#but then they actually had stories and every character got spotlighted in some way

[always-a-joyful-note]

and now I'm thinking about idolish7 and how it really said 'okay so we admit that seven main characters is a lot and a bit much to start us off with at once' at the beginning and then really just made us invested in their characters within a few episodes anyway

[art]

Creator Spotlight: @mimimar

Hi! I’m Michelle (Mimimar), an illustrator born and raised in Venezuela, currently based in Italy. I enjoy making colorful illustrations that reflect the things I love: fairy tales, fantasy, tenderness and queer (especially sapphic) stories. Occasionally, I also make paper dolls, comics and animatics. I have a lot of interest in book illustration and I’m currently developing my own stories that I hope to share as an author-illustrator someday!

Check out our interview with Michelle below!

Did you originally have a background in art? If not, how did you start?

I always enjoyed drawing when I was a kid, but it only became a hobby that I did almost every day when I was around 11. At first I only used traditional mediums, but I decided to make a serious effort to learn how to draw digitally when I was 15, and once I got the hang of it I never stopped!

I didn’t go to art school so all of my learning was done through studying the tutorials and resources that other artists generously share on the internet and lots of practice / trial and error.

How do you want to evolve as a creator?

I want to do many things but what I want to do the most right now is work on books! I want to make art for other authors’ stories and also my own stories as an author-illustrator. I want to grow as a storyteller and create art and stories that will really resonate with people emotionally. I’m always striving to improve my skills as well.

I also really love dolls, so working on doll box art or as a doll designer is something I would love to do someday. I actually have been designing paper dolls on my Patreon for the past few months, it’s been a fun project that is still ongoing right now!

What is one habit you find yourself doing a lot as an artist?

Probably using a lot of purple! It’s my favorite color so I find myself using it a lot. If I can find a way to sneak a little bit of purple into an illustration or a character design then I will.

Congratulations on finishing your Ivy Comic! Did the outcome turn out like how you expected or were there some unexpected bumps along the way?

Thank you! It’s a project that I worked on very slowly in between other art because I wanted to really take my time with every spread and make each of them a fully detailed illustration. I thumbnailed the full comic before starting but I kept changing the sketch for the final spread until the very end! Overall I’m really proud of the end result. I sprinkled a lot of hidden details in every page that I hope some of the readers will notice. For example: the meanings of the flowers in each page represent what the characters are feeling in that moment, and the colors of their wardrobe become gradually lighter as the story progresses to represent their emotions, as well as the changing of seasons.

We’ve noticed that you have created some amazing cover art for TGCF. Is there another series you would like to do something similar with? 

That was another passion project that took some time to complete. Initially, I didn’t intend for them to be specifically covers, it was just a series of illustrations based on the 5 books/main arcs of TGCF. But since they were well-received and I had people telling me they wish they could use them as covers for their books, I decided to rework them into dust jackets for the english translation of TGCF!

I haven’t thought of any other specific series but I love doing cover art so maybe I’ll do something similar again in the future!

What’s your favorite part of your style? Why?

I’ve heard from other people that there’s a delicate quality to my art, this is something that I like a lot! I like pretty things, fairytales and vibrant colors. I think all of these things probably reflect in the art I make as well.

If there is one thing you want your audience to remember about your work, what would it be?

I hope that they remember how it made them feel. Feelings and colors are the two things I give priority to in my work. Most of the time I like depicting tenderness, softness and emotional intimacy. If that could reach the viewer and stay with them it would make me very happy. 

I make a lot of art with queer (mainly sapphic) themes because they’re the kind of stories I personally like and want to see more of, so whenever people tell me that my art has helped them in their journey to discover and accept themselves, or that they see themselves and their partner in my art, it is always extremely meaningful to me. When art that I made to give myself comfort can provide comfort for others, no matter how small, it reminds me once again that despite any hardships art is genuinely worth pursuing.

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

So many artists! To name a few:  I love @sakizo’s amazing eye for fashion and detail,  @paneeps’ gorgeous style and striking colors,  the sweetness of @bevsi’s art,  @vickisigh’s pretty colors and concepts,  @idledee’s warm and heartfelt art,  @littlestpersimmon’s dreamy wonderful art,  and @loish has been an inspiration for as long as I can remember.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing, Michelle! Be sure to check out their Tumblr blog over at @mimimar.

[see-arcane]

Our good friend Jonathan Harker is getting ready to leave for his business trip, Mina Murray is picking out a new journal, Lucy Westenra is charming a gaggle of smitten suitors, Abraham van Helsing is wrapping up his lectures, and Castle Dracula is prepping the guest room for a very long stay.

Which must mean that Dracula Season is here again!

 ‘Dracula Season’ being a catchall term for the voracious reading, memeing, writing, illustrating, analyzing, and general fun-having that’s ensued since Matt Kirkland’s project, Dracula Daily, caught on with us back in 2022. The Substack had already been running before then, but it sparked a conflagration as time went on and readers old and new to Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the actual novel, not Coppola’s fanfiction—devoured it in a way that scratched an itch none of us knew we had. Stoker wrote the book in epistolary fashion, clumping sections together as needed for the pacing without perfect adherence to chronological order. Matt went ahead and put all the events in order and proceeded to set up a lovely chain of emails that delivered entries on those correlating dates.

This style of organization and pacing turned out to not only make the virtual book club that much easier to engage with, but left space in-between to stew on the story and relate with the characters themselves. Every day of waiting in the book feels weightier when you have to pace and sweat and worry in tandem with poor Jonathan trapped in the castle or Lucy wasting away or Mina running out the clock before she loses the fight for her own humanity. And while we sat with the story or the lulls between Dracula Seasons, some of us found ourselves craving more of that ghastly gothic horror goodness to the point that we figured:

“Well. Why don’t I make something?”

And then we did! Tons of creative works have been churned out in the wake of Dracula Daily’s high. I figured that while we’ve still got a bit of time to wait for May 3rd, we should check out all this new stuff in the meantime. (Plus a handful of neat stuff that just clicks with the Dracula itch overall.)

So, in the interest of Dracula Season pregaming, let’s take a look at…

FICTION

Blood of My Blood – A recent addition to the Dracula Bad Ending AU pile, and definitely one of the most harrowing and addictive group-produced narratives I’ve ever come across, Blood of My Blood is the dramatically gothic currently-WIP work of @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush’s devious design. Give or take a heap of other fascinated folks (hello!) adding ideas to put more Horror into the Horrors that our cast has to face. The premise:

The Transylvanian climax went fatally sour and the Harkers were forced to shelter with Dracula himself, including their half-vampire son, Quincey. Cut to two decades later, and Quincey finds himself out in modern London, smitten with Lu, adopted daughter of Arthur and Jack, and diving into certain bloodstained old documents that detail the real history of how his parents came to live in the castle. Said revelations coming not a moment too soon, as a storm is coming for him straight from the Carpathians…

Dracula Daily Sketch Collection – An array of illustrations that captures every entry beat by beat, the Dracula Daily Sketch Collection by Georgia Cook, alias @georgiacooked was dished out over the course of the last Dracula Season. Some of the most fun character designs out there.

Fanfiction Spotlight: BlueCatWriter – With a whopping 99 works devoted to the novel Dracula (so far, the number may have gone up since I blinked), @bluecatwriter is one of the most prolific and talented fanfiction scribblers out there. Romances, nightmares, and overlaps between the two seem to crop up the most, give or take a crossover. Seems fitting that those blue paw prints have contributed to BoMB too.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk – An ongoing comic in which all your favorite characters from the Classics section get together and tackle some perils ranging from the mundane to the monstrous. Started by the amazing @mayhemchicken and posted on @lxgentlefolkcomic, this series is a love letter to beloved Victorian era lit, with a spotlight on the two couples leading the League. Namely, the Harkers, ala Dracula, and the Nortons, ala Sherlock Holmes,’ “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Mina and Irene are the driving investigative and steering forces here, and still deeply in love with their likewise-infatuated husbands, just like in their canons! What a concept! Alan.

Without spoiling the full character list, just know there are going to be a ton of familiar faces roaming around before you finish reading the first arc. Said arc having conveniently wrapped up just a few days ago! Give the comic and its bonus silliness a look if you’re in the mood for a new comfort-adventure epic.

Re: Dracula – Probably the most well-known and incredible thing to come out of the initial Dracula Daily wave. This podcast is a full audio drama that follows the same format as the Substack, with episodes coming out in time with the entries themselves. And it has an unfairly cool soundtrack. They have a Tumblr with @re-dracula, a site and a Patreon to check out before the series kicks up again on May 3rd. (Also, keep an eye out for their next work, an audio drama in the same style with Carmilla.)

The Soldier and the Solicitor – Another treat from @ibrithir-was-here, this one involves a bit of time travel trouble. Quincey Harker has stumbled out of World War I and into the same dark forest where his father once fled for his life…then runs into the man himself, on that same night. Jonathan Harker, young and starved and lost, who has no choice but to trust this stranger while the Weird Sisters are at his heels…despite said stranger having no shadow. It’s a tasty emotional trek, already complete on Tumblr, but now it’s turning into a Webtoon. While Ibrithir is juggling a number of other stories, she’ll be redrawing spruced up versions of the comic and adding a few new scenes as things unfold.

Substack Stack – You know what’s better than one emailed-out public domain book club? A mountain of them. Just. So, so many of them. You’ll see that a lot of these are finished, but some are still ticking along. Either way, they’re all great picks if you’re craving some more old school lit to fill the void between undead emails.

Frankenstein Weekly – Frankenstein

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Voyage of the Nautilus – Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Letters from Watson – Sherlock Holmes

The Invisible Mail – The Invisible Man

Letters from Bunny – E.W. Hornung’s short stories of the eponymous Bunny and Raffles

Letters Regarding Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster short stories, including the novel, Right Ho, Jeeves

…

……

………

…The Beetle Weekly – The Beetle (NOTE: Do Not Read This.)

The Vampyres – A novella I finally wrenched through the gears of self-publication as of March this year. Starring a petite but powerful paranormal cast, The Vampyres, centers on an unscrupulous undead fellow who finds that the revenants of the world are being mowed down by an entity known only as ‘Quinn Morse.’ Between trying to save his neck and figure out where the shadowy bastard came from, the Vampyre in question crosses paths with a new paramour and handy human shield in the form of a grieving Good Samaritan. He’s even polite enough to invite the Vampyre into his home while he’s in dire straits! Surely this will end well. All the info is available here and a little author site is over here.

What Manner of Man – This is the one made for everyone who started out hoping there’d be a real love story with our good friend Jonathan Harker and the Count when he was at his most charismatic. Where that sea of wonders dried up into a mire of horror, What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling keeps things firmly on the romantic tracks. This Substack stars the letter-writing priest Father Victor E. Ardelian as he finds himself meeting with one enigmatic Lord Alistair Vane. It isn’t long before interest turns into intrigue and intrigue into undead intimacies.

The entire novel has been completed—along with multiple epilogues in the author’s Patreon, allowing readers to choose for themselves just how the uncanny romance plays out in the end—and the Substack now has a number of other gothic goodies piling up in the meantime.  

NONFICTION

Dracula Daily: A Unique Reading Experience: This one comes courtesy of @realwomenofgaming. It’s a short and sweet piece that amounts to a fun snapshot of the entire Dracula Daily ride. A cozy couple-minute read.

‘Dracula Daily’ is the One Substack You Need a Subscription To: Features my favorite Matt Kirkland interview. @mattkirkland, if you’re still floating around on here, thank you for dispatching our vampire newsletter again this year.

Dracula Daily is Tumblr’s hottest new book club: Alright, the ‘new’ part is worn out by now, but this one is still a delightful article to swing back around to. Two years on, this Polygon piece is a time capsule of those early months when people outside our bookworm bubble realized we were all happily receiving letters from our favorite classic gothic horror blorbos.  

“How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” – Princess Weekes, if you ever read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am sending oceans of love and millions of rewatches to your video essay. If you haven’t seen it yet, “How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” is one of the most refreshing and well-made breakdowns of both the title subject and numerous other issues that have proliferated in the public view of Dracula’s cast and plot as adaptations endlessly warp or outright bastardize the actual novel. An incredibly cathartic watch.  

Literary play gone viral: delight, intertextuality, and challenges to normative interpretations through the digital serialization of Dracula: A mouthful of a title for an even more elaborate article about the Dracula Daily phenomenon. This one is a full-on study that analyzes just what happened within the big bloodsucker book club surge and how its ‘wandering reading practices’ enriched the experience for participants.

 “The Undying Undead: An analysis of the Dracula Daily community for a theory of online community formation and interaction” – We have a thesis on here! Look at that! @sirangelothebestest’s MA thesis used our vampiric book club as the bones for a massive brick of an academic piece that definitely deserves a look.

…And I think I’ll go ahead and cap things here.

This isn’t everything I got recommended, but if I had squashed all of it in here, I think folks’ eyes would start to fall out of their head. I hope you can find something cool to comb through here. Or, if there’s something great I overlooked, tack it onto the list! We’ve got just two weeks to go until we’re off with Mr. Harker. Let’s enjoy our respite before those castle doors close behind us.

[anonymousewrites]

A Not-So-Disastrous Romance (Book 2) Prologue

Saiki Kusuo x Reader

Prologue: Relationship

Summary: Saiki reintroduces us to the cast.

Quick Key:

“Hello” -Saiki speaking telepathically

Hello -Saiki thinking

“Hello” -regular people speaking out loud, Saiki speaking with telepathy

Hello -regular people thinking

Mouse Note: We're back! Just a cute reintroduction to characters and our beloved pair, but we are back. Updates will be Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays unless I fall behind or have to take a break, which is unlikely. And without further ado, welcome back to A Not-So-Disastrous Romance! It's such a fun story, and we've got a ton of fun moments going on this book. Please comment your thoughts, it helps me continue to write, and I love hearing your thoughts! 

            Saiki sighed in irritation as every single one of his bothers at school (aka “friends”) were reintroduced (even if only a week had passed since his birthday party). He really didn’t need the crowd. He could have made it extremely quick. For example:

            Himself, Kusuo Saiki: psychic who has uncontrollably powerful abilities, loves coffee jelly

            His mother: kind and considerate, loves her husband

            His father: the annoying parent, loves his wife

            Nendou: idiot, his mind can’t be read

            Kaidou: believes/pretends he’s some anime protagonist, stupid

            Kuboyasu: former delinquent

            Toritsuka: pervert, medium, a nuisance

            Hairo: way too intense

            Yumehara: wants more screentime, has a crush on Kaidou (bad judgement)

            Teruhashi: prettiest girl alive according to most people, has a crush on Saiki (not good)

            Mera: hungry

            Saiko: rich

            That was all the annoying people in his life that people had to meet.

            “Hey, Kusuo!”

            Now for someone Saiki was fond of. Really, more than fond of. Saiki turned in his seat to face the final person entering the classroom. They were a pure ray of sunshine with a smile to match, and Saiki found himself far more willing to put up with his bothers so long as they were there.

            (Y/N): Saiki’s significant other, his favorite person, angel, amazing cook/confectioner, wears germanium earrings that mean he can’t hear their thoughts, ray of sunshine, the only person Saiki is ever excited to be around, protects Saiki from bugs and bothers, etc. (Saiki could go on for a while)

            “Hello, (Y/N),” said Saiki.

            Thankfully, as he turned to address (Y/N), the rest of the Saiki K cast meandered away, having gotten their time in the spotlight.

            “So, have you recovered from your party?” asked (Y/N). They grinned and laughed. “I know crowds aren’t your thing.”

            “It wasn’t as terrible as it could have been,” said Saiki. You were there. And that was the day they had admitted they liked one another and decided to start dating.

            (Y/N) just smiled at Saiki. They didn’t need him to say that he was glad they had been present; they could read him well enough. He was their boyfriend, after all. (Saiki was their boyfriend. Boyfriend! (Y/N) still couldn’t believe it and was positively giddy)

            “Well, it’s not like you’ll have to deal with another party for a while,” said (Y/N). “And I’ll keep your actual birthday more low-key.”

            Saiki deadpanned. He doubted that. He never had luck with these things; he knew he’d end up with a giant party where all his bothers (friends) followed him.

            “I’ll make sure you get coffee jelly, at least,” said (Y/N).

            Saiki perked up again. He could always count on (Y/N) to think of something for him.

            (Y/N) chuckled at his instant reaction. He was a total sucker for sweets, and they knew it.

            Saiki looked at them as they laughed, and his heart softened. He really didn’t deserve them.

            “I’m going to Café Mami after school,” said Saiki. “They have a promotion.”

            “For coffee jelly?” said (Y/N). Saiki nodded. “I’ll go with you.” Saiki mentioning it was his way of asking them to go.

            And, hey, (Y/N) wasn’t going to say no to a date with their boyfriend.

            I still can’t believe it.

l

            Saiki and (Y/N) both let out a pleased hum as they took a bit of their coffee jellies. Café Mami was delicious as always, and since they already went their together before they were dating, it wasn’t strange for them to still be seen together, just the two of them.

            Together, Saiki and (Y/N) had decided to keep their relationship lowkey. First, none of their friends were…calm, for lack of a better word (others would include: discreet, normal, not-embarrassing). Second, some of the people they knew would make some problems (see Teruhashi and her crush on Saiki while being friends with (Y/N)). Third, Saiki and (Y/N) didn’t really care about people knowing their business. It didn’t feel necessary.

            So, for now, they weren’t going around announcing to people that they were dating. But that was alright. Saiki and (Y/N) had each other. That was all they needed.

Taglist:

@elaemae

@painstakingly-juno

@characterreaderwriter

@melovepurple

@sleep-7372

@w0mank1sser

@geminigengar

@noodleryworld

@leonardo-dabitchy

@janezee12751275

@xenop0p

@ex160-blog1

@boogiemansbitch

@dmitrytherat

@yuriisclumsy

@sixxze

@constellationguy

@k03ume

@sweatyinternettrash

@paastaboi

@unorthodox-gob

@girlswhopanic

@h-i-g-h-w-a-y-t-o-h-e-l-l-l

@drowningfishy

@rinwho

@izzieg3987

@candylp

@jmclouds

@ittomain1

@justamina-blog

@newtscreatures347269

@digital-dumbass

@chronovala

@yappydoo

@mymomsdisappointment

@lvvcian

@kyliexreads

@b3bybunny

@sle3pyh3ad2

@snowy-violet

@jaguarthecat

[dropoutconfessions]

to the person earlier who went off angry about how evan is treated like the main character in mismag, listen that's a flaw of the show not the fandom. Brennan spends sooooooo much time in that season both talking about his own character and making his curse THE Big Fucking Deal of the season. Then Erika enables it by having their character constantly talk about how hot and tortured he is.

Honestly my one critique there is that Aabria as the DM should have never let Brennan have a storyline that made him the Harry Potter insert for the series if the focus of the campaign was supposed to be the group. As a DM, if one of my PCs got that off balance with stealing the spotlight I would talk to them and find ways to pull other characters into the fold more so they don't get sidelined like especially Danielle was that season.

I think we watched different mismags, pretty sure it was the other players focusing on Evan, Brennan was just dm describing his character. Evan was Leiland from Bloodkeep if he actually could succeed on rolls in that way.

I'd also like to say, certain sidequests (Tiny Heist, Mice & Murder) are based around stories where there is a main character. Some one has to be the Danny Ocean, the Sherlock Holmes, and in the case of Mismag, the Dark Lord. Brennan has mentioned previous to Mismag that on the rare opportunities he gets to be a player character, he asks the dm what he could do to best serve the narrative. Assuming he did that here as well, it's likely that Aabria wanted someone to play a Dark Lord archetype, and given no one else did that, Brennan stepped up to plate.

But I don't think Aabria, like, ignored the other pcs, both K and Sam had huge narrative control during certain sections of the story, and Whitney was basically team leader the whole campaign.

The fandom is absolutely the problem here, outside of confessions, no one ever talks about that last paragraph. This fandom has hella blorbofied Evan to the detriment of every other pc.

[lu-is-not-ok]

So I'm going over some various Canto Finale Dungeon Events to look at check bonuses and maluses, and the first one of real interest is in Canto 3's. Linking to the wiki page that lists it: https://limbuscompany.wiki.gg/wiki/Branch_K-02/Floor_2

It's "A Rotting Corpses's Momento". Basically, there's a dead Inquisitor with something inside (a Seal you can spend later on). You gotta send a Sinner to root around and find it. Ryoshu (Loves Gore) and Rodion (willing to put in work for shiny stuff) get +2s, Sinclair and Hong Lu get -4s and if they fail, more SP loss.

Sinclair tracks. He's got a weak stomach for that kind of stuff, but I was wondering if you had any thoughts on Hong Lu getting a malus. He doesn't really have problems with violence, not like Sinclair, he's not offput by blood or gore. (If there's any more interesting Hong Lu bonuses or maluses on checks I'll send more asks later)

Oooh, now this is interesting! Let's see... I think I have two different possible interpretation. One that assumes this multiplier is fully genuine, and one which assumes it's not so much.

The latter idea is that the negative multiplier is one Hong Lu normally wouldn't genuinely have, but it's one he's acting as if he has based on his own read of Sinclair.

Consider this. Sinclair is thus far the only Sinner that is anywhere close to being of the same financial/class status as Hong Lu. He's the only other Sinner with the correct experience of being raised in a wealthy household, and as such he's in the unique position of being able to call bullshit on whatever Hong Lu might try to spin as his background.

Mind you, this isn't just my opinion - this is something that the story content following up after Canto 3 supports as well. In fact, Sinclair is shown to be one of the few people whose questioning of Hong Lu's demeanor and attitudes is a recurring thread.

Likewise, Hong Lu uses Sinclair as a springboard to make his story more believeable by implying that whatever knowledge he may have that differs from Sinclair's is just a silly little cultural difference, instead of what it actually is - him being way more knowledgeable than someone who claims to be sheltered would otherwise be.

Then there's also this moment in Canto 5, where after Hong Lu's story gets an extremely negative reaction out of Sinclair, Hong Lu appears to course correct and alter the story to be far less horror-focused.

Like, looking at the tone in which Hong Lu was telling the story before that last sentence, it's pretty clear to me how this ending is not what he initially meant to say. It's too abrupt, his tone shifts too much for it to be the natural conclusion, and everyone who follows up the story with their own thoughts and reactions makes it clear it was that odd of an ending in-character as well. It's a change he made because he realized he misjudged Sinclair's tolerance for this type of thing, and thus it could make him look bad.

All of this, to me, shows that Hong Lu is very much aware that he has to be extra careful around Sinclair when it comes to how believable his lies are. Not only because Sinclair himself has the ability to call his bullshit, but also because for the other Sinners, he's the only other person on the bus they can compare Hong Lu to. And if the two's reactions and tolerances for things start to diverge too much, this could cause the others to start asking questions he can't answer easily.

With all that laid out, I believe one of the ways to interpret Hong Lu's check modifier here is just that - him trying to align his own reactions and tolerance to that of Sinclair's. This is Sinclair's Canto after all, where every Sinner ends up with their attention focused on him and his circumstances. There's more spotlight on how Sinclair acts around things like bodies than there ever was before that point. To Hong Lu, it's the perfect opportunity to observe Sinclair and in turn affirm his position as an even more sheltered and naive person by following his example.

However, this is just one interpretation. I do have another, alternate interpretation - one that assumes the modifier is a reflection of Hong Lu's genuine feelings rather than a reflection of his act.

Because, as it turns out, there is something interesting going on here!

While Hong Lu shows no real aversion to blood and gore the way Sinclair does, and he appears to be outright immune to physical pain, he is depicted as having a very odd attitude to messing with already dead bodies.

This is primarily shown through the second log he wrote for the Pink Shoes Enchantee/Posessee enemies.

It's a very strange backpedal of Hong Lu to do. It draws attention to the fact that Hong Lu would in fact be interested in hearing things about the body itself, considering his initial instinct is to say he'd tell a servant to describe what it looks like.

It makes me wonder if it's a clue as to what part exactly Hong Lu considers to be "that gross sight". Is it really just the fact that there's a dead body, or is it more specifically the idea of messing with it and taking its things?

It would certainly explain why he'd have a negative modifier for this check. After all, if he does indeed consider the act of looting a corpse so disgusting that he would have looked away and made someone else do it, one can imagine that being told to actually do it himself would not be something he'd be happy with.

And, of course, there is also the option of the negative modifier being caused by a mix of both interpretations. It could be that it's his genuine feelings that he's further exagerrating and exploiting for the sake of making his act more believable.

[powerpuffobsession]

As much as I love Adam for a few fun parts of his character and for what he could have been at the hands of a competent writer (as shown by the fanfics where he gets properly developed)...

I feel like he (and the way he's characterised) is what broke Hazbin hotel season 1 pacing, Lucifer's character and the show's overall atmosphere.

(Long and packed rant under the cut, because I've been having these thoughts since I saw season 1, and I want to share them. Viewer discretion is adviced)

Before Adam existed (pilot era) it was all simple and worked more properly: a story about the hotel and its inhabitants, and most importanty, redemption. It was a small snuggly location with a few characters in the center of a plot

Heaven was in the background and kept as a mystery. Moreover, from what we've seen in the pilot, Lucifer was obviously a background villain or at least an anti hero, one of the real obstacles for Charlie to overcome on the way to her goal (instead of a minor inconveniece resolved in a single broadway song)

But when Adam and his weird obsession with murder broke into that perfectly cut out premise, everything just shattered. Too many themes got weaved into the short story of the 8 episodes: Heaven vs Hell politics, overlords, war, Charlie's conflict with Adam, the seraphims...

All of that pushed the hotel and the redemption to the background instead of Heaven.... in a cartoon that's named after the hotel. Because 8 episodes is not enough to talk about politics, a war and a 6 month redemption course (the latter even happened behind the screen with only some verbal hints given about the amazing secretive progress the hotel guests made that we were not allowed to see!)

(Had this cartoon stayed indie, there would have been a possibility of making more episodes and tackling more themes properly. But big name broadway actors are more important than that, it appears)

Back to Adam.

He is not even a good villain. He really should have been more of a background antihero. Give the man some sedatives, for f's sake! Where did all that rabidity even come from, after centuries of living in Heaven? Honestly, he'd be expected to act calmer and wiser than how he actually did, especially with how old he is (as old as the earth itself). But instead it's like he got frozen in a state of a dumb jock bully from high school

Imagine if Adam allowed Charlie and her hotel guests to prove that redemption is possible, out of principle, or curiosity. Hell, maybe even allow him to threaten to kill them, but not straight away! Later, after they fail to prove him wrong! If that's what Adam's role had been, the hotel part would have gotten time to breathe and more spotlight

All Adam did in the series, was:

1. make a lot of excessive noise

2. do dumbass things (and it wasn't even explained WHY he's the way he is, not even a single flashback or his own musings and thoughts shown, which makes all of his actions fall flat in every sense)

3. break the remains of logic (Heaven looks plain dumb because of him, not able to tell sinning from non sinning and to judge human souls properly. It's not even corruption, since Adam is not that important or benefitial to Heaven, an actual archangel like Michael could have been leading exorcists in his place and do a better job.... it's just stupidity)

And then Adam just died, for nothing and with no consequences.

I mean, straight after Adam's death Lucifer is immediately trying to divert the viewer's attention: "who wants pancakes? :D". It's like the cartoon itself doesn't care that the first human, one of the most mysterious beings in vivzieverse and someone who badly needed a second chance and therapy, just died. By a very stupid joke too (Niffty didn't even have to stab him).

In short, Adam's plotline is a huge waste of screen time...

And while his final smile to Lute may give us some hints that there's something good inside Adam, but it's more akin to mockery. Since we were never shown that there's more to Adam besides "the main character's opponent=ultimate bad"

And of course Lucifer was retconned into a pathetic uwu boi, who's depression and "silliness" have overshadowed the fact that he practically doomed humanity to a life full of pain, suffering and surviving and took away Adam and Eve's home. We don't even get the slightest glimpse of what exactly Lucifer DREAMED of that was so important to force him to do the humans dirty. Meaning it was something abstract and not thought-through anyway.

(Free will my ass.. Adam and Lilith did as they pleased in Eden without the free will, Adam ordering his wives around, Lilith being able to defy him and Eve being able to disobey God. What good did "free will" from that fruit even do them? If anything, it only did harm to everyone)

And so now this daft egotist is being portrayed as this selfless harmless character only for the sake of contrasting the painfully obvious bad evil that Adam is.

That comes off as black and white writing, fit more for a childrens cartoon, despite the show critisizing Adam for thinking in black and white terms. Not a good look

[ofmdrecaps]

12/11-12/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; David Jenkins; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Samson Kayo; Zayre Ferrer; Damien Gerard; Dominic Burgess; Lindsey Cantrell; Articles; Fan Spotlight: OFMD Advent Calendar: Love Notes; Daily Darby/Today's Taika;

= David Jenkins =

Our dear Pirate Nana (amladydragonfly on bsky) had a bit of a spill at Galaxy Con Columbus, and it left her with some intense bruises! She posted updates on BsKY about them and Chaos Dad, David Jenkins sent her some love--and an invitation to join the crew! You really are badass and beautiful Nana! Just FYI, Nana also wanted me to tell you all that she is doing much better, and is ok after the whole incident-- but wouldn't have been if it weren't for all the kindness of this fandom! She says she's never felt so loved-- so thank you so much crew for taking care of her and spreading so much love and joy her way! You truly are the best crew ever!

Source: David Jenkins bsky = Rhys Darby =

Anyone gotten a chance to watch This Christmas yet? I got to this weekend and it really was adorable. I love Rhys' character, and not just because it's Rhys, because he's a goofy adorable dude. Interested in some fun behind the scenes with the characters? Here's a fun vid below!

Source: Youtube

In regards to more of Rhys' animated works -- "Curse" was nominated for an emmy! Check the article out here!

Source: Instagram

- Darby Daily Doodles -

Only a few more daily doodles for this year!

Source: Darby's Free Substack / 2

- Darby Family Kittens -

Caesar has been getting into some mischief at the Darby Household. Thank you Rosie for the continued cat content!

Source: Rosie's Instagram

= Taika Waititi =

Taika got to work with some fantastic folks at Disney to help make The Boy and The Octopus happen and a lot of folks are praising the ad!

Source: Paige Bonanno

Lots of cool BTS from The Boy and the Octopus as well!

Source: PRConcierge_ Instagram

= Samson Kayo =

Samson has been very busy with the F1 movie in Abu Dhabi (and chilling with a Simone Ashley)!

Source: Samson Kayo's Instagram Stories

= Zayre Ferrer =

One of our talented writers, Zayre Ferrer has been continuing their imaginary Spin Off Series on Bsky! There are so many I'd really love to see actually-- if you'd like to follow along with all their new stuff, check out their bsky!

15: Cuna de Lobos: A New Den

16: The Wire: The Re-Up

17: Cheers: Last Call

18: The Ricardo Radio Hour

Source: Zayre Ferrer's Bsky

= Damien Gerard =

Hey! Father Teach's Black Ops 6 was nominated for a bunch of BAFTA's and he's putting up some autograph signings on his site! Interested? Check it out here!

Source: Damien's. Bsky

And as always, Damien is keeping us all up to to date on his kitties.

Source: Damien's Bsky

= Dominic Burgess =

Dominic shared another picture of his character, Beef, on the new Star Wars: Skeleton Crew show!

Source: Dominic's BlueSky

= Lindsey Cantrell =

Lindsey has been getting all those Tiny Boat certificates signed!

Source: OFMD buys Boats Instagram

== Articles ==

Thank you again to @adoptourcrew for keeping us appraised of all the articles coming out! There sure is a lot this time of year-- it makes me feel like honking!

Source: AdoptOurCrew Bsky

== Fan Spotlight ==

= OFMD Advent Calendar =

The OFMD Advent Calendar has been going strong for many days now lots of new awesome works by many of our fandom folks being released each day! It's currently going on bsky here, and hosted and Door Artwork done by TillyChMo! (You don't need a bsky login!) The first day's fic is here by kentern.bsky.social! but if you'd like to follow them on bsky they'll have new ones every day (and there are currently 17 days up!)

The 2nd Door features @tresdem.bsky.social!

The 3rd Door features @ghostalservice.bsky.social fic PLUS @kninjaknitter.bsky.social podfic!

The 4th Door features @dracothelizard.bsky.social!

Source: OFMD Advent Calendar Bsky

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies! I'm trying very hard to catch up right now, hopefully it'll happen over the next couple days as home and work slows down.

Today I'd like to send out a gentle reminder to take some time for yourself this week! This is the time of year when a lot of folks are busy taking care of others, getting things ready for family or friends, and honestly, a lot of times we forget to take care of ourselves. Take a break-- take a day off work that's just for you if you have the capacity. Buy yourself a little treat, or do something on the list of chores that YOU want to get done and not that other people need you to get done.

Some of you may have TOO MUCH time for yourself and want time with others-- so be sure to reach out if you do! People get busy during the holidays and they can forget to check on folks because their minds are occupied, but I can guarantee you they think about you often, and want you to be okay. Holidays can be such a mixed bag, and not one person will have the same experiences with them, so do what you need to do for YOU. I hope you have a restful week and nothing too crazy goes on. Rest up, drink some water, and know we <3 ya. Night crew!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Laura Jones (@laurajaneillustrations)

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

It's been a bit since I've had room for these so more gifs tonight! tonight's theme is laugh scrunches. Thank you so much to these beautiful gif creators @gottagobackintime and @ourflagmeanssara!

[pleasantspark]

Dissecting the Inconsistencies in Poison (Commentary)

For some fucking reason despite this song intending to be Anti-Rape and Blake trying to be the next Michael Kovich with him trying so hard to sound like him, the song makes me think it's Pro-Rape.

I'm not above a love to cash in Another lover underneath those flashin' lights Another one of those ruthless nights Yeah, yeah, yeah

In this verse, Angel Dust is talking about his work as being a Porn Star, and how he spends time under the spotlight recording with strangers "Another lover" implies there's more than one each night.

I shoulda' guessed that this would happen I shoulda' known it when I looked in your red-hot eyes Spewin' all your red-hot lies Yeah, yeah, yeah

In this verse, he laments on how he should have guessed what had happened, and how he should have known it by telling from a red flag via Valentino. Red hot lies are also referring to manipulation.

What's the worst part of this hell? I can only blame myself

He blames himself for ending up in this Hell.

'Cause I know you're poison You're feedin' me poison Addicted to this feelin', I can't help but swallow Up your poison I made my choice, and Every night I'm livin' like there's no tomorrow

This verse conflicts me, on one hand, he's accepting of the poison and refusing the much needed help, and I am pretty sure Val isn't actively trying to isolate him from anyone else, which makes him less of a threat and all of his threats have to do with something related to making Angel Dust fuck other people. And most of the threats sound so goofy that it makes me wanna fucking cringe.

He's talking about how he has no choice but to accept the poison I get it, he's a victim but the thing is about Angel Dust as a whole is, that the song is not even representive of the fact this guy is a victim of SA, rather he's depicted as enjoying it and doing all this.

Oh-oh, oh-oh Any way you want me, baby That's the way you got me, I'll be yours My story's gonna end with me dead from your poison

Most of the time, I believe he finds himself in a place where he is trapped, although there's tons of people who he cares about. The best part of a character arc for him would technically be Angel Dust being led to believe most of the people in the Hotel were "using him" and that he is forced to stay with Val until he is showed that people care about him.

I got so good at bein' untrue I got so good at tellin' you what you wanna hear I disassociate, disappear Yeah, yeah, yeah So far beyond difficult to resist another gulp

In this verse, he is completely talking about losing himself, and falling into the gulp of Val's poison. Which we don't see any of.

Yeah, I know it's poison You're feedin' me poison I'm chokin' from the taste and I can't help but swallow Up your poison I made my choice, and Every night I'm wasted like there's no tomorrow Oh-oh, oh-oh Any way you want me, baby That's the way you got me, I'll be yours My story's gonna end with me dead from your poison Poison, I'm drownin' in poison I'm fillin' up my glass but it's always hollow Full of poison, I'm sick of the poison Wish I had something to live for tomorrow…

And it ends with him having a (semi) realistic panic attack to distract us from the fact that Angel Dust deadass sang a Love Song about his abuser.

This is a Pop Song.

I feel like making a song about anti-rape SHOULDN'T be something like Pop, it's too cheerful and makes it insensitive. I feel like something on the level of Nirvana can actually work out.

In Conclusion, while Poison is catchy, it's NOT a good song at all, and gives me mixed signals. Compared to Addict its a complete downgrade of it, beyond the vocals and lyrics. No 8 year old should be listening to this, and no one should "Cum" to the visuals VivziePop.

[loquaciousquark]

you have been my #1 favorite fanfic author of all time for like 7-8 years now for your fenhawke and ive always thought "god i would give anything for quark to write solavellan" but i respected that it wasnt your thing. so imagine the pure unbridled euphoria of checking in on your blog this week to see that he finally got to you. i actually screamed. whatever you come up with i know it is going to absolutely change my life and i am so excited <3

i’m so. sad. i'm SO sad. i was so happy for a decade just being mildly annoyed every time he crossed my dash and now i am having feelings and opinions and i don’t WANT THEM and the only way to get rid of them is to write them out of me, this is why i don’t love fenris or astarion at all anymore obviously

and like, I still don’t love Solas! I still think some things he does and some goals he has are really, really stupid! but this character I created to love him really loves him, and I really love her and want her to be happy even though she lives only inside my head, and that means I need to lay down some structure around her romance to get the shape of it, to build something I can make sense of. I may not love him, but I like him much more than I did, and I certainly understand him better than I did the first time around.

And to be honest, there’s a part of me glad I’m coming to it as late as I have. I don’t think I’ve ever read a single Solavellan fic in my life (I actually had to pause here to check the spelling). I have NO idea what tropes are popular with him or what interpretations are the biggest. I have a lot of opinions on how his personality and identity work in a romance with this particular character I’ve created, but because I’ve been so siloed I have no idea if I’m bucking the grain or not, which is fine by me.

Plus, it helps I’m not going to have ten years to build up a lot of personal headcanons and jossable thoughts before playing the new game. I’m not someone who easily ignores canon when it clashes with my imagination for the major things, so I think this will (hopefully) keep me from major disappointments.

It's kinda funny; earlier today I was going back through my DAI tag and reminding myself of all my impressions from the first time I played the game. Some of them I definitely still stand by; others have completely changed. I even said twice that a Lavellan/Solas romance would be my next playthrough, which was true if ten years late.

But it's things like: apparently the first time through I loved Solas and Sera, both of which certainly were not true going into this replay. (I barely even have a memory of Solas and Priory ever being in the party together, though the historical records say I took him to Adamant.) I apparently had a lot of hopes Gideon Emery would be voicing Fenris. I originally thought Priory was going to romance Bull, which is very ?????? after all this time. (I did still, even then, know Here Lies the Abyss completely broke her as a character, and ten years on I never could fix her for good.)

I really did not expect to change my mind on Solas going into this replay, I guess is the point. I replayed because knowing the story of DAI and Solas, I felt it was a story most personalized to elves and specifically a Solas-romancing Lavellan, and that was the worldstate I wanted to take into the new game. I played it out because that's the kind of person I am (I can't just invent characters wholesale in my head) but I really thought it was going to be a perfunctory playthrough as a stepping stone to a different game and a different PC and (presumably) a different romance. I didn't expect to love this character as much as I do, and even if I don't have ten years to write her out the way I did Hawke, I feel like I still owe it to her & her doomed romance to give her a little time in the spotlight. Lucky girl!

[rwbyrg]

If it's alright, I'm just curious, do you have any thoughts of your own or theories about Oscar or Ruby or both of them in terms of v10? To add, do you have any theories for the merge and how it will end up for both Oscar and Ozpin? Like will it be a good or bad thing? Sorry if these questions seem vague lol

Of course it's alright to ask! I do have many thoughts and a handful of theories. I'll admit most of them are wishful thinking since there's truly no way to tell where the story will go until it actually happens. But if I were to distill it to the ones I'm most expecting and why, then I'd probably say:

Expansion on Ruby's solo arc that kicked off in V9

Acknowledging the setups (plural) between Ruby and Oscar's arcs

The merge-curse is eventually broken (blame the allusions)

I'll elaborate a bit below.

1. Expanding on Ruby's Arc

What we saw Ruby go through in V9 is very much not the end of that particular plot line, imo. We saw a bit of this in Justice League: Part 2 and the final ep of RWBY Beyond where she talks to Clark and Yang about her struggles a bit. Ruby needs to learn how to both ask for and accept help from those around her so the weight of everything she's carrying doesn't crush her. Especially now when they're down to the wire and she's come back as a resurrected martyr who's face has been used at the centre of the resistance movement she's now helping to lead. How will she live up to the expectations and pressures of that impossible pedestal when she's only a human girl with very normal knees who's barely keeping it together? Also, while I don't know exactly how they're going to address everything she experienced, and I struggle to imagine her speaking about Neo's Horror House to anyone directly... that sort of trauma doesn't just go away once it's over. So I would be very surprised if the effects of it didn't ripple throughout the remaining chapters of the show. Especially when every other member of RWBY has seemingly had the bulk of their main character arcs already. It's long overdue for Ruby to get that time in the spotlight. Which does sort of lead into my next point...

2. Acknowledging the Setups in Ruby and Oscar's Dynamic

For starters, we've got the merge and ascension parallels to address. Ruby and Oscar have always mirrored each other's issues around identity, choice, fear, responsibility, leadership, etc., and this buildup seems to be coming to a head following V9. From Oscar's "I'm just going to be another one of his lives, aren't I?" to Ruby's "What if you could be anyone?", and how the two of them will relate to each other in light of those contrasting - but similar - experiences. Especially with Ruby having just come back from the tree to find Oscar fighting against the merge harder than ever before. But we also have their attachments to each other to sort out as well. Ruby and Oscar have been watching each other's backs in different ways since V5, their reunion hug in V8 was interrupted where no other "pairing's" was, and they were the only "pairing" still to be split up between the Ever After and Remnant. Not to mention that, while they were separated, Ruby was pushed to a breaking point after being shown an illusion of losing Oscar, while Oscar was back in the real world eulogizing about how he lost Ruby. CRWBY doesn't setup relationship parallels and focuses as intensely and intentionally as this without pay off at some point.

Again, while the specifics are nearly impossible to predict, I'm expecting a bit of a Dojo Scene Reprise, heart-to-heart of sorts, and/or, something that puts those attachments to the test. My immediate thought is that this test will finally push Oscar to unlocking his semblance since getting shot, falling from Atlas, being kidnapped, and tortured were all not enough to make it happen. (Although my wishful thinking is that it unlocks in a happier moment, I think that's much less likely.)

If I were to engage in pure speculation on this, my easiest bet is that it will come at the hands of Tyrian. When our Little Prince was first introduced, it was almost as if he was waking from a nightmare of that villain laughing with glee at the opportunity to hunt down a certain rose. And with this being the Vacuo arc with Ruby and Oscar getting a lot of focus, and Tyrian already on the prowl within the kingdom, it would make a lot of sense. The little prince fated to have a confrontation with a venomous antagonist in the desert over his attachment to a rose is about as textbook as it gets. (I could also see it go to Cinder or being delayed until they follow through on the threat of Ruby being kidnapped by Salem, if that's the route they decide to take. But again we'll have to wait and see how it plays out.)

3. Oscar and the Merge

I'm not entirely sure where they're headed with this one between now and the resolution... but I do think the resolution itself will otherwise be a happy one, if not bittersweet. RWBY is a story about breaking cycles, and Oz has been part of one of the longest on Remnant since the very beginning. Pairing that with this show being, ultimately, a happy story, as well as a looking at two of Oscar and Oz's shared allusions, I can only imagine they will be separated by the end.

The first allusions to mention are from The Marvelous Land of Oz. Princess Ozma (aka Oscar) is the rightful heir to the kingdom and next in line to take over when it's time for the wizard to retire. It's very clear that - however this plays out - Oscar is the final incarnation. Typically, when one ruler leaves the throne that's it. They're gone. Oz has fiddled with Remnant's history for countless millennia now in his endless fight against Salem. When the dust settles and it's time for Remnant to rebuild, it should be up to the new generation to take charge without his influence from "the old world" in the mix.

From a Little Prince lens - for those unfamiliar with the book - the aviator (aka Oz) spends much of the story waffling about the little prince he is stranded with in the desert... only to be very sad when his new friend leaves him behind to go home to the stars. RWBY is already subverting this story a bit with Oscar being the one wanting to be rid of his pilot instead of the other way around. If I were to guess how the show will carry this further, it would be that Oz moves on, but perhaps with some lingering attachment on either (or both) sides. Maybe a bit of a "all this time I wanted it to end, but now that it's finally happening, I wish I (you) didn't have to go".

At least that's what seems to make sense to me, thematically speaking. Oscar will be irreversibly changed by these events even if he is freed from the curse, however. There is no question about it. Because that is what the Hero's Journey is all about.

The hero leaves their farm and they fall through a new world. It is both horrifying and exciting in equal measure. And throughout it all they are changed by the experiences they have and the people they meet - both good and bad, within their control and outside of it. And when the quest is finally over, there is grief. Because you are not the same person you were when you left home, and you can never truly return to what you had and who you were before it all happened.

This is also, coincidentally, just what it means to grow up. Which - while not the only one, and certainly not unique to Oscar's arc alone - has always been one of the loudest allegories hiding within the merge to me. We meet and know people, we don't always have a say in how long they can stay and how they change us... and then one day they are gone, but their influence and our memories of them stay with us. And then, as RWBY has taught us since the very beginning, we keep moving forward despite it all.

( @creatoriamari tagging you here just in case to make sure you get the notif because I don't know if it still works if I saved the ask as a draft. 🙇‍♀️)

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  Paryton! @The-winged-doe has 11 fics posted to AO3 in the Stranger Things fandom and 8 of them are in the Steddie tag!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by @The-winged-doe:

The Gemini Paradigm

Lycantunnel

The Dog Next Door

Empty Space

Chasing Ghosts

"Paryton writes extremely compelling, rich, character-driven stories in a wide variety of settings and genres. There's always an element of horror or weirdness in her stories, in a way that feels so faithful to the original tone of the source material, and she doesn't shy from bittersweet or uncertain endings. Every one of her Steddie stories has such a unique premise and we get so many fun POV's outside of Eddie and Steve. It feels like surfacing from deep water to finish one of her stories - it's so easy to get immersed." -- anonymous

Below the cut, Paryton answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

Short answer: Because I love making Steve suffer and letting Eddie be his reward for being my chew toy 😂 (and vice versa tbh). In all seriousness though, I think it’s a lot of little things. It’s their role as rival babysitters, the way their archetypes as Freak and King imply a potential history and dynamic we never really get to see, and I love the juxtaposition of Steve as the stereotypical ‘normal one’ who’s been involved in monster shenanigans for actual years while Eddie is the ‘weird one’ who’s a fish out of water.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Anything with supernatural elements is going to get me to read it. The werewolf aus, the ghost aus, the spectacular demo-Steve aus. Also a sucker for a time travel au, this fandom has some great ones.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

I love writing monster boys, particularly any variety of monster/creature Steve.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

I have to pick one!?! Oh boy. Well, my most recent fav is In A Mirrored Room, Talking to Myself by entanglednow (https://archiveofourown.org/works/59155105). I swear that fic rewrote my brain, got me obsessed with haunted/monster houses for the entirety of October.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I have yet to write a fantasy au, and I have a few D&D style fantasy aus hanging out on the wip concept pile waiting for my attention. But my relationship with writing/reading fantasy is tenuous, so I’m nervous but excited to work my way around to tackling those.

What is your writing process like?

It varies! I have a template word doc that I put together way back whenever that’s pre-structured for setting up my outline, chapters etc., so that helps conquer the terror of facing a blank page, but beyond that who knows. At my most organised, I’ll usually start with a free write to jot down the broad strokes of my ideas, block in a chapter by chapter outline, and will try to start out writing it linearly. That rarely lasts though. I’m very prone to writing chapters/scenes out of order and jumping between fics in the process. Except for The Gemini Paradigm. I don’t know what happened with that fic. It had no outline, no freewrite, was written almost entirely linearly one POV at a time (I wrote all the Outside Perspective scenes, then the Steddie scenes, then the Ronance scenes), and then I proceeded to puzzle all of the scenes out of order until it achieved its ultimate non-linear glory. 🤷

Do you have any writing quirks?

Besides writing scenes wildly out of order (except for Gemini, but it’s an outlier and should not be counted), I’ve also been known to combat writer’s block by writing out scenes on my phone, in bed, when I should be sleeping. The worst culprit turned out to be a full 3,000 words for a fic that I still haven’t finished. It’ll see the light of day at some point.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

I much prefer waiting to post until a work is already done. With that said, when it comes to my longer fics sometimes I make an exception to help get the creative juices flowing after being stuck alone in my own head for too long. That’s the case with both Empty Space and The Dog Next Door.

Which fic are you most proud of?

I am proud of all of my children… but Empty Space is my baby. It’s the fic that got me back into writing again. I wrote fic as a kid, but I really struggled with the awful guilt/shame feeling that I ran into whenever I fell behind on a project and found myself staring at an unfinished work and losing all drive to finish it. That’s a big reason why I much prefer waiting to post a work until it’s finished (or far enough in that my momentum feels solid). Empty Space was the project that finally made me commit. I was going to write it, I was going to finish it, and I did!

How did you get the idea for Chasing Ghosts?

Some friends made me watch Cowboy Bebop for the first time. It was meh, but the grungy space western aesthetic is absolutely my jam. And because my brain was already enthusiastically in Steddie mode, the broad concept for Chasing Ghosts came together. Plus, there aren’t nearly enough space/sci-fi steddie fics out there.

When writing Chasing Ghosts, what was something you didn’t expect?

Well, it wasn’t supposed to be a multi-chapter fic for one. But I think what was one of the most satisfying surprises in writing it was with the three monster hunts and the way the demogorgon ended up being foreshadowed. I didn’t know I was writing in a demogorgon hunt until the thing showed up and I realised I’d been hinting at it since chapter 1. Gotta love it when things just come together.

What inspired The Dog Next Door?

The AU for The Dog Next Door is an idea I’ve been sitting on since before Steddie, 2019 I think?, and is based on Tablestory’s Nocturne ttrpg live play, which is over on youtube. I’ve wanted to use this magic system and build on these ideas for a while, and it just came together that they fit nicely with Steddie as my apparent designated blorbos.  More broadly, fandom loves to talk about characters being golden retrievers or whatever. So, challenge accepted I guess. Doggy Steve is here 🐶

What was your favorite part to write from Lycantunnel?

The scene where Eddie first encounters the wolves in the tunnels. Where he’s cornered in the dark with only his cheap lighter to see by while Steve and the kids as fucked-up wolves step out of the dark. That was one of the scenes that first inspired the fic, and it was exactly as satisfying to write as I’d hoped it would be.

How do/did you feel writing The Gemini Paradigm?

Absolutely gobsmacked that it came together at all if I’m being honest. When you go in and write a story you don’t expect the last step to be deconstructing the story and then frankensteining it back together. And yet… It was a lot of fun though, and I’m proud of how it turned out. Jumping between outsider POVs is a tactic I really like for approaching unsettling horror, and it was really cool to explore characters I probably otherwise wouldn’t have thought to write. And seeing its final form after most of the writing was done in a very different structure was neat. Made for an interesting creative exercise.

What was the most difficult part of writing Empty Space?

That fic was so goddamn long. Its outline called for it to be even longer, actually; it was split into three acts instead of two. Partway through writing, once I’d already started posting, I realised my outline and what I was writing were diverging and I was gonna need to rewrite my outline or else my pacing was about to crumble. Nightmare. There’s actually about 20,000 words of the scrapped act 3 (which conceptually ended up being condensed into Chapter 23) that exist on a usb somewhere. Rip in pieces.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

Oh, so many. The Stobin locker room scene from The Gemini Paradigm is definitely one of my favourites. Eddie’s cemetery monologue from Empty Space comes to mind. As of writing this I haven’t posted it yet, but it’ll probably be out by the time you read this, so the house party from The Dog Next Door has some of my favourite horror imagery that i’ve written.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

Well, as I’m writing this I have two fics currently being posted: The Dog Next Door and The Mermaid That Ate My Best Friend’s Boyfriend. I also have a sequel to Lycantunnel in the works that I’m hoping to have ready to post sometime in the spring (assuming the writing braincell cooperates).

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

Big thanks to my nominator! ❤️🥰 And also to the steddieunderdogfics team for putting this together💖

Thank you to our author, @the-winged-doe, and our nominator! See more of Paryton's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[tobiasdrake]

How and Krillin and Yamcha's dynamic?

Krillin and Yamcha are bros.

Krillin and Goku is the Kame-senryu relationship that gets the most focus. And for good reason; They're tight.

But it's fun to note that they only trained together for eight months.

Yamcha and Krillin were together for three years. Minus however long it took Goku to utterly dismantle the Red Ribbon Army. Which was at least four months, given that Shenron couldn't even have reactivated until a full year past the start of Goku's training with the Muten-Roshi.

No idea what Goku was doing for the first four months of his "Gonna find Grampa's Dragon Ball" excursion, but as of the end of Red Ribbon arc, Krillin and Yamcha were officially training bros.

Also Bulma for however long it took her to find transportation and go the fuck home. XD Bulma spends basically the entire back half of the RRA arc trying to leave.

It's not super clear how much of their training was actually spent together, however. At least some amount of independent study had to have been taking place, as Yamcha was able to learn the Kamehameha in secret during their time together.

They'd also spend however long it took to climb Karin Tower and overcome Karin's Choseisui/Sacred Water training together.

Plus... something like eight months at God's Temple?

It's not super clear when exactly they left the temple. The closest to a timestamp we have is that it seems to take place concurrently with Goku catching Bubbles.

Point is, Krillin and Yamcha spent a lot of formative time together and also underwent a bit of more advanced heavenly martial arts training together as well.

Even before their training together, Krillin played a key role in the one significant fight that Yamcha ever won.

The Uranai Baba Tournament is fucking weird but it's got some key moments in it, including Yamcha's best performance in Dragon Ball. Having to fight an invisible man, Yamcha pulls out some advanced shit.

Only for Baba to begin cheating by singing loudly and off-key, disrupting Yamcha's concentration.

Yamcha had solved the problem of his opponent's invisibility, and only began losing the fight due to Baba's interference. But Krillin practices the martial art of sneaky sneaking, and is better at cheating than Baba - even if the, uh, mechanism by which he secures Yamcha's victory is gross in multiple ways.

This is a weird arc.

Despite all that training together, however, we don't see much of Krillin and Yamcha together outside of tournaments. In general, the Tenkaichi Budokai tended to be the opportunity for non-Goku characters to strut their stuff and shine in the spotlight. They were compartmentalized in such a way that Goku could dominate, but other characters could get their moment in the sun too - even in matches they lost.

If you want to know why the humans fell out of relevance, blame the death of the Tenkaichi Budokai. Once Toriyama stopped writing tournaments and made every arc into an epic battle of Strongest Protag vs. Wickedest Antag, he didn't have space for all these characters anymore.

That was already beginning to happen as early as the Red Ribbon Army arc, which sees Krillin only briefly involved in the General Blue sub-arc while Yamcha doesn't get to do anything. Until the Uranai Baba tournament brings them back into focus. Then Krillin's dead and Yamcha's hospitalized for the duration of the Piccolo-Daimao arc.

These were not Adventure Story characters; They're Tournament Story characters. Which. Became a problem. When Tournament Stories stopped happening. But for a time, the Tenkaichi Budokai was a space for them.

By the 23rd, all three of them - Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha - were considered official graduates of Kame-senryu, and expected to begin developing their own arts.

As great martial artists in their own right, walking their separate paths, they all independently reached the conclusion that they wanted to keep wearing the Turtle School gear forever.

Yeah, every time you see these characters rocking that red/orange/gold gi, just remember that the Muten-Roshi asked them to stop years ago. I wonder how he feels when he sees Gohan or Goten flying his colors?

Some birds take a bit of the nest with them when they go, I guess.

Something that's interesting to note: I don't talk a lot about the anime because... Well, as I've mentioned, there's a lot of it that puts me off. I don't think Toei has a very good grasp on the characters. But if we're on Yamcha and Krillin then I kinda need to talk about this.

One thing I couldn't help but notice is that the anime loves Yamcha, but they aren't very fond of Krillin. Krillin gets reduced to being Yamcha's kid sidekick during their filler episodes together. Even when Yamcha's not around, there's things like a running joke in the Z movies about Krillin getting oneshotted every time he ever tries to do anything - Which Krillin begins commenting despondently on as the films progress.

Mad disrespect.

My favorite filler episode in the first anime takes place in the gap between 22nd and 23rd Tenkaichi Budokais, and it features all of the boys running off to go fistfight a volcano for their training. Like, ostensibly they're trying to stop the eruption from burying a village but their mindset is on fistfighting it. Ten's like, "If Goku were here, he'd beat up the volcano. So I'm going to beat up the volcano."

Seriously. At one point Ten's just shooting ki blasts into the lava flow like he thinks he's going to punch it unconscious. This episode is brilliantly stupid.

It's awful, but entertainingly so.

In any case, it was at this period of time that Toei decided they were way more interested in trying to set up Yamcha and Tenshinhan as equally-matched battle brothers and rivals. With Krillin and Chiaotzu relegated to being their useless kid brothers. Nothing conveys this better than the very end of the episode.

We see Krillin, Ten, Chiaotzu, and Yamcha all facing down the lava flow together, even having a closeup on Krillin's determined face as they prepare to hold the line against it.

Then, between shots, Krillin stops existing so that Yamcha and Ten can have their Bro Moment uninterrupted by his presence.

He re-emerges into reality once the two of them have diverted the magma flow so he can cheer on Yamcha and Ten for saving everyone.

Meanwhile in canon,

Please understand I mean no disrespect to Yamcha when I say this. In fact, this fight ends with him getting in a pretty solid hit on God, and even a little bit of constructive praise.

But the anime sees Yamcha as the dignified martial arts rival and Krillin like a joker who gets clowned on for comic relief. But this misrepresents the roles that the characters hold within the story.

Until Vegeta came along, Yamcha was the guy whose main job was to get dunked on in order to establish how powerful the opponent truly is. He got it from Jackie Chun, he got it from Tenshinhan, he got it from the Mummy, and he got it from the Saibamen.

The anime tried to give him greater story relevance over Krillin, and that was Toei making promises that Toriyama had no intention of keeping. They gambled on Yamcha being the guy they should be hyping up, and they bet poorly. It was Krillin all along.

The 23rd TB is super interesting in this regard because Yamcha and Krillin both fill the yardstick role here. Yamcha gets dunked on to establish how strong God is while also forcing an admission of his ability and skill.

For his part, Krillin does the same for Piccolo.

Losing the match but surprising Piccolo multiple times with some slick moves, and forcing him to admit that martial artists of Krillin's caliber will make his plans difficult.

Krillin would go on to play significant roles in the battle with Vegeta, the Namek arc, and even to have a bit of focus in the Android arc. And. Well. We all know what Yamcha became famous for.

Though what you may not know, what often gets left out, is that Yamcha took that bullet for Krillin.

Not fully knowing what the Saibamen are capable of since Vegeta interrupted Ten's fight with one, Yamcha stepped up to the plate so that Krillin wouldn't have to. Volunteering to risk his life because he still has a Shenron 1-Up in his inventory but Krillin doesn't.

This moment is often remembered as "Yamcha died because he sucks and is a fool LOL". But Yamcha gave his life for Krillin. He didn't know exactly what was going to happen but he chose to face the unknown himself rather than let his bro do it.

And that, I think, says more about Yamcha's caliber as a martial artist than any number of first-round tournament losses.

[animentality]

I'm not looking forward to season 3 of Blue Lock.

There will be good moments sprinkled here and there, like Bachira doing his monster thing, Chigiri stealing from Kaiser, Nagi and Reo getting re-married, but the Neo Egoist League Arc is way too long. It's gonna be like 25 full episodes, since the entire arc is over a hundred chapters long, and most of them will be Isagi beefing with Kaiser against players we don't care about.

Plus, all the matches are basically the same. Isagi's team wins every one, and he gets the final goal.

Also he calls Kaiser a bitch.

It's not that I hate Kaiser, I actually love him, I think he's the best character introduced in the NEL arc, it's just that the first arcs of Blue Lock knew not to focus on just one rivalry all the time.

We got new rivalries all throughout the First Selection.

We had an even dispersal of, ok Bachira's a new rival, now here's Kunigami, now here's Chigiri, now here's Nagi and Reo - these were all interesting characters who had space to breathe and develop personal relationships with our MC.

They all had matches where they got to shine as the main play makers. Kunigami got super goals. Bachira outdribbled an entire team on his own. Chigiri had the most epic First Selection moment, when he broke the chains weighing him down. Reo and Nagi were introduced as a demonic duo, and had an entire match to show how good they were together.

Even that side ass character Kuon had an interesting moment...hell, he had two. He fucked up two different games, betrayed his team, and then redeemed himself.

He wasn't even a major character, but he had a singular story to tell, that didn't rely entirely on the specific match he played in, or the goals he scored.

But the Neo Egoist League Arc is like...a rushed mess, that somehow managed to take up 40% of the entire manga at the same time.

It's got the dense, complicated character juggling of the U20 arc, except not good, lol. U20 had high stakes. It was intense, and every character was juggled, sure, but at least they all had their time to shine. That's 22+ characters who had to get some focus, plus the substitutions. I'd say Kaneshiro did a banger job of maintaining the tension, while still moving us around from person to person with consistency. But NEL?

The stakes were immediately lowered by the fact that winning the matches doesn't matter, scoring does.

And it like, cycles through every important character, gives them a single goal, and then proceeds on to the next player who needs to get a goal. Then it neglects that character for another twenty chapters.

There's no even pacing here.

And what's worse is that most of the players on these teams are...not that interesting. Karasu and Otoya, most of the European team members, who basically don't exist... I personally don't like Niko, who just does the same thing Isagi does, or Yukimiya (although at least Yukimiya's backstory is depressingly real, and kinda compelling, even if he himself isn't utilized that well).

I like Hiori, but Nanase and Kurona and Kiyora...I mean, they're kinda just there to give Isagi assists...

They're not quirky and weird and relatable like the freaks of First Selection. They don't get the time and spotlight they need for me to really care.

Like any of these characters could probably be great if the pacing was better, but... it's like the mangaka will just speed through a backstory before one of them passes to Isagi. And then that's it.

The only true spotlight is given to Kaiser or Isagi.

Now Isagi is the MC, so that's alright, although can I just say, he's kind of unlikable during the NEL arc, like, Jesus Christ, was he...awful when he was against Man City...if he hadn't apologized to Yukimiya...hmmm...and after an entire match of calling Nagi and Reo slurs too, lol...but I digress...

And Kaiser is good, he's great, but can you imagine how boring the First Selection arc would've been if it was entirely dedicated to Isagi just beefing with Barou?

Like come on.

It's basically just a glorified training arc, that abandons what made Blue Lock interesting in the first place, which is the high stakes, but then doesn't have the decency to at least still give us the great character drama that we've come to expect from BL.

And that's a shame.

It's also fucking ridiculous for a training arc to be so long.

God.

I hope it ends soon.

Please get back on track.

[yourlocalgrass]

Listen. Listen. Hear me out ok.

I LOVEEE Thirteen, Mephisto and Raphael ok, I would die to date any of them.

But the thought of them becoming dateable, as much as I want to date them… not so much, honestly… gives me constant anxiety, like… big time.

I mean the devs couldn’t even handle the SEVEN main love interests in S1 or S2. I mean cmon who doesn’t know how Asmo and Beel were the devs obvious least favourite. There are times where all the brothers get a kiss except Beel or Asmo.

And then when 4 more characters entered the intimacy system, they handled them really good actually, amazing even. S3 was great imo, for the new dateables that was. But again, half of the brothers were forgotten to be love interests. But, they did do the new dateables good.

But then, by S4 they all literally reverted back to being side characters again and not dateables from what I could see.

Diavolo seemed the exact same as he was in S1 and S2 except maybe in one romantic scene with him. Solomon was only playing the role of a teacher and almost nothing more. If you played S4 without S3 context, you wouldn’t have even guessed that they were a dateable. Same goes for Simeon (even though almost the entirety of S4 was centred around him) Barbatos just became a more romantic dateable so, we did get one kiss by the end but… felt really rushed.

And don’t forget before we had the spotlight events how bad, cliche and repetitive the events were? Because we had to make sure we kissed all of them (except luke ofc) so an entire event chapter was dedicated to making sure we spend time and kiss all of them. And then even then there were characters who weren’t kissed or got fair time and treatment.

Finally, in Nightbringer, during S1 Solomon had a lot of spotlight for once and some Diavolo, while Simeon didn’t even exist. When it came to S2, we got Simeon spotlight but Solomon and Diavolo just went -poof- and vanished just like that.

Don’t forget that every near to end of a season, we kiss all the dateables right? And for some very weird reason, we kissed every character, but you know who we didn’t? Diavolo. And what’s even more weird is that, there was no reason not to because we’ve already kissed him previously, and the scene was in perfect timing for an MC option to kiss him, we talked to him, but just didn’t… kiss him? It’s just so… confusing.

Oh right, don’t forget how the brothers went through their special arc or whatever you’d like to name it, with MC who’s helped the brothers through and through of course, so we get to kiss them each at the end, except you know which brothers didn’t? Asmo and Beel. That’s right. Even in Nightbringer the devs never changed. Well, actually, they got even worse. You know who else didn’t get a kiss? Belphie, who we know isn’t the fandoms favourite brother, so of course… no kiss either… that’s now another brother who the devs are starting leaving to the side.

So, the entire game is a current mess and if Solmare couldn’t handle 7 love interests properly, and added 4 to the mix, which upturned everything into chaos, adding another 3 into the dateables section… is it reeaaalllllyyy a good idea? I mean to let the devs handle them…

Again it’s not like I don’t want them to be dateable but just like… how are they going to handle it? You know… considering they actually can’t handle it?

There will have to be more romance in the story, or people would complain, they’d have to fit 15 characters in, and they can’t make the lessons short, which they already do, there’s a chance we’ll get to kiss some while others won’t even get screen time, Thirteen, Raphael, and Mephisto can’t be set to the side during events either otherwise there would be complaints, and there’s no way writers won’t get tired of writing Devilgrams for 15 characters so other characters will be bad, while others who always get the top will have a decent Devilgram story. I bet the writing for almost everything will go into mess…

And that’s my only problem cus I love them and I do want them to become dateable but I also want the game content to be good even though it’s… not… really. Ok ngl it’s already a mess. And that’s just something I feel very anxious about when thinking what’s gonna happen when there are more dateables…

[sapphoshands]

I’d be curious about your Agatha thoughts (gives you a corn chip) because I too have feelingsTM about the “discourse” but I just wanted to say thanks for being a fun person to follow who has also been consumed by AAA brainrot but in a FUN way…like can we just enjoy fun things? Oy.

ONE CORN CHIP, you have poked the bear successfully (and thank you for saying nice things; i am glad my breakdown is enjoyable all around hahaha)

okay a couple people have actually poked me about this soooo. snark activated. rant unlocked. disclaimer, i have mostly been avoiding the tags so i'm sure this has been litigated elsewhere, but a few things annoying ME:

people saying the show last night is the wrong kind of queer. because. look. we are all just queer, okay. the show is queer. the show is SO MANY kinds of queer!

also did we accidentally erase the first five episodes because i don't know what show you [generic you] were watching but there has been intense lesbian activity on my screen since 'agnes' first sat down on her couch.

i also will be v sad if agatha and rio don't get at least one smooch, but we have three eps left? a third of the show? so i'm not exactly throwing a fit yet!

even if they don't smooch, their relationship has been such a joy to watch on screen and is so intense and involved and complex and fully-realised. like, we might not get a kiss, because i sure don't think we're heading for a happy ending, but... it's not like a kiss is what legitimises the whole thing, you know? IT'S THERE.

agreed that it's unfortunate we had a short ep last week and a long one this week, but i don't understand people who are saying we were short-changed last week specifically in agatha's trial. because. it is agatha's show. this whoooole thing. it is about agatha. all of it. all along. and it's not like a) she doesn't get the spotlight in everyone else's trial, or b) we didn't get enough character development for many many fanfics.

plus we got a long ep this week specifically so we could get more agnes and more agatha. i'm surprised they got away with putting so much agnes in the ep but oh my god i loved every second of it. kathryn hahn the manspreader dykespreader that you are.

fan hat off, notes hat on, i don't know what i would've cut out of the billy section. maybe a couple minutes of hospital time? couple minutes of bohner? not a lot of fat there! lots of stuff that's almost certainly going to have meaning to agatha's story!

some people will say cut the boring boyfriend but look. look. i am genuinely emotional about the interrelational queerness in this show now. i think this is a spectacular example of how stories that are overdone in pop culture generally can get a whole new life and vibe when they are seen through a diverse lens. this commentary on witchiness, queerness, otherness, coven as found family... it's saying some things, and it's not beating us over the head with them. we needed the queer billy backstory to make those work. plus, we're unlocking all new agatha feelings through billy and so the show has to give us some billy so we know why agatha has those feelings!

maybe i sound like too much of an apologist, and let's be real, i'm certainly not going to be rewatching the first two-thirds of that ep anywhere near as much as the entire rest of the season (so far). i'm not telling anyone they had to love it. i will also say, i've seen some reviewers talking about how this was the best ep so far and i REALLY side-eye that (and now i trust them much less). but i enjoyed the ep, way, way more than i expected. i almost kind of give a shit about billy now, and i absolutely give a shit about agatha's feelings about billy.

that said, it's not an attack to not have rio in the ep (when jac schaeffer has literally said they were rationing her). and neither rio nor billy are the most important parts of agatha's story. but they're both building towards it, in my opinion. we haven't lost anything by getting a little billy; we've immensely deepened the world of the show and agatha's character.

so there is one corn chip worth of thoughts! and now, back to writing fic.