#but at the very least this is what goes on in my head

[catscraftsandcommentary]

Not gonna lie, as a kid, I did NOT realize how much basic algebra and basic geometry would be involved in adulthood. All those word problems that you HATED as a student? They are preparing you to think your way through REAL SITUATIONS.

Real life word problems I have solved (or watched my dad solve, because he's very good at "let me show you how to do this Adult Stuff, so one day you can handle it on your own"):

I am preparing to retile the bathtub/shower in my bathroom. If the area is [measurements] on two walls and [measurements] on the other wall, and the tiles are [measurements] and come [number] in a box, how many boxes do I need? Does this include border tiles, which are [measurements]? Does this include cutting some tiles into two, where I need less than half a tile? How much will this cost? Do I need to keep the receipt to return extra tiles? What other materials do I need to prepare the wall for tiles, and how many of them do I need?

I want to make a cute knit hat. I have picked out a stitch pattern, a yarn type, and the appropriately sized needles. Using these, 5 repeats of the pattern is [measurements] and my head is [measurements]. Also, the border pattern that I want to use is [measurements]. How many repeats do I need to make for the hat to fit around my head? How many rows long should it be to cover the top of my head and down over my ears? When do I start decreasing for the top of the hat (where it goes from a tube to a circle)? Or do I start from the top and keep going until it's the right length? How do I adjust the pattern to account for the increases (top-down construction) or decreases (bottom-up construction) while I'm forming the top of the hat (the circle part)? If the pattern was written for flat knitting (back and forth) and I'm knitting in the round (always start rows on the right), do I need to adjust the pattern for that?

I want to follow a pre-written pattern for a fitted garment, BUT the test swatch I knitted came out the wrong size for the needles I used. Do I change needle sizes or rewrite the pattern [See process above for writing a knitting pattern.] If I change needle sizes, what size should I try next so I hopefully have to knit the fewest test swatches? Do I *like* the way that the pattern looks when I change needle sizes, or are the stitches now so loose that it's worth changing to a thicker yarn (test swatch was too small and bigger needles look bad), a thinner yarn (test patch was too big and smaller needles/tighter needles are hard to work with) or rewriting the pattern?

I am going to build a small wooden ramp for my new shed. What are the relevant local building codes? How long does my ramp need to be to reach from the door of the shed to the ground (which may be sloped) while keeping the appropriate slope? Am I using the gentle slope for handicapped access or the steeper slope for utility access? Is the ramp so long that it needs a level platform in the middle? How much space will this add? How many supports do I need? WHAT KIND AND HOW MUCH LUMBER DO I NEED TO BUY FOR THIS PROJECT? See also: screws, screw bits, support brackets, etc. How much will all this cost?

I want to reorganize my bedroom. What furniture do I have? Am I adding or removing any? What measurements do I need to take so I can make a small model of my room, doors, windows, electrical outlets, etc, and furniture? If I am doing this with graph paper, what scale am I using for "inches to graph squares" and what size does everything need to be? When I'm ready to move everything, what order do I move the furniture so that my largest pieces don't get trapped somewhere awkward?

If I also want to PAINT my bedroom at the same time, how do I move furniture so that I can reach the walls while doing the least rearrangement for heavy pieces? Do I have space in other rooms to temporarily move things out of my way, or do I have to keep most stuff in my room the whole time? How much stuff can I declutter and get rid of before I start?

I want to start a new embroidery project. What materials will I be using, and how much of each will I need? Can I use the things I already have in my Craft Stash, or do I need to make a run to the craft store? How big will the finished project be? Do I want to frame it (this will require extra fabric around the edges for mounting, plus the framing materials) or sew it on something as a patch (this will require a seam allowance and possibly backing fabric for the patch, like stabilizer) or embroider an existing item? What new techniques or skills do I need to look up and learn before I start?

I want to put organizing bins in my pantry cabinet. The shelves are [measurements]. Many of the cans and boxes that I want to organize are [measurements]. Of the organizers available, what size should I look for and how many will I need? Do I want everything one size, or do I want some larger or smaller for different things that I'm storing? How much extra effort will it take to set up and maintain this system, and am I willing to invest that effort - not just at the start, but as an on-going basis?

At work, we keep track of how much product we produce, the materials we use, and the waste that we had. (This helps for tracking "what does it cost to produce each item, including labor" which is important for budgeting. Unfortunately if management is obsessed with maximizing profits NO MATTER WHAT, this can lead to process changes that are REALLY ANNOYING.) If I have 5 rows of boxes plus 3 extra boxes on a pallet, and each box holds 12 items and each row holds 7 boxes, how many finished items are on the pallet? If I have 2 finished pallets (12 items per box, 7 boxes per row, 16 rows per pallet) PLUS that partial pallet at the end of the shift, how many items did we make that shift? If we threw away 68 lbs of material during the shift and there are 3.36 items per lb of material, how many item's worth of material did we throw away? What was our percentage of waste for the shift? (These ARE realistic numbers!) How much total material did we use during that shift, and when will we need to order more? If there are three production lines on the shift, all making different items and using different materials, how do we track everything? Are there any changes that management can make to make production more efficient? (More product produced, less materials and time wasted, less machine downtime for mechanical or user error problems.) How likely are those changes to drive experienced workers away, and is the cost of finding, hiring, and training new employees to a similar level of skill so high that we should NOT make those changes?

Word problems are EVERYWHERE when you're an adult, and half the trick of solving them is recognizing that they exist, and then figuring out what questions you need to ask to solve them, and what info you need to answer your questions.

One thing they don’t tell you about sewing is that it is actually ironing

[lexirosewrites]

Hello, I saw you only had one submission for tomorrow and so I have come with Thoughts that I have made just for this. It's Steddie but we're going to focus on Max for context and fluff; you CANNOT have O!Steve without considering his pups, okay??

Max, with all her Family Issues, doesn't always immediately believe that people care about her, at least as much as she cares about them??? And also, she's never going to SAY she cares. You kind of just have to Figure It Out through proximity and the rare times she is willing to imply she would not say no to your company or assistance.

As such, she knows O!Steve cares about her. He got hit in the head with a fucking plate for her (and the others, but it was Billy, so it was also very for her), not to mention the rest of the UD stuff with him protecting everyone. But she doesn't really know that A!Eddie cares about her like that?? It's not like she thinks Eddie doesn't like her, they talk and joke and he gives her rides to group events because they're neighbors, but there's a difference between "I don't mind this kid" and "i care about what happens this pup," you know? She's not offended, it's just a fact of life that not everyone is going to be particularly concerned with her.

Max used to show up randomly at Steve's to spend the night when home was a bit much, but then Eddie and Steve started dating. Steve would never ask her not to come over even if Eddie is there, and Eddie might not mind her presence sometimes, but she doesn't want to impose so she just deals with it and stays home.

Maybe one day she's out on her skateboard after Hellfire (she doesnt play, but she and El hang out in the vicinity and talk), and the weather turns bad super quick. Thunder, lightning, freezing cold, pouring rain, the works. She doesn't have any change to use a payphone, so she's like tucked under an awning that shields her from about 10% of the rain.

A car comes by after about half an hour, and she gets briefly blinded by the headlights, but then they're driving away. Except then they're not. The car did a super illegal U-turn and is parked on the sidewalk, and it's not a car, it's a van. It's Eddie's van, and he's jumping out of the driver's seat and running over. He's got his leather jacket on, but as soon as he's next to Max, he's taking it off and holding it out to block her from the rain.

They run back to the van, Max still wrapped in his jacket, and Eddie cranks up the heat and starts rambling about trying to find her while he starts driving. Max is like "?? Find me??? You saw me half an hour ago???? Weren't you going to your boyfriend's????" And Eddie looks at her like she's speaking in tongues and is like "yeah?? And then it started fucking pouring so I called your house to make sure you got home okay but no one picked up. I drove over to see if you were just asleep, but no one was at your trailer so I came looking. "

Max is like. Positive she's not processing this correctly. So she's like "you were at your boyfriend's house. And you stopped your date to call me. And when I didn't pick up, you left your date. To drive all the way home, in this weather. And then drove around to find me because I wasn't there." And Eddie's just like "yeah, that's about it"

And look, Max isn't just going to Announce that this sounds like absolute nonsense, because that's a bit too much vulnerability, but it's probably written on her face, because Eddie glances over and suddenly the van is full of Reassuring Protective Alpha scent. His tone is super light and chill (probably for her benefit) but he just goes "like it or not, Red, you're one of my pups now. I might have to share you with Stevie, because he'd fight me for sole custody in a heartbeat, but that just means you're ours. Now come on, you haven't been home in ages and Stevie missed you."

Max just kind of looks at him confused, but then she looks out the windshield and they're at Steve's house, and Steve is already throwing open the door looking super relieved and he runs over with like a huge umbrella and holds it over Max specifically while he gets her inside, and he fusses over her and she allows it (just this once) and then she takes a shower to warm up and when she gets out there's a pair of Steve's shorts and Eddie's shirt waiting for her to put on while her stuff dries and their scents are super nice together and they smell like Home and Pack. Then they all drink hot chocolate and watch a movie and Max stays the night and never worries about coming over again.

The End and whatnot

-irrelevantbutembarrassing

🥲🥲🥲 she’s their pup

[yubellia]

OH MY GOSH! Season 6 is here! And Cerise/Lila whoever was super creepy and amazing!

„Nothing. Hah. Nothing. You know nothing about me, about us, about them. I‘m everywhere. I‘m nowhere. I‘m a chameleon. Nowhere. You won‘t get anywhere.“

——~~~——

Not gonna lie, I really don‘t like what they did to Marinette. The girl is struggling…. We get that…. But did they really have to make her act like this? She can‘t even really keep it together als Ladybug anymore. She can be lucky that the miraculous prevents people from noticing the obvious similarities.

But back to Cerise! We don‘t see her face in the entire episode. We only have her voice but that’s enough already. After all, sound is almost more important than visuals. What would Micheal Myers be without the iconic sound. Try it. Mute the movies. It won‘t work.

But anyway. I wonder, when she akumatized that girl, this is how she handles things. She just talks and offers a solution like a good friend. Siding with her victim. She doesn’t even demand anything. No „I’ll give you that power. In return I want Ladybugs and Chat Noirs miraculous!“ No. None of that!

Also, the camera zoomed in, almost like we were going into the victims head. Is this what actually happens to you, when you get akumatized? Bah! Imagine having Gabriel in your head like that! No sir. Thank you!

Could it be, that up until now, we saw the whole process from the outside? That would be so cool. It would also mean that Cerise clearly….. goes deeper that Gabriel could.

Also, we learned something very important. Apparently, they don‘t know better yet, Cerise akumatizes people randomly without the goal to attack. She just lets them cause chaos and the heroes come out. At first.

We also learn that Cerise writes EVERYTHING down!! Like girl, be careful with your hand! That must hurt! Also she technically creates tons of evidence. If she looses ONE of those notebooks, it’s game over. Unless she writes in code….. would not be surprised.

Also the end of the episode, where she is in the café „Nothing. Hah. Nothing. You know nothing about me, about us, about them. I‘m everywhere. I‘m nowhere. I‘m a chameleon. Nowhere. You won‘t get anywhere.“

I am not sure if she completely lost it NOW, if she ALWAYS was crazy like this, or, with her disguises and all, she is completely stating the truth.

But I know one thing.

I LOVE HER FOR IT!! I can‘t wait to actually see her! Also it seems like she upgraded her miraculous, just like Marinette did with all the others. At least that’s what I heard, could be a leak. She got the guardians book too after all from Nathalie in that one episode, together with all of Gabriel’s secrets.

So yeah… the new season started…. A bit meh. I really wish they could have given us the REAL first episode. But it seems like there is something wrong with the continuity anyway. Alya and Nino interviewed Sublime‘s mom, but she didn’t appear yet…. Strange….

But anyway, we might be missing some lore here.

I am still excited for more.

[chandelier-s-notebook]

Hey, so I started writing a Landoscar 5+1 which...didn't even spiral outwardly that badly, but I hate it. I hate it enough that I never want to look at it again, and I think that if I put it down, I will never pick it back up. And both desperately want to put it down, and don't believe in continually ramming your head into the wall if something isn't working. So, into the fic graveyard it goes.

But! Instead of tossing it in the trash, never to be seen again, I am posting it here to Tumblr. Maybe someone can enjoy it.

It's supposed to be Landoscar, but it takes Lando 1800 of those prose words to show up. What's happening in that first 1.8k? Charles adopting Oscar. Alex and George are also here. Max exists, and Lando is a biter.

The whole 5+1 part is outlined, it's five different things Lando calls Oscar in a College!AU and one time Oscar gives him a nickname back. The bones are all there, but...

*ahem*

I present to you: 2.3k of pose and 1.1k of outline.

Have an experience.

[INSERT TITLE HERE]

Oscar Piastri is a regular engineering major university shut in by the time Winter semester rolls around in his first year of university.

He has one friend—Logan, his roommate, who he’d met all the way back in middle school—two different incompetent lab groups, a class with four midterms and a final, 18 hours of lecture a week, a never ending stream of assignments, a healthy addition to Monster Energy™, and three humanities he has to take if he wants to graduate at all.

Oscar is taking a 300-level Principles of Marketing—he figures it will be useful enough—when he meets Charles Leclerc.

And that's when his life starts to change.

— — —

Charles is a business major, and Charles happens to be sitting next to Oscar when Professor Vettel—”But please call me Sebastain, or even Seb,”—asks them to introduce themselves to the person sitting next to them.

“Oscar Piastri. I’m in engineering, mechanical, first year.”

“Ah. So you are here for the credit, then? I am Charles Leclerc, second year.”

The name pings some level of familiarity deep in the back of his brain, but it’s not enough of a connection for him to follow it down any sort of rabbit hole. “Pretty much, but I have to keep my GPA up to keep my scholarship, so I’m not planning on being completely useless.”

“Good,” Charles smiles. “Because this introduction thing is how Seb likes to assign groups of the term.”

Oscar feels like a bucket of water has been dumped on his head. “What?”

“I know. It is weird, but all of the professors here are. I hope we work well together. When I was in Intro to Marketing, I was stuck with George. George is nice, but he is very intense about the wrong things sometimes. We did not work well together.”

“This class is going to be, like, last on my list of priorities,” Oscar feels the need to tell him.

But Charles just smiles again. “I figured, since you said you are an engineer. That is okay. At least I know what I am in for from the start. We will meet once a week, yes? So we have a dedicated time to work on this class, and you can ignore it the rest of the time?”

Oscar starts to protest, but a clap sounds from the front of the room. “Well. I hope you like the person sitting next to you,” Professor Vettel, Sebastian, Seb says. “Because this is who you will be working with for the rest of the semester! I’ll give you five minutes to exchange contact information, and then we’ll get started!”

Charles winks at him; he’s bad at it. “See?”

Oscar forks over his number, and pencils in a weekly Wednesday evening library session with Charles Leclerc.

— — —

Wednesday evening quickly becomes Oscar’s favourite time of the week.

For two hours he can shut off his brain, ignore all of his coursework, and just hangout with Charles Leclerc. At least it feels like they’re just hanging out, because what’s actually happening is Charles is explaining to Oscar what the fuck he’s doing for their joint assignments that Oscar feels a little bit bad about putting his name on.

“It’s okay,” Charles assures him. “Seb’s husband is one of the engineering profs. He knows which people in his class are eng students, and how much they’ve got on their plates.”

“Which one?”

“Not telling.”

“Rude!”

“Besides, you’re doing quality control.”

“I don’t know what quality I am controlling, is the issue.”

“That is okay.”

“Is it? I’m going to fail the final at this rate.”

“No you aren’t.”

Oscar flops down onto the table. “Yes I am.”

“Because it is a term project.”

He looks up. “I’m not letting you do an entire term project on your own.”

“Of course you are not. We need to build a product website. I cannot code, and I know that coding is a requirement to graduate, so I will make the design document, and you will code.”

“Okay,” he says, small. “I don’t want to drag your grade down because I don’t know what’s going on in this course.”

“You won’t. I won’t let you,” Charles tells him. “You understand the lectures, non?”

“Yeah. And I’m acing the theory quizzes.”

Charles grins. “See? You are doing very well.”

Oscar smiles. “Okay, but what goes in a design document?”

— — —

“Charles, I know I have to be the one to do the presentation, but I can’t. I’m going to sound so stupid standing up there reading off these cards.”

“You are not going to sound stupid. That is why we are practicing.”

“You’re biased. You need to tell me I’m going well so I stay calm.”

“Are you not calm?” Charles asks, tilting his head.

“I am not calm.”

“This is you not calm?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm. I cannot tell. Which is good, because then no one will be able to see if you start to panic. The audience is like a snark.”

“Not helpful!”

“Right.” Charles taps his chin with this index finger. “I know! I will get George.”

“George?”

“Yes!” The upperclassman pulls out his phone. “If you can present to George, you can present to anybody.”

“I thought you didn’t like George?”

“I don’t like working with George. He is judgy.”

“And you want me to present in front of him?”

“Oui. He will stay quiet until you are done.”

“I hate this.”

“You told me you would.”

George is apparently George Russell, the man Oscar’s Solid Mechanics TA, Max Verstappen, loves to draw into pointless arguments. He brings his friend Alexander “Alex” Albon—wildlife biology major. They are both very good at quietly listening to him fumble, while keeping their expressions carefully blank.

At least George is. Alex is smiling at him in a way he knows is supposed to be comforting, but all it’s doing is making him more aware of tightness in his chest.

“And that’s that.” Oscar claps his hands together, and immediately regrets it.

Charles applauds and cheers like he’s just won a race or something.

Alex claps as well.

George turns to Charles. “You’ve adopted an engineer.”

“Maybe,” Charles grins. “You can barely tell.”

“It’s obvious.”

“No it’s not,” Charles turns to assure Oscar. “Barely. If you weren’t you, you couldn’t tell.”

“I mean it’s not really far, because I’ve seen him in Max’s office.”

Charles looks absolutely betrayed when his gaze whips towards him. “Why are you in Max’s office?”

“For help?”

Charles narrows his eyes.

“He’s my TA; solid mech.”

“Who do you like more?”

“Huh?”

“Me and Max. Who do you like more?”

Oscar’s eyes dart to Alex’s for a little help. There’s not much he can do, but he does manage to convey that this answer is apparently very important.

Oscar has never considered Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen against each other. They aren’t exactly in the same category of people in his mind.

“You?”

“More confidence.”

“You.”

“Good. Keep it that way.” Charles sits back in his seat. “Do it again. Do you have a suit? You will wear a suit to this presentation.”

Oscar is only a little scared.

“Does Max like Oscar?” Charles asks George while they all go about packing their bags at the end of the session.

“I’d say so. You know how he pretends to be professional with the underclassmen, but when it’s just Oscar in the room he’s right back to his usual state of no decorum.”

Charles hums. “Do you do anything on Fridays, Oscar? Friday evenings?”

“Cry? All of my assignments are due Friday.”

“So you stay up all night doing them?”

“No, that's Thursday. I fix everything Friday morning, so that I’ve got time to cry in the evening before I start next week’s assignments on Saturday.”

Alex snorts. “Nice.”

“You are coming for drinks,” Charlest tells him. “Crying with friends is better than crying alone. I will come pick you up. Give me your address.” He holds out his phone in front of Oscar’s nose.

Oscar’s eyes dart back to Alex’s. The man looks just as befuddled as he feels, but honestly: Oscar would like more than one friend.

“Will I have to pay?” he asks.

“Non. If I tell you you have to pay you will come up with excuses to not come. I will pay. You have a class that ends at five thirty, non?”

“Yes.”

“Perfect. Then I will be there at six thirty. That will give you an hour to get home, and do whatever introvert things you need to do before we go out.”

At Oscar’s expression Alex tells him, “We also always meet up at seven.”

Which is good, because Oscar was about to tell Charles that they shouldn’t change their whole schedule for him.

— — —

Oscar’s shirt is only halfway on when there’s a knock at his door.

“In a minute!”

“I’ve got it!” Logan calls.

The door opens.

“Who are you?” he demands.

“You are not Oscar.”

“No. I’m not. Who are you?”

“Charles!” Oscar gasps, running out of his room. “Logan, this is Charles. He’s my Marketing partner. Charles, this is Logan, he’s my roommate.”

“You never mentioned a roommate.”

“Never came up,” he says, bending down to tie his shoelaces.

“I told you about my roommates!” Charles cries.

“You complained about your roommate to me,” he corrects.

Logan laughs. “Dude, you’re supposed to share horror stories when that happens.”

Oscar furrows his brows. “But I don’t have horror stories.”

“Oscar.”

“Yes?”

“Your roommate answered the door eating cereal out of a frying pan.”

Oscar turns to look.

Logan shrugs.

“Have you heard of bowls?” Charles shrieks.

“American,” he grins.

Oscar huffs. “He’s joking,” he assures Charles while grabbing his coat. “We’ve run out of bowls. Logan was supposed to do the dishes tonight.”

The man in question clicks his tongue, and shoots Charles with a finger gun. “Are you going out?”

“Yeah. I’ll be back…when will I be back?”

“Two?”

“I’m not making it to two. I’ll be back at ten.”

“Text me. I’m staying in.”

“Cool.” Oscar throws him a thumbs up. “Shall we? Who’s going to be there, by the way?”

“George, Alex, Pierre, Esteban, Yuki, Liam, Lando, and Max is not coming.”

“Pierre is your roommate?”

“Oui.”

When Oscar gets to the pub, he is immediately reminded why he’s bad at making friends.

While everybody else introduced themselves with their first names only, Oscar had said: “Oscar Piastri.”

Full name, full confidence.

Which was his only saving grace: the confidence. His face didn’t even scrunch up in displeasure.

“Nice to meet you Oscar Piastri!” Lando says.

“Just Oscar is fine.”

“But your name is Oscar Piastri.”

“Oh my god Lando,” Alex laughs. “Ignore him. He bites, but he’s harmless.”

“I thought the saying goes ‘he doesn’t bite,’ right?”

“Yeah,” George shrugs. “But Lando does bite. Literally. He’s a bit feral, but he’s good the first hour.”

Charles pats Oscar’s shoulder. “I’ll keep you safe.”

“You’re all making me sound like a dog. I’m not a pet!”

“I think it’d be nice to be a pet dog. No solid mech homework.”

“Is that what we’re crying about tonight?” Alex asks.

“Yep.”

Lando’s eyes light up. “You schedule your crying?”

“I’m in mech eng.”

“Oh Oscar Piastri, I’m so sorry.”

George groans. “Just call him Oscar.”

“No.”

Oscar laughs. He doesn’t really mind. It’s very clear that he’s just teasing. Besides, Oscar likes the way Lando says his full name: Oscar Piastri. It rolls off his tongue like it’s a single entity.

— — —

The presentation goes well, all things considered, and Oscar even manages to actually answer some of the audience questions without looking at Charles in panic first.

It’s a miracle.

“Good job!” Charles says, clapping his shoulder as they go back to their seats. “That was great. I’m so proud of you.”

Oscar blushes. “Stop. I feel like you’re about to give me a gold star or something.”

“I could. Do you want one?” Charles asks, way too earnestly for Oscar’s taste. “I carry some around with me. We give them to Lando when he does a good job.”

“First you tell me he bites, then you tell me you give him treats, are you sure he’s not the friend group’s dog or something.”

Charles grins. “Don’t let his whining confuse you, he likes it. He has a little sticker booklet, so if you are going to give him one you have to give it to him, because you put it on him it won’t be sticky anymore and it will be difficult to keep in the booklet.”

“Oh my god.”

“Would you like one?”

“I don’t have a booklet.”

“That is okay. You can put it on your laptop. They are die cut vinyl; very good quality.”

“Wow. Yeah I’ll have one.”

Oscar’s laptop is now the proud wearer of a smiling cartoon golden star sticker.

It’s silly, but he loves it.

— — —

At six thirty sharp every Friday, Charles Leclerc is at his door ready to drag him off to the pub with his friends who are all slowly, but surely, also being Oscar’s friends.

He jumps when all he gets is a loud “OSCAR!” before Lando is barrelling into his side, almost sending him sprawling just outside of the peb entrance.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

Oscar is not not bracing for a bite.

Not because he wants Lando to bite him, but because he likes to think they’re friends, and apparently Lando bites his friends.

Or maybe they just told that to Oscar to scare him, and take the mick out of Lando in a single blow.

“Ah! Lando!” Alex cries. “You pest. Give me warning! You can’t just bite people.”

“I gave you a whole four seconds after arriving,” Lando pouts. “That’s plenty of warning. Not my fault you ignored it.”

“Say something,” Alex pleads, rubbing his shoulder. “You’ve gotten better at biting lightly, thank you.”

Lando brightens. “You’re welcome!” He turns to George. “George, I’m going to bite you.”

“Oh I don’t like that,” Alex says. “That’s so ominous. Nevermind. Don’t say anything. But like, tap me or something.”

Lando whacks George’s shoulder, and then with a “hwam” he clamps his teeth around the other man’s shoulder.

Oscar isn’t sure if he should be watching with horror or fascination.

Oscar jumps about twelve feet in the air when he hears a loud “OSCAR” shouted across the quad

Lando.

The biter.

Who didn’t bite anybody last time they were out

But they’ve known each other for longer than an hour, so he’s a little bit worried

Because Charles doesn’t tend to lie to him.

Lando throws himself into Oscar’s side

“Where are you going?”

“Physics Building.”

“Ugh. Why?”

“Solid Mech. Need to talk to my TA.”

“Terrible. I think. Max likes Solid Mech, but Max is a freak.”

“Verstappen?”

“Yep! Do you know him?”

“He’s my TA.”

“For Solid Mech?”

“Yup.”

“Of course he is. He was probably grading your assignments, that’s why he didn’t come out last night.”

Oscar pales. “You’re friends with my TA?”

“Yup! He’s a freak, but he’s cool.”

“If he’s a freak, what are you? I’m waiting for you to bite me.”

Lando pauses. “Do you want me to bite you, Oscar?”

“I was told you bite your friends.”

“Are we friends?”

“I dunno. Don’t have many of those.”

“Well we’ve got to fix that.”

Suddenly Lando is being scruffed.

“Lando. Why are you about to bite my favourite student?”

“We’re friends now. Charles brought him to the pub.”

“Ah.”

“Stop giving Oscar so many assignments. Cause then he’ll be less stressed, and you’ll be able to hangout more!”

“Not how that works. If I let you go, are you going to bite him?”

“He literally asked for it.”

“I did.”

Max sighs. “I see why Charles took you in. Were you having trouble with the assignment?”

“The indeterminate structures are doing my head in again.”

“The what?”

Max hauls Lando into his office. “Come in, you. You’re going to be Oscar’s rubber duck.”

“What?” he squawks. “Oscar! Max just called me dumb!”

Oscar feels warm.

He has a friend.

— — —

Lando loosens up a bit more and stops pronouncing the r in his name. It shouldn’t affect him as much as it does, but it practically kills Oscar.

Lando is an arts major, graphic design and photography

He sits with Oscar while he works on his assignments

Well, Lando is usually drawing or editing pictures

To Oscar it feels like not working, but Lando assures him that he is actually working

“Oscah. I’m bored.”

“I’m busy.”

“I knoooooooow. Can I take pictures of you?”

“What?”

“Pictures? With my camera? I need to practice my human portraits stuff. Framing and shit. And how to deal with natural lighting. The lighting in here is shit, mate.”

Oscar glances at him.

“I’ll be taking candid shots. Like you in your natural habitat. So I won’t even be talking. I’ll shut up!”

“Why is that a selling point?”

“Because you’re trying to work? I can be considerate.”

Oscar smiles. “Go for it. Might be a bit awkward though.”

“I’ve got you Oscah. I’ll make you look cool even without dynamic lighting.”

“I hate dynamics.”

— — —

Osc is not made for the pub despite being an engineer

“We are we are we are we are We are the engineers We can we can we can we can We can demolish forty beers So come so come so come so come So come along with us For we don't give a damn for any damn man who don't give a damn for us”

Oscar has been drinking water for the past three pubs on this crawl

He runs into Max at some point

Max, who decides that it’s time to save him, and Oscar is being dragged into a booth with Charles and his friends.

“Do you think those guys are going to notice you are gone?”

“Maybe? Probably. I’ve been Logan’s introvert all night. He’ll go looking for me before everybody leaves.”

Charles gets him another water.

Oscar starts asking questions about the torsion unit.

Max laughs, and they are doing office hours again.

“There you are! Man, I thought I’d lost you for good. You good, man?”

“Yeah! There is Charles.” He points.

Logan grins and shakes his hand. “Hey. Oscar’s roommate.”

“The messy one who eats cereal out of the frying pan?”

Logan laughs, everybody laughs. “Yeah. That’s me. We’re headed off to the next pub…”

Lando wraps his arms around Oscar’s torso and clings. “Nope. Osc is ours now. We’re keeping him. You have fun on your crawl.”

“Osc?” Lando jolts back. His face is suddenly stricken with a worried expression. “Is that okay? Can I call you that?”

“Of course it’s okay,” Logan tells him when Oscar starts floundering. “Use protection!” he calls over his shoulder. “I’m staying at Liam’s!”

— — —

Lando comes over and finds out that Logan calls Oscar Osc and has for years.

He gets very pouty

“Just give him your own nickname,” Logan says in between bites of cereal.

“Do you not own bowls?”

“There are two left. Figured you would want one? And Oscar has some dignity left, so frying pan for me.”

“Osco, your roommate hurts me.”

“Osco?”

“I’ve decided on it.”

“Okay.”

“But seriously, what is wrong with your roommate?”

“American.”

“Bro.”

“He just called you bro.” Lando claps. “I’ve never heard someone do that in real life.”

Oscar sighs.

— — —

Charles: Who is your favourite?

Oscar *panicking*: Lando

Charles *waves him away*: Obviously. Between me and Max. Who is your favourite?

Oscar *deer in headlines*: Lando

Lando: *cackles*

Max: Remember, I grade your assignments. Actually, I am grading your midterm right now.

Oscar: How am I doing?

Max: Who is your favourite?

Oscar: *pales*

Charles: I do your assignments. I will not put your name on it.

George: That’s not going to work. Seb knows you well enough to know that Oscar hasn’t done any work all semester, and that you’re being petty.

Charles: And when Seb calls me for a meeting I will tell him how Oscar has been terrible to me, and does not deserve to coast off my work.

Oscar *panicking*: I need this class.

Charles *mouthing*: I’m joking.

Max: I’ll tell Mark that Oscar chose me over you, and he’ll tell Seb. Who’s Seb going to believe? You? Or a story that sounds exactly like something you would do?”

Charles: *pouts*

Oscar: Lando.

Lando: Say George. It’ll piss them both off.

Oscar: Alex.

George: Oi!

Alex: Don’t bring me into this!

Charles: It’s me, right?

Oscar: Yes?

Charles: With confidence.

Oscar: Yes.

Oscar is not a nickname guy.

But Lando clearly is

Charles drags Oscar to movie night in his dorm.

Lando gets up to stretch mid-action scene

“Anybody want anything? I’m gonna refill the popcorn.”

A chorus of nos from everybody in the room, but then Oscar finishes his drink.

“Hey, Lan, actually could you get me a Monster?”

Lando freezes.

He practically trips as he runs.

He throws himself on the couch

And bite

“Ow!”

“We warned you!”

“I let my guard down. It’s been weeks.”

[sentryofwords]

I would like to put forward my experience with psychology from my one (1) singular psychology class, because i respectfully do not think that this was perhaps the best way to explain this concept.

I do mean this with absolutely no offense to OP, but they stated that there was no stopping these characters- in other words, there was no way to change their behavior. This not only goes against one of the four main purposes of psychology( to describe behavior, predict behavior, control behavior, and change behavior), but it also limits peoples freedom and creativity.

As an author of fanfiction, I believe that these sorts of limits are terrible to have. Once again, i do want to state, i am not putting OP through the wringer, i am just trying to explain in my own words what i think would be a better message for people to hear regarding characters who are not mentally well, as this can be a sensitive topic.

First, let us define exactly what Psychosis is. Psychosis is a collection of symptoms involving abnormalities in at least one of the following: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thoughts, disorganized behavior, and negative symptoms. I will go over each of these.

What are delusions? Delusions are the firm belief in something that is not true, unreasonably so, and has no factual evidence. It can be very hard to shake someone from a concept their mind has made up, even when using logic. This concept even applies to people who are not suffering from a delusion, as was tested with a blind spot. There would be two images, and one image was complete, but the other was blank in a spot that people could not see due to humans having a natural blind spot in that part of their eye, and when asked to choose which image was complete, most participants chose the incomplete image, the one that their brain had filled in the information for. Humans are more prone to trusting information that comes from their own minds than anything else.There are different types of delusions, including persecutory delusions:the belief that one is being targeted, harassed, or conspired against), grandiose delusions: the belief that one has extraordinary abilities, wealth, or fame, referential delusions: the belief that ordinary actions have special meaning intended specially for the individual, erotomanic delusions: the belief that someone, often a stranger or famous person, is in love with the individual, and somatic delusions: the belief that something is wrong with a persons body, such as having an illness or physical deformity.

There are also different types of hallucinations. These include Auditory(sound based) hallucinations, Tactile(touch based) hallucinations, Olfactory( scent based) hallucinations (i have experience these twice in my life, once i smelled brownies, and another more recent time, cookies, though it is more common to experience unpleasant smells), Gustatory (taste based) hallucinations, and, of course, Visual (sight based) hallucinations.

disorganized thoughts can include disorganized speech that is hard to follow and jumps from topic to topic with little connection (loose association between ideas), incoherence: when communication fails within or between sentences, word approximations is when words are used incorrectly, neologisms is when new words are used, racing thoughts are when thoughts go through the head very fast, which is not to be confused with flight of ideas, which is when thoughts move quickly from idea to idea.

Disorganized behavior can include: unpredictable or inappropriate actions (in the sense that it is not fitting for this scenario, not that it is s*xual misconduct) ex: a person wears multiple layers of coats, scarves and several hats on a very hot day, or makes sudden, loud noises without warning. Disorganized behavior can also include difficulty with daily tasks, such as managing regular personal hygiene. They may be able to start a task, but not complete it.

Another example of disorganized behavior is bizarre postures or movements. Examples of this is pacing or rocking back and forth, or even suddenly becoming rigid. (You may want to research neurotransmitter imbalances if you intend to have a character who will occasionally go rigid. I have a poor memory of my neurotransmitters, but i believe it was serotonin that could do that? (Also, associated with schizophrenia, and when a person goes stiff from this, it is called a state of catatonia. An interesting character concept to be sure.))

Also, childlike and silly behavior, and inappropriate emotional responses (such as laughing in response to bad news, or failing to show joy at good news) are two other types of disorganized behavior.

That brings us to negative symptoms. These typically include diminished emotional expression, and avolition (lack of motivation). You will also see Alogia- the decreased ability to produce speech output, asociality- the lack of or reduced desire to have social contact, Anhedonia (there's a cool song called anhedonia)- lack of or reduced ability to experience pleasure, amd affective flattening- reduced ability to express emotions through facial expressions, eye contact, and speech intonation.

Side note: as someone on the scale for autism, i experience some of these symptomes myself. I scared myself sh*tless when i did my final project, which was schizophrenia based, and saw that a lot of the symptoms matched up. If you read over this, and think to yourself "Hey, I've experienced X, and even Y too" that does not mean for sure that you have something. If you have concerns, please go see a doctor, but i will state that neurodivergent people will experience symptoms from this list. For more information, google whatever you have +"symptoms DSM 5" and "DSM 5 criteria"

That was just for anyone who had a heart attack reading the above list of symptoms. Now onto how you can research more on your own to write an accurate character. A few things to note is that not all disorders are caused the same way. You will want to looke up "The seven main psychological perspectives" as well as just generally "the psychological perspectives". Pick one out for the character you are writing, and stick with it to write a good background for your character, as well as influence how they behave, and when they seem better and worse. If their condition is caused by something biological, then maybe write about how therapy isn't helping them as much as it could be, about how conversations aren't having a lasting impact on them. Also, look up the DSM 5. You might also be able to find it at your local library, or maybe even your college if you attend one. If you do go to college, there should also be some psychology books available for you to look at.

remember, the DSM 5is the most important part. Also, ask reddit, and doctors and psycologists on reddit.

Also also, somebody posted this schizophrenia simulator my teacher made us watch on youtube. You know, so that we could all share the fun. Headphones, people.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M3a1txtSDn0

The Act of Writing Psychotic Characters 

Part 1: Attention vs Intention

It's been a while since I received this request, and I ensured I took my time with the thoughts, evaluation, and analysis. This topic will be covered in three parts, so here's the first.

Before we proceed, please note that I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist, or any professional in that field. This is just an insight into how this kind of concept can fit into your novels.

Okay, let's begin.

The Attention vs Intention part of this topic will discuss two ways of portraying these type of characters in scenes. 

First, you need to understand that psychotic characters aren't psychotic based solely on their speeches or actions. If that's all you have in mind before approaching a story, you might leave a huge gap in the execution.

Rather, it's how they feel—the desire to satisfy their current emotions.

They have drives and motives, but most especially beliefs which, in most cases, are hardly understandable by other people. It's wrong and unacceptable by society, but to them, they wouldn't do it any differently.

That's why most psychotic characters have no remorse. You simply can't apologize or feel sorry if you don't 'believe' that you're in the wrong.

➜ Attention Psychosis

Psychotic characters whose main purpose in a story is limited to presence (i.e., showing up in scenes and visibly serving the role of a psychotic character) are attention psychotics. You don't flesh out their backstory or why they are who they are.

Their drives and motives aren't talked about enough to the point of justification. Readers hardly care about them, but the action they bring to the scene creates a rich narrative with the purpose of psychosis.

In summary, their role is minor. We see such cases in movies like The Babysitter.

Let's agree that none of the cult characters in that movie are exactly sane, as their main aim is to end their victims’ lives in the sickest ways possible. However, there's a certain character, Max, who simply enjoys the idea of "killing and seeing people bleed."

That has exceeded the central idea of being a cultist who gets involved in blood sacrifice to achieve their 'dream life' like the rest of the characters. It's now something more and different.

Something that has to do with homicidal ideation.

Max worked in a diner where he dealt with people that annoyed him so greatly that he wanted to kill them. So he got the opportunity to join a cult and do just that.

It was plain clear this guy had something else going on for him, but throughout the movie, his character had no special attention or even a peek into his thoughts. Although, it still worried the audience. Job done.

➜ Intention Psychosis

When a story is centered around a character's mental state, their motives, drives, beliefs, actions, and the story actually unfolds by going deeper into this concept, you have intention psychosis.

If not entirely, at least mostly, it defines the entire plot surrounding that character. People get to understand why they are who they are, their mode of action, what drives them, and even a peek into how they perceive the world around them.

Such scenarios are seen in movies like The Joker and Pyramid game (Korea). The audience gets a glimpse into their overall life and understands at least to an extent why they are the way they are.

Their beliefs get twisted for certain reasons, and there was just no stopping them. Here the characters were more than a presence; they were a central core.

In the movie Joker, we watched Arthur’s impoverished life unfold, with every event and incident worsening his condition further.

Baek Ha-rin in Pyramid Game literally created an entire game system to watch a student, who happened to be her old friend, suffer both physically and mentally. She went to great lengths to carry out this nefarious act under the guise of the game. Although this movie encompassed more than just this storyline, it was hard to ignore the unhealthy drive and actions of the young lady with an innocent face.

Before incorporating a psychotic character in your novel, determine their form of portrayal and appearance in the overall story. Are they going to serve as an attention psychotic or an intention psychotic?

Inspired by @sothera

Stay tuned for the next part!

۝ Before you go! ۝

My Characters and I is an extensive one-on-one coaching session designed to create characters that leap off the pages and become best friends with your readers.

What's a great story without remarkable characters? Spots are filling up fast, so grab yours now and get ahead of millions of writers out there.

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[lawisnotmocked]

Catching up on Les Mis letters for this year so I thought I’d share all my thoughts on the canine imagery from volume 1 book 1 in the same post.

The first instance of canine imagery in book 1 shows up in chapter 1.1.7 when Myriel wishes to cross the mountains to visit a small community of shepherds. The mayor warns him not to leave without an escort because of the threat of bandits but Myriel refuses the escort and tells the mayor he has no reason to fear them.

“But the brigands, Monseigneur?” “Hold,” said the Bishop, “I must think of that. You are right. I may meet them. They, too, need to be told of the good God.” “But, Monseigneur, there is a band of them! A flock of wolves!” “Monsieur le maire, it may be that it is of this very flock of wolves that Jesus has constituted me the shepherd. Who knows the ways of Providence?”

Wolves in Les Mis often represent two things - their position as powerful apex predators is often used to represent that a person has dangerous, malicious or violent intentions, but they’re also contrasted with dogs, a domestic canine with close proximity to human society, to show the ways certain people are prohibited from being part of society, usually because they’re in extreme poverty or are a criminal. Wolves are canines who are not allowed to participate in human society, and dogs are canines who are. Lots of people who are both violent and criminals get assigned wolf imagery, including Thenardier and Montparnasse.

In this case Cravatte and his bandits are wolves because they’re a dangerous group of highway robbers, but Myriel is also the shepherd for a flock of wolves because he’s the kind of bishop who goes out of his way to try and offer help to people who have otherwise been abandoned or cast out by the rest of society, including people like Valjean and Cravatte who had a reputation for being dangerous.

I love the way the imagery of Myriel being the shepherd for a flock of wolves ties in to the Christian symbolism of Jesus as a shepherd too it creates such a perfect mental image for me that represents this part of Myriel’s character so well 👌

Wolf imagery also shows up in the next chapter, 1.1.8, during Myriel’s conversation with the senator.

I am not enthusiastic over your Jesus, who preaches renunciation and sacrifice to the last extremity. ’Tis the counsel of an avaricious man to beggars. Renunciation; why? Sacrifice; to what end? I do not see one wolf immolating himself for the happiness of another wolf.

The reader is supposed to dislike the senator so him specifically comparing his personal philosophy to the behaviour of wolves might just be another way for Hugo to emphasise that he’s The Wrong One in this conversation. It could also be Hugo trying to make a point that a good society requires people to act with compassion and make sacrifices for each other or we may as well just be wolves instead of men? (violent and dangerous metaphorical wolves at least, not real wolves lol) I feel like parts of this chapter are definitely going over my head because it contains so much of Hugo’s Opinion on contemporary discussions so there might be something I’m missing here too.

[cherllyio]

The next big bad is Nüwa’s brother - LMK theory

This theory started in my head, because I was confused for why Nüwa’s motives are quite different from the show vs her original mythology.

You see, while she symbolizes quite a few things, one of them is actually the opposite of destiny and order: the abstract mindset. While the “order” mindset belongs to her counterpart and brother, Fuxi, who was the one to symbolize “order” with the “straightforward mindset.”

And this seems quite strange, doesn’t it?

I mean, yea, of course some things need to be changed when you are making a show like this, but such a core values is a little strange.

So, I decided to look a little more into it, more specifically into her counterpart, Fuxi and their backstory…

The story goes that Pangu, the creation goddess, split chaos to become heaven and earth (one way being with a giant axe and in another he was also aided by the Four Guardians).

After this he often dies, but in his death creates everything in the world including a woman named Huaxu: Nüwa’s and Fuxi’s mother.

And after I had read this, something clicked into my mind as to why they are showing Nüwa like this in the show. Not only that, but also who the “he that is about to win” is, and why we were warned about him: it’s Fuxi.

(or at least a character who is inspired by him, since characters in LMK are often based of multiple deities and legends, just take Xiangliu)

Xiangliu: I am the 10th King, Prince Consort of Jisai, The Nine Headed Demon, Xiangliu, The Emissary, the list goes on…

And we know Pangu did exist in this universe, since that is his axe right there, hence Nüwa and Fuxi must have originated from him in some sense.

But then, where is Fuxi now?

Well the timeline from here gets pretty blurry, but one thing we know for sure is that someone tried to “break the pillar.”

MK: And someone’s trying to break it!

Wukong: Not for the first time…

And from what is set up, the “he” is the person who broke the pillarthe first time, and did it very deliberately.

Why? To let in the Chaos.

Telling us, that whoever broke the pillar is an opposing or counterpart to Nüwa (Nüwa being very much against chaos in every shape or form, while the “he” is all for chaos).

And who is Nüwa’s counterpart? Fuxi.

Conclusion: Neither Fuxi (symbolising masculinity) or Nüwa (symbolisng femininity) are truly good, so be non-binary! It's so much easier! (this is a joke)

[t4tails]

what did you think of the childhood scenes in the riddler one btw? i think it's so funny (and by this i mean awful) how while they're changing his working class background to a fancy private school one for no reason the idea of him being bad at riddles and getting obsessed with them that way at least could be interesting if you're already going with him being an academic genius instead of a bad or mediocre student. and the idea of him feeling like he's never enough no matter how good he is and being desperate bc of it could have been worked into an interesting character thing too.

and then it goes for the stupidest rug pull possible saying that um actually all the horrible abuse his father did to him? justified cause he was born a heartless cruel evil demon after all! man.

you basically have my exact same thoughts LOL. in general i think changing him to be a born prodigy and the son of a headmaster is, to be frank, try-hard and another example of TK trying his best to make ed an exceptional one-of-a-kind person, kind of ironically falling for the pretentious act ed puts on. that said, i was still interested in the first few childhood flashbacks just because it was the first time ive seen his abuse depicted in such an explicit manner, instead of just referenced and danced around. im not going to post the panels because i do think theyre the closest the comic gets to achieving the upsetting tone it's clearly going for, but the page of ed holding a gun to his head, asking to be punished, etc. in addition to the first interactions with his teacher, were very well-done.

then they throw it all away to show him murdering said teacher as a scrawny little teenager and saying a fucking riddle one liner 😭 terrible. just terrible.

[xiaq]

Mom, don’t read this.

Once upon a time, 15-year-old X got her motorcycle license. For three years she was extremely responsible with this privilege, until she went to college.

Unlike her peers, who expressed their desire for rebellion in drinking, drugs, and sexually transmitted diseases, X decided her particular brand of youthful nonconformity would involve motorsports. Namely, street racing.

So, at 18, she set off to seek her fortune with a group of nighttime street-racers that, to be fair, met in a rural area that was unlikely to pose a risk to standard motorists. There were watchmen with walkie talkies (actually, I’m going to show my age, here, they mostly had those horrendous yellow phones that doubled as walky talkies, you remember those? the chirps?) who kept the area clear, and warned of any disturbances.

She went a few times. Raced a few times (won a few times!). It was all, frankly, anti-climactic after a steady diet of progressively more absurd Fast and Furious movies.

Until one night, when someone on watch-duty messed up. Or maybe this was a planned sting of some sort. But the cops arrived; multiple cars. And pretty much everyone ran.

Now, I’d never been in trouble in my life. I had a 4.0 and I was an only child with the definition of helicopter parents (excepting the motorcycle license, and no, I still don’t understand that logic. Can my 15-year-old get a motorcycle? Certainly! Can my 18-year-old headed to college next week have a curfew later than 8pm? Perish the thought! Anyway). In the split second I had to decide, my 18-year-old brain, in its infinite wisdom, said: Motorcycle fast. Police car slow.

So. You know. I…motorcycle fast-ed.

Immediately I was like. SELF!! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!! You just made this so much worse if they catch you!! But I was already in top gear going well over 100mph, so that train of thought quickly turned into: I must not get caught.

I don’t know if you’re aware of how much faster a 600CC motorcycle is than the average Crown Victoria, but just know that it’s a lot. Especially when the motorcycle rider is less than 100lbs.

So the half-dozen of us who all booked it the same direction, we know we’ve got at least one car following us, but they’re a fair ways behind. The trick is getting far enough ahead that you can quickly get off the road and hide without them seeing your exit. So we all start peeling off to find our hiding places.

Now, between our meeting location and my college, there was an IKEA. I’d bought the bookcase for my dorm there. And I’d unpacked the bookcase into my car in the IKEA parking lot, so I could throw away the giant cardboard box in the enormous blue dumpsters behind the store, rather than deal with it back on campus.

I head for the IKEA. I pull around back. I immediately turn off the bike and toe-walk my way between one of the dumpsters and the store wall, completely out of view of the street and most of the parking lot.

It’s literal minutes later that the cop car finally goes flying by, and evidently they don’t think, “hey, I should stop and check behind the IKEA dumpsters.” Several more minutes pass. No more cops.

At this point, the adrenaline turns into existential dread and shaking so bad that I have to put my kickstand down because my anxiety-ridden perfectionist body is not meant for this kind of stress, even when self-inflicted. I quietly have a panic attack, swear to never disobey the law again (unless it’s for civil protest), and, finally, when I’ve pulled myself together around an hour later, I slowly make my way home.

I never attended another race. Because I am a baby.

But I’m a baby who outran the cops, so.

A visual aid of 18-year-old X and her bike (named Shadowfax) (Shadowfax lived up to her name, that night. All hail.)

(To be clear, I do not endorse this behavior. I could have hurt or killed myself going those speeds or even put some innocent bystander in danger had other people been out and about that night. This was very, very, stupid.)

My new boss: “Everyone come to the team meeting with a surprising story about something you’ve done in the past. Something no one would expect of you!”

Me: Googling the statute of limitation for felonies in Texas

[pollux-starsz]

introduced my mama to @wyervan's slasher au, guess what

Shes insane for it just as i am (we're so swag) and EEEESSSHHH she is crushing on sun!!! Adores your art sososo much, said she eat it if it were cookies!!

Check the au out!!💗💓 stuff under the cut :3

Was doing a lot of whiteboarding lately! A ton of Kalamela stuff and whatnot, i love her sosos much.

Plus a fun art I did with @su-gu3 with their Slasher OC, Kilonova! I drew the two hanging out together and we're friends so we obviously had to make them be besties😆 they're hanging out while Kilonova crushes over Sun :3c

Yes I did have a vision of the slashy boys fighting over who gets the first dance, more on that below the art😋

Before the dance stuff, the last art piece is actually a much more like- i guess lore like piece hdodndod

The masks that Sun and Moon use plus the blood represents the killings. The heart represents Ethan, because she deep down adores that child.

(Even if she struggles to show it sometimes)

I have a feeewww other versions but they're not finished yet💔😅

Okay dance time! So Crystal Cove holds this little event every few months to raise money for charity ( the owners being a cute old couple aaugghhhh <3)

And Kalamela and basically all the other staff normally work that night to avoid any issues and also to raise support as well. She often doesn't dress up since she doesn't feel like it, that and also theres a few customers who are creeps- im actually writing about that and purposely making her beat their asses- and tries to just avoid the overall commotion and craziness! But the boys wont take no for an answer because she always spoils them so why not give her a night to have some fun eh?

More rambles below :3c

- I was thinking about this a lot but I think at some point she'd have to ask if Sun and Moon could let Ethan stay with them so he won't be witnessing a bunch of bullshit from his father, who sometimes comes over to her place just to start problems. I like to imagine she'll call them at least 30 minutes before he arrives and drives him over to their place to stay for a few hours until things calm down because she knows they'll take care of him!

- Kalamela isn't the type for romance movies, unless it's the Titanic, but I dont even know if that would be out in the very specific year the au takes place in considering it was released in 1997!! Either way😙 She often prefers horror movies and I think she'd really enjoy watching them with Sun, maybe its just so she has an excuse to cuddle up against him or just the thrill of watching some action! Who knowssss~

- She often lets Moon take Mango home for the night, he loves that parrot so much. Which usually gets an "Again?" from Sun because he always watches her whenever he gets the smallest chance.

- She definitely goes absolutely CRAZY on presents for holidays like Valentine's or Christmas for these two. I have a feeling she'd notice that they clearly didn't have the best childhood or ways growing up, and being in a similar situation because her family is extremely religious and she never had any freedom until she moved away, she often tries to make them happy and gets them as many gifts as possible. She spent all her money on them at on point and her only explanation was "I care for you guys a bit too much."

- cough wyervan ever since you mentioned that throwing a rock situation to get it through their heads that Kalamela loves them more than friends I can't help but imagine that she'd ask her friends about how to talk to them and her two friends, (Sprite and Eclipse, both guys, married gay men. They are extremely supportive. Would be great to have a beer with btw.) offer to help her, and eclipse throws a rock at both of them with a note attached to it while she just stands there in absolute shock that he actually aimed for their head. Oh and Sprite had to help Moon hold Sun back from beating his ass. Good times.

- I feel like at some point she would accidentally come across them killing someone and it results in this huge "oh shiiiitttt" moment from Sun and Moon as they drag her away into a more secluded area and then beg her not to tell anyone. (Even though her and Moon already talk about the killings, he still freaked) She doesn't rat them out because she is NOT getting slashed today, but often finds herself contemplating whether she should move and cut contact with them, despite the fact she loves them oh-so dearly!

[klaus-littlestwolf]

Firstly can I just say how much I genuinely enjoy your stories! They are so amazing and I love getting to read them and look forward to when you post new ones.

I'm usually pretty shy with requests but I do have one for your recent Yandere Klaus ask you posted.

It's a MDLB relationship dynamic but reader is not the yandere, Klaus is. Reader is apart of the scooby gang or in general is associated in some way against Klaus. She however treats him with kindness, maybe gives him hugs after finding him upset about something or calming him down. He doesn't quite know that he's a little at first but he knows that she makes him feel safe so he begins to get possessive over her. He eventually finds out she's a MD and its like a switch goes off in his head, She can't see her friends or family because she needs to take care of him type of vibes. He starts acting smaller towards her and acting out any time she tries to leave (more in a hey I'll be gone for a few hours not a I'm trying to run away from you). She's able to calm him down and reprimand him for brattiness. Smutty stuff eventually ensues after some time in her role as his MD.

The rest can be up to you :)

P.S. I hope you're feeling better!! I know you were sick a few weeks ago and hope your recovery and new year have been good.

Discovering his Little Side -Klaus M.

I think it goes without saying that this is an Md/Lb fic. Klaus is Little and OC is his Mommy that he is very possessive of.

Warning: Md/Lb Relationship, Klaus is a Little, Yandere Behavior, Smut, Oral-Fem Receiving, Mentions of Punishment, Teasing/Masturbation

This is an Age Regression fic

Don’t Like=Don’t Read!

Also, Thank You for your concern and asking after me (from everyone). I got so many messages asking how I’ve been doing and hoping I feel better and I absolutely am, thank you all for thinking of me like that! I don’t have any friends in my real life, honestly I just have my mom and that’s it (as sad and pathetic as that sounds) so to have so many people hoping I feel better was beyond heart warming and I love and appreciate you all so much!💕💕🥰😘

He didn’t know at first what the feeling really was, all he knew was that she felt good.

After everything that had happened with Mikael she stayed, it surprised him but what surprised him more was her sitting before him on the front step and hugging him. Klaus had never really been one for hugging but this felt good, it felt wonderful actually and he didn’t want it to stop. He couldn’t tell you when he had leaned down and buried his face into her belly with his arms around her but he did, and he held on tight.

Klaus had held onto her for the rest of the night, or at least most of it as she was gone from his bed that she’d moved him to when he’d gotten a chill-which he’d found sweet, he was 1000 year old Hybrid and she was taking care of him…and he liked it.

He needed to control himself, Y/n wasn’t his, he had no right or reason to be feeling this possessive energy but he does and now it was unmistakable.

He got close to her when he could, buying her drinks at the bar and pulling her into conversation, even sending her flowers once which she thanked him for the next day with a soft kiss to his nose that made him feel smaller than he thinks he ever had in his undead life.

He couldn’t pinpoint what it was until seeing something that made his blood boil like never before.

As Klaus walked into the Grille he saw Y/n rolling her eyes as she wiped Damon’s mouth with a napkin which made the young vampire groan and insist she “stop ‘Mommying’ him”. All at once it hit Klaus what this was, what it had all been, how she had been making him feel so small and why he and especially his wolf had been so possessive.

He knew of age regression of course, it wasn’t a new thing, though it was more common now. Y/n is a MommyDom and she had comforted him when she saw how much he needed it like any good Mommy would. It was at that moment that it was decided, she would be his and he would never let her out of his sight again.

He stayed at the Grille with her that night, drinking and talking, allowing himself to relax with her in the booth they had taken over in the back, even allowing her to run her fingers through his hair sweetly. Klaus brought her back to his home that night and leant her a shirt to sleep in, snuggling up to her body with his head on her belly and her fingers, once again, in his hair.

Klaus awoke the next morning with a smile on his face. That is until he realized what was happening, Y/n was looking for her clothes which Klaus had put into his hamper so she wouldn’t find them right away.

‘Leaving so soon?’ He asked, her head popping up in surprise and Klaus had to admit that even he was a bit shocked by how small he sounded in that moment.

‘Yeah, I figured me leaving before your siblings saw me might be easier. Don’t need Kol and Rebekah asking a million questions and making you dagger them again.’ She teased, bending over to glance under the bed and giving Klaus an eyeful of her perfect ass in only her lace panties as his shirt rode up on her. He shoved the blankets over his crotch as his cock hardened unbelievably fast but he couldn’t help his whimper which seemed to catch her attention as she looked up at him questioningly. ‘Are you alright?’ He nodded quickly and she smiled softly, going back to looking for her clothes. Y/n knew you couldn’t force someone into their headspace, it could be dangerous and painful, especially for someone like Klaus who is a sweet little boy but doesn’t seem to even know it at all.

‘Don’t leave?’ He spoke, not wanting it to sound pleading but it really did.

‘Okay, and then what? You and I hide out up here all day together? Don’t be silly, I’m sure you have things to do today and I promised Damon I would binge some horror movies with him since Elena ditched him for Stefan again.’

At the meer mention of Damon’s name a rage unlike normal built in his belly and he growled. ‘Stay!’ He demanded, not realizing how incredibly childish he sounded but making Y/n giggle which just made him more mad.

‘Klaus. Calm down. We can hang out again if you want-‘

‘Mommy Stays!’ He snapped and her head popped up over the footboard where she had been searching for her clothes, eyes wide in shock.

‘W-What did you just say?’ She asked cautiously, not wanting someone as dangerous and volatile as Klaus to freak out if he felt cornered or teased.

His face was bright red as his eyes widened but Klaus knew it was now or never and he didn’t want to lose her, especially not to Damon and his whiney ass. ‘I-I said…M-Mommy stays…please? Stay with me Mommy?’ His face had softened and he looked too precious for Y/n to say “No” even if she wanted to which she didn’t.

‘Is that what you really want? You want me to be your Mommy? This isn’t a game Niklaus, and I will not be played with like a pawn-‘ he shook his head rapidly, crawling across the bed to grab the shirt she wore and pull her back in and against his chest where he nuzzled her hair.

‘No…only fun games with my Mommy…snuggle me-Please?’ He begged and she took his cheeks between her hands, pecking his lips softly.

‘Of course baby boy, my boy gets all the snuggles he wants. Always.’ Y/n pulled him with her to lay down on the bed, pressing his head to lay on her breasts as she ran her fingers through his blond locks. The Hybrid allowed himself to relax against her and close his eyes, feeling safe in someone’s arms for what felt like the first time in his existence.

That was the beginning of their relationship.

Y/n was his Mommy and to her surprise, he was never embarrassed to call her that, not correcting himself in front of his siblings in any way. None of them said anything (probably not wanting to get daggered if they upset or offended him), Elijah even calling her whenever Klaus’ anger took hold of him once again to get her to gain control of the situation and saving both Rebekah and Kol more than once.

Klaus quickly learned that his Mommy would not tolerate his attitude and he calmed himself around her as often as he could to keep from getting punished again.

He hated punishments.

Y/n never once struck him, never smacking or spanking him in any way as she knew how badly her baby boy had been abused in his human life. She refused to make him feel like he was that scared child again, though she did insist on punishments that didn’t cause him physical pain but instead pure frustration. She started off giving him punishments where he had to stand in a corner and stare at the wall for 20 minutes. However as their relationship became more serious and they began exploring sexual intimacy (which she did not allow until almost 2 weeks after he first asked her to stay with him as she insisted he become completely comfortable in his Little headspace first) she would instead force him to watch her touch herself and refuse to let him help or touch himself in any way. Klaus hated this punishment more than any other, loving to see his Mommy in his bed completely bare but loathing not being able to touch her or make her feel good.

Klaus had always been greedy when it came to sex, not that he didn’t know how to make a women feel good but in 1000 years of one night stands (and only 2 real relationships) he didn’t usually care about the pleasure of women that were going to be his meal later that evening. With his Mommy though, it was completely different.

He loved making his Mommy feel good. He would eat her pussy for hours if she would let him, fuck her all night and never get tired of seeing the look on her face as she came apart for him. Nothing made Klaus happier than feeling and seeing his Mommy cum on his cock before telling him what a “good boy” he is, it was his favorite thing in the world to know that she was pleased with him, that he had made her feel good where all other men had failed.

The knowledge that the 2 other men his Mommy had been in a relationship with both had no clue how to make her feel good brought him immense joy. Though it also let him know that she had been deprived of pleasure for so many years and now he needed to make up for lost time. It was a belief he held that she told him “wasn’t necessary” but he knew different, his Mommy deserved to be taken care of and given orgasms all day every day. He wished she would allow it of him but she didn’t, she insisted she take care of him first…which he loved (though he would never admit it). More than anything Klaus just wanted to be with his Mommy at all times, however, for whatever reason, she didn’t allow it of him and that more than anything was why he ended up being punished just like right now.

‘Can I come out now, Mommy?’ Klaus asked softly, keeping his voice light, wanting her to feel sorry and shorten his punishment.

‘Are you finished behaving like a brat?’ She asked and he nodded his head quickly, needing her to forgive him more than anything. ‘Alright, you can come out baby.’

Klaus was beside her not even a second later, nuzzling his face into her neck with his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. ‘Don’t leave me, Mommy? Please? I’m sorry I didn’t listen but-‘

‘Nikky! Hey, stop that. You broke a rule and you were punished, now that punishment is over which means you are forgiven. Do you understand? You get punished and then you are forgiven, Mommy doesn’t hold grudges against her baby. Alright?’ Klaus looked up from her chest and loved the sincerity that she held in her eyes. Her eyes were always so expressive that he could tell how she was feeling all the time. She truly meant it, his Mommy had never once held onto her anger, once he was punished it was over and he was truly forgiven.

‘Yes Mommy, but-‘

‘Baby, this is not a punishment. I made these plans with Damon months ago, it has nothing to do with you, I’ve been waiting to see this show for years.’ Klaus opened his mouth to speak but Y/n placed her hand over his mouth to keep him from speaking again. ‘I’m not upset with you, I’m not doing this to hurt you, Damon is my friend and as my friend he got us tickets to see tonight’s show. I will be home around midnight, I will text you-‘

‘No. Come back here after the play, I want my Mommy in my bed with me…I will wait for you.’ He swore and Y/n sighed, shaking her head.

‘No you will not little one. My baby boy will be in his bed asleep. However, if it means that much to you then I will have Damon drop me off here instead of home tonight. Does that make you feel better?’ It didn’t. Klaus has absolutely no intention of allowing her to go out with Damon tonight, but she doesn’t need to know that it is him that’s going to ensure his Mommy gets stood up tonight. He doesn’t like the idea of his Mommy being stood up in any capacity, however he will be right here to comfort her and so he will keep her from being too upset.

‘Yes Mommy…I just don’t like you going out with an asshole like Damon. I don’t want him to hurt you-‘

‘He’s not going to hurt me. We’ve been friends since long before you and I met. You had better watch your language as well, I don’t want to have to punish you twice in one night.’ She teased, though he could also see her serious undertone.

‘Yes Mommy, I’m sorry. I’ll wait on the porch with you.’ He quickly insisted, jumping up from the bed and moving to pull his boots on before she could argue.

Klaus helped her get her jacket on and handed her the bag he knew she was taking before walking out to the porch with her. He made a show of bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet which made Y/n giggle. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing…just gotta pee…’ he mumbled making her laugh even more.

‘Go to the bathroom, silly boy. You don’t need to wait with me-‘

‘I’ll be right back!’ He insisted, kissing her cheek and running inside. He quickly ran out the back door and made his way to the boarding house as quickly as possible where he found Damon pulling on his jacket.

‘What the hell are you doing here? Isn’t it bad enough that I have to pick her up from your house?’ Damon complained but Klaus just rolled his eyes before pinning Damon to the wall and locking their eyes to compel him.

‘You will compel yourself another date when you get to the play, you want nothing to do with Y/n anymore now that she is with me. You will not answer your phone for her tonight and you’ll block her number after she calls you but you will post a picture of you at the show with your date. In the future, when she asks you what’s going on and why you stood her up you’ll tell her that she chose to be with me and you won’t be friends with Klaus’ girlfriend. You will not remember any of this, or me compelling you.’ Klaus could see Damon’s eyes dilate and he knew the compulsion had worked as he looked dazed before walking to his car.

Klaus made his way home quickly and went back to the porch where he found Y/n sitting on the swing, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around her as he sat down. ‘Thank you sweet boy. You’re always so thoughtful.’ She smiled making him blush.

‘Don’t want my Mommy getting sick.’ He told her as he moved to lay with his head on her lap, knowing she would play with his hair which he always loved. ‘What time is the play?’ He mumbled in question after about 20 minutes.

‘It starts in 10 minutes. He should have been here 15 minutes ago���it’s not like Damon to be late.’ She said as she thought deeply.

‘Maybe he forgot it was tonight. Try calling him.’ He prompted, rolling over to lay with his face in her tummy. ‘Not that I mind him being late, I’m quite comfortable here.’ He hummed, smiling up at her and making her snort, brushing her fingers through his hair while her other hand called Damon.

‘It’s not like him not to answer…I’ll try Stefan.’ She said, calling his brother instead and Klaus heard him answer on the second ring. ‘Hey Stefan, is Damon there? He’s not answering his phone and he’s really late.’

‘Oh, he left already…like 20 minutes ago. Sorry…try calling him again.’ Stefan responded and Klaus watched her face fall.

‘Yeah…yeah, I’ll try that. Thanks.’ She mumbled, hanging up. ‘Did he stand me up?’ She asked, more to herself than to him Klaus assumed but he answered anyway.

‘If he did then he’s the biggest idiot I’ve ever met, and that’s saying something. I’ve been alive a long time, I’ve met a lot of idiots.’ He teased and got a little giggle through her tears while she called his number again.

‘He…he blocked my number…asshole!’ She cursed, throwing her phone angrily and they both watched it smash into a hundred pieces against the wall.

‘Would you like me to take you? I can compel us in.’ She shook her head promptly, sighing heavily.

‘Thank you baby but no, I think I’m just going to go home-‘

‘No. You are not going to be alone right now, please stay? Let your baby make you feel all better…’ Klaus didn’t wait for an answer before swinging her up into his arms and carrying her upstairs to his bed. ‘Damon is the one who fucked up. He could’ve spent the entire night staring at you in this dress. God, you’re beautiful!’ He flirted making Y/n blush heavily as he peeled the dress from her body followed by her bra and panties. ‘I lucked out that he’s such an idiot…’ Klaus smirked as he kissed his lips down her body, spreading her legs apart and lifting her thighs to his shoulders before burying his face into her pussy, his tongue fucking into her hole rapidly. He licked up her slit and had just started sucking on her clit when her hips rose up and jumped against his mouth.

‘Oh God! Such a sweet boy you are baby…oh fuck!’

‘Want you to use me.’ He mumbled as he leaned his head against her thigh. ‘Want my Mommy to use my body to feel good!’ He insisted.

‘You don’t need to do that baby, Mommy doesn’t want to ruin your safe space-‘

‘Please Mommy? Please? Use me like your little play thing!’ Klaus pleaded, Y/n sitting up and taking his face into her hands to look at him.

‘Are you sure that’s what you want, my love?’ He nodded quickly, pulling his shirt off over his head. ‘What’s your safeword?’

‘Red.’ He stated, reaching down to unbuckle his pants when his hands were grabbed and he was quickly turned over underneath her.

‘My boy is so sweet to me, letting his Mommy use his body however I want.’ She straddled his waist, running her nails up his chest and making him whimper. ‘Such a beautiful body too…’ she teased, moving to pull his pants and boxer briefs down his legs and toss them away, revealing his thick, painfully hard cock. ‘Such a pretty little cock, all for me, hmm?’ His cock definitely wasn’t “little” but it made him feel smaller every time she said it and so she did despite how long and thick his werewolf cock actually was.

‘Y-Yes Mommy…all yours.’

‘All mine? That’s good, it’s so pretty I don’t think I would want to share it with anyone.’ She smirked, wrapping her hand around his thick cock and caressing him softly earning a soft moan. ‘Pretty all over, aren’t you baby?’ Y/n asked, moving up his body and pressing his cock to her wet pussy, earning her an uncontrollable yelp.

‘Such a loud little boy, aren’t you? My god, so noisy…it’s a good thing you have such a pretty mouth too…Mommy wants that mouth to make her feel good, yes?’ He nodded frantically, his cock twitching as he was already desperate to cum. He loved it when his Mommy took control of him. ‘I want to ride this fucking tongue!’ She demanded as she straddled his mouth, settling her pussy right on his lips. He kissed her pussy several times before licking up her slit and suckling on her clit softly. ‘You can do better than that baby boy!’ She hissed, grinding her pussy down against his mouth and he moaned, sticking his tongue into her hole and tasting her sweetness. His Mommy knew that licking her cunt was his favorite thing to do. He reached up, grabbing onto her hips as he continued to shove his tongue into her, his nose grinding against her clit and prompting her moan. ‘Fuck yes baby! Right there! Oh don’t stop…fuck…fuckfuckfuck!’ She cried out, humping her hips against his mouth as she grabbed ahold of his hair and pulled him even closer. ‘Good boy.’ She praised, lifting herself up only to have him pull her back down to continue licking over her dripping hole. ‘Fucking greedy boy too, aren’t you?’

‘Mmhmm!’ He gunned, holding her waist another moment before she pried his fingers off and moved back down his body. He watched as she slid her pussy down his belly to his throbbing cock which she quickly straddled, his hard cock resting against her slit.

‘Look at this pretty little cock, so needy, aren’t you?’ Klaus nodded quickly, his cock twitching as she trailed her finger down the side of it and precum dribbled from his tip onto his belly. ‘God, you are a needy little boy, aren’t you? You’re just dripping all over yourself you’re so needy!’

‘Y-Yes Mommy…please? Please Mommy, I need you?’ He pleaded and he could see how much she loved it as she moved back and leaned down to lick up the little mess he had made on himself. ‘Oh fuck!’ He whined, unable to control his cock as it dribbled more cum.

‘Such a messy boy…do you want Mommy to suck on your little cock?’ She asked softly but he shook his head quickly, needing more than that right now. ‘No? Well, what do you want then?’

‘P-Please?’ He whined, desperate and needy, knowing how little it was going to take for him to finish and so did she.

‘Please what?’

‘Pussy! Mommy’s Pussy Please?!’ He cried, hips jumping unintentionally.

‘You want Mommy’s pussy? Is that it? You want to put your little cock in your Mommy’s pussy?’ He nodded frantically, completely desperate in a way that no one but his Mommy could make him feel.

Y/n lifted her hips and took hold of his cock, pushing down on him and just as she settled herself against him, his cock as deep in her cunt as he could get, his eyes rolled back in his head and he shot his stream of cum as deep into her body as he could. ‘Ah! Fuck M-Mommy-‘

‘Shh, there’s my good boy. I know, Mommy got you all worked up, didn’t she? It’s okay. Such a good boy, filling Mommy up so good…’ As soon as he finished cumming Y/n lifted her hips and dropped back down on him.

‘Ah!’

‘Such a good boy for Mommy, still nice and hard for me.’ She praised, Klaus reaching out and taking hold of her hips as she continued to ride him. ‘Oh Fuck! So good for me, so fucking good!’ Y/n kept riding his cock until she felt her orgasm take over her body, clamping down on his hard cock and he growled, clenching his teeth as he came once again, filling her cunt up even more with his cum.

Y/n dropped down against Klaus’ chest and he pulled the blanket up over the both of them, nuzzling into his Mommy’s neck where he settled for the rest of the night.

And just like that Klaus’ Mommy was all his once again. He didn’t care how many people he would have to compel for the rest of their lives together, he would do it every single time because she was all his and no one would ever take his Mommy away from him.

Klaus M. Masterlist

[afniel]

The funniest possible thing sometimes happens, which is when a well-meaning cis person

Correctly clocks me as trans;

Forgets or never knew that trans men exist;

And cheerfully, helpfully, aggressively genders me as female for the entire interaction as a result. Which is like...oh you are trying so hard to be a Good Ally. I appreciate that. I really do. It's just, uh, you're reading the situation exactly backwards, and it's getting awkward, but you're not going to read the awkwardness as what it is and I know that already. It's like, good job buddy, that's the worst anybody's ever done it. But you did do it, kind of? Kiiind of...?

I never really correct them, because then I've potentially got to answer a lot of questions that aren't germane to the limited interaction we're having, and I don't want them to feel like they're going to get scolded for trying, you know? It's a good effort. I ain't even mad. It's just extra confusing that it happens to me more when I've got a week or more of stubble on, but I have no idea what goes through anybody's head ever, so evidently this just makes sense to them. Look at this little scruffy guy with a high voice, he's clearly a girl, poor thing. Or something. I have not the slightest idea.

It's extra baffling too because it happens more with my partner present, who is agender and very androgynous in presentation, so you'd think that if you're having to guess someone's gender you'd assume the one with the clearly intentional beard is The Man In The Relationship (you'd be wrong, neither of us are that simple, but I could forgive you for thinking it) but nobody ever does that. Somehow, they conclude the masculine-presenting one is The Woman and the neither-presenting one is The Man and I swear I'm never going to understand it as long as I live.

At least it's funny? I'd have to be mad if it wasn't as funny as it is.

[auguryofjellyfish]

You talked a bit about some of the episodes yesterday but what did you think of [Flat Rejection]

oh boy, that's an interesting one.

first point I want to get out of the way: I think the way Mai is acting is a little immature. not unreasonable, there's a difference. but I, personally, will never condone ignoring someone and avoiding them if it's not absolutely necessary to protect yourself, because that can completely destroy people mentally.

Yanagi was kind of an ass in the trial in general…I think the worst he did was harping on Watari for doing damage to her room and not getting punished, that was COMPLETELY unnecessary and very ungentlemanly of him. at least Watari doesn't seem to hold it against him.

but other than that, his intentions towards Mai were good. he WAS right about her being too reckless. before she was abducted, he was very deferential and cautious with her, almost demure with his suggestions. all in all trying to be respectful. he was warning her repeatedly to stop damaging the door, pleading with her, trying to get her to see reason, and she didn't listen. then… she disappeared, and came back unconscious, bloody, and bruised black.

…what else was he supposed to feel, than that it was HIS fault this happened? because he didn't try hard enough to protect her?

he was trying to take her opinions, her strength, her independence into account, and look where that got her. no matter what, he's going to feel responsible, he needs to help people, he can't just be a bystander. he NEEDS to protect those who he feels need protecting. even if it's from themselves. I understand his point of view. he can't just leave people be, he can't let injustice stand, he won't turn his eyes away from people getting harmed. he's proactive. and most importantly… he really, really cares about Mai specifically.

now, Mai. Mai is incredibly strong, physically and mentally. she can take care of herself, she takes care of others. she is fiercely independent. but she's not made of stone. she's not unshakeable. there was a time when she was weak. when she was scared. when all she cared about was survival above all else. and she hated it, not being in control, of herself, of her actions, of her own fate, and she never, ever wants to feel like that again. and it's like…who the fuck does YANAGI think he is? to butt into HER life and HER decisions like that? to her, he has 0 reason to do that. it makes no sense because she doesn't need protection. she doesn't need a knight in shining armour, what the hell? it feels like Yanagi is undermining the strength she's been working so hard to cultivate. which is incredibly insulting. she can handle herself. …but she can't. not 100% of the time. Mai was so, so shaken after she came back from being tortured. she was scared. she was made completely powerless. she collected herself eventually. rested, gathered her strength again, because life goes on. because it was horrible, but it wasn't her first time. she can't just break apart here, that's not who she is. she has to keep moving forward.

…but Yanagi saw Mai's tears. he saw her break down. he heard her cries. and he didn't forget it. the sight was seared into his brain. he never, ever wanted for something like that to happen again.

…and here we are. yes- he was being controlling. Yanagi is a very, very passionate person, and the terror he felt when he saw her disappear, and the heartbreak from when he saw her cry from pain and fear- it was too much. it still doesn't mean his behaviour was appropriate. just understandable.

what he did was wrong. but let's circle back to my first point- Mai ignoring him. I really dislike that. she has every right to be angry with him, but this is childish. and borderline cruel….she should at least hear him out, one last time. let him say his piece, and then decide whether to thwack him over the head and tell him to fuck off forever or not.

being in this sort of limbo is extremely bad for Yanagi's mental state. stuck ruminating on his own thoughts, he has to supply his own reasoning because he doesn't know hers. he thinks that his behaviour was threatening instead of invasive, which isn't true. and now he's spiraling, wondering if he's destined to hurt people like his (grand)father, if he is even capable of treating them right, capable of care.

and of course he is! Yanagi is NOT his father. he has bad tendencies, but he knows he acted rashly and on his emotion. most of the time he's doing his best to care about other people's comfort and wellbeing. his hot-headedness pushed him to make huge mistakes, like the ice fairy incident and trying to control Mai, but that's not who he is. he is not cruel, violent, and selfish. he has flaws, he's had bad examples, and he hurt people, a lot, but he's not irredeemable.

and just like Wada said- this is a high-stress situation. this environment is designed to break them, to push them to the brink. to kill them. and he doesn't want her to DIE. his reaction was that of a well-meaning, but overprotective parent, who saw his child get bit by a dog a bit too hard, and got so frightened he tried to bundle her up in bubble wrap.

still patronizing, but it doesn't mean he's a MONSTER, an abuser. and he's not destined to be one.

but as long as this silence persists, he will continue to invent his own arguments, which will make sense to him, but will be blown completely out of proportion because he feels HORRIBLE, and he needs to self-flaggelate as a way to punish himself.

anyway. they need to talk.

[freakinator]

man i make such different critiques for uu and ls lmao

like for ls i tend to critique the members' actions while for uu i tend to critique its editing (i also do vice versa ofc but not nearly as often as those), ig this has something to do with my expectations of each respective server; for ls the member interactions are what im there for, while for uu the storytelling is what im there for. on the other hand i basically never critique plot points lmao, as far as im concerned shit just happens sometimes and thats ok

[daily-odile]

Odile patting Molly Epithet Erased on the head, you know why

have two bc i care them

[sledge-in-space]

John Seed is a comfort character for some people. Folks like to ship him with their deputies or craft redemption arcs for him.

There's nothing wrong with that, obviously.

But I just can't wrap my head around it.

There's nothing comforting about the way John Seed treated Joey Hudson. I don't understand why the ordeal she went through doesn't seem to matter to fans of his.

She was bait for the rookie deputy and nothing more, because she wasn't going to give in and join the cult.

He terrorized Joey and the rest of Fall's End, stooping to the lowest, most inhumane levels to get his way. Some even theorize that he hurt the "sinners" in his care just because he wanted to, for malicious, sadistic reasons that didn't have anything to do with the cult. At worst, some people go as far as to speculate that he raped Joey.

It's easy to see why someone might come to that conclusion. The way he acts is deplorable and he makes everything feel extremely personal, sometimes in ways that can be interpreted as sexually charged. He'll do anything in order to get his way because "no" is antithetical to him. He regularly flies off the handle, so much so that Joseph is threatening to cast him out. All the touching and getting right up in the player's face is so uncomfortable and obsessive (which is the point, but I digress).

So why does he get to be redeemed and venerated by fans? Don't his actions warrant consequences?

Are people willing to let him off the hook because he's attractive? Because he had a horrible, abusive childhood? Obviously he's got a lot more lore than most of the cast. Is that something people are interested in exploring for him over other characters?

I'm not trying to come after anyone personally. There's nothing wrong with liking villains and Jacob, Faith, and Joseph have also done terrible things to innocent people.

Which is like, fine. It's a video game.

And I know that John, like Joey, is a victim of Ubisoft's choppy, inconsistent writing and storytelling. Things got changed and swapped and cut during development that got us to where we are, with the story we have. Flaws and all, not like it was ever going to be perfect.

But in my opinion, I feel like the adoration for John does a huge disservice to Joey. People make thirsty edits of him while she's literally tied up behind him. It's tasteless and makes the optics of her situation look even creepier.

Her pain has largely been ignored for as long as the game has existed. I can't for the life of me figure out why.