#does this scene make sense out of context? I have no idea. I wrote it. I have context.

[msshinylemon]

I found this in my drafts and I have no idea when I wrote it. I thought I might as well share it since I don't know if I'll actually post that fic.

(For a bit of context: Chuuya is visiting the ADA because of a job)

Chuuya followed his line of sight, noticing his confusion. “Dazai likes to bite,” he explained as if that was a completely normal and not at all weird thing to say. Or maybe dealing with Dazai made weird things seem normal. “I’m just glad he stopped trying to bite me instead.” Okay, Atsushi didn't want to know about that. He just nodded and hurried to typing on his computer. Chuuya snorted, amused. But apparently, the world hated Atsushi because Kenji, pure and innocent Kenji spoke up. “Dazai-san used to bite you, Mr. Fancy Hat?” Atsushi felt he was going to cry right then and there. His fear only spiked when Chuuya smirked, clearly as much a menace as Dazai, even if he was more subtle about it. No wonder everyone was so afraid of their partnership if this is what people had to deal with. How did the mafia even survive these two? “Yep, want a story?” Kenji smiled and nodded eagerly.

[nowoyas]

Trying to make sense of the Nanowrimo statement to the best of my abilities and fuck, man. It's hard.

It's hard because it seems to me that, first and foremost, the organization itself has forgotten the fucking point.

Nanowrimo was never about the words themselves. It was never about having fifty thousand marketable words to sell to publishing companies and then to the masses. It was a challenge, and it was hard, and it is hard, and it's supposed to be. The point is that it's hard. It's hard to sit down and carve out time and create a world and create characters and turn these things into a coherent plot with themes and emotional impact and an ending that's satisfying. It's hard to go back and make changes and edit those into something likable, something that feels worth reading. It's hard to find a beautifully-written scene in your document and have to make the decision that it's beautiful but it doesn't work in the broader context. It's fucking hard.

Writing and editing are skills. You build them and you hone them. Writing the way the challenge initially encouraged--don't listen to that voice in your head that's nitpicking every word on the page, put off the criticism for a later date, for now just let go and get your thoughts out--is even a different skill from writing in general. Some people don't particularly care about refining that skill to some end goal or another, and simply want to play. Some people sit down and try to improve and improve and improve because that is meaningful to them. Some are in a weird in-between where they don't really know what they want, and some have always liked the idea of writing and wanted a place to start. The challenge was a good place for this--sit down, put your butt in a chair, open a blank document, and by the end of the month, try to put fifty thousand words in that document.

How does it make you feel to try? Your wrists ache and you don't feel like any of the words were any good, but didn't you learn something about the process? Re-reading it, don't you think it sounds better if you swap these two sentences, if you replace this word, if you take out this comma? Maybe you didn't hit 50k words. Maybe you only wrote 10k. But isn't it cool, that you wrote ten thousand words? Doesn't it feel nice that you did something? We can try again. We can keep getting better, or just throwing ourselves into it for fun or whatever, and we can do it again and again.

I guess I don't completely know where I'm going with this post. If you've followed me or many tumblr users for any amount of time, you've probably already heard a thousand times about how generative AI hurts the environment so many of us have been so desperately trying to save, about how generative AI is again and again used to exploit big authors, little authors, up-and-coming authors, first time authors, people posting on Ao3 as a hobby, people self-publishing e-books on Amazon, traditionally published authors, and everyone in between. You've probably seen the statements from developers of these "tools", things like how being required to obtain permission for everything in the database used to train the language model would destroy the tool entirely. You've seen posts about new AI tools scraping Ao3 so they can make money off someone else's hobby and putting the legality of the site itself at risk. For an organization that used to dedicate itself to making writing more accessible for people and for creating a community of writers, Nanowrimo has spent the past several years systematically cracking that community to bits, and now, it's made an official statement claiming that the exploitation of writers in its community is okay, because otherwise, someone might find it too hard to complete a challenge that's meant to be hard to begin with.

I couldn't thank Nanowrimo enough for what it did for me when I started out. I don't know how to find community in the same way. But you can bet that I've deleted my account, and I'll be finding my own path forward without it. Thanks for the fucking memories, I guess.

[inbarfink]

Okay, so I already wrote a bunch of stuff about how that scene, although it is really sweet, is also kind of a Bad Sign for Simon - how he refuses to learn the Obvious Lesson from the Winterworld adventure (that being the Ice King again is probably a really really bad idea). But I want to talk about it also a little more about what it means for Fionna’s character as well. 

Because while sitting around and wallowing in self-loathing is probably bad for Fionna, especially after being told that she shouldn't be allowed to exist, and Simon is right to try and get her out of her funk. It's also still worthwhile for Fionna to have some introspection about the Consequences of Her Actions. Because she and Cake really did not consider them at all at first. They have a sense of morality and an instinct towards heroism, but they also tend to kinda forget the fantastical worlds they visit don’t exist entirely for their fantasy and have kind of a Protagonist-Centered-Morality fallacy. 

Most obviously you can see it in the market in Ooo. How Cake, in her excitement, damaged and hurt and even killed

A bunch of innocent marketgoers without even noticing. And then Fionna immediately jumped to Cake’s defense against these ‘weirdos’, who were actually just normal kinda-righteously-angry Oooian citizens.

It’s actually very similar to the whole Winterworld situation. Fionna’s assumption that she’s automatically the hero and protagonist of the story and black-and-white view of the situation and her tendency to kick ass first and ask questions later meant that she just recklessly injured a lot of innocent people.

(It might’ve been worse actually cause at least in Winterworld she was at least manipulated by an evil Wizard)

Fionna and Cake clearly have a great potential for heroism, but they do need to be a bit more considerate of the situation and people around them. And it does make sense considering that from their perspective - they’ve been living a very ordinary life up until now (and Cake was literally an animal. A very clever animal, but still not bound by the same standards of morality as the talking animals in Ooo). Action and adventure and fantasy stuff has been purely the realm of daydream and video games for them - and Fionna literally speaks about it in these terms.

(also, Fionna's Main Character Syndrome was undoubtedly validated when God literally told her that she was created to be the main character of her universe)

So yeah, it takes them some time to really process how to be heroes - they need to grapple with questions that Finn and Jake already kinda dealt with seventeen years ago. And actually a lot of those; how to resolve a situation without necessarily using violence, when does a 'villain' actually deserve sympathy and kindness, the importance of the larger context of any given conflict... their confrontations with Ice King all played a big part in that. It was never just him, but he was still a very major part.

And for Fionna and Cake right now, learning these lessons require some amount of personal introspection. So while it was a sweet attempt at comforting, I dunno if Simon’s little ‘the only problem with that universe is that this Alternative Me was terrible because he didn’t even acknowledge or remember Betty as the love of our life and the light of my entire universe’ thing is actually Good. 

I’m not quite sure Simon is the best person to teach Fionna and Cake heroism 101, because he is so focused on the Crown Quest as the thing that brings back Meaning to his life, and because his fatherly instincts just kinda go “Sad Young Person???? MUST GIVE COMFORT!” and also on account of the kidnapping.

I’m sure Fionna is going to become the heroine she dreams about eventually, it’s just going to be a bumpy ride. The best we can hope for is that they accept Simon’s comfort, that she doesn't start believing that she is nothing but an Error for the entire universe like the Scarab claims, but don’t necessarily listen to all of Simon's his words either.

[project-sekai-facts]

is it me or does prsk not really cater towards hardcore yuribait or yaoibait as much even when given the opportunity especially compared to other gacha games, like even the wedding events neither of them was focused on a popular pairing or even just in general with the stories (except for minoharu and vbs i guess?)

Yuribait and yaoibait are strong words that aren't exactly right to describe project sekai. They're just alternative ways of saying queerbait, which implies a marketing strategy of attracting a queer audience by falsely promising representation. While they didn't advertise queer representation, spn and sherlock were accused of this due to the way they wrote their leads (i guess spn did become genuine rep. Ish). Proseka isn't that, neither are similar franchises, like bandori or love live for example. Even if they rarely say things outright, which admittedly is in part because of corporate greed and appeasing fans, I wouldn't say it's queerbaiting, especially for this game and the two I've outlined (well LL has a complicated history but this isn't the time or place). The whole idea of falsely promising queer rep or marketing off it doesn't really happen here, especially in project sekai it feels very genuine and clear even if not labelled. I put this down to the writers saying on record that they want the characters, and their relationships and issues, to feel realistic and relatable.

To actually answer the question now my little media ramble is over, yeah it does feel less compared to other games, especially bandori which gives content to multiple pairings for the same characters. Like don't get me wrong prsk has quite a lot of ship tease when you really get down to it and track through all the stories, but it definitely feels limited to only a handful of pairings. While prsk does give moments for multiple pairings for the same character sometimes it's just... less ig. Again i think it's just to do with the intentionally realistic way of portraying the relationships, so imo it makes sense that they only pick a hanful to give much more obvious or outright romantic subtext to (aka mmj/vbs), even if they still give little moments here and there for other pairings for those characters, as well as giving less-fleshed out or explicitly romantic shiptease for other pairings that don't include those characters (does this make sense? it's hard to talk about shiptease in the game without explicitly talking about shipping. oh well...).

(Also as an aside: mmj is also a bit of a genre thing, and a lot of a Love Live thing. I'm not reaching by saying that either, it showed up on the results to a survey about media the staff at colopale like. mmj does take a few cues from LL here and there, (rooftop practice, genki orange leader, the white feather, airis character design and voice actress) so this is probably one of them)

Even though the wedding events don't usually focus on a ship (aside from the Honami/Kanade one (for context it's honami's most popular ship at least on pixiv, although it's still on the rarer side of things, and it's not that popular in terms of Kanade pairings)), they have always featured popular ships on the card lineups, aside from the most recent one. the first one had cards for the two most popular Akito pairings, and the second one had An/Kohane and Shizuku/Airi. The second one is particularly notable since the event didn't go lightly on the ship tease at all in some parts, though it makes sense since both pairings have romantic text and/or subtext in the story. Even the first wedding event had a tiny bit in one of the card stories, and this year's one managed to squeeze in a scene where Minori imagines Haruka getting married (presumably to her).

We also had the buddy funny spend time event back in 2021, which was explicitly a double date event featuring an/kohane and minori/haruka (again two pairs with romantic text), and we've had other events that follow a sort of similar concept of two popular pairings doing something together, without the double date thing attached, but you can tell what they were thinking lol. I don't really wanna elaborate on that bc I don't wanna start a whole thing but if you look through the event list you can probably work it out.

But then again, this is the Hatsune Miku friendship game. Friendship and community are two of the core themes of the game, which again explains why it might feel like there's less romantic teasing and such compared to other games. Because there is. The events and other stories prioritise writing the platonic relationships over giving ship tease. There's definitely events that you can come out of with little to no moments for the ships you like. This isn't saying that other idol games don't focus on the friendship by the way, I'm just saying prsk has much stronger and consistent themes. From an objective perspective it has the best writing of the major idol games on the market (maybe, idk what's going on in bandori nowadays I've heard MyGO and Avemuji are really good).

Yeah it's the hatsune miku friendship game which prioritises realistic characters and relationships that's about the best way I can put it.

(aside #2: back to the idea of queer content, while they don't write the game, sega is pro-lgbt and is a sponsor of tokyo pride, and offer protections for queer staff. Other sega franchises like Yakuza and Sonic have queer characters! And mizuki is about 5 events away from coming out as trans unless they fumble super badly. So it's a nonzero chance that prsk can and will include textual queer rep in future (i mean they already have lol). It genuinely is down to the realism other fan appeal. Again this isn't to hate on other franchises I'm a huge fan of LL and a casual bandori enjoyer, prsk is just Like This)

[zuko-always-lies]

Do you think that the betrayal at the Boiling Rock was done to give a reason for Azula's eventual breakdown in the finale? The more I think about it, the more Mai's anger towards Azula doesn't make sense to me. I know that people say that it's because Azula left Zuko to die, but if that's the case, she should have been angry with Ty Lee as well, since she also tried to stop them from leaving the prison. Also....they were chasing after Zuko and Iroh for the entirety of book 2, even though they kept on running into the Gaang and never actually came across Zuko and Iroh, and that was just Azula. Mai had zero issues with Azula's mission in the second season, and she already loved Zuko by that point. It feels like the writers just forgot about that.

So the thing to understand that in (well-told) narrative, everything happens for a reason. Everything serves a very deliberate narrative purpose. But perhaps we should take a moment to reflect on the differences between Book 2 and Book 3 characterizations before we go back to the Boiling Rock:

Book 2 Azula has some distinctive edges to her which shows the original ideas the writers had. She was consistently depicted as quite hostile to Zuko (this wasn't changed until the writing of the last episode of the series, when the writers realized that they needed Zuko to go home). She was depicted as using fear to control soldiers in a military context, including Ty Lee, but never as using fear to force or substitute for personal relationships. Azula was depicted as mean and cruel(and I believe she was originally supposed to be crueler and more merciless than she ended up being, but it ended up being scrapped as too dark). However, she was also, aside from maybe one scene, was depicted as stable and mentally put together well. Finally, Azula was never depicted as sympathetic in Book 2, and we can't be certain of what the original intentions in this respect were.

Book 2 Mai also has a couple interesting characteristics. First, she was consistently written as not being afraid of Azula. Second, the seed that she had a crush on Zuko was clearly planted. However, since Zuko was never supposed to "go home" in the original outline, it's not clear how this might have flowered, and it's possible the writers didn't know either.

Now let's move on to Book 3. We should note that Book 3 came out in two parts, but I'm not quite sure how much that reflects what the production looked like. It might be that everything was mostly decided before they started writing, but based on the shift between the first and second halves of Book 3, there might have actually that they mostly wrote Book 3.0 before they figured out what they were doing for Book 3.5

Anyways, Book 3.0 (and really we can kind of include the Crossroads of Destiny here) had two shifts in the depiction of Azula's character. First, she was now consistently depicted as caring a lot about Zuko. The first episode of Book 3.0 was kind of ambiguous here in a way that suggests the writers were tentative about this, but every following episode clearly showed Azula being kind to Zuko in one way or another. Second, The Beach introduced the idea of Azula as sympathetic character, including her trouble with her mother. Note that there are two ideas that Book 3.0 does not introduce or use: the idea of Azula being mentally ill/crazy (at her worst, Book 3.0 Azula is only a bit over the top), and the idea of Azula controlling her friends through fear. In fact, The Beach "normalizes" Azula's relationships with her friends a lot.

Meanwhile, Book 3.0's depiction of Mai centers around the seed about her relationship with Zuko flowering. 3.0 always continues the trend of depicting her as unafraid of Azula and generally not giving a shit what Azula thinks.

Book 3.5 is where the final shift in the depiction of Azula occurs. There are two new ideas introduced here. First, there's the idea of Azula using fear and terror to force people to have relationships with her due to Azula's own fear of loneliness. Let me point out that this idea conflicts strongly with her past depictions, where Azula only used fear as part of her methodology of ruling. Mai being "afraid" of Azula is also suggested, for the first time at this point, despite all previous depictions of Mai emphasizing that Mai was not afraid of Azula (while Ty Lee was). Second, the idea of Azula being mentally ill and "crazy" is introduced late. Previous depictions of her showed her being mean and cruel, but not her being "crazy."

Now, at long last, we can return to your question. Again, we must remember that everything which happens in a story happens for a reason. The Boiling Rock episodes served one primary purpose: depicting Zuko and Sokka bonding and getting to know each other. This is why these episodes were written. Hypothetically, reintroducing Hakoda and Suki could be another purpose for them, but Hakoda was instantly written out again and the writers made it clear that they had zero real ideas for Suki in subsequent episodes and essentially just had her character hang around in the background 95% of the time.

However, if the purpose is to show Zuko and Sokka bonding, why do Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee appear? Why does Azula show up and fight Zuko, and why does Mai save Zuko? None of this was necessary for the Zuko and Sokka bonding experience. I suppose having Azula and Zuko fight furthers their rivalry, but literally in the very first scene of the next episode (The Southern Raiders) there is a fight scene between them which serves to further this purpose far more effectively. The writers also could have written Mai's sacrifice as having a big effect on Zuko, but we all know they avoided that too.

The reason that Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee appear has to be almost solely for reasons related to the arc of those characters. The writers wanted Azula to have a big breakdown and go "crazy," but they hadn't built up toward that idea at all in the previous two seasons. They needed to speedrun toward it now, and having Mai and Ty Lee betray Azula offered a convenient start toward Azula's downfall and mental health collapse. Moreover, it also allowed them to depict Mai and Ty Lee as "redeemed" and "on the right side now," while having them stick by Azula until the end would make depicting this problematic. Zuko being Mai's love interest and Ty Lee always being depicted sympathetically probably contributed to urge to redeem these characters, but it's also important to remember that the writers took pains to make sure that child characters were "happy" and/or "redeemed," even if they died tragically, during the series. The only real exceptions to this were Hahn (NWT warrior who was Yue's betrothed) and...Azula. One of the reasons why Azula's ending strikes so many people as odd and at odds with the themes and tone of the series is that almost every other child got some sort of "happy" or at least honorable ending, while Azula was not only humiliated and utterly broken but also denied the slightest hope of happiness.

[fayevalcntine]

Anyway I've been kind of following the press releases for The Count of Monte Cristo (2024) (French) movie and some potential spoilers that I kind of want to air out:

The film seems to be marketed as "much darker" in terms of focusing on the revenge aspect, which I don't mind, but some other stuff give me pause as to how they're gonna handle The Count as a character because the way the actors talk about him, he almost sounds weirdly irredeemable, or rather just completely incapable of still loving and caring about people? Which is the exact opposite of how he behaves in the book..... he wants to be cold and completely detached but fails each time because he a) forms close connections with people like Haydée and Maximilien, even comes to deeply respect Albert despite trying to talk himself into not caring about the boy and b) is meant to question his own revenge plot because it inadvertently causes the death of an innocent child

Apparently Haydée is 'torn between her loyalty for the Count and the love of her life' with said love of her life being.....guess who? Albert de Morcerf. There's no mention of a court scene so far where she accuses Fernand of being a traitorous officer and murdering her father, instead Edmond apparently gets her to seduce Albert but then Haydée falls in love with him for real? I once wrote a post complaining about this type of idea I've seen others mention as a "potential fix" for the plot but taking aside my issue with Albert/Haydée as a pairing in any sense, in this context it's almost doubly bizarre and I feel like the writers took so many different elements from the book, namely Albert's blind trust and admiration towards the Count and the forbidden love story between Maximilien and Valentine, and decided to go for a much more digestible change for the story, I guess? The actress who plays Haydée also mentions that she wants to "break free from the Count's psychological grip", which..... you can say a lot of stuff about Edmond/Haydée as an overall dynamic, particularly in him inserting her in his plan for revenge, but the big thing noted in the book is that Haydée makes the decision herself to testify against Fernand, and even thinks that the Count will disapprove of her for this. He also does genuinely care for her and wanted her to inherit everything he owns should he die.... the whole point of him taking her in is that he wanted her to have the life she was entitled to before Fernand's actions stripped it away from her.

The film also seems to have merged several different characters related to Villefort into one, namely Benedetto/Andrea and Bertuccio, since Andrea (in the film) is also under the Count's wing and seems to accompany him as a possible servant in some scenes. This isn't a bad idea in theory, though I'm pretty sure that he ends up dying when he goes after Villefort at the court house, so I presume he's also supposed to represent Edouard's death? My main question is when this scene even happens in the film because apparently, there's a final sword fight (likely the one between Fernand and Edmond), so the death that makes Edmond question his entire plot isn't even at the end of his plan?

This brings me to my next point which is why are Fernand and Edmond even doing a sword duel in the first place.... apparently the film has Fernand come from a rich family already, and he's known and been friends with Edmond prior to his imprisonment, so w/e, classic trope of CoMC adaptations at this point. But the duel and Haydée's 'seduction' plot just makes me think that for all the apparent attempts at centering her as a character more, these writers took out a significant scene related to her character that means a lot FOR her, namely the court scene, and instead centered Edmond's feelings of betrayal towards Fernand. I know that this is likely to also focus a lot on Edmond's lost life with Mercedes, but Fernand isn't even such a significant focus of Edmond's ire in the book as much as the other two men are.

The movie doesn't seem to end with Mercedes and Edmond getting back together, which I at least appreciate if this Edmond is "much darker" than even in the book, but if he isn't with her or isn't dead by the end, what exactly is the point of him going off alone? I presume this is the ending if Haydée/Albert are supposed to represent Maximilien/Valentine and the Count "gives them support" for being together, but Edmond was pretty much contemplating suicide until Haydée stopped him in the book. The point is that his focus on avenging the past was his only assumed reason for living, but there's a chance for him to simply live on with those who genuinely care about him as he is now. Without him trying to make amends through Maximilien and Valentine and Haydée indicating she will only live if he lives, I can't really see the film making a good argument for why Edmond wouldn't contemplate suicide instead of living on.

Apparently Villefort has a Bonapartist sister (I presume this character is meant to replace his father in the film) whom I also think Edmond saves from a shipwreck that has been shown in the trailers. I've zero clue how this movie is going to fit a new character in this while doing all of this to the other more significant characters, but that seems to be a general trend with this scriptwriter duo.

Only minor positive thing so far is that Eugenie IS included for once, and they didn't omit her being a lesbian.

[phantom-of-the-501st]

"I don't enjoy solitude" Pt 2

I'm gonna call this a part two because it follows on from the post I made yesterday. Although I guess it is less of a follow up and more of a case of reworking what I said in the original post into something a little bit more fleshed out, because I feel like I glossed over a lot of stuff I wanted to say initially (and didn't because it was almost midnight when I wrote it @saturn-sends-hugs don't yell at me for not sleeping I know 😭)

I'll probably just recap everything I said in the other post in this one anyway so it doesn't matter whether or not this is the only one you see I guess

Like I said yesterday, this line is interesting because while it initially puts forward the idea that Echo doesn't like being alone, the actual context had nothing to do with Echo being put in a situation where he would be by himself. In fact, Omega is asking him if he wanted to join her in something. And yes, Echo does hate being by himself, but the line is more about Echo being left alone with his own thoughts. It isn't just being by himself physically, its being stuck in his head without any escape. That's what terrifies him.

And it makes sense. Echo went through some atrocious things and a lot of his memories are either bad or have likely been tainted by other circumstances in a way that means that he doesn't want to think about them. Outside of that one scene of Echo in the cockpit following Tech's death, we never see Echo not doing something or not being with someone. There is always something that is keeping him from his thoughts and that's the whole point. The last thing that Echo wants to do is confront what is in his head. Being alone with nothing but his own mind is exactly what he went through on Skako Minor and the last thing he ever wants to do is revisit that.

But the thing is, it isn't healthy (at least, not in the long run) because for as long as Echo keeps running from his thoughts, he's going to wear himself down. This man never stops. He just keeps going and going and going and half the time if he isn't doing anything "practical", it's against his own will. And so much of that is linked to survivor's guilt. As many other people brought up, Echo likely blames himself for the clones who died as a result of the Techno Union getting a hold of the battle strategies. We know that it's not his fault but to Echo the fact that he survived that entire ordeal, while it was his own plans that were used and manipulated to kill his brothers, must eat away at him.

Echo has never really taken the time to mentally process a lot of what he went through. By the end of the show, he is in a much better place than he was initially: he's physically healthier and he's actually cracking jokes again. A lot of that is thanks to the Bad Batch. They were integral in his healing journey. However, that doesn't mean he's okay. This is a man who can't be left alone with his thoughts because it will cause him to spiral. Not constantly being around people or constantly doing something leads him into a dark place and that isn't a great position for him to be in. This man doesn't really know peace because every part of his life, even his mind, runs at 300 miles an hour. And Hunter knows this. He wasn't wrong when he asked Echo when it will ever be enough. He's watching his brother run himself ragged trying to rescue the clones and to fight against the Empire, when realistically, it's not a battle they can win. Every time Echo leaves Pabu, the Batch are faced with the idea that it may be the last time they ever see him. Because if we're being completely honest here, unless Echo ever gets to the point where he is okay enough to sit down and actually relax for once in his life, there will be a point when it will be the last time they ever see him. Whether or not it's in two days or two years or two decades, this man will lose his life to the cause, even if it's as a result of him working himself down to the bone.

Echo will never value his own life over the life of his brothers. He won't retire because to him it will never be fair that he can live a life of peace when there are others out there who can't have that, and that means he will only stop the fight when there is no-one left worth fighting for. But there will never be a point where there is no-one left to fight for. Echo will continue to find a reason to stay in the fight, to keep working, to never keep still because that's just who he is. And we love him for that. We love his loyalty and his dedication and his endless ambition. But it's also to his detriment. I don't know if we will ever see Echo at a point where he is truly okay. He will keep going until he can't anymore and if that is at the cost of his own life, then that's what he'll take.

[fortemelody]

I'm bored so imma send an ask but what are your Amy Rose headcanons?

HI HELLO IM SORRY THIS IS SO LATE!! i didn’t know how to answer it and then i got busy and then i forgot but i’m here now!

and tbh i still don’t entirely know how to answer it becus im not someone who makes headcannons very often. i usually just see some on my feed and be like “oh yeah that’s so them” and then immediately forget about it LMAO but i do have a couple even tho they are a bit basic and so i’ll try to describe those few in as great detail as possible

knuckles and amy are sibling 100%. they have that dynamic for sure! they train together and they tease each other. amy’s in the small demographic of few people he trusts too. many have also pointed out that they look similar and some people hc her as part echidna which im not really opposed to either

amy and shadow are definitely besties. whenever sonic is too stubborn to do “girly” things such as try on makeup for example, shadow would do that with her instead. he doesn’t care about his public image unlike sonic. music is something that brings them together too, seeing as we already know that they’re both swifties and went to hot honey! and she was the one who brought him back to his senses in the ending of SA2 (which btw im praying that the third movie has that scene aughdkftk). shadow has a clear soft spot for her that can only be brought out by amy. i feel like the next follow up question would be if i ship them and the answer is…not really?! i think it would be a situation where maybe amy is a bit touchy at times without realizing it and shadow blushes, or shadow does stuff to make sonic jealous (to clarify them hanging out in general is purely becus shadow wants to -not just an act so he can get back at sonic- but i think it would be funny if he would take the opportunity to brag about it when sonic gets on his nerves). i do not think either of them would actually date tho even with these one off situations and they are way better as platonic besties fr ong ‼️

this one is a bit random but i’ve always thought of amy being like… a starbucks addicted girly (in the world of mobius- not irl where they could possibly be funding a genocide 😭). and it’s kinda an ironic thing in my mind. yes, she’s the least ordinary girl you could get: wields a giant hammer, incredibly strong, is hyperfixated on and can use tarot cards as weapons, and has an indescribable intuition. however, calling back to the events of SA1, she really is just a normal hedgehog at the end of the day trying to lead a normal life. she had to learn all of these attributes, she wasn’t really born with an ability like the rest of team sonic. she also lived in an apartment for part of sonic x (i think?? haven’t watched the full series and i don’t remember everything) and actually liked it. so i think she would really enjoy simple more earth like customs. i think she honestly might be embarrassed of this fact too, seeing as she’s come all this way in her life just to resort to her old ways of living.

(…okay i’m gonna be honest that last one was a bit of a stretch and it originated from me and my friend calling her a basic white girl at one point as a joke LMAO but then i thought more about it and it kinda made sense once i put it into context)

the last one is a concept i kinda stole from a comic i saw a long time ago (i have no idea of the username- but if someone does lemme know). it was the idea that sonic started liking amy once she had started to move on, how the “chasing” kinda switched roles, and after she dialed down her “fangirling”. how sonic now wants her to be obsessed after she’s made so much progress in being her own person. i kinda wrote a fanfic based off of this and expanded upon my interpretation of it through amy’s POV. although i never posted it, i think the words i chose still capture it well so i’m just gonna copy and paste that:

“When Amy started to slowly change her childish and obnoxious mannerisms towards Sonic, he immediately felt more comfortable around her, and even started subtly reciprocating his feelings to her. Amy was obviously maturing no doubt about it, but she felt as if she had lost a part of herself in doing so. That side of her that would boldly protect and proclaim her love to him. That side to her that wouldn’t stop until she got her way. That side of her that was, as Jewel stated “…constantly following him”. She felt as if she had given up so much of her personality just to feel less incomplete, to have that soulmate she always dreamed about. On top of that, Sonic loved to come and go as he pleases. She knows that he was always going to be the adventuring type, but she wish more often that he would make an effort to chat or to invite her to tag along. Chaos knows when she tries to plan anything with him, she’s too paranoid for her own good, wondering if he’ll instantly interpret it as a date and chicken out.”

-different scene-

“Amy was surely blushing before, but nothing could’ve prepared her for that statement. She felt her heart beating, no, throbbing out of control. She looked like a full on tomato now. It’s always been her dream to dance with Sonic, but in the past he always ran away, so she gave up after several attempts. But this was the “new” her. He liked the “new” her, apparently enough to dance with him.”

(ik a lot of this doesn’t make sense without more context but uhhh this is getting too long already so if you wanna know details just DM me ig 💀)

and if it wasn’t obvious already- i take a lot of what is said in the twitter takeovers, tailstube, and idw comics to heart becus i think they have the most genuine and interesting versions of these characters and tell us about small details that we wouldn’t otherwise know. i not only make this info my hcs but also like to expand upon them and use them in my evidence- so that’s what most of the things i said above are referencing.

sooo yeah i think that’s all i got. sorry i guess a lot of these were more about dynamics of character interactions rather than amy herself… i hope that’s okay! tysm anon this was a lotta fun to answer and i hope to get more of these types of questions!!

[bowlsnbones]

the moment Ed fell in love with Stede- S1E5 analysis

( for context: i wrote this draft back in january but didn’t had the courage to post it at that time :P today i finally decided to give it a shot because i still think it’s an interesting idea soooo yeah, hope it makes some sense hehe enjoy! :D )

sooo i was looking through some gifs that i have saved on my phone (as one does) and there’s a little detail that really caught my attention in the “you wear fine things well” scene from season 1. i believe that we can literally see the moment where Ed realizes he’s in love with Stede in that scene!! :DD so let’s take a look at it!!

i ask you guys to pay really close attention to the way lighting is being used in this particular moment because it’s absolutely genius and it’s able to convey so much about what the characters are feeling and thinking but not saying out laud! so here we go:

(gif by @/livelovecaliforniadreams)

DID YOU SEE IT???

THE SMALL, WARM FLASH OF LIGHT BRIEFLY SHINING ON ED’S FOREHEAD AND THEN DISAPPEARING?? 😭😭😭 THAT LITTLE LIGHT RIGHT THERE REPRESENTS HIS FEELINGS FOR STEDE FINALLY GETTING ENLIGHTENED-

please allow me to explain-

i remember reading a post here on tumblr a year ago (sorry, i can’t remember who’s post it was 😭😭) where the op explained that in film, when a half of a characters face is covered by a shadow while the other half is completely light it can indicate that something the character is feeling or thinking in that moment is being hidden or kept a secret. and we can perfectly apply this thought to this scene between Stede and Ed!

notice how half of Ed’s and Stede’s faces are covered by shadows while the other half is being veiled by moonlight? applying what we just learned to this scene we can easily identify that they’re both hiding something from each other, that being their romantic feelings! but then, something really interesting happens: Ed’s hidden feelings (the part of his face covered by the shadows) get briefly enlightened (they literally “come to light”) like a little light bulb, making him aware of them!

the fact that the light only appears when he’s about to lift his head up to look at Stede after glancing at the red silk folded in his pocket, as if something was suddenly awakened inside of him by the way Stede handled the silk (his heart)-

we can even see how his expression changes as soon as the light hits his face! while glancing at the silk he has this confused look that quickly melts into tenderness! there is so much love in the way Ed looks at Stede in this scene, it’s so strong and intense and beautiful and there is so much passion burning in his eyes that we can see he even has to take a second just to let everything sink in-

OOOHHH and don’t even get me started on Stede being completely enlightened by that same light ON THE SAME SIDE OF HIS FACE (THE SHADOW SIDE/HIS HIDDEN FEELINGS), EXCEPT ITS ACTUALLY HITTING THE BACK OF HIS HEAD INSTEAD OF DIRECTLY HITTING HIS FACE BECAUSE AT THAT POINT HE HAS NOT FULLY ACKNOWLEDGED HIS FEELINGS FOR ED YET- *explodes*

[literary-motif]

how do you stay so consistent with your work without getting burnout/procrastinating and still maintaining the level of your writting doesn't it get monotonous??? Any tips on how to be consistent with your work without overwhelming ones self

Sometimes it does get monotonous -- not the writing, but what is being written. I feel like I only have so many ideas about the Sakuverse characters, and although requests bring a sort of gust of fresh air into my writing because I am forced to think about a specific scenario and build a scene from there, I wonder if perhaps the way I write and the way my mind interprets these requests might get a bit repetitive.

It takes me about two hours to write a one shot; from having a (vague) idea about what to write to having the full thing proofread and edited and ready to post. I used to have the time to spare back when I was finishing school -- especially after I had finished it and was doing some other stuff while waiting for university to start -- so I wrote a lot and put it all in a queue to post daily fics for about a month while I used that time to finish my Asirel novella.

Long story short, writing, in a way, is an art of habit. Again, I used to write about one fic a day back when I was in school, because I had the time. And I believe I've said before that I sat down and just did it -- no matter if I felt motivated or not. That's the art of it, in my opinion. Just to do it, even if you don't feel like it; more often than not, at least that's the case for me, the motivation will come during the process.

As for tips, that really depends on how you write and how your creative process works. I recommend creating a writing playlist (if you can stand listening to music while writing) and only putting it on when you sit down to write. Also, try changing the font to Comic Sans? It sounds ridiculous, but I've found it to further creativity.

What I think is the most practical advice is just do it, even if you don't feel like it. If you wait forever for the muse to strike you'll never get it done. I know starting is the hardest part, and overcoming that initial fear of staring at a blank document is the true mastery of the craft.

These are big words for someone who hasn't done a lot of writing recently, part of that is because I feel a little burnt out. The Asirel novela truly took everything out of me, and although I feel the need to slowly start writing again (for context: the novella was done by the end of autumn), I also have to admit that I currently really don't have the time for it. And I could make the time, but I'm also weary of pushing myself too hard this time around.

It will probably be a long time before I could get close to anything resembling my previous publishing schedule of daily fics, and hey, that's totally alright as well.

Despite what I said about writing even if you don't feel like it, it shouldn't feel like a chore. It's a hobby and a form of art -- and if you really don't want to do it then you shouldn't push yourself out of a sense of obligation.

[lucky-clover-gazette]

captive prince book 1 highlights & annotations

chapter 7

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

Seeing no reason whatsoever to cooperate with that order, Damen stood up.

very much a “damen is not a slave” moment. this is the opposite of what they’ve been trained to do.

‘You are really courting danger tonight,’ Laurent said. ‘Am I? I thought I was appealing to your better nature. Order whatever punishment you like, from the coward’s distance of a chain-length. You and Govart are two of a kind.’

yessss, question his integrity! i love that they both get really pissed off when they’re implied to be bad people, but only by each other. it’s like they’ve mutually identified each other as their own personal moral arbiters, and couldn’t stop caring even if they tried.

Laurent transferred his gaze back to Damen and said, pleasantly, ‘Does that bother you? I recall you being free with your own hands, not so very long ago.’ ‘That was—’ Damen flushed. He wanted to deny that he’d done anything of the kind, but he remembered rather unequivocally that he had.

called out for enjoying the bath scene a little too much

‘I promise you, Govart did a great deal more than simply enjoy the view.’

vine boom so you WERE enjoying the view

‘To a slave,’ Laurent said. ‘The Prince’s Guard doesn’t interfere with the Regency. Govart can stick his cock into anything of my uncle’s he likes.’ Damen made a sound of disgust. ‘With your blessing?’ ‘Why not?’ said Laurent. His voice was honeyed. ‘He certainly had my blessing to fuck you, but it turned out he’d rather take a blow to the head. Disappointing, but I can’t fault his taste. Then again, maybe if you’d spread in the ring, Govart wouldn’t have been so hot to get inside your friend.’

context of what laurent is implying here (not what’s actually true): this is not laurent’s command or responsibility, but the regent’s. and it’s somehow damen’s fault that this happened to erasmus, because he didn’t let govart take him instead, which is what laurent had intended to happen. massive laurent ethical L on both counts. do better.

Damen said, ‘This isn’t a scheme of your uncle’s. I don’t take orders from men like Govart. You’re wrong.’ ‘Wrong,’ said Laurent. ‘How lucky I am to have servants to point out my shortcomings. What makes you think I will tolerate any of this, even if I believed what you are saying to be true?’ ‘Because you can end this conversation any time you like.’

damen won this interaction! called out laurent for clearly giving a shit, because he’s still talking!

also, craft note: great back-and-forth throughout this entire exchange

With so much at stake, Damen was sick of certain kinds of exchanges; the kind Laurent favoured, and enjoyed, and was good at. Wordplay for its own sake; words that built traps. None of it meant anything.

i have several hundred annotations that suggest otherwise

‘When someone doesn’t like you very much, it isn’t a good idea to let them know that you care about something,’ said Laurent.

context: nicaise :( and horse :( and a lot of things :(

break the cycle of abuse laurent i know you can do it

‘Would it hurt worse than a lashing for me to cut down someone you care for?’ said Laurent.

context: laurent knows, from experience, that the answer is yes

‘I don’t think I need to bring in more men,’ said Laurent. ‘I think all I have to do is tell you to kneel, and you’ll do it. Without me lifting a finger to help anyone.’ ‘You’re right,’ said Damen. ‘I can end this any time I like?’ said Laurent. ‘I haven’t even begun.’

damen won the confrontation morally, and they both know it. laurent won in practice by being intentionally immoral, and instead reminding damen that he has been given power over him that he can abuse. this is exactly what the regent has done to laurent, over and over again. sad.

Laurent said, ‘There is no bargain between us. A prince does not make deals with slaves and insects. Your promises are worth less to me than dirt. Do you understand me?’ ‘Perfectly,’ said Damen.

translation: “you win.” “i know.”

Damen rethought that particular approach. He turned over the information he’d just been given. Re-examined it. Turned it over again. ‘What changed your mind?’ Damen said, carefully.

context: maybe i’m too optimistic, but i think it’s genuinely an ethical decision on laurent’s part. there’s a strategic purpose in here, too, but that’s more of a convenience. laurent knew he was wrong, and might have even connected himself to his uncle and disliked the similarity. he doesn’t act smug when he’s doing something he doesn’t want to do, but he knows he should do this. that’s why he’s pissed at damen, but not playful about it at all. so i do think this was ultimately a “laurent was called on his bullshit, and has too much integrity not to act based on that callout” thing.

‘I’m not sure that I believe anything that you’ve just told me,’ Damen said. ‘Do you have a choice?’ ‘No.’

silver lining for laurent: re-asserts his own power and moral high ground by helping damen, instead of threatening him in a way they both know is fucked up

He has experienced things many adults have not, and his mind is no longer that of a child.

laurent would know :(

‘Is there anyone at this court who isn’t my enemy?’ ‘Not if I can help it,’ Laurent said.

okay this is just him being mean. it’s his enrichment 

‘So he’s tame,’ said Estienne, and reached out tentatively, as though to pat a wild animal. It was a question of which part of the animal he was patting. Damen knocked his hand away. Estienne gave a yelp and snatched his hand back, nursing it against his chest. ‘Not that tame,’ said Laurent. He didn’t reprimand Damen. He didn’t seem particularly displeased with barbaric behaviour, as long as it was directed outward. Like a man who enjoys owning an animal who will rake others with its claws but eat peacefully from his own hand, he was giving his pet a great deal of license.

they’re insane

As a result, courtiers kept one eye on Damen, giving him a wide berth. Laurent used that to his advantage, using the propensity of courtiers to fall back in reaction to Damen’s presence as a means of extricating himself smoothly from conversation. The third time this happened Damen said, ‘Shall I make a face at the ones you don’t like, or is it enough to just look like a barbarian?’ ‘Shut up,’ said Laurent, calmly.

emotional collapse animal to keep people from annoying laurent. love the banter here. damen knows that’s exactly what’s happening, and laurent is annoyed that he knows, because it makes him seem like an antisocial loser, which he is

Torveld was a handsome man in his forties

ew. leave laurent alone. he’s like half your age and he has specific trauma that makes this particularly uncomfortable

He reconciled himself to an evening of listening to Laurent lying a great deal, about everything. Laurent was a nest of scorpions in the body of one person. To hear that Akielos was weakened was as painful as Laurent must have meant it to be.

context: not entirely sold on the idea that laurent is having this conversation about akielos specifically to upset damen, but i get why damen feels that way

‘I wish we had more time together,’ said Torveld, showing no inclination to rise.

GET A JOB. STAY AWAY FROM HER

‘Nephew. You were not invited to these discussions.’ ‘And yet, here I am. It’s very irritating, isn’t it?’ said Laurent. ‘You’ve never applied yourself seriously to anything in your life.’ ‘Haven’t I? Well, then it’s nothing serious, uncle. You have no cause to worry.’

laurent applies himself seriously to most, if not all, of the things he chooses to do. regent just dislikes that laurent has a choice and uses it.

[aries-of-spades]

⭐^-^

(I definitely didn't have to run back to the post I reblogged cause I already forgor what this meant XD)

Hi! You're getting a list of every scene in Zombie Fungus where there were ghosts present! :D

(The best part is that most of these aren't directly stated in Canon)

1. Chapter 10:

That was when he noticed Ren’s mooshroom. That repelling creature. She had stopped trying to climb on things, and was just staring at a wall. How long had she been doing that for?

(Context is that the resistance is discussing the fact that they just murdered Etho.) In response to the mooshroom's strange actions, Ren makes a comment about how some people say animals can see ghosts(the indicator for many of the ghosts in the story), which unsurprisingly upsets Grian. The ghost in this scene is Etho, because a) they're discussing him, and b) he's sort of the only option at this moment in the story

2. Chapter 15:

He fell silent after that. For a minute, Scar thought he might have fallen asleep again, or maybe- But then Bdubs stirred. He looked up at Scar… or perhaps past him, it was hard to tell… A tired smile broke out across his entire face and tears fell from his eyes. And Scar realized that this whole time, Bdubs hadn’t cried. Until now.

“Oh.” The whisper was barely more than a breath, and Scar almost didn’t hear it. But it was so deliberate, at the same time. “I missed you.”

Alongside animals, people on the edge of death can also see ghosts. It could seem like Bdubs is talking to Scar here, but the implication is that he doesn't see Scar... but he does see someone else. And while that someone could be one of the Hermits, I wrote his reaction to be surprised because I think it's far more likely to be someone he hasn't seen in a long time; his brother, Pungence.

3. Chapter 15:

Grian tried to stand, but was held down by the crushing knowledge of being surrounded. The wolf was growling, its hackles raised in defiance of the jungle. A breeze swept through, stiff and unforgiving, cold hands against Grian’s skin and throat.

In this scene, it would be entirely plausible that Grian is just going crazy, if it weren't for the fact that whatever is there, the wolf senses it too. (It was REALLY fun to personify aspects of the scene to imply a presence.) But unfortunately, he's not being tormented by one ghost, but four. Etho, XB, Mumbo, and Bdubs. Everyone who's died so far, Grian had some involvement. And therefore guilt.

4. Chapter 16:

Jellie didn’t get up to greet him, or even look his way. She sat where she was, purring loudly, her head tilted back in that way she did when someone scratched her chin.

This one is much less obvious than the others. The idea that I was going for was that Bdubs was there petting Jellie(cause he's had Jellie around a bit before, and I think overall Jellie likes him, even if he's a ghost).

5. Chapter 16:

“...don't know why I’m waiting. It won’t get any easier.” He spoke slowly, the words blending at the edges in a tired way. “I guess I’m scared. Were you… scared? Arg- stupid, stupid, stupid.” A heavy sigh. “It won’t let- I don’t know how I’m going to do this. It’s so hard not to think.”

This was a fun one because there are ghosts and they are implied several times in the scene, usually because Grian can see them, and is talking to them. It's my belief that the one he's talking to is Mumbo, but all of them are there. The only implications of this is as Scar enters the tunnels. The ground falls out beneath him(described with similar wording as when Mumbo fell). "But in one direction, he heard the strange echo of water rippling, a melody that sang of cold nothingness." Is alluding to Etho, who drowned. There's descriptions of mushrooms along the tunel, which make sense to be there, but also referencing XB because the mycelium is what killed him. And lastly, Bdubs. "But what he did see was Grian’s face above him, twisted in a scream that didn’t quite escape and a look of concentrated fear in his eyes. A fear Scar had seen once before in a different pair of eyes." Both Bdubs and Grian reacted with horror to seeing Scar's magic. Also Scar holding both of them when they died is a bit of a parallel.

tldr; Grian is so close to dying from the mycelium that he can see 4 ghosts.

6. Epilogue:

The parrot sat there long after he was gone. It saw him disappear along the line of trees, and eventually take to the sky in the distance.

And it saw the figure that sat on the tall stone, watching after him with a soft smile on their face.

I do love this being the last line of the fic. Also it's the only time there's direct confirmation from the narrator of a ghost. Obviously, this is Grian, who was there the whole time as Mumbo talked to him with no idea he was there. :)

Hope you didn't mind getting a very long ramble XD

[paradoxcase]

Gideon the Ninth audiobook, through to the end of Chapter 31

Cytherea is described as having "biscuit-colored curls" which I kind passed over the first time I was reading. She's described elsewhere as having light brown hair; American biscuits aren't any kind of brown, if they're made right, but Muir isn't American, either. In Britain, it's my understanding that "biscuit" refers to any hard flat cookie with a stamped design, but those come in all sorts of colors. Does "biscuit" mean a secret third thing in New Zealand?

Gideon says "it's stupid for a cavalier to watch their necromancer die" which I think sort of foreshadows Gideon rejecting Harrow's instruction to survive her

Gideon asks Cytherea why she came to Canaan House in the first place, and I feel like Cytherea's answer is about when she came the first time, nearly 10,000 years ago? She talks about how the Seventh wanted her to die beautifully and she though the Emperor had her best interests more at heart than they did

She says: "If they could figure out how to stop you when you're mostly cancer and just a little bit woman, they would" about the Seventh, but that's exactly what John did to her, isn't it?

And then: "I'll probably live forever, worse luck, whatever happened to One Flesh, One End?"

Palamedes pronounces "golem" exactly like "Gollum" and that amuses me

Harrow thought the secret to Lyctorhood was a secret power source in Canaan House they were supposed to discover - I guess to the extent that the consumed cavalier's soul is a power source, she wasn't exactly wrong

Camilla: "The last thing the Warden needs is an introduction to Lady Septimus" - pretty funny in retrospect

Palamedes after Harrow removes the plug Cytherea put on the Seventh lab's keyhole: "Did you hide the last key, too?" He was right about that

Colum is described as having a "perpetually scratchy voice" which I missed the first time, but it does match up with his voice here

Mayonnaise Uncle thinks Gideon's red hair might have come from the Third, which is I guess some extra information about the distribution of phenotypes in the Empire, but the only other redheaded House character we know of is G1deon (I almost wrote "Pyrrha") (who, ironically, is not biologically related to Gideon Nav unless he was like John's cousin or something). Mercy had "pink" hair, but I don't know if that means like, strawberry blond, or like, literally dyed pink. I guess it's been 10,000 years, so things might be a bit different now

Colum: "The next time we meet, I think it's likely one of us will die." Well, it wasn't the next time they met, since they both showed up to hear Cytherea tell a very fake story about why Protesilaus was already dead just after this, but I think it's the next time they are both in the same room together than Colum dies, so, yeah

Teacher says something about a "poor child" and Gideon doesn't know who he's referring to and I don't either even on the second readthrough. I guess it's possible that he's just talking nonsense, because he's a weird construct, but he's been saying things that consistently make sense in the current context throughout the whole book, so I don't really buy that

The scene where Corona is practicing with a sword and challenging Gideon to a duel feels kind of like she's anticipating being left behind by Ianthe and is trying to lean into the idea of becoming a cavalier after this, since she can't pretend to be a necromancer without Ianthe. We know from the Fourth teens that Ianthe has been sneaking into all the locked doors and reading the theorems at this point

When Naberius comes to collect her, he says "I won't tell her". I guess he means Ianthe?

Is that really how "beatified" is pronounced? I don't think I've ever heard it spoken before. Wiktionary seems to agree that it is

If I had listened to the audiobook first, I definitely would have misheard Gideon talking about "narking" on Harrow as "knocking" and been confused

Palamedes: "All I ask is that you put some pen and flimsy in my cell so I can start my memoirs." Yeah, that's not what you wrote when you were actually confined to the River bubble for months, haha

Narration: Suddenly [Cytherea] seemed impossibly old.

Cytherea claims that John was against soul siphoning. So, the thalergy siphoning that was a fundamental part of Mercy's challenge, and which the Second House uses regularly on enemies, is totally fine and cool, but Mayonnaise Uncle send Colum's soul away temporarily to generate power is wrong. You know, Mayonnaise Uncle is actually a lot more sympathetic on the second readthrough

Mayonnaise Uncle also really had Cytherea's number in this scene and no one listened to him, he was the only one saying that Cytherea was suspicious and everyone else was disgusted by this, including Judith. No wonder he was so sour in Harrow's River bubble

Harrow wants to use Protesilaus' head for necromancy and everyone else is unhappy about this. But this isn't strange for the Nine Houses - the Canaan House skeletons were made from the dead just like the Ninth skeletons were, and just like the Sixth skeletons were in Dr. Sex, not to mention Ianthe's use of Babs' body. Like, if we are going to start complaining about the desecration of dead bodies now, I think that starts to call into question the entire way that the Nine Houses uses necromancy and has been using it for the past 10,000 years. I'm not sure any of the other necromancers really have that high ground

Palamedes says Cytherea only has days left to live, she definitely giggles at that

In the pool scene, Harrow says that the calculations for the deaths of the 200 children were very precise, and that the babies contributed the most thanergy. Now I'm wondering if Gideon failing to die might have messed up those careful calculations in some way? Obviously Harrow was still born a powerful necromancer, and it still worked overall, but now I'm curious

Harrow about John's blood ward: "I knew it had to open for me" because she was the descendant of Anastasia. She never questioned that there might have been some other reason it opened

[morelikeravenbore]

🦋 Thanks to the cuties who have tagged me in this, I've loved reading everyone's answers!

How many works do you have on AO3? Uhh *checks* — nine. One long fic and a bunch of oneshots.

What's your total AO3 word count? 88k~ but about 76k~ belong to Villain (so far).

What fandoms do you write for? Hogwarts Legacy is the only fandom I write for, and Sebastian is really the only character I care to write about (HAHA sorry everyone else.)

Top five fics by kudos? I don't really pay attention to stats so:

1. How to Make a Villain

And then whatever the next top four are 🙃

Do you respond to comments? I TRY VERY HARD TO but sometimes it takes me a while (spoons/adhd-brain/burn-out etc). Like any writer, comments give me LIFE, but something I wasn't expecting to struggle with is the feeling that I don't really deserve them. Who knew writing fic would be a lesson in accepting kindness lol

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Welp the only fics I've finished so far are my oneshots, and they all end with orgasms or romance so... 

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Here Comes The Sun: a cute little Sebaura proposal oneshot hehe 💍🌞

Do you get hate on fics? Not openly, lol. I do love it when people get mad about what my characters do though so pls don't hold back from yelling at them if the urge ever strikes you. 🍿🍿🍿

Do you write smut? I dabble every now and then, but to be honest it's not my favourite thing to write. Before writing for HL, I'd never written a sex scene in my life and I wanted to give it a go to challenge myself. Lately though, I haven't really had any smutty motivation. I'm definitely a romantic at heart and I LOVE writing about the playful side of romance: young love, cute banter, silliness, teasing, etc. Also bickering. Nom nom nom gimme all da arguments.

Craziest crossover? You and me bb :lip_bite:

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Nope! Does this really happen? Like, someone copies and pastes a whole-ass fic and calls it their own? 🧿🧿🧿

Have you ever had a fic translated? I've had requests to translate Villain into Russian, Polish and French, but I'd like to complete the story first.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Does contributing crack fic ideas counts? Because 👀 yeah all the time lol 

All time favorite ship? Uhhh Sebastian and Aurélie HAHA. Otherwise, it's Allie and Noah foreverrrrr. (The movie version though, I've never actually read the book.)

💙 Honourable mentions go to Anne and Gilbert, and Emma and Mr Knightly. Dishonourable mention to Harry and Ginny, eurgh. 

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I only have enough spoons to write one long fic at a time, and I fully intend to finish Villain even if it kills me.

What are your writing strengths? Personally, I think my writers voice sounds distinctly me, which I'm very proud of.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? OOH this is a great question since Aurélie is fluent in French and I don't speak a bloody word. Generally speaking, I prefer to write it like: 'I can't speak a word of French,' she said in French. 

Sometimes I'll use French if the meaning is clear to someone who doesn't speak the language, or if I can give strong enough context clues, ie:

'How nice,' Aurélie said eventually, her accent thick with French indignation. 'I can see you're both very passionnés about Quidditch.'

Sebastian froze, sensing danger.

'Uh — Passionate?'

'Oui. I did not realise you had to undress yourself to discuss tactique.' 

Or if the POV character can accurately guess the meaning, like this:

'You don't have giant spiders in France then, I take it?'

'Non pas du tout!'

He didn't need to know French to translate that as a vehement no. 

But I try to avoid using the actual written language as much as possible because nothing kills immersion faster than trying to read dialogue you can't understand.

Also I frequently annoy my French friends for translations because uhh if I used Google Translate they'd probably guillotine me hehe.

First fandom you wrote in? This one.

Favorite fic you've written? How to Make a Villain is absolutely my greatest writing achievement ever hahaha. But aside from that, I'm really proud of Noctilucent because my goal was to write something suggestive without making it smutty and I was quite pleased with the outcome.

🦋 np tags for my writer babes and anyone else who wants to join in: @galaxiasgreen @lyworth @sloanesallow @sunsetplums @gingerlegacy07

[jaxlol5]

copy pasting my review of the helluva boss music video here just because

for further context when i wrote the review on discord i had no idea that this was a COVER of an already existing song made by PARANOiD DJ back in 2021. just so i don't look stupid imma be tweaking a bit of my review that's just saying 'why would viv write THIS' because at most she just slightly changed it a bit, or that's what i'm assuming anyway.

i'm also gonna add a bit more to my review here such as the lyric changes and the overall emotional weight of the song. i'm not really gonna review it animation or song-wise, because the animation is fucking specTACULAR, and the song aspect doesn't matter much to me. i think the original 2021 version is pretty good at least.

this song [i'm guessing at least] comes after S2 E6 'OOPS', which was a half-sequel to S2 E1 'The Circus', meaning that Stolas finally has the Asmodean crystal that he plans to give to Blitzo, either to cut ties from him completely or to see if he'll keep talking to Stolas after he has a new way to get to earth that doesn't involve his grimoire.

(side note idk why viv keeps tryna push 'Stolitz' so much when Blitzo has actively said he doesn't like Stolas romantically and only sees him for the book. but she's gone on to change that multiple times so we went from Blitzo being forced to sleep with Stolas and hating it, to him actually having some kind of feelings, back to hating him, and now back to feelings, over and over. i know Blitzos whole character is that he can't accept affection properly but it's different when this 'affection' is just consensual r4pe via power imbalance and then has to be turned around so that neither Stolas or Blitzo are the bad guys when they clearly are.)

because of the song being made in around 2021, before season 2's downfall, the lyrics had to be changed to fit. which is completely fine to do, mind you, but the issue is what what lyrics in specific were changed. in the original 2021 version, Stolas mentions Octavia and how she must feel about everything happening in her life, but in the new version, it's cut out entirely. Why?? i know the main focus is supposed to be his relationship, but this entire situation is affecting his family as well, and especially Octavia. it makes no sense to completely neglect his own DAUGHTER for someone that he repeatedly fetishizes and treats as lower- but also someone that he idolizes and sees as his true love. i could go on and on about how the changes of their dynamic piss me off but that's a bit of a tangent.

speaking of which why is there 2 songs for stolas doing the same fucking thing. in S2E1 he's singing about blitzo while thinking about leaving him. now in THIS video he's.. singing about blitzo while thinking about leaving him, the only difference is that in the former song he didn't have the crystal, and now he does.

the song in general feels so forced especially with how the Stolitz arc has been progressing, which is barely. they last talked in S2E4 'WESTERN ENERGY' and the very little character it added was all shoved into a 3 second scene of Stolas scrolling thru text of them talking about the events after 'OZZIES'. and then we exclusively see Blitzos side of the aftermath, but not Stolas. he seems perfectly fine compared to Blitzo, or maybe he's not; why not fucking show that! and no the video doesn't count because it's talking about the events that take place after 'OOPS' not 'OZZIES'. pretty sure that former episode canonically takes place months before the latter.

i saw an amazing thread that breaks this video down if you compare it to pearl's song 'It's Over, Isn't It'. it just doesn't work the same way because of the insane power dynamic and the fact that Stolas wanted to keep Blitzo for so long, manipulating him for that want as well. at least he's finally going to let go NOW [i assume], but it feels long overdue, especially with how much these 2 have been forced to deal with.

[amyisherenowitsokay]

Not sure if this was asked before, but when you write, do you have a clear vision of what you want from beginning to end or does it come to you along the way?

Also how do you get so detailed with your writing? Is there a trick to it?

Don't worry about repeating asks! Usually people word their questions enough for me to be able to give different answers, and if not, I'll just elaborate on what I've said before.

In regards to your first question, it depends on the fic, honestly. The Re:MHNY requires waaay more planning because of what I'm trying to do with the story, my intentional parallels, etc. For that series, I basically have a google doc entirely dedicated to just bullet points and a synopsis of the plot, important themes, character, etc. Just a big ol' digital plotting board. Along the way I'll also sporadically write chapters at random as the ideas come to me, or even write just a few sentences that illustrate a point I want to make before I forget the wording. The amount of Notes on my phone that are just fic drabbles is absurd.

For other fics like Dead Weight, That Thing on Your Wrist, etc., the idea just sort of occurs to me. Like for That Thing On Your Wrist, I really was sulking about not being able to find more ZAGR fics that follow a trope. Invader Zim is really sci-fi, adventure-packed, humor-oriented cartoon, and so I think it's really easy for the fans such as myself to write themselves exclusively in these little pockets we've carved out for ourselves. And don't get me wrong, I obviously love writing as close to the canon as I can get, but also, what about my beloved cliches? And so that idea becomes infectious, and I start picking out the details in my brain. There's a million little Soulmate AU's (seeing color when you touch, hearing each other's thoughts when you touch, hearing each other across distances, etc.), rifled through the cards, and picked one I felt was easiest for me to do while keeping the characters how I wanted them, with appropriate amounts of drama.

It just itches at my brain until I start to add little practicalities to the situation. For Dead Weight, I want them as Irkens, but also it has to be a romance story. And it still needs to be in-character. So ZAGR, but with the added brutality of child soldiers and uniquely Irken-trauma. What does that look like? And that's usually how random entire chapters get formed in answering that question. What's Irken courtship look like? What do sibling-adjacent-relationships look like? What circumstances would make that possible?

I'm infamous for also just writing 6k words that I know go in a fic, but have no idea when. So I'll just sit on this chapter I love for like a year until I'm like aha! You'll fit here! And then make adjustments to make all the pieces fit together. Unfortunately, as the story develops, that does mean sometimes jokes or ideas I wrote in a random draft have to be edited or removed to fit in the circumstances I made. Re:MHNY1 has tons of deleted chunks that were funny or that I liked, but that didn't end up working in-context.

So short answer, I find an idea I want to write, and then just keep hammering away until that idea feels like I can make it make sense, and then keep adding bricks that justify it, if that makes sense. My fics are me standing in front of an enormous cork board with red string, thumbtacks, and fanart everywhere explaining why ZAGR makes sense in this circumstances. In this essay I will etc. etc.

In regards to detail, my goal in my writing is to ground the fantastical. What does an alien ship feel like? Cold, cause void of space, right? Well no, because organic creatures like bees pass out in the cold, so they'd need warmth. But this is a run-down piece of shit ship, so they'd probably keep their inhabited areas warm, and leave other areas cold, like Gaz's cell on the Valkian ship. I also catch myself making gestures or miming out certain scenes. If I smirk, how does that muscle twitch feel on my face? Or if I try to suppress a smile, I catch myself gritting my teeth a little, and so I add that into the description. Just because a circumstance is made up doesn't mean you don't have sights, smells, feelings, or other senses that affect how a character perceives the situation.

Like in The Corn Maze in Paradorx, I've personally never been chased by a corn demon, but I do know what freaks me out. Everyone is careful when they're outside at night, because they're worried of who else is out there with them, among other things. That's a real, legitimate fear that pretty much everyone can relate to. And so I write in scenes of the corn leaning towards them listening to them when they're not paying attention, and the nasty odor of rotting pumpkins because people remember that smell. I think my most successful details aren't describe every individual piece of wood grain, but picking out aspects of a situation that the everyman reader knows and can remember. Those are the details that are most effective, that people tend to comment on as what gave them, in this case, the heebie jeebies.

Also, I like to find punchier words. It's not a smell, it's a stench. It doesn't hurt, it aches. The English language has some wonderfully specific words that I think are wonderfully appropriate to really specific situations, and I discover them by being an avid reader of novels in general.

Sorry again for the crazy wait regarding answering this ask! Hope I answered your questions anon! If I missed anything, or you'd like me to elaborate anywhere, let me know and I'll do my best to answer in a much more timely fashion.