#and. from the bottom of my heart i ask:

[cannibalisticskittles]

saw someone say they didn't get the people with 'older rooks' romancing emmrich bc they made their rook 19/20 to play up the drama and uh

girl i don't know what kinda drama you think you're intensifying because it certainly isn't going to be romantic, emmrich already has hang-ups about age, he is not going to fall for a goddamned teenager

and even besides that, the timeline of the game establishes that rook has been traveling with varric for about a year, and with some backgrounds, the event that made rook leave their faction and start them on the path to meeting varric could have happened weeks to months before that

in no universe would varric see a fucking 17 year old and decide yep, that's who's gonna get a crucial part in stopping a plot that could end the world

[insertdisc5]

are there any fan works that have made you rethink one of your own characters?

no lol. however allow me to go on a tangent for a minute.

i have been on tumblr for a very long time. i have been in fandoms. i have made my fanworks. ive seen Stuff. so i know how people react to fandoms and characters they love. which is (and i mean this with no judgment! and even love!!!): fans add their own flavor to the characters, sometimes enhancing them, but also, sometimes, making the character. completely. unrecognizable

again, no judgment!!!!! ive done it myself!!! often!!!! all the time!!!! you can search for it here on my tumblr!!!! i've done it and i love doing it!!!! hashtag my blorbo now!!!! HOWEVER. when i was making ISAT, i did not think it would blow up like this. but i am someone who prepares for every eventuality, so i did think ok. well. what if it does blow up like this. and people. make. my little guys. from my heart. my bosom. absolutely. unrecognizable

all this to say that if you're making a project that could become Tumblrized(affectionate), or even any kind of project: i highly recommend writing down what your characters mean to you. why you made them like this. what made you go down this route. why did you make this project in the first place. what does this Mean To You And You Alone. so that if your character becomes Unrecognizable. you can still remember what you put in them first. and people can Tumblrize to their hearts content and you can be happy and the people can be happy and we can all hold hands having a different version of the blorbo in our brains

[rootersnoosferret]

absolutely begging dimension 20 to do a battle-heavy courtroom drama inspired season called Rules Lawyers with battle puzzles that hinge on technicalities and rules interpretation

[soracities]

I have been thirty for a few months. I never thought I'd make it, truly. I had no plans beyond twenty. I'm a high school drop out with various disabilities, I'm not conventionally 'attractive', I've never had many friends and my support network has failed me several times. And the idea of making plans, after a trail of failures and let-downs (both of myself and others), only filled me with dread. I have to take care of so much. I have my blessings, of course, but not without my own troubles. I have never been on a date, I've never been kissed even though I do want that. I've had to make the decision between bills and feeding myself. I've watched everyone around me fade away or leave. This, however, will pass. This time, in ten years, I'll have been forty for a few months. In twenty, I'll be fifty. And I can see myself being those ages. This year, I planted flowers for the first time and I've watched them grow. I've started reading after years of being told I am too stupid to understand things or that having joys won't make me successful. I've made new friends. I even repaired the strained relationship with my parents, something I never thought I'd be able to do. My life isn't going to be plastered on a big screen or be a bestseller but I don't need it to be. If I never marry or I die alone with no one, I don't think I'll regret it because I'll have myself. My thirties, I realize, are my gift to myself to know love and be loved by myself. Like I ... was the one who grew those flowers that made me happy because I know flowers make me happy, I chose to read the books I love because I know that they will make me happy, I choose to find my little joys instead of the joys others have expected of me. I'll get myself to forty, fifty, maybe even a hundred! I'll continue to give myself little joys because right now that is what is making me happy. That may change at forty! At fifty, a hundred, I don't know! I believe, however, I would like to find out ... and that is something I never would have said at twenty. I don't know if I will make it because as my farmer of a grandfather would say, "You have no idea what a year will bring." And you don't, there is no way to predict what the year, the month, or even tomorrow will bring, but you plant the seeds anyway. You plant them and take care of them as though you know they get to full ripeness and harvest. That process, I've learned for myself, is how I've found love. I just plant the seed today. I may or may not have flowers tomorrow but knowing that I may is enough for me to want to see.

.

[it-one-line-at-a-time]

[Stan] "...And if you find someone worth holding on to... never, ever, let them go. Follow your own path.

"Think of this letter as a promise."

[Eddie] "A promise I'm asking you to make."

[Mike] "To me."

[Ben] "To each other."

[Bev] "An oath."

[Stanley] "See, the thing about being a Loser is... you don't have anything to lose. So..."

[Young Richie] "Be true."

[Young Eddie] "Be brave."

[Young Mike] "Stand."

[Young Bev] "Believe."

[Young Bill] "And don't ever forget..."

[Young Stan] "We're Losers... and we always will be."

[bringthekaos]

Please, pleas consider an AU where Jayce tries to reject the council seat like maybe he says that he'll only take a seat if Viktor also has one,, and obvs there are 2 options either they say no and Jayvik can fuck off and do science in peace (i am in denial abt the up coming divorce) or they say yes and they both kinda suffer this time together edition!

Ugh, honestly option 1 would have solved so much… Jayce would have been spending more time in the lab, and they would have been channeling their collective energies into creating instead of solving trade disputes and Hexgate security issues. One of the main arguments they had was that Viktor thought they weren’t doing enough to use Hextech to help the people of the Undercity, and the reason for this was because Jayce was having to put all his energy into being a counselor. Jayce also would have noticed Viktor’s failing health a lot sooner, and likely also noticed how reckless he was being with the Hexcore, possibly avoiding the Sky situation entirely.

But option 2??? Oh my god, Viktor would have absolutely despised being a counselor… he would have been miserable and angry and bitter. I think he would have lasted a week tops dealing with their bureaucracy before he snapped and went full gremlin mode—letting loose a fully unhinged ten minute rant laden with the foulest language he can muster in two languages, leading to him (probably both of them) being censured and removed from the council. And possibly thrown in jail, haha.

But up until then, they might actually get some shit done with the council?? Like, yeah Viktor would have hated it (Jayce obv hated it too, but he sucked it up and tried to do his best), but with Viktor’s steadfast commitment to helping people and Jayce’s ability to turn that into a speech/presentation those bureaucrats would actually listen to? Damn, fucking power couple. Zaun may have had its independence much, much sooner, avoiding Silco’s entire campaign and Jinx’s extreme measures.

Ugh, what could have been…

[soaps-mohawk]

My brain has been buzzing Thespian/choir Reader. Like Soap is bored and going down a weird rabbit hole of watching YouTube channels of plays or choir singing recorded by teachers. Find someone that looks a bit to much like their omega. And it’s just their omega when they were a kid singing, and dancing with a bunch of other kids. And now he just has to show everyone. Gaz and Soap just thinking it’s adorable but also impressed because their omega in the video is just belting their heart out as they perform a solo or something. Or Price and Simon both looking at other videos and trying to see if they can find them in the background like “Where is Waldo?”

Soap bugging Reader to see if they can still do it.

(My head screams theater.

Definitely dig up every old video they can find and play them on blast. Reader comes in wondering what's going on but then. She recognizes that voice. She knows that song.

Instant embarrassment. Such cringe. Wants to crawl under her covers and never come out. They love it though. They can't get enough of their little omega as a pup being all cute on stage and absolutely slaying it vocally.

It takes a while but Johnny finally convinces her to try singing it now. Turns out she's still got it. They definitely make her do performances every weekend when they're home.

Turns out the reader missed it too 🤭

[yellowocaballero]

hi! i've been reading some of your older fics and was wondering if there's any merit in watching buffy for the first time in the year 2024

This may not be obvious, but this is actually an extremely complicated and highly subjective question. I'll try to go on for too long.

As background: my mother loved Buffy and its spin-off Angel growing up. It was our Bible (besides the actual Bible). Not kidding, she was on the forums and fan groups and wrote fanfiction for it and everything (These days, she's really into kdramas and Asian dramas, and calls me about how the Thai seem like big fans of gay people). So I'm quite biased.

BTVS is both a product of its times and ahead of its times. It was a show about feminism and the struggle of living in this world as a woman, when very few shows were doing that. It was the first show to have a long-lasting lesbian couple, and the first show to depict a kiss between them. For better or for worse, it was one of the codifiers of broody vampire boyfriend. It was pretty unafraid to be experimental in a lot of what it did. It had incredibly complex and nuanced character work and growth that I still aspire to. Spike's arc is still matched in quality only by Avatar's Zuko. Angel's long term arc, from Buffy to his spin-off series, still makes him one of the most complex characters on TV. It had the most complex depiction of depression on TV at the time and I still think it's one of the best. I think the show had very high highs.

It also had very low lows. Some of the feminism is problematic in retrospect. The sapphic couple has a rather famous element that was severely problematic. There are, overall, some deeply atrocious arcs that I can appreciate objectively but not in practice. Xander: a whole-ass character aged awfully. On a meta level, the workplace conditions were bad (thanks, Whedon.) There are no people of color. The spoiler's sake I won't go into detail on this, but in general the good stuff was so influential and the bad stuff was just awful.

I think these days people tend to brush off the entire thing because it's Whedon. That is more than fair. But I'd also say that Whedon & Buffy is extremely similar to Brian Michael Bendis & Ultimate Spider-Man. Bendis was fantastic at writing sassy, bouncy, permanently stressed-out teens - issue was, he wrote entirely different serious adult characters the way he wrote these sassy teens. Same with Whedon: the annoyingly constant quips are perfect for Buffy, because that's who the characters are. They're awful in Marvel, because Steve Rogers is not Xander. Kinda similarly, Buffy was genuinely feminist for 90s TV - issue is, Whedon has not grown or developed his views, and now his works feel so sexist (oh my fucking god why did you treat Natasha like that). After a certain point it's egotistical: you're writing like that because you're Joss Whedon and it's how you write, not because it's what's best for the characters and story. But it was really important to me to get the character voices right, and it's freaking difficult to endlessly write dialogue that distinct, full of voice, witty, and clever.

I think BTVS & Angel TV's greatest influence on my writing is how intensely character-driven both of those shows were, and how intricate the characters were. What every character did was something they would do, if that made sense. Even the stuff I hated to watch, that made me uncomfortable, was the culmination of so much (usually). I think I also picked up the constant wit and humor lol. On a personal level, the conversations I would have with my mother where she broke down the character motivations and composition of the story was my first exposure to looking at storytelling from an analytical perspective and a framework of critical analysis, which was an approach I carried into the rest of the media I consumed and that was the primary reason I was able to become a decent writer. Thanks, Mom. Have fun with your kdramas.

TL:DR: There is merit, especially if you care about good character work. There are things about it that may make you want to drop it, which is extremely valid. Season 1 is rough but interesting, Season 2 and 5 are the best, Season 3 is pretty good, Season 4 and 7 skippable, and Season 6 is........epic highs, epic lows......

[auguryofjellyfish]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY🎉

May good times and happiness be bless upon thee today.

Also little message from Wada Masanari:

Happy Birthday Auguryofjellyfish, you’re very awesome and a great fan! Thank you for always making sweet post about me, I really appreciate it.

ASHDJSDFHSGJSDFSJDFADFJDHJSDFH

oh my god, that's SO SO SWEET WAHHHHH!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭

i'm smiling so hard right now, this made me so giddy!!! thank you so so so so much Rosa!!! 💝💝💝

[soracities]

My best friend of eight years and sweetheart of two months (yes we are embarrassingly in love after all this time of knowing each other so well) is 6’5” and I’m 5’6” and couple things here: 1) I am god’s most regular person, most average height and most average size (XL), and I felt like a chihuahua the whole week he was here. I wore 6” platforms out to dinner with him and felt regular for the first time in four days, and I STILL had to get on tippy toes to smooch him. It was very cute. 2) he is very very subby so when we’re getting down to business I just make him lie down and boss him around. I told my friends I like how big he is and they said, “SOMEONE likes getting tossed around 👀” and I was like, “yeah and my arms are real tired from it”

actually fully obsessed with this anon you're Iconic !

[murdleandmarot]

AYYYYYY STARLIGHT EXPRESS OC TIME!!!!!!

Meet Mable and Marley, the abandoned train car twins!! They live with Belle and Poppa in the freight yard :)))

More about them under the cut!!

….so I don’t know trains. I know net zero about trains. I knew I wanted to do something vague and fun with them, so I just looked up “place I live” + “abandoned train” and found a blog from a couple years ago about an abandoned train someone found in the woods!!!!

That’s why their names don’t match their title, no one knows what their original make or model was.

-Mable is definitely the more serious twin of the two, as she really wants to get back on the tracks. She hates not knowing much about herself, but has resolved herself to be the best that she can despite this

-Marley is definitely more easygoing, more cheerful, and overall more content to chill in the freight yard with Belle. He’s made peace with his mysteriousness.

-Both of them barely leave the yard, because when they do train (HA) they do it closer to home, so they get their gossip from Rusty. Marley is probably a bitttt of a Greaseball fanboy at heart, and Mable thinks she could beat GB in a race and vows to do so whenever he’s brought up

[ask-cccc]

{During cacophony... Really? Could've picked a better time.}

{On a serious note, Thank you all for keeping this as active as it is. It's damn amazing, even the anons are cool to have around.}

{Im glad you're still playing this silly game with us.}

[remitro]

perhaps cquackity 👀 or qquackity with tilin :3

(for the art reqs)

HI RACHEL!!!!!!! always an honor to draw cquackity for THE cntduo mutual ever :3

[bougainvillea-and-saltwater]

Gigi, please don’t let someone or something that doesn’t deserve you dictate your feelings about yourself. You are an extremely smart, kind, and talented lady.

Might you give us some cute random Miri facts when you’re feeing up to it?

you know, I decided to crawl back into Tumblr after many days of not engaging and went through my inbox to see this message sitting there and I. I definitely teared up, because you're so right... I think I need to stop idolizing people or creating expectations in my head from breadcrumbs and then have my heart broken; I mean, it has happened so many times it's not even funny anymore... 🥲💔 It's a 'me thing' I must stop doing and I'm currently trying though!

(To make this a bit lighter, I think I'm rather cursed by Mara. She really went, "eat shit, Gigi". )

Okay, as for my Miraak (or Moon-Moon) facts... One I've been thinking a lot about lately is that he's. he's Hozier. I'm very proud to say this. He's soft-spoken, he flusters easily, he writes poetic songs where he can express how disgustingly yearning and horny he is and how he wants Jia to do unspeakable things to him, and he has the most gorgeous voice on planet Nirn ❤️ To make things even more specific, I think the song "Talk" carries a LOT of Moonraak Essence in it. It's just him.

[ellenchain]

Playground literally made me eyes glaze over i lost it. i am debating buying it again just to give you incentive /lh

Hahaha that's so sweet of you!!! I'm glad you liked my comic ♥️🙏 and buying it once is more than I ever expected people would do 🥺

After so many lovely messages and feedback, I'm more than motivated to draw the second part!

.... I'm just a bit anxious that I set the bar so high with the first part and the second part can't keep up the expectations 😭 but I'll do my very best!

[prismaticpichu]

You make the world better by being in it and being you. The world could do with more kindhearted and supportive people like you!

Rhhejdhudhdud SQUEALING!!! 😭😭❤️❤️ That is so incredibly kind of you to say, Anon!!! I’m so frigging glad I’m able to make a positive impact on this world 💖💖💖 Genuinely, that’s all I could ever ask for <333 There are so many kind, incredible, golden people in this world, and I’ll never lose hope that more folks of that nature will continue to make this planet of ours even better! <333