#but i did a LOT of headcanoning and filling out the blanks so it works well enough for me

[eff-plays]

Just finished Astarion's quest+romance.

I'M GONNA FUCKING BREAK SOMETHING AUGH

NEIL I AM IN YOUR WALLS

[bonus-links]

DIRECTORS COMMENTARY PLEASE I LOVE HEARING YOUR THOUGHTS AND PROCESS <3!!!!!!!!

YEAHHH lots to say for this update

there's a scene I didn't so much as cut from the beginning of this update as significantly shorten: Wolf, Loft, Wake, and Slate are changing into their lighter outfits. Loft says the same line as having the party, Wake begs them for this one day with his Gran Gran, and they all agree they can wait. I've been trying to get better about like, not putting a ton of work into unnecessary connecting scenes, which is why I cut it down. Wake sounding more cavalier also works better for the overall chapter. But i was sad to leave this joke out lol:

may I present to you, Slate's picture gallery! he was mostly on task documenting flora and fauna but he gets a little sidetracked sometimes

I love the idea that he's just, like, kind of terrible at photography. he documents stuff for Zelda and it's always weirdly cropped and kind of out of focus, but she appreciates it anyway.

Slate is also picking flowers for the party! so he is still helping out on that front lol

idk if i've mentioned this before, but beetle does still have pincers! they're just. idk what the right word is. retractable maybe? yeah. like the ancient weapon blades

the filling of the half moon pies is pineapple :-) i was. so worried about it looking like an egg HAHA.

I thought way too hard about how they were going to cook these pies. I was originally going to draw a clay oven or some other setup, but ultimately I thought the Zelda tradition of only having pots over fires to cook was a funnier nod lol. So, they're frying the pies

believe it or not, I wrote this scene before reading dungeon meshi HAHA but it certainly served as good reference for how to set up shots for it

Aryll did in fact eavesdrop on Wake telling Tetra The Situation

That's Champion's little sister in the memory! I like the headcanon that her name was also Aryll.

Champion and his sister are making meat pies instead of pineapple ones.

One again, made a bunch of layout mistakes I ended up having to fix, except this time I didn't catch them until I had already gotten to rendering :-( if you're a patron, you probably saw these versions in the WIP:

problems here: Wolf is walking the wrong away. I was sad we'd be losing his expression but alas. And for the panels with Champion's sister, the angle is too low to be an actual POV shot. I could've left it and said he's just sitting or something probably but it was really bothering me lol so I redrew everything. and then recolored all of it. woof.

as a general rule, if he has scars, that's Slate. No scars is The Other Guy

I understand the complaint about this in BOTW, but I actually kind of like that weird moment that occurs after you finish a memory cutscene, and it just abruptly goes back to Link looking blank-faced like nothing happened. It implies this kind of....distance from the memories that I find interesting. Slate has complicated feelings abt the memories of Champion's life he gets, but like. there's pies to make

shout out to peony she's a real one

[youphoriaot7]

...oh, holy shit. Did the Federation just give us their experiment plan??

GROUP #0001 - Chayanne, Leonarda, Ramón, Dapper, Bobby, Tílin, JuanaFlippa, Trumpet Department of Convivial Condition Observation

These were the first eggs. The first batch of eight. Put out as a test, a blatant test: can you keep them happy? I wasn't around at the start of the server so I'm going off of a lot of hearsay here, but from the best I can understand the eggs were supposed to be a week or so(??) long experiment to help the two languages of the server come together and spend time with each other. The happiest egg at the end of the week(??) would "win." It was somewhat competitive if I'm remembering right?? That got thrown out the window as the eggs kept running, but initially, it was more like that. (I could be so wrong. Sorry.)

Regardless, "Convivial Condition Observation": breaking this down real quick. Convivial means "(of a person) cheerful and friendly; jovial." Essentially, happiness. Condition being the...condition of either the eggs or the islanders, or both. Observation being the act watching them that the Federation is doing.

"Convivial Condition Observation," or, let's see how well you can keep these eggs happy. And, alternatively/in addition, how happy it keeps you.

GROUP #0002 - Tallulah, Pomme, ______ Department of Subsistence Monitoring

The first thing that stuck out to me with this group was the fact that Tallulah and Pomme were found in very similar ways. Pomme was stuck hidden in the wall, and Tallulah was found hidden in the attic of the adoption center. If the third egg's name really is six blanks, and stands for MEMORY as I'm suspecting it might, then that egg was also hidden—to the point where Cellbit needed coords just to find its adoption center.

"Subsistence Monitoring" breakdown: Subsistence means "the action or fact of maintaining or supporting oneself at a minimum level." Monitoring being the act of observation that the Federation is doing.

"Subsistence Monitoring," or, let's see how well these eggs can take care of themselves without any external help.

GROUP #0003 - Sunny, Pepito, Empanada Department of Permanent Surveillance

This one is a bit alarming, I'm not gonna lie? The clear tie here between the three eggs is that all three were found on Egg Island. The name of the island could possibly have something to do with it? I really don't think I can pin down a definite decision for this answer until we know what the Federation was trying to surveillance.

"Permanent Surveillance," or, let's keep an eye on...something. Egg Island? The islanders?

GROUP #0004 - Richarlyson, ___ __ Department of System Analysis

I'm going to come in straight off the bat and tell you I have no idea what they could be doing in this group. "System Analysis" is incredibly vague, and likely intentionally so.

The best guess I can make is that the system being referred to is...the eggs. If EGG A1 is supposed to fill in the five blanks of the name, then this becomes obvious: the one time we saw this egg, ElQuackity was putting them through a parkour test. A parkour course is generally used to test skills.

...if I wanted to get really headcanon-y: Richarlyson's leg is canonically misdesigned. Running a parkour course with an egg younger than Richas could be the Feds trying to sort out what the issue with Richas' leg is/was.

Additionally, in the really headcanon-y realm, Romero Richas could be a fascinating way to show system malfunction. Just saying.

"System Analysis," or, let's make sure our experiments are working properly.

[ckret2]

Wait okay in The Book of Bill, Bill’s putting in all these pages himself while he’s in the theraprism, right? So… how could he have gotten his hands on the lost journal pages in there? I’ve seen people point out certain inconsistencies in them (Ford being drawn with a hair streak even though it’s supposed to take place earlier, etc.) What are your thoughts?

My theory is that either somehow he got his hands on the pages before his incarceration and stowed them in TBOB; or TBOB itself, being a magical book that can regenerate & "corrupt" other books & teleport around when you aren't looking, got hold of the journal and ripped the pages out itself.

I've seen all the "but Ford's drawn wrong" "but Ford never does Bill's handwriting like that" "but why weren't these pages present in the J3 we read after it was magically fully repaired" "but Ford was supposed to meet Bill in J2" chatter suggesting that maybe the pages aren't legit, and honestly? I think the explanation for all of these issues is "Alex last worked on J3 like eight years before TBOB and he & the artists were more concerned with beefing up Ford's relationships with Bill and Fiddleford than they were with little details like that." This is a situation where the doylist explanation is much simpler and a lot more likely than a watsonian complicated forgery scheme.

So that's my serious "what I think happened in canon" explanation for all that.

Separately, my own headcanon:

Personally I've theorized for ages that the journals weren't written chronologically (because if Ford fully filled J1 and J2 before starting J3, why did he just so happen to have blank two-page spreads in J1 & J2 on which he could write the portal blueprints, and why did Stan find SOME portal instructions in J1?), so my own headcanon is that the J3 we've read is indeed complete with all pages, and these pages are actually taken out of Journal 2. There might even be a few pages out of J1. Bill advertised them as "missing Journal 3 pages" because he knew The Reader Of TBOB is a GF fan who has more of an emotional connection to J3 than 1 and 2. The idea that he was filling the journals non-chronologically explains why these pages also cover events that happened during J3; which journal Ford was writing in on any day randomly bounced between journals.

This isn't an "I think this might have been the authorial intent" headcanon, this is an "I think the author accidentally introduced some inconsistencies so this is how I'm privately justifying them" headcanon.

[pandoa]

smile with me!!

where they see you, who is never one to show much emotion, smile for the first time

~feat. cater diamond, azul ashengrotto, rook hunt, and lilia vanrouge~ twisted wonderland x gender neutral reader

~headcanons~

a lot of you guys chose this in the poll i posted earlier, so here it is~ i chose which characters to include btw- have fun lolol

cater diamond sees you smile for the first time when he is mindlessly taking candid photos of the both of you together. it happens when you're looking at the adorable plushies featured at a themed café that had just opened up within the isle of sages. cater had wanted to visit it "for the aesthetics" and decided to bring you along simply for the fun of it. although he would never expect the surprise he felt when he saw a bright smile form on your charming face as he spam-clicked the camera button on his phone, taking random candids of the two of you as your eyes seemed to light up at the small, little plushies that came hugging the straws of your drinks. at first, the young man couldn't believe his eyes; you weren't exactly the type to reveal much emotion, let alone actually smile. but as a light giggle escaped your mouth as you took your own pictures of the soft stuffed animals, cater had realized how lucky—and special—he was for you to be comfortable enough to show your real emotions around him.

"Prefect! Oh my Sevens!"

"Look at these tiny plushies that come with our drinks! They look so so. . . cute?"

"Hm? Oh, it's nothing. The pictures I just took of us came out adorably~"

"Of course I already took photos! You never know when one pic can be the photo that's Magicam-perfect. But don't worry; I won't be posting these on Magicam."

"Why? Because they're too special to showcase to the internet, silly~ Oh yeah! And (Y/n), before I forget—"

"You have a precious smile~"

azul ashengrotto sees you smile when you let out a dazed sigh of satisfaction while performing for an audience at mostro lounge. it was an odd time for you to smile, actually. given the debt you were in with his business, azul was sure you would be anything but happy at the damages your little cat familiar had caused—which was why you were there now, performing in front of an audience full of students to make up for the debt you and grim were inevitably in. although, since it was your final performance for the week, the man supposed a little relief on your part was granted. he just didn't think he'd finally see a wide grin from your usually blank face shine and fill the room as the lounge's spotlight continued to glimmer above you. crowds of applause played throughout the room, whistling of some audience members sang in admiration, and you bowed, satisfied with your final performance. azul had even caught the chatter of some students sitting near him gushing over your radiance on the lounge's makeshift stage. but he had to admit... he, too, felt something small tug within his heart the moment you displayed a smile that could catch the attention of anyone around you. it was strange, but he would consider himself lucky for getting the chance to see it that day.

"Well done today, (Y/n)! Here, have a sip of some water for your efforts—no charge included."

"Sales were especially successful tonight and I am proud to say that if you keep this up, you and Grim will be free of debt sooner than originally planned. I trust that you will keep up the good work."

"Tips left for you are in that jar on top of the counter, along with some comments and notes left by the audience."

"You did well, Prefect."

"Oh and, if you feel comfortable in doing so, please keep on doing what you did today whenever you perform here."

"That smile of yours is very charming, if you did not know."

rook hunt spots a smile slowly escaping the corners of your face as he gently applies a soft shade of lip tint to your lips that matches your complexion. you were on your usual visit to pomefiore—off to go see the eccentric huntsman in his dorm room—when the man had suggested that he give you a little makeover with the new products vil had given him earlier that day. the young hunter seemed quite excited about the whole ordeal, so how could you refuse? giddily sitting you down on a seat in front of his dorm's mirror, rook had begun to apply shades of makeup gradually, delicately holding your face close to his to get a more detailed view of the cosmetics painting your cheeks. the man was completely focused on the strokes of his brush until he caught sight of a small, but enchanting smile, gracing your typically neutral expression when he had been applying a layer of lip tint to your face. any expression—or lack thereof—of yours was already spellbinding to him, but this time it had been different. this time, rook could have sworn he felt all the troubles of the world dissipate into thin air as the room seemed just a bit more brighter with your smiles filling each corner of the hunter's heart, making him endlessly fawn and ramble over how angelic you had looked at that moment.

"Mon ange! My, how most dazzling you are today!"

"Your beauty is always a sight to behold, however, today you are gleaming so incandescently! I must be careful; I may go blind by your shinning glow."

"Surely you see it as well, mon trésor. The way your existence illuminates tenfold whenever you bless the world with your joy."

"Your smile is something I wish to never be taken away from you."

lilia vanrouge catches your smile as he sneaks up to you in surprise, melodic laughter coming from your form following right after. just as he had caught you off guard, he was surprised as well seeing as you had never reacted that expressively the other times he had magically sprung up in front of you, hair oddly hanging from his head and body upside down as lilia's figure floated above you. perhaps it was the adorable way his cheeks had seemed to squish together as it gravitated down to the ground that had caused you to laugh so happily. or perhaps it was the cute, little "boo!" that came out of his lips that made you jump up, pleasantly astounded. either way, whatever reason you had that caused you to be so amused had lilia grinning as well in satisfaction. your rare smile had simply looked so endearing; it was like an unknown force was pushing against the third year—calling him to treasure and protect this emotion of yours at all costs. the specialness of your joy made the heart of this old fae flutter at the loveliness you had shown only to him that day.

"Boo!!"

"Ah, my apologies, Prefect, I did not mean to startle you too mu—"

"Hm? Oh? It's alright? My, that was unexpected, if I may be completely honest."

"Nothing to worry about, dearest (Y/n)~ I just want to engrave this moment into my mind for eternity, hehe."

"Why? To remember the sights of the first smile you had given me, of course~"

"That right there is something quite special to treasure in itself, wouldn't you say so, dear?"

a/n: believe it or not, my motivation for writing this came from people seeing my face for the first time after wearing a mask ever since 2020 (but extremely romanticized ofc lolol)

[vertumnanaturalis]

The Exocolonists of Vertumna (tumblr edition) Part 1: The starborn children of the Stratospheric

Sooo this is something I've been wanting to work on making for awhile, a tumblr text post addon for the big chunky npc list I've had for over a year. There's a lot of data I've accumulated over time that just doesn't fit in a google sheet in a decent way, and so I've been wanting to make some text posts to cover ideas that don't fit in my sheets, or might be an easier read for people who find my documents confusing.

I try to pull from canon as much as possible, and use speculation taken from a long hyperfixation on the concept of generation ships or bunkers and love for sci-fi media about it. The idea behind this list has always been to provide people with both an accessable set of easily usable/chuckable/maimable/fuckable/killable/ect names and ideas to fluff out the background of your own stories and with an illusion of consistancy, and to offer insight into my own headcanons that I've developed, so that people can take any bits and pieces they want and re-examine or reuse or recycle how they want. As always, I'll still try to mark which info is explicitly canon, but theres a lot of blanks to be filled in and my take on how things could be explained is far from the only one.

This one is gonna be an overview of the 54 people born on the Stratospheric and some approximate either in-universe or out-of-universe explanations for why things are structured the way they are. Future ones will cover specific sub-sections of those shipborn Stratos, overviews and department-specific pages about the adults of the Stratospheric, matching pages for people of the Heliopause, the children born during the final two years of the game, and even data for the kids possibly born beyond that.

In the earliest stages of drafting the ships population, the founders had planned to have exactly 100 people on the Stratospheric when it left Earth, primarily composed of their brightest and most promising between ages 10 and 25 (in local Earth years), and that 35 children would be born in five groups of seven during its 21(e)/20 (local Vertumna years) year journey, the maximum they could have fit in that ideal situation. On launch day in reality, the ship left with only 86 out of it's planned 100. Several of their important specialists were intercepted en-route to the launch pad, and a handful of their volunteer teenagers backed out in the final days and hours, while the reserve choices they had on hand were children chosen for their genetic diversity rather than skills or potential, with Utopia being an especially young outlier at just shy of 3(e). Outside of her and their sole member of generation one, Captain Eudicot, the ships population ran from original Chief Administrator Chiffon at 33(e) down to little Jubilation at 6-and-a-half(e). In one of the final documents outlined by the Earth colony's leaders in the hours before liftoff, the plans for the third generation were expanded from 35 to 50, adjusted for the younger leaning launch population and all the changes it entailed.

Similar to the founders original plan, spacer kids were still divided into five age groups (A, B, C, D, and E), with at least a year between the youngest person in one group and the eldest of the next. Half of this was to give the ship's lone acting physician a break period where there were no fresh infants or pregnancies to worry about, and the other half was to give the ship's administration time to carefully plan out the next set of children; How many children would be in this group, who was going to gestate the pregnancies, who their social parents would be (if any), what augments Instance would give them, and, most importantly, keeping an eye on the current genetic and social diversity of the third generation, so that they did not reach a genetic or social bottleneck too quickly (ie incest in a social setting, even if the two individuals are not genetically related). All of the embryos that would become the next group of children were created in the same few month period of time and cryofrozen until they were due to be implanted in the person chosen to gestate them. There were a number of extra rules that the Vertumna Group had written out that ultimately Eudicot and the council decided to abandon to at some point in the trip, all for various reasons, and not all by unanimous vote;

That there would be no need for drastic changes in the current groups' plans once the planning stage was over.

That every pregnancy would only include one fetus, with post-implantation embryo splits being selectively reduced.

None of the children born on the Stratospheric would have any genetic relationship with one another, and parents having more than one child would be discouraged, and that in cases where siblings did occur, either each sibling would only take genes from one parent (in family units with 2+ parents) or only the eldest child would have genetic relation to their parent and any following child would be purely from donated dna (for family units with only one parent).

That, at minimum, a quarter of every group should be set asside to for children with no dedicated family attachments, both to better. adhere to the group's original idea of having no parents, but also to give the young colony a bit more padding against the looming threat of everyone being second or third cousins in only a few generations.

Another rule that, while not completely abandoned, was less and less considered as the years went on was one that mandated how many embryos of each cluster were planned to develop with a genetically likely physiology that could get pregnant, a physiology that could get others pregnant, or anything in the vast array of historically normal and genetech introduced non-reproductive physiologies. This was never intended to determine the gender of the resulting children and any gene therapy they want or require in the future, or guarentee that the embryo would fully develop in the "intended" (solely in regards to their future reproductive capibilities, without further gene therepy involvement) way, but rather an attempt to gamble that at a decent number of the third generation would be able to continue the human species in the event their genetech was lost prematurely. For the original plan with 5 groups of 7, each group was to have a minimum of 3 embryos with an expected physeology that would be able to carry a pregnancy, 3 that could sire a pregnancy, and the 7th wouldn't have any requirements. The 3/3/1 ratio was followed exactly only during the first group, while following groups would only roughly follow this plan. In total, 54 children were born between leaving Earth and arriving at the wormhole; 30 out of them having siblings of some kind, with 10 of those children being born in sets of multiples (with two sets of twins and two sets of triplets) - with only one accidental post-implanation embryotic split resulting in two of those children - with 16 of the children have some genetic relationship with one another (though, with the exception of the identical sisters, none closer than genetic half siblings); and ultimately, only 9 children were explicitly born to be raised in the creche without parentage.

The 54 children of the Stratospheric:

Group A: The oldest spacer kids, they'd be adults at landing by Helio standards but they're still minors by the culture of the Vertumna group, coddled and babied more at landing than Sol when they reach the same age down the road, even if they still have adult jobs and responsabilities.

Cosmozoa "Cosmo" - he/him - 18

Lilium "Lili" - she/her - 18

Sorrel - he/him - 18 - A canon name and job, rest of info is fanmade

Benevolence "Bena" - she/her - 18

Edamame "Ed" - he/him - 17

Malagma "Mal" - they/them - 17

Absinthe "Abby" - any pronouns, feminine formal terms - 16* (17th birthday shortly after New Year day but before landing on Vertumna)

Group B: Kom's age group, with him as the oldest of the bracket, still young enough to be discovering themselves but old enough that the adults are rapidly giving them more responsibilities than their upperclassmen were at the same age. A series of unlikely and specific events led to the existance of the ships first set of multiples, and their existance provides in-universe backstory and reasoning for why some of the following children exist.

Kombucha "Kom" - he/him - 15

Quinine "Quinni" - they/them, later + he/him - 15 - same deal as Sorrel, even being named in the same event

Thicket - Any, masculine familiar terms - 14** (15th birthday after arriving on Vertumna but before Sol wakes up in medbay)

Opulence "Opal" - she/her - 14

Vertex "Tex" he/him - 14

Tempest "Pem" - she/her + They/them - 13* (same as Abby)

Chrysocolla "Chrys" - they/them - 13

Triplets Coriander "Cory" (he/him) , Scallopini "Pina" (she/her) , and Amaretto "Ame" (she/her) - 13 - Pina and Ame are the identical sisters mentioned above, while their fraternal brother Cory is genetically unrelated to them

Falchion "Kion" - he/him - 13

Group C: Sol's age bracket, most of these kids are canon and need no explanation

Arroyo "Ary" - he/him - 11

Aspartame "Tammy" - she/her - 11

Recalcitrance "Cal" - he/him - 11

Simplicity "Plic" - she/her - 11

Peregrine "Penny" - she/her - 10

Evanescence "Evan" - he/him - 10

Philosophy "Sully" - they/them - 10

Marzipan "Marz" - she/her - 10

Solanaceae* "Sol*" - they/them* - 9** name varies by timeline, but all of my documents will refer to our player character as Sol, and primarily but not exclusively with they/them pronouns; their 10th birthday is very notibly after they land on Vertumna shortly into the new year

Anemone "Annie/Nem/Nemmie/[Determined by player choice]" - she/her - 9

Twins Dysthymia "Dys" (he/him) and Tangent "Tang" (she/her) - 9 - in all of my headcanon documents, including this one, I am going with the idea that they are planned fraternal twins with seperate sperm donors; I know the take that they were idetical twins is a common one, but it isn't actually a canon one; nothing in the game actively states this, the idea that they were identical is simply a common and very reasonable take on the information the game gives us, but it was never something I got from playing the game myself. If you're curious about all the exact reasons for this you can send an ask and I'll elaborate.

Group D - The younger kids, like Anemone's triplet brothers, half of them have their holopalms installed but still spend a lot of time in the creche when they land. All but the eldest three are kids Sol and Tammy babysit, and 100% of them are kids Sol can later tutor in school

Hawthorn "Hawth" - they/them - 7

Hyaline "Lin" - any - 7

Sepia - she/her - 7

Triplets Cirrus, Stratus, and Cumulus (all he/him) - 6** (same as Thicket) - we never get their exact age, but they're listed as being 7 years old when the game starts in an only mostly correct game file character sheet, the triplets ended up being technically 6 at the start because of an early whoopsie daisy during early npc documentation

Mistletoe "Misu-Misu" - she/her - 6

Kelvin - he/him - 6

Effervesence - he/him, later + they/them - 5

Vendetta "Detta" - she/her, later + they/them - 5

Necterine "Nena" - she/her - 5

Group E - The youngest of the generation, all toddlers and babies on arrival, space born in technicality, but children of Vertumna in every other way. The largest of the groups with 13 children included, and the group with the most imaginative and most untested augments.

Nougat - she/her - 3

Nimbus - he/him - 3 - similar to the cloud triplets, we never get his age beyond that he's "little Nimbus", but he's old enough to be in school when Sol first unlocks the tutoring job so I put him at Nougat's age

Panache "Pan" - he/him - 2

Maraschino "Chino" - he/him & she/her - 2 -while Chino does appear in game with only the he/him pronouns used, "Marachino "Chino" with the pronouns he/him"'s age is never directly given in-game, a "Marachino "Mara" with the pronouns she/her" and an age of 2 is listed in the same file that gives the cloud triplet's their approximate age and listed as a child encountered during babysitting, so I went with a middle ground of having this character use both pronouns and later both nicknames

Tessera "Tess" - she/her - 2

Macaroni "Mac" - she/her & he/him - 1 - the child with the no pain augment is refered to with he/him pronouns in-game, but I went with a similar deal to Chino for variety

Contrivance "Connie" - he/him - 1 - the child with the shark teeth augment is also refered to with he/him pronouns

Ketamine "Ket" - they/them - 1

Maxilla "Max" - he/him - 0

Twins Whimsy and Praline (both she/her) - 0 - while one of Dys's late game/high skill events has him talking about how at one point he and Tangent were "The Twins" prior to their relationship crumbling apart, I thought it would be narratively fitting to have a younger set of twins being planned/conceived/born at the same time as their relationship falls apart as Tangent gets further into genetics (where said twins were being made), making him and Tang lose their status as being "The Twins" in multiple ways

Benzodiazepine "Benji" - he/him - 0

Enigma "Ena" - she/her - 0 - the youngest child from the Strato's third gen and last one to be born in space is refered to with she/her pronouns as a baby, opted to keep those pronouns as she grows older

In total, the shipborn children and teenagers account for roughly 40% of it's landing population (39.7% when arriving at the wormhole, and 42.2% after the canonly unavoidable loss of life during it's landing). This number combined with the chaos of living on a new planet and the very likely scenario of the ship's brown dirt being lost would be a good starting explanation for some of the glaring failures in child wellfair and safety during the 10 years we see during the game, but definately not an excuse. The next post is going to be either a quick overlook of the gen 2 Strato characters or a more detailed post for one of the specific gen 3 groups, detailing things like birthdays and augments, with posts detailing the adult npcs and all the Helios and planetborn children coming later.

Also, as there was no decent way to include this higher up the list, here are the sibling sets discussed earlier;

Sorrel, Thicket, and Misu [only Sorrel shares any dna with their mother, Thicket and Misu are both entirely from donor dna]

Kom, Anemone, Cirrus, Stratus, Cumulus, and Nimbus [Kom and Anemone are genetic half siblings with 50% of their genes from Anne, while the following boys only have between 15 and 35% coming from Anne, with the rest from multiple donors]

Opal and Ves [Opal only shares her mother's dna, while Ves only shares his father's]

Tex and Ary [only Tex has his father's dna, with Arroyo's embryo coming from Earth]

Cory, Pina, and Ame [None of the trio have their mother's dna, and the embryo that became Cory shared no dna with the embryo that split into Pina and Ame]

Kion, Penny, and Sepia [One of the three is only genetically related to one of their two parents, another is only genetically related to the second parent, and the third is entirely from donor dna or an Earth embryo, but only Instance knows which of the three is which, as all three were created (or selected) at the same time for this exact scenario]

Sully and Ket [occupy a unique space as sorta step-siblings, as they both have single parents who begin a romantic relationship after landing]

Dys and Tang [explained above]

Kelvin and Pan [occupy another unique space as social half-siblings, with Kelvin being born to a single father who entered a relationship after he was born, but his father's partner is very explicitly not his mom genetically or socially]

Detta and Connie [a similar deal to Opal and Ves, but I haven't mapped out which parent is which yet]

Nena and Chino [genetic half siblings, with both taking dna from their mother and Nena taking dna from one of their fathers and Chino taking it from the other]

Whimsy and Praline [they don't share any genetic material with one another or their mom, and an in-universe rumored reason for it is that their mom had been the egg donor for one of the older children]

Also, the creche children who were born at the behest of the colony without any specific designated parents in mind

Bena

Mal

Chrys

Plic

Hawth

Lin

Nougat

Tess

Max

Side note: Canonically, Anemone's brother Kom is the oldest shipborn child we see, and while I believe Lindsay intended for Kom to be the oldest member of gen 3 after Utopia, this is never actually stated in the game, and I was surprised to see that it was the intent as it never came across to me that way during my initial playthroughs. Nothing in here explicitly ignores or goes against anything said or mentioned in the game proper, but I know that having any of the kids be older than Kom is probably the not the most canon way to construct the generations layout. One of the canonly used names in the game, "Sorrel", has been given to one of these teens, but there is neither anything for or against Sorrel being this age, as the only information we get beyond a name is a manner of death and a place of work.

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

Steve Harrington x Past Tommy headcanon, Steddie being the future (this isn't me trying to make an excuse for Tommy, but I'm just trying to fill in the blanks the Duffle bags left us with):

Don't get me wrong, I love it where Eddie is Steve’s queer awakening and all, but it's definitely used a lot. Not a complaint, just stating a fact. Come on, there definitely wasn't anything straight about his relationship with Tommy, and Carol was definitely Tommy's beard. At least, I think that Carol is Tommy's beard and a lesbian. Am I like the only one who thought they weren't that bad? I mean, yeah, they were assholes but to be fair, every teenager is one. I was a good kid who didn't make my dad worry so much, but even I could be such an asshole sometimes. The theater thing was over the line, but I can imagine they did that because they probably witnessed Steve crying. They're probably one of the only ones who saw Steve cry, and I think we probably would have gone to war if we saw Steve cry. And I think Tommy probably did it out of guilt.

I think Steve was with Tommy once, and maybe he thinks Tommy was a special case. Maybe he had hoped that Tommy would stop being an asshole and that's why it didn't work. Maybe that's why Tommy basically called him a coward. Maybe he walked away from Tommy more than once. I mean, he did get onto Tommy when he said something shitty. Why do people think that he didn't try to ever stop Tommy? He never joined in on when they talked shit. He got onto Tommy for saying shit about Jonathan. I think the theater was the only time he didn't ever try, and the only time he talked shit about Jonathan was because he was angry and hurt. Shit, maybe he wasn't just thinking about his parents when he saw Nancy with Jonathan? Maybe he was thinking about that time he walked in on Tommy having sex with Carol because they were trying to see if they were interested in the opposite sex. They weren't, but Steve didn't know that because he walked away. He also stayed because Tommy was his oldest friend. He walked away for the last time, and Tommy, heartbroken, befriended Billy, hoping to make Steve jealous.

Steve didn't tell Robin, not only because it hurt too much, because it wasn't just his secret to tell. He didn't think he could ever fall for another guy again. He knows he's attracted to them, but he didn't think he could love another one until Eddie came along. And when Eddie was lying prone in the hospital, Steve brought Robin to the bathroom and told her everything. She was another person who saw him cry.

I don't know. People don't give Steve enough credit for walking from Tommy and Carol. I mean, just because they were assholes, their friendship doesn't mean anything. . .it doesn't mean anything that Steve walked away from a shitty situation? Most adults can't do what Steve did. Just the facts.

[shippingmyworld]

Pigging backing on the Danny x Sam ask, but I wanna you're thoughts about Manny and Frida too and how their romantic relationship didn't work out

The Manny x Frida ship sinks a lot less dramatically than the Danny x Sam ship in my headcanon lmao

I chalk up their relationship 'failing' to Manny being autistic and Frida being adhd-coded. Also because they were 13-14 when they kissed and I believe that when you're that young you don't quite know what you want out of life or relationships yet, especially if it's your first one.

In full honestly, I don't believe that Manny held a single ounce of attraction to Frida in a romantic way. Frida was the one that initiated the kiss during the series finale, and Manny barely even reacted to that. I think his autistic mind just went 'Oh, I guess I'm dating Frida now.' and when people/his family asked him if Frida was his girlfriend, he confirmed it. In his mind, you only kissed someone if you were dating or married.

While I do think that Frida did develop a crush on Manny, I don't believe that she was serious about the kiss as a way for them to start dating. She's excitable, and gets swept up in the moment very easily, and is the jester type of character. She's the hypeman of every situation she's remotely near, even if not directly involved (my main example is the Cactus Kid episode, where she slides into the scene and makes the 'Oh, must be awkward to be you.' comment to Cactus Kid when Grandpapi reveals he's only using CK to make Manny jealous and doesn't think CK is cut out to be a real villain). I think that she kissed Manny because her thought process was something along the lines of: "Hey, this superhero just rounded up literally every villain in the area and is being celebrated by everyone. Someone should kiss him, that's what will make this moment super hype."

So yeah, they tell people that they're boyfriend a girlfriend when asked, but nothing about their relationship actually changed. They don't hold hands, they don't go on romantic dates, and they haven't kissed since that final fight. They still hang out all the time during their first year of high school, but slowly start drifting to different groups as they don't have many classes together.

The year passes normally and it's summer break. Rodolfo approaches Manny (who's just hanging out at home) all nervous like, asking a bunch of questions like he's beating around the bush. Manny thinks it's weird and asks his Dad what's up, and Rodolfo asks if everything is good with Manny and Frida since she hasn't been around recently. Manny says everything is fine, and Rodolfo keeps pushing the issue (he's projecting failed marriage with Maria onto his son). He eventually asks when the last time Manny kissed Frida was, and Manny realizes they haven't kissed since the first kiss right before high school.

So, being the direct person he is, Manny just calls Frida (in front of his father of all things) and tells her point blank.

Manny: "Hey, we haven't kissed since a year ago." Frida: "Huh, you're right." Manny: "So I guess we're not dating anymore?" Frida: "Yeah, I guess so. We're still friends though, right?" Manny: "Of course!"

And the call ends there with Manny going on with his day as usual while his Father stands there horror-struck and still processing the most chill breakup in history.

Meanwhile there's a whole soap opera level of drama going on in the background, as all the supervillains in school want to date Frida and have been waiting for her to break up with Manny, and Zoe has been trying to get Manny to fall in love with her. But that's a whole nother fic prompt lol.

Also it's cool, my posts are literally filled with typos lmao

[finniestoncrane]

I love your Riddlers switching each other's bodies, but what about Riddlers switching bodies with their AFAB s/o 🤔

Body Swap w/Reader

Riddler Headcanons ok i'm gonna make this gender neutral because i got another one specifying that, but all the general actions will be the same 👀 request info • prompt list • send me a request • kofi • masterlist minors DNI!! 🔞 cw: touching, i guess don't read if cnc/noncon is a huge trigger, because some of this could be construed as that! since it's your body... but not your body... kinda

zero year

if you thought his perverted behaviour was borderline invasive before

you're about to witness it happen first-hand

which is... worse than him just checking you out? because now you have to watch him checking you out

like you've been given a front row seat to his sleazy little show

and you know, you just know, that as soon as he's no longer within your sight

that he's exploring everything, getting a very good look

a very good... feel... of you, and how you should be handled

maybe if he knows what he's doing, you'll let him get a shot of it once he's back in his own body

since you spur his incessant advances the rest of the time

he'll definitely be getting his fill of this, maybe with a photoshoot later, something to remember this by

gotham

oh this is absolutely wonderful, delightful, gee golly gosh!

it would have been wonderful to get a good rummage around your mind and see how it works

but exploring your body and knowing it so intimately is good too

from a purely scientific... research-based... perspective of course

no other reason, but if it's ok for him to say, you do look wonderful

or he looks wonderful... or your body looks wonderful

ok let him start again, he's getting flustered

maybe start with a question! something familiar to him

so, what kind of underwear is it that you have on because it's very comfortable... or is that...

guess he could just go and look... oh dear... he's sorry, so sorry

arkham

perfect, you don't have as many aching bits or cuts and bruises as he does

it's like a blank canvas to start working on, not that he's going to be focused intentionally on hurting you

but it's the risks of being the handiest, smartest body in gotham

although, it's very distracting how... soft you are

much softer than he is... and warmer too... smoother, nicer

ok this was a terrible idea because now he's completely distracted

he almost feels bad for all the times he called you stupid and yelled at you for not listening or making mistakes

it must be almost impossible to do anything or focus on anything

especially when you look and... feel like this... OK switch back he is uncomfortable with the feelings he is experiencing thanks

but he will remember that you feel delightful... just for reference

telltale

you know what, he's just as annoyed about this as he thought he would be

you have absolutely no right to call him old and weak anymore, even if you're just joking

his joints feel a lot better than these ones

and he's far more comfortable in his own skin... literally

you better be taking it easy in there!

don't eat or drink anything stupid, don't do anything stupid, don't make him look stupid

he realises that might be a difficult task for you, given your... you

but the least you could do is make a concerted effort now

or he'll be extra cruel with any resulting punishments

and he has control over you now, far more than he did before, so keep that in mind

unburied

haha, your body is so much worse than his, give it back!

this is such an unfair swap, he gets landed with this hunk of junk

and you get to surround yourself in his wonderful, tight little figure

you're welcome to touch him if you want

no *smacks your hand away* not like... him-you, you-him

look, just give him your hand and he'll show you where to put it

what do you mean you don't want to touch his body!?

you've been given a golden opportunity here

at least get out there and show him off, make use of your one opportunity to be this cute

and he'll stay here, hidden from humanity until he's back to being adorable again, urgh

twojar

ok get ready because he really knows how to please himself

so you are in for an absolute treat here

just sit back, relax, and let him take care of you... him... both of you

also, he hates to sound egomaniacal

but he looks even better from this perspective than he thought he might

with your body, he's not getting up to anything mischievous

unless you ask him to, or give him permission

but he's very keen to explore you from a deeply intimate angle

it'll be a learning experience, like he's studying for an exam

and he'll pass with flying colours once you guys are swapped back

dano

ok so the misery he was carrying is definitely in his brain

or maybe even buried deep within his soul

because it's still there, as unfortunate as that is, even though he knew it would be

but it feels... easier to deal with, like when he puts on his mask and coat

there's a weight lifted off his shoulders, or maybe your posture is just better

you're not hunched over a desk day and night

studying numbers and following leads and planning crimes

at least not to the extent that he is

also, and please tell him if this is too inappropriate, and he's blushing already

but your butt is very comfortable to sit on

btaa

the potential for mischief, or sheer artistry, is overwhelming

nobody would suspect him of being up to anything untoward

because you, unlike him and miss tuesday

have no criminal record whatsoever

it's the perfect disguise, not even being himself!

he should have thought of this sooner, putting his big brain in another body

to be able to sneak around in broad daylight with no one suspecting a thing

how rude to ask him about the implications of what happens if he gets caught

yes, yes, it's understandable you would be worried about being sent to prison

he'll never get caught though... not this time... hopefully...

young justice

it's just kinda nice to not be him for a little while, y'know

so you'll have to be extra nice about being in his body

might be a nice ego boost to know that you enjoy him...

he's pretty pleased to be in your skin though

people are nicer to him!

and you're cute enough that he can get away with being annoying

that's a new experience for him, and he likes it

it might be difficult to get him to switch back actually

you're carrying him much better than he did anyway!

and no one is threatening to beat him up for telling the same riddle until someone gets it correct now

[charliemwrites]

Every time I read any of your works I am so astounded. How you manage to blend pure poetry into each piece is amazing. It sounds silly but do you have any tips? You motivate me to write and write better.

Hi!! Thank you so much that’s so sweet. It doesn’t sound silly at all, hopefully my advice is helpful and not just generic 😅

- write what you want. Like seriously. No shame, no cringe. You don’t even have to publish it, just write whatever your brain is feeling and don’t fall into the trap of “should”

- on the note of bot publishing; I don’t post everything I write. A lot of stuff stays in my personal files. Any writing is good. It’s practice. Don’t feel compelled to share it

- don’t get hung up on finding the right word/phrase/fact. Make a note for yourself somehow and keep going. I tend to use brackets when I’ve dropped in a place holder. I do it with whole paragraphs sometimes

- if you have an idea you really want to write, but don’t know where to go with it, do a headcanon list. This is also a good way to outline a larger story without getting tangled in fine details or specific scenes. Word vomit in a notes app or talk to a friend about it until you run out of ideas. Then go back, pick and choose, and flesh it out

- if you get stuck, I have a couple tips for that but everyone has their own strategies. You can cut the scene and put it in a separate doc. Maybe you wrote some lines you really like, you don’t have to delete them! Just move them somewhere else for now until you can rehome them. Write from a different POV. Even if doesn’t “make sense” with the rest of the story, there’s no writing police out to get you. Time skip. Maybe you’re anxious about writing the big confrontation. Write the fallout, then go back and fill in the blanks as a “how did we get here”

I hope these help! And if you have any specific questions or anything, let me know. Developing a writing style takes practice and emulation. Find styles you like, borrow their terms and phrases. Again, you don’t have to post it, you just need to work with it until it feels comfortable in your voice!

[jamiesfootball]

Please please please say more about send help

send help: man who believes in rom-communism just found out he's aromantic

A while ago I sent this brainworm about an aromantic Ted story idea to @altschmerzes (because who better to share aromantic headcanons with?) except now the brainworm has eaten into my brain and what has happened is-

Mom City Alternate Ending

Roy and Keeley show up literally seconds earlier than they did in canon and end up witnessing through the treatment room window the moment Jamie sends the text to his dad. And since there is a difference between 'I will pretend things are fine' and 'I will lie to the people in front of me', Jamie fails to shrug them off and admits to him what Ted told him on the field.

Roy and Keeley? Not happy. United front in the Taking Care Of Jamie Tartt Brigade. They take him home. Talk him through it.

Then they talk about other stuff, the three of them.

Then they end up in a qpr.

Jamie, come the following week, is practically floating on air. Ted sees this and, naturally, thinks that maybe Jamie took his advice and things worked out for the better. Even makes a remark about it to the other coaches, in that off-hand Ted way of his.

Ted doesn't know what's up with Roy, who seems incapable of standing in a room with him without emitting a low-level growling, but Ted does have other stuff on his mind. He's leaving Richmond. He's saying goodbye to a lot of people, people who mean the world to him. He can hardly look at Rebecca, Trent can't stop looking at him, and Beard and him have been playing a game where whenever one of them looks over, the other looks away.

Anyways, it's very possible that this is just a Roy Kent-ish way of Roy dealing with whatever thoughts Roy has on Ted leaving.

So Roy corners Jamie at home and tells him, 'you got to talk to Ted before he leaves. Tell him he was wrong. Or instead of telling him goodbye, I'm gonna punch a hole in his face.'

Except Jamie can tell, with that Jamie laser-focused perception that's really good at football and also really good at Roy Kents, that Roy isn't just saying it because he's angry. Behind the guard-dog face is something sincere, some hurt bit that doesn't like being mad at his friend because Ted is Roy's friend, so Jamie says, "Keep your shirt on, grandad. I'll talk to him."

Unfortunately, that's the last time Jamie doesn't fail a perception check.

So he goes to talk to Ted, and under the weight of the task of telling Ted he was wrong, Jamie flounders. Because somehow in telling Ted that he was wrong, Jamie realizes he's actually going to have to say what kind of a piece of shit his dad is. Not imply it, not rely on them knowing him well enough to fill in the blanks - Ted hasn't caught any of that.

Jamie, looking for any way into the conversation that doesn't make him want to tear his skin off, ends up blurting that him, Roy and Keeley are now in a relationship together. Kind of.

No, not like Ted's thinking. But yes, he does mean together.

It's complicated.

See, there's a lot of things about being in relationships over the years that always confused him. Sometimes it was gestures, sometimes it was the way people would talk to him or talk about him or touch him, and it always left him feeling... wrong. Like there was a bit of the conversation he just wasn't keeping up with.

There's been a lot of things that he's done, things he did to keep those relationships, that he....really doesn't want to do anymore. Nothing bad, but it's like there's this person yeah? And they want to dance, and Jamie knows theoretically how to dance, but he doesn't like this dance. In fact he'd prefer if there was no dance. Sometimes the people he's dating, they want to be close to him like that, but then when he doesn't, they feel like he's pulling away. So he puts up with it because he wants to please them, but then the weight of it gets to him, and then it builds and builds until everything feels wrong, and then he doesn't want to be close to them at all, and then he feels like the world's biggest bastard, because who feels that way about someone they care about? And about- stupid things! Minor things, that don't seem like they should be important at all! Except everyone else seems to think its the most important part of a relationship, like everything else Jamie did couldn't make up for him lacking this one thing.

Lust Conquers All was a lie; turned out even that show wanted that same more out of him too - and at that point he just didn't care anymore, which is why he ain't been seen with anyone in a long time.

And to make matters even more infuriating - he can't even explain what that thing is! Just that it makes him feel like he's going to break out in hives when it happens! So yeah, he figured, he'd just stay single.

Except then there were Roy and Keeley, and they were like his favorite people in the world? So he tried to tell them the truth, as best he could put it, that it wasn't what they were offering that was wrong - it was Jamie that was wrong.

Roy and Keeley listened to him, and Keeley was super understanding and said that she'd gotten a vibe from him before that she'd never been able to put her finger on, but she'd always let it guide her on when she needed to give him space. Then Roy got the angry caterpillar look on his face and told them both to wait a moment, and he called some lady that he knew from yoga, and anyways it turned out that her son had just come out to her as aromantic, and it sounded like maybe I was struggling with that, and its been such a relief, you know? Like, there was nothing ever wrong with me, it turns out there was just this word I didn't know; and now that I know it, I can get what I want - and I can be with who I want, 'cause then no one's going into it blind, see? We can all be on the same page, and no one has to be disappointed and get their feelings hurt, and I don't have to be alone if I don't want to be alone, and.... Ted?

Ted?

Ted has a panic attack right there in the pub.

As the fic then continues, Ted has a series of revelations about himself and Jamie finds himself acting as a sort of.... accidental aromantic guru. To Ted.

Who he still hasn't told about the thing with his dad.

The fic itself is still very early-days conceptually, but it absolutely ends up with Ted being in three separate, openly spoken-about queer platonic relationships with Rebecca, Trent, and Beard before he ever ends up making it back on American soil.

I say 'openly-spoken about' because Ted and Beard are their own thing that ends up being confronted - with Ted admitting that part of the reason he never felt comfortable telling Beard he could do better than Jane was that in a way that seemed like crossing a line. Telling your friend who they could and couldn't date. There was a line, wasn't there, a status quo on which relationship you had to put first if you wanted a real commitment with someone. There was a line right?

"There's never been a line for you, Teddy."

From there it's like- what's it mean if he's always sort of known Trent is into him, and he's always been worried about leading him on, but at the same time some of his favorite nights have been when the two of them stay late at the Dog Track and they just... talk?

What's it mean when he loves Rebecca, but he's never once had the urge to wine and dine her? When he doesn't want anything to change between them, but he would like to exist in the same room as her basically every day until the end of time? Is that even fair to her?

Is that fair to any of them?

How is it fair if Ted asks for what he wants when he knows full well he can't give any of them what they want in return?

Will Ted ever even be comfortable asking for that? Asking for what he wants?

Actually, he will ask for one thing he wants- he wants Roy Kent to stop growling at him.

He doesn't know how to get that either.

[ishgard]

Rambly first impressions but I'll probably be turning DT around in my head for a while still. Spoilers obviously touched on but I try to be vague about it as much as possible X'D

Overall I enjoyed it! imo it was far from their strongest expac and is admittedly pretty low on my mental expac tierlist (fittingly, about equal with ARR, which isn't a bad thing per se), but it did a decent enough job at what it did, especially so in the first half. I'm in love with Tural and the people, the cast of characters, the lore - it was all delightful!

I absolutely understand peoples complaints about their presence feeling kind of pointless at times, but I also didn't mind taking a side/mentor role either (I've had potential plot/headcanons for Ahru doing as much for a long time now, so it works for me). I don't think they always balanced it well at all, though.

I also would have loved to see more interactions between, say, the Scions and Lamaty'i, but it was nice taking things at a slow steady pace and just enjoying the world building. They had a lot on their plate to show us, and they did it well.

The second half... played with some themes I enjoyed well enough, but suffered from some questionable writing that often gave me whiplash.

I love!! the aesthetics of Solution 9, it was another one of the few things that piqued my interest for DT initially. The overall lore and story was enjoyable, just kind of an echo of things we've dealt with before which isn't a criticism exactly.

I'm typically pretty good at immersing myself and smoothing over rough edges in my mind as I go, filling in blanks and grounding myself in my characters' reactions, but there were a number of times I felt kicked in the teeth and taken out by some of the choices. There were definitely more than a few scenes I immediately had to be like "well Ahru is just not here for this because that just would not have happened" lmao I'd be groaning and rolling my eyes one minute, only to be balling my eyes out the next, so just a lot of whiplash 😂

I kept feeling like the second half would have benefited from more time building some of that stuff up, but instead we got a lot of things repeated to us multiple times and obvious things drawn out for us.

Also though they got their moments in some of the very final quests, I had really hoped to see more of Erenville and Krile's stories throughout the overall MSQ. (THAT scene with Erenville got me ugly crying though omfg.)

I feel like I'm mostly complaining but this is probably one of my most 'mixed feelings' expansions in the ten+ years I've been playing. Like, that's fine though, SHB and EW were ALL up my alley and delicious, this can be a little less 'for me', and it was enjoyable enough I don't feel entirely disconnected from the game I love. The high notes it hit really well, I'm in love with Tural and the lore, and I'm super excited and interested to see where they take us next - and what we do with Azem's key. 👀

I was utterly blind-sided by a certain two-headed mamool ja so now I guess I'm a Bakool Ja Ja fucker. 🤷‍♀️ Also I have a new son and if anything happens to him I'll kill everyone and myself. (p.s. trial 2's boss was the worst villain I've ever suffered and this is coming from a lifelong villain fucker, they were a big detractor from my enjoyment at times tbh)

I am begging for another adventure with Erenville because that snippet was hands-down one of the highlights for me for purely biased reasons. Admittedly, there were a number of times I was the 'do it for him' meme with Erenville's face plastered all over it. I'll probably need to do a whole other rant about him tbh

My slightly joking prediction is chemist for 8.0 just on account of his whole two times mentioning he had potions on him to help the wounded.

[eneiryu]

I find the idea of Alec (and admittedly the idea of Theo and Alec) really fascinating because of when he joined the pack and how we know?? Literally, nothing about him once the series ended?? So I was wondering what your favourite characterisations or headcanons are for your Alec, maybe some fun facts or reasons behind why you write him the way that you do because I honestly love the way that you write him, I would like to crumble him up and eat him so he is a part of me forever (in a non weird way, I just think about your Alec a lot and always want to know/read more about him)

Thank you! And would fully agree—part of what makes Alec interesting is that he’s a such a blank slate, given how little we know.

But as for my headcanons for him, I do like to think they’re rooted in the crumbs we got in the show. He’s awkward and has no idea how to be a werewolf because, like Scott, he was a completely human kid before he was bitten. He doesn’t have an alpha or a pack around him, and he’s being hunted. So, he’s alone, and terrified, both of the external forces—the hunters after him, being found out by the humans around him—and his internal struggles, e.g. being a werewolf when he doesn’t even originally know that’s what he is, losing control, etc.

And then Scott and Argent come along and rescue him, and (we assume) bring him back to help keep him safe while he figures out what to do next. And he gets introduced to the McCall pack chaos, which is chaos in the best way—warm and welcoming and filled with strays, just like him—and so now he can be awkward and terrified while no longer being alone, and the terror part can be worked on: he’s surrounded by people who get it, and who aren’t terrified of him, because they’re like him, or because they understand and accept and love people like him (and, maybe, him too, one day).

And then there’s Theo, of course, who I have extremely long and detailed headcanons for, built up over six years 😆 (seriously, what the hell). And I think Theo, as the stray accepted into the pack (even if he refuses to let himself see or believe it) right before Alec, would have a soft spot for him. Not to mention that Theo in general in my mind is looking for any and all opportunities to help make up for the things he’s done, and helping someone like Alec would be an obvious application. And—as has probably come through in some of my stories—I think Alec would be incredibly starved for all of that, and so would end up sort of helplessly drawn to Theo, even knowing—because of how obvious it is—that Theo is fully wrapped up in Liam.

And then there’s Nolan, which I realize you didn’t actually ask about. 😆 But the reason I ended up drawn to those two as a pairing, is because I think for both of them, Alec’s newness to being a werewolf would be something they share. Nolan ended up terrified of werewolves and the supernatural because of his experiences, but all of his experiences were with people who had come to terms with being a supernatural, and weren’t necessarily afraid of their own abilities or what they were. But Alec is, and I think that gives Nolan an opportunity to realize that not all supernaturals are the Beast, or even Scott or Liam or Theo. Some of them get thrown into this life as unwillingly as he did, and some of them are just trying to survive day by day, while maintaining their humanity. And that new perspective helps Nolan keep coming to terms with his new reality, and also his own past.

So anyway, those are some of my Alec thoughts, which do crack me up given we saw him for maybe five total minutes in the show. 😆 Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share!

[emotionally-charged-arson]

A Very, Very Unfinished Pile of Theory of Everything Headcanons (Ayreon)

Last semester, my English final was a presentation relating the overall theme of the Forever saga to that of the more popular works of H.G. Wells. Details of that argument aside, the thesis was that Ayreon’s emotional core was the presence of small-scale acts of love juxtaposed against large-scale existential tragedy, balanced in their individual power. That we are messy and self-destructive, and in the grand scheme of things we mean very little in the universe, but we are resilient and alive and human and that has to be worth something.

I really like this aspect of the main story, and it got me a perfect score on that assignment. It had a ten minute time limit and I was fighting for my life to stay under it. While I was downsizing the script, I couldn’t help but think of an earlier idea I had drafted about how The Theory of Everything on its own was a really incredible example of the mad scientist archetype turned completely on its head (it was a science-fiction analysis class). Specifically how that script was almost three times longer than the original H.G. Wells one, that took me a solid twenty minutes to read aloud. 

I literally wrote an hour long lecture about The Theory of Everything. No headcanons. No extra theories. Literally just picking apart its canon plot. 

I think this is why I have so little extra writing for it. The story as its given is airtight and just…fucking incredible. Arjen wrote it with a very clear theme in mind like he did with Transitus, but TToE isn’t missing half of its story because he couldn’t pull in the cash to make a movie out of it. You can feel the intention behind every single character, they feel like real people, it has so many layers to it and it is literally, objectively, the greatest prog album ever made. Fight me. 

But anyways: For lack of better phrasing, there isn’t much to “fix” in that sense. Almost all the headcanons I have for The Source or Transitus boil down to a few things:

I was being self-indulgent with a favorite character and it snowballed into a genuinely informative trait/subplot that informs the main story (a certain hc I have where Henry just fucking shoots Daniel in the back by mistake sometime between Two Worlds and Talk of the Town, turning into this weirdly effective commentary of how Daniel is conditioned to his brother’s shitty behavior and Abby hauling ass to get him out of that headspace)

I am curious about aspects of an album’s worldbuilding and get a little excited while filling in the blanks that were perfectly fine being left alone (doing mental gymnastics trying to build a version of The Source where these five academics, three politicians, two religious figures, one robot and one random spaceman viably know each other)

The rarer option that I am genuinely disappointed by how a part of the story was handled and completely ignore this small part of canon to make the overall story be more effective. Or attempt it, at least (Lavinia’s entire character undermining Transitus’ themes and her contradicting her own motivations, and me, in turn, just writing her character from scratch while keeping with the basic story beats [her seeing ghosts, doing shady shit with Henry, etc.])

But with TToE I’ve felt very little need to do any of these. If I were to really dive into it with intention I think I would start building off of the whole bank robbery plot in Phase III (just a slightly weirdly framed plot point for me), but I haven’t thought about it. It’s not that glaring of an issue and there’s few other places in the story where I think adding anything would make it more effective. 

This isn’t to say that Transitus and The Source are objectively worse in any sense, but they leave a lot more up to interpretation, allowing me to write so many add ons that they become structured and essential to each other’s function. 

It’s fun with those two albums. With TToE I really have to look for cracks to fill and it’s kind of useless. 

Not entirely, though. I’ve got a few hcs, and maybe they’ll warrant dozens of google doc pages of context one day like the other two albums: 

Two central things sparked curiosity. Setting, and how the parent characters came to hate each other that much. Naturally. 

This started four-ish years ago when I was pacing around my parents’ house with TToE on the mind (as it often is), and my brother put on this show called His Dark Materials. I watched the intro to it all of one time and just…knew this was the aesthetic TToE should have.🔗 At least combined with dark academia. It’s an album about physics and ghosts, that seems reasonable enough. 

…funnily enough, as I later found out, His Dark Materials itself has a very dark-academia-esque vibe, and the plot is entirely based upon the intersectionality between science and mysticism and trivial human attempts to make sense of it. 

So. Pretty fitting. 

This really stuck with me, and a handful of the characteristics of the show and books became the basis for the way I picture The Theory of Everything. Mainly the visual aesthetic, like I said, but also the fact that the story starts at a parallel version of Oxford University. I don’t have some giant case study for this like with Transitus/New England. I just think it’d be a cool and vibey setting. Maybe it’s the American in me but there’s something about a thousand-year-old college with a campus made of literal goddamn castles that borders on the fantastic. 

From there, you have a decent excuse for The Prodigy to run off to Ireland, where you can choose from one of like 200 different pretty little isolated lighthouses for him to lose his mind in, far enough away for him not to be found as long as he did. Not to mention it lowkey matches with the overt Celtic influence of the music. Or Scotland, if you want some weather symbolism from the North Sea. 

Solid setting, if I say so myself, and it actually influenced the family’s whole situation. Here, The Father (Mike) is a physics professor at Oxford, and The Mother (Cristina) is the director of the Bodleian Library. It’s how and where they meet in 1991 (though the mother is in an attendant position at the time), as shown by the only part of this I have drawn out:

They hit it off, and marry in 1993. Their first and only child is born two years later and they love him half to death. Everything is more or less nice and normal. 

In 1996, Mike stumbles into “proof,” more or less, of the theory of everything being a singular, solvable equation through his work, practically by accident, and begins focused work on it with enthusiastic support from his wife. Life is going great, Cristina is promoted and the two are balancing things well enough. 

The boy shows little to no social development into his toddler years, but his parents don’t think much of it. His father was similar at his age; they’re not worried. They even go as far to say he’ll turn out just as ambitious and smart as his dad and relatives, coworkers and family friends go along with it, setting insanely high expectations for this literal three year old. Mike keeps working on his theory. 

The boy enters preschool at age four; still no improvement. Just isolates himself and draws indiscernible patterns on everything you put in front of him. His parents finally try to intervene to some degree, hiring private instructors and talking with some other psych/child development people they know through the university, to no avail. Nothing changes. He just stares off into space, doesn’t interact with any of them and supposedly doesn’t pay attention to lessons. He still isn’t speaking. Cristina is finally concerned

Around the same time, Mike makes a significant breakthrough in his work, gaining worldwide attention. He receives massive grants from in and outside of Oxford to continue his work, and quits his teaching job to make more time for the endeavor. Cristina is left as the family’s sole provider. She understands and is in agreement on that decision, that’s not the problem yet. The problem is that Mike is becoming more or less indifferent to their son hits five, not seeing any previously projected greatness he was supposed to have in his father’s footsteps. Cristina, much more conscious of balance in her life and how having kids works, isn’t sure what to make of that. Their relationship starts to strain. 

From there, as Mike keeps working, Cristina takes the kid to all sorts of specialists around England but none of them can pinpoint what’s “wrong” with him. She tries much more actively to connect with him like they’re telling her to (though she still enrolls him in the university’s affiliated primary school program, against their suggestions), bringing him everywhere. Buys him little memory games since that’s all that seems to hold his attention. She’s past any belief of him being some secret genius like his dad, not that her opinion of her husband is super positive at this point anyway. She’s just dead-set on her son having some sense of normal in his life. 

By 2002, Mike has completely secluded himself and works nearly constantly. He has made no progress on his theory since 1999 and the fame garnered from his breakthrough has faded. The family is running out of money and Cristina is exhausted. The boy is ostracized at school and still (almost) totally nonverbal. Her coworkers keep suggesting these weird holistic remedies that she refuses. She knows better than to fall for all that new age, pyramid scheme bullshit. 

The son’s condition, whatever it is, worsens until mom, desperate, puts her foot down in 2008 (or “gives up,” if you wanna put it like that) and drags her husband and son to this private practice in Scotland she was told about by a friend, suspicious but ready to put up with anything at this point. 

😐👍

[outeremissary]

I'd like to know more about Asperia!!!❓, and 🚶‍♂️

Whoa, Asperia time!! Thank you!! Asperia is such a Lot even just focusing on Asperia Specifically

[Thematic Headcanons]

hc + ❓ for a headcanon of the receiver's choice

Asperia had a nickname in the underworld for a long time (among those aware of the Temple, at least): the Brat Princess of the Bhaal cult. It had a few layers to it. One of them was that Asperia came to power as the leader of the cult remarkably, notably young- barely more than twelve years old. A child prodigy, you might say (although it wouldn't be entirely accurate). Not the only reason, though- he was also infamous for seemingly unpredictable moods and whims and for being incredibly difficult to deal with (even for a Bhaalist). Some of this "moodiness" and tendency to forget things was, though nearly no one knew, because "Asperia" wasn't always the same person, but that was the impression that formed the reputation. And it was definitely deepened by Asperia's tendency to dismiss any accusations of forgetting things with "clearly it wasn't (and you aren't) important enough to be worth remembering, so I don't see how this is my problem." Truly nothing covers for lost time like a sincere belief that other people matter so little that they can pass out of existence without consequence. Asperia was also known for generally self-aggrandizing behavior, frequently referencing personal divine superiority to others, treating most people as servants (very expendable ones), and always being accompanied by that damned butler. She gave the macabre impression of being an entitled rich kid who expected everyone knowing about her daddy would flatten any obstacle in her path.

Oh, and the fact he sometimes did literally call himself "princess of murder." Charming.

hc + 🚶‍♂️ for a habit-themed headcanon

Hm, Asperia's habits... aside from the obsessive religious devotion, there are a number of quirks. One significant thing about Asperia is that he has a tendency to dictate a lot of his thoughts and actions out loud when Scleritas is nearby. She expects that Scleritas will then remind her later of anything she's forgotten, or write it down so she can refresh herself (not that she should need to- that would imply Scleritas isn't there to be called on and obviously her butler would never leave her waiting). It's a dramatic, grandiose behavior for the person who claims not to bother keeping track of things beneath them, but it's a habit that most of the alters kept (and were encouraged to by Scleritas) and because of that was a significant counterbalance to losing time. Is something confusing? Ask Scleritas what's happening. He'll remind you of what "you" told him so brilliantly. It's important to note that Asperia was virtually unaware of the dissociation until shortly before the events of the game, so to Asperia this really was Scleritas reminding her of events so trivial to a divine prodigy that they slipped her mind. Those hours of careful work Paracelsus put into this project: Asperia's achievements, as long as Scleritas can describe them. Joslyn negotiating some internal troubles in the cult: Asperia did it, they were just a bit preoccupied to think much of it.

Of course, not a perfect method. Scleritas isn't always around, for one thing. Servants must sometimes be away keeping house. And sometimes Asperia had killed him for some reason or other and he hadn't come back quite yet. But more than that, there was someone who didn't like to talk to him: Kasander. Most of the blanks in Asperia's life past a certain age that they could never seem to fill were times they had switched with Kasander. Alarming blanks, considering that those were times that "Asperia" seemed to be doing everything that they shouldn't. That was always unsettling. But even though Scleritas could never give the concrete dictions to explain away secondhand reports of strange behavior, talking to him was still always good for making the worry disappear. There was always a theory there. Always something to make it rational, or to show how to make it up to Father when it was misbehavior that couldn't be explained away.

Of course, Scleritas knew what was happening all along. But it was much easier to mold an Asperia who didn't know- especially when those oral records were so easy to change to suit a moment's need.

[painterofhorizons]

Today in Akuze things that give me a slight headache to figure out:

after, you know, reading all the stuff about all the things medical and military that I had zero idea about before and now know something about and try to make it make sense for the fic,

and I know that the lore of Mass Effect don't make complete sense and leaves us with a lot of blanks to fill and all, but since I got zero military background it can be quite a handful to make it make sense in my head and not be drowned in the fear of writing bs.

Today's big questions:

So a whole platoon got wiped out on akuze, leaving just 2 alive. But: what did the platoon do on akuze. Who did it answer to. Who is Shepard's next commanding officer now that everyone of the platoon is gone. Where would Shepard theoretically go back to. Or forth. Did the platoon belong to a ship and if so, which kind. Which size. What was Shepard's rank and specialization before akuze.

You know, all stuff like that.

It's difficult to find the right balance for me between doing the hands down real research about how the medical and military context of my fic works today and knowing on the other hand that hey, I don't have to "get it right" for the fic, I just have to write something that kinda makes sense and is fun to read for myself and hopefully a few others. It's not helpful being a perfectionist and also a researcher by profession. 🤷

Anyways, a lot of questions.

Which I don't post here for answers. I'll wiggle through it eventually.

But if you got headcanons to share about your version of akuze, do feel free to hit me up! ☺️ I love love love talking and reading about akuze! Throw your headcanons my way please!