#but they seem to be a lot softer in style? not as much emphasis on line weight and stuff. rounder shapes

[inkats]

also im reading tintin rn and its sooo interesting n different compared to manga n american comics i usually read :0 the style of it all is soo...

[erisenyo]

Hey there, can I ask how you come up with your OC names?

Anon I am THRILLED you asked because I am about to dump so much in-my-head-only worldbuilding on you, so much more than you probably needed or wanted lol.

As always this is not short, and forgive in advance the butchery I’m about to do of like, all of phonetics and linguistics.

OKAY so generally speaking, when it comes to names I have a set of foundational building blocks/general guidelines for the various countries and I work from there. These are based on phonetic characteristics of the canon names we see, and then from there I'd start layering in additional fun along groupings I've noticed around gender or class or family lines or whatever if I want to take the worldbuilding that deep.

So for example, with the Water Tribes…

We have Sokka, Katara, Hakoda, Bato, Kya all from the South, so I pick out...

Hard K or T sounds being quite common

Primarily A and O as vowels

Vowels being between consonants (ie, being single vowels)

Names being 2-3 syllables

In the North, we see Yue, Hahn, Agna Qel’a, Arnook, Kanna, Pakku...

Some similarities with the Ks and hard Qs

Now we see some softer ‘gn’ and ‘hn’ and L sounds, and the addition of P (which makes Bato’s “B” and Sokka’s “S” stand out)

Some ‘oo’ instead of ‘o’ vowels (so double vowels)

Hahn and Yue with no hard consonant sound at all (and both upper class!)

So that gives us some basic starting blocks to start building up names that sound like they fit within the Water Tribe culture in terms of sounds, as well as some potential regional and class differences to start working with! (Maybe Q sounds are only in the North, and upper-class people have soft consonant names, for example.)

Similarly in the Fire Nation…

The royal family is Zuko, Azula, Ozai, Azulon, Sozin, Iroh, Lu Ten, so...

A lot of Z and K sounds

(Male) names that end in N

A lot of two-syllable names (with the emphasis on the first syllable)

A lot of riffs on each other (Sozin and Ozai, Azulon and Azula, Azulon and Zuko)

Iroh and Lu Ten stand out as having fairly distinct names comparatively, with the “oh” ending and the softer "Ir" and "Lu" starts

Chan, Zhao, and Ruon-Jian are the other upper-class guys we see, which gives us...

short syllables again

N endings (for men) agai

The ‘two word’ name again (so Lu Ten's name naming structure is used elsewhere)

The introduction of “Ch” and “J” and “R” and double-vowel sounds (ao, uo, ia)

We also see Roku and Kuzon...

So very similar names to our royal bunch with those Ks and Zs and oku/uko and uzon/ulon sounds

Also older names from 100+ years ago, and commoner names

Mai, Ursa, Ty Lee as our upper-class ladies gives us...

short syllables again

‘two word’ names again

M sounds!

Mai and Ursa both don't have a hard consonant stop

Some phonetic/vibey similarity with “Mai” and “Ty”

And adding in Chit Sang (another commoner!) (presumably!)...

Another two-word name

Introduces the ‘ng’ ending

Leverages a lot of the consonant sounds we already saw

Uses an “it” usage of the "I" vowel (vs Iroh’s I)

So pulling it all together, in addition to those foundational consonant and vowel sounds, we also see that the royal family has a distinct naming convention that may be rooted in archaic naming styles.

And we can start to build out some ideas around gendered naming, family/honorific naming, and some potential class/pre-unification culture differences, as well as some space to speculate about why Iroh and Lu Ten’s names are so different from the rest of the royal family, too (as well as the ammunition to suggest that Zhao comes from a family of suck-ups lol)

Moving onto the Earth Kingdom (where I truly went wild)…

We start off with Toph, Haru, Long Feng, Kuei, Jet, Bumi, Poppy, Lao, and there's a lot of varability here!

Generally, the names are one or two syllables and start with a consonant

We see more double-vowel pairs (uei, ao), perhaps in the upper class but just as many single vowels

Consonants are hard or soft, and don't seem to group like the Water Tribe or FN royals did around particular sounds

Names end in vowels or hard sounds or softer 'ph' and 'ng'

Those guardrails are fairly wide and broad for feeling out distinct-sounding names, but it makes sense given how huge the Earth Kingdom is and its history of war, displacement, movement, etc.

So for a fic like That Love You've Been Looking For which was super EK-centric and focused on worldbuilding, I ended up breaking it down into broad regions and leaning into place names as well to help articular some basic rules:

In the southwest (Gaoling, Toph, Lao, Poppy), I decided that there’d be a mix of single and two-word names, and that the ‘ph’ ending would be used by women and the ‘ng’ ending for men

On the western coast (Haru, Omashu, Bumi), I went with primarily two-syllable names that follow a ONE-two pattern (PA-lo, BU-mi, CHE-lu, HA-ru) and went with mostly softer consonants

In the north (Ba Sing Se, Si Wong Desert, Long Feng), I went with short multi-word names where each part would be a single syllable

And in the center I was kind of pulling it together from what was left, but I went with names that end with an ‘an’ or ‘in’ sound and echoed some of the place names I was using

So we have some building blocks for the various regions, this time that we can use to indicate where someone’s family could be from and to give each region a more specific feel.

For Kyoshi...

I generally lift the Earth Kingdom rules, but view it as more of a trade-center and melting pot (Suki could fit in WT or FN rules), so it's deliberately a lot looser and with more variation.

And everywhere has a Lee/Li, so none of these rules are hard and fast, and I imagine too that there’s a ton of cultural mixing and fads and trends and whatnot in naming across various regions.

A quick note from a process standpoint--

This approach is very much not trying to find names within various existing real-world cultures. If I'm writing ATLA canon-world, I tend to stick to the idea of leveraging real-world contexts as a base rather than a strict guide. Something I wanted to flag, as there are other ways to go about OC naming that lean much more heavily into researching the naming conventions of various cultures throughout history, thinking about translation and name meaning, etc.

And also, if I need a lot of names, I'll often use the Fantasy Name Generator and look for names that either fit or that I can tweak into the above 'rules.' (Otherwise I accidentally start giving people ship names lol, RIP to Mailee, Maizula, and Yutara, you lived on under new personas)

I also don't always dig as deeply into the way names can signify class or status or whatnot, either. It can be very fun, but sometimes you just need a one-off name so your POV character looks like they actually interact with the people they nominally see every day haha

Editing 10/24 to add - this is representative of my prior approach, going forward I have shifted to leveraging real names as much as possible and building headcanons around, for example, different real-world inspired cultural influences within the nations

[cryiling]

17 PLEASESEEEEE

(ask game from here)

OFCOFCCC

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

ajdhajd so actually I have many wips 😭 I guess the most recent would be the one i am TRYING to write for revalink week but sadly it has literally no worldbuilding so I'm gonna use a more substantial wip..

let's talk abt my modern revalink hip hop au 😊

I've talked about this au quite extensively here and here, but recently I've been thinking more abt it 🫣 I've really considered making a playlist of all the songs I can imagine either revali or link doing a combo to, but I never got around to it SKFJSKF so I'll just talk abt it here

first of all, mr morale by kendrick lamar is definitely a revali song like?? especially that first part with the spoken intro, "it was one of the worst performances I've seen in my life, I couldn't sleep last night" AJDBAJFJ it sounds so mean but then the rest of the song is sort of conveying those emotions and I just feel like revali could really relate to it yk? also the beat goes hard ✋

next is silent hill by kendrick lamar and I think link would really slay this, despite what you might think I am not a kendrick lamar listener AJDBSJFN ok but I'm envisioning a very specific combo to this song that sadly I can't show you guys but it's very isolated and groovy and to the audience it looks laid back but it really takes so much precision and control to hit every beat and I'm just in love with it !!

ok this one is for revali, king's rant by masego, and I just think that honestly revali is a king that has many things to rant about and this song fits him perfectly, plus it gives him that opportunity to be a little more fluid with his movements while still retaining his more aggressive control 🙏

I FINALLY HAVE A VIDEO this one is for link 😊 u guys the attitude?? the control and precision but also in a way that keeps the flow?? the facial expressions?? this is literally how I imagine link would dance like slay 🤞

hm.. I seem to have deviated from the original prompt oops. OK let's get back on track

I just feel like revali is someone who is very passionate about the history of hip hop, like he thinks that people who start doing hip hop just because it's trendy or whatever aren't "real dancers" and he thinks they should be educated in hip hop's origin and stuff like that before they can call themselves a dancer. he's fr like my current dance teacher, ok last year he literally sat my class down and made us watch a documentary on hip hop history and gave us homework questions 😭 so yeah that seems like something revali would do

I've very briefly mentioned this before, but actually hip hop was not revali's first love! it was ballet ;w; AJDBAJBDSKJDKSKDKSK it seems so fucking funny but he just really liked the feeling of being free soaring through the air with his little leaps and twirls (idk can you tell I'm not a ballet person LMAO) and so he did take ballet classes as a kid for a while. but sadly internalized and external toxic masculinity pushed him away from that :( he went into hip hop instead because it's seen as a much more masculine discipline of dance, and luckily he ended up really enjoying it too!! over time he's changed his mindset to not feel like he has to do hip hop to be a "real man" but he just can't see himself doing ballet anymore :/

a lot of the time he places a very strong emphasis in breakdancing in his style, because that's what he forced himself to learn when he was pressured into hip hop. and he's very good at breaking, so he does it most of the time when freestyling or choreographing. however, he truly shines when he gets to be a little more graceful softer with his movements, because he's always been in tune with his body and the way he moves, and he's very skilled at being able to dance in a more fluid way, he just never feels like he can comfortably do it in front of ppl :(

link on the other hand is not afraid to get more sensual/graceful in his moves, however his strengths truly lie in isolation. this bitch has so much precision control over his body like he is out here tutting and locking like ?? but I've also mentioned how he does a little bit of contemporary on the side, which I just think is so *mwah* 😊 I've said it before and I'll say it again, but any given sunday is peak vibes for this au bc like ????? not only is it revalink it's just if link's dance style was put into a song idk how to explain it

ok I will stop talking here bc I feel like nothing I'm saying is making sense anymore 😭 I'm running out of more ideas for this au ngl maybe it's time I start actually writing it lmao

[longitudinalwaveme]

Ron Pearle's Lear: Act 4 Review

Edgar doesn’t get his whole “things can’t possibly get any worse” speech here. That’s too bad. 

But he still gets the line where he calls himself out for tempting fate. That’s odd. 

Poor poor Edgar and Gloucester.

The servants have some seriously flat line delivery. 

Edgar is insanely cute. 

“Is that the naked fellow?” “Aye my lord.” No idea if the servant’s response was supposed to sound as disgusted as it did. 

Gloucester seems quite insistent upon holding his arms out straight in front of him even when he has someone to lead him. 

Goneril’s hair is down (it was in a bun earlier) and she’s all giggly. 

It’s not really funny but I did giggle a little when Albany panicked when Goneril came close to him. Poor Albany. 

Wow, she actually slapped him. Wasn’t expecting that. Poor Albany. 

Full-on cat-style “meow” when Goneril’s says “marry,  your manhood mew”. 

Albany’s horrified reactions are quite good. 

The string music is a lot softer now. 

The Gentleman has an enormous hunting rifle. Kent has a gun too. 

The doctor is female in this version. And Cordelia’s voice is much improved. 

Regan’s attempts to see Goneril’s letter are very well handled. She does the flirty in-his-space body language well. 

For some reason she gives Oswald jewelery when she tells him to go and murder Gloucester. 

Edgar has underclothes on now. They seem maybe too modern? 

Edgar leads Gloucester around in a circle while he’s leading him “to the edge of the cliff”. 

“Farewell” (cups hands around mouth to make his voice seem echo-y). Edgar is a gem. 

Gloucester’s fall was more of a roll. 

And now Edgar is Southern. 

Edgar is so cute. 

Edgar’s really really getting into his performance as “guy who saw Gloucester plunge off of a cliff”. He missed his true calling as a theater major. 

Lear has lost a lot of his clothes but somehow still has his cape. 

Edgar is amazingly adaptable. He slips right into the roles Lear casts him in. 

Crazy Lear is surprisingly chill and happy. 

The coughing when Lear says he’s not ague-proof is great. 

Gloucester actually full-on kneels to crazy Lear. While blind. Both admirable and a sign of some seriously skewed priorities. 

Poor Edgar. He’s gonna need some serious therapy after all this. 

Edgar falls down whilst attempting to pull off Lear’s (entirely imaginary) boots. 

Does Gloucester seriously not have any other name?  

Lear’s extensive rant about women’s sexuality was cut. I can’t say that bothers me too much. Especially since they included all of his ranting about the injustices of society. 

Poor Gloucester (and his perpetually-extended arms). 

Oswald swaggers onstage for murder. 

Extreme crazy German-sounding accent from Edgar as he tries to stop Oswald from murdering his father (by running at him and grabbing his leg). He doesn’t have a sword at this point. 

Edgar just grabs the sword out of Oswald’s hands. Good work, Oswald.

I’m starting to suspect that this particular production didn’t have any experienced fight choreographers. All of the fights have been very brief and unexciting. 

The audience is very happy to see Oswald’s untimely demise. 

Why doesn’t Edgar find Regan’s letter? Granted it’s not important to the plot, but still. 

The line delivery doesn’t really help me understand whether or not this Edgar had already suspected Edmund before he found the letter. 

Time for crying! 

Cordelia’s voice is bad again. It seems as though she puts too much emphasis on certain words and causes her lines to sound unnatural.

Good job, show! You’ve successfully made me feel bad for senile narcissist Lear. 

Lear’s little stumble is great. 

This scene gets me every single time. 

[jaycethepancake]

I know this isn't the most on-topic, but I've been thinking a LOT about rainbow themed designs lately, because the Rainbow High toy line is getting a rebrand and it makes me MAD how much they botched the rainbow character's design!

Like, imo this design exemplifies the issues pretty much any rainbow design can fall into. Just slap rainbow gradient on to everything! Rainbow on rainbow! It looks almost like they tried to use pink to kinda ground the look, but there's not enough of it, and it's divided between a darker pink in the hair and the more pastel pink used on her shoes and accessories.

Rainbow colors and theming are super popular in the world of toys, cuz lots of kids adore lots of color, but I swear it's the most commonly botched color scheme. FIM Rainbow Dash really is the peak for me! Also, I hope I don't seem like I'm dismissing it as "just a toy," it's just since my personal interests are more aligned with toy collecting I default to that viewpoint.

I also think that since Rainbow Dash was an existing character, that the designers deserve a fuckton of credit for refining it!

Like, here's G3 Rainbow Dash as she appeared in the cartoons. All the elements are certainly there. She's blue all over, but it looks a lot more saturated (worth noting that box renders did use something lighter, but I figure the reference point here would be the animated adaptation).

I think they were sort of trying to do a color divide, but instead of the warm/cool split on the mane, the tail gets pink and blue (👀🏳️‍⚧️) while the mane gets... Everything else? The cutie mark is also busier, with more colors of the rainbow and two clouds (and I'd guess it was a harder symbol to keep consistent in animation, lower budget of G3 nonwithstanding).

Also, she shows off some of the little ways that the ponies designs became more expressive in the move to the FIM style. G3 and earlier had a pretty bad habit of making the texture of all the ponies hair the same.

I think this is a good example, everyone is essentially just a color swap with hair that's like... Straight hair styled to be a big curly lol (which does make sense due to the emphasis on the toys, which all have a softer nylon hair that can seem flat and heavy when it's straight). But because FIM puts the designs at the forefront, we get Rainbow Dash's hair being able to showcase her punky personality while also (in my opinion) kind of conveying her tendency to move at high speeds!

The FIM designs are just all so clean, strong, and expressive, and the shift in art style alone would have elevated the show, but they went a step further and simplified the designs in really striking and iconic ways, while also letting all their individual personalities shine through (something that could have easily been overlooked by just pointing to the cutie marks and calling it a day.)

10/10 my only complaint is that my G3 girlie Minty didn't get to even be a supporting character, I will never step down from this soapbox and demand justice.

But her design was cute af so I'll take that.

its so cool that rainbowdash's design uses the full rainbow but they still went hard on her primary color being a pure sky blue. its so clean

[db-reviews]

#168 - The Bedlam In Goliath - The Mars Volta (2008)

Generally speaking, most, including myself, consider the first four Mars Volta albums (Deloused through Bedlam) to be the best the band has to offer due to their mix up of wild, fenetic progressive rock that merged latino sensibilities with almost punk-like styles of playing. I really love their music, they were a grower for me but after I fully sat comfortably within their highly vigorous prog-hold, I just have been loving most, if not all their works. As of late, I have been listening to The Bedlam In Goliath a lot, and I gotta say, it definitely is one of those types of albums that grows on you.

This is probably the band's most abrasive records yet, with a lot more emphasis on the brutality the band can put out, unlike their previous record of Amputechture, which took a more avant-garde approach that originated from the more ambient parts of Frances The Mute and Deloused In The Comatorium. Whereas that record, I say, is the spiritual successor to Frances, Bedlam feels like the spiritual successor to Deloused, but with a more progressive push.

What I really love about this record is just how much the band likes to hook you in, and never let go. Immediately, the album pushes you off the cliff with Aberinkula, and while your falling throws more rocks and stones in the form of tracks like Goliath and Ourobouros at you, and honestly, as a whole package, this album really savors the fact that it never pulls any of its punches, and only really give you a break once within the beginning minute of Ilyena and the entirety of Tourniquet Man. It seems like they wanted to not only create a more brutal record, but also make one that was still highly enjoyable for people like me that crave some more frantic prog like The Cardiacs, or, in a more recent example, black midi.

I think the brutality works in the band's favor here, but I cannot deny the abrasive nature this album has is a bit much admittedly. What I think made the previous 3 records work was that they had moments for you to breathe. Deloused has a bit more calmer tracks, Frances has in-between moments in each track that broke up the loudness, Amputechture has a lot of softer moments that prepared you for the heaviness. The Bedlam In Goliath rarely has these moments, and the times it does are way too short. I love my brutal prog rock, don't get me wrong, I just think the album would be way better if it had a lot more moments that made me take a breather.

Even then, I think this album is probably some of the best playing the band has put out. Omar's frantic guitars mesh really well with Thomas Pridgen's drumming and Cedric's vocals that each track feels very special in the grand scheme of things. They really held their own on this record, even despite the grueling, and sometimes even spiritualistic recording sessions the band took just to make this album. This album definitely does showcase that this band can do a lot, even under the most 'tense of pressures.

While it is imperfect, this album is just one of those that never lets me go. The catchy, very frantic songs, and the entire atmosphere of this record soars with each listen, and I never allow myself to get bored. If you really like the more brutal prog sound the band exudes from their previous records, then you'll love this, I am sure of it. However, if you want something more calmer and collected, this may not suit your tastes.

4.5/5

[sugar-petals]

Oof that taemin thread tho...👌👌👌

Which kibbe type would you type him as? I'm guessing.... soft natural? Or maybe dramatic classic? 🤔

analyzing taemin’s body type

as far as consensus goes, taemin is widely considered a theatrical romantic in the kibbe body typing system. i think it rings true as well.

pronounced waist

sloped, rounded shoulders

small hands and feet that appear more rounded than elongated

short vertical line (5′9)

soft and rounded face, full lips + cheeks

+ some extra straight/sharp features: prominent nose, jawline, long & narrow legs.

a sensual, sexy impression with an edge. TR is commonly described as the type with the most seductive impression.

he comes across as delicate and petite from afar, with an unmistakable silhouette on stage that tolerates a lot of accessory and waist emphasis. 

if you look at his upper body outline and flesh up close, he surprisingly doesn’t seem as taut or lanky at all, however. there’s few dramatic elongation in the bone structure except maybe the elbows. so, we can see why it makes sense to dress him in drapes and softer fabrics as TR typically does. he’s softly wide and voluptuous, with the shapely signature hourglass that all romantics share.

the face, infamously soft and rounded. if a guy gets voted most kissable lips of the nation, chances are his yin is very high. taemin's theatrical undercurrent hardly shows in head shots, the yang is mostly in the skeleton. many romantics are very doe-like and seem (ahem) very gentle/innocent, he's no exception.

in terms of typecasting and the image they can portray: TR men are by far the most glam + androgynous + sensual-looking among all. the intense and sexy prince kind of aesthetic works 1000% with taemin. 

you can embroider these styles to no end, it never looks ridiculous. TR is taemin’s most ‘all hits, no misses’ clothing pick and steals the show.

the only caveat, it needs at least a bit of structure. pure romantic without that undercurrent looks sweet on him, but it could use more geometry at the collar and less peachy colors, but instead some more intense shades to add sharpness.

alternative kibbe categories for him, i've seen soft classic brought up convincincly. that's what he often dresses as in fact, his secondary image. in other words, it’s his main wardrobe rather than his body’s type. like in suho’s case (also TR dressing as SC), it does look attractive and smooth on him, it’s a good staple, but doesn’t hit it out of the park entirely. he can push it further.

he can certainly make some soft classic looks work, though.

generally speaking, i think he's too yin with out-of-the-ordinary proportions for balanced and symmetrical lines. classics have proportions that are so even, you don’t even notice them. no extra long legs, no wide shoulders, no shocking waists. with taemin, he’s unlike anything we’ve seen. it feels too angular for a romantic face like that, dramatic classic styling is very strict and awkward.

soft natural is a good guess since he's so shoulder-dominant and frequently muscular, but the clothing of all natural types underchallenges him as well i feel. whenever he wears it, he seems even more lithe and smallish, which is a dead giveway for yin. naturals have a very powerful frame that can carry those sturdy fabrics. look how much he drowns in naturale:

even with waist emphasis, i don’t think it does much for him. you don’t associate jeans fabric with taemin as with other idols (e.g. namjoon, flamboyant natural)

so, it’s been clear to me that it needs a more elaborate type, naturals are the casual kings and queens. the way we can know that taemin is a yin type for sure is seeing him in dramatic styling. it's extremely sharp and severe fashion with hard fabrics that needs the vertical line and angular face to match it. again, yang is very overpowering and transforms him into someone else. 

he can use it to create a character, it’s far from his usual lines. compare it to when we soften it up and give him sheer fabrics that are highly reflective and bendy retaining only a slight bit of that mysterious dramatic edge (yang undercurrent), it instantly gives you the feeling that it’s very on brand. 

i also noticed the same effect with hair. romantics work the pastels and soft texture. taemin with purple hair was a treat. the more lightweight and cotton candy, the more yin.

that he’s a subtype explains much of his duality. yin, that’s the kind of person that people want to baby. yin is why wavy hair works, why sheer fabrics work, that’s why glitz and glam with sophisticated fabrics are so good on him.

and yang, that’s the sexy edge, that’s why long hair works, that’s why sharp shoulders work, that’s why black works, that’s why horror concepts and very sexually charged songs work.

alongside taemin’s skin undertone which is either bright winter or spring imo, aka saturated colors match him best. his stylists do a great job combining these essences, sometimes with soft dramatic clothing which also has its charm on him. having both yin and extra yang gives taemin a lot of room for experiment.

[melo-yello]

💤Can’t Sleep💤 w/ 💥🪨KiriBaku🪨💥 HeadCanons

Pairing(s): KiriBaku X black!reader, Eijirou Kirishima X Katsuki Bakugou X black!reader

A/N: fluff and ANGST. Like lots of ANGST. I had a rough week and honestly not very much sleep. What can I say. Sue me, I wanna hug and somebody to watch a movie with.

💤💥🪨 Lay on your stomach opening and closing your eyes as you try and convince yourself to sleep. Kirishima snores softly with an arm around Bakugou’s waist. He’s been pretty stressed lately so he gets to be middle spoon. Baku in turn has an arm draped over your shoulders.

💤💥🪨 The soft and peaceful looks on the boys’ faces are nothing but safe and warm and reassuring . Yet here you are unavailable to close your eyes long enough to drift off to sleep. Each time you close your eyes your heart attempts to tear a whole through your chest. The dim red light of the clock reads 2:56 as you slip out of Baku’s embrace for a glass of water

💤💥🪨 You settle on Jasmine tea instead. Quietly pulling a the kettle from the cabinet and turning on the tap just before placing it on the stove. You busy yourself in your phone in order to banish any form of thought from your head. Soon just blankly browsing through TikToks as you wait for the water to boil

💤💥🪨 The hair on the back of your neck stands at attention as you hear heavy footsteps and the creaking of the bedroom door. Short angry grumbles are traded with deep groggy grunts as the footsteps close in on your position. You glance up to see the time is now 3:22 and you hear the kettle whistling for the first. Mostly likely what woke your boyfriends to begin with. You scowl at the kettle.

💤💥🪨 “fuck you.” you curse under your breath snatching up the kettle to quiet it’s shouting as the two set of red eyes fix on you in the dim light of kitchen. Kiri’s long red hair pulled back into a messy plat, and Baku’s fluffy ash blonde sticking out in all directions except for the right side flatten to the side of his skull

💤💥🪨 “Oí, Chuchu Soul, do you have any idea what time it is?!!” Baku squints tiredly placing a hand on his hip. “That’s actually a good one.” You giggle surprised by his creativity. “I know right?! And they used to call him uncreative.” Kirishima smirks between a yawn. “ Well?” Bakugou’s features don’t change. More likely mad that he’s awake at this ungodly hour than anything else. “Was it another panic attack, Pebble?” Kiri questions walking to rest his hand on your lower back. You don’t acknowledge his soft gesture and busy yourself with pouring the newly hot water into your large mug with it’s awaiting tea bag.

💤💥🪨 “Run that shit back, Eiji?!? When was this?” Bakugou’s foggy apathetic sleepiness raises to concerned confusion . You curse under your breath for the third time tonight. Kiri racks his tired brain for an explanations as he trades tired glances between the temperamental blonde and the vaguely suspicious one blowing at tea. “Pebble you didn’t tell him about Friday Night?” He frowns looking down at you. “...i forgot...” you whisper sipping the overly hot tea and burning your tongue. Hell you wouldn’t have told him either, but he was right beside you when it happened.

💤💥🪨 That Friday night. You couldn’t speak. You stood in a dark room. Small and cramped. No windows. No doors. Just glowing ink on one wall in barely legiable font. Prove It. As soon as you touched the lettering it went blood red and the water began to pool at your feet. You begin to lose your composure trying to find an exit. In seconds the water is at your waist. Then your neck. Then the ceiling. Like that you’re choking and sputtering trying to find. The walls go translucent. Larger than life figures with unmistakable silhouettes and Pro hero customs hold your box in each hand. You bang tight fists to gain their attention. Your blood mixes with the water and you could barely breath. You thrashed across the sheets desperately trying to snatch yourself from your current nightmare. Suddenly Kiri shaking you awake and he’s coaching you into breathing again.

💤💥🪨 The memory of utter helplessness washes over you all over again. You sigh in frustration as tears pool at the corner of your eyes. “Come here, Pebs.”

💤💥🪨 Without another word, Kiri scoops you up bridal style and takes a seat on the couch placing you in his lap. Baku takes the seat next to him gently taking the hot tea from your trembling hands. You hadn’t even realized they were shaking until you touched his steady ones. “Babes, we hafta talk about this. Including Friday, this makes 3 days of shitty sleep. That’s not good or sustainable, Knucklehead.” Bakugou sighs placing the mug on the coffee table before wiping away a tear rolling down your cheek.

💤💥🪨 “It’s not like I don’t wanna do better, Kats. Eiji. I’m just...” you trail off mid explanation. You clasp fingers over your soft lips. Opening twice to speak, but only croaks come out. You try very hard to find a tangible reason for your reluctance to sleep, but there were none. Kiri squeezes your shoulders reassuringly and plants a gentle kiss on the top of your bonnet.

💤💥🪨 “We know you’re trying, love. It’s ok to be scared sometimes. Even the resident hardass, Katsuki still gets nightmares.” Kiri offers doing his best to let you ride these feelings out while comforting you as well. “Yea.”Baku’s grip tightens at the mention of his own nightmares before leaning his head on your legs

💤💥🪨 “I just can’t trust it ok! It’s scary. I’m panicking in sleep now?!! I’m only getting worse and now I crying about. FUCK! I’m just a scared bitchy crybaby who can’t sleep.” You sigh overwhelmed by all the physical closeness and their consistent and unwavering support. You mentally kick yourself for the not realizing sooner that you trusted them enough to hurt like this in front of them. There’s something that unnerves you about that. Tears streaming at full force at this piont

💤💥🪨Kiri holds you firmly to chest tucking your shaking form under his chin. Baku moves to wrap an embrace overlapping Kiri’s arms. “Just let it all out, Babygirl.” He hums leaning his head on your shoulder. Your chest tightens and your fingers curl into angry fists. Suddenly your frighteningly fierce temper rears it’s ugly head.

💤💥🪨 “No no no NO! Stop It! STOP ACTING SO NICE! STOP ACTING LIKE I DESRVE THIS! BE DISAPPOINTED! BE UPSET!! TELL ME TO TRY HARDER! TELL ME TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF MYSELF! TELL ME IT’S EASY! REALLY EASY! BE ANGRY I’M FUCKING IT ALL UP! BLAME ME! I BLAME ME! I blame me... I blame me for not being...better.” You fume trying to push them away. You do your best to squirm out of their gentle comfort and tender embrace your lovers have you wrapped in. Neither one of your boys moves. “No way, Pebs.” Kirishima says resolutely. “Not a fucking chance, Teddy.” Bakugou nods with the same unchanging confidence. The rage in your chest melts as fat tears and roll down your brown cheeks.

💤💥🪨 A heaving and broken sob racks your entire body as you fall apart in their arms. Anger subsides into terrified uncertainty and overwhelming futility settles in its place. Tears and mucus flood down your face and soak Kiri’s t-shirt. Sniffles from above draws you out of the dark thoughts swarming around you. Surely enough tears drip slowly down Kiri’s cheeks. Instinctively you cup his face with trembling hands. “...Sorry.. I’ll be strong...just gimme a sec” he mutters as his broad shoulders slump and he moves to bat away the falling droplets. Bakugou grabs his hand and kisses it while wiping the red head’s face. “Eijirou, you don’t have to. Not right now” You sputter between choppy breaths.

💤💥🪨 His usually unwavering features muddy with insecurity. A fairly uncommon expression for someone so death defyingly optimistic and confident. “But it’s what I’m good at. If I can’t be strong for the people I love most then what good am I?” He retorts apathetically tightening his grip as the tears still trickle. You slink an arm around his hips, and place your face to his chest. “Bullshit. You’re plenty strong enough for us, Eijirou. Stop being so hard headed!” Bakugou raves putting a hand behind his neck and his forehead against his for emphasis before continuing, “You’re allowed to feel more than one thing. You are complex and unique and fearless and fearful all in one. You’re human, Eiji. It’s ok.”

💤💥🪨 “Katsuki, you’re so compassionate and kind.” You hum softly and absentmindedly almost. You don’t know why this observation came but it just feels right. Eiji smiles leaning in the blonde’s embrace. “Honestly Kats, you love remarkably deep and painfully unselfishly. Thank you.” Kiri hums kissing his cheek and you do the same. Hot little tears rest at the corners of his dark red eyes. Most of the public thinks he’s some kind of angry asshole devoid of any softer emotions. Comments on your relationship often criticized Katsuki for snagging partners ‘much nicer than he deserved’. And just like that you are scooting over to make room for Bakugou in Kiri’s lap. 

💤💥🪨 “Such a shitty little week.” Baku sighs with misty eyes. There’s a small comfort in the collective collapse washing over the three of you. All of you holding the hurt from the others in hopes it would just fizzle away like a bad dream. It didn’t. You sob, Kiri sniffles, and Baku lets two hot tear slip from his glassy eyes. None of you break contact with each other. Your fingers linked with Kiri and Baku’s in the opposite hand. A head glued affectionately onto the red head’s broad shoulder. After what seems like a lifetime and you can’t cry anymore and feeling a surprising amount of relief sinks onto you, you clear your throat.

💤💥🪨 “Wanna watch How to Train a Dragon?” You rasp with tired and strained vocal chords. “I’ll get the popcorn.” Kiri sighs kissing each of you on the cheek as he ushers you both out of his lap. He sashays into the kitchen to find a bowl and the popcorn. Baku stands handing you your cool tea as he grabs the remote. Flipping decisively through Amazon Prime, he queues up the movie as he settles onto the far side of the couch to lay out fully. You sip contently tucking your knees to your chest so you can press the soles of your feet into his. “That tickles.” Bakugou deadpans wiggling his own toes. Soft giggles flutter out of your chest.

💤💥🪨 Kiri strolls back in the room with two large bowls of popcorn and a blanket on each arm. He bows presenting them to their proper owners. Movie theater butter for Baku and kettle corn for you two to share. You sit your now empty mug on the coffee table as Kiri retakes his original spot and you settle comfortably into his lap cocooning you both in a cozy weighted blanket. Baku draped in a light throw typically the first to complain about being hot. The DreamWorks title sequence floats across the screen, and wave of peacefulness falls over the tired trio. Less then five minutes in, you and Bakugou snore quietly as Kiri’s heavy eyelids fight to watch the next couple scenes

[sealbatross]

I ended up loving this version more, so of course its time to break down Emotions-Why in “Great Comet Original Cast Recording”™.

Disclaimer: POV of someone who has A. read the book, B. listened to the Broadway version, C. knows nothing about music, and D. is attracted to SAD.

So, uh. Long unwarranted appreciation ramble post below :’)

Prologue ----- I love Dave's voice for Pierre. It's so distinctive - more despicable (for lack of a better word) than classically noble which I find very endearing. And it makes him stand out more… (I'm dumb and only realized Pierre sang the first couple of lines after listening to this version).

Pierre -----

"I used to be better..." *CLICK* "HUUUHHHHHHHHHNNNN OHHHHHHHH PIERRE"

I love the clicking noise here so much. Like the cocking of a gun.

Moscow ----- Marya is less… dramatic (which is hilarious on the Broadway version), but having slightly less of an exaggeration helps her feel more human.

(Ok but I do love “while I Ḵ̵̘̫̋͂̅̎̃̒͛̃N̸̛̫̼͕̣͔̜̥̹̔͛̉̒̏̒̍̄̀͛̒̆̈́̍İ̵̢̧͔̩̦̯̥̉̎̐T̷̩̫̟̗̤͆̈́͊̾̔” from Broadway)

The Private and Intimate Life of the House ----- Prince Bolkonsky saying his friends are all dead hits hard. This makes the estrangement between Mary and the Prince tragic from both sides. It also further validates Mary's disgust at herself for wishing harm upon her father.

“my money, my house” - this is all that the old Prince has left from the life he's lived - “I’ll spend it how I want” he says angrily... And then the sudden turn to panic from forgetfulness and failing body. It’s easier to see where he’s coming from, and very reflective of the consequences of aging. This is played for some laughs on Broadway instead (very good chuckles mind you).

Natasha and the Bolkonskys ----- Natasha is more unsure... like she's trying to gather courage by saying

"I know they’ll like me Everyone has always liked me"

, and consequently, she is more sympathetic. Broadway Natasha is very peppy and seems to absolutely believe in “I know they’ll like me” - which makes the impending rejection humorous and more consequent.

Broadway Natasha, in contrast to Mary’s timid salutation says “Hello” happily and confidently, which gives Mary something that she can respond to with dislike (in the context of listening only to the album, no visual on appearance etc.). Meanwhile, in the Original, Mary and Natasha both have timid “hello”s and seem to be on the same page (until the inner monologue GOES OFF (the twist is wonderful in both)). This makes Original Natasha’s situation seem more tragic - Original Natasha did nothing (personality-wise) to trigger Mary's rebuke. It just happened as a consequence of their positions in life.

Original Prince Bolkonsky was more clever with his mocking of Natasha. In a way that stings poisonous due to the uncertainty, treating her like a child, mocking her intelligence in understanding his intention of offence:

“Excuse me my costume, this dressing gown— I did not know, my poor. girl.”

No one else ----- Original cast of this song holds more weight because of Natasha’s temperament (again). Broadway Natasha gets over the slight with the Bolkonskys quickly - she's already smiling one line into "No One Else" right after she supposedly burst into tears. Making this song seem a turn of mind from one subject to another rather than a consequence of the previous event.

In the Original casting, however, Natasha remained much softer and more sombre until she described in detail what she loves about Andrei - (childlike eyes etc.) like being cheered by a friend’s imagined presence... like when you’re having a horrible social interaction when waiting for a good friend - and the friend finally shows up.

The Ball ----- Bway Natasha seems very happy when she sings “I will love you Anatole” (which always hurts regardless) but the Original Natasha doesn’t seem too happy singing this - as if this is going against her will�� like it’s her funeral... You’ve probably noticed a pattern - Natasha being sadder / not always smiley and peppy allows me to sympathize better with her. The more sympathy the more personally emotional her downfall = tear time.

The Duel ----- Original Pierre sounds like he really means to pour everything into his mouth. You can hear the depravity.

Pierre and Andrei ----- Original Andrei’s gentle and even tone matches the not-dwelling-on-it-too-much of book Andrei (from what I can remember). Then “coldly, maliciously” comes after like a twist. And the whole mood of the scene shifts in a neat way. That being said Broadway Andrei has wonderfully conflicted emotion in his voice that is just👌

Pierre and Natasha ----- The Original has a faster tempo and is thus happier. Less dramatized. Like a normal meeting between two people, not a finale pour-your-emotions-out moment. Yellow. Sunny. Mid-afternoon through the windows. Softer. Smiling Pierre thinking it ridiculous that Natasha would think her life over.

Meanwhile Broadway - an immediate feeling of blue and moonlight, and cold. The echo in Pierre’s voice. Pierre is very emotional, much fear, much sad. Lots of trembling and emphasis. ~did you love that BAD MAN~~ ~~ DON'T CALL HIM BAD~~~ mmmm that's good. Oh, the pacing is so good.

Anyways.

I love the Original cast Pierre's speech. It isn't so classically (I've been using this word a lot) emotional. It's… sheepish. And hits differently.

P.S. The style of this musical makes so much sense after reading the book. It's got this matching humour acknowledging the little defections of people, and how emotion and chance and misunderstanding drives our lives.

Shoutout to the music too, it bends to support the emotion of the story. If it's dissonant it's because it's portraying a conflict in these people. If there’s a boss fight, then there is boss fight music.

Also, Broadway is…. Well, better for Broadway, it's more dramatic and with a lot more funny moments. It also has a clearer and cleaner portrayal of the characters which is great for first-time viewers and group party watching. The Original is more nuanced/not as clear and good for the crying-at-home-alone experience. And I know which of these I am.

Congrats on making it all the way down here, I'd love to hear any of your thoughts!

[torielectra83]

Garak and the Jack Pack

Want to thank

@volixia669

for giving me the idea and motivation; this is the first fic I've posted and finished in quite a while. Also gonna tag

@unicorn-and-bluebells

and

@tirlaeyn

since their DS9-related posts are what helped lead me to this (if there's a DS9-related Discord I should join, let me know); note that I'm not much of a shipper (and I'm ace), so I wasn't quite sure how to approach the Bashir/Garak relationship; I just left it in the background (and the lizard man t-shirt).

“Oh, Doctor. There you are, and I….see you’ve brought company!” As he could see, Dr. Bashir was heading for the Replimat for his typical luncheon with him, only four other people were crowded around him. A skinny man with a mustache, a stocky older man with a timid expression, a rather gregarious-looking woman, and another woman who looked rather distant. “Oh, hello Garak. I’d like to apologize for being a bit late.”

“Oh, don’t worry, given what I’m seeing it’s very much a valid excuse.” Garak had heard about the other genetically-engineered people who’d been sent to DS9 to meet Dr. Bashir, but he’d been busy with orders at his shop; he’d been thinking about hiring someone to help out, actually. “Well, that’s Jack, Patrick, Lauren and Sarina. This is my...friend Garak, he runs a tailoring shop here on the Promenade.” “Oh, hi there, Hi. Uh, I gotta go over to the replicator, I’m starving over here.” Jack promptly excused himself, while Lauren made her way to Garak next. “Well, hello, Mr. Garak.” She promptly began her flirtatious attitude. “If you’re trying to seduce me...it won’t work. I am sorry, but I do not generally do one night stands.” Surprised and somewhat disappointed, Lauren backed away.

Patrick then approached Garak. “Do you make clothes?” “Yes, I do.” Patrick then grinned eagerly. “Good, because the clothes the institute gives us are too...itchy and things like that. Do you have softer clothes?” “Well, I can certainly make some? I believe Dr. Bashir said you need “sensory-friendly” clothing?” Bashir nodded; the term was an old term from pre-warp Earth. “I’ll do it at no charge; anyone who’s a friend of Dr. Bashir is a friend of mine.” He sipped his Tarkalean tea as Jack argued with the replicator over not being able to make something, while Lauren used the other one to replicate a bowl of Vulcan plomeek soup.

“And… Sarina, is it? I’ve noticed you haven’t said anything yet.” Garak simply saw the young woman turn, before holding up a PADD, with words written on it -- “I can’t speak, If you want to have a conversation with me, use this.” She promptly set the PADD down and continued to watch Jack’s tussle with the computer. “Sarina’s unable to speak, I can explain the whole thing later Garak.” Julian felt the need to pre-emptlively apologize for their behavior. “Oh, you don’t need to. I’m seeing people with a lot of potential here.” Bashir nodded. “So do I. And not many others do. That’s why I brought them here. I want to try and help them.”

“They seem to be helping themselves.” As Garak watched, Jack had finally managed to get something from the replicator that agreed with his standards -- a ham sandwich with Bajoran mapa bread. “So, this is the irrefutable Elim Garak, huh?” Jack asked. “Yes, and I see my reputation precedes me.” Garak said politely. “That’s right. Former intelligence agent for the now-defunct Obsidian Order, exiled and now working as a tailor here on DS9.” He said hastily before ripping into his sandwich. Garak raised an eyebrow. “And how did you find that out?” He asked, a tone of interest in his voice. “Oh, you’d be surprised what you can dig up on the extranet. There’s all sorts of unsavory rumors about you, like you causing a Cardassian doctor to break down by staring at them for four hours straight.” He promptly chugged from his cup of targ milk, before continuing. “And that your father was the head of the Obsidian Order, Enabrian Tain, and he got wiped out by the Dominion when the Obsidian Order and Tal Shiar teamed up, yeah, but they didn’t know the second-in-command of the Tal Shiar was actually a Changeling leading them right into a trap!”

“I...think we will have to pick up this conversation sometime later, Doctor.” Garak was getting rather uncomfortable at all this private information being practically shouted in the Promenade. “Oh, and I’ll see what I can do about those new clothes you requested, Patrick.” As Garak walked back to his shop, getting his mind off old events, he began pondering about what to do in the present. My orders are backlogged. I simply need help. As he opened his shop doors to see the current state -- half-finished orders, bolts of fabric all over and supplies in crates he hadn’t unpacked. “I must find someone to help me. I would get Julian but he’s too busy with being in Starfleet.” Garak sighed, and began getting back to working on an order.

Some time later...

Having returned from the Defiant, Dr. Bashir went into Garak’s shop, expecting to see it as it had been for some time -- cluttered and filled with things Garak was working on. He instead found it a hive of activity. Customers were entering and exiting, some waiting for their orders, others were looking at holographic models of new clothes to order. Bashir looked around in confusion. “What the…'' Suddenly, a figure blocked by their holding of several bolts of fabric maneuvered into view. “Look out, everyone!” Bashir knew that voice. “Patrick?!” “Oh, hi, Dr. Bashir.” Patrick didn’t even turn back as he carried the bolts into the back of the shop. “Patrick, how did you get here?” Bashir followed him, and realized the entire “Jack Pack” (as someone, most likely Quark, had nicknamed them) was working there. Patrick set the bolts down for Jack, who proceeded to start measuring what exactly was needed for that order. Lauren was busy inputting data of some kind into a PADD, while Sarina was sewing an order up. “Ah, Doctor, good to see you’ve returned home safe and sound!” Garak greeted him cheerily from behind his desk.

“Garak, what is going on here? How did they…” “Well, Julian. I saw their potential and I needed help. And so far, they have been excelling at everything they’ve been doing. I haven’t been this efficient, ever!” Garak looked positively delighted at this. It was rare to see him like this, and Julian was a noted expert on Garak’s emotions. “But...what about the Institute? And Dr. Loews?” “Well, she needed a vacation, and my offer to give them steady employment was something she couldn’t pass up.”

“Oh, well then. But...how are you so busy now?” Julian wondered. “Well, their brightness led them to not only help clear my backorders, but also introduce whole new product lines based on pre-warp Earth stylings. I will admit I knew little about it, but they have brought in several new kinds of clothing. Like this ‘tee shirt’.” Garak promptly held one up, the front reading “WWCKD?” with a small line underneath reading “What Would Captain Kirk Do?” “They’ve come up with several of these things. Like this one for the USS Voyager.” The shirt had a fictional flyer on the front with a picture of Voyager, underneath a “Missing: Reward” banner as if it were a lost dog. “We’ve also re-created other Earth fashions, from “bell-bottoms” to “zoot suits”. I must admit, they make most current styles of clothing look downright boring!”

“Yeah, Dr. Bashir! Here’s one we made especially for you!” Jack promptly handed him a T-shirt and headed into the front of the shop. Julian simply looked at Garak with an expression of disbelief. “Garak, we caught them trying to pass on classified information to the Dominion, and now, they’re recommending I wear a t-shirt that says ‘If lost, return to lizard man for reward’!” He said angrily, shaking the shirt in his hand for added emphasis.

“Doctor...these people needed another chance. One that nobody else was willing to give them. And another thing...they are still very useful analysts. They can predict trends, root out information and generally think far ahead of the game. To be quite honest, they’re the best analysts I’ve ever seen. “ Garak admitted. “Yeah, where else can you get a nice new pair of pants and information of Dominion troop movements?” Lauren commented.

“So...you’re basically running your own intelligence service out of this shop.” Bashir muttered, running his hand through his hair. “Well, there has to be a third-party intel service somewhere. With the Obsidian Order gone, there’s a market for it; we used to take on clients for analysis as a method for extra revenue. Strictly off the books, of course. So that’s what I’m doing now.” Garak reasoned. “And we aren’t just doing war intelligence either; we’ve got multiple projects for the Ferengi Alliance, the First Federation and the Gorn Hegemony for analyzing things like market trends, population censuses and whatnot.” Patrick nodded. “Yeah, Grand Nagus Zek and Ishka appreciate it! We got in touch with them thanks to the Ferengi maintenance guy, oh, what was his name…”

“Rom, that’s him. Real friendly guy. Came up with the self-replicating mines around the wormhole and keeps the holosuites running, real good guy.” Jack said at his normal speedy pace, before returning to his fabric measuring. Sarina promptly passed a PADD to Bashir, with a message reading “This is the best we’ve been treated in years. We’re working for ourselves, we’re constantly kept active, and we’re being paid 5 strips of latinum an hour.”

“Anyway, I’ll see you later, Doctor. We’ve got a lot to do before closing time today. After that we can meet at Quark’s, perhaps? Jack came up with this astounding holo-program based on another pre-warp Earth cultural thing, a “game show” called...Wipeout, yes. It involved picking the right answers and avoiding the wrong ones, it’s fascinating. But we have work to do and I’m sure you have work in the infirmary.”

Garak promptly ushered Dr. Bashir out of the store and back onto the Promenade. “...what just happened?”

[boltwrites]

Bolin Headcanons - Muscles

anon asked: hi how are u? I would love if u could do bolin muscles/working out headcanons? he's just so strong and omg

A/N: even though this is sfw... i feel like i shouldn’t be fkjdkj

ok so first of all, working out. Bolin is really serious about pro bending, even though he might not seem like it all the time. he tries to work out 4-5 times a week

he’s actually pretty strict and serious about this - it’s canon that in their arena apartment in book 1 that Mako and Bolin had weights in their room despite living directly above a gym, so yeah, he works out. a lot.

does not skip leg day. as an earthbender, he’s been criticized by some other earthbenders about spending to much time on his legs, since their bending style almost never utilizes kicks or other heavy leg movements. Bolin thinks this is dumb as hell because first of all, he’s not a traditional earthbender, and second of all, earthbending is about a strong stance, and how can you have a strong stance without strong legs??

he does go ham when it comes to benching and curling though. like yeah, he likes his squats, he does so many of them, but he’s thorough on arm day as well

although we don’t see him working in canon, i imagine that he’s probably done some manual labor jobs in the past. possibly ones not even related to earthbending - like i could see him just hauling gigantic bags of rice and potatoes around all day 

we all know he’s strong, but i would like to emphasize how much: in book one, he fireman carried an unconscious Tenzin. Tenzin, who’s like 6′5″ of pure airbending muscle. 

as for his actual muscles....

it is important to note that Bolin has working boy muscle. he’s not concerned with how he looks so much as how his body functions. he works out a lot, he bends a lot, but he also eats a lot. he’s not some gym rat with bulging muscles and throbbing veins

he has thick thighs. like, this man could never have a thigh gap. he doesn’t even know what the fuck that is. he could easily crush a watermelon with those bad boys

as for abs, he doesn’t have defined ones, but it’s clear that he has muscle there. Bolin carried most of his fat on his stomach area, and as such he has a softer looking stomach and abs. emphasis on the softer looking - if you punched him in the stomach you would still be met with some serious muscle under that padding

his pecs are similar - look soft, can actually be pretty hard when he flexes. nice to lay on though

the boy has shoulders. broad shoulders, with muscle. although his arms and shoulders can be easily outshone by his massive thighs, they’re still pretty big, and very nice. there’s a reason why he likes to flex and show off. 

he’s just built broad in general - big hands, thicker forearms. he’s... very nice

[itsclydebitches]

So I'm curious what are some character designs you love? Not from RWBY, but just i general. I'm the same anon who got you to check out Berserk and I'd say essentially all of the designs are done damn well. Fit the character. Changes that makes sense for growth. Also make sense given the setting. Even women in armor that doesn't have those massive boob plates. Good designs impact so much subconsciously to have much we enjoy other aspects of a story.

Congratulations! You’ve unlocked my never-ending need to praise Yu Yu Hakusho! :D 

This long, picture-laden post needs two disclaimers going forward: 

I’m not an artist. In the sense that I’m not a visual artist who knows anything about what makes character design good from a technical/community approved standpoint. This is purely based on my own, personal reaction to a beloved series. 

Connected to that, I’m going into this under the assumption that people might really disagree with me (?). Based on the cartoons and anime that I see praised for character design, I don’t think YYH fits whatever list more knowledgeable viewers are pulling from. But I’m gonna lay out my thinking anyway! 

Major spoilers for Yu Yu Hakusho below. 

Alright let’s do this. 

First off, when people start talking character design they often reference how cool a character is. Which makes sense. You want a character to be visually engaging and distinct. Something that makes you go “Wow!” whenever you look at them. However, one of the things I love about the YYH cast is how normal they are. Because they’re supposed to be normal. The trope of the main character having a crazy hair color has become so prominent that we’ve got memes about it now and that works for a lot of stories. You know who is important because, despite the assumption that they’re average people not dying their hair, they stick out like a sore thumb among the rest of the cast. 

However, normalcy is a really important part of YYH. The entire point at the start is that Yusuke is not special. He’s not unique. He’s a delinquent kid who most assume isn’t going anywhere in life. When he dies this doesn’t unlock some Super Special Backstory - you were innately amazing all along! - he just gets caught up in the plot because of a paperwork issue. The afterlife doesn’t know what to do with an asshole kid who unexpectedly saved another kid’s life so they just kind of... shuffle him around until he’s given another chance to live. Then he gets to pay back that second chance by becoming a Spirit Detective. Yeah, Yusuke is talented when it comes to fighting and spirit energy, but at the start that’s rarely emphasized outside of “He’s the best street fighter among no-name street fighters so really, it’s not impressive once you take Yusuke out of his tiny world of school parking lots and the occasional alleyway.” The takeaway is that he’s a dime-a-dozen troubled teen who got involved in the spirit world due to an impulsive act and a bunch of bureaucracy. Indeed, it’s a HUGE moment of emotional growth for Yusuke to realize that people do love him despite his supposedly average, unremarkable, and otherwise negative personality. His normal-ness - and others’ expectation that he could someday make himself great if he learns to work at it - is crucial to where Yusuke starts out. Making him visually distinct in terms of Anime Protagonist Looks would undermine a lot of that. This isn’t supposed to be a Super Special Kid Destined For Greatness. He’s just... a kid. A normal kid. A kid who has to work and learn and grow if he wants to make something of himself. So he gets black hair, brown yes, and a green school uniform. He’s pretty damn average looking. 

Same with Kuwabara. Same with Keiko. Same with Atsuko. They’re just normal people going about their lives and I always appreciated that they looked the part. You can still easily tell them apart thanks to different hair colors, texture, jaw lines, and outfits, but none of them seem out of place in the average world they start out in. Which, as said, is crucial to a lot of YYH’s themes. The ones who look more visually distinct - Hiei and Botan - aren’t human. It makes sense that they wouldn’t obey these same average laws of the rest of the cast and they are our first taste of a world that, in terms of character design, will eventually get pretty wonderfully weird. They function as stepping stones. 

This eventually becomes a story about the demon world and those demons wouldn’t come across as particularly scary/other if you begin the story with equally strange looking humans. Or even just “I don’t see people who look like that walking down the street” humans. Alongside many themes, there’s a contrast at work here. Yusuke stepping out into a stadium full of demons who despise him because of his species hits home when he is so clearly distinct from them. Suddenly, his normal is abnormal. 

Once the ball gets rolling, Yusuke’s looks are constantly in contrast with both his environment and his inner self. He looks like a scary thug but then unexpectedly saves a life. He looks like an average human but is actually the strongest among a group of scary-looking demons. He looks like this badass spirit detective who everyone assumes with have an equally badass spirit beast but, uh... 

Oh my god that’s a precious baby. By the time our cast is family and everyone accepts that Yusuke looks scarier than he actually is or ever was - once the core group is made up of not just humans but demon loving humans who are equally soft - we turn it all on its head again and reveal that Yusuke has demon blood. For the first time he looks as strange and powerful as he is. Yusuke’s normality is done away with the second he’s fully accepted his place in these worlds, throwing everything back into chaos. 

Yusuke’s demon form becomes even more foreign looking  when he’s being controlled by his ancestral father. The above is a Yusuke who is still Yusuke and in many respects the design reflects that: natural hair color, human body, tattoos easily covered up with a shirt. When he’s gone full Mazoku though, something dangerous, the white, wilder hair and change to his expressions ensure we read him as something feral. For the first time in the series Yusuke is truly the dangerous creature he’s pretended to be since his principal was running after him at school. 

As a side-note about character costumes, we see this emphasis on normality in their outfits as well. Obviously a story like RWBY is limited by how much time/money they have for animation, but it nevertheless has an impact to see the group almost constantly in their battle gear. They’re never not the main characters of an action-fantasy show, not even while just out around town with no expectation of entering a fight.  

In contrast, Yusuke and Kuwabara are often animated in everyday clothing that remind us that they’re really just teens trying to live their lives outside of this crazy nonsense. Kuwabara wasn’t even formally hired for all this! The cast wears sweaters and jackets while out and about. More formal clothes for special occasions. Jeans and t-shirts when they’re unexpectedly caught up in a fight because, you know, they’re not ready for battle every second of every day. They’re drawn like normal folks because, outside of the ring, they are. 

(We’ve also got a lot of parallels between Yusuke and Kuwabara’s civilian clothing, visually reminding us that they’re far more alike than they might be willing to admit.)

Despite often changing outfits, the group maintains a basic color pallet that makes them recognizable, yet it’s also not so limited that they appear strange for sticking to one (1) color for the entire time we know them. Yusuke, like most people, is drawn to particular colors, mostly greens, yellows, and blues, so each time we see him he’s familiar while also being distinct from the last time he changed. 

Hiei, as someone who initially wants nothing to do with anyone else and relies on assassin-like speed to take out his enemies, is dressed almost entirely in black. Without that bit of white in his scarf/hair you’d lose him in the shadows... which is the point. 

When he opens up and actually becomes friends with the team, his color pallet starts opening up a great deal too.  

And we’re shown all the little changes he starts incorporating that speak to his growth: his Jagan eye, a bandaged arm hiding his Dragon of the Darkness Flame, the necklace connecting him to Yukina. 

I’ve blathered on about the outfits enough but as a quick final note: EVERYONE WEARS APPROPRIATE FIGHTING CLOTHES. 

No one (even the women to my recollection) wear heels. Everything is loose-fitted and looks easy to move in. They’ve got sensible belts, bandages if they need them, and... that’s it. No unnecessary bells and whistles that distract from what’s supposed to be the story’s real draw: good fights and good characterization. Even the more elaborately styled characters (usually) look like they chose their outfits practically first and for the aesthetic after. At no point do I recall watching this show and going, “WHY would you wear that to a fight??” 

Anyway, back to the designs. 

The exceptions to either side of these extremes - from human normal to demon monstrous - are Genkai and Kurama, both of whom straddle the line. Genkai is someone who has pushed her spirit and body far past the norm. She’s the first human we meet who truly goes beyond that normality, even if you don’t immediately realize it. Her pink hair (such a soft color in her old age it’s not at all distracting) is a slight hint that something isn’t quite right with her. She’s obviously human... but not a normal human. Not anymore. 

Those unnatural looks are emphasized in her youth when she was at the height of her power. 

Genkai as a young woman has vibrantly pink hair (a bright pastel like Botan’s), a softer face, and far more emotive eyes. She looks ethereal, which fits not just her own journey to power but Togoru’s as well. Her story is intimately tied up in what that power does to the human body/soul. So Toguro starts out like this 

a pretty normal looking guy who is on the far end of what the human body is naturally capable of. He’s buff as hell, but not so much that it looks unreasonable. I’ve seen body builders bigger than him. He’s the average (dehydrated...) MCU superhero. However, he ends up like this

In Togoru’s case his abnormality is explicitly presented as grotesque. Rather than giving him a cool looking characteristic that’s clearly supernatural (blue hair, an extra eye, curly horns, etc.), we’ve taken a human characteristic (muscles) and expanded them to an unnatural degree. He’s got some uncanny valley shit going on. 

Paralleling Genkai, we likewise see Kurama subtly standing out among his human allies. 

He’s a demon in a human’s body. By in-world logic his appearance should be just as normal as anyone else’s, but a bit of his true nature shines through. His hair is long in a style not popular in YYH’s Japan. His red is far less of a natural shade than Kuwabara’s. He carries himself with the air of someone who is ancient, because he is. His human design deliberately reflects his true demon form so when that’s finally revealed we still recognize him as Kurama. 

(Same sort of work with Hiei’s demon form.) 

When we look at the cast together we have an immediate, visual impression as to who is normal and who is not - and those assumptions are embedded into the story. Yusuke is someone you’d overlook in the crowd, but he’s the most powerful. Kurama is clearly other in some way, but he’s desperate to live an average, human life. Kuwabara is designed to look and move like the fool and a lot of his development (his and others’ in relation to him, really. Like Hiei) is built around respecting him despite those looks. Hiei is tiny but will kick your ass. Genkai is tinier and will kick your ass worse. 

Her size combined with her age - combined with her status as Yusuke’s teacher - is a continuous reminder not to judge power by looks alone. Don’t underestimate your opponent and get overconfident (a major flaw of Yusuke’s). Know that you still have a LOT to learn about the world. That woman you assume is just a rude grandma? She’s going to break your expectations over and over and over again. 

Speaking of size, that’s a major aspect of Koenma’s design as well. When Yusuke learns he’s meeting the head of the underworld he starts picturing a massive, demonic beast who (sensing a theme here) looks the part of a supernatural ruler. Seeing Koenma for the first time - an adorable toddler-like being - is an absolute shock. 

It’s a gag for the audience, but it’s not just a gag. Due to his looks Yusuke is unable to take Koenma seriously, despite knowing the power he holds. 

Which, even more-so than arrogance, is Yusuke’s greatest flaw throughout the series. He doesn’t take school seriously. His death seriously. Ruler of the underworld seriously. His teacher seriously, etc. Yusuke constantly acts like he doesn’t care, throwing basic respect and effort in the face of whatever authority figure is desperately trying to keep him from self-destructing. He’s on the receiving end of multiple speeches throughout the series (mostly from Genkai) that boil down to, “Care about something, dammit. Take this seriously!” and when he does it’s GREAT. It’s a moment of growth we’ve really built to in a hundred different ways, including how he reacts to others’ looks. Koenma’s design feeds directly into the primary flaw Yusuke is working to overcome. How will he go from a delinquent laughing in the face of the most powerful being to someone multiple worlds can put their trust in? Design assists with that. 

When Yusuke does respect Koenma (even if he still insults/teases him because that’s just an ingrained part of Yusuke’s personality) Koenma’s appearance can change. It’s no longer serving its original function, so he evolves into a very good looking young man (with references to Tuxedo Mask to emphasize those good looks) that just... happens to still carry a pacifier. 

A pacifier that is revealed as an incredibly powerful weapon that will help save the world. Again: don’t judge anyone or anything solely on their looks. They’re never precisely what you’d assume they are based on your first glance - with the exception of minor villains whose looks serve only to convey their villainy: 

For everyone else, looks are complex. Two of the most different looking characters (color-wise anyway) are actually siblings, their contrasts reflecting both differing cultures and the emotional distance between them. 

The scariest looking monsters are just paper-pushers. It’s the handsome humans you should watch out for.  

And this is our hero, a man charged with protecting three worlds. 

I could say SO MUCH MORE but this is already disgustingly long so basically YYH (I think) does a great job of: 

Crafting characters that are distinct but not different for the sake of different. They always feel like they belong to their individual worlds and adhere to whatever “normal” is by those standards. 

Tying character looks really closely to the show’s themes and individual growth. Which, frankly, is something I think all good character design should do. 

It’s not nearly as flashy as other anime... but YYH knows what it wants to accomplish and went about it beautifully. Catch me still weeping over this show fifty years from now. 

Peace ✌️

[citrucentric]

Cranberry

The ideal Holmes is tall and dark with sharp edges and an intelligent look to him, but also posh and with a sense that you could fold him into origami if you really tried. Dresses well, but wouldn’t look out of place sprawled dramatically over a couch in a dressing gown with a pipe and surrounded by drug paraphernalia. Once made a pillow fort and sat in it to think. Caught somewhere between handsome, pretty, and weird looking. Emphasis can be on any of the three. CANNOT have facial hair.

Holmes Adaptations

S-Tier

Miss Sherlock (Yuko Takeuchi) - 95%

You’ll notice, of course, that nowhere in the earlier description did I say Holmes needed to be white, a man, or even human. None of those qualifiers or the lack-thereof prevent someone from looking the part -- it simply becomes necessary to compare them to the characters around them. And when I picture a female Sherlock Holmes, Yuko Takeuchi embodies the exact image in my mind. Her sharp edges, piercing eyes, and impeccable fashion, along with the powerful weird energy she brings to the role, fit Sherlock perfectly. She does look more than a bit like she could kick my ass, but more in the manner she dominates the room, which is perfect for the character.

Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett) - 85%

I haven’t watched this adaptation, though I’ve been meaning to get around to it. So this ranking is based solely on screenshots and promotional images. And honestly, as ugly as i find this guy, he totally nails it. He even kind of looks like the illustrations in the stories. I won’t give him a perfect score because his hair could be darker and his face is a little small, and there’s just barely something missing. But as far as “canon” Holmes adaptations go, he’s the cream of the crop.

A-Tier

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (Benedict Cumberbatch) - 80%

Definitely the more accurate of the two Cumberbatch Holmes designs, the sleek fashion and slicked back hair complement Cumberbatch’s angular build and “somewhere between pretty and just weird” face. He’s tall, dark, and posh. If there’s anything holding him back it’s simply that even dressed up properly, there’s something still a bit modern looking about him.

Fate/Grand Order - 78%

Given that his design and presentation are a direct reference to both Brett and Cumberbatch’s portrayals, it’s a given he’d place so highly. It’s really hard to nail down a 2D Holmes, especially in the anime style this game employs, since it has a tendency to prettify characters by default. True to form, FGO Holmes is far neater and more precise than I’d like. But he’s by no means a bad design, and depending on the image he can really hit the spot for me; he’s definitely a chart topper in the realm of 2D Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes: The Furtive Festivity (Gregory Johnstone) - 75%

There aren’t many Holmes that we only get to see as an old man, in no small part due to the ACD estate’s notoriously malicious copyright practices. Johnstone ranks so highly not due necessarily to the details of his look, but the overall feel he embodies. This Holmes is soft, affectionate, more than a little floppy. His hair and costume portray a man well grown into his eccentric life, and his face is sharp and mature enough to suggest the brains underneath; even if that’s more wisdom than intelligence in this particular story. This is a Holmes designed by someone who really loves Sherlock Holmes, and it definitely shows.

BBC Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) - 75%

Cumberbatch’s features still naturally suit Holmes well, and he’s tall and striking enough to cover the rest. But this isn’t a rating of his acting performance aside from the visuals it supplies; it’s hard to modernize Holmes, especially since it makes perfect sense for Holmes to gel well with the changing times; he was always a man ahead of his era. BBC Holmes’s trademark trenchcoat and curly locks aren’t traditional Holmes, but they suit him well enough.

Yuukoku no Moriarty - 73%

The long hair is an unorthodox take, but I'm certainly not complaining. YnM's Holmes definitely nails the youthful scientific exuberance of an early Holmes. It's clear they were going for a sort of BBC/ACD mix, but with their own spin. Pretty -- he is an anime boy, after all -- but all sharp edges and full of energy. Decent, way better than most anime Holmes designs manage.

B-Tier

Basil of Baker Street [The Great Mouse Detective] - 70%

Comparing the character to those around them is especially important when it comes to non-human characters, who naturally don’t have the same features. Putting Basil next to Dawson makes this abundantly clear, as they make a perfect portrait of Holmes and Watson. For a mouse, he’s thin, angular, even a little ratlike; all decisions that suit Holmes well. I have some complaints about his ensemble, though; while the dressing gown suits him well, his normal brown coat and hat don’t work so well with his fur; the monochrome look makes him come off a bit scruffy and unrefined.

A Study in Black - 68%

Rules are made to be broken, they say; here’s a Holmes with well maintained facial hair and who’s shorter than Watson, and yet I can without question say they were the right decisions. This Holmes takes a very different design approach than any other on this list, even the other modern takes, but he embodies the spirit of Holmes much more than if he’d tried to match every detail. Holmes is still gaunt and striking, eccentric and fashionable. He looks absolutely great.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Robert Stephens) - 62%

Stephens in this role is, I have to say, far too soft. But he’s playing a different sort of Holmes, and I can’t resist keeping him here. There are some parts of the look he has down; he certainly looks high class, and the softer elements of Holmes’ character look good on him. Holmes’ traditional costume, the hat and coat, look out of place on him. But that suits the message of the film, and may very well have been intentional.

C-Tier

Dai Gyakuten Saiban - 58%

Not the only blond Holmes on this list, but it doesn’t suit him as poorly. From a character design standpoint, it looks very good. As a Holmes, it’s unorthodox. He’s not gonna be a chart topper with it, but I wouldn’t rule it out. This Holmes’ real problem isn’t his coloration, merely that he’s much too conventionally attractive. His jaw is a bit too wide, curls a bit too lovely, the peek of lavender under his coat a bit too rich, and I can’t look at him for too long without blushing. Do some cocaine and get back to me.

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) - 55%

Now, this one might be controversial. I don’t think Rathbone Holmes looks very good. I can’t put my finger on why; his head is the right shape, his nose very sharp, though his face looks very smooth and he seems overall vaguely packed in. Like he was plucked out of the sky just before walking on set. The shapes are all right, it just seems off to me. I guess what I’m getting is that his look is too obviously produced. He looks too much like an actor portraying Holmes, rather than Holmes. But I know he’s gonna be the guy a lot of people swear by, so I won’t defend this placement too hard.

Sherlock Hound - 45%

Really, what is up with the monochrome design on some of these cartoons. Sherlock Hound has the darker hat to make up for it, though, so it’s a little better. Applying the same rubric as Basil to him... doesn’t get the same results. As far as I can tell, this just looks like a normal dog. And a scruffy light-furred one, at that. There’s a contrast between him and Watson, sure, but it could’ve been pushed further. At the end of the day this is an average guy dressed as Sherlock.

D-Tier

Herlock Sholmes [Code: Realize] - 40%

This is a very pretty anime boy. I’d pick him first in whatever dating sim this is. ...Wait, this is supposed to be Holmes? How can you tell? Look, I know it’s hard to make an anime boy Holmes. Holmes’ key design elements aren’t his costume or his hair, they’re the things that make him unpolished. And anime dating sim boys don’t like to be unpolished. But really, this is just a steampunk boy who likes tea. Nothing here reads as Holmes to me.

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) - 35%

Now, I love this movie. RDJ got me back into Sherlock Holmes when I was younger. And as this character, he has a very specific and well designed look. ...Does that look gel with canon Holmes? I don’t think so. He’s rough, he’s scruffy, he’s short and wide and strong-jawed, and he refuses to go for a clean shave. I like him a lot, but he’s not very Holmesian. He does, however, nail the eccentricity and his costume design works for him well. I do like a messy Holmes. So I won’t go any lower than this.

F-Tier

Basil [Blush Blush] - 28%

So, he’s got the outfit. There’s that. But otherwise... This is just some soft ugly anime boy cosplaying Sherlock Holmes. He doesn’t have a single trait that works in his favor. On top of that, he’s got the same problem the other Basil on this list had -- the all monochrome light brown just looks weird, and not Holmesian at all. And this boy doesn’t have the excuse of literally being a mouse. This is just an ugly design.

Elementary (Jonny Lee Miller) - 25%

Now, I've only watched a few scattered episodes of Elementary. Partially because I'm morally opposed to shows that only gender-flip half of the duo, partially because I’m absolutely outraged by the travesty they made Moriarty. But this isn’t a bad character, per-se.

But, like, this is just some dude. This isn't Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes [Clue] - 23%

I love Clue so much. That probably doesn’t surprise anyone. I have the season pass in this game, which automatically gives me every DLC character they add for free. So I was super excited to hear there was gonna be a Sherlock crossover. ...But this is just ugly. Another light haired square-jawed monochrome asshole pretending to be my favorite character. There’s nothing Holmes about this. (The rest of the designs in the pack are no better, but this isn’t about them.)

Skylar Holmes [Blossom Detective Holmes] - 20%

Now, Blossom Detective is a show that I famously disliked so much I immediately sat down and screenwrote my own Holmes cartoon on the spot. And Skylar certainly feels like she should be in the “part 2″ of this list, but a Holmes she is.

She's cute and she accessorizes well, but she's just not Sherlock Holmes by any stretch.

Sherlock Shellingford [Milky Holmes] - 10%

Now, look how cute she is! Sherlock Shellingford, present and accounted for. She’s got TWO Sherlock names so you know she’s the real deal. Now, this is just an objectively good design. She's exactly what she needs to be to serve the role she plays!

And that isn't Sherlock Holmes. Sorry.

Holmes & Watson (Will Ferrell) - 0%

Get out of my house.

Holmes Archetypes

Not all Holmes’ are meant to be the Canonical Sherlock Holmes, of course; some are just neat references, or characters who naturally fit into his role whether the author intended it or not. Let’s address them here, and remember that not looking the part doesn’t really reflect negatively on these ones as they’re stand-alone.

S-Tier

Dylan Reinhart [Instinct] (Alan Cumming) - 90%

Dylan is so point for point Sherlock Holmes that it’s hard to call him an archetype and not a straight adaptation, or possibly a rip-off if I’m being harsh. But I’m not supposed to be rating him by portrayal, just looks - and he’s really good. He’s the exact right blend of weird looking, though not as angular as he should be. His sharp eyebrows and nose and high hairline work fantastic, and he wears a suit very well. He’s a perfect little bundle of posh and nerves, and though he’s not perfect the fact that this isn’t actually supposed to be canon Sherlock Holmes makes this placement very unsurprising. He wouldn’t look out of place on the other list.

Hubert von Vestra [Fire Emblem: Three Houses] - 85%

Oh? What’s that? You don’t think Hubert von Vestra is a Sherlock Holmes archetype? Okay, then explain to me why he uses the word “sentiment” exactly twice in his supports. Atheists 1, Church of Seiros 0. Anyway. Let’s start with the obvious. Hubert looks like Benedict Cumberbatch. But, he looks like a vampire Benedict Cumberbatch who did a lot more cocaine. And if you don’t think Sherlock Holmes should look like a vampire, youre lying.

A-Tier

None yet. Please submit your Holmes and I will add them.

B-Tier

Heinwald [Dragalia Lost] - 67%

I would never look at this design and think "well, that's Sherlock Holmes". Heinwald looks more like a zombie or the bride of Frankenstein, very Halloween. His look being so specific does come at the expense of his Holmesness, but he's still got more than a few traits down and he’s an absolute treat.

L Lawliet [Death Note] - 65%

This is a very, very weird looking man. Key points: dark hair and eyes. gaunt, sharp, and mostly angular (though with a softer face). Extremely foldable. This man could 100% pass for Holmes, if someone else was dressing him. Put him in a suit, comb his hair? Yeah. It’d really work. But until then, he’s just most of the way there.

Kyoko Kirigiri [Danganronpa] - 63%

Kirigiri really gets jilted here, because she could be much higher. Unfortunately, she has to be part of a series that with only a few exceptions just reuses the same face and body for most of its female characters. Kirigiri definitely has the sharp and focused feel she needs to pass for Holmes, and she dresses well. The white hair is the opposite of the dark he usually touts, but it’s striking. Unfortunately, put her next to any other character in her series, and she blends back in.

Miles Edgeworth [Ace Attorney] - 60%

Feels a little weird to put Edgeworth on here when the actual Sherlock Holmes is in his game, but he fits the character much better if not the narrative role. So let’s go over the looks. His jaw is a bit wide, but he’s very pointy, and I certainly have never gotten the impression he’s a physically strong man. He’s very fashionable, and with his big cravat and sharp hair he makes a cutting silhouette. I’d say he needs a bit more to really nail the look, though.

C-Tier

Will Graham [Hannibal] (Hugh Dancy) - 45%

Despite being a noted Hannibal Lecter fan and possible homosexual, I still haven’t watched Hannibal. I’m taking people at their word that Will is a Sherlock; I definitely would have assumed otherwise looking at him. He reminds me deeply of BBC’s John Watson, and it’s hard to see anything else. But I don’t hate his look; he reads as clever, he looks good in darks, and I wouldn’t complain to see him cast as Holmes. He’s better than some of the lower-tiered canon Holmes actors, anyway.

Ranpo Edogawa [Bungo Stray Dogs] - 40%

This is another submission, and I don’t know who this boy is. I really doubt he’s actually a Holmes, given that he’s named after a real non-Doyle writer, but I was begged to include him. Let’s go. I really like his outfit. He’s got an aesthetic I like. Is it Holmes’? No. This kid looks like he’d fit way better as a Baker Street Irregular; maybe he should audition.

D-Tier

Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) - 35%

Take everything I said for Robert Downey Jr, and just mess up his hair a bit more. House is scruffy, poorly put together, and not wearing anything that costs over $100. As a Holmes, he’d work as one of his disguises; I wouldn’t be super surprised if this guy suddenly cleaned up and looked the part -- but it would take a lot of cleaning. I love his look, though -- again, he isn’t trying to be canon. House is an explicit Holmes parallel, but he’s still his own character.

F-Tier

Walnut Cookie [Cookie Run] - 20%

Given how much “Holmes costume” and “Detective costume” are conflated, it’s possible this gingerbread baby isn’t even supposed to be a Holmes reference, but I’ll take her. She’s an excellent design - but a standalone one. Shes too soft, warm, and curly looking to pull off canon Holmes.

[ardenttheories]

And onto that odd little meta piece I was talking about. It’s really more of a fandom observation.

Despite not knowing what Bro looks like, the entire fandom seemed to gravitate towards two ideas: Twunk, or Hunk. Every piece of fanart I’ve seen usually has him thickly built, trim down the waist but broad shouldered and coiled with muscle, or at the very least with some sort of defined musculature that usually isn’t present on other characters. E.g. x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x

You’ll also typically find a theme with the artist’s choice of expression or facial features; strong jaw, sharp nose, often frowning. 

And this all comes from...

This sprite. A sprite, mind you, that’s exactly the same as this:

And yet the expression of this character is wholly different. 

He’s often drawn slimmer, with slanted shoulders and either a thin dorito-waistline or a relatively similar shoulder to hip ratio. He often has more curved features - his jawline, his nose - and his expression almost always determined or soft. E.g. x, x, x, x, x, x

And for emphasis: this is how two artists chose to draw them side by side. E.g. x, x

It’s also very rare to see people draw Alpha Dave the same height as Bro. From memory - and I got into Homestuck roughly during the height of the Alpha kids’ popularity - most of the fanart I saw with any instance of Bro and A!Dave in the same image had a pretty fair height difference. 

Again: this comes from the exact same sprite. When you layer Bro’s sprite over A!Dave’s, you’ll be able to fit them together pixel to pixel (except, of course, the arm - A!Dave’s got his arm up holding the sword, unlike Bro - and the jawline - which is much more curved than Bro’s, but when we actually see Alpha Dave’s sprite in canon, it isn’t really long enough to focus on this tiny feature [especially when you consider that Grandpa Harley has the same face shape, but people still draw him with a defined jawline]). 

So, why so different? Why would people draw these two characters so wildly different when, for instance... 

Both Moms are drawn almost exactly the same. 

It’s pretty obvious when you think about it, but it’s also an incredibly important thing to note if you ever plan on creating your own characters. 

Character interactions define how we view characters that have yet to be introduced or do not have a wholly set image. 

When we think of Bro, we have to be realistic: we know absolutely nothing about who he is as a person, or what he looks like, besides the information that we get from Dave. So, when we get the information that he’s physically abusive, that he has cameras around the entire apartment, partakes in puppet snuff for the sake of a pornographic website, leaves such pornographic paraphenalia around the apartment for a young Dave to see, and that he’s emotionally closed off and distant, we immediately start to form an image of him in our minds that’s based on what we can define as an amalgamation of toxic masculinity and male abusers. 

It’s not exactly hard to imagine why the most common fanart of him circulates as a tall, imposing, broad figure who barely smiles and would be incredibly hard to get around in a small, dark alley. 

We also need to remember, of course, that Dave is a child while he describes Bro. An adult is almost always going to be tall and imposing to a child - is always going to be stronger and physically more capable than a child. 

Bro could be the most average joe you’ve ever met, but because we learn about him from the viewpoint of a child who quite literally cannot fight back, the image of him becomes tilted to the buff end of the spectrum. 

He becomes someone we would fear seeing. Someone who could overpower us, and not just a child under his care. He is big and strong because that is how Dave sees him, and that is how we come to understand him as a character.

Big, strong, violent, with sexual overtness and a lack of emotion. It’s pretty much the only way you can imagine him, even when his sprite is incredibly lacking in detail. 

So, why the softness for Alpha Dave? 

Pretty simply, because we already know who Dave is by the time Alpha Dave is introduced. People already had an idea of what Dave looked like, who he’d be when he grew up. People had already decided that Dave, being so different from Bro, being such a hero, would never be able to achieve the same sort of toxic masculinity that Bro did - would never have the same shape, the same musculature, that comes with that toxic imagery. 

 We also got told about him by a young teen who absolutely idolised him. Who emphasised his good traits and spoke about how absolutely badass he was. 

The connotations with Alpha Dave are so much more positive than with Bro. That in and of itself would have changed how people drew him. But when you combine him with the concept that he’s Dave, the Dave that went through all that abuse and came out the other side hating everything that Bro stood for, it’s hard not to draw him as Bro’s nigh complete opposite. 

So, he’s smaller. He’s got less of that musculature that people associate with toxic masculinity (the ability to overpower someone smaller), and he has a much closer shoulder-to-hip ratio (something that makes him take up less space, and come across as less imposing). He smiles more, he emotes more, he’s much more emotionally open - and even when he’s meant to be “cool”, it’s often with some sort of smug or determined look, not the ever-present blankness or snarl that we see from Bro. 

He loses all of the traits that we’d associate with an abuser. Instead, he becomes a pretty ordinary hero - someone who can stand up and fight back, but isn’t overly heroic or powerful. Someone who might still struggle, but can handle things. 

This is despite the fact, of course, that we know nothing about Alpha Dave’s upbringing or life besides what Dirk tells us - and Brain Ghost Dirk, at that. Unreliable narrators are not a good place to find valuable information, and, once again, the in-comic sprite is literally the exact same as Bro’s.

Fandom perception is an incredibly powerful thing. 

So, what about Dirk? How does he fare in all of this?

Dirk’s actually a weird figure in everything, and this comes down to a very simple yet paradoxical concept:

We already had ideas on who Bro was, yet we actively get to see who Dirk is. 

It’s very hard to go into something expecting one person and getting another. We can see all those notes in Dirk that we saw in Bro - the toxic tendencies, the hyper masculinity, the divorced note from people and emotions - but we see them within the specific framework of a teenager with mental illness. 

This isn’t just an asshole, abusive adult. This is that adult’s younger self in a better mindset to try and do good by the people he loves. We see this time and time again - when he says how much he cares about Roxy, when he expresses his guilt that he couldn’t be romantically invested in her, when he shares the fears he holds of his splinters, when he admits that Bro is exactly what he could be and is genuinely scared of being - that he is the foundation of Bro, but not Bro in a very important way. 

It’s also needless to say that people connected with Dirk in the exact same way that people connected with Dave. When you look at a lot of vent art involving him, it’s almost always about mental illness - anxiety, impulsive or intrusive thoughts, a desperate need for control in life, self harm or a dislike for oneself - and a fair bit of generic art revolving around Dirk includes some sort of deeper mental struggle. 

He’s a victim, in a similar way that Dave is, but he’s also just far enough that he could be a villain. 

You find that a lot of fanart therefore shows this paradoxical nature. 

In some, he’s softer. The ratio between his hips and his shoulders is narrower, his jawline is more curved. E.g. x, x, x, x

In others, he’s sharper. He’s drawn with more defined muscle, with a stronger jawline and broader shoulders, and though he’s definitely slim you can definitely see just how close he is to becoming the same figure as Bro. E.g. x, x, x, x, x 

And in others, he’s an odd mix of both. A brooding figure with a softer jawline, but still imposing and sharp in his own right - or even the complete opposite, with sharp features and defined shapes, but slimmer and smaller, much less imposing. E.g. x, x, x, x, x, 

So, I think we can make a pretty firm observation that the way Dirk is drawn reflects how the artist views his journey and his struggles. Whether he’s his own person, closer to Bro, or somewhere stuck in between. 

As you can see from most of this art, there’s a few ways that people draw Dirk; raring to fight and smug/confident, fairly sombre and down, almost tired, or standoffish and closed off. Even this is somewhere in between the way people view Bro and Alpha Dave. 

So, it’s then interesting to take a look at the Epilogues. 

New art of Dirk was produced in line with the Meat Epilogue. And while I really only know of one piece that catches my eye every time I see it, I think it’s important to point out that, in almost all of these images, one of two body types appear for Dirk:

1) Broad, muscular, tall. He takes up space and commands attention. Sharp features, wider shoulders.

2) Smaller, less imposing, yet somehow intimidating in just the expressions he makes and the way he holds himself. If you can imagine any fuckboy you’d be scared of being cornered by at a party, you’ve got a good idea of this style of fanart. 

In other words, either tipped way more to looking like Bro, or so close to looking like something you’d be scared of IRL - which perfectly reflects how uncomfortable he feels within the narration of the Epilogue, and some of the more questionable things he has happen in it. 

I also want to just add in as a side note: almost all of the links I added about Dirk go to Pinterest for sake of ease for people to find other images for reference, since I’m really just collecting the art I like most. On most of the Dirk ones, scrolling down will reveal the aforementioned vent art; on most of the Dave ones, scrolling down will reveal much softer, sweeter pieces of art involving him and people he’s loved throughout the comic. Just something interesting to add into this discussion - think about what that means for how people view either Strider.

So, what was all of this about?

Honestly, it’s me just pointing out how important character opinions and preconceived ideas are to the way people view other characters. So much of the way we see Bro is influenced by how Dave sees him and our cultural understanding of what toxic, hypermasculine male abusers look like. So much of the way we see Alpha Dave is based around our understanding of Dave, and what little we can fill in from Brain Ghost Dirk, rather than on who he actually is as a person (and we could be wrong; we could be very, very wrong). So much of the way of the way we see Dirk is influenced by Bro, and yet by what we see in canon. 

If we had different ideas and different opinions from different characters, we might draw each of them wildly different. But it is this specific combination of lack of physical description and cultural association/character perception that ensures we draw them the way they are. 

[fmdxsujiarchive]

summary: a close producer tells suji the story of his twenty year-old niece falling in love with her first boyfriend, and it takes suji back to the days when she was young, stupid but in love date: multiple times around june to july word count: 2,205 words, excluding the lyrics notes: creative claims (full lyrics & composition) verification self-para for one day of twenty! not name-dropped but some very vague mentions of jae 👀

it’s been a couple of weeks since she’s submitted 26 for confirmation. the feedback that she received from the couple of in-house producers about the song had been overly positive. they say that they’re proud that she’s ventured into something a bit different and that going for a rock ballad style doesn’t sound too bad for her next album. suji knows that they’re mostly teasing her, but she appreciates the genuine support that she’s been receiving. she really wouldn’t be anywhere close to a singer songwriter if all these people surrounding her hadn’t been so helpful and supporting. 

she’s mumbling on about how many she should go find herself an actual studio to work in other than her home studio so that she doesn’t have to borrow equipment from a bunch of people inside the company when the producer that’s been allowing her to use his studio walks back in. he’s brought in some food, and she almost forgets how she hasn’t eaten in about five hours. she gives him a quick thanks. 

“hey, so my niece is turning twenty soon, and i was wondering what twenty year-old girls would like? i literally have nobody else to ask but you, suji-yah.” the look on his face tells her enough that he’s quite desperate for some advice, and she can’t help but chuckle as she takes a fry out from the bag. 

“i haven’t been twenty in so long, oppa,” she replies with a slight hum. “the most typical presents are roses, perfume and a kiss. i’m positive she doesn’t want the last one from you so maybe perfume? just go to olive young and ask them what’s popular these days with college freshmen. i’m sure they’ll be more than ecstatic to help you.” there was nothing special that she received on her turning of age day so she wouldn’t be too much help. 

“my sister—her mom—tells me she has a boyfriend already though so she’ll probably be getting all that from him anyway. isn’t there something more useful?” suji can’t help but laugh at the look of disgust that’s on minwoo’s face as he talks about his niece’s boyfriend. her sister hasn’t blessed her as the position of an aunt just yet, but she thinks she’ll probably understand the feeling one day. 

“if you want to be useful to both your sister and your niece, i say get her a laptop. that’s useful for college freshmen.” that seems to do it for him because he immediately whips out his phone and types on it. she assumes he’s making a note to himself or looking up laptops. either way, he seems to have hit the jackpot so she swivels her chair around back to the computer. 

she’s pulled up an older beat that she’s had drafted since preparations for her first mini album. it wasn’t polished enough then to be released as an actual song, but it was a soft beat that she enjoyed, and so she’d been working on it for a couple of days now, trying to polish it up so that it actually sounded like a song. 

“that sounds nice, suji. almost like a softer version of 26.” suji turns back around at the sound of minwoo’s voice with a raised brow because she hadn’t considered it like that before. the background sounds are quite repetitive as she’d been hoping to keep it minimal with the instrumentation, but now that he mentioned it, she could hear the similarities. “i guess? it has a lot less guitar though because i’m not trying to write another rock song, trust me. 26 was difficult enough though jaehyuk oppa was helpful when it came to the guitar in that one.”

he gets his eyes off of his phone to walk over to the screen. “yeah, but i think where the beat falls is pretty similar. not that it’s a bad thing. i actually think if you were to finish this, it’d go well in an album with 26. that is if gold star confirms 26 which they’d be stupid not to.” she gives him a light punch on the arm out of pure embarrassment from the compliment. 

“okay, yeah, my sister definitely wants the laptop. i think she just doesn’t want to buy one herself for her daughter. speaking of my niece, apparently she’s head over heels for this boyfriend. it’s her first boyfriend so can you blame her?” she can see that he’s trying to brush it off like it’s not bothering him, but she can see the clenched jaws as well as how he’s tapping the soundboard a bit too rapidly. “i think everybody thinks they’re in love at that age.” 

he nods in agreement before telling her how he needs to leave. she nods goodbye at him, and he doesn’t forget to give her one last burst of encouragement about how nice the composition sounds, and she gives him a thumbs up in response. 

now that her distraction was gone, she went back to the composition at hand. it was almost finished, but after minwoo had implanted the idea that it was similar to 26 but softer, she couldn’t help but wonder if it was the right decision to keep taking it. the instruments used are different, but the direction and sequence of things was similar. she puts it on repeat a couple of times before coming to the decision that she still likes how raw it sounds as it was originally drafted back when she was beginning to learn how to compose. she’ll take his words as meaning that her sound just really hasn’t changed too much. 

the volume of the background instrumentals don’t shift throughout the whole song, and she likes that about it. she continues to add a few new sounds as the song progresses, but it returns back to the original composition that she had in the very beginning at the end. the song progresses like it’s telling a story and that after the climax, it comes to a resolution just as it began. just the way she likes it. 

the completed composition is a step up from its very first original draft she created back in early 2019. she knows that her upcoming album is going to be released late into the year, and she thinks the way the muted bells and other instruments work together reminds her of walking on a fresh blanket of white snow. 

she hopes that it’s how others perceive the song as well. 

//

she’s on stand by in the middle of filming and hanging out in her car to avoid the harsh sunlight when she decides that she’s already memorized all five of her lines, and that’d she would like to use her time a little more productively. she takes out her cellphone as well as the notebook she keeps with her at all times in case she gets a burst of inspiration. 

she’s scrolling through her list of compositions that are naked without lyrics when she gets a kakaotalk from minwoo. 

[ hey! my niece really loved the laptop so thanks a lot, suji! but she’s always on a date with her boyfriendㅠㅠㅠ i miss when she was seven ] 

suji can’t contain her laughter at the whiny text, and she’s lucky that she’s the only one in the car right now. it would have been embarrassing to explain what she was laughing so hard about if anybody was around. leaning back onto the car seat, she tries to think back to her own life back when she was twenty. what was it like? was it as great of a transition as people make it out to be? 

twenty would mean six years ago which was exactly when she first debuted with fuse. she doesn’t remember any feelings of being in love around that time or really falling for anybody. all she can remember is the nerves she felt from performing on stage and just overall from being a rookie in the industry. looking back at the text that minwoo sent her, she smiles because his niece seems to be living the life. 

twenty. 

it’s made out to be some extravagant age, but nothing really changes much. however, korea seems to put a lot of emphasis onto the age. you’re suddenly allowed to drink, stay out during later hours and buy lottery tickets. though it also means you no longer can pay a discounted fare for the subway and bus, and that you’re suddenly thrown into a bigger society that’s no longer just school. 

but she can’t help but be a little jealous of minwoo’s niece. to feel like you’ve fallen so deep in love that you can’t live without your significant other though they’re both young. people grow out of love as quickly as they fall in love. she hears stories of how people were in the most beautiful relationships as college freshmen right when they hit twenty, and then they go through nasty breakups and then all marry someone else. however, when she hears those stories, the same people who curse their boyfriend or girlfriend at the same time also tell her that it was a meaningful time of their lives. 

perhaps that’s what’s so beautiful about being twenty. 

being allowed to do wild things, throw yourself into all these relationships but then look back at it and excuse yourself because you were young. because you were fresh, and you didn’t know any better. 

you know, there’s nobody i like so much these days that it makes my heart burst  not since that blue summer of our’s  that we passed through and suddenly faced breaking up 

there’s that feeling that exists when you first fall in love where you feel like you can’t live without the other person, and that you’re going to be with them forever. though she wasn’t twenty when she first felt it, she remembers the butterflies she felt as well as the way her cheeks would flush up at the mere thought of him. now suji looks back at it and laughs because just like minwoo’s niece, she was simply young and stupid but equally in love. loving at that age isn’t invalid, and that’s what she wants to tell minwoo, but she also understands why adults are quick to tell their adolescent children that nothing will actually last forever at that age. sure, there are the exceptions but most people are born as the rule anyway. 

the moment you turned away from me that night i cried alone so hard that i couldn’t breathe i’m still here the same

what was love to me back then?  somehow i don’t think i can love again

suji never actually confessed because the crush came and went, but she thinks that if she weren’t living her life as an idol, and that she was some regular college freshmen going through a breakup with her first love, this is how she would feel. somehow after losing your first love, you’re left with the thought that you can no longer love again. it’s only years later or when you’re meeting someone else that you tell yourself that it was such a silly thought to have. again, it’s the perks of being young. of being twenty.

back then when it was thrilling and clear back then when the whole world was brilliant  that time when i cried alone and hurt back then, at that time

one day in my twenties that seemed like it would last forever

it’s like the butterflies are back in her stomach as she writes down the lyrics as if she’s writing a boyfriend to some non-existent ex-boyfriend from her younger days. there’s a specific face that comes to mind that she does her best to try to erase because she knows it’s foolish; she knows that she’s completely over that now. she doesn’t feel her heart fluttering anymore around him, and she doesn’t blush at his every touch like she used to. or at least she doesn’t think she does. 

suji makes a mental note to herself to thank minwoo—or more like his niece—for being the inspiration to this song. if he hadn’t walked in on her that day and asked for the present recommendation as well as whine about how in love his twenty year-old niece was right now, she doesn’t think she would have been inspired to finish the song. 

it goes well with the soft instrumentals of the song, and she likes the way that it can act as a key to locked up memories that people most likely have of their first love, their first relationship, and their first heartbreak. 

a lot of people like to think that when they turn twenty, they magically turn into complete adults. they go above and beyond to prove that they can care for themselves only to look back at those days about five or six years later and cringe, kicking the blankets as they try to go to sleep with those memories in their head. 

but there’s a nice, cringey emotion that comes with the memory of coming of age. twenty, while legally now an adult, is a transition between still being young and learning more about yourself and the world. not just in love but all around. 

she scribbles little doodles and hearts around her finished lyrics just like she would back in school and closes the notebook with a satisfied smile. perhaps if this song makes it onto her next album, it’ll become one of her favorites.

[quesselfships]

Fic parts

So like I said I wanted to do that fic with Elnor who I’m not even bonded to yet.

Its really just three scenes, without any transitions between them, so without further ado:

“Guys, she knows me,” Chris sauntered up a farm lane, passing a large sign reading Azteca Calla. “It’s fine, we’re fine.”

The lane was lined with succulents, large blue agave with smaller species filling in the gaps. In the distance, Picard could see corn, along with smaller plants he couldn’t identify at this distance. But the imposing structure behind the house is what caught their eye.

“It’s Mesoamerican,” he said to no one in particular.

“Yeah it’s a temple to Quetzalcoatl.”

“Didn’t Captain Kirk encounter an alien claiming to be Quetzalcoatl?”

“Yeah, don’t mention that to her…”

“The fuck did you bring me this time Rios?” A voice called from the lane, with a rather angry looking woman standing with her arms crossed. Her tattoos shined from the sunscreen she had put on, and Chris just awkwardly waved his hand over the rag-tag group. “We need some supplies…a place to lay low for a little bit.”

She sighed, looking over the group. “I expect help, on the farm. In exchange for room and board, and not asking questions. Dinner is in a couple of hours, you can get settled in the side house, by the temple.”

“You’re the best Lea,” Chris grinned. “My ship…?”

“You can stash it between the corn fields.”

“The best!”

 “I made the Tamal very mild,” she said, serving a platter of wrapped vegetables and turkey. She brushed the fringe from her scarf away from her face. “Mild,” she indicated one bowl of salsa, “hot,” the one beside it “and jalapeno,” the final green one. “I grew everything myself.”

Picard produced a bottle of his estate wine from somewhere and poured glasses. “How do you know Captain Rios?”

“He helped me bring supplies for this. It was him who sourced artisans who could create my sculptures.” She cut into a Tamal and drizzled a mix of jalapeno and mild salsas onto it. Elnor mimicked her.

“Aztec reproductions?” Seven cocked her head.

“Not quite. My own original ideas, inspired by sacred art and the Gods. I am a proud Anahuac,” She smiled. “That’s why I studied agriculture in school. Though I can barely keep houseplants alive.”

“You grew all of this?”

She nodded. “Yes, everything I eat here I grow, from the corn and chilies, to the chocolate and tequila. There’s only a few things I import or replicate, and most of it is meat. I don’t know how to butcher.”

“Are the cats bothering you?”

Sybill screamed again and Elnor smiled. “No. Are they all this chatty?”

“No, she’s a special one.” Sybill crawled up into Elnor’s lap and purred. “She likes you.”

“I had never seen a cat before now.”

“We have more living in the temple. They keep the rodents away from the crops.”

“Will you take me?”

“Sure, let’s go,” she extended her hand. Elnor carefully deposited Sybill onto a footrest (much to her anger), and grabbed Lea’s hand.

The temple was more impressive close up, with intricate star patterns and carvings. She pointed to one. “My birth chart, my sacred names and dates, all carved here.”

“It’s beautiful,” he looked around. The lights shone when they walked in the temple, stone echoing underfoot. “The lights look like fire.”

“I made sure they would be programmed like that. It felt more authentic to me. More fitting.”

Some cats, disturbed by the light, got up from their comfy corners and perches to say hello, purring as they rubbed themselves along Lea’s legs. Elnor bent down to pick up a white one with smooth fur. He smiled and pressed his face into her fur. She mruped, and purred, headbutting under his chin.

“Come, I’ll show you the kittens.”

The warm, secluded annex had two mothers with babies. One group seemed to be older, bounding around, and the other with younger ones who were just opening their eyes. The older kittens wobbled forward. “Sit down,” She said, handing him a few treats. “I make these too. They’ll come to you.”

Within moments, Elnor had kittens crawling on him, and the white cat he had picked up earlier was settling into a warm corner, far enough away that the Mamas weren’t upset. They were curious, cuddly and sweet. Elnor loved their soft fur and gentle nuzzles with their wet nose.

After a while, the mother cat called and her kittens came over to drink at the milk bar. They settled in in a row, dozing as they filled up on warm milk. The white cat followed them out, and perched by Elnor’s feet. He looked around at the stone, offerings and candled lined the walls. He could swear there was a scent of copal in the air.

He looked at Lea in the dim light, sparkles glinting from her headscarf, and he couldn’t help but ask, “can I kiss you?”

“Kiss me?”

He nodded, stepping closer. His hand was warm on her cheek and she felt her leg shake. She had noticed him, young and tall and handsome. Slender, lithe…things that she liked. “I’d like to kiss you.”

His lips were soft on hers, and his hair tickled her cheeks where it fell forward. She reached for his hand and entwined her fingers. She felt the stars carved in her temple glitter with delight. She couldn’t remember the last time she was kissed like this, with tenderness and sweetness and a hint of innocence.

He pulled away; cheeks tinged green with blush. “Thank you,” he said in a whisper.

Next part will be under a jump for smut. I really hope I did ok. I’ve never written a trans character before so like. I tried.

“Ah, fuck,” she said. It was early morning, but she couldn’t sleep. There was a festival coming up and that always made her wonky. But she noticed her hydroponics were running dry. She made her way to the en suite to get some water, fixing her ponytail with a yawn. She kicked aside a few clothes, probably clean but maybe dirty, and got the water.

Exiting the bathroom, she held the bottle of water but then dropped it with a gasp.

“It’s okay, it’s just me,” Elnor said. “I heard something, I thought you were in trouble.”

Forgetting the water, she scrambled to her bathroom door and snatched the first scarf she could, wrapping it around her head like a loose hood. “It’s okay, you just startled me.”

Elnor had stooped down and was mopping up the bit of water that spilled from the cap that wasn’t screwed on too tight. “I’m sorry if I offended you.” He nodded towards the scarf.

“No, it’s okay. It was an accident.” She crossed her arms, tugging her oversized shirt down a little. She was conscious of how bizarre it was to make sure her hair was covered, but she was pretty sure that if she turned her back, he would be able to see the bottoms of her ass cheeks hanging out from her boy shorts.

“I feel bad,” he said. “Can I make it up to you?”

“You don’t need to Elnor, really.” She pulled her scarf off. “It’s just hair. And while I haven’t done much to it in six months…” She smoothed the wispies. “I’ve been grey for half my life. I just don’t like showing it to strangers. It’s more of a comfort thing than anything.”

He nodded, “I have something like that too. Can I show you?”

“Sure.”

He stared untying the sash at this waist.

“Elnor, no, what are you doing?”

 He sloughed off his robe to his waist, and traced thin scars under his pectoral muscles. “Double mastectomy,” he said, then turned to his side. “And unfortunately, I had to have my hysterectomy this way. I had a cyst so it couldn’t be done vaginally.”

“I had no idea,” she said.

“I haven’t had all the surgery, it’s hard to get on Vashti. I feel good about this body now, so I don’t know what I’ll do in the future.”

“Thank you for telling me. It makes my hair thing seem way less important.” She chuckled.

“It’s not, not at all.” He pulled his robe back up, but kept it loose. “Why are you up so early anyway? The sun isn’t up yet.”

“I don’t know. Couldn’t sleep I guess.” She sat down on the edge of the bed, and patted for him to join. Sybill jumped up from the basket of clothes and took it as an invitation for her. Elnor grinned and picked her up, placing her on his lap to pet her while he listened. “There’s a holiday coming up and I never sleep well before them. This is one I don’t really care for anyway.”

“Why?”

“It puts a lot of emphasis on sex, but I celebrate it alone. I try to make it about growth and purification, but everyone in the community talks about some muscular guy who was channeling a god and how they fucked in front of a bonfire.”

“So why don’t you do that?”

“It’s not my style. I want to know someone before I jumped into bed with them.” She laughed and sat crossed legged, facing him, “current company withstanding.”

“I don’t know if we’ll be here when your festival happens, but do you want to try it before?”

“What, you’re going to channel a god for me? Should we get the bonfire in my laundry or my paddle plant?”

“Maybe without that part,” he said softly. “But the other part…”

She smiled, “you want to be some muscular guy for me?”

“I think I’d like that.” He deposited the cat back into the laundry basket, and scooted closer, shucking his robe off all the way now. He wore loose fitting shorts, and was flushed from his navel to his chest. His kisses were softer than they were at the temple, more hesitant but with more hunger and passion.

 She put her hand on his hip and raked her nails softly against his firm flesh. She felt his heart pound under her hand, while he slipped one of his hands under her shirt, hiking it up to expose her breasts. He rubbed his thumb over one nipple until it peaked and he trailed kisses along her soft jaw and neck. She whimpered when he broke contact to tear her shirt off, tossing it aside and kissing along her chest again.

She dragged her hand down his shorts to the mound between his legs. It was jarring at first, to not feel a solid mass, but her fingers still managed to tease through the fabric. She could feel the warmth, the wetness growing.

“I want to suck you off,” she moaned. “I want to have your cock in my mouth.”

 He shuddered, quickly getting off the bed and out of the shorts. She crawled to the end of the bed to allow him to drape himself on her pillows. She settled down between his legs, against his thigh. She kissed and licked at his skin, using her fingers to gather his own wetness and spread it around his cock, which was now filling out. She followed her fingers with her tongue, swirling it around and taking it all the way into her mouth.

He moaned, leaning back into the pillows and shifting his hips. His eyes squeezed shut as he panted, feeling the pressure build. He wanted to buck into her mouth, but stilled himself. “Finger me too,” he whispered. “Please.”

She paused her sucking to lick her fingers, pressing them into him and hooking them up. His anatomy was different from humans, it took a moment for her to find the spot inside of him to make him gasp and let out a low moan. She grinned and resumed her sucking. She could feel him squeeze around her, and his hand found its way to her hair.

“Fuck,” he panted out. “Fuck, I’m close.”

 She stroked her fingers faster, harder, stimulating his cock from the outside as well as the inside. He was panting and gasping as he kicked out his one leg gushing around her fingers. He whimpered with overstimulation as she pulled her fingers out to lick them clean.

She resettled herself on his chest, and kissed the mastectomy scars. He was still panting, leaning his cheek on the top of her head.

“What about you?” He asked.

“Later,” she pulled the blanket up over them. “Sleep time now. Round two later.”