#bottom left meme template

[gothluke]

i’ve missed them so much

[now-entering-the-goop-zone]

Tried out some hairs with Hema, took a surprisingly long while to draw!

[nonuggetshere]

(ID start: Three portraits of the Pale King, Pure Vessel and White Lady from Hollow Knight as humans, drawn on a template labelled "Fankid Meme" with the word "fan" crossed out. The three boxes are labelled from left to right "Parent One", "Child" and "Parent Two", with the Pure Vessel in the middle between their parents. The Pale King has a sharp, lean, wrinkled, triangular face with an aquiline nose and sharp cheekbones, large, dark eyebags, long pointed ears and thin eyebrows. He has completely white sharp almond eyes with three long sharp eyelashes at the bottom of the eyes. His skin is white with blue and pink undertones, he has grey lines like veins going up the side of his face and neck to his eyes, and two moles under his right eye, with one mole smaller than the other. The white horns on his head form a crown shape, his white hair parts between his horns and is tied into a long braid. He's glancing over his shoulder at the viewer, making only the collars of his grey dress and white coat visible, he's also wearing a partly see-through frilly shawl that falls over his shoulders and a white jacket with blue wavy patterns around the collar drapped over his shoulders. The White Lady has a fuller, round, long face with subtler wrinkles, round, straight downturned nose, thick eyebrows and a double chin. Her round eyes are fully blue with lighter, almost white, pupils and and three eyelashes resembling flower petals on her upper eyelid. Her white skin has cream undertones and is speckled with lighter freckles most visible on her cheeks and nose. On her right arm, which is resting on her chest and lacks any fingernails, small ridges resembling tree bark are visible, similar to the ones present on the twisting roots and branches sprouting from her head. Her white, wavy hair is tied back in a low bun with a hair tie made of red pearls. The strands of her hair twist and turn around her branches, which are decorated with the same pearls used to tie her hair. She has a warm, toothy smile as she looks at the viewer. She's dressed in a dark blue dress, with a dark cream shirt underneath with a frilly, floral patterned collar. An off-white shawl is drapped over her shoulders, she also wears a necklace made with the same red pearls she wears on her head. The Pure Vessel has their father's face shape but with rounder features of their mother. They have gentler cheekbones and long pointed ears, eyebrows with an in-between thickness of their parents', and a nose that's slightly downturned and straight like their mother's but smaller like their father's. They have pitch black, round almond eyes, with round eyelashes on their upper eyelids in a shape of a heart, with the top eyelash rounder and bottom one sharper and thinner. Their skin is white with blueish grey undertones, littered with darker freckles and a mole under their left eye. The skin below their cheekbones, their ears and neck down is pitch black. The horns on their head are rigid and sharp like their father's but grow almost like branches with ridges at the bottom of each of the two off-shoots. Their white hair is slightly less wavy than their mother's, tied into a long fluffy ponytail with bangs falling over their right eye. They're staring straight on at the viewer with a neutral expression. They're wearing a white shirt with a popped up frilly collar, tied at the bottom with red strig, and embroidered light blue and red floral patters at the shoulders and around the collar. End ID.)

Template

Sorry for that BEHEMOTH of a description, I wanted to compare my gijinkas' designs to each other and draw attention to the family resemblance between PV and their parents for a looong time now, so writing a description that doesn't draw attention to these traits and details would feel like missing the point of the artwork

The basic rundown of this for those who don't want to read that long as hell description is under the cut

PV has the same, more triangular face shape of their father, but with rounder edges wnd soft features of their mother. Basically, PK's face if somebody took a sandpaper to it. They also inherited their mother's freckles and their father's moles, with their birthmark being practically a mirror image of his.

PK's eyes are sharp and almong shaped while WL's are round, he has a thin roman nose while hers is larger and downturned, almost like a greek nose, going straight down from her eyebrow bridge with no noticeable dip. PV's are a mix of these traits, having round almond eyes and a nose close to their mother's in shape with no bump on the ridge like their father's, but smaller and thinner, resembling more of his nose at the tip.

I imagine their horns are hard and sharp like their father's, made of the same bone-like structure as his "crown", but they grow in a way that almost resembles branches. Like roots made of bone, if you will.

And lastly, PK has straighter very slightly wavy hair (like 2a) and WL has more wavier hair, maybe more accurately described as very loose curls? Like 2c or 3a (not the best at drawing this type of curl yet so it looks straighter than it should be 😔 I'm working on it). While PV's hair is meant to be wavy, like 2b texture.

If it wasn't glaringly obvious yet, I wanted to make PV as close to a 50/50 blend of their traits as I could get.

[lebloodymoonsystem]

We did a chart meme template again. These are fun - Zirah

From left to right, top to bottom: Juniper, Zeraora, Shadow, Hunter, Technoblade, Monokuma, Alan, Legoshi, Zim, Meteor, Blitzø, Foxy, Zirah, Stolas, Modeus

[lord-aldhelm]

This meme template has been going around in the TV series subreddits, and someone made one for The Last Kingdom and I thought I would make my own version. I cleaned up the template and made the text nicer; you can grab the PNG file below the cut if you want to make your own.

Also another change... the original bottom left panel was "Mmmm... society", but since no one on Reddit seemed to know what that was supposed to mean, I changed it to "The Smart One No One Listens To". You know, for my man. (Even though I could have put him in "The Hot One", but I feel like that implies he is dumb).

Blank template if you want to make your own (it should be a transparent PNG)

[tyrantisterror]

Wizard School Mysteries: Character Inspiration Boards

A while back one of my friends suggested I do a Character Inspiration Chart for my Wizard School Mysteries characters, which sounded like fun but also like a lot of work, so I put it off. But since the new book is on track to come out pretty soon, I really should start advertising it, and unfortunately one of the best tactics to sell your original content on the internet is to point out how much it's like other things (despite this also being one of the most popular tactics to "critique" an original work as well). And it gives me a chance to gush about media I love AND a story I've made, and you know I like to do both of those things! So, using this template by deviantart user-with-a-deactivated account SlackerArtist, let's dive into what inspired some of the characters from Wizard School Mysteries!

There will be spoilers for both WSM and the media that inspired it, by the way, so read on at your own risk.

Now, when I say "character inspiration" here, I'm talking about two things: inspiration for a character design, and inspiration for characterization/personality. Some of the examples listed will be here purely because they designed the look/aesthetic vibe of the character in question, others because they inspired the character's personality, and some who did both.

I'm also not going to cover EVERY character in WSM because hoo boy there's a LOT of them even with only two books so far, and a good number of them would not have enough separate sources of inspiration to fill out this meme. So we're just going to have the 8 Meddlesome Youths here, and maybe later I'll tackle some of the other members of the supporting cast.

Which means we should obviously begin with:

James Chaucer

I'm going to talk about the three anime boys on the left hand side first, both because they're probably the most important influences on good ol' James here, and because they share a unique status as being Video Game Player Characters. From top to bottom, they're Yuu Narukami (i.e. the player character of Persona 4, who was named Yuu Narukami in the first anime adaptation of that game, and who I'll be calling Yuu from here on out), Joker (i.e. the player character from Persona 5), and Byleth (i.e. the player character from Fire Emblem 3 Houses).

Now, I'm sure some might be raising an eyebrow at me citing the player characters from some RPGs as influences, given that RPG players characters are, well, "cipher characters" - i.e. designed to not have one single characterization, but rather a variety of options the player can choose so they can feel like they're in the story. A cipher character is supposedly meant to be lacking in substance on their own, or so a lot of RPG writers seem to assume, as any display of personality could clash with what the player might be thinking in their own head. I think the ultimate example of what people think of when they think of cipher characters is the player character from Fallout 4, who, no matter what situation you are in, refuses to show even a shred of personality in any of their interactions, always talking with a tone of dull surprise and never having any unique turn of phrases or inflections when speaking. That kind of character is PRETTY BLAND, and definitely not going to inspire characterization in others because, well, they have no character.

(the Silver Shroud quest in Fallout 4 is a must because it's literally the only way to get any dialogue options that show even a smidge of personality, even if that personality is just "a really bad Christian Bale Batman impression")

Not to get on a soapbox, but while I'd definitely agree that a lot of RPG player characters are written like this, I don't think they should be, and in fact I think the best RPGs do not do it this way. The best RPGs, in my opinion, write their player characters in a way where you naturally have a reason to inhabit their head and share their feelings. I'll take an example that's not listed here, Hawke from Dragon Age 2. To get into Hawke's head, they show you the opening scene where Hawke and their family are running from a disaster overtaking their home, and arrive in the new to them (and to you, the player) city of Kirkwall. They don't have money (just as you don't have in-game currency), they don't have great lodgings, they're desperate. A character approaches them with an offer of jobs to improve their circumstances, and you, being int he same boat as your player character, get to take it and live their life from there. The dialogue you can have is filled with choices that allow you to color who exactly Hawke is, but despite the choices being different in many ways, they're all written with a voice that is authentically Hawke's, rather than Generic Player Character, but you don't mind because, well, you sympathize with Hawke, because the game makes sure you feel what they're feeling.

(Pulling this off takes more writing skill than just writing a bland character, though, which is why a lot of companies don't go this route.)

So, like, there's an art to writing a good RPG protagonist, right, and understanding of that art can be applied to writing protagonists in less interactive forms of fiction, which is where the influence comes in here. Yuu, Joker, and Byleth are all similar in a few key respects, and one of them is that they're all designed to let you into their heads with ease. They're contemplative characters, deep thinkers and feelers, people who observe others closely and have a deep desire to understand and help the world around them, and all of that was something I wanted James Chaucer to be as well.

The writers of Persona 4 talked about how they modeled Yuu Narukami off of the Blue Rangers in Super Sentai (i.e. the Japanese show that was recut to become Power Rangers) rather than the Red Rangers, giving him a personality that was quiet, thoughtful, and reserved for the other, more bombastic characters in Persona 4 to easily bounce off of. Fans have joked about how Yuu's catchphrase is "calm down," and to be fair, he not only gets it as a dialogue option a lot in the game (including in a couple of VERY important scenes), but it sort of succinctly shows why he's the right person to be leading things in his story - when people's unbalanced emotions literally turn into monsters, having a person who specializes in getting people to properly manage their feelings is crucial. The secret sauce of Yuu, though, is that he isn't really less eccentric than the characters around him, his eccentricity is just a lot quieter than theirs. He might not have big wild takes and freak outs like the rest of the cast, but sometimes the lack of a big reaction to weird shit is a lot more strange, and in many ways Yuu's unflappable nature comes off as more weird than anything else around him. He is, simply put, quietly deranged.

Joker from Persona 5 was meant to contrast Yuu in key respects - namely, his weirdness is a lot more up front, with a more extensive list of out-there responses in dialogue at his disposal. He's quiet, but less in a "cool and collected" way and more in the "I'm pretty sure that guy staring off into space is hearing circus music in his head right now" sort of way. True to his codename, Joker is a bit of a clown, albeit one that knows when to get serious and how to be dangerously effective not in spite of, but because of his slightly off kilter view of the world. He's a "that's crazy enough to work" kind of schemer, which, given the horrible situations his game throws at him (and, by extension, you the player), is a big relief. To deal with impossible odds, you need someone who thinks outside the box.

Byleth from Fire Emblem is a character who's had a huge part of his identity stolen from him since birth - namely, his ability to express emotions. He's viewed by many as stoic and unfeeling, and even his own father fears that he might be lacking in humanity. But then the game thrusts him into a nurturing role, making him a teacher at an academy whose students are all more or less his age, and forcing him to not only lead others, but to open up to them in the process of doing so. It culminates in one of the most emotionally powerful moments I've ever experienced in a video game, where - SPOILERS! - Byleth's father dies. Byleth, for the first time in the game, begins to cry, and his dying father says, "To think, the first time I saw you cry, your tears would be for me. It's sad, and yet I'm happy for it." You, the player, who begin the game with no attachment to any character in this world, have developed that attachment by this point, and have it recognized by one of the characters as they make their exit - you have, through playing the game, come to know what Byleth is feeling, share his grief, and are likely sharing his tears at that moment, and the game acknowledges this as an achievement on your part and his. You are the identity that was stolen from Byleth, and by joining him you've completed him, even up to and including his grief. It's just a beautiful moment, and a way this character is written to naturally draw you, the player/reader, into the story.

I wanted James to have that same element to him, that way to draw you in and make you share his investment in the tale by making you share his feelings as you go through this story. I gave him the quiet unflappability of Yuu, the off-kilter worldview and tendency to look for "crazy enough to work" solutions of Joker, and the crisis of identity of Byleth, while also giving him the deep contemplative nature and desire to understand and help others that defines all three. The aim was that James would not only be someone you can sympathize with, but that his status at the start of the book would provide an easy jumping in point for you when you read it, and that you'd feel comfortable when the story focuses on him (which it does often, but not exclusively).

Ok, enough about video game people. Let's talk about cartoons and comics.

Wizards in mythology and folkore are defined by thinking their way out of problems rather than just using brute force, and so I wanted all of my Meddlesome Youths to show different ways people can do that. In James's case, I wanted him to have guile, and ultimate my model for showing that was Bugs Bunny. Bugs is never the strongest character in the room, and sometimes he isn't even the smartest in terms of booksmarts - both Marvin the Martian and Wile E Coyote were introduced as villains who could technically outthink Bugs on a sheer scientific level. Bugs's advantage was his ability to hone in on what makes his enemies act foolishly, and exploit it as viciously and thoroughly as possible. I tried to emulate that with James's approach to problem solving, and to that end I also tried to stick to Bugs's rules of conduct - namely, James doesn't pick fights, but once someone has picked one with him, he will do everything he can to make them regret it, and often just by turning the situation into one where his antagonists torture themselves without knowing it.

Peter Parker/Spider-Man was also an influence on James's character, as he is on 90% of sci-fi/fantasy/horror fiction that doubles as a coming of age story and was written after the 1960's. In James's specific case, he was most inspired by the Ultimate Spider-Man version of Peter, in part because that's the version I read during my own teen coming-of-age years. Like that Peter, he's sweet, compassionate, driven to protect and help people even when it comes at his own expense, and maybe a tad too snarky for his own good.

John Eggbert from Homestuck doesn't have a whole lot in common with James personality-wise, but was part of the big collage of images I made when figuring out the archetypes for the Mystery Solving Teens genre, and I think James's affinity for blue clothing, cowlick stricken black hair, and glasses all might have come directly from John.

Finally, while he wasn't consciously on my mind when I planned out and began writing Wizard School Mysteries, in retrospect I see a lot of Arnold from Hey Arnold in James. Hey Arnold was a show I watched a LOT as a kid and was very formative on my tastes in stories ever since in a lot of ways (I think I can at least partially blame my obsession with angry, troubled female characters on Helga Patacki, for example), and the titular protagonist is defined by he compulsion to understand and help other people with their problems. Like, a lot of what drew me to characters like Yuu, Joker, and Byleth was planted in my mind by Arnold, that deep drive to know why others are hurting and to try and help them sort out their lives even when you could easily walk away and leave them to suffer. It's not a common trait for male protagonists to have, either - that kind of nurturing personality is far more commonly given to women, and even then only so stoic male characters can have a surrogate mom to hug them when they're sad. So it's very compelling to me when a male character exhibits it, and it was something I wanted to be a defining trait for James as well.

Jesus crumbs, that was a lot. Let's get to the next kid.

Ivan's archetype in mystery solving teens-dom is "the goofy guy," i.e. the member of the team who's more there for moral support than anything else. His archetype for wizardom is, well, let's call it "the failure wizard" - i.e. a wizard who, due to self esteem issues, really has trouble performing magic with any consistency.

And I decided the perfect intersection of those two archetypes was Schmendrick from The Last Unicorn, a wizard whose mastery of spellcraft leaves a lot to be desired, but whose loyalty and resourcefulness more than make up for it. Schmendrick was such a big influence, in fact, that Ivan's starting outfit is like 90% his by volume. He's player 2 Schmendrick. Schmendrick: the Teen Years.

Continuing the Persona 4 influence (I've said it before and will say it again: WSM is more of a riff on Persona than anything else), Yosuke from P4 fills the same mystery solving teens role as Ivan, and is also tied to the same Tarot arcana of The Magician, which showed how the Magician can manifest as a character in a story instead of just, like, a card with vague meanings attached to it - namely the idea of it being a character who's loyal and helpful to the Protagonist, but also tends to overreach. Yosuke is a kid with a lot of worries about his own usefulness that manifest in him trying to pull off big schemes with the group to prove his worth - something that Ivan does too in a slightly more lowkey, neurotic way.

Shaggy is, like, the Prime example of The Goofy Guy in these kinds of stories, so it was inevitable his influence would be here too, though it mostly ended up as aesthetics - Ivan doesn't have the gluttony or cowardice that define Shaggy's characterization, but does have the anxiety as well as the, well, shaggy/sloppy appearance.

Rincewind from Discworld, meanwhile, is another great example of a Failure Wizard, and especially one who keeps being thrust into perilous and world-saving scenarios despite his apparent incompetence. Literally being Fate's plaything, Rincewind has both the worst and best luck imaginable, which is something I've tried to dole out on Ivan in equal measure.

Ivan is also inspired by a lot of folk/fairy tale "fool" heroes, i.e. characters who are thought of as dumb or stupid by others in the stories they star in, but who show a remarkable creativity and guile when facing magical bullshit that others would never think of, which allows them to win the day against all odds. I've represented this folklore archetype with Jack from the original Broadway cast of Into the Woods, because why not?

Finally, because anime is such a big influence on this series, I'd be remiss not to mention the Shonen take on the concept of the Goofy Guy, because while Dragon Ball and Yu Gi Oh may not be mystery solving teens stories, they do nonetheless sport Goofy Guys in addition to their main heroes, and those guys function just as their mystery solving teen counterparts do. For Ivan in particulalr, Joey Wheeler and Krillin are the most direct influence, as they're both characters who never outright win the day on their own, but always play a vital part in making sure the hero can come in and finish the job.

With Gretchen, I started with Velma from Scooby Doo as a baseline and tried to figure out how many extremes I could push her into, which resulted in her going from "the smart guy in the group" to "the mad scientist in the group." She picked up some acerbic qualities from the Mystery Inc. incarnation of Velma specifically, which ultimately drew in other influences as a result.

If Ivan is Teenage Schmendrick, then Gretchen is teenage Molly Grue, the sharp-tongued cynic with a secret idealistic streak she tries to hide. And because I'm a kid of the 90's, that also drew in some Daria qualities as well - Gretchen's the snarker on the sidelines a lot because of these two, and also cares more than she lets on because of them too.

Her more Faustian ambitions and tendency to take her genius to "mad" levels, however, comes from two other characters: Futaba from Persona 5, who is initially shy and withdrawn but reveals herself to be an eccentric and somewhat terrifyingly powerful hacker once befriended, and Rose Lalonde, who begins the story of Homestuck seeming like the most intelligent and rational member of our mystery solving teens, only to go very much into mad scientist/dark wizard territory as the plot progresses. Together they take the potential for unhinged behavior you can see in Gretchen's other influences and let it off the leash.

The black mage and Wizardmon here, on the other hand, are purely visual influences - I wanted Gretchen to have an air of mystery about her, to seem just a bit ominous, while also still being oddly charismatic and likable in her own unique way, so I gave her the look of some of my favorite mysterious wizard character designs of all time.

So our first inspiration for Margot is a bit of an oddball, as it's less an influence on design or personalty and more, like, a situation that both characters are in. I watched... way too much of Inuyasha as a teen, and it left me with a lot of frustration about the great setups it had for its characters and story and the very bad delayed payoffs that ensured those setups died slow, agonizing deaths over the course of way too many episodes. Miroku's in particular stuck with me: here's a guy who has a literal black hole in his hand, one that can solve a LOT of problems very easily, but will kill him (supposedly) if he uses it too much. Because Inuyasha was allergic to ever making its setups pay off, it quickly became clear that Miroku's fears of dying to his black hole hand were weightless, because if the narrative ever cashed that check it'd have to, like, advance the plot to some small degree, and Inuyasha can't do that! No advancement in any meaningful direction ever, that's the Inuyasha motto! So Miroku inspired Margot in the sense that I wanted to do that plot element right - give a character a shitload of offensive power that comes with some nasty drawbacks, and then, like, actually show those drawbacks.

(You know how Inuyasha dealt with the fact that it could never actually pay off the drama of Miroku's hand but also didn't want him to solve every problem with his black hole hand? Bees. Demon bees. If he used his black hole hand, he'd swallow some demon bees and oh boy, they'd sting him good! So he never used it again.)

Ok, back to more traditional influences. I knew I wanted Margot to be the muscle of my group of mystery solvers, but I wanted to avoid my usual tendency to paint the muscle as a boisterous bruiser. I love writing boisterous bruisers, don't get me wrong! No Sympathies has one in Alichino, and ATOM had, like, EVERY kaiju more or less as well as a good number of supporting cast members fill the role. They're fun to write! Easy to write, too, which is why I wanted to avoid it this time. I wanted to challenge myself to show a different shade of "token tough guy" in my cast. And, since WSM is a Persona pastiche more than anything else, I looked to a Persona character for inspiration - namely, Makoto Niijima from Persona 5. When we're introduced to Makoto, she's very prim, proper, and soft-spoken, someone who thinks very rationally and proves to be a good detective in her own right. When she's recruited to the party, though, we see another side of her - namely, Makoto has repressed anger and a desire to solve problems in a more visceral and bombastic way. She's never outright boisterous, but she can tell a fucker off when pushed, and is also the token RPG character who brings fists to a tank fight and wins. Those are always the best characters. So that informed a good deal of Margot's character - I wanted Margot to be calm, collected, maybe even a little elegant, but very clearly capable of and willing to put a motherfucker in the ground if the situation calls for it.

Yor Forger's inclusion on here is funny because I didn't start watching Spy x Family until after I'd started writing Wizard School Mysteries, but when I did I saw a lot of what I was gunning for in Margot reflected in her, and I think Yor's bled into Margot's characterization a bit. Some of Margot's goofier moments come from Yor, as do some of her more humorously cutthroat ones - the juxtaposition of a character who's very sweet but also will absolutely end a person without hesitation if they threaten someone she loves is just very satisfying.

Edelgard's influence on Margot continues the theme of "female characters who will not hesitate to use violence to protect what they love and to right injustices they've noticed" that we've got going here, but also adds an important aesthetic element: namely, both she and Margot are villain coded. Tragic backstories, powers that come with terrible side effects regarding their physical health, outfits that are scream I Am the Big Bad Evil Guy, they're meant to scream villain - hell, Margot even gets an evil looking left hand, something that's literally AND figuratively sinister. I love it when heroes have villain coding, it's something that always makes me giddy.

Susie from Deltarune is also villain-coded and also a character who's influence on Margot began after I started the series - while I knew of Deltarune before starting the series, I hadn't actually gotten off my ass to play it until well after writing the first draft of the first book. But I love Susie's whole arc, being this ominous, terrifyingly huge girl with a menacing aura about her who's slowly revealed to just be troubled in a very real, mundane way, and who has a good heart when you break down her walls.

Rogue from X-Men Evolution (yes specifically that incarnation, it's the only time an X-Men adaptation has managed to consistently hold my interest) was sort of a subconcious influence, but one that I can't help noticing in retrospect. Powers connected to deadly physical condition? Check. Seems moody and evil-ish at first glance but actually a sweetheart looking for emotional connections? Check. Goth? Check!

Devi D. from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and I Feel Sick fits a lot of those same inspiration points too, but I think her influence on Margot was primarily in terms of appearances - the reason why Margot has a big, aquiline nose and that big ol' pony tail in particular, as well as the goth trappings.

So... the seed of Rodrigo's character was planted in my brain upon my first replay of Persona 5, where I decided to spend more time with Yusuke in my party - in my first playthrough I left him out of the party after his introductory arc was over and just never really put him back in. Keeping him around more often meant I got to know his character better, and I found myself liking him a lot more than I did the first time around - this very serene guy who loves art to an eccentric degree, and perhaps a bit up his own ass about it but in a lovable way. I liked him enough that my brain finally said to me, "You know, it kind of sucks he's not a romantic option in this game." I mean, I wouldn't have picked him if he was, but still, in a better world, you could have dated Yusuke in Persona 5. I dunno, I just think Yusuke deserves to love and be loved.

Since The Muscle in mystery solving teens groups is usually a boy but is a girl in WSM, I thought it might be fun if The Beauty was a boy instead of the traditional girl. One way to do that would have been to make a very masculine man, I suppose, but I wanted Rodrigo to be a literally pretty boy. To that end, I kinda... basically made him a gender-swapped Esmeralda from Disney's Hunchback adaptation? The dark skin with the green eyes is a striking look!

Rodrigo's dynamic with James is something I discovered in the process of writing the first book. I knew I wanted there to be friction between them at first, born out of mutual misunderstanding rather than either one being a bad room-mate, but I wasn't sure how their friendship would develop until I got into it. I think in some ways Rodrigo is very much the Watson to James's (significantly less arrogant) Sherlock Holmes, which I've started to lean into now that I'm three books deep into this eight book series.

Rodrigo's wizard archetype - at least at the start of the series - is the evil chancellor/scheming vizier, the courtier who has magic powers and sinister hidden motivations. Obviously his actual personality subverts this, but visually I wanted that evil chancellor coding - which I think, in a roundabout sort of way, put Hubert from Fire Emblem Three Houses in my mind. Hubert's a great character - a 20 year old who dresses and acts like a Dracula and is constantly looming around the heir to the Adrestrian Empire like a devil on her shoulder. And he's even better when you learn that him looking and acting like a Dracula isn't an example of the character designers lacking subtlety, but a conscious and deliberate choice on his part. He's a guy who fully wants to be the scheming chancellor who's got his hands in many sinister pies - but he's also completely and fully devoted to his future empress, and only wishes to get his hands dirty so she doesn't. Like, I think my tendency to write Rodrigo as the friend who's willing to bring up flaws in the gang's plans and be a bit of a cynic for their safety, it's the influence of Hubert.

Visually I'm slowly moving Rodrigo towards the fashion trends of Red Mages from Final Fantasy, i.e. the sort of dashing, swashbuckling, princely kind of adventure wizards. That's why he got a bycocket hat in book 2 - baby steps!

I need to revisit Yu Yu Hakusho, but I remember watching just as much of it as I did Inuyasha while also being a lot less frustrated with it. And I specifically remember the main quartet of heroes in the show - Yusuke Urameshi, Kuwabara, the guy who was like Vegeta if he was in his twenties and shopped at Hot Topic, and finally Kurama, the pretty boy demon with the rose whip who was, like, just a solid dude with an intimidating amount of elegance to him, which I think was what I had in mind when making Rodrigo. So maybe the seed was planted even before I played Persona 5...

Finally, Myotismon is just here because I was playing Digimon Cyber Sleuth while trying to figure out where exactly I drew Rodrigo's fashion sense from initially, only for me to look at him and go, "Oh, yeah, Digimon informed 90% of what I find cool in character designs, obviously I was cribbing from them."

Obviously Serena Takeuchi was inspired by Sailor Moon. Obviously. Her first name is the same as Sailor Moon's in the English dub, her last name is the creator of Sailor Moon, she's a magical girl, we don't have to labor this point.

As I started developing her beyond "an anime style magical girl in a pretty bog standard vaguely medieval european fantasy setting" pitch, Serena started picking up some personality traits from Persona 4's Rise, namely having a perky yet mischievous personality, an affinity for the color pink, and a sort of pop star charisma. Design-wise, meanwhile, I wanted her to look like a character from a 90's anime that takes place in (Japan's idea of) a vaguely medieval european fantasy setting, like Record of Lodoss War or Slayers.

And that last one had a big effect, because the minute I gave Serena's outfit some elements of Lina Inverse, I think I accidentally poured some of Lina's personality into her as well. Serena went from "kinda quirky" in my mind to outright manic, a bubbly, joyful young woman who laughs in the face of danger because it means she gets to kick someone's ass with sparkles and glitter. That in turn pulled in some elements of Ann Takimaki from Persona 5 as well, since Ann is basically like Rise is Rise was more willing to throw hands.

One of my friends noted after reading the first book that Serena reminded him of Hilda from Fire Emblem Three Houses, and while that wasn't intentional I can definitely see it in retrospect - both bubbly, both extremely feminine yet very good at laying out a punkass when they need to, both a bit cheeky in their social interactions but in a lovable rascal way.

Finally, Utena... ok, so, to my deep regret, I did not watch Revolutionary Girl Utena before writing and publishing Book 2 of Wizard School Mysteries, which is a fucking shame because that was the book that had a tournament arc and would have been so ripe for an explicit Utena reference or two. Missed opportunities, man - this one felt almost as bad as not having seen Wizard People Dear Reader before writing the first WSM book, and thus making it the only one in the series that won't have a stealthy Wizard People Dear Reader reference in it (did you guys find the one in book 2? Keep an eye out for one in book 3!).

Where was I? Oh, right. So I didn't get to intentionally reference RGU in the book of this series where it would make the most sense to, and I didn't want to force a reference either, but upon writing book 3... well, I dunno, I think it may have leaked into aspects of Serena and Gretchen's relationship, just a tad. Maybe tell me if you see it too.

The biggest and most obvious influence for Charlotte is, well, Charlotte from Charlotte's Web. I mean, c'mon, they have the same name, they're both friendly spiders, we don't need to dig deeper than that do we?

Design-wise, she takes a lot from both the Transformers Animated take on Blackarachnia (namely those extra arms sticking out of her back instead of along the sides of her body like most many-armed characters in fiction) and Arukenimon's human form, i.e. a spider-themed witch lady.

Personality-wise, though, she's a bit more all over the map. The Little Mermaid was sort of the kernel of her character - i.e. a nonhuman who's obsessed with the human world, even if her attempt to know more about it proves hazardous to her health. I also drew influence from Elizabeth, the Velvet Room station attendant from Persona 3 and, like, the only character in that game that managed to pique my interest (all the others felt like rough drafts of the characters in Persona 4 and 5, sorry!). Elizabeth is... ambiguously inhuman, and at least is removed enough from humanity to be fascinated by things in the mortal world that we find mundane, like wishing fountains and jungle gyms. Her naievete about our world is balanced out by her high intelligence and in particular her much-better-than-the-player's knowledge of how Supernatural Bullshit works, which is something I wanted to put at play with Charlotte - she might be ignorant of certain realities in the mortal world, but makes up for it with knowledge about Fairyland.

Sally and Kiki come in with regards to Charlotte's attitude towards others vs. herself - like them, Charlotte is willing to try some truly daring and taxing shit to help her friends or even just, like, light acquaintances. At the same time, she asks for very little - and expects even less - for herself. There's a special sympathetic tragedy in how Sally thinks her dream of a better life with the person she loves is completely out of her reach, yet constantly does amazing things just to make his and other people's lives a little happier anyway. I view Charlotte as having a similar sort of tragic strength.

I started this writing project several years before the Terf Queen went full mask off, so yes, in the early stages - back when this was called "Untitled Mystery Solving Teens Project" instead of Wizard School Mysteries - the kids from Herby Porber were in the big collage I made of eight different character archetypes in this genre, with Draco Malfoy being in the eight archetype - the Rival. In the MANY years of gestating between then and when I finally started plotting out Wizard School Mysteries proper, pretty much all of the core eight meddlesome youths had moved very far away from the influence of their Harry Potter archetypal counterparts. Except one.

Polybeus.

But, even then, Polybeus isn't really based on the Draco Malfoy that the Terf Queen wrote, or even the one from the movies based on her books. No, he's based on the spoof version of Draco that appeared in A Very Potter Musical and its sequels, the one that finally helped me understand what on earth made all the goth girls I knew in high school think Draco was boyfriend material. A Draco who's a dick, yes, a real asshole with serious issues in fact, but genuinely has a good heart deep down and kind of gets the worst of it in all his evil schemes more than anyone else. A Draco Malfoy with Skeletor energy, basically. That Draco does not exist in the books as written by the Terf Queen, but it would be kind of cool, wouldn't it, to take that basic idea and give it a different story to live out in?

And since I'm a Spider-Man nerd, there was another character that immediately came to mind when thinking of "What if Draco Malfoy was actually sympathetic and three-dimensional?" - Flash Thompson. See, the secret sauce for Flash Thompson in the comics and, like, the rare adaptations that decided Spider-Man's non supervillain supporting cast should get decent screentime, is that he ISN'T a one note bully. He's actually a pretty decent guy, for the most part - he and Peter just really dislike each other because they're teenagers who, based on a few fleeting interactions, decided each other was a dick, and have treated each other as such ever since. A notable fact is that while Flash thinks Peter is an asshole, he fucking LOVES Spider-Man, because Flash is a good enough person to realize Spider-Man is a hero no matter what the newspapers say.

Oh, and hey, remember me saying I watched a lot of Yu Yu Hakusho, but it was long ago and I don't remember much of it? Well, one thing I for sure remember is the character growth of Kuwabara, who begins the series as a hated and vocally contentious rival of the hero, Yusuke Urameshi. However, when Yusuke gets killed by a truck in the beginning of the series, we see Kuwabara crash his funeral in tears, claiming to be furious that Yusuke died before they could settle their score, but clearly feeling a lot more than just anger at the death of the one kid who he had the most meaningful relationship with at school. As the show went on, Kuwabara becomes Yusuke's staunchest ally, never the most powerful person in the room but always willing to hold the line until Yusuke can save the day. It's a great damn arc and left a lasting impact on me - the power of introducing a character as kind of a one-note asshole foil to the hero, only for him to gradually turn into a loyal and inspiring ally.

Of course, for Polybeus to pull off that arc, he has to establish himself as an obnoxious rival first, which is where I went to one of the best for inspiration: Gary Oak/Blue from Pokemon, a snide fucker who keeps popping up when you least expect it on your adventure to talk shit to your face, get his shit wrecked by your team of overleveled monsters, and then saunter away still acting like he's leagues better than you. Perfectly punchable, no notes.

And when you've got anime rivals on the brain, it's hard not to think of Vegeta too, arguably the most iconic of them all. An aspect of him that got absorbed into Polybeus was his obsession with a culture of conquerors and warriors that our hero cannot bring himself to give a single shit about, which I think is just a very funny dynamic. "YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME, FOR I COME FROM ROME, THE GREAT EMPIRE THAT SHALL RULE THE EARTH!" "Yeah cool buddy, can I deck you in the schnoze now?"

Kanji from Persona 4 was an influence less on Polybeus's personality (which is no slight on Kanji, Kanji fucking rules, easily one of the top 3 characters in Persona 4) and more on his dynamic with the rest of the group. Being a delinquent, Kanji speaks roughly and is prone to angry outbursts whenever he feels threatened, which is all the time basically where social situations are concerned, and so it takes a while for the other party members to be comfortable around him. Eventually, however, they realize his bark is much worse than his bite, and Kanji in turn finds he feels safe enough around them to let his walls down, and that's when he goes from "the loud angry guy" in the group to one of the best friends in your player character's social circle. Again, I love the turn around of that character arc - the way it makes you as an audience member suddenly have to reflect on and critique your own expectations and biases.

Finally, if James's approach to problem solving comes from Bugs Bunny, then Polybeus's approach to problem-causing has to be from Daffy Duck - all born from a volatile and contradictory cocktail of unearned pride and overwhelming self doubt and set aflame by arrogant over-reaching.

And that's it! For now... I may have made charts for some of the other characters, but I think we've all had our fill for the moment, don't you?

[hypothesiscosmos]

This was a lot of fun, but also doing the bottom left was quite an experience 😂

Meme template is from here!

[cosmic-starfall]

[Image ID: Text at the top reads Shirt Cut Meme (aka your favorite character in different cleavage flavors) There are two rows of boxes, three on the top and two on the bottom. The first box is labeled sideboob. Feng Xin stands facing to the side, wearing an orange robe over one shoulder. He's drawing a bow that is out of frame. The second box is labeled inner sideboob. Yan Wushi faces straight ahead, his purple robes wide open along the front. The third box is labeled boob window. Luo Binghe faces slightly to the side, wearing teal robes that reveal his entire chest. His arms are crossed, pressing his pecs together. The fourth box is labeled underboob. Mobei Jun faces straight ahead, wearing a blue poncho that reveals the lower edge of his pecs. The fifth box is labeled free space. She Qingxuan faces slightly to the side, one hand raised, wearing a low cut top. There are sparkles by their hand. End ID]

Shirt cut meme with danmei men! Left to right, top to bottom, we have Feng Xin, Yan Wushi, Luo Binghe, Mobei-Jun, and Shi Qingxuan!

Meme template by @/druzsea, blank template below the cut.

[chroniclesmacaque]

Middle-aged woman head hurty

[image id: Digital charcoal drawing of Natsuhi from umineko. She's drawn in profile, head hanging low and face pinched in pain. The profile is repeated four times across the canvas to make the types of headaches meme template. The first profile, on the left upper corner, has the temple and eye highlighted in red; below, it reads migraine. The second, on the right upper corner, has the back of the head highlighted; below, it reads hypertension. The third profile, in the left bottom corner, has the forehead and back of the head highlighted; below, it reads stress. The last profile has the head completely colored in red; below, it reads Ushiromiya Eva.]

[image id: Digital charcoal drawing of Natsuhi from Umineko in profile, the one used above but big and without any of the highlights]

[seven-circlllxs]

˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗Countdown To Valentine's Day Challenge˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗

(Meme template from @hymemena!)

5. Surprise a writing partner with a starter in which your muse gives their muse a Valentine's Day gift!

_- Lucifer -_

Lucifer had a habit of nosing around. It wasn't his fault that he was a naturally curious being, that blame fell solidly on His Father's Almighty shoulders, and it was one of the few gifts that Lucifer appreciated keeping from the beginning. Nosing around in Alastor's space wasn't a terribly good idea, he was well aware of that, but when someone was as elusive as the Radio Demon, you couldn't help but fan that little spark of curiosity into an overblown flame of need-to-know.

His footsteps were feather-light and perfectly spaced as he made his way through the newly reconstructed broadcast tower, his attention stolen by something that he had noticed was absent from the demon's appearance ever since the battle with the Exterminators.

.. He supposed it might be a good thing if the two strongest patrons of the hotel actually got along. For Charlie's sake.

Yep. Definitely the only reason he was doing this. Just for Charlie.

His claws grasped at the broken microphone stand, and the microphone's eye twitched towards him weakly. He could feel the straining energy that lingered in the two halves of the staff, and he readjusted his grip, settling the top and bottom properly against one another.

He squeezed his hands tight over the seam, a hazy golden glow flowing from his chest and through his arms, thin tendrils of light curling out and away from his palms, around the staff, inlaying it with glittering golden embellishments.

Lucifer loosened his grip, inspecting the healed microphone, admiring the golden apple (or was it a radio dial, that'd make more sense-) where all of the twisting turning carvings stemmed from, and smiling when the microphone squawked with feedback.

"Perfect. Now, why don't you point me in the direction of your broadcaster, huh?" He gestured down the hallway with the recovered mic, following its' little Morse beeps left and right and down the halls and into the lobby and-!

"Alastor!" The King of Hell called, tucking the microphone behind his back after shushing it gently. He strode across the main foyer to stand before the Radio Demon, bouncing on his heels with excitement.

"I've gotten you a little something-, well, gotten is a strong word, but-!" He revealed the microphone with a grand spin, tilting the speaker end towards its' proper owner

"I, uh.. Figured it might be nice to have the little guy back in working order, yeah?"

He hoped that this would go over well. His track record with giving gifts to people wasn't the best..

[ @ritzy-cervidae ]

[sleepycatten]

The meme template is called "Man vs Giant" or alternatively "Yhorm vs Ashen One". It shows Yhorm the Giant from Dark Souls 3 facing off against the Ashen One, the protagonist and player character.

Yhorm the Giant, who takes up most of the image, is captioned "gender dysphoria", to highlight how powerful and all-encompassing my gender dysphoria can feel when it attacks me.

The Ashen One, who appears tiny in comparison in the bottom left hand corner of the image, is captioned "One Topic At A Time videos about trans memes". For those who do not know him or his meme videos, OneTopicAtATime is an amazing ally, the world's giggliest man, & a thoroughly wholesome human being.

He can also occasionally be summoned to cover a sub Reddit or posts on Tumblr in his videos by chanting: "OT summoning noises."

[ru5t]

FIRST IMPRESSIONS MEME A meme for first meetings and introduction threads, or a ‘What you will notice about my muse’ cheat sheet. Copy from template meme: x , don’t reblog. 

GENERAL APPEARANCE

Sex: Feminine. Notes: afab and has never encountered a reason not to just go with that, though really she doesn't strongly feel pressed about presenting as any particular gender, like. She's Tech. It's sort of a non-thought? Gender is a performance and she is the show's tech crew.

Race: Caucasian

Complexion: Fair and freckled; holds a little color, but even now she's more likely to freckle further (or even burn) than tan very deeply. Pale girl struggles. (At least she's not as pale as Vi-)

Height: 5'2"

Build Type: Slight. Other / More Details: In terms of physical development, she fell behind in her preteen years for a variety of reasons (but mostly because of interference/side effects) and never caught up or reached her full potential. She's not frail, but she'll never be particularly strong, and she struggles to put on any mass, muscle or otherwise (also for many reasons but mainly because of that interruption in her growing years.)

Hair: Varies a little from a shorter bob (close to her chin) to kind of medium (touching her shoulders) with choppy layers and a slight wave texture Color: Naturally red; it was lighter when she was younger, almost more strawberry blonde, and got darker as she got older, into coppery, rusty shades. I tend to draw it orange because it suits her but I do technically think it has mostly been natural lately, because of her smuggling efforts/fake city identity. Style: She wears it up a lot to get work done, often putting it into a ponytail or sometimes a big jaw clip or with a hair stick. Lots of smaller clips for the many little flyaways. When not working she generally leaves it loose, because having it up for long periods tends to give her a headache or make her head tender

Eye color: Hazel Notes: Often described as curious, sharp, and/or seeing. A little wide-eyed vibes, too, sometimes.

Scars: Quite a lot of little ones, largely work-related (burns and cuts on her arms and hands) and from that whole survival thing. Some more notable ones include: one through her right eyebrow, one on her outer left arm, the Many on her outer left thigh, and the entry and exit wounds on her upper back and chest respectively. It's probably worth noting that before her reeducation she had different scars, including one through her bottom lip, which were 'scrubbed', so anyone who knew her before would probably note she looks different, even if they couldn't exactly place why.

FASHION

Fashion Style: A little tomboyish at times. She's got some clothes purely for functional reasons when dealing with bigger scale projects, and the rest of the time it's very... early thousands punk-y/grunge girl, spiky updos and all Notes: In terms of silhouette, think like Linds.ey Lo.han and her on-screen friends in Freaky Friday - actually kind of just early thousands Lindsey most of the time? Avril La.vigne(!). Early thousands P!nk a little bit. Whichever of those Mary-Kat.e n Ash.l.ey movies is the one where they have this vibe.

Typical Clothing: More fitted tops, t-shirts and tanks, paired with looser bottoms that are usually cargo-pants in spirit if not literal application (pockets!!! a must-have.) Sometimes she has a jacket or secondary loose layer over top, sometimes she does not. It's not usually Noticeable with a capital N I don't think but there is a pattern/fact of her shirts never touching her neck- they either have some kind of dropped collar to begin with or she will alter it. She dabbles in clothing theft, but usually more for sleepwear than every day. Loves a good giant shirt for sleeping.

Color Palette: Maybe like.... orange, green, pink? A dash of teal and yellow? All over the place if we're honest. The more regular note is: stripes. She wears a lot of striped tops in particular- she's owned no less than three different orange striped shirts. Her pants, if only because she likes the cargo style, tend to be the more neutral part of her outfits, ranging around in khaki and dark greens, dark blues, grey- you know. Cargo pants colors. She's owned at least two pair of camouflage colored/patterned pants, one of which she cut into shorts at some point (and the second pair to replace the first lmao)

Jewelry & Piercings: Her ears are double pierced on the lobes; she tends to wear studs in the higher/second set, and likes dangly bright charm earrings in the lower/first set. She had a septum piercing at one point but I don't know if it's still there. She does not and will not wear necklaces (though may occasionally pull her goggles down and leave them there, while she's working. Mostly they go up on her head though.) She likes woven bracelets, and anything clicky-clacky (but not jingle-y) like wood and plastic. She picked up the habit of wearing 'bad luck beads' from a certain someone.

Tattoos: N/A

Other Information: Gloves! Fingerless. Sometimes practical but more often a fashion/cultural thing, the patterned useless kind. Headphones sometimes, and welding goggles of some kind, I haven't settled on a particular style. I'm still not sure I'm committed to the cat ear helmet, but. Potentially there is also the cat ear helmet sometimes (<- which would not be in that color but that is soooo the vibe, the energy, if she does have one)

EXPRESSION

General Facial Expression: Fluid and ever-changing, even when she's otherwise placid. It would be incredibly heart-on-her-sleeve if not for the fact that her expressions and moods don't match the way you'd expect. (In fact, it often counterintuitively serves to obscure what she's thinking; people generally have a hard time reading her expressions (and sometimes body language). More information does not always mean better clarity.)

Default Body Language: Much the same as her expressions, though a little more traditionally matched. Small for scared, fidgety for nervous, tall shoulders for angry. The problem is more that she doesn't really seem to have anywhere to settle. There is no default, only wherever she's at that day.

General Movements: Cautious and guarded. A hand-talker, though she's often known to keep herself strictly contained in unfamiliar settings— she's typically an incredibly high self-monitor, constantly aware of where she is in a space, how much of it she's taking up, if she's in the (apparent) way, how close people are to her, etc. etc. Thus, she gives off this sort of... tightly wound energy. Like she wants to go big, but won't commit. When at work on a project she's very nimble and clever, generally confident, almost a whole different vibe: she's great at tiny fiddly machines and wires.

NOTABLE FOR RP

Presence: In person, usually pretty innocuous. She's colorful yeah but in home setting that's the norm, so she doesn't generally stand out in a crowd. She mostly just wants her own space, but with her wandering expressions and habit of talking to herself and the occasional little tic, some people are put off and/or rude to her. She also... doesn't necessarily Miss social cues, but will fail to initiate them first, or the way people expect. She's just... a bit odd. Has some crazy currency. Over the transmitter she's an absolute menace and regularly antagonistic to anyone who gets on her nerves even a little.

Appearance: Always at least a little wild looking— her hair messy, her clothes crooked. She (accidentally) ends up with tears in the knees of her pants a lot. A little like... you know how people dress after they develop a personal style but before they get it in their head to be self-conscious about being "put-together"? It's kind of like that. There's an energy and a vibe just not necessarily a huge amount of polish — things she likes, rather than outfits she puts together for people to look at. Also, with all her workshopping and tendency to bump her elbows and scrape her knees ... a little bit spicy kitten feral. A dash of mad-scientist. Odd little bug.

Scent: Ignoring the obvious notes to be made about people in apocalyptic-esque settings (although I really think. Personal HC disclaimer or whatever but I think it's not that bad, broadly speaking. No-showers georg probably exists but... there is a city actively manufacturing things, and a thriving smuggling scene, and an entire trade system, and sort of prairie-culture more than apocalypse wasteland, you know? it's more about conserving the safe water than not having the access to the necessities, I think. Dry alternatives are probably popular. ANYWAY-) I think anything else noticeable might be... a little bit of a (good) cat-smell, because of how much time she spends with Glitch+how often he's sitting standing or laying on her.

Voice Description: Honestly I have never had a particular association other than knowing she talks fast.

Accent: (This was presented as a "yes/no" question and I am here to say: Everyone Has An Accent.) More information: There's a kind of... zones accent? That isn't formally plotted out but just sort of developed as we were writing. It involves lots of dropped consonants + some Spanish influence and rapid-fire sentences ft. all that slang. To me it's always seemed almost... American South in terms of vibe? But that might be a biased take on it. I don't know that it necessarily sounds that way, like with the same vowel placements, but it reads that way to me.

Speech Mannerisms: Sort of wobbles between some natural leanings and just a little bit of putting-on — she tends to exaggerate her 'zone accent' a little bit when she's feeling either superior or inferior or if she's just trying to make a Point of something. Naturally a chatterbox, though it might take her a bit to warm up (and sometimes she also goes entirely nonverbal). Time alone during years she should have been expanding her social skills led to her talking to herself out loud a lot, and sometimes she forgets people like to be able to respond. If she gets snapped at or fussed at specifically for talking a lot/too much she's incredibly likely to A) snap back and then B) become a lot more stiff and/or outright refuse to speak with a person anymore. Practices being brave about things she doesn't want to say by saying them AllinOneBreathWithNoSpaceAndVeryVeryQuickly

Anything else to add? People who think they have her figured out off a first impression and go on to try and predict and/or direct her behavior typically set off several alarms for her, and always fuck it up one way or another. This is largely lefftover from the way her mother treated her. I know what specifically sets it off, and how to avoid it but don't like to announce it because then people. try to Outwit it. and it annoys me.

[lazydoodlesandfanfic]

Some pictures that reminded me of Buff Batmom, Bruce, and the Batfamily

Tired Buff Batmom controlling her feral sons.

Buff Batmom being protective of Bruce.

Buff Batmom and Bruce’s Love In a Nutshell

Batmom on the Left and Bruce on the Right.

Buff Batmom being thirsty for Bruce’s pecs

I saved that top image to my meme template folder lol. Also the bottom two feels like a trade between the two. She's his therapist when he needs it and in return she gets to motorboat him before bed

[acealistair]

@swanfey tagged me in a fun lil favorites photoshop meme!

from top-bottom left-right:

favorite movie: it was a hard choice and it kinda fluctuates between a select few from time to time but rn it's tangled!

favorite hobby: baking

favorite animal: kitty cat

favorite character: surprise surprise, it's alistair

favorite color: pastel/lavender purple

favorite place: not anywhere specific but medieval/ancient ruins and old cities that have preserved pre-1800s architecture

favorite season: autumn

favorite album: i think it's technically an ep but i don't really know or care about the difference, it's melodies of the outsiders by burn the ballroom, literally every song on it's a banger

favorite food: RAMENNNNN (japanese food in general tbh but especially ramen)

template:

[jasmariswonderland]

OC Inspiration Part 18 ~ Maximilian

The template for this meme can be found here.

I’ve been gradually filling these out with my ocs and since we’re celebrating Maximilian’s birthday, here is his!

Also, what is it with characters with red hair and green eyes being total unapologetic whores (affectionate)? 

Top Left ~ Maxim’s Disney counterpart and where he get’s 50% of his bad qualities like his bad temper, love of rare and expensive jewels and his partiality to violence. Also like Medusa,  he keep’s a large reptile named after a Roman tyrant. 

Top Right ~ Axel/Lea from Kingdom Hearts, i.e. where Maxim get’s the other 50% of his bad qualities like his selfisness, hotheadedness, manipulative nature and tendency to lie. They’re also extremely charming and I was actually considering Keiji Fujiwara as Maxim’s voice claim but decided on Kisho Taniyama cause I felt it suited him better.

Bottom Right ~ So fun fact: in very early concepts for Maximilian, he was originally going to be an Octavinelle student twisted from Tamatoa. Unfortunately, this was changed after falling out with a former friend (one of the ones I mentioned in my book 5 personal post) who also got into twst last year and accused me of copying her because she also had a Tamatoa twst oc. It was frankly the other way around and eve though I had proof of this, I figured it would be less trouble to just change my character. Honestly I like him more as a Pomefiore student and he still has a lot of Tamatoa’s personality traits, but if anyone has ever wondered why Maxim has such a close friendship with the Octatrio, that’s why. 

[chimeofthecomet]

This post is gonna look incomprehensible but DOES ANYONE HAVE AN EXAMPLE OF OR TEMPLATE OF THIS MEME

I Cant think of any terms to google this jfhdhdjdjsj the whole meme is about like categorising something and the joke is that they stretch the two boundaries in red and blue if it was what counts as an insect so like top left would be a caterpillar and the bottom right would be like a octopus or something because it fits the number of Legs chaotic and Diet chaotic something like that idk I dont think its lawful neutral and chaotic actually