#at least columns are cool and interesting

[ninibeingdelulu]

How he react when you…

ft. michael kaiser, rin itoshi, sae itoshi, meguru bachira, ryusei shidou, oliver aiku, seishiro nagi

How he react when you kiss/lick/nibble his earlobe/neck/jaw.

Michael Kaiser -

That silent, stoic striker wouldn't let on how affected he is at first. But you'd definitely feel his breath hitch and muscles tense up as a delicious shiver courses through him. After recovering his composure with a subtle throat clearing, Michael would tilt his head, gaze burning with reinvigorated hunger as he claims your lips in a searing, demanding kiss. His big hands would yank you flush against that powerful frame as the passion rapidly spirals out of control.

Rin Itoshi -

The prodigious forward would probably squeak out a scandalized yelp at the initial intimate contact against such a sensitive area. His cheeks would instantly blaze crimson as those pretty blue-green eyes go comically wide. But the more you lavished attention there, Rin would instinctively squirm closer, breath escaping in ragged pants. Before you know it, he'd twine those toned arms around your neck, eagerly reciprocating the affection with shy yet thorough kisses peppering along your jaw.

Sae Itoshi -

As complex and unpredictable as Sae Itoshi's personality tends to be, his initial reaction would likely be...blank indifference, at least outwardly. But those cunning hazel eyes would sharpen with distinct interest at your bold move. He might hum an amused rumble low in his throat before nonchalantly cupping your face to guide you back to that sensitive spot, silently encouraging you to continue mapping every inch with your lips and tongue.

Meguru Bachira -

That cheeky little firecracker definitely wouldn't hold back his vocals at the abrupt intimate stimulation. A strangled whine would rapidly dissolve into unrestrained moans rumbling from his chest as you worked over that tender flesh. Pretty soon those sinfully long lashes would flutter with unbridled arousal, and Bachira would seize a fistful of your hair, arching shamelessly into each sensual caress until he captured your mouth in a frantic, open-mouthed clash of teeth and roving tongue.

Ryusei Shidou -

The cool-headed sniper would undoubtedly attempt to maintain some thin veneer of nonchalance despite your smoldering efforts rapidly tearing it to shreds. Ryusei's piercing gaze would lidded with pleasure as a low, throbbing groan tumbled past those sculpted lips. You'd feel his pulse hammering erratically beneath your palms until finally, one of those nimble hands cards through your hair to tilt your head aside, granting Ryusei unfettered access to return the fervent favor against the sensitive column of your own throat.

Oliver Aiku -

Confident yet empathetic, Oliver would likely wear a lopsided smirk brimming with appreciation for your brazen display of intimacy. He'd shower plenty of praise and endearments amidst the heated kisses scattered along your jawline while one of those sculpted arms bands securely around your waist. The other hand would tenderly cradle the nape of your neck, thumb caressing idle patterns into your skin as his honeyed rumbles of gratification reverberate straight down your spine.

Seishiro Nagi -

That quietly intense striker's sharp intakes of indrawn breath would be your first clue he's restraining volcanic passion bubbling just beneath that stoic facade. Nagi's granite stare would smolder intensely as your thorough ministrations gradually unravel his preternatural composure. Whiplash fast, those calloused yet reverent palms would cup your face, guiding you into an almost bruising clash of lips and questing tongues before the inferno consumes you both entirely.

[cyanhydrangea]

The Programmer's Help [Bayverse Donatello x Reader]

Summary: Donnie helps his fellow scientist Reader with his invention

Notes: written in first person POV

'Sample number fourty one. Leaf number three. Length: seven point five. Width: four point three.'

I type the measurements in centimeters on my laptop quickly before I forget them. I sigh when I see the rest of the samples I need to take measurements of. It's dark already and I have no idea when this data recording will be finished.

At least the night cityscape view from my rooftop is beautiful, it refresh my non-stop working brain for a moment.

I heard light footsteps approaching me from behind and I take a look. I'm guessing Donnie makes his presence obvious for me to not startle me. He could have move quietly unnoticed if he wanted to, he's a ninja, after all.

"Hey, Don"

"Hey", Donnie looking at behind me and pointed, "Are those the plants installations for your research you told me?"

"Yeah, they're cool, right?"

"Very," he moved closer to the installations and we're now standing next to each other. "Piper betle, interesting" Donnie observe the plants.

I let Donnie take a look on my plants installations as I continue to measure the next sample. Sample number fourty two. Leaf number one. Length: eight point one. Width: five point three.

As I finished typing on my laptop and about to take another measurements, I see Donnie giving me a smug grin.

"What?"

"You record them manually?" Donnie ask me still with that smug face.

"I mean, I don't have any other choices??"

"Luckily for you," Donnie showing me a flash drive, "Once you told me you have to record one hundred sixty two leaf samples every once in a week, I made a software to help you record data in your spreadsheet using voice command so you don't have to type them manually"

I gasped, "How does it work!?"

Donnie take over my laptop to install the software.

"Try it" Donnie handed it back to me when he finished.

"Sample fourty two", the cell in row fourty two and column 'sample' is automatically selected and typing 42 by itself.

I paused in awe.

"Leaf number two, length eight point one", the selected cell automatically moved to row fourty two and column 'length' and '2', typing 8.1 by itself.

I look at donnie in disbelief.

"Donnie, you're a livesaver! Thank you soo much!"

The programmer smile proudly, "No problems"

"Hold up, there's no way I'm gonna get this for free. What can I do for you?"

Donnie thinks for awhile, "Lend me books from your university library?"

"Deal"

I'm not a programmer so forgive me for any inaccuracies.

#CyanHydrangea

Date Written: 05/02/2024

[dior-luxury]

I read that fic about reader telling some twst boys they're prettier than Vil and I'm living for it! Could I have the same concept but with ADeuce, Epel, Trey, and Malleus? Thnx!

More Pretty Than The Queen

( ✧ ) ────── 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 . 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐚 - 𝐬𝐡𝐞/𝐡𝐞𝐫 .

- [𝐜𝐡.] ace trappola . deuce spade . epel felmier . trey clover . malleus draconia - [𝐩:𝐬] none!

#Ace Trappola

Ace would be the same way when receiving compliments, except he mostly acts as if he knows already. He only does that to try to make him look cool in your eyes.

But when Ace uses that method, he says it in a way that could shatter your interest in him; or at least that could go one way.

The other version of how this whole idea would go is, You would randomly say it catching him by surprise.

"Could you repeat that?" He says with a slight tone of sarcasm.

He patiently waits for your response as he tries to hold in his laughter.

One of Ace´s basketball games ended with a rival school, who we´ll say is RSA. He lets out a huge sigh of relief as he makes his way to one of the benches, that´s right in front of where you sitting.

He opens his eyes wide open as he stops in front of the bench to see you sitting on the bottom column right in front of him. A wide grin spreading on his face, ¨Did you see me out there Y/N? I was cool right?¨

You nod as you pay your attention to his hair, ¨Y/N~ Why are you looking at my hair-¨

¨ I think I like this hairstyle way better. Makes you look hotter than Vil no?¨

An annoying grin comes up onto his face, as he leans closer to your face, leaving only inches apart. He crosses his arms locking his eyes with you.

¨ Y/N- I- You're suddenly in a flirty mood today huh?" A red hue covers his face as he realizes the closeness between you two.

#Deuce Spade

Deuce generally has never really comprehended how to act after someone just complimented him. He only usually accepts them with an unsure smile on his face.

His heart nearly stops as you utter the most breathtaking compliment.

-

It was the end of the first period as you look at the clock. You’re so wrapped up in your thoughts that you’re surprised when you hear someone shout your name.

"Y/N are you coming?" Deuce says as he stops mid-way from getting up from his chair.

"Oh yeah- Sorry." The both of you walk out of the classroom and you stare at Deuce in awe.

"Have you gotten prettier? I swear... you're more pretty than Vil."

"I-I don't think so."

He looks to the side as a red hue spreads on his face, "But if you say it... I might believe it."

#Epel Felmier

Epel probably handles compliments depending on his surroundings.

For Example: In the vicinity of the Pomefiore dorm he would try and be as masculine as possible because, a) vil could be near and he doesn't want to be seen as weak by him, or b) there are too many people starring at the two of you.

-

A pink hue of blushes covers his whole face, to the point where his skin tone turns into a light shade of pink. An uneasy smile puts together all his cute features.

Widened aqua-blue eyes look at you in shock as he blanks out, every single part of his body freezes in place. It took some words from your mouth to get Epel out of this state.

As he gets out of this embarrassing state he's in, he folds his hand in a tight fist alongside his chest area. Instead, a stern and serious face gathers on his features.

Blush still is formed around his face as he then scrunches his eyebrows, suddenly trying to look all tough-looking and masculine.

He can't let himself look all weak! What if Vil's around? He can't let himself be a scene in this state, he's trying to prove he's not weak to him y'know!

He's broken out of his wondering state of thinking as he's met with your confused eyes. Epel breaks out into a mini-state of panic as he realizes how wrong he came off.

"Th-Thank you for your compliment Y/N, it's my fault for expressing my emotions in a.. confusing way!" He exclaims as he quickly breathes in, bowing to you with a hand over his chest.

"I'm glad you think I'm more handsome than Vil!!" Epel's voice sounds like he's almost screaming from the amount of passion in his voice.

#Trey Clover

Trey is taken back for sure, him? More handsome and prettier than Vil? Why he doesn't know if he could believe that if he tried!

You reassure him that what he just heard was correct, he's a shy-stuttering mess. Trey thinks of himself as a completely average guy with average looks, not anything close to the image of Vil Schoenheit.

-

He tries to choke out words from his mouth, but his racing heart says otherwise. Someone needs to make sure Trey doesn't have a heart attack from how fact his heart is going.

Trey chokes out a rushed 'thank you' as he tries to calm down his pulsating heart.

His hand clenches his chest as sweat drips down his rose-colored face.

"Y/N, you said that so suddenly, once again thank you, darling."

#Malleus Draconia

Argue all you want with me but... Malleus can be cocky from any sort of affection you try and give him. (⌒▽⌒)♡

He finds it mostly amusing and endearing how you think of him in those ways.

Malleus can't help that he thinks you are the cutest when you come up to him and say it directly to his face. His light up in such curiosity, he's glad to inspect such an interesting person.

A smile appears on his lips as a warm atmosphere drifts around the air. More handsome than thee 'Vil Schoenheit' huh? It flatters him, to say the least.

His eyes gleam with such flirty intent, he then puts his finger under your chin and lifts your head.

"Y/N~ Child of man, you wanna repeat that?"

A cocky smile forms on his lips as he stares at you with narrow eyes, waiting for your answer.

"Just going to stay silent huh? Fair. Now come, I want you to show me how much you think of how pretty am I~"

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #42

Batgirl (2000) #21 - December 2001 Writer: Kelley Puckett……….Pencils: Damion Scott Inks: Robert Campanella…..Colors: Gregory Wright

My short break turned into a 6 month hiatus, but the first issue of the new Cass Batgirl run releasing tomorrow (at time of writing this) has finally given me the push to start this project up again. While this isn't the most consequential issue to come back to, it is a good one, and it has Stephanie in it, and references og Cass's initial dynamic with Shiva, which is topical since the new book will at least start with a focus on modern Cass's relationship with her mother.

Most of the usual team here this time, only we have a different Wright on the colors than usual. Which did give me a brief moment of panic that I'd been attributing colors to the wrong person, but no, most of the previous issues specifically credit Jason Wright, but this one specifically credits Gregory.

The issue opens with Cass preparing for a training routine, and I have to point out that the evolution of Damion Scott's art style that I brought up in a reply to a post that was going around recently (link) regarding inconsistency in Cass's appearance was already well underway by issue 21 of her ongoing.

The training sequence itself is pretty extreme as Cassandra demolishes dozens of dummies and a few (potentially load bearing?) stone columns in her cave...

Before nearly taking Spoiler's head off and making herself sick with the effort of stopping her own punch and/or the realization of what almost just happened. It's a cool-then-funny sequence which also reinforces how Cassandra is capable of absolutely destroying people, but that she very much doesn't want to actually hurt anyone, traits that will of course be key to events later in the issue because Kelley Puckett is just good like that.

Anyway, Steph is here because Babs sent her to get Cass and bring her to the Clock Tower, since Cass wasn't responding to calls while engrossed in her hours-long training regimen.

*I wish I didn't have to, Mirthful Mike.

But yeah, this issue is a sort of tie in to Joker: Last Laugh, a miniseries / crossover event from 2001 that frankly I didn't much care for. Unfortunately we'll have to look at an issue from the main miniseries run next time, but for the moment Bab's summary is all that needs to be relevant for the current issue.

The more interesting thing going on in the same panel is the little exchange between Babs and Cass about whether Cass has been studying her super villain files. With Cass answering 'no' in a kind of embarrassed way, which Barbara reads as Cass being embarrassed about not doing her homework, something Babs obviously things Cass ~should~ be doing but that she's kind of given up on Cass ever caring enough ~to~ do, with Cass just not caring about the part of the job that she's not good at / the part of the job that Barbara does. It's a whole thing., and a point of tension that at this point in the comic is slowly building and then later will be forgotten about and unmentioned for a huge run of issues and then even later than that will explode out of nowhere. Again with my recurring comment about this book being fantastic on the build up of character arcs and not as great on the follow through.

BUT ANYWAY, Babs is completely misreading this situation, because Cass isn't embarrassed because she think she's been caught not doing something she should, she's visibly embarrassed (love the art from Scott here, again with managing a very expressive Cass despite being in the full face covering mask) because she thinks she's been caught doing something she shouldn't.

One of the first rules Bruce gave her was 'no costumed criminals'. She's not supposed to be fighting supervillains or metahumans or any other weirdos with special abilities or gimmicks that might invalidate her body-reading ability, which we've already established is her primary and near only defensive skill. At least, that's the in universe justification for why this book mostly avoids big scenery chewing bad guys who would otherwise distract from the intended tone and core themes.

Now, Bruce would have intended that as "don't fight them, but absolutely study them so you know what you're dealing with if you have do", but Cass is very much the sort of kid who would have heard that as 'supervillains are entirely off limits, I don't want you to fight them, or look at them, or even think about them', like the whole subject is a taboo - one she'll absolutely break, but that she'll feel guilty about breaking and try to hide from authority figures, because that's how she deals with guilt in general, lying (poorly) about it, trying to hide it. Because she doesn't think she deserves to be Batgirl, so she's completely insecure about it and sure she's going to be fired the moment anyone sees through her.

And that's especially the case given the reason she's been so carefully studying the particular supervillains she has - super powered martial artists. The same reason she's been training so hard that she's destroying her cave, missing calls from Barbara, and nearly killing unexpected guests who wander into her sessions, but that's a subject the comic comes back to later.

This habit / character flaw / broken coping mechanism of lying to hide guilt (misplaced or otherwise) is just so compelling to me. The way the lies taint every relationship, distancing the character from anyone they should be able to rely on, the way the they inevitably build up as the character feels guilty about the lies themselves and makes up more lies to hide that, like a matryoshka doll, or a tower of cards waiting to fall, the way that by the time other characters start pulling on the strings thinking they know what's going on there's a usually a cascade of revelations each more shocking than the last. Alphys in Undertale is a prime example of this.

The disaster when everything falls apart is usually the best part of this dynamic, and sadly Batgirl (2000) will choose to subvert that part (again, fantastic set up, but never quite following through), but we aren't there yet.

Anyway, it's just a couple short lines of dialog across as many panels sharing space with a blunt info-dump, but it's a really good character beat speaking to both Cass's flaws - the whole lying and hiding anything she feels guilty about - and Barbara's - assuming she already knows what's going on and not digging any further or following up (which only enables Cass's lying and hiding) because the reason she assumes makes her annoyed and angry (which Cass of course picks up on, reinforcing her feelings of guilt and insecurity).

It's a complicated and unhealthy dynamic between two people that otherwise genuinely love each other, and the tension and angst that comes from that is also fantastic.

The original Cass Cain Batgirl run was full of this drama that comes from making these variously maladjusted characters care about each other and exploring the fraught relationship dynamics that result. That more than anything else is what made Batgirl (2000) great and that post-flashpoint Cass has been lacking (the parts I've read anyway, still need to get around to that Outsiders run). Even my constant complaints about the flanderization of latter day David Cain basically boil down to this, because original Cass's relationship with Cain was overflowing with this sort of tension.

Anyway, that's a ton of talk about two panels, lets see if I can rush through the rest of the issue a bit more quickly...

...

So Babs gives a reason why Cass and Steph aren't wanted in this otherwise all-hands-on-deck emergency situation, a reason that's a little bit dumb, but way less dumb than the reason we'll get next time, and Cass says she's fine with it, which takes Babs by surprise. You can see the fight she was ready to have about it, you can see how confused she is when Cass just says OK, because again Scott is just so good at these facial expressions. Babs, or at least this version of her, is susceptible to making inaccurate assumptions about people, about Cass in particular, but she's a smart enough cookie to notice when Cass acts outside of those assumptions and start questioning whether something else is going on.

So Cass goes to train in Bab's star trek holodeck (I admit that thing was a bit too sci fi for a gotham book for my tastes), and refuses to let Steph sit in, which calls back the scene earlier to reinforce it in the readers memory before what happens later.

The power goes out, and Cass comes out sheepishly, this miserable look on her face (again! So good!), because she thinks she broke the holo room, and there's no way to hide & lie her way around that, but the problem isn't Cass...

It's this guy, Shadow Thief (jokerized), a villain I know nothing about and have never seen or read outside of this comic. He's got some weird tech that, I think, drains electricity from nearby devices to make himself (but not his weapons) intangible?

Scott draws him in an extra exaggerated, cartoony, and rubbery style, which works here to emphasize his weird powers and/or jokerization, but does kind of foreshadow how all of his comic art starts to look more like that over time - which again isn't bad (as you can see in the panel here it actually looks pretty cool), but I still prefer the earlier style.

Anyway, Shadow Thief also a notable supervillain martial artist, so Cass actually has been studying his files, and knows exactly how to deal with him -

Catching the throwing stars he throws at them with her fingers (look at her smile! She's loving this!)

Throwing out some cocky banter to play on his ego

Grabbing his very tangible sword to draw him to the roof so Babs and Steph aren't caught in their fight.

All great stuff.

And yeah, Barbara has absolutely picked up that somethings going on with Cass. Eventually it will be revealed that she just already knows about the fight with Shiva, and I don't think we ever see how she found out, but this is pretty clearly where she started to suspect something and it's not too much of a stretch to jump from that initial suspicion to just knowing everything, at least not with this character.

Even without his sword, Shadow Thief has special martial arts techniques that somehow let him sort of hit things despite his Shadow Field making him intangible....

And now Cass does, too.

One of the usual principles of early Batgirl (2000) - no supervillains - serves to keep the focus tight on the more emotional themes of the book. Cass is so far out of the league of any of the typical criminals she runs up against that fights are always over in a flash, keeping action scenes short and punchy and leaving more space in the book for other things. But it is nice, every once in a while, to make an exception for a more drawn out and elaborate fight scene like this, where Cass can really show her skills.

But the real drama of this issue happens when Babs finds a way to remotely deactivate Shadow Thief's intangibility field mid battle. That 'oh, shit' face is so good.

All Cass's joy gone in an instant. She was having so much fun. She was so happy to have a real opponent she could cut loose on instead of inanimate dummies or holograms. Someone good enough to keep up with her, and with a defensive ability effective enough that she could put her full skills to use without having to worry about actually hurting them. Yeah, Shadow Thief's a villain, but they were playing with each other, trading banter. Having fun. Despite Shadow Thief's murderous intent, this was almost more of a friendly sparring match than a real fight.

But once again she gets a stark reminder of what her skills were originally meant for, what she was originally meant for. Earlier in the issue Cass was throwing up at the thought that she even could have hurt Stephanie, and now she probably killed this guy. And there won't be any hiding this - forget what might happen if Bruce finds out about the guy she murdered as a child, he 100% is going to find out about this man that she murdered, on the roof of Barbara's safe house, while wearing his symbol. Her entire life is falling apart, here.

But Stephanie is here. And helps Cass save him. Helps her save herself.

And of course Cass wants to hide what happened from Barbara. And of course Stephanie, being a good friend, keeps her secret, even if it probably would have been better to talk to Barbara about what happened and what Cass is feeling about it. Then again, if Babs knew it might have gotten back around to Bruce, and that ~wouldn't~ have been a healing conversation.

And the issue ends with a Flashback to Cass agreeing to fight Shiva, a real fight, to the death, using all of their killing skills. An bargain struck many issues back, so this is the reminder to readers that the fight is coming up soon, only a few issues away now. The final page is this panel of Cass back in her cave, with Shiva's file open, a video recording of her fighting on loop, as Cass sits with her face in shadow. She isn't going to fight to kill Shiva. She can't. So Shiva is absolutely going to kill her.

So yeah, a strong issue to come back to, catching us up on the overal serial plot of the book at the time, but also strongly grounded in original Cass's core emotional themes and the intricate dynamics of some of her core relationships, including now to Stephanie, with this being a huge early moment of vulnerability from Cass and support from Steph pushing them from like work friends who pal around some times to real friends who rely on each other.

And despite making exceptions to include a super villain and extended fight scene and callback to an ongoing serial narrative arc, this issue still mostly adheres to the core early Batgirl (2000) playbook.

It tells a complete story in a single issue; tightly focused on Cass's core character themes, motivations, and frought, layered relationships; expressed mostly through the artwork with relatively minimal reliance on dialog and even less on narration, with an overall sombre or even tragic tone punctuated with moments of levity or heartfelt human connection.

I'm writing this before having a chance to read the first issue of Cass's new ongoing, but more than anything else, more than reverting her canon to the pre-flashpoint history (which I don't even want, post-flashpoint Cass is a new character and I'm sure she has fans who care about her as much as I cared about original Cass), even more than restoring the original version of David Cain, what I hope for most from the new book is a return to this kind of storytelling.

[nerves-nebula]

I fucking adore your comic panelling, any advice on how to do it? Like specific ratios or ways to divide the page?

god there's so much advice i COULD give but i really dont wanna end up writing a book here. so I guess I'll say this: however you divide the page you should be CONSISTENT with it, i literally just learned/internalized this but it's made comic paneling soo much easier. when you break that consistency it will be more impactful. hold up lemme grab some pages.

so i recently started making loose stitches a 4 tier comic. it's not the exact same for each page cuz i'm lazy but i think it's made legibility way better. before i think it was kinda uhhhhh a little all over the place. not BAD but a little difficult to tell where your eyes supposed to go sometimes. which isnt great for a commic.

the page on the left in particular has always bothered me cuz i always read the top panels incorrectly and it's like. fuck man what is the paneling here why is it in two columns ????? that's so hard to understand. but the page on the right can be more or less easily understood (by someone who knows how to read comics) even without panel borders because it's just a simple 4 panel square.

one thing my comic professor really stressed was that he didn't like weird paneling or weird borders. for the most part, a square is fine. AND HE'S RIGHT. weird paneling is fun and cool but should be used sparingly or with intention, cuz if you do it too much then like. how tf are ppl gonna read your comic.

that being said there are a lot of cool ways to cut up panels even if they're just squares hold on lemme grab some examples

so the panels here are all square but the image in the one at the bottom is almost like a mural. one thing i really like to using is a lot of heavy BLACK, what can i say silhouette's have my entire heart.

in my fable comic, I used a 3 tier system. it wasn't the same exact size across all pages but all pages had 3 tiers of paneling. that way i can be a little more flexible with the SIZE of the panels to emphasize the more important things, without it feeling like it's all over the place

meanwhile in my comic final i used a 4 tier system where each tier was nearly the same across every page, but you can collapse tiers together for establishing shots and big reveals so that they're more impactful. it's still fully within the grid system I set up so it doesn't feel like it's messing with shit either.

ok i just spent a lot of time rambling about this one particular concept and it's probably not even what you wanted to hear about :') i didnt even go into ratios or anythinggg guhhhh sowwy

other than all that i'd just say you gotta keep looking at what comic artists have written and take note of how they use space and cut things up. there's this book called How To Read Nancy and it has all these exercises for understanding the building blocks of nancy. for real the author is OBSESSIVE and goes through everything of a 3 panel nancy strip from body language to spot blacks to the minutia of the background. we used this book in my class and did some of the exercises in the back and i think it's really good at getting you to THINK about what you're drawing. and you can easily pirate it if you're broke.

also try to make sure things dont get stagnant on a page. zoom out if you're only doing close ups (i try to make sure every page of loose stitches has at least one full body shot even tho I'm lazy and wanna just do talking heads- talking heads arent interesting!!)

also, take advantage of the fact you're drawing a COMIC. you can do shit in comics that you can't do in other mediums, try to implement them when u can! ALSO PRACTICE. you're not gonna get better just by reading and watching. you gotta do it lol. ok ok that's enough and you didn't even ask for that stuff you asked about PANELING sfdasfsd byeee

[madmaxified]

dc super hero girls ( 2019 ) swap au because I have no self control. it’s essentially just a role swap of the villain group and the hero’s ( and batman with the joker, mostly for narrative )

the hero ( formerly villain ) group themselves are INCREDIBLY unorthodox, mostly because none of them other than harleen and selina ever wanted to do something for other people before, they were mostly using their powers for selfish reasons ( not evil ones, just for personal gain ) so even though they’re all learning to be better people they’re not super well liked by the general public because of their destructive and frankly dangerous methods ( mostly adults hate them, other teenagers think they’re the coolest ) they’re referred to as vigilantes more rather than actual heroes

harleen swaps with babs, she still retains her canon personality she’s less apathetic, and genuinely cares deeply for a lot of her friends. she still loves playing pranks and practical jokes, but she’s less rowdy and rambunctious in the beginning, especially when she meets new people, mostly because she’s now really worried about making a good impression and not getting into too much trouble. rather than her dad taking a new job in metropolis, harleen got expelled from gotham high for playing a big prank ( it’s a running gag that no one but babs knows what it was ) and her dad was so pissed that she got kicked out of the only high school in gotham that he kicked her out. she lied about her address to her address to get into metropolis high, and she’s really trying her best to do well in school, and like diana was in canon, she was kinda just homeless for a bit. since the joker is a superhero in this universe, harley quinn ( a superhero name the others poke fun at sometimes because of how obvious it is ) is a crime fighting vigilante

selina swaps with diana, she isn’t an amazonian or anything ( that’s still diana ) but instead she’s more of a robin hood type character pre canon. she’d steal from banks or take valuables and sell them on the black market and give the money to people and families who need it, which isn’t an amazing tactic, but her intentions were good. she didn’t have any real interest or intention in starting a superhero group or actually fighting any crime before harleen brings up the idea, but she has been keeping a close eye on a couple girls ( pam, leslie, doris, carol ) at school that she thinks might have superpowers. once the group is formed she is the leader, mostly because she has the most battle iq / experience. like diana, she is the one leading the main training in the beginning, and though she’s the elected ‘leader’ she’s not really the mom of the group. she does care deeply about her team though, and she does try her best to keep them safe. she’s the least destructive member of the team because of how practiced she is at sneaking in and out of places without getting caught but she’s one of the most disliked because of catwoman’s already existing presence pre show, her intentions were good, but robbing banks is bad

the rest of the girls are less obvious swaps, it’s mostly just the villains are now heroes and the heroes are now villains

leslie is the more tech savvy one ( like karen ) she’s actually super smart which comes as shock to people based on her punk looks ( she hates when people say she doesn’t look like she’d enjoy math or science ) she’s not a bully anymore, instead, like kara she’s more sarcastic and just pokes fun at people, though it she takes it too far with people she cares about she’s very quick to apologize. she’s the one who is put under ra’s’ spell ( she’s still super punk guys OF COURSE she loved the league of shadows ) and her lighting gets all red and stuff and she looks super cool. she’s actually part of school newspaper, since she’s nicer, she doesn’t run a gossip column ( though she’s constantly BEGGING lois to let her start one ) she’s instead a field reporter, who always manages her to somehow get the inside scoop and really good pictures ( she’s hiding out the in tech guys ) also her and doris are one hundred percent going out

doris is more the mom of the group, she’s no longer a bully and instead uses her strength to defend people she cares about / beat the shit out of people she doesn’t like, she gets in trouble a lot because she’s constantly beating up kids at school who make fun of pam. her and pam are really close because their parents are both scientists and they grew up hanging out at labs together. both of them were experimented on by their parents, and have been aware of eachothers powers for a while. she’s super over protective of the others in the group, mostly pam ( because they’re basically sisters ) leslie ( cause they’re going out ) and harleen ( because harleen’s always putting herself into harms way ) she’s quite literally the type to just grab her friends and walk away with them tucked under her arms if she feels that something isn’t safe, despite their protesting. she’s the world’s biggest man hater ever, she gets pissed off so much if a guy says something misogynistic to her or her friends, her powers act ho so much it’s not even funny

carol is still the overemotional one of the group, though it’s mostly because her ring is more connected to strong emotions rather than love, but because she still not super sure how to control her ring yet ( none of the others really know what to do either so they’re all just trying their best ) so whenever her friends, or anyone else around her frankly, are feeling something really strong it effects her pretty deeply. she’s not obsessed with hal, though they are still exes, but him being a shitty boyfriend is one of the reasons she became so intune with her ring in the first place. she’s like the opposite of a therapist friend, in the sense of she’s a friend constantly trying to give therapy but also needs it more than anything. her and thaal are the definition of ‘twink and in denial lesbian’ friendship ( and she totally doesn’t dump to him about how hot she thinks lois lane is, even if she is trying to uncover the identities, they’re essentially this aus barry and babs ) she’s still a hopeless romantic, and is constantly gushing to the others about her ‘dream’ guy ( and theyr all like ‘carol you dumb lesbian my god!’ )

pam is basically the same, other than the fact that she’s less inclined to use her powers, mostly because she’s scared to. she really only goes into poison ivy form when she desperately needs to photosynthesize and when she’s either completely alone or with doris. her parents exterminated on her when she was little, and because of that fact that they literally turned her into a walking plant she’s completely incapable of eating plants ( people just think she has a weird medical condition ) though she’s still anti social, she does quite enjoy the company of a select few people. when she does finally agree to join the others in becoming a super hero, she really only does it / participates in certain crimes to try and help the environment. it isn’t until she and harley come face to face with batgirl that she finally starts using her powers to actually fight. she’s also less anti social, she still doesn’t have many friends, but it’s mostly because she’s shy and not because she doesn’t want them ( her and karen have basically swapped personalities ) she’s very much the sweetest member of the group ( leslie, doris and her are literally simon, alvin and theodore )

diana is a lot more like her aunt antiope, she spent a lot more time with her as a child and so she’s a lot more reckless and carefree. she doesn’t really care that much about her teammates, and to her they’re really just pawns she uses to achieve her goals and help her have a good time. she’s still new to metropolis, having just arrived at the time of the first episode, but rather than wanting to protect the world of man, she instead just wants to cause problems, have fun and possibly grow rich. antiope sent her the the human world willingly, because in this universe she’s the older sister and is the queen of the amazonians, rather than diana’s mom. she’s less academic and way more sporty, a trait she’s picked up from her aunt since she never really had to study when she was younger. diana is incredibly manipulative in this au, almost every member of her group was manipulated into joining by her, and it continues as long as they remain part of the group

( bonus : the episode #thewarriorandthejester plays out basically the same, including diana figuring out harleen is harley quinn. during nightmare in gotham diana is present, and when harley’s tied up on the roof she reveals to babs that harleen is harley )

babs’ dad is still commissioner gordon, but she instead idolizes batman, and since batman’s a bad guy in this universe, so is babs ( she’s just extra careful about keeping her identity a secret ) like in canon, babs is extremely hyperactive, but in this universe it’s a lot more unchecked. since harleen forced herself to learn how to tone down and not always draw attention to herself in fear of getting kicked out again, her babs’ energy doesn’t match eachother’s as well as it used to. babs lacks a filter, so she’ll often just say what she doesn’t like about someone to their face, which is one of the reasons harleen’s new friends don’t like her as much. batgirl is a lot meaner in this universe, she’s rude, and blatantly makes fun of people, particularly harley ( cough … the reason pam gets so worked up and uses her powers in a fighting sense … cough ) while out of the costume harleen still is the more overprotective one ( she still would willingly kill for babs ) babs is the one who often goes to extreme measures to make sure the other is happy 

zee is somewhat of an accidental villain, she used dark magic one time on accident ( she caused the gremlins to spew out of ace of spades a lot earlier on ) and diana, who witnessed this, pressured her into jointing her villain group, claiming it would help her ‘learn to control her dark magic better’ ( spoiler alert, it doesn’t ) while zee enjoys the freedom and publicity being a villain brings her, she really doesn’t enjoy using her dark magic, because she has no idea how to control it, she avoids using it most of time, because when she does use it, things get chaotic and very out of hand. she’s still the most popular girl in school out of costume, but she’s a lot less nice ( she’s stereotypical mean girl core and I’m sorry ) she’s a lot less open and kind as she is in canon, even to her friends, she’s a total asshole to everyone but especially to her friends 

karen is a little wet rat in this universe, she was tired of being called small and weak and being picked on, so she built the bumblebee suit with the intention of getting revenge, but even with the broken growth tech diana still recruited her to her team, karen being the only one she didn’t have to manipulate in some way. she used to be incredibly shy, and while she’s still anti social ( her and pam have kind of swapped personalities ) she’s just rude now, and thats why she doesn’t have many friends. she’s a little wet rat and will a hundred percent bite you. she’s still constantly fix her growth tech, but she also refuses to let any of her team mates help her. basically all of them besides diana and maybe jessica like hate her because she’s so rude to them all of time and never follows any of their plans and just does her own thing half the time, but diana won’t listen to them when the tell her to kick karen off the team

jessica doesn’t want to be a villain, she definitely doesn’t enjoy it, like zee and literally every but karen, she was manipulated by diana to joining the team. like pam in canon, most of her motives for doing literally anything villain related is when she sees or hears about social injustices that she wants to fix. she does believe in fighting in this universe, she doesn’t love it, but she thinks that the only way to deal with social injustices is to use violence to punish people. in this universe, her fears of not being good enough for the green lantern core got the best of her and she ran off, quitting and instead taking up a yellow ring ( thaal still has his green ring in this au ) she’s a lot less of a social butterfly, she still uses school as a place to voice abut problems around metropolis, but because she’s a lot more self conscious the negative response get to her a lot more. she’s no longer like “I don’t know the meaning of the words leave it alone” and more just “oh … okay I’ll stop 😞” she’s still one who tries befriend pam, and they’re still adorable and probably dating. she also needs a hug asap

kara became a villain because she was really jealous of super man ( he’s still a hero in this universe ) and diana used that against her. she started out trying to be a hero but literally no one cared and they all called her destructive so diana was like “become a villain and then you can beat up your cousin mwa ha ha” and she was like “that sounds dope I’m in” when zod shows up, she still helps defeat him, because she still wants to be a hero deep down, she wants to help people, but diana won’t let any of them leave her villain group. she does try to help people whenever she thinks diana isn’t looking, and she always tries desperately not to hurt people when they’re pulling off heights or schemes. she’s still destructive and thinks punching things is a solution to everything mostly because diana tells her that it’s a great idea to do that, and so she’s never really learned any other way to deal with problems

lena and lex swap, so he’s the little rat child and she’s the super genius billionaire asshole. people don’t love lena as much as they do lex in canon mostly because she’s still a bit of a brat. she’s still beloved and held to a super high regard but people are also like “she’s also super fucking weird and is like a rat” she also has a keytar because fuck it ricky owens reference. so when she’s fighting with the girls instead of some weird dance she’s like putting on a little concert for them. most of her robots that need to be manually controlled have a piano as the control piano, so when lex is fighting the girls in the beginning he’s just slamming his hands on random keys and hoping it works 

barbi still starts out a villain, she’s jealous that harleen became captain of the gymnastics team and was like “magic is the only solution fuck it” her and selina are exes but it’s so obvious they have not gotten over eachother at all ( “why’d she break up with you selina?” “it was over something stupid - I stole from her” “that’s a really good reason to dump you” ) cheetah is still a villain until around after the girls fight when lena because she was captured and then like immediately let her out and selina like was begging her to be a good guy with them, she late becomes an honorary member of the team. while she was captured she was in the tube next to selina and the whole time selina was like “barbi I’m sorry please take me back 😭”

the joker and batman swap so babs is the one who idolizes a villain and harleen idolizes a hero. the hive five also swap with the teen titans

dexter is literally the same except selina is the one who works at the animal shelter and is the one who adopts him

[goodluckclove]

An Open Letter to a Professional Author

I came across a writer here who I imagine will probably never see this, but their presence was enough to make me pretty mad for two days now. I've decided to pen a little statement to this Long-Term, Professional, Full-Time, Published Author who makes a habit out of being deeply unpleasant in a way that apparently has only attracted an audience of other deeply unpleasant people.

People here seem to like it when I get mad. So, uh, enjoy?

Dear Professional Author,

I came across a post of yours on some feed here the other day and enjoyed your commentary. It was one of those writing memes that sort of called attention to actually writing as opposed to just thinking about your project - the kind that people usually respond to with some sort of joke expressing their repulsion at the concept.

You responded with distaste and I generally agreed. The tone was a little aggressive for me, but that kind of humor also leaves me generally confused. I personally ended up concluding that the self-deprecating humor was a coping mechanism for a larger issue that keeps these people from writing - intimidation, lack of confidence, physical or mental pain, things like that. You seemed to think it was a matter of will, which I found to be an approach that at the very least was well-intentioned.

Turns out it wasn't.

First off, I should say that this isn't about your political beliefs. Your political beliefs that are really more like general human beliefs. I don't want to get into that. Instead, I just want to talk about your writing. You are a full-time, published author, as you say in nearly post where you talk about writing. A major point of pride to you seems to be the fact that you are traditionally published. Any other method doesn't seem to be as legitimate to you. That's interesting to me.

You also don't seem to have much of an audience outside of people who mainly come to agree with your politics. I didn't really see a single positive interaction between you and another writer on here for as much as I was willing to scroll through your blog. That's also interesting to me.

I didn't spent too much time on your blog once I realized that you were definitely not the kind of person I would ever want any interaction with. What I did want to do is use your presence indirectly to prove a point that I've been wanting to get into for some time now.

To put it simply, I'll say this: a career in professional writing is not actually as cool or important as you might think it is.

Now I'll be direct and say that I've never been traditionally published for anything longer than a short story or long-term, unpaid column. You don't give any details on any of your writing, as far as I've seen (Once again - interesting!), so there's a chance you've made more in contracts and royalties than I have. But I'm a working writer. I've had a career in ghostwriting and technical writing. I've written and produced plays that have been featured in festivals in multiple states. I'm not speaking from a place of no experience, is what I mean to say.

What I also mean to say is that - while I view writing in many ways as a spiritual and healing act that I couldn't live without - it's also a job. It's not always exciting, and even when it is exciting it's only exciting to me. I consider the best date night to be when my wife works on video game development while I write my draft. I leave the house on a regular basis, but it's mainly to go to different places to write.

In short - I love to write, but I don't think it makes me cool. Or interesting. Or valuable. Or intelligent. Or just generally fun to be around and talk to. These are things I strive to cultivate in other aspects of the way I live and grow as a human being on this planet.

Being a Professional Author in one particular genre doesn't give you authority over the craft as a whole. You can't just throw yourself into conversations and start with I'm a published writer and assume that means you have the final say on any discussion. Believe it or not, in many cases it does not matter.

Lots of people are published traditionally, and it does prove some level of validity in their line of work. But there are a huge variety of people in the world of trad pub. There are people who write books in genres that don't apply to writers here. There are people who write books that aren't very good. There are even people who write trad pub books that are very good, but their careers are sullied by the fact that the authors themselves are not good people.

Being a successful writer does not mean you're a good person. Being a writer at all does not mean you are a good person. I believe in Death of the Author to an extent, but when that author insists on making a presence on a public website and doling out advice and opinions to other writers the lines start to blur considerably.

Writing is a job. You work it over a period of time and learn skills and strategies that work for you. The same applies to virtually every other job, including ones that society views as less romantic as something in the arts. Can you imagine me breaking into your home while you're making lunch and telling you how to arrange your cheese slices based on what I know as a full-time, professional sandwich artist at Subway? You might be interested based on leaning something you didn't know about a place you might've eaten at before. But that does not entitle me to your respect on its own.

I am not entitled to your respect based on how well I learned how to make a sandwich based on my hypothetical career at Subway. Just as I don't deserve it solely because I know two card tricks, can get out a variety of stains, read most of the works of the major beatniks, can make a really good carbonara, or any other specific about my life that ultimately does not play a huge part in who I am as a person.

When I am on my death bed, I hope to god the core of my character was not the fact that I typed stories from my brain until I got carpal tunnel. If my obituary begins and ends at "writer", no matter how positive the qualifier is before that, it will be the greatest failure of my life.

Because I am a writer. But that does not matter. It does not matter if you're a writer. It can be fun and enjoyable if you are, even better if you make a living at it, but it doesn't mean you'll be happy. It doesn't mean people will like you or perceive you to be the leader and teacher you might think you are. It certainly doesn't give you a free pass to throw cruelty at strangers for truly no real reason.

Professional Author, you had a chance to raise up the next generation of an industry I assume you must value. You're choosing not to, and that's fine. You don't have the obligation to. You do have the choice to not get involved and pretend to give advice that ranges from vague to untrue. You seem to be taking that responsibility very seriously.

It's like some twist on crab mentality, where instead of dragging crabs trying to escape the bucket you're swiping at anyone who tries to crawl in with you. Then, as they struggle, you're looking down at them and making comments on how easy it is to get in the bucket, if you only just do it and maybe read some books.

To all of us, I say this: question authority, even in the arts. Especially in the arts. Nobody knows as much as they say. That includes me, but I do know this - any branch of publishing feels really good. It's scary but it's fun. If you're traditional published or indie published or self published, it says nothing about how good your book is or how good you are as a writer or how valuable you are as a human being.

Don't be this lonely bucket crab. They seem mean and I'm tired of talking about them.

Best Regards,

Clove

[laundrybiscuits]

Just curious and i like hearing your thoughts on this stuff. May i ask what aspect of steddie fanon you're referring to (which don't fit IRL queer culture so accurately)?

Ahaha...okay so. IMPORTANT NOTE: fandom is not that crucial, do whatever you want, run free through daisy fields of whatever headcanons and characterizations you please. Also, fic is not real life and that's okay!!

That being said, fandom can get slightly weird about sex, especially queer sexual cultures and especially historical queer sexual cultures. I mean, I get it! Our current hegemonic understanding of sexuality is actually pretty recent; I studied sexuality from a sociological perspective as part of my undergrad degree, focusing on moral panics (gosh I wonder why Eddie's character arc appeals to me! so mysterious!), and I know just enough to know that I don't know shit. So I certainly don't expect anyone to be doing paradigm-shifting sociohistorical research for a fic. That would be ridiculous.

All of this is leading up to say that based on 1) the relayed experiences of queer mentors who were in the scene in the 80s 2) the secondary sources I’ve researched 3) personally having many gay male friends who love oversharing through the last ~15 years, I believe that if canon-compliant gay Eddie Munson is a virgin, it’s largely by choice. 

I've seen it suggested that Eddie's poor academic performance and nerdy interests would be, essentially, a dick deterrent. And like...I enjoy Eddie’s weirdo loser vibe as much as the next fan. I fully support him not being in any way smooth or cool with boys. But even when I myself was in my late teens/early twenties, many of my closest friends were awkward nerdy twinks who absolutely managed to get laid every weekend because MSM* hookup culture is eternal. 

And in the early 80s, when Eddie would’ve been in his late teens, MSM hookup culture was at its peak. AIDS still wasn’t being taken that seriously, and transmission etc. wasn’t really understood because…well, you know this story. It’s not a good story. Fuck Reagan. 

In short, I really can’t emphasize enough how certain types of sexual contact were extremely available for men seeking sex with men. A pretty young thing like Eddie could have literally as much sex as he wanted. Nobody is asking him for a high school transcript or anything about his hobbies, they’re asking if he tops. 

Now, would Eddie actually participate in the hookup culture of the time? That's a more complicated and speculative question, and not actually what you asked, but I'm going to talk about it briefly anyway.

In the 'yes' column: he has his own vehicle**, zero supervision, and a penchant for risky behavior.

In the 'no' column: the boy has at least three extremely involved hobbies eating up his spare time and energy; he's also a not-so-secret romantic.

Personally, I can see the pseudo-intimacy appealing to Eddie's tendency to keep people at arm's length, and I think it’s very plausible for him to be curious and experimental enough to want to explore a bit. I tend to land on 'tried it a few times, doesn't make a habit of it' in my backstories. I also tend to hint at the softer, friendlier side of hookup culture in my fics, just because I don’t often see it represented. 

Of course it’s like any other scene, there are bad actors and generally shitty people/situations, and sometimes the MSM scene specifically can be a bit of a soul-draining meat market. (ETA, because I am not white and neither are the vast majority of my friends and I felt increasingly weird not mentioning it even though it's not relevant to Eddie's situation: the scene is often also super racist, among other things! But that's a whooole other complicated kettle of fish, and again, not relevant to Eddie's situation.)

But there’s also space for casual sex to be part of a friendly relationship, in a way that I don’t really see in hetero circles. It’s hard to explain. It’s one of those dynamics that basically never shows up in mainstream media at all, so I absolutely don’t blame fics that don’t show it either. It’s just one of those things.

This is a step to the left, but I recommend checking out Dykes To Watch Out For: it’s practically an anthropological document depicting dyke culture in the 80s, it’s often funny as hell, and it’s just a fantastically detailed and relatively accessible window into a particular way of life that doesn’t really exist anymore. 

*MSM = men who have sex with men. It’s a sociological designation; not everyone in this category identifies as gay, bi, queer, etc. It may be useful to think about sexuality as having three distinct components: behavior, identity, and desire. The term “MSM” puts focus on the behavioral aspect, because it’s most relevant in this context. 

**As someone who has experienced several other countries' driving cultures, I just want to emphasize to non-Americans how willing many Americans are to drive for multiple hours for basically any reason whatsoever.

[ryuusei-ryka]

I emerge from my grave to post a theory about MILGRAM

Hello hello everyone! I don't know how many of you will see this post due to my avoidance of social media these past years and thus my absolute ignorance about every possible change in this site.

ANYHOW let's get down to business.

I am going to write this post because I made my boyfriend (who does not use tumblr) catch up to MILGRAM's second trial and while I was teaching him about some fan theories he said something that I'm not sure I'll believe, but BOY isn't that interesting. So I thought it would be cool to share with other people and hear their thoughts.

Now, as the cool kids say, theory under the cut (?).

A necessary premise to do is that this theory is built on another one (that I can't find so please if you happen to have the link to the post, give it to me so that I can put it here!) that says Kotoko's murder is actually an indirect one.

If I recall correctly without missing anything important, this thesis exists due to Deep Cover being so vague about the murder and on a specific official picture, this one:

We can clearly see Haruka, Muu, Shido, Amane and Mikoto on one side and Yuno, Fuuta, Mahiru, Kazui and Kotoko on the other. Being that the first column murders are all direct (choking, cutterknife in the gut, dissection, crashing head with a mace/bat) and the second one's are all indirect (abortion, cyberbullying, toxic love, miscommunication), Kotoko being there could imply that hers too is an indirect murder.

I'm not fond on this theory tbh (just based on my guts and my perception of the girl), especially because here they're all just arranged to make a "snake" following their numbers (Haruka on the bottom left -> Yuno on the bottom right -> Fuuta besides her higher on the right -> back on the left side with Muu -> up left with Shidou... and so on, I hope the gist's clear skfvnfk). Surely there is a reason behind the "snake" arrangement given how MILGRAM is so keen on hidden details, but the direct/indirect murder thing? Not my two cents (but it'd be super cool to be proven wrong of course).

Another thing worth mentioning for the sake of this post is the very first (?) theory about MILGRAM, aka Es as the 11th prisoner. I don't want to be negative, but I'm not fond on this one either- that's just because it would be so predictable that, eh, it'd make me a bit sad.

SO, all this premise is to get to THIS POST's theory.

What if the real prison pairs are 0102, 0304, 0506, 0708, 0909 and 1011? Let me elaborate a bit.

Every couple from 0102 to 0708 has allegedly (MILGRAM may prove everything wrong of course) one indirect and one direct murder, fact. At the same time we all know that prisoner 09 is a system, so there are at least two people in there, one being "clueless" Mikoto, one being "violent" John (I'm putting it simply, I'm not symplifying everything due to disrespect, I swear).

So, theory is: what if Mikoto's system represents both direct and indirect murder, while Kotoko represents direct murder because Es (aka we) represesents the indirect one?

I've seen a theory stating that the real prisoner in Milgram is not Mikoto, not John (as we have seen in their first VD), but it's actually Midokoto (not elaborating because I'm pretty sure you're all aware of the threekoto theory). That'd be because even if John may be the one doing the killing (not considering it may very well be Mikoto himself tbf), Midokoto most likely is the gatekeeper of the system. That means HE is the one in charge of deciding the alter that fronts, thus letting John/Mikoto swap and, well, crash someone's head with a bat. Knowing Milgram as far as we've seen it, it's not absurd that it would consider Midokoto the "mastermind" of the action, having then the "culprit" of indirect murder and the one that phisically did it both in one body.

So then, Kotoko is very likely (at least in my opinion) to have killed in a very phisical way as well. We still don't really know her story nor her victim but, assuming it's not the CEO son she reads about nor the guy we see on the floor both in HARROW and Deep Cover, vigilantes usually take very direct actions as far as I know. It's easy for someone so blinded by their belief to take a step further and, well, overstep.

Es, on the other hand, is the guard of Milgram, but it's pristine they know... as much as the prisoners, basically? They hear Jackalope and all, yeah, but... they're still part of the experiment/whatever it is (so maybe this theory may work even if Es is not the 11th prisoner, as long as they're part of the experiment). The first trial ended substantially well if we think that everyone survived, but we know nothing about what will happen now that the second one has ended. Probably (hopefully) Kotoko won't be able to lash on the unforgiven prisoners, but what if Haruka manages to k*ll himself? That'd be a death "caused" by Es judgement... fulfilling the indirect murder requirement [and making everyone who ever voted a ~ murderer ~ (to Milgram's eyes, ofc)].

I don't know if any of this is plausible nor anything about Kotoko's murder, so it may very well be just something silly... but I thought it was super interesting, so I wanted to share it!

Feel free to reply/write to me to share your opinion!

[recurring-polynya]

I really enjoy all these headcanons of hisagi being the gotei 13’s most eligible himbo lol

I don't think "himbo" is quite the correct description. A himbo is kind, beefy, and stupid, and I wouldn't really describe Hisagi as any of those things, at least not as primary defining characteristics. Hisagi is very cool-looking, in a dangerous, edgy, and completely misleading sort of way. He rides a motorcycle in a land where everyone walks everywhere, and carries around not one scythe, but two double-scythes, but I feel like he would also ask you to text him when you get home from your date so he knows you made it safely. The '69' is polarizing. Either it's a red flag or it piques your curiosity. He seems sensitive and artsy, except that he's not actually very good at playing his guitar, all his Bulletin columns are unpopular, and Nanao says his cooking "is boring." (He seems to like it, so good for him! but also his favorite food is hot dogs, so hmmm!). I think he's actually very smart--he's well-read, loves to learn, and is great at making connections between things, but my headcanon is that he's absolutely riddled with learning disabilities (primarily ADHD, but then all the co-morbidities like dyslexia and dyscalculia). I mean:

He exudes an air of cool indifference, but in actuality, I think he's one of the hardest working people in the Seireitei, except that he's always split between nineteen different things, so he never comes off like a star worker. He's a little bit slow on the uptake--in WDKALY, he and Hanatarou were the only ones who didn't guess what Rukia and Renji's "big announcement" was, when they invited everyone to a fancy restaurant to tell everyone they were engaged. His best friends are all big nerds, yet they drag him constantly.

Anyway, I say all this with unalloyed affection. Anyone can make a character who is cool. Hisagi is the coolest guy in your friend group, which is a much harder target to hit. In my mind, he is also kinda slutty. He tells really interesting stories, but he'll also listen to absolutely anyone talk about anything they're interested in. He is very Open to Experiences. Even he's kind of a disaster, he can absolutely Get It, and to that I say, once again, good for him.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

I’ve never seen anything like this- some damned fool decided to make this 1900 Victorian in Lincoln, Illinois, open concept. They took down all the walls! 3bds. 2ba. $329K. You gotta see this.

No refinished or replaced wood floors- wall-to-wall carpet. I’m thinking that this was an entrance hall w/a sitting room to the right and they removed the wall. I also think that they walled up the area under the stairs.

The front door and what was once the entrance hall to the left and sitting room to the right. At least they left the fireplace and window moldings. I’m sure the tray ceilings were added.

They left the original railing, but notice that the outer string’s been painted sort of a rusty brown.

New open concept layout. The two columns are supporting the ceiling b/c the wall to the 2nd sitting room was removed. 

You can see that there was a hall and a wall by the stairs where they most certainly blocked off a door.

There’s no way that the kitchen was this big- I’m thinking that this window was originally in what was the dining room. 

I imagine that somewhere in this mashup was a butler’s pantry.

I’m so confused, I don’t even know what this was, or if that fireplace and windows are new, in which case it may be a new addition.

So, I’m guessing that this is now supposed to be the new open concept family room/kitchen.

Here’s some room off the new family room that has an alcove. I have no idea what it was, or if the wall on the right is new.

Maybe it’s supposed to be a 1st floor main bedroom? B/c here’s a new bath. 

Then, they put in this closet, but what’s that square thing in the corner?

Well, whaddaya know? They left the niches on the stairs. 

I bet they think it’s real cool that they left the arched doorway and framed the window. 

But, why is it all open, like this? There’s no privacy.

Here we have a mantel, but the fireplace is completely walled in. 

More than likely, that vanity alcove was once a sink in the main bd.

And, a sunporch off the main bd. Notice that they switched to painting the woodwork black. 

What a skimpy sink.

You couldn’t call this a finished basement.

They modernized the back of the house and put on a big new deck.

Fenced yard.

New cement driveway and garage.

Interesting- 2 houses on the block.

http://www.sethsellslincoln.com/listings?cirrusStandardStatus=Active&cirruslistingId=CA1022013&fbclid

[wanderingmind867]

Tony Stark was more cold war centric than Bruce Wayne initially, but Tony Stark is a better guy than Bruce Wayne to me. And you know why? Tony Stark is someone I can actually really relate to or at least feel sympathy for. He closes himself off from people because of his heart problem. He's a man constantly on the verge of death, and he's afraid to let other people in. That's horribly sad, but it's also interesting and sympathetic.

Bruce Wayne meanwhile.... What's he got? Oh, his parents died. Sure, that's tragic. But besides that, the man has a very normal life (besides his vigilante activities). I find next to nothing relatable about him most of the time. To me, he's just a giant dull canvas. There's possibly potential there, but he's so boring I can't bring myself to even care about him. At least Superman is fun and cool and not so boring he makes me tune him out. Marvel doesn't have many characters like that, honestly. Stan Lee's writing style back in the 60s was too bombastic for me to really forget any of his main characters. Stan lee was a master of that. DC apparently has more struggles in that column.

[diy-fire-water-pups]

@paw-patrol-mighty-asks

Alright let's go! This will be a totally OOC post (for those who don't know, it means "Out Of Character", it's a post made entirely by the mod of the blog instead of the characters in it).

I decided to do better than just asking people to go interact with your blog: As an ancient Tumblr dweller, experienced in running roleplays and askblogs, why don't I give some tips for everyone who's starting a new askblog or wants to start one?

1- Prepare your blog for your future followers!

You want people to look at your askblog and be interested. You want them to look at it and be like "Oh that's so cool, I'm gonna follow them and send some asks!" So, for that to happen, you gotta first make your blog look attractive! Pick colors that match your muse(s), maybe a nice looking theme too - while the Tumblr app doesn't show themes, Browser/desktop mode will show a blog theme if you install one. First you'll want to go to your blog settings to activate this:

Now for example, this is what this blog looks like on the Tumblr app (on my phone and on my laptop in dashboard view), on a mobile browser (my Samsung tablet) and on a desktop browser. I'll change this browser/desktop theme in the near future because I don't like the three columns thing making the posts too squeezed in, but let's just go with it for now:

There is a wide variety of free themes (by Tumblr and by other bloggers who create themes and offer them for other users) to install in your blog and customize to make it look unique, attractive and matching with your muse! It's very easy to install a theme, but you can only do so through a browser/desktop. The mobile app doesn't work with this, but it's important to set up your app view as well in the customize blog options on your app, since your blog will look different in each different viewing option XD No sense customizing one look and leaving the other unattended!

2- Choose your fighter(s)!

Select your muse or muses. Get some information about them. Some people will look at your blog and have no idea who are these characters, so why not make a nice short introduction? You can make an intro about them in a pinned post on top of your blog, or a more elaborated "About" page like this:

This will make things easier to catch the attention of people from outside your fandom too! Some roleplayers who are semi or very selective will only interact with other blogs whose muses have an about page, so they can know each others' muses.

3- Set up your rules!

Make a post to pin on top of your blog welcoming people and inviting them to interact. You'll also use this post to set up some rules for interaction (trust me, without rules things can/WILL go downhill really quickly). You can list down what people can and cannot do when sending asks, according to your muses and to yourself. For example, running an askblog with underage muses will demand for no NSFW content or asks. If your muse feels extremely uncomfortable with something in particular, you can add that to the rules for people to avoid touching the subject - same goes if YOU feel uncomfortable with something too. The idea is to keep your muse as true to the canon character as possible, so your followers will feel the magic of actually interacting with that character (think of this as if you're cosplaying at a con, but it's all online!), unless you're going to use your headcanons or if you're working with an AU, but you need to take your own well being into consideration as well!

And now, last but not least, the most controversial tip ever...

4- Send yourself (as anon) the first asks for your characters to answer!

"Wait, WHAT THE HELL, LARY?" you may ask me, "But isn't that CHEATING????"

No, it isn't! Let's see why.

So this is the situation: You just finished creating and preparing your blog, it's BRAND NEW. There's NOTHING in it when you start. It may have a nice theme already, it may look good, you got all pages for your muses prepared, you got the rules for interaction, everything is ready. BUT...

Without posts in it, more importantly, without PROPERLY TAGGED posts, your blog is as good as INVISIBLE.

You need posts with relevant tags, so your blog will show up on Tumblr search. No, it doesn't work for reblogged posts. When you post something, the tags you add to this post are the way for people to find your post (and your blog) when they're using Tumblr search engine. When you reblog a post from someone else, the tags you'll add will serve only for organizing your blog's archive and for the search WITHIN your blog, they will not make that post appear on the general Tumblr search.

This is why I always add certain tags to every ask the pups answer, let's take a look at one of them, shall we?

Here you find:

1- The username of the blogger who sent the ask. 2- A tag for the fandom. 3- A tag identifying this post has something that's not necessarily canon to the original media. 4- Tags with the names of the characters that show up or are mentioned in this post. 5- Tags of the fandom and the characters, because that's how people look for posts about them in the Tumblr search.

If you go on Tumblr search right now, input "Paw Patrol Headcanons", do the search and filter for "latest" instead of "top", you'll see A HELLA LONG RESULTS LIST of posts made by this blog and by my personal Paw Patrol blog (self-indulgent-paw-patrol). Heh, I wasn't joking when I said I'm currently feeding this fandom because trying to get other people to create content here is like beating a dead horse. This happens because I'm always tagging my headcanons and they'll show up in search results so my blog will appear for the people in the fandom.

This is how you get your blog to show up for people. Using the relevant tags for people to see your blog's posts in the results when they're looking up for something related to it.

SO YOU'LL WANT POSTS IN YOUR BLOG, PROPERLY TAGGED, FOR IT TO SHOW UP FOR MORE PEOPLE

That's where enters the "send yourself the first anon asks for your characters to answer" part. By sending some asks yourself, you'll get the chance to start fleshing out your muses, testing how you'll make things work, and have some content in your blog to show up in the search results for the fandom. People will come take a look at your blog, see what you got there, and decide if they'll give a follow, a like, maybe a reblog and ask stuff. If they find an empty blog, it's more likely they won't be interested in interacting.

You can also reblog an ask meme/game like this one, or this one. You can find these kind of ask game posts on Tumblr search too, or follow blogs like @rpsourcedmemes which focus on gathering these kinds of posts for people to find more easily and reblog to get some interaction with your muses! Sometimes people want to interact with your characters but they just don't know what to ask them, so these posts help with suggestions for that!

I think that's it for now. I hope you and other people will find this post useful to help starting your askblogs. It goes for canon characters AND for original characters too - just askblogs in general! Make them look attractive and interesting, get your muses ready, set up your rules, get some well tagged posts in it and you're off to a good start!

[itstimetodrew]

Deep dive into a very minor, very niche Spider-Man topic time!

The subject…WHO IS THAT WOMAN??? 🤨

It’s not crucial to the plot, and it’s not a mind-blowing theory, I just like gathering up little background details and connecting them. :)

DISCLAIMER: While obviously the Spider-Man movies are inspired by and based on the comics, I treat the movies as their own thing because tbh...I am not reading all that. It’s Movie Universe Time!

So indeed the 2002 Spider-Man movie does have a lot of cool tidbits that give extra information on characters. Sometimes it’s very subtle, sometimes it’s more overt! So we begin our journey to discover the Mystery Woman here:

95% of the words are actual Character Lore(!), with only the last paragraph copy-pasted, but Today's Focus is one particular section at the bottom of the 2nd column:

"His personal life has not been nearly as successful as his business life. Married only once, to the artist Caroline Mulder, he was divorced after ten years of what was said to have been a singularly strained and unhappy [...]"

3 whole pieces of Mystery Woman information! Her name is Caroline Mulder, an artist ("the artist" implies she's well-known at least in NYC), and they were married for 10 years before divorcing. That gives the portraits in the mansion more context, very likely that Caroline painted them.

Caroline’s impact on the story is also stated by an executive producer in a behind the scenes book when discussing how characters are developed:

"Here's a man raising his son alone—there must be a tragic story with his wife. She must have left him! Does Harry remind him of her? Does he love his boy or hate him?"

Harry does have an interest in art like his mom. In Spider-Man 3 we see him painting a still life in his spare time, after post-traumatic amnesia ironically leaves him happier than ever before. He's forgotten many details of the negative things in his life and instead enjoys reliving childhood activities and memories. It's possible painting was a passion of his when he was younger, similar to how he discusses writing a play for MJ and playing basketball with Peter during high school, but gradually became disconnected from or was pressured to drop.

Knowing the marriage lasted for 10 years helps narrow down a few things, like that the divorce probably wasn't recent. But that’s assuming he was born during the time they were married, meaning Harry could have been 10 at most. Whether Caroline is still alive also isn't clear-cut...in the movie, at least. In the novelization for the 3rd movie, Peter confirms Harry is an orphan after Norman dies. The novelizations and movie details don't always line up 1:1, so it's left open imo. I feel like the paper would have mentioned her passing if she had died but...choose your own route of angst! (And wow would that add a whole new layer of awful to Norman’s misogynistic “advice” about women to Harry if he’s shit-talking his dead ex-wife.)

If Caroline is alive that opens a new batch of questions about where she went. Do they have any sort of shared custody situation? Doubtful, as Caroline seems to be totally cut out of the picture and only exists in the story via possessions. But if the marriage ended bitterly, and some years ago, why is her art and her collections present at all? Her portrait makes sense to keep, as it's revealed in the sequel to be the cover for a hidden safe.

(That's another fun symbol, hiding treasures behind a loved one's image. A place for safety and precious things, hidden from public view.) Other pieces of art seen around the house raise more questions about sentimentality. If Norman hated any reminder of his ex-wife, why keep her work? Why keep it for so long and have it displayed prominently?

I will not let this derail into A Norman Post (it would not end I could not stop) SO my personal take is that it’s probably a mixture of some longing for the past, but mostly spite. Keeping the art is a reminder that while he lost her, he also won. What was hers is now his (son included). Which may factor into why we don’t see Caroline involved with the family at all. Either she didn’t want to be, or she was prevented from doing so. Honestly it would not be surprising to cut all ties, as I do not think many would want to test their luck in a legal battle against a vindictive person who holds a massive amount of money and potential life-ruining influence.

I could also talk about Harry forever but in short I think these details make him more interesting. It's another angle as to why he seems so conflicted and avoidant about family issues, to the point he physically distances himself from them whenever possible. He might have had a strong connection with his mother, but it likely wasn't something he could talk about without Norman taking it as a personal betrayal. Still, he's surrounded by memories of her and keeps his own mementos nearby.

^ There's a photo of her in the apartment he and Peter share, the same image as the portrait (on the middle shelf to the left 🔍). Interestingly, like the portraits, the photos of his parents are kept apart. But here his mom is given more focus on a higher shelf.

Despite the work that went into backstory creation, multiple photographs, and a painted portrait, I haven’t been able to find who "played" the role of Caroline. It would be neat! But it’s also just cool to see how background details offer glimpses of a larger story if you want to look for them. :)

[aotopmha]

Endwalker lvl 83 spoilers!

Did Tower of Babil, the Zodiark trial and made it to the Loporrits.

I really liked Tower of Babil for how all three sections of the dungeon were different and the final boss in particular was a lot more substantial than some others.

This kind of escalation is a fantastic way to build finality and then pull the twist the story did.

This "fake" climax the story built up to is a massive part of why this twist feels so powerful because even if you can logically look at the level and see the 83 in the quest box corner, it still feels final, so you are still surprised and then questioning where the story could go from there.

It's a fantastic fakeout even with the really obvious context.

More than anything, though, I never, ever expected to like the Ascian imagery. To me the cloaked villain group trope always ends up really uninteresting because in my eyes it often impedes the individuality of the villains.

It works for the followers of more interesting-looking villains, but not the key villains of a story.

And I was dying of second-hand embarrassment almost every time one of them showed up in ARR.

And here we are in the lead-up to the Zodiark trial, where this story makes seeing the nature and first confrontation with Zodiark the most meaningful, powerful, tragic moment they possibly can.

An ancient hivemind seeking salvation from the greatest tragedy in history.

I did not think they could give these stupid masks any kind of presence or (more importantly) meaning, but they did. They did in Shadowbringers and they did here.

And Fandaniel snuffing each and every one of those voices out to take control of Zodiark is made a disgusting insult to their sacrifice, their self-appointed painful, tragic purgatory.

This scene left me in awe.

And it wonderfully continued the subversion of the idea of darkness as something inherently evil.

The fight itself is crazy cool mechanically, too.

I was terrible with reading it, but the fact that controlling Zodiark is equalled to literally manipulating the platform, reality itself, is so good thematically.

The only sad part of this is that we never got to see Zodiark at full power/with Eldibus as the core. It would not make sense for us to beat him at full power, but it is a shame regardless.

Future Ultimate material in some form, at least?

In the end, before he returned to the Aetherial Sea, Fandaniel/Amon did ask us to prove him wrong, so despite everything, there was a spark of hope in him. It was hidden, buried deep, but it existed.

And, as a consequence of all of these events, the world is screwed.

Time for bunnies!

This is another divisive part of the story, but I personally like the Loporrits because the humor that comes with them is very much leaning into the darkness of the situation. The nonchalant, blunt nature of it immediately endeared them to me.

But I know I would have probably very much disliked them if it wasn't for this element. I think if they had gone even with just a little bit more cheery humor, I probably would've disliked this whole thing, so it just barely makes the "just right" column in terms of tone in my eyes.

It's a necessary respite after all of the heavy stuff in relation to Garlemald as well.

Finally, I want to mention my love for the space-castle aesthetic. I love it, and everywhere I see it, it is immediately an highlight for me. I hope we see another location that employs it at some point.

The moon is up there in terms of zones for me just because of this. Another location in the game (among many, perhaps even all) I can't wait to see post-graphical update.

And well, Endwalker continues to be really, really good.

[squealing-for-harusono-sensei]

Hirano to Kagiura Ch.21 Reaction

First reaction! I have no idea what I'm doing, but here goes. I recommend reading the chapter yourself before reading this.

I had seen the chapter cover before, but it is really cool! Love that kagihira has matching weapons (even if bringing a sword to a gunfight is highly impractical). And that Niibashi has a phone instead–he does seem like the kind of person that would order others to kill instead of directly getting his hands dirty.

(Also, the title "Continuation", are we actually going to see Hirano keep thinking about his reaction for once?? Though I guess it's a continuation from their first year together.)

Pretty colors! Guess Hirano has gotten used to getting up extremely early (waking up naturally at 5AM, geez...) (Oh, nevermind, since he mentions resetting the alarm I guess it might have rung?) (Nevermind again, checked it and Hirano looked at it a little bit before 5 so I'm guessing that he actually did wake up on his own).

Even Kagiura has gotten used to waking up that early! Wonder if they'll continue the early studying then even though they don't technically have to now that they do get to stay together? Though it seems like they just slept a bit longer this time.

Hirano being a disciplinary committee member! He's always taken the confiscating things part seriously. Lmao, love that Sasaki tried to bribe Hirano! Might have worked though, since Sasaki keeps reading the magazine while Hirano eats.

A rare introspective Hirano has emerged! Not that Hirano doesn't think often, but it's rare to see him think about things that aren't immediately relevant.

"Do I actually believe that Kagi-kun even likes this stuff?" Now THAT'S interesting. Hirano still doesn't see the point in the touching. But I hadn't thought that Hirano might disbelieve that Kagiura wants it. It does make sense though. We have seen again and again that Hirano doesn't get what Kagiura is feeling, likely because he simply doesn't get what romantic feelings are like (although I'd argue that Kagiura is also pretty bad at understanding what Hirano is feeling).

Seems like Hirano might have been so much overwhelmed by the hug as simply not knowing how to respond? In hindsight he reacted kinda similarly to when Kagiura asked for a lap pillow or the ten seconds. Although being overwhelmed and not knowing how to respond isn't mutually exclusive.

Hirano getting mad at Kagiura for still looking disappointed after all that LMAO. I don't know why but I find that hilarious. Makes perfect sense for both of them though. We're getting several points in the 'Hirano doesn't understand how romance works' column this chapter.

Sasaki being observant again! I love that trait of his. I feel like it's a bit clearer in H&K than it was in S&M.

Surprising that Sasaki would be willing to walk 30 minutes for the dango. Maybe it was on the way for him or close to something else he had to do? Or he might just like sweets that much.

Ogasawara having trouble with his girlfriend again... On second thought, isn't this around the time their troubles because he couldn't handle her love for BL begins? Ah, yeah, "bad-boy uke", it might be that fight–well, more like those fight–have started. Also, the side of Ogasawara that is that serious about his girlfriend is cute. Anyway, I think Sasaki has just seen them fight so much that he just doesn't care anymore.

"Wait, eating someone else's food counts as flirting...?" Hirano, I don't think anyone considers you eating Kagiura's peppers as flirting. It can be an overly sweet kind of flirting, but not all kinds of eating each other's food counts. Thankfully it seems like Hirano managed to figure out that his case doesn't count.

Oh wow, Hirano looks HORRIFIED at the thought of Kagiura flirting. Gotta get back to that at some point.

(Hanzawa being a busybody as always, lol.)

The "OH HELL NO. At...at least......I think......hell....no..." reminds me of Miyano after Sasaki's train confession, where Miyano is in denial that he could like Sasaki romantically. But seems like Hirano is at least starting to think about what it would be like to like Kagiura romantically!

Tired Kagiura is cute.

Love Hirano's reaction to Kagiura saying that he wants to touch. The surprise to resignation~

OMG HIRANO TOUCHING HIS HEAD INSTEAD OF THE HAND-HOLDING!!!!!! I guess he wanted to praise Kagiura~?

"I'm allowed to use the ten seconds for myself, right? I mean, this is supposed to be practice to se if I could ever think of you as my boyfriend, so..." Omg omg omg, Hirano beginning to take a very active role in this, yes yes yes.

I honestly don't know if I should feel happy or bad for Kagiura. Like, obviously it's good that Hirano is doing this, but also, Hirano is acting THIS cute and Kagiura can't do anything about it. Someday, Kagiura, someday...

Considering that Hirano was doubting whether or not Kagiura actually liked the touching, it's good that Kagiura told him directly that it makes him happy.

That look Hirano gives his hand... I wonder... I think Hirano wants to be in love with Kagiura. Like, he hasn't said it, but he wants so badly to make Kagiura happy and at this point the best way to that is to reciprocate his feelings. Hirano just didn't think that he could. He seems to be a bit more open for the possibility that he could love him in this chapter, but I think he still has his doubts.

Kagiura getting to take care of Hirano! Now that they're doing basketball together Kagiura has more chances of returning the favor.

Oh boy, a date at this time... Well, I can't blame Kagiura for taking advantage of the opening. But Hirano has only just started considering actively trying to see if he could date Kagiura. He'll probably be tense and uncomfortable during a sizeable portion of the date. Oh well, I don't actually think it would hurt to have a date (that Hirano is conscious about being a date). I just think that the goal should be to make Hirano think by the end "Going on a date with Kagi-kun can be nice" rather than "I'm in love with Kagi-kun." Although admittedly I think that the most likely outcome is Hirano having a very hard time understanding the difference between this and their outings as friends.