#but if it's not any of them. there are 2 others listed: tangent and a faceless

[exoshroommie]

THEY'RE OUT!

socks the dillypillar and a hopeye are now available as plushies :)

here they are

they're both already about 10% funded and are the same price as previous ones

you can buy them until 22 days from now!! they ship december 14th this year

[aliciavance4228]

The Iliad: Funny Moments

The year was 850-750 BCE. No phones or underwear in sight. Pants were for the uncivilized only. Unibrows were attractive. And then, one day, Homer decides to write the first Greek Mythology Fanfiction ever, called "Troy Story".

Here is a list of moments from the Iliad which I personally consider to be quite hilarious:

1. Early on in Book 2, before the enormous list of Greek fighters and ships:

Agamemnon tries to motivate/test the army by claiming that he's given up and they're going home. This backfires, as a stampede for the ships ensues.

In response, Athena comes down and gives Odysseus a pep talk. He promptly and unceremoniously takes Agamemnon's scepter out of his hands and runs around brow-beating and occasionally actually beating men who were turning from the fight. It all comes to a head when he takes the scepter and beats the crap out of the Argives' resident disfigured hunchback who was doing nothing but making jokes at the Argive leaders' expense. In fact, the narrative itself stops and mentions that the scene was so hilarious, the soldiers in-story were laughing raucously.

Within Agamemnon's speech, his roundabout method of explaining how badly the Greeks outnumber the Trojans: let's say they have a truce, and each side takes a census, and each group of ten Greek soldiers gets one (male) resident of Troy to pour their wine. "There would be many tens of men lacking a pourer of wine."

2. At one point early in the story Paris steps out among the Trojan soldiers, described as looking like a god, and dares any Greek soldier to come up and face him in battle. Menelaus steps forward to answer the call—and Paris promptly flees back behind his soldiers.

3.Menelaus beating Paris up with his bare hands, while the latter still has his sword. The dramatic way in which it's written makes it a tad more serious, until you remember that Menelaus is choking Paris with the strap of his own hat.

4. Throughout the book, the Greeks continuously throw spears at Hector, but Apollo just deflects them into his charioteer instead, before Hector just picks up another random guy off the battlefield. This happens numerous times throughout the book that it's almost a running gag.

5. The Greeks send an embassy to beg Achilles to come join the fighting again. At first he receives them in friendship, but when he's heard them out, he has Patroclus start passive-aggressively preparing a bed for the only member of the embassy he's invited to spend the night, to signal to the others it's time for them to leave. Thus proving that "it was so nice to see you, but wow, look at the time, we should be getting to bed!" is a tactic Older Than Dirt.

6. When Hera seduces Zeus to distract him, he describes how attractive she is by comparing her with some of the other women he's slept with. It takes about 20 lines in the original Greek.

7. During the battle between the men and gods, Artemis squares up with Hera after her brother decides against fighting Poseidon. You'd think Artemis, the epic huntress and receiver of human sacrifice she is, armed with a powerful bow and fitting the Action Girl trope to a tee would utterly wreck the seemingly frilly, stuck up, less capable Hera. Hera instead chastises Artemis for being a brat biting off way more than she can chew, gives her a verbal tongue lashing before snatching Artemis's bow away before she can get a shot off to give her a lashing with that. Artemis gets wailed on so badly she literally is sent running away crying home to her daddy Zeus.

8. One tangent mentions Hades making a grand entrance at Pylos, only to be immediately shot with one of Heracles' arrows, forcing him to abandon the fight and flee to Olympus to heal. Later, Poseidon makes an earthquake so strong Hades jumps out of his chair in fear that the Underworld will be exposed due to the quake.

9. Early on in the epic, King Priam calls to Helen to explain to him who is leading the Greek army - Agamemnon, Odysseus, Menelaus, etc - because Priam doesn't know who they are. The Greeks have been at war with his kingdom for nine years before this point. One would imagine who had such a role would be at the forefront of his thoughts or that he would at least bother to remember their names, especially since a Pre-Iliad episode had Odysseus and Menelaus before him arguing that Helen be returned.

10. After a long discussion of their ancestries, Glaucus and Diomedes shake hands and exchange armor as a pledge of Sacred Hospitality. The narrator notes that Glaucus got ripped off, because his armor was worth over ten times as much.

11. A wounded Sarpedon thinks he's about to die and begins giving Hector a Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie speech. Hector, who he'd been arguing with several verses back, runs right past him without answering.

12. The standard heroic epithets being used at incongruous times. Godlike Paris hiding from Menelaus, godlike and enduring Odysseus running away while Diomedes yells at him to come back, Menelaus being called "beloved of Ares" while Ares is trying to get him killed, glorious Ajax the Lesser taking a spill face-first into ox dung...

13. Menelaus is shot and wounded. Agamemnon immediately begins mourning his brother and gets through a whole speech before Menelaus can get a word in edgewise to explain that he's still alive.

Credits: TV Tropes

[tin-wufborf]

Tin's Favorite Sterek Fics (Part 19)

Hello, and welcome to part fucking 19 of Tin's Favorite Sterek Fics. Good lord, how the hell have I gotten to 19 of these?? I cannot believe!!!

As always, thank you all so much for all of the love you continue to show this little series of mine. I never really expected any of these posts to get more than a passing notice from anyone, so to see that so many of you have liked and shared this series is honestly kind of mind boggling but also pretty cool. Because I just want everyone to read these stories, ya know? Like, I really love all of these fics that I'm recommending. I wasn't lying or exaggerating when I said that I re-read these fics all the time. I love these stories, and I want others to love them too.

I won't go on some of the crazy tangents that I do IRL, but I fucking love fan fiction. I truly believe that a good chunk of the world's more trivial issues could be solved by people simply getting into the right kind of fanfic for them. Because there's really something out there for everyone so long as you're willing to look for it, and I just think that is the coolest thing, you guys. It's just the bees knees. So to be able to share these lists of my favorite Sterek fics has been such a fun and fulfilling endeavor, and I am glad to have been able to share it with you all.

Okay, enough sap from me! I have admittedly imbibed a bit before writing this up, so I am a little bit in my head right now as well as in my feelings.

I hope you're all having as good a day as you can, if not a great one.

Smoochies and squeezies!

List and links to previous/next part(s) below the cut.

************************************************************************

DISCLAIMER: This is me warning you all that some of the fics I've included in this list may cover explicit, dark, and/or "taboo" subject matters. I cannot express enough how little I care what anyone thinks about any of that; all I want is for you to use caution when reading anything I've listed here and to please review and heed whatever tags the authors have provided in order to keep yourselves safe. Your experience from this point on is your own responsibility, not mine and not the authors'.

************************************************************************

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Family Day by klutzy_girl (T | 1/1 | 2,447)

Derek and Stiles spend the day with Stiles' (and Scott's) younger sister and come to a few realizations.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You aren't broken by GreyHaven (G | 1/1 | 4,339)

Derek doesn’t understand sex. Well, no, that makes him sound innocent and sheltered and he isn’t either of those things.

But he doesn’t understand the appeal of sex.

The one in which Derek thinks he's broken and tries to break up with Stiles. Stiles doesn't let him and insists on an open conversation which leads to Derek realising he's not broken, he's asexual. But can Stiles accept that?

(Spoiler alert: of course he can.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and the wild things roared their terrible roar by hoars (E | 1/1 | 4,905)

Derek as Khal Drogo (but set in snow beyond the wall) and Stiles as Daenerys Stormborn (although he's a greenseer of the Children rather than a dragon).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Show Me Your Igloo and I'll Show You Mine by DiscontentedWinter (E | 1/1 | 4,943)

Stiles is finally going to meet the online friend he's had for years.

Instead, the hottest guy in the world walks in.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

that boy is a monster series by hoars (3 works | NR-M | 6,840)

1. monsters steal me away (M | 1/1 | 1,720) There’s a monster in the forest that has taught Stiles to lie and to love. 2. no secret stays secret (NR | 1/1 | 2,558) John follows Stiles into the woods one night. 3. my ghosts approve (NR | 1/1 | 2,562) (optional) Derek loves all his past loves because they all taught him how to love Stiles best.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Run Wild and Free by greenleaf (T | 1/1 | 6,991)

Derek is a police officer, just recently moved to Beacon Hills, and possibly nursing a crush on the really hot, really powerful doctor with the twin sons.

(Or a story that was almost titled, 'I'm Quite Fawn'd of You, My Deer' but I stopped myself and I don't know why.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do It For The Vine by crossroadswrite (G | 1/1 | 7,108)

“Tammy,” he calls her to attention and his baby daughter turns her sweet hazel eyes to him. “Do you want to go to the skate park tomorrow?”

Autumn gasps and twists until her bony knees are digging into his thighs.

“Daddy,” she says very seriously, placing both hands on his cheeks and looking him in the eye. “Don’t play with my emotions, daddy.” . (OR: in which Derek's daughter gets a skateboard and a cute guy teaching her tricks and Derek just gets the cute guy.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Jackass in the Camaro by isthatbloodonhisshirt (wasterella) (G | 1/1 | 7,237)

To the guy I splashed with water on First and Crown on Thursday, February 27th around seven at night: I am an a**hole. I’m sorry. I was being an impatient driver, and I just wanted to get home, and I cut off the bus to get there faster. I didn’t mean to soak you with rainwater, and I am truly sorry for doing so. That was a total d*ck move of me. With regrets, The Jackass in the Camaro.

Stiles had to re-read the notice four times before he honestly believed he was seeing it with his own two eyes. He’d gotten splashed by rainwater on First and Crown on Thursday around seven while waiting at a bus stop because of an impatient Camaro driver cutting off a bus.

Like, that was actually a thing that had happened. This was a real thing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Plan for Healthy Eating in the Stilinski-Hale Household by inhystereks (G | 1/1 | 8,100)

Melanie burst into tears, screaming about how she didn’t want their daddy to die while Greg tried to comfort her, sending his own anxious glances Stiles’ way. Elena grilled Addie and Clary about whether they knew for sure. The twins started listing examples from their textbook. Ian turned to Derek asking if food could really hurt humans while Kevin turned to Stiles and begged him not to kill himself by eating too many curly fries.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

children of the bad revolution by hoars (NR | 1/1 | 9,506)

Far away and long ago, the only companion Derek has, the only friend and enemy he's known since he was young, is the chain.

Then Stiles happens.

Then the crows.

Then the end of the world.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

to build a home by elisela (T | 1/1 | 13,021)

“You realize you’re at least ten grand over budget on Stiles’ house, don’t you,” Allison says, and he’s not entirely sure if it’s a question or not. “You better hope this works out because we can’t afford to build an entire house for everyone you want to date.”

He doesn’t bother denying it. “I’m going to do a lot of the demo and installation myself,” he says, leaning over her to cross off some of the numbers she’d written down. “It’ll work out.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Crooked Way to Fly by andavs (G | 1/1 | 14,980)

“We can’t just leave him here to die.”

“He’s an emissary, Scott.” Derek tried to make his tone empathetic, but Scott’s tendency to fight back on everything always grated on his nerves. “His pack is gone, he won’t survive more than a day or two either way.”

“Then we should stay with him.”

Derek sighed as he studied the man for a moment; he was too pale against the fur rim of his hood, almost grey from lying out in the snow, and his cloak was stained with dark dried blood around a protruding arrow shaft. It was unlikely he would even last the night. They would probably be able to carry on in the morning with little time lost, if any.

It wasn’t a horrible idea, Derek decided reluctantly. They hadn’t been able to set up a real camp for a few weeks in the open foothills, and they were all on edge from sleeping in exposed areas. A defensible place to sleep would be good for them, even if they were surrounded by death. They would be able to give the pack proper burials, at the very least.

“Fine. One night,” Derek relented, already moving away to check on Isaac. “He’s your responsibility.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This Kind of Luxe by sugarybowl, weathervaanes, wishingonalightningbolt (E | 1/1 | 15,113)

As they have for almost every US President since the 1910s, the Prime Minister and the royal head of their country pay a visit to the United States after inauguration. Which is why, when President Jonathan Stilinski is elected into office, Queen Talia Hale of Norland plans their trip.

-0-

Prince Derek and First Son Stiles. Gooey, ridiculous romance ensues.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good for you by lilysaid (E | 1/1 | 16,768)

Completely by chance, I saw a "human boyfriend for werewolf roleplay" ASMR video on YouTube and thought 1. Stiles would totally do something as reckless as making an ASMR channel for werewolves 2. He would be really good at it and 3. It would definitely blow up in his face.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No Other Love by Idday (T | 1/1 | 18,745)

And maybe it’s irony, or the universe at work, or maybe it’s just Derek Hale’s shitty luck, but that’s when, at that exact moment (as Stiles will swear later), there’s a knock on the door. “Laura?” Derek breathes in disbelief, and Stiles feels his own face fall into confused slackness. Because the girl standing in the doorway? The last time Stiles had seen her—or, well, half of her—she’d been very naked, and very, very dead. “Hey, baby bro,” she says with a grin. ... OR: The one where Laura comes back from the dead, and it turns out to be bad for Stiles, because he’s suddenly spending a lot of quality time with one of the coolest people he’s ever met, and her brother. The guy that he might be just a little in love with. He's not okay.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nothing Short Of Perfect by GotTheSilver (E | 1/1 | 27,019)

In which Derek and Stiles are made aware of their potential and have to make a choice about what their relationship will be.

“Let me get this straight,” his dad says. “You’re telling me a witch told Derek and yourself that you could be destined to be together and now Derek will be going to college with you?”

Stiles shrugs, resting his hands on his legs to stop himself from fidgeting. “That’s about it, yep.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Weight of an Enchanted Heart by PalenDrome (nerdherderette), 1jet2unknown (E | 1/1 | 31,590)

Marriage to the shape-shifting Alpha King of Lunansholt wasn't on Stiles' bingo card. His magic had other plans.

[excerpt]: Stiles entered Derek’s chambers, slamming the door behind him. “What did you do with my things?”

“These things?” Derek asked, waving his hand with an arched brow.

Stiles gaped when he saw his books lined neatly on Derek’s shelves. His trunk was in the corner, many of his clothes were visible in the partly open wardrobe, and the cloak he’d brought from home hung neatly on a hook.

“It would have been nice if you asked first.” A quick sweep around the room found only one bed. “Where am I supposed to sleep?” he asked, frowning.

“We are married now, Stiles,” Derek said after a moment. “We sleep together.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No Mercy by Gia279 (M | 24/24 | 24,743)

The story of the Boy King was this: when he was sixteen, the Stilinski kingdom was at war with the Novak kingdom. King John was on the front lines with his soldiers when his teenage heir came to check in with him. The king was struck down in a nighttime attack, in front of the boy. The boy took up the king’s dropped sword, mounted his war steed, and slaughtered the enemy forces.

When the remaining soldiers surrendered, he cut them down with his father’s sword and returned home a boy king with a bloodstained reputation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Salty Sweet by secondstar (E | 11/11 | 46,478)

Derek works at a porn store. One day, Stiles comes in asking all sorts of TMI questions about different toys. That's where it all starts.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Call Me (Cliché) by orphan_account (M | 18/18 | 84,649)

When the sheriff's sister ends up in a wheelchair for the duration of summer, Stiles' dreams of three months full of pack bonding, late-night video games and bro-time with Scott come crashing down. He's temporarily relocated to Redford, a three hour drive away, and he can already tell he won't be getting many visitors.

Sure the pack will forget about him while he's gone, Stiles is determined to make the most of his summer of isolation, training his body and mind - and his magic - so he can come back with a bang, and maybe catch a certain Sourwolf's eye.

Then Derek shows up at his window one night with a flimsy excuse about needing research done. Suddenly, his summer away is looking a whole lot more interesting.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

************************************************************************

[beemovieerotica]

trying to find like 1 buddhist temple near me to go to and braved reddit to find commentary on different sects and it's such a cesspool of both completely unaware hypocrisy and "all religion bad" shit.

the way americans talk about modern buddhism is like "it's such a cult...they require membership dues...and they get political sometimes...and the leaders are really charismatic speakers" as if. as if every community center doesn't have rent to pay. and makes commentary on society at large. and the people they choose to speak are probably good speakers. every christian church in america also does all these things. like if these are the requirements for a cult then every religion also does this and so of course the other half of the reddit comments go "and THIS is why all religions are cults!!"

I feel like I have a pretty good radar for cult behavior after matrix bullet dodging at least 2 in college and these people online are specifically talking about the sect my grandparents & extended family are in. and it's weird because the complaints are primarily philosophical in nature, like "they communicate with the spirit realm!!" and idk how to emphasize to people that it doesn't strictly matter how weird you think a belief system is, that's not what makes something a cult. it's whether or not the cult subsumes the person's life, isolates them from non-participants, forces an emotional dependency, deifies and makes unimpeachable a still-living leader, and/or requires an ever-escalating financial stake. the average evangelical church ticks off most boxes in this list, the temples they're talking about don't do any of these things, they have esoteric takes that at best will get an eyebrow raise in conversation.

like it's not terribly surprising that american ex-christians are put off by the idea of people connecting with their ancestors and deceased loved ones because of its contradiction with both atheism and the christian afterlife - and I wouldn't lump it in with spirit medium grifters since people are literally not being paid for this service. it's just really odd sifting through all of the commentary because I absolutely agree that any religious group can turn into a cult, I don't think buddhism is immune to that at all, I don't think any belief system is at its core immune to becoming an isolating force in someone's life - but it's just wild seeing these sects being but through a Good Religion purity test that no christian church would pass just based on the surface level strangeness of their beliefs versus the actual identifiers of what a cult looks like.

but anyway that's a long tangent. the temple that I'm looking at is not part of that sect but a different one, it's the only one within reasonable driving distance with an up-to-date calendar of events and responsive staff, and I'm feeling very cunty right now and I'm seeing that is has had concerns raised about it in the past of being "too political" "too fast-growing" "too aggressive in recruiting" and I simply love placing myself in circumstances and then telling everyone about the drama I find. that is worth jotting down. I'm going to record all my experiences and report back, and if I do end up in a cult, y'all will be the first to know - and if it's an unremarkable place with a normal staff, you will also know. I would preemptively rate my cult susceptibility a 3 out of 10 - but looking at this temple I'm going to say it's a 2 out of 10 because everyone there is white and I'm put off by overly-enthusiastic white people.

[lovelyrotter]

okay but i actually kinda wanna know ur take on stridercest being canon compliant O_O <- autism stare

oh hey i am also hitting you with the autism stare. ill try to get my thoughts down in a way that makes sense to more than just me hahaha

bear in mind that im an epilogue lover and i think Meat/Candy are really valuable pieces that further all of the characters and are also hard canon in the sense that we're looking at just 2 post-game universe outcomes out of an uncountable number (the book in the picnic basket representing post-canon fanfic). i think the characters actions in the epilogues make sense and are satisfying to me. yes even jane (i love alpha jane and i will not do her the disservice of 'cleaning her up' w/o showing her work for it. thats not how you depict a character who grew up with fascist programming). i could totally go on a whole tangent about this specifically but thats another post lol we'd be here forever and its also not stridercest

but okay. canon stridercest. under the cut cause it got kinda long

basically it has to do with the cherubs and how their relationships and mating rituals are pretty obviously incestuous leaning even though cherubs dont have the human concept of Siblings or blood family. the cherub who predominates will search across paradox space to mate with another cherub who closely resembles the cherub they predominated which is like textbook Freudian sexuality. theres a lot of Freud and Jungian stuff in HS imo even if im kinda [wobbly hand gesture] at the validity of these theories applied to real life and real people. but theyre super fun tools and lenses to use in fiction and i mean. gestures at all of dave

so the incest aliens cherubs. the whole reason why im talkin about them is bc Caliborn is so incredibly interested and invested in the Striders in particular. caliborn as both Lord English and Lil Cal shapes earth NOT OVERTLY but more so embeds himself in earth society, but again, the Striders lives in particular. dave is full of incest jokes. hes even apparently got a list of his friends arranged in order of how likely theyd incest-elope with each other (thank you epilogues for this amazing factoid). he seems to think about it often enough to, yknow, Do That. have a good solid think about that and construct an organized list about it. bearing in mind dave makes jokes about stuff thats a) bothering him, or b) generally camping out in his brain. hes not even really aware of it most of the time (as we see in one of the openbounds where hes all 'why am i thinking about puppets???' after seeing dirk for the first time in that dream bubble. he is thinking nonstop about dirk at that point and going off his only frame of reference for ANY dirk, which is his bro. his bro who was most likely deeply warped by Lil Cal)

sorry for the long blocky paragraph lol. but now onto the next thing

Caliborn as Lil Cal is the centerpiece in the beta strider apartment. dave cant escape him and beta dirk grew up with him. what the fuck do you do when youre childhood comfort item is also the most evil creature across all of paradox space? if youre a dirk you try to fight it. but how long can you keep fighting something like that. its safe to say that bro was affected by Caliborns particular brand of perversion and sfw kink. i dont think i have to say how insidious abusive and toxic he is about those things. and looking at the truth of beta bro (16yo alpha dirk) you can start to see just how warped beta bro became. beta bro is a false dirk (still a very Real dirk but not the Truth of dirk. beta bro has been toxified and made infinitely worse by an absolute evil influence over decades of life. in 80s fuckin texas. presumably in the system. anyone would be fucked up after that)

so for this analysis/theory im stating beta bro as a false persona. using jungian terms he is apha dirk's shadow

both dave and dirk live with a fake, carefully manicured version of their bros. they live with personas (or shadows of their guardians on the walls. hello platos allegory of the cave). they dont actually know e/o and they dont until the striunion

alpha dirk especially grows up embedded in the Public Persona Of Dave Strider 400 years post mortem and completely alone with unlimited internet access. hes a self admitted expert on his bro and we dont get to see a lot if any of his early childhood but i can hazard a guess at how much he clung to that persona of his bro. he fuckin idolizes dave. he LOVES dave. right off the bat he is in some kind of love with dave and i think if you try to argue against that then thats you slippin. i think youre a fool and have to reread homestuck because i wholeheartedly believe the striders loving eachother is part of the win state

once again this is speculation cause we get barely anything about alpha dave, but from what we already know about him im guessing this bro-persona is

achingly effortlessly cool

oozing masculinity (toxic or not, not really interested in categorizing that although toxic coolboy masculinity IS something the striders contend with & is an important facet in their lives)

a skilled fighter

a dedicated moviegoer (hes a director need i say more. this one is probably the only genuine thing about his on-screen persona)

and now lets look at jake. someone whos grown up on pretty much nothing but movies, whos doubtlessly been influenced by hollywood and its idea of gritty 'main character' masculinity through that, and who also clings to more old-school ideas of manliness (think victorian/edwardian era gentlemanly-but-loves-a-good-scrum kinda manly. moustache twirly with a monocle kinda manly. basically everything that grandpa harley is)

but okay lets look at what jake wants to be. lets take a look at his teenager persona

achingly effortlessly cool (his own 'hollywood star' kind of cool also def influenced by his favourite characters like lara croft who is indeed achingly cool. you see him succeed in inhabiting this hollywood star persona on earth c)

oozing masculinity (the old school manly mans-man kind)

a skilled fighter (two pistoles always. harder to aim cause you cant use a free hand to make up for kickback. that takes skill)

a dedicated moviegoer (again one of the only genuine parts about his persona. his questionable-to-wretched tastes aside. but bearing in mind that the SBaHJ movies are intentionally bad which is what makes them loop around to good. such is the nature of intentionally 'bad' art. jake fuckin lives in this perpetual bad-good art loop. okay enough with the art tangent keep focused man cmon)

because dirk has obviously way more contact with jake i dont doubt he sees through jakes own (admittedly way more flimsy) coolboy persona but the point still stands i think. different flavours but the same kinda guy. dirk has a type and i dont think its a stretch to say that hes looking for aspects of the bro-persona he grew up looking at in other boys, much like the winning cherub looking for the one they lost in the cherub theyll mate with

also wtf is with dirks obvious boner for dave chasing him across paradox space to decapitate him huh?? the last few sentences in Meat are about that very thing. he wants to fuc fight dave sooo bad. haha remember how the cherubic mating ritual is one of the most violent and long running spectacles in paradox space? i sure do

[gingerbread-in-july]

Under the cut lies my personal ranking of all of Spencer Reid's love interests, both actual and potential, from best all the way down to worst, plus a whole lot of unfiltered sassy commentary that nobody asked for. Then again, nobody asked for any of this, but my brain was just on one of its neurodivergent tangents. There's 11 total. Some of this- probably a lot of this- will piss some people off and I am truly sorry. I hope there's at least some other people out there who share my strong ass opinions.

1. Dorian Loker- I will never forgive these bitch ass writers for never following up on that storyline. He asked her out in Russian, for Christ's sake! One of the only times in the entire series he actually initiates a date with somebody. He complimented her coffee! For him, that may as well be a pickup line. He was finally moving on from Maeve. That was a huge fucking step. He was shy and unsure of himself, but he was clearly into her, he was flirting the best he could, and he fucking asked her out. Don't even get me started on him being into her enough to set aside his germophobia and touch her hand by the end of the episode. Or his gutted little expression when he realized he spoiled the book she was reading. They were adorable and they could have been everything. Of all the one-episode love interests, she's the one I'm most pissed at them for never fucking following up on. 

2. Ethan- They were not just friends. I read somewhere that Spencer was initially supposed to be bisexual. They might have scrapped that, but bi Spence still found a way. They for sure hooked up. For. Sure. The chemistry was just there. And I am not one of those weirdo bitches who are overly fetishistic toward m/m pairings. I'm too fucking gay myself to get off on two men together. But those two men for sure were a thing- and good for them. 

3. Austin the bartender- She was hot. They had chemistry. More chemistry than he did with his actual girlfriends. End of. 

4. Ashley Seaver- I know y'all hate her and that she wasn't technically a love interest. However, I guarantee that she would have been if they'd kept her around. They were definitely setting it up to be that way. And, you know what? They'd have been a damn cute couple. I'd have loved to see it. And no, the "sorry for asking" moment was not grounds to disqualify it. Everyone else said as bad or worse to him at some point. If you can ship him with a psychopath who drugged him, framed him for murder, got him falsely imprisoned and nearly killed, kidnapped and tried to kill his mother, and lied about r*ping him and getting pregnant? You can ship him with Ashley fucking Seaver. If you can ship him with his fucking doctor who used her own loneliness as an excuse to violate all kinds of professional and ethical codes? You can ship him with Ashley fucking Seaver. If you can, perhaps worst of all, ship J*id? You can ship him with Ashley fucking Seaver.

5. Lila Archer- I think their worlds were ultimately too different for them to work long-term, but I do think they would have made a sweet couple for a while. They would each give the other things that their worlds were lacking. They wouldn't have been endgame, but they'd have stayed good friends. Also, "bUt aMbEr hEARD" isn't the dunk you think it is. Johnny Depp is a rich, 60-something year old white man who is problematic as fuck in his own right- and he's never going to fuck you. 

6. Cat Adams- Do I want them to actually be together? No. Does she deserve him? Hell no. Would the people further down this list technically be better for him than her? Probably. But......the chemistry, y'all. The chemistry was there. Matthew and Aubrey just play far too well off of each other. 

7. Maeve Donovan- I didn't hate her, but she was just a vehicle to give Spencer more trauma. I don't think she was "the one," "the love of his life," or any of that other stuff some say. I don't think they'd have lasted if she'd lived. They didn't really know each other. She lied to him about having a whole ass fiancé she never told him about. God only knows what else he didn't know. He started out as her fucking patient, for God's sake. The ethical violations were out the ass. I don't think she'd have crossed those lines if she weren't feeling so vulnerable and isolated from having to hide from her stalker. At least, not if she's as smart as everyone claims she is. Everyone- including Spencer- only puts her on a pedestal because of the tragedy of her death and not knowing what could have been. What would have been had she lived......probably wouldn't have been all that great in the long run. 

8. Linda Kimura- I'll be honest, I don't recall a single damn thing about this woman. I forgot she even existed until I saw her pictured on a potential love interest compilation. While I don't recall them having any chemistry whatsoever, I'll still include her for the sole purpose of ranking her higher than the rest of these shit bombs. And speaking of bombs, that brings us to......

9. Dylan Einstein- For the life of me, I just don't understand why people go so hard for this pairing. It's like she was generated in a Mary Sue factory to fit some stereotype of what AI might imagine Spencer's ideal woman to be. Her last name is Einstein, for fuck's sake. I'd probably respect it more if they did just name her Mary Sue. They were trying too hard to present her as Girl Spencer. The bitch even wore a purple scarf! She also just came across as annoying and overly eager and seemed like she didn't really understand when to fuck off. She butted in too much while Derek and Spencer were trying to work. Some poster here said that the actress who played her shipped the character with Spencer. That is more than obvious in the way she plays her. It's like she read a bunch of Wattpad fic and decided to use the character to try for her Y/N moment. Can't blame a girl for trying, but that is one "love interest" I am glad was a one-off. 

10. JJ- What could I say that hasn't already been said? The J*id plot was painfully forced. Spencer has more chemistry with a fucking paperweight than he does with JJ. Do I love their friendship? Yes. Do I love watching Spencer interact with her kids? God, yes. But, he's Uncle Spencer, not Stepdaddy Spencer. The only way Spencer and JJ are more than friends is that they're found family. Will is an absolute saint of a husband. Fuck them writers for doing him dirty like that. Even pre-Will, Spencer and JJ just didn't have the chemistry like that. I'm glad they scrapped that bullshit early crush storyline after just one episode. Also, am I the only one who remembers Spencer being totally unaffected and not even giving half a shit when JJ finally came out to the team about being with Will? He said something along the lines of "We all knew already." He was so unbothered. No way in hell has he been "waiting for JJ" this whole time or whatever these clowns pulled out of their asses toward the end. Such a waste of a plot. Literally any other pairing would have made more sense. 

11. Maxine bitch ass Brenner- Here we are. Last and least. Even J*id was better than this shit. What the fuck even was the goddamn point of this bitch besides having an excuse to have Rachael Leigh Cook guest star? Too bad this is who she had to play. She was just rude as hell with her snark, her bitchy little expressions and the way she mocked the kids- elementary school aged kids- she taught. As if it was beneath her grandiose idea of herself. How could they for one second think that somebody like Spencer- somebody who loves kids, loves to teach and to learn and values education as much as Spencer- could ever like somebody like her? They were already having to cram way too much into too little space that last season. It was already a shit show. What the fuck was the point of adding her only to never bring her back? I mean, good call there at least because she sucked. I can only assume Spence realized how much she sucked and ditched her ass. She was just a pointless waste of time and never should have been a thing. I'm glad Spence made out with Cat in front of her and I hope it chapped her ass that he never kissed her that way. Glad her family didn't die, but she and they can all fuck all the way off down the road.

Thanks for sticking this one out if you did.

[the-magiarcheologist]

Theios Aner, or Ancient Magic in Antiquity

Sometimes I get really curious about the sources the writers for HL used to get inspiration for Hogwarts Legacy and Ancient Magic.

For instance, I was doing some research into magical practice in ancient civilisations to see if we can find traces of some of the very first known wizards for the HP universe and I stumbled upon about a group of people in ancient Greece called ‘theios aner’ (θεῖος ἀνήρ) which is translated to ‘divine men’. The definition for these theios aner given by Wikipedia is:

Person connected to the gods, which grants them the ability to perform miracles and supernatural events.

And, think about it!, if we just replace "the gods" in that sentence with "ancient magic" we get a description that fits our MC and the abilities they get from their strange connection to AM. So I started to wonder: are the theios aner some of the very first known ancient magic wielders?

One of the earliest exemple of one of these ‘divine men’ is Pythagoras of Samos, born 570 BCE. Many miracles have been attributed to him, including:

Being seen in two different cities (Metapontum in Italy and Tauromenium in Sicily) on the same day, conversing with friends

Having tamed a savage bear by the power of his voice alone and converting it to vegetarianism

Stopping an ox from eating beans

A white eagle coming down onto his shoulder so Pythagoras could pet it

Biting a venomous snake to death

The river Caicasus calling to him "Hail, Pythagoras!" as he was passing over it with some friends

Having a thigh made of gold

Predicting that a dead man would be found on a ship entering the harbour

(Some sources for this: 1, 2)

What struck when reading this list of ‘miracles’ is that, if we try to explain each of these by a magical discipline we know from the Wizarding World we get:

Time-travel (being present in two cities at the same time)

Care of Magical Creatures or, generally, an ability to communicate with animals (taming the bear, the ox and the eagle)

Divination (predicting the dead man)

Transfiguration (thigh made of gold and probably also biting a venomous snake to death by using self-transfiguration to change his mouth to something able to kill the snake and be immune to the venom)

(The only one difficult to explain is the one about the river calling ‘Hi!’ to him 😂. Although if we stretch it, it could also be some advanced transfiguration that changes the river into something capable of speech.)

And if we consider these 4 disciplines, we realise that they correspond exactly to the specialised skills of the four Keepers: Niamh Fitzgerald being a time-traveler (I explained here why I think that!), San Bakar teaching Care of Magical Creatures and his trial being about taming a magical creature, Percival Rackham being a seer and Charles Rookwood teaching transfiguration.

Cue the famous meme!

I’ve always found Bakar’s ability and his trial to be very random after the sophisticated dungeons we had to go through for the other Keepers, but if we consider that the writers of HL took inspiration from the the ancient theois aner as the originals wielders of Ancient Magic and that the 4 disciplines highlighted are at the core of the abilities granted to a wizard by Ancient Magic, then suddenly his trial makes sense!

[And, if you would allow me a completely crazy tangent here!, I just realized that the only 3 ‘special abilities’ we know of in the Wizarding world, i.e. Metamorphmagi, true Seers and Parselmouths, just happen to correspond to 3 of the 4 Ancient Magic disciplines! And for the metamorphmagi and parselmouths, it’s not just any type of transfiguration ability or ability to care for animals, it’s specifically self-transfiguration and an ability to talk to animals, which are exactly what Pythagoras was known to be able to do! Is that a coincidence?🤯😵 Could we imagine that over time some of the ‘Ancient Magic abilities’ got passed down into the blood of ‘regular’ wizards to become rare inheritable traits? The exception here being time-travel since we don’t know of anyone having a natural ability to time-travel. But time-travel could be an exception since I don’t think Niamh Fitzgerald herself is able to time-travel, she still uses an old version of a time-turner that she wears around her neck, but maybe she has a special ability that makes her immune to the effects of time-travel (we see these ageing effects with Prof Hecat)? And since in 1899 time-travel becomes heavily restricted, anyone having special time-travel abilities would not even know it! Anyway, food for though! And now back to our regularly scheduled programming!]

And the parallels don’t stop there! I’m basing myself here mostly on the Wikipedia page for Magic in the Greco-Roman world since I haven’t had time to do extensive research on the lives each of the other known theois aner. But the amount of parallels between the game and the Wikipedia article is still interesting if we try to find possible sources of inspiration for the HL writers who may have read the same article.

Empedocles was also considered one of the theios aner and he followed Pythagoras' philosophy. Here’s what the Wikipedia article says about him:

Empedocles (c. 490 – c. 430 BCE) too has ascribed to him marvelous powers associated with later magicians: that is, he is able to heal the sick, rejuvenate the old, influence the weather and summon the dead. […] It is important to note that after Empedocles, the scale of magical gifts in exceptional individuals shrinks in the literature, becoming specialized. Individuals might have the gift of healing, or the gift of prophecy, but are not usually credited with a wide range of supernatural powers as are magoi like Orpheus, Pythagoras and Empedocles.

And does that not remind you of someone? Someone who wanted to heal the sick and after whose death the practice of Ancient Magic was significantly changed to become much more restricted, with very few even knowing what Ancient Magic even is?

I don’t know if I’m the only one but the story of Pythagoras and Empedocles (as it is presented in the wikipedia article at least) reminds me of Isidora and the Keepers. Some ‘dark magic’ practices are attributed to Empedocles (summoning the dead), like the ‘dark magic’ practices of Isidora who siphons emotions out of people, and after their death some aspect of the practice of Ancient Magic is lost, with either Ancient Magic wielders (or theios aner) becoming way less powerful or the Keepers locking Ancient Magic away permanently.

If we accept that the ancient theios aner have indeed been used as inspiration for the Ancient Magic wielders, it could be a sort of ‘history repeating itself’ scenario where at several points of history some theios aner abused their tremendous power to do some things considered unnatural or dangerous (summoning the dead, taking away people’s pain) and when that happened other theios aner (perhaps organised into a secret Society for Ancient Magic?) stepped in and placed regulations and restrictions on the use of Ancient Magic, such as dividing the foundational ‘Ancient Magic Powers’ (i.e. time-travel, divination, transfiguration and a connection to animals) among four different Ancient Magic users and not permitting anyone to wield all four together, or, in the Keepers’ time, hiding Ancient Magic away altogether and not permitting anyone to learn it anymore.

[orangeshipper]

The thing is, with Dunnett. Her characters are SO GOOD.

(oops this got really long)

I have always, since childhood, let my imagination play with characters and stories. The what-ifs, the missing scenes, the unwritten epilogues. (Hello, fanfiction!)

And the Lymond Chronicles, particularly Checkmate, have SO MUCH scope for it. (Ok I'm having a weird tangent on myself here, forgive me).. I mean, Checkmate is the highest kind of melodrama. It's ridiculous and magnificent. On first read, I thought in all honesty that it was a Bit Much. I wanted to smack Francis and Philippa upside the head and re-imagine any and every one of their encounters to get them over themselves and get together. All those moments where they came so agonisingly, tantalisingly close and then got in their own way. Like I said, a total DREAM for re-imagining and fanfic. The chase in Lyon, the carriage on the way to the Triumph of Calais, the disaster afterwards at the Sejour du Roi, the bedroom after the betrothal/commissioners banquet, the library, Sevigny... Every one where I'm internally begging them to just SAY IT and LISTEN TO EACH OTHER and STOP BEING IDIOTS. On first read, it began to feel like drama for the sake of drama.

But. I have tried to re-imagine every one of those scenes, and more in-between, and... it doesn't work. Their characters with their internal beliefs and moral codes and principles and history are so strong, so vivid, so compelling, that I actually cannot get them together without breaking character. Dorothy knew what the hell she was doing. And actually, when I do let the flighty fanfiction brain take over and just get them together anyway for the fun of it, it's so... unsatisfying?? Because the depth of connection and love that they have by the end, after Sevigny, after everything, is so much richer for all they've been through.

She knew her characters, and she committed, and I am in awe.

Side note: Her character game is so strong that I have violent levels of affection for even the most minor of characters, who are individual and vivid and brilliant. I won't list because I would literally list every character in the series.

Side note 2: I cannot express enough my love for how she takes common fanfic tropes and just turns them on their head. (Oh no, only one bed and we must share a room! Marriage of convenience! etc etc, BUT NO, PAIN.) And just, THANK YOU DOROTHY for writing us the gifts of Will, Gabriel and Jerrott. Slash isn't generally my thing, even, but I am SO entertained by everything she does with them. Will at The Ostrich, just EVERYTHING Gabriel does, Jerrott being so furiously and obliviously in love with Francis... just, magnificent. All of it.

[fereldanwench]

I think I'm just about done with my impromptu blog clean-up! I'm still sorting some tagging systems out, but I've got the fandom and personal stuff squared away at the very least, which was where I really wanted a little refresh.

For those who are also organizational enthusiasts, these are a few of the tools and methods I used to make it a little easier to sort through over 25,000 posts accumulated over about 8 years. One major caveat is that most of these have to be used on a PC browser.

Tumblr Tools

Your Tumblr Mass Post Editor This is Tumblr's native mass post editor; the link is on the right-hand sidebar on your blog page (right under settings). It's very limited without any extensions, but you can do some batch actions like deleting a ton of posts or changing tags.

Your Tumblr Blog Archive This looks very similar to the post editor, but you can actually narrow down the posts by tag, which is super helpful. You can access this by going to your blog.tumblr.com/archive (e.g. fereldanwench.tumblr.com) but you must have custom themes enabled to view it (you can find that under your blog settings).

Tumblr Secret URLs Okay, they're not that secret, but they aren't readily accessible anywhere either and you have to manually enter them. There's a list here with the most helpful ones.

External Tools

Tumblr Tag List Generator This web tool will let you generate a list of the tags it can find on your blog. It's not 100% accurate--The "tags to exclude" option never seems to work for me, and it does miss stuff--But I love using this to find posts with random tags or tagged with a typo.

Tag Replacer There are a few different tag-replacing tools out there, but I like this one a lot because it'll let you play with different combinations of tags to delete, replace, or amend. For instance, I wanted to separate my community OC tags from just "other's ocs" and organize them by fandom: with this tool, I was able to search for posts that had both "g: cyberpunk 2077" and "other's ocs" and then I could replace those tags with "g: cyberpunk 2077" and "ocs: cyberpunk 2077" without replacing all the posts that also had "other's ocs."

Xkit Rewritten & New Xkit Browser Extensions These are increasingly less reliable without regular updates, and you can't even get New Xkit on some browsers right now because it's been flagged as a security risk (so obviously, use it with caution). Xkit Rewritten has a mass private tool for posts, and New Xkit adds a tag search in the native mass post editor--It's pretty glitchy and limited, but it helps.

And I'm just gonna drop some deets under the cut about my housekeeping because it's interesting to me:

I made this blog in March 2016; it was my 3rd or 4th account remake since first joining Tumblr in 2010.

(Tangent: 2 of my remakes in 2013 and 2015 were actually because I didn't like having as many followers as I had, lmao. This account has well surpassed those numbers, but Tumblr doesn't have as many active users as it used to, so it doesn't feel as daunting.)

I did not record the exact number of posts I had before I started purging, but it was around 25,000.

It's now down to 16,947!

Most of the stuff I deleted were TV and movie gifsets and non-fandom artwork, but I also purged a lot of fandom posts that no longer sparked joy. I did get a little overwhelmed for some months because there were so many posts and I know I probably removed stuff I would have preferred to keep.

Although seeing some stuff brought on Bad Feels, I also got a huge surge of inspiration diving through my archive, which is great, because that's exactly what I want out of my space.

Cyberpunk OCs absolutely dominated my OC tag--I ended with about 2700 posts for other folks' CP77 OCs. Dragon Age was next with about 800 posts.

One thing I would like to be more conscious of is minimizing reblogging art from "curator" blogs and finding more artists who are actively posting on Tumblr to support. I don't mind the curation blogs as long as they're sourcing the artist, but I'd just rather give love to the folks who are actually here.

My quietest year was 2019, likely due to a combination of a lot of people leaving after the great tiddy purge and getting more into Twitch and by extension Twitter.

April 2019 was my quietest month, which had 3 posts!!!! 3 posts!!! I post like 4x that amount in a day, lmao.

The Outer Worlds coming out at the end of 2019 brought me out of my semi-hiatus.

Not sure exactly what was my most active year/month, but I'd guess either 2022 or 2023. I do vaguely remember going from about 8000 posts in the middle of 2021 to feeling like that practically doubled by 2022. Cyberpunk really got me using this space again (to the point of my own mental and emotional detriment in some cases, but I got better, lmao).

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Dangancember 2024 - Danganronpa Top 24 Class Trials: Number 17 Danganronpa Another Case 2

//Oh man...

//I'm gonna get in trouble, aren't I?

//Also wow, Yuki is staring REAL hard at Ayame's boobs in that image, isn't he?

//Alright, but forget that...

//I understand that this case is very popular. And believe me when I say that this is is a really good trial to me as well, and I really did enjoy it.

//What you have to understand is that we're in the area of the list where we're talking about the trials that I actually think are decent, and I have more positives to say about them than negatives. But with that said, I still have some negatives, and personally speaking, I think that this trial is kind of overrated.

//Something I notice is that opinions on the trials in the DR series are usually pretty common across the games. Most people, myself included, universally agree that the Case 3's are generally bad why the Case 4's are some of the most spectacular mysteries in the series.

//With Case 2, it's more of a dice roll. I definitely like Kizuna and Ayame's case WAY better than I like Mahiru and Peko's or Kokoro and Emma's, but FAR FAAAR less than I like Ryoma and Kirumi's and Chihiro and Mondo's.

//My biggest issue I think is generally the same big issue I had with 2-2 and A2-2. Especially considering the trial has some very similar story beats and moments.

//As I mentioned with 2-2, the pacing was awful, because the mystery itself is so simple in practice, but it gets derailed on pointless tangents and only around 30% of the trial itself is dedicated to the mystery. This is kind of the same, though not nearly as bad.

//The entire first half of the trial is trying to figure out the logistics and order of events with the case, and ultimately, it's concluded that Akane Taira is the culprit. Then the next quarter of the trial is trying to figure out how she did it, only for that to conclude in being a red herring.

//Then the rest of the trial immediately shifts focus onto Ayame Hatano being Kizuna's killer, and I feel like we didn't dedicate nearly enough time to her and her interruptions in the case. We kind of just said, "she did this, this is where things don't add up, KICK HER!"

//Makes a weird case when the vast majority of the trial is talking about everything that Akane did, and how Kizuna ended up dying, and only a small fraction of it is dedicated to the ACTUAL crime and how things played out.

//There's also the fact that it didn't need to be this long and drawn out, because considering Ayame's motive for killing Kizuna, she could have deflected the blame away from Akane at any time. And yes, I know that Ayame did have her own agenda behind her actions, but the general point of why she did was she did was to save Akane. To not see her jump to her defence.

//Besides that, there are a few other issues I have with this trial. I think the main one of those issues is the fact that the "decisive evidence" just really ISN'T decisive whatsoever.

//The wiretrap is the best example, because the way it was handled in this was kind of dumb. Not only does Ayame's use of it backfire massively because she literally cannot tell front from back, but the assumption that she even used it in the first place is covered far too quickly.

//It just feels like something that's immediately noticeable, and I immediately questioned it. But the fact that nobody brought it up until the end of the case made me second-guess myself the whole time.

//It's ultimately kind of disappointing to me that I had an idea about something that I thought might not be correct, until I find out the only reason it wasn't covered is because everyone in this game is a dumbass for some reason. Especially since it's not IMPOSSIBLE that she could have accidentally hit the back of her leg through some means, and with it being the evidence that ultimately nails Ayame as the killer...doesn't feel right...

//Still, despite the fact that you don't have to rack your brain too much in order to cover all the points this trial makes, the mystery itself ends up being decent on most fronts. So I can't complain too much about it.

//My other issues mainly stem from the characterizations. There are some standout character moments here, but there are a few things that I do take issue with.

//The big one...is Kizuna.

//Kizuna is essentially Hiyoko but somehow worse. She spent most of her screen time bullying other students, and she's also guilty of pimping herself and her friends out to people, literally tries to RAPE Yuki during her last FTE, and in this case, tried to convince Akane to assist in killing Yuki because he allegedly knew the identity of the Mastermind. Something that, while an interesting twist in retrospect, was fairly groundless.

//Then she tried to kill her when she refused because she knew too much. She also confessed that she had been prepared to kill someone since day two.

//It devolves to the point that at the conclusion of the trial, nobody is upset with Ayame for taking her life. I know this might mostly be because Ayame did it with mostly noble intentions, and Kizuna was the asshole victim, but it still feels like Kizuna got absolutely wasted here.

//The most redeemable thing Kizuna does in the entire time she's in the Killing Game is she writes "Maid" in her blood after she is stabbed by Akane so that the others know she killed her, but alters the message to "Maid X" meaning "Not the maid," after Ayame shows up to complete the task.

//But then she dies, and any kind of decent character arc or development she had was cut short.

//A case can be made for Hiyoko in that despite still being rude to people, before she died, she was showing genuine growth, and a desire to move on, mainly through how she was trying to learn to tie her kimono without Mahiru's help. But the way Kizuna is handled here makes it seem like she's developing, only to rip that away from her at the end, and make the claim that "Oh yeah, she was always this evil bitch."

//Hiyoko wasn't evil, she just grew up in the wrong environment, and as she got older and more mature through the killing game, it was shown by her growing out of it. Meanwhile it really does just feel like LINUJ was trying to reinforce the fact that Kizuna won't, and cannot, change, no matter the terrible situation she's in.

//LINUJ does this A LOT! Especially in SDRA2. And I HATE it.

//In Chapter 1, she is introduced as a typical Cruel cheerleader who hides behind a vivacious façade. However, in Chapter 2, Yuki and Akane overhear her sobbing about how lonely she truly is, and they encourage the other students to embrace her into their friend group, which she accepts with tears. She cries when she confesses that men have only ever seen her for her appearance, and seems to connect with Yuki after he persuades her not to rape him, if you follow all of her free-time events.

//Only later, she tells Akane that the entire incident was a ruse to win their trust so she may kill Yuki, whom she (rightly, might I add) believes to be the mastermind. When Akane tries to stop her, she easily turns the knife on her.

//It just bothers me that there are so many accounts of Kizuna showing remorse for her past, a genuineness in her character, and on SEVERAL OCCASSIONS at that, only for the game to ultimately decide that she's a jerk to the soul with no redeemable qualities, and then rips everything away from her so that a bad taste is left in your mouth.

//I don't know, I just don't like it. I'm not really sure what else I'm supposed to say. Like, I get why LINUJ sees the world this way, but he has proven he's capable of writing characters who do bad things, but grow and feel remorseful for them.

//Akane and Ayame both go through that in this chapter and they are the best examples.

//Speaking of which, let's talk about the latter next.

//To her credit, I think Ayame is one of the best killer's in the original Another game, if not, THE best. For me, it's a toss-up between her, and another character who we'll get to later.

//What actually happened with this case is Ayame found Kizuna's almost dead body after Akane accidentally stabbed her, and even if she had hurried to get help, Kizuna would have very certainly died from her stomach wound by the time she returned, and Akane would have become the Blackened as a result. In light of this, she believed that turning into the Blackened herself was the only way to stop Akane from doing so.

//Which, surprisingly, is something that we've NEVER gotten before. Despite how easy it could be, the original Danganronpa series, even to this day, doesn't have a single case where someone took the fall for someone else to stop them from being executed.

//The closest we've gotten to this up until this point is Chapter 2 of Danganronpa 2 where Peko killed Mahiru. It's widely accepted that the reason she did it was so Fuyuhiko didn't have to become the Blackened himself.

//However, with Peko, not only did she not deal the killing blow after Fuyuhiko already attacked Mahiru, but she mainly did it as part of her duty to be Fuyuhiko's tool. Which isn't to say she didn't genuinely care about Fuyuhiko as a person; but what I mean is that in Peko's mind, her duty to serve as his weapon against his enemies would have come first.

//And unlike Ayame, Peko really thought out the consequences, and acted completely selflessly. Because Peko did not care about herself enough to try and beat the odds.

//In the case of Ayame, her actions to kill Kizuna and stop Akane from being executed were driven by genuine friendship, and not wanting her to die. She knew that the liklihood of her beating the trial wasn't that high given the united forces against her, and she would have been content losing her life so long as she got to save Akane's.

//But what I also like about this case and Ayame's motives is that even she herself admits that her actions weren't entirely selfless. Rei rightly points out to her at the conclusion of the case that if she really wanted to save Akane, there would be no need for the trial, because in the case that she won it, Akane would have been executed anyway.

//And Ayame affirms this and accepts the responsibility for that. She just retains the consistent honesty that she's known for, and doesn't try to play up her actions as heroic or noble, because she herself DID have a desire to escape from the academy, and she IS selfish to an extent.

//As well as the fact that another reason is because she wanted to be sure that she had done the right thing, and that Akane really had stabbed Kizuna on accident.

//It's one of the saddest deaths in the entire game, especially given how Akane desperately tries to say everything that's on her mind in Ayame's final moments so she can be sent off with them.

//What's even better is that Akane turning out to be the Mastermind doesn't change any of this for me. The fact that she forgot her memories before the end of Case 5 and ended up forming this genuine bond with Ayame is wholesome as hell.

//As well as the fact that she admits in her final moments that it's Ayame's kindness that really helped her switch sides.

//Which I think is an interesting and underrated parallel of Akane's relationship with Utsuro. The reason why Akane sweared fealty to Utsuro is because he was the one who saved her life from an extremely shitty situation.

//You could argue that Ayame did the same thing here. So Akane developed a similar devotion to her late friend, and ultimately decided she didn't want to waste the second chance she got.

//Kind of the complete reverse of what I was just talking about with Kizuna's arc being betrayed in place of just keeping her a terrible person. Akane was a terrible person who did a lot of wrong, but I like that just as it can take one bad day to turn a reasonable person into a morally questionable individual, the reverse is true. One act of kindness can change an entire world view and reshape people.

//It's kind of the main message of Danganronpa. That Hope and Despair are equally as strong as each other, and you will find traces of one in places where the other might thrive. Akane's character arc throughout most of Another revolves around this singular point with Ayame, and it pans out spectacularly.

//So yeah, I can find no fault with Ayame honestly. She's just generally a really great character in this case, and has a lasting impact that spans the rest of the game, which is more than Mitch and Kinji can say, or deserve. I think it takes a lot of emotional maturity to be able to do the things she did and make the claims, as well as willingly accept that her actions weren't as noble as they might come across.

//Speaking of emotional maturity, Tsurugi has fucking none of that.

//I eluded to this in the previous post about the case that came before this one, but for me, this is the point where I REALLY started to fall out of love with Tsurugi.

//I get that he's supposed to be the antagonist character, but Byakuya, Nagito, and Kokichi, while definitely antagonistic, never reached these levels of evil in terms of their antics. Byakuya definitely told someone to off themselves once or twice at some point, but he never said it in a serious context.

//In the midst of her complete and total mental breakdown over Ayame's execution, he icily orders Akane to kill herself, for no reason other than that he alone believes she still counts as a murderer because she accidentally stabbed Kizuna.

//Again. ACCIDENTALLY!

//Let me tell you all a little bit about the way court legislations work, my friends. Most jurisdictions allow the use of force, including lethal force, if you have a reasonable belief that your life or someone else's life is in imminent danger. The force used must generally be proportional to the threat. For example, using lethal force against a non-lethal threat may not be justified.

//But this was a lethal threat. Kizuna was straight-up trying to kill Akane here.

//Accidentally killing someone in self-defense might not automatically lead to prison, but the outcome will depend on how the law views your actions.

//But even with all this, coupled with the fact that Akane DIDN'T ACTUALLY kill Kizuna, is completely irrelevant to Tsurugi. And for the entire rest of the game, no matter how nice she is to him, he remains vindictive towards her for the entire game from this point forward.

//Even though she did essentially nothing wrong.

//And while that does make Tsurugi an interesting antagonist in this game, it makes me absolutely despise him as a character.

//Even though his accusations against her aren't entirely false, this is still a terrible situation. Despite his declaration that he is willing to collaborate with the other students on Kanata and Kakeru's murder trial in the very next chapter, he singles out Akane to explain he still views her as an attempted murderer.

//He does NOT let her get over it for the rest of the game. The only other character who does that is Kokichi, but he does that out of childish immaturity and a desire to get under people's skin. Tsurugi doing this is petty, and it makes me absolutely loathe him.

//It's in the same vein as why I hate Haiji Towa. Haiji's actions are pretty realistic given the situation that he's in, and I don't think he's a poorly written character at all. It's just that said writing makes them out to be so detestable that I can barely stand to be in his presence.

//I'd normally appreciate a 180 like this in a normal narrative, but this felt way too fast for me.

//And yeah, before anyone says it, I do know that there are no manslaughter laws in the killing game, and that these laws can be kind of complicated. If you kill someone in self-defence, you still become the blackened, because that's basically what happened with Leon, kind of.

//But the fact that Tsurugi complies himself to this bothers me.

//However, that's mostly all my negatives out of the way, and everything else I have to say about this case is actually pretty stellar. The primary reason why it's not higher is because of the reasons that I've just discussed, plus I have a lot more positive things to say about the cases going forward than I do this one.

//Personally though, I think the biggest selling point for this trial for me is something that I normally recognize Fanganronpa's over, and one of the key selling points for any fan-related work:

//Originality.

//Look, if we can be completely frank about something, as much as LINUJ does get creative with his cases later, SDRA2 is the one that really branches out in terms of mysteries, while A1 plays it kind of safe by sticking to the same formula as the first and second games.

//Look at all the other trials, and you'll see what I mean:

//A-1 is the same as 1-1: The murder is committed by the sports jock, and he uses his talent to assist in his cover up of the crime. He also has the most brutal execution right out of the gate.

//A-3 is the same as 1-3: The murderer is a typically reserved and mature individual who throws all of that to the wayside when they start to become cornerned. They also kill two people, and suffer a similarly religious-themed and passive execution that quickly turns intense and silly.

//A-4 is the same as 2-4: The murder arises during the height of tension among the students and involves them trapped inside a specific area of the Killing Game with very limited resources. It's also the point where they are most at each others' throats, and somebody makes a sacrifice in order to rescue them, either by killing themselves, or agreeing to commit a murder with another person.

//A-5 is the same as 1-5: It's a murder and plot actually committed by the mastermind, but framed by another student as a means of taking back control of the Killing Game and dividing the students again. The student that they try to pin the blame on also somehow manages to escape their execution. Albeit Mikako's way of doing so is a lot more tragic than Makoto's.

//And A-6 is the same as 2-6: The main cast of characters are revealed to be part of a larger conglomerate that they forgot about upon their memories being erased, and the Killing Game itself is revealed to be the prelude to a much bigger event. The main character is also revealed to not only be the true mastermind behind the killing game, and also found to be an entirely different person than anyone, even themselves, believed, but they also possess an unholy superpower of talent that makes them near unstoppable, despite their preconcieved normalcy among the cast.

//A-2 is the only trial that doesn't share almost anything in common with the originaly Danganronpa games. As I mentioned already, the closest point of commonality is how Peko and Fuyuhiko's situation slightly mirrors Akane and Ayame's, but even then, that's a stretch, and almost a completely different situation besides a few things.

//There's also the way that Ayame disguises her motives by pretending to be evil, like Peko did, but that lasts like...4 seconds, in comparison to Peko's half an hour, smh.

//It feels detached from anything that we've seen before in Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair, and really stands on its own legs as a case on the same level as the franchise has shown.

//What is most impressive is that this originality in the writing of the case is only the simple grounds upon which the rest of the mystery is built. After all, most of SDRA2's cases are fairly original, but that originality doesn't make them good (see A2-2). The case takes it and runs with it in good ways.

//For one, I like that the case shows the truth that eyewitness testimony and personal accounts of a case alone are nowhere near substantial enough to solve a case on its own, either by misconstruing a situation, or just straight up lying about what was seen.

//It's a hurdle that I feel most Danganronpa cases fail to jump, but this one does.

//Pun...not intended.

//I also really like the plot twist this chapter, and what ultimately drove Kizuna to single out Yuki especially, in that he apparently knows who the Mastermind is. We later find out that it's Yuki himself...kind of...but it's an interesting twist that sets the game apart from what is known in DR1, and the way it turns the others opinion of him on its head is pretty tense and engaging.

//But in general, I think this case is just all around super solid. It's just that compared to the other Chapter 2's in the Danganronpa series, this one is the middle ground. It's a compelling mystery that stands on its own merits, but it's not engaging enough to breach the top 10.

//I'm very sorry, because I understand that this trial is particularly popular among the audience.

[ss-shitstorm]

Hey I know you’ve probably already been asked this but what type of chemistry do you use for breaking bread like biochem and where did you learn this or have any book recommendations to pick it up? Also ty in advance I love your writing!!💕💕

oh my fucking god. oh my god. buddy. buddy you have made my fucking LIFE ASKING THIS OH GOD

So like, most of the chemistry I've used so far has just been Genchem and O Chem(with a wee few modifications to make it believable as a Cybertronian discipline, like Transformium being able to hold 4 bonds like Carbon but preferentially forming bonds w metals and needing an EMP pulse to interact w more electronegative atoms) I may wind up needing to get into a bit of Inorganic chemistry, but that's probably fewer and further in between. If you want a better handle on the stuff I'm writing or if you just want to learn more in general, then I'd recommend giving yourself a lil crash course in Genchem and then delving into O chem a bit more extensively (protip : you need WAY less Genchem then you'd think to fully understand O chem. God I wish someone had told me this 5 years ago. If you search "Genchem for non majors", you'll probably learn enough that way.)

THAT SAID : here's a chaotic, not really in any order list of the books/youtube channels/etc that I've directly used/am using for this fic.

Books :

Caveman Chemistry, Kevin R Dunn - Alot of hands-on old timey historical chemistry lessons w detailed instructions on how to complete them.(YOU GET TO MAKE YOUR OWN ASPIRIN AND DRAIN CLEANER!) Delivered with a delightfully occult bend.

Back To basics,(Reader's Digest) - Survivalist homesteading bible. Not strictly chemistry but has alot of earthy hippy ways of generating energy( biofuels my beloved)

An Introduction to Fire Dynamics, Dougal Drysdale - Honestly this, and any other firefighting manuals are worth their weight in gold for figuring out how to not set yourself and your neighborhood on fire while playing with, well, fire. Trying to look this info up online is like playing russian roulette with intentional misinformation and your fbi guy.

(there's another book I have that's even more detailed but I can't find it right now or remember the name. I'll update this list when I can!)

Organic Chemistry, John Mcmurray 8th edition : generic but good college O chem textbook. You can search around and find free versions to download relatively easily.

The Organic Chem Lab Survival Manual, James W Zubrick - Also a very good way to learn how to not set yourself and your neighborhood on fire when playing with glassware/gases. Very in-depth instructions on setting up and using lab equipment without breaking anything or your brain. Has a fuckton of pictures. Author has a massive sense of humor and makes this heavy subject easy to read. Again, easy to download/find in archives

Unfortunately I do not have any recommendations for Genchem books. I mostly used free online courses like Khan Academy to learn what I did.(I would def. recommend them though)

Youtube Channels :

The Organic Chemistry Tutor : Dude puts everything from reaction mechanisms to retrosynth problems down in the simplest possible terms. Does not beat around the bush with euphemisms or stories, gets right to business. If you have trouble paying attention, or lose your mind when a professor goes off on a tangent, this man is your savior. I have crippling unmedicated ADHD and no STEM background whatesoever and this man still managed to teach me 2 separate ways to execute a Gabriel Synthesis

Nile Red : World's most inefficient and most powerful wizard. I am not entirely convinced he's human. Does shit like turning plastic gloves into drinkable grape soda or making sweeteners out of his own piss and somehow makes it explainable to trash goblins like me who only need the science for warlord pussy.

again, anon, holy shit thank you so much. Like you wouldn't believe the amount of damage you've just undone. i have been beating myself into a pulp and spiraling into anxiety about this fic an trying to do everything right and you've given me enough moxie to fuel me for at least the next 10 chapters. If you have any more questions or more specific questions, please do not hesitate to ask! I can't guarantee I can answer them, but damnit I'll try. Take care and happy learning you funky lil moonbean.

[verdemoun]

there will be a detailed post about dutch van der linde in timewarp in the next 24 hours watch this space but before then The Ex's of Dutch Van Der Linde is an absolute posse

the main trio is annabelle, susan grimshaw and molly o'shea. molly catches up with the girlies more than any other members of VDLs. side tangent i know in my soul grimshaw and molly made up like grimshaw thought she was protecting the gang. molly would be hurt grimshaw actually believed she talked. she was just saying it to get a rise out of dutch. grimshaw would recognize the effect dutch has on the people that love him and be very apologetic for being blinded by the idea of molly talking and putting the gang at risk, and not doing more to help her as she mentally declined in 1899. they made up they're friends shut up let me dream

the first time molly went over for a formal exes of dutch meeting kieran was also there and the sheer panic poor molly felt please please do not tell me dutch slept with the o'driscoll!! he cheated on me with the o'driscoll!!!?! (she doesn't love dutch but she damn well will have another reason to hate him if she's adding cheating to the list)

he didn't!! he was hanging out with annabelle before the meeting. 1. she lowkey forgot he was there because he's so quiet 2. she's holding him hostage in an effort to get hosea to come. they all damned well know 3. it's a surprise tool that'll help us later

it starts off as just a nice wine dinner talking about girlie things bitching about work, modern era life but by the second bottle of wine someone has to break the ice 'remember how fucking annoying it was when dutch put on the gramophone' 'jesus christ yes i still fucking twitch hearing opera' and then it is all out war they are holding the roast of dutch van der linde

it is very stereotypical like they're making fun of how he preens like the pits of fashion they're saying he was bad in bed and things he did that gave them universal ick they're making fun of mangy tobacco pipe breath when he kissed them and all the red flags in hindsight like the gaslighting and the whole time they are still pouring more wine and smoking and getting more and more animated

finally, with the biggest shit-eating grin on her face, annabelle goes up to kieran who's just been sitting there playing on his tablet having a few drinks and zaza and casually asks 'hey kipper what do you think of dutch'

and fellas let me tell you when he's drunk enough to be chatty kieran duffy has Opinions. he will talk so much shit and the girls are just sprawled on the couch drinking wine listening to kieran duffy pace around calling out shit like 'why is dutch such a creep around women has he ever dated a woman older than 25 also what the Hell is his deal with pretending he's a moral superiority 'dutch is a teacher uwu' fucking horseshit half the gang was only so devoted to him because they didn't know anything else and he deliberately picks out people he can mold people to follow his ideals at least colm had the decency not to pretend he cared about people i wanna punch his god damn face so BAD and his moustache is stupid'

the girls are just sitting there snapping their fingers go off kieran he was there for entertainment value the whole time. annabelle just adores him if she could steal one of bessie's boys it would be kieran they have such a special bond as fellow victims of o'driscoll torture. she is his timewarp mom

they put on REAL music out of spite and by real music i mean they are drunk dancing and shout-singing along to 'vampire'. by the time hosea gets there the energy is just so contagious he does join in the 'fuck our ex dutch van der linde' party while bessie is stealing the leftovers. kieran has somehow managed to fall asleep on the couch and bessie quietly sits beside him and has herself a sneaky glass of whisky while the girls + her husband have moved from alternative pop 'i hate my ex' to country 'i'm going to fucking murder my ex'

[transformersroleplay]

hey all! i’m currently looking for a lucky someone (or someones) to join a 1x1 literate transformers roleplay on discord!

PLEASE BE 18+. I am over 18 and I intend to have graphic content within our writing. This includes:

Mentions/potential depictions of sexual themes/kinks, drug abuse, SA, mentions of child abuse, medical themes, mechpreg, etc. This list isn’t limited to these things, nor does our writing have to include all of them! We can discuss in more detail what we feel most comfortable with. :)

Good grammar, punctuation, 3rd person perspective, and somewhat consistent tense are very important to me, though if you slip up every so often, don’t worry, I won’t bite! I love to write A LOT (at least at the beginning), usually breaking discords message limit. However, quality over quantity is even more important, so don’t feel like you need to grind out 6 paragraphs if you don’t have the inspiration/material to work off of! I tend to shorten down to usually 2 paragraphs as the roleplay goes on, maybe even less depending on the scene, but sometimes i’ll go off on a tangent again. As said before, feel free to discuss with me! Communication is key.

Please no ocs! I ONLY do canon/canon, at least at first. Once I get to know you and get comfortable with your style, I usually become more open towards ocs, especially if we can make some together!

As for continuity, I mainly go for an ambiguous universe or an amalgamation of multiple. If we want a specific one to work with, I’m most familiar with IDW (disclaimer that I’m not the most knowledgeable out there), G1 universe and the aligned continuity. IDW would be my first pick though!

I have many many, MANY ships in my arsenal, but there are a few main ones that I’m usually always down to do, those include: (in no particular order)

lockdown/swindle

ratchet/drift

starscream/skywarp/thundercracker

starscream/megatron

starscream/skyfire

starscream/optimus

megatron/the elite trine

rung/megatron

deadlock/hot rod

deadlock/ratchet

rodimus/megatron

chromedome/rewind

onslaught/blastoff

first aid/vortex

breakdown/knockout

soundwave/megatron

soundwave/shockwave

any poly gestalt

I love rarepairs too! From ones that are a little popular, to making up a ship of our own, they’re really fun to do! Though I prefer to do them once we have a few stories established so we can get a vibe for each other! Silverbolt/Motormaster, Hook/Mixmaster, Onslaught/Swindle, etc. Let’s get creative!

Starscream and Drift/Deadlock are the characters I have the most experience writing, but I can write almost anyone. I might not have a ton of experience with a certain character, but I’ll put my all into it!

As for plot, I don’t really have anything specific in mind at the moment except for starscream based ideas. However, no matter the ship, I’m always down for slice of life, canon/canon divergence, human aus, and royalty aus. I’m a HUGE sucker for royalty aus.

so yeah! hmu if you’re interested and we can talk more!

[bittenrabbit]

Six Deck Tech :> Decklist can be found here: Six Baubles (now with six baubles!)

hello! I'd like to talk about one of my commanders, a card with a really unique effect from Modern Horizons 3 who has yet to see the variation in deck building that they probably should!

But before I get to that, I'd like to talk about one of my favorite decks from magic history, Eggs! Eggs is a deck that revolves around the same game pieces regardless of format: 1 and 0 mana artifacts that you can "crack" for a card and an effect of some kind. You win by using some kind of mana engine to draw your entire deck. one card at a time. Once you've thinned your deck, you can achieve a loop of some kind to end up winning the game. It's the ultimate power trip!!! Taking a ridiculous amount of game actions just to lose to not drawing the exact piece you need, choosing when/when to not shuffle becomes a game of percentages at the slot machine it's fantastic lol If you have yet to watch Pro Tour Return to Ravnica's finals, it's definitely worth a watch! The winning list ran Lotus Bloom as its mana engine of choice and won by cracking eggs (and lands through ghost quarter!) and then reanimating them + Lotus with Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward before cracking everything again to get ever closer to an empty deck and then win by looping a single Pyrite Spellbomb :>

So who's at the helm of my deck? As I went into MH3 spoiler season, Six really stood out to me! I love wide open cards that let you brew in a billion different ways :>

Six (of Wrenn and Six fame) is a 3 mana 2/4 Reach who reads:

Reach Whenever Six attacks, mill three cards. You may put a land card from among them into your hand. As long as it’s your turn, nonland permanent cards in your graveyard have retrace. (You may cast permanent cards from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying their other costs.)

Most Six lists so far on EDHREC run stuff like Spore Frog and Sakura-Tribe Elder + Sacrifice effects to accrue value/discard lands and then end the game through cards like Avenger of Zendikar/landfall effects + mass land reanimation spells!

I took a bit of a different spin on Six, one that no one seems to have replicated yet (side tangent um. being the only deck running this stuff on EDHREC is so funny, you can literally see my deck on the website!) I made an eggs list! With Six out on the field, cards like Conjurer's Bauble and Mishra's/Urza's Bauble read "discard a land to draw a card" With any mana discount, Chromatic Star/Sphere and a bunch of other eggs read the same :D

My gameplan is to get Six out and protected and then draw a whole bunch of cards and gain a tooon of value with cards like Glaring Fleshraker, Turntimber Sower and Sarinth Steelseeker

If you can keep hitting lands off your eggs, your storm count'll go way up recasting your baubles which you can use to cast cards like Sprouting Vines to cast MORE BAUBLES!!!! Or win through typical storm payoffs like Aeve & Aetherflux Reservoir to blast em all for super lethal damage >:D (or you could just win by simply having more cards and tokens than opponents can handle!)

Anywaays that's my deck tech i think! lmk if i missed anything maybe i'll rewrite this at some point and make a video? :>

[sentienttoastah]

Things to know about me. I uhm. Errmm. Kiwi.

Okay I’ve been informed that making an actual introduction post thing is recommended so yeah why not.

Ahoy, call me Fish (or the kiwisang guy apparently) Things to list about me and this blog:

Aroace, Agender

Pronouns are any

Apparently I have DID now. (original Fish no longer disintegrated but they’re just observing in the backseat now and the other guy (Ami) doesn’t do much so don’t worry bout them).

Current relevant fixations/interests: Project Moon, Art, Classic literature and literature in general, Fear and Hunger(1&2), Okami, Project Milgram, Link Click (<- newest edition to the list) and Kiwi birds of course :D

Mostly SFW in the erotic department as I’m personally sex-repulsed. But there is gore and swearing still (does anyone actually consider swearing not safe though? Like really?) and shipping. If any of that makes you uncomfortable then yeah.

I don’t have many other relevant socials but if you know me from anywhere else hello fish government (you know who you are) and moots can ask for discord too now if they want. I made an account recently.

I am open for interactions or new media and would enjoy making friends on here too so feel free to talk to me about shared interests or other things in general 🐟

or send me kiwi images…

Some tags on this blog:

#🐟 - Any of my original posts that aren’t reblogs (art, thoughts, etc. and the tags below also apply with this)

#toast tangents - Ramblings of a sentient fish toaster creature thing

#daily dick!! - Whale and Moby Dick postings (not very “daily” anymore)

#kwi sang/#kiwi company - That thing where I turn Project Moon characters into kiwis because of course I did. Mainly Yi Sang

#pokemon mirror dungeon - another excuse of mine to draw pmoon characters as anything except human, this time as pokemon

#benjamin 🫶 - benjamin.

(kiwi of judgement because why did you read all of that /pos)

[patchwork-crow-writes]

It's so specific but I love the idea of Ralsei loving makeup and me having the headcannon for his room to at least have a dressing table for makeups XD

I would love to see this explored in chapter 3 by something VERY specific which is... That dragon book!?! You know that book that Asriel have?? The "How to draw dragons" book?

So, when we go to the library, Berdly says that the dragon in the cover has a mauve skin, and has lipstick. Since this book it's on Kris' house... and there is a small description of the character, I wouldn't doubt that this dragon will be in chapter 3 as a backstage makeup artist or something related to it due to the chapter's tv and show theme!!

With this I kinda thought about when this dragon gets to meet Ralsei, starts to likes him a lot and treats him like a little prince like he deserves?? Or their favorite between Kris and Susie, but also for the familiarity with goat monsters since their book was Asriel's ?!

Idk but if it'll be like this, I would love the Ralsei and makeup thing more explored because of this dragon!! Honestly, I think it would even help Ralsei to know better who he is and discover more hobbies with that!

I mean... you've seen those peepers, haven't you?

Bro definitely spends two hours every day making sure his makeup is perfect for when the lightners visit XD And for sure, it'd be cute as heck if a character in a future chapter acknowledges that aspect of him and rizzes him up for it. Heaven knows our boy could do with a little pampering and positive reinforcement!

As for whether that character would be the "How to Draw Dragons" dragon? Could be, honestly! Your idea of them being a makeup artist for a TV show is a good one! Personally, however, I think that'll have another role to play, if you'll humour my thought-process a moment.

I have a feeling - and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this - that Asriel didn't borrow that book for himself, but for Kris. We know that Azzy doted on his little sibling, so if they put him up to it because they were too embarrassed, then he'd definitely do something like that for them. The other thing is, we know that Kris is quite fond of Susie, even before they become proper friends in Chapter 1. And she's a purple dragon, the same as the dragon on the front cover of the book...

Anyway! With this in mind, I think this dragon, should they make an appearance as a darkner, is going to end up messing the current fun gang dynamic up something fierce. Susie's gonna look at this and realise she's Kris's "type", which'll probably end up making her feel weird after the whole Noelle thing back in Chapter 2. And then I feel that Ralsei's also gonna put two and two together, which is probably going to make him feel worthless when he realises that Kris only has eyes for Susie and not him. I think it could be an interesting way to develop the continuing theme of love/romance in Deltarune, and in particular the "perception versus reality" aspect of it, as the "How To Draw Dragons" book would likely end up looking like a more sexualised version of Susie, what with the lipstick and the... immodest dress. I haven't developed this thought all that much, but your ask made me think about it for the first time, so thank you!

To get back to your ask (sorry for the massive tangent!) - yeah, I think there is a lot more we could learn about Ralsei through his hobbies, including any new ones he might pick up. He does have a LOT of hobbies, it seems, from cooking to crocheting and interior decorating, and he can sing! Going by his jaw-droppingly gorgeous no-glasses sprite above, I think we could add master make-up artist to that list as well! And yeah, it'd definitely be amazing to see those hobbies being used as a way for Ralsei to discover more about himself :)

Thanks so much for the thought-provoking ask! :D