#bc i would like to write and develop her some before i release her to the wild

[fanplastik]

⋆｡𖦹°⭒˚｡⋆ temporary bio ⋆｡𖦹°⭒˚｡⋆

Born from a complete accident, Material Girl/Plastic Woman (aliases of Pollyanna Armstrong) is a hero with wondrous powers. With a seemingly infinite ability to stretch, she is malleable, elastic, and more flexible than any gymnast you'd see. Not only can she stretch to great lengths, but she can also change her size at will. Plastic Woman has displayed an incredible ability of near complete invulnerability, with things such as knives and bullets bouncing off of her. With great powers come weaknesses, and she certainly has a few. Extreme temperatures (hot or cold), chemicals (such as acetone), and being unable to change color are all things she is susceptible to.

BASICS:

Name. Pollyanna Armstrong

Nickname/Aliases. Polly/ Material Girl, Plastic Woman

Age & Birthday. 27, August 12, 1997

Gender & Pronouns. Cis female, she/her

Orientation. Bisexual

Height. 5'11"

Distinguishing features.

Blue eyes, dark brown hair.

Lack of eyebrows, eyelashes, and fingerprints. Occasionally wears false eyelashes and draws on eyebrows .

Smooth, rubbery skin.

Eyes that seem to follow one around a room (usually hidden by glasses or goggles of some kind).

Art by me. Designs are subject to change.

PERSONALITY:

Positive traits. Resilient, optimistic, adaptable, gregarious

Neutral traits. Unconventional, heedful, emotional, animated

Negative traits. People pleaser, apprehensive, ruminative, naive

POWERS/ ABILITIES & WEAKNESSES:

Polly has a malleable physiology after her accident, leaving her body in a fluid state of neither entirely liquid nor solid. Think of her as human Oobleck (non-Newtonian fluid). Due to this, she can pretty much mold her facial features into anyone she pleases, or change the viscocity of her body. She can essentially harden or soften parts of her body as needed. For example, she can morph her hand into a hammer and have it work as effectively as a real one just from hardening her flesh. Another example would be her having a melting effect, where she softens her flesh into a more liquid state. Because of this fluidity, she is also scarily accurate at impressions, as she can literally mold her vocal cords to a different shape to produce different voices.

Because of Polly's molecular makeup, she is invulnerable to piercing damage, such as stabbing or a bullet wound. Knives and bullets tend to bounce off of her, but if you manage to melee her otherwise (a punch, a blunt weapon, etc.) she can be stunned. She cannot change colors, however, so if she morphs into a certain item, it will have similar colors to her suit. It makes it hard to be sneaky sometimes. However, she can increase her strength by briefly increasing muscle mass. Another additional ability is that she can alter her size at will, growing as large as a skyscraper or as small as a few inches.

Extreme heat and cold can disturb Polly's abilities by forcing her into a single state, either solid or liquid. This effectively renders her helpless, as she'll either be frozen or melted into a puddle. However, if she is returned to a normal temperature, she can slowly regain shape and strength. To make these weaknesses effective, you'd most likely have to separate her into pieces and disperse them far apart from each other so she can't completely rejoin. Chemicals, such as acetone, are more effective, as they cause genuine damage to her. They are corrosive to her flesh and make it more difficult for her to regenerate.

BACKSTORY (TW EATING DISORDERS, BODY DYSMORPHIA, BODY HORROR):

Pollyanna Armstrong began her modelling career at 19, favored for her features. She was youthful, doe-eyed, tall, and lithe. Her Agency relocated her to Manhattan, as there were plentiful opportunities, and they wanted to showcase her on the runway as soon as possible. They also wanted to keep her successful for as long as possible, which included a rigorous skincare routine and diet, which left her self-conscious by any perceived flaws. Acne, gaining a pound or two, or even the potential idea of getting a wrinkle kept her hypervigilant and neurotic. She walked many a runway, travelled across the country and world, featured in multiple magazines and ad campaigns.

But now, at 27, Polly feels stuck in life. She was beginning to get too old to model for many agencies around yet was too young to permanently retire. Her contract's end haunted her both when awake and asleep, looming over her head with the constant reminder of the inevitable. She'd been held under the agency's thumb for years now, giving into their demands out of fear she'd be out of a job. And here she was, right back at what she was scared of. Even so, she was determined to at least squeeze a few extra months at the very least out of the agency. But that was Pollyanna, trying to fight for any ounce of positivity she could find despite her trepidation.

It was the middle of June when she'd had her accident, the 18th, if she was remembering correctly. It'd been a particularly hot day, and Polly decided to treat herself to some pampering. Spa days were supposed to be relaxing, but in an anxious spike, she let her mind get the best of her as she started to mix products together. Creams and lotions and masks and toners were slathered on in pure desperation to retain the looks people treasured so much. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she realized how silly she looked, but before she got the guts to wash it off, she felt it burning.

It was the most painful thing she'd ever felt, and when she finally began to splash water onto her face and looked up at herself, she let out a bloodcurdling scream. It was as if she was a Picasso painting with how her features seemed to be distorted or melting off of her face. Before she could rub her eyes to see if she just happened to be seeing things, she felt the rest of herself slowly sinking to the ground. Attempting to catch herself, she gripped the edge of the sink but panicked further when all that she could see was being turned into goop.

The reality was that she’d unintentionally created a chemical reaction that was changing her body’s own chemical makeup. It took a lot of willing herself back into a solid form to be able to stand on her own two feet again, and even then, she was wobbly and clumsy. Polly could only watch herself in horror for the next week, having holed herself away in her apartment to try and regain some sense of normalcy in her appearance again. The only way she knew how to get her original face back was from pictures of herself, but even then, something always feels off.

Today, she’s a hero, or at least that’s what she’s trying to be. She’s nowhere near seasoned and still hasn’t discovered the limits as to what she can do, much to the terror of civilians. Sure, she saves them, but does she have to look like that? Polly took up the hero gig quite accidentally, especially after she realized she’d never be able to model normally again. Her first rescue was someone who’d almost fallen into the path of a subway—her arm had stretched out nearly instinctively to grab onto them and pull them to safety. She felt overjoyed that she’d prevented an injury…until she felt the eyes of several confused passerby’s on her. After a few attempts, she was able to bring her arm back to normal and she scurried off on her way, deciding to miss her own train to avoid the looks and possible questions that’d come along with the event.

Despite feeling like it’s Freaky Friday everyday, she tries to hold her head up with hope for the future. Surely she’ll get to prove herself as trustworthy if she keeps trying! Can she at least can an A for effort? Or a hug… a hug sounds nice.

[neyafromfrance95]

It's annoying how suddenly these sexist lorebros demand the appearance of Celeborn and Celebrian when no one cared about them before these incels decided that they hate "Guy-ladriel."

i had another person in my asks tell me that i shouldn't be writing why i don't want to see celeborn in trop bc shipping wars are bad, but i don't think that people who are demanding celeborn's introduction are genuine shippers or fans, almost all of them just hate galadriel and want celeborn to come in and "tame" her.

and i'm not "hating" on celeborn by simply explaining why i don't want galadriel's marriage phase in trop. which i will summarize for the last time:

i think celeborn & celebrian are nice but npc. which is ok! they have their place in the story - the background family of galadriel's (and elrond's) that is just there without impacting her journey that much.

the cast is already too large for a 8 episode format and it *is* affecting the individual character storylines in a limiting way. it's clearly challenging for them to properly pay attention to each character's development/storyline. introducing more characters that aren't that neccessary to begin with would simply get in the way of existing relationship developments and water them down.

there is so much possibility to explore that which has not been touched upon before (galadriel's relationship with the darkness, sauron, even elrond and other elves)! why retell the same story over and over again instead?

and even if folks want to see other characters from tolkien, there are much more interesting and significant characters so why not push for them? it's obvious that the incelbros want to tradwife galadriel to fit their fantasy of the divine feminine or some shit. like from the very start of the show these people have been going "galadriel doesn't make sense! what about celeborn? what about celebrian?" when trop was clearly not intending to tell a story of "domestic" galadriel. but naaah, when we see a female character have an audacity to hold a sword and run around, we gotta domesticate her asap!

anyways, i really want to be done talking about celeborn, please release me from him, it's getting tiring, let's move onnn!

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

HIIIIII

Omd I love your work so much the analysation between Kaveh and Alhaitham is just so ??? (Beautiful wth I probably read like 99.9% of your work bc I just love reading the analysis between them) literally EVERYTIME you post I get so excited like it just makes me smile

Anyway if it’s not rude to ask, Ive read some of your fanfics about them and I just wanted to ask how you make them so.. accurate? Ive just recently started writing fanfics and do you have any tips?

Also knowing how much you analyse these two are there any like details about them you found out abt the pair? I would normally do it myself but im not even up to the Sumeru archon quest 😭

And another thing, do you have any head canons revolving the two or do you just stick by the canon? (If you do head canons i would LOVE TO HEAR THEM.)

Hope this isnt too much to ask!! (Also ignore my horrible punctuation it’s normally better than this i swear)

Anyway like i said your work is amazing and byebyeeee have a good night/day/afternoon

-🍀

hiya!! AHHHH i'm so glad you enjoy my brainrot analysis of these two <333 i'm way too invested so i'm happy that people are invested in them just as much!! HELPPP now i'm kicking my legs and giggling that's so sweet :'''')

firstly !?!?! thank you for checking out my fics!! and !!!!!! i'm glad you like the characterisation! :'''') when i first got into haikaveh, all i was doing was reading fics before i got to sumeru. i had ideas for writing, but i was way too scared of actually getting them up in full in case they were inaccurate, because i felt that i didn't have a great grasp on their in-game characters? (not that this fear should stop anyone - where would haikaveh nation be without the authors who wrote for haikaveh before kaveh was even released??)

personally i spent a lot of time going over their individual character stories and voice-lines, as well as constantly rewatching character trailer videos and clips where haikaveh are together onscreen, and also apart, so i could start the essay, and this definitely also helped me develop a voice for both of them in fic in terms of dialogue and inner monologues.

for me kaveh's inner monologue is going to be almost the complete opposite of alhaitham's, where kaveh's empathy comes out in overthinking, and is fuelled mainly by emotion as he tries to rationalise his perspective (in relation to interpreting alhaitham), whereas i write alhaitham's inner monologue to be more observation based, and where emotion is implied rather than stated - which i find is used in his character stories, particularly character story 5 where his past is given. although no emotions are mentioned, it's evident how essential his grandmother is to him, only there is no detail about how he felt when losing the last of his family, and having to arrange her funeral, and enrolling in the akademiya when he previously believed it to be boring, and the years spent after his graduation, up until the point where kaveh moves in - in contrast to kaveh's character stories which are extremely detail heavy in these regards.

there's a clear contrast between kaveh and alhaitham's experiencing of emotion in inner monologue, especially when it comes to alhaitham's grandmother's last wishes, as it's an impactful line about her wanting him to lead a peaceful life, and there's no further elaboration on this; the emotion is there to be interpreted, whereas kaveh will be explicit about his exact feelings at the time, and how these feelings change, or don't change.

for me, both are interesting to write, as kaveh's empathy ensures that he will be in constant motion, avidly aware of each shift of mood in any conversation, or aware of a thought that alhaitham might be chasing. if writing when alhaitham and kaveh are not in sync, then justifying kaveh's mindset and his interpretation of alhaitham can fuel the dialogue (whether it be typical banter or strained conversation). on the other hand, alhaitham's emotions are more subtextual, perhaps he'll notice kaveh beginning to frown when working, which shows that alhaitham has been staring at kaveh rather than reading, or something. i interpret his inner monologue as him being thoroughly aware of how he feels towards kaveh, and therefore he has no need to reiterate this when thinking - again, in contrast to kaveh, whose mood and feelings fluctuate depending on those around him.

those are just my personal approaches in case it's of any interest to you! if you're hesitant to write because you feel like things won't be 'in-character', i'd argue that fanfiction as a medium ensures that works can't be in-character as it won't be the game's canon; especially as characters can be reinterpreted for each person depending on the plot and the themes. in general, i'd say write whatever, and however you want, so long as you're writing something. you can come back and edit it later, and you may find that new ideas come to you as you start writing. so long as you're having fun!

as for things i like about them in terms of in-game canon(?), i would say that aside from the writing of their dialogue and their character stories, their arguments on the bulletin board posts around sumeru are so sacred and special! when you get to sumeru i highly recommend running around to find them! it feels very rewarding to click through each post to find alhaitham responding to each and every post that kaveh makes <3

additionally, there's the idea that as alhaitham accidentally created an aesthetically pleasing rug print design, with (supposedly) kaveh doing the same by creating a practical, affordable rug, mirroring each other's traits of artistry vs practicality (thanks to haikavehtimely). the devs being thorough in their haikaveh propaganda is so insane, but if i had made haikaveh i would be doing the exact same thing???

as for design inspiration, the idea of them resembling plato and aristotle in terms of their beliefs is rather interesting?? especially with kaveh talking about beauty having a whole form, in that it's a concept intrinsically understood! especially with their splash art poses in mind (which is written about in the haikaveh bible)

blessed be headcanons! i end up writing them into my fics, but i think the spaces in canon leave a lot to interpretation, so i think i end up working around that? a lot of them are domestic for me, for example, kaveh definitely has a skin/hair routine, and i think while alhaitham may not go to such lengths, he values cleanliness and has a lengthy bath time (alhaitham likes the smells of kaveh's skincare and kaveh likes the subtle smells of alhaitham's bath oils).

also!! that kitchen is TINYYY!! i think it's !?!?!? that alhaitham canonically had that research lab redesigned into a house, and approved a design that had TWO bedrooms, even after kaveh rejected the building?? i think he prioritised his dreams of a reunion over realistic living conventions and that kitchen is atrociously small, and kaveh complains about it all the time and clowns on alhaitham, so they have to scrunch up when cooking, or they establish a cooking schedule, which, a lot of the time, goes out the window, as they go to the tavern or get take away <3

thank you so much for your ask! it was really interesting to explore all these questions, i hope it's been useful to you in any way :''') and thank you for your support!

[elainsgirl]

I dont get it.

Cassian had those sexual desires about nesta before acosf but when its azriel, its just lust??

make it make so much sense.

But anyway, I believe Cassian and Azriel had many parallels in the books.

Acosf/Chapter 16

• Cassian hadn’t slept well. It was hard to sleep well when he’d been so aroused he’d had to pleasure himself not once but three times just to calm the hell down enough to close his eyes. But he awoke before dawn aching for her, her scent still in his nose, and another release had barely taken the edge off. •

then azriel's bonus chapter

• Sleep, they seemed to whisper in his ear. Sleep. I wish I could, he answered silently. But sleep so rarely found him these days. Too many razor-sharp thoughts sliced him any time he grew still long enough for them to strike. Too many wants and needs left his skin overheated and pulling taut across his bones. So he slept only when his body gave out, and even then only for a few hours. •

Acosf/chapter 58

• “Because I was fucking jealous!” he roared, wings splaying. “You looked like a queen, and it was painfully obvious that you should be with a princeling like Eris and not a low-born nothing like me! Because I couldn’t stand the sight of it, right down to my gods-damned bones! •

Az bonus chap

• He left the rest unspoken. Because her mate was here, sleeping a level up. Because her mate had been in the family room and Azriel had needed to stay by the door the whole time because he couldn't stand the sight of it, the scent of their mating bond, and needed to have the option of leaving if it became too much. •

Also when they both mentioned how they felt envy or jealous when seeing their brother(s) in love.

this is just me saying random stuff below lol

I really don't get the hate for elriel at all. Saying theyre sibling coded is just forcing it. Nothing about them is sibling coded, especially after that bonus chapter. (they really gave strangers-friends-lovers) This author's writing is not that hard to understand. why are majors coming to the internet about this book and to mostly just hate on elriel? like... please stop.

I have nothing to say about gwyn or lucien because what is there to say? theyre good characters but not those characters I am so interested about. I would say im more interested in emerie! She deserves more attention!!



BANG ON, ANON

👏👏👏

The spinoffs are explicit NA novels. ACOSF quite literally was filled with explicit scenes, Nessian agreed to a physical relationship only for most of the book. No one batted an eye. No one said nessian isn’t endgame bcs Cass only lusts for Nesta. Yet god absolutely forgive Azriel for having explicit thoughts on the woman he’s literally interested in and said woman - just like Nesta - WANTED HIM BACK. If it wasn’t mutual - if Elain didn’t want to kiss Az back, then it’s a different matter. But she wanted him without hesitation.

I think elriels hatred from the bonus comes down to a matter of things:

. Whether they acknowledge it or not - some antis see Elain more “childish” & “pure” compared to other characters due to her being more feminine. To see Azriel have such thoughts towards her, made them uncomfortable bcs they don’t see Elain as an adult but a child. In other words they infantilise her - which is why they complained about the bonus.

. Instead of taking elriels bonus as part of the development of elriels’ relationship in previous books, they view it as a standalone event. They see it as the only “major” elriel interaction- so for those antis, they wanted to see Azriel show and tell us readers how much he cares & loves elain him staying away from her and buying her a beautiful necklace which symbolises her personality isnt enough Its like everything he’s done for elain previously doesn’t matter. Him giving her TT doesn’t matter, him spending his solstice night listening to her talk doesn’t matter. None of it does bcs they’re only focusing on his bonus. They’re only focusing on Azriel’s thoughts that particular night/time - Oh Az didnt confess his undying love for her right then and there? Clearly he doesn’t care about her. Thats their way of thinking - which is limited and takes a lot of things out of context

The last factor ill share for now, Antis hold Elriel to a different standard then every other ship. Elriel have always been hated, more then every other couple bcs some say Azriel deserves better and the other half want Lucien to be relevant & happy. When you have to accept the reality of something you hate - naturally you’ll hold it to a higher standard then the norm. You’ll nitpick at every single thing bcs you dont like it and want to find faults to justify this dislike. Thats what happened with elriel especially when its compared to ships like Gwynriel and Elucien - who are “perfect” in comparison (bcs they’re not developed in the least therefore easy to mold them to your preference) and make up for everything elriel lacks.

Elriel have so many parallels to other couples - you’ve mentioned some above. Sjm has a clear pattern for acotar- elriel fit this pattern in every way, shape and form. But when you dig deeper into elucien and gwynriel they don’t fit this pattern & parallels.

Anyone that says elriel is platonic- even before that bonus - honestly deserves a rlly big side eye with a side of judgement.

anon, anyone that says they have a major in x and proceed to share the most basic analysis known to man and then further proceed to use the wrong context and purposely act obtuse when it comes to elriel makes me laugh. “i have a degree in english lit and its clear Az only wants a mate 🥸” - Azriel then falling in love w a fated woman that quite literally defeats the purpose of him solely wanting a mate…

I was 14 when it first read these books. At that ripe age, elriel were blaringly obvious to me. I kid you not when I learnt of these ship wars I was genuinely flabbergasted at how people where actually doubting elriel. I didn’t have a degree in anything bcs its not needed. These are basic books with basic cliche tropes and plot. Everything is right there for you to pierce together.

I love Lucien - Im interested in his story. Gwyn didn’t stick out to me. - She was just a typical fantasy side character. I loved the companionship she gave Nesta but even in SF i was invested in elain. Noting everytime she came on page, paying extra attention when her name was mentioned etc. i also love emerie - she definitely deserves more love and recognition as well as her own story of reforming Illyria.

[facewithoutheart]

Ten Questions for Writers

Thanks for the tags @shrekgogurt, @artsyunderstudy, @youarenevertooold, & @roomwithanopenfire I’m enjoying all this navel-gazing a whole bunch actually & I’ve done this before but it’s been awhile… sooo

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 169 (niiiice)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? ~950k (yikes) although some of that is Birthday Man and collabs with people from WIP fest. Don’t ask me to do the math tho; that’s mean.

3. What fandoms do you write for? I’ve written for HP, Check Please, and RWRB although right now I’m mostly a CO writer with a toe dipping into 9-1-1. I have one Captain America fic posted and some WIPs I don’t know if I’ll finish. Nobody look at that AFTG fic; it’s pure crack.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Whoo boy do I have thoughts here. I want to be the kind of writer who replies to comments and I harbor so much guilt that I’m not; I know I miss out on opportunities to connect with readers, and I genuinely appreciate comments so much; I hoard them in my inbox like a greedy lil affirmation dragon. I write to engage and connect. So, like, I know I should but at the same time I hate forcing interactions. I like them to spawn organically. I keep my circle small because I get really emotionally overwhelmed and then I feel guilty when I can’t give people what they deserve. And I’ve also never been comfortable with compliments or gratitude, I don’t trust them. So here’s a bulk of emotional trauma no one asked for to say: I don’t reply to comments as often as I feel I should and I’m trying to release the guilt I feel about this while also recognizing that not commenting probably has a direct negative affect on my ability to meet my goal of connecting through writing and at the same time my mental health probably couldn’t withstand the pressure I would need to place on it to get to where I’m replying to comments regularly. Hi I’m a mess who’s trying to love herself and often falls short of that goal; aren’t we all?

5. Have you ever had a fic stolen? No.

6. Have you ever co-written a fic before? So many actually! I didn’t think I’d ever get to a place where I trust someone else to the level this would take but I’ve been really lucky to work with some amazing writers even if not all of those works went anywhere. I actually don’t even think I could realistically tag all the people I’ve collabed with bc I’m afraid I’ll miss someone and isn’t that amazing? Personal growth; we love to see her.

7. What’s your all-time favorite ship? Oh man. I want to just be lame and say it’s me and Mr. Face 🤣 I shipped us when no one else did. Um! Snowbaz is always going to have a special place in my heart, but I’m really leaning into Buddie right now because of age and wanting to explore people in their 30’s still figuring out their lives while battling PTSD and late-in-life sexuality realizations. For, um. Reasons.

8. What are your writing strengths? I do like my dialogue a lot; dialogue is often where I start my scenes and I develop from there. I think I’ve done a good job of honing my ability to vary action/dialogue/internality a lot. I also think I keep people engaged or maybe I just keep myself engaged which is good enough for me. Sometimes I’m funny although sadly not as much recently.

9. What are your writing weaknesses? I struggle with remembering to add in physical descriptors. (Like oh shit have I ever mentioned this character has eyes?) Logistics are a frequent source of pain. (Wait, where were their hands?) I think my plots are kind of basic and boring; I don’t come up with really vivid and detailed concepts. I use the wrong words for things. I really hate detailing out backstory. I have to reread my fics a million times to maintain character consistency. Etc.

10. First fandom you wrote for? Hey Arnold. I wish I could find those fics; I bet they suck.

Tagging 10 peeps @sillyunicorn @mostlymaudlin @martsonmars @bookish-bogwitch @cutestkilla @ivelovedhimthroughworse @thewholelemon @palimpsessed @aristocratic-otter & @you-remind-me-of-the-babe

[jade-of-mourning]

sooooo I’ve recently stopped being dead to the world

I had to backtrack and reread down to your answer to my last ask (which,,, thoughts,, when you manage to beat them into submission pls pls pls pls share everything) because I haven’t touched tumblr in a hot second but then I saw your post about lok s1 (and specifically s1 korra) and,,,

okay so this is me and my dumb hyperfixation talking but how do you think the rest of tlok would’ve gone if makorra wasn’t ruined. like just in general, what do you think would’ve changed?? if anything??

keeping this short but like. brain worms are munching. cuz the way their characters developed and how they each influenced each other. how would that have ended like. romantically. like what if korra burned bright and bright and bright and offered her soul and her strength and every one of her fingernails in love and mako bit his lip hard enough to offer blood in a kiss. what if they were a little bit insane by the end of everything.

sorry that doesn’t make any sense!

love

🐌

hey snailon!!! i've missed you <3 i've been hella busy myself (cough i have four ap tests in a row next week) but it's always lovely to see you around haha

hmm there are definitely a fair share of really well written meta regarding a not-slanderized makorra, but i don't really have any specific links on me rn. i'll just give you my sparknotes version of what i'd imagine, which might end up combined with stuff i've read from other people that i don't remember reading

i'd probably postpone them more than the series did — which, granted, they did write it with one season in mind, so i'll give them that. (i would argue that it's still a valid explanation for certain writing choices, because even though the books were commissioned before the release of their predecessors, it's not like the writers get to just rewrite the ending spontaneously bc episodes aren't constructed chronologically lol) okay ignoring that tangent

i'm okay with the love triangle in season 1 as it is because even though it's insane, it also checks out on all parts for korra, asami, and mako in terms of backstory and personality at this point in the story. korra is socially unaware because she never interacted with people her age or really Society, asami is desperately lonely and values good intent above all else, and mako is also impressively socially stunted and has the pressure of financial concerns as well. (if it were up to me, i would either just commit to korrasami or makorra from the start and add in the third if going in the throuple direction. i'm going off on a tangent again)

i have conflicting feelings about endgame. on one hand, makorra is so full circle by concluding the way they do here — mako's first encounter with korra he treats her like he doesn't give a shit that she's the avatar, the first person to ever do so; yet, by the end when korra's absolutely devastated and believes her only value was as the avatar, mako tells her straight up that he doesn't care if she's the avatar or not, as he has all along. it's genuinely so cute and i could honestly write so many more words about it than i did. but at the same time, i just would like to think that after the shitshow love triangle, they would put off getting together, perhaps as an overcompensation upon recognizing how they hurt asami.

since the latter route is the au i've decided to follow, so be it. in endgame, korra and mako still have their full circle moment and spinny-hug, but instead of kissing in front of naga they just longingly pine into one another's eyes. excessively so the viewers know. okay cut

season 2 they are rekindling their friendships with asami and asami is tired of watching them dance around their feelings for one another and also maybe pining just a little bit for korra but huh what. i would actually have to rewrite the entirety of lok to shift s2 into a readable mess. korra is still amazing as always and saves the world as always. oh also throw in some korrasami with the family betrayal theme. yeah i don't want to think too hard about this

see the struggle is that i love krew!friendship in season 3 so much but at the same time i feel like end of season 2 is the perfect time for a makorra get-together instead of a makorra breakup, seeing that korra has literally changed the entire world all by herself because she is so amazing. so alas, we'll go with end of season 2. mako no longer lives under his desk to hide from korrasami and in the two weeks between s2 and s3 they are done with their honeymoon phase so they'll just be as they are through s3 tbh. honestly there was so much makorra shipteasing throughout canon s3 that i don't really think there'd need to be too much rewriting. they're still the level-head/kick-the-door-down-subtlety duo within the krew dynamics and they're still clearly very important to each other specifically. the makorra hug before korra goes up to face zaheer might be drawn out even more and maybe something sweet couples say idk. (i have so much rizz i know wht i'm saying)

korra gets even more trauma for a lifetime (again), and three years pass. korra writes to asami once as in canon because by the time she feels human enough to pick up a pen, she doesn't even know how to talk to mako, let alone try to address the guilt of ignoring the guy who devoted himself to her so thoroughly. asami understands what it is to lose. mako (& bolin) has lost more than anyone else once perhaps but i think that the trauma repression means that that was never processed and he would be terrible to talk to about any of this. he's been there, but he doesn't understand it, if that makes sense.

okay so korra comes back, makorrasami dinner (ig the shitling that canon wu is is there also), makorrasami train fight, then we have remembrances and beyond the wilds — y'know, the korrasami/makorra episodes respectively. korra is now experiencing feelings for both of them Oh Fuck. by default i would say that masami has been hooking up through these three years but since makorra was a thing through s3 then i retract that; however, their friendship has rekindled very deeply as the only two members of the krew left in the city. and mako & korra have not discussed what they were or what they want to be at all, just been adamantly dancing around the subject.

blah blah kuvira blah blah city blows up then the wedding then bam!!!! mako's love confession to korra is actually a love confession to korra (wdym "i'll follow you into battle no matter how crazy things get; i've got your back and i always will" ISN'T a confession of love). korra is joined by both mako and asami after tenzin leaves, asami grieves, and the three of them have a moment together that has very heavy implications for throuple-ism. then bolin pulls up very devastated that he has missed the final krew party. cue the laughter, cue korra's final delivery of "i'll always try to restore balance" bc it should've been here instead as the three of them stare at the changed city before them, and cut.

(yes krew should've had the final scene together. i've said it before that i don't think korrasami was particularly well written, but i still like them and the ending is still very sweet. however, i hate that they completely disregarded the rest of the cast for the final episode instead of giving them a scene together, even if not the very last one, bc of how that translated over into the entire fandom… i mean what. and the spirit world vacation is a sweet sentiment but also i feel that korra would never immediately go leave on a vacation immediately after everything that just happened and her declarations of duty. i don't think i articulated that very well. but yes.)

[ravenkinnie]

i love love love the way you write jinx and the way you talk about her and her relationships!!! not to be annoying bc a lot of ppl in the fandom are like 16/17 but the general interpretation of jinx as little more than a victim of her circumstances and silco’s manipulation who should make up with her sister, be caitvi’s slightly annoying third wheel and ekko’s (or lux? lmao nothing against either ship but yk) quirked up gf is soooo boring (like god forbid a girl contains multitudes and is both a meow meow and an absolute cunt) and your take on her is such a breath of fresh air! not sure if you talked about this in a post already but what are your hopes in general for the new season and ofc for jinx in particular?

❤️❤️❤️ that's my pookie and even tho I'm hoeing across runeterra she will always be the one

no fr fr and listen I do feel like I'm fighting in a kindergarten when I hate because I realise it's cause everyone I'm beefing with is 18 and just likes the same YA archetypes as everyone else at that age but if 10k bitches can post it on ao3 I can hate on it. especially because it erases a supremely well done character that they made out of a lol champion I wouldn't even think twice about when she first released like that's a talent and that's work

and also if people want to complain about female characters in media it feels disingenuous to then remove agency from complicated female characters we do have to make them one dimensional - like one thing you cannot say about jinx is that she's flat - in personality I mean cause well. she is an active dynamic character with insane narrative potential and a lot of layers and being both a victim and a victimiser is an important part of that

my main hopes for season 2 are honestly

*I hope its consistent internally with its own ideology </3 I think s1 at the end starts unraveling a lil because it seems to despair for this both sides ass take but it just wouldn't make any sense with league lore or the show itself. here I mostly fear for ekko gkbknj

*everybody should become a somewhat worse person, like vi provably will because she will become an enforcer, caitlyn seems to also be heading for some corruption arc, obv viktor is there, so I think this will be fulfilled teehee

*I want jinx to have her own arc and I mean an arc where she develops her own goal and motivations outside other characters too and maybe this goal will be to love evil till the day she dies, ill take it!! I just think seeing jinx grow outside that child/flighty troublemaker into a full on villain/terrorist will be fantastic and will also give her actual league lore another layer that hopefullyyyy they can continue to build on (and they will never stop banking on jinx like that's basically leagues mascot)

*mel survives </3 like it would be way too much of a loss of a great character to give her so little storyline of her own, she needs to be in s2

*overall, sorry to be a freak but I'm a tragedy lover and enjoyer and I know they are tied to champion lore somewhat now but I still hope it ends sad or bittersweet for everyone. and when you say tragedy people often think of character death but that's probably the least tragic ending you can give a bitch, the true hollowness in losing everything you once were and could have been is what im talking about!!

*I did say this before but I hope jinx kills imagine dragons in arcane universe. first of all they are touring in israel so they deserve that but also it would be really funny to see them on her list of victims like just whole ass imagine dragons under silco or sth

[orviposition]

I saw someone talking about how with the scenes added in the ebook and with the scenes in the ongoing side story, with emphasis on that one scene where LHH talks about the heroine of ORV, DokSoo might become canon. And while they did mention that they read the side story, I thought that that particular scene pretty much sunk many ships?

oh boy ngl i was a bit reluctant answering this ask but imo this is just fans' wishful thinking rather than singshong walking through a doksoo route.

the doksoo scenes added to the ebook arent really so fundamental to the point that theyre the closest ship to become canon. in fact I'd say that the main reason to make them canon would be that it's a (well-developed) straight ship tbh. in the 1863rd turn, theres an added smoking-on-the-roof scene. kdj tries smoking and immediately has a coughing fit. hsy asks him if she did well in this round. this added scene is a direct parallel to kdj telling her that she did well during the enemy of the story arc

another scene is during kaizenix. yjh and kdj decide to try the romance route and bcs yuri was in love with ricardo, it's kdj who writes the letter "write a story that's for me and me alone" this is also a foreshadowing to what we learn in the epilogue lol. to expand more on kaizenix, we also have yjh telling kdj that his writing skills are terrible despite him reading so much, kdj tells him that with his face he certainly didnt have any problems with courting. yjh then goes on a thinking tangent about how he could not care less about the looks of someone he likes (and we know who is called ugly throughout the book)

as for the lhh part where he talks about orv's heroine (kdj's love interest in this context) he is 100% not referring to han sooyoung. he says that the character he had in mind didnt have as much screentime as the other leads. the main women in orv when it comes to screentime are hsy jhw uriel and ysa. going by lhh's logic and IF his words represent singshong's stance, then hsy is immediately ruled out. i also wouldn't consider jhw for the role either, not only bcs i didnt really see their scenes with a romantic undertone but also why would singshong write kdj's romantic interest love someone else (lhs) romantically?

with uriel, unless you consider kdj/uriel to be a direct parallel to 999yjh/999uriel then i dont think shes The candidate either. now for ysa, im a bit iffy when it comes to her bcs sure she doesnt have as much as screentime as lets say yoohankim but shes also not someone you would consider neglected (like lsh for example) also i genuinely think that romance would undermine doksang's bonds. i think theyre so good BECAUSE theyre platonic

singshong have told us in multiple ways that orv is not a story about a canon romance so you can interpret the ending however you want just dont mis-label the novel's genre (this includes both het and gay romance). plus i just dont think they would shoot themselves on the foot and risk "angering" the largest active part of the fandom (general statement). i dont want to sound arrogant but you cant deny that joongdok shippers are the backbone of orv fandom and joongdok artists have been the only ones to be recruited to promote orv. alter (the official artist before blackbox) is a danmei artist, blackbox is a joongdok shipper, haban (taiwanese release cover artist) has a danmei history, the artist of the simplified cn version release has jd porn on their twitter and so on. certainly singshong are aware that orv didn't get this big bcs some guy recommended it in solo leveling's comment sections

speaking of guys, not every dudebro out there ships doksoo anw, some like doksang, some dont ship anything. the same can be said about the female audience too. not everyone ships joongdok. some ship doksoo, some yoohankim, some nothing thats not canon. im not part of the latest group since i could not care less about a ship's canon status lol

this got WAY too long. if you want a TL;DR refer to the first paragraph

[bestworstcase]

Listen as someone who loves Ozpin a lot, he got the better end of the deal and we know this bc Light said explicitly he would not be alone. No it’s not a GOOD deal but considering he found and reunited with and had kids with Salem in his first new life? Things only got terrible for him truly after they broke up / tried to kill each other.

Salem watched humanity be Destroyed by the “gods” of her world who thought she should be punished bc they were easily swayed into fighting by making her Love Forever, Invulnerable (can be brown. Apart but comes back together) and then Left Her Alone Until Humanity Evolved once again either by our real world rules or magical rules or a combination of the two.

Listen I’ll write an essay about Oz and his years of fucked up loneliness and body snatching he didn’t want but Salem being Alone for That long without even the release of death at her own hands? NONE of us would handle that well who knows how she rebates when life sprang up again like. She’s the villain for sure she’s fucked up for sure but man I would be too. I would be too

it’s funny that you say this actually because i think the opposite. salem may have been brutally psychologically tortured for millions of years at the hands of cruel and tyrannical gods, but 1. she’s still herself, 2. she understands that she did not deserve this, and 3. she was ultimately able to claw back some agency for herself by jumping into the pool of grimm (which is doubly true if that really did cause humanity’s resurrection, because in that case she actually ended the worst part of her curse).

meanwhile ozma got turned into a parasite who subsists by erasing and absorbing other people’s lives, over and over and over again, entirely against his will and in a manner that also forces him to experience this from their perspective too. and the god of light tricked him into agreeing to this—so he feels it’s his fault—on top of making it his sole responsibility to redeem humanity before the gods lest the whole world be obliterated. he’s been manipulated into a position where the one person who ever made him want to live is his greatest enemy and his whole existence revolves around a hopeless campaign to get rid of her so he can save the world that he only wanted to save because she was in it. and his sense of identity has been eroded so badly that he doesn’t even consider himself to be a person anymore. and he’s convinced all of his suffering is his fault and exactly what he deserves for having failed.

and rwby has been very, very clear that a person’s soul is their identity, their self-knowledge, which means that the nature of ozma’s curse is tearing his soul apart.

when salem found out he reincarnated early she kicked everyone out of the room, tried to calm herself down, had a meltdown, blew the windows in, and then very quickly shuffled her plans around to do damage control and even try to turn this development to her advantage (<- the ‘wring the lamp’s password out of him’ plan). when ozpin’s precarious house of cards collapsed he burrowed down into oscar’s head and went catatonic for months. and if V1 is any indication, as ozpin he regularly spent months on end just dissociating all the time. salem is like… a lot more emotionally functional than he is, and i think that’s entirely because ozma’s form of reincarnation is shredding his soul and forcing him to live in the bodies of people he involuntarily consumes.

[lucihens]

Hi. I just want to somehow make catharsis about the whole Chenford break up going on and listen other takes on it.

Maybe Im just a girl going through Mercury Retrograde being delulu not wanting to aknowledge they are over. Having said that:

I just know this is not the end for them. But not for plot reasons that we are all speculating. I mean sure for plot reasons is necesary for Tim to get his shit together before taking the next step with Lucy (Eric said in his interview that Tim loves her and its seen in the lie detector scene and all the Tamara moving out storyline that has been going since last season they are sure heading to moving together). Also sure Lucy has suffered many things and is interesting to see her next steps.

But I just know this is for marketing reasons. They need the show to be renewed for another season and a massive cliffhanger like this one when there's a 3 weeks break between episodes where they know people will be engaged on it is a good way on getting that renewal.

They know people still watching the show because Chenford. They have stated they are endgame. But they are producers and writers and plan things ahead in order to keep the show going. Is just trust the process and the fact that they work on this and know what they are doing. I have seen many shows (most of them from ABC) to know they give the fans what they want bc in the end is a product that is sold and know that not doing something your target audience wants equals not product to be sold.

Also, even though Melissa and Eric had said that there are some things coming on Tim and Lucy on the season finale and blah blah blah. They are putting a lot of effort on the breakup promotionally speaking. The interviews released the second the episode finished, the TikToks from Melissa, the whole ice cream promo with letters to the cast about the breakup and they laughing and making jokes (also like the ig account still saying Chenford stan account) is more clear is about making the people engaged and furthermore, making the network renew the show for season 7. They are actors and know they must keep a good relationship with their fans (I mean if you make something that upset your fans then how would you keep getting called to act if you dont have people watching them for you and other actors can), what Im saying Is they are laughing and all of this because they know how it ends and know they end in a place where fans will love it, if not they are basically bullyng us lol.

So long story short: just keeping my peace of mind knowing it is just marketing. By the interviews we know somehow the season finale lets them in a good place, so if season 7 comes maybe we got time to see them making up with more time and development (things this season had been rushed bc the strike, not only here but in most shows) and if there's not season 7 it will end up with Chenford with a sort of an open finale where all points to them giving it another chance in their inmidate future.

Hope i made myself clear. Just wanted to vent haha. And lets chill and cross fingers for season 7 and an Oscar for Melissa and Eric because that break up was so CHEFF KISS like girlll I have felt that pain too.

hello dear anon! thank you for being my very first ask!

i hope you won't regret venting to me because this response ended up....well...extensive. i have many many things to say and a lack of adhd medication to contain them.

i would also like to note that i'm not at all experienced with writing think pieces on the internet. but even though i haven't written an essay since college, i can sure yap. and even though i'm a genius /s, this may not make sense to anyone. so here's what my chronic fatigue and i were able to conjure up:

yes, tv shows are primarily for an audience, whether writers and directors do accept that or not, that's what i'm guessing producers have in mind. tv is literally built 'for your viewing pleasure', and with this show in the past, and by past i mean season 5 especially (and the shock and surprise of 4x22), they (whoever they is) have been manically hitting that red button titled 'DO THE THING THEY WANT' just so they can say they did it and you as an audience can't complain. so yes in my experience, shows very often, if not always, write for an audience, otherwise the creators would just be giggling at themselves in their own private screening room at their custom, personalised tv show made only for them. when you give a show to the masses, it is, in certain ways, their's now. so going against everything an audience wants is certainly an interesting move, and since i have a common disease called 'being absolutely befuddled by the varying degrees of human nature' i don't know particularly what their aim is, what they're hoping this will provide an audience, as well as the show as a whole. what i do know however, is that there is not just one kind of audience, within the watchers of the rookie, there is obviously an abundance of angst lovers, an array of fluff lovers, complex think piece people, and apathetic 'this is what i fill the void of a tuesday night with' people (which is potentially what makes up a good portion of the viewers (?), not just the dedicated fandom we see on social media). with this in mind, the creators, the writers, are evidently incapable of satisfying every single diverse/contradictory demographic. so it's unclear which demographic they want to make happy at a given storyline. is this to give the angst lovers what they want? is this to give the comfortable fluff lovers a kick in the rear? or is this just to keep the average viewer interested in this ever-appealing show? i can't speak for them at all so i couldn't say which, but i also haven't a scooby doo. maybe others could give their opinion on which of these they think the creators are aiming for, because i couldnt tell you. then again, maybe it's all of them. maybe we let the rest of the season play out to completion, and we may know for sure. but marketing a show goes hand in hand with keeping the general audience as well as potential new viewers: 1. happy and excited, 2. interested in investing their time into the show. and given that season 6 is a short season: yes, i'm sure the marketing the break up is one of their best bets at keeping ratings up and viewers in, whether it comes directly from outrage or intrigue. and given how some other storylines seem to fall kind of flat (wink wink nol–), especially compared to last season, the initial lucy storylines and the now tim storylines are what is keeping up the hype for such a small season. and i'm sure (hoping) the other characters will have something to add to the s6 plate to further the impact of such a small season and the plots within. but for the most part 'chenford' is such an electric word. drop it in anywhere and the millions(?) who have ever laid eyes on the show just got a shock. and they know that, so of course they'll use it to their advantage in anyway they can.

and with this rambling: one thing i'm sure of, the only thing i'm sure of, is that yes: THEY LOVE EACH OTHER. and not just a slight admiration or a tinge of care. actual undying love. incomprehensible love. i don't know a lot about this topic but i definitely love to aggrandise the concept of love, and especially unto something harmless like fictional characters. in the real world, loving someone isn't always enough for sure. but not loving someone at all can also having no bearing in the upkeep of a relationship (i know this from personal experience). so whether or not two people end up together in real life, has no distinguished rule of 'do this and feel that and you'll be together forever'.

but this is fiction! WE make this stuff up. so we can do whatever we want! we can link A to B and say these characters love each other so they must end up together, and still be flawed along the way, because they are not real. so in my opinion the various ideas like "real relationships have people breaking up", "real relationships have people never getting back together", "real relationships have people never breaking up", and to follow, the incessant "real relationships have good communication!" don't matter anyway because ideas based reality have absolutely no impact in this fictional realm. yes bring in realism, be realistic if you want, but don't let reality dictate your fiction entirely (as well as the inverse). nor should you let reality make you want your fiction to be completely unreal. both fiction and reality have complexity in personality and characterisation. people have personalities and characters have characterisation. the one commonality is imperfection. but just because they are similar doesn't mean they have to be the same. it doesn't mean chenford are realistically doomed. and with this the plot that may unfold could be one unexpected, one unreal, or one completely real. tim and lucy could work through their own storylines, flaws and complexities separately and i'd be glad to see it.

i had a lot of issues with how fan service esque the initial 'canonisation' felt and maybe this is not just to market their show, but to finally listen to the majority of the audience, the particular audience that literally helps them market the show. aka the social media citizens. the ones who talk up a storm about what they love about the show and literally rope others into watching it. maybe they'll finally write them with more specific intentions this time, maybe this is what this is for. not just for drama but to give us what we wanted to watch in the first place but heavily missed out on: pining, feelings, dramatic reconciliation. who knows. we won't. not until the season is over and s7 inevitably comes (it's guaranteed).

i know many become angry with this show about what it does and doesn't do but one thing that helps me survive is this: it doesn't matter, the episodes exist anyway. they will continue to exist even if they don't have what we want. all we can do is feel every feeling this show evokes because that's really what it is to be entertained, at least for me. we're not the creators at the end of the day, no matter how much we've created. if something happens we don't like, we don't like it and we talk about how we don't like it. if we do like it, we talk about how we like it. and we praise the actors anyway, for the characters they bless us with. and the creatives, who gave us the masterpiece that is season 2.

and with that, i conclude. this definitely got away from me like the runaway train in my adhd brain. i wrote this sleepy and fatigued and i think i might be brain dead so if there are contradictions or things that make not a bit of sense feel free to call me out on it! especially those who are more experienced yappers, i'd definitely like to know what you disagree with or think has no place in this piece.

anyway, fin. thank you anon and TLDR; chenford will be fine and the show will always favour exploiting the most loved characters for marketing but with every PR box of ice cream sent and every article written brings in one more viewer to our beloved show and at least we'd stand a chance of a season 10.

[capcavan]

7, 9, and 11 for your tag game 💜

nah love i need you to answer all of them but yeha only fair i do mine to lul

What is your favourite character in the Foxes? I don't really have favourite there i think Neil will be my favourite in future right now it's Renee

And favourite in the series aside form this one? I will let you guess

Drop your beloved head-canons about both! Renee does not in fact believe in god she participated in Christianity for sense of community it gives her, Riko is deathly allergic to peanuts and wishes he was born a girl but not in the trans way. He just know his life would be better if he wasn't a man. I also feel very strongly about him having adhd/bipolar .

Fic(s) you are always happy to recommend or fic tropes you will always read. https://archiveofourown.org/works/12283962/chapters/27922614#workskin Little Boy blue , I generally can be baited into reading any fic where riko is treated with bit more nuance than flat line Disney villain. I adore extreme hurt with happy ending

Which of the books is your favourite The foxhole court i enjoyed this story much more without seeing it's full development also loved Kevin much more before he was pushed aside, my first idea of what this story would be was much different .

Opinions on AFTG audiobook release? Worth a listen juts to laugh at girls voices , but i adore Renees soft tone in it, I think it,s main reason I adore her sm actually.

If you write/draw/create aftg stuff, what is your favourite work of yours?

i adore this fan art a lot bc it,s funny light hearted has clever joke that references rikos obsession with court numbers and has fox jean and riko on it + riko kind of looks like girl here and i think it's very hot look on him

welp the numbers got fucked

Favourite event/plot point in the books Foxes reaction to seths death and seth death, it set really god tone for rest of the story and was the only event that genuinely surprised me bc i did not expected anyone from hero team to drop dead

Least favourite part of canon (can include Extra content) The fact that both foxes and ravens are groups of abused individuals but one word ,, mafia" is enough to put blame for all bat things on riko only even though he was pawn to his caretaker the way she wrote jeans abuse list it feels excessively edgy for sake of begin edgy i find nothing deep or sad about this i can also write down random list of numbers and attach to it words like rape and broken bones

If you could sent Nora an ask and get answer, what would you ask about? i wouldn't ask about anything bc her giving me answer i'm not looking for would feel bad

If you could make an idea of your choice canon to aftg, what would it be? I'd have a riko make a joke about how foxes should be in prison by now considering they are dressed the part (orange) (and most of them broke the law) id also replace neils car lighter burns with something else bc they are annoying to draw

Feel free to share some random hot takes if you like Andrew "murdering" their abusive mother is creepy as fuck and her being abuser or him only teenager with not fully developed brain is not really making this any less creepy and i enjoy his character because of this I don't mind aaron being homophobic , i'm cool with those character being murderers abusers and bigots , it's fictional characters they had not hurt anyone in real life so i don't really care about their fictional flaws and enjoy interacting with their content all the same I don't like only one of the foxes and i don't think this fox should be part of this team i don't really care about story and whatever, it's my personal bias so discussing it deeper makes no sense unless you want to unpack my past and all people who lead me to feel that way rlly

[smokeys-house]

Answering this in a separate post bc it's kinda deserving of it's own explanation.

(From this post)

So to explain what I meant without directly listing things, you might have noticed a sort of ongoing theme with me and especially my OC stuff that isn't in character. This might go a little long so I'll put it under a readmore, its not terribly interesting just kind of a silly thing I've never directly mentioned or addressed

So my discord statuses, if you've got me on there somewhere you may have seen my statuses which are all sorta. Commercial-esque? Things like "Coming to a theater near you, A Moomin on the High Seas!" Or "Puukko-O's, part of a balanced breakfast!". Sort of an ongoing bit that I've been doing for a long while now

Well, to put it simply, there's canon stuff like all my writing and a lot of the art I've posted, etc, and then there's this sort of... neo-non-canon? I like that whole era of advertising, early 90s and before, and it suits the canon that I've been pushing mostly which is that Puukko is originally meant to fit in the 90s series (Tanoshii Moomin Ikka).

So there's canon, her and the whole world of the moomins, and then there's this faux canon unreality outside of it where she was part of the series and got a spin off series of her own. I don't bring it up because it's mainly just a fun aside for me, I like to make jokes about official merch for her and treating my story launches like tv-to-movie in theater releases. It's sorta just nostalgic for me.

Plus it gives me excuses to do just about anything I want with my OC without directly affecting her ongoing canon, things like CyberPuukko and Skycaptain Puukko, which would be spinoffs of a spinoff i guess. It also gives me the opportunity to pretend I'm famous or making something people are interested in. If you can't hype yourself up about your own thing, you're not gonna hype anyone else up about it either. Plus it's fun to pretend!

I'll never really develop on that side of things too much, it's a bit meta for my taste and for that sort of thing I feel like you really ought to have some art skill or something else to bring to the table. I'm not clever enough for it nor do I have the ability to fully realize things like that, so I just sorta. Leave it as a fun little gag now and again.

The list so far I think encompasses stuff you'd find as normal moomin merch but also the ones I've joked about in the past include fireworks, breakfast cereal, alcohol and bar equipment, pipe tobacco, plushies, folding knives, books and movies of course, and now Hi-C apparently. There's a commission in the works at the moment that sorta ties into this and you'll see what I mean when it's done.

If it ever comes up in any meaningful capacity I'll have a tag for it and presumably a concept name better than "neo-non-canon".

[zephirite]

Oh my GOSH I had so many...for nostalgia's sake, imma do a breakdown of each book and what it did to me. (Spoilers for each book!) Elementary School:

Harry Potter I owe all my reading intrigue to my dad reading me and my sister Harry Potter every night. When he stopped, I was so invested I learned to read it just to finish it. I didn't know one out of every five words and the style took me a while to get used to, but after that, everything came easy. I was nine, so I deluded myself into thinking I would actually get a letter by owl (I was obsessed with birds at the time, so my excitement was two-fold). I went around with a 'cloak' and fake wand, and tried to sit through the Deathly Hallows movie when it first released (my dad warned me it was Pg-13, and he was right. I left to 'use the bathroom' several times). I re-discovered it when I was in middle-high school and in fandom spaces, so I garnered a new appreciation for its complexity before all the JKR drama hit. That said, it suffers from a lot of odd authorial bias--like the houses supposedly all being equal and unity being the way to defeat Voldemort, yet the final book involves...no Hogwarts or house unity until the final massacre? Someone said the protagonists should've been one from each house--Hermione in Ravenclaw, Ron in Hufflepuff, Harry in Griffindor, and Malfoy in Slytherin. More of the world could've been explored this way too...wasted opportunity. And for such a long series, it made sense to have the character deaths clustered toward the end, but I didn't expect so many in rapid succession. Overall, a very good concept with pretty good execution (even if I disagree with some choices).

Pandora Gets... [Jealous, Vain, Angry, etc] The cover art on these had no right going so hard. That's what drew me in, but I stayed for the plot: "Pandy", the teenage demigod daughter of Prometheus (who inhierited his fire powers) brings the box to school for show and tell, and her bullies unleash the seven evils trapped inside. So Pandy and her friends must travel the world to recapture them within a years time, seeing the damage they've caused and gaining skills along the way. The gods are bitchy (accurate) and the characters have good chemistry, clear stakes, and plenty of action. Took a turn when Alcie flippin' DIED (I cried, I was in utter disbelief) and ended up getting to see the Underworld. She even got given control over her life string by the Fates, which was sick. Really good series--I might read the final books now that it's complete. For old time's sake.

The Hunger Games The genius was mostly lost on me (I had to beg my parents to let me read it because everyone else in fifth grade was) and I sobbed during Rue's death, but it aged very well. Katniss was refreshingly awkward, and even the required YV love triangle had symbolic purpose and buildup (Gale representing War, and Peeta, Peace). Rue's death gutted me, as did Cinna's, and freaking Prim's... And it has fantastic movie adaptations, too. You can tell Suzanne Collins only writes when she has a clear story in mind, not as a cash grab. The prequel movie Songbirds and Snakes is coming out soon, and I'm pumped.

Divergent Considerably less well-developed and politically/psychologically nuanced than the above. Would've been more resonant as just one novel that ended openly. Then it fell apart. They randomly added Tobias's pov into the third book because of Tris's contrived death (after the whole series' Faction premise is revealed as an experiment). I always thought their relationship was...too intense and weird? Mentor/mentee ships often weird me out bc they don't feel like equals. And Divergents are literally just chosen ones...we never find out what makes them dangerous. It can't be 'questioning the system', because everyone fights back at some point. "Do factionless kids get to choose their faction?" <- someone commented this, and I agree that this would've made a MUCH cooler protagonist than Tris. And the movies got downright incoherent by the third one.

Emily Windsnap I was entranced by the iridescent mermaid-tale, watercolor cover, and this ushered in my mermaid phase (which only intensified with H2O and Mako Mermaids). In book one, the lighthouse keeper drugging Emily's mom via daily doughnuts so she forgets her mermaid husband while he rots in jail for loving a human, and then Emily visits him, and eventually gets Poseidon to let them live together. I loved the semi-mer ideal (human on land, mermaid in the water), and the simple, imaginative world was well-described. Fond memories! Even though they shoehorned a love interest in for Emily, adventure was first and foremost.

Dork Diaries Loved the art for this one, but Nikki was always as big a brat as her bullies--just in retaliation. She complains her life sucks even when she wins thousands of dollars in art competitions, gets record deals, and has a scholarship to a private school. Weirdest book was a literal fever dream where Nikki got beaned in the head with a dodgeball so hard, she hallucinated an entire fairy tale.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Aged better than dork diaries, for its vaguely dark humor and deadpan absurdity.

Guardians of Ga'Hoole Warrior Cats but for bird nerds--like me, so this was a hit. I had to read the books out of order and missed most of them, but in the end, the main character gets his wing ripped off and dies. But hey--we got the prettiest movie adaptation EVER! Each shot is a painting and ultra-detailed in a beautiful way (not hyper-realism for the hell of it (*cough Lion King cough* ).

Animorphs How K.A.Applegate managed to tell a cohesive, unnerving war story about shapeshifting kids, aliens, and mind-controlling slugs over hundreds of novels, I'll never know. Each book had clear, high stakes and was entertaining. Some got weird, but that's par for the course. And apparently, we get a somewhat tragic ending, which is pretty ballsy. Hoping the show goes well--second time's a charm!

Warriors Enjoyed this one a lot, even if I didn't read all of them. Basic knowledge of clan structure and the premise has served me well, as this and Harry Potter remain the most well-known fandoms out of any on this list.

Molly Moon An english orphan learns how to hypnotize people, and uses it to defeat various weird adults and get rich, alongside her best friend and pug. What's not to love? Got a bit out-of-hand with the power creep after they introduced time travel and future selves, but it was always a quirky series at heart, so I can't blame it. They were also the only books in english in the Swedish library when I lived there for a year, so...there's that.

Inkheart Are all the original premises for YA books taken? Get meta, and make reading a superpower! A book for book nerds, and I love it dearly for that. Kinda conventional medieval European fantasy world meets VERY conventional modern world, but it's not about the scale, but the magic; read beautifully and with conviction, and the people around you are replaced by the characters you're reading about. Villain gets to meet the author who made him, and the author gets to travel inside his own book and reap the consequences of what he made. Movies are good, but this premise was literally built for books, so it's no great loss. Fantastic characters, though. Very iconic. I'm surprised Tumblr hasn't discovered this series yet--it's right up their alley.

A Year without Autumn Not a series nor an obsession, just a fever-dream novel I read (same author as Emily Windsnap) where a girl is on vacation with her friend Autumn, and rides an elevator to the future, where Autumn is in a coma from an accident that happened that summer. Main character travels 'up' another year, to where they're pulling Autunm's life support. Mc returns to save her. Lowkey horrific, but memorable. I'll reblog w/ a part 2!

Nobody understands the bond between a girl and the mediocre book she read when she was 13 years old.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

FR im glad that probably won’t happen for a while for BLLK since there’s still a lot of material that needs to be made before it can be over…

THATS WHAT I SAID??? I wanna know what editor sat through reading it and approved it for publication like??? And what compels people to put this out there like….imagine having to see this in a bookstore like oh my

Ooooh you’re so right…I think it was the hype from s1 and the gap in between the release (plus the movie!! Almost forgot that existed) that really built up s2 especially since the beginning was very gojo centric….speaking of I almost forgot you consume jjk too, are you caught up with the manga? I have some thoughts…(only some because although I’m technically caught up I got so confused for a very large chunk of it that I barely pieced together what happened for a good section…)

So real he’s way too yolo for the elite life!! He would not give af about social status or keeping up the status quo, maintaining reputations etc. LOL Something about yuki always having some position of status in the social hierarchy as like a side character is something I love like….no wonder he’s a model in canon he definitely gives off these really poised elegant vibes like he is DEFINITELY a noble I’m very excited to see the diff dynamics in hollyhock!!!

Morally grey assholes are my personal fav LMAOO when I first read that y/n offers up hiiragi I was like rubbing my hands together (there needs to be a better phrase for this?? Like when villains go hehehe and rub their hands together ykwim?) I love the way y/n isn’t your cliche mc where she just seduces Otoya on spot or something I CHEERED when I read that like let’s go??? I’m so excited to see her selfish side like I feel like in these settings it’s such a unique way to go about the mc?? I remember watching/reading some series with more historical settings (like my happy marriage which I mean. It’s a romance so I guess I should’ve expected it LOL) but the mc is usually very…submissive…? I get how that fits into the contexts of the time too (eugh misogyny) but it’s refreshing to see more bold characters than your token shoujo protag LOL

Also every time you write Itoshi bros crossed out I giggle LMAO honestly yeah their tag is alive and kicking comparatively too and I do see many similar if not identical tropes and prompts (no hate to any of the writers because I have found some gems in there too! Just bc of their popularity and characters very susceptible to similar tropes and ideas lolol)

We love a writer that does research?? I’ll speak on behalf of all your readers when I say we definitely feel the effort you pour in <3 everything’s thought out so nicely I love how your stories develop!!

Umm speaking of developing SLOW BURN I’m a SUCKER for slow burn maybe that’s also why I love your writing too…I feel like you give the story and characters proper time to develop and evolve without rushing them through to a conclusion which makes it sm nicer honestly….like even if some pieces have more open endings I feel like the stories are much more complete because it felt sometimes more slow burn esque? Compared to just jumping straight into a relationship after a few sentences or something

AWW ILL BE YOUR NUMBER ONE YAPPER HAHA It’s honestly hard not to get invested like I need to know what happens next…this kinda just piggy backs off the paragraph above this one LOL also side characters ALWAYS grow on me like it’s a given and BLLK has so many interesting ones ill gladly absorb more content for them…so trust I’m not going anywhere soon!! (Also I think YOURE the one doing the Otoya nation a great service LMAOO)

-Karasu anon

nah because that got APPROVED LMAOAAO maybe the author self-published it?? idk i guess everything has a niche audience so maybe some people are into that…

yes i am all caught up!! i keep up w leaks too so i know everything that’s going on. to be honest i don’t 100% love how the story’s been going and i def have felt my interest in jjk waning as of late but i’m sure gege has some kind of end game planned that will be interesting. reading weekly has def been disheartening as it’s hard to invest when the same fight has been going on for SO long yk?? i feel like things that would’ve gotten me hyped before now just feel like…okay…like not enough is happening chapter to chapter or smth idk. once the arc is finished and it’s animated i’m hoping the pacing feels a bit more natural!!

YES otoya is almost like irreverent i think?? he’s not immature but he just truly does not care he’s doing his own thing. whereas karasu is very concerned w what people think of him and yuki has an innate classiness and dignity to him so i think they could pull off the noble vibe well. though quite honestly karasu gives me more knight/samurai (in this au) vibes — still a fighter, but a more honorable one who has a moral code he strictly follows compared to otoya’s willingness to do wtvr

MORALLY GREY CHARACTERS WHO ARE ACTUALLY MORALLY GREY MY BELOVED 💖 oh yeah 100% if i was going a bit more cliche i could’ve had y/n try to seduce him or smth but i tried to avoid that (although eita does make one slight joke of a sexual nature during their convo but he’s just being goofy so i think it’s okay) as i really wanted to set her up as someone who’s not afraid of being brutal/ruthless to get what she wants. and i agree there’s a lot of more subdued fmc in historical aus but honestly it’s an au so why not give my female characters agency??? i’ve def written the more stereotypically “weak” fmc before but i didn’t want to go that route this time given who she’s inspired by. plus a lot of it is rooted in westernization i think — people view the history of other countries through a european lens when a lot of the time that doesn’t apply. for example y/n being a bastard wouldn’t be a huge problem in japanese society as bastards/cheating were actually relatively common back then!! and even accepted…if a lord didn’t have legitimate heirs he would adopt his bastards and that was that 🤷🏻‍♀️ that’s why y/n being “cursed” and the daughter of a maid, as well as reiji being the legitimate heir, is important to her backstory and why she suffers in the way she does, as well as an explanation for some of her later actions. in a european-based story, just being a bastard would be enough of an explanation for all of that, but in something based on sengoku-era japan, there needs to be further context. but also even setting that aside if i can have ninjas in my story (who i am trying to keep more accurate than their general portrayal in fiction but i’m still going to take liberties with) then why not a ruthless selfish fmc who goes to war and takes over the kingdom?? anyways there’s records of empresses in japan, china, and korea alike, so long story short i think that writing y/n like this makes sense and is about as historically accurate as the rest of it, so why not?? plus it makes for a more fun story

HAHAHA the itoshi bros are like the only bllk characters who i see with a tonnn of fics!! the others don’t have quite as many (although kaiser is getting up there i think). i do think that a lot of the stories have similar tropes due to the nature of the characters…they both feel like very “stuck” characters in that you can’t do too much w them or change them a lot — they’re so into soccer that putting them in an au for example would fundamentally change their characters, so you most likely won’t catch me writing more than a one shot or two abt them. whereas as we’ve discussed tabieitaken, kaiser, nagireo, and even hiori all feel like they have characters outside of soccer so it’s easier to put them in other scenarios and play around with how they’d react to them

I LOVEEEE A GOOD SLOWBURN!! even stories where the characters get together quickly in terms of time i try to really show the buildup. i always want the relationships i write about to feel believable, so i need to write every step of them falling in love or else it doesn’t feel accurate to me. that’s actually an issue i had with peregrine — because it started in the future, after that buildup, i felt weird writing nagi being in love w the mc because it didn’t feel “earned” yet.

oh you can never keep me from my research LMAOAO i’ll take any excuse to do it!! even white butterfly had me googling the flora and fauna of japanese fields to ensure i didn’t mention any animals that wouldn’t natively live in y/n and hiori’s field HAHA

OMG YAYYY I’M GLAD TO HAVE YOU!! i agree side characters always end up growing on me and the bllk ones especially there’s just so many i love and am constantly chatting about…proud to be supporting the otoya nation 🫡 i’m hoping we get a few members of otoya nation and karasu nation alike after season 2 (and yuki nation even though i don’t talk abt him hardly as much as i do abt tabieita)

also i did see your request posts hehe let me finish up my current karasu one shot and a couple of my event requests and then i will get to them 💖 i loved all of your ideas though!!

[tsarinatorment]

i’m really really hoping that the solangelo book doesn’t actually happen in tartarus, that it’s a red herring and the actual plot will b more interesting. iirc i think glassamphibians did a post abt this, but yeah the tartarus concept just doesn’t make much sense thematically and feels kind of played out? especially when there r so many better premises to explore nico’s character and their relationship. that being said, do you have any ideas for what you want from the nico book, both in terms of narrative and like character developments and ideas? im hoping we get some kind of insight into nico and hades’s relationship, maybe some info about his life before the lotus casino, and altogether a hopeful trajectory for him and will bc they rlly do deserve a happy ending. btw i love ur fics and i think ur interpretations and analyses are super interesting, thank u for writing! <3

I'm actually working on a Tartarus quest fic that has a bit of a twist in it because I, too, don't want that happening so I figured I'd write what I want to see from that quest, but know will never happen (my personal aim is to get it finished and published before the book is released, but that's dependant on my muses getting themselves in gear and not getting distracted all the time...)

As for what I want from this book, in an ideal world and completely disregarding anything we've had hinted so far by Mark or Rick:

Will-centric. Nico is a great character and I do love him, but we've had a lot of Nico so far in terms in character exploration, even though he's never technically been a main character. We've had Nico's development from the happy, bubbly kid at Westover to the loss of Bianca and his subsequent grief-fuelled bad decisions/manipulation by Minos, to him coming back to help the camp despite not feeling welcome there, to coming to terms with his sexuality and being outed (then, presumably, coming out within camp on his own terms), to finally feeling like he belongs in camp, with actual friends and going through therapy. Like, Nico's character has been through a more major arc than most, if not arguably all of the other characters. Just let him rest and be happy now, please. Will, on the other hand is largely unknown, has buckets of trauma we've never seen addressed so we don't know how he's handling it (or if he's handling it), and has a lot of space for a visible character arc. At best, the next extension of Nico's character arc would be him learning to be the support for someone else, which would also tie in with a Will-centric arc.

Apollo making sure he's involved. Whatever the plot is, if Apollo doesn't hover around trying to protect as many demigods as he can get away with, we're looking at a major characterisation assassination here. Apollo has to stick his head in somehow or other, preferably being a good parent to Will. More Apollo&Will bonding time would certainly not go amiss. As I've also said in an earlier analysis, Apollo is an intrinsic part of the Solangelo relationship, and ignoring both that and him just doesn't make any sense at all.

Slice of life at camp. I want to see what camp is like when there isn't a disaster breathing down their necks. I want to see who else Nico and Will are friends with, I want to see them all ribbing each other and having a lot of fun in the camp activities. I want to see how the infirmary operates and what, exactly, Will does in there. I want to meet other campers and get to know them a little bit more!

More healthy Solangelo. I'm being a little petty here, but I want to see enough healthy Solangelo (just like in TOA, but an entire book of it rather than occasional scenes between side characters) until everyone who writes them as a toxic relationship (aka Will as Nico's Sunshine Therapist Boyfriend) can no longer claim they're writing a canon relationship, because I am incredibly sick and tired of seeing that take everywhere when TOA itself disputes it.

In terms of a plot, what I actually want is pre-TOA Solangelo. That's where I think it'd be most interesting - the development of their relationship and how it got from basically-strangers in BOO to boyfriends by THO. There's entire stories in there, and I want to know what happened. Obviously, however, that isn't happening, so I'm a little at a loss on what I want, beyond something that the two of them face together (and doesn't threaten to tear them apart/damage their relationship for the sake of ~drama~ because that is both the most common and most boring trope in romance stories ever). Preferably one that isn't suicidal like Tartarus.

And in terms of character development... again, I want a focus on Will because we've already had Nico's arc. Will having to face his fears, or his fatal flaw (or both) and being supported through it by Nico, learning that he doesn't have to do everything alone/doesn't have to always be in charge, while Nico gets even more used to the idea of helping someone else and improving his own self-worth.

For those points you brought up specifically - I feel like Nico&Hades we have a pretty decent handle on at this point, but I would not say no to more parent-child bonding in general. Nico's life pre-Lotus hotel is obliterated by the Lethe so while that could come back if they go near the Mnemosyne, I don't actually want that because, again, Nico's already had a lot of character arc time and I feel like focusing on him when we have a mostly-untapped side-character who's supposed to be of equal standing in this quest (or had better be, as he's his boyfriend) would be bad writing, quite frankly, and blatant favouritism from the authors. It would be interesting to give Nico a little more memory back, but I don't want it here. He can get that back when he dies, like Bianca did.

A hopeful trajectory for Solangelo at the end is a must, though. If it's anything other than the implication that these boys are going to be together forever, and not even death is gonna break them apart (implication, not both of them dying and the story ending with them both in Elysium!), then what's even the point?

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: July 10th

I really let asks get away from me lately. I was super focused on working on that Patreon Moment. With that done I can finally think about doing other things, so here’s a new collection of answers!

Thank you for sending in questions everyone ^^.

For the new Patreon moment, will you be able to reference it in step 4? Or just like a tiny nod to it if you pick certain choices?

There won’t be. I’m sorry if you were hoping for that! The Patreon moment is meant to be entirely optional, it’s not something that gets you extra content in the main game.

Is the new CG artist the main one now? :0 I’ve noticed theres been a difference in the art style recently. Is the old CG artist still going to make art for the game? :0

The original artist still makes CGs for the game sometimes, but he mainly focuses on character sprites.

Are you going to put the NSFW our life moment on a website other than patreon? I would love to get it but I can't use patreon atm.

I don’t know. I'm afraid we can't release the Patreon Moment on a normal game storefront because we can't mix 18+ content with our family friendly game. If there's some other place similar to Patreon where it's not the normal type of full-scale public content releases we'd consider using that, but I’m not sure if there is another site that’s better than Patreon in that regard. I'm sorry.

Out of curiosity, in all of your games so far, which characters in each were the most fun to write? They obviously don't have to be your favorite characters!

Buffalo Seer in AFA, really everyone in XOD/XOBD is pretty equally entertaining to write, The Guide in LoV, and Cove in OL!

idk if you accept "personal" questions, but is there anything you've been watching/ listening to lately

Mostly, I’ve been watching/listening to Authortube videos as of late! It’s people who talk generally about the process of how books become traditionally published and/or share their own experience as they attempt to be published. I don’t have an interest in writing normal text based books, but it’s really interesting to hear about that world. I’m listening to a video about royalties right now as I answer these asks.

Will one of the desserts we get to pick be fudge? That'd be such a cute reference! 

Haha, yeah, it should. Unless I completely blank on it and forget when trying to include the various referential food options.

I don't know if this has been asked previously but what would be the approximate heights for the presets MC can choose from Step 2 ~ 4? Are there any measurement you had in mind? Sorry if I didn't make myself clear kk I've been struggling with my English lately 💀 

I don’t know, ahah. I didn’t have any numbers in mind for that. So it’s whatever you imagine it is!

I noticed a bug with the Patreon moment when it comes to what your character wears. When Jamie and Cove are kissing while my character only had dresses selected, I had both the option to remove the dress or to remove the shirt... Picking one of the options to interact with Cove, after he removed his shirt, it had Jamie remove their shirt followed by ther pants despite only having dresses picked. 

Thank you for reporting ^^

I keep refreshing steam to see when the new doc for xobd will be released. I noticed you haven't posted anything about it in quite some time. Would it be possible to ask about a timeline/potential date? (If it's even this year—) I know you and your team are probably working super hard, I'm just super curious! ~Thank you!~ 

There are more stories done, I just haven’t gotten around to publicly releasing them. Hopefully I will have a chance to spend the time on that sooner rather than later!

hello!! i’m not sure if it’s an update but i’ve just replayed our life and at the end i can’t propose to cove anymore? :(( i’ve actually tried playing twice but the options are not there anymore, did you guys remove the options? i’m sorry if you’ve answered this before!! thank you and have a good one :) 

I’m afraid things haven’t been changed or removed, so I think you might’ve accidentally picked the wrong things somewhere along the way and locked yourself out of being able to propose by mistake. Sometimes you meant to say you want to get married but instead you mis-click and have it so the MC isn’t thinking about marriage or something. All I can suggest is starting from the beginning of Step 3 and making sure to follow the steps listed in the FAQ. I’m sorry for that.

Did yall remove some of the options for when youre making out with Cove in the charity moment? I could've sworn you could grab his bonkadonk and its not there anymore 

This is the same situation as the above. We didn’t remove things and you’re not wrong that there are sometimes those options. But there are various choices you have to make to get those options and it sounds like you accidentally missed something. If your relationship isn’t long-term, you can’t do it for example.

HI IM SO EXCITED I CAN FINALLY GET THE STEP 3 DLC 

Thank you for getting it!

Is Shiloh super totally straight bc I’m very gay and a huge Shiloh fan, would my man make an exception?😩

Sadly, he is one of our super straight characters. I’m sorry.

Hi, I have a very dumb question. In Step 2 does Cove not wanna share his drink with us at the mall (or rather why he stops drinking it) because it's an indirect kiss? Or is it like ...weird to him to share? Because if I remember right he eats off our spoon in the birthday scene right? 

Yeah, he’s awkward about it because he likes the MC and it feels very personal to share a straw with his crush.

Hi! If you don't mind me asking, who is the artist for OL2? Their style is so pretty! 

Thank you for saying so! This is her Twitter- https://twitter.com/redridingheart

Do Beginnings & Always and Now & Forever exist in the same universe? 

Yep! XOXO Droplets also exists in the same universe. It’s one big GB Patch world, haha.

Do Pran's parents regret the way they raised him? Do they feel ashamed of it?

No. They’re the type of people best cut out because they’re not gonna change. Which is why Pran does go very limited contact when he’s an adult.

Hi! I just wrapped up my second playthrough of Our Life, and I absolutely adore it, but I had a question. I went to the gallery and found I was missing 2 CGS (specifically Step 1-3 and 2-3) and I had no clue where they would've shown up. Which moments are those found in? 

You get it by telling Cove about his dad offering you money to be his friend in Step 1 and Step 2. You can’t get both in one playthrough, since you can only tell Cove the truth once. I’m really glad you liked it!

Hi hi! Please, how tall is Baxter and Derek? Love the game so much and I can't wait to see more! 

I don’t know, aha. I think Baxter was around 5′10 and Derek was like 5′8/5′9, maybe. I really am not one who has specific heights for things in mind.

is adult cove a bottom, top, or switch? 

A switch, though would choose the top if he had to pick.

I was wondering if there is a way to transfer save data? Even if through the game files. I wanted to be able to transfer my save data from my desktop over to my laptop so that I could continue playing right where I left off from but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. 

If you save the save folder/persistent data of the game from your desktop and put it into the game folder on your other device, that could work.

Hi! Is it possible for us to know the date when our life: now and forever comes out on steam? Sorry if you've mentioned it before but I haven't seen it and I'm looking foward to that happening and just wanted to know :) 

It’s gonna be a long time, I’m afraid. There’s no estimate right now.

I started playing Our Life with my sister a while ago, and I think you guys should know that we discovered your secret. >:)

L from death note and Cove are clearly the same person, and this whole game is just an origin story!!

I’ve never seen that show so I’m sorry to say I don’t understand the connection/reference you’re trying to make. I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to media. I don’t watch movies or TV.

Will OL2 have options for disabled MCs?

I understand if it's too complicated, just curious

Unfortunately, it’s not really something we have a plan for. We couldn’t finish the game if we tried to include every disability and have it be meaningful. It’d just be too much content to create. But if we decide to only include a few, how would we choose which disabilities get to be represented and which are left out? I don’t know. It’ll probably have to be something we don’t include as an option again, sadly. I’m sorry.

playing our life > anything else 

Haha, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Honestly, I would like to thank Our Life for helping me come to terms with my sexuality. Before, I never would've actually thought that it was possible to like boys romantically and still be asexual. Almost all of the BL visual novels I've read had unskippable sexual content in them and it honestly just didn't click with what I feel. I'm glad I found Our Life. I love the game, the developers, and this fandom so much. Now, I can safely come out as homoromantic AND asexual (at least anonymously here anyway; my parents are still huge homophobes 😂). 

Aw, it’s great to hear you felt comfortable being yourself in the game! That’s wonderful. I’m really sorry about your parents, though.

Will the demo for OL2 be on android? Really not sure if I could wait any longer than I have to aha 

Yeah, it’ll be available for Android once we eventually release a demo!

Do all these reveals perhaps mean development is progressing ahead of schedule? Please let that be the case I'm already obsessed with Qiu 

No, sorry, aha. Art comes along much faster than script/programming-work for us. It’s gonna be a long time before the game is a finished thing you can actually play. But at least we can look at the beautiful images.

Hey! First of all I wanna say I reallllllyyyyy loooovvveeee Our Life and XOXO Droplets! I have over 300 hours of playtime on Our Life… Anyways, I was just wondering, are the Derek and Baxter DLCs going to come out at the same time? If not, which one do you plan to release first? :3 

They will come out separately and Derek will be first! Glad you like the game.

I keep replaying Our Life to get every possible iteration and I am loving it <3 I was wondering if Cove gets locked out of his confession because MC was talking to Lee, would it be possible to confess to him in step 4? 

Yeah, you can avoid the confession in Step 3 and then get it in Step 4.

Hi, my Cove wears bracelets through step 2 and 3 but I still don't get an option to give him a bracelet? I didn't even know that was possible until I seen someone else ask about it lol 

Hm, did you use the Cove creator? Maybe there’s a bug where using the creator to add bracelets doesn’t fulfill the requirement to give Cove a bracelet in Step 3.

Wait, I'm dense, when does Baxter appear in step 2? Is it from big park firework? I feel so bad since i really love Baxter and waiting to buy his dlc. 

It’s in the Soiree Moment. You have to be just friends with Cove, indifferent, or crushing but not ask Cove to the dance at all. Then while there you can find someone new to dance with. But if you bring Cove to the dance while crushing, the MC won’t wanna dance with anyone else so you can’t get the scene.

In step 2 when we go to the soiree I made my mc go alone and baxter chooses the mc to dance, i'm curious, why did he pick the mc? sorry if this has been asked before! 

Because the MC looked to be around his age, seemed to also be searching for a partner, and had nice legs. A perfect option for him.

I read some of the FAQs, and I saw that we could tell Baxter about the condo that he rented there was previously the mean old grandparents. how do we get the mc to tell him that? 

It happens in the DLC Moment “Late Shift”. If you don’t have a job you instead get a longer scene with Baxter.

I don’t know if you’ve addressed this or not, but are you planning on paying voice actors for our life: now and forever? 

Yeah, we pay our VAs in all our projects.

hey can i ask how you did the moments thing in ol? im trying to get into making visual novels and while im VERY sure its out of my comfort zone and all that atm i kinda wanna know just for the future, bc im p sure it would work well for something i wanna do :O but its also fine if you cant say for other reasons :> 

I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean. Are you asking how we programmed the screen or something script related? Adding Moments like that is pretty straightforward, though. You just have buttons that open to different labels and then the scripts are essentially individual short stories/vignettes. Good luck with your VN!

Since Autumn becomes gender fluid later in the game, will there be a character who remains as he/him to romance in game? 

OL1 has the he/him LIs, OL2 is all about other genders.

I don't want to impose on your creative plans, but a parrot could possibly make a good pet in an OL-type game? They're pretty long-lived and likely to still be thriving by the end even if the MC got them back in step 1. 

I do appreciate the suggestion, but I’m afraid it’s not likely going to happen. I understand there are technically some animals that could theoretically live long enough to last the whole game that or we could have the MC only get a pet after some years have already passed. But the many things that would have to be considered/accommodated for makes it just something we probably can’t manage adding. I’m sorry.

As time passes will we be able to see Qiu and Tamarack's other stage arts as well?

They are both so cute i can't wait to be friends with them!

Yeah, we’ll show content from other Steps in the future. It’ll be a little while from now, though.

Can you date Cove and still have your family comfort you in the car?

You can’t get Cove’s Step 3 confession scene if you have the family comfort you in the car. But that’s not the only way to date him. You can get together with him earlier in the game or later on in Step 4.

Is Mc always going to be the one walking down the aisle or could Cove do it? Also could you choose to have one of your moms walk you? 

No. Cove wouldn’t want to walk down the aisle like that and the MC automatically respects that. And the MC also gets to have their preferences respected, so it’s up to you whether they want to do an aisle walk or not. You also can pick who, if anyone, walks with you.

Once step 4 is out, will you be able to go the whole game on crush/love without either of you confessing? 

Yes, as long as you tell the game you don’t want to progress the relationship. Even in Step 4 it won’t force you to officially get together.

Howdy, so in Step 4, there will be any Romance with Derek that is not part of any dlc? 

He’s only a friend unless you get his romance story.

Will the step 4 in OL2 be one big step or are you considering moments? 

Step 4 is just an epilogue in both games.

hi kind of a weird question but!! we know tht cliff doesn't start dating again but. wht abt flings? like does he ever do 1 night stands or anything? thank u!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Nope. Cliff has a very small interest in sex. If he’s not in a real relationship with a partner he’s crazy about it simply isn’t something he feels a need for, so one night stands wouldn’t even cross his mind.

sorry if you've already answered this, but i was wondering if there were plans for there to be bonus love interests in OL2 like how we have derek and baxter in OL1.

Maybe! There are side characters who could be given romance stories, but whether or not it will happen depends on funding and how long everything else takes to finish.

I don't know if i'm allowed to ask about ol2 here yet, if not u can ignore this or answer it later. My question is can you date one of them and be good friends with the other? I don't want to be strangers with the other bcs i love them both a lot :<

Yes you can!

what patreon level do i have to be to unlock the nsfw moment? im on the $5 one right now, will that give me access to the moment, or just access to the moment progress? 

That’ll give you access! Tier 2 and anything higher allows the player to download it.