#and involves morals that aren't.....necessarily hers

[to-mah-to27]

Headcanon that Saiki Kusuo collects people with honest intentions.

This might be less of a headcanon and more of just a dissection of the series, but every time Saiki talks about people in general, it's always nihilistic and defeatist.

He doesn't like weddings because of hearing the guest's thoughts and how it directly opposes what they are saying.

He doesn't like Christmas because of how people are always thinking about themselves and what they want rather than about giving and being grateful, which is against the very spirit of the holiday.

Basically, people's thoughts show a darker and more egotistical side of humanity, and overexposure to this has added to the already mountainous problem of Saiki distancing himself from everyone and everything.

Almost every time a new character is introduced, Saiki treats them in this same way, expecting them to be secretly self-absorbed and immoral. But by the end of the short, they prove to be otherwise.

-That's- when Saiki goes all Tsundere and "well I guess I'd rather not owe him a favor or anything" and uses his powers to help them.

Saiki -does- hate Nendou. Until Nendou jumps in to stop him from getting mugged by two other students. Saiki knows he has been nothing but cold and dismissive to this guy, and yet while getting the shit kicked out of him for getting involved, all Nendou does and give him a thumbs up and tell him to run.

Saiki hates Kaidou, too. Sees him as another outcast trying to become friends with him on the principle that they are both alone. Until Kaidou actually jumps in front of the other student to save her from getting attacked by a snake. Kaidou is terrified, yes, and panics and thinks "Why did I do that?" but he still did it. He risked bodily harm and infection to save someone else and -that- is what heroes actually are.

Saiki doesn't necessarily hate Hairo, but he does admit they aren't the type of people who would get along. But then Hairo goes as far as to scrape his knee for Saiki, even if it was to keep him in a game he doesn't really want to play. He recognizes Hairo is someone who sticks to his morals, and he respects that.

Teruhashi took a bit longer, especially because at first she really was the type of person who says something the opposite of what they think. Their relationship is a little more complicated, I think and I've already talked about it before, but I do think that it was when she committed so hard to her appearance that she was willing to eat that "ramen" from the place Nendou showed them. Actions speak much louder than words, as Saiki as a character is a very good example of. At a certain point, is it really a facade if she is willing to go that far?

Basically, Saiki has a soft spot for people who are honest and true.

He can't force himself to really truly push them away like he could do if he really wanted to. Because that's so rare in the world to find a person like that, at least for him, and so it is very difficult to force them out of his life when he knows they are only trying to help.

At least that's how it starts.

I can do another post about the rest of the characters if y'all want

[necrotic-nephilim]

i think stephcass could have been potentially interesting if fandom let steph be herself and not ultimate uwu girl boss erasing all her negative traits. where is her jealousy? unhealthy obsession with her crush and complete lack of understanding of the concept of boundaries ESPECIALLY if that person is already dating someone? where is her almost manic urge to push away other potential love interests (and at this point i realized she would NOT have been so chill with ives if tim had come out much earlier yikes)

BIG AGREE OH MY GOD YOU PUT IT INTO WORDS.

because i love TimSteph for the reasons you listed!! there's something very unhealthy and teen girl-ish in the way Steph approaches relationships. she's angrily jealous and she thinks about Tim in a possessive way. like she is just so consumed by him and it's meant to be male comic writers writing how they think teen girls write about boys in their diaries- but it comes off as incredibly toxic. it's one of her deepest character flaws and what endears me so much to 90s Steph. she throws herself so deeply into romance when she has it, like she's afraid if she lets go of it for even a second it's going to leave her. and god forbid you be the person she falls for bc you will never maintain a healthy relationship with someone she views as competition, she *will* sabotage it. and to me these are all pros of her character. i *like* seeing how vigilantes struggle to maintain normal relationships- *especially* teenage vigilantes. Steph struggles to balance her "regular" life with being Spoiler and what things deserve a Stephanie Brown reaction and what things deserve a Spoiler reaction. and when she's dating, it's almost *always* going to be a Spoiler reaction and she shades her relationships through that lense. it's why civilian partners for Steph never really interest me. (besides the fact they always feel forced and clunky, like Steph's recent think with Maps' older brother?) it doesn't explore the way Steph loves to her fullest extent and how far she goes when she's into someone. there's no sweet puppy love for Steph, when she's all in, she's *all* in. she will do what she thinks is best for Tim oftentimes by her own will without his knowledge or approval, and sometimes massively fucks things up for him. bc she's just so wrapped up in what she believes is best, consequences are secondary.

and sure, she maintains healthy friendships. bc most fodder with StephCass is very healthy and soft. bc it's a *friendship*. and it changes radically when Steph is involved romantically. it's why there's such a difference in how Steph regards Tim when they're just friends as to when they were dating. she loves him and he's always going to be important, but that obsessive passion isn't what drives them anymore. so it's something you have to consider with *any* Steph ship in which it's a character she's had a friendship with- that how she interacts with them as a friend doesn't necessarily inform how she'd regard them as a lover. and that's the issue with StephCass. even the StephCass content that *is* comics informed (tho, a lot of it isn't and while i don't think fanon needs to be based on the comics to be good, i do think Steph and Cass are difficult characters to tackle if you aren't at least semi-familiar with their canon content bc of how warped they are in the fandom-) comes off with such a rose-colored lense that sours it for me. hell, even on Cass' side, things she's *canonically* done have been weird and obsessive about Steph. but that's never explored.

(tbh dare i say it's something to do with the phenomena in fandom that yuri is morally pure and perfect and yaoi is always dirty and bad- there's this almost sanitizing of sapphic ships sometimes to make them perfect and cute together and while i'm not here to yuck someone else's yum, i do think it's *telling* that women in fandom never get to explore the complex depths of unhealthy and toxic love in the way men do bc if you make a woman evil, it's misogyny. if you sexualize a woman too much it's misogyny. if you write her doing morally fucked up things even with the understanding it is her canon character, it's misogyny and you're villainizing her. i can sit here and say Tim is canonically shitty at relationships and ppl will not. if i say the same about Steph, then i'm critiquing a woman and holding her to an unfair standard. it's exhausting. it feels like StephCass only ever exists to depict Steph and Cass as morally pure and in love angels kissing in the background while the men get to do complex and nuanced and fun things in the foreground. this thought has probably been far more explored by others with more developed nuance on it, but i just wanted to point it out bc it's a very real thing i keep seeing *especially* in the Batfam fandom-)

and equally i think Cass' reaction to this intensity and obsession from Steph could be interesting. Cass historically has had poor reactions to knowing everyone is attracted to her and thinking about her, so that level of intensity i think could cause some negative reactions out of Cass that would add some very layered conflict to the ship. some of Steph's most negative traits *do* clash with Cass' wants and needs. it makes the ship more fun! it puts Steph's flaws on display as well as Cass' flaws and her internal issues surrounding romance. StephCass could be so weird and fucked up. but it's been defanged by this fandom in a way that turns me off to it. i love both Steph and Cass and i love exploring sapphic Batfam ships, so it *should* work for me. but the irony of it being popular in anti spaces combined with no one being able to acknowledge the flaws either of these characters have for the sake of making them kiss just. bores me and it's sucked any interest i could have out of it. bc god forbid women just be a little fucked up. </3

[kyliafanfiction]

As I may have mentioned before, I have seen a number of fanfics where the author describes Carol as Amy's 'Stepmom' which is... not how words work. I can only hope that it's an issue of an author not having English as a First Language and screwing up that phrasing, because otherwise, it makes no goddamn sense for anyone to make that mistake.

But I ran into another fic that did it today, and that gave me an idea. A cursed idea, but then, all the best ones that involve Vicky and Amy in any form are cursed, aren't they?

In an AU where New Wave isn't an unmasked team (Maybe they're still called the Brockton Bay Brigade, but I like the name New Wave more, so let's stick with that), as far as the public knows, Carol Dallon is just a really good lawyer, known for being aggressive in the courtroom. She has a daughter, Victoria, and a husband, Mark.

No one knows that she's Brandish, that her husband is Flashbang, that her sister is Lady Photon, etc. But one day, when Vicky is... let's say 12 or 13, Flashbang dies. Maybe it's an Endbringer, maybe it's a battle against some group like the Teeth or some other villain that doesn't care about the general custom of not killing other capes in fights, who knows.

Carol mourns, but after a year, maybe two, she meets a man. Handsome, charming, rich, invested in making the community better. Patrick Lavere. Good man. Has a daughter, Amelia, that he absolutely dotes on. Despite herself, she starts falling for him, they start dating, Amelia and Vicky seem to be okay with it and get along well and then they remarry and Carol and Vicky move into Patrick's very nice house near Captain's Hill or wherever.

And now, Carol really is Amelia's stepmom.

But of course, somehow, through the dating, Carol never finds out that Patrick is actually the crime lord supervillain Marquis, or that his daughter Amelia is the cape Duchesse (to borrow a name from @mechakingghidorah100-blog's fic The Problem with Shipping).

And to make it more fun, Amelia and Patrick don't know that Carol is Brandish or that Victoria is Glory Girl.

(Don't examine too closely how no one figures it out, it's a cursed fic idea :P )

Amelia, being gay, and Victoria, being, you know, Victoria *gestures at her* develops a crush on Victoria, which is less of an issue for her psychologically because it's not the same level of 'I'm a freak' to crush on a stepsister you never even knew until you were 14/15/16, (still not necessarily 'super normal', obviously, and Amelia would presumably not intend to act on it all things being equal) and she doesn't have most of the same baggage that she'd have from being raised from Carol in canon about her moral standing (not that she'd be either perfectly well adjusted or unrecognizable, she's still Amy and Marquis, actually loving parent aside, is still Marquis). Maybe throw in some Glory Girl and Duchesse rivalry for fun, or maybe they strike up an unusual caped friendship... even while Brandish and Marquis fight. There's a lot of places it could go.

More of a premise than a full fic plot concept but the idea of a fic where Carol really is Amy's stepmom just burrowed into my brain and I at least had to spit it out here for the rest of you all to see :P

[beneaththemasks]

not to sound socialist, but I think the fact that people defend (not just like) kalim says a lot about why the world has become like this. think about it; kalim (unlike chenya and neige) goes to NRC and not RSA and is presented as someone involved in an overblot case. and while the RSA guys are also presented as characters involved in them, they're only involved as victims (although chenya's case is arguable in my opinion) which makes the whole point of those who go to NRC to symbolize/represent the side of "those who participated in the crime" that was committed in the og stories.

while we do know that this doesn't necessarily mean they're bad/problematic people (ortho, silver, epel, etc etc etc) it does mean that they take (or will eventually take) part in some sort of incident on the side of the perpetrators. sure, this doesn't mean that those who go to NRC are never the victims, but they do have a part in allowing things to get twisted (in other words, their silence or compliance has made room for someone else's downfall). so taking all these facts into consideration, what we players know is that, as far as NRC goes, the students (characters) that belong there are known for making morally/emotionally questionable decisions in contrast to their RSA counterpart (again, chenya's case being arguable imo). and this is why kalim's case, even though he's portrayed as someone with a "sunshine heart", can't be looked through a different glass as long as he remains in NRC.

yana's message is clear here: NRC students represent someone she (the author) considers a perpetrator (active or passive) in the og movies, and ignoring this equals to ignoring both the author and story's intentions. kalim's case is no exception, and the fact that his personality has been used to "redeem" him from what he's done was probably also taken into account by yana when she wrote him (which I think is her wonderful way of exposing all of us, like a good piece of media should do). but precisely because this character (or any character ever) is playing this specific role, doesn't mean we should just let the character be (less we become the active/passive perpetrators) and rather take on a more critic approach in which we recognize and stop trying to sweep under the rug all of its flaws like we would do with a pup that's too adorable to yell at for misbehaving. I know the comparison might seem unreasonable, but I use it because it's simplicity portrays exactly what happens when things aren't addressed and/or are looked over, even (especially) if it's not on purpose. as always, one's good intentions to preserve someone's pure and innocent reputation at all costs (in this case it would be to shift the blame on jamil alone or dismiss jamil's feelings when he expresses his anger for the people that have literally oppressed and robbed him of his freedom since childhood) will backfire and, in time, innocence will turn into ignorance.

I'm aware people will read too much into this so, just to be clear, I'm not saying all of this so everyone hates kalim (or any "evil" character) but rather to bring more awareness on why and where lines need to be drawn

[amysubmits]

I’ve just spent about half an hour reading and re-reading your “Owning me is complicated” post. Reading this from a sub’s perspective is so helpful to a Dom. I often feel like I have to be perfect and never make a mistake with my sub. Often I feel like making a mistake would sabotage our relationship because I wouldn’t be living up to her expectations or standards. It’s heartwarming to read your thoughts about your Dom and the struggles that occur in His mind. We try to lead with confidence and assuredness and we want that to exude daily so that the sub is naturally “comfortable” in following and submitting. The truth is, we don’t ALWAYS know the answer. We don’t ALWAYS have it figured out. Trust and honor is a delicate strand that we try not to break. Her submission is the most beautiful gift she can give me but knowing she looks at me and thinks of me as her everything is even more. Never wanting to let her down is always a part of my mindset. I try to earn her submission and trust every day, not by my words but through my actions. It’s beautiful to know that there are subs that think and acknowledge the things you described in your writing. Thank you. Thank you for shining a light that says “True Doms will always have a sub’s best interest at heart.” Such a beautiful post. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you so much for this thoughtful message!

It feel like the nuance involved with D/s often gets lost on tumblr. There isn't really a good way to say in a short snippet or meme that on one hand, most subs are really drawn to confidence and confidence can feel like a key part of being a dom in some ways. And yet..doms are human and should have room to make mistakes. And while confidence can assist dominance a lot, it can also be a huge liability or threat to the D/s relationship if someone in the Dom role acts confident when they aren't informed. I guess in other words, confidence is great, but it's not realistic for doms to always be confident in everything...and arrogance is dangerous. Sometimes a dom not knowing exactly what to do and just having a nice discussion ith their sub about what they are thinking and even gaining additional insight or information from their sub to help make a decision can be a really bonding, D/s-feeling, lovely thing. And it's easy to miss that nuance if you go looking at memes or shortform content that talk about how confidence is key to being a dom or whatever. Or erotica that portrays dominance as practically being an all knowing, all confident god-like creature. Finding it hot as a fantasy I get for sure, but it's so important to differentiate between fantasy and real relationships and that difference isn't always clear on here. Similar with earning submission. I get why there is a lot of content that talks about the importance of earning trust and submission. There are so many doofuses out there who think they should just command a sub into compliance without earning submission and those are some really dangerous people. At the same time...it's easy for me to grasp why a well-meaning dom might think if they make a mistake then that means they have temporarily 'lost' submission or failed to earn it that day or something - and it's not necessarily like that. I try to always remember that my dom is human and will get it wrong sometimes. I don't expect perfection. More than anything else it's just the fact that he really wants to be cautious and take good care of me and of our relationship...that he's always looking to learn from his mistakes and to grow as a person and as my partner... that allows him to earn my submission more so than how 'right' he gets it. It's the way he is motivated to act in ways that align with his moral compass and character that really get me submissive the most. Anyway, thanks again for your message, it was really heartwarming to read!

[roseate-felidae]

"Cats eat their dead owners"...

Maybe, but your dog is statistically more likely than your cat!

Just watched Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in cinemas (loved it btw) and saw a joke on "Cats eat their owners" in there. In the after life waiting room, a lady was eaten by her cats with said cats still chowing down.

Aforementioned cat lady that is eaten by cats in the film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice 2).

That phrase is usually used by cat haters to justify their belief that cats are "inferior" pets to dogs or "evil". The idea that they are so unloyal as to see you as food, instead of family, given the first opportunity.

This phrase has some truth in it. Not the idea of cats not loving owners. But that most species of carnivore (and some documentation of a bird and a hamster) have the potential to eat/chew their deceased owners in desperation or confusion. This is not cat exclusive.

But statistics on real life cases of cadavers found chewed on by their pets actually show dogs do this far more often than cats. It's suspected not to be due to starvation either (some having access to their regular food) but stress at the owners passing in both animals.

Here is one article on this topic:

Sadly this is a premium link.

I used 12ft.IO to see it for free.

Mine had a text overlay mistake that I fixed by copy and pasting the text into a word processor.

Some interesting quotes from the article:

Joseph Prahlow, a medical examiner in Michigan, sees evidence of pet predation during an autopsy “at least a couple times a year,” he said, and usually dogs—not cats—are the culprits.

- Joseph Prahlow, medical examiner, quoted in the National Geographic, "Would your dog eat you if you died? Get the facts." Article By Erika Engelhaupt

When it does happen, cats generally don’t cause as much damage as dogs do. They tend to go for the face, especially soft parts such as the nose and lips, says forensic anthropologist Carolyn Rando of University College London.

“It doesn’t surprise me, as a cat owner,” she says. “If you’re sleeping, they tend to swat your face to wake you up.” So a cat might start out trying to “wake up” a dead owner, and then begin to bite when that doesn’t work.

Instead, most documented scavenging of human remains involves dogs.

- from the National Geographic, "Would your dog eat you if you died? Get the facts." Article By Erika Engelhaupt

One possible explanation for such behavior is that a pet will try to help an unconscious owner first by licking or nudging,” Rothschild writes in his report, “but when this fails to produce any results, the behavior of the animal can become more frantic and in a state of panic, can lead to biting.”

From biting, it’s an easy jump to eating, Rando says. “So it’s not necessarily that the dog wants to eat, but eating gets stimulated when they taste blood.”

- Markus Rothschild, forensic examiner, and answered by forensic anthropologist Carolyn Rando of University College London. Both quoted in the National Geographic, "Would your dog eat you if you died? Get the facts." Article By Erika Engelhaupt

Overall, the film gag was just that, a gag. But many people do believe cats would eat them when they die. And using that as a "gotcha" "Cats are inferior to dogs" against cat lovers.

Cats aren't for everybody, but treating them like their some unfeeling psychos who don't care about their owners is unreasonable. They are animals incapable of morality for a start and have been documented to actually care about their owners many times. My cat Zoe, is purring in my lap for her petting as I type this.

You never really hear someone say it about dogs (despite the higher likelihood). So why mention cats?

Ironically, it's almost always pure dog who act like cats are "evil" or "inferior". Many cat owners don't think to that degree of negatively about dogs (if at all).

Bonus shitty picture of Zoe in my lap as I type this on my phone.

[blackberriebrambles]

The thing that's fun about the Vees is that they're all just horrible people. Like, genuine scum-of-the-earth evil. They feed off of each other's terribleness (and idiocy) and it's just such a recipe for disaster.

Like, everyone knows that Valentino deserves fire and brimstone and everything in-between. He's a predator, he's abusive, he's violent - that is all very evident onscreen.

But Vox and Velvette are bad too! They're all toxic as fuck! It's why they all get along so well!

Vox, especially - so often he's made out to be this guy who got caught up in the wrong crowd (and to each their own! You don't have to agree with my interpretation - that's part of the fun of it!). But, as far as I see it - the man is obsessive, manipulative, unstable, and he does not care who gets hurt so long as he gets his way. He volunteers the "lowest earners" as cannon fodder for Valentino's temper tantrum, for fuck's sake. His whole thing with Alastor, as funny as it is - HUGE red flags, there. This is not a good person.

Velvette - we don't know much about her history, but we do see her onscreen as impulsive, brazen, unapologetic, and bloodthirsty. She has a very "I do what I want, fuck you" attitude, which in and of itself is not necessarily evil, but combined with her involvement with Vox and Valentino - it spells trouble. I'm excited to see more of her next season.

And I mean, the show is set in hell, and these are Overlords. It's kind of a given that they're not gonna be saints. But every so often I see a take that seems to try to soften the sharp edges so to speak, and I just. Yeah, sure. They're people - that means they're complicated and complex. They can hurt, and they can also be hurt, and sometimes it's fun to explore that. But also, I think it's really fun to let them be evil and explore that, too.

A lot of people seem to be afraid to talk about or explore toxic/abusive/morally abhorrent characters. They seem to feel the need to either justify/explain away the bad things, remove them, or very explicitly state that "Character does bad things and so I hate everything about them and also anyone who likes anything about them deserves to rot in hell" (hyperbole here, kids). It's okay to write about characters doing bad things. It doesn't hurt anyone, and it doesn't mean that you approve of what they're doing. Also, it's okay to explore characters that are morally despicable and their complexity. Evil characters aren't always evil all the time. Bad people have feelings, emotions, likes, dislikes, passions, and hobbies. Bad people can be hurt and suffer and be likable. Exploring this in fiction is not bad.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here, in a roundabout way, is write whatever the fuck you want. It doesn't hurt anyone, and if they don't like it, they don't have to read it. They're fictional characters. Go crazy.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.189 thoughts

[I Dream of Juiz-y]

(Contents: Character analysis - Julia and Anna, thematic analysis - nature/justice, predictions)

I talked a lot last week about how Julia's nature should be mostly retained from Juiz's soul, and that seems to have been pretty spot on. Julia is just as earnest, dedicated, moral and courageous as Juiz was, but as one might expect, she doesn't have the same air of confidence and elegance that Juiz had as a result of living for eons on end. Some things can only be gained through experience and aren't inherent to one's personality, so while Julia could become a perfect recreation of Juiz, at the moment she doesn't necessarily know that she has those traits in her at all

For example, Juiz was heavily motivated by her desire to make Victor happy; if Julia can't see herself in a relationship currently and by extension doesn't have a partner, she can't possibly know how far she'd be willing to go for the sake of someone that she loves. We see in this chapter that she's willing to face down a monster that far outclasses her for the sake of a friend, but it's not like she had ever been in a similar situation before. She probably never could have guessed that she'd act like that here, but that was how she was always going to act in that scenario

This is also why it's unavoidable that she's going to become intertwined with the battle against God. Whether she was Unjustice or not, the personality that Julia inherited from Juiz was always going to spur her to action in the face of injustice. The only difference between her being Unjustice and not being is that she'll learn about the world of Negators, and even then she might have found out somehow anyway, and she'd definitely have made an effort to get involved once she knew. She may be happy with her current life, but she never could be the type to learn an unjust truth and leave it be

I would also venture a guess that it's not simply that she "can't see herself in a relationship," but to some extent also that literally no one in that line was ever going to be anywhere near her type. I'm not going to say that she's still loyal to Victor, but I'm confident that meeting Victor would definitely trigger something in her. Sean sure as hell was never going to, though

Side note: very cute that Sean goes crying to Chikara after Julia rejects him. Another branch to the polycule for sure

Tozuka also clearly went out of his way to illustrate the similarities between Julia and Fuuko, as if to remind us that one of the core tenets of Juiz's character thus far has been how similar she is to Fuuko. Not only did the cover page show how their roles have reversed (which I believe I mentioned last week or the week before), but Fuuko and Julia both made the same stereotypical determined shonen pose in this chapter. Not only did this indicate that they behave similarly, but it also showed that Fuuko wouldn't have been as out of place as Nico suggested, as she likely would have been able to forge a connection with Julia almost instantly

Speaking of friends, I'm surprisingly endeared to Julia and Anna's friendship right off the bat. UMA Gold's ability seems to be a take on Unjustice, forcing people with greed in their hearts to act in particular ways in exchange for money - while Unjustice negates one's sense of justice, Gold pushes its limits, tempting one to betray their justice with an increasing amount of riches. However, unlike Unjustice which automatically flips the target's actions to go against their justice and therefore cannot be resisted without completely changing one's values, Gold seems to be resistible based on the value of one's convictions

Case in point, Anna clearly values money, as she specifically helps Julia train in secret in exchange for payment, but while this allows her to be ensnared by Gold and give some information to him against her will, it does not completely rob her of her will, as she is able to clasp her hand over her mouth and refuse to offer any further information. She undoubtedly would have broken eventually, but the fact that she was able to resist at all suggests that for however much she values money, she values Julia more. This definitively makes Anna a great friend for Julia, and makes Julia's decision to step up for her sake that much more relatable

I don't know how much more we'll see of Anna, she'll probably be like Ryo and we'll only see her on rare occasions, but her presence gives a good sense of what's at stake for Julia's personal life if she doesn't fight on the Union's side

I'm also glad that we're seeing little glimpses of Juiz's life through Julia's eyes, as that implies we'll have an avenue to directly have new parts of Juiz's story relayed to us directly, much like Apocalypse dreaming about his conversations with her. Seeing Julia's take on Juiz's experiences, possibly even seeing her remember Juiz's initial tragedy, would be a great way to develop both of them simultaneously, and would definitely make it feel like we didn't just trade Juiz for Julia. I don't know if that's how it's going to happen, but I don't think that Fuuko can explain Juiz's tragedy to Julia, I think she needs to experience it firsthand, and having Juiz's memories embedded in her soul seems like the perfect way to do so

I'm expecting that next week's chapter will be a deep dive into what justice means to Julia, and could possibly compare and contrast her vision with Juiz's, though I guess that could take a few chapters. Either way, I think there's a good chance that they'll be fighting UMA Silver next chapter, as not only did Gold mention a brother, he also wields an axe, a clear reference to the fable of the Honest Woodcutter

In the story, a woodcutter drops his axe in the river and is then asked by the god Hermes (or a river spirit in the Japanese version) if he dropped a gold or silver axe - when the woodcutter is honest and says he dropped a normal axe rather than jumping at the opportunity for riches, he is given all three as a reward. Just like in the story, Gold wields an axe and represents temptation, while Julia represents the moral backbone to resist temptation and do what she believes is right regardless. She didn't seem influenced by Gold at all, so now she needs to be tempted by Silver as well to prove definitively that she has the strength of spirit to always be honest and just no matter what

The real question is what will her first usage of Unjustice look like? Will she accidentally force Anna to give into Silver's temptation? Will she make Anna attack her? Will Gold and Silver be forced to fight each other? Will Fuuko be targeted? This could go a lot of ways, so it's hard to speculate. Regardless, I think we'll get Unjustice next chapter, and I'm extremely excited to see how that affects Julia as a person

Until next time, let's enjoy life

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hey I just read your answer about bad writing in dark romance ! Do you have some well-written dark romance to recommend to us ?

Yes!

I'll add a caveat: like I said lol, I'm really not into torture porn dark romances, so Haunting Adeline-type books aren't my thing. But I feel like they've become considered dark romances? Whereas my understanding is more along the lines of how the Fated Mates episode explained it. It's not just the hero or heroine's morality--it's also the world in which they live, the comfort of sitting in amorality, etc.

Soooo I'd recommend--

King's Captive by Amber Bardan. I really need to read more of Amber, tbh. This one begins with the heroine at her birthday party, at which point the hero has killed practically everyone there, her father included. He then sweeps her off to his private island, and we have a years-long time jump. It's got a very eerie atmosphere. Super intense and verrry sexy (he notably gives her a mixtape that she masturbates to and stands on the other side of the door KNOWING she's masturbating lmao). Insane twist, very violent, a lot of weirdly sensual descriptions of how he cooks steak?

Kresley Cole's Gamemaker series I'd recommend in general. The first two books are very Russian mafia-angled (especially the first) and the third is like... affiliated, but it's not mafia. The heroes are intensely possessive, the heroines actually fight back, etc. I've compared The Master to Kresley's PNR Lothaire, which... I'd argue that several IAD books overlap with dark romance, lmao (Dreams of a Dark Warrior, Lothaire, and MacRieve come to mind). But because The Master doesn't have the vampiric element, instead you have a guy keeping a woman captive because he thinks she's trying to baby trap him, chastity belt included.

Mila Finelli's Kings of Italy series. Italian mafia. The third book especially is on the darker side to me, as it probably has the highest amount of dubcon. The heroes are all murderers, there's a good bit of torture, defiant heroines (and an m/m assassin/target romance).

Run, Posy Run by Cate C. Wells. Italian-American mafia. The hero is in this situationship with the heroine that honestly isn't even good for her at all lmao, and is sent a video of her cheating on him. She assumes he's going to murder her and goes on the run... and then he finds out that the video was doctored. I mean, it's a softer touch, but still pretty dark.

Anne Stuart wrote dark historical romances--A Rose at Midnight is honestly one of the darkest books I've read. Intensely horrific Reign of Terror content. A really, really horrible (in a good way) hero. Tons of trauma. TW TW TW TW for like, murder, dubcon, noncon, near-suicide, violence on and off the page... It's dark.

Then of course... Sierra Simone. Some people categorize New Camelot as dark; I'd say it's very VERY high stakes, but I wouldn't necessarily call anyone involved horrible enough in the main trio to be dark. It has a lot of dark points, but I don't know if it's dark romance.

However, her Ivy Leavold series and her Molly O'Flaherty books skirt towards dark historicals, and I would say that Thornchapel is definitely dark, on the Gothic side. It's basically like... a pseudo-magical (light magic) series that feels a lot like Donna Tartt's The Secret History, but with orgies, and rituals, and that One Taboo That Romance Very Rarely Crosses. (Yes. THAT one.) Nobody's truly evil, but a lot of people are very fucked up, and it has some scenes that are downright Midsommar-y.

I would also say that while Salt Kiss didn't feel like a dark romance to me, Honey Cut definitely put us in that space lmao. She ramped up in a BIIIIIG way. Like. That book had one of the darkest consensual sex scenes I've ever read (and I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVED it). Just some really twisted relationships and high stakes. Which again. LOVE. Everyone read Sierra Simone!

[midnightstargazer]

I'm curious about💧&🌈 from the weather ask game

💧Rain - What's the most emotional scene you've ever written?

The scene from the last chapter of To the Dark Lord where Regulus drinks the potion in the cave.

It comes after an entire ~40K words of him growing increasingly disillusioned, struggling with a guilty conscience, and eventually snapping - but even at that point, he's still oddly naive, or maybe just not being entirely honest with himself. When he drinks the potion, he's confronted with the harsh reality of the horrible things he's done, all at once. And it really sort of breaks him, but also gives him a sort of clarity he didn't have before.

And then, when the Inferi are dragging him under, when he's just moments from dying, he realizes that's not what he wanted at all. In this interpretation, he went to the cave intending to die there - but as he's drowning, he regrets it, and wants so badly to live.

This is a canon compliant fic. He dies just after. 😭

I've written fics that involve Regulus drinking the potion multiple times since then. I've never gone this in depth with it, in terms of what the actual experience of drinking it would be like and trying to convey the emotions he's feeling. I don't think I could do it again, because it absolutely broke my heart to write.

🌈 Rainbow - What do you think makes your story unique / stand out?

I've written quite a few, but one thing I hope I've managed that applies to most of them is complex morality. The characters I write about the most are not straightforwardly good or bad people - I like morally gray characters, I like trying to see things from the POV of characters that aren't the heroes, I like redemption arcs, and I like situations that bring out a different side to someone than what you'd expect.

Just a few examples:

In I Hope You're Happy, Mary Macdonald chooses not to join the Order when her friends do. It's not a very heroic decision, is it? But on the other hand, she knows that she would be a liability and that "all my friends are doing it" isn't the right reason - there's a conversation between her and Peter Pettigrew where I tried to imply that maybe they're in a similar place, and maybe he would've done better to make the choice she did.

What Is Right and What Is Easy is Marietta-centric, also featuring a few of the Lightning Era Slytherins. None of them are good people, they all made stupid mistakes and did things that were selfish, cowardly, or even cruel. But they're also young adults trying to move on from the bad choices they made as teenagers.

In A Little Bird Told Me, Regulus was, until the end of the first war, a loyal Death Eater. But he's softened a lot since then, and when Voldemort comes back, his first priority is to protect his family - which by this point consists mainly of people who are better off without Voldemort. He's probably the most heroic version of Regulus I've ever written, but also the darkest - it gets really complicated, because at what point does doing the right thing in the present outweigh actions in the past that can never be undone?

I like writing stuff like this where the morality is not clear black-and-white, and the POV character is not necessarily a good person. And I think that's one of the things that stands out in a majority of my fics.

WIP Weather Ask Game

[herotome]

Can you pretty please talk more about the point system? <3 A compatibility point system sounds so intriguing and organic. 👀

I love yall both very much @n0tafish @hummingbird-games and I will NOT be ignoring U_U

You'll have three in-game days to earn points before being locked into a route (an assigned work partner/mentor).

The numbers I've tallied so far are for the entirety of day one, in which:

You get long scenes with Warden, Griffin, and Jade.

You get much shorter scenes with Mia and Dart.

However, the available points aren't necessarily tied to their screen time. While Mia's scene is brief, she can feel VERY strongly about the MC (both positive and negative), so she has a higher point total than you'd expect. On the other hand, even though Jade has a long scene, she's less impressionable and therefore has less points.

Warden has more points because he's invested in you and wants to see you succeed - but on the other hand, you can disappoint him a great deal by not living up to the image he has of you in his head.

Meanwhile, Dart is just plain not that invested in your first meeting lol.

Griffin is a bit more special: Griffin has more points because she's being generous and wants to give you a fair chance, and is therefore much more forgiving when you mess up or say something weird. (Also, Griffin is just a sort of unflappable and even-tempered person).

More under the cut!

Okay, so now that we've covered what the compatibility point totals represent, I should point out that there's three types of choices to be aware of if you want to minmax a character's compatibility:

1. GROUP CHOICES

This usually involves your personal beliefs. For example, you can decide how you feel about a celebrity hero who's fallen very far from grace. It's not that each choice matches a specific character - but how likely they are to agree with you, to varying degrees.

They don't feel strongly about the topic though (unless they're Mia, who feels a little stronger and agrees with two choices), hence they only give out 1 or 2 points.

Then there's choices like this; Warden and Griffin appreciate you sympathizing with fans, Griffin and Jade will be amused that you'll 'yes and' the bit (or are chaotic enough to burn fanmail), Mia and Dart appreciate you deferring to Gemini, and while Mia just generally wants to defer to authority, Griffin does NOT like it if you're that worried about what Warden thinks.

Overall the Group Choices tend to offer fewer points, but they can add up. If you're compatible with two characters, your morals/expression from your Group Choices might just be a tiebreaker.

2. INDIVIDUAL CHOICES

This is a more standard-fare visual novel set-up, I think. Individual choices usually involve talking to that character directly, and not being RUDE to them (unless you're trying to farm those sweet sweet penalties or have a moment of weakness).

There are "correct" choices and "incorrect" ones. Dart's especially prickly on the first day, so doing anything to interrupt his work will make him think you're not compatible.

Mia is also rather prickly, but she's more willing to be won over. As long as you don't antagonize her afterwards, she'll really like it if you compliment her nails.

3. FLAVOR CHOICES

These are the ones that don't necessarily affect anything aside from dialogue. For example:

The love interests aren't going to your judge compatibility based on what you like to eat, but they DO want you to eat. You can't escape at least getting some toast!

And... yep, that's three.

However, even if you don't know how the points work, I think you'll be able to get the character you want by being honest. I want the game to be not only organic, but very forgiving.

You're only expected to get about 60% compatibility to be "doing well" with a character by the end of day one, but there's still going to be two more days to earn points (and Griffin may or may not directly ask who you WANT to end up with - which doesn't cancel out your most compatible person, but might give the desired character a small boost.)

Okay I think that covers most everything sdjbnflsd thank you for asking!!! <3 <3 <3

[quill-of-thoth]

Letters from Watson: The Adventure of the Yellow Face

Published: Febuary 1893 Set: April 1888 (Baring Gould), I literally do not know but logically 1882-1888 You know the drill: Baring Gould takes basically everything where Holmes and Watson aren't living together and dumps it somewhere in the invented 1886-1888 marriage. I counter that yes, 1889 and 1890 are getting stupidly crowded and the low number of cases that Watson writes about being in his records for 1890 in January 1892 does not necessarily mean that he did not come back later and flesh out stories he had minimal notes on. But also there's no indication whatsoever in this story that Watson is married, and while Baring-Gould appears to think that this confirms a date of 1888 (post the invented first wife, immediately before Mary Morstan) to me it opens the decade up like a starfish opening up a clam. Other simple solutions for the ongoing overcrowding of '89 and '90 are to revise the Mary Morstan and Irene Adler time frame hypothesis: perhaps Watson fudged the date of his marriage by a year in his writing, to keep his new wife somewhat insulated from having a whole book written about her extended family's strange and exotic troubles, giving us another calendar year to play with, or to suppose that Watson downplayed his involvement in Holmes' cases during the Moriarty era of 89-90 in his first few published stories, while there was a chance some of the gang was still at large. Baring Gould's timeline is shaky here, and to fully refute it we actually have to talk at more or less this time about my least favorite of the four Sherlock Holmes novels, Valley of Fear. In Baring-Gould's timeline, we've skipped it, since this reread is doing short stories only, and because Baring-Gould seems to not only invent wives but stretch out the Moriarty problem for extra years.

Valley of Fear is, like A Study in Scarlet, a novel with a huge chunk of its time spent with secondary characters in an American setting. Unlike Study, it's not very good. It was published serially from 1914 to 1915, during a huge gap (1913 to 1917) in the publication of short stories. It very likely suffered in execution from anti-union sentiment that had been growing in the 1890's and 1900's, along with a rise in international tensions preceding the first world war. It's also just a dull case to have made a novel out of. In spoiler-ridden brief: A murder in a country manor leads Holmes to uncover - mostly by interviewing the alleged murder victim - an American secret society / gang / attempt at a union that turned into more of a mob. The detecting bits are good, from Holmes' speculations about Moriarty's suspiciously expensive painting collection, to the trap he laid to catch the alleged murder victim in hiding, but the rest is, frankly, a slog, and that "rest" is half the book, without even a bookend of Holmes finishing his analysis or giving further advice to chase it. Leaving aside the moral issues of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who were the original Bastard Cops, functioning more as a private army of strikebreakers and hired goons during the 1800's than you would expect given their more publicized role in prohibition era prosecution of organized crime, the tale of Birdy Edwards appears to be trying to lean Noir without any idea of what Noir is as a subgenre. It's also hard to follow, because characters are always trying to talk in code and drop Ominous Hints - a quick skim of the opening confirms that although some of my memories of the tedium were probably exacerbated by not having any historical context on my reread, it's still a story I would have put right back down if Birdy Edwards' introduction had occurred on the first page.

Getting back to the timeline: Although Baring Gould places Valley of Fear immediately after Blue Carbuncle (by a week and a half), and three months before Yellow Face, there's no particular indication of the year. It is not noted whether Watson is married, though one assumes it can't be too many years before Holmes and Moriarty's final confrontation. I suspect that Baring-Gould is onto something here - not that he's right about Watson having a first marriage, but that both Valley of Fear and Yellow Face easily could have occurred at any before Holmes and Watson met Mary in the summer of 1888.

This particular story doesn't even have the question of "how long was Holmes able to keep Moriarty from knowing that the most famous detective in london knows he exists?" because unlike Valley, it has no link to any crime syndicate, or indeed any crime. As an additional piece of supporting evidence, Holmes is escorting Watson on a walk in the park during this opening, something that correlates more neatly with Watson's condition after Study in Scarlet - being cooped up all winter due to chronic wound pain and desperate for the outside world, but less able to get it for himself - than with the established pattern of Watson being invited into the parlor next to the fire and being infodumped at about a case, which characterizes their meetings during Watson's marriage. With all that said I still can't pin the date down, save that Holmes has either started doing cocaine or failed to hide it from his slowly recovering roommate in the time since Study in Scarlet (presuming that Watsons description intends to imply that Holmes was, at the time of the story, a user of cocaine, and that Watson knew at that time, which isn't certain: he's writing what may be a full decade later and tends to get very general in his descriptions of Holmes' character throughout the years.) I would hazard a guess that this is somewhere between '82 and '86 - or between Holmes starting to bring Watson along on out of town cases, and the first year we have multiple cases in. Or, more accurately: when Watson is recovered enough to want to help, but not not recovered enough to start thinking about returning to his profession.

[prettyboykatsuki]

hey fang!

so i've loved reading your posts about bg3, especially when you go into detail about the companions - it makes me feel a though i have a better understanding of each of them.

i have a variety of different oc's i've been trying to pair up with the companions, but one of the things i've always had a problem with (no matter the fandom) is knowing if an oc would be compatible with the character i want to pair them with. it might seem dumb to be taking it this seriously i suppose, but making it 'realistic' is part of the fun for me i think.

i'm not actually sure there is any advice you could give me from what i've said, so i have a question instead - you don't have to answer of course! i know questions involving strangers ocs probably aren't that fun to answer

so i wanted to ask: what are some traits or things in general that would definitely NOT be compatible with the companions? so i know what not to include.

<3

hello my love!!!

first of all... i am glad u like when i talk abt bg3... i am hyperaware this is an anime blog so i feel a little bit bad. however. it has consumed me all the same so i cant do anything about it LMAO.

second of all - i understand!!! i also create readers / dynamics based on compatibility and what i think works with them. i don't often post like... what characters like or dislike. my brain is weird so i dont rlly see it that way.

like i do not often think in terms of compatible or incompatible but in like... specific dichotomies. and u can create any dichotomy if you understand a character at their core. i think a good place to start is by assessing what a characters greatest convictions are (or lack there of), how that conviction is shaped by their life experiences and how that effects them, then understanding how they apply that belief.

for example - wyll is a really upright and righteous character, and he has a deep desire to protect the sword coast overall. he disapproves generally of immoral acts and prefers heroics. but that doesn't necessarily mean that he dislikes people who break the law, even though he airs on the side of lawful and kind.

his life experience show that he is understanding of people who were put in difficult situations that caused them to act in specific ways. he's empathetic towards both astarion and shadowheart, and chooses to spare karlachs life after understanding whats happened to her.

so his conviction is protecting the sword coast, but he's willing to let certain things slide even though he prefers to air on the side of legal and morally good. so what is the application of that? what can he make exceptions for? what can he not make exceptions for?

to me these things read as wyll is probably more incompatible with someone who is willfully evil and generally self involved. like he could never get along with minthara lol

contrarily there is shadowheart who, ultimately, loses what she once thought was her greatest conviction. this is pretty common in bg3 among the companions. all of these characters tend to have these wild hopes and dreams and what comes out of them aren't always what they expect and elements of their truer deeper selves show this way. shadowhearts greatest desire is to serve her lady, and when that is ultimately ripped away from her - she is completely very lost on what to do

the effect of being a shar worshipper is that she naturally prefers disrection and privacy and open-minded people, even after she has let go of her worship. however, depsite being former sharran, she tends to like acts of kindness especially towards her character. her life experiences having a hardened childhood and probably being a selunite in truth, mold her into still preferring non-violence and kindness.

she is complex, so its less clear what she would outright dislike imo. but you can figure that she probably dislikes what she perceives to be naivety and people who are loud-mouthed and showy or otherwise close minded.

lae'zel and shadowheart so they r both similar and not.

every character follows a similar pattern. astarions conviction is killing his abuser. a life of enslavement and being taken advantage of gives him a specific dislike for acts of kindness - but its also shown that he cares a lot and is quite sensitive. when astarion loses his conviction, the other aspects of himself are more obvious. especially his nuances around the idea of goodness or kindness. essentially his dislike is not for kindness itself but for charity. his life experiences shape him in that he is always looking towards what gives him advantage and wants tav to act in a similar way.

but he doesn't actually dislike kindness in any way. what he hates more than that is being controlled. someone controlling and righteous both in personality and action probably irritate him. being righteous is not the same as being kind i should point out.

gale is unique in that his story revolves around finding new conviction almost to a point of obsession. his life experiences, specifically around being mystras chosen and a prodigy of magic, tend to prefer things that preserve knowledge or pragmatism. in general, i think gale could dislike someone who is ignorant and excessively unambitious / disorderly.

i can go on if u want. im very tired so i feel like im not making sense. my main point is that each character tends to have this main overarching thing that drives them. when that is taken away or enforced or smth like that - you get a chance to see a deeper and truer part of them. understanding what is compatible or incompatible with a character depends more on what stage of that their in and what parts of themselves they are crutching on most. in the case of bg3 these convictions are of great importance so when forming ocs you would want to take that into account and measure it out.

this is crazy long and kind of nonsensical. and took me an hour to write. im so sorry sfsdksd. if u want smth more direct pls ask me tmmrw morning lmao

[labrats-and-clonetroopers]

More crossover AU & Ahsoka/Chase thoughts:

Kaz (even before Chase himself) is the first one to realize there's something going on between Ahsoka and Chase, but he keeps it to himself because he finds the whole Oliver jealousy situation entertaining. Douglas, upon his first visit, is the second.

Ahsoka had been involved in helping Chase design the mission suit prototypes before Douglas arrived. And I swear if there is anything about canon that I want to change more in this AU, Ahsoka prevents Douglas from making the stupid high heels decision.

Ahsoka is Chase's first kiss. He confesses this accidentally.

Ahsoka and Skylar have a strained, but improving relationship. Ahsoka spent a few months at Mighty Med (post Order 66) before the Elite Force. As Skylar tended to back then, she disliked that other heroes treated Ahsoka as one of them, even though she wasn't a superhero (which also made Ahsoka uncomfortable. She didn't come to play hero, just to stay out of the Empire's reach). Skylar was very vocal about the fact Ahsoka didn't belong there. Ahsoka, on the other hand, couldn't reconcile Skylar's hero morals with the fact that she, and her species as a whole, keep sentient being as pets. The former jedi (as she should) can only see that as slavery. She accused Skylar of being a hypocrite, which certainly didn't help the Calderan's resentment of her.

Despite their contentions, after the destruction of Mighty Med, Skylar and Ahsoka mostly have a civil, tolerant relationship. Bree is essentially their common denominator. Bree considers Skylar and Ahsoka to both be her best friends, and they consider her to be their best friend, but they aren't close friends with each other.

Junk Food Fiend vs Health Food Nut Ahsoka/Chase dynamic; Ahsoka will, in fact, be devouring that entire bag of Doritos in one sitting. She did not purchase to share. Meanwhile, as we expect, Chase analyzes the nutritional content of every meal he makes.

Ahsoka HATES that her fangs were removed in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Also that the tube top outfit bad fashion choice that she only actually wore for a month, tops, was used for two-and-a-half seasons). The animated show stuck with the accurate dialogue and plot from Ambrose's comics; Why did they have to change those little details? She does love that she was finally able to find out what trouble Obi-Wan caused on Mandalore.

I think in this AU, the entire Star Wars media in terms of movies and shows are animated, though not necessarily all the same style of animation. (As I want to keep most live-action appearances as their true actual appearances. Plus animation supremacy).

[unseelie-grimalkin]

Hello hi do you have a Maeve conspiracy board? I haven't seen many theories about her and I want to hear them 👀👀👀👀

I have So Many Maeve thoughts. They are not organized at all beyond loose theming, BUT HERE YOU GO:

The Morrigan-Based Ones

Maeve has two sisters she doesn't know about. This is based on the fact that in some traditions, the Morrigan is a trio of goddesses (similar to the Norni and the Moirai). I like this one for AUs because it means magical girl trio of death and guardianship, each representing a different angle of the Morrigan (Maeve: darkness/the void, Sister 1: blood, Sister 2: fire). I also like this a lot because the subversion of each archetype from simply weapons of war and violence to being used to care for others is Extremely Fun.

So one of the things about the Morrigan that we don't really see discussed or really portrayed is that she's a tutelary character: war and fate aren't necessarily her spheres of influence but more her tools in the guardianship of the land, with the shapeshifting being more about her connection to nature over simply being spooky. She has this connection to livestock in particular, leading this thought in my brain about how just like how Maeve is followed around by crows, I want cows to drift towards her like they know she'll protect them.

There's this sort of trope I've noticed, digging around, where you'll see a figure (who is heavily implied to be the Morrigan) in the distance in a scene washing bloody clothes, and it's a sign of a character about to die. I want a scene in Maeve's route where the MC sees that and have the option to help the Morrigan launder their own bloody clothes, with that act of acceptance and kindness being what leads to the MC being told by the Morrigan how to avoid a fateful death and live happily with her chosen.

Another thing that I've noticed: the Morrigan hates kings who don't perform their duties and take care of their people. It's part of her being a tutelary character: you fuck with her people, betray her trust, she will fuck with you. In the fight against the Fir Bolg, she is so angry at the Fir Bolg King for his greed (because the Tuatha Dé offered them half of Ireland to just let them settle peacefully, but the King and his council wanted the whole of it at the cost of his people's lives) that she purposefully targets him and exclusively him in the fight, which Bres takes credit for the victory (and the Morrigan never corrects him, notably). This thread makes me question and ponder if Maeve was empowered and chosen by the Morrigan (if such is true) because the original King (before Lugaid rebelled) was neglecting his people in a way that made her so mad that she chose a champion...and I almost wonder if that champion, someone who was purposefully chosen among a population of not-Seelie, not-Unseelie, but independent bandits, could have been turned towards Lugaid as well (you can also see some of this reflected in how Maeve gets excited about how Flan is, in many respects in her opinion, an upgrade to his father). So uh, Maeve might've had ample divine cause to kill Lugaid on top of her existing moral judgments.

Vibes Alone, No Scholarly Nonsense

I think Maeve's route will be where we see a lot of monsters (in all shapes) and a lot of interaction with land spirits and appealing to them.

I think Maeve and Finn had a friendly relationship (this is solely based on her wanting the Fianna to come back and Finn being named after the main character involved with the Fianna IRL).

I think Maeve kicked Flan's ass in their first meeting (maybe at an Unseelie version of the Tailteann Games).

I think Maeve and Flan's friendship is not only founded on that ass-kicking, but they also remember it largely fondly. It pushes both of them to be better, though albeit in different ways.

[backedagainstthewall]

NAME,   James Andrew Martin

NICKNAME,  Nothing he's picked up has ever really stuck.

GENDER, Male

ORIENTATION,   Straight

PREFERRED  PET  NAMES,  "Surprise me."

RELATIONSHIP  STATUS,   Single (Usually)

FAVORITE  CANON  SHIP( S ),  I really can't remember any. There's one canon character I RP James with right now where there seems to be a little attraction, but they're not really in a relationship.

FAVORITE  NON-CANON  SHIP( S ),  I've had a few I liked, some that even have marriage verses. I'm hesitant to name anyone specifically, more so because I know I'll forget someone who might take offense thinking I forgot them or don't care about them as much.

OPINION  ON  TRUE  LOVE,  James definitely thinks it's true, but is more realistic about it, not believing in the fairy tale version of it.

OPINION  ON  LOVE  AT  FIRST  SIGHT,   James is more a believer of "attraction at first sight." It might lead to love, but he doesn't think it is ever love immediately. He does figure if you aren't attracted to them at first sight, you probably aren't going to fall in love with them.

HOW  ‘ROMANTIC’  ARE  THEY,   James is not much of a romantic. He's not the kind of guy who's going to leave rose petals or do a lot of candlelight dinners. He's more about doing little things she likes. He might bring her flowers sometimes.

IDEAL  PHYSICAL  TRAITS,  Most of his relationships have been based off convenience and proximity so he's dated women with a variety of looks, but he does like certain traits. He likes a woman with some curves. He has a thing for redheads.

IDEAL  PERSONALITY  TRAITS,   He likes a woman with a bit of a spark of passion. Someone who can handle herself, take care of herself well. He likes her to have a heart, though, not just be self-absorbed.

UNATTRACTIVE  PHYSICAL  TRAITS,  Unhealthy weight (either direction), too short hair

UNATTRACTIVE  PERSONALITY  TRAITS,  Rudeness, incapable of taking care of herself (having to be saved once in a while isn't so bad)

IDEAL  DATE,  He hasn't always had "traditional" dates in his relationships. There've been a lot of dates in bars, not the best place for them. That said, a part of him would like to do the typical dinner and a movie, or dinner and...something else more down to earth.

DO  THEY  HAVE  A  TYPE,  As mentioned earlier, most women he's been with have been due to being close and because of his own lifestyle, have tended to be of...questionable character to at least some degree. He'd actually prefer someone who's not necessarily going to have to stab someone or pick herself out of handcuffs, but as he says, "with my life, I'm not likely to start finding girlfriends in church."

AVERAGE  RELATIONSHIP  LENGTH,  Short. He's only had a few relationships that lasted longer than a few months.

PREFERRED  NON-SEXUAL  INTIMACY,   Butt slaps A little bit of kissing, maybe playing with some hair, talking, doing little things she likes.

COMMITMENT  LEVEL,  He's pretty committed if the relationship is serious.

OPINION  OF  PUBLIC  AFFECTION,  James prefers it to be a minimum. A kiss, a hug, something like like that is fine.

PAST  RELATIONSHIPS,   James has had a number of short relationships over the years, but only a few have lasted a long time. He had a relationship with a Russian woman, Alyona Kovolevskaya, back in his earlier days more involved in the criminal world. She's a rather dangerous thief and occasional assassin with a preference for knives. His other relationship, depending on RP, was with one of my characters who has her own blog, Joanna Carpenter, a wild redhead from Louisiana. Alyona in particular is pretty indicative of a lot of James's relationships, in that it was because they're a man and a woman who were involved in activities of dubious morality and attracted to each other and were close.

tagged by :  Took it from one of my other blogs where I found it on someone else's, and I actually forgot who that was.

tagging : All y'all. Or anybody that wants to do it.