#anyway ill get started on the brackets

[handsome-girl-competition]

now that thats over i can finally share the competitors list! here's who made it into the competition:

Gideon Nav from The Locked Tomb Series

Rika from Whichever Pokemon Game That Was

Vi from Arcane (League design doesn't count, obviously)

Haruka Tenou/Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon

Rachel Lindt/Bitch from Worm

Yuu Kashima from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

Scorpia from She-Ra

Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena

Undyne from Undertale

Susie from Deltarune

Noi from Dorohedoro

Lady Oscar from The Rose of Versailles

Haruhi Fujioka from Ourah High School Host Club

Beauregard Lionett from Critical Role (Campaign 2)

Han Sooyoung from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

Catra from She-Ra

Kaoru Seta from BanG Dream

Olivier Mira Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist

Quanxi from Chainsaw Man

Juri Arisugawa from Revolutionary Girl Utena

Kotoko Yuzuriha from MILGRAM

Eda Clawthorne from The Owl House

Mitsuki Koga (my specialest lil guy) from The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All

Bismuth from Steven Universe

Jolyne Cujoh from Jojo: Stone Ocean

Merrin from Fire Emblem Engage

Sevika from Arcane

Kira Nerys from One of Those Star Treks

Ermes Costello from I Think That Same Jojo?

Tao from Gokurakugai

Jasper from Steven Universe

Amanda O'Neil from Little Witch Academia

Maki Zenin from Jujutsu Kaisen (post-shibuya look... dreamy sigh)

Lady Maria from Bloodborne

Korra from The Legend of Korra

Pyrrha Dve from The Locked Tomb Series

Fu Hua from Honkai Impact 3rd (did you know i thought it was 3d until now for some reason? the more you know)

Reinhardt from Alchemy Stars

Rekka from Hi Fi Rush

Akira Kenjou from One of Those Pretty Cures

Lupe García from A League of Their Own

Ellen Ripley from Alien

Percival King from Epithet Erased

Adora from She-Ra

Shima Nishina from Kiss Him, Not Me!

Joan Watson from Elementary

Baiken from Guilty Gear

Anne Lister from Gentleman Jack

Cassandra Jones from Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Max Chapman from A League of Their Own

Gebura from Lobotomy Corporation/Project Moon

Sakura Oogami from Danganronpa

Zero from Final Fantasy XIV

Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess

Imperator Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road

Graham Eaton from But I'm A Cheerleader!

Tsubomi Kido from Kagerou Project

Lin Beifong from Legend of Korra

Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell

Villanelle from Killing Eve

Pearl from Steven Universe

Tain Hu from The Masquerade Series

Amaya from The Dragon Prince

Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4

[arsenicflame]

It's a time-honoured tradition- every time Sam comes across Izzy (and Ed) in their travels, he asks Izzy to marry him. And every time, Izzy turns him down.

At this point, Sam is asking more for the sake of it than any belief Izzy will ever say yes, a remnant of childhood dedication touched with 30 years of heartbreak and regret- though even now, a small part of him still holds out hope. Sam's promises have only got more extravagant over the years, from a job as his first mate, to a captaincy, a fleet at his command, a whole fucking island if that's what Izzy wants- but he knows it isn't though, not really. If Izzy was ever going to agree to marry him, to leave his life and go with Sam, it wouldn't be for anything Sam could offer him. Izzy never did care for flashy shows of wealth, for a ship or to be captain. The only thing that ever mattered to him was loyalty given, and loyalty shown in return. 

It all comes to a head after Stede left and came back, after Izzy lost a toe, lost his leg. Sam hasn't seen him since before things with Ed started to really slide off the rails, before stress permanently set into the lines of Izzy’s face. So, when he sees a dishevelled man with a hoof for a leg in a no-name port, he doesn't even consider the idea that he might know him. It's only when he turns towards him, and Sam catches a glance at those oh too familiar tattoos, he realises this is Izzy, his Izzy, that stands before him.

Knowing Izzy's discomfort with pity, he doesn't treat him any differently than he would in years gone by, positioning himself in Izzy's line of sight before approaching and sweeping him up into a bone crushing hug. 

“Israel-goddamn-Hands!” he exclaims, as Izzy grumbles back a begrudging “Samuel-fucking-Bellamy”, a tradition almost as old as their friendship itself. Izzy might not hug him back, but he can’t keep the corner of his mouth from twitching, just for a second.

(If Sam holds Izzy a little tighter and a little longer than usual, well. That's his business)

By the time Sam lets go, most of the crew has appeared in the town square, drawn in by the commotion. They may have given Izzy his leg and welcomed him as one of them, but still there’s an underlying tension, with nobody quite ready to set aside everything that happened before the Kraken. Seeing him cosying up to an unknown man sets everyone on edge, unsure whether to come to their first mate’s aid, or to assume that they've been betrayed once again.

When Ed sees that the yelling was Sam, his hand goes tense where it's held in Stede's. He knows the routine, has seen it more times than he can count, but as he watches them part he realises that this is the first time in a long time he's unsure of what Izzy's response will be.

Knowing that something’s different, knowing that Izzy's feeling vulnerable already, Sam doesn't go for the same flashy proposal he’s been giving for years. He doesn't promise Izzy the world, he doesn't cause a scene (or, any more of a scene than he already has, anyway). He looks at the fractured man in front of him, takes his face in his hands, and says the exact same thing to him he said when they were little more than boys. “Israel, I have to ask you. I know what you'll say, but I have to try. Come with me. Marry me and sail away with me. I'll keep you safe”

And Izzy… hesitates. He glances over at Ed, at Stede, and says to Sam “...We’re staying in port for a week. Ask me again then”

That's the moment Sam knows there is something deeply, horribly, wrong. He's not just looking at an Izzy who got seriously injured in a fight and is struggling to cope, this is something so much bigger than that- and that Ed has something to do with it. Izzy wouldn't even be considering leaving if he didn't. Whether it was negligence or something more sinister, Sam doesn't yet know, but he intends to find out.

[magic-is-something-we-create]

three chapters left to go now :)

it's canon in the ehlverse now that the maelands writes dates month/day/year and everywhere else scorns them for it. btw

[web-novel-polls]

Best Hater Lower Bracket

Yin Hanjiang from Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

“He seemed to be inescapable, using every method he could think of to harm Baili Qingmiao. After Baili Qingmiao was injured, he sprinkled bone powder on her wounds. After Baili Qingmiao passed out, he threw her into the Thousand Snake Pit. When Baili Qingmiao was alone, he hung up a cauldron and tried to refine her into lamp oil. With each of his appearances, he became more and more depraved.”

- Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know about the Ghost Mask from the original novel, Chapter 1

Submission: Second half of the novel YHJ in particular, hater energy unmatched! Righteous sects? fuck them up. His own sect? on eggshells. His best effort at not murdering someone is to start wiping his weapon with their clothes. General vibe of 'if anything happened to Venerable i'd kill everyone in this room and then myself AND SOMETHING JUST HAPPENED TO VENERABLE'. Anyway get their asses babe <3

Hua Cheng from Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF)

Submission: Treats nearly everyone that isn't Xie Lian with derision

Wiki Link

Additional Propaganda:

bro challenged 35 gods and killed 33 of them because they spoke ill of the guy he loves

he held onto a grudge against one dude for not letting him join the army for over 800 years

he ascended to heaven as a god, looked around at the other gods, went "ew" and JUMPED BACK DOWN

⚠️ Please vote for whoever’s best at being a hater, not who you like the most. ⚠️

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Rant/propaganda for Gamzee Makara! Because he is just. Such a character. Vague but major spoilers ahead!

Also for the record I pretend the Homestuck epilogues and sequel don’t exist because they suck. Yes I am aware of what happens in there. No I am not factoring it into my opinions on Gamzee. It does not exist to me. It feels like the writers just trying to go “gotcha!!!!1!!1” to Gamzee fans. I hate it.

Anyway.

First things first, what people need to know is that Gamzee started out as just a silly joke character parodying juggalos. Then Andrew Hussie decided to make him Very Important! (The narrative pretty much states as much…although there’s some debate as to whether the statement of “Very Important” should be applied to Gamzee or another…sort-of character in the same picture.). Aaaaaand then shortly after, Hussie decided he hated Gamzee, ultimately very literally fridging him. Twice.

The thing is, because of the weird changes in focus on Gamzee, we get very, very little of what’s actually going through his head once he makes the switch from weird silly friend to the protagonists to Very Important scary murder clown. Things we do know are this: he’s 13 to 16 years old over the course of the main comic, he’s very religious, he was severely neglected by his parental figure to the point that he developed a drug addiction, he’s supposed to be a murder clown near the top of the caste system according to his religion and said caste system but instead he’s super chill up until another character accidentally destroys his faith in his religion (even after running out of his drug of choice he’s chill, to be clear, since some people like to say he was only chill because of the drug), and his turn to Actual Murder Clown is also around the time everything else is going to shit. It’s also when we almost entirely lose track of what’s going through his head. There’s also some very dubious manipulative characters, cult-y stuff, and mind control involved, either in the turn itself or in his narrative later on.

He definitely ends up doing some pretty terrible things: partner abuse, psychological manipulation, murdering some of his friends, helping to ruin an entire timeline, helping a god destined to destroy everything. He also ends up dying horribly…or possibly living in pieces, depending on how legitimate you think that one statement about him never dying in any timeline is.

Ultimately I interpret him as a messed up kid who gets caught up in religious/cult bullshit and severe untreated mental illness and is manipulated and convinced into doing terrible things in the name of his god, ultimately sacrificing everything—his friends, his autonomy, his very soul—to the god he worships and serves for the sake of having a purpose. I find him a very fascinating and tragic character, and love him dearly.

I understand why a lot of people hate him (see again the list of terrible things he’s done, and the bs going on in the epilogues/sequel), but also a lot of people seem to boil him down to “crazy drug-abusing murder clown who should be locked up/drugged so he doesn’t hurt anyone” which…one, is ableist as hell, and two, just ignores how much else is going on with him. Like yeah, you have to really pay attention to details to get a lot of what’s going on with him, but please. He’s so much more interesting when you do.

Anyway, I hope maybe this has helped some people see him a little differently, whether they love him or hate him or just don’t care. Thanks for the opportunity to rant, and for running this bracket!

[fnvminorcharacterpoll]

FNV Minor Character Poll - Round 4-B, Day 2

Left: Beatrix Russell, hired guard at the Old Mormon Fort and potential sex worker at the Atomic Wrangler. —"I'm available, sweetie - but you'll have to do as I say. Meet me upstairs. I'll try to leave you in one piece."

Beatrix Russell's designated cheerleader is @simply-jason! hi! i'm taking up the mantle of cheerleader for beatrix because i was genuinely surprised that of all the characters on this webbed site, she didn't have one?? anyway, how could you not love beatrix! she's a pre-war ghoul (automatic +10 points), a follower of the apocalypse (though technically a gun-for-hire, but still; she believes in the cause), she has the voice ever (and for all you nerds, her voice actress is rouge the bat as of 2010), and she's a dominatrix! need i say more? (^_<)〜☆ if this list doesn't convince you, check out some of her top class, tried-and-true advice to the courier: take a chance on a woman who'll show ya a good time and make sure you're sound after the fact (even though she doesn't technically give you advice once she switches careers, but shhh)! a vote for beatrix is a vote for freaky women (affectionate)!

Right: Siri, a slave of the Legion at Fortification Hill. —"I never finished my [medical] training - the Legion saw to that when they overran my town. I do know basic first aid, but I've had to rely on tribal remedies to treat illnesses and injuries - healing powders and all that."

Siri's designated cheerleader is @irlarcadegannon! I LOVE Siri so much. I know the developers were under an insane time crunch, but I would've loved to see more substance for her! Still, I think what they did give her is very telling. It's not much, but it evokes a lot of emotion in me. Her lines show that she too had and has her own life, an entire history that we as a player may never know. But there are hints, small details in her choice of words and the tone of voice that show there is so much to her. So much potential, and I would love to see her have more presence in fan works. I love the idea that someday she might actually be able to escape from the Legion. She grants the player such kindness even in a situation where she herself is shown none. She had an entire life that was suddenly ripped away from her, and few Legion slaves get their story told. I want so desperately for other people to care about this side character who I LOVE, dearly, and I think it would be fantastic to get other people in the fandom to start thinking about her too, and making fan works with her in it if they feel so inclined. Together we can make a side character the specialest woman in the Mojave. SIRI SWEEP PLEASE!!!

[Bracket | Info & FAQs | Become a Designated Cheerleader]

[elegyofthemoon]

@zorua-adorable heheh yeah of course!! I was rambling in a rb of something that it also reflects too a bit about like competition culture over in Awakening as well - or at least in Ylisse... But all I can think of is like 3 strikes and you're out ordeal in a competition but 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

might be overthinking a throwaway line but watching Silas and Selena's B support and like yeah, sure Silas just really wants to get the competition over and done with but I do like the hinting that there's a cultural differences in how competitions are dealt with in Nohr, Nohr being more one-and-done ordeal. Very forward in handling it.

[sleepyhead-poll]

LOSER'S BRACKET! ROUND 1, MATCH 7 OUT OF 8!

Loser's Bracket Propaganda Under the Cut:

Aurora:

She's not just sleepy - she adores sleep and does everything she can think of to elevate the experience. Her relentless search for the perfect night's rest has turned her into an innovator, a connoisseur, and an unstoppable juggernaut. Hell, her love of sleep is the driving force of her whole damn series! But she's not particularly well-known in Tumblr circles, so - even despite placing third in the total number of submissions - she got knocked out in the very first round due to getting matched against Jade Harley (no shade toward Jade; it's just that - let's face it - Homestuck has a massive star power advantage on this site). Sure, the Princess would've eventually been knocked out by a more popular character anyway - but even so, she deserves the opportunity to show how strong a contender she could have been had it not been for that initial stroke of ill fortune.

Snorlax:

if snorlax doesn't win losers bracket i will go to my local park and start biting whatever crosses my path 😭😭😭

SNORLAX ACTUALLY SHOULD'VE WON THE WHOLE THING. He's a BIG sleepy cat SO CUTE... don't you wish you could sleep on Snorlax? He snoores and is lax. What more do you want?

[pickinglilahs]

Blackeclipse for the soul

Part 26; Part 27; Part 28; Part 29; Part 30

The excitement of stealing from Grimmauld and freeing Kreacher buoyed James out of the bath and into pants.

Regulus chucked off his robes and button-up, sitting back against the headboard. His brother joined him, notebook and biro in hand.

Just as Siri was about to start plotting, his eyes caught James standing in front of the open wardrobe. Regulus turned to look as well and sighed.

"Sunshine," James looked to him slowly, eyes big and watery without his glasses, "Come here, mon amore." Regulus held out a hand, pulling James up onto the bed.

The older boy sat between Regulus' legs, slouching so far, he was almost lying on his back. He went limp, eyes closed and breathing slow. Regulus wrapped his arms around James and dropped a kiss to his hair. Looking up at his brother, he nodded for Siri to continue.

"Right, so-"

The dorm door flung open as Remus and Kingsley rushed in. They both paused and visibly relaxed as they saw the three boys lounging on the bed.

They came over, dropping their bags, robes, and shoes.

"You didn't come back." Kingsley didn't sound upset, so much as concerned.

"James needed a bath," Both an apology and an explanation.

Remus had rounded the bed and was brushing the wet curls from James' forehead. James leaned into the touch but didn't open his eyes. Remus looked up at Regulus who just shrugged.

Sighing, Remus kissed Regulus' cheek before stripping out of his jumper and crawling up to lay on top of James. He gave a soft huff but wrapped his arms around Remus all the same, burying his face in Remus' curls.

Remus smiled as Regulus' Marked hand found its way under his cheek, and the other came around to brush his hair back.

After a moment, Remus asked, "What are we plotting now?"

Siri clapped, "Yes! Plotting! So. We are going to break into Grimmauld, trick Papan into freeing Kreacher, and raiding Reggie's closet."

Remus sat bolt-up, causing James to groan in protest. "What?" He looked to Regulus, hoping for contradiction, or a sane explanation at the very least.

Regulus shrugged again. "I don't like the idea of leaving Kreacher there with... her and if Siri wants to break in anyway, might as well kill two crups with one spell."

Remus sighed and laid back down on James. "Alright. What have you got then?"

Sirius paused, daring anyone to interrupt him this time, then began, "So, Kreacher would know Maman's schedule best. Which means we need to ask him to alert us when she leaves. Realistically, we'd only need her gone for 5 minutes, but the longer, the better."

Siri was writing as he talked, bulleting ideas as they came.

"We can do it any evening- well, not Monday or Wednesday night since Reggie has practice."

"I can skip if we need." At Siri's raised eyebrow, he shrugged. "What are they going to do? Kick me off?"

Kingsley snorted. "They can't afford to. You're the only reason Slytherin isn't at the bottom of the bracket."

Smirking, "Exactly. They can survive one practice without me."

Siri eyed his brother almost... proud. "We really are rubbing off on you. We'll make a Marauder of you yet."

Groaning, Regulus took his hand from Remus' hair to shove his brother. Laughing, Siri fell into Kingsley, who caught him with an eyeroll.

"Boys," Remus called. "Save your sibling squabbles for later. How do you plan on actually getting to the house?"

"Kreacher." Regulus sounded as if the answer should be obvious.

Remus, however, lifted his head to look at him with a furrowed brow.

"Elf magic," Sirius clarified.

"Ah." Remus relaxed to lay his head on James' chest once more. "How do you plan on tricking your father into freeing Kreacher?"

Siri looked to Regulus, who sighed. "Papan is ill, which is why we have to do this as soon as possible. Depending on how lucid he is, it may be as easy as putting a sock in his hand, asking him to hand it over, and having Kreacher be the one to take it."

"And Kreacher is okay with being freed?" Remus didn't know much about house elves, not having had one growing up, but judging by the ones in the kitchens, he couldn't imagine Kreacher would leave willingly.

"I told him that James' parents would take him. That way he can still serve Siri, who's adopted now, and I, who am SoulBonded to James. He would still be our elf; he just wouldn't have to serve Maman anymore. That's the important thing."

Remus lifted his head to look down at James. "Have you told your parents they're getting a house elf?"

James blinked up at him.

"I'll take that as a no." When James' eyes unfocused and started to water, Remus kissed his brow and gently asked, "Would you like me to write them?"

James shut his eyes tight against the welling tears and nodded. Remus accepted the notebook and biro from Siri, setting them on James' chest. He propped himself up and wrote a quick note to Maan and Dad, explaining both Kreacher's situation and why he was the one writing instead of James.

Not two minutes later, Remus gently tore the page from the notebook and passed it up to Regulus to review. Pushing the notebook back onto Siri's lap and chucking the pen at him, Remus laid back down against James.

Regulus nodded at the note and passed it to Siri, who folded it without reading it and tucked it in the notebook like a bookmark.

"Right. Now, Reggie, you get a message to Kreacher and let him know to come get us whenever he's sure Maman will be away. We're going to go post this and find Peter to see if he wants in. I say we all hang and sleep here until operation New Wardrobe is over."

"Operation New Wardrobe?" Remus raised an eyebrow without raising his head.

"Well, yeah," Sirius slid off the bed after Kingsley. "If it weren't for me wanting to raid his closet," he gestured at his brother, "This one wouldn't have even thought to free Kreacher."

With a flip of his hair, Siri spun on his heel and dragged Kingsley from the room.

Remus turned to look at Regulus and found him grimacing in shame. "Starshine?"

James' eyes fluttered open as he too tried to look up at Regulus. When Regulus avoided both their gazes, Remus moved off of James to sit bedside him against the headboard. James flipped over to nuzzle into Regulus' neck so that his face would turn toward Remus.

"Starshine?" Remus pushed a curl back from the boys' face. "Can you talk to us?"

Regulus opened and closed his mouth, shaking his head more to shake the thoughts than to say 'no' to Remus. Finally, he managed to say, "He's right."

"Who's right, Baby?" James' voice was muffled against Regulus' neck, and he shivered at the goosebumps James' breath left on his skin.

"Siri." Regulus' voice was soft, almost as if, if he could say it quiet enough, it wouldn't be true, "He's right. I didn't think about freeing Kreacher."

James pulled back to look at him. "Of course, you didn't. Kreacher didn't want to be free. He loves that house and your ancestors and all that stuff. You couldn't have freed him if you tried."

Regulus knew he was right, but he couldn't ignore the fact that the thought hadn't even crossed his mind.

"You were a bit preoccupied with your own safety, love." Regulus looked up to Remus. "Kreacher's a big boy. He's clearly been taking care of himself. And James is right, he wouldn't have let you free him before now."

A single tear rolled down Regulus' cheek and he closed his eyes. "I know... It's just... He was the first-"

He choked on a sob and Remus and James wrapped him tight in their arms.

"He was the first to-to call m-m-me Reg-" He collapsed into full-body sobs that wracked all three boys.

"Oh, love."

Both boys understood the significance of that. That Kreacher, who served his parents, was the first to recognize him—the first to call him by his chosen name—was monumental.

Remus felt a tear roll down his own cheek in empathy. To be recognized, especially in that house...

"We'll get him out, love. Don't you worry."

James was crying too, more from the sheer overwhelming flood of emotions that came at him in waves, only to leak right out of him again. By the time the three of them had settled, he was numb once more.

They wiggled and adjusted until they were all lying down. Remus pulled the covers up and closed the curtains before placing a kiss to both boys' heads.

"I love you."

"Love you."

"I love you, two."

[bracketsoffear]

The Narrator (Fruiting Bodies by RIP) CW for the music video: flashing lights, eyestrain, descriptions of body horror, mushrooms.

"The song 'Fruiting Bodies' basically describes the creation of a Corruption avatar, focusing on rot and decay rather than sickness. The opening lines get this across almost immediately:

"Oh, lately I’ve been awaking at night, out of breath and feeling scared I think I must be under attack, but nothing’s ever there Oh, I try to be the best version of me, so I push all the bad thoughts away" But, something snaps in the back of my mind, and I think about it anyway

She is kept awake at night by voices that she cannot discern the location of, and thoughts and feelings that are not hers. She describes it as an itch she wants so desperately to scratch, and people begin to get worried about her.

"A little fruiting body buds under my skin A trauma to the system’s all it needs to begin No, don’t come any closer! It’s a trick-trick-trick And it terrifies me morе than I intend to admit"

Mushrooms begin to grow under her skin, slowly sprouting the longer she survives. She describes her body as "rotting", and seems to give in to the corruption the longer the song goes on.

"The voices tell me something is hiding underneath the ground I repress my fright, and I cover my eyes and surrender myself to my fate The ones like me weren’t built to last…"

She starts to feel that she's not in the body she should be, that maybe the mushrooms are the answer to this dysphoria and she should begin to accept them. The next time she finds mushrooms, she describes them as "a tiny opportunity", and that she is now no longer able to cry.

"They’re coming after me, I can’t run away They hear me screaming in fear, they think it’s hilarious We’re coming after you, you can’t run away We hear you screaming in fear, isn’t it hilarious?"

The change in perspective during this verse comes from her own voice, and things begin to fully change. She's gaining memories she can't place, falling apart more and more to the corruption, and is fighting less and less.

"And a thousand fruiting bodies are spreading their pores It’s impossible to tell which ones are real anymore My organs and the colony will mix-mix-mix Now my body is the keeper of the roots in my core"

The entire song reads as a statement about the birth of a Corruption Avatar, one that slowly accepts her fate as the end of the song gets faster and faster."

Fur Beetles (The House) "A contractor (who happens to be a rat) throws his whole life and savings and loans into flipping a house hoping to earn himself a good life doing so, only to find out it's infested with a type of bug called a fur beetle, and their hairy, worm-like larva. He tries desperately to get them out and exterminate them so that he can sell this house, to no avail. Eventually, when he tries to show the house, two oddly bug-shaped rats show up and refuse to leave, obsessed with mold and chewing on fabric. And, eventually, they invite their whole giant family over as well. As he's despairing over this situation, fur beetles come out from his walls and ceiling, putting on a whole little song and dance number for him, just to taunt him.

He tries to chase them all out of his house with bug spray, only to make himself ill and sent to the hospital. The strange rats kindly pick him up and bring him home, where they and the rest of their family are throwing him a Welcome Home party, revealing that they're all strange beetle-rat hybrids, and they're not going anywhere. Soon, the house becomes a compete trashed pigsty, the beetle-rats devouring all the furniture, burrowing in the walls, and covering it all in filth. The contractor, still trapped there, loses it and seems to revert into a feral, animalistic rat, eating garbage and scurrying around in the house the beetles infested."

[candlecovewiki]

good evening fellas and WELCOME TO THE CANDLE COVE SEXYMAN TOURNAMENT

i decided it would be funny as hell to see who would come out on top as the sexyman of candle cove so im doing a silly little tournament for it

right so because i Am currently taking classes i will not be able to run this like a normal bracket so what im gonna do is that ill do one poll each day basically, just so it’s less chaotic and also because tumblr hates it when i spam tags with posts 😔 round 1 has about….. 12 brackets and will most likely start tomorrow or wednesday probably somewhere around 12-1 pm EST. you’ll have a day to get your votes in :]

BUT ANYWAYS here’s our brackets for round one! the brackets will be randomly generated each round. round one’s brackets are as follows:

nicola vs thade

horace vs henric

boar vs dr mort

manbearpig vs poppy

sariah vs philip 

lilian vs milo

kurt vs red mary 

susan vs conea

earl vs percy

dr heartfelt vs calvery

skintaker vs schot

sunny vs hans 

[fictionaladoptionpolls]

Kevin E. Levin

Age: 11 (nominally)

Home: NYC (Ben 10)

Likes: The X-Files, dogs, magical girlfriends

Dislikes: The law, the Omnitrix, car damage

Abilities: Several nouns followed with “absorption,” which the wiki thinks should count as distinct superpowers.

The Levin family household was poor, precarious, and probed by aliens. (Kevin’s mom and some Plumbers had fake memories of a Devin Levin implanted in their minds as part of a plan to manipulate the Plumbers; disruption of the Levin family was a byproduct.) Apparently unrelated to this, Kevin developed energy absorption abilities, which some people thought was freaky, which is possibly why his…stepfather(?) abused him. Anyways, eventually Kevin ran away from home and started stealing stuff.

(I don’t remember any of Kevin’s backstory from when I watched this series as a kid, TV Tropes is vague, the wiki scatters details across a dozen pages, and a bunch of Kevin-related stuff was retconned at least once.)

Anyways, Kevin ends up a delinquent urchin. He runs into Ben Tennyson, who becomes his friend, collaborator, and enemy in short order. (Shouldn’t have jumped straight from victimless warehouse theft to mass murder theft.) Accidentally absorbing a bunch of Ben’s alien watch’s energy, Kevin turned into a shapeshifting alien thing, and…you know, I’ll just show you what the submitter said about his backstory.

(NOT THE REBOOT) They put Kevin through so much. It’s like everytime the writers got bored, the just decided to put him through more traumatic events.they sent the mentally ill homeless 11 year old who didn’t understand his powers to adult space jail, where he suffered but found a mentor/father figure in one of his fellow inmates, who taught him how to control his powers. Later his mentor sacrifices himself,being killed by a guard, so Kevin can live and escape. He literally feels like it was his fault. I watch the show and I often find myself saying ‘oh, Kevin..’ like you would about a dog who keeps eating bees but doesn’t understand why it hurts. I think Ben 10 is anime enough to count, based the clear inspiration in storytelling and art style.

For the record, if I had to divide all animated series into Anime or Not Anime, Ben 10 would be borderline. That said, I explicitly specified an inclusive definition of “anime” in the bracket description…and Kevin is arguably the most anime character in the series. Once he gets out of space jail, Kevin becomes teen Ben’s Vegeta. Sure, he has a checkered past and used to be willing to murder people, and he still has a dark streak that puts him in contrast with Ben and Gwen, he’s trying to do good, and focuses most of his negative emotions on people who deserve to be hurt.

One neurosis that Kevin never seems to shake off his his self-loathing about the weirder expressions of his power. He sometimes gets physically mutated (especially when he absorbs Omnitrix energy), and that always fills him with a volatile mixture of aggression and depression. Also, he’s not great at thinking ahead. But once he learns not to hate people who aren’t himself, he means well.

Aside from Mx. NOT THE REBOOT, what does Tumblr think of Kevin?

I always felt kinda bad for Kevin, he had a rough life, and it seemed like even after he turned good he was always getting the short end of the stick. Like when he turned evil the second time, it was because he was saving the world.

So like, Osmosians are aliens in the first few series of Ben 10, and the Omnitrix takes DNA from the alien at the time it is first exposed. And they missed a huge joke that could have come from Ben trying to go for an alien only to turn into ELVEN YEAR OLD KEVIN while he is with both Kevin and Gwen.

I just think Kevin should get a pet rat and name it Argit, then train it to pick pocket.

(I know this profile is longer and more detailed than most. I had two reasons for this. First, I wanted to make sure anime purists gave him a fair shake. Second, and more importantly, I wanted to include that whole block of text without it being a significant percentage of the profile. It's currently 20%, which is…acceptable.)

[driflew]

hi it is six sentence sunday and i have... HOW IS THIS 12 SENTENCES. @ MY PAST SELF PUT THE COMMA AWAY GET AWAY FROM THAT EM DASH START USING PERIODS 

While the lantern allows Martyn to bring his god into most places, there are a few establishes that simply won’t budge. A particularly stubborn inn, for one, with an innkeeper who didn’t like Martyn’s cavalier attitude about alleged arsonist abilities. A festival of some kind, Martyn never actually figured out what—they’d had bunch of tents up, and the man charging the entry fee had been convinced Martyn’s claims of holy flame were, at best, the makings of a madman. 

Most places that bar Martyn entry are too uptight and paranoid, at least for Martyn’s tastes, and not worth the fight to get inside. The library, Martyn must admit, has some merit, and he would abandon his quest inside entirely if not for the fact it were for his god’s benefit. 

On the bright side, the man at the desk up front had at least been relatively accommodating about being asked to babysit Martyn’s lantern, even if he’d looked at Martyn like he was insane for asking.

Unlike most of what he does these days, Martyn hasn’t actually explained his mission to his god. He just doesn’t want to get his god’s hopes up—Research isn’t Martyn’s forte, and Martyn isn’t sure what writings would even exist on an isolated city god who died two decades prior. He’s not even sure if they’ll know of Dogwarts, let alone have record of the name of its god. 

Because that is Martyn’s mission—if his god can’t tell him who he is, then Martyn will have to look somewhere else. When Martyn had stumbled into [**TOWN NAME**], the first thing he’d heard had been boasts of a bustling archive, with records stretching nearly two centuries. If anywhere he’s encountered so far can tell him about his god, it’ll be here. 

i will name the fake town later. it’s not important. all you need is brackets sometimes it keeps from breaking your writing Flow. anyway, lamplight time! im stuck on heliography so im writing smth a bit later that hits a few beats ive been meaning to include

dunno when this one will be finished or if ill finish this or heliography ch2 first, but hey, cool fic stuff!

[d20brackets]

a few housekeeping notes

i have a lot of ideas about how to make this go smoother in the future now that im actually planning ahead and not just committing to this whole thing on a whim! ill be spending the rest of the day cleaning the blog up and getting the final bracket and master post made.

going forward, every post WILL have an image description. i apologize for not thinking of this sooner. unfortunately, i can’t go back and edit existing polls, but this will not be a problem in any future brackets

if anyone has any interest in joining this blog as a moderator, send me a message here or @looseduke letting me know what kind of stuff you’d like to be involved in! obviously this is all very informal, but i love this project and i want it to keep going even on the days when i personally cant make it happen. mostly what i need help with is proofreading (so i don’t do dumb things like forget every single starstruck odyssey character), housekeeping such as making master posts of poll links, and image descriptions. these details are the things that i have found most often bar me from meeting the deadlines, and sharing the work with someone would help immensely. alternatively, if we decide it works better, we could switch days. like i said, all super informal. if you’d like to try it out, let me know!

if enough people respond to the above, we could even run more then one poll at once!

anyway, thanks for everyone’s patience as i worked out the kinks of this whole thing. next bracket will likely begin monday 2/19 depending on how conclusive the poll results are. can’t wait to get started, see you then!

[falinscloaca]

absolutely fucking hilarious to me (aka i'm actually no joke mad whenever i think about it) that a "maligned" yuri bracket that as the creator admits started about lesser known or disliked femslash just about IMMEDIATELY derailed as soon as the creator allowed leniency for "oh well a lot of people seem under the impression that something is 'maligned' (synonyms: vilified, slandered, infamous) if its UNIVERSALLY FUCKING BELOVED by the fandom but the story itself gets in the way of it for reasons ranging from "author is a dipshit" (perhaps a valid reason to consider it maligned) to "its a fucking tragedy and the fact they can't just live happily is MEANT TO BE SEEN AS FUCKING SAD *YOU ARE THE DIPSHIT HERE*" so like, all these polls are just popularity anyway so who can say if "most popular out of a succession of lesser-known, shitty, not-shitty-but-people-act-like-it-is, etc" is any more meaningful than "literally just the most popular ship we put on the bracket. like you could've answered this without even doing the polls just go over the initial bracket and choose the most dedicated fanbase and extrapolate"" and now its just a succession of Farcille sweeping every single matchup despite the fact that i've never met a single fucking person worth caring about who actually dislikes it. like i assume the pervs who just write the usual isekai monster x innocent girl "fanart" (...did they even read it...?????? i kinda feel like they got maybe 2 volumes in lmao. fake fans) don't really care for it but who gives a shit about them they should die. its not unpopular in the slightest aside from *probably* i assume overexposure or the one sad little laios x marcille shipper sitting in the corner who doesn't simultaneously also ship farcille in that kinda wierd freudian-isn't-the-right-word way that makes my stomach churn. FUCK THESE SENTENCES BRO WHY DO I WRITE LIKETHIS ok i wrote ahead but didn't address a point bc i my skull turned off but- Farcille doesn't even get like, morality discoursed much??? Like theres always those ships out there which are popular but get picked apart for potential patterns of abuse or unhealthy behavior or if you *think* about it Adora and Catra were both raised by the same (nonconsentually adoptive) parental figure which can make it incest Which Is An Argument That I Struggle With Completely Disregarding Because Of The Subset Of Incest Shippers That Do In Fact Take It That Way (But As A Positive), y'know. that kinda shit. Not even getting into the cases where a ship is more unambiguously fucking bad on a morality standpoint fandom popular or not. I could use this opportunity to soapbox but I won't.

hell even some of the contestants that actually have some leg to stand on are still an ill fit - kyosaya is from Madoka, which means that while fans can feel whatever way they please there Is a certain malicious element to their existence which isn't just excusable as "part of the tragedy/conflict", but its STILL one of the two "heavy hitter" ships outta the original series's fanbase (i don't know dick all about magia record). HELL madohomu at least gets the "is there discourse about it being dysfunctional/abusive/one-or-the-other-involved-painted-as-a-predator" treatment, despite being like... THE relationship the series itself fucking circles around. idk maybe madohomu was in there and i didn't notice. still wouldn't really fit though (maybe back in 2014....)

anyways delia x jessie would belong on there more than like 90% of the bracket just for the "they're basically canon" sweep-kerfuffle (if they WERE in this bracket. lol lmao that'd be hilarious actually wonder who they lost to)

[magicalwarriorbattleroyale]

TY FOR TAKING PART :D

this was really fun for me, I know that the cast gets a good amount of votes on other polls but I also have seen quite a few people who voted solely based on things like "well Clover IS purple… AND has a hammer!" or "IDK who Val is but she's cute and black so" So I ddidn't know for sure how much ppl will participate lol. Plus I know the MWDH fanbase is still pretty small all things considered, and despite how arrogant I might act, inside my expectations are often a lot lower than I show on the outside lol. So seeing even more than like a hundred votes is always really cool.

Some of the battles were really surprising. I picked the round one match-ups on a mix of randomization and my better judgement on which characters I thought would be a fair match against. Although with less Crystal Warriors on the bracket, it did make it difficult to chose who Valerie would go up against LOL. I said a few times on my personal accounts that I wanted a final match up to be Clover up against Valerie or Zacharie. I felt that Zacharie is one of the more beloved characters and the possibility existed that they'd make it. I didn't think Zacharie actually would to be honest... I wasn't confident they could get past Val lol. But I really didn't expect her to sweep so HARD lmaooo. I also briefly forgot what kind of community I have been fostering, namely you people are GOOFY AS HELL!!! I did NAWT expect the frog to get as far as it did, And I thought Liam would at least die with dignity lmao. and I kind of feel bad for Ethan now. his second match was mean 😭... I 100% didn't think Liam would make it to the finals but since Liam vs Clover is the true rivals duo, i had to make sure the opportunity existed. They wouldn't want it any other way. If I had been 100% sure Alex was getting in, I'd have matched him with Liam instead at the start, but during the matching I had Alex's spot listed as "reserved" in case I ended up having Diana in his plac.

I feel like Val's mom against Clover in round 1 might seem silly to some but Val's mom is like, surprisingly popular lol. She had a fair shot imo, and honestly? She did pretty well. it's not like she was totally demolished. And I definitely made the correct choice to put Val opposite to Clover, I think if anyone would be a fair match it would be them for the finals. I think maybe the frog was the only other one who coulda done it, because you people are jokesters.

Anyways ill do more polls here since there are characters that didnt get in, and I'm sure the results will change as more episodes will release lmao. I'll also just use this as a general poll account so I can keep the main mwdh account clean, and I might post other magical girl polls here bc this is my account and I can do that :p