#and there's also my dragon adopts side blog i want to work on. and the song comic that i thought i would finish before the end of the year

[dragon-tamer-1]

Ok seriously, I promise to get to the requests I have soon, just gotta do a few things first but I promise to start drawing/writing them as soon as I get done with these.

[sweetestpopcorn]

Hi, hope you're well. I love reading your works and reading through your blog.

Since you talk about canon events/relationships on here sometimes, I was wondering what you think Daemon thought of the 'Velaryon' Princes. It always seems to be a heated debate in fandom, some thinking Daemon was too 'valyrian supremacy' to want to see Jace rule, and others thinking them being half-Harwin wouldn't matter to him since they were also half-Rhaenyra, so I am interested to hear your take.

Unrelated, but I'm also interested in why you chose Vermithor as Prince Viserys' dragon, if there was any specific reason behind it? I love his dynamic with Daemon and him reminding him that his dragon was bigger than Caraxes was amazing :)

Hi there and I hope you are well too :)

Let me start by thanking you so much for your beyond lovely words and please know it gives me a lot of happiness to know you enjoy what I write ❤️

Going back to your two questions, yes, I talk about canon events/relationships because this is the base to everything I write and I make this a strong base because as a fan of the asoiaf books, I want to honour said books and to make what I do as close to them as my limited skills allow me. And as a fanfiction reader, my condition to read fanfiction is to be made to feel as if I am reading about the same characters as I did in the original story. If I demand this of others, I make this demand of myself as well when I am writing, again with the skills I have.

About Daemon's relationship with the "Velaryon" princes I have lost count of the number of asks I received about this. I am in the process of compelling all of them and answering everyone in a single go. I might disappoint some people but I never hid this and I will make it ver clear now -> I am not particularly interested in Daemon's relationship with his stepsons, I am much more interested in his relationship (like infinite times) with his actual sons Aegon and Viserys who were the son(s) he waited so long for. I also do not think that said relationship with the "Velaryon" princes is that important.

However, if you read what I write you know I am currently writing "The Year of the Red Spring" which follows the (asoiaf) canon events for the Year of the Red Spring, 120 AC. I have already included several scenes showing Daemon's relationship with the "Velaryon" princes before he married Rhaenyra, so you and other people asking me about that can refer to that and stay tuned for more :) as it will be far more complete and detailed than any answer I give here.

Still on this relationship and Daemon's potential thoughts about the boys, you pose me two sides, I disagree with both and say neither. The issue was not that Daemon was too 'valyrian supremacy', the issue was that the "Velaryon" princes were not his sons and that actually, funny thing, he had his own sons with the Princess of Dragonstone, so nothing in the world would be more natural than for him to want said sons to be her heirs, especially when the other sons his wife had actually did not have a true claim to the throne - their claim was based on a lie. Daemon is in most ways just as other men of his time. I see nothing about him being very different or particularly feminist or progressive, if anyone is interested there is plenty of research out there showing the different dynamics and outcomes in relationships between full parents, adoptive parents and stepparents with their children, and such research shows that blood speaks louder. I also see no reason what so ever to believe nor any textual evidence that Daemon would care about his stepsons more than his own sons and daughters. And because evidence is absent and what is there points to the contrary, I don't think Daemon liked or cared about his stepsons more than his actual children.

As for the other question about Viserys and Vermithor, as I have mentioned and explored either here or in comments in my fics, I am not shy about saying I don't like the Dragonseeds plot. It was a sh:t idea that turned to an even bigger sh:t and besides Addam and Alyn I don't really care about any of the other seeds, Nettles might have some potential but Hugh and Ulf are 100% a steaming pile of trash. Besides, in my AU, Viserys is much older at the time of the Dance. It would not make sense for him to still be dragonless when there were several dragons available lying around.

Of all of these dragons Vermithor made the most sense, not only because I do like how their two names go together (y'all know my petty a**), but also because Vermithor had been Jaehaerys's dragon. Jaehaerys and Viserys have a lot in common personality wise and Viserys would be someone that Jaehaerys's would be happy to see Vermithor go to - in my humble opinion. Furthermore, there is something poetic about Aegon II having Sunfyre and Aemond Vhagar and Aegon III having Stormcloud and Viserys II Vermithor -> storms can be foes to the sun in a sense, and Vhagar belonged to an enemy of Vermithor's rider. Aegon II and Aegon III were firstborns and Aemond and Vermithor second sons.

All the best to you and one less ask to answer for me!

PS: I do not plan to open my inbox to Anons any time soon because I still have about 50 answers to get through and I also have tons of updates to consider. Thank you for understanding :)

[shadowfoxsilver]

A change of plans

As of recently, I was able to get a new laptop. Thanks for helping! Unfortunately I ran into an issue with it early on: It froze when I was drawing in MSPaint. I lost the drawing I was working on and feared future drawings may be lost if I continued working on it. However, do not fear! I’ve recently been drawing on my phone which is how I drew these:

Sure it’s not exactly the best, but it’s a bit better then I expected considering I don’t draw using my phone most of the time. However, this gave me a new idea for another way I could do my art: Via an iPad using the Apple Pencil. I’m sure there’s alternatives out there, but I want to try something new so I won’t need to rely on a computer for my art. I know it’ll take a while to reach the goal I have now, and that’s fine! I’m in no hurry but it’ll also help mom with the bill as well.

My art is a hobby I do, and something I continue using to try and make some money on the side with by making adoptables and taking commissions when I can. I’ll likely just use my laptop for general internet things and for my other hobby which is writing scam spotting information and making it easier to locate scam accounts at a glance.

Anyway, hi! I’m Jess! A digital artist who works daily and draws dragons most of the time. My full time job means I don’t usually have much free time, but that doesn’t stop me from doing my hobbies! You may also know me as Key from my blog where I give tips on spotting scams. While your here, I’ll give you links to my goal and where else to find me! You can share this post if you’d like, I don’t mind! Commissions have been re-opened.

—

Goal ($0/90 as of posting.)

Ko-fi | Art Fight | deviantART | artofshadowfoxsilver | kyra45 | Toyhouse

[pleasantspark]

Welcome To My Blog!

For starters, hello, my name is Orion, I go by many handles, 16xOrion, PleasantSpark and sometimes just Orion. I make content for Welcome Home, Sims, DDLC, Mega Man, Hazbin Hotel, Transformers... You get it all, but mainly I am fixated on DBZ.

Things You Should Know About Me

I own Over 9000 AUs, I own a fair share of OCs, and well. I have a personal artist who does not want to be credited (Mainly because they are and I quote "A Child" (They are 13) and they don't want to be out there.))

My favorite things are somewhat mixed bag.

I also use AI ART AS A TOOL.

DNI If You...

I am finna get hate but please DNI if you're a Minor (This falls under only this Tumblr bc I am mostly SFW on other platforms Minus A03, Wattpad... On Discord I am FULLY SFW).

Do not Interact if ur a Proshipper (I don't have issues with y'all its just I don't want to interact with people and get the other side pissy at me, bc I don't take sides.)

DNI if you're a bigot, Racist, Transphobe, Homophobe...

AND REMEMBER.

BE KIND.

Selfshipping Info

I licherally forgor to share shit.

Romantic Husk - Hazbin Hotel (Shipped with my Self Insert Nyx) Husk/Angel Dusk - Hazbin Hotel (Shipped with my Male Self Insert Moon) Beerus - DBZ/DBS (Shipped with my Self Insert Chi/Chiara) - Married Whis - DBS/DBZ (Shipped with my Self Insert Athena/G.O.D. Brandi) - Married Alastor - Hazbin Hotel (Shipped with my Self Insert Pandora Morningstar) - Married Adam - Hazbin Hotel (Shipped with my Self Insert Nyx) - Formerly Married (In Left Behind) Liquiir - DBZ/DBS (Shipped with my Self Insert Kuras [Sister of Beerus and Champa, all are triplets]) - Mates The Main Six (Rung, Rodimus Prime, Skids, Swerve, Kup, Whirl) - Transformers MTMTE (Polyship, Shipped with my Self Insert Comet) - Sparkbonded Goku - DBZ/DBS (Shipped with my Self Insert May, Only in selective versions oi an AU) - MARRIED, FUCK YOU CHI CHI Yamcha - DBZ/DBS (Shipped with my Self Insert Goki [Goku's Twin Sister]) - Married Vegeta - DBZ/DBS (Shipped with my Self Insert Calypso Briefs (Twin sister of Bulma) - Married Zamasu/Goku Black - DBZ/DBZ (Shipped with my Self Inserts Maru/Goki Black respectively) - Married, semi Polycule Hit - DBS (Shipped with my Self Insert Colbat [Beerus and Champa's DAUGHTER?! Yeah, Colbat's Mom cheated on Beerus and ended up going with Champa and they are unsure who the father is.]) Grand Priest/Whis/Vados/Mohito/Kusu/Sour/Camparri/Cognac/Cukatail/Kusu/Marcerta/Martinu/Merus - DBS [Polyship, All Relationships a LOOONG V shaped. None of them are dating each other, only me.) - MARRIED (Wait how does that work? I dunno.) Grand Priest - DBS (Shipped with my Self Insert Angel) - MARRIED Android 16 - DBZ (AU where he didn't die, bc fuck canon, shipped with my self insert Orion) - MARRIED Fu - DBS/XV2/DBH (Shipped with my Demon Self Insert Echo) - MARRIED Alan Orion/John Doe/Alastor/Zamasu/Caine/Jack Walten/Jax/Astarion/Monika/Mateo/Ford/Wally Darling/Peter - My Dear Hatchet Man, John Doe, Hazbin Hotel, Dragon Ball Super, The Amazing Digital Circus, The Walten Files, Buldar's Gate 3, Doki Doki Literture Club, Steampunkochi, Welcome Home, Your Boyfriend (Shipped with my Isekai'd Yandere AU Protag, Orion) - MARRIED? Shinzu - OC? Canon Character? DBZ/DBS (Shipped with my Kai Self Insert Aura, alternatively with Beerus and Chi) - MARRIED Jack Walten - The Walten Files (Shipped with my Self Insert Orion Walten) - MARRIED Frieza - DBZ/DBS (Shipped with my Self Insert Frostbyte [Female Freiza Race, Often but mainly May my Saiyan OC.) (There's probably OVER 9000 others but too lazy) (Expect a Caard soon. Or a website.) Familial Liquiir and I's Kits - Children Chocolate & Ankho - Beerus' and I's Children Gohan, Goten, Gine the II, Goki The II, Goshin - Goku and I's Children Rose - Adoptive Daughter Fizz & Deni - OC and I's Twin Children King Vegeta, Vegeta, Tarble, Queen Salz (Mother of Vegeta, May and Tarble) - May/My Family Raditz & Goki - Sibling In Laws Bardock & Gine - Parent In Laws Calypso & Bulma - Sibling in Laws Trunks & Bulla - Nibling in Laws Yamcha Jr, Cody, Miracle, Goku The II - Nibling In Laws Matt - Grand-Son Android 16 (May) - Son in Law Whis (Orion) - Adoptive Father Kuriza & Hale (May) - Sons Champa & Beerus (Kuras) - Twin Older Brothers (I am the triplet younger sister)

[muse-soup]

Another you + Pokémon. All muses!

Send “Another You” + a universe or media and for what my muse would be like in that universe.

((Oooohhhhh ho ho ho ho buckle up lmao this is gonna get long.))

Gyro

Gyro's still an inventor, but he also has a particular interest in researching ultra wormholes, space-time distortions, and the Faller phenomenon. He's a freelancer, but he works closely with the Dimensionl Resarch Lab in Heahea City, Interpol, and a small group of researchers from Sinnoh-- including Champion Cynthia herself. His Pokémon team includes Klingklang, Joltik, Escavalier, Flygon, Kabutops, and Beheeyem. I don't really have backstories for his team, but I do have reasons behind why I picked them. Klingklang is there because he's Gyro GEARloose. Joltik, because of an ancient headcanon of mine that he thinks bugs are neat. Escavalier is there for similar reasons, but also because it's a knight. Flygon, representative of the dragon Gyro fought (and also because he thought Trapinch was, once again, a neat bug). Kabutops, because reviving fossils sounds like the kind of sci-fi bs he would do and I like Kabutops lol. And Beheeyem because ALIENS.

Starchy

Hokay, SO: funny enough Starchy already has a Pokémon AU that I never really used. To rehash from my old blog, it's a pretty standard "what if X setting had Pokémon in it" type of deal. I wouldn't really call him a trainer, but he does have a few Pokémon he keeps around. All of them more or less adopted him. First of all is Absol. She showed up one day because this man is a walking disaster, and has made it her duty to save him from himself. She's never far from his side. Next is Minccino. He used to watch Starchy clean from afar, but managed to get into the castle one day and quickly asserted himself as Starchy's little helper. He takes a small fee of snacks from the castle larder. Third is a blue Floette. There's loads of them living in the gardens, and this one happened to take a liking to the feather in Starchy's hat. She's a silly little thing, but she's good company. Last in the original lineup is Petilil, which are also a common sight in the castle gardens. She's sort of Absol's sidekick, offering her healing leaves to Starchy whenever he gets himself into a scrape. I've also toyed with the idea of giving him an Appletun that hangs out down in the kitchens. Starchy's not keen on dragons, but the stubborn thing doesn't want to leave. Starchy's not much of a battler, but he will do it if pressed. Sometimes he thinks about joining contests, however.

Sawyer

Sawyer is, as in most universes, Just Some Guy™. You can probably find them loitering in an underpass or doing some urban exploration in an abandoned building. They're not an especially tough trainer, but they still battle recreationally. Their tiny team consists of Togedemaru (because I associate them with hedgehogs). Toxtricity (Low Key Form), and Rotom (Frost Form). I don't think they know that Rotom's base form is a Ghost Type lol.

Three Meat

Three Meat is... often mistaken for an Ultra Beast. Like in most universes, he tries not to be seen by the general public. To assign him a team just for fun though... Definitely gotta get a Scovillain in there. Maybe a Hoopa, for all the dimensional travel shenanigans. Paldean Tauros (Blaze Breed), Combusken, and Grumpig to represent his three meats. And maybe Bruxish because of the funky colors.

Gourdon

Gourdon, like Three Meat, would probably be mistaken for an Ultra Beast... unless he traveled in disguise, as he often does. He would toy with people and Pokémon alike, dressed as a gambler, a beggar, a prince, or what have you, leading them astray or tricking them out of their valuables. His team would be a Pumpkaboo (Supersize) because obvious choice is obvious, Grimmsnarl because Dark/Fairy, Crustle because Gourdon has a friend in his canon who is a giant crab with an island on his back, Mime Jr. for its silly jester aesthetic, Zoroark because it's a master of disguise, and Gimmighoul (Chest Form) because it's the classic mimic.

[malcolmschmitz]

Read During Recovery: pt 3

(part 1 here, part 2 here)

This is starting to push the limits of what could be considered "recovery"- I'm still healing up, but I've gone back to work and such. Nevertheless, I'm enjoying having so much time to read and I'm hoping I can keep the habit even after things go back to normal. Without further ado, let's get to the books!

Paint by Magic by Kathryn Reiss

My first DNF (Did Not Finish) since I started reading again! That's an accomplishment, of sorts.

I picked this one up because I want to read more current middle grade- both as market research and because we're living through something of a middle grade renaissance. There's more good MG on the market than ever, and it's grounded in people's specific lived experiences.

The first warning sign for me should have been that the copyright date on this one was 2004. But i continued anyway, because hey, a good MG is eternal. This one... was not.

I'm not going to talk too much smack about this specific book, because this is my professional blog and I want to lift other writers up, not tear them down. But this is a strong Not Recommended.

The Sanctuary Sparrow by Ellis Peters

The Brother Cadfael mysteries are rapidly becoming my go-to comfort reads-- if I want to recuperate after a bad book, or an emotionally taxing book, this is where I go. They're like Redwall for grownups-- a little short on the heroic mice, but full of adventure mixed with Soothing Abbey Time. The foreground is full of lovely walks in the garden, tasty lavishly described meals, and small, beautiful miracles; the background is full of the excitement, and horror, of a civil war.

The Sanctuary Sparrow is one of Brother Cadfael's better outings- the mystery is straightforward, but neither so obvious that you'll immediately grasp what's going on nor so convoluted that you'll never figure it out on your own. Liliwin- our Wrongly Accused Innocent- is a charming secondary protagonist, and the medieval life stuff I really enjoy here gets a nice spot in the foreground. Strong recommend.

Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L Sayers

This is a collection of short detective stories about the indefatigable Lord Peter Wimsey and his inability to keep his nose out of other folks' business. It also spawned an 11,000 note post on my personal blog about how one story contains a sympathetic depiction of a crossdressing thief and another teaches you 15 different slurs for Italians.

It's hard to say whether I recommend this one. On the one hand you've got fantastic stories like "The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers", "The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach", and a personal favourite, "The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head" (In which Lord Peter gets to be the Weird Middle Grade Uncle!). On the other hand, you have "The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will", which is just bad! It's mean-spirited and the scaffolding for an okay crossword puzzle. I'm gonna say recommend, but not every story in here is worth reading.

The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night by Stephen Banbury

This one was just a delight all the way through. Grown in a lab for me specifically. It's about a young orphan girl who's adopted by the Pumpkin King and becomes the Pumpkin Princess of a spooky, Halloween themed land. It's like The Nightmare Before Christmas meets Matilda.

There's a vampire Boy Inventor who makes little steampunk robots. There's the world's most autistic witch. There's a ghost who writes murder mysteries.

Strong recommend- if you like the spooky but not creepy side of Halloween, if you want a good adoption story, or if you like traumatized protagonists blossoming with love and books- this one's for you.

The Devil's Novice by Ellis Peters

Another Brother Cadfael! This one was also pretty darn good- it's about a young man who's desperately trying to become a novice at the monastery, but something is deeply Wrong With Him. He's embroiled in mystery, and only one nosy old man can save the day...

Strong recommend, this is another great outing from Brother Cadfael, and if you like the rest of the series you will like this too.

I read even more books this week but this post is getting entirely too long- look out for a part 4 later this week!!

Currently reading: The Lumbering Giants of Windy Pines by Mo Netz, No One Leaves the Castle by Christopher Healy; Rien's Rebellion Book 1: Kingdom by CZ Edwards

[lorkynn]

Pathfinder 2e vs. Dungeons & Dragons 5e

And why I switched to PF2e from D&D5e.

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure if this blog-post was ever gonna happen. I was sure if I was gonna put on my main blog or my side blog, Mindelves. I feel like it should go here because I am probably not gonna use my main blog for its original purpose anymore. Though I’ve rambled long enough, time to actually get to the meat-and-potatoes--or rather the pen-and-paper--of this blog.

I was an early adopter of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (D&D5e), because I was not happy with the state of Pathfinder 1e. It was just too bloated and the power creep was pretty much identical to the issues with D&D3/3.5. My other issues with pf1e was it was way too easy to get locked into a dead build that was no longer fun to play because it wasn’t optimal. D&D5e offered a fresh take on the zeitgeist of the Dungeon Crawling Fantasy that Dungeons & Dragons popularized.

In the beginning, before the adoption of it in pop-culture, the game was fun and it honestly shook things up like they needed to be. Skills were simplified into proficiency bonuses and this worked extremely well. Spellcaster Cantrips were made into at-will abilities, identical to how they worked in Pathfinder 1e, and the classes + archetype design worked well. Outside of these changes, they made pretty safe choices and didn’t rock the boat much.

Early on, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) was focusing heavily on Modules instead of expanding on character choices. Which was good in the beginning, but it slowly caught up to them. Now, the biggest issue is that WotC is too busy listening their Shareholders and the Beholder/Mindflayer know as Social Media & Twitter. The game isn’t fun, the adventure paths make you’re rushing through to get to the “good parts” of the adventures. They’re also too scared to do anything that might upset the Twitter Gods, so they back-peddle on every decisions that gets the tiniest push back. To add insult to injury, the last few releases, weren’t just bad, they constantly contradict themselves in the same book. Success through Pop Culture really ruined the system.

As for Pathfinder 2e(PF2e), I wasn’t impressed with at first. Every review that I had seen of it painted the picture of it being different for different’s sake. I wanted nothing to do with that mindset. The irony is, PF2e saw that the D&D3.75 just wasn’t working anymore and they really needed to do their own thing. They changed Races into Ancestries & Heritages. There is no longer the standard action economy, and we now have the Three-Action Economy, and I tell you what, it makes it hard going back to older/other systems. It just works, and it makes you think far more tactically and strategically.

Classes are highly customizable. In the beginning the customization was an issue because it was very easy for all the classes to repeat builds because there wasn’t much options. Now, Paizo has two-years under the belt with pf2e and it shows. The have released multiple Adventure Paths and the Lost Omens books. This has given PF2e the much needed injection of options that the original release just didn’t have. Paizo themselves are doing a great job listening to their community instead of the people that don’t actually play their game, and it shows in their products.

Sadly, I haven’t ran a custom campaign or I would speak of that full here.

My friends and I have been playing PF2e with Foundry through Forge, and I gotta say, using virtual tabletop(VTT) definitely makes a lot of the tedious stuff easier to swallow. Normally I hate keeping track of weight and ammo, but because the VTT does all this for you automatically as you play, it makes for a much smoother and enjoyable experience.

Will I ever go back to D&D5e after having played PF2e? Probably not. The changes that the Three-Action-Economy does too much good for the game for me to even think about trying to old Action-Economy anymore. If you have the time to try it, I recommend giving Pathfinder 2e a try, especially since all the rules are up for free through Archives of Nethys. WotC are now trying to charge you a subscription service, and they still refuse to produce PDFs of their books. The next version of D&D, One D&D, is already looking like a train-wreck that is only there please shareholders and the twitter zeitgeist.

[idiotwhowritesgenshin]

Diluc and Kaeya with a zombie sibling like Jean and Barbara but for extra angst...

The sibling died when Diluc and Kaeya fought because they threw themselves into the crossfire, trying to stop their brothers from hurting each other.

I did consider this but ultimately a scenario like this is angst overload lol and that restricts my writing a fair bit so I’ll do the one I initially planned

I will explain some differences though with this scenario to this one if you want anon and thanks for being my first ask in this blog :>>>

(Also Im gonna try to get some balls and tag diluc but if the person sees this Im gonna die)

I’m so indecisive on whether to use “Y/N’ or “you” when I cant just say “they” for the reader, can I get some advice on that?

Once again scream at me in my inbox and or replies if I accidentally gave a gender this shit is supposed to be GENDER NEUTRAL IF I MESSED UP TELL ME😭😭

These are also longer than Jean and Barbara’s just because I have better grasps of the brothers’ lore over the two sisters

TW Death, Diluc and Kaeya are traumatized but no condition is specified cause I am not a mental health expert (obviously, if there was other things I needed to tag tell me)

Diluc and Kaeya with a zombie younger sibling

How the sibling died is that they were with Diluc and their father when they were attacked by Ursa the Drake. While Diluc fought off the dragon as Crepus ran to get his delusion, the sibling was killed when Diluc got preoccupied and the Four winds took pity on Diluc when they saw his breakdown at losing his younger sibling and father on the night of his birthday. They were revived before Kaeya chose to reveal his secret and Diluc claimed custody of their sibling, as their biological brother and promptly disowned Kaeya. Reader is roughly 10-12 when they died.

Diluc

- The Knights of Favonius are even worse in his eyes. His entire family died that night and they couldn’t even own up to it, they couldn’t own up to the death of his father and the death of Y/N, a CHILD

- Diluc is a fiercely protective older brother who tends to be overbearing in terms of his sibling’s safety. He really can’t help it, the sight of their corpse and feeling them grow cold in his arms traumatized him immensely and the thought of something like that ever happening again

- His protectiveness is luckily able to be calmed by the servants at his home who always do their best to help him stay grounded to reality and not lose sight of who he is in his overwhelming need to protect the only family he has left

- Perhaps it is a blessing that Y/N lost their memories as if they had remembered who Diluc was before, they surely would have been heartbroken to see their once cheerful brother who was the proud cavalry captain of the knights of Favonius become the dark and brooding, wine tycoon who did dark knight hero work at the side

- Diluc wants to still have a presence in his sibling’s life both because they are part of the reason he works so hard to protect Mondstadt, so that no one may suffer the same fate as they did again, and he’ll never admit it but truly does miss when he could hang out and play with his siblings in bliss

- He doesn’t want Kaeya going near them, when he had confessed to being a spy, in his overwhelming grief and anger, he had accused Kaeya of trying to take his entire family from him and even asked if he was upset that you managed to live

- He ordered his butler to make sure that whenever his sibling went out they have someone with them along with their notebook as he similarly to Jean, is anxious on the thought his sibling could just forget him

- When he's not busy and can properly spend time with his sibling, he mostly allows them to take the wheel as he's honestly just not sure what they want to do with how they've forgotten the past and are still rediscovering their interests so he'll mostly watch them waddle around with different activities and entertain them

Kaeya

- Diluc barred him from meeting their sibling ever again but when did the orders of others ever stop him

- Kaeya is honestly a mystery to his former adoptive sibling, he’s a man who feels familiar yet his appearances in their life are sporadic and Diluc only ever tells them to avoid Kaeya but Kaeya finds his ways to worm his way into Y/N’s life

- His sibling is often left either giggly and excited or just confused after spending time with him due to his tendency to play mind games, something that just leaves them unsure of what happened but luckily never causes them long-term distress due to their short term memory

- Whenever Kaeya is asked about his feelings on his sibling becoming a zombie, he never gives a proper answer either leaving some comment on it, too vague to get any idea on his feelings or dodge the question altogether

- Y/N coming back to life gave him a naive hope, a hope that maybe the world would be on his side and that he could finally stop lying, that he could finally pick who to side with between Khaenri’ah and Mondstadt but that didn’t happen, and he would never let himself be so vulnerable again

- He doesn’t blame them for his current situation with Diluc, even if their death did inspire him to try and open up, it was ultimately his choice and it undeniably hurts to be denied access to someone he truly sees as a younger sibling by the man he still sees as his older brother, he’ll take it with a smile, like he always has

- The notebook issue does worry him but luckily he has his ways to worm his way in so that they can remember him, no matter what Diluc does, Kaeya has his ways

- He likes to have them spend time with Klee, you became much quieter after you were revived due to becoming a zombie so he finds it adorable to watch the cheerful Spark Knight play with their sibling who for the most part is confused but also enjoys playing with her, he always makes sure to stop Klee from doing anything that could be harmful to them though, Diluc would kill him

[beevean]

Opinion: How could Sonamy progress in IDW?

[note: the original article was written in Spanish by @latin-dr-robotnik​]

Today we’re going to discuss a recurring topic on my blog, with a more complete perspective.

Today’s article was inspired by an ask I got a few days ago about my possible perspective on the future of IDW Sonamy. I thought it would be interesting to revisit and expand this topic, because it’s still something of great interest for thousands of fans all around the world, and because SEGA has recently adopted a very peculiar position on the couple and their dynamic. As I detailed on my article SEGA and its most recent Sonamy side – more canon than ever, the dynamic has been going through a shift that can be distinguished into two main parts: 1) the commercial potential of Sonamy as a merchandising and marketing icon; 2) the stability of the interactions in the comics, in the short monthly stories on Sonic Channel, and so on.

That being said, there’s no need to mention that we’re going to focus entirely and nothing more than on this ship. I usually suggest other articles for those who prefer to read on other subjects, but today I will recommend our Discord server [translator’s note: the server is mainly Spanish-speaking], where discussions about ships are limited on their own canal that is separated from other themes: general discussions, music, fangames and mods, fanfics, fanart and even gaming in general. As you know, if you want to bring something else to our community, or just avoid talking about Sonamy, you’re more than welcome to join. Now, back on track.

What’s going on with Sonamy in IDW?

To recap what’s happened in these last months: Sonic and his friends finally got through the nightmare that was the Metal Virus, he and Amy hugged a few times, and since very recently they’ve been involved in a short arc about Chao races in Twinkle Park Zone, with a sinister background. In these last months after the eradication of the virus, there have been much closer and warmer interactions between our two hedgehogs, and I suspect that part of this is what inspired that question in the first place: what’s going on?

As I commented in the article where I proposed that Sonamy is “more canon than ever” (I know that it’s an exaggeration, that was the point), SEGA is treading carefully and the main canon seems to be willing to negotiate a more open representation of the relationship between the two in their different continuities, from best friends to something more. What I did not expect to happen was reading an answer from Evan Stanley (artist and writer that replaces Ian Flynn) about their dynamic, summing it up with “they like each other”.

The redrawing of Sonic’s expression when Amy hugs him in a recent drawing of hers made people wonder if this was yet another example of SEGA’s “censoring” (comparison below), to which Evan answered that it was modified to keep Sonic in character: he’s a guy that does not show much emotional vulnerability or too many negative emotions, and this is why sometimes the artists have to adjust WIPs to keep in line with this official point of view. Evan assured that this is not any kind of confirmation that Sonic does not like Amy, and doubles down by highlighting that in the official material, in the wikis and on Sonic Channel they show that, and I quote: “They like each other, but Sonic just isn’t the kind of guy who is going to make goo-goo eyes at Amy or perform grand acts of romance. If you wanna see that, that’s what fan works are for.”

And Evan’s words are a great way to sum up what’s going on with IDW Sonic right now. When it comes to interactions, they’re working with two characters who deep down “like each other”, but both show it in their own way. Amy is much more proactive when it comes to express her feelings, while Sonic only sometimes shows a glimpse of his feelings, with a smile or a small gesture. But at the end of the day they’re still friends and, depending on the situation, the comic can focus more or less on these details.

Comparison between the first sketch showed by Evan and the final product. The modification of the expression was minimal: Sonic’s slight blush was changed into a smile, maybe being a little overwhelmed by the gesture of affection.

The “progression” of the dynamic in the future

A good part of the answer to this question is based on my idea that right now, when it comes to Sonamy, we reached some kind of comfortable plateau. What am I referring to? To the fact that there have been a lot of varied interactions in these last 3 years of the comic, and they’re everything I could have asked for and then some. When we talk about Sonamy in canon, as Evan said, we don’t tend to hope for great romantic gestures from Sonic, we barely even ask for a look that hints that they understand each other beyond what it seems at first glance, so the fact that the IDW continuity is betting so much on this ship is basically a dream come true. For this reason, I don’t think things will change much in the future.

If I have to make a prediction on Sonamy’s future in IDW, I believe that there are still a lot of possibilities that our known writers (and maybe new writers!) could explore more, to see what makes this dynamic work so well. Actually, about 10 years ago, Ian Flynn wrote that if they could take advantage of the abilities and similarities between the two characters as adventurous spirits and with a strong moral sense, they would be “like poetry in motion”. This largely happens in IDW Sonic if you look carefully, but there are always new stories to tell and opportunities for them to work together and explore a bit more their strong bond, stronger than other friendships that they share. When the next major arc comes (which seems to be getting closer), they could explore aspects of their dynamic that are slightly more experimental, like being separated for extended periods of time and under dangerous situations… as long as they don’t turn it into a painful experience like the Metal Virus arc.

What Ian Flynn wrote about Sonamy, what works and what doesn’t. This was written in 2011, when Archie Sonic was still the major comic continuity, and when, according to Ian, Sonic was still “tied” to Sally Acord, leaving little room to the writers’ opinions.

The reality is that I see a stable future for the dynamic in the IDW universe. Sonamy is not fit for a lot of drama (fights, breaking up, etc.) without feeling forced or completely out of place, and only fanfics and fanart could be capable of capitalizing on this kind of content. On the other hand, for reasons I detailed in past articles, SEGA would not dare to alter the established order of the dynamic, let alone new that they managed to recover and maintain control over the ways Sonamy is being portrayed everywhere. SEGA won’t pull a Dragon Prince, which ended up confirming the main ship and then they made them go through a crisis and break up in a heartwrenching way in the graphic novel that acts as a bridge between season 3 and 4.

In short

The future of IDW Sonamy is looking bright and stable. I don’t think there will be serious changes to what we’re experiencing right now, and this is why both Evan Stanley and Ian Flynn agree that the dynamic is practically in the perfect place, keeping in line to how SEGA wants them to be represented together. This means we won’t see more affectionate gestures than what we’re seeing now (I doubt we’ll ever see again Sonic offering Amy a rose like in Sonic X), but it also means that we have now a solid basis for our expectations. In the now old IDW Sonic #2, Sonic and Amy had the chance of seriously talking a bit about what they thought of each other, with Sonic being determined to keep living life his own way (although he wouldn’t mind Amy to accompany him… or even suggesting himself that she could come), and Amy being determined to respect his way of life, because that’s what she loves about him, and she doesn’t want him to change. Since then, all we have seen and we’ll keep seeing in the comic is a consequence of this key moment; the two philosophies that they have and they share, in a constant back-and-forth with some tense moments and some cute moments.

An interesting detail that wasn’t included in the ask and that makes me think is the possibility that all of this will feature in the games as well. This is a completely different matter for another day, but I like to think that there is the possibility that we’ll see SEGA being more interested in inserting more Sonamy in the games, even if in an indirect way like in Sonic Unleashed and its emotional support, especially if the rumors that we’re about to get a soft-reboot are true. Romance is not something Sonic games are famous for doing well… at all, but that doesn’t mean it would be a bad idea to add a little sprinkle of IDW Sonamy in the mix.

And finally, I think I’ve talked enough about this topic, As you know, we’re waiting for some news, and I hope we’ll see each other again here or on our Discord. We’ll see if on this 25th something interesting happens. In any case, see you next time!

The moment that shaped the present and future of their entire relationship, 3 years ago.

[akindofmagictoo]

informal intro tag game

this time my tag comes from @diphthongsfordays and it will be the Dragonsong edition 

TITLE: Dragonsong 

GENRE: fantasy adventure 

SETTING: unnamed fantasy world 

TROPES: knights slaying dragons, female characters being buff and badass, morals over laws, illegal magic, choosing mercy over violence, background couples, found family 

STORY: knight accidentally adopts a baby dragon and sets out on a quest to take her home, but ends up on a topple-the-king quest 

THE CHARACTERS: 

Isadora (Isi), 22, knight with a strong sense of justice and protective instinct 

Robin, 17, mage (and nerd) well-versed in struggle and sarcasm 

Sierra, 19, cheeky rogueish archer with no filter and a big heart

SB, 30, mage even more well-versed in sarcasm and also self-loathing 

Holly, 18, brusque and sometimes grumpy healer 

Enya, 32, BABY DRAGON NEED I SAY MORE 

PLOT AND KETTLE: there are several subplots in this WIP about unlearning crap that you picked up through your life, including prejudices, excessive adherence to the law, and self-loathing. one of my favourite ways of describing the WIP is “i will now defeat you with the power of friendship/mercy and also this sword” 

STUFF THAT IS NIFTY: there’s some very fun stuff with visible side effects of magic (can be found under the tag “dragonsong world” on my blog). also my dragons are blind and fly by echolocation, and they collect things that sound and smell nice rather than pretty stuff 

STATUS CHECK: not working on it while the lovely @ellatholmes reads my first draft and tells me all the ways it needs to be better (thanks!) :D 

this tag goes off to @writingatfiveinthemorning @ardawyn @teriwrites and @writingbyjillian, if you want! and anyone who wants to play is welcome. 

[bisexual-books]

Dustin’ off the ole blog (or why I don’t feel bad for Becky Albertali)

Hey guys.  Wow.  Its been like two years since anybody posted here and three since I wrote anything of substance?  In my defense I adopted a teen so life got super duper busy around that time, but now that I’ve (mostly) sorted out the day to day parenting stuff, I’m back.  At least for today.  Because whooo boy do I have A LOT thoughts and feelings about the situation with Becky Albertali.  

So let’s jump right in : I don’t feel bad for Becky Albertali .  Not at all.  I think she is wrong and am not moved by her medium post.  I think Gabby Dunn is on the right track to criticize her and I would like do so as well because I think she is wrong.  

What Albertali (and her twitter fans) seem to willfully ignore in her medium piece is that readers don’t side-eye straight authors without good reason.  We do it because over and over and over again, straight authors do a shit job of writing about queer issues, creating realistic queer characters, and discussing queer issues.  How does an author earn the ability to avoid that side-eye? How do they avoid questions, comments, and concerns about their ability to do those things in their writing?  By being an open and proud member of the queer community ie coming out.  Coming out is important and difficult work in a fundamentally heterosexist society, and hence is rewarded as such by our community.   If you don’t do that work, why exactly should I or any other queer person give you that cachet?  

Fundamentally I see Becky Albertali wanting the socio-emotional bennies of queer author status, without doing the work of coming out.  And I’m just not finding much sympathy for that. She is not owed the benefit of the doubt by readers, particularly queer readers.  She has to earn it.  Yes, it probably was difficult for her to be questioned about her orientation while questioning, but those questions are reasonable and legitimate.  

Queer readers don’t just sit around like a dragon hording legitimacy and saying ‘mwhahaha’ to poor little straight authors.  We do this as a self-protection mechanism with good reason. We’ve experienced characters that are just a grab bag of stereotypes.  We’ve been gutted when straight authors we trusted as allies say horribly offensive things.  We’ve read arguments about queer people that bear no resemblance to our real lives and we’ve literally cried ourselves to sleep over disappointing, nasty, rude, offensive, and heartbreaking books (at least I have).  

If Becky Albertali and her defenders want to make life easier on queer authors, then instead of blaming queer readers for asking those questions, they need to interrogate why those questions need to be asked and how to reduce that need.

Instead I see Albertali in her medium piece blaming queer readers for needing to protect themselves, for needing to side-eye, for needing the explicit power of #ownvoices and support of out authors.  I don’t see her piece putting rightful, blame on straight people and straight culture that created these situations in the first place.  Blaming queer readers for daring to question her is a pernicious type of victim blaming, and I have no time or patience for that.  We erect these walls to protect our own hearts and souls, not because we’re big meanies.  If you don’t want to be on the wrong side of the wall, then help dismantle the need for it.  Don’t blame us for its existence. 

I’ve seen some people on twitter say this is somehow gatekeeping or cutting people off from exploring/discovering their queerness in art.  And I think that argument is off base.  No one was preventing Alberteli from making her art.  She could have written in a notebook or on Smashwords for all the days of her life.  People can make a dozen deviantart accounts or twitter accounts or AO3 accounts or tumblr accounts or discord servers and post their queer art creations all over the internet while they work out their queer feelings.  It is easy and free and no one is stopping anyone else from doing so. 

However I think when you cross the line from creating your queer art to profiting off your queer art, something fundamentally changes.  The stakes go up.  Queer readers need to know so they can decide who to trust with their hard earned cash.  We live in capitalism, man.  If you think that sucks, help dismantle that too. 

Albertali looked back in her piece, so I also want to cast back to early 2015, when Albertali first published Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda.  Bi YA author Corrine Duyvis woudn’t coin the term/hastag #ownvoices until September of that year.  And it was A LOT easier to get a YA book with LGBTQ characters published if you were straight.  How do I know that?  Because it was like pulling teeth to find queer authors writing queer characters outside of small queer presses.  I was hardcore book blogging at that time.  The mainstream publishing industry side-eyed YA/kidlit queer authors, especially those who were less polished due to poverty/educational attainment/systemic racism/disability, to favor straight white authors with post-graduate degrees along with a handful of token queer authors that were already a part of the publishing industry.  This was slowly changing but it hadn’t changed that much.  It was still easier to get a queer YA published as a straight person.

And Albertali knowingly entered into and profited off that system.   

She literally has cash in the bank off the publication of the book Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, the subsequent film that became Love Simon, the subsequent book reprints and merchandise under the name Love Simon and the subsequent Love Victor show on Hulu.  They sold Love Simon shirts at Hot Topic for $20 for crying out loud.  She was able to obtain that money, prominence, and influence because she presented herself as a straight woman.

There is no comparable story in queer authorland because queer authors are simply not given the opportunity to turn their queer novels into multimedia cash cow franchises.  The closest thing I can think of is Armistand Maupin’s ‘Tales of the City‘ and that took 20 years to be made into a tv miniseries with subsequent books.  That was 27 years ago and to my knowledge, no one sold shirts.  So for most of my/ Albertali’s lifetime, there has been no viable path to create a queer media empire as a queer author.  None. 

Until Albertali did it while pretending to be a straight girl.  

She says that she legitimately did not know she was queer when Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda was published or when Leah on the Offbeat was written.  It does suck that she had to figure that out while living such a public life and I feel bad that it was hard.  But honestly it sucks for everyone to figure that out.  It sucks to figure that out as an isolated teen or a professional adult.  Its just an emotionally grueling process.  Wanna make it better for future people?  Again work to disable heterosexism and heterocentrism in wider society.  Blaming queer people for that heterosexism and heterocentrism, and chiding them for not giving you unearned benefits of the doubt doesn’t do anything to disable those systems.  No one forced you to sign a movie deal or do a ton of interviews, you did that all on your own.  Ignorance of the consequences of your own actions doesn’t exempt you from having to deal with them.  

Only very very recently has the publishing landscape shifted so #ownvoices is a selling point instead of a liability.  Only very very recently (and I would argue very minimally) has the publishing industry valued #ownvoices authors enough to nurture and polish their skills with open submissions and contests for people who don’t have grad degree levels of writing skills.  And Albertali is upset at being excluded from this?  When she literally has the educational privileges of a doctorate and significantly more money than the average queer author has made in my lifetime?  

The closet sucks but no one forced Albertali to stay in it and queer people didn’t create it.  She chose to publish and license her work to reap the benefits, and as such also reaps the consequences.  Apparently one such consequence was that it was personally difficult for her to understand her sexuality and her mental health was poor.  Well.... until we can disassemble heteropatriarchy that is the world we live in.  Get your queer house in order before you go pro and open yourself up to real reactions from queer readers.  But if like Albertali, you don’t do that while choosing more and more publicity and raking in wheelbarrows full of cash, well, don’t expect much sympathy from me.  

- Sarah 

[drowsydregon]

I know I don't interact much but I wanted to say that I love your blog! You post great stuff about the show, and your ocs are a lot of fun! Do you mind sharing a few things about all your ocs? Hope you have a great day!

first of all tHANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE KIND WORDS !!!!!! QwQ

it means a lot that ppl rly like my silly thoughts and ideas !! aaA

but uh

to answer your question, i can indeed give you some stuffs abt my ocs (though i won't go too much into detail bc i will eventually finish up my fanseason. then all shall be reveALED)

ofc my main gals are Yuuki and Mei Mitsukaru -- the "'karu sisters"

Yuuki is a sorceress in her early 20's who's the leader of a serpentine tribe of mages called the "haven rattlers." She's tender, charismatic, and a bit clingy. At some point she worked for Master Chen and trained in dark magic under Clouse. Her specialty magic is crystaline, and nowadays she tries to avoid dark magic at all costs. She is deeply smitten with Morro. (And vice versa!) ((covenwind / windchimeshipping)) She also has an owl familiar named Owlfonzo !!

Mei is Yuuki's little sister. She's a 10yr old sorceress and the new self-proclaimed queen of the Ghost Warriors. After extremely unfortunate chain of events, she was banished to the Cursed Realm, being separated from her sister and parents for about a decade (hence the age gap between the sisters). She's impulsive, sarcastic, and carefree spirit. She wields her grandmother's staff and is able to use it as a battleaxe using magic. Her specialty magic is nature, though she uses a dark variant. She absolutely despises Morro and would gladly throw him off a cliff.

The Haven Rattlers tend to just be bg charas, but there are a couple side charas that come into play. Veera and Crystal.

Veera is a young haven constrictai who is Yuuki's personal student in magic. She's about 10yrs old, and is about as calm and collected as ten yr olds come. Veera and Mei are eventually a thing. (dumb lesbian kiddo love) ((blossomshipping))

Crystal is an albino hypnobrai, and is Yuuki's advisor. When Yuuki isn't around, Crystal usually makes sure the island runs smoothly. Her specialty is water magic.

The Haven Dragon (AKA Sir Wigglybutt) is guardian of the former home of the HRs -- Old Haven. Though I mostly consider him Mei's weird flappy dog.

And then outside of the HRs and Karu family, we have Taiga and Madoka. I'll keep them a secret for now ;3c

Aaaand finally we have the next gens - Kieran and Tempest. I don't consider them fully "canon" but it is a concept I like to think about from time to time.

Tempest is Yuuki and Morro's daughter. She practices wind magic and is in her early 20's. She was next in line to be leader of the HRs but stepped down to join the next gen of ninja. She's a bit of the "older sister" of the group, and is a calm, snarky, and genuinely very loving person.

And finally we have Kieran - Yuuki and Morro's adopted serpentine son. He's a haven hypnobrai/venomari mix who consistently chips his right fang by some Mighty Act Of FSM. He's a college student, and is younger sibling to Tempest. He's extremely odd and eccentric, but he loves to make new friends. He will absolutely bring you hot cocoa on a cold day. He's a history nerd and also studies magic (though I haven't decided on a dominant magic type for him.)

[talpy]

Avatar fic rec post

Hi people, this is an Avatar fic rec post for @kuruccha​ who wanted a primer. Happy Avatar renaissance to you :D

Everything under cut, because boy, there are a lot of fics. Forgive me for being repetitive in my recs, but they are all so good and amazing and *melts in a sea of feelings*

First, some authors who are so, so very good and my favourites by them (fics aren’t in any particular order, authors are in alphabetic order):

Avocadolove  (Tumblr: @awesomeavocadolove​ )

The Problem with Zuko: I love the idea that Zuko finds his way to team Avatar even without the Agni Kai and the rest. One of my favourites fics for at least 10 years.

Another Brother: Zuko was adopted by Hakoda, but he doesn’t remember his past. I really like how Iroh is portrayed in this story, very interesting!

Unchained Melody: Sokka doesn’t return with his body after being spirit-napped from Her Bai. Strangely, only Zuko can see him. I really love how everything is developed here :)

Consider Chaos: series where Zuko finds Vaatu and becomes the Chaos!Avatar. Really interesting premise, cooler effects!

Half a Heart: Zukka!soumates AU. Very interesting choices about world building and Hakoda’s character.

Haircrescendo

Carry On For You: from the series intro “Not the Pokémon AU you asked for but the one you’re getting anyway.”. I like it a lot, amazing adaptions and backstory building for Zuko. It focuses on Zuko and Sokka.

Compassion For All Our Monsters: intro “How Sokka learned to shut up and be nice, and also learn a little bit more about Zuko than he wanted to.” mandatory Sokka-finds-out-about-Zuko’s-past.

Fire Nation Yacht Club: one of the angstiest series I’ve read, I love it and I re-read it like once a month. Intro of the fist fic “Sokka knows three (3) things: 1. The caldera is on fire. 2. Ozai’s really, really dead (and so is his daughter). 3. The only one having a worse day is probably Zuko.”

What We’re Given: such an amazing series! Intro “Started out as a “What would happen if Zuko happened to rediscover sky bison while searching for the Avatar?” and turned into something more than that.” Zuko blasting Aang for not washing Appa properly will always be amazing xD

MuffinLance (Tumblr: @muffinlance​, suggest following for plot-bunnies)

Towards the Sun: Zuko doesn’t manage to escape on the Day of the Black Sun, a very angst novella-length intro ensues. I love this a lot because of the angst and how it sparkled inspiration for other stories with a similar premise.

Salvage: here it his, the original dad!koda fic. Intro “Mid-Season-One Zuko is held ransom by Chief Hakoda. Ozai's replies to the Water Tribe's demands are A+ Parenting. Hakoda is… deeply concerned, for this son that isn't his, and who might be safer among enemies than with his own father.” Lots of feelings and amazing A+ writing.

The One Where Zuko's Hair Matches Sokka's and Other Tales: fillets from tumblr, extra material, general awesomeness all around.

Miscellaneous

The Home I've Searched For by Kayasurin: I didn’t know Azula/Kuei could be that good! Really awesome story, amazing Azula.

The Festival of Four by SuperKat: Aang knows his time is coming near and he says goodbye. Very touching and moving (yes I did cry), amazing Aang voice.

Sunday in the Park with Appa by Dracze: Parks and Recreation!AU, Aang as Leslie Knope and Zuko as Ben Wyatt. I loved how the AU was adapted on the characters and on the format -blogging instead of “watching in camera”.

Like Fire and Water by Setari: Sokka and Katara find their father in Ba Sing Se with his new wife, Ursa. Very funny, especially when Sokka/Katara and Zuko/Azula realise that they are siblings.

the beginning of a new and brighter birth by aloneintherain: from the intro “In a new era of peace, Zuko works to be a very different Fire Lord than his forefathers.”. I love how Zuko tries to make changes in the Fire Nation at the start of his reign.

The Family You Choose by TunaFishChris: the platonic Gang soulmate AU I needed without knowing. I liked it a lot, especially at the end. One of my favourites!

illustrate the remnants of the life i used to live by WitchofEndor: also a platonic Gang soulmate AU but much angstier. This Zuko is simply heartbreaking.

where the stars do not take sides by WitchofEndor: intro “When Azula is nine, she becomes an only child. She hears the Fire Lord call for Zuko's life, and in the morning, her mother and brother are gone. Azula may be young, but she isn't naive. She knows what happened to them. Which makes it all the more surprising when Azula tracks the Avatar down and fights his group of peasant friends, only to find herself staring into an eerily familiar face.” as beautiful as it sounds, really amazing Azula voice.

Doe-eyed by OldeShoestrings: Azula as the big sister of Zuko. I love how Azula is fundamentally the same but how her being the old sister changes everything. I like this a lot.

How to Care for Your Local Fire Lord; A Memoir by The Palace Staff by RejectsCanon: the fire palace’s stuff joins the Zuko protection squad. I salute them.

The Sins Of Our Family by Mangaluva: amazing series inspired by Towards the Sun. Intro “Zuko didn't escape the Fire Nation on the day of the eclipse. Azula decides to invite him to her coronation, setting off a chain of events involving abuse, trauma, siblings, recovery, and rebuilding.”. Really love this portrayal of the fire siblings.

There Is No Fire Lord by OccasionalStorytelling: other fic inspired by Towards the Sun, basically Zuko remains in prison even if he is basically the Fire Lord. The plot soon becomes its own creature and I love how it develops.

Two Perspectives by Sabretoothgooselion: series about Zuko and Kuei, really lovely. As of now there are 2 fics, but apparently more are in the works. Cannot wait!

this love burns so yellow (becoming orange and in its time, exploding) by meliebee: the first year and something of Zuko reign. Amazing Zuko voice, very angst, much approved.

and love will be your teacher by Ford_Ye_Fiji: series on hiatus, AU where Azulon doesn’t die and takes Zuko away from Ozai giving him to Iroh instead. Very very nice, I love the relationship between Zuko and Iroh.

Of Dead Fire and Dragon Dreams by ChickadeeChickadoo: during the Day of the Black Sun Ozai lies to Zuko saying that Iroh is dead. Zuko redirects lightening to him and he finds himself Fire Lord. Very cool story, love Azula in here.

In the Soft Light by CSHfic, VSfic: Zukka, moon-spirit-Sokka!AU. I love this story so much! Zuko is so very an awkward turtleduck here.

How to Disappear Completely by aeoleus & the long way around by ciaconnaa: two modern Au where Zuko is Kiyi’s guardian, very very nice.

kintsugi by discordiansamba: when Zuko is banished he becomes Toph’s bodyguard. Yes it is as amazing as it sounds.

it's the illusion of separation by argentoswan: very nice Zukka!modern Au. Sokka starts working at the Jasmine Dragon, but alas, his old high school bully Zuko works there too. I love how Zuko’s past with the gaang was adapted and how the relationship between him and Sokka develops.

Finding Solace in Parking Lots by RejectsCanon: Zukka!Modern au, Sokka and Zuko find themselves in the same McDonalds’ parking lot having a breakdown. Really really lovely.

Fractures by EvieNyx: instead of being banished, Ozai imprisons Zuko far from everyone’s eyes. When Ozai and Azula are defeated he evolves from prisoner to Fire Lord in one big step. Love the characters and the cliffhangers!

Fight by Electrons: Zuko doesn’t side with Azula at Crossroads of destiny, but that doesn’t make everything much easier. Amazing word-building and lovely dive in cultural diversity. Also, ace!Zuko which is very lovely.

Dragon of the Yuyan by 00AwkwardPenguin00: intro “In which Zuko is fostered/adopted/raised/recruited by the Yuyan Archers of Pouhai Stronghold, and destiny hiccups.” very very cool story, I really like how Zuko is portrayed here.

Always trust Sokka's instincts by Thisisentertaining: whereas Jet shows Sokka an interesting Fire Nation prisoner... a Zuko-joins-the-Gaang-early-Au. Very very good :D

all my skeletons out for the taking by 136108: Azula wins the Agni Kai. It’s still on progress but for now it’s very very good and I can’t wait to read what’s happening next.

Mark Time by foil: yes, another Zukka modern au. This is very very angst, be careful with the tags’ warnings. This story keeps surprising me and I hope Zuko and Sokka will find their happy ending.

[ask-professor-laurel]

Shiverwood Facilities

(This is a WIP, will probably be updated fairly frequently!)

PREFACE

This blog is a headcanon blog- it is not run as canon, and everything said is my own personal headcanons. The goal of this blog is just to explore the Pokemon world and the lore in ways that canon does not, I don’t claim anything I say to be canon or superior to anybody else’s headcanons.

This blog ignores game mechanics, as they don’t apply to the more realistic approach I’m taking here. I’m operating more under a blend of manga and anime mechanics. Storylines in the games may be acknowledged, but game mechanics (level up system, IVs and EVs, etc) are not canon to this blog.

A note from the person who runs this blog: I am by no means a medical expert, or an expert in real life animals. This is all for fun, and is just my fun way of having a blog for a self-indulgent Pokemon OC. Do not take anything I see here as real-life medical or animal handling advice- I am not a professional in any way.

(I also want to note- I was inspired by the Professor Peach blog to start my own, so shoutout to them for giving me the idea!!)

—————

What do we do?

Shiverwood Facilities itself is dedicated both to Pokemon research and Pokemon care. Our work is primarily based on Pokemon behaviour rather than on any specific Pokemon type, with our primary work being researching into a broad spectrum of Pokemon behaviours, and the care of Pokemon sent to us for care or rehabilitation. We also act as an in-between for Pokemon that need more intensive rehabilitation we can’t offer and we can often take in Pokemon that need to be removed from situations, but who don’t have someone to take them in quite yet. 

On the research side of things, I (Professor Laurel) am in charge of most aspects of it. My research is centralized on Pokemon variants, the environmental causes, and the behavioural aspects. I’m also a behaviouralist myself, with a background in that sort of research, so I’m a bit of an encyclopedia on Pokemon behaviour and the habits of various species. I’m most familiar with Dragon, Grass, and Bug type Pokemon, but I can help with pretty much any typing. 

Our site is equipped to deal with Pokemon that need care or minimal rehabilitation- anything more intensive we offer to just hold onto the Pokemon in question until someone more qualified can come and pick them up. Pokemon care here covers mental wellbeing and physical health- we have several behaviouralists onsite, including myself, who can get to the root of the problem and help a Pokemon emotionally, as well as trained medical staff who can deal with anything physical, be it injuries or something chronic. Our medical facilities are equivalent to a Pokemon Centre, and we often take in injured wild Pokemon for short stays before releasing them, but we’ll also help out trainers who pass by, or anyone who needs to bring in their Pokemon for a longer stay, free of charge. Any Pokemon left with us, whether found after being abandoned or being surrendered from bad situations, will most likely be rehomed, if not taken in by someone on staff. 

We offer tours of the facility, as well as tours of the local habitat. These are both guided either by myself or another staff member with a capable team, just in case. Public areas are clearly marked with signs, same with warning signs for any areas that might be dangerous, and areas closed to the public. We also host a couple of events every season that serve to raise awareness of our work, Pokemon care, Pokemon wellbeing, etc for the public. 

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Who are you sending your questions to?

Professor Arthur Laurel! That’s me- you can call me Arthur if you want, I’m not big on formalities. I’ve talked about myself already, but I’m the person who will be receiving and answering all of your questions.

I have a smaller team of Pokemon from my trainer days, and all three of them are my trusted partners and some of my very best friends.

Cloudhopper - My Dragonite. She’s been with me the longest and is my partner, gifted to me as a starter as a Dratini when I was going to set out on my Gym Challenge. She’s also a certified service Pokemon, as well as a flying Ride Pokemon. Known for being very protective, usually the one to get me out of trouble, but also very sweet and loving. She does have a wicked sense of humour, though, watch out for if she feels mischievous.

Honeybite - My Appletun. He’s larger than the average Appletun, standing at over 3 feet tall, and known for being the sweetest cuddles there ever was. He’s been with me nearly as long as Cloudhopper. Honeybite’s famous for his cuddles, but don’t underestimate him for his sweet face, he’s quite the little powerhouse when he wants to be, but luckily for us he chooses peace.

Sweetbug - My Vespiquen. She was the last addition to my team, but it’s still been a good decade of having her by my side. She’s a mother hen type between myself and her Combee hive, with a fierce protective streak that has us keeping her hive closed to the public. She often offers honey as a gift to those she cares about, so you can always tell someone’s having a good day when they’ve got a little jar of honey that they didn’t get from me.

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Where are we and how can you find us?

Shiverwood is a bit of an exaggeration for a name- we’re located just north of Ballonlea, near the mountains surrounding Wyndon. We’re just north of being hot and humid, and just south of being freezing, so we have some cooler weather for most of the year, although summers can get quite hot. There are designated paths through the thick forest outside of Ballonlea that lead to us, so finding your way isn’t too difficult, but for those who don’t want to travel on foot we can also be reached through Corviknight Taxi and easily spotted from the sky on a flying service Pokemon. We don’t have any water access, the only body of water being a nearby lake, as well as no train access. Walking/riding or flight are the only ways to reach us. 

We’re in this area on the standard Galar map.

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What kind of facilities do we have?

MAIN LAB - This is the largest building, it’s the main research facility and where you’ll find me if I’m not cooped up in my lab or out in the field. It also contains a smaller medical facility equipped for minor injuries for both people and Pokemon. Mostly open to the public.

LAUREL’S LAB - Within the Main Lab building. I keep it open to the public for the most part, just know that it’s a mess most of the time, because I believe in organized chaos. My team can be interacted with here if they’re in the mood for it, so if you’ve ever wanted to hug a Dragonite, now’s your chance. 

POKEMON CENTER - It’s not an official Pokemon Center, but we call it one because it’s easier. It’s equipped to handle anything from massive medical emergencies to permanent and semi-permanent residents who require more care. Also equipped for human care. We often offer supervised positions to learning medical students so that they can gain experience under the watchful eyes of our doctors. Some of it is open to the public, but the rooms are restricted to trainer and friends and family only, and surgery rooms are completely off limits.

ZEN AREA - This is a combination of a building and a bigger outdoor area. This is where the behaviouralists care for Pokemon’s mental wellbeing- think of it like therapy for Pokemon. The outdoor area is open to the public, but inside the building only the entrance is accessible. This is because inside is where Pokemon who may be volatile or aggressive are cared for, to prevent them from escaping, or harming other patients. We call it the Zen Area because it can be very soothing, patient or not.

CONTAINMENT - Where we hold the Pokemon we’re temporarily holding for someone to come collect. This area is completely closed off to the public due to the usually very aggressive or unpredictable nature of the Pokemon who stay there. This area is meant for temporary stays- it’s a sizeable enough area of the woods right at the base of the mountain, and there’s a pond in there that’s surprisingly deep. This area can handle a wide variety of Pokemon, temporarily, but it can’t handle every single species. In those cases, we relocate them to another facility as quickly as possible.

GREENHOUSES - These are the warmest places in the facility, mostly inhabited by Grass Types, but also home to quite a few Bug Types. Open to the public and plants are available for purchase, with a wide range from leafy greens to berry saplings. The Pokemon here are tamed, and can be adopted. There is one that’s closed off to the public due to the Combee hive in there, but the honey can be bought!

TRAINING FIELD - Most of us are trainers, so we have a standard battlefield set up for battling! It isn’t equipped for Dynamaxing or Gigantamaxing, but that isn’t a worry since we don’t have the means to do so in this area. Trainers are welcome to use the field for practice, and to see if any staff would like to battle with them. I’m usually up for a good battle unless I’m busy (or recovering from something), and it’s great fun to spectate during your breaks!

MIRROR LAKE - Named after the Giant’s Mirror, Mirror Lake hosts numerous Water Types that prefer the colder waters. We have a Lapras who lives there and she’s very friendly, though she’s never been captured and we don’t allow the public to ride on her. She picks and chooses on the staff who she’ll allow to ride on her back and if you try to force it, she throws you into the water. We have other trained ride Pokemon for water rides, and the shallows can be nice to dip your feet in during the hotter summer, though the water never gets above chilly temperatures.

SHIVERWOOD FOREST - Likely named during the colder winter, Shiverwood is the forest we’re built on the edge of. It’s technically still the Glimwood Tangle, but we have stronger wild Pokemon around, as well as some other species you won’t find south of Ballonlea. There are trail tours, but we generally advise not wandering into the dense forest, as it’s very easy to get lost. You’ll often be able to see the wild Sylveon and Umbreon packs, as well as some Deerling and Sawsbuck herds, lots of Impidimps and a few Morgrems and Grimmsnarls, and plenty of Zubats. If you’re lucky, you might spot a Trevenant! 

MOUNTAIN TRAILS - We have several mountain trails to hike on if you don’t mind the chillier weather up there. Most of the caves have danger signs posted in front of them and we often have staff posted near them, but several caves are open and free to explore! We have a Gigalith who lives deep in the caves who comes out every once in a while and is a real sight to behold, and higher up the mountain for more experienced climbers, you may get to see a very friendly Froslass. Other than that you can expect to find Geodudes, Gravellers and Golems, more Zubats, Roggenrolas and Boldores, and most common Rock Types. If you’re very lucky in the winter, and if you’re patient and brave enough to climb up to see the Froslass, you might just see an Aurorus if you wait around long enough. She’s very elusive, but breathtaking to see. Just don’t get on the wrong side of any Abomasnow or Beartics you see up there- keep to the trails and don’t go without staff. 

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You said events?

I did! We host a couple of events every season, raising awareness for our work and for Pokemon in need to the public. The events we host are all free and are open for everyone, and we always put out plenty of notice and signs so everyone knows!

SPRING

Shiverwood Trek - Every year, early in the spring, we put on the annual hike where everyone who shows up early in the morning joins us for a hike through the forest! We do Pokemonspotting throughout, and this is usually the time where you get to interact with a lot of wild Pokemon and see the sights that Shiverwood has to offer. This is also the only event where we go off the trails- since the foliage won’t have fully come in, it’s much easier to get through, so we always explore “new” (we explore before taking random people in for safety reasons) areas. Afterwards, there’s a lunch and then we offer the usual guided tours. I usually lead this one!

Wake-Up Call - A lot of Pokemon come out of hibernation in the spring, and after sleeping for so long, they’re quite hungry! Come on down and make up baskets of food grown here in the Greenhouses, and join us in going through the forest and setting baskets around for anyone who might need it. You’ll often get to see sleepy Pokemon stumbling around, and let me tell you, you haven’t lived till you’ve seen a sleepy Greedent fall asleep eating the basket it found.

SUMMER

Summer Barbecue Bash!! - Just what it says it is! It’s a massive barbecue party we hold from early afternoon to late into the night every summer. We team up with Kabu and other Fire Type experts to bring in Fire Types to help with the cooking, as well as putting on shows of them displaying their talents and powers. It’s a lot of fun, just remember to bring sunscreen! 

Scavenger Hunt - This one’s more meant for the younger ones, but we host a big scavenger hunt in the easy forest trails and the easy mountain trails for people to complete! Everybody gets a prize for finishing, but first free to finish get a bigger prize just as a bit of incentive. This usually brings out the families, a lot like the barbecue bash, and is a lot of fun to set up and help out with. Staff get to be wonderfully cryptic and unhelpful (unless it’s with the little ones- we’re a bit more helpful there) and it’s good to get out into the sun for a bit. We hold this one a couple times throughout the summer.

FALL

Fall Forage - As fall comes in, a lot of local plant life starts to wither for the colder weather. Right at the beginning, we lead people around for foraging, and anything they find they can choose to donate to us or take home for free. There’s a lot of Pokemonspotting to be had, a lot of exploring, and at the end of the day we take some of what we’ve found and we make a big community pot of soup! That’s become a tradition for the forage over the years, and it’s probably my favourite part after spending the whole day gathering plants in the chilly weather. 

Sawsbuck Sendoff - Every year in the fall, the Sawsbuck and Deerling herds that live in the area migrate towards the mountains for the winter. They come through the area in big herds, and this lasts usually 2 - 3 days. This started off as something unofficial, but the popularity of it led to us advertising it as a sendoff, where we all gather and watch the Sawsbuck and Deerling herds migrate. You can also help clearing their way with us if you want, it’s a volunteer operation and we repay you with food, but you basically just help us clear the way and set up food and water stations, plus you might see some early groups come through! Can’t go up to the herds for safety reasons, but watching them is quite beautiful, and very rewarding to see your hard work pay off when they eat the food you set out for them. 

WINTER

Into the Unknown - Named a bit dramatically, because we definitely know where we’re going, but winter’s event is cave exploring! This is the only time of year we open up some of the more restricted caves, and we take people deep into the caves to explore. We check them all out in advance, of course, to ensure safety, but this is the one and only opportunity a year to get into some of these caves and explore deeper into the mountain. This is another one I tend to lead, and it’s great fun, but it’s also got a lot of hands on deck and on standby just in case. A lot of prep goes into this one and honestly, it’s probably my favourite event to host! There’s hidden waterfalls, glittering caves, and this is the only way you’ll see some Pokemon like Noibats, Noiverns, and some elusive Ghost and Dark Types.

Winter Harvest - We do this one a few times throughout the winter. Winter Harvest is when we take what we’ve been growing in the Greenhouses and the public can come help us make food packages that we donate to Pokemon shelters, and to families in need. This one usually has a big turnout and it’s a great environment all around; just people helping each other and drinking hot chocolate. I participate every year, and help with the deliveries along with staff and volunteers. 

Besides those, we also host regular adoption events. People can come through anytime to see if they’d like to adopt any of the Pokemon we hold here, though we do have fairs on a regular basis to promote the facility’s adoption services. 

You can also find some courses here- we offer them to anybody looking to learn, no age limit (just a minimum; 16), but they can be very helpful when applying for certain lines of work. I also offer referrals and letters of recommendation as a professor, and the staff are also qualified to do the same as medical experts and behaviouralists.

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FAQ

Q: What kind of questions can I ask?

A: Anything and everything! I’ll always answer to the best of my ability, be it behaviour, medical, or just you wanting my thoughts on a certain species or concept. I’ll always be sure to be clear when my answers are uncertain, theoretical, or if I just don’t know. But anything you want to ask, ask away!

Q: Can I come to you for medical advice?

A: Within the Pokemon world? Absolutely! If you’re looking for real-life medical advice from the author of this blog, who is an arts student who works part-time retail, you are not going to find anything helpful!

Q: Why is my question taking a while to get answered?

A: I (both myself and Arthur) get very busy! I check this blog whenever I can, but I don’t always answer right away because my answers require time for me to sit down and think it out. I answer every ask I receive (unless it’s really weirdly personal or if there’s clearly something really bad about it- then it’ll be deleted) and I do so as quickly as I can, but I pride myself on quality answers, so it might take me a bit!

Q: Do you hand out starter Pokemon?

A: Not in the way you think! We do adopt Pokemon out, but we’re not like, say Professor Oak. Adopting a Pokemon out here, even to a child, involves a screening process of the adopter (anyone over 18 and if younger than 18, their legal guardian(s)), and a lot of paperwork. We have to make sure everything is going to work out, after all! But we don’t just hand a new trainer a Pokemon, no.

Q: Can I leave my Pokemon there for a short while?

A: Absolutely! We don’t have a designated daycare area, but we will ensure your Pokemon gets the best care and stays in the area best suited to them. Feel free to leave them with us, but we do ask that it not be long, so try to come get them within 10 days unless you give us notice it will be a longer period. While you’re away, your Pokemon will be allowed to roam (with supervision) in any area that best suits it, and I’ll personally assure you that staff are more than happy to keep our Pokemon guests company, haha :)

[bittybattybunny]

Did Kai have any sort of family after losing her foster family and becoming the Demon King? Or did she only have her husband?

Yes actually!!! A lot of Kai’s own story involves her own found family collection (i say collection just. cuz she tends to outlive them)

I’ve briefly mentioned she has a few kids and you see them in one of my sketchbook tours

but she also has a group of friends who she was close to

and the opening chapter of one of her ‘stories’ involves her dealing with the loss of a close friend she considered family (she even tried to go through legal means to see him but when humans turned around and said fuck you she snuck in. I can actually post this writing if people wanna read it?)

She also has some of her adoptive family still alive tho the bloodline is thinner. The Hellsing family she was raised in still exists to a point in her story (before the great catastrophe at least) Her whole ‘became the demon king’ thing happened when her uncle attacked her but she was able to get her sister in law and unborn nephew to escape while she distracted the rest (i have a whole ass animatic planned for this to the song “monster” from frozen’s musical. someday. someday I’ll be able to sit down on it weep)

This nephew was the one who hired Ren to help find “the king of fear” as she was known at that point. Alex is a good boy. His son was the one who went to find his great aunt after Ren’s death and she fully became a fallen god and offered her a place to stay and just. try to relax. She ended up falling into a deep sleep for a while and his family was the ones to build the ‘tomb’ she normally rests in when ever she has these extreme ‘low energy’ periods which can last between 5 years to her longest one was 5000. Typically she’ll rest for between 20-50 years at a time. and there’s a legit reason she does this too. But that’s not about family---

Point is that family is still very fond of their matriarchal demoness and she helped them found “Prometheus” a group to help humans deal with monsters and monsters live in peace. (cuz boy howdy do people have trigger fingers) there are other groups in their world with either similar goals or ones to ‘suppress’ monsters (example: The Order is a group who sees monsters as tools and lesser beings. sometimes Prometheus is forced to work with them and normally they send strong demons or dragons and such so that The Order can’t do anything to their operative. it was on one of these collaborations that Kai kidnapped Booberry from them. she regrets nothing.)

Kai often just refers to the current descendant as just “her nephew” as she’s too lazy to shove the amount of “great” in front of it because she’s old. there’s only one case of a niece and that’s where the bloodline ended (again that’s another story all together)

When Kai woke up after the Great Catastrophe alone she ended up meeting a young man named Leo (who if you look in Kai’s tag on my blog you can see him!) Who she bonded with and she likes hanging out with (and there’s other things but I’m not gonna talk about it)

There’s also her ‘generals’ and a few of them are gonna show in TLC soon (just a brief cameo) A group of 4 who’ve met Kai in a few incarnations and they always tend to get along. Original names were Matt, Trisha, Faith, and Maki is Maki (she’s an elf so she lives longer) Current names are Byron, Tiffny, Jacob and Maki. These four actually form Ren’s party when he’s trying to find his wife at the actual start of “Nightmare’s Dream” and you learn they each have a connection to Kai through the story.

Matt/Branden/Byron; he’s featured in the writing I mentioned up top, he’s kinda similar to Leo in the way he interacts with Kai as an almost human morality pet for Kai. He used to be Kai’s student when she was teaching, and his father was the warden at the jail her friend Sammy was in (this is the friend she lost) Matt can see through her disguise when she’s showcasing nightmares. Kai can cause hallucinations on targets using her ‘fear’ hence her title “king of fear” and normally they are only visible to her and her target. But Matt can see them.

He ends up getting in trouble a few times; once with a tribe of demons who want to turn children into imps, once with the literal Anti christ, once with a haunted house. And each time Kai was there and ends up saving him.

Matt later is in an accident and ends up reincarnating as a winged human named Branden and has all his past memories. So when he starts working at Prometheus as one of their ‘informants’ (aka he goes to gather information in both human and supernatural affairs. he’s referred to often as the angel of trust because of his silver tongue) and he meets her again he shouts something from one of his classes with her causing her to snap back on reflex until she realizes (running joke is Kai loathes Julius Ceaser and if you say his name she always whips around shouting “WAS A SLUT AND A HARLOT” in a very aggressive tone. It makes people laugh when she does and she always gets embarrassed afterwards)

The two of them end up working together for a while and become good friends (and maybe a bit more but they never state really) but then when with his new work partner Trisha (nicknamed angel of death, she works in the sector that deals with cleanup) he ends up betraying Prometheus and Trisha rips his wings off and kills him (this is the context between the ‘redraw’ meme I do every few years of a man with a bleeding back drowning)

Trisha is also someone who grew close to Kai (hence she killed Branden because his folly led to Kai nearly going berserk) but she was killed by a sleeper agent from the order. And this is how Kai lost two of her close friends.

Now backing up to Sammy the inmate one; he was with her when Kai met her first child, the young moon goddess Artemis. Arty is a constant for the demoness ever since she picked her up in the woods (her arc also has one of my favorite kai lines: (which i can’t find the direct line but)

Sam shuddered as he looked around the woods, “Do you ever feel like there’s 100 eyes watching you?”

“Yes but it didn’t work out so we broke up.” The demon responded flatly as she looked around with a deep set scowl.

While she was out with Sammy when he was hunting they ended up finding a little girl who turned out to be a new goddess and her elder sister was kidnapped by the embodiment of Greed in his attempt to become a god. Kai ends up stopping this but also kinda ends up becoming Arty’s mom. While she doesn’t raised Arty fully she does do a lot of teaching and such for her and does refer to her as “her daughter” and Arty calls her mom. when the great catastrophe occurs, Arty is one of the few gods who remained when the rest went to new ‘realms’ or simply vanished and is considered one of the main gods of their world because of this.

And then there’s her son Ganon, an Orc Lord she adopted when his village was ruined. he currently poses as her ‘demon king’ while she pretends to be the chancellor (this is the ruse she uses. normally heroes will fight the ‘king’ and lose but if they actually are a threat or have poor reasoning she kills them from behind. this is also how the story starts as someone found a spell to try and incapacitate her buttt)

There’s also morte and her daughter demeter (I’ve shown them before, a set of necromancers) who she’s very friendly with. Demeter even calls her aunty Kaya and loves to sit on her lap and such during meetings. (i have one snippet when Kai was recruiting someone to their side but hadn’t told her yet she was the REAL demon king and Demeter was sitting on her lap laughing) Morte is thankful to Kai for saving her circus (Morte runs a circus that helps those stuck in limbo pass on but at one point demons of sin over took it in a way to gather souls)

There’s also her friend Ciera, the daughter of the girm reaper. she’s Kai’s best friend for the most part of her life, and is the one who helps Ren when the gods of life and death try to prevent him from reincarnating again (which is like other things a whole other story) (she also briefly shows in Bone Stealer at one point. While visiting bunny’s sick grandmother, Bunny and Steve run into Ciera as she’s leaving. Steve stops Bunny from attacking her) She’s over all chill.

There’s also Nicki. Kai’s ‘twin’ brother. He’s the ‘bad guy’ through the arc that contains Leo and sets up ‘the great Split’ that Kai will cause (this is lore/plot stuff) He originally was raised to hate her by their maternal Uncle who’s a arch mage like Ren however he’s fallen due to his hatred of Kai’s birth. Nicki is not really her brother (in the first life) but a failed clone of the demoness. When Kai is reborn Nicki gets to actually be her brother and the two get along really well and he’s very protective of his sister now that he understands what her actual deal is and not the bs his uncle fed him. Before the rebirth too Nicki helped kai solve some stuff and worked with her until his death (unlike her, he was not immortal)

And then Kai actually has two bio children with Ren! Akito her son takes after her and he’s the one who takes over her role as the true demon king of Tir-Na-Nocht so she’s able to die and try life again, and a daughter, Rei who takes after Ren in looks but... she’s a himbo. pure moron. she got her grandpa’s himbo gene strong. She’s a cat girl who works with her brother and she is the head of the guard.

Aki actually has his own story where he grew up in a ‘mundane’ world but then his entire class got ‘isekaid’ to another. it gets shown that this isn’t truly the case. the great ‘split’ mentioned above was Kai literally broke the world in two realms. She made one primarily humans and high tech and then the other was magic and mostly monsters. there are a mix of both but it cut down heavily on the murder. She raised Aki in the human side for his and Rei’s safety due to them being the children of a fallen god (mama worries) and Aki inherited his mother’s odd ‘status’ “Hero/Demon King”  so he has to not expose his demon nature and also stay below the radar (it turns out the person who summoned them was attempting to break a centuries old treaty) until his mother and father can figure out what happened to him (thankfully he can go to a church and his older sister Arty can act as a messenger but there’s a bit of a time split in the worlds) That world is actually the one “Fae Rules” takes place in o7o.

She also is friends with a dead prince named “Shade” (yes this is who you think it is) as well as her ‘cousin’ Sena (who she loves to give shit to)

And in her second life she obvs has her brother, cousins, her father (her father’s boyfriend/her manny), aunt’s etc!!!

So yes; she had family other than her husband!!!! And she cherishes them all.

[idrewbedraggledbreaths]

Sorting Daenerys Targaryen and Jorah Mormont with the sortinghatchats system (GoT verse)

I didn’t want to write this post before I finished my Killing Eve sortings (basically Carolyn and Konstantin), but I’m stuck with them, so I decided to revisit an old fandom instead with a new approach. My take here is possibly an outsider’s take, given that I haven’t interacted with this fandom for a while, save for a few close friends I made in it. Now, bear in mind this sorting system IS NOT the original HP system, it is simply based on it. It sorts you into two houses. Your primary is you WHY, your reason to be who you are, what you believe in. Your secondary is your HOW, the way you act and approach life. Below is a little tl;dr of what each of them are (I’m using the animal terminology that’s being used in many blogs, by the way. If you know the houses, you know what each animal is supposed to represent).

Lion primaries are intuitive and guided by their moral compass, which is very strong (doesn’t mean what they believe in is in fact good or correct) and Lion secondaries are the people who charge straight at something, regardless of whether they will come out of it unscathed or not.

Snake primaries value people. Not any person, their people. They will go to hell and earth for their people to be safe and happy, which can get kind of self destructive. Snake secondaries improvise much like Lion secondaries, but they tend to adapt to situation and shapeshift their way out of problems.

Bird primaries also value right and wrong like Lion primaries, but they build their systems with external information and observation, not from their gut feelings. That means Bird primaries change a lot with time, because their ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ change. Bird secondaries collect. Skills, tools, random knowledge, they delve deep and acquire as much of them as they can, not because things are useful, but because it’s fun.

Finally, Badger primaries are also people-persons, but their communities are much broader than a Snake primary’s. They value people, tradition, cultures and so (but not every Badger sees everyone as people, so there’s that). Badger secondaries are the hardworking types in the sense that they cultivate things, they invest in them and even become them.

You can develop models of each house according to what you find useful or what society has instilled in you, but when push come to shove, the models aren’t the real you. All of these houses can burn, meaning their essence is somehow scared away from them due to trauma, depression, societal pressures, etc. That means a Lion stops trusting their instincts, a Snake no longer feels like they’re able to protect their people or their people are better off without them, a Bird loses faith in their systems and a Badger closes themselves off from their communities and adopts a smaller circle of people. Burnt houses can look a lot like each other. For more info, check out the tags. 

Daenerys

Double Lion, no doubt (for most of the show). Dany knows what’s right, she feels it in her bones. She never tries to rationalise her decisions and she won’t usually budge, even if she is presented with a more rational plan. None of her advisors have really convinced her to do anything, they might have pushed her to do what they wanted, but if she had her way, Daenerys would only ever listen to her own heart. She needs people around her to help her not make impulsive, brash decisions(because of her Lion secondary that I will get into), but she definitely doesn’t need - and doesn’t want - a moral compass, hers works just fine. She was burned as hell in the first episodes of the first season, mostly because of Viserys’ horrible influence, because he had robbed her of a purpose, of her truth. Drogo also stifles her primary and secondary for a while, but he eventually gives her some space to be herself. When she unburns, she unburns fast. ‘Not a Queen, a Khaleesi’ is pretty much Day gong ‘yeah, I can do things my way, I can be my own person with my own values and my own self.’ I think from there on, her quest to liberate 1) take back the Iron Throne 2) liberate Slaver’s Bay and ‘Break the Wheel’ just show how much she is focused on a big quest that is not explained by reason, by her need to form a community or by the influence of someone in her life. She does it because that’s the Right Thing ™ to do, and that’s Lion primary in a nutshell. Another thing that points towards Lion primary to me is how she just won’t take criticism and specially betrayal well (not that anyone does, but Dany is particularly unforgiving most of the time). Lion primaries are particularly shaken when someone they admire doesn’t have the same moral standards as they do, because deep down they like to think they know what’s ‘good’ and ‘true’ (oops my Snake primary who doesn’t really get Lions is showing), so if you don’t follow them and their beliefs, you must be doing something wrong. This is why Dany is so fucking pissed at Jorah when she finds out he betrayed her. She is also devastated true, and she misses him, but her ideals and her ‘truth’ stop her from seeing things from his side ad from forgiving him until he has proven himself worthy. Her reaction to betrayals tie in to the fact that she is a MASSIVE Lion secondary. She headbutts her way into things and her liberal use of Dracarys is proof of that. That’s not to say she doesn’t think or plan or listen to her advisors, but when push comes to shove, homegirl ACTS. Fuck the consequences, I have three dragons, fucking try me. Don’t tell me that climbing on Drogon in the fighting pits and burning the Khals were calculated decisions. Burning the Lannister army wasn’t a calculated decision. She leaves the planning to the people around her. This is something I struggle with regarding Lions, but I have to admit they are much more prone to seizing opportunities that us Bird secondaries (because I do have a Snake model but it is utter shit). 

Now, in seasons 7 and 8, she starts burning again. She gets to Westeros, where people aren’t flocking to her side like they did in Essos. Daenerys lets herself be swayed by Jon’s pretty little speeches that sound very Lion, sound very true to Daenerys, but guess what? She is fucking betrayed by everyone. The people she loved are killed, her children are killed (and the whole ‘I will take what is mine’ thing indicates that she might have a Snaky primary model, after all, she does some things because of what she claimed as hers, be it people or the Throne), she is left absolutely alone, so she burns, she loses faith in herself, starts doubting her actions and her instincts and no one is there to help her unburn safely, so the way she does it is destructive, as it often is with Lion primaries who don’t have guidance in order to regain their trust  their instincts and their selves. To me, the KL incidence is her primary going ‘You fucking left me behind, you fuckers, now you are going to see that I was right and fuck the consequences’. Her primary takes a turn for the worse with the help of an impulsive secondary and she ends doing anything to reach her end goal, similar to Albus Dumbledore and his disregard for human life as long as Voldemort being defeated is concerned. 

Jorah

I have no doubts whatsoever that Jorah is a Snake primary. I know the fandom likes to sort him into Hufflepuff when using the traditional sorting system and while there’s no doubts he is a loyalist to the bone, Jorah’s loyalties are much narrower than a Badger primary’s would be. Before he meets Daenerys, he wants to go home and make up with his family, because they are the ones who matter. Not his reputation, not the North, not Bear Islad itself, the Mormont House. Before that still, he does literally anything to keep Lynesse happy, including doing things that are against the law. This utter devotion to certain people are what makes him a Snake primery to me, a paricularly self destructive one. He starts worrying about the fact that he berayed Daenerys when he ‘adopts’ her into his circles and more so when she goes from being in his outermost circles to being the one person his Snake primary is attached to. Daeerys is everything to Jorah. Does he persoally care about freeing slaves or generally following her morals? No, he does it because it is importat to her and he wants her to see he is worthy of her attention (I, another Snek, still don’t kow if I like Florence + The Machine so damn much because I liked a girl who was into FATM or if my Bird secondary saw her taste for FATM and went ‘OMG ME TOO LETS TALK ABOUT THAT’ and the primary just said ‘huh, that’s legit. We’ll worship her from now on’, so yeah, us Snakes do that. On a side note, I never worked up the courage to ask her out, though). That’s why he goes batshit when she banishes him. He doesn’t burn, which means his primary is so strong it wasn’t fazed by being ast out of her circles; no, he is hell bent on getting back into her good graces and if he has to sacrifice his life fr that, so be it. 

Now, when it comes to secondary, I’d say Jorah’s a Lion secondary too, even though he has a lot of models he picked up with time. Models are useful, models get you out of bad situations, but they’re not who you really are. Jorah wans to be a Bird secondary when he’s around Daenerys, he wants to be the careful planner who looks ahead and ensures she is successful and he also needs a Snake secondary model, because his life demands that he twists and turns himself to fit different situations, but deep inside he is a Lion. His most honest moments are the moments when he just does it, no thoughts head empty. Did he have a solid plans when he kidnapped Tyrion? Fuck no! Did he truly know what he was doing when he decided to fight in the pits? Fuck no! Did he think before he charged at the wights and saved Daenerys in Winterfell? Fuck no! His head was probably just going ‘my Daenerys is in danger let’s punch first and see what happens later’. He’s not like Littlefinger, who plans everything ad is so fast at analysing and changing plans he looks like a Snake. His models make him seem like the opposite of Dany, like a Bird to a Lion, brains while she is brawn, but when she is in danger, Jorah charges. 

What the Jorleesi shippers do is take Dany’s Lion primary that is so focused on a quest and show her that she can also include people in her big aspirations. The gut feeling that is so characteristic of Lions is already inside her, all she would need is to put it into words, which isn’t necessarily the strongest suits of many Lions (that’s a Bird thing). Since most of their dynamics inevitably lies on Jorah’s models regulating Dany’s secondary, there’s not much point in ‘taming her Lion’. Jorah stays the same. The fandom looooves his Snake/Lion, specially since us Snakes tend to be too hard on ourselves. A self-loathing Snake who is also a stupid brave Lion secondary? Yes. They are both stupid brave. Also just stupid. Just talk, you two, for fuck’s sake. Get over your Lion, Daenerys, and talk to him, his Snake won’t allow him to bother you too much.