#but it's based on a fairly recent post lol

[sasquach-scratches]

another for the "i need to draw something" pile

How Alois seduced Roggi Knot-Beard probably

[mariocki]

A young Peter Wyngarde guests as journalist Andrea Bakolas (a fictionalised version of the real Gregorios Staktopoulos) in Overseas Press Club - Exclusive!: The George Polk Case (1.9, ABPC, 1957)

[novantinuum]

jen's "Hard-Light Hybrid Steven" headcanon dump

Okay so I'm just making this its own post, because frankly at this point... the original post is so hard to get all the pulp out of due to the headcanons being spread over multiple reblogs and half of it being in the tags.

So here we go. Self indulgent headcanon time. This is how I'm now personally interpreting things within the realm of my own fic work and the post-canon storylines that live in my mind. This is NOT, however, a work of meta- I am by no means suggesting this to be what I see as "canon," only having some fun playing around with ideas I think are cool on a speculative fantasy anatomy level. Take it as you will basically, lol. This is ultimately just for me.

With that stated:

"jen what the fuck do you mean when you say hard-light hybrid Steven, what are you even suggesting"

Essentially I am proposing that Steven becomes progressively more hard-light based in form as he ages. When he was born he was two almost entirely separate halves mashed together- organic and gem- and those two halves slowly but surely merge over the years (hard light replacing organic matter) until one day they are literally inseparable, and Steven is one permanently cohesive being... entirely hewn from hard-light, but with a level of anatomical complexity that still makes him a complete anomaly amongst Gems and humans alike. Instead of the innards of his body being solid light, he is still formed of cells- only now, those cells are entirely hard-light.

His gem is somehow mimicking the form of organic matter with a level of detail that's absolutely unobtainable by shapeshifting or tailored reformation alone. Steven has become the single most complex hard-light system to have ever existed.

Some more specifics on how I imagine this merge working:

Much of the "merging" is natural over time, basically his gem branching out new bits of hard-light circuitry within his body as it integrates within his system.

However, this process is sped up significantly by all the spills and injuries Steven deals with throughout his childhood... because his body's instinctive response to injury is simply to replace damaged cells with hard-light analogues. An almost instantaneous patch job.

Steven's component halves being so distinct early on is a large reason why he takes so long to harness many of his powers.

This is also why Steven's (mostly) organic half is so weakened during the split in Change Your Mind- at that point there's a lot about his anatomy that's been converted to hard-light, so it's basically as if White Diamond yanked the power source out.

(Same idea for why he's so weakened during the movie when his gem's on the fritz... his gem's connection with the rest of his body got partially severed for a time, which. Is not Good for someone who at this point is more hard-light than not hard light.)

At a certain point post-canon, it becomes impossible for Steven's organic and gem halves to be separated. They are so tightly integrated that attempting to remove the gem would only poof him.

Now, here's the thing though...

Steven does not realize that Any of this is taking place until the blunt reality of his strange new anatomical nature is put on display for all to see... when he actually DOES poof.

Here is how (in my own post-canon musings, which I have simplified here because y'all don't live inside all the intensive lore that jangles about my brain) I envision that taking place:

So, Steven would be in his mid to late twenties at this point. He's married to Connie, and they have an infant son.

Recently, there was a fairly severe Gem incident that left Beach City and Little Homeworld pretty damaged. Things are still being mopped up from that.

Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl head out on a quick mission one day to intercept one of the last few supporters of the Gem who attacked the Crystal Gem's hub of operation, and at first it seems like it's gonna be a straightforward trip.

Then, Steven sees the Gem in question pull a destabilizer wand on Garnet, and- unwilling to watch her to get ripped apart like that again- throws himself in between. He can take it, he thinks. These things never hurt him one bit as a kid

He cannot take it.

He poofs.

His gem unceremoniously falls to the ground, along with the clothes he was wearing and whatever he had in his pockets.

Cue the others going "what the actual FUCK" because based on everything they've ever witnessed and known about him no one had "Steven poofs" on their bingo card.

The insurgent Gem is captured and dealt with, but now... oh, boy. There's literally no playbook for this. Nobody knows what to expect.

Steven's gem is quiet for WEEKS. During that time, the Gems end up consulting the Diamonds on Homeworld to ask for intel on diamond reformation, but none of them are much help- Rose and Steven are the only ones who have actually poofed. Beyond them, this is completely unprecedented.

In a very vague sense, Steven is aware of what must have happened during this time... (even if a part of him wants to deny it, because How???)

He can pick up vague snippets of what's happening just beyond his reach... catching voices and what must be faint sensations of familiar people handling his gem, but beyond that he has no awareness of the passage of time, and he has no means by which to reach out to them mentally.

It takes almost two months for him to finally reform. When he does, his gem quickly shifts through its previous three forms and then just... outright h a n g s for a while on the new one... as if what's trying to "load" up is so complex it's goddamn buffering.

(my brain can only think of This image uyhjfsdbyuhjfg)

No one really knows what to expect but when he finally reforms, he... looks mostly the same? Still rather human in appearance, externally? The only notable difference is that his irises are pink now. (But with no diamond pupil- not unless he's going Full Power Mode.)

Steven also reforms WITH an outfit much like a Gem would.

The second he's back, he runs to embrace Connie (who is sobbing in relief) and asks how long he was out.

And he did NOT anticipate that answer to be two months.

As it turns out, he missed quite a few baby milestones while he was gone, and he feels horrible about it- it's not his fault of course, but he feels so bad that Connie had to go that long without his support, and that there's all those special "firsts" with his son he'll never get to experience.

This whole incident marks Steven's final "retirement" from participating in real combat- he outright tells the Gems to not involve him in any other combat situations unless the whole ass planet is under threat, basically. The potential risks are just not worth it now that he knows how long he'd be out of commission, should he poof once more. He can't put his family through that again.

Now, with all that outlined...

Ways that Steven is Weird now:

He looks rather human- his hair looks like hair and his skin looks like skin- but after he reforms, literally every "cell" of his body is fashioned out of hard-light.

However, if one were to theoretically slice him in half (which I PROMISE I am not going to do, this is only a thought experiment ahahah-), his internal anatomy would glow much like the Gems' do. (See below image for what I mean.) The "human-like" appearance of his skin and hair and other externally visible features does not extend very deep.

He "bleeds" pink now- but it's only surface, and is all just excess hard-light. No real blood.

His body would no longer show up on a radiograph- just the gem.

Many of his anatomical features (not all of them, though) are now vestigial in certain ways-? Like, various functions have overtly been taken over by his gem... he doesn't need to breathe or have any lifeblood beyond light pumping through his system, so his heart and lungs serve no necessary purpose anymore... but all of these organs still "exist" as like an echo of what once was, perfect mimics of their organic form but hewn from hard-light.

That being said, Connie enjoys the reassurance of his heartbeat, so he retains that function while conscious.

(Not to mention, "breathing" is literally just a habit for him by this point.)

HOWEVER, when he sleeps (another thing he technically doesn't Need to do but does anyways) his breathing and heartbeat stops entirely and it kinda spooks Connie out. The literal only evidence she has that he's still kicking during these times is the soft hum of his gemstone.

He does not have a biological NEED for food or water anymore and can fully operate on exposure to light alone, but he still really enjoys eating and drinking anyways. In fact, he's still able to absorb energy from food... so it's basically like he's over-charging his battery or whatever. He also still experiences taste (so still posesses some form of taste receptors) and instinctively feels "hungry" at meal times, so like... the running theory is that he must have hard-light analogues for all these receptors and neurotransmitters and hormones that communicate sensations like hunger in his system even though their function is entirely redundant with his gem powering everything.

Furthermore, his memories and sense of self and everything one might refer to as "the soul" is stored exclusively in his gem now. Which means, if one could manage to analyze his brain like one could with a human brain, there would be entire sections that simply... don't light up the way that others (such as the parts of the brain that govern motor control, as an example) do. This is because all the "data" once stored there has migrated.

He can fully shapeshift now, if he wanted to.

He can also still visually "age"- it's all based on his mental state, same as before.

But despite being hard-light in nature now, he can still interface with organics in fusion because his form is still so organic in shape and function. He's still the bridge between humanity and gemkind. I like to think that... theoretically... a Gem might be able to fuse with an organic too, but the sheer burden of trying to shapeshift and maintain such cellular complexity is what stops this from happening.

Steven, though? His very existence as a hybrid acted as a template by which hard-light could learn to understand organic life. He is still an intensely unique being, even IF he no longer consists of any actual organic matter.

_

I am sure I will probably add something to this later, but for now, those are all my musings.

Anyways, thank you for taking a brief visit to the deepest recesses of my brain, where I am chewing at the drywall and bouncing around the room like a cat who has just devoured the goddamn motherlode of catnip. Good night! !! :DDD

[multifandomlover01]

Not Some Innocent Kid

Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Based on @reidswhore post about “innocent” Spencer vs. not so innocent Spencer and fic semi-requested by @reiderrambles

Warnings: 18+ MDNI fairly neutral dynamic but sub!reader and soft!dom Spencer if you wanted to label it, Derek talking about his “conquests”, teasing Spencer about being inexperienced, loss of virginity mention, mention of reader “not being a screamer”, orgasm denial mentioned, overstimulating mentioned, neck nibbling/kissing, orgasm denial depicted, reader screaming, condom mentioned, no birth control mentioned, affectionate sex, lots of terms of endearment used, slightly insecure Spencer, praise kink, slightly OOC Derek, slightly OOC Spencer

Summary: While Derek is talking about a woman he recently slept with, he makes a comment about her and then about Spencer (and his inexperience with women and pleasure), causing Spencer to get lost in a daydream that directly contradicted what Derek just said (Spencer is very capable of bringing a woman pleasure)

WC: ~1.2k

Disclaimer: not the most polished or finished it could be but…here we are lol screw dialogue tags…who needs them? (Me…I need them)

Gif not necessarily indicative of timeline placement…but it’s an estimate

Shut up. Shut up. Shut the fuck up, Derek.

Spencer thought this but couldn’t quite bring himself to say it. Derek was going on and on about how great he was in bed and took every opportunity to tease Spencer about how virginal he seemed. But Spencer was far from a virgin. Not long after he’d turned 24, he’d lost his virginity to his equally as quiet and reserved team member. No one would have suspected, least of all the two of them, that the dam would break that night for them and they’d be insatiable for each other.

They couldn’t stop. Every private moment was spent together mostly naked with their hands and lips all over each other.

“Yeah, I had her screaming my name. Bet you don’t know what that’s like, do you, kid? Well…your time will come.” Derek teased him.

Spencer suppressed a smirk as he thought of the most recent intimate encounter with his friend with benefits…or lover…or partner (he wasn’t quite sure what they were if he was being honest).

-

“You like that, baby? You like it when I don’t show you mercy? When I use you like a little toy?” Spencer husked into your ear as his hips snapped into you from behind as he had you on your hands and knees on the bed while he supported you with an arm around your middle and his hand on your hip. He had found sexual encounters with you to be rather liberating. You trusted him completely and he cared about you a lot. He’d never hurt you. But this dynamic really allowed him to exercise a degree of control over and with another person that he didn’t really have anywhere else in his life. The degree of control he had over his mother was not voluntary although he took that just as seriously as he took this.

“Y-yes.” You whimpered.

“Say my name, sweetheart. I wanna hear you say it.” The hand on your hip snaked around to rub at your already sensitive clit.

“S-Spencer.” You say breathily.

He gives your clit a little slap.

“Louder, hon. Let me get my first noise complaint from old Mrs. Davis across the hall. She’s always going on about how respectful and quiet I am. Just like Derek goes on about how much of a kid I still am. I’m sick of it. Aren’t I good enough, darling? Can’t I make you scream and cum for me?”

He rubs your clit faster as he snaps his hips faster.

“I dunno…I’m not-”

“A screamer. I know, angel. But maybe we can change that, huh? I’ve made you cum before. I’ll do it again. I’ll do it better. I’ll make you feel so good.” Despite him being slightly dominant right now, he was almost pleading with you to meet him half way.

“I-I’ll try.”

“I know you will, sweetie, I know you will. You’re so good for me.” He buries his face in your neck to press kisses to it, hoping to add to the sensations you were feeling.

He picks up the pace of his hips and his fingers, rubbing your clit in circles.

“I wanna try something, honey. Will you let me try something?” He murmurs against your ear, having kissed his way up to it..

“Y-yeah…what do you wanna try?”

“Can I deny you your orgasm? Can you be my good girl and cum when I tell you to? Not before? Maybe that’ll make it feel better. I know it’s different for every woman but I’ve read that it can make it feel better.” He says, again seeming a bit desperate now, willing to do anything to enhance this experience for himself and for his partner.

“I…I can try. You can try to overstimulate me if you’d like.” You offered, also trying to pitch ideas that could help the experience.

“One thing at a time, love. One thing at a time.”

“Ok…One thing…orgasm denial.”

“One thing…orgasm denial.” He agrees. “If that doesn’t work…then we can try overstimulation.”

“Ok…that sounds good.”

“Yeah? Good.”

Once you two were in agreement, effort was put back into achieving pleasure. Spencer continued to snap his hips against yours (for a skinny guy who didn’t work out, he sure had a good amount of stamina). His fingers continued to work at your clit. Your warm and soft walls suck his cock in like it’s afraid to let it leave the sanctuary.

“Remember, love, you’re not allowed to cum until I say you can. Can you do that for me, sweetheart?” He rasps in your ear.

“Y-yeah…I can do that. I can try.”

“Good girl. Tell me when you’re close so I can delay it just a bit. It won’t be long, I promise.”

With the way his cock is hitting just the right spot inside you, the way his fingers are working your clit, and the way he’s nibbling your neck lightly all combine to help you get close to the edge.

“Spence…I-I’m close, baby.” You pant lightly.

“Hmm…yeah? Don’t cum yet, ok?” He murmurs in your ear.

“Ok…I won’t. I won’t until you tell me to.”

“That’s my good girl. It won’t be too torturous, I promise.” He increases the pace of his fingers on your clit and his thrusts are deep and calculated but not feral. They are a nice even pace that’s not too overwhelmingly fast.

Your whines and whimpers increase as your legs shake. “S-Spencer…I…I can’t…”

“You can. You will, love. You can do it. I believe in you. Just a little longer, ok? Not too much longer.” He lovingly rubs his nose against your neck as he picks up his thrust pace just a bit, going just as deep as he continues to rub your clit at an increased pace.

“Spence…please.” Your voice raises in pitch.

“Few more seconds, hon. Just a few more seconds.”

You could almost cry with how much pleasure you’re feeling.

“Sp-“ you go to say again, your voice slightly increasing in volume.

“Now.” He commands.

Your body obeys him without you having to do anything. It just…lets go.

“Oh my god, Spencer, fuck!” You shout, a lot louder than intended. You cling to him as you shake.

“That’s what I’m doing, sweetness.” You can’t see his smirk but you can feel it against your neck as he continues to work you through your orgasm. It doesn’t take long before he’s emptying his load into the condom. He pants against your neck as he peppers it with kisses.

“Do you know…what you…just did for me, darling?” He slowly pulls out of you.

“Screamed louder than I should’ve?” You chuckle softly.

“Besides that.”

“Besides that?”

“Mhm…besides that.”

“N-no…what?”

“Look at the condom, hon.”

“‘M too…tired.”

He chuckles. “It’s soaked, love. I think you squirted over it a bit.”

“Wha-? Really?”

“Mhm. You did such a great job for me, love.”

-

“Kid…hey, Reid!” Derek waves in front of Spencer’s face.

“You still with us? You looked a little spaced out.” JJ states, chuckling slightly.

“I’m fine. I just zoned out after Morgan related his fifth conquest in a week to us.”

“Do you have something you’d like to talk about, then?” Derek scoffs.

“No.” Spencer says simply, shaking his head.

“You will one day, kid. You will one day.”

“‘M not a kid.” Spencer mutters. You and he share a quick glance and a small smirk.

“Oh? You’re not? You got any spicy stories to tell?”

“Maybe one day…when I think you can handle it.”

“Ooh…ok, ok.”

[thicctails]

i recently saw your GBC AU and I can say that I am now one of the many people who has fallen in love with it. I am also a little more curious about the AU. For example, I noticed how Bill interacts with the Pines and his parents. How did it come to the point that Bill is now just living with the Pines family? Does he even live with them? What was it like for everyone involved?

I feel like Scalene and Euclid would want to reach out to their son but for multiple reasons. For one, maybe convince him to get help (It's a given fact that Bill Cipher needs therapy) or maybe not kill anyone. Depending on how much they investigate the matter based on Bill’s and Ford���s toxic relationship (Speaking of which, how does Ford react when his “Muse” starts living with them?) do they ask themselves what else Bill has done? The yellow Dorito has a LONG criminal history with not many redeeming qualities (other than being a feminist).

Of course, Id also see them wanting to reconnect with their baby boy and apologize for everything they have done to him in the past. But again, trillions of years have passed and their Little Billy ain't so little anymore, and has developed a dark, if not sadistic sense of humor. While his parents may be what breaks the camel back and slightly motivate Bill to change his ways, undoing the unhealthy mindset that is severely rooted into him will take more than a little lullaby to fix.

Every day the Primary Colours trauma triangle cult grows >:)

To answer your question, Bill doesn't end up with the Pines and his parents in their reality until Weirdmaggedon, which is caused by an alternate version of himself tearing open the weakened wall between the Nightmare Realm and Reality. Before then, he mostly uses dreams and very weak vessels to interact with them, such as the various plushes Mabel makes for him.

After Weirdmageddon, Bill is severely weakened and fairly injured (think half-blind and pretty scarred up), but he and his folks can exist in the 3D and 2D planes. (though Bill usually avoids going 2D if he can) After the human Pines parents lose custody (Soos and Melody adopt Dipper and Mabel officially, since Stan is a criminal and Ford... well, Stan used his identity lol) the Ciphers mostly watch over the kids and the Shack while Ford and Stan are out at sea. When the Stan twins are around, Bill usually makes himself scarce.

Dipper and Mabel are probably the ones that are the most comfortable with Bill. They don't have any real traumatic memories with him in this AU, so they're just happy to finally get to meet and hang out with their older brother, strange as he is. Bill encourages them to get into mischief and often pulls pranks, but he never actively puts them in danger. He's actually really possessive/protective over the twins once it sinks in that they aren't just squishy little humans his parents love, they're his baby siblings.

(Ford mentions that Dipper might need to see an optometrist within earshot of Bill and he injures himself summoning fire to guard Dipper from him. Bill has nothing but hellish memories of his experience with an optometrist and will not allow Sixer to take Pinetree to be blinded like he was. It takes a long time to calm him down and convince him that Dipper isn't going to be harmed.)

In the months before Weirdmaggedon, things between Bill and everyone who isn't the twins is... awkward and tense, to say the least. Scalene and Euclid are, obviously, thrilled that their oldest isn't just a long-gone smear of burning flesh and dust, but it's also very mentally taxing and difficult to interact with him. As i said in a previous post, they often accidentally set off the others' triggers, and Bill being, well, Bill, means that they also have to come to terms with the fact that, while they will always love their son, he's not the velcro-shoe wearing, bubbly little stargazer they once knew.

Ford, understandably, does not take Bill popping up in his house very well, and is even more upset by the fact that he's getting near Dipper and Mabel. It's only Stan's insistence that he's actually helped the kids freely before that keeps Ford from forcing everyone into Mandatory Family Thought Encryption. He never forgets what Bill did to him, nor does he ever forgive him, but he doesn't murder him in his sleep when he's vulnerable after making a deal with the Axolotl at the end of Weirdmageddon, so there's that. Plus, it is reassuring to know that the once all-powerful King of the Nightmare Realm folds like wet laundry under the Power of Mabel. The creature that once haunted his nightmares looks a little less scary when a 13 year old girl has painted his nails a glittery pink and made him have a disco tea party with her pet pig.

As for him getting help? Well, that's actually part of the deal he makes with the Axolotl! Weirdmageddon almost kills him (turns out fighting yourself while actually caring about not hurting people leaves you somewhat vulnerable!), but the Axolotl agrees to save him, if he agrees to monthly therapy sessions with him, as well as him and his parents having a regular life span. Total reformation really isn't going to be possible, not for Bill, but when Dipper and Mabel have passed on, he and his folks will go too, and if Bill has made progress towards being a better person, then they'll be reincarnated together.

It's hard and it SUCKS, but its better than Canon Bill is doing lol.

[interstellarsystem]

Little Plural Things

Systems can present in a lot of different ways. Sometimes, being a system can be loud and obvious if you're naturally more overt and/or out about yourselves as plural. Sometimes, it can be quiet and barely noticeable, but still there--just harder to see. Our system is fairly obvious if we're unmasked, but there are still things that escape even our own knowledge when we're masking as hard as we can. Little things that to us, remind us that our system is undeniably real. This is a post about those experiences we've had with barely-noticeable signs of a system.

Not every system will relate to these experiences, some might feel similarly about a few points, some may have others of their own entirely, some might not know or not have anything like the experiences we mention, and that's all part of being plural. No two systems are mirror images of each other. This is a post about our experiences.

1. Handwriting

Recently, we've had it brought to our attention that we have different handwriting. We don't write with a pen/pencil often, but we were asked to fill out a worksheet for our psychologist recently. She told us that whoever in our system wants to contribute to it can, and suggested that we signify who wrote what in some way--to which we chose different pencil colours for different headmates. We took the worksheet home and put things on it depending on who was in the front and if they wanted to.

It turned out, that some of our writing widely differs from each other. Out of the 6 people who wrote on the sheet, most of them were wildly different. Rift and Martin wrote the most tidily, with Rift's writing looking more "proper" and "adult". I (Vince) apparently am not the best at neat writing but I managed to be better than what our "normal" writing is like from what we remember. Merlin wrote messily like he was writing very fast. Mystery wrote with very large letters with sharp angles that overall made it look like it was written by a child new to writing. Which makes absolute sense. It's not a child, but its hands in-headspace are bigger than ours and that was the actual first time it had written anything on paper since it got here.

Somehow, it took until our psychologist pointed it out for us to notice how different it was.

2. Vocabulary Choices

Something we are able to notice sometimes is how our vocabulary and sometimes sentence structure changes based on who is speaking. Some obvious examples are our British headmates substituting "bloody" for other words as an exclamation and the difference between what some of our headmates would call a "chip" or a "fry".

Other times though, it's more subtle. Sometimes there's certain phrases that will just have a word or two swapped out and it does tend to point toward who is fronting even if people do use multiple of these. Some examples are:

"I suppose" vs "I think" vs "I believe"

"Kinda" vs "Kind of" vs "Sort of" vs "Sorta"

"Recently" vs "A bit ago"

"Sleepy" vs "Tired"

"Lol" vs "Haha" vs "Lmao" vs a keysmash (Even though these are text-based they are quite telling.)

"Quite" vs "Very" (Speaking of the above.)

Getting more subtle with them, some other examples are:

"You know" vs "Y'know"

"Uh" vs "Um"

"Uh-Huh" vs "Mhm"

Sometimes typing is influenced too. The amount of em-dahses within the text, the consistency of proper punctuation, how mechanical the text feels, how many run-on sentences there are and even how much tends to be written in one message/post can all point toward different people being in control.

3. Accidental Accents and Inflections

While accents are usually very obvious, we're generally good at masking them. Generally.

Due to us living in Australia, our headmates with accents straight from London don't stick out too bad when they're struggling to mask, but they are still noticeable to those around us who know we're plural. Passerby on the street or people who don't see us often don't think much of it, but certain people we are close to know that a few people in our system find it harder to mask and can tell when they're fronting very easily because of it.

Even if we are masking our accents properly, some parts of the way we speak still come out. Some of us end sentences on a higher-pitch more often due to what our accent generally has us do and some end more on lower-pitch notes when speaking. Some of us put emphasis on certain syllables differently. There's lots of little things that go into language that make it hard to completely mask.

4. Food Choices

More of a noticeable one, but something we tend to brush off as "just a bad batch" when it happens. Some of us like and dislike different foods and drinks, some of us to an extreme degree.

Mystery hates the brand of juice we normally buy and thought that it might've just been past expiry (it was not) or just a bad batch of the juice, but they're consistently the only one who doesn't like it.

Rave likes spicy food much more than the rest of us because they have a harder time tasting it. I on the other hand can't handle spicy food at all and am worse with it than the others in my system.

Some of us favour different brands of food and some of us might like/dislike textures of food differently too.

5. Default Facial Expressions

Different resting facial expressions are something we hardly notice because we don't look in a mirror often due to dysphoria. What we do know though, is that some of us just rest our faces differently.

I look more stern and tired than others. I have a bit of an angrier resting expression.

Martin looks a little bit more anxious due to being an anxiety-holder, but he also looks softer and kinder.

Crowley also looks tired but has less of a stern look and more of an almost blank one.

6. Body Language

This is one we don't know too much about because we can only get knowledge on this from other people, but most of our headmates have a different "vibe" by the way they carry themselves.

I end up seeming to-the-point and business-like.

Martin reads as being very anxious even if he's not always.

Crowley reads as smug.

Mal reads as if he's planning something mischevious and silly.

We've been told that Filigree just reads as "gay".

We're not sure what actions make us seem this way, but some of us can be clocked by others around us as fronting without even talking first. I don't know how people do it, but it's something in our body language.

7. Clothing Choices

A few of us have different clothing choices--Crowley still wears sunglasses everywhere due to light sensitivity and wears dark colours, I prefer to wear button-up shirts as opposed to more casual things, Martin prefers hoodies that are lighter in colour and Merlin prefers to dress in pink and black and more fluffy textures.

We don't have too many clothes overall so to others it does just look like we're cycling through our wardrobe, and sometimes we are, but there's certain styles some of us tend to lean toward more than others.

---

Some of these might seem quite noticeable, and maybe they are if you know we're a system, but people change a lot so once again some of this is much more subtle than it sounds. People who don't know that you're a system hardly ever notice, and if they do they put it to "having an off day" and leave it at that.

We wanted to take some time to appreciate those little things we find it hard to notice, though. And maybe it'll end up helping some other system realise how unique they are as individuals and help fight off the imposter syndrome like these realisations did for us.

[muchanmocha]

Round 7 (and beyond)

I never intended on releasing a prediction post bc Team Vivinos is capable of excellent plot twists and there wasn't enough to go on imo to really have any solid guesses. But the recently released teaser gave me enough confidence in my current theories to put this out there. (Apologies if it's incoherent bc I'm basically just reposting a discord spiel I gave to an unfortunate friend a while ago lol.)

In sum:

Luka will be the winner of season 50 but Till won't die.

Bonus half-crack prediction:

Luka will win against Till, but Till won't die and Hyuna crashes the party to win season 50.

I can't recall the source but I believe Team Vivinos has mentioned that we're entering the main plot/part 2 of the story. Everything in this post is formulated based on this premise.

The artbook synopsis also seems to back up the claim that a bigger plot is coming.

Luka wins

Fairly sure Luka will win because that's his role. He is the epitome of this system. He is the symbol of Alien Stage. He cannot fall this easily.

Him maintaining his position at the top means he and the segyein enter part 2 with a strong presence.

Alien Stage may be fractured — 2 current participants have escaped to the rebels alive — but the system is still standing. It's scandalous, sure, but they have a winner and they will eventually go on to have Season 51.

Till survives

Till won't die because that's just weak sauce writing, plot, and character and we know Team Vivinos isn't capable of weak sauce writing, plot, and character.

Fact of the matter is, if Till dies in the next round he and his personal story will forever be overshadowed by Ivan's.

The climax of Round 6, Ivan's narrative and ending, it was executed so goddamn well. It was compelling. It was incredible. We are still not over it. And so—

There is nothing Till can do in the space of one episode ending in his death that can overpower Ivan's momentum from the previous episode. (Ofc everything in this series was somehow packed into 4 minute spurts that leave us emotionally wrecked so I am fully prepared to eat my words)

If Till dies here, regardless of what he does on stage before it happens, Till will be reduced to "the character who dies of guilt and regret after being the subject of someone else's obsessive love and sacrifice." He'll end up a passive player in his own story.

But if Till survives:

Till from here on out

Imo it would be FAR more interesting to see where his feelings and relationship with Mizi develops and shifts from here because Ivan has effectively tainted his idea of love.

Why do I say this?

Well Till's love for Mizi is... very innocent, very pure, very "first love"y. It's all things naive and fantastical and shoujo manga heart-shaped bubbles.

Meanwhile Ivan's love for Till is dark and gritty. It's obsessive. It's all things murky and ugly (I mean it in the best of ways don't come at me with your pitchforks) — the complete opposite of Till's impression of love.

Which makes it all the more impactful when Ivan forces Till to come face to face (literally) with that deep, obssessive love in Round 6 with his last moments.

After this incredibly traumatic eye-opener — an intimate, violent look into a different kind of love — I don't think Till can look at Mizi the same way again. (No not because he does or should be obligated to return Ivan's feelings, and that's a hill I'll die on regardless of pitchforks. If Till develops feelings for Ivan it should be on his own terms. If Till falls out of love with Mizi that should also be on his own terms.)

Hyuna wins Season 50 (jk)

Look it'll be funny.

Luka facing off against Till and then Hyuna crash the party, stomps him (vocally), effectively wins Season 50, and then yeets with Till and Mizi — one over each shoulder, hauled like sandbags.

(In all seriousness tho, not a very high chance of happening. They clearly have a lot of issues to sort out that'll prob happen later in part 2.)

"Never come back again"

The whole reason why this post is up. The caption for the new promo art gives me more confidence in the theory that everyone leaves except Luka.

'Never come back again.' I feel like there's a good chance this is Luka saying or thinking this to Hyuna (and co). If indeed it is, there's a lot to unpack there.

Tl;dr

Hyuna and Mizi busts Till outta there, Luka is left utterly alone seated on the throne again, Sua and Ivan eventually come back wrong to wreck emotional havoc as zombie androids

[thelovetheystole]

Heads up, it's another long one !

I just remembered that I had saved this twitter conversation from a while ago, it's from a woman that manages several uk soap stars (Claire K etc), and they were discussing soap returns with her, and how long it can take to iron them out. Two small excerpts of what she said:

Apparently she manages an actress that is about to return to one of the soaps after like a decade, and it's been planned for a long while now, with magazine covers having been shot months ago etc. But still no news is actually out yet about who it is and when. And she's saying it's fairly common for it to take a year from a decision being made to bring someone back until they are on screen.

Anyway, as always I'm thinking of Ryan, and Robert returning lol. They called Danny at the start of 2023 and had him filming by august and appearing by october. Aaron was obviously fairly easy to write back in the show, since he had literally just driven away. But for maximum drama, they waited for SSW.

As for Ryan, when he and Danny had their pub meeting in 2023 he would probably have been gearing up to film ACGAS. We have no idea when he later secured Casualty and Miss Scarlet after that. But we do know now that he most likely started filming Casualty around December and that Miss Scarlet only wrapped their filming of season 5 in April this year. Then he was likely doing ADR for it after that, based on the picture he posted.

Would Emmerdale/ITV even try to secure a deal with an actor who is currently working elsewhere I wonder? Danny talked about trying to talk him 'round in his return interviews in October. But Danny isn't the same as Emmerdale's production team, which by the way has changed a lot since early 2023.

First Jane was there when Danny got the call, then she left, so when Danny was saying those things about trying to convince Ryan, a lot of changes was going on bts. Then Iain came in as head boss, then Kate left, most recently they appointed Sophie... They could all feel different about what direction to take.

Add to it that the Robert character is possibly more complicated to write back in than Aaron, with the prison sentence to consider, and also where they wanted to go with other characters. Would they want to finish something else first, would it clash with another story etc. Another thing is obviously they would want a super dramatic return for Robert, not a random thursday in, say, August. If Aaron got SSW for his return, I would expect nothing less for Robert. (There's always Christmas too!)

I guess this is my very long winded way of saying that I still don't think it's too late for a return, and I think the prospect of a love rivalry with a new half brother sounds a lot more promising from a story telling stand point than 'let's just tell Robert's return story with his brother instead'... They did say adding this particular new Sugden to the show would open for a bunch of new story possibilities down the road. Like what, if not Robert coming back?

But, then again, maybe they just lost patience in waiting for Ryan, and I'm being delusional again, lol.

[tadpoles-and-daydreams]

An intro to my blog; Witchcraft, tarot, and general unhinged energy.

Bare-bones/TL;DR: My name is Frog or Froggo, whichever you prefer, I use he/him pronouns and this is a blog dedicated primarily to my practice as a witch. I do tarot readings over on Ko-FI, as well as some on here that are donation-based (You tip if you want, but you don't have to.) Donation-based readings are temporary to promote the paid readings, and I'll be closing requests once I feel I have a decent amount of people interested (or if i find that it isn't working and I'm just instead giving free readings and no paid readings.) Send in an ask for a donation-based reading, or head on over to my Ko-Fi if you want more of a guarantee that I'll get to your reading/want your reading prioritized. Please check the bottom of this post for what readings I do/don't do before sending an ask.

Me:

I go by Froggo or Frog

He/him pronouns

Trans, panromantic, polyamorous, and just generally queer.

auDHD

20

Quiet sunshine and rainbows type of guy, until you get to know me and then suddenly I won't shush and I keep talking about psychological horror

interests outside of witchcraft include writing, Genshin Impact (I promise I don't associate with the fandom they scare me so bad), music, anime, and "weird miscellaneous facts."

My craft:

I've been practicing off and on for about four years, but I've been around witchcraft my whole life. I no longer consider myself a beginner, but I wouldn't consider myself a beacon of knowledge either lol. I know enough to be comfortable practicing on my own, and giving others a few resources. If I ever post something with inaccurate information, something that appropriates any closed practices, or something that is otherwise not advisable, PLEASE let me know!

My interests in witchcraft include Tarot/oracle cards, deity work, crystals, and working with dragons. (Although, that last one is very new to me so I have very little experience to share so far.)

My work as a witch has begun to shape out as involving things that others fear and reject. I personally find this hilarious considering that I used to be so scared of everything.

I work with Persephone, Hades, Medusa, my familiar, Loki, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Khaos. They appeared to me in that order, with Aphrodite and Khaos being fairly recent additions as I'm typing this. (5/12/24) Note that this is a list of EVERYONE I work with at all, and some of them (like Medusa) only rarely show up in my life currently while others are more active.

I have a sideblog about my work with dragons, @officially-other, but it's so heavy on UPG, identity talk, feelings, etc. that I keep it separate from this blog. It's brand new as of editing but I plan on it being completely transparent.

Things to expect from me: An unreasonable amount of witchcraft memes, lots of fun little stories about my guides/deities and interactions with them, general stories about my craft. My asks are open, but I may not always have an answer to any questions! See the "not a beacon of knowledge" bullet point earlier.

DNI: Racists, misogynists, trans/homophobes, ableists, bigots of any kind, pɘdo, I feel like I'm forgetting something but overall just don't be an asshole okay??? Plz???? Thank you. 16+ minors are okay, below that you can follow and lurk just please don't start a proper conversation. (/lh, lighthearted)

TERMS FOR READINGS

Yes I know this is a bit long. I don't require that you read this but I don't answer asks with problems that could be solved by just reading this. I am no longer doing readings for anon asks, so please be off anon. Paid readings and any Tumblr readings that tip/donate beforehand will be prioritized, but other than that please be patient- when I post readings, I often get a lot of asks that takes weeks to get through.

Readings I will do:

General readings

Love readings (PLEASE check that it doesn't fall under "won't do" first)

Readings with a specific deity or entity (Paid readings get channeled typing,)

Pretty much anything that isn't on the "wont" list. (I reserve the right to say 'no' if something is brought up that I'm uncomfortable with but didn't think to put below.)

Readings I wont do:

Physical health readings (go see a professional)

Anything that constitutes "mind reading" (instead of "how does [person] truly feel" try "what's left being unsaid" or "what do I need to know" type questions.)

Sexual readings

Readings on a voice chat/call (yet)

Deity Identification readings (just not confident in them)

future spouse readings for free (I will do them paid, I just do the free readings to promote + for fun, and future spouse readings aren't fun for me)

[genericpuff]

A while back you made a post mentioning Down to Earth is trash and I would like to here your take on it. No pressure on it I just like hearing your opinion on things. FYI I hate Kade lol

I did, and I've been meaning to post about it, but I've been taking some extra time to re-read as much as I can so that I could better collect my thoughts :' )

Now I will mention, I have not caught up to the most recent episodes. Most of my thoughts here will reflect the earliest parts of the series, as I didn't end up sticking with this one. So please take my criticisms as someone who just never got into this series for various reasons, not as someone who was incredibly into the comic and fell off it (like I am with LO). I will try to judge it and review it fairly based on that context.

Most of my issues with Down to Earth don't stem nearly as deep as my issues with LO, Let's Play, or even Big Ethel Energy. Frankly, I think the comic is 'fine', but I don't think it's necessarily all that good either, and the amount of attention it gets from the platform lends to the fact that I really think its success is due to a lot of generated hype. This is one of the other comics on the platform that gets a LOT of priority advertising, not quite as egregious as LO, but still a lot.

The short answer: I think the comic is just overrated and pretty basic in terms of its storytelling and art, and I don't think it's necessarily a good "romance" comic for some of the same reasons I don't think LO or Let's Play are good romance comics. I think the only reason I don't get quite as mad at it as I do with LO or BEE or LP is because (as far as I can tell) it's not really advertising itself as some feminist progressive piece of work. It's sorta just "what you see is what you get", and what you get isn't really all that great (for reasons listed below) but at least it doesn't try to sound smarter than it is most of the time. Read it the same way you would watch a fluff anime.

Moving into my long answer, I will say some of the things that were initially appealing about it: the art is very colorful and cutesy, the comedy (for the most part) is inoffensive and simple, and the story is really easy to pick up and get into.

That said, I do think some of those praises are also part of its weaknesses.

While the art gets better over time, there are certain aspects of its stylization that still feel very "baby's first webcomic" to me. Which is great if you're someone who's into that style, but when I read it, it never really stops feeling like a Canvas comic, if you catch my drift. Nothing really sets it apart from the flood of Merryweather-esque fan service comics that are in the Canvas section.

And boy, is there a LOT of fanservice in this comic. I think the main plot point itself is fanservice in and of itself - cutesy anime alien girl crashes on earth, and winds up living with the depressed NEET-like guy, shenanigans ensue from how "inexperienced" she is due to her alien status. Everything from the circumstances of this character's plot to how she's drawn screams "this is for people who like to read about small titty girls with big asses being put into a situation where they have to rely on a man". The comic takes many opportunities to draw the FL, Zaida, as wide as possible (and of course, the ML Kade loves this trait about her, it's one of the first thing he notices aside from the fact that she speaks an alien language and can do weird alien things like telepathy and flying).

Thankfully this does get a little better in the later episodes, you can tell the creator was struggling with anatomy in places and then honed their skills, but there are still times it regresses back to the extremely-pinched-waist-mega-badonker-hips look.

Don't get me wrong, having a protagonist with wide hips like this is all fine and dandy, but there's a point where you can tell it's purely for fanservice and that's definitely what the comic wants you to know from the starting gun. She fits perfectly into that "born sexy yesterday" trope that so many romance FL's do (cough Persephone cough) while also having that "uwu I'm so inexperienced :(((" vibe that you get from characters like Sam in Let's Play. Shit, Kade pretty much starts sexualizing her before he even knows what her deal is as a person. Does he even know how old she is? Is "she" even a "she", do these aliens have different concepts of gender identity or even different types of reproductive organs than what you would find on Earth?

Look, I get it that I'm probably WAY overthinking it, you can write comics about characters from other dimensions and planets without having to get into the nitty gritty of whether or not they have periods, that's fine. But the real problem is the fact that her being from another planet seems to be used purely for creating an infantilized character with extra steps who's easily laughed at for not knowing things (don't even get me started on how "alien" could be replaced with "someone who doesn't speak English or have access to modern devices" in a lot of this comic, but I feel like that's way too deep of a criticism to be pinning on something that's literally designed to be a quirky fanservice fluff comic.)

Like, you want an alien girl who looks human but still acts reasonably like an alien - while even tackling subjects that come with being an "outsider" - without making her act like a literal baby? Starfire from Teen Titans.

(granted, the whole "smooching to transfer information" thing is definitely a little weird in hindsight, and there are definitely moments of fanservice, but that's about as weird as it gets lmao you don't see Starfire acting like a literal toddler, she is smart and capable, she just isn't from Earth, which is the whole point of her characterization being parallel to that of what foreigners experience ! She's not stupid or incapable of taking care of herself, she's just not accustomed to life on Earth!)

Like, this is in one of the newer episodes and I just-

(I suddenly have to throw up-)

It really dials the creep factor of this whole relationship dynamic to 100 when they drive home just how "babylike" she is through panels like this. It's not really her being unaware of customs around her, it's just her being written as babylike as possible with the fact that she's an alien being used as justification.

But it really makes you think about Kade's intentions when he goes straight to buying lingerie for the girl he just met who's been forced to stay with him in his home. He doesn't even really make efforts to help her get on her own feet, he just accepts this as his fate and goes "welp I guess I gotta make sure I don't get fired from my job" because now he has to support the baby girl that landed in his backyard. So Zaida ends up having no agency as a result. It just feels like a contrived situation meant to force an unaware, vulnerable girl into being taken care of by a guy who's, frankly, a creep.

And boy, Kade is actually kind of a creepy scumbag.

Kade makes for a really uninteresting and frankly pathetic character, he's just sort of a whiny man baby and you just know if Zaida was an earthling who had spent time on this planet longer than a few days, she probably wouldn't put up with this shit LOL Like, deadass he basically threatens to harm her within the first few episodes of the comic-

Like, this is after she's ruined his Playstation or w/e, and it's just like DAMN girl, this is a RED FLAG. But of course, she's an alien girl who's ignorant about everything, so it creates that power dynamic where he basically has full reign to take advantage of her at any time. Ladies, if a guy says you shouldn't trust him, take him at his word.

Zaida's characterization is also very inconsistent between her being an alien and her just being an "uwu baby girl". Often times it just makes the whole "alien" thing feel like it's only there to justify writing yet another "I'm babyyyy" romance. Sometimes she's WAY more privy to things than you'd expect her to be and then other times she's doing the dumbest shit for laughs.

Now to be fair, she DOESN'T put up with his shit here, but the fact that the writing for Zaida is inconsistent makes scenes like Kade being a creep being more about the creator realizing they're leaning too hard into her being vulnerable to abuse and so they quickly have Zaida combat it with some strange amount of awareness despite the fact she's only been living with him for a few days... but not enough awareness to maybe realize this isn't a good living situation. Like, again, she may be able to speak English, but that doesn't mean she's fully aware of what Earthlings are like, so she's suddenly really smart about what it means to be taken advantage of by a human man even though everywhere else in the comic she's written like a toddler.

And of course, like many of these webtoons tend to do, they don't linger on the implications of this scene too long, so they quickly turn it into a punchline to ease the tension. Audience comfort restored.

And that brings us to the comedy. The "jokes" in this comic basically boil down to, "haha, the alien girl doesn't know how to take care of herself on Earth!" , which frankly, I think is just a very thin veil for infantilization. I mean, really, the fact that she's an alien doesn't even really matter in the world of this comic, it takes a while for the comic to even really give us a glimpse of what her life was like off Earth so most of the comic is just typical slice of life cutesy moments you'd find in literally any shoujo or romance webtoon. You could switch out the fact that she's an alien with her being from another dimension, or turn it into an isekai where she was the female character in Kade's favorite video game who suddenly got zapped into the real world, and it would make fundamentally zero difference.

They even sorta lampshade this fact but swiftly move on from it.

There's nothing really that makes her an "alien" in any unique or consequential way, she's just a carbon copy anime girl with pointy ears who could be replaced with any other trope from other romance subgenres like this. She can eat human food just fine, dress in human clothes, and as long as she wears a hat over her ears, she's literally indistinguishable from the humans around her.

I will add as well that there are a lot of little ways they hint towards the implied dynamic between these two, at least in the beginning. The whole "second rule: obey" bit, while passed off immediately after as a joke, feels like it was inserted there JUST to create that imbalanced power dynamic that so many "romance" webtoons rely on, similarly to LO and Let's Play. The fact that he corrects himself from this just feels like, again, lampshading.

And again, after this we do see Kade legitimately acting like a creep and he DOESN'T DO ANYTHING to help Zaida get her footing beyond paying for her room and board and telling her to mind her vocabulary, so this seems more like him trying to create a situation that's beneficial to him where he's effectively trapped this girl into relying on him.

They even lampshade this as well so that leads me to believe they're fully aware of this dynamic and how creepy it is, so they try and play it off as a "haha so funny" joke to ease the tension or create suspension of disbelief.

When it comes to the actual execution of punchlines, again, 90% of the jokes in this comic are "haha alien girl so stupid!"

(I will admit this scene did make me laugh, but it's telling that it was the only one that stood out to me for that because every other joke in this series is very mid and resorts to the same type of "haha she's a stupid alien girl" punchlines.)

(omg mental illness! so funny! /s)

If you really want comedy written around aliens describing human things in weird ways, then just go read Strange Planet. They're actually aliens and they're consistently funny through much smarter writing that doesn't rely purely on "lmao they're stupid because they're not from here". If anything the aliens in Strange Planet are way more welcoming and endearing to the concept of being a fish out of water than simply making them stupid for a punchline.

(i swear to christ, "crisscross flop disc" and "prohibit anxiety" are lines that have lived in my head rent free for like 3 years now, it never gets old and THAT'S how you know it's a good joke LMAO)

And the story, as mentioned, is easy to get into, but ultimately that winds up meaning it's not really all that well done. Like, it's fine! It's a cute comic to read if you're into this sort of thing, there are a lot of sweet little moments that feel good to read between Kade and Zaida, but ultimately because of the focus on the fluff, that's all it ends up feeling like - weekly doses of fluff. Even when it tries to have some semblance of plot, it's quickly undercut by fanservice. So it's just kinda boring and vapid.

Case in point, one of Kade's observations of Zaida is that she apparently looks "just like his ex girlfriend" who he still clearly hasn't gotten over, but we don't actually see even a hint of what his ex-girlfriend looks like until MULTIPLE episodes later after the "sparks" have already started being formed between him and Zaida.

Um... she doesn't really look like Zaida at all aside from them both being generic anime girls, but okay lol by that logic the girl he served at the store in Episode 7 also looks like Zaida.

So it kinda makes the whole relationship feel superficial, like he's only interested in her because she vaguely reminds him of his ex, and it's taking so long to get through any amount of plot through all the fluff that I can't be sure if they ever actually address this. I'd like to think they do eventually, though from what I've heard of the later episodes after his ex-girlfriend makes an appearance, it seems more like they go the LO route of making the two relationship "choices" just be complete opposites where one is actually sweet to the ML and the other is abusive JUST to make the sweet FL seem like the "better option". IDK, obviously my criticism of this is lukewarm because I haven't kept up on this comic in ages, but I have the sneaking suspicion the whole ex-girlfriend-the-ML-can't-get-over plotline isn't gonna be used for his development, just to further propel him and Zaida into a relationship - and by extension, manufactured drama to make their relationship more "interesting".

Overall, I don't think Down to Earth is anywhere near as egregious as Let's Play and LO, but it's definitely cut from the same cloth, and that's why it frustrates me to see it - alongside LO and Big Ethel Energy - being marketed as "new voices in romance".

(also real talk, it's so disingenuous for them to include LO in this "new voices in romance comics" panel when it's been around for so many years that everyone and their grandma who uses WT knows about the comic, if they aren't reading LO by now they REALLY don't want to. It's not "new", if anything it's one of the oldest ongoing webtoons on the platform and it REALLY needs to end already lmao)

Far be it from me to gatekeep an entire genre, but this brand of romance comic isn't really "romance". It's vapid fluff loaded up with egregious fanservice that's meant to give you a hit of dopamine every week, while never lingering on serious scenes for too long because they don't want you to realize just how imbalanced the relationship is between the two main characters. It's not quite as concerning as LO or Let's Play, but it does have a vibe that's really uncomfortable when you start to feel it. So having comics like these held up as the "golden standard" of romance is just... it's really telling as to what WT's priorities are and how unhealthy "romance" has become in mainstream media.

And if I can get a little "old man yelling at cloud" for a second, I miss when romance was sweet and soft and earnest and heartfelt. I think the only mainstream and successful romance webcomic (and it's not even an Originals!) that I've seen in the last several years that isn't loaded up with these problematic tropes is Heartstopper. Heartstopper is sweet and soft and earnest and heartfelt. Heartstopper is way more of a pillar for a healthy romance than what any of these "new voices in romance comics" can provide. It literally couldn't function as an Originals series because the definition of a WT romance comic would undercut the actual point of Heartstopper.

These unhealthy standards and dynamics that we've set in the romance genre have been so pervasive for years now and I really just wish they'd go away.

y'know what, this whole essay is really just a promo post for Heartstopper now, go read it-

[ohthesearemyprey]

As this blog seems to be a bit dead, I have decided to host a mini character lottery to revive it :)

(THIS IS THE ORIGINAL POST)

Lottery Game Info:

Ends Oct 12th 2024

Rules:

The idea of this is fairly simple, comment the next number and you will be automatically entered into the lottery

For example, if the most recent comment has the number 5, you comment 6.

If you are the first to comment, comment number 1.

You may not comment more than once.

Only comments on the original post (that does include reblogs of this post since it does show up on the original post as well) will be counted.

YOU WILL HAVE YOUR COMMENT DELETED IF:

You are NSFW or KINK blog. I understand that I have a higher tolerance for interaction than most, but since the prize does mean interacting with me directly, I am not comfortable with that.

You are a hate centered blog, harassment blog, or any blog which has anything to do with either of these.

I will choose the winners through a random number generator. I will choose the order based on what number was rolled first, second, and third.

For example, if the generator chose 5, 3, and 8, whoever commented 5 would get first pick, whoever commented 3 would get second pick, and whoever commented 8 would get third pick.

There will be 3 winners, and depending on who wins first, they will get the following prize:

Will get first pick

Will get second pick

Will get third pick

Fairly straight forward, ya?

"So, what will I be choosing?" you may be asking.

The winners will get to choose, in their given order, which of these pred concepts they would like to become the proud owner of!

(I know they aint fullbody concepts, but, to be honest, I dont have that much time right now. If you are moot, and politely ask, I may do a quick fullbody sketch for you, its not gonna be anything detailed lol, but, again that's only IF you win)

I cant force anything, but I honestly would like it if these designs went to someone who draws them, and keeps their design in the SFW Vore community. I do love these designs, and its kind of hard for me to part with them. But I am hording characters lol, so I need to let them be free.

So ya! That's about it!

Comment your number folks!! ->

[larena]

Wanted to try ranking SWTOR class stories in order of "importance" - how relevant they are to the games overarching ongoing storyline, based on factors like how often aspects of them come up in other class stories, or elsewhere in the story, how easily they flow into the expansions, how important their companions end up being later, etc.

Jedi Knight: This one's undeniable, I think. It's basically the main plot class. Knight kills Vitiate first, deals with a lot of the more important problems on most of the planets they go to. And Kira, Scourge, and T7 all get main character status in the expansions regardless of your class.

Imperial Agent: This one is a tossup with Sith Warrior for me. I can see arguments for either, but Agent wins out imo just because of how far-reaching the Star Cabal is, and, maybe somewhat paradoxically, how relevant *other* class stories are to its story. Kaliyo and especially SCORPIO also end up being pretty important in the expansions, as well as a few other Agent companions and NPCs.

Sith Warrior: You are literally the Emperor's Wrath. The class with the closest direct connection to the Emperor, besides maybe Knight. Again its a tossup for me whether Warrior or Agent are the "A" plot for the Empire storyline, but the Wrath almost single handedly reignites the war for Darth Baras. As well as being a fairly close acquaintance of one of Vitiate's potential successors, Vowrawn. Vette also ends up being fairly important in the expansions, though not as much since Eternal Throne.

Jedi Consular: The Children of the Emperor have only recently become very, very relevant again, and we don't fully know where that plot is going, but I think thats still a compelling argument to put Consular relatively high. None of their companions have been super relevant post-class story besides Nadia on Ossus, but the Rift Alliance does end up feeling like a precursor to the Eternal Alliance, to me.

Sith Inquisitor: This may feel low for Inquisitor, given they become a Dark Council Member but honestly they don't do that much. They're somewhat responsible for the Dark Temple being Like That in the other class stories, and the Silencer Fleet is somewhat important, as well as Moff Pyron. But none of their companions are relevant anywhere else and I don't think the events of their class story are referenced anywhere except some passing name drops of Darth Thanaton. I could realistically rank them lower, but again, they ARE on the Dark Council.

Bounty Hunter: Honestly the remaining three tech classes are hard to rank. But I think BH gets a lot of credit for technically allowing Saresh to rise to power. And not for nothing, a lot of their companions have been relevant in expansions, especially Torian recently. You only get a *lot* of the earlier Mando stuff through BH, which I think also counts for something.

Trooper: I think Trooper mainly gets points for Jorgan being a main character in Fallen Empire. They do a lot of stuff that *feels* important, and General Garza, Rakton, and the Bastion come up elsewhere, but it never feels like there's much impact from the Trooper story overall.

Smuggler: I mean what can I say. I love the Smuggler storyline, and Nok Drayen *is* a member of the Star Cabal, but none of this shit mattered lol. Which is totally thematically appropriate imo, it's at least meant to be a pretty personal story with personal stakes. At least everyone can meet Akaavi and Guss in the expansions.

[bthump]

hello! i hope im not bothering you with this ask or anything, but i really love your blog and the thoughts you write, so i wanted to ask if you any other titles you would reccomend that are similar to berserk (not necessarily in terms of setting, but mostly the Vibe) and deal with similar themes (i watched and read devilman!). i would accept anything tbh, be it a book or movie or a series. thanks in advance, hope you have a good week! :)

Thank you very much, and yeah I'd be happy to rec a few other things I like that have some similarities! Some of these similarities are pretty thin lol, but tbf Berserk is pretty unique, at least in terms of media I'm into, and I've seen some good homoerotic movies recently.

Anime/Manga:

Claymore is compared to Berserk fairly regularly, and it's not just for the big swords. There's no griffguts equivalent, but it's got medieval fantasy monster hunting vibes, similar themes wrt human nature (though more shounen, power of love-esque lol), great action scenes and cool monster designs, and a lot of great female characters with interesting relationships, which isn't similar to Berserk but it's a bonus by itself.

I've also seen Vinland Saga compared to Berserk, and again there's no griffguts equivalent, but there's a very Griffith-esque character who has an AU where Griffith became king the old fashioned way vibe, and a central theme is revenge.

An anon a while ago made the point to me that Light from Death Note is similar to Griffith in a few ways, such as wanting to create a kind of ideal world, and being very charismatic and having culty followers who view him as a god.

Books:

tbh I have a bad memory for books I've read, but here are a couple I read specifically because of Berserk similarities:

I read As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann because I was told it had griffguts vibes, and it did. Medieval lone wolf is recruited by idealistic blond mercenary who wants to create a utopia, falls in love with him, and gets fucked over. It's very dark, darker in some ways than Berserk, but it was a good read imo. More in depth post on it with warnings here.

Captive Prince by CS Pacat is known for the author having based one of the characters partially on Griffith, and you can tell lol. It's a fun read if you don't mind or are into the tropey sex slave setting, with an engaging gay romance that has surface similarities to griffguts, though the vibe of the relationship was fairly different to me. But like, the political scheming felt like a Golden Age AU to me. It's been a while since I've read it but for warnings there's rape, csa, incest, and sex slavery not portrayed positively but like, used as erotic scene setting if that's a dealbreaker.

TV Shows:

Hannibal! It's got intense homoeroticism, it's got betrayal, it's got an operatic level of intensity, it's fun to dissect analytically, violence revenge and trauma are significant themes, one character tries to escape his life ruining feelings for the other by killing him, and it's just a great time.

Yellowjackets also has strong themes of violence and how it's a temptation, and though I wouldn't compare any of the relationships to griffguts exactly, there's an intense tragic homoerotic friendship that haunts one of the characters decades later.

Xena has a campy overpowered anti hero dressed in black leather wrestling with their inner darkness and in love with a blonde, also a flirty exes kind of relationship with a god (though that's hetero lol). Not really similar tonally and no griffguts equivalent, but it's got some similar themes wrt violence, revenge, human connection saving your soul from darkness, etc, and it's a gr8, fun show.

Black Sails has a kind of love vs revenge thing going on, as well as an attempt to overturn the social order and create a utopian kingdom. In some ways it's similar in tone as well, often pretty dark and violent, but with some very funny moments, and set in a fictionalized historical setting. No griffguts equivalent, but all these shows are extremely gay.

Movies:

Ladyhawke gets a lot of comparisons to Berserk, and may have been one of Miura's inspirations since he cited Rutger Hauer movies. Starcrossed wolf and hawk themed lovers, medieval setting, significant eclipse, it's got the vibes.

Hellraiser is one of Miura's stated inspirations iirc, and I mean yeah lol. It's the godhand as sadomasochists. Idk that there's that much in common in terms of theme, but the aesthetic is there.

Yk what? The Lost Boys. Homoerotic, campy fun, brooding teen is recruited into a gang and has sexual tension with the leader... that should count.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture starts with Spock trying to purge all his emotions after we can only assume breaking up with Kirk, and failing, and it's a parallel to a godlike being learning to love.

Okay hear me out on this one... Sweet Smell of Success is like if there was no Guts and instead the homoeroticism was between Griffith and the King, and it was set in the New York world of 50s gossip columnists, and look, I recently watched and adored this movie and I want to rec it. And hey, it's about doing fucked up shit to feed your ambition and being pretty and charming while you do it.

The Favourite is about a servant seducing and manipulating her way to power in a royal court, kind of an f!Griffith AU without a Guts if you look at it a certain way. But also it's another movie I love and want to rec based on at least one similarity lol.

Uh, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence is about a dude wanting to fuck a hot charismatic and guilt-ridden blond guy but being too repressed to go for it? Great movie in general. Also Midnight Cowboy is about trauma induced gay repression while we're at it.

And finally, Paul Verhoeven's sci fi trifecta of Robocop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers have virtually nothing in common with Berserk in terms of theme, character, relationships, etc. But the tone feels exactly like the Black Swordsman arc to me lol, to the point where I've always said that the only live action Hollywood adaption of Berserk I'd accept is the one Verhoeven directed in the 90s in an alternate universe. Miura was directly inspired by one of his 80s movies that I've never seen, Flesh and Blood, and yeah, I feel like you can kind of feel the inspiration.

I have other rec lists, as well as things people have recced to me often on the basis of similarities to Berserk/griffguts that I haven't checked out yet, in this tag, so I'd highly recommend browsing through it for more media suggestions. And if anyone wants to jump in with more recs for things that remind you of Berserk in some way, please do!

[auriidae]

i saw you're doing artfight and ur ocs look SO cool, do you have any facts you'd like to share about them 👀

auhsfh thank you!!! <333 yes i ABSOLUTELY have facts i can share!! ty for asking ;v;

for cheri (i haven't posted his ref here yet, but he's up on my artfight):

he's a human kid who at some point in his story is transformed into something that is very distinctly Not a human kid :P! to cope with this he concludes (erroneously) that he must be the protagonist of a superhero comic series and so approaches all his interactions accordingly (declaring himself a vigilante, designing himself a costume, seeking out wrongdoers to banter with and tie to lampposts, etc). all of this bewilders those around him, who are of course living in a completely different genre (post-apocalyptic supernatural horror)

he was originally a fnaf oc that came to me in a dream lol. that's where the mask design comes from -- he used to be one of those staff bots from security breach but like. murderous? idk

for zaba --

i also wrote about this on his actual ref page, but everything about him is based on the story that played in my head the first time i listened to glass animals' album of the same name ^^ his color palette was originally taken directly from the album's cover art!

he doesn't identify At All with the alien world he was raised in, instead being unhealthily obsessed with earth and particular aspects of humanity 👍 at some point he tries to combine the two universes and ends up hurting ppl. he's like not a good person (because he's by definition not a Person) but he tries

for ampha --

her design has not changed since i designed her for deviantart in 2020 ^^

i gave her a backstory fairly recently because i felt like she deserved it but she doesn't belong to a self-contained story like the others do! she's just a standalone littleguy <33

[auxiliarydetective]

Evie's One Piece OC Compendium

SO @eustasskidsfattits asked me to make a post about my One Piece OCs, so here it is! I wanted to make this way sooner, but then stuff happened and then I got to show one of my friends OPLA and 8 OCs turned to 9 (oopsies...). Also, the perfectionist in me would not shut up. Yes, this is technically the intro for the three newest ones, so buckle up!

I'm gonna list them in the order that I created them, simply because listing them in the order of their appearance in the story would be fairly impossible with how OPLA likes to introduce characters earlier on lol - These OCs also all exist in their own separate universes, by the way...

So yeah, long post incoming and, for any OPLA-onlies reading this post: Spoiler warning!!!

Not proofread because I just wanna finally get this post out and I am lacking energy

The Guardian: Aether S. Luna

The original One Piece OC and also the one who has gone through the most changes. I revamped her only recently!

Luna is convinced that she's the daughter of the moon goddess aka of Mother Moon herself, and there are some very odd things about her that make that very plausible. She looks like how you would imagine the daughter of the moon to look like, with very pale skin and very light blonde hair, she has magical powers that are charged by basking in the moonlight, she needs very little sleep as long as the moon is out, her strength is based on the moon cycle... Oh, also: Wings. Large, white wings, that don't fit in with any other humanoid creature in the world. So, nobody really has any solid evidence against it either. Well... Nobody who hasn't been to Egghead Island.

She's introduced into the story at Long Ring Long Land (I actually have two fics for that) as a part of Foxy's crew because he won her in a Davy Back Fight. Before that, she was sort of aimlessly travelling the seas with various crews, just trying to find a place to belong. Throughout the Davy Back Fight, Luna ends up befriending the Straw Hats and Luffy, being Luffy, of course won't pass up the opportunity to have someone as weird as her on their crew, so she joins!

Sanji is, of course, very enamoured with this literal goddess. Even more so than usual. Luckily for him, his charm seems to be working on Luna too. She essentially goes from "Oh, you're adorable. You're funny." to "Oh. Oh no. That's the love of my life, isn't it?", at the very latest when she sees Sanji after he absolutely decimates the people on the Sea Train.

I can't really talk too much about her because a lot of my ideas for her are very visual, but I guess I could give some more little facts? First of all, Luna is 18 and her blood group is S. You can take a look at my animanga character sketches for her here and here if you want! Her wings haven't grown to their full size yet pre-timeskip, and she molts like a bird as she grows, so whenever that happens, she's essentially grounded and chronically exhausted. And that happens around the time of Sabaody. Perfect timing, right? Also, she has to preen her wings, especially after battles, and her crewmates keep around her feathers either for practical or sentimental reasons. And in case you were wondering, of course she heads to Whole Cake Island to go after her boyfriend. Big Mom takes an interest in her, Judge wants to steal her lineage factor, it's a very fun time for everyone involved.

The Sweet Tooth: Charlotte Inari

Ah yes, sweet little Inari. Inari is Pudding's twin sister, she's also a member of the Three-Eyed Tribe and she's named after inari-zushi (if you were wondering how she fits into the Charlotte Family naming scheme). She ate the Kami Kami no Mi, Model: Shikigami, which has a very complicated way to how it works, but, essentially, it binds her to a master whose orders she has to follow and, in turn, gets special abilities from based on her master's. That master is the person who last saved her life. The problem with that situation is that she got the devil fruit when she was still very young and travelling at sea with one of her siblings, and a sea battle ensued where chaos happened and she got herself kidnapped. So, she ends up being passed around from master to master for years until finally ending up with Enel. That is, until Luffy defeats him, and she joins the Straw Hats.

Inari, being that she spent her early formative years on Totto Land, has some very interesting ideas of what's considered normal for animals, plant life, people... for everything, really. She fights with two war fans (as well as her devil fruit, of course) and knows how to play the shamisen, both of which she picked up while travelling with a crew of Wano ancestry for a while. Also, she naturally has a huge sweet tooth and loves to make sweets too. It runs in her genes.

Inari's goal while travelling with the Straw Hats at first is to get back home. She's just a kid, she wants to go home, at least to let her family know that she's okay. And her family and her friends will totally get along, right??? That's also why she doesn't fully consider herself part of the Straw Hats for the longest time. She's a member of the Big Mom Pirates, simply by birth right. However, this all gets a bit thrown on its head with the Timeskip and everything after that. Because, during the timeskip, Kuma sends her to Totto Land, and she officially joins the Big Mom Pirates. So, she has everything she has ever wanted, right? Well... She still ends up coming back. She loves her friends too much not to go back to them. And then Luffy ends up starting a war with Big Mom, which is... not ideal? Whole Cake Island is especially fun. And Wano? Oh boy!

Also... remember the special ability of the Three-Eyed Tribe? Yeah. Inari awakens her third eye when she hears the Drums of Liberation, but nobody notices and she doesn't tell anybody until the battle is long over, and even then she only tells Sanji and Robin.

The Tailor: Akaito Coraline

My dear, sweet Cora... We're entering the live action era now! Aka when everything started to escalate and I started drowning in OCs. I freaking love the live action, man... Maybe a little too much.

Anyways, Cora! Cora is the last living member of the Akaito Clan, a tailoring family from the North Blue of world-class fame who was eradicated by Germa 66 when they didn't want to work for their evil plans. Their main identifier is a sewing needle pierced through the left ear, and they can tell a person's measurements just by looking at them. Of course, there are many imposters around because Akaito-made clothes sell for a fortune, but they usually fail at these criteria. Cora was only a baby when the attack from Germa happened, so she doesn't remember anything from that day or about her family, except for her mother, who was selected as the sole adult survivor of the massacre, because she had Cora, and Judge had plans for Cora. Little did Judge know that her mother also had plans for Cora, and that she had given the baby the Akaito Clan's most prized possession: The Sew Sew Fruit (Chiku Chiku no Mi), which gives its user mastery over the entire clothesmaking process and its tools and materials.

I don't want to get too much into Cora's backstory here, but she befriended Sanji and thought that he had died, and then her mother died, she helped create and designed the Raid Suits and then she ran away with the help of Reiju at 16 years old. Afterwards, she rose to considerable fame as a tailor in the East Blue, until finally stumbling across Sanji at Baratie, the same day that the Straw Hats also show up there. Shenanigans ensue.

I think, if I were going to describe Cora's personality in only three aspects, it's trauma, kindness, and a huge double crush that she doesn't like to admit. Because not only is she wholly unprepared for Sanji being not only alive but also a pretty and charming young man, there's also a swordsman who she has to stitch back together after a big fight and who she ends up falling head over heels for. The two boys constantly bickering doesn't help much either, and they also bicker over her, constantly trying to out-boyfriend each other. In case you were wondering whose side Cora usually takes in these fights, the answer is: She joins in on the side of entertainment. Whichever side would yield the funnier result. She just thinks their fights are way too funny and stupid. Also, she's constantly touch-starved and also scared of touch. And sleep-deprived. She gets better in the "scared of touch" category over the course of her journey with the Straw Hats, so... Sleepy cuddles. So many sleepy cuddles. If Zoro's taking a nap, she's taking a nap too, no buts. And Sanji eventually ends up with his arm around her waist 90% of the time. His personal space is also her personal space.

So, uh, fighting style! She uses a rapier and keeps explaining to people that, no, she's not a swordsman, she's a fencer. There's a difference. Also, she uses strings a lot, and plagiarizes Doffy's travelling method after Dressrosa. The thing with strings and dyes and whatnot is a whole new can of worms that I won't get into right now but it's super cool.

One more fun fact: Cora is short. She's tiny. And she wears heels to compensate, which Zoro hates because they're not practical at all. Her entire fashion sense gives him minor aggressions, partially because a lot of her clothes are a lot more fashion than function, partially because she looks too damn gorgeous in them and he's constantly reminded of his embarrassing crush and has gotten so distracted by her that he has walked into tables and doorframes multiple times. Sanji, on the other hand, fully supports her fashion choices. Maybe show a little more skin next time..? Pretty please? I have concept art for her and one of the more distracting outfits :)

The Scout: "Desert Fox" Felicity

The baby of the crew. Yeah, she's younger than Chopper. Inari is already young, being 14, but Lily? Lily is twelve. Absolute baby. How did she end up with the Straw Hats? Blame it on Buggy kidnapping her and then kidnapping the Straw Hats on top, letting them bust her out with them. Nami and Zoro pretty much become her caretakers on the spot, Nami consciously and Zoro... well... Turns out he has a bit of a soft spot for little scared kids with fox ears. They bring her back home to her "sister" Kaya at Syrup Village, but then she almost gets murdered by a killer butler, and Kaya asks them to take Lily with them, so... Well, she's with them now! Only about a few days later though, one of her caretakers gets himself almost killed and the other decides to abandon the crew. Good thing that Sanji has pretty much decided to adopt her, because otherwise she'd be crying her eyes out.

Lily is actually half mink! That's where she got her fennec fox features and some of her behavioural patterns (i.e. cuddliness, switching between napping and getting the zoomies...) from. But her behaviour could just as well be caused by her devil fruit, because she ate the Jōi Jōi no Mi, which gives her emotions magical properties. Which ones? No one knows! You'll find out when it happens. Pretty much the only really predictable effect back when Lily joins the crew is that she turns back into a nonverbal five-year-old when she gets too scared. She also has a pretty good success rate of turning into a more anthropomorphic fox creature when getting into the spirit for a battle. She's a mink after all, and minks are born fighters! And in case you're wondering: Yes, she does have electro! And sharp teeth. You do not want to make her upset. Best case scenario is that she bites you, worst case is either some magical shenanigans or she starts crying and her crewmates come to kick your ass.

I haven't developed her too much beyond the first season of OPLA, but I just know that she has to go absolutely feral at Alabasta, because that's a fennec fox's natural habitat and her epithet is "Desert Fox", so it only makes sense for her to get it at Alabasta. Also, it would be peak funny for Crocodile to complain to the Marines about a literal child messing up his plans, and peak funny is also peak One Piece, so you best believe I'll do it. Also, her being this young means I get to watch her grow up over the timeskip. I imagine she maybe gets sent to Zou and starts to really master her electro and devil fruit attacks? Something along the lines of "I'm all grown up now! I have my powers under control!" and then immediately turning back into a kindergartener in the face of danger would probably be her running gag post-TS. Also, I'm so soft for her relationship with Sanji. I could go on for ages about Whole Cake Island, but I'll leave it at that for now. This post is already getting long enough...

The Matron: Dracule Aurelia

Oh boy, you're not ready for her. She's the daughter of Rayleigh and Shakky. Trans queen (thanks, Iva). Raised as a Kuja, got love sickness just like her mother and fell for a red-headed idiot first, then for a certain swordsman. Ended up marrying the swordsman in the most dramatic way possible. Also maybe the second most beautiful woman in the world, after Boa Hancock of course.

Aurelia is essentially the fusion of a mafia boss, a mob wife, and an Ancient Roman patron. She has unbelievable amounts of money and an invisible net of connections that makes her almost untouchable. She's allied with Emperors, Warlords, kings and queens... Her main deal is providing smaller, more inexperienced pirate crews with her protection and support and getting their services in return, for example as soliders, for transportation... Whatever she needs at that moment. She can be as kind as she can be cruel, and people are generally both in awe and scared of her. Her epithet is "Black Widow" both because of her spider net of connections and because all of her lovers keep mysteriously dying as if through some sort of curse. Mihawk is the only one who has been able to resist that curse. Shanks doesn't count because Aurelia claims she never truly loved him.

One of the places under her protection is Baratie, and so she gets caught up in the Straw Hats' shenanigans. First, Nami asks her for help, then she returns to Arlong ransacking the place and essentially kidnapping Nami, then she finds out that Zoro was almost killed by her husband... Also, Sanji is the closest thing to a son that she has, so Sanji joining the Straw Hats is pretty much the final nail in the coffin to her deciding on her own terms that she's going to protect those kids to the best of her ability. You can kind of imagine her as the rich aunt, but a lot more deadly. Generally, she spends a majority in the story picking up her den den mushi and going "Luffy, what did you do this time?" The boy pretty much becomes her most effective portégé when it comes to expanding her territory, because he keeps punching tyrants and asking her to put the newly freed kingdoms under her protection. She also kicks ass at Marineford, of course, helps protect the Sunny during the timeskip, and becomes decorously unhinged when Whole Cake Island comes around because of her own personal history with Big Mom and "That's my son!" and "Luffy, you are not going to kill an Emperor." - so yeah, she pretty much has to follow the Straw Hats to Wano too, lest they get themselves kicked. She's both the queen of the literal universe and the exhausted mother of a crew of literal toddlers. Or. Well. Children and one supercharged toddler who will not stop causing chaos.

Her entire backstory is so freaking great. Growing up as a Kuja, running away from home because she's mad at her mother for leaving the Kuja tribe, her very first murder of a lover who also happened to be a nobleman, her bond with Iva and speedy hormone therapy, whatever the hell was going on between her and Shanks, her relationship with Mihawk, the whole situation with Big Mom and her rules for alliances, Mihawk literally fighting for her hand in marriage, her meeting Sanji and essentially adopting him... There's a lot going on. Wish I could write it one day.

The Mechanic: Lux Jirou

Lynx boi! Kuro tricked him into thinking he had Amber Lead Snydrome but it's actually just vitiligo. Used to be a member of the Black Cat Pirates (posing as the mansion's security guard) but liked Kaya a little too much and figured out Kuro was lying, so he teamed up with the Straw Hats to take him down. Also has the worst crush on Zoro and Zoro has the worst crushback, but they're both too stupid to figure it out. He goes by Jirou while with the Black Cat Pirates but starts going only by his last name Lux once he starts rebelling. Ends up joining the Heart Pirates and working as a mechanic on the Polar Tang.

Once again, so many of my ideas for him are more visual because... big kitty! Huge freaking paws! Cuddly cat naps! Involuntary purring because he has a crush and he's a cat and... Yeah. Also, he's absolutely thriving at Punk Hazard. Lots of snow? No problem! Lynx have built-in snow shoes. Also, his devil fruit (Neko Neko no Mi, Model: Lynx), much like the dinosaur SMILEs of the Beasts Pirates, works with Zoan logic. "Lynxes can walk on snow, so they can also walk on water, right? Since water is just frozen snow. And then maybe they can walk on air too if they train hard enough? Because of the humidity?"

The Siren: Kanyalani

Also known as Kan-chan, because Luffy is not pronouncing her full name. She's a betta fish mermaid and former slave and joined the Sun Pirates after being liberated. She has a romance with Jinbe which eventually turns into a polycule with the addition of Robin and Franky when they both join the Straw Hats. Kan-chan fights with chakrams and uses Merman Combat as well as some Fishman Karate.

Now for some mermaid characteristics: Since she's a betta fish mermaid, she shares betta fish characteristics. This means that she loves her color when she's unhappy and becomes more vibrant when she is happy. She also has a unique ability. Whereas all mermaids have beautiful voices, Kan-chan's singing can lull anyone to sleep, even in the midst of battle. Also, she's over thirty, so her tail is split, but she has trouble walking, so she practically never does it. She prefers using Bubbly Corals to navigate and claims that her very frilly fin makes for bad legs anyways.

The Archer: Shimotsuki Kaede

A Kuina look alike from Ebisu Town who nearly gives Zoro a heart attack when he sees her with her mask off for the first time. The concept for this OC basically came to me in the concept of many What Ifs. What if Kuina was still alive? What if Kuina was even more gender? What if there was a flying squirrel? What if someone pulled a Robin Hood on Orochi?

So, here's Kaede. Regular Ebisu Town citizen by day, dying and mending kimonos, stealing food and shooting arrows at people by night. As Ebisu Town gets the leftovers from the Flower Capital, this also includes the half-eaten SMILEs, and Kaede had the one-in-a-million luck of one of the SMILEs, finicky things that they are, still having traces of the power it once gave. And so, she got the power of the flying squirrel SMILE, making her the "devil fruit twin" of Bao Huang. She practices kyūdō in secret and almost runs an arrow through Orochi's head after Yasuie's execution. She would've hit the bastard too if someone hadn't hit her bow and made her miss.

The Soldier: Roronoa Sonoko

Ah yes, the reason why this post took me so long... She just appeared the moment I saw the scene in OPLA where Morgan tries to get Zoro to join the Marines. Because my brain went: Y'know, what if he actually had? So, I bring to you: Zoro's sister. No, not biological sister. They're siblings the way the ASL brothers are siblings. By exchanging sake cups. They got in trouble for stealing the sake and the cups but it was all worth it. What makes the situation even funnier is that Sonoko keeps on telling people that they're not biological siblings but nobody believes her because she's pretty much Zoro's spitting image. And it's her fault, too! Because she chooses to wear those earrings (more or less, but that's a bit of a longer story) and she chooses to dye her hair green! Yes, among the thousands of people with naturally funky hair colors, Kaede is pretty much the only one who actually dyes her hair.

So yeah, she's a Marine! Freshly promoted to Ensign when Koby and Helmeppo join and Garp's protégé. Her sword training comes from Bogard but she uses Two-Sword Style, so it's more her figuring out techniques and Bogard putting up with them. That is until Garp calls on Mihawk to go catch Luffy. Hawk Eyes comes to the ship to say that he decided not to do just that and Garp, as a payment for not reporting this to the World Government, asks Mihawk to take Sonoko on as a student. Mihawk, being Mihawk, is about to remind Garp that he does whatever he wants and doesn't need a deal like that. But then he sees the spitting image of Zoro in front of him and hears the same last name - and he changes his mind. Maybe it's worth a shot?

Following that, I don't have that many ideas except that Sonoko gets a bunch of promotions, only to go AWOL to warn Mihawk of the dismantling of the Warlords system during the Reverie because, at this point, she's far more loyal to him than to the Government or the Marines. She then completely deserts and dashes to Wano to help her brother and his crew defeat Kaido. In the process of the Raid on Onigashima (possibly while protecting either Hiyori or Zoro), she loses an arm and one of her swords and is just... overcome with guilt and shame. So much so that she can't bring herself to return to Mihawk after this incredible failure. Franky does replace her arm with a robotic one and everyone is super nice and supportive to her, the samurai step in and try to reason with her, but she's completely blinded by shame and anxiety. She keeps training, of course, she keepy going, but she just doesn't see herself as worthy anymore of being the student of the World's Greatest Swordsman. But then Mihawk himself shows up at Wano, looking specifically for her and tells her that she isn't a failure, that he's proud of her for her sacrifice for her cause and, most importantly of all, because she kept going. So, all is well and she joins the Cross Guild. Maybe befriends Cabaji, I dunno.

Taglist: @starcrossedjedis @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene @bravelittleflower @box-of-bats @supermarine-silvally - let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!

[eldritch-nightmare]

hi im presently in an entirely different state rn on a mini vacation or sorts so here r some bots ive recently made to tide u all over in my absence!! idk how good they are. if u use them, i hope u enjoy!! it'll porbs mostly b creepypastas but i might toss in a few slashers nd dbd characters. mayb.

yandere ticci toby bot [requested] - general tw includes stalking and near murder

canon-compliant nurse ann bot? idk she doesn't really have a story rlly so. vaguely. - general tw includes off-screen murder of user, off-screen body dismemberment, and idk... zombies?? whatever u wanna consider nurse ann to be.

fake dating stu macher - no real tw. technically pre-canon, i guess?? vaguely?? idk stu and tatum aren't dating here that's it. coded so user doesn't know tht stu is yknow... ghostface...

canon-compliant homicidal liu bot [poll winner] - tw includes self-harm in the sense that liu doesn't care and sometimes will willingly let himself get hurt even if he can prevent it, but i think it's fairly vague?? it's more so implied than anything else.

pre-canon trickster bot - tw includes non-descriptive murder and like... yandere behavior bc jiwoon can't have a healthy relationship to save his life

sally bot - no tw. honestly just pretty light-hearted and silly in comparison to every other bot here lol. become a paternal figure of the poltergeist haunting your home today! at the cost of absolutely nobody wanting to spend the night at your house!

bo sinclair bot based on r.i.p. by 3oh!3 - mentions of very very vague murder i think. idk im not a fan of this one, bo is one of those characters thts just So so complex it's hard to capture him in bot format.

i was in the middle of making a nina bot, so maybe i'll try finishing it in my spare time while im here. but yeah!! posting this from my tablet, fingers crossed it doesn't fuck anything up teehee