#certainly better than i thought itd go

[ahyperactivehero]

i asked on election night if anyone wanted a little drabble to help with the stress, and unfortunately it has taken me a little longer than i would like to get them out!

@det-agency: please write Edwin getting turned into an orb for the first time pre-canon and Charles freaking out i think itd be so fun

(fun fact, this is my first orb fic! i've wanted to write one for a minute, but this is the first that i've actually sat down and wrote out!)

Drabble 5 (Orb Fic)

London, 1991

Getting chased by a vengeful ghost was not exactly what Charles had planned for when they’d set off to speak to their client, but he supposed that’s what you get being a ghost detective.

Edwin sprinted ahead of him, his long legs easily giving him the speed that he needed to leave their client in the dust. 

“Who woulda thought our client was the guilty one?” Charles yelled out to Edwin, who glanced over his shoulder. 

“It is certainly a twist,” Edwin said. He suddenly veered off to the right, racing towards the bedroom mirror they had come through earlier. If they could get there, they could head back to their newly established office and regroup. They’d certainly need to think of a better plan now that their client had turned on them and absolutely wasted their original suspect.

Edwin reached the mirror, his hand outstretched as he concentrated on getting them back to the office. Charles turned around, his hands immediately finding comfort in his cricket bat. If that bastard even thought about getting close to them he’d smash him.

“Come on,” he heard Edwin mutter under his breath. “Find it, find it, find it.”

Mirror travel was something Charles had yet to master, but Edwin was aces at it. It would probably only take him a second before–

A choked, gasping sound came from behind him, followed by the tell-tale sound of someone stepping through a mirror. He spun around, worried for a moment that Edwin might have fallen through the mirror and been separated from him, when he felt his soul go cold.

Their client, Geoff Mann, stepped from the mirror. His hand was already through, and in his fist was an iron knife.

An iron knife covered in ghostly blood.

“Edwin!” Charles yelled, rushing forward just as Edwin staggered backwards.

His hands were on his throat, blood seeping through his fingers. Charles felt panic like he never had before. Iron hurt ghosts, but could it kill them? Was stabbing enough to obliterate a ghost? Maybe not, but what about cutting their throat?

Edwin fell straight into his arms, and Charles would have dropped his cricket bat if it weren’t for the vengeful ghost of their client standing over them. Blood dripped off of the knife and pooled on the carpet and it seemed wrong that it wouldn’t actually stain it. Not that Charles wanted anything to be stained with his best friend’s blood, it just seemed wrong that it wouldn’t.

“Hold on,” he said in what he hoped was his most reassuring voice. Gently, and without looking away from Geoff, he slid Edwin to the floor. He ignored his hand dragging down Charles’s arm, begging him to stay– to not leave him alone.

This would only take a moment. Besides, he needed to take care of the threat before he tended to Edwin.

“You fucked up,” Charles said, twirling his bat. Geoff didn’t even have the decency to look the least bit frightened. 

“You’re gonna make me move on,” Geoff said. “And I ain’t doin’ it.”

They weren’t. That’s not what their Agency did. They couldn’t force someone to move on if they didn’t want to. It wasn’t even what Geoff had originally hired them for!

But none of that mattered now. Not when Edwin was behind him, gasping and potentially dying. 

(He wasn’t even sure what dying would mean for a ghost. Would he go back to Hell? Disappear?)

He didn’t even give him a chance to respond. He swung his bat against his arm, almost enjoying the way it cracked and forced him to drop his knife.

Charles wasn’t a violent person, no matter how much he feared being like his father. But the satisfaction he got from seeing that man drop to his knees in pain after what he’d done to Edwin? Well, he might need to reflect on that.

The urge to keep going was strong– after all, what was to stop him from coming after them later? – but he forced himself to stop. 

“If anything happens to him,” Charles warned, holding out his bat against the other man’s head. “I’m comin’ back.”

Quicker than the other man could react, he bent down and picked up his knife and turned back to get Edwin. 

He laid there, air and blood gurgling as he tried to keep his wound closed. At some point his eyes had screwed shut, like that might help block out the pain. They sprang open at the first sign of Charles’s touch, that faint bit of panic he’d seen when something reminded him of Hell shooting across his face before flattening out into something more manageable.

“Let's go,” Charles said. He put his hands under his armpits, intending to haul Edwin up if he had to, but a flash of light overwhelmed his vision and Edwin disappeared.

“Edwin!” he yelled and looked from hand to hand as if he might have somehow been hiding there. 

A small orb, just a bit bigger than a cricket ball, floated there in front of him. There was no trace of Edwin, just the small, pulsing yellow orb.

“Edwin?” he asked, unable to keep the disbelief out of his voice.

The orb bobbed for a moment, as if it were answering. The yellow seemed to glow brighter for a second before dimming until it was a faded, off-white color. 

Forget it. Charles had no clue what was going on, but he didn’t have time for this. He snatched Edwin up and booked it through the mirror,  no destination in mind– only intent on getting them as far away as possible.

It took several tries before he got back to the office, and by then his nonexistent heartbeat had slowed down to something far more bearable. Without even thinking he tossed his bag and bat to the floor and uncovered the ball of light he’d been keeping safe in his hands.

There was an unexpected feeling to it, not quite a weight but certainly a warmth. It reminded him of when he was alive and he’d stick his cold finger next to a heater or run them under warm water once they’d gone numb.

It was the first time he’d felt warmth since he died.

He held the orb closer to his face and chest for inspection. It was perfectly round, the edges of it reminding him of an impossible mix of glass and a cloud. It wasn’t solid, but he also couldn’t put his hand through it, even if he tried.

“Edwin?” he asked again. Could this really be Edwin? What had that ghost done to him?

The orb pulsed, yellow light coming back to it before fading again into that cool, white light.

So it really must be Edwin. 

He glanced over at Edwin’s slowly growing collection of books and wondered if there was something about this in one of them. The subject of orbs had never come up before, but then again, neither one of them had ever been as hurt as Edwin was before. 

Was this what happened when something hurt them? How badly did they need to be hurt in order for it to happen? 

“Hey,” Charles said as he ran his hand over the orb. “Don’t worry, I’ve gotcha.”

There was another pulse. The orb seemed to hover above his hands for a moment before gravity seemed to take over it and it dropped back down. 

In a sheer panic, Charles caught it. Or not it, he supposed. Because this thing had to be Edwin. If it wasn’t that would mean that either Edwin was gone or he’d left him behind with their insane client. 

The idea that he might have done that nearly sent him into a tailspin. Should he double back and check? What if this was a trick and the real Edwin was somehow still there? Or what if there was something special about his knife that had turned Edwin into an orb?

Gently, he cradled Edwin to his chest as he turned to look for his bag. He’d picked up the knife, hadn’t he? Thankfully, it only took a few tries before he successfully pulled it from his bag. Ha, take that Edwin, he was getting better at using it.

“See, mate,” he said, his voice low and soft as he spoke over the orb. “I told you this bag was worth it. Already earnin’ its keep, hm?”

The handle of the knife was thankfully not iron coated. Charles hadn’t even thought about that earlier when he’d grabbed it. All he’d been thinking about was that Edwin was hurt, and he’d needed to disarm the guy.

Blood covered the blade, but aside from that there seemed to be nothing interesting about it at all. Not strange markings, no traces of magic that he could tell. It looked exactly like every other boring knife out there.

Except this one had hurt his friend.

The orb– Edwin, Charles supposed– pulsed again, the light from it peeking out between his fingers. Had Charles squeezed it by accident? He’d been so focused on the knife, so caught up in thoughts of their client hurting him that he hadn’t really…

Slowly but with more force than Charles anticipated, the orb pulled free from his hand. It bobbed around the room, floating here and there as if it were looking for something. It lingered above Edwin’s chair, the space where the other boy spent most of his time in the office. 

Yet there was nothing for it to do. It’s not like the orb had hands. It couldn’t hold a book or write or do anything that usually interested Edwin. 

As if it had realized this, it lazily floated back over to Charles. That yellow light seemed to be getting even stronger, calming Charles’s nerves just a bit. A strong light had to be a good sign, yeah? Surely that meant that Edwin was fine. 

Except what if he wasn’t fine? What if yellow was bad and he was trying to warn Charles? What if he needed help, and Charles couldn’t understand him? How was he meant to do anything if Edwin couldn’t talk to him anymore?

The orb bumped into his head, the softest, gentlest headbutt Charles had ever experienced. His thoughts slowed down as he lifted his hands up to cup the orb again.

“Well, mate,” Charles said. “What do you think we should do?” 

Edwin didn’t answer. Not that Charles thought he would.

“What if I read to you?” he asked. “I love it when you read to me. Helps me relax, yeah?”

Edwin seemed to warm up in his hands again. Charles took that as a good sign.

He strolled over to Edwin’s bookcase (our bookcase, Charles, the Edwin in his mind reminded him) and browsed their selection. Most of them were detective novels, but Edwin had recently started to collect more on magic and the supernatural.

No, he thought, should really stick to a classic.

“What about Sherlock Holmes? You love him,” he said, as if Charles didn’t also love him.

He grabbed one of their Sherlock Holmes books at random and made his way over to the couch. “Might as well get comfy, eh?” he asked and sprawled out.

For a moment, Charles was sure Edwin was going to float away. Maybe he hadn’t been as interested in reading to him as he’d thought. Instead, Edwin merely rolled down until he was resting on Charles’s chest, that warm, familiar feeling spreading all over him.

So Charles read to him. He read to him until he had finished one book, and then started on another that he could reach. His voice was a low rumble, the sound fading into the background as he split his attention between the words and Edwin. Time passed slowly and hazily, the sort of dream-like quality that only came when it didn’t really matter.

Eventually, when he thought he might go insane from reading so much, he talked. He told Edwin how he was sorry he hadn’t been fast enough to stop him– because really, Charles had been right there after all– and how he hoped that Edwin forgave him. He told him that when Edwin felt better, he would do anything he wanted. He’d even go see that play he’d been talking about that Charles couldn’t remember the name of if he wanted. And there was a show that Charles was interested in going to, but they could stand at the back where it was quieter and they were less likely to get stepped on if Edwin wanted to come.

He told him how much he missed him. How worried he was about him. How he knew that it had only been about a day since he’d gone into this form, but he didn’t think he’d missed anyone this much. Not his mum or dad, not his friends or teachers. No one.

Finally, he fell silent. He was sure that if he dug down deep enough there was more for him to say, but what was the point? Edwin was still stuck looking like the world’s brightest cricket ball, and he had just spilled about everything he had in him.

“I’m just worried,” Charles said. His arms wrapped around the orb so tightly it doubled as a self-hug. “Y’know I worry.”

Then again, maybe Edwin didn’t know. Charles loved to portray himself as this confident, friendly guy. Sure, he could be protective, but did Edwin know he was serious enough that he could worry?

Something shifted. The solid, golden color the orb had been since he’d started reading to him briefly changed. It flashed blue, a color that Charles normally loved but reminded him too much of Death in this instance, before it faded, and the orb was gone.

Before he could worry whether or not Death had actually come for them, he felt a solid weight pressing down on him. And there, in his lap, laid out across him, was Edwin. His feet were tucked up, allowing his long body to fit neatly onto the couch, his head cradled against Charles’s chest.

“Edwin?” he breathlessly asked.

Edwin shifted, his head tilting back just enough to look up at him. Charles had to loosen his death grip on him to allow even that. “Charles?”

Immediately, Charles hugged him closer. He smashed Edwin’s face into his chest and pressed his chin to the top of his head. “Don’t ever do that again, mate,” he said. “I mean it.”

For a moment, Edwin was frozen. Then, he thawed and relaxed himself into Charles’s hug. “I did not mean to worry you,” he said softly.

“Yeah, well, you did,” Charles said without any heat to it. Finally, he let his arms slide away from Edwin and allowed himself to get his first real look at his friend.

The first thing he noticed was that he looked tired. Dark bags lined his eyes and blood still smeared his collar, although whatever wound had been made was gone. He seemed paler than normal as well, but Edwin was always so pale it was hard to tell. 

��Alright?” he asked, still looking for any sign that he wasn’t.

Edwin nodded. “Yes,” he said. His voice sounded stronger than before, and God if it didn’t sound like Heaven to Charles. The idea that he might never have heard his friend speak again hadn’t truly hit him until this moment. “I believe I am unharmed.”

Charles’s eyes darkened. “You were stabbed. In the neck,” he said. Or close enough, anyways. “And then you turned into this glowing ball, and… well, I didn’t know what to do.”

Edwin flinched at the mention of his wound before soothing his expression into one of fondness. “Yes, I… seem to remember that,” he said. His hand came up to touch his throat, only to find no wound there. “It would seem I have healed.”

“Maybe that’s what that was?” he asked and made a gesture with his hand to show orb-sized Edwin. “Maybe that was like ‘ghost healing’?” 

Something between annoyance and acceptance flashed across Edwin’s face. “I believe you have it right,” Edwin said. “It would seem that would be the form ghosts take when they heal.”

Charles nodded. “Kinda brills, honestly. Like a turtle goin’ into their shell or something.”

Edwin squinted his eyes at the comparison. “I suppose,” he said. And then almost immediately collapsed when he tried to get up.

“Oi!” Charles said and wrapped his arms around him. “What’re you doing? You wanna be an orb again?” 

Edwin huffed as he settled back down. His face had washed out even more after his ill-advised attempt. “No, I do not,” he said. “But it hardly seems appropriate for me to just… lay all over you.”

Before he had died, Charles might have agreed. There was a certain amount of weirdness to it, he supposed, but that didn’t mean that he wanted Edwin to get up. In fact, he wanted Edwin to stay right where he was until he was strong enough to stand without passing out again.

Edwin rolled his eyes when he said this. “I did not pass out. Ghosts cannot do that,” he said. Yet he laid his head back down against Charles’s chest, his now ruffled hair tickling Charles’s chin. 

“Go back to sleep,” Charles said. Before Edwin could argue, he held a hand up and used it to gently bop him on the arm. “And don’t say ghosts can’t sleep. That’s basically what you were doing before.”

Edwin started to shake his head, but the motion quickly became him snuggling down against Charles. “I am merely resting my eyes.”

Charles grinned, a sudden wave of fondness he’d never felt for anyone else overtaking him. “Yeah, well rest your mouth too.”

Edwin tried to flip him off but failed. “Almost had it,” Charles teased.

“I’ll figure it out one day,” he said before fading back off to sleep. 

At least this time he stayed a ghost.

[leggerefiore]

I think itd be hilarious if reader was kidnapped by the evil team leaders only for them to realize reader has SEVERE stockholm syndrome

guessing this is a yandere request...? I added volo

cw: yandere, dark content, kidnapping, uh bad ending ig in a way lol

characters: Cyrus, Volo, Lysandre, Giovanni

🌌Cyrus🛰

☄️ There was nothing but immense shame over his actions on his mind. This was a pitiful submission to woeful human emotions – He wanted to be rid of them, yet the thought of you escaping him made his stomach churn painfully and left him with worse insomnia than he already faced. It was a sickness – A genuine physical ailment that plagued him. His actions were pitiful. He despised them. But, having you in his grasp eased the harsh feeling that ate at his heart otherwise. You were safe. All the irrational thoughts that had plagued his mind faded. He could close his eyes for but a moment and finally rest. When you awoke, he was certain there would be harsh reality to face, but for now, those sickening emotions – his disgusting spirit – were at ease. He swallowed. Something in him dared allow him the ability to lay at your side. Your presence alone was enough to lull him into the sweet confines of unconscious.

☄️ When he awoke, it was to a weight on top of him. His heavy eyes opened. His arms had wrapped around whatever laid on top of him. Warmth soaked into him in a way that felt completely foreign to him. His gaze focused on what was on top of him. You. Your eyes were open and staring into his own bleary ones. Your hands were still bound carefully, but somehow, you seemed not at all bothered by your current situation. Cyrus quickly regained himself and moved you back to lay beside him. A whine came from you as you whined about not being able to cuddle with him properly. What were you talking about—? You should have been horrified, yet you looked more upset that he dared stop holding you to himself. He swallowed. Something was wrong here. You kept whinging so genuinely about wanting to go back to cuddling.

☄️ Soon after, your behaviour showed no faults or waning. You simply acted like this was some kind of normal relationship. He was out of his mind about the whole thing. It was illogical – You should have been afraid and angry, yet you clung to him and treated him like a normal partner. Even when left unmonitored and unbound, you never tried to flee the apartment. It was beyond his understanding. Truly, it should have been everything that he wanted, but the lucidity of the situation made accepting it nearly impossible. You seemed confused about why he questioned you when he did, simply stating that you only loved him. In the end, he supposes that this, too, must be an effect of spirit. His main worry then becomes what will become of you and himself when he finally succeeds in removing spirit. Assuredly, then, you would stay with him even still. It only seemed right.

💫Volo📜

⭐️ He felt nothing for his actions. Was he aware they could have horrible consequences? Certainly. Did he care? Perhaps, somewhere deep down. The merchant felt almost certain that he would get away with it. You were an outsider like him. The Galaxy Team would have a few common searches before ultimately giving up and deeming you AWOL or likely dead. He hoped for the latter, but he had failed to set up a proper scene to help better lead them to that conclusion. His decision to take you had been made entirely on the fly. Not his best moment, but he supposed his careful planning, coming into danger alongside you threatening to abandon him, set him off in a way that he had never truly felt before. Simple desperation had consumed him. You had been dragged off to a remote, hidden area of Hisui. It was unlikely that anyone would ever find you, nor would you get away.

⭐️ When you awoke, he had expected you to shout, scream, and attack him, but you seemed to relax instead. He thought your behaviour was strange. There was a chance that you were doing it in order to force yourself to have better control of the situation. He would scoff at that. You were bound quite carefully and in an extremely remote area. Your pokeballs were also taken by him. You were truly st your weakest point. So, when you smiled at him and asked what this was. He felt his mind break a bit. Your smile… Was this manipulation? He pondered what your game here was. Unlike you, he would not allow himself to relax. Whatever act this was… Your seemingly genuine affection and acceptance… He would see through it. Volo was fully aware of many things.

⭐️ … Except how genuine you were being. Your apparent affection and love for him never lessened, nor did it seem forced. Your feelings were genuine. He was bewildered by this. Even when he tested you by leaving you unbound when he “left,” you simply began to household duties or wait for him to return. He was astonished by this. This was not at all what he predicted, but he was supposed to were not the worst possible things. Your genuine love… He could only smirk. Taking you as he had felt so useless now… It was clear that you were not going anywhere. Those foolish concerns felt completely far off from himself. It was easy for him to lose himself in it all. His perfect world… He could feel it so closely when he was with you. The blond could not wait to truly make it a reality. Your shared love would only grow stronger there.

🔥Lysandre🍷

☕️ It was not his best moment. Not by far. There was a part of him that burned with shame, while a larger part simply accepted that this was just how things were going to have to be. He had become frightened. Your refusal to join Team Flare – and even daring to attempt to flee from him – was driving him to extreme lengths. Losing you, such a beautiful and perfect being, was not an option. So, he used his connections and secured you quite easily. His Lumiosian apartment was soundproof, so there was little concern for anything. It was kept carefully locked, too. You would be safe here until he finally used to the Ultimate Weapon to create a perfect world. He would have all your needs and wants tended to, yet he would absolutely make certain that you could not dare escape from him. That was simply something that he refused to accept. Whatever disgust he may have felt for his own actions had to be cast aside in favour of your believed best interests.

☕️ So, when you awoke, he readied himself for curses and threats. The worst would come before the better… Yet, you did not. Your eyes stared at him intently while seemingly figuring out your surroundings. Then, you smiled. A genuine smile. One so sweet and loving that he found himself at a loss for words. What… was this? While Lysandre knew that his actions had been for your best interest, he had not expected you to feel similarly. Well, he assumed that was how you felt. You only asked that he unbind you. He did so, readying himself again for a possible violent outburst, but it never came. Instead, you hugged him tightly and mumbled out about your love for him. He was shocked into silence. This… This was not at all a predicted response – especially with how you had tried to run quite literally just before. Part of him remained on edge this was fake, but the other more desperate half just wanted all this to be real.

☕️ Naturally, he tests you to see just how real your actions are. You continue to shock him with how you genuinely seemed to be in love with him. He describes your behaviour patterns to one of those in Team Flare, and they note that you had likely developed Stockholm syndrome. Quite quickly, they added, but your behaviours did align. He felt disgusted yet contented that such behaviours had been drawn out of you. You still refused to join Flare, but he supposed that was alright since now he could protect you more directly. You would be following after him whether you wanted to or not – And you almost seemed to want to if it did not involve his group. He supposed that whatever feelings you held for Flare were pointless since you would be joining him in his perfect world. You were his lover, after all. That was something you had made more than clear in your constant demands for his affection and attention.

🚀Giovanni🐈

🟥 It was easy to arrange and done with little hesitation. Giovanni was quite used to taking what he wanted with little question. So when you, a trainer who started opposing Rocket, had denied him what he wanted. Well, he simply took matters into his own hands. It was a bit of annoyance having to deal with you constantly disrupting his plans and making him look weak to his underlings. You even had the gall to deny his offerings of joining his organisation, stating you were above his criminality. He wanted to scoff. Trying to run from him… How utterly useless that had been. You were taken deep into one of his safehouses as he debated just what do with you when you woke up. Screaming and crying would be annoying to deal with usually, but some part of him was excited to see you at such a low point.

🟥 That was not to come, however. When you finally woke up, you were a bit shocked, yes, but seemingly calmed down once you saw the Rocket boss. You struggled against the cuffs that trapped your wrists to the headboard. He cocked a brow when you asked him politely to unlock you. Giovanni only replied by leaning over you to intimidate you and threaten that you were not in a place to make demands. But, instead, you tried to rain up to meet his lips. The older man was shocked momentarily before chuckling. Oh, what was this? Were you attempting to fawn over a fight or flight reaction. Fascinating. There would be no complaints from him on such things. You could not pull a fast one on him, either. He would be careful to observe just what you were doing and why.

🟥 Though, he was stunned to see you never faltered. This apparent love you felt for him was real enough. You were insistent enough that he let you have some freedoms that he did eventually relent. When he finally did, there were no true escape attempts. At worst, you tried to follow him out whenever you felt that he had failed to give you adequate attention, but it was not really an attempt at fleeing and regaining your lost freedom. He was fully aware of what had happened to you. This was not his first time observing such a thing, but he supposed he quite preferred it when it was someone that he had an interest in over some random target that his group brought in for whatever reason. Due to your strong feelings for him mixed with your desperation to stay near him, it was not hard to convince you to take his offer to join Rocket this time around. Whatever oddities had brought about the situation, he could only be happy that it brought the exact results he wanted.

[thewertsearch]

Ask Comp 12/8

@williamjakespeare asked: One of the recent posts concludes that the circumstances around Vriska's god tiering were "so much worse than anything I thought was going to happen" and I'm curious. What exactly did you think was going to happen?

Back before I knew how God Tier ascension worked, my theory was that Vriska's Quest Bed might grant her access to a special dream moon, and that Tavros's presence there might throw some sort of spanner into the works. I wasn't sure what kind of spanner, and my theories were very vague.

Vriska's a huge taskmaster, and I thought she might have given him an instruction that he was unwilling or unable to carry out. Like, maybe she told him to leave her God Tier Moon, and he was unwilling to abandon her to a fate he didn't understand.

I guess I was right. In the end, she did give him an instruction he couldn't carry out.

Anonymous asked: For the kid who was the most vocal about her 'distaste' for their guardian, having Mom be the reason that Rose snaps is actually very sweet, in a sad way. ~DJ

The above line from Rose implies that she had a lot more affection for her mother than she was letting on.

Their relationship was complicated, but if Rose viewed her as a sister, I think there had to have been some camaraderie between the two. We just never saw it on-panel, because the narrative began on the most stressful day of Mom Lalonde's life.

@elkian asked: So, fun fact about that time John joked about rescuing Rose from the Broodfesther Throes and you were going "yes it's a joke BUT IT'S ALSO SERIOUS JOHN!!!": Hussie's author note for that page is almost verbatim your reaction. Homestuck is as serious as it is silly and typically both at once.

Every time Hussie and I share the same thought, a subtle chill runs down my spine.

@gl1tchypyr0 asked: In regards to the thing about LOWAA potentially corrupting Eridan, itd be a little smart to remember what Sollux said in his conversation with Terezi about a prophet has to go blind to earn their stripes or how an angel earns its wings, Sollux states that 'angels are terrible feathery demons that paradox space uses to usher in the end' and Eridan was actually killing them even if he wasn't Supposed to. If you really think about it I actually kinda find it sad? If he was already a troubled individual Before Sgrub and then was on a planet of 'terrible feathery demons' that whisper prophecies in his earfins for an entire month that he was made to feel he Had to kill, honestly it makes me nervous imagining just how many doomed timelines there are where Eridan snapped far earlier. Not to mention the fact he's also on the Blue Team ie Derse players ie most susceptible to waking up in his sleep and seeing tentacles and eyeballs staring back at him (not that he wouldn't be /used to that/ back on alternia with his job of feeding glybgolyb so Feferi wouldn't have to). Not really defending eridan but just, food for thought kinda? About how LOWAA might have affected him enough for Doc Scratch to bring up such a hypothetical. The idea that Eridan was already pretty bad before the inevitable Sgrub trauma and then LOWAA made thinks /worse/.

Oh, don't get it twisted - Eridan's just as much of tragedy as any of the other trolls. He's certainly written to be less sympathetic, but he didn't deserve to be raised in the Alternian Empire. Just like Vriska and Equius, he could have been a much better person, if only he was raised in a less violent and oppressive culture.

Of course, he could still be an asshole if he was born on Earth - but at least he'd have a chance to be better. Alternia stacks the deck against you in ways that simply aren't fair.

@galaxa-13 asked: It is very satisfying watching you pick apart everything Doc Scratch says without playing his game. Rose wishes she could, but unfortunately she is a child and not as smart as she pretends to be. Usually it's fun to watch people theorize because of what they don't know, so it's extra fun when someone as smart as you doesn't have the pieces I already do. Just chortling to myself, "Oh ho ho, just you wait!" @elkian asked: I may have sent this before but I ADORE your Doc Scratch dissertations. What few liveblogs (and fandom during/after the run) I've followed have other strengths and focuses, so these moments where you stop everything to shred his dialogue to see if fhere's even a GRAIN of truth are novel and absolutely fascinating. I think you've done the most thorough analyses of any 1 of his convos let alone all of them and I'm here for it. Rip that shady motherfucker apart! :D

Despite myself, I am enjoying puzzling out the true meaning of what he says. I've just got to remember that he is fully capable of lying.

I do think, on balance, that there is some hidden meaning to his words - it's just hard to find. His '50% chance of ascending' statement is definitely foreshadowing something, I just can't figure out what. I think it has something to do with the reboot session, but I'm waiting to learn more about the reboot before I really start theorizing about it.

Anonymous asked: In case the 7 Gates haven’t been fully explained yet — the Gates over a player’s house are all either entry (transport to somewhere on their planet) or exit (destination of a gate on the planet of the previous player in the chain). Using John as example: Build to gate 1, which takes him somewhere on LOWAS. Find gate 2 elsewhere on LOWAS, this will take him to the matching gate over Rose’s house — build up to her gate 3, which will lead to somewhere on LOLAR, then find the planet’s gate 4, etc.

Here's my old interpretation of the Gate system, from way back in Act 4. I'm fully in agreement with you about John's path here - the problem is that when you use it to extrapolate Rose's path, things start to fall apart.

See, this ordering method implies that in a four-player chain, your own Seventh Gate is located on the Land preceding yours, rather than your own. This means that Rose's Seventh Gate is the one that got John killed on LOWAS - the one which leads to his Denizen. It additionally implies that John's Seventh Gate should have been on Jade's Land instead. It's all very confusing.

Anonymous asked: Something I love about how this god-tier immortality system is described, however it works, is that "remaining neutral" will PROBABLY keep you alive… but when you think about it, remaining neutral means not making a REAL DIFFERENCE. As a God, if you want to make a difference in the world around you -- good or bad -- you have to be willing to stake your life on it.

True! It's an interesting balancing mechanism, where each God Tier has to decide whether their life is more valuable than their personal agency. Gods who avoid Heroic and Just situations are almost invincible, but they're also completely ineffectual.

I'd obviously try to game the system somehow, but the vague, subjective definitions of Heroic and Just make this a difficult system to game.

@spyril4132 asked: with the reveal of the heroic-just system, there's now a reason you might not want to god tier immediately: sacrificing one of your selves for a heroic cause and then doing what aradia did (but intentionally)

Good point. Although, I'm not sure I'd want to rely on the Quest Slab for my resurrection - at least, not yet. We don't really know the rules are, and how they differ from normal Quest Bed rules.

Anonymous asked: "I don't really care if Paradox Space sanctions his actions - he needs to be taken down, and if that upsets the natural order, then it's time for a new natural order." i think you for sure lean more lifeways on the life/doom player axis lol. oh, the laws of the multiverse say death is inevitable? well, that fucking sucks and i hate it, so i'm gonna wedge myself into the cracks and loopholes and *make* it evitable one day at a goddamn time, life finds a way motherfucker.

Life finds a way, motherfucker!

I actually find both Life and Doom fairly interesting, as Aspects go. I think, at this point, I'm committed to giving one to my kidsona, and the other to my trollsona.

If another Aspect ends up catching my eye, we'll have to start workshopping a Carapaciansona!

Anonymous asked: I think you got it kinda twisted what's going on with Rose. Yes she is slightly corrupted by the Horrorterrors powers/boons and Scratch's… Sheer Existence. But in her mind, she's doing this to Save her session, so if she does go God Tier and gets killed, her death wouldn't be Just, it would probably be Heroic. As she probably would've died tryong to save her session, which would cancel out the corruption from Scratch and Horrorterrors. Either way she still dies, but it's the difference in Why she dies that's important. […]

See, this is the whole problem, isn't it? These terms are incredibly subjective.

I personally think Rose's attempt to save her session is extremely Heroic - but Skaia couldn't possibly approve of her assault on the game, so I don't think it would cancel out her Horrorterror corruption. Sburb itself is probably the last word on what qualifies as a Just death, so I think that's what she'd get tagged as, if she died as a God Tier in the Green Sun's explosion.

I'm also not sure if getting tagged as Heroic would cancel out a Just tag. They're not necessarily opposites - Vriska, for example, is designed to have a controversial alignment, and could easily die in a way that counts as both.

@ben-guy asked: Small correction, you referred to the Alternian empire as "intergalactic" when it only exists within one galaxy as far as I'm aware. Yes, kind of a silly nitpick, and one that I could be wrong about, but I happen to enjoy thinking about the comparative scale of space faring societies lol. If there is a quote contradicting that, I'd like to see it! Pretty sure it's merely a galactic empire tho :)

Nah, that's fair - that's the kind of nitpick I'd point out, too.

Galaxy, singular. I think I parsed the Empire as intergalactic because massively faster-than-light travel is clearly possible in this setting, via time manipulation. We don't actually know if Alternia had access to time manipulation before Sgrub - but Earth seemingly did, so who knows?

@abacusdictator asked: Found your liveblog a few days ago and furiously binged it. Happy to find another Homestuck liveblog! Especially one I can see happen in-progress! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!

Thanks - and you're certainly coming in at an interesting time!

Anonymous asked: Scratch "chooses not to lie," but he also has the privileged position of knowing in advance that Rose will misunderstand what the Scratch is, leading to her doing what he wants. If he knew that not lying wouldn't get him what he wants, or even if he didn't know for certain that it would, would he lie? If so, that basically means it's pointless to try to figure out his true meanings, because if you succeed, he'll have retroactively lied about it anyway.

Yeah, this is pretty much my take.

Does it really matter if he 'doesn't lie' if he can foresee all the truths that will mislead you? When you're playing at his level, the actual truth of your statements barely matters.

@skelekingfeddy asked: to my knowledge this has never been commented on by hussie, but i feel like doc scratch doesnt lie in part because he was made from the cueball. its a fortune telling device that predicts the future with remarkable precision and accuracy. you wouldnt expect it to lie, would you? its just that the difference between scratch and the cueball is that he can pick and choose WHICH truths to reveal at which moments. (his penchant for jokes thus probably comes from cal (‘haa haa hee hee hoo hoo’) i feel like him never lying is also a way to feed his own ego. its a self-imposed(!!!!) restriction, and yet despite it he effortlessly plays everyone like fiddles. and he KNOWS it. he CHOOSES never to lie. he VOLUNTARILY hands the people he manipulates an advantage on a goddamn silver platter, and he STILL wins. ‘Isn't it funny how during our various matches, I can tell you what my moves will be in advance, and still win?’ hes so fucking smug. what a pompous dipshit. i love him Anonymous asked: I think that when Scratch say he don't lie, he mean it, and not because of some vilainous valor but out of sheer ego. Scratch is prideful, he love beating other by "playing with cards face up" and tricking them with exact word, he doesn't tell the truth because it's "honorable", he tell the truth because he doesn't need to lie to win.

Also, this. He's just a smug fuck.

Do we know for sure if the cueball is always truthful, actually? Scratch heavily implies it here, but he's only stating it as a hypothetical.

Anonymous asked: Scratch is like a fae, he doesn't lie but you better watch out how he word what he say.

I'd be so screwed against the fae. Not because I couldn't parse their statements, but because I'm only halfway competent with human social customs, let alone weird alien ones.

@manorinthewoods asked: Honestly, I think it's great for his character if Scratch is actually completely dead of emotion inside, possibly even thoughts, and is just near-mindlessly carrying out the necessary parts of his role in the story so that his desired outcome is achieved. He's omniscient, he doesn't need to think. On the other hand, he does seem to have experienced genuine emotion, on occasions… ~LOSS (24/7/24)

A pseudo-omniscient character, mindlessly following the optimal path to their ultimate goal? This smells suspiciously like a Certified Contessa Moment...

Anonymous asked: In the trolls game all the trolls got to see and speak to their lusi after they died because they put them in the sprites. Meaning Gamzees dad coming back wouldn’t get him sober. Ideally Gamzee would be able to interact with his dad way more then he ever had in the past because his dad now had to guid him as his sprite.

Fair point. Although, we know that prototyping tends to affect your personality, and shifts your priorities towards guiding your Player through the game.

Goatsprite's sprite knowledge might have informed him that Gamzee needed to be on Sopor Slime, or game would become unwinnable.

@heliotropopause asked: "Well, no! That’s the problem! The cueball’s omniscience is completely redundant, because the MEOW code already contains an omniscience gene! According to the Scratch loredump, any ‘intelligent’ host for the MEOW code will be granted near-omniscience. Scratch didn’t need the cueball," I think it's worth considering the what exactly he meant with that- it seems perfectly plausible that the teleportation-based powerset established for bequerel would make an intelligent agent very good at observation, either by physically hopping around, or by teleporting light around to see distant places, or by sending out telekinetic "feelers"; we know bec has the capability to separately manipulate individual objects in physical contact from afar. None of this would give him knowledge of the future, or of physically disjoint spaces like the human session, so the cueball is not at all redundant.

It's possible. See, this is another situation where we're really being hampered by our small sample size. We've only seen two First Guardians, and only one of them has been a 'standard' First Guardian, unaltered by HONK. As such, we don't really know how First Guardian clairvoyance is supposed to function.

Another Guardian with human-level intelligence is desperately needed, for science. It's almost enough to make me want the Scratched Guardian of Earth to be made from a human...

@manorinthewoods asked: As an alternative explanation for the double-omniscience problem, one could say that the cueball, in being used to create Scratch, retroactively and conceptually gained his omniscience - so effectively, any use of a cueball allows you to attune to Scratch's awareness (as long as he's alive, perhaps?). This would subsequently imply that First Guardians are all linked to their components - for instance, there would be some link between Bec and all dogs, or specifically Halley. ~LOSS (23/7/24)

As this ask points out, I might just be drawing the causal arrows in the wrong direction. If the cueball is omniscient because of Scratch, rather than the other way round, then there's really only one root cause for his clairvoyance.

I'm not sure why it would work like that, but I do like the idea of Colonel Sassacre running around the early 1900s with a suspiciously powerful dog.

@manorinthewoods asked: The link between 'Skaia's final gate of defense' and 'first to find Alternia' is something I just didn't notice (because I didn't really pay attention to the words and botched my experience by not watching the Flashes), but it would imply, to me, that the gates run in reverse order, Skaia to World - first meteor in, last meteor out. This would mean that the moon which dropped on Jade was the last meteor to hit […]Skaia. ~LOSS (23/7/24)

Hey, good catch!

Jade's meteor was the last to arrive on Earth. By this logic, wouldn't it have been the first thing to leave the session, rather than the last?

That makes a sort of sense, actually. A meteor this enormous would dwarf the entire Incipisphere, so the game would probably want it out of the picture as soon as possible.

@manorinthewoods asked: You seem to have run with the interpretation that all First Guardians run on the same fundamental genetic code, identical to MEOW but using different letters. Not really how I thought of it - I interpret that every FG's code is different, although I also didn't think too hard about the FGs. No reason that they'd necessarily all have to have the same genetic code - after all, Bec's a dog and Scratch's a Scratch. You'd only really need a single gene to code for Green Sun powers… ~LOSS (23/7/24)

It does say they share a genetic sequence, rather than an entire genome. Becquerel presumably contains some dog DNA - the 'host' - which is absent in Scratch, so their genome can't be identical.

Unlike Becquerel, Scratch's hosts were entirely synthetic. They didn't have DNA - which, to me, implies that his entire genome is just an amalgamation of the BR8K H34DS T1CK T0CK HONK sequences. His DNA is just the First Guardian sequence, plus whatever is in HONK.

...what the hell is in HONK, then? If it's DNA, it has to come from some living thing, and I have a horrible feeling that Gamzee spliced his own DNA into the sequence. Why else would he call it HONK?

@skelekingfeddy asked: ‘…the fucking bow-tie! He’s wearing Cal’s Alternian clothes! The proof’s been staring us in the face this entire time, and we were none the wiser!’ look at what regular cal is wearing underneath his blue ‘CAL’ shirt :)

My guy's been pulling the long con.

@morganwick asked: "#but now that i have an antimatter pellet I can feed it to my bees. they can create nuclear waste honey without all the fission rigmarole" Minecraft, Sollux style. (Or maybe Minecraft, Problem Sleuth style?)

Sollux would be a Productive Bees specialist, wouldn't he? That, alongside every computer mod in existence.

@elkian asked: Sorry if I'm the 80th person to mention this but Vriska's 8r8k could also refer to the act of shooting the cue ball at the group of pool balls at the start of a game, known as a "break". @ben-guy asked: Fun fact: In pool terms, the "8r8k" actually refers to the opening shot that sends all the balls flying everywhere. Additional fun fact: The game of pool has a history of being used as a metaphor for causality, which lends some interesting metaphorical weight to Doc Scratch as a cue ball.

Oh, that's true - pool balls are often used as an analogy when talking about causality. Surprising that that's never occurred to me before.

I like to think that when the Felt storm a rival gang's lair as a group, they call their maneuver The Break.

@manorinthewoods asked: Oh my god, Aradia uses Jack to go to the Green Sun. That's such a cool detail. It's so fast, I didn't even see it. To be fair, although the timing is ridiculously impressive, Aradia is both a god and specifically a god of time. Although it's never stated, perfect timing is an obvious power for Time God Tiers to have, which does mean that Aradia would be a half-Flechette. ~LOSS (18/7/24)

And Kanaya's a fashion designer, too. Aradia x Kanaya when?

Anonymous asked: Hey, unfortunately the reqs list link seems to be janked out on my mobile client so I hope this is ok but if you haven't already heard of it I highly highly reccomend Jon Bois' 17776: What Football Will Look Like In the Future It's about football in the same sort of way that homestuck is about video games

Love that story - and I still have to read the sequel, actually!

Anonymous asked: Forwarding another question from the person without a Tumblr account: ~DJ. [I think the change in Equis and Nepeta's behavior is explained by "being together and solving problems together for a long time was great for Equius' and Nepeta's relationship" and "the destruction of Alternia helped Equius realize some facets of Alternian culture he believed where false" (because unlike Eridan he is able to change his mind about stuff like this). - RM]

I really want to see what Equius and Nepeta got up to for a month, as well as all the other trolls. It'd be great to get an 'untold stories of Homestuck' anthology at some point - and hopefully, that's something we'll see in some of Homestuck's tie-in media.

Anonymous asked: I’ve been thinking about Bec prototyping himself and I think I’ve got an answer that works for me - not necessarily the whole answer or the only answer, but I think it’s got something. Basically, Bec knows he can’t / shouldn’t get rid of the meteor entirely (he came down in a meteor that built the frog ruins, so even if we’re just going off what he’s experienced we can say that he probably on some level understands that these meteors landing is important) but he also understands he doesn’t have the type of power or the finesse with that power to only delay it until Jade can take the shot. After all, he could’ve just teleported the living room junk to a different part of the house, but he sent it into deep space because his doggy brain can only deal in absolutes when it comes to perceived danger to his best friend, and the only power we’ve seen First Guardians use (to my recollection) that would in any way help with slowing the meteor is teleportation. He can’t reliably teleport it back only far enough that it will keep falling, but won’t yet land, and he doesn’t have anything else at his disposal - except becoming a sprite, who we’ve seen use beam attacks, which allows Bec to push the meteor back as a delaying measure. Don’t know if he knew it would help so specifically, but even so, I can see Bec understanding it as the only option he has that isn’t either ‘send thing as far away as possible’ or ‘let thing squish most beloved person’. I do think the weakest parts of this theory are What Bec Understands, but puzzling through that devilbeast’s thoughts is hardly a new impossibility. If nothing else, we can all understand that he did this to save Jade, because he loves her, and we love him for that. -Megido (am a new anon, just spent the past couple days catching up and have enjoyed this liveblog immensely)

I think this theory is a good one, and Hussie's comments support it.

The meteor needed to be destroyed in a very specific way for the timeline to retain its integrity, and Bec should instinctively know that, born from Sburb as he is.

Anonymous asked: There are three lenses I think you can view troll romance through: the Xenopsychology lens, the Propaganda lens, and the Parody lens. The Xenopsychology lens is that trolls do in fact experience alien emotions which cannot be felt by humans. It's not just that troll society chooses to categorize the same types of feelings and relationships that humans have differently; these are genuinely unique and original emotions, like a new color that a human couldn't imagine. Describing kismesissitude as hatemance or rivalry or abuse, or moirallegiance as bromance or besties or queer platonic partnership, or auspisticism as third wheeling or mom friending or refereeing are all fundamentally incorrect, because there is no human analogue. You can take this a step further and say that matespritship is also fundamentally different from human romance, even if it appears similar. Therefore all attempts to analyze or write troll romance should be forays into xenofiction, attempting to understand things within a nonhuman framework. The Propaganda lens is that actually troll emotions aren't really any different than human ones, but the quadrant system benefits the hemocasteist militaristic empire by keeping trolls divided enough to become either fucked up killers or submissive victims by the time they reach maturity, but have the minimum support structure needed to actually reach maturity. Kismesissitude is fundamentally unhealthy, auspisticism serves as a counterbalance to keep everyone from killing each other, and moirallegiance serves to prevent trolls from having multiple close friendships or from being fully open with their matesprit by arbitrarily sequestering who it’s appropriate to have certain positive interactions with. None of this is really romance except the one that’s analogous to human romance, but trolls are raised to buy into the system under threat of death. It’s hard to form community and contemplate uprising if everyone confines the meaningful relationships in their life to like 4-5 other people, half of which are based on negative interactions. Also it’s a commentary on how human rules about love and relationships and where the platonic ends and romantic or sexual starts are socially enforced rather than wholly natural and can be arbitrary and unhealthy. Anonymous asked: The Parody lens is that this is all Hussie making fun of fandom shipping tropes. All sufficiently devoted rivalries are actually romantic love. All sufficiently strong friendships are actually romantic love. These two are so hopelessly oblivious to the fact that they actually want to get with the guy they hate, or that the other person they think just wants to be friends actually feels the same way, they need a third party to push them together. (Okay this one doesn’t work because auspisticism seems to basically be the opposite of that? Maybe auspisticism is supposed to be like, contrived elimination of competing romantic options to assure an OTP. Idk if anyone really knows what auspisticism is supposed to be, least of all Hussie.) Also because this was early 2010’s Hussie, there’s maybe a certain level on which trolls being societally obliged to polyamory and bisexuality is also making fun of shippers, although if it was I think Hussie turned around pretty quickly to actually being cool about it. Much like how light is a wave, and a particle, and a ray, all of these are true at different times. This is because the nature of Hussie's writing is that even when things are serious business, they are also jokes. And this is also why the Homestuck fandom will never agree on the correct way to understand and depict the quadrants.

Great breakdown. As you could probably predict, I lean a lot more towards the Propaganda lens, with a healthy dose of Parody mixed in.

The Xenopsychology lens isn't necessarily untrue - it's just that, as I've discussed before, the trolls read as extremely human to me. I honestly believe that if you raised a human on Alternia, they'd probably be compelled to form the same quadrants as everyone else.

I once got an ask stating that, according to Hussie, each of the quadrants are meant to be exaggerated versions of human relationship dynamics. I'd really like to check out that full quote, so if anyone's got a link, send it my way!

[luimagines]

thinking about human reader and how hylians yk dont like humans, im imagining how id probably react to the chain members who dont rly like humans.(pls pls give how youd react too HELP i need to hear about how others would react too)

like i would be side eyeing (the ones with less than positive opinions) them every time they look in my direction 😭😭 i would be so defensive and would stay AT LEAST 6 feet away from them because i am not about to have that energy around me. i probably wouldnt help with how they view humans ngl

also going with the idea that wild is at least part human, i think thatd itd be fun to bond w him over certain human traits that they both have. like breaking the weapons??? (i probably couldnt even hold them, unless we're going with the idea of humans being stronger than hylians) also i saw something about wild healing by stuffing a shit ton of fruit down his throat being a human trait, and oml imagine being like "hey wild can i have like 20 apples??? i need to heal rq"

okay okay but what if.. human reader AND they were like the guide voice they heard on their journeys(im specifically thinking about isekai reader who played the games and the links could hear their voice while they played the game, but however you wanna view it works too)?? how much would that change their view on humans??

okay sorry about the rant but like i needed to get my thoughts out

Oh goodness, if I was there I would be stressed as hell. DX

I'm a people pleaser by default. The subtle knowledge that I did nothing wrong but am still on their bad side would prompt me to be super nice and extra helpful and overall be and pushover because I need them to not not like me.

I'd still like glue to Wolfie because I love dogs and since Twilight doesn't care, he'd let me be close and I'd project all my anxiety onto this four legged creature. He is now my emotional support dog.

But for guide! reader to also be human. Hmmmm... Talk about a culture shock. The more suspicious/distrusting of the group would likely have an aneurism. A full blown record scratch. Broken brain moment.

It would be a better turning point for them to learn that sort of thing to be more accepting of humans. Not that they'll have a full 180 then and there.

But if the voice they've grown attached to a human, knowing that what they do and have done, are they really that bad?

But there's still the ever present idea of, is this person who they've grown to love and admire from a distance really not all what they thought they appeared to be?

It'll take some time to come to terms, but it's certainly a catalyst.

[autisticaradiamegido]

Haiiii!

You're that senshi cosplayer right?

My brother is trying to cosplay him, do you have any tips?

Oh man Senshi involved a LOT of firsts for me cosplay-wise, so I am not sure I did everything in the best or most efficient way. But! Here is a quick rundown of what I did. Skirt and Bracers w/ the fur: - this is a pretty basic sewing project! i just bought some brown faux-leather at joanns and made some slightly tapered tubes based on my waist and arm measurements. very easy and very little patterning involved!

The top: - literally just wore a gray tank top i already had

The armor: - Oh man okay this was my first time doing proper EVA foam armor, so take everything I say with a grain of salt BUT!! basically, I patterned everything out in paper first to get a decent idea of how it would fit on me. then i traced it out on some EVA foam rolls I had lying around from other cosplay prop builds, just a little bigger than my paper mock-ups to account for The Thickness of the foam. -The helmet was absolutely the hardest part and my main advice here is to be at peace with the idea that you may have to redo a lot of stuff and build a lot of prototypes to get that thing to fit your head right. - Once you have the foam base, you can build on top of it with foam clay to clean up the seams/add more organic shapes and details/etc. and if you use water to blend it in with the foam it can turn out reeeeally nice and seamless! I got all those supplies at michaels. -then after making sure all of that is nice and smooth and sculpted how you want it, you can sand and carve in any last details. THEN it's time to seal that shit for painting and durability! -for this, i used Plasti-Dip. it is basically a spray paint that creates a rubberized coating over top of the foam. this means the foam wont just soak up the paint when you apply it, AND it helps stiffen everything up a bit while still leaving it flexible AND toughening it up against dings and dents. -then painting! my biggest painting tip is WEATHER THAT SHIT!!! painting a single solid color can get it all unified but what'll really sell the look is going back over those base colors with watered down black to get it into all the little imperfections and stay there, bring out the details and add texture. makes the armor feel lived-in! -ALL THAT SAID: I actually found out later that a number of people have put out 3D print files for the various armor bits AND the helmet, so if you either HAVE a 3D printer or are willing to shell out for somebody else to print those for you to assemble, that might be an easier way to go about it! all up to you, i cant vouch for how that goes re: fitting it to your specific body and all that, plus idk how comfy itd be in comparison? but it certainly seems easier lol The sandals: -same as above only i attached the armor bits to a pair of flip flops i already had and thought were comfy. senshis foot armor situation is kinda wacky ngl. i have no idea what that weird crescenty bit on top of his toes is for. but thats what the reference images show sooo what can ya do.

THE BEARD: -oh man so this was another first but i REAAAAALLY loved the result. okay so my tip is this: if you want your wig and beard to match exactly? just buy two of the same wig. one goes on your head, and one gets flipped turned upside down and cut into a beard shape!!! -i will tell you a cheap lace-front wig is a LOT more affordable than one of those fancy hand-laced beard pieces, and it LOOKS waaaay better than like, the usual party city fake pirate beard you will probably find when searching for affordable costume facial hair, particularly if he's gonna want the option to remove the helmet and go full Hot Senshi Mode.

-literally i just had to cut a hole in the wig for my mouth and trim up a decent mustache above the mouth hole. -then you can use the little uhh.... elasticky bits? with the hooks?? that go inside the wig and help you adjust it to your head size? i literally just stretched them up and hooked them onto my wig cap and i BARELY needed to tack anything down with spirit gum. it held that thing up like a fucking champ and, all things considered, was pretty comfy!! didnt have to hook anything over my ears or anything!! -oh if you dont have any experience with spirit gum tho MAKE SURE YOU ALSO PURCHASE SPIRIT GUM REMOVER. it leaves such a nasty residue after, and its a son of a bitch to scrub off. i super recommend the remover.

oh and remember to add some blush to your nose when you go out wearing the full thing. rly adds to the overall Senshi effect i think! uhhh i think thats it??? for senshi's pan i literally just bought like a big fucking wok and strapped it to my back. it wasnt as heavy as youd think tbh but then i am kind of a tryhard. and for the little walking mushroom... idk! my mom crocheted it for me a while back and i thought it would be a really cute prop!

[neechees]

Balto 2 this movie i remember they put indigenous culture on this but it's racist they used animal character to represent indigenous people. To be fair balto movie the first one is good but the sequel well they're fine

You'd be right that itd be racist that they jsed animals to represent Indigenous people, but I can't even tell if thats what they were trying to do because it was done to badly. You mentioned in a previous ask (that I've lost atm) that you think Balto was supposed to be coded as mixed Indigenous, & that someone else who left a review on the first movie described it (Balto the character) as being both coded Native and the "tragic m*latto" trope, but honestly I dont really see ANY Indigenous coding in the first movie. That reviewers opinion is doesn't make sense to me since that trope is specific to Black people and specifically mixed Black (& coded) characters, not Native characters (unless maybe they were mixed Native/Black? But there's nothing to suggest Balto is Black either). The first Balto movie actually reads better if he's NOT supposed to be coded as a mixed race human, & if you just go with the story that it's just about dogs who don't initially trust Balto because he is part Wolf, & if you go by the standards of that thinking of animals in the movie (which would make sense: wolf dogs irl are actually very dangerous because their behaviors are extremely unpredictable, and they do and can act like wild animals, and aren't always trainable)

There's certainly Indigenous influence in the second movie, but it's more of an amalgamation & appropriation of different Indigenous beliefs (such as spirit animals, the totem pole & the meanings of them or what the carvings represent, Native sounding names for some of the characters, etc) that they just added to the movie for the sake of plot or to add to the setting, rather than the influence rooted in any specific tribe & their culture & then using that to outright say the characters are Native. As a kid, I didn't even really get the vibe that Aleu OR Balto was supposed to be Native, but just that the movie had some Indigenous looking stuff in it. I waited for some actual Indigenous characters to show up but they didn't, really. Imo they did kind of a shitty job at "coding" if that's what they were going for.

If Balto was supposed to be Native, I find it kind of weird to make him, the wolfdog, the (mixed) Native one, but that the Huskies are apparently supposed to be White. This is weird because Huskies have a lot of breeds Native to North America and used widely by Inuit & other Arctic Native people, so if anything they have a bigger connection to & association with Native people. It's also a weird move in general since "mutt" & "halfbreed" are two very common slurs used against Métis & other mixed Native people. Aleu even mentions her mother being a "purebreed" at one point. So to take that and apply it to ACTUAL dog characters but with terrible coding & appropriation is... not a good look.

So overall I can't even tell if Balto (& Aleu) was even intended to be coded as Native because of how terribly it was executed. I feel like if it was, the first film was not, but that they messily added all the coding later into the second film & tried to tie it in based on the (non coded) canon & lore they had from the first film. But if it wasn't (which I also think is plausible), I think they just added in all the Native (ish) stuff because they thought it'd be cool to have for the sake of aesthetics & story. It's hard to tell, because it's not like Spirit, where it's obvious Spirit is meant to be Native, because of the rest of the themes and motifs, his story is a parallel to Little Creek's, things that happen to him ALSO happened to Native people, there's Native characters added, there's various Native voice actors (including the legendary Zahn McClarnon, who does a minor role) & accurate showcase of Lakota culture, including the Lakota language, the bad guy is literally modeled after General Custer, & the whole film is a criticism on the treatment of Native Americans & American colonization.

With Balto, there's no Native voice actors or Native characters, the Native "culture" that IS there is extremely vague & not very cohesive & is hard to pin down what tribe(s) they were getting their info or inspiration from, & the only messaging that's there possibly regarding Native people is about the racism that mixed people face, which is also kinda general enough that you could potentially & arguably apply it to ANY mixed race person regardless of ethnicity, and in and of itself can be considered racist depending on the interpretation of what's presented (again what with the chsracters being dogs, the appropriation, etc).

[loversj0y]

More presidentbur ideas while i work up motivation to do the angsty part 3 (these hcs are not related to the political rival au)

Finding wilbur asleep at his presidential desk and carrying him to his chambers despite being a little over half his height. Maybe he wakes up halfway to the room, and he’s just being carried around like a doll. Imagine if he flails around in surprise and ends up knocking the both of you over. 

S c a l p.        m a s s a g e s.  during the stressful time of the election

Imagine coming in late at night to find him still working at his desk. The two of you start talking, and you end up on the floor, sitting across from each other, toes touching and knees brought up to your chests (his back against his desk and yours against the wall). At one point he starts talking about the war, and it turns to him holding out his hands, palms facing up. You meet him in the middle, reaching out your own hands to hold his, gently tracing the scars. Eyes soft and downcast, he stares at his hands as you pet them, murmuring some quiet thoughts about the effects of the war and the difficulty of being president— the distant look in his eyes almost suggesting that he’s talking to himself. But then he looks up at you, face grim and tired and so worn, yet relieved that there’s at least one person he can be human with, without the constant fear of accidentally ruining their image of a confident, silver tongued president and revolutionary (no matter how hard you try and assure him that nobody would think less of him if he showed weakness for once– especially not tommy. But it's like talking to a brick wall). You hold your arms out, open, and he just pitches forward slowly, head coming to rest on your chest as he slumps against you. His hair tickles your face and you scrunch up your nose, running a hand through the brown curls to flatten them away from his face… which makes him sigh happily at the feeling and go limp. Eventually he falls asleep. 

Offering a kiss for every hour he sleeps and abstains from work. He sleeps for eight hours? Eight kisses in the morning! He sleeps for only three? Only three. Good incentive, but you can hardly convince yourself to stick to the plan and always end up giving him more kisses than he had “earned”-- because in reality he deserves all of them.

That’s all for right now! I hope you get over your hangover, and I’m excited to hear about that gunpowder idea…..

my god these are all. just completely amazing holy shit man i fucking love president bur man hes such a stressed out guy he needs Love. i love the idea of just hauling him to bed and him being like. what the fuck how. and when he knocks you guys over hes just like

“holy fuck im so sorry fuck oh my god uhhh let me- i can carry you?” confused and half awake trying to figure out how to fix it.

i think scalp massages are his off button. he needs kindness and affection.

3 i am SO BIG ABOUT. he is so used to upholding his reputations that he forgets how to feel human!!!!! so being there and getting him to feel human again, process his own traumas, and feel okay and *real* is such a big thing (mental health awareness and treatment in cwilburs arc is something ive thought abt so much bc with the first piece i wrote EVER being abt cwilbur’s death, i thought a lot about how the insanity would fester and how. if someone had been there and treated him as human instead of a chess piece he couldve been better off)

also. yes. he needs sleep he is so sleep deprived so if this works itd be amazing and he’d love it (eventually. he’d be annoyed at first but once he starts feeling more rested…)

also hangover is almost totally passed now! as for the gunpowder thought, it might not be enough to inspire something alone, but it certainly will be enough to set up a motif in a work about c wilbur’s death, if i ever go on to write another (i could always reworkshop ‘i dont smoke’ now that im better at writing and understand cwilbur better)

[kozykricket]

(2/2)

so i guess thats both a point FOR and AGAINST this stuff being given to the dark forest... but like, i dunno. i feel like this biome spawning next to dark forests just... makes dark forests feel way less interesting in comparison? instead of having 2 interesting-enough biomes, we could've had one super interesting biome! i guess its like they both have merit existing. i love the pale garden, because it gives us a fantasy biome in the overworld, and the vibes are special. if they give it fog, itll be a really fantastic experience but AGAIN its a... self contained experience, and like. why is that what mojang prioritizes. i dunno... still figuring out my thoughts. i can at least say that i think in terms of complexity, they did pretty well with... not overcomplicating it too much, but still giving it an interesting mechanic. i do feel like mojang "overthinks" stuff a lot, and sometimes overdesigns things to be like SUPER OMEGA DEEP AND INTERESTING. but also sometimes completely lacks any interesting stuff at all. i think the creaking is a good middleground i just... the moss. the precedents of hanging moss existing. why cant dark oak forests have that, huh??

i think the critiques ive seen that its dumb because its not USEFUL is like... i disagree. i think its fine not being "useful" like cmon its minecraft one last thing, maybe it truly would've worked better as a cave biome. then it wouldnt stand out from dark forests as much, but... then itd also... be yet another horror cave biome, which we already have. so uhh hm yeah, still developing my thoughts on this all. i love the mobs design, and i love fantasy biomes, but im conflicted about mojangs direction of developing the game. im happy for Drop releases, but im not particularly happy to see that right now we're getting... more sidequests added onto the game. at least bundles are certainly not sidequests by any manner

there is no feeling more conflicting than "god this content is genuinely high quality and well thought out, but ... why? theres other stuff to prioritize. why are you prioritizing designing minigames within minecraft?"

or as i put it to a friend:

its a very unique vibe for a biome, and the gameplay is fun and well designed but its like. honestly mojang just go design some platformer game or something lol you love designing interesting self contained gameplay like trial chambers or the pale garden

so all in all? i dont think it deserves to be critiqued for Lacking, but i do think it shines another light towards... mangrove swamp type situations. was 1.19 a swamp update? no. it gave us a brand new cooler swamp. mojang is averse to changing old experiences to become different. nether fortresses are still the same after the nether update. mob spawner rooms are still EXACTLY the same in look and loot after tricky trials. it'd be like if no kelp or cod spawned in normal temperature oceans !! what gives!!

well! about that mc live, huh?

im just gonna say right off the bat. you know that i am not a "mojang lazy" person. doesnt mean im not critical of them. gonna give my nuanced view in this post. itll be a long one!

so... first of all, i just gotta say like, changing to having more "drop" updates instead of yearly summer updates is... thank god. i didnt wanna see mojang become gamefreak with yearly, formulaic releases.. hell, im kinda thinking. they're probably working on the big updates in the background now, while they can still keep people (and corporate people) satisfied, by delivering drops of content. and the other ideas they have? instead of being hecked over by priorities as much... they can actually just decide like "okay, we have more than a year to work on the big update. we can fit it in, so it doesnt get delayed back to the next big update" ...or, if its something small, then it wont be held up from releasing by like... waiting for the next Big Update. for example, if we had the drop releases back in 1.16, we could've had the ability to break leaves faster with hoes... waay earlier, instead of having to wait for the full nether update to drop. yknow? or, again using 1.16 as an example, if they have more ideas for the content in the Big Update, they can decide "yeah, we can put it in!" like how the allay was conceptualized for 1.16 but they didnt fit it in because well, they have more time to work on it! they can have bigger scope! more flexibility! ...but they're clearly still going for yearly key-jingling of shiny new content, i can see. like, as usual, its something new that is entirely self contained and doesnt really effect the rest of the game. its avoidable. which like, okay... i get it. i get why mojang doesnt want to make the game feel too different for people who come back to it after a while, but like. i dunno. i feel like- okay how about i actually just go over the features individually ...i appreciate the biome being a fantasy biome. ive kinda just accepted that mojang disregarded any plans to ever have non-real-life biomes in the overworld, unless they were underground like the deep dark. but nope! we can have weird white trees with freaky tree monsters!!! so, thats very nice. and the mechanics themselves seem really nice and interesting, its overall a very well put together vibe. weeping angels are overdone because theyre GREAT monster types !! theyre AWESOME!! and attaching the mob to like, having to destroy a block? thats prob the most interesting way to defeat a mob like the creaking! great gameplay and the biome has really cool hanging moss on the trees, and the moss carpets climb up blocks... but therein lies the problem -- its very self contained. its like, mojang. you just gonna.. keep developing really thoughtfully designed sidequests?? i'd like to see the main game experience updated... but alas this is a DROP and not an UPDATE, to be fair. its just like ...the new biome gets ambient sounds, which no other overworld biome has. now that sets the bar higher for updating older overworld biomes to also have that. i wouldnt have wanted it before, but now i do. same goes for like, new mobs having better animation systems, yknow? i wouldnt have wanted better animations, but now... you gotta update stuff even more , for consistency. adding so much to your plate, mojang and ... why does THIS moss carpet get to be cool and grab onto blocks?? why cant they have updated old moss carpet?? i feel like they probably WONT update it ... because ill be honest, my first thoughts were "this all couldve been in the dark oak forest" hanging moss? would look great on the trees moss blocks on the ground? would be great the creaking? yea, i think it'd be spooky as a dark oak ent! thing is the dark forest already has a pretty unique kinda vibe and playstyle to it, being a biome thats typically dark and spawns lots of mobs, and also. has lack of sight due to the big trees (1/2)

[sayakxmi]

Peixes bonding time

Edit of this page: https://www.homestuck.com/story/6748

[nat-20s]

8 for jmart?

#8- constantly cheacking their messages for words from the other

what else was I gonna do? here's some classic ol' season 3 pining babey

Hello Martin. This is Jon. I have gotten a new phone after losing my last one, please put in the new number.

It's a simple message. Straightforward, factual, and utilitarian. There is no reason that pressing send should make his heart race. There's especially no reason that the second he sends it off, he's tempted to lie on the deeply uncomfortable, likely bedbug infested motel mattress staring at his screen until he gets a response. Sure, he's sick of being overseas, and he's sick of being so isolated, and he's sick of running, but he's not...desperate for what little companionship can even be provided by words on a screen.

He does miss Martin, though. He misses Tim as well, but in a manner that's significantly more complex and knotted than the simple desire to be around him.

God, when did he start wanting to just be around Martin? He started being aware of that want when he was at Georgie's, but he has no idea when the want itself actually started. That was probably something he should examine. Technically speaking, that is something that he has time to examine, but he doesn't want to examine right now. Right now, he wants the comfort of perhaps one of the only people out there that doesn't want to kill him, or use him, or both.

Martin, whether through somehow sensing Jon's discontent from nearly 4000 miles away or, more likely, through a general dutifulness inherent to his character, only takes a few minutes to reply. Oh good! it'd been a little bit since hearing from you, we were somewhat worried. putting you in my contacts as we speak :)!

Saying that "we" were worried is almost certainly generous on Martin's part, but Jon feels no need to point that out. Instead he turns on his side and stares at the phone. He particularly focuses on the smiley face, ridiculously charmed by the fact that, despite everything, Martin hasn't lost his predilection for emojis. Two years ago, he would've rolled his eyes, maybe thought something snide about professionalism. It wouldn't have been fair, as Tim used to do the same thing and he thought nothing of it, but he wasn't fair back then. Now, he simply wonders if he can get away with sending one back.

Before he can respond, Martin sends another message. Are you actually alright? I realized I was kind of assuming that losing your phone was the only reason you were MIA, but is anything else going on?

Damn. He tends to forget how perceptive Martin can be. What, exactly, Martin had perceived in that first message, Jon couldn't be sure, but apparently there was something that tipped him off to the..eventful last week he'd had. He really, really doesn't feel like getting into all of that right now, especially not over text, so instead he replies a mostly truthful I'm fine.

Then, squinting at the screen and realizing that might come across as a dismissal, he adds, Well, other than trying not to contemplate the general sanitation practices of a motel that clearly hasn't updated it's decor since the 70s. I'm suspecting the sheets are much the same.

He doesn't know how Martin will react to the message. He can't see the face he'll make, won't know the tone of his voice. However, he likes to imagine that Martin will at least smile. Maybe he'll even give that breath of a laugh, the one that sometimes happens when Jon's being lightly acerbic and it's not directed at him. He doesn't know, but he does hope for it. Martin texts back Oof. Maybe sleep on top of the covers tonight, yeah?, and Jon thinks that he might have guessed Martin's reaction correctly.

Christ, who knew all it took was a combination of jetlag and threats to turn him into a sap. He needs to sleep. He really needs a deep, proper, uninterrupted sleep, one lasting a minimum of eight hours and ideally closer to fifteen. Checking the time, it would be a fairly reasonable time to sleep, especially with the early start he has tomorrow. He considers sending off a quick good night message, but then has the realization that as reasonable as it is for him to be asleep right now, it's just as unreasonable for Martin to be awake. Are you alright? Good lord, Martin, it's almost 4am over there. Did I wake you?

Barely 30 seconds pass before he gets back no, you're good!

A beat, then a follow up message. I've had a irregular sleep schedule since I was like 16. A lot of evening and night shifts had a lasting impact u know? Working at the institute made it a bit more consistent but it's still p rare that i sleep the same eight hours night to night.

Jon's starts to text back something sympathetic; he's had his own struggles with both in- and hyper- somnia, but his phone buzzes in his hand before he can finish it.

Sorry! That was uh probably more information than you wanted.

Well, that just won't do. Even if there wasn't a part of his brain that had recently started collecting facts about Martin like they were precious jewels instead of mostly mundane stories, he doesn't want Martin to think he can't talk to him about things outside of the standard bounds of coworkers. Not at all. We're friends, Martin, I enjoy learning about you.

His brain wants to catastrophize the second he presses send. For the first minute that Martin doesn't reply, he doesn't let it. After the second minute, he allows the minor worry to become more severe. Had it been too much? Were they friends? Jon certainly thought so, but what if Martin wasn't in the same boat? Their interactions had been entirely friendly for months now, but what if that was just Martin being polite? God, what if Martin still thought of Jon as his boss, nothing more?

Ten minutes. It takes ten minutes for Martin to finally respond, and Jon has almost called him four times to explain himself. Ten minutes, and the first response is only Oh!

Then: Cool

Well, that's not a "piss off and die", but it's not exactly comforting. Jon doesn't know how to reply, staring at the words on his screen and not entirely sure if he's fucked up or not. Fortunately, Martin's not done responding, and the next message is much, much better.

Hey uh. Feel free to say no I know it's getting late over there but. Im not getting back to sleep for the rest of the day and itd be nice to actually hear you. Would you be okay with a call?

Without a moment's hesitation, he texts back Yes!, exclamation and all, because he's become someone he barely recognizes. The phone rings just as immediately, and he feels his entire body relax at Martin's first "Hello?"

Things are difficult right now. Things have been difficult ever since the promotion that was a curse in disguise. The world is filled with monsters he barely understands. He wishes he was home despite the fact that he barely recognizes it, as filled with tension and strife as it is. There's so much to discuss, so many things they should be hammering out. But right now, the threats are not pressing. Right now, he can hear about the bad true crime documentary Martin half-watched before he got Jon's texts, and Jon can bitch about the three different "pip pip cheerio" comments he's gotten since coming over seas. Right now, and for the hour before Jon drifts off, breathing slow and deep, he can pretend that this is an ordinary phone call, in an ordinary world, between two people who simply miss each other an extraordinary amount.

[monpalace]

okay, but what if the teacher's had apprentices??? like a random thought but what if there was one student that's a lot like let's say cruella de vil and they got sorted to be with yuu in ramshackle because they are nothing like the students in the rest of the dorms. then crewel takes them under his wing and then boom apprentice. and he pretty much becomes their new parent omg wtf this is longer than i thought itd be (U#$#(r@#)*

hmmmmmmm,, definitely a good question,, why did this turn out so long oh my god

pay would definitely come out the the teacher's pocket/paycheck since crowley doesn't have the fund to take on teacher assistants/apprentices

there would definitely be obvious favoritism depending on the teacher!!

vargas doesn't really count depending on your interests because i just KNOW he would make you do a hundred more laps than everyone else. but since the character would also be based off gaston i can see the two of them frequently having dumb challenges

trein would treat you like every other student, but he'd definitely be more fair with grading you + lucius would definitely go with you whenever during the school day. since the the character and him are similar, maybe on particularly stressful they go out and just have a walk? if they have one, lucius and their cat would most certainly trail behind them at a reasonable pace and just talk shit about the people they've seen throughout their nine lives

crewel would call you petnames that aren't dog related. maybe like mini me or fashionista or something?? whenever an event like a fashion show comes up, he takes you regardless of if you have school that day or not. he tells you how to make clothes that really POP out at people in hopes that you take his advice and use it to fix whatever ragtag outfits the ramshackle students have

literally everything i say about sam is a headcanon so idk if this'll be good,, but everything you get from the store is free. since voodoo (?) is a religious practice, i can't see him getting you into it unless you showed interest or were really interested in what he did. he tries embarrassing you in front of your friends i just know it. depending on how you act around him, it can mold your relationships. a lot of people tag him as a uncle/older brother, but he can be your dad if you want! ultimately, he wants you to always be safe, so it's not uncommon for you to see his shadow or a spirit out of the corner of your eye stalking you throughout the day

crowley,, he doesn't take you on those "work trips" the most he'll do is facetime you so you can feel the experience for yourself. you probably get a better allowance than yuu, but not by a lot 🗿 maybe like two dollars and a coupon to some hat store on sage island. while you wouldn't technically be a glorified assistant when he takes you under your wing, you still do some of his work load so you can get used to things like paperwork and making sure things run smoothly. during summer breaks he MIGHT take you on his vacation if you do something embarrassingly cute and let him record it

[malewifesband]

good point about genuine interest. i guess depending on the person they even might just find it fun to discuss and not be bothered at all that laios asks so many stupid questions

it seems to me that orc marital structure is such that a person does not take the status of a more powerful partner. laios, as someone who is outside the orc hierarchy, could not confer special status to an orc she weds, though itd be a great honor to be her consort and could not be given to anyone lightly

because however zon is already wed and must act as chief, i dont think he could marry laios. the politics of it are incompatible. she would outrank all his current wives and ordinarily, were she in the orc hierarchy, she would be taking him as consort and he would have to divorce all his wives to reconcile that with orc hierarchy. but maybe he has a brother or a cousin of high status who could be consort. maybe he could gift the honor to another tribe to soothe relations elsewhere

mickbell has to be in the room at all times including if and when they fuck. he doesnt even wanna see but if he doesnt have eyes on kuro/yodan/the royal consort hes going to start an international incident. kuro would feel so fucking guilty about this tho like he really cant turn down this honor but he cant leave mick alone either so. the feeling in the room would be that of someone with a really pissed off cat trying to have sex while the cats just growling in the doorway

poor kabru. this situation is truly impossible. he really couldnt compete with a wolfman for laios' attention like. laios loves him independently of the fact hes sexually attractive and is attracted to him in a more sensual way, focusing on the way he feels and how he touches her and the experience--but if were talking raw animal attraction, laios is jumping on the furry. shed find the blend between canine and human features so beautiful and fascinating would want to find out if kobolds retain any dog social behaviors bc miss autism understands them far better than human social behaviors. personally i am undecided how much dog social behavior kobolds practice bc i dont want to make them too animal but they do growl and scent things already so i kinda just wanna go nuts. but picture laios like trying to lick kuros mouth to show shes being submissive and she likes him

but yeah kuro is absolutely the safe option to kabru like he trusts kuro enough to understand how he feels about all this and its certainly the devil he knows. i dont think kabru could walk laios thru kobold sex tho. i dont think hes ever thought about that and to be honest with you i think hed much rather not know. which is too bad bc laios is absolutely going to recount to him in breathless detail every second of intimacy she just had in yodans chambers bc shes too excited about it to contain it. when kabru met kuro, he never pictured he would ever have to consider him as a sexual being. and now he is hearing a lot about that subject while their shared lover has her arms around his shoulders on his couch

with me going hard on tfem laios, i think shed be a lot more comfortable with having kids if shes the one bearing them (which i have no doubts is possible in this world, it would just likely take some form of ancient magic and a lot of experimentation, assuming it hasnt been done before. i believe marcille could do it if she could regrow falin from scratch). i think being the mother instead would break some of that traumatic association laios has with becoming his father, and while her relationship with her mother is poor, its not nearly as bad as with her father. i dont think shed be eager to name an heir, but i think the idea of having kids would be less hard to consider

a more matriarchal monarchy would be respected by the elves, and i dont think they would expect a titled queen (as opposed to a queen-consort) to marry as the heir is obviously legitimate if she bore it and there are witnesses

however from a political angle i would love love love to arrange a marriage between the nakamoto clan of the island of wa and the woman-king of melini to cement a trade agreement which will increase the nakamotos position at home and abroad

plays very nicely with my thought that toshiros dad would be extremely impressed that he befriended a king and would want him to go establish a branch family in a new nation with rare resources. what better way to do that than to marry off your permanently single son to a queen? she can bear kids right? alright, thats all papa nakamoto needed to hear. go make some royal babies son

its extremely romcom but maybe this should be funny a bit. maybe i am having a lot of fun with this. and i bet you laios still doesnt fucking know toshiros clan name so shes going to hear who shes marrying and all thats going thru her head is "oh shuros from that island" so toshiro her new fiance is going to arrive and shes gonna be like "^^ yayyyy shuro i didnt know you knew my new husband, are you gonna introduce us?"

and toshiro, who has been dreading this for months, now has to figure out how to break it to her thats him. hes the husband. please dont make this weird laios

[snickeringdragon]

so, reposting this bc i realised reblogs dont seem to appear on searches on tumblr lmfao

lighthearted rant abt why the galarian fossil pokemon shouldnt be alive!!/pos

ill go in dex order, dracozolt-arctozolt-dracovish-arctovish

dracozolt!! the combination of the bird and drake fossils, by far the LEAST fucked up of the galarian fossils, but it still has some clear issues to point out

after analyzing the living halves AND the fossils/descriptions you can pretty easily figure out what all 4 of the halves are roughly based after, the draco half causes some confusion but after the dex states that dracozolt is herbivorous, and the front half zolt clearly being a species of small feathered dromaeosaurid like raptors (possibly something like microraptor or archeaopteryx due to the bird fossils description stating it could fly, which no dromaeosaurs did but some were thought to glide!!) and those basically all being carnivorous, we can figure out draco is the herbivorous half, leading me to believe its some type of stegosaurid now, with a front half thats carnivorous and a back half thats herbivorous thats GOT to cause some issues, not getting proper nutrition, not having proper ways to digest certain things one half needs, etc, if we go with what the dex says (which the dex is CLEARLY not very reliable for these pokemon but lets just use it here) that its herbivorous the zolt half could be receiving malnutrition and having trouble eating the correct food the center of balance!

its probably thrown off by the obvious size difference and the fact that stegosaurids are quadrapeds, while dracozolt is a biped. if it falls over its pretty fucked but thats pretty normal for large theropods tbh

there could be some issues with body temperature, but im not sure, smaller things get colder faster and bigger things get hotter faster

thats all i have to say for dracozolt!!

Arctozolt

arctozolt is the combination of the dino and bird fossils and was my first galar fossil! theyve got some VERY clear issues and a few less clear ones to address, but they are Definitely not enjoying coming back from the dead 💖

first, what IS the arcto half? judging by what we can see i think its most likely to be a type of plesiosaur, it could also be some other aquatic reptiles like ichthyosaurs but i think plesiosaurs are more likely

arctozolt is. cold. duh, the freezing half of an ice type plesiosaur and a small dromeasaur is probably leaving lil zolt pretty chilly and uncomfortable, please give them a scarf

if you take a look back at dracozolt and compare to arctozolt, youll notice the upper torso and most of the arms are inside arctos? blubber? scales? one of those two! not only does this leave the hands nearly useless it also means that if the bones, muscle, flesh, etc, are still present it could definitely cause some health issues, including messing with organs

arctozolt is CLEARLY not supposed to be walking, a terrestrial animal was combined with an aquatic one to result in uh. broken flippers probably, aquatic animals can get VERY heavy and the flippers were clearly never designed to handle that weight, its likely highly uncomfortable to walk on them and probably causes many injuries including broken bones

Dracovish

oh FUCKING boy/lh the combination of the drake and fish fossils dracovish is a NIGHTMARE of a pokemon, a head on a tail, an aquatic creature combined with a terrestrial one, a carnivore combined with an herbivore, this is my least favorite galar fossil

firstly, whats the vish half? this is the only galarian fossil you can get an exact genus for, vish is almost certainly based of dunkleosteus, a prehistoric fish that had one FUCK of a jaw!

now, as stated above the picture dracovish has the same conflicting diet issue dracozolt has, draco being an herbivore and vish most likely being a carnivore like dunkleosteus, i wont go into too much detail because i already did with dracozolt

center of balance comes up once again, i dont think i need to elaborate much but with how it just. Is. theres no way this guy walks very straight, its also fucked if it falls just like dracozolt

dracovishs head is attached to its tail, that parts obvious, but this is CERTAINLY ***HIGHLY*** uncomfortable, stegosaurid tails should NOT be bent like that as well as just the effort it most likely takes to keep it up, also its head is upside down if it actually puts its tail back down, ALSO the spiky plates on dracos tail could very well harm itself if it gets too unlucky so.

dracovish has no throat unless cara liss decided to ACTUALLY put effort into these frankensteins monsters and put a throat in the tail theres no way it can uh. really do anything, eat, breathe air, drink water, yea

speaking of breathing!! does it? have lungs? the front half of draco being cut off could make it so theres no lungs, and vish most likely doesnt even have gills and if it DID have FUNCTIONING gills thatd bring up a whole NEW issue about how this thing CANT swim, no buts it just Cant

SPEAKING of it not having specific organs, does it have a HEART??? does it???? does it???????

theres so much about dracovish i probably forgot something/srs anyways!

Arctovish

arctovish is the combination of the dino and fish fossils, and the last one of the galarian fossils!!!!!

arctovish is probably the normalest LOOKING of the galarian fossils, until you realise its. head is on upside down, the pokedex, although unreliable for these pokemon i have a reason to believe what it says here, states this:

it has "trouble eating its prey" and "breathing difficulties" caused by its flipped head

it could have issues similar to arctozolt because of the freezing ice type arcto, but i feel itd be better than arctozolts issues

so uhhh thats it! thats my whole ass essay on why the galarian fossils are in constant pain/cant Live!

i spent an hour of my life on this, please reblog it/lh

[single-malt-scotch]

it is funny seeing now what ppl have surged in popularity in fandom, namely the ppl i watched years back mindcrack era that i dont feel like even got that much attention in the (much smaller) fandom. like at least fandomwise i never felt like bdubs or etho were that popular in regards to fics and stuff, mostly comparing to others at that time- tho bdubs and his later roleplaying (bteam) did gain him more attention i think. and like, nebtho was certainly a dyanmic ppl liked but it was otherwise pretty contained to those few moments and the fics were very much nonexistent even tho that fun pair. when i did see etho it was often with team canada as a whole. and in similarity w bdubs i feel like etho got more attention during more of that kinda phase (but nothing comparable to now). and ofc im speaking from experience of the ever tiny tumblr community... undoubtedly ppl leaned towards certain guys and it just kinda encouraged more focus on those people.

but i was curious if i could see how correct my memories were. while ao3 is a thing with tags im not sure if itd be skewed due to other things these people are in, so i thought itd be interesting to go to the salad and take a look since it was one of the most contained places for mindcrack fics i used back then

(under the cut bc this got even longer. sorry i can shut up abt fandom analysis and how things change <3)

some of these tags usages can be like... minor appearances. but at first i was surprised to see bdubs with a whole 478 tagged fics... but then the etho tag has a whopping 895. i think hes mentioned in a lot of fics in passing, but still thats a lot more tagged than i wouldve thought in the end. but i can say i really do remember bdubs getting very little attention in the fic area back then so. some of the other notably highly tagged people were beef (601), guude (753), kurt (731), nebris (662), pause (715), vechs (985), and zisteau (860).

leaving vechs at #1, etho at #2, and zisteau at #3. i was not a vechs reader but goddamn he really was everywhere fandom wise i recall, so that adds up. z and etho were definitely people i saw getting more attention at the end of my mindcrack era too (mostly z with vechs). of course some of this again should be taken w a the note that there are likely a lot of background appearances/minor ones. regardless, to know that even some of them were mentioned enough to add up like that is kinda wild when you think about it. i had some blinders on because i cared mostly about kurt and zisteau, and no surprise they have been tagged 700-800 times either- sms wasnt the most popular, but i know it came up quite a bit.

i did take a quick look at the mindcrack tag on ao3 but it houses wayyy less fics (466 right now) than the salad so, i guess its a better idea, mostly because it is what was popular back when these ppl werent as popular!

but in terms of now??? what got me back to watching these guys was being surprised at a post about bdubs that had like, 5k notes. so obvious things have changed A Lot. i mean hell. the salad has 2,578 fics tagged. ao3 has ummm 10k+ hermitcraft fics and 3k+ last life fics.... and for both etho and bdubs, theyre tagged in over 1k hermitcraft fics (2k, if you count last life as separate). actually an even more amusing comparison is Doc- on salad theres 213 tags and hes never someone i considered writing about or reading about (shockingly i did write him once) but in the hermitcraft tag on ao3 hes up as one of the most tagged with 1,940.

i find it so interesting how things change direction. bdubs was kinda early on the rping ideas and its no shock people caught on to him more- but etho is someone im surprised has exploded in popularity now? but also not? like im surprised interest like now didnt catch on until recently. the way people have molded a character and Vibe with him now Makes Sense. i think i always saw him in similar ways years ago, but that fandom attitude hadnt caught up, the fanbase was too small. but its wild to go from a few sporadic fics focused on one of these guys to like..... very very consistent interest, headcanons, fan art, fics, etc. fucking wild.

[amajikilvr]

HEY BBY 🥰🥰 I WAS WONDERING IF I COULD MAKE A QUICK REQUEST W A FEM READER WHO HAS A CAT QUIRK 😳 I think itd be so cute... kitten ears and tail </3 feline quirk :) comes w strength/goodhearing/sensitivity to smells n things like that! Really agile, cats always land on their feet lmao.. ANYWAYS JUST GENERAL HCS/CRUSH HCS WHERE FEM!READER HAS CAT EARS AND A TAIL with tamaki bc hes my main boy 😳 and Shoto if ur interested at all.. love u bye I just thought of this

headcanon corner - tamaki has a crush on cat! reader

word count 930

reader type female (she/her used)

Tamaki tends to be an observational person and you don’t exactly blend in even at a school like yours so it was only a matter of time before he took notice of you and eventually fell hard.

It’s a god-awful kind of crush that he can’t ignore no matter how hard he tries. Don’t get it twisted, you’re most certainly not the problem, you could never be a problem. Tamaki just becomes a sweaty, clammy, and nervous mess whenever he’s in your general vicinity. The way he sees it, that’s one-hundred-percent on him. You’re not scary or even that intimidating. You’re friendly, charming, and so soft-looking...

He’s gotten pretty good at coping with his anxious nature, but the presence of you tends to send him a good way backward in terms of progress. You’re actually gotten worried that Tamaki might be ill before when you caught sight of his flushed face and trembling hands. Your gentle concern made his heart swell and shake. Guilt also struck him knowing that he made you uneasy.

Being someone who can manifest similar appendages himself, Tamaki’s developed a bit of a fixation of sorts on your physical catlike features.

He sits behind you and more than often finds himself staring at your silky and always well-groomed Y/H/C ears that poke out cutely from your head. It’d be so easy to reach out and stroke them and that single thought is enough to send him into shambles while he’s just trying to do math at 9 am…

And oh god, your tail. He’s completely fascinated by it and the way it sticks out of your skirt and how its movements coordinate with your emotions like every other feline’s; it’s almost always in a hook shape, indicating your bubbly mood.

Once, you caught him staring right at it before class so you slowly let your tail snake out and playfully wrap around his leg while mischievously grinning the entire time. A good portion of Tamaki might have melted away at his desk that day. That’s when he realized that you probably will be the death of him-

At some point, Tamaki begins to think maybe you two weren’t as insanely different as he had originally thought… The cafeteria is particularly loud; endless chatter, obnoxious laughter, and even the occasional yelling. He’s wincing uncomfortably as he struggles to listen to Mirio’s story when he notices you sitting nearby. You look perturbed, a rare sight, and your tail is subtlety thrashing back and forth.

Does he want nothing more than to go and rescue you from the ugly noise? Of course. But coming up to your table? Talking to you? No way. He couldn’t do that even if you were to start the conversation. The chance goes to waste, but Tamaki is left with the knowledge that maybe you aren’t inhumanly perfect and that comforts him. It really does.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Mirio inevitably figures it out and says something to him. It’s certainly embarrassing considering Tamaki hasn’t even liked anyone like this before. He’s not used to this kind of teasing being directed at him.

His friend is unsurprisingly encouraging about the whole thing and tells Tamaki to simply “go for it!”. If only it were that easy. Tamaki doesn’t believe what Mirio says is true; you definitely like him well enough and there was plenty of potential for something more to blossom sooner than later.

And according to Mirio? That whole tail incident? That was definitely you “flirting” with him. Apparently.

His intense crush does prove to be a bit of a problem during training. Tamaki is still as committed as ever to his own dream and the strength-building that comes along with it, but there are times when he finds himself wanting to watch you and nothing else.

You’re so agile… every stride, flip, jump, and movement is effortless and calculated. You could make something as minuscule as walking or taking a sip of water look incredibly attractive. Ugh. Even admitting that as a mere thought is enough to make Tamaki feel as if he’s been set on fire, every sense he has is extremely reactive to everything you do.

You end up approaching him after one of these classes. Both of you had just finished testing your quirks to their limits and Tamaki is not expecting to be facing you and the healthy skin and twinkling eyes that make up your pretty face. He has no choice but to stand passively and hear what you have to say. And try not to die in the process, of course.

Tamaki chokes a little and sweats profusely while listening to you talk, your smooth voice close to putting him into a trace. He can’t bring himself to make eye contact with you so he settles for keeping his stare on your tail; it’s standing straight and confident while the tip is twitching slightly.

He looks up once and sees you wet your lips with a single swipe of your tongue. Between the sight of that and the words you’re saying, he thinks he might pass out. You think he’s cool? You’ve seen him watching you? You want to get to know him better?

You sweetly ask for his phone. Somehow, Tamaki hands it to you with a shaking hand and can’t believe himself. He only nods knowing babbling and stammering would come out if he tried to speak. You rapidly type something, the only sound being the repeated click of your nail against the screen. His device is returned to him with the screen still on and you give him a huge, breathtaking smile before skipping off. Gone. Just like that.

Leaned against the wall, Tamaki is stunned in every sense of the word as he stares at the unfamiliar number, aptly named “Y/N 🐱💞” now living on his contact’s page.

[saprobiont]

maybe in those two years she often thought about growing her hair back but no. itd be in the awkward stage for too long, she'd have to clip the longer side to even it back out.

but really it's not even an option she'd lose the constant reminder of miles. and at this point she doesn't know if she'll see him again so is that it? carrying the memory around forever? what are the chances of an event like this EVER happening again? whatever technology allowed her to rip through a universe certainly isnt in her dimension, and if it were, she'd never be allowed to use it, and she'd never find the right universe,

when do you say it's futile? i mean you never get closure so when do you accept that? like waking up knowing somewhere theres someone you connect with better than anyone else in your entire world but right now you're literal planes of existence apart. what do you do with that keep going?

oh god miles for those two years what was he doing did he keep up with those friends from the first movie or was it just him and ganke? do you think he taught himself everything he could find from alchemax trying to understand the theory

knowing he would still be worlds away from actually building anything to get him close enough to his friends (and had they moved on?what if they didnt think about him? what if they would all be different now) wonder how many times he fell asleep later than ganke studying

i'm a gwen brown hair truther. i think she started bleaching it because she felt so horribly alienated from her own body and it helped her recognise herself. and i think this was right before she came out to anyone and maybe she worried the bleach would make her hair break or grow slower but she didnt care bc she had to change something now lest she go insane. yknow how it is.