whumpee screamed, and Supervillain relished the sound.

Supervillain’s voice was firm, dripping with condesention. It could barely be heard over Whumpee’s panicked cries. “You’re nothing but a cocky child, drunk on power and the comfortable lies of righteousness the heroes tell the public. Do you really think raw power is enough to keep you safe? Do you think you'll ever be left alone?”

The flow of electricity finally stoped, and Whumpee slumped to the ground, Supervillain’s grip on their limp wrist the only thing keeping them afloat. The only movement they made was a shuddering sob and the sporadic twitch of spent muscles.

Supervillain allowed them to drop to the ground. They leaned over their body, eyes alight. “You’re a diamond in the rough. Be thankful I intend to refine you.”