#and she is projecting so much onto him. which is part of why she doesn't respect him at all

[gilfrespecter]

Listening to coinstar by the growlers and thinking about mel so hard I get nauseous

Ridiculous stream of conscious in the tags apologies but not really

[shouyuus]

popular host club host!keigo who's constantly the top 1 or 2 in his host club, so he's got a long roster of regulars, but one of them happens to be a good friend of yours who brings you in one day bc you're a bit naive and she thought it was about time you got out there in the world

host!keigo who is no stranger to shy little birdies, but still has a job to do, so he does his usual thing with your friend, asks about her part time job, compliments her new hairstyle, asks if she's gotten that one toner he recommended, before turning to you and offering you a smile and a wink, and is more charmed than a man in his profession should be at the way you turn red and refuse to meet his eyes

host!keigo who keeps it casual, wears relaxed, but chic street-style clothing and keeps his roots bleached well, but almost nothing else, except for the two slits of black he inks into his inner corners; says that they keep his eyes sharp so he can see all his favorite little birds at the club, of course. and suddenly, you can kinda see why your friend likes coming here so much -- the conversation is nice and he's never too pushy, but it's effortless, the way he talks about himself and gets everyone to talk about themselves as well.

host!keigo who's earnest when he asks you about your interest and feels himself smiling when you light up and talk about the things you love -- reading, painting, photography -- your friend cuts in that it's a shame you're too shy to ask him to be a model for one of your projects bc he does photograph really well, to which you blush even harder and keigo wonders briefly if there's something in the air or in the drinks today bc wow is he feeling just a tad lightheaded and from the looks of it so are you.

host!keigo who, when your friends goes to the bathroom, leans across the booth to hand you his card, just a black card with two bright red wings embossed onto the hard cardstock, runs a finger along the line of your cheek, tilts your chin up and says, "if you ever wanna come see me too... i'll make time for you, dove. all you gotta do is ask." but when u tell him, a little too honestly, that you can't afford him, he just looks at you with a little smirk and says "like i said, dove, i'll make time for you." and leaves it at that

host!keigo who texts you good morning and goodnight, who asks you if you've eaten, who, you're pretty sure, on his days off, pings you and asks you what you're doing. so you tell him that you don't have plans and he immediately calls to ask if you want to hang out -- he picks you up at the train station, wearing just a fitted black tee and some loose-fitted jeans, but even then, people are turning around, doing double takes, but he doesn't seem to notice, only grinning and jogging up to meet you, asking if there's anywhere you'd like to go

host!keigo who takes u to the aquarium and then to the park, where you do a few doodles in your notepad. he leans over to watch and even though your first instinct is to hide your work, you let him see it anyway -- something about him makes you want to trust him, and for once, you want to lean into that. he tells you that your art is beautiful, and you ask, before you can stop yourself, if you can draw him, "it'd be my honor, little bird."

host!keigo who makes you laugh by doing the most dramatic poses before leaning up against a tree and closing his eyes and you sketch him out, feeling your heart in your throat, but when you show him, he goes still and quiet, before asking if he can keep it. you nod and hand the sketch over, blushing bc he holds it like it's lost treasure, something he's spent his whole life looking for --

host!keigo who takes you to dollar karaoke, claps and laughs as you try to sing the current idol song, who is, unsurprisingly, fantastic at singing and tells you to pick your favorite song for him to serenade to you, who pays for all the drinks and never asks you to shell out a time; when you try to get the last round, he gently pushes your hand away and says "not today, little bird, i wanna do this so... let me."

host!keigo who, when you ask him if he does this with all his clients, bends down and flicks a bit of hair from your face before his eyes flicker down to your lips, says, "no... only the ones i really, really like."

host!keigo who offers to walk you back to the station but when you get there, he seems hesitant to say something -- when you gently ask about it, he lets out a tiny little laugh, shakes his head and says, "y'know it's weird -- all these years of being a host... i've never felt like this before but... you just -- god, how embarrassing, right? my whole job is to be good at talking to people and here i am, at a loss for words --" he pauses, runs a hand through his hair before turning back towards you with an earnest smile, "guess what im trying to say is... i spend all day tryna make people feel like they're special, like they're the only person in the entire world but... with you... it's the first time someone's made me feel like that and... i kinda wanna be selfish, be greedy and take you somewhere and keep you all to myself but..."

host!keigo who thinks he might be losing his mind when you smile up at him with that brilliant blush of yours and tell him that "if that's what you wanted... i wouldn't mind... if it were you."

[soupthatistohot]

BSD Stormbringer Manga Ch. 1: Chuuya as a "Dark Gem"

AKA: I got around to reading the first chapter of the Stormbringer manga and I Have Thoughts!

A decent chunk of this first chapter is taken up by the gem trade being explained in-depth, which seems a bit... excessive. Even the translator noted as much in the version I read:

It begs the question of why they spent so much time on this. At least part of the reason is to give the reader an idea of what Chuuya's current role in the Port Mafia entails, providing some necessary context (since timeline-wise the last we saw of him was in 15 and it's now roughly a year later). But I also think it's an extended metaphor for Chuuya as a person (spoilers for the rest of stormbringer ahead).

The part that really jumped out to me was this sequence of panels:

The first two talk about "dark" gems and how they cannot enter the world of light, which is VERY reminiscent of Kouyou's rhetoric when talking about Kyouka (and herself, as she's projecting her trauma onto Kyouka):

The third panel from SB also interests me as it claims that these gems are given a second chance, specifically through how the Port Mafia has reshaped them.

In 15, Mori says that only a diamond can polish another diamond, in reference to soukoku -- so I don't really think it's a large leap to make here that the "dark" gems here are a stand-in for Chuuya himself.

If you consider the connection to Kouyou's rhetoric, that follows because Chuuya is under her tutelage at this point in time, she's the one who oversees his work when he joins the PM and arguably one of the people he's closest to in the organization. There's a decent chance that she's told him similar things that she told Kyouka -- that they belong to the world of darkness and cannot be brought into the light.

This is further supported by the fact that one of the central focuses of Stormbringer is Chuuya's past. He has a "dark" past on multiple levels. The obvious being that he was kidnapped and experimented on to become a vessel for Arahabaki, his past is dark because its horrible. But also he doesn't remember his past at this point, so it's dark because it's literally shrouded in his memory -- his "origins unknown" to him.

And so, Chuuya is a dark gem (a black diamond, perhaps) that has been taken in by the Port Mafia. In doing so, he is no longer the street kid he used to be, scrounging to survive with his ragtag gang. Instead, he's been reshaped -- he wears suits now, he's a 16 y/o in charge of the gem trade -- he's been "given a second chance."

So yeah, basically my interpretation of this is that the allusions to Chuuya's dark past are a kind of foreshadowing for not only what came before, but also what's to come throughout the course of Stormbringer. This story is very focused on the intermingling of past and present, as well as issues of identity and how it is shaped -- is Chuuya a human with free will, or can his existence be chalked up to being lines of code? What bearing does the past have on the present? This is all subtle set-up for these emerging themes.

PS: I don't have any in-depth analysis for this, but the imagery referencing Chuuya's time being experimented on and the clone is QUITE heavy-handed here at the beginning. I'm loving all the intentionality behind the art so far!

[tonalwhiplash]

PROJECT EDEN'S GARDEN SPOILERS!

Chapter 1 spoilers

Theory concerning wolfgang's whole deal

Okay so like. His mom's mega dead, right?

"Whoa! Back up! Where the fuck did you get that from?"

Alright sit down, lemme show you something.

Remember the prolouge?

I sure didn't! So I rewatched it!

Take a look.

Wolfgang freaked out over Wenona claiming that Cara was the aggressor, implying her murder was justifiable.

At the time, Damon along with all of us just assumed he was being a lawyer about it and had put himself on the side of the injured party. But I don't think it was that simple.

I think he was having an episode. The only evidence for this in the prologue itself is the in-game acknowledgment that Wolfgang's arguments had shifted to being based on emotion alone. It's literally used for a tutorial!

And he says himself in his FTEs that he doesn't normally conduct himself that way in an actual courtroom. So his freak out wasn't his standard, but he doesn't give a straight answer for why he acted how he did.

But chapter 1 as a whole gave us what was necessary to start connecting some dots.

Have a look.

The blackmail Damon got. The photo of Wolfgang's parents.

Look at his mom.

Now look at Cara.

By no means are they identical, wolfgang's mother has a mole on her face, which Cara lacks, but I want you to note the hair and eye color specifically. Keep it in mind.

Now let's look at the back of the card.

"Like father, like son"

"Beneath a sheep's skin hides a wolfish mind"

The game sorta hands you a part of this. Wolfgang's father did something bad. Something that, allegedly, Wolfgang either has repeated or simply had the capacity to do himself eventually.

So what did Wolfgang's father do?

That much isn't told to us, but from Wolfgang's hallucination induced meltdown, I have an idea.

I think wolfgang's father killed his mother.

Let's get into it.

Starting with his hallucinatory episode.

When Wolfgang initially sees Diana, I think he sees his mother. The way he talks. The way he apologizes to her and calls himself a failure for not being like her. We learn in his FTEs that his mother is the only other lawyer in the family and his sole reason for becoming one himself.

However, when Diana walks over and takes his hand, he switches and becomes angry and violent. Going as far as to attack her with a knife.

I think, when Diana grabbed his hand, either something she said or something she did caused the hallucination to switch from a vision of his mother to the vision of his father.

Suddenly he's no longer sad when he says he's not like the person he thinks he's speaking to. Suddenly he's smiling at the fact he's "not like them." Because he's talking to his father now.

He wants to be like his mother and never wants to be like his father.

The line "bring her back" implies that his father, the person he was hallucinating in Diana's place, took his mother away from him.

And the reason I think that's it, relates back to his smaller scale meltdown during the test trial.

Wolfgang started talking about how it was inexcusable to kill a woman.

Though that could be chalked up to chivalry or what have you, I think there's a much more personal reason as to why he felt so strongly about it.

Because his father's actions were inexcusable.

They weren't self defense.

And witnessing a dead woman who bares resemblance to his late mother be accused of deserving it may have struck a nerve.

The killer for the mock trial had no identity given, making it all the easier for Wolfgang to project his father, or a man like him, onto that blank stand in.

I can paint a scene

Wolfgang in the courtroom as a child, maybe even a witness to the murder, watching as the defense lawyer for his father makes every excuse in the book for him. Claiming that his mother was the aggressor, that she had a weapon, that his father had no choice but to "defend himself" from her attacks.

While, in reality, Wolfgang had seen a very different situation play out. Whether he spoke up and was dismissed for being "too young" or was unable to properly testify due to the traumatic experience that is simply being in a courtroom at all, he was unable to bring his father to justice.

He was unable to do right by his mother.

I think that'd be a pretty good motivator to practically race into law school as a teenager. To become the ultimate lawyer at 22 years old. So he could make up for his previous failures.

I think Wolfgang has been carrying a heavy burden from a very young age. And to return to the "like father like son" comment, I'm willing to call that a misdirection. I think when Wolfgang is implied to have "a wolfish mind beneath sheep's skin" or " being a wolf in sheep's clothing," the actual truth is that he's a deeply emotionally scarred person who has no choice but to force a facade of stability and confidence to push though it all for the sake of those around him and his goals. Basically, he's masking.

So, technically, just like his father, Wolfgang is a mentally troubled man pretending to be okay. And the kidnappers used that misdirection to imply he had sinister intention for pretending just like his father had pretended to be a man his mother could trust. When in reality, their motivations could not be any more different.

Or maybe I'm just being silly. Teehee! 🧡

And a small side note. The word "wolfish" implies intentions other than violence.

Lust, hunger, and greed mostly. Though, I'm willing to sidestep those options cuz Tozu is absolutely the kind of bitch to reword a common phrase to make it sound more flowery only to unintentionally imply some nasty shit.

Wolfgang gives no tells towards being a creep. Not a single Freudian slip left that man's mouth. Not even in FTEs. Grace would have been the killer for chapter 1 if he was like that. They literally shared a bed. And, despite their cute dynamic, if the two had actually done anything canonically, we'd get more obvious tells in the game. Those walls were shown to be pretty damn thin...

There's a bit more under the hood of this theory, but this post is big enough, and all other supporting information requires enough explanation and red string to justify their own posts.

So stay tuned for:

• Further theorizing about wolfgang

• And the possible parallels between wolfgang's hallucinatory episode and Eva's execution

[fredoesque]

ranking terror characters based on how prophet-coded they are

crozier: 4/10 crozier's kassandra status is often overstated i believe. just because franklin is wrong doesn't mean crozier is right. none of his predictions come true except those regarding the ice. that's not prophecy it's just meteorological knowledge. some points for the act of hubris we may not survive though. i can't deny that they did not survive

silna: [ERROR]/10 objectively framed as a prophet character. makes the number one most accurate prophecy in the show ("she said that if we don't leave now we're going to [disappear]."). i can't say whether she truly is one however, bc her standing outside english modes of knowledge is a big part of what casts this statement in a mysterious light. from the english (and the audience's) perspective this is prophecy, but is it from hers? or is it just, as i said before, meteorological knowledge? maybe the prophet is just another role projected onto silna, bc her having supernatural insight is easier for the english to stomach than her having knowledge they lack. this doesn't entirely preclude her being a prophet as well though, since we know that there are in fact supernatural forces at play. english perceptions of her prophethood being incorrect doesn't mean said prophethood is necessarily non-existent. maybe if we saw more of silna, especially with her own people, i could give a definitive answer, but as it stands i'm undecided. whatever the case bonus points for making that terror model without masts that looks like the actual wreck that shit was cool as hell

david young: 7/10 solid first act prophet. hounded by visions he doesn't understand. gives warnings that ultimately go unheeded. not much else to say about this one it's a classic

hickey: 2/10 wants to be a prophet so bad but has little to no insight into the future. some points for his tendency to be the first to say things that are true about the present or to utter thoughts others have but are unwilling to share. may not be an actual prophet but strangely capable of filling the social function of one

jopson: 1/10 never really does anything prophet related but gets a point for objectively looking like he knows how you're going to die at all times

collins: 3/10 collins has visions but they're not of the future; they're of the past which is a different sort of thing entirely. does get some points bc visions are still visions and the past he sees does in fact mirror the future that awaits

fitzjames: 0/10 i've put him on the list bc he's a main character but he is absolutely not a prophet on account of he doesn't know shit. he IS a walking prophecy however and that prophecy is the rot of imperialism. and scurvy

blanky: 11/10 i've said this before and i'll say it again blanky is the only character who actually understands the situation they're in. not only does he give an ominous speech about the future, but his is actually acted upon in a way that ends up contributing to it's fulfillment. that's prophecy, baby! thinking about this is why i made this post

goodsir: 9/10 gets just one big prophet moment but it's an absolute banger: jacko's death. reads the future in an animal's entrails (if you squint) which is objectively the coolest form of prophecy. like blanky's prophecy, stanley hearing it and acting to avoid it only makes the situation worse

franklin: 1/10 the point is for "i've long wanted to move below"

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

idk man i have seen a lot of speculation about Illario being a better candidate for First Talon rather than Lucanis, how he wanted it more/would be better at it etc, that maybe it was just Caterina projecting her desires for her favorite daughter onto that daughter's son...

but honestly I get it. like in game we see that when he DIDN'T get what he wanted, Illario made some huge power moves (arranging the death of his only rival, allying with the Venatori, kidnapping Caterina, sacrificing Treviso's independence) despite the major consequences that came with them (losing his only "brother", giving another organization an in/power over the Crows, kidnapping fucking CATERINA, giving the gods/Venatori a stronger foothold in Antiva). We don't actually know why he wanted the title or what his plans would be as First Talon--was he really gonna be content to just be named as in charge? Or was he gonna wanna make further big moves and leave his mark, or go for an even greater degree of power? We don't get that answer in game, but I really don't think his ambition would just stop. In part because I do think his desire for the role was tied up in just wanting Caterina's approval as the "lesser" Dellamorte, and so he WOULD probably keep putting more and bigger things at risk as he fails to find satisfaction in the title alone. He has the potential to not only throw their House into chaos, but the entire Crow organization, which is so ingrained with Antiva that this could shake the very foundations of the nation itself.

Even if we look at it as "Illario is more like Caterina so she should prefer him", i mean, Caterina got almost her entire house slaughtered. She failed, actually, at being a great Talon to her own house because her family ended up almost entirely dead. While I'm sure there's non-related members of the house (at the very least, trusted staff for the Dellamorte estates, contract negotiators, the people in charge of payroll, etc), and possibly even other assassins (orphans or whoever), they make it really clear in the game + wigmaker job that the only two left besides her who matter are Lucanis and Illario.

So if we take the traits the traits he shares with Caterina, that would make Illario more suited to it than Lucanis--he wants the title, he likes being in charge, he desires more power and is willing to compromise other people's wellbeing to get it--well that all already didn't work once. Caterina got a rough awakening for her actions and reputation, but Illario has--what, exactly, to reign him in? He already tried to get rid of his own biggest emotional liability, with hiring Zara to kill Lucanis. He already kidnapped and imprisoned grandma, and was working on a deal to sell out the city. What's left to shake some sense into him after that? If she picks him, is she just letting history repeat, ensuring the few left die and House Dellamorte itself falls to pieces, to be lost to history?

I do think it's telling that it's after seeing how badly all Illario's schemes went down that Caterina makes her choice and officially passes on the title to Lucanis. As far as we know, she never actually said who she wanted for the role--only that there were rumors she favored Lucanis over Illario, from the one line in the Wigmaker Job. We only know Illario believes it, not if it was true. So I think it's very possible she was hesitating in part because she really hadn't decided.

One grandson craves power too much, the other not enough. One has the social skills and charm to get people to do what he wants, but uses it for personal gain--while the other is so closed-off and unwilling to form connections he has no one he trusts outside the family. Neither of them are good choices, pre-Veilguard, and so she doesn't name either heir and puts the problem off for later--and it's in this way, funnily, that Lucanis takes after her more, with his allergy to planning ahead/making choices.

And finally the choice DOES make itself for her: when left to what fate brings for them, Illario's coup falls apart and despite all his charm he's left with "allies" who are just waiting to stab him in the back themselves. Meanwhile, Lucanis has somehow managed to break out of his shell, has new companions he trusts who are shown to support him, and he has lost some of his paralyzing fear of taking action on his own. He finally IS the clearly better choice in this moment--even if he doesn't actually want it still. I do truly think despite his hesitations, with how he grows over Veilguard, he wouldn't actually be bad at the job with some time to adjust. So while I certainly have my share of criticisms of the writing/spaces in Lucanis' personal quests, and just how cartoonishly villainous the game makes Illario to be, I don't think it's unrealistic that this is the moment when Caterina passes on the mantle of First Talon.

And I think Illario is a more interesting character when we keep in his desperation for power and approval, and where this could eventually lead post-Veilguard as well. Even if Lucanis decides "actually I am not subjecting myself to this" and promotes Illario in his place, is getting the title secondhand as a cast off really going to be satisfying to him? Even if he gets friends and his brother or even a lover afterward, how many times is it going to take before he believes it's real and not just something else he's going to have snatched away? For me personally I think the really interesting potential here is less in Fixing Him and more about just how many times he can bite the hands trying to feed him in a row. He's a very messy character and that's the part that's juciest to me.

[casscainmainly]

So I was reading batgirl (2000) recently, and I am baffled by Bruce going across the world to try and prove that the video of Cass literally killing someone and then being riddled with guilt at all of like 8 years old is canon? Like I feel like even without Cassandra needing to talk, it’s pretty obvious that she didn’t know what was happening, how can we confidently say oh she’s a killer.? That was a CHILD Bruce, you wouldn’t charge an 8 year old with murder for accidentally shooting someone with a gun they shouldn’t have access to? Why are we pretending like this is different? Do you have thoughts on that?

I DO have thoughts, although this moment is really ripe for interpretation so this is just my opinion!! I think the core of his reaction lies in understanding that Bruce, at this point, is projecting himself onto Cass. I don't think you can see this as analogous to any 8 year old murdering someone because for Bruce, it's not. It's Cass - it's someone he sees as "perfect," as an extension of himself. To find someone he so heavily relates to and then find out she's a murderer? It rattles him because he's based so much of his persona on not killing, only to find out that this girl who is so much like him has killed - fundamentally, it disrupts his understanding of himself.

Moreover, it's not so much that Cass killed someone as Bruce did not know that Cass killed someone. In his dialogue he emphasises his understanding of Cass (from Batgirl (2000) #4):

"It wouldn't have looked this way to anyone else, mind you." Bruce emphasises not just Cass' perfection, but that he is the sole person who sees Cass' perfection. Part of his projection onto Cass includes this belief that he and he alone knows Cass. The video is shocking to him because it's something he does not know and did not guess, and it disturbs his perception of himself as the person who Gets Cass.

Batgirl (2000) #4 // #5

"I assume that you wouldn't have thought Batgirl capable of such an act?" "I wouldn't have chosen her if I had." // "You're trying to take her away from me[...] You want me to think she's like you. A killer."

Bruce isn't focused on the fact of killing or really even blaming Cass, he's concerned the murder means a) he did not know her and b) she is not like him anymore. That's the crux of his irrational and yes, unfair, reactions to her killing. I think Bruce knows the tape isn't faked, but he can't let himself acknowledge that because he's so wrapped up in self-identification and projection that he fails to accept how Cass is different from him. That is the lesson Bruce must learn throughout Puckett and Horrocks' run, to allow Cass individuality and agency beyond him.

This incident is the first moment in that journey, which means Bruce reacts really poorly and, as you point out anon, irrationally. Although I don't think it's ever stated I do believe Bruce eventually comes around to acknowledging that this tape was real and understanding that that doesn't invalidate Cass, or his own, heroics. But again this is just my interpretation/thoughts!! Also I really hope that answers your question and I didn't misread it 😭😭

[hbheavensent]

Eve/Charlie

The long awaited and requested Eve and Charlie post is here! HEAVY TW on the Eve side of things for: Grooming, Postpartum Depression, The Whole Cain Thing, and suicide

So lets roll into it!

So we're actually gonna start with Charlie since she's on the lighter side of things lmao For her design, I mainly wanted to make her feel more like a main character when you look at her, add some interest to her look while still keeping it simple enough so The Viewer tm can project onto her and find her approachable. I also wanted her to look a lot more like a mix of her mother and father while mostly keeping the obvious "child of the devil" thing. I took away a lot of her red in favor of a bright yellow to make her stand out against most of the Pride Ring, and I added in the goat features with a heavier hand than the show does. She also distinctly has Eve's eyes with little hearts in each of them, because that's just. Cute as fuck. And as a bonus, her Eve-Like features down to her natural optimism and sweetness is HAUNTING for Adam. A huge reason why he's so aggressive with her is the only way he deals with his issues are to forget about them or get rid of them. (Apart of why Charlie has to deal with Adam at all is that Lucifer knows that it would upset the guy.)

Then there's Charlie's Demonic Form, she adds a total of 2 inches to her height (lmao) and gets a more hellish color pallet. I wanted it to feel magical girl-esk which is something I'm drawing from her original transformation sequence in the show. Really heavily leaning into the demon thing with her horns getting longer and that streak in her hair desaturating along with her skin. I really disliked that Charlie's Big Fight outfit was so simple so I may have overcompensated but I enjoy the colors. The one arm not having armor is because I imagine her still using the shield as her main weapon. Also, a small detail is her hands are a bit bigger and more claw-like on purpose.

For her story/personality, I'm keeping her naive attitude and her nearly sickening optimism. A lot of that has to do with Lilith desperately keeping her happy as a means of distracting herself until she "disappears" and in part due to Lucifer heavily sheltering her. I've mentioned it before but it does not make sense for Charlie to be 200 years old so I'm knocking it down to 20 years. She's wildly bright eyed and bushy tailed. The reason she has the idea to redeem sinners at all is because she wants Lilith to be able to see Heaven, which because Lilith is dead missing, isn't going to happen.

But she doesn't know that! So it's fine!

She meets Vaggie much the same way, though Charlie is nice enough to know what Vaggie is- it's more of a secret to everyone else in the Hotel than herself. This is also how they come up with the idea to attack back, which Charlie is hesitant to do until it comes down to the wire. She's not a huge fan of violence, naturally.

Charlie's relationship to her father is.. strained, because the second she becomes a person- starts having her own opinions and all that, Lucifer is no longer interested. Lucifer is especially uninterested in the Hotel, he doesn't believe sinners should have the second chance even if they could have it. So Charlie's secondary motive is to prove to him that anyone can be redeemed and that they deserve it, which is something she'll have to reconsider as she gets to know her residents.

For Eve, who makes me so god damn sad, I wanted to show the light leaving her eyes Post Apple Incident. I really wanted to give her curly hair and make her just an adorable cutie patootie. In her Garden Version I gave her these sort of magical birthmarks to symbolize that she came from Adam's rib. I also gave her a tooth gap, because I think it's just plain adorable.

Then as she gains free-will and is banished to Earth she loses that bubbly personality and becomes more and more curt as she becomes a mother. The scar on her hand is from getting it caught in a thorn bush, which admittedly I don't think it looks like that but I'll go back to fix it later. I also kinda deflated the volume in her hair to make her look a touch more downtrodden.

THEN there's her Hell Version, I completely desaturated her besides the red and made her hair more sharp and contained in two short twin braids. I tried to allude to Roo's original design as much as I could by keeping her checkered shirt and the thorn motif- but I wanted to show that her and Adam have very similar tastes, with their leather and spike, punk-like outfits. I also gave her "apple bottom jeans" (they're actually bell bottoms but hush), and a moon pendant that she turned into a bracelet that she got from Lilith.

I imagine Eve has a lot of plant/thorn based powers and can meld into shadows- but I really haven't got all of that sorted.

For her story, and this is where it gets intense so this is your final warning, I wanted to really showcase how wrong Lucifer did her. Not only does she have trouble making Adam happy in the garden, which was hard with his first wife currently being lured in by The Literal Soon To Be Devil... But she also was currently being tempted. Any time her mood soured, Lucifer was there to tilt her chin up and tell her everything she wanted to hear. So of course she trusted him, he was nothing but nice! He always talked about how much he loved her, loved Lilith, loved Adam... So when she was offered The Apple, she took a bite grateful to be included. Adam was a little too late to stop anything, not that he could have but what's one more pound of salt in the wound.

In the same breath Lilith and Lucifer were cast out, Eve was to be dammed to Earth. Adam demanded to go with her, he didn't want to be alone. God, he couldn't do that. So, off they went. They quickly had a Horrible Time, but soon they had Cain. Cain was a sweet child originally, maybe a bit rough with animals and intense with his feelings but.. it really got bad when he was seven and Able was born. Able was a golden boy, no doubts about it.. And he wasn't Adams. Eve had met once again with her fallen friend, see she had just been miserable since being on Earth.. and there was one Angel she reluctantly missed. He always said the sweetest things, after all. Adam didn't notice or care, he loved his sons and was... frankly, too exhausted to notice. Eve after Able was becoming more and more withdrawn into herself, not really caring for ether kid as much as she probably should of. Falling into a deep depression and rarely even feeding herself, it was around this time that Lucifer stopped making his visits to Earth. Both due to Heaven being watchful of the new child and that he wouldn't want to "deal with all that" as he would put it.

When Cain killed Able due to his jealousy, Eve strangled her firstborn and proceeded to cry for the remaining hours of the day. Until Adam came to bury them, she didn't have the strength to do so herself and ate hemlock that same night.

She woke up in Hell, taking a lot of solace in Lilith and Lucifer's company for many years. Lilith naturally missed her and Lucifer was happy to have his "toy" back. (His words, we hate him.)

It took her awhile to adjust but as humans started flooding into hell (post Adam death and then post evolution) she found solace in taking advantage of others, it made her feel powerful. Something she never felt, in control. Yet, she still ended up visiting her favorite couple from time to time for quick kisses and any kind of social engagement. At some point she takes on the nickname of Roo (short for Root, short for Root of All Evil) and is a sort of legend among Sinners.

Later rather than sooner, one of these meeting with just Lucifer ended up with Lucifer wanting a child from her, he promised that she could try again as a mother. She agreed to have her, gave birth to her... but once she saw Charlie's face? She couldn't do it. She couldn't raise a child again even after thousands of years, so.. she left Charlie with Lilith, who never got the chance to have a child and got out of there. Lilith was happy to raise the kid, have any sort of distraction from Lucifer's gilded cage. So, Eve went into hiding in hell and is currently still avoiding Lucifer's eye. Eve only really started killing, gaining souls, and becoming prominent again after Lilith's disappearance. Enraged and ultimately scared for her situationship/best friend, thinking that Lucifer must have done something so she needs real power to question him.

Naturally since being in Hell for a long time she'd learned that he's Actually Not Good and was Just Lovebombing her, but it doesn't stop her from missing him from time to time. And her literal soulmate (Adam) is forever out of reach unless he's in Hell killing Sinners, and she's not so sure he wouldn't hurt her after years of memories distorting and emotions being built up.

Anyway that's... pretty much all I have to say. It's hard to summarize so I apologize if anything is unclear. I want to talk about Eve so much but I find myself just Making Noise instead of having comprehensive statements sometimes. There's also a lot I still have to figure out with Cain/Able and Adam so, we'll get there eventually.

Also here's the line up as per usual.

And a zoom-in on the Morningstar family (+ Eve)

[mcrdvcks]

i haven't watched ironheart yet, i will, but i've been a bit busy with helping out my mom and doing summer classes. but i wanted to put my own two cents out there.

the fact that people are review bombing ironheart isn't because it's bad - it's because of the sexist and racist marvel fans (and other fandoms), because apparently having a black, female superhero is "too much." nothing bad was said when black panther came out. nothing was said when shang-chi came out. but when projects like she-hulk, ms. marvel, the marvels, brave new world, and ironheart come out suddenly the world is burning. i'll admit, she-hulk wasn't the greatest, but most people weren't arguing about the mediocre writing, they were arguing about the fact that there was a female hulk.

now for ms. marvel. people were absolutely hating on the show before it even came out. why? because it was about a brown, muslim girl. i saw so many posts about disney forcing a "non-christian" agenda onto their kids. then when it came out, it was considered "too woke" because it dealed with racism. it was okay for young kids to look up to black panther/t'challa when black panther came out, but suddenly when desi kids see a superhero like them it's pandemonium.

brave new world and ironheart deal with similar things. racism - and sexism for riri williams. after thunderbolts came out, i saw a lot of people saying that john walker should've stayed captain america instead of sam. i believe most of that is because of sam being a black man and john being white. i don't care that john has the serum and sam doesn't, because i believe sam is still a better person, and that's what being captain america is about. erskine told steve, "not a perfect soldier, but a good man." john was a perfect soldier, but i wouldn't classify him as a good man.

and riri is not a replacement for iron man. there are so many differences between her and tony stark - the only similarity is that they are both geniuses. to put her down as only being a "poor successor to tony" is completely wrong. she's not trying to be the next iron man, she's just trying to do what she thinks is best. she got inspiration from tony sure, but she's doing this because her step-father was murdered and she wants to do her part to protect people. now, think about that for a minute, because who does that sound like? oh right, peter parker.

you want to complain about the "m-she-u?" guess what, it doesn't fucking exist. out of every single marvel movie, can you guess how many are female led? four: captain marvel, black widow, wakanda forever, and the marvels. you could also count thunderbolts and fantastic four (maybe even eternals?) which would still make it only 6 (7) out of 30+ movies. out of all the disney+ series, how many are female led? five: wandavision, she-hulk, ms. marvel, echo, agatha all along, and ironheart. that's still less than half of the marvel disney+ shows (my numbers could be wrong, feel free to correct me!).

tldr: movies and shows with people of color/women are more likely to fail because of sexism and racism. what else is new?

[gomzdrawfr]

NAKED GRANDMA

Now that I have your attention, just wanted to put out a few things. This does not apply to anyone in particular, but set as a reminder to everyone, though I will be directing some of these to people who warranted it. This applies to both here on tumblr and on my twitter page.

At the end of the day, Raven is MY original character.

about the top/bottom thing

I get a lot of asks pushing the idea that Raven must be dominant or topping Price because she's a badass which let me be clear, Raven is a switch. Sometimes she tops, most time she doesn't. If I've already talked or drawn things where she's explicitly bottoming or just being submissive, you who comes in and push her to topping instead in an already established dynamic and context is kind of a dick move to me. Listen, just because a character is strong and competent doesn't mean she is also dependent in the bedroom, that they are only valid if they're dominant at all time. Get that misogyny bs out of here.

about requests and rude comments

If you're sending ask telling me to draw a mlm art with Price, going as far as telling me that Price is gay why do you have to do what every tiktokers/artist and ship him with a skinny copy and paste girl- Get out. This is my blog and you're coming here to frame her presence and existence as somehow inferior just because "it's better" then please fuck off. Take your sexisms and poorly disguised fetish FAR AWAY FROM ME. I won't entertain these asks and simply won't care. This is my main OC with stories and lores I care about. You want mlm? then find it elsewhere, there are places out there with this sort of content. Also, just fucking block me if you hate my OC stuff so much. Block the tags block my blog everything, if you need a tutorial here's one. I promise I don't give a flying fuck of your feelings.

Also, another subset of asks who's somehow disappointed about the fact with Raven marrying and having a family with Price (which mind you, the kids exist in a different timeline and not the canon one even), as though settling down with someone you love is????wrong???bad????? You people gotta be coming from the most narrow-minded or cesspool of tiktok/twitter to think settling down is downplaying her character. Again, this must be fucking linked back to the idea that "strong woman" must remain cold, isolated, work all the time to be valid. Don't bring your "oh she could've earned her Master degree and that high paying job at New York but noooo she settled with a boy without frontal lobe development who still stays at his mom's basement without a paying job instead :(((" and "just as worse as early Disney Princesses story" into MY NARRATIVE. Raven and Price are both approaching 40, coming from high demand and stress work who WANTS to settle down and build something NICE and domestic together. It's healing and they deserve it. Don't go around projecting your dislike for marriage and kids onto my, or ANYONE'S characters and dynamics (again, it's my OC??? like???? kindly fuck off once more??????)

Raven should and must do this or that

No, Raven should rest. Tone is important, if at any point it sounded like a pressure than a chill hey an idea :D then out the door you go as well.

Final note

I'm not trying to deter anyone from sending ask about Raven, you're welcome to make your HC and interpretations about Raven because well it's the internet and part of the fandom experience. I do enjoy and love answering ask about them! On the occasions I don't engage or respond to them, it's not personal alright? I just don't agree with or vibe with the take, I'm very specific with Raven specifically because she's the closest OC I've got here. But please please don't keep pushing your view onto mine, especially when I've already established my take on her.

I am sharing my OC with you, because I love her, I love her story and everything I've done to build her, and to share some of those moments both sad and joy with you because it's fun. I'm not here to warp her by popular demands or to change what she does just because you're whining about it.

Thank you for reading this far, and thank you everyone who has been kind and respectful. Here's to more OC shenanigans.

[bird-butch]

so obsessed with kim's complex relationship with the whole idea of being a "good person". like generally speaking she does want to do good in the world. she wants to make a difference. that's why her passion lies in doing pro bono cases. and even when she's doing things you might consider unethical, she finds ways to justify it to herself. they deserved it, it was necessary, etc. although even this is pretty inconsistent because sometimes she does have the chance to do something dubiously moral for a net positive outcome, but still hesitates or feels bad, because she has (sometimes seemingly a little arbitrary) lines she won't cross. anyway, thinking about this now after watching 5x03, because it explores the other side to this: whether other people perceive her as a good person. which is just as if not more complicated. because on one hand i don't think she cares very much about what people think of her (or, she does care, just not in the sense of getting sad if people don't like her), but on the other she gets incredibly upset when acker assumes she is just like all the assholes who don't care what happens to regular people as long as they get richer, that she is the exact kind of spoiled nepo baby millionaire lawyer who has never had to work for anything in their lives that she hates so much. lumping her in with them and their "fancy suits" (not knowing that she's never really been able to afford that, just switching between the same couple sets in her closet for years) and their "shiny german cars" (not knowing how she crashed her old car from how hard she'd been working, how hard she's had to work for everything she's ever had). telling her, indirectly, that she's just like the landlords that made her childhood hell (which probably hits particularly hard because she knows it's kind of true, and she hates that her job is making her do this). she's so upset by all this that she ends up visiting him again at night to tell him about her childhood trauma, something she never does for anybody. perhaps not even jimmy. that's huge for her, (and also just genuinely a kind of insane thing for anyone to do lol). that's how desperate she is to make sure he doesn't view her like that. but again, he assumes she's lying, or only saying it to make herself feel better, or to get what she wants, selling herself out. but really she just can't stand the fact that anyone would think of her like this. not necessarily the "bad person" part, because we know that she doesn't appreciate people seeing her as this perfect, pure, good either (see: chuck's weird as fuck comment about jimmy having "ruined this fine young woman" (honestly i think she'd have been justified in killing him herself after that); everything with howard; even jimmy a lot of the time despite him being the one who knows her best), but that they could be so wrong about how. she doesn't mind being seen as a rule-breaker (because she is, at times, as we see in the bottle throwing scene this same episode), but she can't stand having her mistakes and her bad actions being attributed to something that isn't true, is outside of her own agency, and that she hates the implications of (like being rich, or uncaring about people's lives because of that). she can't stand to have her whole person be boiled down to the terrible work she hates, when she tries to do so much good and, most importantly, meaningful work alongside it. even though this guy doesn't know her, or know what she does, and by all accounts is not someone whose opinion should matter to her. i think, more than probably any other character in the whole breaking bad universe, kim is the person who best understands how "good" and "bad" are not a binary, and the nuances within, and nothing pisses her off more than when other people try to project their own ideas of morality onto her to sort her into one box or the other. and she's so real for that

[iminyourwallsbabe]

Alright it's been several months, it's time for me to do part 2 of the Meljay/Goldenforge analysis post a.k.a the "Why Jayce is a fucking bottom" post

It's time for..

Mel beating the disposable black gf allegations

Nah because that take actually pisses me off. First of all, it ignores so much of her character and just dumbs her down to a narrative push, and two, it's just not true??? Let's get into it

We don't get a lot of them in season 2, but the moments we do get with them mean so much. Starting with the beginning, I think there's something to be said about how in the wake of all the destruction, the first thing they pay any mind to is each other. This isn't to say they don't care about anyone else, I'm sure they do, but their priority is each other. And Viktor, of course. The second they kind of get their shit together after the explosion, that's who they look for.

Now, you could easily take this as a Meljayvik thing, and I would absolutely support you because I believe Jayce has two hands BUT this is a Meljay post, so we're gonna look at it from just that perspective.

This mixed with Mel saying "He'll come back to us" later on, further emphasizes their dedication to each other. All things considered, Viktor's life isn't really her problem. It never has been. Shit, she could have completely ignored Viktor from the jump, but because he's important to Jayce, he's important to her. Even if she doesn't personally feel that way (which for the record, I don't think is true. She absolutely cares about Viktor and didn't need to meet Jayce to do it but some people think otherwise). Being a part of Jayce's life and the "Hextech dream" means facing the challenges that come with it alongside him and Mel does that. Especially then, when he's at his lowest. His trust in her is justified.

After this point, they go on their little side quests and whatnot and I don't have too much to say about that. At least not in terms of them as a couple, as individuals there's a lot. It's cute that while he was off playing irl Dark Souls he hallucinated her though. Bro was tweaking out and still had his girl on his mind, that's lovely. ANYWAY, onto by far my favorite moment with them. Like out of everything, this stays in my mind rent free.

So once they're back together and catch up, they get into it a little bit. Jayce has survivor's guilt and he projects that onto Mel, which wasn't fair to either of them. Mel has a similar problem, she has no idea why this power she had wasn't used on someone who needed it most. She barely understands it now, even with the context she got. She could have saved Viktor and by extension the world, but *something* prevented it. Was it her? It's safe to say she might have thought so.

He later apologizes for that, and the conversation that follows is just GORGEOUS. Mel told him she feels like a passenger in her own life, that things were being dictated for her, even though she tried so hard to try and create a future for herself (Side note, this is where I got the idea that she envies Viktor's ambition. I talked about that in a Melvik post. Just thought I'd explain that). And then Jayce says the line that is constantly on loop in my head. "There is no force in the world that can control you."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Like hello???? What a way to tell somebody you love them.

I say that because that right there encompasses the very fundamentals of their relationship. Jayce loved Mel because of her drive, her conviction, her precision, the way she stood up for not only her dreams but his as well. Nowhere in his time knowing her did he ever see her as someone who could be tamed or molded into something she didn't ask for. Remember how I said last time that Mel does almost everything on purpose? That it's all intentional? I think Jayce noticed that too. In his head, with all of that in mind, there's no way she could be a passenger.

Every time I think of this, I think back to season 1, when she asked him "Why did you come to me with this?" And he replied "Nothing feels impossible with you." It says to me that seeing her and the way she navigates life is motivational to him. He keeps going because she does. He keeps fighting back because in his mind, Mel would never let anything hold her back.

And if that isn't love, I don't know what is.

Romantic, platonic, I don't care what you call it but the fact that she is his reason to keep going is real love at it's finest. It both breaks and warms my heart to know that was the last thing he said directly to her before he died.

And it's why I'll never believe even for a second that Mel is the "disposable black girlfriend". To be honest, the only way she was disposed of was by the fandom. When y'all say she's "getting in the way", when y'all tear up her funko pop because you wanted something else, when y'all treat her like the fuckin anti-christ because you think she manipulated Jayce when that isn't even by far the worst thing anyone's done in this show. For fucks sake, Jayce killed a child and Viktor eradicated the human race! It's fine if you don't like her but keep that same energy, hold the same standards for everybody else. And for the love of god, stop calling her disposable.

Mel was never pushed aside for the sake of an endgame ship, not in canon at least. She was loved till the very end.

[greenerteacups]

I can't help but giggle how Ron and Harry in LH both doubt Draco's feelings for Hermione when it's, like, the complete OPPOSITE of what they think. Harry's being all big brother-y like about Hermione and how Draco should treat her right and respectfully or ELSE whilst Ron in the latest chapter assumes he's playing around with the poor girl.

And in reality I'm pretty sure Draco is envisioning his and Hermione's wizardesque wedding for the past 2 books.

Can't help but love the boys' obliviousness in regards to feelings here.

Also goes to show how Draco truly opens up only to Hermione in the most profound-est way. I love them.

Oh, yeah. I think I wrote this in a reply to a comment on AO3, but Ron and Harry are very good people afflicted with Teenage BoyBrain, and in Harry's case, Brother Instinct wherever Hermione is concerned. So they assumed that if Draco and Hermione like each other but aren't together, it's because Draco's not being an upstanding young gentleman, not because (as is the case) Hermione's indulging in a bit of age-appropriate emotional terrorism.

There are also broad gaps between (1) what Draco reveals via narration, (2) what he reveals to Hermione, and (3) what he reveals to Harry and Ron. They know each other very well, but Draco plays his cards so close to the chest — especially when it comes to the whole "if you're important to me it means I'd firebomb a hospital for you" thing. He has this unspoken idea that the moment he admits he cares for someone, they're immediately going to get snatched away by the long hand of the universe, which in fairness to him is informed by certain events that make him not totally wrong. (You might also attribute this to his taste in people, however, which trends towards the reckless and the driven; cue moth/flame metaphor, etc., etc., you all know.) So that's why there's about a half-year lag between whatever Draco recognizes in his own emotions and what everyone else in the story seems to believe: that's about how long it takes Draco to get comfortable broadcasting his feelings.

By the middle of fifth year, both Harry and Ron are full aware (as the chapters reveal!) that Draco cares for Hermione, but I think both boys project themselves onto him, to the detriment of their understanding (as most teenagers do). Ron reads a little more into Draco's possessiveness and jealousy, which are the traits they have most in common (cf. Ch.73). Part of that judgment is Ron's emotional straightforwardness: he sincerely can't imagine any reason that Draco wouldn't be dating her properly if the feeling was reciprocated, so he assumes that there must be some obstacle somewhere, and because he's a bit in love with Hermione in his own right, he obviously assumes the obstacle is Draco. What's Draco's number one problem? He's got a bucket of daddy issues and hangups over his family legacy, especially vis-a-vis public displays of affiliation. And Ron doesn't maybe think Draco's being actually prejudiced here (otherwise, he would have been much, much harsher with him in their argument) but he does think there's a degree of shame or uncertainty on Draco's part that's in the way of them getting together.

Harry, meanwhile, reads the whole situation as a communication failure: he thinks Draco doesn't realize what he's doing, because if it were Harry, messing someone around sincerely would be a cognition failure. It's not outside Harry's frame of possibility that Draco could end up in a romantically charged situationship by accident. And he probably rates higher the possibility that Draco would deliberately maintain a relationship like that to avoid losing Hermione's attention. Notably, Harry doesn't assume that Hermione's particularly hard-done-by in this situation; in fact, his default assumption is that she's where she wants to be, and if she didn't like it, she wouldn't be there. His trust in her is helped by the fact that he regards her as a pseudo-sister, and doesn't have any stake in the love triangle except that everyone treats each other well. For that reason, his final comment on the matter is a plea for Draco to consider how Ron might feel: he wants to remind them that they're friends, because he watched the group fall apart last year over an argument similar to this one (jealousy, possessiveness, and a torturous litigation of in-group favoritism). Harry is provoked to intercede because he thinks there's a danger of the situation blowing up due to miscommunication and leaving all of them isolated when they need support the most — which is naturally something that the increasingly isolated and angst-ridden Harry thinks should be top priority.

Anyway, I love them, too.

[queenie-official]

(req) Anakin with a tomboy artist reader? (◔^⁠◔ )

‘Heat Sick’

main masterlist Word Count: 1.8k

pairing: Modern!Anakin x tomboy artist!reader (i wanna say gn, cuz i don’t think i said anything explicitly gender specific?)

a/n: hey lovey! thanks for the request i’m sorry if this is shorter than you’d hoped for but i hope you like it, im not sure if i made it obvious reader was a tomboy? it kinda didn’t really come up. not proofread

It was hot out; The kind of heat that made it hard to breathe and left you sticky with sweat. Your clothes suctioned to your skin like cling wrap, it was unbearable and honestly overstimulating.

Your hands itched to grab your phone out of your pocket and text Anakin to come pick you up like he’d originally offered but letting him know he was right was not an option, it’d go to his head and he’d rub it in your face for the next week anytime you were trying to win an argument with him. Although the second you make it to his place he’d know so why make yourself suffer?

You stick your hand into the pocket of your shorts to grab your phone but stop yourself with a sigh. Too stubborn for your own good was something you had heard your entire life from friends and family members. You groaned, slumping forward, they were all right of course and as you began to trudge along again in the direction of the Skywalker home instead of texting Anakin you knew you were proving them right.

It took you probably about ten minutes longer than usual to get to his place, the heat slowing you down despite how fast you wanted to escape it. you forced yourself to jog up the front pathway letting yourself in without bothering to text Ani to let him know you were there. you were considered part of the family at this point, and if Shmi was home she would have been thrilled to see you.

As soon as the front door opens you're hit with a blast of cold air that leaves welcome goosebumps on your skin, stepping in quickly you close the door before heading up the stairs to Ani’s room just happy to feel like you can breathe again.

When you get to his room Anakin is sat at his desk typing on his computer, something for one of his many classes. Finals were coming up and pretty much every college student was doing their best to go over all the coursework for the year, which included Anakin who chose Engineering as his major. You were an Art Major and had already finished and submitted your animation project, all you had left was the presentation in class next week.

You all but collapse onto Anakin's bed, falling face first onto his mattress. The comforter was cold and your body melted into the feeling as you let out an involuntary sigh of relief. The creak of Anakin’s computer chair turning in your direction makes your hand twitch, wanting to turn to look at him but resisting.

“I told you it was hot out” he practically laughs with a smug lit to his voice. You roll your eyes but still refuse to look at his face so it's not like he could see it. “No smartass remark?” he adds when you don't respond, you could flip him off but that required effort and heat exhaustion pulled on every muscle making you feel like a pile of bricks was on top of you.

“Don't tell me you made it here just to die on my bed?” he teased and was met with silence again, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of his AC. Anakin huffs and you hear him stand up and walk out of his room, his footsteps fading down the stairs.

You finally move just to take your backpack off and shove it to the ground, the layer of sweat and heat that had formed there immediately cooling.

When Anakin returns you're still face first on the mattress, the only sign of life being that your bag had been removed. He doesn't say anything but then you feel it, ice cold condensation on your neck, you flinch but relax again just as quick, “that feels so good holy shit” you croak and Anakin snorts.

“I'm not going to keep holding this for you” he drawled, forcing you to actually move in order to take the water bottle from him. When you finally saw his face he had the biggest ‘i told you so’ look making you deadpan as you snatched the bottle from his hand, placing it back against your neck. “How about ‘thank you Anakin, you're the best’ after all i just resurrected you” he said with a cross of his arms.

“i was never dead, ergo doesn't count” you counter, removing the bottle and opening it before chugging it.

“I think it's at least fair to say you were on the brink of death, give me some credit here” he half joked while sitting back in his computer chair.

“Oh well in that case-” placing the back of your hand on your forehead full damsel in distress mode you gush “thank you Anakin! You’re the best i’d be dead without you, i’m forever indebted to you and should the occasion arrive id lay my life down for you” deadpanning you let your hand fall from your head.

“That's more like it” he says ignoring the obvious “you should talk to me like that all the time” he decided.

You cringe at the suggestion. “what like some helpless princess who's obsessed with you?”.

he shrugs, a devious smirk forming on his face. “i mean you already are one of those things” your brows furrow. “Obsessed with me” he adds.

You laugh, loud and deliberate before it fizzles into genuine laughter “in your dreams maybe”.

He briefly frowns before raising a knowing brow “oh yea? Then how come you're always drawing me” he pushed and you choked mid laugh, cheeks heating.

“I don-” he stops you before you can even finish the statement “yeah you do, don't even try to deny it y/n. I see you stare at me while your drawing in that sketchbook of yours all the time”. You stutter trying to find a way to back yourself out of this, how long had he known?

You were sure he never saw you, although now that you think about it Anakin was always good at ignoring even the most obvious things if he didnt feel the need to acknowledge it directly.

“I am not obsessed! You’re just.. Fun to draw.” now that wasn’t a lie. In truth he was fun to draw, now him being fun to draw because you found the way his nose sloped so smoothly and the soft curve of his lips that you swore only the airbrush tool on your ipad could capture right compared to when you drew him traditionally was another story. One that you didn't feel necessary to share.

“I’m fun to draw? That's the best you could come up with y/n, really?” he scoffed and you rolled your eyes.

“it's the truth, hate to break it to you Ani but not every girl in your life is in love with you”. His upper lip twitches and he leans back in his chair smiling to himself.

“who said anything about love?” damn you were digging a deeper hole with every sentence weren't you.

“You know what i meant” you say trying to brush him off and he quirks his head to the side.

“Do i?’ you huff fighting the urge to punch him in his stupid pretty face, though he could probably pull off a black eye if you were being honest with yourself.

“You're delusional Skywalker” you grumble and he laughs, throwing his head back in pure delight. giving him that black eye was beginning to look more and more appealing. “Don't you have Finals to study for? You said you wanted me here for emotional support but the front door is calling my name” this time Anakin rolled his eyes.

“As if you’d willingly go back out in the heat after you just cooled down” he retorts.

“don't push your luck” you threaten not to convincingly, but he finally drops the subject with a roll of his shoulders before turning back to his computer to continue on with what he was doing previously.

You find yourself staring at the back of his head for a while contemplating just what he might have done had you agreed even just a little bit, sharing your feelings was never something that came easy compared to Aankin who wasn't afraid to show you an array of his emotions.

It wasn't like you were afraid to, it just wasn't your style. You look down at the almost empty water bottle in your hand, the last sip of water in it now lukewarm. Capping the bottle before you stand up to stretch out your legs and try to unstick your shirt and shorts to your body.

Once your done you grab your bag to pull your sketchbook out and a pencil, initially you had every intention to sketch Anakin while he did his work but after that convo it felt weird to do, like you’d be silently confessing to exactly what you'd been so adamantly denying.

So instead you pick a random object in his room and decide to sketch that instead, laying back down on your stomach and getting comfortable.

The room is silent, it kind of irks you, Anakin's typing and your pencil scratching on the paper echoed in your head for some reason, each click and scratch like a loud thump.

“I don't mind it you know” Anakin's voice breaks through whatever internal spiral you were bordering; he was still typing as he said it.

“What?” you ask confused as you turn your head towards him.

“You drawing me, I don't mind it” you blink unsure what to say “I don't know it makes me feel special” he adds on when you don't respond.

“Special?” you question and he finally stops typing.

“yeah i mean, it's not like you draw other people often- usually it's just characters you like or make up. Unless you're holding out on me” he jokes not wanting the convo to seem too serious.

You grant him a laugh wanting to keep it light too “no you're right”.

He turns his head in your direction “can i get that in writing. I don't even know off the top of my head the last time you said I was right about something”.

“ha ha” you say sarcastically and he smirks before turning back to his computer and typing again.

any previous tension gone; the pounding from each key he hit and the scratch of your pencil no longer thumped in your head.

You relax, smiling softly to yourself as you morph from sketching one of his sports trophies to his face in the corner of the same page. It came easy to you, practically second nature at this point.

Maybe telling Anakin the truth about how you felt about him would come just as easy someday; but for now hanging out in his room, hiding away from the brutal sun outside and just enjoying being in each other's company was enough for you.

a/n: welp it has been a long time since i wrote a fic 😀 so im very very rusty 😭 i really do hope this is good all things consider and meets your expectations 🙏

here’s hoping i actually keep writing i do have quite a few drafts from last summer i could write about but like i said in another post the Anakin brain rot isn’t as strong as it used to be for me so his character isn’t at the forefront of my mind.

anyway love you all so much, hope you enjoyed reading 💜 have a good day huns!! Xx<3

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

This thoughts still cooking, so it might not make sense, but I think Thomas (Tomas?) Astruc is a very good case study on how being too attached to your own ideas can hinder your story telling.

I don't mean this in a "Thomas's original idea for the series was bad", but rather that he seems so attached to this concept that he can't stand other people having a differing view from him.

Chloe's the titular example here. Some people thought she deserved a redemption arc, and instead of just saying "nah, I don't think so" and continuing to write her the same way he had been, he had to prove them wrong, prove that his idea was the only correct one, and so turned her into the spawn of Satan and let her rule over Paris for some reason.

Instead of making Marinette less stalker-y, he wrote an entire episode poorly justifying it. And, imao, somewhat diminishing what PTSD actually is and does to people.

I'm not saying he has to make any change (though I think making Marinette less stalker-y would be a good change), but instead of 1.) sticking to his resolve or 2.) taking the criticism, he clung dearly onto this perception of his characters and his writing suffered because of how much he had to twist things to "prove" that his original assertions were right. And also that everyone who disagreed with him was wrong and didn't understand

idk if that makes sense, but the concepts been lingering in my head recently

It makes perfect sense! I've had similar thoughts. It's hard to say for sure, but Miraculous may be a case study in "kill your darlings". I'm not deep into the behind-the-scenes lore and I was not here in the early fandom, but I do know that, at some point, a much darker version of the show was pitched. That's why these exist (image source):

[Image description: two sketches styled like comic book covers. Both have the title "The Mini Menace Ladybug". The left cover shows Marinette's silhouette in a doorway. The door's glass and the glass of a nearby window are broken. In the foreground lies a hand holding a ladybug charm. The hand is limp and surrounded by blood, implying that someone is injured or dead. The right cover is Ladybug doing a spinning kick while looking angry.]

We also have this evidence of the darker original concept:

Jeremy Zag then proposed another project... which he was unable to sell to broadcasters... the project was called "Ladybug". No one was interested, as the project was aimed more at an adult audience... Sébastien had to make sure that the project could be broadcast on Disney and TF1.... Thomas wanted to make a series for adults, but at the time, it was very complicated to make a cartoon for adults. What's more, they didn't have enough money to take on such a project. Sébastien finally agreed, but there were some changes to be made, which Thomas accepted... In the end, Thomas Astruc's entire project was discarded, leaving only the love story between the two heroes and the city of Paris, where the story was to take place.

I've been aware of this darker origin story for a while due to Tumblr and, because of this knowledge, I have often had the thought, "are the writers trying to sneak elements from this darker version into canon?" Because that's the most likely explanation for what's going on here.

If I'm right, then I think that was a terrible move on their parts. They needed to let go of the story that they couldn't sell and embrace the story that they're being allowed to tell. It's why "kill you darlings" is such good advice. Many good stories have been ruined by writers clinging to an idea that ultimately doesn't work for some reason.

It's why the sitcom How I Met Your Mother has such a universally hated ending. The show was originally supposed to go for two seasons and so they wrote an ending that would fit the second season. The show ended up running for nine seasons and, by then, the ending didn't fit, but the writers kept it and left everyone with a bad taste in their mouths, which is not what any writer wants. That's why you have to do what's best for the story even if it means abandoning something that you really love.

This early version of canon may also be why the writers are so obsessed with Marinette. My understanding is that this concept had her mainly acting as a solo hero and, oh look! What is one of canon's biggest problems? Marinette being treated like a solo hero even though she has a partner and, later on, a team!

Not saying that this theory has to be true, just saying that it would explain some things. And if they're poisoning canon by trying to include elements from their darker original? Then it makes sense to assume that they're also doing it for smaller stuff. Like I'm pretty sure I've read that the head writer wanted Chat Blanc to be a lot darker originally, but no one would green light it, so we got an incredibly lackluster episode that spat in the face of the genres Miraculous' is trying to be part of while also falling to have the sort of impact we'd expect from an episode like that. It's a good example of a darling that really should have been killed. It just doesn't fit.

(Totally unrelated sidenote, but is your blog name from Tangled? Because that's what I immediately thought of and it made me smile!)

[elliespinkstrapp]

ᯓ☁︎ NEVER STOOD A CHANCE

⤑ TLOU ELLABS SMAU

✎ A/N: Okay so this is the first like actual fic portion I'm writing!! Might be bad but yolo!

Cw: Swearing!

Part 002ྀི Part 003ྀི Part 004ྀི

word count: ~630

Ellie walked to class. She was not excited to get there, mainly because of the project, but also because that class goes quickly. Meaning she had probably missed a decent amount of notes.

So if there was a quiz today she was totally fucked.

She hoped whoever she got paired with wasn't a total freak- I mean she didn't pay attention to the people in the class, didn't even look at most of them but the ones that stuck out were all weird. Assuming she was the only person that had missed that day she may not even get a partner at all. Which honestly sounded great at first other than the fact that her solo work in that class was already hard enough, so having to do the work of 2 people in a class she's already pretty bad at- not much better than having to work with a random person she doesn't know or like.

Ellie began to walk down a quick flight of stairs. She didn't usually take this route to class, which explained why once she reached the last step, she promptly tripped and fell nearly face-first onto the hard floor.

She stopped herself before her face met the ground, but that didn't stop the bag from her shoulder from falling off and spilling everywhere.

Her pencils and pens rolled out onto the floor along with the other art supplies she typically kept on her. She tried to clean up as quickly as possible to avoid anyone from seeing her on the ground, frantically grabbing at her things but those dreams were quickly crushed when she saw a tall blonde-haired girl whisk past her muttering a 'yikes' under her breath while glancing down. Her keys jingled off the belt loop of her pants as she maneuvered past Ellie.

Before, she could even mutter a sorry or get a good look at the girl she had already pushed through a set of double doors.

Shoving her sketchbook back into her bag, she got up and walked to class as quickly as she could without looking like one of those awkward freshmen who sprinted around campus rushing from lesson to lesson.

She made it in late, the door closing loudly behind her, ruining her attempt at sneaking in. Mr. Moore signaled her forward with his hand. She made her way down to him, apologizing before he got the chance to speak.

"It's okay- you were clearly in a rush. There's nothing to worry about." He said with a straight face, making Ellie stop talking immediately. "I just wanted to introduce you to your partner for the mid-term-" he turned, gesturing to a tall blonde girl- the same tall blonde girl who saw Ellie pathetically on the floor picking up her things. "This is Abigail- or Abby. You'll be working together on your presentation- the topics vary, but it has to stay under the general idea of what we've learned in class so far. 25 slides minimum."

Ellie nodded along to what he said, occasionally glancing at Abby. Once he finished she turned towards Abby and finally got a good look at a real good look. She was gorgeous really gorgeous, which made her even more anxious than she already was. She was suddenly snapped out of it when Abby said something.

"Huh? Sorry I didn't catch that?" She noticed Abby roll her eyes before repeating herself "I said, can I get your number for the project?"

Ellie nodded, writing her number down into Abby's contacts before handing her phone back to her. "There, I'll text you later,'kay?" "Alrighty-" Ellie said, cursing herself for how dorky it sounded when it left her mouth. She sat down after that. After the lecture, she immediately grabbed her phone, texting frantically.

☁︎ taglist: @ibeatittotoxicyurifics @jester-loverre @satorix