#but changing a character's... well- character to fit them into a box you'd like them to be in is a little odd to me

[licorishh]

Listen I don't like to headcanon every character in everything as being neurodivergent because for one thing that's not realistic to have everyone in a random group of people be that way and often times it involves actually changing certain aspects of a character just to fit what you want which is not very cool, and for another thing I feel like it kinda minimizes the seriousness of things like autism and ADHD that really shouldn't be seen as "cute little quirks" BUT Alhaitham and Kaveh have one of the most autism + ADHD dynamics I've ever seen

Like realistically just taking the way they are

Mr. "Very Blunt but Not Because He Thinks He's Better Than Everyone, He's Just Extremely Intelligent and Matter-of-Fact, Can Only See Social Cues if They're Logical and on a Cognitive Level but He Doesn't Read Much Into It, Major Auditory Sensory Issues, Hates Talking Too Much With a Loathing, Doesn't Make Eye Contact For Longer Than Like Ten Seconds, Actually Talks a Lot When He's Talking About Something He's Either Planning or is Interested In," and Mr. "Constantly Frazzled and Squirrel-Brained, Loses Everything He Owns, Extremely Particular About Having The House 'Just So,' Has Tons of Financial Issues Not Because He's Lazy But Because He's Overly Dedicated to His Hyperfixation and Forgets to Live in The Real Word, Very Impulsive, Gets Easily Overwhelmed When He Has Too Much in His Head at Once and Too Many Expectations, Takes Alhaitham's Blunt Comments Wayyy Too Personally and Constantly Lives in Fear of Failure and Disappointing the People Who Count on Him," yeah you see where I'm going with this

This guy made a super interesting (and very underrated) video where he explains it really well!

I personally didn't agree with what he said about Kaveh, though. I think Kaveh's constant arguing and baiting comes from a place of wanting affirmation and desperately wanting to prove himself, particularly to the guy who used to be his best friend and now acts like he can't stand him (I know that's not the case and that Alhaitham mostly just thinks he's immature), and I think he has a lot of self-esteem issues that drive his behavior towards Alhaitham. I don't think it comes from a place of hate. I think he wishes they could communicate better and that they didn't have such a rift between them, but Alhaitham's failure to pick up on Kaveh's desire for affirmation and assurance (which I think is because Kaveh's not making it at all clear to him) isn't helping anything.

Tl;dr Kaveh's not actually immature, just has his own issues to work through including poor self-esteem which leads to him constantly asking for Alhaitham's opinion and constantly getting upset when Alhaitham disapproves or corrects or scolds him yet again because in his mind he thinks he hates him and he's desperate for him not to but he doesn't and just isn't good at making that clear. It's a loop, I think.

This turned into "Man look at these silly little relatable guys lol" into "Here let's do a character analysis" ksjdfhk

[cursedcupcakemaster]

can I order a Poison apple pie and candy violets with and get Spider Cider. With a ghost!reader , this is the same person who requested the other Spider Cider, hope you have a nice day❤️

Of course so we are looking for a deadly friendship with Skully are we ?

Order; Poison apple pie with a side of candy violets and a glass of spider cider

Notes; I do not own twisted wonderland, Skully or the reader,Skully and Twst belong to Disney as well as the brilliant mind of Yana Toboso, reader belongs to themselves, this is just my interpretation of how this would go with the character, reader isn't neccesarily Yuu but if you want to imagine they are you're welcome to, y/n, reader is you

Warnings;yandere, Skully may or may not have killed a few people, implied death

Yandere Skully J. X ghost reader

🪦Best friends forever🪦

You could hardly remember what happened to get you where you are now

A spirit haunting a house that hardly anyone would pass by except for one boy

He was tall and quite pale wjth a rather pleasant smile and sharply dressed at that

Skully would always come to visit you every day when the sun went down and would talk with you about the outside world that you couldn't explore much due to being bound to the house

It always made your afterlife feel just a bit easier to deal with and there was something about Skully that seemed familiar to you but it wasn't really clear what

Sometimes Skully would ask to bury things in the back of the house and you allowed him to but he never really told you what was in the yard

It just made you happy to have some company in your lonely house that wasn't the spiders weaving their pretty webs or the rats scuttling about

Skully would sometimes bring things for you, like teddies or dolls so you could possess it or little trinkets you seemed to like such as music boxes or books that you seemed interested in after he told you about them

The one thing he never really seemed to want to let you see were newspapers

It was odd but you shrugged it off its not as if much of it could really effect you considering you weren't alive

Another peculiar thing was that he seemed to know your house better than even yourself, particularly the attic

There was something about it that kind of unnerved you

Particularly a trunk in the corner of the room, it was a charcoal black and when you tried to phase through it you couldn't do it

It was rather shocking to yiu considering there weren't many objects you couldn't get through but the last time you tried Skully seemed a bit upset and yelled that there was nothing for you go see in there

He quickly changed his tune when he saw the look on your face before

The only other time you saw him act like this was when some punks came in to wreck the place, they smashed photos, the windows, and all the nicer things that Skully had brought into the house

He told you to not show yourself to them and that he'd take care of it

Doing as he said the last thing you heard of those punks were their screams before Skully came up smiling letting you know everything was fine

When you thanked him he said "it's really no problem, you're my best friend after all"

Somehow those words meant something to you, like you'd heard them before

After this incident a few more holes were dug in the back yard

One night Skully dropped something on his way out, it was a small skeletal key and the lock seemed to fit the shape of the odd trunk

Fitting it inside and lifting the lid you saw several things including photos of you, only you were....alive and you had a family

Beside you was a boy who looked an awful lot like Skully both of you wore friendship necklaces in the shape of a skull with heart shaped eyesockets

The photos weren't the only the only odd thing, there were some news clippings including "Teenagers missing" and "Mysterious deaths of local family "

There was one last object and it was a shovel

Going outside you took the shovel with you and began digging

What you found only made you feel ill and grateful you didn't have organs any longer

There were the corpses of the punks that tried to destroy your home, the people that were once your family and finally your own bones, you knew it was yours thanks to the friendship necklace shaped like a skull with heart shaped eye sockets

You felt a chill before you turned and saw Skully and he did not look the least bit pleased

"You finally saw it huh" he murmured

"W-why why would you do this?" You asked your voice dripping with fear at the boy who was once your friend

It seemed your question made him smile at you

"They were going to take you away from me. I couldn't let that happen, as for those other ones they deserved it for ruining our house"

Skully took a step toward yoh making you float backwards until you were cornered against the wall as he spoke again

"Don't you see, I did this all for you that's what friends are for~ and we're best friends forever"

You knew he wouldn't likely stop with his sinister projects unless you agreed to what he wanted

"Skully, please no more ,no more killing if you're really my friend please no more"

Ectoplasmic tears ran down your cheeks making him look at you with his face softening before wiping your tears with his thumbs

"Will you stay with me forever then?" He asked

"Best friends till the end" you replied before the skeleton like boy pressed his lips to your own cold ones

[bedoballoons]

BUT I LOVE THEM SHORT! 😭 Ngl, I struggled with this one a little so I apologize if it's not the best!! Thank your for your request and I hope you enjoy!

I'm doing well thank you and I hope you are too!!

─⊰⁠⊹ฺ❄️𝔾𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕕𝕔𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕟𝕤⊰⁠⊹ฺ❄️

{༻~Growth spurt??~༺}

CW: Pretty much crack headcanons, GN! Reader!! Mentions of the character now being taller than the reader! Slight brat vibes for the reader in Wanderers!

(Includes: Lyney, Albedo, Xiao, Wanderer, and Aether!)

𑁍༄Lyney:

Lyney sat up in his bed, stretching his arms out and yawning sleepily. It took him a minute to fully wake up and even then he still felt a little off, but he decided to ignore it. Moving the covers aside and walking slowly into the kitchen to greet you. "Mmm mon amour, good morning~"

You spun around with a smile, "Morning Lyney- LYNEY?!" You dropped your plate of toast, having to tilt you head up just to make eye contact with the magician, it was like he'd become a giant in his sleep! "What in tevyat happened to you?!?! You're so tall!" He stared at you questionably, like he didn't really understand what you were saying, "What do you mean I'm so tall, I'm many things but tall was never one of them."

You hopped over the shards of glass, disregarding it as you stood next to him, raising your hand above your head to measure the new difference in height, "Lyney, you literally have to look down to see me now. You had like, some sort of crazy growth spurt!"

Lyney thought about it for a moment, leaning down so he could kiss your cheek, "Well well well, I'm not complaining then. Though I'm slightly worried about some of the tricks Lynette and I would normally do...CAN I EVEN FIT IN THE MAGIC BOX NOW?? Oh no...oh no!!"

𑁍༄Albedo:

Albedo had been staring at himself in the mirror for almost ten minutes at this point, wondering why the angle was different, why his body didn't seem right...he was a scientist, one who delighted in waking up to the usual because his work was always so unusual...but this was unlike anything he'd ever experienced. Perhaps he was just...crazy? "Love, could you come here for a moment?"

You set down the book you'd been reading and followed after him, stopping dead in your tracks once you saw his figure looming over the bathroom sink..."A-albedo?!" You covered you mouth in shock, your eyes starting at his feet and trailing, up up all way to his hair. "You're so tall...was this one of your experiments??"

"I almost wish it was, but no...I've just had some sort of insane growth spurt apparently. I wonder if anything else has changed besides my height. I'll have to test it.."

"...what else do you think changed Albedo..."

𑁍༄Xiao:

"You're staring again..is it really such a big difference?" Your cheeks blushed as Xiao crossed his arms, clearly unimpressed with your sudden interest in his height, but in your defense...it actually was a big difference. He went from being a short Yaksha to suddenly taller than all the adepti...and it hadn't just affected his height, it was like he felt even more confident in himself as well.

Everyone who walked by averted their gaze as if him being taller meant he was stronger than he had been before...and he seemed to be indulging in it alittle. Glaring at other men who even dared look at you...and intentionally kissing you in front of everyone whenever there was a opportunity... maybe it was just in your head, but it left you finding it hard to look away from him. "Sorry, I don't mean to stare Xiao, you're just-"

"Different...in a good way?" His yellow eyes met yours and for a second you could have sworn he had a small smirk play on his lips..

"Yes...in a good way, in a very good way"

𑁍༄Wanderer:

"Wanderer, shut up!" You stomped your foot down, clearly annoyed with him, though he didn't really seem to care. Ever since he woke up with this whole foot of height over you he hadn't stopped teasing you about it, just leaning over you and watching as your cheeks blushed or grabbing things you couldn't reach and intentionally moving in closer then needed.

"Say that again and I'll make you shut up instead." He shot you a glare under the brim of his hat, his mouth turned up in a thin smirk as he yet again made your heart race. You crossed your arms and turned away from him, why did his height make him even more of a confident ass? "Yeah right."

"Idiot. I'll show you what this new height can do then~"

𑁍༄Aether:

Aether tilted his head to the side like a dumbfounded puppy, listening to you and Paimon as the two of you panicked about his new height, every possible answer only leaving you both more confused. He on the other hand, wasn't really that interested in a why or how, he just wanted to take advantage of his new found height, something he'd wished he'd had not long ago.

"I don't know, but growing that tall over night can't be good right?"

"I don't know Paimon, but it's definitely worrisome-"

"I think it's a good thing..." His voice was quiet, barely above a whisper as the two of you turned to face him, "I've always wanted to try something at this height actually..." You raised a eyebrow at him as he stepped closer to you, holding out his hand like he wanted you to take it. He smiled at you softly as you placed your hand in his and then in what seemed like slow motion, he pulled you close to him,his face moving in close to yours as he kissed your lips. Your heart skipped a beat, electricity shooting through your body..."A-aether!"

ଘ(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚~Have a nice day!~*⁠.⁠✧

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

im so excited for the new yuu... waiting for them to join the manga yuu family...... is there any traits you'd like them to have? maybe to parallel or completely contrast jamil, since he's the OB boy this time around?

tbh I hope they keep it up w the different body types rep 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️ it's nice to see that even if they keep the "pretty average boy/girl" motif (?), they are trying different stuff w them. I hope we have more varied yuus in the future (goes for the anime too !!! I'm curious to see what that yuu is going to be like as well- or if they're just gonna adapt the manga and nor change the yuus, I wouldn't mind that either tbh)

[Referencing this news! More about the mangaka here.]

I don't really have a preference for what traits the new Yuu for the Episode of Scarabia has. I can't really find myself getting invested in the manga Yuus because I know that they won't stick around for very long (and definitely not long enough to have any sort of meaningful character arc). I also think it's disappointing that we get these characters that seem to be intentionally designed to be foils to the OB boys, but we never really get additional interactions between the Yuu and the OB boy that would add more meaning to their relationship or flesh out how that Yuu helps the OB boy change over time. Real missed opportunity there.

Some common ideas I've seen floating around for the Scarabia arc Yuu are:

Princess Jasmine coded (and/or at least femme) Yuu

someone in a servant position but, unlike Jamil, they are not resentful of their role and instead is optimistic about the future

"rags to riches" Yuu

I also know that some people are hoping for a dark-skinned or a Middle Eastern Yuu, but this in of itself is not a character trait so I'm not counting this in the list. Ideally I would like more variety in our Yuus (not just in race or gender, but in other factors like age or occupation) but I don't know how likely it will be that Twst actually commits to it (especially since the latter may change the interactions by a lot). I'm not even sure if they'd step outside of the box for designs/backstories if it doesn't contribute anything to the narrative foils they're trying to set up. Like, I'm pretty sure the manga team didn't decide to make Yuuta (the Yuu for Octavinelle) a large boy for the sake of diversity but rather to show Azul you can still love yourself and be content even if your body is a certain way. (I discuss the manga Yuus and how they contrast with their respective OB boys more here!) I don't see what making the Scarabia Yuu dark-skinned, Middle Eastern, or a different body type does to add to or enhance Jamil's character. It's not like Yuuka (for Savanaclaw) had to be dark-skinned or African to be Leona's foil, or Yuuken (for Heartslabyul) had to be small and British to be Riddle's foil, right? But both Yuuka and Yuuken were physically fit; we had a strong woman (with a scar in her design to match Leona) that played righteously to contrast Leona's underhandedness and a disciplined but kind man to show Riddle you can maintain a level of sternness without being overbearing on your peers. They were given character traits, rather than solely physical traits, which reflect their OB boy. It would be great to have the diversity, yes! Again though, I don't think the mangaka are designing Yuus with diversity in mind, but rather what the design does for the characters of the OB boys.

Finally, in regards to the anime, it has been announced to be an adaptation of the manga. That, presumably, means we will see the manga Yuus of each book's arc animated. Until we get news that states otherwise, I'm assuming this to be the case.

[avaphantomau]

Welcome all, to the Phantom of the Opera AvA AU!

Fans of Alan Becker's incredible animations, as well as any who have ever seen the masterpiece that is Phantom of the Opera, I welcome you to this blog!

This world is still very much in the making, and I'd like to involve the AvA community as much as possible!!

That means I am asking for suggestions, requests, your involvement and interaction, because this world is for you!

Now, let's get to the primary information we have so far, starting with the cast!

The main characters of the ava will be taking the place of the main cast, but fear not! Should you want any of your oc's in this world, and now fear that they'll be hardly featured, let me put that to rest!

As this is an au, I want to keep the phantom of the opera vibes and main idea of course, but I also want to make changes, to help fit with ava better, to add more events involving the minor characters, and so forth!

This ask box will be open for suggestions or requests of that like, Indefinitely!

Now! I shall have my questions for you, after the Cast Listing we have so far!

Main Cast:

(PotO character: which stick will have that role)

Christine: Dark

Raul: Chosen

Phantom: Corrupted!Victim

The new theatre owners: King and Purple (Purple in this au will be about half King's age, in his mid twenties, with King in his forties)

That elder lady who tries to keep the others out of danger and knows the phantom: Second

The retiring theatre owner: Redwood(corn dog guy)

The Color Gang are part of the performance crew

Investor in the theatre that hangs around: Victim

OC cast roles so far:

Prima Donna: Savage

Second's secret daughter/eyes and ears: Fallen (referred to often as Effsie)

Prima Donna's minion: Cherry

Meg: Shin

Conductor: TTB

Background stage crew member #5: TLB

Background stage crew member #2: Yimbo

Performer/singer #6: Luna (TSL)

Backgound stage crew member #7: Heavy

Performer/singer #8: Light

That one guy who's somehow always lucky enough to miss or be missed by any damage: Greg

And that's all we have so far! If you'd like your oc to be in this, and or if you have a role/new role in mind, please please please ask me! I'd love to include them!

Now!

There are things about the au that haven't been settled or decided yet! I would love your help to decide these things, or to get new questions to answer!

Is there a major change we should make to this au to fit the theme? (For example, i found an rotg fic that changed the main theme from singing, to dancing, and there were many things that were different because of that, but it still felt like a phantom of the opera thing)

This one isn't as much of a major change, but should Chosen and Dark be brothers, or shipped? (I'll make a poll for this tbh)

What are some new events or scenes i could add to feature the ocs more? I already have ideas for a cast party scene :D

SPOILERS BELOW

Currently, I have C!Victim as a glitched stick, which is what earned him people seeing him as a freak, like phantom was in the thing. Is this a good idea? Should I change anything and are there any specifics I could do?

I want Dark to have some kind of cool and useful glitch that is really neat, but the mere fact of having a glitch is why Alan sent him to this performance theatre, as well as the reason for C!Victim's obsession with him. It would be something that would enhance him when performing in some way. What are some ideas y'all have for what it could be?

Since there is a Corrupted Victim, I want to have a non Corrupted victim that is more like some of the gentle phantom interpretations. I'm considering having him be some kind of investor in the theatre that is always hanging around. Is this a good role for him, and what could be a reason for there being two victims?

Alan would just be this larger than life background memory of a character that never makes an appearance, but is referenced when that scene of Dark and Chosen are talking about the past, when it is mentioned that he sent Dark away all that time ago. Should I do anything more with him?

And that is all I have so far!

Please spread this around to your ava friends or mutuals, as hopefully this will be a whole community thing!

[ashyswoyaus]

About the Lord Wander AU, are there any episodes that would not exist? The characters being shuffled around change the dynamics so drastically, there's no way a canon episode would take place?

Or, are there episodes that do happen, but occur with such different context or with very different events, to the point of being borderline unrecognizable?

Much love!

ooooo yes!!! this is something i've thought quite a bit about—there'd have to be loads of changes like that. most episodes i think, even, would have to be changed significantly. for episodes not existing, there's a Lot that definitely seem like it at first, and i even made a list, but after thinking on it a little more...they might fit more into the second category, where they're pretty majorly reworked. for episodes i haven't really been able to come up with anything for, there's the box, the lonely planet, the tourist, the helper, the boy wander, the heebie jeebies, and the sick day. the good deed, maybe? (but i think it might work, if you replace wander's stubbornness in his beliefs with dee's struggle to be a good person. you could perhaps even insert wander in there, since he's meant to be a bit of a recurring character in s1) perhaps the epic quest of unfathomable difficulty. those episodes are really wander-specific, and putting dominator in those positions renders them kinda pointless (like with the nice guy, how she just buys the thunder blazz without any trouble). and i can't think of any work-arounds to keep the basic premise of each, unlike with some other wander-specific episodes.

oh, but also, you'd have to get rid of like. the Entire hater crush arc in s2. so that would get rid of the matchmaker & the rival...but that arc would likely be replaced with something else. i don't know what that would be yet, but maybe something where you could keep the new toy, the show stopper, the cartoon, and my fair hatey, while getting rid of the "impressing dominator" part. have to brainstorm a few ideas for that but i'd like to believe it's possible

and onto some episodes that would instead be majorly reworked: the hat, of course, and by extension the bad hatter. and together with them i'd put the bot. since i feel like the position of the dombots and wander's hat would be switched in these cases! sylvia has to learn to work with the bots, bot 13 accidentally gets onto the skullship (and gets his name), wander's hat somehow falls onto the beach...real question is whether beep boop or the hat dies...i don't know if the hat can die. maybe it gets stranded in space. that'd be a pretty major change for wander, though, so i'm not really sure. then again it is supposed to be a bit of a darker tone than the show so...it might work. i think i'll probably do more on this topic at a later time!

there's also stuff like the bad guy, the big job, and the rider, revolving around wander's lack of toughness compared to sylvia—dee's pretty tough, moreso than sylvia even, so she wouldn't have these issues, but you could probably keep the settings of these episodes and just change the main conflict. for the bad guy, dee and syl use a ship to get around rather than orbble juice, but you could easily have them needing fuel instead. and dee would fit in pretty well with ryder's attitude, so separating her and syl would be difficult...i'll keep trying to figure those ones out though!

this is getting long so i'll skip over most of them for now since i feel like i'd be repeating myself...i think the big day would be one of them, but dee wouldn't suggest a wedding-like ceremony. some other big event, like a funeral. and for the night out i actually have something Very specific for it: it moves placement in the season to the first arc, before lord wander is revealed as the wandering weirdo, and is titled The Day Off. while the night out was about letting loose and wild, it's a girls' night, brawling being something syl doesn't get to do so often—she gets plenty of that in the AU, and instead, the day off is all about relaxing, taking it easy and getting some rest, which is what this syl doesn't get as much of. oh! and something to do with wander's doing good deeds to stave off bad karma—while dom started the episode bored, and decided to go out to have fun, wander i think would start off somewhat Stressed and anxious because of how much Evilling he's been doing lately and take this day off to go help people, to keep in the universe's good graces. this is another one i'd like to do more on later when i get the chance!!!

there's tons of episodes i think would change (like...all of them) so if you (or anyone else) ever want to hear about a specific one or more about one i mentioned here just ask :)

[fantasyfantasygames]

Pandora

Pandora: an Autobiography, pandora, 2018

This game about the mythological Pandora's Box. I'm reviewing it back-to-back with Tales of Pandora, with is the Avatar movie series RPG. I did this partly so people wouldn't confuse them with each other.

Pandora is a game about the aftermath of giving in to temptation, dealing with blame, and seeking equilibrium when there's no forgiveness.

No, just kidding. This is a game where you, as Greek pro wrestlers, personally powerbomb and chokeslam demonic personifications of all the evils of humanity. On the cover, the game's title sits neatly juxtaposed against a drawing of just that, which would fit nicely into the Cartoon Guide to Philosophy.

The game uses a d6 dice pool inspired by Weapons of the Gods, where you look matches and turn those into numbers from 11 to 66. For instance, four 3's is a result of 43, and one 5 is a 15. The twist is that your attributes are all negative. You start with 6d6 and subtract dice from it if your stats indicate that you'd be weak against a particular evil. Are you wrestling with Greed but you have a Need score of 2? You're down to 4d6. Most of your rolls are going to be between 3d6 and 5d6. I like the implication that your characters are super-competent and really only held back by their own failings. You can draw on actions from your signature move set, which attach status effects to the Evils if they're successful. You lose dice fairly quickly against them, which is ok because fights are intended as a tag-team effort.

By default Pandora is your quest-giver, the Charlie to your Angels. However, you can also decide to include her in your team so that she can suplex rage itself or tackle influenza personally.

The art is all black-and-white cartoons. The Greeks are drawn Flintstones-like, with exaggerated arms, hands, and shoulders. A handful of them are very dark-skinned, possibly intended to be African. Men and women are both bare-chested, so maybe don't read this on the bus, but none of it is titillating. The Evils are drawn in an even more exaggerated manner: eyes bugging out of their heads, misshapen limbs, horns, warts, gaping mouths, sometimes wings, and each of them unique. The layout incorporates the cartoons very well. It's clear that they were crafted together to work as a single piece.

A short chapter talks about variations on the myth of Pandora. It doesn't go into exactly how those changes might impact the game, but that's clearly the point of it. One full page of that is dedicated to a diss track against legendary misogynist Hesiod, writer of some of the most complete and slanderous Pandora stories we have. That page gets a chef's kiss from me.

The author, lowercase pandora, has written a few one-page RPGs that test out systems used in this game. As they failed or succeeded, the system in this game got revised. Revisions are named for famous wrestlers. Version one was Andre. Currently we're on Foley. If you want to see how the game's going to evolve next, keep an eye on those one-pagers.

[jimintomystery]

Foodfight! (ugh)

I voted for Dex Dogtective in a poll the other day and it reminded me that I never actually watched that shitty Foodfight! movie from 2012. So I did. This was not a good idea.

There isn't a whole lot to say about Foodfight! that hasn't already been said. The project was in development hell for so long that it defaulted on its debt, and investors took over to at least get something out the door. The most obvious issue is the bad animation, though that speaks for itself.

But here's the thing: This movie could've had Pixar-quality animation and it'd still be hot garbage. "What if mascots for popular products lived in your local store?" is a middling idea at best, and the story mishandles it every step of the way.

It would be easy to say this movie needed a lot of popular corporate mascots to really work, and the best they could do was Charlie the Tuna and the Vlasic stork. But I remember thinking the first Toy Story wouldn't work without heavy hitters like Barbie and Lego, and yet they got along fine with just Mr. Potato Head and Etch-a-Sketch. Similarly, Wreck-It Ralph succeeded with a cast of skillful pastiches of familiar video game characters, and mere cameos by the big names. In theory Foodfight! could make up a cereal mascot that reminds you of Tony the Tiger while leaving room for changes to fit the plot. But in execution we get...Dex Dogtective.

Dex is the mascot for Cinnamon Sleuth cereal, and also a detective, and also a dog, and also he dresses like Indiana Jones, and also he likes raisins, and also he runs a nightclub like Rick Blaine in Casablanca. So he has like six different gimmicks, and the cereal mascot part is easily the least important. The only reason you'd even suspect Dex is a character from a box of cereal is because he's in a movie about brand mascots. Indeed, none of the characters created for this movie look like they were designed to sell anything, least of all groceries.

The strongest concept in the movie (which isn't saying much) is that the brands are facing an invasion by the evil Brand X. This makes sense, seeing as Brand X is by definition generic, with no iconic mascot except the pejorative and mysterious implications of that term. Listen, I know this sounds dumb, but you could do something with this. In a world of where brands come to life in the form of their mascots, who or what emerges from a brand without a mascot? How would such a being differ from the likes of, say, Count Chocula? Such a character might reject some fundamental principle that the good guys hold dear.

At this juncture, a sharper "secret lives of things that aren't alive" movie could make some insightful point that ties the story together. Something about how the world needs brand mascots, I suppose. But nobody actually needs brand mascots, for pete's sake, except for the people who came up with this movie. So there's no core idea for Brand X to oppose--the good guys' world exists just to exist, so the bad guys exist just to destroy it. With that baseline laziness established, Brand X paradoxically has lots of mascots, all of whom look like Nazis for some reason.

Well, okay, technically Brand X's leader, Lady X, looks less like a Nazi and more like the Baroness from Cobra. But it figures that she doesn't quite fit in with the rest, since she created Brand X! Yeah, so at the end it's revealed she was a mascot for a poorly-marketed brand of prunes, and when she was discontinued she went to Brazil (???) for plastic surgery (???) to make her all hot. Then she somehow amassed the resources in the real world to create Brand X, complete with a human-sized android (!!!) so she could pass herself off as a real person and sell her wares to stores.

Dex is astonished by this backstory, since the mascots are like three inches tall and can't even leave the store. Lady X explains the plot hole by saying "Humans! When you look like this you can get them to do anything. Size only counts for men."

"Size only counts for men."

"Size only counts for men."

(She's talking about fucking.)

(fucking)

(-ucking -ucking -king)

Anyway, I need a nap now. Please don't watch this movie.

[hallothere]

43 for Ranger of choice? (I love your writing!)

43. Fake Character Death/Missing aaaaa that's so sweet thank you rolled the dice and the dice said Lothrandir

Saruman wants to know about the Ring- the One Ring, of all things- and your best defense could be that you don't know much. You know things he could guess at, surely. Half-overheard stories and tales and wild conjecture. You could tell him you don't know, or lie, or guess and protect the truth well. Give him a different answer every day, or say something ridiculous and make clear you know nothing.

But your friend's best defense? You aid them best pretending that you know something very important indeed.

You might not get to try this ploy. You made it very clear that you're the human shield. You're the protector, not necessarily the brains of this operation. But, that was your plan from the very beginning. It made your friend look more fragile and valuable, and it's been going well from everything you can gather.

You hear your friend was sent to Morflak, so it does you well to act angry and concerned. But you can guess better than the Wizard and his lackeys think. Morflak is in a position of some power down here. He says jump and uruks jump. The one that told you spoke the name with respect if not a particular liking. Morflak wasn't a lash master, he was a supervisor.

He wants a well-performing labor force. Your friend is going to be just fine.

You, however, have been in this same room in the tower for the past two days, as far from Morflak and his domain as possible. The Wizard's lackeys gave you one excuse, and you grit your teeth against the memory of another reason. But he can't pry your mind open, and your friend hasn't seen fit to tell him anything either. You know, you see, your head still aches with the fruits of the Wizard's anger. He'd be happier with answers, more cunning and less eager to take it out on the backup plan.

It changes the day of the explosion. You feel the tower rumble first, but don't hear anything inside. Not an invasion, but you assume it's some kind of accident.

The comes your second day with the lash master. It's worse than the first. But you have something to fight for and you won't give in that easily.

Then you have your audience with the Wizard and nothing could prepare you for it. He says your friend is dead. Dead in the explosion. And now you're the only iron-clad box he has left to pry information out of.

He says he's not going to enjoy it with a sigh and a somber look. That tactic did not, apparently, work on your friend, and so it won't work on you. You determine to fulfill that prophecy and not in the way he means it.

Because if he has killed your friend, if he has brought harm to the last person in the world you have- had- left to protect, well, you're going to have them avenged. If it means keeping the Wizard busy, if it means spitting on his shiny robes, if it means making his day a little more miserable by only degrees--

If he's lying- and you feel like he is, the way he's not quite as silky and smug about it as he means to be- then you're going to take this chance and run with it. It means your friend is alive, and you've got the chance to distract Saruman from the chase.

You could mourn or pretend to mourn. Instead you wait, and launch yourself at the old man when he least expects it. The Wizard might have his own consequences for misinformation, but so do you. If he's going to lie about the friend you'd fight and die for, he's going to pay for it. Inch by inch. Uruk by uruk. Until you just can't kick anymore.

[elfwreck]

no eye for what's wrong, no thicker skin for constructive criticism and feedback, no basic artistic training in perspective and functionality in what they're making

The AI is not the core problem here.

It is certainly A problem here. It is part of the problems, and part that won't exist if they just ban AI prompters from their art team.

But the core issue is: Creating art for someone else's requirements, rather than just making "cool pictures," requires actual art skills. Requires an understanding of composition and perspective. Requires an acceptance that the client is sometimes going to say "change this detail that you think is not important but I want it different." Requires an awareness of how the picture is going to fit into a larger project, if it's not just "print it, frame it, and hang it on the wall."

(Even if it's "throw it on a t-shirt or coffee mug," there are details that will change or get lost in the production process. An artist needs to know what works on the chosen media.)

AI image generators can make many amazing pictures. It's easy to get "wow, awesome" pictures from them. And that part's a glorious boon for those of us who can't make art and want a picture of our TTRPG character, or a forest scene for our computer desktop, or a random spaceship for our TTRPG so we can say "it looks like this."

But that's near-worthless for commercial art projects. Pictures of Random Cool Stuff do not make a viable sellable item.

Y'know what AI generators are terrible at? Modified animals. They can do horror pretty well - they have a baseline for that - but wow they are not able to add extra legs to a mammal without crossing it with a spider. They also can't do changes of position. They don't know what a swimming elephant looks like. And they're terrible at musical instruments. They also can't do right/left differences - like, a woman standing in half in shadow, with flowers blooming on one side of her, and barren winter trees on the other side.

They're terrible at anything specific.

There may be good, ethical uses for AI art. If you want to brainstorm dozens of logo ideas, AI may be a way to start.

If you already know what you want on your logo... you can roll the dice and hope the AI bot gets it right the first time, because it's not going to be able to do "make this part a little bigger" or "curve the top section to the left" or "make it fit in an octagon."

AI-gen images could be a base for specific art - but for that to work, you'd need AI-prompters who understand how art works.

And the people jumping on the AI gen bandwagon are not artists; they're people who are thriled at being able to make awesome pictures appear by throwing some keywords in a box.

(I get it. I am also thrilled by this. I just haven't tried to make a job out of it. Because I know the difference between "an awesome picture" and "the picture someone asked me to produce.")

This machine kills AI

[theradicalscrivener]

Hopefully I am not wrong about this, but so far you mostly write about transformation, right? I ask because I often read body swap stories, and I probably got recommended your blog by Tumblr due to the proximity in themes. And also because of cock shrinking, but that's beside the point.

Truthfully, what I'm curious about. Have you ever thought about writing a body swap story? I could understand if you didn't see the point. Since you often write stories that involve stealing a specific feature (muscles, height, cock size, etc), making body swapping kind of redundant. I guess. I also could understand if it doesn't appeal to you as trope.

But it would be interesting to see how you'd handle it.

Also, I'm both excited and sad because of Acorn. Excited because the story it's reaching its conclusion, and I really want to know what you have plan. But sad because it's probably one of my favorite stories of yours (alongside No dick December, Alpha Omega, Gifted Exchange among others... I really have a very obvious taste, don't I?). I would love to be able to become an Acorn boy someday, since they seem to all be hot as well as lacking endowment.

Hopefully you are having a nice day. Have you had any problems with your new ears, or have you adapted well? I hope it's the latter.

Well body swapping is interesting because there's a lot of potential. A lot of what I have fun with is how a character reacts to the things happening and not just the actual transformation. Body swapping would be interesting because I would assume that both characters swap bodies so maybe one person gets a really good deal and the other maybe gets a really bad one, but I also kind of balk at that trope because the more I think on it, the more it kinda spirals since like, it's very rarely you just end up in their body and everyone around you accepts it as fact. You start to quickly get into Freaky Friday territory where it's like. Do you try to keep the act up around friends/family? Do you have to take on their life? That's where I start to spiral a bit, and I get so far from the plot that it kinda collapses around me.

I hope to not take too long in wrapping up Acorn, but I have a lot of boxes I want to check off in the finale, and I kind of keep going back and forth on the pacing, etc. I've kind of been bouncing around between the epilogue and the finale and sort of doing those in tandem, but I don't have a whole lot physically on the page right now, because it's mostly snippets, thoughts, notes, etc that are a bit of a mess rn.

I've actually had a few people mention that they'd love to sign up to be Acorn boys. I guess the whole Greek ideal of being incredibly fit but incredibly small between the legs, strikes a chord with a lot of people. I get it though. It's a good look, hehe.

Things are going... well? Classes just started back up, so I'm a little bit more limited on free time than I had been. I spent most of the last month binging Dawntrail, but I am pretty much current in that game which frees me up to focus on other games in my very limited free time.

As for the ears... It's great, but I'm dealing with a lot of technical difficulties, especially on the left side. Volume keeps spiking at random, and sometimes I just get loud, long, extended bursts of noise. Like getting caught in a wind tunnel. It's unclear if the left ear is defective in some way, or if my phone is just so old that the bluetooth is not 100% compatible. Although, I am not sure how much difference the phone makes, since it shouldn't need to be paired with the phone all the time. The phone just has an app that gives me the option to change the settings on the ears whenever I need to. (I'd tried experimenting with them because some of the options turn off specific mics to focus the angle and direction that I pick sound up in. there's a setting for restuarants that turns off all the mics except the forward facing ones which is supposed to help listen to the person across from you. I've had mixed success with it.) Aside from when I am loading a new profile, the link to the phone shouldn't make a difference.

Although, aside from the technical difficulties, it's nice being able to understand things. Like, I saw a clip of Fairy Oddparents the other day, and it was kind of jarring being able to understand what they were saying. A lot of the reason I never super got into a lot of cartoons as a kid was because a lot of the over the top, cartoony voices were completely incomprehensible to me. I'm kind of feeling like I should try and binge spongebob, since that's one that always looked fun but I could never get into due to not being able to parse the speach.

[findroleplay]

FANDOM: Stranger Things // THE PLOT // imagine supernatural and mythical creatures you hear about in stories, and see in film, actually existed all over the world. beings like vampires, werewolves, witches, fairies, mermaids, and more everywhere you turn. you'd imagine some wouldn't get along with their differences and stereotypes humans have forced them to fit into for thousands of years.

now imagine a small town that didn't believe in those stereotypes. a town where all different kinds of beings coexist and try their best to find understanding. some wouldn't believe in such a city, with the way the world is today.



out in bigger cities it's a fight just to survive, most humans not accepting of other kinds. but if you haven't heard of it, then you've never been to hawkins. the town thrived on their diversity, the way everyone tried their best to get along and understand the others. working together to build a great community and stick together with a world around them that vowed to hate each other. martin brenner saw sight of that, and as a scientist with a curious mind on how he could take advantage of the abilities some of these creatures had -- decided to set a reward. calling any hunters to come to this town and capture creatures he could do studies on. it wasn't his fault he was born unlucky, and he believes anyone should have the right to have the advantage in this world. as of now, friends and family are disappearing without a trace -- and the citizens of hawkins are starting to grow worried something more could be going on. they're not sure what, but they've now started to watch their backs.



this is the end is a supernatural/mythical creature stranger things au where all the characters are different species. it's set in modern time and revolves around the older teens now navigating life as young adults. whether they've found the town for solace, or have been there their whole life. while as well, trying their best to not be a statistic as another creature to go missing from the town. can they figure out the reasonings behind this? or will their small population only grow smaller?

// MORE INFO // we have pre-selected creatures and have created bios for the open characters, this can be changed upon request. for the other roles you will get to decide on the creature, and we will create the bio for you. -tupper box is mandatory (if you're unfamiliar I can teach you!) -members are allowed to play as many characters as they can handle -hunters are npc's unless you would prefer to play your character as one -only accepting the older teens. (fc changes are accepted per admin approval) -OC's are allowed, but need to be run by the admins first. -if interested, please one or both admins on discord! djoekeery and youreonyourownkid. (with the period)

// ORIGINAL CHARACTERS // [TAKEN] chrissy, robin [OPEN] steve, eddie, billy, jonathan, argyle, gareth, vickie, heather, nancy [OTHER CHARACTERS] tommy, carol, jason, barb, eden, etc.

.

[findyourrp]

FANDOM: Stranger Things // THE PLOT // imagine supernatural and mythical creatures you hear about in stories, and see in film, actually existed all over the world. beings like vampires, werewolves, witches, fairies, mermaids, and more everywhere you turn. you'd imagine some wouldn't get along with their differences and stereotypes humans have forced them to fit into for thousands of years.

now imagine a small town that didn't believe in those stereotypes. a town where all different kinds of beings coexist and try their best to find understanding. some wouldn't believe in such a city, with the way the world is today.



out in bigger cities it's a fight just to survive, most humans not accepting of other kinds. but if you haven't heard of it, then you've never been to hawkins. the town thrived on their diversity, the way everyone tried their best to get along and understand the others. working together to build a great community and stick together with a world around them that vowed to hate each other. martin brenner saw sight of that, and as a scientist with a curious mind on how he could take advantage of the abilities some of these creatures had -- decided to set a reward. calling any hunters to come to this town and capture creatures he could do studies on. it wasn't his fault he was born unlucky, and he believes anyone should have the right to have the advantage in this world. as of now, friends and family are disappearing without a trace -- and the citizens of hawkins are starting to grow worried something more could be going on. they're not sure what, but they've now started to watch their backs.



this is the end is a supernatural/mythical creature stranger things au where all the characters are different species. it's set in modern time and revolves around the older teens now navigating life as young adults. whether they've found the town for solace, or have been there their whole life. while as well, trying their best to not be a statistic as another creature to go missing from the town. can they figure out the reasonings behind this? or will their small population only grow smaller?

// MORE INFO // we have pre-selected creatures and have created bios for the open characters, this can be changed upon request. for the other roles you will get to decide on the creature, and we will create the bio for you. -tupper box is mandatory (if you're unfamiliar I can teach you!) -members are allowed to play as many characters as they can handle -hunters are npc's unless you would prefer to play your character as one -only accepting the older teens. (fc changes are accepted per admin approval) -OC's are allowed, but need to be run by the admins first. -if interested, please one or both admins on discord! djoekeery and youreonyourownkid. (with the period)

// ORIGINAL CHARACTERS // [TAKEN] chrissy, robin [OPEN] steve, eddie, billy, jonathan, argyle, gareth, vickie, heather, nancy [OTHER CHARACTERS] tommy, carol, jason, barb, eden, etc.

.

[noodleswithsoba-blog]

Soba's Soapbox: How I Use Horrible Situations in Art to Delve into the Darkness and that's Okay (Fiction is Your Oyster!).

CW: A lot of dark subject matter such as Abuse, Neglect, and violent acts will be covered here in service of a point I'm trying to make. You may scroll on if you wish but this is a topic I wanna yammer about.

Greetings, True Believers! (Stan Lee Reference go Brrr.)

In my years on the internet as an Older Gen Z in his early 20s, I've seen much discourse over darker subjects in fiction and how it is something I've personally grappled with.

In the online discourse I have seen, it mainly stems from younger people wanting to inject real life morality into fiction, and while not applicable sometimes and others unavoidable with real life criminals using fiction as a scapegoat for what they did. (The Catcher in the Rye being the primary example here.)

Now with this, and me being a writer of fanfiction and hopefully a writer of fiction I want to say this...

It is COMPLETELY OKAY to use dark topics in your work! Granted you do proper research and try not to hamfist it. In my own writings I write about Abuse, Neglect, emotional and physical harm, and a lot of other such things such as death and gore and blood.

That doesn't mean I am a those things or wish that on others. It serves my story, it helps me deal with those dark times and those thoughts.

In the same vein it's alright to do as you wish with your fiction. Age characters up, down, change their personalities, do anything you want because fiction's your oyster.

As long as you're not harming others in real life. Because I've seen a rather concerning lack of a divide between reality and fiction lately too but that's for another Soba's Soapbox.

Keeping yourself in a box is not a good thing, it gets cramped and hot and you keep your thoughts in that box thinking you can't do this, or can't like that, or you'd become a pariah for something you enjoy and like and want to share with the world.

At the end of the day it's something you love and something you want to share with the world. Writing is an act of love, of creation, of working something into being with the pure magic of words.

So why? Why is there so much doxxing and harassment and death threats and sheer hatred in fandom spaces just because people like other things than other people, and people ship whoever they want to ship?

Because it's how we're wired as a species. Race, Class, Political Leanings, how we like our food, all of it circles right back to the days where we were just tribes of people out in a world that didn't have cities or cars or electricity or anything at all like that.

We're all just throwing stones at the people we don't like. We just hate blindly because we were hurt or offended because something didn't fit our worldview or our comfort or we were conditioned to by authority figures. It could be anything really. You might look at my walking stick or brace straps and decide you don't like them and want to snap at me for them.

But back to fiction. Back to the magic.

How I handle anything I don't like is simply this. I don't read it, I don't interact with it beyond a simple, "Well, I don't like that." said to myself, and move on to another thing.

Ships, Fics, Art, anything really. I just go, "Oh well, I don't like that." and move on. There have been times I've voiced my displeasure and have hurt people because of it and I can't get that back now.

That's something I live with. That's something at least all of us have to live with. Yet the screen gives us carte blanche to say whatever, to do whatever, to hurt and hate whatever and whoever is on the other side with impunity.

We can destroy anything with these.

Yet we can also use these screens to make entire worlds, to make dreams reality, to become remembered for all time for things we've done and build and grow and shape.

Yet sometimes I've seen horrible things. I've heard about horrible things. Done because someone didn't like a fic they did or art, or even music and other things.

In short, you don't HAVE to interact. You don't HAVE to hate. You don't HAVE to hurt others. It's easy to hate, it's easy to hurt. But it's hard to be kind and hard to heal.

Now I'll stop yanking your ear and let you go with this...

Fiction is your oyster. Go make something extraordinary.

Excelsior!

Soba.

[klm-zoflorr]

@decafeined-moth was having some issues working out how to post on AO3, so I thought "hey, why not make a step-by-step post dedicated to this, this way it can help other people too?" So here's the

Guide On How To Post On AO3 For Noobs

First, keep in mind that 1) AO3 is a website with a lot of functionnalities and it's normal that it seems a bit intimidating. Thankfully, you can just plain ignore some of them, and only use them when you've learned what they mean! 2) If you need any more information about what some options mean, you can click on the small blue question mark! They provide information that is imo pretty helpful. Or you can ask me, I'd gladly answer any questions you have! And 3) All of the information that we're gonna fill out now is modifiable later. So if you make a mistake or you realise something doesn't fit, don't stress!

So, for starters, you're gonna need to have your first chapter already written out before creating the work. Well, you can technically write it on the website itself, but the page might reload and you'd then lose everything. So rather use google docs, or the notes on your phone, or emails, or anything of that nature.

You also need an AO3 account to post, i'll try to link another post regarding this particular matter.

First step: Go on the top of the website, and click on "post" -> "new work"

Second step: The tags

"Not rated" and "Choose not to use archive warnings" are basically the default for rating and archive warning, essentially the "i don't know". You should try to tweak them as soon as you understand what they stand for, but it isn't necessary.

"fandoms" is a very important one. You're gonna enter the name of your fandom. It could be Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars, Hermitcraft, RPF (Real People Fiction), and a whole ton of other fandoms. Chances are if it's a book or movie or even youtube series, there already are works for it. If you don't know how your fandom is called, use the search function on AO3 and it'll probably come back with SOMETHING.

Categories: Is there a main romantic relationship between two characters in your work? If yes, then select the kind: Female/Female relationship, Female/Male, Male/Male. Or select "Gen" if it isn't the case, it means General.

Relationships: relationships in your work. They're either 1)Romantic relationships, separated by a slash (Blorbo/Shitto) 2)Platonic relationships, separated by a "and" (Borbo & Shitto). I am unsure of where Queerplatonic relationships stand in regards to this. Do not type in ship names (ex: reylo, destiel,...)

Characters: names of characters that appear in your work. This category auto fills as well. It's usually not considered very polite to put in characters that are only briefly mentionned in a throwaway line in your work, however it's perfectly fine if you intend to mention them more later. It's alright to tag them if they briefly appear, or if they're thought about for a big portion of it. Basically, if you could cut them out and nothing changes, maybe don't tag them.

Additional tags: You can basically enter whatever information you want to inform your reader of that didn't fit in the previous categories there. Ex: Fluff, angst, hurt no comfort, Protective Shitto, carrots, Time-travel, Established blorbo/shitto & any additional comment you want to add, like "i wrote that at 3am". People sometimes add in whether the work has been beta'ed or not with "no beta we die like men" or fandom-specific "we die like [name]" (ex: We die like Kenny, We die like Scar, We die like Ice Pick Joe), but it is by no means necessary

You're gonna have to add a work title and a summary of your fic. Summaries can be a lot of stuff including an extract from your fic, an actual summary, a series of open-ended questions made for the reader to want to find out what it's about,... Be creative with it!

Finally, you can check or uncheck the "notes" boxes to add author notes!

Now we're getting into the complicated/superfluous part. Thankfully you can just ignore most of it! You may learn what it means later, or not, but it does offer some great additional options!

We need to focus on this part tho:

Ignore the "set a different publication date".

If your work is gonna have multiple chapters, you should check the "this work is gonna have multiple chapters". Then you should enter the number of chapters. You don't have to name the first chapter if you don't want to, if you leave it blank it will simply show as "Chapter 1"

You need to choose a work language

You may now finally enter your first chapter/the text of your one-shot!

The website works with html, which means that to make some text italicised or bold you gonna need to enter a special set of characters before and after. You can find some explanations online very easily. Or, it also work in rich text, it switches to it if you click the "rich text" button.

We're finally done! You can then click on "preview" if you want to check the formatting, or "post" it directly!

[barnesbabee]

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴇɴ - ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀʟᴀɴᴅ

WONDERLAND MASTERLIST

⇜ ᴘʀᴇᴠɪᴏᴜꜱ - ᴛᴇɴ-  ɴᴇxᴛ ⟿

CHARACTER LIST:

White Rabbit - Choi Jongho Absolem (Blue Catterpilar) - Kang Yeosang Cheshire Cat - Kim Hongjoong Mad Hatter - Choi San Haigha (March Hare) - Jung Wooyoung Tweedle Dee - Song Mingi Tweedle Dum - Jeong Yunho Bloody Red King - Park Seonghwa

ᴛᴀɢʟɪꜱᴛ: @myunvillage @mirror-juliet @jess-1404 @earth-to-leiki @miraculoustaytiny [Send me a DM, an ask or comment to be added to the tag list]

The King wasted no time. After getting you back, he immediately scheduled the coronation, as he couldn't wait to call you his Queen. The Castle was in a frenzy, the sound little frog feet slapping against the marble floors echoed in every division. Seonghwa refused to have the coronation in the same room where he got married, he didn't want to re-live the awful moment when his wife got stolen from him... So the maids and butlers found new decorations, moved the paintings and transformed another one of the King's dark and cold rooms into a place worthy of a welcoming party.

"Let's do it in the throne room. Place her throne by my right." He had said.

The tradition was for the throne to be moved in front of everyone present, so they could witness the changes and their new reality first hand, but Seonghwa was a little tired of following tradition.

You and him stood in the middle of the throne room, with every single maid and butler running around frantically, trying to get everything done on time. You looked on proudly, enjoying the way it was all coming along.

The excess of red and black was gone, it was now balanced with white and gold, and with the new paintings and lights giving the room a new life it looked like a completely new place. The blinds behind the throne were finally opened, revealing the most beautiful stained glass images. There were four people, who you assumed were Seonghwa's family.

You reminisced the first time you had come to that room, panting and confused, standing in the dark, cold room being judged by the merciless man Seonghwa once was. The contrast was almost unbelievable, but you were glad you had gotten this far.

You felt a pair of arms wrap around your figure and a chin on your shoulder.

"I'll have it replaced. First, just the two of us, and then, once we have our little prince, or princess," he paused, caressing your stomach, where you'd carry your future child "I'll have it replaced once more, with a full picture of our family."

He kissed your cheek and you smiled.

"But Seonghwa, are you sure you wanna take down the picture of your family?" You questioned, feeling honoured yet a little wrong, replacing the original King and Queen.

He stood straight, and his cheerful expression was immediately replaced by one of pain and confusion, remembering all of the memories alongside those people.

"Why not? They have given me nothing but a lifetime of suffering, you have given me nothing but happiness and a chance of redemption. You deserve to be up there, immortalized, as a part of the new Royal family."

"Thank you..."

That was all you could say, as there were no words that could possibly describe how you felt.

One of the maids stole you away from your husband for a second, so you could change from the dirty, ripped-up wedding dress for the new ceremony. She helped you switch to a princess-style dress, all in red silk. The revealing heart-shaped neckline was covered with black lace, that extended all the way to your hands and wrapped around your index finger.

"You look lovely, Miss." The maid said as she fixed your hair.

You thanked her with a small smile and headed towards the throne room. Usually, it would be packed with people, but due to the previous altercation, the only people attending the coronation would be the castle staff, aside from the knights who were assigned to protect the castle during the event.

You carefully sat on the throne, feeling Seonghwa's eyes (or... eye) inspecting you. He leaned over, so he could whisper in your ear.

"You look marvelous in red."

He sat back straight in his throne and smiled at your shy expression. A tall man soon entered the room holding two boxes. He opened one of the boxes and slowly (and carefully) placed the crown on the King's head. It was exaggerated, yet classy and sophisticated like Seonghwa. You could tell it had been specially done for him.

"We shall now begin the coronation of Miss Y/N." The man announced.

He opened the box in front of you, revealing the most beautiful, victorian crown. It was made up of white gold and adorned with the most beautiful red and white stones.

"I hereby declare, by the powers given to me by His majesty Park Seonghwa, the new Queen of Wonderland, Queen Y/N."

The man slowly placed the crown on your head, and it was a perfect fit. He stepped away so the painter could see your smiling faces, as he immortalized the moment on a canvas.

The castle staff smiled and cheered for you, their new Queen.

"Bring her!" The King shouted, and the whole room froze.

The thought on everyone's mind was 'Who's her'.

The heavy doors to the room opened, and a chained woman, dressed in a black cape with her white, disheveled hair showing stepped in, with the help of two guards.

"Unchain her."

The guards obeyed the King, and unchained the woman, who rotated her wrists with a sigh of contentment.

"Finally, what do I owe the honour, Sir?"

The crowd in front of you looked on, petrified. Who the fuck was she?

"Undo the room." Seonghwa commanded.

"Hm there have been some changes, I see." The woman said, her voice cracking mid-sentence.

She looked at you, with her bright purple eyes, sending a shiver down my spine.

"Yes, there have. Now please do as I asked."

"Very well Sir."

The woman removed her black cape, revealing a small, crooked young-looking woman. She lifted her hands in the air, creating a small green fog in her hands, that she aimed at all beings in the room. The people, who were previously humanoid frogs, were turned back into their original form. Tears of happiness formed in everyone's eyes and cries of thankfulness echoed in the room. One maid approached you and knelt by your feet.

"Thank you... Thank you so much!"

You recognized the voice, it was the maid that had thanked you the other day for staying with Seonghwa, and the one that usually helped you dress. You smiled and held her hands.

"No need to kneel around me Miss, thank you for your hard work."

She bowed to you as she walked back to cheer with her peers.

Seonghwa stood up and held out his hand for you to take, and so you followed.

"Iracebeth, follow us. You two," the King said, looking at the two guards who had brought the witch "make sure everyone is gathered at the town center by the time we arrive."

The guards nodded and immediately headed out. Seonghwa took your arm and started walking with you, headed to the town center, you guessed.

You looked behind you to look at the witch, that stared at you with a sinister expression.

"Are you sure it's safe to bring her along, won't she like... curse you? You know, for keeping her locked up?" You whispered.

"Oh, no that won't be an issue."

You tilted your head to the side.

"How come?"

Seonghwa blushed, embarrassed to recall what he had done.

"Well, I tricked her into falling in love with me so I could get her to cast a spell on herself that would only allow her to cast the spells I request her to. I then locked her in the dungeon because I didn't want to deal with her constant crying and blabbering about how I tricked her, that's probably why she's looking at you like..." He glanced over at the witch "... like that."

You hit his arm.

"Park Seonghwa!"

"Ow! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I regret doing it but if I undo it now it could have severe consequences, not only for me but for you too. And we can't have that."

You sighed and nodded. It's true that it was cruel, but you didn't want any consequences headed your way, you'd had enough.

You stopped in front of a black and gold carriage, the one that would take you into town. Seonghwa helped you get on and then sat beside you. The witch rode in front of you, her creepy smile and envious eyes staring into your soul the whole ride. Seonghwa held your hand tightly, also feeling uneasy by her presence.

"We're here, Sir."

Seonghwa took a deep breath. You could tell he was nervous, as all of the people from the Kingdom looked at the carriage, expectantly. You kissed his cheek and held his hand tighter.

"It will be okay." You assured him.

Seonghwa smiled softly and exited the carriage, alongside you and the witch. The expressions of the people once they saw the witch were the same as back in the castle, and they braced for the worst.

The King said nothing, he only turned to the witch and said 'do it'.

Once more, she cast the spell, that supposedly returned them to what they once were, but it didn't go as planned. Some people returned to their original state, but the ones who had turned from animals to humans, not so much... Some had the luck of being completely turned back to who they were, others were left hybrids, mixes of animals and humans. You found Cheshire, still as a human, happily playing with his ears and tail, and Haiga, the Hare, jumping about with his hare feet about the return of his long ears. It didn't take much for those two to be happy. There was a mix of emotions among the crowd, however, some people that had married into families who were previously human, were happy they got some of their old life back and they would still be able to maintain their relationship, others were sad (and mad) that they would never be able to return to whom they once were.

"What happened!?" Seonghwa whisper-yelled to the witch.

"The curse has been cast for far too long, I wasn't able to undo it completely." She explained, ashamed of her own skills.

"People, I apologize," as soon as he spoke those words the commotion calmed down, and everyone seemed shocked. The King? Apologizing? "it seems the curse has gone on for too long and is irreversible in some cases. I ask that whoever has been affected attends the castle tomorrow so I can offer a proper compensation for all of the damages caused, that would be all."